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Note 6, page 132, col. 2. Fatherly fear and love. He read the stars, etc. It is well known how much the Orientalists are addicted to this pretended science. There is a curious instance of public foily in Sir John Chardin's Travels.

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Sephie Mirza was born in the year of the Egire 1057. For the superstition of the Persians will not let us know the month or the day. Their addiction to astroJogy is such, that they carefully conceal the moments of their princes' birth, to prevent the casting their nativities, where they might meet perhaps with something which they should be unwilling to know.»

At the coronation of this prince, two astrologers were to be present, with an astrolabe in their hands, to take the fortunate hour, as they term it, and observe the lucky moments that a happy constellation should point out for proceedings of that importance.

nets, and their several and necessary aspects. The same method he observed in the head, neck, shoulders, thighs, and legs, all which were fashioned at several times, and being put and fastened together in the form of a man, had the faculty to reveal to the said Albertus the solutions of all his principal difficulties. To which they add (that nothing be lost of the story of the Statue,) that it was battered to pieces by St Thomas, merely because he could not endure its excess of prating.

But, to give a more rational account of this Androides of Albertus, as also of all these miraculous heads, I conceive the original of this fable may well be deduced from the Teraph of the Hebrews, by which, as Mr Selden affirms, many are of opinion, that we must understand what is said in Genesis concerning Laban's Gods, and in the first book of Kings, concerning the image which Michol put into the bed in David's place. For Sephie-Mirza having by debauchery materially injured R. Eleazar holds that it was made of the head of a male his health, the chief physician was greatly alarmed, « in child, the first-born, and that dead-born, under whose regard his life depended upon the king's; or if his life tongue they applied a lamen of gold, whereon were enwere spared, yet he was sure to lose his estate and his graved the characters and inscriptions of certain planets, liberty, as happens to all those who attend the Asiatic which the Jews superstitiously wandered up and down with, instead of the Urim and Thummim, or the Ephod Sovereigns, when they die under their care. The queenmother too accused him of treason or ignorance, be- of the high-priest. And that this original is true and well deduced, there is a manifest indicium, in that lieving that since he was her son's physician, he was obliged to cure him. This made the physician at his Henry D'Assia, and Bartholomæus Sibillus affirm, that wit's end, so that all his receipts failing him, he be- the Androides of Albertus, and the head made by Virthought himself of one that was peculiarly his own in-gil, were composed of flesh and bone, yet not by nature, but by art. But this being judged impossible by movention, and which few physicians would ever have found out, as not being to be met with neither in Galendern authors, and the vertue of images, annulets, and nor Hippocrates. What does he then do, but out of an extraordinary fetch of his wit, he begins to lay the fault upon the stars and the king's astrologers, crying out, that they were altogether in the wrong. That if the king lay in a languishing condition, and could not recover his health, it was because they had failed to observe the happy hour, or the aspect of a fortunate constellation at the time of his coronation.» The stratagem succeeded, the king was re-crowned, and by the new name of Solyman!-Chardin.

Note 7, page 133, col. 1.

It was a brazen Image, every limb, etc.

We have now to refute their error, who are persuaded that brazen heads, made under certain constellations, may give answers, and be as it were guides and counsellors, upon all occasions, to those that had them in their possession. Among these is one Yepes, who affirms, that Henry de Villena made such a one at Madrid, broken to pieces afterwards by order of John II, king of Castile. The same thing is affirmed by Bartholomew Sibillus, and the author of the Image of the World, of Virgil; by William of Malmsbury, of Sylvester; by John Gower, of Robert of Lincoln; by the common people of England, of Roger Bacon; and by Tostatus, bishop of Avila, George of Venice, Delrio, Sibillus, Raguseus, Delancre, and others, too many to mention, of Albertus Magnus; who, as the most expert, had made an entire man of the same metal, and had spent thirty years without any interruption in forming him under several aspects and constellations. For example, he formed the eyes, according to the said Tostatus, in his Commentaries upon Exodus, when the sun was in a sign of the Zodiac, correspondent to that part, casting them out of divers metals mixt together, and marked with the characters of the same signs and pla

planetary Sigills, being in great reputation, men have thought ever since, (taking their opinion from TrismeCistus affirming in his Asclepion, that of the gods, some were made by the Sovereign God, and others by men, who, by some art, had the power to unite the invisible spirits to things visible and corporeal, as is explained at large by St Augustine,) that such figures were made of copper or some other metal, whereon men had wrought under some favourable aspects of Heaven and the planets.

