the rendezvous, at the head of the young men of their refpective villages. The Chiefs only are on horfeback. Every one comes armed with a mufket, a battle axe, a fabre, and a pair of pistols, and it is understood that he is to furnish himfelf with powder, ball, and provifions. They encamp in the defiles through which the enemy may penetrate, and have a great advantage by the agility with which they climb the mountains, and their knowledge of the paths and remote paffes Their provifions are but little incumbrance; they confit of bread and cheefe, only, which every foldier carries in a finall leathern bag hung to his fide. Thefe numerous armies keep the field only a few days, as they are never called together till the near approach of the enemy.

"The manner of affembling them is fufficiently fingular to merit being related. The emir fends heralds to all the villages, in which they cry-"Honour calls you!" He who haftens not at the found of his voice is a man without honour. At this proclamation all the women of the village aflemble in the market-place, and, to encourage the young men to fly to the defence of their country, they demand arms for the fame purpose.

"The right of afylum is facred amongst the Drufes.-A man purfued by the vengeance of government, if he can reach the mountains, is fure of his life; neither promifes nor threats can force a culprit from the hands of an emir, or cheik, who has promifed him his protection.

"Hofpitality is greatly honoured by this people, though they treat their guests with great parfimony.Temperance is one of their virtues. It is customary with every family

to lay in fuch a ftock of provifions as is neceffary for the current year; and, when an unexpected guest arrives to fhare with them, after his departure they take care to diminifh their daily confumption, till by oeconomy, they have recovered what they had expended.

"Their provifions confift, in general, of burgoo, wheat boiled, and afterwards dried in the fun, with which they make foup; a fat fheep, which they cut in very fmall pieces and preferve in butter, after having roasted it quite brown and crifp. They make much ufe of pillaw (rice baked with butter or fat), but above all of eggs, which they drefs whole, between two plates, or dishes, and which they call inaklabaid - The utenfil they make ufe of is very fingular: it is a difh made of cows-dung kneaded with earth. The more it has been used the more it is held in eftimation.- Amongst the furniture, which compofs the marriage fortune of the girls, a dish of this kind is never wanting.

"To thefe effential provisions they add rice, greens, honey, and dried fruits. They feldom cat fresh meat, as their country docs not abound in patturage for the nourishment of their flocks.

"In thofe villages where firewood is fcarce, it is customary to fupply the want of it by the dung of their domeftic animals, and the truddles of their goats, which they knead up with their straw.

"Every houfe makes its own bread; the oven is a great earthen veffel, in which they light a fire. When it is hot, they apply to its inner edge, with a little leathern bag, a very thin cake of dough, which is baked in an inftant; but this bread is good only when fresh. "The marriage of the Drufes,

like that of the Turks, is merely civil; they contract in the fame manner and under the fame conditions. The cadi, or judge of the place draws up a deed, in which is fpecified, first, the dower which the husband gives his wife, then the fum he is to receive in cafe of her death or repudiation.

"The Druies carry their precautions and jealoufies to greater lengths than the other people of the Eaft. Their wives live very ret red even their nearest relations are excluded from their fociety. They cannot legally be feen but by their fathers, brothers, and children-Even a brother is not permitted frequently to vifit his brother's wife. And, fhould it be proved that a girl had been deficient in her duty, he would find no mercy fhe must be facrificed to the honour of her family.

"The Drufes apparently profefs, but in their hearts deteft, Mahometanifin. Intercft obliges them to keep well with the Turkift government and the establifhed religion; this forces them to have recourfe to diffimulation, which may prove advantageous to them, and which their principles do not confider as illegal.

"To judge of them by their conduct with refpect to the Chri

tians, we might be induced to believe they were not averfe to Christianity; but in their hearts they abhor its dogmas and doctrines. The apparent respect they fhow them proceeds from their indifference for all religions, which they equally reprobate; without endeavouring to accelerate the time fixed by deliny for their total deftruction.

"The Chriftians enjoy amongst them the most perfect tranquillity; and there are more Chriftians, at prefent, in their principality, than Drufes.--They are both governed by the fame laws, and enjoy the fame privileges.

--

The emirs have more confi. dence in the Chriftians than in the Drufes themfelves; it is from among them they chufe their flewards, their guards, and their domeflic fervants. To them they entrust the education of their children.-For thefe reafons, the greateft part of the emirs, in fecret, profefs Christianity. The reigning emir Juffef is faid to be a Chriftian.

The Drufes have more than once fhewn their difcontent at the afcendance which the Chriftians have obtained in their mountains; but, being no longer the ftrongeft, they are obliged to fupprefs their refentment.

T

RAGEDY, the fong of the goat, and Comedy, the fong of the village, fufficiently indicate, by the meannefs of their ancient name, the humility of their first original. They arofe amidst the facrifices and joyous feftivity of the vintage, in a country which feldom adopted the amufements, any more than the arts and inflitu tions, of others, but which way destined to communicate her own to all the civilifed portion of maukind. During the entertainments of a feafon peculiarly dedicated to recreation and pleasure, the fufceptible minds of the Greeks naturally yielded to two propenfities congenial to men in fuch circumftances, a difpofition to exercife their fentibility, and a clire to amufe their fancy. Availing himfelf of the former, the fublime genius of Efchylus improved the fong of the goat into a regular dramatic poem, agreeing with the Iliad and Ody ffey in thofe unalterable rules of defign and execution which are effential to the perfection of every literary performance, yet differing from thofe immortal archetypes of art, in a circumftance naturally fuggefied by the occation for which tragedies were compofed. It had been usual with the Athenians, when they celebrated in the fpring and autumn the great feftivals of Bacchus, to perfonate the exploits and

fables. handed down by immemorial tradition concerning that bountiful divinity; this imitation was confidered as a mark of gratitude due to the beneficence of the God, to whofe honours they affociated the kindred worship of Pan, Silenus, and their attendant fawns and fatyrs. When

fchylus reprefented, therefore, inftead of fimply reciting, the real history, or agreeable fictions of antiquity, he only adopted a mode of imitation already practifed in the religious ceremonies of his country; a mode of imitation more powerful than the epic, fince, intead of barely defcribing the deeds of gods and heroes, it fhews thofe diftinguifhed perfonages on the fcene, makes them fpeak and act for themfelves, and thus approaching nearer to reality, is ftill more forcible and affecting.

