his salutation for the greatest fool of all the four; and then, turning on his heel, he continued his journey.

The Brahmans, confounded at this answer, turned back in silence. But all of them had deeply at heart the distinction of the salutation of the soldier, and the dispute was gradually renewed. Even the awkward decision of the warrior could not prevent each of them from arrogating to himself the pre-eminence of being noticed by him, to the exclusion of the others. The contention therefore now became, which of the four was the stupidest; and, strange as it was, it grew as warm as ever, and must have come to blows, had not the person who gave the former advice, to follow the soldier, interposed again with his wisdom, and spoken as follows.

"I think myself the greatest fool of you all. Each of you thinks the same thing of himself. And, after a fight, shall we be a bit nearer the decision of the question? Let us therefore have a little patience. We are within a short distance of Dharmapuri, where there is a choultry, at which all little causes are tried by the heads of the village; and let ours be judged among the rest."

All agreed in the soundness of the advice; and having arrived at the village, they eagerly entered the choultry, to have their business settled by the arbitrators.

They could not have come at a better

season.

The chiefs of the district, Brahmans and others, had already met in the choultry; and no other cause offering itself, they proceeded immediately to that of the Brahmans. All the four advanced into the middle of the court, and stated, that a sharp contest having arisen among them, they were come to have it decided with fairness and impartiality. The court desired them to proceed and explain the grounds of their controversy.

Upon this, one of them stood forward, and related to the assembly all that had happened, from their meeting with the soldier to the present state of the quarrel; which rested on the superior degree of stupidity of some one of them over the others.

The detail created an universal shout of laughter. The president, who was of a gay disposition, was delighted beyond measure to have fallen in with so divert

ing an incident. But he put on a grave face, and laid it down, as the peculiarity of the cause, that it could not be determined on the testimony of witnesses, and that in fact there was no other way of satisfying the minds of the judges, than by each, in his turn, relating some particular occurrence of his life, on which he could best establish his claim to superior folly. He clearly shewed that there could be no other means of determining to which of them the salutation of the soldier could with justice be awarded. The Brahmans assented, and upon a sign being made to one of them to begin, and to the rest to keep silence, the first thus commenced his oration.

"I am poorly provided with clothing as you see; and it is not to day only that I have been covered with rags. A rich and very charitable Brahman merchant once made me a present of two pieces of cloth to attire me; the finest that had ever been seen in our Agragrama.* I shewed them to the other Brahmans of the village, who all congratulated me on so fortunate an acquisition. They told me it must be the fruit of some good deeds that I had done in a preceding generation. Before I put them on, I washed them, according to the custom, in order to purify them from the soil of the weaver's touch; and hung them up to dry, with the ends fastened to two branches of a tree. A dog then happening to come that way, run under them, and I could not discern whether he was high enough to touch the clothes or not. I asked my children, who were present; but they said they were not quite certain. How then was I to discover the fact? I put myself upon all fours, so as to be of the height of the dog; and, in that posture, I crawled under the clothing. Did I touch it?' said I to the children who were observing

cried out that the point of the leaf on my back had touched the cloth. This proved to me that the point of the dog's tail must have done so too, and that my garment was therefore polluted. In my rage, I pulled down the beautiful raiment, and tore it in a thousand pieces, loading with curses both the dog and his master.

"When this foolish act was known, I became the laughing stock of all the world; and I was universally treated as a madman. Even if the dog,' they all said: had touched the cloth, and so brought defilement upon it, might not you have washed it a second time, and so have removed the stain? Or might you not have given it to some poor Sudra rather than tear it in pieces? After such egregious folly, who will give you clothes another time?' This was all true; for ever since, wheu I have begged clothing of any one, the constant answer has been, that no doubt I wanted a piece of cloth to pull to pieces."

He was going on, when a bystander Interrupted him by remarking that he seemed to understand going on all fours. "Exceedingly well," says he, "as you shall see ;" and off he shuffled in that posture, amidst the unbounded laughter of the spectators.

"Enough, enough!" said the president. "What we have both heard and seen goes a great way in his favor. But let us now hear what the next of you has to say for himself, in proof of his stupidity." The second accordingly began, by expressing his confidence, that, if what they had just heard appeared to them to be deserving of the salutation of the soldier, what he had to say would change that opinion.

