boats, had ninety tubs of oil in his winter-habitation, and five and twenty feals buried in the fnow against the season of darkness. When he saw the beauty of Ajut, he immediately threw over her the fkin of a deer that he had taken, and foon after prefented her with a branch of coral. Ajut refufed his gifts, and determined to admit no lover in the place of Anningait.

Norng fuk, thus rejected, had recourse to stratagem. He knew that Ajut would confult an angekkok, or diviner, concerning the fate of her lover, and the felicity of her future life. He therefore applied himself to the most celebrated angekkok of that part of the country; and, by a present of two feals and a marble kettle, obtained a promise, that when Ajut fhould confult him, he would declare that her lover was in the land of fouls. Ajut, in a fhort time, brought him a coat made by herself, and enquired what events were to befal her, with affurances of a much larger reward at the return of Anningait, if the prediction should flatter her defires. The angekkok knew the way to riches; and therefore declared, that Anningait, having already caught two whales, would foon return home with a large boat laden with provifions.

This prognoftication fhe was ordered to keep fecret; and therefore Norngfuk, depending upon his artifice, renewed his addreffes with greater confidence ;

confidence; but finding himself ftill unfuccessful, applied himself to her parents with gifts and pro mifes. The wealth of Greenland is too powerful for the virtue of a Greenlander: they forgot the merit and the presents of Anningait, and decreed Ajut to the embrace of Norng fuk. She entreated; fhe remonftrated; fhe wept, and raved: but finding riches irrefiftible, fhe fled away into the uplands, and lived in a cave, upon berries, and birds or hares which fhe had the fortune to enfnare; taking care, at an hour when she was not likely to be found, to view the fea every day, that her lover might not miss her at his return.

At laft fhe faw the great boat in which Anningait had departed, ftealing flow and heavy laden along the coaft. She ran with all the impatience of affection to catch her lover in her arms, and to tell him her conftancy and fufferings. When the company reached the land, they informed her, that Anningait, when the fishery was ended, being unable to fupport the flow paffage of the veffel of carriage, had fet out before them in his fishingboat, and they expected at their arrival to find him on fhore.

Ajut, diftracted at this intelligence, was about to fly again into the hills without knowing why. But she was now in the hands of her parents; who forced her back to their own hut, and endeavour

ed to comfort her. They at laft retired to reft; and Ajut went down to the beach; where finding a fishing-boat, fhe entered it without hefitation; and telling those who wondered at her rashness, that fhe was going in fearch of Anningait, rowed away with great fwiftnefs, and was feen no more.

The fate of these lovers gave occafion to various fictions and conjectures. Some were of opinion, that they are changed into ftars; others imagine, that Anningait was feized in his paffage by the genius of the rocks, and that Ajut was transformed into a mermaid, and still continues to feek her lover in the defarts of the fea. But the general perfuafion is, that they are both in that part of the land of fouls where the fun never fets, where oil is always fresh, and provifions are always warm. The virgins fometimes throw a thimble and a needle into the bay from which the hapless maid departed; and when a Greenlander would praise any couple for virtuous affection, he declares that they love like Anningait and Ajut.

N° 188.

N° 188. Saturday, January 4. 1752.

29

-Si te colo, Sexte, non amabo.

MART.

N

ONE of the defires dictated by vanity, is more general or more reasonable, than that of being diftinguished for the arts of Other accomplishments may be

converfation. poffeffed without opportunity of exerting them, or wanted without danger that the defect can often be remarked; but no man can live, otherwife than in an hermitage, without hourly pleasure or vexation from the fondness or neglect of those about him. There are perhaps few more frequently envied than those who have the power of forcing attention wherever they come, whofe entrance is confidered as a promise of felicity, and whofe departure is always lamented, like the recefs of the fun from northern climates, as a privation of all that enlivens fancy or infpirits gaiety.

It is apparent, that, to excel in this valuable art, fome peculiar qualifications are neceffary: for every one's experience will inform him, that the pleasure which men are able to give in conversa

tion, holds no ftated proportion to their knowledge or their virtue. Many find their way to the tables, and the parties of those who never conûder them as of the leaft importance in any other place. We have all, at one time or other, been content to love those whom we could not esteem; and been perfuaded to try the dangerous experiment of admitting him for a companion, whom we knew to be too ignorant for a counsellor, and too treacherous for a friend.

I know not, indeed, whether fome abatement of character is not almost neceffary to general acceptance. Few can spend their time with much satisfaction under the eye of uncontefted fuperiority; and therefore, among those who are received with univerfal welcome, and whose presence is courted at every affembly of jollity, there are feldom to be found men eminently diftinguished for powers of nature or acquifitions of study. The wit, whofe vivacity condemns flower tongues to filence; the scholar, whofe knowledge allows no man to fancy that he inftructs him; the reasoner, who fuffers no fophifm to pass undetected, who condemns negligence to thought, and idleness to attention; are generally praised and feared, reverenced and avoided.

He that would please, must rarely aim at fuch excellence as depreffes his hearers in their own opinion,