almost entirely centered at Muscat. From Muscat the greater part of the pearls are exported to Surat; and, as the Agents of the Indian merchants are constantly on the spot, and as the fishers preter the certain sale of their merchandize there, to a higher but less regular price in other markets, the pearls may often be bought at a less price in India, than what they would have been sold for in Arabia. There are two kinds; the yellow pearl, which is sent to the Mahratta market; and the white pearl, which is circulated through Bassorah and Bagdad into Asia Minor, and thence into the heart of Europe; though, indeed, a large proportion of the whole is arrested in its progress, at Constantinople, to deck the Sultanas of the Seraglio. The pearl of Ceylon peels off; that of the Gulph is as firm as the rock upon which it grows; and, though it loses in colour and water one per cent. annually for about fifty years, yet it still loses less than that of Ceylon. It ceases after fifty years to lose any thing.

About twenty years ago, the fishery was farmed out by the different Chiefs along the coast: thus the Sheiks of Bahrein and of El Katif, having assumed a certain portion of the Pearl Bank, obliged ever Speculator to pay them a certain sum, for the right of fishing. At present, however, the trade which still employs a considerable number of boats is carried on entirely by individuals.

The divers seldom live to a great age. Their bodies break out in sores, and their eyes become weak and blood-shot. They can remain under water five minutes; and their divings succeed one another rapidly, as by delay, the state of their bodies would soon prevent the renewal of the exertion. They oil the orifice of the ears, and put a horn over their nose. In general life, they are restricted to a certain regimen; and to food composed of dates and other light ingredients. They can dive from ten to fifteen fathoms, and sometimes more; their prices increase according to the depth. The largest pearl are generally found in the deepest water, as the success on the bank of Kharrack, which lies very low, has demonstrated. From such depths, and on this bank, the most valuable pearls have been brought up; the largest which Sir Harford Jones saw, was one that had been fished up at Kharrack, in nineteen fathoms water.

The fish itself is fine eating; nor indeed, in this respect, is there any difference between the common and the pearl oyster. The seed pearls, which are very indifferent, are arranged round the lips of the oyster, as if they were inlaid by the hand of an artist. The large pearl is nearly in the centre of the shell, and in the middle of the fish.

The fishermen always augur a good season, when there have been plentiful rains; and so accurately has experience taught them, that when corn is very cheap, they increase their demands for fishing. The connection is so well ascertained, (at least so fully credited,) that the prices paid to the fishermen are always raised when there have been great rains.

Teheran.

Teheran, the present capital of Persia, is situated, as Mr. Morier ascertained, by a meridional observation, in lat. 35° 40. It is in cir cumference between four and a half and five miles, to judge from the length of his ride round the walls, which occupied an hour and a half; but from this deduct something for the deviations necessary from the intervention of the gardens, and the slaughter-houses. There are six gates, inlaid with coloured bricks, and with figures of tigers and

The Wandering Arabians.

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other beasts in rude Mosaic: their entrance is lofty and domed. To the N. W. are separate towers. Two pieces of artillery, one apparently a mortar, the other a long gun, are still remaining. The ditch in some parts had fallen in, and was there supported by brick work.

Of the mosques, the principal is the Mesjid Shah, a structure not yet finished. There are six others, small and insignificant; and three or four medresses, or colleges. There are said to be one hundred and fifty caravanserais, and one hundred and fifty hummums, or baths. There are two maidans; one in the town, the other within the ark, a square fortified palace, which contains all the establishments of the king, and is surrounded by a wall and ditch.

ARABIA.

Arabia is bounded N. by the pachalics of Bagdad and Damascus in Asiatic Turkey; E. by the Persian gulf; S. by the Indian ocean; and W. by the Ked sea. It extends from 12° to 34° N. lat. and from 33° to 59° E. lon. The area, according to Arrowsmith's chart, is 1,030,000 square miles.

The Wandering Arabians.

The Arabians live mostly without government, without law, and almost without society. Theft and robbery are authorized by their chiefs; they are inured to labour, and accustom their horses to undergo fatigue, allowing them to drink but once in twenty-four hours; their horses are meagre, but swift and indefatigable.

These people have neither bread nor wine, neither do they culti vate the ground. In the place of bread, they make use of wild grain, which they mix and knead with the milk of their cattle. They have flocks of camels, sheep, and goats, which they conduct from place to place till they find sufficient herbage; here they erect their tents, which are made of goats' hair, and live with their wives and children till the grass is consumed; they then go in quest of another fertile spot. They paint their arms, their lips, and the most conspicuous parts of their bodies, of a deep blue colour: this paint, which they lay on in small dots, and make it penetrate the flesh by means of a needle made for the purpose, can never be effaced. Some of them paint a small flower upon their cheek, their forehead, or their chin, with the smoke of galls and saffron, which makes a fine black colour; they likewise blacken their eye-brows.

