In all their festivals the difcharge of mufquetry indeed forms a principal part of the entertainment. Contrary to the European mode, which particularly aims at firing with exactnefs, the Moors difcharge their pieces as irregularly as poffible, fo as to have a continual fucceffion of reports for a few minutes.

"On the day of marriage, the bride in the evening is put into a fquare or octagonal cage, about twelve feet in circumference, which is covered with fine white linen, and fometimes with gauzes and filks of various colours. In this vehicle, which is placed on a mule, fhe is paraded round the streets, accompanied by her relations and friends, fome carrying lighted torches, others playing on the hautboys, and a third party again firing vollies of mufquetry.

"In this manner fhe is carried to the house of her intended husband, who returns about the fame time from performing fimilar ceremonies. On her arrival fhe is placed in an apartment by herself, and her hufband is introduced to her alone for the first time, who finds her fitting on a filk or velvet cufhion, fuppofing her to be a perfon of confequence, with a small table before her, upon which are two wax candles lighted. Her fhift, or more properly fhirt, hangs down like a train behind her, and over it is a filk or velvet robe with close sleeves, which at the breast and wrists is embroidered with gold; this dress reaches fomething lower than the calf of the leg. Round her head is tied a black filk fearf, which hangs behind as low as the ground. Thus attired, the bride fits with her hands over her eyes, when her husband appears and receives her as his wife, without any further ceremony: for the agreement made by the friends before the Cadi

is the only fpecific contract which is thought neceffary.

"If the husband should have any reason to fufpect that his wife has not been strictly virtuous, he is at liberty to divorce her and take another. For fome time after marriage the family and friends are engaged in much feafting and a variety of amufements, which laft a longer or fhorter time, according to the circumftances of the parties. It is ufually customary for the man to remain at home eight days and the woman eight months after they are first married; and the woman is at liberty to divorce herself from her husband if he can prove that he does not provide her with a proper fubfiftence. If he curfes her, the law obliges him to pay her, for the first offence, eight ducats; for the second, a rich drels of ftill greater value; and the third time fhe may leave him entirely. He is then at liberty to marry again in two months.

"When any perfon dies, a certain number of women are hired for the purpofe of lamentation, in the performance of which nothing can be more grating to the ear, or more unpleafant, than their frightful moans or rather howlings: at the fame time these mercenary mourners beat their heads and breafts, and tear their cheeks with their nails. The bodies are ufually buried a few hours after death. Previous to interment the corpfe is washed very clean, and fewed up in a fhroud, with the right hand under the head, which is pointed towards Mecca; it is carried on a bier, fupported upon men's fhoulders, to the burying place, which is always, with great propriety, on the outfide of the town, for they never bury their dead in the mofques, or within the bounds of an inhabited place. The bier is accompanied by numbers of people, two abreaft, who walk very

faft,

faft, calling upon God and Mahomet, and finging hymns adapted to the occafion. The grave is made very wide at the bottom, and mar row at the top, and the body is depofited without any other ceremony than finging and praying in the fame manner as on their way to the grave.

"They have no tombs in this country, but long and plain ftones; and it is frequently cuftomary for the female friends of the departed to weep over their graves for feveral days after their funeral.

band fhe mourns four months and eight days, during which period the is to wear no filver or gold; and if fhe happens to be pregnant, the is to mourn till fhe is brought to bed. For the above time the relations of her late husband are obliged to fupport her. I could not learn that any mourning was due from the hufband for the lofs of his wife; but it is customary, particularly among the great people, for a fon to mourn for his father by not having his head or any part of his beard, and by not cutting his nails for a certain pe

N this place I had the pleasure of feeing a Cyprian hunting-match, a fpectacle very common in the ifland; for, as I have already remarked, the Cypriots are remarkably fond of hunting. A fportf man here feldom goes out alone, to purfue a feeble animal, with his fufee and a couple of dogs. The Cypriots love exercife; but they with to enliven thefe excurfions with mirth and jollity: they therefore go out in large partics, mounted on horfes, and accompanied by whole packs of dogs. The hunting-match at which I was prefent, was none of the leaft brilliant, as it was that of the governor. Having arrived at a fpacious plain, interfperfed with clumps of mul erry trees, fome ruins, and thick bushes, the fportfmen began to form a ring, in order to inclofe the enemy. The barrier confifted of guards on horfe-back, with dogs placed in the intervals.