My design is not absolutely to deny that he might compose some head or statue of man, like that of Memnon, from which proceeded a small sound and pleasant noise, when the rising sun came, by his heat to rarify and force out, by certain small conduits, the air which, in the cold of the night, was condensed within it. Or haply, they might be like those statues of Boetius, whereof Cassiodorus speaking, said, Metalla mugiunt Diomedis in ære grues buccinant, æneus anguis insibilat, aves simulatæ fritinniunt, et quæ propriam vocem nesciunt, ab æra dulcedinem probantur emittere cantilena; for such I doubt not but may be made by the help of that part of natural magic which depends on the mathematics.- Davies's History of Magic.

Note 8, page 134, col. 1.

And, on the everlasting Table there, etc.

This table is suspended in the Seventh Heaven, and guarded from the Demons, lest they should change or corrupt any thing thereon. Its length is so great as is the space between heaven and earth, its breadth equal to the distance from the east to the west, and it is made of one pearl. The divine pen was created by the finger of God; that also is of pearls, and of such length and breadth, that a swift horse could scarcely gallop round it in five hundred years. It is so endowed, that, self

moved, it writes all things, past, present, and to come. Light is its ink, and the language which it uses, only the Angel Seraphael understands.-Maracci.

Note 9, page 134, col. 1.

The yearly scroll of fate, etc.

They celebrate the night Leileth-ul-beraeth, on the 15th of the month of Schabann, with great apprehension and terror, because they consider it as the tremendous night on which the angels Kiramenn-keatibinn, placed on each side of mankind, to write down their good and bad actions, deliver up their books, and receive fresh ones for the continuance of the same em

ployment. It is believed also, that on that night, the archangel Azrail, the angel of death, gives up also his records, and receives another book, in which are written the names of all those destined to die in the following year.-D'Ohsson.

Note 10, page 134, col. 1.

Her leaf hath withered on the Tree of Life.

each individual life is run out and expired, is to look upon the branches of that vast tree thou there beholdest, upon the leaves whereof are written the names of all mortals, every one having his peculiar leaf; there, forty days before the time of any person's life is expired, his respective leaf beginning to fade, wither, and grow dry, and the letters of his name to disappear; at the end of the fortieth day they are quite blotted out, and the leaf falleth to the ground, by which Azarael certainly knoweth that the breath of its owner is ready to leave the body, and hasteneth away to take possession of the departing soul.

The size or stature of this formidable angel was so incomprehensibly stupendous, so unmeasurably great, that if this earthly globe of ours, with all that is thereon contained, were to be placed in the palm of his hand, it would seem no more than one single grain of mustard-seed (though the smallest of all seeds) would do if laid upon the surface of the earth.-Rabadan.

Note 11, page 134, col. 2.

In the balance of thy trial must be weigh'd! The balance of the dead is an article in almost every creed. Mahommed borrowed it from the Persians. I know not from whence the Monks introduced it; probably they were ignorant enough to have invented the obvious fiction.

Here, in the Fourth Heaven, I beheld a most prodigious angel, of an admirable presence and aspect, in whose awful countenance there appeared neither mirth nor sorrow, but an undescribable mixture of both. He neither smiled in my face, nor did he, indeed, scarce turn his eyes towards me to look upon me, as all the rest did, yet he returned my salutation after a very courteous, obliging manner, and said, « Welcome to these mansions, O Mahomet; thou art the person whom the Almighty hath endowed with all the united perfec-devil and his angels. At the feet of the devil, a burning tions of nature; and upon whom he, of his immense goodness, hath been pleased to bestow the utmost of his divine graces.»

