of the Hindus. 57 



mg from bis own art, he had merely defcribed the human frame -as the 

 nobleft and fwecteft .of mufical inflruments, endued with a natural difpo- 

 fition to refonance and fympathy, alternately affecting and affected by the 

 foul, which pervades it, his defcription might, perhaps, have been phyfically 

 jufr., and certainly ought not to have been haftily ridiculed : that any medi- 

 cal purpofe may be fully anfwered by mufick, I dare not affert ; but after 

 food, when the operations of digefUon and abforption give fo much employ- 

 ment to the veffels, that a temporary flate of mental repofe muff be found, 

 cfpecially in hot climates, effential to health, it feems reafonable to believe, 

 that a few agreeable airs, either heard or played without effort, muff, have 

 all the good effects of fleep and none of its difadvantages ; pitting the 

 foul in tune, as Milton fays, for any fubfequent exertion 1 an experi- 

 ment, which .has often been fuccefsfully made by myfelf, and which any 

 one, who pleafes, may eafily repeat. Of what I am going to aid, I can- 

 not give equal evidence ; but hardly know how to dilbelieve the teftimony 

 of men, who had no fyflem of their own to fupport, and could have no 

 intereft in deceiving me : firft, 1 have been allured by a credible eye wit- 

 nefs, that two wild antelopes ufed often to come from their woods to the 

 place, where a more favage beaft, Sira'juddaulah, entertained himfelf 

 with concerts, and that they liftened to the {trains with an appearance of 

 pleafure, till the monfler, in whofe foul there was no muiick, mot one of 

 them to difplay his archery : feeondly, a learned native of this country told 

 me, that he had frequently feen the moll: venomous and malignant fnakes 

 leave their holes, upon hearing tunes on a flute, which, as he fuppofed, gave 

 them peculiar delight ; and, thirdly, an intelligent Perjia:n, who repeated 

 hisftory again and again, and permitted me to write it down from his lips, 

 declared, that he had more than once been prefent, when a celebrated luta- 

 nift, Mhza Mohammed, furnamed Bulbul, was playing to a large 



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