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or sacred lotus, are essential to every country house, and these pools are generally filled with quantities of the golden carp, and other fish. Masses of artificial rock either rise out of the water, or are strewn about the grounds, in an affected imitation of nature, and on these are often planted their stunted trees.-Davis.

THE ARABS.

THE behaviour of these Arabs to each other, whatever may be their conduct to strangers, presents an agreeable picture of domestic harmony and comfort, and is in unison with all the ideas the poets have given of the peaceful contentment of the pastoral life; in fact, they are a nation of shepherds, and I question much if, in our most polished circles, more real dignity of deportment and urbanity of manners are to be met with than in the humble tent of the Arab. It appeared to us that all that was good amongst them was centred in the lower orders; the chiefs monopolising to themselves all that cunning and roguery which render them contemptible in the eyes of a stranger. An Arab, on arriving in a strange camp, goes to the first tent that comes in his way; he does not wait to be asked in, but without any ceremony makes his camel lie down, unloads it at the entrance, and entering the tent with a simple salutation of salaam alicam (peace be between us), seats himself by the fire, no matter whether the host be at home or not. Should he be present, he immediately puts fresh wood on the fire, and begins to burn and pound coffee, generally offering his pipe to his guests in the mean time. His wife, or wives, after spreading mats, if they have any, for the strangers to sit on, retire to their part of the tent, which is divided in the middle by their sack of corn, and whatever other effects they have, and prepare the dinner or supper, according to the time of the day, without any order being given by the master, but as a matter of course; in the mean time the host chats with his guests, generally about their sheep, which are their principal concern. The coffee being ready, he pours out à cupful for each of his guests, and helps himself last. The meal generally consists of camels', goats', or sheeps' milk, boiled wheat and milk, lentil soup, or melted butter, and

bread to dip into it; as soon as the meal is ready, the landlord pours out water for all his guests in turn, who therewith wash the right hand.* The abolution finished, every one commences; the host retires, not eating with his guests, but welcoming them with frequent exclamations of coula, coula, (eat it all, eat it all.) The repast ended, the attentive master again brings the water for washing the hands, and then eats of what remains. On two occasions, when we arrived at a camp late at night, and halting before a tent, found the owner, with his wife and children, just retired to rest, having arranged their carpets, &c. for the night, it was astonishing to see the good humour with which they all arose again and kindled a fire, the wife at once beginning to knead the dough and prepare our supper, our Arab guides making no apologies, but taking it all as a matter of course. Surely this was a striking instance of Arab hospitality. It was a pleasing sight to see them bring in their flocks at night: the sheep always slept close to the tents of their owners; several Arabs, together with numerous dogs, remaining outside as guards. The lambs (for it was the lambing season) were placed inside the tents, in a small spot fenced round, to screen them from the inclemency of the night air. first care in the morning was to let them out to their dams, when it was interesting to observe the numerous ewes recognize their offspring by their smell alone; the lambs not being gifted with the sagacity of their mothers, were willing to suck from the first ewe they met with.

The

The Arab having few wants is unacquainted with many cares, and is thus ignorant of the greater part of the troubles and difficulties which are experienced in more civilized society. Each man has a tent of his own, and is thus possessed of a freehold, and has nothing to do with rents or taxes; and the shrubs of the wilderness provide him with food for his flocks, and fuel for his fires. The labour of tilling and reaping is unknown to him, but much judgment and foresight is necessary in his periodical migrations with his flocks, which must be regulated and timed with due regard to the seasons, so that they may consume the herbage while they are advancing, and at the same time leave the land to itself sufficiently long to re

"Except they wash, they eat not." Mark vii. 4.

cover its verdure before they return. They contrive to be near their southern boundary in the winter, and at their northern limits in the summer. They are frequently obliged to pitch their tents at six or eight hours' distance from the wells, and then it is that their camels are of incalculable utility to them.-Irby and Mangle's Travels.

RUINS OF MYCENE.

