Upon enquiry I learnt that offer ings made in this manner are by no means unfrequent, and in reality constitute one of the moft copious fources from which the Lamas of Tibet derive their wealth.

No one thinks himself degraded by performing these humiliations. The perfons I allude to, who came for this devout purpofe, were attendant on a man of fuperior rank, that feemed to be more engroffed than the reft in the performance of the ceremony. He wore a rich fatin garment lined with fox fkins, and a cap with a taffel of fcarlet filk flowing from the center of the crown upon the fides all round, and edged with a broad band of Siberian fur.

According to appointment, I went in the afternoon to make my last vifit to Teefhoo Lama, I received his dispatches for the Governor-general,

and from his parents two pieces of fatin for the Governor, with many compliments.

They prefented me with a velt lined with lambskins, making many affurances of a long remembrance, and obferving, that at this time Teefhoo Lama is an infant, and incapa ble of converfing, but they hoped to fee me again when he fhall have be come of age. I replied, that by fayour of the Lama I might again vifit this country I looked forward with anxiety to the time when he fhould mount the Mufnud, and fhould then be extremely happy in the opportunity of paying my refpects. After fome expreffions and proteftations of mutual regard, my vifit was concluded: I received the handkerchiefs and took my leave; and am to purfue my journey towards Bengal to-mor row at the dawn of day.

HORÁCE.

jured prince's education; and being

RESOLUTION, I will bribe my fair reader's attention to a difcourfe, lefs gay than ufeful, by telling a fhort ftory in the very front of this number.

SALADIN, the Soldan of Egypt, he had dominions enough of was always ready, when ffered, to make free with e's. At his return, withfrom the fiege of Mofoul feized into his hands the hip of Emeffa, in prejuright of Nafir Eddin, the e, who claimed it. And

pretence, that the hhad forfeited, to confede's interest.

ered, that

f the in

made in his ftudies, he was brought one day before the Soldan, who afked him, with much gravity, in what part of the Alcoran he was reading? I am come, replied the young prince (to the furprize of all who were near him) to that verfe, which informs me, that he who devours the estates of or phans, is not a king, but a tyrant,

The Soldan was much fartled at the torn and fpirit of his repartee; but, after fome paufe and recollection, returned the youth this generous aniwer:-He who fpeaks with fuch refolution, would act with so much courage, that I restore to you your father's poffeffions, left I fhould be thought to ftand in fear of a virtue, which I only reverence.

Such an influence has firmness, even in words and appearance! But

wher

by the marriage of her daughter, and the father is alfo compelled to ruin himself by adding whatever he may have scraped together by his induftry. The second daughter inherits nothing, and is condemned to perpetual celibacy. She is ftyled a Calogria, which fignifies properly a religious woman or nun, and is in effect a menial fervant to her filter, being employed by her in any office fhe may think fit to impofe, frequent ly ferving her as waiting-maid, as cook, and often in employments ftill more degrading. She wears a habit peculiar to her fituation which fhe can never change, a fort of monaftic drefs, coarse, and of dark brown. One advantage however the enjoys over her fifter, that whereas the elder before marriage, is never allowed to go abroad, or to fee any man, her nearest relations only excepted, the Calogria, except when employed in domeftic toil, is in this refpect at perfect liberty-But when, the fifter is married, the fituation of the poor Calogria becomes defperate indeed, and is rendered still more humiliating by the comparison between her condition and that of her happy mistress. The married fifter enjoys every fort of liberty-the whole family fortune is her's, and the spends it as the pleases -her husband is her obfequious fervant-her father and mother are dependent upon her-she dreffes in the moft magnificent manner, covered all over, according to the fashion of the ifland, with pearls and with pieces of gold, which are commonly fequins; thus continually carrying about with her the enviable marks of affluence and fuperiority, while the wretched Calogria follows her as a fervant, arrayed in fimple homespun brown, and without the most diftant hope of ever changing her condition. Such a difparity may feem intolerable, but what will not cuftom reconcile? Neither are the misfor

tunes of the family yet at an endThe father and the mother, with what little is left them, contrive by their induftry to accumulate a fecond little fortune, and this, if they should have a third daughter, they are obliged to give to her upon her marriage, and the fourth, if there should be one, becomes her Calogria; and fo on through all the daughters alternately. Whenever the daughter is marriageable, fhe can by custom compel the father to procure her a bufband, and the mother, fuch is the power of habit, is foolish enough to join in teazing him into an immediate compliance, though its confequences mult be equally fatal and ruinous to both of them. From hence it happens that nothing is more common than to fee the old father and mother reduced to the utmost indigence, and even begging about the ftreets, while their unnatural daughters are in affluence; and we ourselves have frequently been fhewn the eldest daughter parading it through the town in the greateft fplendour, while her mother and fifter followed her as fervants, and made a melancholy part of her attendant train.

