to have been not the first time that the purple was so dishonoured *. The queen was attended in her journey by 5000 of the king's army, including about five hundred cavalry.

In this manner', says our Traveller, we arrived at Ukak, which is a moderately sized town, but excessively cold. Between this place and El Serai, which belongs to the Sultan, there is a distance of ten days. At the distance of one day from this place are the mountains of the Russians, who are Christians, with red hair and blue eyes; an ugly and perfidious people. They have silver mines; and from their country is the suwam (silver bullion) brought.' p. 80.

In the account of our Author's travels in Hindostan, there occurs the following description of the practice of suttee:

In this part,' [Rajpootana,] I saw those women who burn themselves when their husbands die. The woman adorns herself, and is accompanied by a cavalcade of the infidel Hindoos and Brahmans, with drums, trumpets, and men following, both Moslem and Infidels, for mere pastime. The fire had been already kindled, and into it they threw the dead husband. The wife then threw herself upon him, and both were entirely burned. A woman's burning herself with her husband, however, is not considered as absolutely necessary among them, but it is encouraged; and when a woman burns herself with her husband, her family is considered as being ennobled, and is supposed to be worthy of trust. But when she does not burn herself, she is ever after clothed coarsely, and remains in constraint among her relations on account of her want of fidelity to her husband. The woman who burns herself with her husband, is generally surrounded by women, who bid her farewell, and commission her with salutations for their former friends, while she laughs, plays, or dances, to the very time in which she is to be burned.' PP. 108-110.

According to the Dabistan, as cited by Professor Lee in a note, this atrocious combination of suicide and murder is to be traced to a gross perversion of instructions that were intended to be understood in a mystical sense.

The doctors have said, that the original intention of becoming a sattee (or suttee, i.e. saint) was this: that a woman should, after the death of her husband, consume all her desires, and thus die (to the world) before her natural death; for, in the language of mysticism, woman means desire: and the intention is, that she should cast away her desire, not that she should throw herself as a dead carcase into the fire, which is abominable.'

6

* Ibn Batuta calls the reigning Emperor Sultan Takfur, son of George, king of Constantinople'. His father George, it is added, was still living, but had retired from the world, become a monk, and given up the kingdom to his son. The Christian name of the elder Andronicus was Antony. The Editor has been unable to throw any light upon these discrepancies.

VOL. I.-N.S.

3 E

Our worthy Sheikh is a little too fond of the marvellous, especially when he can get hold of a good miracle that may attest the divine authority of the Koran. He resided for a considerable time in the Maldive Islands, the inhabitants of which are described as a feeble, but peaceable race who had embraced the true faith. The cause of their conversion, as 'some 'learned and respectable persons among them' informed our Traveller, was this. While they were in a state of infidelity, there appeared to them, once a month, a spectre from among the genii. He came from the sea, and his appearance was that of a ship filled with candles. To propitiate this terrific apparition, the people were accustomed to array a virgin, and place her in an idol temple on the sea-shore, where she was left alone for the night; and in the morning, they found her dead. At length, a worthy Moggrebine came to the island of Mohl, a holy man, who had committed the Koran to memory; and one day, finding his hostess and a company of her female inmates weeping and lamenting, he inquired the cause, and was told that the lot had fallen upon the old woman, and that they were adorning her only daughter as the spectre's bride. The Moggrebine, who was fortunately a beardless man, piously offered to play the part of the young lady in the rencontre with the demon; and, unknown to the magistrate, the substitution was made. By and by, the spectre came on his monthly visit, with eyes flaming like fire; but no sooner did he get near enough to hear the voice of the holy man reading the Koran, than he plunged into the sea. The next month, the experiment was repeated with similar success. Upon which, the king and all his people destroyed their idols, and became Moslem.

I was residing', adds the Sheikh, for some time in these islands, without having any knowledge of this circumstance; upon a certain night, however, when I saw them exulting and praising God, as they were proceeding towards the sea with Korans on their heads, I asked them what they were about, when they told me of the spectre. They then said, Look towards the sea, and you will see him. I looked, and behold, he resembled a ship filled with candles and torches. This, said they, is the spectre; which, when we do as you have seen us doing, goes away and does us no injury.' p. 180.

There are several stories scarcely less extraordinary than this; but we have no room for further extracts. We should otherwise have been disposed to give our Author's account of his ascent of Adam's Peak in the Island of Ceylon. According to the Sheikh, the holy foot-mark of Adam, alias Boodh, is eleven spans in length, but the great toe is wanting! The Chinese came here at some former time, and cut out from this stone the place of the great toe, together with the stone about it, and

Lee's Ibn Batuta.

placed it in a temple in the city of Zaitun; and pilgrimages are made to it from the most distant parts of China.' The following account of a scene which he witnessed in the Island of Java, is too extraordinary to be passed over.

I one day saw in the The King of Mul Java is an infidel assembly of this prince, a man with a knife in his hand, which he placed upon his own neck; he then made a long speech, not a word of which I could understand; he then firmly grasped the knife, and its sharpness and the force with which he urged it were such, that he severed his head from his body, and it fell on the ground. I was wondering much at the circumstance, when the king said to me, Does any among you do such a thing as this? I answered, I never He smiled and said: These our servants do so, out of saw one do so. their love to us. He then ordered the body to be taken up and burned. He next went out in procession to the burning, in front of his prime minister, the rest of his nobles, his army, and the peasantry; and on this occasion, he made provision for the family and relations of the deceased, whose memory is greatly honoured in consequence of this act. One who had been present at the assembly, told me, that the speech he made, was a declaration of his love to the Sultan, and that on this account he had killed himself, just as his father had done for the father of the present king, and his grandfather for the king's grandfather." pp. 204, 205.

