Had conjur'd up, far as the eye can see,

This world of tents, and domes, and sun-bright armory :—
Princely pavilions, screen'd by many a fold

Of crimson cloth, and topp'd with balls of gold:
Steeds, with their housings of rich silver spun,
Their chains and poitrels glittering in the sun;
And camels, tufted o'er with Yemen's shells,*
Shaking in every breeze their light-ton'd bells!

But yester-eve, so motionless around, So mute was this wide plain, that not a sound But the far torrent, or the locust bird † Hunting among the thickets, could be heard ;Yet hark! what discords now, of every kind, Shouts, laughs, and screams are revelling in the wind; The neigh of cavalry ;-the tinkling throngs Of laden camels and their drivers' songs;‡

* "A superb camel, ornamented with strings and tufts of small shells." ALI BEY.

† 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.

"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.

-

Ringing of arms, and flapping in the breeze
Of streamers from ten thousand canopies;
War-music, bursting out from time to time,
With gong and tymbalon's tremendous chime;
Or, in the pause, when harsher sounds are mute,
The mellow breathings of some horn or flute,
That far off, broken by the eagle note
Of the' Abyssinian trumpet *, swell and float.

"who?"

Who leads this mighty army? ask ye
And mark ye not those banners of dark hue,
The Night and Shadow †, over yonder tent?
It is the CALIPH's glorious armament.
Rous'd in his Palace by the dread alarms,
That hourly came, of the false Prophet's arms,
And of his host of infidels, who hurl'd
Defiance fierce at Islam ‡ and the world,
Though worn with Grecian warfare, and behind
The veils of his bright Palace calm reclin❜d,
Yet brook'd he not such blasphemy should stain,
Thus unreveng'd, the evening of his reign;
But, having sworn upon the Holy Grave §
To conquer or to perish, once more gave

This trumpet is often called, in Abyssinia, nesser cano, which signifies the Note of the Eagle."— Note of Bruce's Editor.

+ The two black standards borne before the Caliphs of the House of Abbas were called, allegorically, The Night and The Shadow, See Gibbon.

The Mahometan religion.

§ "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.

His shadowy banners proudly to the breeze,
And with an army, nurs'd in victories,
Here stands to crush the rebels that o'er-run
His blest and beauteous Province of the Sun.

Ne'er did the march of MAHADI display
Such pomp before;-not ev'n when on his way
TO MECCA'S Temple, when both land and sea
Were spoil'd to feed the Pilgrim's luxury; *
When round him, mid the burning sands, he saw
Fruits of the North in icy freshness thaw,
And cool'd his thirsty lip, beneath the glow

Of MECCA'S sun, with urns of Persian snow: t-
Nor e'er did armament more grand than that
Pour from the kingdoms of the Caliphat.
First, in the van, the People of the Rock,

On their light mountain steeds, of royal stock: §
Then, chieftains of DAMASCUS, proud to see

The flashing of their swords' rich marquetry ;

* Mahadi, in a single pilgrimage to Mecca, expended six millions of dinars of gold.

t "Nivem Meccam apportavit, rem ibi aut nunquam aut raro visam." ABULFEDA.

The inhabitants of Hejaz or Arabia Petræa, called by an Eastern writer"The People of the Rock." See Ebn Haukal.

§ "Those horses, called by the Arabians Kochlani, of whom a written genealogy has been kept for 2000 years. They are said to derive their origin from King Solomon's steeds.". NIEBUHR.

"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.

Men, from the regions near the VOLGA's mouth,
Mix'd with the rude, black archers of the South;
And Indian lancers, in white-turban'd ranks,
From the far SINDE, or ATTOCK's sacred banks,
With dusky legions from the Land of Myrrh,*
And many a mace-arm'd Moor and Mid-sea islander

Nor less in number, though more new and rude
In warfare's school, was the vast multitude
That, fir'd by zeal, or by oppression wrong'd,
Round the white standard of the' impostor throng'd.
Beside his thousands of Believers

- blind,

Burning and headlong as the Samiel wind

Many who felt, and more who fear'd to feel
The bloody Islamite's converting steel,

Flock'd to his banner; Chiefs of the' UZBEK race,
Waving their heron crests with martial grace; †
TURKOMANS, countless as their flocks, led forth
From the' aromatic pastures of the North;
Wild warriors of the turquoise hills ‡,—and those
Who dwell beyond the everlasting snows
Of HINDOO KOSH §, in stormy freedom bred,
Their fort the rock, their camp the torrent's bed.

* Azab or Saba.

"The chiefs of the Uzbek Tartars wear a plume of white heron's feathers in their turbans.". · Account of Independent Tartary.

+ "In the mountains of Nishapour and Tous (in Khorassan) they find turquoises."— EBN HAUKAL.

§ For a description of these stupendous ranges of mountains, see Elphinstone's Caubul.

But none, of all who own'd the Chief's command,
Rush'd to that battle-field with bolder hand,
Or sterner hate, than IRAN's outlaw'd men,
Her Worshippers of Fire * — all panting then
For vengeance on the' accursed Saracen ;
Vengeance at last for their dear country spurn'd,
Her throne usurp'd, and her bright shrines o'erturn'd.
From YEZD's † eternal Mansion of the Fire,
Where aged saints in dreams of Heav'n expire:
From BADKU, and those fountains of blue flame
That burn into the CASPIAN ‡, fierce they came,
Careless for what or whom the blow was sped,
So vengeance triumph'd, and their tyrants bled.

Such was the wild and miscellaneous host, That high in air their motley banners tost Around the Prophet-Chief- all eyes still bent Upon that glittering Veil, where'er it went,

*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.

"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 3000 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.

"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.