are not speaking Arabic.' He could hear words articulated, where an European ear could not discern a syllable."

The poetic muse has not been entirely banished from the barbaric tribes, of whom Mr. Campbell has so much to detail. The ex-Bey of Titeri is a poet; and what is more, a son of song that loves a good dinner, and a table companion of congenial tastes and acquirements. Accordingly he invited the author to a repast, such as few poets are fortunate enough to command.

"The guests were Colonel Maret, two other Frenchmen, and myself. Our host placed me on an ottoman, and, after taking a few whiffs of a long pipe, handed it to me moist from his own lips, as the greatest respect that can be shown to a stranger. At last the dinner-table was brought in, or rather a large round tin tray, which was placed on a slight elevation from the floor. In the midst of it was a bowl of exquisite rice-soup, and each of us having squatted himself cross-legged on a low cushion like so many tailors, we were helped to a plateful of soup a-piece, and we fed ourselves with wooden spoons. The plates were fine English porcelain. Before each of us was placed a long napkin, which our host told me was of Sinyrna cloth. Next came a large broiled fish, deliciously flavoured and stuffed with pudding it was sent round, and every one clutched a portion of it with his fingers and thumb. By my faith, I thought, on tasting this regale, for aught that the French can do in civilizing African cookery, they may as well stay at home. I was so pleased with the fish, that I desired to be helped a second time from it; whereupon the ex-Bey, with exemplary politeness, grasped a handful of it, and laid it on my plate.

"Behold, my friend, what it is to move in high life, and to see the world! Presently we had roasted fowls, flanked by some savoury dishes of vegetables, well soused with oil, and by and bye followed cous-cousou. The pullets were torn asunder by strength of hand, but with ineffable delicacy. Meanwhile, my heart was yearning after the rich legumes that were floating in gravy, as golden bright as the clouds of a summer sunset. There was no spoon, and so I poured a part of the vegetables on my plate, and, by the aid of a piece of bread, and my spoonless fingers, whipped considerable portions into my mouth. For shame!' methinks you are already exclaiming: is this your high life, to sit pawing your food like a squirrel? Could you not have asked for a spoon?" Well, I did so when the cous-cousou came in; but, in the mean time, I was desperately hungry. For the glorious cous-cousou we of Christendom were allowed spoons, and though our words could not describe its relish, our mouths did it ample justice without uttering a word. Since the days of my boyhood I never ate a heartier dinner."

The Algerine Jews seem to be as ignorant and superstitious as any of their neighbours; and with a notice of them, we close our

extracts.

"When a man dies, they believe that the devil stands in ambush before the house, in order to get possession of the corpse on its way to its last abode. As the rabbis, however, surround it all the way to interment, his infernal majesty is cowed by their presence; but still he follows the pro

cession, in hopes of finding some favourable opportunity, or of slipping into the grave along with the defunct. When the body, therefore, is near the opened grave, the bearers suddenly retreat with it to a certain distance, and a rabbi attending them throws some gold pieces as far as he can in different directions. The devil, who is by this time either in the grave or near it, is tempted by his avarice to go and pick up the money; and, whilst he is thus employed, the corpse is hurried back to the tomb, and earth thrown over it. One day that I talked about this custom to a Moor, who has a bigoted hatred of the poor Israelites, I asked him if it was not unlike a Jew to throw away his money? Ah, yes,' he said; but it is very like a Jew to cheat the devil.' In the burials of females, this scattering of money is never practised: Satan, it is alleged, has already too much trouble upon his hands to wish getting hold of a woman.”

ART. III.

1.-Modern India; with Illustrations of the Resources and Capabilities of Hindustan. By HENRY H. SPRY, M. D. 2 vols. Whittaker. 2.-Reports and Documents connected with the Proceedings of the East India Company in regard to the Culture and Manufacture of Cotton Wool, Raw Silk, and Indigo, in India. London: printed by Order of the East India Company, 21st Dec. 1836.

