Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

Page 99. A flower that the Bidmusk has just pass'd over.

"A wind which prevails in February, called Bidmusk, from a small and odoriferous flower of that name." "The wind which blows these flowers

commonly lasts till the end of the month."-Le Bruyn.

Page 99. Where the sea-gipsies, &c.

"The Biajús are of two races; the one is settled on Borneo, and are a rude but warlike and industrious nation, who reckon themselves the original possessors of the island of Borneo. The other is a species of sea-gipsies or itinerant fishermen, who live in small covered boats, and enjoy a perpetual summer on the eastern ocean, shifting to leeward from island to island, with the variations of the monsoon."-Dr Leyden on the Indo-Chinese Nations.

Page 99. The violet sherbets.

"The sweet-scented violet is one of the plants most esteemed, particularly for its great use in Sorbet, which they make of violet sugar."-Hasselquist. "The sherbet they most esteem, and which is drunk by the Grand Signor himself, is made of violets and sugar."-Tavernier.

Page 100. The pathetic measure of Nava.

"Last of all she took a guitar, and sung a pathetic air in the measure called Nava, which is always used to express the lamentations of absent lovers."-Persian Tales.

Page 101. Her ruby rosary.

"Le Tespih, qui est un chapelet, composé de 99 petites boules d'agathe, de jaspe, d'ambre, de corail, ou d'autre matière precieuse. J'en ai vu un superbe au Seigneur Jerpos; il étoit de belles et grosses perles parfaites et égales, estimé trentee mille piastres."-Toderini.

Page 110. A silk dyed with the blossoms of the sorrowful tree Nilica "Blossoms of the sorrowful Nyctanthes give a durable colour to silk.”— Remarks on the Husbandry of Bengal, p. 200. "Nilica is one of the Indian names of this flower."-Sir W. Jones. The Persians call it Gul."-Carreri.

Page 116.

The death-flames that beneath him burn'd.

Of their other Prophet Zoroaster, there is a story told in Dion Prusæus, Orat. 36, that the love of wisdom and virtue leading him to a solitary life upon a mountain, he found it one day all in a flame, shining with celestial fire, out of which he came without any harm, and instituted certain sacrifices to God, who, he declared, then appeared to him. Vide "Patrick on Exodus," ii. 2.

Page 129. They were now not far from that forbidden river.

"Akbar on his way ordered a fort to be built upon the Nilab, which he called Attock, which means in the Indian language Forbidden; for, by the superstition of the Hindoos, it was held unlawful to cross that river."Dow's Hindostan.

Page 129. Resembling, she often thought, that people of Zinge. "The inhabitants of this country (Zinge) are never affected with sadness or melancholy; on this subject the Sheikh Abu-al-Kheir-Azhari has the following distich:

"Who is the man without care or sorrow (tell), that I may rub my to him.

hand

"(Behold) the Zingians, without care or sorrow, frolicksome with tipsiness and mirth."

"The philosophers have discovered that the cause of this cheerfulness proceeds from the influence of the star Soheil or Canopus, which rises over them every night."-Heft Aklim, or the Seven Climates, translated by W. Ousley, Esq.

Page 130. Putting to death some hundreds of those unfortunate lizards. "The lizard Stellio. The Arabs call it Hardun. The Turks kill it, for they imagine that by declining the head it mimics them when they say their prayers."-Hasselquist.

Page 130. As the Prophet said of Damascus, "it was too delicious."

"As you enter at that Bazar without the gate at Damascus, you see the Green Mosque, so called because it hath a steeple, faced with green glazed bricks, which render it very resplendent; it is covered at the top with a pavilion of the same stuff. The Turks say this Mosque was made in that place because Mohammed, being come so far, would not enter the town, saying it was too delicious."-Thevenot.

