lancholy music, played by dervises. These diversions were terminated by rope dining, which was executed with considele grace and dexterity. As night approceed we prepared for retiring. M. Kotusow, on the part of the capitan pacha,

then received presents, consisting of a su perb ring, studded with diamonds, a beauHal Arabian horse, estimated at 6,000 piastres, and a large quantity of richly embraidered Turkish handkerchiefs. A short tine after, we resumed the usual order, and proceeded towards our hotel."

The 25th of March was the day appointed for the departure of the embassy, but as the Porte was obliged to defray the whale of the expences of it to the frontier of Turkey, there was some little difficulty in arranging the preliminaries, nor was the departure altogether so brilliant as the entrance.

Our author asserts, that the Turks regard Asia as their original country, and prefer it to all their possessions in Europe: for this reason, he says, the greater part of them are transported to Scutari after their death. They consider it as a privilege, and a motive of consolation on their death-bed, to carry out of the world with them the certainty that they shall be buried in the country of their ancestors. The character of the Tak is represented as obliging, hospitable, and polite; and the idleness and indifference with which they are reproached, is attributed to the climate alone. Whatever influence climate may have among savages, it produces but little, surely, in civilized society: moral causes are infinitely more concerned in the formation of character than physical ones. During the long time that the Embassy remained in Constantinople, abundant opportunity was afforded of examining the curiosities of that capital; but the accounts which many of our travellers have given us of the seraglio, the church of St. Sophia, the castle of the Seven Towers, and the various mosques by which it is so richly ornamented, are much more minute and satisfactory than the meagre one which is given in these pages.

The remarks which occur on the state of agriculture, population, &c. of the Turkish provinces, perfectly accord with those which all other travellers have given us on the same subject. In Walfachia the vine is the most considerable object of culture; but the inhabitants know not how to preserve the wine when

they have made it: the quantity, how. ever, which they certainly produce is insignificant, for the cultivators of the vineyards are ignorant of the method of trailing their plants; and as to weeding them, they simply rake up the earth once a year round the plants, and trust to Mahomet for the rest. Population is scanty, and unequally distributed; it is more abundant on the mountains than on the more fertile plains. Our author supposes, that these mountains answer the purpose of an asylum to the inhabitants during the ravages of war: "they fly to them for refuge, when the flatter parts of the country are exposed to the fury and ravages of a lawless Turkish soldiery, whose violence it is difficult to restrain, and who bear in mind the consciousness of being the support of the thrones of the sultans, who dare not punish them.”

Wallachia is extremely rich in its pasturage: not fewer than 340,000 horned cattle are exported from this province, through Bosnia, to Constantinople: our traveller says, that several millions of horses are sent to graze in the country, and several millions of sheep are sent to Constantinople. But these random and extravagant estimates afford no information whatever.

The province of Wallachia, the manners of its inhabitants, its degradation under Turkish despotism, the nature of its soil, commerce, and so on, occupy a considerable portion of our traveller's attention; he seems to have had more leisure for observation and enquiry, at least he made better use of it on his re turn with the embassy, than on his pro cession with it. At Jassy, the capital of Moldavia, the embassy halted long enough to allow him to make his re marks on the character and manners of the people, and his enquiries as to their commerce, agriculture, &c.: he gives a curious account of the Moldavian dances, and other amusements. The Moldavians are an active, hardy, and courageous race; not generally cruel in their victories, except their enemy is a Turk or a Tartar, in either of which cases they consider it an act of religion to kill him immediately; he among them who should be weak enough to spare him, would be regarded as a traitor and an unbeliever. The women are handsome, and not remarkable for their chastity: the Russian embassy at least

was highly favoured. In this and the neighbouring province, Wallachia, their character is mildness itself-and ignorance itself. "I do not know of any female," says our traveller, "with the exception, perhaps, of the princesses, who can read or write. The Greeks pretend in this respect, that women should know no more than what their husbands choose to teach them." The Moldavians are singularly industrious cultivators of the ground: their country, though perpetually a prey to the avaricious and stupid policy of the Porte, and though so recently laid waste by the mad desolation of war, seemed rapidly recovering from its wounds. Although, when the embassy passed through it, the Moldavians had not enjoyed the blessings of peace more than three years, almost all the towns and villages which had been laid low in the war, were entirely repaired: vineyards, fields, and meadows, exhibited a careful cultivation, and a rewarding fertility. But how precarious is the tenure by which the subjects of the Turkish government hold their property! The dignity of

the hospodars or princes, by whom the provinces are governed, is generally bestowed on dragomans of the Porte: he who offers most, is sure of obtaining it; but the money, the influence of which creates him a prince to-day, by the same influence may dethrone him to-morrow. The consequence is obvious: the uncertain duration of his reign makes him anxious to profit by the present moment; he has paid dearly for his dignity, and he must reimburse his expences. The provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia are not absolutely united to the Turkish empire, nor have the sultans declared themselves absolute masters of them: they are satisfied with drawing ample revenues from their resources, and wisely think it prudent not to venture a quarrel where those revenues are at stake.

