insupportable of all the wants of what are termed the absolute necessaries of life. A person may endure, with patience and hope, the pressure of fatigue or hunger, heat or cold, and even a total deprivation of natural rest for a considerable length of time; but to be scorched under a burning sun, to feel your throat so parched and dry that you respire with difficulty, to dread moving your tongue in your mouth from the apprehensions of suffocation which it causes, and not to have the means of allaying those dreadful sensations, are in my ideas the extreme pitch of a traveller's calamities. The Subrab, of which I have just spoken, is said to be caused by the rarefaction of the atmosphere from extreme heat; and, which augments the delusion, it is most frequent in hollows where water might be expected to lodge. I have seen bushes and trees reflected in it, with as much accuracy as though it had been the face of a clear and still lake; and once, in the province of Kirman in Persia, it seemed to rest like a sheet of water on the face of a hill, at the foot of which my road lay, exhibiting the summit, which did not overhang it in the least degree, by a kind of unaccountable refraction. This phenomenon is, however, very uncommon, and the Persians who were travelling with me attributed it to exhalations from saline particles, with which the hill abounded. sent. However, he advanced to Tattah, the former Capital of Sinde, though at present in a state of desolation and ruin. So recently as the period of Nadir Shah visiting Tattah on his return from Delhi, it is said there were forty thousand weavers of callico and loongees in that city, and artizans of every other class to the number of twenty thousand more, exclusive of bankers, money-changers, shop-keepers, and sellers of grain, estimated at sixty thousand! A curious anecdote is told of Nadir Shah which will exemplify the natural resources of Sinde, and almost demonstrate what I have asserted on the opulence of Tattah in those days. When the monarch arrived at that city, he ordered Meer Noor Mohummud, the governor of the province, into his presence; who came with his turband round his neck, a wisp of hay in his mouth, and his feet covered, all customary tokens of submission, which the conqueror required; when he had prostrated himself before the throne, Nadir called out in a loud voice, and asked him if he had a well full of gold. The governor replied laconically. Not one, but two! Nadir then demauded if he had the Lal, a celebrated large ruby belonging to the Umeers of Sinde. Meer Noor Mohummed again made his former answer. The King threw up his handkerchief, and desired to be informed what the Meer saw on looking at Such are the mortifications of travellers in sultry deserts! We leave to our readers the conception of the satisfac-it. He replied nothing but troops and tion with which these two friends joined company again at Isfahan; after a long separation, and many dangers surmounted-such are the gratifications of travellers!—and greater cannot be-in distant, barbarous, and unknown countries. We are obliged very reluctantly, to pass over many pages of information, in order to take notice of another division of the work, a mission to the rulers of Sinde, under the direction of Nicholas Hankey Smith, Esq. then resident at Bushire. This introduces us to the river Indus, a river famous on many accounts, to the Court of the Seik Princes, a power not antient, but probably increasing in India-or rather between India and Persia. This mission left Bombay at the end of April, 1809. The Envoy met with great difficulties, chiefly arising from the ill-understood pride of the Princes to whom he was arms, which were naturally the ideas uppermost in his thoughts. Then said Nadir, "Produce your gold and rubies." The governor called for a Koolee, or very large basket, made in divisions, and used for holding grain and flour, which he had filled, and placed on his right hand; he next ordered a skin of ghee, or clarified butter, to be put on his left, and said to the Shah, "I am a cultivator of the soil, and these are my gold and rubies, in which I shall not fail you." The King was gra tified by the frankness of the answers he had received, and bestowed on him an honorary dress. Meer Noor Mohummud afterwards entertained the whole army and followers, (exceeding 500,000 people) for sixteen days in the most princely manner, and without a symptom of scarcity. The embassy being divided, part went up the Indus in boats, for Hyderabad, the present capital. This gives occasion to an ingenious account of that river, to which we can only direct the 2 attention of geographers. Arrived at Hyderabad, the encampment of the mission was pitched about a mile from the Court, and the concourse of visitors it attracted, presents a picture highly amusing. having an embroidered cloth laid over it. As soon as we had sat down, a scene, of confusion ensued which it is difficult to describe, and could only be attributed to a distrust of our real designs, for the mass of attendants, matchlockmen, and swordsmen crowded into the place, and nearly over! whelmed us by their pressure. The foremost of them even placed their feet on the scabbards of our swords and skirts of our, coats; which, from the manner we were sitting, lay along the carpet; but whether this was a preconcerted plan, or the effect of chance it was impossible to guess. Subsequent interviews, however, incline The me to lean to the former idea. Our encampment might have been thought at this time to be pitched in the centre of a fair, from the vast numbers of people of every profession and description that were continually hanging about it, and we were serenaded night and day by the unceasing vociferations of buffoons, jugglers, bear dancers, and Fakeers, the latter of whom diversified the concert by