The story of the Veiled Prophet
of Khorassan being ended, they were now doomed
to hear FADLADEEN'S criticisms upon it. A series of disappointments and
accidents had occurred to this learned Chamberlain during the journey.
In the first place, those couriers stationed, as in the reign of Shah Jehan,
between Delhi and the Western coast of India, to secure a constant supply
of mangoes for the Royal Table, had by some cruel irregularity failed in
their duty; and to eat any mangoes but those of Mazagong was of course
impossible.[136] In the next place, the elephant laden
with his fine antique porcelain,[137] had, in an unusual
fit of liveliness, shattered the whole set to pieces: --an irreparable
loss, as many of the vessels were so exquisitely old, as to have been used
under the Emperors Yan and Chun, who reigned many ages before the dynasty
of Tang. His Koran too, supposed to be the identical copy between the leaves
of which Mahomet's favorite pigeon used to nestle, had been mislaid by
his Koran-bearer three whole days; not without much spiritual alarm to
FADLADEEN who, though professing to hold with other loyal and orthodox
Mussulmans that salvation could only be found in the Koran, was strongly
suspected of believing in his heart that it could only be found in his
own particular copy of it. When to all these grievances is added the obstinacy
of the cooks in putting the pepper of Canara into his dishes instead of
the cinnamon of Serendib, we may easily suppose that he came to the task
of criticism with at least a sufficient degree of irritability for the
purpose.
"In order," said he, importantly
swinging about his chaplet of pearls, "to convey with clearness my opinion
of the story this young man has related, it is necessary to take a review
of all the stories that have ever" --"My good FADLADEEN!" exclaimed the
Princess, interrupting him, "we really do not deserve that you should give
yourself so much trouble. Your opinion of the poem we have just heard will,
I have no doubt, be abundantly edifying without any further waste of your
valuable erudition." --"If that be all," replied the critic, --evidently
mortified at not being allowed to show how much he knew about everything
but the subject immediately before him-- "if that be all that is required,
the matter is easily despatched." He then proceeded to analyze the poem,
in that strain (so well known to the unfortunate bards of Delhi) whose
censures were an infliction from which few recovered, and whose very praises
were like the honey extracted from the bitter flowers of the aloe. The
chief personages of the story were, if he rightly understood them, an ill-favored
gentleman with a veil over his face; --a young lady whose reason went and
came according as it suited the poet's convenience to be sensible or otherwise;
--and a youth in one of those hideous Bokharian bonnets, who took the aforesaid
gentleman in a veil for a Divinity. "From such materials," said he, "what
can be expected? --after rivalling each other in long speeches and absurdities
through some thousands of lines as indigestible as the filberts of Berdaa,
our friend in the veil jumps into a tub of aquafortis; the young lady dies
in a set speech whose only recommendation is that it is her last; and the
lover lives on to a good old age for the laudable purpose of seeing her
ghost which he at last happily accomplishes, and expires. This you will
allow is a fair summary of the story; and if Nasser, the Arabian merchant,
told no better, our Holy Prophet (to whom be all honor and glory!) had
no need to be jealous of his abilities for story-telling."
"With respect to the style, it was
worthy of the matter; --it had not even those politic contrivances of structure
which make up for the commonness of the thoughts by the peculiarity of
the manner, nor that stately poetical phraseology by which sentiments mean
in themselves, like the blacksmith's[138] apron converted
into a banner, are so easily gilt and embroidered into consequence. Then
as to the versification it was, to say no worse of it, execrable: it had
neither the copious flow of Ferdosi, the sweetness of Hafez, nor the sententious
march of Sadi; but appeared to him in the uneasy heaviness of its movements
to have been modelled upon the gait of a very tired dromedary. The licenses
too in which it indulged were unpardonable; --for instance this line, and
the poem abounded with such;--
Like the faint, exquisite
music of a dream.
