gony, as he found them displayed in the two most venerable Sanscreet productions of India, the Menums*riti,* or Institutes of Menu, and the Sree Bhagavat.

66

First, an all potent, all pervading sound,

Bade flow the waters, and the waters flow'd,
Exulting in their measureless abode,
Diffusive, multitudinous, profound;

Then, o'er the vast expanse, primordial wind
Breath'd gently till a lucid bubble rose,

Which grew in perfect shape an egg refin'd,
Created substance no such beauty shows.
Above the warring waves it danc'd elate,
Till from its bursting shell, with lovely state,
A form cærulean fluttered o'er the deep,
Brightest of beings, greatest of the great;
Who, not as mortals steep

Their eyes in dewy sleep,

But, heavenly pensive, on the Lotus lay

That blossom'd at his touch, and shed a golden ray."t

The following account of the Banian History of the Creation, is from Picart's Religious Ceremonies, vol. iii., p. 277.

"The great God, being alone, bethought himself how he might make his excellency a power manifest to others; for this cause he made four elements as the ground-work of this mighty frame, viz., the earth, air, fire, and water, which four elements were at first all mingled together in a state of confusion, but the Almighty separated them in the following manner. First, it is said, that by some great cane, or like instrument, he blew upon the waters, which arose into a bubble of a round form like an egg, which spreading itself further and further, made that clear and transparent firmament which now compasseth the world about. After this there remaining the earth, as the sediment of the waters, and some liquid substance with the same, the Lord made, of both these together, a thing round like a ball, which he called the lower world, the more solid whereof became the earth, the more liquid the sea; both which making one globe, he, by a great

* Supposed to have been composed about the 12th century before Christ.

+ See the whole of the Hymn in the Asiatic Miscellany, p. 24.

noise or humming sound, placed them in the midst of the firmament, which became equidistant from it on every side. Then he created a sun and moon to distinguish the times and seasons. The elements being thus disposed of, each of them discharged its several parts, the air filled up whatsoever was empty; the fire began to nourish with its heat; the earth brought forth living creatures, as did also the sea. And the Lord conveyed to these a seminal virtue, that they might be fruitful in their several operations; and thus the great world was created."

(To be continued.)

THE NEWSPAPER PRESS.

THE greater part of our newspapers are manifestly corrupt, being obliged, from the mercantile speculation of publishing, to support a party, at all haps and hazards, and often at the expense of truth. This remark is particularly applicable to the Times and the Age newspapers. The Times is a perfect Gnatho, and may exclaim, in relation to the Tories,

"Quicquid dicunt laudo-id rursum si negant, laudo id quoque Negat quis? Nego. Ait? Aio. Postremo, imperavi egomet

mihi,

Omnia assentari. Is quæstus nunc est multo uberrimmus.”

Ter. Eun., Act II., Scene 2.

"Whate'er they say, I praise it; if, again,
They contradict, I praise that too: does any
Deny? I too deny :-Affirm? I too
Affirm-and, in a word, I've brought myself
To say, unsay, swear, and forswear at pleasure-
And that is now the best of all professions."

Colman.

THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS, FRUITS, &c., Used by the Turkish Ladies in the Harems.

BY M. HAMMER.

FEW of our readers, we believe, are ignorant, that there exists a certain mysterious language of love and gallantry, which expresses by means of flowers the most delicate and tender sentiments. All the information which we have hitherto acquired on this subject, chiefly derived from romances, or books of travels much resembling romances, seemed so vague and imperfect, that we resolved to rectify it by examining its very source. The celebrity which this language has obtained in Europe, is due to Lady Wortley Montagueother travellers had mentioned it, before her, and their accounts of it had excited the curiosity of her correspondent, who requested on this subject the information communicated by her ladyship in the fortieth letter.

Nothing can be more true than the general groundwork of her letter, and the sixteen phrases, which compose the amorous espistle, are translated with sufficient accuracy.

