more variously than words can describe. — Relig. Ceremon. vol. vii. pp. 59. 68. 118. vol. v. p. 290. Sale's Prelim. Disc. p. 101., and one of the MSS. specified in the Preface. PAGE 65.- the fatal bridge. This bridge, called in Arabic al Sirat, and said to extend over the infernal gulf, is represented as narrower than a spider's web, and sharper than the edge of a sword. Though the attempt to cross it be "More full of peril, and advent'rous spirit, Than to o'erwalk a current, roaring loud, On the unsteadfast footing of a spear;" yet the paradise of Mahomet can be entered by no other avenue. Those, indeed, who have behaved well need not be alarmed; mixed characters will find it difficult; but the wicked soon miss their standing, and plunge headlong into the abyss.-Pocock in Port. Mos. p. 282, &c. Milton apparently copied from this well-known fiction, and not, as Dr. Warton conjectured, from the poet Sadi; his way "Over the dark abyss, whose boiling gulf Tamely endured a bridge of wond'rous length, PAGE 65.- a certain series of years. According to the tradition from the prophet, not less than nine hundred, nor more than seven thousand. It was an article of the Mahometan creed, that all animals would be raised again, and some of them admitted into paradise. The animal here mentioned appears to have been one of those white-winged CAMELS* caparisoned with gold, which Ali affirmed had been provided to convey the faithful.-Relig. Cer. vol. vii. p. 70. Sale's Prelim. Disc. p. 112. Al Jauheri. Ebno'l Athir, &c. PAGE 66.-basket-making. This sort of basket work hath been long used in the East, and consists of the leaves of the date-bearing palm. Panniers of this texture are of great utility in conveying fruits, bread, &c., whilst heavier articles, or such as require a more compact covering, are carried in bags of leather, or skín. Voyage, p. 26. Hasselquist's PAGE 66.-the caliph presented himself to the emir in a new light. The propensity of a vicious person, in affliction, to seek consolation from the ceremonies of religion, is an exquisite trait in the character of Vathek. PAGE 71.-the waving of fans. These fans consisted of the trains of peacocks or ostriches, whose quills were set in a long stem, so as to imbricate the plumes in the gradations of their Tarafa, amongst other circumstances in the description of his camel, notices her" bushy tail, which appears as if the two wings of a large white eagle were transfixed by an awl to the bone, and hung waving round both her sides." Moallakat, p. 19. natural growth. Fans of this fashion were formerly used in England. That, here subjoined, from a portrait of Elizabeth, was probably the same noticed by Mr. Warton in the Sidney papers, as "presented to her for a new year's gift, the handle of which was studded with diamonds." To judge from the language of Burton (" if he get any remnant of hers, a buske-point, a feather of her fanne, a shoo-tye, a lace,") these fans soon after became common. It was, however, to this kind that Milton alluded in a passage of Paradise Lost, the collocation of which, though disjointed through the mistake of his amanuensis, may, by transposing a word, be restored : — his sleep Was aery light, from pure digestion bred, And temperate vapours bland, which th' only sound Lightly dispers'd, and the shrill matin song, Of birds on ev'ry bough." * Some of them are here copied, of different forms. Trees, whose branches are well covered with leaves, may be not improperly styled feathering*, and, in the language of Milton, form the fan of Aurora, which, when waved by the breeze of the morning, occasions the rustling that constitutes a third in the complex sound referred to. PAGE 72. - wine hoarded up in bottles, prior to the birth of Mahomet. The prohibition of wine by the prophet materially diminished its consump tion within the limits of his own dominions. Hence a reserve of it might be expected of the age here specified. The custom of hoarding wine was not unknown to the Persians, though not so often practised by them as by the Greeks and the Romans. "I purchase" (says Lebeid)" the old liquor, at a dear rate, in dark leathern bottles, long reposited; or in casks black with pitch, whose seals I break, and then fill the cheerful goblet." Moallakat, p. 53. PAGE 72.-excavated ovens in the rock. As substitutes for the portable ovens, which were lost. PAGE 72.-manchets prepared by Nouronihar. Herodotus mentions a lady of equal rank, performing a similar office :- a ΓΥΝΗ του ΒΑΣΙΛΗΟΣ αύτη τα ΣΙΤΙΑ σφι επεσσε : and the cakes which Tamar made for Amnon are well known. PAGE 73.- her great camel Alboufaki. There is a singular and laboured description of a camel in the poem of Tarafa; but Alboufaki possessed qualities appropriate to himself, and which rendered him but little less conspicuous than the deformed dun camel of Aad. PAGE 74. - to set forward, notwithstanding it was noon, The employment of wood-fellers was accounted of all others the most toilsome, as those occupied in it were compelled to forego that mid-day cessation with which other labourers were indulged. Inatulla speaks proverbially of "woodmen in the meridian hour, scarce able to raise the arms of languor." The guides of Carathis being of this occupation, she adroitly availed herself of it to urge them forward, without allowing them that repose during the midday fervour which travellers in these climates always enjoyed ‡, and which was deemed so essential to the preservation of their health. PAGE 74. -the confines of some cemetery. Places of interment in the East were commonly situated in scenes of solitude. We read of one in the History of the First Calender, abounding with so many * Thus, Mr. Whateley, the first authority in the language of picturesque description:-" Large boughs, feathering down, often intercept the sight." + Lib. VIII. p. 685. That dire is to be understood in the sense above given, is certain from what immediately follows. Psalm xci. 5. The explanatory iteration of the subsequent verse, points out a congruity between the Hebrew poet and Homer. As the contagion amongst the Greeks produced by the excessive heat of the sun, was assigned in the Iliad to the arrows of the God of light; so, the destruction that wasteth at noon, is attributed in the Psalm to the arrow that flieth by day.