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seek the rankest matter they can obtain. The payment for this operation is a piece of salt.

Marriage is not celebrated in churches. "Every one has as inany wives as he likes, and turns away and takes as he likes." They build a das,-a large temporary edifice, in which the parties with their friends eat and drink. The bride is placed in a cradle at the head of the tables. The bridegroom comes galloping to the das, jumps and cuts capers, boasting what "he has "done or would do." After a variety of ceremonies he departs with his bride. The marriages of the common people are more simple. Any man of that class gives the girl of his heart a drube and a firgy; the one a large and the other a small piece of cloth for robes; and then the parents deliver up their daughter as a purchased slave. Girls become mothers at the age of thirteen or fourteen; and Mr. Pearce gives a sad account of the want of chastity in the women of the country. Ladies wear a shirt of white India cloth, ornamented with silk twist of different colours; over this a robe with a white silk border; some of them have red Egyptian leather shoes, or black ones of leather made in the country; and many of them prick their legs, arms, and breasts with charcoal. The lower class have scarcely any clothes, except a tanned goat's skin about their waist, and a sheep's skin over their shoulders."They work like slaves, grind corn, carry water in large jars up"on their loins, enough to load a young ass." "A Christian "woman never milks a cow, as it is thought a great scandal, but "their reason for this is not worth while mentioning." The Abys sinians use a great deal of sweet scented oil and blacken their eyebrows with a mineral called cole brought from Egypt. They are polite in their manners, pay a great many compliments, and always kiss each other in the open way. "No one ever passes his "equals or betters without uncovering his breast, and bowing "with his head, which they return in the same manner." They have monthly clubs for eating, drinking, and friendly intercourse. The members seldom exceed twelve, who meet at each other's houses once a month; but a man may connect himself with as many clubs as he pleases. "They always nantain cne priest in "these clubs, to keep them in order; if a man be absent upon his own business, his wife attends in his place." The women have also separate clubs, which meet generally on the holidays of the Virgin Mary. No man is permitted to wear a betor, a gold or sil

ver ornament, except he has killed an enemy in presence of the king or his commander; but every other ornament is at the option of all who can afford it.

"The king or ras has an elevated place, built up with mud and stone like a stage in the front of the ashwar, òr court where the review is. This stage is covered with Persian carpets, silk pillows, and other valuable articles; in the middle is a cradle neatly covered, upon which the king or ras sits, with all his household servants standing round him The troops then come in galloping beiter skelter, and making a great noise. They afterwards come one by one in their turns at full gailop to the foot of the raised place where the king is seated, and turn their horses round and round, shaking their heads and spears as if they were mad; boasting of themselves in such a manner as to make any stranger believe they were mad. I write the following only to show in what nonsensical manner the greatest noblemen in Abyssinia boast of themselves before their king. I am man's master; I am a lion; I am fire; on foot I am a leopard; I am thunder; all men fear me; I am the physic for fear; I have killed Shangarlers; killed Garlers; and a deal of other nonsense. All who have killed an enemy throughout the year, have his pudenda hung to their right arm, which, after ending their speech, they throw down at the king's feet. This review lasts three days; after which every one knows his destiny, whether he is to remain governor of his districts, or whether another is to take his office. All preferment, breaking, making, and changing in the governments is done at this time; and although they pretend to give preferment to the bravest, and to the higher rank of persons, I know for truth that most preferment is given to tattlers, who are always making mischief by sly conversations with their masters; and through false reports and false witnesses, many are innocently dismissed from their stations."

In battles, the infantry keep to the sides of the mountains; while the horse are in valleys and plains; but their want of discipline and regulations is such, that did they not constantly use their chief's name as a watch word, they would often mistake the party they belonged to. Business of all kinds is in general left to the Mussulmen who inhabit the country. It is customary for ladies to spin, and for great houses to keep one or two mussulmen weavTheir cotton cloths are of fine texture, and are in general exchanged for salt or corn. The markets are furnished with raw cotton, cotton cloths, tanned hides, cattle of all kinds, honey, wax, butter, corn, fowls, knives, spears, ploughshares, baskets, beads, and a variety of other articles; but they are never visited by people of distinction. Silversmiths, coppersmiths, and saddlers, are the

ers.

best employed artists in the country. But laziness is, it would seem, the besetting sin of every class of the Abyssinians. A young man is not happy till he has killed an enemy; and it is common for the youths to seek an occasion of quarrelling with the Garlers who come to the markets, or are found in desert places with their cattle.

