are driven to and fro, and tread down the graincess of making it is this. A quantity of rose to a depth of about two feet. The field is now water is boiled and poured into a large unagain placed under water, and after eight or ten covered vessel, which is placed for a night in days green sprouts appear, the oxen are then cold running water. Next morning, small brought a second time and driven about till every speck of green has disappeared. In eight al almost invisible molecules float on the suror ten days the sprouts have shot up again face of the rose-water; these are collected higher than ever, and the first weeding now with a leaf of the sword-lily, and rubbed off takes place. When the plant has attained the by the finger into a vessel prepared for the height of eight or ten inches, the peasants come and pass their fingers down along the stem, as deeply into the moist soil as possible, which manipulation breaks off the lateral roots; if this were to be neglected, it is said the ears would miss." The crop not only affords a means of livelihood, but also a dwelling to the poor peasant, who forms a hollow stack of the sheaves in which he lodges, till at last perhaps he is forced to dispose of his warm abode from over his head to provide himself with winter food. purpose. This is the Atar. About 500 pounds weight of roses yield only one ounce of Atar. It is hard as rosin, of a dark green colour, with a most delicious odour of fresh roses, and is totally different from the Persian rose-oil known in Europe, neither is it an article of commerce. The horses of Cashmere according to Moorcroft are "small and indifferent," and he ought to have been a judge, if any one. But perhaps in uttering this opinion he merely meant it with reference to their inapplicability to the uses of the service; for Tobacco was first introduced into the val- our traveller, who is an old military officer, ley in the seventeenth century under the and should know something of these matters, Emperor Auranzieb. The inhabitants never-pronounces them to be ganz vortrefflich, theless prefer to it another plant named capital, "small it is true, but strong, lively, Bang. enduring, and docile," "I consider them," continues he, "even superior to the far-famed Himalayan Ghunt, neither are they so grotesquely put together as that animal, which is like a brewer's stallion in miniature." "On the Pir-Panjal I met a whole drove of them, each bearing a load of one and a half kurwar, (about 295 lbs. Avoirdupois), which they carried in one day over the "This is a species of hemp growing in prodigious quantities in waste and arid spots. It is peculiar to Cashmere and the Himalayas. The blossoms are dried and then smoked like tobacco. A tax is levied on the article. It possesses the same effect as opium, without its soporific and deleterious influence on the health. Like opium-smokers, those who smoke Bang affirm that after a whiff or two every unpleasant whole pass from Hirpur to Poscian, a distance sensation vanishes, and they feel the happiest of forty miles." mortals in existence. With more truth than many others does this plant deserve the epithet of 'utilis;' for to the Cashmerians it is indisputably so. The seeds yield oil for the table, the leaves a cooling beverage, producing, though in a slighter degree, the same effects as the blossoms. From the fibres, tow is made, which serves for ropes and nets, and the remaining parts are consumed as fuel. Even the Siek, excluded by their religion from the delights of smoking, enjoy the flowers in the form of an infusion, which affects them in the same way as the smoking does." And again he says, "It is a pretty sight to view one of them with a native on his back, galloping at full speed, often in the dried-up bed of a river, filled with great loose stones, where another horse could only proceed at a foot's-pace, and even then only with great caution." The Hunda, a sort of sheep, identical no doubt with that mentioned by Moorcroft as exceedingly well flavoured and fat, appears to have died off, and we are told that the present race is as ugly in appearance, as its flesh is ill-tasted. The Sinhara (trapa bicornis) or waterchestnut, is of such immeasurable benefit as food for the poor, that the Brahmins represent it to have been transplanted into the believed by our traveller to be the largest in valley by Lakschimi, the wife of the God the world. Vishnu. The 20,000 sinhara-fishermen, Among the birds is a species of vulture, who live on the shores of the Wular lake, "Its haunts are the highest peaks, where the eat nothing else the whole year round, and Cashmerians creep stealthily up to him, and as never ail anything except when they take he rises, as all birds of this description do, other nourishment. heavily from the ground, kill him at a single blow. This can be easily effected with the Every one is acquainted with the " rose black vulture of India, from which I was inof Cashmere," but not so, peradventure, with duced to believe that it was the same, but was the renowned "Atar Gul perfume;" the pro- soon convinced to the contrary. The bird is killed for the fur on his crop. This is used by and affording confirmation strong of the relithe inhabitants for the material for caps, to gion of Buddh having existed here long which many extraordinary qualities are attri- anterior