in their domeftic life and manners. A Shaik, who has the command of five hundred horse, does not difdain to faddle and bridle his own, nor to give him barley and chopped ftraw. In his tent, his wife makes the coffee, kneads the dough, and fuperintends the dreffing of the victuals. His daughters and kinfwomen wath the linen, and go with pitchers on their head, and veils over their faces, to draw water from the fountain. Thefe manners agree precifely with the defcriptions in Homer, and the hiftory of Abraham, in Genefis. But it must be owned that it is difficult to form a juft idea of them without having ourfelves been eye-witneffes.

"The fimplicity, or, perhaps, more properly, the poverty, of the lower clafs of the Bedouins, is proportionate to that of their chiefs. All the wealth of a family confifts of moveables, of which the following is a pretty exact inventory. A few male and female camels, fome goats and poultry a mare, and her bridle and faddle; a tent, a lance fixteen feet long, a crooked fabre, a rusty mufket, with a flint, or matchlock; a pipe, a portable mill, a pot for cooking, a leathern bucket, a fmall coffee roafter, a mat, fome clothes, a mantle of black wool, and a few glafs or filver rings, which the women wear upon their legs and arms. If none of thefe are wanting, their furniture is complete. But what the poor Iman ftands moft in need of, and what he takes moft pleasure in, is his mare; for this animal is his principal fupport. With his mare the Bedouin makes his excurfions against hoftile tribes, or fecks plunder in the country, and on the highways. The mare is preferred to the horfe, becaufe fhe does not neigh, is more docile, and yields

milk, which, on occafion, fatisfies the thirst, and even the hunger of her master.

"Thus confined to the most abfolute neceffities of life, the Arabs have as little industry as their wants are few; all their arts confist in weaving their clumfy tents, and in making mats, and butter. Their whole commerce only extends to the exchanging camels, kids, ftallions, and milk, for arms, clothing, a little rice or corn, and money, which they bury. They are totally ignorant of all fcience; and have not even any idea of aftronomy, geometry, or medicine. They have not a fingle book; and nothing is fo uncommon among the Shaiks, as to know how to read. All their literature confifts in reciting tales and hiftories, in the manner of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, They have a peculiar paffion for fuch stories; and employ in them almost all their leifure, of which they have a great deal. In the evening, they feat themselves on the ground, at the threshold of their tents, or under cover, if it be cold, and there, ranged in a circle round a little fire of dung, their pipes in their mouths, and their legs croffed, they fit a while in filent meditation, till, on a fudden, one of them breaks forth with "Once upon a time”—and continues to recite the adventures of fome young Shaik and female Bedouin: he relates in what manner the youth first got a fecret glimpse of his miftrefs; and how he became def perately enamoured of her; he minutely defcribes the lovely fair, boafts her black eyes, as large and foft as thofe of the gazelle; het languid and empaffioned looks, her arched eye-brows, resembling two bows of ebony: her waift freight, and fupple as a lance; he forgets

tion to enflave and impoverish the body of the nation. Each individual, capable of fupplying all his wants, is better able to preferve

his character, and independence; and private poverty becomes at once the foundation and bulwark of public liberty."

"O

Fall the fubjects of obfervation any country affords, the moral character of its inhabitants is unquestionably the most important; but it must likewife be acknowleged, it is at the fame time the most difficult: for it is not fuf'ficient to make a barren enquiry into facts; the effential object is to investigate their various caufes and relations; to difcover the open or fecret, the remote or immediate fprings, which produce in men thofe habits of action we call manners, and that uniform difpofition of mind we name character. Now, to fucceed in fuch an enquiry, it is neceffary to communicate with the men we wish to know; we must place ourselves in their fituations, in order to feel by what agents they are influenced, and the confequences which refult; we must live in their country, learn their language, and adopt their customs; conditions feldom complied with by travellers; and which, even when they are, ftill leave to be furmounted numerous difficulties, which arife from the nature of the thing itself; for we have not only to combat the prejudices we may meet in our way, but to overcome our own; against which we can never be fufficiently on our guard; habits are powerful, facts liable to be mistaken, and error easy. The obferver, then,

fhould be circumfpect though not timid, and the reader, obliged to fee with the eyes of others, fhould watch attentively both the reafon. ing of his guide, and the deductions he may be inclined to draw himfelf.

"When an European arrives in Syria, or indeed in any part of the eastern world, what appears moit extraordinary to him, in the ex. terior of the inhabitants, is the almost total oppofition of their manners to our own: it feems as if fome premeditated defign had determined to produce an infinity of the most striking contrafts between the people of Afia and those of Europe. We wear fhort and close dreffes; theirs are long and ample. We fuffer our hair to grow, and fhave the beard; they let the beard grow, and fhave the head. With us, to uncover the head is a mark of refpect; with them, a naked head is a fign of folly. We falute in an inclined pofture; they upright. We pafs our lives erect; they are almoft continually feated. They fit and eat upon the ground; we upon raised feats. With relpect to language, likewife, their manner of writing is directly con trary to ours, and the greatest part of our mafculine nouns are feminine with them. To the bulk of travellers thefe contrats only ap

pear

pear whimsical; but it may be interefting to philofophers, to enquire into the causes of fo great a divérfity of habits, in men who have the fame wants, and in nations which appear to have one common origin.

