epitome of all the lower order of human passions. Fury predominated, but it was risible fury-it was fury that rather grinned than frowned; though under it were to be seen shame and mortification, sorrow and resentment, pride and degradation, silly bashfulness and decayed importance. For some time he stood transfixed to the spot, his eyes glistening like those of a rat in a trap; his pointed whiskers moving with the contortions of his lips, and his mouth every now and then opening like the beak of a wounded hawk. To utter his sensations he was unable; and he continued in this state, not only till my laughter was abated, but till I had time to reflect and be seriously concerned,

At length, without saying a sentence, he wheeled about, threw off his slippers, drew on his boots, vociferated till he brought all the people of the caravansera about him, and ordered horses to be ready instantly. As orders from such a person were not likely to be disobeyed, the horses were got ready. I saw that I must either proceed, or come to an open rupture with him; so recollecting that I was myself in fault, that a dispute might be fatal, and that at all events it was only the humor of the moment, I drew on my boots too, and was ready to go, though I was much fitter for a twelve hour's nap than for an hour's travelling on horseback.

We mounted immediately, and it was my good fortune to have the best horse. He set out upon the gallop, the moon shining as bright almost as day; I put forward my horse, and kept rather before him, which vexed him so, that he beat the poor animal he rode on most unmercifully. At length after about eight or ten miles riding, he called a halt-dismounted, and said he would rest there all night. I saw it was all resentment: but know. ing that it would be in vain to remonstrate, I dismounted too; and, judging that the best way to mortify him in return, was to comply with affected approbation, turned to my servant and told him (knowing that it would ge from him to the Tartar) that I was delighted with the beauty of the night; remarking at the same time, that lying in the sweet salubrious air was far preferable to being confined in the sultry filth of a caravansera.

As soon as this was communicated to the Tartar, he remarked, that the open air was the fittest place for the beasts of the forest, and therefore suitable to a Frank; but for his part, he had much rather repose on a cushion, which he should have done, had it not been for my at cursed risible faculties.

Here the conversation rested, and we fell asleep. In a few hours he awoke us, and we set forward: after some pause, he began in the following manner, which was interpreted to me, as he spoke, by my servant:

"Surely God made laughter for the derision and shame of mankind, and gave it to the Franks and monkies; for the one ha, ha, ha's, and the other he, he, he's, and both are malicious, mischievous, and good for nothing but to fret and tantalize, all that come across them."

Here he paused, as waiting for something to be said; however, I remained silent. At length, he continued: "Not but that, with all their laughter, they have the wisdom to take special care of themselves; for half a dozen monkies, will he, he, he, and empty a whole orchard of its fruit in the reckoning of a hundred; and a Frank will ha, ha, ha, and eat you up pillaws and poultry like a wolf, and drink up wine with the same moderation that a camel drinks up water."

I thought I should have choaked with smothered laughter: I would not however interrupt him, and so contrived to keep it to myself: he proceeded to apothematise:

"But with all their he, he, he's, and ha, ha, ha's, it sometimes turns out that they are caught: the monkey is seized in a trap and caged or knocked in the head, and the Frank is put in jail, and bastinadoed or hanged; and then the tune is changed, and it is Oh, ho, ho!" Here he began to mimic crying so admirably, and at the same time so ridiculously, that I burst out laughing again.

"Observe, Jimmel," said he hastily, "observe! you can't refrain! But by our holy prophet," said he seriously, "it may end as I said: so look to yourself, and avoid laughter in caravanseras, or we part; for there are places, and that was one of them last night, where suspicion would ruin you. And if you lost your life, what

S

should I say for myself on my return to Aleppo? Eh, what should I say for myself? Ha, ha, ha! would not do. No, no, they would not believe it, and I should lose my character."

"Why, don't you laugh yourself?" said I.

"Very seldom, or rather never," returned he; "at least I would not in time of danger. No, no, none but Christians and monkies makes a practice of laughing— Turks and Tartars are wiser." I promised him, that I would in future take more care; and by way of appeas ing him with a little flattery, said, that he played his part so admirably, it was impossible to resist the impulse. But he answered, with a grave face, that his action in that case was of too serious nature to be made a subject of merriment-and advised me to believe so.

