renders these birds wonderful is, that they are so fond of the water of a certain fountain in Corasson, or Bactria, that wherever that water is carried, they follow; on which account it is carefully preserved; for wherever the locusts fall, the Armenian priests, who are provided with this water, bring a quantity of it, and place in jars, or pour it into little channels in the fields: the next day whole troops of these birds arrive, and quickly deliver the people from the locusts.-Universal History. Sir John Chardin has given us the following passage from an ancient traveller, in relation to this bird. In Cyprus, about the time that the corn was ripe for the sickle, the earth produced such a quantity of cavalettes, or locusts, that they obscured sometimes the splendour of the sun. Wherever these came, they burnt and eat up all. For this there was no remedy, since, as fast as they were destroyed, the earth produced more: God, however, raised them up a means for their deliverance, which happened thus. In Persia, near the city of Cuerch, there is a fountain of water, which has a wonderful property of destroying these insects; for a pitcher full of this being carried in the open air, without passing through house or vault, and being set on an high place, certain birds which follow it, and fly and cry after the men who carry it from the fountain, come to the place where it is fixed. These birds are red and black, and fly in great flocks together, like starlings; the Turks and Persians call them Musulmans. These birds no sooner came to Cyprus, but they destroyed the locusts with which the island was infested; but if the water be spilt or lost, these creatures immediately disappear; which accident fell out when the Turks took this island; for one of them going up into the steeple of Famagusta, and finding there a pitcher of this water, he, fancying that it contained gold or silver, or some precious thing, broke it, and spilt what was therein: since which the Cypriots have been as much tormented as ever by the locusts. On the confines of the Medes and of Armenia, at certain times a great quantity of birds are seen who resemble our black birds, and they have a property sufficiently curious to make me mention it. When the corn in these parts begins to grow, it is astonishing to see the number The of Locusts with which all the fields are covered. Armenians have no other method of delivering themselves from these insects, than by going in procession round the fields, and sprinkling them with a particular water, which they take care to preserve in their houses: for this water comes from a great distance. They fetch it from a well belonging to one of their convents near the frontiers, and they say that the bodies of many Christian martyrs were formerly thrown into this well. These processions, and the sprinkling, continue three or four days; after which, the birds that I have mentioned come in great flights; and whether it be that they eat the Locusts, or drive them away, in two or three days the country is cleared of them.-Tavernier. At Mosul and at Haleb, says Niebuhr, I heard much of the Locust bird, without seeing it. They there call it Samarmar, or, as others pronounce it, Samarmog. It is said to be black, larger than a sparrow, and no ways pleasant to the palate. I am assured that it every day destroys an incredible number of Locusts; they pretend nevertheless, that the Locusts sometimes defend themselves, and devour the bird with its feathers, when they have overpowered it by numbers. When the children in the frontier towns of Arabia catch a live Locust, they any place it before them, and cry Samarmog! And because Dr Russel describes this bird as about the size of a starling; the body of a flesh colour, the rest of its plumage black, the bill and legs black also. Note 33, page 103, col. 1. For these mysterious lines were legible. The Locusts are remarkable for the hieroglyphic that they bear upon the forehead; their colour is green throughout the whole body, excepting a little yellow rim that surrounds their head, which is lost at their eyes. This insect has two upper wings pretty solid; they are green like the rest of the body, except that there is in each a little white spot. The Locust keeps them extended like great sails of a ship going before the wind; it has besides two other wings underneath the former, and which resemble a light transparent stuff pretty much like a cobweb, and which it makes use of in the manner of smack sails that are along a vessel; but when the Locust reposes herself, she does like a vessel that lies at anchor, for she keeps the second sails furled under the first.