empt from that vice, though it is corrected by their pride and violence. Arrogant from birth, and surrounded, from infancy, by devoted dependants, their minds are habituated to overrate their own pretensions, and depreciate those of others. When inflamed with passion, they in an instant lose all that courtly manner which they are accustomed to assume and give way to the most ungovernable rage. They seldom suffer from the bold imprudence of the language which they use on these occasions, as they can always plead in excuse the habits of the rude class to which they be. long: and the consideration they demand, upon this ground, is hardly ever refused, even by the monarch himself, if he has been the object of their intemperance. The character of these military nobles may be said to change with the state of their country: when that is settled for any long period they lose a great deal of their native honesty and violence. Edu-cated at the capital, where, in youth, they are generally kept as hostages for the good conduct of their fathers; and compelled to constant attendance on the king after they have attained manhood; they become in time courtiers, and are not, except in being more haughty, materially different from the other nobles and principal officers of the country. We can neither praise them, nor any other of the higher ranks in Persia, for their strictness in either moral or religious duties: to the former, they do not even pretend to give much attention; and though they are careful as to the observance of all the forms of the latter, they

.

often appear indifferent as to the substance, and are in the habit of discussing the tenets and dogmas of their faith with a freedom that sometimes borders upon impiety.

The character of the Eelleats, or men who continue to dwell in tents, is very opposite to that of the inhabitants of cities. They have the virtues and vices of their condition; are sincere, hospitable, and brave; but rude, violent, and rapacious. They are not in need of falsehood and deceit, and therefore not much in the habit of practising them: but if they have fewer vices than the citizens of Persia, it is evidently the absence of temptation, and the ignorance of luxury and refinement, which give them all the superiority they boast; for it is remarked, that they never settle in towns, or enter them as victors, without exceeding the inhabitants in every species of profligacy.

The females of Persia who dwell in towns are usually placed in the situation of slaves; and have, therefore, many of those qualities which belong to that condition. The different shades of character of a race who can hardly be said to have any influence in the community, is of little importance; and if it were otherwise, we cannot have sufficient information of the subject to form any correct judgment upon it. If common report is to be credited, or if we grant our belief to the tales of Persian writers, the art and ingenuity of the women of that country are very often successful in eluding the jealous vigilance of their domestic tyrants. Of the females of the wandering tribes we have already

spoken: they enjoy a fair portion of liberty; and if they are inferier to the natives of cities in beauty of person and softness of manner, they are superior to them in industry, in chastity, and many other virtues. We meet, indeed, with frequent examples among this class, of an elevation of sentiment, and an heroic courage, which nothing but the freedom of their condition could inspire.

In speaking generally of the inhabitants of Persia, we may describe them as a handsome, active, and robust race of men, of lively imagination, quick apprehension, and of agreeable and prepossessing manners. As a nation they may be termed brave: though the valour they have displayed, like that of every other people in a similar condition of society, has, in a great degree, depended upon the character of their leaders, and the nature of those objects for which they have fought. Their vices are still more prominent than their virtues. Compelled by the nature of their government, to have recourse, on every occasion, to art or violence, they are alternately submissive and tyrannical. Many of their more serious defects of character may be attributed to the same cause: and there is, perhaps, no country in which so much of the immorality of its inhabitants can be referred to a bad system of internal administration as Persia. This reflection, though it mitigates the sense we entertain of the depravity of individuals, leaves but little hope of their amendment; for it is evident that can alone be effected by the con

currence of many radical changes with a complete alteration in their political condition; an event which neither their past history nor present state can lead us to anticipate.

ACCOUNT OF THE BOSJESMANS.

(From Lichtenstein's Travels in Southern Africa.)

