Part 19

p. 215.—_The pathetic measure of Nava._—“Last of all she took a guitar, and sung a pathetic air in the measure called Nava, which is always used to express the lamentations of absent lovers.”—_Persian Tales._

Footnote 270:

p. 217.—_No music tim’d her parting oar._

“The Easterns used to set out on their longer voyages with music.”—_Harmer._

Footnote 271:

p. 217.—_In silence through the Gate of Tears._

“The Gate of Tears, the straits or passage into the Red Sea, commonly called Babelmandel. It received this name from the old Arabians, on account of the danger of the navigation, and the number of shipwrecks by which it was distinguished; which induced them to consider as dead, and to wear mourning for all who had the boldness to hazard the passage through it into the Ethiopic ocean.”—_Richardson._

Footnote 272:

p. 218.—_In the still warm and living breath._

“I have been told that whensoever an animal falls down dead, one or more vultures, unseen before, instantly appear.”—_Pennant._

Footnote 273:

p. 218.—_As a young bird of_ BABYLON.

“They fasten some writing to the wings of a Bagdat or Babylonian pigeon.”—_Travels of certain Englishmen._

Footnote 274:

p. 219.—_Shooting around their jasper fount._

“The Empress of Jehan-Guire used to divert herself with feeding tame fish in her canals, some of which were many years afterwards known by fillets of gold, which she caused to be put round them.”—_Harris._

Footnote 275:

p. 219.—_To tell her ruby rosary._

“Le Tespih, qui est un chapelet composé de 99 petites boules d’agate, de jaspe, d’ambre, de corail, ou d’autre matière précieuse. J’en ai vu un superbe au Seigneur Jerpos; il étoit de belles et grosses perles parfaites et égales, estimé trente mille piastres.”—_Toderini._

Footnote 276:

p. 223.—_Like meteor brands as if throughout._

The meteors that Pliny calls “faces.”

Footnote 277:

p. 224.—_The Star of_ EGYPT _whose proud light._

“The brilliant Canopus, unseen in European climates.”—_Brown._

Footnote 278:

p. 224.—_In the White Islands of the West._

See Wilford’s learned Essays on the Sacred Isles in the West.

Footnote 279:

p. 225.—_Sparkles, as ’twere that lightning-gem._

A precious stone of the Indies, called by the ancients Ceraunium, because it was supposed to be found in places where thunder had fallen. Tertullian says it has a glittering appearance, as if there had been fire in it; and the author of the Dissertation in Harris’s Voyages supposes it to be the opal.

Footnote 280:

p. 227.—_Their garb—the leathern belt that wraps._

_D’Herbelot_, art. Agduani.

Footnote 281:

p. 227.—_Each yellow vest—that rebel hue._

“The Guebres are known by a dark yellow colour, which the men affect in their clothes.”—_Thevenot._

Footnote 282:

p. 227.—_The Tartar fleece upon their caps._

“The Kolah or cap, worn by the Persians, is made of the skin of the sheep of Tartary.”—_Waring._

Footnote 283:

p. 234.—_Open her bosom’s glowing veil._

A frequent image among the Oriental poets. “The nightingales warbled their enchanting notes, and rent the thin veils of the rosebud and the rose.”—_Jami._

Footnote 284:

p. 237.—_The sorrowful tree, Nilica._—“Blossoms of the sorrowful Nyctanthes give a durable colour to silk.”—_Remarks on the Husbandry of Bengal_, p. 200. Nilica is one of the Indian names of this flower.—_Sir W. Jones._ The Persians call it Gul.—_Carreri._

Footnote 285:

p. 239.—_That cooling feast the traveller loves._

“In parts of Kerman, whatever dates are shaken from the trees by the wind they do not touch, but leave them for those who have not any, or for travellers.”—_Ebn Haukal._

Footnote 286:

p. 240.—_The Searchers of the Grave appear._

The two terrible angels Monkir and Nakir, who are called “the Searchers of the Grave” in the “Creed of the orthodox Mahometans” given by Ockley, vol. ii.

