clay; and left it forty nights, or according to others, forty years,
lying without a soul; and the Devil came to it, and kicked it, and it
sounded. And God breathed into it a soul with his breath, sending it in
at his eyes, and he himself saw his nose still dead clay, and the soul
running thro him, till it reached his feet, when he stood upright.
_Maracci._
In the Nuremberg Chronicle is a print of the creation of Adam, the body
is half made, growing out of a heap of clay under the Creator's hands. A
still more absurd print represents Eve half way out of his side.
[24] These lines contain the various opinions of the Mohammedans
respecting the intermediate state of the Blessed, till the Day of
Judgment.
[25] Excepting in this line I have avoided all resemblances to the
powerful poetry of Lucan.
Aspicit astantem projecti corporis umbram,
Exanimes artus, invisaque claustra timentem
Carceris antiqui, pavet ire in pectus apertum,
Visceraque, et ruptas letali vulnere fibras.
Ah miser, extremum cui mortis munus iniquae
Eripitur, non posse mori! miratur Erichtho
Has fatis licuisse moras, irataque morti
Verberat immotum vivo serpente cadaver.
* * * * *
Protinus astrictus caluit cruor, atraque fovit
Vulnera, et in venas extremaque membra cucurrit.
Percussae gelido trepidant sub pectore fibrae;
Et nova desuetis subrepens vita medullis,
Miscetur morti, tunc omnis palpitat artus;
Tenduntur nervi; nec se tellure cadaver
Paulatim per membra levat, terraque repulsum est,
Erectumque simul. Distento lumina rictu
Nudantur. Nondum facies viventis in illo,
Jam morientis erat; remanet pallorque rigorque,
Et stupet illatus mundo.
_Lucan._
A curious instance of French taste occurs in this part of Brebeuf's
translation. The re-animated corpse is made the corpse of Burrhus, of
whose wife Octavia Sextus is enamoured. Octavia hears that her husband
has fallen in battle, she seeks his body, but in vain. A light at length
leads her to the scene of Erichtho's incantations, and she beholds
Burrhus, to all appearance living. The witch humanely allows them time
for a long conversation, which is very complimentary on the part of the
husband.
Brebeuf was a man of genius. The Pharsalia is as well told in his
version as it can be in the detestable French heroic couplet, which
epigrammatizes every thing. He had courage enough, tho' a Frenchman, to
admire Lucan,--and yet could not translate him without introducing a
love-story.
[26] This was one of the superstitions of the Pagan Arabs forbidden by
Mohammed.
[27] Some imagine that the crystal is snow turned to ice which has been
hardening thirty years, and is turned to a rock by age.
_Mirror of Stones, by Camillus Leonardus
Physician of Pisaro, dedicated to Caesar Borgia._
"In the cabinet of the Prince of Monaco among other rarities are two
pieces of crystal each larger than both hands clenched together. In the
middle of one is about a glass full of water, and in the other is some
moss, naturally enclosed there when the crystals congealed. These pieces
are very curious.
_Tavernier._
Crystal, precious stones, every stone that has a regular figure, and
even flints in small masses and consisting of concentric coats, whether
found in the perpendicular fissures of rocks, or elsewhere, are only
exudations, or the concreting juices of flint in large masses; they are,
therefore, new and spurious productions, the genuine stalactites of
flint or of granite.
_Buffen._
[28] With the Arabs either a round skin is laid on the ground for a
small company, or large course woollen cloths for a great number spread
all over the room, and about ten dishes repeated six or seven times
over, laid round at a great feast, and whole sheep and lambs boild and
roasted in the middle. When one company has done, another sits round,
even to the meanest, till all is consumed. And an Arab Prince will often
dine in the street before his door and call to all that pass even
beggars, in the usual expression, _Bisimillah_, that is, in the name of
God; who come and sit down and when they have done, give their
_Hamdellilah_, that is, God be praised, for the Arabs who are great
levellers, put every body on a footing with them, and it is by such
generosity and hospitality that they maintain their interest.
_Pococke_.
[29] 'Tis the custom of Persia to begin their feasts with fruits and
preserves. We spent two hours in eating only those and drinking beer,
hydromel and aquavitae. Then was brought up the meat in great silver
dishes, they were full of rice of divers colours, and upon that, several
sorts of meat boild and roasted, as beef, mutton, tame fowl, wild ducks,
fish and other things, all very well ordered and very delicate.
