would be more difficult to find a fingle hump-backed, lame, or iquint eyed man am ngit a thousand Mexicans, then among any hundred of any other na.io. The unpla fantnef of the r colour, the fmallnefs of their forehead, the thinnefs of their beard and the coarfeuefs of their hair, are fo far compenfated by the regularity and fine proportions of their limbs, that they can neither be called very beautiful, nor the contrary, but feem to hold a middle-place between the extremes. Their appearance neither engages nor difgutts; but among the young women of Mexico, there are many very beatiful and fair; whofe beauty is at the fame time rendered more winning by the fweetnefs of their manner of speaking, and by the pleasantnefs and natural modefty of their whole behaviour. "Their fenie are very acute, efpecially that of fight, which they enjoy unimpaired to the greatest age. Their conftitutions are found, and their health robuft. They are entirely free of many diforders which are common amon the Spaniards, but of the epidemical difeafes to which their country is occafionally fubject, they are the principal victims; with them here difeafes begin, and with them they end. One ne er perceives in a Mexican that flinking breath which is occafioned in other people by the corruption of the hum urs or indigeftion. Their conflitutions are phlegmatic; but the pituitous eva cuations from their heads are very fcanty, and they feldom fpit. They become grey-headed and bald earlier than the Spaniards, and although most of them die of acute dife afes, it is not very uncommon among them to attain the age of a hundred. "They are now, and have ever been, very moderate in eating, but their paffion for ftrong liquors is carried to the greatet excels. For merly they were kept within bounds by the feverity of the laws; but now that thefe liquors are grown fo common, and drunkennels is unpanifhed, one half of the people feem to have loft their fenfes; and this, together with the poor manner in which they live, expofed to all the baneful impreflions of dif eafe, and deftitute of the means of correcting them, is undoubtedly the principal cause of the havoc which is made among them by the epidemical diforders. "Their minds are at bottom in every refpect like thofe of the other chil ren of Adam, and endued with the fame powers; nor did the Eu ropeans ever do lefs credit to their own reason than when they doubt. ed of the rationality of the Americans. The ftare of civilization among the Mexicans, when they were first known to the Spaniaras, which was much fuperior to that of the Spaniards themfelves, when they were first known to the Phenicians, that of the Gauls when first known to the Greeks, or that of the Germans and Britons when firft known to the Romans, fhould * of itfelt have been fully fufficient to correct foch an error of man's mind, if it had not been the inte reft of the inhuman avarice of fome ruffia s to encour ge it. Their underflandings are fitted for every kind of fcience, as experience has actually fhewn, Of the Mexicans who have had an opportunity of engaging in the purfuits of learning, which is but a fmall number, as the greate part of the people are always employed in the public or private works, we have known fome good mathematicians, excellent architects, and learned divines. "Many "Many perfons allow the Mexicans to poffefs a great talent of imitation, but deny them the praife of invention: a vulgar error, which is contradicted by the ancient hiftory of that people. Their minds are affected by the fame variety of paflions with thofe of other nations, but not to an equal degree. The Mexicans feldom exhibit thofe tranfports of anger, or thofe frenzies of love which are fo common in other countries. They are flow in their motions, and fhew a wonderful tena city and leadiness in th fe works which require time and long continued attention. They are most patient of injury and hardship; and where they fufpect no evil in tention, are moft grateful for any kindness fhewn; but fome Spa. niards, who cannot diftinguifh patience from infenfibility, nor diftruft from ingratitude, fay proverbially, that the Indians are alike infentible to injuries and to benefits. That habitual difruit which they entertain of all who are not of their own nation, prompts them often to lie and betray; fo that good faith certainly has not been fo much refpected among them as it deferves. "They are by nature taciturn, ferious, and auflere, and fhew more anxiety to punish crimes than to reward virtues. Generonty and perfect difintereftedness are the principal features of their character. Gold with the Mexicans has not that value which it enjoys elsewhere. They feem to give without reluctance what has coft them the utmost labour to acquire. The neglect of f lfifh interefls, together with the diflike which they bear to their rulers, and confequently their averfion to the talks impofed by them, feem to have been the only grounds of that much exaggerated indolence with which the Americans have been charged: and after all, there is no fet of people in that country who labour more, nor whofe labours are more ufeful or more neceffary. "The refpect paid by children to their parents, and by the young to the old, among thofe people, feem to be feelings that are born with them. Parents are very fond of their children; but the