Rookh herself help feeling the kindness and splendour 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 (137) that is to blow over this earth in the last days.

ment and repose, there was an end to all their delightful that the King of Bucharia would make the most exemevenings, and Lalla Rookh saw no more of Feramorz.plary husband imaginable. Nor, indeed, could Lalla 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, (132) 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. But neither the coolness of its atmosphere, so luxurious after toiling up those bare and burning mountains-neither the splendour of the minarets and pagodas, that shone out from the depth of its woods, nor the grottos, hermitages, and miraculous fountains, (133) which make every spot of that region holy ground;-neither the countless water-falls, 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, (134) 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 honour 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 archies, 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-coloured tortoise-shell of Pegu. (135) Sometimes, from a dark wood by the side of the road, a display of fire-works would break out, so sudden and so brilliant, that a Bramin might think he saw 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, (136) who pursue the white and blue foxes on the confines of the Icy Sea.

These arches and fire-works delighted the ladies of the princess exceedingly, and, with their usual good logic, they deduced from his taste for illuminations,

Kachmire be Nazeer.-FORSTER.

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 a night of more wakeful and anxious thought had never been passed in the Happy Valley before, yet when she rose in the morning and her ladies came round 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 in 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-coloured 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 had hung about her neck at parting.

--

The morning was as fair as the maid upon 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, at which her heart did not flutter with a 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 was Fadladeen, with his siken 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 had now entered the canal which leads from the lake to the splendid domes and saloons of the Shalimar, and glided on through gardens ascending 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 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 walked 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, (138) 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 that 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 be lieve, 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 ready to prescribe his favourite regimen of the Chabuk for every man, woman, and child that dared to think other

Note 3, page 1, col. 1.

Shirine.

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 Cashmeer, and the feathers are carefully collected for the king, who bestows them on his nobles.-ELPBINSTONE'S Account of Caubul.

Note 6, page 1, col. 2.

Kedar Khan, etc.

■ Khedar Khan, the Khakan, or King of Turquestan beyond the Gihon (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 among the poets of gold and silver by him to distribute who excelled.-RICHARDSON'S Dissertation prefixed to his Dictionary.

Note 10, page 2, col. 1.

Religion, of which Aurungzebe was a munificent protector. For the loves of this celebrated beauty with Khosrouthy associate of certain Holy Leagues. He held the This hypocritical Emperor would have made a worand with Ferhad, see D'HERBELOT, GIBBON, Oriental Col-cloak of religion (says Dow) between his actions and the lections, etc.

Note 4, page 1,
Dewilde.

col. 1.

The history of the loves of Dewilde and Chizer, the son of the Emperor Alla, is written in an elegant poem, by the noble Chusero.-FERISHTA.

the

vulgar; and impiously thanked the Divinity for a suecess 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 One mark of honour or knighthood bestowed by the other, signed warrants for the assassination of his emperor is the permission to wear a small kettle- relations.»-History of Hindostan, vol. iii, p. 335. See

Note 5, page 1, col. 2.

Those insignia of the Emperor's favour, etc.

also the curious letter of Aurungzebe, given in the Ori- have little golden bells fastened round their legs, neck ental Collections, vol. i, p. 320.

Sir Thomas Roe, Ambassador from James I to Je- goats. hanguire.

Fili'd with the stems that bloom on Iran's rivers. The Persians call this plant Gaz. The celebrated The Arabian courtesans, like the Indian women, shaft of Isfendiar, one of their ancient heroes, was

Note 29, page 3, col. 2.

With turban'd heads, of every hue and race,
Bowing before that veil'd and awful face,

Like tulip-beds.

The name of the tulip is said to be of Turkish extraction, and given to the flower on account of its resembling a turban.»-BECKMAN'S History of Inventions. Note 30, page 3, col. 2.

With belt of broider'd crape,

out of respect to the God of Hannaman, a deity pa taking of the form of that race. PENNANT'S Hi doostan.

See a curious account in STEPHEN'S Persia of a s lemn embassy from some part of the Indies to Go when the Portuguese were there, offering vast tre sures for the recovery of a monkey's tooth, whic they held in great veneration, and which had bee taken away upon the conquest of the kingdom of Jaf napatan.

Note 34, page 7, col. 1.

Proud things of clay,

To whom if Lucifer, as grandams say,
Refused, though at the forfeit of Heaven's light,

To bend in worship, Lucifer was right.

This resolution of Eblis not to acknowledge the new creature, man, was, according to Mahometan tradition thus adopted : The earth (which God had selected for the materials of his work) was carried into Arabia to a place between Mecca and Tayef, where, being first kneaded by the angels, it was afterwards fashione by God himself into a human form, and left to dry for the space of forty days, or, as others say, as many years; the angels in the mean time, often visiting it and Eblis (then one of the angels nearest to God's pre

And fur-bound bonnet of Bucharian shape. 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 Tar-sence, afterwards the devil) among the rest; but he tary, in PINKERTON'S Collection.

Note 31, page 3, col. 2.

Waved, like the wings of the white birds that fan
The flying throne of star-taught Soliman.

This wonderful throne was called the Star of the Genii. For a full description of it, see the Fragment translated by CAPTAIN FRANKLIN, from a Persian MS. entitled The History of Jerusalem: Oriental Collections, vol. i, p. 335.-When Solomon 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.

Note 32, page 4, col. 1.

apparu

And, thence descending, flow'd Through many a prophet's breast. This is according to D'Herbelot's account of the doctrines of Mokanna : « Sa doctrine était que Dieu avait pris une forme et figure humaine depuis q'uil cut commandé aux Anges d'adorer Adam, le premier des hommes. Qu'après la mort d'Adam, Dieu était sous la figure de plusieurs Prophètes et autres grands hommes qu'il avait choisis, jusqu'à ce qu'il prit celle d'Abu Moslem, Prince de Khorassan, lequel professait l'erreur de la Tenassukhiah ou Métempsychose; et qu'après la mort de ce Prince, la Divinité était passée, et descendue en sa personne.»

Note 33, page 7, col. 1.

Such Gods as be
Whom India serves, the monkey deity.

Apes are in many parts of India highly venerated,

not contented with looking at it, kicked it with his
foot till it rung, and knowing God designed that crea-
ture to be his superior, took a secret resolution never
to acknowledge him as such.-SALE on the Koran.
Note 35, page 7, col. 2.

Where none but priests are privileged to trade
In that best marble of which Gods are made.

The material of which images of Gaudma (the Birman Deity) is 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.-SYME'S Ava, vol. ii, p. 376.

Note 36, page 8, col. 2.

The pany bird that dares, with teazing bum,
Within the crocodile's stretch'd jaws to come.

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.

Note 37, page 9, col. 2.

Some artists of Yamtcheou having been sent on previously.

The Feast of Lanterns is celebrated at Yamtcheon 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 thither in a trice. He made them in the night to ascend hands of a magician, who promised to transport them which in a moment arrived at Yamtcheou. The Emmagnificent thrones that were borne up by swans, peror saw at his leisure all the solemnity, being carried upon a cloud that hovered over the city, and descendal 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.

«Whose wanton eyes resemble blue water-lilies, agi- that is, the Sea of Stars.»-Description of Tibet in tated by the breeze.-JAYADEVA.