The Persians use no knives at table, but the Cooks send up the meat
ready cut up into little bits, so that it was no trouble to us to
accustome ourselves to their manner of eating. Rice serves them instead
of bread. They take a mouthful of it, with the two fore-fingers and the
thumb, and so put it into their mouths. Every table had a carver, whom
they call Suffret-zi, who takes the meat brought up in the great dishes,
to put it into lesser ones, which he fills with 3 or 4 sorts of meat, so
as that every dish may serve 2 or at most 3 persons. There was but
little drunk till towards the end of the repast, and then the cups went
about roundly, and the dinner was concluded with a vessel of porcelane,
full of a hot blackish kind of drink, which they call Kahawa.
_Ambassadors Travels._
They laid upon the floor of the Ambassadors room a fine silk cloth, on
which there set one and 30 dishes of silver, filled with several sorts
of conserves, dry and liquid, and raw fruits, as Melons, Citrons,
Quinces, Pears, and some others not known in Europe. Some time after
that cloth was taken away that another might be laid in the room of it,
and upon this was set rice of all sorts of colours and all sorts of meat
boyld and roasted in above fifty dishes of the same metal.
_Amb. Tra._
There is not any thing more ordinary in Persia than rice soaked in
water, they call it Plau and eat of it at all their meals, and serve it
up in all their dishes. They sometimes put thereto a little of the juice
of pomegranates or cherries and saffron, insomuch that commonly you have
rice of several colours in the same dish.
_Amb. Tra._
[30] The Tamarind is equally useful and agreable, it has a pulp of a
vineous taste, of which a wholesome refreshing liquor is prepared, its
shade shelters houses from the torrid heat of the sun, and its fine
figure greatly adorns the scenery of the country.
_Niebuhr._
[31] Of pumpkins and melons several sorts grow naturally in the woods,
and serve for feeding Camels. But the proper melons are planted in the
fields, where a great variety of them is to be found, and in such
abundance, that the Arabians of all ranks use them, for some part of the
year, as their principal article of food. They afford a very agreeable
liquor. When its fruit is nearly ripe, a hole is pierced into the pulp,
this hole is then stopped with wax, and the melon left upon the stalk.
Within a few days the pulp is in consequence of this process, converted
into a delicious liquor.
_Niebuhr._
[32] l'aspect imprevu de tant de Castillans, D'etonnement, d'effroi,
peint ses regards brillans; Ses mains du choix des fruits se formant une
etude, Demeurent un moment dans la meme attitude.
_Madame Boccage. La Colombiade._
[33] The Arabians divide their day into twenty four hours, and reckon
them from one setting sun to another. As very few among them know what a
watch is, and as they conceive, but imperfectly the duration of an hour,
they usually determine time almost as when we say, it happened about
noon, about evening, &c. The moment when the Sun disappears is called
_Maggrib_, about two hours afterwards they call it _El ascha_; two hours
later, _El maerfa_; midnight _Nus el lejl_: the dawn of morning _El
fadsjer_: sun rise _Es subhh_. They eat about nine in the morning, and
that meal is called _El ghadda_; noon _El duhhr_; three hours after noon
_El asr_. Of all these divisions of time only noon and midnight are well
ascertained; they both fall upon the twelfth hour. The others are
earlier or later as the days are short or long. The five hours appointed
for prayer are _Maggrib, Nus el lejl, El fedsjer, Duhhr_, and _El asr_.
_Niebuhr. Desc. del Arabie._
[34] The use of the bath was forbidden the Moriscoes in Spain, as being
an _anti-christian_ custom! I recollect no superstition but the Catholic
in which nastiness is accounted a virtue; as if, says Jortin, piety and
filth were synonimous, and religion like the itch, could he caught by
wearing foul cloaths.
[35] The effects of the Simoom are instant suffocation to every living
creature that happens to be within the sphere of its activity, and
immediate putrefaction of the carcases of the dead. The Arabians discern
its approach by an unusual redness in the air, and they say that they
feel a smell of sulphur as it passes. The only means by which any person
can preserve himself from suffering by these noxious blasts, is by
throwing himself down with his face upon the earth, till this whirlwind
of poisonous exhalations has blown over, which always moves at a certain
height in the atmosphere. Instinct even teaches the brutes to incline
their heads to the ground on these occasions.
