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diff --git a/old/55458-0.txt b/old/55458-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 6ad3e23..0000000 --- a/old/55458-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6508 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's The Curse of Kehama, Volume 1 (of 2), by Robert Southey - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: The Curse of Kehama, Volume 1 (of 2) - Volume the First - -Author: Robert Southey - -Release Date: August 30, 2017 [EBook #55458] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CURSE OF KEHAMA, VOLUME 1 *** - - - - -Produced by David Thomas - - - - - - The - Curse of Kehama: - by - Robert Southey. - - - Καταραι, ως και τα αλεκτρυονονεοττα, οικον αει, οψε κεν επανηξαν - εγκαθισομεναι. - Αποφθ. Ανεκ. του Γυλιελ. του Μητ. - - CURSES ARE LIKE YOUNG CHICKEN, THEY ALWAYS COME HOME TO ROOST. - - - THE THIRD EDITION. - - _VOLUME THE FIRST._ - - - LONDON: - PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND - BROWN, PATERNOSTER-ROW. - 1812. - - - -TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES. - -This book was originally digitized by Google and is intended for -personal, non-commercial use only. - -Original page numbers are given in curly brackets. Footnotes have been -relocated to the end of the book. Passages originally rendered in -small-caps have been changed to all-caps in the text version of this -work. - -Alterations: [pp. 168, 191] Correct misspellings of Edward Moor's -last name; [p. 194] change "battel" to "battle"; and [p. 237] change -"Son and Moon" to "Sun and Moon". - - - - TO - THE AUTHOR OF GEBIR, - WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR, - THIS POEM IS INSCRIBED, - BY - ROBERT SOUTHEY. - - -PREFACE. - -IN the religion of the Hindoos, which of all false religions is the -most monstrous in its fables, and the most fatal in its effects, there -is one remarkable peculiarity. Prayers, penances, and sacrifices, are -supposed to possess an inherent and actual value, in no degree -depending upon the disposition or motive of the person who performs -them. They are drafts upon Heaven, for which the Gods cannot refuse -payment. The worst men, bent upon the worst designs, have in this -manner obtained power which has made them formidable to the Supreme -Deities themselves, and rendered an _Avatar_, or Incarnation of -Veeshnoo the Preserver, necessary. This belief is the foundation of -the following Poem. The story is original; but, in all its parts, -consistent with the superstition upon which it is built; and however -startling the fictions may appear, they might almost be called -credible when compared with the genuine tales of Hindoo mythology. - -No figures can be imagined more anti-picturesque, and less poetical, -than the mythological personages of the Bramins. This deformity was -easily kept out of sight:--their hundred hands are but a clumsy -personification of power; their numerous heads only a gross image of -divinity, "whose countenance," as the Bhagvat-Geeta expresses it, "is -turned on every side." To the other obvious objection, that the religion -of Hindostan is not generally known enough to supply fit machinery for -an English poem, I can only answer, that, if every allusion to it -throughout the work is not sufficiently self-explained to render the -passage intelligible, there is a want of skill in the poet. Even those -readers who should be wholly unacquainted with the writings of our -learned Orientalists, will find all the preliminary knowledge that can -be needful, in the brief explanation of mythological names prefixed to -the Poem. - - - - CONTENTS - TO - VOLUME FIRST. - - 1. The Funeral - 2. The Curse - 3. The Recovery - 4. The Departure - 5. The Separation - 6. Casyapa - 7. The Swerga - 8. The Sacrifice - 9. The Home Scene - 10. Mount Meru - 11. The Enchantress - 12. The Sacrifice Completed - - Notes - Footnotes - - - - Στησατε μοι Πρωτηα πολυτροπον, οφρα φανειη - Ποικιλον ειδος εχων, οτι ποικιλον υμνον αρασσω. - Νον. Διον. - - For I will for no man's pleasure - Change a syllable or measure; - Pedants shall not tie my strains - To our antique poets' veins; - Being born as free as these, - I will sing as I shall please. - George Wither. - - - -MYTHOLOGICAL NAMES. - -BRAMA, the Creator. - -VEESHNOO, the Preserver. - -SEEVA, the Destroyer. - -These form the Trimourtee, or Trinity, as it has been called, of the -Bramins. The allegory is obvious, but it has been made for the -Trimourtee, not the Trimourtee for the allegory; and these Deities are -regarded by the people as three distinct and personal Gods. The two -latter have at this day their hostile sects of worshippers; that of -Seeva is the most numerous; and in this Poem, Seeva is represented as -Supreme among the Gods. This is the same God whose name is variously -written Seeb, Sieven and Siva, Chiven by the French, Xiven by the -Portugueze, and whom European writers sometimes denominate Eswara, -Iswaren, Mahadeo, Mahadeva, Rutren,--according to which of his -thousand and eight names prevailed in the country where they obtained -their Information. - -INDRA, God of the Elements. - -The SWERGA, his Paradise,--one of the Hindoo heavens. - -YAMEN, Lord of Hell, and Judge of the Dead. - -PADALON, Hell,--under the Earth, and, like the Earth, of an octagon -shape; its eight gates are guarded by as many Gods. - -MARRIATALY, the Goddess who is chiefly worshipped by the lower casts. - -POLLEAR, or Ganesa,--the Protector of Travellers. His statues are -placed in the highways, and sometimes in a small lonely sanctuary, in -the streets and in the fields. - -CASYAPA, the Father of the Immortals. - -DEVETAS, The Inferior Deities. - -SURAS, Good Spirits. - -ASURAS, Evil Spirits, or Devils. - -GLENDOVEERS, the most beautiful of the Good Spirits, the Grindouvers -of Sonnerat. - - - -THE CURSE OF KEHAMA. - - {1} - - I. - THE FUNERAL. - - 1. - Midnight, and yet no eye - Through all the Imperial City clos'd in sleep! - Behold her streets a-blaze - With light that seems to kindle the red sky, - Her myriads swarming through the crowded ways! - Master and slave, old age and infancy, - All, all abroad to gaze; - House-top and balcony - Clustered with women, who throw back their veils, - With unimpeded and insatiate sight - To view the funeral pomp which passes by, - {2} - As if the mournful rite - Were but to them a scene of joyance and delight. - - 2. - Vainly, ye blessed twinklers of the night, - Your feeble beams ye shed, - Quench'd in the unnatural light which might out-stare - Even the broad eye of day; - And thou from thy celestial way - Pourest, O Moon, an ineffectual ray! - For lo! ten thousand torches flame and flare - Upon the midnight air, - Blotting the lights of heaven - With one portentous glare. - Behold the fragrant smoke in many a fold, - Ascending floats along the fiery sky, - And hangeth visible on high, - A dark and waving canopy. - - 3. - Hark! 'tis the funeral trumpet's breath! - 'Tis the dirge of death! - At once ten thousand drums begin, - With one long thunder-peal the ear assailing; - {3} - Ten thousand voices then join in, - And with one deep and general din - Pour their wild wailing. - The song of praise is drown'd - Amid that deafening sound; - You hear no more the trumpet's tone, - You hear no more the mourner's moan, - Though the trumpet's breath, and the dirge of death, - Mingle and swell the funeral yell. - But rising over all in one acclaim - Is heard the echoed and re-echoed name, - From all that countless rout: - Arvalan! Arvalan! - Arvalan! Arvalan! - Ten times ten thousand voices in one shout - Call Arvalan! The overpowering sound - From house to house repeated rings about, - From tower to tower rolls round. - - 4. - The death-procession moves along; - Their bald heads shining to the torches' ray, - The Bramins lead the way, - Chaunting the funeral song. - {4} - And now at once they shout - Arvalan! Arvalan! - With quick rebound of sound, - All in accordant cry, - Arvalan! Arvalan! - The universal multitude reply. - In vain ye thunder on his ear the name! - Would ye awake the dead? - Borne upright in his palankeen, - There Arvalan is seen! - A glow is on his face, . . . a lively red; - 'Tis but the crimson canopy - Which o'er his cheek the reddening shade hath shed. - He moves, . . . he nods his head; . . . - But the motion comes from the bearers' tread, - As the body, borne aloft in state, - Sways with the impulse of its own dead weight. - - 5. - Close following his dead son, Kehama came, - Nor joining in the ritual song, - Nor calling the dear name; - With head deprest and funeral vest, - And arms enfolded on his breast, - {5} - Silent and lost in thought he moves along. - King of the world, his slaves unenvying now - Behold their wretched Lord; rejoiced they see - The mighty Rajah's misery; - For nature in his pride hath dealt the blow, - And taught the master of mankind to know - Even he himself is man, and not exempt from woe. - - 6. - O sight of grief! the wives of Arvalan, - Young Azla, young Nealliny, are seen! - Their widow-robes of white, - With gold and jewels bright, - Each like an Eastern queen. - Woe! woe! around their palankeen, - As on a bridal day, - With symphony, and dance, and song, - Their kindred and their friends come on, . . . - The dance of sacrifice! the funeral song! - And next the victim slaves in long array, - Richly bedight to grace the fatal day, - Move onward to their death; - The clarions' stirring breath - Lifts their thin robes in every flowing fold, - {6} - And swells the woven gold, - That on the agitated air - Trembles, and glitters to the torches' glare. - - 7. - A man and maid of aspect wan and wild, - Then, side by side, by bowmen guarded, came. - O wretched father! O unhappy child! - Them were all eyes of all the throng exploring; . . . - Is this the daring man - Who raised his fatal hand at Arvalan? - Is this the wretch condemned to feel - Kehama's dreadful wrath? - Them were all hearts of all the throng deploring, - For not in that innumerable throng - Was one who lov'd the dead; for who could know - What aggravated wrong - Provok'd the desperate blow! - Far, far behind, beyond all reach of sight, - In ordered files the torches flow along, - One ever-lengthening line of gliding light: - Far . . . far behind, - Rolls on the undistinguishable clamour, - Of horn, and trump, and tambour; - {7} - Incessant at the roar - Of streams which down the wintry mountain pour, - And louder than the dread commotion - Of stormy billows on a rocky shore, - When the winds rage over the wares, - And Ocean to the Tempest raves. - - 8. - And now toward the bank they go, - Where, winding on their way below, - Deep and strong the waters flow. - Here doth the funeral pile appear - With myrrh and ambergris bestrew'd, - And built of precious sandal wood. - They cease their music and their outcry here; - Gently they rest the bier: - They wet the face of Arvalan, - No sign of life the sprinkled drops excite. - They feel his breast, . . . no motion there; - They feel his lips, . . . no breath; - For not with feeble, nor with erring hand, - The stern avenger dealt the blow of death. - Then with a doubling peal and deeper blast, - The tambours and the trumpets sound on high, - {8} - And with a last and loudest cry - They call on Arvalan. - - 9. - Woe! woe! for Azla takes her seat - Upon the funeral pile! - Calmly she took her seat, - Calmly the whole terrific pomp survey'd; - As on her lap the while - The lifeless head of Arvalan was laid. - Woe! woe! Nealliny, - The young Nealliny! - They strip her ornaments away, - Bracelet and anklet, ring, and chain, and zone; - Around her neck they leave - The marriage knot alone, . . . - That marriage band, which when - Yon waning moon was young, - Around her virgin neck - With bridal joy was hung. - Then with white flowers, the coronal of death, - Her jetty locks they crown. - O sight of misery! - Yon cannot hear her cries, . . . all other sound - {9} - In that wild dissonance is drown'd; . . . - But in her face you see - The supplication and the agony, . . . - See in her swelling throat the desperate strength - That with vain effort struggles yet for life; - Her arms contracted now in fruitless strife, - Now wildly at full length - Towards the crowd in vain for pity spread, . . . - They force her on, they bind her to the dead. - - 10. - Then all around retire; - Circling the pile, the ministring Bramins stand, - Each lifting in his hand a torch on fire. - Alone the Father of the dead advanced - And lit the funeral pyre. - - 11. - At once on every side - The circling torches drop; - At once on every side - The fragrant oil is pour'd; - At once on every side - The rapid flames rush up. - {10} - Then hand in hand the victim band - Roll in the dance around the funeral pyre; - Their garments' flying folds - Float inward to the fire. - In drunken whirl they wheel around; - One drops, . . . another plunges in; - And still with overwhelming din - The tambours and the trumpets sound; - And clap of hand, and shouts, and cries, - From all the multitude arise: - While round and round, in giddy wheel, - Intoxicate they roll and reel, - Till one by one whirl'd in they fall, - And the devouring flames have swallowed all. - - 12. - Then all was still; the drums and clarions ceas'd; - The multitude were hush'd in silent awe; - Only the roaring of the flames was heard. - - - - II. - THE CURSE. - - {11} - - 1. - Alone towards the Table of the dead, - Kehama mov'd; there on the altar-stone - Honey and rice he spread, - There with collected voice and painful tone - He call'd upon his son. - Lo! Arvalan appears. - Only Kehama's powerful eye beheld - The thin etherial spirit hovering nigh; - Only the Rajah's ear - Receiv'd his feeble breath. - And is this all? the mournful spirit said, - This all that thou canst give me after death? - {12} - This unavailing pomp, - These empty pageantries that mock the dead! - - 2. - In bitterness the Rajah heard, - And groan'd, and smote his breast, and o'er his face - Cowl'd the white mourning vest. - - ARVALAN. - Art thou not powerful, . . . even like a God? - And must I, through my years of wandering, - Shivering and naked to the elements, - In wretchedness await - The hour of Yamen's wrath? - I thought thou wouldst embody me anew. - Undying as I am, . . . - Yea, re-create me! . . . Father, is this all! - This all! and thou Almighty! - - 3. - But in that wrongful and upbraiding tone, - Kehama found relief, - For rising anger half supprest his grief. - Reproach not me! he cried; - {13} - Had I not spell-secur'd thee from disease, - Fire, sword, . . . all common accidents of man, . . . - And thou! . . . fool, fool, . . . to perish by a stake! - And by a peasant's arm! . . . - Even now, when from reluctant Heaven - Forcing new gifts and mightier attributes, - So soon I should have quell'd the Death-God's power. - - 4. - Waste not thy wrath on me, quoth Arvalan, - It was my hour of folly! Fate prevail'd, - Nor boots it to reproach me that I fell. - I am in misery, Father! Other souls - Predoom'd to Indra's Heaven, enjoy the dawn - Of bliss: . . . to them the tempered elements - Minister joy, genial delight the sun - Sheds on their happy being, and the stars - Effuse on them benignant influencies; - And thus o'er earth and air they roam at will, - And when the number of their days is full, - Go fearlessly before the awful throne. - But I, . . . all naked feeling and raw life, . . . - What worse than this hath Yamen's hell in store? - If ever thou didst love me, mercy, Father! - {14} - Save me, for thou canst save: . . . the Elements - Know and obey thy voice. - - KEHAMA. - The Elements - Shall torture thee no more; even while I speak - Already dost then feel their power is gone. - Fear not! I cannot call again the past, - Fate hath made that its own; but Fate shall yield - To me the future; and thy doom be fix'd - By mine, not Yamen's will. Meantime, all power - Whereof thy feeble spirit can be made - Participant, I give. Is there aught else - To mitigate thy lot? - - ARVALAN. - Only the sight of vengeance. Give me that! - Vengeance, full, worthy vengeance! . . . not the stroke - Of sodden punishment, . . . no agony - That spends itself and leaves the wretch at rest, - But lasting long revenge. - - KEHAMA. - What, boy? is that cup sweet? then take thy fill! - - {15} - - 5. - So as he spake, a glow of dreadful pride - Inflam'd his cheek: with quick and angry stride - He mov'd toward the pile, - And rais'd his hand to hush the crowd, and cried - Bring forth the murderer! At the Rajah's voice, - Calmly, and like a man whom fear had stunn'd, - Ladurlad came, obedient to the call. - But Kailyal started at the sound, - And gave a womanly shriek, and back she drew, - And eagerly she roll'd her eyes around, - As if to seek for aid, albeit she knew - No aid could there be found. - - 6. - It chanced that near her, on the river-brink, - The sculptur'd form of Marriataly stood; - It was an idol roughly hewn of wood, - Artless, and poor, and rude. - The Goddess of the poor was she; - None else regarded her with piety. - But when that holy image Kailyal view'd, - To that she sprung, to that she clung, - On her own goddess with close-clasping arms, - {16} - For life the maiden hung. - They seiz'd the maid; with unrelenting grasp - They bruis'd her tender limbs; - She, nothing yielding, to this only hope - Clings with the strength of frenzy and despair. - She screams not now, she breathes not now, - She sends not up one vow, - She forms not in her soul one secret prayer, - All thought, all feeling, and all powers' of life - In the one effort centering. Wrathful they - With tug and strain would force the maid away. . . . - Didst thou, O Marriataly, see their strife? - In pity didst thou see the suffering maid? - Or was thine anger kindled, that rude hands - Assail'd thy holy image? . . . for behold - The holy image shakes! - Irreverently bold, they deem the maid - Relax'd her stubborn hold, - And now with force redoubled drag their prey; - And now the rooted idol to their sway - Bends, . . . yields, . . . and now it falls. But then they scream, - For lo! they feel the crumbling bank give way, - And all are plunged into the stream. - - {17} - - 7. - She hath escap'd my will, Kehama cried, - She hath escap'd, . . . but thou art here, - I have thee still, - The worser criminal! - And on Ladurlad, while he spake, severe - He fix'd his dreadful frown. - The strong reflection of the pile - Lit his dark lineaments, - Lit the protruded brow, the gathered front, - The steady eye of wrath. - - 8. - But while the fearful silence yet endur'd, - Ladurlad rous'd his soul; - Ere yet the voice of destiny - Which trembled on the Rajah's lips was loos'd, - Eager he interpos'd, - As if despair had waken'd him to hope; - Mercy! oh mercy! only in defence . . . - Only instinctively, . . . - Only to save my child, I smote the Prince. - King of the world, be merciful! - Crush me, . . . but torture not! - - {18} - - 9. - The Man-Almighty deign'd him no reply, - Still he stood silent; in no human mood - Of mercy, in no hesitating thought - Of right and justice. At the length he rais'd - His brow yet unrelax'd, . . . his lips unclos'd, - And utter'd from the heart, - With the whole feeling of his soul enforced, - The gather'd vengeance came. - - 10. - I charm thy life - From the weapons of strife, - From stone and from wood, - From fire and from flood, - From the serpent's tooth, - And the beasts of blood: - From Sickness I charm thee, - And Time shall not harm thee; - But Earth, which is mine, - Its fruits shall deny thee; - And Water shall hear me, - And know thee and fly thee; - And the Winds shall not touch thee - {19} - When they pass by thee, - And the Dews shall not wet thee, - When they fall nigh thee: - And thou shalt seek Death - To release thee, in vain; - Thou shalt live in thy pain, - While Kehama shall reign, - With a fire in thy heart, - And a fire in thy brain; - And sleep shall obey me, - And visit thee never, - And the Curse shall be on thee - For ever and ever. - - 11. - There where the Curse had stricken him, - There stood the miserable man, - There stood Ladurlad, with loose-hanging arms, - And eyes of idiot wandering. - Was it a dream? alas, - He heard the river flow, - He heard the crumbling of the pile, - He heard the wind which shower'd - The thin white ashes round. - {20} - There motionless he stood, - As if he hop'd it were a dream, - And fear'd to move, lest he should prove - The actual misery; - And still at times he met Kehama's eye, - Kehama's eye that fasten'd on him still. - - - - III. - THE RECOVERY. - - {21} - - 1. - The Rajah turn'd toward the pile again, - Loud rose the song of death from all the crowd; - Their din the instruments begin, - And once again join in - With overwhelming sound. - Ladurlad starts, . . . he looks around. - What hast thou here in view, - O wretched man, in this disastrous scene? - The soldier train, the Bramins who renew - Their ministry around the funeral pyre, - The empty palankeens, - The dimly-fading fire. - {22} - Where too is she whom most his heart held dear, - His best-beloved Kailyal, where is she, - The solace and the joy of many a year - Of widowhood! is she then gone, - And is he left all-utterly alone, - To bear his blasting curse, and none - To succour or deplore him? - He staggers from the dreadful spot; the throng - Give way in fear before him; - Like one who carries pestilence about, - Shuddering they shun him, where he moves along. - And now he wanders on - Beyond the noisy rout; - He cannot fly and leave his curse behind, - Yet doth he seem to find - A comfort in the change of circumstance. - Adown the shore he strays, - Unknowing where his wretched feet may rest, - But farthest from the fatal place is best. - - 2. - By this in the orient sky appears the gleam - Of day. Lo! what is yonder in the stream, - Down the slow river floating slow, - In distance indistinct and dimly seen? - {23} - The childless one with idle eye - Followed its motion thoughtlessly; - Idly he gaz'd, unknowing why, - And half unconscious that he watch'd its way. - Belike it is a tree - Which some rude tempest, in its sudden sway, - Tore from the rock, or from the hollow shore - The undermining stream hath swept away. - - 3. - But when anon outswelling by its side, - A woman's robe he spied, - Oh then Ladurlad started, - As one, who in his grave - Had heard an angel's call. - Yea, Marriataly, then hast deign'd to save! - Yea, Goddess! it is she, - To thy dear image clinging senselessly, - And thus in happy hour - Upborne amid the wave - By that preserving power. - - 4. - Headlong in hope and in joy - Ladurlad dash'd in the water. - {24} - The water knew Kehama's spell, - The water shrunk before him. - Blind to the miracle, - He rushes to his daughter, - And treads the river-depths in transport wild, - And clasps and saves his child. - - 5. - Upon the farther side a level shore - Of sand was spread: thither Ladurlad bore - His daughter, holding still with senseless hand - The saving Goddess; there upon the sand - He laid the livid maid, - Rais'd up against his knees her drooping head; - Bent to her lips, . . . her lips as pale as death, . . . - If he might feel her breath, - His own the while in hope and dread suspended; - Chaf'd her cold breast, and ever and anon - Let his hand rest upon her heart extended. - - 6. - Soon did his touch perceive, or fancy there, - The first faint motion of returning life. - He chafes her feet, and lays them bare - In the sun; and now again upon her breast - {25} - Lays his hot hand; and now her lips he prest, - For now the stronger throb of life he knew: - And her lips tremble too! - The breath comes palpably, - Her quivering lids unclose - Feebly and feebly fell, - Relapsing as it seem'd to dead repose. - - 7. - So in her father's arms thus languidly, - While over her with earnest gaze he hung, - Silent and motionless she lay, - And painfully and slowly writh'd at fits, - At fits to short convulsive starts was stung. - Till when the struggle and strong agony - Had left her, quietly she lay repos'd: - Her eyes now resting on Ladurlad's face, - Relapsing now, and now again unclos'd. - The look she fix'd upon his face, implies - Nor thought nor feeling; senselessly she lies, - Compos'd like one who sleeps with open eyes. - - 8. - Long he leant over her, - {26} - In silence and in fear. - Kailyal! . . . at length he cried in such a tone, - As a poor mother ventures who draws near, - With silent footstep, to her child's sick bed. - My Father! cried the maid, and rais'd her head, - Awakening then to life and thought, . . . thou here? - For when his voice she heard, - The dreadful past recurr'd, - Which dimly, like a dream of pain, - Till now with troubled sense confus'd her brain. - - 9. - And hath he spar'd us then? she cried, - Half rising as she spake, - For hope and joy the sudden strength supplied; - In mercy hath he curb'd his cruel will, - That still thou livest? But as thus she said, - Impatient of that look of hope, her sire - Shook hastily his head; - Oh! he hath laid a Curse upon my life, - A clinging curse, quoth he; - Hath sent a fire into my heart and brain, - A burning fire, for ever there to be! - The winds of Heaven must never breathe on me; - {27} - The rains and dews must never fall on me; - Water must mock my thirst and shrink from me; - The common earth must yield no fruit to me; - Sleep, blessed Sleep! must never light on me; - And Death, who comes to all, must fly from me; - And never, never set Ladurlad free. - - 10. - This is a dream! exclaim'd the incredulous maid, - Yet in her voice the while a fear exprest, - Which in her larger eye was manifest. - This is a dream! she rose and laid her hand - Upon her father's brow, to try the charm; - He could not bear the pressure there; . . . he shrunk, . . . - He warded off her arm, - As though it were an enemy's blow, he smote - His daughter's arm aside. - Her eye glanced down, his mantle she espied - And caught it up; . . . Oh misery! Kailyal cried, - He bore me from the river-depths, and yet - His garment is not wet! - - - - IV. - THE DEPARTURE. - - {28} - - 1. - Reclin'd beneath a Cocoa's feathery shade - Ladurlad lies, - And Kailyal on his lap her head hath laid, - To hide her streaming eyes. - The boatman, sailing on his easy way, - With envious eye beheld them where they lay; - For every herb and flower - Was fresh and fragrant with the early dew; - Sweet sung the birds in that delicious hour, - And the cool gale of morning as it blew, - Not yet subdued by day's increasing power, - Ruffling the surface of the silvery stream, - {29} - Swept o'er the moisten'd sand, and rais'd no shower. - Telling their tale of love, - The boatman thought they lay - At that lone hour, and who so blest as they! - - 2. - But now the sun in heaven is high, - The little songsters of the sky - Sit silent in the sultry hour, - They pant and palpitate with heat; - Their bills are open languidly - To catch the passing air; - They hear it not, they feel it not, - It murmurs not, it moves not. - The boatman, as he looks to land, - Admires what men so mad to linger there, - For yonder Cocoa's shade behind them falls, - A single spot upon the burning sand. - - 3. - There all the morning was Ladurlad laid, - Silent and motionless, like one at ease; - There motionless upon her father's knees, - Reclin'd the silent maid. - {30} - The man was still, pondering with steady mind, - As if it were another's Curse, - His own portentous lot; - Scanning it o'er and o'er in busy thought, - As though it were a last night's tale of woe, - Before the cottage door, - By some old beldame sung, - While young and old assembled round, - Listened, as if by witchery bound, - In fearful pleasure to her wonderous tongue. - - 4. - Musing so long he lay, that all things seem - Unreal to his sense, even like a dream, - A monstrous dream of things which could not be. - That beating, burning brow, . . . why it was now - The height of noon, and he was lying there - In the broad sun, all bare! - What if he felt no wind? the air was still, - That was the general will - Of nature, not his own peculiar doom; - Yon rows of rice erect and silent stand, - The shadow of the Cocoa's lightest plume - Is steady on the sand. - - {31} - - 5. - Is it indeed a dream? he rose to try, - Impatient to the water-side he went, - And down he bent, - And in the stream he plung'd his hasty arm - To break the visionary charm. - With fearful eye and fearful heart, - His daughter watch'd the event; - She saw the start and shudder, - She heard the in-drawn groan, - For the Water knew Kehama's charm, - The water shrunk before his arm. - His dry hand mov'd about unmoisten'd there; - As easily might that dry hand avail - To stop the passing gale, - Or grasp the impassive air. - He is Almighty then! - Exclaim'd the wretched man in his despair; - Air knows him, Water knows him; Sleep - His dreadful word will keep; - Even in the grave there is no rest for me, - Cut off from that last hope, . . . the wretches' joy; - And Veeshnoo hath no power to save, - Nor Seeva to destroy. - - {32} - - 6. - Oh! wrong not them! quoth Kailyal, - Wrong not the Heavenly Powers! - Our hope is all in them: They are not blind! - And lighter wrongs than ours, - And lighter crimes than his, - Have drawn the Incarnate down among mankind; - Already have the Immortals heard our cries, - And in the mercy of their righteousness - Beheld us in the hour of our distress! - She spake with streaming eyes, - Where pious love and ardent feeling beam; - And turning to the Image, threw - Her grateful arms around it, . . . It was thou - Who saved'st me from the stream! - My Marriataly, it was thou! - I had not else been here - To share my Father's Curse, - To suffer now, . . . and yet to thank thee thus! - - 7. - Here then, the maiden cried, dear Father, here - Raise our own Goddess, our divine Preserver! - The mighty of the earth despise her rites, - {33} - She loves the poor who serve her. - Set up her image here, - With heart and voice the guardian Goddess bless, - For jealously would she resent - Neglect and thanklessness. . . . - Set up her image here, - And bless her for her aid with tongue and soul sincere. - - 8. - So saying, on her knees the maid - Began the pious toil. - Soon their joint labour scoops the easy soil; - They raise the image up with reverent hand, - And round its rooted base they heap the sand. - O Thou whom we adore, - O Marriataly, thee do I implore, - The virgin cried; my Goddess, pardon thou - The unwilling wrong, that I no more, - With dance and song, - Can do thy daily service, as of yore! - The flowers which last I wreath'd around thy brow, - Are withering there; and never now - Shall I at eve adore thee, - And swimming round with arms outspread, - {34} - Poise the full pitcher on my head, - In dextrous dance before thee; - White underneath the reedy shed, at rest, - My father sate the evening rites to view, - And blest thy name, and blest - His daughter too. - - 9. - Then heaving from her heart a heavy sigh, - O Goddess! from that happy home, cried she, - The Almighty Man hath forced us! - And homeward with the thought unconsciously - She turn'd her dizzy eye. . . . But there on high, - With many a dome, and pinnacle, and spire, - The summits of, the Golden Palaces - Blaz'd in the dark blue sky, aloft, like fire. - Father, away! she cried, away! - Why linger we so nigh? - For not to him hath Nature given - The thousand eyes of Deity, - Always and every where with open sight, - To persecute our flight! - Away . . . away! she said, - And took her father's hand, and like a child - He followed where she led. - - - - V. - THE SEPARATION. - - {35} - - 1. - Evening comes on: arising from the stream, - Homeward the tall flamingo wings his flight; - And where he sails athwart the setting beam, - His scarlet plumage glows with deeper light. - The watchman, at the wish'd approach of night, - Gladly forsakes the field, where he all day, - To scare the winged plunderers from their prey, - With shout and sling, on yonder clay-built height, - Hath borne the sultry ray. - Hark! at the Golden Palaces, - The Bramin strikes the hour. - For leagues and leagues around, the brazen sound - {36} - Rolls through the stillness of departing day, - Like thunder far away. - - 2. - Behold them wandering on their hopeless way, - Unknowing where they stray, - Yet sure where'er they stop to find no rest. - The evening gale is blowing, - It plays among the trees; - Like plumes upon a warrior's crest, - They see yon cocoas tossing to the breeze. - Ladurlad views them with impatient mind, - Impatiently he hears - The gale of evening blowing, - The sound of waters flowing, - As if all sights and sounds combin'd - To mock his irremediable woe: - For not for him