machine qu'll disoit être la lune." According to Richardson, the miracle is perpetuated in Nekscheb-"Nakshab, the name of a city in Transoxiania, where they say there is a well in which the appearance of the moon is to be seen night and day." Page 47. On for the lamps that light yon lofty screen. The tents of princes were generally illuminated. Norden tells us that the tent of the Bey of Girge was distinguished from the other tents by forty lanterns being suspended before it. Vide "Harmer's Observations on Job." Page 49. Engines of havoc in, unknown before. That they knew the secret of the Greek fire among the Mussulmans early in the eleventh century, appears from Dow's Account of Mamood I. :"When he had launched this fleet, he ordered twenty archers into each boat, and five others with fire-balls, to burn the craft of the Jits, and naptha to set the whole river on fire." The Agnee aster, too, in Indian poems, the Instrument of Fire, whose flame cannot be extinguished, is supposed to signify the Greek Fire. Vide "Wilks's South of India," vol i., p. 471. The mention of gunpowder as in use among the Arabians, long before its supposed discovery in Europe, is introduced by Ebn Fadhl, the Egyptian geographer who lived in the thirteenth century. "Bodies," he says, “in the form of scorpions, bound round and filled with nitrous powder, glide along, making a gentle noise; then, exploding, they lighten as it were, and burn. But there are others, which, cast into the air, stretch along like a cloud, roaring horribly, as thunder roars, and on all sides vomiting out flames, burst, burn, and reduce to cinders whatever comes in their way." The historian Ben Abdalla, in speaking of Abulualid in the year of Hegira 712, says, "a fiery globe, by means of combustible matter, with a mighty noise suddenly emitted, strikes with the force of lightning, and shakes the citadel." Vide the extracts from "Casiri's Biblioth. Arab. Hispan.," in the Appendix to "Berrington's Literary History of the Middle Ages." Page 49. Discharge, as from a kindled naptha fount. See Hanway's "Account of the Springs of Naptha at Baku" (which is called by Lieutenant Pottinger, Joala Mookhee, or the Flaming Mouth,) taking fire, and running into the sea. Page 53. With burning drugs for this last hour distill'd. "Il donna du poison dans le vin à tous ses gens, et se jetta lui-même ensuite dans une cuve pleine de drogues brûlantes et consumantes, afin qu'il ne restât rien de tous les membres de son corps, et que ceux qui restoient de sa secte puissent croire qu'il étoit monté au ciel, ce qui ne manqua pas d'arriver."-D'Herbelot. Page 56. To eat any mangoes but those of Mazagong was, of course, impossible. "The celebrity of Mazagong is owing to its mangoes, which are certainly the best fruit I ever tasted. The parent tree, from which all those of this species have been grafted, is honoured during the fruit season by a guard of sepoys; and in the reign of Shah Jehan, couriers were stationed between Delhi and the Mahratta coast, to secure an abundant and fresh supply of mangoes for the royal table."-Mrs Graham's Journal of a Residence in India. Page 59. To the Camalatá, by whose rosy blossoms the heaven of Indra is scented. "The Camalatá (called by Linnæus, Ipomea) is the most beautiful of its order, both in the colour and form of its leaves and flowers; its elegant blossoms are celestial rosy red, love's proper hue,' and have justly procured it the name of Cámalatá, or Love's Creeper."-Sir W. Jones. "Cámalatá may also mean a mythological plant, by which all desires are granted to such as inhabit the heaven of Indra; and if ever flower was worthy of paradise, it is our charming Ipomea."-Ib. Page 61. Blooms nowhere but in Paradise. "The Brahmins of this province insist that the blue Campac flowers only in Paradise."-Sir W. Jones. Page 61. I know where the Isles of Perfume are. Diodorus mentions the Isle of Panchaia, to the south of Arabia Felix, where there was a temple to Jupiter. This island, or rather cluster of isles has disappeared-"sunk (says Grandpré) in the abyss made by the fire beneath their foundations."