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Mr. Richardson observes, "that in the East, men of rank in general carried with them pocket astronomical tables, which they consulted on every affair of moment." These tablets, however, were of the magical kind; and such as often occur in works of romance. Thus, in Boiardo, Orlando receives, from the father of the youth he had rescued, "a book that would solve all doubts:" and, in Ariosto, Logistilla bestows upon Astolpho a similar directory.

Such unfortunate beings, as are thus "curtailed of fair proportion," have been, for ages, an appendage of Eastern grandeur. One part of their office consists in the instruction of the pages, but their principal duty is the amusement of their master. If a dwarf happen to be a mute, he is much esteemed; but if he be also an eunuch, he is regarded as a prodigy; and no pains or expense are spared to obtain him. Habesci's State of the Ottoman Empire, p. 164, &c.