infupportable thirst; he then returns immediately into the river, and drinks upon thefe dry peafe large draughts of water, which fuddenly caufes his death; for the peale foon begin to fwell with the water, and not long after the Egyptians find him dead on the fhore, blown up as if killed with the ftrongeft poison. 5. The oftener the river horfe goes on fhore, the better hopes have the Egyptians of a fufficient fwelling or increafe of the Nile. 6. The Egyptians fay, they can almoft diftinguish the food of this animal in his excrement. Τ Of the Camel-deer. HE colour of the whole body, head, and legs of this animal, is variegated with dark brown fpots; the fpots are as large as the palm of a man's hand, of an irregular figure, and in the living animal are of vari us fhades. This deer is of the bignefs of a fmall camel; the whole length, from the upper lip to the tail, is twenty-four fpans. It is met with in the fhady and thick woods of Sennar and Ethiopia. N. B. This is a most elegant and docile animal; it has been feen by very few natural hiftorians, and indeed fcarcely by any, except Bellonius; but none have given a perfect description, or good figure of it. I have only feen the fkin of the animal, and have not yet had an opportunity of beholding it rock goat, and can scarcely be taken without a falcon. It is met with near Aleppo. I have feen a variety of this, which is common to the Eaft, and the horns appear different; perhaps it is a distinct species. This animal loves the fmoke of tobacco, and when caught alive, will approach the pipe of the huntfmen, though otherwife more timid than any animal. This is perhaps the only creature, be fides a man, that delights in the fmell of a poisonous and ftinking plant. The Arabians hunt it with a falcon (Falco gentilis, Linn.) I had an excellent opportunity of feeing this fport near Nazareth, in Galilee. An Arab, mounting a fwift courfer, held the falcon on his hand, as huntfmen commonly do: when he efpied the rock-goat, on the top of a mountain, he let locfe the falcon, which flew in a dire line, like an arrow, and attacked the animal, fixing the talons of one of his feet into the cheek of the creature, and the talons of the other into its throat, extending his wings obliquely over the animal; fpreading one towards one of its ears, and the other to the oppofte hip. The animal thus attacked, made a leap twice to the height of a man, and freed himself from the falcon; but, being wounded, and lofing its ftrength and speed, it was again attacked by the falcon, which fixed the talons of both its feet into the throat of the animal, and held it faft, till the hunfman coming up, took it alive, and cut its throat; the falcon drinking the blood, as a reward for his labour, and a young falcon, which was learning, was likewife put to the throat of the goat; by thefe means are young falcons taught to fix their talons in the throat of the animal, as being the propereft part; for fhould the falcon fix them in the creature's hip, or fome other part of the body, the huntsman would not only lofe his game, but his falcon allo; for the animal, roufed by the wound, which could not prove mortal, would rún to the deferts, and the tops of the mountains, whither its enemy, keeping its hold, would be obliged to follow; and, being feparated from its mafter, muft of courfe perish. Of the Chameleon. fions it changes the dark colour, which feems to be natural to it, into yellow, of various fhades. This change it makes frequently. Iob. ferved, that it more particularly did it on two occafions; one was when I expofed it to the hot beams of the fun, and the other when I made it angry, which I did by pointing at it with my finger. When it was changing from black to yellow, the foles of its feet (plantæ & palme pedum), its head, and the bag under its throat (gula faccata), began first to change, which was afterwards continued over the whole body. I faw it feveral times fpeckled, or I Wive now relate what I obe marked with large spots of both ferved myself, in one kept alive a confiderable time; and firft concerning the colour, I could never obferve, that it affumed the colour of any painted object prefented to its view, though I have made many experiments, with all kinds of colours, on different things, flowers, cloth, paintings, &c. Its natural colour is iron gray, or black mixed with a little gray, This it fometimes changes, and becomes entirely of a brimstone yellow: this is the colour I have feen it most frequently affume, except that first mentioned. I have feen it affume a