Imatges de pàgina
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In vain did LALLA-ROOKH try to soften this inexorable critic; in vain did she resort to her most eloquent common. places, reminding him that poets were a timid and sensi tive race, whose sweetness was not to be drawn forth, like that of the fragrant grass near the Ganges, by crushing and trampling upon them ;*-that severity often extinguished every chance of the perfection which it demanded; and that, after all, perfection was like the Mountain of the Talisman,-nc one had ever yet reached its summit.t Neither these gentle axioms, nor the still gentler looks with which they were inculcated, could lower for one instant the elevation of FADLADEEN's eyebrows, or charm him into any thing like encouragement, or even toleration, of her poet. Toleration, indeed, was not among the weaknesses of FADLADEEN:-he carried the same spirit into matters of poetry and of religion, and, though little versed in the beauties or sublimities of either, was a perfect master of the art of persecution m both. His zeal was the same, too, in either pursuit; whether the game before him was pagans or poetasters,-worshippers of cows, or writers of epics.

"AND this," said the Great Chamberlain, "is poetry! this flimsy manufacture of the brain, which in comparison They had now arrived at the splendid city of Lahore, with the lofty and durable monuments of genius, is as the whose mausoleums and shrines, magnificent and number gold filigree-work of Zamara beside the eternal architec- less, where Death appeared to share equal honours wit ture of Egypt!" After this gorgeous sentence, which, Heaven, would have powerfully affected the heart and with a few more of the same kind, FADLADEEN kept by imagination of LALLA ROOKH, if feelings more of this him for rare and important occasions, he proceeded to the earth had not taken entire possession of her already. She anatomy of the short poem just recited. The lax and was here met by messengers, dispatched from Cashmere, easy kind of metre in which it was written ought to be who informed her that the King had arrived in the Valley, denounced, he said, as one of the leading causes of the and was himself superintending the sumptuous preparaalarming growth of poetry in our times. If some check tions that were then making in the Saloons of the Shalwere not given to this lawless facility, we should soon mar for her reception. The chill she felt on receiving be overrun by a race of bards as numerous and as shal- this intelligence,-which to a bride whose heart was free low as the hundred and twenty thousand Streams of and light would have brought only images of affection Basra. They who succeeded in this style deserved and pleasure,-convinced her that her peace was gone chastisement for their very success;-as warriors have forever, and that she was in love, irretrievably in love, been punished, even after gaining a victory, because they with young FERAMORZ. The veil had fallen off in which had taken the liberty of gaining it in an irregular or un- this passion at first disguises itself, and to know that she established manner. What, then, was to be said to those loved was now as painful as to love without knowing it who failed to those who presumed, as in the present || had been delicious. FERAMORZ, too,-what misery would lamentable instance, to imitate the license and ease of be his, if the sweet hours of intercourse so imprudently the bolder sons of song, without any of that grace or allowed them should have stolen into his heart the same vigour which gave a dignity even to negligence ;-who, fatal fascination as into hers;-if, notwithstanding her like them, flung the jereed carelessly, but not, like them, rank, and the modest homage he always paid to it, even to the mark;" and who," said he, raising his voice to he should have yielded to the influence of those long and excite a proper degree of wakefulness in his hearers, happy interviews, where music, poetry, the delightful contrive to appear heavy and constrained in the midst of scenes of nature,-all had tended to bring their hearts all the latitude they allow themselves, like one of those close together, and to waken by every means that too young pagans that dance before the Princess, who is in-ready passion, which often, like the young of the desertgenious enough to move as if her limbs were fettered, in bird, is warmed into life by the eyes alone!! a pair of the lightest and loosest drawers of Masulipatam!" but one way to preserve herself from being culpable as It was but little suitable, he continued, to the grave well as unhappy, and this, however painful, she was march of criticism to follow this fantastical Peri, of whom resolved to adopt. FERAMORZ must no more be admitted they had just heard, through all her flights and adventures to her presence. To have strayed so far into the dangerbetween earth and heaven; but he could not help advert- ous labyrinth was wrong, but to linger in it, while the ing to the puerile conceitedness of the Three Gifts which clew was yet in her hand, would be criminal. Though she is supposed to carry to the skies,-a drop of blood, the heart she had to offer to the King of Bucharia might forsooth, a sigh, and a tear! How the first of these arti- be cold and broken, it should at least be pure; and she cles was delivered into the Angel's "radiant hand" he must only endeavour to forget the short dream of happiprofessed himself at a loss to discover; and as to the safe ness she had enjoyed,-like that Arabian shepherd, who, carriage of the sigh and the tear, such Peris and such in wandering into the wilderness, caught a glimpse of the poets were beings by far too incomprehensible for him Gardens of Irim, and then lost them again forever! even to guess how they managed such matters. in short," said he, "it is a waste of time and patience to dwell longer upon a thing so incurably frivolous, puny even among its own puny race, and such as only the Banyan Hospital for Sick Insects should undertake."

