• Garlands of Leaves. It is probable that when this great Work was begun, which must have been many hundred Years ago, there was fome Religion among this People, for they give it the Name of a Temple, and have a Tradition that it was defigned for Men to pay their 'Devotions in. And indeed, there are several Reasons ' which make us think, that the Natives of this Country had formerly among them some fort of Worfhip; for they fet apart every feventh Day as facred: But upon my going into one of thefe holy Houses on that Day, I 'could not obferve any Circumftance of Devotion in 'their Behaviour: There was indeed a Man in black who · was mounted above the rest, and seemed to utter fome' thing with a great deal of Vehemence; but as for those ' underneath him, inftead of paying their Worship to the Deity of the Place, they were moft of them bowing and curtifying to one another, and a confiderable Number of them faft afleep.

THE Queen of the Country appointed two Men to attend us, that had enough of our Language to make themselves understood in fome few Particulars. But we foon perceived these two were great Enemies to one another, and did not always agree in the fame Story. We could make a shift to gather out of one of them, that this Inland was very much infefted with a mon'ftrous Kind of Animals, in the Shape of Men, called Whigs; and he often told us, that he hoped we should meet with none of them in our Way, for that if we did, they would be apt to knock us down for being Kings.

OUR other Interpreter used to talk very much of a • kind of Animal called a Tory, that was as great a Monfter as the Whig, and would treat us as ill for being Foreigners. These two Creatures, it feems, are born with a fecret Antipathy to one another, and engage when they meet as naturally as the Elephant and the Rhinoceros. But as we faw none of either of these Species, we are apt to think that our Guides deceived us with • Mifrepresentations and Fictions, and ainufed us with an Account of fuch Monsters as are not really in their Country.

THESE

THESE Particulars we made a Shift to pick out from the Difcourfe of our Interpreters; which we put together as well as we could, being able to underftand but here and there a Word of what they faid, and afterwards making up the Meaning of it among our felves. The Men of the Country are very cunning and ingenious in handicraft Works; but withal fo very idle, that we often faw young lufty raw-boned Fellows carried up and down the Streets in little covered Rooms by a Couple of Porters, who are hired for that Service, Their Drefs is likewife very barbarous, for they almost ftrangle themselves about the Neck, and bind their Bodies with many Ligatures, that we are apt to think are the Occafion of feveral Diftempers among them which our Country is entirely free from. Inftead of thofe beautiful Feathers with which we adorn our Heads, they * often buy up a monftrous Bufh of Hair, which covers their Heads, and falls down in a large Fleece below the middle of their Backs; with which they walk up and down the Streets, and are as proud of it as if it was of their own Growth.

WE were invited to one of their publick Diverfions, where we hoped to have feen the great Men of their Country running down a Stag or pitching a Bar, that we might have discovered who were the Perfons of the greatest Abilities among them; but instead of that they conveyed us into a huge Room lighted up with abundance of Candles, where this lazy People fate ftill above three Hours to fee feveral Feats of Ingenuity performed by others, who it feems were paid for it.

AS for the Women of the Country, not being able to talk with them, we could only make our Remarks upon them at a Distance. They let the Hair of their Heads grow to a great length; but as the Men make a great fhow with Heads of Hair that are none of their own, the Women, who they fay have very fine Heads of Hair, tie it up in a Knot, and cover it from being feen. The Women look like Angels, and would be more beautiful than the Sun, were it not for little black Spots, apt to break out in their Faces, and fometimes rife in very odd Figures. I have obferved that thofe

• that

• little

little Blemishes wear off very foon; but when they dif pear in one Part of the Face, they are very apt to 'break out in another, infomuch that I have fee a Spot upon the Forehead in the Afternoon, which was upon the Chin in the Morning.

THE Author then proceeds to fhew the Abfurdity of Breeches and Petticoats, with many other curious Obfervations, which I fhall referve for another Occafion. I cannot however conclude this Paper without taking Notice, That amidst these wild Remarks there now and then appears fomething very reasonable. I cannot likewise forbear obferving, that we are all guilty in fome meafure of the fame narrow way of Thinking, which we meet with in this Abstract of the Indian Journal; when we fancy the Cuftoms, Dreffes, and Manners of other Countries are ridiculous and extravagant, if they do not resemble thofe of our own.

C

N° 51.

Saturday, April 28.

