The apartments open on the halls, and are fitted up with paintings and looking-glasses. One room at least has glazed windows, and several have fire-places. The doors are carved, and covered in winter with velvet or brocade. The floors are covered with handsome carpets, and thick felt seats go all round the room, close to the wall, covered with silk or velvet. The houses of the common people are of one story, and usually of a single room, about twenty feet long by twelve broad: they have little ornament and scarcely any furniture. Neither tables nor chairs are used; their place is supplied by coarse woollen carpets and thick felt cushions. The Afghans, who compose little more than a third of the dwellers in Afghanistan, are of moderate stature, but remarkably hardy and athletic. Their high cheek bones and prominent noses distinguish them essentially from the Tartars, with whom some persons have confounded them. Their complexions are various; men as fair as Europeans being found in the same places with others dark as Indians. The western tribes are fairer than those of the east. Their hair and beard are mostly black; occasionally brown or red. The usual dress is a soft of frock, reaching below the knee, and loose dark cotton trowsers. The head is covered with a low flat-sided cap of black silk, with a coloured or brocaded top. They wear half boots, laced in front. The dress of the western tribes resembles that of Persia, and the people of the east imitate their neighbours of India.

The manners of the Afghans are frank and open; they pay little respect to rank, but show great reverence for old age. They are very sociable, and give frequent dinner parties, which are accompanied by singing, dancing, and music. Any game of chance or skill, however childish, that may lead to a dinner, is played with great zest; marbles, prison-bars, hunt-the-slipper, hopping, &c. &c. and the loser treats his opponent. They are also fond of sitting in a circle, conversing, or listening to story-tellers. The people of the east notice the attachment of the Afghans to truth, in which they are much superior to their neighbours of India and Persia, though Europeans will not rank them very high in that respect. They are filled with family pride, and fond of recounting long genealogies, scarcely allowing a man to be a genuine Afghan who cannot prove six descents. They are very jealous of attentions paid to others, and can be more easily wrought upon by kindness than threats.

Hospitality is the great characteristic of Afghans; it is with them a point of honour; and a greater affront cannot be given to an Afghan than by inviting his guest to another dwelling. A man may travel without money from one end of the country to the other, and the bitterest enemy is safe if he claim the protection of hospitality. A person who has a favour to ask of any person goes to his house, and refuses to sit down or partake of food until the boon be granted. This custom is called nannawatee, and it brings disgrace on a man to reject a petition under such circumstances.

Another resemblance to the Arabs of the desert, so celebrated for their hospitality, is the practice of robbery by the ruder tribes of Afghans. A traveller passing through certain districts must expect to be plundered, if not under strong protection, while a stranger coming to settle amidst them is perfectly safe. These robberies, however, are never accompanied by murder, and where the government is powerful the traveller is safe.

The good qualities of the Afghans have been summed up, by stating that they are faithful, hospitable, brave, frugal, laborious, and prudent. Their bad qualities are revenge, avarice, envy, rapacity, and obstinacy.

Among the western tribes, the pastoral character is much retained; many tribes live entirely in black coarse woollen tents, and migrate with their flocks from place to place, as convenience directs. But although the larger extent of ground is occupied by the dwellers in tents, the dwellers in houses are the more numerous body. Agriculture is very generally on the increase: many parts of Afghanistan are nighly cultivated, and the most remote regions are not without marks of human industry.

The religion of the Afghans is the Mohammedan of the Sunite sect, though accompanied with less bigotry than usual. Hindoos and Christians live peaceably and respected among them: and even Persians, who are of the dissenting Shiite sect, and, therefore, more abominated by the orthodox than even infidels, hold high official stations among them, upon the simple condition of abstaining from curses on the three first caliphs, the denial of whose right to the commandership over the Faithful forms the chief reason of their dissent.

Social intercourse with women is less restrained than among other Mohammedans, though in towns the females of the upper ranks live secluded, and never go out without a covering from head to foot. In the country, women go out unveiled: in the lower ranks, they do the work of the house, and in some of the inferior tribes assist the men in the labours of agriculture. Their marriage ceremonies are like those of the Persians.