"But,

*The Country of Delight-the name of a province in the kingdom of Jinnistan, or Fairy Land, the capital of which is called the City of Jewels. Amberabad is another of the cities of Jinnistan.

The tree Tooba, that stands in Paradise, in the palace of Mahomet. See Sale's Prelim. Disc. Tooba, says D'Herbelot, signifies beatitude, or eternal happiness.

Mahomet is described, in the 53d chapter of the Koran, as having seen the angel Gabriel" by the lote-tree, beyond which there is no passing near it is the Garden of Eternal Abode." This tree, say the commentators, stands in the seventh Heaven, on the right hand of the Throne of God.

"It is said that the rivers or streams of Basta were reckoned in the time of Pelal ben Abi Bordeh, and amounted to the number of one hundred and twenty thousand streams."-Ehn Hauka!.

The name of the javelin with which the Easterns exercise. See

Castellan, Maurs des Othomans, tom. iii. p. 161.

This account excited a desire of visiting the Banyan Hospital, as I bad heard much of their benevolence to all kinds of animals that were

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She saw

The arrival of the young Bride at Lahore was celebrated in the most enthusiastic manner. The Rajas and Omras in her train, who had kept at a certain distance during the journey, and never encamped nearer to the Princess than was strictly necessary for her safeguard,

either sick, lame, or infin, through age or accident. On my arrival, there were presented to my view many horses, cows, and oxen, in one spart ment; 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." Person's Travels.

It is said that all animals know the Banyans, that the most timid ap proach them, and that birds will fly nearer to them than to other people, See Grandpré.

A very fragrant grass from the banks of the Ganges, near Heridwar, which in some places covers whole acres, and diffuses, when crush ed, a strong odour."-Sir W. Jones on the Spikenard of the Ancients. "Near this is a curious hill, called Koh Talism, the Mountain of the Talisman, because, according to the traditions of the country, no person ever succeeded in gaining its summit."-Kinneir.

The Arabians believe that the ostriches hatch their young by onis looking at them."-P. Vansiebr, Relat. d'Egypte. § See Sale's Koran, note, vol. ii. p. 484.

here rode in splendid cavalcade through the city, and dis- where the pavilion stood there was a tank surrounded by tributed the most costly presents to the crowd. Engines small mangoe-trees, on the clear cold waters of which were erected in all the squares, which cast forth showers floated multitudes of the beautiful red lotus ;* while at a of confectionery among the people; while the artisans, in distance stood the ruins of a strange and awful-looking chariots adorned with tinsel and flying streamers, exhib-tower, which seemed old enough to have been the temple ited the badges of their respective trades through the streets. Such brilliant displays of life and pageantry among the palaces, and domes, and gilded minarets of Lahore, made the city altogether like a place of enchantment ;—particularly on the day when LALLA ROOKн set|| out again upon her journey, when she was accompanied to the gate by all the fairest and richest of the nobility, and rode along between ranks of beautiful boys and girls, who kept waving over their heads plates of gold and silver flowers, and then threw them around to be gathered by the populace.

