Chapter VII: Part 7

The gay pomps and processions that met her upon her entrance into the Valley, and the magnificence with which the roads all along were decorated, did honour to the taste and gallantry of the young King. It was night when they approached the city, and, for the last two miles, they had passed under arches, thrown from hedge to hedge, festooned with only those rarest roses from which the Attar Gul, more precious than gold, is distilled, and illuminated in rich and fanciful forms with lanterns of the triple-coloured tortoise-shell of Pegu.[384] Sometimes, from a dark wood by the side of the road, a display of fire-works would break out, so sudden and so brilliant, that a Brahmin might fancy he beheld that grove, in whose purple shade the God of Battles was born, bursting into a flame at the moment of his birth;—while, at other times, a quick and playful irradiation continued to brighten all the fields and gardens by which they passed, forming a line of dancing lights along the horizon; like the meteors of the north as they are seen by those hunters,[385] who pursue the white and blue foxes on the confines of the Icy Sea.

These arches and fire-works delighted the Ladies of the Princess exceedingly; and, with their usual good logic, they deduced from his taste for illuminations, that the King of Bucharia would make the most exemplary husband imaginable. Nor, indeed, could LALLA ROOKH herself help feeling the kindness and splendour with which the young bridegroom welcomed her;—but she also felt how painful is the gratitude, which kindness from those we cannot love excites; and that their best blandishments come over the heart with all that chilling and deadly sweetness, which we can fancy in the cold, odoriferous wind[386] that is to blow over this earth in the last days.

The marriage was fixed for the morning after her arrival, when she was, for the first time, to be presented to the monarch in that Imperial Palace beyond the lake, called the Shalimar. Though never before had a night of more wakeful and anxious thought been passed in the Happy Valley, yet, when she rose in the morning, and her Ladies came around her, to assist in the adjustment of the bridal ornaments, they thought they had never seen her look half so beautiful. What she had lost of the bloom and radiancy of her charms was more than made up by that intellectual expression, that soul beaming forth from the eyes, which is worth all the rest of loveliness. When they had tinged her fingers with the Henna leaf, and placed upon her brow a small coronet of jewels, of the shape worn by the ancient Queens of Bucharia, they flung over her head the rose-coloured bridal veil, and she proceeded to the barge that was to convey her across the lake;—first kissing, with a mournful look, the little amulet of cornelian, which her father at parting had hung about her neck.

The morning was as fresh and fair as the maid on whose nuptials it rose, and the shining lake, all covered with boats, the minstrels playing upon the shores of the islands, and the crowded summer-houses on the green hills around, with shawls and banners waving from their roofs, presented such a picture of animated rejoicing, as only she, who was the object of it all, did not feel with transport. To LALLA ROOKH alone it was a melancholy pageant; nor could she have even borne to look upon the scene, were it not for a hope that, among the crowds around, she might once more perhaps catch a glimpse of FERAMORZ. So much was her imagination haunted by this thought, that there was scarcely an islet or boat she passed on the way, at which her heart did not flutter with the momentary fancy that he was there. Happy, in her eyes, the humblest slave upon whom the light of his dear looks fell!—In the barge immediately after the Princess sat FADLADEEN, with his silken curtains thrown widely apart, that all might have the benefit of his august presence, and with his head full of the speech he was to deliver to the King, “concerning FERAMORZ, and literature, and the Chabuk, as connected therewith.”

They now had entered the canal which leads from the Lake to the splendid domes and saloons of the Shalimar, and went gliding on through the gardens that ascended from each bank, full of flowering shrubs that made the air all perfume; while from the middle of the canal rose jets of water, smooth and unbroken, to such a dazzling height, that they stood like tall pillars of diamond in the sunshine. After sailing under the arches of various saloons, they at length arrived at the last and most magnificent, where the monarch awaited the coming of his bride; and such was the agitation of her heart and frame, that it was with difficulty she could walk up the marble steps, which were covered with cloth of gold for her ascent from the barge. At the end of the hall stood two thrones, as precious as the Cerulean Throne of Coolburga,[387] on one of which sat ALIRIS, the youthful King of Bucharia, and on the other was, in a few minutes, to be placed the most beautiful Princess in the world. Immediately upon the entrance of LALLA ROOKH into the saloon, the monarch descended from his throne to meet her; but scarcely had he time to take her hand in his, when she screamed with surprise, and fainted at his feet. It was FERAMORZ himself that stood before her!—FERAMORZ was, himself, the Sovereign of Bucharia, who in this disguise had accompanied his young bride from Delhi, and, having won her love as an humble minstrel, now amply deserved to enjoy it as a King.

The consternation of FADLADEEN at this discovery was, for the moment, almost pitiable. But change of opinion is a resource too convenient in courts for this experienced courtier not to have learned to avail himself of it. His criticisms were all, of course, recanted instantly: he was seized with an admiration of the King’s verses, as unbounded as, he begged him to believe, it was disinterested; and the following week saw him in possession of an additional place, swearing by all the Saints of Islam that never had there existed so great a poet as the Monarch ALIRIS, and, moreover, ready to prescribe his favourite regimen of the Chabuk for every man, woman, and child that dared to think otherwise.

Of the happiness of the King and Queen of Bucharia, after such a beginning, there can be but little doubt; and, among the lesser symptoms, it is recorded of LALLA ROOKH, that, to the day of her death, in memory of their delightful journey, she never called the King by any other name than FERAMORZ.

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NOTES.

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NOTES.

Footnote 1:

p. 2.—_He embarked for Arabia._—These particulars of the visit of the
King of Bucharia to Aurungzebe are found in _Dow’s History of
Hindostan_, vol. iii. p. 392.

Footnote 2:

p. 2.—LALLA ROOKH.—Tulip cheek.

Footnote 3:

p. 2.—_Leila._—The mistress of Mejnoun, upon whose story so many
Romances in all the languages of the East are founded.

Footnote 4:

p. 2.—_Shirine._—For the loves of this celebrated beauty with Khosrou
and with Ferhad, see _D’Herbelot_, _Gibbon_, _Oriental Collections_,
&c.

Footnote 5:

p. 2.—_Dewildé._—“The history of the loves of Dewildé and Chizer, the
son of the Emperor Alla, is written in an elegant poem, by the noble
Chusero.”—_Ferishta._

Footnote 6:

p. 2.—_Scattering of the Roses._—Gul Reazee.

