from Casiri's Biblioth. Arab. Hispan. in the Appendix to Berington's Literary History of the Middle Ages. Note 61, page 19, col. 2. Discharge, as from a kindled naptha fount. See HANWAY'S Account of the Springs of Naphtha 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. 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 bird, suspended over the throne of Tippoo Sultaun, found at Seringapatam in 1799, was intended to represent this poetical fancy.» Note 66, page 23, col. 2. Whose words, like those on the Written Mountain, last for ever. To the pilgrims to Mount Sinai we must attribute the inscriptions, figures, etc. on those rocks, which have from thence acquired the name of the Written Mountain.-VOLNEY. M. Gebelin and others have been at Major SCOTT WARING says that naptha is used by the much pains to attach some mysterious and important Persians, as we are told it was in hell, for lamps. Many a row Of starry lamps and blazing cressets, fed With naptha and asphaltus, yielded light Note 62, page 21, col. 1. Thou seest yon cistern in the shade-'t is fill'd With burning drugs, for this last hour distill'd. Il donna du poison dans le vin à tous ses gens, et se jeta 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 restaient de sa secte pussent croire qu'il était monté au ciel, ce qui ne manqua pas d'arriver.-D'HERBELOT. Note 63, page 22, col. 1. 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 abundant and fresh supply of mangoes for the royal table... Mrs GRAHAM'S Journal of a Residence in India. - Note 64, page 22, col. 1. 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 Chum, 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, etc.-a bad translation of some parts of the Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses of the Missionary Jesuits. Note 65, page 23, col. 1. That sublime bird, which flies always in the air. The Humma, 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 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 To the Camalat, by whose rosy blossoms the heaven of India 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 pro cured 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 India; and if ever flower was worthy of Paradise, it is our charming Ipomea.—Ib. Note 70, page 24, col. 1. On the blue flower, which-Bramins say- The Brahmins of this province insist that the blue Campac flowers 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. Note 71, page 24, col. 1. I know where the Isles of Perfume are. Diodorus mentions the Isle of Panchaia, to the south of Arabia Felix, where there was a temple of Jupiter. This island, or rather cluster of isles, has disappeared, come down to eat human flesh in the dark in safety.» sunk (says GRANDPRE) in the abyss made by the fire-BRUCE. beneath their foundations. — Voyage to the Indian Ocean. Note 72, page 24, col. 2. Whose air is balm; whose ocean spreads It is not like the Sea of India, whose bottom is rich with pearls and ambergris, whose mountains of the coast are stored with gold and precious stones, whose gulfs breed creatures that yield ivory, and among the plants of whose shores are ebony, red-wood, and the wood of Hairzan, aloes, camphor, cloves, sandal-wood, and all other spices and aromatics; where parrots and peacocks are birds of the forest, and musk and civet are collected upon the lands.—Travels of Two Mahom medans. Note 73, page 24. col. 2. In the ground The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow High over-arch'd, and echoing walks between. MILTON. For a particular description and plate of the Banyantree, see CORDINER'S Ceylon. Note 74, page 24, col. 2. Thy monarchs and their thousand thrones. With this immense treasure Mamood returned to Ghisni, and, in the year 400, prepared a magnificent festival, where he displayed to the people his wealth in golden thrones and in other ornaments, in a great plain without the city of Ghizni. -FERISHTA. Note 75, page 25, col. 1. Blood like this, For liberty shed, so holy is. Note 78, page 26, col. 1. But see,-who yonder comes. Such Turks as at the common hours of prayer are on the road, or so employed as not to find convenience to attend the Mosques, are still obliged to execute that Objections may be made to my use of the word li-duty; nor are they ever known to fail, whatever busiberty, in this and more especially in the story that follows it, as totally inapplicable to any state of things that has ever existed in the East; but though I cannot, of course, mean to employ it in that enlarged and noble sense which is so well understood in the present