It was not among the troubadours and provencals of France, and the improvisatori of Italy, that the custom of extempore recitation alone existed. It flourished and was carried to great perfection in Arabia during the caliphat, and in many other Oriental nations. The Arabians indeed are said to have been the inventors both of extempore recitation and of rhyme, from whom it came to the Spaniards, and thence into France and Italy. [i] And in all the Oriental nations it was almost constantly accompanied with music. We have, throughout the Arabian Nights, continual examples of this; and there never seems to have been a grand entertainment, where these recitations, as well as dancing, were not introduced. As a specimen of this, and it is the last I shall insert, I have been tempted to give the following extempore verses by Ebn Alramacram, the occasion of which is said, by Abulfeda, to have been as follows: Carawash, sultan of Mousel, being in a party with his principal musician, Barkaidy, his vizier, Ebn Fadhi, his chamberlain, Jaber, and Ebn Alramacram, the poet, he determined to amuse himself at the expense of his companions. He therefore commanded Alramacram to recite some verses, which, at the same time that they satirised his officers, should compliment himself. The poet obeyed: and taking the night which happened to be stormy, for his subject, instantly replied as follows: Lowering as Barkaidy’s face The wintry night came in, Cold as the music of his bass, And lengthen’d as his chin. Sleep from my aching eyes had fled, And kept as far apart, As sense from Ebn Fadhi’s head, Or virtue from his heart. The dubious paths my footsteps balk'd, I slipp’d along the sod, As if on Jaber’s faith I’d walk’d, Or on his truth had trod. At length the rising king of day Burst on the gloomy wood, Like Carawash’s eye, whose ray Dispenses every good. In India too, at this time, their exists a different species of improvisatori. Instead of having newspapers, as with us, to accompany the breakfast table, (there are indeed newspapers in the East, but they are chiefly for the use of Europeans,) where the fatigue of reading would be too great for Asiatic enjoyment, there is a set of men, whose regular profession it is to go round and report the news of every sort, that may have happened. And to this they constantly add the knowledge of a variety of stories, tales, and apologues, which, at the desire of their employer, they recite with great animation, humour, and action, as long as he wishes to be amused. And while this is going on, he attends to the reciter or not, while he enjoys his hooka, takes his coffee, or reclines at ease on his sofa. Many of these stories also are of a similar nature to some in the following work. And instances are not uncommon, in which these men have continued such recitation without any cessation for four or five hours together.