"As tragedy was introduced in imitation of the more ferious fpecta cles of the Dionyfian feftival, fo comedy, which foon followed it, was owing to the more light and ludicrous parts of that folemnity. Tragedy, in the imitation of an important and ferious action, adapted to effect the fenfibility of the fpectators, and to gratify their natural propenfity to fear, to weep, and to wonder. Comedy is the imitation of a light and ludicrous action, adapted to amufe the fancy, and to gratify the natural difpofition

of

of men to laughter and merriment. Terror and pity have in all ages been regarded as the main fprings of tragedy, because the laws of fenfibility, founded folely in nature, are always the fame. Comedy has been finitely varied by the innumerable modes of wit, humour, and ridicule, which prevail in different ages and countries, and which agree fcarcely in any one particular, unlefs it may be reckoned an agreement, that men have feldom indulged them, except at the expence of their good-nature, and often of their virtue. The Grecian comedy was uncommonly licentious; the profligate characters of Aristophanes and his contemporapes, Mnefilochus, Callias, Eupolis, and Cratenus, contributed, doubtlefs, to this deformity; yet thefe poets could not eafily have rendered their new entertainment agreeable to the tafte and prejudices of the public, without incorporating in them the fubftance of the phallic fongs, which conftituted an ancient and effential part of the amufements of the vintage. The fond admirers of antiquity have defended the abominable trains of thefe licentious poets, by pretending, that their intention was to reform vice, not to recommend it; an apology which, if admitted, might tend to exculpate the writers, but could never juftify their performances, fince it is known by experience, that lewd deferiptions prove a poifon rather than a remedy; and inftead of correcting manners, tend only to corrupt them.

"Befides the general licentioufnefs of the ancient comedy, its more particular characteristics refulted from the peculiar circum ftances of the Athenians, during the time of its introduction and

continuance. The people of all ranks at Athens were then too deeply engaged in the military and political tranfactions of their coun try, to enjoy any amufement which did not either directly flatter their paffions, or bear an immediate relation to the great and important interefts of the republic. It was during the confufion and calamities of the Peloponnefian war, that all the comic pieces which remain were originally reprefented; a period too diforderly and tumultuous to relish comedies, fuch as are now written, or fuch as were compofed in Greece by Menander, in an age of greater moderation and tranquillity. The elegant and ingenious, the moral and inftructive ftrains of Moliere or Menander, may amufe the idlenefs of wealth, and the fecurity of peace. But amidst the fermentation of war and danger, amidft civil diffenfions and foreign invafions, the minds of men are too little at cafe to enjoy fuch refined and delicate beauties which then appear lifeless and infipid. In fuch turbulent circumftances, the reluctant attention muft be excited by real, instead of imaginary characters; by a true instead of a fictitious event; by direct and particular advice concerning the actual fate of their affairs, inftead of vague or abftra&t leftons of wisdom and virtue. Coarse buffoonery may often force them, to laugh; delicate ridicule will feldom engage them to finile; they may be affected by the harpuefs of perfonal invective, but will remain impenetrable to the fhafts of generat fatire.

By combining the different parts of this defcription, we may form a tolerably exact notion of the writings of Aristophanes, which commonly conceal," under a thin

allc

allegorical veil, the recent history of fome public tranfaction, or the principal features of fome diftinguished character, reprefented in fuch a ludicrous light as reflects on those concerned, unexpected, and often unmerited, but not therefore the less striking, flashes of in folent ridicule. Such was the nature, and fuch the materials of the ancient comedy, which, in its form, agreed entirely with tragedy, having borrowed from this entertainment (which was already in poffeflion of the theatre) the diftribution of the whole, as well as the arrangement of the feveral parts; the mufic, the chorus, the drefies, decorations, and machinery; all of which were fo modified and burlesqued as fuited the purposes of the comic writer, and often rendered his pieces little elfe than parodies of the more fashionable tragedies of the times.

"This fingular fpecies of drama, which, in its lefs perfect ftate, had long strolled the villages of Attica, was fimply tolerated at Athens, until the profufion of Pericles, and his complaifance for the populace,

first fupplied from the exchequer the neceffary expences for the reprefentation of comedies, and propofed prizes for the comic as well as for the tragic poets and actors. But, by this injudicious encouragement, he unwarily. cherished a ferpent in his bofom. Ariftrophanes and his licentious contemporaries having previoufly ridiculed virtue and genius, in the perfons of Socrates and Euripides, boldly proceeded to avail themselves of the natural malignity of the vulgar, and their envy against whatever is elevated and illuftrious, to traduce and calumniate Pericles himse f; and though his fucceffors in the adminitration justly merited (as we fhall have occafion to relate) the fevereft lafhes of their invective, yet, had their characters been more pure, they would have been equally expofed to the unprovoked satire of thofe infolent buffoons, who gratified the grofs appetites of the vulgar, by an undiftinguifhed mass of ridicule, involving vice and virtue, things prophane and facred, men and gods."