There stood before him a most beautiful table, of a vast maguitude and extent, written all over, almost from the top to the bottom, in a very close, and scarce distinguishable character, upon which written table his eyes were continually fixed; and so exceedingly intent he was upon that his occupation, that, though I stood steadfastly observing his countenance, I could not perceive his eye-lids once to move. Casting my eyes towards the left side of him, I beheld a prodigious large shady tree, the leaves where of were as innumerable as the sands of the ocean, and upon every one of which were certain characters inscribed. Being extremely desirous of knowing the secret of this wonderful mystery, I enquired of Gabriel the meaning of what I was examining with my eyes with so anxious a curiosity. The obliging angel, to satisfy my longing, said, That person, concerning whom thou art so very inquisitive, is the redoubtable Azarael, the Angel of Death, who was never yet known either to laugh, smile, or be merry; for, depend upon it, my beloved Mahomet, had he been capable of smiling, or looking pleasant upon any creature in nature, it would assuredly have been upon thee alone. This table, upon which thou beholdest him so attentively fixing his looks, is called Et Lough Et Mahofoud, and is the register upon which are engraven the names of every individual soul breathing; and, notwithstanding the inspection of that register taketh up the greatest part of his time, yet he more particularly looketh it all over five times a-day, which are at those very same instants wherein the true believers are obliged to offer up their adorations to our Omnipotent Lord. The means whereby he understandeth when the thread of

In the Vision of Thurcillus, the ceremony is accurately described. «At the end of the north wall, within the church, sate St Paul, and opposite him, without, was the

pit flamed up, which was the mouth of the pit of hell. A
balance, equally poised, was fixed upon the wall, between
the devil and the apostle, one scale hanging before each.
The apostle had two weights, a greater and a less, all
shining, and like gold, and the devil also had two smoky
and black ones. Therefore, the souls that were all black,
came one after another, with great fear and trembling,
to behold the weighing of their good and evil works;
for these weights weighed the works of all the souls, ac-
cording to the good or evil which they had done. When
the scale inclined to the apostle, he took the soul, and
introduced it through the eastern gate, into the fire of
Purgatory, that there it might expiate its crimes.
when the scale inclined and sunk towards the devil, then
he and his angels snatched the soul, miserably howling
and cursing he father and mother that begot it to eternal
torments, and cast it with laughter and grinning into
the deep and fiery pit which was at the feet of the devil.
Of this balance of good and evil, much may be found
in the writings of the Holy Fathers.»—Matthew Paris.

But

«Concerning the salvation of Charlemagne, Archbishop Turpin, a man of holy life, wrote thus: 'I, Turpin, Archbishop of Rheims, being in my chamber, in the city of Vienna, saying my prayers, saw a legion of deviis in the air, who were making a great noise. I adjured one of them to tell me from whence they came, and wherefore they made so great an uproar. And he replied that they came from Aix la Chapelle, where a great iord had died, and that they were returning in anger, because they had not been able to carry away his soul. I asked him who the great lord was, and why they had not been able to carry away his soul? He replied, That it was Charlemagne, and that Santiago had been greatly against them. And I asked him how Santiago had been against them; and he replied, We were weighing the

good and the evil which he had done in this world, and Santiago brought so much timber, and so many stones from the churches which he had founded in his name, that they greatly over-balanced all his evil works; and so we had no power over his soul. And having said this, the devil disappeared.»>

We must understand from this vision of Archbishop Turpin, that they who build or repair churches in this world, erect resting-places and inus for their salvation. Historia do Imperador Carlos Magno, et dos Doze

Pares de França.

The

Two other corollaries follow from the vision. devil's way home from Aix la Chapelle lay through Vienna; and as churches go by weight, an architect of Sir John Vanbrugh's school should always be employed.