Let us then examine this language of the Turkish HAREMS, and endeavour to appreciate its real merit and its claim to celebrity. We know nothing that resembles it among the other Oriental nations, from Persia to China, or from Tartary to India. The Persians have in their poetry personified the rose, to make it the nightingale's mistress; and the enamoured bird, on the approach of spring, relates his tale of love to the blushing flower. Among the Indians, flowers are consecrated to the divinty, and form the attributes of various gods; but neither the Persians nor the Indians have ever employed these flowers in the composition of a language, although they are so frequently mentioned in the Erotic poems of the former, and the religious hymns of the latter, and although the glowing imagination of the Arabians often personifies them, and supposes flowers to converse with each other in regular dialogues.

It is then in Turkey alone, and even there only in the harems, that we find this mysterious language, which is equally limited in copiousness, as in the sphere where it is used. A little reflection will suffice to show that such an idiom can never be brought to that degree of perfection which Lady Wortley Montague describes, that it must always continue a mystery, and of course that it can never be a sure medium of correspondence between the harems and those without their precincts. A language understood by all the world, could not, by any means, answer the purposes of two lovers, whose lives would be forfeited on the slightest discovery of a mutual understanding. So extremely difficult is it for common mortals to hold any communication with the interior of harems guarded by eunuchs, that we may class among Eastern Tales all the successful adventures of this kind related by vain-boasting travellers. But let us suppose that, by an extraordinary combination of good fortune and discretion, a lover should find means of corresponding, in spite of walls and eunuchs, with the lady of his affections, would he employ a visible language, the secret of which is not only in the porter's hands, but known to all the eunuchs, and all the fair rivals who might see the nosegay?—or, if this language was not generally understood, how could the lover imagine that his mistress, lately arrived perhaps from the frontier of Circassia, or of Abyssinia, should comprehend his meaning? It appears, then, that this language of flowers does not constitute, as we have generally believed in Europe, a love-cypher for billet-doux between men and women who wish to carry on a secret correspondence, nor do the females of the harems use it, whenever they risk their lives by forbidden communications. It is almost entirely unknown to men, both to those most devoted to the fair sex, and in other respects of highly cultivated understandings, and those whom a depraved taste renders insensible to the charms of female beauty.*

* A well-informed Turk at Constantinople, from whom the au thor of this memoir requested some information on the flowerlanguage, was extremely offended, and replied with indignation, that he was not a woman's slave.

This language, however, does exist in a certain degree, and in the harems among the women themselves. It has been invented by them in the leisure hours of their solitary life, and they use it either as a mere amusement, or as a cypher to express the violent affections which they frequently entertain for one another. Separated from the world, reserved for pleasures of a single man, vegetating in the most profound idleness, and tormented with desires which a burning climate and a warm constitution inspire, they have given to objects constantly before their eyes-flowers, fruits, perfumes, and trinkets-significations and meanings, as we have done to simple colours, and by these they are enabled to convey declarations of attachment as glowing and impassioned as that which Sappho expressed for her fair friend to whom she inscribed that inimitable ode,

"Blest as th' immortal gods is he

The youth who fondly sits by thee," &c.

It was necessary, therefore, to apply for information on the subject of this language to females-and from the Greek and Armenian women, who have access to the harems, we obtain what is now communicated to our readers.

That we may comprehend the genius of this language, we must enter into some details on the idea which forms its principle, and illustrate them by examples. The few which Lady Wortley Montague has quoted, are not sufficient to give a clear and precise notion of its system. The genius of it does not consist, as one might naturally suppose, in seizing the relations which a fanciful imagination may find between flowers and fruits, and the thoughts or sentiments which it is their object to express. The idea of such perfection never entered the romantic heads of those fair triflers who invented this language.

They contented themselves with employing certain words which rhyme to the names of different fruits and flowers; and the rhyme being once chosen and determined, they have arranged, in their own manner, the whole proposition, ending with the rhyme given,