to that of Brahma. After a discusbuted, one bird yielding stuff sufficient for a sion showing much ingenuity and reflection, he settles the question "Which are the The Bulbul of Cashmere, so renowned in oldest temples in India?" with the answer Asiatic poetry, differs entirely from that "The Dhagoba of the Buddhists." found in the rest of India. Instead of the He leaves the valley by the pass of Baracarmine coloured feathers, which adorn some- mulla, which Moorcroft, as it will be rememtimes the belly, sometimes the eyebrows of bered, also took, but was compelled to the latter, the colour here is yellow. On return. On the road, some of the stalwart the head is a cap-like tuft of feathers, which sons of the valley, who are superstitious to gives the bird a very knowing appearance. an absurd degree, entertain him with frightful They are most social companions, perking stories of ghins and ghouls, of whose excuriously into the houses, following one's istence they entertain no more doubt than of every movement, and when food is offered there being a sun in heaven. Finding him them, evincing their gratitude in sweet-toned incredulous, they determined to give him a melody. proof positive of the veracity of their asser The entomological part of the work is but tions, and being arrived near the pass, scammeagre, indeed insects are not very likely to pered up to a temple of Sadaschio on a abound where the feathered tribe so pre- neighbouring eminence, from whence they dominates, added to which the yearly return with a Brahmin. This apostle of autumnal custom of setting fire to the long ghoulism set to work forthwith to convert grass in the valley, must prove very destruc- the unbelieving baron, in the following tive to them. We are promised a more harangue: "About 5000 years ago, a notably pious Brahmin named Jambas lived in his cabin on the spot where yonder temple stands. Once on detailed treatise on these and the other productions of the animal kingdom in the two additional volumes which are requisite to complete the work and are not yet out. a time a ghin (Jin) came to his door just as he At the end of the second volume, the tra- was performing his Tup (devotions) to Vishnu, veller offers us a very elaborate description and tweaked him by his Paggeri (turban.) The of the surviving religious monuments of Cashmere. The greater part of them has been mutilated or totally razed by a certain fanatical iconoclast (as it is said), named Sikander, about the year 1396. Those still holy man knew him in a moment for a ghin, that wished to disturb his prayers, and he bid him to be off about his business, but the ghin scorned the idea of such a thing. The Brahmin now fell into a transport of pious wrath, faced about, and dealt the monster such a buffet, that extant are designed with uncommon freedom he had one of his teeth knocked out and ran of style, and are somewhat dissimilar from away howling. Here is that tooth,' said the those in Southern India. Our limits will Brahmin, as he deposited a large bundle before me. He proceeded to unfold the cloth wrapper, not allow of our following the erudite argu- and I was unable to restrain my laughter when ments of the author on this most interesting he displayed to view an elephant's lower-jaw topic. tooth." We would however direct the attention We have perused these volumes with un of Indian philologists and mythologists to the feigned pleasure, and do not hesitate to proremarkable assertions delivered with respect nounce the work to be the most instructive as to the antiquity of Buddhism. It is doubtyet presented to the public on the subject. less well known that the German antiquaries There is a vivid portrayal too of natural are still at issue on this point. The acute scenery, of a country depopulated, of temples and learned Ritter, in the face of generally and palaces levelled with the dust, such as received notions among the learned, has we in vain look for in the matter-of-fact pages maintained that there existed an older Budd- of Moorcroft, while at the same time the trahism, of which the religion of Brahma veller eschews any unnatural exaggeration. formed but a junior branch. Von Bohlen, The wonderful and entertaining are matters of on the other hand, in his comprehensive subordinate consideration. He is no Semilaswork on India, states his conviction that the so. We have before us a plain unvarnished religion of Buddh belongs to a much later tale, denuded of all anthropophagous incrediepoch than that of Brahma. This decision bilities. Not a patchwork of isolated fraghad become universally countenanced when ments, but a portrait complete in all its parts. Hügel surprises us with the discovery that in The plan of arrangement he has chosen octhe purely Brahminical Cashmere are to be casions some useless repetitions. We would found primæval temples of Buddhist origin, recommend him if he aims at extensive circu lation, to be more concise; four volumes to fore. This is by far the most perfect, and alCashmere alone is no joke, at this rate he will most the only work upon modern Abyssinia; soon stock a library. The work is embellished for although the author is of opinion that a with drawings on steel and wood-cuts; unfor- journey through that country is not attended tunately his sketches of the temple of Kora with the dangers