darker yellow, approaching fomewhat to a green, fometimes a lighter; at which time it was in colour more inclined to a white than a yellow. I have not observed him to affume any more colours; fuch as red, blue, purple, &c. I am, for this reafon, inclined to believe, that all which has been faid concerning the changing and fhifting of colours in the Chameleon, confits only in this, that on certain occaVOL. IX. colours over the whole body, which gave it an elegant appearance. When it was of an irongray colour, it extended its fides, or ribs, and hypochondria, which made the fkin fit clofe to the body, and it appeared plump and handfome; but as foon as it turned yellow, it contracted thofe parts, appearing thin, empty, lean, and ugly; and the nearer it approached in colour to white, the emptier and uglier it feemed, but it appeared worfe in regard to fhape, when it was fpeckled. I kept this creature alive for twenty-four days, from the 8th of March to the first of April, without affording it an opportunity of taking any food, yet was it nimble and lively during the whole time, climbing up and down in its cage, fond of being near the light, and conftantly roll ing its eyes, which are indeed admitable: I could however, at last, plainly perceive that it waxed lean, and fuffered for hunger. It could no longer hold fat by the grating of the cage, but fell through weak K nefs nefs, when a turtle, which was kept in the fame room, bit it, and haftened its death. I have feen the Chamaleon of Egypt, but it is less than the Afiatic, and is not often met with. vines are planted, as nature is always the fame, and never varies. A Of the Cuttle fish, &c. MONGST others they fell here at Sepia (cuttle-fifh), Twπidia; To give wine an agreeable fla- which by them is called vour. CK the flowers of the vine, it has only eight tentacula, all of equal length; the whole animal is a foot long, and thick in propor Pwhen they are just come forth tion. Of this the Greeks have and in full bloffom; dry them in the fhade, but by no means in the fun or a frong heat; powder and preferve them. Take what quantity you pleafe of this powder, tie it up in linen, and hang it in the cafk, when the new wine begins to foment. Nothing is more natural, and nothing more efficacious, in giving wine a high flavour, than this, powder. The quinteffence of the virtues of a plant lies in the flowers. By drying them flowly, the evaporating fubtile particles are concentrated, and they may be preferved a long time without lofing their virtue. When the wine ferments, it acts on thefe fine particles, and the motion thereby occafioned is fufficient to mix them with the wine, which, by thefe means, contains all the virtues of the grape and flower. I know that the Greek Bishop in Smyrna, from whom I learned this method, had a wine of no fine flavour, made of grapes which grow at Uria, a place near Smyrna; but by this method he gave it a fmell and flavour far furpaffing any of the fame wine not thus prepared. I know not whether this has ever been tried in other places, yet I make not the leaft doubt but that it would be attended with equal good fuccefs, in any place where related me an anecdote, which I think remarkable: The pinna muricata, or great filk-mufcle, is here found in the bottom of the fea in large quantities, being a foot long: the xlródia or cuttle-fish with eight rays, watches the opportunity, when the muscle opens her fhell, to creep in it, and devour her; but a little crab, which has fcarcely any fhell, or has at leaft only a very thin one, lodges conftantly in this fhell-fish; the pays a good rent, by faving the life of her landlady, for the keeps a conftant look-out through the aperture of the fhell, and on feeing the enemy approach, fhe begins to ftir, when the miva (for fo the Greeks call the fhell) fhuts up her houfe, and the rapacious animal is excluded. Haffelquift fays, that quails are plenty, as well in the land of Judea, as in the neighbouring deferts.