Footnote 7:

p. 3.—_Emperor’s favour._—“One mark of honour or knighthood bestowed
by the Emperor is the permission to wear a small kettledrum at the
bows of their saddles, which at first was invented for the training of
hawks, and to call them to the lure, and is worn in the field by all
sportsmen to that end.”—_Fryer_’s Travels.

“Those on whom the King has conferred the privilege must wear an
ornament of jewels on the right side of the turban, surmounted by a
high plume of the feathers of a kind of egret. This bird is found only
in Cashmere, and the feathers are carefully collected for the King,
who bestows them on his nobles.”—_Elphinstone_’s Account of Caubul.

Footnote 8:

p. 3.—_Keder Khan._—“Khedar Khan, the Khakan, or King of
Turquestan beyond the Gihon (at the end of the eleventh century),
whenever he appeared abroad, was preceded by seven hundred
horsemen with silver battle-axes, and was followed by an equal
number bearing maces of gold. He was a great patron of poetry, and
it was he who used to preside at public exercises of genius, with
four basins of gold and silver by him to distribute among the
poets who excelled.”—_Richardson_’s Dissertation prefixed to his
Dictionary.

Footnote 9:

p. 3.—_Gilt pine-apples._—“The kubdeh, a large golden knob, generally
in the shape of a pine-apple, on the top of the canopy over the litter
or palanquin.”—_Scott_’s Notes on the Bahardanush.

Footnote 10:

p. 4.—_Sumptuous litter._—In the Poem of Zohair, in the Moallakat,
there is the following lively description of “a company of maidens
seated on camels.”

“They are mounted in carriages covered with costly awnings, and with
rose-coloured veils, the linings of which have the hue of crimson
Andem-wood.

“When they ascend from the bosom of the vale, they sit forward on the
saddle-cloth, with every mark of a voluptuous gaiety.

“Now, when they have reached the brink of yon blue-gushing rivulet,
they fix the poles of their tents like the Arab with a settled
mansion.”

Footnote 11:

p. 4.—_Argus pheasant’s wing._—See _Bernier_’s description of the
attendants on Raucha-nara-Begum, in her progress to Cashmere.

Footnote 12:

p. 4.—_Munificent protector._—This hypocritical Emperor would have
made a worthy associate of certain Holy Leagues.—“He held the cloak of
religion (says Dow) between his actions and the vulgar; and impiously
thanked the Divinity for a success which he owed to his own
wickedness. When he was murdering and persecuting his brothers and
their families, he was building a magnificent mosque at Delhi, as an
offering to God for his assistance to him in the civil wars. He acted
as high priest at the consecration of this temple; and made a practice
of attending divine service there, in the humble dress of a Fakeer.
But when he lifted one hand to the Divinity, he, with the other,
signed warrants for the assassination of his relations.”—_History of
Hindostan_, vol. iii. p. 335. See also the curious letter of
Aurungzebe, given in the _Oriental Collections_, vol. i. p. 320.

Footnote 13:

p. 4.—_The idol of Jaghernaut._—“The idol at Jaghernat has two fine
diamonds for eyes. No goldsmith is suffered to enter the Pagoda, one
having stole one of these eyes, being locked up all night with the
Idol.”—_Tavernier._

Footnote 14:

p. 5.—_Royal Gardens of Delhi._—See a description of these Royal
Gardens in “An Account of the present State of Delhi, by Lieut. W.
Franklin.”—_Asiat. Research._ vol. iv. p. 417.

Footnote 15:

p. 5.—_Lake of Pearl._—“In the neighbourhood is Notte Gill, or the
Lake of Pearl, which receives this name from its pellucid water.”
_Pennant_’s Hindoostan.

“Nasir Jung encamped in the vicinity of the Lake of Tonoor, amused
himself with sailing on that clear and beautiful water, and gave it
the fanciful name of Motee Talah, ‘the Lake of Pearls,’ which it still
retains.”—_Wilks_’s South of India.

Footnote 16:

p. 5.—_Isles of the West._—Sir Thomas Roe, Ambassador from James I. to
Jehan-Guire.

Footnote 17:

p. 6.—_Ezra._—“The romance Wemakweazra, written in Persian verse,
which contains the loves of Wamak and Ezra, two celebrated lovers who
lived before the time of Mahomet.”—_Note on the Oriental Tales._

Footnote 18:

p. 6.—_Rodahver._—Their amour is recounted in the Shah-Namêh of
Ferdousi; and there is much beauty in the passage which describes the
slaves of Rodahver sitting on the bank of the river and throwing
flowers into the stream, in order to draw the attention of the young
Hero who is encamped on the opposite side.—See _Champion_’s
translation.

Footnote 19:

p. 6.—_White Demon._—Rustam is the Hercules of the Persians. For the
particulars of his victory over the Sepeed Deeve, or White Demon, see
_Oriental Collections_, vol. ii. p. 45.—“Near the city of Shirauz is
an immense quadrangular monument, in commemoration of this combat,
called the Kelaat-i-Deev Sepeed, or castle of the White Giant, which
Father Angelo, in his Gazophilacium Persicum, p. 127, declares to have
been the most memorable monument of antiquity which he had seen in
Persia.”—See _Ouseley_’s Persian Miscellanies.

Footnote 20:

p. 6.—_Golden anklets._—“The women of the Idol, or dancing girls of
the Pagoda, have little golden bells, fastened to their feet, the soft
harmonious tinkling of which vibrates in unison with the exquisite
melody of their voices.”—_Maurice_’s Indian Antiquities.

“The Arabian courtesans, like the Indian women, have little golden
bells fastened round their legs, neck and elbows, to the sound of
which they dance before the King. The Arabian princesses wear golden
rings on their fingers, to which little bells are suspended, as well
as in the flowing tresses of their hair, that their superior rank may
be known, and they themselves receive in passing the homage due to
them.”—See _Calmet_’s Dictionary, art. Bells.