The ladies of the greatest diftinc

of other people, ftood upon a little hill, which I afcended alfo; and from that eminence I enjoyed the amufement, without fharing in the fatigue. The governor and his faite were pofted in different parts of the plain, and, as foon as the appointed moment arrived, the hunt was opened with the found of mufical inftruments. Part of the dogs were then let loofe; which, ranging through the bushes and underwood, fprung a great number of rails, partridges, and woodcocks. The governor began the sport, by bringing down one of thefe birds; his fuite followed his example; and the winged tribe, into whatever quarter they flew, were fure of meeting with inftant death. I was ftruck with the tranquility of the ftationary dogs; for, notwithstanding the instinct by which they were

fpurred

fpurred on, not one of them quitted his poft but the reft ran about in purfuit of the game, and the plain was cleared in an inftant. The fcene was now changed: a hare ftarted up from a bufh; the dogs purfued; and while the latter made a thousand turnings in order to ef. cape, the every where found an enemy. She however often defeated the greyhounds: and I admired, in fuch cafes, the fagacity of thefe animals; which, difdaining the affiftance of thofe that were young and inexperienced, confequently liable to be deceived, waited until fome of the cunning old ones opened the way for them; and then the whole plain was foon in motion. During this fcene, the beauty of the feafon, and the cheerfulness by which I was furrounded, the barking of the dogs, repeated a thousand times by the echoes of the hills, the cries of the hunters, and the found of the horns, exalted my imagination; and kept

me, as I may fay, in a kind of enchantment. When the poor animal was juft ready to become a prey to its enemies, the governor ruthed forwards; and throwing a stick, which he held in his hand, before the dogs, they all stopped, and not one of them ventured to pass this fignal. One of those swift grey

hounds, of which I have spoken in the first chapter, being then let loofe, purfued the hare; and having come up with it, carried it back, and jumping up on the neck of the governor's horfe, placed it before him. The governor took it in his arms; and, delivering it to one of his officers, gave him orders, if it continued alive, to fhut it up in his park, where he maintains a great many prifoners of the fame kind. I admired, above all, the difcipline of the dogs and the humanity of the governor, who thought it his duty to preferve an animal which had af, forded him fo much pleasure."

CLASSICAL

in the dramatic career, and examine the manner in which he has acquitted himself in the different parts of tragedy, that is to fay in the fable, manners, fentiments, diction, decoration, and music.

"His plots are extremely fimple; he difregarded or was not fufficiently acquainted with the art of avoiding improbabilities, complicating and developing an action, clofely connecting its different parts, and haftening or retarding it by difcoveries, and other unforfeen accidents. He fometimes only interefts us by the recital of facts, and the vivacity of the dialogue; and at other times by the vigour of his ftyle, and the terror of his fcenes. He appears to have confidered the unity of action and of time as effential, but that of place as lefs neceffary. The chorus with him is no longer confined to chanting certain odes or fongs, but makes a part of the whole. It is the comforter of the wretched, the counsellor of kings, the terror of tyrants, and the confidant of all. Sometimes it participates in the action during its whole continuance, This is what

and what he has not always practif. ed himself.

"The character and manners of his perfonages are fuitable,and rarely fail in confiftency. He ufually chofe his models from the heroic times, and fuftains his characters at the eleva. tion to which Homer had raifed his heroes. He delights in exhibiting vigorous and free minds, fuperior to fear, devoted to their country, animated by an insatiable thirst of glory and of combats, more noble than thofe of the prefent age, and fuch as he wished to form for the defence of Greece; for he wrote in the time of the Perfian war.

"As he inclines more to excite terror than pity, far from endeavouring to foften the harsh features of certain characters, he feeks only to render them them more ferocious; but without injury to the theatrical intereft. Clytemneftra, after having murdered her husband relates the atrocious deed with bitter derision, and the intrepidity of remorfelefs villany. Her crime would be horrible if it were not an act of uftice in her eyes, if it wereno decreed by Fate, and if it were not

Avow his death, and justify the deed.

-I ftruck him twice, and twice

He groan'd, then died. A third time, as he lay

gored him with a wound, a grateful prefent To the ftern god, that in the realms below

Reigns o'er the dead: there let him take his feat.

He lay; and spouting from his wounds a ftream

Of blood, bedew'd me with these crimfon drops;

I glory in them like the genial earth, When the warm fhower's of heaven defcend, and wake

The flowrets to unfold their vermeil
leaves.

-For Iphigenia, my lamented chi'd,
Whom he unjustly flew, he juftly died.
-Thou fay'it, and fay'ft aloud I did
this deed:

Say not that I, that Agamemnon's wife
Did it. The Fury fatal to this houfe,
In vengeance for Thyeftes' horrid feaft,
Affum d this form, and, with her ancient
rage,

Hath for the children facrified the man,
POTTER.

"This idea will become more manifeft from the following reflection. Among the diforders and myfteries of nature none made a more forcible impreffion on Efchylus than the ftrange deftiny of the human race; with refpect to man,

the crimes he commits, and the woes of which he is the victim,; and with regard to the powers above him, celeftial vengeance and blind fatality; by the former of which mortals are purfued when guilty, and by the latter impelled when unfortunate. Such is the doctrine which he had derived from his intercourfe with the fages, which he has inculcated in almoft all his dramas, and which, holding the minds of the audience in continual terror, inceffantly exhorted them not to draw on them the anger of the gods, and to fubmit to the strokes of fate. Hence the fovereign contempt which he teftifies for the illufive goods by force of eloquence with which he which we are dazzled, and that pourtrays the mifchiefs of fortune. Caffandra exclaims with indignation: