months. For the fame reasons a variety of stories are not used in the Chinefe buildings; as neither a fecond nor third ftory would be habitable during the great heats of fummer or the rigorous cold of winter. Though Peking is fituated in the northern part of the empire, the heat there, during the dog-days, is fo intolerably fcorch ing, that the police obliges tradesmen and fhopkeepers to fleep in the open air in the piazzas of their houses, left they thould be ftifled by retiring into their inner apartments. The habitations of people of rank, or of thofe in eafy circumstances, generally confift of five large courts, inclofed with buildings on every fide. The method of building with several stories was, however, followed for feveral centuries, when the court refided in the fouthern provinces; and the taste for this kind of building was carried to fuch an height, that immenfe edifices were erected from 150 to 200 feet in height, and the pavilions or towers at the extremities rofe upwards of 300 feet. This kind of building, however, at length became difgufting; though either to preserve the remembrance of it, or for the fake of variety, there are ftill fome buildings to be seen several stories high in palaces belonging to the emperor.

A multiplicity of bridges are rend ered necessary in China by the vaft number of canals and rivers which interfect the empire. Anciently, however, the Chinese bridges were much more ingenious as well as magnificent than they are at prefent. Some of them were fo contrived that they could be erected in one day to fupply the place of others which might happen to be broken down, or for other purposes. At that time they had bridges which derived their name from their figure; as refembling the rainbow; draw-bridges, bridges to move with pullies, compass bridges, &c. with many others entirely unknown at prefent. The building of bridges indeed was once a luxurious folly of the emperors; fo that they were multiplied from whim or caprice, without. any neceffity, and without ufe. Still, however, many of them are extreme

The

ly beautiful and magnificent. arches of fome are very lofty and acute, with easy stairs on each fide, the steps of which are not quite three inches in thickness, for the greater facility of afcending and defcending: others have no arches, but are compofed of large ftones, fometimes 18 feet in length, placed tranfverfely upon piles like planks. Some of these bridges are conftructed of stone, marble, or brick; others of wood; and fome are formed of a certain number of barks joined together by very ftrong iron chains. These are known by the name of floating bridges, and feveral of them are to be feen on the large rivers Kiang and Hoang-ho.

For feveral centuries the Chinese have made no progress in ship-building. Their veffels have neither mizen, bowfprit, nor top-maft. They have only a main and fore mast, to which is fometimes added a small topgallant maft. The main-maft is placed almost in the fame part of the deck as ours; but the fore-mast stands much farther forward. The latter is to the former in the proportion of two to three; and the main-mast is generally two-thirds of the length of the veffel. They ufe mats for fails, strengthening them with whole bamboos equal in length to the breadth of the fail, and extended across it at the diftance of a foot from one another. Two pieces of wood are fixed to the top and bottom of the fail; the upper ferves as a fail-yard; and the lower, which is about five or fix inches in thickness, keeps the fail ftretched when it is neceffary to hoist or lower it. This kind of fail may be folded or unfolded like a fcreen. For caulking their veffels they do not ufe pitch, but a particular kind of gum mixed with lime, which forms a compofition of fuch excellent quality that one or two wells in the hold are fufficient to keep the veffel dry. They have not yet adopted the use of pumps, and therefore draw up the water with buckets. Their anchors are made of the hard wood called ironwood, which they fay is much fuperior to the metal, because the latter fometimes bend, but the former never do. The Chinese pretend to have

been

qualities and conditions; from the prince who wore it at full length, to the flave or villain who was quite cropt. To cut off the hair of a fon of France, under the first race of kings, was to declare him excluded from the right of fucceeding to the crown, and reduced to the condition of a fubject.

In the eighth century, it was the custom of people of quality to have their childrens hair cut the first time by perfons they had a particular honour and esteem for: who, in virtue of this ceremony, were reputed a fort of fpiritual parents or godfathers thereof though this practice appears to have been more ancient; inafmuch as we read, that Conftantine fent the pope the hair of his fon Heraclius, as a token that he defired him to be his adoptive father.

The parade of long hair became ftill more and more obnoxions in the progrefs of Chriftianity, as fomething utterly inconfiftent with the profeffion of perfons who bore the crofs. Hence numerous injunctions and canons to the contrary.-Pope Anicetus is commonly fuppofed to have been the firft who forbade the clergy to wear long hair: but the prohibtion is of an older standing in the churches of the eaft; and the letter wherein that decree is written is of a much later date than that pope. The clerical tonfure is related by Ifidore Hifpalenfis as of apoftolical institution.

Long hair was anciently held fo odious, that there is a canon still extant of the year 1096, importing, that fuch as wore long hair fhould be ex:cluded coming into church while living, and not be prayed for when dead. We have a furious declamation of Luitprand against the emperor Phocas, for wearing long hair, after the manner of the other emperors of the eaft, all except Theophilas, who, being bald, enjoined all his fubjects to fhave their heads.