Page 130. Would remind the Princess of that difference, &c. "Haroun Al Raschid, cinquième Khalife des Abassides, s'étant un jour brouillé avec Maridah, qu'il aimoit cependant jusqu'à l'excès, et cette mesinintelligence ayant déjà duré quelque tems commenca à s'ennuyer. Giafar Barmaki, son favori, qui s'en appercût, commanda à Abbas ben Ahnaf, excellent poète de ce tems là, de composer quelques vers sur le sujet de cette brouillerie. Ce poète executa l'ordre de Giafar, qui fit chanter ces vers par Moussali en presence du Khalife, et ce Prince fut tellement touché de la tendresse des vers du poète et de la douceur de la voix du musicien, qu'il alla aussitôt trouver Maridah, et fit sa paix avec elle."-D'Herbelot.

[blocks in formation]

"The swing is a favourite pastime in the East, as promoting a circulation of air, extremely refreshing in those sultry climates."-Richardson.

"The swings are adorned with festoons. This pastime is accompanied with music of voices and of instruments, hired by the masters of the swings."Thevenot.

Page 139. Its fragrant blossoms over graves.

"The women in Egypt go, at least two days in the week, to pray and weep at the sepulchres of the dead; and the custom then is to throw upon the tombs a sort of herb, which the Arabs call rihan, and which is our sweet basil."-Maillet, Lett. 10.

Page 140. The tooth of the fawn-like gold.

Niebuhr thinks this may be the herb which the Eastern alchymists look to as a means of making gold. "Most of those alchymical enthusiasts think themselves sure of success if they could but find out the herb, which gilds the teeth and gives a yellow colour to the flesh of the sheep that eat it."

Father Jerome Dandini, however, asserts that the teeth of the goats at Mount Libanus are of a silver colour; and adds, "this confirms me that which I observed in Candia; to wit, that the animals that live on Mount Ida eat a certain herb, which renders their teeth of a golden colour; which, according to my judgment, cannot otherwise proceed than from the mines which are under ground."-Dandini, Voyage to Mount Libanus.

Page 141. The past, the present, and future of pleasure.

"Whenever our pleasure arises from a succession of sounds, it is a perception of complicated nature, made up of a sensation of the present sound or note, and an idea or remembrance of the foregoing, while their mixture and concurrence produce such a mysterious delight as neither could have produced alone. And it is often heightened by an anticipation of the succeeding notes. Thus sense, memory, and imagination, are conjunctively employed."-Gerard on Taste.

Madame de Staël accounts upon the same principle for the gratification we derive from rhyme :-"Elle est l'image de l'espérance et du souvenir. Un son nous fait désirer celui qui doit lui répondre, et quand le second retentit, il nous rappelle celui que vient de nous échapper."

Page 142. 'Tis dawn, at least that earlier dawn.

"The Persians have two mornings, the Soobhi Kazim and the Soobhi Sadig, the false and the real daybreak. They account for this phenomenon in a most whimsical manner. They say that as the sun rises from behind the Kohi Qaf (Mount Caucasus), it passes a hole perforated through that mountain, and that darting its rays through it, it is the cause of the Soobhi Kazim, or this temporary appearance of day-break. As it ascends, the earth is again veiled in darkness, until the sun rises above the mountain and brings with it the Soobhi Sadig, or real morning."-Scott Waring.

Page 143. In his magnificent Shalimar.

"In the centre of the plain, as it approaches the Lake, one of the Delhi Emperors, I believe Shah Jehan, constructed a spacious garden called the Shalimar, which is abundantly stored with fruit-trees and flowering shrubs. Some of the rivulets which intersect the plain are led into a canal at the back of the garden, and, flowing through its centre, or occasionally thrown into a variety of water-works, compose the chief beauty of the Shalimar. To decorate this spot the Mogul Princes of India have displayed an equal magnificence and taste; especially Jehan Gheer, who, with the enchanting Noor Mahl, made Kashmire his usual residence during the summer months."— Forster.

Page 146. And oh, if there be, &c.

"Around the exterior of the Dewan Khass (a building of Shah Allum's) in the cornice are the following lines in letters of gold upon a ground of white marble-'If there be a paradise upon earth, it is this, it is this.'"-Franklin.

