wild and deep; yesterday it was like a sea, or rather like a vast plain of round hills and grotesque-shaped ground, deeply covered with drifted sand, channelled or ribbed with little lines like sand on the sea-shore, and full of shells."

And again :—

"Our eyes are full of sand, ears full of sand, noses full, mouths full, and teeth grinding sand! Enough between our clothes and skins to scour the latter into goldbeater's leaf; one might as well wear a sand-paper shirt. Our shoes are in holes from dryness, and we walk as if we had supplied their place with sand-boxes; our meat is all sand, and on an average every man's teeth have been ground down the eighth of an inch, according to his appetite."

Then soon comes the triumphant announcement, "Emaun Ghur is shattered to atoms!" Very appropriately after this might come in the exclamation which Sir Charles, in the pride and fondness of his heart, gave vent to upon some other occasion during the same enterprise," What fellows British soldiers are!" Aye, and what fellows British generals are, too, when they are of the true sort. The Duke of Wellington said of this exploit in the desert, that it was the most curious military feat of which he had ever known or read.

Emaun Ghur was shattered to atoms, but Sir Charles's work in Scinde was not yet done. He had hoped, after having given the Ameers this proof of English prowess, that there would have been no further trouble with them; this hope, however, proved fallacious, and in just one month after the fall of Emaun Ghur was fought the terrible battle of Meeanee. It was a fearful encounter. The odds against the English were almost unexampled even in Indian warfare; and at one time the belligerents were but a yard asunder, fighting hand to hand. This was Sir Charles's first Indian battle, the first battle of which he had been chief commander. The journal relates:

“In the battle I rallied the 22nd twice, and the 25th N. I. three times, when giving way under the terrible pressure: all the officers behaved well, but had I left the front one moment the day would have been lost;-many know this. Had I not been there, some other would have done the same; but being there, and having rallied them, to have gone to another point would have lost all; for while I was there no one felt responsible, no one dashed on like Teesdale of the 25th and McMurdo,-I mean those immediately about me. We ought to have gone slap over the bank, and had the 22nd been old soldiers they would have done so; but such young lads were amazed, they knew not what to do, and the swordsmen in such masses making at them, covered by their shields, were very ugly! Well! it was a fearful fight! I feel now frightened at my own boldness; but having worked my courage up to try, have been successful. The 22nd gave me three cheers after the fight, and one during it. Her Majesty has no honour to give that can equal that, if indeed she gives me any: I do not want any,none, at least, but what awaits a victor from history. I shall be glad, though, of a medal, with the officers and soldiers: sharing with them will be an honour of more value to me than any other that can be given."

The day following that of the battle, Hydrabad, with all its vast treasures, opened to the conqueror, and the conquered princes came to deliver up their swords. The record of the circumstances in the journal is comprised in two lines; the writer does not mention, when he says that he returned the swords, that these swords were worth thousands; nor does he tell how the wealth of Hydrabad enriched everyone more than him who had the best right to profit by it.

But Napier had yet another enemy to overthrow, and one of no contemptible power. The Ameer who wore the turban at Meerpoor, and who had acknowledged a kind of allegiance to Nusser Khan, of Hydrabad, was

Shere, or the Lion, Mohamed. The Lion, from over-confidence as to the issue of Meeanee, and from some personal considerations, had been deterred from presenting himself during the battle; but now, with the survivors from that field, and a numerous host of Beloochees, he was preparing for an attack upon the English. The hot season was drawing on, many of Sir Charles's men were suffering from sickness, his own health was weakened, and another day like Meeanee was not a cheering prospect. At length arrived news, however, that the foe had advanced within six miles of Hydrabad. Sir Charles moved, and the armies soon came in sight; the Ameer's force amounted to thirty thousand, and the Englishman's was just five thousand. A hard and bloody battle ensued, but the victory of the English was again complete. It required only a stroke or two more to seal the Lion's fate. "I was the better lion," Charles Napier remarks, very truly.

The volumes close leaving their hero the governor of a quiet and submissive province, but with much work yet before him.

FRANKISH ANTIQUITIES DISCOVERED AT ENVERMEU (SEINE INFÉRIEURE) IN 1856.

DURING the months of September and October, 1856, the Abbé Cochet concluded his seventh and last archæological research in the Merovingian cemetery of Envermeu, where his labours of the past seven years have been rewarded by the revelation of nearly all that appertains to Merovingian archæology. This last research has not proved less serviceable to archæological science than those of preceding years; and that it is the last arises solely from the fact that M. Cochet considers he has examined the entire area of the cemetery. This proves to have been of a circular form, and was probably once covered by a tumulus, long since removed by the operations of agriculture. The very name of "The Grove," borne by the arable field in which it is situate, may perhaps be considered a conclusive proof of the purpose to which it had been destined.

