Sent me thus maim'd and monstrous upon earth;
And on that race who, though more vile they be
Than mowing apes, are demigods to me!
Here — judge if hell, with all its powers to damn,
Can add one curse to the foul thing I am! — "

He raised his veil — the Maid turn'd slowly round, Look'd at him — shriek'd — and sunk upon the

ground!

On their arrival, next night, at the place of encampment, they were surprised and delighted to find the groves all round illuminated; some artists of Yamtcheou having been sent on previously for the purpose. On each side of the green alley, which led to the Royal Pavilion, artificial sceneries of

1 Some artists of Yamtcheou having been sent on previously. “ The Feast of Lanterns is celebrated at Yamtcheou with more magnificence than anywhere else: and the report goes, that the illuminations there are so splendid, that an Emperor once, not daring openly to leave his court to go thither, committed himself with the Queen and several Princesses of his family into the hands of a magician, who promised to transport them thither in a trice. He made them in the night to ascend magnificent thrones that were borne up by swans, which in a moment arrived at Yamtcheou. The Emperor saw at his leisure all the solemnity, being carried upon a cloud that hovered over the city and descended by degrees; and came back again with the same speed and equipage, nobody at court perceiving his absence." - The Present State of China, p. 156.

bamboo work 1 were erected, representing arches, minarets, and towers, from which hung thousands of silken lanterns, painted by the most delicate pencils of Canton. Nothing could be more beautiful than the leaves of the mango-trees and acacias, shining in the light of the bamboo scenery, which shed a lustre round as soft as that of the nights of Peristan.

Lalla Rookh, however, who was too much occupied by the sad story of Zelica and her lover, to give a thought to anything else, except, perhaps, him who related it, hurried on through this scene of splendor to her pavilion — greatly to the mortification of the poor artists of Yamtcheou — and was followed with equal rapidity by the Great Chamberlain, cursing, as he went, the ancient Mandarin, whose parental anxiety in lighting up the shores of the lake, where his beloved daughter had wandered and been lost, was the origin of these fantastic Chinese illuminations.2

1 Artificial sceneries of bamboo work. - See a description of the nuptials of Vizier Alee in the “ Asiatic Annual Register,” of 1804.

2 The origin of these fantastic Chinese illuminations. “ The vulgar ascribe it to an accident that happened in the family of a famous mandarin, whose daughter walking one evening upon the shore of a lake, fell in and was drowned; this afflicted father, with his family, run thither, and, the better to find her, he caused a great company of lanterns to be lighted. All the inhabitants of the place thronged after him with torches. The year ensuing they made fires upon the shores the same day; they continued the ceremony

Without a moment's delay, young Feramorz was introduced, and Fadladeen, who could never make up his mind as to the merits of a poet till he knew the religious sect to which he belonged, was about to ask him whether he was a Shia or a Sooni, when Lalla Rookh impatiently clapped her hands for silence, and the youth, being seated upon the musnud near her, proceeded :

PREPARE thy soul, young Azim!-- thou hast braved
The bands of Greece, still mighty, though enslaved ;
Hast faced her phalanx, arm‘d with all its fame,
Her Macedonian pikes and globes of flame;
All this hast fronted, with firm heart and brow,
But a more perilous trial waits thee now, -
Woman's bright eyes, a dazzling host of eyes
From every land where woman smiles or sighs;
Of every hue, as Love may chance to raise
His black or azure banner in their blaze;
And each sweet mode of warfare, from the flash
That lightens boldly through the shadowy lash,
To the sly, stealing splendors, almost hid,
Like swords half-sheathed, beneath the downcast

lid.
Such, Azim, is the lovely, luminous host
Now led against thee; and, let conquerors boast
Their fields of fame, he who in virtue arms
A young, warm spirit against beauty's charms,

every year; every one lighted his lantern, and by degrees it commenced into a custom.” - Present Stute of China.

Who feels her brightness, yet defies her thrall,
Is the best, bravest conqueror of them all.

Now, through the haram chambers, moving lights And busy shapes proclaim the toilet's rites ;From room to room the ready handmaids hie, Some skill'd to wreathe the turban tastefully, Or hang the veil, in negligence of shade, O'er the warm blushes of the youthful maid, Who, if between the folds but one eye shone, Like Seba's Queen could vanquish with that one:1– While some bring leaves of henna, to imbue The fingers' ends with a bright roseate hue,2 So bright, that in the mirror's depth they seem Like tips of coral branches in the stream; And others mix the Kohol's jetty dye, To give that long, dark languish to the eye,3 Which makes the maids, whom kings are proud to cull From fair Circassia's vales, so beautiful!

All is in motion : rings and plumes and pearls
Are shining everywhere! — some younger girls
Are gone by moonlight to the garden beds,
To gather fresh, cool chaplets for their heads;

1" Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes." Solomon's Song.

2 “They tinged the ends of her fingers scarlet with henna, so that they resembled branches of coral.” — Story of Prince Futtun in Bahardanush.

3 "The women blacken the inside of their eyelids with a powder named the black Kohol.” — Russel.

Gay creatures! sweet, though mournful, 'tis to see
How each prefers a garland from that tree
Which brings to mind her childhood's innocent day,
And the dear fields and friendships far away.
The maid of India, blest again to hold
In her full lap the Champac's leaves of gold,
Thinks of the time when, by the Ganges' flood,
Her little playmates scatter'd many a bud
Upon her long black hair, with glossy gleam
Just dripping from the consecrated stream;
While the young Arab, haunted by the smell
Of her own mountain flowers, as by a spell, –
The sweet Elcaya, and that courteous tree

The Kohol's jetty dye. – "None of these ladies," says Shaw, "take themselves to be completely dressed till they have tinged the hair and edges of their eyelids with the powder of lead-ore. Now, as this operation is performed by dipping first into the powder a small wooden bodkin of the thickness of a quill, and then drawing it afterward through the eyelids over the ball of the eye, we shall have a lively image of what the Prophet (Jer, iv. 30) may be supposed to mean by 'rending the eyes with painting.' This practice is no doubt of great antiquity; for besides the instance already taken notice of, we find that where Jezebel is said (2 Kings ix. 30) ‘to have painted her face,' the original words are 'she adjusted her eyes with the powder of lead-ore.'"- Shaw's Travels.

1 "The appearance of the blossoms of the gold-colored Campac on the black hair of the Indian women has supplied the Sanscrit poets with many elegant allusions." — Asiatic Researches, vol. iv.

2 A tree famous for its perfume, and common on the hills of Yemen.- Niebuhr.