Part 17

_Diodorus_ mentions the Isle of Panchaia, to the south of Arabia Felix, where there was a temple of Jupiter. This island, or rather cluster of isles, has disappeared, “sunk (says _Grandpré_) in the abyss made by the fire beneath their foundations.”—_Voyage to the Indian Ocean._

Footnote 165:

p. 132.—_The jewell’d cup of their King Jamshid._

“The cup of Jamshid, discovered, they say, when digging for the foundations of Persepolis.”—_Richardson._

Footnote 166:

p. 132.—_O’er coral rocks, and amber beds._

“It is not like the Sea of India, whose bottom is rich with pearls and ambergris, whose mountains of the coast are stored with gold and precious stones, whose gulfs breed creatures that yield ivory, and among the plants of whose shores are ebony, red wood, and the wood of Hairzan, aloes, camphor, cloves, sandal-wood, and all other spices and aromatics: where parrots and peacocks are birds of the forest, and musk and civet are collected upon the lands.”—_Travels of Two Mohammedans._

Footnote 167:

p. 133.—_Thy Pagods and thy pillar’d shades._

... “in the ground The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow About the mother-tree, _a pillar’d shade_, High over-arch’d, and echoing walks between.”—MILTON.

For a particular description and plate of the Banyan-tree, see _Cordiner_’s Ceylon.

Footnote 168:

p. 133.—_Thy Monarchs and their thousand Thrones._

“With this immense treasure Mamood returned to Ghizni, and in the year 400 prepared a magnificent festival, where he displayed to the people his wealth in golden thrones and in other ornaments, in a great plain without the city of Ghizni.”—_Ferishta._

Footnote 169:

p. 133.—_’Tis He of Gazna—fierce in wrath._

“Mahmood of Gazna, or Ghizni, who conquered India in the beginning of the 11th century.”—See his History in _Dow_ and _Sir J. Malcolm_.

Footnote 170:

p. 133.—_Of many a young and lov’d Sultana._

“It is reported that the hunting equipage of the Sultan Mahmood was so magnificent, that he kept 400 greyhounds and bloodhounds, each of which wore a collar set with jewels, and a covering edged with gold and pearls.”—_Universal History_, vol. iii.

Footnote 171:

p. 134.—_For Liberty shed, so holy is._

Objections may be made to my use of the word Liberty in this, and more especially in the story that follows it, as totally inapplicable to any state of things that has ever existed in the East; but though I cannot, of course, mean to employ it in that enlarged and noble sense which is so well understood at the present day, and, I grieve to say, so little acted upon, yet it is no disparagement to the word to apply it to that national independence, that freedom from the interference and dictation of foreigners, without which, indeed, no liberty of any kind can exist; and for which both Hindoos and Persians fought against their Mussulman invaders with, in many cases, a bravery that deserved much better success.

Footnote 172:

p. 136.—_Now among_ AFRIC’S _lunar Mountains._

“The Mountains of the Moon, or the Montes Lunæ of antiquity, at the foot of which the Nile is supposed to rise.”—_Bruce._

“Sometimes called,” says _Jackson_, “Jibbel Kumrie, or the white or lunar-coloured mountains; so a white horse is called by the Arabians a moon-coloured horse.”

Footnote 173:

p. 136.—_And hail the new-born Giant’s smile._

“The Nile, which the Abyssinians know by the names of Abey and Alawy, or the Giant.”—_Asiat. Research._ vol. i. p. 387.

Footnote 174:

p. 136.—_Her grots, and sepulchres of Kings._

See Perry’s View of the Levant for an account of the sepulchres in Upper Thebes, and the numberless grots, covered all over with hieroglyphics in the mountains of Upper Egypt.

Footnote 175:

p. 136.—_In warm_ ROSETTA’S _vale—now loves._

“The orchards of Rosetta are filled with turtle-doves.”—_Sonnini._

Footnote 176:

p. 136.—_The azure calm of_ MŒRIS’ _Lake._

Savary mentions the pelicans upon Lake Mœris.

