baths, and still more delicious summer-houses-surrounded with ill-fashioned gardens, and ill-imagined presents from the potentates of Europe. We have not room to transcribe, or even to give an intelligible abridgment of the minute description of the seraglio, with which many pages of this volume are occupied.*

During his residence in Constantinople, the procession of the Grand Seignior at the opening of the Bairam-the most splendid pageant exhibited to the inhabitants of that city-was conducted with its customary magnificence. One part of this civic pomp, for its singularity, deserves to be recorded. A large collection of ancient armour, which Dr. Clarke, we think with great reason, supposes to form part of the weapons and military engines of the Greek emperors, was borne on sumpter mules before the Grand Seignior, and appeared to form no inconsiderable part of the grandeur of the show.

The bazar, or market for manuscripts, is one of the most remarkable literary curiosities which the world has at this day to exhibit; and strange to say, it is also one of the most neglected. Dr. Clarke, upon unquestionable data, calculates that no less than 50,000 manuscripts, Arabic, Persian, and Turkish, are daily exposed to sale in the public streets of Constantinople. It must not, however, be supposed that the whole, or even the greater part of these manuscripts, are single copies. But of such an immense collection the knowledge hitherto attained must of necessity be most imperfect. A more diligent scrutiny might discover much that would amply repay the labour of the search.

The monstrous superstitions, or rather the incredible buffooneries, too miserable to be dignified with the name even of superstition, which are practised as religious duties by the dervishes of Scutari, have been often amply described, and by no one we think more fully or accurately than that by the citizen Olivier-a lively and vituperative republican, who, in the year 1794-5, traversed the greatest part of the Ottoman empire, and published on his return a very copious account of his observations. The narrative of Dr. C. is given with his characteristic clearness, and, though often told, the story deserves to be once more repeated.

"In a

"As we entered the mosque, we observed twelve or fourteen dervishes walking slowly round, before a superior, in a small space, surrounded with rails, beneath the dome of the building." gallery over the entrance were stationed two or three performers on the tambourine and Turkish pipes. Presently the dervishes,

* For Dr. Clarke's description of the Seraglio, see our number for January last. VOL. I. New Series.

Bb

crossing their arms over their breasts, and with each of their hands grasping their shoulders, began obeisance to the superior, who stood with his back against the wall, facing the door of the mosque. Then each in succession, as he passed the superior, having finished his bow, began to turn round; first slowly, but afterwards with such velocity, that, his long garments flying out in the rotatory motion, the whole party appeared spinning like so many umbrellas upon their handles. As they began, their hands were disengaged from their shoulders and raised gradually above their heads. At length, as the velocity of the whirl increased, they were all seen with their arms extended horizontally, and their eyes closed, turning with inconceivable rapidity. The music, accompanied by voices, served to animate them, while a steady old fellow, in a green pelisse, continued to walk among them, with a fixed countenance, and expressing as much care and watchfulness, as if his life would expire with the slightest failure in the ceremony." "The elder of these dervishes appeared to me to perform the task with so little labour or exertion, that although their bodies were in violent agitation, their countenances resembled those of persons in an easy sleep. The younger part of the dancers moved with no less velocity than the others, but it seemed in them a less mechanical operation. This extraordinary exercise continued for the space of fifteen minutes; a length of time it might be supposed sufficient to exhaust life itself during such an exertion, and our eyes began to ache with the sight of so many objects all turning one way. Suddenly, on a signal given by the directors of the dance, unobserved by the spectators, the dervishes all stopped at the same instant, like the wheels of a machine, and, what is more extraordinary, all in one circle, with their faces invariably towards the centre, crossing their arms on their breasts, and grasping their shoulders as before, bowing together at the same instant with the utmost regularity almost to the ground. We regarded them with astonishment, not one of them being in the slightest degree out of breath, heated, or having his countenance at all changed. After this, they began to walk as at first, each following the other, within the railing, and passing the superior as before. As soon as their obeisance had been made, they began to turn again. This second exhibition lasted as long as the first, and was similarly concluded. They then began to turn for the third time, and as the dance lengthened, the music grew louder and more animating. Perspiration became evident on the features of the dervishes-the extended garments of some among them began to droop, and little accidents occurred, such as their striking against each other; they nevertheless persevered, until large drops of sweat falling from their bodies on the floor, such a degree of friction was thereby produced, that the noise of their feet rubbing the floor was heard by the spectators. Upon this the third and last signal was made for them to halt, and the dance ended." Pp. 38-40.

