may annoy her, and using fans without intermission, to keep off flies or insects while she leans on one or other of the slaves, walking about to direct and overlook what is doing.

"One of the reasons given, why even the ladies of the royal family must minutely attend to this part of their duty, is, to prevent the possibility of any treachery being practised in preparing their husbands' meals. The hours the Turkish or Moorish ladies have to spare for amusement, is spent in singing and dancing. Abderrahman's eldest daughter and the pretty Greek tied up a swing the morning after they came to live near us, which constituted a great part of the day's amusement: their black slaves and servants served for playfellows. They seemed, none of them, from the first, to want spirits; except the Greek, in whose most cheerful moments there was a melancholy and care spread over her countenance, which reminded us of her losses, and of the anxious solicitude she felt, that the ambassador might be convinced she had acted up to all his wishes in his absence. This painful and sometimes dangerous diffidence of their husbands, must be the constant companion of the best female characters in this part of the world, where continual plots, the consequence of jealousy and interest, are working against them by all around." pp. 120, 121.

"In our way to Lilla Halluma's apartments, the great concourse of people at the castle rendered it as usual impossible to proceed a step without being surrounded by attendants to clear the way.

"The apartments of the two brides were entirely lined with the richest silks. A seat elevated near six feet from the ground, in the alcove, the most distinguished part of the room, was prepared for the bride, where she sat concealed from the spectators by an embroidered silk veil thrown over her. Her most confidential friends only went up to speak to her, by ascending seven or eight steps placed on the right hand side for their approach; they then introduced themselves to her presence by cautiously lifting the veil that covered her, being very careful not to expose any part of her person to the spectators beneath the etiquette was to speak but a few words, in order to afford time for other ladies to pay their court to her. Her eyelashes were deeply tinged with

black; and her face was painted red and white, but not ornamented with gold. Lilla Howisha is one of the handsomest women in Tripoli. Her dress was the same as I have already described to you, but the gold and silver jewels with which it was almost covered, left little of its texture to be seen; her slippers were brilliant, discovering her foot and ankle, which were partially dyed with henna, nearly the colour of ebony; and she wore on her ankles double gold bracelets. The jewels on her fingers appeared more brilliant from the dark colour underneath them, which also added much to the whiteness of her hand and arm.

"Two slaves attended to support the two tresses of her hair behind, which were so much adorned with jewels, and gold and silver ornaments, that if she had risen from her seat she could not have supported the immense weight of them.

"Magnificent tables were prepared at each of the bride's houses, furnished with the choicest delicacies of hot vi ands, fresh and dry preserves, and fruits peculiar to the country. These tables were surrounded with gold and silver embroidered cushions, laid on the floor to serve as seats for the guests, who were served with the refreshments before them, by Lilla Halluma and her daughters, who were constantly moving round the tables, attended by their slaves and confidential women. The black slaves were almost covered with silver, and had nearly treble the quantity of ornaments they usually wear on the head, neck, arms, and feet.

"The account of the ceremonies observed at this feast by the ladies of Hadgi Abderrahman's family, will be sufficient to make you acquainted with those performed by other ladies of rank in this place, as all act uniformly at weddings as far as their fortunes will allow.

"Lilla Amnani and Lilla Uducia, though they knew their visits at the castle would only take up a very few hours, took with them, notwithstanding, a considerable quantity of clothes to change, reserving the richest and most showy dresses to put on last. Lilla Uducia's first dress was composed of a chemise, made, according to the fashion of the country, of silk, gold, and gauze. wore two jilecks, the under one of crimson velvet and gold lace, the upper one of green and silver brocade; and

She

her baracan, which was as usual of several yards in length and width, was made entirely of violet embossed ribands, nearly eight inches wide, with gold work between each, and a broad stripe of bright gold went through the middle of the baracan from one end to the other, having a singular and rich effect, when wrapped in folds round her body. Both ends of this baracan were embroidered in gold and silver, nearly half a yard in depth. She wore a pair of pale yellow silk trowsers, which had also a broad gold stripe up the front from the ankle to the waist, with a rich border of gold round the bottom: she wore all the jewels she could collect, with the addition of some valuable gold orders of her father's.

