Chardin informs us, as to the Perfian illuminations, that the grand houfes of a particular place at Ifpaban, when illuminated, have a fender fcaffolding of fmall poles, for the reception of fmall earthen lamps. The houses are quite covered with them, from the first story to the top. They are about fix fcore to each arch. Thefe lamps are fo fmall as not to be minded, except by very exact obfervers; but when they are lighted they make the most brilliant illumination in the world, for thefe lamps in all are reckoned at 50,000. Abas the Great was very fond of this pompous Show, and often gave himself this pleasure.

In another place he speaks of their illuminations as made at the doors of their houses, and in their principal Bazars, or streets of shops 2.

Small earthen lamps, but in great numbers, are now made ufe of in Perfia; and probably were used in the days of Herod. By means of flender frames of wood-work they are placed in an agreeable order; and the word difpofite fuppofes that the Jews were curious too in placing their lamps.

Chardin gives no account of mixing verdure and flowers with the lamps; but we find, in de Tott's Memoirs, that the Feaft of Tulips is held among the Turks in the night, and lamps and flowers mixed together then. In the Jewish festival they were violets that

were mingled with the lamps, which fixes the time of year when that was celebrated.

It may not be difagreeable, to transcribe de Tott's account of the Turkish Feast of Tulips. It is fo called," he tells us, in a note in p. 78, of his firft tome," because it confifts

in illuminating a garden, and this flower is "what the Turks admire moft." And in the text of the fame page he tells us, " that "the garden of the Harem . . . . is the place "in which thefe nocturnal entertainments "are given. Vafes of every kind, filled with "natural and artificial flowers, are brought "for the occafion, and add to the splendor of "an illumination caused by an infinite number "of lanterns, coloured lamps, and wax-candles, in glafs tubes, reflected on every fide by mirrors difpofed for that purpose."

66

66

How pompous modern as well as ancient Eaftern illuminations! Did the Roman Floralia excel them in magnificence? of which, it should seem from Perfius, fome of the older Romans were wont to boast.

N° X.

Juvenal defcribes the boats of the Egyptians as if they were earthen-ware; and not one of the Variorum notes explains this, though it may be eafily done from modern travellers.

"Hag

"Hac fævit rabie imbelle & inutile vulgus,
"Parvula fictilibus folitum dare vela phafelis,
Et brevibus pilte remis incumbere tefta."

Sat. xv. ver. 126–128.

This is the description. The fum of the notes upon it is as follows: That the old fcholiaft tells us, fuch earthen-ware ships were used on the Nile. That Lubin cited Strabo, who remarked, that in the Delta', navigation was fo eafy, that fome used boats of baked earth. He adds in another note, that fuch were used in some of the other canals of Ægypt and that they are called pict (painted), because these boats of baked earth were marked with various colours.

Now all this appears very ftrange. That earthen-ware may be fo made as to swim in water is eafily apprehended: the experiment may be made at any tea-table, by putting one of the cups into a bafon of water. But that a boat, of a fize to be of any ufe to the Ægyptians, fhould be made of fuch materials, and commonly to be seen in the Delta, and other canals of Egypt, may appear incredible, fince they must be of earth baked or burnt in the fire, which must be done with difficulty; and when effected, what a trifle would demolish them, and how unfafe must be fuch a navigation !

But all this is decyphered by modern travellers for all that is meant, I prefume, is,

'The lower part of Ægypt.

d 3

that

that sometimes the Egyptians make use of rafts, which are made to float, by empty vessels of earthen-ware faftened underneath them.

"In order to cross the Nile," Norden tells us', the inhabitants have recourse to the "contrivance of a float, made of large earthen

pitchers, tied closely together, and covered "with leaves of palm-trees. The man that "conducts it, has commonly in his mouth

a cord, with which he fishes as he paffes "on." These are undoubtedly the Ægyptian earthen-ware boats of Juvenal.

Egmont and Heyman faw fome fmall floats, ufed by the Ægyptian fishermen, which confifted of bundles of reeds floated by calabafhes".

The fails of fuch floats, when they used any, must of course have been very small, as Juvenal defcribes them, perhaps nothing more than their garment fpread out; and their cars been very short, used merely to paddle along, or steer the float, of which Norden obferved one inftance, in a float of ftraw on which two men were fitting, and which was dragged across the Nile by a cow, he that fat behind fteering with a "little oar," by means of which at the same time he kept the balance3. In

• Trav. part 1, p. 81.

2 Trav. vol. 2, p. 112.-So, in like manner, Norden observed, on the 10th of December, a float of ftraw, fupported by gourds, and governed by two men, as he has remarked in his Journal.

3 Trav. part 2, p. 145.

deed

deed the one or the other could be of no great ufe but in the main river, as thefe floats muft owe their chief mótion to the ftream ; the paddles might be useful in those canals where the water was ftagnant.

The word picta (or painted) is not to be understood, I apprehend, as fignifying their being beautified with a variety of colours; but means, I should fuppofe, their being rubbed with fome fubftance that might fill up the pores, fo much as to prevent the water's penetrating into the cavity of the pitchers, which, if it did in a confiderable degree, might occafion the finking of this kind of veffel, for the Ægyptian earthen-ware is faid to be very

porous.

"The ewer, though made very clumfy, "is one of the beft pieces of earthen-ware "that they have in Egypt: for all that art "in this country confifts in making fome "vile pots or difhes; and as they do not "know the use of varnish, they are of con

fequence incapable of making any work of "that kind, that does not leak. This is Norden's account. Confequently some of them at least, particularly those of the lowertier, must have been rubbed over with fome fubftance, of fuch a nature as to prevent the water's penetrating into the hollow of the pitchers, in any great degree.