sounding horns and trumpets. Many of them evinced astonishing perseverance in their profession, and took post as near the envoy's private tent as the outer skreens would permit them to approach it, where they continued for days at a time, bellowing forth their demands and occasionally denouncing the vengeance of the Prophet and the Umeers against the mission, unless they were satisfied. Others reserved their attack until we rode out, which was generally the case every evening when the weather was fair; and then they would run before the envoy's horse, assuring him, jewels, exclusive of those which were set if they were well remunerated, they were in the hilts and scabbards of their swords ready to intercede with the Umeers in be- and daggers; beside which, their waisthalf of the mission; but, that on the other belts displayed some extraordinary large hand, if their offers were neglected, he emeralds and rubies. They were seated, might as well go back to India without agreeable to age, the eldest in the centre, delay, as nothing could be effected with- the second one on his right hand, and the out their concurrence. At first these vaga- youngest on his left, on a thin felt that bonds, who were almost of every nation in extended all round the circle, and over Asia, gave us considerable annoyance by which was laid, only under them, a silk the noise they made, but we soon became mattrass, about an inch thick, spread with reconciled to their shouting and hooting, a muslin cloth embroidered in a most exand latterly their exclamatious and denun-quisite manner with gold and silk flowers. ciations were rather a source of laughter and amusement. Such were the populace: what were the Princes? The government was at this time in the hands of three brothers, who jointly shared it. After much negotiation on points of ceremony, the etiquette being settled, the Envoy had his audience, which took place in the fortress of Hyderabad. Being received by the proper officers, they were conducted to a platform spread with the richest Persian carpets here they put off their shoes, and the moment the Envoy made the first step to advance toward the Princes, they all rose and stood upright until he reached his allotted place, which was distinguished by The Umeers wore a vast number of At their backs there were three large pillows covered with similar embroidery to that they sat upon, which, with their display of jewels, gave the whole Durbar the officers of government also appeared an inconceivably rich effect. Many of in very good style; and the general splendour and richness of the scene, far surpassed any thing we had expected to see at the court of Hyderabad. Except in the decorative parts of their dresses, the three brothers were habited alike, in fine muslin tunics with very costly loongees tied round their waists. Their turbauds were of thin transparent gauze, and exceeded in dimensions any thing I had ever beheld in the form of head dresses: speaking within bounds, I should imagine they were from two to two and a half feet in diameter, and yet so neatly. folded up as to have by no means either a heavy or an unbecoming appearance.* This descrption will give the reader a notion of the pomp and luxury of these native Princes; but this was at home, at court, and on an occasion of ceremony. It will demand all his faith to believe, that a Sovereign could carry the same vanity into the field of battle. In the course of his history of this country, our author has occasion to speak of the conquest made of it by the Mohammedans, in the year of the Hijree 93, while the new faith was in its full vigour. He adds in a note, It was not then in Persia only, nor in the Court of the Greek Emperor, principally, that the hardy sons of Ara bia saw treasures which might tempt their cupidity, as well as natives who might become subjects, and countries which might afford settlements, to the true believers. Starving themselves, they attacked and obtained the plenty possessed by others; poor, and therefore valiant, as well as enthusiastic, they conquered wherever they came, and one monument of their conquest is, the still extensive empire of Mahomet in India. That Officer's adventures were no less hazardous than those of his friend. He, too, passed over inhospitable and unpro ductive deserts; and escaped with dif ficulty, though with good fortune, from the fraud and force of unprincipled barbarians. The river Helmind forms a prominent object in this officer's report. He also indicates several antiquities, and marks of more flourishing times having been known in these countries. In sex veral places much light is thrown by each traveller on antient history; esu pecially on that of Alexander the Great, whose fleet sailed down the Indus; and who certainly had great designs in contemplation. An abstract of Capt. Christie's Jour The account of this battle is given innal forms an Appendix to the volume. great detail in the Mujmuool Waridat, or Compendium of Events, and as it will serve to shew the pomp and state of the Rajahs of Sinde, I annex an abstract of it. "We are told (says the writer) that the Rajah appeared on an elephant, in a chair covered with a canopy, set with precious stones ; and that, he had two beautiful slave girls with him, one to serve him with wine, and the other with beetel leaf and areca nut. This elephant moved in the midst of one hundred more, and the palace guards, to the number of one thousand, clad in polished steel armour, surrounded the whole. The total of the Sindian army was thirty thousand foot and horse, and that of the Khaliphas between twelve and thirteen thousand. The battle began at break of day, and lasted till dusk, when the Rajah's elephants took fright, from the rockets that were thrown amongst them, and threw themselves into the river (Indus). That which bore the royal canopy stuck in the mud, and at the same mo= ment the Rajah was shot through the neck, by an arrow, and instantly expired. The rout then became universal, and the city gates being shut, by those who remained inside, all the Brahmins and nobles of the court were made prisoners. The Mohummudans slept on the field of battle, after returning thanks for this great victory; and the following morning after some negociation, took possession of Ooloor, in the name of Khalipha Wulud Bin Ably, he cannot record them. It is suffi dool Mulik." * An idea may be formed of the extraordinary size of the turbands worn by the great men of Sinde, from the fact of some of them containing upwards of eighty yards in length of the gauze they are formed from. It is usually from eight to twelve inches in width. A neat map of the country is an nexed, and the whole is an acceptable addition to our geographical knowledge. A Comprehensive and Geographical 1815. We cannot expect much novelty in a class book, on the subject of Astronomy. Even Herschell himself does not make discoveries every day, and, consequent cient, if such a work give a clear and distinct view of the principal pheno mena, so that young minds shall readily and permanently comprehend them.. We say permanently, because we have frequently observed that after a short time, youths recollect but little of what they have learned: the cause seems to be, the want of that orderly succession of forcible and distinct ideas, which by But the poet soon quits insignificant impressing the memory powerfully, objects and the reader enters the reshould enable the student after recalling gions of romance, and of romance one idea, to recall the whole. Mrs. described in the vivid colouring, and Bryan has, certainly, had this in view; with the energetic pencil of our early and her class book may answer the pur-writers, whose witching strain could ar pose, at least, as well as any other. rest alike the attention of the mail-clad Christabel. Kubla Khan, a Vision. warrior, the blushing maid, the thoughtful scholar, and the unlettered vassal. The" lovely Lady Christabel" disturbs. ed by bad dreams rises from her couch at midnight, and goes into an adjoining THE first of these Poems, or rather-wood to pray for her absent lover→ the fragment of a poem which stands To extract parts from such a morceau is to reduce what remains to a mere nothing; yet to content ourselves with general observations on its style and character, is impossible. The opening is in the very spirit of "Betty Foy" Tis the middle of night by the castle clock, Tu And hark, again! the crowing cock VOL. IV N. 22. Lit Pan. N. S. July 1. "The night is chilly, but not dark, The lady advances to the foot of an aged oak, covered with moss and misseltoe, and prays in silence; when lo! a groan from the other side of the tree makes her leap up suddenly.” "The night is chill; the forest bare; The groan proves to have come from a X dine, the stranger lady, pleads her ex-| grimage" was sensible of composing treme weariness as an excuse for not from two to three hundred lines of joining in the pious office, and they poetry" if that indeed," says he, pass on, to the great displeasure of a certain mastiff-bitch, who had never before been known to ❝utter yell Beneath the eye of Christabel." The accumulation of ominous signs is well described, and the mysterious lady begins to excite a most powerful interest "ere the first part closes. The second opens with the introduction of Geraldine to Sir Leoline, the father of Christabel. "But when he heard the lady's tale, With Roland and Sir Leoline. To free the hollow heart from paining- The marks of that which once hath been. It would be injustice to the author to break the powerful spell in which he holds his readers, by any imperfect description of the thraldom of Christabel to the mysterious Geraldine. Never was the withering glance of an evil eye better described. The poet's mind has combined the wilder graces of fiction, with the most vigorous and speaking descrip tions. Kubla Khan is merely a few stanzas which owe their origin to a circumstance by no means uncommon to persons of a poetical imagination. Our author falling asleep, under the influence of an anodyne draught, over" Purchas his Pil 66 can be called composition, in which all the images rose up before him as things, with a parallel production of the correspondent expressions, without any sensation, or consciousness of effort."On awaking he began to write down these effusions; but being called off, and detained above an hour, he found to his great mortification on his return, that his visions of the night had melted into thin air, and left only a vague recollection of their general form and tendency. It is well known that a ruling passion will predominate even in sleep. The Alderman" eats in dreams the custards of the day," and the scholar, “chewing the cud of sweet and bitter fancy,” ruminates on an intellectual banquet. musician, Tartini, the celebrated dreamed that the devil took his violin from him, and played in strains so delightful that he awoke in utter despair of rivalling so skilful a performer; he however wrote down what he remembered, or something like it, and the piece is known by the name of the Devil's Concerto. But Tartini always declared it to be utterly unworthy of comparison with the production of his sleeping moments. It should however be recollected, that in sleep the judgment is the first faculty of the mind which ceases to act, therefore, the opinion of the sleeper respecting his performance is not to be trusted, even in his waking moments. Still if Mr. Coleridge's two hundred lines were all of equal merit with the following which he has preserved, we are ready to admit that he has reason to be grieved at their loss. "Then all the charm Is broken-all that phantom-world so fair |