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ried him off. The next day the captain made his report to the king of the efcape, and Frederic, who pretended to be greatly incenfed against him, ordered him to be put under arreft during four and twenty hours.

BRITISH INTREPIDITY.

SOME English failors being in

loudly teftified their furprife; and fcrupled not to inform the old man that they had overheard his quarrel with the girl." Gentlemen," faid he, "your furprise is occafioned by a thing of very little confequence. I keep houfe, and fave or fpend money my own way; the first furnishes me with the means of doing the other. With regard to benefactions, and donations, you may the harbour of Alexandria, in the always expect most from prudent people, who keep their own counts." When he had thus fpoken, he begged they would quit his houfe without the smallest ceremony; to prevent which, he fhut the door; not thinking half fo much of the four hundred guineas, which he had just given away, as of the match which had been carelessly thrown into the fire.

ANECDOTE

ac

OF THE LATE KING OF PRUSSIA.

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Mediterranean, formed a ftrange defign of drinking a can of grog on the top of the column, called Pompey's Pillar, which is a fea mark to that harbour, in the manner of the

Eddiftone on the coast of Devonfhire, but vaftly higher, and without any access whatever. The boat was got out, and with proper implements for the attempt, they pushed to the fhore. When arrived at the fpot, many contrivances were made ufe of, but in vain, and they began to despair of fuccefs. The tar who propofed the frolic, ran to the city, from whence he brought a boy's paper kite, which was flown directly over the pillar, and by means of which a cord was carried quite over the top. This accomplished, a rope was then drawn over, and one of the feamen from thence afcended to the top, where being arrived, others were handed to him by the fame conveyance, and in little more than an hour a regular fet of shrouds was erected, by which the whole company went up, and drank their beverage, amidst the fhouts of feveral thousand people collected to to fee what they termed a miracle, as no one had before been known to have feen the top of that stupendous edifice, which overtops the highest buildings of the city, and is eftimated at from forty to fifty yards height. This circumftance occurred about ten years fince; and the Turks to this day have a record of it, which, tranflated into English, fignifies the Mad-cap Experiment.

A CAPTAIN, named S- having unfortunately killed another officer in a duel, was taken and carried to the main guard. Frederic could not prevent his trial according to the laws; and, therefore, he was condemned to die. This prince, who liked the captain because he was a brave man, wifhed to fave him, and fecretly infinuated to the officers, his friends, that he should not be forry to fee the prifoner efcape. Every thing was prepared accordingly for the flight; and, to facilitate it, Frederic fent for the captain that day on guard, and faid unto him, "If you fuffer Sescape to-night, reft affured that you fhall be put under an arreft for four and twenty hours." The officer understood the king's meaning, and, towards midnight, invited the prifoner to take the air before the guard-house. His friends, who were at a little distance with a chaife, approached, told him of the preparations they had made, and car

CHA

CHARACTERISTIC MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.

GINGIRO, ADJACENT TO ABYS

SINIA.

[From Bruce's Travels.]

LL matters in Gingiro are

This kingdom is hereditary in one family, but does not descend in course to the eldest fon, the election of the particular prince being in the nobles; and thus far, indeed, it

A conducted by magic; and we teens to refemble ah, it

may fee to what point the human understanding is debafed in the diftance of a few leagues. Let no man fay that ignorance is the caufe, or heat of climate, which is the unintelligible obfervation generally made on these occafions. For why fhould heat of climate addict a people to magic more than cold? or, why fhould ignorance enlarge a man's powers, fo that, overleaping the bounds of common intelligence, it fhould extend his faculty of converfing with a new fet of beings in another world? The Ethiopians, who nearly furround Abyffinia, are blacker than those of Gingiro, their country hotter, and are, like them, an indigenous people that have been, from the beginning, in the fame part where they now inhabit. Yet the former neither adore the devil, nor pretend to have a communication with him: they have no human facrifices, nor are there any traces of fuch enormities having prevailed among them. A communication with the fea has been always open, and the flave-trade prevalent from the earliest times; while the king of Gingiro, fhut up in the heart of the continent, facrifices thofe flaves to the devil which he has no opportunity to fell to man. For at Gingiro begins that accurfed custom of making the fhedding of human blood a neceffary part in all folemnities. How far to the fouthward this reaches I do not know; but I look upon this to be the geographical bounds of the reign of the devil on the north fide of the equator in the peninfula of Africa.

neighbours in Abyffinia.

When the king of Gingiro dies, the body of the deceased is wrapped in a fine cloth, and a cow is killed. They then put the body fo wrapped up into the cow's fkin. As foon as this is over, all the princes of the royal family fly and hide themselves in the bushes; while others, intrufted with the election, enter into the thickets, beating every where about as if looking for game. At laft a bird of prey, called in their country Liber, appears, and hovers over the perfon deftined to be king, crying and making a great noife without quitting his ftation. By this means the perfon destined to be elected is found, furrounded, as is reported, by tigers, lions, panthers, and fuchlike wild beafts. This is imagined to be done by magic, or the devil, elfe there are every where enough of these beafts lying in the cover to furnish materials for such a tale, without having recourse to the power of magic to affemble them.

