The Complete Poems of Sir Thomas Moore

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[13] "The idol at Jaghernat has two fine diamonds for eyes. No goldsmith
is suffered to enter the Pagoda, one having stole one of these eyes, being
locked up all night with the Idol."--_Tavernier_.

[14] See a description of these royal Gardens in "An Account of the
present State of Delhi, by Lieut. W. Franklin."--_Asiat. Research_, vol.
iv. p. 417.

[15] "In the neighborhood is Notte Gill, or the Lake of Pearl, which
receives this name from its pellucid water."--_Pennant's_ "Hindostan."
"Nasir Jung encamped in the vicinity of the Lake of Tonoor, amused himself
with sailing on that clear and beautiful water, and gave it the fanciful
name of Motee Talah, 'the Lake of Pearls,' which it still retains."--
_Wilks's_ "South of India."

[16] Sir Thomas Roe, Ambassador from James I. to Jehanguire.

[17] "The romance Wemakweazra, written in Persian verse, which contains
the loves of Wamak and Ezra, two celebrated lovers who lived before the
time of Mahomet."--_Note on the Oriental Tales_.

[18] Their amour is recounted in the Shah-Nameh of Ferdousi; and there is
much beauty in the passage which describes the slaves of Rodahver sitting
on the bank of the river and throwing flowers into the stream, in order to
draw the attention of the young Hero who is encamped on the opposite
side.--See _Champion's_ translation.

[19] Rustam is the Hercules of the Persians. For the particulars of his
victory over the Sepeed Deeve, or White Demon, see _Oriental Collections_,
vol. ii. p. 45.--Near the city of Shiraz is an immense quadrangular
monument, in commemoration of this combat, called the Kelaat-i-Deev
Sepeed, or castle of the White Giant, which Father Angelo, in his
"_Gazophilacium Persicum_," p.127, declares to have been the most
memorable monument of antiquity which he had seen in Persia.--See
_Ouseley's_ "Persian Miscellanies."

[20] "The women of the Idol, or dancing girls of the Pagoda, have little
golden bells, fastened to their feet, the soft harmonious tinkling of
which vibrates in unison with the exquisite melody of their voices."--
_Maurice's_ "Indian Antiquities."

"The Arabian courtesans, like the Indian women, have little golden bells
fastened round their legs, neck, and elbows, to the sound of which they
dance before the King. The Arabian princesses wear golden rings on their
fingers, to which little bells are suspended, as well as in the flowing
tresses of their hair, that their superior rank may be known and they
themselves receive in passing the homage due to them."--See _Calmet's_
Dictionary, art. "Bells."

[21] The Indian Apollo.-- "He and the three Ramas are described as youths
of perfect beauty, and the princesses of Hindustan were all passionately
in love with Chrishna, who continues to this hour the darling God of the
Indan women."--_Sir W. Jones_, on the Gods of Greece, Italy, and India.

[22] See _Turner's_ Embassy for a description of this animal, "the most
beautiful among the whole tribe of goats." The material for the shawls
(which is carried to Cashmere) is found next the skin.

[23] 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_.

[24] Khorassan signifies, in the old Persian language, Province or Region
of the Sun.--_Sir W. Jones_.

[25] "The fruits of Meru are finer than those of any other place: and one
cannot see in any other city such palaces with groves, and streams, and
gardens."--_Ebn Haukal's_ Geography.

[26] One of the royal cities of Khorassan.

[27] Moses.

[28] Black was the color adopted by the Caliphs of the House of Abbas, in
their garments, turbans, and standards.

[29] "Our dark javelins, exquisitely wrought of Khathaian reeds, slender
and delicate."--_Poem of Amru_.

[30] Pichula, used anciently for arrows by the Persians.

[31] The Persians call this plant Gaz. The celebrated shaft of Isfendiar,
one of their ancient heroes, was made of it.--"Nothing can be more
beautiful than the appearance of this plant in flower during the rains on
the banks of rivers, where it is usually interwoven with a lovely twining
asclepias."--_Sir W. Jones_..

[32] The oriental plane. "The chenar is a delightful tree; its bole is of
a fine white and smooth bark; and its foliage, which grows in a tuft at
the summit, is of a bright green."--_Morier's Travels_..

[33] The burning fountains of Brahma near Chittogong, esteemed as
holy.--_Turner_.

[34] China.

