Part 16

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._