SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

Tasvm.s, Narrative of a Journey from Heraut to Khiva. Moscow, and St. Petersburg, during the late Invasion of Khiva; with some Account of the Court of Khiva and the King- dom of Khaurism. By Captain James Abbott. Bengal Artillery. Author of the " rhakoorine," and lately on a Political Mission. lu two volumes.

MISCELLANEi WS LITERATURE, Allen and Co. The Attache ; or Sam Slick in England. By the Author of "The Clockmaker, or Sayings and Doings of Sum Slick." in two volumes Bentley. norms,

Marmaduke Wyvil ; or the Maid's Revenge. Au Historical Romance. By Henry William Herbert. Esq., Author of "Oliver Cromwell," &e. In tlirce Colburn.

CAPTAIN ABBOTT'S MISSION TO ICHIVA.

CAPTAIN ABBOTT'S mission to Khiva, and subsequent adventures in the Turcuman desert, till his arrival at the Russian frontier on a further mission to the court of St. Petersburg, originated in the Russophobia which prompted the disastrous invasion of Afgha- nistan. News having reached Heraut of that Russian expedition against Khiva which quickly ended in a failure from the severity of the climate, Major TODD, our Envoy at Heraut, resolved to send Captain ABBOTT to Khiva ; whence, obtaining permission, he was to proceed to St. Petersburg. What his objects were is not stated ; Captain ABBOTT, with diplomatic caution, suppressing his instruc- tions ; but they seem to have directed him to procure some over- ture from the King of Khiva to the Emperor of Russia, which we were to back, in order to induce the recall of the expedition. But the elements, stronger than diplomatists, had settled the business before our Envoy arrived at Russia. The route Captain ABBOTT followed is new, and indeed almost untrodden, especially from Khiva to the Caspian. The interest of his route, however, as to scenery, is little : a monotonous desert, traversed for the greater part in spring, during the early thaws, when the ground was mud or half-melted snow, and varying in its features from a dead level to slight undulations or precipitous mountains, would soon pall in minute description. Nor, indeed, has Captain ABBOTT attempted it. The interest of the work lies in the adventures of the author, and his pictures of Tartarian life. From some cause or other, the ruler of Heraut was jealous of the mission, and secretly used all his means at the court of Khiva to prejudice the Khaun against it. This potentate and his people having such compendious notions of geography as to rate Europe as one nation and the English and Rus- sians as, the same people, the Sovereign of Khiva was made to believe that one section was advancing from India, the other from the Caspian, to root out the faithful from Central Asia. Having by many representations persuaded the Khaun and Ministry that an Englishman was not a Russian, undergone a theological examination touching our worship of images, &c., and, prompted by Major Tonn, silenced all question on the incarnation by an answer to which an orthodox Mahometan has no rejoinder, our envoy was saved from condemnation as a spy. Growing in favour by the directness of his replies, he at last was dubbed a representative of the majesty of Khiva to the Emperor of all the Russias, with power to rectify the ostensible causes of the war. The dilatoriness of Asiatics, the intrigues of enemies, and the winter season, caused his detention, till, we fancy, the Russians had retired : but, newspapers or other mediums of prompt com- munication being unknown in those regions, the "gratifying in- telligence " was not received at the capital: so he started, under convoy, to share the fate of CONOLLT in his attempt to penetrate the Turcuman deserts. His guide handed him over to other guides; and he was then betrayed, attacked, and plundered. Rescued from death only by the conscience and humanity of a Turcuman, he was still confined a prisoner, with the daily expectation of being murdered and his suite sold for slaves ; when he was providentially relieved by the arrival of a native assistant, whom Major TODD had sent after him, and was eventually enabled to reach the Russian outport fort. Here his difficulties ceased after he escaped from the hands of the suspicious subalterns ; and he travelled to St. Petersburg, and thence to England, in a civilised fashion.