THESE two works are very dissimilar in regard both to matter and style; and yet they may be aptly united under the running title which we have adopted. Dr. Spry's volumes, as may be understood from their own announcement, have a much more general and diversified character than the "Reports and Documents," which have from time to time been furnished in the course of the "Company's" management of their vast empire in relation to three of the most important and valuable of its products. In fact, the Doctor's work is a distinguished example of a book which is not less attractive on account of its light and amusing matter, than it is calculated to convey useful knowledge to the practical as well as to the scientific man. And all this is done with the judgment, the taste, and ease which are to be expected from a learned and accomplished writer, but whose reading and studies have been enriched and modified by extensive observation and ripe experience of the world. There is even a good deal that is new to us in the information which these volumes communicate, respecting the vast regions and the mighty resources described. But as our design at present is chiefly to consider the history and value of the three great articles of cultivation mentioned in the second work before us, we shall do very little more with the first than cite one or two passages as a specimen of the whole.

In several recent publications we have been informed regarding an extraordinary race of robbers and murderers, that infest certain

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districts of India; but in the present work is described another tribe, that are still more degraded and still more unnatural in their habits, called Kookees. Indeed they are scarcely to be distinguished from the monkeys with which they herd, and were it not fully and frequently authenticated, we should be inclined to look upon our author's account as a most extravagant fabrication. The persons who have chiefly had an opportunity of falling in with these loathsome people, who are systematic cannibals, are the elephant hunters; and the information hence derived contains these particulars. The Kookees, as these brutal wretches are called, have, according to the account afforded me by Major Gairdner, protuberant bellies: they are low in stature, with set features, and muscular limbs. They speak a dialect peculiar to themselves, and build their villages on the boughs of the forest trees. They do not appear to have any settled abiding place, but wander in herds from one wilderness to another. When a site favourable to their purpose has been found, the whole community immediately set to work to collect bamboos and branches of trees, which are afterwards fashioned into platforms, and placed across the lofty boughs of the different trees. On this foundation the rude grass superstructure is raised which forms the hut. When these sheds are completed, and every family provided with a habitation, the women and children are taken into their aerial abodes. The men then lop off all the branches within reach of the ground, and having constructed for themselves a rough ladder of bamboos, they ascend the trees by means of this rude staircase, drawing it up after them to prevent the intrusion of strangers, and a necessary precaution against the encroachments of their four-footed companions of the forest. In this manner they repose, floating in the branches, and cradled by the wind, partaking more of the savage ferocity of brutes than the milder charities of man.

The division of Chittagong, appertaining to the eastern portion of the province of Bengal, has been selected for the grand depot established for the purpose of taming and rearing the Company's elephants, and the superintendent of the stud dispatches men skilled in the art of hunting down those that are wild, into the neighbouring blue mountains, in the direction of Ava.

The mere circumstance of a whole tribe taking for their place of habitation the boughs of trees, does not appear so improbable, when it is known, as all are aware who have travelled in India, that the watchmen employed in the charge of mango groves, or other valuable fruit cultivations, often form a sort of nest on the branches of some neighbouring trees,-a small hut, or rather shed, just sufficient to shield the body from the inclemency of the weather, being raised upon a platform resting on the boughs; but the dwelling-place of the Kookees is not the only extraordinary circumstance connected with their history.

They openly boast of their feats of cannibalism, showing, with the strongest expressions of satisfaction, the bones and residue of their fel

low-creatures who have fallen a prey to their horrible appetites. So intent are they in their search after human flesh, that the superintendent was always obliged to send out the men employed in hunting the elephants armed with muskets, and in not fewer than parties of ten. One poor man they unfortunately caught while off his guard, and devoured him almost, before his life blood had congealed in his veins. Attempts have been made to subdue and civilize these people, and one of their head men was over, and employed by Major Gairdner at the elephant depot, but he could not be induced to relinquish his old habits. In a short time he was detected in the commission of a murder, and was executed by the civil authorities of Chittagong. When the tidings of this man's fate reached the ears of his former associates, they became greatly incensed, and for a long time afterwards exerted themselves, happily in vain, to obtain possession of the person of the superintendent, who had frequently occasion to cross their path in the execution of his duty. These people, strange as it may appear, are living within 150 miles of Calcutta, the metropolis of British India and the seat of government, and yet their existence even is scarcely known by the people who are not in authority-comparatively little information from the woods and jungles of the savage portions of Bengal finding its way to the Calcutta newspapers. The existence of cannibals in India is a fact only recently established, and many were of opinion that the races were extinct; it has now, however, been proved beyond all question, that the Kookees, who infest the blue mountains of Chittagong, and the Goands, inhabiting the hill forests of Nagpore, both feed upon human flesh. There is this distinction in favour of the latter, that they partake of it only occasionally, and in compliance with a religious custom-while the Kookees delight and banquet on the horrid repast."

