The Press. — London, England, 1856-08-23 00:00:00

810 ber of long notes upon various passages, many of which are feeble, and many irrelevant. In the sixth chapter of the first oration against Catiline, Cicero says, "Sceleri (quum scias) ac furori tuo non mentem aliquam aut timorem sed fortunam populi Romani obstitisse ?" On this obviously rhetorical and commonplace use of the word fortuna, Mr. Long gives us a note of two columns, with quotations from Aleman, Plutarch, and Machiavelli, to explain what the word means. In the ninth chapter of the fourth against Catiline, Cicero speaks in the most casual manner of the union which he had effected between the Knights and the Senate. AU he says is this :—" Neque ulla profecto tanta " vis reperietur qua conjunctionein vestram " equitumque Roma.norum et tantam eonspi " rationem bonorum (minium confringere et " labefactare possit." On this passage we have a note of three columns, settin g forth the whole history of the Publicuni and Nego tiatores, and the position of the moneyed classes in the Roman world, all fortified at the end by a quotation from St. Mathew about the parable of the sower. Now, this is all very good, but we cannot see that this was the place to introduce it. In the " Verres," or in certain of Cicero's letters, the disquisition would be well timed ; but, placed where it is, it is rather an encumbrance than an aid. In the notes on the " Pro M ure na," we have no less than four columns on the stoic philo sophy, which—Mr. Long must excuse us for saying—throw very little light upon the subject. He is also, we think, too fond of indulging in political disquisitions. His reflections are not so peculiarly profound that he need go so far out of his way to utter them. The notes on the forty-seventh and sixty-fifth chapters of the " Pro Sestio" are examples of what we mean, and the student will doubtless notice many others for himself, as he goes through the volume, which could well be spared. In the fourth oration against Catiline, Cicero discusses the propriety of capital punishment, and says that certain persons understood " mortem a diis immortalibus non esse sup " plicii cause constitutam, sed aut necessit a " tern naturie aut laborurn ac miseriarurn " quietein esse." On this Mr. Long has a very long note, which, though we cannot think it opportune, is certainly ingenious. lie seeks to prove that death itself is no punishment, but only the apprehension of death. Why not, therefore, protract the apprehension as much as possible ? There is force in this argument, though it is not this to which Cicero was alluding, but rather to the opinion of philosophers, that death was a good, and not an evil, and on that account not to be awarded to criminals like Catiline. Such faults as we have found are but slight blemishes in this very useful edition of Cicero. He was so many-sided a man that no one editor can do him full justice. But we may hope for a creditable English work at Mr. Long's hands, which will possess certain dis tinct and acknowledged merits, and be re ceived by the scholars of all countries as an authority upon given points. First Footsteps in East Africa ; or, an Explora tion of Horan By R. F. Burton, Bombay Army. London : Longmans. WE have recently directed attention to nar ratives of three distinct expeditions into the interior of Africa from widely distant points of the coast. Mr. Hamilton, on the northern shore, penetrated from Grennali (the ancient Cyrene) to Sywah, Damanhour, and Cairo ; Mr. Anderssou, from the south, reached Luke Ngami, and furnished a valuable account of the surrounding country ; while the explor ing expedition of the Plevul, under Dr. Baikie, successfully ascended the eastern branch of the Niger, far beyond the point reached by previous explorers, and connected the stream known as the Tsadda, or Chadda (so loose is the orthography of African proper names), with the Ilinue, crossed by Dr. Barth iu 1851, and issuing, as there is every reason to sup pose, from Lake Tchad. Besides these narra tives, we have noticed the ex t reme ly use f u l and intelligent work of Mr. Wilson, tho Arne. THE PRESS. rican Missionary, on Western Africa. The conclusion to be drawn from these separate books is identical in one respect,—that the interior of Africa possesses unbounded com mercial capabilities, and that it is by no means a hopeless task to attempt their development. Progress is beyond doubt being made. What seemed a chimerical idea half a century ago, has assumed practical shape since the great increase of trade of Western Africa. It is the mission of Great Britain to bear a leading part in the good work ; and, looking back to what has been accomplished during the last few years, we see every reason for encourage