we have been alluding to, we return to our by this divine will, the eye cannot note nor the more immediate subject, the earth as described mind imagine one more accomplished than the by Edrisi, an Arabic writer of the twelfth cen-illustrious Roger King of Sicily, of Italy, of Lombardy and of Calabria, the Roman prince. This tury. Such of our readers as are disposed to great king, whom heaven has crowned with compare Edrisi with El Bekri may consult the glory and power, the protector of the religion of excellent manuscript of the latter in the British Christ, is the most celebrated and the best Museum, No. 9577, and Mr. Cooley's recently among all monarchs. His absolute will is published work on the Negroland of the Arabs. the moving principle of his conduct in all afEdrisi's accuracy in many statements is more fairs. He binds and unbinds according to his than disputable when compared with El Bekri. pleasure, he governs and judges his people with His distances of places are rectified by a com- equity and impartiality, and hears their complaints with patience and attention. He has parison with El Bekri. Edrisi certainly established in the administration of his estates copied from El Bekri, with some variations of the most admirable order and the elements of his own, which are rarely accurate; and it the most perfect happiness; he has carried his would have been far better for his reputation to victorious arms from the rising of the sun to its have adhered more closely to the source from setting-witness the countries near or distant whence he derived reputation. The circum-which he has brought into obedience to him, stances under which this description was composed are sufficiently pointed out in the original preface, which for the information it affords, as well as for the sample it contains of our author's style, we think will be found interesting enough to justify our quotation of the whole. "Thanks be given to God, the existence essentially great and powerful, incorporeal, endued with goodness, beneficence and long suffering, the sovereign judge who has all power, who is clement and merciful, who possesseth infinite knowledge, who hath given perfect forms to all that he hath created, the knowledge of whom is graven in all hearts and reposes in all minds upon visible and incontestible proofs. witness the sovereigns of the same religion as himself whose pride he has humbled. He owes this astonishing success to the valour of his armies well provided with all things-to the power of his fleets, whose operations heaven protects. His glory shines in the eyes of all men, his name fills the world, is in all mouths, sounds in all ears. What desire does he form which is not followed by the promptest accomplishment? What project, difficult as it may appear, does he not succeed in executing? "Honours and dignities are the portion of his partisans and his friends, ruin and humiliation of his antagonists and his adversaries. Of how much greatness has he not laid the foundation? The lustre with which he surrounds these dignities shines in the world with the brilliancy of the flowers in a parterre, and is beautiful as the verdure of the shrubs which ornament the "The great monarch joins the good qualities "His strength and his power are certain and evident indices of his glory. All tongues pub-groves. lish his goodness, which the true faith confirms. The perfect conformation of beings, emanating of the heart to nobility of birth, purity of manfrom his divine will, constrains us to recognize his existence and his eternity. Amongst the master-pieces of this will, the heavens and the earth are signs of high instruction for him whose mind is just and his perceptions right; first he admires the heaven, its immense elevation, the beauty of the stars and the regularity of their courses-amongst them the sun and the moon shining in the firmament-the sun, the focus of light which produces the day, the moon, the torch which dissipates the darkness of the night. These miraculous signs tell him of the march of seasons and the revolutions of ages. Then he remarks the earth of which this same will fixed the first site and determined the extent-from whose entrails it caused the waters to spring, the vital principles of vegetation, and the necessary food for the fruitfulness of the fields and the fertility of the meadows; the earth which it left for the delight and the dwelling-place of man, the object of preference in all the movements impressed on the celestial bodies.