On their arrival, next night, at the place of encampment, they were surprised and delighted to find the groves all round illuminated; some artists of Yamtcheou having been sent on previously for the purpose. On each side of the green alley, which led to the Royal Pavilion, artificial sceneries of bamboowork were erected, representing arches, minarets, and towers, from which hung thousands of silken lanterns, painted by the most delicate pencils of Canton. Nothing could be more beautiful than the leaves of the mango-trees and acacias, shining in the light of the bamboo scenery, which shed a lustre round as soft as that of the nights of Peristan. LALLA ROOKH, however, who was too much occupied by the sad story of ZELICA and her lover, to give a thought to any thing else, except, perhaps, him who related it, hurried on through this scene of splendour to her pavilion, greatly to the mortification of the poor artists of Yamtcheou, and was followed with equal rapidity by the Great Chamberlain, cursing, as he went, that ancient Mandarin, whose parental anxiety in lighting up the shores of the lake, where his beloved daughter had wandered and been lost, was the origin of these fantastic Chinese illuminations. Without a moment's delay young FERAMORZ was introduced, and FADLADEEN, who could never make up his mind as to the merits of a poet, till he knew the religious sect to which he belonged, was about to ask him whether he was a Shia or a Sooni, when LALLA ROOKH impatiently clapped her hands for silence, and the youth, being seated upon the musnud near her, proceeded : E PREPARE ARE thy soul, young AZIM ! thou hast brav'd The bands of GREECE, still mighty though enslav'd; Now led against thee; and, let conquerors boast A young, warm spirit against beauty's charms, Now, through the Haram chambers, moving lights 2 To give that long, dark languish to the eye, 3 Which makes the maids, whom kings are proud to cull From fair CIRCASSIA'S vales, so beautiful! All is in motion; rings and plumes and pearls Are shining every where: some younger girls "Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes." Song. 266 They tinged the ends of her fingers scarlet with Henna, so that they resembled branches of coral."- Story of Prince Futtun in Bahardanush. 3" The women blacken the inside of their eyelids with a powder named the black Kohol." - Russel. Are gone by moonlight to the garden beds, Which brings to mind her childhood's innocent day, 4 In her full lap the Champac's leaves of gold," 6 4 "The appearance of the blossoms of the gold-coloured Campac on the black hair of the Indian women, has supplied the Sanscrit Poets with many elegant allusions." -v. Asiatic Researches, vol. iv. 5 A tree famous for its perfume, and common on the hills of Yemen. Niebuhr. 6 Of the genus mimosa, "which droops its branches whenever any person approaches it, seeming as if it saluted those who retire under its shade." Niebuhr. |