sected with channels formed by rills of water in the pe riodical rains; thickly set with low furze, ferns, and other dwarf bushes, and broken up and down into little hills. His horse carried him clean over all and though mine was every minute stumbling and nearly down, yet with a dexterity inexpressible, and a vigour altogether amazing, he kept him up by the bridle, and I may say carried him gallantly over every thing. I was astonished very much at all this, and towards the end as much pleased as astonished; which he perceiving, cried out frequently and triumphantly, "O, la Frangi! Heli! Heli! Frangi!" and at last drawing in the horses, stopping short, and looking me full in the face, exclaimed in lin gua Franca," Que dice, Frangi-Que dice ?"

For some time I was incapable of making him any answer, but continued surveying him from head to foot, as the most extraordinary savage I had ever beheld; while he stroked his whiskers with great self-complacency and composure, and nodded his head every now and then, as much as to say, Ay, ay, it is so! look at me! am not I a very catal fellow?" A capital fellow indeed you are," said I," but I wish I was well out of your confounded clutches."

We alighted on the brow of a small hill, whence was to be seen a full and uninterrupted prospect of the country all round. The interpreter coming up, he called to him and desired him to explain to me carefully the meaning of what he was about to say; which I will give you as nearly as I can in his own words, as they were translated by the linguist :

"You see those mountains yonder," said he, pointing to the east; "those are in the province of Kurdestan, inhabited by a vile race of robbers called Jesides, who pay homage to a God of their own called Jesid (Jesus), and worship the Devil from fear. They live by plunder, and often descend from those mountains, cross the Tigris which runs between them and us, and plunder and ravage this country in bands of great number and formidable strength, carrying away into slavery all they can catch, and killing all who resist them. This country therefore, for some distance round us, is very dangerous to travel

lers, whose only safety lies in flight. Now it was our misfortune this morning to get a very bad horse, for which, please Alla (stroking his whiskers), some one shall receive the bastinado. Should we meet with a band of those Curds, what could we do but fly? And if you, Frangi, rode this horse, and I that, we could never escape : for I doubt you could not keep him up from falling under me, as I did under you: I should therefore come down and be taken-you would lose your guide, and miss your way, and all of us be undone. "Besides," contin

ued he," there are many villages here where people live, who, if they only suspected you were a Frank, would follow and sacrifice you if they could to Mahomet, and where of course you must run for it."

As soon as the interpreter had explained this to me, "Well," continued the Tartar, "what does he now say to it ?" Then turning to me, and tossing up his head→→ "Que dice, Frangi?"

"Why, I say," returned I," that you have spoken good sense and sound reason; and I am obliged to you."

This, when interpreted fully, operated most pleasingly upon him; his features relaxed into a broad look of satisfaction, and he said:" I will do every thing I can to make you easy and contented: and when I am obstinate, don't resist for be assured I have reason for it; and above all things avoid laughing in my presence. But we shall reach Mosul by and bye, and probably then we may have no more rides." For I expected to get down the river Tigris from Mosul to Bagdad, and had told him so, and he encouraged me with the expectation.

That night we came to a caravansera which lay at some distance from a village. Here the Tartar, pleased with himself for the conduct of the day, and pleased with ane for my approbation of it, ordered a most admirable supper; and not only, as was very common with him, rejected the best dish in order to present it to me, but also selected for me the choicest bits of those upon the table, He then ordered wine, observing that the fatigue of a government messenger demanded indulgence; and using salvo of my suggestion on a former occasion, viz. that

the Prophet would not be offended with travellers more than with the sick for taking it as it were medicinally.

We accordingly had wine, and admirable it was, though by no means equal to that we drank at the city of Diarbeker. I took little however, and the Tartar was much surprised at my abstemiousness; remarking, that he never saw a Frank before that was not a downright hog when he got the cup to his lips. My taking it in small portions, while he drank it as we do table beer, particularly astonished him. Before he lay down on his couch, he gave orders for horses, threatening the people with severe castigation if they gave bad ones; holding up as an example the person who gave us the stumbling horse that day, who he declared should be bastinadoed as soon as he returned, if there was a cadi within ten leagues of him; and I dare to say that he kept his word most religiously.

