"Bigoted aghast, ejaculating only at intervals conquerors! — sympathy with Fire-worshippers!" while FERAMORZ, happy to take advantage of this almost speechless horror of the Chamberlain, proceeded to say that he knew a melancholy story, connected with the events of one of those brave struggles of the Fire-worshippers of Persia against their Arab masters, which, if the evening was not too far advanced, he should have much pleasure in being allowed to relate to the Princess. It was impossible for LALLA ROOKн to refuse; he had never before looked half so animated, and when he spoke of the Holy Valley his eyes had sparkled, she thought, like the talismanic characters on the scimitar of Solomon. Her consent was therefore most readily granted, and while FADLADEEN sat in unspeakable dismay, expecting treason and abomination in every line, the poet thus began his story of the Fire-worshippers: - Her banks of pearl and palmy isles And her blue waters sleep in smiles. All hush'd -- there's not a breeze in motion; If zephyrs come, so light they come, Nor leaf is stirr'd nor wave is driven; The Persian Gulf, sometimes so called, which separates the shores of Persia and Arabia. 2 The present Gombaroon, a town on the Persian side of the Gulf. 3 A Moorish instrument of music. The wind-tower on the EMIR's dome + Ev'n he, that tyrant Arab, sleeps 5 His race hath brought on IRAN's name. Mid eyes that weep and swords that strike; - In the warm blood his hand hath pour'd, Engraven on his reeking sword; 4"At Gombaroon and other places in Persia, they have towers for the purpose of catching the wind, and cooling the houses." Le Bruyn. 5" Iran is the true general name for the empire of Persia.". Asiat. Res. Disc. 5. 6" On the blades of their scimitars some verse from the Koran is usually inscribed. ". Russel. Nay, who can coolly note the line, The letter of those words divine, To which his blade, with searching art, Just ALLA! what must be thy look, When such a wretch before thee stands Unblushing, with thy Sacred Book, — His creed of lust and hate and crime? Ev'n as those bees of TREBIZOND, Which from the sunniest flowers that glad With their pure smile the gardens round, Draw venom forth that drives men mad! 7 Never did fierce ARABIA send A satrap forth more direly great; Never was IRAN doom'd to bend Beneath a yoke of deadlier weight. Her throne had fall'n - her pride was crush'd Her sons were willing slaves, nor blush'd, "There is a kind of Rhododendros about Trebizond, whose flowers the bee feeds upon, and the honey thence drives people mad." Tournefort. In their own land, no more their own, Her towers, where MITHRA once had burn'd, To Moslem shrines oh shame! were turn'd, Where slaves, converted by the sword, O'er all this wreck high buoyant still With hope and vengeance; hearts that yet, Like gems, in darkness issuing rays They've treasur'd from the sun that's set, - Becalm'd in Heav'n's approving ray! Sleep on for purer eyes than thine Those waves are hush'd, those planets shine. Sleep on, and be thy rest unmov'd By the white moonbeam's dazzling power; N |