of some religion no longer known, and which spoke the voice of desolation in the midst of all that bloom and loveliness. This singular ruin excited the wonder and con. jectures of all. LALLA ROOKH guessed in vain, and the all-pretending FADLADEEN, who had never till this journey been beyond the precincts of Delhi, was proceeding most learnedly to show that he knew nothing whatever about the matter, when one of the Ladies ggested that perhaps FERAMORZ could satisfy their curiosity. They were now approaching his native mountains, and this tower might perhaps be a relic of some of those dark superstitions, which had prevailed in that country before the light of Islam dawned upon it. The Chamberlain, who usually preferred his own ignorance to the best knowledge that any one else could give him, was by no means pleased with this officious reference; and the Princess, too, was about to interpose a faint word of objection, but, before either of them could speak, a slave was dispatched for FERAMORZ, who, in a very few minutes, made his appearance before them-looking so pale and unhappy in LALLA ROOKн's eyes, that she repented already of her cruelty in having so long excluded him.

For many days after their departure from Lahore, a considerable degree of gloom hung over the whole party. LALLA ROOKH, who had intended to make illness her excase for not admitting the young minstrel, as usual, to the pavilion, soon found that to feign indisposition was unne. cessary;-FADLADEEN felt the loss of the good road they had hitherto travelled, and was very near cursing JehanGuire (of blessed memory!) for not having continued his delectable alley of trees, at least as far as the mountains of Cashmere ;-while the Ladies, who had nothing now to do all day but to be fanned by peacocks' feathers and listen to FADLADEEN, seemed heartily weary of the life That venerable tower, he told them, was the remains they led, and, in spite of all the Great Chamberlain's of an ancient Fire-Temple, built by those Ghebers or criticisms, were so tasteless as to wish for the poet again. Persians of the old religion, who, many hundred years One evening, as they were proceeding to their place of since, had fled hither from their Arab conquerors,† prerest for the night, the Princess, who, for the freer enjoy- ferring liberty and their altars in a foreign land to the alment of the air, had mounted her favourite Arabian pal-ternative of apostasy or persecution in their own. It was frey, in passing by a small grove heard the notes of a lute from within its leaves, and a voice, which she but too well knew, singing the following words :

TELL me not of joys above,

If that world can give no bliss,
Truer, happier than the Love
Which enslaves our souls in this.

Tell me not of Houris' eyes;-
Far from me their dangerous glow,
If those looks that light the skies
Wound like some that burn below.

Who, that feels what Love is here,
All its falsehood-all its pain-
Would, for even Elysium's sphere,
Risk the fatal dream again?
Who, that 'midst a desert's heat
Sees the waters fade away,
Would not rather die than meet

Streams again as false as they?

The tone of melancholy defiance in which these words were uttered, went to LALLA ROOKн's heart; and, as she reluctantly rode on, she could not help feeling it to be a sad but still sweet certainty, that FERAMORZ was to the full as enamoured and miserable as herself.

The place where they encamped that evening was the first delightful spot they had come to since they left Labore On one side of them was a grove full of small Hindoo temples, and planted with the most graceful trees of the East; where the tamarind, the cassia, and the silken plantains of Ceylon were mingled in rich contrast with the high fan-like foliage of the Palmyra,-that favourite tree of the luxurious bird that lights up the chamere of its nest with fire-flies. In the middle of the lawn

Ortal Tales.

↑ Ferichta. Or rather," says Scott, upon the passage of Ferishta, from which this is taken, small coins, stamped with the figure of a lower. They are still used in India to distribute in charity, and, on occasion, thrown by the purse-bearers of the great among the populace."

The fine road made by the Emperor Jehan-Guire from Agra to La bore, planted with trees on each side. 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." 'The Baya, or Indian Gross-beak."-Sir W. Jones.