-Man whom this same divine will inspired with the instinct necessary to distinguish good from evil and useful from dangerous, and granted to him the facility of transporting himself whither he pleased, by sea or by land, across the immensity of space. All proves the existence of the Creator! Amongst the number of the beings formed 20 66 VOL. XXVIL ners to beauty of actions, courage to elevation If "When the extent of his possessions had in creased, the respect which his subjects bore him the general confronting had proved the perfect was everywhere come to its height, and he had exactness. Then he ordered that they should subjected to his power dominions conquered found in silver, pure and without alloy, a planifrom the Christian princes, this monarch, as a sphere of an enormous size, and of the weight of consequence of the interest which he took in four hundred and fifty Roman pounds, each noble and curious studies, occupied himself with pound weighing one hundred and twelve the statistics of his vast states. He wished posi- drachms. He had graven there by expert arttively to know not only the limits in which ists the configuration of the seven climates, with they were circumscribed, the routes by land and that of the regions, the countries, the shores sea which traversed them, the climates in near to or distant from the sea, the arms of the which they were situated, the seas which bathed sea, the seas and the water courses; the indicatheir shores, the canals and the rivers which tion of desert and cultivated countries, of their watered them, but also to add to this knowledge respective distances by frequented routes, either that of other countries than those which de- in determined miles or in (other) known meapended on his authority in the whole space sures, and the designation of the ports, prescribwhich it has been agreed to divide into seven ing to these workmen to conform themselves climates, resting on the authority of the writers scrupulously to the model traced upon the drawwho had treated of geography and had sought ing table, without in any manner deviating from to determine the extent, the subdivisions, and the configurations therein indicated. the dependencies of each climate. For this end he bade consult the following works: "The book of marvels, of Mas'oudi. "The book of Abu Nasser Said-el-Jiháni. "The book of Abulcassem Adballah ben Khordadbeh. "The book of Ahmed ben al A'dri. "The book of Abulcassem Mohammed el Hankali el Baghdadi. "The book of Janakh ben Khacan-el-Kimaki. "The book of Mousa ben Casem-el-Cardi. "The book of Ahmed ben Yacoub, known under the name of Yacfouli. "The book of Is'hak ben al Hasan, the astro nomer. "He caused to be composed, for the understanding of this planisphere, a book containing the complete description of the cities and territories, of the nature of the cultures and habitations, of the extent of the seas, the mountains, the rivers, the plains and the marshes. This book was to treat besides of the species of grain, of fruits, and of plants which each country produces, of the properties of these plants, of the arts and trades in which the inhabitants excel, of their export and import commerce, of the curious objects which are remarked or are celebrated in the seven climates, of the state of the populations, their external form, their customs, religions, dress, and idioms. "I have given to this work the title of 'Recreations of the Man desirous of perfectly knowing the Different Countries of the World.' "This work was terminated in the last days of the month of Shewál, in the year 548 of the Hijra (answering to the middle of January of the year of Christ 1154.)" "The book of Kedamah el Bassri. "The book of Ptolemy of Claudias. "The book of Eresios of Antioch. "Instead of finding in these works, clear, precise and detailed accounts, having met only with obscurities and motives for doubt, he sent for persons specially skilled in these matters, and proposed to them questions which he discussed with them, but neither thus did he obtain more light. Seeing that things stood thus, After this introduction (à propos of which he took the determination of ordering that in all we must remark, however, that if King Rohis states they should seek for well informed ger's planisphere is faithfully represented in travellers; he had them called into his presence, his panegyrist's maps, its accuracy is someand questioned them by means of interpreters, what overstated)-after this introduction our together or separately. Every time that they author gives a general notion of the figure of agreed and their account was unanimous upon the globe, and of the division of its circuma point, this point was admitted and considered as certain. When it was otherwise, their in- ference into 360 degrees, each degree conformation was rejected and put aside. taining 25 fursungs (the parasang of the Persians according to the Greek spelling), each fursung twelve thousand cubits, every cubit 24 fingers (breadths), and every finger six grains of barley, not laid end to end as in our ancient popular scale, but side by side. He states that no lands are habitable beyond 64 "After this he wished to know positively the degrees N. latitude, and that the southern longitudes and latitudes of the places and the hemisphere is altogether unpeopled, for the respective distances of the points upon which reasons already alluded to. The seven clithe testimony of the above mentioned travellers mates are then described, and after that the was unanimous. For this end he had a table "He occupied himself with this labour for more than fifteen years, without relaxation, ceasing not to examine by himself all geographical questions, to seek the solution of them, and to verify the exactness of the facts, in order to obtain completely the knowledge which he desired. prepared for drawing; he had traced there one principal seas, which, with the well-known by one, by means of the iron compass, the points oriental predilection for that number, are marked out in the works consulted, and those made to be also seven: which had been fixed upon according to the dif the Sea of ferent assertions of their authors, and of which Sin or Indian Ocean, as the Green (or Persian) Gulf, of Culzum (Arabian Gulf), the Sea where our enterprising traveller found an organized army, and cavaliers clad in mail, inhabiting a territory bounded by deserts and Sea of Shám or Syria (Mediterranean), | countries of savages. zul Gulf of Venice, الب خليج البنادقين .