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challenged a high degree of public at tention. Ribeiro, in addition to his romance entitled Menina e Moça, or the Young and Youthful, published idyls and pastoral pieces, distinguished by their beauty and simplicity; and Gil Vicente composed for the court of Emmanuel some dramatic pieces, in which, though the ancient and classic forms of the drama are not followed, nor are the energetic and manly beauty of the Greek dramatists, nor the richness and variety of our own Shakspeare to be found, yet are they to be considered as marvellous productions for the period at which they were written.

"There are some writers (nearly contemporary with Camoens,) whose poems abound with beauties which deserve the attention of persons of taste. Portugal boasts not only of having been the birthplace and cradle of romance, and the fountain-head of the epic poetry of the moderns, but justly claims likewise the invention of modern tragedy-a pretension, however, rejected by some writers. The Sophonisba of Trissino, and the Castro of Antonio Ferreira, appeared nearly at the same time; and one thing may be fairly asserted, that the Portuguese tragedy of Ferreira is as superior to the Italian Trissino, as the Lusiad is to his poem of Italia Liberata. There are certainly many defects to be discovered in the tragedy of Castro, but there are likewise beauties in sufficient number, and of character, to excite the interest of the English literati, who, less selfish and vain than the French critics, delight in the discovery as in the applause of merit, wherever it occurs. Leaving to the Portuguese and to the Italians the task of deciding the question of priority between these tragedies, we will venture to affirm that there can be no question as to their comparative beauties. The Castro of Ferreira partakes of the ancient tragedy of the Greeks in all its purity and simplicity, as most certainly in all its defects. The choruses, however, possess an elegance and a charm which cannot be equaled, except, perhaps, in the Athalie

of Racine.

"Nearly one half of the eighteenth century had already passed away, when Joseph I. mounted the throne of Portugal, reposing all his confidence in his minister Pombal. Then it was that the nation beheld the Jesuits crushed, the authority of the Inquisition restrained, the power of the papal chair menaced, and, as the necessary consequences of these important

events, the arts, the sciences, the belles lettres, agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, flourishing with renewed vigor. Then appeared the philologist Freire, who, under the assumed name of Candido Lusitano, published at the time several works eminently distinguished by good taste, purity of style, and an extensive knowlege of ancient and modern literature. The life of Don Henriquez, the celebrated prince and mathematician, to whose enterprising genius Europe is indebted for the discoveries made by his navigators in the Atlantic sea, the passage to the eastern peninsula by the Cape of Good Hope, and, in short, for all improvements in modern navigation, and for the extension of modern commerce, is one of the bestwritten pieces of biographical history in the language. Father Antonio Pereira also then completed his translation of the Bible, which is much esteemed for its fidelity and classic elegance. This illustrious champion of the Portuguese church vigorously assailed in several publications the papal predominancy in his country. His work, entitled Tentativa Theologica, nearly excited a revolution at Rome. The pope and the cardinals were thrown into a state of the utmost consternation; and the consequence was, that they conferred the honor of excommunication upon the Portuguese theologian, which contributed to his fame quite as much as it showed to the world the folly and the impotence of papal indignation.

"Among the most distinguished ornaments of Portugal in the present century, we ought to mention Correa da Serra. The various works published by the Royal Society of Lisbon are filled with the result of his labors. Taking refuge in France from persecution, he soon became a writer in the celebrated review, entitled the Literary Archives of Europe. Desirous of extending the sphere of his knowlege, he visited America, and passed several years of his life in the United States. He afterwards published a work on botany in the English language, which was quite familiar to him. The government of Portugal at length began to blush for its neglect of so illustrious a man; and, accordingly, Don John VI. appointed him chargé d'affaires at Washington. The revolution which occurred in Portugal in the year 1820, was the means of recalling the illustrious and learned patriot to his own country. The city of Lisbon was forward to recognise his talents and his virtues,

and chose him for its representative in the newly-constituted cortes; and, although nearly borne down with age and infirmities, he performed the duties of deputy with distinction and honor. He was not destined long to survive the ephemeral liberty of his country, for he died in the year 1823. Like those of the immortal Camoens, the perishable remains of Correa were deposited in the public burialground, without any funeral honors; and, as the illustrious author of the Lusiad found only one friend in his extremity, the faithful Malay Antonio, so Correa was destitute of friends in his last moments; nor had he one mourner to accompany his remains to the tomb, save the humble sacristan of his parish-church, whose affection and admiration had been won by the greatness of his talents. A cross, rudely formed of wood, with merely his name inscribed upon it, was erected by the poor sacristan to rescue that name from oblivion; and, simple and affecting as it is, this genuine tribute of homage to a being of superior order, merits the applause of every person of taste.

