thinking, I have very little doubt that I shall be vastly | Irem. Every precious flower was there to be found, pleased with him.” Some days elapsed, after this harangue of the Great Chamberlain, before LALLA ROOKH could venture to ask for another story. The youth was still a welcome guest in the pavilion; to one heart, perhaps too dangerously welcome--but all mention of poetry was, as if by common consent, avoided. Though none of the party had much respect for FADLADEEN, yet his censures, thus magisterially delivered, evidently made an impression on them all. The Poet himself, to whom criticism was quite a new operation, (being wholly unknown in that Paradise of the Indies, Cashmere,) felt the shock as it is generally felt at first, till use has made it more tolerable to the patient;-the ladies began to suspect that they ought not to be pleased, and seemed to conclude that there must have been much good sense in what FADLADEEN said, from its having set them all so soundly to sleep; while the self-complacent Chamberlain was left to triumph in the idea of having, for the hundred and fiftieth time in his life, extinguished a Poet. LALLA ROOKн alone-and Love knew why-persisted in being delighted with all she had heard, and in resolv ing to hear more as speedily as possible. Her manner, however, of first returning to the subject was unlucky. It was while they rested during the heat of noon near a fountain, on which some hand had rudely traced those well-known words from the Garden of Sadi,-" Many, like me, have viewed this fountain, but they are gone, and their eyes are closed for ever!"-that she took occasion, from the melancholy beauty of this passage, to dwell upon the charms of poetry in general. "It is true," she said, "few poets can imitate that sublime bird, which flies always in the air, and never touches the earth;'-it is only once in many ages a Genius appears, whose words, like those on the Written Mountain, last for ever-but still there are some, as delightful perhaps, though not so wonderful, who, if not stars over our head, are at least flowers along our path, and whose sweetness of the moment we ought gratefully to inhale, without calling upon them for a brightness and a durability beyond their nature. In short," continued she, blushing, as if conscious of being caught in an oration, "it is quite cruel that a poet cannot wander through his regions of enchantment, without having a critic for ever, like the old Man of the sea, upon his back."-FADLADEEN, it was plain, took this last luckless allusion to himself, and would treasure it up in his mind as a whetstone for his neat criticism. A sudden silence ensued; and the Princess, glancing a look at FERAMORZ, saw plainly she must wait for a more courageous moment. But the glories of Nature, and her wild, fragrant airs, playing freshly over the current of youthful spirits, will soon heal even deeper wounds than the dull Fadladeens of this world can inflict. In an evening or two after, they came to the small Valley of Gardens, which had been planted by order of the Emperor for his favourite sister Rochinara, during their progress to Cashmere, some years before; and never was there a more sparkling assemblage of sweets, since the Gulzar-e-Irem, or Rose-bower of | that poetry, or love, or religion has ever consecrated, from the dark hyacinth, to which Hafez compares his mistress's hair, to the Camalata, by whose rosy blossoms the heaven of India is scented. As they sat in the cool fragrance of this delicious spot, and LALLA ROOKH remarked that she could fancy it the abode of that flower-loving Nymph whom they wor ship in the temples of Kathay, or one of those Peris, those beautiful creatures of the air, who live upon perfumes, and to whom a place like this might make some amends for the Paradise they have lost,-the young Poet, in whose eyes she appeared, while she spoke, to be one of the bright spiritual creatures she was describing, said, hesitatingly, that he remembered a Story of a Peri, which, if the Princess had no objection, he would venture to relate. "It is," said he, with an appealing look to FADLADEEN, "in a lighter and humbler strain than the other;" then, striking a few careless but melancholy chords on his kitar, ho