on the deck, and attentively liften for two or three hours together, to a declamation, which the most unexperienced ear muft at once perceive to be poetry, from the exact nefs of the meafure and the continually recurring rhymes. It is not in this alone that the common people of the East excel ours in delicacy. The populace even in the great cities, notwith landing the turbulence of their difpofitions, are never fo brutal as we frequently fee them with us, and they have the great merit of not being addicted to drunkennefs, a vice from which even our country peasants are not free. Perhaps this is the only real advantage produced by the legiflation of Mahomet: unlefs we may add the prohibition of games of chance, for which the Orientals have therefore no taste; chefs is the only amufement of this kind they hold in any eftimation, and we frequently find among them very fkillful players.

"Of all the different fpecies of public exhibitions, the only one they know, and, which is common at Cairo alone, is that of ftrollers, who fhew feats of strength, like our rope-dancers, and tricks of flight of hand like our jugglers. We there fee fome of them eating flints, others breathing flames, fome cuting their arms, or perforating their noles, without receiving any hurt, and others devouring ferpents. The people, from whom they carefully conceal the fecrets of their art, entertain, a fort of veneration for them, and call thefe extraordinary performances, which appear to have been very ancient in thefe countries, by a name which fignifics prodigy or miracle. This propenfity to admiration, and facility of believing the most extraordinary facts or tales, is a remarkable fea

To

ture in the character of the Orien tals. They admit, without hefitation or the leaft fhadow of doubt, the most wonderful things that can be told them, and if we regard the tales current among them, as many prodigies happen every day as have been afcribed to the age of the genii and fairies; the feafon of which no doubt is, that being totally ignoant of the ordinary courfe of phy fical and moral caufes, they know not the limits of probability and impoffibility. Besides, having been accustomed from their earliest youth to believe the extravagant fables of the Koran, they are wholly dettitute of any fandard of analogy, by which to distinguish truth from falfehood. Their credulity therefore arifes from their ignorance, the imperfection of their education, and the nature of government. this credulity the extravagance of imagination which fome have fo much admired in their romances, is in a great measure to be attributed; but though they were deprived of this fource, their works would ftill poffefs many brilliant ornaments. In general, the Orientals are remarkable for a clear conception, an eafy expreffion, a propriety of language in the things they are acquainted with, and a paffionate and nervous ftyle. They have particularly a tafte for moral fentences, and their proverbs fhew they know how to unite the juftnefs of obfervation, and profundity of the thought to an ingenuity and force of expreffion. Their conver fation appears at first to have a fort of coldness, but when we are more accustomed to it, we find ourselves greatly attached to them. Such is the good opinion with which thofe who have had most communication with them have been impreffed, that the greater part of our travel

lers

lers and merchants, who have known them best, allow that they find in them a people of a more humane and generous character, and poffething more fimplicity, and more refined and open manners, than

even the inhabitants of European countries; as if the Afiatics, having been polished long before us, ftill preferved the traces of their early improvement."

"TH

HAT thefe people are fill the unpolished creatures that rude nature formed them; or, at moft, have only advanced one degree towards humanity, is evinced, among other circumstances by their family economy.

Many of them are ftationary, having regular habitations, according to their fituation in life. To this clafs belong thofe who keep public houfes in Spain, and others who follow fome regular bufinefs in Transilvania and Hungary, which latter, have their own miferable huts near Hermanstadt, Cronstadt, Bistritz, Groffwaradein, Debrezin, Eperies, Karchau, and other places. There are alfo many flaves to particular bojars, in Moldavia and Wallachia, who do not wander from their place of refidence any more than the others. But by far the greatest number of thefe people, lead a very different kind of life ignorant of the comforts attending a fixed place to live at, they wander from one diftrict to another in hords, having no habitations, but tents, holes in the rocks, or caves; the former fhade them in fummer, the latter fcreen them in winter. Many of thefe favage people, particularly in Ger

many and Spain, do not even carry tents with them, but shelter themfelves, from the heat of the fun, in forests, fhaded by the rocks, or behind hedges: they are very partial to willows, under which they erect their fleeping place, at the clofe of the evening. Some live in their tents (in their language called efchater) both fummer and winter; which they generally prefer to every thing elfe. In Hungary, even thofe who have given up their rambling way of life, and built houfes for themfelves, feldom let a fpring pafs, without taking advantage of the first fettled weather, to fet up a tent for their fummer refidence; under this each one enjoys himfelf, with his family, nor thinks of his houfe, till the winter returns, and the froft and fnow drive him back to it again.

"When he can get it, the wandering Gipfey, in Hungary and Tranilvania, has an horfe; in Turkey, an afs ferves to carry his wife, a couple of children, with his tent. When he arrives at any place he likes, near a village or city, he unpacks, pitches his tent, ties his animal to a ftake to graze, and remains fome weeks there: or if he does not find his ftation con

venient

venient, he breaks up in a day or two, loads his beast, and looks out for fome more agreeable fituation, near fome other town. Indeed, he has it not always in his power to determine how long he fhall remain in the fame place; for the boors are apt to call upon him, on account of fowls and geefe, he has made free with. It fometimes happens, when he is very much at his eafe, they fally out with bludgeons or hedge-stakes, making ufe of fuch forcible arguments, that he does not hesitate a moment, to fet up his staff a little further off. Though, in general, the Gipties are cunning enough, when they have purloined any thing, or done other mifchief, to make off in time, before the villagers begin to fufpect them.