Footnote 21:

p. 6.—_Delicious opium._—“Abou-Tige, ville de la Thebaïde, où il croît
beaucoup de pavot noir, dont se fait le meilleur opium.”—_D’Herbelot._

Footnote 22:

p. 7.—_Crishna._—The Indian Apollo.—“He and the three Rámas are
described as youths of perfect beauty; and the princesses of Hindustán
were all passionately in love with Chrishna, who continues to this
hour the darling God of the Indian women.”—_Sir W. Jones_, on the Gods
of Greece, Italy, and India.

Footnote 23:

p. 7.—_Shawl-goats of Tibet._—See _Turner_’s Embassy for a description
of this animal, “the most beautiful among the whole tribe of goats.”
The material for the shawls (which is carried to Cashmere) is found
next the skin.

Footnote 24:

p. 8.—_Veiled Prophet of Khorassan._—For the real history of this
Impostor, whose original name was Hakem ben Haschem, and who was
called Mocanna from the veil of silver gauze (or, as others say,
golden) which he always wore, see _D’Herbelot_.

Footnote 25:

p. 9.—_Khorassan._—Khorassan signifies, in the old Persian language,
Province or Region of the Sun.—_Sir W. Jones._

Footnote 26:

p. 11.—_Flow’rets and fruits, blush over ev’ry stream._

“The fruits of Meru are finer than those of any other place; and one
cannot see in any other city such palaces with groves, and streams,
and gardens.”—_Ebn Haukal_’s Geography.

Footnote 27:

p. 12.—_Among_ MEROU’S _bright palaces and groves._

One of the royal cities of Khorassan.

Footnote 28:

p. 12.—MOUSSA’S.—Moses.

Footnote 29:

p. 12.—_O’er_ MOUSSA’S _cheek, when down the Mount he trod._

“Ses disciples assuroient qu’il se couvroit le visage, pour ne pas
éblouir ceux qui l’approchoient par l’éclat de son visage comme
Moyse.”—_D’Herbelot._

Footnote 30:

p. 12.—_In hatred to the Caliph’s hue of night._

Black was the colour adopted by the Caliphs of the House of Abbas, in
their garments, turbans, and standards.—“Il faut remarquer ici
touchant les habits blancs des disciples de Hakem, que la couleur des
habits, des coëffures et des étendards des Khalifes Abassides étant la
noire, ce chef de Rebelles ne pouvoit pas choisir une qui lui fut plus
opposée.”—_D’Herbelot._

Footnote 31:

p. 12.—_With javelins of the light Kathaian reed._

“Our dark javelins, exquisitely wrought of Khathaian reeds, slender
and delicate.”—_Poem of Amru._

Footnote 32:

p. 13.—_Fill’d with the stems._

Pichula, used anciently for arrows by the Persians.

Footnote 33:

p. 13.—_That bloom on_ IRAN’S _rivers._

The Persians call this plant Gaz. The celebrated shaft of Isfendiar,
one of their ancient heroes, was made of it.—“Nothing can be more
beautiful than the appearance of this plant in flower during the rains
on the banks of rivers, where it is usually interwoven with a lovely
twining asclepias.”—_Sir W. Jones_, Botanical Observations on Select
Indian Plants.

Footnote 34:

p. 13.—_Like a chenar-tree grove, when winter throws._

The oriental plane. “The chenar is a delightful tree; its bole is of a
fine white and smooth bark; and its foliage, which grows in a tuft at
the summit, is of a bright green.”—_Morier_’s Travels.

Footnote 35:

p. 14.—_From those who kneel at_ BRAHMA’S _burning founts._

The burning fountains of Brahma near Chittogong, esteemed as
holy.—_Turner._

Footnote 36:

p. 14.—_To the small, half-shut glances of_ KATHAY.—China.

Footnote 37:

p. 15.—_Like tulip-beds, of different shape and dyes._

“The name of tulip is said to be of Turkish extraction, and given to
the flower on account of its resembling a turban.”—_Beckmann_’s
History of Inventions.

Footnote 38:

p. 15.—_And fur-bound bonnet of Bucharian shape._

“The inhabitants of Bucharia wear a round cloth bonnet, shaped much
after the Polish fashion, having a large fur border. They tie their
kaftans about the middle with a girdle of a kind of silk crape,
several times round the body.”—_Account of Independent Tartary, in
Pinkerton’s Collection._

Footnote 39:

p. 15.—_O’erwhelm’d in fight and captive to the Greek._

In the war of the Caliph Mahadi against the Empress Irene, for an
account of which vide _Gibbon_, vol. x.

Footnote 40:

p. 18.—_The flying throne of star-taught_ SOLIMAN.

This wonderful Throne was called The Star of the Genii. For a full
description of it, see the Fragment, translated by Captain Franklin,
from a Persian MS. entitled “The History of Jerusalem,” _Oriental
Collections_, vol. i. p. 235.—When Soliman travelled, the eastern
writers say, “He had a carpet of green silk on which his throne was
placed, being of a prodigious length and breadth, and sufficient for
all his forces to stand upon, the men placing themselves on his right
hand, and the spirits on his left; and that when all were in order,
the wind, at his command, took up the carpet, and transported it, with
all that were upon it, wherever he pleased; the army of birds at the
same time flying over their heads, and forming a kind of canopy to
shade them from the sun.”—_Sale_’s Koran, vol ii. p. 214, note.

Footnote 41:

p. 18.—_For many an age, in every chance and change._

The transmigration of souls was one of his doctrines.—Vide
_D’Herbelot_.

Footnote 42:

p. 18.—_To which all Heaven, except the Proud One, knelt._

“And when we said unto the angels, Worship Adam, they all worshipped
except Eblis (Lucifer), who refused.”—_The Koran_, chap. ii.

Footnote 43:

p. 18.—_In_ MOUSSA’S _frame—and, thence descending, flow’d._—Moses.

Footnote 44:

p. 18.—_Through many a Prophet’s breast._

This is according to D’Herbelot’s account of the doctrines of
Mokanna:—“Sa doctrine étoit, que Dieu avoit pris une forme et figure
humaine, depuis qu’il eut commandé aux Anges d’adorer Adam, le premier
des hommes. Qu’après la mort d’Adam, Dieu étoit apparu sous la figure
de plusieurs Prophètes, et autres grands hommes qu’il avoit choisis,
jusqu’à ce qu’il prit celle d’Abu Moslem, Prince de Khorassan, lequel
professoit l’erreur de la Tenassukhiah ou Metempschychose; et qu’après
la mort de ce Prince, la Divinité étoit passée, et descendue en sa
personne.”