"The poet Garçao is considered as the Horace of the Portuguese. His Cantata of Dido, the Ode to Virtue, and that on the Suicide, are characterised by a beauty of style, which is, at the same time, so sublime and so true to nature, that it would be difficult to discover any worthy to be put into competition with them. The poetry of the Portuguese owes its renovation greatly to his influence and example, and to the literary society which he established under the name of Arcadia. To this society Portugal is indebted for the powers of Antonio Dinis, the author of Pindaric Odes, who alleviated the duties of the magistracy, in which he was distinguished for talent and probity, by composing a great number of pastoral poems, sonnets, and Anacreontic pieces; but his Drincipal work, and that which has entitled nim to take a high rank not only in the Portuguese school of literature, but in that of Europe generally, is his heroi-comic poem, entitled O Hysope, in which he contests the pre-eminence with the authors of the Lutrin, the Dunciad, and the Secchia Rapita. This illustrious society produced likewise Gomez, who wrote some comedies admirably illustrative of Portuguese manners, and several tragedies, which, if not elegantly poetical, are at least very spirited compositions. There is another author of the same name, whose

critical and miscellaneous works are esteemed; and Quita also deserves notice, as the rival of Guarini and Gessner.

TRAVELS IN ARABIA, by the late Mr. J. L. Burckhardt.

ALTHOUGH much has been said of Arabia, its interior is little known to Europeans, and the ordinary accounts of it are as incorrect as they are imperfect. Burckhardt, by an accurate survey, endeavoured to remedy that defect, and this posthumous volume may be considered as a valuable legacy more particularly bequeathed to that nation which patronised this enterprising man, and encouraged his curious researches.

His account of the port of Djidda (Jedda) is copious and satisfactory, but is sometimes minute even to frivolity. For instance, he particularises all the shops in the town, with the different commodities sold in each. The venders of butter seem to have more business than the other shopkeepers; for that article is supposed to possess virtues peculiarly nutritious and sanative." It is a common practice amongst all classes, to drink every morning a coffee-cup full of melted butter or ghee, after which coffee is taken. They regard it as a powerful tonic, and are so much accustomed to it from their earliest youth, that they would feel great inconvenience in discontinuing the use of it. The higher classes content themselves with drinking the quantity of butter; but the lower orders add a half-cup more, which they snuff up their nostrils, conceiving that they prevent foul air from entering the body by that channel. The practice is universal as well with the inhabitants of the town as with Bedouins. The lower classes are likewise in the habit of rubbing the breast, shoulders, arms, and legs, with butter, to refresh the skin. During the war, the import of this article from the interior had almost entirely ceased; but, even in time of peace, it is not sufficient for the consumption of Djidda; a quantity, therefore, is brought also from Sowakin; but the best sort, and that which is in the greatest plenty, comes from Massowah, and is called here Dahlak butter. That which is imported from Cosseir is made from buffaloes' milk; the Sowakin and Dahlak ghee is from sheep's milk."

On his way to Mekka, our author's philanthropic feelings were unexpectedly

gratified with a memorial of Arabian friendliness and benevolence." The country was very wild, being covered with large blocks of loose stones, carried down by the winter torrents, and interspersed with a few acacia and nebek trees. We observed a building of loose stones, called Kaber er'-rafyk, i. e. the Companion's Tomb. The following tradition concerning it was related by my guide. A Bedouin, returning from the holy territory, was joined by a traveller going the same road with himself; they reached this spot in company, when one of them felt himself so ill, that he was unable to proceed, and on the following day the small-pox broke out on his body. In this situation his companion would not abandon him. He built two huts with boughs of acacia trees, one for his friend, the other for himself, and continued to nurse him, and solicit alms for his benefit from passing travellers, until he recovered. But, in turn, he himself became ill of the same disease, and was nursed by his convalescent companion with equal kindness, though not with equal success; for he died, and was interred by his friend on this spot, where his tomb serves as a monument of Bedouin generosity, and inculcates benevolence even toward the casual companions of the road."

Mekka is described with sufficient particularity and appropriate dignity."It may be styled a handsome town; its streets are in general broader than those of eastern cities; the houses lofty, and built of stone; and the numerous windows that face the streets give them a more lively and European aspect than those of Egypt or Syria, where the houses present few windows toward the exterior. It contains many houses three stories high; few are white-washed; but the dark grey colour of the stone is much preferable to the glaring white that offends the eye in Djidda. In most towns of the Levant the narrowness of a street contributes to its coolness; and, in countries where wheel-carriages are not used, a space that allows two loaded camels to pass each other is deemed sufficient. At Mekka, however, it was necessary to leave the passages wide, for the innumerable visiters who here crowd together; and it is in the houses adapted for the reception of pilgrims and other sojourners, that the windows are so contrived as to command a view of the streets.