Footnote 287:

p. 240.—_The mandrake’s charnel leaves at night._

“The Arabians call the mandrake ‘the Devil’s candle,’ on account of its shining appearance in the night.”—_Richardson._

Footnote 288:

p. 249.—_Of the still Halls of_ ISHMONIE.

For an account of Ishmonie, the petrified city in Upper Egypt, where it is said there are many statues of men, women, &c. to be seen to this day, see Perry’s _View of the Levant_.

Footnote 289:

p. 250.—_And ne’er did saint of_ ISSA _gaze._—Jesus.

Footnote 290:

p. 251.—_The death-flames that beneath him burn’d!_

The Ghebers say that when Abraham, their great Prophet, was thrown into the fire by order of Nimrod, the flame turned instantly into “a bed of roses, where the child sweetly reposed.”—_Tavernier._

Of their other Prophet, Zoroaster, there is a story told in _Dion Prusæus_, Orat. 36, that the love of wisdom and virtue leading him to a solitary life upon a mountain, he found it one day all in a flame, shining with celestial fire, out of which he came without any harm, and instituted certain sacrifices to God, who, he declared, then appeared to him.—See _Patrick_ on Exodus, iii. 2.

Footnote 291:

p. 254.—_A ponderous sea-horn hung, and blew._

“The shell called Siiankos, common to India, Africa, and the Mediterranean, and still used in many parts as a trumpet for blowing alarms or giving signals: it sends forth a deep and hollow sound.”—_Pennant._

Footnote 292:

p. 255.—_And the white ox-tails stream’d behind._

“The finest ornament for the horses is made of six large flying tassels of long white hair, taken out of the tails of wild oxen, that are to be found in some places of the Indies.”—_Thevenot._

Footnote 293:

p. 257.—_Sweet as the angel_ ISRAFIL’S.

“The angel Israfil, who has the most melodious voice of all God’s creatures.”—_Sale._

Footnote 294:

p. 261.—_Wound slow, as through_ GOLCONDA’S _vale._

See Hoole upon the Story of Sinbad.

Footnote 295:

p. 265.—_From the wild covert where he lay._

“In this thicket upon the banks of the Jordan several sorts of wild beasts are wont to harbour themselves, whose being washed out of the covert by the overflowings of the river gave occasion to that allusion of Jeremiah, _he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan_.”—_Maundrell_’s Aleppo.

Footnote 296:

p. 275.—_Like the wind of the south o’er a summer lute blowing._

“This wind (the Samoor) so softens the strings of lutes, that they can never be tuned while it lasts.”—_Stephen_’s Persia.

Footnote 297:

p. 275.—_With nought but the sea-star to light up her tomb._

“One of the greatest curiosities found in the Persian Gulf is a fish which the English call Star-fish. It is circular, and at night very luminous, resembling the full moon surrounded by rays.”—_Mirza Abu Taleb._

Footnote 298:

p. 275.—_And still, when the merry date-season is burning._

For a description of the merriment of the date-time, of their work, their dances, and their return home from the palm-groves at the end of autumn with the fruits, see _Kæmpfer, Amœnitat. Exot._

Footnote 299:

p. 276.—_That ever the sorrowing sea-bird has wept._

Some naturalists have imagined that amber is a concretion of the tears of birds.—See _Trevoux, Chambers_.

Footnote 300:

p. 276.—_We’ll seek where the sands of the Caspian are sparkling._

“The bay Kieselarke, which is otherwise called the Golden Bay, the sand whereof shines as fire.”—_Struy._

Footnote 301:

p. 278.—_The summary criticism of the Chabuk._—“The application of whips or rods.”—_Dubois._

Footnote 302:

p. 279.—_Chief Holder of the Girdle of Beautiful Forms._—Kæmpfer mentions such an officer among the attendants of the King of Persia, and calls him “formæ corporis estimator.” His business was, at stated periods, to measure the ladies of the Haram by a sort of regulation-girdle, whose limits it was not thought graceful to exceed. If any of them outgrew this standard of shape, they were reduced by abstinence till they came within proper bounds.