Footnote 177:

p. 137.—_Warns them to their silken beds._

“The superb date-tree, whose head languidly reclines, like that of a handsome woman overcome with sleep.”—_Dafard el Hadad._

Footnote 178:

p. 137.—_Some purple-wing’d Sultana sitting._

“That beautiful bird, with plumage of the finest shining blue, with purple beak and legs, the natural and living ornament of the temples and palaces of the Greeks and Romans, which, from the stateliness of its port, as well as the brilliancy of its colours, has obtained the title of Sultana.”—_Sonnini._

Footnote 179:

p. 138.—_Only the fierce hyæna stalks._

Jackson, speaking of the plague that occurred in West Barbary, when he was there, says, “The birds of the air fled away from the abodes of men. The hyænas, on the contrary, visited the cemeteries,” &c.

Footnote 180:

p. 138.—_Throughout the city’s desolate walks._

“Gondar was full of hyænas from the time it turned dark till the dawn of day, seeking the different pieces of slaughtered carcasses, which this cruel and unclean people expose in the streets without burial, and who firmly believe that these animals are Falashta from the neighbouring mountains, transformed by magic, and come down to eat human flesh in the dark in safety.”—_Bruce._

Footnote 181:

p. 138.—_The glaring of those large blue eyes._—Bruce.

Footnote 182:

p. 140.—_But see—who yonder comes by stealth._

This circumstance has been often introduced into poetry;—by Vincentius Fabricius, by Darwin, and lately, with very powerful effect, by Mr. Wilson.

Footnote 183:

p. 142.—_Who sings at the last his own death-lay._

“In the East, they suppose the Phœnix to have fifty orifices in his bill, which are continued to his tail; and that, after living one thousand years, he builds himself a funeral pile, sings a melodious air of different harmonies through his fifty organ pipes, flaps his wings with a velocity which sets fire to the wood, and consumes himself.”—_Richardson._

Footnote 184:

p. 144.—_Their first sweet draught of glory take._

“On the shores of a quadrangular lake stand a thousand goblets, made of stars, out of which souls predestined to enjoy felicity drink the crystal wave.”—From _Châteaubriand_’s Description of the Mahometan Paradise, in his _Beauties of Christianity_.

Footnote 185:

p. 145.—_Now, upon_ SYRIA’S _land of roses._

Richardson thinks that Syria had its name from Suri, a beautiful and delicate species of rose, for which that country has been always famous;—hence, Suristan, the Land of Roses.

Footnote 186:

p. 145.—_Gay lizards, glittering on the walls._

“The number of lizards I saw one day in the great court of the Temple of the Sun at Balbec amounted to many thousands; the ground, the walls, and stones of the ruined buildings, were covered with them.”—_Bruce._

Footnote 187:

p. 146.—_Of shepherd’s ancient reed._

“The Syrinx, or Pan’s pipe, is still a pastoral instrument in Syria.”—_Russel._

Footnote 188:

p. 146.—_Of the wild bees of_ PALESTINE.

“Wild bees, frequent in Palestine, in hollow trunks or branches of trees, and the clefts of rocks. Thus it is said (Psalm lxxxi.), ‘_honey out of the stony rock_.’”—_Burder_’s Oriental Customs.

Footnote 189:

p. 146.—_And woods, so full of nightingales._

“The river Jordan is on both sides beset with little, thick, and pleasant woods, among which thousands of nightingales warble all together.”—_Thevenot._

Footnote 190:

p. 146.—_On that great Temple, once his own._

The Temple of the Sun at Balbec.

Footnote 191:

p. 147.—_The beautiful blue damsel flies._

“You behold there a considerable number of a remarkable species of beautiful insects, the elegance of whose appearance and their attire procured for them the name of Damsels.”—_Sonnini._

Footnote 192:

p. 147.—_Of a small imaret’s rustic fount._

Imaret, “hospice où on loge et nourrit, gratis, les pélerins pendant trois jours.”—_Toderini, translated by the Abbé de Cournand._—See also _Castellan_’s Mœurs des Othomans, tom. v. p. 145.

Footnote 193:

p. 149.—_Kneels, with his forehead to the south._

“Such Turks, as at the common hours of prayer are on the road, or so employed as not to find convenience to attend the mosques, are still obliged to execute that duty; nor are they ever known to fail, whatever business they are then about, but pray immediately when the hour alarms them, whatever they are about, in that very place they chance to stand on; insomuch that when a janissary, whom you have to guard you up and down the city, hears the notice which is given him from the steeples, he will turn about, stand still, and beckon with his hand, to tell his charge he must have patience for awhile; when, taking out his handkerchief, he spreads it on the ground, sits cross-legged thereupon, and says his prayers, though in the open market, which, having ended, he leaps briskly up, salutes the person whom he undertook to convey, and renews his journey with the mild expression of _Ghell gohnnum ghell_, or, Come, dear, follow me.”—_Aaron Hill_’s Travels.

