14 



CAUSES OF THE WEAKNESS AND DECLINE 



disorders peculiar to marshy situations ; but these were less prevalent, 

 when industry awakened life and fertility throughout the country, 

 than at present, when the inhabitants, living in tenements placed in 

 unhealthy situations, nourished by scanty food, uncertain whether 

 they can appropriate the fruits of their industry, have no motive to 

 improvement. The climate of Egypt is affected at particular sea- 

 sons by the neglect of the canals ; the plain of Scanderoon was in 

 the time of Moryson " infamous for the death of Christians," and still 

 continues to be the most unhealthy spot on the coast of Syria ; the 

 inhabitants of Tripoli and Acre are subject to disorders arising from 

 mephitic exhalations. In some parts of Greece the rivers, obstructed 

 in their channels, overflow the banks, and spread into morasses. In 

 the memory of the inhabitants of the present day new marshes have 

 been observed in the vallies of Arcadia.* Leprous affections are 

 becoming more frequent. In Asia and Syria, as well as Greece, the 

 inhabitants are obliged to retire at particular seasons, into the moun- 

 tains to avoid the diseases of the plains, and exchange the fceculent 

 atmosphere occasioned by stagnant moisture and putrefaction, for 

 the dry and elastic air of more elevated regions. 



8. The practice of polygamy f, so prevalent among the higher 

 orders in this country, so contrary to the strict injunction of their law, 



of it, partly from the great heat reflected by the mountains of Taygetus. Ava-rpctTreXiav 

 tqu tottqv tcov Toivyerov opwv uj-wXo'yov nvlyo; Tcupe^ovrcov. Jamblich. Vit. Pyth. 37- See also 

 Plutarch Opp. Mor. " on Banishment." 



* " A face furrowed with care, a body lean with hard labour and scanty diet, represent 

 " the portrait of a modern Arcadian. The residence of a number of hungry Turks, the 

 " vermin of the Pasha's court, continually oppresses this hapless people ; and they seem 

 " to exist only to furnish food to their lazy masters. Among the most powerful engines, 

 " are the Codja Bashees, the treasurers of the district, or rather the collectors of the 

 " taxes, and the bishops, whose places are all bought." From Dr. Sibthorp's MSS. 



\ Four is the extreme number of wives allowed by Mahomet. " Take in marriage 

 " of such women, as please you, two, or three, or four." Koran, c. iv. — For the 

 reasons which induced Moses to tolerate polygamy, as a civil right, though he did not 

 approve it, see Michaelis, i. 277- The Jews, in the time of Solomon, did not imitate 

 the example of their Monarch ; polygamy was no longer practised. 



