part, ftout-bodied men; but the Arabians are of a finaller ftature, and flender; vet these last are accounted the beft foldiers. I have been a witnefs to their agility; and I am told their courage is equal to their activity. I faw a kind of war pantomime between three Perfians and three Arabs: they naturally fought in pairs. The Perfians kept their ground, and warded off the blow's that were aimed at them in the beft manner they could. The Arabians, on the contrary, when a ftroke was aimed at them, fprung up in the air to an incredible height, and inftantly made an attack on their antagonists. In the mean time, both Perfians and Arabs were finging, or rather muttering fome fentences, which I did not underftand. The Perfians, I was told, were finging the exploits of ShahNadir; and the Arabs were invoking the affiftance of their prophet.

There, is a race of mortals in this country that they call Caffres, that are flaves to every other tribe they have black woolly hair, and came originally from Caffraria, in the fouth promontory of Africa. I converfe fometimes with thefe poor devils, for I think that the opinions and fentiments of all men, however abject their fate, ⚫ deferve attention, They tell me, that the Micar mans are better mafters than the Chriflian mans. They are fenfible of their inferiority in education, at least, if not in nature, to Moors, Hindoos, and Chriftians; and feem contented with their fituation. They are fo habituated to flavery, that I am perfuaded they have loft all defire of freedom; and that they

are happier in the fervice of a good mafter, who is their protector and their God, than they would be in a state of independ ence: in the fame manner that a dog would leave the greatest abundance of food in a defert, and joyfully perform with his owner, even though he fhould fometimes beat him, a long and tedious journey, fubjected to the pain of hunger and of thirst.

The natives of this country are more flim, and generally of a fhorter ftature than Europeans. It is a curious fight to fee their children running about naked, and fpeaking by the time they are half a year old. I was aftonifhed to be faluted by these littie figures, who, after giving me the falam (putting their hands to their foreheads and bowing to the very ground) would ask for fomething: for all the children of the lower cafts are great beggars; and they go ftark naked until they are nearly arrived at the age of pu berty. Their mental faculties, as well as their bodily powers, ar rive much fooner at maturity than thofe of Europeans do; yet it is not true, as is commonly believed, that they fooner decay. Eastern luxury, which affects novelty only in the zenana, feeks for new wives, and foon difcards the old; but many fine women are deserted in this manner; and in general, the women of thirty or forty in this country, are as well favoured as women of that age are in Europe. A native of India, who confiders a woman merely as an inftrument of pleafure, would be infinitely furprised at the condefcenfion of a good hale man of fixty walking with a wife up

wards

wards of fifty, hanging on his

arm.

Children are all taught reading and arithmetic in the open air. They learn to diftinguish their letters, and the figures they uie in their arithmetic (which, I have been told, is a kind of Algebra) forming them with their own hands, either in the fand or on boards.

Marriages are contracted by boys and girls, and confummated as foon as they arrive at puberty; that is, when the men are thirteen years of age, and the women nine or. ten. The marriage ceremony is performed three times; once when the couple are mere infants; a fecond time, when the gentleman may be about eight or nine years old, and the lady five or fix; and the third and laft time, at the age I have already fpecified. Etween the first and fecond marriage ceremonies, the young couple are allowed to fee one another: they run about and play together as other children do; and knowing they are deftined for each other, commonly conceive, even at that early period, a mutual affection. But after the fecond time of marriage, they are feparated from each other; the bride, especially if the be a perfon of condition, being fhut up in the womens apartment until the happy day of the third and laft ceremony, when the prieft fprinkles on the bride and bridegroom abundance of rice, as an emblem of fruitfulnefs.

Thefe early contracts are undoubtedly well calculated to in fpire the parties with a mutual and lafting affection. The earlieft part of life is in every country the

happieft; and every object is pleafing that recalls to the imagination that bleffed period. The ductile minds of the infant lovers are eafily twined into one; and the happieft time of their life is alociated with the fweet remembrance of their early connection. It is not fo with your brides and bridegrooms of thirty, forty, and fifty they have had previous attachments; the beft part of life is paft before their union, perhaps before they ever faw each other.

I had once the honour to be prefent at the wedding of a Persee of good condition. Of this I hall give you a minute defcription. Important matters you will find in the writings of grave hifto. rians; what I fhall relate, will be fuch trifling circumftances as are below the notice of thofe perfonages, but which, nevertheless, cu riofity might wish to know.

In Hindoftan, the expence of clothes is almost nothing; and that of food, firing, and lodging, to the natives I mean, very trif ling. The Hindoos are not addicted to any expenfive vices, their paffions and defires being gentle and moderate. Yet they are frugal and induftrious, and as eager to amafs riches as any of the natives of Europe. A Jew, a Dutchman, or a Scots pediar, is not more attentive to profit and lofs. What is the reafon of this? They are lovers of fplendor and magnificence in every thing, but particularly in what relates to their women. It is in their harams, but efpecially on occation of their mar. riages, that they pour forth the collected treatures of many induftrious years.