The language of the Afghans is called Pushtoo; half the words of the language are Persian, but almost all the particles and verbs are from some unknown root. Many words have been said to be identical with those of the Zend and Pehlevi, the ancient languages of Persia, and with those of the Sanscrit, the ancient language of India; and this in cases where the words are quite obsolete in the modern dialects of these countries. This, however, is doubted by some. The structure of the Pushtoo refutes the old opinion that the Afghans are descended from the Jews. The sound of the language is rough, but not disagreeable to persons accustomed to oriental tongues. They use the Arabic alphabet, with points over and under certain letters to represent sounds unknown to Arabic. The only original Pushtoo authors are poets; their compositions are chiefly lyrics, of a spirited and bold cast, breathing a strong attachment to liberty. No Pushtoo authors are above a cen tury and a half old; but Persian works are as familiar to the educated Afghans as their own, and the Persian language is that chiefly used in composition.

The education of the Afghans is not neglected; every village has its school, generally kept by a priest, and almost every boy attends it. In some tribes, boys are sent to a distant village, where they live in the mosque, and are under the sole guidance of their schoolmaster. The most celebrated university is at Peshawer.

Many females are acquainted with Persian literature, and almost all those of a certain rank can read; but writing is not commonly taught there.

The whole nation is divided into tribes, which continue much unmixed, each under its own peculiar government, with little interference from the royal power. The internal government of the tribes is republican; they are divided into separate clans, and each clan has its chief or khan, chosen from the oldest family. The khans administer justice in most cases, but rarely without the concurrence of a council of the heads of families. The cians are eminently exclusive, and are often at feud with each other. They appear to be little attached to their chiefs, but very strongly to their tribe. They are very jealous of interference, and their republican spirit has preserved the country from degenerating into the ordinary oriental despotism. The reply made to an English traveller, who expatiated on the freedom from alarm, blood, and discord, which must ensue from a more steady government, was 'We are content with discord, we are content with alarms, we are content with blood, but we will never be content with a master.

The land is cultivated by tenants, who pay rent, or by persons who give half the produce to the landlord, receiving seed and instruments of agriculture from him. Many small proprietors cultivate their own land by the aid of hired labourers, or slaves attached to the soil.

The trade of Afghanistan is small, and only carried on by caravans. The most important trade is with India, whence they import cottons, muslins, ivory, indigo, tin, wax, sugar, and spices. The exports are horses, furs, shawls, tobacco, and fruits.

The government is a limited monarchy, The king may make peace and war; he has the control of the revenue, and appoints to such official situations as are not hereditary. He cannot increase the revenue, which arises from a fixed assessment on lands, and amounts to about 2,000,0007. sterling. He is, in fact, the Khan of the Duranees, the principal tribe; and although his power has infringed upon the republican institutions of his own clan, his right over other tribes extends only to the levying troops, and the collection of revenue. Over those of his subjects who are not Afghans, his power is less limited, but it is rarely exercised with seve rity. The Duranee lords control the king, who can rarely act without their concurrence. The crown is hereditary in the family, but elective as to the person.

The administration of justice is corrupt, as in every other Asiatic government. A cadi is appointed to every large town, before whom causes are brought, and whose awards are rarely disobeyed: death is very rarely inflicted, and the

The military may be about thirty thousand. One-third of these are Gholams, or military adventurers, who enlist for life; about ten thousand are furnished by land-owners at a stated rate; and a large contingent is supplied by the Duranee clan, as the condition on which they hold their lands. Their soldiers are chiefly horsemen, and their arms are swords and matchlocks.

