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 dreifing of the victuals. His daughters and kinfwomen wash 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 history of Abraham, in Genefis. But it must be owned that it is difficult to form a Juft idea of them without having ourfelves been eve-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 man stands most 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 feeks plunder in the country, and on the high. ways. The mare is preferred to the horse, becaufe fhe does not neigh, is more docile, and yields milk, which, on occafion, fatisfier the thirst, and even the hunger of her master. "Thus confined to the most abfolute neceflities of life, the Arabs have as little industry as their wants are few; all their arts confift in weaving their clumfy tents, and in making mats, and butter. Their whole commerce only extends to the exchanging camels, kids, ftal. lions, 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 ftories; and employ in them almost all their leifure, of which they have a great deal. In the evening, they feat themfelves 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 mistrefs; 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; her languid and empaffioned looks, her arched eye-brows, refembling two bows of ebony: her waift ftreight, and fupple as a lance; he forgets not her fteps, light as thofe of the young filley, nor her eye-lafhes, Blackened with kohl, nor her lips painted blue, nor her nails tinged with the golden coloured henna, nor her breafts, resembling two pomegranates, nor her words, sweet as honey. He recounts the fufferings of the young lover, "fo waited with defire and paffion, that his body no longer yields any fhadow." At length, after detailing his various attempts to fee his mistress, the obftacles of the parents, the invafions of the enemy, the captivity of the two lovers, &c. he terminates to the fatisfaction of the audience, by restoring them, united and happy, to the paternal tent, and by receiving the tribute paid to his eloquence, in the Ma cha allah he has merited. The Bedouins have likewife their lovefongs, which have more fentiment and nature in them than thofe of the Turks, and inhabitants of the towns; doubtless, because the former, whofe manners are chafte, know what love is; while the latter, abandoned to debauchery, are acquainted only with enjoyment. Among themselves they are remarkable for a good faith, a difintereftedness, a generofity which would do honour to the most civilized people. What is there more noble than that right of afylum fo refpected among all the tribes? A Itranger, nay, even an enemy, touches the tent of the Bedouin, ánd, from that instant, his perfon becomes inviolable. It would be reckoned a difgraceful meannefs, an indelible thame, to fatisfy even a juft vengeance at the expence of hofpitality. Has the Bedouin conTented to eat bread and falt with his guest, nothing in the world can induce him to betray him. The power of the Sultan Himfelf would : not be able to force a refugee from the protection of a tribe, but by its total extermination. The Bedouin, fo rapacious without his camp, has no fooner fet his foot within it, than he becomes liberal and generous. What little he poffeffes he is ever ready to divide. He has even the delicacy not to wait till it is afked: when he takes his repaft, he affects to feat himfelf at the door of his tent, in order to invite the paffengers; his generofity is fo tincere, that he does not look upon it as a merit, but merely as a duty and he, therefore, readily takes the fame liberty with others. To obferve the manner in which the Arabs conduct themselves towards each other, one would ima gine that they poffeffed all their goods in common. Nevertheless, they are no ftrangers to property; but it has none of that felfishness which the increase of the imaginary wants of luxury has given it among polifhed nations. It may be alleged, that they owe this moderation to the impoffibility of greatly multiplying their enjoyments; but, if it be acknowledged, that the virtues of the bulk of mankind are only to be afcribed to the neceffity of circumftances, the Arabs, perhaps, are not for this lefs wor thy our esteem. They are form nate, at least, that this neceffity fhould have established among them a ftate of things, which has ap peared to the wifeft legiflators as the perfection of human policy: I mean, a kind of equality in the partition or property, and the va riety of conditions. Deprived of a multitude of enjoyments, which nature has lavished upon other countries, they are lefs exposed to temptations which might corrupt and debate them. It is more difficult for their Shaiks to form a fac 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." MANNERS and CHARACTER of the INHABITANTS of SYRIA. [Extracted from the Second Volume of VOLNEY's Travels through Syria and Egypt.] “O Fall the fubjects of obferva affords, the moral character of its inhabitants is unquestionably the most import ant; but it must likewife be acknowleged, it is at the fame time the moit difficult; for it is not fufficient to make a barren enquiry into facts; the effential object is to investigate their various caufes and