HINDOO ADORATION OF THE SÁLAGRÁM.
Among the many forms which Vishnu is believed by his Hindoo worshippers to have assumed is that of the Sálagrám—an ammonite-stone, found in the river Gandaká and other streams flowing from the Himalayas. The reason for the worship of this is stated in one of the sacred books. "Vishnu created the nine planets to preside over the fates of men. Sani (Saturn) proposed commencing his reign by taking Brahma under his influence for twelve years. The matter was referred to Vishnu, who being equally averse to be placed under the inauspicious influence of this planet, requested him to call the next day. The next day Saturn could nowhere discover Vishnu, but perceived that he had united himself to the mountain Gandaká; he entered the mountain in the form of a worm called Vajrakita (the thunderbolt worm). He continued to afflict the mountain-formed Vishnu for twelve years, when Vishnu assumed his proper shape, and commanded that the stones of this mountain should be worshipped, and become proper representatives of himself; adding that each should have twenty marks in it, similar to those on his body, and that its name should be Sálagrám."
The Sálagrám is usually placed under a tulasi-tree, which is planted on the top of a pillar in the vicinity of a temple of Vishnu, or near a house. Tulasi, a female, desired to become Vishnu's wife, but was metamorphosed by Lakshmi into a tree, a small shrub, called therefore Tulasi, or holy basil (Ocymum Sanctum). Vishnu, however, promised to assume the form of a Sálagrám, and always continue with her. The Vaishnaya priests, therefore, keep one leaf of the shrub under and another over the Sálagrám, and thus pay their adorations to the stone and the tree. In the evening a lamp is placed near it. In the month of May it is watered from a pot suspended over it, as appears in the engraving, which represents a person engaged in the worship at this singular shrine.
TOMB OF THE EMPEROR MAXIMILIAN AT INSPRUCK.
This majestic tomb is placed in the centre of the middle aisle of the church, upon a platform approached by steps of red marble. The sides of the tomb are divided into twenty-four compartments, of the finest Carrara marble, on which are represented, in bas-relief, the most interesting events of the emperor's warlike and prosperous career. The workmanship of the tablets is exquisite; and, taken in connexion with the lofty deeds they record, they form the most princely decorations ever seen. Each of the tablets contributing to this splendid lithobiography is in size 2 feet 4 inches by 1 foot 8 inches; and every object contained therein is in the most perfect proportion, while the exquisite finish of the heads and draperies requires a magnifying glass to do it justice. The tomb is surmounted by a colossal figure in bronze of the emperor, kneeling in the act of prayer; and around it are four allegorical figures, of smaller size, also in bronze.
But, marvellous as is the elaborate beauty of this work, it is far from being the most remarkable feature of this imperial mausoleum. Ranged in two long lines, as if to guard it, stand twenty-eight colossal statues in bronze, of whom twenty are kings and princes, alliances of the house of Hapsburg, and eight their stately dames. Anything more impressive than the appearance of these tall dark guardians of the tomb, some clad in regal robes, some cased in armour, and all seeming animated by the mighty power of the artist, it would be difficult to imagine.
In the death-like stillness of the church, the visitor who, for the first time, contemplates this tomb and its gloomy guard, is struck by a feeling of awe, approaching to terror. The statues, with life-like individuality of attitude and expression—each solemn, mournful, dignified, and graceful; and all seeming to dilate before the eye into enormous dimensions, and, as if framed to scare intruders, endowed by a power more than mortal, to keep watch and ward round the mighty dead. They appear like an eternal procession of mourners, who, while earth endures, will cease not to gaze on, mourn over, and protect the relics of him who was the glory of their noble, long since fallen race.
THE FAYENCE OF HENRY II. OF FRANCE.