of April, May, and June, especially the two latter, Egypt was greatly subject to stormy winds, which laid waste their olive grounds, and brought numerous swarms of grasshoppers and other troublesome insects from the shores of the Red Sea, which did infinite damage to the country. The Egyptians, therefore, gave figures which proclaimed these three months, a female face with the bodies and claws of birds, and called them Harop, a name which sufficiently denoted the true sense of the symbol. All this the Greeks realized, and embellished in their way.

GRIFFON, in the natural history of the ancients, the name of an im aginary bird of prey, of the eagle kind. They represented it with four legs, wings, and a beak: the upper part represented an eagle, and the lower a lion; they supposed it to watch over gold mines, hidden treasures, &c. This animal was consecrated to the sun. The Griffon is frequently seen on ancient medals: and it is still borne in coat-armour. The Griffon is an ornament in architecture, in common use among the Greeks, and was copied from them.

THE Salamander has a short cylindrical tail, four toes on the forefeet, and a naked porous body.This animal has been said, even in the Philosophical Transactions, to live in the fire; but this is found to be fabulous. It is found in the southern countries of Europe. The following account of this species is extracted from the Count de la Cepede's Natural History of Serpents: Whilst the hardest bodies cannot resist the violence of fire, the world have endeavoured to make us believe that a small lizard can not only withstand the flames, but even extinguish

them. As agreeable fables readily gain belief, every one has been eager to adopt that of a small animal so highly privileged, so superior to the most powerful agent in nature, and which could furnish so many objects of comparison to poetry, so many pretty emblems to love, and so many brilliant devices to valour. The ancients believed this poetry of the Salamander. Wishing that its origin might be as surprising as its power; and being desirous of realizing the ingenious fictions of the poets, they have pretended that it owes its existence to the purest of elements, which cannot consume it and they have called it the daughter of fire, giving it, however, a body of ice. The moderns have followed the ridiculous tales of the ancients; and as it is difficult to stop when one bas passed the bounds of probability, some have gone so far as to think that the most violent fire could be extinguished by the land Salamander. Quacks sold this small lizard,

affirming, that when thrown into the greatest conflagration, it would check its progress. It was very necessary that philosophers and naturalists should take the trouble to prove by facts what reason alone might have #demonstrated and it was not till after the light of science was diffused abroad, that the world gave over believing in this wonderful property of the Salamander.

The Salamander being destitute of claws, having only four toes on each of the fore-feet, and no advantage of conformation making up its deficiencies, its manner of living must, as is indeed the case, be very different from that of other lizards. It walks very slowly; far from being able to climb trees with rapidity; it often appears to drag itself with great difficulty along the surface of the earth. It seldom goes far from the place of shelter which it has fixed on; it passes its life under the earth, often at the bottom of old walls during the summer.