the blessed waters flow, - For not for him the gales of evening blow, - A fire is in his heart and brain, - And Nature hath no healing for his pain. - - 3. - The Moon is up, still pale - {37} - Amid the lingering light. - A cloud ascending in the eastern sky, - Sails slowly o'er the vale, - And darkens round and closes-in the night. - No hospitable house is nigh, - No traveller's home the wanderers to invite. - Forlorn, and with long watching overworn, - The wretched father and the wretched child - Lie down amid the wild. - - 4. - Before them full in sight, - A white flag flapping to the winds of night, - Marks where the tyger seiz'd his human prey. - Far, far away with natural dread, - Shunning the perilous spot, - At other times abhorrent had they fled; - But now they heed it not. - Nothing they care; the boding death-flag now - In vain for them may gleam and flutter there. - Despair and agony in him, - Prevent all other thought; - And Kailyal hath no heart or sense for aught, - Save her dear father's strange and miserable lot. - - {38} - - 5. - There in the woodland shade, - Upon the lap of that unhappy maid, - His head Ladurlad laid, - And never word he spake; - Nor heav'd he one complaining sigh, - Nor groan'd he with his misery, - But silently for her dear sake - Endur'd the raging pain. - And now the moon was hid on high, - No stars were glimmering in the sky; - She could not see her father's eye, - How red with burning agony. - Perhaps he may be cooler now; - She hoped, and long'd to touch his brow - With gentle hand, yet did not dare - To lay the painful pressure there. - Now forward from the tree she bent, - And anxiously her head she leant, - And listened to his breath. - Ladurlad's breath was short and quick, - Yet regular it came, - And like the slumber of the sick, - In pantings still the same. - {39} - Oh if he sleeps! . . . her lips unclose, - Intently listening to the sound, - That equal sound so like repose. - Still quietly the sufferer lies, - Bearing his torment now with resolute will; - He neither moves, nor groans, nor sighs. - Doth satiate cruelty bestow - This little respite to his woe, - She thought, or are there Gods who look below! - - 6. - Perchance, thought Kailyal, willingly deceiv'd, - Our Marriataly hath his pain reliev'd, - And she hath bade the blessed sleep assuage - His agony, despite the Rajah's rage. - That was a hope which fill'd her gushing eyes, - And made her heart in silent yearnings rise, - To bless the Power divine in thankfulness. - And yielding to that joyful thought her mind, - Backward the maid her aching head reclin'd - Against the tree, and to her father's breath - In fear she hearken'd still with earnest ear. - But soon forgetful fits the effort broke: - In starts of recollection then she woke; - {40} - Till now benignant Nature overcame - The Virgin's weary and exhausted frame, - Nor able more her painful watch to keep, - She clos'd her heavy lids, and sunk to sleep. - - 7. - Vain was her hope! he did not rest from pain, - The Curse was burning in his brain. - Alas! the innocent maiden thought he slept, - But Sleep the Rajah's dread commandment kept, - Sleep knew Kehama's Curse. - The dews of night fell round them now, - They never bath'd Ladurlad's brow, - They knew Kehama's Curse. - The night-wind is abroad, - Aloft it moves among the stirring trees. - He only heard the breeze, . . . - No healing aid to him it brought, - It play'd around his head and touch'd him not, - It knew Kehama's Curse. - - 8. - Listening, Ladurlad lay in his despair, - If Kailyal slept, for wherefore should she share - {41} - Her father's wretchedness which none could cure? - Better alone to suffer; he must bear - The burthen of his Curse, but why endure - The unavailing presence of her grief? - She too, apart from him, might find relief; - For dead the Rajah deem'd her, and as thus - Already she his dread revenge had fled, - So might she still escape and live secure. - - 9. - Gently he lifts his head, - And Kailyal does not feel; - Gently he rises up, . . . she slumbers still; - Gently he steals away with silent tread. - Anon she started, for she felt him gone; - She call'd, and through the stillness of the night, - His step was heard in flight. - Mistrustful for a moment of the sound, - She listens! till the step is heard no more; - But then she knows that he indeed is gone, - And with a thrilling shriek she rushes on. - The darkness and the wood impede her speed; - She lifts her voice again, - Ladurlad! . . . and again, alike in vain, - {42} - And with a louder cry - Straining its tone to hoarseness; . . . far away, - Selfish in misery, - He heard the call and faster did he fly. - - 10. - She leans against that tree whose jutting bough - Smote her so rudely. Her poor heart - How audibly it panted, - With sudden stop and start: - Her breath how short and painfully it came! - Hark! all is still around her, . . . - And the night so utterly dark, - She opened her eyes and she closed them, - And the blackness and blank were the same. - - 11. - 'Twas like a dream of horror, and she stood - Half doubting whether all indeed were true. - A Tyger's howl loud echoing through the wood, - Rous'd her; the dreadful sound she knew, - And turn'd instinctively to what she feared. - Far off the Tyger's hungry howl was heard; - A nearer horror met the maiden's view, - {43} - For right before her a dim form appear'd, - A human form in that black night, - Distinctly shaped by its own lurid light, - Such light as the sickly moon is seen to shed, - Through spell-rais'd fogs, a bloody baleful red. - - 12. - That Spectre fix'd his eyes upon her full; - The light which shone in their accursed orbs - Was like a light from Hell, - And it grew deeper, kindling with the view. - She could not turn her sight - From that infernal gaze, which like a spell - Bound her, and held her rooted to the ground. - It palsied every power; - Her limbs avail'd her not in that dread hour. - There was no moving thence, - Thought, memory, sense were gone: - She heard not now the Tyger's nearer cry, - She thought not on her father now, - Her cold heart's-blood ran back, - Her hand lay senseless on the bough it clasp'd, - Her feet were motionless; - Her fascinated eyes - {44} - Like the stone eye-balls of a statue fix'd, - Yet conscious of the sight that blasted them. - - 13. - The wind is abroad, - It opens the clouds; - Scattered before the gale, - They skurry through the sky, - And the darkness retiring rolls over the vale. - The stars in their beauty come forth on high, - And through the dark-blue night - The moon rides on triumphant, broad and bright. - Distinct and darkening in her light - Appears that Spectre foul. - The moon beam gives his face and form to sight, - The shape of man, - The living form and face of Arvalan! - His hands are spread to clasp her. - - 14. - But at that sight of dread the maid awoke; - As if a lightning-stroke - Had burst the spell of fear, - Away she broke all franticly and fled. - {45} - There stood a temple near beside the way, - An open fane of Pollear, gentle God, - To whom the travellers for protection pray. - With elephantine head and eye severe, - Here stood his image, such as when he seiz'd - And tore the rebel giant from the ground, - With mighty trunk wreath'd round - His impotent bulk, and on his tusks, on high - Impal'd upheld him between earth and sky. - - 15. - Thither the affrighted maiden sped her flight, - And she hath reach'd the place of sanctuary; - And now within the temple in despite, - Yea, even before the altar, in his sight, - Hath Arvalan with fleshly arm of might - Seiz'd her. That instant the insulted God - Caught him aloft, and from his sinuous grasp, - As if from some tort catapult let loose, - Over the forest hurl'd him all abroad. - - 16. - Overcome with dread, - She tarried not to see what heavenly power - {46} - Had saved her in that hour. - Breathless and faint she fled. - And now her foot struck on the knotted root - Of a broad manchineil, and there the maid - Fell senselessly beneath the deadly shade. - - - - VI. - CASYAPA. - - {47} - - 1. - Shall this then be thy fate, O lovely Maid, - Thus, Kailyal, must thy sorrows then be ended! - Her face upon the ground, - Her arms at length extended, - There like a corpse behold her laid, - Beneath the deadly shade. - What if the hungry Tyger, prowling by, - Should snuff his banquet nigh? - Alas, Death needs not now his ministry; - The baleful boughs hang o'er her, - The poison-dews descend. - What power will now restore her, - {48} - What God will be her friend? - - 2. - Bright and so beautiful was that fair night, - It might have calm'd the gay amid their mirth, - And given the wretched a delight in tears. - One of the Glendoveers, - The loveliest race of all of heavenly birth, - Hovering with gentle motion o'er the earth, - Amid the moonlight air, - In sportive flight was floating round and round, - Unknowing where his joyous way was tending. - He saw the maid where motionless she lay, - And stoopt his flight descending, - And rais'd her from the ground. - Her heavy eye-lids are half clos'd, - Her cheeks are pale and livid like the dead, - Down hang her loose arms lifelessly, - Down hangs her languid head. - - 3. - With timely pity touch'd for one so fair, - The gentle Glendoveer - Prest her thus pale and senseless to his breast, - {49} - And springs aloft in air with sinewy wings, - And bears the Maiden there, - Where Himakoot, the holy Mount, on high - From mid-earth rising in mid-Heaven, - Shines in its glory like the throne of Even. - Soaring with strenuous flight above, - He bears her to the blessed Grove, - Where in his ancient and august abodes, - There dwells old Casyapa, the Sire of Gods. - - 4. - The Father of the Immortals sate, - Where underneath the Tree of Life - The fountains of the Sacred River sprung: - The Father of the Immortals smil'd - Benignant on his son. - Knowest thou, he said, my child, - Ereenia, knowest thou whom thou bringest here, - A mortal to the holy atmosphere? - - EREENIA. - I found her in the Groves of Earth, - Beneath a poison-tree, - {50} - Thus lifeless as thou seest her. - In pity have I brought her to these bowers, - Not erring, Father! by that smile . . . - By that benignant eye! - - CASYAPA. - What if the maid be sinful? If her ways - Were ways of darkness, and her death predoom'd - To that black hour of midnight, when the Moon - Hath turn'd her face away, - Unwilling to behold - The unhappy end of guilt? - - EREENIA. - Then what a lie, my Sire, were written here, - In these fair characters! And she had died, - Sure proof of purer life and happier doom, - Now in the moonlight, in the eye of Heaven, - If I had left so fair a flower to fade. - But thou, . . . all knowing as thou art, - Why askest thou of me? - O Father, oldest, holiest, wisest, best, - To whom all things are plain, - {51} - Why askest thou of me? - - CASYAPA. - Knowest thou Kehama? - - EREENIA. - The Almighty Man! - Who knows not him and his tremendous power? - The Tyrant of the Earth, - The Enemy of Heaven! - - CASYAPA. - Fearest thou the Rajah? - - EREENIA. - He is terrible! - - CASYAPA. - Yea, he is terrible! such power hath he, - That hope hath entered Hell. - The Asuras and the spirits of the damn'd - Acclaim their Hero; Yamen, with the might - Of Godhead, scarce can quell - {52} - The rebel race accurst; - Half from their beds of torture they uprise, - And half uproot their chains. - Is there not fear in Heaven? - The souls that are in bliss suspend their joy; - The danger hath disturb'd - The calm of Deity, - And Brama fears, and Veeshnoo turns his face - In doubt toward Seeva's throne. - - EREENIA. - I have seen Indra tremble at his prayers, - And at his dreadful penances turn pale. - They claim and wrest from Seeva power so vast, - That even Seeva's self, - The Highest, cannot grant and be secure. - - CASYAPA. - And darest thou, Ereenia, brave - The Almighty Tyrant's power? - - EREENIA. - I brave him, Father! I? - - {53} - - CASYAPA. - Darest thou brave his vengeance? . . . for if not, - Take her again to earth, - Cast her before the tyger in his path, - Or where the death-dew-dropping tree - May work Kehama's will. - - EREENIA. - Never! - - CASYAPA. - Then meet his wrath! for he, even he, - Hath set upon this worm his wanton foot. - - EREENIA. - I knew her not, how wretched and how fair, - When here I wafted her: . . . poor Child of Earth, - Shall I forsake thee, seeing thee so fair, - So wretched? O my Father, let the maid - Dwell in the Sacred Grove. - - CASYAPA. - That must not be, - For Force and Evil then would enter here; - {54} - Ganges, the holy stream which cleanseth sin, - Would flow from hence polluted in its springs, - And they who gasp upon its banks in death, - Feel no salvation. Piety and peace - And Wisdom, these are mine; but not the power - Which could protect her from the Almighty Man; - Nor when the spirit of dead Arvalan - Should persecute her here to glut his rage, - To heap upon her yet more agony, - And ripen more damnation for himself. - - EREENIA. - Dead Arvalan? - - CASYAPA. - All power to him, whereof - The disembodied spirit in its state - Of weakness could be made participant, - Kehama hath assign'd, until his days - Of wandering shall be numbered. - - EREENIA. - Look! she drinks - The gale of healing from the blessed Groves. - {55} - She stirs, and lo! her hand - Hath touch'd the Holy River in its source, - Who would have shrunk if aught impure were nigh. - - CASYAPA. - The Maiden, of a truth, is pure from sin. - - 5. - The waters of the holy Spring - About the hand of Kailyal play; - They rise, they sparkle, and they sing, - Leaping where languidly she lay, - As if with that rejoicing stir - The holy Spring would welcome her. - The Tree of Life which o'er her spread, - Benignant bow'd its sacred head, - And dropt its dews of healing; - And her heart-blood at every breath, - Recovering from the strife of death, - Drew in new strength and feeling. - Behold her beautiful in her repose, - A life-bloom reddening now her dark-brown cheek; - And lo! her eyes unclose, - Dark as the depth of Ganges' spring profound - {56} - When night hangs over it, - Bright as the moon's refulgent beam, - That quivers on its clear up-sparkling stream. - - 6. - Soon she let fall her lids, - As one who, from a blissful dream - Waking to thoughts of pain, - Fain would return to sleep, and dream again. - Distrustful of the sight, - She moves not, fearing to disturb - The deep and full delight. - In wonder fix'd, opening again her eye - She gazes silently, - Thinking her mortal pilgrimage was past, - That she had reach'd her heavenly home of rest, - And these were Gods before her, - Or spirits of the blest. - - 7. - Lo! at Ereenia's voice, - A Ship of Heaven comes sailing down the skies. - Where wouldst thou bear her? cries - The ancient Sire of Gods. - {57} - Straight to the Swerga, to my Bower of Bliss, - The Glendoveer replies, - To Indra's own abodes. - Foe of her foe, were it alone for this - Indra should guard her from his vengeance there; - But if the God forbear, - Unwilling yet the perilous strife to try, - Or shrinking from the dreadful Rajah's might, . . . - Weak as I am, O Father, even I - Stand forth in Seeva's sight. - - 8. - Trust thou in Him whatever betide, - And stand forth fearlessly! - The Sire of Gods replied: - All that He wills is right, and doubt not thou, - Howe'er our feeble scope of sight - May fail us now, - His righteous will in all things must be done. - My blessing be upon thee, O my son! - - - - VII. - THE SWERGA. - - {58} - - 1. - Then in the Ship of Heaven, Ereenia laid - The waking, wondering Maid; - The Ship of Heaven, instinct with thought, display'd - Its living sail, and glides along the sky. - On either side in wavy tide, - The clouds of morn along its path divide; - The Winds who swept in wild career on high, - Before its presence check their charmed force; - The Winds that loitering lagg'd along their course, - Around the living Bark enamour'd play, - Swell underneath the sail, and sing before its way. - - {59} - - 2. - That Bark, in shape, was like the furrowed shell - Wherein the Sea-Nymphs to their parent-king, - On festal day, their duteous offerings bring. - Its hue? . . . Go watch the last green light - Ere Evening yields the western sky to Night; - Or fix upon the Sun thy strenuous sight - Till thou hast reach'd its orb of chrysolite. - The sail from end to end display'd - Bent, like a rainbow, o'er the maid. - An Angel's head, with visual eye, - Through trackless space, directs its chosen way; - Nor aid of wing, nor foot, nor fin, - Requires to voyage o'er the obedient sky. - Smooth as the swan when not a breeze at even - Disturbs the surface of the silver stream, - Through air and sunshine sails the Ship of Heaven. - - 3. - Recumbent there the Maiden glides along - On her aerial way, - How swift she feels not, though the swiftest wind - Had flagg'd in flight behind. - Motionless as a sleeping babe she lay, - {60} - And all serene in mind, - Feeling no fear; for that etherial air - With such new life and joyance fill'd her heart, - Fear could not enter there; - For sure she deem'd her mortal part was o'er, - And she was sailing to the heavenly shore; - And that Angelic form, who mov'd beside, - Was some good Spirit sent to be her guide. - - 4. - Daughter of Earth! therein thou deem'st aright. - And never yet did form more beautiful, - In dreams of night descending from on high, - Bless the religious Virgin's gifted sight; - Nor, like a vision of delight, - Rise on the raptur'd Poet's inward eye. - Of human form divine was he, - The immortal Youth of Heaven who floated by; - Even such as that divinest form shall be - In those blest stages of our onward race, - When no infirmity, - Low thought, nor base desire, nor wasting care, - Deface the semblance of our heavenly sire. - The wings of Eagle or of Cherubim - {61} - Had seem'd unworthy him: - Angelic power and dignity and grace - Were in his glorious pennons; from the neck - Down to the ankle reach'd their swelling web, - Richer than robes of Tyrian die, that deck - Imperial majesty: - Their colour like the winter's moonless sky - When all the stars of midnight's canopy - Shine forth; or like the azure deep at noon, - Reflecting back to heaven a brighter blue. - Such was their tint when clos'd, but when outspread, - The permeating light - Shed through their substance thin a varying hue; - Now bright as when the Rose, - Beauteous as fragrant, gives to scent and sight - A like delight; now like the juice that flows - From Douro's generous vine, - Or ruby when with deepest red it glows; - Or as the morning clouds refulgent shine - When, at forthcoming of the Lord of Day, - The Orient, like a shrine, - Kindles as it receives the rising ray, - And heralding his way, - Proclaims the presence of the power divine. - - {62} - - 5. - Thus glorious were the wings - Of that celestial Spirit, as he went - Disporting through his native element. - Nor these alone - The gorgeous beauties that they gave to view: - Through the broad membrane branch'd a pliant bone; - Spreading like fibres from their parent stem, - Its veins like interwoven silver shone, - Or as the chaster hue - Of pearls that grace some Sultan's diadem. - Now with slow stroke and strong, behold him smite - The buoyant air, and now in gentler flight, - On motionless wing expanded, shoot along. - - 6. - Through air and sunshine sails the Ship of Heaven. - Far far beneath them lies - The gross and heavy atmosphere of earth; - And with the Swerga gales, - The Maid of mortal birth - At every breath a new delight inhales. - And now toward its port the Ship of Heaven, - Swift as a falling meteor, shapes its flight, - {63} - Yet gently as the dews of night that gem, - And do not bend the hare-bell's slenderest stem. - Daughter of Earth, Ereenia cried, alight, - This is thy place of rest, the Swerga this, - Lo, here my Bower of Bliss! - - 7. - He furl'd his azure wings, which round him fold - Graceful as robes of Grecian chief of old. - The happy Kailyal knew not where to gaze: - Her eyes around in joyful wonder roam, - Now turn'd upon the lovely Glendoveer, - Now on his heavenly home. - - EREENIA. - Here, Maiden, rest in peace, - And I will guard thee, feeble as I am. - The Almighty Rajah shall not harm thee here, - While Indra keeps his throne. - - KAILYAL. - Alas, thou fearest him! - Immortal as thou art, thou fearest him! - I thought that death had sav'd me from his power; - {64} - Not even the dead are safe. - - EREENIA. - Long years of life and happiness, - O Child of Earth, be thine! - From death I sav'd thee, and from all thy foes - Will save thee, while the Swerga is secure. - - KAILYAL. - Not me alone, O gentle Deveta! - I have a father suffering upon earth, - A persecuted, wretched, poor, good man, - For whose strange misery - There is no human help, - And none but I dare comfort him - Beneath Kehama's curse. - O gentle Deveta, protect him too! - - EREENIA. - Come, plead thyself to Indra! words like thine - May win their purpose, rouse his slumbering heart, - And make him yet put forth his arm to wield - The thunder, while the thunder is his own. - - {65} - - 8. - Then to the garden of the Deity - Ereenia led the maid. - In the mid garden tower'd a giant Tree; - Rock-rooted on a mountain-top, it grew, - Rear'd its unrivall'd head on high, - And stretch'd a thousand branches o'er the sky, - Drinking with all its leaves celestial dew. - Lo! where from thence as from a living well - A thousand torrents flow! - For still in one perpetual shower, - Like diamond drops, etherial waters fell - From every leaf of all its ample bower. - Rolling adown the steep - From that aerial height, - Through the deep shade of aromatic trees, - Half-seen, the cataracts shoot their gleams of light, - And pour upon the breeze - Their thousand voices; far away the roar, - In modulations of delightful sound, - Half-heard and ever varying, floats around. - Below, an ample Lake expanded lies, - Blue as the o'er-arching skies; - Forth issuing from that lovely Lake, - {66} - A thousand rivers water Paradise. - Full to the brink, yet never overflowing, - They cool the amorous gales, which, ever blowing, - O'er their melodious surface love to stray; - Then winging back their way, - Their vapours to the parent Tree repay; - And ending thus where they began, - And feeding thus the source from whence they came, - The eternal rivers of the Swerga ran, - For ever renovate, yet still the same. - - 9. - On that etherial Lake whose waters lie - Blue and transpicuous, like another sky, - The Elements had rear'd their King's abode. - A strong controuling power their strife suspended, - And there their hostile essences they blended, - To form a Palace worthy of the God. - Built on the Lake the waters were its floor; - And here its walls were water arch'd with fire, - And here were fire with water vaulted o'er; - And spires and pinnacles of fire - Round watery cupolas aspire, - And domes of rainbow rest on fiery towers; - {67} - And roofs of flame are turreted around - With cloud, and shafts of cloud with flame are bound. - Here, too, the Elements for ever veer, - Ranging around with endless interchanging; - Pursued in love, and so in love pursuing, - In endless revolutions here they roll; - For ever their mysterious work renewing, - The parts all shifting, still unchanged the whole. - Even we on earth, at intervals, descry - Gleams of the glory, streaks of flowing light, - Openings of heaven, and streams that flash at night - In fitful splendour, through the northern sky. - - 10. - Impatient of delay, Ereenia caught - The Maid aloft, and spread his wings abroad, - And bore her to the presence of the God. - There Indra sate upon his throne reclin'd, - Where Devetas adore him; - The lute of Nared, warbling on the wind, - All tones of magic harmony combin'd - To sooth his troubled mind, - While the dark-eyed Apsaras danced before him. - In vain the God-musician played, - {68} - In vain the dark-eyed Nymphs of Heaven essay'd - To charm him with their beauties in the dance; - And when he saw the mortal Maid appear, - Led by the heroic Glendoveer, - A deeper trouble fill'd his countenance. - What hast thou done, Ereenia, said the God, - Bringing a mortal here? - And while he spake his eye was on the Maid. - The look he gave was solemn, not severe; - No hope to Kailyal it convey'd, - And yet it struck no fear; - There was a sad displeasure in his air, - But pity, too, was there. - - EREENIA. - Hear me, O Indra! On the lower earth - I found this child of man, by what mishap - I know not, lying in the lap of death. - Aloft I bore her to our Father's grove; - Not having other thought, than when the gales - Of bliss had heal'd her, upon earth again - To leave its lovely daughter. Other thoughts - Arose, when Casyapa declar'd her fate; - For she is one who groans beneath the power - {69} - Of the dread Rajah, terrible alike - To men and Gods. His son, dead Arvalan, - Arm'd with a portion, Indra, of thy power - Already wrested from thee, persecutes - The Maid, the helpless one, the innocent. - What then behov'd me but to waft her here - To my own Bower of Bliss? what other choice? - The spirit of foul Arvalan, not yet - Hath power to enter here; here thou art yet - Supreme, and yet the Swerga is thine own. - - INDRA. - No child of man, Ereenia, in the Bowers - Of Bliss may sojourn, till he hath put off - His mortal part; for on mortality - Time and Infirmity and Death attend, - Close followers they, and in their mournful train - Sorrow and Pain and Mutability: - Did they find entrance here, we should behold - Our joys, like earthly summers, pass away. - Those joys perchance may pass; a stronger hand - May wrest my sceptre, and unparadise - The Swerga; . . . but, Ereenia, if we fall, - Let it be Fate's own arm that casts us down, - {70} - We will not rashly hasten and provoke - The blow, nor bring ourselves the ruin on. - - EREENIA. - Fear courts the blow. Fear brings the ruin on. - Needs must the chariot-wheels of Destiny - Crush him who throws himself before their track, - Patient and prostrate. - - INDRA. - All may yet be well. - Who knows but Veeshnoo will descend, and save, - Once more incarnate? - - EREENIA. - Look not there for help, - Nor build on unsubstantial hope thy trust! - Our Father Casyapa hath said he turns - His doubtful eyes to Seeva, even as thou - Dost look to him for aid. But thine own strength - Should for thine own salvation be put forth; - Then might the higher powers approving see - And bless the brave resolve . . . Oh, that my arm - Could wield yon lightnings which play idly there, - {71} - In inoffensive radiance, round thy head! - The Swerga should not need a champion now, - Nor Earth implore deliverance still in vain! - - INDRA. - Thinkest thou I want the will? rash Son of Heaven, - What if my arm be feeble as thine own - Against the dread Kehama? He went on - Conquering in irresistible career, - Till his triumphant car had measur'd o'er - The insufficient earth, and all the kings - Of men received his yoke; then had he won - His will, to ride upon their necks elate, - And crown his conquests with the sacrifice - That should, to men and gods, proclaim him Lord - And Sovereign Master of the vassal World, - Sole Rajah, the Omnipotent below. - The steam of that portentous sacrifice - Arose to Heaven. Then was the hour to strike. - Then in the consummation of his pride, - His height of glory, then the thunder-bolt - Should have gone forth, and hurl'd him from his throne - Down to the fiery floor of Padalon, - To everlasting burnings, agony - {72} - Eternal, and remorse which knows no end. - That hour went by: grown impious in success, - By prayer and penances he wrested now - Such power from Fate, that soon, if Seeva turn not - His eyes on earth, and no Avatar save, - Soon will he seize the Swerga for his own, - Roll on through Padalon his chariot wheels, - Tear up the adamantine bolts which lock - The accurst Asuras to its burning floor, - And force the drink of Immortality - From Yamen's charge . . . Vain were it now to strive; - My thunder cannot pierce the sphere of power - Wherewith, as with a girdle, he is bound. - - KAILYAL. - Take me to earth, O gentle Deveta! - Take me again to earth! This is no place - Of hope for me! . . . my Father still must bear - His curse . . . he shall not bear it all alone; - Take me to earth, that I may follow him! . . . - I do not fear the Almighty Man! the Gods - Are feeble here; but there are higher powers - Who will not turn their eyes from wrongs like ours; - Take me to earth, O gentle Deveta! . . . - - {73} - - 11. - Saying thus she knelt, and to his knees she clung, - And bow'd her head, in tears and silence praying. - Rising anon, around his neck she flung - Her arms, and there with folded hands she hung, - And fixing on the guardian Glendoveer - Her eyes, more eloquent than Angel's tongue, - Again she cried, There is no comfort here! - I must be with my Father in his pain . . . - Take me to earth, O Deveta, again! - - 12. - Indra with admiration heard the maid. - O Child of Earth, he cried, - Already in thy spirit thus divine, - Whatever weal or woe betide, - Be that high sense of duty still thy guide, - And all good Powers will aid a soul like thine. - Then turning to Ereenia, thus he said, - Take her where Ganges hath its second birth, - Below our sphere, and yet above the earth: - There may Ladurlad rest beyond the power - Of the dread Rajah, till the fated hour. - - - - VIII. - THE SACRIFICE. - - {74} - - 1. - Dost thou tremble, O Indra, O God of the Sky, - Why slumber those thunders of thine? - Dost thou tremble on high, . . . - Wilt thou tamely the Swerga resign, . . . - Art thou smitten, O Indra, with dread? - Or seest thou not, seest thou not, Monarch divine, - How many a day to Seeva's shrine - Kehama his victim hath led? - Nine and ninety days are fled, - Nine and ninety steeds have bled; - One more, the rite will be complete, - One victim more; and this the dreadful day! - {75} - Then will the impious Rajah seize thy seat, - And wrest the thunder-sceptre from thy sway. - Along the mead the hallowed steed - Yet bends at liberty his way; - At noon his consummating blood will flow. - O day of woe! above, below, - That blood confirms the Almighty Tyrant's reign! - Thou tremblest, O Indra, O God of the Sky, - Thy thunder is vain! - Thou tremblest on high for thy power! - But where is Veeshnoo at this hour? - But where is Seeva's eye? - Is the Destroyer blind? - Is the Preserver careless for mankind? - - 2. - Along the mead the hallowed Steed - Still wanders wheresoever he will, - O'er hill, or dale, or plain; - No human hand hath trick'd that mane - From which he shakes the morning dew; - His mouth has never felt the rein, - His lips have never froth'd the chain; - For pure of blemish and of stain, - {76} - His neck unbroke to mortal yoke, - Like Nature free the Steed must be, - Fit offering for the Immortals he. - A year and day the Steed must stray - Wherever chance may guide his way, - Before he fall at Seeva's shrine; - The year and day have past away, - Nor touch of man hath marr'd the rite divine. - And now at noon the Steed must bleed; - The perfect rite to-day must force the meed - Which Fate reluctant shudders to bestow; - Then must the Swerga-God - Yield to the Tyrant of the World below; - Then must the Devetas obey - The Rajah's rod, and groan beneath his hateful sway. - - 3. - The Sun rides high; the hour is nigh; - The multitude who long, - Lest aught should mar the rite, - In circle wide on every side, - Have kept the Steed in sight, - Contract their circle now, and drive him on. - Drawn in long files before the Temple-court, - {77} - The Rajah's archers flank an ample space; - Here, moving onward still, they drive him near, - Then, opening, give him way to enter here. - - 4. - Behold him, how he starts and flings his head! - On either side in glittering order spread, - The archers ranged in narrowing lines appear; - The multitude behind close up the rear - With moon-like bend, and silently await - The awful end, - The rite that shall from Indra wrest his power. - In front, with far-stretch'd walls, and many a tower - Turret and dome and pinnacle elate, - The huge Pagoda seems to load the land: - And there before the gate - The Bramin band expectant stand, - The axe is ready for Kehama's hand. - - 5. - Hark! at the Golden Palaces - The Bramin strikes the time! - One, two, three, four, a thrice-told chime, - And then again, one, two. - {78} - The bowl that in its vessel floats, anew - Must fill and sink again, - Then will the final stroke be due. - The Sun rides high, the noon is nigh, - And silently, as if spell-bound, - The multitude expect the sound. - - 6. - Lo! how the Steed, with sudden start, - Turns his quick head