Footnote 303:

p. 279.—_Forbidden River._—The Attock.

“Akbar on his way ordered a fort to be built upon the Nilab, which he called Attock, which means in the Indian language Forbidden; for, by the superstition of the Hindoos, it was held unlawful to cross that river.”—_Dow_’s Hindostan.

Footnote 304:

p. 280.—_One genial star that rises nightly over their heads._—“The inhabitants of this country (Zinge) are never afflicted with sadness or melancholy; on this subject the Sheikh _Abu-Al-Kheir-Azhari_ has the following distich:—

“‘Who is the man without care or sorrow, (tell) that I may rub my hand to him.

“‘(Behold) the Zingians, without care or sorrow, frolicksome with tipsiness and mirth.’

“The philosophers have discovered that the cause of this cheerfulness proceeds from the influence of the star Soheil or Canopus, which rises over them every night.”—_Extract from a Geographical Persian Manuscript called Heft Aklim, or the Seven Climates, translated by W. Ouseley, Esq._

Footnote 305:

p. 281.—_Lizards._—“The lizard Stellio. The Arabs call it Hardun. The Turks kill it, for they imagine that by declining the head it mimics them when they say their prayers.”—_Hasselquist._

Footnote 306:

p. 281.—_Royal Gardens._—For these particulars respecting Hussun Abdaul, I am indebted to the very interesting Introduction of Mr. Elphinstone’s work upon Caubul.

Footnote 307:

p. 281.—_It was too delicious._—“As you enter at that Bazar, without the gate of Damascus, you see the Green Mosque, so called because it hath a steeple faced with green glazed bricks, which render it very resplendent; it is covered at top with a pavilion of the same stuff. The Turks say this mosque was made in that place, because Mahomet being come so far, would not enter the town, saying it was too delicious.”—_Thevenot._ This reminds one of the following pretty passage in Isaac Walton:—“When I sat last on this primrose bank, and looked down these meadows, I thought of them as Charles the Emperor did of the city of Florence, ‘that they were too pleasant to be looked on, but only on holidays.’”

Footnote 308:

p. 281.—_The Sultana Nourmahal, the Light of the Haram._—Nourmahal signifies Light of the Haram. She was afterwards called Nourjehan, or the Light of the World.

Footnote 309:

p. 282.—_The small shining fishes of which she was so fond._—See note, p. 367.

Footnote 310:

p. 282.—_Haroun-al-Raschid and his fair mistress Marida._—“Haroun al Raschid, cinquième Khalife des Abassides, s’étant un jour brouillé avec une de ses maîtresses nommée Maridah, qu’il aimoit cependant jusqu’à l’excès, et cette mésintelligence ayant déjà duré quelque tems commença à s’ennuyer. Giafar Barmaki, son favori, qui s’en apperçut, commanda à Abbas ben Ahnaf, excellent poëte de ce tems-là, de composer quelques vers sur le sujet de cette brouillerie. Ce poëte exécuta l’ordre de Giafar, qiu fit chanter ces vers par Moussali en présence du Khalife, et ce Prince fut tellement touché de la tendresse des vers du poëte et de la douceur de la voix du musicien, qu’il alla aussitôt trouver Maridah, et fit sa paix avec elle.”—_D’Herbelot._

Footnote 311:

p. 285.—_With its roses the brightest that earth ever gave._

“The rose of Kashmire, for its brilliancy and delicacy of odour, has long been proverbial in the East.”—_Forster._

Footnote 312:

p. 286.—_Round the waist of some fair Indian dancer is ringing._

“Tied round her waist the zone of bells, that sounded with ravishing melody.”—_Song of Jayadeva._

Footnote 313:

p. 286.—_The young aspen-trees._

“The little isles in the Lake of Cachemire are set with arbours and large-leaved aspen-trees, slender and tall.”—_Bernier._

Footnote 314:

p. 287.—_Shines in through the mountainous portal that opes._

“The Tuckt Suliman, the name bestowed by the Mahometans on this hill, forms one side of a grand portal to the Lake.”—_Forster._

Footnote 315:

p. 287.—_The Valley holds its Feast of Roses._

“The Feast of Roses continues the whole time of their remaining in bloom.”—See _Pietro de la Valle_.