ment. It is, w•e conceive, for our Government to establish a few more stations on advanta geous parts of the coast, and to cultivate rela tions of friendship with the chiefs of the in terior ; and for our commercialists to avail themselves of every channel of trade that pre sents itself, being well assured of this, that from very small beginnings great enterprises will grow up. Commerce is of the nature of a spring that requires only to be tapped to continually enlarge itself and swell into a fer tilising flood. To the expeditions from north, west, and south,fre have now to add the exploration of Lieutenant Burton from the east. His book is in some respects more attractive than any of those we have yet noticed. He entered on entirely new ground. His claims to be consi dered one of our most intrepid and successful travellers were previously high, and his last enterprise fully confirms them. The city of Harar is situated about 200 miles from the port of Zayla, whence he took his departure. It has hitherto been closed to European en terprise, and the dangers attendant upon any attempt to reach it were considered so great that a well concerted enterprise, under the immediate sanction of the East India Com pany, was abandoned through the objection of the Political Resident at Aden ; and the author saw that his only chance of removing the prejudice entertained to the scheme on which he had set his heart, was to undertake a journey in the first instance alone. Accord ingly, he sailed from Aden on the 29th of October, ltts4. and two days afterwards entered the port of Zayla (or, as we find it spelt on some maps, Zeiloh.) It is situated on the African coast, nearly opposite Aden, and at about an equal distance from the Bab-el- Mandeb Strait. Lieutenant Burton had assumed the dis guise of an Arab merchant, and his servants and outfit were chosen to favour the charac ter. Of his principal attendants two were chosen from the Arab police force of Aden. The third was a more important personage. A note informs us that the name, " End of Time," refers to the prophesied corruption of the Moslem priesthood in the last epoch of the world : The third is one Abdy Abokr, also of the Habr Gerhajia, a personage whom, from his smattering of learning and his prodigious rascality, we call the Mulls " End of Time." He is a man about forty. very old-looking for his age, with small, deep-set cunning eyes, placed close together, a hook nose, a thin heard, a bulging brow, scattered teeth, and a short scant figure, remarkable only for length of back. His gait is stealthy, like a cat's, and he has a vil lanolis grin. This worthy never prays, and can neither read nor write ; but he knows a chapter or two of the Koran, recites audibly a long Ratib or task, morning and evening, whence, together with his store of hashed Hadis tradition ), he derives the title of Widad or hedge-priest. His tongue, primed with the satirical sayings of Abn Zayd el Helali, and Humayd ibn Mansur, is the terror of men upon whom repartee imposes. His father was a wealthy shipowner in his day ; but, cursed with Abdy and another son, the old man has lost all his property, his children have deserted him, and he now depends entirely upon the charity of the Zayla chief. The " End of Time " has squandered consi derable sums in travelling far and wide from liarar to Catch, he has managed everywhere to perpetrate some peculiar villany. He is a pleasant companion, and piques himself upon that power of quotation which in the East makes a polite man. If we be disposed to hurry, he in sinuates that " l'atience is of Heaven, haste of Hell." When roughly addressed, he remarks : There are cures for the hurts of lead and steel , But the wounds (1 the tongue—they never heal! If a grain of rice adhere to our beards, he says, smilingly, " the gazelle is in the garden," to which we reply," we will hunt her with the five."• Despit , ?, these merits, I hesitated to engage him, till assured by the governor of Zayla that he was to be looked upon as a son, and, moreover, that he would hear with him one of those State secrets to an in flitent ial chief which in this country are never eommittrql • That is to say, "we will remove it with the rive ringers." These are euphuisms to avoid speaking broadly and openly of that venerable feature, the beard. SATURDAY, t o paper. I found him an admirable buffoon, skilful in filling pipes and smoking them ; au mete, an individual of " many words and little work," infinite intrigue, cowardice, cupidity, and endowed with a truly evil tongue. The departure from Aden was marked on the part of the author's attendants by a glad re turn to the barbarism from which they had. been partially rescued : Suddenly every trace of civilisation fell from my