impossible, he added, not to feel interested in the many glorious but unsuccessful struggles, which had been made by these original natives of Persia to cast off the yoke of their bigoted conquerors. Like their own Fire in the Burning Field at Bakou, when suppressed in one place, they had but broken out with fresh flame in another; and, as a native of Cashmere, of that fair and Holy Valley, which had in the same manner become the prey of strangers, and seen her ancient shrines and native princes swept away before the march of her intolerant invaders, he felt a sympathy, he owned, win the sufferings of the persecuted Ghebers, which every monument like this before them but tended more powerfully to awaken. It was the first time that FERAMORZ had ever ventured upon so much prose before FADLADEEN, and it may easily be conceived what effect such prose as this must have produced upon that most orthodox and most pagan. hating personage. He sat for some minutes aghast, ejac ulating only at intervals, "Bigoted conquerors!--sympa. thy with Fire-worshippers !"-while FERAMORZ, happy to take advantage of this almost speechless horror of the Chamberlain, proceeded to say that he knew a melan. choly story, connected with the events of one of those struggles of the brave Fire-worshippers against their Arab masters, which, if the evening was not too far advanced, he should have much pleasure in being allowed to relate to the Princess. It was impossible for LALLA Rookи to refuse ;-he had never before looked half so animated; and when he spoke of the Holy Valley his eyes had sparkled, she thought, like the talismanic characters on the scimi. tar of Solomon. Her consent was therefore most readily granted; and while FADLADEEN sat in unspeakable dismay, expecting treason and abomination in every line, the poet thus began his story of the Fire-worshippers :—

*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 o the white water lily, and is the most lovely of the nymphæas I have seen." Mrs. Graham's Journal of a Residence in India.

"On les voit persécutés par les Khalites se retirer dans les non tagnes du Kerman: plusieurs choisirent pour retraite la Turtarie at la Chine; d'autres s'arrêtérent sur les bords du Gange, à l'est de Delha."M. Anquetil, Mémoires de l'Académie, tom. xxxI. p. 346.

The Ager ardens," described by Kempfer, Amanitat. Frot. Cashmere (says its historians) had its own princes 4000 years be fore 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 be trayed by his Omralis."-Pennant.

Voltaire tells us that in his Tragedy "Les Guebres,” he was generally supposed to have alluded to the Jansenists I should not be sur prised if this story of the Fire-worshippers were found capable of a sinilar doubleness of application.

THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS.

Tis moonlight over OMAN'S SEA ;*
Her banks of pearl and palmy isles
Bask in the night-beam beauteously,

And her blue waters sleep in smiles.
"Tis moonlight in HARMOZIA'st walls,
And through her EMIR's porphyry halls,

Where, some hours since, was heard the swell
Of trumpet and the clash of zel,t
Bidding the bright-eyed sun farewell;-
The peaceful sun, whom better suits
The music of the bulbul's nest,

Or the light touch of lovers' lutes,

To sing him to his golden rest.

All hush'd-there's not a breeze in motion;
The shore is silent as the ocean.
If zephyrs come, so light they come,

Nor leaf is stin d nor wave is driven;-
The wind-tower on the EMIR's dome§

Can hardly win a breath from heaven.

Ev'n he, that tyrant Arab, sleeps

Calm, while a nation round him weeps;
While curses load the air he breathes,
And falchions from unnumber'd sheaths
Are starting to avenge the shame

His race hath brought on IRAN's name.
Hard, heartless Chief, unmoved alike

'Mid eyes that weep, and swords that strike;— One of that saintly, murd'rous brood,

To carnage and the Koran given, Who think through unbelievers' blood Lies their directest path to heav'n ;— One, who will pause and kneel unshod

In the warm blood his hand hath pour'd, To mutter o'er some text of God

Engraven on his reeking sword;—¶
Nay, who can coolly note the line,
The letter of those words divine,

To which his blade, with searching art,
Had sunk into its victim's heart!

Just ALLA! what must be thy look,

When such a wretch before thee stands Unblushing, with thy Sacred Book,Turning the leaves with blood-stain'd hands, And wresting from its page sublime His creed of lust, and hate, and crime ;Ev'n as those bees of TREBIZOND,

Which, from the sunniest flow'rs that glad With their pure smile the gardens round, Draw venom forth that drives men mad.**

Never did fierce ARABIA send

A satrap forth more direly great; Never was IRAN doom'd to bend

Beneath a yoke of deadlier weight.

