(A summons proud and rare, which all but she, And she, till now, had heard with ecstasy;) To meet MOKANNA at his place of A garden oratory, cool and fair, prayer, By the stream's side, where still at close of day Of late none found such favour in his sight As the young Priestess; and though, since that night When the death-caverns echoed every tone Of the dire oath that made her all his own, The' Impostor, sure of his infatuate prize, Had, more than once, thrown off his soul's disguise, The thought, still haunting her, of that bright brow, -as perfumes rise Through flame and smoke, most welcome to the skies— And that when Azım's fond, divine embrace Should circle her in heav'n, no darkening trace Would on that bosom he once lov'd remain, These were the wildering dreams, whose curst deceit Wan and dejected, through the evening dusk, She now went slowly to that small kiosk, Where, pondering alone his impious schemes, MOKANNA waited her too wrapt in dreams Of the fair-ripening future's rich success, To heed the sorrow, pale and spiritless, That sat upon his victim's downcast brow, Or mark how slow her step, how alter'd now From the quick, ardent Priestess, whose light bound Came like a spirit's o'er the' unechoing ground,From that wild ZELICA, whose every glance Was thrilling fire, whose every thought a trance! Upon his couch the Veil'd MOKANNA lay, While lamps around—not such as lend their ray, Glimmering and cold, to those who nightly pray In holy Kooм *, or MECCA's dim arcades, And still he drank and ponder'd nor could see At length, with fiendish laugh, like that which broke "Yes, ye vile race, for hell's amusement given, "Too mean for earth, yet claiming kin with heaven; "God's images forsooth!- such gods as he "Whom INDIA serves, the monkey deity; § "The cities of Com (or Koom) and Cashan are full of mosques, mausoleums, and sepulchres of the descendants of Ali, the Saints of Persia." CHARDIN. An island in the Persian Gulf, celebrated for its white wine. The miraculous well at Mecca; so called, says Sale, from the murmuring of its waters. § The god Hannaman. "Apes are in many parts of India highly venerated, out of respect to the God Hannaman, a deity partaking of the form of that race."- PENNANT'S Hindoostan. See a curious account, in Stephen's Persia, of a solemn embassy from some part of the Indies to Goa, when the Portuguese were there, offering vast treasures for the recovery of a monkey's tooth, which "Ye creatures of a breath, proud things of clay, "Refus'd, though at the forfeit of heaven's light, 66 Of your foul race, and without fear or check, "My deep-felt, long-nurst loathing of man's name!- way on "Ye wise, ye learn'd, who grope your dull "By the dim twinkling gleams of ages gone, "Like superstitious thieves, who think the light "From dead men's marrow guides them best at nightf they held in great veneration, and which had been taken away upon the conquest of the kingdom of Jafanapatan. 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. † 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. "Ye shall have honours-wealth, - yes, Sages, yes — "I know, grave fools, your wisdom's nothingness; "But a gilt stick, a bawble blinds it here. "In lying speech, and still more lying song, "By these learn'd slaves, the meanest of the throng; "Their wits bought up, their wisdom shrunk so small, "A scepter's puny point can wield it all! "Ye too, believers of incredible creeds, "Whose faith enshrines the monsters which it breeds; "Your preaching zealots, too inspir'd to seek * 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.” — SYME's Ava, vol. ii. p. 376. |