"The city is open on every side; but the neighbouring mountains, if properly

defended, would form a barrier of considerable strength against an enemy. In former times it had three walls to protect its extremities. These walls were repaired in the ninth age of the Hejira, and in a century after some traces of them still remained.

"The only public place in the body of the town is the ample square of the great mosque; no trees or gardens cheer the eye; and the scene is enlivened only during the hadj (the holy season) by the great number of well-stored shops which are found in every quarter. Except four or five large houses belonging to the Sherif, two medresses or colleges, (now converted into corn magazines,) and the mosque, with some buildings and schools attached to it, Mekka cannot boast of any public edifices, and in this respect is, perhaps, more deficient than any other eastern city of the same size. Neither khans for the accommodation of travelers or the deposit of merchandise, nor palaces of grandees, nor mosques, are here to be seen; and we may perhaps attribute this want of splendid buildings to the veneration which its inhabitants entertain for their temple; this prevents them from constructing any edifice which might possibly pretend to rival it.

"The houses have windows looking toward the street; of these many project from the wall, and have their frame-work elaborately carved, or gaudily painted. Before them hang blinds made of slight reeds, which exclude flies and gnats while they admit fresh air. Every house has its terrace, the floor of which (composed of a preparation from lime-stone) is built with a slight inclination, so that the rainwater runs off through gutters into the street; for the rains here are so irregular that it is not worth while to collect the water of them in cisterns, as is done in Syria. The terraces are concealed from view by slight parapet walls; for, throughout the east, it is reckoned discreditable that a man should appear upon the terrace, whence he might be accused of looking at women in the neighbouring houses, as the females pass much of their time on the terraces, employed in various domestic occupations, such as drying corn, hanging up linen, &c. The Europeans of Aleppo alone enjoy the privilege of frequenting their terraces, which are often beautifully built of stone; here they resort during the summer evenings, and often to sup and pass the night. All the houses, except those of the principal and

richest inhabitants, are constructed for the accommodation of lodgers, being divided into many apartments, separated from each other, and each consisting of a sitting-room and a small kitchen. Since the pilgrimage, which has begun to decline, (this happened before the Wahaby conquest,) many of the housekeepers, no longer deriving profit from the letting of their lodgings, found themselves unable to afford the expense of repairs; and thus numerous buildings in the outskirts have fallen into ruin, and the town itself exhibits in every street houses rapidly decaying. I saw only one of recent construction; it belonged to a sherif, and cost, as report said, one hundred and fifty purses; such a house might have been built at Cairo for sixty purses.

"The streets are all unpaved; and in summer time the sand and dust in them are as great a nuisance as the mud is in the rainy season, during which they are scarcely passable after a shower; for in the interior of the town the water does not run off, but remains till it is dried up. It may be ascribed to the destructive rains, which, though of shorter duration than in other tropical countries, fall with considerable violence, that no ancient buildings are found in Mekka. The mosque itself has undergone so many repairs under different sultans, that it may be called a modern structure; and of the houses I do not think there exists one older than four centuries; it is not, therefore, in this place, that we must look for interesting specimens of architecture, or such beautiful remains of Saracenic structures as are still admired in Syria, Egypt, Barbary, and Spain.

"Mekka is deficient in those regulations of police which are customary in Eastern cities. The streets are totally dark at night, no lamps of any kind being lighted; its different quarters are without gates, differing in this respect also from most eastern towns, where each quarter is regularly shut up after the last evening prayers. The town may therefore be crossed at any time of the night, and the same attention is not paid here to the security of merchants, as well as of husbands, (on whose account, principally, the quarters are closed,) as in Syrian or Egyptian towns of equal magnitude. The dirt and sweepings of the houses are cast into the streets, where they soon become dust or mud according to the

season.

"With respect to water, the most im

VOL. X.

portant of all supplies, and that which always forms the first object of inquiry among Asiatics, Mekka is not much better provided than Djidda; there are few cisterns for collecting rain, and the wellwater is so brackish that it is used only for culinary purposes, except during the time of the pilgrimage, when the lowest class of hadjis drink it. The famous well of Zemzem, in the great mosque, is indeed sufficiently copious to supply the whole town; but, however holy, its water is heavy to the taste and impedes digestion; the poorer classes besides have not permission to fill their water-skins with it at pleasure. The best water is brought by a conduit from the vicinity of Arafat, six or seven hours distant. The present government, instead of constructing similar works, neglects even the repairs and requisite cleaning of this aqueduct. It is wholly built of stone; and all those parts of it which appear above ground, are covered with a thick layer of stone and cement. I heard that it had not been cleaned during the last fifty years; the consequence of this negligence is, that the most of the water is lost in its passage to the city through apertures, or slowly forces its way through the obstructing sediment, though it flows in a full stream into the head of the aqueduct at Arafat. The supply which it affords in ordinary times is barely sufficient for the use of the inhabitants, and during the pilgrimage sweet water becomes an absolute scarcity; a small skin of water (two of which skins a person may carry) being then often sold for one shilling-a very high price among Arabs.