"What critic that can count," said FADLADEEN,
"and has his full complement of fingers to count withal, would tolerate
for an instant such syllabic superfluities?" --He here looked round, and
discovered that most of his audience were asleep; while the glimmering
lamps seemed inclined to follow their example. It became necessary therefore,
however painful to himself, to put an end to his valuable animadversions
for the present; and he accordingly concluded with an air of dignified
candor, thus:--
"Notwithstanding the observations
which I have thought it my duty to make, it is by no means my wish to discourage
the young man: --so far from it indeed that if he will but totally alter
his style of writing and thinking I have very little doubt that I shall
be vastly pleased with him."
Some days elapsed after this harangue
of the Great Chamberlain before LALLA ROOKH could venture to ask for another
story. The youth was still a welcome guest in the pavilion-- to one
heart perhaps too dangerously welcome; --but all mention of poetry was
as if by common consent avoided. Though none of the party had much respect
for FADLADEEN, yet his censures thus magisterially delivered evidently
made an impression on them all. The Poet himself, to whom criticism was
quite a new operation (being wholly unknown in that Paradise of the Indies,
Cashmere), felt the shock as it is generally felt at first, till use has
made it more tolerable to the patient; --the Ladies began to suspect that
they ought not to be pleased, and seemed to conclude that there must have
been much good sense in what FADLADEEN said, from its having set them all
so soundly to sleep; --while the self-complacent Chamberlain was left to
triumph in the idea of having for the hundred and fiftieth time in his
life extinguished a Poet. LALLA ROOKH alone-- and Love knew why-- persisted
in being delighted with all she had heard and in resolving to hear more
as speedily as possible. Her manner however of first returning to the subject
was unlucky. It was while they rested during the heat of noon near a fountain
on which some hand had rudely traced those well-known words from the Garden
of Sadi --"Many like me have viewed this fountain, but they are gone and
their eyes are closed for ever!"-- that she took occasion from the melancholy
beauty of this passage to dwell upon the charms of poetry in general. "It
is true," she said, "few poets can imitate that sublime bird which flies
always in the air and never touches the earth:[139]--
it is only once in many ages a Genius appears whose words, like those on
the Written Mountain, last for ever:[140]-- but still
there are some as delightful perhaps, though not so wonderful, who if not
stars over our head are at least flowers along our path and whose sweetness
of the moment we ought gratefully to inhale without calling upon them for
a brightness and a durability beyond their nature. In short," continued
she, blushing as if conscious of being caught in an oration, "it is quite
cruel that a poet cannot wander through his regions of enchantment without
having a critic for ever, like the old Man of the Sea, upon his back!"[141]
--FADLADEEN,
it was plain, took this last luckless allusion to himself, and would treasure
it up in his mind as a whetstone for his next criticism. A sudden silence
ensued; and the Princess, glancing a look at FERAMORZ, saw plainly she
must wait for a more courageous moment.
But the glories of Nature and her
wild, fragrant airs playing freshly over the current of youthful spirits
will soon heal even deeper wounds than the dull Fadladeens of this world
can inflict. In an evening or two after, they came to the small Valley
of Gardens which had been planted by order of the Emperor for his favorite
sister Rochinara during their progress to Cashmere some years before; and
never was there a more sparkling assemblage of sweets since the Gulzar-e-Irem
or Rose-bower of Irem. Every precious flower was there to be found that
poetry or love or religion has ever consecrated; from the dark hyacinth
to which Hafez compares his mistress's hair to be Cámalatá
by whose rosy blossoms the heaven of Indra is scented.[142]
As they sat in the cool fragrance of this delicious spot and LALLA ROOKH
remarked that she could fancy it the abode of that flower-loving Nymph
whom they worship in the temples of Kathay,[143] or
of one of those Peris, those beautiful creatures of the air who live upon
perfumes and to whom a place like this might make some amends for the Paradise
they have lost, --the young Poet, in whose eyes she appeared while she
spoke to be one of the bright spiritual creatures she was describing, said
hesitatingly that he remembered a Story of a Peri, which if the Princess
had no objection he would venture to relate. "It is," said he, with an
appealing look to FADLADEEN, "in a lighter and humbler strain than the
other:" then, striking a few careless but melancholy chords on his kitar,
he thus began:--
PARADISE AND THE PERI.