affection which hufbands bear to their wives, is certainly less than that borne by the wives to their husbands; and it is very common for the men to love their neighbours wives better than their own. Courage and cowardice feem alternately fo to affect their minds, that it is often difficult to determine whether the one or the other picdominates. They meet dangers with intrepidity when they proceed from natural caufes, but they are cafily terrified by the itern look of a Spaniard. That ftupid indifference about death and eternity, which many authors have thought inherent in the character of every American, is peculiar to only those who re yet forude and uninformed as to have no idea of a future ftate. "Their fingular attachment to the external ceremonies of religion is very apt to degenerate into fu peritition, as happens with the ignorant of all nations of the world; but their pronenefs to idolatry is nothing more than a chimera formed in the abfurd imaginations of mifinformed perfons. The inflances of a few mountaineers are not fufficient to justify a general afperfion upon the whole people. "To conclude, the character of the Mexicans, like that of every other nation, is a mixture of good and bad; but the bad is eafy to be core corrected by a proper education, as has been frequently demonstrated by experience. It would be difficult to find, any where, a youth more docile than the prefent, or a body of people more ready than their ancestors were to receive the lights of religion. "I must add, that the modern Mexicans are not in all refpects fimilar to the ancient; as the Greeks of thefe days have little resemblance to thofe who lived in the times of Plato and of Pericles. The ancient Mexicans fhewed more fire, and were more fenfible to the impreffions of honour. They were more intrepid, more nimble, more active, more industrious; but they were, at the fame time, more fuperftitious and cruel." CUSTOMS and MANNERS of the BEDOUIN ARABS. [Extracted from the First Volume of VOLNEY's Travels through Syria and Egypt.J "IN N general, when fpeaking of the Arabs, we fhuld diftinquifh whether they are cultivators, or paftors; for this difference in their mode of life occafions fo great a one in their manners and genius, that they become almoft foreign nations, with refpect to each other. In the former cafe, leading a fedentary life, attached to the fame foil, and fubject to regular governments, the focial state in which they live, very nearly refembles our own. Such are the inhabitants of the Yemen; and fuch, alfo, are the defcendants of thofe ancient conquerors, who have either entirely, or in part, given inhabitants to Syria, Egypt, and the Barbary flates. In the fecond inftance, having only a tranfient intereft in the foil, perpetually removing their tents from one place to another, and under fubjection to no laws, their mode of existence is neither that of polished nations, nor of favages; and, therefore, more particularly merits our attention. Such are the Bedouins, or inhabitants of the vast deferts which extend from the confines of Perfia, to Morocco. Though divided into independent communities, or tribes, not unfrequently hoftile to each other, they may fill be confidered as forming one nation. The relemblance of their language is a manifest token of this relationship. The only difference that exifts between them is, that the African tribes are of a lefs an cient origin, being pofterior to the conquest of thefe countries by the Califs, or fucceffors of Mahomet; while the tribes of the defert of Arabia, properly fo called, have defcended by an uninterrupted fucceffion from the remoteft ages; and it is of thefe I mean more especi• ally to treat, as being more imme diately connected with my fubject. To thefe the orientals are accuftomed to appropriate the name of Arabs, as being the most ancient, and the purest race. The term Bedaoui is added as a fynonimous expreffion, fignifying, as I have obferved, inhabitant of the Defert; and this term has the greater pro priety, as the word Arab, in the ancient language of these countries, fignifies a folitude or defert. "It is not without reafon that the inhabitants of the Desert boast of being the purest and the best preferved race of all the Arab tribes for never have they been conquered, nor have they mixed with any other people, by making conquests; for thofe by which the general name of Arabs has been rendered famous, really belong only to the tribes of the Hedjaz, and the Yemen; thofe who dwelt in the interior of the country, never emigrated at the time of the revolution effected by Mahomet; or if they did take any part in it, it was confined to a few individuals, detached by motives of ambition. Thus we find the prophet, in his Koran, continually filing the Arabs of the Defert rebels, and infidels; nor has fo great a length of time produced any very confiderable change. We may affert they have, in every refpect, retained their primitive independence and fimplicity. Every thing that ancient history has related of their cuftoms, mauners, language, and even their prejudices, is almost minutely true of them to this day; and if we confider, befides, that this unity of character, preserved through fuch a number of ages, ftill fubfifts, even in the most distant fituations, that is, that the tribes moft remote from each other preferve