THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. 'TIS moonlight over OMAN'S SEA ;* And her blue waters sleep in smiles. Bidding the bright-eyed sun farewell;— The music of the bulbul's nest, Or the light touch of lovers' lutes, If zephyrs come, so light they come, Nor leaf is stirred nor wave is driven ; *The Persian Gulf, sometimes so called, which separates the shores of Persia and Arabia. The present Gombaroon, a town on the Persian side of the Gulf. A Moorish instrument of music. The wind-tower on the EMIR'S dome* Ev'n he, that tyrant Arab, sleeps His race hath brought on IRAN'S† name. 'Mid eyes that weep, and swords that strike; One of that saintly, murderous brood, To carnage and the Koran given, Who think through unbelievers' blood Lies their directest path to Heaven ;One, who will pause and kneel unshod In the warm blood his hand hath poured, *"At Gombaroon and other places in Persia, they have towers for the purpose of catching the wind, and cooling the houses." Le Bruyn. +"Iran is the true general name for the empire of Persia."Asiat. Res. Disc. 5. To mutter o'er some text of God Engraven on his reeking sword ;*- Just ALLA! what must be thy look, When such a wretch before thee stands Unblushing, with thy Sacred Book,— Turning the leaves with blood-stained hands, And wresting from its page sublime His creed of lust, and hate, and crime ;Ev'n as those bees of TREBIZOND, Which, from the sunniest flowers that glad With their pure smile the gardens round, Draw venom forth that drives men mad.† Never did fierce ARABIA send A satrap forth more direly great; Never was IRAN doomed to bend Beneath a yoke of deadlier weight. Her throne had fallen-her pride was crushed- *"On the blades of their scimitars some verse from the Koran is usually inscribed."-Russel. There is a kind of Rhododendros about Trebizond, whose flowers the bee feeds upon, and the honey thence drives people mad." -Tournefort. To second all such hearts can dare; Becalmed in Heaven's approving ray. Those waves are hushed, those planets shine; Sleep on, and be thy rest unmoved By the white moonbeam's dazzling power;— None but the loving and the loved Should be awake at this sweet hour. And see-where, high above those rocks O, what a pure and sacred thing One only mansion with her light! The flower that blooms beneath the sea, Too deep for sunbeams, doth not lie Hid in more chaste obscurity. So, HINDA, have thy face and mind, Like holy mysteries, lain enshrined. "Their kings wear plumes of black herons' feathers upon the right side as a badge of sovereignty."-Hanway. "The Fountain of Youth, by a Mahometan tradition, is situ ated in some dark region of the East."-Richardson. |