30 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



the praises of Deity, and to make the arches of 

 his temple resound with the harmonious ac cents of 

 wretched victims whom, by a refinement in bar- 

 barism, they had expunge' i from the list of men* 

 But, what is hardly credible, this idea of mutilation 

 originated in the head of a woman. A celebrated 

 queen of antiquity, Semiramis, who by her riches, 

 her power, her victories, and the lustre of her reign, 

 was exalted to the highest rank of human beings, 

 Semiramis is the first who set the example of a 

 cruelty which is a blot on the page of history* 



Pacherotti, whom Brydone had seen not long be- 

 fore on the stage of Palermo, and whose talents he 

 celebrates # , was then at Genoa. Notwithstanding 

 the vehement elogium pronounced on that song- 

 ster by the English traveller, I thought him far be- 

 neath the high reputation he had gained. His 

 voice was indeed full of sweetness, but his mode 

 of playing was spiritless, and his delivery totally 

 destitute of warmth : he was a thing to be heard 

 and not seen. His countenance, his gestures^ 

 though he was young and handsome, wore the ap- 

 pearance of constraint, of imbecility, which dis- 

 graced his smgiug. He otherwise fulfilled all that 

 was to be expected of him. In truth, the energy 

 of action, the fire of expression, which can flow 



| * Travels in Sicily and Malta, Demeunief's translation, torn.. 

 M. p. 146, 147, and 200. 



only 



