Arabs, or even as the Mahometans in general. They hung about their
children's necks the figure of an open hand, which the Turks and Moors
paint upon their ships and houses, as an antidote and counter-charm to
an evil eye: For five is with them an unlucky number and five (fingers
perhaps) in your eyes, is their proverb of cursing and defiance. Those
who are grown up, carry always about with them some paragraph or other
of their Koran, which, like as the Jews did their phylacteries, they
place upon their breast, or sow under their caps, to prevent fascination
and witchcraft, and to secure themselves from sickness and misfortunes.
The virtue of these charms and scrolls is supposed likewise to be so far
universal, that they suspend them upon the necks of their cattle, horses
and other beasts of burthen.
_Shaw._
The hand-spell is still common in Portugal, it is called the _figa_, and
thus probably our vulgar phrase "_a fig for him_" is derived from a
Moorish amulet.
[107] In the Vision of Thurcillus Adam is described as beholding the
events of the world with mingled grief and joy; his original garment of
glory gradually recovering its lustre, as the number of the elect
increases, till it be fulfilled.
_Matthew Paris._
[108] The arabian horses are divided into two great branches; the
_Kadischi_ whose descent is unknown, and the _Kochlani_, of whom a
written genealogy has been kept for 2000 years. These last are reserved
for riding solely, they are highly esteemed and consequently very dear,
they are said to derive their origin from King Solomon's studs, however
this may be they are fit to bear the greatest fatigues, and can pass
whole days without food, they are also said to show uncommon courage
against an enemy, it is even asserted, that when a horse of this race
finds himself wounded and unable to bear his rider much longer, he
retires from the fray and conveys him to a place of security. If the
rider falls upon the ground his horse remains beside him, and neighs
till assistance is brought: the _Kochlani_ are neither large nor
handsome but amazingly swift, the whole race is divided into several
families, each of which has its proper name. Some of these have a higher
reputation than others, on account of their more ancient and
uncontaminated nobility.
_Niebuhr._
[109] In travelling by night thro' the vallies of Mount Ephraim, we were
attended, for above the space of an hour, with an Ignis Fatuus, that
displayed itself in a variety of extraordinary appearances. For it was
sometimes globular, or like the flame of a candle; immediately after it
would spread itself and involve our whole company in its pale
inoffensive light, then at once contract itself and disappear. But in
less than a minute it would again exert itself as at other times, or
else, running along from one place to another with a swift progressive
motion, would expand itself, at certain intervals over more than two or
three acres of the adjacent mountains. The atmosphere from the beginning
of the evening, had been remarkably thick and hazy, and the dew, as we
felt it upon our bridles, was unusually clammy and unctuous. In the like
disposition of the weather, I have observed those luminous bodies, which
at sea skip about the masts and yards of ships, and are called
Corpusanse[i] by the mariners.
_Shaw._
[i] A corruption of Cuerpo Santo as this meteor is called
by the Spaniards.
[110] The _Hammam Meskouteen_, the Silent or Inchanted Baths, are
situated on a low ground, surrounded with mountains. There are several
fountains that furnish the water, which is of an intense heat, and falls
afterwards into the Ze-nati. At a small distance from these hot
fountains, we have others, which upon comparison are of as an intense a
coldness; and a little below them, somewhat nearer the banks of the
Ze-nati, there are the ruins of a few houses, built perhaps for the
conveniency of such persons, who came hither for the benefit of the
waters.
Besides the strong sulphureous steams of the Hammam[j] Meskouteen, we
are to observe farther of them, that their water is of so intense a
heat, that the rocky ground it runs over, to the distance sometimes of a
hundred foot, is dissolved, or rather calcined by it. When the substance
of these rocks is soft and uniform, then the water by making every way
equal impressions, leaveth them in the shape of cones or hemispheres;
which being six foot high and a little more or less of the same
diameter, the Arabs maintain to be so many tents of their predecessors
turned into stone. But when these rocks, besides their usual soft chalky
substance, contain likewise some layers of harder matter, not so easy to
be dissolved, then, in proportion to the resistance the water is thereby
to meet with, we are entertained with a confusion of traces and
channels, distinguished by the Arabs into Sheep, Camels, Horses, nay
into Men, Women and Children, whom they suppose to have undergone the
like fate with their habitations. I observed that the fountains which
afforded this water, had been frequently stopped up: or rather ceasing
to run at one place, broke out immediately in another, which
circumstance seems not only to account for the number of cones, but for
that variety likewise of traces, that are continued from one or other of
these cones or fountains, quite down to the river Zenati.
