exist, and for which both Hindoos and Persians fought against their Mussulman invaders with, in many cases, a bravery that deserved much better

success.

Afric's Lunar Mountains.

"Sometimes called," says Jackson, "Jibbel Kumri or the white or lunar-coloured mountains; so a white horse is called by the Arabians a moon-coloured horse."

PAGE 93.

Only the fierce hyana stalks

Throughout the city's desolate walks.

"Gondar was full of hyænas from the time it turned dark till the dawn of day, seeking the differ. ent pieces of slaughtered carcasses, which this cruel and unclean people exposed in the streets without burial, and who firmly believe that these animals are Falashta from the neighbouring mountains, transformed by magic, and come down to eat human flesh in the dark in safety.”—Bruce.

PAGE 95.

But see who yonder comes.

This circumstance has been often introduced into poetry;-by Vincentius Fabricius, by Darwin, and lately, with very powerful effect, by Mr. Wilson.

PAGE 99.

And, Jordan, those sweet banks of thine,
And woods so full of nightingales.

"The river Jordan is on both sides beset with little, thick, and pleasant woods, among which thousands of nightingales warble all together."

Thevenot.

PAGE 100.

On the brink

Of a small imaret's rustic fount.

Imaret, "hospice où on loge et nourrit, gratis, les pélerins pendant trois jours."-Toderini, translated by the Abbe de Cournand.-v. also Castellan's Mœurs des Othomans, Tom. 5, p. 145.

PAGE 101.

The boy has started from his bed
Of flowers, where he had laid his head,
And down upon the fragrant sod

Kneels.

"Such Turks as at the common hours of prayer are on the road, or so employed as not to find con venience to attend the Mosques, are still obliged to execute that duty; nor are they ever known to fail, whatever business they are then about, but pray immediately when the hour alarms them, whatever they are about, in that very place they chance to stand on; insomuch that when a janissary, whom you have to guard you up and down the city, hears the notice which is given him from the steeples, he will turn about, stand still, and beckon with his hand, to tell his charge he must have patience for a while; when, taking out his handkerchief, he spreads it on the ground, sits cross-legged thereupon, and says his prayers, though in the open market, which having ended, he leaps briskly up, salutes the person whom he undertook to convey, and renews his journey with the mild expression of ghell gohnnum ghell, or, Come, dear, follow me."-Aaron Hill's Travels.

The wild bees of Palestine.

"Wild becs, frequent in Palestine, in hollow

trunks or branches of trees, and clefts of rocks. Thus it is said (Psalm 81), "honey out of the stony rock."-Burder's Oriental Customs.

PAGE 105.

The Banyan Hospital.

"This account excited a desire of visiting the Banyan Hospital, as I had heard much of their benevolence to all kinds of animals that were either sick, lame, or infirm, through age or accident. On my arrival there were presented to my view many horses, cows, and oxen, in one apartment; in another, dogs, sheep, goats, and monkeys, with clean straw for them to repose on. Above stairs were depositories for seeds of many sorts, and flat, broad dishes for water, for the use of birds and insects."Parsons.

It is said that all animals know the Banyans, that the most timid approach them, and that birds will fly nearer to them than to other people.—v. Grandpre.

Whose sweetness was not to be drawn forth, like that of the fragrant grass near the Ganges, by crushing and trampling upon them.

"A very fragrant grass upon the banks of the Ganges, near Heridwar, which in some places covers whole acres, and diffuses when crushed a strong odour."-Sir W. Jones on the Spikenard of the Ancients.

Oriental Tales.

PAGE 107.

Artisans in chariots.

PAGE 108.

Waved plates,of gold and silver flowers over their

heads.

"Or rather," says Scott, upon the passage of Fe.

rishta, from which this is taken, "small coin, stamped with the figure of a flower. They are still used in India to distribute in charity, and, on occasion, thrown by the purse-bearers of the great among the populace."

His delectable alley of trees.

This road is 250 leagues in length. It has "little pyramids or turrets," says Bernier, "erected every half league, to mark the ways, and frequent wells to afford drink to passengers, and to water the young trees."

PAGE 109.

On the clear, cold waters of which floated multitudes of the beautiful red lotus.

"Here is a large pagoda by a tank, on the water of which float multitudes of the beautiful red lotus: the flower is larger than that of the white waterlily, and is the most lovely of the nymphæas I have seen." Mrs. Grant's Journal of a Residence in India.

PAGE 110.

Who many hundred years since had fled hither from their Arab conquerors.

"On les voit persécutés par les Khalifes se retirer dans les montagnes du Kerman: plusieurs choisirent pour retraite la Tartarie et la Chine; d'autres s'arrêtèrent sur les bords du Gange, à l'est de Delhi."-M. Anquetil, Mémoires de l'Academie, tom. xxxi. p. 346.

As a native of Cashmere, which had in the same manner become the prey of strangers.

"Cashmere (says its historians) had its own Princes 4000 years before its conquest by Akbar in 1585. Akbar would have found some difficulty to 178

reduce this Paradise of the Indies, situated as it is, within such a fortress of mountains, but its monarch, Yusef Khan, was basely betrayed by his Omrahs." -Pennant.

PAGE 111.

"Les

His story of the Fire-worshippers. Voltaire tells us that in his Tragedy Guebres," he was generally supposed to have alluded to the Jansenists; and I should not be surprised if this story of the Fire-worshippers were found capable of a similar doubleness of application.

PAGE 115.

Who, lull'd in cool kiosk or bower.

"In the midst of the garden is the chiosk, that is, a large room, commonly beautified with a fine foun tain in the midst of it. It is raised nine or ten steps, and inclosed with gilded lattices, round which vines, jessamines, and honey-suckles make a sort of green wall: large trees are planted round this place, which is the scene of their greatest pleasures."Lady M. W. Montagu.

Before their mirrors count the time.

The women of the East are never without their looking-glasses. "In Barbary," says Shaw, "they are so fond of their looking-glasses, which they hang upon their breasts, that they will not lay them aside, even when, after the drudgery of the day, they are obliged to go two or three miles with a pitcher or a goat's skin to fetch water."-Travels.

In other parts of Asia they wear little lookingglasses on their thumbs. "Hence (and from the lotus being considered the emblem of beauty) is the meaning of the following mute intercourse of two lovers before their parents.