The one,

Except-except-oh NOURMAHAL!
Thou loveliest, dearest of them all,
whose smile shone out alone,
Amidst a world the only one;
Whose light, among so many lights,
Was like that star on starry nights,
The seaman singles from the sky,
To steer his bark for ever by!

Thou wert not there-so SELIM thought,

And every thing seem'd drear without thee;
But, ah! thou wert, thou wert,—and brought
Thy charm of song all fresh about thee.
Mingling unnotic'd with a band

Of lutanists from many a land,
And veil'd by such a mask as shades
The features of young Arab maids,*
A mask that leaves but one eye free,
To do its best in witchery,-
She rov'd, with beating heart, around,
And waited, trembling, for the minute
When she might try if still the sound
Of her lov'd lute had magic in it.

The board was spread with fruits and wine;
With grapes of gold, like those that shine
On CASBIN'S hills;+-promegranates fuil
Of melting sweetness, and the pears,
And sunniest applest that CAUBUL
In all its thousand gardens§ bears;-

-

The Arabian women wear black masks with little clasps, prettily ordered."- Carreri. Niebuhr mentions

their showing but one eye in conversation.

+"The golden grapes of Casbin."- Description of Persia. "The fruits exported from Caubul are apples, pears, pomegranates, &c."-Elphinstone.

§ We sat down under a tree, listened to the birds, and talked with the son of our Mehmaunder about our country and Caubul, of which he gave an enchanting account: that city and its 100,000 gardens, &c."-Id.

Plantains, the golden and the green,
MALAYA'S nectar'd mangusteen ;*
Prunes of BOKARA, and sweet nuts
From the far groves of SAMARCAND,
And BASRA dates, and apricots,

Seed of the Sun,† from IRAN's land;-
With rich conserve of Visna cherries,
Of orange flowers, and of those berries
That, wild and fresh, the young gazelles
Feed on in ERAC's rocky dells.§
All these in richest vases smile,

In baskets of pure santal-wood,
And urns of porcelain from that islell
Sunk underneath the Indian flood,
Whence oft the lucky diver brings
Vases to grace the halls of kings.
Wines too, of every clime and hue,
Around their liquid lustre threw;
Amber Rosolli, T-the bright dew
From vineyards of the Green-Sea gushing**
And Shiraz wine, that richly ran

As if that jewel, large and rare,
The ruby, for which KUBLAI-KHAN

"The Mangusteen, the most delicate fruit in the world, the pride of the Malay Islands."-Marsden.

+"A delicious kind of apricot, called by the Persians tokm-ek-shems, signifying sun's seed."-Description of Persia.

"Sweetmeats in a crystal cup, consisting of rose-leaves in conserve, with lemon or Visna cherry, or orange flowers, &c."-Russel.

S"Antelopes cropping the fresh berries of Erac."-The Maollakat, Poem of Tarafa.

Manri-ga-Sima, an island near Formosa, supposed to have been sunk in the sea for the crimes of its inhabitants. The vessels which the fishermen and divers bring up from it are sold at an immense price in China and Japan.-v. Kempfer.

Persian Tales.

**The white wine of Kishra,

Offer'd a city's wealth,* was blushing

Melted within the goblets there!
And amply SELIM quaffs of each,
And seems resolv'd the flood shall reach
His inward heart,-shedding around
A genial deluge, as they run,

That soon shall leave no spot undrown'd,
For Love to rest his wings upon.
He little knew how well the boy

Can float upon a goblet's streams,
Lighting them with his smile of joy ;-
As bards have seen him in their dreams,
Down the blue GANGES laughing glide
Upon a rosy lotus wreath,t

Catching new lustre from the tide

That with his image shone beneath.
But what are cups, without the aid
Of song to speed them as they flow?
And see-a lovely Georgian maid,
With all the bloom, the freshen'd glow
Of her own country maidens' looks,
When warm they rise from TEFLIS' brooks;
And with an eye, whose restless ray,

Full, floating, dark-oh he, who knows
His heart is weak, of Heav'n should pray
To guard him from such eyes as those!-
With a voluptuous wildness flings
Her snowy hand across the strings
Of a syrinda,§ and thus sings:-

"The King of Zeilan is said to have the very finest ruby that was ever seen. Kublai-Khan sent and offered the value of a city for it, but the King answered he would not give it for the treasure of the world."-Marco Polo.

The Indians feign that Cupid was first seen floating down the Ganges on the Nymphæa Nelumbo. v. Pennant. Teflis is celebrated for its natural warm baths. v. Ebn Haukel.

§

"The Indian Syrinda or guitar."—Symes.

Come hither, come hither-by night and by day,
We linger in pleasures that never are gone;
Like the waves of the summer, as one dies away,
Another as sweet and as shining comes on.
And the love that is o'er, in expiring, gives birth
To a new one as warm, as unequall'd in bliss;
And, oh! if there be an Elysium on earth,
It is this, it is this.

Here maidens are sighing, and fragrant their sigh
As the flower of the Amra just op'd by a bee:*
And precious their tears as that rain from the sky,t
Which turns into pearls as it falls in the sea.
Oh! think what the kiss and the smile must be worth
When the sigh and the tear are so perfect in bliss,
And own if there be an Elysium on earth,

It is this, it is this.

Here sparkles the nectar that, hallow'd by love, Could draw down those angels of old from their sphere,

Who for wine of this earth left the fountains above, And forgot heaven's stars for the eyes we have here. And, bless'd with the odour our goblet gives forth, What Spirit the sweets of his Eden would miss ? For, oh! if there be an Elysium on earth,

It is this, it is this.

The Georgian's song was scarcely mute,
When the same measure, sound for sound,
Was caught up by another lute,

And so divinely breath'd around,

"Delightful are the flowers of the Amra trees on the mountain-tops, while the murmuring bees pursue their voluptuous toil."-Song of Jayadeva.

"The Nisan or drops of spring rain, which they be lieve to produce pearls if they fall into shells."-Richard

son.

For an account of the share which wine had in the fall of the angels, v. Mariti.

That all stood hush'd and wondering,
And turn'd and look'd into the air,
As if they thought to see the wing
Of ISRAFIL, the Angel, there
So powerfully on every soul

;

That new, enchanted measure stole.
While now a voice, sweet as the note
Of the charm'd lute, was heard to float
Along its chords, and so entwine

Its sounds with theirs, that none knew whether The voice or lute was most divine,

So wondrously they went together:

There's a bliss beyond all that the minstrel has told,
When two, that are link'd in one heavenly tie,
With heart never changing, and brow never cold,
Love on through all ills, and love on till they die!
One hour of a passion so sacred is worth

Whole ages of heartless and wandering bliss;
And, oh! if there be an Elysium on earth,
It is this, it is this.

'Twas not the air, 'twas not the words,
But that deep magic in the chords
And in the lips, that gave such power
As Music knew not till that hour.
At once a hundred voices said,
"It is the mask'd Arabian maid!"
While SELIM, who had felt the strain
Deepest of any, and had lain
Some minutes rapt, as in a trance,

After the fairy sounds were o'er,

Too inly touch'd for utterance,

Now motion'd with his hand for more :

* The angel of Music. v. note, 168.