-Voyage to the Indian Ocean. Page 62. O'er coral banks and amber beds, &c. "Like the Sea of India, whose bottom is rich with pearls and ambergris, whose mountains on the coast are stored with gold and precious stones, whose gulfs breed creatures that yield ivory, and among the plants of whose shores are ebony, red wood, and the wood of Hairzan, aloes, camphor, cloves, sandal-wood, and all other spices and aromatics; where parrots and peacocks are birds of the forest, and musk and civet are collected upon the lands." Travels of two Mohammedans. Page 62. Thy pagods and thy pillar'd shades. Page 62. Thy monarchs and their thousand thrones. "With this immense treasure Mamood returned to Ghizni, and in the year 400 prepared a magnificent festival, where he displayed to the people his wealth in golden thrones and other ornaments, in a great plain without the city of Ghizni."-Ferishta. Page 63. For Liberty shed, so holy is. Objections may be made to my use of the word liberty, in this, and more especially in the story that follows it, as totally inapplicable to any state of things that has ever existed in the East; but though I cannot, of course, mean to employ it in that enlarged and noble sense which is so well understood at the present day, and, I grieve to say, so little acted upon, yet it is no disparagement to the word to apply it to that national independence, that freedom from the interference and dictation of foreigners, without which, indeed, no liberty of any kind can exist, and for which both Hindoos and Persians fought against their Mussulman invaders with, in many cases, a bravery that deserved much better success. Page 63. Afric's Lunar Mountains. "Sometimes called," says Jackson, "Jibbel Kumrie, or the White or Lunar-coloured Mountains; so a white horse is called by the Arabians a moon-coloured horse." Page 65. Only the fierce hyæna stalks. "Gondar was full of hyenas from the time it turned dark till the dawn of day, seeking the different pieces of slaughtered carcases, which this cruel and unclean people expose in the streets without burial, and who firmly believe that these animals are Falashta from the neighbouring mountains, transformed by magic, and come down to eat human flesh in the dark in safety."-Bruce. Page 69. And woods, so full of nightingales. "The river Jordan is on both sides beset with little, thick, and pleasant woods, among which thousands of nightingales warble all together." Thevenot. Page 70. Of a small imaret's rustic fount. Imaret "hospice où on loge et nourrit, gratis, les pélerins pendant trois jours."-Toderini. Page 70. The boy has started from the bed. "Such Turks as at the common hours of prayer are on the road, or so employed as not to find convenience to attend the mosques, are still obliged to execute that duty; nor are they ever known to fail, whatever business they are then about, but pray immediately when the hour alarms them, in that very place they chance to stand on."-Aaron Hill's Travels. Page 73. The Banian Hospital. "This account excited a desire of visiting the Banian Hospital, as I had heard much of their benevolence to all kinds of animals that were either sick, lame, or infirm, through age or accident. On my arrival there were presented to my view many horses, cows, and oxen, in one apartment; in another, dogs, sheep, goats, and monkeys, with clean straw for them to repose on. Above stairs were depositories for seeds of many sorts, and flat, broad dishes for water, for the use of birds and insects."-Parsons. It is said that all animals know the Banians, that the most timid approach them, and that birds will fly nearer to them than to other people.-Vide Grandpré. Page 73. Whose sweetness was not to be drawn forth. "A very fragrant grass from the banks of the Ganges, near Heridwar, which in some places covers whole acres, and diffuses when crushed a strong odour."-Sir W. Jones on the Spikenard of the Ancients. Page 75. Waved plates of gold and silver flowers over their heads. "Or rather," says Scott, upon the passage of Ferishta, from which this is taken, "small coin, stamped with the figure of a flower. They are still used in India to distribute in charity, and, on occasion, thrown by the pursebearers of the great among the populace." Page 75. His delectable alley of trees. This road is 250 leagues in length. It has "little pyramids or turrets," says Bernier, "erected every half league, to mark the ways and frequent wells to afford drink to passengers, and to water the young trees." Page 76. Floated multitudes of the beautiful red lotus. "Here is a large pagoda by a tank, on the water of which float multitudes of the beautiful red lotus: the flower is larger than that of the white waterlily, and is the most lovely of the nymphæas I have seen."