Several Bosjesmans had arrived at the camp, with whom the General was engaged in an amicable intercourse, presenting them with food and other trifling presents. They were all strikingly low in stature, and seemed as if half famished. One of them, and by no means the least of the party, was measured, and found to be only four feet three inches high; he appeared between forty and fifty years of age. The women were still less, and ugly in the extreme. The colour of their skin was lighter than that of the Hottentots; some among them were even less yellow than the Spaniards at Teneriffe ; at the same time it must be observed, that the genuine colour of the skin can seldom be accurately distinguished on account of the grease with which it is smeared over. over. The physiognomy of the Bosjesmans has the same characteristic features as that of the Hottentots but their eyes are infinitely more wild and animated, and their whole countenance far more expressive, exhibiting stronger symptoms of suspicion and apprehension: all their actions indicate strong passion much more forcibly. This difference originates undoubtedly in the constant exertions of mind and body, occasioned by the wretched life they lead.

They have no property to furnish them with food in an easy and convenient manner, like many of the savages of Southern Africa, who feed upon the milk and flesh of their herds, but are obliged constantly, by means of fraud and artifice, to procure a supply of the most pressing necessaries. Thence have they been led to the invention of poisoned arrows, with which they can hit to a certainty those wild animals of the field, whose strength and swiftness would otherwise be an overmatch for them. The effect of the poison is so rapid, that they are sure to find the animal who has been touched with it in a quarter of an hour, if not absolutely dead, yet so stunned and powerless, that the effect is the same. To kill it entirely, to cut out the poisoned part, and to begin devouring the prey, are acts which follow each other with the utmost possible rapidity, nor is the spot quitted till the last bone is entirely cleared.

Larger animals, whose thick skins their poisoned arrows cannot penetrate, become not the less the prey of their cunning and contrivance. The banks of the Great River are full of pits made by the Bosjesmans, to catch the sea-cow in its nocturnal wanderings. These pits are large and deep, with a sharp-pointed stake planted in the midst, and are most dexterously covered over with twigs, leaves, and grass. The animal that falls in dies a death of the most horrible torture, for the stake, driven deep into the body, prevents his moving about in so confined a space, out of which he might otherwise, perhaps, be able to work his way by the exertion of

his vast strength; nor is it much in the power of the Bosjesman himself, with his imperfect weapons, to release him speedily from his torments. In some places, even the prudent elephant falls, in this way, into the hands of the Bosjesmans. Nor are these people less subtle in ensnaring fish, for the sake of which they haunt very much the neighbourhood of the larger rivers. They make a sort of pointed baskets of the twigs of trees, which have very much the form of our eel-baskets and are used in the same manner; or if they expect a swelling of the stream, while the water is still low, they make upon the strand a large cistern as it were, enclosed by a wall of stones, which serves as a reservoir, where, if fortune be favourable, a quantity of fish are deposited at the subsiding of the

waters.

In other parts, they spy about from the heights, to discover the nests of the cunning ostriches, and find a most wholesome and refreshing food in the eggs stolen from them. Snakes in abundance are caught by them, on account of the poison with which they tip their arrows; but after cutting, or biting off the head, and taking out the bag of poison, the animal. itself serves them as food. They know very well, that the most poisonous serpents may be eaten with perfect safety; that the poison only kills by being mixed immediately with the blood. The swarms of wandering locusts, which to the civilized world are so great an annoyance, furnish to the Bosjesmans another resource for supporting life. How easy soever it may be to catch them by

handfuls in a common way, so as to be furnished with a hearty meal, this is not enough; to in crease the quantity taken, they make long and deep trenches, from which the locusts, if they have once fallen into them, cannot easily rise and fly away. A very favourite food of these savages is the termes-fatale, or white ant, and their eggs. The species of this animal formerly described, which makes such large heaps, or hillocks, does not belong to this part of the country; it is a species somewhat smaller, which builds below the surface of the ground, spreading over a very large space. In the midst of these nests a hole is made by the Bosjesmans, considerably deeper than the nest itself, and they are then certain, in a short time, to find a number of the animals at the bottom of the hole, they having fallen in on all sides, in running about from one part of their habitation to another. At certain times of the year, or before any great change of weather, these animals are particularly busy; they are seen in great numbers upon the surface of the ground, heaping up leaves, very small twigs, and splinters of wood, over the entrance to their mine, as a sort of roof. This is the most favourable moment for the Bosjesmans to practise their mode of catching them.