_Niebuhr._
The Arabs of the desert call these winds _Semoum_ or poison, and the
Turks _Shamyela_, or wind of Syria, from which is formed the _Samiel_.
Their heat is sometimes so excessive that it is difficult to form any
idea of its violence without having experienced it; but it may be
compared to the heat of a large oven at the moment of drawing out the
bread. When these winds begin to blow, the atmosphere assumes an
alarming aspect. The sky at other times so clear, in this climate,
becomes dark and heavy; the sun loses his splendour and appears of a
violet colour. The air is not cloudy, but grey and thick, and is in fact
filled with an extremely subtile dust, which penetrates every where.
This wind, always light and rapid, is not at first remarkably hot, but
it increases in heat in proportion as it continues. All animated bodies
soon discover it, by the change it produces in them. The lungs which a
too rarefied air no longer expands, are contracted and become painful.
Respiration is short and difficult, the skin parched and dry, and the
body consumed by an internal heat. In vain is recourse had to large
draughts of water; nothing can restore perspiration. In vain is coolness
sought for; all bodies in which it is usual to find it, deceives the
hand that touches them. Marble, iron, water, notwithstanding the sun no
longer appears, are hot. The streets are deserted, and the dead silence
of night reigns every where. The inhabitants of houses and villages shut
themselves up in their houses, and those of the desert in their tents,
or in pits they dig in the earth, where they wait the termination of
this destructive heat. It usually lasts three days, but if it exceeds
that time it becomes insupportable. Woe to the traveller whom this wind
surprizes remote from shelter! he must suffer all its dreadful
consequences which sometimes are mortal. The danger is most imminent
when it blows in squalls, for then the rapidity of the wind increases
the heat to such degree as to cause sudden death. This death is a real
suffocation; the lungs being empty, are convulsed, the circulation
disordered, and the whole mass of blood driven by the heart towards the
head and breast; whence that haemorrhage at the nose and mouth which
happens after death. This wind is especially fatal to persons of a
plethoric habit, and those in whom fatigue has destroyed the tone of the
muscles and the vessels. The corpse remains a long time warm, swells,
turns blue and is easily separated; all which are signs of that putrid
fermentation which takes place in animal bodies when the humours become
stagnant. These accidents are to be avoided by stopping the nose and
mouth with handkerchiefs; an efficacious method likewise is that
practised by the camels, who bury their noses in the sand and keep them
there till the squall is over.
Another quality of this wind is its extreme aridity; which is such, that
water sprinkled on the floor evaporates in a few minutes. By this
extreme dryness it withers and strips all the plants, and by exhaling
too suddenly the emanations from animal bodies, crisps the skin, closes
the pores, and causes that feverish heat which is the invariable effect
of suppressed perspiration.
_Volney._
[36] From the _Mirror of Stones_ I extract a few specimens of the absurd
ideas once prevalent respecting precious stones.
The _Amethyst_ drives away drunkenness; for being bound on the navel, it
restrains the vapour of the wine, and so disolves the ebriety.
_Alectoria_ is a stone of a christalline colour, a little darkish,
somewhat resembling limpid water; and sometimes it has veins of the
colour of flesh. Some call it _Gallinaceus_, from the place of its
generation, the intestines of capons, which were castrated at three
years old, and had lived seven, before which time the stone ought not to
be taken out, for the older it is, so much the better. When the stone is
become perfect in the Capon, he do'nt drink. However tis never found
bigger than a large bean. The virtue of this stone is to render him who
carries it invisible, being held in the mouth it allays thirst, and
therefore is proper for wrestlers; makes a woman agreable to her
husband; bestows honors and preserves those already acquired; it frees
such as are bewitched; it renders a man eloquent, constant, agreable and
amiable; it helps to regain a lost Kingdom, and acquire a foreign one.
_Borax_, _Nosa_, _Crapondinus_, are names of the same stone, which is
extracted from a toad. There are two species; that which is the best is
rarely found; the other is black or dun with a cerluean glow, having in
the middle the similitude of an eye, and must be taken out while the
dead toad is yet panting, and these are better than those which are
extracted from it after a long continuance in the ground. They have a
wonderful efficacy in poisons. For whoever has taken poison, let him
swallow this; which being down, rolls about the bowels, and drives out
every poisonous quality that is lodged in the intestines, and then
passes thro' the fundament, and is preserved.
