hatch her eggs, she does not cover them as other fowls do, but both the
male and female contribute to hatch them by the efficacy of their looks
only; and therefore when one has occasion to go to look for food, it
advertises its companion by its cry, and the other never stirs during
its absence, but remains with its eyes fixed upon the eggs, till the
return of its mate, and then goes in its turn to look for food, and this
care of theirs is so necessary that it cannot be suspended for a moment,
for if it should their eggs would immediately become addle.
_Vanslebe. Harris's Collection._
This is said to emblem the perpetual attention of the Creator to the
Universe.
[62] "She had laid aside the rings which used to grace her ankles, lest
the sound of them should expose her to calamity."
_Asiatic Researches._
Most of the Indian women have on each arm, and also above the ankle, ten
or twelve rings of gold, silver, ivory, or coral. They spring on the
leg, and when they walk make a noise with which they are much pleased.
Their hands and toes are generally adorned with large rings.
_Sonnerat._
"In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of _their tinkling
ornaments about their feet_, and their cauls, and their round tires like
the moon."
"The chains, and the bracelets and the mufflers, The bonnets, and _the
ornaments of the legs_, &c."
_Isaiah._ III. 18.
[63] His fingers, in beauty and slenderness appearing as the _Yed
Bieza_,[h] or the rays of the sun, being tinged with Hinna, seemed
branches of transparent red coral.
_Bahar Danush._
[h] The miraculously shining hand of Moses.
She dispenses gifts with small delicate fingers, sweetly glowing at
their tips, like the white and crimson worm of Dabia, or dentifrices
made of Esel wood.
_Moallakat. Poem of Amriolkais._
The Hinna, says the translator of the Bahar-Danush, is esteemed not
merely ornamental, but medicinal: and I have myself often experienced in
India a most refreshing coolness thro' the whole habit, from an
embrocation, or rather plaster of Hinna, applied to the soles of my
feet, by prescription of a native physician. The effect lasted for some
days.
This unnatural fashion is extended to animals.
Departing from the town of Anna we met about five hundred paces from the
gate a young man of good family followed by two servants, and mounted in
the fashion of the country, upon an Ass, whose rump was painted red.
_Tavernier._
In Persia, "they dye the tails of those horses which are of a light
colour with red or orange."
_Hanway._
Ali the Moor, to whose capricious cruelty Mungo Park was so long
exposed, "always rode upon a milk white horse, with its tail dyed red."
_Alfenado_, a word derived from alfena the Portugueze or Moorish name of
this plant, is still used in Portugal as a phrase of contempt for a fop.
[64] The blackened eye-lids and the reddened fingers were Eastern
customs, in use among the Greeks. They are still among the tricks of the
Grecian toilette, the females of the rest of Europe have never added
them to their list of ornaments.
[65] The Mimosa Selam produces splendid flowers of a beautiful red
colour with which the Arabians crown their heads on their days of
festival.
_Niebuhr._
[66] The large locusts, which are near three inches long, are not the
most destructive; as they fly, they yield to the current of the wind
which hurries them into the sea, or into sandy deserts where they perish
with hunger or fatigue. The young locusts, that cannot fly, are the most
ruinous; they are about fifteen lines in length; and the thickness of a
goose quill. They creep over the country in such multitudes that they
leave not a blade of grass behind; and the noise of their feeding
announces their approach at some distance. The devastations of locusts
increase the price of provisions, and often occasion famines; but the
Moors find a kind of compensation in making food of these insects;
prodigious quantities are brought to market salted and dried like red
herrings. They have an oily and rancid taste, which habit only can
render agreeable; they are eat here, however, with pleasure.
_Chenier._
In 1778 the empire of Morocco was ravaged by these insects. In the
summer of that year, such clouds of locusts came from the south that
they darkened the air, and devoured a part of the harvest. Their
offspring, which they left on the ground, committed still much greater
mischief. Locusts appeared and bred anew in the following year, so that
in the spring the country was wholly covered, and they crawled one over
the other in search of their subsistence.
