vered with long hair. There have not been above two or three inftances of their being met with by the people of Laboon (from whom my information is derived), and one of thefe was entrapped many years ago, in much the fame manner as the carpenter in Pilpay's Fables caught the monkey. He had children by a Laboon woman, which also were more hairy than the common race; but the third generation are not to be diflinguifhed from others. The reader will beflow what measure of faith he thinks due on this relation, the veracity of which I do not pretend to vouch for. It has probably fome foundation in truth, but is exaggerated in the circumflances." Of the effects of the use of opium amongst the Sumatrans our Author gives the following account: The ufe of opium among these people, as that of intoxicating liquors among other nations, is a fpecies of luxury, which all ranks adopt according to their ability, and which, when once become habitual, it is almoft impoflible to fhake off. Being, however, like other luxuries, expenfive, few only, among the lower clafs of people, can compafs the regular enjoyment of it; even where its ufe is not reftrained, as it is among the pepper planters, to the times of their feftivals. That the practice of opium fmoking must be in fome degree prejudicial to the health, is highly probable; yet I am inclined to think that effects have been attributed to it, much more pernicious to the conflitution, than it is in reality the caufe of. The Bugguefs foldiers, and others in the Malay bazars, whom we fee moft attached to it, and who ufe it to excefs, commonly appear emaciated; but they are in other refpects abandoned and debauched. The Leemoon and Batang Afy gold traders, on the contrary, who are an active, laborious people, but yet indulge as freely in opium as any others whatever, are, notwithstanding, the most healthy and vigorous people to be met with on the island. It has been ufual alfo to attribute to the practice, deftructive confequences of another nature; from the frenzy it has been fuppofed to excite in thofe who take it in quantities. But this fhould probably rank with the many errors that mankind have been led into, by travellers addicted to the marvellous; and there is every reafon to believe, that the furious quarrels, defperate affaffinations, and fanguinary attacks, which the ufe of opium is faid to give birth to, are idle notions, originally adopted through ignorance, and fince maintained, from the mere want of inveftigation, without having any folid foundation. That thofe defperate acts of indifcriminate murder, called by us, mucks, and by the natives, mongamo, do actually take place, and in fome parts of the caft, frequently (on Java in particular), is not to be controverted; but it is not equally evident that they proceed from any intoxication, except that of their unruly pallions. Too often they are occafioned by excefs of cruelty and injustice in their oppreffors. On the West coast of Sumatra about twenty thousand pounds weight of this drug are confumed annually, yet inftances of this crime do not happen (at least within the fcope of our knowledge) above once in two or three years. During my refi dence there, I had an opportunity of being an eye witnefs but to one muck. The flave of a Portuguefe woman, a man of the island of Neas, who in all probability had never handled an opium pipe in his life, being treated by his mistrefs with extreme feverity, for a trifling offence, vowed he would have revenge, if the attempted to ftrike him again;' and ran down the fteps of the houfe, with a knife in each hand, as it was faid. She cried out, mongamo! The civil guard was called, who having the power, in thefe cafes, of exercising fummary justice, fired half a dozen rounds into an outhoufe, where the unfortunate wretch had sheltered himself, on their approach; and from whence he was at length dragged, covered with wounds. Many other mucks might perhaps be found, upon fcrutiny, of the nature of the foregoing, where a man of ftrong feelings was driven, by excels of injury to domeftic rebellion.' Under the article of the religion of thefe people, Mr. M. with a degree of modefty not often met with in modern travellers, fays, In works defcriptive of the manners of people little known to the world, the account of their religion ufually con-. ftitutes an article of the first importance. Mine will labour under the contrary disadvantage. The ancient and genuine religion of the Rejangs (if in fact they ever had any) is fcarcely now to be traced; and what principally adds to its obfcurity, and the difficulty of getting information on the subject, is, that even thofe amongst them who have not been initiated in the principles of Mahometanifm, yet regard thofe who have, as perfons advanced a step in knowledge beyond them, and therefore hefitate to own circumftantially, that they remain ftill unenlightened.' Mr. M. goes on: If by religion is meant a public or private form of worship, of any kind; and if prayers, proceffions, meetings, offerings, images, or priests, are any of them neceffary to conftitute it, I can pronounce that the Rejangs are totally without religion, and cannot, with propriety, be even termed Pagans, if that, as I apprehend, conveys the idea of mistaken worship. They neither worship God, devil, nor idol. They are not, however, without fuperftitious beliefs of many kinds, and have certainly a confused notion, though perhaps derived from their intercoufe with other people, of fome fpecies of fuperior, beings, who have the power of rendering themfelves visible or invisible, at pleasure. These they call " orang aloos," "fine, or impalpable men," and regard them as poffeffing the faculty of doing them good or evil; deprecating their wrath, as the fenfe of prefent misfortunes, or apprehenfion of future, prevails in their minds. But when they speak particularly of them, they call them by the appellations of " malaykar" and "jinn," which are the angels and evil fpirits of the Arabians, and the idea may probably have been borrowed, at the fame time with the names. Thefe are the powers they alfo refer to, in an oath. I have heard a dupatty fay, "My grandfather took an oath that he would not demand the joojoor of that woman, and imprecated a curfe on any of his defcendants that fhould do it, I never have, nor could I without fala kapada malaykat-an offence against the angels." Thus they fay alfo, " de tolong nebbee, malaykat, the prophet and angels affifting." "This is pure Mahometaniim. The clearest proof that they never entertained an idea of Theism, or the belief of one fupreme Power, is that they have no word in their P 4 their language to exprefs the perfon of God, except the "Allah tallab" of the Malays, corrupted by them to "Oola tallo." Yet when queftioned on the fubject, they affert their anceflors knowledge of a deity; though their thoughts were never employed about him; but this evidently means no more, than that their forefathers, as well as themselves, had heard of the Allah of the Mahometans (Allah orang Iflaem). 