'A Dictionary, Persian, Arabic, and English; with a Dissertation on the Languages, Literature, and Manners of Eastern Nations' [‎31v] (67/1826)

xlvi
DISSERTATION.
son succeeds to his father in preference to his
elder brothers. Sir William Blackstone, after
mentioning the opinions of Littleton and other
eminent lawyers, in regard to the origin of this
strange custom, conjectures, with great judgment,
that it might be deduced from the Tartars.
Amongst those people, the elder sons, as they
grew to man’s estate, migrated from their father
with a certain portion of cattle ; and the youngest
son only remaining at home, became in conse
quence the heir to his father’s house, and all his
remaining possessions. Changlz Khan had, agree
ably to this idea, given to his four eldest sons
great governments and great offices; but 01 ug
always attended his person. During the interval
of forty days, therefore, from the meeting of the
great Tartar assembly, till the installation of Octay
Khan, this youngest brother seems to have been
acknowledged by him and the other princes as
lord of the family : he was a kind of public ad
ministrator during this interregnum; and presented
the Great Khan with the cup, on his enthrone
ment, as the highest token of Eastern hospitality
which the master of a family can show to a guest. 85
In the above outlines, we can observe several
strong traces of Gothic government. We can
perceive the ruder draughts of states-general, of
parliaments, of juries ; and, in the circumstances
of the electors and elected, some striking features
of that system which still unites the great Ger
manic body. We can see, in the bent of national
genius, the strongest marks of wild freedom, with
a regular gradation of military vassals ; and al
though, in their own country, from a general at
tachment to pastoral life, fiefs, or possessions in
land, formed no part of Tartar jurisprudence or
property ; yet when they settled in the West, a
difference of situation would naturally suggest
an alteration adapted to it. The more steady
temper of the native Scandinavians and Germans
would modify the roaming Scythian spirit ; a
superior attachment to a particular spot would
naturally arise; as the country became more po
pulous, ground would become more valuable ; and
what was formerly in common, to avoid disputes,
would then be portioned off. A wish to defend
this property from new inroads might soon pro
duce a more permanent and solid system of subor
dination ; and the more irregular feudal ideas of
the Tartars, improved by territorial possession,
pave thus, by degrees, the way for that more re
fined system, so peculiarly adapted to the situa
tion of settling invaders ; which, in the fifth and
following centuries, almost universally took place
in Europe. 86
Next to the feudal system, and other maxims
of civil government, which regulated the property
and politics of the middle ages, few speculative
subjects are more worthy of our attention than
those novel ideas of supernatural beings, which
ruled their minds with most resistless force. The
universal belief in various orders of superhuman
creatures, has prevailed in many parts of Asia long-
before the era of authentic history ; and such com
plete possession have they taken of Eastern ima
gination, that the most serious, as well as the most
fanciful compositions, are filled with perpetual
allusions to those imaginary beings. To under
stand Homer, we must have a previous knowledge
of the dignities and attributes of the Grecian
deities : to comprehend the writers of the East, we
should have an acquaintance with the mythology
and popular beliefs of Eastern nations. For this
purpose, I have thrown into the Dictionary slight
sketches of what seemed most peculiarly Asiatic;
and shall here bring those remarks under one point
of view; with such additional observations as
could not, with propriety, find any alphabetical
place, or which may appear necessary to illustrate
and connect the whole. 87
The fabulous Asiatic ages stretch far beyond the
creation of man. They suppose the world to have
been repeatedly peopled by creatures of different
formation, who were successively annihilated or
banished for disobedience to the Supreme Being.
An Eastern romance introduces the hero Kahraman
in Conversation with the monstrous bird or griffon
Simurgh ; who tells him that she had already lived