One morn a Peri at the gate
Of Eden stood disconsolate;
And as she listened to the Springs
Of Life within like music flowing
And caught the light upon her wings
Thro' the half-open portal glowing,
She wept to think her recreant race
Should e'er have lost that glorious
place!
"How happy," exclaimed this child
of air,
"Are the holy Spirits who wander
there
"Mid flowers that never shall fade
or fall;
"Tho' mine are the gardens of earth
and sea
"And the stars themselves have flowers
for me,
"One blossom of Heaven out-blooms
them all!
"Tho' sunny the Lake of cool CASHMERE
"With its plane-tree Isle reflected
clear,[144]
"And sweetly the founts of that
Valley fall;
"Tho' bright are the waters of SING-SU-HAY
And the golden floods that thitherward
stray,[145]
Yet-- oh, 'tis only the Blest can
say
How the waters of Heaven outshine
them all!
"Go, wing thy flight from star to
star,
From world to luminous world as
far
As the universe spreads its flaming
wall:
Take all the pleasures of all the
spheres
And multiply each thro' endless
years
One minute of Heaven is worth them
all!"
The glorious Angel who was keeping
The gates of Light beheld her weeping,
And as he nearer drew and listened
To her sad song, a tear-drop glistened
Within his eyelids, like the spray
From Eden's fountain when it lies
On the blue flower which-- Bramins
say--
Blooms nowhere but in Paradise.[146]
"Nymph of a fair but erring line!"
Gently he said-- "One hope is thine.
'Tis written in the Book of Fate,
'The Peri yet may be forgiven
Who brings to this Eternal gate
The Gift that is most dear to Heaven'!
Go seek it and redeem thy sin--
'Tis sweet to let the Pardoned in."
Rapidly as comets run
To the embraces of the Sun;--
Fleeter than the starry brands
Flung at night from angel hands[147]
At those dark and daring sprites
Who would climb the empyreal heights,
Down the blue vault the PERI flies,
And lighted earthward by a glance
That just then broke from morning's
eyes,
Hung hovering o'er our world's expanse.
But whither shall the Spirit go
To find this gift for Heaven; --"I
know
The wealth," she cries, "of every
urn
In which unnumbered rubies burn
Beneath the pillars of CHILMINAR:[148]
I know where the Isles of Perfume
are[149]
Many a fathom down in the sea,
To the south of sun-bright ARABY;[150]
I know too where the Genii hid
The jewelled cup of their King JAMSHID,[151]
"With Life's elixir sparkling high--
"But gifts like these are not for
the sky.
"Where was there ever a gem that
shone
"Like the steps of ALLA'S wonderful
Throne?
"And the Drops of Life-- oh! what
would they be
"In the boundless Deep of Eternity?"
While thus she mused her pinions
fanned
The air of that sweet Indian land
Whose air is balm, whose ocean spreads
O'er coral rocks and amber beds,[152]
Whose mountains pregnant by the
beam
Of the warm sun with diamonds teem,
Whose rivulets are like rich brides,
Lovely, with gold beneath their
tides,
Whose sandal groves and bowers of
spice
Might be a Peri's Paradise!
But crimson now her rivers ran
With human blood-- the smell of
death
Came reeking from those spicy bowers,
And man the sacrifice of man
Mingled his taint with every breath
Upwafted from the innocent flowers.
Land of the Sun! what foot invades
Thy Pagods and thy pillared shades--
Thy cavern shrines and Idol stones,
Thy Monarch and their thousand Thrones?[153]
'Tis He of GAZNA[154],
fierce in wrath
He comes and INDIA'S diadems
Lie scattered in his ruinous path.--
His bloodhounds he adorns with gems,
Torn from the violated necks
Of many a young and loved Sultana;[155]
Maidens within their pure Zenana,
Priests in the very fane he slaughters,
And chokes up with the glittering
wrecks
Of golden shrines the sacred waters!
Downward the PERI turns her gaze,
And thro' the war-field's bloody
haze
Beholds a youthful warrior stand
Alone beside his native river,--
The red blade broken in his hand
And the last arrow in his quiver.