[j] They call the _Thermae_ of this country Hammams, from
whence our Hummums.
This place, in riding over it, giveth back such a hollow sound, that we
were afraid every moment of sinking thro' it. It is probable therefore
that the ground below us was hollow: and may not the air then, which is
pent up within these caverns, afford, as we may suppose, in escaping
continually thro' these fountains, that mixture of shrill, murmuring and
deep sounds, which, according to the direction of the winds and the
motion of the external air, issue out along with the water? the Arabs,
to quote their strength of imagination once more, affirm these sounds to
be the music of the _Jenoune_, Fairies, who are supposed, in a
particular manner, to make their abodes at this place, and to be the
grand agents in all these extraordinary appearances.
There are other natural curiosities likewise at this place. For the
chalky stone being dissolved into a fine impalpable powder and carried
down afterwards with the stream, lodgeth itself upon the sides of the
channel, nay sometimes upon the lips of the fountains themselves; or
else embracing twigs, straws and other bodies in its way, immediately
hardeneth and shoots into a bright fibrous substance, like the Asbestos,
forming itself at the same time, into a variety of glittering figures
and beautiful christalizations.
_Shaw._
[111] In the place where the Whang-ho rises, there are more than an
hundred springs which sparkle like stars, whence it is called Hotun Nor,
the Sea of Stars. These sources form two great lakes called Hala Nor,
the black sea or lake; afterwards there appear 3 or 4 little rivers,
which join'd form the Whang-ho, which has 8 or 9 branches. These sources
of the river are called also Oton-tala. It is in Thibet.
_Gaubil. Astley's Collect. of Voy. and Travels._
The Whang ho, or as the Portugueze call it Hoam-ho, i. e. the yellow
River, rises not far from the source of the Ganges in the Tartarian
mountains west of China, and having run thro' it with a course of more
than six hundred leagues, discharges itself into the eastern sea. It
hath its name from a yellow mud which always stains its water, and which
after rains composes a third part of its quantity. The watermen clear it
for use by throwing in alum. The Chinese say its waters cannot become
clear in a thousand years; whence it is a common proverb among them for
any thing which is never likely to happen, when the yellow river shall
run clear.
_Note to the Chinese Tale Hau Kiou Choann._
[112] Among the mountains of the _Beni Abbess_, four leagues to the
S. E. of the _Welled Mansoure_, we pass thro' a narrow winding defile,
which, for the space of near half a mile, lyeth on each side under an
exceeding high precipice, at every winding, the Rock or Stratum, that
originally went across it and thereby separated one valley from another,
is cut into the fashion of a door case six or seven feet wide, giving
thereby the Arabs an occasion to call them _Beeban_, the Gates; whilst
the Turks in consideration of their strength and ruggedness, know them
by the additional appellation of _Dammer Cappy_, the Gates of Iron. Few
persons pass them without horror, a handful of men being able to dispute
the passage with a whole Army. The rivulet of salt water which glides
thro' this valley, might possibly first point out the way which art and
necessity would afterwards improve.
_Shaw._
[113] In 1568 the Persian Sultan gave the Grand Seigneur two most
stately pavilions made of one piece, the curtains being interlaced with
gold and the supporters imbroidred with the same, also nine fair
conopies to hang over the ports of their pavilions, things not used
among the Christians.
_Knolles._
[114] The expences the Persians are at in their gardens is that wherein
they make greatest ostentation of their wealth. Not that they much mind
furnishing of them with delightful flowers as we do in Europe; but these
they slight as an excessive liberality of Nature by whom their common
fields are strewed with an infinite number of tulips and other flowers;
but they are rather desirous to have their gardens full of all sorts of
fruit trees, and especially to dispose them into pleasant walks of a
kind of plane or poplar, a tree not known in Europe, which the Persians
call Tzinnar. These trees grow up to the height of the Pine, and have
very broad leaves not much unlike those of the vine. Their fruit hath
some resemblance to the chesnut, while the outer coat is about it, but
there is no kernel within it, so that it is not to be eaten. The wood
thereof is very brown and full of veins, and the Persians use it in
doors and shutters for windows, which being rubbed with oil, look
incomparably better than any thing made of wallnut tree, nay indeed than
the root of it which is now[k] so very much esteemed.
