That blesses heaven's inhabitants With fruits of immortality, Upon her lap the shining store. - With what delight the' Enchantress views And beams of that bless'd hour! — her glance Spoke something, past all mortal pleasures, She hung above those fragrant treasures, As if she mix'd her soul with theirs. * Sweet basil, called Rayhan in Persia, and generally found in churchyards. "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. "In the Great Desert are found many stalks of lavender and rosemary." Asiat. Res. And 't was, indeed, the perfume shed But the morn's dew, her roseate lip. I know where the winged visions dwell I know each herb and flow'ret's bell, To twine our braid, To morrow the dreams and flowers will fade The image of love, that nightly flies Steals from the jasmine flower, that sighs The dream of a future, happier hour, That alights on misery's brow, Springs out of the silvery almond flower, The almond-tree, with white flowers, blossoms on the bare branches." HASSELQUIST. Then hasten we, maid, To twine our braid, To-morrow the dreams and flowers will fade. The visions, that oft to worldly eyes The tooth of the fawn like gold. The phantom shapes — oh touch not them - To twine our braid, To-morrow the dreams and flowers will fade. The dream of the injur'd, patient mind, * An herb on Mount Libanus, which is said to communicate a yellow golden hue to the teeth of the goats and other animals that graze upon it. 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. Even the oil of this plant must be of a golden colour. It is called Haschischat ed dab." Father Jerom 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. Is found in the bruis'd and wounded rind Of the cinnamon, sweetest then. To twine our braid, To-morrow the dreams and flowers will fade. No sooner was the flowery crown Placed on her head, than sleep came down, Steals on her ear, and floats and swells, Like the first air of morning creeping Into those wreathy, Red-Sea shells, Where Love himself, of old, lay sleeping; † And now a Spirit form'd, 'twould seem, Of music and of light, so fair, So brilliantly his features beam, And such a sound is in the air * The myrrh country. "This idea (of deities living in shells) was not unknown to the Greeks, who represent the young Nerites, one of the Cupids, as living in shells on the shores of the Red Sca."-WILFORD. From CHINDARA's* warbling fount I come, Where in music, morn and night, I dwell: And voices are singing the whole day long, From my fairy home, And if there's a magic in Music's strain," Of that moonlight wreath, Thy Lover shall sigh at thy feet again. - For mine is the lay that lightly floats, Mine is the charm, whose mystic sway Let but the tuneful talisman sound, And they come, like Genii, hovering round. * "A fabulous fountain, where instruments are said to be constantly playing." RICHARDSON. |