The next morning we had excellent cattle; fear produced wonders among them, and we set forward just as the sun rose. As we entered the first village, I was somewhat alarmed by perceiving my guide draw up his horse -deliberate-mutter to himself and seem rather uneasy while he viewed a crowd that was up the street before us; some of whom I perceived to be agitated with some extraordinary motions of the body, while one man stood in the middle, rolling his body into a variety of strange contortions.-The Tartar, for a minute or two, seemed to be debating within himself whether he should proceed or turn about at length putting me on his left hand, he set forward at full speed, leaving the crowd on his right, who seeing the rapidity of our pace, one side, and let us pass. We soon, however, heard shouting behind us, and could hear plainly the words, "Ghiaour! Frangi Cucu!" and looking back, perceived several ragged men like savages pursuing us, lifting stones occasionally, and casting them after us with all their might. The speed of our horses at last got us out of both sight and hearing; and I plainly perceived and was for the first time convinced, that my guide's conduct was directed by sound sense, spirit, good faith, and integrity.

flew on

*

LETTER XLI.

T HE extraordinary occurrence which I men

tioned in my last letter required explanation, and my Tartar friend was not backward in giving it; for he lo ved exceedingly to hear himself talk, and on any subject within the compass of his knowledge, was shrewd, perspicuous, and even naturally eloquent: he had, moreover, on that occasion acted the part of a skilful general; and as I applauded his prudence and address, he was extremely kind and communicative, and gave me a full account of that affair, his motives, his deliberations, and the urgency of the case; and in short, every thing that could elucidate the circumstance, or aggrandize his own importance. It would be a pity to take it out of his own words: I shall therefore relate them to you, as I had them through the medium of our linguist, for they made an impression on my memory not easily to be erased.

"You must know," said he, "that there are spread over the face of this great and glorious empire, a number of dervises of different kinds-holy men, who renounce the enjoyments and pleasures of the world to Converse with Mahomet and worship Alla. Some of those are very good men, indeed saints, and never do any thing bad; preaching and praying, without hurting any thing, even a rat or a snake; nay they would not hurt a Christian. There are others again, of whom I have heard our bashaws and effendis, and even the Ma azeen, declare that they are forbid by the Koran; and yet the common people (the lower sort you know have no sense) reverence and worship them-they are called Santons; live by themselves, sometimes under ground like rabbits, and sometimes in the thickets and woods. They go where they please, take the best seat in any man's house, cram themselves with meat and drink, and

T

yet none resist them; for some will not, and others dare not. Nay, they often pollute women in the open streets -and they never set their eyes on a Christian or a Frank, that they will not kill, if possible. For my part I think that they ought to be hanged, every one of them that had a head to be hanged by or rather staked-for no punishment is too great for them; but I dare not say so in that town-if I did I should be stoned to death by the rabble.

"As soon as I perceived the crowd, and the rascals dancing, I knew that they were santons, and was sure that they would stop us in order to extract money from us; in which case they would most probably have discovered you for they have the eyes of the devil. Nothing then could save your life; the crowd would join them, and your brains would have been beat out with stones. I had a mind to turn back and go round the town, but that might have caused suspicion, and got us perhaps intercepted; so I determined to push by them boldly, which I did, you can testify, like a brave man. You saw enough yourself, to convince you of the danger you have escaped, and of my wisdom and valor; let me therefore intreat you to be entirely guided by me, and above all things avoid that accursed propensity to laughter."

Since I first formed the resolution of writing this account of my journey, I have been at some pains to dip into the best histories of that country, and I find that in every instance my Tartar guide's information was correct, Those santons, as well as other classes of dervises and sheihs, travel about the country, and levy contributions on the inhabitants; some are really what they pretend to be, and are as pure and as pious as the monks of the primitive Christian church; but the santons are monsters, who exist only by the barbarous credulity and more than savage ignorance of the lower order of the people though reprobated, and indeed, execrated by the better sort of Turks. They affect to be dementated (which with the Mahomedans is the greatest mark of sanctity) and under cover of that madness commit every excess and enormity, not merely with impunity, but