This balance of the dead was an easy and apt metaphor, but clumsily imagined as an actual mode of trial. For take thy ballaunce, if thou be so wise,

And weigh the winde that under heaven doth blow;
Or weigh the light that in the east doth rise:

Or weigh the thought that from man's mind doth flow:
But if the weight of these thou canst not show,
Weigh but one word which from thy lips doth fall.-Spenser.

Note 12, page 134, col. 2.

And Azrael, from the bands of Thalaba, etc. This double meaning is in the spirit of oracular prediction. The classical reader will remember the equivocations of Apollo. The fable of the Young Man and Lion in the Tapestry will be more generally recollected. We have many buildings in England to which this story has been applied. Cooke's Folly, near Bristol, derives its name from a similar tradition.

The History of the Buccaneers affords a remarkable instance of prophecy occasioning its own accomplish

ment.

"Before my first going over into the South-Seas with Captain Sharp (and indeed before any privateers, at least siuce Drake and Oxengham) had Gone that way which we afterwards went, except La Sound, a French captain, who, by captain Wright's instructions, had ventured as far as Cheapo town with a body of men, but was driven back again; I being then on board Captain Coxon, in company with three or four more privateers, about four leagues to the east of Portobel, we took the packets bound thither from Carthagena. We opened a great quantity of the merchants' letters, and found the contents of many of them to be very surprising; the merchants of several parts of Old-Spain thereby informing their correspondents of Panama, and elsewhere, of a certain prophecy that went about Spain that year, the tenor of which was, that there would be English privateers that year in the West-Indies, who would make such great discoveries, as to open a door into the South-Seas, which they supposed was fastest shut; and the letters were accordingly full of cautions to their friends to be very watchful and careful of their coasts.

This door they spake of, we all concluded must be the passage over-land through the country of the Indians of Darien, who were a little before this become our friends, and had lately fallen out with the Spaniards, breaking off the intercourse which for some time they had with them. And upon calling also to mind the frequent invitations we had from those Indians a little before this time to pass through their country, and fall upon the Spaniards in the South-Seas, we from henceforward began to entertain such thoughts in earnest, and soon

came to a resolution to make those attempts which we afterwards did with Captains Sharp, Coxon, etc. So that the taking these letters gave the first life to those bold undertakings; and we took the advantage of the fears the Spaniards were in from that prophecy, or probable conjecture, or whatever it were; for we sealed up most of the letters again, and sent them ashore to Portobel.»-Dampier.

BOOK XI.

Note 1, page 135, col. 2.

Green Warbler of the Bowers of Paradise.

The souls of the blessed are supposed by some of the. Mahommedans to animate green birds in the groves of paradise. Was this opinion invented to conciliate the Pagan Arabs, who believed, that of the blood near the dead person's brain was formed a bird named Hamah, which once in a hundred years visited the sepulchre ?

To this there is an allusion in the Moallakat. « Then I knew with certainty, that, in so fierce a contest with them, many a heavy blow would make the perched birds of the brain fly quickly from. every skull.»

Poem of Antara.

In the Bahar-Danush, parrots are called the greenvested resemblers of Heaven's dwellers. The following passages in the same work may, perhaps, allude to the same superstition, or perhaps are merely metaphorical, in the usual style of its true oriental bombast. «The bird of understanding fled from the nest of my brain.» « My joints and members seemed as if they would separate from each other, and the bird of life would quit the nest of my body.» « The bird of my soul became a captive in the net of her glossy ringlets.»>

I remember in a European Magazine two similar lines by the author of the Lives of the Admirals :

My beating Bosom is a well-wrought cage,

No

Whence that sweet Gold-finch Hope shall ne'er elope! The grave of Francisco Jorge, the Maronite martyr, was visited by two strange birds of unusual size. one knew whence they came. They emblemed, says Vasconcellos, the purity and the indefatigable activity of his soul.

