Wild warriors of the turquoise hills,*--and those Such was the wild and miscellaneous host, That high in air their motley banners toss'd * In the mountains of Nishapour and Tous (in Khorassan) they find turquoises. Ebn Haukal. + For a description of these stupendous ranges of mountains, vide Elphinstone's Caubul. ‡ The Ghebers, or Guebres, those original natives of Persia who adhered to their ancient faith, the religion of Zoroaster, and who, after the conquest of their country by the Arabs, were either persecuted at home, or forced to become wanderers abroad. § "Yezd, the chief residence of those ancient natives who worship the Sun and the Fire, which latter they have carefully kept lighted, without being once extinguished for a moment, above 3000 years, on a mountain near Yezd, called Ater Quedah, signifying, the House or Mansion of the Fire. He is reckoned very unfortunate who dies off that mountain."-Stephen's Persia. || "When the weather is hazy, the springs of naptha (on an island near Baku) boil up the higher, and the naptha often takes fire on the surface of the earth, and runs in a flame into the sea to a distance almost incredible." - Hanway on the Everlasting Fire at Baku. Around the Prophet-Chief-all eyes still bent Twice hath the sun upon their conflict set, And ris'n again, and found them grappling yet; While steams of carnage, in his noon-tide blaze, Smoke up to heaven-hot as that crimson haze, By which the prostrate caravan is aw'd, In the red desert, when the wind's abroad! "On, Swords of God!" the panting Caliph calls, "Thrones for the living-heaven for him who falls!""On, brave avengers, on!" MOKANNA cries, "And Eblis blast the recreant slave that flies!" Now comes the brunt, the crisis of the dayThey clash-they strive-the Caliph's troops give way! MOKANNA's self plucks the black banner down, And now the Orient World's imperial crown Is just within his grasp when, hark, that shout! Some hand hath check'd the flying Moslems' rout, And now they turn-they rally-at their head A warrior (like those angel youths, who led, In glorious panoply of heaven's own mail, The Champions of the Faith through Beder's vale,) * Bold, as if gifted with ten thousand lives, Turns on the fierce pursuers' blades, and drives At once the multitudinous torrent back, While hope and courage kindle in his track, * In the great victory gained by Mahomed at Beder, he was assisted, say the Mussulmans, by three thousand angels, led by Gabriel, mounted on his horse Hiazum. -The Koran and its Commentators. And, at each step, his bloody falchion makes Right tow'rds MOKANNA now he cleaves his pathImpatient cleaves, as though the bolt of wrath He bears from heaven withheld its awful burst From weaker heads, and souls but half-way curst, To break o'er him, the mightiest and the worst ! But vain his speed-though, in that hour of blood, Had all God's seraphs round MOKANNA stood, With swords of fire, ready like fate to fall, MOKANNA'S soul would have defied them all ;Yet now, the rush of fugitives, too strong For human force, hurries ev'n him along; In vain he struggles 'mid the wedg'd array Of flying thousands, he is borne away; And the sole joy his baffled spirit knows In this forc'd flight is -murdering, as he goes! * As a grim tiger, whom the torrent's might "Alla illa Alla!" -the glad shout renew- "The Tecbir, or cry of the Arabs, 'Alla Akbar!'" says Ockley, means, 'God is most mighty." + The ziraleet is a kind of chorus, which the women of the East sing upon joyful occasions.-Russel. 1 A dark, cold calm, which nothing now can break, One sole desire, one passion now remains, Of the Veil'd Chief, -for this he wing'd him back, * The Dead Sea, which contains neither animal nor vegetable life. |