_Corvia_ or _Corvina_, is a Stone of a reddish colour, and accounted
artificial. On the calends of April boil the eggs taken out of a Crow's
nest till they are hard: and being cold let them be placed in the nest
as they were before. When the crow knows this, she flies a long way to
find the stone, and having found it returns to the nest, and the eggs
being touched with it, they become fresh and prolific, the Stone must
immediately be snatched out of the nest, its virtue is to increase
riches, to bestow honors, and to foretell many future events.
_Kinocetus_ is a stone not wholly useless--since it will cast out
Devils.
[37] Giafar, the founder of the Barmecides, being obliged to fly from
Persia his native country, took refuge at Damascus, and implored the
protection of the Caliph Soliman. When he was presented to that Prince,
the Caliph suddenly changed colour and commanded him to retire,
suspecting that he had poison about him. Soliman had discovered it by
means of ten stones which he wore upon his arm. They were fastened there
like a bracelet, and never failed to strike one against the other and
make a slight noise when any poison was near. Upon enquiry it was found
that Giafar carried poison in his ring, for the purpose of
self-destruction in case he had been taken by his enemies.
_Marigny._
These foolish old superstitions have died away, and gems are now neither
pounded as poison nor worn as antidotes. But the old absurdities
respecting poisons have been renewed in our days, by Authors who have
revived the calumnies alledged against the Knights-Templar, with the
hope of exciting a more extensive persecution.
[38] In the country called Panten or Tathalamasin, "there be canes
called Cassan, which overspread the earth like glasse, and out of every
knot of them spring foorth certaine branches, which are continued upon
the ground almost for the space of a mile. In the sayd canes there are
found certaine stones, one of which stones whosoever carryeth about with
him, cannot be wounded with any yron: and therefore the men of that
country for the most part carry such stones with them, withersoever they
goe. Many also cause one of the armes of their children, while they are
young, to be launced, putting one of the said stones into the wound,
healing also, and closing up the said wound with the powder of a certain
fish (the name whereof I do not know) which powder doth immediately
consolidate and cure the said wound. And by the vertue of these stones,
the people aforesaid doe for the most part triumph both on sea and land.
Howbeit there is one kind of stratageme which the enemies of this
nation, knowing the vertue of the sayd stones, doe practise against
them: namely, they provide themselves armour of yron or steele against
their arrowes, and weapons also poisoned with the poyson of trees, and
they carry in their hands wooden stakes most sharp and hard-pointed, as
if they were yron: likewise they shoot arrowes without yron heades, and
so they confound and slay some of their unarmed foes trusting too
securely unto the vertue of their stones.
_Odoricus in Hakluyt._
We are obliged to Jewellers for our best accounts of the East. In
Tavernier there is a passage curiously characteristic of his profession.
A European at Delhi complained to him that he had polished and set a
large diamond for Aureng-zebe, who had never paid him for his work. But
he did not understand his trade, says Tavernier, for if he had been a
skilful Jeweller he would have known how to take two or three pieces out
of the stone, and pay himself better than the Mogul would have done.
[39] And Elisha died, and they buried him. And the bands of the Moabites
invaded the land at the coming in of the year.
And it came to pass as they were burying a man, that behold they spied a
band of men; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha: and
when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived
and stood up on his feet.
II. _Kings._ XIII. 20. 21.
I must remind my readers that an allusion to the Old Testament is no
ways improper in a Mohammedan.
It happened the dead corps of a man was cast ashore at Chatham, and
being taken up was buried decently in the Church yard; now there was an
image or rood in the Church called our Lady of Chatham, this Lady, say
the Monks, went the next night and roused up the Clerk, telling him that
a sinful person was buried near the place where she was worshipped, who
offended her eyes with his ghastly grinning, and unless he were removed,
to the great grief of good people she must remove from thence and could
work no more miracles. Therefore she desired him to go with her to take
him up, and throw him into the river again: which being done, soon after
the body floated again, and was taken up and buried in the Church yard;
but from that time all miracles ceased, and the place where he was
buried did continually sink downwards. This tale is still remembered by
some aged people, receiving it by tradition from the popish times of
darkness and idolatry.