_Amb. Travels._
[k] 1637.
[115] Major Scott informs us that scars and wounds by Persian writers
are compared to the streaky tints of the tulip. The simile here employed
is equally obvious and more suited to its place.
[116] "We pitched our tents among some little hills where there was a
prodigious number of lillies of many colours, with which the ground was
quite covered. None were white, they were mostly either of a rich violet
with a red spot in the midst of each leaf, or of a fine black and these
were the most esteemed. In form they were like our lillies, but much
larger."
_Tavernier._
[117] This was an expression of Ariosto in one of his smaller poems, I
believe in a Madrigal. I cannot now quote the line.
[118] The Thracians say that the nightingales which build their nests
about the Sepulchre of Orpheus sing sweeter and louder than other
nightingales.
_Pausanias._
Gongora has addressed this Bird with somewhat more than his usual
extravagance of absurdity,
Con diferencia tal, con gracia tanta
Aquel Ruisenor llora, que sospecho,
Que tiene otros cien mil dentro del pecho,
Que alternan su dolor por su garganta.
With such a grace that Nightingale bewails
That I suspect, so exquisite his note,
An hundred thousand other Nightingales
Within him, warble sorrow thro' his throat.
[119] In the _Caherman Nameh_, the Dives having taken in war some of the
Peris, imprisoned them in iron cages, which they hung from the highest
trees they could find. There from time to time their companions visited
them, with the most precious odours. These odours were the usual food of
the Peris, and procured them also another advantage, for they prevented
the Dives from approaching or molesting them. The Dives could not bear
the perfumes, which rendered them gloomy and melancholy whenever they
drew near the cage in which a Peri was suspended.
_D'Herbelot._
[120] Nuptials of Mohammed and Cadijah.--Dum autem ad nuptias
celebrandas solemnissimum convivium pararetur, concussus est Angelis
admirantibus, thronus Dei: atque ipse Deus majestate plenus praecepit
Custodi Paradisi, ut puellas, & pueros ejus cum festivis ornamentis
educeret, & calices ad bibendum ordinatim disponeret: grandiores item
puellas, & jam sororiantibus mammis praeditas, & juvenes illis coaevos,
pretiosis vestibus indueret. Jussit proeterea Gabrielem vexillum
laudis supra Meccanum Templum explicare. Tunc vero valles omnes & montes
proe loetitia gestire caeperunt, & tota Mecca nocte illa velut olla
super ignem imposita efferbuit.--Eodem tempore proecepit Deus
Gabrieli, ut super omnes mortales unguenta pretiosissima dispergeret,
admirantibus omnibus subitum illum atque insolitum odorem, quem in
gratiam novorum conjugum divinitus exhalasse universi cognovere.
_Maracci._
[121] Sclymus 2. received the Embassadors sitting upon a pallat which
the Turks call _Mastabe_ used by them in their chambers to sleep and to
feed upon, covered with carpets of silk, as was the whole floor of the
chamber also.
_Knolles._
Among the presents that were exchanged between the Persian and Ottoman
Sovereigns in 1568, were carpets of silk, of camel's hair, lesser ones
of silk and gold, and some called _Teftich_; made of the finest lawn,
and so large that seven men could scarcely carry one of them.
_Knolles._
In the beautiful story of Ali Beg it is said Cha Sefi when he examined
the house of his father's favourite was much surprized at seeing it so
badly furnished with plain skins and coarse carpets, whereas the other
Nobles in their houses trod only upon carpets of silk and gold.
_Tavernier._
[122] On the way from Macao to Canton in the rivers and channels there
is taken a vast quantity of oysters, of whose shells they make glass for
the windows.
_Gemelli Careri._
In the Chinese Novel _Hau Kiou Choaan_, we read Shueyping-sin ordered
her servants to hang up a curtain of mother of pearl across the hall.
She commanded the first table to be set for her guest without the
curtain and two lighted tapers to be placed upon it. Afterwards she
ordered a second table, but without any light, to be set for herself
within the curtain, so that _she could see every thing thro' it_, unseen
herself.
Master George Turbervile in his letters form Muscovy 1568, describes the
Russian windows
They have no English glasse; of slices of a rocke
Hight Sluda they their windows make, that English glasse doth mocke.
They cut it very thinne, and sow it with a thred
In pretie order like to panes, to serve their present need.