to every part; - Long files of men on every side appear. - The sight might well his heart affright, - And yet the silence that is here - Inspires a stranger fear; - For not a murmur, not a sound - Of breath or motion rises round, - No stir is heard in all that mighty crowd; - He neighs, and from the temple-wall - The voice re-echoes loud, - Loud and distinct, as from a hill - Across a lonely vale, when all is still. - - 7. - Within the temple, on his golden throne - {79} - Reclin'd, Kehama lies, - Watching with steady eyes - The perfum'd light that, burning bright, - Metes out the passing hours. - On either hand his eunuchs stand, - Freshening with fans of peacock-plumes the air, - Which, redolent of all rich gums and flowers, - Seems, overcharged with sweets, to stagnate there. - Lo! the time-taper's flame ascending slow - Creeps up its coil toward the fated line; - Kehama rises and goes forth, - And from the altar, ready where it lies, - He takes the axe of sacrifice. - - 8. - That, instant from the crowd, with sudden shout, - A man sprang out - To lay upon the Steed his hand profane. - A thousand archers, with unerring eye, - At once let fly, - And with their hurtling arrows fill the sky. - In vain they fall upon him fast as rain; - He bears a charmed life, which may defy - All weapons, . . . and the darts that whizz around, - {80} - As from an adamantine panoply - Repell'd, fall idly to the ground. - Kehama clasp'd his hands in agony, - And saw him grasp the hallowed courser's mane, - Spring up with sudden bound, - And with a frantic cry, - And madman's gesture, gallop round and round. - - 9. - They seize, they drag him to the Rajah's feet. - What doom will now be his, . . what vengeance meet - Will he, who knows no mercy, now require? - The obsequious guards around, with blood-hound eye, - Look for the word, in slow-consuming fire, - By piece-meal death, to make the wretch expire, - Or hoist his living carcase, hook'd on high, - To feed the fowls and insects of the sky; - Or if aught worse inventive cruelty - To that remorseless heart of royalty - Might prompt, accursed instruments they stand - To work the wicked will with wicked hand. - Far other thoughts were in the multitude; - Pity, and human feelings, held them still; - And stifled sighs and groans supprest were there, - {81} - And many a secret curse and inward prayer - Call'd on the insulted Gods to save mankind. - Expecting some new crime in fear they stood, - Some horror which would make the natural blood - Start, with cold shudderings thrill the sinking heart, - Whiten the lip, and make the abhorrent eye - Roll back and close, prest in for agony. - - 10. - How then fared he for whom the mighty crowd - Suffered in spirit thus, . . . how then fared he? - A ghastly smile was on his lip, his eye - Glared with a ghastly hope, as he drew nigh, - And cried aloud, Yes, Rajah! it is I! - And wilt thou kill me now? - The countenance of the Almighty Man - Fell when he knew Ladurlad, and his brow - Was clouded with despite, as one ashamed. - That wretch again! indignant he exclaim'd, - And smote his forehead, and stood silently - Awhile in wrath: then, with ferocious smile, - And eyes which seem'd to darken his dark cheek, - Let him go free! he cried; he hath his Curse, - And Vengeance upon him can wreak no worse . . . - {82} - But ye who did not seize him . . . tremble ye! - - 11. - He bade the archers pile their weapons there: - No manly courage fill'd the slavish band, - No sweetening vengeance rous'd a brave despair. - He call'd his horsemen then, and gave command - To hem the offenders in, and hew them down. - Ten thousand scymitars at once uprear'd, - Flash up, like waters sparkling to the sun; - A second time the fatal brands appear'd - Lifted aloft, . . . they glitter'd then no more, - Their light was gone, their splendour quenched in gore. - At noon the massacre begun, - And night clos'd in before the work of death was done. - - - - IX. - THE HOME-SCENE. - - {83} - - 1. - The steam of slaughter from that place of blood - Spread o'er the tainted sky. - Vultures, for whom the Rajah's tyranny - So oft had furnish'd food, from far and nigh - Sped to the lure: aloft with joyful cry, - Wheeling around, they hover'd over head; - Or, on the temple perch'd, with greedy eye, - Impatient watch'd the dead. - Far off the tygers, in the inmost wood, - Heard the death-shriek, and snuff'd the scent of blood. - They rose, and through the covert went their way, - Couch'd at the forest edge, and waited for their prey. - - {84} - - 2. - He who had sought for death went wandering on, - The hope which had inspir'd his heart was gone, - Yet a wild joyance still inflam'd his face, - A smile of vengeance, a triumphant glow. - Where goes he? . . . Whither should Ladurlad go! - Unwittingly the wretch's footsteps trace - Their wonted path toward his dwelling-place; - And wandering on, unknowing where, - He starts at finding he is there. - - 3. - Behold his lowly home, - By yonder broad-bough'd plane o'ershaded: - There Marriataly's image stands, - And there the garland twin'd by Kailyal's hands - Around its brow hath faded. - The Peacocks, at their master's sight, - Quick from the leafy thatch alight, - And hurry round, and search the ground, - And veer their glancing necks from side to side, - Expecting from his hand - Their daily dole, which erst the maid supplied, - Now all too long denied. - - {85} - - 4. - But as he gaz'd around, - How strange did all accustom'd sights appear! - How differently did each familiar sound - Assail his altered ear! - Here stood the marriage bower, - Rear'd in that happy hour - When he, with festal joy and youthful pride, - Had brought Yedillian home, his beauteous bride. - Leaves not its own, and many a borrowed flower, - Had then bedeck'd it, withering ere the night; - But he who look'd, from that auspicious day, - For years of long delight, - And would not see the marriage-bower decay, - There planted and nurst up, with daily care, - The sweetest herbs that scent the ambient air, - And train'd them round to live and flourish there. - Nor when dread Yamen's will - Had call'd Yedillian from his arms away, - Ceas'd he to tend the marriage-bower, but still, - Sorrowing, had drest it like a pious rite - Due to the monument of past delight. - - 5. - He took his wonted seat before the door, . . . - {86} - Even as of yore, - When he was wont to view, with placid eyes, - His daughter at her evening sacrifice. - Here were the flowers which she so carefully - Did love to rear for Marriataly's brow; - Neglected now, - Their heavy heads were drooping, over-blown: - All else appeared the same as heretofore, - All . . . save himself alone; - How happy then, . . . and now a wretch for evermore! - - 6. - The market-flag which hoisted high, - From far and nigh, - Above yon cocoa grove is seen, - Hangs motionless amid the sultry sky. - Loud sounds the village-drum: a happy crowd - Is there; Ladurlad hears their distant voices, - But with their joy no more his heart rejoices; - And how their old companion now may fare, - Little they know, and less they care. - The torment he is doom'd to hear - Was but to them the wonder of a day, - A burthen of sad thoughts soon put away. - - {87} - - 7. - They knew not that the wretched man was near, - And yet it seem'd, to his distempered ear, - As if they wrong'd him with their merriment. - Resentfully he turn'd away his eyes, - Yet turn'd them but to find - Sights that enraged his mind - With envious grief more wild and overpowering. - The tank which fed his fields was there, and there - The large-leav'd lotus on the waters flowering. - There, from the intolerable heat, - The buffaloes retreat; - Only their nostrils rais'd to meet the air, - Amid the sheltering element they rest. - Impatient of the sight, he clos'd his eyes, - And bow'd his burning head, and in despair - Calling on Indra, . . . Thunder-God! he said, - Thou owest to me alone this day thy throne, - Be grateful, and in mercy strike me dead! - - 8. - Despair had rous'd him to that hopeless prayer, - Yet thinking on the heavenly Powers, his mind - Drew comfort; and he rose and gather'd flowers, - {88} - And twin'd a crown for Marriataly's brow; - And taking then her withered garland down, - Replaced it with the blooming coronal. - Not for myself, the unhappy Father cried, - Not for myself, O mighty one! I pray, - Accursed as I am beyond thy aid! - But, oh! be gracious still to that dear Maid - Who crown'd thee with these garlands day by day, - And danced before thee aye at even-tide - In beauty and in pride. - O Marriataly, wheresoe'er she stray - Forlorn and wretched, still be thou her guide! - - 9. - A loud and fiendish laugh replied, - Scoffing his prayer. Aloft, as from the air, - The sound of insult came: he look'd, and there - The visage of dead Arvalan came forth, - Only his face amid the clear blue sky, - With long-drawn lips of insolent mockery, - And eyes whose lurid glare - Was like a sulphur fire, - Mingling with darkness ere its flames expire. - - {89} - - 10. - Ladurlad knew him well: enraged to see - The cause of all his misery, - He stoop'd and lifted from the ground - A stake, whose fatal point was black with blood; - The same wherewith his hand had dealt the wound, - When Arvalan, in hour with evil fraught, - For violation seiz'd the shrieking Maid. - Thus arm'd, in act again to strike he stood, - And twice with inefficient wrath essay'd - To smite the impassive shade. - The lips of scorn their mockery-laugh renew'd, - And Arvalan put forth a hand and caught - The sun-beam, and condensing there its light, - Upon Ladurlad turn'd the burning stream. - Vain cruelty! the stake - Fell in white ashes from his hold, but he - Endur'd no added pain; his agony - Was full, and at the height; - The burning stream of radiance nothing harm'd him: - A fire was in his heart and brain, - And from all other flame - Kehama's Curse had charm'd him. - - {90} - - 11. - Anon the Spirit wav'd a second hand; - Down rush'd the obedient whirlwind from the sky; - Scoop'd up the sand like smoke, and from on high - Shed the hot shower upon Ladurlad's head. - Where'er he turns, the accursed Hand is there; - East, West, and North and South, on every side - The Hand accursed waves in air to guide - The dizzying storm; ears, nostrils, eyes and mouth, - It fills and choaks, and, clogging every pore, - Taught him new torments might be yet in store. - Where shall he turn to fly? behold his house - In flames; uprooted lies the marriage-bower, - The Goddess buried by the sandy shower. - Blindly, with staggering step, he reels about, - And still the accursed Hand pursued, - And still the lips of scorn their mockery laugh renew'd. - - 12. - What, Arvalan! hast thou so soon forgot - The grasp of Pollear? Wilt thou still defy - The righteous Powers of Heaven? or know'st thou not - That there are yet superior Powers on high, - {91} - Son of the Wicked? . . . Lo, in rapid flight, - Ereenia hastens from the etherial height; - Bright is the sword celestial in his hand, - Like lightning in its path athwart the sky. - He comes and drives, with angel-arm, the blow. - Oft have the Asuras, in the wars of Heaven, - Felt that keen sword by arm angelic driven, - And fled before it from the fields of light. - Thrice through the vulnerable shade - The Glendoveer impels the griding blade. - The wicked Shade flies howling from his foe. - So let that spirit foul - Fly, and for impotence of anger, howl, - Writhing with pain, and o'er his wounds deplore; - Worse punishment hath Arvalan deserv'd, - And righteous Fate hath heavier doom in store. - - 13. - Not now the Glendoveer pursued his flight. - He bade the Ship of Heaven alight, - And gently there he laid - The astonished Father by the happy Maid, - The Maid now shedding tears of deep delight. - {92} - Beholding all things with incredulous eyes, - Still dizzy with the sand-storm, there he lay, - While sailing up the skies, the living Bark, - Through air and sunshine, held its heavenly way. - - - - X. - MOUNT MERU. - - {93} - - 1. - Swift through the sky the vessel of the Suras - Sails up the fields of ether like an Angel. - Rich is the freight, O Vessel, that thou bearest! - Beauty and Virtue, - Fatherly cares and filial veneration, - Hearts which are prov'd and strengthen'd by affliction, - Manly resentment, fortitude and action, - Womanly goodness; - All with which Nature halloweth her daughters, - Tenderness, truth and purity and meekness, - Piety, patience, faith and resignation, - {94} - Love and devotement. - Ship of the Gods! how richly art thou laden! - Proud of the charge, thou voyagest rejoicing. - Clouds float around to honour thee, and Evening - Lingers in heaven. - - 2. - A Stream descends on Meru mountain; - None hath seen its secret fountain; - It had its birth, so sages say, - Upon the memorable day - When Parvati presumed to lay, - In wanton play, - Her hands, too venturous Goddess in her mirth, - On Seeva's eyes, the light and life of Earth. - Thereat the heart of the Universe stood still; - The Elements ceas'd their influences; the Hours - Stopt on the eternal round; Motion and Breath, - Time, Change, and Life and Death, - In sudden trance opprest, forgot their powers. - A moment, and the dread eclipse was ended; - But, at the thought of Nature thus suspended, - The sweat on Seeva's forehead stood, - And Ganges thence upon the World descended, - {95} - The Holy River, the Redeeming Flood. - - 3. - None hath seen its secret fountain; - But on the top of Meru mountain, - Which rises o'er the hills of earth, - In light and clouds it hath its mortal birth. - Earth seems that pinnacle to rear - Sublime above this worldly sphere, - Its cradle, and its altar, and its throne; - And there the new-born River lies - Outspread beneath its native skies, - As if it there would love to dwell - Alone and unapproachable. - Soon flowing forward, and resign'd - To the will of the Creating Mind, - It springs at once, with sudden leap, - Down from the immeasurable steep. - From rock to rock, with shivering force rebounding, - The mighty cataract rushes; Heaven around, - Like-thunder, with the incessant roar resounding, - And Meru's summit shaking with the sound. - Wide spreads the snowy foam, the sparkling spray - Dances aloft; and ever there, at morning, - {96} - The earliest, sun-beams haste to wing their way, - With rain-bow wreaths the holy flood adorning; - And duly the adoring Moon at night - Sheds her white glory there, - And in the watery air - Suspends her halo-crowns of silver light. - - 4. - A mountain-valley in its blessed breast - Receives the stream, which there delights to lie, - Untroubled and at rest, - Beneath the untainted sky. - There in a lovely lake it seems to sleep, - And thence, through many a channel dark and deep, - Their secret way the holy Waters wind, - Till, rising underneath the root - Of the Tree of Life on Himakoot, - Majestic forth they flow to purify mankind. - - 5. - Toward this Lake, above the nether sphere, - The living Bark, with angel eye, - Directs its course along the obedient sky. - Kehama hath not yet dominion here; - {97} - And till the dreaded hour, - When Indra by the Rajah shall be driven - Dethron'd from Heaven, - Here may Ladurlad rest beyond his power. - The living Bark alights; the Glendoveer - Then lays Ladurlad by the blessed Lake; . . . - O happy Sire, and yet more happy Daughter! - The etherial gales his agony aslake, - His daughter's tears are on his cheek, - His hand is in the water; - The innocent man, the man opprest, - Oh joy! . . . hath found a place of rest - Beyond Kehama's sway, - His curse extends not here; his pains have past away. - - 6. - O happy Sire, and happy Daughter! - Ye on the banks of that celestial water - Your resting place and sanctuary have found. - What! hath not then their mortal taint defil'd - The sacred solitary ground? - Vain thought! . . the Holy Valley smil'd - Receiving such a sire and child; - Ganges, who seem'd asleep to lie, - {98} - Beheld them with benignant eye, - And ripped round melodiously, - And roll'd her little waves, to meet - And welcome their beloved feet. - The gales of Swerga thither fled, - And heavenly odours there were shed - About, below, and overhead; - And Earth, rejoicing in their tread, - Hath built them up a blooming Bower, - Where every amaranthine flower - Its deathless blossom interweaves - With bright and undecaying leaves. - - 7. - Three happy beings are there here, - The Sire, the Maid, the Glendoveer. - A fourth approaches, . . . who is this - That enters in the Bower of Bliss? - No form so fair might painter find - Among the daughters of mankind; - For death her beauties hath refin'd, - And unto her a form hath given, - Fram'd of the elements of Heaven; - Pure dwelling-place for perfect mind. - {99} - She stood and gaz'd on sire and child; - Her tongue not yet had power to speak, - The tears were streaming down her cheek; - And when those tears her sight beguil'd, - And still her faultering accents fail'd, - The Spirit, mute and motionless, - Spread out her arms for the caress, - Made still and silent with excess - Of love and painful happiness. - - 8. - The Maid that lovely form survey'd; - Wistful she gaz'd, and knew her not; - But Nature to her heart convey'd - A sudden thrill, a startling thought, - A feeling many a year forgot, - Now like a dream anew recurring, - As if again in every vein - Her mother's milk was stirring. - With straining neck and earnest eye - She stretch'd her hands imploringly, - As if she fain would have her nigh, - Yet fear'd to meet the wish'd embrace, - At once with love and awe opprest, - {100} - Not so, Ladurlad; he could trace, - Though brighten'd with angelic grace, - His own Yedillian's earthly face; - He ran and held her to his breast! - Oh joy above all joys of Heaven, - By Death alone to others given, - This moment hath to him restor'd - The early-lost, the long-deplor'd. - - 9. - They sin who tell us love can die. - With life all other passions fly, - All others are but vanity. - In Heaven Ambition cannot dwell, - Nor Avarice in the vaults of Hell; - Earthly these passions of the Earth, - They perish where they have their birth; - But Love is indestructible. - Its holy flame for ever burneth, - From Heaven it came, to Heaven returneth; - Too oft on Earth a troubled guest, - At times deceiv'd, at times opprest, - It here is tried and purified, - Then hath in Heaven its perfect rest: - {101} - It soweth here with toil and care, - But the harvest-time of Love is there. - Oh! when a Mother meets on high - The Babe she lost in infancy, - Hath she not then, for pains and fears, - The day of woe, the watchful night, - For all her sorrow, all her tears, - An over-payment of delight! - - 10. - A blessed family is this - Assembled in the Bower of Bliss! - Strange woe, Ladurlad, hath been thine, - And pangs beyond all human measure, - And thy reward is now divine, - A foretaste of eternal pleasure. - He knew indeed there was a day - When all these joys would pass away, - And he must quit this blest abode; - And, taking up again the spell, - Groan underneath the baleful load, - And wander o'er the world again - Most wretched of the sons of men: - Yet was this brief repose, as when - {102} - A traveller in the Arabian sands, - Half-fainting on his sultry road, - Hath reach'd the water-place at last; - And resting there beside the Well, - Thinks of the perils he has past, - And gazes o'er the unbounded plain, - The plain which must be travers'd still, - And drinks, . . . yet cannot drink his fill; - Then girds his patient loins again. - So to Ladurlad now was given - New strength, and confidence in Heaven, - And hope, and faith invincible. - For often would Ereenia tell - Of what in elder days befell, - When other Tyrants, in their might, - Usurp'd dominion o'er the earth; - And Veeshnoo took a human birth, - Deliverer of the Sons of men; - And slew the huge Ermaccasen, - And piece-meal rent, with lion force, - Errenen's accursed corse, - And humbled Baly in his pride; - And when the Giant Ravanen - Had borne triumphant, from his side, - {103} - Sita, the earth-born God's beloved bride, - Then, from his island-kingdom, laugh'd to scorn - The insulted husband, and his power defied; - How to revenge the wrong in wrath he hied, - Bridging the sea before his dreadful way, - And met the hundred-headed foe, - And dealt him the unerring blow; - By Brama's hand the righteous lance was given, - And by that arm immortal driven, - It laid the mighty Tyrant low; - And Earth and Ocean, and high Heaven, - Rejoiced to see his overthrow. - Oh! doubt not thou, Yedillian cried, - Such fate Kehama will betide; - For there are Gods who look below. . . . - Seeva, the Avenger, is not blind, - Nor Veeshnoo careless for mankind. - - 11. - Thus was Ladurlad's soul imbued - With hope and holy fortitude; - And Child and Sire, with pious mind - Alike resolv'd, alike resign'd, - Look'd onward to the evil day: - {104} - Faith was their comfort, Faith their stay; - They trusted woe would pass away, - And Tyranny would sink subdued, - And Evil yield to Good. - - 12. - Lovely wert thou, O Flower of Earth! - Above all flowers of mortal birth; - But foster'd in this blissful bower - From day to day, and hour to hour, - Lovelier grew the lovely flower. - O blessed, blessed company! - When men and heavenly spirits greet, - And they whom Death had severed meet, - And hold again communion sweet; . . . - O blessed, blessed company! - The Sun, careering round the sky, - Beheld them with rejoicing eye, - And bade his willing Charioteer - Relax their speed as they drew near; - Arounin check'd the rainbow reins, - The seven green coursers shook their manes, - And brighter rays around them threw; - The Car of glory in their view - {105} - More radiant, more resplendent grew; - And Surya, through his veil of light, - Beheld the Bower, and blest the sight. - The Lord of Night, as he sail'd by, - Stay'd his pearly boat on high; - And, while around the blissful Bower - He bade the softest moonlight flow, - Lingered to see that earthly flower, - Forgetful of his dragon foe, - Who, mindful of their ancient feud, - With open jaws of rage pursued. - There all good Spirits of the air, - Suras and Devetas repair, - Aloft they love to hover there - And view the flower of mortal birth, - Here, for her innocence and worth, - Transplanted from the fields of earth; . . . - And him who, on the dreadful day - When Heaven was fill'd with consternation, - And Indra trembled with dismay, - And, for the sounds of joy and mirth, - Woe was heard and lamentation, - Defied the Rajah in his pride, - Though all in Heaven and Earth beside - Stood mute in dolorous expectation; - {106} - And, rushing forward in that hour, - Saved the Swerga from his power. - Grateful for this they hover nigh, - And bless the blessed company. - - 13. - One God alone, with wanton eye, - Beheld them in their bower; - O ye, he cried, who have defied - The Rajah, will ye mock my power? - 'Twas Camdeo riding on his lory, - 'Twas the immortal youth of Love; - If men below and Gods above, - Subject alike, quoth he, have felt these darts, - Shall ye alone, of all in story, - Boast impenetrable hearts? - Hover here, my gentle lory, - Gently hover, while I see - To whom hath Fate decreed the glory, - To the Glendoveer or me. - - 14. - Then, in the dewy evening sky, - The bird of gorgeous plumery - Pois'd his wings and hover'd nigh. - {107} - It chanced at that delightful hour - Kailyal sate before the Bower, - On the green bank with amaranth sweet, - Where Ganges warbled at her feet. - Ereenia there, before the Maid, - His sails of ocean-blue displayed; - And sportive in her sight, - Mov'd slowly o'er the lake with gliding flight; - Anon, with sudden stroke and strong, - In rapid course careering, swept along; - Now shooting downward from his heavenly height, - Plunged in the deep below, - Then rising, soar'd again, - And shook the sparkling waters off like rain, - And hovering o'er the silver surface hung. - At him young Camdeo bent the bow; - With living bees the bow was strung, - The fatal bow of sugar-cane, - And flowers which would inflame the heart - With their petals barb'd the dart. - - 15. - The shaft, unerringly addrest, - Unerring flew, and smote Ereenia's breast. - Ah, Wanton! cried the Glendoveer, - {108} - Go aim at idler hearts, - Thy skill is baffled here! - A deeper love I bear that Maid divine, - Sprung from a higher will, - A holier power than thine! - A second shaft, while thus Ereenia cried, - Had Camdeo aim'd at Kailyal's side, - But, lo! the Bees which strung his bow - Broke off, and took their flight. - To that sweet Flower of earth they wing their way, - Around her raven tresses play, - And buzz about her with delight, - As if, with that melodious sound, - They strove to pay their willing duty - To mortal purity and beauty. - Ah, Wanton! cried the Glendoveer, - No power hast thou for mischief here! - Chuse thou some idler breast, - For these are proof, by nobler thoughts possest. - Go, to thy plains of Matra go, - And string again thy broken bow! - - 16. - Rightly Ereenia spake; and ill had thoughts - Of earthly love beseem'd the sanctuary - {109} - Where Kailyal had been wafted, that the Soul - Of her dead mother there might strengthen her, - Feeding her with the milk of heavenly lore; - And influxes of Heaven imbue her heart - With hope and faith, and holy fortitude, - Against the evil day. Here rest a while - In peace, O Father! mark'd for misery - Above all sons of men; O Daughter! doom'd - For sufferings and for trials above all - Of women; . . . yet both favour'd, both belov'd - By all good Powers, here rest a while in peace. - - - - XI. - THE ENCHANTRESS. - - {110} - - 1. - When from the sword, by arm angelic driven, - Foul Arvalan fled howling, wild in pain, - His thin essential spirit, rent and riven - With wounds, united soon and heal'd again; - Backward the accursed turn'd his eye in flight, - Remindful of revengeful thoughts even then, - And saw where, gliding through the evening light, - The Ship of Heaven sail'd upward through the sky, - Then, like a meteor, vanish'd from his sight. - Where should he follow? vainly might he try - To trace through trackless air its rapid course; - {111} - Nor dar'd he that; angelic arm defy, - Still sore and writhing from its dreaded force. - - 2. - Should he the lust of vengeance lay aside? - Too long had Arvalan in ill been train'd; - Nurst up in power and tyranny and pride, - His soul the ignominious thought disdain'd. - Or to his mighty father should he go, - Complaining of defeature twice sustain'd, - And ask new powers to meet the immortal foe? . . . - Repulse he fear'd not, but he fear'd rebuke, - And sham'd to tell him of his overthrow. - There dwelt a dread Enchantress in a nook - Obscure; old help-mate she to him had been, - Lending her aid in many a secret sin; - And there, for counsel, now his way he took. - - 3. - She was a woman whose unlovely youth, - Even like a cankered rose, which none will cull, - Had withered on the stalk; her heart was full - Of passions which had found no natural scope, - Feelings which there had grown but ripened not; - {112} - Desires unsatisfied, abortive hope, - Repinings which provoked vindictive thought, - These restless elements for ever wrought, - Fermenting in her with perpetual stir, - And thus her spirit to all evil mov'd; - She hated men because they lov'd not her, - And hated women because they were lov'd. - And thus, in wrath and hatred and despair, - She tempted Hell to tempt her; and resign'd - Her body to the Demons of the Air, - Wicked and wanton fiends who, where they will, - Wander abroad, still seeking to do ill, - And take whatever vacant form they find, - Carcase of man or beast, that life hath left; - Foul instrument for them of fouler mind. - To these the Witch her wretched body gave, - So they would wreak her vengeance on mankind, - She thus at once their mistress and their slave; - And they, to do such service nothing loth, - Obeyed her bidding, slaves and masters both. - - 4. - So from this cursed intercourse she caught - Contagious power of mischief, and was taught - {113} - Such secrets as are damnable to guess. - Is there a child whose little lovely ways - Might win all hearts, . . . on whom his parents gaze - Till they shed tears of joy and tenderness? - Oh! hide him from that Witch's withering sight! - Oh! hide him from the eye of Lorrinite! - Her look hath crippling in it, and her curse - All plagues which on mortality can light; - Death is his doom if she behold, . . . or worse, . . . - Diseases loathsome and incurable, - And inward sufferings that no tongue can tell. - Woe was to him, on whom that eye of hate - Was bent; for, certain as the stroke of Fate, - It did its mortal work; nor human arts - Could save the unhappy wretch, her chosen prey; - For gazing, she consum'd his vital parts, - Eating his very core of life away. - The wine which from yon wounded palm on high - Fills yonder gourd, as slowly it distills, - Grows sour at once if Lorrinite pass by. - The deadliest worm, from which all creatures fly, - Fled from the deadlier venom of her eye; - The babe unborn, within its mother's womb, - Started and trembled when the Witch came nigh, - {114} - And in the silent chambers of the tomb - Death shuddered her unholy tread to hear, - And, from the dry and mouldering bones, did fear - Force a cold sweat, when Lorrinite was near. - - 5. - Power made her haughty: by ambition fir'd, - Ere long to mightier mischiefs she aspir'd. - The Calis, who o'er Cities rule unseen, - Each in her own domain a Demon Queen, - And there ador'd with blood and human life, - They knew her, and in their accurst employ - She stirr'd up neighbouring states to mortal strife. - Sani, the dreadful God, who rides abroad - Upon the King of the Ravens, to destroy - The offending sons of men, when his four hands - Were weary with their toil, would let her do - His work of vengeance upon guilty lands; - And Lorrinite, at his commandment, knew - When the ripe earthquake should be loos'd, and where - To point its course. And in the baneful air - The pregnant seeds of death he bade her strew, - All deadly plagues and pestilence to brew. - The Locusts were her army, and their bands, - {115} - Where'er she turn'd her skinny finger, flew; - The floods in ruin roll'd at her commands; - And when, in time of drought, the husbandman - Beheld the gathered rain about to fall, - Her breath would drive it to the desert sands. - While in the marshes parch'd and gaping soil, - The rice-roots by the searching Sun were dried; - And in lean groupes, assembled at the side - Of the empty tank, the cattle dropt and died; - And Famine, at her bidding, wasted wide - The wretched land; till, in the public way, - Promiscuous where the dead and dying lay, - Dogs fed on human bones in the open light of day. - - 6. - Her secret cell the accursed Arvalan, - In quest of vengeance, sought, and thus began. - Mighty mother! mother wise! - Revenge me on my enemies. - - LORRINITE. - Com'st thou, son, for aid to me? - Tell me who have injur'd thee, - Where they are, and who they be; - {116} - Of the Earth, or of the Sea, - Or of the aerial company? - Earth, nor Sea, nor Air is free - From the powers who wait on me, - And my tremendous witchery. - - ARVALAN. - She for whom so ill I sped, - Whom my Father deemeth dead, - Lives, for Marriataly's aid - From the water sav'd the maid. - In hatred I desire her still, - And in revenge would have my will. - A Deveta with, wings of blue, - And sword whose edge even now I rue, - In a Ship of Heaven on high, - Pilots her along the sky. - Where they voyage thou canst tell, - Mistress of the mighty spell. - - 7. - At this the Witch, through shrivell'd lips and thin, - Sent forth a sound half-whistle and half-hiss. - Two winged Hands came in, - {117} - Armless and bodyless, - Bearing a globe of liquid crystal, set - In frame as diamond bright, yet black as jet. - A thousand eyes were quench'd in endless night, - To form that magic globe; for Lorrinite - Had, from their sockets, drawn the liquid sight, - And kneaded it, with re-creating skill, - Into this organ of her mighty will. - Look in yonder orb, she cried, - Tell me what is there descried. - - ARVALAN. - A mountain top, in clouds of light - Envelop'd, rises on my sight; - Thence a cataract rushes down, - Hung with many a rainbow crown; - Light and clouds conceal its head, - Below, a silver Lake is spread; - Upon its shores a Bower I see, - Fit home for blessed company. - See they come forward, . . . one, two, three, . . . - The last a Maiden, . . . it is she! - The foremost shakes his wings of blue, - 'Tis he whose sword even yet I rue; - {118} - And in that other one I know - The visage of my deadliest foe. - Mother, let thy magic might - Arm