by Thomas Moore
18 Their amour is recounted in the Shah-Namêh 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. . — 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. , 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. .
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,” .
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 eve
ry 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. .
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, .
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 l
ouder 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.