"Lilla Amnani and herself soon after their appearance in the castle changed their dresses, before they 'threw,'as they termed it, the first money,' to the amount of ten mahboobs, to a favourite attendant belonging to the ladies of the castle, who was dressed for the occasion. Soon after they changed their dress a second time, and presented between thirty and forty mahboobs to each of the brides: they then dressed a third time, previous to sitting down to dinner.

"The feast for Sidi Hamet's bride was celebrated in the same manner as that of his sister: all the company retired from the castle before sunset.

"It is during these large mixed companies, that the female intriguing messengers belonging to the castle find much employment, by delivering messages of gallantry, or introducing among the immense crowd of visiters, the princes in disguise, who by their assistance are not unfrequently in these meetings closely wrapped up in the baracan of a female, for the purpose of more easily beholding the select beauties of their country, whom they cannot possibly obtain a sight of in any other way." pp. 179–182.

Many of these, and other equally absurd habits are undoubtedly evils resulting from the form of government and religious creed; and may, therefore, be resolved into them. But it is profitable to consider pernicious practices in themselves as well as to trace them to their causes. There may indeed be many reasons assigned for referring the faults of the go

vernment common in Mohammedan countries, to the peculiar nature of their theological creed. But without thus generalizing, we may content ourselves with examining the evils separately, and aiming to become thankful for our exemption from such of them as may not belong to ourselves.

Our remarks on this subject will relate to those evils, exclusively, which result from bad government. We must begin with the sovereign himself, who, being without responsible advisers, or any persons who with an interest in his safety have also a character with his people, he can never regard his life as safe when his measures are at all unpopular. Hence, the necessity of such precautions as those which follow.

"A number of slaves were occupied in preparing different dishes of meat, in grinding corn, kneading bread, making fine pastes, and dressing fruits. Each of the princesses was followed by several of her attendants; but no one interfered in what was doing but Lilla Fatima, who seemed to be very particular in examining every thing. The Negroes attended Lilla Fatima with fans to prevent insects annoying her. The sight of royalty employed in this manner, called to our mind what has been said of the ancients.

"The attentions paid here by the princesses to the food prepared for the Bashaw, though a duty that cannot be dispensed with, is unattended at present with that great degree of dread and suspicion, that prevails where the sovereign's death is every moment anxiously looked for by his subjects and by those allied to him, which is too often the case in Moorish states. At Algiers and Constantinople, the sovereigns live in continual dread of poison being mixed in their victuals. The Grand Signior is said, in troublesome times, to eat only of such dishes brought to his table as are put in a silk handkerchief and sealed with the seal of his chief cook.” p. 206.

their patron, and not upon their own character. Thus the author"that when Christian ess tells us, slaves become renegadoes, they often hold the highest offices in Turkey and Barbary.'

One inevitable consequence of tyranny, is the frequent impunity of the greatest crimes in privileged persons, while punishment is inflicted capriciously upon others, often without proof of guilt, and generally without any just proportion to its magnitude. There are frightful in stances of these evils recorded in the volume before us. The sovereign puts his victims to death without inquiry; masters practise the same arbitrary measure upon their dependants: the princes are evidently above all law, and rely not so much on the protection of the monarch, as on the number and fidelity of their own retainers; and such is the influence upon public opinion produced by the constant recurrence of these irregularities, that a son of the bashaw, who without provocation assassinates his own brother in the presence of his mother, to whose apartment he had come under pretence of seeking a reconciliation. with him, and also murders a principal officer of state on his return from the fatal spot, merely because he finds him in his way, is not only called to no account by his father, but is enabled to establish himself at the head of a powerful retinue after that atrocious act, and ultimately to obtain peaceable possession of a throne, from which his father and another elder brother are excluded. We give the follow. ing extracts illustrative of these subjects.

"The Venetian consul, who resided some years with the Venetian ambassador at Constantinople, says, that among the remarkable circumstances which happened during his residence there, he saw a procession of the Grand Vizier and his officers, which was beyond description terrible, from the sensation it caused in the people. When it hap CHRIST. OBSERV, No. 187.

pened, an ague fit seemed at once to seize the whole populace; each indivi dual as they passed along turned pale, hardly able to support himself, and appeared deprived of speech and motion, considering himself in the hands of death, whilst his ears resounded with the

dreadful sentence of being immediately hung up at his own door, without any cause assigned or question asked. This happened, without any warning, to numbers during this procession, either on the account of their false weights, their tardiness in paying tribute, or any thing else the Vizier might, in his own mind, deem them guilty of; which charges the wretched culprit had scarcely time to hear, before he paid the debt of nature for them. This most horrible procession is always made at a moment the people least expect it.

