Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

mascus, you see the Green Mosque, so called because it hath a steeple faced with green glazed bricks, which render it very resplendent; it is covered at top with a pavilion of the same stuff. The Turks say this mosque was made in that place, because Mahomet being come so far, would not enter the town, saying it was too delicious."-Thevenot. This reminds one of the following pretty passage in Isaac Walton:-"When I sat last on this primrose bank and looked down these meadows, I thought of them as Charles the Emperor did of the City of Florence, that they were too pleasant to be looked on, but on holidays.”

Page 247.

Would remind the Princess of that difference, &c. "Haroun Al Raschid, cinquieme Khalife des Abassides, s'étant un jour brouillé avec une de ses maîtresses nommée Maridah, qu'il aimoit cependant jusqu'à l'excès, et cette mesintelligence ayant déjà duré quelque tems commenca à s'ennuyer. Giafar Barmaki, son favori, qui s'en appercut, commanda a Abbas ben Ahnaf, excellent Poète de ce tems là de composer quelques vers sur le sujet de cette brouillerie. Ce Poète executa l'ordre de Giafar, qui fit chanter ces vers par Moussali en presence du Khalife, et ce Prince fut tellement touché de la tendresse des vers du poëte et de la douceur de la voix du musicien qu'il alla aussi-tôt trouver Maridah, et fit sa paix avee elle."D'Herbelot.

Page 252.

Where the silken swing.

"The swing is a favourite pastime in the East, as promoting a circulation of air, extremely refreshing in those sultry climates."-Richardson.

"The swings are adorned with festoons. This pastime

is accompanied with music of voices and of instruments, hired by the masters of the swings."-Thevenot.

Page 203.

The basil tuft that waves

Its fragrant blossoms over graves.

"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.

Page 265.

The mountain-herb that dyes
The tooth of the fawn like gold.

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.

Page 268.

'Tis I that mingle in one sweet measure

The past, the present, and future of pleasure.

"Whenever our pleasure arises from a succession of sounds, it is a perception of a complicated nature, made up of a sensation of the present sound or note, and an idea or remembrance of the foregoing, while their mixture and concurrence produce such a mysterious delight, as neither could have produced alone. And it is often heightened by an anticipation of the succeeding notes. Thus Sense, Memory, and Imagination, are conjunctively employed."Gerrard on Taste.

This is exactly the Epicurean theory of Pleasure, as explained by Cicero. "Quo circa corpus gaudere tamdiu, dum præsentem sentiret voluptatem; animum et præsentem percipere pariter cum corpore et prospicere venientem, nec præteritam præterfluere sinere.”

Madame de Stael accounts upon the same principle for the gratification we derive from rhyme:-Elle est l'image de l'espérance et du souvenir. Un son nous fait désirer celui qui doit lui répondre, et quand le second retentit il nous rappelle celui qui vient de nous échapper."

Page 269.

'Tis dawn, at least that earlier dawn,

Whose glimpses are again withdrawn.

"The Persians have two mornings, the Soobhi Kazim and the Soobhi Sadig, the false and the real day-break. They account for this phenomenon is a most whimsical manner. They say that as the sun rises from behind the Kohi Qaf (Mount Caucasus) it passes a hole perforated through that mountain, and that darting its rays through it, it is the cause of the Soobhi Kazim, or this temporary appearance of day-break. As it ascends the earth is again

veiled in darkness, until the sun rises above the mountain and brings with it the Soobhi Sadig, or real morning."Scott Waring. He thinks Milton may allude to this when he says

Ere the blabbing Eastern scout,
The nice morn on the Indian steep
From her cabin'd loop-hole peep.

Page 270.

held a feast

In his magnificent Shalimar.

"In the centre of the plain, as it approaches the Lake, one of the Delhi Emperors, I believe Shah Jehan, constructed a spacious garden called the Shalimar, which is abundantly stored with fruit-trees and flowering shrubs. Some of the rivulets which intersect the plain are led into a canal at the back of the garden, and, flowing through its centre, or occasionally thrown into a variety of waterworks, compose the chief beauty of the Shalimar. To decorate this spot the Mogul Princes of India have displayed an equal magnificence and taste; especially Jehan Gheer, who, with the enchanting Noor Mahl, made Kashmire his usual residence during the summer months. On arches thrown over the canal are erected, at equal distances, four or five suites of apartments, each consisting of a saloon, with four rooms at the angles, where the followers of the court attend, and the servants prepare sherbets, coffee, and the hookah. The frame of the doors of the principal saloon is composed of pieces of a stone of a black colour, streaked with yellow lines, and of a closer grain and higher polish than porphyry. They were taken, it is said, from a Hindoo temple, by one of the Mogul Princes, and are esteemed of great value."-Forster.

Page 277.

And oh, if there be, &c.

"Around the exterior of the Dewan Khass (a building of Shah Allum's) in the cornice are the following lines in letters of gold upon a ground of white marble-' If there be a paradise upon earth, it is this, it is this.”—Franklin.

Page 282.

Like that painted porcelain.

"The Chinese had formerly the art of painting on the sides of porcelain vessels fish and other animals, which were only perceptible when the vessel was full of some liquor. They call this species Kia-tsin, that is, azure is put in press, on account of the manner in which the azure is laid on."-"They are every now and then trying to recover the art of this magical painting, but to no purpose." -Dunn.

Page 284.

More perfect than the divinest images in the House of Azor.

An eminent carver of idols, said in the Koran to be father to Abraham. "I have such a lovely idol as is not to be met with in the house of Azor.”—Hafiz.

Page 284.

The grottos, hermitages, and miraculous fountains. "The pardonable superstition of the sequestered inhabitants has multiplied the places of worship of Mahadeo, of Beschan, and of Brama. All Cashmere is holy land, and miraculous fountains abound."-Major Rennel's Memoirs of a Map of Hindostan.

Jehanguire mentions "a fountain in Cashmire called

« ForrigeFortsæt »