The present researches have extended over an area of about ninety feet in length by fifty-eight in breadth, comprising sixty graves, divided into ten rows. These rows ran from south to north, while the graves themselves ran from east to west. The orientation, however, of a considerable portion of these must have varied with the seasons or personal caprice, for some graves ran from north-east to south-west, and even from north to south. This irregularity, moreover, has been observed in the various other Frankish, Burgundian, and Anglo-Saxon cemeteries.

It was found-just as on preceding occasions-that the greater part of the graves had been pillaged at a period closely bordering on their establishment. They were known to be rich; hence ensued the spoliation so frequent in Merovingian times, in spite of the severity of both civil and ecclesiastical laws. This offence, indeed, extended to the highest ranks; and history tells us that Gontram Boson, prince of Austrasia, pillaged, in a church at Metz, the tomb of a relative who was interred there with her most valuable ornaments.

Some graves, however, which had escaped the ravages of the pillagers, afforded, during this last research, together with a series of relics already

well known to archæology, several objects less well known, and, in fact, quite original-at least in the valley of the Eaubre. The present subject will, therefore, be divided into these two categories, commencing with the former.

We must first mention a pointed two-edged sword, thirty-two inches in length, with a wooden scabbard, covered with leather, and ornamented at the point with a plate of copper, either tinned or silvered. The sword is usually considered the weapon of the cavalry; while the sabre—which bears also the name of scramasax, or fighting-knife-is rightly regarded as the weapon of the foot-soldier. On this occasion only one of these has been found, which, as usual, had a double groove in the blade on either side.

Both the swords and sabres were placed on the left side of the warriors with whose remains they were found; the knives, on the contrary, were at the belt, and usually in a position across the pelvis. These last are all of iron, and not less than twenty-two in number; almost all had had sheaths of leather or skin, the traces of which are still visible. These knives, sabres, and swords were all attached to the belt by a strap, sometimes formed of a woven substance, but more frequently of leather. Traces of the belt occasionally occur: it was fastened by buckles either of iron or bronze, tinned; sometimes by clasps and their attachments. Three such clasps, with copper plates, have occurred on this occasion; and two more with iron plates inlaid with silver.

Thirteen small bronze buckles were also found, used for the purpose of attaching the swords, sabres, and especially the knives, to the main belt. Besides buckles and clasps, the Franks carried at their girdle-for some purpose of which we are not aware-rings, whether of iron or bronze. There is no trace of metal tongues, but it is possible to recognise the remains of leather straps, and the marks of their friction on the rings. We now found five of these rings of iron, and one of bronze.

The richest part of the Frankish body was the waist, and here were further found two pair of iron scissors in their leathern cases; two iron keys-real house-keys carried by females; the form of these is Roman, but this ancient type was preserved to medieval times; an iron awl for piercing leather or wood, an instrument frequently found with warriors, was also discovered; four or five fire-flints also, deeply stained with rust by their contact with iron; and four bronze needles. These occur with both sexes. All these objects must have been deposited in leather bags or linen pockets, which time has destroyed. It is the only way of accounting for their presence here.

We must also enumerate the ornamental details of the belt: as the bronze nails with flat, rounded, or, more commonly, pentagonal heads; the thin bronze leaf-slips which served for fringe; and especially the little white-metal triangles, with a pin or hook to secure them to a leather belt. These triangular objects, always three in number, are bright, being tinned, or covered with some incorrodible laquer. Finger-rings have not been common; only one of silver and four of bronze have been found. These last were small, and would have fitted the finger of a child, or possibly a young woman: the wire of which they were made was singularly round, like the ring of a window-curtain. To make up for paucity of rings, three or four bracelets were found, all composed of glass beads. Attachedas ornament to one of these bracelets was a second brass of Magnentius (350).

GENT. MAG. VOL. CCII,

Near the hand, not far from the chest, a gold Gaulish coin was found, weighing seven grammes, two decigrammes. This piece, or rather ingot, presented on the reverse a barbarous, ill-formed horse; the obverse was smooth, rounded, or globuleux, to use numismatic language. According to the system of M. Lambert, of Bayeux, this piece must be referred to the symbolic period, that is, from the year 270 to 100 B.C. On the concave side it had a coating of mastic, and its convex side must have once done duty as a stud.

No combs or pins about the head have this time occurred, merely necklaces and ear-rings, of which there are five pairs. The form varies greatly three pairs are of silver, one of bronze, and one of silver and bronze combined. One pair of the silver ear-rings was small, the others large. None of them hooked together at the extremities. One pair was of twisted wire, and two only had pendants. These moveable pendants are composed of a knob of paste, or mastic, of square form, with the angles cut in facets. The whole was covered with thin sheet silver, and each facet was set with red or green glass, of a lozenge form.

The bronze ear-rings were very similar in detail, but the pendants were fixed.

Those, on the contrary, of bronze and silver united, are composed of a thick latten wire, twisted like a rope, with a moveable pendant, formed of mastic, and covered with sheet silver, set with green glass. They are fastened by a hook and eye at either extremity.