The fons, as foon as they are of an age to gain a livelihood, are turned out of the family, fometimes with a fmall prefent or portion, but more frequently without any thing to fupport them; and thus reduced, they either endeavour to live by their labour, or, which is more ufual, go on board fome trading veffel as failors or as fervants, remaining abroad till they have got together fome competency, and then return home to marry and to be henpecked. Some few there are who, taking advantage of the Turkish law, break through this whimsical cuftom, who marry their Calogrias, and retain to themselves a competent provifion; but these are accounted men of a fingular and even criminal difpofition, and are hated

and

and defpifed as conformists to Turkish manners, and deferters of their native cuftoms; fo that we may fuppofe they are few indeed who have the boldness to depart from the manners of their country, to adopt the customs of their detefted mafters, and to brave the contempt, the derifion, and the hatred of their neighbours and fellow citizens.

*

Of all thefe extraordinary parti culars I was informed by the French conful, a man of fenfe and of indifputable veracity, who had refided in this ifland for feveral years, and who folemnly affured me that every circumftance was true; but indeeed our own observation left us without the leaft room for doubt, and the fingular appearance and deportment of the ladies fully evinced the truth of our friend's relation. In walking through the town it is eafy to perceive, from the whimsical manners of the female paffengers, that the women, according to the vulgar phrafe, wear the breeches. They frequently ftopped us in the ftreets, examined our drefs, interrogated us with a bold and manly air, laughed at our foreign garb and appearance, and fhewed fo little attention to that decent modefty, which is, or ought to be, the true characteriftic of the fex, that there is every reafon to fuppofe they would, in fpite of their haughtinefs, be the kindeft Jadies upon earth, if they were not ftrictly watched by the Turks, who are here very numerous, and would be ready to punish any tranfgreffion of their ungallant laws with arbitrary fines. But nature and native manners will often baffle the efforts even of tyranny. In all their cuftoms, thefe manly ladies feem to have changed fexes with the men.-The woman fits aftride-the man fits fideways upon the horse.-Nay I have

been affured that the husband's diftinguishing appellation is his wife's family name. The women have town and country houses, in the management of which the husband never dares interfere.-Their gardens, their fervants, are all their own; and the hufband, from every circumstance of his behaviour, appears to be no other than his wife's firft domeftick, perpetually bound to her service, and flave to her caprice. Hence it is that a tradition obtains in the country, that this ifland was formerly inhabited by Amazons, a tradition however founded on no ancient history that I know of. Sappho, indeed, the moft renowned female that this island has ever produced, is faid to have had manly inclinations, in which as Lucian informs us, fhe did but conform with the fingular manners of her country-women; but I do not find that the mode in which she chofe to fhew thefe inclinations is imitated by the prefent female inhabitants, who feem perfectly content with the dear prerogative of abfolute fway, without endeavouring in any other particular to change the course of nature; yet will this circumftance serve to fhew that the women of Lefbos had always fomething peculiar, and even peculiarly mafculine, in their manners and propenfities. But be this as it may, it is certain that no country whatsoever can afford a more perfect idea of an Amazonian commonwealth, or better ferve to render probable those ancient relations which our manners would induce us to efteem incredible, than this ifland of Metelin. Thefe lordly ladies are for the most part, very handsome in fpite of their drefs, which is fingular and difadvantageous. Down to the girdle, which, as in the old Grecian garb, is raised far above what we

ufually

64

ufually call the waift, they wear nothing but a fhift of thin and tranfparent gauze, red, green, or brown, through which every thing is vifible, their breasts only excepted, which they cover over with a fort of handkerchief; and this, as we are informed, the Turks obliged them to wear, while they look upon it as an incumbrance, and as no inconfiderable portion of Turkish tyranny. Long fleeves of the fame thin material perfectly fhew their arms even to the fhoulder. Their principal ornaments are chains of pearl, to which they hang fmall pieces of gold coin. Their eyes are large and fine, and the nose, which we term Grecian, ufually prevails among them, as it does indeed among the women of all thefe iflands. Their complexions are naturally fine, but they spoil them by paint, of which they make abundant use, and they disfigure their pretty faces by fhaving the hinder part of the eye-brow, and replacing it with a flrait line of hair, neatly applied with fome fort of gum, the brow being thus continued in a strait and narrow line till it joins the hair on each fide of their face. They are well made, of the middle fize, and, for the most part, plump; but they are diftinguished by nothing fo much and fo univerfally as by a haughty, difdainful, and fupercilious air, with which they feem to look down upon all mankind as creatures of an inferior nature, born for their fervice, and doomed to be their flaves; neither does this peculiarity of countenance in any degree diminish their natural beauty,

but rather adds to it that fort of be witching attraction, which the French call piquant."

