Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

Note 38, p. 12.—And fur-bound bonnet of Bucharian shape. "The inhabitants of Bucharia wear a round cloth bonnet, shaped much after the Polish fashion, having a large fur border. They tie their kaftans about the middle with a girdle of a kind of silk crape, several times round the body."-Account of Independent Tartary, in Pinkerton's Collection.

Note 39, p. 13.

O'erwhelm'd in fight and captive to the Greek.

In the war of the Caliph Mahadi against the Empress Irene, for an account of which vide Gibbon, vol. x.

Note 40, p. 14.--The flying throne of star-taught SOLIMAN.

This wonderful throne was called The Star of the Genii. For a full description of it, see the Fragment, translated by Captain Franklin, from a Persian MS. entitled "The History of Jerusalem," Oriental Collections, vol. i. p. 235.-When Soliman travelled, the Eastern writers say, "He had a carpet of green silk on which his throne was placed, being of a prodigious length and breadth, and sufficient for all his forces to stand upon, the men placing themselves on his right hand, and the spirits on his left; and that when all were in order, the wind, at his command, took up the carpet, and transported it, with all that were upon it, wherever he pleased; the army of birds at the same time flying over their heads, and forming a kind of canopy to shade them from the sun."-Sale's Koran, vol. ii. p. 21.4, note.

Note 41, p. 14.—For many an age, in every chance and change. The transmigration of souls was one of his doctrines. D'Herbelot.)

(Vide

Note 42, p. 15.-To which all Heaven, except the Proud One, knelt. "And when we said unto the angels, Worship Adam, they all worshipped except Eblis (Lucifer), who refused."--The Koran, chap. ii.

Note 43, p. 15.—In MOUSSA's frame—and, thence descending, flow'd.-Moses.

Note 44, p. 15.--Through many a Prophet's breast.

This is according to D'Herbelot's account of the doctrines of Mokanna :-"Sa doctrine étoit, que Dieu avoit pris une forme et figure humaine, depuis qu'il eut commandé aux Anges d'adorer Adam, le premier des hommes. Qu'après la mort d'Adam, Dieu étoit apparu

sous la figure de plusieurs Prophètes, et autres grands hommes qu'il avoit choisis, jusqu'à ce qu'il prit celle d'Abu Moslem, Prince de Khorassan, lequel professoit l'erreur de la Tenassukhiah ou Métempsychose; et qu'après la mort de ce Prince, la Divinité étoit passée et descendue en sa personne."

Note 45, p. 15.—In ISSA shone.—Jesus.

Note 46, p. 19.--Born by that ancient flood, which from its spring.

The Amoo, which rises in the Belur Tag, or Dark Mountains, and, running nearly from east to west, splits into two branches; one of which falls into the Caspian Sea, and the other into Aral Nahr, or the Lake of Eagles.

Note 47, p. 21.-The bulbul utters, ere her soul depart.---The nightingale.

Note 48, p. 29.-In holy Kooм, or MECCA's dim arcades.

The cities of Com (or Koom) and Cashan are full of mosques, mausoleums, and sepulchres of the descendants of Ali, the Saints of Persia.-Chardin.

Note 49, p. 30.—Stood vases, fill'd with KISHMEE's golden wine. An island in the Persian Gulf, celebrated for its white wine.

Note 50, p. 30.-Like ZEMZEM's Spring of Holiness, had power. The miraculous well at Mecca; so called, says Sale, from the murmuring of its waters.

Note 51, p. 30.-Whom INDIA serves, the monkey deity.

The God Hannaman.

"Apes are in many parts of India highly venerated, out of respect to the God Hannaman, a deity partaking of the form of that race. "-Pennant's Hindostan.

See a curious account, in Stephen's Persia, of a solemn embassy from some part of the Indies to Goa, when the Portuguese were there, offering vast treasures for the recovery of a monkey's tooth, which they held in great veneration, and which had been taken away upon the conquest of the kingdom of Jafanapatan.

Note 52, p. 30.—To bend in worship, LUCIFER was right.

