The goes on, either rattling with her tongue, or making a rattling noife on tables, chairs, &c. A perfon who had never attended to thefe fcenes, which are fo often exhibited by a sprightly mother and a sprightly child, would be apt to conclude, that both were proper inmates for a bedlam. These are well known to be univerfal facts; and we shall now en deavour to show their utility.

It is a very ancient adage, that "Nature does nothing in vain." To women he has given the talent of talking more frequently, as well as more fluently, than men; he has likewife endowed them with a greater quantity of animation, or what is commonly called animal spirits. Why, it may be asked, has Nature, in this article, fo eminently diftinguished women from men? For the best and wifeft of purposes. The principal destination of all women is to be mothers; hence fome qualities peculiar to fuch a destination must neceffarily have been bestowed upon them. Thefe qualities are numerous: a fuperior degree of patience, of affection, of minute, but useful attention, joined to a family of almoft inceffant Speaking.

Here, however, I must confine my observations to the laft confpicuous and eminent accomplishment. To be occupied with laborious offices, which

demand either bodily or mental exertions, and not unfrequently both, is allotted to the men. Thefe caufes, befide their comparative natural taciturnity, totally incapacitates them for that loquacity which is requifite for amufing and teaching young children to speak. But the employments of women are of a more domeftic kind; household affairs, and particularly the nurfing and training of children, are fully fufficient to engross their attention, and to call forth all their ingenuity and active powers. The loquacity of women is too often confidered, by poets, hiftorians, and by unthinking men, as a reproach upon the fex. Men of this defcription know not what they fay. When they blame women for Speaking much, they blame Nature for one of her wifeft inftitutions. Women Speak much. They ought to speak much. Nature compels them to speak much: and when they do fo, they are complying religioufly with one of her moft facred and useful laws. It may be said, that fome men talk as much as women:-granted. But beings of this kind I deny to be men. Nature feems to have originally made them to be women; but, by fome crossaccident, as happens in the production of monsters, the external male form has been fuperinduced upon a female ftock!

Nations. THE HERE are no countries on the habitable globe, where the arts of civilized life are understood, of which we have fo limited a knowledge, as of thofe that lie between the British poffeffions in India, and the empire of China; concerning India beyond the Ganges, fcarcely more was known to the ancients,

Undeferved importance is oftentimes attributed to that which is imperfectly known: thus, we find, in the map of Ptolemy, the terms Aurea Regio, Argentea Regio, and Aurea Cherfenefus, bestowed on countries eastward of the Ganges, and on the peninfula that divides the Bay of Bengal from the Magnus Sinus, or Gutt of Siam. But although no fatisfactory

tisfactory information is to be obtained from writers of antiquity, refpecting the population, produce, extent, or geographical pofition of thofe regions; yet it may be concluded, that even at the remote era when Ptole my compiled his chart, the ports of the Eaftern Peninfula were the feats of commerce, and reforted to by foreign merchants; as the author diftinguishes places of note, on the feacoaft, by the titles Emporio: but with what people trade was carried on, or in what commodities they trafficked, is not any where afcertained.

From this period almoft total darkness feems to have obfcured India extra Gangem, from the eyes of Europeans, until the enterprifing genius of Emanuel, at the clofe of the 15th century, opened a new world, and laid the foundation of general wealth to Europe, on the ruin of the Egyptian trade, and of the ftate of Venice. Early in the 16th century, the Portuguese made themfelves mafters of Malacca, and foon acquired influence among the neighbouring maritime ftates. To the writers of this nation, hiftory is principally indebted for whatever information has been obtained of the eastern countries of India; but their narratives fo abound in hyperbole, and they recount fuch extravagant teries, that credit must be denied to many of their affertions; while at the fame time, their writings furnifh fome accurate traits of the genius and difpofition of the people whom they defcribe. Even the accounts of Mendex de Pinto, the prince of fetion, although an intelligent traveller, will enable his readers to form an estimate of the importance and civilization of nations, which, at a latter period, have, by many, been erroneously confidered in a condition bordering on wild barbarity.