"Those who suffer on this occasion, as well as criminals condemned by the laws, are left hanging in any part of the town, where they often remain long enough to be offensive, even to ambassadors' houses; and it is totally impossible to get them removed by any appli cations, if the Turks do not think fit themselves to take them away," pp. 124, 125.

"The head of a house, whether father, brother, or husband, having the power

of life and death relative to the female part of his family, has only to get a teskerar of the Bashaw, which is a small bit of paper with his signature, giving leave to the person who requires it to put to death the object of his anger; and this fatal paper is procured with the greatest facility.

"This ambassador, a few years since, possessed a favourite Circassian slave, who lived at a garden a little distance from the family residence. He thought her conduct reprehensible, and after having often threatened and as often pardoned her, she at length fell a victim to the rage of a Mameluke belonging to her lord.

"This wretch was an enemy to his master, and an unsuccessful admirer of the fair Circassian. Hearing that his master was engaged at an entertainment given by the Christians, he came to him late in the evening, and worked on his imagination, till the fatal teskerar was obtained. The Mameluke immediately rode off full speed to the garden where she resided, and had departed on the wretched errand but a few moments, when the visible alteration and the agony in the countenance of the ambassador, Jed his friends soon to the supposition of the 30

cruel orders he had issued, and he was easily persuaded to countermand them. He sent horsemen with every inducement given them to overtake the sanguinary Mameluke, and arrest his hand from the murder he was so eager to perpetrate. They reached the garden a few seconds after him; but he knowing of a breach in the garden wall, had, assassin-like, entered that way to prevent alarm, and found the fair Circassian walking solitarily in the garden at that late hour. At the sight of him, she fled, having long considered him as her destined murderer. She, in her terror, climbed up the garden walls, and ran round the top of them. Those who were sent to save her saw her run in vain. They forced the gates and entered them; in the mean while, twice they heard a pistol fired, and soon after the dying groans of the unfortunate female, whom the Mameluke, to prevent explanations, had stabbed to death, after having discharged two pistols at her." pp. 43, 44.

The feeling of insecurity, which is consequent upon this defective administration, in which there is scarcely any such thing as public Jaw, is diffused through all parts of the community; and some striking instances of the effects of it are thus portrayed by our authoress.

When the Turkish Bashaw returned to Constantinople, he left a standing army for the security of the place, or rather to collect the revenues for the Grand Signior. During this period, Hamet-Bey, applying to the Porte, was made Bashaw. He soon found means of making a total alteration in the government; and the sudden manner in which he effected this change was truly singular. He contrived, without any disturbance, to clear Tripoli, in the space of twenty-four hours, of all the Turkish soldiers, amounting to several hundreds of disciplined troops. At his palace, not far from the town, he gave a superb entertainment, and invited all the chiefs of the Turks to partake of it. Three hundred of these unfortunate victims were strangled, one by one, as they entered the skiffar, or hall. This skiffar is very long, with small dark rooms or deep recesses on each side, in which a hidden guard was placed. These guards assassinated the Turks as they passed, quickly conveying the bodies into those recesses out of sight, so that the next Turk saw nothing extraordinary

going on when he entered the fatal skiffar, but, quitting his horse and servants, met his fate unsuspectingly.

"Next day, the Turks who remained in this city were (no doubt by order) found murdered in all parts, and little or no inquiries were made after those who had perpetrated such horrid deeds. Only a few straggling Turks remained to tell the dreadful tale. Great presents were sent by the Bashaw to Constantinople to appease the Grand Signior, and in a day or two no one dared to talk of the Turkish garrison which, in a few hours, had been totally annihilated. Having in this dreadful manner freed himself and his family from the Turkish yoke, and having succeeded in keeping the Grand Signior in humour, he caused Tripoli to remain entirely under a Moorish government, for which the Moors still call his reign glorious." pp. 34, 35.