Her throne had fall'n-her pride was crush'd—
Her sons were willing slaves, nor blush'd,
In their own land,-no more their own,-
To crouch beneath a stranger's throne.
Her tow'rs, where MITHRA once had burn'd,
To Moslem shrines-oh shame!-were turn'd,
Where slaves, converted by the sword,
Their mean, apostate worship pour'd,
And cursed the faith their sires adored.
Yet has she hearts, 'mid all this ill,
O'er all this wreck high buoyant still
With hope and vengeance;-hearts that yet-

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Like gems, in darkness, issuing rays They've treasured from the sun that's set,Beam all the light of long-lost days! And swords she hath, nor weak nor slow To second all such hearts can dare; As he shall know, well, dearly know,

Who sleeps in moonlight lux'ry there, Tranquil as if his spirit lay Becalm'd in Heav'n's approving ray. Sleep on-for purer eyes than thine Those waves are hush'd, those planets shine; Sleep on, and be thy rest unmoved

By the white moonbeam's dazzling power None but the loving and the loved Should be awake at this sweet hour

And see where, high above those rocks
That o'er the deep their shadows fling.
Yon turret stands ;-where ebon locks,
As glossy as a heron's wing
Upon the turban of a king,*
Hang from the lattice, long and wild,-.
"Tis she, that EMIR's blooming child,
All truth and tenderness and grace,
Though born of such ungentle race;—
An image of Youth's radiant Fountain
Springing in a desolate mountain !†

Oh what a pure and sacred thing

Is Beauty, curtain'd from the si,ht Of the gross world, illumining

Ore only mansion with her light! Unseen by man's disturbing eye,—

The flow'r that blooms beneath the sea, Too deep for sunbeams, doth not lie

Hid in more chaste obscurity.
So, HINDA, have thy face and mind,
Like holy myst'ries, lain enshrined
And oh, what transport for a lover

To lift the veil that shades them o'er!..
Like those who, all at once, discover
In the lone deep some fairy shore,
Where mortal never trod before,
And sleep and wake in scented airs
No lip had ever breathed but theirs.

Beautiful are the maids that glide,

On summer-eves, through YEMEN's‡ dales, And bright the glancing looks they hide Behind their litters' roseate veils ;And brides, as delicate and fair As the white jasmine flow'rs they wear, Hath YEMEN in her blissful clime,

Who, lull'd in cool kiosk or bow'r,§.
Before their mirrors count the time,||
And grow still lovelier ev'ry hour.
But never yet hath bride or maid

In ARABY'S gay Harem smiled,
Whose boasted brightness would not fade
Before AL HASSAN's blooming child

Light as the angel shapes that bless
An infant's dream, yet not the less

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Arabia Felix.

"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 raise! 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.

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 Asir they wear little looking glasses on their thumbs "Hence (and from the lotus being considered the emblem of beauty) the meaning of the following mute intercourse of two lovers before their parents:

"He, with salute of def'rence due,
A lotus to his forehead press'd:
She raised her mirror to his view,
Then turn'd it inward to her breast,'"
Asiatic Miscellany, vel i

Rich in all woman's loveliness ;-
With eyes so pure, that from their ray
Dark Vice would turn abash'd away,
Blinded like serpents, when they gaze
Upon the em'rald's virgin blaze;_*
Yet fill'd with all youth's sweet desires,
Mingling the meek and vestal fires
Of other worlds with all the bliss,
The fond, weak tenderness of this:
A soul, too, more than half divine,

Where, through some shades of earthly feeling, Religion's soften'd glories shine,

Like light through summer foliage stealing,
Shedding a glow of such mild hue,
So warm, and yet so shadowy too,
As makes the very darkness there
More beautiful than light elsewhere.

Such is the maid who, at this hour,

Hath risen from her restless sleep, And sits alone in that high bow'r,

Watching the still and shining deep. Ah! 'twas not thus,-with tearful eyes And beating heart, she used to gaze On the magnificent earth and skies,

In her own land, in happier days. Why looks she now so anxious down Among those rocks, whose rugged frown Blackens the mirror of the deep? Whom waits she all this lonely night?

