And passionate struggles of that fearful night,

When her last hope of peace and heav'n took flight:
And though, at times, a gleam of frenzy broke,
As through some dull volcano's veil of smoke
Ominous flashings now and then will start,
Which show the fire's still busy at its heart;
Yet was she mostly wrapp'd in solemn gloom,
Not such as Azim's, brooding o'er its doom,
And calm without, as in the brow of death,
While busy worms are gnawing underneath -
But in a blank and pulseless torpor, free
From thought or pain, a seal'd-up apathy,
Which left her oft, with scarce one living thrill,
The cold, pale victim of her torturer's will.

Again, as in MEROU, he had her deck'd
Gorgeously out, the Priestess of the sect;
And led her glittering forth before the eyes
Of his rude train, as to a sacrifice,

Pallid as she, the young, devoted Bride

Of the fierce NILE, when deck'd in all the pride

Of nuptial pomp, she sinks into his tide. *

And while the wretched maid hung down her head,

And stood, as one just risen from the dead,

Amid that gazing crowd, the fiend would tell

His credulous slaves it was some charm or spell

*"A custom still subsisting at this day, seems to me to prove that the Egyptians formerly sacrificed a young virgin to the God of the Nile; for they now make a statue of earth in shape of a girl, to which they give the name of the Betrothed Bride, and throw it into the river." - SAVARY.

Possess'd her now, and from that darken'd trance

Should dawn ere long their Faith's deliverance.
Or, if, at times, goaded by guilty shame,

Her soul was rous'd, and words of wildness came,
Instant the bold blasphemer would translate
Her ravings into oracles of fate,

Would hail Heav'n's signals in her flashing eyes,
And call her shrieks the language of the skies!

But vain at length his arts

despair is seen

Gathering around; and famine comes to glean
All that the sword had left unreap'd:

in vain

At morn and eve across the northern plain
He looks impatient for the promis'd spears

Of the wild Hordes and TARTAR mountaineers;
They come not while his fierce beleaguerers pour
Engines of havoc in, unknown before,"

*

* That they knew the secret of the Greek fire among the Mussulmans early in the eleventh century, appears from Dow's Account of Mamood I. "When he arrived at Moulton, finding that the country of the Jits was defended by great rivers, he ordered fifteen hundred boats to be built, each of which he armed with six iron spikes, projecting from their prows and sides, to prevent their being boarded by the enemy, who were very expert in that kind of war. When he had launched his fleet, he ordered twenty archers into each boat, and five others with fire-balls, to burn the craft of the Jits, and naphtha to set the whole river on fire."

The agnee aster, too, in Indian poems the Instrument of Fire, whose flame cannot be extinguished, is supposed to signifiy the Greek Fire. See Wilks's South of India, vol. i. p. 471. — And in the curious Javan poem, the Brata Yudha given by Sir Stamford Raffles in his History of Java, we find, "He aimed at the heart of Soéta with the sharp-pointed Weapon of Fire."

And horrible as new*; - javelins, that fly

Enwreath'd with smoky flames through the dark sky, And red-hot globes, that, opening as they mount, Discharge, as from a kindled Naptha fount, t

The mention of gunpowder as in use among the Arabians, long before its supposed discovery in Europe, is introduced by Ebn Fadhl the Egyptian geographer, who lived in the thirteenth century. "Bodies," he says, "in the form of scorpions, bound round and filled with nitrous powder, glide along, making a gentle noise; then, exploding, they lighten, as it were, and burn. But there are others which, cast into the air, stretch along like a cloud, roaring horribly, as thunder roars, and on all sides vomiting out flames, burst, burn, and reduce to cinders whatever comes in their way." The historian Ben Abdalla, in speaking of the sieges of Abulualid in the year of the Hegira 712, says, "A fiery globe by means of combustible matter, with a mighty noise suddenly emitted, strikes with the force of lightning, and shakes the citadel." See the extracts from Casiri's Biblioth. Arab. Hispan. in the Appendix to Berington's Literary History of the Middle Ages.

* The Greek fire, which was occasionally lent by the emperors to their allies. "It was," says Gibbon, "either launched in red-hot balls of stone and iron, or darted in arrows and javelins, twisted round with flax and tow, which had deeply imbibed the inflammable oil."

† See Hanway's Account of the Springs of Naphtha at Baku (which is called by Lieutenant Pottinger Joala Mookee, or, the Flaming Mouth,) taking fire and running into the sea. Dr. Cooke, in his Journal, mentions some wells in Circassia. strongly impregnated with this inflammable oil, from which issues boiling water. "Though the weather," he adds, " was now very cold, the warmth of these wells of hot water produced near them the verdure and flower of spring." Major Scott Waring says, that naphtha is used by the Persians, as we are told it was in hell, for lamps:

"many a row

Of starry lamps and blazing cressets, fed
With naphtha and asphaltus, yielding light
As from a sky."

Showers of consuming fire o'er all below;
Looking, as through the' illumin'd night they go,
Like those wild birds * that by the Magians oft,
At festivals of fire, were sent aloft

Into the air, with blazing faggots tied

To their huge wings, scattering combustion wide.
All night the groans of wretches who expire,

In

agony, beneath these darts of fire,

Ring through the city--while, descending o'er
Its shrines and domes and streets of sycamore, →→
Its lone bazars, with their bright cloths of gold,
Since the last peaceful pageant left unroll'd, -
Its beauteous marble baths, whose idle jets
Now gush with blood, and its tall minarets,
That late have stood up in the evening glare
Of the red sun, unhallow'd by a prayer;·
O'er each, in turn, the dreadful flame-bolts fall,
And death and conflagration throughout all
The desolate city hold high festival!

MOKANNA Sees the world is his no more; One sting at parting, and his grasp is o'er. "What! drooping now?"—thus, with unblushing cheek, He hails the few, who yet can hear him speak,

"At the great festival of fire, called the Sheb Sezê, they used to set fire to large bunches of dry combustibles, fastened round wild beasts and birds, which being then let loose, the air and earth appeared one great illumination; and as these terrified creatures naturally fled to the woods for shelter, it is easy to conceive the conflagrations they produced."-RICHARDSON's Dissertation.

Of all those famish'd slaves around him lying,
And by the light of blazing temples dying;

"What!-drooping now ?-now, when at length we press "Home o'er the very threshold of success; "When ALLA from our ranks hath thinn'd away "Those grosser branches, that kept out his ray "Of favour from us, and we stand at length "Heirs of his light and children of his strength, "The chosen few, who shall survive the fall "Of Kings and Thrones, triumphant over all! "Have you then lost, weak murmurers as you are, “All faith in him, who was your Light, your Star? "Have you forgot the eye of glory, hid

"Beneath this Veil, the flashing of whose lid

Could, like a sun-stroke of the desert, wither

"Millions of such as yonder Chief brings hither?

"Long have its lightnings slept-too long-but now
"All earth shall feel the' unveiling of this brow!
"To-night-yes, sainted men! this very night,
"I bid you all to a fair festal rite,

"Where having deep refresh'd each weary limb
"With viands, such as feast Heav'n's cherubim,
"And kindled up your souls now sunk and dim,

"With that pure wine the Dark-ey'd Maids above
"Keep, seal'd with precious musk, for those they love,*—
"I will myself uncurtain in your sight

"The wonders of this brow's ineffable light;

"Then lead you forth, and with a wink disperse

"Yon myriads, howling through the universe!"

*"The righteous shall be given to drink of pure wine, sealed; the seal whereof shall be musk."- Koran, chap. lxxxiii.