[35] "The name of tulip is said to be of Turkish extraction, and given to
the flower on account of its resembling a turban."--_Beckmann_'s History
of Inventions.

[36] "The inhabitants of Bucharia wear a round cloth bonnet, shaped much
after the Polish fashion, having a large fur border. They tie their
kaftans about the middle with a girdle of a kind of silk crape, several
times round the body."--_Account of Independent Tartary, in Pinkerton's
Collection_.

[37] In the war of the Caliph Mahadi against the Empress Irene, for an
account of which _vide Gibbon_, vol. x.

[38] 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 men
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.

[39] The transmigration of souls was one of his doctrines.--_Vide
D'Herbelot_..

[40] "And when we said unto the angels. Worship Adam, they all worshipped
him except Eblis (Lucifer), who refused." _The. Koran_, chap. ii.

[41] Moses.

[42] Jesus.

[43] The Amu, 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.

[44] The nightingale.

[45] The cities of Com (or Koom) and Cashan are full of mosques,
mausoleums and sepulchres of the descendants of Ali, the Saints of Persia
--_Chardin_..

[46] An island in the Persian Gulf, celebrated for its white wine.

[47] The miraculous well at Mecca: so called, says Sale, from the
murmuring of its waters.

[48] The god Hannaman.--"Apes are in many parts of India highly venerated,
out of respect to the God Hannaman, a deity partaking of the form of that
race."--_Pennant's_ Hindoostan. See a curious account in _Stephen's
Persia_, of a solemn embassy from some part of the Indies to Goa when the
Portuguese were there, offering vast treasures for the recovery of a
monkey's tooth, which they held in great veneration, and which had been
taken away upon the conquest of the kingdom of Jafanapatan.

[49] A kind of lantern formerly used by robbers, called the Hand of Glory,
the candle for which was made of the fat of a dead malefactor. This,
however, was rather a western than an eastern superstition.

[50] The material of which images of Gaudma (the Birman Deity) are made,
is held sacred. "Birmans may not purchase the marble in mass, but are
suffered, and indeed encouraged, to buy figures of the Deity ready made."
--_Sytnes's_ "Ava," vol. ii. p. 876.

[51] "It is commonly said in Persia, that if a man breathe in the hot
south wind, which in June or July passes over that flower (the Kerzereh),
it will kill him."--_Thevenot_.

[52] The humming bird is said to run this risk for the purpose of picking
the crocodile's teeth. The same circumstance is related of the lapwing, as
a fact to which he was witness, by _Paul Lucas, "Voyage fait en_ 1714."

The ancient story concerning the Trochilus, or humming-bird, entering with
impunity into the mouth of the crocodile, is firmly believed at
Java.--_Barrow's "Cochin-China_."

[53] "The feast of Lanterns celebrated at Yamtcheou with more magnificence
than anywhere else! and the report goes that the illuminations there are
so splendid, that an Emperor once, not daring openly to leave his Court to
go thither, committed himself with the Queen and several Princesses of his
family into the hands of a magician, who promised to transport them
thither in a trice. He made them in the night to ascend magnificent
thrones that were borne up by swans, which in a moment arrived at
Yamtcheou. The Emperor saw at his leisure all the solemnity, being carried
upon a cloud that hovered over the city and descended by degrees; and came
back again with the same speed and equipage, nobody at court perceiving
his absence."--_The Present State of China_," p. 156.

[54] "The vulgar ascribe it to an accident that happened in the family of
a famous mandarin, whose daughter, walking one evening upon the shore of a
lake, fell in and was drowned: this afflicted father, with his family, ran
thither, and the better to find her, he caused a great company of lanterns
to be lighted. All the inhabitants of the place thronged after him with
torches. The year ensuing they made fires upon the shores the same day;
they continued the ceremony every year, every one lighted his lantern, and
by degrees it commenced into a custom."--_The Present State of China_."

[55] "Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes."--_Sol. Song_.

[56] "They tinged the ends of her fingers scarlet with Henna, so that they
resembled branches of coral."--_Story of Prince Futtun in Bahardanush_.

[57] "The women blacken the inside of their eyelids with a powder named
the black Kohol."--_Russell_.