Several necklaces also were found, composed of glass beads. A necklace of fourteen beads was with a young warrior; a similar one with a woman; as also another, the glass beads of which, of an elongated shape, like jet, so strongly resembled seeds that M. Cochet was at first disposed to fancy them a vegetable product. Necklaces formed of seeds have, in fact, occurred in Peruvian tombs.

On the breasts six circular fibulæ were found, four of them in pairs, the others single. The field of the smallest, which is of silver, is covered with little filigree circlets, resembling the letter O, profusely sprinkled over it. Four pieces of glass, in the form of an isosceles triangle, form the cross on the surface, and a light blue stud marks the centre. The remaining five fibulæ are of bronze. Of this number, two are covered with six segments of green glass, with a blue stud in the centre. The matrices of the others are empty, but must once have been filled with enamel or glasspaste.

On the heads or breasts were found three styli. Two of these were small ones of bronze, and exactly alike; the third was somewhat above nine inches in length, composed of bronze tinned, or of base silver, for it is brilliant, and in perfect preservation.

At the feet of the dead were found seven examples of the iron axe, or francisca, almost all of which were accompanied by iron lances, or by frame. The six other iron lances were found by the heads. Whenever the spear-head was lying by the skull the point was erect, and the handle downwards; whenever the lance was found crossed with the francisca the point was inverted, and the wooden hafts of both weapons were directed upwards, as though they had been placed in the hand of the warrior.

At the feet, also, twenty earthen vessels have been found, twelve of which were removed in a perfect state, and eight were fractured. Of these twelve perfect vessels nine were black, the rest white or reddish. Their form is perpetually the same, and almost always one or two lines of orna

ment are impressed, either by a wheel or a punch, on the body of the vessel. The patterns are chevrons, zig-zags, guilloches, nébules, saltiers,—in fact, all the ornamental devices of subsequent Romanesque architecture.

Thus much for our discoveries of the description common to this class of interments. We must hasten to the more rare results of our researches. Among the most remarkable of these we must enumerate three iron spurs, found at the feet, in three different graves. These were not complete, like those discovered at Belair, near Lausanne, by M. Troyon, and at Farebersviller by M. Dufresne, of Metz; but they so far resemble them in being furnished with a sharp point instead of a rowel.

We are disposed to think these spurs, instead of being affixed to an iron fork, were merely attached to a wooden or leather sole, which time has destroyed. When I thus mention a wooden chaussure, I beg the reader to remember that whole sabots, ornamentally carved, were found in the lias of Oberflacht, in Wurtemberg, the ancient Suabiaa.

One was

In two graves five iron arrow-points were found at the feet. detached from the rest, and was lying, point downwards, on a piece of linen, or stuff, placed upon grass, the trace of which was visible on the oxide. The four others, also pointing downwards, were conglomerated by the oxide. I consider these to be the contents of a quiver of some Frankish bowman cast into the grave. It is the second discovery of the sort made at Envermeu, but similar ones have seldom been recorded by explorers.

Ear-picks and tooth-picks, as I am aware, have already occurred in interments of this period. I may quote those preserved in the Museum of Neufchâtel-en-Bray, found in Frankish tombs in that town; as also those found in 1855, in a stone coffin at Caudebec-lès-Elbœuf. A silver earpick also was met with in 1853, in the Helveto-Burgundian cemetery of Vichy, near Lausanne. Sets of ear and tooth-picks, with strainers, and similar bronze implements have been taken from the Anglo-Saxon cemeteries of Fairford and Wilbraham; as also from those of Kent and Suffolk, for the drawings of which we are indebted to Messrs. Wylie, Neville, Faussett, and Kerrison. Up to the present time, however, no such discovery has occurred in the valley of the Eaubre, where M. Cochet has made so many researches, and examined many hundreds of interments. This year only, for the first time, was such a toilette-implement met with on the breast of a female.

Tweezers, too, have often been found with old warriors, but made of bronze. This time an iron pair occurred, which is a rare circumstance, though Mr. Akerman records a similar find in an Anglo-Saxon grave; as does M. Mathon in a Gallo-Roman tomb at Beauvais.

The next two incidents have been very rarely noticed before, or perhaps never. One proves the barbarous ferocity of these iron times; the other displays a degree of elegance which still prevailed amidst all these appurtenances of strife. The first remark applies to two iron daggers found at the waist of warriors already furnished with various weapons.

The pointed blades of these two daggers are slightly over one and three

It may be as well to point out an error into which the learned writer must have been misled by a partial translation from the German. The researches in the Alemannic graves of Oberflacht, disclosed not sabots, but solid forms of the human foot, carved in wood, which were probably in close connection with the old superstitions of Teutonic heathendom. The reader is referred to Archæologia, vol. xxxvi. p. 153, et seq., where this subject is discussed; also, Die Heidengraber am Lupfen, bei Oberflacht, p. 25. (Stuttgart. 1847.)-Translator.