Who has not heard of the Vale of CASHMERE,
With its roses the brightest that earth ever gave,[278]
Its temples and grottos and fountains as clear
As the love-lighted eyes that hang over their wave?
Oh! to see it at sunset,--when warm o'er the Lake
Its splendor at parting a summer eve throws,
Like a bride full of blushes when lingering to take
A last look of her mirror at night ere she goes!--
When the shrines thro' the foliage are gleaming half shown,
And each hallows the hour by some rites of its own.
Here the music of prayer from a minaret swells,
Here the Magian his urn full of perfume is swinging,
And here at the altar a zone of sweet bells
Round the waist of some fair Indian dancer is ringing.[279]
Or to see it by moonlight when mellowly shines
The light o'er its palaces, gardens, and shrines,
When the water-falls gleam like a quick fall of stars
And the nightingale's hymn from the Isle of Chenars
Is broken by laughs and light echoes of feet
From the cool, shining walks where the young people meet.--
Or at morn when the magic of daylight awakes
A new wonder each minute as slowly it breaks,
Hills, cupolas, fountains, called forth every one
Out of darkness as if but just born of the Sun.
When the Spirit of Fragrance is up with the day
From his Haram of night-flowers stealing away;
And the wind full of wantonness wooes like a lover
The young aspen-trees,[280]
till they tremble all over.
When the East is as warm as the light of first hopes,
And day with his banner of radiance unfurled
Shines in thro' the mountainous portal[281] that opes,
Sublime, from that Valley of bliss to the world!
But never yet by night or day,
In dew of spring or summer's ray,
Did the sweet Valley shine so gay
As now it shines--all love and light,
Visions by day and feasts by night!
A happier smile illumes each brow;
With quicker spread each heart uncloses,
And all is ecstasy--for now
The Valley holds its Feast of Roses;[282]
The joyous Time when pleasures pour
Profusely round and in their shower
Hearts open like the Season's Rose,--
The Floweret of a hundred leaves[283]
Expanding while the dew-fall flows
And every leaf its balm receives.
'Twas when the hour of evening came
Upon the Lake, serene and cool,
When day had hid his sultry flame
Behind the palms of BARAMOULE,
When maids began to lift their heads.
Refresht from their embroidered beds
Where they had slept the sun away,
And waked to moonlight and to play.
All were abroad:--the busiest hive
On BELA'S[284] hills is less alive
When saffron-beds are full in flower,
Than lookt the Valley in that hour.
A thousand restless torches played
Thro' every grove and island shade;
A thousand sparkling lamps were set
On every dome and minaret;
And fields and pathways far and near
Were lighted by a blaze so clear
That you could see in wandering round
The smallest rose-leaf on the ground,
Yet did the maids and matrons leave
Their veils at home, that brilliant eve;
And there were glancing eyes about
And cheeks that would not dare shine out
In open day but thought they might
Look lovely then, because 'twas night.
And all were free and wandering
And all exclaimed to all they met,
That never did the summer bring
So gay a Feast of Roses yet;--
The moon had never shed a light
So clear as that which blest them there;
The roses ne'er shone half so bright,
Nor they themselves lookt half so fair.
And what a wilderness of flowers!
It seemed as tho' from all the bowers
And fairest fields of all the year,
The mingled spoil were scattered here.
The lake too like a garden breathes
With the rich buds that o'er it lie,--
As if a shower of fairy wreaths
Had fallen upon it from the sky!
And then the sounds of joy,--the beat
Of tabors and of dancing feet;--
The minaret-crier's chant of glee
Sung from his lighted gallery,[285]
And answered by a ziraleet
From neighboring Haram, wild and sweet;--
The merry laughter echoing
From gardens where the silken swing[286]
Wafts some delighted girl above
The top leaves of the orange-grove;
Or from those infant groups at play
Among the tents[287] that line the way,
Flinging, unawed by slave or mother,
Handfuls of roses at each other.--
Then the sounds from the Lake,--the low whispering in boats,
As they shoot thro' the moonlight,--the dipping of oars
And the wild, airy warbling that everywhere floats
Thro' the groves, round the islands, as if all the shores
Like those of KATHAY uttered music and gave
An answer in song to the kiss on each wave.[288]
But the gentlest of all are those sounds full of feeling
That soft from the lute of some lover are stealing,--
Some lover who knows all the heart-touching power
Of a lute and a sigh in this magical hour.
Oh! best of delights as it everywhere is
To be near the loved _One_,--what a rapture is his
Who in moonlight and music thus sweetly may glide
O'er the Lake of CASHMERE with that _One_ by his side!
If woman can make the worst wilderness dear,
Think, think what a Heaven she must make of CASHMERE!
So felt the magnificent Son of ACBAR,
When from power and pomp and the trophies of war
He flew to that Valley forgetting them all
With the Light of the HARAM, his young NOURMAHAL.
When free and uncrowned as the Conqueror roved
By the banks of that Lake with his only beloved
He saw in the wreaths she would playfully snatch
From the hedges a glory his crown could not match,
And preferred in his heart the least ringlet that curled
Down her exquisite neck to the throne of the world.
There's a beauty for ever unchangingly bright,
Like the long, sunny lapse of a summer-day's light,
Shining on, shining on, by no shadow made tender
Till Love falls asleep in its sameness of splendor.
This _was_ not the beauty--oh, nothing like this
That to young NOURMAHAL gave such magic of bliss!
But that loveliness ever in motion which plays
Like the light upon autumn's soft shadowy days,
Now here and now there, giving warmth as it flies
From the lip to the cheek, from the cheek to the eyes;
Now melting in mist and now breaking in gleams,
Like the glimpses a saint hath of Heaven in his dreams.
When pensive it seemed as if that very grace,
That charm of all others, was born with her face!
And when angry,--for even in the tranquillest climes
Light breezes will ruffle the blossoms sometimes--
The short, passing anger but seemed to awaken
New beauty like flowers that are sweetest when shaken.
If tenderness touched her, the dark of her eye
At once took a darker, a heavenlier dye,
From the depth of whose shadow like holy revealings
From innermost shrines came the light of her feelings.
Then her mirth--oh! 'twas sportive as ever took wing
From the heart with a burst like the wild-bird in spring;
Illumed by a wit that would fascinate sages,
Yet playful as Peris just loosed from their cages.[289]
While her laugh full of life, without any control
But the sweet one of gracefulness, rung from her soul;
And where it most sparkled no glance could discover,
In lip, cheek, or eyes, for she brightened all over,--
Like any fair lake that the breeze is upon
When it breaks into dimples and, laughs in the sun.
Such, such were the peerless enchantments that gave
NOURMAHAL the proud Lord of the East for her slave:
And tho' bright was his Haram,--a living parterre
Of the flowers[290] of this planet--tho' treasures were there,
For which SOLIMAN'S self might have given all the store
That the navy from OPHIR e'er winged to his shore,
Yet dim before _her_ were the smiles of them all
And the Light of his Haram was young NOURMAHAL!
But where is she now, this night of joy,
When bliss is every heart's employ?--
When all around her is so bright,
So like the visions of a trance,
That one might think, who came by chance
Into the vale this happy night,
He saw that City of Delight[291]
In Fairy-land, whose streets and towers
Are made of gems and light and flowers!
Where is the loved Sultana? where,
When mirth brings out the young and fair,
Does she, the fairest, hide her brow
In melancholy stillness now?
Alas!--how light a cause may move
Dissension between hearts that love!
Hearts that the world in vain had tried
And sorrow but more closely tied;
That stood the storm when waves were rough
Yet in a sunny hour fall off,
Like ships that have gone down at sea
When heaven was all tranquillity!
A something light as air--a look,
A word unkind or wrongly taken--
Oh! love that tempests never shook,
A breath, a touch like this hath shaken.
And ruder words will soon rush in
To spread the breach that words begin;
And eyes forget the gentle ray
They wore in courtship's smiling day;
And voices lose the tone that shed
A tenderness round all they said;
Till fast declining one by one
The sweetnesses of love are gone,
And hearts so lately mingled seem
Like broken clouds,--or like the stream
That smiling left the mountain's brow
As tho' its waters ne'er could sever,
Yet ere it reach the plain below,
Breaks into floods that part for ever.
Oh, you that have the charge of Love,
Keep him in rosy bondage bound,
As in the Fields of Bliss above
He sits with flowerets fettered round;--
Loose not a tie that round him clings.
Nor ever let him use his wings;
For even an hour, a minute's flight
Will rob the plumes of half their light.
Like that celestial bird whose nest
Is found beneath far Eastern skies,
Whose wings tho' radiant when at rest
Lose all their glory when he flies![292]
Some difference of this dangerous kind,--
By which, tho' light, the links that bind
The fondest hearts may soon be riven;
Some shadow in Love's summer heaven,
Which, tho' a fleecy speck at first
May yet in awful thunder burst;--
Such cloud it is that now hangs over
The heart of the Imperial Lover,
And far hath banisht from his sight
His NOURMAHAL, his Haram's Light!
Hence is it on this happy night
When Pleasure thro' the fields and groves
Has let loose all her world of loves
And every heart has found its own
He wanders joyless and alone
And weary as that bird of Thrace
Whose pinion knows no resting place.[293]
In vain the loveliest cheeks and eyes
This Eden of the Earth supplies
Come crowding round--the cheeks are pale,
The eyes are dim:--tho' rich the spot
With every flower this earth has got
What is it to the nightingale
If there his darling rose is not?[294]
In vain the Valley's smiling throng
Worship him as he moves along;
He heeds them not--one smile of hers
Is worth a world of worshippers.
They but the Star's adorers are,
She is the Heaven that lights the Star!
Hence is it too that NOURMAHAL,
Amid the luxuries of this hour,
Far from the joyous festival
Sits in her own sequestered bower,
With no one near to soothe or aid,
But that inspired and wondrous maid,
NAMOUNA, the Enchantress;--one
O'er whom his race the golden sun
For unremembered years has run,
Yet never saw her blooming brow
Younger or fairer than 'tis now.
Nay, rather,--as the west wind's sigh
Freshens the flower it passes by,--
Time's wing but seemed in stealing o'er
To leave her lovelier than before.
Yet on her smiles a sadness hung,
And when as oft she spoke or sung
Of other worlds there came a light
From her dark eyes so strangely bright
That all believed nor man nor earth
Were conscious of NAMOUNA'S birth!
All spells and talismans she knew,
From the great Mantra,[295] which around
The Air's sublimer Spirits drew,
To the gold gems[296] of AFRIC, bound
Upon the wandering Arab's arm
To keep him from the Siltim's[297] harm.
And she had pledged her powerful art,--
Pledged it with all the zeal and heart
Of one who knew tho' high her sphere,
What 'twas to lose a love so dear,--
To find some spell that should recall
Her Selim's[298] smile to NOURMAHAL!
'Twas midnight--thro' the lattice wreathed
With woodbine many a perfume breathed
From plants that wake when others sleep.
From timid jasmine buds that keep
Their odor to themselves all day
But when the sunlight dies away
Let the delicious secret out
To every breeze that roams about;--
When thus NAMOUNA:--"'Tis the hour
"That scatters spells on herb and flower,
"And garlands might be gathered now,
"That twined around the sleeper's brow
"Would make him dream of such delights,
"Such miracles and dazzling sights
"As Genii of the Sun behold
"At evening from their tents of gold
"Upon the horizon--where they play
"Till twilight comes and ray by ray
"Their sunny mansions melt away.
"Now too a chaplet might be wreathed
"Of buds o'er which the moon has breathed,
"Which worn by her whose love has strayed
"Might bring some Peri from the skies,
"Some sprite, whose very soul is made
"Of flowerets' breaths and lovers' sighs,
"And who might tell"--
"For me, for me,"
Cried NOURMAHAL impatiently,--
"Oh! twine that wreath for me to-night."
Then rapidly with foot as light
As the young musk-roe's out she flew
To cull each shining leaf that grew
Beneath the moonlight's hallowing beams
For this enchanted Wreath of Dreams.
Anemones and Seas of Gold,[299]
And new-blown lilies of the river,
And those sweet flowerets that unfold
Their buds on CAMADEVA'S quiver;[300]--
The tuberose, with her silvery light,
That in the Gardens of Malay
Is called the Mistress of the Night,[301]
So like a bride, scented and bright,
She comes out when the sun's away:--
Amaranths such as crown the maids
That wander thro' ZAMARA'S shades;[302]--
And the white moon-flower as it shows,
On SERENDIB'S high crags to those
Who near the isle at evening sail,
Scenting her clove-trees in the gale;
In short all flowerets and all plants,
From the divine Amrita tree[303]
That blesses heaven's habitants
With fruits of immortality,
Down to the basil tuft[304] that waves
Its fragrant blossom over graves,
And to the humble rosemary
Whose sweets so thanklessly are shed
To scent the desert[305]and the dead:--
All in that garden bloom and all
Are gathered by young NOURMAHAL,
Who heaps her baskets with the flowers
And leaves till they can hold no more;
Then to NAMOUNA flies and showers
Upon her lap the shining store.
