each boat, and five others with fire-balls, to burn the craft of the Jits, and naptha 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 signify the Greek Fire. - v. Wilks's South of India, vol.i. p. 471. And in the curious Javan poem, the Brata Yudha, given by Mr. Raffles in his History of Java, we find, “ He aimed at the Heart of Soéta with the sharp-pointed Weapon of Fire." 66 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. 66 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." v. the extracts from Casiri's Biblioth. Arab. Hispan, in the Appendix to Berington's Literary History of the Middle Ages. Page 108. Discharge, as from a kindled naptha fount. See Hanway's Account of the Springs of Naptha at Baku (which is called by Lieutenant Pottinger Joala Mookhee, 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 flowers of spring." Major Scott Waring says that naptha 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 Page 116. Thou seest yon cistern in the shade-'tis fill'd "Il donna du poison dans le vin à tous ses gens, et se jetta lui-même ensuite dans une cuve pleine de drogues brûlantes et consumantes, afin qu'il ne restât rien de tous les membres de son corps, et que ceux qui restoient de sa secte puissent croire qu'il étoit monté au ciel, ce qui ne manqua pas d'arriver." D'Herbelot. Page 124. To eat any mangoes but those of Mazagong was, of course, impossible. "The celebrity of Mazagong is owing to its mangoes, which are certainly the best fruit I ever tasted. The parent tree, from which all those of this species have been grafted, is honoured during the fruit season by a guard of sepoys; and, in the reign of Shah Jehan, couriers were stationed. between Delhi and the Mahratta coast, to secure an abund B B ant and fresh supply of mangoes for the royal table." Mrs. Graham's Journal of a Residence in India. Page 124. His fine antique porcelain. This old porcelain is found in digging, and "if it is esteemed, it is not because it has acquired any new degree of beauty in the earth, but because it has retained its ancient beauty; and this alone is of great importance in China, where they give large sums for the smallest vessels which were used under the Emperors Yan and Chun, who reigned many ages before the dynasty of Tang, at which time porcelain began to be used by the Emperors," (about the year 442.) - Dunn's Collection of curious Observations, &c. bad translation of some parts of the Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses of the Missionary Jesuits. Page 130. That sublime bird, which flies always in the air. "The Huma, a bird peculiar to the East. It is supposed to fly constantly in the air, and never touch the ground: it is looked upon as a bird of happy omen; and that every head it overshades will in time wear a crown.' Richardson. In the terms of alliance made by Fuzzel Oola Khan with Hyder in 1760, one of the stipulations was, "that he should have the distinction of two honorary attendants standing behind him, holding fans composed of the feathers of the humma, according to the practice of his family." — Wilks's South of India. He adds in a note; "The Humma is a fabulous bird. The head over which its shadow once passes will assuredly be circled with a crown. The splendid little a bird, suspended over the throne of Tippoo Sultaun, found at Seringapatam in 1799, was intended to represent this poetical fancy." Page 130. Whose words, like those on the Written Mountain, last for ever. "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. M. Gebelin and others have been at much pains to attach some mysterious and important meaning to these inscriptions; but Niebuhr, as well as Volney, thinks that they must have been executed at idle hours by the travellers to Mount Sinai, "who were satisfied with cutting the unpolished rock with any pointed instrument; adding to their names and the date of their journeys some rude figures, which bespeak the hand of a people but little skilled in the arts."-Niebuhr. Page 130. From the dark hyacinth to which Hafez compares his mistress's hair. Vide Nott's Hafez, Ode v. Page 131. To the Cámalatá, by whose rosy blossoms the heaven of Indra is scented. "The Cámalatá (called by Linnæus, Ipomæa) is the most beautiful of its order, both in the colour and form of its leaves and flowers; its elegant blossoms are celestial rosy red, Love's proper hue,' and have justly procured it the name of Cámalatá or Love's Creeper." - Sir W. Jones. “Cámalatá may also mean a mythological plant, by which all desires are granted to such as inhabit the heaven of Indra; and if ever flower was worthy of paradise, it is our charming Ipomea."— Ib. Page 132. That Flower-loving Nymph, whom they worship in the temples of Khathay. 66 According to Father Premare in his tract on Chinese Mythology, the mother of Fo-hi was the daughter of heaven, surnamed Flower-loving; and as the nymph was walking alone on the bank of a river, she found herself encircled by a rainbow, after which she became pregnant, and, at the end of twelve years, was delivered of a son radiant as herself." Asiat. Res. pac -- Page 135. That blue flower which, Bramins say, "The Brahmins of this province insist that the blue Camflowers only in Paradise.". Sir W. Jones. It appears, however, from a curious letter of the Sultan of Menangcabow, given by Marsden, that one place on earth may lay claim to the possession of it. "This is the Sultan, who keeps the flower Champaka that is blue, and to be found. in no other country but his, being yellow elsewhere."Marsden's Sumatra. |