which threatened the travelPandu were lost. Perhaps Mr. Vigne will ler in the times of Bruce and Salt, yet since supply the deficiency. How Jacquemont's travels, at present publishing by the French government from his posthumous papers, may turn out, we know not; according to his own saying "he was blind," so that the world cannot expect to be much enlightened by his re searches. Before concluding our notice, we must not omit to mention the solid benefit which our traveller conferred on Cashmere, by the intro that period only two voyages have been made thither by Europeans, one by Messrs. Coombes and Tamisier, two Frenchmen, whose work is neither distinguished for originality nor accuracy in what is original; the other by a Prussian, Herr von Katte, who, however, could penetrate no farther than Adowa, and does not seem to have been over qualified for the task. Comparisons have been said to be invidious, although they may frequently be more justly duction of the potatoe plant. In order to in- complained of as being either inapt or erronesure its cultivation, he left funds for a prize to ous. Still however from the time of Plutarch be given to those who produced a stipulated downwards they have ever been the favourite annual quantity. Zein-ul-abadin is revered measure for estimating the relative proportions by the Cashmerians as the monarch who first of those between whom there has existed a caused expert weavers to come from Turkis- similarity of character, talents, or fortune; and tan, and thus originated that source of wealth, in this instance we think there is sufficient to the shawl-manufacture; Baron Hügel's name, authorize a parallel, were it simply to compare will, we prophesy, live not less green in the this German writer and the celebrated Scottish memory of the inhabitants, as one whose phi- traveller, whose name is as inseparably conlanthropic care will have prevented a repeti- nected with Abyssinia as that of Cook with tion of those horrors of starvation, which have Otaheite. Bruce has more the stamp of the already created such fearful havoc in Cash- restless explorer, the daring adventurer, whose mere. During the famine which raged in Germany in 1770, 100,000 Saxons, and 180,000 Bohemians were swept from the land, while Prussia alone escaped a similar fate owing to the provident foresight of the great Frederick, who had not long before introduced this useful plant into his dominions. ART. IV. Reise in Abyssinien. Von Dr. 1838. THIS extremely interesting and instructive narrative of a lengthened residence in a country hitherto comparatively unexplored by the adventurous spirit of European activity, is the production of an author well known on the con character partook in a great measure of his physical qualities, and whose ardent enthusiasm carried him forwards to the fountains of the Nile, where no European had trod before (and but few after), in whose vicinity armies had perished, though they failed to reach them. Dr. Rüppell, with nearly equal powers of observation and research, and superior scientific attainments as a philosopher, antiquary and naturalist, has more the style of a discriminating observer, confirming and completing much that has been previously pointed out. The fame of Bruce was sudden and brilliant, for his adventures were startling and perilous, and occurred in regions which may be said to have been utterly unknown before he explored their wild recesses; and this fame has remained solid because he was a man of eminent talents and character who described with accuracy what he discerned with penetration. Dr. Rüppell, with the benefit of the labours of his predecessor, has produced a work valuable tinent as an enterprising traveller and natural- for the information it imparts, and which will ist. It was undertaken shortly after his elec- rise in public estimation as the country in question into the Imperial Academy of naturalists tion becomes an object of curiosity to Europe(of Leopold Caroline), in which every new ans. It is surely no small proof of this that member is entered by some name indicative of the Royal Geographical Society (of London) his works or travels, and on this occasion the have awarded to him the prize "for the most imname of Bruce was conferred upon Dr. Rüp- portant achievements in geographical research," pell, for his previous admirable descriptions of an honour which had never been conferred uporiental provinces, a name which, high as it on a foreigner, and which is alluded to with stands, would have been justified by the pre- evident pride and gratitude. A copy of a sent volumes, if it had not been deserved be-chart of the Red Sea, drawn up by many distinguished officers of the East India Com- more systematic. Tyrants in ancient days pany, was likewise presented to this author in have scourged thousands from the impulse of 1826, with an acknowledgment of the ad- individual caprice. Mehemet Ali, like them, is vantages derived from a similar work of his illustrative of the northern parts of that Sea. (It may be remarked that General Baird and other officers in like manner speak in the high est terms of the correctness of the latitudes laid down by Bruce for various places on the same coast.) In the course of this work several, generally venial, errors of Bruce are detected and rectified, but its general tendency