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NOTES.

IRISH MELODIE S.

549

1 These lines were written on the death of our great patriot Grattan, in the year 1820.

2 The God of Silence, thus pictured by the Egyptians.

3 This ballad is founded upon one of the many stories related of St. Kevin, whose bed in the rock is to be seen at Glendalough, a most gloomy and romantic spot in the county of Wicklow.

4 Fionnuala, the daughter of Lir, was, by some supernatural power, transformed into a swan, and condemned to wander, for many hundred years, over certain lakes and rivers in Ireland, till the coming of Christianity, when the first sound of the mass-bell was to be the signal of her release.

5 These verses were written after the perusal of a treatise by Mr. Hamilton, professing to prove that the Irish were originally Jews.

6 The name given to the banner of the Irish.

Thomas, the heir of the Desmond family, had accidentally been so engaged in the chase, that he was benighted near Tralee, and obliged to take shelter at the Abbey of Feal, in the house of one of his dependents, called Mac Cormac. Catherine, a beautiful daughter of his host, instantly inspired the Earl with a violent. passion, which he could not subdue. He married her, and by this inferior alliance alienated his followers, whose brutal pride regarded this indulgence of his love as an unpardonable degradation of his family.”—Leland, vol. ii. "The king of Leinster had long conceived a violent affection for Dearbhorgil, daughter to the king of Meath, and though she had been for some time married to O'Ruark, prince of Breffni, yet it could not restrain his passion. They carried on a private correspondence, and she informed him that O'Ruark intended soon to go on a pilgrimage (an act of piety frequent in those days), and conjured him to embrace that opportunity of conveying her from a husband she detested to a lover she adored. Mac Murchad too punctually obeyed the summons, and had the lady conveyed to his capital of Ferns."-The monarch Roderick espoused the cause of O'Ruark, while Mac Murchad fled to England, and obtained the assistance of Henry II.

9 The particulars of the tradition respecting O'Donohue and his White Horse, may be found in Mr. Weld's Account of Killarney, or more fully detailed in Derrick's Letters. For many years after his death, the spirit of this hero is supposed to have been seen on the morning of May-day, gliding over the lake on his favourite white horse, to the sound of sweet unearthly music, and preceded by groups of youths and maidens, who flung wreaths of delicate spring flowers in his path.

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LALLA ROOK H.

1 Tulip cheek.

2 The Indian Apollo.

3 For the real history of this Impostor, whose original name was Hakem ben Haschem, and who was called Mocanna from the veil of silver gauze (or, as others say, golden) which he always wore, see D'Herbelot.

4 Moses.

5 Black was the colour adopted by the Caliphs of the House of Abbas, in their garments, turbars. and standards.

6 When Soliman travelled, the eastern writers say, "he had a carpet of green silk on which his throne was placed, being of a prodigious length and breadth, and sufficient for all his forces to stand upon, the mer placing themselves on his right hand, and the spirits on his left; and that when all were in order, the wind. at his command, took up the carpet, and transported it, with all that were upon it, wherever he pleased; the army of birds at the same time flying over their heads, and forming a kind of canopy to shade them from the sun."-Sale's Koran, vol. ii. p. 214, note.

7 The transmigration of souls was one of his doctrines.-Vide D'Herbelot.

8 "And when we said unto the angels, Worship Adam, they all worshipped him except Eblis (Lucifer); who refused."-The Koran, chap ii.

• Jesus.

10 The Amoo, which rises in the Belur Tag or Dark Mountains, and running nearly from east to west. splits into two branches; one of which falls into the Caspian sea, and the other into Aral Nahr, or the Lake of Eagles.

11 The nightingale.

12 Shedad, who made the delicious gardens of Irim, în imitation of Paradise, and was destroyed by in lightning the first time he attempted to enter them.

13 Musnuds are cushioned seats, usually reserved for persons of distinction.

14 The Persians, like the ancient Greeks, call their musical modes o: Terdas by the names of different countries or cities, as the mode of Isfahan, the mode of Irak, &c.

15 The wife of Potiphar, thus named by the Orientals.

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

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

18 The Demons of the Persian mythology.

19 "The celebrity of Mazagong is owing to its mangoes, which are certainly the best fruit I ever tasted.” - Mrs. Graham's Journal of a Residence in India.

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20 The blacksmith Gao, who successfully resisted the tyrant Zohak, and whose apron became the Royal Standard of Persia.