The history of the Afghans cannot be traced to a remote period. In the ninth century they were possessed of the north-eastern part of their present empire, and at the close of the tenth a chief of Khorassan conquered the country, and made Ghizni his metropolis. For two hundred years his family governed the empire; but although the plains were conquered, the Afghans maintained their independence in the mountains. At last, under the conduct of Mohammed of Ghore, a descendant of their ancient princes, they dethroned the king of Ghizni, and burned his capital, A.D. 1159. The new dynasty extended the empire from the Tigris to the Ganges; but while making conquests abroad, their own territories became the prey of a stranger; and while Afghans were seated on the throne of India, Jenghis Khan and his descendants ruled in Afghanistan. The Mongol dynasty reigned over the plains, and the Afghans dwelt in the mountains. After the death of Tamerlane, in 1405, the country appears to have been independent for a century. In 1506, the Emperor Baber, a descendant of Tamerlane, conquered Cabul, and made it the seat of empire: the plains of Afghanistan were then divided between India and Persia, but the Afghans still preserved their precarious independence. At the death of Aurungzeb, in 1707, when the Mogul empire lost its power, the Afghan tribe of Ghiljie grew strong, conquered Persia, and founded an empire of vast extent, but little duration. This dynasty was overthrown by Nadir Shah of Persia, who conquered the Afghans, and annexed their country to his empire. At his death in 1747, Ahmed Shah, an officer of an Afghan troop, in the service of Persia, fought his way back to his own country, and founded the present monarchy. From that time to the death of Timour Shah in 1793, the empire maintained its splendour, but on that event, a civil war broke out between the sons of the deceased king. Four brothers in succession gained the throne, the Persians invaded Khorassan, and several dependent rulers threw off their allegiance. The monarchy is still in the same unsettled state, and is, in fact, little more than a name; but the peculiar organization of the tribes obviates the evils which elsewhere result from civil war. The people take but little part in it, considering it merely a quarrel of kings, to whom they have not much attachment, and content themselves with defending their mountains, where they are rarely molested: and although the cities and great roads occasionally suffer from the disputes of contending factions, and the plunder of marauding armies, the country has lost few of its resources, and none of its enjoyments.

The chief authority for Afghanistan is Elphinstone's Cabul. The reader may also consult Foster, Rennell, and the Asiatic Researches for the sixteenth century, see the Ayin-i Akbari of Abul Fazl. See also Hamilton's History of the Rohilla Afghans, in the country EAST of the Ganges, London, 1787; and Bernhard Dorn's History of the Afghans, part i., London, 1829.

AFIOUM, or OFIUM KARA HISSAR, (that is, the Black Castle of Opium,) is, according to D'Anville, situated on the spot where formerly Apameia Kibotos stood. At Afioum are remains of temples and palaces decorated with black marble. The site of Afiour is fixed in 38° 45' N. lat. 30° 46' E. long.

The original name of Apameia was Celænæ, under which denomination it is described by Xenophon, Herodotus, and Arrian. Antiochus Soter gave it the name of Apameia, as Strabo informs us, who also describes the place. Notwithstanding all this, it is not yet certain whether Afioum Kara Hissar, or some other town, represents Apameia; and this

The following extract is taken from Pococke's Travels, whose opinion as to the ancient site differs from ours: Carahissar is distinguished among the Turks by the name of Aphioum Carahissar, on account of the great quantities of ophioum, or opium, which is made here. I had great satisfaction in finding, by an inscription, that Carahissar is the ancient Prynesia of Ptolemy, because it is of great use in making conjectures as to the situation of other places mentioned by that author. It is situated at the foot of the mountains round a very high rock, about half a mile in circumference, on the top of which they have built a fortress. The work is a sort of bastard, brown granite; it is of a black hue, from which the town is called Carahissar (the Black Castle); it is so very steep that it would be impregnable if supplied with provisions and water, and it seems to be half a quarter of a mile in perpendicular height. The town is near three miles in-circumference, and it is a great thoroughfare, has much trade, and good shops provided with all sorts of things, being in a plentiful country, and many caravans pass through it. It is the residence of a pasha. There are in the city ten mosques: one of them is a noble building with a portico before it, the whole being covered with domes. There are neither Greeks nor Jews in the city, but about fifty Armenian families, besides several merchants and tradesmen, who stay here part of the year as they do in other towns, living in khans; they have two churches, and of late they have had a bishop, whom they call metropolitan. In the country between this and Smyrna they make most of the Turkey carpets,' &c.