No other glasse, good faith, doth give a better light,
And sure the rock is nothing rich, the cost is very slight.
_Hakluyt._
The Indians of Malabar use mother of pearl for window panes.
_Fra Paolino da San Batolomeo._
[123] The King and the great Lords have a sort of cellar for
magnificence, where they sometimes drink with persons whom they wish to
regale. These cellars are square rooms, to which you descend by only two
or three steps. In the middle is a small cistern of water, and a rich
carpet covers the ground from the walls to the cistern. At the four
corners of the cistern are four large glass bottles, each containing
about twenty quarts of wine, one white, another red. From one to the
other of these, smaller bottles are ranged of the same material and
form, that is, round with a long neck, holding about four or five
quarts, white and red alternately. Round the cellar are several rows of
niches in the wall, and in each nich is a bottle also of red and white
alternately.--Some niches are made to hold two. Some windows give light
to the apartment, and all these bottles so well ranged with their
various colours have a very fine effect to the eye. They are always kept
full, the wine preserving better, and therefore are replenished as fast
as they are emptied.
_Tavernier._
[124] The Cuptzi, or King of Persia's merchant, treated us with a
collation, which was served in, in plate vermilion-gilt.
The Persians having left us, the Ambassadors sent to the Chief Weywode a
present, which was a large drinking cup, vermilion-gilt.
_Ambassador's Travels._
At Ispahan the King's horses were watered with silver pails thus
coloured.
The Turks and Persians seem wonderfully fond of gilding, we read of
their gilt stirrups, gilt bridles, gilt maces, gilt scymetars, &c. &c.
[125] Mohammedes vinum appellabat _Matrem peccatorum_; cui sententiae
Hafez, Anacreon ille Persarum, minime ascribit suam; dicit autem
"Acre illud (vinum) quod vir religiosus _matrem peccatorum_ vocitat,
Optabilius nobis ac dulcius videtur, quam virginis suavium."
_Poeseos Asiat. Com._
Illide ignem illum nobis liquidum,
Hoc est, ignem illum aquae similem affer.
_Hafez._
[126] They export from Com earthen ware both white and varnished, and
this is peculiar to the white ware which is thence transported, that in
the summer it cools the water wonderfully and very suddenly, by reason
of continual transpiration. So that they who desire to drink cool and
deliciously, never drink in the same pot above five or six days at most.
They wash it with rose water the first time, to take away the ill smell
of the earth, and they hang it in the air full of water, wrapped up in a
moist linen cloth. A fourth part of the water transpires in six hours
the first time; after that still less from day to day, till at last the
pores are closed up by the thick matter contained in the water which
stops in the pores. But so soon as the pores are stopt, the water stinks
in the pots, and you must take new ones.
_Chardin._
In Egypt people of fortune burn _Scio mastic_ in their cups, the
penetrating odour of which pervades the porous substance, which remains
impregnated with it a long time, and imparts to the water a perfume
which requires the aid of habit to render it pleasing.
_Sonnini._
[127] Casbin produces the fairest grape in Persia, which they call
_Shahoni_, or the royal grape, being of a gold colour, transparent, and
as big as a small olive. These grapes are dried and transported all over
the kingdom. They also make the strongest wine in the world and the most
luscious, but very thick as all strong and sweet wines usually are. This
incomparable Grape grows only upon the young branches, which they never
water. So that for five months together they grow in the heat of summer
and under a scorching sun, without receiving a drop of water, either
from the sky or otherwise. When the vintage is over, they let in their
cattle to browze in the vineyards, afterwards they cut off all the great
wood, and leave only the young stocks about three foot high, which need
no propping up with poles as in other places, and therefore they never
make use of any such supporters.
_Chardin._
[128] Dr. Fryer received a present from the Caun of Bunder-Abassae of
Apples candied in snow.
When Tavernier made his first visit to the Kan at Erivan, he found him
with several of his Officers regaling in the _Chambers of the Bridge_.
They had wine which they cooled with ice, and all kinds of fruit and
melons in large plates, under each of which was a plate of ice.
A great number of camels were laden with snow to cool the liquors and
fruit of the Caliph Mahadi, when he made the pilgrimage to Mecca.
[129] Of the Indian dancing women who danced before the Ambassadors at
Ispahan, "some were shod after a very strange manner, they had above the
instep of the foot a string tied, with little bells fastened thereto,
whereby they discovered the exactness of their cadence, and sometimes
corrected the music itself; as they did also by the Tzarpanes or
Castagnets, which they had in their hands, in the managing whereof they
were very expert."