-Norden. The Mahommedans believe some mysterious meaning is contained in the lines upon the Locust's forehead. I compared the description in the poem with a Locust which was caught in Leicestershire. It is remarkable that a single insect should have found its way so far inland. Note 34, page 103, col. 2. Flies the large-headed Screamer of the night. Au Arabian expression from the Moallakat:-« She turns her right side, as if she were in fear of some largeheaded Screamer of the night.»-Poem of Antara. Note 35, page 103, col. 2. Glare in the darkness of that dreadful noon. In the ninth volume of the Spectator is an account of the total Eclipse of the Sun, Friday, April 22, 1715. It is in a strain of vile bombast; yet some circumstances are so fine that even such a writer could not spoil them: « The different modifications of the light formed colours the eye of man has been five hundred years unacquainted with, and for which I can find no name, unless I may be allowed to call it a dark gloomy sort of light, that scattered about a more sensible and genuine horror, than the most consummate darkness. All the birds were struck dumb, and hung their wings in moody sorrow; some few pigeons, that were on the wing, were afraid of being benighted even in the morn, alighted, and took shelter in the houses. The heat went away by degrees with the light. But when the rays of the sun broke out afresh, the joy and the thanks that were in me, that God made to us these signs and marks of his power before he exercised it, were exquisite, and such as never worked upon me so sensibly before. With my own ears I heard a cock crow as at the dawn of day, and he welcomed with a strange gladness, which was plainly discoverable by the cheerful notes of his voice, the sun at its second rising, and the returning light.» all that hear and follow them are to be carried to hell.» << I know them not,» said I; « and, in the name of the Lord, I fear them not, were they twice as little as you say they are, and twice as numerous. I trust in God I shall never be so fond of music as to go to hell after an ass, for all the tunes that he or they can play.>>-Bruce. These very little people, according to Thevenot, are to be great drinkers, and will drink the sea dry. Note 2, page 104, col. 2. In the mild lustre, etc. be found in D'Herbelot, and in Sale's notes to the Koran. The story of Haruth and Maruth, as in the Poem, may Of the different accounts, I have preferred that which makes Zohara originally a woman, and metamorphoses her into the planet Venus, to that which says the planet Venus descended as Zohara to tempt the Angels. The Arabians have so childish a love of rhyme, that when two names are usually coupled, they make them jingle, as in the case of Haruth and Maruth. Thus they call Cain and Abel, Abel and Kabel. I am informed that the Koran is crowded with rhymes, more particularly at the conclusion of the chapters. Note 3, page 104, col. 2. A previous price, the knowledge of the name Of God.―― The Ism-Ablah-The Science of the Name of God. They pretend that God is the lock of this science, and Mahommed the key; that consequently none but Mahommedans can attain it; that it discovers what passes in distant countries; that it familiarises the possessors The Paper is signed B. and is perhaps by Sir Richard with the Genii, who are at the command of the initiated, Blackmore. BOOK IV. Note 1, page 104, col. 1. How great our fathers were, how little we. The Mussulmans are immutably prepossessed, that as the Earth approaches its dissolution, its sons and daughters gradually decrease in their dimensions. As for Dagjial, they say, he will find the race of mankind dwindled into such diminutive pigmies, that their habitations in cities, and all the best towns, will be of no other fabric than the shoes and slippers made in these present ages, placed in rank and file, in seemly and regular order; allowing one pair for two round families.-Morgan's Hist. of Algiers. ་་ The Cady then asked me, «If I knew when Hagiuge was to come?»> «I have no wish to know any thing about him,» said I; «I hope those days are far off, and will not happen in my time.»> « What do your books say concerning him?» says he, affecting a look of great wisdom. «Do they agree with ours?»> << I don't know that,» said I, « till I hear what is written in your books.» Hagiuge Magiuge,» says he, « are little people not so big as bees, or like the zimb, or fly of Sennaar, that came in great swarms out of the earth, aye, in multitudes that cannot be counted; two of their chiefs are to ride upon an ass, and every hair of that ass is to be a pipe, and every pipe is to play a different kind of music, and and who instruct them; that it places the winds and the seasons at their disposal; that it heals the bite of serpents, the lame, the maimed, and the blind. They say, that some of their greatest Saints, such as Abdulkadir, Cheilani of Bagdad, and Ibn Alwan, who resided in the south of Yemen, were so far advanced in this science by their devotion, that they said their prayers every noon in the Kaba of Mecca, and were not absent from their own