"Live," said the Conqueror, "live
to share
"The trophies and the crowns I bear!"
Silent that youthful warrior stood--
Silent he pointed to the flood
All crimson with his country's blood,
Then sent his last remaining dart,
For answer, to the Invader's heart.
False flew the shaft tho' pointed
well;
The Tyrant lived, the Hero fell!--
Yet marked the PERI where he lay,
And when the rush of war was past
Swiftly descending on a ray
Of morning light she caught the
last--
Last glorious drop his heart had
shed
Before its free-born spirit fled!
"Be this," she cried, as she winged
her flight,
"My welcome gift at the Gates of
Light.
"Tho' foul are the drops that oft
distil
"On the field of warfare, blood
like this
"For Liberty shed so holy is,
"It would not stain the purest rill
"That sparkles among the Bowers
of Bliss!
"Oh, if there be on this earthly
sphere
"A boon, an offering Heaven holds
dear,
"'Tis the last libation Liberty
draws
"From the heart that bleeds and
breaks in her cause!"
"Sweet," said the Angel, as she
gave
The gift into his radiant hand,
"Sweet is our welcome of the Brave
"Who die thus for their native Land.--
"But see-- alas! the crystal bar
"Of Eden moves not-- holier far
"Than even this drop the boon must
be
"That opes the Gates of Heaven for
thee!"
Her first fond hope of Eden blighted,
Now among AFRIC'S lunar Mountains[156]
Far to the South the PERI lighted
And sleeked her plumage at the fountains
Of that Egyptian tide whose birth
Is hidden from the sons of earth
Deep in those solitary woods
Where oft the Genii of the Floods
Dance round the cradle of their
Nile
And hail the new-born Giant's smile.[157]
Thence over EGYPT'S palmy groves
Her grots, and sepulchres of Kings,[158]
The exiled Spirit sighing roves
And now hangs listening to the doves
In warm ROSETTA'S vale;[159]
now loves
To watch the moonlight on the wings
Of the white pelicans that break
The azure calm of MOERIS' Lake.[160]
'Twas a fair scene: a Land more
bright
Never did mortal eye behold!
Who could have thought that saw
this night
Those valleys and their fruits of
gold
Basking in Heaven's serenest light,
Those groups of lovely date-trees
bending
Languidly their leaf-crowned heads,
Like youthful maids, when sleep
descending
Warns them to their silken beds,[161]
Those virgin lilies all the night
Bathing their beauties in the lake
That they may rise more fresh and
bright,
When their beloved Sun's awake,
Those ruined shrines and towers
that seem
The relics of a splendid dream,
Amid whose fairy loneliness
Naught but the lapwing's cry is
heard,--
Naught seen but (when the shadows
flitting,
Fast from the moon unsheath its
gleam,)
Some purple-winged Sultana sitting[162]
Upon a column motionless
And glittering like an Idol bird!--
Who could have thought that there,
even there,
Amid those scenes so still and fair,
The Demon of the Plague hath cast
From his hot wing a deadlier blast,
More mortal far than ever came
From the red Desert's sands of flame!
So quick that every living thing
Of human shape touched by his wing,
Like plants, where the Simoom hath
past
At once falls black and withering!
The sun went down on many a brow
Which, full of bloom and freshness
then,
Is rankling in the pest-house now
And ne'er will feel that sun again,
And, oh! to see the unburied heaps
On which the lonely moonlight sleeps--
The very vultures turn away,
And sicken at so foul a prey!
Only the fierce hyaena stalks[163]
Throughout the city's desolate walks[164]
At midnight and his carnage plies:--
Woe to the half-dead wretch who
meets
The glaring of those large blue
eyes
Amid the darkness of the streets!
"Poor race of men!" said the pitying
Spirit,
"Dearly ye pay for your primal Fall--
"Some flowerets of Eden ye still
inherit,
"But the trail of the Serpent is
over them all!"
She wept-- the air grew pure and
clear
Around her as the bright drops ran,
For there's a magic in each tear
Such kindly Spirits weep for man!
