posed witches have been treated very nearly in the same manner. Two of those magicians so astonished Ibn Batuta by their wonderful transformations, "that he fainted and fell to the earth," and took a palpitation at the heart. (p. 162.) His account of the Maldive Islands will be found extremely curious. Here it appears that notwithstanding his extraordinary devotion and his zeal in studying the sacred Koran, which he sometimes read through once or even twice in a day; (p. 174.) he still made such domestic arrangements as left him sufficient leisure for very ample indulgence in the delights of female society.

"I had," says he, "some slave-girls and four wives during my residence here. The people are religious, chaste, and peaceable: they eat what is lawful, and their prayers are answered. Their bodies are weak. They make no war; and their weapons are prayers." (p. 176.) "Whenever a traveller enters these islands, he may marry for a very small dowry one of the handsomest women for any specific period." (p. 177.)

His account of Ceylon abounds with interesting information; and in various parts his work will gratify the lovers of natural history: yet it was not always in search of rare animals, plants, or minerals, that our author undertook laborious and dangerous expeditions. From a place called Sadkawan in Bengal, he performed a journey of one month to the mountains of Kamru, adjoining those of Thibet,

where there are musk-gazelles. The inhabitants of these mountains are, like the Turks, famous for their attention to magic. My object in visiting these mountains was to meet one of the saints; namely, the Sheikh Jalal Oddín of Tebriz. This sheikh was one of the greatest saints, and one of those singular individuals who had the power of working great and notable miracles, &c. (p. 195.)

We should far exceed our present limits by any attempt to notice even a tenth part of the details respecting Java and China, which claim the inquisitive reader's attention; or a twentieth part of the valuable notes with which Professor Lee has illustrated the most obscure or difficult passages. We shall here take the first note that presents itself, as a specimen of the manner in which this learned translator has explained an Arabic word, and at the same time thrown light on a passage in the Hebrew Scriptures.

"To express couriers, horse and foot, the term used," says Ibn Batuta, was El Wolák, J. The note informs us that this word signifies quick, hasting, &c. from the Arabic root, properavit, &c. The Eastern couriers are generally some part of the king's forces; and when the despatches are important, are officers of distinction, as it is the case in our own military affairs. These among the ancient Hebrews were generally termed runners: a term perfectly synonymous with that used here, y, or x, (which is perhaps an erroneous reading for

the Persian word for runner). This will elucidate an obscure pas

sage in Psalm xix. 5. where we have rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. The word answering to strong man is in the original

, which means hero. In the translation, too, we have a race; but as we know of no races among the Hebrews, we are reduced to some difficulty as to what could here have been intended by the writer. In the original, however, we have, which means nothing more than a way, road, or path; and the sense is, rejoiceth as a hero to run the road; i. e. to bear the despatches of his master with the greatest possible celerity and safety. This makes the whole passage easy and plain : it exhibits the sun as an officer honored by the Almighty to bear the announcement of his powers, through every clime of his dominion, in a language silent, but expressive and equally intelligible to all." (p. 101.)

It would give us great satisfaction to hear that the complete work of Ibn Batuta had been found at Cairo, Tripoli, or elsewhere, and placed in the hands of that able translator and learned commentator who has rendered the abridgment so interesting and instructive.

AN INQUIRY INTO THE TRUTH OF HISTORY.

No. III. [Continued from No. LXXVII.]

Hæc ætas, jam exculta præsertim et erudita, omne, quod fieri non potest, respuit.-Cicero.

I

MITFORD.

ARGOS had not, with the power, lost all the pride of its antient preeminence among the Grecian states." At the time when the Greeks were preparing to oppose Xerxes, Argos was "weak still from slaughter in battle, and the massacre which followed in the invasion under Cleomenes; nourishing since those events an encreased animosity against Lacedæmon, and fearing worse oppression from neighboring Greeks than from the distant Persian, the Argians applied to the Delphian oracle for advice, or perhaps rather negotiated for a sanction to resolutions already taken. The response, evidently composed by a friend to the Argians, appears, as far as it can be understood, to favor their antient pretension to superiority over all other Grecian states, and at the same time to direct them to enter into no league for common defense, but merely to provide for their own security."

Even in the present days of liberality, great men are apt to

Vol. ii. cap. 8. sect. 2..

VOL. XXXIX.

Cl. Jl.

NO. LXXVIII. Y

I

expect that if their advice is asked it shall be followed. A due respect for the great oracle of Delphi, which was as the voice of a God to many of the Greeks, and a befitting sense of gratitude for an answer which flattered their pride and consulted their security, should have withheld the Argians from bringing any discredit on the oracle by slighting its advice. "Since you have made this enquiry," said Socrates to Xenophon, "you must do what the god has ordered." Their own weakness also should have induced them to husband their small resources; for besides the slaughter in battle, and the massacre which followed, we must bear in mind that of a thousand Argians, who at a subsequent period had come to assist the Eginetans of the island, the greater part were slain;2 and that between the slaughter in battle and the massacre which followed, so large a portion of the Argian people perished, that the slaves rose upon the scanty remainder, overpowered them, and for some years commanded the city.3

In the time of our own crusades, those who staid at home contrived to turn the heroism of others to their own account. If their own weakness and the protection of the oracle had led the Argians to set a high value on their assistance; if, like the Swiss of a later day, they had sold their services; a knowledge of human nature would have hindered us from condemning them. From Mr. Mitford's account, however, it seems that in his opinion the Argians required merely "that the Lacedæmonians should bind themselves to maintain peace with them for thirty years; and then they said that though the command among the Grecian states justly belonged to Argos, yet they would be content to share it equally with Sparta. The Lacedæmonian deputies hesitated, and gave an unsatisfactory answer. The Argians closed the conference with declaring that the Spartan arrogance was intolerable, and that they would rather be commanded by the barbarians than be subject to Lacedæmon; and they ordered the ministers to leave the Argian territory before sun-set, on pain of being treated as enemies."

