and would remind the Princess of that difference between Haroun-al-Raschid and his fair mistress Marida, which was so happily made up by the soft strains of the musician, Moussali. As the story was chiefly to be told in song, and FERAMORZ had unluckily forgotten his own lute in the valley, he borrowed the vina of LALLA ROOKH's little Persian slave, and thus began: WHO has not heard of the Vale of CASHMERE, Oh! to see it at sunset, when warm o'er the Lake Its splendour at parting a summer eve throws, Like a bride, full of blushes, when ling'ring to take A last look of her mirror at night ere she goes! When the shrines through the foliage are gleaming half shown, And each hallows the hour by some rites of its own. Here the music of pray'r from a minaret swells, 1 Here the Magian his urn full of perfume is swinging, "The rose of Kashmire for its brilliancy and delicacy of odour has long been proverbial in the East."- Forster. And here, at the altar, a zone of sweet bells Round the waist of some fair Indian dancer is ringing. Or to see it by moonlight, when mellowly shines The light o'er its palaces, gardens and shrines; When the water-falls gleam like a quick fall of stars, And the nightingale's hymn from the Isle of Chenars Is broken by laughs and light echoes of feet From the cool, shining walks where the young people meet. Or at morn, when the magic of daylight awakes 2 “Tied round her waist the zone of bells, that sounded with ravishing melody."-Song of Jayadeva. 3 "The little isles in the Lake of Cachemire are set with arbours and large-leaved aspen-trees, slender and tall.”— Bernier. 4 Shines in through the mountainous portal + that opes, Sublime, from that Valley of bliss to the world! But never yet, by night or day, With quicker spread each heart uncloses, The Valley holds its Feast of Roses." That joyous time, when pleasures pour Profusely round, and in their shower Hearts open, like the Season's Rose, The Flowret of a hundred leaves, Expanding while the dew-fall flows, And every leaf its balm receives! 6 4 "The Tuckt Suliman, the name bestowed by the Mahometans on this hill, forms one side of a grand portal to the Lake." Forster. 5 "The Feast of Roses continues the whole time of their remain ing in bloom." -v. Pietro de la Valle. 6" Gul sad berk, the Rose of a hundred leaves. I believe a particular species." — Ouseley. 'Twas when the hour of evening came When saffron beds are full in flower, And fields and pathways, far and near, That you could see, in wandering round, 7 Bernier. 8 A place mentioned in the Toozek Jehangeery, or Memoirs of Jehanguire, where there is an account of the beds of saffron flowers about Cashmere. |