Just then beneath some orange trees
Whose fruit and blossoms in the
breeze
Were wantoning together, free,
Like age at play with infancy--
Beneath that fresh and springing
bower
Close by the Lake she heard the
moan
Of one who at this silent hour,
Had thither stolen to die alone.
One who in life where'er he moved,
Drew after him the hearts of many;
Yet now, as tho' he ne'er were loved,
Dies here unseen, unwept by any!
None to watch near him-- none to
slake
The fire that in his bosom lies,
With even a sprinkle from that lake
Which shines so cool before his
eyes.
No voice well known thro' many a
day
To speak the last, the parting word
Which when all other sounds decay
Is still like distant music heard;--
That tender farewell on the shore
Of this rude world when all is o'er,
Which cheers the spirit ere its
bark
Puts off into the unknown Dark.
Deserted youth! one thought alone
Shed joy around his soul in death
That she whom he for years had known,
And loved and might have called
his own
Was safe from this foul midnight's
breath,--
Safe in her father's princely halls
Where the cool airs from fountain
falls,
Freshly perfumed by many a brand
Of the sweet wood from India's land,
Were pure as she whose brow they
fanned.
But see-- who yonder comes by stealth,
This melancholy bower to seek,
Like a young envoy sent by Health
With rosy gifts upon her cheek?
'Tis she-- far off, thro' moonlight
dim
He knew his own betrothed bride,
She who would rather die with him
Than live to gain the world beside!--
Her arms are round her lover now,
His livid cheek to hers she presses
And dips to bind his burning brow
In the cool lake her loosened tresses.
Ah! once, how little did he think
An hour would come when he should
shrink
With horror from that dear embrace,
Those gentle arms that were to him
Holy as is the cradling place
Of Eden's infant cherubim!
And now he yields-- now turns away,
Shuddering as if the venom lay
All in those proffered lips alone--
Those lips that then so fearless
grown
Never until that instant came
Near his unasked or without shame.
"Oh! let me only breathe the air.
"The blessed air, that's breathed
by thee,
"And whether on its wings it bear
"Healing or death 'tis sweet to
me!
"There-- drink my tears while yet
they fall--
"Would that my bosom's blood were
balm,
"And, well thou knowst, I'd shed
it all
"To give thy brow one minute's calm.
"Nay, turn not from me that dear
face--
"Am I not thine-- thy own loved
bride--
"The one, the chosen one, whose
place
"In life or death is by thy side?
"Thinkst thou that she whose only
light,
"In this dim world from thee hath
shone
"Could bear the long, the cheerless
night
"That must be hers when thou art
gone?
"That I can live and let thee go,
"Who art my life itself? --No, no--
"When the stem dies the leaf that
grew
"Out of its heart must perish too!
"Then turn to me, my own love, turn,
"Before, like thee, I fade and burn;
"Cling to these yet cool lips and
share
"The last pure life that lingers
there!"
She fails-- she sinks-- as dies
the lamp
In charnel airs or cavern-damp,
So quickly do his baleful sighs
Quench all the sweet light of her
eyes,
One struggle-- and his pain is past--
Her lover is no longer living!
One kiss the maiden gives, one last,
Long kiss, which she expires in
giving!
"Sleep," said the PERI, as softly
she stole
The farewell sigh of that vanishing
soul,
As true as e'er warmed a woman's
breast--
"Sleep on, in visions of odor rest
"In balmier airs than ever yet stirred
"The enchanted pile of that lonely
bird
"Who sings at the last his own death-lay[165]
"And in music and perfume dies away!"
Thus saying, from her lips she spread
Unearthly breathings thro' the place
And shook her sparkling wreath and
shed
Such lustre o'er each paly face
That like two lovely saints they
seemed,
Upon the eve of doomsday taken
From their dim graves in ordor sleeping;
While that benevolent PERI beamed
Like their good angel calmly keeping
Watch o'er them till their souls
would waken.
But morn is blushing in the sky;
Again the PERI soars above,
Bearing to Heaven that precious
sigh
Of pure, self-sacrificing love.
High throbbed her heart with hope
elate
The Elysian palm she soon shall
win.