The Prefident next endeavours to trace the origin of this strange and unnatural cuftom. He found, in Herodotus, an account of a remarkable fimilar custom among the Lycians; and he was led to conjecture that, from them, it was derived to the inhabitants of Metelin, there being no impoffibility in the fuppefition that fome colony may have paffed over from Lycia into Metelin.* Fortunately, but by accident, he met with a paffage in Diadorus Sicu lus, which, in a great measure, sa tisfied his mind. It feems that thoe Pelafgi, who under their leader Xanthus, the fon of Triopas, king of Argos, firft inhabited Lesbos, hal, before their fettling in that island, dwelt for fome time in a certain part of Lycia, which they had conquered, and may of confequence be fuppofe& to have brought from thence the u fage in queftion.'-This, to be fure, is, as his Lordship remarks, a very remote fource; for Triopas, according to Blair, was king of Argos in the year 1553 before Chrift; or, according to Diodorus, ftill much earlier, as that hiftorian places the colonizing of Lefbos by the Pelafgi, under the fon of this prince, feven ages previ ous to the flood of Deucalion, which event took place in the year 1503, before the Chriftian æra:- but in the eye and eftimation of a true antiquarian, what are thirty or forty centuries?'

you demean yourfelves in it. The public, indeed, expect more from you than from others who have not enjoyed the fame advantages: they expect that you will move in fome honourable and extenfive fphere of dfefulness.

It has been ufual and it is proper on this occafion, to difmifs by giving a few advices for the regulation of the conduct in life. Though nothing new can be faid, or which you may not have often heard, yet it is fuppofed, that from your prefent fi tuation, and before fo many witneffes, it will have the deeper impreffion upon you. Without attending to exact order, fuffer me to call your attention to the following things:

First, Make religion your main concern. Reverence its authority and attend to its precepts. This is mentioned first, as being most important; as being abfolutely neceffary, whatever business you follow. Of what real fervice will human learning be, if ignorant of God and yourselves? Unless taught of God you cannot be truly wife; the endowments of mind, either natural or acquired, which you poffefs, are not likely to be well directed; they will not fecure to you the favour of God, and promote your eternal happiness in another world. Remember then, that while you covet earnestly the bef gifts there is a more excellent way, by growing in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift. To this divine wifdom Solomon refers when he fays, Wisdom is the principal thing, therefore, get avifdem; and with all thy getting, get underftanding. Search the holy fcriptures, frequent the places of inftruction, converfe with the wife and pious, and give yourselves to ferious meditation and earnest prayer.

There are two things on this head of which you ought to beware. The one is a bigoted religion. A ftedfakt VOL. III. No, io.

F

adherence to one denomination is perfectly confiftent with liberality and charity. There has been always too much strife among profeffing chriftians about non-cffentials; too great a prevalence of a cenforious temper. Though I think my own the beft, yet I may not reprobate another, but grant that indulgence which, in my turn I claim. Chriftians require only to know and underftand one another better, in order to be more united in love. The more extenfive our acquaintance is with the various denominations, the less reafon we will find for a bigoted attachment to any particular modes of worship. Let nothing now faid be mifconstrued, as though a total indifference to all was inculcated. It is our duty to prefer one denomination, and iteadily to adhere, but, at the fame time, to be charitable towards others.

The other thing of which you ought to beware is a merely formal or customary religion. Though in our prefent circumftances, modes and forms are neceffary, yet these are only the fhadow or image of religion. If the fpirit be wanting, they are unacceptable to God. Learn then to diftinguish between the form and the power of religion. Be afraid of contenting yourfelves with the former, while you neglect the latter. Let nothing fatisfy you short of real change of heart, and faith in the merits of the bleffed Redeemer. Except a man be born again he cannot fee the kingdom of God. Believe in the Lord Fefus Chrift, and thou shalt be faved. He that believeth not is condemned already. Though it be your duty to attend upon all the means of grace, and to use endeavours of your own, yet the affiftance of the holy fpirit is neceffary to render thefe fucceísful. He must work in you both to will and to do, if ever you be faved.

This is a matter of fuch infinite importance