Alroy

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'Two methods of instruction were in use among the Jews; the one public,
or _exoteric_; the other secret, or esoteric. The exoteric doctrine was
that which was openly taught the people from the law of Moses and the
traditions of the fathers. The esoteric was that which treated of the
mysteries of the Divine nature, and other sublime subjects, and was
known by the name of the Cabala. The latter was, after the manner of the
Pythagorean and Egyptian mysteries, taught only to certain persons,
who were bound, under the most solemn anathema, not to divulge it.
Concerning the miraculous origin and preservation of the Cabala, the
Jews relate many marvellous tales. They derive these mysteries from
Adam, and assert that, while the first man was in Paradise, the angel
Rasiel brought him a book from heaven, which contained the doctrines
of heavenly wisdom, and that, when Adam received this book, angels came
down to him to learn its contents, but that he refused to admit them to
the knowledge of sacred things entrusted to him alone; that, after the
Fall, this book was taken back into heaven; that, after many prayers
and tears, God restored it to Adam, from whom it passed to Seth. In the
degenerate age before the flood this book was lost, and the mysteries it
contained almost forgotten; but they were restored by special revelation
to Abraham, who committed them to writing in the book _Jezirah.'--Vide
Enfield, vol. ii. p. 219_.

'The Hebrew word _Cabala,'_ says Dom Calmet, 'signifies tradition, and
the Rabbins, who are named Cabalists, apply themselves principally to
the combination of certain words, numbers, and letters, by the means of
which they boasted they could reveal the future, and penetrate the
sense of the most difficult passages of Scripture. This science does not
appear to have any fixed principles, but depends upon certain ancient
traditions, whence its name Cabala. The Cabalists have a great number of
names which they style sacred, by means of which they raise spirits, and
affect to obtain supernatural intelligence.'--See Calmet, Art. _Cabala_.

'We spake before,' says Lightfoot, 'of the commonness of Magick among
them, one singular means whereby they kept their own in delusion, and
whereby they affronted ours. The general expectation of the nation of
Messias coming when he did had this double and contrary effect, that it
forwarded those that belonged to God to believe and receive the Gospel;
and those that did not, it gave encouragement to some to take upon
them they were Christ or some great prophet, and to others it gave some
persuasion to be deluded by them. These deceivers dealt most of them
with Magick, and that cheat ended not when Jerusalem ended, though one
would have thought that had been a fair term of not further expecting
Messias; but since the people were willing to be deceived by such
expectation, there rose up deluders still that were willing to deceive
them.'--Lightfoot, vol. ii. p. 371.

For many curious details of the Cabalistic Magic, Vide Basnage, vol. v.
p. 384, &c.]

[Footnote 11: page 34.--_Read the stars no longer_. 'The modern Jews,'
says Basnage, 'have a great idea of the influence of the stars.' Vol.
iv. p. 454. But astrology was most prevalent among the Babylonian
Rabbins, of whom Jabaster was one. Living in the ancient land of the
Chaldeans, these sacred sages imbibed a taste for the mystic lore of
their predecessors. The stars moved, and formed letters and lines, when
consulted by any of the highly-initiated of the Cabalists. This they
styled the Celestial Alphabet.]

[Footnote 12: page 38.--__The Daughter of the Voice. 'Both the Talmudick
and the latter Rabbins,' says Lightfoot, 'make frequent mention of _Bath
Kol, or Filia Vocis_, or an echoing voice which served under the Second
Temple for their utmost refuge of revelation. For when Urim and Thummim,
the oracle, was ceased, and prophecy was decayed and gone, they had,
as they say, certain strange and extraordinary voices upon certain
extraordinary occasions, which were their warnings and advertisements
in some special matters. Infinite instances of this might be adduced, if
they might be believed. Now here it may be questioned why they called
it _Bath Kol, the daughter of a voice,_ and not a voice itself? If the
strictness of the Hebrew word Bath be to be stood upon, which always it
is not, it may be answered, that it is called The Daughter of a Voice
in relation to the oracles of Urim and Thummim. For whereas that was a
voice given from off the mercy-seat, within the vail, and this, upon the
decay of that oracle, came as it were in its place, it might not
unfitly or improperly be called a _daughter_, or successor of that
voice.'--Lightfoot, vol. i. pp. 485, 486. Consult also the learned
Doctor, vol. ii. pp. 128, 129: 'It was used for a testimony from heaven,
but was indeed performed by magic art.']

