The diver steer'd for ORMUS' bowers, Nor friends upon the lessening strand Or speak the farewell, heard no more; But lone, unheeded, from the bay Like some ill-destin'd bark that steers In silence through the Gate of Tears.† "The Easterns used to set out on their longer voyages with music.". Harmer. † "The Gate of Tears, the straits or passage into the Red Sea, commonly called Babelmandel. It received this name from the old Arabians, on account of the danger of the navigation, and the number of shipwrecks by which it was distinguished; which induced And where was stern AL HASSAN then? Could not that saintly scourge of men Of cursing and of prayer, he sits Upon the coming night of blood, With that keen, second-scent of death, By which the vulture snuffs his food In the still warm and living breath!* Let loose to tell of victory won, them to consider as dead, and to wear mourning for all who had the boldness to hazard the passage through it into the Ethiopic ocean." -Richardson. * “I have been told that whensoever an animal falls down dead, one or more vultures, unseen before, instantly appear."— Pennant. "They fasten some writing to the wings of a Bagdat or Babylonian pigeon."- Travels of certain Englishmen. Flies home, with wing, ah! not unstain'd By the red hands that held her chain'd. And does the long-left home she seeks Light up no gladness on her cheeks? The flowers she nurs'd-the well-known groves, And the gay, gleaming fishes count, Shooting around their jasper fount; Her little garden mosque to see, And once again, at evening hour, To tell her ruby rosary † In her own sweet acacia bower. * "The Empress of Jehan-Guire used to divert herself with feeding tame fish in her canals, some of which were many years afterwards known by fillets of gold, which she caused to be put round them." — Harris. "Le Tespih, qui est un chapelet, composé de 99 petites boules d'agate, de jaspe, d'ambre, de corail, ou d'autre matière précieuse. |