Footnote 45:

p. 18.—_In_ ISSA _shone._—Jesus.

Footnote 46:

p. 22.—_Born by that ancient flood, which from its spring._

The Amoo, which rises in the Belur Tag, or Dark Mountains, and running
nearly from east to west, splits into two branches; one of which falls
into the Caspian sea, and the other into Aral Nahr, or the Lake of
Eagles.

Footnote 47:

p. 24.—_The bulbul utters, ere her soul depart._—The nightingale.

Footnote 48:

p. 34.—_In holy_ KOOM, _or_ MECCA’S _dim arcades._

The cities of Com (or Koom) and Cashan are full of mosques,
mausoleums, and sepulchres of the descendants of Ali, the Saints of
Persia.—_Chardin._

Footnote 49:

p. 34.—_Stood vases, fill’d with_ KISHMEE’S _golden wine._

An island in the Persian Gulf, celebrated for its white wine.

Footnote 50:

p. 34.—_Like_ ZEMZEM’S _Spring of Holiness, had power._

The miraculous well at Mecca; so called, says Sale, from the murmuring
of its waters.

Footnote 51:

p. 35.—_Whom_ INDIA _serves, the monkey deity._

The God Hannaman.—“Apes are in many parts of India highly venerated,
out of respect to the God Hannaman, a deity partaking of the form of
that race.”—_Pennant_’s Hindoostan.

See a curious account, in _Stephen_’s _Persia_, of a solemn embassy
from some part of the Indies to Goa, when the Portuguese were there,
offering vast treasures for the recovery of a monkey’s tooth, which
they held in great veneration, and which had been taken away upon the
conquest of the kingdom of Jafanapatan.

Footnote 52:

p. 35.—_To bend in worship_, LUCIFER _was right._

This resolution of Eblis not to acknowledge the new creature, man,
was, according to Mahometan tradition, thus adopted:—“The earth (which
God had selected for the materials of his work) was carried into
Arabia to a place between Mecca and Tayef, where, being first kneaded
by the angels, it was afterwards fashioned by God himself into a human
form, and left to dry for the space of forty days, or, as others say,
as many years; the angels, in the mean time, often visiting it, and
Eblis (then one of the angels nearest to God’s presence, afterwards
the devil) among the rest; but he, not contented with looking at it,
kicked it with his foot till it rung; and knowing God designed that
creature to be his superior, took a secret resolution never to
acknowledge him as such.”—_Sale_ on the Koran.

Footnote 53:

p. 36.—_From dead men’s marrow guides them best at night._

A kind of lantern formerly used by robbers, called the Hand of Glory,
the candle for which was made of the fat of a dead malefactor. This,
however, was rather a western than an eastern superstition.

Footnote 54:

p. 37.—_In that best marble of which Gods are made._

The material of which images of Gaudma (the Birman Deity) are made, is
held sacred. “Birmans may not purchase the marble in mass, but are
suffered, and indeed encouraged, to buy figures of the Deity ready
made.”—_Symes_’s Ava, vol. ii. p. 376.

Footnote 55:

p. 41.—_Of Kerzrah flowers, came fill’d with pestilence._

“It is commonly said in Persia, that if a man breathe in the hot south
wind, which in June or July passes over that flower (the Kerzereh), it
will kill him.”—_Thevenot._

Footnote 56:

p. 44.—_Within the crocodile’s stretch’d jaws to come._

The humming-bird is said to run this risk for the purpose of picking
the crocodile’s teeth. The same circumstance is related of the
lapwing, as a fact to which he was witness, by _Paul Lucas_, Voyage
fait en 1714.

The ancient story concerning the Trochilus, or humming-bird, entering
with impunity into the mouth of the crocodile, is firmly believed at
Java.—_Barrow_’s _Cochin-China._

Footnote 57:

p. 46.—_That rank and venomous food on which she lives._

“Circum easdem ripas (Nili, viz.) ales est Ibis. Ea serpentium
populatur ova, gratissimamque ex his escam nidis suis
refert.”—_Solinus._

Footnote 58:

p. 48.—_Yamtcheou._—“The feast of Lanterns is celebrated at Yamtcheou
with more magnificence than anywhere else: and the report goes, that
the illuminations there are so splendid, that an Emperor once, not
daring openly to leave his Court to go thither, committed himself with
the Queen and several Princesses of his family into the hands of a
magician, who promised to transport them thither in a trice. He made
them in the night to ascend magnificent thrones that were borne up by
swans, which in a moment arrived at Yamtcheou. The Emperor saw at his
leisure all the solemnity, being carried upon a cloud that hovered
over the city and descended by degrees; and came back again with the
same speed and equipage, nobody at court perceiving his absence.”—_The
present State of China_, p. 156.

Footnote 59:

p. 48.—_Sceneries of bamboo-work._—See a description of the nuptials
of Vizier Alee in the _Asiatic Annual Register of 1804_.

Footnote 60:

p. 49.—_Chinese illuminations._—“The vulgar ascribe it to an accident
that happened in the family of a famous mandarin, whose daughter
walking one evening upon the shore of a lake, fell in and was drowned;
this afflicted father, with his family, ran thither, and, the better
to find her, he caused a great company of lanterns to be lighted. All
the inhabitants of the place thronged after him with torches. The year
ensuing they made fires upon the shores the same day; they continued
the ceremony every year, every one lighted his lantern, and by degrees
it commenced into a custom.”—_Present State of China._

Footnote 61:

p. 51.—_Like_ SEBA’S _Queen could vanquish with that one._

“Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes.”—_Sol. Song._

Footnote 62:

p. 51.—_The fingers’ ends with a bright roseate hue._

“They tinged the ends of her fingers scarlet with Henna, so that they
resembled branches of coral.”—_Story of Prince Futtun in Bahardanush._

Footnote 63:

p. 51.—_To give that long, dark languish to the eye._

“The women blacken the inside of their eyelids with a powder named the
black Kohol.”—_Russel._

“None of these ladies,” says _Shaw_, “take themselves to be completely
dressed, till they have tinged the hair and edges of their eyelids
with the powder of lead ore. Now, as this operation is performed by
dipping first into the powder a small wooden bodkin of the thickness
of a quill, and then drawing it afterwards through the eyelids over
the ball of the eye, we shall have a lively image of what the Prophet
(Jer. iv. 30) may be supposed to mean by _rending the eyes with
painting_. This practice is no doubt of great antiquity; for besides
the instance already taken notice of, we find that where Jezebel is
said (2 Kings, ix. 30) _to have painted her face_, the original words
are, _she adjusted her eyes with the powder of lead ore_.”—_Shaw_’s
Travels.