The population of this town is stated at 50,000 or 60,000. It is of some importance for its fabrics of wool, tapestry, fire-arms, and sabres. But the chief article of commerce is the opium cultivated in the neighbourhood. Afioum is also the rendezvous of the caravans from Constantinople and Smyrna, which from this place proceed further into the interior. AFRICA. In treating of one of the great divisions of our globe, it is necessary to say a few words on the plan which we have adopted as most suitable to a work of this kind. If we were to attempt a complete geographical description of Africa, it would have little value from being compressed within such narrow limits as we should be compelled to assign to it. Twenty numbers in succession would not be sufficient to enable us to give a satisfactory view of this continent, if we were to enter into details. We have, therefore, determined to present our readers with such a sketch or outline, as will show generally the present state of our knowledge with respect to Africa; and by turning to the separate articles, such as Alexandria, Cape of Good Hope, Egypt, &c., they will find under each head of city or country, the latest and best information that we have been able to collect. The following are the heads that we propose briefly to treat here :--

I. Africa as known to the Greeks and Romans. II. Circumnavigation by the Portuguese, and their settlements. French and English discovery.

III. Short notice of what coasts have been surveyed. IV. General remarks on the figure of Africa, its surface, mountain chains, plateaus, rivers, mineral productions, &c. V. Varieties of the human race in Africa. VI. Zoology of Africa.

VII. Botany of ditto.

VIII. Chief divisions, and foreign settlements.

I. The name Africa, which is no doubt of native origin, was probably first introduced into Europe by the Romans, who gave this appellation to one of their African provinces, which comprehended the city of Carthage. Africa was, therefore, properly the name of a limited district, which has since been extended to the whole of this vast continent: the same thing has constantly taken place in modern times, and the name of a remote spot or tribe has been magnified into that of a country or a nation. But the real name for this continent, both in the Greek and Roman writers, is Libya. Herodotus, the earliest extant Greek author who has transmitted to us any information about Africa, has

given a proof of his limited acquaintance with it by the very simple division which he makes of its inhabitants. All the native tribes in the northern part he calls by the general name of Libyans, and those in the south Ethiopians. Egypt, according to his system, hardly belongs to Africa, but lies like an isolated slip between the two adjacent continents. He was evidently puzzled about assigning a boundary to Asia and Africa, and he is often led, almost unintentionally, though with perfect correctness, to give the name of Arabia to the part immediately east of the Delta and the Nile. Herodotus asserts that Africa is surrounded with water, except at the narrow neck now called the Isthmus of Suez; and one reason for his belief was apparently the story of Africa being circumnavigated by the Phoenicians in the reign of Pharaoh Necho, (as he is called in Kings ii. chap. 23,) King of Egypt, and between the years B.C. 610 and 594. The circumstances of the voyage as reported by Herodotus are very meagre, and when faithfully presented will enable the reader to form his own opinion of the probability of the voyage having been made. Nechos, King of Egypt, (Herod. iv. 42,) despatched some Phoenicians in vessels, with instructions to sail round Libya and through the pillars of Hercules (straits of Gibraltar) | into the northern (Mediterranean) sea, and so to return to Egypt. The Phoenicians set out from the Red Sea, and navigated the southern ocean. When the autumn came on, it was their practice to land on whatever part of the coast they happened to be, to sow the ground and wait for the harvest. After reaping it, they would again put to sea; and thus after two years had elapsed, in the third they passed through the pillars of Hercules and arrived at Egypt. And they said, but for my part I do not believe the assertion, though others may, that in their voyage round Libya they had the sun on their right hand.'