"None of these ladies," says _Shaw_, "take themselves to be completely
dressed, till they have tinged their hair and edges of their eyelids with
the powder of lead ore. Now, as this operation is performed by dipping
first into the powder a small wooden bodkin of the thickness of a quill,
and then drawing it afterwards through the eyelids over the ball of the
eye, we shall have a lively image of what the Prophet (Jer. iv. 30) may be
supposed to mean by _rending the eyes with painting_. This practice is no
doubt of great antiquity; for besides the instance already taken notice
of, we find that where Jezebel is said (2 Kings ix. 30.) _to have painted
her face_, the original words are, _she adjusted her eyes with the powder
of lead-ore_."--_Shaw's_ Travels.

[58] "The appearance of the blossoms of the gold-colored Campac on the
black hair of the Indian women has supplied the Sanscrit Poets with many
elegant allusions."--See _Asiatic Researches_, vol. iv.

[59] A tree famous for its perfume, and common on the hills of
Yemen.--_Niebuhr_.

[60] Of the genus mimosa "which droops its branches whenever any person
approaches it, seeming as if it saluted those who retire under its
shade."--_Niebuhr_.

[61] Cloves are a principal ingredient in the composition of the perfumed
rods, which men of rank keep constantly burning in their presence.--
_Turner's_ "Tibet."

[62] "Thousands of variegated loories visit the coral-trees."--_Barrow_.

[63] "In Mecca there are quantities of blue pigeons, which none will
affright or abuse, much less kill."--_Pitt's_ Account of the Mahometans.

[64] "The Pagoda Thrush is esteemed among the first choristers of India.
It sits perched on the sacred pagodas, and from thence delivers its
melodious song."--_Pennant's_ "Hindostan."

[65] _Tavernier_ adds, that while the Birds of Paradise lie in this
intoxicated state, the emmets come and eat off their legs; and that hence
it is they are said to have no feet.

[66] Birds of Paradise, which, at the nutmeg season, come in flights from
the southern isles to India; and "the strength of the nutmeg," says
_Tavernier_, "so intoxicates them that they fall dead drunk to the earth."

[67] "That bird which liveth in Arabia, and buildeth its nest with
cinnamon."--_Brown's_ Vulgar Errors.

[68] "The spirits of the martyrs will be lodged in the crops of green
birds."--_Gibbon_, vol. ix. p. 421.

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

[70] "My Pandits assure me that the plant before us (the Nilica) is their
Sephalica, thus named because the bees are supposed to sleep on its
blossoms."--_Sir W. Jones_.

[71] They deterred it till the King of Flowers should ascend his throne of
enamelled foliage."--_The Bahardanush_".

[72] "One of the head-dresses of the Persian women is composed of a light
golden chain-work, set with small pearls, with a thin gold plate pendant,
about the bigness of a crown-piece, on which is impressed an Arabian
prayer, and which hangs upon the cheek below the ear."--_Hanway's_
Travels.

[73] "Certainly the women of Yezd are the handsomest women in Persia. The
proverb is, that to live happy a man must have a wife of Yezd, eat the
bread of Yezdecas, and drink the wine of Shiraz."--_Tavernier_.

[74] Musnuds are cushioned seats, usually reserved for persons of
distinction.

[75] The Persians, like the ancient Greeks call their musical modes or
Perdas by the names of different countries or cities, as the mode of
Isfahan, the mode of Irak, etc.

[76] A river which flows near the ruins of Chilminar.

[77] "To the north of us (on the coast of the Caspian, near Badku,) was a
mountain, which sparkled like diamonds, arising from the sea-glass and
crystals with which it abounds."--_Journey of the Russian Ambassador to
Persia_, 1746.

[78] "To which will be added, the sound of the bells, hanging on the
trees, which will be put in motion by the wind proceeding from the throne
of God, as often as the blessed wish for music."--_Sale_.

[79] "Whose wanton eyes resemble blue water-lilies, agitated by the
breeze."--_Jayadeva_.

[80] The blue lotos, which grows in Cashmere and in Persia.

[81] It has been generally supposed that the Mahometans prohibit all
pictures of animals; but _Toderini_ shows that, though the practice is
forbidden by the Koran, they are not more averse to painted figures and
images than other people. From Mr. Murphy's work, too, we find that the
Arabs of Spain had no objection to the introduction of figures into
Painting.

[82] This is not quite astronomically true. "Dr. Hadley [says Keil] has
shown that Venus is brightest when she is about forty degrees removed from
the sun; and that then but _only a fourth part_ of her lucid disk is to be
seen from the earth."