At Koojar Mungo Park saw a dance "in which many performers assisted, all
of whom were provided with little bells, which were fastened to their
legs and arms."
[130] At Seronge a sort of cloth is made so fine, that the skin may be
seen thro' it, as tho' it were naked. Merchants are not permitted to
export this, the Governor sending all that is made to the Seraglio of
the Great Mogul and the chief Lords of his court. C'est de quoy les
Sultanes & les femmes des Grands Seigneurs, se font des chemises, & des
robes pour la chaleur, & le Roy & les Grands se plaisent a les voir au
travers de ces chemises fines, & a les faire danser.
_Tavernier._
[131] I came to a Village called Cupri-Kent, or the Village of the
bridge, because there is a very fair bridge that stands not far from it,
built upon a river called Tabadi. This bridge is placed between two
mountains separated only by the river, and supported by four arches,
unequal both in their height and breadth. They are built after an
irregular form, in regard of two great heaps of a rock that stand in the
river, upon which they laid so many arches. Those at the two ends are
hollowed on both sides and serve to lodge passengers, wherein they have
made to that purpose little chambers and porticos, with every one a
chimney. The Arch in the middle of the river is hollowed quite thro'
from one part to the other with two chambers at the ends, and two large
balconies covered, where they take the cool air in the summer with great
delight, and to which there is a descent of two pair of stairs hewn out
of the rock, there is not a fairer bridge in all Georgia.
_Chardin._
Over the river Isperuth "there is a very fair bridge, built on six
arches, each whereof hath a spacious room, a kitchen and several other
conveniences, lying even with water, the going down into it is by a
stone pair of stairs, so that this bridge is able to find entertainment
for a whole caravanne."
_Amb. Tr._
The most magnificent of these bridges is the Bridge of Zulpha at
Ispahan.
[132] The dust which overspreads these beds of sand is so fine, that the
lightest animal, the smallest insect, leaves there as on snow, the
vestiges of its track. The varieties of these impressions produce a
pleasing effect, in spots where the saddened soul expects to meet with
nothing but symptoms of the proscriptions of nature. _It is impossible
to see any thing more beautiful_ than the traces of the passage of a
species of very small lizards extremely common in these desarts. The
extremity of their tail forms regular sinuosities, in the middle of two
rows of delineations, also regularly imprinted by their four feet, with
their five slender toes. These traces are multiplied and interwoven near
the subterranean retreats of these little animals, and present a
singular assemblage which is _not void of beauty_.
_Sonnini._
[133] These lines are feebly adapted from a passage in Burnet's Theory
of the Earth.
Haec autem dicta vellem de genuinis & majoribus terrae montibus; non
gratos _Bacchi_ colles hic intelligimus, aut amoenos illos monticulos,
qui viridi herba & vicino fonte & arboribus, vim aestivi solis repellunt:
hisce non deest sua qualiscunque elegantia, & jucunditas. Sed longe
aliud hic respicimus, nempe longaeva illa, tristia & squalentia corpora,
telluris pondera, quae duro capiti rigent inter nubes, infixisque in
terram saxeis pedibus, ab innumeris seculis steterunt immobilia, atque
nudo pectore pertulerunt tot annorum ardentes soles, fulmina &
procellas. Hi sunt primaevi & immortales illi montes, qui non aliunde,
quam ex fracta mundi compage ortum suum ducere potuerunt, nec nisi cum
eadem perituri sunt.
The whole chapter _de montibus_ is written with the eloquence of a Poet.
Indeed Gibbon bestowed no exaggerated praise on Burnet in saying that he
had "blended scripture, history, and tradition into one magnificent
system, with a sublimity of imagination scarcely inferior to Milton
himself." This work should be read in Latin, the Author's own
translation is miserably inferior. He lived in the worst age of English
prose.
[134] The Zaccoum is a tree which issueth from the bottom of Hell: the
fruit thereof resembleth the heads of Devils; and the damned shall eat
of the same, and shall fill their bellies therewith; and there shall be
given them thereon a mixture of boiling water to drink; afterwards shall
they return to Hell.
_Koran. Chap. 37._
This hellish Zaccoum has its name from a thorny tree in Tehama, which
bears fruit like an almond, but extremely bitter; therefore the same
name is given to the infernal tree.
_Sale._