With what delight the Enchantress views
So many buds bathed with the dews
And beams of that blest hour!--her glance
Spoke something past all mortal pleasures,
As in a kind of holy trance
She hung above those fragrant treasures,
Bending to drink their balmy airs,
As if she mixt her soul with theirs.
And 'twas indeed the perfume shed
From flowers and scented flame that fed
Her charmed life--for none had e'er
Beheld her taste of mortal fare,
Nor ever in aught earthly dip,
But the morn's dew, her roseate lip.
Filled with the cool, inspiring smell,
The Enchantress now begins her spell,
Thus singing as she winds and weaves
In mystic form the glittering leaves:--
I know where the winged visions dwell
That around the night-bed play;
I know each herb and floweret's bell,
Where they hide their wings by day.
Then hasten we, maid,
To twine our braid,
To-morrow the dreams and flowers will fade.
The image of love that nightly flies
To visit the bashful maid,
Steals from the jasmine flower that sighs
Its soul like her in the shade.
The dream of a future, happier hour
That alights on misery's brow,
Springs out of the silvery almond-flower
That blooms on a leafless bough.[306]
Then hasten we, maid,
To twine our braid,
To-morrow the dreams and flowers will fade.
The visions that oft to worldly eyes
The glitter of mines unfold
Inhabit the mountain-herb[307] that dyes
The tooth of the fawn like gold.
The phantom shapes--oh touch not them--
That appal the murderer's sight,
Lurk in the fleshly mandrake's stem,
That shrieks when pluckt at night!
Then hasten we, maid,
To twine our braid,
To-morrow the dreams and flowers will fade.
The dream of the injured, patient mind
That smiles at the wrongs of men
Is found in the bruised and wounded rind
Of the cinnamon, sweetest then.
Then hasten we, maid,
To twine our braid,
To-morrow the dreams and flowers will fade.
No sooner was the flowery crown
Placed on her head than sleep came down,
Gently as nights of summer fall,
Upon the lids of NOURMAHAL;--
And suddenly a tuneful breeze
As full of small, rich harmonies
As ever wind that o'er the tents
Of AZAB[308] blew was full of scents,
Steals on her ear and floats and swells
Like the first air of morning creeping
Into those wreathy, Red-Sea shells
Where Love himself of old lay sleeping;[309]
And now a Spirit formed, 'twould seem,
Of music and of light,--so fair,
So brilliantly his features beam,
And such a sound is in the air
Of sweetness when he waves his wings,--
Hovers around her and thus sings:
From CHINDARA'S[310] warbling fount I come,
Called by that moonlight garland's spell;
From CHINDARA'S fount, my fairy home,
Wherein music, morn and night, I dwell.
Where lutes in the air are heard about
And voices are singing the whole day long,
And every sigh the heart breathes out
Is turned, as it leaves the lips, to song!
Hither I come
From my fairy home,
And if there's a magic in Music's strain
I swear by the breath
Of that moonlight wreath
Thy Lover shall sigh at thy feet again.
For mine is the lay that lightly floats
And mine are the murmuring, dying notes
That fall as soft as snow on the sea
And melt in the heart as instantly:--
And the passionate strain that, deeply going,
Refines the bosom it trembles thro'
As the musk-wind over the water blowing
Ruffles the wave but sweetens it too.
Mine is the charm whose mystic sway
The Spirits of past Delight obey;--
Let but the tuneful talisman sound,
And they come like Genii hovering round.
And mine is the gentle song that bears
From soul to soul the wishes of love,
As a bird that wafts thro' genial airs
The cinnamon-seed from grove to grove.[311]
'Tis I that mingle in one sweet measure
The past, the present and future of pleasure;
When Memory links the tone that is gone
With the blissful tone that's still in the ear;
And Hope from a heavenly note flies on
To a note more heavenly still that is near.
The warrior's heart when touched by me,
Can as downy soft and as yielding be
As his own white plume that high amid death
Thro' the field has shone--yet moves with a breath!
And oh, how the eyes of Beauty glisten.
When Music has reached her inward soul,
Like the silent stars that wink and listen
While Heaven's eternal melodies roll.
So hither I come
From my fairy home,
And if there's a magic in Music's strain,
I swear by the breath
Of that moonlight wreath
Thy Lover shall sigh at thy feet again.
'Tis dawn--at least that earlier dawn
Whose glimpses are again withdrawn,[312]
As if the morn had waked, and then
Shut close her lids of light again.
And NOURMAHAL is up and trying
The wonders of her lute whose strings--
Oh, bliss!--now murmur like the sighing
From that ambrosial Spirit's wings.
And then her voice--'tis more than human--
Never till now had it been given
To lips of any mortal woman
To utter notes so fresh from heaven;
Sweet as the breath of angel sighs
When angel sighs are most divine.--
"Oh! let it last till night," she cries,
"And he is more than ever mine."
And hourly she renews the lay,
So fearful lest its heavenly sweetness
Should ere the evening fade away,--
For things so heavenly have such fleetness!
But far from fading it but grows
Richer, diviner as it flows;
Till rapt she dwells on every string
And pours again each sound along,
Like echo, lost and languishing,
In love with her own wondrous song.
That evening, (trusting that his soul
Might be from haunting love released
By mirth, by music and the bowl,)
The Imperial SELIM held a feast
In his magnificent Shalimar:[313]--
In whose Saloons, when the first star
Of evening o'er the waters trembled,
The Valley's loveliest all assembled;
All the bright creatures that like dreams
Glide thro' its foliage and drink beams
Of beauty from its founts and streams;[314]
And all those wandering minstrel-maids,
Who leave--how _can_ they leave?--the shades
Of that dear Valley and are found
Singing in gardens of the South[315]
Those songs that ne'er so sweetly sound
As from a young Cashmerian's mouth.
There too the Haram's inmates smile;--
Maids from the West, with sun-bright hair,
And from the Garden of the NILE,
Delicate as the roses there;[316]--
Daughters of Love from CYPRUS rocks,
With Paphian diamonds in their locks;[317]--
Light PERI forms such as there are
On the gold Meads of CANDAHAR;[318]
And they before whose sleepy eyes
In their own bright Kathaian bowers
Sparkle such rainbow butterflies
That they might fancy the rich flowers
That round them in the sun lay sighing
Had been by magic all set flying.[319]
Every thing young, every thing fair
From East and West is blushing there,
Except--except--oh, NOURMAHAL!
Thou loveliest, dearest of them all,
The one whose smile shone out alone,
Amidst a world the only one;
Whose light among so many lights
Was like that star on starry nights,
The seaman singles from the sky,
To steer his bark for ever by!
Thou wert not there--so SELIM thought,
And every thing seemed drear without thee;
But, ah! thou wert, thou wert,--and brought
Thy charm of song all fresh about thee,
Mingling unnoticed with a band
Of lutanists from many a land,
And veiled by such a mask as shades
The features of young Arab maids,[320]--
A mask that leaves but one eye free,
To do its best in witchery,--
She roved with beating heart around
And waited trembling for the minute
When she might try if still the sound
Of her loved lute had magic in it.
The board was spread with fruits and wine,
With grapes of gold, like those that shine
On CASBIN hills;[321]--pomegranates full
Of melting sweetness, and the pears,
And sunniest apples[322] that CAUBUL
In all its thousand gardens[323] bears;--
Plantains, the golden and the green,
MALAYA'S nectared mangusteen;[324]
Prunes of BOCKHARA, and sweet nuts
From the far groves of SAMARCAND,
And BASRA dates, and apricots,
Seed of the Sun,[325] from IRAN'S land;--
With rich conserve of Visna cherries,[326]
Of orange flowers, and of those berries
That, wild and fresh, the young gazelles
Feed on in ERAC's rocky dells.[327]
All these in richest vases smile,
In baskets of pure santal-wood,
And urns of porcelain from that isle[328]
Sunk underneath the Indian flood,
Whence oft the lucky diver brings
Vases to grace the halls of kings.
Wines too of every clime and hue
Around their liquid lustre threw;
Amber Rosolli,[329]--the bright dew
From vineyards of the Green-Sea gushing;[330]
And SHIRAZ wine that richly ran
As if that jewel large and rare,
The ruby for which KUBLAI-KHAN
Offered a city's wealth,[331] was blushing
Melted within the goblets there!
And amply SELIM quaffs of each,
And seems resolved the flood shall reach
His inward heart,--shedding around
A genial deluge, as they run,
That soon shall leave no spot undrowned
For Love to rest his wings upon.
He little knew how well the boy
Can float upon a goblet's streams,
Lighting them with his smile of joy;--
As bards have seen him in their dreams,
Down the blue GANGES laughing glide
Upon a rosy lotus wreath,[332]
Catching new lustre from the tide
That with his image shone beneath.
But what are cups without the aid
Of song to speed them as they flow?
And see--a lovely Georgian maid
With all the bloom, the freshened glow
Of her own country maidens' looks,
When warm they rise from Teflis' brooks;[333]
And with an eye whose restless ray
Full, floating, dark--oh, he, who knows
His heart is weak, of Heaven should pray
To guard him from such eyes as those!--
With a voluptuous wildness flings
Her snowy hand across the strings
Of a syrinda[334] and thus sings:--
Come hither, come hither--by night and by day,
We linger in pleasures that never are gone;
Like the waves of the summer as one dies away
Another as sweet and as shining comes on.
And the love that is o'er, in expiring gives birth
To a new one as warm, as unequalled in bliss;
And, oh! if there be an Elysium on earth,
It is this, it is this.[335]
Here maidens are sighing, and fragrant their sigh
As the flower of the Amra just oped by a bee;[336]
And precious their tears as that rain from the sky,[337]
Which turns into pearls as it falls in the sea.
Oh! think what the kiss and the smile must be worth
When the sigh and the tear are so perfect in bliss,
And own if there be an Elysium on earth,
It is this, it is this.
Here sparkles the nectar that hallowed by love
Could draw down those angels of old from their sphere,
Who for wine of this earth[338] left the fountains above,
And forgot heaven's stars for the eyes we have here.
And, blest with the odor our goblet gives forth,
What Spirit the sweets of his Eden would miss?
For, oh! if there be an Elysium on earth,
It is this, it is this.
The Georgian's song was scarcely mute,
When the same measure, sound for sound,
Was caught up by another lute
And so divinely breathed around
That all stood husht and wondering,
And turned and lookt into the air,
As if they thought to see the wing
Of ISRAFIL[339] the Angel there;--
So powerfully on every soul
That new, enchanted measure stole.
While now a voice sweet as the note
Of the charmed lute was heard to float
Along its chords and so entwine
Its sounds with theirs that none knew whether
The voice or lute was most divine,
So wondrously they went together:--
There's a bliss beyond all that the minstrel has told,
When two that are linkt in one heavenly tie,
With heart never changing and brow never cold,
Love on thro' all ills and love on till they die!
One hour of a passion so sacred is worth
Whole ages of heartless and wandering bliss;
And, oh! if there be an Elysium on earth,
It is this, it is this.
'Twas not the air, 'twas not the words,
But that deep magic in the chords
And in the lips that gave such power
As music knew not till that hour.
At once a hundred voices said,
"It is the maskt Arabian maid!"
While SELIM who had felt the strain
Deepest of any and had lain
Some minutes rapt as in a trance
After the fairy sounds were o'er.
Too inly touched for utterance,
Now motioned with his hand for more:--
Fly to the desert, fly with me,
Our Arab's tents are rude for thee;
But oh! the choice what heart can doubt,
Of tents with love or thrones without?
Our rocks are rough, but smiling there
The acacia waves her yellow hair,
Lonely and sweet nor loved the less
For flowering in a wilderness.
Our sands are bare, but down their slope
The silvery-footed antelope
As gracefully and gayly springs
As o'er the marble courts of kings.
Then come--thy Arab maid will be
The loved and lone acacia-tree.
The antelope whose feet shall bless
With their light sound thy loneliness.
Oh! there are looks and tones that dart
An instant sunshine thro' the heart,--
As if the soul that minute caught
Some treasure it thro' life had sought;
As if the very lips and eyes,
Predestined to have all our sighs
And never be forgot again,
Sparkled and spoke before us then!
So came thy every glance and tone,
When first on me they breathed and shone,
New as if brought from other spheres
Yet welcome as if loved for years.
Then fly with me,--if thou hast known
No other flame nor falsely thrown
A gem away, that thou hadst sworn
Should ever in thy heart be worn.
Come if the love thou hast for me
Is pure and fresh as mine for thee,--
Fresh as the fountain under ground,
When first 'tis by the lapwing found.[340]
But if for me thou dost forsake
Some other maid and rudely break
Her worshipt image from its base,
To give to me the ruined place;--
Then fare thee well--I'd rather make
My bower upon some icy lake
When thawing suns begin to shine
Than trust to love so false as thine.
There was a pathos in this lay,
That, even without enchantment's art,
Would instantly have found its way
Deep in to SELIM'S burning heart;
But breathing as it did a tone
To earthly lutes and lips unknown;
With every chord fresh from the touch
Of Music's Spirit,--'twas too much!
Starting he dasht away the cup,--
Which all the time of this sweet air
His hand had held, untasted, up,
As if 'twere fixt by magic there--
And naming her, so long unnamed,
So long unseen, wildly exclaimed,
"Oh NOURMAHAL! oh NOURMAHAL!