Torquet ab Obfcenis jam nunc Sermonibus Aurem! Hor.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

M

Y Fortune, Quality, and Perfon are fuch as render me as confpicuous as any young Woman in Town. It is in my Power to enjoy it in all its Vanities, but I have, from a very careful Education, contracted a great Averfion to the forward Air and Fa 'fhion which is practifed in all Publick Places and Affemblies. I attribute this very much to the Style and • Manners of our Plays: I was laft Night at the Funeral, ⚫ where a confident Lover in the Play, fpeaking of his • Mistress, cries out- -Oh that Harriot! to fold thefe Arms about the Waste of that beauteous, frugling, and at laft yielding Fair! Such an Image as this ought, by no means, to be prefented to a chafte and regular Audience. I ex!pect your Opinion of this Sentence, and recommend to

13

your

the Conduct

your Confideration, as a SPECTATOR, of the Stage at prefent, with Relation to Chastity and Modefty.

I am, SI R,

Your Conftant Reader, and Well-wisher.

THE Complaint of this young Lady is fo juft, that the Offence is grofs enough to have difpleafed Perfons who cannot pretend to that Delicacy and Modefty, of which fhe is Miftrefs. But there is a great deal to be said in Behalf of an Author: If the Audience would but confider the Difficulty of keeping up a sprightly Dialogue for five Acts together, they would allow a Writer, when he wants Wit, and can't please any otherwife, to help it out with a little Smuttinefs. I will answer for the Poets, that no one ever writ Bawdry for any other Reafon but Dearth of Invention. When the Author cannot ftrike out of himfelf any more of that which he has fuperior to those who made up the Bulk of his Audience, his natural Recourfe is to that which he has in common with them; and a Description which gratifies a fenfual Appetite will please, when the Author has nothing about him to delight a re fined Imagination. It is to fuch a Poverty we must impute this and all other Sentences in Plays, which are of this kind, and which are commonly term'd Luscious Expreffions.

THIS Expedient, to fupply the Deficiences of Wit, has been used, more or lefs, by most of the Authors who have fucceeded on the Stage; tho' I know but one who has profeffedly writ a Play upon the Bafis of the Defire of multiplying our Species, and that is the Polite Sir George Etheridge; if I understand what the Lady would be at, in the Play called She would if she could. Other Poets have, here and there, given an Intimation that there is this Defign, under all the Difguifes and Affectations which à Lady may put on; but no Author, except this, has made fure Work of it, and put the Imaginations of the Audience upon this one Purpose, from the Beginning to the end of the Comedy. It has always fared accordingly; for whether it be, that all who go to this Piece would if they could, or that the Innocents go to it, to guefs only what she would if she could, the Play has always been well received,

IT

IT lifts an heavy empty Sentence, when there is ad ded to it a lafcivious Gesture of Body; and when it is too low to be raised even by that, a flat Meaning is enlivened by making it a double one. Writers, who want Genius, never fail of keeping this Secret in reserve, to create a Laugh, or raise à Clap. I, who know nothing of Women but from seeing Plays, can give great Gueffes at the whole Structure of the fair Sex, by being innocently placed in the Pit, and infulted by the Petticoats of their Dancers; the Advantages of whofe pretty Perfons are a great help to a dull Play. When a Poet flags in Writing lufcioufly, a pretty Girl can move lafciviously, and have the J fame good Confequence for the Author. Dull Poets in this Cafe ufe their Audiences, as dull Parafites do their Patrons; when they cannot longer divert them with their Wit or Humour, they bait their Ears with fomething which is agreeable to their Temper, though below their Understanding. Apicius cannot refift being pleafed, if you give him an Account of a delicious Meal; or Clodius, if 1 you defcribe a wanton Beauty: Tho' at the fame time, if you do not awake those Inclinations in them, no Men are better Judges of what is just and delicate in Conversation, But as I have before observed, it is easier to talk to the Man, than to the Man of Sense.

I Tis remarkable, that the Writers of leaft Learning are beft skilled in the lufcious Way. The Poeteffes of the Age have done Wonders in this kind; and we are obliged to the Lady who writ Ibrahim, for introducing a preparatory Scene to the very Action, when the Emperor throws his Hankerchief as a Signal for his Mistress to follow him into the moft retired Part of the Seraglio, It must be confeffed his Turkish Majefty went off with a good Air, but, methought, we made but a fad Figure who waited without. This ingenious Gentlewoman, in this piece of Bawdry, refined upon an Author of the fame Sex, who, in the Rover, makes a Country Squire ftrip to his Holland Drawers. For Blunt is disappointed, and the Emperor is understood to go on to the utmoft. The Pleafantry of Stripping almoft Naked has been fince practifed (where indeed it fhould have been begun) very fuccefsfully at Bar tholomew Fair.