nothing."

And then he read to him, and did what was necessary. But the farmer was kept to the bed and the house for a month, before he got the proper use of his limbs and his speech. And a friend saw him at Macroom market last Saturday, and shook hands with him, and said he was glad to see him, for he heard he had had a great tussle. "I had that, indeed," said he, "if any man ever had." And the friend, finding he said no more, was shy of asking him. But they say that in a little time he will be able to tell a great deal. He knew the gentleman very well that lifted him over the hedge, but he is dead. And there was a cow-boy in the same field, in the middle of the field, but he didn't see the dogs or horses, nor hear anything.

R. S.

Since I wrote to you, Mary Coghlan, niece to the farmer who was struck, has been in Cork and slept at Paddy Murphy's, and has added more authentic details. The person who saved her uncle from the dogs was her father, brother to the farmer. The spirit lifted his brother over the hedge and led him away from the dogs, till within one field of the farmer's house, and, when he left him, the farmer was struck with the weakness, and fell to the ground.

* There was a man who lived near Macroom named Tim Shea, who used to say that he saw the good people (daoinne-maha). And he brought messages to the country-folks, and said he used to be with the good people at night, and that he saw all their (the living's) friends, and what they (the dead) wished to have done, and how they (the dead) were situated. And he was consulted, when a house was to be built, as to where it should be, so as not to be in the way of the good people. And for these things the priest used to call him to account in the chapel, and tell the people not to believe what he said. And one day the priest met him on the bridge of Macroom, coming over from the Kerry side towards Hedges Eyre's castle, that's on your right. And the priest said, "You're there, Shea?" "I am, your Reverence," said he. "Well, tell me," said the clergyman, "when did you see the boys?" (meaning the good people and the spirits, but he spoke of them in that way.) "I see them this very moment, your Reverence," said he. "Where

are they?" said the priest. "There they are, down in the inch by the river's side, under the castle," said Shea, "playing goal." Stop a moment, then," said the priest. Then he took out his breviary, and put on his stole, and read the prayers. And after that he said to Shea, "Come over to me, and put your right foot on my right foot, and look over my right shoulder, and tell me what ye will see." And as soon as Shea looked, he cried out, "Oh! Reverend Father, the inch is full of black pigs, and they tearing each other." "Well, then," said the priest, never agin make people commit sin by saying you've seen the spirits of their friends; for these are all devils."

66

"This," said my informant, as I finished writing down what he recited, "I didn't see meself, but I've been told it by more nor ten different people of that place."

When the farmer had been about a fortnight in bed, one night the house filled with the spirits he had seen in the fields, and he was obliged to get up and go with them; no one but himself saw them, and his family supposed that he was in bed; they did not miss him. But he was with them all night, and they had every pleasure and enjoyment that people have on earth and living, and they pass their time as agreeable as possible. He knew a great many of the persons there, friends of his that were dead; and more he didn't know; and many friends of his that were dead, wern't there at all; and they wished to keep him altogether. But his brother interfered for him, "that he had a young family of children;" and they said, "that his brother was always making requests." it was agreed that he might return home, and he did. morning he had the use of his limbs and got up."

*

But, at last,
And in the

He saw many things that he may not speak of at present. But, in a little time, he may tell more. Every man living has an enemy among the dead, endeavouring to harm him; and every one has a friend among the dead, who tries to serve him on earth.

R. S.

Cork, 25 Jan. 1842.

* On a recent inquiry of my informant (P. M.) he told me that the farmer died about two years after this occurrence.

ASSYRIAN ANTIQUITIES.

(From The Constitution, or Cork Advertiser, for Tuesday, April 19, 1853.)

The members of the Cuvierian Society assembled at the Royal Cork Institution on Wednesday evening (April 13), Professor Boole in the chair, when Mr. Sainthill brought before the meeting a valuable and most interesting work-the large folio containing representations of the latest discoveries by Dr. Layard in the sculptural decorations of the royal palaces at Nimroud. These illustrations are executed in lithography, in the highest style of art, bringing before the mind with great vividness striking historical passages and curious features in the manners and habits of this ancient people. Some of these mural relievi exhibit the sieges of walled towns; the removal of colossal statues; the crossing of rivers on inflated skins; a triumphant warrior-king sitting in judgment on the captives of a city taken by assault, with the different varieties of torture; domestic utensils of bronze and other materials of symmetrical proportions, and mosaics decorated with tasteful and elaborate ornament. Some of these sculptures are of high importance and interest, as affording unexceptionable and convincing corroboration of the prophecies in the Old Testament.