As they find their king, then, like a wild beast, fo his behaviour continucs the fame after he is found. He flies upon them with great rage, refifting to the laft, wounding and killing all he can reach without any confideration, till, overcome by force, he is dragged to a throne, which he fills in a manner perfectly correfponding to the rationality of the ceremonies of his inftalment.

Although there are many that have a right to feek after this king, yet, when he is difcovered, it does not follow, that the fame person who finds him fhould carry him to his

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Coronation; for there is a family who have a right to difpute this honour with the first poffeffor; and, therefore, in his way from the wood, they fet upon the people in whofe hands he is, and a battle enfues, where feveral are killed or wounded; and if these laft, by force, can take him out of the hands of the first finder, they enjoy all the honours due to him that made him king.

Before he enters his palace two men are to be flain; one at the foot of the tree by which his houfe is chiefly fupported; the other at the threshold of his door, which is befmeared with the blood of the victim. And, it is faid, (I have heard this often in Abyffinia from people coming from that country) that the particular family, whofe privilege it is to be flaughtered, fo far from avoiding it, glory in the occafion, and offer themfelves will ingly to meet it.

AMUSEMENTS OF THE ABYSSINIAN KINGS, ON THEIR FIRST ACCES

SION TO THE THRONE.

[From the fame Work.] IT has been a conftant practice with the kings of Abyffinia to make a public hunting-match the first expedition of their reign. On thefe occafions, the king, attended by all the great officers of ftate, whofe merit and capacity are already acknowledged, reviews his young nobility, who all appear to the best advantage as to arms, horfes, and equipage, with the greatest number of fervants and attendants. The fcene of this hunting is always in the Kolla, crowded with an immenfe number of the largest and fiercest wild beafts, elephants, rhinoceros, lions, leopards, panthers, and buffaloes fiercer than them all, wild boars, wild affes, and many varieties of the deer kind.

As foon as the game is roufed, and forced out of the wood by the VOL. II.

footmen and dogs, they all fingly, or feveral together, according to the fize of the beaft, or as ftrength and ability in managing their horfes admit, attack the animal upon the plain with long pikes or fpears, or two javelins in their hands. The king, unless very young, fits on horieback on a rifing ground, fur- ́ rounded by the graver fort, who point out to him the names of those of the nobility that are happy enough to diftinguish themselves in his fight. The merit of others is known by report.

Each young man brings before the king's tent, as a trophy, a part of the beast he has flain; the head and fkin of a lion or leopard; the fcalp or horns of a deer; the private parts of an elephant; the tail of a buffalo, or the horn of a rhinoceros. The great trouble, force, and time neceffary to take out the teeth of the elephant, feldom make them ready to be prefented with the rest of the fpoils; fire, too, is neceffary for loofing them from the jaw. The head of a boar is brought ftuck upon a lance; but is not touched, as being unclean.

The elephant's teeth are the king's perquifites. Of thefe round ivory rings are turned for bracelets, and a quantity of them always brought by him to be diftributed among the most deferving in the field, and kept ever afier as certificates of gallant behaviour. Nor is this mark attended with honour alone. Any man who fhall from the king, queen-regent, or governor of a province, receive fo many of thefe rings as fhall cover his arm down to his wrift, appears before the twelve judges on a certain day, and there, laying down his arm with thefe rings upon it, the king's cook breaks every one in its turn with a kind of kitchen-cleaver, whereupon the judges give him a certificate, which proves that he is entitled to a territory, whose revenue muft exceed twenty ounces of N n

gold,

gold, and this is never either refufed or delayed. All the different fpecies of game, however, are not equally rated. He that flays a Galla, or Shangalla, man to man, is entitled to two rings; he that flays an elephant, to two; a rhinoceros, two; a giraffa, on account of its fpeed, and to encourage horfemanship, two; a buffalo, two; a lion, two; a leopard, one; two boars, whofe tufks are grown, one; and one for every four of the deer kind., Great difputes conftantly arife about the killing of thefe beafts; to determine which, and prevent feuds and quarrels, a council fits every evening, in which is an officer called Dimshafha, or Red Cap, from a piece of red filk he wears upon his forehead, leaving the top of his head bare, for no perfon is allowed to cover his head entirely except the king, the twelve judges, and dignified priests. This officer regulates the precedence of one nobleman over another, and is poffeffed of the hiftory of all pedigrees, the nobleft of which are always accounted those nearest to the king reigning.

