composed of the people of Djin and Khawer, entered Persia, but were defeated in succession, and their leaders slain. Feridoun died beloved by his subjects, whom he had rendered happy during a period of five hundred years. During this time lived the valiant Sâm, son of Nerimán, prince of Sedjestan, and of Zaboulistán or Ghizneh. His son Zal received from Menoutchehr the sovereignty of all the countries from K'aboul to the river Sind, and from his father the country of Zaboulistán. Mihrab reigned at this period in K'aboul. He was of Tasi origin, and of the race of Dzohák'. Zal married his daughter Roudabeh, and became the father of Roustem, the hero of Persia, and whose exploits form the principal subject of the poem of Firdousi. Menoutchehr transmitted the crown to his son Nawder. This latter followed not the precepts of his father: his subjects revolted, and his kingdom being invaded by Afrasiâb, the son of Pecheng, king of Touran, he fell into the hands of his opponent and was put to death, after a reign of only seven years. Afrasiab then quitted the province of Dahestán, which had been the theatre of the war, and entered by Rei into Iran, where he placed the crown of the schahs upon his own head. During this invasion of Afrasiâb, Zal, the son and successor of Sám, had taken upon him, in his turn, the defence of the dynasty of Feridoun, and had caused a member of the race to be proclaimed schah: this was Zou, son of Thamasp. Du

jects into four castes, and during three hundred years reigned in the utmost prosperity and power, until his pride impelled him to revolt against the deity. Dzohak' was at this time prince of the Tasi, and held communication with the evil genii. He collected together the subjects of Djemschid, who had abandoned their sovereign since his altered course of conduct, put himself at their head, dethroned Djemschid, and deprived him of existence after a reign of seven hundred years. Dzohûk' reigned a thousand years. His tyranny reduced Persia to the utmost wretchedness. By the malice of the evil spirits, two serpents sprang from his shoulders and remained attached to them. To appease their craving appetites, they had to be fed every day with the brains of men. By an adroit stratagem, the cooks of the palace saved each day one of the two persons destined thus to afford nourishment to the serpents, and sent him to the mountains: it is from these fugitives, say the traditions of Persia, that the Kurds of the present day derived their origin. A dream forewarned the sanguinary Dzohâk' of the lot that awaited him, and of the vengeance that would be inflicted on him by Feridoun, the son of one of his victims. He caused diligent search to be made for the formidable infant, but the mother of Feridoun, who had given him to the divine cow Pour-mayeh to be nursed, saved herself and her child by fleeing to Mount Albrouz, in the north of India. There Feridoun was brought up by a Parsi. Having attained the age of sixteen years, he descend-ring five years the country was exposed to the ravages ed from the mountain and rejoined his mother, who made him acquainted with the story of his birth and misfortunes: for he was a member of the royal line, which had been driven from the throne of Persia by the sanguinary Dzohâk'. Burning with the desire of avenging his wrongs, he seized the first opportunity that presented itself. A sedition broke out in Persia, headed by a smith, who affixed his apron to the point of a spear, and made it the standard of revolt. The continued searches ordered by Dzobak' had apprized the people both of the dream of the tyrant and the existence of the young prince whom he persecuted. The Persians ran in crowds to their deliverer, who caused the apron of the smith to be profusely adorned with gold and precious stones, adopted it as the royal standard, and named it Direfch-gawány; and this standard continued to be in after ages an object of the greatest veneration throughout all the empire of Persia. Feridoun immediately marched against the tyrant, crossed the Tigris where Bagdad now stands, proceeded to Beit-ul-makaddes, the residence of Dzohâk', conquered his antagonist, and confined him with massive fetters in a cavern of Mourt Damawend. The two sisters of Djemschid, Chehrnius and Amewas, had been the favourite wives of Dzohâk'. Feridoun found them, though after the lapse of a thousand years, still young enough to espouse. He had by them three sons, whom he married to three princesses of Yemen. The eldest was Selm, the second Tour, and the youngest Iredj. He divided the earth among them. Selm received Roum and Khawer, that is to say, Greece, Asia Minor, and Egypt. Tour obtained Touran and Djin, that is, the country beyond the Oxus and China. Iredj became master of Persia (Iran) and Arabia. Dissatisfied with this division, the first two made an inroad, at the head of an army, into Persia; lew Iredj, who had come to their camp for the purpose of appeasing them, and sent his head to Fer doun. The afflicted father prayed the gods to prolong his life until he could avenge the death of 'is son. Only one of the wives of Iredj proved with child; she gave birth to a daughter, whom Ferido nited to Menoutchehr, his brother's son. He brought him up in wisdom, and, when he had reached the age of manhood, gave this Mencutch hr the throne. Selm and Tour, having endeavoured but in vain, to sppease their irritated father, determined to have recourse to arms. Their forces,

