related of the Lapwing, as a fact to which he was witness, by Paul Lucas, Voyage fait en 1714. Page 48. Some artists of Yamtcheou having been sent on previously. "The Feast of Lanterns is celebrated at Yamtcheou with more magnificence than any where 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. Page 48. Artificial sceneries of bamboo-work. See a description of the nuptials of Vizier Alee in the Asiatic Annual Register of 1804. Page 49. The origin of these fantastic Chinese illuminations. "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, run 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.". ·Present State of China. Page 51. The Kohol's jetty dye. "None of these ladies," says Shaw, "take themselves to be completely dressed, till they have tinged the 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. Page 55. drop About the gardens, drunk with that sweet food. 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 Page 60. As they were captives to the King of Flowers. They deferred it till the King of Flowers should ascend his throne of enamelled foliage." - The Bahardanush. Page 60. But a light golden chain-work round her hair, &c. "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. Page 62. The Maids of Yezd. "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. Page 67. And his floating eyes-oh! they resemble Blue water-lilies "Whose wanton eyes resemble blue water-lilies, agitated by the breeze." — Jayadeva. Page 68. To muse upon the pictures that hung round. It has been generally supposed that the Mahometans prohibit all pictures of animals; but Toderini shews 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. Page 69. With her from Saba's bowers, in whose bright eyes He read, that to be bless'd, is to be wise. "In the palace which Solomon ordered to be built against the arrival of the Queen of Saba, the floor or pavement was of transparent glass, laid over running water in which fish were swimming." This led the Queen into a very natural mistake, which the Koran has not thought beneath its dignity to commemorate. "It was said unto her, Enter the palace. And when she saw it she imagined it to be a great water; and she discovered her legs, by lifting up her robe to pass through it. Whereupon Solomon said to her, Verily, this is the place evenly floored with glass." Chap. 27. Page 69. Like her own radiant planet of the west, Whose orb when half retir'd looks loveliest. This is not quite astronomically true. "Dr. Hadley (says Keil) has shewn 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." Page 69. "Such was the name of Potiphar's wife, according to the sura, or chapter of the Alcoran, which contains the history of Joseph, and which for elegance of style surpasses every other of the Prophet's books; some Arabian writers also call her Rail. 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. Page 83. The apples of Istakhar. "In the territory of Istakhar there is a kind of apple, half of which is sweet and half sour." Ebn Haukal. Page 83. They saw a young Hindoo girl upon the bank. For an account of this ceremony, v. Grandpré's Voyage in the Indian Ocean. Page 84. The Otontala or Sea of Stars. "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. Page 86. And camels tufted o'er with Yemen's shells. "A superb camel, ornamented with strings and tufts of small shells." Ali Bey. |