Every man pleads his own caufe before the council, and receives immediate fentence. It is a fettled rule, that those who ftrike the animal first, if the lance remain upright, or in the fame direction in which it enters the beaft, are understood to be the flayers of the beaft, whatever number combat with him afterwards. There is one exception, however, that if the beaft, after receiving the first wound, though the lance is in him, fhould lay hold of a horfe or man, fo that it is evident he would prevail against them; a buffalo, for example, that fhould'tofs a man with his horns, or an elephant that should take a horfe with his trunk, the man who shall then flay the beaft, and prevent or revenge the death of the man or horfe attacked, fhall be accounted the flayer

of the beast, and entitled to the premium.

Many nations of perfect blacks inhabit the low country, which is called Kolla; they are all Pagans, and mortal enemies to the Abyffinian government. Hunting thefe mifer able wretches is the next expedition undertaken by a new king. The feafon of this is just before the rains, while the poor favage is yet lodged under the trees preparing his food for the approaching winter, before he retires into his caves in the moun tain, where he paffes that inclement feafon in conftant confinement, but as conftant fecurity; for these na tions are all Troglodytes, and by the Abyffinians are called Shangalla.

CURIOUS FORM GIVEN BY CERTAIN

PEOPLE TO THEIR CHILDREN'S
HEADS.

HIPPOCRATES fpeaks of a very ancient people, who inhabited the borders of the Black Sea, whom he calls Macrocephates, or Long Heads. Thefe people had the strange practice of preffing the head out in length of their new-born children; and this method, repeated from generation to generation, at length rendered this conformation of the head hereditary, and seemingly natural.

The greater part of the iflanders in the Archipelago, fome of the people of Afia, and even fome of thofe of Europe, ftill prefs their children's heads out lengthwife. We may obferve also that the Epirots, and many people of America, are all born with some fingularity in the conformation of their heads; either a flatnefs on the top, two extraor dinary protuberances behind, or one of each fide; fingularities which we can only regard as an effect of an ancient and strange mode, which is become at length hereditary in the nation. According to the report of many travellers, the operation of

com.

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compreffing the head of a child lengthwife, while foft, is with a view to enlarge infenfibly the interval between the two eyes, fo that the visual rays turning more to the right and left, the fight would embrace a much larger portion of the horizon; the advantage of which they are well acquainted with, either in the conftant exercife of hunting, or on a thousand other occafions. Since the fixteenth century, the miffionaries eftablished in the countries inhabited by the favages of America, have endeavoured to destroy this custom; and we find, in the feffions of the third council of Lima, held in 1585, a canon which

exprefsly prohibits it. But if it has been repreffed one way, the free negroes and Maroons, although Africans, have adopted it, fince they have been established among the Caribs, folely with the view of diftinguishing their children, which are born free, from those who are born in flavery.

The Omaquas, a people of South America, according to P. Veigh, prefs the heads of their children fo violently between two planks, that they become quite fharp at the top, and flat before and behind. They very wifely fay they do this to give the head a greater refemblance to the moon!

PHILOSOPHICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY.

HERSCHEL'S

ACCOUNT OF THE arduous undertaking of conftructing
this inftrument.

DISCOVERY OF A SIXTH AND
SEVENTH SATELLITE OF THE
PLANET SATURN, &C.
[From Philofophical Tranfactions, Vol.
LXXX. Part I. just published.]

T

It may appear remarkable, that

thefe fatellites fhould have remained fo long unknown to us, when, for a century and an half paft, the planet to which they be long has been the object of almoft every aftronomer's curiofity, on account of the fingular phænomena of its ring. But it will be feen prefently, from the fituation and fize of the fatellites, that we could hardly expect to discover them till a telefcope of the dimenfions and aperture of my forty-feet reflector fhould be conftructed; and I need not observe how much we members of this fociety must feel ourselves obliged to our royal patron, for his encouragement of the fciences, when we perceive that the discovery of these fatellites is entirely owing to the liberal fupport whereby our most benevolent king has enabled his humble aftronomer to complete the

The planet Saturn is, perhaps, one of the most engaging objects that aftronomy offers to our view. As fuch it drew my attention fo early

as the year 1774; when, on the

17th of March, with a five feet and an half reflector, I faw its ring reduced to a very minute line. On the 3d of April, in the fame year, I found the planet as it were tripped of its noble ornament, and dreffed in the plain fimplicity of Mars. I pafs over the following year, in which, with a feven feet reflector, I faw the ring gradually open.

It fhould be noticed, that the black disk, or belt, upon the ring of Saturn is not in the middle of its breadth; nor is the ring fubdivided by many fuch lines, as has been reprefented in divers treatises of aftronomy; but that there is one fingle, dark, confiderably broad line, belt, or zone, upon the ring, which I have always permanently found in the place where my figure represents it. I give this, however, only as a view of the northern plane of the

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ring,

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