The passage of the Dneister was once more performed at the same instant by the Turkish and the Russian ambassadors, each on return to his respective court: the same ceremonies were again performed, and our traveller made the best of his way to St. Petersburg.

FEMALE travellers, if not so profound in their investigations as men, have, perhaps, caught the moving pictures of life and manners with quicker eye, and sketched them with happier hand. The Countess d'Anois' Letters from Spain partake somewhat too much of her passion for novel-writing; but more accurate writers have given a less striking resemblance in their accounts. Lady Mary Wortley Montague's Letters are known to be generally faithful; and of their literary merit it is some proof, that they formed one of the first English works printed in the stereotype of France. We have here another female tourist; her route has been through an interesting country, and she has travelled with every advantage, leisure, the best introductions, and a perfect knowledge of the Russian language. We expected much interesting information

from this volume, and some amusement; for the editor tells us, the letters were originally written in French; but that he, conscious of his inability to add his part in the lively elegant style of the ami, able writer, had been obliged to throw the whole into English. Now, if the reader were to travel himself to the Crimea, and go through all the countries on the north shore of the Euxine, he would never guess what is the main subject of Mrs. Guthrie's Letters to her husband. We will give a specimen of the matter, and of the lively elegant style.

"Both the Byzantine history of the Taurida, page 71, and Cedrenus, page 710, assure us, that Theodosia, as this city was

originally called by the Greeks, and now again by the Russians, was conquered in 965 by the Russian hero, Svetoslaw the First, grand duke of Kioff, and father of Vladimar the Great; at the same time that he subdued

the Kozares, or Khatzares, as the Greeks called them, then likewise masters of the Taurida or Kozaria, and took their famous capital Sarkel, or Belaueja, on the river Donetz,, built by Greek architects, whom the emperor of Constantinople sent to the Chan in compliance with his request.

"From Kerch, the Panticapeos of Scylax, and Panticapeum of Strabo,

"I make no doubt, that you are happy to find me fairly out of Caffa, and on my way to the ancient capital of the Bosphorus, now Kerch; but, as you know that I by no means like driving over classic ground with the swiftness of a courier, I must here inform you, that, instead of galloping along the high road, straight to the Cimmerian Bosphorus, on which the ancient Panticapeain stands, I intend to do just the contrary, and jog slowly up along the coast, to look for the ruins of some ancient Greek

cities which once stood there.

*The first place that we looked for was the Zephyrium of Pliny, which Peyssonel

thinks must have stood at Zavita; but not a

trace now remains to favour the learned consut's conjecture., The next that we should have met with was the Kimerikon of the middle ages, which stood at the south entrance of the Bosphorus, where these straits enter the Euxine, and are fifteen versts broad, as Strabo says, very justly (for his seventy-four stades nearly measure that distance); but no ruins of that city are to be

seen, more than of the former; nor was our

search for the remains of the ara of Ptolemy more successful, which Strabo places on the European side of the Bosphorus, directly opposite to the city of Corocondamus, in the island of Phanagoria, or Taman."

Now, reader! extraordinary as it will appear, that Mrs. Guthrie should quote Pliny, and Strabo, and Cedrenus, and Arrian; that she should reduce Roman sted into Russian versts, and measure Grecian medimnes by pound weights; it is still more extraordinary that all this should be Dr. Guthrie's writing, who has entered into the whole history of the ancient kingdom of the Bosphorus, medallic, commercial, and geographical; and of all possible forms has chosen to throw it into the shape of letters to himself from his wife! We can recollect but one instance of any subject treated with equal propriety, that of an ingenious correspondent to the Lady's Diary, who answered all "the last year's rebusses," in an elegy upon his father's

death. The mixture of Dr. Guthrie's learning, and Mrs. Guthrie's liveliness, is the most extraordinary that can be ima-. gined. Tora and the Talmud, the Musul PaOne letter begins about the dishah, or king of Nineveh, and the Melanchlani, mentioned by all classic authors as dwelling on the Palus Maolas; and it concludes by, "your very submissive spouse, when she has all her own way." In another, his wandering spouse explains the nature and causes of putrid marsh miasma, sometimes cara sposa, calls him my wise sir, or my saucy hus band; laughs at the disorder of his li brary, and ridicules the papers of the Antiquarian Society. Presently the learned Theban introduces us to the Milesians, and the Borysthenetæ, and the Hamaxobitii, the Budinæ, the Patzinacites, and the Agathyres, whose raiment, according to Herodotus, was flowered with gold!