For the bright Spirit at the gate
Smiled as she gave that offering
in;
And she already hears the trees
Of Eden with their crystal bells
Ringing in that ambrosial breeze
That from the throne of ALLA swells;
And she can see the starry bowls
That lie around that lucid lake
Upon whose banks admitted Souls
Their first sweet draught of glory
take![166]
But, ah! even PERIS' hopes are vain--
Again the Fates forbade, again
The immortal barrier closed-- "Not
yet,"
The Angel said as with regret
He shut from her that glimpse of
glory--
"True was the maiden, and her story
"Written in light o'er ALLA'S head
"By seraph eyes shall long be read.
"But, PERI, see-- the crystal bar
"Of Eden moves not-- holier far
"Than even this sigh the boon must
be
"That opes the Gates of Heaven for
thee."
Now upon SYRIA'S land of roses[167]
Softly the light of Eve reposes,
And like a glory the broad sun
Hangs over sainted LEBANON,
Whose head in wintry grandeur towers
And whitens with eternal sleet,
While summer in a vale of flowers
Is sleeping rosy at his feet.
To one who looked from upper air
O'er all the enchanted regions there,
How beauteous must have been the
glow,
The life, the sparkling from below!
Fair gardens, shining streams, with
ranks
Of golden melons on their banks,
More golden where the sunlight falls;--
Gay lizards, glittering on the walls[168]
Of ruined shrines, busy and bright
As they were all alive with light;
And yet more splendid numerous flocks
Of pigeons settling on the rocks
With their rich restless wings that
gleam
Variously in the crimson beam
Of the warm West, --as if inlaid
With brilliants from the mine or
made
Of tearless rainbows such as span
The unclouded skies of PERISTAN.
And then the mingling sounds that
come,
Of shepherd's ancient reed,[169]
with hum
Of the wild bees of PALESTINE,[170]
Banqueting thro' the flowery vales;
And, JORDAN, those sweet banks of
thine
And woods so full of nightingales.[171]
But naught can charm the luckless
PERI;
Her soul is sad-- her wings are
weary--
Joyless she sees the Sun look down
On that great Temple once his own,[172]
Whose lonely columns stand sublime,
Flinging their shadows from on high
Like dials which the Wizard Time
Had raised to count his ages by!
Yet haply there may lie concealed
Beneath those Chambers of the Sun
Some amulet of gems, annealed
In upper fires, some tablet sealed
With the great name of SOLOMON,
Which spelled by her illumined eyes,
May teach her where beneath the
moon,
In earth or ocean, lies the boon,
The charm, that can restore so soon
An erring Spirit to the skies.
Cheered by this hope she bends her
thither;--
Still laughs the radiant eye of
Heaven,
Nor have the golden bowers of Even
In the rich West begun to wither;--
When o'er the vale of BALBEC winging
Slowly she sees a child at play,
Among the rosy wild flowers singing,
As rosy and as wild as they;
Chasing with eager hands and eyes
The beautiful blue damsel-flies,[173]
That fluttered round the jasmine
stems
Like winged flowers or flying gems:--
And near the boy, who tired with
play
Now nestling mid the roses lay.
She saw a wearied man dismount
From his hot steed and on the brink
Of a small imaret's rustic fount
Impatient fling him down to drink.
Then swift his haggard brow he turned
To the fair child who fearless sat,
Tho' never yet hath day-beam burned
Upon a brow more fierce than that,--
Sullenly fierce-- a mixture dire
Like thunder-clouds of gloom and
fire;
In which the PERI'S eye could read
Dark tales of many a ruthless deed;
The ruined maid-- the shrine profaned--
Oaths broken-- and the threshold
stained
With blood of guests! --there
written, all,
Black as the damning drops that
fall
From the denouncing Angel's pen,
Ere Mercy weeps them out again.
Yet tranquil now that man of crime
(As if the balmy evening time
Softened his spirit) looked and
lay,
Watching the rosy infant's play:--
Tho' still whene'er his eye by chance
Fell on the boy's, its lucid glance
Met that unclouded, joyous gaze,
As torches that have burnt all night
Tho' some impure and godless rite,
Encounter morning's glorious rays.
