them, and defcribe practices which the laws, cuflom, and fuperftition have introduced, to provide for the fecurity and happiness of the moft facred of engagements and if, in this account, fome apparently frivolous circumftances fhould be found, they will acquire importance and dignity from the fimplicity of the times from which they derive their origin.

Silence and tranquillity began to be restored at Delos. The multitude of Grangers diminished like a river, which, after having overflowed the plain, gradually retires into its bed. The inhabitants of the island had rifen before the dawn; they were crowned with flowers, and inceffantly offered up, in the temples, and before their houses, facrifices to render the gods propitious to the marriage of Ifmene. The moment when it was to be concluded was arrived. We were affembled in the houfe of Philocles: the door of the apartment of Ifmene opened, and we faw her and Theagenes come out of it, followed by their parents, and a public officer, who had just drawn up the inftrument of their engagement. The conditions of this engagement were fimple; in it no provilion had been made for any difcuf fion of interest between their relatives, nor any caufe of divorce between the contracting parties: and, with refpect to the marriage porrion, as Theagenes was already related to Philocles, it was thought fufficient to mention a law of Solon's; which, to prevent the property of a family from being carried out of it, enacs that heireffes fhall marry their nearest kinf

men.

We were dreffed in magnificent habits, which we had received from Ifmene. That which Theagenes wore was her own work. Her orna • ments were, a necklace of precious ftones, and a purple robe embroidered with gold. Both wore on their hair, which flowed on their fhoulders, and was perfumed with effences, crowns

of poppy, fefamum, and other plants facred to Venus. Thus habited, they mounted a chariot, and proceeded towards the temple. Ifmene had Theageanes on her right, and on her left friend of Theagenes, who was to follow him in this ceremony. The people who thronged around them fcattered flowers and perfumes in their way. They cried out: Thefe are not mortals; it is Apollo and Coronis; it is Diana and Endymion; it is Apollo and Diana. They fought to procure us favourable omens, and to prevent fuch as were of evil portent. One faid: I faw this morning two turtles long hover in the air, and at length reft together on a branch of that tree. Another faid: Drive away the folitary crow, and let her far hence to mourn the lofs of her. faithful companion; for fhe brings the moft ill-boding of auguries.

go

The bride and bridegroom were received at the gate of the temple by a pricft, who prefented to each of them a branch of ivy, the symbol of the bonds by which they were to be for ever united. He then conducted them to the altar, where every thing was prepared for the facrifice of a heifer to Diana, to the chafte Diana, whom, as well as Minerva, and the other divinities who had never fubmitted to the yoke of Hymen, they thus endeavoured to appeafe. They also implored Jupiter and Juno, whofe union and loves fhall be eternal; the Heavens and the Earth, the concurence of which produces fertility and plenty; the Parcæ, because they hold in their hands the life of mortals; the Graces, because they embellifh the pleafures of happy marriages; and, lailly, Venus, from whom Love derives his birth, and who bestows happiness on mortals.

The priests, after having examined the intrails of the victims, declared that the gods approved the marriage. To conclude the ceremonies, we proceeded to the Artemifium, where the

lovers

● visiting his father; and we went on hore before funrife, in full expectation of a pleasant excurfion to Domoni, but we were happily disappointed. The fervants at the Prince's door told us coolly, that their mafter was indifpofed, and, as they believed, afleep; that he had given them no orders concerning his palanquins, and that they duft not disturb him. Alwi foon came to pay us his compliments, and was followed by his eldest fon Ahmed, with whom we walked to the gardens of the two princes Salim and Hamdullah; the fituation was naturally good, but defolate; and in Salim's garden, which we entered through a miferable hovel, we faw a convenient bathing-place, well built with ftone, but then in great diforder; and a fhed by way of a fummer-houfe, like that under which we dined at the Governor's, but fmaller, and lefs neat. On the ground lay a kind of cradle, about fix feet long, and little more than one foot in breadth, made of cords twisted in a fort of clumfy net-work, with a long thick bamboo fixed to each fide of it; this we heard with furprife was a royal palanquin, and one of the vehicles in which we were to have been rocked on men's fhoulders over the mountains. I had much converfation with Ahmed, whom I found intelligent and communicative. He told me, that several of his countrymen compof. ed fongs and tunes; that he was himfelf a paffionate lover of poetry and mufic, and that if we would dine at his house he would play and fing to

us.