It has been remarked, in speaking of the climate of Morocco, that the
young locusts are those which are the most mischievous; and that it
seems almost impossible to rid the land of these insects and their
ravages, when the country once becomes thus afflicted. In order to
preserve the houses and gardens in the neighbourhood of cities, they dig
a ditch two feet in depth and as much in width. This they pallisade with
reeds close to each other, and inclined inward toward the ditch; so that
the insects unable to climb up the slippery reed, fall back into the
ditch, where they devour one another.
This was the means by which the gardens and vineyards of Rabat, and the
city itself were delivered from this scourge, in 1779. The intrenchment,
which was, at least, a league in extent, formed a semicircle from the
sea to river, which separates Rabat from Sallee. The quantity of young
locusts here assembled was so prodigious that, on the third day, the
ditch could not be approached because of the stench. The whole country
was eaten up, the very bark of the fig, pomegranate, and orange tree,
bitter, hard, and corrosive as it was could not escape the voracity of
these insects.
The lands, ravaged throughout all the western provinces, produced no
harvest, and the Moors being obliged to live on their stores, which the
exportation of corn (permitted till 1774) had drained, began to feel a
dearth. Their cattle, for which they make no provision, and which in
these climates, have no other subsistance than that of daily grazing,
died with hunger; nor could any be preserved but those which were in the
neighbourhood of mountains, or in marshy grounds, where the regrowth of
pasturage is more rapid.
In 1780, the distress was still farther increased. The dry winter had
checked the products of the earth, and given birth to a new generation
of locusts, who devoured whatever had escaped from the inclemency of the
season. The husbandman did not reap even what he had sowed, and found
himself destitute of food, cattle, or seed corn. In this time of extreme
wretchedness the poor felt all the horrors of famine. They were seen
wandering over the country to devour roots, and, perhaps, abridged their
days by digging into the entrails of the earth in search of the crude
means by which they might be preserved.
Vast numbers perished of indigestible food and want. I have beheld
country people in the roads, and in the streets, who had died of hunger,
and who were thrown across asses to be taken and buried. Fathers sold
their children. The husband, with the consent of his wife, would take
her into another province, there to bestow her in marriage as if she
were his sister, and afterwards come and reclaim her when his wants were
no longer so great. I have seen women and children run after camels, and
rake in their dung to seek for some indigested grain of barley, which,
if they found, they devoured with avidity.
_Chenier._
[67] The Abmelec or eater of Locusts, or grasshoppers, is a bird which
better deserves to be described, perhaps, than most others of which
travellers have given us an account, because the facts relating to it
are not only strange, in themselves, but so well and distinctly
attested, that however surprising they may seem, we cannot but afford
them our belief. The food of this creature is the locust, or the
grasshopper: it is of the size of an ordinary hen, its feathers black,
its wings large, and its flesh of a greyish colour; they fly generally
in great flocks, as the starlings are wont to do with us: but the thing
which renders these birds wonderful is, that they are so fond of the
water of a certain fountain in Corasson, or Bactria, that where-ever
that water is carried, they follow; on which account it is carefully
preserved; for where ever the locusts fall, the Armenian priests, who
are provided with this water, bring a quanity of it, and place in jars,
or pour it into little channels in the fields, the next day whole troops
of these birds arrive and quickly deliver the people from the locusts.
_Universal History._
Sir John Chardin has given us, the following passage from an antient
traveller, in relation to this bird. In Cyprus about the time that the
corn was ripe for the sickle, the earth produced such a quantity of
cavalettes, or locusts, that they obscured sometimes the splendour of
the sun. Wherever these came, they burnt and eat up all; for this there
was no remedy, since, as fast as they were destroyed, the earth produced
more: God, however, raised them up a means for their deliverance, which
happened thus. In Persia, near the city of Cuerch there is a fountain of
water, which has a wonderful property of destroying these insects; for a
pitcher full of this being carried in the open air, without passing
through house or vault, and being set on an high place, certain birds
which follow it, and fly and cry after the men who carry it from the
fountain, come to the place where it is fixed. These birds are red and
black, and fly in great flocks together, like starlings; the Turks and
Persians call them Musulmans. These birds no sooner came to Cyprus, but
they destroyed the locusts with which the Island was infested; but if
the water be spilt or lost these creatures immediately disappear; which
accident fell out when the Turks took this Island; for one of them going
up into the steeple of Famagusta, and finding there a pitcher of this
water, he, fancying that it contained gold or silver, or some precious
thing, broke it, and spilt what was therein; since which the Cypriots
have been as much tormented as ever by the locusts.