Footnote 316:

p. 287.—_The Flow’ret of a hundred leaves._

“Gud sad berk, the Rose of a hundred leaves. I believe a particular species.”—_Ouseley._

Footnote 317:

p. 287.—_Behind the palms of_ BARAMOULE.—_Bernier._

Footnote 318:

p. 288.—_On_ BELA’S _hills is less alive._

A place mentioned in the Toozek Jehangeery, or Memoirs of Jehanguire, where there is an account of the beds of saffron-flowers about Cashmere.

Footnote 319:

p. 289.—_Sung from his lighted gallery._

“It is the custom among the women to employ the Maazeen to chaunt from the gallery of the nearest minaret, which on that occasion is illuminated, and the women assembled at the house respond at intervals with a ziraleet or joyous chorus.”—_Russel._

Footnote 320:

p. 289.—_From gardens, where the silken swing._

“The swing is a favourite pastime in the East, as promoting a circulation of air, extremely refreshing in those sultry climates.”—_Richardson._

“The swings are adorned with festoons. This pastime is accompanied with the music of voices and of instruments, hired by the masters of the swings.”—_Thevenot._

Footnote 321:

p. 289.—_Among the tents that line the way._

“At the keeping of the Feast of Roses we beheld an infinite number of tents pitched, with such a crowd of men, women, boys, and girls, with music, dances,” &c. &c.—_Herbert._

Footnote 322:

p. 290.—_An answer in song to the kiss of each wave._

“An old commentator of the Chou-King says, the ancients having remarked that a current of water made some of the stones near its banks send forth a sound, they detached some of them, and being charmed with the delightful sound they emitted, constructed King or musical instruments of them.”—_Grosier._

This miraculous quality has been attributed also to the shore of Attica. “Hujus littus, ait Capella, concentum musicum illisis terræ undis reddere, quod propter tantam eruditionis vim puto dictum.”—_Ludov. Vives in Augustin. de Civitat. Dei_, lib. xviii. c. 8.

Footnote 323:

p. 290.—_So felt the magnificent Son of Acbar._

Jehanguire was the son of the Great Acbar.

Footnote 324:

p. 292.—_Yet playful as Peris just loos’d from their cages._

In the wars of the Dives with the Peris, whenever the former took the latter prisoners, “they shut them up in iron cages, and hung them on the highest trees. Here they were visited by their companions, who brought them the choicest odours.”—_Richardson._

Footnote 325:

p. 293.—_Of the flowers of this planet—though treasures were there._

In the Malay language the same word signifies women and flowers.

Footnote 326:

p. 293.—_He saw that City of Delight._

The capital of Shadukiam. See note, p. 357.

Footnote 327:

p. 295.—_He sits, with flow’rets fetter’d round._

See the representation of the Eastern Cupid, pinioned closely round with wreaths of flowers, in _Picart_’s Cérémonies Religieuses.

Footnote 328:

p. 295.—_Lose all their glory when he flies._

“Among the birds of Tonquin is a species of goldfinch, which sings so melodiously that it is called the Celestial bird. Its wings, when it is perched, appear variegated with beautiful colours, but when it flies they lose all their splendour.”—_Grosier._

Footnote 329:

p. 296.—_Whose pinion knows no resting place._

“As these birds on the Bosphorus are never known to rest, they are called by the French ‘les âmes damnées.’”—_Dalloway._

Footnote 330:

p. 296.—_If there his darling rose is not._

“You may place a hundred handfuls of fragrant herbs and flowers before the nightingale, yet he wishes not, in his constant heart, for more than the sweet breath of his beloved rose.”—_Jami._

Footnote 331:

p. 298.—_From the great Mantra, which around._

“He is said to have found the great _Mantra_, spell or talisman, through which he ruled over the elements and spirits of all denominations.”—_Wilford._

Footnote 332:

p. 298.—_To the gold gems of_ AFRIC.