But, hark! the vesper call to prayer,
As slow the orb of daylight sets,
Is rising sweetly on the air.
From SYRIA'S thousand minarets!
The boy has started from the bed
Of flowers where he had laid his
head.
And down upon the fragrant sod
Kneels[174] with
his forehead to the south
Lisping the eternal name of God
From Purity's own cherub mouth,
And looking while his hands and
eyes
Are lifted to the glowing skies
Like a stray babe of Paradise
Just lighted on that flowery plain
And seeking for its home again.
Oh! 'twas a sight-- that Heaven--
that child--
A scene, which might have well beguiled
Even haughty EBLIS of a sigh
For glories lost and peace gone
by!
And how felt he, the wretched
Man
Reclining there-- while memory ran
O'er many a year of guilt and strife,
Flew o'er the dark flood of his
life,
Nor found one sunny resting-place.
Nor brought him back one branch
of grace.
"There was a time," he said,
in mild,
Heart-humbled tones-- "thou blessed
child!
"When young and haply pure as thou
"I looked and prayed like thee--
but now"--
He hung his head-- each nobler aim
And hope and feeling which had slept
From boyhood's hour that instant
came
Fresh o'er him and he wept-- he
wept!
Blest tears of soul-felt penitence!
In whose benign, redeeming flow
Is felt the first, the only sense
Of guiltless joy that guilt can
know.
"There's a drop," said the PERI,
"that down from the moon
"Falls thro' the withering airs
of June
"Upon EGYPT'S land,[175]
of so healing a power,
"So balmy a virtue, that even in
the hour
"That drop descends contagion dies
"And health reanimates earth and
skies!--
"Oh, is it not thus, thou man of
sin,
"The precious tears of repentance
fall?
"Tho' foul thy fiery plagues within
"One heavenly drop hath dispelled
them all!"
And now-- behold him kneeling there
By the child's side, in humble prayer,
While the same sunbeam shines upon
The guilty and the guiltless one.
And hymns of joy proclaim thro'
Heaven
The triumph of a Soul Forgiven!
'Twas when the golden orb had set,
While on their knees they lingered
yet,
There fell a light more lovely far
Than ever came from sun or star,
Upon the tear that, warm and meek,
Dewed that repentant sinner's cheek.
To mortal eye this light might seem
A northern flash or meteor beam--
But well the enraptured PERI knew
'Twas a bright smile the Angel threw
From Heaven's gate to hail that
tear
Her harbinger of glory near!
"Joy, joy for ever! my task is done--
"The Gates are past and Heaven is
won!
"Oh! am I not happy? I am, I am--
"To thee, sweet Eden! how dark and
sad
"Are the diamond turrets of SHADUKIAM,[176]
"And the fragrant bowers of AMBERABAD!
"Farewell ye odors of Earth that
die
"Passing away like a lover's sigh;--
"My feast is now of the Tooba Tree[177]
"Whose scent is the breath of Eternity!
"Farewell, ye vanishing flowers that
shone
"In my fairy wreath so bright an'
brief;--
"Oh! what are the brightest that
e'er have blown
"To the lote-tree springing by ALLA'S
throne[178]
"Whose flowers have a soul in every
leaf.
"Joy, joy for ever. --my task is
done--
"The Gates are past and Heaven is
won!"
~~~~~~~~~~~
-- on to
Part Five --
|
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xx |
[136] The celebrity of Mazagong is owing to its
mangoes, which are certainly the best I ever tasted. The parent-tree, from
which all those of this species have been grafted, is honored during the
fruit-season by a guard of sepoys; and, in the reign of Shah Jehan, couriers
ware 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 Residence in India.
[137] 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, etc.
[138] The blacksmith Gao, who successfully resisted
the tyrant Zohak, and whose apron became the royal standard of Persia.
[139] "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 Fuzel 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." --Wilks'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."
[140] "To the pilgrims to Mount Sinai we must
attribute the inscriptions, figures, etc., 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.
[141] The Story of Sinbad.
