his hair paffing through the flame, for one pahr and a quarter, that is, three hours and three quarters. Having paffed through this fiery trial, he may then prepare himself for the laft act of probation, which is to be buried alive, ftanding upright, in a pit dug for the purpofe; the fresh earth being thrown in upon him, fo that he is completely covered. In this fituation, he must remain, for one pahr and a quarter, or three hours and three quarters, and if at the expiration of that time, on the removal of the earth, he fhould be found alive, he will afcend into the highest rank, among the moft pure of the Yogee, (jugi)." Pr. 270-272. Sheep of Tibet. Among the valuable and useful animals of Tibet, their breed of fheep merits a diftinguifhed rank. Their flocks are numerous; and upon them their chief reliance is placed for prefent fupport, as well as for their winter food. A peculiar fpecies feems indigenous to this climate, marked almoft invariably by black heads and legs. They are of a small fize their wool is foft, and their flesh, almoft the only animal food eaten in Tibet, is, in my opinion, the finest mutton in the world. : "They are fed without diftinction, wherever fufficient pafture is to be found, but principally upon the fhort herbage, peculiar to the fides of eminences, and bleak, expofed plains. They are occafionally employed as beafts of burden; and I have seen numerous flocks of them in motion, laden with salt and grain, each carrying from twelve to twenty pounds. They are the bearers of their own coats, to the beft market, where it is ufually fabricated into a narrow cloth refembling frieze, or a thick course blanket. When flaughtered, their ikins are most commonly cured with the wool on, and form a moft excellent winter garment for the peafant, and the traveller. "The fkins of lambs are cured alfo with the wool on, and conftitute a valuable article of traffic. In order to obtain the skin in its higheft ftate of excellency, the dam is fometimes killed before her time of yeaning; a cruel precaution, which secures, however, a filky foftnefs to the fleece, and ftamps a very high price upon it, in this region, where the merit of good furs is well afcertained. It ferves particularly for lining vefts, and is in equal estimation all over Tartary; it bears a very high price alfo in China. But powerful as the temptation is, I conclude from this circumftance, that the practice is not very frequently adopted."Pr. 302-3. Religion of Tibet. "It feems, then, to be the fchifmatical offspring of the religion of the Hindoos, deriving its origin from one of the followers of that faith, a disciple of Budh, who firft broached the doctrine which now prevails over the wide extent of Tartary. It is reported to have received its earliest admiffion, in that part of Tibet bordering upon India, (which from hence became the feat of the fovereign Lamas) to have traversed over Mantchieux Tartary, and to have been ultimately diffeminated over China and Japan. Though it differs from the Hindoo in many of its its outward forms, yet it ftill bears a very close affinity with the religion of Brahma, in many important particulars. The principal idol in the Temples of Tibet is Mahamoonie,* the Budha of Bengal, who is worshipped under thefe and various other epithets, throughout the great extent of Tartary, and among all the nations to the eastward of the Berhampooter. In this wide extended space over which this faith prevails, the fame object of veneration is acknowledged under numerous titles; among others, he is ftyled Godama or Gowtama, in Affam and Ava; Samana, in Siam; Amida Buth, in Japan; Fohi, in China; Budha and Shakamuna, in Bengal and Hindoftan; Dherma Raja and Mahamoonie, in Bootan and Tibet. Durga and Káli; Ganeish, the emblem of wisdom; and Cartikeäh, with his numerous heads and arms, as well as many other deities of the Hindoo my thology, have alfo a place in their affemblage of gods. "The fame places of popular esteem or religious refort, as I have already hinted, are equally refpected in Tibet and in Bengal; Praag, Cafhi, Durgeedin Saugor, and Jagarnaut, are objects of devout pilgrimage; and I have feen loads of the facred water taken from the Ganges, travelling over these mountains, (which, by the bye, contribute largely to its increase) upon the fhoulders of men, whom enthufiafts have deemed it worth their while, to hire at a confiderable expence, for fo pious a purpose. "As far as I am able to judge, refpecting their ritual, or ceremonial worship, it differs materially from the Hindoo. The Tibetians affemble in chapels, and unite together in prodigious numbers, to perform their religious fervice, which they chant in alternate recitative and chorus, accompanied by an extenfive band of loud and pow erful inftruments. So that, whenever I heard thefe congregations, they forcibly recalled to my recollection, both