We may also quote some particulars that convey minute information regarding those atrocious people already referred to, viz., the Thugs. Dr. Spry is describing the trial and execution of a number of them. Having been drawn up in a semicircle round the bench on which the judge was seated, these criminals had the warrants placed before them, and each name, as called out by the court, was repeated by the sheristhadar. At the conclusion of this ceremony, a few sentences were addressed to them in the Hindustanee language.

"Few answered: those who did reply merely requested, as a dying favour, that their bodies, on being taken down, might be burnt. One hardened villain, however, as he was turning round to leave the court, disturbed the solemnity of the scene, by muttering: Ah, you have got it all your own way now, but let me find you in Paradise, and then I will be revenged!' The night was passed by these men in displays of coarse and disgusting levity. Trusting in the assurance that, dying in the cause of their calling, Bhowanee would provide for them in Paradise, they evinced neither penitence nor remorse.

Stifling their alarm with boisterous revelling, they hoped to establish in the minds of their comrades who could hear them through the wall, a

reputation for courage, by means, which, at once, proved their insincerity and belied their fortitude."

The execution scene is rendered exceedingly appalling, in conse quence of the author's plain and circumstantial style.

"When morning came, numerous hackeries drew up to the gaol door, taking five men in each. They looked dreadfully haggard. As one cart was laden after the other, it was driven away, surrounded by sepoys with fixed bayonets and loaded muskets. The place appointed for the executions was on the north side of the town of Saugor, about a mile and a half from the gaol. Rooksut Doctor Sahib, Salam Doctor Sahib,' were the salutations which I received, as I rode by the wretched tumbrils which were jolting them to execution. The gibbets were temporary erections, forming three sides of a square. The upright posts which supported the cross-beams were. firmly fixed in stone-masonry five feet in height. From either side of these walls foot-boards were placed, on which the unhappy criminals were to land on reaching the top of the ladder. The cross-beams were each provided with ten running halters equidistant from one another. As each hackery load of malefactors arrived, it was taken to the foot of the respective ladders, and as one by one got out he mounted to the platform or foot-board. Their irons were not removed. All this time the air was pierced with the hoarse and hollow shoutings of these wretched men.

"Each man, as he reached the top of the ladder, stepped out on the platform and walked at once to a halter. Without loss of time he tried its strength by weighing his whole body on it. Every one having by this means proved the strength of his rope with his own hands (for none of them were handcuffed), introduced his head into the noose, drew the knot firmly home immediately behind the right ear, and amid terrific cheers jumped off the board and launched himself into eternity! Thus in the moment of death we see a scrupulous attention paid to the preser vation of caste. To wait to be hung by the hands of a chumar, was a thought too revolting for endurance. The name would be disgraced for ever, and, therefore, rather than submit to its degradation every man hung himself!”

We now proceed to gather some of the information furnished by the "Reports and Documents" concerning the Cotton-wool, Raw Silk, and Indigo, that are cultivated in India. The Reports are short, but the appended Documents are very numerous, affording the current of official instructions, evidence, and conclusions, which during the course of a number of years have accumulated regarding each of the specified articles of cultivation-the whole filling a very thick octavo volume and affording extremely minute and satisfactory data for judging of these branches of riches to those who desire to hear of the golden East. And yet though the cotton, silk, and indigo of India have in the course of no very long period of time become greatly more valuable in consequence of enlightened enterprize, both in respect of cultivation and manufacture, it is to be presumed that still farther advances will be made in the case of each of