and narrow, a vivid green in colour, but turning a bright
red in the autumn, and not unlike those of a laurel in
general appearance. They have little smell when green, but
if boiled the aromatic odour from them is so strong that one
can hardly bear it. The best mixture, however, was made from
the roots, and among the people of Kor there was a law,
which Ayesha showed me alluded to on some of the
inscriptions, to the effect that on pain of heavy penalties
no one under a certain rank was to be embalmed with the
drugs prepared from the roots. The object and effect of this
was, of course, to preserve the trees from extermination.
The sale of the leaves and roots was a Government monopoly,
and from it the Kings of Kor derived a large proportion of
their private revenue.--L. H. H.

About the last tomb we visited I must, however, say one word, for its
contents spoke even more eloquently to the human sympathies than those
of the first. It had but two occupants, and they lay together on a
single shelf. I withdrew the grave-cloths and there, clasped heart to
heart, were a young man and a blooming girl. Her head rested on his arm,
and his lips were pressed against her brow. I opened the man's linen
robe, and there over his heart was a dagger-wound, and beneath the
woman's fair breast was a like cruel stab, through which her life had
ebbed away. On the rock above was an inscription in three words. Ayesha
translated it. It was "_Wedded in Death_."

What was the life-story of these two, who, of a truth, were beautiful in
their lives, and in their death were not divided?

I closed my eyelids, and imagination, taking up the thread of thought,
shot its swift shuttle back across the ages, weaving a picture on their
blackness so real and vivid in its details that I could almost for a
moment think that I had triumphed o'er the Past, and that my spirit's
eyes had pierced the mystery of Time.

I seemed to see this fair girl form--the yellow hair streaming down
her, glittering against her garments snowy white, and the bosom that
was whiter than the robes, even dimming with its lustre her ornaments
of burnished gold. I seemed to see the great cave filled with warriors,
bearded and clad in mail, and, on the lighted dais where Ayesha had
given judgment, a man standing, robed, and surrounded by the symbols of
his priestly office. And up the cave there came one clad in purple, an