The inhabitants of Otaheite have assigned a less respectable part of the body as the seat of the soul. The disembowelling of the body there, is always performed in great secrecy, and with much religious superstition. The bowels are, by these people, considered as the immediate organs of sensation, where the first impressions are received, and by which all the operations of the mind are carried on: it is therefore natural to conclude, that they may esteem and venerate the intestines, as bearing the greatest affinity to the immortal part. I have frequently held conversations on this subject, with a view to convince them that all intellectual operations were carried on in the head; at which they would generally smile and intimate, that they had frequently seen men recover whose skulls had been fractured, and whose heads had otherways been much injured; but that, in all cases in which the intestines had been wounded, the persons on a certainty died. Other arguments they would also advance in favour of their belief; such as the effect of fear, and other passions, which caused great agitation and uneasiness, and would sometimes produce sickness at the stomach, which they attri

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When Hosein, the son of Ali, was sick of a grievous disorder, he longed for a pomegranate, though that fruit was not then in season. Ali went out, and diligently enquiring, found a single one in the possession of a

Jew.

As he returned with it, a sick man met him, and begged half the pomegranate, saying it would restore his health. Ali him half, and when he had gave eaten it, the man requested he would give him the other half, the sooner to complete his recovery. benignantly complied, returned to his son, and told him what had happened, and Hosein approved what his father had done.

5. The blood of St Januarius at Naples.

These, says Maracci, are miracula perseverantia, permanent miracles; and it cannot be said, as of the Mahommedan ones, that they are tricks of the devil. Note 3, page 136, col. 1.

From the birth-day of the world, ete.

The birth-day of the world was logically ascertained in a provincial council held at Jerusalem, against the Quartodecimans, by command of Pope Victor, about the year 200. Venerable Bede (Comm, de Æquinoct « When the multilern.) supplies the mode of proof. Alitude of priests were assembled together, then Theophy us, the bishop, produced the authority sent unto him by Pope Victor, and explained what had been enjoined him. Then all the bishops made answer, Unless it be first examined how the world was at the beginning, nothing salutary can be ordained respecting the observations of Easter. And they said, What day can we believe to have been the first, except Sunday? And Theo

Immediately behold a miracle! as they were talking together, the door was gently knocked at. He ordered the woman servant to go there, and she found a man, of all men the most beautiful, who had a plate in his hand, covered with green silk, in which were ten pome-phylus said, Prove this which ye say. Then the bishop granates. The woman was astonished at the beauty of the man and of the pomegranates, and she took one of them and hid it, and carried the other nine to Ali, who kissed the present. When he had counted them, he found that one was wanting, and said so to the servant; she confessed that she had taken it on account of its excellence, and Ali gave her her liberty. The pomegranates were from paradise; Hosein was cured of his disease only by their odour, and rose up immediately, recovered, and in full strength.-Maracci.

I suspect, says Maracci, that this is a true miracle, wrought by some Christian saint, and falsely attributed to Ali. However this may be, it does not appear absurd that God should, by some especial favour, reward an act of remarkable charity even in an infidel, as he has sometimes, by a striking chastisement, punished enormous crimes. But the assertion, that the pomegranates were sent from paradise, exposes the fable.

Maracci, after detailing and ridiculing the Mahommedan miracles, contrasts with them, in an appendix, a few of the real and permanent miracles of Christianity, which are proved by the testimony of the whole world. He selects five as examples. 1. The chapel of Loretto, brought by Angels from Nazareth to Illyricum, and from Illyricum to Italy; faithful messengers having been sent to both places, and finding in both its old foundations, in dimensions and materials exactly corresponding.

him.

2. The cross of St Thomas at Meliapor. A Bramin, as the saint was extended upon his cross in prayer, slew On the anniversary of his martyrdom, during the celebration of mass, the cross gradually becomes luminous, till it shines one white glory. At elevating the host, it resumes its natural colour, and sweats blood profusely; in which the faithful dip their clothes, by which many miracles are wrought.

