code of canon law, there is a divine right distinguished from the positive. It is easy to imagine that a religion which promised so many sensual enjoyments after death, propagated amongst a nation deprived of almost all comforts during life, where the proudest and richest prince could scarcely boast of the conveniences possessed by an artisan of Europe, should have found many followers; and as the new sect increased in wealth and power, the Koran, on being consulted by the rich, presented no objec tions to luxury and sensuality even in this world. The severe obligations of a husband to have but one partner were unknown; the use of wine, though publicly prohibited, was secretly indulged by the affluent; frequent ablutions, in no climate ungrateful, were under the fervid sun of Syria and Arabia enjoyments, nay necessary comforts; ignorance and poverty were not regarded as sins, and the favour of the prophet was the proud prerogative which caused the meanest Mahommedan to consider himself above and better than the most illustrious infidel. Aristocratic distinctions were scarcely known. In the highest employments of state, a minister would often retain the name of the manual occupation in which he had been engaged before his elevation. Despotism, always pleasant to those in office, was here sanctified by religion. With so many attractive temptations, it is no wonder that this persuasion gained proselytes both amongst the high and the low: to each it offered advantages, and, unlike the promised rewards of our religion, which are distant and conditional, it presented immediately to its proselytes all they could most wish for and desire. The only restrictive obligations imposed upon them were daily prayers to God and the Prophet.

"The Arabs of Granada bad their Mufti or bishop; his business was to settle theological disputes, and to direct the application of money for hospitals, mosques, and other buildings dedicated to religious or charitable purposes. Inferior ministers of religion, the Talbes, who possessed the accomplishment of reading and writing the Arabic language; and the Mudens, whose office it was to chaunt the hours of prayer from the minarets, served as lawyers and as curates, and in fact filled all the posts of government. Every Friday some one of these ministers convoked the people, and expounded a chapter of the Koran. The book was placed on velvet or cloth, that it might not be defiled by manual contact. The 'Ramadhan,' or yearly fast of a month, was strictly observed here; at that time it was unlawful for the pious even to smell meat until nightfall. Besides the Ramadhan or monthly fast, there were four festivals, each of which lasted three days, similar to the Jewish passover: the first of these was the 'Mulen,' for the birth of Mahomet; the second, Eid Segur,' in which honey and butter were to be eaten before any other viands; the third, ' Ahsor,' in which the king and the nobles gave tithes of cattle and grain to the poor; and the fourth was the 'Idquivir,' or great feast, which was held in honour of the sacrifice of Abraham; in this, the rich man killed rams to the number of his family, and even the poor always killed one. Processions were unknown amongst the Moors. The order of the Suphites was composed of Monkish ecclesiastics, who lived retired from towns similar to Christian hermits; but they had rules and a superior in all their convents. The most celebrated one was that

outside the gate of the Alfahareros at Granada. From the rules of this institution, which are preserved at the Escurial, we learn that it was founded in the second century of the Hegira, in imitation probably of the Christian monastic establishments.

"The matrimonial laws of the Arabs are similar to those of the Turks; their sepulchral rites the same also. The Arabs generally ornamented their graves with a stone sepulchre, terminating in a small pointed roof. The administration of justice resided first in the king, then in the vizier; each town had an alcalde or governor; after him came the cadis, their functions being both civil and ecclesiastic; but the halif or alguacil superintended the execution of punishments, and looked after the internal economy of the city in whieh he resided. The lex talionis was observed amongst this people; a murderer being executed with the instrument of his crime. Although Mahomet directed that succession to the throne should be conferred by election of the people, and not from consanguinity to the deceased sovereign, even among his Arabian successors this injunction was neglected and at Granada the son succeeded the father in empire. The other members of the family, however, generally desired to rule also, and the court, at the beginning and termination of every reign, was a scene of bloodshed and intrigue. The body guard of the kings was composed of an African corps called Zegris, who were considered safer and more trustworthy than national troops. A favourite place of royal diversion was the riding-school. The kings cherished and studied the breed of horses with oriental care; their genealogy was noted as in the east, and they were treated with the utmost kindness. Horsemanship and the exercise of arms occupied the bodily energies of the Granadan sovereigns; mathematics, eloquence, and poetry, were their mental occupations; perhaps they were the most polite princes of their rank and time in Europe. The army was irregularly divided into parties, which generally formed in masses to attack the enemy, each having its leader; and the commander in chief of all was invariably a relation of the King of Mauritania. Such promiscuous bodies were easily dispersed, if not successful in their first attack; but the personal valour of the men was very great, and it required much steadiness in the troops opposed to them to withstand them, if they began the battle with gaining an advantage. The royal income consisted of tithes on products paid during the Feast of Ahsor, the Almoxarifazgo,' a duty of one and a half per cent. on all manufactures exported or imported, and the 'alcabala,' or auction dues of ten per cent. The 'gabelas' were taxes specially imposed for the completion of public works: the Arab word has passed to the French in 'gabelle.' Elgaleb Billah, in order to found academies, drew a yearly income of nearly 200,000 ducats from this tax. A singularity in the dress of the Granadan Moors was, that a turban was seldom worn by them, except when high in office. In the winter, a warm cloak covered their under garments; in summer, a white flowing gown supplied its place. I possess the picture of a Christian Sybil painted by Murillo, and dressed in the female Moorish garb of Granada. The painter lived at a time which was not so far distant from the Moorish dominion in Spain, that the traces of its fashions had altogether