"Hadst thou but sung this witching strain,
"I could forget--forgive thee all
"And never leave those eyes again."
The mask is off--the charm is wrought--
And SELIM to his heart has caught,
In blushes, more than ever bright,
His NOURMAHAL, his Haram's Light!
And well do vanisht frowns enhance
The charm of every brightened glance;
And dearer seems each dawning smile
For having lost its light awhile:
And happier now for all her sighs
As on his arm her head reposes
She whispers him, with laughing eyes,
"Remember, love, the Feast of Roses!"
FADLADEEN, at the conclusion of this light rhapsody, took occasion to sum
up his opinion of the young Cashmerian's poetry,--of which, he trusted,
they had that evening heard the last. Having recapitulated the epithets,
"frivolous"--"inharmonious"--"nonsensical," he proceeded to say that,
viewed in the most favorable light it resembled one of those Maldivian
boats, to which the Princess had alluded in the relation of her dream,--
a slight, gilded thing, sent adrift without rudder or ballast, and with
nothing but vapid sweets and faded flowers on board. The profusion,
indeed, of flowers and birds, which this poet had ready on all occasions,
--not to mention dews, gems, etc.--was a most oppressive kind of opulence
to his hearers; and had the unlucky effect of giving to his style all the
glitter of the flower garden without its method, and all the flutter of
the aviary without its song. In addition to this, he chose his subjects
badly, and was always most inspired by the worst parts of them. The
charms of paganism, the merits of rebellion,--these were the themes
honored with his particular enthusiasm; and, in the poem just recited, one
of his most palatable passages was in praise of that beverage of the
Unfaithful, wine;--"being, perhaps," said he, relaxing into a smile, as
conscious of his own character in the Haram on this point, "one of those
bards, whose fancy owes all its illumination to the grape, like that
painted porcelain,[341] so curious and so rare, whose images are only
visible when liquor is poured into it." Upon the whole, it was his
opinion, from the specimens which they had heard, and which, he begged to
say, were the most tiresome part of the journey, that--whatever other
merits this well-dressed young gentleman might possess--poetry was by no
means his proper avocation; "and indeed," concluded the critic, "from his
fondness for flowers and for birds, I would venture to suggest that a
florist or a bird-catcher is a much more suitable calling for him than a
poet."
They had now begun to ascend those barren mountains, which separate
Cashmere from the rest of India; and, as the heats were intolerable, and
the time of their encampments limited to the few hours necessary for
refreshment and repose, there was an end to all their delightful evenings,
and LALLA ROOKH saw no more of FERAMORZ. She now felt that her short dream
of happiness was over, and that she had nothing but the recollection of
its few blissful hours, like the one draught of sweet water that serves
the camel across the wilderness, to be her heart's refreshment during the
dreary waste of life that was before her. The blight that had fallen upon
her spirits soon found its way to her cheek, and her ladies saw with
regret--though not without some suspicion of the cause--that the beauty of
their mistress, of which they were almost as proud as of their own, was
fast vanishing away at the very moment of all when she had most need of
it. What must the King of Bucharia feel, when, instead of the lively and
beautiful LALLA ROOKH, whom the poets of Delhi had described as more
perfect than the divinest images in the house of AZOR,[342] he should
receive a pale and inanimate victim, upon whose cheek neither health nor
pleasure bloomed, and from whose eyes Love had fled,--to hide himself in
her heart?
If any thing could have charmed away the melancholy of her spirits, it
would have been the fresh airs and enchanting scenery of that Valley,
which the Persians so justly called the Unequalled.[343] But neither the
coolness of its atmosphere, so luxurious after toiling up those bare and
burning mountains,--neither the splendor of the minarets and pagodas, that
shone put from the depth of its woods, nor the grottoes, hermitages, and
miraculous fountains,[344] which make every spot of that region holy
ground,--neither the countless waterfalls, that rush into the Valley from
all those high and romantic mountains that encircle it, nor the fair city
on the Lake, whose houses, roofed with flowers,[345] appeared at a
distance like one vast and variegated parterre;--not all these wonders and
glories of the most lovely country under the sun could steal her heart for
a minute from those sad thoughts which but darkened and grew bitterer
every step she advanced.
The gay pomps and processions that met her upon her entrance into the
Valley, and the magnificence with which the roads all along were
decorated, did honor to the taste and gallantry of the young King. It was
night when they approached the city, and, for the last two miles, they had
passed under arches, thrown from hedge to hedge, festooned with only those
rarest roses from which the Attar Gul, more precious than gold, is
distilled, and illuminated in rich and fanciful forms with lanterns of the
triple-colored tortoise-shell of Pegu.[346] Sometimes, from a dark wood
by the side of the road, a display of fireworks would break out, so sudden
and so brilliant, that a Brahmin might fancy he beheld that grove, in
whose purple shade the God of Battles was born, bursting into a flame at
the moment of his birth;--while, at other times, a quick and playful
irradiation continued to brighten all the fields and gardens by which they
passed, forming a line of dancing lights along the horizon; like the
meteors of the north as they are seen by those hunters who pursue the
white and blue foxes on the confines of the Icy Sea.
These arches and fireworks delighted the Ladies of the Princess
exceedingly; and, with their usual good logic, they deduced from his taste
for illuminations, that the King of Bucharia would make the most exemplary
husband imaginable. Nor, indeed, could LALLA ROOKH herself help feeling
the kindness and splendor with which the young bridegroom welcomed
her;--but she also felt how painful is the gratitude which kindness from
those we cannot love excites; and that their best blandishments come over
the heart with all that chilling and deadly sweetness which we can fancy
in the cold, odoriferous wind[347] that is to blow over this earth in the
last days.
The marriage was fixed for the morning after her arrival, when she was,
for the first time, to be presented to the monarch in that Imperial Palace
beyond the lake, called the Shalimar. Though never before had a night of
more wakeful and anxious thought been passed in the Happy Valley, yet,
when she rose in the morning, and her Ladies came around her, to assist in
the adjustment of the bridal ornaments, they thought they had never seen
her look half so beautiful. What she had lost of the bloom and radiancy
of her charms was more than made up by that intellectual expression, that
soul beaming forth from the eyes, which is worth all the rest of
loveliness. When they had tinged her fingers with the Henna leaf, and
placed upon her brow a small coronet of jewels, of the shape worn by the
ancient Queens of Bucharia, they flung over her head the rose-colored
bridal veil, and she proceeded to the barge that was to convey her across
the lake;--first kissing, with a mournful look, the little amulet of
cornelian, which her father at parting had hung about her neck.
The morning was as fresh and fair as the maid on whose nuptials it rose,
and the shining lake, all covered with boats, the minstrels playing upon
the shores of the islands, and the crowded summer-houses on the green
hills around, with shawls and banners waving from their roofs, presented
such a picture of animated rejoicing, as only she, who was the object of
it all, did not feel with transport. To LALLA ROOKH alone it was a
melancholy pageant; nor could she have even borne to look upon the scene,
were it not for a hope that among the crowds around, she might once more
perhaps catch a glimpse of FERAMORZ. So much was her imagination haunted
by this thought that there was scarcely an islet or boat she passed on the
way at which her heart did not flutter with the momentary fancy that he
was there. Happy, in her eyes, the humblest slave upon whom the light of
his dear looks fell!--In the barge immediately after the Princess sat
FADLADEEN, with his silken curtains thrown widely apart, that all might
have the benefit of his august presence, and with his head full of the
speech he was to deliver to the King, "concerning FERAMORZ and literature
and the Chabuk as connected therewith."
They now had entered the canal which leads from the Lake to the splendid
domes and saloons of the Shalimar and went gliding on through the gardens
that ascended from each bank, full of flowering shrubs that made the air
all perfume; while from the middle of the canal rose jets of water, smooth
and unbroken, to such a dazzling height that they stood like tall pillars
of diamond in the sunshine. After sailing under the arches of various
saloons they at length arrived at the last and most magnificent, where the
monarch awaited the coming of his bride; and such was the agitation of her
heart and frame that it was with difficulty she could walk up the marble
steps which were covered with cloth of gold for her ascent from the barge.
At the end of the hall stood two thrones, as precious as the Cerulean
Throne of Koolburga,[348] on one of which sat ALIRIS, the youthful King
of Bucharia, and on the other was in a few minutes to be placed the most
beautiful Princess in the world. Immediately upon the entrance of LALLA
ROOKH into the saloon the monarch descended from his throne to meet her;
but scarcely had he time to take her hand in his when she screamed with
surprise and fainted at his feet. It was FERAMORZ, himself, who stood
before her! FERAMORZ, was, himself, the Sovereign of Bucharia, who in this
disguise had accompanied his young bride from Delhi, and having won her
love as an humble minstrel now amply deserved to enjoy it as a King.
The consternation of FADLADEEN at this discovery was, for the moment,
almost pitiable. But change of opinion is a resource too convenient in
courts for this experienced courtier not to have learned to avail himself
of it. His criticisms were all, of course, recanted instantly: he was
seized with an admiration of the King's verses, as unbounded as, he begged
him to believe, it was disinterested; and the following week saw him in
possession of an additional place, swearing by all the Saints of Islam
that never had there existed so great a poet as the Monarch ALIRIS, and
moreover ready to prescribe his favorite regimen of the Chabuk for every
man, woman and child that dared to think otherwise.
Of the happiness of the King and Queen of Bucharia, after such a
beginning, there can be but little doubt; and among the lesser symptoms it
is recorded of LALLA ROOKH that to the day of her death in memory of their
delightful journey she never called the King by any other name than
FERAMORZ.
[1] These particulars of the visit of the King of Bucharia to Aurungzebe
are found in _Dow's "History of Hindostan_," vol. iii. p. 392.
[2] Tulip cheek.
[3] The mistress of Mejnoun, upon whose story so many Romances in all the
languages of the East are founded.
[4] For the loves of this celebrated beauty with Khosrou and with Ferhad,
see _D'Herbelot, Gibbon, Oriental Collections_, etc.
[5] "The history of the loves of Dewildé and Chizer, the son of the
Emperor Alla, is written in an elegant poem, by the noble Chusero."-
_Ferishta_.
[6] Gul Reazee.
[7] "One mark of honor or knighthood bestowed by the Emperor is the
permission to wear a small kettle-drum at the bows of their saddles, which
at first was invented for the training of hawks, and to call them to the
lure, and is worn in the field by all sportsmen to that end."--_Fryer's_
Travels. "Those on whom the King has conferred the privilege must wear an
ornament of jewels on the right side of the turban, surmounted by a high
plume of the feathers of a kind of egret. This bird is found only in
Cashmere, and the feathers are carefully collected for the King, who
bestows them on his nobles."--_Elphinstone's_ Account of Cabul.
[8] "Khedar Khan, the Khakan, or King of Turquestan beyond the Gibon (at
the end of the eleventh century), whenever he appeared abroad was preceded
by seven hundred horsemen with silver battle-axes, and was followed by an
equal number bearing maces of gold. He was a great patron of poetry, and
it was he who used to preside at public exercises of genius, with four
basins of gold and silver by him to distribute among the poets who
excelled."--_Richardson's_ Dissertation prefixed to his Dictionary.
[9] "The kubdeh, a large golden knob, generally in the shape of a pine-
apple, on the top of the canopy over the litter or palanquin."--_Scott's_
Notes on the Bahardanush.
[10] In the Poem of Zohair, in the Moallakat, there is the following
lively description of "a company of maidens seated on camels." "They are
mounted in carriages covered with costly awnings, and with rose-colored
veils, the linings of which have the hue of crimson Andem-wood. "When they
ascend from the bosom of the vale, they sit forward on the saddlecloth,
with every mark of a voluptuous gayety. "Now, When they have reached the
brink of yon blue-gushing rivulet, they fix the poles of their tents like
the Arab with a settled mansion."
[11] See _Bernier's_ description of the attendants on Rauchanara Begum, in
her progress to Cashmere.
[12] This hypocritical Emperor would have made a worthy associate of
certain Holy Leagues.--"He held the cloak of religion [says Dow] between
his actions and the vulgar; and impiously thanked the Divinity for a
success which he owed to his own wickedness. When he was murdering and
persecuting his brothers and their families, he was building a magnificent
mosque at Delhi, as an offering to God for his assistance to him in the
civil wars. He acted as high priest at the consecration of this temple;
and made a practice of attending divine service there, in the humble dress
of a Fakeer. But when he lifted one hand to the Divinity, he, with the
other, signed warrants for the assassination of his relations."--"_History
of Hindostan_,". vol. iii. p.335. See also the curious letter of
Aurungzebe, given in the _Oriental Collections_, vol. i. p.320.
[13] "The idol at Jaghernat has two fine diamonds for eyes. No goldsmith
is suffered to enter the Pagoda, one having stole one of these eyes, being
locked up all night with the Idol."--_Tavernier_.
[14] See a description of these royal Gardens in "An Account of the
present State of Delhi, by Lieut. W. Franklin."--_Asiat. Research_, vol.
iv. p. 417.