66 They use, both in Rejang and Passummah, the word "deway,” to express a fuperior, invifible clafs of beings; but each country acknowledges it to be of foreign derivation, and they fuppofe it Javanefe. Raddeen, of Madura, an island close to Java, who is well converfant with the religious opinions of moft nations, afferted to me that "deway," or deevah," was an original word of that country for a fuperior being, which the interior Javans believed in; but that they ufed no ceremonies or forms of worship: that they had fome idea of a future life, but not as a ftate of retribution; conceiving immortality to be the lot of rich, rather than of good men. I recollect, that an inhabitant of one of the islands farther eastward obferved to me, with great fimplicity, that great men only went to the kies; how should poor men find admittance there? The Sumatrans, where untinctured by Mahometanifm, do not appear to have any notion of a future ftate. Their conception of virtue or vice, extends no farther than to the immediate effect of actions, to the benefit or prejudice of fociety, and all fuch as tend not to either of these ends, are, in their eftimation, perfectly indifferent.' Mr. M. now enters into an extenfive detail of the manners and cuftoms of the other inhabitants of the island, which we cannot pretend to follow; and concludes his work with the hiftory of the civil and military revolutions that have happened to it. At the end of his laft chapter, Mr. M. fays, Having thus brought to a close the digeft of fuch materials for an account of the island of Sumatra, as I had been induced, from curiofity and a love of fcience, to collect together during my refi. dence there, and have had an opportunity of acquiring fince my return; and having endeavoured to render my labours, as fitting as my talents would allow, to meet the eye of the Public, I now fubmit them chearfully, but not confidently, to their infpection. I am fenfible of the awfulness of the tribunal before which I am going to appear; but I alfo know the indulgence it is ever ready to fhew, in a particular manner, to those whose writings tend to establish facts, rather than fyftems, and humbly to defcribe things as they exift, rather than difplay the powers of a creative imagination.' We now take leave of Mr. Marfden, with this honeft declaration, that we have not perufed, for fome time paft, a book that has afforded us more amufement, or more fatisfactory information. The Writer appears to be a man of a comprehenfive mind, well tinctured with knowledge of various kinds, and poffeffed of that fift requifite in a traveller, the power of cor rect rect and accurate obfervation. A literary critic might perhaps, here and there, make some objections to the ftyle of our Author (but ubi plura nitent, where there is fo much to commend, and that too of fo fuperior a kind), it would be invidious to take notice of them. T ART. V. Colman's Horace. Concluded. See our laft. O chufe an author as you chufe a friend, is a piece of advice that every tranflator should attend to: and yet, if we are to judge from tranflations in general, no rule feems to be more frequently violated. There is, however, no violation of it in the present instance; Mr. Colman poffeffing, in an eminent degree, the qualifications requifite in a tranflator of Horace. The juftice of this remark will be readily affented to by any one who has the slightest acquaintance either with his compofitions or character; and those who have not (if any fuch readers there are) may be convinced of it by a perufal of the present tranflation; in which they will meet with all the ease, the fpirit, and the characteristical graces of the original. It muft not, however, be hence inferred, that we mean to speak of this performance as a finished production. Such it certainly is not; nor as fuch does its ingenious Author seem to have intended it. It may, indeed, admit of a debate, whether the peculiar manner of Horace, in his more familiar compofitions (by which we mean his Satires and Epiftles), may not be more faithfully, or at least more vividly, preserved, by the mode of translation adopted by Mr. Colman, in which every thing appears free, bold, and fpontaneous, as evidently written calamo currente, than by that laborious exactnefs, which is generally accompanied by an air of tamenefs and constraint. Who, that is the leaft converfant in matters of that kind, has not observed that there are paintings (to borrow an illuftration from a fifterart) which, mocking the precifion of the graver, are best reprefented by a rapid and fpirited etching? And who, that compares Mr. Colman's with any former translation, will not acknowledge, that he has sketched out a jufter resemblance of his original, than is to be met with either in the faint, though finished, mezzotinto of Francis, or the wooden cut of Rofcommon? But it will be necessary for the translation to speak for itself. Be not your opening fierce, in accents bold, The The mountains labour! hush'd are all the spheres! How much more modeftly begins His fong, Say, Mufe, the Man, who, after Troy's difgrace, "In various cities mark'd the human race!" Not flame to fioke he turns, but smoke to light, With Diomed's return to run you out of breath; Hear now, what I expect, and all the town, His flying years, and changing nature too. The Boy, who now his words can freely found, Quarrels, fhakes hands, and cares not wrong or right; The beardless Youth, at length from tutor free, Prudent, and wary, on each deed intent, Evil in various fhapes Old Age furrounds; His hand from doubt, as well as weakness, fhakes; |