Most of the women wear rings of gold and silver, about three inches diameter, in their noses: they are born fair, but their complexions are spoiled by being continually exposed to the sun; the young girls are agreeable, and sing perpetually.

Such are the wandering Arabs, who have no fixed habitations, but being possessed of large flocks of sheep, and herds of camels, and goats, rove from one part of the country to another. These are the people who are frequently dangerous to travellers; but if a traveller be liberal to them, they seldom do him any injury, and will even invite him to partake of their repasts, and are pleased to find him conform to their customs.

Those who are settled, and apply to the cultivation of the earth, to trade, and the mechanic arts, are distinguished for justice, temperance and humanity; they are civil to strangers, and though they have the highest veneration for their religion, they never strive to force it upon others; so that a person may travel several hundred miles without danger. The Arabs who live in towns are much inferior in number to those who live in tents, and are called Bedouins. Those who are situated near the coast have very frequently rendered themselves formidable at sea: their colours are red, which they display in streamers and pendants at the mast head, and other parts of the ship, which give their fleets a gay appearance.

"The Arabs, wherever I have seen them," says M. de Chateaubriand, “in Judea, in Egypt, and even in Barbary, have appeared to me to be rather tall than short. Their demeanour is haughty. They are well made and active. They have an oval head, the brow high and arched, aquiline nose, large eyes, with a watery and uncommonly gentle look. Nothing about them would proclaim the savage, if their mouths were always shut; but, as soon as they begin to speak, you hear a harsh and strongly aspirated language, and perceive long and beautifully white teeth, like those of jackals and ounces; differing in this respect from the American savage, whose ferocity is in his looks, and human expression in his mouth."

The Arab women are taller in proportion than the men. Their carriage is dignified; and by the regularity of their features, the beauty of their figures, and the dispositions of their veils, they somewhat remind you of the statues of the Priestesses and of the Muses. This must, however, be understood with some restriction: these beautiful statues are often clothed in rags; a wretched, squalid, and suffering look degrades those forms so elegant; a copper teint conceals the regularity of the features; in a word, you must view them at a distance, and confine yourself to the general appearance.

Most of the Arabs wear a tunic fastened round the waist by a girdle. Sometimes they take one arm out of a sleeve of this tunic, and then they are habited in the antique style; sometimes they put on a white woollen covering, which serves for a toga, a mantle, or a veil, according as they wrap it round them, suspend it from their shoulders, or throw it over their heads. They go bare-foot, and are armed with a dagger, a pike, and a long firelock. The tribes travel

in caravans; the camels going in file. The first camel is fastened by a cord, made of the tow of the palm, to the neck of an ass, which is the guide of the troop. The latter, as leader, is exempt from all burden, and enjoys various privileges. Among the wealthy tribes, the camels are adorned with fringes, flags, and feathers.

The horses are treated according to the purity of their blood, with more or less honour, but always with severity. They are never put under shelter, but left exposed to the intense heat of the sun, tied by all four legs to stakes driven in the ground, so that they cannot stir. The saddle is never taken from their backs; they frequently drink but once, and have only one feed of barley in twenty-four hours. This rigid treatment gives them sobriety, patience, and speed. "I have often admired an Arabian steed thus tied down to the burning sand, his hair loosely flowing, his head bowed between his legs to find a little shade, and stealing, with his wild eye, oblique glances at his master. Release his legs from the shackles, spring upon his back. and he will paw in the valley, he will rejoice in his strength, he will

swallow the ground in the fierceness of his rage, and you recognize the original of the picture delineated by Job.”

Character and Language.

Climate, government, and education, are the great agents which modify the character of nations. To the first of these the Arabs owe their vivacity, and their disposition to indolence; the second is said to give them a spirit of duplicity; the third is the cause of a certain gravity which influences the faculties of their mind, as well as their carriage and exterior aspect.

No two things can differ more than the education of the Arabs from that of the Europeans. The former strive as much to hasten the age of maturity, as the latter to retard it. The Arabs are never children; but many Europeans continue children all their life. The boys in Arabia remain among the women till the age of five or six, and during this time they follow childish amusements, but when they are removed from that scene, they are accustomed to think and speak with gravity, and to pass whole days together in their father's company, at least if he be not in a condition to retain a preceptor. In consequence of being always under the eyes of persons advanced to maturity, they become pensive and serious even in infancy.