of war, and afterward a general scarcity prevailed.
Peace was concluded; according to the terms of which
the river Gihon (Djihoun or Oxus) was declared the com-
mon limit of the two empires. Zou died soon after, leav-
ing as his successor his son Gerchasp, who only reigned
nine years, and left Persia, at his death, without a mas-
ter. With him ended the dynasty of the Pischdadi-
ans.--Before proceeding to the consideration of the
second or Kaianian dynasty, we shall offer a few re-
marks on the one of which we have just been treating.
The lives and reigns of 700 and 1000 years will obtain,
of course, no credit now. Djemschid and Dzohák'
represent, in all probability, entire families. It would
be useless to compare the Greek traditions with the
monstrous recital of the Schah namch, through which
we have just passed. These recitals, having only been
collected under the Sassanides, have reached us full
of fable and improbability. It will be safer and more
reasonable to limit ourselves to some general approxi-
mations. The Greek historians mention three princi
pal facts: 1. The existence of a vast empire, known
among them by the name of the Assyrian empire; 2.
The overthrow of this empire by the Medes; 3. The
frequent incursions of the Scythian tribes from the re-
gion of Caucasus, from the vicinity of the Caspian, and
from the Oxus. These three grand movements may
be traced without difficulty in the Persian traditions.
In fact, the theatre of the first four reigns of the Schah-
nameh is, beyond a doubt, Media, where was established
the worship of fire by Houcheng. Kaioumaratz and
his successors were then a Median dynasty dethroned
by Dzohâk, a Tasi or Arab prince, and who began what
is called by the Greeks the Assyrian empire. The
word Tasi designates, at the present day, the inhabi-
tants of Arabia; but there is nothing to prevent the
belief that anciently it was applied to all the people of
the Semitic race, and consequently to the Assyrians.
The new dynasty of Dzohâk', so detested by the Ira-
nians, because it was composed of strangers, and
brought in with it an impure and devilish worship,
was probably none other than that of the Assyrian
princes, who, according to the Greek writers, were
masters of all Persia as far as the Indus and Oxus
(Djihoun or Gihon). Feridoun himself, who, accord-
ing to the Schah-nameh, dethroned and imprisoned
Dzohák', will be the representative of the new dynas-
ty of the Medes, which commenced with Dejoces and

no mention of this monarch; he probably confounds his reign with that of his father. Nevertheless, a Mohammedan author mentions this second Phraortes, and he states that Kai K'aous was the son of Aphra and grandson of Kai K'obad. It would appear, moreover, that the history of Kai K'aous, as given by Firdousi, is at one and the same time that of Cyaxares and Astyages. The blindness of Kai K'aous and his army is probably nothing else but the total eclipse of the sun, which took place between Cyaxares and the Lydians, and which had been predicted to the Ionians by Thales. The expedition against Hamawer appears to coincide with the siege of Nineveh mentioned by the Greek writers; and these same writers also agree with Firdousi, when they make the operations of the siege to have been broken off by an invasion of the Scythians. The statement also, made by Herodotus, respecting the marriage of Astyages with the daughter of the Lydian monarch, agrees with that of the Persian author, who informs us of the marriage of Kai Khosrou with Sendabeh. With regard to Kai Khosrou, or simply Khosrou, it appears evident that he was the same with the Cyrus of the Greek writers. Khosrou, however, according to Firdousi, was not the grandson of the schah of Persia, but of Afrasiab, king of Touran, and the scene of the history of his youth is laid entirely in this latter country. After Kai Khosrou, the narrative of the Mohammedan writers begins to differ totally from that of the Greeks. Down to the time of Alexander, there are only two points of resembiance between the two statements: the first is the name of Gouchtasp, who is the Darius Hystaspis of the Greeks; and the other, that of Ardecheer Dirazdest (Artaxerxes Longimanus), given to Bahmen of the Schah-nameh by Mirkhond. (Klaproth, Tableaux Historiques de l'Asie, &c., p. 5, seqq.)