This resolution of Eblis not to acknowledge the new creature, man, was, according to Mahometan tradition, thus adopted :—“The earth (which God had selected for the materials of His work) was carried into Arabia to a place between Mecca and Tayef, where, being first

PP

kneaded by the angels, it was afterwards fashioned by God himself into a human form, and left to dry for the space of forty days, or, as others say, as many years; the angels, in the meantime, often visiting it, and Eblis (then one of the angels nearest to God's presence, afterwards the devil) among the rest; but he, not contented with looking at it, kicked it with his foot till it rung; and knowing God designed that creature to be his superior, took a secret resolution never to acknowledge him as such."-Sale on the Koran.

Note 53, p. 31.-From dead men's marrow guides them best at

night.

A kind of lantern formerly used by robbers, called the Hand of Glory, the candle for which was made of the fat of a dead malefactor. This, however, was rather a Western than an Eastern superstition.

Note 54, p. 31.-In that best marble of which Gods are made.

The material of which images of Gaudma (the Birman Deity) are made, is held sacred. "Birmans may not purchase the marble in mass, but are suffered, and indeed encouraged, to buy figures of the Deity ready made."-Symes's Ava, vol. ii. p. 376.

Note 55, p. 35.--Of Kerzrah flowers, came fill'd with pestilence.

"It is commonly said in Persia, that if a man breathe in the hot south wind, which in June or July passes over that flower (the Kerzereh), it will kill him."-Thevenot.

Note 56, p. 38.—Within the crocodile`s stretch'd jaws to come. The humming-bird is said to run this risk for the purpose of picking the crocodile's teeth. The same circumstance is related of the lapwing, as a fact to which he was witness, by Paul Lucas, Voyage fait en 1714. The ancient story concerning the Trochilus, or humming-bird, entering with impunity into the mouth of the crocodile, is firmly believed at Java.-Barrow's Cochin China.

Note 57, p. 39.—That rank and venomous food on which she lives. "Circum easdem ripas (Nili, viz.) ales est Ibis. Ea serpentium populatur ova, gratissimamque ex his escam nidis suis refert."-Solinus.

Note 58, p. 41.-Yamtcheou.—"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.

Note 59, p. 41.-Sceneries of bamboo-work.—See a description of the nuptials of Vizier Alee in the Asiatic Annual Register for 1804.

"The vulgar ascribe it

Note 60, p. 41.- Chinese illuminations. 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; the afflicted father, with his family, ran 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 every year, every one lighted his lantern, and by degrees it grew into a custom."--Present State of China.

Note 61, p. 44.-Like SEBA's Queen could vanquish with that one. “Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes.”—-Sol. Song. Note 62, p. 44.—The fingers' ends with a bright roseate hue. "They tinged the ends of their fingers scarlet with henna, so that they resembled branches of coral."-Story of Prince Futtun in Bahardanush.

Note 63, p. 44.-To give that long, dark languish to the eye. "The women blacken the inside of their eyelids with a powder named the black kohol."-Russel.

"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 afterwards 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.

Note 64, p. 45.- In her full lap the Champac's leaves of gold.

The appearance of the blossoms of the gold-coloured Champac on the black hair of the Indian women has supplied the Sanscrit poets with many elegant allusions. (See Asiatic Researches, vol. iv.)

Note 65, p. 45.-The sweet Elcaya, and that courteous tree.
A tree famous for its perfume, and common on the hills of Yemen.
-Niebuhr.

Note 66, p. 45.- Which bows to all who seek its canopy.

Of the genus mimosa, "which droops its branches whenever any person approaches it, seeming as if it saluted those who retire under its shade."-Ibid.

Note 67, p. 45.-The bowers of TIBET, send forth odorous light.

"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.

Note 68, p. 47. With odoriferous woods of COMORIN.

"C'est d'où vient le bois d'aloës que les Arabes appellent Oud Comari, et celui du sandal, qui s'y trouve en grande quantité."D'Herbelot.

Note 69, p. 47. -- The crimson blossoms of the coral tree. "Thousands of variegated lories visit the coral trees.”—Barrow.

Note 70, p. 47.-Mecca's blue sacred pigeon.

"In Mecca there are quantities of blue pigeons, which none will affright or abuse, much less kill."--Pitt's Account of the Mahometans.

Note 71, p. 47. The thrush of Hindostan.

"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.”—Pennant's Hindostan.

Note 72, p. 47.-About the gardens, drunk with that sweet food. Tavernier adds, that while the birds of Paradise lie in this intoxicated state, the emmets come and eat off their legs; and that hence it is they are said to have no feet.

1

« ForrigeFortsæt »