Ah! happy! but of life to lose the worst! Vainly thou heap'st the dust upon thy head, Thy daughter's dead! Hope of thine age, thy twilight's lonely beam, The star hath set that shone on Helle's stream. What quench'd its ray?--the blood that thou hast shed! Hark! to the hurried question of despair: 'Where is my child?"—an echo answers-" Where?" 43 XXVIII. Within the place of thousand tombs That shine beneath, while dark above Its lonely lustre, meek and pale: So white-so faint-the slightest gale Might whirl the leaves on high; And yet, though storms and blight assail, And hands more rude than wintry sky May wring it from the stem-in vainTo-morrow sees it bloom again! The stalk some spirit gently rears, And wuers with celestial tears; For wall may maids of Helle deem That this can be no earthly flower, Which mocks the tempest's withering hour, And buds unshelter'd by a bower; Nor droops, though spring refuse her shower, To it the livelong night there sings But soft as harp that Houri strings It were the bulbul; but his throat, Though mournful, pours not such a strain : As if they loved in vain! And yet so sweet the tears they shed And longer yet would weep and wake, But when the day-blush bursts from high And some have been who could believe Yet harsh be they that blame) NOTES TO THE BRIDE OF ABYDOS. Note 1. Page 93 line 8. Wax faint o'er the gardens of Gul in her bloom. “Gul," the rose. Note 2. Page 93, line 17. Can he smile on such deeds as his children have done? "Souls made of fire, and children of the sun, Young's Revenge. Note 3. Page 94, line 53. With Mejnoun's tale, or Sadi's song. Note 6. Page 95, line 22. The mind, the music breathing from her face. This expression has met with objections. I will not refer to "him who hath not music in his soul," but merely request the reader to recollect, for ten seconds, the features of the woman whom he believes to be the Mejnoun and Leila, the Romeo and Juliet of the most beautiful; and if he then does not comprehend East. Sadi, the inoral poet of Persia. Note 4. Page 94, line 54. Till I, who heard the deep tambour. Tambour, Turkish drum, which sounds at noun, and twilight. sunrise, fully what is feebly expressed in the above line, I shall be sorry for us both. For an eloquent passage in the latest work of the first female writer of this, perhaps of parison excited by that analogy,) between "painting any age, on the analogy (and the immediate comand music," see vol. iii. cap. 10. DE L'ALLEMAGNE And is not this connexion still stronger with the original | than the copy? With the colouring of nature than of art? After all, this is rather to be felt than described; stil: I think there are some who will understand it, at .east they would have done, had they beheld the countenance whose speaking harmony suggested the idea; for this passage is not drawn from imagination, but memory, that mirror which affliction dashes to the earth, and looking down upon the fragments, only beholds the reflection multiplied. Note 7. Page 95, line 44 But yet the line of Carasman. Carasman Oglou, or Kara Osman Oglou, is the principal landholder in Turkey; he governs Magnesia: those who, by a kind of feudal tenure, possess land on condition of service, are called Timarits: they serve as Spahis, according to the extent of territory, and bring a certain number into the field, generally cavalry. Note 8. Page 95, line 56. Note 17. Page 95, line 131. A message from the Bulbul bears. It has been much doubted whether the notes of this "Lover of the rose," are sad or merry; and Mr. Fox s remarks on the subject have provoked some learned controversy as to the opinions of the ancients on the subject. I dare not venture a conjecture or the point, though a little inclined to the "errare mallem," &c. if Mr. Fox was mistaken. Note 18. Page 96, line 29. Note 19. Page 96, line 64. See Note 20. Page 96, line 80. Note 21. Page 96, line 81. And teach the messenger what fate. When a Pacha is sufficiently strong to resist, the a single messenger, who is always the first bearer of the order for his death, is strangled instead, and sometimes five or six, one after the other, on the same errand, by command of the refractory patient; if, on the Turks of Egripo, the Jews of Salonica, and the the contrary, he is weak or loyal, he bows, kisses the Greeks of Athens, are the worst of their respective Sultan's respectable signature, and is bowstrung with great complacency. In 1810, several of these presents were exhibited in