houses any other part of the day. A merchant of Mecca, who had learnt it in all its forms from Mahommed el Dsjanâdsjeni (at present so famous in that city), pretended that he himself being in danger of perishing at sea, had fastened a billet to the mast with the usual ceremonies, and that immediately the tempest ceased. He showed me, at l'ombay, but at a distance, a book which contained all sorts of figures and mathematical tables, with instructions how to arrange the billets, and the appropriate prayers for every circumstance. But he would neither suffer me to touch the book, nor copy the title. There are some Mahommedans who shut themselves up in a dark place without eating and drinking for a long time, and there with a loud voice repeat certain short prayers till they faint. When they recover, they pretend to have seen not only a crowd of spirits, but God himself, and even the Devil. But the true initiated in the Ism-Allah do not seek these visions. The secret of discovering hidden treasures belongs also, if I mistake not, to the Ism-Allah.—Niebuhr. Note 4, page 105, col. 1. Huge as the giant race of elder times. One of the Arabs, whom we saw from afar, and who it was mounted upon a camel, seemed higher than a tower, and to be moving in the air; at first this was to me a strange appearance, however it was only the effect of refraction. The Camel which the Arab was upon touching the ground like all others. There was nothing then extraordinary in this phenomenon, and I afterwards saw many appearances exactly similar in the dry countries. -Niebuhr. They surprised you, not indeed by a sudden assault; but they advanced, and the sultry vapour of noon, through which you saw them, increased their magnitude.»-Moallakat. Poem of Hareth. person Note 5, page 105, col. 2. So in his loosen'd cloak The Old Man wrapt himself. One of these Hykes is usually six yards long and five or six feet broad, serving the Arab for a complete dress in the day, and for his bed and covering in the night. It is a loose but troublesome kind of garment, being frequently disconcerted and falling upon the ground, so that the who wears it is every moment obliged to tuck up, and fold it anew about his body. This shews the great use there is for a girdle in attending any active employment; and in consequence thereof, the force of the Scripture injunction alluding thereunto, of having our loyns girded. The method of wearing these garments, with the use they are at other times put to, in serving for coverlets to their beds, should induce us to take the finer sort of them, at least, such as are worn by the ladies and persons of distinction, to be the peplus of the ancients. It is very probable likewise, that the loose folding garment (the Toga I take it to be) of the Romans, was of this kind; for if the drapery of their statues is to instruct us, this is actually no other than what the Arabs appear in, when they are folded up in their Hykes. Instead of the fibula, they join together, with thread or a wooden bodkin, the two upper corners of this garment, which, being first placed over one of their shoulders, they fold the rest of it afterwards round their bodies.-Shaw. their The employment of the women is to prepare wool, spin, and weave in looms hung lengthways in their tents. Those looms are formed by a list of an ell and a half long, to which the threads of the warp are fixed at one end, and at the other on a roller of equal length; the weight of which, being suspended, keeps them stretched. The threads of the warp are so hurg as to be readily intersected. Instead of shuttles, the women pass the thread of the woof through the warp with their fingers, and with an iron comb, having a handle, press the woof to give a body to their cloth. Each piece, of about five ells long, and an ell and a half wide, is called a haick; it receives neither dressing, It milling, nor dyeing, but is immediately fit for use. is the constant dress of the Moors of the country, is without seam, and incapable of varying, according to the caprices of fashion: when dirty, it is washed. The Moor is wrapt up in it day and night; and this haick is the living model of the drapery of the ancients. Chenier. If thou at all take thy neighbour's raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the Sun goeth down. For that is his covering only, it is his raiment for his skin: wherein shall he sleep?-Exodus, xxii, 26, 27. Note 6, page 106, col 2. Consuming still in flames, and still renew'd. Fear the fire, whose fuel is men and stones, prepared for the unbelievers.