thus began : PARADISE AND THE PERI. ONE morn a Peri at the gate Of Life within, like music flowing, Through the half-open'd portal glowing, 'Mid flowers that never shall fade or fall: Though mine are the gardens of earth and sea, 66 One blossom of Heaven out-blooms them all! Though sunny the lake of cool CASHMERE, With its plane-tree Isle reflected clear,' And sweetly the founts of that Valley fall; Though bright are the waters of SING-SU-HAY, And the golden floods, that thitherward stray,2 Yet-oh, 'tis only the Blest can say How the waters of Heaven outshine them all! As the universe spreads its flaming wall; From Eden's fountain, when it lies 1 "Numerous small islands emerge from the Lake of Cashmere. One is called Char Chenaur, from the planetrees upon it."-Forster. 2 The Altan Kol, or Golden River of Tibet, which runs into the Lakes of Sing-su-bay, has abundance of gold in its sands, which employs the inhabitants all summer in gather Ang it."-Description of Tibet in Pinkerton On the blue flow'r, which, Bramins say, Blooms no where but in Paradise! "Nymph of a fair, but erring line!" Gently he said "One hope is thine. "Tis written in the Book of Fate, 'The Peri yet may be forgiven Who brings to this Eternal Gate The Gift that is most dear to Heaven!" Go, seek it, and redeem thy sin;"Tis sweet to let the Pardon'd in!" Rapidly as comets run To th' embraces of the sun- And, lighted earthward by a glance But whither shall the Spirit go To the south of sun-bright ARABY;3— The jewell'd cup of their King JAMSHID,4 While thus she mus'd, her pinions fann'd But crimson now her rivers ran With human blood--the smell of death Came reeking from those spicy bowers, And man, the sacrifice of man, Mingled his taint with every breath Land of the Sun! what foot invades 1 "The Mahometans suppose that falling stars are the firebrands wherewith the good angels drive away the bad, when they approach too near the empyreum or verge of the Heavens."-Fryer. 2 "The Forty Pillars: so the Persians call the ruins of Persepolis. It is imagined by them that this palace and the edifices at Balbec were built by Genii, for the purpose of hiding in their subterraneous caverns immense treasures, which still remain there."-D' Herbelot, Volney 3 The Isles of Panchaia. Thy cavern shrines, and idol stones, He comes, and INDIA's diadems Of many a young and lov'd Sultana ;2- Alone, beside his native river,- And the last arrow in his quiver. And when the rush of war was past, Of morning light, she caught the lastLast glorious drop his heart had shed, Before its free-born spirit fled! "Be this," she cried, as she wing'd her flight, On the field of warfare, blood like this, It would not stain the purest rill, That sparkles among the Bowers of Bliss! Oh! if there be, on this earthly sphere, A boon, an offering Heaven holds dear, 'Tis the last libation Liberty draws From the heart that bleeds and breaks in her cause!" "Sweet," said the Angel, as she gave The gift into his radiant hand, Now among AFRIC's Lunar Mountains, 1 Mahmood of Gazna, or Ghizni, who conquered India in the beginning of the 11th century. See his History in Dow and Sir J. Malcolm. 2"It is reported that the hunting equipage of the Sultan Mahmood was so magnificent, that he kept 400 grey hounds and blood-hounds, each of which wore a collar set with jewels, and a covering edged with gold and pearls."-Universal History, vol. iii. 3 "The Mountains of the Moon, or the Montes Lunte of 4 "The cup of Jamshid, discovered, they say, when dig-antiquity, at the foot of which the Nile is supposed to rise ging for the foundations of Persepolis."-Richardson. -Bruce. And sleek'd her plumage at the fountains Of that Egyptian tide,-whose birth Dance round the cradle of their Nile, Bathing their beauties in the lake, Amid whose fairy loneliness Who could have thought, that there, e'en there, The Demon of the Plague hath cast 1 "The Nile, which the Abyssinians know by the names of Abey and Alawy, or the Giant."--Asiat. Researches, vol. i. p. 387. 2 See Perry's View of the Levant, for an account of the sepulchres in Upper Thebes, and the numberless grots covered all over with hieroglyphics, in the mountains of Upper Egy! ↳ 3" The orchards of Rosetta are filled with turtle-doves." -Sonnini. 