In the large piece of water in the northern part of the gardens, which has been deepened on purpose, apparatus in connection with diving will be seen; and hard by, in a shed, Messrs. Siebe, Gorman & Co. will show a selection of beautiful minute shells dredged from the bottom of the Mediterranean.
In the open basins in the gardens will be seen beavers, seals, sea-lions, waders, and other aquatic birds.
From this preliminary walk round enough has, we think, been seen to show that the Great International Fisheries Exhibition will prove of interest alike to the ordinary visitor, to those anxious for the well-being of fishermen, to fishermen themselves of every degree, and to the scientific student of ichthyology in all its branches.--Nature.
PUPPET SHOWS AMONG THE GREEKS.
The ancients, especially the Greeks, were very fond of theatrical representations; but, as Mr. Magnin has remarked in his Origines du Théâtre Moderne, public representations were very expensive, and for that very reason very rare. Moreover, those who were not in a condition of freedom were excluded from them; and, finally, all cities could not have a large theater, and provide for the expenses that it carried with it. It became necessary, then, for every day needs, for all conditions and for all places, that there should be comedians of an inferior order, charged with the duty of offering continuously and inexpensively the emotions of the drama to all classes of inhabitants.
Formerly, as to-day, there were seen wandering from village to village menageries, puppet shows, fortune tellers, jugglers, and performers of tricks of all kinds. These prestidigitators even obtained at times such celebrity that history has preserved their names for us--at least of two of them, Euclides and Theodosius, to whom statues were erected by their contemporaries. One of these was put up at Athens in the Theater of Bacchus, alongside of that of the great writer of tragedy, Æschylus, and the other at the Theater of the Istiaians, holding in the hand a small ball. The grammarian Athenæus, who reports these facts in his "Banquet of the Sages," profits by the occasion to deplore the taste of the Athenians, who preferred the inventions of mechanics to the culture of mind and histrions to philosophers. He adds with vexation that Diophites of Locris passed down to posterity simply because he came one day to Thebes wearing around his body bladders filled with wine and milk, and so arranged that he could spurt at will one of these liquids in apparently drawing it from his mouth. What would Athenæus say if he knew that it was through him alone that the name of this histrion had come down to us?
FIG. 1.--THE MARVELOUS STATUE OF CYBELE.