his researches in the other. It will hardly be confidered, at the fame time, as a fubftantial ground of defence, for this ingenious gentleman, to advance arguments fimilar to thofe he has already used in refpect to the Hebrew: "I do not, fays he, deduce them (i. e. etymologies) "from the Hebrew. And though there may have been, of old, a 66 great fimilitude between that language and thofe of the Egyptian, "Cutha, and Canaan: yet they were all different tongues. There was once but one language among the fons of men."-Let it be admitted, that there was one great original language, whence the Hebrew, the Arabic, and all the loft and living dialects of antiquity were defcended; is it not rational to conclude, that a confiderable part of thofe tongues, which ftill exift, did actually pre-exist in that aborigi nal language and that the variety of loft idioms, which, in early times, prevailed in Lower Afia and Egypt, were either the immediate derivatives from that language, or dialects of its most diffufive branches. Thofe tongues in particular which Mr. Bryant mentions, if they ever did live, have certainly long fince expired: where then fhall we fearch for a difcovery of their characteristic traces? where but in the Hebrew, in the Arabic, in the Syriac, in the Perfic: which were unquestionably fpoken in the fame or in the furrounding countries; and either gave them birth, were derived from them, or claimed one common fource. Can any ftronger prefumption be furnished of the truth or probability of this pofition, with regard especially to the Arabic and the Perfian, than the unconstrained meanings which have been brought from thofe languages, for almost every radical particle, chofen by this learned gentleman, as the bafis of his fyflem? Could this be the effect of chance? Is it not a striking proof of their antiquity and utility? And do not fuch etymons carry far more forcible conviction to our understanding, than dark and unfatisfactory derivation from unknown tongues? A fyftem of evidence, which proves either too much or nothing at all; for if one writer is allowed to roam through the regions of fancy, and fix arbitrary interpretations to a favourite clafs of words, another and another have an equal right: and every ingenious critic may then, like Archimedes of old, require only fome tranfmundane itation on which to rear his engines; in order to fhake to pieces the reafon of man, as that famous Syracufan boasted he could have done our globe, had another world been found on which to fix his great mechanic powers."

The remainder of this ingenious differtation relates to the extenfive fubject of Eaftern manners; whose influence on thofe of modern Europe, our author endeavours to trace in several inftances.

The origin of the feudal fyftem, of Romance and of Chivalry, are particularly deduced from Tartary, Perfia, India, and other Eaftern countries; with what truth we will not take upon us to fay; though we fincerely fubfcribe to the ingenuity of the deduction. We are forry we cannot fpare room for quotation from this very entertaining part of the tract before us; but must take leave of it with a detached extract or two, rẹVOL. VI. lative

3 I

lative to customs and manners: which may afford amusement as well as information to our readers.

"The Perfians appear to have been the most mufical of the Eaftern nations; the Arabians themselves, who have written many treatifes on the fubject, acknowledging, that they had borrowed from them the greatest part of their knowledge, and many of their terms of art. Father Angelo mentions having feen feveral beautiful mufical manufcripts at phahan, fome of which were brought into Europe, and placed in the library of Louis XIV. by his Oriental interpreter M. Petit Le Croix. The great men of the Eaft have been always fond of mufic. Though prohibited by the Mohammedan religion, it in general makes part of every public or private entertainment. Female flaves are generally kept to amufe them, and the ladies of their Harams. Female ftrolling muficians are alfo very common; and the Perfian Knanyageré feems nearly to have refembled our old English Minfirel; as he generally accompanied his Barbut or lute with heroic fongs. Their muficians appear, like old Timotheus, to have known the art of moving the pallions, and to have generally directed their mufic to the heart. I fhall mention one inflance. Alfarabi, who died about the middle of the tenth century, was a philofopher of uncom mon genius; and, amongst other accomplishments, he excelled in mufic. On his return from the pilgrimage to Mecca, he introduced himself, though a ftranger, at the court of Seifeddoula, Sultan of Syria. The Muficians were accidentally performing, and he joined them. The prince admired him, and wished to hear fomething of his own. He pulled a compofition from his pocket, and diftributing the part amongst the band, the first movement threw the prince and his cour tiers into violent and inceffant laughter; the next melted all into tears; and the laft lulled even the performers afleep.