bears decided witness of his veracity, and vin master of the lives, the persons, and the property of those he governs, but he mercilessly and incessantly expends them for the single purpose of self-aggrandizement. Men are but insensible machines in his system of political economy, and are to be applied to whatever purposes will render them most available. There is, perhaps, no race of men upon whom the iron hand of legalized oppression has closed with a more paralyzing grasp than on the dicates him from the imputations sought to be Egyptian peasantry and artisan, except the fixed upon him by Mr. Salt, who, with all his black population of the Southern districts of active talents and quick wit, does not seem to the freedom-prating United States; that free have been invariably happy in his assertions, and enlightened land of mob-upheld equality, or profound in his researches. We will pro- where bowie knives enforce the legality of ceed to lay before the reader some extracts lynch decrees, where men are sold without rewhich will afford an idea of the nature of modern morse, and retribution tracks not murder. Abyssinia-a country little less difficult and The Egyptian peasant, when unable to pay dangerous to traverse now than it has always the government taxes, becomes personally the been; where incessant vigilance is necessary slave of Mehemet Ali, whose property in this to guard against the attacks of the climate, line is constantly increased by the pressure of the inhabitants, and the wild and ferocious his exorbitant extortions; he is only allowed animals; where property is only secure when to grow the crops authorized by the Pacha, acquiescence in the extortion of the Naib and and when with unremitting toil he has raised Ras procures a temporary protection from the enough to pay his own taxes, he is frequently wholesale plunder of the robber and where in ruined, in common with the whole population plain and mountain pass, tribute, toll and pas- of his village, by being obliged to make up the sage-money are levied as a matter of course, deficiency of a neighbouring village. He is and when demurred to, enforced by the agency liable to the conscription for military service, of pointed gun-barrels and keen scymitar which is enforced with unsparing severity, or blades, wielded by hands equally skilled and forced to work in the Pacha's factories withunscrupulous in using them for the compul- out wages, and upon an allowance of food sion of refractory travellers. Any one, native barely sufficient to sustain life. But an enuor foreigner, who travels in these guerilla-rid- meration of the administrative details of the den provinces, and will not pay, or cannot de- Pacha's system would exceed the limits of fend himself, is likely to encounter a rather these pages, and we have to follow Dr. Rüpstern experience of the væ victis! Part of the first volume contains a description of the state of Egypt, and of the nature of Mehemet Ali's government, and gives an interesting account of the gradual rise of his power, with many passages of his life. Much has lately been written concerning Egypt, and pell through Abyssinia; we will therefore merely annex a part of his description of Lower Egypt. "In the many large villages, which in Lower Egypt especially are extremely numerous, a third part is often deserted and ruinous, and among the peasantry who inhabit the remain recent events have given her an importance der the most distressing indigence is apparent. which will probably fall with the transient Of the silver ornaments which, in former days, causes that have united in producing it. She were so frequently seen on the women of the has been lately forced into a constrained poli- lower classes, there is no longer a trace. The tical eminence by the talented administration furniture that garnished the huts has entirely of her despotic ruler, but it is not fully known disappeared. The confused screams of the nuwith what a dreadful sacrifice of the happiness used to greet the arrival of every visitor to the merous inmates of the poultry-yards, which of her inhabitants this arbitrary sway has been village, are no longer heard; even the number accompanied. Whatever may be the present of the cattle has decreased, from their having effect of Mehemet Ali's autocracy, certain it is been given up in payment of the taxes. The that the permanent stability of his reforms is groves of date trees are thinned, because the as doubtful as the means by which they have augmented taxation of their produce left no been enforced are ruthless and tyrannical, and prospect of gain to the cultivator, nor reward for the trouble of recruiting with new trees the the servitude in which his unhappy subjects openings caused by the decay of the old. The are held, is far more oppressive than in the magnificent verdant meadow-land has alone reworst times of the Ottoman Pachas, because mained unchanged, and presents the most glo are chequered with fields of waving corn rious aspect, when in the winter time, after the coral reefs which render this part of the Red subsidence of a favourable inundation, every acre Sea so dangerous, with variable and stormy is teeming with a luxuriant vegetation. Plan- weather, they made the Island of Dahalak, tations of fragrant beans and high-stalked hemp which lies immediately opposite to