[Footnote 13: page 44.--_The walls and turrets of an extensive city_.
In Persia, and the countries of the Tigris and Euphrates, the traveller
sometimes arrives at deserted cities of great magnificence and
antiquity. Such, for instance, is the city of Anneh. I suppose Alroy to
have entered one of the deserted capitals of the Seleucidae. They are in
general the haunt of bandits.]

[Footnote 14: page 49.--_Punctured his arm._ From a story told by an
Arab.]

[Footnote 15: page 52.--_The pilgrim could no longer sustain himself._
An endeavor to paint the simoom.]

[Footnote 16: page 54.--_By the holy stone._ The Caaba.--The Caaba is
the same to the Mahomedan as the Holy Sepulchre to the Christian. It is
the most unseemly, but the most sacred, part of the mosque at Mecca, and
is a small, square stone building.]

[Footnote 17: page 56.--_I am a Hakim;_ i.e. Physician, an almost sacred
character in the East. As all Englishmen travel with medicine-chests,
the Turks are not be wondered at for considering us physicians.]

[Footnote 18: page 57.--_Threw their wanton jerreeds in the air_. The
Persians are more famous for throwing the jerreed than any other nation.
A Persian gentleman, while riding quietly by your side, will suddenly
dash off at full gallop, then suddenly check his horse, and take a long
aim with his lance with admirable precision. I should doubt, however,
whether he could hurl a lance a greater distance or with greater force
and effect than a Nubian, who will fix a mark at sixty yards with his
javelin.]

[Footnote 19: page 58.--_Some pounded coffee._ The origin of the use of
coffee is obscure; but there is great reason to believe that it had not
been introduced in the time of Alroy. When we consider that the life of
an Oriental at the present day mainly consists in drinking coffee and
smoking tobacco, we cannot refrain from asking ourselves, 'What did
he do before either of these comparatively modern inventions was
discovered?' For a long time, I was inclined to suspect that tobacco
might have been in use in Asia before it was introduced into Europe; but
a passage in old Sandys, in which he mentions the wretched tobacco smoke
in Turkey, and accounts for it by that country being supplied with 'the
dregs of our markets,' demonstrates that, in his time, there was no
native growth in Asia. Yet the choicest tobaccos are now grown on the
coast of Syria, the real Levant. But did the Asiatics smoke any other
plant or substance before tobacco? In Syria, at the present day, they
smoke a plant called _timbac_; the Chinese smoke opium; the artificial
preparations for the hookah are known to all Indians. I believe,
however, that these are all refinements, and for this reason, that
in the classic writers, who were as well acquainted with the Oriental
nations as ourselves, we find no allusion to the practice of smoking.
The anachronism of the pipe I have not therefore ventured to commit, and
that of coffee will, I trust, be pardoned.]

[Footnote 20: page 58.--_Wilder gestures of the dancing girls._ These
dancing girls abound throughout Asia. The most famous are the Almeh of
Egypt, and the Nautch of India. These last are a caste, the first only a
profession.]

[Footnote 21: page 64.--_For thee the bastinado_. The bastinado is the
common punishment of the East, and an effective and dreaded one. It is
administered on the soles of the feet, the instrument a long cane or
palm-branch. Public executions are very-rare.]

[Footnote 22: page 73.--_A door of tortoise-shell and mother-of-pearl_.
This elegant mode of inlay is common in Oriental palaces, and may be
observed also in Alhambra, at Granada.]