[83] The wife of Potiphar, thus named by the Orientals. The passion which
this frail beauty of antiquity conceived for her young Hebrew slave has
given rise to a much esteemed poem in the Persian language, entitled
_Yusef vau Zelikha_, by _Noureddin Jami;_ the manuscript copy of which, in
the Bodleian Library at Oxford, is supposed to be the finest in the whole
world."--_Note upon Nott's Translation of Hafez_."

[84] The particulars of Mahomet's amour with Mary, the Coptic girl, in
justification of which he added a new chapter to the Koran, may be found
in _Gagnier's Notes upon Abulfeda_, p. 151.

[85] "Deep blue is their mourning color." _Hanway_.

[86] The sorrowful nyctanthes, which begins to spread its rich odor after
sunset.

[87] "Concerning the vipers, which Pliny says were frequent among the
balsam-trees, I made very particular inquiry; several were brought me
alive both to Yambo and Jidda."--_Bruce_.

[88] In the territory of Istkahar there is a kind of apple, half of which
is sweet and half sour.--_Ebn Haukal_.

[89] "The place where the Whangho, a river of Tibet, rises, and where
there are more than a hundred springs, which sparkle like stars; whence it
is called Hotun-nor, that is, the Sea of Stars."--_Description of Tibet in
Pinkerton_.

[90] "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_.

[91] 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.

[92] "A superb camel, ornamented with strings and tufts of small
shells."--_Ali Bey_.

[93] A native of Khorassan, and allured southward by means of the water of
a fountain between Shiraz and Ispahan, called the Fountain of Birds, of
which it is so fond that it will follow wherever that water is carried.

[94] "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 gives over his music."--_Tavernier_.

[95] "This trumpet is often called, in Abyssinia, _nesser cano_, which
signifies the Note of the Eagle."--_Note of Bruce's Editor_.

[96] The two black standards borne before the Caliphs of the House of
Abbas were called, allegorically, The Night and The Shadow.--See _Gibbon_.

[97] The Mohometan religion.

[98] "The Persians swear by the Tomb of Shad 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_.

[99] Mahadi, in a single pilgrimage to Mecca, expended six millions of
dinars of gold.

[100] The inhabitants of Hejaz or Arabia Petraea, called by an Eastern
writer "The People of the Rock."--_Ebn Haukal_.

[101] "Those horses, called by the Arabians Kochlani, of whom a written
genealogy has been kept for 2000 years. They are said to derive their
origin from King Solomon's steeds."--_Niebuhr_.

[102] "Many of the figures on the blades of their swords are wrought in
gold or silver, or in marquetry with small gems."--_Asiat. Misc_. v. i.

[103] Azab or Saba.

[104] "The chiefs of the Uzbek Tartars wear a plume of white heron's
feathers in their turbans."--_Account of Independent Tartary_.

[105] In the mountains of Nishapour and Tous in (Khorassan) they find
turquoises.--_Ebn Huukal_.

[106] The Ghebers or Guebres, those original natives of Persia, who
adhered to their ancient faith, the religion of Zoroaster, and who, after
the conquest of their country by the Arabs, were either persecuted at
home, or forced to become wanderers abroad.

[107] "Yezd, the chief residence of those ancient natives who worship the
Sun and the Fire, which latter they have carefully kept lighted, without
being once extinguished for a moment, about 3000 years, on a mountain near
Yezd, called Ater Quedah, signifying the House or Mansion of the Fire. He
is reckoned very unfortunate who dies off that mountain."--_Stephen's
Persia_.

[108] When the weather is hazy, the springs of Naphtha (on an island near
Baku) boil up the higher, and the Naphtha often takes fire on the surface
of the earth, and runs in a flame into the sea to a distance almost
incredible."--_Hanway on the Everlasting Fire at Baku_.

[109] _Savary_ says of the south wind, which blows in Egypt from February
to May, "Sometimes it appears only in the shape of an impetuous whirlwind,
which passes rapidly, and is fatal to the traveller, surprised in the
middle of the deserts. Torrents of burning sand roll before it, the
firmament is enveloped in a thick veil, and the sun appears of the color
of blood. Sometimes whole caravans are buried in it."

