SS 
134 : \. Sketches of Malta. 
was extricated from its perilous situa- 
tion to the no small satisfaction of the 
other which seemed to caress and lick 
it, as if it had been one of her own 
offsprings. ee 
kvery observer of the animal creation, 
must be aware, what a regular degree of 
subordination exists among herds of cat- 
tle that have been long accustomed to 
ruminate together; the instinct of the 
cow, in this respect, 1s by no meaus the 
least predominant. When a_ farmer. 
makes his first selection, he, of course, 
has a great variety of the same species, 
and (if we may presume to judge tron 
analogy) endued with a diversity of dis- 
positions; hence, for some time tt 15 en- 
tertaining to bebold the many disputed 
points that arise among the candidates 
for precedence, before the business can 
be amicably adjusted; for 1t is very ob- 
servable, they always walk in lineal pro- 
cession, preceded by a chieftain, or lead- 
er, which is unanimously acknowledged 
by the whole herd; the rest follow in or- 
der, according to their contested deci- 
sions, each being most tenacious of her 
allotted station; which did not escape 
that accurate delineator of nature. 
Bloomfield, who, in his * Farmers Boy,” 
makes the following beautiful allusion: 
és The right of conquest all the law they 
know: ft 
Subordinate, they one by one succeed ; 
And one among them always takes the lead: . 
Is ever foremost, wheresoe’er they stray, 
Allow’d precedence undisputed sway ; 
With jealous pride her station is maintain’d, 
For many a broil that post of honour gain’d.” 
But a tacit responsibility seems to de- 
volve their leader, for the care and wel- 
fare of the whole, which has been fully 
exemplified in the preceding anecdote: 
the concerned cow being the premier 
of the herd. 
"Fo account for this wonderful degree 
of. instinct, in this part of the animal 
species, is beyond my penetration; 1 
leave the subject for matured philosophy. 
to investigate. Your's, &c. 
Redman’s Row, Mile End, J. Worcrort. 
February 6, 1809. 
a 5 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
SKETCHES OF MALTA—No. I. 
| STRANGER, on his arrival at this 
A celebrated Island, cannot but be 
greatly struck with the change of charac- 
ter which its inhabitants have undergone, 
since the time of the Order. lu the 
early periods of their subjection to the 
ancicat Knights of St. John, they merely 
[March 5 
supplied the inferior military ranks among » 
the followers of those redoubted cham- 
pions, or assisted in rowing and naviga- 
ting the eailies which performed the an- 
nual caravatice against the Turks. The- 
modern knights, like most of the old 
worn-out governments of Europe, nni- 
tated their predecessors Ouly in a vain 
ostentation aud parade. They performed 
no prodigies of valour; gained no trophies 
of conquest; butstill, the “ pomp and cir- 
cumsiance,” of-a continual war against 
the 1yfidels, supplied pretexts for op- 
pressing the industry of the native Mal- 
tese, and fer precluding them from al- 
most every species of traffic, especially 
that which might have been beneficially 
éarried on with Barbary aad the Levant. 
Hence the agriculture and commeree of 
Malta alike languished. | At present, the: 
scene 1s changed ; Malta is become ene of - 
the greatest depots of merchandize in the 
whole Mediterranean: and the natives, 
in the midst of a war peculiarly levelled: 
against the commercial intercourse of the 
world, have acquired habits of industry, 
and developed sources of profit, to which’. 
they were formerly total strangers. 
It is no less curious than amusing, to” 
view the diversities of dress and appear- 
ance among the motley crowd which bu- 
siness daily assembles on the Marina, or 
shore of the harbour of Valetta. Besides’ 
the English soldiers, sailors, and mer- 
chants, (many of whom have their ware-— 
houses placed there), one sees Barba- 
resque traders wrapped in their Jong 
shawls, and adorned with waistcoats of 
most splendid embroidery, with white or 
green turbans, black bushy beards, yel- 
low gipsy-like countenances, and dark 
sparkling eyes. They generally sit with 
pipes, a yard long, in their mouths, or 
walk up and down very leisurely, while 
they negociate matters of business. Their 
settled gravity is contrasted with the noise 
of the Maltese boatmen and porters, who 
are a lively set of people, having much 
more of the Jtalian than of the African 
character, although some of them evi- 
dently appear to be ef: the latter origin. 
‘These men wear the peculiar dress of the | 
lower classes of Maltese, a berretta, or 
cap, red or black, a checked shirt, com- 
inonly tucked up to the elbows, « coarse 
cotton waistcoat and trowsers, generally 
ornamented with ad set of globular silver 
buttons, a girdle of various colours bound 
round the loms;. their feet are either 
bare, or protected by a rude kind of 
sandals ; and to prozect them from rough 
weather, they wear the colder seasona 
gt CLG, 