The French hiftorians and antiquaries have been very exact in recording the head of hair of their feveral kings. Charlemagne wore it very fhort; his fon fhorter; Charles the bald had none at all. Under

Hugh Capet it began to appear again: this the ecclefiaftics took in dudgeon, and excommunicated all who let their hair grow. Peter Lombard expoftulated the matter fo warmly with Charles the Young, that he cut off his hair; and his fucceffors for fome ge nerations wore it very fhort.-A profeífor of Utrecht, in 1650, wrote exprefsly on the question, Whether it be lawful for men to wear long hair? and concluded for the negative.Another divine, named Reves, who had written for the affirmative, replied to him.

The ancient Britons were extremely proud of the length and beauty of their hair, and were at much pains in drefling and adorning their heads. Some of them carried their fondnets for and admiration of their hair to an extravagant height. It is faid to have been the last and most earnest request of a young warrior, who was taken prifoner and condemned to be beheaded, that no flave might be permitted to touch his hair, which was remarkably long and beautiful, and that it might not be stained with his blood. We hardly ever meet with a description of a fine woman or beauti ful man, in the poems of Offian, but their hair is mentioned as one of their greatest beauties. Not contented with the natural colour of their hair, which was commonly fair or yellow, they made ufe of certain washes to render it ftill brighter. One of these washes was a compofition of lime, the afhes of certain vegetables, and tallow. They made ufe of various arts also to make the hair of their heads grow thick and long; which laft was not only esteemed a great beauty, but was confidered as a mark of dignity and noble birth. Boadicea, queen of the Britons, is defcribed by Dio with very long hair, flowing over her fhoulders, and reaching down below the middle of her back. The Britons fhaved all their beards except their upper lips, the hair of which they, as well as the Gauls, allowed to grow to a very inconvenient length.

In after-times, the Anglo-Saxons and Danes alfo confidered fine hair as one of the greatest beauties and ornaments of their perfons, and were at

hair, dreamed that a person fuffocated him with its curls.. As foon as he awoke from his fleep, he cut his hair to a decent length. The report of this spread over all England, and almost all the knights reduced their hair to the proper ftandard. But this reformation was not of long continuance; for in lefs than a year all who wished to appear fashionable returned to their former wickedness."

Almoft the only disease of the hair, befides the remarkable one called plica polonica, is its falling off, or baldnefs. For this many remedies have been recommended, but fcarce any of them can be depended upon. The juice of burdock, and the lixivial falts of vine-ashes, are said to be efficacious; alfo the powder of hermodactyls, and the decoction of boxwood. Remarkable inftances of the efficacy of this last have often been experienced. Some authors give instances of the hair changing its colour in a fhort time, through grief, or by reafon of a fright, &c.

The Greeks, and, after their example, the Romans, wore false hair. Hair makes a very confiderable article in commerce, efpecially fince the fashion of falfe hair has fo much obtained. The hair of the growth of the northern countries, as England, &c. is valued much beyond that of the more fouthern ones, as Italy, Spain, the fouth parts of France, &c. However, most of the hair used in this country by the wig-makers, and for falfe queues, &c. &c. is brought to us from France, where many people promote the growth of their hair with uncommon care for the purpose of felling it from time to time.

The merit of good hair confifts in its being well fed, and neither too coarse nor too flender; the bignefs rendering it lefs fufceptible of the artificial curl, and difpofing it rather to frizzle; and the fmallness making its curl of too fhort duration. Its length

fhould be about 25 inches; the more it falls fhort of this, the less value it bears.

The scarcenefs of grey and white hair has introduced methods of reducing other colours to this. This is done by fpreading thehair to bleach on the grafs like linen, after first washing it out in a lixivious water. This lye, with the force of the fun and air, brings the hair to fo perfect a whiteness, that the most experien ced perfon may be deceived therein; there being scarce any way of detecting the artifice, but by boiling and drying it, which leaves the hair of the colour of a dead walnut-tree leaf.

There is also a method of dying hair with bifmuth, which renders fuch white hair as borders too much upon the yellow of a bright filver colour: boiling is the proof of this too, the bifmuth not being able to stand it.

Hair may be alfo changed from a red, grey, or other difagreeable colour, to a brown or deep black, by a folution of filver. The liquors fold under the name of hair-waters are at bottom no more than folutions of filver in aqua-fortis, largely, diluted with water, with the addition perhaps of other ingredients which contribute nothing to their efficacy. The folution fhould be fully saturated with the filver, that there may be no more acid in it than is necessary for holding the metal diffolved; and, befides dilution with water, a little spirit of wine may be added for the further dulcification of the acid. must be observed, that for diluting the folution, diftilled water, or pure rain-water, muft be used; the com mon fpring-waters turning it milky, and precipitating a part of the diffolved filver. It is to be observed also, that, if the liquor touches the skin, it has the fame effect on it as on the matter to be stained, changing the part moistened with it to an indelible black. Hair may also be dyed of any colour, in the fame manner as wool.

It

that impracticable,

ftretched to the fouthward, conformably to our directions. We then ftood