[Footnote 23: page 74.--_A vaulted, circular, and highly embossed roof,
of purple, scarlet, and gold._ In the very first style of Saracenic
architecture. See the Hall of the Ambassadors in Alhambra, and many
other chambers in that exquisite creation.]

[Footnote 24: page 74.--_Nubian eunuchs dressed in rich habits of
scarlet and gold._ Thus the guard of Nubian eunuchs of the present Pacha
of Egypt, Mehemet Ali, or rather Caliph, a title which he wishes to
assume. They ride upon white horses.]

[Footnote 25: page 74.--_A quadrangular court of roses._ So in Alhambra,
'The Court of Myrtles,' leading to the Court of Columns, wherein is the
famous Fountain of Lions.]

[Footnote 26: page 75.--_An Abyssinian giant._ A giant is still a common
appendage to an Oriental court even at the present day. See a very
amusing story in the picturesque 'Persian Sketches' of that famous
elchee, Sir John Malcolm.]

[Footnote 27: page 75.--_Surrounded by figures of every rare quadruped._
'The hall of audience,' says Gibbon, from Cardonne, speaking of the
magnificence of the Saracens of Cordova, 'was encrusted with gold and
pearls, and a great basin in the centre was surrounded with the curious
and costly figures of birds and quadrupeds.'-_Decline and Fall_, vol. x.
p. 39.]

[Footnote 28: page 76.--_A tree of gold and silver._ 'Among the other
spectacles of rare and stupendous luxury was a tree of gold and silver,
spreading into eighteen large branches, on which, and on the lesser
boughs, sat a variety of birds made of the same precious metals, as
well as the leaves of the tree. While the machinery effected spontaneous
motions, the several birds warbled their natural harmony.'-_Gibbon,_
vol. x. p. 38, from Abulfeda, describing the court of the Caliphs of
Bagdad in the decline of their power.]

[Footnote 29: page 76.--_Four hundred men led as many white bloodhounds,
with collars of gold and rubies_. I have somewhere read of an Indian or
Persian monarch whose coursing was conducted in this gorgeous style: if
I remember right, it was Mahmoud the Gaznevide.]

[Footnote 30: page 76.--_A steed marked on its forehead with a star._
The sacred steed of Solorhon.]

[Footnote 31: page 78.--_Instead of water, each basin was replenished
with the purest quicksilver._ 'In a lofty pavilion of the gardens, one
of those basins and fountains so delightful in a sultry climate,
was replenished, not with water, but with the purest quicksilver.'
--_Gibbon_, vol. x, from Cardonne.]

[Footnote 32: page 78.-_Playing with a rosary of pearls and emeralds_.
Moslems of rank are never without the rosary, sometimes of amber and
rare woods, sometimes of jewels. The most esteemed is of that peculiar
substance called Mecca wood.]

[Footnote 33: page 78.--_The diamond hilt of a small poniard._ The
insignia of a royal female.]

[Footnote 34: page 83.--_You have been at Paris_. Paris was known to the
Orientals at this time as a city of considerable luxury and importance.
The Embassy from Haroun Alraschid to Charlemagne, at an earlier date, is
of course recollected.]

[Footnote 35: page 90.--_At length beheld the lost capital of his
fathers._ The finest view of Jerusalem is from the Mount of Olives. It
is little altered since the period when David Alroy is supposed to have
gazed upon it, but it is enriched by the splendid Mosque of Omar, built
by the Moslem conquerors on the supposed site of the temple, and which,
with its gardens, and arcades, and courts, and fountains, may fairly be
described as the most imposing of Moslem fanes. I endeavoured to enter
it at the hazard of my life. I was detected, and surrounded by a crowd
of turbaned fanatics, and escaped with difficulty; but I saw enough
to feel that minute inspection would not belie the general character I
formed of it from the Mount of Olives. I caught a glorious glimpse of
splendid courts, and light aify gates of Saracenic triumph, flights of
noble steps, long arcades, and interior gardens, where silver fountains
spouted their tall streams amid the taller cypresses.]