3. Certissimum qui evidentissimum.-At Bari, on the Adriatic, a liquor flows from the bones of St. Nicholas; they call it St Nicholas's manna, which, being preserved in bottles, never corrupts or breeds worms, except the possessor be corrupt himself, and daily it works miracles.

4. At Tolentino in the March of Anconia, the arms of St Nicholas swell with blood, and pour out copious streams, when any great calamity impends over Christendom.

said, According to the authority of the Scriptures, the
evening and the morning were the first day; and, in
like manner, they were the second and the third, and
the fourth and the fifth, and the sixth and the seventh;
and on the seventh day, which was called the Sabbath,
the Lord rested from all his works: therefore, since
Saturday, which is the Sabbath, was the last day, which
but Sunday can have been the first? Then said Theo-
phylus, Lo, ye have proved that Sunday was the first
day; what say ye now concerning the seasons-for
there are four times or seasons in the year, Spring,
Summer, Autumn, and Winter; which of these was
the first? The bishops answered, Spring. And Theo-
phylus said, Prove this which ye say. Then the bi-
shods said, It is written, the earth brought forth grass
and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree
yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind;
but this is in the spring. Then said Theophylus,
When do you believe the beginning of the world to
have been, in the beginning of the season, or in the
middle, or in the end? And the bishops answered, at
the Equinox, on the eighth of the kalends of April.
And Theophylus said, Prove this which ye say.
they answered, It is written, God made the light, and
called the light day, and he made the darkness, and
called the darkness night, and he divided the light and
the darkness into equal parts. Then said Theophylus,
Lo ye have proved the day and the season.-What
think ye now concerning the Moon; was it created
when increasing, or when full, or on the wane?
the bishops answered, At the full. And he said, Prove
this which ye say. Then they answered, God made
two great luminaries, and placed them in the firma-
ment of the Heavens, that they might give light upon
the earth; the greater luminary in the beginning of
the day, the lesser one in the beginning of the night.
It could not have been thus unless the moon were at
the full. Now, therefore, let us see when the world
was created: it was made upon the Sunday, in the
spring, at the Equinox, which is on the eighth of the
kalends of April, and at the full of the moon.>>

Then

And

According to the form of a border-oath, the work of creation began by night. «You shall swear by Heaven above you, Hell beneath you, by your part of Paradise, by all that God made in six days and seven nights, and by God himself, you are whart cut sackless

of art, part, way, witting, ridd, kenning, having or re-violently enraged, and exclaims, Wretch, wouldst thou cetting of any of the goods and chattells named in this have me hang up my master! From the manner in bill. So help you God.» (Nicolson and Burn, 1. xxv.) which rocs are usually mentioned in the Arabian Tales, This, however, is assertion without proof, and would the reader feels as much surprised at this indignation not have been admitted by Theophylus and his bishops. as Aladdin was himself. Perhaps the original may have Simorg instead of roc. To think, indeed, of robbing the Simorg's nest, either for the sake of drilling the eggs, or of poaching them, would, in a believer, whether Shial or Sunni, be the height of human impiety.

Note 4, page 136, col. 1.

That old and only Bird.

Simorg Anka, says my friend Mr Fox, in a note to his Achmed Ardebeili, is a bird or griffon of extraordinary strength and size, (as its name imports, signifying as large as thirty eagles,) which, according to the Eastern writers, was sent by the Supreme Being to subdue and chastise the rebellious Dives. It was supposed to possess rational faculties and the gift of speech. The Caherman Nameh relates, that Simorg Anka being asked his age, replied, this world is very ancient, for it has already been seven times replenished with beings different from man, and as often depopulated. That the age of Adam, in which we now are, is to endure seven thousand years, making a great cycle; that himself had seen twelve of these revolutions, and knew not how many more he had to see.

I am afraid that Mr Fox and myself have fallen into a grievous heresy, both respecting the unity and the sex of the Simorg. For this great bird is a hen; there is indeed a cock also, but he seems to be of some inferior species, a sort of Prince George of Denmark, the Simorg's consort, not the cock Simorg.