[15] "In the neighborhood is Notte Gill, or the Lake of Pearl, which
receives this name from its pellucid water."--_Pennant's_ "Hindostan."
"Nasir Jung encamped in the vicinity of the Lake of Tonoor, amused himself
with sailing on that clear and beautiful water, and gave it the fanciful
name of Motee Talah, 'the Lake of Pearls,' which it still retains."--
_Wilks's_ "South of India."
[16] Sir Thomas Roe, Ambassador from James I. to Jehanguire.
[17] "The romance Wemakweazra, written in Persian verse, which contains
the loves of Wamak and Ezra, two celebrated lovers who lived before the
time of Mahomet."--_Note on the Oriental Tales_.
[18] Their amour is recounted in the Shah-Namêh of Ferdousi; and there is
much beauty in the passage which describes the slaves of Rodahver sitting
on the bank of the river and throwing flowers into the stream, in order to
draw the attention of the young Hero who is encamped on the opposite
side.--See _Champion's_ translation.
[19] Rustam is the Hercules of the Persians. For the particulars of his
victory over the Sepeed Deeve, or White Demon, see _Oriental Collections_,
vol. ii. p. 45.--Near the city of Shiraz is an immense quadrangular
monument, in commemoration of this combat, called the Kelaat-i-Deev
Sepeed, or castle of the White Giant, which Father Angelo, in his
"_Gazophilacium Persicum_," p.127, declares to have been the most
memorable monument of antiquity which he had seen in Persia.--See
_Ouseley's_ "Persian Miscellanies."
[20] "The women of the Idol, or dancing girls of the Pagoda, have little
golden bells, fastened to their feet, the soft harmonious tinkling of
which vibrates in unison with the exquisite melody of their voices."--
_Maurice's_ "Indian Antiquities."
"The Arabian courtesans, like the Indian women, have little golden bells
fastened round their legs, neck, and elbows, to the sound of which they
dance before the King. The Arabian princesses wear golden rings on their
fingers, to which little bells are suspended, as well as in the flowing
tresses of their hair, that their superior rank may be known and they
themselves receive in passing the homage due to them."--See _Calmet's_
Dictionary, art. "Bells."
[21] The Indian Apollo. "He and the three Ramas are described as youths
of perfect beauty, and the princesses of Hindustan were all passionately
in love with Chrishna, who continues to this hour the darling God of the
Indan women."--_Sir W. Jones_, on the Gods of Greece, Italy, and India.
[22] See _Turner's_ Embassy for a description of this animal, "the most
beautiful among the whole tribe of goats." The material for the shawls
(which is carried to Cashmere) is found next the skin.
[23] For the real history of this Impostor, whose original name was Hakem
ben Haschem, and who was called Mocanna from the veil of silver gauze (or,
as others say, golden) which he always wore, see _D'Herbelot_.
[24] Khorassan signifies, in the old Persian language, Province or Region
of the Sun.--_Sir W. Jones_.
[25] "The fruits of Meru are finer than those of any other place: and one
cannot see in any other city such palaces with groves, and streams, and
gardens."--_Ebn Haukal's_ Geography.
[26] One of the royal cities of Khorassan.
[27] Moses.
[28] Black was the color adopted by the Caliphs of the House of Abbas, in
their garments, turbans, and standards.
[29] "Our dark javelins, exquisitely wrought of Khathaian reeds, slender
and delicate."--_Poem of Amru_.
[30] Pichula, used anciently for arrows by the Persians.
[31] The Persians call this plant Gaz. The celebrated shaft of Isfendiar,
one of their ancient heroes, was made of it.--"Nothing can be more
beautiful than the appearance of this plant in flower during the rains on
the banks of rivers, where it is usually interwoven with a lovely twining
asclepias."--_Sir W. Jones_..
[32] The oriental plane. "The chenar is a delightful tree; its bole is of
a fine white and smooth bark; and its foliage, which grows in a tuft at
the summit, is of a bright green."--_Morier's Travels_..
[33] The burning fountains of Brahma near Chittogong, esteemed as
holy.--_Turner_.
[34] China.
[35] "The name of tulip is said to be of Turkish extraction, and given to
the flower on account of its resembling a turban."--_Beckmann_'s History
of Inventions.
[36] "The inhabitants of Bucharia wear a round cloth bonnet, shaped much
after the Polish fashion, having a large fur border. They tie their
kaftans about the middle with a girdle of a kind of silk crape, several
times round the body."--_Account of Independent Tartary, in Pinkerton's
Collection_.
[37] In the war of the Caliph Mahadi against the Empress Irene, for an
account of which _vide Gibbon_, vol. x.
[38] When Soliman travelled, the eastern writers say, "He had a carpet of
green silk on which his throne was placed, being of a prodigious length
and breadth, and sufficient for all his forces to stand upon, the men
placing themselves on his right hand, and the spirits on his left; and
that when all were in order, the wind, at his command, took up the carpet,
and transported it, with all that were upon it, wherever he pleased; the
army of birds at the same time flying over their heads, and forming a kind
of canopy to shade them from the sun."--Sale's Koran, vol. ii. p. 214,
note.
[39] The transmigration of souls was one of his doctrines.--_Vide
D'Herbelot_..
[40] "And when we said unto the angels. Worship Adam, they all worshipped
him except Eblis (Lucifer), who refused." _The. Koran_, chap. ii.
[41] Moses.
[42] Jesus.
[43] The Amu, which rises in the Belur Tag, or Dark Mountains, and running
nearly from east to west, splits into two branches; one of which falls
into the Caspian Sea, and the other into Aral Nahr, or the Lake of Eagles.
[44] The nightingale.
[45] The cities of Com (or Koom) and Cashan are full of mosques,
mausoleums and sepulchres of the descendants of Ali, the Saints of Persia
--_Chardin_..
[46] An island in the Persian Gulf, celebrated for its white wine.
[47] The miraculous well at Mecca: so called, says Sale, from the
murmuring of its waters.
[48] The god Hannaman.--"Apes are in many parts of India highly venerated,
out of respect to the God Hannaman, a deity partaking of the form of that
race."--_Pennant's_ Hindoostan. See a curious account in _Stephen's
Persia_, of a solemn embassy from some part of the Indies to Goa when the
Portuguese were there, offering vast treasures for the recovery of a
monkey's tooth, which they held in great veneration, and which had been
taken away upon the conquest of the kingdom of Jafanapatan.
[49] A kind of lantern formerly used by robbers, called the Hand of Glory,
the candle for which was made of the fat of a dead malefactor. This,
however, was rather a western than an eastern superstition.
[50] The material of which images of Gaudma (the Birman Deity) are made,
is held sacred. "Birmans may not purchase the marble in mass, but are
suffered, and indeed encouraged, to buy figures of the Deity ready made."
--_Sytnes's_ "Ava," vol. ii. p. 876.
[51] "It is commonly said in Persia, that if a man breathe in the hot
south wind, which in June or July passes over that flower (the Kerzereh),
it will kill him."--_Thevenot_.
[52] The humming bird is said to run this risk for the purpose of picking
the crocodile's teeth. The same circumstance is related of the lapwing, as
a fact to which he was witness, by _Paul Lucas, "Voyage fait en_ 1714."
The ancient story concerning the Trochilus, or humming-bird, entering with
impunity into the mouth of the crocodile, is firmly believed at
Java.--_Barrow's "Cochin-China_."
[53] "The feast of Lanterns celebrated at Yamtcheou with more magnificence
than anywhere else! and the report goes that the illuminations there are
so splendid, that an Emperor once, not daring openly to leave his Court to
go thither, committed himself with the Queen and several Princesses of his
family into the hands of a magician, who promised to transport them
thither in a trice. He made them in the night to ascend magnificent
thrones that were borne up by swans, which in a moment arrived at
Yamtcheou. The Emperor saw at his leisure all the solemnity, being carried
upon a cloud that hovered over the city and descended by degrees; and came
back again with the same speed and equipage, nobody at court perceiving
his absence."--_The Present State of China_," p. 156.
[54] "The vulgar ascribe it to an accident that happened in the family of
a famous mandarin, whose daughter, walking one evening upon the shore of a
lake, fell in and was drowned: this afflicted father, with his family, ran
thither, and the better to find her, he caused a great company of lanterns
to be lighted. All the inhabitants of the place thronged after him with
torches. The year ensuing they made fires upon the shores the same day;
they continued the ceremony every year, every one lighted his lantern, and
by degrees it commenced into a custom."--_The Present State of China_."
[55] "Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes."--_Sol. Song_.
[56] "They tinged the ends of her fingers scarlet with Henna, so that they
resembled branches of coral."--_Story of Prince Futtun in Bahardanush_.
[57] "The women blacken the inside of their eyelids with a powder named
the black Kohol."--_Russell_.
"None of these ladies," says _Shaw_, "take themselves to be completely
dressed, till they have tinged their hair and edges of their eyelids with
the powder of lead ore. Now, as this operation is performed by dipping
first into the powder a small wooden bodkin of the thickness of a quill,
and then drawing it afterwards through the eyelids over the ball of the
eye, we shall have a lively image of what the Prophet (Jer. iv. 30) may be
supposed to mean by _rending the eyes with painting_. This practice is no
doubt of great antiquity; for besides the instance already taken notice
of, we find that where Jezebel is said (2 Kings ix. 30.) _to have painted
her face_, the original words are, _she adjusted her eyes with the powder
of lead-ore_."--_Shaw's_ Travels.
[58] "The appearance of the blossoms of the gold-colored Campac on the
black hair of the Indian women has supplied the Sanscrit Poets with many
elegant allusions."--See _Asiatic Researches_, vol. iv.
[59] A tree famous for its perfume, and common on the hills of
Yemen.--_Niebuhr_.
[60] Of the genus mimosa "which droops its branches whenever any person
approaches it, seeming as if it saluted those who retire under its
shade."--_Niebuhr_.
[61] Cloves are a principal ingredient in the composition of the perfumed
rods, which men of rank keep constantly burning in their presence.--
_Turner's_ "Tibet."
[62] "Thousands of variegated loories visit the coral-trees."--_Barrow_.
[63] "In Mecca there are quantities of blue pigeons, which none will
affright or abuse, much less kill."--_Pitt's_ Account of the Mahometans.
[64] "The Pagoda Thrush is esteemed among the first choristers of India.
It sits perched on the sacred pagodas, and from thence delivers its
melodious song."--_Pennant's_ "Hindostan."
[65] _Tavernier_ adds, that while the Birds of Paradise lie in this
intoxicated state, the emmets come and eat off their legs; and that hence
it is they are said to have no feet.
[66] Birds of Paradise, which, at the nutmeg season, come in flights from
the southern isles to India; and "the strength of the nutmeg," says
_Tavernier_, "so intoxicates them that they fall dead drunk to the earth."
[67] "That bird which liveth in Arabia, and buildeth its nest with
cinnamon."--_Brown's_ Vulgar Errors.
[68] "The spirits of the martyrs will be lodged in the crops of green
birds."--_Gibbon_, vol. ix. p. 421.
[69] Shedad, who made the delicious gardens of Irim, in imitation of
Paradise, and was destroyed by lightning the first time he attempted to
enter them.
[70] "My Pandits assure me that the plant before us (the Nilica) is their
Sephalica, thus named because the bees are supposed to sleep on its
blossoms."--_Sir W. Jones_.
[71] They deterred it till the King of Flowers should ascend his throne of
enamelled foliage."--_The Bahardanush_".
[72] "One of the head-dresses of the Persian women is composed of a light
golden chain-work, set with small pearls, with a thin gold plate pendant,
about the bigness of a crown-piece, on which is impressed an Arabian
prayer, and which hangs upon the cheek below the ear."--_Hanway's_
Travels.
[73] "Certainly the women of Yezd are the handsomest women in Persia. The
proverb is, that to live happy a man must have a wife of Yezd, eat the
bread of Yezdecas, and drink the wine of Shiraz."--_Tavernier_.
[74] Musnuds are cushioned seats, usually reserved for persons of
distinction.
[75] The Persians, like the ancient Greeks call their musical modes or
Perdas by the names of different countries or cities, as the mode of
Isfahan, the mode of Irak, etc.
[76] A river which flows near the ruins of Chilminar.
[77] "To the north of us (on the coast of the Caspian, near Badku,) was a
mountain, which sparkled like diamonds, arising from the sea-glass and
crystals with which it abounds."--_Journey of the Russian Ambassador to
Persia_, 1746.
[78] "To which will be added, the sound of the bells, hanging on the
trees, which will be put in motion by the wind proceeding from the throne
of God, as often as the blessed wish for music."--_Sale_.
[79] "Whose wanton eyes resemble blue water-lilies, agitated by the
breeze."--_Jayadeva_.
[80] The blue lotos, which grows in Cashmere and in Persia.
[81] It has been generally supposed that the Mahometans prohibit all
pictures of animals; but _Toderini_ shows that, though the practice is
forbidden by the Koran, they are not more averse to painted figures and
images than other people. From Mr. Murphy's work, too, we find that the
Arabs of Spain had no objection to the introduction of figures into
Painting.