Footnote 64:

p. 52.—_In her full lap the Champac’s leaves of gold._

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.—See _Asiatic Researches_, vol. iv.

Footnote 65:

p. 52.—_The sweet Elcaya, and that courteous tree._

A tree famous for its perfume, and common on the hills of
Yemen.—_Niebuhr._

Footnote 66:

p. 52.—_Which bows to all who seek its canopy._

Of the genus mimosa, “which droops its branches whenever any person
approaches it, seeming as if it saluted those who retire under its
shade.”—_Ibid._

Footnote 67:

p. 53.—_The bowers of_ TIBET, _send forth odorous light._

“Cloves are a principal ingredient in the composition of the perfumed
rods, which men of rank keep constantly burning in their
presence.”—_Turner_’s Tibet.

Footnote 68:

p. 54.—_With odoriferous woods of_ COMORIN.

“C’est d’où vient le bois d’aloès que les Arabes appellent Oud Comari,
et celui du sandal, qui s’y trouve en grande quantité.”—_D’Herbelot._

Footnote 69:

p. 54.—_The crimson blossoms of the coral tree._

“Thousands of variegated loories visit the coral-trees.”—_Barrow._

Footnote 70:

p. 54.—_Mecca’s blue sacred pigeon._

“In Mecca there are quantities of blue pigeons, which none will
affright or abuse, much less kill.”—_Pitt_’s Account of the
Mahometans.

Footnote 71:

p. 54.—_The thrush of Hindostan._

“The Pagoda Thrush is esteemed among the first choristers of India. It
sits perched on the sacred pagodas, and from thence delivers its
melodious song.”—_Pennant_’s Hindostan.

Footnote 72:

p. 55.—_About the gardens, drunk with that sweet food._

_Tavernier_ adds, that while the birds of Paradise lie in this
intoxicated state, the emmets come and eat off their legs; and that
hence it is they are said to have no feet.

Footnote 73:

p. 55.—_Whose scent hath lur’d them o’er the summer flood._

Birds of Paradise, which, at the nutmeg season, come in flights from
the southern isles to India; and “the strength of the nutmeg,” says
_Tavernier_, “so intoxicates them, that they fall dead drunk to the
earth.”

Footnote 74:

p. 55.—_Build their high nests of budding cinnamon._

“That bird which liveth in Arabia, and buildeth its nest with
cinnamon.”—_Brown_’s Vulgar Errors.

Footnote 75:

p. 55.—_Sleeping in light, like the green birds that dwell._

“The spirits of the martyrs will be lodged in the crops of green
birds.” _Gibbon_, vol. ix. p. 421.

Footnote 76:

p. 55.—_More like the luxuries of that impious King._

Shedad, who made the delicious gardens of Irim, in imitation of
Paradise, and was destroyed by lightning the first time he attempted
to enter them.

Footnote 77:

p. 57.—_In its blue blossoms hum themselves to sleep._

“My Pandits assure me that the plant before us (the Nilica) is their
Sephalica, thus named because the bees are supposed to sleep on its
blossoms.”—_Sir W. Jones._

Footnote 78:

p. 59.—_As they were captives to the King of Flowers._

“They deferred it till the King of Flowers should ascend his throne of
enamelled foliage.”—_The Bahardanush._

Footnote 79:

p. 60.—_But a light golden chain-work round her hair._

“One of the head-dresses of the Persian women is composed of a light
golden chain-work, set with small pearls, with a thin gold plate
pendant, about the bigness of a crown-piece, on which is impressed an
Arabian prayer, and which hangs upon the cheek below the
ear.”—_Hanway_’s Travels.

Footnote 80:

p. 60.—_Such as the maids of_ YEZD _and_ SHIRAS _wear._

“Certainly the women of Yezd are the handsomest women in Persia. The
proverb is, that to live happy a man must have a wife of Yezd, eat the
bread of Yezdecas, and drink the wine of Shiraz.”—_Tavernier._

Footnote 81:

p. 61.—_Upon a musnud’s edge._

Musnuds are cushioned seats, usually reserved for persons of
distinction.

Footnote 82:

p. 61.—_In the pathetic mode of_ ISFAHAN.

The Persians, like the ancient Greeks, call their musical modes or
Perdas by the names of different countries or cities, as the mode of
Isfahan, the mode of Irak, &c.

Footnote 83:

p. 61.—_There’s a bower of roses by_ BENDEMEER’S _stream._

A river which flows near the ruins of Chilminar.

Footnote 84:

p. 64.—_The hills of crystal on the Caspian shore._

“To the north of us (on the coast of the Caspian, near Badku) was a
mountain, which sparkled like diamonds, arising from the sea-glass and
crystals with which it abounds.”—_Journey of the Russian Ambassador to
Persia_, 1746.

Footnote 85:

p. 64.—_Of_ EDEN, _shake in the eternal breeze._

“To which will be added the sound of the bells, hanging on the trees,
which will be put in motion by the wind proceeding from the throne of
God, as often as the blessed wish for music.”—_Sale._

Footnote 86:

p. 65.—_And his floating eyes—oh! they resemble._

“Whose wanton eyes resemble blue water-lilies, agitated by the
breeze.”—_Jayadeva._

Footnote 87:

p. 65.—_Blue water-lilies._

The blue lotus, which grows in Cashmere and in Persia.

Footnote 88:

p. 67.—_To muse upon the pictures that hung round._

It has been generally supposed that the Mahometans prohibit all
pictures of animals; but _Toderini_ shows that, though the practice is
forbidden by the Koran, they are not more averse to painted figures
and images than other people. From Mr. Murphy’s work, too, we find
that the Arabs of Spain had no objection to the introduction of
figures into painting.

