Nor there will wandering Dervise stay,
For bounty cheers not his delay;
Nor there will weary stranger halt
To bless the sacred “bread and salt.”’
Alike must Wealth and Poverty
Pass heedless and unheeded by,

For Courtesy and Pity died

With Hassan on the mountain side.

His roof, that refuge unto men,

Is Desolation's hungry den.

The guest flies the hall, and the vassal from laboar,
Since his turban was cleft by the infidel's sabre!"

I hear the sound of coming feet,
But not a voice mine ear to greet;
More near-each turban I can scan,
And silver-sheathed ataghan;'
The foremost of the band is seen
An Emir by his garb of green: '

"Ho! who art thou?"-"This low salam
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;

7 To partake of food, to break bread and salt with your host, ensures the safety of the guest even though an enemy, his person from that moment is sacred.

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.

9 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.

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.

"Salam aleikoum aleikoum salam!" peace be with you; be with you peacethe 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.

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 'tis the longest voyage, I trow,
That one of- *

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,-'twas 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;
And all its hidden secrets sleep,

Known but to Genii of the deep,

Which, trembling in their coral caves,

They dare not whisper to the waves.

As rising on its purple wing
The insect-queen' of eastern spring,
O'er emerald meadows of Kashmeer
Invites the young pursuer near,
And leads him on from flower to flower
A weary chase and wasted hour,
Then leaves him, as it soars on high,
With panting heart and tearful eye :
So Beauty lures the full-grown child,
With hue as bright, and wing as wild:
A chase of idle hopes and fears,
Begun in folly, closed in tears.

The blue-winged butterfly of Kashmeer, the most rare and beautiful of the species.

If won, to equal ills betray'd,'
Woe waits the insect and the maid;
A life of pain, the loss of peace,
From infant's play, and man's caprice :
The lovely toy so fiercely sought
Hath lost its charm by being caught,
For every touch that woo'd its stay
Hath brush'd its brightest hues away,
Till charm, and hue, and beauty gone,
'Tis left to fly or fall alone.

With wounded wing, or bleeding breast,
Ah! where shall either victim rest?
Can this with faded pinion soar
From rose to tulip as before?

Or Beauty, blighted in an hour,
Find joy within her broken bower?
No gayer insects fluttering by

Ne'er droop the wing o'er those that die,
And lovelier things have mercy shown.
To every failing but their own,
And every woe a tear can claim
Except an erring sister's shame.

*

The Mind, that broods o'er guilty woes,
Is like the Scorpion girt by fire;
In circle narrowing as it glows,"
The flames around their captive close,
Till inly search'd by thousand throes,

And maddening in her ire,

One sad and sole relief she knows,
The sting she nourish'd for her foes,
Whose venom never yet was vain,
Gives but one pang, and cures all pain,
And darts into her desperate brain :
So do the dark in soul expire,

Or live like Scorpion girt by fire;"

["If caught, to fate alike betray'd."--MS.]

["The gathering flames around her close."-MS.]

Alluding to the dubious suicide of the scorpion, so placed for experiment ty

So writhes the mind Remorse hath riven,"
Unfit for earth, undoom'd for heaven,
Darkness above, despair beneath,
Around it flame, within it death!

*

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

8

When Rhamazan's last sun was set,
And flashing from each minaret
Millions of lamps proclaim'd the feast
Of Bairam through the boundless East.
'Twas 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.

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.

[Lord Byron assured Mr. Dallas that the simile of the scorpion was imagined in his sleep.]

7

["So writhes the mind by Conscience riven."-MS.]

• The cannon at sunset close the Rhamazan,

Such is the tale his Nubians tell,
Who did not watch their charge too well;
But others say, that on that night,
By pale Phingari's trembling light,
The Giaour upon his jet-black steed
Was seen, but seen alone to speed
With bloody spur along the shore,
Nor maid nor page behind him bore.

Her eye's dark charm 'twere vain to tell,
But gaze on that of the Gazelle,
It will assist thy fancy well;
As large, as languishingly dark,
But Soul beam'd forth in every spark
That darted from beneath the lid,
Bright as the jewel of Giamschid.'
Yea, Soul, and should our prophet say
That form was nought but breathing clay,
By Alla! I would answer nay;

2

Though on Al-Sirat's arch I stood,
Which totters o'er the fiery flood,

With Paradise within my view,

And all his Houris' beckoning through.

Oh! who young Leila's glance could read
And keep that portion of his creed

9 Phingari, the moon.

1 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 pronunciation of the other.

[It was to Moore that he owed the correction.]

Al-Sirat, the bridge of breath, 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 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 cyun. An intercourse with these, according to the institution of Mahomet, is to constitute the principal felicity of the faithful. Not formed of clay like mortal women, they are adorned with unfading charms, and possess the privilege of an eternal youth.]