the earth. Prostitution for hire is, I think, unknown in the country, and confined to the more polite Malay bazars, where there is ufually a concourfe of failors and others, who have no honeft fettlement of their own, and are therefore upon the town. In thefe, vice generally reigns in a degree proportioned to the number and variety of people of different nations, who inhabit the place, or occafionally refort thither. From the fcenes which thefe feaports prefent, travellers too commonly form their judgment, and imprudently take upon them to draw, for the information of the world, a picture of the manners of a people. 66 "In the mode of marriage by ambel ana, the father of a virgin makes choice of fome young man for her husband, generally from an inferior family, which renounces all farther right to, or interest in him, and he is taken into the house of his father-in-law, who kills a buffaloe on the occafion, and receives twenty dollars from the fon's relations. After this, the booroo bye 'nya (the good and bad of him) is vested in the wife's family. If he murders or robs, they pay the bangoon, or the fine. If he is murdered, they receive the bangoon. They are liable to any debts he may contract after marriage; thofe prior to it remaining with his parents. He lives in the family, in a state between that of a fon, and a debtor. He partakes as a fon of what the houfe affords, but has no property in himfelf. His rice plantation, the produce of his pepper garden, with every thing that he can gain or earn, belong to the family. He is liable to be divorced at their pleasure, and though he has children, must leave all, and return naked as he came, The family fometimes indulge him. with leave to remove to a houfe of his own, and take his wife with him;. but he, his children, and effects, are fill their property. If he has not daughters by the marriage, he may redeem himfelf and wife, by paying her joojoor; but if they are daughters before they are emancipated, the difficulty is enhanced, because the family are equally entitled to their value. It is common, however, when they are upon good terms, to releafe him, on the payment of one joojoor, or at moft with the addition of an addat of fifty dollars. With this addition, he may infift upon a release, whilft his daughters are not marriageable. If the family have paid any debts for him, he must also make them good. Should he contract more than they approve of, and they fear his adding to them, they procure a divorce, and fend him back to his parents; but must pay his debts, to that time. If he is a notorious fpendthrift, they outlaw him. Instead of taking out a writ, they have only to prefent one to the proatteens and pambarab. This is called booang feoray. They must banish him from home, and if they receive him again, or aflift him with the fmalleft fum, they are liable to all his debts. On the prodigal fon's return, and promifes of amendment, this writ may be redeemed, on payment of five dollars to the proatteens, and fatisfying the creditors. The writ of outlawry is infcribed on a piece of bamboo. This kind of marriage is productive of much confufion, for till the time it takes place, the young man belongs to one doofoon and family, and afterwards to another, and as they have no records to refer to, there is great uncertainty in fettling the time when debts debts were contracted, and the like. Sometimes the redemption of the family, and their return to their former doofoon, take place in the fecond or third generation; and in many cafes it is doubtful whether they ever took place or not; the two parties contradicting each other, and perhaps no evidence to refer to. Hence arife various and intricate be chars. "Befide the modes of marriage above described, a third form, called femundo, has been adopted from the Malays, and thence termed femundo Malayo, or maredecko (free.) This marriage is a regular treaty between the parties, on the foot of equality. The addat paid the girls friends, has ufually been twelve dollars. The agreement ftipulates, that all effects, gains, or earnings, are to be equally the property of both, and in cafe of divorce by mutual confent, the flock, debts, and credits are to be equally divided. If the man only infifts on the divorce, he gives the woman her half of the effects, and lofes the twelve dollars he has paid. If the woman only claims the divorce, the forfeits her right to the proportion of the effects, but is entitled to keep her teccar, bantal, and dundun (paraphernalia), and her relations are liable to pay back the twelve dollars; but it is feldom demanded. This mode, doubtless, moft conformable to our ideas of conjugal right and felicity, is that which the chiefs of the Rejang country have formally confented to eítablifh throughout their jurifdiction; and to their orders, the influence of the Malay padres will contribute to give efficacy." ORATORY of the SUMATRAN S. [From the fame Work.] THE HE Sumatrans in general are good fpeakers. The gift of oratory feems natural to them. I knew many among them whofe harangues I have liftened to with pleasure and admiration. This may be accounted for, perhaps, from the conftitution of their government, which being far removed from def. potifm, feems to admit, in fome degree, every member of the fociety to a fhare in the public deliberations. Where perfonal endowments, as has been obferved, will often raife a private man to a fhare of importance in the community, fuperior to that of a nominal chief, there is abundant inducement for the acquifition of these valuable talents. The forms of their judicial proceedings, likewife, where there are no established advocates, and each man depends upon his own or his friend's abilities, for the management of his caufe, muft doubtless contribute to his habitual eloquence. We may add to thefe conjectures, the nature of their domestic manners, which introduce the