[Footnote 36: page 91.--_Entered Jerusalem by the gate of Zion_. The
gate of Zion still remains, and from it you descend into the valley of
Siloah.]

[Footnote 37: page 94.-_ King Pirgandicus._ According to a Talmudical
story, however, of which I find a note, this monarch was not a Hebrew
but a Gentile, and a very wicked one. He once invited eleven famous
doctors of the holy nation to supper. They were received in the most
magnificent style, and were then invited, under pain of death, either
to eat pork, to accept a pagan mistress, or to drink wine consecrated
to idols. After long consultation, the doctors, in great tribulation,
agreed to save their heads by accepting the last alternative, since
the first and second were forbidden by Moses, and the last only by the
Rabbins. The King assented, the doctors drank the impure wine, and,
as it was exceedingly good, drank freely. The wine, as will sometimes
happen, created a terrible appetite; the table was covered with dishes,
and the doctors, heated by the grape, were not sufficiently careful of
what they partook. In short, the wicked King Pirgandicus contrived that
they should sup off pork, and being carried from the table quite tipsy,
each of the eleven had the mortification of finding himself next morning
in the arms of a pagan mistress. In the course of the year all the
eleven died sudden deaths, and this visitation occurred to them, not
because they had violated the law of Moses, but because they believed
that the precepts of the Rabbins could be outraged with more impunity
than the Word of God.]

[Footnote 38: page 94.--_And conquered Julius Caesar._ This classic hero
often figures in the erratic pages of the Talmud.]

[Footnote 39: page 94.--_The Tombs of the Kings._ The present pilgrim to
Jerusalem will have less trouble than Alroy in discovering the Tombs of
the Kings, though he probably would not as easily obtain the sceptre of
Solomon. The tombs that bear this title are of the time of the Asmonean
princes, and of a more ambitious character than any other of the
remains. An open court, about fifty feet in breadth, and extremely
deep, is excavated out of the rock. One side is formed by a portico, the
frieze of which is sculptured in a good Syro-Greek style. There is no
grand portal; you crawl into the tombs by a small opening on one of
the sides. There are a few small chambers with niches, recesses, and
sarcophagi, some sculptured in the same flowing style as the frieze.
This is the most important monument at Jerusalem; and Dr. Clarke,
who has lavished wonder and admiration on the tombs of Zachariah and
Absalom, has declared the Tombs of the Kings to be one of the marvellous
productions of antiquity.]

[Footnote 40: Page 95.--'_Rabbi Hillel_ was one of the most celebrated
among the Jewish Doctors, both for birth, learning, rule, and children.
He was of the seed of David by his mother's side, being of the posterity
of Shephatiah, the son of Abital, David's wife. He was brought up in
Babel, from whence he came up to Jerusalem at forty years old, and there
studied the law forty years more under Shemaiah and Abtalion, and after
them he was President of the Sanhedrim forty years more. The beginning
of his Presidency is generally conceded upon to have been just one
hundred 'years before the Temple was destroyed; by which account he
began eight-and-twenty years before our Saviour was born, and died
when he was about twelve years old. He is renowned for his fourscore
scholars.'--_Lightfoot,_ vol. ii. p. 2008.

The great rival of Hillel was Shammai. Their controversies, and the
fierceness of their partisans, are a principal feature of Rabbinical
history. They were the same as the Scotists and Thomists. At last
the Bath Kol interfered, and decided for Hillel, but in a spirit of
conciliatory dexterity. The Bath Kol came forth and spake thus: 'The
words both of the one party and the other are the words of the living
God, but the certain decision of the matter is according to the decrees
of the school of Hillel. And henceforth, whoever shall transgress the
decrees of the school of Hillel is punishable with death.']

[Footnote 41: page 97.--_A number of small, square, low chambers._ These
excavated cemeteries, which abound in Palestine and Egypt, were often
converted into places of worship by the Jews and early Christians.
Sandys thus describes the Synagogue at Jerusalem in his time.]

