(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
The Prophet of the Veil retir❜d to pray;
Sometimes alone but, oftener far, with one,
One chosen nymph to share his orison.

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,
And utter'd such unheav'nly, monstrous things,
As ev'n across the desperate wanderings
Of a weak intellect, whose lamp was out,
Threw startling shadows of dismay and doubt;
Yet zeal, ambition, her tremendous vow,

The thought, still haunting her, of that bright brow,
Whose blaze, as yet from mortal eye conceal'd,
Would soon, proud triumph! be to her reveal'd,
To her alone; -and then the hope, most dear,
Most wild of all, that her transgression here
Was but a passage through earth's grosser fire,
From which the spirit would at last aspire,
Ev'n purer than before,

-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,
But all be bright, be pure, be his again!

These were the wildering dreams, whose curst deceit
Had chain'd her soul beneath the tempter's feet,
And made her think ev'n damning falsehood sweet.
But now that Shape, which had appall'd her view,
That Semblance - oh how terrible, if true!
Which came across her frenzy's full career
With shock of consciousness, cold, deep, severe,
As when, in northern seas, at midnight dark,
An isle of ice encounters some swift bark,
And, startling all its wretches from their sleep,
By one cold impulse hurls them to the deep;
So came that shock not frenzy's self could bear,
And waking up each long-lull'd image there,
But check'd her headlong soul, to sink it in despair!

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,
But brilliant, soft, such lights as lovely maids.
Look loveliest in, shed their luxurious glow
Upon his mystic Veil's white glittering flow.
Beside him, 'stead of beads and books of prayer,
Which the world fondly thought he mused on there,
Stood Vases, fill'd with KISHMEE's† golden wine,
And the red weepings of the SHIRAZ Vine;
Of which his curtain'd lips full many a draught
Took zealously, as if each drop they quaff'd,
Like ZEMZEM's Spring of Holiness ‡, had power
To freshen the soul's virtues into flower!

And still he drank and ponder'd nor could see
The' approaching maid, so deep his reverie;

At length, with fiendish laugh, like that which broke
From EBLIS at the Fall of Man, he spoke :.

"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,
"To whom if LUCIFER, as grandams say,

"Refus'd, though at the forfeit of heaven's light,
"To bend in worship, LUCIFER was right!*—
"Soon shall I plant this foot upon the neck

66 Of your foul race, and without fear or check,
"Luxuriating in hate, avenge my shame,

"My deep-felt, long-nurst loathing of man's name!-
"Soon at the head of myriads, blind and fierce
"As hooded falcons, through the universe
"I'll sweep my darkening, desolating way,
"Weak man my instrument, curst man my prey!

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;
"Undazzled it can track yon starry sphere,

"But a gilt stick, a bawble blinds it here.
"How I shall laugh, when trumpeted along,

"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;
'Who, bolder ev'n than NEMROD, think to rise,
"By nonsense heap'd on nonsense, to the skies;
"Ye shall have miracles, aye, sound ones too,
"Seen, heard, attested, every thing — but true.

"Your preaching zealots, too inspir'd to seek
"One grace of meaning for the things they speak;
"Your martyrs, ready to shed out their blood,
"For truths too heavenly to be understood;
"And your State Priests, sole vendors of the lore,
"That works salvation ;- as on Ava's shore,
"Where none but priests are privileg❜d to trade
"In that best marble of which Gods are made;
"They shall have mysteries-aye, precious stuff
"For knaves to thrive by mysteries enough;

* 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.