Ev'n purer than before,-as perfumes rise Through flame and smoke, most welcome to the skies And that when Azım's fond, divine embrace Should circle her in heaven, no darkening trace Would on that bosom he once loved remain, But all be bright, be pure, be his again!— These were the wildering dreams, whose cursed deceit Wan and dejected, through the evening dusk, That sat upon his victim's downcast brow, Or mark how slow her step, how altered now Was thrilling fire, whose every thought a trance! Upon his couch the Veiled MOKANNA lay, Upon his mystic Veil's white glittering flow. a The cities of Com (or Koom) and Cashan are full of mosques, mausoleums, and sepulchres of the descendants of Ali, the Saints of Persia.-Chardin. b An island in the Persian Gulf, celebrated for its white wine. c The miraculous well at Mecca; so called, says Sale, from the murmuring of its waters. And still he drank and pondered-nor could see At length, with fiendish laugh, like that which broke "Ye creatures of a breath, proud things of clay, “Of your foul race, and without fear or check, a The god Hannaman.-" Apes are in many parts of India highly venerated, out of respect to the god Hannaman, a deity partaking 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. b 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 afterwards 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 contented with looking at it, kicked it with his foot till it rung; and knowing God designed that creature to be his superior, took a secret resolution never to acknowledge him as such."Sale, on the Koran. F “Luxuriating in hate, avenge my shame, "My deep-felt, long-nursed loathing of man's name !— "Soon at the head of myriads, blind and fierce "As hooded falcons, through the universe "I'll sweep my darkening, desolating way, "Weak man my instrument, cursed man my prey! "Ye wise, ye learned, who grope your dull way on "By the dim twinkling gleams of ages gone, "Like superstitious thieves, who think the light a "From dead men's marrow guides them best at night a- "But a gilt stick, a bawble blinds it here. "In lying speech, and still more lying song, "By these learned slaves, the meanest of the throng; "Their wits bought up, their wisdom shrunk so small, "A sceptre's puny point can wield it all! "Ye, too, believers of incredible creeds, "Whose faith enshrines the monsters which it breeds; "Who, bolder ev'n than NEMROD, think to rise, “By nonsense heaped on nonsense, to the skies; a A ind of lantern formerly used by robbers, called the Hand of Glory, the candle for which was made of the fat of a dead malefactor. This, however, was rather a western than an eastern superstition. "Ye shall have miracles, ay, sound ones too, "That Prophet ill sustains his holy call, "Who finds not heavens to suit the tastes of all; "Houris for boys, omniscience for sages, "And wings and glories for all ranks and ages. "Vain things!—as lust or vanity inspires, "The heaven of each is but what each desires, a The material of which images of Gaudma (the Birman Deity) are made, is held sacred. "Birmans may not purchase the marble in mass, but are suffered, and indeed encouraged, to buy figures of the Deity ready made."Symes's Ava, vol. ii. p. 376. |