fons, at an early period of life, into the bufinefs of the family, and the counfels of their clders. There is little to be perceived among them of that paffion for childifh fports which marks the character of our boys, from the feventh to the fourteenth year, year. On Sumatra you will obferve infants not exceeding the former age, full dreffed, and armed with a creefe, feared in the circle of the old men of the doofoon, and attending to their debates with a gravity of countenance not furpaffed by their grandfathers. Thus initiated, they are qualified to deliver an opinion in public, at a time of life when an English fchoolboy could fcarcely return an answer to a question beyond the limits of his grammar or fyntax, which he has learned by rote. It is not a little unaccountable, that this people, who hold the art of fpeaking in fuch high esteem, and evidently pique themfelves on the attainment of it, fhould yet take fo much pains to deftroy the organs of fpeech, in filing down and otherwife disfiguring their teeth, and likewife adopt the uncouth practice of filling their mouths with betel, whenever they prepare to hold forth. We must conclude, that it is not upon the graces of elocution they value an orator, but his artful and judicious management of the fubject matter; together with a copioufnefs of phrafe, a perfpicuity of thought, an advantageous arrangement, and a readiness, especially, at unravelling the difficul ties and intricacies of their fuits." CLASSICAL AND POLITE CRITICIS M. The GENERAL DESIGN of HORACE in his ART of POETRY, or EPISTLE to the PISOS. [From Mr. COLMAN'S TRANSLATION OF HORACE'S ART OF POETRY, with Notes.] 'I Now proceed, fays he, (addreffing himfelf to his two il luftrious friends, the Wartons, to whom the work is infcribed), to fet down in writing, the fubftance of what I fuggefted to you in converfation, concerning my own conceptions of the end and defign of Horace in this Epiftle. In this explanation I fhall call upon Horace as my chief witnefs, and the Epiftle itfelf as my principal voucher. Should their teftimonies prove adverfe, my fyftem must be abandoned, like many that have preceded it, as vain and chimerical; and if it fhould even, by their fupport, be acknowleged and received, it will, I think, like the egg of Columbus, appear fo plain, eafy, and obvious, that it will feem almoft wonderful, that the Epistle has never been confidered in the fame light, till now. I do not wish to dazzle with the luftre of a new hypothefis, which requires, I think, neither the ftrong optics, nor powerful glaffes of a critical Herfchel, to afcertain the truth of it; but is a fyftem, that lies level to common apprehenfion, and a luminary difcoverable by the naked fo, undoubtedly the elder, had either written, or meditated, a poetical work, most probably a tragedy; and that he had, with the knowlege of the family, communicated his piece, or intention, to Horace: but Horace, either difapproving of the work, or doubting of the po etical faculties of the Elder Pifo, or both, wifhed to diffuade him from all thoughts of publication. With this view he formed the defign of writing this Epiftte, addreffing it, with a courtlinefs and delicacy perfectly agreeable to his acknowleged character, indifferently to the whole family, the father and his two fons. Epiftola ad Pilones, de Arte Poeticâ. "He begins with general reflections, generally addieffed to his three friends. Credite, Pifones !— Pater, & juvenes patre digni!-In thefe preliminary rules, equally neceffary to be obferved by poets of every denomination, he dwells on the neceffity of unity of defign, the danger of being dazzled by the fplendour of partial beauties, the choice of fubjects, the beauty of order, the elegance and propriety of diction, and the ufe of a thorough knowlege of the nature of the feveral different fpecies of poetry : fumming "From this general view of poetry, on the canvas of Ariftotle, but entirely after his own manner, the writer proceeds to give the rules and history of the drama; adverting principally to tragedy, with all its conftituents and appendages of diction, fable, character, incidents, chorus, measure, mufic, and decoration. In this part of the work, according to the interpretation of the best critics, and indeed (I think) according to the manifeft tenor of the Epistle, he addrefles himself entirely to the two young gentlemen, pointing out to them the difficulty, as well as excellence, of the dra matic art; infifting on the avowed fuperiority of the Grecian writers, and afcribing the comparative fai lure of the Romans to negligence and avarice. The poet, having exhausted this part of his fubject, fuddenly drops a fecond, or difiniffes at once no less than two of the three perfons, to whom he originally addreffed his Epiftle, and turning fhort on the Elder Pifo, moft earnestly conjures him to ponder on the danger of precipitate publication, and the ridicule to which the author of wretched poetry expofes himfelf. From the commencement of this partial addrefs, O major juvenum, &c. [v. 366] to the end of the po. em, almost a fourth part of the whole, the fecond perfon plural, Pifones!-Vos !-Vos, O Pompilius Sanguis! &c. is difcarded, and the fecond perfon fingular, tu, te, tibi, &c. invariably takes its place. Ne forte pudori Sit tibi Mufa, lyre fulers, & cantor Apolo. "It is worthy obfervation, that in the fatirical picture of a fiantic bard, with which race concludes his rpiftle, he not only runs counter to what might be expected as a corollary of an Effay on the Art of Poetry, but contradicts his own ufual practice and fentiments. In his Epiftie to Augustus, inttead of ftigmatizing the love of verfe as an abominable phrenzy, he calls it (levis hæc infania a flight mainefs, and defcants on its good effects quantas virtutes habeat, fic collige! In another Epiftle, fpeaking of himself, and his addiction to poetry, he fays, |