[82] This is not quite astronomically true. "Dr. Hadley [says Keil] has
shown that Venus is brightest when she is about forty degrees removed from
the sun; and that then but _only a fourth part_ of her lucid disk is to be
seen from the earth."
[83] The wife of Potiphar, thus named by the Orientals. The passion which
this frail beauty of antiquity conceived for her young Hebrew slave has
given rise to a much esteemed poem in the Persian language, entitled
_Yusef vau Zelikha_, by _Noureddin Jami;_ the manuscript copy of which, in
the Bodleian Library at Oxford, is supposed to be the finest in the whole
world."--_Note upon Nott's Translation of Hafez_."
[84] The particulars of Mahomet's amour with Mary, the Coptic girl, in
justification of which he added a new chapter to the Koran, may be found
in _Gagnier's Notes upon Abulfeda_, p. 151.
[85] "Deep blue is their mourning color." _Hanway_.
[86] The sorrowful nyctanthes, which begins to spread its rich odor after
sunset.
[87] "Concerning the vipers, which Pliny says were frequent among the
balsam-trees, I made very particular inquiry; several were brought me
alive both to Yambo and Jidda."--_Bruce_.
[88] In the territory of Istkahar there is a kind of apple, half of which
is sweet and half sour.--_Ebn Haukal_.
[89] "The place where the Whangho, a river of Tibet, rises, and where
there are more than a hundred springs, which sparkle like stars; whence it
is called Hotun-nor, that is, the Sea of Stars."--_Description of Tibet in
Pinkerton_.
[90] "The Lescar or Imperial Camp is divided, like a regular town, into
squares, alleys, and streets, and from a rising ground furnishes one of
the most agreeable prospects in the world. Starting up in a few hours in
an uninhabited plain, it raises the idea of a city built by enchantment.
Even those who leave their houses in cities to follow the prince in his
progress are frequently so charmed with the Lescar, when situated in a
beautiful and convenient place, that they cannot prevail with themselves
to remove. To prevent this inconvenience to the court, the Emperor, after
sufficient time is allowed to the tradesmen to follow, orders them to be
burnt out of their tents."--_Dow's Hindostan_.
[91] The edifices of Chilminar and Balbec are supposed to have been built
by the Genii, acting under the orders of Jan ben Jan, who governed the
world long before the time of Adam.
[92] "A superb camel, ornamented with strings and tufts of small
shells."--_Ali Bey_.
[93] A native of Khorassan, and allured southward by means of the water of
a fountain between Shiraz and Ispahan, called the Fountain of Birds, of
which it is so fond that it will follow wherever that water is carried.
[94] "Some of the camels have bells about their necks, and some about
their legs, like those which our carriers put about their fore-horses'
necks, which together with the servants (who belong to the camels, and
travel on foot), singing all night, make a pleasant noise, and the journey
passes away delightfully."--_Pitt's_ Account of the Mahometans.
"The camel-driver follows the camels singing, and sometimes playing upon
his pipe; the louder he sings and pipes, the faster the camels go. Nay,
they will stand still when he gives over his music."--_Tavernier_.
[95] "This trumpet is often called, in Abyssinia, _nesser cano_, which
signifies the Note of the Eagle."--_Note of Bruce's Editor_.
[96] The two black standards borne before the Caliphs of the House of
Abbas were called, allegorically, The Night and The Shadow.--See _Gibbon_.
[97] The Mohometan religion.
[98] "The Persians swear by the Tomb of Shad Besade, who is buried at
Casbin; and when one desires another to asseverate a matter he will ask
him, if he dare swear by the Holy Grave."--_Struy_.
[99] Mahadi, in a single pilgrimage to Mecca, expended six millions of
dinars of gold.
[100] The inhabitants of Hejaz or Arabia Petraea, called by an Eastern
writer "The People of the Rock."--_Ebn Haukal_.
[101] "Those horses, called by the Arabians Kochlani, of whom a written
genealogy has been kept for 2000 years. They are said to derive their
origin from King Solomon's steeds."--_Niebuhr_.
[102] "Many of the figures on the blades of their swords are wrought in
gold or silver, or in marquetry with small gems."--_Asiat. Misc_. v. i.
[103] Azab or Saba.
[104] "The chiefs of the Uzbek Tartars wear a plume of white heron's
feathers in their turbans."--_Account of Independent Tartary_.
[105] In the mountains of Nishapour and Tous in (Khorassan) they find
turquoises.--_Ebn Huukal_.
[106] The Ghebers or Guebres, those original natives of Persia, who
adhered to their ancient faith, the religion of Zoroaster, and who, after
the conquest of their country by the Arabs, were either persecuted at
home, or forced to become wanderers abroad.
[107] "Yezd, the chief residence of those ancient natives who worship the
Sun and the Fire, which latter they have carefully kept lighted, without
being once extinguished for a moment, about 3000 years, on a mountain near
Yezd, called Ater Quedah, signifying the House or Mansion of the Fire. He
is reckoned very unfortunate who dies off that mountain."--_Stephen's
Persia_.
[108] When the weather is hazy, the springs of Naphtha (on an island near
Baku) boil up the higher, and the Naphtha often takes fire on the surface
of the earth, and runs in a flame into the sea to a distance almost
incredible."--_Hanway on the Everlasting Fire at Baku_.
[109] _Savary_ says of the south wind, which blows in Egypt from February
to May, "Sometimes it appears only in the shape of an impetuous whirlwind,
which passes rapidly, and is fatal to the traveller, surprised in the
middle of the deserts. Torrents of burning sand roll before it, the
firmament is enveloped in a thick veil, and the sun appears of the color
of blood. Sometimes whole caravans are buried in it."
[110] In the great victory gained by Mahomed at Beder, he was assisted,
say the Mussulmans, by three thousand angels led by Gabriel mounted on his
horse Hiazum.--See _The Koran and its Commentators_.
[111] The Techir, or cry of the Arabs. "Alla Acbar!" says Ockley, means,
"God is most mighty."
[112] The ziraleet is a kind of chorus, which the women of the East sing
upon joyful occasions.
[113] The Dead Sea, which contains neither animal nor vegetable life.
[114] The ancient Oxus.
[115] A city of Transoxiana.
[116] "You never can cast your eyes on this tree, but you meet there
either blossoms or fruit; and as the blossom drops underneath on the
ground (which is frequently covered with these purple-colored flowers),
others come forth in their stead," etc.--_Nieuhoff_.
[117] The Demons of the Persian mythology.
[118] Carreri mentions the fire-flies in India during the rainy
season.--See his Travels.
[119] Sennacherib, called by the Orientals King of Moussal.--_D'Herbelot_.
[120] Chosroes. For the description of his Throne or Palace, see _Gibbon
and D'Herbelot_.
There were said to be under this Throne or Palace of Khosrou Parviz a
hundred vaults filled with "treasures so immense that some Mahometan
writers tell us, their Prophet to encourage his disciples carried them to
a rock which at his command opened and gave them a prospect through it of
the treasures of Khosrou."--_Universal History_.
[121] "The crown of Gerashid is cloudy and tarnished before the heron tuft
of thy turban."--From one of the elegies or songs in praise of Ali,
written in characters of gold round the gallery of Abbas's tomb.--See
_Chardin_.
[122] The beauty of Ali's eyes was so remarkable, that whenever the
Persians would describe anything as very lovely, they say it is Ayn Hali,
or the Eyes of Ali.--_Chardin_.
[123] "Nakshab, the name of a city in Transoxiana, where they say there is
a well, in which the appearance of the moon is to be seen night and day."
[124] The Shechinah, called Sakfnat in the Koran.--See _Sale's Note_,
chap. ii.
[125] The parts of the night are made known as well by instruments of
music, as by the rounds of the watchmen with cries and small drums.--See
_Burder's Oriental Customs_, vol. i. p. 119.
[126] The Serrapurda, high screens of red cloth, stiffened with cane, used
to enclose a considerable space round the royal tents.--_Notes on the
Bakardanush.
The tents of Princes were generally illuminated. Norden tells us that the
tent of the Bey of Girge was distinguished from the other tents by forty
lanterns being suspended before it.--See _Harmer's Observations on Job_.
[127] "From the groves of orange trees at Kauzeroon the bees cull a
celebrated honey.--_Morier's Travels_.
[128] "A custom still subsisting at this day, seems to me to prove that
the Egyptians formerly sacrificed a young virgin to the God of the Nile;
for they now make a statue of earth in shape of a girl, to which they give
the name of the Betrothed Bride, and throw it into the river."--_Savary_.
[129] That they knew the secret of the Greek fire among the Mussulmans
early in the eleventh century, appears from _Dow's_ account of Mamood I.
"When he at Moultan, finding that the country of the Jits was defended by
great rivers, he ordered fifteen hundred boats to be built, each of which
he armed with six iron spikes, projecting from their prows and sides, to
prevent their being boarded by the enemy, who were very expert in that
kind of war. When he had launched this fleet, he ordered twenty archers
into each boat, and five others with fire-balls, to burn the craft of the
Jits, and naphtha to set the whole river on fire."
[130] The Greek fire, which was occasionally lent by the emperors to their
allies. "It was," says Gibbon, "either launched in red-hot balls of stone
and iron, or darted in arrows and javelins, twisted round with flax and
tow, which had deeply imbibed the imflammable oil."
[131] See _Hanway's_ Account of the Springs of Naphtha at Baku (which is
called by _Lieutenant Pottinger_ Joala Mookee, or, the Flaming Mouth),
taking fire and running into the sea. _Dr. Cooke_, in his Journal,
mentions some wells in Circassia, strongly impregnated with this
inflammable oil, from which issues boiling water. "Though the weather," he
adds, "was now very cold, the warmth of these wells of hot water produced
near them the verdure and flowers of spring.'
[132] "At the great festival of fire, called the Sheb Seze, they used to
set fire to large bunches of dry combustibles, fastened round wild beasts
and birds, which being then let loose, the air and earth appeared one
great illumination; and as these terrified creatures naturally fled to the
woods for shelter, it is easy to conceive the conflagrations they
produced."--_Richardson's Dissertation_.
[133] "The righteous shall be given to drink of pure wine, sealed: the
seal whereof shall be musk."--_Koran_, chap lxxxiii.
[134] The Afghans believe each of the numerous solitudes and deserts of
their country to be inhabited by a lonely demon, whom they call The
Ghoolee Beeabau, or Spirit of the Waste. They often illustrate the
wildness of any sequestered tribe, by saying they are wild as the Demon of
the Waste."--_Elphinstone's Caubul_.
[135] "They have all a great reverence for burial-grounds, which they
sometimes call by the poetical name of Cities of the Silent, and which
they people with the ghosts of the departed, who sit each at the head of
his own grave, invisible to mortal eyes."--_Elphinstone_.
[136] The celebrity of Mazagong is owing to its mangoes, which are
certainly the best I ever tasted. The parent-tree, from which all those of
this species have been grafted, is honored during the fruit-season by a
guard of sepoys; and, in the reign of Shah Jehan, couriers ware stationed
between Delhi and the Mahratta coast, to secure an abundant and fresh
supply of mangoes for the royal table."--_Mrs. Graham's_ Journal of
Residence in India.
[137] This old porcelain is found in digging, and "if it is esteemed, it
is not because it has acquired any new degree of beauty in the earth, but
because it has retained its ancient beauty; and this alone is of great
importance in China, where they give large sums for the smallest vessels
which were used under the Emperors Yan and Chun, who reigned many ages
before the dynasty of Tang, at which time porcelain began to be used by
the Emperors" (about the year 442).--_Dunn's_ Collection of curious
Observations, etc.
[138] The blacksmith Gao, who successfully resisted the tyrant Zohak, and
whose apron became the royal standard of Persia.
[139] "The Huma, a bird peculiar to the East. It is supposed to fly
constantly in the air, and never touch the ground; it is looked upon as a
bird of happy omen; and that every head it overshades will in time wear a
crown."--_Richardson_.
In the terms of alliance made by Fuzel Oola Khan with Hyder in 1760, one
of the stipulations was, "that he should have the distinction of two
honorary attendants standing behind him, holding fans composed of the
feathers of the humma, according to the practice of his family."--
_Wilks's_ South of India. He adds in a note;--"The Humma is a fabulous
bird. The head over which its shadow once passes will assuredly be circled
with a crown. The splendid little bird suspended over the throne of Tippoo
Sultaun, found at Seringapatam in 1799, was intended to represent this
poetical fancy."
[140] "To the pilgrims to Mount Sinai we must attribute the inscriptions,
figures, etc., on those rocks, which have from thence acquired the name of
the Written Mountain."--_Volney_.
M. Gebelin and others have been at much pains to attach some mysterious
and important meaning to these inscriptions; but Niebuhr, as well as
Volney, thinks that they must have been executed at idle hours by the
travellers to Mount Sinai, "who were satisfied with cutting the unpolished
rock with any pointed instrument; adding to their names and the date of
their journeys some rude figures, which bespeak the hand of a people but
little skilled in the arts."--_Niebuhr_.
[141] The Story of Sinbad.