Besides the interest attached to the story of our author's adven- tures, his book possesses another attraction in his sketches of Oriental characters and modes of life. He travelled in countries where, throughout whole districts, neither a tree nor a fixed habi- tation can be met with, and where, excepting at Khiva, the houses are none of the best. Exclusiveness, therefore, was out of the ques- tion, even had the primitive habits of the people permitted it, or a traveller who would venture himself into such a region desired it : fresh faces and characters were daily encountered, and almost new manners. Captain ABBOTT, moreover, is a person who sketches well ; possessing a literary ability that enables him to turn to full account his advantages in so fruitful a field. Perhaps, indeed, this literary power is a drawback to his book. The reader does not know how much artistical skill is used in dressing up the matter. There is also a further cause of scepticism ; among the Turcumans, any attempt at scientific observation involves a suspicion of sorcery, and even writing gives rise to doubt ; so that Captain ABBOTT could take few notes ; he lost his materials, if lie ever had any, at the time of the robbery, and has supplied his narrative from memory. As regards dates and minute particulars, accuracy is therefore not to be looked for ; and we think that in one sense his loss has given effect to his narrative, by compelling him to confine his attention to those circumstances which were striking in themselves and left a deep impression on his memory. On the other hand, the length of time which elapsed between the occurrences and their record is not satisfactory to the reader as respects fidelity ; and the occasional style and treatment of Captain ABBOTT is less so. He himself alludes to this in the following terms. " The habit of addressing the public by the lips of imaginary personages, a mode which admits of the most unreserved confessions, has beguiled me too often into particulars that should have been reserved exclusively for the eyes of friends. Nor is it by any means an easy matter to form a judicious selection from matter once committed to paper; for the narrative becomes mixed with the sentiments, and the extrication calls for both nerve and judgment."

Judgment, no doubt, is required, either not to write or to ex- punge what is written ; but we see no particular need of " nerve" to blot out long egotistical expressions of the Captain's feelings touching the importance of his mission, the fame he was about to have snatched from him through the delays and robberies of the Turcumans, his thoughts of home when he thought of dying, and other matters of a personal nature ; or to have prevented the re- moval of several Oriental tales, which the Captain professes to have heard front his escort, though it is quite clear a literary artist has been touching them up and expanding them. All these, and passages of an analogous kind, are mere verbiage; better away, as they impede the progress and flatten the interest of the reader. But,. unluckily, suspicion is excited as to the embellishment of other parts, and a slight story in the Preface causes further mis- givings as to how far the Captain's imagination may carry him. Apologizing for his want of preliminary reading respecting the countries he visited, the author tells this story of his adventures in town— "The difficulty to a wanderer of procuring books relating to Central Asia is greater than would he believed. Even in London l have visited at least twenty booksellers ere I could find Elphinstone's Cabul, a standard work; it may be added, the only standard work on Afghanistaun. Some of the booksellers stared at me with blank visages ; others thought I was speaking Hebrew ; and when I added, or Tod's Rajbastbao, they either hunched the shoulders in dis- may or thought I was hoaxing them. Latterly, whenever I lost my way in London, (a pretty common occurrence,) I used to step into the first bookseller's shop, and ask for Elphinstone's Cabul and Tod's Rajhasthan ; and as soon as the shaking of heads had subsided, and the bookseller was sufficiently recovered from his bewilderment, beg him to direct me on my way."

That pamphlet-sellers and petty booksellers should be ignorant of Elphinstone's Cabul, is more than probable ; that some respect- able bibliopoles might be in a similar condition, is possible ; but that the statement we have quoted is an accurate representation of the state of the trade in general, seems to us most unlikely. These circumstances detract from the authority of the work as a book of travels, but do not, except in the case of the verbiage, injure its attraction as a series of Asiatic sketches. In this point of view, the first volume is very entertaining : how much is strictly true and how much is added by the artist, we cannot undertake to say, but the additions are, as a painter would say, in keeping. They partake of the character of the rest, and are obviously the work of a man familiar with the manners and customs of the people; and there are frequent touches of nature in his descriptions—as in this picture of

TURCUMAN CHILDREN.

Early next morning, I spied my two little playfellows half venturing toward my tent, then running back, laughing, to their own, where their elder sister, the little maiden of twelve years, was encouraging them to persist, with many a nod and smile. She wore a close cloak or dress of chintz, of gay and fan- tastic but becoming colours. On her head was a close cap of red cloth, fringed with black lambskin. Eight plaited tresses of brown, silky hair, fell from beneath this. Her face was too full for beauty; but she had a rich colour, sparkling black eyes, and pearly teeth. The two little things now peeped shyly into my tent : I caught them, and after inflicting sundry kisses, which they endured with all bashfulness, sent them back, each with a silver coin in her tiny hand. The elder sister was delighted: she ran in and brought the infant, whom she set astraddle of the blonde's back, and sent in this cavalier fashion

to my tent.

1 now took my position outside, but still perceived the little maiden peeping at me from her tent-door. The blonde, after much coaxing, took her seat at my side, and 1 was content. The cap this little puss wore was similar to those so often described—a close shell of red cloth, trimmed with black lamb's wool, worked with black silk braid, and tricked with small silver bells. From the borders of the cap long tassels of black silk fell down on either side, mingling with her plaited tresses of light brown hair. This head-dress is so becoming to children, that one is often disappointed on nearer approach to features that at a little distance had seemed so lovely beneath it.