the hardark green clover, on which last buffaloes and bour of Massowa. Here the newly-installed other cattle lie scattered, generally surrounded Stadtholder was very nearly meeting with a by small groups of the white heron (adea buba- more sudden and alarming catastrophe than lis), which prey upon the grasshoppers and that which closed the career of the sagacious other insects, and seem to live indiscriminately governor of Barataria. and without fear among both men and quadru peds. Occasionally are seen broad pools, caused by the receding waters of the inundation, on which the large (many-hued) kingfisher (alcedo rudis), is patiently employed in the chase of the smaller kinds of fish, and on the banks close to a group of rushes, the grey heron is waiting in a melancholy posture for the decline of day, to obtain his booty from the watery expanse. The mud-covered beds of the dried-up canals are overgrown by a rank vegetation of the ricinus and other thorny shrubs, in which innumerable cooing pigeons seek shelter from the voracity of the vultures, and from a remote distance the approach of a stranger is announced by the alarum of the spur-winged plover (charadrius "Omar Aga, heartily weary of the constraint to which every one is subjected in the narrow limits of a transport, had caused himself to be landed on the island late in the evening, with several of his servants and slaves, intending to sleep there in the open air. Here he regaled himself with coffee, made in a copper coal-dish, and smoked tobacco; but about midnight the capricious kaimakan* took it into his head to return to the vessel. On coming on board, some of his attendants threw the copper vessel into the hold upon a sack filled with coals, and shortly afterwards the whole crew were buried in in sleep. One of the soldiers, happening fortunately to wake in the night, noticed an unusual spinosus), who seeks by simulated flight to draw glow of light throughout the ship, and soon disoff attention from the locality of her nest. The covered that the sack of coals was on fire, and border of the horizon is studded with the earth- that a large sail lying near had already been built huts of the hamlets, resembling bee-hives, and overshadowed by the thin-stemmed datepalm; and whenever the village is of any importance, a whitewashed mosque, with slen- have perished, for in the hold stood a cask conder minaret or ornamented cupola, covering taining two hundred weight of gunpowder, the grave of seen which had been used for salutes the evening shooting up from within its precincts. On the before, and left quite open, in order to save appointed sites are the lofty inclosures of reeds, trouble when wanted again in the course of forming the granaries, which contain the gov- next morning. There was also a considerable a scheik, may generally be ernment portion of the harvest; and the densely foliated sycamore trees, beneath whose grateful shade the wearied traveller seeks repose. Asses without saddle or bridle, but with heavy burdens fastened on the hind quarters, form an invariable accompaniment to the scene. Some few wretchedly-clad peasants, employed either in conveying water, or in agricultural labour, present a mournful contrast to the rich luxuriance with which nature has overspread the country."-vol. i., p. 88. caught by the flames. We were thus in the most imminent danger, and had the soldier awoke but a few minutes later, the ship must quantity of fine powder among my baggage, which I had brought for the purpose of hunting, and for presents to different chiefs." The infatuation of leaving so much powder thus exposed is a characteristic instance of oriental carelessness. The island of Massowa is founded upon one of the coral formations so frequent in the Red Sea, and is the ordinary starting point to the interior of Abyssinia from Egypt, and Having made an excursion into Stony the great outlet of the Abyssinian trade, Arabia, and completed some observations in which is conveyed to it by the caravans, the astronomy and natural history, the author, in merchandize being principally slaves, eleSeptember, 1831, hired a large Arabian vesphants' tusks, musk, wax, coffee, &c. It is sel to convey him from Djetta to Massowa. a dependency of the Ottoman empire, to This vessel was likewise engaged to carry which it was annexed by conquest in 1557, out the new governor of Massowa, Omar and is held by a Turkish garrison. The Aga, who had just been named to the com- population consists chiefly of Abyssinian mand in this town by his brother-in-law, the Mahometans, Indian pagans called Banians, governor of Djetta, in whom the appointment and of merchants from different parts of is vested; and in company with him and his Arabia, and comprises neither Christians nor escort, Dr. Rúppell set sail from Djetta on Jews. The Banians are allowed the free the 8th September, a Sunday, a day fixed in exercise of their heathenish religion, but are deference to the superstition of the Mahom- interdicted from bringing their wives to etans, who believe that no voyage can end auspiciously, if not undertaken either on that day or a Monday. After seven days' navigation through the numerous shallows and * A Turkish word signifying representative or vice regent, and synonymous with the Persian word Naib, which are both in use throughout this country. |