Since this note was written, the eighth volume of the Asiatic Researches has appeared, in which Captain Wilford identifies the roe with the Simorg. «Sindbad,» he says, « was exposed to many dangers from the birds called Rocs or Simorgs, the Garudas of the Pauranics, whom Persian Romancers represent as living in Madagascar, according to Marco Polo.»> But the Roc of the Arabian Tales has none of the characteristics of the Simorg; and it is only in the instance which I have noticed, that any mistake of one for the other can be suspected.

Note 5, page 138, col. 1.

The spring was clear, the water deep. Some travellers may perhaps be glad to know, that the spring from which this description was taken, is near Bristol, about a mile from Stokes-Croft turnpike, and known by the name of the Boiling-Well. Other, and larger springs, of the same kind, called the Lady Pools, are near Shobdon, in Herefordshire.

Note 6, page 138, col. 2.

It ran a river deep and wide.

like a little stream, wearing its shallow bed through the grass, circling and winding, and gleaning up its treasures from every twinkling rill, as it passes; further on, the brown sand fences its margin, the dark rushes thicken on its side; further on still, the broad flags shake their green ranks, the willows bend their wide boughs o'er its course; and yonder, at last, the fair river appears, spreading his bright waves to the light.»>

In that portion of the Shah-Nameh which has been put into English rhyme by Mr Champion, some auecA similar picture occurs in Miss Baillie's Comedy, dotes may be found concerning this all-knowing bird, «The Second Marriage.» «By Heaven, there is nothing who is there represented as possessing one species of so interesting to me as to trace the course of a prosknowledge, of which she would not be readily suspect-perous mau through this varied world. First, he is seen ed. Zalzer, the father of Rustam, is exposed in his infancy by his own father, Saum, who takes him for a young deviling, because his body is black, and his hair white. The infant is laid at the foot of Mount Elburs, where the Simorg has her nest, and she takes him up, and breeds him with her young, who are very desirous of cating him, but she preserves him. When Zalzer is grown up, and leaves the nest, the Simorg gives him one of her feathers, telling him, whenever he is in great distress, to burn it, and she will immediately come to his assistance. Zalzer marries Rodaliver, who is likely to die in childing; he then burns the feather, and the Simory appears and orders the Cæsarean operation to be performed. As these stories are not Ferdusi's invention, but the old traditions of the Persians, collected and arranged by him, this is, perhaps, the earliest fact concerning that operation which is to be met with, earlier probably than the fable of Semele. Zalzer was ordered first to give her wine, which acts as a powerful opiate, and after sewing up the incision, to anoint it with a mixture of milk, musk, and grass, pounded together, and dried in the shade, and then to rub it with a Simorg's feather.

In Mr Fox's collection of Persic books, is an illuminated copy of Ferdusi, containing a picture of the Simorg, who is there represented as an ugly dragon-looking sort of bird. I should be loth to believe that she has so bad a physiognomy; and as, in the same volume, there are blue and yellow horses, there is good reason to conclude that this is not a genuine portrait.

When the Genius of the Lamp is ordered by Aladdin to bring a roc's egg, and hang it up in the hall, he is

BOOK XII.

Note 1, page 142, col. 1.
A rebel Afreet lay.

One of these evil Genii is thus described in the Bahar Danush: On his entrance, he beheld a black demon heaped on the ground like a mountain, with two large horns upon his head, and a long proboscis, fast asleep. In his head the Divine Creator had joined the likenesses of the elephant and the wild bull. His teeth grew out as the tusks of a boar, and all over his monstrous carcass hung shaggy hairs, like those of the bear. The eye of mortal born was dimmed at his appearance, and the mind, at his horrible form and frightful figure, was confounded.

He was an Afreet, created from mouth to foot by the wrath of God.

His hair like a bear's, his teeth like a boar's. No one ever beheld such a monster.

Crook-backed, and crabbed-faced; he might be scented at the distance of a thousand fersungs.

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