"Having got my hair and beard shaven one day," he continued, "in order to appear decent at a public festival of the Brahmans (the Samaradanam), which had been proclaimed through all the district, I desired my wife to give the barber a penny for his trouble. She heedlessly gave him a couple. I asked of him to give me one of them back; but he refused. Upon that we quarrelled, and began to abuse each other; but the barber at length pacified me, by offering, in consideration of the double fee, to shave my wife also. I thought this a fair way of settling the difference between us. But my wife, Asiatic Journ.-No. 16.

hearing the proposal, and seeing the barber in earnest, tried to make her escape by flight. I took hold of her and forced her to sit down, while he shaved her poll in the same manner as they serve widows. During the operation, she cried out bitterly; but I was inexorable, thinking it less hard that my wife should be close shaven than that my penny should be given away for nothing. When the barber had finished, I let her go, and she retired immediately to a place of concealment, pouring down curses on me and the barber. He took his departure; and meet ing my mother in his way, told her what he had done; which made her hasten to the house, to inquire into the outrage; and when she saw with her own eyes that it was all true, she also loaded me with invectives.

"The barber published every where what had happened at our house; and the villain added to the story, that I had caught her with another man, which was the cause of my having her shaved; and people were no doubt expecting, according to our custom in such a case, to see her mounted on the ass, with her face turned towards the tail. They came running to my dwelling from all quarters, and actually brought an ass to make the usual exhibition in the streets. The report soon reached my father-in-law, who lived at a distance of ten or twelve leagues, and he, with his wife, came also to inquire into the affair. Seeing their poor daughter in that degraded state, and being apprised of the only reason; they reproached me most bitterly; which I patiently endured, being conscious that I was in the wrong. They persisted, however, to take her with them, and kept her carefully concealed from every eye for four whole years; when at length they restored her to

me.

"This little accident male me lose the Samaradanam, for which I had been preparing by a fast of three days; and it was a great mortification to me to be excluded from it, as I understood that it was a most splendid entertainment. Another Samaradanam was announced to be held ten days afterwards, at which I expected to make up for my loss. But I was received with the hisses of six hundred Brahmans, who seized my person, and insisted on my giving up the accomplice of VOL. III. 2 Y

my wife, that he might be prosecuted and punished, according to the severe rules of the cast.

"I solemnly attested her innocence, and told the real cause of the shaving of her hair; when an universal burst of surprise took place; every one exclaiming, how monstrous it was that a married woman should be so degraded, without having committed the crime of adultery!

Either this man, they said, must be a liar, or he is the greatest fool on the face of the earth! Such I dare say, gentlemen, you will think me; and I am sure you will consider my folly," (looking here with great disdain on the first speaker) being far superior to that of the render of body clothing."

(To be concluded in our next.)

as

Ar the present period, when the public is so much occupied by the recent intelligence from China, a brief account of the manner in which the principal European nations established a commerce there, and the embassies that have been dispatched by them to the Chinese capital, may not be deemed uninteresting.

The great Albuquerque first formed the design of opening a communication with China. He had met with Chinese vessels at Malacca, and conceived a high opinion of a nation whose seamen had more politeness and decorum than were at that period to be found among the European nobility. He invited them to continue their commerce with Malacca, and he procured from them a particular account of the strength, riches, and manners of their extensive empire, which information he transmitted to the court of Lisbon.

In consequence of this intelligence, a squadron was fitted out in 1517, under the commmand of Ferdinand Andrada, having on board Thomas Ferena as ambassador. Their reception at China is thus described in Milburne's Oriental Commerce, Vol. II. p. 462.—

"On their arrival at the entrance of the river of Canton, the fleet was stopped, and only two vessels permitted to pass up the river: on board of one was the Ambassador and Commodore. Andrada was a man of strict honor, so that he soon gained on the Chinese, notwithstanding their natural aversion to strangers. By his exactness and probity he drew them to trade, and brought them to have great confidence in him; but what had the greatest effect, and might have establish

ed the commerce of the Portuguese, to the exclusion of all other natious, was his giving notice, a little before his departure, that at such a time he meant to sail, and that if any had demands upon him, or any of those belonging to him, they might apply and receive satisfaction. This was an instance of probity new to the Chinese, but so agreeable that they made him great professions of friendship, and assured him that they would willingly trade with his nation, in hopes of meeting always with the like usage; but so fair a prospect did not long continue, and even the first had very nearly proved the last voyage of the Portuguese to China, The commanders of the ships that were left at the mouth of the river, lauded and began a trade with the natives; but, presuming on their power in India, treated the Chinese with great insolence and iniquity. They brought on shore several pieces of cannon, and then took what they pleased at their own rates, and treated with the pirates for such as they had taken prisoners, of whom they made slaves. The Viceroy of the province quickly assembled a great naval force, with which he surrounded the Portuguese squadron, and would infallibly have taken them if a storm had not arisen, which scattered the Chinese fleet, and enabled the Portuguese to return to Malacca with more profit than honor. The ambassador proved the victim of this misconduct, he was confined in prison, where he afterwards died.

"It was many years before the Chinese would admit the Portuguese to trade with them, but at length, they allowed