Too rough the rocks, too bold the steep, For man to scale that turret's height !—

So deem'd at least her thoughtful sire,
When high, to catch the cool night-air,
After the day-beam's with'ring fire,t

He built her bow'r of freshness there,
And had it deck'd with costliest skill,

And fondly thought it safe as fair;Think, reverend dreamer! think so still, Nor wake to learn what Love can dare;Love, all-defying Love, who sees No charm in trophies won with ease ;Whose rarest, dearest fruits of bliss Are pluck'd on Danger's precipice ! Bolder than they, who dare not dive

For pearls, but when the sea's at rest, Love, in the tempest most alive,

Hath ever held that pearl the best He finds beneath the stormiest water. Yes-ARABY's unrivall'd daughter, Though high that tow'r, that rock-way rude, There's one who, but to kiss thy cheek, Would climb th' untrodden solitude

Of ARARAT's tremendous peak,t

And think its steeps, though dark and dread,
Heav'n's pathways, if to thee they led!
Ev'n now thou seest the flashing spray,
That lights his oar's impatient way;
Ev'n now thou hear'st the sudden shock
Of his swift bark against the rock,
And stretchest down thy arms of snow,
As if to lift him from below!
Like her to whom, at dead of night,
The bridegroom, with his locks of light,

They say that if a snake or serpent fix his eyes on the lustre of those stones (emeralds) he immediately becomes blind."-Ahmed ben Abdalaziz. Treatise on Jewels.

"At Gombaroon and the Isle of Ormus it is sometimes so hot, that the people are obliged to lie all day in the water."-Marco Polo. his mountain is generally supposed to be inaccessible. Struy says, "Lean well assure the reader that their opinion is not true, who suppose this mount to be inaccessible." He adds, that "the lower part of the mountain is loudy, misty, and dark, the middlemost part very cold, and like clouds snow, but tle upper regions perfectly calm."-It was on thus mountain hat the Ark was supposed to have rested after the Deluge, and part of it, they say, exists there still, which Struy thus gravely accounts for: Whereas none can remember that the air on the top of the hill d'd ever change or was subject either to wind or rain, which is presumed to be the reason that the Ark has endured so long without being rotten." -See Carrer's Travels, where the doctor laughs at this whole account of Mount Ararat.

In one of the books of the Shah Nâmeh, when Zal, (a celebrated bero of Persia, remarkable for his white hair,) comes to the terrace of has mistress Rodahver at night, she lets down her long tresses to assist him in his ascent-he, however, manages it in a less romantic way by Sang his crook in a projecting beam.-See Champion's Ferdosi

Came, in the flush of love and pride,
And scaled the terrace of his bride ;—
When, as she saw him rashly spring,
And midway up in danger cling,

She flung him down her long black hair,
Exclaiming, breathless, "There, love, there.'
And scarce did manlier nerve uphold

The hero ZAL in that fond hour,

Than wings the youth who, fleet and bold,
Now climbs the rocks to HINDA's bower
See-light as up their granite steeps

The rock-goats of ARABIA clamber,*
Fearless from crag to crag he leaps,
And now is in the maiden's chamber.

She loves-but knows not whom she loves,
Nor what his race, nor whence he came ;-
Like one who meets, in Indian groves,
Some beauteous bird without a name,
Brought by the last ambrosial breeze,
From isles in th' undiscover'd seas,
To show his plumage for a day
To wond'ring eyes, and wing away!
Will he thus fly-her nameless lover?
ALLA forbid! 'twas by a moon
As fair as this, while singing over
Some ditty to her soft Kanoon,T
Alone, at this same witching hour,
She first beheld his radiant eyes
Gleam through the lattice of the bow'r,
Where nightly how they mix their sighs;

And thought some spirit of the air

(For what could waft a mortal there ?) Was pausing on his moonlight way

To listen to her lonely lay!

This fancy ne'er hath left her mind:

And though, when terror's swoon had pass'd She saw a youth, of mortal kind,

Before her in obeisance cast,

Yet often since, when he hath spoken

Strange, awful words, and gleams have broken From his dark eyes, too bright to bear,

Oh! she hath fear'd her soul was giv'n

To some unhallow'd child of air,
Some erring Spirit cast from heav'n,
Like those angelic youths of old,
Who burn'd for maids of mortal mould,
Bewilder'd left the glorious skies,
And lost their heav'n for woman's eyes.
Fond girl! nor fiend nor angel he
Who woos thy young simplicity;
But one of earth's impassion'd sons,
As warm in love, as fierce in ire,
As the best heart whose current runs
Full of the Day God's living fire.