"A variety of customs, we may here obferve, prevailed amongst the independent tribes of Pagan Arabians and Tartars, which were either abolished or modified, when they became united under princes of ability and power. One of thefe was the deftructive fyftem of Private War. In every ftate where the arm of the civil magiftrate has been too feeble to check or chaflife the crimes of men, private revenge feems naturally to have ufurped the place of legal punishment. We find it in full vigour in the middle ages, and univerfally adopted in every European fate. And fo forcible is the prejudice of ancient ha Bit, that even where fovereigns gained ftrength fufficient to fubstitute the laws of reafon for the practices of barbarity, they found it not prudent to overturn at once this precious offspring of uncultivated minds but, by loading it with expenfive impofitions, they endea voured to make its ravages lefs hurtful to fociety. Similar but more favage principles appear to have regulated thole Eaftern nations. If an Arabian had loit a near relation, a wife, or even a flave, he fingled out from among the Captives, when victorious, a freeman for each, and facrificed them in cold blood. This was not confidered as barba rous; it was rather a point of honour; which avarice alone appears to have mitigated: the husband, relations, or matter of the decealed, being permitted to. difpenfe with their fanguinary vengeance, in con

fideration

fideration of a mulct. We accordingly find, about the birth of Mohammed, that ten camels were the compenfation for a flaughtered man; without any apparent diftinction between the freeman and the flave. Mohammed, powerful as he was, durft not, any more than the lawgivers of Europe, fo far oppofe the general genius of the people, as entirely to abolish this brutal cuftom: but he endeavoured to mitigate or regulate it by feveral paffages in the Alcoran; in which, among other circumftances, a diftinction is made of rank and fex. In aftertimes, the compofition of ten camels was found inadequate to check the prevalence of private vengeance: and, in the Sonha, it was accordingly raised to a hundred; probably for the fame reasons which dictated an encreafe of the fanguinary fines among the Lombards and other European nations; because those fines having been originally fixed when the people were poor, they were found too trifling, when, by the extent of their conquefts, they had become powerful and rich. It does not however appear, that any thing fimilar to the European Fredum, or proportion paid to the public treafury, fubfifted among the Eaftern nations; the whole of the compenfation being received by the relations or maiter of the flaughtered perfon. In the Eaft, as well as in Europe, the relations of the principals in a quarrel feem to have been bound by honour and cuftom to efpouse their party, and to revenge their death; one of the highest reproaches with which one Arabian could upbraid another, being an accufation of having left the blood of his friend unrevenged. The facred months of the Arabians appear to have been far fuperior to the Truga Dei or the Pax Regis of Europe. Three following months in every year, with another one intermediate, must have tended far more effectually to foften the exafperated mind, than the interval of three days in a week; which would, in general, only give them a breathing-time to prepare for fresh hoftilities. Thofe European ordinances were, at the fame time, too often difregarded; whilft, in Arabia, they took the heads from their fpears, and obferved this great falutary law fo religioufly, that from the earlieft periods of record or tradition, they furnished but four or five inftances where it had been infringed; and thefe were stamped with the epithet of impiety, and the univerfal execration of the people. "One circumfiance, however, appears ftrongly to have diftinguished the private wars in the Eaft from thofe of the Weft. The manners of Afia feem, in all ages, to have pointed to domeftic flavery and Mohammed, in Arabia, made that an article of religion, which had anciently been only a cuftom. The Captives were, in confequence, with few exceptions, conftantly reduced to a ftate of fervitude; and little diflinction feems, in general, to have been made between a princefs and her female flave, excepting what the derived from a fuperiority of perfonal accomplishments. Thofe ideas the Arabians retained amidit their extenfive conquefts. Many inftances might be given; 1 fhall confine myfelf to two, as they regard the daughters of the two greatest princes then in the world.-In an action after the hege of Damafcus, in 635, amongst other prifoners was the daughter of Heraclius, Emperor of Greece, and widow of the Governor of that city. Rafi, the Arabian commander, to whofe lot fhe fell, pre

3 Iz

fented

fented her, without ceremomy, as a flave, to Jonas, a Grecian, who had embraced the Mohammedan religion; but Jonas, from a principle of honour, returned her, with all her jewels, unranfomed to her father. When the Arabians conquered Perfia, Shirin Banu, the daughter of king Yezdejird, was one of the captives, and was pub licly expofed to fale in the city of Medina; but the liberal-minded Ali thought differently from his countrymen on this occafion: he declared, that the offspring of princes ought not to be fold; and married her immediately to his Hollain. This anecdote I met with in the mutilated manufcript formerly mentioned, the author of which I have not been able to discover. Ifmael Sefi, who mounted the throne of Perfia in the year 1502, derived his defcent, as obferved before (p. xv.), from the Khalif Ali; and as he alfo claimed relationship to the ancient royal family of Perfia, it was probably in confequence of this mar riage. What may ferve to confirm this anecdote, is a story related of the Khalif Al Walid, and the Imam Zein Alabdin, fon of Hoffain, whom he fufpected of a defign upon the Khalifat. "You are un"worthy to reign, faid Al Walid, as being the fon of a flave: your "mother was one of the Perfian captives." The Imam anfwered, "The mother of Ifmael, the son of Abraham, was the flave of Hagar; yet Mohammed was defcended from her." The Khalif blushed, and was filent"