Footnote 194:

p. 151.—_Upon_ EGYPT’S _land, of so healing a power._

The Nucta, or Miraculous Drop, which falls in Egypt precisely on St. John’s Day, in June, and is supposed to have the effect of stopping the plague.

Footnote 195:

p. 153.—_Are the diamond turrets of_ SHADUKIAM.

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.

Footnote 196:

p. 153.—_My feast is now of the Tooba Tree._

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.

Footnote 197:

p. 154.—_To the lote-tree, springing by_ ALLA’S _throne._

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.

Footnote 198:

p. 155.—_As the hundred and twenty thousand Streams of Basra._—“It is said that the rivers or streams of Basra were reckoned in the time of Pelal ben Abi Bordeh, and amounted to the number of one hundred and twenty thousand streams.”—_Ebn Haukal._

Footnote 199:

p. 155.—_Who, like them, flung the jereed carelessly._—The name of the javelin with which the Easterns exercise. See _Castellan, Mœurs des Othomans_, tom. iii. p. 161.

Footnote 200:

p. 156.—_The Banyan Hospital._—“This account excited a desire of visiting the Banyan Hospital, as I had heard much of their benevolence to all kinds of animals that were either sick, lame, or infirm, through age or accident. On my arrival, there were presented to my view many horses, cows, and oxen, in one apartment; 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.”—_Parson_’s Travels.

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

Footnote 201:

p. 157.—_Like that of the fragrant grass near the Ganges._—“A very fragrant grass from the banks of the Ganges, near Heridwar, which in some places covers whole acres, and diffuses, when crushed, a strong odour.”—_Sir W. Jones_, on the Spikenard of the Ancients.

Footnote 202:

p. 157.—_No one had ever yet reached its summit._—“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._

Footnote 203:

p. 158.—_Is warmed into life by the eyes alone._—“The Arabians believe that the ostriches hatch their young by only looking at them.”—_P. Vanslebe, Rélat. d’Egypte._

Footnote 204:

p. 159.—_And then lost them again for ever._—See _Sale_’s Koran, note, vol. ii. p. 484.

Footnote 205:

p. 159.—_While the artisans in chariots._—Oriental Tales.

Footnote 206:

p. 160.—_Who kept waving over their heads plates of gold and silver flowers._—Ferishta. “Or rather,” says _Scott_, upon the passage of Ferishta, from which this is taken, “small coins, stamped with the figure of a flower. They are still used in India to distribute in charity, and, on occasion, thrown by the purse-bearers of the great among the populace.”

Footnote 207:

p. 160.—_Alley of trees._—The fine road made by the emperor Jehan-Guire from Agra to Lahore, planted with trees on each side. This road is 250 leagues in length. It has “little pyramids or turrets,” says _Fernier_, “erected every half league, to mark the ways, and frequent wells to afford drink to passengers, and to water the young trees.”

Footnote 208:

p. 162.—_That favourite tree of the luxurious bird that lights up the chambers of its nest with fire-flies._—The Baya, or Indian Gross-beak.—_Sir W. Jones._

Footnote 209:

p. 162.—_On the clear cold waters of which floated multitudes of the beautiful red lotus._—“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 of the white water-lily, and is the most lovely of the nymphæas I have seen.”—_Mrs. Graham_’s Journal of a Residence in India.

Footnote 210:

p. 163.—_Had fled hither from their Arab conquerors._—“On les voit persécutés par les Khalifes se retirer dans les montagnes du Kerman: plusieurs choisirent pour retraite la Tartarie et la Chine; d’autres s’arrêtè-rent sur les bords du Gange, à l’est de Delhi.”—_M. Anquetil_, Mémoires de l’Académie, tom. xxxi. p. 346.

