ithout embalming or any other
species of preparation. The man is in a stooping posture, his head
sustained on his hands, and his elbows renting on his knees. The face has
an expression of pain which seems to indicate a, violent death. The woman
is stretched at length, with arms crossed on her breast. Both heads are
covered with long hair, dark and silky, and divided into an infinity of
small plaits. When Dr. Reid discovered these mummies both had their teeth
complete; but during their transport to Europe many of these have fallen
out, and were found at the bottom of the cases containing these curious
relics of American antiquity.

* * * *

THE COMMON SLANDERS AGAINST DANIEL WEBSTER are noted in the English
Journals in connection with his acceptance of the Secretaryship of State.
"These scandals," observes the _Spectator,_ "cannot, however, hide from
us the fact, that of all public men in America, _perhaps_ with one
exception, Mr. Webster is he who has evinced the greatest knowledge of
public affairs, the greatest acumen in administration, and the greatest
common sense in emergency. High intelligence is probably the best of all
substitutes for high honor--if, indeed, it does not necessarily include
that nobler quality."

* * * * *

COFFINS OF BAKED CLAY OF THE CHALDEANS.--Mr. Kennet Loftus, the first
European who has visited the ancient ruins of Warka in Mesopotamia, and
who is attached to the surveying staff of Colonel Williams, appointed to
settle the question of the boundary line between Turkey and Persia,
writes thus:--"Warka is no doubt the Erech of Scripture, the second city
of Nimrod, and it is the Orchoe of the Chaldees. The mounds within the
walls afford subjects of high interest to the historian and antiquarian;
they are filled, nay, I may say, they are literally composed of coffins,
piled upon each other to the height of forty-five feet. It has,
evidently, been the great burial-place of generations of Chaldeans, as
Meshad Ali and Kerbella at the present day are of the Persians. The
coffins are very strange affairs; they are in general form like a
slipper-bath, but more depressed and symmetrical, with a large oval
aperture to admit the body, which is closed with a lid of earthenware.
The coffins themselves are also of baked clay, covered with green glaze,
and embossed with figures of warriors, with strange and enormous
coiffures, dressed in a short tunic a