The Garler are a brave people; many of them are Mussulmen, but more of them have no religion or place of worship. They are, however, not entirely without some notion of a supreme being. Their kings are not hereditary, and are chosen for seven years only. They eat little bread, and have no cultivation in their country, but give their cattle for corn. The lower orders go from place to place with their cattle, and live entirely on milk and flesh.They drink hot blood, but do not eat raw flesh. "They use a deal ❝of butter in their hair and skin, which makes their company dis"agreeable." They take as many wives as they choose; the women perform every species of drudgery, while the men do nothing but carry their spears and shields. The Argou are a very bad tempered people living in the very middle of the Christians. The Lastar, though Christians, are quarrelsome and covetous. They had formerly great veneration for springs and fountains of water, ❝which, I hear, they worshipped." When they drink at a spring, they afterwards make it muddy to prevent others from drinking at the same time. Mr. Pearce one day, when extremely thirsty, was played this trick," which brought on a very serious quarrel." He was pacified by a "respectable Ammer," who told him the king would have been served in the same fashion. "Being as

sured it was their custom, I gave way to the ways of the coun❝try, and made it up with the Argou soldier." The Teltal are Mussulmen, and live upon their cattle after the same manner as the Garler. All the salt that passes as small money in Abyssinia comes from their country.

ART XVIII-The Mountain Bard; Consisting of Legendary Ballads and Tales. By James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd. The third edition, greatly enlarged; to which is prefixed a Memoir of the Author's life, written by himself. Edinburgh. Oliver and Boyd. 1821. pp. 386. 12mo.

WERE We left to form our estimate of the mental powers of the Ettrick Shepherd, (to give him his poetical name,) solely from the

memoir of his life affixed to this new edition of the "Mountain Bard," we should be inclined to rate them very low, and think his intellects, if not really weak, at least uninfluenced by sound sense. That he has acted unadvisedly in publishing this memoir, we think will be generally allowed; and he himself, it is hoped, will, in time, be of the same opinion. To make public what may have been said in ordinary conversation, or occurred in familiar and personal transactions, however common the practice, must be condemned. But what are those to think of Mr. Hogg, who are unacquainted with him in private life, when, besides this, they see him voluntarily and unnecessarily making confessions, and placing himself in that ludicrous point of view in which we are persuaded few men would wish to be found? That he has done so will not be questioned; and, when too late, he perhaps may regret such inconsiderate rashness and folly.

Mr. Hogg's reputation stands tolerably high in public esteem, and it is painful to think he should have done any thing to lessen ît. The public have often enough been informed by what means he succeeded in raising himself to so respectable a situation in the scale of literary merit, and therefore no such exposure as he has chosen to make was called for;-besides, all that may be requite of this sort comes with better grace from a friend than from the individual himself. Still we must confess, that we have been greatly amused with this piece of auto-biography; and, in place of visiting him with that degree of censure which some people think he has justly merited, having generosity enough to find some excuse for him, as we verily believe he is entirely free from sordid or unworthy motives, we shall content ourselves with extracting some of its more curious passages, interspersing them with occasional remarks on the character of his different publications.

We need be less particular in the account of the earlier period of Mr. Hogg's life, as that part of the memoir is preserved in the original state in which it was prefixed to this volume, when first published in the year 1807. There he gives a minute and interesting account of his various situations in life, and his literary progress up to the time of its appearance. His education consisted in his being taught to read the Shorter Catechism; when he was "advanced so far as to get into the class which read the Bible," with some experiments which he made in learning to write. "Thus," he says, "my education terminated," and he adds,

"After this I was never another day at any school whatever. In all I had spent about half a year at it. It is true my former master denied me, and when I was only twenty years of age, said, if he was called to make oath, he would swear I never was at his school. However, I know I was at it for two or three months; and I do not choose to be deprived of the honour of having attended the school of my native parish; nor yet that old John Beattie should lose the honour of such a scholar.'

In this hopeful state, he served, under many successive masters, in herding cows and keeping sheep; and at this period of his life, the only book he had access to was the Bible, when he learned the greater part of our present metrical version of the Psalms by heart. He speaks of his want of clothing, and at one time was possessed only of two shirts, which often grew so tattered, that he was obliged to quit wearing them altogether; for when (he says) I put "them on, they hung down in long tassels as far as my heels. At "those times I certainly made a very grotesque figure; for, on "quitting the shirt, I could never induce my trews, or lower vest"ments to keep up to their proper spheres." But we must pass over much information of a similar kind, with all that he tells us regarding his first poetical compositions, (he began to write verses in 1793,) to come to the passage wherein he describes the singular occasion, in the year 1801, of his appearing first to the world in the character of an author.

"Having attended the Edinburgh market one Monday, with a number of sheep for sale, and being unable to dispose of them all, I put the remainder into a park until the market on Wednesday. Not knowing how to pass the interim, it came into my head that I would write a poem or two from my memory, and get them printed. The thought had no sooner struck me, than it was put in practice: and I was obliged to select, not the best poems, but those that I remembered best. I wrote several others during my short stay, and gave them all to a person to print at my expense; and, having sold off my sheep on Wednesday morning, I returned to the Forest. I saw no more of my Poems, until I received word that there were one thousand copies of them thrown off. I knew no more about publishing than the man of the moon; and the only motive that influenced me was, the gratification of my vanity by seeing my works in print. But, no sooner did the first copy come to hand, than my eyes were open to the folly of my conduct; for, on comparing it with the MS. which I had at home, I found many of the stanzas omitted, others misplaced, and typographical errors abounding in every page."

Some of the pieces in this volume, Mr. Hogg says, attracted a share of attention; but he confesses, that "all of them were sad VOL. XII.

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