overthrew the Assyrian empire. The Assyrian princes, or Tasi, did not inhabit Jerusalem, as one might be inclined to suppose from the name Beit-ul-makaddes, "the holy dwelling," given by Firdousi to their residence, and which is that by which the Arabs designate the capital of the Jews. The Persian poet himself gives us the requisite information on this point, by adding that Beit-ul-makaddes also bore the Tasi name of Hameh-el-Harran. It was probably, therefore, Harran, in Mesopotamia, in the region called Diar Modzár. According to traditions still existing, this city was built a short time after the deluge; and it is regarded by the people of the East as one of the most ancient in the world. Albrouz is the ancient name of the great chain of mountains which commences on the west of the Cimmerian Bosporus, borders the Caspian Sea to the southeast and south, and, proceeding eastward, joins the Himalayan chain which separates Hindoostan from Thibet. It comprehends, therefore, the Caucasus of our days, the mountains of Ghilan, Mount Damawend, the chain of Chorasan, and the Paropamisus or Hendu-Khos. Feridoun, coming from Media to found the new Median empire on the ruins of the Assyrian, descended Mount Albrouz. Eastern Persia, comprising Sedjestán and Zaboulistán, which is the country of Ghizneh, was subject to the schah, but governed under him by the princes of the race of Sam. As to Kaboul, it was only tributary, and belonged to a branch of the family of Dzohák', that is, to princes of Assyrian origin who had treated with the Medes. The third analogy between the Greek and Persian traditions is found in the inroads of barbarous tribes from Eastern Persia. The incursions of the Scythian Nomades, mentioned by the Greek writers, will agree very well with those of the princes of Touran, coming from beyond the Djihoun or Oxus. From the earliest periods, Persia has been exposed to invasion from the tribes in the direction of Caucasus, the Caspian, and the Oxus. The Greeks The accession of Darius Hystaspis is fixed by chrocalled all these tribes Scythians, because they had no nologists in the year 521 B.C.; and in his reign, supother name by which to designate these barbarous posing him to be the same with Gouchtasp, all authorcommunities. The Persians call them Turan and ities seem to agree that the famous Zerdusht, the ZoDjin (Turks and Chinese), although at this time (700 roaster of the western writers, succeeded in establishB.C.) neither the one nor the other of the two last-ing his new religion. The reign of Gouchtasp is exmentioned people were to be found on the eastern borders of Persia. When, however, the Schah-nameh was composed, the Persians knew only the Turks and Chinese, and they gave their names to all those who had at any time preceded them. The ancient enemies of Persia, in this quarter, were probably Hunnic and Tudesc tribes, to whom, about the era of the Sassanides, succeeded the Turks and Chinese.-The main fact that results from a comparison of these traditions is, that two empires followed in succession: one, coming from Assyria, ruled over Media and all Eastern Asia; the other, coming from Media, reacted on the first, and drove the Semitic communities across the Tigris and Euphrates; and, finally, to these two great revolutions were joined frequent inroads on the part of the barbarous tribes coming from Caucasus, Scythia, and the banks of the Oxus.-To the Pischdadian succeeded the Kaianian dynasty. The recital of the Schah-nameh respecting this second dynasty is as disfigured by fable as that which treats of the first; and it would be of no use to seek in it any exact coincidences with the narratives of Xenophon and Herodo

3. Later history of Persia.

tended by the Persian historians over sixty years, that of Xerxes, his son and successor, being wholly passed over; but Isfundeer, who is supposed by Sir John Malcolm to be the same as Xerxes, is made the hero of his reign. His chivalrous achievements are rivalled only by those of the illustrious Roustem, who is again brought on the scene, and Isfundeer is slain by him in an unjust war, in which he had reluctantly engaged, at the command of his wicked father, with the king of Segistan. It is from the Western historians only that we learn anything of the leading events of the reign of Darius Hystaspis. In like manner, all the great events of the history of Xerxes, which form the most brilliant page in the history of Greece, are passed over in silence in the Persian annals. The assassination of Xerxes, by his relative Artabanus, took place B.C. 461, in the twenty-first year of his reign. He was succeeded by his third son, Artaxerxes Longimanus, the Bahmen or Ardecheer Dirazdest of the Persian annals, and the Ahasuerus of the book of Esther. Something like a disguised or confused account of these transactions is found in the pages of Firdousi. After Isfundeer had subdued all the foreign enemies of his father Gouchtasp, he is sent to reduce to obedience the King of Segistan, who had thrown off his allegiance. In this expedition he is represented as engaging with the greatest reluctance, and he meets his death from the hand of Roustem, to whom, nevertheless, the dying hero commits his son, Bahmen, entreating him to educate him as a warrior. That son, however, on ascending the throne soon became jealous of Roustem, and, having invaded