Professor Lee seems at a loss to find any well-authenticated case of fanaticism at all approaching to this; nor does our recollection supply us with an exact parallel. The devotedness of the followers of Hussun Subah, the Old Man of the Moun'tain,' as his title has been mis-translated, comes, indeed, very near to it. When an envoy from the Persian Shah came to the den of the Sheikh, Hussun commanded one of his subjects to stab himself, and another to cast himself headlong from a precipice. He was promptly obeyed. 'Go,' said he to the astonished envoy, and explain to your master the character of my 'followers.' In Japan, there are certain noble classes who possess the highly-rated privilege of being their own executioners. All military men, M. Titsingh informs us, as well as the servants of the Djogoun or Peishwa, and persons holding civil offices under the Government, are bound, when they have committed any crime, to rip themselves up, on receiving an order from the court to that effect. No disgrace is attached to this self-punishment; and this disregard of death as preferable to the slightest disgrace, is said to extend to the lowest classes of the Japanese. The reported conduct of the Javanese noble, only differs from such cases, inasmuch as it seems to have had no public object, nor any conceivable motive. But the true state of the case may have been imperfectly understood by our Traveller. The annals of 3 E 2

Dahomey and Ashantee would, however, supply many similar instances of desperate disregard for life, quite sufficient to establish the credibility of his narrative, and to shew how little courage, intellect, or rational motive it requires, to cast away, in contempt or desperation, the boon of life, and to make a blind plunge into eternity.

The present volume, independently of its original interest and its intrinsic merits as a translation, has peculiar claims to public notice, as the first fruits of an Institution which promises to be the most important literary Association that has hitherto existed in this country. We allude to the Oriental Translation Committee, under whose auspices and at whose expense the work is printed. This Committee is attached to the Royal Asiatic Society, but has as well its distinct funds as its particular object, which is, to publish, free of expense to the authors, translations of works in the Oriental languages, with such illustrations as may be deemed requisite. The Committee have already met with the most gratifying success, both as regards the illustrious patronage and effective support extended to the infant institution, and the literary emulation which they have been instrumental in awakening. Corresponding committees have been established in various parts of our eastern dominions; and it is expected that the Mohammedan princes and the learned natives will warmly concur in the munificent enterprise. Among the numerous works already offered to the Committee, the following are some of those which have been accepted and are preparing for publication :

A Collation of the Syriac MSS. of the New Testament, both Nestorian and Jacobite, that are accessible in England. By the Rev. Professor Lee.

The Apostolical Constitutions of the Abyssinian Church. By T. P. Platt, Esq., A.M.

The Bustan of Sadi. By James Ross, Esq., A.M.

Naser-ud-deen's Persian Ethics, formed on Greek models. By the Rev. H. G. Keene, A.M.

The Sanc'hya System of Metaphysical Philosophy, from the Sanscrit. By H. T. Colebrocke, Esq.

Ibn Khaldun's History of the Berbers. By the Rev. Professor Lee.

Naima's Turkish Annals, 1622-1692. By the Rev. Dr. Henderson.

A Persian History of the Afghans. By Dr. Bernard Dorn. The Annals of Elias, Metropolitan of Nisibis. By the Rev. Josiah Forshall, A.M.

The great geographical work of Edrisi. By the Rev. G. C. Renouard, B.D.

Part of the Ruzet al Suffa, containing the History of Persia from Cayumers to the Death of Alexander of Macedon. By David Shea, Esq.-&c. &c.

Hitherto, Oriental literature has languished in this country, owing to the utter neglect it has, till of late, experienced in our Universities, and the little prospect of either remuneration or encouragement from any other quarter, which the scholar could have in prosecuting his toilsome and costly studies. The natural consequence has been, Professor Lee remarks, that, whatever may have been known on these subjects, ' few have been 'found hardy enough to undertake laborious and expensive works, with no other prospect, than that of being eulogized by their biographers as having immortalized and ruined them'selves.' This complaint, if the Society proceeds in its career as prudently and auspiciously as it has begun, will no longer be heard; and the Mines of the East', through the medium of the Society's mintage, will be made to yield a rich accession to our intellectual currency.

Art. V. 1. On the Prosperity of Christian Churches and the Revival of Religion. Three Sermons, preached at Stepney Meeting. By Joseph Fletcher, A.M. 12mo. pp. xii. 124. London. 1829. 2. Pastoral Discourses on Revivals of Religion. By Henry Forster Burder, M.A. To which are appended, A Letter to Congregational Churches, and a Statement of Facts regarding American Revivals. 12mo. pp. 156. Price 3s. London. 1829.

3. A Narrative of the Revival of Religion in New England; with Thoughts on that Revival. By Jonathan Edwards, A.M. With an Introductory Essay by John Pye Smith, D.D. 12mo. pp. xlviii. 506. Price 5s. 6d. Glasgow. 1829.

4. The Reformed Pastor. By Richard Baxter. Revised and abridged by the Rev. William Brown, M.D. With an Introductory Essay by the Rev. Daniel Wilson, A.M. Vicar of Islington. 12mo. pp. lxxii. 290. Price 4s. Glasgow. 1829.

5. The Means of a Religious Revival: a Sermon. By John Howard Hinton, M.A. pp. 84. Price 2s. London. 1829.

6. A Pastoral Letter on the Subject of Revivals of Religion : addressed primarily to the Church of Christ assembling in Carr's Lane, Birmingham; and submitted to the Consideration of the Independent Churches in General. 12mo. pp. 40. London. 1829. THESE publications (and others might be added to the list)

afford substantial evidence of the very general interest which has been recently excited in the subject of what is termed a Revival of Religion; a phrase of unobjectionable propriety,