While from their long, dark tresses, in a fall Of curls descending, bells as musical As those that, on the golden-shafted trees Of EDEN, shake in the eternal breeze, a Rung round their steps, at every bound more sweet, And, as it swelled again at each faint close, The ear could track through all that maze of chords A SPIRIT there is, whose fragrant sigh His breath is the soul of flowers like these, with which it abounds.”—Journey of the Russian Ambassador to Persia, 1746. a «To which will be added the sound of the bells, hanging on the trees, which will be put in motion by the wind proceeding from the throne of God, as often as the blessed wish for music."-Sale. b "Whose wanton eyes resemble blue water-lilies, agitated by the breeze."Jayadeva. Blue water-lilies," when the breeze Is making the stream around them tremble. Hail to thee, hail to thee, kindling power! Thy holiest time is the moonlight hour, And there never was moonlight so sweet as this.. By the fair and brave Who blushing unite, Like the sun and wave, When they meet at night;— By the tear that shows When passion is nigh, As the rain-drop flows. From the heat of the sky; By the first love-beat Of the youthful heart, By the bliss to meet, And the pain to part ; By all that thou hast To mortals given, a The blue lotos, which grows in Cashmere and in Persia. Which-O, could it last, This earth were heaven! We call thee hither, entrancing Power! Thy holiest time is the moonlight hour, And there never was moonlight so sweet as this! Impatient of a scene, whose luxuries stole, And where, midst all that the young heart loves most, But here again new spells came o'er his sense :— Could call up into life, of soft and fair, Of fond and passionate, was glowing there; a It has been generally supposed that the Mahometans prohibit all pictures of animals; but Toderini shows 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. Nor yet too warm, but touched with that fine art Which knows ev'n Beauty when half-veiled is best,— Whose orb when half retired looks loveliest.* There hung the history of the Genii-King, Traced through each gay, voluptuous wandering He read that to be blessed is to be wise;" c Here fond ZULEIKA woos with open arms The Hebrew boy, who flies from her young charms, Wishes that heaven and she could both be won; a 'This is not quite astronomically true. “Dr. Hadley (says Keil) has shown that Venus is brightest when she is about forty degrees removed from the sun; and that then but only a fourth part of her lucid disk is to be seen from the earth." b For the loves of King Solomon (who was supposed to preside over the whole race of Genii) with Balkis, the Queen of Sheba, or Saba, see D'Herbelot, and the Notes on the Koran, chap. 2. "In the palace which Solomon ordered to be built against the arrival of the Queen of Saba, the floor or pavement was of transparent glass, laid over running water, in which fish were swimming." This led the Queen into a very natural mistake, which the Koran has not thought beneath its dignity to commemorate. "It was said unto her, Enter the palace.' And when she saw it she imagined it to be a great water; and she discovered her legs by lifting up her robe to pass through it. Whereupon Solomon said to her, Verily, this is the place evenly floored with glass.'"-Chap. 27. c The wife of Potiphar, thus named by the Orientals. "The passion which this frail beauty of antiquity conceived for her young Hebrew slave has given rise to a much esteemed poem in the Persian language, entitled Yusef vau Zelikha, by Noureddin Jami; the manuscript copy of which, in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, is supposed to be the finest in the whole world."-Note upon Nott's Translation of Hafez. And here MOHAMMED, born for love and guile, With a new text to consecrate their love.a With rapid step, yet pleased and lingering eye, Here paused he, while the music, now less near, As though the distance, and that heavenly ray O! could he listen to such sounds unmoved, And by that light-nor dream of her he loved? Ere all the light, that made it dear, depart. a The particulars of Mahomet's amour with Mary, the Coptic girl, in justification of which he added a new chapter to the Koran, may be found in Gagnier's Notes upon Abulfeda, p. 151. |