"There are two places in the interior of Mekka where the aqueduct runs above ground; there the water is let off into small channels or fountains, at which some slaves of the sherif are stationed, to exact a toll from persons filling their water-skins. In the time of the Hadj, these fountains are surrounded day and night by crowds of people quarreling and fighting for access to the water. During the late siege, the Wahabys cut off the supply of water from the aqueduct; and it was not till a long time after, that the injury which this structure then received was partially repaired. There is a small spring which oozes from under the rocks behind the great palace of the sherif, called Beit el Sad; it is said to afford the best water in this country, but the supply is very scanty. The spring is enclosed,

S

and appropriated wholly to the sherif's family.'

Mr. Burckhardt was allowed to visit the temple as a pilgrim. This was a high honor, as well as an important gratification. The Kaaba (he says) stands in an oblong square, two hundred and fifty paces long, and two hundred broad, none of the sides of which run quite in a straight line, though at first sight the whole appears to be of a regular shape. This open square is enclosed on the eastern side by a colonnade: the pillars stand in a quadruple row: they are three deep on the other sides, and united by pointed arches, every four of which support a small dome, plastered and whitened on the outside. Along the whole colonnade, on the four sides, lamps are suspended from the arches. Some are lighted every night, and all during the nights of Ramadan. The pillars are above twenty feet in height, and generally about one foot and a half in diameter; but little regularity has been observed in regard to them. Some are of white marble, granite, or porphyry, but the greater number are of common stone of the Mekka mountains.

The Kaaba is an oblong structure, only eighteen paces in length, fourteen in breadth, and less than forty feet in height. It is "constructed of large blocks of different sizes, joined together in a very rough manner, with bad cement. It was rebuilt, as it now stands, in the year 1627. The famous 'black stone' forms a part of the sharp angle of this building, at four or five feet above the ground. It is an irregular oval, about seven inches in diameter, with an undulated surface, composed of about a dozen smaller stones of different sizes and shapes, well joined with a small quantity of cement, and perfectly smoothed: it looks as if the whole had been broken into many pieces by a violent blow, and then united again. It is very difficult to determine accurately the quality of this stone, which has been worn to its present surface by the millions of touches and kisses it has received. It appeared to me like a lava, containing several small extraneous particles of a whitish and of a yellowish substance. Its colour is now a deep reddish brown, approaching to black: it is surrounded by a border, composed of a substance which I took to be a close cement of pitch and gravel, of a similar, but not quite the same brownish colour. This border serves to support its detached pieces; it is two or three inches in breadth,

and rises a little above the surface of the stone. Both the border and the stone itself are encircled by a silver band, broader below than above and on the two sides, with a considerable swelling below, as if a part of the stone were hidden under it. The lower part of the border is studded with silver nails.

"The four sides of the Kaaba are covered with a black silk stuff, hanging down, and leaving the roof bare. This curtain is called kesoua, and renewed annually at the time of the Hadj, being brought from Cairo, where it is manufactured at the grand signor's expense. On it are various prayers interwoven in the same colour as the stuff. Above the middle, and running round the whole building, is a line of similar inscriptions, worked in gold thread. That part of the kesoua which covers the door is richly embroidered with silver. The black hue of this veil, covering a large cube in the midst of a vast square, gives to the Kaaba, at first sight, a very singular and imposing appearance; as it is not fastened down tightly, the slightest breeze causes it to move in slow undulations, which are hailed with prayers by the congregation assembled around the building, as a sign of the presence of its guardian angels, whose wings, by their motion, are supposed to be the cause of the waving of the covering. Seventy thousand angels have the Kaaba in their holy care, and are ordered to transport it to Paradise when the trumpet of the last judgement shall be sounded."

*

"It is only during the hours of prayer that the great mosques of these countries partake of the sanctity of prayer, or in any degree seem to be regarded as consecrated places. In El Azhar, the first mosque at Cairo, I have seen boys crying pancakes for sale, barbers shaving their customers, and many of the lower orders eating their dinners, where, during prayers, not the slightest motion, nor even whisper, diverts the attention of the congregation. Not a sound but the voice of the imam is heard during prayers in the great mosque at Mekka, which at other times is the place of meeting for men of business to converse on their affairs, and is sometimes so full of poor hadjis, or of diseased persons lying about under the colonnade, in the midst of their miserable baggage, as to have the appearance of a hospital rather than a temple. Boys play in the

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