Though bent on earth thine evil eye, On-on he hasten'd, and he drew He pass'd, and vanish'd from my sight, Whose glance is fix'd on those that flee; The Mosque's high lamps are quivering still: In echoes of the far tophaike, ' The flashes of each joyous peal He stood some dread was on his face, "Tophaike," musket. The Bairam is announced by the cannon at sunset; the illumination of the Mosques, and the firing of all kinds of small arms, loaded with ball, procain it during the night. *["Hasty blush."-" For hasty, all the editions till the twelfth read “darkening blush.” On the back of a copy of the eleventh, Lord Byron has written, "Why did not the printer attend to the solitary correction so repeatedly made? I have no copy of this, and desire to have none till my request is complied with."] 3 [" Then turned it swiftly to his blade, As loud his raven charger neigh'd." - MS.] Jerreed, or Djerrid, a blunted Turkish javelin, which is darted from horseback with great force and precision. It is a favourite exercise of the Mussulmans; but I know not if it can be called a manly one, since the most expert in the art are the Black Eunuchs of Constantinople. I think, next to these, a Mamlouk at Smyrna was the most skilful that came within my observation. [Every gesture of the impetuous horseman is full of anxiety and passion. In the midst of his career, whilst in full view of the astonished spectator, he suddenly checks his steed, and rising on his stirrup, surveys, with a look of agonising impatience, the distant city illuminated for the feast of Bairam; then pale with anger, raises his arm as if in menace of an invisible enemy; but awakened from his trance of passion by the neighing of his charger, again hurries forward, and disappears. -GEORGE ELLIS.] His brow was bent, his eye was glazed; Here loud his raven charger neigh'd Down glanced that hand, and grasp'd his blade; That sound had burst his waking dream, As Slumber starts at owlet's scream. The spur hath lanced his courser's sides; Swift as the hurl'd on high jerreed 4 The thought that Conscience must embrace, Woe without name, or hope, or end. 6 ["T was but an instant, though so long When thus dilated in my song.'" MS.] "-MS.] 7 ["But neither fled nor fell alone."8 The blast of the desert, fatal to every thing living, and often alluded to in eastern poetry. --[Abyssinian Bruce gives, perhaps, the liveliest account of the appearance and effects of the suffocating blast of the Desert:" At eleven o'clock," he says, "while we contemplated with great pleasure the rugged top of Chiggre, to which we were fast approaching, and where we were to solace ourselves with plenty of good water, Idris, our guide, cried out with a loud voice, Fall upon your faces, for here is the simoom.' I saw from the south-east a haze come, in colour like the purple part of the rainbow, but not so compressed or thick. It did not occupy twenty yards in breadt, and was about twelve feet high from the ground. It was a kind of blush upon the air, and it moved very rapidly; for I scarce could turn to fall upon the ground, with my head to the northward, when I felt the heat of its current plainly upon my face. We all lay flat on the ground as if dead, till Idris told us it was blown over. meteor, or purple haze, which I saw was, indeed, passed, but the light air, which still blew, was of a heat to threaten suffocation. For my part, I found distinctly in my breast that I had imbibed a part of it; nor was I free of an asthmatic sensation till I had been some months in Italy, at the baths of Poretta, near two years afterwards." -See Bruce's Life and Travels, p. 470. edit. 1830.] The The wild-dog howls o'er the fountain's brim, For the stream has shrunk from its marble bed, And flung luxurious coolness round The air, and verdure o'er the ground. "T was sweet, when cloudless stars were bright, And oft had Hassan's Childhood play'd Its bank been soothed by Beauty's song; - Be heard to rage, regret, rejoice. The last sad note that swell'd the gale But the lattice that flaps when the wind is shrill: No hand shall close its clasp again. 4 On desert sands 't were joy to scan The rudest steps of fellow man, 1 ["The lonely spider's thin gray pall Is curtained on the splendid wall."- - MS.] 2 [" The wild-dog howls o'er the fountain's brink But vainly tells his tongue to drink."- MS.] 3 [ For thirsty fox and jackal gaunt May vainly for its waters pant."