-Hi obferves that the chical, er littit fox jackall, abounds in all the hedges of Palestine, doing great and continual mischief to the vineyards and cucumber fields: for which reason the inhabitants take great pains to bunt and deftroy them. He imagines this to be the fpecics, of which Samfor caught fo great a number, to jet the corn-fields of the Philistines on fire. ANTIQUITIES. Extracts from VOLTAIRE's Philofophy of Hiftory, lately published. Of the Antiquity of Nations. ALMOST every people, but of life, because particularly thofe of Afia, reckon a fucceffion of ages, which terrifies us. This conformity among them should at least excite us to inquire, whether their ideas of antiquity were deftitute of all probability. It certainly requires a prodigious length of time for a nation to unite as one body of people, to become powerful, warlike, and learned. Look to America; there were but two kingdoms in that quarter of the globe when it was difcovered; and the art of writing was not yet invented in either of thofe kingdoms. All the other parts of this vaft continent were divided, and ftill are, into fmall focieties, to whom arts are unknown. All the colonies live in huts; they cover themfelves with the fkins of animals in the cold climates, and go almost naked in thofe that are temperate. The first live by hunting, the others upon kneaded roots. They have not fought after any other kind we never defire what we are unacquainted with. Their industry cannot extend beyond their preffing wants. The Samoiedes, the Laplanders, the inhabitants north of Siberia, and thofe of Kamfchatka, have made ftill lefs progress than the people of America. The greatest part of the negroes, and all the caffres, are plunged in one fame ftupidity. A concurrence of favourable circumftances for ages, are neceffary to form a great fociety of men, united under the fame laws. The like is neceffary to form a language. Men would not articulate founds, if they were not taught to pronounce words: they would utter nothing but a confuled noise, and could not be underfood but by figns. A child fpeaks after fome time, only by imitation; and he would deliver himfelf with great difficulty, if he remained tonguetied in his early years. More time was, perhaps, neceffary for men endowed with particular K z ticular talents, to teach others the first rudiments of an imperfect and barbarous language, than was af-, terwards needful to compafs the eftablishments of fome fociety. There are fome whole nations who climates, it was more eafy to meet with a herd of wolves than a fociety of men. all the ancient nations. have never been able to form a re- Of the customs and opinions of almost gular language and a diftinct pronunciation. Such were even the Troglodites, according to Pliny. Such are ftill those who inhabit toward the Cape of Good Hope. But what a fpace ftill remains between this barbarous jargon, and the art of painting one's ideas! the distance is immense. That ftate of brutes, in which human kind remained a long time, muft needs have rendered the fpecies infinitely scarce in all climates. Men could hardly fupply their wants, and not understanding each other, they could communicate no mutual affistance. Carnivorous beafts, having a stronger inftinct than they, must have covered the earth, and devoured part of the human species. Man could not defend himself against ferocious animals, but by throwing ftones, and arming himfelf with thick branches of trees; and from thence, perhaps, arofe that confufed notion of antiquity, that the first heroes combated lions and wild bears with clubs. The most populous countries were doubtlefs in hot climates. where man easily found a plentiful fubfiftence in cocoa, dates, pineapples, and rice, which grow fpontaneously. It is very probable, that India, China, the banks of the Euphrates, and the Tigris, were very populous, when the other regions were almost defolate. On the other hand, in our northern NATURE being every where the fame, men must neceffarily have adopted the fame truths, and fallen into the fame errors, in regard to thofe things which are the immediate objects of fenfe, and the most striking to the imagination. They must have attributed the noise and effects of thunder to fome fuperior being inhabiting the air. The people bordering upon the ocean, feeing great tides inundate their coafts at the time of fall moon, muft naturally have imputed to the moon, the various effects which attended her different phafes. Among animals, the ferpent must have appeared to them endowed with fuperior intelligence; because feeing it fometimes caft its fkin, they had reafon to think it became young again. It might, then, by repeating this change, always remain youthful, and it was therefore believed immortal; fo was it in Egypt and Greece the fymbol ofimmortality. The larger ferpents, which were found near fountains, terrified the timorous from approaching them; and hence they were foon imagined to be the guardians of hidden treafures. Thus a ferpent was the fabled guard of the golden apples of the Hefperides: another watched over the golden fleece; and in cele brating |