_Admirable Curiosities, Rarites and Wonders in England._
[40] Matthew of Westminister says the history of the Old Woman of
Berkeley, will not appear incredible, if we read the dialogue of St.
Gregory in which he relates how the body of a man buried in the church
was thrown out by the Devils: Charles Martel also because he had
appropriated great part of the tythes to pay his soldiers, was most
miserably by the wicked Spirits taken bodily out of his grave.
The Turks report, as a certain truth, that the corps of Heyradin
Barbarossa was found, four or five times, out of the ground, lying by
his sepulchre, after he had been there inhumed: nor could they possibly
make him lie quiet in his grave, till a Greek wizzard counselled them to
bury a black dog together with the body; which done, he lay still, and
gave them no farther trouble.
_Morgan's History of Algiers._
In supernatural affairs dogs seem to possess a sedative virtue. When
peace was made, about the year 1170, between the Earls of Holland, and
Flanders, "it was concluded that Count Floris should send unto Count
Philip, a thousand men, expert in making of ditches, to stop the hole
which had beene made neere unto Dam, or the Sluce, whereby the countrey
was drowned round about at everie high sea; the which the Flemings could
by no meanes fil up, neither with wood, nor any other matter, for that
all sunke as in a gulfe without any bottome; whereby, in succession of
time, Bruges and all that jurisdiction, had been in danger to have bin
lost by inundation, and to become all sea, if it were not speedily
repaired. Count Floris having taken possession of the isle of Walchran,
returned into Holland, from whence hee sent the best workmen he could
find in all his countries, into Flanders, to make dikes and causeies,
and to stop the hole neere unto this Dam, or Sluce, and to recover the
drowned land. These diggers being come to the place, they found at the
entrie of this bottomlesse hole a Sea-dog, the which for six dayes
together, did nothing but crie out and howle very fearefully. They, not
knowing what it might signifie, having consulted of this accident, they
resolved to cast this dogge into the hole. There was a mad-headed
Hollander among the rest, who going into the bottome of the dike, tooke
the dogge by the taile, and cast him into the middest of the gulfe; then
speedily they cast earth and torfe into it, so as they found a bottome,
and by little and little filled it up. And for that many workemen came
to the repairing of this dike, who for that they would not be far from
their worke, coucht in Cabines, which seemed to be a pretie towne. Count
Philip gave unto all these Hollanders, Zeelanders and others, that would
inhabit there, as much land as they could recover from Dam to
Ardenbourg, for them and their successors, for ever, with many other
immunities and freedoms. By reason whereof many planted themselves
there, and in succession of time, made a good towne there, the which by
reason of this dog, which they cast into the hole, they named
_Hondtsdam_, that is to say, _a dog's sluce_; _Dam_ in Flemish
signifying a sluce, and _Hondt_ a dog: and therefore at this day, the
said towne (which is simply called _Dam_) carrieth a dog in their armes
and blason.
_Grimestone's Historie of the Netherlands_, 1608.
[41] The Vulture is very serviceable in Arabia, clearing the earth of
all carcases, which corrupt very rapidly in hot countries. He also
destroys the field mice which multiply so prodigiously in some
provinces, that were it not for this assistance, the peasant might cease
from the culture of the fields as absolutely vain. Their performance of
these important services induced the antient Egyptians to pay those
birds divine honours, and even at present it is held unlawful to kill
them in all the countries which they frequent.
_Niebuhr._
[42] The Bedouins, who, at all points, are less superstitious than the
Turks, have a breed of very tall greyhounds, which likewise mount guard
around their tents; but they take great care of these useful servants,
and have such an affection for them, that to kill the dog of a Bedouin
would be to endanger your own life.
_Sonnini._
[43] The Arabs call the West and South West winds which prevail from
November to February, _the fathers of the rains._
_Volney._
[44] See Note 15. Book I.
Of the Palm leaves they make mattresses, baskets and brooms; and of the
branches, all sorts of cage work, square baskets for packing that serve
for many uses instead of boxes; and the ends of the boughs that grow
next to the trunk being beaten like flax, the fibres separate, and being
tied together at the narrow end, they serve for brooms.
_Pococke._