- MS.] 4 [This part of the narrative not only contains much brilliant and just description, but is managed with unusual taste. The fisherman has, hitherto, related nothing more than the extraordinary phenomenon which had excited his curiosity, and of which it is his immediate object to explain the cause to his hearers; but instead of proceeding to do so, he stops to vent his execrations on the Giaour, to describe the solitude of Hassan's once luxurious haram, and to lament the untimely death of the owner, and of Leila, together with the cessation of that hospitality which they had uniformly experienced. He reveals, as if unintentionally and unconsciously, the catastrophe of his story; but he thus prepares his appeal to the sympathy of his audience, without much diminishing their suspense. GEORGE ELLIS.] 5 ["I have just recollected an alteration you may make in the proof. Among the lines on Hassan's Serai, is thisUnmeet for solitude to share.' Now, to share implies more than one, and Solitude is a single gentleman; it must be thus So here the very voice of Grief With Hassan on the mountain side. The guest flies the hall, and the vassal from labour, I hear the sound of coming feet, "Ho! who art thou?". "This low salam 10 Replies of Moslem faith I am.". "The burthen ye so gently bear Seems one that claims your utmost care, And, doubtless, holds some precious freight, My humble bark would gladly wait." "Thou speakest sooth; thy skiff unmoor, And waft us from the silent shore; Nay, leave the sail still furl'd, and ply The nearest oar that's scatter'd by, And midway to those rocks where sleep The channell'd waters dark and deep. Rest from your task-so— - bravely done, Our course has been right swiftly run; Yet 't is the longest voyage, I trow, That one of and so on. * For many a gilded chamber 's there, Will you adopt this correction? and pray accept a Stilton cheese from me for your trouble.-P. S. I leave this to your discretion: if any body thinks the old line a good one, or the cheese a bad one, don't accept of either."-Byron Letters, Stilton, Oct. 3. 1813.] 6 To partake of food, to break bread and salt with your host, insures the safety of the guest: even though an enemy, his person from that moment is sacred. 7 I need hardly observe, that Charity and Hospitality are the first duties enjoined by Mahomet; and to say truth, very generally practised by his disciples. The first praise that can be bestowed on a chief, is a panegyric on his bounty; the next, on his valour. The ataghan, a long dagger worn with pistols in the belt. in a metal scabbard, generally of silver; and, among the wealthier, gilt, or of gold. 9 Green is the privileged colour of the prophet's numerous pretended descendants; with them, as here, faith (the family inheritance) is supposed to supersede the necessity of good works: they are the worst of a very indifferent brood. 10" Salam aleikoum! aleikoum salam!" peace be with you; be with you peace-the salutation reserved for the faithful:- to a Christian, "Urlarula," a good journey; or "saban hiresem, saban serula:" good morn, good even and sometimes," may your end be happy;" are the usual salutes. Sullen it plunged, and slowly sank, The calm wave rippled to the bank; I watch'd it as it sank, methought Some motion from the current caught Bestirr'd it more, 't was but the beam That checker'd o'er the living stream: I gazed, till vanishing from view, Like lessening pebble it withdrew; Still less and less, a speck of white That gemm'd the tide, then mock'd the sight; Which, trembling in their coral caves, As rising on its purple wing And leads him on from flower to flower With wounded wing, or bleeding breast, Can this with faded pinion soar Find joy within her broken bower? Ne'er droop the wing o'er those that die, Till inly search'd by thousand throes, Or live like Scorpion girt by fire; 5 Black Hassan from the Haram flies, Nor bends on woman's form his eyes; The unwonted chase each hour employs, Yet shares he not the hunter's joys. Not thus was Hassan wont to fly When Leila dwelt in his Serai. Doth Leila there no longer dwell? That tale can only Hassan tell : Strange rumours in our city say Upon that eve she fled away When Rhamazan's 7 last sun was set, And flashing from each minaret Millions of lamps proclaim'd the feast Of Bairam through the boundless East. "T was then she went as to the bath, Which Hassan vainly search'd in wrath; For she was flown her master's rage In likeness of a Georgian page, And far beyond the Moslem's power Had wrong'd him with the faithless Giaour. Somewhat of this had Hassan deem'd; But still so fond, so fair she seem'd, Too well he trusted to the slave Whose treachery deserved a grave: And on that eve had gone to mosque, And thence to feast in his kiosk. Such is the tale his Nubians tell, Who did not watch their charge too well; But others say, that on