(Sea of Jorjan (Caspian بحر جرجان Sea of Pontus (Black Sea), There is much talk, in this part of the narrative, of gold, of which the Sultan of Gana and is said to have possessed a natural lump weighing 30 lbs. Denham or Clapperton, we forget which, inquired in vain for Wangara, a Then we have a description of the division country mentioned by Edrisi as conterminous of the work into seven climates, and of each with Gana, and concluded, from certain indiclimate into ten equal sections, corresponding cia, that Wangara was a general name for a to parallelogrammatic divisions, or nearly such, country producing gold. Unfortunately we of the climates, following one another on the have very little etymological knowledge on map and in the description from west to east. which to try the validity of such a conjecture. Of each of these sections the author informs Our travellers have not been philologists, nor us he has drawn a plate, making 70 such il- our philologists travellers. Even the Berber, lustrations in the whole; these are to be the most cultivated and accessible of the nafound in a MS. in the University of Oxford, tive African languages, is still almost sealed and in one of the Bibliothèque Royale. Of to us. A vocabulary of the language in the these plates M. Jaubert has given three, with Bibliothèque Royale, a translation of the Gosthe colours, lettering and gilding, "barbaric pels and part of the Book of Genesis in the gold," of the original. Our taste would have library of the British and Foreign Bible Soled us to prefer a plain lithograph of the ciety, a geographical fragment in the posseswhole map, either in as many plates as the sion of the Asiatic Society, and perhaps a original or in a reduced size, say 10 on a few other similar specimens, are all the masheet. This could hardly have been much more terials we know of for the study of it in expensive than the certainly magnificent Europe. Talking of Berbers, our author has specimens given. They afford us, it is true, a curious story of one of them, who predicted an idea of the style of the original drawings, the speedy arrival of a caravan at a watering but on the plan suggested we should have place by taking up and smelling to the sand. had, it may be presumed, a copy of the sil-This surpasses all we ever heard of savage ver map of Roger; a map in fact of the 12th acuteness of sense, but our geographer cercentury, and one which might be fairly sup- tainly avails himself at times of the traveller's posed justly to represent the geographical privilege, unless indeed we should rather knowledge of that period. It is scarcely fair blame the informants of King Roger, on the however to quarrel with M. Jaubert, or his "perfect agreement" of whose accounts was "fautores," the executive of the Soci té Go- founded this veritable history. Begharmalı, graphique, on a matter which, after all, is a point of taste. which figures so conspicuously in recent accounts of Bornou, comes next in order, and Our limits will not permit us any detailed this also is said to be inhabited by Berbers, analysis of the portion of Edrisi relating to not a very probable assertion, but perhaps Africa, with an account of the most southern Edrisi has been misled, like some later writportion of which known to him our author ers, by the name of a Nubian race, the Babegins his description. This indeed is the rabras. The Nubian women are highly less necessary, as this first part of the book is praised for their beauty, for which and for probably better known than any other divi- their accomplishments they are said to be sion, from the excellent abstract and com- eagerly sought after by the great men of other mentary of Hartmann. The natural products countries. We have an account of a certain of this part of central Africa, the arms, food, wood which possesses an extraordinary power manners, and dress of the inhabitants, are of- to counteract the venom of serpents, and even ten minutely described, and with an indivi- to deprive them of their power of injuring a duality which gives the description something man who carries it about with him. The of the air of Herodotus's charming gossip. story of the Psylli among the ancients natuThe description of Gana, a central province, rally occurs to us upon the reading of this whose king and inhabitants are described as account. In our own days individuals in