Here also is Tippoo Sultan's tiger. "It is a curious piece of mechanism,
displaying both the ingenuity and barbarism of the artist who produced
it, no less than the ferocity of nature which could induce a prince to
esteem it as a favourite toy. By turning a crank, like the handle of an
organ, sounds are emitted resembling the shrieks of a man in the jaws of
a tiger, while ever and anon a deeper tone is heard, intended to
represent the roar of the animal."
We find here Tippoo's howdah, or elephant seat, together with his
quilted corslet. The seat is of silver, and the bird forming the canopy
is of the same material, while the eyes are said to be of precious
stones. The padded shirt is said to have belonged to Tippoo Sultan; also
the corslet, which is lined with blue diaper.
There are Hindoo idols of gold and silver, marble and wood, remnants of
shrines and inscriptions, the very letters of which "would have made
Quintilian stare and gasp."
The Chinese curiosities are well worth examining, especially the
materials for engraving, writing, and printing; nor ought the mariner's
compass to be overlooked, for we must remember that this strange nation
have some claim to the invention of our "ocean guide," though rude,
perhaps, the first form may have been, and its bearings but little
understood.
From the _Illustrated London News_, we give the following description of
the paintings found in the Ajunta Caves, in India, copies of which have
lately been added to the Museum of the East India Company:--"These
paintings were found upon the interior walls and roofs of a series of
temples, excavated out of the solid rock, situated near the Ajunta Pass,
where the road from central Hindostan ascends the mural heights
supporting the table-land of the Dekkan. The town of Ajunta is about 200
miles north-east from Bombay; and in a ravine amongst the hills, some
four or five miles distant, occur the caves. According to Mr. Fergusson,
in his 'Memoir on the rock-cut Temples of India,' published in the
'Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,' the entrance to the ravine is
nearly half a mile in width; but the ravine becomes narrower as the
traveller winds up it, until it terminates in a cascade of seven falls,
or leaps: the lowest is about 100 feet high, the others about 100 feet
higher. Immediately below the fall the
[Illustration]