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.".

Page 83.

Ebn Haukal.

They saw a young Hindoo girl upon the bank.

For an account of this ceremony, v. Grandpre'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..

Page 86.

This City of War, which in a few short hours
Has sprung up here.

"The Lescar, or Imperial Camp, is divided, like a regular town, into squares, alleys, and streets, and from a rising ground furnishes one of the most agreeable prospects in the world. Starting up in a few hours in an uninhabited plain, it raises the idea of a city built by enchantment. Even those who leave their houses in cities to follow the prince in his progress are frequently so charmed with the Lescar, when situated in a beautiful and convenient place, that they cannot prevail with themselves to remove. To prevent this inconvenience to the court, the Emperor, after sufficient time is allowed to the tradesmen to follow, orders them to be burnt out of their tents.". Dow's Hindostan. Colonel Wilks gives a lively picture of an Eastern encamp"His camp, like that of most Indian armies, exhibited a motley collection of covers from the scorching sun and dews of the night, variegated according to the taste or means of each individual, by extensive inclosures of coloured calico surrounding superb suites of tents; by ragged cloths or blankets stretched over sticks or branches; palm leaves hastily spread over similar supports; handsome tents and splendid canopies; horses, oxen, elephants, and camels; all intermixed without any exterior mark of order or design, except the flags of the chiefs, which usually mark the centres of a congeries of these masses; the only regular part of the encampment being the streets of shops, each of which is constructed nearly in the manner of a booth at an English fair." Historical Sketches of the South of India.

ment.

Page 87.

The tinklingth rongs

Of laden camels, and their drivers' songs.

"Some of the camels have bells about their necks, and some about their legs, like those which our carriers put about their fore-horses' necks, which together with the servants (who belong to the camels, and travel on foot,) singing all night, make a pleasant noise, and the journey passes away delightfully." Pitt's Account of the Mahometans.

"The camel-driver follows the camels singing, and somctimes playing upon his pipe; the louder he sings and pipes, the faster the camels go. Nay, they will stand still when he gives over his music.". Tavernier.

Page 92.

Hot as that crimson haze

By which the prostrate caravan is aw'd.

Savary says of the south wind, which blows in Egypt from February to May, "Sometimes it appears only in the shape of an impetuous whirlwind, which passes rapidly, and is fatal to the traveller, surprised in the middle of the deserts. Torrents of burning sand roll before it, the firmament is enveloped in a thick veil, and the sun appears of the colour of blood. Sometimes whole caravans are buried in it."

There were said to be under this Throne or Palace of Khosrou Parviz a hundred vaults filled with "treasures so immense that some Mahometan writers tell us, their Pro

phet, to encourage his disciples, carried them to a rock, which at his command opened, and gave them a prospect through it of the treasures of Khosrou.”—Universal History.

Page 102.

And they beheld an orb, ample and bright,
Rise from the Holy Well.

We are not told more of this trick of the Impostor, than that it was 66 une machine, qu'il 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 104.

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.- -v. Harmer's Observations on Job.

Page 108.

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 arrived at Moultan, finding that the country of the Jits was defended by great rivers, he ordered fifteen hundred boats to be built, each of which he armed with six iron spikes, projecting from their prows and sides, to prevent their being boarded by the enemy, who were very expert in that kind of war. 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.-v. Wilks's South of India, vol. i. p. 471. And in the curious Javan poem, the Brata Yudha given by Mr. Raffles in his History of Java, we find, "He aimed at the Heart of Soéta with the sharp-pointed Weapon of Fire."

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 the sieges of Abulualid in the year of the 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."v. the extracts from Casiri's Biblioth. Arab. Hispan. in the Appendix to Berington's Literary History of the Middle Ages.

Page 108.

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. Dr. Cooke in his Journal mentions some wells in Circassia, strongly impregnated with this inflammable oil, from which