But we will leave the history of king Pærisades, and king Leucon, and king Satyrus, and the whole dynasty of the celebrated Archæanactorides, and cull out what few flowers grow amid this rubbish of antiquity.

the Liman, or Gulf of the Dniester, a In digging the foundation of a fort on tomb was discovered; the urn within was shaped very differently from the usual form of sepulchral urns; it contained ashes and burnt human bones, and in the midst of them lay a small fe male bust of baked clay, of exquisite workmanship, though apparently moulded by the fingers, without the help of an instrument, as the impression of the human skin is still visible. This bust bears a perfect resemblance to the busts of Julia; and, with a pardonable credulity, supported by specious, if not solid arguments, the late empress deter mined it to be the grave of Ovid, and has called the city which she was there building, Ovidopol. Another memora ble tomb is at Cherson, on the same river, with this honourable inscription, "Here lies the benevolent Howard.”

The salt-water lakes exhibit a very remarkable appearance. The continued action of the burning sun covers them in summer with a thick white crust of salt. "If we had travelled here in winter," says Mrs. Guthrie, "we should

not for a moment have doubted that what we saw was ice.

At Eupatoria the traveller witnessed a curious ceremony of Mohammedan fanaticism.

FROM EUPATORIA.
A

"Our first visit this morning was to the Tartar mosque (called Metchet in the language of the country), which has nothing about it remarkable, either for size or beauty; but what amply repaid our disappointment was, a sort of holy wheel, composed of whirling fanatics, who kept flying round in a circle, more like the votaries of Bacchus than of Mahomet, who certainly forbade the juice of the grape, but forgot to interdict that of the poppy, the most destructive and intoxicating of the two; and I believe it was under the influence of this last juice, that this Tartar group were moving at such a rate. Mahomet likewise forgot to forbid ardent spirits; so that the Turks, Tartars, &c. make no scruple of drinking brandy, as that is not wine," say they.

"An aged dervise turned on his centre like a top, in the middle of this giddy circle, muttering all the while, in concert with the holy circumference, the following wise maxim from the Koran: "This life is precarious; but it is here (pointing to the earth) that we must take up our abode :"-a truth which certainly merits a less ridiculous mode of announcing it.

"The centre of this curious circle is always the place of honour, and even of dan ger, as the reverend father who occupies if, in right of his years and wisdom, keeps spinning round till he turns his brain at least, if he be not so happy as to expire on the spot, as is sometimes the case; when he becomes a martyr and saint of the Mahometan church, and the envy of his surviving stronger-headed companions."

Our Jumpers are a sect sufficiently remarkable, but the whirl of these spinners is certainly a more extraordinary motion of the spirit. We doubt, how ever, whether the Spinners can adduce a text so decisive in their favour from the Koran, as the Jumpers quote from the Bible. "David danced before the ark:" "and whatever you may think of it," said one of the sect, "dancing and jumping is pretty much the same thing."

An interesting account is given of the last khan of Crim Tartary, Chagin Gir. rey. He had accompanied an embassy from the reigning khan to the court of Catharine, in his youth, and the empress, with her usual policy, engaged him to remain in Petersburg, as captain of her guards. In 1774, when the in.

dependence of Crim Tartary was ac knowledged in the treaty between Russia, and Turkey, by her influence he was appointed khan. The next step was to make him cede his sovereignty to Russia for a pension of 100,000 rubles. The remainder of his life was miserable.

"His countenance was remarkably pale, with strong marks of inward grief preying on his mind: a suspicion confirmed by his dress, which was always black after he abdicated; and he constantly wore a black silk handkerchief on his head, which was carried up each side of his face from under his chin, and tied above the turban. His laundress likewise discovered, by the little circles which it left on his shirts, that he always wore a coat of mail under his cloaths, probably to ward off a sudden blow from any fanatic Mahometan, as he had near 200 about his person, even in his retirement, who constituted his little court. However, in spite of this precaution against a hidden enemy, he was a man of great courage in the field, and. upon all occasions of danger; a singular proof of which he once gave, when obliged to take shelter, among the Russian troops, from an insurrection of his subjects during his short reign, instigated by the Turkish party. The insurgents having advanced against his defenders, to the amount of 30,000 men, the khan stole away in the night from the small Russian army (if possible, to prevent the effusion of blood the next day), and rode directly into the midst of his revolted subjects, alone and unarmed, demanding the cause of their discontent, and of what they had to accuse him. This bold measure so completely surprised and discomposed the hostile army, that the soldiers declared they had no personal enmity to their khan, but had been led there by certain mursas, or chiefs, without well knowing why. On this, Chagin Girrey ordered the mursas to be brought before him, to declare their grievances; but they, being as much confounded as their men, could alledge nothing in the slightest degree satisfactory; whereupon he commanded the soldiers to hang them up as traitors; which they inHe then quietly rode back alone stantly did. to the Russian quarters, who had been in much alarm on finding him gone.”

After two years, he became weary of dwelling among men who differed from himself in religion and manners, and obtained leave to visit his relations at Constantinople. His relation, the grand signior, received him with true Turkish affection; that is, he first welcomed him in the kindest manner, ordered him next to retire to Rhodes, and there sent the messenger with the bow-string!

Mrs, Guthrie visited Caffa, or, as it is