The vivacity of the Arabians makes them fond of company, notwithstanding their disposition to thoughtfulness. They frequent public coffee-houses and markets, and when the villages lie at too great a distance, the country people meet in the open fields, some to buy or sell, and others to converse, or amuse themselves as spectators of the busy scene. Artisans travel through the whole week from town to town, and work at their trade in the different markets.

The Arabs are not quarrelsome, but when any dispute happens to arise among them, they make a great deal of noise. They are soon appeased, and a reconciliation is instantly effected, if an indifferent person call upon the disputants to think of God and his prophet. The inhabitants of the east, in general, strive to master their anger. A boatman, in a passion, complained to the governor of a city, of a merchant who would not pay a freight due for the carriage of his goods. The governor always put off hearing him till some other time. At length he came and told his case coolly, and the governor immediately did him justice, saying, I refused to hear you before, because you wsre intoxicated with anger, the most dangerous of all intoxications.

The language of the Arabs was, even in ancient times, divided into several dialects; the modern Arabic contains perhaps more dialects than any other tongue. The language of the Koran is as different from the modern speech of Mecca that is taught in the colleges there, as the Latin is at Rome. Arabian authors have magnified the ignorance of their country before the time of Mahomet, in order to enhance the illumination diffused by their prophet. The chief poets are now found among the wandering Arabs in the country. Some appear in towns, where they amuse the company in coffee-houses. În the chief cities there are colleges for astronomy, philosophy, medicine, &c. The interpretation of the Koran, and the history of Mahomet form an extensive study, the records being in a dead language. Physicians are rare, the chief medicine being universal temperance,

Their Marriages.

Many superstitious observances respecting marriage prevail in

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Arabian Manner of Eating, &c.

Arabia. The Arabs believe in the virtue of enchantment, and in the art of tying and untying the knots of fate. The miserable victim of this diabolical art addresses some physician or old woman, who is skilled in sorcery. Marriage is reckoned honourable in the east; a woman will marry a poor man, or become a second wife to a man already married, rather than remain in a state of celibacy; the men are equally disposed to marry, because their wives, instead of being expensive, are rather profitable to them.

Their Houses.

It was formerly the custom of the Arabians to pass their summer nights on the tops of their houses, which were made flat, and divided from each other by walls. "This way of sleeping," says an ingenious traveller, "we found very agreeable, as by that means we enjoyed the cool air above the reach of gnats and vapours, with no other covering than the canopy of heaven, which, in different pleasing forms, unavoidably presents itself upon every interruption of rest.

The houses occupied by the lower people are small huts, having a round roof, and covered with a certain herb. The poor spread their floors with straw mats, and the rich with fine carpets. No person ever enters a room without first having put off his shoes. The men of every family always occupy the fore part of the house, the women the back part. If the apartments of the men are plain, those of the women are most studiously set off with decorations. One room seen by M. Niebuhr, in the house of a man of rank, was wholly covered over with mirrors! the roof, the walls, the doors, the pillars, presented all so many looking-glasses. The floor was set with sofas, and spread with carpets. Arabians, whose circumstances do not admit of their having separate apartments for the females, are careful when they carry a stranger into the house, to enter before him, and ery, Taric, retire. Upon this notice given by the master of the house, the women disappear, and his best friends see not one of them. The great often have in their halls basins with jets d'eau, to cool the air; the edges of the basin are coated with marble, and the rest of the floor is covered with rich carpets. The Arabians smoke more than the inhabitants of the northern provinces of Asia. A custom peculiar to Arabia is, that persons of opulence and fashion carry about them a box filled with odoriferous wood, a piece of which they put into any person's pipe, for whom they wish to express respect.

Manner of Eating and their Dress.

The Arabians spread a large cloth in the middle of the room, upon which they place a small table, only a foot high, and on the table a large round plate of tinned copper. Upon this are set different copper dishes, neatly tinned within and without. They use no knives and forks, but are very dexterous with their fingers. The more eminent people eat nothing but boiled rice, served up in a large wooden plate. The company sit down and eat, one after the other, till the whole contents of the plate are exhausted. In the houses of persons of distinction, several of these plates are set, one upon another, in a pyramidical form. When the masters rise, the servants sit down at the same table, and eat up what remains. In some houses a servant stands in the middle of the company, to set down and remove the dishes which are brought in by other servants. Hardly is a plate set down upon the table, when perhaps sixteen or twenty hands are all