From the teftimony of Portuguese hiftorians it appears, that in the mid

Arra

dle of the 16th century, four powerful ftates divided among them the regions that lie between the foutheait province of British India, Yunan in China, and the Eastern Sea; their territories extended from Caf fay and Affam, on the N.W. as far fouth-eastward as the ifland of Junkfeylon. Thefe nations were known to Europeans by the names of Arracan, Ava, Pegue, and Siam. can, properly Yee-Kein, borders on the S.E. province of British India, and includes the fea-coat, with what is called the Broken Islands, as far fouth as Cape Negaris. Ava, the name of the ancient capital of the Birmans, has been ufually accepted, as the name of the country at large, which is Miama. This empire is fituate eastward of Arracan, from which it is divided by a ridge of lof-` ty mountains, called by the natives Anou-pec-tou-miou, or the great western hilly country. On the N.W. it is feparated from the kingdom of Caffay by the river Keen-duem; on the north, it is bounded by mountains and petty independent principalities, that lie contiguous to Affam; on the north-east, and east, it touches on China, and North Siam; on the fouth, its limits have so often varied, that it is difficult to ascertain them with any precifion. The city of Prome, or Pee, feems to be the original and natural boundary of the Birman empire, although conquest has fince ftretched their dominions feveral degrees farther fouth. Pegue, called by the natives Bagoo, is the country fouthward of Ava, which occupies the fea-coaft as far as Martaban, properly Mondimaa, Prome was its northern frontier, and Siam adjoined on the east.

Pinto, and Faria de Souza, agree that the Birmans, though formerly fubject to the king of Pegue, became afterward masters of Ava, and caused a revolution in Pegue, about the middle of the 16th century. Hamilton,

with him three fmall horfes, equip ped with faddles and bridles, refembling those used by the higher ranks of the inhabitants of Hindoftan. After breakfast, Mr Wood, Doctor Buchanan, and myself, mounted, and, attended by Baba-Sheen and an ackedoo, an officer belonging to the maywoon's houfehold, alfo on horfeback, fet out to view the ceremony, We entered the new town by the neareft gate, and proceeded upward of a quarter of a mile through the principal street, till we came to where it was croffed at right angles by another, which led from the maywoon's refidence to the temple: here our progrefs was stopped by a great concourfe of people, and we perceived on each side of the way, troops marching by fingle files in flow time, to ward the temple. By the advice of Baba Sheen, we occupied a convenient fpot to view the proceffion. The troops that we faw were the maywoon's guard; five or fix hundred men paffed us in this manner, wretchedly armed and equipped; many had mufkets that appeared in a very unferviceable ftate, with accoutrements not in a more refpectable condition; fome were provided with fpears, others with fabres; while their drefs was as motley as their weapons. Several were naked to the middle, having only a kummerband, or waiftcloth, rolled round their waist, and paffed between their legs; fome were dreffed in old velvet, or cloth coats, which they put on regardless of fize or fashion, although it fcarce covered their nakedness, or trailed on the ground: it was finery, and finery in any fhape was welcome. Some wore Dutch broad-brimmed hats, bound with gold lace, others the crowns of bats, without any brim at all; the officers of this martial band, who were, for the moft part, Chriftian defcendants of Portuguese ancestors, exhibited a very grotefque appearance. The first perfonages of

rank that paffed by were three chil dren of the maywoon, borne aftride upon men's fhoulders; the eldest, a boy about eight years of age; the youngest, a girl not more than five; the latter only was legitimate, being the first born of his present wife; the two elder were the offsprings of concubines. The maywoon followed at à short distance, mounted on the neck of a very fine elephant, which he guided himself. His drefs was handfome and becoming; he had on a dark velvet robe, with long fleeves, trimmed with broad gold lace, and on his head he wore a conical cap of the fame material, richly embroidered: a number of parade elephants, in tawdry houfings, brought up the rear. As we had not been formally introduced, he paffed by, without honouring us with any notice. Proceeding to the foot of the steps that lead to the pagoda, his elephant knelt down, to fuffer him to alight. While he was in the performance of this act, the parade elephants knelt alfo, and the crowd that followed fquatted on their heels. Having afcended the flight of fteps, he put off his shoes, and walked once round the temple without his umbrella, which was laid afide, out of reverence to the fanctity of the place. When he had finished this ceremony, he proceeded to the fcene of amufement, a fort of theatre, erected at an angle of the area of the temple. Two faloons, or open halls, feparate from the great building, formed two fides of the theatre, which was about fifty feet square, covered by an awning of grafs, spread on a flat roof of flender canes, fupported by bamboo poles. Beneath the projecting verge of the roof of one of the faloons there was an elevated feat, with a handfome canopy of cloth, for the accommodation of the maywoon and his three children; and on a bare bench beneath him fat the principal officers of his court. On the left fide of the theatre, a fi