[142] "The Cámalatá (called by Linnaeus,
Ipomaea) is the most beautiful of its order, both in the color and form
of its leaves and flowers; its elegant blossoms are 'celestial rosy red,
Love's proper hue,' and have justly procured is the name of Cámalatá,
or Love's creeper." --Sir W. Jones.
[143] "According to Father Premare, in his tract
on Chinese Mythology, the mother of Fo-hi was the daughter of heaven, surnamed
Flower-loving; and as the nymph was walking alone on the bank of a river,
she found herself encircled by a rainbow, after which she became pregnant,
and, at the end of twelve years, was delivered of a son radiant as herself."
--Asiat. Res.
[144] "Numerous small islands emerge from the
Lake of Cashmere. One is called Char Chenaur, from the plane trees upon
it. --Foster.
[145] "The Altan Kol or Golden River of Tibet,
which runs into the Lakes of Sing-su-hay, has abundance of gold in its
sands, which employs the inhabitants all the summer in gathering it." --Description
of Tibet in Pinkerton.
[146] "The Brahmins of this province insist that
the blue campac flowers only in Paradise." --Sir W. Jones. It appears,
however, from a curious letter of the Sultan of Menangeabow, given by Marsden,
that one place on earth may lay claim to the possession of it. "This is
the Sultan, who keeps the flower champaka that is blue, and to be found
in no other country but his, being yellow elsewhere." --Marsden's Sumatra.
[147] "The Mahometans suppose that falling stars
are the firebrands wherewith the good angels drive away the bad, when they
approach too near the empyrean or verge or the heavens." --Fryer.
[148] The Forty Pillars; so the Persians call
the ruins of Persepolis. It is imagined by them that this palace and the
edifices at Balbec were built by Genii, for the purpose of hiding in their
subterraneous caverns immense treasures, which still remain there. --D'Herbelot,
Volney.
[149] Diodorus_mentions the Isle of Panchai, 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.
[150] The Isles of Panchaia.
[151] "The cup of Jamshid, discovered, they say,
when digging for the foundations of Persepolis." --Richardson.
[152] "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 civit are collected upon the lands." --Travels of Two Mohammedans.
[153] "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.
[154] "Mahmood of Gazna, or Ghizni, who conquered
India in the beginning of the 11th century." --See his History in Dow and
Sir J. Malcolm.
[155] "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.
[156] "The Mountains of the Moon, or the Montes
Lunae of antiquity, at the foot of which the Nile is supposed to arise."
--Bruce.
[157] "The Nile, which the Abyssinians know by
the names of Abey and Alawy or the Giant."--Asiat. Research. vol.
i. p. 387.
[158] 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.
[159] "The orchards of Rosetta are filled with
turtle-doves. --Sonnini.
[160] Savary mentions the pelicans upon Lake Moeris.
[161] "The superb date-tree, whose head languidly
reclines, like that of a handsome woman overcome with sleep." --Dafard
el Hadad.
[162] "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 part, as well as the brilliancy of its colors, has
obtained the title of Sultana." --Sonnini.
[163] 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 hyaenas, on the contrary, visited the cemeteries,"
etc.
[164] "Gondar was full of hyaenas 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
neighboring mountains, transformed by magic, and come down to eat human
flesh in the dark in safety." --Bruce.
[165] "In the East, they suppose the Phoenix 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.
[166] "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 Chateaubriand's "Description of
the Mahometan Paradise," in his Beauties of Christianity.
[167] Richardson thinks that Syria had its name
from Suri, a beautiful and delicate species of rose, for which that country
has always been famous; --hence, Suristan, the Land of Roses.
[168] "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.
[169] "The Syrinx or Pan's pipes is still a pastoral
instrument in Syria." --Russel.
[170] "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.
[171] "The River Jordan is on both sides beset
with little, thick, and pleasant woods, among which thousands of nightingales
warble all together." --Thevenot.
[172] The Temple of the Sun at Balbec.
[173] "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.
[174] "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 yelinnum ghell, or
Come, dear, follow me." --Aaron Hill's Travels.
[175] 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.
[176] 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.
[177] 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.
[178] 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. |