For their win er huts they dig holes in the ground, ten or twelve feet deep, their roof is made of rafters laid acrofs, which are covered with straw and fods: the itable, for the beaft which carried the tent in fummer, is a fhed built at the entrance of the hollow, and clofed up with dung and ftraw. This fhed, with a little opening, rifing above the roof, to let out the fmoak, are the only marks by which a traveller can diftinguith their dwellings. Both in fummer and winter, they contrive to have their habitation in the neighbourhood of fome village or city. Their favourite method of building is again an hillock, the holes in the level ground being only used in cafes of neceffity, when there is no rifing ground near the fpot they have pitched upon to pass the winter at. An Hungarian writer thus defcribes their method of conftruct. ing the fecond fort of huts. "They dig an hollow, about a fathom broad, far enough into the hillock to bring their floor on a level with

the rest of the plain, in order to form a firm upright wall, for the back of the building. Into the wall they fix a beam, about fix feet from, and parallel to the floor, this beani reaches as far as the intended depth of the houfe, feldom exceeding feven or eight feet. One end being faft in the wall, the other rests on, and is fixed to, a pillar or poft driven into the ground. When that is done, they lay boards, balks, or fuch other fuch wood as they can find, against it on each fide, in form of a pointed roof, which view. ed from a distance, exhibits a front in the fhape of an equilateral triangle. The operation is concluded by covering the whole building with ftraw, fods, and earth, to fe cure its inhabitants from the rain, fnow and cold. They always contrive, when they can, to place their edifice fo as to front either the rifing or mid-day fun; this being the fide where the opening is left, for a door to go in and out at, which is clofed at night, either with a coarfe woollen cloth, or a few boards."

"One may cafily imagine, how difmal and horrid, the infide of fuch gipfey huts must be. Air and daylight excluded, full of damp, ftink, and filth, they have more the appearance of wild beafts dens than the habitations of intelligent beings. Rooms and feparate apartments are not even thought of; all is one open space, in the middle whereof is the fire, ferving both for the purpofe of cooking and warming them; the father and mother lie half naked, the children entirely fo, round it Chairs, tables, beds or bediteads, find no place here; they fit, eat, fleep, and do every thing on the bare ground, or, at moft, fpread an old blanket, or, in the Banat, a theep-fkin under them. When they

have a fine day, the door is fet open for the fun to shine in, which they continue watching, fo long as it is above the horizon; when the day closes, they fhut their door, confign themselves over to reft, and fleep till its return. When the weather is cold, or the fnow prevents their opening the door, they make up the fire, fit round it till they fall afleep, without any more light than it affords.

"The furniture and property of the gipfies have been already defcribed; they confift of an earthen pot, an iron pan, a fpoon, a jug and a knife; when it fo happens, that every thing is complete, they fometimes add a dif: thefe ferve for the whole family. When the mafter of the house is a finith by trade, as will be mentioned by and bye, he has a pair of bellows to blow up his fire, a small stone anvil, a pair of tongs, perhaps a couple of hammers, add to thefe a few old tatters, in which, as before mentioned, he dreffes himself, his knapfack, fome pieces of torn bed cloaths, his tent, his antiquated jade, and you have a complete catalogue of a nomadic Gipfy's eftate. "There is very little to be faid concerning the domeftic employ ment of the women, the care of their children is little, indeed hardly any at all. They neither wafh, mend their cloaths, nor clean their utenfils, they feldom bake, the whole of their bufinefs then, is reduced to these few articles: dreffing their food and eating it, fmoaking tobacco, prating, and fleeping. They continue the whole winter in their hut, but at the first croaking of the frogs, they pull down their house and march off.

"Such is the condition of the Gipfies who wander about in Huns

gary, Turkey, and other countries, being no where, or rather every where, at home. The remainder of thefe people, who have recons ciled themfelves to a fettled way of life, are in much better circumftances, and vastly more rational, than those I have just described. It might be reafonably expected, that thofe Spanish Giplies, who are innkeepers, and entertain ftrangers, fhould be more civilifed, but it also holds good, with regard to those in Hungary and Tranfilvania, whe have different ways of gaining a livelihood. Their habitations are conveniently divided into chambers, are likewife furnifhed with tables, benches, decent kitchen-furniture, and other neceffaries. The few who farm or breed cattle, have a plough and other implements of husbandry, the others in a certain degree what is wanted for carrying on their trade; though even here you are not to expect fuperfluity. Their habitations, cloaths, as well as every thing elfe belonging to them, indicate, that even thefe belong to the clafs of poor. They are very fond of gold and filver plate, particularly filver cups, which is a difpofition they have in common with the wandering Gipfies. They let flip no opportunity of acquiring fomething of the kind, they will even starve themfelves to procure them. Though they fee little axious to heap up riches for their children, yet thefe frequently inherit a treasure of this fort, and are obliged in their turn to preferve it as a facred inheritance. The ordinary travelling Giplies, who are in poffeffion of fuch a piece of plate, commonly bury it under the hearth, of their dwelling, in order to prevent its being made away with. This inclination to deprive

one's