breaking out of a war with Philippous of Roum (Macedon), which, though at first unsuccessful, is stated to have terminated gloriously for the Persians; and Philip was glad to make peace, on the terms of giving his daughter to Darab, and becoming his tributary. This daughter is fabled to have been the mother of the Macedonian conqueror. Darab I. built Darabjird, a city about 150 miles east of Shiraz. (Malcolm, vol. 1, p. 69.)-The character of Ochus seems, howevunfortunate and noble-minded Darius, who is alleged to have been deformed in body and depraved in mind; as if, Sir John Malcolm remarks, "to reconcile the vanity of the nation to the tale of its subjugation." It is nevertheless true, that the crimes of their monarchs, the mal-administration into which the affairs of the government had fallen, the assassinations and massacres occasioned by the repeated disputes for the succession, and the slender bond which held together the various provinces of so gigantic an empire, had prewhich the Eastern writers have preserved of the Macedonian hero (whom they call Secunder and Iskandeer) are very imperfect; and upon a few historical facts, they have reared a superstructure of the most extravagant fable. They agree, however, with the Greek writers in most of the leading facts; such as the invasion of Persia, the defeat and subsequent death of Darius, the generosity of the conqueror, and the strong impression which his noble and humane conduct made upon his dying enemy. They allude, too, to the alliance which Alexander established with Taxilis or Omphis, to his battle with Porus, and his expedition against the Scythians; but the circumstances in which these events are disguised are for the most part fabulous. His great name," says Sir John Malcolm, "has been considered sufficient to obtain credit for every story that imagination could invent; but this exaggeration is almost all praise. The Secunder of the Persian page is a model of every virtue and of ev