The Perfee at whofe wedding I

was

was a gueft, many weeks before hand, fent invitations to his numerous friends and acquaintance; to affemble at the fixed time, at a spacious hall erected for the occafion in a beautiful field. It was the dry feafon, when the air was conftantly mild and ferene, and the whole vegetableworld breathed a delightful fragrance. The hall was formed by bamboos, connected together, as is ufual in that country, and covered with cloth. It was a medium between a houfe and a tent, being lefs folid than the former, but more fubftantial than the latter. Here the company affembled after the heat of the day was over, to the number of feveral hundreds. After a rich re- paft, which was served with great regularity, we fet out to meet the bride, meffengers having arrived at the hall to announce her approach. The young Perfee was mounted on a camel richly caparifoned, himself adorned with a multitude of jewels, and highly perfumed. A number of flaves walked by the fide of the camel, holding an umbrella over the head of their mafter, while others fanned his face. The company had, as ufual, their palanquins. In the mean time we were entertained by a band of mufic, confifting of pipers, blowing very loud on the great pipe with their mouths, and playing with their fingers on another; trumpeters, and a kind of drummers, beating on what they call tam tams. The mufic was dreadfully loud, but to my ear not very pleafant. There was only one tune; nor did I ever hear another during thefe fix years I have been in India. We arrived at a village, where we

were met by the bride, attended by an infinite number of her female acquaintance, her near male relations, and a crowd of fervants. A gentleman's carriage in the fervice of the Company was borrow. ed for the bride. It was an open phaeton, drawn in flow proceffion by four beautiful Arabian horfes.-The practice of borrowing English equipages on matrimonial occafions, is very common; and they are always lent with great good humour.-As to the rest of the ladies, fome rode on camels, fome in carriages drawn by fpotted buffaloes and bullocks, whofe horns were tipt with filver, and their heads adorned with flowers bound by ribbands. The bride was a tall comely young creature; her long black hair falling down over her fhoulders, and then turned up in wreaths, elegantly adorned with embroidered ribbands and precious ftones. It was at that moment when her husband gave her the falam, in a modeft and respectful manner, and at a fmall diftance, when the stood up in the phaeton, veiled only by an umbrella, that I, who had the honour of being near the bridegroom, had a full view of his lovely bride.

At the end of the village an accident happened, which interrupted for a fhort time the joy of the day, and filled the minds of hundreds with the moft alarming apprehenfions. The men as well as the women gave a loud shriek, and ran in a diftracted manner, not knowing what they did: even the bride was for a moment deferted by thofe of her own religion and kindred, and left to the care of her European drivers. Some

unlucky

falling over their fhoulders in flowing ringlets, or braided and turned up, is loaded with precious ftones, and ornamented with flowers. Their necklaces and bracelets are enriched in the fame manner; even their nofejewels, which at firft fight appear hocking to an European, have fomething pleafing, after custom has worn off the effect of prejudice, and by a certain fyminetry, fet off all the other ornaments. Nothing can equal the care they take to preferve their breafts, as the most striking mark of beauty. In order to prevent them from growing large or ill-fhaped, they enclose them in cafes made of exceedingly light wood, which are joined together, and fastened with buckles of jewels behind. Thefe cafes are fo fmooth and pliant, that they give way to the various attitudes of the body without being flattened, and without the fmalleft injury to the delicacy of the fkin. The outfide of thefe cafes is covered with a leaf of gold, and ftudded with diamonds. Theytake it off and put it on again with equal facility. This covering of the breaft conceals not from the amorous eye palpitations, heav'ngs, various tender emotions, noraught that can contribute toexcite defire while at the fame time it leaves fomething for the fpecta tor to guefs. The balladieres imagine that they heighten the beauty of their complexion, and the impreffion of their countenances,, by tracing black circles round their eyes, with a hair bodkin dipped in the powder of antimony. On their ancles, befides jewels, they. wear bells, which they think have a very good effect; but

which, I confefs, I do not not admire.

The balladieres, it must be obferved, are not all of the fame rank and condition. It is only the higher ranks among them who, I have been told, are confecrated to the ufe of Brahmins, the firft cafte in this fuperftitious country, that can afford to have a load of diamonds. Nor do the balladieres of this clafs ftroll thro' the country. But if the common dancing girls are not usually adorned with diamonds, they have other precious ftones and ornaments that ftrike with equal effect. In every other refpect, their dress refembles that of the balladieres of the first rank.

When the girls dance, they do not hop, cut, and skip, like our actreffes in Europe; they never lift their feet high Their dances would not be fuffered, it must be owned, in an affembly of European ladies.

They exprefs, by mute action, all the raptures and extravagancies of the paffion of love, when in deep retirement, concealed from every prying eye, the happy lovers, throwing afide all reftraint, yield to the irrefiftble impulfe of the most ardent defire in nature. Nor is mute action the whole of this fcene. The girls accompany their wanton attitudes with lafcivious fongs, until, overcome by the power of imagination, and the ftrength of perfumes, their voices die away, and they become motionlefs; which is the conclufion of this opera, fhall I call it, or pantomime ?

The ball lafted until morning. Refreshments, were prefented to the company at short intervals during the night. The bride was

accom