ivers, Thunder, Sacrifice, Prayer, and Soma. We thus have a wide
field to choose from, nor is our selection of very much importance, as
any, or all, of these interpretations will be welcomed by Sanskrit
scholars. The followers of McLennan have long ago been purged out of the
land by the edict of Oxford against this sect of mythological heretics.
_They_ would doubtless have maintained that the cow was Gladstone's
totem, or family crest, and that, like other totemists, he was forbidden
to eat beef.

It is curious that on some old and worn coins we detect a
half-obliterated male figure lurking behind the cow. The inscription may
be read "Jo," or "Io," and appears to indicate Io, the cow-maiden of
Greek myth (see the "Prometheus" of AEschylus).

Another proof of the mythical character of Gladstone is the number of his
birthplaces. Many cities claimed the honour of being his cradle, exactly
as in the cases of Apollo and Irving. Their claims were allowed by the
Deity. (Compare Callimachus, Hymn to Apollo.)

In addressing scholars it is needless to refute the Euhemeristic
hypothesis, worthy of the Abbe Banier, that the cow is a real cow,
offered by a real historical Gladstone, or by his companion, Jo, to the
ignorant populace of the rural districts. We have already shown that Jo
is a mythological name. The tendency to identify Gladstone with the cow
(as the dawn with the sun) is a natural and edifying tendency, but the
position must not be accepted without further inquiry. The Sun-god, in
Egyptian myth, is a Bull, but there is a difference, which we must not
overlook, between a bull and a cow. Caution, prudence, a tranquil
balancing of all available evidence, and an absence of preconceived
opinions,--these are the guiding stars of comparative mythology.

MY FRIEND THE BEACH-COMBER.

"Been in some near things in the islands?" said my friend the
beach-comber; "I fancy I _have_."

The beach-comber then produced a piece of luggage like a small Gladstone
bag, which he habitually carried, and thence he extracted a cigar about
the size of the butt of a light trout-rod. He took a vesuvian out of a
curious brown hollowed nut-shell, mounted in gold (the beach-comber, like
Mycenae in Homer, was polychrysos, rich in gold in all his equipments),
and occupied himself with the task of setting fire to his weed. The
process was a long one, and reminded me of the arts by which the beach-
comber's native friends fire th