A feather from the mystic wings

Of the Simoorgh resistless wore;
And gifted by the Fiends of Fire,
Who groan'd to see their shrines expire,
With charms that, all in vain withstood,
Would drown the Koran's light in blood!

Such were the tales, that won belief,
And such the colouring Fancy gave
To a young, warm and dauntless Chief,-
One who, no more than mortal brave,
Fought for the land his soul ador'd,

For happy homes and altars free, –

His only talisman, the sword,
His only spell-word, Liberty!

One of that ancient hero line,

Along whose glorious current shine
Names, that have sanctified their blood;

AS LEBANON's small mountain-flood

Is render'd holy by the ranks

Of sainted cedars on its banks!"

-

9 This rivulet, says Dandini, is called the Holy River from the

'Twas not for him to crouch the knee Tamely to Moslem tyranny;

'Twas not for him, whose soul was cast

In the bright mould of ages past,
Whose melancholy spirit, fed

With all the glories of the dead,

Though fram'd for IRAN's happiest years,
Was born among her chains and tears! -
'Twas not for him to swell the crowd
Of slavish heads, that shrinking bowed
Before the Moslem, as he pass'd,
Like shrubs beneath the poison-blast-

No far he fled — indignant fled

The pageant of his country's shame; While every tear her children shed Fell on his soul, like drops of flame;

And, as a lover hails the dawn

Of a first smile, so welcom'd he The sparkle of the first sword drawn For vengeance and for liberty!

But vain was valour vain the flower
Of KERMAN, in that deathful hour,

Against AL HASSAN'S whelming power.

In vain they met him, helm to helm,
Upon the threshold of that realm

He came in bigot pomp to sway,

And with their corpses block'd his way

In vain for every lance they rais'd,

Thousands around the conqueror blaz'd;
For every arm that lin❜d their shore,
Myriads of slaves were wafted o'er, —
A bloody, bold, and countless crowd,
Before whose swarm as fast they bow'd
As dates beneath the locust-cloud !

There stood but one short league away From old HARMOZIA'S sultry bay

A rocky mountain, o'er the Sea

Of OMAN beetling awfully.

A last and solitary link

Of those stupendous chains that reach From the broad Caspian's reedy brink Down winding to the Green Sea beach.

Around its base the bare rocks stood,

Like naked giants, in the flood,

As if to guard the Gulf across;

While, on its peak, that brav'd the sky,
A ruin'd Temple tower'd, so high

That oft the sleeping albatross
Struck the wild ruins with her wing,
And from her cloud-rock'd slumbering
Started to find man's dwelling there

In her own silent fields of air!

Beneath, terrific caverns gave

Dark welcome to each stormy wave
That dash'd, like midnight revellers, in;-
And such the strange, mysterious din

At times throughout those caverns roll'd, –
And such the fearful wonders told
Of restless sprites imprison'd there,

That bold were Moslem, who would dare,
At twilight hour, to steer his skiff
Beneath the Gheber's lonely cliff.

On the land side, those towers sublime,
That seem'd above the grasp of Time,
Were sever'd from the haunts of men

By a wide, deep, and wizard glen,

These birds sleep in the air. They are most common about the Cape of Good Hope.

P

So fathomless, so full of gloom,

No eye could pierce the void between;
It seem'd a place where Gholes might come
With their foul banquets from the tomb,
And in its caverns feed unseen.

Like distant thunder, from below,

The sound of many torrents came;
Too deep for eye or ear to know
If 'twere the sea's imprison'd flow,

Or floods of ever-restless flame.
For each ravine, each rocky spire
Of that vast mountain stood on fire;

And, though for ever past the days,

2

When God was worshipp'd in the blaze

That from its lofty altar shone,

Though fled the priests, the votaries gone,

Still did the mighty flame burn on

Through chance and change, through good and ill,

Like its own God's eternal will,

Deep, constant, bright, unquenchable!

Thither the vanquish'd HAFED led

His little army's last remains;

2 The Ghebers generally built their temples over subterraneous

fires.