Footnote 89:

p. 67.—_Whose orb when half retir’d looks loveliest._

This is not quite astronomically true. “Dr. Hadley (says Keil) has
shown that Venus is brightest when she is about forty degrees removed
from the sun; and that then but _only a fourth part_ of her lucid disk
is to be seen from the earth.”

Footnote 90:

p. 67.—_He read that to be blest is to be wise._

For the loves of King Solomon (who was supposed to preside over the
whole race of Genii) with Balkis, the Queen of Sheba or Saba, see
_D’Herbelot_, and the _Notes on the Koran_, chap. 2.

“In the palace which Solomon ordered to be built against the arrival
of the Queen of Saba, the floor or pavement was of transparent glass,
laid over running water, in which fish were swimming.” This led the
Queen into a very natural mistake, which the Koran has not thought
beneath its dignity to commemorate. “It was said unto her, ‘Enter the
palace.’ And when she saw it she imagined it to be a great water; and
she discovered her legs, by lifting up her robe to pass through it.
Whereupon Solomon said to her, ‘Verily, this is the place evenly
floored with glass.’”—Chap. 27.

Footnote 91:

p. 67.—_Here fond_ ZULEIKA _woos with open arms._

The wife of Potiphar, thus named by the Orientals.

“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._

Footnote 92:

p. 67.—_With a new text to consecrate their love._

The particulars of Mahomet’s amour with Mary, the Coptic girl, in
justification of which he added a new chapter to the Koran, may be
found in _Gagnier’s Notes upon Abulfeda_, p. 151.

Footnote 93:

p. 70.—_But in that deep-blue, melancholy dress._

“Deep blue is their mourning colour.”—_Hanway._

Footnote 94:

p. 71.—_Sat in her sorrow like the sweet night-flower._

The sorrowful nyctanthes, which begins to spread its rich odour after
sunset.

Footnote 95:

p. 73.—_As the viper weaves its wily covering._

“Concerning the vipers, which Pliny says were frequent among the
balsam-trees, I made very particular inquiry: several were brought me
alive both to Yambo and Jidda.”—_Bruce._

Footnote 96:

p. 81.—_The sunny apples of Istkahar._—“In the territory of Istkahar
there is a kind of apple, half of which is sweet and half sour.”—_Ebn
Haukal._

Footnote 97:

p. 82.—_They saw a young Hindoo girl upon the bank._—For an account of
this ceremony, see _Grandpré_’s Voyage in the Indian Ocean.

Footnote 98:

p. 82.—_The Oton-tala, 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._

Footnote 99:

p. 84.—_Hath 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 by 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 encampment:—“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._

Footnote 100:

p. 84.—_Built the high pillar’d halls of_ CHILMINAR.

The edifices of Chilminar and Balbec are supposed to have been built
by the Genii, acting under the orders of Jan ben Jan, who governed the
world long before the time of Adam.

Footnote 101:

p. 85.—_And camels, tufted o’er with Yemen’s shells._

“A superb camel, ornamented with strings and tufts of small
shells.”—_Ali Bey._

Footnote 102:

p. 85.—_But the far torrent, or the locust bird._

A native of Khorassan, and allured southward by means of the water of
a fountain between Shiraz and Ispahan, called the Fountain of Birds,
of which it is so fond that it will follow wherever that water is
carried.

Footnote 103:

p. 85.—_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 forehorses’ 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 sometimes 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._

Footnote 104:

p. 85.—_Of the’ Abyssinian trumpet, swell and float._

“This trumpet is often called, in Abyssinia, _nesser cano_, which
signifies the Note of the Eagle.”—_Note of Bruce’s Editor._

Footnote 105:

p. 85.—_The Night and Shadow, over yonder tent._

The two black standards borne before the Caliphs of the House of Abbas
were called, allegorically, The Night and The Shadow.—See _Gibbon_.

Footnote 106:

p. 86.—_Defiance fierce at Islam._—The Mahometan religion.

Footnote 107:

p. 86.—_But, having sworn upon the Holy Grave._

“The Persians swear by the tomb of Shah Besade, who is buried at
Casbin; and when one desires another to asseverate a matter, he will
ask him, if he dare swear by the Holy Grave.”—_Struy._

Footnote 108:

p. 86.—_Were spoil’d to feed the Pilgrim’s luxury._

Mahadi, in a single pilgrimage to Mecca, expended six millions of
dinars of gold.

Footnote 109:

p. 86.—_Of_ MECCA’S _sun, with urns of Persian snow._

“Nivem Meccam apportavit, rem ibi aut nunquam aut raro
visam.”—_Abulfeda._

Footnote 110:

p. 86.—_First, in the van, the People of the Rock._

The inhabitants of Hejaz or Arabia Petræa, called by an Eastern writer
“The People of the Rock.”—See _Ebn Haukal_.

Footnote 111:

p. 86.—_On their light mountain steeds, of royal stock._

“Those horses, called by the Arabians Kochlani, of whom a written
genealogy has been kept for 2,000 years. They are said to derive their
origin from King Solomon’s steeds.”—_Niebuhr._

Footnote 112:

p. 87.—_The flashing of their swords’ rich marquetry._

“Many of the figures on the blades of their swords are wrought in gold
or silver, or in marquetry with small gems.”—_Asiat. Misc._ v. i.

Footnote 113:

p. 87.—_With dusky legions from the land of Myrrh._

Azab or Saba.

Footnote 114:

p. 87.—_Waving their heron crests with martial grace._

“The chiefs of the Uzbek Tartars wear a plume of white heron’s
feathers in their turbans.”—_Account of Independent Tartary._

Footnote 115:

p. 87.—_Wild warriors of the turquoise hills._

“In the mountains of Nishapour and Tous (in Khorassan) they find
turquoises.”—_Ebn Haukal._

Footnote 116:

p. 87.—_Of_ HINDOO KOSH, _in stormy freedom bred._

For a description of these stupendous ranges of mountains, see
_Elphinstone’s Caubul_.

Footnote 117:

p. 88.—_Her Worshippers of Fire._

The Ghebers or Guebres, those original natives of Persia, who adhered
to their ancient faith, the religion of Zoroaster, and who, after the
conquest of their country by the Arabs, were either persecuted at
home, or forced to become wanderers abroad.