We declined his invitation to dinner, as we had made a conditional promise if ever we paffed a day at Metfamuda to eat our curry with Bana Gibu, an honeft man, of whom we purchafed eggs and vegetables,and to whom fome Englishmen had given the title Lord, which made him extremely vain; we could therefore make Sayyad Ahmed only a morning visit. He fung a hymn or two in Arabic, and accompanied his drawling though pathetic pfalmody with a kind of mando. 3 C VOL. XIV. No. 83.

line, which he touched with an awkward quill: the inftrument was very imperfect, but feemed to give hini delight. The names of the ftrings were written on it in Arabian or Indian figures, fimple and compounded; but. I could not think them worth copying. He gave Captain Williamfon, who wifhed to prefent fome literary curiofties to the library at Dublin, a fmall roll, containing an hymn in Arabic letters, but in the language of Monbaza, which was mixed with Arabic; but it hardly deferved examination, fince the ftudy of languages has little intrinfic value, and is only useful as the inftrument of real knowledge, which we can scarcely expect from the poets of Mozambique. Ahmed would, I believe, have heard our European airs (I always except French melody) with rapture; for his favourite tune was a common Irish jig, with which he feemed wonderfully affected.

T

On our return to the beach I thought of vifiting old Alwi, according to my promife, and Prince Salim, whofe character I had not then difcovered. I refolved for that purpose to ftay on fhore alone, our dinner with Gibu having been fixed at an early hour. Alwi fhewed me his manufcripts, which chiefly related to the ceremonies and ordinances of his own religion; and one of them, which I had formerly feen in Europe, was a collection of fublime and elegant hynins in praife of Mohammed, with explanatory notes in the margin. I requested him to read one of them after the manner of the Arabs, and he chaunted it in a ftrain by no means unpleafing; but I am perfuaded that he underftood it very imperfectly. The room, which was open to the street, was prefently crowded with vifitors, moft of whom were Muftis, or expounders of the law; and Alwi, defirons, perhaps, to difplay his zeal before them at the expence of good breeding, directed my attention to a paffage in a Commentary on the Keran, which I

found

commentator having related with fome additions (but, on the whole, not in. accurately) the circumftances of the temptation, puts this fpeech into the mouth of the tempter: "Though I Though I am unable to delude thee, yet I will mislead by thy means more human creatures than thou wilt fet right." "Nor was this menace vain," fays the Mohammedan writer," for the inhabitants of a region many thoufand leagues in extent, are ftill fo deluded by the devil, that they impiously call I'fa the fun of God. Heaven preferve us," he adds, " from blafpheming Chriftians, as well as blafpheming Jews!" Although a religious dilpute with these obslinate zealots would have been unfeasonable and fruitless, yet they deferved, I thought, a flight reprehenfion, as the attack feemed to be concerted among them, "The commentator," faid I, "was much to blame for paffing fo indifcriminate and hafty a cenfures the title which gave your legiflator, and gives you fuch offence, was often applied in Judea by a bold figure, agreeable to the Hebrew idiom, though unufual in Arabic, of angels to holy men, and even to all mankind, who are manded to call God their father; and in this large fenfe the Apostle to the Romans calls the elect the children of God, and the Meffiah the first bornamong many brethren; but the words only begotten, are applied tranfcendently and incomparably to him alone; and as for me, who believe the feriptures, which you alfo profefs to believe, though you affert without proof that we have altered them, I cannot refufe him an appellation, though far furpaffing our reafon, by which he is dif tinguished in the Gofpel; and the be hievers in Mohammed, who expressly name him the Meffiah, and pronounce him to have been born of a virgin, which alone might fully justify the phrafe condemned by this author, are themfelves condemnable for cavilling

the fubftance of our faith confiftently with their own." The Mufelmans had nothing to fay in reply, and the converfation was changed.

was aftonished at the questions which Alwi put to me concerning the late peace and the independence of America; the feveral powers and refources of Britain and France, Spain and Holland; the character and fuppofed views of the Emperor; the comparative strength of the Ruffian, Imperial, and Othman armies, and their refpective modes of bringing their forces to action. I anfwered him without referve, except on the ftate of our poffeffions in India; nor were my anfwers loft; for I observed that all the company were variously affected by them, generally with amazement, often with concern; efpecially when I defcribed to them the great force and admirable difcipline of the Auftrian army, and the ftupid prejudices of the Turks, whom nothing can induce to abandon their old Tartarian habits; and expofed the weakness of their empire in Africa, and even in the moft diftant provinces of Afia. In return, he gave me a clear but general information concerning the government and commerce of his island:

his country," he faid, "was poor, and produced few articles of trade; but if they could get money, which they now preferred to play-things," thefe were his words, "they might eafily," he added, procure foreign commodities, and exchange them advantageoafly with their neighbours in the iflands and on the continent: thus with a little money," faid he, " we purchafe mufkets, powder, balls, cut. laffes, knives, cloths, raw cotton, and other articles brought from Bombay, and with thefe we trade to Madagafcar for the natural produce of the country, or for dollars, with which the French buy cattle, honey, butter, and fo forth, in that ifland. With gold, which we receive from your

ships,