the Chinese have eight different methods of shewing their respect.

The lowest is Kung-show, which is expressed by joining both hands, and elevating them before the breast. The next is Iso-yih, bowing low with the hands joined. The third is Ta-tseen, bending the knee, as if about to kneel. The fourth is Kwei, to kneel. The fifth Ko-tow, kneeling, and striking the head against the ground. The sixth Sankow, striking the head three times against the earth, before rising from the knees. The seventh Lub-kow, kneeling, and striking the head again three times, rising on the feet kneeling down again, and striking the head again three times against the earth. The eighth is the San-kwei-kew-kow, kneeling three different times, and at each time knocking the head thrice against the ground.

The governors of the Scythian provinces annually gave a feast to those who had valiantly slain their enemies with their own hands. The skulls of the vanquished served them for cups; and the quantity of wine they were allowed to drink was proportioned to the number of skulls they possessed. The youth who could not yet boast of such martial exploits contemplated distantly the solemn festival, without being. admitted to approach it. That this institution produced courageous warriors cannot be doubted; but it may be questioned whether it made them better men. War.cor

rupts the morals of the people, and makes the hearts of their governors callous.

The Spartans were not allowed to combat-often with the same enemy. They wished not to inure them to battle; and if their enemies revolted frequently, they were accustomed to exterminate them.

The Ansi, who were a Libian nation, let their hair grow on the fore part of their heads. They celebrated annually a feast in honour of Minerva, in which the girls, divided into two companies, fought with sticks and stones. Thus they said they paid to the goddess the customary honour of their country those who died of their wounds were believed not to be virgins. When the contest was concluded, they arrayed her in Greek armour who had fought most valiantly (the helmet was Corinthian;) they then placed her in a car, and conducted her in triumph round the Palus Tritonis.

The men assembled every three months, and when the chil dren were able to walk alone, they were brought by their mothers to the assembly, for hitherto they had been under the care of their female parents. He, to whom the child first spoke, acknowledged himself its father. Such was the custom of this nation, according to Herodotus, because all its women

were common.

The Celtic held the Dioscuri in more veneration than the other gods. They gave their children in their infancy but a very thin clothing; and to be assured whether or no their wives had been faithful to them, they laid their new-born child on a buckler, and thus exposed it on the Rhine. If the child was legitimate, the water kept it afloat;—if it was the offspring of adultery, it was swallowed by the waves.

Empty civilities, and ceremonies which signify nothing, are at present too much the fashion with ourselves. It is the etiquette of the court to allow no person to be seated in the presence of Majesty, and I cannot help thinking that it sometimes proves very inconvenient and distressing to the feelings of royalty. Her late Majesty was once at the theatre when in an advanced state of pregnancy, attended by the Duchess of Ancaster-who was also in the same situation. Her Grace at length appeared so greatly fatigued, that the Queen turned to her, and commanded her to be seated. The Duchess, however pleased she might feel at this mark of public distinction, replied, "Please your Majesty, it is contrary to etiquette," and begged permission to be allowed to remain standing. The Queen immediately rose, and said, "If your Grace does not sit down, I will leave the theatre, for I cannot see you stand for so many hours." The Duchess obeyed, and was perhaps the only lady who ever enjoyed such a mark of royal favour and feeling.

The Duke of Clarence, on the contrary, was extremely tenacious of the observance of this ceremony. When his royal highness was at Halifax, he expressed his wishes to General Mac Cormack, the governor, to have a ball in the evening. The intimation was a command, and messengers were sent to summon all the ladies to the government house. When the general had executed this part of his commission, he returned to the Duke, and incautiously seated himself without being commanded. This infringement on etiquette was not overlooked by his royal highness, who immediately

rose from his seat, and by this silent reprimand, reminded the governor that he was speaking to a Prince of the Blood.

Philip the Third of Spain was also a great stickler for etiquette; but while he exacted the most punctilious respect from the grandees of his kingdom, he condescended to salute the peasants. He would never suffer them to address him but on their knees; for which he gave this artful excuse, that as he was of low stature, every one would have appeared too high for him. He showed himself rarely even to his grandees, that he might the better support his haughtiness, and repress their pride. He also affected to speak to them by half words, and reprimand them if they did not guess at the rest. In fact, he was accustomed not to omit any circumstance that could mortify his nobility.

The King of Persia, when he makes a public entry into Teheran, the present metropolis of Persia, is presented at intervals as he rides along with bowls filled with sugar-candy, of which he first takes a piece himself, and then orders it to be given to those whom he wishes to favour with his particular notice. M. Morier, and the gentlemen of the embassy, were honoured in this manner by his Persian Majesty.