[142] "The Cámalatá (called by Linnaeus, Ipomaea) is the most beautiful of
its order, both in the color and form of its leaves and flowers; its
elegant blossoms are 'celestial rosy red, Love's proper hue,' and have
justly procured is the name of Cámalatá, or Love's creeper."--_Sir W.
Jones_.
[143] "According to Father Premare, in his tract on Chinese Mythology, the
mother of Fo-hi was the daughter of heaven, surnamed Flower-loving; and as
the nymph was walking alone on the bank of a river, she found herself
encircled by a rainbow, after which she became pregnant, and, at the end
of twelve years, was delivered of a son radiant as herself."--_Asiat.
Res_.
[144] "Numerous small islands emerge from the Lake of Cashmere. One is
called Char Chenaur, from the plane trees upon it.--_Foster_.
[145] "The Altan Kol or Golden River of Tibet, which runs into the Lakes
of Sing-su-hay, has abundance of gold in its sands, which employs the
inhabitants all the summer in gathering it."--_Description of Tibet in
Pinkerton_.
[146] "The Brahmins of this province insist that the blue campac flowers
only in Paradise."--_Sir W. Jones_. It appears, however, from a curious
letter of the Sultan of Menangeabow, given by Marsden, that one place on
earth may lay claim to the possession of it. "This is the Sultan, who
keeps the flower champaka that is blue, and to be found in no other
country but his, being yellow elsewhere."--_Marsden's_ Sumatra.
[147] "The Mahometans suppose that falling stars are the firebrands
wherewith the good angels drive away the bad, when they approach too near
the empyrean or verge or the heavens."--_Fryer_.
[148] The Forty Pillars; so the Persians call the ruins of Persepolis. It
is imagined by them that this palace and the edifices at Balbec were built
by Genii, for the purpose of hiding in their subterraneous caverns immense
treasures, which still remain there.--_D'Herbelot, Volney_.
[149] _Diodorus_ mentions the Isle of Panchai, to the south of Arabia
Felix, where there was a temple of Jupiter. This island, or rather cluster
of isles, has disappeared, "sunk [says _Grandpré_] in the abyss made by
the fire beneath their foundations."--_Voyage to the Indian Ocean_.
[150] The Isles of Panchaia.
[151] "The cup of Jamshid, discovered, they say, when digging for the
foundations of Persepolis."-_Richardson_.
[152] "It is not like the Sea of India, whose bottom is rich with pearls
and ambergris, whose mountains of the coast are stored with gold and
precious stones, whose gulfs breed creatures that yield ivory, and among
the plants of whose shores are ebony, red wood, and the wood of Hairzan,
aloes, camphor, cloves, sandal-wood, and all other spices and aromatics;
where parrots and peacocks are birds of the forest, and musk and civit are
collected upon the lands."--_Travels of Two Mohammedans_.
[153] "With this immense treasure Mamood returned to Ghizni and in the
year 400 prepared a magnificent festival, where he displayed to the people
his wealth in golden thrones and in other ornaments, in a great plain
without the city of Ghizni." _Ferishta_.
[154] "Mahmood of Gazna, or Chizni, who conquered India in the beginning
of the 11th century."--See his History in _Dow_ and Sir _J. Malcolm_.
[155] "It is reported that the hunting equipage of the Sultan Mahmood was
so magnificent, that he kept 400 greyhounds and bloodhounds each of which
wore a collar set with jewels and a covering edged with gold and
pearls."--_Universal History_, vol. iii.
[156] "The Mountains of the Moon, or the _Montes Lunae_ of antiquity, at
the foot of which the Nile is supposed to arise."--_Bruce_.
[157] "The Nile, which the Abyssinians know by the names of Abey and Alawy
or the Giant."--_Asiat. Research_. vol. i. p. 387.
[158] See Perry's View of the Levant for an account of the sepulchres in
Upper Thebes, and the numberless grots, covered all over with
hieroglyphics in the mountains of Upper Egypt.
[159] "The orchards of Rosetta are filled with turtle-doves.--_Sonnini_.
[160] Savary mentions the pelicans upon Lake Moeris.
[161] "The superb date-tree, whose head languidly reclines, like that of a
handsome woman overcome with sleep."--_Dafard el Hadad_.
[162] "That beautiful bird, with plumage of the finest shining blue, with
purple beak and legs, the natural and living ornament of the temples and
palaces of the Greeks and Romans, which, from the stateliness of its part,
as well as the brilliancy of its colors, has obtained the title of
Sultana,"--_Sonnini_.
[163] Jackson, speaking of the plague that occurred in West Barbary, when
he was there, says, "The birds of the air fled away from the abodes of
men. The hyaenas, on the contrary, visited the cemeteries," etc.
[164] "Gondar was full of hyaenas from the time it turned dark, till the
dawn of day, seeking the different pieces of slaughtered carcasses, which
this cruel and unclean people expose in the streets without burial, and
who firmly believe that these animals are Falashta from the neighboring
mountains, transformed by magic, and come down to eat human flesh in the
dark in safety."--_Bruce_.
[165] "In the East, they suppose the Phoenix to have fifty orifices in his
bill, which are continued to his tail; and that, after living one thousand
years, he builds himself a funeral pile, sings a melodious air of
different harmonies through his fifty organ pipes, flaps his wings with a
velocity which sets fire to the wood and consumes himself."--_Richardson_.
[166] "On the shores of a quadrangular lake stand a thousand goblets, made
of stars, out of which souls predestined to enjoy felicity drink the
crystal wave."--From _Chateaubriand's_ Description of the Mahometan
Paradise, in his _"Beauties of Christianity_."
[167] Richardson thinks that Syria had its name from Suri, a beautiful and
delicate species of rose, for which that country has always been
famous;--hence, Suristan, the Land of Roses.
[168] "The number of lizards I saw one day in the great court of the
Temple of the Sun at Balbec amounted to many thousands; the ground, the
walls, and stones of the ruined buildings, were covered with
them."--_Bruce_.
[169] "The Syrinx or Pan's pipes is still a pastoral instrument in
Syria."--_Russel_.
[170] "Wild bees, frequent in Palestine, in hollow trunks or branches of
trees, and the clefts of rocks. Thus it is said (Psalm lxxxi.), _'honey
out of the stony rock.'_"--_Burder's_ Oriental Customs.
[171] "The River Jordan is on both sides beset with little, thick, and
pleasant woods, among which thousands of nightingales warble all
together."_--Thevenot_.
[172] The Temple of the Sun at Balbec.
[173] "You behold there a considerable number of a remarkable species of
beautiful insects, the elegance of whose appearance and their attire
procured for them the name of Damsels.--_Sonnini_.
[174] "Such Turks as at the common hours of prayer are on the road, or so
employed as not to find convenience to attend the mosques, are still
obliged to execute that duty; nor are they ever known to fail, whatever
business they are then about, but pray immediately when the hour alarms
them, whatever they are about, in that very place they chance to stand on;
insomuch that when a janissary, whom you have to guard you up and down the
city, hears the notice which is given him from the steeples, he will turn
about, stand still, and beckon with his hand, to tell his charge he must
have patience for awhile; when, taking out his handkerchief, he spreads it
on the ground, sits cross-legged thereupon, and says his prayers, though
in the open market, which, having ended he leaps briskly up, salutes the
person whom he undertook to convey, and renews his journey with the mild
expression of _Ghell yelinnum ghell_, or Come, dear, follow me."--_Aaron
Hill's_ Travels.
[175] The Nucta, Or Miraculous Drop, which falls in Egypt precisely on St.
John's day in June and is supposed to have the effect of stopping the
plague.
[176] The Country of Delight--the name of a province in the kingdom of
Jinnistan, or Fairy Land, the capital of which is called the City of
Jewels. Amberabad is another of the cities of Jinnistan.
[177] The tree Tooba, that stands in Paradise, in the palace of Mahomet.
See _Sale's Prelim. Disc_.--Tooba, says _D'Herbelot_, signifies beatitude,
or eternal happiness.
[178] Mahomet is described, in the 53d chapter of the Koran, as having
seen the Angel Gabriel "by the lote-tree, beyond which there is no
passing: near it is the Garden of Eternal Abode." This tree, say the
commentators, stands in the seventh Heaven, on the right hand of the
Throne of God.
[179] "It is said that the rivers or streams of Basra were reckoned in the
time of Peisl ben Abi Bordeh, and amounted to the number of one hundred
and twenty thousand streams."--_Ebn Haukal_.
[180] The name of the javelin with which the Easterns exercise. See
_Castellan, "Moeurs des Ottomans," tom_. iii. p. 161.
[181] "This account excited a desire of visiting the Banyan Hospital, as I
had heard much of their benevolence to all kinds of animals that were
either sick, lame, or infirm, through age or accident. On my arrival,
there were presented to my view many horses, cows, and oxen, in one
apartment; in another, dogs, sheep, goats, and monkeys, with clean straw
for them to repose on. Above stairs were depositories for seeds of many
sorts, and flat, broad dishes for water, for the use of birds and
insects."--_Parson_'s Travels. It is said that all animals know the
Banyans, that the most timid approach them, and that birds will fly nearer
to them than to other people.--See _Grandpré_.
[182] "A very fragrant grass from the banks of the Ganges, near Heridwar,
which in some places covers whole acres, and diffuses, when crushed, a
strong odor."--_Sir W. Jones_ on the Spikenard of the Ancients.
[183] "Near this is a curious hill, called Koh Talism, the Mountain of the
Talisman, because, according to the traditions of the country, no person
ever succeeded in gaining its summit."--_Kinneir_.
[184] "The Arabians believe that the ostriches hatch their young by only
looking at them."
[185] Oriental Tales.
[186] Ferishta. "Or rather," says _Scott_, upon the passage of Ferishta,
from which this is taken, "small coins, stamped with the figure of a
flower. They are still used in India to distribute in charity and on
occasion thrown by the purse-bearers of the great among the populace."
[187] The fine road made by the Emperor Jehan-Guire from Agra to Lahore,
planted with trees on each side. This road is 250 leagues in length. It
has "little pyramids or turrets," says _Bernier_, "erected every half
league, to mark the ways, and frequent wells to afford drink to
passengers, and to water the young trees."
[188] The Baya, or Indian Grosbeak.--_Sir W. Jones_.
[189] "Here is a large pagoda by a tank, on the water of which float
multitudes of the beautiful red lotus: the flower is larger than that of
the white water-lily, and is the most lovely of the nymphaeas I have
seen."--_Mrs. Graham's_ Journal of a Residence in India.
[190] "Cashmere (says its historian) had its own princes 4000 years before
its conquest by Akbar in 1585. Akbar would have found some difficulty to
reduce this paradise of the Indies, situated as it is within such a
fortress of mountains, but its monarch, Yusef-Khan, was basely betrayed by
his Omrahs."--_Pennant_.
[191] Voltaire tells us that in his tragedy, "_Les Guèbres_," he was
generally supposed to have alluded to the Jansenists. I should not be
surprised if this story of the Fire worshippers were found capable of a
similar doubleness of application.
[192] The Persian Gulf, sometimes so called, which separates the shores of
Persia and Arabia.
[193] The present Gombaroon, a town on the Persian side of the Gulf.
[194] A Moorish instrument of music.
[195] "At Gombaroon and other places in Persia, they have towers for the
purpose of catching the wind and cooling the houses.--_Le Bruyn_.
[196] "Iran is the true general name for the empire of Persia.--_Asiat.
Res. Disc. 5_.
[197] "On the blades of their scimitars some verse from the Koran is
usually inscribed.--_Russel_.
[198] There is a kind of Rhododendros about Trebizond, whose flowers the
bee feeds upon, and the honey thence drives people mad;"--_Tournefort_.
[199] Their kings wear plumes of black herons' feathers, upon the right
side, as a badge of sovereignty "--_Hanway_.
[200] "The Fountain of Youth, by a Mahometan tradition, is situated in
some dark region of the East."--_Richardson_.
[201] Arabia Felix.
[202] "In the midst of the garden is the chiosk, that is, a large room,
commonly beautified with a fine fountain in the midst of it. It is raised
nine or ten steps, and enclosed with gilded lattices, round which vines,
jessamines, and honeysuckles, make a sort of green wall; large trees are
planted round this place, which is the scene of their greatest
pleasures."--_Lady M. W. Montagu_.
[203] The women of the East are never without their looking-glasses. "In
Barbary," says _Shaw_, "they are so fond of their looking-glasses, which
they hang upon their breasts, that they will not lay them aside, even when
after the drudgery of the day they are obliged to go two or three miles
with a pitcher or a goat's skin to fetch water."--_Travels_.
[204] "They say that if a snake or serpent fix his eyes on the lustre of
those stones (emeralds), he immediately becomes blind."--_Ahmed ben
Abdalaziz_, Treatise on Jewels.
[205] "At Gombaroon and the Isle of Ormus, it is sometimes so hot, that
the people are obliged to lie all day in the water."--_Marco Polo_.