and subdued his hereditary province, put him to death with his family, on the pretext of avenging the blood of his father. The general facts, that Roustem, a powerful chief, slew Isfundeer, yet protected his son; that a civil contest attended the accession of Ardecheer; and that it terminated in the massacre of Roustem and his family, so far accord with what the Greek historians state respecting the character and fate of Artabanus, as to leave little doubt that both stories relate to the same personages. Of the identity of Ar-er, to have been transferred by the Persians to the decheer with Artaxerxes Makрóxeup or Longimanus, there can be no doubt. His surname, Dirazdest ("Long arms") is a full proof of this. The author of the Tarikh Tabree states, that under this monarch, to whom he erroneously ascribes the overthrow of Belshazzar, the Jews had the privilege granted them of being governed by a ruler of their own nation; and the favours they experienced, it is added, were owing to the express orders of Bahmen, whose favourite lady was of the Jewish nation. Josephus expressly affirms, that Artaxerxes Longimanus was the husband of Es-pared the way for its easy dissolution. The traditions ther; and the extraordinary favour which he showed to the Jews strengthens this testimony. He would seem, indeed, to have been the first monarch of Persia who, strictly speaking, by the subjugation of Segistan, "reigned from India even to Ethiopia, over a hundred and twenty seven provinces." Persian historians assign to this great monarch a reign of a hundred and twelve years, but the Greek writers limit it to forty, and his death is fixed in the year B.C. 424. He was succeeded, according to the Persian annals, by his daughter Homai, who, after a reign of thirty-two years, resigned the crown to her son, Darab I., the Darius Nothus of the Greeks. It is natural that no notice should be taken of the ephemeral reigns of Xerxes II. and Sogdianus, which together occupied only eight months; and in Ptolemy's canon, Darius Nothus is made the immediate successor of Artaxerxes Longimanus, his reign extending from 424 B.C. to 405. Homai appears to be the Parysatis whom the Greek writers make to be the queen of her half-brother Da-ery great quality that can elevate a human being above rius, and to whom they attribute a very prominent part his species; while his power and magnificence are alin the transactions of his reign. Her son Arsaces is ways represented as far beyond what has ever been stated to have succeeded to the throne under the title attained by any other monarch in the world." The of Artaxerxes, to which the Greeks added the surname quarrel between the two monarchs originated, accord of Mnemon, on account of his extraordinary memory. ing to the author of the Zeenut-ul-Tuarikh, in AlexNo sovereign, however, besides Longimanus or Di- ander's refusing to pay the tribute of golden eggs to razdest, is ever noticed by Oriental writers under the which his father had agreed, returning the laconic anname of Ardecheer; it is therefore highly probable, swer by the Persian envoy, that "the bird that laid the that Mnemon is the Darab I. of the Persian annals, eggs had flown to the other world." Upon this, anand that he succeeded his mother Homai or Parysa- other ambassador was despatched to the court of the tis, who might reign conjointly with Darius Nothus, Macedonian, bearing the present of a bat and a ball, in whether as her husband or her son. The banishment ridicule of Alexander's youth, and a bag of very small of Queen Parysatis to Babylon, in the reign of her son seed, called gunjud, as an emblem of the innumerable Artaxerxes, may answer to the abdication of Queen army with which he was threatened. Alexander, taHomai. This is a most obscure epoch in the native king the bat and ball in his hand, compared the one to annals. The Egyptian war which broke out in the his own power, and the other to the Persian's dominreign of Darius Nothus, the revolt of the Medes, and ions; and the fate which would await the invaders the part taken by Persia in the Peloponnesian war, are was intimated by giving the grain to a fowl. In renot referred to. Even the name of the younger Cyrus turn. he sent the Persian monarch the significant presis not noticed by any of the Oriental writers, nor is ent of a bitter melon. (Modern Traveller, pt. 37, p. the slightest allusion made to the celebrated expedi- 64, seqq.)—The native writers, as has been said, make tion which has given immortality to its commander. Alexander to have been the son of Darius and a daughThe pages of Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon ter of Philip of Macedon! and they add that Darius leave little room, however, for regret that these events sent his wife home to her father, on account of her have not found an Oriental historian. With respect offensive breath; from which circumstance the war to the second Darab of the Persians, who is made the between the two monarchs arose! (Klaproth, Asia immediate successor of the first, his identity with the Polyglotta, p. 3.) The Persian writers give no detailDarius Codomanus of the Greeks is completely estab-ed account of the operations of Alexander in Persia, lished by the conquest of Persia during his reign by erroneously stating that Darius was killed in the first Alexander of Macedon. The intermediate reigns of action. Artaxerxes Ochus, the most barbarous and abandoned monarch of his race, and of his son Arses, both of whom were assassinated, appear to be passed over, or to be included in that of Darab I. The reign of this Darab is distinguished in the native annals by the

4. Parthian Dynasty.

Passing over the period of the Macedonian power in Asia, which is detailed in other parts of this volume, we come to the establishment of the Parthian kingdom,

reciprocal calamities. (Gibbon, c. 8.)-The subsequent history of the dynasty of the Sassanidae will be found detailed in part under the articles Sapor, Chosroes, &c.

6. Remarks on the Constitution of the Persian Empire in the time of Darius.

:

den was thus laid on a particular district, the rest of the province was not relieved, but the more heavily loaded. When the king granted the revenues of whole cities to a wife or a favourite, he did not give up any portion of his own dues; and the discharge of all these stated exactions did not secure his subjects from the arbitrary demands of the satraps and their officers. Cyrus and Cambyses had conquered nations: Da- If the people suffered from the establishment of these rius was the true founder of the Persian state. The mighty viceroys, their greatness was not less injurious dominions of his predecessors were a mass of coun- to the strength of the state and the power of the sovtries only united by their subjection to the will of a ereign. As the whole authority, civil and military, in common ruler, which expressed itself by arbitrary and each province was lodged in the hands of the satrap, irregular exactions. Darius first organized them into he could wield it at his pleasure without any check an empire, where every member felt its place and knew from within; and if he were unwilling to resign it, it its functions. His realm stretched from the Egean was not always easy to wrest it from him. The greatto the Indus, from the steppes of Scythia to the cata- er his distance from the court, the nearer he approachracts of the Nile. He divided this vast tract into 20 ed to the condition of an independent and absolute satrapies or provinces, and appointed the tribute which prince. He was seldom, indeed, tempted to throw off each was to pay to the royal treasury, and the propor- his nominal allegiance, which he found more useful tion in which they were to supply provisions for the than burdensome, or to withhold the tribute which he army and for the king's household. A high road, on had only the task of collecting; but he might often which distances were regularly marked, and spacious safely refuse any other services, and defy or clude the buildings were placed at convenient intervals to re- king's commands with impunity and least of all was ceive all who travelled in the king's name, connected he subject to control in any acts of rapacity or oppresthe western coast with the seat of government: along sion committed in his legitimate government. Xenothis road, couriers trained to extraordinary speed suc- phon, indeed, in his romance, represents the founder cessively transmitted the king's messages. The sa- of the monarchy as having provided against this evil traps were accountable for the imposts of their several by a wise division of power. (Cyrop., 8, 6.)—Cyrus provinces, and were furnished with forces sufficient to is there said to have appointed that the commanders carry the king's pleasure into effect.-Compared with of the fortresses and of the regular troops in each provthe rude government of his predecessors, the institu-ince should be independent of the satrap, and should tions of Darius were wise and vigorous; in them- receive their orders immediately from court; and a selves, however, unless they are considered as founda-modern author finds traces of this system in the nartions laid for a structure that was never raised, as out-rative of Herodotus himself. (Heeren, Ideen, vol. 1, lines that were never filled up, they were weak and pt. 1, p. 403.)-But it seems clear, that if the conquerbarbarous. He had done little more than cast a bridge or designed to establish such a balance of power, it across the chaos over which he ruled: he had intro- was neglected by his successors, and that the satraps duced no real uniformity or subordination among its engrossed every branch of authority within their reelements. The distribution of the provinces, indeed, spective governments. Thus the huge frame of the may have been grounded on relations which we do not Persian empire was disjointed and unwieldy; and the perceive, and may, therefore, have been less capricious spirit that pervaded it was as feeble as its organization than it seems. But it answered scarcely any higher was imperfect. The Persians, when they overthrew end than that of conveying the wealth of Asia into the the Medes, adopted their laws, religion, and manners; royal treasury, and the satraps, when they were most their own, though they may have resembled them in faithful and assiduous in their office, were really no- their principal features, were certainly more simple, thing more than farmers of the revenue. Their ad- and better fitted to a conquering people. The religion ministration was only felt in the burdens they imposed: of the two nations was probably derived from a comin every other respect the nations they governed re- mon source; but before the Persian conquest it aptained their peculiar laws and constitution. The Per- pears to have undergone an important change in the sian empire included in it the dominions of several reformation ascribed to Zoroaster. In what points his vassal kings, and the seats of fierce, independent doctrine may have differed from those of the preceding hordes, who preyed on its more peaceful subjects with period is an obscure question; but it scerns certain impunity. In this, however, there was much good and that the code of sacred laws which he introduced, comparatively little mischief. The variety of institu- founded, or at least enlarged, the authority and influtions comprehended within the frame of the monarchy, ence of the Magian caste. Its members became the though they were suffered to stand, not from any en- keepers and expounders of the holy books, the teachlarged policy, but because it would have been difficult ers and counsellors of the king, the oracles from whom or dangerous to remove them, and there was nothing he learned the divine will and the secrets of futurity, better to substitute for them, did not impair, but rather the mediators who obtained for him the favour of heavincreased its strength; and the independence of a few en, or propitiated its anger. How soon the tenets of wild tribes was more a symptom than a cause of weak- their theology may have been introduced into Persia, The worst evil arose from the constitution of is not clear: but, as they were a Median tribe, it is the satrapies themselves. The provinces were taxed only with the union of the two nations under Cyrus not only for the supply of the royal army and house- that they can have begun to occupy the station which hold, but also for the support of their governors, each we find them filling at the Persian court. If the reof whom had a standing force in his pay, and of whom ligion of Zoroaster was originally pure and sublime, some kept up a court rivalling in magnificence that of it speedily degenerated, and allied itself to many very the king himself. The province of Babylon, besides gross and hideous forms of superstition: and if we its regular tribute and the fixed revenue of its satrap, were to judge of its tendency by the practice of its which was equal to that of a modern European prince votaries, we should be led to think of it more harshly of the first rank, defrayed the cost of a stud and a or more lightly than it may probably have deserved. hunting equipage for his private use, such as no Eu- The court manners were equally marked by luxury and ropean prince was ever able to maintain. Four large cruelty: by luxury refined till it had killed all natural villages were charged with the nourishment of his In- enjoyment, and by cruelty carried to the most loathdian dogs, and exempted from all other taxes. It must, some excesses that perverted ingenuity could suggest. however, be observed, that when an extraordinary bur- It is above all the atrocious barbarity of the women

ness.