Le ee ee 
. oxen. 
~ 
358 Epigrams, Fragments, and Fugitive Pieces, from the Greek. [May 1, 
~3 ‘ , / 
dicine by the name of the bezoar-flone.— 
They are in fact. nothing more than the 
indurated remains of roots which the ani- 
mal is incapable of digefting. The cha- 
mois feeds on herbs and leaves; the fe- 
male feldom produces. more .than one at a 
time, which fhe exercRys at an carly age 
wy leaping. The youn are fometimes 
taken alive as they remain fianding by the 
fide of their dam when the latrer is fhot. 
They are then habituated to fuck a fhe- 
goat, which, in a thort time, regards the 
itranger as her own offspring.. A great 
number have been reared in this manner. 
The flefh.of the chamois, after lying 
from sten to, feurteen days in vinegar, is 
very good eating ; but the mof valuable 
part of the animal is its kin. The mar- 
mot-produces three or four young cnes, 
and digs a fubterraneous habitation, in 
which it, lays op a_ ftore of hay in the 
fummer, and pafics the winter rolled up 
like the;dormoufe:in a profound flumber,. 
it forms one of the principal amulements 
of the inhabitants to dig up their holes 
and to make captives ofthe whole fupifed 
family. The fkin of the marmot is ufed 
for furs, and their flefh, though infipid, 
is eaten. Martens, pole-eats, and fquir- 
rels, are likewilg hunted in winter for 
their fkins, The vehicles employed by 
the inhabitants are not above three feet 
im height, and are commonly drawn by 
As this.country is too barren to 
afford fufficient.fubfiftence for its inhabi- 
tants, they go. in great numbers as fhop- 
keepers, fugar-bakers, &c. to France and 
Italy, where they carry on bubnefs for 4 
time, and retuin with the fortune they 
have acquired to their native land. Io 
confeguence. of this, mo% of the inhabi- 
tants, befides their native language, {peak 
- Roman (which is a corrupt mixture of La- 
tin and [ialian}, French, and Italian.- In 
the interior of the, country you neverthele/s 
perceive little civilization and induftry, 
and the-character of the inhabitants is 
rude and unpolifhee. Between the diffe- 
rent branehes of the family of Salis and 
that of Planta exifts a jealous rivalfhip 
for the preponderating influence over the 
people. The former are in the Auftrian 
and the latter in the Fiench intereft. The 
higheft eulogy which the Grifon can be- 
ftow on himelf or his country ts, he is a 
freeman ; but yet, in their diets, almott 
every quettion is carried by means of cor- 
suption.  » 
The Lower Engadin is adelightful val- 
ley, and contains the villages of Sumada, 
Rovers, Pont, Zug, Skanf, aad others, 
= 
which enjoy a milder air, and produce a 
greater quantity of grain. In this valley 
the rich falt-{pring of Thrafp is _particu- 
larly worthy of notice. It is frequented 
by great numbers of patients. No at- 
tempt has hitherto been made to obtain 
culinary falt from this fpring by means of 
evaporation. R ; a 
Fer the: Monthly Magazine. 
EPIGRAMS, FRAGMENTS, aa#d) FUG 
TIVE PLECES, from the GREEK. (Cows 
tinued from p. 218 of aft Number.) 
No. III. 
‘¢ Sed tamen necefle fuit effe aliquid exe 
tremum, et tanquam arborum baccis, terraz- 
que frugibus maturitate tempeftiva, quafi 
Vietum et caducum.”—Cre. de Senectute. 
HE vigour and youth of Greeee 
were now on their decline ; and her 
exertions in arms and arts were becoming 
lefs aétive as centuries rolled-on : but in 
her green old age the features of her 
youth were difcernible, and the ‘fpirit 
with which it was animated burtt ferth in 
irregular and partial gleams, that evinced 
her not yet to be exhaufed by the efforts 
of former days. 
Deprived of the advantages enjoyed by. 
his predeceflor, Philip of Theflalonica 
continued the work after an interval cf an 
Hundred and fifty years. 
The feafon had now gone by in which 
we are to expect thofe vid flowers that 
had compofed the tormer Wreath, for this, 
was the title given by the colie¢tors to 
their works, . ’ 
Perfc&tion is no Tonger to ke found.— 
The Sapphos and. Anacreons of the day 
were admirers and imitators of their pre- 
deceflors, but bere no nearer refemblance 
to them than the Pfeudo- Hercules, in one 
of Menander’s plays, to the real hero of 
antiquity.* The :fame ideas recur 5 but 
the power of exprefiion to give them their 
due ijluftration is wanting. 
ju and elegant comparifon which Addi- 
fon. makes fomewhere in his Speétators 
(and which may well be transferred to the 
fubje&t before us), when, fpeaking of the 
prince of Roman eloquence, he obferves, 
ihat the, fame idea exprefled in the lan- 
guage of Cicero and attemptedyby an- 
other writer, differs as much as the fame 
objeé&t when feen by the light of the fun 
and by the faint glimmering of a taper. 
on 
* This perfonage is recorded to have ap- 
peared on the ftage with a neat black cane by 
way of club. . 
The 
It is a moft. 
xs 