[206] This mountain is generally supposed to be inaccessible. _Struy_
says, "I can well assure the reader that their opinion is not true, who
suppose this mount to be inaccessible." He adds, that "the lower part of
the mountain is cloudy, misty, and dark, the middlemost part very cold,
and like clouds of snow, but the upper regions perfectly calm."--It was on
this mountain that the Ark was supposed to have rested after the Deluge,
and part of it, they say, exists there still, which Struy thus gravely
accounts for:--"Whereas none can remember that the air on the top of the
hill did ever change or was subject either to wind or rain, which is
presumed to be the reason that the Ark has endured so long without being
rotten."--See _Carreri's_ Travels, where the Doctor laughs at this whole
account of Mount Ararat.
[207] In one of the books of the Shâh Nâmeh, when Zal (a celebrated hero
of Persia, remarkable for his white hair,) comes to the terrace of his
mistress Rodahver at night, she lets down her long tresses to assist him
in his ascent;--he, however, manages it in a less romantic way by fixing
his crook in a projecting beam.--See _Champion's_ Ferdosi.
[208] "On the lofty hills of Arabia Petraea, are rock-goats."--_Niebuhr_.
[209] "They (the Ghebers) lay so much stress on their cushee or girdle, as
not to dare to be an instant without it."--_Grose's_ Voyage.
[210] "They suppose the Throne of the Almighty is seated in the sun, and
hence their worship of that luminary."--_Hanway_.
[211] The Mameluks that were in the other boat, when it was dark used to
shoot up a sort of fiery arrows into the air which in some measure
resembled lightning or falling stars."--_Baumgarten_.
[212] "Within the enclosure which surrounds his monument (at Gualior) is a
small tomb to the memory of Tan-Sein, a musician of incomparable skill,
who flourished at the court of Akbar. The tomb is overshadowed by a tree,
concerning which a superstitious notion prevails, that the chewing of its
leaves will give an extraordinary melody to the voice."--_Narrative of a
Journey from Agra to Ouzein, by W. Hunter, Esq_.
[213] "It is usual to place a small white triangular flag, fixed to a
bamboo staff of ten or twelve feet long, at the place where a tiger has
destroyed a man. It is common for the passengers also to throw each a
stone or brick near the spot, so that in the course of a little time a
pile equal to a good wagon-load is collected. The sight of these flags and
piles of stones imparts a certain melancholy, not perhaps altogether void
of apprehension."--_Oriental Field Sports_, vol. ii.
[214] "The Ficus Indica is called the Pagod Tree of Councils; the first,
from the idols placed under its shade; the second, because meetings were
held under its cool branches. In some places it is believed to be the
haunt of spectres, as the ancient spreading oaks of Wales have been of
fairies; in others are erected beneath the shade pillars of stone, or
posts, elegantly carved, and ornamented with the most beautiful porcelain
to supply the use of mirrors."--_Pennant_.
[215] The Persian Gulf.--"To dive for pearls in the Green Sea, or Persian
Gulf."--_Sir W. Jones_.
[216] Or Selemeh, the genuine name of the headland at the entrance of the
Gulf, commonly called Cape Musseldom. "The Indians when they pass the
promontory throw cocoa-nuts, fruits, or flowers into the sea to secure a
propitious voyage."--_Morier_.
[217] "The nightingale sings from the pomegranate-groves in the daytime
and from the loftiest trees at night."--_Russel's_ "Aleppo."
[218] In speaking of the climate of Shiraz, Francklin says, "The dew is of
such a pure nature, that if the brightest scimitar should be exposed to it
all night, it would not receive the least rust."
[219] The place where the Persians were finally defeated by the Arabs, and
their ancient monarchy destroyed.
[220] The Talpot or Talipot tree. "This beautiful palm-tree, which grows
in the heart of the forests, may be classed among the loftiest trees, and
becomes still higher when on the point of bursting forth from its leafy
summit. The sheath which then envelopes the flower is very large, and,
when it bursts, makes an explosion like the report of a cannon."--
_Thunberg_.
[221] "When the bright scimitars make the eyes of our heroes wink."--_The
Moallakat, Poem of Amru_.
[222] Tahmuras, and other ancient Kings of Persia; whose adventures in
Fairy-land among the Peris and Divs may be found in Richardson's curious
Dissertation. The griffin Simoorgh, they say, took some feathers from her
breast for Tahmuras, with which he adorned his helmet, and transmitted
them afterwards to his descendants.
[223] This rivulet, says Dandini, is called the Holy River from the
"cedar-saints" among which it rises.
[224] This mountain is my own creation, as the "stupendous chain," of
which I suppose it a link, does not extend quite so far as the shores of
the Persian Gulf.
[225] These birds sleep in the air. They are most common about the Cape of
Good Hope.
[226] "There is an extraordinary hill in this neighborhood, called Kohé
Gubr, or the Guebre's mountain. It rises in the form of a lofty cupola,
and on the summit of it, they say, are the remains of an Atush Kudu or
Fire Temple. It is superstitiously held to be the residence or Deeves or
Sprites, and many marvellous stories are recounted of the injury and
witchcraft suffered by those who essayed in former days to ascend or
explore it."--_Pottinger's_ "Beloochistan."
[227] The Ghebers generally built their temples over subterraneous fires.
[228] "At the city of Yezd, in Persia, which is distinguished by the
appellation of the Darub Abadut, or Seat of Religion, the Guebres are
permitted to have an Atush Kudu or Fire Temple (which, they assert, has
had the sacred fire in it since the days of Zoroaster) in their own
compartment of the city; but for this indulgence they are indebted to the
avarice, not the tolerance of the Persian government, which taxes them at
twenty-five rupees each man."--_Pottinger's_ "Beloochistan."
[229] Ancient heroes of Persia. "Among the Guebres there are some who
boast their descent from Rustam."--_Stephen's Persia_.
[230] See Russel's account of the panther's attacking travellers in the
night on the sea-shore about the roots of Lebanon.
[231] "Among other ceremonies the Magi used to place upon the tops of high
towers various kinds of rich viands, upon which it was supposed the Peris
and the spirits of their departed heroes regaled themselves."--
_Richardson_.
[232] In the ceremonies of the Ghebers round their Fire, as described by
Lord, "the Daroo," he says, "giveth them water to drink, and a pomegranate
leaf to chew in the mouth, to cleanse them from inward uncleanness."
[233] "Early in the morning, they (the Parsees or Ghebers at Oulam) go in
crowds to pay their devotions to the Sun, to whom upon all the altars
there are spheres consecrated, made by magic, resembling the circles of
the sun, and when the sun rises, these orbs seem to be inflamed, and to
turn round with a great noise. They have every one a censer in their
hands, and offer incense to the sun.'--_Rabbi Benjamin_.
[234] A vivid verdure succeeds the autumnal rains, and the ploughed fields
are covered with the Persian lily, of a resplendent yellow color."--
_Russel's_ "Aleppo."
[235] It is observed, with respect to the Sea of Herkend, that when it is
tossed by tempestuous winds it sparkles like fire."--_Travels of Two
Mohammedans_.
[236] A kind of trumpet;--it "was that used by Tamerlane, the sound of
which is described as uncommonly dreadful, and so loud as to be heard at a
distance of several miles."--_Richardson_.
[237] "Mohammed had two helmets, an interior and exterior one; the latter
of which, called Al Mawashah, the fillet, wreath, or wreathed garland, he
wore at the battle of Ohod."--_Universal History_.
[238] "They say that there are apple-trees upon the sides of this sea,
which bear very lovely fruit, but within are all full of ashes."--
_Thevenot_.
[239] "The Suhrab or Water of the Desert is said to be caused by the
rarefaction of the atmosphere from extreme heat; and, which augments the
delusion, it is most frequent in hollows, where water might be expected to
lodge. I have seen bushes and trees reflected in it, with as much accuracy
is though it had been the face of a clear and still lake."--_Pottinger_.
[240] "A wind which prevails in February, called Bidmusk, from a small and
odoriferous flower of that name."--"The wind which blows these flowers
commonly lasts till the end of the month."--_Le Bruyn_.
[241] "The Biajús are of two races: the one is settled on Borneo, and are
a rude but warlike and industrious nation, who reckon themselves the
original possessors of the island of Borneo. The other is a species of
sea-gypsies or itinerant fishermen, who live in small covered boats, and
enjoy a perpetual summer on the eastern ocean, shifting to leeward from
island to island, with the variations of the monsoon.
[242] "The sweet-scented violet is one of the plants most esteemed,
particularly for its great use in Sorbet, which they make of violet
sugar."--_Hassequist_.
[243] "Last of all she took a guitar, and sang a pathetic air in the
measure called Nava, which is always used to express the lamentations of
absent lovers."--_Persian Tales_.
[244] "The Easterns used to set out on their longer voyages with
music."--_Harmer_.
[245] "The Gate of Tears, the straits or passage into the Red Sea,
commonly called Babelmandel. It received this name from the old Arabians,
on account of the danger of the navigation and the number of shipwrecks by
which it was distinguished; which induced them to consider as dead, and to
wear mourning for all who had the boldness to hazard the passage through
it into the Ethiopic ocean."--_Richardson_.
[246] "I have been told that whensoever an animal falls down dead, one or
more vultures, unseen before, instantly appears."--_Pennant_.
[247] "They fasten some writing to the wings of a Bagdat, or Babylonian
pigeon."--_Travels of certain Englishmen_.
[248] "The Empress of Jehan-Guire used to divert herself with feeding tame
fish in her canals, some of which were many years afterwards known by
fillets of gold, which she caused to be put round them."--_Harris_.
[249] The meteors that Pliny calls "_faces_."
[250] "The brilliant Canopus, unseen in European climates."--_Brown_.
[251] A precious stone of the Indies, called by the ancients, Ceraunium,
because it was supposed to be found in places where thunder had fallen.
Tertullian says it has a glittering appearance, as if there had fire in
it; and the author of the Dissertation of Harris's Voyages, supposes it to
be the opal.
[252] "The Guebres are known by a dark yellow color, which the men affect
in their clothes."--_Thevenot_.
[253] "The Kolah, or cap, worn by the Persians, is made of the skin of the
sheep of Tartary."--_Waring_.
[254] A frequent image among the oriental poets. "The nightingales warbled
their enchanting notes, and rent the thin veils of the rose-bud, and the
rose."--_Jami_.
[255] "Blossoms of the sorrowful Nyctanthes give a durable color to
silk."--_Remarks on the Husbandry of Bengal_, p. 200. Nilica is one of the
Indian names of this flower.--_Sir W. Jones_. The Persians call it
Gul.--Carreri.
[256] "In parts of Kerman, whatever dates are shaken from the trees by the
wind they do not touch, but leave them for those who have not any, or for
travellers.--Ebn Haukal.
[257] The two terrible angels, Monkir and Nakir, who are called "the
Searchers of the Grave" in the "Creed of the orthodox Mahometans" given by
Ockley, vol. ii.
[258] "The Arabians call the mandrake 'the devil's candle,' on account of
its shining appearance in the night."--_Richardson_.
[259] For an account of Ishmonie, the petrified city in Upper Egypt, where
it is said there are many statues of men, women, etc., to be seen to this
day, see _Perry's "Views of the Levant_."
[260] Jesus.
[261] The Ghebers say that when Abraham, their great Prophet, was thrown
into the fire by order of Nimrod, the flame turned instantly into "a bed
of roses, where the child sweetly reposed."--_Tavernier_.
[262] "The shell called Siiankos, common to India, Africa, and the
Mediterranean, and still used in many parts as a trumpet for blowing
alarms or giving signals: it sends forth a deep and hollow sound."--
_Pennant_.
[263] "The finest ornament for the horses is made of six large flying
tassels of long white hair, taken out of the tails of wild oxen, that are
to be found in some places of the Indies."--_Thevenot_.
[264] "The angel Israfll, who has the most melodious voice of all God's
creatures."--_Sale_.
[265] "In this thicket upon the banks of the Jordan several sorts of wild
beasts are wont to harbor themselves, whose being washed out of the covert
by the overflowings of the river, gave occasion to that allusion of
Jeremiah, _he shall come up like a lion from the smelling of
Jordan_."--_Maundrell's "Aleppo."_
[266] "This wind (the Samoor) so softens the strings of lutes, that they
can never be tuned while it lasts."--_Stephen's Persia_.
[267] "One of the greatest curiosities found in the Persian Gulf is a fish
which the English call Star-fish. It is circular, and at night very
luminous, resembling the full moon surrounded by rays."--_Mirza Abu
Taleb_.
[268] Some naturalists have imagined that amber is a concretion of the
tears of birds.--See _Trevoux, Chambers_.
[269] "The bay Kieselarke, which is otherwise called the Golden Bay, the
sand whereof shines as fire."--_Struy_.
[270] "The application of whips or rods."--_Dubois_.
[271] Kempfer mentions such an officer among the attendants of the King of
Persia, and calls him "_formae corporis estimator_." His business was, at
stated periods, to measure the ladies of the Haram by a sort of
regulation-girdle whose limits it was not thought graceful to exceed. If
any of them outgrew this standard of shape, they were reduced by
abstinence till they came within proper bounds.
[272] "Akbar on his way ordered a fort to be built upon the Nilab, which
he called Attock, which means in the Indian language Forbidden; for, by
the superstition of the Hindoos, it was held unlawful to cross that
river."--_Dow's_ Hindostan.