[Footnote 42: page 08.--_Their heads mystically covered._ The Hebrews
cover their heads during their prayers with a sacred shawl.]

[Footnote 43: page 98.--_Expounded the law to the congregation of the
people._ The custom, I believe, even to the present day, among the
Hebrews, a remnant of their old academies, once so famous.]

[Footnote 44: page 99.--_The Valley of Jehoshaphat and the Tomb of
Absalom._ In the Vale of Jehoshaphat, among many other tombs, are two
of considerable size, and which, although of a corrupt Grecian
architecture, are dignified by the titles of the tombs of Zachariah and
Absalom.]

[Footnote 45: page 101.--_The scanty rill of Siloah._ The sublime Siloah
is now a muddy rill; you descend by steps to the fountain which is its
source, and which is covered with an arch. Here the blind man received
his sight; and, singular enough, to this very day the healing reputation
of its waters prevails, and summons to its brink all those neighbouring
Arabs who suffer from the ophthalmic affections not uncommon in this
part of the world.]

[Footnote 46: page 102.--_Several isolated tombs of considerable size_.
There are no remains of ancient Jerusalem, or the ancient Jews. Some
tombs there are which may be ascribed to the Asmonean princes; but all
the monuments of David, Solomon, and their long posterity, have utterly
disappeared.]

[Footnote 47: page 103.--_Are cut strange characters and unearthly
forms_. As at Benihassan, and many other of the sculptured catacombs of
Egypt.]

[Footnote 48: page 104.--_A crowd of bats rushed forward and
extinguished his torch._ In entering the Temple of Dendara, our torches
were extinguished by a crowd of bats.]

[Footnote 49: page 104.--_The gallery was of great extent, with a
gradual declination._ So in the great Egyptian tombs.]

[Footnote 50: page 105.--_The Afrite, for it was one of those dread
beings._ Beings of a monstrous form, the most terrible of all the orders
of the Dives.]

[Footnote 51: page 106.--_An avenue of colossal lions of red granite._
An avenue of Sphinxes more than a mile in length connected the quarters
of Luxoor and Carnak in Egyptian Thebes. Its fragments remain. Many
other avenues of Sphinxes and lion-headed Kings may be observed in
various parts of Upper Egypt.]

[Footnote 52: page 107.--_A stupendous portal, cut out of the solid
rock, four hundred feet in height, and supported by clusters of colossal
Caryatides._ See the great rock temple of Ipsambul in Lower Nubia. The
sitting colossi are nearly seventy feet in height. But there is a Torso
of a statue of Rameses the Second at Thebes, vulgarly called the great
Memnon, which measures upwards of sixty feet round the shoulders.]

[Footnote 53: page 109.--_Fifty steps of ivory, and each step guarded by
golden lions._ See 1st Kings, chap. x. 18-20.]

[Footnote 54: page 120.--_Crossed the desert on a swift dromedary_. The
difference between a camel and a dromedary is the difference between a
hack and a thorough-bred horse. There is no other.]

[Footnote 55: page 121.--_That celestial alphabet known to the true
Cabalist_. See Note 11.]

[Footnote 56: page 133.--_The last of the Seljuks had expired._ The
Orientals are famous for their massacres: that of the Mamlouks by
the present Pacha of Egypt, and of the Janissaries of the Sultan, are
notorious. But one of the most terrible, and effected under the most
difficult and dangerous circumstances, was the massacre of the Albanian
Beys by the Grand Vizir, in the autumn of 1830. I was in Albania at the
time.]

[Footnote 57: page 136.--_ The minarets were illumined._ So, I remember,
at Constantinople, at the commencement of 1831 at the departure of the
Mecca caravan, and also at the annual fast of Ramadan.]

[Footnote 58: page 138.--_One asking alms with a wire run through his
cheek._ Not uncommon. These Dervishes frequent the bazaars.]