4 vary mentions the pelicans upon Lake Moris. 5. The superb date-tree, whose head languidly reclines, that of a handsome woman overcome with sleep."Jafard el Hadad. And ne'er will feel that sun again! "Poor race of Men!" said the pitying Spirit, 46 'Dearly ye pay for your primal fallSome flowrets of Eden ye still inherit, But the trail of the Serpent is over them all! She wept-the air grew pure and clear Around her, as the bright drops ran; For there's a magic in each tear Such kindly Spirits weep for man! Just then beneath some orange trees, Close by the Lake, she heard the moan Had thither stol'n to die alone. Drew after him the hearts of many; Which shines so cool before his eyes. Deserted youth! one thought alone Shed joy around his soul in death-That she, whom he for years had known And lov'd, and might have call'd his own, Was safe from this foul midnight's breath;- This melancholy bower to seek, 6That beautiful bird, with plumage of the finest shining lue, with purple beak and legs, the natural and living orna- 1 Jackson, speaking of the plague that occurred in West .nent of the temples and palaces of the Greeks and Romans, Barbary, when he was there, says, "The birds of the air fled which, from the stateliness of its port, as well as the bril away from the abodes of men. The hyenas, on the con liancy of its colours has obtained the title of Sultana."-trary, visited the cemeteries," &c. Sonnini. 2 Bruce. She, who would rather die with him, Than live to gain the world beside !-Her arms are round her lover now, His livid cheek to hers she presses, And dips, to bind his burning brow, In the cool lake her loosen'd tresses. Ah! once, how little did he think An hour would come, when he should shrink Those gentle arms, that were to him The blessed air that's breath'd by thee, Healing or death, 'tis sweet to me! To give thy brow one minute's calm. Long kiss, which she expires in giving! Unearthly breathings through the place, 1 "In the East, they suppose the Phoenix to have fifty orifices in his bill, which are continued to his tail; and that, after living one thousand years, he builds himself a funeral pile, sings a melodious air of different harmonies through his fifty organ pipes, flaps his wings with a velocity which sets fire to the wood, and consumes himself.-Richardson. And shook her sparkling wreath, and shed From their dim graves, in odour sleeping;- Like their good angel, calmly keeping Watch o'er them, till their souls would waken! But morn is blushing in the sky; Smil'd as she gave that offering in; Of Eden, with their crystal bells Ringing in that ambrosial breeze That from the throne of ALLA swells; And she can see the starry bowls That lie around that lucid lake, Upon whose banks admitted souls Their first sweet draught of glory take!! But ah! e'en Peri's hopes are vain-- He shut from her that glimpse of glory- Now, upon SYRIA's land of roses2 To one, who look'd from upper air 53 . Of ruin'd shrines, busy and bright Banqueting through the flowery vales ;- On that great Temple, once his own, Had rais'd to count his ages by! With the great name of SOLOMON, Cheer'd by this hope she bends her thither;— Like thunder-clouds, of gloom and fire! In which the PERI's eye could read Met that unclouded, joyous gaze, From SYRIA's thousand minarets! Kneels, with his forehead to the south, From purity's own cherub mouth, Oh 'twas a sight-that Heav'n-that Child- And how felt he, the wretched Man, I look'd and pray'd like thee-but now--" And hope and feeling, which had slept Is felt the first, the only sense Of guiltless joy that guilt can know. "There's a drop," said the PERI, "that down from the moon Falls through the withering airs of June 1 "The Syrinx, or Pan's pipe, is still a pastoral instru- Upon EGYPT's land,' of so healing a power, ment in Syria."-Russel. 2 The Temple of the Sun at Balbec. 3" You behold there a considerable number of a remarka ble species of beautiful insects, the elegance of whose appearance and their attire procured for them the name of Damsels."-Sonnini. So balmy a virtue, that e'en in the hour 1 The Nucta, or Miraculous Drop, which falls in Egypt, precisely on Saint John's day, in June, and is supposed to have the effect of stopping the plague. |