We must take for granted that the Argians were serious in making their proposal: to a disregard of the Delphic oracle, they would hardly have added a wanton ridicule of the necessities of those neighbouring Greeks from whom they feared oppression; but by what means could they have supported the burden which they offered to take upon them? As emperor of Germany, Maximilian had an undoubted right to precedence; yet Maximilian was at one time the hireling of our Henry the Eighth.

Philip the Second of Spain, "that sad intelligencing tyrant who mischief'd the world from his mines of Ophir," was an absolute prince, and his intended invasion of England was sanctioned by

Anabasis, lib. iii. cap. 2.

3 Mitford, vol. ii. c. 7. s. 3. p. 85.

2 Mitford, vol. ii. c. 7. s. 3. p. 89.

the pope; yet the Armada was delayed through the instrumentality of a merchant. If we enquire into the cause which had such power over Maximilian and Philip, we shall find that they both were in want of money.

How much power the reader will allow to this said cause, when the Greeks are concerned, is not for me to determine; but if he admits that the Argians could not have armed and supported their troops without some expense, let him not allege that the silver-mine at Laureium would have supplied the necessary ways and means in this instance also. That mine, whatever may have been its richness, was not altogether like the purse of Fortunatus. If Persuasion was one of the great gods, which the Athenians brought with them against Andros after the battle of Salamis, Necessity was the other. Hippias,' when master of Athens, cried down the silver coin, and having thus collected it, re-issued it at its original value; and this was not the only expedient by which he raised money. The Athenian exchequer, therefore, both before the battle of Marathon and after that of Salamis, was not superfluously rich; and it is probable that the Argians would have had to bear their own charges, if their proposal had been accepted; and on examination we shall find it more than probable that commerce had not enabled the Argians to lay up much treasure. How great then must have been that pride of antient pre-eminence, which could incline the weak state of Argos to act offensively against Persia !

"The Greeks," says Mitford," had long had intelligence of the immense preparations making in Asia: professedly for the punishment of Athens, but evidently enough with more extensive views of conquest. Yet still, as on the former invasion, no measures were concerted in common for the general defense of the country. On the contrary, many of the small republics readily and even zealously made the demanded acknowledgement of subjection to the great king, by the delivery of earth and water. Nor will this appear strange to those who read the honest historian of the age, and consider the real state of things in the country, however it may militate with later declamation on Grecian patriotism and love of liberty. For it was surely no unreasonable opinion, held by many, that the might of Persia was irresistible." It was not, therefore, from a comparison between the might of Persia and the might of Greece that the politicians of Argos could anticipate success; neither could they feel assured that success would benefit them. By sharing the command equally with Sparta, they would

The anecdote, with a variety of others, is to be found in the second book of Aristotle's Economics; but as to the said book, Suspicio est non esse Aristotelis.

Vol. ii. c. 8. s. 2.

be bound to maintain a rivalry in deeds as well as in words with Sparta, or they themselves would humble that very pride which they meant to gratify. But what hero did the state of Argos' possess, who could claim an equality with Leonidas, a Spartan king, who boasted a descent from Hercules, and whose character could not have been unknown to his neighbours, though he had as yet had no public opportunity for making conspicuous his superior genius and unshaken courage? The Argians might have hoped to be victorious, but they never could have hoped for a bloodless victory over the might of Persia. Could Argos bear a loss in men so well as Sparta? Leonidas and his chosen band fell at Thermopyla: casualties must have occurred in the expedition against the Argians, in the expedition to Tempe, and return from it; and in the sea-fights off Artemisium and Salamis. Leotychidas, a Spartan king, and commander of that allied force which gained a double triumph at Mycale, could not have been unaccompanied by a Spartan force: yet notwithstanding all these deductions, the Spartans had 50,000 men in the field at Platæa; they had at least a thousand at Megara; and a sufficient number remained to ensure tranquility at home.

Laconia and Messenia formed one kingdom, and were subject to the same rule; but Mycena was independent of Argos, though only ten miles distant from it. Epidaurus and Trozene and Tiryns were likewise independent; and so little were these four states inclined to make common cause with Argos, that Mycena thought it worth while to send eighty men to the army of Leonidas. Epidaurus furnished eight, and Trozene five ships; and at the battle of Platæa there were 1000 Trozenians, 800 Epidaurians, 400 Mycenæans and Tirynthians, each accompanied by a slave, who did duty as a light-armed soldier.

Weak from slaughter and massacre; weak from the servile war which followed; weak from the loss of nearly 1000 men at Egina; possessing but a small part of a small territory, subject to the never-failing disorders of a Greek republic; Argos could ill spare a single man, whether slave or free; and would have had good cause for obeying the friendly oracle, even although she had not feared worse oppression from neighbouring Greeks than from the distant Persian. It was agreed that all enmities among the Greeks themselves should cease; and the Athenians and Eginetans were

1 "Of the states on the continent of Greece, Argos was among the first to abolish monarchy; or, however, so to reduce its powers, that we hardly perceive among historians whether it existed or no." Mitford, vol. i. c. 4. s. 2. It was, however, a monarchy at this time: for the Spartans alleged as a reason for not sharing the command equally, that they had two kings and the Argians but one. See their speech in Herodotus,