Before thee all things open wide, But thee, BELINDA, be thy lot Confiding, speed then, on life's venturous way; Thy sails are set-thy launch, the Twelfth of May ! London, May 12, 1832. CHAP. XVIII. Moloch, bloody king! MILTON. FOR several succeeding mornings, I still found the African traveller to be one of the party at the Cottage, and still continued to hear him make those comments upon what he had heard and seen, which contributed to maintain his favourite position, that the manners and customs of all nations are essentially and in principle alike; so as to leave little room for variety, except in the rudeness or the polish under which they are displayed. He was fond of this view of human history," which united," he said, "in the ideas of such as contemplated it, the generations and families of mankind, and simplified so much of what they had to learn concerning their species, as creatures scattered over so many countries, speaking so many languages, and living through so many ages; by showing that this species, like the species of the inferior animals, has specific habits, to which, from its own nature, and from the nature of the things around it, it naturally, and therefore constantly and uniformly yields." If we instance," said he, upon one of those occasions when I listened to him the longest; "if we instance the love of music and dancing, and the manner and seasons of their practice, we find all as widely and as passionately followed in Africa as elsewhere; and elsewhere as passionately and as widely, as among the Negro nations of Africa! It would be as difficult to detach singing and dancing from the habits of the Negro, as to change the colour of his skin. I do not think that he could live a single week in his own country, without the enjoyment of those recreations. In every rank, also, of African society, from the monarch to the slave, he is passionately fond of instrumental music in particular; so, that if the poet Goldsmith was able to travel through France and the rest of Europe, depending, quite or almost, for his bread upon the admiration of his flute; in like manner, a European fiddler, without any extraordinary pretension to talent, and destitute of a single cowry (provided he were not blind, for, in that case, through the most distressing superstition, he would be regarded as a wicked and punished person), would meet, from every Negro people, with the freest supply of food, and of every other necessary. The Negroes learn with eagerness and facility the music of foreigners; and many of the newest and popular English airs, that now or lately have been heard in the streets of our towns and villages, are now also singing, with Negro voices, in the towns and villages of Africa. Once, in an inland city, when I and my companions were returning, by moonlight, to our cabin, and sighing at the delay which still kept us in that foreign region, our ears (as if to make us feel the more deeply our misfortune) were saluted by the strains of a native singer, pouring forth the English air of Home, sweet home*! As to dancing, pursued as a social amuse * The words of this favourite little song are by Mr. John Howard Payne, the American author of Brutus, Clari, and many other highly popular dramatic pieces. ment, all these nations indulge in it at the same seasons, and with the same vivacity, as ourselves. Often have I witnessed their evening diversions in this way, continued, beneath a spreading tree, sometimes till the approach of morning; and as often (I shall take the opportunity to add) have I been delighted with the contemplation of the perfect harmony and kindly feeling that prevailed among the dancers. A pleasing and romantic effect is produced by the silvery light of the moon, blended with the ruddiness of the flames of the fires lighted to keep away wild beasts, thrown upon the sable countenances of the happy group; along with the wide spread shadow of the majestic tree, darkening the ground, and with the moving figures, gaily crossing and recrossing it. During the intervals of dance and song, the party are employed in eating or drinking, or else in renewing the deadened fires; after either of which employments, they begin again with a fresh ardour. Their songs, of which the words usually refer to the circumstances of the moment, are composed extempore by one of the party, who recites it to his or her companions, while each of these is catching up the words, and joining in the tune. How similar, all this, to the manners of our own country? The elegant Rogers sings thus of our English villagers: 'Twilight's soft dews steal o'er the village green, And Campbell (though I greatly doubt the local propriety of the picture) paints a similar scene among the English settlers at his Wyoming: 'Delightful Wyoming, beneath thy skies Or skim, perchance, the lake with light canoe, And aye those sunny mountains, half way down, I call this Mr. Campbell's Wyoming, and receive the picture as one from his native Scotland; for romance, and romantic towns,' have little to do with the English settlements in America; and American history and observation would rather placerumcarriers,' or fur-traders, at fair Wyoming,' than 'shepherd-swains,' and 'timbrel' and 'flageolet,' at the era of which Mr. Campbell writes. The poet places his 'Wyoming' upon 'Pennsylvania's shore,’— 'On Susquehannah's side, fair Wyoming;' but the Pennsylvanians profess to discover but little in his beautiful poem, to remind them, of the manners, at least, of their still beautiful abode! 66 But when, from the English settlements in the new world, we get back to any ancient country of the old, it is then that in verity the same scenes perpetually recur; and, whether in Africa, in Greece, in Italy, or other regions, we see and hear, at every step, the song, the dance, the improvising 'The umbrage of the wood, so cool and dim, a' pipe' too, and a 'drum;'—but I am quoting Lord Byron, who, in an entire stanza, gives us an account of a dance in Greece, which, abating the complexions |