But quench'd to-night that ardour seems,
And pale his cheek, and sunk his brow ;-
Never before, but in her dreams,

Had she beheld him pale as now:

And those were dreams of troubled sleep,
From which 'twas joy to wake and weep;
Visions, that will not be forgot,

But sadden every waking scene,
Like warning ghosts, that leave the spot
All wither'd, where they once have been.

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"Were wafted off to seas unknown, "Where not a pulse should beat but ours, "And we might live, love, die alone! "Far from the cruel and the cold,"Where the bright eyes of angels only Should come around us, to behold "A paradise so pure and lonely. Would this be world enough for thee ?"— Playful she turn'd, that he might see

The passing smile her cheek put on ; But when she mark'd how mournfully

His eyes met hers, that smile was gone; And, bursting into heart-felt tears, "Yes, yes," she cried, "my hourly fears, My dreams have boded all too right

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'We part-forever part-to-night!

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'I knew, I knew it could not last

"Twas bright, 'twas heav'nly, but 'tis past!

Oh! ever thus, from childhood's hour, "I've seen my fondest hopes decay;

'I never loved a tree or flow'r,

"But 'twas the first to fade away. 'I never nursed a dear gazelle,

"To glad me with its soft black eye,
But when it came to know me well,
"And love me, it was sure to die!
Now too-the joy most like divine
"Of all I ever dreamt or knew,

To see thee, hear thee, call thee mine,--
"Oh misery! must I lose that too?
'Yet go-on peril's brink we meet ;—

"Those frightful rocks-that treach'rous seaNo, never come again--though sweet, "Though heav'n, it may be death to thee. Farewell! and blessings on thy way, "Where'er thou goest, beloved stranger! 'Better to sit and watch that ray,

And think thee safe, though far away,

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Oh! look not so-beneath the skies 'I now fear nothing but those eyes. 'If aught on earth could charm or force My spirit from its destined course,If aught could make this soul forget The bond to which its seal is set, "Twould be those eyes; they, only they, Could melt that sacred seal away! But no-'tis fix'd-my awful doom "Is fix'd-on this side of the tomb 'We meet no more ;-why, why did Heav'n Mingle two souls that earth has riv'n,

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"His gray head from that lightning glance! "Thou know'st him not-he loves the brave; "Nor lives there under heaven's expanse "One who would prize, would worship thee "And thy bold spirit, more than he. "Oft when, in childhood, I have play'd "With the bright falchion by his side, "I've heard him swear his lisping maid

"In time should be a warrior's bride. "And still, whene'er at Harem hours, "I take him cool sherbets and flow'rs,

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Thine, thine the victory-thine the sin― "If Love hath made one thought his own, "That Vengeance claims first-last-alone! "Oh! had we never, never met,

"Or could this heart even now forget

"How link'd, how bless'd we might have been, "Had fate not frown'd so dark between ! "Hadst thou been born a Persian maid, "In neighbouring valleys had we dwelt, "Through the same fields in childhood play'd, "At the same kindling altar knelt,— Then, then, while all those nameless ties, "In which the charm of Country lies, "Had round our hearts been hourly spun, "Till IRAN's cause and thine were one; "While in thy lute's awak'ning sigh "I heard the voice of days gone by, "And saw, in ev'ry smile of thine,

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They (the Ghebers) lay so much stress on their cushee or girdle, as not to dare to be an instant without it.-Grose's Voyage.-"Le jeune homme nia d'abord la chose; mais, ayant été dépouillé de sa robe, et la large ceinture qu'il portoit comme Ghebre." &c. &c.-D'Herbelet art. Agduani. Pour se distinguer des Idolatres de l'Inde, les Guebres se ceignent tous d un cordon de laine, ou de poil de chameau."-Ency clopédie Francoise. D'Herbelot says this belt was generally of leather.

"As to

"They suppose the Throne of the Almighty is seated in the sun, and hence their worship of that luminary."-Hanway. fire, the Ghebers place the spring-head of it in the 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 attri bute 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."-Grese, The false charges brought against the religion of these people by their Musulman tyrants is but one proof among many of the truth of this writer's re mark, that calumny is often added to oppression, if but for the sake of justifying it."

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