A TURCUMAN OR KILIZZ&UE. DINNER.

The food was now brought in, upon a dozen wooden bowls or platters, and placed before us. It consisted of boiled mutton, soused in its own soup. Bread and vegetables are things quite unknown in these parts. Ruzzauks are exclu- sively carnivorous. The whole party fell on, like a pack of wolves : my own stomach, weakened by sight of the victim's face, was quite turned by the scene before me. Never did I see so much flesh devoured in so brief a space. Yet I have witnessed the feasts of tigers and wolves. The father and son would not partake until the guests had concluded, although I entreated them to do so. The women did not appear until chins had done wagging ; but two of the senoras entered afterwards, to serve out curdled milk (mahss) in large bowls. The broth of the mutton, also, was brought in and distributed ; being swigged as if it had been beer. The bowls were handed to the women, who scraped them clean with their thumbs, then plunged those members into their mouths, and again into the bowls, with a rapidity truly admirable. The thumb and tongue are the only napkins in Khaurism ; rater is never thrown away upon either bowl or person. The Tartars arc right not to eat with their women. Imagine a pretty girl, with a sheep's head in both her lily hands, tearing off the scalp, picking out the eyes by the insertion of her fore-finger, cracking them between her teeth like gooseberries, thrusting the same pretty finger in after the brain, and sucking away at the apertures. All which I saw executed by one of the men, in a most natural and edifying manner.

The narrative of Captain ABBOTT'S journey through Russia, his sojourn at St. Petersburg, his trip to England, and his remarks at home, have less interest than his Asiatic journey ; partly because the Russian tour was performed boxed up in a carriage, but chiefly because so many persons have written upon the same themes. The plan of the author, moreover, conveys the idea of a series of articles rather than of a regular narrative : but the effects of Euro-

pean civilization upon Afghans, who appear never even to have been at an English station, is a point of interest.

THE NATIVES AT OOHS:FILM

We now saw rising upon the horizon the spires of the fair town of Oorahlsk. I was unprepared for so extensive a town; still less could I have anticipated any thing so beautiful as its main street. With eyes so long accustomed to the miserable domestic architecture of the Hindoo and Moosulmaun, I was perhaps no right judge of the beauty of European cities, considered as such. I was indeed delighted with Oorahlsk, and my people were wonderstrnck. To them it was all enchantment. The wide, free, clean street, the elegant houses, t he least a palace in their eyes—the beautiful women, dressed in a costume quite new to them, and elegant in the eyes of the most fastidious, walking sinveiled in the streets, yet without any other appearance of immodesty—all struck Nizaum, my more immediate attendant, as a page from the volume of Paradise.

SUMMUD /CHAIN AT COVENT GARDEN THEATRE.

But the exhibition that gave him the most intense delight was Covent -Garden Theatre. I took him there twice to see the Midsummer Night's Dream, a piece got up in a style of splendour never perhaps equalled. The theatre itself, with all its galleries, its beautiful faces and brilliant lights, was a sufficient marvel : but when the performance commenced the enchantment was complete. The scenery, so exquisitely delineated—the figures, beautiful in themselves, and apparelled as only Peris appear—the beautiful singing—the -dancing, from which I myself could not for an instant withdraw the eye—the -winged things floating in t he air, or rising through the earth—all bewildered and

d elighted him • and he still declares, that of all the wonderful and delightful things possessed by the English, their play of Fairies is the most marvellous. I was astonished to perceive in him so just an appreciation of the several vocal performinces. He distinguished the Fairy King among these, a part taken by Vestris ; and Miss Rainaford, who acted the part of another fairy, also attracted his notice. I explained to him the story as tile play proceeded. The machinery of Fairies we have ourselves borrowed from Asia, and it was easily comprehended by him. When Puck springs into the air and flies across the stage, he was at first startled and bewildered; but he soon recovered, and re- marked, " You do that by means of wires." Bully Bottom's metamorphosis he readily comprehended. The sagacious looks of the ass, and the motions of its ear when the Fairy Queen is whispering her love secrets, were all duly ap- preciated. The piece closes by the sudden apparition df Fairies on earth and fluttering in mid air, bearing each a torch in her hand. In short, Fairy-land itself is outdone; and I will venture to say that Summud's most exaggerated notion of the glories of Peristaun never came up to this elegant exhibition.

Affixed to the narrative is a memoir on the geography, produc- tions, manners and customs, of the kingdom of Khaurism, of which Khiva is the capital. In this paper the literary ability of Captain ABBOTT gives force and spirit to the account, without detracting from its authority. It appears to us a useful and con- densed view of a country but little known.