me for the mortal fight; - Helm and shield and mail afford, - Proof against his dreaded sword. - Then will I invade their seat, - Then shall vengeance be compleat. - - LORRINITE. - Spirits, who obey my will, - Hear him, and his wish fulfill. - - 8. - So spake the mighty one, nor farther spell - Needed. Anon a sound, like smother'd thunder, - Was heard, slow rolling under; - The solid pavement of the cell - Quak'd, heav'd, and cleft asunder, - And, at the feet of Arvalan display'd, - Helmet and mail and shield and scymitar were laid. - - 9. - The Asuras, often put to flight, - {119} - And scattered in the fields of light, - By their foes' celestial might, - Forged this enchanted armour for the fight. - 'Mid fires intense did they anneal, - In mountain furnaces, the quivering steel, - Till trembling through each deepening hue, - It settled in a midnight blue; - Last they cast it, to aslake, - In the penal icy lake. - Then, they consign'd it to the Giant brood; - And, while they forged the impenetrable arms, - The Evil Powers, to oversee them, stood, - And there imbued - The work of Giant strength with magic charms. - Foul Arvalan, with joy, survey'd - The crescent sabre's cloudy blade, - With deeper joy the impervious mail, - The shield and helmet of avail. - Soon did he himself array, - And bade her speed him on his way. - - 10. - Then she led him to the den, - Where her chariot, night and day, - {120} - Stood harness'd, ready for the way. - Two Dragons, yok'd in adamant, convey - The magic car; from either collar sprung - An adamantine rib, which met in air, - O'er-arch'd, and crost, and bent diverging there, - And firmly in its arc upbore, - Upon their brazen necks, thereat of power. - Arvalan mounts the car, and in his hand - Receives the magic reins from Lorrinite; - The dragons, long obedient to command, - Their ample sails expand; - Like steeds well-broken to fair lady's hand, - They feel the reins of might, - And up the northern sky begin their flight. - - 11. - Son of the Wicked, doth thy soul delight - To think its hour of vengeance now is nigh? - Lo! where the far-off light - Of Indra's palace flashes on his sight, - And Meru's heavenly summit shines on high, - With clouds of glory bright, - Amid the dark-blue sky. - Already, in his hope, doth he espy - {121} - Himself secure in mail of tenfold charms, - Ereenia writhing from the magic blade, - The Father sent to bear his Curse, . . . the Maid - Resisting vainly in his impious arms. - - 12. - Ah, Sinner! whose anticipating soul - Incurs the guilt even when the crime is spar'd! - Joyous toward Meru's summit on he far'd, - While the twin Dragons, rising as he guides, - With steady flight, steer northward for the pole. - Anon, with irresistible controul, - Force mightier far than his arrests their course; - It wrought as though a Power unseen had caught - Their adamantine yokes to drag them on. - Straight on they bend their way, and now, in vain, - Upward doth Arvalan direct the rein! - The rein of magic might avails no more; - Bootless its strength against that unseen Power - Which, in their mid career, - Hath seiz'd the Chariot and the Charioteer. - With hands resisting, and down-pressing feet - Upon their hold insisting, - He struggles to maintain his difficult seat. - {122} - Seeking in vain with that strange Power to vie, - Their doubled speed the affrighted Dragons try. - Forced in a stream from whence was no retreat, - Strong as they are, behold, them whirled along, - Headlong, with useless pennons, through the sky. - - 13. - What power was that, which, with resistless might - Foil'd the dread magic thus of Lorrinite? - 'Twas all-commanding Nature . . They were here - Within the sphere of the adamantine rocks - Which gird Mount Meru round, as far below - That heavenly height where Ganges hath its birth - Involv'd in clouds and light, - So far above its roots of ice and snow. - On . . on they roll, . . rapt headlong they roll on; . . - The lost canoe, less rapidly than this, - Down the precipitous stream is whirl'd along - To the brink of Niagara's dread abyss. - On . . on . . they roll, and now, with shivering shock, - Are dash'd against the rock that girds the Pole. - Down from his shatter'd mail the unhappy Soul - Is dropt, . . ten thousand thousand fathoms down, . . . - Till in an ice-rift, 'mid the eternal snow, - {123} - Foul Arvalan is stopt. There let him howl, - Groan there, . . and there, with unavailing moan, - For aid on his Almighty Father call. - All human sounds are lost - Amid those deserts of perpetual frost, - Old Winter's drear domain, - Beyond the limits of the living World, - Beyond Kehama's reign. - Of utterance and of motion soon bereft, - Frozen to the ice-rock, there behold him lie, - Only the painful sense of Being left, - A Spirit who must feel, and cannot die, - Bleaching and bare beneath the polar sky. - - - - XII. - THE SACRIFICE COMPLEATED. - - {124} - - 1. - O ye who, by the Lake - On Meru Mount, partake - The joys which Heaven hath destin'd for the blest, - Swift, swift, the moments fly, - The silent hours go by, - And ye must leave your dear abode of rest. - O wretched Man, prepare - Again thy Curse to bear! - Prepare, O wretched Maid, for farther woe! - The fatal hour draws near, - When Indra's heavenly sphere - Must own the Tyrant of the World below. - {125} - To-day the hundredth Steed, - At Seeva's shrine, must bleed, - The dreadful sacrifice is full to-day; - Nor man nor God hath power, - At this momentous hour, - Again to save the Swerga from his sway. - Fresh woes, O Maid divine, - Fresh trials must be thine; - And what must thou, Ladurlad, yet endure! - But let your hearts be strong, - And bear ye bravely on, - For Providence is good, and virtue is secure. - - 2. - They, little deeming that the fatal day - Was come, beheld where, through the morning sky, - A Ship of Heaven drew nigh. - Onward they watch it steer its steady flight; - Till, wondering, they espy - Old Casyapa, the Sire of Gods, alight. - But, when Ereenia saw the Sire appear, - At that unwonted and unwelcome sight - His heart receiv'd a sudden shock of fear: - Thy presence doth its doleful tidings tell, - {126} - O Father! cried the startled Glendoveer, - The dreadful hour is near! I know it well! - Not for less import would the Sire of Gods - Forsake his ancient and august abodes. - - 3. - Even so: serene the immortal Sire replies; - Soon like an earthquake will ye feel the blow - Which consummates the mighty sacrifice: - And this World, and its Heaven, and all therein - Are then Kehama's. To the second ring - Of these seven Spheres, the Swerga-King, - Even now, prepares for flight, . . - Beyond the circle of the conquer'd world, - Beyond the Rajah's might. - Ocean, that clips this inmost of the Spheres, - And girds it round with everlasting roar, - Set like a gem appears - Within that beading shore. - Thither fly all the Sons of heavenly race: - I, too, forsake mine ancient dwelling-place. - And now, O Child and Father, ye must go, - Take up the burthen of your woe, - And wander once again below. - {127} - With patient heart hold onward to the end, . . . - Be true unto yourselves, and bear in mind - That every God is still the good Man's friend; - And they, who suffer bravely, save mankind. - - 4. - Oh tell me, cried Ereenia, for from thee - Nought can be hidden, when the end will be! - - 5. - Seek not to know, old Casyapa replied, - What pleaseth Heaven to hide. - Dark is the abyss of time, - But light enough to guide your steps is given; - Whatever weal or woe betide, - Turn never front the way of truth aside, - And leave the event, in holy hope, to Heaven. - The moment is at hand, no more delay, - Ascend the etherial bark, and go your way; - And Ye, of heavenly nature, follow me. - - 6. - The will of Heaven be done, Ladurlad cried, - Nor more the man replied; - {128} - But placed his daughter in the etherial Bark, - Then took his seat beside. - There was no word at parting, no adieu. - Down from that empyreal height they flew: - One groan Ladurlad breath'd, yet uttered not, - When, to his heart and brain - The fiery Curse again like lightning shot. - And now on earth, the Sire and Child alight, - Up soar'd the Ship of Heaven, and sail'd away from sight. - - 7. - O ye immortal Bowers, - Where hitherto the Hours - Have led their dance of happiness for aye, - With what a sense of woe - Do ye expect the blow, - And see your heavenly dwellers driven away! - Lo! where the aunnay-birds of graceful mien, - Whose milk-white forms were seen, - Lovely as Nymphs, your ancient trees between, - And by your silent springs, - With melancholy cry, - Now spread unwilling wings; - Their stately necks reluctant they protend, - {129} - And through the sullen sky, - To other worlds, their mournful progress bend. - The affrighted gales to-day - O'er their beloved streams no longer play, - The streams of Paradise have ceas'd to flow; - The Fountain-Tree withholds its diamond shower, - In this portentous hour, . . - This dolorous hour, . . this universal woe. - Where is the Palace, whose far-flashing beams, - With streaks and streams of ever-varying light, - Brighten'd the polar night - Around the frozen North's extremest shore? - Gone like a morning rainbow, . . like a dream. . . - A star that shoots and falls, and then is seen no more. - - 8. - Now! now! . . . Before the Golden Palaces, - The Bramin strikes the inevitable hour. - The fatal blow is given, - That over Earth and Heaven - Confirms the Almighty Rajah in his power. - All evil Spirits then, - That roam the World about, - Or wander through the sky, - {130} - Set up a joyful shout. - The Asuras and the Giants join the cry, - The damn'd in Padalon acclaim - Their hop'd Deliverer's name; - Heaven trembles with the thunder-drowning sound; - Back starts affrighted Ocean from the shore, - And the adamantine vaults, and brazen floor - Of Hell, are shaken with the roar. - Up rose the Rajah through the conquer'd sky, - To seize the Swerga for his proud abode; - Myriads of evil Genii round him fly, - As royally, on wings of winds, he rode, - And scal'd high Heaven, triumphant like a God. - - - -NOTES. - -{133} - - _Calmly she took her seat_.--I. p. 8. - -SHE, says Bernier, whom I saw burn herself, when I parted from -_Surat_ to travel into _Persia_, in the presence of Monsieur _Chardin_ -of _Paris_, and of many _English_ and _Dutch_, was of a middle age, -and not unhandsome. To represent unto you the undaunted cheerfulness -that appeared in her countenance, the resolution with which she -marched, washed herself, spoke to the people; the confidence with -which she looked upon us, viewed her little cabin, made up of very dry -millet-straw and small wood, went into this cabin, and sat down upon -the pile, and took her husband's head into her lap, and a torch into -her own hand, and kindled the cabin, whilst I know not how many -_Brahmans_ were busy in kindling the fire round about: To represent to -you, I say, all this as it ought, is {134} not possible for me; I can -at present scarce believe it myself, though it be but a few days since -I saw it. - - - _They strip her ornaments away._--I. p. 8. - -She went out again to the river, and taking up some water in her -hands, muttered some prayers, and offered it to the sun. All her -ornaments were then taken from her; and her armlets were broken, and -chaplets of white flowers were put upon her neck and hands. Her hair -was tucked up with five combs; and her forehead was marked with clay -in the same manner as that of her husband--STAVORINUS. - - - _Around her neck they leave_ - _The marriage-knot alone._--I. p. 8. - -When the time for consummating the marriage is come, they light the -fire Homam with the wood of Ravasiton. The Bramin blesses the former, -which being done, the bridegroom takes three handfuls of rice, and -throws it on the bride's head, who does the same to him. Afterwards -the bride's father clothes her in a dress according to his condition, -and washes the bridegroom's feet; the bride's mother observing to pour -out the water. This being done, the father puts his daughter's hand in -his own, puts water into it, some pieces of money, {135} and, giving -it to the bridegroom, says, at the same time, I have no longer any -thing to do with you, and I give you up to the power of another. The -_Tali_, which is a ribbon with a golden head hanging at it, is held -ready; and, being shewn to the company, some prayers and blessings are -pronounced; after which the bridegroom takes it, and hangs it about -the bride's neck. This knot is what particularly secures his -possession of her; for, before he had had the _Tali_ on, all the rest -of the ceremonies might have been made to no purpose; for it has -sometimes happened, that, when the bridegroom was going to fix it on, -the bride's father has discovered his not being satisfied with the -bridegroom's gift, when another, offering more, has carried off the -bride with her father's consent. But when once the _Tali_ is put on, -the marriage is indissoluble; and, whenever the husband dies, the -_Tali_ is burnt along with him, to shew that the marriage bands are -broke. Besides these particular ceremonies, the people have notice of -the wedding by a _Pandal_, which is raised before the bride's door -some days before. The whole concludes with an entertainment which the -bride's father gives to the common friends; and during this festivity, -which continues five days, alms are given to the poor, and the fire -Homam is kept in. The seventh day, the new-married couple set out for -the {136} bridegroom's house, whither they frequently go by -torch-light. The bride and bridegroom are carried in a sedan, pass -through the chief streets of the city, and are accompanied by their -friends, who are either on horseback or mounted on elephants.--A. -ROGER. - - - _They force her on, they bind her to the dead_.--I. p. 9. - -'Tis true, says Bernier, that I have seen some of them, which, at the -sight of the pile and the fire, appeared to have some apprehension, -and that, perhaps, would have gone back. Those demons, the Bramins, -that are there with their great sticks, astonish them, and hearten -them up, or even thrust them in; as I have seen it done to a young -woman that retreated five or six paces from the pile, and to another, -that was much disturbed when, she saw the fire take hold of her -clothes, these executioners thrusting her in with their long poles. - -At Lahor, I saw a very handsome and a very young woman burnt; I -believe she was not above twelve years of age. This poor unhappy -creature appeased rather dead than alive when she came near the pile; -she shook and wept bitterly. Meanwhile, three or four of these -executioners, the Bramins, together with an old hag that held her -under the arm, thrust her on, and made her sit down upon the wood; -and, lest she should run away, {137} they tied her legs and hands; and -so they burnt her alive. I had enough to do to contain myself for -indignation.--BERNIER. - -Pietro Della Valle conversed with a widow, who was about to burn -herself by her own choice. She told him, that, generally speaking, -women were not forced to burn themselves; but sometimes, among people -of rank, when a young woman, who was handsome, was left a widow, and -in danger of marrying again, (which is never practised among them, -because of the confusion and disgrace which are inseparable from such -a thing,) or of falling into other irregularities, then, indeed, the -relations of the husband, if they are at all tenacious of the honour -of the family, compel her to burn herself, whether she likes it or no, -merely to prevent the inconveniences which might take place. - -Dellon also, whom I consider as one of the best travellers in the -East, expressly asserts, that widows are burnt there "_de gré, ou de -force. L'on n'en voit que trop qui aprés avoir desiré et demandé la -mort avec un courage intrepide, et aprés avoir obtenu et acheté la -permission de se brûler, ont tremblé à là veuë du bucher, se sont -repenties, mais trop tard, de leur imprudence, et ont fait d'inutiles -efforts pour se retracter. Mais lorsque cela arrive, bien loin que les -Bramenes soient touchés_ {138} _d'aucune pieté, ils lient cruellement -ces malheureuses, et les brûlent par force, sans avoir aucun egard à -leurs plaintes, ni à leurs cris._"--Tom. i. p. 138. - -It would be easy to multiply authorities upon this point. Let it -suffice to mention one important historical fact: When the great -Alboquerque had established himself it Goa, he forbade these accursed -sacrifices, the women extolled him for it as their benefactor and -deliverer, (_Commentarios de Alb._ ii. 20,) and no European in India -was ever so popular, or so revered by the natives. Yet, if we are to -believe the anti-missionares, none but fools, fanatics, and pretenders -to humanity, would wish to deprive the Hindoo women of the right of -burning themselves! "It may be useful (says Colonel Mark Wilks,) to -examine the reasonableness of interfering with the most exceptionable -of all their institutions. It has been thought an abomination not to -be tolerated, that a widow should immolate herself on the funeral pile -of her deceased husband. But what judgement should we form of the -Hindoo, who (if any of our institutions admitted the parallel) should -_forcibly_ pretend to stand between a Christian and the hope of -eternal salvation? And shall we not hold him to be a driveller in -politics and morals, a fanatic in religion, and a pretender in -humanity, who would forcibly wrest this hope from the Hindoo {139} -widow?"--_Historical Sketches of the South of India_, vol. i. p. 499. - -Such opinions, and such language, may safely be left to the -indignation and pity which they cannot fail to excite. I shall only -express my astonishment, that any thing so monstrous, and so miserably -futile, should have proceeded from a man of learning, great good -sense, and general good feelings, as Colonel Wilks evidently appears -to be. - - - _One drops, another plunges in._--I. p. 10. - -When Bernier was passing from Amad-Avad to Agra, there came news to -him in a borough, where the caravan rested under the shade, (staying -for the cool of the evening to march on their journey,) that a woman -was then upon the point of burning herself with the body of her -husband. I presently rose, says he, and ran to the place where it was -to be done, which was a great pit, with a pile of wood raised in it, -whereon I saw laid a dead corpse, and a woman, which, at a distance, -seemed to me pretty fair, sitting near it on the same pile, besides -four or five Bramins, putting the fire to it from all sides; five -women of a middle age, and well enough dressed, holding one another by -the hand, and dancing about the pit, and a great crowd of people, men -and women, looking {140} on. The pile of wood was presently all on -fire, because store of oil and butter had been thrown upon it: and I -saw, at the same time, through the flames, that the fire took hold of -the clothes of the woman, that were imbued with well-scented oils, -mingled with powder of sandal and saffron. All this I saw, but -observed not that the woman was at all disturbed; yea, it was said, -that she had been heard to pronounce, with great force, these two -words, _five_, _two_, to signify, according to the opinion of those -that hold the soul's transmigration, that this was the _fifth_ time -she had burnt herself with the same husband, and that there remained -but two more for perfection; as if she had at that time this -remembrance, or some prophetical spirit. But here ended not this -infernal tragedy: I thought it was only by way of ceremony that these -five women sung and danced about the pit; but I was altogether -surprised when I saw, that the flame having taken hold of the clothes -of one of them, she cast herself, with her head foremost, into the -pit; and that after her, another, being overcome by the flame and the -smoke, did the like; and my astonishment redoubled afterwards, when I -saw that the remaining three took one another again by the hand, -continued their dance without any apparent fear; and that at length -they precipitated themselves, one after another, into the fire, as -their {141} companions had done. I learnt that these had been five -slaves, who, having seen their mistress extremely afflicted at the -sickness of her husband, and heard her promise him, that she would not -survive him, but burn herself with him, were so touched with -compassion and tenderness towards this their mistress, that they -engaged themselves in a promise to follow her in her resolution, and -to burn themselves with her.--BERNIER. - -This excellent traveller relates an extraordinary circumstance which -occurred at one of these sacrifices. A woman was engaged in some -love-intrigues with a young Mahommedan, her neighbour, who was a -tailor, and could play finely upon the tabor. This woman, in the hopes -she had of marrying this young man, poisoned her husband, and -presently came away to tell the tailor, that it was time to be gone -together, as they had projected, or else she should be obliged to burn -herself. The young man, fearing lest he might be entangled in a -mischievous business, flatly refused her. The woman, not at all -surprised at it, went to her relations, and advertised them of the -sudden death of her husband, and openly protested that she would not -survive him, but burn herself with him. Her kindred, well satisfied -with so generous a resolution, and the great honour she did to the -whole family, presently had a pit made and filled with wood, exposing -{142} the corpse upon it, and kindling the fire. All being prepared, -the woman goes to embrace and bid farewell to all her kindred that -were there about the pit, among whom was also the tailor, who had been -invited to play upon the tabor that day, with many others of that sort -of men, according to the custom of the country. This fury of a woman -being also come to this young man, made sign as if she would bid him -farewell with the rest; but, instead of gently embracing him, she -taketh him with all her force about his collar, pulls him to the pit, -and tumbleth him, together with herself, into the ditch, where they -both were soon dispatched.--BERNIER. - -The Hindoos sometimes erect a chapel on the spot where one of these -sacrifices has been performed, both on account of the soul of the -deceased, and as a trophy of her virtue. I remember to have seen one -of these places, where the spot on which the funeral pile had been -erected was inclosed and covered with bamboos, formed into a kind of -bower planted with flowering creepers. The inside was set round with -flowers, and at one end, there was an image.--CRAWFURD. - -Some of the Yogees, who smear themselves with ashes, use none but what -they collect from funeral piles,--human ashes! PIETRO DELLA VALLE. - -From a late investigation, it appears, that the number {143} of women -who sacrifice themselves within thirty miles round Calcutta every -year, is, on an average, upwards of two hundred. The Pundits have -already been called on to produce the sanction of their Shasters for -this custom. The passages exhibited are vague and general in their -meaning, and differently interpreted by the same casts. Some sacred -verses commend the practice, but none command it; and the Pundits -refer once more to _custom_. They have, however, intimated, that if -government will pass a regulation, amercing by fine every Brahmin who -attends a burning, or every Zemindar who permits him to attend it, the -practice cannot possibly long continue; for that the ceremony, -unsanctified by the presence of the priests, will lose its dignity and -consequence in the eyes of the people. - -The civilized world may expect soon to hear of the abolition of this -opprobrium of a Christian administration, the female sacrifice; which -has subsisted, to our certain knowledge, since the time of Alexander -the Great.--CLAUDIUS BUCHANAN. - -This practice, however, was manifestly unknown when the Institutes of -Menu were written. Instructions are there given for the conduct of a -widow: "Let her," it is said, "emaciate her body, by living -voluntarily on pure flowers, roots, and fruit; but let her not, when -her {144} lord is deceased, even pronounce the name of another man. -Let her continue till death forgiving all injuries, performing harsh -duties, avoiding every sensual pleasure, and cheerfully practising the -incomparable rules of virtue, which have been followed by such women -as were devoted to one only husband. Many thousands of Brahmins, -having avoided sensuality from their early youth, and having left no -issue in their families, have ascended nevertheless to heaven; and, -like those abstemious men, a virtuous wife ascends to heaven, though -she have no child, if, after the decease of her lord, she devote -herself to pious austerity: but a widow, who, from a wish to bear -children, slights her deceased husband by marrying again, brings -disgrace on herself here below, and shall be excluded from the seat of -her lord."--_Inst. of Menu_, ch. 5, 157-161. - -Second marriages were permitted to men.--_Ibid_. 167, 8-9. - - - _Lo! Arvalan appears._--II. p. 11. - -Many believe that some souls are sent back to the spot where their -bodies were burnt, or where their ashes are preserved, to wait there -until the new bodies they are destined to occupy be ready for their -reception. This appears to correspond with an opinion of Plato, which, -{145} with many other tenets of that philosopher, was adopted by the -early Christians; and an ordinance of the Romish church is still -extant, prohibiting having lights or making merriment in church-yards -at night, lest they should disturb the souls that might come -thither.--CRAWFURD. - -According to the Danish missionaries, the souls of those who are -untimely slain wander about as diabolical spectres, doing evil to -mankind, and possessing those whom they persecute.--NIECAMP. i. 10. -§ 14. - -The inhabitants of the hills near Rajamahall believe, that when God -sends a messenger to summon a person to his presence, if the messenger -should mistake his object, and carry off another, he is desired by the -Deity to take him away; but as the earthly mansion of his soul must be -decayed, it is destined to remain mid-way between heaven and earth, -and never can return to the presence of God. Whoever commits homicide -without a divine order, and whoever is killed by a snake, as a -punishment for some concealed crime, will be doomed to the same state -of wandering; and whoever hangs himself will wander eternally with a -rope about his neck.--_Asiat. Researches_. - -Pope Benedict XII. drew up a list of 117 heretical opinions held by -the Armenian Christians, which he sent to the king of -Armenia,--instead of any other assistance, {146} when that prince -applied to him for aid against the Mahomedans. This paper was first -published by Bernino, and exhibits a curious mixture of mythologies. -One of their opinions was, that the souls of the adult wander about in -the air till the day of judgment; neither hell, nor the heavenly, nor -the terrestrial paradise, being open to them till that day shall have -past. - -Davenant, in one of his plays, speculates upon such a state of -wandering as the lot of the soul after death:-- - - I must to darkness go, hover in clouds, - Or in remote untroubled air, silent - As thoughts, or what is uncreated yet; - Or I must rest in some cold shade, and shall - Perhaps ne'er see that everlasting spring - Of which philosophy so long has dreamt, - And seems rather to wish than understand. - _Love and Honour._ - -I know no other author who has so often expressed to those who could -understand him, his doubts respecting a future state, and how -burthensome he felt them. - - - _But I, all naked feeling and raw life_.--II. p. 13. - -By the vital souls of those men who have committed {147} sins in the -body, another body, composed of _nerves_, with five sensations, in -order to be susceptible of torment, shall certainly be assumed after -death; and being intimately united with those minute nervous -particles, according to their distribution, they shall feel in that -new body the pangs inflicted in each case by the sentence of -Yama.--_Inst. of Menu_. - -Henry More, the Platonist, has two applicable stanzas in his Song of -the Soul:-- - - Like to a light fast lock'd in lanthorn dark, - Whereby by night our wary steps we guide - In slabby streets, and dirty channels mark, - Some weaker rays through the black top do glide, - And flusher streams, perhaps, from horny side; - But when we've past the peril of the way, - Arrived at home, and laid that case aside,-- - The naked light how clearly doth it ray, - And spread its joyful beams as bright as summer's day. - - Even so the soul, in this contracted state, - Confined to these strait instruments of sense, - More dull and narrowly doth operate; - At this hole hears,--the sight must ray from thence,-- - Here tastes, there smells;--but when she's gone from hence, - {148} - Like naked lamp she is one shining sphere, - And round about has perfect cognoscence, - Whatever in her horizon doth appear. - She is one orb of sense, all eye, all airy ear. - -Amid the uncouth allegory, and more uncouth language, of this strange -series of poems, a few passages are to be found of exceeding beauty. -Milton, who was the author's friend, had evidently read them. - - - _Undying as I am!_--II. p. 12. - -The Soul is not a thing of which a man may say, it hath been, it is -about to be, or is to be hereafter; for it is a thing without birth; -it is ancient, constant, and eternal, and is not to be destroyed in -this its mortal frame. How can the man who believeth that this thing -is incorruptible, eternal, inexhaustible, and without birth, think -that he can either kill or cause it to be killed! As a man throweth -away old garments and putteth on new, even so the Soul, having quitted -its old mortal frames, entereth into others which are new. The weapon -divideth it not, the fire burneth it not, the water corrupteth it not, -the wind drieth it not away;--for it is indivisible, inconsumable, -incorruptible, and is not to be dried away;--it is eternal, universal, -permanent, immoveable; it is {149} invisible, inconceivable, and -unalterable.--BHAGVAT GEETA. - - - _Mariataly_.--II. p. 15. - -Mariatale, as Sonnerat spells the name, was wife of the penitent -Chamadaguini, and mother of Parassourama, who was, in part, an -incarnation of Veeshno. This goddess, says Sonnerat, commanded the -elements, but could not preserve that empire longer than her heart was -pure. One day, while she was collecting water out of a tank, and, -according to her custom, was making a bowl of earth to carry it to the -house, she saw on the surface of the water, some figures of Grindovers -(Glendoveers) which were flying over her head. Struck with their -beauty, her heart admitted an impure thought, and the earth of the -bowl dissolved. From that time she was obliged to make use of an -ordinary vessel. This discovered to Chamadaguini that his wife had -deviated from purity; and, in the excess of his rage, he ordered his -son to drag her to the place where criminals were executed, and to -behead her. The order was executed; but Parassourama was so much -afflicted for the loss of his mother, that Chamadaguini told him to -take up the body, and fasten the head upon it, and repeat a prayer -(which he taught him for that purpose) in her ear, and then his mother -{150} would come to life again. The son ran eagerly to perform what he -was ordered, but, by a very singular blunder, he joined the head of -his mother to the body of a Parichi, who had been executed for her -crimes; a monstrous union, which gave to this woman the virtues of a -goddess, and the vices of a criminal. The goddess, becoming impure by -such a mixture, was driven from her house, and committed all kinds of -cruelties. The Deverkels, perceiving the destruction she made, -appeased her by giving her power to cure the small-pox, and promising -that she should be implored for that disorder. Mariatale is the great -goddess of the Parias;--to honour her, they have a custom of dancing -with several pots of water on their heads, placed one above the other: -These pots are adorned with the leaves of the Margosies, a tree -consecrated to her. - - - _It was my hour of folly._--II. p. 13. - -Among the qualities required for the proper execution of public -business, mention is made, "That a man must be able to keep in -subjection his lust, his anger, his avarice, his _folly_, and his -pride." The folly there specified is not to be understood in the usual -sense of the word in an European idiom, as a negative quality, or the -mere want of sense, but as a kind of obstinately stupid {151} -lethargy, or perverse absence of mind, in which the will is not -altogether passive: It seems to be a weakness peculiar to Asia, for we -cannot find a term by which to express the precise idea in the -European languages. It operates somewhat like the violent impulse of -fear, under which men will utter falsehoods totally incompatible with -each other, and utterly contrary to their own opinion, knowledge, and -conviction; and, it may be added also, their inclination and -intention. - -A very remarkable instance of this temporary frenzy happened lately in -the supreme Court of Judicature at Calcutta, where a man (not an -idiot) swore, upon a trial, that he was no kind of relation to his -brother, who was then in Court, and who had constantly supported him -from his infancy; and that he lived in a house by himself, for which -he paid the rent from his own pocket, when it was proved that he was -not worth a rupee, and when the person in whose house he had always -resided stood at the bar close to him. - -Another conjecture, and that exceedingly acute and ingenious, has been -started upon this _folly_, that it may mean the deception which a man -permits to be imposed on his judgment by his passions, as acts of -rapacity and avarice are often committed by men who ascribe them to -prudence and a just assertion of their own right; malice {152} and -rancour pass for justice, and brutality for spirit. This opinion, when -thoroughly examined, will very nearly tally with the former; for all -the passions, as well as fear, have an equal efficacy to disturb and -distort the mind: But to account for the _folly_ here spoken of as -being the offspring of the passions, instead of drawing a parallel -between it and the impulses of those passions, we must suppose the -impulses to act with infinitely more violence upon an Asiatic mind -than we can ever have seen exemplified in Europe. It is, however, -something like the madness so inimitably delineated in the Hero of -Cervantes, sensible enough upon some occasions, and at the same time -completely wild, and unconscious of itself upon others; and that, too, -originally produced by an effort of the will, though, in the end, -overpowering and superseding its functions.