The Mexicans distinguished their principal officers of the empire with the singular titles of princes of unerring javelins; hackers of men; and drinkers of blood. The King of Ava calls himself a god; and, among other ridiculous titles, king of the four-and-twenty unbrellas! These umbrellas are always carried before him, as a mark of his dignity.

The Babylonians had a law, which was also followed by the Heneti, an Illyrian people, and by Herodotus thought to be one of their best, which ordained, that when girls were of a marriageable age, they were to repair at a certain time to a place where the young men likewise assembled. They were then sold by the public crier, who first disposed of the most beautiful one. When he had sold her, he put up others to sale, according to their degrees of beauty. The rich Babylonians were emulous to carry off the finest women, who were sold to the highest bidders. But as the young men who were poor could not aspire to have fine women, they were content to take the ugliest, with the money which was given with them: for when the crier had sold the handsomest, he ordered the ugliest of all the women to be brought, and inquired if any one was willing, to take her

with a small sum of money.

Thus she became the wife of him who was most easily satisfied; and thus the finest women were sold, and from the money which they brought, small fortunes were given to the ugliest, and to those who had any bodily deformity. A father could not marry his daughter as he pleased, nor was he who bought her allowed to take her home, without giving security that he would marry her. But after the sale, if the parties were not agreeable to each other, the law enjoined that the purchase-money should be restored. The inhabitants of any of their towns were permitted to buy wives at these auctions.

The

Amongst the Cretans, the establishment of the young men was also regulated by the laws. Young Cretans of mature age were not permitted to marry as they thought fit themselves-they were not left to the impulse of passion, by which we are so frequently misled in that serious engagement. In forming the contract of wedlock, riches and pleasure were not their objects-those delusive phantoms which often bring discord, indifference, and regret. In truth, a Cretan married not for himself, but for the state. best magistrate had the right of choosing the strongest and best-made of the young men, and of marrying them to women who resembled them in constitution and figure, that a well-proportioned matrimonial union might produce a robust, tall, well-made posterity, whose physical powers would do honour to the nation; defend it; terrify their enemies by their mere presence; and conquer and reduce them to subjection, by their strength and their valour.

By the laws of the Franks, a man was allowed but one wife, and he was rigorously punished who quitted her to marry another. The tie which connected them was indissoluble, and the wife was inseparable from her husband. She followed him to war; the camp was her country; and from the camp the armies drew their recruits. Boys, born and bred amid the din of arms, inured to danger, and already soldiers, replaced the old and slain. They married in their turn, as we learn from Sidonius Apollinaris; who, in describing the rejoicings that were made in the camp of Clodion, on account of a wedding, tells us, that a fair young man, by whom he means a Frank, had married a fair young woman; and that the soldiers celebrated their nuptials with Scythian and warlike dances.

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[No. III.

The husband provided for his family by his excursions, and by the booty which he shared in an enemy's country. On his return, the chaste caresses of his wife amply recompensed the warrior for the fatigues he had undergone, and for the dangers to which he had been exposed. A dear and affectionate hand- dressed the wounds which he had received in battle; and her obedience and sweetness of manners gave a charm to their society, which lasted as long as their lives. This union was founded on a perfect subordination. The Franks of those remote times were absolute masters in their houses, they could put their wives to death when they departed from their duty; and it is surprising, that if a Frank killed his wife in a transport of anger, the laws only punished him by prohibiting him for some time to bear arms: a temporary interdiction of his military character.

In consequence of this absolute authority, the wives were entirely dependent on their husbands, and respected them as their sovereign lords. A wife, in the Formulæ of Marculphus, addressing her husband, makes use of terms as submissive as those of a slave: " Mon epoux, et mon seigneur ; moi votre humble servante." The custom of taking wives without a fortune contributed to this dependence; and perhaps our ancestors, more artful, and more politically selfish than those who now deem them barbarians, thought that marrying, without being bribed to marry, would be a necessary counterpoise to the pride of their wives. They preferred a poor and tractable slave to a rich and imperious mistress, or a domestic tyrant. It is certain that the Franks, when they were disposed to marry, might be said to buy their wives, as well by the settlement they made on them, which was to descend to their children, as by the presents which they made to them, and to their nearest relations. Thus the wife had her fortune, not from her father, but from her husband.

Erchinoalde, mayor of the palace in the reign of Clovis the Second, bought of some pirates a girl of exquisite beauty, named Bandour, or Baltide, whom he afterwards gave in marriage to that young prince, and from a slave made her the consort of the king. But we must in justice observe, that history does her the honour to inform us, that while she was on the throne, she did not forget she had been a slave; and having taken the veil after the death of Clovis, her