From room to room the ready handmaids hie, All is in motion; rings and plumes and pearls In her full lap the Champac's leaves of gold, § * "Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes." -Solomon's Song, † "They tinged the ends of her fingers scarlet with henna, so that they resembled branches of coral."-Story of Prince Futtun in Bahardanush, ‡ "The women blacken the inside of their eyelids with a powder named the black Kohol." Russel. § "The appearance of the blossoms of the gold-coloured Campac on the black hair of the Indian women has supplied the Sanscrit poets with many elegant allusions."-Asiatic Researches, vol. iv. Thinks of the time when, by the Ganges' flood, Meanwhile, through vast illuminated halls, Silent and bright, where nothing but the falls Of fragrant waters, gushing with cool sound From many a jasper fount, is heard around, Young Azım roams bewilder'd, nor can guess What means this maze of light and loneliness. Here, the way leads o'er tessellated floors Or mats of Cairo, through long corridors, Where, rang'd in cassolets and silver urns, Sweet wood of aloe or of sandal burns; And spicy rods, such as illume at night The bowers of Tibet, send forth odorous light, Like Peris' wands, when pointing out the road For some pure Spirit to its blest abode! * "A tree famous for its perfume, and common on the hills of Yemen." -Niebuhr. † Of the genus Mimosa, "which droops its branches whenever any person approaches it, seeming as if it saluted those who retire under its shade." -Niebuhr. ‡ "Cloves are a principal ingredient in the composition of the perfumed rods, which men of rank keep constantly burning in their presence."- Turner's Tibet. Where, in the midst, reflecting back the rays Here, too, he traces the kind visitings On one side, gleaming with a sudden grace * "C'est d'où vient le bois d'aloes, que les Arabes appellent Oud Comari, et celui du sandal, qui s'y trouve en grande quantité." -D'Herbelot. † "Thousands of variegated loories visit the coral-trees." - Barrow. ‡ "In Mecca there are quantities of blue pigeons, which none will affright or abuse, much less kill." -Pitt's Account of the Mahometans. § "The pagoda thrush is esteemed among the first choristers of India. It sits perched on the sacred pagodas, and from thence delivers its melodious song."-Pen nant's Hindostan. At evening, from the tall pagoda's top ;- Build their high nests of budding cinnamon;†- So on, through scenes past all imagining, More like the luxuries of that impious king, § Whom Death's dark angel, with his lightning torch, Struck down and blasted ev'n in Pleasure's porch, Than the pure dwelling of a Prophet sent, Arm'd with Heaven's sword, for man's enfranchisementYoung AzIM wander'd, looking sternly round, His simple garb and war-boots' clanking sound But ill according with the pomp and grace And silent lull of that voluptuous place! "Is this, then," thought the youth, "is this the way To free man's spirit from the deadening sway * Birds of paradise, which, at the nutmeg season, come in flights from the southern isles to India; and "the strength of the nutmeg," says Tavernier, "so intoxicates them that they fall dead drunk to the earth." + "That bird which liveth in Arabia, and buildeth its nest with cinnamon."-Brown's Vulgar Errors. ‡ "The spirits of the martyrs will be lodged in the crops of green birds."-Gibbon, vol. ix., p. 421. § Shedad, who made the delicious gardens of Irim, in imitation of Paradise, and was destroyed by lightning the first time he attempted to enter them. |