--HALHED. - - - _The little songsters of the sky_ - _Sit silent in the sultry hour._--IV. p. 29. - -The tufted lark, fixed to this fruitful land, says Sonnini, speaking -of Egypt, never forsakes it; it seems, however, that the excessive -heat annoys him. You may see these birds, as well as sparrows, in the -middle of the day, with their bills half open, and the muscles of -their breasts agitated, breathing with difficulty, and as if they -panted {153} for respiration. The instinct which induces them to -prefer those means of subsistence which are easily obtained, and in -abundance, although attended with some suffering, resembles the mind -of man, whom a thirst for riches engages to brave calamities and -dangers without number. - - - _The Watchman._--V. 35. - -The watchmen are provided with no offensive weapons excepting a sling; -on the contrary, they continue the whole day standing in one single -position, upon a pillar of clay raised about ten feet, where they -remain bellowing continually, that they may terrify, without hurting, -the birds who feed upon the crop. Every considerable field contains -several such centinels, stationed at different corners, who repeat the -call from one to another so incessantly, that the invaders have hardly -any opportunity of making good a livelihood in the field. - -These watchmen are forced, during the rains, to erect, instead of a -clay pillar, a scaffolding of wood as high as the crop, over which -they suspend a roof of straw, to shelter their naked bodies from the -rain.--TENNANT. - - - _The Golden Palaces_.--V. 35. - -Every thing belonging to the sovereign of Ava has the {154} addition -of [Transcriber: the last letter of the word "sho-" is unreadable], -or golden, annexed to it; even his majesty's person is never mentioned -but in conjunction with this precious metal. When a subject means to -affirm that the king has heard any thing, he says, "it has reached the -golden ears;" he who obtained admission to the royal presence has been -at the "golden feet." The perfume of otto of roses, a nobleman observed -one day, "was an odour grateful to the golden nose."--SYMES. - - - _A cloud ascending in the eastern sky_ - _Sails slowly o'er the vale,_ - _And darkens round, and closes in the night._--V. p. 37. - -At this season of the year, it is not uncommon, towards the evening, -to see a small black cloud rising in the eastern part of the horizon, -and afterwards spreading itself to the north-west. This phenomenon is -always attended with a violent storm of wind, and flashes of the -strongest and most vivid lightning and heavy thunder, which is -followed by rain. These storms sometimes last for half an hour or -more; and, when they disperse, they leave the air greatly freshened, -and the sky of a deep, clear, and transparent blue. When they occur -near the full moon, the whole atmosphere is illuminated by a soft but -brilliant silver light, attended with gentle airs.--HODGES. - -{155} - - _A white flag, flapping to the winds of night,_ - _Marks where the tyger seized his human prey._--V. p. 37. - -It is usual to place a small white triangular flag, fixed to a bamboo -staff, of ten or twelve feet long, at the place where a tyger has -destroyed a man. It is common for the passengers, also, each to throw -a stone, or brick, near the spot, so that, in the course of a little -time, a pile equal to a good waggon-load is collected. This custom, as -well as the fixing a rag on any particular thorn-bush, near the fatal -spot, is in use likewise on various accounts. Many brambles may be -seen in a day's journey, completely covered with this motley -assemblage of remnants. The sight of the flags and piles of stones -imparts a certain melancholy, not perhaps altogether devoid of -apprehension: They may be said to be of service in pointing out the -places most frequented by tygers.--_Oriental Sports_, vol. ii. p. 22. - - - _Pollear._--V. p. 45. - -The first and greatest of the sons of Sevee is Pollear: he presides -over marriages: The Indians build no house without having first -carried a Pollear on the ground, which they sprinkle with oil, and -throw flowers on it {156} every day. If they do not invoke it before -they undertake any enterprise, they believe that God will make them -forget what they wanted to undertake, and that their labour will be in -vain. He is represented with an elephant's head, and mounted on a rat; -but in the pagodas they place him on a pedestal, with his legs almost -crossed. A rat is always put before the door of his chapel. This rat -was a giant, called Gudja-mouga-chourin, on whom the gods had bestowed -immortality, as well as great powers, which he abused, and did much -harm to mankind. Pollear, entreated by the sages and penitents to -deliver them, pulled out one of his tusks, and threw it against -Gudja-mouga-chourin; the tooth entered the giant's stomach, and -overthrew him, who immediately changed himself into a rat as large as -a mountain, and came to attack Pollear, who sprung on his back, -telling him, that hereafter he should ever be his carrier. - -The Indians, in their adoration of this god, cross their arms, shut -the fist, and in this manner give themselves several blows on the -temples; then, but always with the arms crossed, they take hold of -their ears, and make three inclinations, bending the knee; after -which, with their hands joined, they address their prayers to him, and -strike their forehead. They have a great veneration for this deity, -whose image they place in all temples, streets, {157} highways, and, -in the country, at the foot of some tree, that all the world may have -an opportunity of invoking him before they undertake any concern, and -that travellers may make their adorations and offerings to him before -they pursue their journey.--SONNERAT. - - - _The Glendoveers_.--VI. p. 48. - -This word is altered from the _Grindouvers_ of Sonnerat, who describes -these celestial children of Casyapa as famous for their beauty; they -have wings, he adds, and fly in the air with their wives. I do not -know whether they are the _Gandharvas_ of the English orientalists. -The wings with which they are attired in the poem are borrowed from -the neglected story of Peter Wilkins, a work of great genius. Whoever -the author was, his winged people are the most beautiful creatures of -imagination that ever were devised. I copy his minute description of -the _graundee_, as he calls it:--Stothard has made some delightful -drawings of it in the Novelist's Magazine. - -"She first threw up two long branches, or ribs, of the whale-bone, as -I called it before, (and indeed for several of its properties, as -toughness, elasticity, and pliableness, nothing I have ever seen can -so justly be compared to it,) which were jointed behind to the -upper-bone of the spine, and which, when not extended, lie bent over -the shoulders {158} on each side of the neck forwards, from whence, by -nearer and nearer approaches, they just meet at the lower rim of the -belly in a sort of point; but, when extended, they stand their whole -length above the shoulders, not perpendicularly, but spreading -outwards, with a web of the softest and most pliable and spungy -membrane that can be imagined in the interstices between them, -reaching from their root or joint on the back up above the hinder part -of the head, and near half way their own length; but, when closed, the -membrane falls down in the middle upon the neck, like an handkerchief. -There are also two other ribs, rising, as it were, from the same root, -which, when open, run horizontally, but not so long as the others. -These are filled up in the interstice between them and the upper ones -with the same membrane; and on the lower side of this is also a deep -flap of the membrane, so that the arms can be either above or below it -in flight, and are always above it when closed. This last rib, when -shut, flaps under the upper one, and also falls down with it before to -the waist; but it is not joined to the ribs below. Along the whole -spine-bone runs a strong, flat, broad, grisly cartilage, to which are -joined several other of these ribs, all which open horizontally, and -are filled in the interstices with the above membrane, and are jointed -to the ribs of the person just where {159} the plane of the back -begins to turn towards the breast and belly; and, when shut, wrap the -body round to the joints on the contrary side, folding neatly one side -over the other. - -"At the lower spine are two more ribs extended horizontally when open, -jointed again to the hips, and long enough to meet the joint on the -contrary side cross the belly: and from the hip-joint, which is on the -outermost edge of the hip-bone, runs a pliable cartilage quite down -the outside of the thigh and leg to the ancle; from which there branch -out divers other ribs, horizontally also when open, but, when closed, -they encompass the whole thigh and leg, rolling inwards cross the back -of the leg and thigh, till they reach and just cover the cartilage. -The interstices of these are filled up with the same membrane. From -the two ribs which join to the lower spine-bone, there hangs down a -sort of short apron, very full of plaits, from hip-joint to hip-joint, -and reaches below the buttocks, half way or more to the hams. This has -also several small limber ribs in it. Just upon the lower spine-joint, -and above the apron, as I call it, there are two other long branches, -which, when close, extend upon the back from the point they join at -below to the shoulders, where each rib has a clasper, which, reaching -over the shoulders, just under the fold of the uppermost branch {160} -or ribs, hold up the two ribs flat to the back, like a V, the -interstices of which are filled up with the aforesaid membrane. This -last piece, in flight, falls down almost to the ancles, where the two -claspers, lapping under each leg within-side, hold it very fast; and -then, also, the short apron is drawn up, by the strength of the ribs -in it, between the thighs forward, and covers as far as the rim of the -belly. The whole arms are covered also from the shoulders to the wrist -with the same delicate membrane, fastened to ribs of proportionable -dimensions, and jointed to a cartilage on the outside in the same -manner as on the legs. It is very surprising to feel the difference of -these ribs when open and when closed; for closed, they are as pliable -as the finest whale-bone, or more so; but, when extended, are as -strong and stiff as a bone. They are tapering from the roots, and are -broader or narrower, as best suits the places they occupy, and the -stress they are put to, up to their points, which are almost as small -as a hair. The membrane between them is the most elastic thing I ever -met with, occupying no more space, when the ribs are closed, than just -from rib to rib, as flat and smooth as possible; but, when extended in -some postures, will dilate itself surprisingly, - -"It is the most amazing thing in the world to observe the large -expansion of this graundee when open, and, {161} when closed, (as it -all is in a moment, upon the party's descent,) to see it fit so close -and compact to the body as no tailor can come up to it; and then the -several ribs lie so justly disposed in the several parts, that instead -of being, as one would imagine, a disadvantage to the shape, they make -the body and limbs look extremely elegant; and by the different -adjustment of their lines on the body and limbs, the whole, to my -fancy, somewhat resembles the dress of the old Roman warriors in their -buskins; and, to appearance, seems much more noble than any fictitious -garb I ever saw, or can frame a notion of to myself." - - - _Mount Himakoot._--VI. p. 49. - -_Dushmanta_. Say, Matali, what mountain is that which, like an evening -cloud, pours exhilarating streams, and forms a golden zone between the -western and eastern seas? - -_Matali_. That, O king! is the mountain of Gandharvas, named -Hémacúta: The universe contains not a more excellent place for the -successful devotion of the pious. There Casyapa, father of the -immortals, ruler of men, son of Marichi, who sprang from the -self-existent, resides with his consort Aditi, blessed in holy -retirement.--We now enter the sanctuary of him who rules {162} the -world, and the groves which are watered by streams from celestial -sources. - -_Dushmanta_. I see with equal amazement both the pious and their awful -retreat. It becomes, indeed, pure spirits to feed on balmy air in a -forest blooming with trees of life; to bathe in rills dyed yellow with -the golden dust of the lotus, and to fortify their virtue in the -mysterious bath; to meditate in caves, the pebbles of which are -unblemished gems; and to restrain their passions, even though nymphs -of exquisite beauty frolick around them. In this grove alone is -attained the summit of true piety, to which other hermits in vain -aspire.--SACONTALA. - - - _Her death predoom'd_ - _To that black hour of midnight, when the Moon_ - _Hath turn'd her face away,_ - _Unwilling to behold_ - _The unhappy end of guilt!_--VI. p. 50. - -I will now speak to thee of that time in which, should a devout man -die, he will never return; and of that time in which, dying, he shall -return again to earth. - -Those holy men who are acquainted with Brahm, departing this life in -the fiery light of day, in the bright season of the moon, within the -six months of the sun's northern {163} course, go unto him: but those -who depart in the gloomy night of the Moon's dark season, and whilst -the Sun is yet within the southern part of his journey, ascend for a -while into the regions of the Moon, and again return to mortal birth. -These two, Light and Darkness, are esteemed the World's eternal ways: -he who walketh in the former path returneth not; whilst he who walketh -in the latter, cometh back again upon the earth.--KREESHNA, _in the -Bhagvat Geeta_. - - - _Indra_.--VI. p. 52. - -The Indian God of the visible Heavens is called _Indra_, or the King; -and _Divespetir_, Lord of the Sky. He has the character of the Roman -_Genius_, or chief of the Good Spirits. His consort is named _Sachi_; -his celestial city _Amaravati_; his palace _Vaijayanta_; his garden -_Nandana_; his chief elephant _Airevat_; his charioteer _Matali_; and -his weapon _Vajra_, or the thunder-bolt. He is the regent of winds and -showers, and, though the East is peculiarly under his care, yet his -Olympus is Meru, or the North Pole, allegorically represented as a -mountain of gold and gems. He is the Prince of the beneficent -Genii.--Sir W. JONES. - -A distinct idea of Indra, the King of Immortals, may be collected from -a passage in the ninth section of the Geta. - -{164} - -"These having, through virtue, reached the mansion of the king of -_Suras_, feast on the exquisite heavenly food of the Gods; they, who -have enjoyed this lofty region of SWERGA, _but_ whose virtue is -exhausted, revisit the habitation of mortals." - -He is the God of thunder and the five elements, with inferior Genii -under his command; and is conceived to govern the eastern quarter of -the world, but to preside, like the _Genius_ or _Agathodæmon_ of the -ancients, over the celestial bands, which are stationed on the summit -of MERU, or the North Pole, where he solaces the Gods with nectar -and heavenly music. - -The _Cinnaras_ are the male dancers in SWERGA, or the Heaven of -Indra, and the Apsaras are his dancing girls, answering to the fairies -of the Persians, and to the damsels called in the Koran _hhúru -lûyùn_, or, _with antelope's eyes_.--Sir W. JONES. - - - _I have seen Indra tremble at his prayer,_ - _And at his dreadful penances turn pale._--VI. p. 52. - -Of such penances Mr. Halhed has produced a curious specimen: - -"In the wood, Midhoo, which is on the confines of the kingdoms of -Brege, Tarakee selected a pleasant and beautiful spot, adorned with -verdure and blossoms, and {165} there exerted himself in penance and -mortification, externally, with the sincerest piety, but, in reality, -the most malignant intention, and with the determined purpose of -oppressing the Devetas; penances such as credulity itself was -astonished to hear; and they are here recounted:-- - -1. For a hundred years, he held up his arms and one foot towards -heaven, and fixed his eyes upon the sun the whole time. - -2. For a hundred years, he remained standing on tip-toe. - -3. For a hundred years more, he nourished himself with nothing but -water. - -4. For a hundred years more, he lived upon nothing but air. - -5. For a hundred years more, he stood and made his adorations in the -river. - -6. For a hundred years more, he made those adorations buried up to his -neck in the earth. - -7. For a hundred years more, enveloped with fire. - -8. For a hundred years more, he stood upon his head with his feet -towards heaven. - -9. For a hundred years more, he stood upon the palm of one hand -resting on the ground. - -{166} - -10. For a hundred years more, he hung by his hand from the branch of a -tree. - -11. For a hundred years more, he hung from a tree with his head -downwards. - -When he at length came to a respite from these severe mortifications, -a radiant glory encircled the devotee, and a flame of fire, arising -from his head, began to consume the whole world."--_From the Seeva -Pooraun_, MAURICE's _History of Hindostan_. - -You see a pious Yogi, motionless as a pollard, holding his thick bushy -hair, and fixing his eyes on the solar orb. Mark--his body is half -covered with a white ant's edifice made of raised clay; the skin of a -snake supplies the place of his sacerdotal thread, and part of it -girds his loins; a number of knotty plants encircle and wound his -neck, and surrounding birds' nests almost conceal his shoulders. - -_Dushmanta_. I bow to a man of his austere devotion.--SACONTALA. - - - _That even Seeva's self,_ - _The Highest, cannot grant, and be secure._--VI. p. 52. - -It will be seen from the following fable, that Seeva had once been -reduced to a very humiliating employment by one of Kehama's -predecessors: - -{167} - -_Ravana_, by his power and infernal arts, had subjugated all the gods -and demigods, and forced them to perform menial offices about his -person and household. _Indra_ made garlands of flowers to adorn him -withal; _Agni_ was his cook; _Surya_ supplied light by day, and -_Chandra_ by night; _Varuna_ purveyed water for the palace; _Kuvera_ -furnished cash. The whole _nava-graha_ (the _nine planetary_ spheres) -sometimes arranged themselves into a ladder, by which, they serving as -steps, the tyrant ascended his throne: _Brahma_ (for the great gods -were there also; and I give this anecdote as I find it in my -memoranda, without any improved arrangement)--_Brahma_ was a herald, -proclaiming the giant's titles, the day of the week, month, &c. daily -in the palace,--a sort of speaking almanack: _Mahadeva_, (i. e. -Seeva,) in his Avatara of _Kandeh-roo_, performed the office of -barber, and trimmed the giants' beards: _Vishnu_ had the honourable -occupation of instructing and drilling the dancing and singing girls, -and selecting the fairest for the royal bed: _Ganesa_ had the care of -the cows, goats, and herds; _Vayu_ swept the house; _Yama_ washed the -linen;--and in this manner were all the gods employed in the menial -offices of _Ravana_, who rebuked and flogged them in default of -industry and attention. Nor were the female divinities exempted; for -_Bhavani_, in her name and form of _Satni_, {168} was head Aya, or -nurse, to Ravana's children; _Lakshmi_ and _Saraswati_ were also among -them, but it does not appear in what capacity.--MOOR's _Hindu -Pantheon_, p. 333. - -Seeva was once in danger even of annihilation: "In passing from the -town of Silgut to Deonhully, says Colonel Wilks, I became accidentally -informed of a sect, peculiar, as I since understand, to the -north-eastern parts of Mysoor, the women of which universally undergo -the amputation of the first joints of the third and fourth fingers of -their right hands. On my arrival at Deonhully, after ascertaining that -the request would not give offence, I desired to see some of these -women; and, the same afternoon, seven of them attended at my tent. The -sect is a sub-division of the _Murresoo Wokul_,[1] and belongs to -the fourth great class of the Hindoos, viz. the Souder. Every woman of -the sect, previously to piercing the ears of her eldest daughter, -preparatory to her being betrothed in marriage, must necessarily -undergo this mutilation, which is performed by the blacksmith of the -village, for a regulated fee, by a surgical process sufficiently rude. -The finger to be amputated is placed on a block; the blacksmith places -a chisel over the articulation of the {169} joint, and chops it off at -a single blow. If the girl to be betrothed is motherless, and the -mother of the boy have not before been subject to the operation, it is -incumbent on her to perform the sacrifice. After satisfying myself -with regard to the facts of the case, I enquired into the origin of so -strange a practice, and one of the women related, with great fluency, -the following traditionary tale, which has since been repeated to me, -with no material deviation, by several others of the sect: - -A Rachas (or giant) named _Vrica_, and in after times _Busm-aasoor_, -or the giant of the ashes, had, by a course of austere devotion to -_Mahadeo_ (Seeva) obtained from him the promise of whatever boon he -should ask. The Rachas accordingly demanded, that every person on -whose head he should place his right hand, might instantly be reduced -to ashes; and Mahadeo conferred the boon, without suspicion of the -purpose for which it was designed. - -The Rachas no sooner found himself possessed of this formidable power, -than he attempted to use it for the destruction of his benefactor. -Mahadeo fled, the Rachas pursued, and followed the fugitive so closely -as to chace him into a duck grove; where Mahadeo, changing his form -and bulk, concealed himself in the centre of a fruit, then called -_tunda pundoo_, but since named _linga_ {170} _tunda_, from the -resemblance which its kernel thenceforward assumed to the _ling_, the -appropriate emblem of Mahadeo. - -The Rachas having lost sight of Mahadeo, enquired of a husbandman, who -was working in the adjoining field, whether he had seen the fugitive, -and what direction he had taken. The husbandman, who had attentively -observed the whole transaction, fearful of the future resentment of -Mahadeo, and equally alarmed for the present vengeance of the giant, -answered aloud, that he had seen no fugitive, but pointed, at the same -time, with the little finger of his right hand, to the place of -Mahadeo's concealment. - -In this extremity,[2] Vishnou descended, in the form of a -beautiful damsel, to the rescue of Mahadeo. The Rachas became -instantly enamoured;--the damsel was a _pure_ Brahmin, and might not -be approached by the _unclean_ Rachas. By degrees she appeared to -relent; and, as a previous condition to farther advances, enjoined the -performance of his ablutions in a neighbouring pool. After these were -finished, she prescribed, as a farther purification, the performance -of the _Sundia_,--a ceremony in which the right hand is successively -applied to the breast, to the crown of the head, and to other parts of -the body. {171} The Rachas, thinking only of love, and forgetful of -the powers of his right hand, performed the _Sundia_, and was himself -reduced to ashes. - -Mahadeo now issued from the _linga tunda_, and, after the proper -acknowledgments for his deliverance, proceeded to discuss the guilt of -the treacherous husbandman, and determined on the loss of the finger -with which he had offended, as the proper punishment of his crime. - -The wife of the husbandman, who had just arrived at the field with -food for her husband, hearing this dreadful sentence, threw herself at -the feet of Mahadeo. She represented the certain ruin of her family, -if her husband should be disabled for some months from performing the -labours of the farm, and besought the Deity to accept two of her -fingers, instead of one from her husband. Mahadeo, pleased with so -sincere a proof of conjugal affection, accepted the exchange, and -ordained, that her female posterity, in all future generations, should -sacrifice two fingers at his temple, as a memorial of the transaction, -and of their exclusive devotion to the God of the Ling. - -The practice is, accordingly, confined to the supposed, posterity of -this single woman, and is not common to the whole sect of -Murresoo-Wokul. I ascertained the actual number of families who -observed this practice in three {172} successive districts through -which I afterwards passed, and I conjecture that, within the limits of -Misoor, they may amount to about two thousand houses. - -The Hill of _Sectee_, in the talook of Colar, where the giant was -destroyed, is (according to this tradition) formed of the ashes of -Busmaa-soor: It is held in particular veneration by this sect, as the -chief seat of their appropriate sacrifice; and the fact of its -containing little or no moisture, is held to be a miraculous proof -that the ashes of the giant continue to absorb the most violent and -continued rain. This is a remarkable example of easy credulity. I have -examined the mountain, which is of a sloping form, and composed of -coarse granite.--_Hist. Sketches of the South of India_, vol. i. p. -442, note. - - - _The Ship of Heaven._--VI. p. 56. - -I have converted the _Vimana_, or self-moving Car of the Gods, into a -Ship. Capt. Wilford has given the history of its invention,--and, what -is more curious, has attempted to settle the geography of the story: - -"A most pious and venerable sage, named RISHI'CE'SA, being very far -advanced in years, had resolved to visit, before he died, all the -famed places of pilgrimage; and, having performed his resolution, he -bathed at last in the sacred water of the _Ca'li_, where he observed -some {173} fishes engaged in amorous play, and restating on their -numerous progeny, which would sport like then in the stream, he -lamented the improbability of leaving any children: but, since he -might possibly be a father, even at his great age, he went immediately -to the king of that country, HIRANYAVERNA, who had fifty daughters, -and demanded one of them in marriage. So strange a demand gave the -prince great uneasiness: yet he was unwilling to incur the displeasure -of a saint, whose imprecations he dreaded; he, therefore, invoked -_Heri_, or _Vishnu_; to inspire him with a wise answer, and told the -hoar philosopher, that he should marry any one of his daughters, who, -of her own accord, should fix on him as her bridegroom. The sage, -rather disconcerted, left the palace; but, calling to mind the two -sons of ASWINI, he hastened to their terrestrial abode, and -requested that they would bestow on him both youth and beauty: they -immediately conducted him to _Abhimatada_, which we suppose to be -_Abydus_, in Upper _Egypt_; and, when he had bathed in the pool of -_Rupayauvana_, he was restored to the flower of his age with the -graces and charms of CA'MA'DE'VA. On his return to the palace, he -entered the secret apartments, called _antahpura_, where the fifty -princesses were assembled: and they were all so transported with the -vision of more than human beauty, {174} that they fell into an -ecstacy, whence the place was afterwards named _Mohast-han_, or -_Mohana_, and is, possibly, the same with _Mohannan_. They no sooner -had recovered from their trance, than each of them exclaimed, that she -would be his bride; and their altercation having brought -HIRANYAVERNA into their apartment, he terminated the contest by -giving them all in marriage to RISHICE'SA, who became the father of -a hundred sons; and, when he succeeded to the throne, built the city -of _Suc-haverddhana_, framed _vimânas_, or celestial, self-moving -cars, in which he visited the gods, and made gardens, abounding in -delights, which rivalled the bowers of INDRA; but, having granted -the desire, which he formed at _Matoyasangama_, or the place where the -fish were assembled, he resigned the kingdom to his eldest son -HIRANYAVRIDDHA, and returned, in his former shape, to the banks of -the Ca'li, where he closed his days in devotion.--WILFORD. _Asiatic -Researches_. - -_Dushmanta_. In what path of the winds are we now journeying? - -_Matali_. This is the way which leads along the triple river, heaven's -brightest ornament, and causes yon luminaries to roll in a circle with -diffused beams: it is the course of a gentle breeze which supports the -floating {175} forms of the gods; and this path was the second step of -Vishnu when he confounded the proud Bali. - -* * * - -_Dushmanta_. The car itself instructs me that we are moving over -clouds pregnant with showers; for the circumference of its wheels -disperses pellucid water. - -* * * - -_Dushmanta_. These chariot wheels yield no sound; no dust arises from -them, and the descent of the car gave me no shock. - -_Matali_. Such is the difference, O King! between thy car and that of -Indra.--SACONTALA. - -_And ending thus where they began_, &c.--VII. p. 66. - -It has been supposed that the perpetual lamps, which were at one time -believed to have been found in certain sepulchres, were kept burning -by a similar process. For the lamp, it was argued, being hermetically -closed, so that no smoke could escape, the smoke was condensed into -its original liquid form; and thus the liquor which fed the flame -passing into smoke, and the smoke again into the liquor, the flame was -continually kept up. There still remained a difficulty about the wick; -some supposed that this was made of threads of gold inconceivably -fine: others, with less expense of fancy, said a wick of {176} -asbestos would answer the purpose.--FEYJOO. _Theatro Critico_, _T_. -4. _Disc_. 