day, and, I grieve to say, so little acted upon, yet it is no disparagement to the word to apply it to that national independence, that freedom from the interference and dictation of foreigners, without which, indeed, no liberty of any kind can exist, and for which both Hindoos and Persians fought against their Mussulman invaders with, in many cases, a bravery that deserved much bet-whom he undertook to convey, and renews his journey ter success. Note 76, page 25, col. 1. Afric's Lunar Mountains. Sometimes called," says JACKSON, Jibbel Kumrie, or the white or lunar-coloured mountains: so a white horse is called by the Arabians a moon-coloured horse. » Note 77, page 25, col. 2. Only the fierce hyæna stalks ■ Gondar was full of hyænas, from the time it turned dark till the dawn of day, seeking the different pieces of slaughtered carcases which this cruel and unclean people expose in the streets without burial, and who firmly believe that these animals are Falashta from the neighbouring mountains, transformed by magic, and ness they are then about, but pray immediately when the hour alarms them, whatever they are about, in that very place they chance to stand on; insomuch that when a janissary, whom you have to guard you up and down the city, hears the notice which is given him from the steeples, he will turn about, stand still, and beckon with his hand, to tell his charge he must have patience for a while; when, taking out his handkerchief, he spreads it on the ground, sits cross-legged thereupon, and says his prayers, though in the open market, which having ended, he leaps briskly up, salutes the person with the mild expression of ghell ghonnum ghell, or, Come, dear, follow me.-AARON HILL'S Travels. Note 83, page 29, col. 1. The Banyan Hospital. « This account excited a desire of visiting the Banyan Hospital, as I had heard much of their benevolence to all kinds of animals that were either sick, lame, or infirm, through age or accident. On my arriva! there were presented to my view many horses, cows, and oxen, in one apartment; in another dogs, sheep, goats, and monkeys, with clean straw for them to repose on. Above stairs were depositories for seeds of many sorts, and flat broad dishes for water, for the use of birds and insects.-PARSONS. It is said that all animals know the Banyans, that jessamines, and honeysuckles, make a sort of green wall; large trees are planted round this place, which is the scene of their greatest pleasures.»-Lady M. W. MONTAGU. Note 93, page 31, col. 2. Before their mirrors count the time. The women of the East are never without their looking-glasses. <«<In Barbary,» says SHAW, they are so fond of their looking-glasses, which they hang upon their breasts, that they will not lay them aside, even when, after the drudgery of the day, they are obliged to go two or three miles with a pitcher or a goat's skin to fetch water.»-Travels. In other parts of Asia they wear little looking-glasses «Hence (and from the lotus being on their thumbs. considered the emblem of beauty) is the meaning of the following mute intercourse of two lovers before their parents. He with salute of deference due Note 94, page 32, col. 1. The untrodden solitude Of Ararat's tremendous peak. STRUY Says, I can well assure the reader that their opinion is not true, who suppose this mount to be inaccessible.» He adds, that « the lower part of the mountain is cloudy, misty, and dark, the middlemost part very cold and like clouds of snow, but the upper the Ark was supposed to have rested after the Deluge, It was on this mountain that regions perfectly calm.»> and part of it, they say, exists there still, which Struy thus gravely accounts for: « Whereas none can remember that the air on the top of the hill did ever Who, many hundred years since, had fled hither from their Arab change, or was subject either to wind or rain, which Who, morn and even, Hail their Creator's dwelling-place Among the living lights of heaven! « As to fire, the Ghebers place the spring-head of it in that globe of fire, the Sun, by them called Mythras, or Mihir, to which they pay the highest reverence, in gratitude for the manifold benefits flowing from its ministerial omniscience. But they are so far from confounding the subordination of the Servant with the majesty of its Creator, that they not only attribute no sort of sense or reasoning to the sun or fire, in any of its operations, but consider it as a purely passive blind instrument, directed and governed by the immediate impression on it of the will of God; but they do not even give that luminary, all glorious as it is, more than the second rank amongst his works, reserving the first for that stupendous production of divine power, the mind of man.»