66 "Have risen and fallen asleep, "And I remain the same! My garment hath not waxed old, "Nor the sole of my shoe hath worn. 44. "I dare not breathe the prayer to die, "But when it is thy will, "But when I have aton'd "For mine iniquities, "And sufferings have made pure "My soul with sin defil'd, "Release me in thine own good time, .. "I will not cease to praise thee, O my God!" 45. Silence ensued awhile, Then Zeinab answer'd him; "Blessed art thou, O Aswad! for the Lord, "Who sav'd thy soul from Hell, "Will call thee to him in his own good time. "And would that when my heart "Breath'd up the wish to die, "Azrael might visit me! "Then would I follow where my babes are gone, "And join Hodeirah now!" 46. She ceas'd, and the rushing of wings Was heard in the stillness of night, And Azrael, the Death-Angel, stood before them. His countenance was dark, Solemn, but not severe, It awed, but struck no terror to the heart. "Zeinab, thy wish is heard! "Aswad, thy hour is come!" They fell upon the ground and blest the voice, And Azrael from his sword Let fall the drops of bitterness and death. 47. "Me too! me too!" young Thalaba exclaim'd, As wild with grief he kiss'd His Mother's livid hand, His Mother's quivering lips, "Oh Angel! take me too!" 48. "Son of Hodeirah!" the Death-Angel said, "It is not yet the hour. "Son of Hodeirah, thou art chosen forth "To do the will of Heaven; "To avenge thy Father's death, "To work the mightiest enterprize "Live! and REMEMBER DESTINY "HATH MARK'D THEE FROM MANKIND!" 49. He ceas'd, and he was gone. Young Thalaba look'd round,.. The Palace and the groves were seen no more, He stood amid the Wilderness, alone. NOTES TO BOOK I. Like the round ocean, girdled with the sky. - P. Henry More had a similar picture in his mind when he wrote of, Vast plains with lowly cottages forlorn, Saw Zeinab in her bliss. - P. 4. It may be worth mentioning, that, according to Pietro della Valle, this is the name of which the Latins have made Zenobia. He gave, he takes away! — P. 5. The Lord gave, and the Lord taketh away; blessed be the name of the Lord. JOB, i. 21. I have placed a scripture phrase in the mouth of a Mahommedan; but it is a saying of Job, and there can be no impropriety in making a modern Arab speak like an ancient one. Resignation is particularly inculcated by Mahommed, and of all his precepts it is that which his followers have best observed: it is even the vice of the East. It had been easy to have made Zeinab speak from the Koran, if the tame language of the Koran could be remembered by the few who have toiled through its dull tautology. I thought it better to express a feeling of religion in that language with which our religious ideas are connected. La mer n'est plus qu'un cercle aux yeux des Matelots, Ou le Ciel forme un dôme appuyé sur les flots. Le Nouveau Monde, par M. Le Suire. Here studding azure tablatures. - P. 9. The magnificent Mosque at Tauris is faced with varnished bricks, of various colours, like most fine buildings in Persia, says Tavernier. One of its domes is covered with white flower-work upon a green ground; the other has a black ground, spotted with white stars. Gilding is also common upon Oriental buildings. At Boghar in Bactria our old traveller Jenkinson * 66 saw many houses, temples, and monuments of stone, sumptuously builded and gilt." In Pegu "they consume about their Varely or idol houses great store of leafe-gold, for that they overlay all the tops of the houses with gold, and some of them are covered with gold from the top to the foote; in covering whereof there is a great store of gold spent, for that every ten years they new overlay them with gold, from the top to the foote, so that with this vanitie they spend great aboundance of golde. For every ten years the rain doth consume the gold from these houses." Cæsar Frederick, in Hakluyt. * Hakluyt. |