3. § v. 13. - - - _The Raining Tree._--VII. p. 65. - -The island of _Fierro_ is one of the most considerable of the -Canaries, and I conceive that name to be given it upon this account, -that its soil not affording so much as a drop of fresh water, seems to -be of _iron_; and, indeed, there is in this island neither river, nor -rivulet, nor well, nor spring, save that only, towards the sea-side, -there are some wells; but they lie at such a distance from the city, -that the inhabitants can make no use thereof. But the great Preserver -and Sustainer of all, remedies this inconvenience by a way so -extraordinary, that a man will be forced to sit down and acknowledge -that he gives in this an undeniable demonstration of his goodness and -infinite providence, - -For, in the midst of the island, there is a tree, which is the only -one of its kind, inasmuch as it hath no resemblance to those mentioned -by us in this relation, nor to any other known to us in Europe. The -leaves of it are long and narrow, and continue in a constant verdure, -winter and summer; and its branches are covered with a cloud, which is -never dispelled, but resolved into a moisture, which causes to fall -from its leaves a very clear water, {177} and that in such abundance, -that the cisterns, which are placed at the foot of the tree to receive -it, are never empty, but contain enough to supply both men and -beasts.--MANDELSLO. - -Feyjoo denies the existence of any such tree, upon the authority of P. -Tallandier, a French Jesuit, (quoted in Men. de Trevoux. 2715, art. -97.) who visited the island. "_Assi no dudo_," he adds, "_que este -Fenix de las plantas es ten fingedo como el de las aves._"--Theat. -Crit. _Tom. ii. Disc_. 2. § 65. What authority is due to the -testimony of this French Jesuit I do not know, never having seen his -book; but it appears, from the undoubted evidence of Glas, that its -existence is believed in the Canaries, and positively affirmed by the -inhabitants of Fierro itself. - -"There are," says this excellent author, "only three fountains of -water in the whole island, one of them is called Acof,[3] which, -in the language of the ancient inhabitants, signifies river; a name, -however, which does not seem to have been given it on account of its -yielding much water, for in that respect it hardly deserves the same -of a fountain. More to the northward is another called Hapio; and in -the middle of the island is a spring, {178} yielding a stream about -the thickness of a man's finger. This last was discovered in the year -1565, and is called the Fountain of Anton Hernandez. On account of the -scarcity of water, the sheep, goats, and swine here do not drink in -the summer, but are taught to dig up the roots of fern, and chew them, -to quench their thirst. The great cattle are watered at those -fountains, and at a place where water distils from the leaves of a -tree. Many writers have made mention of this famous tree; some in such -a manner as to make it appear miraculous; others again deny the -existence of any such tree, among whom is Father Feyjoo, a modern -Spanish author, in his _Theatro Critico_. But he, and those who agree -with him in this matter, are as much mistaken as they who would make -it appear miraculous. This is the only island of all the Canaries -which I have not been in; but I have sailed with natives of Hierro, -who, when questioned about the existence of this tree, answered in the -affirmative. - -The author of the History of the Discovery and Conquest has given us a -particular account of it, which I shall relate here at large. "The -district in which this tree stands is called Tigulahe; near to which, -and in the cliff, or steep rocky ascent that surrounds the whole -island, is a narrow gutter or gulley, which commences at the sea, and -continues to the summit of the cliff, where it joins or {179} -coincides with a valley, which is terminated by the steep front of a -rock. On the top of this rock grows a tree, called, in the language of -the ancient inhabitants, Garse, _i.e._ Sacred or Holy Tree, which, -for many years, has been preserved sound, entire, and fresh. Its -leaves constantly distil such a quantity of water as is sufficient to -furnish drink to every living creature in Hierro; nature having -provided this remedy for the drought of the island. It is situated -about a league and a half from the sea. Nobody knows of what species -it is, only that it is called Til. It is distinct from other, trees, -and stands by itself; the circumference of the trunk is about twelve -spans, the diameter four, and in height, from the ground to the top of -the highest branch, forty spans: The circumference of all the branches -together, is one hundred and twenty feet. The branches are thick and -extended; the lowest commence about the height of an ell from the -ground. Its fruit resembles the acorn, and tastes something like the -kernel of a pine-nut, but is softer and more aromatic. The leaves of -this tree resemble those of the laurel, but are larger, wider, and -more curved; they come forth in a perpetual succession, so that the -tree always remains green. Near to it grows a thorn, which fastens on -many of its branches, and interweaves with them; and, at a small -distance from the Garse, are some beech-trees, {180} bresos, and -thorns. On the north side of the trunk are two large tanks, or -cisterns, of rough stone, or rather one patera divided, each half -being twenty feet square, and sixteen spans in depth. One of these -contains water for the drinking of the inhabitants, and the other that -which they use for their cattle, washing, and such like purposes. -Every morning, near this part of the island, a cloud or mist arises -from the sea, which the south and easterly winds force against the -fore-mentioned steep cliff; so that the cloud, having no vent but by -the gutter, gradually ascends it, and from thence advances slowly to -the extremity of the valley, where it is stopped and checked by the -front of the rock which terminates the valley, and then rests upon the -thick leaves and wide-spreading branches of the tree; from whence it -distils in drops during the remainder of the day, until it is at -length exhausted, in the same manner that we see water drip from the -leaves of trees after a heavy shower of rain. This distillation is not -peculiar to the Garse, or Til, for the bresos which grow near it -likewise drop water; but their leaves being but few and narrow, the -quantity is so trifling, that, though the natives save some of it, yet -they make little or no account of any but what distils from the Til; -which, together with the water of some fountains, and what is saved in -the winter season, is sufficient to {181} serve them and their flocks. -This tree yields most water in those years when the Levant, or -easterly winds, have prevailed for a continuance; for by these winds -only, the clouds or mists are drawn hither from the sea. A person -lives on the spot near which this tree grows, who is appointed by the -Council to take care of it and its water, and is allowed a house to -live in, with a certain salary. He every day distributes to each -family of the district, seven pots or vessels full of water, besides -what he gives to the principal people of the island." - -"Whether the tree which yields water at this present time be the same -as that mentioned in the above description, I cannot pretend to -determine, but it is probable there has been a succession of them; for -Pliny, describing the Fortunate Islands, says, "In the mountains of -Ombrion, are trees resembling the plant Ferula, from which water may -be procured by pressure: What comes from the black kind is bitter, -but that which the white yields is sweet and palatable."--GLAS's -_History of the Canary Islands_. - -Cordeyro (_Historia Insulana_, lib. ii. c. 5.) says, that this tree -resembles what in other places is called the _Til_, (_Tilia_,) the -Linden Tree; and he proceeds, from these three letters, to make it an -emblem of the Trinity. The water, he says, was called the _Agua -Santa_, and the tree {182} itself the _Santa Arvore_,--appellations -not ill bestowed. According to his account the water was delivered out -in stated portions. - -There is an account of a similar tree in Cockburne's Travels; but this -I believe to be a work of fiction. Bernal Diaz, however, mentions one -as growing at Naco, in Honduras, "_Que en mitad de la siesta, por -recio sol que hiziesse, parecia que la sombra del arbol refrescava el -corazon, caia del uno como rozio muy delgado que confortava las -cabezas._"--206. - -There may be some exaggeration in the accounts of the Fierro Tree, but -that the story has some foundation I have no doubt. The islanders of -St. Thomas say, that they have a sort of trees whose leaves -continually are distilling water. (_Barbot. in Churckle_, 405.) It is -certain that a dew falls in hot weather from the lime,--a fact of -which any person may easily convince himself. The same property has -been observed in other English trees, as appears by the following -extract from the Monthly Magazine: - -"In the beginning of August, after a sun-shine day, the air became -suddenly misty about six o'clock; I walked, however, by the road side -from seven to eight, and observed, in many places, that a shower of -big drops of water was falling under the large trees, although no rain -{183} fell elsewhere. The road and path continued dusty, and the -field-gates showed no signs of being wetted by the mist. I have often -noticed the like fact, but have not met with a satisfactory -explanation of this power in trees to condense mist." - -I am not the only poet who has availed himself of the Fierro Tree. It -is thus introduced in the Columbus of Carrara,--a singular work, -containing, amid many extravagancies, some passages of rare merit: - - Ecce autem inspector miri dum devius ignis - Fertur, in occursum miræ magis incidit undæ. - Æquoris in medio diffusi largiter arbor - Stabat, opaca, ingens, ævoque intacta priori, - Grata qiues Nymphis, et grata colentibus umbram - Alitibus sedes, quarum vox blanda, nec ullâ - Musicus arte canor sylvam resonare docebat. - Auditor primum rari modulaminis, utque - Cominus admovit gressum, spectator et hæsit; - Namque videbat, uti de cortice, deque supernis - Crinibus, argentum guttatim mitteret humens - Truncus, et ignaro plueret Jove; moxque serenus - In concham caderet subjecti marmoris imber, - Donec ibi in fontem collectis undique rivis - {184} - Cresceret, atque ipso jam non ingratus ab ortu - Redderet humorem matri, quæ commodat umbram. - - Dum stupet et quærit, cur internodia possit - Unda; per et fibras, virides et serpere rugas, - Et ferri sursum, genio ducente deorsum; - Adstitit en Nympha; dubitat decernere, Nais, - Anne Dryas, custos num fontis, an arboris esset; - Verius ut credam, Genius sub imagine Nymphæ - Ille loci fuerat. Quam præstantissimus Heros - Protinus ut vidit, Parce, o pulcherrima, dixit, - Si miser, et vestras ejectus nuper ad oras - Naufragus, idem audax videor fortasse rogando. - Dic age, quas labi video de stipite, lymphæ - Montibus anne cadant, per operta foramina ductæ, - Mox trabis irriguæ saliant in frondea sursum - Brachia, ramalesque tubos; genitalis an alvus - Umbrosæ genitricis alat; ceu sæpe videmus - Balsama de truncis, stillare electra racemis. - Pandere ne grave sit cupienti noscere causam - Vilia quæ vobis usus miracula fecit. - - Hæc ubi dicta, silet. Tum Virgo ita reddidit, Hospes - Quisquis es, (eximium certe præsentia prodit) - {185} - Deciperis, si forte putas, quas aspicis undas - Esse satas terrâ; procul omni a sede remota - Mira arbos, uni debet sua munera Cœlo. - Quâ ratione tamen capiat, quia noscere gestis - Edicam; sed dicendis ne tædia repant, - Hic locus, hæc eadem, de quâ cantabitur, arbor - Dat tempestivam blandis afflatibus umbram: - Hic una sedeamus; et ambo fontis ad undam - Consedere; dehinc intermittente parumper - Concentu volucrum, placido sic incipit ore. - - Nomine Canariæ, de quâ tenet Insula nomen, - Virgo fuit, non ore minus, quam prædita raræ - Laude pudicitiæ, mirum quæ pectore votum - Clausit, ut esse eadem genitrix et virgo cupiret. - At quia in Urbe satam fuerat sortita parentem - Ortum rure Patrem, diversis moribus hausit - Hinc sylvæ austeros, teneros hinc Urbis amores. - Sæpe ubi visendi studio convenerat Urbes, - Et dare blanditias natis et sumere matres - Viderat ante fores, ut mater amavit amari. - Sæpe ubi rure fuit de nymphis una Dianæ, - Viderat atque Deam thalami consorte carentem, - Esse Deæ similis, nec amari ut mater amavit. - Sed quid aget? cernit fieri non posse quod optat; - {186} - Non optare tamen, crudelius urit amantem. - Noctis erat medium: quo nos sumus, hoc erat illa - Forte loco, Cœloque videns splendescere Lunam, - O Dea, cui triplicis concessa potentia regni, - Parce precor, dixit, si quæ nunc profero, non sum - Ausa prius; quod non posses audire Diana, - Cum sis Luna potes; tenebræ minuere pudorem. - Est mihi Virginitas, fateor, re charior omni, - Attamen, hâc salvâ, fœcundæ si quoque Matris - Nomina miscerem, duplici de nomine quantum - Ambitiosa forem; certe non parva voluptas - Me caperet, coram si quis me luderet infans - Si mecum gestu, mecum loqueretur ocellis, - Cumque potest, quacumque potest, me voce vocaret, - Cujus et in vultu multum de matre viderem. - Ni sinit hoc humana tamen nature licere, - Fiat quâ ratione potest; mutare figuram - Nil refert, voti compos si denique fiam. - Annuit oranti facilis Dea; Virgine digna - Et quia vota tulit, Virgo probat. Eligit ergo - De grege Plantarum ligni quæ cœlibis esset. - Visa fuit Platanus: placet hæc; si vertat in istam - Canariæ corpus, sibi tempus in omne futuram - Tam caram esse videt, quam sit sua laurea Phœbo. - Nec mora, poscenti munus, ne signa deessent - {187} - Certa dati, movit falcatæ cornua frontis. - Virginis extemplo cœpere rigere crura - Tenvia vestiri duro præcordia libro, - Ipsaque miratur, cervix quod eburnea, quantum - It Cœlo, tantum tendant in Tartara plantæ; - Et jam formosâ de Virgine stabat et Arbos - Non formosa minus; qui toto in corpore pridem - Par ebori fuerat, candor quoque cortice mansit. - Sed deerat conjux uxoris moribus æque - Integer et cœlebs, et Virginitatis amator, - Quo fœcunda foret; verum tellure petendus - Hon hic, ab axe fuit. Quare incorruptus et idem - Purior e cunctis stellatæ noctis alumnis - Poscitur Hersophorus, sic Graii nomine dicunt, - Rorem Itali. Quocumque die (quis credere posset?) - Tamquam ex condicto cum Sol altissimus extat, - Sydereus conjux nebulæ velatus amictu - Labitur huc, niveisque maritam amplectitur alis: - Quodque fidem superat, parvo post tempora fœtum - Concipit, et parvo post tempore parturit arbor, - Molle puerperium vis noscere? consule fontem, - Qui nos propter adest, in quo mixtura duorum - Agnosci possit, splendet materque paterque. - Læta fovet genitrix, compos jam facta cupiti; - Illius optarat vultu se noscere, noscit; - {188} - Cernere ludentem se circum, ludere cernit; - Illum audire rudi matrem quoque voce vocantem, - Et matrem sese dici dum murmurat, audit. - Nec modo Virgintas fæcunda est arboris, ipsæ - Sunt quoque fœcundæ frondes, quas excutit arbor. - Nam simul ac supra latices cecidere tepentes, - Insuper accessit Phœbei flamma caloris, - Concipiunt, pariuntque: oriturque tenerrimius ales - Nomine Canarius, qui pene exclusus in auras, - Tenvis adhuc, cœlique rudis, crudusque labori - Jam super extantes affectat scandere ramos, - Et frondes, quarum una fuit. Nidum inde sub illis - Collocat adversum Soli, cui pandere pennas - Et siccare queat; latet hic, nullâque magistrâ - Arte canit, matrisque replet concentibus aures. - Adde quod affectus reddit genitricis eosdem, - Utque puellari genitrix in pectore clausit, - Hinc sylvæ austeros, teneros hinc Urbis amores, - Sic amat hic sylvas, ut non fastidiat Urbes. - Tecta colit, patiturque hominem, nec divitis aulæ - Grande supercilium metuit sylvestris alumnus. - Imo loco admonitus, vix aulicus incipit esse, - Jam fit adulator, positum proferre paratus - In statione melos, domini quod vellicet aurem. - CARRARA. _Columbus_. - -{189} - -The Walking-Leaf would have been better than the Canary Bird. - - - _Nared_.--VII. p. 67. - -A very distinguished son of Brahma, named Nared, bears a strong -resemblance to Hermes or Mercury; he was a wise legislator, great in -arts and in arms, an eloquent messenger of the Gods either to one -another, or to favoured mortals, and a musician of exquisite skill. -His invention of the _Vina_, or Indian lute, is thus described in the -poem entitled _Magha_: "Nared sat watching from time to time his large -_Vina_, which, by the impulse of the breeze, yielded notes that -pierced successively the regions of his ear, and proceeded by musical -intervals."--_Asiatic Researches_, Sir W. JONES. - -The _Vina_ is an Æolian harp. The people of Amboyna have a different -kind of Æolian instrument, which is thus described in the first -account of D'Entrecasteaux's Voyage: "Being on the sea-shore, I heard -some wind-instruments, the harmony of which, though sometimes very -correct, was intermixed with discordant notes that were by no means -unpleasing. These sounds, which were very musical, and formed fine -cadences, seemed to come from such a distance, that I for some time -imagined the natives were having a concert beyond the road-stead, near -a myriameter {190} from the spot where I stood. My ear was greatly -deceived respecting the distance, for I was not an hundred meters from -the instrument. It was a bamboo at least twenty meters in height, -which had been fixed in a vertical situation by the sea-side. I -remarked between each knot a slit about three centimeters long by a -centimeter and a half wide; these slits formed so many holes, which, -when the wind introduced itself into them, gave agreeable and -diversified sounds. As the knots of this long bamboo were very -numerous, care had been takes to make holes in different directions, -in order that, on whatever side the wind blew, it might always meet -with some of them. I cannot convey a better idea of the sound of this -instrument, than by comparing them to those of the -Harmonica."--LABILLARDIERE. _Voyage in Search of La Perouse_. - -Nareda, the mythological offspring of _Saraswati_, patroness of music, -is famed for his talents in that science. So great were they, that he -became presumptuous; and, emulating the divine strains of _Krishna_, -he was punished by having his _Vina_ placed in the paws of a bear, -whence it emitted sounds far sweeter than the minstrelsy of the -mortified musician. I have a picture of this joke, in which _Krishna_ -is forcing his reluctant friend to attend to his rough-visaged rival, -who is ridiculously touching the {191} chords of poor _Nareda's Vina_, -accompanied by a brother bruin on the cymbals. Krishna passed several -practical jokes on his humble and affectionate friend: He -metamorphosed him once into a woman, at another time into a -bear.--MOOR's _Hindu Pantheon_, p. 204. - - - ----_The Sacrifice_ - _That should, to men and gods, proclaim him Lord_ - _And Sovereign Master of the vassal World._--VII. p. 71. - -The Raisoo Yug, or Feast of Rajahs, could only be performed by a -monarch who had conquered all the other sovereigns of the -world.--HALHED. _Note to the Life of Creeshna_. - - - _Sole Rajah, the Omnipotent below._--VII. p. 71. - -No person has given so complete a sample of the absurdity of oriental -titles as the Dutch traveller Struys, in his enumeration of "the proud -and blasphemous titles of the King of Siam,--they will hardly bear -sense," says the translator, in what he elsewhere calls, by a happy -blunder, "the idiotism of our tongue." - -The Alliance, written with letters of fine gold, being full of godlike -glory. The most Excellent, containing all wise sciences. The most -Happy, which is not in the world among men. The Best and most Certain -that is {192} in Heaven, Earth, and Hell. The greatest Sweet, and -friendly Royal Word; whose powerful-sounding properties and glorious -fame range through the world, as if the dead were raised by a godlike -power, and wonderfully purged from ghostly and corporal corruption. At -this both spiritual and secular men admire with a special joy, whereas -no dignity may be herewith compared. Proceeding from a friendly, -illustrious, inconquerable, most mighty, and most high Lord; and a -royal Crown of Gold, adorned with nine sorts of precious stones. The -greatest, clearest, and most godlike Lord of unblameable Souls. The -most Holy, seeing every where, and protecting Sovereign of the city -JUDIA, whose many streets and open gates are thronged by troops of -men, which is the chief metropolis of the whole world, the royal -throne of the earth, that is adorned with nine sorts of stones, and -most pleasant valleys. He who guides the reins of the world, and has a -house more than the Gods of fine gold and of precious stones; they the -godlike Lords of thrones and of fine gold; the White, Red, and -Round-tayl'd Elephants,--which excellent creatures are the chiefest of -the nine sorts of Gods. To none hath the divine Lord given, in whose -hand is the victorious sword; who is like the fiery-armed God of -Battails, to the most illustrious. - -The second is as blasphemous as the first, though hardly swells so far -out of sense. - -{193} - -The highest PADUCCO SYRY SULTAN, NELMONAM WELGACA, NELMOCHADIN -MAGIVIITHA, JOUKEN DER EAUTEN ALLAULA FYLAN, King of the whole world; -who makes the water rise and flow. A King that is like a God, and -shines like the Sun at noon-day. A King that gives a glance like the -moon when it is at full. Elected of God to be worthy as the North -Star, being of the race and offspring of the great Alexander; with a -great understanding, as a round orb, that tumbles hither and thither, -able to guess at the depth of the great sea. A King that hath amended -all the funerals of the departed Saints, and is as righteous as God, -and of such power that all the world may come and shelter under his -wings. A King that doth right in all things, as the Kings of old have -done. A King more liberal than all Kings. A King that hath many mines -of gold that God hath lent him; who hath built temples half gold and -half brass; sitting upon a throne of pure gold, and of all sorts of -precious stones. A King of the white Elephant, which Elephant is the -King of all Elephants, before whom many thousands of other Elephants -must bow and fall upon their knees. He whose eyes shine like the -morning-star. A King that hath Elephants with four teeth, red, purple, -and pied. Elephants, _ay_, and a BYYTENAQUES Elephant; for which -God has given him many and divers sorts of apparel {194} wrought with -most fine gold, ennobled with many precious stones: and, besides -these, so many Elephants used in battle, having harnesses of iron, -their teeth tipt with steel, and their harnesses laid over with -shining brass. A King that has many hundred horses, whose trappings -are wrought with fine gold, and adorned with precious stones of every -sort that are found in the universal world where the Sun shines, and -these shod with fine gold: besides so many hundred horses that are -used in war of every kind. A King who has all Emperours, Kings, -Princes, and Sovereigns in the whole world, from the rising to the -going down of the sun, under subjection;--and such as can obtain his -favour are by him promoted to great honour; but, on the contrary, such -as revolt, he burns with fire. A King who can show the power of God, -and whatever God has made. - -And so, by this time, I hope you have heard enough of a King of -Elephants and Horses, though not a word of his Asses.--STRUYS. - - - _The Sacrifice._--VIII. p. 74. - -The _Aswamedha_, or sacrifice of a horse. Considerable difficulties -usually attended that ceremony; for the consecrated horse was to be -set at liberty for a certain time, and followed at a distance by the -owner, or his champion, {195} who was usually one of his near kinsmen; -and, if any person should attempt to stop it in its rambles, a battle -must inevitably ensue; besides, as the performer of a hundred -_Aswamedhas_ became equal to the God of the firmament, _Indra_ was -perpetually on the watch, and generally carried off the sacred animal -by force or by fraud.--WILFORD. _Asiat. Res_. - -Mr. Halhed gives a very curious account of this remarkable sacrifice: - -"The Ashum-meed-Jugg does not merely consist in the performance of -that ceremony which is open to the inspection of the world, namely, in -bringing a horse and sacrificing him; but Ashum-meed is to be taken in -a mystic signification, as implying that the sacrificer must look upon -himself to be typified in that horse, such as he shall be described, -because the religious duty of the Ashum-meed-Jugg comprehends all -those other religious duties, to the performance of which all the wise -and holy direct all their actions, and by which all the sincere -professors of every different faith aim at perfection: The mystic -signification thereof is as follows: - -"The head of that unblemished horse is the symbol of the morning; his -eyes are the sun; his breath the wind; his wide-opening mouth is the -Bishwaner, or that innate warmth which invigorates all the world: His -body typifies {196} one entire year; his back paradise; his belly the -plains; his hoof this earth; his sides the four quarters of the -heavens; the bones thereof the intermediate spaces between the four -quarters; the rest of his limbs represent all distinct matter; the -places where those limbs meet, or his joints, imply the months and -halves of the months, which are called _peche_ (or fortnights): His -feet signify night and day; and night and day are of four kinds, 1. -the night and day of Birhma, 2. the night and day of angels, 3. the -night and day of the world of the spirits of deceased ancestors, 4. -the night and day of mortals; these four kinds are typified in his -four feet. The rest of his bones are the constellations of the fixed -stars, which are the twenty-eight stages of the moon's course, called -the Lunar year; his flesh is the clouds; his food the sand; his -tendons the rivers; his spleen and his liver the mountains; the hair -of his body the vegetables, and his long hair the trees: the fore part -of his body typifies the first half of the day, and the hinder part -the latter half; his yawning is the flash of the lightning, and his -turning himself is the thunder of the cloud: His urine represents the -rain, and his mental reflection is his only speech. The golden -vessels, which are prepared before the horse is let loose, are the -light of the day, and the place where those vessels are kept is a type -of the Ocean {197} of the East; the silver vessels, which are prepared -after the horse is let loose, are the light of the night; and the -place where those vessels are kept is a type of the Ocean of the West: -these two sorts of vessels are always before and after the horse. The -Arabian horse, which, on account of its swiftness, is called Hy, is -the performer of the journies of angels; the Tajee, which is of the -race of Persian horses, is the performer of the journies of the -Kundherps (or good spirits); the Wazba, which is of the race of the -deformed Tazee horses, is the performer of the journies of the Jins, -(or demons;) and the Ashoo, which is of the race of Turkish horses, is -the performer of the journies of mankind. This one horse, which -performs these several services, on account of his four different -sorts of riders, obtains the four different appellations. The place -where this horse remains is the great ocean, which signifies, the -great spirit of Perm-Atma, or the Universal Soul, which proceeds also -from that Perm-Atma, and is comprehended in the same Perm-Atma. The -intent of this sacrifice is, that a man should consider himself to be -in the place of that horse, and look upon all these articles as -typified in himself; and, conceiving the Atma (or divine soul) to be -an ocean, should let all thought of self be absorbed in that -Atma."--HALHED, _from Darul Shekuh_. - -{198} - -Compare this specimen of eastern sublimity with the description of the -horse in Job! Compare it also with the account of the Bengal horses, -in the very amusing work of Captain Williamson,--"which said horses," -he says, "have generally Reman noses, and sharp narrow foreheads, much -white in their eyes, ill-shaped ears, square heads, thin necks, narrow -chests, shallow girths, lank bellies, cat hams, goose rumps, and -switch tails."--_Oriental Sports_, vol. ii. p. 206. - - - _The Bowl that in its vessel floats._--VIII. p. 78. - -The day and night are here divided into four quarters, each of six -hours, and these again into fifteen parts, of twenty-four minutes -each. For a chronometer they use a kind of dish of thin brass, at the -bottom of which there is a little hole; this is put into a vessel with -water, and it runs full in a certain time. They begin their first -quarter at six in the morning. They strike the quarters and -subdivisions of time with a wooden hammer, upon a flat piece of iron -or steel, of about ten inches in diameter, which is called a -_garnial_, and gives a pretty smart sound, which can be heard at some -distance. The quarters are first struck, and then as many times as the -brass dish has run full in that quarter. None but the chief men of a -district are allowed to have a _garnial_, and still they may {199} not -strike the first division of the first quarter, which is a privilege -reserved to the nabob alone. Those who attend at these clocks must be -of the Bramin cast.--STAVORINUS. - - - _Lo, the time-taper's flame, ascending slow_ - _Creeps up its coil._--VIII. p. 79. - -They make a sort of paste of the dust of a certain sort of wood, (the -learned and rich men of sandal, eagle-wood, and others that are -odoriferous), and of this paste they make sticks of several sorts, -drawing them through a hole, that they may be of an equal thickness. -They commonly make them one, two, or three yards long, about the -thickness of a goose-quill, to burn in the pagods before their idols, -or to use like a match to convey fire from one thing to another. These -sticks or ropes they coil, beginning at the centre, and so form a -spiral conical figure, like a fisherman's wheel, so that the last -circle shall be one, two, or three spans diameter, and will last one, -two, or three days, or more, according as it is in thickness. There -are of them in the temples that last ten, twenty, and thirty days. -This thing is hung up by the centre, and is lighted at the lower end, -whence the fire gently and insensibly runs round all the coil, on -which there are generally five marks, to distinguish the five parts of -the {200} night. This method of measuring time is so exact and true, -that they scarce ever find any considerable mistake in it. The -learned, travellers, and all others, who will rise at a certain hour -to follow their business, hang a little weight at the mark that shews -the hour they have a mind to rise at, which, when the fire comes -thither, drops into a brass bason set under it; and so the noise of it -falling awakes them, as our alarum-clocks do.--GEMELLI CARERI. - - - _At noon the massacre begun,_ - _And night clos'd in before the work of death was done._ - --VIII. p. 82. - -Of such massacres the ancient and modern history of the East supply -but too many examples. One may suffice: - -After the surrender of the Ilbars Khan, Nadir prohibited his soldiers -from molesting the inhabitants; but their rapacity was more powerful -than their habits of obedience, or even their dread of his -displeasure, and they accordingly began to plunder. The instant Nadir -heard of their disobedience, he ordered the offenders to be brought -before him, and the officers were beheaded in his presence, and the -private soldiers dismissed with the loss of their ears and noses. The -executioners toiled till {201} sun-set, when he commanded the headless -trunks with their arms to be carried to the main-guard, and there to -be exposed for two days, as an example to others. I was present the -whole time, and saw the wonderful hand of God, which employs such -instruments for the execution of his divine vengeance; although not -one of the executioners was satisfied with Nadir Shah, yet nobody -dared to disobey his commands:--a father beheaded his son, and a -brother a brother, and yet presumed not to complain.--ABDUL KURREEM. - - - _Behold his lovely home,_ - _By yonder broad-bough'd Plane o'ershaded._--IX. p. 84. - -The plane-tree, that species termed the _Platanus Orientalis_, is -commonly cultivated in Kashmire, where it is said to arrive at a -greater perfection than in other countries. This tree, which in most -parts of Asia is called the _Chinur_, grows to the size of an oak, and -has a taper straight trunk, with a silver-coloured bark; and its leaf, -not unlike an expanded hand, is of a pale green. When in full foliage, -it has a grand and beautiful appearance; and, in the hot weather, it -affords a refreshing shade.--FORSTER. - - - _The Marriage-Bower._--IX. p. 85. - -The Pandal is a kind of arbour or bower raised before {202} the doors -of young married women. They set up two or three poles, seven or eight -foot in length, round which the leaves of the Pisan-tree, the symbol -of joy, are entwined. These poles support others that are laid -crossways, which are covered with leaves in order to form a shade. The -Siriperes are allowed to set up no more than three pillars, and the -infringing of this custom would be sufficient to cause an -insurrection.