The most historically interesting is a series of four sculptures descriptive of the siege and capture of Lachish in Judea by Sennacherib. The concluding tablet exhibits the Assyrian king gorgeously apparelled, seated on a splendid throne, and before whom are passing in sad array a long train of captives, in various attitudes, supplicating mercy, but in vain, as the following epigraph inscribed over the king, translated by the Rev. Dr. E. Hincks, informs us:-" Sennacherib the mighty King, King of the country of Assyria, sitting on the throne of judgment before (or at the entrance of) the city of Lachish (Lachissah)-I give permission for its slaughter." Here we find a concurrence of two distinct narratives as to the title of the

King of Assyria, and a reference to the prophet Jeremiah will confirm the sculpture that an invading King, on the capture of a city, erected his throne at its gates, and gave judgment on its survivors.

In Jeremiah, chap. i. 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th verses, we read—“ And the word of the Lord came unto me the second time, saying, What seest thou? And I said, I see a seething pot: and the face thereof (is) toward the north. Then the Lord said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. For lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the Lord; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah, and I will utter my judgments against them, touching all their wickedness who have forsaken me."

Passing on to the 39th chapter of Jeremiah, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd verses, we find this prophecy fulfilled to the letter, noticing only that the siege of Jerusalem had occupied eighteen months, and that Nebuchadrezzar, leaving its conclusion to his generals, had gone "to Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he gave judgment on him" (that is, on Zedekiah). 5th verse.

"In the ninth year of Zedekiah, King of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadrezzar, King of Babylon, and all his army, against Jerusalem, and they besieged it. (And) in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth (day) of the month, the city was broken up. And all the princes of the King of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate, (even) Nergal-Sharezer, Samgar-nebo, Sarsechim, Rab-saris, Nergal-sharezer,* Rab-mag, with all the residue of the princes of the King of Babylon."

Referring now to the 18th chapter of the 2nd Book of Kings, verses 17, 18, and 19, we read that "The King of Assyria sent Tartan, and Rabsaris, and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah, with a great host, against Jerusalem, and they went up and came to Jerusalem, and when they were come up they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the fuller's field, and when they had called to the king, there came out to them Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, which was over the house

* Sic.

hold, and Shebna the scribe, and Joash the son of Asaph the recorder; and Rabshakeh said unto them, Speak ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the Great King, the King of Assyria," &c. The Bible record states that, in the 14th year of Hezekiah, the King of Assyria came up and took all the fenced cities of Judah, Jerusalem excepted, and that Hezekiah paid Sennacherib, as a tribute, 30 talents of gold and 300 talents of silver. The engraved annals of Sennacherib, dug out of the ruins of his palace by Dr. Layard, state that the Assyrian king took 46 fortified cities, leaving to Hezekiah only the city of Jerusalem, and that he received as tribute 30 talents of gold and 800 talents of silver from Hezekiah.

Dr. Layard thinks that the difference in the amount of silver may be reconciled by supposing that the Bible reckons only the coined money paid by Hezekiah, and the Syrian surplus was the gold and silver which the Bible states that Hezekiah cut from off the doors of the temple. Had Dr. Layard been a numismatist, he would have known that neither the Jews, Assyrians, nor Babylonians coined money, that all their monetary transactions were in bullion by scale weight, and that the first coinage in that part of the world was under the Persian supremacy, by Darius Hystaspes, one of the successors of Cyrus, who reigned B.C. 522, and died B.C. 485. It struck him (Mr. Sainthill) that the more probable reconcilement of the sums of 300 and 800 talents is, that the Bible records only what Hezekiah paid to Sennacherib, and that the Syrian annals include the sum of the gross plunder of the 46 cities of Judah, with the tribute paid by Hezekiah.

The Assyrian record is graven on stone in the cuneiform character, most probably very shortly after the event, which took place about 716 years B.C. In the year 606 B.C. Nineveh was taken and destroyed by the Babylonians, and the record remained entombed amidst ruins till A.D. 1850, or 2,456 years, having existed 2,580 years. The Jewish contemporary record has come down to us in a series of successive manuscripts in the Hebrew language, giving us the same information, and occasionally in the same words.

R. S.