-Mrs Graham's Journal of a Residence in India. Page 76. Had fled hither from their Arab conquerors. "On les voit, persécutés par les Khalifes, se retirer dans les montagnes du Kerman: plusiers choisirent pour retraite la Tartarie et la Chine; d'autres s'arêtèrent sur les bords du Gange, à l'est de Delhi."-M. Anquetil, Mémoires de l'Academie, tom. xxxi., p. 346. Page 76. Cashmere, which had in the same manner become the prey of strangers. "Cashmere," says its historians, "had its own princes 4000 years before its conquest by Akbar in 1585. Akbar would have found some difficulty to reduce this paradise of the Indies, situated as it is, within such a fortress of mountains, but its monarch, Yusef Khan, was basely betrayed by his Omrahs."-Pennant. Page 77. The Fire- Worshippers. Voltaire tells us that in his tragedy Les Guebres, he was generally supposed to have alluded to the Jansenists; and I should not be surprised if this story of the Fire-Worshippers were found capable of a similar doubleness of application. Page 80. Who, lull'd in cool kiosk or bower. "In the midst of the garden is the chiosk, that is, a large room, commonly beautified with a fine fountain in the midst of it. It is raised nine or ten steps, and enclosed with gilded lattices, round which vines, jessamines, and honeysuckles make a sort of green wall; large trees are planted round this place, which is the scene of their greatest pleasures."-Lady M. W. Montagu. Page 80. Before their mirrors count their time. The women of the East are never without their looking-glasses. "In Barbary," says Shaw, "they are so fond of their looking-glasses, which they hang upon their breasts, that they will not lay them aside, even when, after the drudgery of the day, they are obliged to go two or three miles with a pitcher or a goat's skin to fetch water."-Travels. In other parts of Asia they wear little looking-glasses on their thumbs. "Hence (and from the lotus being considered the emblem of beauty) is the meaning of the following mute intercourse of two lovers before their parents:"He, with salute of deference due, A lotus to his forehead prest; She raised her mirror to his view, Then turn'd it inward to her breast." Asiatic Miscellany, vol. ii. Page 85. The Gheber belt that round him clung. "Pour se distinguer des idolatres de l'Inde, les Guebres se ceignent tous d'un cordon de laine, ou de poil de chameau."-Encyclopédie Françoise. D'Herbelot says this belt was generally of leather. Page 85. Among the living lights of heaven. "As to fire, the Ghebers place the spring-head of it in that globe of fire, the sun, by them called Mythras, or Mihir, to which they pay the highest reverence, in gratitude for the manifold benefits flowing from its ministerial omniscience. But they are so far from confounding the subordination of the servant with the majesty of its Creator, that they not only attribute no sort of sense or reasoning to the sun or fire in any of its operations, but consider it as a purely passive blind instrument, directed and governed by the immediate impression on it of the will of God; but they do not even give that luminary, all glorious as it is, more than the second rank amongst his works, reserving the first for that stupendous production of divine power, the mind of man."-Grose. The false charges brought against the religion of these people by their Mussulman tyrants is but one proof among many of the truth of this writer's remark, "that calumny is often added to oppression, if but for the sake of justifying it." Page 87. That tree which grows over the tomb of Tan-Sein. "At Gualior is a small tomb to the memory of Tan-Sein, a musician of incomparable skill, who flourished at the court of Akbar. The tomb is overshadowed by a tree, concerning which a superstitious. notion prevails, that the chewing of its leaves will give an extraordinary melody to the voice."Journey from Agra to Ouzein, by W. Hunter, Esq. Page 87. The awful signal of the bamboo-staff. "It is usual to place a small white triangular flag, fixed to a bamboo staff of ten or twelve feet long, at the place where a tiger has destroyed a man. The sight of these flags imparts a certain melancholy, not perhaps altogether void of apprehension."