those of a publick Nature, were ever punish’d. Whatever Misdemeanour was otherwise committed, all the Revenge the Neighbours took, was to avoid the Company of the Offenders, to whom such a general Contempt was usually so intolerable, that many have died for Grief, and as many more have laid violent Hands upon themselves through a Weariness of Life. Chronology they know nothing of, only they compute their Years from the Eclipse of the Sun, which happens by the Interposition of the Planet _Nazar_; so that when you enquire how old any one is, their Answer is, that he is so many Eclipses old. Their Physicks are excessively barren and absurd; they believe the Sun is a Golden Plate, and the Planet _Nazar_ a Cheese. When I enquir’d the Reason why at stated Times the Planet _Nazar_ increas’d and decreas’d, they reply’d, that they knew nothing at all about it. Their Wealth and Substance consists chiefly in Swine, which they distinguish by some particular Mark, and then suffer them to run loose in the Woods. They scourge and beat all such Trees as bear no Fruit, from a foolish Opinion, that their Sterility proceeds from Malice and Envy. Such was the State of this poor miserable People, whom I almost despair’d of ever reducing to Humanity; but recollecting that Assertion of the Poet, _Nemo adeo ferus est, ut non mitescere possit, Si modo culturæ patientem præbeat aurem_, I took Courage, and employ’d the whole Force of my Capacity and Abilities in reforming these Barbarians. For these my Endeavours, and the Success which attended them, they regarded me as something above the Race of Mortals, and so extravagant an Opinion did they entertain of my Wisdom, that they thought nothing was impossible to me. Upon the Loss of Cattle or Goods, they would come, at all Hours, to my Hut, and implore my Assistance. One Day I saw a poor Peasant prostrate before my Door weeping and wringing his Hands, and crying out to me to help him. Upon Inquiry into the Occasion of his Grief, he complain’d to me of the Perverseness and Ill-Nature of his Trees, and begg’d me to interpose my Authority to make them bear more Acorns.