Mussulmans, reminded us strongly of Major some parts of Africa pretend to the power of Denham's interesting account of the Sheikh handling serpents with impunity and profess of Bornou and his policy. Gana, however, to impart it to others. An offer was made of as far as we can gather from our author, is this boon to one of Napoleon's savans, if we considerably to the west of the kingdom mistake not, but his love of science was not strong enough to carry him through the pre- than European Christian. It would be sinliminary process, in which it was necessary gular enough to find that Edrisi had here rethat the adept should spit into the mouth of his disciple. The long sought fountains of the Nile are thus described, with that daring license of invention which the Arab often displays, loading an uncertain object with more matter of doubt, telling, as worthy Mr. Oldbuck in the Antiquary phrases it, a "lie with a circumstance." "To this section belongs the place where the two branches of the Nile separate; that is to say-Firstly, the Nile of Egypt, which traverses that country, running from south to north, on whose banks and on the islands which it forms, most of the towns of Egypt are built; and, secondly, the branch which sets out from the east, and runs towards the remotest extremity of the west; on this branch of the Nile are situated all, or at least the greater part, of the cities of Soudan. The source of these two branches of the Nile is in the Mountains of the Moon, whose commencement is 16° beyond the Equinoctial. The Nile takes its origin from this mountain by ten fountains, of which five flow away and gather in a great lake; the others descend also from the mountain towards another great lake. From each of these two lakes issue three rivers, which at length unite and flow into a very great lake, near which is situate a city named Tarfi, populous, and its environs fertile in rice. Ou the bank of this lake is an idol holding its hands lifted to its breast; they say that this is Masakh (or Masneh), and that he was thus transformed because he was a wicked man.' — vol. i. pp. 27, 28. The corded the existence of a remnant of Romans Passing from India to China we quote a description of the mode of administering justice in this latter nation, which is curious at least, though we apprehend that in the days of Edrisi, as in our own, the paternal majesty of the empire was more prompt in administering, or causing to be administered, the bamboo to the delinquent, than in listening to the appeals (or peals, as they are here represented) of the oppressed for justice. After the cataracts of the Nile, which are slightly alluded to, we have a curious account of a race or tribe of predatory horsemen called El-belioun, who are described as black (a word which admits of no palliation of meaning from an Arab's pen), clad in steel armour, and, mirabile dictu, as Christians and of Greek descent! It is curious enough that in the account of Denham and Clapperton's Journey we have mention of certain mountain-dwelling tribes south of Bornou, some of whom came on an embassy to the Bornouese camp while Major Denham accompanied it, and sued for peace. These were some of the Kafirs, whom the true believers were wont to carry away as slaves, and these wretched creatures, by no means such brilliant robbers as El-belioun, our traveller was required to acknowledge as fellow Christians. He par-diate agent and without hindrance. ried this compliment by pleading that they had begged a dead horse for food the day before, but was reminded that he himself, by eating swine's flesh, was guilty of an equal abomination. The word translated Greek (Rūmi) is of very indefinite application in Arabic, and sometimes means nothing more "It is reported that there are in China three hundred flourishing cities, governed by princes who are all under obedience to the Baghbough, who is called, as we have just said, the King of Kings. He is a prince of pure morals, just towards his people, endued with a high solicitude for their welfare, powerful in his government, wise in his projects, provident in his enterprises, firm in his designs, facile in his administration, mild in his commands, generous in his gifts, at tentive to the affairs of strangers and of distant countries, considering the end of things, and occupying himself with the interests of his subjects, who can come to him without interme "This prince has a hall of audience whose walls and roof are constructed in a manner equally solid and elegant. In this hall is a throne of gold on which the king sits surroundwhence hangs a chain of gold artfully disposed, ed by all his vizirs; above his head is a bell which falls on the outside of the building and the end of which reaches the basis of the edifice. When any one has a subject of complaint to ex- of supposed talismans, and the assignment of pose, he comes with a written request to this authors, after the oriental fashion, for the chain and pulls it. Then the bell moves, a vizir buildings whose ruins are to be seen there, puts his hand out of the window, which is as than with descriptions of the ruins