On the first of March Dr. Clarke finally quitted Constantinople. We will not so abuse the patience of our readers, as

to occupy any part of the space we are able to allot to the re view of the volume before us, with the old dispute about the site of the ancient Ilium. We must for the present, therefore, content ourselves with saying, that to so much of the creed of Jacob Bryant as places the city of Priam very much to the south of the strait now called the Dardanelles, we do most conscientiously subscribe. At the same time they who take much delight in such inquiries, will do well to consult Dr. Clarke's book. And if they should chance to smile at the confidence with which he arranges, in their several stations, the tombs of Æneas, Ajax, and Æsyetes, they will yet hardly fail to be edified by the variety of classical knowledge with which he illustrates his own peculiar theory, and the very neat and accu rate survey of the district of Troas which he has produced in support of it.

From the warm springs of Bonarbashy, to which Dr. Clarke is disposed to assign the honour of being the Aotal nyal mentioned II. X. 148. our author proceeded to the sources of the Mender. The cities of Æne, (the Aisia of Strabo,) Turkmanlé, and Beyramitch, are all, especially the first, places remarkable for their extent, their beauty, and their antiquities. Beyramitch is the capital of Troas. The land surrounding ita fertile plain, embosomed in lofty mountains-is the property of the Pacha of the Dardanelles, whose immense wealth has, in pursuance of the enlightened policy of the Porte, been almost exhausted by endless exactions. It is to the avidity of this Pacha, however, in pursuit of materials for building, that the artists of this country are indebted for the exquisite fragment of a female figure, given by him to Dr. Clarke, and now deposited in the public library of the University of Cambridge. After a careful inspection of the antiquities of Beyramitch, and having, at the imminent peril of a broken neck, enjoyed the glorious scenery visible from the summit of Mount Gargarus, our author at last reached the sources of the Mender, or, as he usually writes, the Scamander. With the natural beauties of this spot, heightened no doubt by classical association, Dr. Clarke appears to have been in no ordinary degree delighted.

"Our ascent," says he, "as we drew near to the source of the river, became steep and stony. Lofty summits towered above us, in the greatest style of Alpine grandeur, the torrent, in its rugged bed below, all the while foaming upon our left. Presently we

entered one of the sublimest natural amphitheatres the eye ever be. held, and here the guides desired us to alight. The noise of water silenced every other sound. These craggy rocks rose perpendicularly to an immense height, whose sides and fissures, to the very clouds, concealing their tops, were covered with pines; growing

in every possible direction, among a variety of evergreen shrubs, wild sage, hanging ivy, moss, and creeping herbage. Enormous plane trees waved their vast branches above the torrent. As we approached its deep gulph, we beheld several cascades all of foam, pouring impetuously from chasms in the naked face of a perpendi cular rock. It is said the same magnificent cataract continues during all seasons of the year, wholly unaffected by the casualties of rain or melting snow. That a river so ennobled by ancient history should at the same time prove equally eminent in circumstances of natural dignity, is a fact worthy of being related. Its origin is not like the source of ordinary streams, obscure and uncertain; of doubtful locality and undetermined character; ascertained with difficulty, among various petty subdivisions, in swampy places, or amidst insignificant rivulets, falling from different parts of the same mountain, and equally tributary: it bursts at once from the dark womb of its parent in all the greatness of the divine origin assigned to it by Homer. The early Christians who retired or fled from the haunts of society to the wilderness of Gargarus, seem to have been fully sensible of the effect produced by grand objects, in selecting, as the place of their abode, the scenery near the source of the Scamander, where the voice of nature speaks in her most awful tone, where, amidst roaring waters, waving forests, and broken precipices, the mind of man becomes impressed as by the influence of the present Deity." P. 143-4.