“The gold jewels of Jinnie, which are called by the Arabs El Herrez, from the supposed charm they contain.”—_Jackson._

Footnote 333:

p. 298.—_To keep him from the Siltim’s harm._

“A demon, supposed to haunt woods, &c. in a human shape.”—_Richardson._

Footnote 334:

p. 298.—_Her Selim’s smile to_ NOURMAHAL.

The name of Jehanguire before his accession to the throne.

Footnote 335:

p. 300.—_Anemones and Seas of Gold._

“Hemasagara, or the Sea of Gold, with flowers of the brightest gold colour.”—_Sir W. Jones._

Footnote 336:

p. 300.—_Their buds on_ CAMADEVA’S _quiver._

“This tree (the Nagacesara) is one of the most delightful on earth, and the delicious odour of its blossoms justly gives them a place in the quiver of Camadeva, or the God of Love.”—_Id._

Footnote 337:

p. 300.—_Is call’d the Mistress of the Night._

“The Malayans style the tube-rose (Polianthes tuberosa) Sandal Malam, or the Mistress of the Night.”—_Pennant._

Footnote 338:

p. 300.—_That wander through_ ZAMARA’S _shades._

The people of the Batta country in Sumatra (of which Zamara is one of the ancient names), “when not engaged in war, lead an idle, inactive life, passing the day in playing on a kind of flute, crowned with garlands of flowers, among which the globe-amaranthus, a native of the country, mostly prevails.”—_Marsden._

Footnote 339:

p. 300.—_From the divine Amrita tree._

“The largest and richest sort (of the Jambu, or rose-apple) is called Amrita, or immortal, and the mythologists of Tibet apply the same word to a celestial tree, bearing ambrosial fruit.”—_Sir W. Jones._

Footnote 340:

p. 301.—_Down to the basil tuft, that waves._

Sweet basil, called Rayhan in Persia, and generally found in church-yards.

“The women in Egypt go, at least two days in the week, to pray and weep at the sepulchres of the dead; and the custom then is to throw upon the tombs a sort of herb, which the Arabs call _rihan_, and which is our sweet basil.”—_Maillet_, Lett. 10.

Footnote 341:

p. 301.—_To scent the desert and the dead._

“In the Great Desert are found many stalks of lavender and rosemary.”—_Asiat. Res._

Footnote 342:

p. 303.—_That blooms on a leafless bough._

“The almond-tree, with white flowers, blossoms on the bare branches.”—_Hasselquist._

Footnote 343:

p. 303.—_Inhabit the mountain-herb, that dyes._

An herb on Mount Libanus, which is said to communicate a yellow golden hue to the teeth of the goats and other animals that graze upon it.

_Niebuhr_ thinks this may be the herb which the Eastern alchymists look to as a means of making gold. “Most of those alchymical enthusiasts think themselves sure of success, if they could but find out the herb, which gilds the teeth and gives a yellow colour to the flesh of the sheep that eat it. Even the oil of this plant must be of a golden colour. It is called _Haschischat ed dab_.”

Father Jerom Dandini, however, asserts that the teeth of the goats at Mount Libanus are of a _silver_ colour; and adds, “This confirms to me that which I observed in Candia: to wit, that the animals that live on Mount Ida eat a certain herb, which renders their teeth of a golden colour; which, according to my judgment, cannot otherwise proceed than from the mines which are under ground.”—_Dandini_, Voyage to Mount Libanus.

Footnote 344:

p. 304.—_Of_ AZAB _blew, was full of scents._—The myrrh country.

