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sound, that we were every moment apprehensive of sinking through it. The ground being thus evidently hollow, it is probable that air, pent up in these caverns, produces that mixture of shrill murmuring, and deep sounds, which, according to the direction of the winds and the agitation of the external air, issue out along with the water. These sounds the Arabs affirm to be the music of the Jenoure, or fairies, who are supposed to take a peculiar delight in this place, and to be the grand agents in all these remarkable appearances.” Mavor's Voyages and Travels, vol. xii. p. 91.

No. XXXVIII.

Hic multum in Fabia valet, ille velina;
Cuilibet hic fasces dabit, eripietque curule;
Cui volet, importunus ebur, frater, pater, adde;
Ut cuique est ætas, ita quemque facetas adopta.

The Fabian tribe his interest largely sways;
This the Velinian; there a third, with ease,
Can give or take the honours of the state,
The consul's fasces, and the prætor's seat;
According to their age adopt them all,
And brother, father, most facetious call.

HORAT.

FRANCIS.

HUMAN nature, though every where the same, is so seemingly diversified by the various habits and customs of different countries, and so blended with the early impressions we receive from our education, that they are often confounded together, and mistaken for one another. This makes us look with astonishment upon all customs that are extremely different from our own, and hardly allow those nations to be of the same nature with ourselves, if they are unlike us in their manners; whereas all human actions may be traced up to those two great motives-the pursuit of pleasure, and the avoidance of pain; and, upon strict examination, we shall find that those customs which at first

view seem the most different from our own, have in reality a great analogy with them.

What more particularly suggested this thought to me was, an account which a gentleman, who was lately returned from China, gave, in a company where I happened to be present, of a pleasure held in high esteem and extremely practised by that luxurious nation. He told us, that the tickling of the ears was one of the most exquisite sensations known in China; and that the delight administered to the whole frame, through this organ, could, by an able and skilful tickler, be raised to whatever degree of ecstasy the patient should desire.

The company, struck with this novelty, expressed their surprise, as is usual on such occasions, first by a silly silence, and then by many silly questions. The account too, coming from so far as China, raised both their wonder and their curiosity, much more than if it had come from any European country, and opened a larger field for many impertinent questions. Among others, the gentleman was asked whether the Chinese ears and fingers had the least resemblance to ours; to which having answered in the affirma tive, he went on thus :-" I perceive I have excited your curiosity so much by mentioning a custom so unknown to you here, that I believe

it will not be disagreeable if I give you a particular account of it.

"This pleasure, strange as it may seem to you, is in China reckoned almost equal to any that the senses afford. There is not an ear in the whole country untickled; the ticklers have, in their turn, others who tickle them, insomuch that there is a circulation of tickling throughout that vast empire. Or if by chance there be some few unhappy enough not to find business, they comfort themselves at least with self-titillation.

"This profession is one of the most lucrative and considerable ones in China, the most eminent performers being either handsomely requit ed in money, or still better rewarded by the credit and influence it gives them with the party tickled; insomuch that a man's fortune is made as soon as he gets to be tickler to any considerable mandarine.

"The emperor, as in justice he ought, enjoys this pleasure in its highest perfection, and all the considerable people contend for the honour and advantage of this employment; the person who succeeds the best in it, being always the first favourite, and chief dispenser of his imperial power. The principal mandarines are allowed to try hands upon his majesty's sacred ears; and, according to their dexterity and agi

lity, commonly rise to the post of first minister. His wives too are admitted to try their skill; and she among them who holds him by the ear, is reckoned to have the surest and most lasting hold. His present imperial majesty's ears, as I am informed, are by no means of a delicate texture, and consequently not quick of sensation, so that it has proved extremely difficult to nick the tone of them; the lightest and finest hands have utterly failed; and many have miscarried, who, from either fear or respect, did not treat the royal ears so roughly as was necessary. He began his reign under the hands of a bungling operator, whom for his clumsiness he soon dismissed he was afterwards attempted by a more skilful tickler, but he sometimes failed too; and, not being able to hit the humour of his majesty's ears, his own have often suffered for it.

"In this public distress, and while majesty laboured under the privation of auricular joys, the empress, who by long acquaintance and frequent little trials judged pretty well the texture of the royal ear, resolved to undertake it, and succeeded perfectly, by means of a much stronger friction than others durst either attempt, or could imagine would please.

"In the mean time, the skilful mandarine, far from being discouraged by the ill success he had sometimes met with in his attempts upon

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