THE solicitude of my guide for my safety was

the earnestness of a man of business, zealous to discharge with the utmost punctuality the duty he had undertaken; and I must observe to you, that the whole of his conduct evinced a precision and punctuality of dealing, rarely found in our intercourse with mankind. Previous to leaving Aleppo, he had undertaken to convey me safe-he was, as you may already perceive, indefatigable and unremitting in his endeavors to do so; he had promised to supply me with food-so he did, in the most ample manner; he promised to go as I pleased, fast or slow-so he did; he promised to change horses with me, as often as I thought proper to desire he did so. beyond this, he seemed to carry his care of me no farther than to any bale of goods he might have in his charge. He was bound to deliver me safe, in good order and condition, at Bagdad: so much he was determined to do, and no more did he think of. I had got letters to the bashaws of some of the towns through which we were to pass: but as the delivery of a letter

But

ie, according to the custom of that country always accompanied with a present, I thought it better to decline delivering them, except when necessity compelledthough the state of the country was so unsettled, that we often had occasion for a guard.

As soon as the remembrance of the laughing affair was a little decayed, the Tartar began to relax into good humor, and to talk with his usual vehemence; for he was always, according to the flow of his spirits, either sullenly silent or extravagantly loquacious. His tongue might be considered as a thermometer, by which the warmth or coldness of his temper might be calculated, and the extremes of garrulity and taciturnity were the indices. His conversation, however, was very circumscribed, and consisted chiefly of stories of himself and his horse, the amazing journeys he made, and the feats of manhood he performed. One circumstance I must in justice mention, as I think it marks strongly the habitual delicacy and modesty of this people. Although he frequently lamented my banishment from my family, and though we were for eighteen days continually conversing on ariety of occasions that might lead to the subject, he never once talked of women; never, in all his pity for my situation, glanced even remotely at the possibility of my getting a substitute in that way; never hinted that he thought of them himself. On seeing women, coming to the wells, they reminded me of some of the stories in the Old Testament. I mentioned it, but it went no farther; for whenever the subject was started, he threw cold water on it.

That he conceived me to be in some respects a parcel of property, I have good reason to believe: for I observed that at some caravanseras the people collected round me, and regarded me with strong symptoms of surprize and pity; some viewed me with commisseration, some with contempt; but not one creature, however wretched or abject, seemed to envy my situation.

I was the more confirmed in this opinion by an incident that happened between Diarbeker and Mosul. One morning I was unusually overcome with the fatigues of the preceding day: the Tartar called me, summoned me

to horse; and finding that I gave no answer, nor shewed any token of awaking, he lifted me in his arms bodily from my couch (such was his strength that he did it without any difficulty) carried me out without the least ceremony, and before I was so completely awake as to be sensible of my situation, had me fixed upon a horse ready to depart.

A transaction so very singular, you may well conclude, surprised me at the time, and would not readily be forgotten: such a crowd of strange, confused, and incongruous thoughts and sensations as occurred to me, I never before experienced: they were painful, they were surprising but I was in such a state that I could not afterwards analyse them. The chief reflection that arose from it was, that human sentiment must be in a deplorable state of degradation indeed, when such a circumstance could occur from the notion that a man was as much an asset er piece of property, could be transferred by the same means, and moved in the same unfeeling manner, as any portion of inert matter that makes up a bale of merchanze. Of the truth of this position I had soon after a melancholy proof, in an incident which, though lamentable, was attended with such ludicrieus circumstances, that even now I never think of it without smil. ing-smiling, as I did then, with a heart bleeding with pity.

One morning I was awakened before day-break with a bustle in the caravansera where we lodged. I conjectured that the Tartar was preparing to get forward, and rose in order to lose no time. I was so far right in my conjectures: the horses were ready, and I came out to mount, and was very much surprised to perceive several horses before me loaded with something which stood erect from their backs, and which I had barely light to discern were not men. I concluded that they were bales of merchandize packed in a particular form, and asked no questions till full day-light disclosed to me that they were human creatures tied up in sacks, and fastened astride on the horses' backs. There was a strange union of horror and oddity in the conception, that struck me at once with a mixed emotion of indignation, pity, and