the folemnity, and found, of the Roman Catholic mafs." PP. 306-7. Burial-Place. "One one fide of the monaftery of Tefhoo Loombo I saw the place, the Golgotha, if I may fo call it, to which they convey their dead. It was a fpacious area, enclosed on one part by the perpendicular rock, and on the others by lofty walls, raised probably with a view to feclude from public obfervation, the difgufting objects contained within them. At the top it was totally uncovered, fo as to be perfectly open to the birds; and at the bottom a narrow paffage was left through the walls, near their foundation, for the fole purpose of admitting dogs, or other beafts of prey. On the rock above, a platform overhung the inclosure, which had been conftructed for the conveniency of precipitating the dead bodies with greater ease, over the walls, into the area, And here, I understood, the only rites performed, in honour of the dead, were merely fuch as tended to facilitate the deftruction of the body by dogs, or birds of prey. But though this was the general receptacle, yet there were fome who declined the ufe "This term is Sanfcrit, and literally fignifies great faint." of of it, and conveyed their friends to the fummit of fome neighbouring hill, where, I was told, they disjointed and mangled the dead body, that it might become a more easy prey to carnivorous birds. I con. cluded, that there was a ftrong prejudice in their minds, of fome idea of pollution attached to being given to the dogs,' which was fufficient to create a preference of the contrary practice. "In Tibet, as well as in Bengal, an annual feftival is kept in honour of the dead. On the 29th of October, as foon as the evening drew on, and it became dark, a general illumination was displayed upon the fummits of all the buildings in the monastery; the tops also of the houfes upon the plain, as well as in the most diftant villages, fcattered among the clusters of willows, were in the fame manner lighted up with lamps, exhibiting altogether, a brilliant and splendid fpectacle. The night was dark, the weather calm, and the lights burnt with a clear and fteady flame. The Tibetians reckon these circumstances of the first importance, as, on the contrary, they deem it a moft evil omen if the weather be ftormy, and their lights extinguifhed by the wind or rain." PP. 317-18. Tibetian Marriages. "That they (the Monks and Nuns) should be thus drawn, in such multitudes, to thefe folitary retreats, from the business and the pleafures of the world will lefs excite our surprise, when we reflect on the peculiar cuftom that prevails, with regard to the union of the fexes, in Tibet; a custom at once different from the modes of Europe, where one female becomes the wife of one male; and oppofite to the practice of Afia, at least of very great part of it, where one male affumes an uncontrolled defpotifm over many females, limiting his connection with wives and concubines only by the extent of his re fources. Here we find a practice equally ftrange, that of polyandry, if I may fo call it, univerfally prevailing; and fee one female, affociating her fate and fortune with all the brothers of a family, without any restriction of age, or of numbers. The choice of a wife is the privilege of the elder brother: and fingular as it may feem, I have been affured, that a Tibetian wife is as jealous of her connubial rites, though thus joined to a numerous party of hufbands, as the defpot of an Indian Zennana, is of the favours of his imprifoned fair. Under circumstances so unfavourable, it is no wonder that the business of in, creafing the fpecies is but coldly carried on. "Officers of State, as well as thofe who afpire to fuch diftinctions, deem it, indeed, a bufinefs ill-fuited with their dignity, or duties, to attend to the propagation of their species; and retire from this effen. tial care, abandoning in it entirely to mere plebians, Marriage, in fact, amongst them, feems to be confidered rather as an odium, a heavy burden, the weight and obloquy of which, a whole family are dif pofed to leffen, by fharing it among them, "The number of husbands is not, as far as I could learn, defined or reftricted within any limits; it fometimes happens, that, in a small family, there is but one male; and the number may feldom, perhaps, exceed that, which a native of rank, during my refidence at Teshoo Loomboo, pointed out out to me in a family refident in the neighbourhood, in which five brothers were then living together very happily, with one female, under the fame connubial compact. Nor is this fort of league confined to the lower ranks of people alone; it is found also frequently in the most opulent families." Pr. 348—9. Character of the Tibetians. "Humanity, and an unartificial gentleness of difpofition, are the conftant inheritance of a Tibetian. "I never faw these qualities poffeffed by any people in a