which infenfibly augments till it melts in tears. The very Turks, enemies as they are to the arts, the Turks themselves, pass whole nights in listening to them. Two people fing together, fometimes, but, like their orchestra, they are always in unifon : accompaniments in mufic are only for enlightened nations ; who, while melody charms the ear, wish to have the mind employed by a just and inventive modulation. Nations, on the contrary, whofe feelings are oftener appealed to than their understanding, little capable of catching the fleeting beauties of harmony, delight in thofe fimple founds which immediately attack the heart, without calling in the aid of reflection to increase fenfibility. "The Ifraelites, to whom Egyptian manners, by long dwelling in Egypt, were become natural, also had their Almai. At Jerufalem, as at Cairo, it feems, they gave the women leffons. St. Mark relates a fact which proves the power of the Oriental dance over the heart of man. "And when a convenient day was come, that Herod on his birth-day made a fupper to his lords, bigh captains, and chief eftates of Galilee; "And when the daughter of the said Herodias came in, and danced, and pleafed Herod, and them them that fat with him, the king said unto the damfel, Afk of me whatsoever thou wilt, and I will give it thee. "And he fware unto her, Whatsoever thou fhalt afk of me, I will give it thee, unto the half of my kingdom. "And she went forth, and said unto her mother, What shall I afk? and fhe faid, The head of John the Baptift. "And he came in ftraightway with base unto the king, and asked, faying, I will that thou give me by and by the head of John the Baptift. "And immediately the king fent an executioner, and commanded his head to be brought; and be went and beheaded him in the prison.”. It may, I think, be depended upon, that the ancestors of these Almai had their parts af figned them in the ancient religious festivals of Egypt; the flutes, the tambours, and .the cymbals, were the very inftruments used in the rites of Ifis. When those rites were imported into Greece, and Ceres ufurped the honours of Ifis, the Greeks carried the facred as: well as the focial dance to the highest point of attainable perfection. They made use of the varied dance, not only to animate devotion, but to excite valour and terrify guilt. The Pyrrhic dance of the Spartans was per formed formed by youths armed cap-a-pee, who. brandifhed aloft their swords and darted their javelins to the found of martial music. It is unneceffary, in this place, to enter into any particular account of the frantic revels of the Bacchantes, during the dance facred to their festive deity; when his votaries of both fexes refigned themselves to boundless licentiousness; when wildly toffing about their thyrfi, with their hair dishevelled and furious gesticulation, they rushed, by torch-light, through the streets, committing every species of mirthful extravagance, and making the capital of Greece refound with thundering. acclamations of Evοι Βακχε! The dance of the Eumenides, or Furies, on the stage of Athens, was not lefs frantic, but impressed a different sentiment; that of irresistible ter ror. The minds of the astonished spectators were agitated with a dreadful alternation of of paffion; rage, anguish, and difmay. The valiant veteran, who had a thousand times braved death in the field of battle, trembled while it was performing. A great part of the scared multitude rufhed with precipitation from the theatre; and outcries of horror were heard on every fide. The remaining audience, who had courage to witnefs the exhibition, appalled appalled at the scenes which were acting, imagined they faw in earnest those terrific deities, the minifters of eternal juftice, armed with the vengeance of heaven, and commiffioned to pursue and punish crimes upon earth. I have already, with as much delicacy as was confiftent with perfpicuity, informed the reader that Seeva is sometimes represented by emblems that exprefs, in that mythological deity, the union of the two fexes, in which fenfe he may be called Αρρενοθηλυς, or male and female; an idea, which, it has before been observed, is not peculiar to India, but runs through all the myftic writers of antiquity, and alludes to the productive fecundity, inherent in the divine nature. The glaring fymbols of it are too evident in every pagoda of this physical race, and the frequency of them impreffes ftrangers with mistaken notions of their being a people immerfed in boundless profligacy of manners, which is by no means the cafe. In this, his genial character, Parvati, another term for Bhavani and Durga, is allotted him for a confort, or rather, is only one part of himself. Under these two forms, fays M. Sonnerat, he is adored by the name of Parachiven and Parafati. In fome temples thefe two figures are feparate; but, in others, they they are joined together, and compofe one figure, half man and half woman. The principal temple of Seeva, under this combined image, is at Tirounomaley. In forming these conceptions, and in combining these images, I am ready to admit that mythology has had confiderable influence; yet, am I not without ftrong fufpicion, that the whole of this ANDROGYNOUS fyftem is founded upon fome mistaken tradition, fimilar to that occurring in the writings of fome rabbinical doctors, and founded on a falfe interpretation of a verse in Genefis, that God, at the beginning, created man of both fexes; male and female created be them. So far distant are the zealous adorers of Seeva, in this capacity, from being of a licentious character, that none of his votaries are doomed to a more rigid purity than these; they have all the frozen chastity of Atys, the well-beloved of Cybele, with this difference, that they retain the ability, which Atys wanted, of violating the vow of perpetual virginity. In fact, by the force of fevere penances and habitual abftinence, fome of them entirely vanquish the ebullition of natural defire; while others, by deadly ftupifying drugs, lock up all the springs of genial paffion, and are abforbed in holy infenfibility. The neceffity for |