On the confines of the Medes and of Armenia, at certain times a great
quantity of Birds are seen who resemble our blackbirds, and they have a
property sufficiently curious to make me mention it. When the corn in
these parts begins to grow, it is astonishing to see the number of
Locusts with which all the fields are covered. The Armenians have no
other method of delivering themselves from these insects, than by going
in procession round the fields and sprinkling them with a particular
water which they take care to preserve in their houses. For this water
comes from a great distance, they fetch it from a Well belonging to one
of their Convents near the frontiers, and they say that the bodies of
many Christian martyrs were formerly thrown into this well. These
processions and the sprinkling continue three or four days, after which
the Birds that I have mentioned come in great flights, and whether it be
that they eat the locusts, or drive them away, in two or three days the
country is cleared of them.
_Tavernier._
At Mosul and at Haleb, says Niebuhr, I heard much of the Locust Bird,
without seeing it. They there call it _Samarmar_, or as others pronounce
it, _Samarmog_. It is said to be black, larger than a sparrow, and no
ways pleasant to the palate. I am assured that it every day destroys an
incredible number of Locusts; they pretend nevertheless that the Locusts
sometimes defend themselves, and devour the Bird with its feathers, when
they have overpowered it by numbers. When the children in the frontier
towns of Arabia catch a live Locust, they place it before them and cry
_Samarmog_! And because it stoops down terrified at the noise, or at the
motion of the child, or clings more closely to its place, the children
believe that it fears the name of its enemy, that it hides itself, and
attempts to throw stones. The _Samarmog_ is not a native of Mosul or
Haleb, but they go to seek it in Khorasan with much ceremony. When the
Locusts multiply very greatly, the government sends persons worthy of
trust to a spring near the village of _Samarun_, situated in a plain
between four mountains, by _Mesched_, or _Musa er ridda_, in that
province of Persia. The deputies with the ceremonies prescribed fill a
chest with this water, and pitch the chest so that the water may neither
evaporate nor be spilt before their return. From the spring to the Town
whence they were sent, the chest must always be between heaven and
earth: they must neither place it on the ground, nor under any roof,
lest it should lose all its virtue. Mosul being surrounded with a wall,
the water must not pass under the gate way, but it is received over the
wall, and the chest placed upon the Mosque _Nebbi Gurgis_, a building
which was formerly a church, and which in preference to all the other
buildings has had from time immemorial the honour to possess this chest
upon its roof. When this precious water has been brought from Khorasan
with the requisite precautions, the common Mohammedans, Christians and
Jews of Mosul believe that the _Samarmog_ follows the water, and remains
in the country as long as there is a single drop left in the chest of
_Nebbi-Gurgis_. Seeing one day a large stork's nest upon this vessel, I
told a Christian of some eminence in the town, how much I admired the
quick smell of the _Samarmog_, who perceived the smell of the water
thro' such a quantity of ordure, he did not answer me, but was very much
scandalized that the government should have permitted the stork to make
her nest upon so rare a treasure, and still more angry, that for more
than nine years, the government had not sent to procure fresh water.
_Niebuhr. Desc. de l'Arabie._
Dr. Russell describes this bird as about the size of a starling, the
body of a flesh colour, the rest of its plumage black, the bill and legs
black also.
[68] The Locusts are remarkable for the hieroglyphic that they bear upon
the forehead, their colour is green throughout the whole body, excepting
a little yellow rim that surrounds their head, which is lost at their
eyes. This insect has two upper wings pretty solid: they are green like
the rest of the body, except that there is in each a little white spot.
The Locust keeps them extended like great sails of a ship going before
the wind, it has besides two other wings underneath the former, and
which resemble a light transparent stuff pretty much like a cobweb, and
which it makes use of in the manner of smack sails that are along a
vessel; but when the Locust reposes herself she does like a vessel that
lies at anchor, for she keeps the second sails furled under the first.