disappeared; and, as depicted by him, they are as follow.-vol. ii. pp. 307-310.

We may pass over these details for the following

"Of the domestie economy of this people it may be said, that they often relaxed from the orders of their prophet, and drank wine; there was however a sumptuary law which forbade them the use of silver and gold goblets. The population of ancient Granada varied, as may be supposed. In the time of Albuhagiageh, at the middle of the fourteenth century, the town is said to have contained 70,000 houses: and the historian Marmol asserts, that in 1476 it had 30,000 vecinos (five persons forming a vecindad), 8000 knights, 25,000 archers; and, in only three days, more than 50,000 fighting meu were collected from the Alpuxarras, Sierra, and Vega. Masdeu says, that in the latter there were no less than 130 water-mills, and more than 300 villas for recreation. When the Spaniards subdued this province, they could only succeed in doing so by gradually destroying the fortresses and houses, and laying waste the fields; a cruel mode of warfare, which they afterwards attempted, though without success, to employ in the Netherlands. As the Moors would not trade with Christians, all excess of agricultural produce was hidden in subterraneous chambers till necessity called it forth. As we preserve our butts of wine, so they would keep a chamber of grain from the birth till the marriage of a son, and it was found after such lapse of time to have lost little of its first excellenee, save the colour. The French in the present day are recommending a revival of this economy. Amongst others, I find recorded the introduction into Spain of the following grains, vegetables, and trees from Africa, attributed to the Moors :-the millet, the lupine, the white poppy, lentils, garbanzos, or yellow farinaceous peas, the Indian fig, the palm, the plantain, the sugar-cane, cotton, the cypress, mulberry, medlar, and indeed almost all the fruit trees now in general use. They were careful to irrigate their grounds, and though they raised no altars, like the Romans, to the god Stercutus, they were not the less aware of the value of manure, and never neglected its use. They worked velvet cloths extremely well; their preparation of leather is valued to this day, and Morocco skins are in general use throughout Europe. They dug for gold and the precious metals; their preparation of iron formed arms, and of lead they made water-pipes. Their use of stucco and of plaster to ornament dwelling-rooms is superior to the modern, and constitutes the principal beauty which is left us of the Arab monuments; their carved wood work is of equal perfection. We find no coin struck by them in Spain till the time of Abdelrhaman the Second, fourth king of Cordova; it was inscribed with his name on one side, and on the reverse with a quotation from the Koran. Elgaleb Billah was the first who coined at Granada. They measured with iron chains, to avoid the variation of cord, always more or less susceptible of impression from the atmosphere. The golden money of the Arabs in Asia, issued in the eighteenth year of the Hegira, was called dinar, whence the Spanish dinero, and Italian danaro. The Arabs borrowed it from the δενάριον of the Greeks. Of Arab paintings none are left which merit attention; their colours are generally vivid and warm, but the repre