--A. ROGER, _in Picart_. - - - _There, from the intolerable heat,_ - _The buffaloes retreat._--IX. p. 87. - -About noon, in hot weather, the buffalo throws herself into the water -or mud of a tank, if there be one accessible at a convenient distance; -and, leaving nothing above water but her nose, continues there for -five or six hours, or until the heat abates.--BUCHANAN. - -In the hot season, when water becomes very scarce, the buffaloes avail -themselves of any puddle they may find among the covers, wherein they -roll and rub themselves, so as in a short time to change what was at -first a shallow flat, into a deep pit, sufficient to conceal their own -bulk. The humidity of the soil, even when the water may have been -evaporated, is particularly gratifying to these animals, which cannot -bear heat, and which, if {203} not indulged in a free access to the -water, never thrive.--_Oriental Sports_, vol. i. p. 259. - -The buffalo not only delights in the water, but will not thrive unless -it have a swamp to wallow in. There rolling themselves, they speedily -work deep hollows, wherein they lay immersed. No place seems to -delight the buffalo more than the deep verdure on the confines of -jiels and marshes, especially if surrounded by tall grass, so as to -afford concealment and shade, while the body is covered by the water. -In such situations they seem to enjoy a perfect ecstacy, having in -general nothing above the surface but their eyes and nostrils, the -horns being kept low down, and consequently entirely hidden from -view.--_Oriental Sports_, vol. ii. p. 49. - -Captain Beaver describes these animals as to be found during the heat -of the day in the creeks and on the shores of the island of Bulama, -almost totally immerged in water, little more than their heads -appearing above it. - - - _The market-flag._--IX. p. 86. - -Many villages have markets on particular days, when not only fruits, -grain, and the common necessaries of life are sold, but occasionally -manufactures of various descriptions. These markets are well known to -all the neighbouring country, being on appointed days of the {204} -week, or of the lunar month; but, to remind those who may be -travelling of their vicinity to the means of supply, a _naugaurah_, or -large kettle-drum, is beat during the forenoon, and a small flag, -usually of white linen, with some symbolic figure in colours, or with -a coloured border, is hoisted on a very long bamboo, kept upright by -means of ropes fastened to pins driven into the ground. The flags of -Hindoo villages are generally square and plain; those of the -Mussulmans towns are ordinarily triangular, and bear the type of -their, religion, viz. a double-bladed scymitar.--_Oriental Sports_, -vol. i. p. 100. - - - _Mount Meru._--X. p. 93. - -According to the orthodox Hindus, the globe is divided into two -hemispheres, both called _Meru_; but the superior hemisphere is -distinguished by the name of _Sumeru_, which implies beauty and -excellence, in opposition to the lower hemisphere, or _Cumeru_, which -signifies the reverse: By _Meru_, without any adjunct, they generally -mean the higher or northern hemisphere, which they describe with a -profusion of poetic imagery as the seat of delights: while they -represent _Cumeru_ as the dreary habitation of demons, in some parts -intensely cold, and in others so hot that the waters are continually -boiling. In strict propriety, Meru denotes the pole and the polar -{205} regions; but it is the celestial north pole round which they -place the gardens and metropolis of _Indra_, while _Yama_ holds his -court in the opposite polar circle, or the Station of _Asuras_, who -warred with the _Suras_, or gods of the firmament.--WILFORD. -_Asiatic Researches_. - -In the _Vayu Puráná_, we are told, that the water, or _Ogha_ of the -ocean, coming down from heaven like a stream of _Amrita_ upon _Meru_, -encircles it through seven channels, for the space of 84,000 -_Yojanas_, and then divides into four streams, which, falling from the -immense height of Meru, rest themselves in four lakes, from which they -spring over the mountains through the air, just brushing the summits. -This wild account was not unknown in the west; for this passage is -translated almost verbally, by Pliny and Q. Curtius, in speaking of -the Ganges. _Cum magno fragore ipsius statim fontis Ganges erumpit_, -et magnorum montium juga recto alveo stringit, _et ubi primum mollis -planities contingat, in quodam lacu hospitatur_. The words in Italics -are from Pliny (vi. c. 18.) the others from Curtius (viii. c. -9.)--Capt. WILFORD. _As. Res_. vol. viii. p. 322. Calcutta edition. - -The Swarganga, or Mandacini, rises from under the feet of Veeshno, at -the polar star, and, passing through the circle of the moon, it falls -upon the summit of Meru; where it divides into four streams, flowing -toward {206} the four cardinal points. These four branches pass -through four rocks, carved into the shape of four heads of different -animals. The Ganges running towards the south passes through a cow's -head: To the west is a horse's head, from which flows the Chaashu or -Oxus; towards the east is the head of an elephant, from which flows -the river Sita; and to the north is a lion's head, from which flows -the Bhadrasama.--WILFORD. _As. Res_. vol. viii. 317. Calc. edition. - -The mountains through which the Ganges flows at Hurdwar, present the -spectator with the view of a grand natural amphitheatre; their -appearance is rugged and destitute of verdure; they run in ridges and -bluff points, in a direction east and west: At the back of the largest -range, rise, towering to the clouds, the lofty mountains of -Himmalayah, whose tops are covered with perpetual snow, which, on -clear days, present a most sublime prospect. Their large jagged -masses, broken into a variety of irregular shapes, added to their -stupendous height, impress the mind with an idea of antiquity and -grandeur coeval with the creation; and the eternal frost with which -they are encrusted appears to preclude the possibility of mortals ever -attaining their summit. - -In viewing this grand spectacle of nature, the traveller may easily -yield his assent to, and pardon the superstitious {207} veneration of -the Hindoo votary, who, in the fervour of his imagination, assigns the -summit of these icy regions as the abode of the great Mahadeo, or -First Cause, where, seated on his throne of ice, he is supposed to -receive the homage of the surrounding universe.--FRANKLIN's _Life of -George Thomas_, p. 41. - -At Gangóttara, three small streams fall down from impassable snowy -precipices, and unite into a small bason below, which is considered by -the Hindus as the source of the Ganges, over which, at that place, a -man can step. This is one of the five _Tirthas_, or stations, more -eminently sacred than the rest upon this sacred river. Narayana -Shastri, who gave this account, had visited it.--BUCHANAN. - -The mountain, called Cailasa Cungri is exceedingly lofty. On its -summit there is a Bhowjputr tree, from the root of which sprouts or -gushes a small stream, which the people say is the source of the -Ganges, and that it comes from Vaicont'ha, or Heaven, as is also -related in the Puránas; although this source appears to the sight to -flow from the spot where grows this Bhowjputr tree, which is at an -ascent of some miles; and yet above this there is a still loftier -summit, where no one goes: But I have heard that, on that uppermost -pinnacle, there is a fountain or cavity, to which a Jogui somehow -penetrated, {208} who, having immersed his little finger in it, it -became petrified.--PURANA POORI. _Asiatic Researches_. - -Respecting the true source of the Ganges much uncertainty still -prevails. In vain one of the most powerful sovereigns of Indostan, the -emperor Acbar, at the close of the sixteenth century, sent a number of -men, an army of discoverers, provided with every necessary, and the -most potent recommendations, to explore the course of the mighty river -which adorned and fertilised the vast extent of his dominions. They -were not able to penetrate beyond the famous _Mouth of the Cow_. This -is an immense aperture, in a ridge of the mountains of Thibet, to -which the natives of India have given this appellation, from the -fancied or real resemblance of the rocks which form the stupendous -chasm, to the mouth of an animal esteemed sacred throughout Indostan -from the remotest antiquity. From this opening the Ganges, -precipitating itself into a large and deep bason at the foot of the -mountains, forms a cataract, which is called Gangotri. The -impracticability of scaling these precipitous rocks, and advancing -beyond this formidable pass, has prevented the tracing whence this -rushing mass of water takes its primary rise.--WILCOCKE, _Note to -Stavorinus_. - -{209} - - - _The birth of Ganges._--X. p. 94. - -I am indebted to Sir William Jones's Hymn to Ganga for this fable: - - "Above the stretch of mortal ken, - On bless'd _Cailasa's_ top, where every stem - Glow'd with a vegetable gem, - Mahe'sa stood, the dread and joy of men; - While Párvati, to gain a boon, - Fix'd on his locks a beamy moon, - And hid his frontal eye, in jocund play, - With reluctant sweet delay. - All nature straight was lock'd in dim eclipse, - Till _Brahmans_ pure, with hallow'd lips, - And warbled prayers, restored the day; - When Ganga from his brow, by heavenly fingers press'd, - Sprang radiant, and, descending, graced the caverns of the west." - -The descent of the Ganges is related in the Ramayuna, one of the most -celebrated of the sacred books of the Bramins. This work the excellent -and learned Baptist missionaries at Serampore are at this time -employed in printing and translating; one volume has arrived in {210} -Europe, and from it I am tempted here to insert an extract of -considerable length. The reader will be less disposed to condemn the -fictions of Kehama as extravagant, when he compares them with this -genuine specimen of Hindoo fable. He will perceive, too, that no undue -importance has been attributed to the Horse of the Sacrifice in the -Poem. - -"The son of Kooshika having, in mellifluous accents, related these -things to Rama, again addressed the descendant of Kakootitha. -Formerly, O hero! there was a king of Hyoodhya, named Sagura, the -Sovereign of Men, virtuous, desirous of children, but childless; O -Rama! the daughter of Vidurbhakeshinee, virtuous, attached to truth, -was his chief consort, and the daughter of Urishtunemi, Soomuti, -unequalled in beauty, his second spouse. With these two consorts, the -great king, going to Himuvat, engaged in sacred austerities on the -mountain in whose sacred stream Bhrigoo constantly bathed. A hundred -years being completed, the sage Bhrigoo, clothed with truth, rendered -propitious by his austerities, granted him this blessing: O sinless -One! thou shalt obtain a most numerous progeny; thy fame, O chief of -men! will be unparalleled in the universe. From one of thy consorts, O -sire! shall spring the founder of thy race, and, from the other, sixty -thousand sons. - -{211} - -"The queens, pleased, approached the chief of men who was thus -speaking, and, with hands respectfully joined, asked, O Brahman! -whose shall be the one son, and who shall produce the multitude? We, O -Brahman! desire to hear. May thy words be verified. Hearing their -request, the most virtuous Bhrigoo replied in these admirable words: -Freely say which of these favours ye desire, whether the one, founder -of the family, or the multitude of valiant, renowned, energetic sons. -O Rama! son of Rughoo, Keshinee hearing the words of the sage, in the -presence of the king accepted the one son, the founder of the family; -and Soomuti, sister of Soopurna, accepted the sixty thousand sons, -active and renowned. The king, O son of Rughoo! having respectfully -circumambulated the sage, bowing the head, returned with his spouses -to his own city. - -"After some time had elapsed, his eldest spouse Keshinee bore to -Sugura a son, named Usumunja; and Soomuti, O chief of men! brought -forth a gourd, from which, on its being opened, came forth sixty -thousand sons. These, carefully brought up by their nurses, in jars -filled with clarified butter, in process of time attained the state of -youth;[4] and, after a long period, the {212} sixty thousand sons -of Sugura, possessed of youth and beauty, became men. The eldest son, -the offspring of Sugura, O son of Rughoo! chief of men, seizing -children, would throw them into the waters of the Suruyoo, and sport -himself with their drowning pangs. This evil person, the distresser of -good men, devoted to the injury of the citizens, was by his father -expelled from the city. The son of Usumunja, the heroic Ungshooman, in -conversation courteous and affectionate, was esteemed by all. - -"After a long time, O chief of men! Sugura formed the steady resolve, -"I will perform a sacrifice." Versed in the Veda, the king, attended -by his instructors, having determined the things relating to the -sacrificial work, began to prepare the sacrifice. - -"Hearing the words of Vishwa-mitra, the son of Rughoo, highly -gratified in the midst of the story, addressed the sage, bright as the -ardent flame, Peace be to Thee: I desire, O Brahman! to hear this -story at large, how my predecessors performed the sacrifice. Hearing -his words, Vishwa-mitra, smiling, pleasantly replied to Rama: {213} -"Attend, then, O Rama! to the story of Sugura, repeated at full -length. Where the great mountain Himuvat, the happy father-in-law of -Shunkura, and the mountain Bindhyo, overlooking the country around, -proudly vie with each other, there was the sacrifice of the great -Sugura performed. That land, sacred and renowned, is the habitation of -Rakshuses. At the command of Sugura, the hero Ungshooman, O Rama! -eminent in archery, a mighty charioteer, was the attendant (of the -horse.[5]) While the king was performing the sacrifice, a serpent, -assuming the form of Ununta, rose from the earth, and seized the -sacrificial horse. The sacrificial victim being stolen, all the -priests, O son of Rughoo! going to the king, said, Thy consecrated -horse has been stolen by some one in the form of a serpent. Kill the -thief, and bring back the sacred horse. This interruption in the -sacrifice portends evil to us all. Take those steps, O king! which may -lead to the completion of the sacrifice. Having heard the advice of -his instructors, the king, calling his sixty thousand sons into the -assembly, said, I perceive that the Rakshuses have not been to this -great sacrifice. A sacrifice of the Nagas is now performing by the -sages, and some god, in the form of a serpent, {214} has stolen the -devoted horse. Whoever he be, who, at the time of the Deeksha, has -been the cause of this afflictive circumstance, this unhappy event, -whether he be gone to Patala, or whether he remain in the waters, kill -him, O sons! and bring back my victim. May success attend you, O my -sons! At my command traverse the sea-girt earth, digging with mighty -labour, till you obtain a sight of the horse; each one piercing the -earth to the depth of a yojunga, go you in search of him who stole the -sacred horse. Being consecrated by the Deeksha, I, with my grandson -and my teachers, will remain with the sacrifice unfinished, till I -again behold my devoted horse. - -"Thus instructed by their father Sugura, they, in obedience to him, -went with cheerful mind, O Rama! to the bottom of the earth. The -strong ones, having gone over the earth without obtaining a sight of -the horse, each of these mighty men pierced the earth, to the depth of -a yojuna, with their mighty arm, the stroke of which resembled the -thunder-bolt. Pierced by Kooddalas,[6] by Purighas,[7] by -Shoolas,[8] by Mooshulas,[9] {215} and Shuktis,[10] the -earth cried out as in darkness. Then arose, O Raghuva! a dreadful cry -of the serpents, the Usooras, the Rakshuses, and other creatures, as -of beings suffering death. These angry youths, O son of Rughoo! dug -the earth even to Patala, to the extent of sixty thousand yojunas. -Thus, O prince! the sons of the sovereign of men traversed -Jumboodweepa, inclosed with mountains, digging wherever they came. The -gods now, with the Gundburwas and the great serpents, struck with -astonishment, went all of them to Bruhma, and, bowing even to the foot -of the great spirit, they, full of terror, with dejected countenance, -addressed him thus: "O Deva! O divine One! the whole earth, covered -with mountains and woods, with rivers and continents, the sons of -Sugura are now digging up. By these digging, O Bruhma! the mightiest -beings are killed. This is the stealer of our consecrated victims; by -this (fellow) our horse was taken away:" Thus saying, these sons of -Sugura destroy all creatures. O most powerful! having heard this, it -becomes thee to interpose, before these horse-seekers destroy all thy -creatures endued with life." - -Thus far the thirty-second Section, describing the digging of earth. - -{216} - - SECTION THIRTY-THREE. - -"Hearing the words of the gods, the divine Bruhma replied to these -affrighted ones, stupified with the Yuma-like power of these youths: -The wise Vasoo-deva, the great Madhuva, who claims the earth for his -spouse, that divine one, residing in the form of Kupila, supports the -earth. By the fire of his wrath he will destroy the sons of the king. -This piercing of the earth must, I suppose, be perceived by him, and -he will (effect) the destruction of the long-sighted sons of Sugura. -The thirty-three gods,[11] enemy-subduing, having heard the words -of Bruhma, returned home full of joy. The sons of Sugura, highly -renowned, thus digging the earth, a sound was produced resembling that -of conflicting elements. Having encompassed and penetrated the whole -earth, the sons of Sugura, returning to their father, said, The whole -earth has been traversed by us; and all the powerful gods, the -Danuvas, the Ruckshuses, the Pishachas, the serpents, and hydras, are -killed[12]; but we have not seen {217} thy horse, nor the thief. -What shall we do? Success be to thee: be pleased to determine what -more is proper. The virtuous king, having heard the words of his sons, -O son of Rughoo! angrily replied, Again commence digging. Having -penetrated the earth, and found the stealer of the horse, having -accomplished your intention, return again. Attentive to the words of -their father, the great Sugura, the sixty thousand descended to -Patala, and there renewed their digging. There, O chief of men! they -saw the elephant of that quarter of the globe, in size resembling a -mountain, with distorted eyes, supporting with his head this earth, -with its mountains and forests, covered with various countries, and -adorned with numerous cities. When, for the sake of rest, O -Kakootstha! the great elephant, through distress, refreshes himself by -moving his head, an earthquake is produced. - -"Having respectfully circumambulated this mighty elephant, guardian of -the quarter, they, O Rama! praising him, penetrated into Patala. After -they had thus penetrated the east quarter, they opened their way to -the south. Here they saw that great elephant Muha-pudma, equal to a -huge mountain, sustaining the earth with his head. Beholding him, they -were filled with surprise; and, after the usual circumambulation, the -sixty thousand sons of the great Sugura perforated the west quarter. -{218} In this these mighty ones saw the elephant Soumunusa, of equal -size. Having respectfully saluted him, and enquired respecting his -health, these valiant ones digging, arrived at the north. In this -quarter, O chief of Rughoo! they saw the snow-white elephant Bhudra, -supporting this earth with his beautiful body. Circumambulating him, -they again penetrated the earth, and proceeded north-east to that -renowned quarter; all the sons of Sugura, through anger, pierced the -earth again. There all those magnanimous ones, terrible in swiftness, -and of mighty prowess, saw Kupila, Vasodeva the eternal,[13] and -near him the horse feeding. Filled, O son of Rughoo! with unparalleled -joy, they all knowing him to be the stealer of the horse, with eyes -starting with rage, seizing their spades and their _langulas_, and -even trees and stones, ran towards him full of wrath, calling out, -Stop, stop! thou art the stealer of our sacrificial horse: Thou stupid -one, know that we who have found thee are the sons of Rughoo. Kupila, -filled with excessive anger, uttered from his nostrils a loud sound, -and instantly, O Kakootstha! by Kupila of immeasurable power, were all -the sons of Sugura turned to a heap of ashes." - -{219} - -Thus far the thirty-third Section, describing the interview with -Kupila. - - - SECTION THIRTY-FOUR. - -"O son of Rughoo! Sugura, perceiving that his sons had been absent a -long time, thus addressed his grandson, illustrious by his own might: -Thou art a hero, possessed of science, in prowess equal to thy -predecessors. Search out the fate of thy paternal relatives, and the -person by whom the horse was stolen, that we may avenge ourselves on -these subterraneous beings, powerful and great. Take thy scymitar and -bow, O beloved one! and finding out thy deceased paternal relatives, -destroy my adversary. The proposed end being thus accomplished, -return. Bring me happily through this sacrifice. - -"Thus particularly addrest by the great Sugura, Ungshooman, swift and -powerful, taking his bow and scymitar, departed. Urged by the king, -the chief of men traversed the subterraneous road dug by his great -ancestors. There the mighty one saw the elephant of the quarter, -adored by the gods, the Danuvas and Rukshuses, the Pishachas, the -birds and the serpents. Having circumambulated him, and asked -concerning his welfare, Ungshooman {220} enquired for his paternal -relatives, and the stealer of the sacred victim. The mighty elephant -of the quarter hearing, replied, O son of Usumunja! thou wilt -accomplish thine intention, and speedily return with the horse. Having -heard this, he, with due respect, enquired, in regular succession, of -all the elephants of the quarters. Honoured by all these guardians of -the eight sides of the earth, acquainted with speech, and eminent in -eloquence, he was told, Thou wilt return with the horse. Upon this -encouraging declaration, he swiftly went to the place where lay his -paternal relatives, the sons of Sugura, reduced to a heap of ashes. -(At this sight) the son of Usumunja, overwhelmed with sorrow on -account of their death, cried out with excess of grief. In this state -of grief, the chief of men beheld, grazing near, the sacrificial -horse. The illustrious one, desirous of performing the funeral -obsequies of these sons of the king, looked around for a receptacle of -water, but in vain. Extending his eager view, he saw, O Rama! the -sovereign of birds, the uncle of his paternal relatives, Soopurna, in -size resembling a mountain. Vinuteya, of mighty prowess, addressed him -thus: Grieve not, O chief of men! this slaughter is approved by the -universe. These great ones were reduced to ashes by Kupila of -unmeasurable might. It is not proper for thee, O wise one! to pour -common water upon {221} these ashes. Gunga, O chief of men! is the -eldest daughter of Himuvut. With her sacred stream, O valiant one! -perform the funeral ceremonies for thine ancestors. If the purifier of -the world flow on them, reduced to a heap of ashes, these ashes, being -wetted by Gunga, the illuminator of the world, the sixty thousand sons -of thy grandfather will be received into heaven. May success attend -thee! Bring Gunga to the earth from the residence of the gods. If thou -art able, O chief of men! possessor of the ample share, let the -descent of Gunga be accomplished by thee. Take the horse, and go -forth. It is thine, O hero! for to complete the great paternal -sacrifice. - -"Having heard these words of Soopurna, Ungshooman, the heroic, -speedily seizing the horse, returned. Then, O son of Rughoo! being -come to the king, who was still performing the initiatory ceremonies, -he related to him the whole affair, and the advice of Soopurna. - -"After hearing the terror-inspiring relation of Ungshooman, the king -finished the sacrifice, in exact conformity to the tenor and spirit of -the ordinance: Having finished his sacrifice, the sovereign of the -earth returned to his palace. The king, however, was unable to devise -any way for the descent of Gunga from heaven: after a long time, -unable to fix upon any method, he departed to heaven, having reigned -thirty thousand years. - -{222} - -"Sugura having, O Rama! paid the debt of nature, the people chose -Ungshooman, the pious, for their sovereign. Ungshooman, O son of -Rughoo! was a very great monarch. His son was called Dwileepa. Having -placed him on the throne, he, O Raguva! retiring to the pleasant top -of Mount Himuvut, performed the most severe austerities. This -excellent sovereign of men, illustrious as the immortals, was -exceedingly desirous of the descent of Gunga; but not obtaining his -wish, the renowned monarch, rich in sacred austerities, departed to -heaven, after having abode in the forest sacred to austerities, -thirty-two thousand years. Dwileepa, the highly energetic, being made -acquainted with the slaughter of his paternal great-uncles, was -overwhelmed with grief; but was still unable to fix upon a way of -deliverance. How shall I accomplish the descent of Gunga? How shall I -perform the funeral ablutions of these relatives? How shall I deliver -them? In such cogitations was his mind constantly engaged. While these -ideas filled the mind of the king, thoroughly acquainted with sacred -duties, there was born to him a most virtuous son, called -Bhugee-rutha. The illustrious king Dwileepa performed many sacrifices, -and governed the kingdom for thirty thousand years; but, O chief of -men! no way of obtaining the deliverance of his ancestors appearing, -he, by a disease, discharged the debt {223} of nature. Having -installed his own son Bhugee-rutha in the kingdom, the lord of men -departed to the paradise of Indra, through the merits of his own -virtuous deeds. - -"The pious, the royal sage, Bhugee-rutha, O son of Rughoo! was -childless. Desirous of offspring, yet childless, the great monarch -entrusted the kingdom to the care of his counsellors; and, having his -heart set on obtaining the descent of Gunga, engaged in a long course -of sacred austerities upon the mountain Gokurna. With hands erected, -he, O son of Rughoo! surrounded in the hot season with five -fires,[14] according to the prescribed ordinance; in the cold -season lying in water; and in the rainy season exposed to the -descending clouds, feeding on fallen leaves, with his mind restrained, -and his sensual feelings subdued, this valiant and great king -continued a thousand years in the practice of the most severe -austerities. The magnanimous monarch of mighty arm having finished -this period, the divine Bruhma, the lord of creatures, the supreme -governor, was highly pleased; and with the gods, going near to the -great Bhugee-rutha, employed in sacred austerities, said to him, I am -propitious. O performer of sacred vows! ask a blessing. The mighty, -{224} the illustrious Bhugee-rutha, with hands respectfully joined, -replied to the sire of all, O divine one! if thou art pleased with me, -if the fruit of my austerities may be granted, let all the sons of -Sugura obtain water for their funeral rites. The ashes of the great -ones being wetted by the water of Gunga, let all my ancestors ascend -to the eternal heaven.[15] Let a child, O divine one! be granted to -us, that our family become not extinct. O God! let this great blessing -be granted to the family of Ikshwakoo. The venerable sire of all -replied to the king thus requesting in the sweetest and most pleasing -accents: Bhugee-rutha, thou mighty charioteer, be this great wish of -thine heart accomplished. Let prosperity attend thee, thou increaser -of the family of Ikshwakoo! Engage Hura, O king! to receive (in her -descent) Gunga, the eldest daughter of the mountain Himuvut. The -earth, O king! cannot sustain the descent of Gunga, nor beside -Shoolee[16] do I behold any one, O king! able to receive her. The -creator having thus replied to the king, and spoken to Gunga, returned -to heaven with Macroots and all the gods." - -Thus far the thirty-fourth Section, describing the gift of the -blessing to Bhugee-rutha. - -{225} - - SECTION THIRTY-FIVE. - -"Pruja-puti being gone, Bhugee-rutha, O Rama! with uplifted arm, -without support, without a helper, immoveable as a dry tree, and -feeding on air, remained day and night on the tip of his great toe -upon the afflicted earth. A full year having now elapsed, the husband -of Ooma, and the lord of animals, who is reverenced by all worlds, -said to the king, I am propitious to thee, O chief of men! I will -accomplish thy utmost desire. To him the sovereign replied, O Hura, -receive Gunga! Bhurga,[17] thus addressed, replied, I will perform -thy desire; I will receive her on my head, the daughter of the -mountain. Muheshwura then, mounting on the summit of Himuvut, -addressed Gunga, the river flowing in the ether, saying, Descend, O -Gunga! The eldest daughter of Himuvut, adored by the universe, having -heard the words of the lord of Ooma, was filled with anger, and -assuming, O Rama! a form of amazing size, with insupportable celerity, -fell from the air upon the auspicious head of Shiva. The goddess -Gunga, irresistible, thought within herself, I will bear down Shunkura -with my stream, and enter Patala. The {226} divine Hura, the -three-eyed god, was aware of her proud resolution, and, being angry, -determined to prevent her design. The purifier, fallen upon the sacred -head of Roodra, was detained, O Rama! in the recesses of the orb of -his Juta, resembling Himuvut, and was unable, by the greatest efforts, -to descend to the earth. From the borders of the orb of his Juta, the -goddess could not obtain regress, but wandered there for many series -of years. Thus situated, Bhugee-rutha beheld her wandering there, and -again engaged in severe austerities. - -"With these austerities, O son of Rughoo! Hura being greatly pleased, -discharged Gunga towards the lake Vindoo. In her flowing forth seven -streams were produced. Three of these streams[18] beautiful, filled -with water conveying happiness, Hladinee,[19] Pavunee,[20] and -Nulinee,[21] directed their course eastward: while -Soochukohoo,[22] Seeta,[23] and Sindhoo,[24] three pellucid -mighty rivers, flowed to the west. The seventh of these streams -followed king Bhugee-rutha. The royal sage, the illustrious {227} -Bhugee-rutha, seated on a resplendent car, led the way, while Gunga -followed. Pouring down from the sky upon the head of Shunkura, and -afterwards upon the earth, her streams rolled along with a shrill -sound. The earth was willingly chosen by the fallen fishes, the -turtles, the porpoises, and the birds. The royal sages, the -Gundhurvas, the Yukshas, and the Siddhas, beheld her falling from the -ether to the earth; yea, the gods, immeasurable in power, filled with -surprise, came thither with chariots resembling a city, horses, and -elephants, and litters, desirous of seeing the wonderful and -unparalleled descent of Gunga into the world. Irradiated by the -descending gods, and the splendour of their ornaments, the cloudless -atmosphere shone with the splendour of an hundred suns, while by the -uneasy porpoises, the serpents, and the fishes, the air was coruscated -as with lightning. Through the white foam of the waters, spreading in -a thousand directions, and the flights of water-fowl, the atmosphere -appeared filled with autumnal clouds. The water, pure from defilement, -falling from the head of Shunkura, and thence to the earth, ran in -some places with a rapid stream, in others in a tortuous current; here -widely spreading, there descending into caverns, and again spouting -upward; in some places it moved slowly, stream uniting with stream; -while repelled {228} in others, it rose upwards, and again fell to the -earth. Knowing its purity, the sages, the Gundhurvas, and the -inhabitants of the earth, touched the water fallen from the body of -Bhuva.