Footnote 211:

p. 163.—_Like their own Fire in the Burning Field at Bakou._—The “Ager ardens” described by _Kæmpfer, Amœnitat. Exot._

Footnote 212:

p. 164.—_The prey of strangers._—“Cashmere (says its historians) had its own princes 4000 years before 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 betrayed by his Omrahs.”—_Pennant._

Footnote 213:

p. 164.—_Fire-worshippers._—Voltaire tells us that in his Tragedy, “Les Guèbres,” he was generally supposed to have alluded to the Jansenists. I should not be surprised if this story of the Fire-worshippers were found capable of a similar doubleness of application.

Footnote 214:

p. 169.—_’Tis moonlight over_ OMAN’S _sea._

The Persian Gulf, sometimes so called, which separates the shores of Persia and Arabia.

Footnote 215:

p. 169.—_’Tis moonlight in_ HARMOZIA’S _walls._

The present Gombaroon, a town on the Persian side of the Gulf.

Footnote 216:

p. 169.—_Of trumpet and the clash of zel._

A Moorish instrument of music.

Footnote 217:

p. 170.—_The wind-tower on the_ EMIR’S _dome._

“At Gombaroon and other places in Persia, they have towers for the purpose of catching the wind, and cooling the houses.”—_Le Bruyn._

Footnote 218:

p. 170.—_His race hath brought on_ IRAN’S _name._

“Iran is the true general name for the empire of Persia.”—_Asiat. Res._ Disc. 5.

Footnote 219:

p. 170.—_Engraven on his reeking sword._

“On the blades of their scimitars some verse from the Koran is usually inscribed.”—_Russel._

Footnote 220:

p. 171.—_Draw venom forth that drives men mad._

“There is a kind of Rhododendros about Trebizond, whose flowers the bee feeds upon, and the honey thence drives people mad.”—_Tournefort._

Footnote 221:

p. 172.—_Upon the turban of a king._

“Their kings wear plumes of black herons’ feathers upon the right side, as a badge of sovereignty.”—_Hanway._

Footnote 222:

p. 173.—_Springing in a desolate mountain._

“The Fountain of Youth, by a Mahometan tradition, is situated in some dark region of the East.”—_Richardson._

Footnote 223:

p. 173.—_On summer-eves, through_ YEMEN’S _dales._

Arabia Felix.

Footnote 224:

p. 174.—_Who, lull’d in cool kiosk or bower._

“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 raised nine or ten steps, and inclosed 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. Montague._

Footnote 225:

p. 174.—_Before their mirrors count the time._

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 Asia they wear little looking-glasses on their thumbs. “Hence (and from the lotus being considered the emblem of beauty) is the meaning of the following mute intercourse of two lovers before their parents:—

“‘He, with salute of deference due, A lotus to his forehead prest; She rais’d her mirror to his view, Then turn’d it inward to her breast.’”

_Asiatic Miscellany_, vol. ii.

Footnote 226:

p. 174.—_Upon the emerald’s virgin blaze._

“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.

Footnote 227:

p. 175.—_After the day-beam’s withering fire._

“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._

Footnote 228:

p. 176.—_Of_ ARARAT’S _tremendous peak._

This mountain is generally supposed to be inaccessible. _Struy_ says, “I can 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 cloudy, misty, and dark; the middlemost part very cold, and like clouds of snow; but the upper regions perfectly calm.”—It was on this mountain that 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 did 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 _Carreri_’s Travels, where the Doctor laughs at this whole account of Mount Ararat.

Footnote 229:

p. 177.—_The bridegroom, with his locks of light._

In one of the books of the Shâh Nâmeh, when Zal (a celebrated hero of Persia, remarkable for his white hair) comes to the terrace of his 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 fixing his crook in a projecting beam.—See _Champion’s Ferdosi_.

Footnote 230:

p. 177.—_The rock-goats of_ ARABIA _clamber._

“On the lofty hills of Arabia Petræa are rock-goats.”—_Niebuhr._

Footnote 231:

p. 178.—_Some ditty to her soft Kanoon._

“Canun, espèce de psaltérion, avec des cordes de boyaux; les dames en touchent dans le sérail, avec des écailles armées de pointes de cooc.”—_Toderini, translated by De Cournand._

Footnote 232:

p. 184.—_The Gheber belt that round him clung._

“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 Ghebr,” &c. &c.—_D’Herbelot_, art. Agduani. “Pour se distinguer des Idolâtres de l’Inde, les Guèbres se ceignent tous d’un cordon de laine, ou de poil de chameau.”—_Encyclopédie Françoise._

D’Herbelot says this belt was generally of leather.