>-GROSE. The false charges brought | dous chain » of which I suppose it a link does not exagainst the religion of these people by their Mussulman tend quite so far as the shores of the Persian Gulf. tyrantsis but one proof among many of the truth of this «This long and lofty range of mountains formerly diwriter's remark, «that calumny is often added to op-vided Media from Assyria, and now forms the boundary pression, if but for the sake of justifying it.» of the Persian and Turkish empires. It runs parallel with the river Tigris and Persian Gulf, and almost dis Note 97, page 34, col. 2. That enchanted tree, which grows over the tomb of the musician appearing in the vicinity of Gomberoon (Harmozia), Tan-Sein. « 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 flou rished at the court of Akbar. The tomb is oversha- Note 98, page 34, col. 2 «It is usual to place a small white triangular flag, fixed to a bamboo-staff of ten or twelve feet long, at the place where a tiger has destroyed a man. It is common for the passengers also to throw each a stone or brick near the spot, so that in the course of a little time, a pile equal to a good waggon-load is collected. The sight of these flags and piles of stones imparts a certain melancholy, not perhaps altogether void of apprehension.>> -Oriental Field Sports, vol. ii. Note 99, page 34, col. 2. Beneath the shade, some pious hands had erected, etc. «The ficus Indica is called the Pagod Tree and Tree of Councils, the first from the Idols placed under its shade; the second, because meetings were held under its cool branches. In some places it is believed to be the haunt of spectres, as the ancient spreading oaks of Wales have been of fairies: in others are erected, beneath the shade, pillars of stone, or posts, elegantly carved and ornamented with the most beautiful porcelain to supply the use of mirrors.»>-PENNANT. Note 100, page 35, col. 1. The nightingale now bends her flight. Note 101, page 36, col. 1. Before whose sabre's dazzling light, etc. seems once more to rise in the southern districts of Ker- That bold were Moslem, who would dare At twilight hour to steer his skiff << There is an extraordinary hill in this neighbourhood, called Kohé Gubr, or the Guebre's mountain. It rises in the form of a lofty cupola, and on the summit of it, they say, are the remains of an Atush Kudu, or Fire Temple. It is superstitiously held to be the residence of Deeves or Sprites, and many marvellous stories are recounted of the injury and witchcraft suffered by those who essayed in former days to ascend or explore it >>-POTTINGER'S Beloochistan. Note 105, page 37, col. 1. Still did the mighty flame burn on. «At the city of Yezd in Persia, which is distinguished by the appellation of the Darûb Abadut, or Seat of Religion, the Guebres are permitted to have an Atush Kudu or Fire Temple (which, they assert, has had the sacred fire in it since the days of Zoroaster) in their own compartment of the city; but for this indulgence they are indebted to the avarice, not the tolerance of the Persian government, which taxes them at twenty-five rupees each man.»-POTTINGER'S Beloochistan. Note 106, page 37, col, 2. While on that altar's fires They swore. «Nul d'entre eux n'oserait se parjurer, quand il a pris à témoin cet élément terrible et vengeur.»-Encyclopédie Française. Note 107, page 37, col. 2. The Persian lily shines and towers. « A vivid verdure succeeds the autumnal rains, and the ploughed fields are covered with the Persian lily, « When the bright cimitars make the eyes of our he- of a resplendent yellow colour.»-RUSSEL'S Aleppo. roes wink.»-The Moallakat, Poem of AMRU. Note 102, page 36, col. 1. As Lebanon's small mountain-flood Of sainted cedars on its banks. In the Lettres Edifiantes, there is a different cause assigned for its name of Holy. «In these are deep caverns, which formerly served as so many cells for a great number of recluses, who had chosen these retreats as the only witnesses upon earth of the severity of their penance. The tears of these pious penitents gave the river of which we have just treated the name of the Holy River.»-See CHATEAUBRIAND'S Beauties of Christianity. Note 103, page 36, col. 2. A rocky mountain, o'er the sea Of Oman beetling awfully. Note 108, page 39, col. 1. Like Dead Sea fruits, that tempt the eye, But turn to ashes on the lips. They say that there are apple-trees upon the sides of this sea, which bear very lovely fruit, but within are all full of ashes.»