[25] Those who, through a curse, had fallen from heaven to -earth, having performed ablution in this stream, became free from sin: -cleansed from sin by this water, and restored to happiness, they -entered the sky, and returned again to heaven. By this illustrious -stream was the world rejoiced, and by performing ablution in Gunga, -became free from impurity. - -"The royal sage, Bhugee-rutha, full of energy, went before, seated on -his resplendent car, while Gunga followed after. The gods, O Rama! -with the sages, the Dityas, the Danuvas, the Rakshuses, the chief -Gundhurvas, and Yukshas, with the Kinnuras, the chief serpents, and -all the Upsuras, together with aquatic animals, following the chariot -of Bhugee-rutha, attended Gunga. Whither king Bhugee-rutha went, -thither went the renowned Gunga, the chief of streams, the destroyer -of all sin. - -"After this, Gunga, in her course, inundated this sacrificial ground -of the great Juhnoo of astonishing deeds, {229} who was then offering -sacrifice. Juhnoo, O Raghuva! perceiving her pride enraged, drank up -the whole of the water of Gunga:--a most astonishing deed! At this the -gods, the Gundhurvas, and the sages, exceedingly surprised, adored the -great Juhnoo, the most excellent of men, and named Gunga the daughter -of this great sage. - -"The illustrious chief of men, pleased, discharged Gunga from his -ears. Having liberated her, he, recognizing the great Bhugee-rutha, -the chief of kings, then present, duly, honoured him, and returned to -the place of sacrifice. From this deed Gunga, the daughter of Jahnoo, -obtained the name Jahnuvee. - -"Gunga now went forward again, following the chariot of Bhugee-rutha. -Having reached the sea, the chief of streams proceeded to Patala, to -accomplish the work of Bhugee-rutha. The wise and royal sage, having -with great labour conducted Gunga thither, there beheld his ancestors -reduced to ashes. Then, O chief of Rughoo's race, that heap of ashes, -bathed by the excellent waters of Gunga, and purified from sin, the -sons of the king obtained heaven. Having arrived at the sea, the king, -followed by Gunga, entered the subterraneous regions, where lay the -sacred ashes. After these, O Rama! had been laved by the water of -Gunga, Bruhma, the lord of all, thus addressed the king: O chief of -men! thy predecessors, {230} the sixty thousand sons of the great -Sugura, are all delivered by thee: and the great and perennial -receptacle of water, called by Sugura's name, shall henceforth be -universally known by the appellation of Sagura.[26] As long, O -king! as the waters of the sea continue in the earth, so long shall -the sons of Sugura remain in heaven, in all the splendour of gods. - -"This Gunga, O king! shall be thy eldest daughter, known throughout -the three worlds (by the name) Bhagee-ruthee; and because she passed -through the earth, the chief of rivers shall be called Gunga[27] -throughout the universe. (She shall also be) called Triputhaga, on -account of her proceeding forward in three different directions, -watering the three worlds. Thus is she named by the gods and sages. -She is called Gunga, O sovereign of the Vashyas! on account of her -flowing through Gang;[28] and her third name, O thou observer of -vows! is Bhagee-ruthee. O, accomplished one! through affection to -thee, and regard to me, these names will remain: as long as Gunga, the -great river, shall remain in the world, so long shall thy deathless -fame live throughout {231} the universe. O lord of men! O king! -perform here the funeral rites of all thine ancestors. Relinquish thy -vows,[29] O king! this devout wish of theirs was not obtained by -thine ancestors highly renowned, chief among the pious; not by -Ungshooman, unparalleled in the universe, so earnestly desiring the -descent of Gunga, O beloved one! was this object of desire obtained. -Nor, O possessor of prosperity! O sinless one! could she be (obtained) -by thine illustrious father Dwileepa, the Rajurshi eminently -accomplished, whose energy was equal to that of a Muhurshi, and who, -established in all the virtues of the Kshutras, in secret austerities -equalled myself. This great design has been fully accomplished by -thee, O chief of men! Thy fame, the blessing so much desired, will -spread throughout the world. O subduer of enemies! this descent of -Gunga has been effected by thee. This Gunga is the great abode of -virtue: by this deed thou art become possessed of the divinity itself. -In this stream constantly bathe thyself, O chief of men! Purified, O -most excellent of mortals! be a partaker of the fruit of holiness; -perform the funeral ceremonies of all thy ancestors. May blessings -attend thee, O chief of men! I return to heaven. - -{232} - -"The renowned one, the sovereign of the gods, the sire of the -universe, having thus spoken, returned to heaven. - -"King Bhugee-rutha, the royal sage, having performed the funeral -ceremonies of the descendants of Sugura, in proper order of -succession, according to the ordinance; the renowned one having also, -O chief of men! performed the customary ceremonies, and purified -himself, returned to his own city, where he governed the kingdom. -Having (again,) O Raghura! possessed of abundant wealth, obtained -their king, his people rejoiced; their sorrow was completely removed; -they increased in wealth and prosperity, and were freed from disease. - -"Thus, O Rama! has the story of Gunga been related at large by me. May -prosperity attend thee: May every good be thine. The evening is fast -receding. He who causes this relation, securing wealth, fame, -longevity, posterity, and heaven, to be heard among the Brahmans, the -Kshutriyas, or the other tribes of men, his ancestors rejoice, and to -him are the gods propitious: and he who hears this admirable story of -the descent of Gunga, ensuring long life, shall obtain, O Kakootstha! -all the wishes of his heart. All his sins shall be destroyed, and his -life and fame be abundantly prolonged." - -{233} - -End of the thirty-fifth Section, describing the descent of Gunga. - - - _Parvati._--X. p. 94. - -All the Devetas, and other inhabitants of the celestial regions, being -collected, at the summons of Bhagavat, to arrange the ceremonials of -the marriage of Seeva and Parvati, first came Brahma, mounted on his -goose, with the Reyshees at his stirrup; next Veeshnu, riding on -Garoor his eagle, with the chank, the chakra, the club, and the pedive -in his hands; Eendra also, and Yama, and Cuvera, and Varuna, and the -rivers Ganga and Jumna, and the Seven Seas. The Gandarvas also, and -Apsaras, and Vasookee, and other serpents, in obedience to the -commands of Seeva, all dressed in superb chains and habits of -ceremony, were to be seen in order amidst the crowded and glittering -cavalcade. - -And now, Seeva, after the arrival of all the Devetas, and the -completion of the preparations for the procession, set out, in the -utmost pomp and splendour, from the mountain Kilas. His third eye -flamed like the sun, and the crescent on his forehead assumed the form -of a radiated diadem; his snakes were exchanged for chains and -necklaces of pearls and rubies, his ashes for sandal and perfume, and -his elephant's skin for a silken robe, {234} so that none of the -Devetas in brilliance came near his figure. The bridal attendants now -spread wide abroad the carpet of congratulation, and arranged in order -the banquet of bliss. Nature herself assumed the appearance of -renovated youth, and the sorrowing universe recalled its -long-forgotten happiness. The Gandarvas and Apsaras began their -melodious songs, and the Genes and Keeners displayed the magic of -their various musical instruments. The earth and its inhabitants -exulted with tongues of glorification and triumph; fresh moisture -invigorated the withered victims of time; a thousand happy and -animating conceptions inspired the hearts of the intelligent, and -enlightened the wisdom of the thoughtful: The kingdom of external -forms obtained gladness, the world of intellect acquired brightness. -The dwellers upon earth stocked the casket of their ideas with the -jewels of delight, and reverend pilgrims exchanged their beads for -pearls. The joy of those on earth ascended up to Heaven, and the Tree -of the bliss of those in Heaven extended its auspicious branches -downwards to the earth. The eyes of the Devetas flamed like torches on -beholding these scenes of rapture, and the hearts of the just kindled -like touchwood on hearing these ravishing symphonies. Thus Seeva set -off like a garden in full blow, and Paradise was eclipsed by his -motion.--MAURICE, _from the Seeva-Pooraun_. - -{235} - - _Thereat the heart of the Universe stood still._--X. p. 94. - -After these lines were written, I was amused at finding a parallel -passage in a sermon: - -_Quando o Sol parou às vozes de Josuè, aconteceram no mundo todas -aquellas consequencias, que parando o movimento celeste, consideram os -Filosofos. As plantas por todo aquelle tempo nam creceram; as -calidades dos elementos, e dos mixtos, nam se alteraram; a geraçam e -corrupçam com que se conserva o mundo, cessou; as artes e os -exercicios de hum e outro Emisferio estiveram suspensos; os Antipodas -nam trabalhavam, porque lhes faltava a luz, os de cima cançados de -tam comprido dia deixavam o trabalho; estes pasmados de verem o Sol -que se nam movia; aquelles tambem pasmados de esperarem pelo Sol, que -nam chegava; cuidavam que se acabàra para elles a luz; imaginavam que -se acabava o mundo: tudo era lagrimas, tudo assombros, tudo horrores, -tudo confusoens_.--VIEYRA, Sermoens, _tom. ix. p._ 505. - - - _Surya._--X. p. 105. - -_Surya_, the Sun. The poets and painters describe his car as drawn by -seven green horses, preceded by _Arun_, or the Dawn, who acts as his -charioteer, and followed by thousands of genii, worshipping him, and -modulating his {236} praises. Surya is believed to have descended -frequently from his car in a human shape, and to have left a race on -earth, who are equally renowned in the Indian stories with the -Heliadai of Greece. It is very singular that his two sons, called -_Aswinau_, or _Aswinicumarau_, in the Dual, should be considered as -twin brothers, and painted like Castor and Pollux; but they have each -the character of Æsculapius among the gods, and are believed to have -been born of a nymph, who, in the form of a mare, was impregnated with -sun-beams.--Sir W. JONES. - -That sun, O daughter of Ganga! than which nothing is higher, to which -nothing is equal, enlightens the summit of the sky--with the sky -enlightens the earth--with the earth enlightens the lower -worlds;--enlightens the higher worlds, enlightens other worlds;--it -enlightens the breast,--enlightens all besides the breast.--Sir W. -JONES, _from the Veda_. - - - _Forgetful of his Dragon foe._--X. p. 105. - -_Ra'hu_ was the son of _Cas'yapa_ and _Dity_, according to some -authorities; but others represent _Sinhica'_ (perhaps the sphinx) as -his natural mother. He had four arms; his lower parts ended in a tail -like that of a dragon; and his aspect was grim and gloomy, like the -_darkness_ of the chaos, whence he had also the name of _Tamas_. He -was {237} the adviser of all mischief among the _Daityas_, who had a -regard for him: but among the _De'vatas_ it was his chief delight to -sow dissension; and when the gods had produced the _amrit_, by -churning the ocean, he disguised himself like one of them, and -received a portion of it; but the Sun and Moon having discovered his -fraud, _Vishnu_ severed his head and two of his arms from the rest of -his monstrous body. That part of the nectareous fluid which he had -time to swallow secured his immortality: his trunk and dragon-like -tail fell on the mountain of _Malaya_, where _Mini_, a _Brahman_, -carefully preserved them by the name of _Ce'tu_; and, as if a complete -body had been formed from them, like a dismembered _polype_, he is -even said to have adopted _Ce'tu_ as his own child. The head, with two -arms, fell on the sands of _Barbara_, where _Pi't'he'na's_ was then -walking with _Sinhica'_, by some called his wife: They carried the -_Daitya_ to their palace, and adopted him as their son; whence he -acquired the name of _Paite'he'nasi_. This extravagant fable is, no -doubt, astronomical; _Ra'hu_ and _Ce'tu_ being clearly the _nodes_, or -what astrologers call the _head_ and _tail_ of the dragon. It is -added, that they appeased _Vishnu_, and obtained re-admission to the -firmament, but were no longer visible from the earth, their -enlightened sides being turned from it; that _Ra'hu_ strives, during -eclipses, to wreak vengeance on the Sun {238} and Moon, who detected -him; and that _Ce'tu_ often appears as a comet, a whirlwind, a fiery -meteor, a water-spout, or a column of sand.--WILFORD. _Asiatic -Researches_. - - - _Suras._--X. p. 105. - -The word _Sura_ in Sanscrit signifies both wine and true wealth; -hence, in the first _C'hand_ of the _Ramayan_ of VALMIC, it is -expressly said that the _Devetas_, having received the _Sura_, -acquired the title of _Suras_, and the _Daityas_ that of _Asura_, from -not having received it. The _Veda_ is represented as that wine and -true wealth.--PATERSON. _Asiat. Researches_. - - - _Camdeo._--X. p. 106. - - Eternal CAMA! or doth SMARA bright, - Or proud ANANGA, give thee more delight? - _Sir W. Jones_. - -He was the son of MAYA, or the general _attracting_ power, and -married to RETTY, or _Affection_, and his bosom friend is BESSENT, -or _Spring_. He is represented a a beautiful youth, sometimes -conversing with his mother and consort in the midst of his gardens and -temples; sometimes riding by moonlight on a parrot or lory, a attended -by dancing girls or nymphs, the foremost {239} whom bears his colours, -which are a _fish_ on a red ground. His favourite place of resort is a -large tract of country round _Agra_, and principally the plains of -_Matra_, where KRISHEN also, and the nine GOPIA, who are clearly -the _Apollo_ and _Muses_ of the Greeks, usually spend the night with -music and dance. His bow of sugar-cane or flowers, with a string of -bees, and his _five_ arrows, each pointed with an Indian blossom of a -heating quality, are allegories equally new and beautiful. - -It is possible that the words _Dipuc_ and _Cupid_, which have the same -signification, may have the same origin; since we know that the old -Hetrurians, from whom great part of the Roman language and religion -was derived, and whose system had a near affinity with that of the -Persians and Indians, used to write their lines alternately forwards -and backwards, as furrows are made by the ploughs.--Sir W. JONES. - -Mahadeva and Parvati were playing with dice at the ancient game of -Chaturanga, when they disputed, and parted in wrath; the goddess -retiring to the forest of Gauri, and the god repairing to Cushadwip. -They severally performed rigid acts of devotion to the Supreme Being; -but the fires which they kindled blazed so vehemently as to threaten a -general conflagration. The Devas, in great alarm, hastened to Brahma, -who led them {240} to Mahadeva, and supplicated him to recall his -consort; but the wrathful deity only answered, That she most come by -her own free choice. They accordingly dispatched Gunga, the river -goddess, who prevailed on Parvati to return to him, on condition that -his love for her should be restored. The celestial mediators then -employed Cama-Deva, who wounded Mahadeva with one of his flowery -arrows; but the angry divinity reduced him to ashes with a flame from -his eye. Parvati soon after presented herself before him in the form -of a Cirati, or daughter of a mountaineer, and seeing him enamoured of -her, resumed her own shape. In the place where they were reconciled, a -grove sprang up, which was named Camavana; and the relenting god, in -the character of Cameswara, consoled the afflicted Reti, the widow of -Cama, by assuring her that she should rejoin her husband when he -should be born again in the form of Pradyumna, son of Crishna, and -should put Sambara to death. This favourable prediction was in due -time accomplished, and Pradyumna having sprung to life, he was -instantly seized by the demon Sambara, who placed him in a chest, -which he threw into the ocean; but a large fish, which had swallowed -the chest, was caught, in a net, and carried to the palace of a -tyrant, where the unfortunate Reti had been compelled to do menial -service. {241} It was her lot to open the fish, and seeing an infant -in the chest, she nursed him in private, and educated him, till he had -sufficient strength to destroy the malignant Sambara. He had before -considered Reti as his mother; but the minds of them both being, -irradiated, the prophecy of Mahadeva was remembered, and the God of -Love was again united with the Goddess of Pleasure.--WILFORD. -_Asiatic Researches_. - - - _Eating his very core of life away._--XI. p. 113. - -One of the wonders of this country is the _Jiggerkhar_, (or -liver-eater.) One of this class can steal away the liver of another by -looks and incantations. Other accounts say, that, by looking at a -person, he deprives him of his senses, and then steals from him -something resembling the seed of a pomegranate, which he hides in the -calf of his leg. The _Jiggerkhar_ throws on the fire the grain before -described, which thereupon spreads to the size of a dish, and he -distributes it amongst his fellows, to be eaten; which ceremony -concludes the life of the fascinated person. A _Jiggerkhar_ is able to -communicate his art to another, which he does by learning him the -incantations, and by making him eat a bit of the liver-cake. If any -one cut open the calf of the magician's leg, extract the grain, and -give it to the afflicted person {242} to eat, he immediately recovers. -Those _Jiggerkhars_ are mostly women. It is said, moreover, that they -can bring intelligence from a great distance in a short space of time; -and if they are thrown into a river, with a stone tied to them, they -nevertheless will not sink. In order to deprive any one of this wicked -power, they brand his temples, and every joint in his body, cram his -eyes with salt, suspend him for forty days in a subterraneous cavern, -and repeat over him certain incantations. In this state he is called -_Detche-reh_. Although, after having undergone this discipline, he is -not able to destroy the liver of any one, yet he retains the power of -being able to discover another _Jiggerkhar_, and is used for detecting -these disturbers of mankind. They can also cure many diseases, by -administering a potion, or by repeating an incantation. Many other -marvellous stories are told of these people.--AYEEN ACBERY. - -An Arabian old woman, by name Meluk, was thrown in prison, on a charge -of having bewitched, or, as they call it, eaten the heart of a young -native of Ormuz, who had lately, from being a Christian, turned -Mahommedan. The cause of offence was, that the young man, after -keeping company some time with one of her daughters, had forsaken her: -He himself, who was in a pitiable condition, and in danger of his -life, was one of her {243} accusers. This sort of witchcraft, which -the Indians call eating the heart, and which is what we call -bewitching, as sorcerers do by their venomous and deadly looks, is not -a new thing, nor unheard of elsewhere; for many persons practised it -formerly in Sclavonia, and the country of the Triballes, as we learn -from Ortelius, who took the account from Pliny, who, upon the report -of Isigones, testifies, that this species of enchantment was much in -use among these people, and many others whom he mentions, as it is at -present here, especially among the Arabians who inhabit the western -coast of the Persian gulph, where this art is common. The way in which -they do it is only by the eyes and the mouth, keeping the eyes fixed -steadily upon the person whose heart they design to eat, and -pronouncing, between their teeth, I know not what diabolical words, by -virtue of which, and by the operation of the devil, the person, how -hale and strong soever, falls immediately into an unknown and -incurable disease, which makes him appear phthysical, consumes him -little by little, and at last destroys him. And this takes place -faster or slower as the heart is eaten, as they say; for these -sorcerers can either eat the whole or a part only; that is, can -consume it entirely and at once, or bit by bit, as they please. The -vulgar give it this name, because they believe that the devil, acting -upon {244} the imagination of the witch when she mutters her wicked -words, represents invisibly to her the heart and entrails of the -patient, taken out of his body, and makes her devour them. In which -these wretches find so delightful a task, that very often, to satisfy -their appetite, without any impulse of resentment or enmity, they will -destroy innocent persons, and even their nearest relatives, as there -is a report that our prisoner killed one of her own daughters in this -manner. - -This was confirmed to me by a similar story, which I heard at Ispahan, -from the mouth of P. Sebastian de Jesus, a Portugueze Augustinian, a -man to be believed, and of singular virtue, who was prior of their -convent when I departed. He assured me, that, on one of the places -dependent upon Portugal, on the confines of Arabia Felix, I know not -whether it was at Mascate or at Ormuz, an Arab having been taken up -for a similar crime, and convicted of it, for he confessed the fact, -the captain, or governor of the place, who was a Portugueze, that he -might better understand the truth of these black and devilish actions, -of which there is no doubt in this country, made the sorcerer be -brought before him before he was led to his punishment, and asked him, -If he could eat the inside of a cucumber without opening it, as well -as the heart of a man? The sorcerer said yes; and, in order to {245} -prove it, a cucumber was brought: he looked at it, never touching it, -steadily for some time, with his usual enchantments, and then told the -captain he had eaten the whole inside; and accordingly, when it was -opened, nothing was found but the rind. This is not impossible; for -the devil, of whom they make use in these operations, having, in the -order of nature, greater power than all inferior creatures, can, with -God's permission, produce these effects, and others more marvellous. - -The same father told me, that one of these sorcerers, whether it was -the same or not I do not know, having been taken for a similar -offence, was asked, If he could eat the heart of the Portuguese -captain? and he replied no; for the Franks had a certain thing upon -the breast, which covered them like a cuirass, and was so -impenetrable, that it was proof against all his charms. This can be -nothing else than the virtue of baptism, the armour of the faith, and -the privilege of the sons of the church, against which the gates of -hell cannot prevail. - -To return, however, to my first subject:--This witch of Combru made -some difficulty at first to confess her guilt; but seeing herself -pressed with threats of death, and being led, in fact, to the public -square, where I saw her with the sick young man, she said, that though -she had not been the cause of his complaint, perhaps she could cure -{246} it, if they would let her remain alone with him, in his house, -without interruption; by which she tacitly confessed her witchcraft: -For it is held certain in these countries, that these wicked women can -remove the malady which they have caused, if it be not come to the -last extremity. And of many remedies which they use to restore health -to the sufferers, there is one very extraordinary, which is, that the -witch casts something out of her mouth, like the grain of a -pomegranate, which is believed to be a part of the heart that she had -eaten. The patient picks it up immediately, as part of his own -intestines, and greedily swallows it; and by this means, as if his -heart was replaced in his body, he recovers by degrees his health. I -dare not assure you of these things as certainly true, not having -myself seen them, surpassing as they do the course of nature. If they -are as is said, it can be only in appearance, by the illusions of the -devil; and if the afflicted recover actually their health, it is -because the same devil ceases to torment them. Without dwelling longer -upon these curious speculations,--the witch having given hopes that -she would cure the patient, the officers promised that she should -receive no injury, and they were both sent home; but an archer was set -over her as a guard, that she might not escape.--PIETRO DELLA VALLE. - -{247} - - _The Calis._--XI. p. 114. - -The Calis and Pandaris are the protectresses of cities; each city has -its own. They address prayers to these tutelary divinities, and build -temples to them, offering to them blood in sacrifice, and sometimes -human victims. These objects of worship are not immortal, and they -take their name from the city over which they preside, or from the -form in which they are represented. They are commonly framed of a -gigantic stature, having several arms, and the head surrounded with -flames; several fierce animals are also placed under their -feet.--SONNERAT. - - - _Sani, the dreadful God, who rides abroad_ - _Upon the King of the Ravens._--XI. p. 114. - -Mr. Moor has a curious remark upon this subject: - -"Sani being among the astrologers of India, as well as with their -sapient brethren of Europe, a planet of malignant aspects, the -ill-omened raven may be deemed a fit _Vahan_ for such a dreaded being. -But this is not, I think, a sufficient reason for the conspicuous -introduction of the raven into the mythological machinery of the Hindu -system, so accurate, so connected, and so complete in all its parts; -although the investigations that it hath hitherto undergone have not -fully developed or reached such points {248} of perfection. Now let me -ask the reason, why, both in England and in India, the raven it so -rare a bird? It breeds every year, like the crow, and is much longer -lived; and while the latter bird abounds every where, to a degree -bordering on nuisance, a pair of ravens, for they are seldom seen -singly or in trios, are scarcely found duplicated in any place. -Perhaps, take England or India over, two pair of ravens will not be -found, on an average, in the extent of five hundred or a thousand -acres. I know not, for I write where I have no access to books, if our -naturalists have sought the theory of this; or whether it may have -first occurred to me, which it did while contemplating the character -and attributes of Sani, that the raven destroys its young; and if this -notion be well founded, and on no other can I account for the rareness -of the annual-breeding long-lived raven, we shall at once see the -propriety of symbolizing it with Saturn, or Kronos, or Time, devouring -or destroying his own offspring.--MOOR's _Hindu Pantheon_, p. 311. - - - _A thousand eyes were quench'd in endless night,_ - _To form that magic globe._--XI. p. 117. - -A similar invention occurs in Dr. Beaumont's Psyche, one of the most -extraordinary poems in our language. I am far from claiming any merit -for such inventions, which {249} no man can value more cheaply,--but -such as it is, I am not beholden for it to this forgotten writer, -whose strange, long, but by no means uninteresting work I had never -read till after two editions of Kehama were printed. - - A stately mirror's all-enamell'd case - The second was; no crystal ever yet - Smil'd with such pureness: never ladies' glass - Its owner flattered with so smooth a cheat. - Nor could Narcissus' fount with such delight - Into his fair destruction him invite. - - For He in that and self-love being drown'd, - Agenor from him pluck'd his doting eyes: - And, shuffled in her fragments, having found - Old Jezabels, he stole the dog's due prize. - Goliah's staring bacins too he got, - Which he with Pharaoh's all together put. - - But not content with these, from Phaeton, - From Joab, Icarus, Nebuchadnezzar, - From Philip and his world-devouring son, - From Sylla, Cataline, Tully, Pompey, Cæsar, - From Herod, Cleopatra, and Sejanus, - From Agrippina and Domitianus, - -{250} - - And many surly stoics, theirs he pull'd; - Whose proudest humours having drained out, - He blended in a large and polish'd mould; - Which up he fill'd with what from Heaven he brought, - In extract of those looks of Lucifer, - In which against his God he breathed war. - - Then to the North, that glassy kingdom, where - Establish'd frost and ice for ever reign, - He sped his course, and meeting Boreas there, - Pray'd him this liquid mixture to restrain. - When lo! as Boreas oped his mouth and blew - For his command, the slime all solid grew. - - Thus was the mirror forged, and contain'd - The vigour of those self-admiring eyes - Agenor's witchcraft into it had strain'd; - A dangerous juncture of proud fallacies; - Whose fair looks so inamour'd him, that he - Thrice having kiss'd it, nam'd it Philanty. - - Inchanted Psyche ravish'd was to see - The Glass herself upon herself reflect - With trebled majesty. The sun, when he - Is by Aurora's roseat fingers deckt, - {251} - Views not his repercussed self so fair - Upon the eastern main, as she did here. - - - _Be true unto yourselves._--XII. p. 127. - -The passage in which Menu exhorts a witness to speak the truth is one -of the few sublime ones in his Institutes. "The soul itself is its own -witness; the soul itself is its own refuge; offend not thy conscious -soul, the supreme internal witness of men! . . The sinful have said in -their hearts, none see us. Yes, the gods distinctly see them, and so -does the spirit within their breasts . . The guardian deities of the -firmament, of the earth, of the waters, of the human heart, of the -moon, of the sun, and of fire, of punishment after death, of the -winds, of night, of both twilights, and of justice, perfectly know the -state of all spirits clothed with bodies. . . O friend to virtue! that -supreme Spirit, _which thou believest one and the same with thyself_, -resides in thy bosom perpetually, and is an all-knowing inspector of -thy goodness or of thy wickedness. If thou beest not at variance, by -speaking falsely, with Yama, the subduer of all, with Vaivaswata the -punisher, with that great Divinity who dwells in thy breast,--go not -on a pilgrimage to the river Ganga, nor to the plains of Curu, for -thou hast no need of expiation.--_Ch. viii. p._ 84, 85, 86, 91, 92. - -{252} - - _The Aunnay Birds._--XII. p. 128. - -The Aunnays act a considerable part in the history of the Nellah -Rajah, an amusing romance, for a translation of which we are indebted -to Mr. Kindersley. They are milk-white, and remarkable for the -gracefulness of their walk. - -END OF VOLUME FIRST. - - - -FOOTNOTES. - -[1] _Murresoo_, or _Mursoo_, in the Hala Canara, signifies _rude, -uncivilized;--Wokul_, a _husbandman_. - -[2] Dignus vindice nodus. - -[3] In the Azanaga dialect of the Lybian tongue, Aseif signifies a river. - -[4] The Hindoos call a child _Bala_ till it attains the age of -fifteen years old. From the sixteenth year to the fiftieth, -_Youvuna_, or a state of youth, is supposed to continue. -Each of these has several subdivisions; and in certain cases -the period admits of variation, as appears to have been the -case here. - -[5] The horse intended for the sacrifice. - -[6] The Indian spade, formed like a hoe, with a short handle. - -[7] An instrument said to be formed like an ox's yoke. - -[8] A dart, or spear. - -[9] A club, or crow. - -[10] A weapon, now unknown. - -[11] The eight Vusoos, the eleven Roodras, the twelve Adityas, and -Ushwinee and Koomæra. - -[12] This seems to have been spoken by these youths in the warmth of their -imagination. - -[13] The Hindoos say, that Kupila, or Vasoo-deva, is an incarnation of -Vishnoo, whom they describe as having been thus partially incarnate -twenty-four times. - -[14] One towards each of the cardinal points, and the sun over his head, -towards which he was constantly looking. - -[15] The heaven from which there can be no fall. - -[16] Shiva, from Shoola, the spear which he held. - -[17] Shiva. - -[18] Literally, three Gungas. Wherever a part of Gunga flows it is -dignified with her name: Thus the Hindoos say, the Gunga of Pouyaga, &c. - -[19] The river of joy. - -[20] The purifier. - -[21] Abounding with water. - -[22] Beautiful eyed. - -[23] White. - -[24] Probably the Indus. - -[25] Shiva, the existant. - -[26] Sagura is one of the most common names for the sea which the Hindoos -have. - -[27] From the root _gum_, signifying motion. - -[28] The earth. - -[29] The end of thy vows is accomplished, therefore now relinquish thy -vows of being an ascetic. - -END OF FOOTNOTES. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Curse of Kehama, Volume 1 (of 2), by -Robert Southey - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CURSE OF KEHAMA, VOLUME 1 *** - -***** This file should be named 55458-0.txt or 55458-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/5/4/5/55458/ - -Produced by David Thomas -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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