that night, Her eye's dark charm 't were vain to tell, But gaze on that of the Gazelle, It will assist thy fancy well; As large, as languishingly dark, ["The gathering flames around her close." — MS.] 5 Alluding to the dubious suicide of the scorpion, so placed for experiment by gentle philosophers. Some maintain that the position of the sting, when turned towards the head, is merely a convulsive movement; but others have actually brought in the verdict "Felo de se." The scorpions are surely interested in a speedy decision of the question; as, if once fairly established as insect Catos, they will probably be allowed to live as long as they think proper, without being martyred for the sake of an hypothesis. That darted from beneath the lid, Bright as the jewel of Giamschid. 1 Yea, Soul, and should our prophet say That form was nought but breathing clay, That through her eye the Immortal shone; The young pomegranate's blossoms strew And spurns the wave with wings of pride, When pass the steps of stranger man Along the banks that bound her tide; Thus rose fair Leila's whiter neck:Thus arm'd with beauty would she check Intrusion's glance, till Folly's gaze Shrunk from the charms it meant to praise. Thus high and graceful was her gait; Her heart as tender to her mate; Her mate-stern Hassan, who was he? Alas! that name was not for thee! Stern Hassan hath a journey ta'en With twenty vassals in his train, Each arm'd, as best becomes a man, With arquebuss and ataghan; The chief before, as deck'd for war, Bears in his belt the scimitar The celebrated fabulous ruby of Sultan Giamschid, the embellisher of Istakhar; from its splendour, named Schebgerag," the torch of night;" also "the cup of the sun," &c. In the first edition, "Giamschid" was written as a word of three syllables; so D'Herbelot has it; but I am told Richardson reduces it to a dissyllable, and writes "Jamshid." I have left in the text the orthography of the one with the pronun ciation of the other.-[In the first edition, Lord Byron had used this word as a trisyllable," Bright as the gem of Giamschid," but, on my remarking to him, upon the authority of Richardson's Persian Dictionary, that this was incorrect, he altered it to "Bright as the ruby of Giamschid." On seeing this, however, I wrote to him, "that, as the comparison of his heroine's eye to a ruby might unluckily call up the idea of its being bloodshot, he had better change the line to" Bright as the jewel of Giamschid; " which he accordingly did, in the following edition. - MOORE.] 2 Al-Sirat, the bridge of breadth, narrower than the thread of a famished spider, and sharper than the edge of a sword, over which the Mussulmans must skate into Paradise, to which it is the only entrance; but this is not the worst, the river beneath being hell itself, into which, as may be expected, the unskilful and tender of foot contrive to tumble with a "facilis descensus Averni," not very pleasing in prospect to The foremost Tartar's in the gap, Conspicuous by his yellow cap; The rest in lengthening line the while Wind slowly through the long defile: Above, the mountain rears a peak, Where vultures whet the thirsty beak, And theirs may be a feast to-night, Shall tempt them down ere morrow's light; Beneath, a river's wintry stream Has shrunk before the summer beam, And left a channel bleak and bare, Save shrubs that spring to perish there: Each side the midway path there lay Small broken crags of granite gray, By time, or mountain lightning, riven From summits clad in mists of heaven; For where is he that hath beheld The peak of Liakura unveil'd? the next passenger. There is a shorter cut downwards for the Jews and Christians. 3 [The virgins of Paradise, called from their large black eyes, Hur al oyun. An intercourse with these, according to the institution of Mahomet, is to constitute the principi felicity of the faithful. Not formed of clay, like mortal women, they are adorned with unfading charms, and deemed to posses the celestial privilege of an eternal youth. See D'Herbelot, and Sale's Koran.] 4 A vulgar error: the Koran allots at least a third of Paradise to well-behaved women; but by far the greater number of Mussulmans interpret the text their own way, and exclude their moieties from heaven. Being enemies to Platonics, they cannot discern "any fitness of things" in the souls of the other sex, conceiving them to be superseded by the Houris. 5 An oriental simile, which may, perhaps, though fairly stolen, be deemed " plus Arabe qu'en Arabie, 6 Hyacinthine, in Arabic "Sunbul;" as common a thought in the eastern poets as it was among the Greeks. 7" Franguestan," Circassia. |