relations; to discover 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 result, 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, fill 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 er ror eafy. The obferver, then, fhould be circumfpect though not timid, and the reader, obliged to fee with the eyes of others, should watch attentiyely 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 mot extraordinary to him, in the exterior 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 Alia and those of Europe. We wear fhort and clofe 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 posture; they up. right. We pats our lives erect; they are almoft continually feated. They fit and eat upon the ground; we upon raifed feats. With refpect to language, likewife, their manner of writing is directly con trafy to ours, and the greatest part of our mafculine nouns are feminine with them. To the bulk of travellers thefe contraits only ap pear pear whimsical; but it may be in teretting to philofophers, to enquire into the causes of fo great a diverfity of habits, in men who have the fame wants, and in nations which appear to have one common origin. "Another diftinguishing characteristic, no less remarkable, is that religious exterior obfervable in the countenances, converfation, and geftures of the inhabitants of Turkey. In the fireets, every one appears with his ftring of beads. We hear nothing but emphatical exclamations of Ya Allah! O God! Allah akbar! God moft great! Allah taala, God mot 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 ra rani! Source of riches! a fobban! O moit to be praifed! Ya maftour! O impenetrable! If a man fells bread in the ftreets, he does not cry bread, but exclaims Allah Kerim, God is liberal. If he fells water, he cries, Allah djawad, Goi is generous; and fo of other articles. The ufual form of falu ation is, God preferve thee; and of thanks, God protect thee in a word God is in every thing, and every where. There 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 a 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 devoutnets, therefore, merely the offspring of pride and profound ignorance, is no better than a fanatic fuperftition, and the fource of innumerable diforders. "There is ftill another characteriflic in the exterior of the Orientals, which attracts the attention of an obferver: I mean their grave and phlegmatic air in every thing they do, or fay. Instead of that open and cheerful countenance, which we either naturally poffefs or affume, their behaviour is serious, auttere, 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 themselves on fupporting converfation. If they walk, it is always leifurely, and on bufiuefs; they have no idea of our troublefome 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 punishment to them, and that, like the Indians, they regard inaction as effential 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 melancholy 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 thoufand peculiar minute varieties in different claffes and individuals, arifing from their fituation, relative to the influence of government, which differs in its effects on thefe claffes, E 3 and and thefe individuals. Thus we obferve that the peasants 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 coaft are more cheerful than fuch as dwell at a greater diftance from it; that in the fame town, the profeffors of the law are more serious than the military, and thefe again more fo than the people. We may even remark, that, in the great cities, the people have much of that diffipated and carelefs air they ufu ally 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 lofe, 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 poffcffes. He trembles left he should 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 pealant is afraid of exciting the envy of his equals, and the avarice of the Aga and his foldiers. In fuch a country, where the fubject is perpetually watched by a defpoiling government, he muft affume a ferious countenance for the fame reafon that he wears ragged clothes, and makes a parade of eating cheefe and olives. The fame caufe, though it has a lefs influence on the law yes, 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 respect to their indolence, it is not furprising that the inhabitants of the cities and the country, fatigued with labour, fhould have an inclination to repose. But it is remarkable, that when thefe people are once in action, they exert themfelves with a vivacity and ardour almost 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, bend the fails, and perform every manœuvre; with what ardour the porters unload a boat, and carry the heaviest couffes. Always finging, and anfwering 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 confifts its analogy with the climate? Would it not be more rational to fay, 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 thote of the country, with not labouring fo often, nor fo long, as they are able. But why fhould they labour be yond their wants, ince the fuperfluity of their induftry would procure them, no additional enjoy ments? In many refpects, a man of the lower clafs of people refembles the |