From the Dardanelles, Dr. Clarke and his companions finally sailed, towards the conclusion of the month of March, in a small skiff which was carrying provisions to the British army, then encamped before Alexandria. On such an expedition, it is not to be supposed that much time could be afforded for a survey of the shores and mountains of the lovely islands by which he passed. "Barrels of Adrianople tongues, candles, tea, sugar, cheese, onions, and biscuit," appear to have engrossed the whole attention of the captain of their vessel, who, it should seem, beheld without the least remorse all the pains he inflicted on his passengers, by passing unvisited the lands where "Eolian lyres were strung in every valley, and every mountain was consecrated by the breath of inspiration."

P. 182.

The voyage, however, was happily interrupted, by the detention of their vessel at the islands of Cos (the modern Stanchio) and Rhodes, and at the gulph of Glaucus, in Asia Minor. The gulph of Glaucus, or, as it is now called, the bay of Macri, lying on the confines of the ancient provinces of Caria and Lycia, is remarkable for the grandeur of its scenery, its pestilential climate, and the beautiful remains of antiquity in its immediate vicinity. The modern town of Macri is built on the site, and amidst the ruins of Telmessus. The ancient theatre was an enormous pile, erected on the side of a lofty

mountain sloping to the sea. In the construction of the building, the architect had laboured to throw into the perspective all the sublime landscape by which he was surrounded. It will be found, indeed, that the artists of Greece were generally careful in the construction of their public edifices, to make "the beauties of nature subservient to those of art." Of this, endless examples may be found in the remains of the numerous temples and theatres, commanding the tall cliffs, or rising in the hollows of the mountains, which spread along the whole southern and western shores of the lesser Asia. The neighbourhood of Telmessus abounds with Soroi, and other monuments of its former greatness, inferior, indeed, to its theatre in splendour, but well deserving a patient and careful examination. We have not room at present, however, even for a short notice of the most remarkable;-nor can we afford space for any abridgment of the detailed account given by our author. of the early part of the campaign in Egypt.

After visiting Cyprus, Dr. Clarke proceeded in the Romulus frigate to Acre. The ship having been despatched from the fleet off Aboukir, to take in a cargo of bullocks for the supply of the army, Dr. Clarke was engaged to act as interpreter for his friend Captain Culverhouse, who commanded the vessel, in negotiating this important affair with Djezzar Pacha, the tyrant of Acre. The portrait exhibited of this savage is

curious, accurate, and instructing. Possessed of Herculean vigour of body, and a large share of natural shrewdness, profoundly ignorant of all the advantages of literature, and literally despising them, he gave full indulgence to the most bloodthirsty and brutal temper, with the most perfect defiance and contempt of all human and divine authority. Grievous as it is to reflect that such a monster should have existed in our own days, gratifying, without restraint, for more than twenty years, his stupid and malevolent passions, it is not amiss to contemplate the picture steadily and in detail. We are all, more or less, the slaves of pomp and circumstance, and it will not, perhaps, be without its use, to study the workings of those passions in the mind of a paltry Pacha of Acre, which have stimulated more powerful tyrants to desolate the world. This man, at an early period of life, sold himself to a merchant at Constantinople; and, from the situation of a Mameluke, has risen to the high dignity of Governor of Cairo. At the time to which the book before us refers, he was Pacha of Seide, the ancient Sidon; "lord of Damascus, of Berytus and Tyre; and, with the exception of a revolt among the Druses, might be considered master of all Syria." Though nominally subject to the Porte, he was in fact wholly independent of its au