the niche of the Seraglio gate; among others, the head of the Pacha of Bagdat, a brave young man, cut off by treachery, after a despe rate resistance. Resign'd his gem-adorn'd chibouque. Chibolique, the Turkish pipe, of which the amber mouth-piece and sometimes the ball which contains the leaf, is adorned with precious stones, if in posses sion of the wealthier orders. Note 11. Page 95, line 78. Mangrabee, Moorish mercenaries. Note 12. Page 95, line 79. Deli, bravos who form the forlorn hope of the cavalry, j and always begin the action. Note 13. Page 95, line 91. races. Note 22. Page 97, line 9. Ah! yonder see the Tchocadar. "Tchocadar"-one of the attendants who precedes a man of authority. Note 23. Page 97, line 79. Thine own "broad Hellespont" still dashes. The wrangling about this epithet, "the broad Hellespont" or the "boundless Hellespont," whether it means one or the other, or what it means at all, has been beyond all possibility of detail. I have even heard it disputed on the spot; anu, not foreseeing a speedy conclusion to the controversy, amused myself with swimming across it in the mean time, and probably may again, before the point is settled. Indeed the question as to the truth of "the tale of Troy divine" still conti nues, much of it resting upon the talismanic word antipos:" probably Homer had the same notion of distance that a coquette has of time, and when he talks of boundless, means half a mile; as the latter, by a like figure, when she says eternal attachment, simply spe cifies three weeks. 66 Note 24. Page 97, line 90. Which Ammon's son ran proudly round. Before his Persian invasion, and crowned the altar with laurel, &c. He was afterwards imitated by Caracalla in his race. It is believed that the last also A twisted fold of felt is used for scimitar practice poisoned a friend, named Festus, for the sake of new by the Turks, and few but Mussulman arms can cut Patroclan games. I have seen the sheep feeding on through it at a single stroke: sometimes a tough turban the tombs of sietes and Antilochus; the first is in is used for the same purpose. The jerreed is a game of the centre of the plain. blunt javelins, and graceful. Note 14. Page 95, line 91. Note 25. Page 97, line 109. O'er which her fairy fingers ran. "Ollalis," Alla il Allah, "Leilies," as the Spanish which is slight, but not disagreeable. When rubbed, the amber is susceptible of a perfume, poets call them, the sound is Ollah; a cry of which the Turks, for a silent people, are somewhat profuse, particularly during the jerreed, or in the chase, but mostly in battle. Their animation in the field, and gravity in the chamber, with their pipes and comboloios form an amusing contrast. 44 finest Note 15. Page 95, line 113. The Persian Atar-gul's perfume. Note 26. Page 97, line 112. Her mother's sainted amulet. The belief in amulets engraved on gems, or inclosed in gold boxes, containing scraps from the Koran, worn round the neck, wrist, or arm, is still universal in the East. The Koorsee (throne) verse in the second chap of the Koran describes the attributes of the most High, as the most esteemed and sublime of all sentences. Note 27. Page 97, line 115. Atar-gul," ottar of roses. The Persian is the and is engraved in this manner, and worn by the pious, Note 16. Page 95, line 115. The pictured roof and marble floor. And by her Comboloio lies. The ceiling and wainscots, or rather walls, of the "Comboloio"-a Turkish rosary. The MSS. par Mussulman apartments are generally painted, in great ticularly those of the Persians, are richly adorned and houses, with one eternal and highly coloured view of illuminated. The Greek females are kept in utter Constantinople, wherein the principal feature is a ignorance: but many of the Turkish girls are highly noble contempt of perspective; below, armis, scimi- accomplished, though not actually qualified for & Chris tars, &c. are in general fancifully and not inelegantly tian coterie; perhaps some of our own “blues' nighư disposed. not be the worse for bleaching. Note 28. Page 98, line 64. In him was some young Galiongee. "Galiongee"-or Galiongi, a sailor, that is, a Turktsh sailor; the Greeks navigate, the Turks work the guns. Their dress is picturesque; and I have seen the Captain Pacha more than once wearing it as a kind of incog. Their legs, however, are generally naked. The buskins described in the text as sheathed behind with silver, are those of an Arnaut robber, who was my host, (he had quitted the