- Koran, Chap. 2. Verily, those who disbelieve our signs, we will surely cast to be broiled in hell fire; so often as their skins shall be well burned, we will give them other skins in exchange, that they may take the sharper torment. Koran, Chap. 4. Note 7, page 106, col. 2. Their waving wings his sun-shield. The Arabians attribute to Solomon a perpetual enmity and warfare against wicked Genii and Giants; on the subject of his wonder-working Ring, their tales are innumerable. They have even invented a whole race of PreAdamite Solomons, who, according to them, governed the world successively, to the number of 40, or as others affirm, as many as 72. All these made the evi! Genii their unwilling Drudges.-D'Herbelot. Anchieta was going in a canoe to the mouth of the river Aldea, a delightful spot, surrounded with mango trees, and usually abounding with birds called goarazes, that breed there. These birds are about the size of a hen, their colour a rich purple inclining to red. They are white when hatched, and soon become black; but as they grow larger, lose that colour, and take this rich and beautiful purple. Our navigators had reached the place, but when they should have enjoyed the fine prospect which delights all who pass it, the sun was excessively hot; and this eye-pleasure was purchased dearly, when the whole body was in a profuse perspiration, and the rowers were in a fever. Their distress called upon JoHe saw seph, and the remedy was no new one to him. three or four of these birds perched upon a mango, and calling to them in the Brazilian language, which the rowers understood, said, Go you, call your companions, and come to shade these hot servants of the Lord. The birds stretched out their necks as if in obedience, and away they went to seek for others, and in a short time they came flying in the shape of an elegant cloud, and they shadowed the canoe a good league out to sea, till the fresh sea-breeze sprung up. Then he told them they might go about their business; and they separated with a clamour of rude, but joyful sounds, which were only understood by the Author of Nature, who created them. This was a greater miracle than that of the cloud with which God defended his chosen people in the wilderness from the heat of the sun, inasmuch as it was a « Acho que foy more elegant and fanciful parasol. maior portento este que o da nuvem, com que defendeo no deserto a seu Povo mimoso do calor do sol, tanto quanto mais tem de gracioso et aprasivel este chapeo de sol, que aquelle.» deos This was one of Anchieta's common miracles. Jacob Biderman had an epigram upon the subject, quoted in the Jesuit's Life. Hesperii peterent cum barbara littora mystæ, Vidit, et socias, alt, I, quære cohortes Mille supra, et totidem, juxtaque, infraque volabant, Desuper in tostas incubuere rates. Et procal inde diem, et lucem pepulere diei, tues, and large dishes like fish-ponds, 2 and cauldrons standing firm on their trevets. 3 And we said, Work righteousness, O family of David, with thanksgiving; for few of my servants are thankful. And when we had decreed that Solomon should die, nothing discovered his death unto them, except the creeping thing of the earth, which gnawed his staff. 4 And when his body fell down, the Genii plainly perceived, that if they had known that which is secret, they had not continued in a vile punishment.>> Note 9, page 107, col. 2. Oh for the Plover's pleasant cry. « Vida do Veneravel Padre Joseph de Anchieta, da companhia de Jesu, Taumaturgo do Novo Mundo, na Provincia do Brasil. composta pello P. Simam de Vas-ful variety of the plover.-Niebuhr. concellos, da mesma companhia.»-Lisboa. 1672. In places where there was water, we found a beauti The Jesuits probably stole this miracle from the Arabian story of Solomon; not that they are by any means deficient in invention; but they cannot be suspected of ignorance. In a very old book, the Margarita Philosophica, is an account of a parasol more convenient, though not in so elegant a taste, as that of the wonder-working Anchieta. There is said to be a nation of one-legged men ; and one of these unipeds is represented in a print, lying on his back, under the shade of his own great foot. It is probably a classical lie. The most quaint account of Solomon's wisdom is in Du Bartas. Hee knowes. Whether the Heavens sweet-sweating kisse appear He knowes why the Earth's immoveable and round, Note 8, page 106, col. 2. He rode the wind, etc. «And we made the wind subject unto Solomon; it blew in the morning for a month, and in the evening for a month. And we made a fountain of molten brass to flow for him. And some of the Genii were obliged to work in his presence, by the will of his Lord; and whoever of them turned aside from our command, we will cause him to taste the pain of hell-fire. 3 They made for him whatever he pleased, of palaces and sta 'They say that 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 on, 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, wheresoever 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. A fountain of molten brass. This fountain, they say, was in Yeman, and flowed three days in a month. We will cause him to taste the pain of bell-fire; or, as