the Dead Sea, in that wonderful display of genius, his Third Canto of Childe Harold,-magnificent beyond any thing, perhaps, that even he has ever written.

While lakes that shone in mockery nigh.

"The Suhrab or Water of the Desert is said to be caused by the rarefaction of the atmosphere from extreme heat; and, which augments the delusion, it is most frequent in hollows, where water might be expected to lodge. I have seen bushes and trees reflected in it, with as much accuracy as though it had been the face of a clear and still lake."-Pottinger.

"As to the unbelievers, their works are like a vapour in a plain, which the thirsty traveller thinketh to be water, until when he cometh thereto he findeth it to be nothing,"-Koran, chap. 24.

PAGE 142.

A flower that the Bid-musk has just passed over. "A wind which prevails in February, called Bidmusk from a small and odoriferous flower of that name. ""The wind which blows these flowers commonly lasts till the end of the month."-Le Bruyn. Where the sea-gipsies, who live for ever on the water.

"The Biajús are of two races; the one is settled on Borneo, and are a rude but warlike and industrious nation, who reckon themselves the original possessors of the island of Borneo. The other is a species of sea-gipsies or itinerant fishermen, who live in small covered boats, and enjoy a perpetual summer on the eastern ocean, shifting to leeward from island to island, with the variations of the monsoon. In some of their customs this singular race resemble the natives of the Maldivia islands. The Maldivians annually launch a small bark, loaded with perfumes, gums, flowers, and odoriferous wood, and turn it adrift at the mercy of wind and waves, as an offering to the Spirit of the Winds; and sometimes similar offerings are made to the spirit whom they term the King of

the Sea. In like manner the Biajús perform their offering to the god of evil, launching a small bark, loaded with all the sins and misfortunes of the nation, which are imagined to fall on the unhappy crew that may be so unlucky as first to meet with it."-Dr. Leyden on the Languages and Literature of the Indo-Chinese Nations.

The violet sherbets,

"The sweet-scented violet is one of the plants most esteemed, particularly for its great use in Sorbet, which they make of violet sugar."-Hasselquist,

"The sherbet they most esteem, and which is drank by the Grand Signor himself, is made of violets and sugar."-Tavernier.

The pathetic measure of Nava.

"Last of all she took a guitar and sung a pathetic air in the measure called Nava, which is always used to express the lamentations of absent lovers."-Persian Tales.

PAGE 145.

Her ruby rosary.

"Le Tesiph, qui est un chapelet, composé de 99 petites boules d'agathe, de jaspe, d'ambre, de corail, ou d'autre matiere precieuse. J'en ai vu un superbe au Seigneur Jerpos; il étoit de belles et grosses perles parfaites et égales, estimé trente mille piatres."Toderini,

PAGE 156.

A silk dyed with the blossom of the sorrowful tree Nilica.

"Blossoms of the sorrowful Nyctanthes give a durable colour to silk."-Remarks on the Husbandry of Bengal, p. 200. Nilica is one of the Indian names of this flower.-Sir W. Jones.-The Persians cail it Gul.-Carreri.

PAGE 164.

When pitying heaven to roses turn'd
The death-flame that beneath him burn'd.

Of their other Prophet, Zoroaster, there is a story told in Dion Prusaus, Orat, 36, that the love of wisdom and virtue leading him to a solitary life upon a mountain, he found one day all in a flame, shining with celestial fire, out of which he came without any harm, and instituted certain sacrifices to God, who, he declared, then appeared to him,-v. Patrick on Exodus, iii. 2,

PAGE 182.

They were now not far from that Forbidden River.

"Akbar on his way ordered a fort to be built upon the Nilab, which he called Attock, which means in the Indian language Forbidden; for, by the superstition of the Hindoos, it was held unlawful to cross that river."-Dow's Hindostan,

PAGE 183.

Resembling, she often thought, that people of Zinge. "The inhabitants of this country (Zinge) are never afflicted with sadness or melancholy: on this subject the Sheikh Abu-al-Kheir-Azhari has the following distich:

"Who is the man without care or sorrow (tell) that I may rub my hand to him.

(Behold) the Zingians, without care or sorrow, frolicksome with tipsiness and mirth."

"The philosophers have discovered that the cause of this cheerfulness proceeds from the influence of the star Soheil or Canopus, which rises over them every night."-Extract from a geographical Persian Manuscript called Heft Aklim, or the Seven Climates, translated by W. Ousely, Esq.

About two miles from Hussun Abdaul were the Royal Gardens.

I am indebted for these particulars of Hussun Ab

daul to the very interesting Introduction of Mr. El. phinstone's work upon Caubul.

Putting to death some hundreds of those unfortunate lizards.

"The lizard Stellio. The Arabs call it Hardun. The Turks kill it, for they imagine that by declining the head it mimics them when they say their prayers."Hasselquist.

As the Prophet said of Damascus, "it was too

delicious.'

"As you enter at that Bazar without the gate of Damascus, you see the Green Mosque, so called because it hath a steeple faced with green glazed bricks, which render it very resplendent; it is covered at top with a pavilion of the same stuff. The Turks say this mosque was made in that place, because Mahomet being come so far, would not enter the town, say. ing it was too delicious.-Thevenot.-This reminds one of the following pretty passage in Isaac Walton:"When I sat last on this primrose bank and looked down these meadows, I thought of them as Charles the Emperor did of the City of Florence, that they were too pleasant to be looked on, but only on holidays."

PAGE 184.

Would remind the Princess of that difference, &c,

'Haroun Al Raschid, cinquieme Khalife des Abassides, s'étant un jour brouillé avec une de ses maîtresses nommée Maridah, qu'il aimoit cependant jusqu'à l'excés, et cette mésintelligence ayant déjà duré quelque tems commença à s'ennuyer, Giafar Barmaki, son favori, qui s'en apperçut, commanda a Abbas ben Ahnaf, excellent Poête de ce tems là de composer quelques vers sur le sujet de cette brouillerie, Ce Poète executa l'ordre de Giafar, qui fit chanter ces vers par Moussali en presence du Khalife, et ce Prince fut tellement touché de lav tendresse des ers du poëte et de la douceur de la voix du musicien

qu'il alla aussi-tôt trouver Maridah, et fit sa paix avec elle."-D'Herbelot,

PAGE 188.

Where the silken swing,

"The swing is a favourite pastime in the East, as promoting a circulation of air, extremely refreshing in those sultry climates,"-Richardson,

"The swings are adorned with festoons. This pastime is accompanied with music of voices and of instruments, hired by the master of the swings."Thevenot,

PAGE 196.

The basil tuft that waves

Its fragrant blossoms over graves,

"The women in Egypt go, at least two days in the week, to pray and weep at the sepulchres of the dead; and the custom then is to throw upon the tombs a sort of herb, which the Arabs call rihan, and which is our sweet basil,"-Maillet, Lett. 10.

PAGE 198.

The mountain-herb that dyes
The tooth of the fawn like gold.

Niebuhr thinks this may be the herb which the Eastern alchymists look to as a means of making gold. "Most of those alchymical enthusiasts think them. selves sure of success, if they could but find out the herb, which gilds the teeth and gives a yellow colour to the flesh of the sheep that eat it. Even the oil of this plant must be of a golden colour. It is called Haschischat ed dab."

Father Jerom Dandini, however, asserts that the teeth of the goats at Mount Libanus are of a silver colour; and adds, "this confirms me that which I observed in Candia; to wit, that the animals that live on Mount Ida eat a certain herb, which renders their teeth of a golden colour; which, according to my judgment, cannot otherwise proceed than from the