Footnote 233:

p. 184.—_Among the living lights of heaven._

“They suppose the Throne of the Almighty is seated in the sun, and hence their worship of that luminary.”—_Hanway._ “As to fire, the Ghebers place the spring-head of it in that 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 attribute 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.”—_Grose._ The false charges brought against the religion of these people by their Mussulman tyrants is but one proof among many of the truth of this writer’s remark, that “calumny is often added to oppression, if but for the sake of justifying it.”

Footnote 234:

p. 188.—_And fiery darts, at intervals._

“The Mameluks that were in the other boat, when it was dark, used to shoot up a sort of fiery arrows into the air, which in some measure resembled lightning or falling stars.”—_Baumgarten._

Footnote 235:

p. 190.—_Which grows over the tomb of the musician, Tan-Sein._—“Within the inclosure which surrounds this monument (at Gualior) is a small tomb to the memory of Tan-Sein, a musician of incomparable skill, who flourished at the court of Akbar. The tomb is overshadowed by a tree, concerning which a superstitious notion prevails, that the chewing of its leaves will give an extraordinary melody to the voice.”—_Narrative of a Journey from Agra to Ouzein, by W. Hunter, Esq._

Footnote 236:

p. 190.—_The awful signal of the bamboo staff._—“It is usual to place a small white triangular flag, fixed to a bamboo staff of ten or twelve feet long, at the place where a tiger has destroyed a man. It is common for the passengers also to throw each a stone or brick near the spot, so that in the course of a little time a pile equal to a good waggon-load is collected. The sight of these flags and piles of stones imparts a certain melancholy, not perhaps altogether void of apprehension.”—_Oriental Field Sports_, vol. ii.

Footnote 237:

p. 190.—_Ornamented with the most beautiful porcelain._—“The Ficus Indica is called the Pagod Tree and Tree of Councils; the first, from the idols placed under its shade; the second, because meetings were held under its cool branches. In some places it is believed to be the haunt of spectres, as the ancient spreading oaks of Wales have been of fairies; in others are erected beneath the shade pillars of stone, or posts, elegantly carved, and ornamented with the most beautiful porcelain to supply the use of mirrors.”—_Pennant._

Footnote 238:

p. 192.—_And o’er the Green Sea palely shines._

The Persian Gulf—“To dive for pearls in the Green Sea, or Persian Gulf.”—_Sir W. Jones._

Footnote 239:

p. 192.—_Revealing_ BAHREIN’S _groves of palm, And lighting_ KISHMA’S _amber vines._

Islands in the Gulf.

Footnote 240:

p. 192.—_Blow round_ SELAMA’S _sainted cape._

Or Selemeh, the genuine name of the headland at the entrance of the Gulf, commonly called Cape Musseldom. “The Indians, when they pass the promontory, throw cocoa-nuts, fruits, or flowers, into the sea, to secure a propitious voyage.”—_Morier._

Footnote 241:

p. 193.—_The nightingale now bends her flight._

“The nightingale sings from the pomegranate groves in the day-time, and from the loftiest trees at night.”—_Russel_’s Aleppo.

Footnote 242:

p. 193.—_The best and brightest scimitar._

In speaking of the climate of Shiraz, Francklin says, “The dew is of such a pure nature, that if the brightest scimitar should be exposed to it all night, it would not receive the least rust.”

Footnote 243:

p. 194.—_Who, on_ CADESSIA’S _bloody plains._

The place where the Persians were finally defeated by the Arabs, and their ancient monarchy destroyed.

Footnote 244:

p. 194.—_Beyond the Caspian’s Iron Gates._

Derbend.—“Les Turcs appellent cette ville Demir Capi, Porte de Fer; ce sont les Caspiæ Portæ des anciens.”—_D’Herbelot._

Footnote 245:

p. 195.—_They burst, like Zeilan’s giant palm._

The Talpot or Talipot-tree. “This beautiful palm-tree, which grows in the heart of the forests, may be classed among the loftiest trees, and becomes still higher when on the point of bursting forth from its leafy summit. The sheath which then envelopes the flower is very large, and, when it bursts, makes an explosion like the report of a cannon.”—_Thunberg._

Footnote 246:

p. 196.—_Before whose sabre’s dazzling light._