some expound the words, we caused him to taste the pain of burning; by which they understand the correction the disobedient Genii received at the hands of the Angel set over them, who whipped them with a whip of fire, Note 10, page 107, col. 2. Oh for the camel-driver's song, The camels of the hot countries are not fastened one to the tail of the other as in cold climates, but suffered to go at their will like herds of cows. The camel-driver follows singing, and from time to time giving a sudden whistle. The louder he sings and whistles, the faster the camels go, and they stop as soon as he ceases to sing. The camel-drivers, to relieve each other, sing for half an hour on what they can find, they amuse alternately; and when they wish their beasts to browse themselves by smoking a pipe; after which, beginning again to sing, the camels immediately proceed.-Ta vernier. Note 11, page 108, col. 1. At four in the afternoon we had an unexpected entertainment, which filled our hearts with a very shortlived joy. The whole plain before us seemed thick covered with green grass and yellow daisies. We advanced to the place with as much speed as our lame condition would suffer us; but how terrible was our Statues. Some suppose these were images of the Angels and Prophets, and that the making of them was not forbidden, or else that they were not such images as were forbidden by the law. Some say these Spirits made him two lions, which were placed at the foot of his throne, and two eagles, which were set above it; and that when he mounted it, the lions stretched out their paws, and when he sat down, the eagles shaded him with their wings. Dishes like fish-ponds; being so monstrously large, that a thousand men might eat out of each of them at once. 3 And cauldrons standing firm on their trevets. These cauldrons, they say, were cut out of the mountains of Yeman, and were so vastly big, that they could not be moved; and people went up to them by steps. 4 Nothing discovered his death but the creeping thing of the earth, which gnawed his staff.-The commentators, to explain this passage, tell us, that David, having laid the foundations of the temple of Jerusalem, which was to be in lieu of the tabernacle of Moses, when he died, left it to be finished by his son Solomon, who employed the Genii in the work: that Solomon, before the edifice was completed, perceiving his end drew nigh, begged of God, that his death might be concealed from the Genii, till they had entirely finished it that God therefore so ordered it, that Solomon died as he stood at his prayers, leaning on his staff, which supported the body in that posture a full year; and the Genii, supposing him to be alive, continued their work during that term; at the expiration whereof, the temple being perfectly completed, a worm, which had gotten into the staff, eat it through, and the corpse fell to the ground, and discovered the king's death. Possibly this fable of the temple being built by Genii, and not by men, might take its rise from what is mentioned in Scripture, that the house was built of stone, made ready before it was brought thither; so that there was neither hammer nor axe, nor tool of iron heard in the house, while it was building. disappointment, when we found the whole of that verdure to consist in senna and coloquintida, the most nauseous of plants, and the most incapable of being substituted as food for man or beast!-Bruce. Note 12, page 108, col. 1. Then from his girdle Thalaba took the knife. The girdles of these people are usually of worsted very artfully woven into a variety of figures, and made to wrap several times about their bodies; one end of them, by being doubled and sewn along the edges, serves them for a purse, agreeable to the acceptation of the word Zon in the Holy Scriptures: the Turks and Arabs make a further use of their girdles, by fixing their knives and poniards in them; whilst the Hojias, i. e. the writers and secretaries, are distinguished by having an inkhorn, the badge of their office, suspended in the like situation.-Shaw. Note 13, page 108, col. 1. Across the Camel's throat. On the road we passed the skeleton of a camel, which now and then happens in the desert. These are poor ereatures that have perished with fatigue: for those which are killed for the sustenance of the Arabs, are carried away, bones and altogether. Of the hides are made the soles of the slippers which are worn in Egypt, without any dressing, but what the sun can give thein. The circumstances of this animal's death, when his strength fails him on the road, have something in them affecting to humanity. Such are his patience and perseverance, that he pursues his journey without flagging, as long as he has power to support its weight; and such are his fortitude and spirit, that he will never give out, until nature sinks beneath the complicated ills which press upon him. Then, and then only, will he resign his burden and body to the ground. Nor stripes, nor caresses, nor food, nor rest, will make him rise again! His vigour is exhausted, and life ebbs out apace! This the Arabs are very sensible of, and kindly plunge a sword into the breast of the dying beast, to shorten his pangs. Even the Arab feels remorse when he commits this deed; his hardened heart is moved at the loss of a faithful servant.