profession,) at his Pyrgo, near Gastouni in the Morea; they were plated in scales one over the other, like the back of an armadillo. Note 29. Page 98, line 103. So may the Koran verse display'd. Note 30. Page 98, line 118. It is to be observed, that every allusion to any thing or personage in the Old Testament, such as the Ark, or Cain, is equally the privilege of Mussulinan and Jew: indeed, the former profess to be much better acquainted with the lives, true and fabulous, of the patriarchs, than is warranted by our own sacred writ, and not content with Adam, they have a biography of PreAdamites. Solomon is the monarch of all necromancy, and Moses a prophet inferior only to Christ and Mahomet. Zuleika is the Persian name of Potiphar's. wife, and her amour with Joseph constitutes one of the finest poems in the language. It is therefore no violation of costume to put the names of Cain, or Noah, into the mouth of a Moslem. Note 35. Page 100, line 22. The last of Lambro's patriots there. Lambro Canzani, a Greek, famous for hia efforts ir 1789-90 for the independence of his country; abardoned by the Russians, he became a pirate, and the Archipelago was the scene of his enterprises. He is said to be still alive at Petersburgh. He and Riga are the two most celebrated of the Greek revolutionists. Note 36. Page 100, line 26. To snatch the Rayahs from their fate. "Rayahs" all who pay the capitation tax, called the "Haraich." Note 37. Page 100, line 30. Ay! let me like the ocean-patriarch roam. Note 38. Page 100, line 31. Or only know on land the Tartar's home. The wandering life of the Arabs, Tartars, and Turko mans, will be found well detailed in any book of Eastern travels. That it possesses a charm peculiar to itself cannot be denied. A young French renegado confessed to Chateaubriand, that he never found himself alone, galloping in the desert, without a sensation approaching to rapture, which was indescribable. Note 39. Page 100, line 51. Blooming as Aden in its earliest hour. Note 40. Page 101, line 116. A turban is carved in stone above the graves of men only. Note 41. Page 101, line 125. The loud Wul-wulleh warn his distant ear. The death-song of the Turkish women. The "silent slaves" are the men whose notions of decorum forbid complaint in public. Note 42. Page 102, line 23. "Where is my child?"-an echo answers-" Where?" friends of my youth, where are they?' and an Echo "I came to the place of my birth and cried, the answered, 'Where are they?'" From an Arabic MS. The above quotation (from which the idea in the text is taken) must be already familiar to every reader Note 31. Page 98, line 134. And Paswan's rebel hordes attest. Paswan Oglou, the rebel of Widin, who for the last years of his life, set the whole power of the Porte at-it is given in the first annotation, page 67, of "the defiance. Note 32. Page 99, line 11. They gave their horsetails to the wind. Horsetail, the standard of a Pacha. Note 33. Page 99, line 24. He drank one draught, nor needed more. Giaffir, Pacha of Argyro Castro, or Scutari, I am not sure which, was actually taken off by the Albanian Ali, in the manner described in the text. Ali Pacha, while I was in the country, married the daughter of his victim, some years after the event had taken place, at a bath in Sophia, or Adrianople. The poison was mixed in the cup of coffee, which is presented before the sherbet by the bath-keeper, after dressing. Note 34. Page 99, line 136. I sought by turns and saw them all. Pleasures of Memory" a poem so well known as to render a reference almost superfluous; but to whose pages all will be delighted to recur. Note 43. Page 102, line 72. Into Zuleika's name. "And airy tongues that syllable men's names." MILTON. For a belief that the souls of the dead inhabit the form of birds, we need not travel to the east. Lord Lyttleton's ghost story, the belief of the Dutchess of Kendal that George I. flew into her window in the shape of a raven, (see Orford's Reminiscences,) and many other instances, bring this superstition nearer home. The most singular was the whim of a Worcester lady, who, believing her daughter to exist in the shape of a singing bird, literally furnished her pew in the Cathedral with cages-full of the kind; and as she was rich, and a benefactress in beautifying the church The Turkish notions of almost all islands are con- no objection was made to her harmless folly. For the fined to the Archipelago, the sea alluded to. anecdote see Orford's Letters. |