Footnote 118:

p. 88.—_From_ YEZD’S _eternal Mansion of the Fire._

“Yezd, the chief residence of those ancient natives, who worship the
Sun and the Fire, which latter they have carefully kept lighted,
without being once extinguished for a moment, about 3,000 years, on a
mountain near Yezd, called Ater Quedah, signifying the House or
Mansion of the Fire. He is reckoned very unfortunate who dies off that
mountain.”—_Stephen_’s Persia.

Footnote 119:

p. 88.—_That burn into the_ CASPIAN, _fierce they came._

“When the weather is hazy, the springs of Naphtha (on an island near
Baku) boil up the higher, and the Naphtha often takes fire on the
surface of the earth, and runs in a flame into the sea to a distance
almost incredible.”—_Hanway on the Everlasting Fire at Baku._

Footnote 120:

p. 88.—_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.”

Footnote 121:

p. 89.—_The Champions of the Faith through_ BEDER’S _vale._

In the great victory gained by Mahomed at Beder, he was assisted, say
the Mussulmans, by three thousand angels, led by Gabriel, mounted on
his horse Hiazum.—See _The Koran and its Commentators_.

Footnote 122:

p. 92.—“_Alla Akbar!_”

The Tecbir, or cry of the Arabs. “Alla Acbar!” says Ockley, means “God
is most mighty.”

Footnote 123:

p. 92.—_And light your shrines and chaunt your ziraleets._

The ziraleet is a kind of chorus, which the women of the East sing
upon joyful occasions.—_Russel._

Footnote 124:

p. 92.—_Or warm or brighten,—like that Syrian Lake._

The Dead Sea, which contains neither animal nor vegetable life.

Footnote 125:

p. 95.—_O’er his lost throne—then pass’d the_ JIHON’S _flood._

The ancient Oxus.

Footnote 126:

p. 95.—_Rais’d the white banner within_ NEKSHEB’S _gates._

A city of Transoxiana.

Footnote 127:

p. 95.—_To-day’s young flower is springing in its stead._

“You never can cast your eyes on this tree, but you meet there either
blossoms or fruit; and as the blossom drops underneath on the ground
(which is frequently covered with these purple-coloured flowers),
others come forth in their stead,” &c. &c.—_Nieuhoff._

Footnote 128:

p. 96.—_With which the Dives have gifted him._

The Demons of the Persian mythology.

Footnote 129:

p. 96.—_That spangle_ INDIA’S _fields on showery nights._

Carreri mentions the fire-flies in India during the rainy season.—See
his Travels.

Footnote 130:

p. 96.—_Who brush’d the thousands of the’ Assyrian King._

Sennacherib, called by the Orientals King of Moussal.—_D’Herbelot._

Footnote 131:

p. 97.—_Of_ PARVIZ.

Chosroes. For the description of his Throne or Palace, see _Gibbon_
and _D’Herbelot._

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 Prophet, 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._

Footnote 132:

p. 97.—_And the heron crest that shone._

“The crown of Gerashid is cloudy and tarnished before the heron tuft
of thy turban.”—From one of the elegies or songs in praise of Ali,
written in characters of gold round the gallery of Abbas’s tomb.—See
_Chardin_.

Footnote 133:

p. 97.—_Magnificent, o’er_ ALI’S _beauteous eyes._

The beauty of Ali’s eyes was so remarkable, that whenever the Persians
would describe any thing as very lovely, they say it is Ayn Hali, or
the Eyes of Ali.—_Chardin._

Footnote 134:

p. 98.—_Rise from the Holy Well, and cast its light._

We are not told more of this trick of the Impostor, than that it was
“une machine, qu’il disoit être la Lune.” According to Richardson, the
miracle is perpetuated in Nekscheb.—“Nakshab, the name of a city in
Transoxiana, where they say there is a well, in which the appearance
of the moon is to be seen night and day.”

Footnote 135:

p. 98.—_Round the rich city and the plain for miles._

“Il amusa pendant deux mois le peuple de la ville de Nekhscheb, en
faisant sortir toutes les nuits du fond d’un puits un corps lumineux
semblable à la Lune, qui portoit sa lumière jusqu’à la distance de
plusieurs milles.”—_D’Herbelot._ Hence he was called Sazendéhmah, or
the Moon-maker.

Footnote 136:

p. 99.—_Had rested on the Ark._

The Shechinah, called Sakînat in the Koran.—See _Sale’s Note_, chap.
ii.

Footnote 137:

p. 99.—_Of the small drum with which they count the night._

The parts of the night are made known as well by instruments of music,
as by the rounds of the watchmen with cries and small drums.—See
_Burder’s Oriental Customs_, vol. i. p. 119.

Footnote 138:

p. 99.—_On for the lamps, that light yon lofty screen._

The Serrapurda, high screens of red cloth, stiffened with cane, used
to enclose a considerable space round the royal tents.—_Notes on the
Bahardanush._

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.—See _Harmer’s Observations
on Job_.

Footnote 139:

p. 100.—_Pour to the spot, like bees of_ KAUZEROON.

“From the groves of orange trees at Kauzeroon the bees cull a
celebrated honey.”—_Morier_’s Travels.

Footnote 140:

p. 102.—_Of nuptial pomp, she sinks into his tide._

“A custom still subsisting at this day, seems to me to prove that the
Egyptians formerly sacrificed a young virgin to the God of the Nile;
for they now make a statue of earth in shape of a girl, to which they
give the name of the Betrothed Bride, and throw it into the
river.”—_Savary._

Footnote 141:

p. 103.—_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 naphtha 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.—See _Wilks_’s South of India, vol. i. p. 471.—And in the curious
Javan Poem, the _Brata Yudha_, given by _Sir Stamford 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.”—See the Extracts from _Casiri_’s Biblioth. Arab.
Hispan. in the Appendix to _Berington_’s Literary History of the
Middle Ages.

Footnote 142:

p. 103.—_And horrible as new;—javelins that fly._

The Greek fire, which was occasionally lent by the emperors to their
allies. “It was,” says Gibbon, “either launched in red hot balls of
stone and iron, or darted in arrows or javelins, twisted round with
flax and tow, which had deeply imbibed the inflammable oil.”