21

The Huma, a bird peculiar to the East. It is supposed to fly constantly in the air, and never touch the ground."

22 "To the pilgrims to Mount Sinai we must attribute the inscriptions, figures, &c., on those rocks, which have from thence acquired the name of the Written Mountain."- Volney.

23"The Mahometans suppose that falling stars are the firebrands wherewith the good angels drive away the bad, when they approach too near the empyrean or verge of the heavens."-Fryer.

24 The Nile, which the Abyssinians know by the name of Abey and Alawy, or the Giant."-Asiat. Research. vol. i. p. 387.

25 The Nucta, or Miraculous Drop, which falls in Egypt precisely on St. John's day, in June, and is supposed to have the effect of stopping the plague.

25 The Country of Delight-the name of a province in the kingdom of Jinnistan, or Fairy Land, the capital of which is called the City of Jewels. Amberabad is another of the cities of Jinnistan.

27 "The Arabians believe that the ostriches hatch their young by only looking at them."-P. Vanslebe, Relat. d'Egypte.

28 Ferishta. "Or rather," says Scott, upon the passage of Ferishta from which this is taken, "small coins stamped with the figure of a flower. They are still used in India to distribute in charity, and, on occasion, thrown by the purse-bearers of the great among the populace."

29 A Moorish instrument of music.

30 They say that if a snake or serpent fix his eyes on the lustre of those stones (emeralds), he immediately becomes blind.

31 Within the enclosure which surrounds this monument (at Gualior) is a small tomb to the memory of Tan-Sein, a musician of incomparable skill, who flourished at the court of Akbar. The tomb is overshadowed by a tree, concerning which a superstitious notion prevails, that the chewing of its leaves will give an extraordinary melody to the voice.

32 Talmuras, and other ancient kings of Persia; whose adventures in Fairy-land among the Peris and Dives may be found in Richardson's curious Dissertation. The griffin Simoorgh, they say, took some feathers from her breast for Talmuras, with which he adorned his helmet, and transmitted them afterwards to his descendants.

33 The Ghebers generally built their temples over subterraneous fires.

34 "Among other ceremonies the Magi used to place upon the tops of high towers various kinds of rich viands, upon which it was supposed the Peris and the spirits of their departed heroes regaled themselves."Richardson.

35 A kind of trumpet, the sound of which is described as uncommonly dreadful, and so loud as to be heard at the distance of several miles.-Richardson.

36

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A wind which prevails in February, called Bidmusk, from a small and odoriferous flower of that name.' 37"Last of all she took a guitar, and sang a pathetic air in the measure called Nava, which is always used to express the lamentations of absent lovers."-Persian Tales.

38 "The Gate of Tears, the straits or passage into the Red Sea, commonly called Babelmandel."Richardson.

39 The two terrible angels, Monkir and Nakir, who are called "the Searchers of the Grave" in the "Creed of the orthodox Mahometans" given by Ockley, vol. ii.

40"The Arabians call the mandrake 'the Devil's candle,' on account of its shining appearance in the night."—Richardson.

41 The Ghebers say that when Abraham, their great Prophet, was thrown into the fire by order of Nimrod, the flame turned instantly into a "bed of roses, where the child sweetly reposed."

42 “This wind (the Samoor) so softens the strings of lutes, that they can never be tuned while it lasts.” -Stephen's Persia.

43 His business was, at stated periods, to measure the ladies of the Haram by a sort of regulation-girdle, whose limits it was not thought graceful to exceed.

44 "It is the custom among the women to employ the Maazeen to chaunt from the gallery of the nearest minaret, which on that occasion is illuminated, and the women assembled at the house respond at intervals with a ziraleet or joyous chorus.

Russel.

45 In the wars of the Dives with the Peris, whenever the former took the latter prisoners, "they shut them up in iron cages, and hung them on the highest trees. Here they were visited by their companions, who brought them the choicest odours."- Richardson.

46 "He is said to have found the great Mantra, spell or talisman, through which he ruled over the elements and spirits of all denominations."- Wilford.

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47 "A demon, supposed to haunt woods, &c., in a human shape."

48 The God of Love.

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49 "The mangusteen, the most delicate fruit in the world; the pride of the Malay islands.' -Marsden. 50"The Indian Syrinda, or guitar."-Symez.

51 The Hudhud, or Lapwing, is supposed to have the power of discovering water under ground.

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