500. Extracis from the Port-folio of a Manof Letters. (Dec. 1, i 
sent, who usually studied and practised 
in thisroom. The jumbling them alto- 
gether may be convenient for the house, 
and may teach boys to attend to their 
own parts with firmness, whatever else 
may be gcing forward at the same time; 
it may likewise give them force, by 
obliging them to play loud, in order to 
hear themselves; but in the midst of 
such jargon, and continual dissonance, 
it is wholly impossible to give any kind 
of polish or finishing to their perform- 
ance; thence the slovenly coarseness 
so remarkable in their public exhibi- 
tions, and the total want of taste, neat- 
ness, and expression, in all these young 
musicians, ull they have acquired them 
elsewhere. The beds, which are in the 
same room, serve for seats to the harp- 
sichords, and other instruments; but of 
thirty or forty boys, who were practising, 
I could discover but two who were play- 
ing che same piece: some of those who 
were practising upon the violin, seem to 
have had a great deal of hand. The 
violoncellos practising in another room ; 
and the flutes, hautbcys, and other wind 
instruments, in a third, except the trum- 
pets and the horns, which are obliged to 
fag, either on the stairs, or on the top of 
the house. 
There are in this college sixteen young 
custrati, and theselie ap stairs by them- 
selves, in warmer apartments than the 
other boys, for fear of colds, which 
might not only render their delicate 
voices unfit for exercise at present, 
but hazard the entire loss of them for 
ever. 
ARABS. 
One of these. wandering Arabs, (says 
Neibuhr,) having obtained for-his share 
a bag of pearls, thought them rice, which 
he had heard to be good food, and gave 
them to his wife to boil, who, when 
she found that boiling softened them, 
threw them away as useless.—P. 163, 
Vv. lil. 
TURKISH SCIENCE. 
A Turkish merchant observing me di- 
rect my instrument towards the city, had 
the curiosity to look into the glass, and 
was surprised to see a tower turned up- 
side down. He immediately spread a 
report that J was come to overturn the 
city (Alexandria). It was mentioned to 
the governor; and my Janissary would 
no longer walk with me, when IT proposed 
carrying my instruments withme. Near 
a village of the Delta, an honest pea- 
gant paid great attention to my opera- 
sions, as { was taking different angles, 
To show him something curious, I made 
him look through the same glass. He 
was greatly alarmed to see the village to 
which he belonged, turned upside down. 
My servant told him, that government 
were offended with that village, and had 
sent me to destroy it. He instantly ine 
teated me to wait but a few moments, 
that he might have time to save his wife, 
and his cow. He then ran in great 
haste towards his house, and I went 
again on board my boat.— Neibuhr, 
TURKISH OPINIONS OF MUSICAL SCIENCE, 
We played some solemn tunes, which 
are more to the taste of the orientals, 
than our gayer music. He seemed to be 
pleased, and offered each of us an half- 
a-crown at parting. The Arabs refuse 
no presents, however small; and he 
was not a little surprised, when we de- 
clined accepting bis money; especially, 
as he could never conceive what ins 
ducement any person could have to learn 
music, if not to gain by it.—Newduhr. 
GERMAN OBSTINACY. 
A nobleman here (whose authority over 
his vassals was so great, that he may make 
any one of them at his pleasure a sol- 
dier,) wished to introduce some changes 
in the agricultural arrangements of his 
estate. Among other things, he directed 
that the ploughman should go out with 
his oxen at five, instead of eight o’clock 
inthe morning. The fellow gravely re- 
plied, that the order could not be obey- 
ed; for, by the received custom of the 
country, no lords could commence work 
before eight. As my friend did not 
quite understand this kind of logic, and 
was unwilling, that the privileges of his 
rank should deprive him of the Jabour of 
his cattle, he insisted that his injunctions 
should he attended to. The ploughman 
was inexorable. He was dismissed ; 
and another appointed in his stead. 
The second was as obstinate as the 
first. My friend changed again, and 
avain; and no less than twenty different 
servants succeeded each other in the 
same situation, before he foond one 
who would comply with his orders. At 
last, on condition of receiving double 
wages, the twenty-first agreed to take 
out the oxen at the plebeian hour of five; 
but after doing so for three days, he 
came to his master, and requested to be 
relieved from his engagement, or instantly 
dismissed ; ‘‘ for,” added he, ‘* I am 
made miserable ; I cannot endure the 
lifé IT lead: I am avoided by all my 
friends in the village ; nobody will speak 
to me, for having violated the customs 