themselves. much as saying to the complainant, come up to us. He goes up in fact by a staircase expressly One of the most curious of his stories, though destined to this object [literally to the oppress- not the most authentic or intelligible, is one ed]. Arrived in the presence of the king, the describing a Frankish invasion of Egypt. complainant prostrates himself and then rises. Surely this cannot be a bad transcript from a The king stretches his hand to him and receives history of the Crusades. the request, examines it, returns it to his vizirs, and gives a decision agreeable to the laws civil and religious without any other solicitation, without delay and without the necessity of recurring to the mediation of the vizir or of any other person. "From this chain of hills and on the side of the sea depends a mountain, round, cut to a peak, and which it is impossible to approach from the polish of its surface and from its great height. They relate that there are the important trea"This prince is fervent in his piety, firm in sures of the high priest, whose name this mounthe observation of the laws of which he is the tain bears, and those of certain kings of Egypt, interpreter and the guardian, and liberal in the consisting of gold, silver, precious stones, figured alms which he bestows upon the poor. His re ligion, which is the worship of idols (or Bud-idols, symbolical of the stars. curious images and representations of pottery, These kings dhism), differs little from that of the Indians; learnt by their art that a king of the Franks for these latter, like the Chinese, do not deny had formed the design of attacking them, from the existence of the Creator, acknowledge his what he had heard of their riches, and of their wisdom and his eternal power, and although they admit neither the prophets nor the holy books, yet they do not deviate from the principles of justice and equity."— vol. i. p. 101. power of making gold. At this they were very much affrighted. In fact, this Frank king had equipped a thousand vessels, conquered Egypt, whose principal inhabitants fled and took refuge in this mountain, and the rest in the oasis, carrying their riches with them. The motive of the Frank king's expedition was, that a high priest having been obliged to take refuge in Europe to escape from the persecutions of an Egyptian prince, he determined the king to undertake this conquest by the bait of the riches which he would find there. The conquest in fact took place; the high priest accompanied him to the mountain in question, but not having been able to climb it, and deceived in his hope, he induced the Frank king to appropriate to himself the riches of the other inhabitants of Egypt, and, loaded with these spoils, to return into his own country."-vol. i. pp. 131, 132. "Moultan is near to India, and some writers even place it in this country. It equals Mançura in size and bears the surname of the house of gold. There is seen an idol venerated by the Indians who come to visit it in pilgrimage from the most distant points of their country, and to offer to it precious objects, ornaments and perfumes in prodigious quantities. This idol is surrounded by servants and slaves, who are fed and dressed from the products of these rich of ferings. It is of a human form and has four sides, seated on a throne composed of bricks and plaster, entirely covered with a skin, which The description of Europe offers little that resembles red morocco leather, in such a man- is capable of being extracted, being often ner that only its eyes can be seen. Some per- nothing more than a list of names; some of sons assert positively that the internal part of this idol is of wood, others deny this. However them, it is true, curious enough, as showing this may be, its body is entirely covered, its eyes the extent of geographical knowledge in our formed of precious stones, its head covered with author's time. As a specimen we give the a crown of gold enriched with jewels. It is, as towns of England as they stand in the printed we have said, square, and its arms, above the text of Rome, 1592. elbows, appear to the number of four. "The temple inhabited by this idol is in the middle of the city of Moultan, and in the most frequented of its bazaars. This edifice is in the form of a dome: the upper part of the dome is gilded; the construction of this, as well as of the doors, is very solid. The columns are very high, the walls coloured." افراند of the land of Afrandes وادي شنت (Flanders), and between this island and the From the peculiar arrangement of the great coast is a passage twelve miles broad. work, in climates, the description of Egypt And of the cities which are in the extremest comes after that of China, and to this we turn west of this island, and in a place where the to remark the meagre description given of land is very narrow, is Sahisnar, linge this country, so interesting both to Asiatics-between which and the sea are 12 miles. and Europeans. More space is taken up And from this city to that of Garham, with the recital of traditions, the descriptions on the coast 60 miles; and so from the city of |