_Norden._
The Mohammedans believe some mysterious meaning is contained in the
lines upon the Locust's forehead.
I compared the description in the Poem with a Locust, which was caught
in Leicestershire. It is remarkable that a single insect should have
found his way so far inland.
[69] An Arabian expression from the Moallakat. "She turns her right
side, as if she were in fear of some large-headed Screamer of the
night."
_Poem of Antara._
[70] The Mussulmans are immutably prepossessed, that as the Earth
approaches its dissolution, its sons and daughters gradually decrease in
their dimensions. As for Dagjial, they say, he will find the race of
mankind dwindled into such diminutive pigmies, that their habitations in
cities, and all the best towns, will be of no other fabrick than the
shoes and slippers made in these present ages, placed in rank and file,
in seemly and regular order; allowing one pair for two round families.
_Morgan's Hist. of Algiers._
[71] The story of Haruth and Maruth as in the Poem, may be found in
D'Herbelot, and in Sale's notes to the Koran. Of the differing accounts
I have preferred that which makes Zohara originally a woman, and
metamorphoses her into the planet Venus to that which says the planet
Venus descended as Zohara to tempt the Angels.
The Arabians have so childish a love of rhyme, that when two names are
usually coupled they make them jingle, as in the case of Haruth and
Maruth. Thus they call Cain and Abel, Abel and Kabel. I am informed that
the Koran is crowded with rhymes, more particularly at the conclusion of
the chapters.
[72] The Ism-Ablah--The Science of the Name of God. They pretend that
God is the lock of this science, and Mohammed the key, that consequently
none but Mohammedans can attain it; that it discovers what passes in
distant countries, that it familiarizes the possessors with the Genii,
who are at the command of the initiated and who instruct them; that it
places the winds and the seasons at their disposal, that it heals the
bile of serpents, the lame, the maimed, and the blind. They say that
some of their greatest Saints, such as _Abdulkadir Cheilani_ of Bagdat,
and _Ibn Alwan_ who resided in the south of Yemen, were so far advanced
in this science by their devotion, that they said their prayers every
noon in the Kaba of Mecca, and were not absent from their own houses any
other part of the day. A merchant of Mecca, who had learnt it in all its
forms from Mohammed el Dsjanadsjeni (at present so famous in that city)
pretended that he himself being in danger of perishing at sea, had
fastened a billet to the mast with the usual ceremonies, and that
immediately the tempest ceased. He showed me at Bombay, but at a
distance, a book which contained all sorts of figures and mathematical
tables, with instructions how to arrange the billets and the appropriate
prayers for every circumstance. But he would neither suffer me to touch
the Book, nor copy the title.
There are some Mohammedans who shut themselves up in a dark place
without eating and drinking for a long time, and there with a loud voice
repeat certain short prayers till they faint. When they recover they
pretend to have seen not only a croud of Spirits, but God himself, and
even the Devil. But the true initiated in the Ism-Allah do not seek
these visions. The secret of discovering hidden treasures, belong also,
if I mistake not, to the Ism Allah.
_Niebuhr._
[73] One of the Arabs whom we saw from afar, and who was mounted upon a
Camel, seemed higher than a tower and to be moving in the air, at first
this was to me a strange appearance, however it was only the effect of
refraction. The Camel which the Arab was upon touched the ground like
all others. There was nothing then extraordinary in this phenomenon, and
I afterwards saw many appearances exactly similar in the dry Countries.
_Niebuhr._
"They surprized you, not indeed by a sudden assault; but they advanced,
and the sultry vapour of noon thro' which you saw them, increased their
magnitude."
_Moallakat. Poem of Hareth._
[74] One of these _Hykes_ is usually six yards long and 5 or 6 foot
broad, serving the Arab for a compleat dress in the day, and for his bed
and covering in the night. It is a loose but troublesome kind of
garment, being frequently disconcerted and falling upon the ground, so
that the person who wears it, is every moment obliged to tuck it up, and
fold it anew about his body. This shews the great use there is for a
girdle in attending any active employment, and in consequence thereof,
the force of the scripture injunction alluding thereunto, of _having our
loyns girded_. The method of wearing these garments, with the use they
are at other times put to, in serving for coverlets to their beds,
should induce us to take the finer sort of them at least, such as are
wore by the Ladies and persons of distinction, to be the _peplus_ of the
antients. It is very probable likewise, that the loose folding garment,
(the _Toga_ I take it to be) of the Romans, was of this kind: for if the
drapery of their statues is to instruct us, this is actually no other
than what the Arabs appear in, when they are folded up in their _Hykes_.