"Every body seems afraid of offending these Arabs at present. A number of them crowded round the Rais of the

marine to-day, and one of them offered to take a pistol out of his sash, which he was quick enough to prevent, and asked the Arab if he meant to steal his pistols; only wanted to look at them." But had the man run off with the pistol, the Rais must have let him go, as the government is two much in awe of these thieves, to offer to punish one of them." p. 332.

when another Arab replied, "No; he

There is yet one department of society unnoticed, which once existed in every community, but is now driven out of Christian Europe and Christian Asia, though it still unhappily exists within the limits of Christendom. Every authentic account of the manner in which a slave who cannot speak for himself is treated in any part of the world ought to be interesting to those who are privileged with freedom; and our readers will find in the work before us, a number of anecdotes relating to the subject.

We have already intimated, that the superstitions of the Moors, resulting from the pernicious doctrines of their false prophet, form a chief cause of the evils of their government an and habits, and the greatest obstacle to their improvement.

Of these superstitions, we will first bestow a few thoughts on the doctrine of Fatalism, which some persons have honoured by comparing it with a very different doctrine held by many Christians. The fatalism of the Mohammedans seems to be a settled persuasion, that particular events are absolutely decreed, while at the same time the means are left uncertain, and may be successfully evaded for a season, or be defeated by skill and contrivance, although the opposition will prove in the end to have been to no purpose, and cannot be carried on without folly as well as impiety since Fate will be sure to discover other means for the execution of its designs. So also the fate of the ancients appears to have been properly a decree or sentence of Jupiter, or some of his predecessors, of which the three Destinies, or Parcæ, were to be the executioners; although, when once pronounced, it became binding on the sovereign Deity himself as well as on his inferior ministers, and was strictly irrevocable, which seems very well to agree with the idea of fate entertained by Mohammed and his followers. Let the two doctrines stand side by side.

Durum, sed levius fit patientia
Quicquid corrigere est nefas.

Hor. i. xxiv. 19, 20.

Si figit adamantinos
Summis verticibus dira necessitas
Clavos, non animum metu,

Non mortis laqueis expedies caput.
Hor. iii. xxiv. 5-8.

Manent immota tuorum

Fati tibi.
Virg. Æn. i. 261, 262.
Hic (tibi fabor enim, quando hæc te
cura remordet,

Longius et volvens fatorum arcana, movebo)

Bellum ingens geret Italia.

Virg. Æn. i. 265-267. Desine fata Deûm flecti sperare precando. Virg. Æn. vi. 376. Contra fata Deum perverso numine poscunt. Virg. Æn. vii. 584, Quo fata vocas? aut quid petis istis? Virg. En. ix. 94. Fata viam invenient. Virg. Æn. x. 113.

"The circumstances which have occurred to a Moor who was taken ill of the plague, will add great strength to Mahomet's doctrine, which says, Fate is irrevocable, and to oppose destiny is sacrilege.' This man, who was some months ago one of the richest merchants here, to escape the plague fled to a great distance on the coast, taking all his property with him. For further safety he left the coast, and went to a rock far off in the sea. Here the poor man thought himself out of danger, but without any extraordinary share of penetration, he might have anticipated what happened to him. In the first place, he became criminal in the eyes of all his countrymen, for having, as they term it, flown in the face of his prophet, by attempting to run away from the plague and avoidhis fate, which the Moors call Mughtu~ be; the Arabs, therefore, with impunity, pursued this man to rob him, a few nights after he was settled on the rock. While the merchant was in his tent, he heard boats rowing towards his solitary island, and by the light of the moon he saw they were manned with Arabs, and soon discovered his perilous situation. He left all to their mercy, and by the greatest good fortune escaped being murdered. After their departure, he returned to Tripoli, where he now faces all the danger of the plague without the least precaution, to expiate the sin he had committed in flying from his fate (mughtube.) The Moors, thus struck with horror, seem sure he cannot re

cover,

The consolation and peace of mind the Moor procures himself, by thus placing his whole belief in predestination, is certainly inconceivable. In the heaviest hour of trial, they sooth themselves with the idea, that it is mughtube, (decreed,) and with that single word they pass from opulence to misery without a murmur. On their death-bed, nothing changes their security: the expiring Moor only calls out to have his face turned towards Mecca, and thus comforted he dies in peace." p. 110.

"The prime minister Mustapha Serivan's house is at present as much in a state of quarantine as he can put it, consistent with the ideas of the Moors; yet he will not admit to any one, nor to the Bashaw, the necessity of taking precautions at the castle, where he alleges sovereignty is the greatest shield, and