Page 149. Like that painted porcelain.

"The Chinese had formerly the art of painting on the sides of porcelain vessels fish and other animals, which were only perceptible when the vessel was full of some liquor. They are every now and then trying to recover the art of this magical painting, but to no purpose."—Dunn.

Page 150. More perfect than the divinest images in the House of Azor. An eminent carver of idols, said in the Koran to be father to Abraham. "I have such a lovely idol as is not to be met with in the house of Azor."— -Hafiz.

Page 150. The grottos, hermitages, and miraculous fountains.

"The pardonable superstition of the sequestered inhabitants has multiplied the places of worship of Mahadeo, of Beschan, and of Brama. All Cashmere is holy land, and miraculous fountains abound."-Major Rennell's Memoirs of a Map of Hindostan.

[blocks in formation]

"On a standing roof of wood is laid a covering of fine earth, which shelters the building from the great quantity of snow that falls in the winter season. This fence communicates an equal warmth in winter, as a refreshing coolness in the summer season, when the tops of the houses, which are planted with a variety of flowers, exhibit at a distance the spacious view of a beautifully chequered parterre."-Forster.

Page 150. Lanterns of the triple-coloured tortoise-shell of Pegu.

"Two hundred slaves there are who have no other office than to hunt the woods and marshes for triple-coloured tortoises for the King's Vivary. Of the shells of these also lanterns are made."-Vincent le Blanc's Travels.

Page 151. The cold, odoriferous wind.

This wind, which is to blow from Syria Damascena is, according to the Mohammedans, one of the signs of the Last Day's approach.

Another of the signs is, "Great distress in the world, so that a man when he passes by another's grave shall say, Would to God I were in his place."Sale's Preliminary Discourse.

Page 152. The cerulean throne of Koolburga.

"On Mohammed Shaw's return to Koolburga, (the capital of Dekkan,) he made a great festival, and mounted this throne with much pomp and magnificence, calling it Firozeh or Cerulean. I have heard some old persons, who saw the throne Firozeh in the reign of Sultan Mamood Bhamenee, describe it. They say that it was in length nine feet, and three in breadth; made of ebony, covered with plates of pure gold, and set with precious stones of immense value. Every prince of the house of Bhamenee, who possessed this throne, made a point of adding to it some rich stones, so that when in the reign of Sultan Mamood it was taken to pieces, to remove some of the jewels to be set in vases and cups, the jewellers valued it at one corore of oons, (nearly four millions sterling.) I learned also that it was called Firozeh from being partly enamelled of a sky-blue colour, which was in time totally concealed by the number of jewels."-Ferishta.

THE END.

BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.

Popular Works

PUBLISHED BY

WILLIAM P. NIMMO.

RED LINE UNIFORM EDITION OF THE POETS.

In crown 8vo, printed on Fine Paper, with Border Lines in Red, and elegantly bound in cloth extra, gilt, gilt edges, price 7s. 6d. ; or in Turkey morocco extra, or antique, price 12s. 6d.,

THE POETICAL WORKS OF

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW NEW EDITION, COMPLETE.

With Fine Portrait on Steel, and beautiful Illustrations.

RED LINE EDITION.

THE POETICAL WORKS OF

SIR WALTER SCOTT.

Illustrated by KEELEY HALSWELLE.

RED LINE EDITION.

THE

POETICAL WORKS OF LORD BYRON.

Illustrated by W. ORCHARDSON, KEELEY HALSWELLE, R. FRIER,
J. PETTIE, and J. M'WHIRTER.

RED LINE EDITION.

THE POETICAL WORKS OF

THOMAS MOORE.

Illustrated by KEELEY HALSWELLE.

RED LINE EDITION.

THE POETICAL WORKS OF

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.

Illustrated by KEELEY HALSWELLE.

The above are most beautiful and portable editions of these favourite

authors.

« ForrigeFortsæt »