Instead of the _fibula_, they join together, with thread or a wooden
bodkin, the two upper corners of this garment, which being first placed
over one of their shoulders, they fold the rest of it afterwards round
their bodies.
_Shaw._
The employment of the women is to prepare their wool, spin, and weave in
looms hung lengthways in their tents. These looms are formed by a list
of an ell and a half long, to which the threads of the warp are fixed at
one end, and at the other on a roller of equal length; the weight of
which, being suspended, keeps them stretched. The threads of the warp
are so hung as to be readily intersected. Instead of shuttles, the women
pass the thread of the woof thro' the warp with their fingers, and with
an iron comb, having a handle, press the woof to give a body to their
cloth. Each piece of about 5 ells long, and an ell and a half wide, is
called a _haick_; it receives neither dressing, milling nor dying, but
is immediately fit for use: it is the constant dress of the Moors of the
country, is without seam, and incapable of varying according to the
caprices of fashion. When dirty it is washed: the Moor is wrapped up in
it day and night, and this _haick_ is the living model of the drapery of
the ancients.
_Chenier._
If thou at all take thy neighbour's raiment to pledge, thou shalt
deliver it unto him by that the Sun goeth down.
For that is his covering only, it is his raiment for his skin: wherein
shall he sleep?
_Exodus._ XXII. 26. 27.
[75] Fear the fire whose fuel is men, and stones prepared for the
unbelievers.
_Koran. Chap. 2._
Verily those who disbelieve our signs, we will surely cast to be broiled
in hell fire; so often as their skins shall be well burned, we will give
them other skins in exchange, that they may take the sharper torment.
_Koran. Chap. 4._
[76] The Arabians attribute to Solomon a perpetual enmity and warfare
against wicked Genii and Giants; on the subject of his wonder-working
Ring their tales are innumerable. They have even invented a whole race
of Pre-Adamite Solomons, who according to them governed the world
successively to the number of 40, or as others affirm, as many as 72.
All these made the evil Genii their unwilling Drudges.
_D'Herbelot._
Anchieta was going in a canoe to the mouth of the river Aldea, a
delightful spot, surrounded with mango trees, and usually abounding with
birds called goarazes, that breed there. These birds are about the size
of a hen, their colour a rich purple, inclining to red. They are white
when hatched, and soon become black, but as they grow larger lose that
colour and take this rich and beautiful purple. Our navigators had
reached the place, but when they should have enjoyed the fine prospect
which delights all who pass it, the sun was excessively hot, and this
eye-pleasure was purchased dearly when the whole body was in a profuse
perspiration, and the rowers were in a fever. Their distress called upon
Joseph, and the remedy was no new one to him. He saw three or four of
these birds perched upon a mango, and calling to them in the Brazilian
language which the rowers understood, said, go you, call your
companions, and come to shade these hot servants of the Lord. The birds
stretched out their necks as if in obedience, and away they went to seek
for others, and in a short time they came flying in the shape of an
elegant cloud, and they shadowed the canoe a good league out to sea till
the fresh sea breeze sprung up. Then they told them they might go about
their business, and they separated with a clamor of rude but joyful
sounds, which were only understood by the Author of Nature who created
them. This was a greater miracle than that of the cloud with which God
defended his chosen people in the wilderness from the heat of the sun,
inasmuch as it was a more elegant and fanciful parasol. _Acho que foy
maior portento este que o da nuvem, com que deos defendes no deserto a
seu Povo minoso do calor do sol, tanto quanto mais tem de gracioso &
aprasivel este chapeo de sol, que aquelle._
This was a common miracle of Anchietus. Jacob Biderman has an epigram
upon the subject, quoted in the Jesuit's life.