-It has been observed by a nobleman of many accomplishments, that this verse should be added to the other passages of scripture, which have been noted in the writings ascribed to Zoroaster. monuments, that four days were successively spent in it without the enquirer being able to find the tomb he looked for; and, from the Story of Ganem, it appears that the doors of these cemeteries were often left open. Arabian Nights, vol. ii. p. 112. vol. iii. p. 135. PAGE 77.-a Myrabolan comfit. The invention of this confection is attributed by M. Cardonne to Avicenna, but there is abundant reason, exclusive of our author's authority, to suppose it of a much earlier origin. Both the Latins and Greeks were acquainted with the balsam, and the tree that produced it was indigenous in various parts of Arabia. PAGE 78.-blue fishes. Fishes of the same colour are mentioned in the Arabian Nights; and, like these, were endowed with the gift of speech. PAGE 79.-nests still higher than the clouds. The metaphor of a nest for a secure habitation, occurs in the sacred writings. Thus Habakkuk:-" Wo to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil." And Obadiah :-" Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars," &c. The genius here mentioned seems to have been adopted from the Jewish notion of Guardian Angels, to whom the superintendence of children is supposed to be committed, and to which our Saviour himself hath referred (Matt. xviii. 10.); whilst the original possessors of the nest may be presumed to have been some of those marvellous birds so frequently mentioned in Eastern romance. PAGE 79.-waving streamers on which were inscribed the names of Allah and the Prophet. The position that "there is no God but God, and Mahomet is his Prophet," pervades every part of the Mahometan religion. Banners, like those here described, are preserved in the several mosques; and, on the death of extraordinary persons, are borne before the bier in solemn state. — Relig. Cerem. vol. vii. pp. 119, 120. PAGE 80.astrolabes. The mention of the astrolabe may be deemed incompatible, at first view, with chronological exactness, as there is no instance of any being constructed by a Mussulman, till after the time of Vathek. It may, however, be remarked, to go no higher, that Sinesius, bishop of Ptolemais, invented one in the fifth cen. tury; and that Carathis was not only herself a Greek, but also cultivated those sciences which the good Mussulmans of her time all held in abhorrence. Bailly, Hist. de l'Astronom. Moderne, tom. i. pp. 563.573. PAGE 82. On the banks of the stream, hives and oratories. The bee is an insect held in high veneration amongst the Mahometans, it being pointed out in the Koran, " for a sign unto the people that understand." It has been said, in the same sense, "Go to the ant, thou sluggard." Prov. vi. 6. The santons, therefore, who inhabit the fertile banks of Rocnabad, are not less famous for their hives than their oratories. D'Herbelot, p. 717, PAGE 82.-harbingers of the imperial procession began to proclaim. This circumstance of sending heralds to announce the approach of a sovereign, reminds us of "the voice of one crying in the wilderness." Sheiks are the chiefs of the societies of derviches; cadis are the magistrates of a town or city. PAGE 83.- Asses in bridles of riband inscribed from the Koran. As the judges of Israel in ancient days rode on white asses, so, amongst the Mahometans, those that affect an extraordinary sanctity, use the same animal in preference to the horse. Sir John Chardin observed, in various parts of the East, that their reins, as here represented, were of silk, with the name of God, or other inscriptions, upon them. - Ludeke, Expos. brevis, p. 49. Chardin's MS. cited by Harmer. PAGE 84. - One of these beneficent Genii, assuming the exterior of a shepherd, &c. began to pour from his flute, &c. The flute was considered as a sacred instrument, which Jacob and other holy shepherds had sanctified by using. — Relig. Cerem, vol. vii. p. 110. PAGE 84. — involuntarily drawn towards the declivity of the hill. A similar instance of attraction may be seen in the Story of Prince Ahmed and the Peri Parabanon. — Arabian Nights, vol. iv. p. 243. PAGE 85. -Eblis. D'Herbelot supposes this title to have been a corruption of the Greek AαConos, diabolos. It was the appellation conferred by the Arabians upon the prince of the apostate angels, whom they represent as exiled to the infernal regions, for refusing to worship Adam at the command of the Supreme, and appears more likely to originate from the Hebrew 11, hebel, vanity, pride. -See below, the note p. 90., "creatures of clay." PAGE 85. compensate for thy impieties by an exemplary life. It is an established article of the Mussulman creed, that the actions of mankind are all weighed in a vast unerring balance, and the future condition of the agents determined according to the preponderance of evil or good. This fiction, which seems to have been borrowed from the Jews, had probably its origin in the figurative language of Scripture. Thus, Psalm lxii. 9. — -"Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity; "— and, in Daniel, the sentence against the King of Babylon, inscribed on the wall," Thou art weighed in the balance, and found wanting." This was the Arabian name of the Queen of Sheba, who went from the south to hear the wisdom and admire the glory of Solomon. The Koran represents ner as a worshipper of fire. Solomon is said not only to have entertained her with the greatest magnificence, but also to have raised her to his bed and his Al Koran, ch, xxvii. and Sale's notes. D'Herbelot, p. 182. L throne. |