Sparing as nature is here in the distribution of her gifts, necessity has taught the Bosjesmans the use of several plants, wholesome to appease hunger, which in more abundant countries no one would think of applying to that purpose. Many of the lily species have a mealy nutritive bulb, which, roast

much

ed in the embers, has very the flavour of a chesnut; it is most in order to be eaten when the flower is just gone off. There are, however, several sorts very pernicious, which occasion sickness, and which, by an inexperienced person, might easily be mistaken for those which are salutary. Many sorts of the mesembryanthemum bear a pleasant acid kind of fruit, called by the colonists Hottentot-figs, which are also eaten by the Bosjesmans; and those on the other side of the Great River feed much upon the bulbous root of their kambroo, a plant yet little known to the botanists, and undefined by them.

It is not, however, to be inferred, that no tract of country is so poor but that it produces wherewithal to support the miserable lives led by these savages. In some parts, as on the banks of the Great River, they can procure · easily and abundantly the means of supplying their daily wants; but in others, which are deficient in game, in ants, in locusts, and in bulbs, they are often in a deplorable situation; and, from a long privation of sufficient nourishment, waste away to the leanest, most wretched figures imaginable. Does a more favourable time of the year, however, come on, or do they change their quar ters to a more fertile region, is amazing how soon the trace of this misery disappear; i .ow short a time they become quite different beings. Alas! instead of chusing the latter means of alleviating their misery, they have too often recourse to another, which draws hatred and contempt on all their nation; that is, rob

bery. Wholly unaccustomed as these people are to any ideas of property, or to any of the other ties that bind civilized society, possessors of no other wealth than their bow and arrows, their whole attention turned only to satisfying their animal necessities in the quickest and most convenient manner, ought it to be considered as a matter of very great reproach to them, that they are ready to take what they want, wherever it is to be found? The situation of their neighbours, I readily grant, is not rendered more palatable by this reflection; and even though they do not feel their attacks to be very atrocious, they are not the less justified, nor is it the less incumbent on them, to defend to the utmost themselves and their property. In this very circumstance lies the principal obstacle to the Bosjesmans ever being civilized; and it is certain, that there are not, over the whole globe, any savages whom it would be more difficult to inspire with new ideas, or to form to new habits.

To say all that might be said upon this subject, without suffering myself to run into a wearisome amplification, would be almost impossible. I shall therefore restrain my pen to giving some few of the leading features in the modes of life, and character, of the savages in question; these, connected with such particulars as are already known to the public, and such as may be hereafter given, will enable them to form satisfactory results. The Bosjesman has no settled residence; his whole life is passed in wandering from place to place; it even rarely

happens that he passes two nights together on the same spot. One exception may, however, be found to this general rule, and that is, when he has eaten till he is perfectly gorged; that is to say, when he has for several days together had as much as his almost incredible voracity can possibly eat. Such a revelry is followed by a sleep, or at least a fit of indolence, which will continue even for weeks, and which at last becomes so delightful to him, that he had rather buckle the girdle of emptiness round him, than submit to such an exertion as going to the chace, or catching insects. He is fond of taking up his abode for the night in caverns among the mountains, or clefts in the rocks; in the plain he makes himself a hole in the ground, or gets into the midst of a bush, where bending the boughs around him, they are made to serve as a shelter against the weather, against an enemy, or against wild beasts. A bush that has served many times in this way as the retreat of a Bosjesman, and the points of whose bent boughs are beginning to grow again upwards, has perfectly the appearance of an immense bird's nest. In this state many sorts of the pliant tarcon^nthus, abundance of which grow on the other side of the Great River, are often to be found; and if they have been recently inhabited, hay, leaves, and wool may be seen, forming the bottom of the nest. It is this custom which has given rise to the name by which the savages in question are now known; Bosje signifying in African Dutch a shrub or bush; Bosjesman, consequently, a bush-man. An addi