Footnote 143:

p. 103.—_Discharge, as from a kindled Naphtha fount._

See _Hanway_’s Account of the Springs of Naphtha at Baku (which is
called by _Lieutenant Pottinger_ Joala Mokee, 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 issues boiling water. “Though the
weather,” he adds, “was now very cold, the warmth of these wells of
hot water produced near them the verdure and flowers of spring.”

_Major Scott Waring_ says, that naphtha is used by the Persians, as we
are told it was in hell, for lamps.

... many a row
Of starry lamps and blazing cressets, fed
With naphtha and asphaltus, yielding light
As from a sky.

Footnote 144:

p. 104.—_Like those wild birds that by the Magians oft._

“At the great festival of fire, called the Sheb Sezê, they used to set
fire to large bunches of dry combustibles, fastened round wild beasts
and birds, which being then let loose, the air and earth appeared one
great illumination; and as these terrified creatures naturally fled to
the woods for shelter, it is easy to conceive the conflagrations they
produced.”—_Richardson_’s Dissertation.

Footnote 145:

p. 106.—_Keep, seal’d with precious musk, for those they love._

“The righteous shall be given to drink of pure wine, sealed; the seal
whereof shall be musk.”—_Koran_, chap. lxxxiii.

Footnote 146:

p. 110.—_On its own brood;—no Demon of the Waste._

“The Afghauns believe each of the numerous solitudes and deserts of
their country to be inhabited by a lonely demon, whom they call the
Ghoolee Beeabau, or Spirit of the Waste. They often illustrate the
wildness of any sequestered tribe, by saying, they are wild as the
Demon of the Waste.”—_Elphinstone_’s Caubul.

Footnote 147:

p. 111.—_With burning drugs, for this last hour distill’d._

“Il donna du poison dans le vin à tous ses gens, et se jetta lui-même
ensuite dans une cuve pleine de drogues brûlantes et consumantes, afin
qu’il ne restât rien de tous les membres de son corps, et que ceux qui
restoient de sa secte puissent croire qu’il étoit monté au ciel, ce
qui ne manqua pas d’arriver.”—_D’Herbelot._

Footnote 148:

p. 113.—_In the lone Cities of the Silent dwell._

“They have all a great reverence for burial-grounds, which they
sometimes call by the poetical name of Cities of the Silent, and which
they people with the ghosts of the departed, who sit each at the head
of his own grave, invisible to mortal eyes.”—_Elphinstone._

Footnote 149:

p. 120.—_And to eat any mangoes but those of Mazagong was, of course,
impossible._—“The celebrity of Mazagong is owing to its mangoes, which
are certainly the best fruit I ever tasted. The parent-tree, from
which all those of this species have been grafted, is honoured during
the fruit-season by a guard of sepoys; and, in the reign of Shah
Jehan, couriers were stationed between Delhi and the Mahratta coast to
secure an abundant and fresh supply of mangoes for the royal
table.”—_Mrs. Graham_’s Journal of a Residence in India.

Footnote 150:

p. 120.—_Laden with his fine antique porcelain._—This old porcelain is
found in digging, and “if it is esteemed, it is not because it has
acquired any new degree of beauty in the earth, but because it has
retained its ancient beauty; and this alone is of great importance in
China, where they give large sums for the smallest vessels which were
used under the Emperors Yan and Chun, who reigned many ages before the
dynasty of Tang, at which time porcelain began to be used by the
Emperors” (about the year 442).—_Dunn_’s Collection of curious
Observations, &c.;—a bad translation of some parts of the Lettres
Edifiantes et Curieuses of the Missionary Jesuits.

Footnote 151:

p. 122.—_And if Nasser, the Arabian merchant, told no better._—“La
lecture de ces Fables plaisoit si fort aux Arabes, que, quand Mahomet
les entretenoit de l’Histoire de l’Ancien Testament, ils les
méprisoient, lui disant que celles que Nasser leur racontoit étoient
beaucoup plus belles. Cette préférence attira à Nasser la malédiction
de Mahomet et de tous ses disciples.”—_D’Herbelot._

Footnote 152:

p. 122.—_Like the blacksmith’s apron converted into a banner._—The
blacksmith Gao, who successfully resisted the tyrant Zohak, and whose
apron became the Royal Standard of Persia.

Footnote 153:

p. 125.—_That sublime bird, which flies always in the air, and never
touches the earth._—“The Huma, a bird peculiar to the East. It is
supposed to fly constantly in the air, and never touch the ground: it
is looked upon as a bird of happy omen; and that every head it
overshades will in time wear a crown.”—_Richardson._

In the terms of alliance made by Fuzzel Oola Khan with Hyder in 1760,
one of the stipulations was, “that he should have the distinction of
two honorary attendants standing behind him, holding fans composed of
the feathers of the Humma, according to the practice of his
family.”—_Wilk_’s South of India. He adds in a note:—“The Humma is a
fabulous bird. The head over which its shadow once passes will
assuredly be circled with a crown. The splendid little bird suspended
over the throne of Tippoo Sultaun, found at Seringapatam in 1799, was
intended to represent this poetical fancy.”

Footnote 154:

p. 125.—_Like those on the Written Mountain, last for ever._—“To the
pilgrims to Mount Sinai we must attribute the inscriptions, figures,
&c. on those rocks, which have from thence acquired the name of the
Written Mountain.”—_Volney._ M. Gebelin and others have been at much
pains to attach some mysterious and important meaning to these
inscriptions; but Niebuhr, as well as Volney, thinks that they must
have been executed at idle hours by the travellers to Mount Sinai,
“who were satisfied with cutting the unpolished rock with any pointed
instrument; adding to their names and the date of their journeys some
rude figures which bespeak the hand of a people but little skilled in
the arts.”—_Niebuhr._

Footnote 155:

p. 125.—_Like the old Man of the Sea, upon his back._—The Story of
Sinbad.

Footnote 156:

p. 126.—_To which Hafez compares his mistress’s hair._—See _Nott_’s
Hafez, Ode v.

Footnote 157:

p. 126.—_To the Cámalatá, by whose rosy blossoms the heaven of Indra
is scented._—“The Cámalatá (called by Linnæus, Ipomæa) is the most
beautiful of its order, both in the colour and form of its leaves and
flowers; its elegant blossoms are ‘celestial rosy red, Love’s proper
hue,’ and have justly procured it the name of Cámalatá, or Love’s
Creeper.”—_Sir W. Jones._