-Oriental Field Sports, vol. ii. Page 88. Beneath the shade some pious hands had erected, &c. "The Ficus indica is called the Pagod Tree and Tree of Councils; the first from the idols placed under its shade; the second, because meetings were held under its cool branches. In some places it is believed to be the haunt of spectres, as the ancient spreading oaks of Wales have been of fairies; in others are erected beneath the shade pillars of stone, or posts, elegantly carved and ornamented with the most beautiful porcelain to supply the use of mirrors."-Pennant. Page 88. The nightingale now bends her flight. "The nightingale sings from the pomegranate-groves in the day-time, and from the loftiest trees at night."-Russel's Aleppo. Page 90. Before whose sabre's dazzling light. "When the bright cimiters make the eyes of our heroes wink."-The Moallakat, Poems of Amru. Page 91. Is rendered holy by the ranks. In the Lettres Edifiantes, there is a different cause assigned for its name of holy. "In these are deep caverns, which formerly served as so many cells for a great number of recluses, who had chosen these retreats as the only witnesses upon earth of the severity of their penance. The tears of these pious penitents gave the river of which we have just treated the name of the Holy River." Vide Chateaubriand's "Beauties of Christianity." Page 92. A rocky mountain, o'er the sea. This mountain is my own creation, as the "stupendous chain" of which I suppose it a link does not extend quite so far as the shores of the Persian Gulf. Page 93. Beneath the Gheber's lonely cliff. "There is an extraordinary hill in the neighbourhood, called Kohé Gubr, or the Guebre's mountain. It rises in the form of a lofty cupola, and on the summit of it, they say, are the remains of Atush Kudu or Fire Temple. It is superstitiously held to be the residence of Deeves or Sprites, and many marvellous stories are recounted of the injury and witchcraft suffered by those who essayed in former days to ascend or explore it."-Pottinger's Beloochistan. Page 93. Still did the mighty flame burn on. "At the city of Yezd in Persia, which is distinguished by the appellation of the Darûb Abadut, or Seat of Religion, the Guebres are permitted to have an Atush Kudu or Fire Temple (which they assert has had the sacred fire in it since the days of Zoroaster) in their own compartment of the city; but for this indulgence they are indebted to the avarice, not the tolerance of the Persian government, which taxes them at twenty-five rupees each man.”. Pottinger's Beloochistan. Page 95. While on that altar's fires they swore. "Nul d'entre eux oseroit se perjurer, quand il a pris à témoin cet élement terrible et vengeur."-Encyclopédie François. Page 96. The Persian lily shines and towers. "A vivid verdure succeeds the autumnal rains, and the ploughed fields are covered with the Persian lily, of a resplendent yellow colour."-Russel's Aleppo. Page 99. Like Dead Sea fruits that tempt the eye. "They say that there are apple-trees upon the sides of this sea, which bear very lovely fruit, but within are full of ashes."-Thevenot. The same is asserted of the oranges there.-Vide Witman's Travels in Asiatic Turkey. Lord Byron has a similar allusion to the fruits of the Dead Sea, in that wonderful display of genius-his Third Canto of "Childe Harold "-magnificent beyond anything, perhaps, that even he has ever written. Page 99. While lakes, that shone in mockery nigh. "The Suhrab or Water of the Desert is said to be caused by the refraction of the atmosphere from extreme heat; and, which augments the delusion, it is most frequent in hollows, where water might be expected to lodge. have seen bushes and trees reflected in it, with as much accuracy as though it had been the face of a clear and still lake."-Pottinger. "As to the unbelievers, their works are like a vapour in a plain, which the thirsty traveller thinketh to be water, until when he cometh thereto he findeth it to be nothing."-Koran, chap. 24. |