[Footnote 59: page 142.--_One hundred thousand warriors were now
assembled._ In countries where the whole population is armed, a vast
military force is soon assembled. Barchochebas was speedily at the head
of two hundred thousand fighting men, and held the Romans long in check
under one of their most powerful emperors.]

[Footnote 60: page 143.--_Some high-capped Tatar with despatches._ I
have availed myself of a familiar character in Oriental life, but
the use of a Tatar as a courier in the time of Alroy is, I fear, an
anachronism.]

[Footnote 61: page 144.--_Each day some warlike Atabek, at the head
of his armed train, poured into the capital of the caliphs._ I was
at Yanina, the capital of Albania, when the Grand Vizir summoned the
chieftains of the country, and I was struck by their magnificent arrays
each day pouring into the city.]

[Footnote 62: page 153.--_It is the Sabbath etc_. 'They began their
Sabbath from sunset, and the same time of day they ended it.'--Talm.
Hierosolym. in _Sheveith_, fol. 33, col. I. The eve of the Sabbath,
or the day before, was called the day of the preparation for the
Sabbath.--Luke xxiii. 54.

'And from the time of the evening sacrifice and forward, they began to
fit themselves for the Sabbath, and to cease from their works, so as
not to go to the barber, not to sit in judgment, &c.; nay, thenceforward
they would not set things on working, which, being set a-work, would
complete their business of themselves, unless it would be completed
before the Sabbath came--_as wool was not put to dye, unless it
could take colour while it was yet day! &c._--Talm. in Sab., par. I;
Lightfoot, vol. i. p. 218.

'Towards sunsetting, when the Sabbath was now approaching, they lighted
up the Sabbath lamp. Men and women were bound to have a lamp lighted
up in their houses on the Sabbath, though they were never so poor--nay,
though they were forced to go a-begging for oil for this purpose; and
the lighting up of this lamp was a part of making the Sabbath a
delight; and women were especially commanded to look to this
business.'--Maimonides in Sab. par. 36.]

[Footnote 63: page 156.--_The presence of the robes of honour_. These
are ever carried in procession, and their number denotes the rank and
quality of the chief, or of the individual to whom they are offered.]

[Footnote 64: page 158.--_Pressed it to his lips, and placed it in his
vest._ The elegant mode in which the Orientals receive presents.]

[Footnote 65: page 164.--A cap of transparent pink porcelain, studded with pearls.
Thus a great Turk, who afforded me hospitality, was accustomed to drink
his coffee.]

[Footnote 66: page 168.--_Slippers powdered with pearls_. The slippers
in the East form a very fanciful portion of the costume. It is not
uncommon to see them thus adorned and beautifully embroidered. In
precious embroidery and enamelling the Turkish artists are unrivalled.]

[Footnote 67: page 185.--_The policy of the son of Kareah. Vide_
Jeremiah, chap. xlii.]

[Footnote 68: page 191.--_The inviting gestures and the voluptuous grace
of the dancing girls of Egypt._ A sculptor might find fine studies in
the Egyptian Almeh.]

[Footnote 69: page 194.--_Six choice steeds sumptuously
caparisoned._ Led horses always precede a great man. I think there were
usually twelve before the Sultan when he went to Mosque, which he did in
public every Friday.]

[Footnote 70: page 194.--_Six Damascus sabres of unrivalled temper._
But sabres are not to be found at Damascus, any more than cheeses at
Stilton, or oranges at Malta. The art of watering the blade is, however,
practised, I believe, in Persia. A fine Damascus blade will fetch fifty
or even one hundred guineas English.]

[Footnote 71: page 195.--_Roses from Rocnabad_. A river in Persia famous
for its bowery banks of roses.]

[Footnote 72: page 195.--_Screens made of the feather of a roc._ The
screens and fans in the East, made of the plumage of rare birds with
jewelled handles, are very gorgeous.]

[Footnote 73: page 196.--_A tremulous aigrette of brilliants._ Worn only
by persons of the highest rank. The Sultan presented Lord Nelson after
the battle of the Nile with an aigrette of diamonds.]

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