sentation of animated nature was forbidden by their religion. The Arab literature would be respectable, did it contain no other works than the Thousand-and-one Nights, -as has been said of the Spanish with relation to Don Quixote. Quality, not quantity of writing, enhances the value of composition, and fixes the literary rank of the nation from which it emanates. In England, France, and Germany, the daily presses team with the crude offsprings of the heated brain, and the effusions of party spirit; and the tables groan with the weight of political and religious controversies usque ad nauseam. Perhaps at this moment Italy, where no one writes but under the rod of despotism, produces the most useful works: the learned in that country dedicate themselves to the labours of science, the fine arts, and antiquities; the more easy and trifling trade of politicians is scarcely known, or punished if exercised. The princes of the Fatimas in Africa, and of the Ommiades in Spain, protected and encouraged learning; Ali Bakar Mabomed, in his Codex Literarius,' enumerates seventy public libraries in different towns of their Spanish dominions; and from him it appears, that in the twelfth century there were no less than one hundred and fifty authors in Cordova, fifty-two in Almeria, seventy-one in Murcia, fifty-three in Malaga, besides a host of others in Seville, Valencia, and Granada. From the tenth century downwards, we find the names of Naschina and Moghia in poetry, Mosada in history, and Leila in general literature; these were major stars amongst the constellations, for in the library of Azra, of which Schamsedin was director, works were found of more than one hundred Granadian writers, besides fourteen from natives of Illiberis. It is not however to be supposed that Arab poetry was comparable to either ancient or modern classic writing; it was always more or less licentious and extravagant; their history false and exaggerated. The Arabs wrote with few rules, and taste was always sacrificed to imagination. In mathematics, which are not susceptible of more than one mode of application, to which there is no royal road, and the acquisition of which can only be gained by following a beaten path, the progress they made was regular and secure, and it served as the basis for future speculations in science. The simplification of arithmetical and mathematical processes and quantities by the useful invention of algebra, and the studies of Avicenna and Racis in medicine, were valuable in their time to the Christian princes. An Arab physician was generally attendant on their courts and by their confraternity the College of Medicine at Salerno in Italy was founded. Botany was advanced by Al Beithar, a native of Malaga; and though the tropical plants were not then registered, his Herbal of Europe, Asia, and Africa was useful and important. Chemistry advanced, minerals were analyzed, and vegetable substances examined. Unfortunately, the delusive notion of converting baser metals to gold, and the search after the philosopher's stone, confined most of its professors to the alembic and the crucible. The higher refinements of the science, the adoption of electricity to produce the elements of an alkali,-were reserved for our days, and are at least as extraordinary as would have been the discovery of transmuting metals, even had it been obtained. In 807 Aarun Al Raschid, the famous Caliph of Bagdad,

presented Charlemagne with a timepiece that marked and sounded the hours by elision of metal balls into a brazen bason. The dial-plate showed twelve knights, who appeared each from a door, closing again upon him when the hour was past. We have preserved many Arabic astronomical words even to the present day-zenith, nadir, azimuth, almicantarat, albidad, are still in use. Their men of science had observed the obliquity of the ecliptic, and Ben Isa measured the world from a degree of the Mediterranean. They brought solar quadrants to much perfection, and may on the whole be regarded as the fathers of modern science and experimental philosophy.”—vol. ii. pp. 311–316.

We must refer the reader to M. Bertolotti's work for details of the Saracens in Southern Italy, Sardinia, Corsica, and Malta; and conclude by noticing that we have purposely omitted comparing his stock of information with the volumes of Gibbon, Hallam, Rampoldi, and others, of whom he makes ample use.

ART. X.-Chinese Courtship. In Verse. By P.P. Thoms. Macao. THE more widely we are separated from other and distant parts of the world the more natural is our indifference for its customs and manners; and if these supply a passing trait, now and then, to add to our knowledge, and, better, to our amusement also, it is the utmost that can be required for the world of readers in general, and even any but the more scientific, learned, and curious. The number of these bears no proportion to the mass; and since it is chiefly to the mass that a journal like ours must address itself, we are bound to abstain from any thing beyond a casual notice of such uninteresting exotics.

This very necessity of abstaining, however, though it may excuse us for deferring till now an account of works like the present, so long as any more interesting or important subjects, nearer home, require our attention, will yet by no means justify our neglecting altogether those pictures of foreign and utterly distinct feelings and usages; so opposite to ours and so little known, that it is almost doubted, even by the majority of readers, whether there can be any similarity at all between them.

There are, however, two points of interest: the sympathies of similarity and contrast. The first of these is more closely connected with our general habits, and is in truth the only one that becomes a part and portion of our existence; assisting the judgment by increasing experience, and offering only such differences as add variety and novelty to previous conceptions; hues and