presence of a Princess, every thing was arranged as on the preceding evening, and all listened

with eagerness, while the story was thus continued: :

WHOSE are the gilded tents that crowd the way,
Where all was waste and silent yesterday?

This City of War which, in a few short hours,
Hath sprung up here*, as if the magic powers

"The Lescar or Imperial Camp is divided, like a regular town, into squares, alleys, and streets, and from a rising ground furnishes one of the most agreeable prospects in the world. Starting up in a few hours in an uninhabited plain, it raises the idea of a city built by enchantment. Even those who leave their houses in cities to follow the prince in his progress are frequently so charmed with the Lescar, when situated in a beautiful and convenient place, that they cannot prevail with themselves to remove. To prevent this inconvenience to the court, the Emperor, after sufficient time is allowed to the tradesmen to follow, orders them to be burnt out of their tents. Dow's Hindostan.

Colonel Wilks gives a lively picture of an Eastern encampment: -"His camp, like that of most Indian armies, exhibited a motley collection of covers from the scorching sun and dews of the night, variegated according to the taste or means of each individual, by extensive inclosures of coloured calico surrounding superb suites of tents; by ragged cloths or blankets stretched over sticks or branches; palm leaves hastily spread over similar supports; handsome tents and splendid canopies; horses, oxen, elephants, and camels; all intermixed without any exterior mark of order or design, except the flags of the chiefs, which usually mark the centres of a congeries of these masses; the only regular part of the encampment being the streets of shops, each of which is constructed nearly in the

Of Him who, in the twinkling of a star,
Built the high pillar'd halls of CHILMINAR*,
Had conjur'd up, far as the eye can see,

This world of tents, and domes, and sun-bright

armory:

Princely pavilions, screen'd by many a fold
Of crimson cloth, and topp'd with balls of gold:
Steeds, with their housings of rich silver spun,
Their chains and poitrels glittering in the sun;
And camels, tufted o'er with Yemen's shells †,
Shaking in every breeze their light-ton'd bells!

But yester-eve, so motionless around,

So mute was this wide plain, that not a sound
But the far torrent, or the locust bird ‡
Hunting among the thickets, could be heard;

manner of a booth at an English fair.” Historical Sketches of the South of India.

* The edifices of Chilminar and Balbec are supposed to have been built by the Genii, acting under the orders of Jan ben Jan, who governed the world long before the time of Adam.

"A superb camel, ornamented with strings and tufts of small shells."- Ali Bey.

A native of Khorassan, and allured southward by means of the water of a fountain between Shiraz and Ispahan, called

Yet hark! what discords now, of every kind,

Shouts, laughs, and screams are revelling in the wind;

The neigh of cavalry; the tinkling throngs

—

Of laden camels and their drivers songs *;
Ringing of arms, and flapping in the breez
Of streamers from ten thousand canopies;
War-music, bursting out from time to time,
With gong and tymbalon's tremendous chime;
Or, in the pause, when harsher sounds are mute,
The mellow breathings of some horn or flute,
That far off, broken by the eagle note

Of the Abyssinian trumpet†, swell and float.

the Fountain of Birds, of which it is so fond that it will follow wherever that water is carried.

* "Some of the camels have bells about their necks, and some about their legs, like those which our carriers put about their fore-horses' necks, which together with the servants (who belong to the camels, and travel on foot,) singing all night, make a pleasant noise, and the journey passes away delightfully." Pitt's Account of the Mahometans.

"The camel-driver follows the camels singing, and sometimes playing upon his pipe; the louder he sings and pipes, the faster the camels go. Nay, they will stand still when he Tavernier.

gives over his music."

"This trumpet is often called, in Abyssinia, nesser cano, which signifies the Note of the Eagle."-Note of Bruce's Editor.

"who?"

Who leads this mighty army? - ask ye
And mark ye not those banners of dark hue,
The Night and Shadow*, over yonder tent?
It is the CALIPH's glorious armament.
Rous'd in his Palace by the dread alarms,
That hourly came, of the false Prophet's arms,
And of his host of infidels, who hurl'd
Defiance fierce at Islam+ and the world,
Though worn with Grecian warfare, and behind
The veils of his bright Palace calm reclin'd,
Yet brook'd he not such blasphemy should stain,
Thus unreveng'd, the evening of his reign;
But, having sworn upon the Holy Grave ‡
To conquer or to perish, once more gave
His shadowy banners proudly to the breeze,
And with an army, nurs'd in victories,

Here stands to crush the rebels that o'er-run
His blest and beauteous Province of the Sun.

* The two black standards borne before the Caliphs of the House of Abbas were called, allegorically, The Night and The Shadow. See Gibbon.

†The Mahometan religion.

‡ "The Persians swear by the Tomb of Shah Besade, who is buried at Casbin; and when one desires another to asseverate a matter, he will ask him, if he dare swear by the Holy Grave."-Struy.