Footnote 345:

p. 304.—_Where Love himself, of old, lay sleeping._

“This idea (of deities living in shells) was not unknown to the Greeks, who represent the young Nerites, one of the Cupids, as living in shells on the shores of the Red Sea.”—_Wilford._

Footnote 346:

p. 305.—_From_ CHINDARA’S _warbling fount I come._

“A fabulous mountain, where instruments are said to be constantly playing.”—_Richardson._

Footnote 347:

p. 307.—_The cinnamon-seed from grove to grove._

“The Pompadour pigeon is the species, which, by carrying the fruit of the cinnamon to different places, is a great disseminator of this valuable tree.”—See _Brown_’s Illustr. Tab. 19.

Footnote 348:

p. 307.—_The past, the present, and future of pleasure._

“Whenever our pleasure arises from a succession of sounds, it is a perception of a complicated nature, made up of a _sensation_ of the present sound or note, and an _idea_ or remembrance of the foregoing, while their mixture and concurrence produce such a mysterious delight, as neither could have produced alone. And it is often heightened by an anticipation of the succeeding notes. Thus Sense, Memory and Imagination are conjunctively employed.”—_Gerrard_ on Taste.

This is exactly the Epicurean theory of Pleasure, as explained by Cicero:—“Quocirca corpus gaudere tamdiu, dum præsentem sentiret voluptatem: animum et præsentem percipere pariter cum corpore et prospicere venientem, nec præteritam præterfluere sinere.”

Madame de Staël accounts upon the same principle for the gratification we derive from _rhyme_:—“Elle est l’image de l’espérance et du souvenir. Un son nous fait désirer celui qui doit lui répondre, et quand le second retentit il nous rappelle celui qui vient de nous échapper.”

Footnote 349:

p. 308.—_Whose glimpses are again withdrawn._

“The Persians have two mornings, the Soobhi Kazim and the Soobhi Sadig, the false and the real day-break. They account for this phenomenon in a most whimsical manner. They say that as the sun rises from behind the Kohi Qaf (Mount Caucasus), it passes a hole perforated through that mountain, and that darting its rays through it, it is the cause of the Soobhi Kazim, or this temporary appearance of day-break. As it ascends, the earth is again veiled in darkness, until the sun rises above the mountain, and brings with it the Soobhi Sadig, or real morning.”—_Scott Waring._ He thinks Milton may allude to this, when he says,—

“Ere the blabbing Eastern scout, The nice morn on the Indian steep From her cabin’d loop-hole peep.”

Footnote 350:

p. 309.—_In his magnificent Shalimar._

“In the centre of the plain, as it approaches the Lake, one of the Delhi Emperors, I believe Shah Jehan, constructed a spacious garden called the Shalimar, which is abundantly stored with fruit-trees and flowering shrubs. Some of the rivulets which intersect the plain are led into a canal at the back of the garden, and flowing through its centre, or occasionally thrown into a variety of water-works, compose the chief beauty of the Shalimar. To decorate this spot, the Mogul Princes of India have displayed an equal magnificence and taste; especially Jehan Gheer, who, with the enchanting Noor Mahl, made Kashmire his usual residence during the summer months. On arches thrown over the canal are erected, at equal distances, four or five suites of apartments, each consisting of a saloon, with four rooms at the angles, where the followers of the court attend, and the servants prepare sherbets, coffee, and the hookah. The frame of the doors of the principal saloon is composed of pieces of a stone of a black colour, streaked with yellow lines, and of a closer grain and higher polish than porphyry. They were taken, it is said, from a Hindoo temple, by one of the Mogul princes, and are esteemed of great value.”—_Forster._

Footnote 351:

p. 309.—_Of beauty from its founts and streams._

“The waters of Cachemir are the more renowned from its being supposed that the Cachemirians are indebted for their beauty to them.”—_Ali Yezdi._

Footnote 352:

p. 309.—_Singing in gardens of the South._

“From him I received the following little Gazzel, or Love Song, the notes of which he committed to paper from the voice of one of those singing girls of Cashmere, who wander from that delightful valley over the various parts of India.”—_Persian Miscellanies._

Footnote 353: