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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..94d9a67 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #55459 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/55459) diff --git a/old/55459-0.txt b/old/55459-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 216882b..0000000 --- a/old/55459-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5487 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's The Curse of Kehama, Volume 2 (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 2 (of 2) - Volume the Second - -Author: Robert Southey - -Release Date: August 30, 2017 [EBook #55459] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CURSE OF KEHAMA, VOLUME 2 *** - - - - -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 SECOND._ - - 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. - -Alteration: [p. 147] change "gross" to "grass". - - - - CONTENTS - TO - VOLUME SECOND. - - 13. The Retreat - 14. Jaga-Naut - 15. The City of Baly - 16. The Ancient Sepulchres - 17. Baly - 18. Kehama's Descent - 19. Mount Calasay - 20. The Embarkation - 21. The World's End - 22. The Gate of Padalon - 23. Padalon - 24. The Amreeta - - Notes - Footnotes - - - -THE CURSE OF KEHAMA. - - XIII. - THE RETREAT. - - {1} - - 1. - Around her Father's neck the Maiden lock'd - Her arms, when that portentous blow was given; - Clinging to him she heard the dread uproar, - And felt the shuddering shock which ran through Heaven. - Earth underneath them rock'd, - Her strong foundations heaving in commotion, - Such as wild winds upraise in raving Ocean, - As though the solid base were rent asunder. - {2} - And lo! where, storming the astonish'd sky, - Kehama and his evil host ascend! - Before them rolls the thunder, - Ten thousand thousand lightnings round them fly, - Upward the lengthening pageantries aspire, - Leaving from Earth to Heaven a widening wake of fire. - - 2. - When the wild uproar was at length allay'd, - And Earth, recovering from the shock, was still, - Thus to her father spake the imploring Maid. - Oh! by the love which we so long have borne - Each other, and we ne'er shall cease to bear, . . - Oh! by the sufferings we have shar'd, - And must not cease to share, . . - One boon I supplicate in this dread hour, - One consolation in this hour of woe! - Thou hast it in thy power, refuse not thou - The only comfort now - That my poor heart can know. - - 3. - O dearest, dearest Kailyal! with a smile - Of tenderness and sorrow, he replied, - {3} - O best belov'd, and to be lov'd the best - Best worthy, . . set thy duteous heart at rest. - I know thy wish, and let what will betide, - Ne'er will I leave thee wilfully again. - My soul is strengthen'd to endure its pain; - Be thou, in all my wanderings, still my guide; - Be thou, in all my sufferings, at my side. - - 4. - The Maiden, at those welcome words, imprest - A passionate kiss upon her father's cheek: - They look'd around them, then, as if to seek - Where they should turn, North, South, or East or West, - Wherever to their vagrant feet seem'd best. - But, turning from the view her mournful eyes, - Oh, whither should we wander, Kailyal cries, - Or wherefore seek in vain a place of rest? - Have we not here the Earth beneath our tread, - Heaven overhead, - A brook that winds through this sequester'd glade, - And yonder woods, to yield us fruit and shade! - The little all our wants require is nigh; - Hope we have none, . . why travel on in fear? - We cannot fly from Fate, and Fate will find us here. - - {4} - - 5. - 'Twas a fair scene wherein they stood, - A green and sunny glade amid the wood, - And in the midst an aged Banian grew. - It was a goodly sight to see - That venerable tree, - For o'er the lawn, irregularly spread, - Fifty straight columns propt its lofty head; - And many a long depending shoot, - Seeking to strike its root, - Straight like a plummet, grew towards the ground. - Some on the lower boughs, which crost their way, - Fixing their bearded fibres, round and round, - With many a ring and wild contortion wound; - Some to the passing wind at times, with sway - Of gentle motion swung, - Others of younger growth, unmov'd, were hung - Like stone-drops from the cavern's fretted height. - Beneath was smooth and fair to sight, - Nor weeds nor briars deform'd the natural floor, - And through the leafy cope which bower'd it o'er - Came gleams of checquered light. - So like a temple did it seem, that there - A pious heart's first impulse would be prayer. - - {5} - - 6. - A brook, with easy current, murmured near; - Water so cool and clear - The peasants drink not from the humble well, - Which they with sacrifice of rural pride, - Have wedded to the cocoa-grove beside; - Nor tanks of costliest masonry dispense - To those in towns who dwell, - The work of Kings, in their beneficence. - Fed by perpetual springs, a small lagoon, - Pellucid, deep, and still, in silence join'd - And swell'd the passing stream. Like burnish'd steel - Glowing, it lay beneath the eye of noon; - And when the breezes, in their play, - Ruffled the darkening surface, then, with gleam - Of sudden light, around the lotus stem - It rippled, and the sacred flowers that crown - The lakelet with their roseate beauty, ride, - In gentlest waving rock'd, from side to side; - And as the wind upheaves - Their broad and buoyant weight, the glossy leaves - Flap on the twinkling waters, up and down. - - 7. - They built them here a bower; of jointed cane, - {6} - Strong for the needful use, and light and long - Was the slight frame-work rear'd, with little pain; - Lithe creepers, then, the wicker-sides supply, - And the tall jungle-grass fit roofing gave - Beneath that genial sky. - And here did Kailyal, each returning day, - Pour forth libations from the brook, to pay - The Spirits of her Sires their grateful rite; - In such libations pour'd in open glades, - Beside clear streams and solitary shades, - The Spirits of the virtuous dead delight. - And duly here, to Marriataly's praise, - The Maid, as with an Angel's voice of song, - Pour'd her melodious lays - Upon the gales of even, - And gliding in religious dance along, - Mov'd, graceful as the dark-eyed Nymphs of Heaven, - Such harmony to all her steps was given, - - 8. - Thus ever, in her Father's doting eye, - Kailyal perform'd the customary rite; - He, patient of his burning pain the while, - Beheld her, and approv'd her pious toil; - And sometimes, at the sight, - {7} - A melancholy smile - Would gleam upon his awful countenance, - He, too, by day and night, and every hour, - Paid to a higher Power his sacrifice; - An offering, not of ghee, or fruit, or rice, - Flower-crown, or blood; but of a heart subdued, - A resolute, unconquer'd fortitude, - An agony represt, a will resign'd, - To her, who, on her secret throne reclin'd, - Amid the milky Sea, by Veeshnoo's side, - Looks with an eye of mercy on mankind. - By the Preserver, with his power endued, - There Voomdavee beholds this lower clime, - And marks the silent sufferings of the good, - To recompense them in her own good time. - - 9. - O force of faith! O strength of virtuous will! - Behold him, in his endless martyrdom, - Triumphant still! - The Curse still burning in his heart and brain, - And yet doth he remain - Patient the while, and tranquil, and content! - The pious soul hath fram'd unto itself - {8} - A second nature, to exist in pain - As in its own allotted element. - - 10. - Such strength the will reveal'd had given - This holy pair, such influxes of grace, - That to their solitary resting place - They brought the peace of Heaven. - Yea all around was hallowed! Danger, Fear, - Nor thought of evil ever entered here. - A charm was on the Leopard when he came - Within the circle of that mystic glade; - Submiss he crouch'd before the heavenly maid, - And offered to her touch his speckled side; - Or with arch'd back erect, and bending head, - And eyes half-clos'd for pleasure, would he stand, - Courting the pressure of her gentle hand. - - 11. - Trampling his path through wood and brake, - And canes which crackling fall before his way, - And tassel-grass, whose silvery feathers play - O'ertopping the young trees, - On comes the Elephant, to slake - {9} - His thirst at noon in yon pellucid springs. - Lo! from his trunk upturn'd, aloft he flings - The grateful shower; and now - Plucking the broad-leav'd bough - Of yonder plane, with waving motion slow, - Fanning the languid air, - He moves it to and fro. - But when that form of beauty meets his sight, - The trunk its undulating motion stops, - From his forgetful hold the plane-branch drops, - Reverent he kneels, and lifts his rational eyes - To her as if in prayer; - And when she pours her angel voice in song, - Entranced he listens to the thrilling notes, - Till his strong temples, bath'd with sudden dews, - Their fragrance of delight and love diffuse. - - 12. - Lo! as the voice melodious floats around, - The Antelope draws near, - The Tygress leaves her toothless cubs to hear, - The Snake comes gliding from the secret brake, - Himself in fascination forced along - By that enchanting song; - {10} - The antic Monkies, whose wild gambols late, - When not a breeze wav'd the tall jungle-grass, - Shook the whole wood, are hush'd, and silently - Hang on the cluster'd trees. - All things in wonder and delight are still; - Only at times the Nightingale is heard, - Not that in emulous skill that sweetest bird - Her rival strain would try, - A mighty songster, with the Maid to vie; - She only bore her part in powerful sympathy. - - 13. - Well might they thus adore that heavenly Maid! - For never Nymph of Mountain, - Or Grove, or Lake, or Fountain, - With a diviner presence fill'd the shade. - No idle ornaments deface - Her natural grace, - Musk-spot, nor sandal-streak, nor scarlet stain, - Ear-drop nor chain, nor arm nor ankle-ring, - Nor trinketry on front, or neck, or breast, - Marring the perfect form: she seem'd a thing - Of Heaven's prime uncorrupted work, a child - Of early Nature undefil'd, - {11} - A daughter of the years of innocence. - And therefore all things lov'd her. When she stood - Beside the glassy pool, the fish, that flies - Quick as an arrow from all other eyes, - Hover'd to gaze on her. The mother bird, - When Kailyal's steps she heard, - Sought not to tempt her from her secret nest, - But, hastening to the dear retreat, would fly - To meet and welcome her benignant eye. - - 14. - Hope we have none, said Kailyal to her Sire. - Said she aright? and had the Mortal Maid - No thoughts of heavenly aid, . . - No secret hopes her inmost heart to move - With longings of such deep and pure desire, - As vestal Maids, whose piety is love, - Feel in their extasies, when rapt above, - Their souls unto their heavenly Spouse aspire? - Why else so often doth that searching eye - Roam through the scope of sky? - Why, if she sees a distant speck on high, - Starts there that quick suffusion to her cheek? - 'Tis but the Eagle, in his heavenly height; - {12} - Reluctant to believe, she hears his cry, - And marks his wheeling flight, - Then languidly averts her mournful sight. - Why ever else, at morn, that waking sigh, - Because the lovely form no more is nigh - Which hath been present to her soul all night; - And that injurious fear - Which ever, as it riseth, is represt, - Yet riseth still within her troubled breast, - That she no more shall see the Glendoveer! - - 15. - Hath he forgotten me? The wrongful thought - Would stir within her, and, though still repell'd - With shame and self-reproaches, would recur. - Days after days unvarying come and go, - And neither friend nor foe - Approaches them in their sequestered bower. - Maid of strange destiny! but think not thou - Thou art forgotten now, - And hast no cause for farther hope or fear. - High-fated Maid, thou dost not know - What eyes watch over thee for weal and woe! - Even at this hour, - {13} - Searching the dark decrees divine, - Kehama, in the fulness of his power, - Perceives his thread of fate entwin'd with thine. - The Glendoveer, from his far sphere, - With love that never sleeps, beholds thee here, - And, in the hour permitted, will be near. - Dark Lorrinite on thee hath fix'd her sight, - And laid her wiles, to aid - Foul Arvalan when he shall next appear; - For well she ween'd his Spirit would renew - Old vengeance now, with unremitting hate; - The Enchantress well that evil nature knew, - The accursed Spirit hath his prey in view, - And thus, while all their separate hopes pursue, - All work, unconsciously, the will of Fate. - - 16. - Fate work'd its own the while. A band - Of Yoguees, as they roam'd the land, - Seeking a spouse for Jaga-Naut their God, - Stray'd to this solitary glade, - And reach'd the bower wherein the Maid abode. - Wondering at form so fair, they deem'd the power - Divine had led them to his chosen bride, - And seiz'd and bore her from her father's side. - - - XIV. - JAGA-NAUT. - - 1. - Joy in the city of great Jaga-Naut! - Joy in the seven-headed Idol's shrine! - A virgin-bride his ministers have brought, - A mortal maid, in form and face divine, - Peerless among all daughters of mankind; - Search'd they the world again from East to West, - In endless quest, - Seeking the fairest and the best, - No maid so lovely might they hope to find; . . - For she hath breath'd celestial air, - And heavenly food hath been her fare, - And heavenly thoughts and feelings give her face - That heavenly grace. - {15} - Joy in the city of great Jaga-Naut, - Joy in the seven-headed Idol's shrine! - The fairest Maid his Yoguees sought, - A fairer than the fairest have they brought, - A maid of charms surpassing human thought, - A maid divine. - - 2. - Now bring ye forth the Chariot of the God! - Bring him abroad, - That through the swarming City he may ride; - And by his side - Place ye the Maid of more than mortal grace, - The Maid of perfect form and heavenly face! - Set her aloft in triumph, like a bride - Upon the bridal car, - And spread the joyful tidings wide and far, . . - Spread it with trump and voice - That all may hear, and all who hear rejoice, . . - The Mighty One hath found his mate! the God - Will ride abroad! - To-night will he go forth from his abode! - Ye myriads who adore him, - Prepare the way before him! - - {16} - - 3. - Uprear'd on twenty wheels elate, - Huge as a Ship, the bridal car appear'd; - Loud creak its ponderous wheels, as through the gate - A thousand Bramins drag the enormous load. - There, thron'd aloft in state, - The image of the seven-headed God - Came forth from his abode; and at his side - Sate Kailyal like a bride; - A bridal statue rather might she seem, - For she regarded all things like a dream, - Having no thought, nor fear, nor will, nor aught - Save hope and faith, that liv'd within her still. - - 4. - O silent Night, how have they startled thee - With the brazen trumpet's blare! - And thou, O Moon! whose quiet light serene - Filleth wide heaven, and bathing hill and wood, - Spreads o'er the peaceful valley like a flood, - How have they dimm'd thee with the torches' glare, - Which round yon moving pageant flame and flare, - As the wild rout, with deafening song and shout, - Fling their long flashes out, - That, like infernal lightnings, fire the air. - - {17} - - 5. - A thousand pilgrims strain - Arm, shoulder, breast and thigh, with might and main, - To drag that sacred wain, - And scarce can draw along the enormous load. - Prone fall the frantic votaries in its road, - And, calling on the God, - Their self-devoted bodies there they lay - To pave his chariot-way. - On Jaga-Naut they call, - The ponderous Car rolls on, and crushes all. - Through blood and bones it ploughs its dreadful path. - Groans rise unheard; the dying cry, - And death and agony - Are trodden under foot by yon mad throng, - Who follow close, and thrust the deadly wheels along. - - 6. - Pale grows the Maid at this accursed sight; - The yells which round her rise - Have rous'd her with affright, - And fear hath given to her dilated eyes - A wilder light. - Where shall those eyes be turn'd? she knows not where! - {18} - Downward they dare not look, for there - Is death and horror, and despair; - Nor can her patient looks to Heaven repair, - For the huge Idol over her, in air, - Spreads his seven hideous heads, and wide - Extends their snaky necks on every side; - And all around, behind, before, - The bridal Car, is the raging rout, - With frantic shout, and deafening roar, - Tossing the torches' flames about. - And the double double peals of the drum are there, - And the startling burst of the trumpet's blare; - And the gong, that seems, with its thunders dread, - To stun the living, and waken the dead. - The ear-strings throb as if they were broke, - And the eye-lids drop at the weight of its stroke. - Fain would the Maid have kept them fast, - But open they start at the crack of the blast. - - 7. - Where art thou, Son of Heaven, Ereenia! where - In this dread hour of horror and despair? - Thinking on him, she strove her fear to quell, - If he be near me, then will all be well; - And, if he reck not for my misery, - {19} - Let come the worst, it matters not to me. - Repel that wrongful thought, - O Maid! thou feelest, but believ'st it not; - It is thine own imperfect nature's fault - That lets one doubt of him arise within. - And this the Virgin knew; and, like a sin, - Repell'd the thought, and still believ'd him true; - And summoned up her spirit to endure - All forms of fear, in that firm trust secure. - - 8. - She needs that faith, she needs that consolation, - For now the Car hath measured back its track - Of death, and hath re-entered now its station. - There, in the Temple-court, with song and dance, - A harlot-band, to meet the Maid, advance. - The drum hath ceas'd its peals; the trump and gong - Are still; the frantic crowd forbear their yells; - And sweet it was to hear the voice of song, - And the sweet music of their girdle-bells, - Armlets and anklets, that, with chearful sounds - Symphonious tinkled as they wheel'd around. - - 9. - They sung a bridal measure, - {20} - A song of pleasure, - A hymn of joyaunce and of gratulation. - Go, chosen One, they cried, - Go, happy bride! - For thee the God descends in expectation; - For thy dear sake - He leaves his heaven, O Maid of matchless charms. - Go, happy One, the bed divine partake, - And fill his longing arms! - Thus to the inner fane, - With circling dance and hymeneal strain, - The astonish'd Maid they led, - And there they laid her on the bridal bed. - Then forth they went, and clos'd the Temple-gate, - And left the wretched Kailyal to her fate. - - 10. - Where art thou, Son of Heaven, Ereenia, where? - From the loathed bed she starts, and in the air - Looks up, as if she thought to find him there! - Then, in despair, - Anguish and agony, and hopeless prayer, - Prostrate she laid herself upon the floor. - There, trembling as she lay, - {21} - The Bramin of the fane advanced - And came to seize his prey. - - 11. - But as the Priest drew nigh, - A power invisible opposed his way; - Starting, he uttered wildly a death-cry, - And fell. At that the Maid all eagerly - Lifted in hope her head; - She thought her own deliverer had been near; - When lo! with other life re-animate, - She saw the dead arise, - And in the fiendish joy within his eyes, - She knew the hateful Spirit who look'd through - Their specular orbs, . . cloth'd in the flesh of man - She knew the accursed soul of Arvalan. - - 12. - But not in vain, with the sudden shriek of fear, - She calls Ereenia now; the Glendoveer - Is here! Upon the guilty sight he burst - Like lightning from a cloud, and caught the accurst, - Bore him to the roof aloft, and on the floor - With vengeance dash'd him, quivering there in gore. - - {22} - - 13. - Lo! from the pregnant air, . . heart-withering sight! - There issued forth the dreadful Lorrinite, - Seize him! the Enchantress cried; - A host of Demons at her word appear, - And like tornado winds, from every side - At once, they rush upon the Glendoveer. - Alone against a legion, little here - Avails his single might, - Nor that celestial faulchion, which in fight - So oft had put the rebel race to flight. - There are no Gods on earth to give him aid; - Hemm'd round, he is overpower'd, beat down, and bound, - And at the feet of Lorrinite is laid. - - 14. - Meantime the scattered members of the slain, - Obedient to her mighty voice, assum'd - Their vital form again, - And that foul Spirit, upon vengeance bent, - Fled to the fleshly tenement. - Lo! here, quoth Lorrinite, thou seest thy foe! - Him in the Ancient Sepulchres, below - The billows of the Ocean, will I lay; - {23} - Gods are there none to help him now, and there - For Man there is no way. - To that dread scene of durance and despair, - Asuras, bear your enemy! I go - To chain him in the Tombs. Meantime do thou, - Freed from thy foe, and now secure from fear, - Son of Kehama, take thy pleasure here. - - 15. - Her words the accursed race obey'd; - Forth with a sound like rushing winds they fled, - And of all aid from Earth or Heaven bereft, - Alone with Arvalan the Maid was left. - But in that hour of agony, the Maid - Deserted not herself; her very dread - Had calm'd her; and her heart - Knew the whole horror, and its only part. - Yamen, receive me undefil'd! she said, - And seiz'd a torch, and fir'd the bridal bed. - Up ran the rapid flames; on every side - They find their fuel wheresoe'er they spread, - Thin hangings, fragrant gums, and odorous wood, - That pil'd like sacrificial altars stood. - Around they run, and upward they aspire, - And, lo! the huge Pagoda lin'd with fire. - - {24} - - 16. - The wicked Soul, who had assum'd again - A form of sensible flesh, for his foul will, - Still bent on base revenge, and baffled still, - Felt that corporeal shape alike to pain - Obnoxious as to pleasure; forth he flew, - Howling and scorch'd by the devouring flame; - Accursed Spirit! still condemn'd to rue, - The act of sin and punishment the same. - Freed from his loathsome touch, a natural dread - Came on the self-devoted, and she drew - Back from the flames, which now toward her spread, - And, like a living monster, seem'd to dart - Their hungry tongues toward their shrinking prey. - Soon she subdued her heart; - O Father! she exclaim'd, there was no way - But this! and thou, Ereenia, who for me - Sufferest, my soul shall bear thee company. - - 17. - So having said, she knit - Her body up to work her soul's desire, - And rush at once amid the thickest fire. - A sudden cry withheld her, . . Kailyal, stay! - {25} - Child! Daughter! I am here! the voice exclaims, - And from the gate, unharm'd, through smoke and flames - Like as a God, Ladurlad made his way; - Wrapt his preserving arms around, and bore - His Child, uninjur'd, o'er the burning floor. - - - XV. - THE CITY OF BALY. - - {26} - - KAILYAL. - Ereenia! - - LADURLAD. - Nay, let no reproachful thought - Wrong his heroic heart! The Evil Powers - Have the dominion o'er this wretched World, - And no good Spirit now can venture here. - - KAILYAL. - Alas, my Father! he hath ventur'd here, - And sav'd me from one horror. But the Powers - {27} - Of Evil beat him down, and bore away - To some dread scene of durance and despair, - The Ancient Tombs, methought their Mistress said, - Beneath the ocean-waves: no way for Man - Is there; and Gods, she boasted, there are none - On Earth to help him now. - - LADURLAD. - Is that her boast? - And hath she laid him in the Ancient Tombs, - Relying that the Waves will guard him there? - Short-sighted are the eyes of Wickedness, - And all its craft but folly. O, my child! - The Curses of the Wicked are upon me, - And the immortal Deities, who see - And suffer all things for their own wise end, - Have made them blessings to us! - - KAILYAL. - Then thou knowest - Where they have borne him? - - LADURLAD. - To the Sepulchres - {28} - Of the Ancient Kings, which Baly, in his power, - Made in primeval times; and built above them - A City, like the Cities of the Gods, - Being like a God himself. For many an age - Hath Ocean warr'd against his Palaces, - Till overwhelm'd, they lie beneath the waves, - Not overthrown, so well the Mighty One - Had laid their deep foundations. Rightly said - The Accursed, that no way for Man was there, - But not like Man am I! - - 1. - Up from the ground the Maid exultant sprung, - And clapp'd her happy hands, in attitude - Of thanks, to Heaven, and flung - Her arms around her Father's neck, and stood - Struggling awhile for utterance, with excess - Of hope and pious thankfulness. - Come . . come! she cried, O let us not delay, . . - He is in torments there, . . away! . . away! - - 2. - Long time they travell'd on; at dawn of day - Still setting forward with the earliest light, - {29} - Nor ceasing from their way - Till darkness clos'd the night. - Short refuge from the noontide heat, - Reluctantly compell'd, the Maiden took; - And ill her indefatigable feet - Could that brief tarriance brook. - Hope kept her up, and her intense desire - Supports that heart which ne'er at danger quails, - Those feet which never tire, - That frame which never fails. - - 3. - Their talk was of the City of the days - Of old, Earth's wonder once; and of the fame - Of Baly its great founder, . . he whose name - In ancient story, and in poet's praise, - Liveth and flourisheth for endless glory, - Because his might - Put down the wrong, and aye upheld the right. - Till for ambition, as old sages tell, - The mighty Monarch fell: - For he too, having made the World his own, - Then, in his pride, had driven - The Devetas from Heaven, - {30} - And seiz'd triumphantly the Swerga throne. - The Incarnate came before the Mighty One, - In dwarfish stature, and in mien obscure; - The sacred cord he bore, - And ask'd, for Brama's sake, a little boon, - Three steps of Baly's ample reign, no more. - Poor was the boon requir'd, and poor was he - Who begg'd, . . a little wretch it seem'd to be; - But Baly ne'er refus'd a suppliant's prayer. - A glance of pity, in contemptuous mood, - He on the Dwarf cast down, - And bade him take the boon, - And measure where he would. - - 4. - Lo, Son of giant birth, - I take my grant! the Incarnate power replies. - With his first step he measur'd o'er the Earth, - The second spann'd the skies. - Three paces thou hast granted, - Twice have I set my footstep, Veeshnoo cries, - Where shall the third be planted? - - 5. - Then Baly knew the God, and at his feet, - {31} - In homage due, he laid his humbled head. - Mighty art thou, O Lord of Earth and Heaven, - Mighty art thou! he said, - Be merciful, and let me be forgiven. - He ask'd for mercy of the merciful, - And mercy for his virtue's sake was shown. - For though he was cast down to Padalon, - Yet there, by Yamen's throne, - Doth Baly sit in majesty and might, - To judge the dead, and sentence them aright. - And forasmuch as he was still the friend - Of righteousness, it is permitted him, - Yearly, from those drear regions to ascend, - And walk the Earth, that he may hear his name - Still hymn'd and honour'd, by the grateful voice - Of humankind, and in his fame rejoice. - - 6. - Such was the talk they held upon their way, - Of him to whose old City they were bound; - And now, upon their journey, many a day - Had risen and clos'd, and many a week gone round, - And many a realm and region had they past, - When now the Ancient Towers appear'd at last. - - {32} - - 7. - Their golden summits, in the noon-day light, - Shone o'er the dark-green deep that roll'd between; - For domes, and pinnacles, and spires were seen - Peering above the sea, . . a mournful sight! - Well might the sad beholder ween from thence - What works of wonder the devouring wave - Had swallowed there, when monuments so brave - Bore record of their old magnificence. - And on the sandy shore, beside the verge - Of Ocean, here and there, a rock-hewn fane - Resisted in its strength the surf and surge - That on their deep foundations beat in vain. - In solitude the Ancient Temples stood, - Once resonant with instrument and song, - And solemn dance of festive multitude; - Now as the weary ages pass along, - No voice they hear, save of the Ocean flood, - Which roars for ever on the restless shores; - Or, visiting their solitary caves, - The lonely sound of Winds, that moan around - Accordant to the melancholy waves. - - 8. - With reverence did the travellers see - {33} - The works of ancient days, and silently - Approach the shore. Now on the yellow sand, - Where round their feet the rising surges part, - They stand. Ladurlad's heart - Exulted in his wonderous destiny. - To Heaven he rais'd his hand - In attitude of stern heroic pride; - Oh what a power, he cried, - Thou dreadful Rajah, doth thy Curse impart! - I thank thee now! . . Then turning to the Maid, - Thou see'st how far and wide - Yon Towers extend, he said, - My search must needs be long. Meantime the flood - Will cast thee up thy food, . . - And in the Chambers of the Rock by night, - Take thou thy safe abode, - No prowling beast to harm thee, or affright, - Can enter there; but wrap thyself with care - From the foul Bird obscene that thirsts for blood; - For in such caverns doth the Bat delight - To have its haunts. Do thou with stone and shout, - Ere thou liest down at evening, scare them out, - And in this robe of mine involve thy feet. - Duly commend us both to Heaven in prayer, - {34} - Be of good heart, and let thy sleep be sweet. - - 9. - So saying, he put back his arm, and gave - The cloth which girt his loins, and prest her hand - With fervent love, then down the sloping sand - Advanced into the sea: the coming Wave, - Which knew Kehama's Curse, before his way - Started, and on he went as on dry land, - And still around his path the waters parted. - She stands upon the shore, where sea-weeds play, - Lashing her polish'd ankles, and the spray - Which off her Father, like a rainbow, fled, - Falls on her like a shower; there Kailyal stands, - And sees the billows rise above his head. - She, at the startling sight, forgot the power - The Curse had given him, and held forth her hands - Imploringly, . . . her voice was on the wind, - And the deaf Ocean o'er Ladurlad clos'd. - Soon she recall'd his destiny to mind, - And, shaking off that natural fear, compos'd - Her soul with prayer, to wait the event resign'd. - - 10. - Alone, upon the solitary strand, - {35} - The lovely one is left; behold her go, - Pacing with patient footsteps, to and fro, - Along the bending sand. - Save her, ye Gods! from Evil Powers, and here - From man she need not fear; - For never Traveller comes near - These awful ruins of the days of yore, - Nor fisher's bark, nor venturous mariner, - Approach the sacred shore. - All day she walk'd the beach, at night she sought - The Chamber of the Rock; with stone and shout - Assail'd the Bats obscene, and scar'd them out; - Then in her Father's robe involv'd her feet, - And wrapt her mantle round to guard her head, - And laid her down: the rock was Kailyal's bed, - Her chamber-lamps were in the starry sky, - The winds and waters were her lullaby. - - 11. - Be of good heart, and let thy sleep be sweet, - Ladurlad said, . . Alas! that cannot be - To one whose days are days of misery. - How often did she stretch her hands to greet - Ereenia, rescued in the dreams of night! - {36} - How oft amid the vision of delight, - Fear in her heart all is not as it seems; - Then from unsettled slumber start, and hear - The Winds that moan above, the Waves below! - Thou hast been call'd, O Sleep! the friend of Woe, - But 'tis the happy who have call'd thee so. - - 12. - Another day, another night are gone, - A second passes, and a third wanes on. - So long she paced the shore, - So often on the beach she took her stand, - That the wild Sea-Birds knew her, and no more - Fled, when she past beside them on the strand. - Bright shine the golden summits in the light - Of the noon-sun, and lovelier far by night - Their moonlight glories o'er the sea they shed: - Fair is the dark-green deep; by night and day - Unvex'd with storms, the peaceful billows play, - As when they clos'd upon Ladurlad's head: - The firmament above is bright and clear; - The sea-fowl, lords of water, air, and land, - Joyous alike upon the wing appear, - Or when they ride the waves, or walk the sand; - {37} - Beauty and light and joy are every-where; - There is no sadness and no sorrow here, - Save what that single human breast contains, - But oh! what hopes, and fears, and pains are there! - - 13. - Seven miserable days the expectant Maid, - From earliest dawn till evening, watch'd the shore; - Hope left her then; and in her heart she said, - Never shall I behold my Father more! - - - XVI. - THE ANCIENT SEPULCHRES. - - {38} - - 1. - When the broad Ocean on Ladurlad's head - Had clos'd and arch'd him o'er, - With steady tread he held his way - Adown the sloping shore. - The dark-green waves, with emerald hue, - Imbue the beams of day, - And on the wrinkled sand below, - Rolling their mazy network to and fro, - Light shadows shift and play. - The hungry Shark, at scent of prey, - Toward Ladurlad darted; - Beholding then that human form erect, - {39} - How like a God the depths he trod, - Appall'd the monster started, - And in his fear departed. - Onward Ladurlad went with heart elate, - And now hath reach'd the Ancient City's gate. - - 2. - Wondering, he stood awhile to gaze - Upon the works of elder days. - The brazen portals open stood, - Even as the fearful multitude - Had left them, when they fled - Before the rising flood. - High over-head, sublime, - The mighty gateway's storied roof was spread, - Dwarfing the puny piles of younger time. - With the deeds of days of yore - That ample roof was sculptur'd o'er, - And many a godlike form there met his eye, - And many an emblem dark of mystery. - Through these wide portals oft had Baly rode - Triumphant from his proud abode, - When, in his greatness, he bestrode - The Aullay, hugest of four-footed kind, - {40} - The Aullay-Horse, that in his force, - With elephantine trunk, could bind - And lift the elephant, and on the wind - Whirl him away, with sway and swing, - Even like a pebble from the practis'd sling. - - 3. - Those streets which never, since the days of yore, - By human footstep had been visited; - Those streets; which never more - A human foot shall tread, - Ladurlad trod. In sun-light, and sea-green, - The thousand palaces were seen - Of that proud city, whose superb abodes - Seem'd rear'd by Giants for the immortal Gods. - How silent and how beautiful they stand, - Like things of Nature! the eternal rocks - Themselves not firmer. Neither hath the sand - Drifted within their gates, and choak'd their doors, - Nor slime defil'd their pavements and their floors. - Did then the Ocean wage - His war for love and envy, not in rage, - O thou fair City, that he spares thee thus? - Art thou Varounin's capital and court, - {41} - Where all the Sea-Gods for delight resort, - A place too godlike to be held by us, - The poor degenerate children of the Earth? - So thought Ladurlad, as he look'd around, - Weening to hear the sound - Of Mermaid's shell, and song - Of choral throng from some imperial hall, - Wherein the Immortal Powers, at festival, - Their high carousals keep. - But all is silence dread, - Silence profound and dead, - The everlasting stillness of the Deep. - - 4. - Through many a solitary street, - And silent market-place, and lonely square, - Arm'd with the mighty Curse, behold him fare. - And now his feet attain that royal fane - Where Baly held of old his awful reign. - What once had been the Garden spread around, - Fair Gardens, once which wore perpetual green, - Where all sweet flowers through all the year were found, - And all fair fruits were through all seasons seen; - A place of Paradise, where each device - {42} - Of emulous Art with Nature strove to vie; - And Nature, on her part, - Call'd forth new powers wherewith to vanquish Art. - The Swerga-God himself, with envious eye, - Survey'd those peerless gardens in their prime; - Nor ever did the Lord of Light, - Who circles Earth and Heaven upon his way, - Behold from eldest time a goodlier sight - Than were the groves which Baly, in his might, - Made for his chosen place of solace and delight. - - 5. - It was a Garden still beyond all price, - Even yet it was a place of Paradise; - For where the mighty Ocean could not spare, - There had he, with his own creation, - Sought to repair his work of devastation. - And here were coral bowers, - And grots of madrepores, - And banks of spunge, as soft and fair to eye - As e'er was mossy bed - Whereon the Wood Nymphs lie - With languid limbs in summer's sultry hours. - Here, too, were living flowers - {43} - Which, like a bud compacted, - Their purple cups contracted, - And now in open blossom spread, - Stretch'd like green anthers many a seeking head. - And arborets of jointed stone were there, - And plants of fibres fine, as silkworm's thread; - Yea, beautiful as Mermaid's golden hair - Upon the waves dispread: - Others that, like the broad banana growing, - Rais'd their long wrinkled leaves of purple hue, - Like streamers wide out-flowing. - And whatsoe'er the depths of Ocean hide - From human eyes, Ladurlad there espied, - Trees of the deep, and shrubs and fruits and flowers, - As fair as ours, - Wherewith the Sea-Nymphs love their locks to braid, - When to their father's hall, at festival - Repairing, they, in emulous array, - Their charms display, - To grace the banquet, and the solemn day. - - 6. - The golden fountains had not ceas'd to flow, - And, where they mingled with the briny Sea, - {44} - There was a sight of wonder and delight, - To see the fish, like birds in air, - Above Ladurlad flying. - Round those strange waters they repair, - Their scarlet fins outspread and plying, - They float with gentle hovering there; - And now upon those little wings, - As if to dare forbidden things, - With wilful purpose bent, - Swift as an arrow from a bow - They dash across, and to and fro, - In rapid glance, like lightning go - Through that unwonted element. - Almost in scenes so wonderous fair, - Ladurlad had forgot - The mighty cause which led him there; - His busy eye was every where, - His mind had lost all thought; - His heart, surrendered to the joys - Of sight, was happy as a boy's. - But soon the awakening thought recurs - Of him who, in the Sepulchres, - Hopeless of human aid, in chains is laid; - And her who, on the solitary shore, - {45} - By night and day her weary watch will keep, - Till she shall see them issuing from the deep. - - 7. - Now hath Ladurlad reach'd the Court - Of the great Palace of the King; its floor - Was of the marble rock; and there before - The imperial door, - A mighty Image on the steps was seen, - Of stature huge, of countenance serene. - A crown and sceptre at his feet were laid; - One hand a scroll display'd, - The other pointed there, that all might see; - My name is Death, it said, - In mercy have the Gods appointed me. - Two brazen gates beneath him, night and day - Stood open; and within them you behold - Descending steps, which in the living stone - Were hewn, a spacious way - Down to the Chambers of the Kings of old. - - 8. - Trembling with hope, the adventurous man descended - The sea-green light of day - {46} - Not far along the vault extended; - But where the slant reflection ended, - Another light was seen - Of red and fiery hue, - That with the water blended, - And gave the secrets of the Tombs to view. - - 9. - Deep in the marble rock, the Hall - Of Death was hollowed out, a chamber wide, - Low-roof'd, and long; on either side, - Each in his own alcove, and on his throne, - The Kings of old were seated: in his hand - Each held the sceptre of command, - From whence, across that scene of endless night, - A carbuncle diffused its everlasting light. - - 10. - So well had the embalmers done their part - With spice and precious unguents, to imbue - The perfect corpse, that each had still the hue - Of living man, and every limb was still - Supple and firm and full, as when of yore - Its motion answered to the moving will. - {47} - The robes of royalty which once they wore, - Long since had mouldered off and left them bare: - Naked upon their thrones behold them there, - Statues of actual flesh, . . a fearful sight! - Their large and rayless eyes - Dimly reflecting to that gem-born light, - Glaz'd, fix'd, and meaningless, . . . yet, open wide, - Their ghastly balls belied - The mockery of life in all beside. - - 11. - But if, amid these Chambers drear, - Death were a sight of shuddering and of fear, - Life was a thing of stranger horror here. - For at the farther end, in yon alcove, - Where Baly should have lain, had he obey'd - Man's common lot, behold Ereenia laid. - Strong fetters link him to the rock; his eye - Now rolls and widens, as with effort vain - He strives to break the chain, - Now seems to brood upon his misery. - Before him couch'd there lay - One of the mighty monsters of the deep, - Whom Lorrinite encountering on the way, - {48} - There station'd, his perpetual guard to keep; - In the sport of wanton power, she charm'd him there, - As if to mock the Glendoveer's despair. - Upward his form was human, save that here - The skin was cover'd o'er with scale on scale - Compact, a panoply of natural mail. - His mouth, from ear to ear, - Weapon'd with triple teeth, extended wide, - And tusks on either side; - A double snake below, he roll'd - His supple lengths behind in many a sinuous fold. - - 12. - With red and kindling eye, the Beast beholds - A living man draw nigh, - And, rising on his folds, - In hungry joy awaits the expected feast, - His mouth half-open, and his teeth unsheath'd. - Then on he sprung, and in his scaly arms - Seiz'd him, and fasten'd on his neck, to suck, - With greedy lips, the warm life-blood: and sure - But for the mighty power of magic charms, - As easily as, in the blithesome hour - Of spring, a child doth crop the meadow flower, - {49} - Piecemeal those claws - Had rent their victim, and those armed jaws - Snapt him in twain. Naked Ladurlad stood, - Yet fearless and unharm'd in this dread strife, - So well Kehama's Curse had charm'd his fated life. - - 13. - He too, . . . for anger, rising at the sight - Of him he sought, in such strange thrall confin'd. - With desperate courage fir'd Ladurlad's mind, . . . - He, too, unto the fight himself addrest, - And grappling breast to breast, - With foot firm-planted stands, - And seiz'd the monster's throat with both his hands. - Vainly, with throttling grasp, he prest - The impenetrable scales; - And lo! the guard rose up, and round his foe, - With gliding motion, wreath'd his lengthening coils, - Then tighten'd all their folds with stress and strain. - Nought would the raging Tyger's strength avail - If once involv'd within those mighty toils; - The arm'd Rhinoceros, so clasp'd, in vain - Had trusted to his hide of rugged mail, - His bones all broken, and the breath of life - {50} - Crush'd from the lungs, in that unequal strife. - Again, and yet again, he sought to break - The impassive limbs; but when the monster found - His utmost power was vain, - A moment he relax'd in every round, - Then knit his coils again with closer strain, - And, bearing forward, forced him to the ground. - - 14. - Ereenia groan'd in anguish at the sight - Of this dread fight: once more the Glendoveer - Essay'd to break his bonds, and fear - For that brave spirit who had sought him here, - Stung him to wilder strugglings. From the rock - He rais'd himself half up, . . with might and main - Pluck'd at the adamantine chain; - And now, with long and unrelaxing strain, - In obstinate effort of indignant strength, - Labour'd and strove in vain; - Till his immortal sinews fail'd at length; - And yielding, with an inward groan, to fate, - Despairingly, he let himself again - Fall prostrate on his prison-bed of stone, - Body and chain alike with lifeless weight. - - {51} - - 15. - Struggling they lay in mortal fray - All day, while day was in our upper sphere, - For light of day, - And natural darkness never entered here; - All night, with unabated might, - They waged the unremitting fight. - A second day, a second night, - With furious will they wrestled still. - The third came on, the fourth is gone; - Another comes, another goes, - And yet no respite, no repose; - But day and night, and night and day, - Involv'd in mortal strife they lay; - Six days and nights have past away, - And still they wage, with mutual rage, - The unremitting fray. - With mutual rage their war they wage, - But not with mutual will; - For when the seventh morning came, - The monster's worn and wearied frame - In this strange contest fails; - And weaker, weaker, every hour - He yields beneath strong Nature's power, - {52} - For now the Curse prevails. - - 16. - Sometimes the Beast sprung up to bear - His foe aloft; and, trusting there - To shake him from his hold, - Relax'd the rings that wreath'd him round; - But on his throat Ladurlad hung, - And weigh'd him to the ground; - And if they sink, or if they float, - Alike with stubborn clasp he clung, - Tenacious of his grasp; - For well he knew with what a power, - Exempt from Nature's laws, - The Curse had arm'd him for this hour; - And in the monster's gasping jaws, - And in his hollow eye, - Well could Ladurlad now descry - The certain signs of victory. - - 17. - And now the guard no more can keep - His painful watch; his eyes, opprest, - Are fainting for their natural sleep; - {53} - His living flesh and blood must rest, - The Beast must sleep or die. - Then he, full faint and languidly, - Unwreathes his rings and strives to fly, - And still retreating, slowly trails - His stiff and heavy length of scales. - But that unweariable foe, - With will relentless, follows still; - No breathing time, no pause of fight - He gives, but presses on his flight; - Along the vaulted chambers, and the ascent - Up to the emerald-tinted light of day, - He harasses his way, - Till lifeless, underneath his grasp, - The huge Sea-Monster lay. - - 18. - That obstinate work is done! Ladurlad cried, - One labour yet remains! - And thoughtfully he eyed - Ereenia's ponderous chains; - And with vain effort, half-despairing, tried - The rivets deep in-driven. Instinctively, - As if in search of aid, he look'd around: - {54} - Oh, then, how gladly, in the near alcove, - Fallen on the ground its lifeless Lord beside, - The crescent scymitar he spied, - Whose cloudy blade, with potent spells imbued, - Had lain so many an age unhurt in solitude. - - 19. - Joyfully springing there - He seiz'd the weapon, and with eager stroke - Hew'd at the chain; the force was dealt in vain, - For not as if through yielding air - Past the descending scymitar, - Its deaden'd way the heavy water broke; - Yet it bit deep. Again, with both his hands, - He wields the blade, and dealt a surer blow. - The baser metal yields - To that fine edge, and lo! the Glendoveer - Rises and snaps the half-sever'd links, and stands - Freed from his broken bands. - - - XVII. - BALY. - - {55} - - 1. - This is the appointed night, - The night of joy and consecrated mirth, - When, from his judgement-seat in Padalon, - By Yamen's throne, - Baly goes forth, that he may walk the Earth - Unseen, and hear his name - Still hymn'd and honour'd by the grateful voice - Of humankind, and in his fame rejoice. - Therefore from door to door, and street to street, - With willing feet, - Shaking their firebrands, the glad children run; - {56} - Baly! great Baly! they acclaim, - Where'er they run they bear the mighty name; - Where'er they meet, - Baly! great Baly! still their choral tongues repeat. - Therefore at every door the votive flame - Through pendant lanthorns sheds its painted light, - And rockets hissing upward through the sky, - Fall like a shower of stars - From Heaven's black canopy. - Therefore, on yonder mountain's templed height, - The brazen cauldron blazes through the night. - Huge as a Ship that travels the main sea - Is that capacious brass; its wick as tall - As is the mast of some great admiral. - Ten thousand votaries bring - Camphor and ghee to feed the sacred flame; - And while, through regions round, the nations see - Its fiery pillar curling high in heaven, - Baly! great Baly! they exclaim, - For ever hallowed be his blessed name! - Honour and praise to him for ever more be given! - - 2. - Why art not thou among the festive throng, - {57} - Baly, O Mighty One! to hear thy fame? - Still as of yore, with pageantry and song - The glowing streets along, - They celebrate thy name; - Baly! great Baly! still - The grateful habitants of Earth acclaim, - Baly! great Baly! still - The ringing walls and echoing towers proclaim. - From yonder mountain the portentous flame - Still blazes to the nations as before; - All things appear to human eyes the same, - As perfect as of yore; - To human eyes, . . but how unlike to thine! - Thine which were wont to see - The Company divine, - That with their presence came to honour thee! - For all the blessed ones of mortal birth - Who have been cloth'd with immortality, - From the eight corners of the Earth, - From the Seven Worlds assembling, all - Wont to attend thy solemn festival. - Then did thine eyes behold - The wide air peopled with that glorious train, - Now may'st thou seek the blessed ones in vain, - {58} - For Earth and Air are now beneath the Rajah's reign. - - 3. - Therefore the Mighty One hath walk'd the Earth - In sorrow and in solitude to-night. - The sound of human mirth - To him is no delight; - He turns away from that ungrateful sight, - Hallowed not now by visitants divine, - And there he bends his melancholy way - Where, in yon full-orb'd Moon's refulgent light, - The Golden Towers of his old City shine - Above the silver sea. The mighty Chief - There bent his way in grief, - As if sad thoughts indulged would work their own relief. - - 4. - There he beholds upon the sand - A lovely Maiden in the moonlight stand. - The land-breeze lifts her locks of jet, - The waves around her polish'd ancles play, - Her bosom with the salt sea-spray is wet; - Her arms are crost, unconsciously, to fold - That bosom from the cold, - {59} - While statue-like she seems her watch to keep, - Gazing intently on the restless deep. - - 5. - Seven miserable days had Kailyal there, - From earliest dawn till evening, watch'd the deep; - Six nights within the chamber of the rock, - Had laid her down, and found in prayer - That comfort which she sought in vain from sleep. - But when the seventh night came, - Never should she behold her Father more, - The wretched Maiden said in her despair; - Yet would not quit the shore, - Nor turn her eyes one moment from the sea: - Never before - Had Kailyal watch'd it so impatiently, - Never so eagerly had hop'd before, - As now when she believ'd, and said, all hope was o'er. - - 6. - Beholding her, how beautiful she stood, - In that wild solitude, - Baly from his invisibility - Had issued then, to know her cause of woe; - {60} - But that, in the air beside her, he espied - Two Powers of Evil for her hurt allied, - Foul Arvalan and dreadful Lorrinite. - The Mighty One they could not see, - And marking with what demon-like delight - They kept their innocent prey in sight, - He waits, expecting what the end may be. - - 7. - She starts; for lo! where floating many a rood, - A Monster, hugest of the Ocean brood, - Weltering and lifeless, drifts toward the shore. - Backward she starts in fear before the flood, - And, when the waves retreat, - They leave their hideous burthen at her feet. - - 8. - She ventures to approach with timid tread, - She starts, and half draws back in fear, - Then stops, and stretches on her head, - To see if that huge beast indeed be dead. - Now growing bold, the Maid advances near, - Even to the margin of the ocean-flood. - Rightly she reads her Father's victory, - {61} - And lifts her joyous hands, exultingly, - To Heaven in gratitude. - Then spreading them toward the Sea, - While pious tears bedim her streaming eyes, - Come! come! my Father, come to me! - Ereenia, come! she cries. - Lo! from the opening deep they rise, - And to Ladurlad's arms the happy Kailyal flies. - - 9. - She turn'd from him, to meet, with beating heart, - The Glendoveer's embrace. - Now turn to me, for mine thou art! - Foul Arvalan exdaim'd; his loathsome face - Came forth, and from the air, - In fleshly form, he burst. - Always in horror and despair, - Had Kailyal seen that form and face accurst, - But yet so sharp a pang had ne'er - Shot with a thrill like death through all her frame, - As now when on her hour of joy the Spectre came. - - 10. - Vain is resistance now, - {62} - The fiendish laugh of Lorrinite is heard; - And, at her dreadful word, - The Asuras once again appear, - And seize Ladurlad and the Glendoveer. - - 11. - Hold your accursed hands! - A Voice exclaim'd, whose dread commands - Were fear'd through all the vaults of Padalon; - And there among them, in the midnight air, - The presence of the mighty Baly shone. - He, making manifest his mightiness, - Put forth on every side an hundred arms, - And seiz'd the Sorceress; maugre all her charms, - Her and her fiendish ministers he caught - With force as uncontroulable as fate; - And that unhappy Soul, to whom - The Almighty Rajah's power availeth not - Living to avert, nor dead to mitigate - His righteous doom. - - 12. - Help, help, Kehama! Father, help! he cried; - But Baly tarried not to abide - {63} - That mightier Power; with irresistible feet - He stampt and cleft the Earth; it opened wide, - And gave him way to his own judgement-seat. - Down, like a plummet, to the World below - He sunk, and bore his prey - To righteous punishment, and endless woe. - - - XVIII. - KEHAMA'S DESCENT. - - {64} - - 1. - The Earth, by Baly's feet divided, - Clos'd o'er his way as to the judgement-seat - He plunged and bore his prey. - Scarce had the shock subsided, - When, darting from the Swerga's heavenly heights, - Kehama, like a thunderbolt, alights. - In wrath he came, a bickering flame - Flash'd from his eyes which made the moonlight dim, - And passion forcing way from every limb, - Like furnace-smoke, with terrors wrapt him round. - Furious he smote the ground; - {65} - Earth trembled underneath the dreadful stroke, - Again in sunder riven; - He hurl'd in rage his whirling weapon down. - But lo! the fiery sheckra to his feet - Return'd, as if by equal force re-driven, - And from the abyss the voice of Baly came: - Not yet, O Rajah, hast thou won - The realms of Padalon! - Earth and the Swerga are thine own, - But, till Kehama shall subdue the throne - Of Hell, in torments Yamen holds his son. - - 2. - Fool that he is! . . in torments let him lie! - Kehama, wrathful at his son, replied. - But what am I - That thou should'st brave me? . . kindling in his pride - The dreadful Rajah cried. - Ho! Yamen! hear me. God of Padalon, - Prepare thy throne, - And let the Amreeta cup - Be ready for my lips, when I anon - Triumphantly shall take my seat thereon, - And plant upon thy neck my royal feet. - - {66} - - 3. - In voice like thunder thus the Rajah cried, - Impending o'er the abyss, with menacing hand - Put forth, as in the action of command, - And eyes that darted their red anger down. - Then drawing back he let the earth subside, - And, as his wrath relax'd, survey'd, - Thoughtful and silently, the mortal Maid. - Her eye the while was on the farthest sky, - Where up the etherial height - Ereenia rose and past away from sight. - Never had she so joyfully - Beheld the coming of the Glendoveer, - Dear as he was and he deserv'd to be, - As now she saw him rise and disappear. - Come now what will, within her heart said she, - For thou art safe, and what have I to fear? - - 4. - Meantime the Almighty Rajah, late - In power and majesty and wrath array'd, - Had laid his terrors by - And gaz'd upon the Maid. - Pride could not quit his eye, - {67} - Nor that remorseless nature from his front - Depart; yet whoso had beheld him then - Had felt some admiration mix'd with dread, - And might have said - That sure he seem'd to be the King of Men; - Less than the greatest that he could not be, - Who carried in his port such might and majesty. - - 5. - In fear no longer for the Glendoveer, - Now toward the Rajah Kailyal turn'd her eyes - As if to ask what doom awaited her. - But then surprise, - Even as with fascination, held them there, - So strange a thing it seem'd to see the change - Of purport in that all-commanding brow, - That thoughtfully was bent upon her now. - Wondering she gaz'd, the while her Father's eye - Was fix'd upon Kehama haughtily; - It spake defiance to him, high disdain, - Stern patience, unsubduable by pain, - And pride triumphant over agony. - - 6. - Ladurlad, said the Rajah, thou and I - {68} - Alike have done the work of Destiny, - Unknowing each to what the impulse tended; - But now that over Earth and Heaven my reign - Is stablish'd, and the ways of Fate are plain - Before me, here our enmity is ended. - I take away thy Curse. . . As thus he said, - The fire which in Ladurlad's heart and brain - Was burning, fled, and left him free from pain. - So rapidly his torments were departed, - That at the sudden ease he started, - As with a shock, and to his head - His hands up-fled, - As if he felt through every failing limb - The power and sense of life forsaking him. - - 7. - Then turning to the Maid, the Rajah cried, - O Virgin, above all of mortal birth - Favour'd alike in beauty and in worth, - And in the glories of thy destiny, - Now let thy happy heart exult with pride, - For Fate hath chosen thee - To be Kehama's bride, - To be the Queen of Heaven and Earth, - And of whatever Worlds beside - {69} - Infinity may hide . . . For I can see - The writing which, at thy nativity, - All-knowing Nature wrought upon thy brain, - In branching veins, which to the gifted eye - Map out the mazes of futurity. - There is it written, Maid, that thou and I, - Alone of human kind a deathless pair, - Are doom'd to share - The Amreeta-drink divine - Of immortality. Come, Maiden mine! - High-fated One, ascend the subject sky, - And by Kehama's side - Sit on the Swerga throne, his equal bride. - - 8. - Oh never, . . never . . Father! Kailyal cried; - It is not as he saith, . . it cannot be! - I! . . I, his bride! - Nature is never false; he wrongeth her! - My heart belies such lines of destiny. - There is no other true interpreter! - - 9. - At that reply Kehama's darkening brow - {70} - Bewray'd the anger which he yet supprest. - Counsel thy daughter; tell her thou art now - Free from thy Curse, he said, and bid her bow - In thankfulness to Fate's benign behest. - Bid her her stubborn will restrain, - For Destiny at last must be obey'd, - And tell her, while obedience is delay'd, - Thy Curse will burn again. - - 10. - She needeth not my counsel, he replied, - And idly, Rajah, dost thou reason thus - Of Destiny! for though all other things - Were subject to the starry influencings, - And bow'd submissive to thy tyranny, - The virtuous heart, and resolute will are free. - Thus in their wisdom did the Gods decree - When they created man. Let come what will, - This is our rock of strength; in every ill, - Sorrow, oppression, pain and agony, - The spirit of the good is unsubdued, - And, suffer as they may, they triumph still. - - 11. - Obstinate fools! exclaim'd the Mighty One, - {71} - Fate and my pleasure must be done, - And ye resist in vain! - Take your fit guerdon till we meet again! - So saying, his vindictive hand he flung - Towards them, fill'd with curses; then on high - Aloft he sprung, and vanish'd through the Sky. - - - XIX. - MOUNT CALASAY. - - {72} - - 1. - The Rajah, scattering curses as he rose, - Soar'd to the Swerga, and resum'd his throne. - Not for his own redoubled agony, - Which now through heart and brain, - With renovated pain, - Rush'd to its seat, Ladurlad breathes that groan, - That groan is for his child; he groan'd to see - The lovely one defil'd with leprosy, - Which, as the enemy vindictive fled, - O'er all her frame with quick contagion spread. - She, wondering at events so passing strange, - {73} - And fill'd with hope and fear, - And joy to see the Tyrant disappear, - And glad expectance of her Glendoveer, - Perceiv'd not in herself the hideous change. - His burning pain, she thought, had forced the groan - Her father breath'd; his agonies alone - Were present to her mind; she claspt his knees, - Wept for his Curse, and did not feel her own. - - 2. - Nor when she saw her plague, did her good heart, - True to itself, even for a moment fail. - Ha, Rajah! with disdainful smile she cries, - Mighty and wise and wicked as thou art, - Still thy blind vengeance acts a friendly part. - Shall I not thank thee for this scurf and scale - Of dire deformity, whose loathsomeness, - Surer than panoply of strongest mail, - Arms me against all foes? Oh, better so, - Better such foul disgrace, - Than that this innocent face - Should tempt thy wooing! That I need not dread; - Nor ever impious foe - Will offer outrage now, nor farther woe - {74} - Will beauty draw on my unhappy head; - Safe through the unholy world may Kailyal go. - - 3. - Her face in virtuous pride - Was lifted to the skies, - As him and his poor vengeance she defied; - But earthward, when she ceas'd, she turn'd her eyes, - As if she sought to hide - The tear which in her own despite would rise. - Did then the thought of her own Glendoveer - Call forth that natural tear? - Was it a woman's fear, - A thought of earthly love, which troubled her? - Like yon thin cloud amid the moonlight sky - That flits before the wind - And leaves no trace behind, - The womanly pang past over Kailyal's mind. - This is a loathsome sight to human eye, - Half-shrinking at herself, the Maiden thought, - Will it be so to him? Oh surely not! - The immortal Powers, who see - Through the poor wrappings of mortality, - Behold the soul, the beautiful soul, within, - {75} - Exempt from age and wasting malady, - And undeform'd, while pure and free from sin. - This is a loathsome sight to human eye, - But not to eyes divine, - Ereenia, Son of Heaven, oh not to thine! - - 4. - The wrongful thought of fear, the womanly pain - Had past away, her heart was calm again. - She rais'd her head, expecting now to see - The Glendoveer appear; - Where hath he fled, quoth she, - That he should tarry now? Oh had she known - Whither the adventurous Son of Heaven was flown, - Strong as her spirit was, it had not borne - The awful thought, nor dar'd to hope for his return. - - 5. - For he in search of Seeva's throne was gone, - To tell his tale of wrong; - In search of Seeva's own abode - The daring one began his heavenly road. - O wild emprize! above the farthest skies - He hop'd to rise! - {76} - Him who is thron'd beyond the reach of thought, - The Alone, the Inaccessible, he sought. - O wild emprize! for when in days of yore, - For proud pre-eminence of power, - Brama and Veeshnoo, wild with rage, contended, - And Seeva, in his might, - Their dread contention ended; - Before their sight - In form a fiery column did he tower, - Whose head above the highest height extended, - Whose base below the deepest depth descended. - Downward, its depth to sound, - Veeshnoo a thousand years explor'd - The fathomless profound, - And yet no base he found: - Upward, to reach its head, - Ten myriad years the aspiring Brama soar'd, - And still, as up he fled, - Above him still the Immeasurable spread. - The rivals own'd their lord, - And trembled and ador'd. - How shall the Glendoveer attain - What Brama and what Veeshnoo sought in vain? - - {77} - - 6. - Ne'er did such thought of lofty daring enter - Celestial Spirit's mind. O wild adventure - That throne to find, for he must leave behind - This World, that in the centre, - Within its salt-sea girdle, lies confin'd; - Yea the Seven Earths that, each with its own ocean, - Ring clasping ring, compose the mighty round. - What power of motion, - In less than endless years shall bear him there, - Along the limitless extent, - To the utmost bound of the remotest spheres? - What strength of wing - Suffice to pierce the Golden Firmament - That closes all within? - Yet he hath past the measureless extent, - And pierced the Golden Firmament; - For Faith hath given him power, and Space and Time - Vanish before that energy sublime. - Nor doth Eternal Night, - And outer Darkness, check his resolute flight; - By strong desire through all he makes his way, - Till Seeva's Seat appears, . . behold Mount Calasay! - - {78} - - 7. - Behold the Silver Mountain! round about - Seven ladders stand, so high, the aching eye, - Seeking their tops in vain amid the sky, - Might deem they led from earth to highest heaven. - Ages would pass away, - And Worlds with age decay, - Ere one whose patient feet from ring to ring - Must win their upward way, - Could reach the summit of Mount Calasay. - But that strong power that nerv'd his wing, - That all-surmounting will, - Intensity of faith and holiest love, - Sustain'd Ereenia still, - And he hath gain'd the plain, the sanctuary above. - - 8. - Lo, there the Silver Bell, - That, self-sustain'd, hangs buoyant in the air! - Lo! the broad Table there, too bright - For mortal sight, - From whose four sides the bordering gems unite - Their harmonizing rays, - In one mid fount of many-colour'd light. - {79} - The stream of splendour, flashing as it flows, - Plays round, and feeds the stem of yon celestial Rose. - Where is the Sage whose wisdom can declare - The hidden things of that mysterious flower, - That flower which serves all mysteries to bear? - The sacred triangle is there, - Holding the Emblem which no tongue may tell. - Is this the Heaven of Heavens, where Seeva's self doth dwell? - - 9. - Here first the Glendoveer - Felt his wing flag, and paus'd upon his flight. - Was it that fear came over him, when here - He saw the imagin'd throne appear? - Not so, for his immortal sight - Endur'd the Table's light; - Distinctly he beheld all things around, - And doubt and wonder rose within his mind - That this was all he found. - Howbeit he lifted up his voice and spake. - There is oppression in the World below; - Earth groans beneath the yoke; yea, in her woe, - She asks if the Avenger's eye is blind? - Awake, O Lord, awake! - {80} - Too long thy vengeance sleepeth. Holy One! - Put thou thy terrors on for mercy's sake, - And strike the blow, in justice to mankind! - - 10. - So as he pray'd, intenser faith he felt, - His spirit seem'd to melt - With ardent yearnings of increasing love; - Upward he turn'd his eyes - As if there should be something yet above; - Let me not, Seeva! seek in vain! he cries, - Thou art not here, . . for how should these contain thee? - Thou art not here, . . for how should I sustain thee? - But thou, where'er thou art, - Canst hear the voice of prayer, - Canst hear the humble heart. - Thy dwelling who can tell, - Or who, O Lord, hath seen thy secret throne? - But thou art not alone, - Not unapproachable! - O all-containing Mind, - Thou who art every where, - Whom all who seek shall find, - Hear me, O Seeva! hear the suppliant's prayer! - - {81} - - 11. - So saying, up he sprung, - And struck the Bell, which self-suspended, hung - Before the mystic Rose. - From side to side the silver tongue - Melodious swung, and far and wide - Soul-thrilling tones of heavenly music rung. - Abash'd, confounded, - It left the Glendoveer; . . yea all astounded - In overpowering fear and deep dismay; - For when that Bell had sounded, - The Rose, with all the mysteries it surrounded, - The Bell, the Table, and Mount Calasay, - The holy Hill itself, with all thereon, - Even as a morning dream before the day - Dissolves away, they faded and were gone. - - 12. - Where shall he rest his wing, where turn for flight, - For all around is Light, - Primal, essential, all-pervading Light! - Heart cannot think, nor tongue declare, - Nor eyes of Angel bear - That Glory unimaginably bright; - {82} - The Sun himself had seem'd - A speck of darkness there, - Amid that Light of Light! - - 13. - Down fell the Glendoveer, - Down through all regions, to our mundane sphere - He fell; but in his ear - A voice, which from within him came, was heard, - The indubitable word - Of Him to whom all secret things are known: - Go, ye who suffer, go to Yamen's throne. - He hath the remedy for every woe; - He setteth right whate'er is wrong below. - - - XX. - THE EMBARKATION. - - {83} - - 1. - Down from the Heaven of Heavens Ereenia fell - Precipitate, yet imperceptible - His fall, nor had he cause nor thought of fear; - And when he came within this mundane sphere, - And felt that Earth was near, - The Glendoveer his azure wings expanded, - And, sloping down the sky - Toward the spot from whence he sprung on high, - There on the shore he landed. - - 2. - Kailyal advanced to meet him, - {84} - Not moving now as she was wont to greet him; - Joy in her eye and in her eager pace; - With a calm smile of melancholy pride - She met him now, and, turning half aside, - Her warning hand repell'd the dear embrace. - Strange things, Ereenia, have befallen us here, - The Virgin said; the Almighty Man hath read - The lines which, traced by Nature on my brain, - There to the gifted eye - Make all my fortunes plain, - Mapping the mazes of futurity. - He sued for peace, for it is written there - That I with him the Amreeta cup must share; - Wherefore he bade me come, and by his side - Sit on the Swerga-throne, his equal bride. - I need not tell thee what reply was given; - My heart, the sure interpreter of Heaven, - His impious words belied. - Thou seest his poor revenge! So having said, - One look she glanced upon her leprous stain - Indignantly, and shook - Her head in calm disdain. - - 3. - O Maid of soul divine! - {85} - O more than ever dear, - And more than ever mine, - Replied the Glendoveer; - He hath not read, be sure, the mystic ways - Of Fate; almighty as he is, that maze - Hath mock'd his fallible sight. - Said he the Amreeta-cup? So far aright - The Evil One may see; for Fate displays - Her hidden things in part, and part conceals, - Baffling the wicked eye - Alike with what she hides, and what reveals, - When with unholy purpose it would pry - Into the secrets of futurity. - So may it be permitted him to see - Dimly the inscrutable decree; - For to the world below, - Where Yamen guards the Amreeta, we must go; - Thus Seeva hath exprest his will, even he - The Holiest hath ordain'd it; there, he saith, - All wrongs shall be redrest - By Yamen, by the righteous Power of Death. - - 4. - Forthwith the Father and the fated Maid, - {86} - And that heroic Spirit, who for them - Such flight had late essay'd, - The will of Heaven obey'd. - They went their way along the road - That leads to Yamen's dread abode. - - 5. - Many a day hath past away - Since they began their arduous way, - Their way of toil and pain; - And now their weary feet attain - The Earth's remotest bound - Where outer Ocean girds it round. - But not like other Oceans this, - Rather it seem'd a drear abyss, - Upon whose brink they stood. - Oh, scene of fear! the travellers hear - The raging of the flood; - They hear how fearfully it roars, - But clouds of darker shade than night - For ever hovering round those shores, - Hide all things from their sight. - The Sun upon that darkness pours - His unavailing light; - {87} - Nor ever Moon nor Stars display, - Through the thick shade, one guiding ray - To shew the perils of the way. - - 6. - There, in a creek, a vessel lay. - Just on the confines of the day, - It rode at anchor in its bay, - These venturous pilgrims to convey - Across that outer Sea. - Strange vessel sure it seem'd to be, - And all unfit for such wild sea! - For through its yawning side the wave - Was oozing in; the mast was frail, - And old and torn its only sail. - How shall that crazy vessel brave - The billows, that in wild commotion - For ever roar and rave? - How hope to cross the dreadful Ocean, - O'er which eternal shadows dwell, - Whose secrets none return to tell! - - 7. - Well might the travellers fear to enter! - {88} - But summon'd once on that adventure, - For them was no retreat. - Nor boots it with reluctant feet - To linger on the strand; - Aboard! aboard! - An awful voice, that left no choice, - Sent forth its stern command, - Aboard! aboard! - The travellers hear that voice in fear, - And breathe to Heaven an inward prayer, - And take their seats in silence there. - - 8. - Self-hoisted then, behold the sail - Expands itself before the gale; - Hands, which they cannot see, let slip - The cable of that fated ship; - The land breeze sends her on her way, - And lo! they leave the living light of day! - - - XXI. - THE WORLD'S END. - - {89} - - 1. - Swift as an arrow in its flight - The Ship shot through the incumbent night; - And they have left behind - The raging billows and the roaring wind, - The storm, the darkness, and all mortal fears; - And lo! another light - To guide their way appears, - The light of other spheres. - - 2. - That instant, from Ladurlad's heart and brain - {90} - The Curse was gone; he feels again - Fresh as in Youth's fair morning, and the Maid - Hath lost her leprous stain. - The dreadful Man hath no dominion here, - Starting she cried; O happy, happy hour! - We are beyond his power! - Then raising to the Glendoveer, - With heavenly beauty bright, her angel face, - Turn'd not reluctant now, and met his dear embrace. - - 3. - Swift glides the Ship, with gentle motion, - Across that calm and quiet ocean; - That glassy sea, which seem'd to be - The mirror of tranquillity. - Their pleasant passage soon was o'er, - The Ship hath reach'd its destin'd shore; - A level belt of ice which bound, - As with an adamantine mound, - The waters of the sleeping Ocean round. - Strange forms were on the strand - Of earth-born spirits slain before their time; - Who, wandering over sea and sky and land, - Had so fulfill'd their term; and now were met - {91} - Upon this icy belt, a motley band, - Waiting their summons, at the appointed hour - When each before the judgement-seat must stand, - And hear his doom from Baly's righteous power. - - 4. - Foul with habitual crimes, a hideous crew - Were there, the race of rapine and of blood. - Now, having overpast the mortal flood, - Their own deformity they knew, - And knew the meed that to their deeds was due. - Therefore in fear and agony they stood, - Expecting when the evil Messenger - Among them should appear. But with their fear - A hope was mingled now; - O'er the dark shade of guilt a deeper hue - It threw, and gave a fiercer character - To the wild eye and lip and sinful brow. - They hop'd that soon Kehama would subdue - The inexorable God, and seize his throne, - Reduce the infernal World to his command, - And, with his irresistible right hand, - Redeem them from the vaults of Padalon. - - {92} - - 5. - Apart from these a milder company, - The victims of offences not their own, - Look'd when the appointed Messenger should come; - Gathered together some, and some alone - Brooding in silence on their future doom. - Widows whom, to their husbands' funeral fire, - Force or strong error led, to share the pyre, - As to their everlasting marriage-bed: - And babes, by sin unstain'd, - Whom erring parents vow'd - To Ganges, and the holy stream profan'd - With that strange sacrifice, rite unordain'd - By Law, by sacred Nature unallow'd: - Others more hapless in their destiny, - Scarce having first inhaled this vital breath, - Whose cradles from some tree - Unnatural hands suspended, - Then left, till gentle Death, - Coming like Sleep, their feeble moanings ended; - Or for his prey the ravenous Kite descended; - Or, marching like an army from their caves, - The Pismires blacken'd o'er, then bleach'd and bare - {93} - Left their unharden'd bones to fall asunder there. - - 6. - Innocent Souls! thus set so early free - From sin and sorrow and mortality, - Their spotless spirits all-creating Love - Receiv'd into its universal breast. - Yon blue serene above - Was their domain; clouds pillowed them to rest; - The Elements on them like nurses tended, - And with their growth etherial substance blended. - Less pure than these is that strange Indian bird - Who never dips in earthly streams her bill, - But, when the sound of coming showers is heard, - Looks up, and from the clouds receives her fill. - Less pure the footless fowl of Heaven, that never - Rest upon earth, but on the wing for ever - Hovering o'er flowers, their fragrant food inhale, - Drink the descending dew upon its way, - And sleep aloft while floating on the gale. - And thus these innocents in yonder sky - Grow and are strengthen'd, while the allotted years - Perform their course, then hitherward they fly, - Being free from mortal taint, so free from fears, - {94} - A joyous band, expecting soon to soar - To Indra's happy spheres, - And mingle with the blessed company - Of heavenly spirits there for evermore. - - 7. - A Gulph profound surrounded - This icy belt; the opposite side - With highest rocks was bounded; - But where their heads they hide, - Or where their base is founded, - None could espy. Above all reach of sight - They rose, the second Earth was on their height, - Their feet were fix'd in everlasting night. - - 8. - So deep the Gulph, no eye - Could plum its dark profundity, - Yet all its depth must try; for this the road - To Padalon, and Yamen's dread abode. - And from below continually - Ministrant Demons rose and caught - The Souls whose hour was come; - Then, with their burthen fraught, - {95} - Plunged down, and bore them to receive their doom. - - 9. - Then might be seen who went in hope, and who - Trembled to meet the meed - Of many a foul misdeed, as wild they threw - Their arms retorted from the Demons' grasp, - And look'd around, all eagerly, to seek - For help, where help was none; and strove for aid - To clasp the nearest shade; - Yea, with imploring looks and horrent shriek, - Even from one Demon to another bending, - With hands extending, - Their mercy they essay'd. - Still from the verge they strain, - And from the dreadful gulph avert their eyes, - In vain; down plunge the Demons, and their cries - Feebly, as down they sink, from that profound arise. - - 10. - What heart of living man could, undisturb'd, - Bear sight so sad as this! What wonder there - If Kailyal's lip were blanch'd with inmost dread! - The chill which from that icy belt - {96} - Struck through her, was less keen than what she felt - With her heart's-blood through every limb dispread. - Close to the Glendoveer she clung, - And clasping round his neck her trembling hands, - She clos'd her eyes, and there in silence hung. - - 11. - Then to Ladurlad said the Glendoveer, - These Demons, whom thou seest, the ministers - Of Yamen, wonder to behold us here; - But for the dead they come, and not for us: - Therefore, albeit they gaze upon thee thus, - Have thou no fear. - A little while thou must be left alone, - Till I have borne thy Daughter down, - And placed her safely by the throne - Of him who keeps the Gate of Padalon. - - 12. - Then taking Kailyal in his arms, he said, - Be of good heart, Beloved! it is I - Who bear thee. Saying this, his wings he spread, - Sprung upward in the sky, and pois'd his flight, - Then plunged into the Gulph, and sought the World of Night. - - - XXII. - THE GATE OF PADALON. - - {97} - - 1. - The strong foundations of this inmost Earth - Rest upon Padalon. That icy Mound - Which girt the mortal Ocean round, - Reach'd the profound, . . - Ice in the regions of the upper air, - Crystal midway, and adamant below, - Whose strength sufficed to bear - The weight of all this upper World of ours, - And with its rampart clos'd the Realm of Woe. - Eight gates hath Padalon; eight heavenly Powers - Have them in charge, each alway at his post, - {98} - Lest, from their penal caves, the accursed host, - Maugre the might of Baly and the God, - Should break, and carry ruin all abroad. - - 2. - Those gates stand ever open, night and day, - And Souls of mortal men - For ever throng the way. - Some from the dolorous den, - Children of sin and wrath, return no more: - They, fit companions of the Spirits accurst, - Are doom'd, like them in baths of fire immerst, - Or weltering upon beds of molten ore, - Or, stretch'd upon the brazen floor, - Are fasten'd down with adamantine chains; - While on their substance inconsumable, - Leeches of fire for ever hang and pull, - And worms of fire for ever gnaw their food, - That, still renew'd, - Freshens for ever their perpetual pains. - - 3. - Others there were whom Baly's voice condemned, - By long and painful penance, to atone - {99} - Their fleshly deeds. Them, from the Judgement-Throne, - Dread Azyoruca, where she sat involv'd - In darkness as a tent, receiv'd, and dealt - To each the measure of his punishment; - Till, in the central springs of fire, the Will - Impure is purged away; and the freed soul, - Thus fitted to receive its second birth, - Embodied once again, revisits Earth. - - 4. - But they whom Baly's righteous voice absolv'd, - And Yamen, viewing with benignant eye, - Dismiss'd to seek their heritage on high, - How joyfully they leave this gloomy bourne, - The dread sojourn - Of Guilt and twin-born Punishment and Woe, - And wild Remorse, here link'd with worse Despair! - They to the eastern Gate rejoicing go: - The Ship of Heaven awaits their coming there, - And on they sail, greeting the blessed light, - Through realms of upper air, - Bound for the Swerga once; but now no more - Their voyage rests upon that happy shore; - Since Indra, by the dreadful Rajah's might - {100} - Compell'd, hath taken flight, - On to the second World their way they wend, - And there, in trembling hope, await the doubtful end. - - 5. - For still in them doth hope predominate, - Faith's precious privilege, when higher Powers - Give way to fear in these portentous hours. - Behold the Wardens eight, - Each silent at his gate - Expectant stands; they turn their anxious eyes - Within, and, listening to the dizzy din - Of mutinous uproar, each in all his hands - Holds all his weapons, ready for the fight. - For, hark! what clamorous cries - Upon Kehama for deliverance call! - Come, Rajah! they exclaim, too long we groan - In torments. Come, Deliverer! yonder throne - Awaits thee . . . Now, Kehama! Rajah, now! - Earthly Almighty, wherefore tarriest thou? . . - Such were the sounds that rung, in wild uproar, - O'er all the echoing vaults of Padalon; - And as the Asuras from the brazen floor, - Struggling against their fetters, strove to rise, - {101} - Their clashing chains were heard, and shrieks and cries, - With curses mix'd, against the Fiends who urge, - Fierce on their rebel limbs, the avenging scourge. - - 6. - These were the sounds which, at the southern gate, - Assail'd Ereenia's ear; alighting here - He laid before Neroodi's feet the Maid, - Who, pale and cold with fear, - Hung on his neck, well-nigh a lifeless weight. - - 7. - Who and what art thou? cried the Guardian Power, - Sight thus unwonted wondering to behold, . . - O Son of Light! - Who comest here at this portentous hour, - When Yamen's throne - Trembles, and all our might can scarce keep down - The rebel race from seizing Padalon: . . . - Who and what art thou? and what wild despair, - Or wilder hope, from realms of upper air, - Tempts thee to bear - This mortal Maid to our forlorn abodes? - Fitter for her, I ween, the Swerga bowers, - {102} - And sweet society of heavenly Powers, - Than this, . . a doleful scene, - Even in securest hours. - And whither would ye go? - Alas! can human or celestial ear, - Unmadden'd, hear - The shrieks and yellings of infernal woe? - Can living flesh and blood - Endure the passage of the fiery flood? - - 8. - Lord of the Gate, replied the Glendoveer, - We come obedient to the will of Fate; - And haply doom'd to bring - Hope and salvation to the Infernal King, - For Seeva sends us here. - Even He to whom futurity is known, - The Holiest, bade us go to Yamen's throne. - Thou seest my precious charge; - Under thy care, secure from harm, I leave her, - While I ascend to bear her father down. - Beneath the shelter of thine arm receive her! - - 9. - Then quoth he to the Maid, - {103} - Be of good cheer, my Kailyal! dearest dear, - In faith subdue thy dread, - Anon I shall be here. So having said, - Aloft, with vigorous bound, the Glendoveer - Sprung in celestial might, - And soaring up, in spiral circles, wound - His indefatigable flight. - - 10. - But, as he thus departed, - The Maid, who at Neroodi's feet was lying, - Like one entranced or dying, - Recovering strength from sudden terror, started; - And gazing after him with straining sight, - And straining arms, she stood, - As if in attitude - To win him back from flight. - Yea, she had shap'd his name - For utterance, to recall and bid him stay, - Nor leave her thus alone; but virtuous shame - Represt the unbidden sounds upon their way; - And calling faith to aid, - Even in this fearful hour, the pious Maid - Collected courage, till she seem'd to be - {104} - Calm and in hope, such power had piety. - Before the Giant Keeper of the Gate - She crost her patient arms, and at his feet, - Prepar'd to meet - The awful will of Fate with equal mind, - She took her seat resign'd. - - 11. - Even the stern trouble of Neroodi's brow - Relax'd as he beheld the valiant Maid. - Hope, long unfelt till now, - Rose in his heart reviving, and a smile - Dawn'd in his brightening countenance, the while - He gaz'd on her with wonder and delight. - The blessing of the Powers of Padalon, - Virgin, be on thee! cried the admiring God; - And blessed be the hour that gave thee birth, - Daughter of Earth, - For thou to this forlorn abode hast brought - Hope, who too long hath been a stranger here. - And surely for no lamentable lot, - Nature, who erreth not, - To thee that heart of fortitude hath given, - Those eyes of purity, that face of love: . . - {105} - If thou beest not the inheritrix of Heaven, - There is no truth above. - - 12. - Thus as Neroodi spake, his brow severe - Shone with an inward joy; for sure he thought - When Seeva sent so fair a creature here, - In this momentous hour, - Ere long the World's deliverance would be wrought, - And Padalon escape the Rajah's power. - With pious mind the Maid, in humble guise - Inclin'd, received his blessing silently, - And rais'd her grateful eyes - A moment, then again - Abas'd them at his presence. Hark! on high - The sound of coming wings! . . her anxious ears - Have caught the distant sound. Ereenia brings - His burthen down! Upstarting from her seat, - How joyfully she rears - Her eager head! and scarce upon the ground - Ladurlad's giddy feet their footing found, - When, with her trembling arms, she claspt him round. - No word of greeting, - Nor other sign of joy at that strange meeting. - {106} - Expectant of their fate, - Silent, and hand in hand, - Before the Infernal Gate, - The Father and his heavenly Daughter stand. - - 13. - Then to Neroodi said the Glendoveer, - No Heaven-born Spirit e'er hath visited - This region drear and dread; but I, the first - Who tread your World accurst. - Lord of the Gate, to whom these realms are known, - Direct our fated way to Yamen's throne. - - 14. - Bring forth my Chariot, Carmala! quoth then - The Keeper of the way. - It was the Car wherein - On Yamen's festal day, - When all the Powers of Hell attend their King, - Yearly to Yamenpur did he repair - To pay his homage there. - Pois'd on a single wheel, it mov'd along, - Instinct with motion; by what wonderous skill - Compact, no human tongue could tell, - {107} - Nor human wit devise; but on that wheel - Moving or still, - As if an inward life sustain'd its weight, - Supported, stood the Car of miracle. - - 15. - Then Carmala brought forth two mantles, white - As the swan's breast, and bright as mountain snow, - When from the wintry sky - The sun, late-rising, shines upon the height, - And rolling vapours fill the vale below. - Not without pain the unaccustom'd sight - That brightness could sustain; - For neither mortal stain, - Nor parts corruptible, remain, - Nor aught that time could touch, or force destroy, - In that pure web whereof the robes were wrought; - So long had it in ten-fold fires been tried, - And blanch'd, and to that brightness purified. - Apparel'd thus, alone, - Children of Earth, Neroodi cried, - In safety may ye pass to Yamen's throne. - Thus only can your living flesh and blood - Endure the passage of the fiery flood. - - {108} - - 16. - Of other frame, O Son of Heaven, art thou! - Yet hast thou now to go - Through regions which thy heavenly mould will try. - Glories unutterably bright, I know, - And beams intense of empyrean light, - Thine eye divine can bear: but fires of woe, - The sight of torments, and the cry - Of absolute despair, - Might not these things dismay thee on thy flight, - And thy strong pennons flag and fail thee there? - Trust not thy wings, celestial though thou art; - Nor thy good heart, which horror might assail - And pity quail, - Pity in these abodes of no avail; - But take thy seat this mortal pair beside, - And Carmala the infernal Car will guide. - Go, and may happy end your way betide! - So as he spake, the self-mov'd Car roll'd on, - And lo! they pass the Gate of Padalon. - - - XXIII. - PADALON. - - {109} - - 1. - Whoe'er hath lov'd with venturous step to tread - The chambers dread - Of some deep cave, and seen his taper's beam - Lost in the arch of darkness overhead, - And mark'd its gleam, - Playing afar upon the sunless stream, - Where, from their secret bed, - And course unknown and inaccessible, - The silent waters well; - Whoe'er hath trod such caves of endless night, - He knows, when measuring back the gloomy way, - {110} - With what delight refresh'd, his eye - Perceives the shadow of the light of day, - Through the far portal slanting, where it falls - Dimly reflected on the watry walls; - How heavenly seems the sky, - And how, with quicken'd feet, he hastens up, - Eager again to greet - The living World, and blessed sunshine there, - And drink, as from a cup - Of joy, with thirsty lips, the open air. - - 2. - Far other light than that of day there shone - Upon the travellers, entering Padalon. - They, too, in darkness entered on their way, - But, far before the Car, - A glow, as of a fiery furnace light, - Fill'd all before them. 'Twas a light which made - Darkness itself appear - A thing of comfort, and the sight, dismay'd, - Shrunk inward from the molten atmosphere. - Their way was through the adamantine rock - Which girt the World of Woe; on either side - Its massive walls arose, and overhead - {111} - Arch'd the long passage; onward as they ride, - With stronger glare the light around them spread, - And lo! the regions dread, - The World of Woe before them, opening wide. - - 3. - There rolls the fiery flood, - Girding the realms of Padalon around. - A sea of flame it seem'd to be, - Sea without bound; - For neither mortal, nor immortal sight, - Could pierce across through that intensest light. - A single rib of steel, - Keen as the edge of keenest scymitar, - Spann'd this wide gulph of fire. The infernal Car - Roll'd to the Gulph, and on its single wheel - Self-balanced; rose upon that edge of steel. - Red-quivering float the vapours overhead; - The fiery gulph beneath them spread, - Tosses its billowing blaze with rush and roar; - Steady and swift the self-mov'd Chariot went, - Winning the long ascent, - Then, downward rolling, gains the farther shore. - - {112} - - 4. - But, oh! what sounds and sights of woe, - What sights and sounds of fear, - Assail the mortal travellers here! - Their way was on a causey straight and wide, - Where penal vaults on either side were seen, - Ranged like the cells wherein - Those wonderous winged alchemists infold - Their stores of liquid gold. - Thick walls of adamant divide - The dungeons; and from yonder circling flood, - Off-streams of fire through secret channels glide, - And wind among them, and in each provide - An everlasting food - Of righteous torments for the accursed brood. - - 5. - These were the rebel race, who, in their might - Confiding impiously, would fain have driven - The Deities supreme from highest Heaven; - But by the Suras, in celestial fight, - Oppos'd and put to flight, - Here, in their penal dens, the accursed crew, - {113} - Not for its crime, but for its failure, rue - Their wild ambition. Yet again they long - The contest to renew, - And wield their arms again in happier hour; - And with united power, - Following Kehama's triumph, to press on - From World to World, and Heaven to Heaven, and Sphere - To Sphere, till Hemakoot shall be their own, - And Meru Mount, and Indra's Swerga-Bowers, - And Brama's region, where the heavenly Hours - Weave the vast circle of his age-long day. - Even over Veeshnoo's empyreal seat - They trust the Rajah shall extend their sway, - And that the seven-headed Snake, whereon - The strong Preserver sets his conquering feet, - Will rise and shake him headlong from his throne, - When, in their irresistible array, - Amid the Milky Sea they force their way. - Even higher yet their frantic thoughts aspire; - Yea, on their beds of torment as they lie, - The highest, holiest Seeva, they defy, - And tell him they shall have anon their day, - When they will storm his realm, and seize Mount Calasay. - - {114} - - 6. - Such impious hopes torment - Their raging hearts, impious and impotent; - And now, with unendurable desire - And lust of vengeance, that, like inward fire, - Doth aggravate their punishment, they rave - Upon Kehama; him the accursed rout - Acclaim; with furious cries and maddening shout - They call on him to save; - Kehama! they exclaim; - Thundering, the dreadful echo rolls about, - And Hell's whole vault repeats Kehama's name. - - 7. - Over these dens of punishment, the host - Of Padalon maintain eternal guard, - Keeping upon the walls their vigilant ward. - At every angle stood - A watch-tower, the decurion Demon's post, - Where, rais'd on high, he view'd with sleepless eye - His trust, that all was well. And over these, - Such was the perfect discipline of Hell, - Captains of fifties and of hundreds held - Authority, each in his loftier tower; - {115} - And chiefs of legions over them had power; - And thus all Hell with towers was girt around. - Aloft the brazen turrets shone - In the red light of Padalon, - And on the walls between, - Dark moving, the infernal Guards were seen, - Gigantic Demons pacing to and fro; - Who ever and anon, - Spreading their crimson pennons, plunged below, - Faster to rivet down the Asuras' chains; - And with the snaky scourge and fiercer pains, - Repress their rage rebellious. Loud around, - In mingled sound, the echoing lash, the clash - Of chains, the ponderous hammer's iron stroke, - With execrations, groans, and shrieks and cries - Combin'd, in one wild dissonance, arise; - And through the din there broke, - Like thunder heard through all the warring winds, - The dreadful name. Kehama, still they rave, - Hasten and save! - Now, now, Deliverer! now, Kehama, now! - Earthly Almighty, wherefore tarriest thou! - - 8. - Oh, if that name abhorr'd, - {116} - Thus utter'd, could well nigh - Dismay the Powers of Hell, and daunt their Lord, - How fearfully to Kailyal's ear it came! - She, as the Car roll'd on its rapid way, - Bent down her head, and clos'd her eyes for dread; - And deafening, with strong effort from within, - Her ears against the din, - Cover'd and prest them close with both her hands. - Sure if the mortal Maiden had not fed - On heavenly food, and long been strengthened - With heavenly converse for such end vouchsaf'd, - Her human heart had fail'd, and she had died - Beneath the horrors of this awful hour. - But heaven supplied a power - Beyond her earthly nature, to the measure - Of need infusing strength; - And Fate, whose secret and unerring pleasure - Appointed all, decreed - An ample meed and recompence at length. - High-fated Maid, the righteous hour is nigh! - The all-embracing Eye - Of Retribution still beholdeth thee; - Bear onward to the end, O Maid, courageously! - - {117} - - 9. - On roll'd the Car, and lo! afar - Upon its height the Towers of Yamenpur - Rise on the astonish'd sight. - Behold the infernal City, Yamen's seat - Of empire, in the midst of Padalon, - Where the eight causeys meet. - There on a rock of adamant it stood, - Resplendent far and wide, - Itself of solid diamond edified, - And all around it roll'd the fiery flood. - Eight bridges arch'd the stream; huge piles of brass - Magnificent, such structures as beseem - The Seat and Capital of such great God, - Worthy of Yamen's own august abode. - A brazen tower and gateway at each end - Of each was rais'd, where Giant Wardens stood, - Station'd in arms the passage to defend, - That never foe might cross the fiery flood. - - 10. - Oh what a gorgeous sight it was to see - The Diamond City blazing on its height - With more than mid-sun splendour, by the light - {118} - Of its own fiery river! - Its towers and domes and pinnacles and spires, - Turrets and battlements, that flash and quiver - Through the red restless atmosphere for ever. - And hovering over head, - The smoke and vapours of all Padalon, - Fit firmament for such a world, were spread, - With surge and swell, and everlasting motion, - Heaving and opening like tumultuous ocean. - - 11. - Nor were there wanting there - Such glories as beseem'd such region well; - For though with our blue heaven and genial air - The firmament of Hell might not compare, - As little might our earthly tempests vie - With the dread storms of that infernal sky, - Whose clouds of all metallic elements - Sublim'd were full. For, when its thunder broke, - Not all the united World's artillery, - In one discharge, could equal that loud stroke; - And though the Diamond Towers and Battlements - Stood firm upon their adamantine rock, - Yet, while it vollied round the vault of Hell, - {119} - Earth's solid arch was shaken with the shock, - And Cities in one mighty ruin fell. - Through the red sky terrific meteors scour; - Huge stones come hailing down; or sulphur-shower, - Floating amid the lurid air like snow, - Kindles in its descent, - And with blue fire-drops rains on all below. - At times the whole supernal element - Igniting, burst in one vast sheet of flame, - And roar'd as with the sound - Of rushing winds, above, below, around; - Anon the flame was spent, and overhead - A heavy cloud of moving darkness spread. - - 12. - Straight to the brazen bridge and gate - The self-mov'd Chariot bears its mortal load. - At sight of Carmala, - On either side the Giant guards divide, - And give the chariot way. - Up yonder winding road it rolls along, - Swift as the bittern soars on spiral wing, - And lo! the Palace of the Infernal King! - - {120} - - 13. - Two forms inseparable in unity - Hath Yamen; even as with hope or fear - The Soul regardeth him doth he appear; - For hope and fear, - At that dread hour, from ominous conscience spring, - And err not in their bodings. Therefore some, - They who polluted with offences come, - Behold him as the King - Of Terrors, black of aspect, red of eye; - Reflecting back upon the sinful mind, - Heighten'd with vengeance, and with wrath divine, - Its own inborn deformity. - But to the righteous Spirit how benign - His awful countenance, - Where, tempering justice with parental love, - Goodness and heavenly grace - And sweetest mercy shine! Yet is he still - Himself the same, one form, one face, one will; - And these his twofold aspects are but one; - And change is none - In him, for change in Yamen could not be, - The Immutable is he. - - {121} - - 14. - He sate upon a marble sepulchre - Massive and huge, where, at the Monarch's feet, - The righteous Baly had his judgement-seat. - A Golden Throne before them vacant stood; - Three human forms sustain'd its ponderous weight, - With lifted hands outspread, and shoulders bow'd - Bending beneath their load. - A fourth was wanting. They were of the hue - Of coals of fire; yet were they flesh and blood, - And living breath they drew; - And their red eye-balls roll'd with ghastly stare, - As thus, for their misdeeds, they stood tormented there. - - 15. - On steps of gold those fiery Statues stood, - Who bore the Golden Throne. A cloud behind - Immoveable was spread; not all the light - Of all the flames and fires of Padalon - Could pierce its depth of night. - There Azyoruca veil'd her awful form - In those eternal shadows: there she sate, - And as the trembling Souls, who crowd around - The Judgement-Seat, received the doom of fate, - {122} - Her giant arms, extending from the cloud, - Drew them within the darkness. Moving out, - To grasp and bear away the innumerous rout, - For ever and for ever thus were seen - The thousand mighty arms of that dread Queen. - - 16. - Here, issuing from the car, the Glendoveer - Did homage to the God, then rais'd his head. - Suppliants we come, he said, - I need not tell thee by what wrongs opprest, - For nought can pass on earth to thee unknown; - Sufferers from tyranny we seek for rest, - And Seeva bade us go to Yamen's throne; - Here, he hath said, all wrongs shall be redrest. - Yamen replied, Even now the hour draws near, - When Fate its hidden ways will manifest. - Not for light purpose would the Wisest send - His suppliants here, when we, in doubt and fear, - The awful issue of the hour attend. - Wait ye in patience and in faith the end! - - - XXIV. - THE AMREETA. - - {123} - - 1. - So spake the King of Padalon, when, lo! - The voice of lamentation ceas'd in Hell, - And sudden silence all around them fell, - Silence more wild and terrible - Than all the infernal dissonance before. - Through that portentous stillness, far away, - Unwonted sounds were heard, advancing on, - And deepening on their way; - For now the inexorable hour - Was come, and in the fullness of his power, - {124} - Now that the dreadful rites had all been done, - Kehama from the Swerga hastened down, - To seize upon the throne of Padalon. - - 2. - He came in all his might and majesty, - With all his terrors clad, and all his pride; - And, by the attribute of Deity, - Which he had won from Heaven, self-multiplied, - The dreadful One appear'd on every side. - In the same indivisible point of time, - At the eight Gates he stood at once, and beat - The Warden-Gods of Hell beneath his feet; - Then, in his brazen Cars of triumph, straight, - At the same moment, drove through every gate. - By Aullays, hugest of created kind, - Fiercest, and fleeter than the viewless wind, - His Cars were drawn, ten yokes of ten abreast, . . - What less sufficed for such almighty weight? - Eight bridges from the fiery flood arose - Growing before his way; and on he goes, - And drives the thundering Chariot-wheels along, - At once o'er all the roads of Padalon. - - {125} - - 3. - Silent and motionless remain - The Asuras on their bed of pain, - Waiting, with breathless hope, the great event. - All Hell was hush'd in dread, - Such awe that omnipresent coming spread; - Nor had its voice been heard, though all its rout - Innumerable had lifted up one shout; - Nor if the infernal firmament - Had, in one unimaginable burst, - Spent its collected thunders, had the sound - Been audible, such louder terrors went - Before his forms substantial. Round about - The presence scattered lightnings far and wide, - That quench'd on every side, - With their intensest blaze, the feebler fire - Of Padalon, even as the stars go out, - When, with prodigious light, - Some blazing meteor fills the astonish'd night. - - 4. - The Diamond City shakes; - The adamantine Rock - Is loosen'd with the shock; - {126} - From its foundation mov'd, it heaves and quakes; - The brazen portals crumbling fall to dust; - Prone fall the Giant Guards - Beneath the Aullays crush'd. - On, on, through Yamenpur, their thundering feet - Speed from all points to Yamen's judgement-seat. - And lo! where multiplied, - Behind, before him, and on every side, - Wielding all weapons in his countless hands, - Around the Lord of Hell Kehama stands! - Then, too, the Lord of Hell put forth his might: - Thick darkness, blacker than the blackest night, - Rose from their wrath, and veil'd - The unutterable fight. - The power of Fate and Sacrifice prevail'd, - And soon the strife was done. - Then did the Man-God re-assume - His unity, absorbing into one - The consubstantiate shapes; and as the gloom - Opened, fallen Yamen on the ground was seen, - His neck beneath the conquering Rajah's feet, - Who on the marble tomb - Had his triumphal seat. - - {127} - - 5. - Silent the Man-Almighty sate; a smile - Gleam'd on his dreadful lips, the while - Dallying with power, he paus'd from following up - His conquest, as a man in social hour - Sips of the grateful cup, - Again and yet again, with curious taste, - Searching its subtle flavour ere he drink. - Even so Kehama now forbore his haste; - Having within his reach whate'er he sought, - On his own haughty power he seem'd to muse, - Pampering his arrogant heart with silent thought. - Before him stood the Golden Throne in sight, - Right opposite; he could not chuse but see, - Nor seeing chuse but wonder. Who are ye - Who bear the Golden Throne, tormented there? - He cried; for whom doth Destiny prepare - The imperial seat? and why are ye but Three? - - FIRST STATUE. - I of the Children of Mankind was first, - Me miserable! who, adding store to store, - Heapt up superfluous wealth; and now accurst, - For ever I the frantic crime deplore. - - {128} - - SECOND STATUE. - I o'er my Brethren of Mankind the first - Usurping power, set up a throne sublime, - A King and Conqueror: therefore thus accurst, - For ever I in vain repent the crime. - - THIRD STATUE. - I on the Children of Mankind the first, - In God's most holy name, impos'd a tale - Of impious falsehood; therefore thus accurst, - For ever I in vain the crime bewail. - - 6. - Even as thou here beholdest us, - Here we have stood, tormented thus, - Such countless ages, that they seem to be - Long as eternity, - And still we are but Three. - A Fourth will come to share - Our pain, at yonder vacant corner bear - His portion of the burthen, and compleat - The golden Throne for Yamen's judgement-seat. - Thus hath it been appointed: he must be - {129} - Equal in guilt to us, the guilty Three. - Kehama, come! too long we wait for thee! - - 7. - Thereat, with one accord, - The Three took up the word, like choral song, - Come, Rajah! Man-God! Earth's Almighty Lord! - Kehama, come! we wait for thee too long. - - 8. - A short and sudden laugh of wondering pride - Burst from him in his triumph: to reply - Scornful he deign'd not; but with alter'd eye, - Wherein some doubtful meaning seem'd to lie, - He turn'd to Kailyal. Maiden, thus he cried, - I need not bid thee see - How vain it is to strive with Fate's decree, - When hither thou hast fled to fly from me, - And lo! even here thou find'st me at thy side. - Mine thou must be, being doom'd with me to share - The Amreeta-cup of immortality; - Yea, by Myself I swear - It hath been thus appointed. Joyfully - Join then thy hand and heart and will with mine, - {130} - Nor at such glorious destiny repine, - Nor in thy folly more provoke my wrath divine. - - 9. - She answer'd; I have said. It must not be! - Almighty as thou art, - Thou hast put all things underneath thy feet, - But still the resolute heart - And virtuous will are free. - Never, oh! never, . . never . . can there be - Communion, Rajah, between thee and me. - - 10. - Once more, quoth he, I urge, and once alone. - Thou seest yon Golden Throne, - Where I anon shall set thee by my side; - Take thou thy seat thereon, - Kehama's willing bride, - And I will place the Kingdoms of the World - Beneath thy Father's feet, - Appointing him the King of mortal men: - Else underneath that Throne, - The Fourth supporter, he shall stand and groan; - Prayers will be vain to move my mercy then. - - {131} - - 11. - Again the Virgin answer'd, I have said! - Ladurlad caught her in his proud embrace, - While on his neck she hid - In agony her face. - - 12. - Bring forth the Amreeta-cup! Kehama cried - To Yamen, rising sternly in his pride. - It is within the Marble Sepulchre, - The vanquish'd Lord of Padalon replied, - Bid it be opened. . . . Give thy treasure up! - Exclaim'd the Man-Almighty to the Tomb. - And at his voice and look - The massy fabric shook, and opened wide. - A huge Anatomy was seen reclin'd - Within its marble womb. Give me the Cup! - Again Kehama cried; no other charm - Was needed than that voice of stern command. - From his repose the ghastly form arose, - Put forth his bony and gigantic arm, - And gave the Amreeta to the Rajah's hand. - Take! drink! with accents dread the Spectre said, - For thee and Kailyal hath it been assign'd, - {132} - Ye only of the Children of Mankind. - - 13. - Then was the Man-Almighty's heart elate; - This is the consummation! he exclaim'd, - Thus have I triumphed over Death and Fate. - Now, Seeva! look to thine abode! - Henceforth, on equal footing we engage, - Alike immortal now, and we will wage - Our warfare, God to God! - Joy fill'd his impious soul, - And to his lips he rais'd the fatal bowl. - - 14. - Thus long the Glendoveer had stood, - Watching the wonders of the eventful hour, - Amaz'd but undismay'd; for in his heart - Faith, overcoming fear, maintain'd its power. - Nor had that faith abated, when the God - Of Padalon was beaten down in fight; - For then he look'd to see the heavenly might - Of Seeva break upon them. But when now - He saw the Amreeta in Kehama's hand, - An impulse which denied all self-command - {133} - In that extremity - Stung him, and he resolved to seize the cup, - And dare the Rajah's force in Seeva's sight. - Forward he sprung to tempt the unequal fray, - When lo! the Anatomy, - With warning arm, withstood his desperate way, - And from the Golden Throne the fiery Three - Again, in one accord, renew'd their song, - Kehama, come! we wait for thee too long. - - 15. - O fool of drunken hope and frantic vice! - Madman! to seek for power beyond thy scope - Of knowledge, and to deem - Less than omniscience could suffice - To wield omnipotence! O fool, to dream - That immortality could be - The meed of evil! . . yea thou hast it now, - Victim of thine own wicked heart's device, - Thou hast thine object now, and now must pay the price. - - 16. - He did not know the awful mystery - Of that divinest cup, that as the lips - {134} - Which touch it, even such its quality, - Good or malignant: Madman! and he thinks - The blessed prize is won, and joyfully he drinks. - - 17. - Then Seeva opened on the Accursed One - His Eye of Anger: upon him alone - The wrath-beam fell. He shudders . . . but too late; - The deed is done, - The dreadful liquor works the will of Fate. - Immortal he would be, - Immortal he remains; but through his veins - Torture at once and immortality, - A stream of poison doth the Amreeta run, - Infinite everlasting agony. - And while within the burning anguish flows, - His outward body glows - Like molten ore beneath the avenging eye, - Doom'd thus to live and burn eternally. - The fiery Three, - Beholding him, set up a fiendish cry, - A song of jubilee: - Come, Brother, come! they sung; too long - We in our torments have expected thee; - {135} - Come, Brother, come! henceforth we bear no more - The unequal weight; Come, Brother, we are Four! - - 18. - Vain his almightiness, for mightier pain - Subdued all power; pain ruled supreme alone. - And yielding to the bony hand - The unemptied cup, he mov'd toward the throne, - And at the vacant corner took his stand. - Behold the Golden Throne at length compleat, - And Yamen silently ascends the Judgement-Seat. - - 19. - For two alone, of all mankind, to me - The Amreeta-Cup was given, - Then said the Anatomy; - The Man hath drank, the Woman's turn is next. - Come, Kailyal, come, receive thy doom, - And do the Will of Heaven! . . - Wonder, and Fear, and Awe at once perplext - The mortal Maiden's heart, but over all - Hope rose triumphant. With a trembling hand, - Obedient to his call, - She took the fated Cup; and, lifting up - {136} - Her eyes, where holy tears began to swell, - Is it not your command, - Ye heavenly Powers? as on her knees she fell, - The pious Virgin cried; - Ye know my innocent will, my heart sincere, - Ye govern all things still, - And wherefore should I fear! - - 20. - She said, and drank. The Eye of Mercy beam'd - Upon the Maid: a cloud of fragrance steam'd - Like incense-smoke, as all her mortal frame - Dissolved beneath the potent agency - Of that mysterious draught; such quality, - From her pure touch, the fated Cup partook. - Like one entranced she knelt, - Feeling her body melt - Till all but what was heavenly past away: - Yet still she felt - Her spirit strong within her, the same heart, - With the same loves, and all her heavenly part, - Unchanged, and ripen'd to such perfect state, - In this miraculous birth, as here on Earth, - Dimly our holiest hopes anticipate. - - {137} - - 21. - Mine! mine! with rapturous joy Ereenia cried, - Immortal now, and yet not more divine; - Mine, mine. . . for ever mine! - The immortal Maid replied, - For ever, ever, thine! - - 22. - Then Yamen said, O thou to whom, by Fate, - Alone of all mankind, this lot is given, - Daughter of Earth, but now the Child of Heaven - Go with thy heavenly Mate, - Partaker now of his immortal bliss; - Go to the Swerga Bowers, - And there recall the hours - Of endless happiness. - - 23. - But that sweet Angel, for she still retain'd - Her human loves and human piety, - As if reluctant at the God's commands, - Linger'd, with anxious eye - Upon her father fix'd, and spread her hands - Toward him wistfully. - {138} - Go! Yamen cried, nor cast that look behind - Upon Ladurlad at this parting hour, - For thou shalt find him in thy Mother's Bower. - - 24. - The Car, as Carmala his word obey'd, - Mov'd on, and bore away the Maid, - While from the Golden Throne the Lord of Death - With love benignant, on Ladurlad smil'd, - And gently on his head his blessing laid. - As sweetly as a child, - Whom neither thought disturbs nor care encumbers, - Tir'd with long play, at close of summer day, - Lies down and slumbers, - Even thus as sweet a boon of sleep partaking, - By Yamen blest, Ladurlad sunk to rest. - Blessed that sleep! more blessed was the waking! - For on that night a heavenly morning broke, - The light of heaven was round him when he woke, - And in the Swerga, in Yedillian's Bower, - All whom he lov'd he met, to part no more. - -THE END. - - - -NOTES. - -{141} - - _The Banian Tree._--XIII. p. 4. - -The _Burghut_, or Banian, often measures from twenty-four to thirty feet -in girth. It is distinguished from every other tree hitherto known, by -the very peculiar circumstance of throwing out roots from all its -branches. These, being pendant, and perfectly lax, in time reach the -ground, which they penetrate, and ultimately become substantial props to -the very massy horizontal boughs, which, but for such a support, must -either be stopt in their growth, or give way, from their own weight. -Many of these _quondam_ roots, changing their outward appearance from a -brown rough rind to a regular bark, not unlike that of the beech, -increase to a great diameter. They may be often seen from four to five -feet in circumference, and {142} in a true perpendicular line. An -observer, ignorant of their nature, might think them artificial, and -that they had been placed for the purpose of sustaining the boughs from -which they originated. They proceed from all the branches -indiscriminately, whether near or far removed from the ground. They -appear like new swabs, such as are in use on board ships: however, few -reach sufficiently low to take a hold of the soil, except those of the -lower branches. I have seen some do so from a great height, but they -were thin, and did not promise well. Many of the ramifications pendant -from the higher boughs are seen to turn round the lower branches, but -without any obvious effect on either; possibly, however, they may derive -sustenance, even from that partial mode of communication. The height of -a full-grown Banian may be from sixty to eighty feet; and many of them, -I am fully confident, cover at least two acres. Their leaves are similar -to, but rather larger than those of the laurel. The wood of the trunk is -used only for fuel; it is light and brittle; but the pillars formed by -the roots are valuable, being extremely elastic and light, working with -ease, and possessing great toughness: it resembles a good kind of -ash.--_Oriental Field Sports_, vol. ii. p. 113. - - -{143} - - ----_The Well_ - _Which they, with sacrifice of rural pride,_ - _Have wedded to the Cocoa-Grove beside._--XIII. p. 5. - -It is a general practice, that, when a plantation is made, a well should -be dug at one of its sides. The well and the tope are married; a -ceremony at which all the village attends, and in which often much money -is expended. The well is considered as the husband, as its waters, which -are copiously furnished to the young trees during the first hot season, -are supposed to cherish and impregnate them. Though vanity and -superstition are evidently the basis of these institutions, yet we -cannot help admiring their effects, so beautifully ornamenting a torrid -country, and affording such general convenience.--_Oriental Sports_, p. -10. - - - _Tanks._--XIII. p. 5. - -Some of these tanks are of very great extent, often covering eight or -ten acres; and, besides having steps of masonry, perhaps fifty or sixty -feet in breadth, are faced with brick-work, plastered in the most -substantial manner. The corners are generally ornamented with round or -polygon pavilions of a neat appearance.--_Oriental Sports_, vol. ii. p. -116. - -{144} - -There are two kinds of tanks, which we confound under one common name, -though nothing can be more different. The first is the _Eray_, which is -formed by throwing a mound or bank across a valley or hollow ground, so -that the rain water collects in the upper part of the valley, and is let -out on the lower part by sluices, for the purposes of cultivation. The -other kind is the _Culam_, which is formed by digging out the earth, and -is destined for supplying the inhabitants with water for domestic -purposes. The _Culams_ are very frequently lined on all the four sides -with cut stone, and are the most elegant works of the -natives.--BUCHANAN. - -Where there are no springs or rivers to furnish them with water, as it -is in the northern parts, where there are but two or three springs, they -supply this defect by saving of rain water; which they do by casting up -great banks in convenient places, to stop and contain the rains that -fall, and so save it till they have occasion to let it out into the -fields: They are made rounding, like a C, or half-moon. Every town has -one of these ponds, which, if they can get but filled with water, they -count their corn is as good as in the barn. It was no small work to the -ancient inhabitants to make all these banks, of which there is a great -number, being some two, some three fathoms in height, and in length some -above a mile, some {145} less, not all of a size. They are now grown -over with great trees, and so seem natural hills. When they would use -the water, they cut a gap in one end of the bank, and so draw the water -by little and little, as they have occasion, for the watering their -corn. - -These ponds, in dry weather, dry up quite. If they should dig these -ponds deep, it would not be so convenient for them. It would indeed -contain the water well, but would not so well, nor in such plenty, empty -out itself into their grounds. In these ponds are alligators, which, -when the water is dried up, depart into the woods, and down to the -rivers, and, in the time of rains, come up again into the ponds. They -are but small, nor do use to catch people, nevertheless they stand in -some fear of them. - -The corn they sow in these parts is of that sort that is soonest ripe, -fearing lest their waters should fail. As the water dries out of these -ponds, they make use of them for fields, treading the mud with -buffaloes, and then sowing rice thereon, and frequently casting up water -with scoops on it.--KNOX, p. 9. - - - _The Lotus._--XIII. p. 5. - -The lotus abounds in the numerous lakes and ponds of the province of -Garah; and we had the pleasure of comparing {146} several varieties; -single and full, white, and tinged with deep or with faint tints of red. -To a near view, the simple elegance of the white lotus gains no -accession of beauty from the multiplication of its petals, nor from the -tinge of gaudy hue; but the richest tint is most pleasing, when a lake, -covered with full-blown lotas, is contemplated.--_Journey from Mirzapur -to Nagpur_.--Asiatic Annual Register, 1806. - - - _They built them up a Bower, &c._--XIII. p. 5. - -The materials of which these houses are made are always easy to be -procured, and the structure is so simple, that a spacious, and by no -means uncomfortable dwelling, suited to the climate, may be erected in -one day. Our habitation, consisting of three small rooms, and a hall -open to the north, in little more than four hours was in readiness for -our reception; fifty or sixty labourers completed it in that time, and -on emergency could perform the work in much less. Bamboos, grass for -thatching, and the ground rattan, are all the materials requisite: not a -nail is used in the whole edifice: A row of strong bamboos, from eight -to ten feet high, are fixed firm in the ground, which describe the -outline, and are the supporters of the building: smaller bamboos are -then tied horizontally, by strips of the ground rattan, to these upright -posts: {147} The walls, composed of bamboo mats, are fastened to the -sides with similar ligatures: bamboo rafters are quickly raised, and a -roof formed, over which thatch is spread in regular layers, and bound to -the roof by filaments of rattan. A floor of bamboo grating is next laid -in the inside, elevated two or three feet above the ground: this grating -is supported on bamboos, and covered with mats and carpets. Thus ends -the process, which is not more simple than effectual. When the workmen -take pains, a house of this sort is proof against very inclement -weather. We experienced, during our stay at Meeday, a severe storm of -wind and rain, but no water penetrated, nor thatch escaped: and if the -tempest should blow down the house, the inhabitants would run no risk of -having, their brains knocked out, or their bones broken; the fall of the -whole fabric would not crush a lady's lap-dog.--SYMES's _Embassy to -Ava_. - - - _Jungle-grass._--XIII. p. 6. - -In this district the long grass called jungle is more prevalent than I -ever yet noticed. It rises to the height of seven or eight feet, and is -topped with a beautiful white down, resembling a swan's feather. It is -the mantle with which nature here covers all the uncultivated ground, -and at once veils the indolence of the people and the nakedness {148} of -their land. It has a fine shewy appearance, as it undulates in the wind, -like the waves of the sea. Nothing but the want of greater variety to -its colour prevents it from being one of the finest and most beautiful -objects in that rich store of productions with which nature -spontaneously supplies the improvident natives.--TENNANT. - - - _In such libations, pour'd in open glades,_ - _Beside clear streams and solitary shades,_ - _The Spirits of the virtuous dead delight._--XIII. p. 6. - -The Hindoos are enjoined by the _Veds_ to offer a cake, which is called -_Peenda_, to the ghosts of their ancestors, as far back as the third -generation. This ceremony is performed on the day of the new moon in -every month. The offering of water is in like manner commanded to be -performed daily; and this ceremony is called _Tarpan_, to satisfy, to -appease. The souls of such men as have left children to continue their -generation, are supposed to be transported, immediately upon quitting -their bodies, into a certain region called the _Peetree Log_, where they -may continue in proportion to their former virtues, provided these -ceremonies be not neglected; otherwise they are precipitated into -_Nark_, and doomed to be born again in the bodies of unclean beasts; and -until, by repeated {149} regenerations, all their sins are done away, -and they attain such a degree of perfection as will entitle them to what -is called _Mooktee_, eternal salvation, by which is understood a release -from future transmigration, and an absorption in the nature of the -godhead, who is called Brahm.--WILKINS. _Note to the Bhagvat Geeta_. - -The divine names are always pleased with an oblation in empty glades, -naturally clean, on the banks of rivers, and in solitary spots.--_Inst. -of Menu_. - - - _Voomdavee._--XIII. p. 7. - -This wife of Veeshnoo is the Goddess of the Earth and of Patience. No -direct adoration is paid her; but she is held to be a silent and -attentive spectator of all that passes in the world.--KINDERSLEY. - - - _Tassel Grass._--XIII. p. 8. - -The _Surput_, or tassel-grass, which is much the same as the -guinea-grass, grows to the height of twelve or fourteen feet. Its stem -becomes so thick as to resemble in some measure a reed. It is very -strong, and grows very luxuriantly: it is even used as a fence against -cattle; for which purpose it is often planted on banks, excavated from -ditches, to enclose fields of corn, &c. It grows wild in all the -uncultivated parts of India, but especially in the {150} lower -provinces, in which it occupies immense tracts; sometimes mixing with, -and rising above coppices; affording an asylum for elephants, -rhinoceroses, tygers, &c. It frequently is laid by high winds, of which -breeding sows fail not to take advantage, by forming their nests, and -concealing their young under the prostrate grass.--_Oriental Sports_, -vol. i. p. 32. - - - _Lo, from his trunk, upturn'd, aloft he flings_ - _The grateful shower, and now,_ - _Plucking the broad-leav'd bough_ - _Of yonder plane,--he moves it to and fro._--XIII. p. 9. - -Nature has provided the elephant with means to cool its heated surface, -by enabling it to draw from its throat, by the aid of its trunk, a -copious supply of saliva, which the animal spurts with force very -frequently all over its skin. It also sucks up dust, and blows it over -its back and sides, to keep off the flies, and may often be seen fanning -itself with a large bough, which it uses with great ease and -dexterity.--_Oriental Sports_, vol. i. p. 100. - - - _Till his strong temples, bathed with sudden dews,_ - _Their fragrance of delight and love diffuse._--XIII p. 9. - -The Hindoo poets frequently allude to the fragrant juice which oozes, at -certain seasons, from small ducts {151} in the temples of the male -elephant, and is useful in relieving him from the redundant moisture, -with which he is then oppressed; and they even describe the bees as -allured by the scent, and mistaking it for that of the sweetest flowers. -When Crishna visited Sanc'ha-dwip, and had destroyed the demon who -infested that delightful country, he passed along the bank of a river, -and was charmed with a delicious odour, which its waters diffused in -their course: He was eager to view the source of so fragrant a stream, -but was informed by the natives that it flowed from the temples of an -elephant, immensely large, milk-white, and beautifully formed; that he -governed a numerous race of elephants; and that the odoriferous fluid -which exuded from his temples in the season of love had formed the -river; that the Devas, or inferior gods, and the Apsarases, or nymphs, -bathed and sported in its waters, impassioned and intoxicated with the -liquid perfume.--WILFORD. _Asiatic Researches_. - - - _The antic monkeys, whose wild gambols late_ - _Shook the whole wood._--XIII. p. 10. - -They are so numerous on the island of Bulama, says Captain Beaver in his -excellent book, that I have seen, on a calm evening, when there was not -an air sufficiently strong to agitate a leaf, the whole surrounding wood -{152} in as much motion, from their playful gambols among its branches, -as if it had blown a strong wind. - - - _Not that in emulous skill that sweetest bird_ - _Her rival strain would try._--XIII. p. 10. - -I have been assured, by a credible eye-witness, that two wild antelopes -used often to come from their woods to the place where a more savage -beast, Sirajuddaulah, entertained himself with concerts, and that they -listened to the strains with an appearance of pleasure, till the -monster, in whose soul there was no music, shot one of them, to display -his archery. A learned native of this country told me that he had -frequently seen the most venomous and malignant snakes leave their -holes, upon hearing tunes on a flute, which, as he supposed, gave them -peculiar delight. An intelligent Persian, who repeated his story again -and again, and permitted me to write it down from his lips, declared, he -had more than once been present when a celebrated lutanist, _Mirza -Mohammed_, surnamed _Bulbul_, was playing to a large company, in a grove -near _Shiraz_, where he distinctly saw the nightingales trying to vie -with the musician; sometimes warbling on the trees, sometimes fluttering -from branch to branch, as if they wished to approach the instrument -whence the melody proceeded, and at length dropping on {153} the ground, -in a kind of ecstacy, from which they were soon raised, he assured me, -by a change of the mode. I hardly know, says Sir William Jones, how to -disbelieve the testimony of men who had no system of their own to -support, and could have no interest in deceiving me.--_Asiatic -Researches_. - - - _No idle ornaments deface_ - _Her natural grace._--XIII. p. 10. - -The Hindoo Wife, in Sir William Jones's poem, describes her own -toilet-tasks:-- - - Nor were my night thoughts, I confess, - Free from solicitude for dress; - How best to bind my flowing hair - With art, yet with an artless air,-- - My hair, like musk in scent and hue, - Oh! blacker far, and sweeter too! - In what nice braid, or glossy curl, - To fix a diamond or a pearl, - And where to smooth the love-spread toils - With nard or jasmin's fragrant oils; - How to adjust the golden _Teic_,[30] - And most adorn my forehead sleek; - {154} - What _Condals_[31] should emblaze my ears, - Like _Seita's_[32] waves, or _Seita's_[33] tears; - How elegantly to dispose - Bright circlets for my well-form'd nose; - With strings of rubies how to deck, - Or emerald rows, my stately neck; - While some that ebon tower embraced, - Some pendent sought my slender waist; - How next my purfled veil to chuse - From silken stores of varied hues, - Which would attract the roving view, - Pink, violet, purple, orange, blue; - The loveliest mantle to select, - Or unembellished or bedeck'd; - And how my twisted scarf to place - With most inimitable grace, - (Too thin its warp, too fine its woof, - For eyes of males not beauty-proof;) - What skirts the mantle best would suit, - Ornate, with stars, or tissued fruit, - {155} - The flower-embroidered or the plain, - With silver or with golden vein; - The _Chury_[34] bright, which gayly shows - Fair objects aptly to compose; - How each smooth arm, and each soft wrist, - By richest _Cosees_[35] might be kiss'd, - While some my taper ankles round, - With sunny radiance tinged the ground. - -See how he kisses the lip of my rival, and imprints on her forehead an -ornament of pure musk, black as the young antelope on the lunar orb! -Now, like the husband of _Reti_, he fixes white blossoms on her dark -locks, where they gleam like flashes of lightning among the curled -clouds. On her breasts, like two firmaments, he places a string of gems -like a radiant constellation; he binds on her arms, graceful as the -stalks of the water-lily, and adorned with hands glowing like the petals -of its flower, a bracelet of sapphires, which resemble a cluster of -bees. Ah! see how he ties round her waist a rich girdle illumined with -golden bells, which seem to laugh as they tinkle, at the inferior -brightness of the leafy garlands which lovers hang on their bowers, to -propitiate the god of {156} desire. He places her soft foot, as he -reclines by her side, on his ardent bosom, and stains it with the ruddy -hue of Yavaca.--_Songs of Jayadeva_. - - - _Sandal-streak._--XIII. p. 10. - -The Hindoos, especially after bathing, paint their faces with ochres and -sandal-wood ground very fine into a pulp. - -The custom is principally confined to the male sex, though the women -occasionally wear a round spot, either of sandal, which is of a light -dun colour, or of _singuiff_, that is, a preparation of vermilion, -between the eye-brows, and a stripe of the same running up the front of -the head, in the furrow made according to the general practice of -dividing all the frontal hair equally to the right and left, where it is -rendered smooth, and glazed by a thick mucilage, made by steeping -lintseed for a while in water. When dry, the hair is all firmly matted -together, and will retain its form for many days together.--_Oriental -Sports_, vol. i. p. 271. - - - _Nor arm, nor ankle-ring._--XIII. p. 10. - -Glass rings are universally worn by the women of the Decan, as an -ornament on the wrists; and their applying closely to the arm is -considered as a mark of delicacy {157} and beauty, for they must of -course be past over the hand. In doing this a girl seldom escapes -without drawing blood, and rubbing part of the skin from her hand; and -as every well-dressed girl has a number of rings on each arm, and as -these are frequently breaking, the poor creatures suffer much from their -love of admiration.--BUCHANAN. - - - _The dear retreat._--XIII. p. 11. - -There is a beautiful passage in Statius, which may be quoted here: It is -in that poet's best manner: - - Qualis vicino volucris jam sedula partu, - Jamque timens quâ fronde domum suspendat inanem, - Providet hinc ventos, hinc anxia cogitat angues, - Hinc homines; tandem dubiæ placet umbra, novisque - Vix stetit in ramis, et protinus arbor amatur. - _Achil_. ii. 212. - - - _Jaga-Naut._--XIV. p. 14. - -This temple is to the Hindoos what Mecca is to the Mahommedans. It is -resorted to by pilgrims from every quarter of India. It is the chief -seat of Brahminical power, and a strong-hold of their superstition. At -the {158} annual festival of the Butt Jattra, seven hundred thousand -persons (as has been computed by the Pundits in College) assemble at -this place. The number of deaths in a single year, caused by voluntary -devotement, by imprisonment for non-payment of the demands of the -Brahmins, or by the scarcity of provisions for such a multitude, is -incredible. The precincts of the place are covered with -bones.--CLAUDIUS BUCHANAN. - -Many thousands of people are employed in carrying water from Hurdwar to -Juggernat, for the uses of that temple. It is there supposed to be -peculiarly holy, as it issues from what is called the Cow's Mouth. This -superstitious notion is the cause of as much lost labour as would long -since have converted the largest province of Asia into a garden. The -numbers thus employed are immense; they travel with two flasks of the -water slung over the shoulder by means of an elastic piece of bamboo. -The same quantity which employs, perhaps, fifteen thousand persons, -might easily be carried down the Ganges in a few boats annually. Princes -and families of distinction have this water carried to them in all parts -of Hindostan; it is drank at feasts, as well as upon religious -occasions.--TENNANT. - -A small river near Kinouge is held by some as even more efficacious in -washing away moral defilement than {159} the Ganges itself. Dr Tennant -says, that a person in Ceylon drinks daily of this water, though at the -distance of, perhaps, three thousand miles, and at the expense of five -thousand rupees per month! - -No distinction of casts is made at this temple, but all, like a nation -descended from one common stock, eat, drink, and make merry -together.--STAVORINUS. - - - _The seven-headed Idol._--XIV. p. 15. - -The idol of _Jaggenat_ is in shape like a serpent, with seven heads; and -on the cheeks of each head it hath the form of a wing upon each cheek, -which wings open and shut and flap as it is carried in a stately -chariot, and the idol in the midst of it; and one of the _moguls_ -sitting behind it in the chariot, upon a convenient place, with a -canopy, to keep the sun from injuring of it. - -When I, with horror, beheld these strange things, I called to mind the -eighteenth chapter of the _Revelations_, and the first verse, and -likewise the sixteenth and seventeenth verses of the said chapter, in -which places there is a beast, and such idolatrous worship, mentioned; -and those sayings in that text are herein truly accomplished in the -sixteenth verse; for the _Bramins_ are all marked in the forehead, and -likewise all that come to worship the {160} idol are marked also in -their foreheads.--BRUTON. _Churchill's Collection_, - - - _The Chariot of the God._--XIV. p. 15. - -The size of the chariot is not exaggerated. Speaking of other such, -Niecamp says, _Currus tam horrendæ magnitudinis sunt, ut vel mille -homines uni trahendo vix sufficiant._--i. 10. § 18. - -They have built a great chariot, that goeth on sixteen wheels of a side, -and every wheel is five feet in height, and the chariot itself is about -thirty feet high. In this chariot, on their great festival days, at -night, they place their wicked god _Jaggarnat_; and all the _Bramins_, -being in number nine thousand, then attend this great idol, besides of -_ashmen_ and _fackeires_ some thousands, or more than a good many. - -The chariot is most richly adorned with most rich and costly ornaments; -and the aforesaid wheels are placed very complete in a round circle, so -artificially, that every wheel doth its proper office without any -impediment; for the chariot is aloft, and in the centre betwixt the -wheels: they have also more than two thousand lights with them: And this -chariot, with the idol, is also drawn with the greatest and best men of -the town; and they are so eager and greedy to draw it, that whosoever, -{161} by shouldering, crowding, shoving, heaving, thrusting, or any -violent way, can but come to lay a hand upon the ropes, they think -themselves blessed and happy: and, when it is going along the city, -there are many that will offer themselves as a sacrifice to this idol, -and desperately lie down on the ground, that the chariot-wheels may run -over them, whereby they are killed outright; some get broken arms, some -broken legs; so that many of them are so destroyed, and by this means -they think to merit heaven.--BRUTON. _Churchill's Collection_. - -They sometimes lie down in the track of this machine a few hours before -its arrival, and, taking a soporiferous draught, hope to meet death -asleep.--CLAUDIUS BUCHANAN. - - - _A harlot-band._--XIV. p. 19. - -There are in India common women, called Wives of the Idol. When a woman -has made a vow to obtain children, if she brings into the world a -beautiful daughter, she carries her to _Bod_, so their idol is called, -with whom she leaves her. This girl, when she is arrived at a proper -age, takes an apartment in the public place, hangs a curtain before the -door, and waits for those who are passing, as well Indians as those of -other sects among whom this debauchery is permitted. She prostitutes -{162} herself for a certain price, and all that she can thus acquire she -carries to the priest of the idol, that he may apply it to the service -of the temple. Let us, says the Mohammedan relater, bless the almighty -and glorious God, that he has chosen us, to exempt us from all the -crimes into which men are led by their unbelief.--_Anciennes Relations_. - -Incited, unquestionably, says Mr. Maurice, by the hieroglyphic emblem of -vice so conspicuously elevated, and so strikingly painted in the temples -of Mahadeo, the priests of that deity industriously selected the most -beautiful females that could be found, and, in their tenderest years, -with great pomp and solemnity, consecrated them (as it is impiously -called) to the service of the presiding divinity of the pagoda. They -were trained up in every art to delude and to delight; and, to the -fascination of external beauty, their artful betrayers added the -attractions arising from mental accomplishments. Thus was an invariable -rule of the Hindoos, _that women have no concern with literature_, -dispensed with upon this infamous occasion. The moment these hapless -victims reached maturity, they fell victims to the lust of the Brahmins. -They were early taught to practise the most alluring blandishments, to -roll the expressive eye of wanton pleasure, and to invite to criminal -indulgence, by {163} stealing upon the beholder the tender look of -voluptuous languishing. They were instructed to mould their elegant and -airy forms into the most enticing attitudes and the most lascivious -gestures, while the rapid and graceful motion of their feet, adorned -with golden bells, and glittering with jewels, kept unison with the -exquisite melody of their voices. Every pagoda has a band of these young -syrens, whose business, on great festivals, is to dance in public before -the idol, to sing hymns in his honour, and in private to enrich the -treasury of that pagoda with the wages of prostitution. These women are -not, however, regarded in a dishonourable light; they are considered as -_wedded to the idol_, and they partake of the veneration paid to him. -They are forbidden even to desert the pagoda where they are educated, -and are never permitted to marry; but the offspring, if any, of their -criminal embraces are considered as sacred to the idol: the boys are -taught to play on the sacred instruments used at the festivals, and the -daughters are devoted to the abandoned occupations of their -mothers.--_Indian Antiquities_. - -These impostors take a young maid, of the fairest they can meet with, to -be the bride, (as they speak and bear the besotted people in hand) of -_Jagannat_, and they leave her all night in the temple (whither they -{164} have carried her) with the idol, making her believe that -_Jagannat_ himself will come and embrace her, and appointing her to ask -him, whether it will be a fruitful year, what kind of processions, -feasts, prayers, and alms he demands to be made for it. In the mean time -one of these lustful priests enters at night by a little back-door into -the temple, deflowereth this young maid, and maketh her believe any -thing he pleaseth; and the next day, being transported from this temple -into another with the same magnificence, she was carried before upon the -chariot of triumph, on the side of _Jagannat_ her bridegroom: these -_Brahmans_ make her say aloud, before all the people, whatsoever she had -been taught of these cheats, as if she had learnt it from the very mouth -of _Jagannat._--BERNIER. - - - _Baly._--XV. p. 26. - -The fifth incarnation was in a Bramin dwarf, under the name of Vamen; it -was wrought to restrain the pride of the giant Baly. The latter, after -having conquered the gods, expelled them from Sorgon; he was generous, -true to his word, compassionate, and charitable. Vichenou, under the -form of a very little Bramin, presented himself before him while he was -sacrificing, and asked him for three paces of land to build a hut. Baly -ridiculed the {165} apparent imbecility of the dwarf, in telling him, -that he ought not to limit his demand to a bequest so trifling; that his -generosity could bestow a much larger donation of land. Vamen answered, -That, being of so small a stature, what he asked was more than -sufficient. The prince immediately granted his request, and, to ratify -his donation, poured water into his right hand; which was no sooner done -than the dwarf grew so prodigiously, that his body filled the universe! -He measured the earth with one pace, and the heavens with another, and -then summoned Baly to give him his word for the third. The prince then -recognised Vichenou, adored him, and presented his head to him; but the -god, satisfied with his submission, sent him to govern the Padalon, and -permitted him to return every year to the earth, the day of the full -moon, in the month of November.--SONNERAT's _Voyages_, vol. i. p. 24. - - - _The sacred cord._--XV. p. 30. - -The Brahmans who officiate at the temples generally go with their heads -uncovered, and the upper part of the body naked. The _Zennar_, or sacred -string, is hung round the body from the left shoulder; a piece of white -cotton cloth is wrapped round the loins, which descends under the knee, -but lower on the left side than on the {166} other; and in cold weather -they sometimes cover their bodies with a shawl, and their heads with a -red cap.--The _Zennar_ is made of a particular kind of perennial cotton, -called _Verma_: it is composed of a certain number of threads of a fixed -length: the _Zennar_ worn by the Khatries has fewer threads than that -worn by the Brahmans, and that worn by the Bhyse fewer than that worn by -the Khatries; but those of the Sodra cast are excluded from this -distinction, none of them being permitted to wear it.--CRAUFURD. - - - _The City of Baly._--XV. p. 31. - - Ruins of Malâbalipûr, the City of the great Baly. - -A rock, or rather hill of stone, is that which first engrosses the -attention on approaching the place; for as it rises abruptly out of a -level plain of great extent, consists chiefly of one single stone, and -is situated very near to the sea-beach, it is such a kind of object as -an inquisitive traveller would naturally turn aside to examine. Its -shape is also singular and romantic, and, from a distant view, has an -appearance like some antique and lofty edifice. On coming near to the -foot of the rock from the north, works of imagery and sculpture crowd so -thick upon the eye, as might seem to favour the idea of {167} a -petrified town, like those that have been fabled in different parts of -the world, by too credulous travellers. Proceeding on by the foot of the -hill, on the side facing the sea, there is a pagoda rising out of the -ground, of one solid stone, about sixteen or eighteen feet high, which -seems to have been cut upon the spot, out of a detached rock, that has -been found of a proper size for that purpose. The top is arched, and the -style of architecture according to which it is formed different from any -now used in those parts. A little further on, there appears, upon a huge -surface of stone, that juts out a little from the side of the hill, a -numerous group of human figures, in bass-relief, considerably larger -than life, representing the most remarkable persons whose actions are -celebrated in the Nahâbharit, each of them in an attitude, or with -weapons, or other insignia, expressive of his character, or of some one -of his most famous exploits. All these figures are doubtless much less -distinct than they were at first; for upon comparing these and the rest -of the sculptures that are exposed to the sea-air, with others at the -same place, whose situation has afforded them protection from that -element, the difference is striking; the former being every where much -defaced, while the others are fresh as recently finished. An excavation -in another part of the east side of the great rock appears {168} to have -been made on the same plan, and for the same purpose, that Chowltries -are usually built in that country, that is to say, for the accommodation -of travellers. The rock is hollowed out to the size of a spacious room, -and two or three rows of pillars are left, as a seeming support to the -mountainous mass of stone which forms the roof. - -The ascent of the hill on the north is, from its natural shape, gradual -and easy at first, and is in other parts rendered more so, by very -excellent steps, cut out in several places where the communication would -be difficult or impracticable without them. A winding stair of this sort -leads to a kind of temple cut out of the solid rock, with some figures -of idols in high relief upon the walls, very well finished. From this -temple there are flights of steps, that seem to have led to some edifice -formerly standing upon the hill; nor does it seem absurd to suppose that -this may have been a palace, to which this temple may have appertained; -for, besides the small detached range of stairs that are here and there -cut in the rock, and seem as if they had once led to different parts of -one great building, there appear in many places small water channels cut -also in the rock, as if for drains to an house; and the whole top of the -hill is strewed with small round pieces of brick, which may be supposed, -{169} from their appearance, to have been worn down to their present -form during the lapse of many ages. On a plain surface of the rock, -which may once have served as the floor of some apartment, there is a -platform of stone, about 8 or 9 feet long, by 3 or 4 wide, in a -situation rather elevated, with two or three steps leading up to it, -perfectly resembling a couch or bed, and a lion very well executed at -the upper end of it, by way of pillow; the whole of one piece, being -part of the hill itself. This the Bramins, inhabitants of the place, -call the bed of Dhermarâjah, or Judishter, the eldest of the five -brothers, whose exploits are the leading subject in the Mahabhârit. And -at a considerable distance from this, at such a distance, indeed, as the -apartments of the women might be supposed to be from that of the men, is -a bath, excavated also from the rock, with steps in the inside, which -the Bramins call the Bath of Dropedy, the wife of Judishter and his -brothers. How much credit is due to this tradition, and whether this -stone couch may not have been anciently used as a kind of throne, rather -than a bed, is matter for future enquiry. A circumstance, however, which -may seem to favour this idea is, that a throne, in the Shanscrit and -other Hindoo languages, is called _Singhâsen_, which is compounded of -_Sing_, a lion, and _ásen_, a seat. - -{170} - -But though these works may be deemed stupendous, they are surpassed by -others that are to be seen at the distance of about a mile, or mile and -half, to the south of the hill. They consist of two pagodas, of about -30 feet long, by 20 feet wide, and about as many in height, cut out of -the solid rock, and each consisting originally of one single stone. -Their form is different from the style of architecture according to -which idol temples are now built in that country. These sculptures -approach nearer to the Gothic taste, being surmounted by arched roofs, -or domes, not semicircular, but composed of two segments of circles -meeting in a point at top. Near these also stand an elephant full as big -as life, and a lion much larger than the natural size, both hewn also -out of one stone. - -The great rock is about 50 or 100 yards from the sea; but close to the -sea are the remains of a pagoda built of brick, and dedicated to Sîb, -the greatest part of which has evidently been swallowed up by that -element; for the door of the innermost apartment, in which the idol is -placed, and before which there are always two or three spacious courts -surrounded with walls, is now washed by the waves, and the pillar used -to discover the meridian at the time of founding the pagoda is seen -standing at some distance in the sea. In the neighbourhood of {171} this -building there are some detached rocks, washed also by the waves, on -which there appear sculptures, though now much worn and defaced: And the -natives of the place declared to the writer of this account, that the -more aged people among them remembered to have seen the tops of several -pagodas far out in the sea, which, being covered with copper, (probably -gilt,) were particularly visible at sun-rise, as their shining surface -used then to reflect the sun's rays, but that now that effect was no -longer produced, as the copper had since become incrusted with mould and -verdigrease.--CHAMBERS. _Asiatic Researches_. - - - _Thou hast been called, O Sleep! the friend of Woe,_ - _But 'tis the happy who have call'd thee so._--XV. p. 36. - -Daniel has a beautiful passage concerning Richard II.--sufficiently -resembling this part of the poem to be inserted here: - - To _Flint_, from thence, unto a restless bed, - That miserable night he comes convey'd; - Poorly provided, poorly followed, - Uncourted, unrespected, unobey'd; - Where, if uncertain Sleep but hovered - Over the drooping cares that heavy weigh'd, - {172} - Millions of figures Fantasy presents - Unto that sorrow wakened grief augments. - - His new misfortune makes deluded Sleep - Say 'twas not so:--false dreams the truth deny: - Wherewith he starts; feels waking cares do creep - Upon his soul, and gives his dream the lie, - Then sleeps again:--and then again as deep - Deceits of darkness mock his misery. - _Civil War_, Book II. st. 52, 53. - - - _The Aullay._--XVI. p. 40. - -This monster of Hindoo imagination is a horse with the trunk of an -elephant, but bearing about the same proportion to the elephant in size, -that the elephant itself does to a common sheep. In one of the prints to -Mr. Kindersley's "Specimens of Hindoo Literature," an aullay is -represented taking up an elephant with his trunk. - - - _----Did then the Ocean wage_ - _His war for love and envy, not in rage,_ - _O thou fair City, that he spares thee thus?_--XVI. p. 40. - -Malecheren, (which is probably another name for Baly), in an excursion -which he made one day alone, and in {173} disguise, came to a garden in -the environs of his city Mahâbalipoor, where was a fountain so -inviting, that two celestial nymphs had come down to bathe there. The -Rajah became enamoured of one of them, who condescended to allow of his -attachment to her; and she and her sister nymph used thenceforward to -have frequent interviews with him in that garden. On one of those -occasions they brought with them a male inhabitant of the heavenly -regions, to whom they introduced the Rajah; and between him and -Malecheren a strict friendship ensued; in consequence of which he -agreed, at the Rajah's earnest request, to carry him in disguise to see -the court of the divine Inder,--a favour never before granted to any -mortal. The Rajah returned from thence with new ideas of splendour and -magnificence, which he immediately adopted in regulating his court and -his retinue, and in beautifying his seat of government. By this means -Mahâbalipoor became soon celebrated beyond all the cities of the earth; -and on account of its magnificence having been brought to the gods -assembled at the court of Inder, their jealousy was so much excited at -it, that they sent orders to the God of the Sea to let loose his -billows, and overflow a place which impiously pretended to vie in -splendour with their celestial mansions. This {174} command he obeyed, -and the city was at once overflowed by that furious element, nor has it -ever since been able to rear its head.--CHAMBERS. _Asiat. Res._ - - - _Round those strange waters they repair._--XVI. p. 44. - -In the Bahia dos Artifices, which is between the river Jagoarive and S. -Miguel, there are many springs of fresh water, which may be seen at low -tide, and these springs are frequented by fish and by the sea-cow, which -they say comes to drink there.--_Noticias do Brazil_. MSS. i. 8. - -The inhabitants of the Feroe Islands seek for cod in places where there -is a fresh-water spring at the bottom.--LANDT. - - - _The Sheckra._--XVII. p. 65. - -This weapon, which is often to be seen in one of the wheel-spoke hands -of a Hindoo god, resembles a quoit: the external edge is sharp: it is -held in the middle, and, being whirled along, cuts wherever it strikes. - - - _The writing which, at thy nativity,_ - _All-knowing Nature wrought upon thy brain._ - --XVIII. p. 69. - -Brahma is considered as the immediate creator of all things, and -particularly as the disposer of each person's {175} fate, which he -inscribes within the skull of every created being, and which the gods -themselves cannot avert.--KINDERSLEY, p. 21. NIECAMP. vol. i. p. 10. -§ 7. - -It is by the sutures of the skull that these lines of destiny are -formed. See also a note to Thalaba, (vol. i. p. 260, second edition,) -upon a like superstition of the Mahommedans. - -_Quand on leur reproche quclque vice, ou qu'on les reprend d'une -mauvaise action, ils répondent froidement, que cela est écrit sur leur -tête, et qu'ils n'ont pu faire autrement. Si vous paroissez étonné de -ce langage nouveau, et que vous demandiez à voir oú cela est ecrit, -ils vous montrent les diverses jointures du crâne de leur tête, -prétendant que les sutures même sont les caracteres de cette écriture -mysterieuse. Si vous les pressez de dechiffrer ces caracteres, et de -vous faire connoitre ce qu'ils signifient, ils avouent qu'ils ne le -sçavent pas. Mais puisque vous ne sçavez pas lire cette ecriture, -disois-je quelquefois à ces gens entêtés, qui est-ce donc qui vous la -lit? qui estce qui vous en explique le sens, et qui vous fait connoitre -ce qu'elle contient? D'ailleurs ces pretendus caracteres etant les memes -sur la tête de tous les hommes, d' oú vient qu'ils agissent si -différemment, et qu'ils sont si contraires les uns aux autres dans -leurs vues, dans leurs desseins, et dans leurs projets?_ - -{176} - -_Les Brames m'ecoutoient de sang froid, et sans s'inguieter ni des -contradictions oú ils tomboient, ni des consequences ridicules qu'ils -etoient obligés d'avouer, Enfin, lorsgu'ils se sentoient vivement -presses, toute leur ressource éloit de se retirer sans rien dire._--P. -MAUDUIT. Lettres Edifiantes, t. x. p. 248. - - - _The Seven Earths._--XIX. p. 77. - -The seas which surround these earths are, 1. of salt water, inclosing -our inmost earth; 2. of fresh water; 3. of _tyre_, curdled milk; 4. of -_ghee_, clarified butter; 5. of _cauloo_, a liquor drawn from the -_pullum_ tree; 6. of liquid sugar; 7. of milk. The whole system is -inclosed in one broad circumference of pure gold, beyond which reigns -impenetrable darkness.--KINDERSLEY. - -I know not whether the following fable was invented to account for the -saltness of our sea: - -"Agastya is recorded to have been very low in stature; and one day, -previously to the rectifying the too oblique posture of the earth, -walking with Veeshnu on the shore of the ocean, the insolent Deep asked -the God, who that dwarf was strutting by his side? Veeshnu replied, it -was the patriarch Agastya going to restore the earth to its true -balance. The sea, in utter contempt of his pigmy, form, dashed him with -his spray as he passed along; on, which the sage, greatly incensed at -the designed affront, {177} scooped up some of the water in the hollow -of his hand, and drank it off: he again and again repeated the draught, -nor desisted till he had drained the bed of the ocean of the entire -volume of its waters. Alarmed at this effect of his holy indignation, -and dreading an universal drought, the Devatas made intercession with -Agastya to relent from his anger, and again restore an element so -necessary to the existence of nature, both animate and inanimate. -Agastya, pacified, granted their request, and discharged the imbibed -fluid in a way becoming the histories of a gross physical people to -relate, but by no means proper for this page; away, however, that -evinced his sovereign power, while it marked his ineffable contempt for -the vain fury of an element, contending with a being armed with the -delegated power of the Creator of all things. After this miracle, the -earth being, by the same power, restored to its just balance, Agastya -and Veeshnu separated: when the latter, to prevent any similar accident -occurring, commanded the _great serpent_ (that is, of the sphere) to -wind its enormous folds round the seven continents, of which, according -to Sanscreet geography, the earth consists, and appointed, as perpetual -guardians, to watch over and protect it, the eight powerful genii, so -renowned in the Hindoo system of mythology, as presiding over the eight -points of the world."--MAURICE. - -{178} - -The Pauranics (said Ramachandra to Sir William Jones) will tell you that -our earth is a plane figure studded with eight mountains, and surrounded -by seven seas of milk, nectar, and other fluids; that the part which we -inhabit is one of seven islands, to which eleven smaller isles are -subordinate; that a god, riding on a huge elephant, guards each of the -eight regions; and that a mountain of gold rises and gleams in the -centre.--_Asiatic Researches_. - -"Eight original mountains and seven seas, BRAHMA, INDRA, the SUN, -and RUDRA, _these are permanent;_ not thou, not I, not this or that -people. Wherefore then should anxiety be raised in our minds?"--_Asiatic -Res_. - - - _Mount Calasay._--XIX. p. 77. - -The residence of _Ixoru_ is upon the silver mount _Calaja_, to the south -of the famous mountain _Mahameru_, being a most delicious place, planted -with all sorts of trees, that bear fruit all the year round. The roses -and other flowers send forth a most odoriferous scent; and the pond at -the foot of the mount is inclosed with pleasant walks of trees, that -afford an agreeable shade, whilst the peacocks and divers other birds -entertain the ear with their harmonious noise, as the beautiful women do -the eyes. The circumjacent woods are inhabited by a certain people {179} -called _Munis_, or _Rixis_, who, avoiding the conversation of others, -spend their time in offering daily sacrifices to their god. - -It is observable, that though these pagans are generally black -themselves, they do represent these _Rixis_ to be of a fair complexion, -with long white beards, and long garments hanging cross-ways, from about -the neck down over the breast. They are in such high esteem among them, -they believe that whom they bless are blessed, and whom they curse are -cursed. - -Within the mountain lives another generation, called _Jexaquinnera_ and -_Quendra_, who are free from all trouble, spend their days in continual -contemplations, praises, and prayers to God. Round about the mountain -stand seven ladders, by which you ascend to a spacious plain, in the -middle whereof is a bell of silver, and a square table, surrounded with -nine precious stones, of divers colours. Upon this table lies a silver -rose, called _Tamora Pua_, which contains two women as bright and fair -as a pearl: one is called _Brigasiri_, i. e. _the Lady of the Mouth;_ -the other _Tarasiri_, i.e. _the Lady of the Tongue_,--because they -praise God with the mouth and tongue. In the centre of this rose is the -_triangle_ of _Quivelinga_, which they say is the permanent residence of -God.--BALDÆUS. - -{180} - - _O All-containing Mind,_ - _Thou who art every where!_--XIX. p. 80. - -"Even I was even at first, not any other thing; that which exists, -unperceived, supreme: afterwards I am that which is; and he who must -remain, am I. - -"Except the First Cause, whatever may appear, and may not appear, in the -mind, know that to be the mind's _Máyá_, or _delusion_, as light, as -darkness. - -"As the great elements are in various beings, entering, yet not -entering, (that is, pervading, not destroying,) thus am I in them, yet -not in them. - -"Even thus far may inquiry be made by him who seeks to know the -principle of mind in union and separation, which must be _everywhere, -always_."--_Asiatic Researches_. Sir W. JONES, _from the Bhagavat_. - -I am the creation and the dissolution of the whole universe. There is -not any thing greater than I, and all things hang on me, even as -precious gems upon a string. I am moisture in the water, light in the -sun and moon, invocation in the _Veds_, sound in the firmament, human -nature in mankind, sweet-smelling savour in the earth, glory in the -source of light: In all things I am life; and I am zeal in the zealous: -and know, O Arjoon! that I am the eternal seed of all nature. I am the -understanding {181} of the wise, the glory of the proud, the strength of -the strong, free from lust and anger; and in animals I am desire -regulated by moral fitness.--KREESHNA, _in the Bhagavat-Geeta_. - - - _Heart cannot think, nor tongue declare,_ - _Nor eyes of angel bear_ - _That Glory, unimaginably bright._--XIX. p. 81. - -Being now in the splendorous lustre of the divine bliss and glory, I -there saw in spirit the choir of the holy angels, the choir of the -prophets and apostles, who, with heavenly tongues and music, sing and -play around the throne of God; yet not in just such corporeal forms or -shapes as are those we _now_ bear and walk about in; no, but in shapes -all spiritual: the holy angels in the shape of a multitude of flames of -fire, the souls of believers in the shape of a multitude of glittering -or luminous sparkles; God's throne in the shape, or under the appearance -of a great splendour.--HANS ENGELBRECHT. - -Something analogous to this unendurable presence of Seeva is found amid -the nonsense of Joanna Southcott. Apollyon is there made to say of the -Lord, "thou knowest it is written, he is a consuming fire, and who can -dwell in everlasting burnings? who could abide in devouring flames? Our -backs are not brass, nor our sinews {182} iron, to dwell with God in -heaven."--_Dispute between the Woman and the Powers of Darkness_. - - - _The Sun himself had seem'd_ - _A speck of darkness there._--XIX. p. 82. - -"There the sun shines not, nor the moon and stars: these lightnings -flash not in that place: how should even fire blaze there? God -irradiates all this bright substance, and by its effulgence the universe -is enlightened."--_From the Yajurveda. Asiat. Res._ - - Hæc ait, et sese radiorum nocte suorum - Claudit inaccessum.----CARRARA. - - - _Whose cradles from some tree_ - _Unnatural hands suspended._--XXI. p. 92. - -I heard a voice crying out under my window; I looked out, and saw a poor -young girl lamenting the unhappy case of her sister. On asking what was -the matter, the reply was, _Boot Laggeeosa_, a demon has seized her. -These unhappy people say _Boot Laggeeosa_, if a child newly born will -not suck; and they expose it to death in a basket, hung on the branch of -a tree. One day, as Mr. Thomas and I were riding out, we saw a basket -hung in a tree, in which an infant had been exposed, the skull of which -remained, {183} the rest having been devoured by ants.--_Periodical -Accounts of the Baptist Missionaries_. - - - _That strange Indian Bird._--XXI. p. 93. - -The Chatookee. They say it never drinks at the streams below, but, -opening its bill when it rains, it catches the drops as they fall from -the clouds.--_Periodical Accounts of the Baptist Missionaries_, vol. ii. -p. 309. - - - _The footless fowl of Heaven._--XXI. p. 93. - -There is a bird that falls down out of the air dead, and is found -sometimes in the Molucco Islands, that has no feet at all. The bigness -of her body and bill, as likewise the form of them, is much the same as -a swallow's; but the spreading out of her wings and tail has no less -compass than an eagle's. She lives and breeds in the air, comes not near -the earth but for her burial, for the largeness and lightness of her -wings and tail sustain her without lassitude. And the laying of her -eggs, and breeding of her young, is upon the back of the male, which is -made hollow, as also the breast of the female, for the more easy -incubation. Also two strings, like two shoemaker's ends, come from the -hinder parts of the male, wherewith it is conceived that he is fastened -closer to the female, while she hatches her eggs on the hollow of {184} -his back. The dew of heaven is appointed her for food, her region being -too far removed from the approach of flies and such like insects. - -This is the entire story and philosophy of this miraculous bird in -_Cardan_, who professes himself to have seen it no less than thrice, and -to have described it accordingly. The contrivances whereof, if the -matter were certainly true, are as evident arguments of a Divine -Providence, as that copper-ring, with the Greek[36] inscription upon -it, was an undeniable monument of the artifice and finger of man. - -But that the reproach of over-much credulity may not lie upon _Cardan_ -alone, Scaliger, who lay at catch with him to take him tripping wherever -he could, cavils not with any thing in the whole narration but the -bigness of wings and the littleness of the body; which he undertakes to -correct from one of his own which was sent him by _Orvesanus_ from Java. -Nay, he confirms what his antagonist has wrote, partly by history and -partly by reason; affirming, that himself, in his own garden, found two -{185} little birds with membranaceous wings utterly devoid of legs, -their form was near to that of a bat's. Nor is he deterred from the -belief of the perpetual flying of the _Manucodiata_, by the gaping of -the feathers of her wings, which seem thereby less fit to sustain her -body, but further makes the narration probable by what he has observed -in kites hovering in the air, as he saith, for a whole hour together -without flapping of her wings, or changing place. And he has found also -how she may sleep in the air, from the example of fishes, which he has -seen sleeping in the water without sinking themselves to the bottom, and -without changing place, but lying stock still, _pinnulis tantum nescia -quid motiuncule meditantes_, only wagging a little their fins, as -heedlessly and unconcernedly as horses while they are asleep wag their -ears to displace the flies that sit upon them. Wherever Scaliger -admitting that the Menucodiata is perpetually on the wing in the air, he -must of necessity admit also that manner of incubation that Cardan -describes, else how could their generations continue? - -Franciscus Hernandeo affirms the same with Cardan expressly in every -thing: As also Eusebius Nierembergius, who is so taken with the story of -this bird, that he could not abstain from celebrating her miraculous -properties in a short but elegant copy of verses; and does {186} after, -though confidently opposed, assert the main matter again in prose. - -Such are the sufferages of Cardan, Scaliger, Hernandeo, Nierembergius. -But Aldrovandus rejects that fable of her feeding on the dew of heaven, -and of her incubiture on the back of the male, with much scorn and -indignation. And as for the former, his reasons are no ways -contemptible, he alledging that dew is a body not perfectly enough -mixed, or heterogenial enough for food, nor the hard bill of the bird -made for such easie uses as sipping this soft moisture. - -To which I know not what Cardan and the rest would answer, unless this, -that they mean by dew the more unctuous moisture of the air, which as it -may not be alike every where, so these birds may be fitted with a -natural sagacity to find it out where it is. That there is dew in this -sense day and night, (as well as in the morning,) and in all seasons of -the year; and therefore a constant supply of moisture and spirits to -their perpetual flying, which they more copiously imbibe by reason of -their exercise: That the thicker parts of this moisture stick and -convert into flesh, and that the lightness of their feathers is so -great, that their pains in sustaining themselves are not over-much. That -what is homogeneal and simple to our sight is fit enough to be the -rudiments of generation, {187} all animals being generated of a kind of -clear crystalline liquor; and that, therefore, it may be also of -nutrition; that orpine and sea-house-leek are nourished and grow, being -hung in the air, and that dock-weed has its root no deeper than near the -upper parts of the water; and, lastly, that the bills of these birds are -for their better flying, by cutting the way, and for better ornament; -for the rectifying also and composing of their feathers, while they swim -in the air with as much ease as swans do in river. - -To his great impatiency against their manner of incubation, they would -happily return this answer: That the way is not ridiculous; but it may -be rather necessary from what Aldrovandus himself not only acknowledges -but contends for, namely, that they have no feet at all. For hence it is -manifest, that they cannot light upon the ground, nor any where rest on -their bellies, and be able to get on wing again, because they cannot -creep out of holes of rocks, as swifts and such like short-footed birds -can, they having no feet at all to creep with. Besides, as Aristotle -well argues concerning the long legs of certain water-fowl, that they -were made so long, because they were to wade in the water and catch -fish, adding that excellent aphorism, τὰ γαρ ὄργανα -πρὸς τὸ ἔργον ἡ φύσις ποιεῖ ἀλλ᾽ ὐ -τὸ ἔργον πρὸς τὰ ὄργανα, so may we rationally -conclude, will they say, that as the long legs of these water-fowl {188} -imply a design of their haunting the water, so want of legs in these -Manucodiatas argue they are never to come down to the earth, because -they can neither stand there nor get off again. And if they never come -on the earth, or any other resting-place, where can their eggs be laid -or hatched but on the back of the male? - -Besides that Cardan pleases himself with that Antiphonie in nature, that -as the Ostrich being a bird, yet never flies in the air, and never rests -upon the earth. And as for Aldrovandus, his presumption from the five -several Manucodiatas that he had seen, and in which he could observe no -such figuration of parts as implied a fitness for such a manner of -incubation, Cardan will answer, Myself has seen three, and Scaliger one, -who both agree against you. - -However, you see that both Cardan, Aldrovandus, and the rest do jointly -agree in allowing the Manucodiata no feet, as also in furnishing her -with two strings, hanging at the hinder parts of her body, which -Aldrovandus will have to be in the female as well as in the male, though -Cardan's experience reacheth not so far. - -But Pighafetta and Clusius will easily end this grand controversy -betwixt Cardan and Aldrovandus, if it be true which they report, and if -they speak of the same kind of Birds of Paradise. For they both affirm -that they {189} have feet a palm long, and that with all confidence -imaginable; but Nierembergius on the contrary affirms, that one that was -an eye witness, and that had taken up one of these birds newly dead, -told him that it had no feet at all. Johnston also gives his suffrage -with Nierembergius in this, though with Aldrovandus he rejects the -manner of their incubation. - -But unless they can raise themselves from the ground by the stiffness of -some of the feathers of their wings, or rather by virtue of those -nervous strings which they may have a power to stiffen when they are -alive, by transfusing spirits into them, and making them serve as well -instead of legs to raise them from the ground as to hang upon the boughs -of trees, by a slight thing being able to raise or hold up their -light-feathered bodies in the air, as a small twig will us in the water, -I should rather incline to the testimony of Pighafetta and Clusius than -to the judgment of the rest, and believe those mariners that told him -that the legs are pulled off by them that take them, and extenterate -them and dry them in the sun for either their private use or sale. - -Which conclusion would the best solve the credit of Aristotle, -who long since has so peremptorily pronounced ὄτι πτηνὸν μόνον -ὐδὲν ἐσιν ὥσπερ νευσικὸν μόνον ἐσιν ὶχθὸς. That there is not any -bird that only flies as the fish only swims. - -{190} - -But thus our Bird of Paradise is quite flown and vanished into a figment -or fable. But if any one will condole the loss of so convincing an -argument for a Providence that fits one thing to another, I must take -the freedom to tell him, that, unless he be a greater admirer of novelty -than a searcher into the indissoluble consequences of things, I shall -supply his meditation with what of this nature is as strongly -conclusive, and remind, that it will be his own reproach if he cannot -spy as clear an inference from an ordinary truth as from either an -uncertainty or a fiction. And in this regard, the bringing this doubtful -narration into play may not justly seem to no purpose, it carrying so -serious and castigatory a piece of pleasantry with it. - -The manucodiata's living on the dew is no part of the convictiveness of -a Providence in this story: But the being excellently well provided of -wings and feathers, _tanta levitatis supellectile exornata_, as -Nierembergius speaks, being so well furnished with all advantages for -lightness, that it seems harder for her to sink down, as he conceits, -than to be borne up in the air; that a bird thus fitted for that region -should have no legs to stand on the earth, this would be a considerable -indication of a discriminating Providence, that on purpose avoids all -uselessness and superfluities. - -{191} - -The other remarkable, and it is a notorious one, is the cavity on the -back of the male and in the breast of the female, for incubation; and -the third and last, the use of those strings, as Cardan supposes, for -the better keeping them together in incubiture. - -If these considerations of this strange story strike so strongly upon -thee as to convince thee of a Providence, think it humour and not -judgment, if what I put in lieu of them, and is but ordinary, have not -the same force with thee. - -For is not the fish's wanting feet, (as we observed before,) she being -sufficiently supplied with fins in so thick an element as the water, as -great an argument for a Providence as so light a bird's wanting feet in -that thinner element of the air, the extream lightness of her furniture -being appropriated to the thinness of that element? And is not the same -Providence seen, and that as conspicuously, in allotting but very short -legs to those birds that are called Apodeo both in Plinie and Aristotle, -upon whom she has bestowed such large and strong wings, and a power of -flying so long and swift, as in giving no legs at all to the -manucodiata, who has still a greater power of wing and lightness of -body? - -And as for the cavities on the back of the male and in the breast of the -female, is that design of nature any more {192} certain and plain than -in the genital parts of the male and female in all kinds of animals? -What greater argument of counsel and purpose of fitting one thing for -another can there be than that? And if we should make a more inward -search into the contrivances of these parts in an ordinary hen, and -consider how or by what force an egg of so great a growth and bigness is -transmitted from the ovarium through the infundibulum into the processus -of the uterus, the membranes being go thin and the passage so very -small, to see to the principle of that motion cannot be thought less -than divine. - -And if you would compare the protuberant paps of teats in the females of -beasts with that cavity in the breast of the she-manucodiata, whether of -them, think you, is the plainer pledge of a knowing and a designing -Providence? - -And, lastly, for the strings that are conceived to hold together the -male and female in their incubiture, what a toy is it, if compared with -those invisible links and ties that engage ordinary birds to sit upon -their eggs, they having no visible allurement to such a tedious -service?--HENRY MORE's _Antidote against Atheism_, book 2. ch. 11. - -{193} - - _And Brama's region, where the heavenly hours_ - _Weave the vast circle of his age-long day._--XXIII. p. 113. - -They who are acquainted with day and night know that the day of Brahma -is as a thousand revolutions of the _Yoogs_, and that his night -extendeth for a thousand more. On the coming of that day all things -proceed from invisibility to visibility; so, on the approach of night, -they are all dissolved away in that which is called invisible. The -universe, even, having existed, is again dissolved; and now again, on -the approach of day, by divine necessity, it is reproduced. That which, -upon the dissolution of all things else, is not destroyed, is superior -and of another nature from that visibility: it is invisible and eternal. -He who is thus called invisible and incorruptible is even he who is -called the Supreme Abode; which men having once obtained, they never -more return to earth: that is my mansion.--KREESHNA, _in the -Bhagavat-Geeta_. - -The guess, that Brama and his wife Saraswadi may be Abraham and Sarah, -has more letters in its favour than are usually to be found in such -guesses.--NIECAMP, p. i, c. 10. § 2. - -The true cause why there is no idol of Brama (except {194} the head, -which is his share in the Trimourter,) is probably to be found in the -conquest of his sect. A different reason, however, is implied in the -Veeda: "Of Him, it says, whose glory is so great there is no image:--He -is the incomprehensible Being which illumines all, delights all, whence -all proceeded;--that by which they live when born, and that to which all -must return."--MOOR's _Hindu Pantheon_, p. 4. - - - _Yamen._--XXII. p. 99. - -_Yama_ was a child of the Sun, and thence named _Vaivaswata_; another of -his titles was _Dhermaraja_, or King of Justice; and a third -_Pitripeti_, or Lord of the Patriarchs: but he is chiefly distinguished -as Judge of departed souls; for the Hindus believe, that, when a soul -leaves its body, it immediately repairs to _Yamapur_, or the city of -_Yama_, where it receives a just sentence from him, and thence either -ascends to _Swerga_, or the first Heaven; or is driven down to _Narac_, -the region of serpents; or assumes on earth the form of some animal, -unless its offence had been such, that it ought to be condemned to a -vegetable, or even to a mineral prison.--Sir W. JONES. - -There is a story concerning Yamen which will remind the reader, in its -purport, of the fable of Love and Death. - -{195} - -"A famous penitent, _Morrugandumagarexi_ by name, had, during a long -series of years, served the gods with uncommon and most exemplary piety. -This very virtuous man having no children, was extremely desirous of -having one, and therefore daily besought the god Xiven (or Seeva) to -grant him one. At length the god heard his desire, but, before he -indulged it him, he asked him, whether he would have several children, -who should be long-lived and wicked, or one virtuous and prudent, who -should die in his sixteenth year? The penitent chose the latter: his -wife conceived, and was happily delivered of the promised son, whom they -named Marcandem. The boy, like his father, zealously devoted himself to -the worship of Xiven; but as soon as he had attained his sixteenth year, -the officers of Yhamen, god of death, were sent on the earth, to remove -him from thence. - -"Young Marcandem being informed on what errand they were come, told -them, with a resolute air, that he was resolved not to die, and that -they might go back, if they pleased. They returned to their master, and -told him the whole affair. Yhamen immediately mounted his great buffle, -and set out. Being come, he told the youth that he acted very rashly in -refusing to leave the world, and it was unjust in him, for Xiven had -promised him a life only of sixteen years, and the term was expired. But -{196} this reason did not satisfy Marcandem, who persisted in his -resolution not to die; and, fearing lest the god of death should attempt -to take him away by force, he ran to his oratory, and taking the Lingam, -clasped it to his breast. Mean time Yhamen came down from his buffle, -threw a rope about the youth's neck, and held him fast therewith, as -also the Lingam, which Marcandem grasped with all his strength, and was -going to drag them both into hell, when Xiven issued out of the Lingam, -drove back the king of the dead, and gave him so furious a blow, that he -killed him on the spot. - -"The god of death being thus slain, mankind multiplied so that the earth -was no longer able to contain them. The gods represented this to Xiven, -and he, at their entreaty, restored Yhamen to life, and to all the power -he had before enjoyed. Yhamen immediately dispatched a herald to all -parts of the world, to summon all the old men. The herald got drunk -before he set out, and, without staying till the fumes of the wine were -dispelled, mounted an elephant, and rode up and down the world, pursuant -to his commission; and, instead of publishing this order, he declared, -that it was the will and pleasure of Yamen, that, from this day forward, -all the leaves, fruits, and flowers, whether ripe or green, should fall -to the ground. This proclamation was no sooner {197} issued than men -began to yield to death: But before Yhamen was killed, only the old were -deprived of life, and now people of all ages are summoned -indiscriminately."--PICART. - - - _Two forms inseparable in unity,_ - _Hath Yamen._--XXIII. p. 120. - -The _Dharma-Raja_, or king of justice, has two countenances; one is mild -and full of benevolence; those alone who abound with virtue see it. He -holds a court of justice, where are many assistants, among whom are many -just and pious kings: _Chitragupta_ acts as chief secretary. These holy -men determine what is _dharma_ and _adharma_, just and unjust. His -(_Dharma-Raja's_) servant is called _Carmala_: he brings the righteous -on celestial cars, which go of themselves, whenever holy men are to be -brought in, according to the directions of the _Dharma-Raja_, who is the -sovereign of the _Pitris_. This is called his _divine countenance_, and -the righteous alone do see it. His other _countenance_, or _form_, is -called _Yama_; this the wicked alone can see: It has large teeth and a -monstrous body, _Yama_ is the lord of _Patala_; there he orders some to -be beaten, some to be cut to pieces, some to be devoured by monsters, -&c. His servant is called _Cashmala_, who, with ropes round their necks, -drags the wicked over rugged {198} paths, and throws them headlong into -hell. He is unmerciful, and hard is his heart: every body trembles at -the sight of him.--WILFORD. _Asiatic Researches_. - - - _Black of aspect, red of eye._--XXIII. p. 120. - -Punishment is the Magistrate; Punishment is the Inspirer of Terror; -Punishment is the Defender from Calamity; Punishment is the Guardian of -those that sleep; Punishment, with a black aspect and a red eye, tempts -the guilty.--HALHED's _Gentoo Code_, ch. xxi. sect. 8. - - - _Azyoruca._--XXIII. p. 121. - -In Patala (or the infernal regions) resides the sovereign Queen of the -Nagas, (large snakes, or dragons:) she is beautiful, and her name is -Asyoruca. There, in a cave, she performed Taparya with such rigorous -austerity, that fire sprang from her body, and formed numerous -agnitiraths (places of sacred fire) in Patala. These fires, forcing -their way through the earth, waters, and mountains, formed various -openings or mouths, called from thence the flaming mouths, or juala -muihi. By Samudr, (Oceanus,) a daughter was born unto her, called -Rama-Devi. She is most beautiful; she is Lacshmi; and her name is -Asyotcarsha, or Asyotcrishta. Like a jewel she remains concealed in the -ocean.--WILFORD. _Asiat. Res_. - -{199} - - _He came in all his might and majesty._--XXIV. p, 124. - -What is this to the coming of Seeva, as given us by Mr. Maurice, from -the Seeva Paurana? - -"In the place of the right wheel blazed the Sun, in the place of the -left was the Moon; instead of the brazen nails and bolts, which firmly -held the ponderous wheels, were distributed Bramans on the right hand, -and Reyshees on the left; in lieu of the canopy on the top of the -chariot was overspread the vault of Heaven; the counterpoise of the -wheels was on the east and west, and the four Semordres were instead of -the cushions and bolsters; the four Vedas were placed as the horses of -the chariot, and Saraswaty was for the bell; the piece of wood by which -the horses are driven was the three-lettered Mantra, while Brama himself -was the charioteer, and the Nacshatras and stars were distributed about -it by way of ornaments. Sumaru was in the place of a bow, the serpent -Seschanaga was stationed as the string, Veeshnu instead of an arrow, and -fire was constituted its point. Ganges and other rivers were appointed -its precursors; and the setting out of the chariot, with its appendages -and furniture, one would affirm to be the year of twelve months -gracefully moving forwards. - -"When Seeva, with his numerous troops and prodigious {200} army, was -mounted, Brama drove so furiously, that thought itself, which, in its -rapid career, compasses Heaven and Earth, could not keep pace with it. -By the motion of the chariot Heaven and Earth were put into a tremor; -and, as the Earth was not able to bear up under this burthen, the Cow of -the Earth, Kam-deva, took upon itself to support the weight. Seeva went -with intention to destroy Treepoor; and the multitude of Devatas and -Reyshees and Apsaras who waited on his stirrup, opening their mouths, in -transports of joy and praise, exclaimed, Jaya! Jaya! so that Parvati, -not being able to bear his absence, set out to accompany Seeva, and, in -an instant, was up with him; while the light which brightened on his -countenance, on the arrival of Parvati, surpassed all imagination and -description. The Genii of the eight regions, armed with all kinds of -weapons, but particularly with _agnyastra_, or fire-darts, like moving -mountains, advanced in front of the army; and Eendra and other Devetas, -some of them mounted on elephants, some on horses, others on chariots, -or on camels or buffaloes, were stationed on each side, while all the -other order of Devetas, to the amount of some lacs, formed the centre. -The Munietuvaras, with long hair on their heads, like Saniassis, holding -their staves in their hands, danced as they went along; the Syddhyas, -who revolve about {201} the heavens, opening their mouths in praise of -Seeva, rained flowers upon his head; and the vaulted heaven, which is -like an inverted goblet, being appointed in the place of a drum, exalted -his dignity by its majestic resounding." - -Throughout the Hindoo fables there is the constant mistake of bulk for -sublimity. - - - _By the attribute of Deity_ - _----self-multiplied_ - _The dreadful One appeared on every side._--XXIV. p. 124. - -This more than polypus power was once exerted by Krishna, on a curious -occasion. - -It happened in _Dwarka_, a splendid city built by _Viswa-karma_, by -command of _Krishna_, on the sea-shore, in the province of _Gazerat_, -that his musical associate, _Nareda_, had no wife or substitute; and he -hinted to his friend the decency of sparing him one from his long -catalogue of ladies. _Krishna_ generously told him to win and wear any -one he chose, not immediately in requisition for himself. _Nareda_ -accordingly went wooing to one house, but found his master there; to a -second--he was again forestalled; a third, the same; to a fourth, fifth, -the same: in fine, after the round of sixteen thousand of these -domiciliary visits, he was still forced to sigh and {202} keep single; -for _Krishna_ was in every house, variously employed, and so -domesticated, that each lady congratulated herself on her exclusive and -uninterrupted possession of the ardent deity.--MOOR's _Hindu -Pantheon_, p. 204. - -Eight of the chief gods have each their _sacti_, or energy, proceeding -from them, differing from them in sex, but in every other respect -exactly like them, with the same form, the same decorations, the same -weapons, and the same vehicle.--_Asiat. Res_. 8vo, edit. vol. viii. p. -68. 82. - -The manner in which this divine power is displayed by Kehama, in his -combat with Yamen, will remind some readers of the Irishman, who brought -in four prisoners, and being asked how he had taken them, replied, he -had surrounded them. - - - _The Amreeta,_ - _or_ - _Drink of Immortality._--XXIV. p. 129. - -Mr Wilkins has given the genuine history of this liquor, which was -produced by churning the sea with a mountain. - -"There is a fair and stately mountain, and its name is _Meroo_, a most -exalted mass of glory, reflecting the sunny {203} rays from the splendid -surface of its gilded horns. It is clothed in gold, and is the -respected haunt of _Dews_ and _Gandharvas_. It is inconceivable, and not -to be encompassed by sinful man; and it is guarded by dreadful serpents. -Many celestial medicinal plants adorn its sides; and it stands, piercing -the heaven with its aspiring summit, a mighty hill, inaccessible even by -the human mind. It is adorned with trees and pleasant streams, and -resoundeth with the delightful songs of various birds. - -"The _Soors_, and all the glorious hosts of heaven, having ascended to -the summit of this lofty mountain, sparkling with precious gems, and for -eternal ages raised, were sitting in solemn synod, meditating the -discovery of the _Amreeta_, the Water of Immortality. The _Dew Narayan_ -being also there, spoke unto _Brahma_, whilst the _Soors_ were thus -consulting together, and said, 'Let the Ocean, as a pot of milk, be -churned by the united labour of the _Soors_ and _Asoors_; and when the -mighty waters have been stirred up, the _Amreeta_ shall be found. Let -them collect together every medicinal herb, and every precious thing, -and let them stir the Ocean, and they shall discover the _Amreeta_.' - -"There is also another mighty mountain, whose name is _Mandar_, and its -rocky summits are like towering {204} clouds. It is clothed in a net of -the entangled tendrils of the twining creeper, and resoundeth with the -harmony of various birds. Innumerable savage beasts infest its borders; -and it is the respected haunt of _Kennars_, _Dews_, and _Apsars_. It -standeth eleven thousand _Yojan_ above the earth, and eleven thousand -more below its surface. - -"As the united bands of _Dews_ were unable to remove this mountain, they -went before _Veeshnoo_, who was sitting with _Brahma_, and addressed -them in these words: 'Exert, O masters! your most superior wisdom to -remove the mountain _Mandar_, and employ your utmost power for our -good.' - -"_Veeshnoo_ and _Brahma_ having said, 'it shall be according to your -wish,' he with the lotus eye directed the King of Serpents to appear; -and Ananta arose, and was instructed in that work by Brahma, and -commanded by _Narayan_ to perform it. Then _Ananta_, by his power, took up -that king of mountains, together with all its forests and every -inhabitant thereof; and the _Soors_ accompanied him into the presence of -the Ocean, whom they addressed, saying, 'We will stir up thy waters to -obtain the _Amreeta_,' And the Lord of the Waters replied, 'Let me also -have a share, seeing I am to bear the violent agitation that will be -caused by the whirling of the {205} mountain!' Then the _Soors_ and -_Asoors_ spoke unto _Koorna-raj_, the King of the Tortoises, upon the -strand of the Ocean, and said, 'My lord is able to be the supporter of -this mountain.' The Tortoise replied, 'Be it so;' and it was placed upon -his back. - -"So the mountain being set upon the back of the Tortoise, _Eendra_ began -to whirl it about as it were a machine. The mountain _Mandar_ served as -a churn, and the serpent _Vasoakee_ for the rope; and thus in former -days did the _Dews_, and _Asoors_, and the _Danoos_, begin to stir up -the waters of the ocean for the discovery of the _Amreeta_. - -"The mighty _Asoors_ were employed on the side of the serpent's head, -whilst all the _Soors_ assembled about his tail. _Ananta_, that sovereign -_Dew_, stood near _Narayan_. - -"They now pull forth the serpent's head repeatedly, and as often let it -go; whilst there issued from his mouth, thus violently drawing to and -fro by the _Soors_ and _Asoors_, a continual stream of fire and smoke -and wind, which ascending in thick clouds, replete with lightning, it -began to rain down upon the heavenly bands, who were already fatigued -with their labour; whilst a shower of flowers was shaken from the top of -the mountain, covering the heads of all, both _Soors_ and {206} -_Asoors_. In the mean time the roaring of the ocean, whilst violently -agitated with the whirling of the mountain _Mandar_ by the _Soors_ and -_Asoors_, was like the bellowing of a mighty cloud. Thousands of the -various productions of the waters were torn to pieces by the mountain, -and confounded with the briny flood; and every specific being of the -deep, and all the inhabitants of the great abyss which is below the -earth, were annihilated; whilst, from the violent agitation of the -mountain, the forest trees were dashed against each other, and -precipitated from its utmost height, with all the birds thereon; from -whose violent confrication a raging fire was produced, involving the -whole mountain with smoke and flame, as with a dark-blue cloud, and the -lightning's vivid flash. The lion and the retreating elephant are -overtaken by the devouring flames, and every vital being, and every -specific thing, are consumed in the general conflagration. - -"The raging flames, thus spreading destruction on all sides, were at -length quenched by a shower of cloud-borne water, poured down by the -immortal Eendra. And now a heterogeneous stream of the concocted juices -of various trees and plants ran down into the briny flood. - -"It was from this milk-like stream of juices, produced {207} from those -trees and plants and a mixture of melted gold, that the _Soors_ obtained -their immortality. - -"The waters of the Ocean now being assimilated with those juices, were -converted into milk, and from that milk a kind of butter was presently -produced; when the heavenly bands went again into the presence of -_Brahma_, the granter of boons, and addressed him, saying, 'Except -_Narayan_, every other _Soor_ and _Asoor_ is fatigued with his labour, -and still the _Amreeta_ doth not appear; wherefore the churning of the -Ocean is at a stand.' Then _Brahma_ said unto _Narayan_, 'Endue them -with recruited strength, for thou art their support.' And _Narayan_ -answered and said, 'I will give fresh vigour to such as co-operate in -the work. Let _Mandar_ be whirled about, and the bed of the ocean be -kept steady.' - -"When they heard the words of _Narayan_, they all returned again to the -work, and began to stir about with great force that butter of the ocean, -when there presently arose from out the troubled deep, first the Moon, -with a pleasing countenance, shining with ten thousand beams of gentle -light; next followed _Sree_, the goddess of fortune, whose seat is the -white lily of the waters; then _Soora-Devee_, the goddess of wine, and -the white horse called _Oochisrava_. And after these there was produced -from the unctuous mass the jewel _Kowstoobh_, that glorious {208} -sparkling gem worn by Narayan on his breast; also _Pareejat_, the tree -of plenty, and _Soorabhee_, the cow that granted every heart's desire. - -"The moon, _Soora-Devee_, the goddess of _Sree_, and the Horse, as swift -as thought, instantly marched away towards the _Dews_, keeping in the -path of the Sun. - -"Then the _Dew Dhanwantaree_, in human shape, came forth, holding in his -hand a white vessel filled with the immortal juice _Amreeta_. When the -_Asoors_ beheld these wondrous things appear, they raised their -tumultuous voices for the _Amreeta_, and each of them clamorously -exclaimed, 'This of right is mine.' - -"In the mean time _Travat_, a mighty elephant, arose, now kept by the -god of thunder; and as they continued to churn the ocean more than -enough, that deadly poison issued from its bed, burning like a raging -fire, whose dreadful fumes in a moment spread throughout the world, -confounding the three regions of the universe with the mortal stench, -until _Seev_, at the word of _Brahma_, swallowed the fatal drug, to save -mankind; which, remaining in the throat of that sovereign _Dew_ of magic -form, from that time he hath been called _Neel-Kant_, because his throat -was stained blue. - -"When the _Asoors_ beheld this miraculous deed, they {209} became -desperate, and the _Amreeta_ and the goddess _Sree_ became the source of -endless hatred. - -"Then _Narayan_ assumed the character and person of _Moheenee Maya_, the -power of enchantment, in a female form of wonderful beauty, and stood -before the _Asoors_, whose minds being fascinated by her presence, and -deprived of reason, they seized the _Amreeta_, and gave it unto her. - -"The _Asoors_ now clothe themselves in costly armour, and, seizing their -various weapons, rush on together to attack the _Soors_. In the mean -time _Narayan_, in the female form, having obtained the _Amreeta_ from -the hands of their leader, the hosts of _Soors_, during the tumult and -confusion of the _Asoors_, drank of the living water. - -"And it so fell out, that whilst the _Soors_ were quenching their thirst -for immortality, _Rahoo_, an _Asoor_, assumed the form of a _Soor_, and -began to drink also: And the water had but reached his throat, when the -Sun and Moon, in friendship to the _Soors_, discovered the deceit; and -instantly _Narayan_ cut off his head as he was drinking, with his -splendid weapon _Chakra_. And the gigantic head of the _Asoor_, emblem -of a mountain's summit, being thus separated from his body by the -_Chakra's_ edge, bounded into the heavens with a dreadful cry, whilst -his ponderous trunk fell, cleaving the ground asunder, and {210} shaking -the whole earth unto its foundation, with all its islands, rocks, and -forests: And from that time the head of Rahoo resolved an eternal -enmity, and continueth, even unto this day, at times to seize upon the -Sun and Moon. - -"Now Narayan, having quitted the female figure he had assumed, began to -disturb the _Asoors_ with sundry celestial weapons: and from that -instant a dreadful battle was commenced, on the ocean's briny strand, -between the _Asoors_ and the _Soors_. Innumerable sharp and missile -weapons were hurled, and thousands of piercing darts and battle-axes -fell on all sides. The _Asoors_ vomit blood from the wounds of the -_Chakra_, and fall upon the ground pierced by the sword, the spear, and -spiked club. Heads, glittering with polished gold, divided by the -_Pattees'_ blade, drop incessantly; and mangled bodies, wallowing in -their gore, lay like fragments of mighty rocks, sparkling with gems and -precious ores. Millions of sighs and groans arise on every side; and the -sun is overcast with blood, as they clash their arms, and wound each -other with their dreadful instruments of destruction. - -"Now the battle is fought with the iron-spiked club, and, as they close, -with clenched fist; and the din of war ascendeth to the heavens. They -cry 'Pursue! {211} strike! fell to the ground!' so that a horrid and -tumultuous noise is heard on all sides. - -"In the midst of this dreadful hurry and confusion of the fight, _Nar_ -and _Narayan_ entered the field together. _Narayan_, beholding a -celestial bow in the hand of _Nar_, it reminded him of his _Chakra_, the -destroyer of the _Asoors_. The faithful weapon, by name _Soodarsan_, -ready at the mind's call, flew down from heaven with direct and -refulgent speed, beautiful, yet terrible to behold: And being arrived, -glowing like the sacrificial flame, and spreading terror around, -_Narayan_, with his right arm formed like the elephantine trunk, hurled -forth the ponderous orb, the speedy messenger and glorious ruin of -hostile towns; who, raging like the final all-destroying fire, shot -bounding with desolating force, killing thousands of the _Asoors_ in his -rapid flight, burning and involving, like the lambent flame, and cutting -down all that would oppose him. Anon he climbeth the heavens, and now -again darteth into the field like a _Peesach_, to feast in blood. - -"Now the dauntless _Asoors_ strive, with repeated strength, to crush the -_Soors_ with rocks and mountains, which, hurled in vast numbers into the -heavens, appeared like scattered clouds, and fell, with all the trees -thereon, in millions of fear-exciting torrents, striking {212} violently -against each other with a mighty noise; and in their fall the earth, -with all its fields and forests, is driven from its foundation: they -thunder furiously at each other as they roll along the field, and spend -their strength in mutual conflict. - -"Now _Nar_, seeing the _Soors_ overwhelmed with fear, filled up the path -to Heaven with showers of golden-headed arrows, and split the mountain -summits with his unerring shafts; and the _Asoors_ finding themselves -again sore pressed by the _Soors_, precipitately flee; some rush -headlong into the briny waters of the ocean, and others hide themselves -within the bowels of the earth. - -"The rage of the glorious _Chakra_, _Soodarsan_, which for a while burnt -like the oil-fed fire, now grew cool, and he retired into the heavens -from whence he came. And the _Soors_ having obtained the victory, the -mountain _Mandar_ was carried back to its former station with great -respect, whilst the waters also retired, filling the firmament and the -heavens with their dreadful roarings. - -"The _Soors_ guarded the _Amreeta_ with great care, and rejoiced -exceedingly because of their success. And _Eendra_, with all his -immortal bands, gave the water of life into _Narayan_, to keep it for -their use."--MAHABHARAT. - -Amrita, or Immortal, is, according to Sir William {213} Jones, the name -which the mythologists of Tibet apply to a celestial tree, bearing -ambrosial fruit, and adjoining to four vast rocks, from which as many -sacred rivers derive their several streams. - -END OF VOLUME SECOND. - - - -FOOTNOTES. - -[30] Properly _Teica_, an ornament of gold placed above the nose. - -[31] Pendents. - -[32] _Seita Cund_, or the _Pool of Seita_, the wife of Rani, -is the name given to the wonderful spring at Mangeir, with boiling -water, of exquisite clearness and purity. - -[33] Her tears, when she was made captive by the giant _Rawan_. - -[34] A small mirror worn in a ring. - -[35] Bracelets. - -[36] The inscription runs thus: Εἰμι ἐκεῖνος ἰχθὸς ταύτη λίμνη -παντοπρωτος ἐπιτεθεὶς διὰ τῦ κοσμητῦ φεδηρίκυ β τὰς χεῖρας εν τὴ -έ. ἡμερα τῦ Ὁκτωζρίυ. α.σ.λ. This pike was taken about Hailprun, -the imperial city of Suevia, in the year 1497.--GESNER. - -END OF FOOTNOTES. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Curse of Kehama, Volume 2 (of 2), by -Robert Southey - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CURSE OF KEHAMA, VOLUME 2 *** - -***** This file should be named 55459-0.txt or 55459-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/5/4/5/55459/ - -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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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 2 (of 2) - Volume the Second - -Author: Robert Southey - -Release Date: August 30, 2017 [EBook #55459] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CURSE OF KEHAMA, VOLUME 2 *** - - - - -Produced by David Thomas - - - - - -</pre> - - - -<div class="title"> -<h1> -<br/> -<span class="smaller">The</span><br/> -Curse of Kehama:<br/> -<span class="smaller">by</span><br/> -Robert Southey.<br/> -</h1> - -<br/> -<hr class="w30"/> -<div class="quote_i"> -<span class="v0">Καταραι, ως και τα αλεκτρυονονεοττα, οικον αει, οψε κεν επανηξαν -εγκαθισομεναι.</span> -<span class="right">Αποφθ. Ανεκ. του Γυλιελ. του Μητ.</span> -<br/> -<p class="center">CURSES ARE LIKE YOUNG CHICKEN, THEY ALWAYS COME HOME TO ROOST.</p> -</div> -<hr class="w30"/> -<br/><br/> - -<span class="smaller">THE THIRD EDITION.</span> -<br/><br/> -<i>VOLUME THE SECOND.</i> -<br/><br/><br/> - - -LONDON:<br/> -<span class="smaller">PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND<br/> -BROWN, PATERNOSTER-ROW.<br/> -1812.</span> -</div> - - -<div class="intro"> -<h2 title=""> -<br/><br/><br/> -TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES. -</h2> - -<p> -This book was originally digitized by Google and is intended for -personal, non-commercial use only. -</p> - -<p> -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. -</p> - -<p> -Alteration: [p. 147] change “gross” to “grass”. -</p> -</div> - - -<div class="toc"> -<h2> -<br/><br/><br/> -CONTENTS<br/> -TO<br/> -VOLUME SECOND. -</h2> - -<a href="#canto_13">13. The Retreat</a><br/> - -<a href="#canto_14">14. Jaga-Naut</a><br/> - -<a href="#canto_15">15. The City of Baly</a><br/> - -<a href="#canto_16">16. The Ancient Sepulchres</a><br/> - -<a href="#canto_17">17. Baly</a><br/> - -<a href="#canto_18">18. Kehama’s Descent</a><br/> - -<a href="#canto_19">19. Mount Calasay</a><br/> - -<a href="#canto_20">20. The Embarkation</a><br/> - -<a href="#canto_21">21. The World’s End</a><br/> - -<a href="#canto_22">22. The Gate of Padalon</a><br/> - -<a href="#canto_23">23. Padalon</a><br/> - -<a href="#canto_24">24. The Amreeta</a><br/><br/> - -<a href="#notes_2">Notes</a><br/> - -<a href="#footnotes_2">Footnotes</a> - -</div> - - - -<div class="main"> -<h2> -<br/><br/><br/> -THE<br/> -CURSE OF KEHAMA. -</h2> - - -<h3 id="canto_13"> -<br/><br/><br/> -XIII.<br/> -THE RETREAT. -</h3> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{1}</span></p> - -<p class="stanza">1.</p> -Around her Father’s neck the Maiden lock’d<br/> -Her arms, when that portentous blow was given;<br/> -Clinging to him she heard the dread uproar,<br/> -And felt the shuddering shock which ran through Heaven.<br/> -Earth underneath them rock’d,<br/> -Her strong foundations heaving in commotion,<br/> -Such as wild winds upraise in raving Ocean,<br/> -As though the solid base were rent asunder.<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{2}</span></p> -And lo! where, storming the astonish’d sky,<br/> -Kehama and his evil host ascend!<br/> -Before them rolls the thunder,<br/> -Ten thousand thousand lightnings round them fly,<br/> -Upward the lengthening pageantries aspire,<br/> -Leaving from Earth to Heaven a widening wake of fire.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">2.</p> -When the wild uproar was at length allay’d,<br/> -And Earth, recovering from the shock, was still,<br/> -Thus to her father spake the imploring Maid.<br/> -Oh! by the love which we so long have borne<br/> -Each other, and we ne’er shall cease to bear, . .<br/> -Oh! by the sufferings we have shar’d,<br/> -And must not cease to share, . .<br/> -One boon I supplicate in this dread hour,<br/> -One consolation in this hour of woe!<br/> -Thou hast it in thy power, refuse not thou<br/> -The only comfort now<br/> -That my poor heart can know.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">3.</p> -O dearest, dearest Kailyal! with a smile<br/> -Of tenderness and sorrow, he replied,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{3}</span></p> -O best belov’d, and to be lov’d the best<br/> -Best worthy, . . set thy duteous heart at rest.<br/> -I know thy wish, and let what will betide,<br/> -Ne’er will I leave thee wilfully again.<br/> -My soul is strengthen’d to endure its pain;<br/> -Be thou, in all my wanderings, still my guide;<br/> -Be thou, in all my sufferings, at my side.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">4.</p> -The Maiden, at those welcome words, imprest<br/> -A passionate kiss upon her father’s cheek:<br/> -They look’d around them, then, as if to seek<br/> -Where they should turn, North, South, or East or West,<br/> -Wherever to their vagrant feet seem’d best.<br/> -But, turning from the view her mournful eyes,<br/> -Oh, whither should we wander, Kailyal cries,<br/> -Or wherefore seek in vain a place of rest?<br/> -Have we not here the Earth beneath our tread,<br/> -Heaven overhead,<br/> -A brook that winds through this sequester’d glade,<br/> -And yonder woods, to yield us fruit and shade!<br/> -The little all our wants require is nigh;<br/> -Hope we have none, . . why travel on in fear?<br/> -We cannot fly from Fate, and Fate will find us here.<br/> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{4}</span></p> - -<p class="stanza">5.</p> -’Twas a fair scene wherein they stood,<br/> -A green and sunny glade amid the wood,<br/> -And in the midst an aged Banian grew.<br/> -It was a goodly sight to see<br/> -That venerable tree,<br/> -For o’er the lawn, irregularly spread,<br/> -Fifty straight columns propt its lofty head;<br/> -And many a long depending shoot,<br/> -Seeking to strike its root,<br/> -Straight like a plummet, grew towards the ground.<br/> -Some on the lower boughs, which crost their way,<br/> -Fixing their bearded fibres, round and round,<br/> -With many a ring and wild contortion wound;<br/> -Some to the passing wind at times, with sway<br/> -Of gentle motion swung,<br/> -Others of younger growth, unmov’d, were hung<br/> -Like stone-drops from the cavern’s fretted height.<br/> -Beneath was smooth and fair to sight,<br/> -Nor weeds nor briars deform’d the natural floor,<br/> -And through the leafy cope which bower’d it o’er<br/> -Came gleams of checquered light.<br/> -So like a temple did it seem, that there<br/> -A pious heart’s first impulse would be prayer.<br/> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{5}</span></p> - -<p class="stanza">6.</p> -A brook, with easy current, murmured near;<br/> -Water so cool and clear<br/> -The peasants drink not from the humble well,<br/> -Which they with sacrifice of rural pride,<br/> -Have wedded to the cocoa-grove beside;<br/> -Nor tanks of costliest masonry dispense<br/> -To those in towns who dwell,<br/> -The work of Kings, in their beneficence.<br/> -Fed by perpetual springs, a small lagoon,<br/> -Pellucid, deep, and still, in silence join’d<br/> -And swell’d the passing stream. Like burnish’d steel<br/> -Glowing, it lay beneath the eye of noon;<br/> -And when the breezes, in their play,<br/> -Ruffled the darkening surface, then, with gleam<br/> -Of sudden light, around the lotus stem<br/> -It rippled, and the sacred flowers that crown<br/> -The lakelet with their roseate beauty, ride,<br/> -In gentlest waving rock’d, from side to side;<br/> -And as the wind upheaves<br/> -Their broad and buoyant weight, the glossy leaves<br/> -Flap on the twinkling waters, up and down.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">7.</p> -They built them here a bower; of jointed cane,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{6}</span></p> -Strong for the needful use, and light and long<br/> -Was the slight frame-work rear’d, with little pain;<br/> -Lithe creepers, then, the wicker-sides supply,<br/> -And the tall jungle-grass fit roofing gave<br/> -Beneath that genial sky.<br/> -And here did Kailyal, each returning day,<br/> -Pour forth libations from the brook, to pay<br/> -The Spirits of her Sires their grateful rite;<br/> -In such libations pour’d in open glades,<br/> -Beside clear streams and solitary shades,<br/> -The Spirits of the virtuous dead delight.<br/> -And duly here, to Marriataly’s praise,<br/> -The Maid, as with an Angel’s voice of song,<br/> -Pour’d her melodious lays<br/> -Upon the gales of even,<br/> -And gliding in religious dance along,<br/> -Mov’d, graceful as the dark-eyed Nymphs of Heaven,<br/> -Such harmony to all her steps was given,<br/> - -<p class="stanza">8.</p> -Thus ever, in her Father’s doting eye,<br/> -Kailyal perform’d the customary rite;<br/> -He, patient of his burning pain the while,<br/> -Beheld her, and approv’d her pious toil;<br/> -And sometimes, at the sight,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{7}</span></p> -A melancholy smile<br/> -Would gleam upon his awful countenance,<br/> -He, too, by day and night, and every hour,<br/> -Paid to a higher Power his sacrifice;<br/> -An offering, not of ghee, or fruit, or rice,<br/> -Flower-crown, or blood; but of a heart subdued,<br/> -A resolute, unconquer’d fortitude,<br/> -An agony represt, a will resign’d,<br/> -To her, who, on her secret throne reclin’d,<br/> -Amid the milky Sea, by Veeshnoo’s side,<br/> -Looks with an eye of mercy on mankind.<br/> -By the Preserver, with his power endued,<br/> -There Voomdavee beholds this lower clime,<br/> -And marks the silent sufferings of the good,<br/> -To recompense them in her own good time.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">9.</p> -O force of faith! O strength of virtuous will!<br/> -Behold him, in his endless martyrdom,<br/> -Triumphant still!<br/> -The Curse still burning in his heart and brain,<br/> -And yet doth he remain<br/> -Patient the while, and tranquil, and content!<br/> -The pious soul hath fram’d unto itself<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{8}</span></p> -A second nature, to exist in pain<br/> -As in its own allotted element.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">10.</p> -Such strength the will reveal’d had given<br/> -This holy pair, such influxes of grace,<br/> -That to their solitary resting place<br/> -They brought the peace of Heaven.<br/> -Yea all around was hallowed! Danger, Fear,<br/> -Nor thought of evil ever entered here.<br/> -A charm was on the Leopard when he came<br/> -Within the circle of that mystic glade;<br/> -Submiss he crouch’d before the heavenly maid,<br/> -And offered to her touch his speckled side;<br/> -Or with arch’d back erect, and bending head,<br/> -And eyes half-clos’d for pleasure, would he stand,<br/> -Courting the pressure of her gentle hand.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">11.</p> -Trampling his path through wood and brake,<br/> -And canes which crackling fall before his way,<br/> -And tassel-grass, whose silvery feathers play<br/> -O’ertopping the young trees,<br/> -On comes the Elephant, to slake<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{9}</span></p> -His thirst at noon in yon pellucid springs.<br/> -Lo! from his trunk upturn’d, aloft he flings<br/> -The grateful shower; and now<br/> -Plucking the broad-leav’d bough<br/> -Of yonder plane, with waving motion slow,<br/> -Fanning the languid air,<br/> -He moves it to and fro.<br/> -But when that form of beauty meets his sight,<br/> -The trunk its undulating motion stops,<br/> -From his forgetful hold the plane-branch drops,<br/> -Reverent he kneels, and lifts his rational eyes<br/> -To her as if in prayer;<br/> -And when she pours her angel voice in song,<br/> -Entranced he listens to the thrilling notes,<br/> -Till his strong temples, bath’d with sudden dews,<br/> -Their fragrance of delight and love diffuse.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">12.</p> -Lo! as the voice melodious floats around,<br/> -The Antelope draws near,<br/> -The Tygress leaves her toothless cubs to hear,<br/> -The Snake comes gliding from the secret brake,<br/> -Himself in fascination forced along<br/> -By that enchanting song;<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{10}</span></p> -The antic Monkies, whose wild gambols late,<br/> -When not a breeze wav’d the tall jungle-grass,<br/> -Shook the whole wood, are hush’d, and silently<br/> -Hang on the cluster’d trees.<br/> -All things in wonder and delight are still;<br/> -Only at times the Nightingale is heard,<br/> -Not that in emulous skill that sweetest bird<br/> -Her rival strain would try,<br/> -A mighty songster, with the Maid to vie;<br/> -She only bore her part in powerful sympathy.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">13.</p> -Well might they thus adore that heavenly Maid!<br/> -For never Nymph of Mountain,<br/> -Or Grove, or Lake, or Fountain,<br/> -With a diviner presence fill’d the shade.<br/> -No idle ornaments deface<br/> -Her natural grace,<br/> -Musk-spot, nor sandal-streak, nor scarlet stain,<br/> -Ear-drop nor chain, nor arm nor ankle-ring,<br/> -Nor trinketry on front, or neck, or breast,<br/> -Marring the perfect form: she seem’d a thing<br/> -Of Heaven’s prime uncorrupted work, a child<br/> -Of early Nature undefil’d,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{11}</span></p> -A daughter of the years of innocence.<br/> -And therefore all things lov’d her. When she stood<br/> -Beside the glassy pool, the fish, that flies<br/> -Quick as an arrow from all other eyes,<br/> -Hover’d to gaze on her. The mother bird,<br/> -When Kailyal’s steps she heard,<br/> -Sought not to tempt her from her secret nest,<br/> -But, hastening to the dear retreat, would fly<br/> -To meet and welcome her benignant eye.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">14.</p> -Hope we have none, said Kailyal to her Sire.<br/> -Said she aright? and had the Mortal Maid<br/> -No thoughts of heavenly aid, . .<br/> -No secret hopes her inmost heart to move<br/> -With longings of such deep and pure desire,<br/> -As vestal Maids, whose piety is love,<br/> -Feel in their extasies, when rapt above,<br/> -Their souls unto their heavenly Spouse aspire?<br/> -Why else so often doth that searching eye<br/> -Roam through the scope of sky?<br/> -Why, if she sees a distant speck on high,<br/> -Starts there that quick suffusion to her cheek?<br/> -’Tis but the Eagle, in his heavenly height;<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{12}</span></p> -Reluctant to believe, she hears his cry,<br/> -And marks his wheeling flight,<br/> -Then languidly averts her mournful sight.<br/> -Why ever else, at morn, that waking sigh,<br/> -Because the lovely form no more is nigh<br/> -Which hath been present to her soul all night;<br/> -And that injurious fear<br/> -Which ever, as it riseth, is represt,<br/> -Yet riseth still within her troubled breast,<br/> -That she no more shall see the Glendoveer!<br/> - -<p class="stanza">15.</p> -Hath he forgotten me? The wrongful thought<br/> -Would stir within her, and, though still repell’d<br/> -With shame and self-reproaches, would recur.<br/> -Days after days unvarying come and go,<br/> -And neither friend nor foe<br/> -Approaches them in their sequestered bower.<br/> -Maid of strange destiny! but think not thou<br/> -Thou art forgotten now,<br/> -And hast no cause for farther hope or fear.<br/> -High-fated Maid, thou dost not know<br/> -What eyes watch over thee for weal and woe!<br/> -Even at this hour,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{13}</span></p> -Searching the dark decrees divine,<br/> -Kehama, in the fulness of his power,<br/> -Perceives his thread of fate entwin’d with thine.<br/> -The Glendoveer, from his far sphere,<br/> -With love that never sleeps, beholds thee here,<br/> -And, in the hour permitted, will be near.<br/> -Dark Lorrinite on thee hath fix’d her sight,<br/> -And laid her wiles, to aid<br/> -Foul Arvalan when he shall next appear;<br/> -For well she ween’d his Spirit would renew<br/> -Old vengeance now, with unremitting hate;<br/> -The Enchantress well that evil nature knew,<br/> -The accursed Spirit hath his prey in view,<br/> -And thus, while all their separate hopes pursue,<br/> -All work, unconsciously, the will of Fate.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">16.</p> -Fate work’d its own the while. A band<br/> -Of Yoguees, as they roam’d the land,<br/> -Seeking a spouse for Jaga-Naut their God,<br/> -Stray’d to this solitary glade,<br/> -And reach’d the bower wherein the Maid abode.<br/> -Wondering at form so fair, they deem’d the power<br/> -Divine had led them to his chosen bride,<br/> -And seiz’d and bore her from her father’s side.<br/> - - -<h3 id="canto_14"> -<br/><br/><br/> -XIV.<br/> -JAGA-NAUT. -</h3> - -<p class="stanza">1.</p> -Joy in the city of great Jaga-Naut!<br/> -Joy in the seven-headed Idol’s shrine!<br/> -A virgin-bride his ministers have brought,<br/> -A mortal maid, in form and face divine,<br/> -Peerless among all daughters of mankind;<br/> -Search’d they the world again from East to West,<br/> -In endless quest,<br/> -Seeking the fairest and the best,<br/> -No maid so lovely might they hope to find; . .<br/> -For she hath breath’d celestial air,<br/> -And heavenly food hath been her fare,<br/> -And heavenly thoughts and feelings give her face<br/> -That heavenly grace.<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{15}</span></p> -Joy in the city of great Jaga-Naut,<br/> -Joy in the seven-headed Idol’s shrine!<br/> -The fairest Maid his Yoguees sought,<br/> -A fairer than the fairest have they brought,<br/> -A maid of charms surpassing human thought,<br/> -A maid divine.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">2.</p> -Now bring ye forth the Chariot of the God!<br/> -Bring him abroad,<br/> -That through the swarming City he may ride;<br/> -And by his side<br/> -Place ye the Maid of more than mortal grace,<br/> -The Maid of perfect form and heavenly face!<br/> -Set her aloft in triumph, like a bride<br/> -Upon the bridal car,<br/> -And spread the joyful tidings wide and far, . .<br/> -Spread it with trump and voice<br/> -That all may hear, and all who hear rejoice, . .<br/> -The Mighty One hath found his mate! the God<br/> -Will ride abroad!<br/> -To-night will he go forth from his abode!<br/> -Ye myriads who adore him,<br/> -Prepare the way before him!<br/> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{16}</span></p> - -<p class="stanza">3.</p> -Uprear’d on twenty wheels elate,<br/> -Huge as a Ship, the bridal car appear’d;<br/> -Loud creak its ponderous wheels, as through the gate<br/> -A thousand Bramins drag the enormous load.<br/> -There, thron’d aloft in state,<br/> -The image of the seven-headed God<br/> -Came forth from his abode; and at his side<br/> -Sate Kailyal like a bride;<br/> -A bridal statue rather might she seem,<br/> -For she regarded all things like a dream,<br/> -Having no thought, nor fear, nor will, nor aught<br/> -Save hope and faith, that liv’d within her still.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">4.</p> -O silent Night, how have they startled thee<br/> -With the brazen trumpet’s blare!<br/> -And thou, O Moon! whose quiet light serene<br/> -Filleth wide heaven, and bathing hill and wood,<br/> -Spreads o’er the peaceful valley like a flood,<br/> -How have they dimm’d thee with the torches’ glare,<br/> -Which round yon moving pageant flame and flare,<br/> -As the wild rout, with deafening song and shout,<br/> -Fling their long flashes out,<br/> -That, like infernal lightnings, fire the air.<br/> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{17}</span></p> - -<p class="stanza">5.</p> -A thousand pilgrims strain<br/> -Arm, shoulder, breast and thigh, with might and main,<br/> -To drag that sacred wain,<br/> -And scarce can draw along the enormous load.<br/> -Prone fall the frantic votaries in its road,<br/> -And, calling on the God,<br/> -Their self-devoted bodies there they lay<br/> -To pave his chariot-way.<br/> -On Jaga-Naut they call,<br/> -The ponderous Car rolls on, and crushes all.<br/> -Through blood and bones it ploughs its dreadful path.<br/> -Groans rise unheard; the dying cry,<br/> -And death and agony<br/> -Are trodden under foot by yon mad throng,<br/> -Who follow close, and thrust the deadly wheels along.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">6.</p> -Pale grows the Maid at this accursed sight;<br/> -The yells which round her rise<br/> -Have rous’d her with affright,<br/> -And fear hath given to her dilated eyes<br/> -A wilder light.<br/> -Where shall those eyes be turn’d? she knows not where!<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{18}</span></p> -Downward they dare not look, for there<br/> -Is death and horror, and despair;<br/> -Nor can her patient looks to Heaven repair,<br/> -For the huge Idol over her, in air,<br/> -Spreads his seven hideous heads, and wide<br/> -Extends their snaky necks on every side;<br/> -And all around, behind, before,<br/> -The bridal Car, is the raging rout,<br/> -With frantic shout, and deafening roar,<br/> -Tossing the torches’ flames about.<br/> -And the double double peals of the drum are there,<br/> -And the startling burst of the trumpet’s blare;<br/> -And the gong, that seems, with its thunders dread,<br/> -To stun the living, and waken the dead.<br/> -The ear-strings throb as if they were broke,<br/> -And the eye-lids drop at the weight of its stroke.<br/> -Fain would the Maid have kept them fast,<br/> -But open they start at the crack of the blast.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">7.</p> -Where art thou, Son of Heaven, Ereenia! where<br/> -In this dread hour of horror and despair?<br/> -Thinking on him, she strove her fear to quell,<br/> -If he be near me, then will all be well;<br/> -And, if he reck not for my misery,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{19}</span></p> -Let come the worst, it matters not to me.<br/> -Repel that wrongful thought,<br/> -O Maid! thou feelest, but believ’st it not;<br/> -It is thine own imperfect nature’s fault<br/> -That lets one doubt of him arise within.<br/> -And this the Virgin knew; and, like a sin,<br/> -Repell’d the thought, and still believ’d him true;<br/> -And summoned up her spirit to endure<br/> -All forms of fear, in that firm trust secure.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">8.</p> -She needs that faith, she needs that consolation,<br/> -For now the Car hath measured back its track<br/> -Of death, and hath re-entered now its station.<br/> -There, in the Temple-court, with song and dance,<br/> -A harlot-band, to meet the Maid, advance.<br/> -The drum hath ceas’d its peals; the trump and gong<br/> -Are still; the frantic crowd forbear their yells;<br/> -And sweet it was to hear the voice of song,<br/> -And the sweet music of their girdle-bells,<br/> -Armlets and anklets, that, with chearful sounds<br/> -Symphonious tinkled as they wheel’d around.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">9.</p> -They sung a bridal measure,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{20}</span></p> -A song of pleasure,<br/> -A hymn of joyaunce and of gratulation.<br/> -Go, chosen One, they cried,<br/> -Go, happy bride!<br/> -For thee the God descends in expectation;<br/> -For thy dear sake<br/> -He leaves his heaven, O Maid of matchless charms.<br/> -Go, happy One, the bed divine partake,<br/> -And fill his longing arms!<br/> -Thus to the inner fane,<br/> -With circling dance and hymeneal strain,<br/> -The astonish’d Maid they led,<br/> -And there they laid her on the bridal bed.<br/> -Then forth they went, and clos’d the Temple-gate,<br/> -And left the wretched Kailyal to her fate.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">10.</p> -Where art thou, Son of Heaven, Ereenia, where?<br/> -From the loathed bed she starts, and in the air<br/> -Looks up, as if she thought to find him there!<br/> -Then, in despair,<br/> -Anguish and agony, and hopeless prayer,<br/> -Prostrate she laid herself upon the floor.<br/> -There, trembling as she lay,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{21}</span></p> -The Bramin of the fane advanced<br/> -And came to seize his prey.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">11.</p> -But as the Priest drew nigh,<br/> -A power invisible opposed his way;<br/> -Starting, he uttered wildly a death-cry,<br/> -And fell. At that the Maid all eagerly<br/> -Lifted in hope her head;<br/> -She thought her own deliverer had been near;<br/> -When lo! with other life re-animate,<br/> -She saw the dead arise,<br/> -And in the fiendish joy within his eyes,<br/> -She knew the hateful Spirit who look’d through<br/> -Their specular orbs, . . cloth’d in the flesh of man<br/> -She knew the accursed soul of Arvalan.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">12.</p> -But not in vain, with the sudden shriek of fear,<br/> -She calls Ereenia now; the Glendoveer<br/> -Is here! Upon the guilty sight he burst<br/> -Like lightning from a cloud, and caught the accurst,<br/> -Bore him to the roof aloft, and on the floor<br/> -With vengeance dash’d him, quivering there in gore.<br/> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{22}</span></p> - -<p class="stanza">13.</p> -Lo! from the pregnant air, . . heart-withering sight!<br/> -There issued forth the dreadful Lorrinite,<br/> -Seize him! the Enchantress cried;<br/> -A host of Demons at her word appear,<br/> -And like tornado winds, from every side<br/> -At once, they rush upon the Glendoveer.<br/> -Alone against a legion, little here<br/> -Avails his single might,<br/> -Nor that celestial faulchion, which in fight<br/> -So oft had put the rebel race to flight.<br/> -There are no Gods on earth to give him aid;<br/> -Hemm’d round, he is overpower’d, beat down, and bound,<br/> -And at the feet of Lorrinite is laid.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">14.</p> -Meantime the scattered members of the slain,<br/> -Obedient to her mighty voice, assum’d<br/> -Their vital form again,<br/> -And that foul Spirit, upon vengeance bent,<br/> -Fled to the fleshly tenement.<br/> -Lo! here, quoth Lorrinite, thou seest thy foe!<br/> -Him in the Ancient Sepulchres, below<br/> -The billows of the Ocean, will I lay;<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{23}</span></p> -Gods are there none to help him now, and there<br/> -For Man there is no way.<br/> -To that dread scene of durance and despair,<br/> -Asuras, bear your enemy! I go<br/> -To chain him in the Tombs. Meantime do thou,<br/> -Freed from thy foe, and now secure from fear,<br/> -Son of Kehama, take thy pleasure here.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">15.</p> -Her words the accursed race obey’d;<br/> -Forth with a sound like rushing winds they fled,<br/> -And of all aid from Earth or Heaven bereft,<br/> -Alone with Arvalan the Maid was left.<br/> -But in that hour of agony, the Maid<br/> -Deserted not herself; her very dread<br/> -Had calm’d her; and her heart<br/> -Knew the whole horror, and its only part.<br/> -Yamen, receive me undefil’d! she said,<br/> -And seiz’d a torch, and fir’d the bridal bed.<br/> -Up ran the rapid flames; on every side<br/> -They find their fuel wheresoe’er they spread,<br/> -Thin hangings, fragrant gums, and odorous wood,<br/> -That pil’d like sacrificial altars stood.<br/> -Around they run, and upward they aspire,<br/> -And, lo! the huge Pagoda lin’d with fire.<br/> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{24}</span></p> - -<p class="stanza">16.</p> -The wicked Soul, who had assum’d again<br/> -A form of sensible flesh, for his foul will,<br/> -Still bent on base revenge, and baffled still,<br/> -Felt that corporeal shape alike to pain<br/> -Obnoxious as to pleasure; forth he flew,<br/> -Howling and scorch’d by the devouring flame;<br/> -Accursed Spirit! still condemn’d to rue,<br/> -The act of sin and punishment the same.<br/> -Freed from his loathsome touch, a natural dread<br/> -Came on the self-devoted, and she drew<br/> -Back from the flames, which now toward her spread,<br/> -And, like a living monster, seem’d to dart<br/> -Their hungry tongues toward their shrinking prey.<br/> -Soon she subdued her heart;<br/> -O Father! she exclaim’d, there was no way<br/> -But this! and thou, Ereenia, who for me<br/> -Sufferest, my soul shall bear thee company.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">17.</p> -So having said, she knit<br/> -Her body up to work her soul’s desire,<br/> -And rush at once amid the thickest fire.<br/> -A sudden cry withheld her, . . Kailyal, stay!<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{25}</span></p> -Child! Daughter! I am here! the voice exclaims,<br/> -And from the gate, unharm’d, through smoke and flames<br/> -Like as a God, Ladurlad made his way;<br/> -Wrapt his preserving arms around, and bore<br/> -His Child, uninjur’d, o’er the burning floor.<br/> - - -<h3 id="canto_15"> -<br/><br/><br/> -XV.<br/> -THE CITY OF BALY. -</h3> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{26}</span></p> - -<p class="spk">Kailyal.</p> -Ereenia!<br/> - -<p class="spk">Ladurlad.</p> -Nay, let no reproachful thought<br/> -Wrong his heroic heart! The Evil Powers<br/> -Have the dominion o’er this wretched World,<br/> -And no good Spirit now can venture here.<br/> - -<p class="spk">Kailyal.</p> -Alas, my Father! he hath ventur’d here,<br/> -And sav’d me from one horror. But the Powers<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{27}</span></p> -Of Evil beat him down, and bore away<br/> -To some dread scene of durance and despair,<br/> -The Ancient Tombs, methought their Mistress said,<br/> -Beneath the ocean-waves: no way for Man<br/> -Is there; and Gods, she boasted, there are none<br/> -On Earth to help him now.<br/> - -<p class="spk">Ladurlad.</p> -Is that her boast?<br/> -And hath she laid him in the Ancient Tombs,<br/> -Relying that the Waves will guard him there?<br/> -Short-sighted are the eyes of Wickedness,<br/> -And all its craft but folly. O, my child!<br/> -The Curses of the Wicked are upon me,<br/> -And the immortal Deities, who see<br/> -And suffer all things for their own wise end,<br/> -Have made them blessings to us!<br/> - -<p class="spk">Kailyal.</p> -Then thou knowest<br/> -Where they have borne him?<br/> - -<p class="spk">Ladurlad.</p> -To the Sepulchres<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{28}</span></p> -Of the Ancient Kings, which Baly, in his power,<br/> -Made in primeval times; and built above them<br/> -A City, like the Cities of the Gods,<br/> -Being like a God himself. For many an age<br/> -Hath Ocean warr’d against his Palaces,<br/> -Till overwhelm’d, they lie beneath the waves,<br/> -Not overthrown, so well the Mighty One<br/> -Had laid their deep foundations. Rightly said<br/> -The Accursed, that no way for Man was there,<br/> -But not like Man am I!<br/> - -<p class="stanza">1.</p> -Up from the ground the Maid exultant sprung,<br/> -And clapp’d her happy hands, in attitude<br/> -Of thanks, to Heaven, and flung<br/> -Her arms around her Father’s neck, and stood<br/> -Struggling awhile for utterance, with excess<br/> -Of hope and pious thankfulness.<br/> -Come . . come! she cried, O let us not delay, . .<br/> -He is in torments there, . . away! . . away!<br/> - -<p class="stanza">2.</p> -Long time they travell’d on; at dawn of day<br/> -Still setting forward with the earliest light,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{29}</span></p> -Nor ceasing from their way<br/> -Till darkness clos’d the night.<br/> -Short refuge from the noontide heat,<br/> -Reluctantly compell’d, the Maiden took;<br/> -And ill her indefatigable feet<br/> -Could that brief tarriance brook.<br/> -Hope kept her up, and her intense desire<br/> -Supports that heart which ne’er at danger quails,<br/> -Those feet which never tire,<br/> -That frame which never fails.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">3.</p> -Their talk was of the City of the days<br/> -Of old, Earth’s wonder once; and of the fame<br/> -Of Baly its great founder, . . he whose name<br/> -In ancient story, and in poet’s praise,<br/> -Liveth and flourisheth for endless glory,<br/> -Because his might<br/> -Put down the wrong, and aye upheld the right.<br/> -Till for ambition, as old sages tell,<br/> -The mighty Monarch fell:<br/> -For he too, having made the World his own,<br/> -Then, in his pride, had driven<br/> -The Devetas from Heaven,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{30}</span></p> -And seiz’d triumphantly the Swerga throne.<br/> -The Incarnate came before the Mighty One,<br/> -In dwarfish stature, and in mien obscure;<br/> -The sacred cord he bore,<br/> -And ask’d, for Brama’s sake, a little boon,<br/> -Three steps of Baly’s ample reign, no more.<br/> -Poor was the boon requir’d, and poor was he<br/> -Who begg’d, . . a little wretch it seem’d to be;<br/> -But Baly ne’er refus’d a suppliant’s prayer.<br/> -A glance of pity, in contemptuous mood,<br/> -He on the Dwarf cast down,<br/> -And bade him take the boon,<br/> -And measure where he would.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">4.</p> -Lo, Son of giant birth,<br/> -I take my grant! the Incarnate power replies.<br/> -With his first step he measur’d o’er the Earth,<br/> -The second spann’d the skies.<br/> -Three paces thou hast granted,<br/> -Twice have I set my footstep, Veeshnoo cries,<br/> -Where shall the third be planted?<br/> - -<p class="stanza">5.</p> -Then Baly knew the God, and at his feet,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{31}</span></p> -In homage due, he laid his humbled head.<br/> -Mighty art thou, O Lord of Earth and Heaven,<br/> -Mighty art thou! he said,<br/> -Be merciful, and let me be forgiven.<br/> -He ask’d for mercy of the merciful,<br/> -And mercy for his virtue’s sake was shown.<br/> -For though he was cast down to Padalon,<br/> -Yet there, by Yamen’s throne,<br/> -Doth Baly sit in majesty and might,<br/> -To judge the dead, and sentence them aright.<br/> -And forasmuch as he was still the friend<br/> -Of righteousness, it is permitted him,<br/> -Yearly, from those drear regions to ascend,<br/> -And walk the Earth, that he may hear his name<br/> -Still hymn’d and honour’d, by the grateful voice<br/> -Of humankind, and in his fame rejoice.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">6.</p> -Such was the talk they held upon their way,<br/> -Of him to whose old City they were bound;<br/> -And now, upon their journey, many a day<br/> -Had risen and clos’d, and many a week gone round,<br/> -And many a realm and region had they past,<br/> -When now the Ancient Towers appear’d at last.<br/> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{32}</span></p> - -<p class="stanza">7.</p> -Their golden summits, in the noon-day light,<br/> -Shone o’er the dark-green deep that roll’d between;<br/> -For domes, and pinnacles, and spires were seen<br/> -Peering above the sea, . . a mournful sight!<br/> -Well might the sad beholder ween from thence<br/> -What works of wonder the devouring wave<br/> -Had swallowed there, when monuments so brave<br/> -Bore record of their old magnificence.<br/> -And on the sandy shore, beside the verge<br/> -Of Ocean, here and there, a rock-hewn fane<br/> -Resisted in its strength the surf and surge<br/> -That on their deep foundations beat in vain.<br/> -In solitude the Ancient Temples stood,<br/> -Once resonant with instrument and song,<br/> -And solemn dance of festive multitude;<br/> -Now as the weary ages pass along,<br/> -No voice they hear, save of the Ocean flood,<br/> -Which roars for ever on the restless shores;<br/> -Or, visiting their solitary caves,<br/> -The lonely sound of Winds, that moan around<br/> -Accordant to the melancholy waves.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">8.</p> -With reverence did the travellers see<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{33}</span></p> -The works of ancient days, and silently<br/> -Approach the shore. Now on the yellow sand,<br/> -Where round their feet the rising surges part,<br/> -They stand. Ladurlad’s heart<br/> -Exulted in his wonderous destiny.<br/> -To Heaven he rais’d his hand<br/> -In attitude of stern heroic pride;<br/> -Oh what a power, he cried,<br/> -Thou dreadful Rajah, doth thy Curse impart!<br/> -I thank thee now! . . Then turning to the Maid,<br/> -Thou see’st how far and wide<br/> -Yon Towers extend, he said,<br/> -My search must needs be long. Meantime the flood<br/> -Will cast thee up thy food, . .<br/> -And in the Chambers of the Rock by night,<br/> -Take thou thy safe abode,<br/> -No prowling beast to harm thee, or affright,<br/> -Can enter there; but wrap thyself with care<br/> -From the foul Bird obscene that thirsts for blood;<br/> -For in such caverns doth the Bat delight<br/> -To have its haunts. Do thou with stone and shout,<br/> -Ere thou liest down at evening, scare them out,<br/> -And in this robe of mine involve thy feet.<br/> -Duly commend us both to Heaven in prayer,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{34}</span></p> -Be of good heart, and let thy sleep be sweet.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">9.</p> -So saying, he put back his arm, and gave<br/> -The cloth which girt his loins, and prest her hand<br/> -With fervent love, then down the sloping sand<br/> -Advanced into the sea: the coming Wave,<br/> -Which knew Kehama’s Curse, before his way<br/> -Started, and on he went as on dry land,<br/> -And still around his path the waters parted.<br/> -She stands upon the shore, where sea-weeds play,<br/> -Lashing her polish’d ankles, and the spray<br/> -Which off her Father, like a rainbow, fled,<br/> -Falls on her like a shower; there Kailyal stands,<br/> -And sees the billows rise above his head.<br/> -She, at the startling sight, forgot the power<br/> -The Curse had given him, and held forth her hands<br/> -Imploringly, . . . her voice was on the wind,<br/> -And the deaf Ocean o’er Ladurlad clos’d.<br/> -Soon she recall’d his destiny to mind,<br/> -And, shaking off that natural fear, compos’d<br/> -Her soul with prayer, to wait the event resign’d.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">10.</p> -Alone, upon the solitary strand,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{35}</span></p> -The lovely one is left; behold her go,<br/> -Pacing with patient footsteps, to and fro,<br/> -Along the bending sand.<br/> -Save her, ye Gods! from Evil Powers, and here<br/> -From man she need not fear;<br/> -For never Traveller comes near<br/> -These awful ruins of the days of yore,<br/> -Nor fisher’s bark, nor venturous mariner,<br/> -Approach the sacred shore.<br/> -All day she walk’d the beach, at night she sought<br/> -The Chamber of the Rock; with stone and shout<br/> -Assail’d the Bats obscene, and scar’d them out;<br/> -Then in her Father’s robe involv’d her feet,<br/> -And wrapt her mantle round to guard her head,<br/> -And laid her down: the rock was Kailyal’s bed,<br/> -Her chamber-lamps were in the starry sky,<br/> -The winds and waters were her lullaby.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">11.</p> -Be of good heart, and let thy sleep be sweet,<br/> -Ladurlad said, . . Alas! that cannot be<br/> -To one whose days are days of misery.<br/> -How often did she stretch her hands to greet<br/> -Ereenia, rescued in the dreams of night!<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{36}</span></p> -How oft amid the vision of delight,<br/> -Fear in her heart all is not as it seems;<br/> -Then from unsettled slumber start, and hear<br/> -The Winds that moan above, the Waves below!<br/> -Thou hast been call’d, O Sleep! the friend of Woe,<br/> -But ’tis the happy who have call’d thee so.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">12.</p> -Another day, another night are gone,<br/> -A second passes, and a third wanes on.<br/> -So long she paced the shore,<br/> -So often on the beach she took her stand,<br/> -That the wild Sea-Birds knew her, and no more<br/> -Fled, when she past beside them on the strand.<br/> -Bright shine the golden summits in the light<br/> -Of the noon-sun, and lovelier far by night<br/> -Their moonlight glories o’er the sea they shed:<br/> -Fair is the dark-green deep; by night and day<br/> -Unvex’d with storms, the peaceful billows play,<br/> -As when they clos’d upon Ladurlad’s head:<br/> -The firmament above is bright and clear;<br/> -The sea-fowl, lords of water, air, and land,<br/> -Joyous alike upon the wing appear,<br/> -Or when they ride the waves, or walk the sand;<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{37}</span></p> -Beauty and light and joy are every-where;<br/> -There is no sadness and no sorrow here,<br/> -Save what that single human breast contains,<br/> -But oh! what hopes, and fears, and pains are there!<br/> - -<p class="stanza">13.</p> -Seven miserable days the expectant Maid,<br/> -From earliest dawn till evening, watch’d the shore;<br/> -Hope left her then; and in her heart she said,<br/> -Never shall I behold my Father more!<br/> - - -<h3 id="canto_16"> -<br/><br/><br/> -XVI.<br/> -THE ANCIENT SEPULCHRES. -</h3> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{38}</span></p> - -<p class="stanza">1.</p> -When the broad Ocean on Ladurlad’s head<br/> -Had clos’d and arch’d him o’er,<br/> -With steady tread he held his way<br/> -Adown the sloping shore.<br/> -The dark-green waves, with emerald hue,<br/> -Imbue the beams of day,<br/> -And on the wrinkled sand below,<br/> -Rolling their mazy network to and fro,<br/> -Light shadows shift and play.<br/> -The hungry Shark, at scent of prey,<br/> -Toward Ladurlad darted;<br/> -Beholding then that human form erect,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{39}</span></p> -How like a God the depths he trod,<br/> -Appall’d the monster started,<br/> -And in his fear departed.<br/> -Onward Ladurlad went with heart elate,<br/> -And now hath reach’d the Ancient City’s gate.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">2.</p> -Wondering, he stood awhile to gaze<br/> -Upon the works of elder days.<br/> -The brazen portals open stood,<br/> -Even as the fearful multitude<br/> -Had left them, when they fled<br/> -Before the rising flood.<br/> -High over-head, sublime,<br/> -The mighty gateway’s storied roof was spread,<br/> -Dwarfing the puny piles of younger time.<br/> -With the deeds of days of yore<br/> -That ample roof was sculptur’d o’er,<br/> -And many a godlike form there met his eye,<br/> -And many an emblem dark of mystery.<br/> -Through these wide portals oft had Baly rode<br/> -Triumphant from his proud abode,<br/> -When, in his greatness, he bestrode<br/> -The Aullay, hugest of four-footed kind,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{40}</span></p> -The Aullay-Horse, that in his force,<br/> -With elephantine trunk, could bind<br/> -And lift the elephant, and on the wind<br/> -Whirl him away, with sway and swing,<br/> -Even like a pebble from the practis’d sling.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">3.</p> -Those streets which never, since the days of yore,<br/> -By human footstep had been visited;<br/> -Those streets; which never more<br/> -A human foot shall tread,<br/> -Ladurlad trod. In sun-light, and sea-green,<br/> -The thousand palaces were seen<br/> -Of that proud city, whose superb abodes<br/> -Seem’d rear’d by Giants for the immortal Gods.<br/> -How silent and how beautiful they stand,<br/> -Like things of Nature! the eternal rocks<br/> -Themselves not firmer. Neither hath the sand<br/> -Drifted within their gates, and choak’d their doors,<br/> -Nor slime defil’d their pavements and their floors.<br/> -Did then the Ocean wage<br/> -His war for love and envy, not in rage,<br/> -O thou fair City, that he spares thee thus?<br/> -Art thou Varounin’s capital and court,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{41}</span></p> -Where all the Sea-Gods for delight resort,<br/> -A place too godlike to be held by us,<br/> -The poor degenerate children of the Earth?<br/> -So thought Ladurlad, as he look’d around,<br/> -Weening to hear the sound<br/> -Of Mermaid’s shell, and song<br/> -Of choral throng from some imperial hall,<br/> -Wherein the Immortal Powers, at festival,<br/> -Their high carousals keep.<br/> -But all is silence dread,<br/> -Silence profound and dead,<br/> -The everlasting stillness of the Deep.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">4.</p> -Through many a solitary street,<br/> -And silent market-place, and lonely square,<br/> -Arm’d with the mighty Curse, behold him fare.<br/> -And now his feet attain that royal fane<br/> -Where Baly held of old his awful reign.<br/> -What once had been the Garden spread around,<br/> -Fair Gardens, once which wore perpetual green,<br/> -Where all sweet flowers through all the year were found,<br/> -And all fair fruits were through all seasons seen;<br/> -A place of Paradise, where each device<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{42}</span></p> -Of emulous Art with Nature strove to vie;<br/> -And Nature, on her part,<br/> -Call’d forth new powers wherewith to vanquish Art.<br/> -The Swerga-God himself, with envious eye,<br/> -Survey’d those peerless gardens in their prime;<br/> -Nor ever did the Lord of Light,<br/> -Who circles Earth and Heaven upon his way,<br/> -Behold from eldest time a goodlier sight<br/> -Than were the groves which Baly, in his might,<br/> -Made for his chosen place of solace and delight.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">5.</p> -It was a Garden still beyond all price,<br/> -Even yet it was a place of Paradise;<br/> -For where the mighty Ocean could not spare,<br/> -There had he, with his own creation,<br/> -Sought to repair his work of devastation.<br/> -And here were coral bowers,<br/> -And grots of madrepores,<br/> -And banks of spunge, as soft and fair to eye<br/> -As e’er was mossy bed<br/> -Whereon the Wood Nymphs lie<br/> -With languid limbs in summer’s sultry hours.<br/> -Here, too, were living flowers<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{43}</span></p> -Which, like a bud compacted,<br/> -Their purple cups contracted,<br/> -And now in open blossom spread,<br/> -Stretch’d like green anthers many a seeking head.<br/> -And arborets of jointed stone were there,<br/> -And plants of fibres fine, as silkworm’s thread;<br/> -Yea, beautiful as Mermaid’s golden hair<br/> -Upon the waves dispread:<br/> -Others that, like the broad banana growing,<br/> -Rais’d their long wrinkled leaves of purple hue,<br/> -Like streamers wide out-flowing.<br/> -And whatsoe’er the depths of Ocean hide<br/> -From human eyes, Ladurlad there espied,<br/> -Trees of the deep, and shrubs and fruits and flowers,<br/> -As fair as ours,<br/> -Wherewith the Sea-Nymphs love their locks to braid,<br/> -When to their father’s hall, at festival<br/> -Repairing, they, in emulous array,<br/> -Their charms display,<br/> -To grace the banquet, and the solemn day.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">6.</p> -The golden fountains had not ceas’d to flow,<br/> -And, where they mingled with the briny Sea,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{44}</span></p> -There was a sight of wonder and delight,<br/> -To see the fish, like birds in air,<br/> -Above Ladurlad flying.<br/> -Round those strange waters they repair,<br/> -Their scarlet fins outspread and plying,<br/> -They float with gentle hovering there;<br/> -And now upon those little wings,<br/> -As if to dare forbidden things,<br/> -With wilful purpose bent,<br/> -Swift as an arrow from a bow<br/> -They dash across, and to and fro,<br/> -In rapid glance, like lightning go<br/> -Through that unwonted element.<br/> -Almost in scenes so wonderous fair,<br/> -Ladurlad had forgot<br/> -The mighty cause which led him there;<br/> -His busy eye was every where,<br/> -His mind had lost all thought;<br/> -His heart, surrendered to the joys<br/> -Of sight, was happy as a boy’s.<br/> -But soon the awakening thought recurs<br/> -Of him who, in the Sepulchres,<br/> -Hopeless of human aid, in chains is laid;<br/> -And her who, on the solitary shore,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{45}</span></p> -By night and day her weary watch will keep,<br/> -Till she shall see them issuing from the deep.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">7.</p> -Now hath Ladurlad reach’d the Court<br/> -Of the great Palace of the King; its floor<br/> -Was of the marble rock; and there before<br/> -The imperial door,<br/> -A mighty Image on the steps was seen,<br/> -Of stature huge, of countenance serene.<br/> -A crown and sceptre at his feet were laid;<br/> -One hand a scroll display’d,<br/> -The other pointed there, that all might see;<br/> -My name is Death, it said,<br/> -In mercy have the Gods appointed me.<br/> -Two brazen gates beneath him, night and day<br/> -Stood open; and within them you behold<br/> -Descending steps, which in the living stone<br/> -Were hewn, a spacious way<br/> -Down to the Chambers of the Kings of old.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">8.</p> -Trembling with hope, the adventurous man descended<br/> -The sea-green light of day<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{46}</span></p> -Not far along the vault extended;<br/> -But where the slant reflection ended,<br/> -Another light was seen<br/> -Of red and fiery hue,<br/> -That with the water blended,<br/> -And gave the secrets of the Tombs to view.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">9.</p> -Deep in the marble rock, the Hall<br/> -Of Death was hollowed out, a chamber wide,<br/> -Low-roof’d, and long; on either side,<br/> -Each in his own alcove, and on his throne,<br/> -The Kings of old were seated: in his hand<br/> -Each held the sceptre of command,<br/> -From whence, across that scene of endless night,<br/> -A carbuncle diffused its everlasting light.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">10.</p> -So well had the embalmers done their part<br/> -With spice and precious unguents, to imbue<br/> -The perfect corpse, that each had still the hue<br/> -Of living man, and every limb was still<br/> -Supple and firm and full, as when of yore<br/> -Its motion answered to the moving will.<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{47}</span></p> -The robes of royalty which once they wore,<br/> -Long since had mouldered off and left them bare:<br/> -Naked upon their thrones behold them there,<br/> -Statues of actual flesh, . . a fearful sight!<br/> -Their large and rayless eyes<br/> -Dimly reflecting to that gem-born light,<br/> -Glaz’d, fix’d, and meaningless, . . . yet, open wide,<br/> -Their ghastly balls belied<br/> -The mockery of life in all beside.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">11.</p> -But if, amid these Chambers drear,<br/> -Death were a sight of shuddering and of fear,<br/> -Life was a thing of stranger horror here.<br/> -For at the farther end, in yon alcove,<br/> -Where Baly should have lain, had he obey’d<br/> -Man’s common lot, behold Ereenia laid.<br/> -Strong fetters link him to the rock; his eye<br/> -Now rolls and widens, as with effort vain<br/> -He strives to break the chain,<br/> -Now seems to brood upon his misery.<br/> -Before him couch’d there lay<br/> -One of the mighty monsters of the deep,<br/> -Whom Lorrinite encountering on the way,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{48}</span></p> -There station’d, his perpetual guard to keep;<br/> -In the sport of wanton power, she charm’d him there,<br/> -As if to mock the Glendoveer’s despair.<br/> -Upward his form was human, save that here<br/> -The skin was cover’d o’er with scale on scale<br/> -Compact, a panoply of natural mail.<br/> -His mouth, from ear to ear,<br/> -Weapon’d with triple teeth, extended wide,<br/> -And tusks on either side;<br/> -A double snake below, he roll’d<br/> -His supple lengths behind in many a sinuous fold.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">12.</p> -With red and kindling eye, the Beast beholds<br/> -A living man draw nigh,<br/> -And, rising on his folds,<br/> -In hungry joy awaits the expected feast,<br/> -His mouth half-open, and his teeth unsheath’d.<br/> -Then on he sprung, and in his scaly arms<br/> -Seiz’d him, and fasten’d on his neck, to suck,<br/> -With greedy lips, the warm life-blood: and sure<br/> -But for the mighty power of magic charms,<br/> -As easily as, in the blithesome hour<br/> -Of spring, a child doth crop the meadow flower,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{49}</span></p> -Piecemeal those claws<br/> -Had rent their victim, and those armed jaws<br/> -Snapt him in twain. Naked Ladurlad stood,<br/> -Yet fearless and unharm’d in this dread strife,<br/> -So well Kehama’s Curse had charm’d his fated life.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">13.</p> -He too, . . . for anger, rising at the sight<br/> -Of him he sought, in such strange thrall confin’d.<br/> -With desperate courage fir’d Ladurlad’s mind, . . .<br/> -He, too, unto the fight himself addrest,<br/> -And grappling breast to breast,<br/> -With foot firm-planted stands,<br/> -And seiz’d the monster’s throat with both his hands.<br/> -Vainly, with throttling grasp, he prest<br/> -The impenetrable scales;<br/> -And lo! the guard rose up, and round his foe,<br/> -With gliding motion, wreath’d his lengthening coils,<br/> -Then tighten’d all their folds with stress and strain.<br/> -Nought would the raging Tyger’s strength avail<br/> -If once involv’d within those mighty toils;<br/> -The arm’d Rhinoceros, so clasp’d, in vain<br/> -Had trusted to his hide of rugged mail,<br/> -His bones all broken, and the breath of life<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{50}</span></p> -Crush’d from the lungs, in that unequal strife.<br/> -Again, and yet again, he sought to break<br/> -The impassive limbs; but when the monster found<br/> -His utmost power was vain,<br/> -A moment he relax’d in every round,<br/> -Then knit his coils again with closer strain,<br/> -And, bearing forward, forced him to the ground.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">14.</p> -Ereenia groan’d in anguish at the sight<br/> -Of this dread fight: once more the Glendoveer<br/> -Essay’d to break his bonds, and fear<br/> -For that brave spirit who had sought him here,<br/> -Stung him to wilder strugglings. From the rock<br/> -He rais’d himself half up, . . with might and main<br/> -Pluck’d at the adamantine chain;<br/> -And now, with long and unrelaxing strain,<br/> -In obstinate effort of indignant strength,<br/> -Labour’d and strove in vain;<br/> -Till his immortal sinews fail’d at length;<br/> -And yielding, with an inward groan, to fate,<br/> -Despairingly, he let himself again<br/> -Fall prostrate on his prison-bed of stone,<br/> -Body and chain alike with lifeless weight.<br/> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{51}</span></p> - -<p class="stanza">15.</p> -Struggling they lay in mortal fray<br/> -All day, while day was in our upper sphere,<br/> -For light of day,<br/> -And natural darkness never entered here;<br/> -All night, with unabated might,<br/> -They waged the unremitting fight.<br/> -A second day, a second night,<br/> -With furious will they wrestled still.<br/> -The third came on, the fourth is gone;<br/> -Another comes, another goes,<br/> -And yet no respite, no repose;<br/> -But day and night, and night and day,<br/> -Involv’d in mortal strife they lay;<br/> -Six days and nights have past away,<br/> -And still they wage, with mutual rage,<br/> -The unremitting fray.<br/> -With mutual rage their war they wage,<br/> -But not with mutual will;<br/> -For when the seventh morning came,<br/> -The monster’s worn and wearied frame<br/> -In this strange contest fails;<br/> -And weaker, weaker, every hour<br/> -He yields beneath strong Nature’s power,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{52}</span></p> -For now the Curse prevails.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">16.</p> -Sometimes the Beast sprung up to bear<br/> -His foe aloft; and, trusting there<br/> -To shake him from his hold,<br/> -Relax’d the rings that wreath’d him round;<br/> -But on his throat Ladurlad hung,<br/> -And weigh’d him to the ground;<br/> -And if they sink, or if they float,<br/> -Alike with stubborn clasp he clung,<br/> -Tenacious of his grasp;<br/> -For well he knew with what a power,<br/> -Exempt from Nature’s laws,<br/> -The Curse had arm’d him for this hour;<br/> -And in the monster’s gasping jaws,<br/> -And in his hollow eye,<br/> -Well could Ladurlad now descry<br/> -The certain signs of victory.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">17.</p> -And now the guard no more can keep<br/> -His painful watch; his eyes, opprest,<br/> -Are fainting for their natural sleep;<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{53}</span></p> -His living flesh and blood must rest,<br/> -The Beast must sleep or die.<br/> -Then he, full faint and languidly,<br/> -Unwreathes his rings and strives to fly,<br/> -And still retreating, slowly trails<br/> -His stiff and heavy length of scales.<br/> -But that unweariable foe,<br/> -With will relentless, follows still;<br/> -No breathing time, no pause of fight<br/> -He gives, but presses on his flight;<br/> -Along the vaulted chambers, and the ascent<br/> -Up to the emerald-tinted light of day,<br/> -He harasses his way,<br/> -Till lifeless, underneath his grasp,<br/> -The huge Sea-Monster lay.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">18.</p> -That obstinate work is done! Ladurlad cried,<br/> -One labour yet remains!<br/> -And thoughtfully he eyed<br/> -Ereenia’s ponderous chains;<br/> -And with vain effort, half-despairing, tried<br/> -The rivets deep in-driven. Instinctively,<br/> -As if in search of aid, he look’d around:<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{54}</span></p> -Oh, then, how gladly, in the near alcove,<br/> -Fallen on the ground its lifeless Lord beside,<br/> -The crescent scymitar he spied,<br/> -Whose cloudy blade, with potent spells imbued,<br/> -Had lain so many an age unhurt in solitude.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">19.</p> -Joyfully springing there<br/> -He seiz’d the weapon, and with eager stroke<br/> -Hew’d at the chain; the force was dealt in vain,<br/> -For not as if through yielding air<br/> -Past the descending scymitar,<br/> -Its deaden’d way the heavy water broke;<br/> -Yet it bit deep. Again, with both his hands,<br/> -He wields the blade, and dealt a surer blow.<br/> -The baser metal yields<br/> -To that fine edge, and lo! the Glendoveer<br/> -Rises and snaps the half-sever’d links, and stands<br/> -Freed from his broken bands.<br/> - - -<h3 id="canto_17"> -<br/><br/><br/> -XVII.<br/> -BALY. -</h3> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{55}</span></p> - -<p class="stanza">1.</p> -This is the appointed night,<br/> -The night of joy and consecrated mirth,<br/> -When, from his judgement-seat in Padalon,<br/> -By Yamen’s throne,<br/> -Baly goes forth, that he may walk the Earth<br/> -Unseen, and hear his name<br/> -Still hymn’d and honour’d by the grateful voice<br/> -Of humankind, and in his fame rejoice.<br/> -Therefore from door to door, and street to street,<br/> -With willing feet,<br/> -Shaking their firebrands, the glad children run;<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{56}</span></p> -Baly! great Baly! they acclaim,<br/> -Where’er they run they bear the mighty name;<br/> -Where’er they meet,<br/> -Baly! great Baly! still their choral tongues repeat.<br/> -Therefore at every door the votive flame<br/> -Through pendant lanthorns sheds its painted light,<br/> -And rockets hissing upward through the sky,<br/> -Fall like a shower of stars<br/> -From Heaven’s black canopy.<br/> -Therefore, on yonder mountain’s templed height,<br/> -The brazen cauldron blazes through the night.<br/> -Huge as a Ship that travels the main sea<br/> -Is that capacious brass; its wick as tall<br/> -As is the mast of some great admiral.<br/> -Ten thousand votaries bring<br/> -Camphor and ghee to feed the sacred flame;<br/> -And while, through regions round, the nations see<br/> -Its fiery pillar curling high in heaven,<br/> -Baly! great Baly! they exclaim,<br/> -For ever hallowed be his blessed name!<br/> -Honour and praise to him for ever more be given!<br/> - -<p class="stanza">2.</p> -Why art not thou among the festive throng,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{57}</span></p> -Baly, O Mighty One! to hear thy fame?<br/> -Still as of yore, with pageantry and song<br/> -The glowing streets along,<br/> -They celebrate thy name;<br/> -Baly! great Baly! still<br/> -The grateful habitants of Earth acclaim,<br/> -Baly! great Baly! still<br/> -The ringing walls and echoing towers proclaim.<br/> -From yonder mountain the portentous flame<br/> -Still blazes to the nations as before;<br/> -All things appear to human eyes the same,<br/> -As perfect as of yore;<br/> -To human eyes, . . but how unlike to thine!<br/> -Thine which were wont to see<br/> -The Company divine,<br/> -That with their presence came to honour thee!<br/> -For all the blessed ones of mortal birth<br/> -Who have been cloth’d with immortality,<br/> -From the eight corners of the Earth,<br/> -From the Seven Worlds assembling, all<br/> -Wont to attend thy solemn festival.<br/> -Then did thine eyes behold<br/> -The wide air peopled with that glorious train,<br/> -Now may’st thou seek the blessed ones in vain,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{58}</span></p> -For Earth and Air are now beneath the Rajah’s reign.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">3.</p> -Therefore the Mighty One hath walk’d the Earth<br/> -In sorrow and in solitude to-night.<br/> -The sound of human mirth<br/> -To him is no delight;<br/> -He turns away from that ungrateful sight,<br/> -Hallowed not now by visitants divine,<br/> -And there he bends his melancholy way<br/> -Where, in yon full-orb’d Moon’s refulgent light,<br/> -The Golden Towers of his old City shine<br/> -Above the silver sea. The mighty Chief<br/> -There bent his way in grief,<br/> -As if sad thoughts indulged would work their own relief.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">4.</p> -There he beholds upon the sand<br/> -A lovely Maiden in the moonlight stand.<br/> -The land-breeze lifts her locks of jet,<br/> -The waves around her polish’d ancles play,<br/> -Her bosom with the salt sea-spray is wet;<br/> -Her arms are crost, unconsciously, to fold<br/> -That bosom from the cold,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{59}</span></p> -While statue-like she seems her watch to keep,<br/> -Gazing intently on the restless deep.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">5.</p> -Seven miserable days had Kailyal there,<br/> -From earliest dawn till evening, watch’d the deep;<br/> -Six nights within the chamber of the rock,<br/> -Had laid her down, and found in prayer<br/> -That comfort which she sought in vain from sleep.<br/> -But when the seventh night came,<br/> -Never should she behold her Father more,<br/> -The wretched Maiden said in her despair;<br/> -Yet would not quit the shore,<br/> -Nor turn her eyes one moment from the sea:<br/> -Never before<br/> -Had Kailyal watch’d it so impatiently,<br/> -Never so eagerly had hop’d before,<br/> -As now when she believ’d, and said, all hope was o’er.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">6.</p> -Beholding her, how beautiful she stood,<br/> -In that wild solitude,<br/> -Baly from his invisibility<br/> -Had issued then, to know her cause of woe;<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{60}</span></p> -But that, in the air beside her, he espied<br/> -Two Powers of Evil for her hurt allied,<br/> -Foul Arvalan and dreadful Lorrinite.<br/> -The Mighty One they could not see,<br/> -And marking with what demon-like delight<br/> -They kept their innocent prey in sight,<br/> -He waits, expecting what the end may be.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">7.</p> -She starts; for lo! where floating many a rood,<br/> -A Monster, hugest of the Ocean brood,<br/> -Weltering and lifeless, drifts toward the shore.<br/> -Backward she starts in fear before the flood,<br/> -And, when the waves retreat,<br/> -They leave their hideous burthen at her feet.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">8.</p> -She ventures to approach with timid tread,<br/> -She starts, and half draws back in fear,<br/> -Then stops, and stretches on her head,<br/> -To see if that huge beast indeed be dead.<br/> -Now growing bold, the Maid advances near,<br/> -Even to the margin of the ocean-flood.<br/> -Rightly she reads her Father’s victory,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{61}</span></p> -And lifts her joyous hands, exultingly,<br/> -To Heaven in gratitude.<br/> -Then spreading them toward the Sea,<br/> -While pious tears bedim her streaming eyes,<br/> -Come! come! my Father, come to me!<br/> -Ereenia, come! she cries.<br/> -Lo! from the opening deep they rise,<br/> -And to Ladurlad’s arms the happy Kailyal flies.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">9.</p> -She turn’d from him, to meet, with beating heart,<br/> -The Glendoveer’s embrace.<br/> -Now turn to me, for mine thou art!<br/> -Foul Arvalan exdaim’d; his loathsome face<br/> -Came forth, and from the air,<br/> -In fleshly form, he burst.<br/> -Always in horror and despair,<br/> -Had Kailyal seen that form and face accurst,<br/> -But yet so sharp a pang had ne’er<br/> -Shot with a thrill like death through all her frame,<br/> -As now when on her hour of joy the Spectre came.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">10.</p> -Vain is resistance now,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{62}</span></p> -The fiendish laugh of Lorrinite is heard;<br/> -And, at her dreadful word,<br/> -The Asuras once again appear,<br/> -And seize Ladurlad and the Glendoveer.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">11.</p> -Hold your accursed hands!<br/> -A Voice exclaim’d, whose dread commands<br/> -Were fear’d through all the vaults of Padalon;<br/> -And there among them, in the midnight air,<br/> -The presence of the mighty Baly shone.<br/> -He, making manifest his mightiness,<br/> -Put forth on every side an hundred arms,<br/> -And seiz’d the Sorceress; maugre all her charms,<br/> -Her and her fiendish ministers he caught<br/> -With force as uncontroulable as fate;<br/> -And that unhappy Soul, to whom<br/> -The Almighty Rajah’s power availeth not<br/> -Living to avert, nor dead to mitigate<br/> -His righteous doom.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">12.</p> -Help, help, Kehama! Father, help! he cried;<br/> -But Baly tarried not to abide<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{63}</span></p> -That mightier Power; with irresistible feet<br/> -He stampt and cleft the Earth; it opened wide,<br/> -And gave him way to his own judgement-seat.<br/> -Down, like a plummet, to the World below<br/> -He sunk, and bore his prey<br/> -To righteous punishment, and endless woe.<br/> - - -<h3 id="canto_18"> -<br/><br/><br/> -XVIII.<br/> -KEHAMA’S DESCENT. -</h3> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{64}</span></p> - -<p class="stanza">1.</p> -The Earth, by Baly’s feet divided,<br/> -Clos’d o’er his way as to the judgement-seat<br/> -He plunged and bore his prey.<br/> -Scarce had the shock subsided,<br/> -When, darting from the Swerga’s heavenly heights,<br/> -Kehama, like a thunderbolt, alights.<br/> -In wrath he came, a bickering flame<br/> -Flash’d from his eyes which made the moonlight dim,<br/> -And passion forcing way from every limb,<br/> -Like furnace-smoke, with terrors wrapt him round.<br/> -Furious he smote the ground;<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{65}</span></p> -Earth trembled underneath the dreadful stroke,<br/> -Again in sunder riven;<br/> -He hurl’d in rage his whirling weapon down.<br/> -But lo! the fiery sheckra to his feet<br/> -Return’d, as if by equal force re-driven,<br/> -And from the abyss the voice of Baly came:<br/> -Not yet, O Rajah, hast thou won<br/> -The realms of Padalon!<br/> -Earth and the Swerga are thine own,<br/> -But, till Kehama shall subdue the throne<br/> -Of Hell, in torments Yamen holds his son.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">2.</p> -Fool that he is! . . in torments let him lie!<br/> -Kehama, wrathful at his son, replied.<br/> -But what am I<br/> -That thou should’st brave me? . . kindling in his pride<br/> -The dreadful Rajah cried.<br/> -Ho! Yamen! hear me. God of Padalon,<br/> -Prepare thy throne,<br/> -And let the Amreeta cup<br/> -Be ready for my lips, when I anon<br/> -Triumphantly shall take my seat thereon,<br/> -And plant upon thy neck my royal feet.<br/> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{66}</span></p> - -<p class="stanza">3.</p> -In voice like thunder thus the Rajah cried,<br/> -Impending o’er the abyss, with menacing hand<br/> -Put forth, as in the action of command,<br/> -And eyes that darted their red anger down.<br/> -Then drawing back he let the earth subside,<br/> -And, as his wrath relax’d, survey’d,<br/> -Thoughtful and silently, the mortal Maid.<br/> -Her eye the while was on the farthest sky,<br/> -Where up the etherial height<br/> -Ereenia rose and past away from sight.<br/> -Never had she so joyfully<br/> -Beheld the coming of the Glendoveer,<br/> -Dear as he was and he deserv’d to be,<br/> -As now she saw him rise and disappear.<br/> -Come now what will, within her heart said she,<br/> -For thou art safe, and what have I to fear?<br/> - -<p class="stanza">4.</p> -Meantime the Almighty Rajah, late<br/> -In power and majesty and wrath array’d,<br/> -Had laid his terrors by<br/> -And gaz’d upon the Maid.<br/> -Pride could not quit his eye,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{67}</span></p> -Nor that remorseless nature from his front<br/> -Depart; yet whoso had beheld him then<br/> -Had felt some admiration mix’d with dread,<br/> -And might have said<br/> -That sure he seem’d to be the King of Men;<br/> -Less than the greatest that he could not be,<br/> -Who carried in his port such might and majesty.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">5.</p> -In fear no longer for the Glendoveer,<br/> -Now toward the Rajah Kailyal turn’d her eyes<br/> -As if to ask what doom awaited her.<br/> -But then surprise,<br/> -Even as with fascination, held them there,<br/> -So strange a thing it seem’d to see the change<br/> -Of purport in that all-commanding brow,<br/> -That thoughtfully was bent upon her now.<br/> -Wondering she gaz’d, the while her Father’s eye<br/> -Was fix’d upon Kehama haughtily;<br/> -It spake defiance to him, high disdain,<br/> -Stern patience, unsubduable by pain,<br/> -And pride triumphant over agony.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">6.</p> -Ladurlad, said the Rajah, thou and I<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{68}</span></p> -Alike have done the work of Destiny,<br/> -Unknowing each to what the impulse tended;<br/> -But now that over Earth and Heaven my reign<br/> -Is stablish’d, and the ways of Fate are plain<br/> -Before me, here our enmity is ended.<br/> -I take away thy Curse. . . As thus he said,<br/> -The fire which in Ladurlad’s heart and brain<br/> -Was burning, fled, and left him free from pain.<br/> -So rapidly his torments were departed,<br/> -That at the sudden ease he started,<br/> -As with a shock, and to his head<br/> -His hands up-fled,<br/> -As if he felt through every failing limb<br/> -The power and sense of life forsaking him.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">7.</p> -Then turning to the Maid, the Rajah cried,<br/> -O Virgin, above all of mortal birth<br/> -Favour’d alike in beauty and in worth,<br/> -And in the glories of thy destiny,<br/> -Now let thy happy heart exult with pride,<br/> -For Fate hath chosen thee<br/> -To be Kehama’s bride,<br/> -To be the Queen of Heaven and Earth,<br/> -And of whatever Worlds beside<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{69}</span></p> -Infinity may hide . . . For I can see<br/> -The writing which, at thy nativity,<br/> -All-knowing Nature wrought upon thy brain,<br/> -In branching veins, which to the gifted eye<br/> -Map out the mazes of futurity.<br/> -There is it written, Maid, that thou and I,<br/> -Alone of human kind a deathless pair,<br/> -Are doom’d to share<br/> -The Amreeta-drink divine<br/> -Of immortality. Come, Maiden mine!<br/> -High-fated One, ascend the subject sky,<br/> -And by Kehama’s side<br/> -Sit on the Swerga throne, his equal bride.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">8.</p> -Oh never, . . never . . Father! Kailyal cried;<br/> -It is not as he saith, . . it cannot be!<br/> -I! . . I, his bride!<br/> -Nature is never false; he wrongeth her!<br/> -My heart belies such lines of destiny.<br/> -There is no other true interpreter!<br/> - -<p class="stanza">9.</p> -At that reply Kehama’s darkening brow<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{70}</span></p> -Bewray’d the anger which he yet supprest.<br/> -Counsel thy daughter; tell her thou art now<br/> -Free from thy Curse, he said, and bid her bow<br/> -In thankfulness to Fate’s benign behest.<br/> -Bid her her stubborn will restrain,<br/> -For Destiny at last must be obey’d,<br/> -And tell her, while obedience is delay’d,<br/> -Thy Curse will burn again.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">10.</p> -She needeth not my counsel, he replied,<br/> -And idly, Rajah, dost thou reason thus<br/> -Of Destiny! for though all other things<br/> -Were subject to the starry influencings,<br/> -And bow’d submissive to thy tyranny,<br/> -The virtuous heart, and resolute will are free.<br/> -Thus in their wisdom did the Gods decree<br/> -When they created man. Let come what will,<br/> -This is our rock of strength; in every ill,<br/> -Sorrow, oppression, pain and agony,<br/> -The spirit of the good is unsubdued,<br/> -And, suffer as they may, they triumph still.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">11.</p> -Obstinate fools! exclaim’d the Mighty One,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{71}</span></p> -Fate and my pleasure must be done,<br/> -And ye resist in vain!<br/> -Take your fit guerdon till we meet again!<br/> -So saying, his vindictive hand he flung<br/> -Towards them, fill’d with curses; then on high<br/> -Aloft he sprung, and vanish’d through the Sky.<br/> - - -<h3 id="canto_19"> -<br/><br/><br/> -XIX.<br/> -MOUNT CALASAY. -</h3> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{72}</span></p> - -<p class="stanza">1.</p> -The Rajah, scattering curses as he rose,<br/> -Soar’d to the Swerga, and resum’d his throne.<br/> -Not for his own redoubled agony,<br/> -Which now through heart and brain,<br/> -With renovated pain,<br/> -Rush’d to its seat, Ladurlad breathes that groan,<br/> -That groan is for his child; he groan’d to see<br/> -The lovely one defil’d with leprosy,<br/> -Which, as the enemy vindictive fled,<br/> -O’er all her frame with quick contagion spread.<br/> -She, wondering at events so passing strange,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{73}</span></p> -And fill’d with hope and fear,<br/> -And joy to see the Tyrant disappear,<br/> -And glad expectance of her Glendoveer,<br/> -Perceiv’d not in herself the hideous change.<br/> -His burning pain, she thought, had forced the groan<br/> -Her father breath’d; his agonies alone<br/> -Were present to her mind; she claspt his knees,<br/> -Wept for his Curse, and did not feel her own.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">2.</p> -Nor when she saw her plague, did her good heart,<br/> -True to itself, even for a moment fail.<br/> -Ha, Rajah! with disdainful smile she cries,<br/> -Mighty and wise and wicked as thou art,<br/> -Still thy blind vengeance acts a friendly part.<br/> -Shall I not thank thee for this scurf and scale<br/> -Of dire deformity, whose loathsomeness,<br/> -Surer than panoply of strongest mail,<br/> -Arms me against all foes? Oh, better so,<br/> -Better such foul disgrace,<br/> -Than that this innocent face<br/> -Should tempt thy wooing! That I need not dread;<br/> -Nor ever impious foe<br/> -Will offer outrage now, nor farther woe<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{74}</span></p> -Will beauty draw on my unhappy head;<br/> -Safe through the unholy world may Kailyal go.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">3.</p> -Her face in virtuous pride<br/> -Was lifted to the skies,<br/> -As him and his poor vengeance she defied;<br/> -But earthward, when she ceas’d, she turn’d her eyes,<br/> -As if she sought to hide<br/> -The tear which in her own despite would rise.<br/> -Did then the thought of her own Glendoveer<br/> -Call forth that natural tear?<br/> -Was it a woman’s fear,<br/> -A thought of earthly love, which troubled her?<br/> -Like yon thin cloud amid the moonlight sky<br/> -That flits before the wind<br/> -And leaves no trace behind,<br/> -The womanly pang past over Kailyal’s mind.<br/> -This is a loathsome sight to human eye,<br/> -Half-shrinking at herself, the Maiden thought,<br/> -Will it be so to him? Oh surely not!<br/> -The immortal Powers, who see<br/> -Through the poor wrappings of mortality,<br/> -Behold the soul, the beautiful soul, within,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{75}</span></p> -Exempt from age and wasting malady,<br/> -And undeform’d, while pure and free from sin.<br/> -This is a loathsome sight to human eye,<br/> -But not to eyes divine,<br/> -Ereenia, Son of Heaven, oh not to thine!<br/> - -<p class="stanza">4.</p> -The wrongful thought of fear, the womanly pain<br/> -Had past away, her heart was calm again.<br/> -She rais’d her head, expecting now to see<br/> -The Glendoveer appear;<br/> -Where hath he fled, quoth she,<br/> -That he should tarry now? Oh had she known<br/> -Whither the adventurous Son of Heaven was flown,<br/> -Strong as her spirit was, it had not borne<br/> -The awful thought, nor dar’d to hope for his return.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">5.</p> -For he in search of Seeva’s throne was gone,<br/> -To tell his tale of wrong;<br/> -In search of Seeva’s own abode<br/> -The daring one began his heavenly road.<br/> -O wild emprize! above the farthest skies<br/> -He hop’d to rise!<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{76}</span></p> -Him who is thron’d beyond the reach of thought,<br/> -The Alone, the Inaccessible, he sought.<br/> -O wild emprize! for when in days of yore,<br/> -For proud pre-eminence of power,<br/> -Brama and Veeshnoo, wild with rage, contended,<br/> -And Seeva, in his might,<br/> -Their dread contention ended;<br/> -Before their sight<br/> -In form a fiery column did he tower,<br/> -Whose head above the highest height extended,<br/> -Whose base below the deepest depth descended.<br/> -Downward, its depth to sound,<br/> -Veeshnoo a thousand years explor’d<br/> -The fathomless profound,<br/> -And yet no base he found:<br/> -Upward, to reach its head,<br/> -Ten myriad years the aspiring Brama soar’d,<br/> -And still, as up he fled,<br/> -Above him still the Immeasurable spread.<br/> -The rivals own’d their lord,<br/> -And trembled and ador’d.<br/> -How shall the Glendoveer attain<br/> -What Brama and what Veeshnoo sought in vain?<br/> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{77}</span></p> - -<p class="stanza">6.</p> -Ne’er did such thought of lofty daring enter<br/> -Celestial Spirit’s mind. O wild adventure<br/> -That throne to find, for he must leave behind<br/> -This World, that in the centre,<br/> -Within its salt-sea girdle, lies confin’d;<br/> -Yea the Seven Earths that, each with its own ocean,<br/> -Ring clasping ring, compose the mighty round.<br/> -What power of motion,<br/> -In less than endless years shall bear him there,<br/> -Along the limitless extent,<br/> -To the utmost bound of the remotest spheres?<br/> -What strength of wing<br/> -Suffice to pierce the Golden Firmament<br/> -That closes all within?<br/> -Yet he hath past the measureless extent,<br/> -And pierced the Golden Firmament;<br/> -For Faith hath given him power, and Space and Time<br/> -Vanish before that energy sublime.<br/> -Nor doth Eternal Night,<br/> -And outer Darkness, check his resolute flight;<br/> -By strong desire through all he makes his way,<br/> -Till Seeva’s Seat appears, . . behold Mount Calasay!<br/> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{78}</span></p> - -<p class="stanza">7.</p> -Behold the Silver Mountain! round about<br/> -Seven ladders stand, so high, the aching eye,<br/> -Seeking their tops in vain amid the sky,<br/> -Might deem they led from earth to highest heaven.<br/> -Ages would pass away,<br/> -And Worlds with age decay,<br/> -Ere one whose patient feet from ring to ring<br/> -Must win their upward way,<br/> -Could reach the summit of Mount Calasay.<br/> -But that strong power that nerv’d his wing,<br/> -That all-surmounting will,<br/> -Intensity of faith and holiest love,<br/> -Sustain’d Ereenia still,<br/> -And he hath gain’d the plain, the sanctuary above.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">8.</p> -Lo, there the Silver Bell,<br/> -That, self-sustain’d, hangs buoyant in the air!<br/> -Lo! the broad Table there, too bright<br/> -For mortal sight,<br/> -From whose four sides the bordering gems unite<br/> -Their harmonizing rays,<br/> -In one mid fount of many-colour’d light.<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{79}</span></p> -The stream of splendour, flashing as it flows,<br/> -Plays round, and feeds the stem of yon celestial Rose.<br/> -Where is the Sage whose wisdom can declare<br/> -The hidden things of that mysterious flower,<br/> -That flower which serves all mysteries to bear?<br/> -The sacred triangle is there,<br/> -Holding the Emblem which no tongue may tell.<br/> -Is this the Heaven of Heavens, where Seeva’s self doth dwell?<br/> - -<p class="stanza">9.</p> -Here first the Glendoveer<br/> -Felt his wing flag, and paus’d upon his flight.<br/> -Was it that fear came over him, when here<br/> -He saw the imagin’d throne appear?<br/> -Not so, for his immortal sight<br/> -Endur’d the Table’s light;<br/> -Distinctly he beheld all things around,<br/> -And doubt and wonder rose within his mind<br/> -That this was all he found.<br/> -Howbeit he lifted up his voice and spake.<br/> -There is oppression in the World below;<br/> -Earth groans beneath the yoke; yea, in her woe,<br/> -She asks if the Avenger’s eye is blind?<br/> -Awake, O Lord, awake!<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{80}</span></p> -Too long thy vengeance sleepeth. Holy One!<br/> -Put thou thy terrors on for mercy’s sake,<br/> -And strike the blow, in justice to mankind!<br/> - -<p class="stanza">10.</p> -So as he pray’d, intenser faith he felt,<br/> -His spirit seem’d to melt<br/> -With ardent yearnings of increasing love;<br/> -Upward he turn’d his eyes<br/> -As if there should be something yet above;<br/> -Let me not, Seeva! seek in vain! he cries,<br/> -Thou art not here, . . for how should these contain thee?<br/> -Thou art not here, . . for how should I sustain thee?<br/> -But thou, where’er thou art,<br/> -Canst hear the voice of prayer,<br/> -Canst hear the humble heart.<br/> -Thy dwelling who can tell,<br/> -Or who, O Lord, hath seen thy secret throne?<br/> -But thou art not alone,<br/> -Not unapproachable!<br/> -O all-containing Mind,<br/> -Thou who art every where,<br/> -Whom all who seek shall find,<br/> -Hear me, O Seeva! hear the suppliant’s prayer!<br/> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{81}</span></p> - -<p class="stanza">11.</p> -So saying, up he sprung,<br/> -And struck the Bell, which self-suspended, hung<br/> -Before the mystic Rose.<br/> -From side to side the silver tongue<br/> -Melodious swung, and far and wide<br/> -Soul-thrilling tones of heavenly music rung.<br/> -Abash’d, confounded,<br/> -It left the Glendoveer; . . yea all astounded<br/> -In overpowering fear and deep dismay;<br/> -For when that Bell had sounded,<br/> -The Rose, with all the mysteries it surrounded,<br/> -The Bell, the Table, and Mount Calasay,<br/> -The holy Hill itself, with all thereon,<br/> -Even as a morning dream before the day<br/> -Dissolves away, they faded and were gone.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">12.</p> -Where shall he rest his wing, where turn for flight,<br/> -For all around is Light,<br/> -Primal, essential, all-pervading Light!<br/> -Heart cannot think, nor tongue declare,<br/> -Nor eyes of Angel bear<br/> -That Glory unimaginably bright;<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{82}</span></p> -The Sun himself had seem’d<br/> -A speck of darkness there,<br/> -Amid that Light of Light!<br/> - -<p class="stanza">13.</p> -Down fell the Glendoveer,<br/> -Down through all regions, to our mundane sphere<br/> -He fell; but in his ear<br/> -A voice, which from within him came, was heard,<br/> -The indubitable word<br/> -Of Him to whom all secret things are known:<br/> -Go, ye who suffer, go to Yamen’s throne.<br/> -He hath the remedy for every woe;<br/> -He setteth right whate’er is wrong below.<br/> - - -<h3 id="canto_20"> -<br/><br/><br/> -XX.<br/> -THE EMBARKATION. -</h3> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{83}</span></p> - -<p class="stanza">1.</p> -Down from the Heaven of Heavens Ereenia fell<br/> -Precipitate, yet imperceptible<br/> -His fall, nor had he cause nor thought of fear;<br/> -And when he came within this mundane sphere,<br/> -And felt that Earth was near,<br/> -The Glendoveer his azure wings expanded,<br/> -And, sloping down the sky<br/> -Toward the spot from whence he sprung on high,<br/> -There on the shore he landed.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">2.</p> -Kailyal advanced to meet him,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{84}</span></p> -Not moving now as she was wont to greet him;<br/> -Joy in her eye and in her eager pace;<br/> -With a calm smile of melancholy pride<br/> -She met him now, and, turning half aside,<br/> -Her warning hand repell’d the dear embrace.<br/> -Strange things, Ereenia, have befallen us here,<br/> -The Virgin said; the Almighty Man hath read<br/> -The lines which, traced by Nature on my brain,<br/> -There to the gifted eye<br/> -Make all my fortunes plain,<br/> -Mapping the mazes of futurity.<br/> -He sued for peace, for it is written there<br/> -That I with him the Amreeta cup must share;<br/> -Wherefore he bade me come, and by his side<br/> -Sit on the Swerga-throne, his equal bride.<br/> -I need not tell thee what reply was given;<br/> -My heart, the sure interpreter of Heaven,<br/> -His impious words belied.<br/> -Thou seest his poor revenge! So having said,<br/> -One look she glanced upon her leprous stain<br/> -Indignantly, and shook<br/> -Her head in calm disdain.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">3.</p> -O Maid of soul divine!<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{85}</span></p> -O more than ever dear,<br/> -And more than ever mine,<br/> -Replied the Glendoveer;<br/> -He hath not read, be sure, the mystic ways<br/> -Of Fate; almighty as he is, that maze<br/> -Hath mock’d his fallible sight.<br/> -Said he the Amreeta-cup? So far aright<br/> -The Evil One may see; for Fate displays<br/> -Her hidden things in part, and part conceals,<br/> -Baffling the wicked eye<br/> -Alike with what she hides, and what reveals,<br/> -When with unholy purpose it would pry<br/> -Into the secrets of futurity.<br/> -So may it be permitted him to see<br/> -Dimly the inscrutable decree;<br/> -For to the world below,<br/> -Where Yamen guards the Amreeta, we must go;<br/> -Thus Seeva hath exprest his will, even he<br/> -The Holiest hath ordain’d it; there, he saith,<br/> -All wrongs shall be redrest<br/> -By Yamen, by the righteous Power of Death.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">4.</p> -Forthwith the Father and the fated Maid,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{86}</span></p> -And that heroic Spirit, who for them<br/> -Such flight had late essay’d,<br/> -The will of Heaven obey’d.<br/> -They went their way along the road<br/> -That leads to Yamen’s dread abode.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">5.</p> -Many a day hath past away<br/> -Since they began their arduous way,<br/> -Their way of toil and pain;<br/> -And now their weary feet attain<br/> -The Earth’s remotest bound<br/> -Where outer Ocean girds it round.<br/> -But not like other Oceans this,<br/> -Rather it seem’d a drear abyss,<br/> -Upon whose brink they stood.<br/> -Oh, scene of fear! the travellers hear<br/> -The raging of the flood;<br/> -They hear how fearfully it roars,<br/> -But clouds of darker shade than night<br/> -For ever hovering round those shores,<br/> -Hide all things from their sight.<br/> -The Sun upon that darkness pours<br/> -His unavailing light;<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{87}</span></p> -Nor ever Moon nor Stars display,<br/> -Through the thick shade, one guiding ray<br/> -To shew the perils of the way.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">6.</p> -There, in a creek, a vessel lay.<br/> -Just on the confines of the day,<br/> -It rode at anchor in its bay,<br/> -These venturous pilgrims to convey<br/> -Across that outer Sea.<br/> -Strange vessel sure it seem’d to be,<br/> -And all unfit for such wild sea!<br/> -For through its yawning side the wave<br/> -Was oozing in; the mast was frail,<br/> -And old and torn its only sail.<br/> -How shall that crazy vessel brave<br/> -The billows, that in wild commotion<br/> -For ever roar and rave?<br/> -How hope to cross the dreadful Ocean,<br/> -O’er which eternal shadows dwell,<br/> -Whose secrets none return to tell!<br/> - -<p class="stanza">7.</p> -Well might the travellers fear to enter!<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{88}</span></p> -But summon’d once on that adventure,<br/> -For them was no retreat.<br/> -Nor boots it with reluctant feet<br/> -To linger on the strand;<br/> -Aboard! aboard!<br/> -An awful voice, that left no choice,<br/> -Sent forth its stern command,<br/> -Aboard! aboard!<br/> -The travellers hear that voice in fear,<br/> -And breathe to Heaven an inward prayer,<br/> -And take their seats in silence there.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">8.</p> -Self-hoisted then, behold the sail<br/> -Expands itself before the gale;<br/> -Hands, which they cannot see, let slip<br/> -The cable of that fated ship;<br/> -The land breeze sends her on her way,<br/> -And lo! they leave the living light of day!<br/> - - -<h3 id="canto_21"> -<br/><br/><br/> -XXI.<br/> -THE WORLD’S END. -</h3> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{89}</span></p> - -<p class="stanza">1.</p> -Swift as an arrow in its flight<br/> -The Ship shot through the incumbent night;<br/> -And they have left behind<br/> -The raging billows and the roaring wind,<br/> -The storm, the darkness, and all mortal fears;<br/> -And lo! another light<br/> -To guide their way appears,<br/> -The light of other spheres.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">2.</p> -That instant, from Ladurlad’s heart and brain<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{90}</span></p> -The Curse was gone; he feels again<br/> -Fresh as in Youth’s fair morning, and the Maid<br/> -Hath lost her leprous stain.<br/> -The dreadful Man hath no dominion here,<br/> -Starting she cried; O happy, happy hour!<br/> -We are beyond his power!<br/> -Then raising to the Glendoveer,<br/> -With heavenly beauty bright, her angel face,<br/> -Turn’d not reluctant now, and met his dear embrace.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">3.</p> -Swift glides the Ship, with gentle motion,<br/> -Across that calm and quiet ocean;<br/> -That glassy sea, which seem’d to be<br/> -The mirror of tranquillity.<br/> -Their pleasant passage soon was o’er,<br/> -The Ship hath reach’d its destin’d shore;<br/> -A level belt of ice which bound,<br/> -As with an adamantine mound,<br/> -The waters of the sleeping Ocean round.<br/> -Strange forms were on the strand<br/> -Of earth-born spirits slain before their time;<br/> -Who, wandering over sea and sky and land,<br/> -Had so fulfill’d their term; and now were met<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{91}</span></p> -Upon this icy belt, a motley band,<br/> -Waiting their summons, at the appointed hour<br/> -When each before the judgement-seat must stand,<br/> -And hear his doom from Baly’s righteous power.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">4.</p> -Foul with habitual crimes, a hideous crew<br/> -Were there, the race of rapine and of blood.<br/> -Now, having overpast the mortal flood,<br/> -Their own deformity they knew,<br/> -And knew the meed that to their deeds was due.<br/> -Therefore in fear and agony they stood,<br/> -Expecting when the evil Messenger<br/> -Among them should appear. But with their fear<br/> -A hope was mingled now;<br/> -O’er the dark shade of guilt a deeper hue<br/> -It threw, and gave a fiercer character<br/> -To the wild eye and lip and sinful brow.<br/> -They hop’d that soon Kehama would subdue<br/> -The inexorable God, and seize his throne,<br/> -Reduce the infernal World to his command,<br/> -And, with his irresistible right hand,<br/> -Redeem them from the vaults of Padalon.<br/> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{92}</span></p> - -<p class="stanza">5.</p> -Apart from these a milder company,<br/> -The victims of offences not their own,<br/> -Look’d when the appointed Messenger should come;<br/> -Gathered together some, and some alone<br/> -Brooding in silence on their future doom.<br/> -Widows whom, to their husbands’ funeral fire,<br/> -Force or strong error led, to share the pyre,<br/> -As to their everlasting marriage-bed:<br/> -And babes, by sin unstain’d,<br/> -Whom erring parents vow’d<br/> -To Ganges, and the holy stream profan’d<br/> -With that strange sacrifice, rite unordain’d<br/> -By Law, by sacred Nature unallow’d:<br/> -Others more hapless in their destiny,<br/> -Scarce having first inhaled this vital breath,<br/> -Whose cradles from some tree<br/> -Unnatural hands suspended,<br/> -Then left, till gentle Death,<br/> -Coming like Sleep, their feeble moanings ended;<br/> -Or for his prey the ravenous Kite descended;<br/> -Or, marching like an army from their caves,<br/> -The Pismires blacken’d o’er, then bleach’d and bare<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{93}</span></p> -Left their unharden’d bones to fall asunder there.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">6.</p> -Innocent Souls! thus set so early free<br/> -From sin and sorrow and mortality,<br/> -Their spotless spirits all-creating Love<br/> -Receiv’d into its universal breast.<br/> -Yon blue serene above<br/> -Was their domain; clouds pillowed them to rest;<br/> -The Elements on them like nurses tended,<br/> -And with their growth etherial substance blended.<br/> -Less pure than these is that strange Indian bird<br/> -Who never dips in earthly streams her bill,<br/> -But, when the sound of coming showers is heard,<br/> -Looks up, and from the clouds receives her fill.<br/> -Less pure the footless fowl of Heaven, that never<br/> -Rest upon earth, but on the wing for ever<br/> -Hovering o’er flowers, their fragrant food inhale,<br/> -Drink the descending dew upon its way,<br/> -And sleep aloft while floating on the gale.<br/> -And thus these innocents in yonder sky<br/> -Grow and are strengthen’d, while the allotted years<br/> -Perform their course, then hitherward they fly,<br/> -Being free from mortal taint, so free from fears,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{94}</span></p> -A joyous band, expecting soon to soar<br/> -To Indra’s happy spheres,<br/> -And mingle with the blessed company<br/> -Of heavenly spirits there for evermore.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">7.</p> -A Gulph profound surrounded<br/> -This icy belt; the opposite side<br/> -With highest rocks was bounded;<br/> -But where their heads they hide,<br/> -Or where their base is founded,<br/> -None could espy. Above all reach of sight<br/> -They rose, the second Earth was on their height,<br/> -Their feet were fix’d in everlasting night.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">8.</p> -So deep the Gulph, no eye<br/> -Could plum its dark profundity,<br/> -Yet all its depth must try; for this the road<br/> -To Padalon, and Yamen’s dread abode.<br/> -And from below continually<br/> -Ministrant Demons rose and caught<br/> -The Souls whose hour was come;<br/> -Then, with their burthen fraught,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{95}</span></p> -Plunged down, and bore them to receive their doom.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">9.</p> -Then might be seen who went in hope, and who<br/> -Trembled to meet the meed<br/> -Of many a foul misdeed, as wild they threw<br/> -Their arms retorted from the Demons’ grasp,<br/> -And look’d around, all eagerly, to seek<br/> -For help, where help was none; and strove for aid<br/> -To clasp the nearest shade;<br/> -Yea, with imploring looks and horrent shriek,<br/> -Even from one Demon to another bending,<br/> -With hands extending,<br/> -Their mercy they essay’d.<br/> -Still from the verge they strain,<br/> -And from the dreadful gulph avert their eyes,<br/> -In vain; down plunge the Demons, and their cries<br/> -Feebly, as down they sink, from that profound arise.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">10.</p> -What heart of living man could, undisturb’d,<br/> -Bear sight so sad as this! What wonder there<br/> -If Kailyal’s lip were blanch’d with inmost dread!<br/> -The chill which from that icy belt<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{96}</span></p> -Struck through her, was less keen than what she felt<br/> -With her heart’s-blood through every limb dispread.<br/> -Close to the Glendoveer she clung,<br/> -And clasping round his neck her trembling hands,<br/> -She clos’d her eyes, and there in silence hung.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">11.</p> -Then to Ladurlad said the Glendoveer,<br/> -These Demons, whom thou seest, the ministers<br/> -Of Yamen, wonder to behold us here;<br/> -But for the dead they come, and not for us:<br/> -Therefore, albeit they gaze upon thee thus,<br/> -Have thou no fear.<br/> -A little while thou must be left alone,<br/> -Till I have borne thy Daughter down,<br/> -And placed her safely by the throne<br/> -Of him who keeps the Gate of Padalon.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">12.</p> -Then taking Kailyal in his arms, he said,<br/> -Be of good heart, Beloved! it is I<br/> -Who bear thee. Saying this, his wings he spread,<br/> -Sprung upward in the sky, and pois’d his flight,<br/> -Then plunged into the Gulph, and sought the World of Night.<br/> - - -<h3 id="canto_22"> -<br/><br/><br/> -XXII.<br/> -THE GATE OF PADALON. -</h3> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{97}</span></p> - -<p class="stanza">1.</p> -The strong foundations of this inmost Earth<br/> -Rest upon Padalon. That icy Mound<br/> -Which girt the mortal Ocean round,<br/> -Reach’d the profound, . .<br/> -Ice in the regions of the upper air,<br/> -Crystal midway, and adamant below,<br/> -Whose strength sufficed to bear<br/> -The weight of all this upper World of ours,<br/> -And with its rampart clos’d the Realm of Woe.<br/> -Eight gates hath Padalon; eight heavenly Powers<br/> -Have them in charge, each alway at his post,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{98}</span></p> -Lest, from their penal caves, the accursed host,<br/> -Maugre the might of Baly and the God,<br/> -Should break, and carry ruin all abroad.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">2.</p> -Those gates stand ever open, night and day,<br/> -And Souls of mortal men<br/> -For ever throng the way.<br/> -Some from the dolorous den,<br/> -Children of sin and wrath, return no more:<br/> -They, fit companions of the Spirits accurst,<br/> -Are doom’d, like them in baths of fire immerst,<br/> -Or weltering upon beds of molten ore,<br/> -Or, stretch’d upon the brazen floor,<br/> -Are fasten’d down with adamantine chains;<br/> -While on their substance inconsumable,<br/> -Leeches of fire for ever hang and pull,<br/> -And worms of fire for ever gnaw their food,<br/> -That, still renew’d,<br/> -Freshens for ever their perpetual pains.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">3.</p> -Others there were whom Baly’s voice condemned,<br/> -By long and painful penance, to atone<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{99}</span></p> -Their fleshly deeds. Them, from the Judgement-Throne,<br/> -Dread Azyoruca, where she sat involv’d<br/> -In darkness as a tent, receiv’d, and dealt<br/> -To each the measure of his punishment;<br/> -Till, in the central springs of fire, the Will<br/> -Impure is purged away; and the freed soul,<br/> -Thus fitted to receive its second birth,<br/> -Embodied once again, revisits Earth.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">4.</p> -But they whom Baly’s righteous voice absolv’d,<br/> -And Yamen, viewing with benignant eye,<br/> -Dismiss’d to seek their heritage on high,<br/> -How joyfully they leave this gloomy bourne,<br/> -The dread sojourn<br/> -Of Guilt and twin-born Punishment and Woe,<br/> -And wild Remorse, here link’d with worse Despair!<br/> -They to the eastern Gate rejoicing go:<br/> -The Ship of Heaven awaits their coming there,<br/> -And on they sail, greeting the blessed light,<br/> -Through realms of upper air,<br/> -Bound for the Swerga once; but now no more<br/> -Their voyage rests upon that happy shore;<br/> -Since Indra, by the dreadful Rajah’s might<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{100}</span></p> -Compell’d, hath taken flight,<br/> -On to the second World their way they wend,<br/> -And there, in trembling hope, await the doubtful end.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">5.</p> -For still in them doth hope predominate,<br/> -Faith’s precious privilege, when higher Powers<br/> -Give way to fear in these portentous hours.<br/> -Behold the Wardens eight,<br/> -Each silent at his gate<br/> -Expectant stands; they turn their anxious eyes<br/> -Within, and, listening to the dizzy din<br/> -Of mutinous uproar, each in all his hands<br/> -Holds all his weapons, ready for the fight.<br/> -For, hark! what clamorous cries<br/> -Upon Kehama for deliverance call!<br/> -Come, Rajah! they exclaim, too long we groan<br/> -In torments. Come, Deliverer! yonder throne<br/> -Awaits thee . . . Now, Kehama! Rajah, now!<br/> -Earthly Almighty, wherefore tarriest thou? . .<br/> -Such were the sounds that rung, in wild uproar,<br/> -O’er all the echoing vaults of Padalon;<br/> -And as the Asuras from the brazen floor,<br/> -Struggling against their fetters, strove to rise,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{101}</span></p> -Their clashing chains were heard, and shrieks and cries,<br/> -With curses mix’d, against the Fiends who urge,<br/> -Fierce on their rebel limbs, the avenging scourge.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">6.</p> -These were the sounds which, at the southern gate,<br/> -Assail’d Ereenia’s ear; alighting here<br/> -He laid before Neroodi’s feet the Maid,<br/> -Who, pale and cold with fear,<br/> -Hung on his neck, well-nigh a lifeless weight.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">7.</p> -Who and what art thou? cried the Guardian Power,<br/> -Sight thus unwonted wondering to behold, . .<br/> -O Son of Light!<br/> -Who comest here at this portentous hour,<br/> -When Yamen’s throne<br/> -Trembles, and all our might can scarce keep down<br/> -The rebel race from seizing Padalon: . . .<br/> -Who and what art thou? and what wild despair,<br/> -Or wilder hope, from realms of upper air,<br/> -Tempts thee to bear<br/> -This mortal Maid to our forlorn abodes?<br/> -Fitter for her, I ween, the Swerga bowers,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{102}</span></p> -And sweet society of heavenly Powers,<br/> -Than this, . . a doleful scene,<br/> -Even in securest hours.<br/> -And whither would ye go?<br/> -Alas! can human or celestial ear,<br/> -Unmadden’d, hear<br/> -The shrieks and yellings of infernal woe?<br/> -Can living flesh and blood<br/> -Endure the passage of the fiery flood?<br/> - -<p class="stanza">8.</p> -Lord of the Gate, replied the Glendoveer,<br/> -We come obedient to the will of Fate;<br/> -And haply doom’d to bring<br/> -Hope and salvation to the Infernal King,<br/> -For Seeva sends us here.<br/> -Even He to whom futurity is known,<br/> -The Holiest, bade us go to Yamen’s throne.<br/> -Thou seest my precious charge;<br/> -Under thy care, secure from harm, I leave her,<br/> -While I ascend to bear her father down.<br/> -Beneath the shelter of thine arm receive her!<br/> - -<p class="stanza">9.</p> -Then quoth he to the Maid,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{103}</span></p> -Be of good cheer, my Kailyal! dearest dear,<br/> -In faith subdue thy dread,<br/> -Anon I shall be here. So having said,<br/> -Aloft, with vigorous bound, the Glendoveer<br/> -Sprung in celestial might,<br/> -And soaring up, in spiral circles, wound<br/> -His indefatigable flight.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">10.</p> -But, as he thus departed,<br/> -The Maid, who at Neroodi’s feet was lying,<br/> -Like one entranced or dying,<br/> -Recovering strength from sudden terror, started;<br/> -And gazing after him with straining sight,<br/> -And straining arms, she stood,<br/> -As if in attitude<br/> -To win him back from flight.<br/> -Yea, she had shap’d his name<br/> -For utterance, to recall and bid him stay,<br/> -Nor leave her thus alone; but virtuous shame<br/> -Represt the unbidden sounds upon their way;<br/> -And calling faith to aid,<br/> -Even in this fearful hour, the pious Maid<br/> -Collected courage, till she seem’d to be<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{104}</span></p> -Calm and in hope, such power had piety.<br/> -Before the Giant Keeper of the Gate<br/> -She crost her patient arms, and at his feet,<br/> -Prepar’d to meet<br/> -The awful will of Fate with equal mind,<br/> -She took her seat resign’d.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">11.</p> -Even the stern trouble of Neroodi’s brow<br/> -Relax’d as he beheld the valiant Maid.<br/> -Hope, long unfelt till now,<br/> -Rose in his heart reviving, and a smile<br/> -Dawn’d in his brightening countenance, the while<br/> -He gaz’d on her with wonder and delight.<br/> -The blessing of the Powers of Padalon,<br/> -Virgin, be on thee! cried the admiring God;<br/> -And blessed be the hour that gave thee birth,<br/> -Daughter of Earth,<br/> -For thou to this forlorn abode hast brought<br/> -Hope, who too long hath been a stranger here.<br/> -And surely for no lamentable lot,<br/> -Nature, who erreth not,<br/> -To thee that heart of fortitude hath given,<br/> -Those eyes of purity, that face of love: . .<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{105}</span></p> -If thou beest not the inheritrix of Heaven,<br/> -There is no truth above.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">12.</p> -Thus as Neroodi spake, his brow severe<br/> -Shone with an inward joy; for sure he thought<br/> -When Seeva sent so fair a creature here,<br/> -In this momentous hour,<br/> -Ere long the World’s deliverance would be wrought,<br/> -And Padalon escape the Rajah’s power.<br/> -With pious mind the Maid, in humble guise<br/> -Inclin’d, received his blessing silently,<br/> -And rais’d her grateful eyes<br/> -A moment, then again<br/> -Abas’d them at his presence. Hark! on high<br/> -The sound of coming wings! . . her anxious ears<br/> -Have caught the distant sound. Ereenia brings<br/> -His burthen down! Upstarting from her seat,<br/> -How joyfully she rears<br/> -Her eager head! and scarce upon the ground<br/> -Ladurlad’s giddy feet their footing found,<br/> -When, with her trembling arms, she claspt him round.<br/> -No word of greeting,<br/> -Nor other sign of joy at that strange meeting.<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{106}</span></p> -Expectant of their fate,<br/> -Silent, and hand in hand,<br/> -Before the Infernal Gate,<br/> -The Father and his heavenly Daughter stand.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">13.</p> -Then to Neroodi said the Glendoveer,<br/> -No Heaven-born Spirit e’er hath visited<br/> -This region drear and dread; but I, the first<br/> -Who tread your World accurst.<br/> -Lord of the Gate, to whom these realms are known,<br/> -Direct our fated way to Yamen’s throne.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">14.</p> -Bring forth my Chariot, Carmala! quoth then<br/> -The Keeper of the way.<br/> -It was the Car wherein<br/> -On Yamen’s festal day,<br/> -When all the Powers of Hell attend their King,<br/> -Yearly to Yamenpur did he repair<br/> -To pay his homage there.<br/> -Pois’d on a single wheel, it mov’d along,<br/> -Instinct with motion; by what wonderous skill<br/> -Compact, no human tongue could tell,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{107}</span></p> -Nor human wit devise; but on that wheel<br/> -Moving or still,<br/> -As if an inward life sustain’d its weight,<br/> -Supported, stood the Car of miracle.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">15.</p> -Then Carmala brought forth two mantles, white<br/> -As the swan’s breast, and bright as mountain snow,<br/> -When from the wintry sky<br/> -The sun, late-rising, shines upon the height,<br/> -And rolling vapours fill the vale below.<br/> -Not without pain the unaccustom’d sight<br/> -That brightness could sustain;<br/> -For neither mortal stain,<br/> -Nor parts corruptible, remain,<br/> -Nor aught that time could touch, or force destroy,<br/> -In that pure web whereof the robes were wrought;<br/> -So long had it in ten-fold fires been tried,<br/> -And blanch’d, and to that brightness purified.<br/> -Apparel’d thus, alone,<br/> -Children of Earth, Neroodi cried,<br/> -In safety may ye pass to Yamen’s throne.<br/> -Thus only can your living flesh and blood<br/> -Endure the passage of the fiery flood.<br/> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{108}</span></p> - -<p class="stanza">16.</p> -Of other frame, O Son of Heaven, art thou!<br/> -Yet hast thou now to go<br/> -Through regions which thy heavenly mould will try.<br/> -Glories unutterably bright, I know,<br/> -And beams intense of empyrean light,<br/> -Thine eye divine can bear: but fires of woe,<br/> -The sight of torments, and the cry<br/> -Of absolute despair,<br/> -Might not these things dismay thee on thy flight,<br/> -And thy strong pennons flag and fail thee there?<br/> -Trust not thy wings, celestial though thou art;<br/> -Nor thy good heart, which horror might assail<br/> -And pity quail,<br/> -Pity in these abodes of no avail;<br/> -But take thy seat this mortal pair beside,<br/> -And Carmala the infernal Car will guide.<br/> -Go, and may happy end your way betide!<br/> -So as he spake, the self-mov’d Car roll’d on,<br/> -And lo! they pass the Gate of Padalon.<br/> - - -<h3 id="canto_23"> -<br/><br/><br/> -XXIII.<br/> -PADALON. -</h3> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{109}</span></p> - -<p class="stanza">1.</p> -Whoe’er hath lov’d with venturous step to tread<br/> -The chambers dread<br/> -Of some deep cave, and seen his taper’s beam<br/> -Lost in the arch of darkness overhead,<br/> -And mark’d its gleam,<br/> -Playing afar upon the sunless stream,<br/> -Where, from their secret bed,<br/> -And course unknown and inaccessible,<br/> -The silent waters well;<br/> -Whoe’er hath trod such caves of endless night,<br/> -He knows, when measuring back the gloomy way,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{110}</span></p> -With what delight refresh’d, his eye<br/> -Perceives the shadow of the light of day,<br/> -Through the far portal slanting, where it falls<br/> -Dimly reflected on the watry walls;<br/> -How heavenly seems the sky,<br/> -And how, with quicken’d feet, he hastens up,<br/> -Eager again to greet<br/> -The living World, and blessed sunshine there,<br/> -And drink, as from a cup<br/> -Of joy, with thirsty lips, the open air.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">2.</p> -Far other light than that of day there shone<br/> -Upon the travellers, entering Padalon.<br/> -They, too, in darkness entered on their way,<br/> -But, far before the Car,<br/> -A glow, as of a fiery furnace light,<br/> -Fill’d all before them. ’Twas a light which made<br/> -Darkness itself appear<br/> -A thing of comfort, and the sight, dismay’d,<br/> -Shrunk inward from the molten atmosphere.<br/> -Their way was through the adamantine rock<br/> -Which girt the World of Woe; on either side<br/> -Its massive walls arose, and overhead<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{111}</span></p> -Arch’d the long passage; onward as they ride,<br/> -With stronger glare the light around them spread,<br/> -And lo! the regions dread,<br/> -The World of Woe before them, opening wide.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">3.</p> -There rolls the fiery flood,<br/> -Girding the realms of Padalon around.<br/> -A sea of flame it seem’d to be,<br/> -Sea without bound;<br/> -For neither mortal, nor immortal sight,<br/> -Could pierce across through that intensest light.<br/> -A single rib of steel,<br/> -Keen as the edge of keenest scymitar,<br/> -Spann’d this wide gulph of fire. The infernal Car<br/> -Roll’d to the Gulph, and on its single wheel<br/> -Self-balanced; rose upon that edge of steel.<br/> -Red-quivering float the vapours overhead;<br/> -The fiery gulph beneath them spread,<br/> -Tosses its billowing blaze with rush and roar;<br/> -Steady and swift the self-mov’d Chariot went,<br/> -Winning the long ascent,<br/> -Then, downward rolling, gains the farther shore.<br/> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{112}</span></p> - -<p class="stanza">4.</p> -But, oh! what sounds and sights of woe,<br/> -What sights and sounds of fear,<br/> -Assail the mortal travellers here!<br/> -Their way was on a causey straight and wide,<br/> -Where penal vaults on either side were seen,<br/> -Ranged like the cells wherein<br/> -Those wonderous winged alchemists infold<br/> -Their stores of liquid gold.<br/> -Thick walls of adamant divide<br/> -The dungeons; and from yonder circling flood,<br/> -Off-streams of fire through secret channels glide,<br/> -And wind among them, and in each provide<br/> -An everlasting food<br/> -Of righteous torments for the accursed brood.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">5.</p> -These were the rebel race, who, in their might<br/> -Confiding impiously, would fain have driven<br/> -The Deities supreme from highest Heaven;<br/> -But by the Suras, in celestial fight,<br/> -Oppos’d and put to flight,<br/> -Here, in their penal dens, the accursed crew,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{113}</span></p> -Not for its crime, but for its failure, rue<br/> -Their wild ambition. Yet again they long<br/> -The contest to renew,<br/> -And wield their arms again in happier hour;<br/> -And with united power,<br/> -Following Kehama’s triumph, to press on<br/> -From World to World, and Heaven to Heaven, and Sphere<br/> -To Sphere, till Hemakoot shall be their own,<br/> -And Meru Mount, and Indra’s Swerga-Bowers,<br/> -And Brama’s region, where the heavenly Hours<br/> -Weave the vast circle of his age-long day.<br/> -Even over Veeshnoo’s empyreal seat<br/> -They trust the Rajah shall extend their sway,<br/> -And that the seven-headed Snake, whereon<br/> -The strong Preserver sets his conquering feet,<br/> -Will rise and shake him headlong from his throne,<br/> -When, in their irresistible array,<br/> -Amid the Milky Sea they force their way.<br/> -Even higher yet their frantic thoughts aspire;<br/> -Yea, on their beds of torment as they lie,<br/> -The highest, holiest Seeva, they defy,<br/> -And tell him they shall have anon their day,<br/> -When they will storm his realm, and seize Mount Calasay.<br/> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{114}</span></p> - -<p class="stanza">6.</p> -Such impious hopes torment<br/> -Their raging hearts, impious and impotent;<br/> -And now, with unendurable desire<br/> -And lust of vengeance, that, like inward fire,<br/> -Doth aggravate their punishment, they rave<br/> -Upon Kehama; him the accursed rout<br/> -Acclaim; with furious cries and maddening shout<br/> -They call on him to save;<br/> -Kehama! they exclaim;<br/> -Thundering, the dreadful echo rolls about,<br/> -And Hell’s whole vault repeats Kehama’s name.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">7.</p> -Over these dens of punishment, the host<br/> -Of Padalon maintain eternal guard,<br/> -Keeping upon the walls their vigilant ward.<br/> -At every angle stood<br/> -A watch-tower, the decurion Demon’s post,<br/> -Where, rais’d on high, he view’d with sleepless eye<br/> -His trust, that all was well. And over these,<br/> -Such was the perfect discipline of Hell,<br/> -Captains of fifties and of hundreds held<br/> -Authority, each in his loftier tower;<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{115}</span></p> -And chiefs of legions over them had power;<br/> -And thus all Hell with towers was girt around.<br/> -Aloft the brazen turrets shone<br/> -In the red light of Padalon,<br/> -And on the walls between,<br/> -Dark moving, the infernal Guards were seen,<br/> -Gigantic Demons pacing to and fro;<br/> -Who ever and anon,<br/> -Spreading their crimson pennons, plunged below,<br/> -Faster to rivet down the Asuras’ chains;<br/> -And with the snaky scourge and fiercer pains,<br/> -Repress their rage rebellious. Loud around,<br/> -In mingled sound, the echoing lash, the clash<br/> -Of chains, the ponderous hammer’s iron stroke,<br/> -With execrations, groans, and shrieks and cries<br/> -Combin’d, in one wild dissonance, arise;<br/> -And through the din there broke,<br/> -Like thunder heard through all the warring winds,<br/> -The dreadful name. Kehama, still they rave,<br/> -Hasten and save!<br/> -Now, now, Deliverer! now, Kehama, now!<br/> -Earthly Almighty, wherefore tarriest thou!<br/> - -<p class="stanza">8.</p> -Oh, if that name abhorr’d,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{116}</span></p> -Thus utter’d, could well nigh<br/> -Dismay the Powers of Hell, and daunt their Lord,<br/> -How fearfully to Kailyal’s ear it came!<br/> -She, as the Car roll’d on its rapid way,<br/> -Bent down her head, and clos’d her eyes for dread;<br/> -And deafening, with strong effort from within,<br/> -Her ears against the din,<br/> -Cover’d and prest them close with both her hands.<br/> -Sure if the mortal Maiden had not fed<br/> -On heavenly food, and long been strengthened<br/> -With heavenly converse for such end vouchsaf’d,<br/> -Her human heart had fail’d, and she had died<br/> -Beneath the horrors of this awful hour.<br/> -But heaven supplied a power<br/> -Beyond her earthly nature, to the measure<br/> -Of need infusing strength;<br/> -And Fate, whose secret and unerring pleasure<br/> -Appointed all, decreed<br/> -An ample meed and recompence at length.<br/> -High-fated Maid, the righteous hour is nigh!<br/> -The all-embracing Eye<br/> -Of Retribution still beholdeth thee;<br/> -Bear onward to the end, O Maid, courageously!<br/> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{117}</span></p> - -<p class="stanza">9.</p> -On roll’d the Car, and lo! afar<br/> -Upon its height the Towers of Yamenpur<br/> -Rise on the astonish’d sight.<br/> -Behold the infernal City, Yamen’s seat<br/> -Of empire, in the midst of Padalon,<br/> -Where the eight causeys meet.<br/> -There on a rock of adamant it stood,<br/> -Resplendent far and wide,<br/> -Itself of solid diamond edified,<br/> -And all around it roll’d the fiery flood.<br/> -Eight bridges arch’d the stream; huge piles of brass<br/> -Magnificent, such structures as beseem<br/> -The Seat and Capital of such great God,<br/> -Worthy of Yamen’s own august abode.<br/> -A brazen tower and gateway at each end<br/> -Of each was rais’d, where Giant Wardens stood,<br/> -Station’d in arms the passage to defend,<br/> -That never foe might cross the fiery flood.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">10.</p> -Oh what a gorgeous sight it was to see<br/> -The Diamond City blazing on its height<br/> -With more than mid-sun splendour, by the light<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{118}</span></p> -Of its own fiery river!<br/> -Its towers and domes and pinnacles and spires,<br/> -Turrets and battlements, that flash and quiver<br/> -Through the red restless atmosphere for ever.<br/> -And hovering over head,<br/> -The smoke and vapours of all Padalon,<br/> -Fit firmament for such a world, were spread,<br/> -With surge and swell, and everlasting motion,<br/> -Heaving and opening like tumultuous ocean.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">11.</p> -Nor were there wanting there<br/> -Such glories as beseem’d such region well;<br/> -For though with our blue heaven and genial air<br/> -The firmament of Hell might not compare,<br/> -As little might our earthly tempests vie<br/> -With the dread storms of that infernal sky,<br/> -Whose clouds of all metallic elements<br/> -Sublim’d were full. For, when its thunder broke,<br/> -Not all the united World’s artillery,<br/> -In one discharge, could equal that loud stroke;<br/> -And though the Diamond Towers and Battlements<br/> -Stood firm upon their adamantine rock,<br/> -Yet, while it vollied round the vault of Hell,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{119}</span></p> -Earth’s solid arch was shaken with the shock,<br/> -And Cities in one mighty ruin fell.<br/> -Through the red sky terrific meteors scour;<br/> -Huge stones come hailing down; or sulphur-shower,<br/> -Floating amid the lurid air like snow,<br/> -Kindles in its descent,<br/> -And with blue fire-drops rains on all below.<br/> -At times the whole supernal element<br/> -Igniting, burst in one vast sheet of flame,<br/> -And roar’d as with the sound<br/> -Of rushing winds, above, below, around;<br/> -Anon the flame was spent, and overhead<br/> -A heavy cloud of moving darkness spread.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">12.</p> -Straight to the brazen bridge and gate<br/> -The self-mov’d Chariot bears its mortal load.<br/> -At sight of Carmala,<br/> -On either side the Giant guards divide,<br/> -And give the chariot way.<br/> -Up yonder winding road it rolls along,<br/> -Swift as the bittern soars on spiral wing,<br/> -And lo! the Palace of the Infernal King!<br/> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{120}</span></p> - -<p class="stanza">13.</p> -Two forms inseparable in unity<br/> -Hath Yamen; even as with hope or fear<br/> -The Soul regardeth him doth he appear;<br/> -For hope and fear,<br/> -At that dread hour, from ominous conscience spring,<br/> -And err not in their bodings. Therefore some,<br/> -They who polluted with offences come,<br/> -Behold him as the King<br/> -Of Terrors, black of aspect, red of eye;<br/> -Reflecting back upon the sinful mind,<br/> -Heighten’d with vengeance, and with wrath divine,<br/> -Its own inborn deformity.<br/> -But to the righteous Spirit how benign<br/> -His awful countenance,<br/> -Where, tempering justice with parental love,<br/> -Goodness and heavenly grace<br/> -And sweetest mercy shine! Yet is he still<br/> -Himself the same, one form, one face, one will;<br/> -And these his twofold aspects are but one;<br/> -And change is none<br/> -In him, for change in Yamen could not be,<br/> -The Immutable is he.<br/> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{121}</span></p> - -<p class="stanza">14.</p> -He sate upon a marble sepulchre<br/> -Massive and huge, where, at the Monarch’s feet,<br/> -The righteous Baly had his judgement-seat.<br/> -A Golden Throne before them vacant stood;<br/> -Three human forms sustain’d its ponderous weight,<br/> -With lifted hands outspread, and shoulders bow’d<br/> -Bending beneath their load.<br/> -A fourth was wanting. They were of the hue<br/> -Of coals of fire; yet were they flesh and blood,<br/> -And living breath they drew;<br/> -And their red eye-balls roll’d with ghastly stare,<br/> -As thus, for their misdeeds, they stood tormented there.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">15.</p> -On steps of gold those fiery Statues stood,<br/> -Who bore the Golden Throne. A cloud behind<br/> -Immoveable was spread; not all the light<br/> -Of all the flames and fires of Padalon<br/> -Could pierce its depth of night.<br/> -There Azyoruca veil’d her awful form<br/> -In those eternal shadows: there she sate,<br/> -And as the trembling Souls, who crowd around<br/> -The Judgement-Seat, received the doom of fate,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{122}</span></p> -Her giant arms, extending from the cloud,<br/> -Drew them within the darkness. Moving out,<br/> -To grasp and bear away the innumerous rout,<br/> -For ever and for ever thus were seen<br/> -The thousand mighty arms of that dread Queen.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">16.</p> -Here, issuing from the car, the Glendoveer<br/> -Did homage to the God, then rais’d his head.<br/> -Suppliants we come, he said,<br/> -I need not tell thee by what wrongs opprest,<br/> -For nought can pass on earth to thee unknown;<br/> -Sufferers from tyranny we seek for rest,<br/> -And Seeva bade us go to Yamen’s throne;<br/> -Here, he hath said, all wrongs shall be redrest.<br/> -Yamen replied, Even now the hour draws near,<br/> -When Fate its hidden ways will manifest.<br/> -Not for light purpose would the Wisest send<br/> -His suppliants here, when we, in doubt and fear,<br/> -The awful issue of the hour attend.<br/> -Wait ye in patience and in faith the end!<br/> - - -<h3 id="canto_24"> -<br/><br/><br/> -XXIV.<br/> -THE AMREETA. -</h3> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{123}</span></p> - -<p class="stanza">1.</p> -So spake the King of Padalon, when, lo!<br/> -The voice of lamentation ceas’d in Hell,<br/> -And sudden silence all around them fell,<br/> -Silence more wild and terrible<br/> -Than all the infernal dissonance before.<br/> -Through that portentous stillness, far away,<br/> -Unwonted sounds were heard, advancing on,<br/> -And deepening on their way;<br/> -For now the inexorable hour<br/> -Was come, and in the fullness of his power,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{124}</span></p> -Now that the dreadful rites had all been done,<br/> -Kehama from the Swerga hastened down,<br/> -To seize upon the throne of Padalon.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">2.</p> -He came in all his might and majesty,<br/> -With all his terrors clad, and all his pride;<br/> -And, by the attribute of Deity,<br/> -Which he had won from Heaven, self-multiplied,<br/> -The dreadful One appear’d on every side.<br/> -In the same indivisible point of time,<br/> -At the eight Gates he stood at once, and beat<br/> -The Warden-Gods of Hell beneath his feet;<br/> -Then, in his brazen Cars of triumph, straight,<br/> -At the same moment, drove through every gate.<br/> -By Aullays, hugest of created kind,<br/> -Fiercest, and fleeter than the viewless wind,<br/> -His Cars were drawn, ten yokes of ten abreast, . .<br/> -What less sufficed for such almighty weight?<br/> -Eight bridges from the fiery flood arose<br/> -Growing before his way; and on he goes,<br/> -And drives the thundering Chariot-wheels along,<br/> -At once o’er all the roads of Padalon.<br/> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{125}</span></p> - -<p class="stanza">3.</p> -Silent and motionless remain<br/> -The Asuras on their bed of pain,<br/> -Waiting, with breathless hope, the great event.<br/> -All Hell was hush’d in dread,<br/> -Such awe that omnipresent coming spread;<br/> -Nor had its voice been heard, though all its rout<br/> -Innumerable had lifted up one shout;<br/> -Nor if the infernal firmament<br/> -Had, in one unimaginable burst,<br/> -Spent its collected thunders, had the sound<br/> -Been audible, such louder terrors went<br/> -Before his forms substantial. Round about<br/> -The presence scattered lightnings far and wide,<br/> -That quench’d on every side,<br/> -With their intensest blaze, the feebler fire<br/> -Of Padalon, even as the stars go out,<br/> -When, with prodigious light,<br/> -Some blazing meteor fills the astonish’d night.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">4.</p> -The Diamond City shakes;<br/> -The adamantine Rock<br/> -Is loosen’d with the shock;<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{126}</span></p> -From its foundation mov’d, it heaves and quakes;<br/> -The brazen portals crumbling fall to dust;<br/> -Prone fall the Giant Guards<br/> -Beneath the Aullays crush’d.<br/> -On, on, through Yamenpur, their thundering feet<br/> -Speed from all points to Yamen’s judgement-seat.<br/> -And lo! where multiplied,<br/> -Behind, before him, and on every side,<br/> -Wielding all weapons in his countless hands,<br/> -Around the Lord of Hell Kehama stands!<br/> -Then, too, the Lord of Hell put forth his might:<br/> -Thick darkness, blacker than the blackest night,<br/> -Rose from their wrath, and veil’d<br/> -The unutterable fight.<br/> -The power of Fate and Sacrifice prevail’d,<br/> -And soon the strife was done.<br/> -Then did the Man-God re-assume<br/> -His unity, absorbing into one<br/> -The consubstantiate shapes; and as the gloom<br/> -Opened, fallen Yamen on the ground was seen,<br/> -His neck beneath the conquering Rajah’s feet,<br/> -Who on the marble tomb<br/> -Had his triumphal seat.<br/> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{127}</span></p> - -<p class="stanza">5.</p> -Silent the Man-Almighty sate; a smile<br/> -Gleam’d on his dreadful lips, the while<br/> -Dallying with power, he paus’d from following up<br/> -His conquest, as a man in social hour<br/> -Sips of the grateful cup,<br/> -Again and yet again, with curious taste,<br/> -Searching its subtle flavour ere he drink.<br/> -Even so Kehama now forbore his haste;<br/> -Having within his reach whate’er he sought,<br/> -On his own haughty power he seem’d to muse,<br/> -Pampering his arrogant heart with silent thought.<br/> -Before him stood the Golden Throne in sight,<br/> -Right opposite; he could not chuse but see,<br/> -Nor seeing chuse but wonder. Who are ye<br/> -Who bear the Golden Throne, tormented there?<br/> -He cried; for whom doth Destiny prepare<br/> -The imperial seat? and why are ye but Three?<br/> - -<p class="spk">First Statue.</p> -I of the Children of Mankind was first,<br/> -Me miserable! who, adding store to store,<br/> -Heapt up superfluous wealth; and now accurst,<br/> -For ever I the frantic crime deplore.<br/> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{128}</span></p> - -<p class="spk">Second Statue.</p> -I o’er my Brethren of Mankind the first<br/> -Usurping power, set up a throne sublime,<br/> -A King and Conqueror: therefore thus accurst,<br/> -For ever I in vain repent the crime.<br/> - -<p class="spk">Third Statue.</p> -I on the Children of Mankind the first,<br/> -In God’s most holy name, impos’d a tale<br/> -Of impious falsehood; therefore thus accurst,<br/> -For ever I in vain the crime bewail.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">6.</p> -Even as thou here beholdest us,<br/> -Here we have stood, tormented thus,<br/> -Such countless ages, that they seem to be<br/> -Long as eternity,<br/> -And still we are but Three.<br/> -A Fourth will come to share<br/> -Our pain, at yonder vacant corner bear<br/> -His portion of the burthen, and compleat<br/> -The golden Throne for Yamen’s judgement-seat.<br/> -Thus hath it been appointed: he must be<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{129}</span></p> -Equal in guilt to us, the guilty Three.<br/> -Kehama, come! too long we wait for thee!<br/> - -<p class="stanza">7.</p> -Thereat, with one accord,<br/> -The Three took up the word, like choral song,<br/> -Come, Rajah! Man-God! Earth’s Almighty Lord!<br/> -Kehama, come! we wait for thee too long.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">8.</p> -A short and sudden laugh of wondering pride<br/> -Burst from him in his triumph: to reply<br/> -Scornful he deign’d not; but with alter’d eye,<br/> -Wherein some doubtful meaning seem’d to lie,<br/> -He turn’d to Kailyal. Maiden, thus he cried,<br/> -I need not bid thee see<br/> -How vain it is to strive with Fate’s decree,<br/> -When hither thou hast fled to fly from me,<br/> -And lo! even here thou find’st me at thy side.<br/> -Mine thou must be, being doom’d with me to share<br/> -The Amreeta-cup of immortality;<br/> -Yea, by Myself I swear<br/> -It hath been thus appointed. Joyfully<br/> -Join then thy hand and heart and will with mine,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{130}</span></p> -Nor at such glorious destiny repine,<br/> -Nor in thy folly more provoke my wrath divine.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">9.