compa nions as if it had been a garment. At Aden, shaven and be • turbaned, Arab fashion, now they threw off all dress save the loin cloth, and appeared in their dark morocco. Moham med filled his mouth with a mixture of coarse Surat. tobacco and ashes,—the latter article intended, like the Anglo-Indian soldier's chili in his arrack, to " make it bite. — tinted uncovered his head, a member which in Africa is certainly made to go bare, and buttered himself with an unguent redolent of sheep's tail ; and Ismail, the rain or captain of our " foyst," the Sahalah, applied himself to puffing his nicotiana out of a goat's shank-bone. Our crew, consisting of seventy-one men and boys, prepared, as evening fell, a mess of Jowari grain and grease, the recipe of which I spare you, and it was despatched in a style that would have done credit to Kaffirs as regards gobbling, bolting, smearing lips, licking fingers, and using ankles as napkins. Then with a light easterly breeze and the ominous cliffs of Little Aden still in sight, we spread our mats on deck and prepared to sleep under the moon. . . .. My companions, however, felt, without perhaps compre hending, the joviality arising from a return to Nature. Every man was forthwith nicknamed, and pitiless was the raillery upon the venerable subjects of long and short, fat and thin. One sang a war-song, another a love-song, a third some song of the sea, whilst the fourth, an Erse youth, with the villanons expression of face common to his tribe, gave us a rain measure, such as men chariot during wet weather. All these effusions were naive and amusing: none, however, could bear English translation without an amount of omission which would change their nature. Each effort of minstrelsy was accompanied by roars of laughter, arid led to much manual pleasantry. All swore that they had never spent, intellectually speaking, a more charming soirée, and pitied me for being unable to enter thoroughly into the spirit of the dialogue. Truly it is not only the polished European, as was said of a certain travelling notability, that lapses with facility into pristine barbarism. At Zayla he stopped twenty five days to pre pare for his journey. We are pleased with his account of the port, and of the life of the people. The latter do not lack capacity. They have two favorite games, Shantarah and Shahh, both evincing much ingenuity. The former might be introduced among us : The Shantarah board is thus made, with twenty-five poiuts, technically called houses. The players have twelve IT TIT 0-0-0-0-0 11j1I 0-0 I OO 111 0-0-0-0-0 0-0-0-0-0 counters a piece, and each places two at a time upon any of the unocmpied angles, till all except the centre are filled up. The player who did not begin the game must now move a man; his object is to inclose one of his adversary's between two of his own, in which case he removes it, and is entitled to continue moving till he can no longer take. It is a game of smne skill, and perpetual practice enables the Somal to play it as the Persians do backgammon, with great art and little reflection. We presume that the moves arc alternate until a man is taken, when the victorious player has a kind of " innings" till he can take no more, and that then the* alternation of moves is resumed till one or the other player is again successful in making a capture. The account of mosque service at Zayla is highly amusing. We can only give the author's reflection on what he witnessed : There is a queer kind of family likeness between this scene and that of a village church, in some quiet nook of rural England. Old Sharmarkay, the squire, attended by his son, takes his place close to the pulpit; and although the Honoratiores have no padded anti cushioned pews, they comport themselves very much as if they had. Recognt tions of the most distant description are allowed before the service commences: looking round is strictly forbilden during prayers; but all do not regard the prohibition, especially when a new moustache enters. Leaving the church, men shake hands, stand for a moment to exchange friendly gossip, or address a few words to the preacher, anti then walk home to dinner. There are many salient points of difference. No bonnets appear in public : the squire, after prayers, gives alms to the poor, and departs t scorted by two dozen matchlocktmen, who perseveringly fire their allotted guns. All his preparations being completed, the author left Zayla on the 29th of November, but before quitting the city he gives a de scription (chapter iv.) of the inhabitants, and of the Somal tribe, Drell worth reading. His caravan consisted of five camels, with some mules, tents, provisions, &e. The mode of travelling resembled that with which all desert tourists are familiar :