-THEVENOT. The same is asserted of the oranges there. See WITMAN'S Travels in Asiatic Turkey. << The Asphalt Lake, known by the name of the Dead Sea, is very remarkable on account of the considerable In this respect proportion of salt which it contains. it surpasses every other known water on the surface of the earth. This great proportion of bitter-tasted salts is the reason why neither animal nor plant can live in this water.- KLAPROTH'S Chemical Analysis of the Water of the Dead Sea, Annals of Philosophy, January, This mountain is my own creation, as the «stupen- 1813. HASSELQUIST, however, doubts the truth of this last assertion, as there are shell-fish to be found in the lake. Lord Byron has a similar allusion to the fruits of the Dead Sea, in that wonderful display of genius, his Third Canto of Childe Harold,-magnificent beyond any thing, perhaps, that even he has ever written. Note 109, page 39, col. 1. While lakes, that shone in mockery nigh. The Suhrab, or Water of the desert, is said to be caused by the rarefaction of the atmosphere from extreme heat; and, which augments the delusion, it is most frequent in hollows, where water might be expected to lodge. I have seen bushes and trees reflected in it, with as much accuracy as though it had been the face of a clear and still lake."-POTTINGER. As to the unbelievers, their works are like a vapour in a plain, which the thirsty traveller thinketh to be water, until when he cometh thereto he findeth it to be nothing. Koran, chap. 24. Where the sea-gipseys, who live for ever on the water. The Biajùs are of two races; the one is settled on Borneo, and are a rude but warlike and industrious nation, who reckon themselves the original possessors of the island of Borneo. The other is a species of seagipseys, or itinerant fishermen, who live in small covered boats, and enjoy a perpetual summer on the eastern ocean, shifting to leeward from island to island, with the variations of the monsoon. In some of their customs this singular race resemble the natives of the Maldivia Islands, The Maldivians annually launch a small bark, loaded with perfumes, gums, flowers, and odoriferous wood, and turn it adrift at the mercy of winds and waves, as an offering to the Spirit of the Winds; and sometimes similar offerings are made to the spirit whom they term the King of the Sea. In like manner the Biajùs perform their offering to the god of evil, launching a small bark, loaded with all the sins and misfortunes of the nation, which are imagined to fall on the unhappy crew that may be so unlucky as first to meet with it.-Dr LEYDEN on the Languages and Literature of the Indo-Chinese Nations. Note 114, page 40, col. 1 Her ruby rosary. Le Tespih, qui est un chapelet composé de quatrevingt-dix-neuf petites boules d'agathe, de jaspe, d'ambre, de corail, ou d'autre matière précieuse. J'en ai vu un superbe au Seigneur Jerpos; il était de belles et grosses perles parfaites et égales, estimé trente mille piastres. » -TODERINI. Note 115, page 43, col. 1. A silk dyed with the blossoms of the sorrowful tree, Nilica. Blossoms of the sorrowful Nyctanthes give a durable colour to silk."-Remarks on the Husbandry of Bengal, p. 200, Nilica is one of the Indian names of this flower.-SIR W. JONES. The Persians call it Gul.CARRERI. Note 116, page 45, col. a. When pitying Heaven to roses tura'd The death-flames that beneath him burn'd! Of their other Prophet, Zoroaster, there is a story told in DION PRUSSEUS, Orat. 36, that the love of wisdom and virtue leading him to a solitary life upon a mountain, he found it one day all in a flame, shining with celestial fire, out of which he came without any harm, and instituted certain sacrifices to God, who, he declared, then appeared to him.-See PATRICK on Exodus, iii, 2. The philosophers have discovered that the cause of this cheerfulness proceeds from the influence of the star Soheil, or Canopus, which rises over them every night.» -Extract from a geographical Persian Manuscript called Heft Aklim, or the Seven Climates, translated by W. OUSELEY, Esq. Note 119, page 51, col. 1. Putting to death some hundreds of those unfortunate lizards. The lizard Stellio. The Arabs call it Hardun. The Turks kill it, for they imagine that by declining the head it mimics them when they say their prayers.— HASSELQUIST. Note 120, page 51, col. 1. About two miles from Hussun Abdaul were those royal gardens. I am indebted for these particulars of Hussun Abdaul to the very interesting Introduction of Mr ELPHINSTONE'S work upon Caubul. |