UNDER the lion's gate, Agamemnon led out his forces for the seige of Troy; three thousand years ago he saw them filing before him, glittering in brass, in all the pomp and panoply of war; and I held in my hand a book which told me that this city was so old, that more than seventeen hundred years ago travellers came, as I did, to visit its ruins; and that Pausanias had found the gate of the lions in the same state in which I beheld it now. A great part is buried by the rubbish of the fallen city. I crawled under, and found myself within the walls, and then mounted to the height on which the city stood. It was covered with a thick soil and a rich carpet of grass. I walked all over it, following the line of the walls. I paused at the great blocks of stone, the remnants of Cyclopic masonry, the work of wandering giants. The heavens were unclouded, and the sun was beaming upon it with genial warmth. Nothing could exceed the quiet beauty of the scene. I became entangled in the long grass, and picked up wild flowers growing over longburied dwellings. Under it are immense caverns, their uses now unknown; and the earth sounded hollow under my feet, as if I were treading on the sepulchre of a buried city. I looked across the plain to Argos; all was as beautiful as when Homer sang its praises; the plain, and the mountains, and the sea, were the same, but the once magnificent city, her numerous statues, and gigantic temples, were gone for ever; and but a few remains were left to tell the passing traveller the story of her fallen greatness.-Stephens.

91

ORATORY.

:

ON NEGRO SLAVERY.

I TRUST that at length the time is come, when Parliament will no longer bear to be told, that slave-owners are the best lawgivers on slavery; no longer suffer our voice to roll across the Atlantic, in empty warnings and fruitless orders. Tell me not of rights-talk not of the property of the planter in his slaves. I deny his right—I acknowledge not the property. The principles, the feelings of our common nature, rise in rebellion against it. Be the appeal made to the understanding or to the heart, the sentence is the same that rejects it. In vain you tell me of laws that sanction such a claim! There is a law above all the enactments of human codes-the same throughout the world -the same in all times; such as it was before the daring genius of Columbus pierced the night of ages, and opened to one world the sources of power, wealth, and knowledge, to another all unutterable woes-such is it at this day it is the law written by the finger of God on the heart of man; and by that law, unchangeable and eternal -while men despise fraud and loathe rapine, and hate blood-they shall reject with indignation the wild and guilty fantasy, that man can hold property in man! In vain you appeal to treaties-to covenants between nations. The covenants of the Almighty, whether the old covenant or the new, denounce such unholy pretensions. To these laws did they of old refer, who maintained the African trade. Such treaties did they cite-and not untruly; for, by one shameful compact, you bartered the glories of Blenheim for the traffic in blood. Yet, in despite of law and of treaty, that infernal traffic is now destroyed, and its votaries put to death like other pirates. How came this change to pass? Not, assuredly, by Parliament leading the way but the country at length awoke; the indignation of the people was kindled; it descended in thunder, and smote the traffic, and scattered its guilty profits to the

winds. Now, then, let the planters beware-let their assemblies beware-let the government at home beware— let the Parliament beware! The same country is once more awake-awake to the condition of Negro slavery; the same imdignation kindles in the bosom of the same people; the same cloud is gathering that annihilated the slave-trade; and if it shall descend again, they on whom its crash may fall, will not be destroyed before I have warned them: but I pray that their destruction may turn away from us the more terrible judgments of God.Brougham.

THE ANCIENT CONSTITUTION OF ENGLAND.

RATIONAL and experienced men tolerably well know, and have always known, how to distinguish between true and false liberty; and between the genuine adherence and the false pretence to what is true. But none, except those who are profoundly studied, can comprehend the elaborate contrivance of a fabric fitted to unite private and public liberty with public force, with order, with peace, with justice, and, above all, with the institutions formed for bestowing permanence and stability through ages, upon this invaluable whole.

Place, for instance, before your eyes, such a man as Montesquieu. Think of a genius not born in every country, or every time; a man gifted by nature with a penetrating aquiline eye; with a judgment prepared with the most extensive erudition; with an herculean robustness of mind, and nerves not to be broken by labour; a man who could spend twenty years in one pursuit. Think of a man, like the universal patriarch in Milton (who had drawn up before him in his prophetic vision the whole series of the generations which were to issue from his loins), a man capable of placing in review, after having brought together, from the east, the west, the north, and the south, from the coarseness of the rudest barbarism to the most refined and subtle civilization, all the schemes of government which had ever prevailed amongst mankind, weighing, measuring, collating, and comparing them all, joining fact with theory, and calling into council, upon all this infinite assemblage of things, all the speculations

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