ike every spot of that region holy ground; r the countless waterfalls, that rush into the om all those high and romantic mountains ircle it, nor the fair city on the Lake, whose

roofed with flowers, appeared at a distance one vast and variegated parterre; - not all these wonders and glories of the most lovely country under the sun could steal her heart for a minute from those sad thoughts, which but darkened and grew bitterer every step she advanced.

The gay pomps and processions that met her upon her entrance into the Valley, and the magnificence with which the roads all along were decorated, did honor to the taste and gallantry of the young King. It was night when they approached the city, and, for the last two miles, they had passed under

of places of worship and sanctity are to be traced without number amongst the ruins and the caves, which are interspersed in its neighborhood." — Toozek Jehangeery. Vide Asiat, Misc., vol. ii.

There is another account of Cashmere by Abul-Fazil, the author of the Ayin-Acbaree, “who,” says Major Rennell, “appears to have caught some of the enthusiasm of the Valley, by his descriptions of the holy places in it."

1 Whose houses, roofed with flowers. - "On a standing roof of wood is laid a covering of fine earth, which shelters the building from the great quantity of snow that falls in the winter season. This fence communicates an equal warmth 'in winter, as a refreshing coolness in the summer season, when the tops of the houses, which are planted with a variety of flowers, exhibit at a distance the spacious view of a beautifully chequered parterre." - Forster.

arches, thrown from hedge to hedge, festoone
only those rarest roses from which the Attar
more precious than gold, is distilled, and illun.
nated in rich and fanciful forms with lanterns of the
triple-colored tortoise-shell of Pegu.' Sometimes,
from a dark wood by the side of the road, a display
of fireworks would break out so sudden and so bril-
liant, that a Bramin might think he saw that grove,
in whose purple shade the God of Battles was born,
bursting into a flame at the moment of his birth.
While, at other times, a quick and playful irradia-
tion continued to brighten all the fields and gardens
by which they passed, forming a line of dancing
lights along the horizon; like the meteors of the
north as they are seen by those hunters ? who pur-
sue the white and blue foxes on the confines of the
Icy Sea.

These arches and fireworks delighted the ladies of the Princess exceedingly; and, with their usual good logic, they deduced from his taste for illuminations that the King of Bucharia would make the most exemplary husband imaginable. Nor, indeed, could Lalla Rookh herself help feeling the kindness

1 Lanterns of the triple-colored tortoise-shell of Pegu. “Two hundred slaves there are, who have no other office than to hunt the woods and marshes for triple-colored tortoises for the King's Vivary. Of the shells of these also lanterns are made." — Vincent le Blanc's Travels.

2 The meteors of the north as they are seen by those hunters. - For a description of the Aurora Borealis as it appears to these hunters, vide Encyclopædia.

and splendor with which the young bridegroom welcomed her ;-but she also felt how painful is the gratitude which kindness from those we cannot love excites; and that their best blandishments come over the heart with all that chilling and deadly sweetness which we can fancy in the cold, odoriferous wind 1 that is to blow over this earth in the last days.

The marriage was fixed for the morning after her arrival, when she was, for the first time, to be presented to the monarch in that imperial palace beyond the Lake, called the Shalimar. Though a night of more wakeful and anxious thought had never been passed in the Happy Valley before, yet, when she rose in the morning and her ladies came round her to assist in the adjustment of the bridal ornaments, they thought they had never seen her look half so beautiful. What she had lost of the bloom and radiancy of her charms was more than made up by that intellectual expression, that soul in the eyes, which is worth all the rest of loveliness. When they had tinged her fingers with the henna leaf, and placed upon her brow a small coronet of jewels, of the shape worn by the ancient Queens of

1 The cold, odoriferous wind. -- This wind, which is to blow from Syria Damascena, is, according to the Mahometans, one of the signs of the Last Day's approach.

Another of the signs is, "Great distress in the world, so that a man when he passes by another's grave shall say, 'Would to God I were in his place!'" — Sale's Preliminary Discourse.

Bucharia, they flung over her head the rose-colored bridal veil, and she proceeded to the barge that was to convey her across the lake ; — first kissing, with a mournful look, the little amulet of cornelian which her father had hung about her neck at parting.

The morning was as fair as the maid upon whose nuptials it rose, and the shining Lake, all covered with boats, the minstrels playing upon the shores of the islands, and the crowded summer-houses on the green hills around, with shawls and banners waving from their roofs, presented such a picture of animated rejoicing, as only she, who was the object of it all, did not feel with transport. To Lalla Rookh alone it was a melancholy pageant; nor could she have even borne to look upon the scene, were it not for a hope that, among the crowds around, she might once more perhaps catch a glimpse of Feramorz. So much was her imagination haunted by this thought, that there was scarcely an islet or boat she passed, at which her heart did not flutter with a momentary fancy that he was there. Happy, in her eyes, the humblest slave upon whom the light of his dear looks fell! - In the barge immediately after the Princess was Fadladeen, with his silken curtains thrown widely apart, that all might have the benefit of his august presence, and with his head full of the speech he was to deliver to the King, “ concerning Feramorz, and literature, and the chabuk, as connected therewith.”

They had now entered the canal which leads from the Lake to the splendid domes and saloons of the Shalimar, and glided on through gardens ascending from each bank, full of flowering shrubs that made the air all perfume; while from the middle of the canal rose jets of water, smooth and unbroken, to such a dazzling height, that they stood like pillars of diamond in the sunshine. After sailing under the arches of various saloons, they at length arrived at the last and most magnificent, where the monarch awaited the coming of his bride; and such was the agitation of her heart and frame, that it was with difficulty she walked up the marble steps, which were covered with cloth of gold for her ascent from the barge. At the end of the hall stood two thrones, as precious as the Cerulean Throne of Koolburga, on one of which sat Aliris,

1 The cerulean throne of Koolburga. —"On Mohammed Shaw's return to Koolburga (the capital of Dekkan), he made a great festival, and mounted this throne with much pomp and magnificence, calling it Firozeh or Cerulean. I have heard some old persons, who saw the throne Firozeh in the reign of Sultan Mamood Bhamenee, describe it. They say it was in length nine feet, and three in breadth; made of ebony, covered with plates of pure gold, and set with precious stones of immense value. Every prince of the house of Bhamenee, who possessed this throne, made a point of adding to it some rich stones, so that when in the reign of Sultan Mamood it was taken to pieces, to remove some of the jewels to be set in vases and cups, the jewellers valued it at one corore of oons (nearly four millions sterling). I learned also that it was called Firozeh from being partly enamelled of a sky-blue color, which was in time totally concealed by the number of jewels." - Ferishta.