"O! ever thus, from childhood's hour, "I've seen my fondest hopes decay; "I never loved a tree or flower,

"But 'twas the first to fade away. "I never nursed a dear gazelle,

"To glad me with its soft black eye, "But when it came to know me well, "And love me, it was sure to die!

"Now too-the joy most like divine "Of all I ever dreamt or knew,

"To see thee, hear thee, call thee mine,"O misery! must I lose that too!

"Yet go-on peril's brink we meet;

"Those frightful rocks-that treacherous sea

"No, never come again—though sweet,

"Though heaven, it may be death to thee. "Farewell-and blessings on thy way,

"Where'er thou go'st, beloved stranger!

"Better to sit and watch that ray,

“And think thee safe, though far away,
"Than have thee near me, and in danger!"

"Danger!-0, tempt me not to boast—” The youth exclaimed-thou little know'st "What he can brave, who, born and nursed "In Danger's paths, has dared her worst;

Upon whose ear the signal-word

Of strife and death is hourly breaking;

"Who sleeps with head upon the sword

"His fevered hand must grasp in waking. "Danger!"

Say on-thou fear'st not then,

"And we may meet-oft meet again!"

"O! look not so-beneath the skies,

"I now fear nothing but those eyes.
"If aught on earth could charm or force
"My spirit from its destined course,—
"If aught could make this soul forget
"The bond to which its seal is set,
""Twould be those eyes;-they, only they,

"Could melt that sacred seal away!
"But no-'tis fixed-my awful doom

"Is fixed-on this side of the tomb

"We meet no more;-why, why did Heaven.

Mingle two souls that earth has riven, "Has rent asunder wide as ours?

"O, Arab maid, as soon the Powers

"Of Light and Darkness may combine,

"As I be linked with thee or thine!

"Thy Father

"Holy ALLA, save

"His gray head from that lightning glance!

"Thou know'st him not-he loves the brave;
Nor lives there under heaven's expanse
"One who would prize, would worship thee
"And thy bold spirit more than he.

“Oft when, in childhood, I have played

"With the bright falchion by his side, "I've heard him swear his lisping maid

"In time should be a warrior's bride.
"And still, whene'er at Haram hours,
"I take him cool sherbets and flowers,
"He tells me, when in playful mood,
"A hero shall my bridegroom be,
"Since maids are best in battle wooed,
"And won with shouts of victory!

"Nay, turn not from me-thou alone
"Art formed to make both hearts thy own.

Go-join his sacred ranks-thou know'st

"Th' unholy strife these Persians wage:

"Good Heaven, that frown!—even now thou glow'st With more than mortal warrior's rage.

"Haste to the camp by morning's light,
"And, when that sword is raised in fight,

"O, still remember, Love and I
"Beneath its shadow trembling lie!

"One victory o'er those Slaves of Fire,
"Those impious Ghebers, whom my sire
"Abhors-

"Hold, hold-thy words are death-" The stranger cried, as wild he flung

His mantle back, and showed beneath

The Gheber belt that round him clung.a— "Here, maiden, look-weep-blush to see "All that thy sire abhors in me!

"Yes-I am of that impious race,

"Those Slaves of Fire, who, morn and even,

"Hail their Creator's dwelling-place

"Among the living lights of heaven: " "Yes-I am of that outcast few,

"TO IRAN and to vengeance true,

a «They (the Ghebers) lay so much stress on their cushee or girdle, as not to dare to be an instant without it."-Grose's Voyage. « Le jeune homme nia d'abord la chose; mais, ayant été dépouillé de sa robe, et la large ceinture qu'il portoit comme Ghebr," &c. &c.-D'Herbelot, art. Agduani. "Pour se distinguer des Idolâtres de l'Inde, les Guébres se ceignent tous d'un cordon de laine, ou de poil de chameau."-Encyclopédie Françoise.

D'Herbelot says this belt was generally of leather.

sun, and hence

b "They suppose the Throne of the Almighty is seated in the their worship of that luminary."-Hanway. "As to fire, the Ghebers place the spring-head of it in that globe of fire, the Sun, by them called Mythras, or Mihir, to which they pay the highest reverence, in gratitude for the manifold benefits flowing from its ministerial omniscience. But they are so far from confounding the subordination of the Servant with the majesty of its Creator, that they not only attribute no sort of sense or reasoning to the sun or fire, in any of its operations, but consider it as a purely passive, blind instrument, directed and governed by the immediate impression on it of the will of God; but they do not even give that luminary, all-glorious as it is, more than the second rank amongst his works, reserving the first for that stupendous production of divine power, the mind of man."-Grose. The false charges brought against the religion of these people by their Mussulman tyrants is but one proof among many of the truth of this writer's remark, that "calumny is often added to oppression, if but for the sake of justifying it."