entitled "The History of Jerusalem," Oriental Collections, vol. i. p. 235.-When Soliman travelled, the western writers say, "He had a carpet of green silk on which his throne was placed, being of a prodigious length and breadth, and sufficient for all his forces to stand upon, the men placing themselves on his right hand, and the spirits on his left; and that when all were in order, the wind, at his command, took up the carpet, and transported it, with all that were upon it, wherever he pleased; the army of birds at the same time flying over their heads, and forming a kind of canopy to shade them from the sun."-Sale's Koran p. 214. note.

PAGE 16.

and, thence descending, flow'd Through many a prophet's breast.

This is according to D'Herbelot's accouut of the doctrines of Mokanna:-"Sa doctrine étoit, que Dieu avoit pris une forme et figure humaine, depuis qu'il eut commandé aux Anges d'adorer Adam, le premier des hommes. Qu'aprés la mort d'Adam, Dieu etoit apparu sous la figure de plusieurs Prophétes, et autres grands hommes qu'il avoit chosis, jusqu'à ce qu'il prit celle d'Abu Moslem, Prince de Khorassan, lequel professoit l'erreur de la Tenassukhiah ou Metempschychose; et qu'aprés la mort de ce Prince, la Divinité étoit passée, et descendue en sa personne." PAGE 26.

Such Gods as he, Whom India serves, the monkey Deity.

Apes are in many parts of India highly venerated, out of respect to the God Hannaman, a deity par taking of the form of that race."-Pennant's Hindostan.

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 they held in great veneration, and which had been taken away upon the conquest of the kingdom of Jafanapatan.

-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.

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 af. terwards 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 satisfied with looking at it, kicked it with his foot till it rung, and knowing God designed that creature to be his supe.. rior, took a secret resolution never to acknowledge him as such."-Sale on the Koran.

PAGE 28.

Where none but priests are priviliged to trade
In that best marble of which God's are made.

The material of which images of Gaudma, (the Birman Deity) is made, is held sacred. "Birmans may not purchase the marble in mass, but are suffered, and indeed encouraged, to buy figures of the Deity made ready."-Symes's Ava, vol. ii. p. 376.

PAGE 33.

The puny bird that dares, with teasing hum Within the crocodile's stretch'd jaws to come.

The humming-bird is said to run this risk for the purpose of picking the crocodile's teeth. The same circumstance is related of the Lapwing, as a fact to which he was a witness, by Paul Lucas, Voyage fait en 1714.

PAGE 35.

Some artists of Yamtcheou having been sent on previously." The feast of Lanterns is celebrated at Yamtcheou with more magnificence than any where else: and the report goes, that the illuminations there are so splendid, that an Emperor once, not daring openly to leave his Court to go thither, com. mitted himself with the Queen and several Prin cesses of his family into the hands of a magician, who promised to transport them thither in a trance. He made them by night to ascend magnificent thrones that were borne up by swans, which in a moment arrived at Yamtcheou. The Emperor saw at his leisure all the solemnity, being carried upon a cloud that hovered over the city and descended by degrees; and came back again with the same speed and equipage, nobody at court perceiving his abscence." The present State of China, p. 156.

Artificial sceneries of bamboo-work.-See a description of the nuptials of Vizier Alee in the Asiatic Annual Register of 1804.

The origin of these fantastic Chinese illuminations.-"The vulgar ascribe it to an accident that happened in the family of a famous mandarin, whose daughter walking one evening upon the shore of a lake, fell in and was drowned: this afflicted father, with his family, ran thither, and, the better to find her, he caused a great company of lanterns to be

lighted. All the inhabitants of the place thronged after him with torches. The year ensuing they made fires upon the shores the same day; they con tinued the ceremony every year, every one lighted his lantern, and by degrees it commenced into a custom."-The present State of China.

PAGE 37.

The Kohol's jetty dye.

"None of these ladies," says Shaw, "take themselves to be completely dressed, till they have tinged the hair and edges of their eyelids with the powder of lead ore. Now, as this operation is performed by dipping first into the powder a small wooden bodkin of the thickness of a quill, and then drawing it afterwards through the eyelids over the ball of the eye, we shall have a lively image of what the Prophet (Jer. iv. 30.) may be supposed to mean by rending the eyes with painting. This practice is no doubt of great antiquity; for besides the instance already taken notice of, we find that where Jezebel is said (2 Kings, ix. 50.) to have painted her face, the original words are, she adjusted her eyes with the powder of lead ore."-Shaw's Travels.

PAGE 39.

drop

About the gardens, drunk with that sweet food. Tavernier adds, that while the Birds of Paradise lie in this intoxicated state, the emmets come and eat off their legs; and that hence it is they are said to have no feet.

PAGE 42.

As they were captives to the King of Flowers.

"They deferred it till the King of Flowers should Escend his throne of enamelled foliage."-The Bahardanush.

PAGE 43.

But a light golden chain-work round her hair, &c. "One of the head-dresses of the Persian women, is composed of a light golden chain-work, set with small pearls, with a thin gold plate pendant, about the bigness of a crown-piece, on which is impressed an Arabian prayer, and which hangs upon the cheek below the ear."-Hanway's Travels.

The maids of Yezd.

"Certainly the women of Yezd are the handsomest women in Persia. The proverb is, that to live happy a man must have a wife of Yezd, eat the bread of Yezdecas, and drink the wine of Shiraz."-Taver nier.

PAGE 46.

And his floating eyes-oh! they resemble
Blue water-lilies

"Whose wanton eyes resemble blue water-lilies, agitated by the breeze."-Jayadeva.

I perceive there is a false rhyme in this song, which, often as I have read it over, never struck me till this moment.

PAGE 47.

To muse upon the picture that hung round.

It has generally been supposed that the Mahometaus prohibit all pictures of animals; but Todevini shews, that though the practice is forbidden by the Koran, they are not more averse to painted figures and images than other people. From Mr. Murphy's work, too, we find that the Arabs of Spain had no objection to the introduction of figures into painting.