This Phoenician voyage is the only direct statement as to the ancient circumnavigation of Africa that deserves a particular examination, and the best critics are divided in opinion upon it. We do not believe the circumnavigation was effected, and for the following reasons. Herodotus visited Egypt about 150 years after the event, a time long enough to allow the original story (for we believe the whole to be founded on some facts) to have become much perverted from the truth. The phænomenon of the sun being to the right hand, or to the north of the voyagers, would be observed during part of the year, if they never went beyond the straits of Bab el Mandeb. The time allowed for the circumnavigation is too short; and the difficulty of sowing and reaping on an unknown coast, to say nothing of the opposition which the natives might offer, and the dangers of the voyage itself, are serious objections: and, finally, the notion which Herodotus had, and which was long the prevailing one, that Africa did not extend so far south as the real equator, is decisive against the truth of the voyage. If it ever had been made, it is impossible that so erroneous a notion as to the southern extent of Africa would not have been corrected. We refer the reader to Mannert's Geography of the Greeks and Romans, vol. i., for further examination of this question, and other supposed circumnavigations. Compare also Gosselin, Géographie des Grecs Analysée, p. 108, &c.

Another ancient voyage is somewhat better authenticated. Hanno, one of the ruling men of Carthage, or king, as he is termed, sailed from that city through the straits of Gibraltar, to establish some colonies along the Atlantic coast of the present empire of Marocco. He took with him a large fleet, and 30,000 settlers, whom he left at various places, and then bent his course further south. He passed a river with crocodiles and river-horses in it, and it has, therefore, been concluded that he went at least beyond the Senegal; but it is not easy to fix with any precision the extent of the voyage, though it must have been considerably to the south of the Senegal, according to the statement of the voyager. Yet it could hardly be farther than the Sierra Leone coast, and it may have extended not so far. Major Rennell, whose opinion is entitled to the greatest respect, gives this extent to the voyage; but he also advocates the truth of the Phonician circumnavigation of Africa, which makes us somewhat more scrupulous than we otherwise should be in receiving his interpretation of the voyage of Hanno. M. Gosselin, who is more sceptical than the English geographer, does not carry Hanno further than the latitude of the Canaries. Polybius, the Greek historian, was sent by Scipio Emilianus to explore the same coast, (Pliny, v. 1.)

but it is impossible to state how far he went, from so defective an extract as that contained in Pliny. The time at which this voyage of Hanno was made is uncertain, though we are inclined to place it before B.C. 500. Herodotus, however, who lived after this date, says nothing about it; yet this is not so strong an objection as it might appear at first, since Herodotus, consistently with the plan of his history, never mentions the Carthaginians, except incidentally; though it is certain that he knew much more about them than he has told us. The voyage of Hanno, which was originally written in the Punic language, has come down to us in a Greek translation, though probably mutilated; and may be seen in Hudson's Collection of the Minor Greek Geographers, vol. i.

When the Greeks were settled in Egypt under Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, one of Alexander's captains, (B.C. 323,) they necessarily became better acquainted with the Red Sea and the course of the Nile; and from this epoch we may date the extension of that trade with India, by which the products of the great Asiatic peninsula and of Ceylon were more generally diffused over the western world. This trade existed in great vigour under the Roman emperors, and we have an example of it as late as the sixth century of our æra, in the work of COSMAS. Indeed the origin of the trade between the Indian peninsula and Arabia, and Eastern Africa, belongs to a period anterior to any history; and this commerce has probably never been totally interrupted at any time since its commencement. One of the most curious documents with respect to ancient navigation on the east coast of Africa, is contained in the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, which goes under the name of Arrian. This work, which was probably compiled from various log-books and journals, may be assigned to about the time of Pliny the elder, or perhaps to an earlier period. It has been illustrated, generally in a very satisfactory way, by Dr, Vincent. The Periplus contains much valuable information on the Red Sea, and also a description of the coasts of Arabia, Persia, the western coast of India, and the eastern coast of Africa. The extreme south point mentioned on the African coast is Rhapta, which Dr. Vincent thinks to be identical with Quiloa. It would seem as if this work was intended for the use of merchants, as the compiler has carefully mentioned the articles of export at each place of importance, and also has informed his readers what kind of commodities would meet with the readiest sale.