an exact refemblance, it must be allowed, that the circumstances which accompany fo peculiar a moral ftate, are a fubject of molt curious enquiry. "In Europe, and especially in its more civilized and improved countries, where we have no examples of wandering people, we can fcarcely conceive what can in duce men to adopt a mode of life fo repugnant to our ideas. We even conceive with difficulty what a defert is, or how it is poffible for a country to have inhabitants, if it be barren; or why it is not better peopled, if it be fufceptible of cultivation. I have been perplexed, myfelf, with thefe difficulties, as well as others; for which reafon, I fhall dwell more circumftantially on the facts which will furnish us with their explanation. "The wandering and paftoral life led by feveral Afiatic nations, arifes from two caufes. The first is, the nature of the foil, which, being improper for cultivation, compels men to have recourfe to animals, which content themselves with the wild herbage of the earth, Where this herbage is but thin, a fingle animal will foor confume the produce of a great extent of ground, and it will be neceflary to run over large tracts of land. Such is the cafe of the Arabs in the de fert of Arabia, properly fo called, and in that of Africa. "The fecond caufe must be attributed to habit, fince the foil is cultivable, and even fertile, in many places; fuch as the frontiers of Syria, the Diarbekir, Natolia, and the greatest part of the districts frequented by the Curds and Turk men. But it appears to me that thefe habits are only the effect of the political fate of the country, fo that the primary caufe of them must be referred to the government itfelf. This opinion is tupported by daily facts; for as often as the different hordes and wandering tribes find peace and fecurity, and a pos fibility of procuring fufficient provifions, in any district, they take up their refidence in it, and adopt, infenfibly, a fettled life, and the arts of cultivation. But when, on the extent is every where the fame; it varies confiderably in different places. On the frontiers of Syria, for example, the earth is in gene the contrary, the tyranny of the government drives the inhabitants of a village to extremity, the pealants defert their houfes, withdraw with their families into the mountains,orwander ral fat and cultivable, nay, even in the plains, taking care fiequently fruitful. It is the fame alfo on the to change their place of habitation, banks of the Euphrates; but in to avoid being furprised. It often the internal parts of the country, happens even that individuals, turn- and towards the fouth, it becomes ed robbers, in order to withdraw white and chalky, as in the paral. themselves from the laws, or from lel of Damafcus; rocky, as in the tyranny, unite and form little Tih, and the Hedjaz; and a pure camps, which maintain themfelves fand, as to the eastward of the by arms, and, increafing, become Yemen. This variety in the quanew hordes, and new tribes. We lities of the foil is productive of may pronounce, therefore, that in fome minute differences in the cancultivable countries, the wandering dition of the Bedouins. For in. life originates in the injustice or ftance, in the more fterile counwant of policy of the government; tries, that is thofe which produce and that the fedentary and cultivat- but few plants, the tribes are feeing flate is that to which mankind ble, and very diftant; which is is most naturally inclined. the cafe in the defert of Suez, that of the Red Sea, and the interior of the Great Defert, called the Najd. When the foil is more fruitful, as between Damafcus and the Eu phrates, the tribes are more numerous, and lefs remote from each other; and, laftly, in the cultivable diftricts, fuch as the pachalics of Aleppo, the Hauran, and the neighbourhood of Gaza, the camps are frequent and contiguous. În the former infances, the Bedouins are purely paftors, and fubfift only on the produce of their herds, and on a few dates, and flesh meat, which they eat, either fresh, or dried in the fun, and reduced to a powder. In the latter, they fow fome land, and add cheese, barley, and even rice, to their flesh and milk meats. "With respect to the Arabs, they feem especially condemned to a wandering life, by the very nature of their deferts. To paint to himself these deferts, the reader must imagine a iky almost perpetually inflamed, and without clouds, immenfe and boundlefs plains, without houses, trees, rivulets, or hills, where the eye frequently meets nothing but an extentive and uniform horizon, like the fea, though in fome places the ground is uneven and ftoney. Almost invariably naked on every fide, the earth prefents nothing but a few wild plants, thinly fcattered, and thickets, whofe folitude is rarely disturbed but by antelopes, hares, locufts, and rats. Such is the nature of nearly the whole country, which extends fix hundred leagues in length, and three hundred in breadth, and stretches from Aleppo to the Arabian fea, and from Egypt to the Perfian gulph. It must not, however, be imagined that the foil in fo great an "Such is the fituation in which nature has placed the Bedouins, to make of then a race of men equally fingular in their phyfical and moral character. This ingularity. is so striking, that even their neigh bours, the Syrians, regard them |