[273] "The inhabitants of this country (Zinge) are never afflicted with
sadness or melancholy; on this subject the Sheikh _Abu-al-Kheir-Azhari_
has the following distich:--
"'Who is the man without care or sorrow, (tell) that I may rub my hand to
him.
"'(Behold) the Zingians, without care and sorrow, frolicsome with
tipsiness and mirth.'"
[274] The star Soheil, or Canopus.
[275] "The lizard Stellio. The Arabs call it Hardun. The Turks kill it,
for they imagine that by declining the head it mimics them when they say
their prayers."--_Hasselquist_.
[276] "As you enter at that Bazar, without the gate of Damascus, you see
the Green Mosque, so called because it hath a steeple faced with green
glazed bricks, which render it very resplendent: It is covered at top with
a pavilion of the same stuff. The Turks say this mosque was made in that
place, because Mahomet being come so far, would not enter the town, saying
it was too delicious."--_Thevenot_.
[277] Nourmahal signifies Light of the Haram. She was afterwards called
Nourjehan, or the Light of the World.
[278] "The rose of Kashmire for its brilliancy and delicacy of odor has
long been proverbial in the East."--Foster.
[279] "Tied round her waist the zone of bells, that sounded with ravishing
melody."--_Song of Jayadeva_.
[280] "The little isles in the Lake of Cachemire are set with arbors and
large-leaved aspen-trees, slender and tall."--_Bernier_.
[281] "The Tuckt Suliman, the name bestowed by the Mahommetans on this
hill, forms one side of a grand portal to the Lake."--_Forster_.
[282] "The Feast of Roses continues the whole time of their remaining in
bloom."--See _Pietro de la Valle_.
[283] "Gul sad berk, the Rose of a hundred leaves. I believe a particular
species."--_Ouseley_.
[284] A place mentioned in the Toozek Jehangeery, or Memoirs of Jehan-
Guire, where there is an account of the beds of saffron-flowers about
Cashmere.
[285] "It is the custom among the women to employ the Maazeen to chant
from the gallery of the nearest minaret, which on that occasion is
illuminated, and the women assembled at the house respond at intervals
with a ziraleet or joyous chorus."--_Russel_.
[286] "The swing is a favorite pastime in the East, as promoting a
circulation of air, extremely refreshing in those sultry climates."--
_Richardson_.
[287] At the keeping of the Feast of Roses we beheld an infinite number of
tents pitched, with such a crowd of men, women, boys, and girls, with
music, dances, etc."--_Herbert_.
[288] "An old commentator of the Chou-King says, the ancients having
remarked that a current of water made some of the stones near its banks
send forth a sound, they detached some of them, and being charmed with the
delightful sound they emitted, constructed King or musical instruments of
them,"--_Grosier_.
[289] In the wars of the Divs with the Peris, whenever the former took the
latter prisoners, "they shut them up in iron cages, and hung them on the
highest trees. Here they were visited by their companions, who brought
them the choicest odors."--_Richardson_.
[290] In the Malay language the same word signifies women and flowers.
[291] The capital of Shadukiam.
[292] "Among the birds of Tonquin is a species of goldfinch, which sings
so melodiously that it is called the Celestial Bird. Its wings, when it is
perched, appear variegated with beautiful colors, but when it flies they
lose all their splendor."--_Grosier_.
[293] "As these birds on the Bosphorus are never known to rest, they are
called by the French '_les âmes damnées_.'"--_Dalloway_.
[294] "You may place a hundred handfuls of fragrant herbs and flowers
before the nightingale, yet he wishes not in his constant heart for more
than the sweet breath of his beloved rose."--_Jami_.
[295] "He is said to have found the great _Mantra_, spell or talisman,
through which he ruled over the elements and spirits of all
denominations."--_Wilford_.
[296] "The gold jewels of Jinnie, which are called by the Arabs El Herrez,
from the supposed charm they contain."--_Jackson_.
[297] "A demon, supposed to haunt woods, etc., in a human shape."--
_Richardson_.
[298] The name of Jehan-Guire before his accession to the throne.
[299] "Hemasagara, or the Sea of Gold, with flowers of the brightest gold
color."--_Sir W. Jones_.
[300] "This tree (the Nagacesara) is one of the most delightful on earth,
and the delicious odor of its blossoms justly gives them a place in the
quiver of Camadeva, or the God of Love."--_Id_.
[301] "The Malayans style the tuberose (_polianthes tuberosa_) Sandal
Malam, or the Mistress of the Night."--_Pennant_.
[302] The people of the Batta country in Sumatra (of which Zamara is one
of the ancient names), "when not engaged in war, lead an idle, inactive
life, passing the day in playing on a kind of flute, crowned with garlands
of flowers, among which the globe-amaranthus, a native of the country,
mostly prevails,"--_Marsden_.
[303] "The largest and richest sort (of the Jambu or rose-apple) is called
Amrita, or immortal, and the mythologists of Tibet apply the same word to
a celestial tree, bearing ambrosial fruit."--_Sir W. Jones_.
[304] Sweet Basil, called Rayhan in Persia, and generally found in
churchyards.
[305] "In the Great Desert are found many stalks of lavender and
rosemary."--_Asiat. Res_.
[306] "The almond-tree, with white flowers, blossoms on the bare
branches."--_Hasselquist_.
[307] An herb on Mount Libanus, which is said to communicate a yellow
golden hue to the teeth of the goat and other animals that graze upon it.
[308] The myrrh country.
[309] "This idea (of deities living in shells) was not unknown to the
Greeks, who represent the young Nerites, one of the Cupids, as living in
shells on the shores of the Red Sea."--_Wilford_.
[310] "A fabulous fountain, where instruments are said to be constantly
playing."--_Richardson_.
[311] "The Pompadour pigeon is the species, which, by carrying the fruit
of the cinnamon to different places, is a great disseminator of this
valuable tree."--See _Brown's_ Illustr. Tab. 19.
[312] "The Persians have two mornings, the Soobhi Kazim and the Soobhi
Sadig, the false and the real daybreak. They account for this phenomenon
in a most whimsical manner. They say that as the sun rises from behind the
Kohi Qaf (Mount Caucasus), it passes a hole perforated through that
mountain, and that darting its rays through it, it is the cause of the
Soobhi Kazim, or this temporary appearance of daybreak. As it ascends, the
earth is again veiled in darkness, until the sun rises above the mountain,
and brings with it the Soobhi Sadig, or real morning."--_Scott Waring_.
[313] "In the centre of the plain, as it approaches the Lake, one of the
Delhi Emperors, I believe Shan Jehan, constructed a spacious garden called
the Shalimar, which is abundantly stored with fruit-trees and flowering
shrubs. Some of the rivulets which intersect the plain are led into a
canal at the back of the garden, and flowing through its centre, or
occasionally thrown into a variety of water-works, compose the chief
beauty of the Shalimar."--_Forster_.
[314] "The waters of Cachemir are the more renowned from its being
supposed that the Cachemirians are indebted for their beauty to
them."--_Ali Yezdi_.
[315] "From him I received the following little Gazzel, or Love Song, the
notes of which he committed to paper from the voice of one of those
singing girls of Cashmere, who wander from that delightful valley over the
various parts of India."--_Persian Miscellanies_.
[316] "The roses of the Jinan Nile, or Garden of the Nile (attached to the
Emperor of Morocco's palace) are unequalled, and mattresses are made of
their leaves for the men of rank to recline upon."--_Jackson_.
[317] "On the side of a mountain near Paphos there is a cavern which
produces the most beautiful rock-crystal. On account of its brilliancy it
has been called the Paphian diamond."--_Mariti_.
[318] "These is a part of Candahar, called Peria, or Fairy Land."--
_Thevenot_. In some of those countries to the north of India vegetable
gold is supposed to be produced.
[319] "These are the butterflies which are called in the Chinese language
Flying Leaves. Some of them have such shining colors, and are so
variegated, that they may be called flying flowers; and indeed they are
always produced in the finest flower-gardens."--_Dunn_.
[320] "The Arabian women wear black masks with little clasps prettily
ordered."--_Carreri_. Niebuhr mentions their showing but one eye in
conversation.
[321] "The golden grapes of Casbin."--_Description of Persia_.
[322] "The fruits exported from Caubul are apples, pears, pomegranates,"
etc.--_Elphinstone_.
[323] "We sat down under a tree, listened to the birds, and talked with
the son of our Mehmaundar about our country and Caubul, of which he gave
an enchanting account; that city and its 100,000 gardens," etc.--_Ib_.
[324] "The mangusteen, the most delicate fruit in the world; the pride of
the Malay islands."--_Marsden_.
[325] "A delicious kind of apricot, called by the Persians tokmekshems,
signifying sun's seed."--_Description of Persia_.
[326] "Sweetmeats, in a crystal cup, consisting of rose-leaves in
conserve, with Iemon of Visna cherry, orange flowers," etc.--_Russel_.
[327] "Antelopes cropping the fresh berries of Erac."--The _Moallakat_,
Poem of Tarafa.
[328] "Mauri-ga-Sima, an island near Formosa, supposed to have been sunk
in the sea for the crimes of its inhabitants. The vessels which the
fishermen and divers bring up from it are sold at an immense price in
China and Japan."--See _Kempfer_.
[329] Persian Tales.
[330] The white wine of Kishma.
[331] "The King of Zeilan is said to have the very finest ruby that was
ever seen. Kublai-Khan sent and offered the value of a city for It, but
the king answered he would not give it for the treasure of the
world."--_Marco Polo_.
[332] The Indians feign that Cupid was first seen floating down the Ganges
on the Nymphaea Nelumbo.--See _Pennant_.
[333] Teflis is celebrated for its natural warm baths.--See _Ebn Haukal_.
[334] "The Indian Syrinda, or guitar."--_Symez_.
[335] "Around the exterior of the Dewan Khafs (a building of Shah Allum's)
in the cornice are the following lines in letters of gold upon a ground of
white marble--'_If there be a paradise upon earth, it is this, it is
this.'"--Franklin_.
[336] "Delightful are the flowers of the Amra trees on the mountain tops
while the murmuring bees pursue their voluptuous toil."--_Song of
Jayadera_.
[337] "The Nison or drops of spring rain, which they believe to produce
pearls if they fall into shells."--_Richardson_.
[338] For an account of the share which wine had in the fall of the
angels, see _Mariti_.
[339] The Angel of Music.
[340] The Hudhud, or Lapwing, is supposed to have the power of discovering
water under ground.
[341] "The Chinese had formerly the art of painting on the sides of
porcelain vessels fish and other animals, which were only perceptible when
the vessel was full of some liquor, They call this species Kia-tsin, that
is, _azure is put in press_, on account of the manner in which the azure
is laid on."--"They are every now and then trying to discover the art of
this magical painting, but to no purpose."--_Dunn_.
[342] An eminent carver of idols, said in the Koran to be father to
Abraham. "I have such a lovely idol as is not to be met with in the house
of Azor."--_Hafiz_.
[343] Kachmire be Nazeer.--_Forster_.
[344] Jehan-Guire mentions "a fountain in Cashmere called Tirnagh, which
signifies a snake; probably because some large snake had formerly been
seen there."--"During the lifetime of my father, I went twice to this
fountain, which is about twenty coss from the city of Cashmere. The
vestiges of places of worship and sanctity are to be traced without number
amongst the ruins and the caves which are interspersed in its
neighborhood."--_Toozek Jehangeery_.--v. _Asiat. Misc_. vol. ii.
[345] "On a standing roof of wood is laid a covering of fine earth, which
shelters the building from the great quantity of snow that falls in the
winter season. This fence communicates an equal warmth in winter, as a
refreshing coolness in the summer season, when the tops of the houses,
which are planted with a variety of flowers, exhibit at a distance the
spacious view of a beautifully checkered parterre."--_Forster_.
[346] "Two hundred slaves there are, who have no other office than to hunt
the woods and marshes for triple-colored tortoises for the King's Vivary.
Of the shells of these also lanterns are made."--_Vincent le Blanc's_
Travels.
[347] This wind, which is to blow from Syria Damascena, is, according to
the Mahometans, one of the signs of the Last Day's approach.
Another of the signs is, "Great distress in the world, so that a man when
he passes by another's grave shall say, Would to God I were in his
place!"--_Sale's_ Preliminary Discourse.
[348] "On Mahommed Shaw's return to Koolburga (the capital of Dekkan), he
made a great festival, and mounted this throne with much pomp and
magnificence, calling it Firozeh or Cerulean. I have heard some old
persons, who saw the throne Firozeh in the reign of Sultan Mamood
Bhamenee, describe it. They say that it was in length nine feet, and three
in breadth; made of ebony covered with plates of pure gold, and set with
precious stones of immense value. Every prince of the house of Bhamenee,
who possessed this throne, made a point of adding to it some rich stones;
so that when in the reign of Sultan Mamood it was taken to pieces to
remove some of the jewels to be set in vases and cups, the jewellers
valued it at one corore of oons (nearly four millions sterling). I learned
also that it was called Firozeh from being partly enamelled of a sky-blue
color which was in time totally concealed by the number of jewels."--
_Ferishta_.