more eminent degree. Without being fervilely officious, they are always obliging; the higher ranks are unaffuming; the inferior refpectful in their behaviour; nor are they at all deficient in attention to the female fex ; but, as we find them moderate in all their paffions, in this refpect, alfo, their conduct is equally remote from rudeness and adulation. Comparatively with their fouthern neighbours, the women of Tibet enjoy an elevated station in fociety. To the privileges of unbounded liberty, the wife here adds the character of mistress of the family, and companion of her husbands. The company of all, indeed, the is not at all times entitled to expect. Different purfuits, either agricultural employments, or mercantile fpeculations, may occafionally cause the temporary absence of each; yet whatever be the refult, the profit of the labourer flows into the common ftore; and when he returns, whatever may have been his fortune, he is fecure of a grateful welcome to a focial home.' P. 350. The Tibetian Goat. "Here we faw multitudes of the valuable animal, whofe coat affords materials for that exquifitely fine and beautiful manufacture, the fhawl. They were feeding in large flocks, upon the thin dry herbage that covers these naked-looking hills. This is, perhaps, the moft beautiful fpecies amongst the whole tribe of goats; more fo, in my opinion, than the Angola kind. Their colours were various; black, white, of a faint bluish tinge, and of a fhade fomething lighter than a fawn. They have ftraight horns, and are of a lower ftature than the smallest sheep in England. The material used for the manufacture of shawls is of a light fine texture, and clothes the animal next the skin. A coarse covering of long hair grows above this, and preferves the softness of the inferior coat. This creature feems indebted, for the warmth and softness of its coat, to the nature of the climate it inhabits: upon removing some of them to the hot atmofphere of Bengal, they quickly loft their beautiful clothing, and a cutaneous eruptive humour foon destroyed almost all their coat. was also unsuccessful in repeated trials, to convey this animal to England, it would neither endure the climate of Bengal, nor bear the sea, though fome few of them, indeed, live to land in England, yet they were in fo weak a ftate, that they very shortly after perished." Pr. 356-7. Captain Turner remained in the country till the end of the year. He fo far accomplished the object of his miffion as to confirm I confirm a good understanding between the British Governi ment in the Eaft and the Ministers of the Tefhoo Lama, and to fecure a favourable reception for perfons who were anxious to establish a commercial intercourfe between the two countries. This continued to fubfift till the year 1792, when an eruption having been made into Tibet by the Nipalese, a neighbouring race of mountaineers, the Chinese Government interfered in behalf of the Tibetians, and inflicted exemplary vengeance on the invaders. The British on the contrary appear, by an ill-timed embafly to the Nipalefe, to have excited the jealoufy of the Tibetians, and of their Allies, or rather protectors, the Chinese; and hence a stop has been put to all communication between the Northern States and the provinces of Bengal. Though we have much to object to the ftyle of the author, his book certainly contains much interefting information refpecting countries of which before we had a very imperfect knowledge indeed. ART. VII. Oratio Crewiana in Theatro Sheldoniano Oxon habita, VII Kal. Julii MDCCC, a Gulielmo Crowe, LL. B, e Coll. Nov. Public. Univ. Oratore. 4to. PP. 19. Rivingtons. London. 1s. 6d. WE here prefentverfity of Oxford, according to the E are here prefented with one of those pious orations, intention of Lord Crewe, fometime Bifhop of Durham, anually commemorates her founders and benefactors. The noble Bishop's defign, in this inftitution, may be fully comprehended by referring to his life; and an admirable model for compofitions of this kind may be found, in the Oratio Crewiana annexed to Lowth's Prælections. As this public commemoration of founders and benefactors is obferved annually, it muft of neceffity require fome degree of ingenuity to vary and diverfify topics already trite and hackneyed by frequent repetition. The orator, therefore, may be occafionally allowed to diverge a little from the direct line of his duty, in order to prevent that tædium which muft otherwise attend the bare enumeration of names and benefits. While, however, we concede thus much, we doubt whether fuch a large portion of liberty, as the public orator of the University has taken in the oration before us, ought at any time to be tolerated. We know that he has been orator for many years, and we admit the difficulty of being novel. But is this a fufficient reafon for a total dereliction of the good old path |