[110] In the great victory gained by Mahomed at Beder, he was assisted,
say the Mussulmans, by three thousand angels led by Gabriel mounted on his
horse Hiazum.--See _The Koran and its Commentators_.

[111] The Techir, or cry of the Arabs. "Alla Acbar!" says Ockley, means,
"God is most mighty."

[112] The ziraleet is a kind of chorus, which the women of the East sing
upon joyful occasions.

[113] The Dead Sea, which contains neither animal nor vegetable life.

[114] The ancient Oxus.

[115] A city of Transoxiana.

[116] "You never can cast your eyes on this tree, but you meet there
either blossoms or fruit; and as the blossom drops underneath on the
ground (which is frequently covered with these purple-colored flowers),
others come forth in their stead," etc.--_Nieuhoff_.

[117] The Demons of the Persian mythology.

[118] Carreri mentions the fire-flies in India during the rainy
season.--See his Travels.

[119] Sennacherib, called by the Orientals King of Moussal.--_D'Herbelot_.

[120] Chosroes. For the description of his Throne or Palace, see _Gibbon
and D'Herbelot_.

There were said to be under this Throne or Palace of Khosrou Parviz a
hundred vaults filled with "treasures so immense that some Mahometan
writers tell us, their Prophet to encourage his disciples carried them to
a rock which at his command opened and gave them a prospect through it of
the treasures of Khosrou."--_Universal History_.

[121] "The crown of Gerashid is cloudy and tarnished before the heron tuft
of thy turban."--From one of the elegies or songs in praise of Ali,
written in characters of gold round the gallery of Abbas's tomb.--See
_Chardin_.

[122] The beauty of Ali's eyes was so remarkable, that whenever the
Persians would describe anything as very lovely, they say it is Ayn Hali,
or the Eyes of Ali.--_Chardin_.

[123] "Nakshab, the name of a city in Transoxiana, where they say there is
a well, in which the appearance of the moon is to be seen night and day."

[124] The Shechinah, called Sakfnat in the Koran.--See _Sale's Note_,
chap. ii.

[125] The parts of the night are made known as well by instruments of
music, as by the rounds of the watchmen with cries and small drums.--See
_Burder's Oriental Customs_, vol. i. p. 119.

[126] The Serrapurda, high screens of red cloth, stiffened with cane, used
to enclose a considerable space round the royal tents.--_Notes on the
Bakardanush.

The tents of Princes were generally illuminated. Norden tells us that the
tent of the Bey of Girge was distinguished from the other tents by forty
lanterns being suspended before it.--See _Harmer's Observations on Job_.

[127] "From the groves of orange trees at Kauzeroon the bees cull a
celebrated honey.--_Morier's Travels_.

[128] "A custom still subsisting at this day, seems to me to prove that
the Egyptians formerly sacrificed a young virgin to the God of the Nile;
for they now make a statue of earth in shape of a girl, to which they give
the name of the Betrothed Bride, and throw it into the river."--_Savary_.

[129] That they knew the secret of the Greek fire among the Mussulmans
early in the eleventh century, appears from _Dow's_ account of Mamood I.
"When he at Moultan, finding that the country of the Jits was defended by
great rivers, he ordered fifteen hundred boats to be built, each of which
he armed with six iron spikes, projecting from their prows and sides, to
prevent their being boarded by the enemy, who were very expert in that
kind of war. When he had launched this fleet, he ordered twenty archers
into each boat, and five others with fire-balls, to burn the craft of the
Jits, and naphtha to set the whole river on fire."

[130] The Greek fire, which was occasionally lent by the emperors to their
allies. "It was," says Gibbon, "either launched in red-hot balls of stone
and iron, or darted in arrows and javelins, twisted round with flax and
tow, which had deeply imbibed the imflammable oil."

[131] See _Hanway's_ Account of the Springs of Naphtha at Baku (which is
called by _Lieutenant Pottinger_ Joala Mookee, 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.'

[132] "At the great festival of fire, called the Sheb Seze, they used to
set fire to large bunches of dry combustibles, fastened round wild beasts
and birds, which being then let loose, the air and earth appeared one
great illumination; and as these terrified creatures naturally fled to the
woods for shelter, it is easy to conceive the conflagrations they
produced."--_Richardson's Dissertation_.

[133] "The righteous shall be given to drink of pure wine, sealed: the
seal whereof shall be musk."--_Koran_, chap lxxxiii.