From the tables of Ptolemy, the Greek geographer, it appears that the coast of western Africa was known, probably though the navigation of the Carthaginians and the Romans, as far as to 11° north of the line. It is a curious question whether the ancient geographers were acquainted with the countries south of the Great Desert, and with the upper part of the river Quorra, commonly called the Niger. Herodotus tells a story, which he heard from some people of Cyrene, of some young men of the Nasamones, a tribe near the present gulf of Sidra, crossing the desert in a westerly direction, and coming to a great river which ran towards the rising sun, and had crocodiles in it, and black men living on its banks. It is very hard to give implicit credit to all the circumstances of this narrative; and yet it deserves great respect, because there are real facts corresponding to the description. The nature of the narrative, however, is such as to render it impossible to demonstrate satisfactorily either the truth or falsehood of this early discovery. But there are other considerations which must not be omitted in forming an opinion as to the knowledge which the ancients had of central Africa. It can hardly be imagined that the powerful state of Carthage, which employed so many elephants in war, and carried on so extensive a commerce, could be altogether ignorant of the countries south of the Great Desert. The elephant, we have no reason to believe, was ever an inhabitant of the Atlas regions, except so far as it was domesticated among the Carthaginians, and therefore must have been brought to Carthage from central Africa; while the articles of commerce, which the interior now furnishes to the coast of Tripoli, were coinmodities in which the Carthaginians used to deal, such as slaves, ivory, gold, &c. As to any objections raised to this statement about the elephant, from Pliny's assertion that it was found in Mauritania, we well know how to estimate that writer's evidence on such points; it is indeed of very little value, even though supported by Strabo, and the Periplus of Hanno. Seleucus Nicator kept a stud of 500 elephants

(Strabo, xvi. p. 752) at Apameia, and he had to bring them a greater distance than the Carthaginians would have, if they procured them from central Africa. The Carthaginians themselves had extensive elephant stables and grounds near the city. (Strabo, Casaub. 832.) When the Romans became masters of North Africa, we might expect to find them attempting, according to their usual policy, to enlarge their empire or their influence to the south; and we have, in fact, in Pliny, a distinct account of Suetonius Paullinus, A.D. 41, crossing the great mountains of Atlas, and going some distance south; and, in Ptolemy, we have an account of a Roman officer, Maternus, who set out from the neighbourhood of Tripoli, and went a four months' march in a southern direction. This route must have brought him into the latitude of Timbuctoo, and into the neighbourhood of the Tchad; and if the story is true, the great river, now

commonly called the Niger, might have been thus known to the Romans. In examining the tables of Ptolemy, in which the positions of places are laid down according to their latitude and longitude, we find no reason to doubt their general accuracy along the western coast as far as N. lat. 11°. He has also given the position of a number of places in the interior, on a river which he calls Nigir; and the direction thus assigned to the river will come as near the truth as we could expect it to be, even if we knew Ptolemy's tables to be constructed upon real observation, such as was practicable at that time. A complete discussion of this question is given in the second Number of the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, by Col. Leake, who is in favour of the opinion that the Joliba of Park, commonly called the Niger, was known to the Romans, and to Ptolemy, who constructed his tables

80

10

10

Long. from 0 Greenwich.

from all the materials accessible to him in the rich commercial city of Alexandria, where he lived.

The Fortunate Islands (now the Canaries) were known to Ptolemy, and he reckons all his eastward distances or longitudes from them, or from some one point in them; for he does not appear to have known anything accurate as to the relative position of these islands. And as coasting voyages had considerably extended the knowledge of the east coast of Africa, without however showing any termination of the land, Ptolemy concluded that the southern parts of Africa

joined the eastern parts of Asia, and thus he converted the Indian Ocean into an inland sea.

The Greek and Roman writers mention the following remarkable African animals with which they were acquainted:-the crocodile and the hippopotamus, both in the Nile and the rivers of western Africa; the giraffe, or camelopard; the elephant: the two-horned rhinoceros; and the ostrich. With the exception of the hippopotamus, all these animals were at different times seen in the Roman capital. The camel is not mentioned as being found in