But the far torrent, or the locust-bird * Hunting among the thickets, could be heard ;- Of laden camels and their drivers' songs ;- Of the Abyssinian trumpet,† swell and float! Who leads this mighty army?-ask ye "who?" * A native of Khorassan, and allured southward by means of the water of a fountain, between Shiraz and Ispahan, called the Fountain of Birds, of which it is so fond that it will follow wherever that water is carried. + "This trumpet is often called in Abyssinia, nesser cano, which signifies the Note of the Eagle."--Note of BRUCE's Editor. § The two black standards borne before the Caliphs of the House of Abbas, were called, allegorically, The Night and The Shadow.-See GIBBON. Roused in his Palace by the dread alarms, Ne'er did the march of MAHADI display * The Mahometan Religion. "The Persians swear by the Tomb of Shah Besade, who is buried at Casbin; and when one desires another to asseverate a matter, he will ask him, if he dare swear by the Holy Grave." -STRUY. § Mahadi, in a single pilgrimage to Mecca, expended six millions of dinars of gold. When round him, 'mid the burning sands, he saw * ** Of MECCA'S sun, with urns of Persian snow :- The inhabitants of Hejaz or Arabia Petræa, called by an Eastern writer "The People of the Rock."-EBN HAUKAL. §"Those horses, called by the Arabians Kochlani, of whom a written genealogy has been kept for two thousand years. They are said to derive their origin from King Solomon's steeds."-NIEbuhr. ** 66 Many of the figures on the blades of their swords are wrought in gold or silver, or in marquetry with small gems." -Asiat. Misc. vol. i. ++ Azab or Saba. Nor less in number, though more new and rude Burning and headlong as the Samiel wind,- * Flock'd to his banner ;-Chiefs of the UZBEK race, * "The chiefs of the Uzbek Tartars wear a plume of white heron's feathers in their turbans."-Account of Independent Tartary. In the mountains of Nishapour and Tous (in Khorassan) they find torquoises.-EBN HAUKal. § For a description of these stupendous ranges of mountains, see ELPHINSTONE'S Caubul. Or sterner hate, than IRAN's outlaw'd men, Where aged saints in dreams of Heaven expire; The Ghebers or Guebres, those original natives of Persia, who adhered to their ancient faith, the religion of Zoroaster, and who, after the conquest of their country by the Arabs, were either persecuted at home, or forced to become wanderers abroad. "Yezd, the chief residence of those ancient natives, who worship the Sun and the Fire, which latter they have carefully kept lighted, without being once extinguished for a moment, above three thousand years, on a mountain near Yezd, called Ater Quedah, signifying the House or Mansion of the Fire. He is reckoned very unfortunate who dies off that mountain.”— STEPHEN'S Persia. "When the weather is hazy, the springs of Naptha (on an island near Baku) boil up the higher, and the Naptha often takes fire on the surface of the earth, and runs in a flame into the sea to a distance almost incredible."-HANWAY, on the Everlasting Fire at Baku. |