-Eyles Irwin. In the Monthly Magazine for January 1800, is a letter from Professor Heering recommending the introduction of these animals at the Cape; but the camel is made only for level countries. «The animal is very ill qualified to travel upon the snow or wet ground; the breadth in which they carry their legs, when they slip, often occasions their splitting themselves; so that when they fall with great burdens, they seldom rise again.» -Jonas Hanway. The African Arabs say, if one should put the question, « which is best for you, O Camel, to go up hill or down?» he will make answer, «God's curse light on 'em both, wheresoever they are to be met with.»--Morgan's Hist. of Algiers. No creature seems so peculiarly fitted to the climate in which it exists. We cannot doubt the nature of the one has been adapted to that of the other by some disposing intelligence. Designing the Camel to dwell in a country where he can find little nourishment, nature has been sparing of her materials in the whole of his formation. She has not bestowed upon him the plump tleshiness of the ox, horse, or elephant; but limiting herself to what is strictly necessary, she has given him a small head without ears, at the end of a long neck without flesh. She has taken from his legs and thighs every muscle not immediately requisite for motion: and, in short, has bestowed on his withered body only the vessels and tendons necessary to connect his frame together. She has furnished him with a strong jaw, that he may grind the hardest aliments; but lest he should consume too much, she has contracted his stomach, and obliged him to chew the cud. She has lined his foot with a lump of flesh, which, sliding in the mud, and being no way adapted for climbing, fits him only for a dry, level, and sandy soil, like that of Arabia. She has evidently destined him likewise to slavery, by refusing him every sort of defence against his enemies. Destitute of the horns of the bull, the hoofs of the horse, the tooth of the elephant, and the swiftness of the stag, how can the Camel resist or avoid the attacks of the lion, the tiger, or even the wolf? To preserve the species, therefore, nature has concealed him in the upon depths of the vast deserts, where the want of vegetables can attract no game, and whence the want of game repels every voracious animal. Tyranny must have expelled man from the habitable parts of the earth, before the Camel could have lost his liberty. Become domestic, he has rendered habitable the most barren soil the world contains. He alone supplies all his master's wants. The milk of the Camel nourishes the family of the Arab, under the various forms of curds, cheese, and butter; and they often feed his flesh. Slippers and harness are made of his skin, and tents and clothing of his hair. Heavy burthens are transported by his means; and when the earth denies forage to the horse, so valuable to the Bedouin, the she-camel supplies that deficiency by her milk, at no other cost, for so many advantages, than a few stalks of brambles or wormwood, and pounded date kernels. So great is the importance of the Camel to the desert, that were it deprived of that usefu! animal, it must infallibly lose every inhabitant.-Volney. Note 14, page 108, col. 1. Of distant waters, etc, Where any part of these Deserts is sandy and level, the horizon is as fit for astronomical observations as the sea, and appears, at a small distance, to be no less It was likewise equally surprisa collection of water. ing to observe, in what an extraordinary manner every object appeared to be magnified within it; insomuch, that a shrub seemed as big as a tree, and a flock of Achbobbas might be mistaken for a caravan of Camels. This seeming collection of water always advances about a quarter of a mile before us, whilst the intermediate space appears to be in one continued glow, occasioned by the quivering undulating motion of that quick succession of vapours and exhalations, which are extracted by the powerful influence of the sun.—Shaw, In the Bahar Danush is a metaphor drawn from this optical deception. «It is the aucient custom of Fortune, and time has long established the habit, that she at first bewilders the thirsty travellers in the path of desire, by the misty vapour of disappointment; but when their distress and misery has reached extremity, suddenly relieving them from the dark windings of confusion and error, she conducts them to the fountains of enjoyment.»> |