LITERARY MISCELLANEA.

Southland Times, Issue 1057, 16 November 1868, Page 3

LITERARY MISCELLANEA.

The German traveller Eohlfe has arrived at Bremen on his return from Abyssinia, where he filled the ofiice of interpreter to the English expeditionary corps. Afterthe taking of Magdala he went alone to Lallibala, the holy city of the country, which has not been visited by any European for more than three centuries. He found there nine Christian churches ofthe primitive Byzantine style of architecture, all monoliths, that is to say, each hollowed out of one enormous block of stone and richly ornamented. In afterwards passing by the Axum he discovered that the last of obelisks still standing in that place is in a state of almost complete ruin. Mr. Holmes of the British Museum has obtained a considerable number of EthiopicMSS. during his sojourn with the Abyssinian Expedition. They have notyet been examined, bur are not expected to comprise anything of importance. Thebeautifullycarvedsandal-woodgates, which originally belonged to the people of Somnath, and after their capture by General Nott were placed at the entrance of the Agra magazine, seem tobe in danger of destruction. It is stated that the contents of the Agra magazine are now being removed to Allahabad, and that the gates will probably be thrown into the fire from ignorance of their history and beauty unless the authorities of the British Museum heg them from Sir S. Northcote. They could easily be packed up aud sent home, where the admiration they would receive Irom all Europe would amply repay the small trouble and expense entailed by their removal. A memorial is about to be raised to the late Sir James Brooke, Eajah of Sarawak:. It is to take he form of a statue in West- i minster Abbey. Eecent excavations at Cassaro in Sicily have disclosed the remains of what must have been a very extensive Syracusan colony. The external wall, the greater portion of which has been traced, was nearly seven feet ihick and 6,000 feet in circumference. The town appears to have been divided into four quarters, in one of which the vestiges of a fine temple have been discovered. It is reported from Smyrna that Mr. Dennis will begin operations in the tombs of the Lydian kings at Sardis, many of which have long since been rifled. A literary journal calls attention to the state of the tomb of Thomas Moore, the poet, who died in 1852, and was interred in the churchyard of Bramham in Wiltsshire. It is described as heing in a very "had condition, and entirely disregarded by the local authorities.