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"Amongst other laws and ufages, fimilar to thofe of the Northern nations, we find, that the trial by Ordeal was anciently known in Perlia; and it originated perhaps from their fuperftitious veneration for Fire. After exalting that element to the rank of a divinity, we can not wonder that they should refort to it, for evidence, in points which could not admit of pofitive proof. In the Shah name we find the defcription of an illuftrious trial, by the Ordeal, above five hundred years before the Chriflian era. Siavekhsh, fon of the reigning king Kai Caus, had been educated in Sejeitan by the great Roltam. His father, hearing much of his accomplishments, fent for him to court; where Saudabé, his mother-in law, fell in love with him. She foon made a declaration; but, the prince difcouraging her advances, the flew in a rage to the king, and accused him of an attempt upon her honour. The king knew not how to decide; the nature of the cafe could not admit of proof. He ordered, therefore, a large fire to be kindled, and the parties to pafs through it. The prince, without hefitation, boldly entered it on horfeback, and pafled unhurt. But Saudabé trembled, and durft not venture: fhe fell on her knees, confefled the truth, and was pardoned on the generous interceffion of the man she meant to deftroy.-The trial by Ordeal, where fatisfac tory evidence cannot be obtained, is ftill in practice among the Gentoos in Hindoftan; and is of high antiquity. It is mentioned several times in the Code of Gentoo Laws, as a common mode of proof, under the title of Purrikeh: but I have not been able to discover the particular fpecies which they adopt.

The administration of juftice in Pagan Arabia appears to have been very fimple; the heads of the tribes being, in general, the umpies of every difference. Solemn oaths used to be taken over a fire called barier; into which, if they fufpected a witness of perjury, they

privately

privately threw a fpecies of falt; which making a fudden explosion, terrified him often into a difcovery of the truth. Over a fire they ufed alfo to make treaties and other folemn agreements.-After Mohammed had established his prophetic character, caufes appear to have been determined only by him and his chief companions: and their decrees were fometimes ftrikingly decifive. A Mohammedan being caft in a fuit with a Jew before the tribunal of the Prophet, appealed to Omar; who happened to be standing at his door when the parties appeared. After listening to the merits with great compofure, he bid them wait a little, and he would foon fettle the whole affair. He then went into his houfe, and returning inftantly with a fword, ftruck off the Mohammedan's head: "Thus, fays he, ought all to be punished, who açquiefce not in the fentence of the prophet of God."

I found a decifion of Ali, in the imperfect manufcript formerly mentioned, which feems ingenious, and fhews, at the fame time, fomething of the manners of the people in thofe times. Two Arabians fat down to dinner: one had five loaves, the other three. A ftranger paffing by, defired permiffion to eat with them; which they agreed to. The ftranger dined, laid down eight pieces of money, and departed. The proprietor of the five loaves took up five pieces; and left three for the other, who objected, and infifted for one half. The 'caufe came before Ali, who gave the following judgment: "Let the "owner of the five loaves have feven pieces of money; and the owner "of the three loaves, one: for if we divide the eight leaves by three, "they make twenty-four parts; of which he, who laid down five "loaves, had fifteen; whilit he, who laid down three, had only nine: 66 as all fared alike, and eight fhares was each man's proportion, the "ftranger ate feven parts of the first man's property, and only one "belonging to the other; the money, in juftice, must be divided ac"cordingly."-In after-times, in the various Mohammedan ftates, the Law appears however to have been strangely perverted; and the fatirifts are, in confequence, uncommonly fevere. "Formerly, fays a 76 poet, the judges wore naked fwords, and the guilty only trembled; แ now they are empty fheaths, and gorge themfelves with the plun"der of their fuitors.-Are you indigent, fays another; and have you "the misfortune to be at law with the rich; withdraw your fuit; go to your powerful oppreflor, and humble yourself in the duft: there "you may perhaps meet with juftice and mercy; with the Cadhi you can have none." And in fact no cenfure appears ever to have been more justly grounded; for, in the Eastern languages, there are not only words fignifying Bribes to judges; but others, which denote Men whofe public and profeffed employment was, The corrupting of magiftrates, to procure decifions contrary to equity and law. We may form indeed a judgment of the general adminiftration, or rather perverfion, of justice, under fome of the Khalifs, from an appointment of Moctader; who, about the beginning of the tenth century, promoted a young damfel, named Yemika, to be prefident of the Di wanu' l' mezalim, one of the principal tribunals of the empire; which took cognizance of the tyranny and oppreffion of governors and other great men.

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