"Another diftinguishing characperiftic, no lefs remarkable, is that yeligious exterior obfervable in the countenances, converfation, and geftures of the inhabitants of Turkey. In the streets, every one appears with his ftring of beads. We hear nothing but emphatical exclamations of Ya Allah! O God! Allah akbar! God moft great! Allab taala, God moft high! Every inftant the ear is ftruck with a profound figh, or noify eructation which follows the pronouncing of fome one of the ninety-nine epithets of God; fuch as Ya rani! Source of riches! Ya fobhan ! O most to be praised! Ya maftour! O impeneirable! If a man fells bread in the streets, he does not cry bread, but exclaims Allah Kerim, God is liberal. If he fells water, he cries, Allah djarvad, God is generous; and fo of other articles. The ufual form of falutation is, God preferve thee; and of thanks, God protect thee in a word God is in every thing, and every where. Thele men then are very devout, fays the reader? Yes, but without being the better in confequence of this devotion, for I have already obferved, their zeal is no other than 2 fpirit of jealoufy, and contradiction arifing from the diverfity of religions; fince in the Chriftian a profeffion of his faith is a bravado, an act of independence; and in the Mahometan, an act of fuperiority and power. This devoutnefs, therefore, merely the offspring of pride and profound ignorance, is no bet fer than a fanatic fuperftition, and

the fource of innumerable diforders.

"There is still another characteriftic in the exterior of the Orien tals, which attracts the attention of an obferver: I mean their grave and phlegmatic air in every thing they do, or fay. Inftead of that open and cheerful countenance, which we either naturally poffefs or affume, their behaviour is serious, auftere, and melancholy; they rarely laugh, and the gaiety of the French appears to them a fit of delirium. When they fpeak, it is with deliberation, without geftures, and without pallion; they liften without interrupting you; they are filent for whole days together, and by no means pique themfelves on fupporting converfation. If they walk, it is always leifurely, and on bufinefs; they have no idea of our troublesome activity, and our walks backwards and forwards for amufement. Continually feated, they pafs the whole day mufing, with their legs croffed, their pipes in their mouths, and almoft without changing their attitude. It should feem as if motion were a punish ment to them, and that, like the Indians, they regard inaction as ef fential to happiness."

"I have faid that the Orientals, in general, have a grave' and› phlegmatic exterior, a itayed and almost littlefs deportment, and a ferious, nay, even fad and melan choly countenance. Were the climate or the foil the radical caufe of this, the effect would be the fame in every individual. But that is not the cafe; under this general character, there are a thousand peculiar minute varieties in different claffes and individuals, arifing from their fituation, relative to the influence of government, which dif fers in its effects on thefe claffes,

E 3

and

and thefe individuals. Thus we obferve that the peafants fubject to the Turks are more gloomy than thofe of the tributary countries; that the inhabitants of the country are lefs gay than thofe of the towns; and that thofe on the coast are more cheerful than fuch as dwell at a greater d stance from it ; ths in the fame town, the profeffors of the law are more ferious than the villary, and there again more to that the people. We inay even remark, that, in the great cities, the people have much of that diffipated and carelefs air they ufually have with us; because there, as well as here, inured to fuffering from habit, and devoid of reflection from ignorance, they enjoy a kind of fecurity. Having nothing to lote, they are in no dread of being plundered. The merchant, on the contrary, lives in a state of perpetual alarm, under the double apprehenfion of acquiring no more, and lofing what he poffeffes. He trembles left he fhould attract the attention of rapacious authority, which would confider an air of fatisfaction as a proof of opulence, and the fignal for extortion. The fame dread prevails throughout the villages, where each peatant is afraid of exciting the envy of his equals, and the avarice of the Aga and his foldiers. In fuch a coun try, where the fubject is perpetually watched by a defpoiling government, he must affume a ferieus countenance for the fame reafon that he wears ragged clothes, and makes a parade of eating cheese and olives. The fame caufe, though it has a lefs influence on the law yers, is not, however, without its effect on them; but the infolence in which they have been educated, and the pedantry of their manners,

render it unneceffary to affign any other.

"With refpect to their indolence, it is not furprising that the inhabitants of the cities and the country, fatigued with labour, should have an inclination to repofe. But it is remarkable, that when these people are once in ac tion, they exert themselves with a vivacity and ardour alinoft unknown in our climates. This is more particularly obfervable in the fea ports and commercial towns. An European cannot but admire with what activity the failors, with their naked arms and legs, handle the oars, hend the fails, and perform every manœuvre; with what ardour the porters unload a boat, and carry the heaviest couffes. Always finging, and answering by couplets to one who directs their labour, they perform all their motions in cadence, and redouble their exertions by making them in time. It has been faid, on this fubject, that the inhabitants of hot countries have a natural propenfity to mufic; but in what conlifts its analogy with the climate? Would it not be more rational to say, that the hot countries we are acquainted with, having made a confiderable progrefs in improvement and knowlege long before our cold climates, the people have retained fome traces of the fine arts which were formerly cultivated among them. Our merchants frequently reproach this people, and efpecially thofe of the country, with not labouring fo often, nor fo long, as they are able. But why fhould they labour be yond their wants, fince the fuperfluity of their induftry would procure them no additional enjoy ments? In many refpects, a man of the lower clafs of people resembles

the