</p> -She answer’d; I have said. It must not be!<br/> -Almighty as thou art,<br/> -Thou hast put all things underneath thy feet,<br/> -But still the resolute heart<br/> -And virtuous will are free.<br/> -Never, oh! never, . . never . . can there be<br/> -Communion, Rajah, between thee and me.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">10.</p> -Once more, quoth he, I urge, and once alone.<br/> -Thou seest yon Golden Throne,<br/> -Where I anon shall set thee by my side;<br/> -Take thou thy seat thereon,<br/> -Kehama’s willing bride,<br/> -And I will place the Kingdoms of the World<br/> -Beneath thy Father’s feet,<br/> -Appointing him the King of mortal men:<br/> -Else underneath that Throne,<br/> -The Fourth supporter, he shall stand and groan;<br/> -Prayers will be vain to move my mercy then.<br/> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{131}</span></p> - -<p class="stanza">11.</p> -Again the Virgin answer’d, I have said!<br/> -Ladurlad caught her in his proud embrace,<br/> -While on his neck she hid<br/> -In agony her face.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">12.</p> -Bring forth the Amreeta-cup! Kehama cried<br/> -To Yamen, rising sternly in his pride.<br/> -It is within the Marble Sepulchre,<br/> -The vanquish’d Lord of Padalon replied,<br/> -Bid it be opened. . . . Give thy treasure up!<br/> -Exclaim’d the Man-Almighty to the Tomb.<br/> -And at his voice and look<br/> -The massy fabric shook, and opened wide.<br/> -A huge Anatomy was seen reclin’d<br/> -Within its marble womb. Give me the Cup!<br/> -Again Kehama cried; no other charm<br/> -Was needed than that voice of stern command.<br/> -From his repose the ghastly form arose,<br/> -Put forth his bony and gigantic arm,<br/> -And gave the Amreeta to the Rajah’s hand.<br/> -Take! drink! with accents dread the Spectre said,<br/> -For thee and Kailyal hath it been assign’d,<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{132}</span></p> -Ye only of the Children of Mankind.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">13.</p> -Then was the Man-Almighty’s heart elate;<br/> -This is the consummation! he exclaim’d,<br/> -Thus have I triumphed over Death and Fate.<br/> -Now, Seeva! look to thine abode!<br/> -Henceforth, on equal footing we engage,<br/> -Alike immortal now, and we will wage<br/> -Our warfare, God to God!<br/> -Joy fill’d his impious soul,<br/> -And to his lips he rais’d the fatal bowl.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">14.</p> -Thus long the Glendoveer had stood,<br/> -Watching the wonders of the eventful hour,<br/> -Amaz’d but undismay’d; for in his heart<br/> -Faith, overcoming fear, maintain’d its power.<br/> -Nor had that faith abated, when the God<br/> -Of Padalon was beaten down in fight;<br/> -For then he look’d to see the heavenly might<br/> -Of Seeva break upon them. But when now<br/> -He saw the Amreeta in Kehama’s hand,<br/> -An impulse which denied all self-command<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{133}</span></p> -In that extremity<br/> -Stung him, and he resolved to seize the cup,<br/> -And dare the Rajah’s force in Seeva’s sight.<br/> -Forward he sprung to tempt the unequal fray,<br/> -When lo! the Anatomy,<br/> -With warning arm, withstood his desperate way,<br/> -And from the Golden Throne the fiery Three<br/> -Again, in one accord, renew’d their song,<br/> -Kehama, come! we wait for thee too long.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">15.</p> -O fool of drunken hope and frantic vice!<br/> -Madman! to seek for power beyond thy scope<br/> -Of knowledge, and to deem<br/> -Less than omniscience could suffice<br/> -To wield omnipotence! O fool, to dream<br/> -That immortality could be<br/> -The meed of evil! . . yea thou hast it now,<br/> -Victim of thine own wicked heart’s device,<br/> -Thou hast thine object now, and now must pay the price.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">16.</p> -He did not know the awful mystery<br/> -Of that divinest cup, that as the lips<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{134}</span></p> -Which touch it, even such its quality,<br/> -Good or malignant: Madman! and he thinks<br/> -The blessed prize is won, and joyfully he drinks.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">17.</p> -Then Seeva opened on the Accursed One<br/> -His Eye of Anger: upon him alone<br/> -The wrath-beam fell. He shudders . . . but too late;<br/> -The deed is done,<br/> -The dreadful liquor works the will of Fate.<br/> -Immortal he would be,<br/> -Immortal he remains; but through his veins<br/> -Torture at once and immortality,<br/> -A stream of poison doth the Amreeta run,<br/> -Infinite everlasting agony.<br/> -And while within the burning anguish flows,<br/> -His outward body glows<br/> -Like molten ore beneath the avenging eye,<br/> -Doom’d thus to live and burn eternally.<br/> -The fiery Three,<br/> -Beholding him, set up a fiendish cry,<br/> -A song of jubilee:<br/> -Come, Brother, come! they sung; too long<br/> -We in our torments have expected thee;<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{135}</span></p> -Come, Brother, come! henceforth we bear no more<br/> -The unequal weight; Come, Brother, we are Four!<br/> - -<p class="stanza">18.</p> -Vain his almightiness, for mightier pain<br/> -Subdued all power; pain ruled supreme alone.<br/> -And yielding to the bony hand<br/> -The unemptied cup, he mov’d toward the throne,<br/> -And at the vacant corner took his stand.<br/> -Behold the Golden Throne at length compleat,<br/> -And Yamen silently ascends the Judgement-Seat.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">19.</p> -For two alone, of all mankind, to me<br/> -The Amreeta-Cup was given,<br/> -Then said the Anatomy;<br/> -The Man hath drank, the Woman’s turn is next.<br/> -Come, Kailyal, come, receive thy doom,<br/> -And do the Will of Heaven! . .<br/> -Wonder, and Fear, and Awe at once perplext<br/> -The mortal Maiden’s heart, but over all<br/> -Hope rose triumphant. With a trembling hand,<br/> -Obedient to his call,<br/> -She took the fated Cup; and, lifting up<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{136}</span></p> -Her eyes, where holy tears began to swell,<br/> -Is it not your command,<br/> -Ye heavenly Powers? as on her knees she fell,<br/> -The pious Virgin cried;<br/> -Ye know my innocent will, my heart sincere,<br/> -Ye govern all things still,<br/> -And wherefore should I fear!<br/> - -<p class="stanza">20.</p> -She said, and drank. The Eye of Mercy beam’d<br/> -Upon the Maid: a cloud of fragrance steam’d<br/> -Like incense-smoke, as all her mortal frame<br/> -Dissolved beneath the potent agency<br/> -Of that mysterious draught; such quality,<br/> -From her pure touch, the fated Cup partook.<br/> -Like one entranced she knelt,<br/> -Feeling her body melt<br/> -Till all but what was heavenly past away:<br/> -Yet still she felt<br/> -Her spirit strong within her, the same heart,<br/> -With the same loves, and all her heavenly part,<br/> -Unchanged, and ripen’d to such perfect state,<br/> -In this miraculous birth, as here on Earth,<br/> -Dimly our holiest hopes anticipate.<br/> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{137}</span></p> - -<p class="stanza">21.</p> -Mine! mine! with rapturous joy Ereenia cried,<br/> -Immortal now, and yet not more divine;<br/> -Mine, mine. . . for ever mine!<br/> -The immortal Maid replied,<br/> -For ever, ever, thine!<br/> - -<p class="stanza">22.</p> -Then Yamen said, O thou to whom, by Fate,<br/> -Alone of all mankind, this lot is given,<br/> -Daughter of Earth, but now the Child of Heaven<br/> -Go with thy heavenly Mate,<br/> -Partaker now of his immortal bliss;<br/> -Go to the Swerga Bowers,<br/> -And there recall the hours<br/> -Of endless happiness.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">23.</p> -But that sweet Angel, for she still retain’d<br/> -Her human loves and human piety,<br/> -As if reluctant at the God’s commands,<br/> -Linger’d, with anxious eye<br/> -Upon her father fix’d, and spread her hands<br/> -Toward him wistfully.<br/> -<p><span class="pagenum">{138}</span></p> -Go! Yamen cried, nor cast that look behind<br/> -Upon Ladurlad at this parting hour,<br/> -For thou shalt find him in thy Mother’s Bower.<br/> - -<p class="stanza">24.</p> -The Car, as Carmala his word obey’d,<br/> -Mov’d on, and bore away the Maid,<br/> -While from the Golden Throne the Lord of Death<br/> -With love benignant, on Ladurlad smil’d,<br/> -And gently on his head his blessing laid.<br/> -As sweetly as a child,<br/> -Whom neither thought disturbs nor care encumbers,<br/> -Tir’d with long play, at close of summer day,<br/> -Lies down and slumbers,<br/> -Even thus as sweet a boon of sleep partaking,<br/> -By Yamen blest, Ladurlad sunk to rest.<br/> -Blessed that sleep! more blessed was the waking!<br/> -For on that night a heavenly morning broke,<br/> -The light of heaven was round him when he woke,<br/> -And in the Swerga, in Yedillian’s Bower,<br/> -All whom he lov’d he met, to part no more.<br/> - -<p class="end">THE END.</p> -</div> - - -<div class="notes"> - -<h2 id="notes_2"> -<br/><br/><br/> -NOTES. -</h2> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{141}</span></p> - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>The Banian Tree.</i>—XIII. p. 4. -</div> - -<p> -The <i>Burghut</i>, or Banian, often measures from twenty-four to thirty feet -in girth. It is distinguished from every other tree hitherto known, by -the very peculiar circumstance of throwing out roots from all its -branches. These, being pendant, and perfectly lax, in time reach the -ground, which they penetrate, and ultimately become substantial props to -the very massy horizontal boughs, which, but for such a support, must -either be stopt in their growth, or give way, from their own weight. -Many of these <i>quondam</i> roots, changing their outward appearance from a -brown rough rind to a regular bark, not unlike that of the beech, -increase to a great diameter. They may be often seen from four to five -feet in circumference, and <span class="pagenum">{142}</span> in a true perpendicular line. An -observer, ignorant of their nature, might think them artificial, and -that they had been placed for the purpose of sustaining the boughs from -which they originated. They proceed from all the branches -indiscriminately, whether near or far removed from the ground. They -appear like new swabs, such as are in use on board ships: however, few -reach sufficiently low to take a hold of the soil, except those of the -lower branches. I have seen some do so from a great height, but they -were thin, and did not promise well. Many of the ramifications pendant -from the higher boughs are seen to turn round the lower branches, but -without any obvious effect on either; possibly, however, they may derive -sustenance, even from that partial mode of communication. The height of -a full-grown Banian may be from sixty to eighty feet; and many of them, -I am fully confident, cover at least two acres. Their leaves are similar -to, but rather larger than those of the laurel. The wood of the trunk is -used only for fuel; it is light and brittle; but the pillars formed by -the roots are valuable, being extremely elastic and light, working with -ease, and possessing great toughness: it resembles a good kind of -ash.—<i>Oriental Field Sports</i>, vol. ii. p. 113. -</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{143}</span></p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -——<i>The Well</i><br/> -<i>Which they, with sacrifice of rural pride,</i><br/> -<i>Have wedded to the Cocoa-Grove beside.</i>—XIII. p. 5. -</div> - -<p> -It is a general practice, that, when a plantation is made, a well should -be dug at one of its sides. The well and the tope are married; a -ceremony at which all the village attends, and in which often much money -is expended. The well is considered as the husband, as its waters, which -are copiously furnished to the young trees during the first hot season, -are supposed to cherish and impregnate them. Though vanity and -superstition are evidently the basis of these institutions, yet we -cannot help admiring their effects, so beautifully ornamenting a torrid -country, and affording such general convenience.—<i>Oriental Sports</i>, p. -10. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>Tanks.</i>—XIII. p. 5. -</div> - -<p> -Some of these tanks are of very great extent, often covering eight or -ten acres; and, besides having steps of masonry, perhaps fifty or sixty -feet in breadth, are faced with brick-work, plastered in the most -substantial manner. The corners are generally ornamented with round or -polygon pavilions of a neat appearance.—<i>Oriental Sports</i>, vol. ii. p. -116. -</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{144}</span></p> - -<p> -There are two kinds of tanks, which we confound under one common name, -though nothing can be more different. The first is the <i>Eray</i>, which is -formed by throwing a mound or bank across a valley or hollow ground, so -that the rain water collects in the upper part of the valley, and is let -out on the lower part by sluices, for the purposes of cultivation. The -other kind is the <i>Culam</i>, which is formed by digging out the earth, and -is destined for supplying the inhabitants with water for domestic -purposes. The <i>Culams</i> are very frequently lined on all the four sides -with cut stone, and are the most elegant works of the -natives.—<span class="sc">Buchanan</span>. -</p> - -<p> -Where there are no springs or rivers to furnish them with water, as it -is in the northern parts, where there are but two or three springs, they -supply this defect by saving of rain water; which they do by casting up -great banks in convenient places, to stop and contain the rains that -fall, and so save it till they have occasion to let it out into the -fields: They are made rounding, like a C, or half-moon. Every town has -one of these ponds, which, if they can get but filled with water, they -count their corn is as good as in the barn. It was no small work to the -ancient inhabitants to make all these banks, of which there is a great -number, being some two, some three fathoms in height, and in length some -above a mile, some <span class="pagenum">{145}</span> less, not all of a size. They are now grown -over with great trees, and so seem natural hills. When they would use -the water, they cut a gap in one end of the bank, and so draw the water -by little and little, as they have occasion, for the watering their -corn. -</p> - -<p> -These ponds, in dry weather, dry up quite. If they should dig these -ponds deep, it would not be so convenient for them. It would indeed -contain the water well, but would not so well, nor in such plenty, empty -out itself into their grounds. In these ponds are alligators, which, -when the water is dried up, depart into the woods, and down to the -rivers, and, in the time of rains, come up again into the ponds. They -are but small, nor do use to catch people, nevertheless they stand in -some fear of them. -</p> - -<p> -The corn they sow in these parts is of that sort that is soonest ripe, -fearing lest their waters should fail. As the water dries out of these -ponds, they make use of them for fields, treading the mud with -buffaloes, and then sowing rice thereon, and frequently casting up water -with scoops on it.—<span class="sc">Knox</span>, p. 9. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>The Lotus.</i>—XIII. p. 5. -</div> - -<p> -The lotus abounds in the numerous lakes and ponds of the province of -Garah; and we had the pleasure of comparing <span class="pagenum">{146}</span> several varieties; -single and full, white, and tinged with deep or with faint tints of red. -To a near view, the simple elegance of the white lotus gains no -accession of beauty from the multiplication of its petals, nor from the -tinge of gaudy hue; but the richest tint is most pleasing, when a lake, -covered with full-blown lotas, is contemplated.—<i>Journey from Mirzapur -to Nagpur</i>.—Asiatic Annual Register, 1806. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>They built them up a Bower, &c.</i>—XIII. p. 5. -</div> - -<p> -The materials of which these houses are made are always easy to be -procured, and the structure is so simple, that a spacious, and by no -means uncomfortable dwelling, suited to the climate, may be erected in -one day. Our habitation, consisting of three small rooms, and a hall -open to the north, in little more than four hours was in readiness for -our reception; fifty or sixty labourers completed it in that time, and -on emergency could perform the work in much less. Bamboos, grass for -thatching, and the ground rattan, are all the materials requisite: not a -nail is used in the whole edifice: A row of strong bamboos, from eight -to ten feet high, are fixed firm in the ground, which describe the -outline, and are the supporters of the building: smaller bamboos are -then tied horizontally, by strips of the ground rattan, to these upright -posts: <span class="pagenum">{147}</span> The walls, composed of bamboo mats, are fastened to the -sides with similar ligatures: bamboo rafters are quickly raised, and a -roof formed, over which thatch is spread in regular layers, and bound to -the roof by filaments of rattan. A floor of bamboo grating is next laid -in the inside, elevated two or three feet above the ground: this grating -is supported on bamboos, and covered with mats and carpets. Thus ends -the process, which is not more simple than effectual. When the workmen -take pains, a house of this sort is proof against very inclement -weather. We experienced, during our stay at Meeday, a severe storm of -wind and rain, but no water penetrated, nor thatch escaped: and if the -tempest should blow down the house, the inhabitants would run no risk of -having, their brains knocked out, or their bones broken; the fall of the -whole fabric would not crush a lady’s lap-dog.—<span class="sc">Symes</span>’s <i>Embassy to -Ava</i>. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>Jungle-grass.</i>—XIII. p. 6. -</div> - -<p> -In this district the long grass called jungle is more prevalent than I -ever yet noticed. It rises to the height of seven or eight feet, and is -topped with a beautiful white down, resembling a swan’s feather. It is -the mantle with which nature here covers all the uncultivated ground, -and at once veils the indolence of the people and the nakedness <span class="pagenum">{148}</span> of -their land. It has a fine shewy appearance, as it undulates in the wind, -like the waves of the sea. Nothing but the want of greater variety to -its colour prevents it from being one of the finest and most beautiful -objects in that rich store of productions with which nature -spontaneously supplies the improvident natives.—<span class="sc">Tennant</span>. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>In such libations, pour’d in open glades,</i><br/> -<i>Beside clear streams and solitary shades,</i><br/> -<i>The Spirits of the virtuous dead delight.</i>—XIII. p. 6. -</div> - -<p> -The Hindoos are enjoined by the <i>Veds</i> to offer a cake, which is called -<i>Peenda</i>, to the ghosts of their ancestors, as far back as the third -generation. This ceremony is performed on the day of the new moon in -every month. The offering of water is in like manner commanded to be -performed daily; and this ceremony is called <i>Tarpan</i>, to satisfy, to -appease. The souls of such men as have left children to continue their -generation, are supposed to be transported, immediately upon quitting -their bodies, into a certain region called the <i>Peetree Log</i>, where they -may continue in proportion to their former virtues, provided these -ceremonies be not neglected; otherwise they are precipitated into -<i>Nark</i>, and doomed to be born again in the bodies of unclean beasts; and -until, by repeated <span class="pagenum">{149}</span> regenerations, all their sins are done away, -and they attain such a degree of perfection as will entitle them to what -is called <i>Mooktee</i>, eternal salvation, by which is understood a release -from future transmigration, and an absorption in the nature of the -godhead, who is called Brahm.—<span class="sc">Wilkins</span>. <i>Note to the Bhagvat Geeta</i>. -</p> - -<p> -The divine names are always pleased with an oblation in empty glades, -naturally clean, on the banks of rivers, and in solitary spots.—<i>Inst. -of Menu</i>. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>Voomdavee.</i>—XIII. p. 7. -</div> - -<p> -This wife of Veeshnoo is the Goddess of the Earth and of Patience. No -direct adoration is paid her; but she is held to be a silent and -attentive spectator of all that passes in the world.—<span class="sc">Kindersley</span>. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>Tassel Grass.</i>—XIII. p. 8. -</div> - -<p> -The <i>Surput</i>, or tassel-grass, which is much the same as the -guinea-grass, grows to the height of twelve or fourteen feet. Its stem -becomes so thick as to resemble in some measure a reed. It is very -strong, and grows very luxuriantly: it is even used as a fence against -cattle; for which purpose it is often planted on banks, excavated from -ditches, to enclose fields of corn, &c. It grows wild in all the -uncultivated parts of India, but especially in the <span class="pagenum">{150}</span> lower -provinces, in which it occupies immense tracts; sometimes mixing with, -and rising above coppices; affording an asylum for elephants, -rhinoceroses, tygers, &c. It frequently is laid by high winds, of which -breeding sows fail not to take advantage, by forming their nests, and -concealing their young under the prostrate grass.—<i>Oriental Sports</i>, -vol. i. p. 32. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>Lo, from his trunk, upturn’d, aloft he flings</i><br/> -<i>The grateful shower, and now,</i><br/> -<i>Plucking the broad-leav’d bough</i><br/> -<i>Of yonder plane,—he moves it to and fro.</i>—XIII. p. 9. -</div> - -<p> -Nature has provided the elephant with means to cool its heated surface, -by enabling it to draw from its throat, by the aid of its trunk, a -copious supply of saliva, which the animal spurts with force very -frequently all over its skin. It also sucks up dust, and blows it over -its back and sides, to keep off the flies, and may often be seen fanning -itself with a large bough, which it uses with great ease and -dexterity.—<i>Oriental Sports</i>, vol. i. p. 100. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>Till his strong temples, bathed with sudden dews,</i><br/> -<i>Their fragrance of delight and love diffuse.</i>—XIII p. 9. -</div> - -<p> -The Hindoo poets frequently allude to the fragrant juice which oozes, at -certain seasons, from small ducts <span class="pagenum">{151}</span> in the temples of the male -elephant, and is useful in relieving him from the redundant moisture, -with which he is then oppressed; and they even describe the bees as -allured by the scent, and mistaking it for that of the sweetest flowers. -When Crishna visited Sanc’ha-dwip, and had destroyed the demon who -infested that delightful country, he passed along the bank of a river, -and was charmed with a delicious odour, which its waters diffused in -their course: He was eager to view the source of so fragrant a stream, -but was informed by the natives that it flowed from the temples of an -elephant, immensely large, milk-white, and beautifully formed; that he -governed a numerous race of elephants; and that the odoriferous fluid -which exuded from his temples in the season of love had formed the -river; that the Devas, or inferior gods, and the Apsarases, or nymphs, -bathed and sported in its waters, impassioned and intoxicated with the -liquid perfume.—<span class="sc">Wilford</span>. <i>Asiatic Researches</i>. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>The antic monkeys, whose wild gambols late</i><br/> -<i>Shook the whole wood.</i>—XIII. p. 10. -</div> - -<p> -They are so numerous on the island of Bulama, says Captain Beaver in his -excellent book, that I have seen, on a calm evening, when there was not -an air sufficiently strong to agitate a leaf, the whole surrounding wood -<span class="pagenum">{152}</span> in as much motion, from their playful gambols among its branches, -as if it had blown a strong wind. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>Not that in emulous skill that sweetest bird</i><br/> -<i>Her rival strain would try.</i>—XIII. p. 10. -</div> - -<p> -I have been assured, by a credible eye-witness, that two wild antelopes -used often to come from their woods to the place where a more savage -beast, Sirajuddaulah, entertained himself with concerts, and that they -listened to the strains with an appearance of pleasure, till the -monster, in whose soul there was no music, shot one of them, to display -his archery. A learned native of this country told me that he had -frequently seen the most venomous and malignant snakes leave their -holes, upon hearing tunes on a flute, which, as he supposed, gave them -peculiar delight. An intelligent Persian, who repeated his story again -and again, and permitted me to write it down from his lips, declared, he -had more than once been present when a celebrated lutanist, <i>Mirza -Mohammed</i>, surnamed <i>Bulbul</i>, was playing to a large company, in a grove -near <i>Shiraz</i>, where he distinctly saw the nightingales trying to vie -with the musician; sometimes warbling on the trees, sometimes fluttering -from branch to branch, as if they wished to approach the instrument -whence the melody proceeded, and at length dropping on <span class="pagenum">{153}</span> the ground, -in a kind of ecstacy, from which they were soon raised, he assured me, -by a change of the mode. I hardly know, says Sir William Jones, how to -disbelieve the testimony of men who had no system of their own to -support, and could have no interest in deceiving me.—<i>Asiatic -Researches</i>. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>No idle ornaments deface</i><br/> -<i>Her natural grace.</i>—XIII. p. 10. -</div> - -<p> -The Hindoo Wife, in Sir William Jones’s poem, describes her own -toilet-tasks:— -</p> - -<div class="quote_o"><div class="quote_i"> -<span class="v0">Nor were my night thoughts, I confess,</span> -<span class="v0">Free from solicitude for dress;</span> -<span class="v0">How best to bind my flowing hair</span> -<span class="v0">With art, yet with an artless air,—</span> -<span class="v0">My hair, like musk in scent and hue,</span> -<span class="v0">Oh! blacker far, and sweeter too!</span> -<span class="v0">In what nice braid, or glossy curl,</span> -<span class="v0">To fix a diamond or a pearl,</span> -<span class="v0">And where to smooth the love-spread toils</span> -<span class="v0">With nard or jasmin’s fragrant oils;</span> -<span class="v0">How to adjust the golden <i>Teic</i>,<sup><a href="#fn30b" id="fn30a">30</a></sup></span> -<span class="v0">And most adorn my forehead sleek;</span> -<!-- <span class="v0">{154}</span> --> -<span class="v0">What <i>Condals</i><sup><a href="#fn31b" id="fn31a">31</a></sup> should emblaze my ears,</span> -<span class="v0">Like <i>Seita’s</i><sup><a href="#fn32b" id="fn32a">32</a></sup> waves, or <i>Seita’s</i><sup><a href="#fn33b" id="fn33a">33</a></sup> tears;</span> -<span class="v0">How elegantly to dispose</span> -<span class="v0">Bright circlets for my well-form’d nose;</span> -<span class="v0">With strings of rubies how to deck,</span> -<span class="v0">Or emerald rows, my stately neck;</span> -<span class="v0">While some that ebon tower embraced,</span> -<span class="v0">Some pendent sought my slender waist;</span> -<span class="v0">How next my purfled veil to chuse</span> -<span class="v0">From silken stores of varied hues,</span> -<span class="v0">Which would attract the roving view,</span> -<span class="v0">Pink, violet, purple, orange, blue;</span> -<span class="v0">The loveliest mantle to select,</span> -<span class="v0">Or unembellished or bedeck’d;</span> -<span class="v0">And how my twisted scarf to place</span> -<span class="v0">With most inimitable grace,</span> -<span class="v0">(Too thin its warp, too fine its woof,</span> -<span class="v0">For eyes of males not beauty-proof;)</span> -<span class="v0">What skirts the mantle best would suit,</span> -<span class="v0">Ornate, with stars, or tissued fruit,</span> -<!-- <span class="v0">{155}</span> --> -<span class="v0">The flower-embroidered or the plain,</span> -<span class="v0">With silver or with golden vein;</span> -<span class="v0">The <i>Chury</i><sup><a href="#fn34b" id="fn34a">34</a></sup> bright, which gayly shows</span> -<span class="v0">Fair objects aptly to compose;</span> -<span class="v0">How each smooth arm, and each soft wrist,</span> -<span class="v0">By richest <i>Cosees</i><sup><a href="#fn35b" id="fn35a">35</a></sup> might be kiss’d,</span> -<span class="v0">While some my taper ankles round,</span> -<span class="v0">With sunny radiance tinged the ground.</span> -</div></div> - -<p> -See how he kisses the lip of my rival, and imprints on her forehead an -ornament of pure musk, black as the young antelope on the lunar orb! -Now, like the husband of <i>Reti</i>, he fixes white blossoms on her dark -locks, where they gleam like flashes of lightning among the curled -clouds. On her breasts, like two firmaments, he places a string of gems -like a radiant constellation; he binds on her arms, graceful as the -stalks of the water-lily, and adorned with hands glowing like the petals -of its flower, a bracelet of sapphires, which resemble a cluster of -bees. Ah! see how he ties round her waist a rich girdle illumined with -golden bells, which seem to laugh as they tinkle, at the inferior -brightness of the leafy garlands which lovers hang on their bowers, to -propitiate the god of <span class="pagenum">{156}</span> desire. He places her soft foot, as he -reclines by her side, on his ardent bosom, and stains it with the ruddy -hue of Yavaca.—<i>Songs of Jayadeva</i>. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>Sandal-streak.</i>—XIII. p. 10. -</div> - -<p> -The Hindoos, especially after bathing, paint their faces with ochres and -sandal-wood ground very fine into a pulp. -</p> - -<p> -The custom is principally confined to the male sex, though the women -occasionally wear a round spot, either of sandal, which is of a light -dun colour, or of <i>singuiff</i>, that is, a preparation of vermilion, -between the eye-brows, and a stripe of the same running up the front of -the head, in the furrow made according to the general practice of -dividing all the frontal hair equally to the right and left, where it is -rendered smooth, and glazed by a thick mucilage, made by steeping -lintseed for a while in water. When dry, the hair is all firmly matted -together, and will retain its form for many days together.—<i>Oriental -Sports</i>, vol. i. p. 271. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>Nor arm, nor ankle-ring.</i>—XIII. p. 10. -</div> - -<p> -Glass rings are universally worn by the women of the Decan, as an -ornament on the wrists; and their applying closely to the arm is -considered as a mark of delicacy <span class="pagenum">{157}</span> and beauty, for they must of -course be past over the hand. In doing this a girl seldom escapes -without drawing blood, and rubbing part of the skin from her hand; and -as every well-dressed girl has a number of rings on each arm, and as -these are frequently breaking, the poor creatures suffer much from their -love of admiration.—<span class="sc">Buchanan</span>. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>The dear retreat.</i>—XIII. p. 11. -</div> - -<p> -There is a beautiful passage in Statius, which may be quoted here: It is -in that poet’s best manner: -</p> - -<div class="quote_o"><div class="quote_i"> -<span class="v0">Qualis vicino volucris jam sedula partu,</span> -<span class="v0">Jamque timens quâ fronde domum suspendat inanem,</span> -<span class="v0">Providet hinc ventos, hinc anxia cogitat angues,</span> -<span class="v0">Hinc homines; tandem dubiæ placet umbra, novisque</span> -<span class="v0">Vix stetit in ramis, et protinus arbor amatur.</span> -<span class="right"><i>Achil</i>. ii. 212.</span> -</div></div> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>Jaga-Naut.</i>—XIV. p. 14. -</div> - -<p> -This temple is to the Hindoos what Mecca is to the Mahommedans. It is -resorted to by pilgrims from every quarter of India. It is the chief -seat of Brahminical power, and a strong-hold of their superstition. At -the <span class="pagenum">{158}</span> annual festival of the Butt Jattra, seven hundred thousand -persons (as has been computed by the Pundits in College) assemble at -this place. The number of deaths in a single year, caused by voluntary -devotement, by imprisonment for non-payment of the demands of the -Brahmins, or by the scarcity of provisions for such a multitude, is -incredible. The precincts of the place are covered with -bones.—<span class="sc">Claudius Buchanan</span>. -</p> - -<p> -Many thousands of people are employed in carrying water from Hurdwar to -Juggernat, for the uses of that temple. It is there supposed to be -peculiarly holy, as it issues from what is called the Cow’s Mouth. This -superstitious notion is the cause of as much lost labour as would long -since have converted the largest province of Asia into a garden. The -numbers thus employed are immense; they travel with two flasks of the -water slung over the shoulder by means of an elastic piece of bamboo. -The same quantity which employs, perhaps, fifteen thousand persons, -might easily be carried down the Ganges in a few boats annually. Princes -and families of distinction have this water carried to them in all parts -of Hindostan; it is drank at feasts, as well as upon religious -occasions.—<span class="sc">Tennant</span>. -</p> - -<p> -A small river near Kinouge is held by some as even more efficacious in -washing away moral defilement than <span class="pagenum">{159}</span> the Ganges itself. Dr Tennant -says, that a person in Ceylon drinks daily of this water, though at the -distance of, perhaps, three thousand miles, and at the expense of five -thousand rupees per month! -</p> - -<p> -No distinction of casts is made at this temple, but all, like a nation -descended from one common stock, eat, drink, and make merry -together.—<span class="sc">Stavorinus</span>. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>The seven-headed Idol.</i>—XIV. p. 15. -</div> - -<p> -The idol of <i>Jaggenat</i> is in shape like a serpent, with seven heads; and -on the cheeks of each head it hath the form of a wing upon each cheek, -which wings open and shut and flap as it is carried in a stately -chariot, and the idol in the midst of it; and one of the <i>moguls</i> -sitting behind it in the chariot, upon a convenient place, with a -canopy, to keep the sun from injuring of it. -</p> - -<p> -When I, with horror, beheld these strange things, I called to mind the -eighteenth chapter of the <i>Revelations</i>, and the first verse, and -likewise the sixteenth and seventeenth verses of the said chapter, in -which places there is a beast, and such idolatrous worship, mentioned; -and those sayings in that text are herein truly accomplished in the -sixteenth verse; for the <i>Bramins</i> are all marked in the forehead, and -likewise all that come to worship the <span class="pagenum">{160}</span> idol are marked also in -their foreheads.—<span class="sc">Bruton</span>. <i>Churchill’s Collection</i>, -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>The Chariot of the God.</i>—XIV. p. 15. -</div> - -<p> -The size of the chariot is not exaggerated. Speaking of other such, -Niecamp says, <i>Currus tam horrendæ magnitudinis sunt, ut vel mille -homines uni trahendo vix sufficiant.</i>—i. 10. § 18. -</p> - -<p> -They have built a great chariot, that goeth on sixteen wheels of a side, -and every wheel is five feet in height, and the chariot itself is about -thirty feet high. In this chariot, on their great festival days, at -night, they place their wicked god <i>Jaggarnat</i>; and all the <i>Bramins</i>, -being in number nine thousand, then attend this great idol, besides of -<i>ashmen</i> and <i>fackeires</i> some thousands, or more than a good many. -</p> - -<p> -The chariot is most richly adorned with most rich and costly ornaments; -and the aforesaid wheels are placed very complete in a round circle, so -artificially, that every wheel doth its proper office without any -impediment; for the chariot is aloft, and in the centre betwixt the -wheels: they have also more than two thousand lights with them: And this -chariot, with the idol, is also drawn with the greatest and best men of -the town; and they are so eager and greedy to draw it, that whosoever, -<span class="pagenum">{161}</span> by shouldering, crowding, shoving, heaving, thrusting, or any -violent way, can but come to lay a hand upon the ropes, they think -themselves blessed and happy: and, when it is going along the city, -there are many that will offer themselves as a sacrifice to this idol, -and desperately lie down on the ground, that the chariot-wheels may run -over them, whereby they are killed outright; some get broken arms, some -broken legs; so that many of them are so destroyed, and by this means -they think to merit heaven.—<span class="sc">Bruton</span>. <i>Churchill’s Collection</i>. -</p> - -<p> -They sometimes lie down in the track of this machine a few hours before -its arrival, and, taking a soporiferous draught, hope to meet death -asleep.—<span class="sc">Claudius Buchanan</span>. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>A harlot-band.</i>—XIV. p. 19. -</div> - -<p> -There are in India common women, called Wives of the Idol. When a woman -has made a vow to obtain children, if she brings into the world a -beautiful daughter, she carries her to <i>Bod</i>, so their idol is called, -with whom she leaves her. This girl, when she is arrived at a proper -age, takes an apartment in the public place, hangs a curtain before the -door, and waits for those who are passing, as well Indians as those of -other sects among whom this debauchery is permitted. She prostitutes -<span class="pagenum">{162}</span> herself for a certain price, and all that she can thus acquire she -carries to the priest of the idol, that he may apply it to the service -of the temple. Let us, says the Mohammedan relater, bless the almighty -and glorious God, that he has chosen us, to exempt us from all the -crimes into which men are led by their unbelief.—<i>Anciennes Relations</i>. -</p> - -<p> -Incited, unquestionably, says Mr. Maurice, by the hieroglyphic emblem of -vice so conspicuously elevated, and so strikingly painted in the temples -of Mahadeo, the priests of that deity industriously selected the most -beautiful females that could be found, and, in their tenderest years, -with great pomp and solemnity, consecrated them (as it is impiously -called) to the service of the presiding divinity of the pagoda. They -were trained up in every art to delude and to delight; and, to the -fascination of external beauty, their artful betrayers added the -attractions arising from mental accomplishments. Thus was an invariable -rule of the Hindoos, <i>that women have no concern with literature</i>, -dispensed with upon this infamous occasion. The moment these hapless -victims reached maturity, they fell victims to the lust of the Brahmins. -They were early taught to practise the most alluring blandishments, to -roll the expressive eye of wanton pleasure, and to invite to criminal -indulgence, by <span class="pagenum">{163}</span> stealing upon the beholder the tender look of -voluptuous languishing. They were instructed to mould their elegant and -airy forms into the most enticing attitudes and the most lascivious -gestures, while the rapid and graceful motion of their feet, adorned -with golden bells, and glittering with jewels, kept unison with the -exquisite melody of their voices. Every pagoda has a band of these young -syrens, whose business, on great festivals, is to dance in public before -the idol, to sing hymns in his honour, and in private to enrich the -treasury of that pagoda with the wages of prostitution. These women are -not, however, regarded in a dishonourable light; they are considered as -<i>wedded to the idol</i>, and they partake of the veneration paid to him. -They are forbidden even to desert the pagoda where they are educated, -and are never permitted to marry; but the offspring, if any, of their -criminal embraces are considered as sacred to the idol: the boys are -taught to play on the sacred instruments used at the festivals, and the -daughters are devoted to the abandoned occupations of their -mothers.—<i>Indian Antiquities</i>. -</p> - -<p> -These impostors take a young maid, of the fairest they can meet with, to -be the bride, (as they speak and bear the besotted people in hand) of -<i>Jagannat</i>, and they leave her all night in the temple (whither they -<span class="pagenum">{164}</span> have carried her) with the idol, making her believe that -<i>Jagannat</i> himself will come and embrace her, and appointing her to ask -him, whether it will be a fruitful year, what kind of processions, -feasts, prayers, and alms he demands to be made for it. In the mean time -one of these lustful priests enters at night by a little back-door into -the temple, deflowereth this young maid, and maketh her believe any -thing he pleaseth; and the next day, being transported from this temple -into another with the same magnificence, she was carried before upon the -chariot of triumph, on the side of <i>Jagannat</i> her bridegroom: these -<i>Brahmans</i> make her say aloud, before all the people, whatsoever she had -been taught of these cheats, as if she had learnt it from the very mouth -of <i>Jagannat.</i>—<span class="sc">Bernier</span>. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>Baly.</i>—XV. p. 26. -</div> - -<p> -The fifth incarnation was in a Bramin dwarf, under the name of Vamen; it -was wrought to restrain the pride of the giant Baly. The latter, after -having conquered the gods, expelled them from Sorgon; he was generous, -true to his word, compassionate, and charitable. Vichenou, under the -form of a very little Bramin, presented himself before him while he was -sacrificing, and asked him for three paces of land to build a hut. Baly -ridiculed the <span class="pagenum">{165}</span> apparent imbecility of the dwarf, in telling him, -that he ought not to limit his demand to a bequest so trifling; that his -generosity could bestow a much larger donation of land. Vamen answered, -That, being of so small a stature, what he asked was more than -sufficient. The prince immediately granted his request, and, to ratify -his donation, poured water into his right hand; which was no sooner done -than the dwarf grew so prodigiously, that his body filled the universe! -He measured the earth with one pace, and the heavens with another, and -then summoned Baly to give him his word for the third. The prince then -recognised Vichenou, adored him, and presented his head to him; but the -god, satisfied with his submission, sent him to govern the Padalon, and -permitted him to return every year to the earth, the day of the full -moon, in the month of November.—<span class="sc">Sonnerat</span>’s <i>Voyages</i>, vol. i. p. 24. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>The sacred cord.</i>—XV. p. 30. -</div> - -<p> -The Brahmans who officiate at the temples generally go with their heads -uncovered, and the upper part of the body naked. The <i>Zennar</i>, or sacred -string, is hung round the body from the left shoulder; a piece of white -cotton cloth is wrapped round the loins, which descends under the knee, -but lower on the left side than on the <span class="pagenum">{166}</span> other; and in cold weather -they sometimes cover their bodies with a shawl, and their heads with a -red cap.—The <i>Zennar</i> is made of a particular kind of perennial cotton, -called <i>Verma</i>: it is composed of a certain number of threads of a fixed -length: the <i>Zennar</i> worn by the Khatries has fewer threads than that -worn by the Brahmans, and that worn by the Bhyse fewer than that worn by -the Khatries; but those of the Sodra cast are excluded from this -distinction, none of them being permitted to wear it.—<span class="sc">Craufurd</span>. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>The City of Baly.</i>—XV. p. 31. -</div> - -<br/> -<p class="center"> -Ruins of Malâbalipûr, the City of the great Baly. -</p> -<br/> - -<p> -A rock, or rather hill of stone, is that which first engrosses the -attention on approaching the place; for as it rises abruptly out of a -level plain of great extent, consists chiefly of one single stone, and -is situated very near to the sea-beach, it is such a kind of object as -an inquisitive traveller would naturally turn aside to examine. Its -shape is also singular and romantic, and, from a distant view, has an -appearance like some antique and lofty edifice. On coming near to the -foot of the rock from the north, works of imagery and sculpture crowd so -thick upon the eye, as might seem to favour the idea of <span class="pagenum">{167}</span> a -petrified town, like those that have been fabled in different parts of -the world, by too credulous travellers. Proceeding on by the foot of the -hill, on the side facing the sea, there is a pagoda rising out of the -ground, of one solid stone, about sixteen or eighteen feet high, which -seems to have been cut upon the spot, out of a detached rock, that has -been found of a proper size for that purpose. The top is arched, and the -style of architecture according to which it is formed different from any -now used in those parts. A little further on, there appears, upon a huge -surface of stone, that juts out a little from the side of the hill, a -numerous group of human figures, in bass-relief, considerably larger -than life, representing the most remarkable persons whose actions are -celebrated in the Nahâbharit, each of them in an attitude, or with -weapons, or other insignia, expressive of his character, or of some one -of his most famous exploits. All these figures are doubtless much less -distinct than they were at first; for upon comparing these and the rest -of the sculptures that are exposed to the sea-air, with others at the -same place, whose situation has afforded them protection from that -element, the difference is striking; the former being every where much -defaced, while the others are fresh as recently finished. An excavation -in another part of the east side of the great rock appears <span class="pagenum">{168}</span> to have -been made on the same plan, and for the same purpose, that Chowltries -are usually built in that country, that is to say, for the accommodation -of travellers. The rock is hollowed out to the size of a spacious room, -and two or three rows of pillars are left, as a seeming support to the -mountainous mass of stone which forms the roof. -</p> - -<p> -The ascent of the hill on the north is, from its natural shape, gradual -and easy at first, and is in other parts rendered more so, by very -excellent steps, cut out in several places where the communication would -be difficult or impracticable without them. A winding stair of this sort -leads to a kind of temple cut out of the solid rock, with some figures -of idols in high relief upon the walls, very well finished. From this -temple there are flights of steps, that seem to have led to some edifice -formerly standing upon the hill; nor does it seem absurd to suppose that -this may have been a palace, to which this temple may have appertained; -for, besides the small detached range of stairs that are here and there -cut in the rock, and seem as if they had once led to different parts of -one great building, there appear in many places small water channels cut -also in the rock, as if for drains to an house; and the whole top of the -hill is strewed with small round pieces of brick, which may be supposed, -<span class="pagenum">{169}</span> from their appearance, to have been worn down to their present -form during the lapse of many ages. On a plain surface of the rock, -which may once have served as the floor of some apartment, there is a -platform of stone, about 8 or 9 feet long, by 3 or 4 wide, in a -situation rather elevated, with two or three steps leading up to it, -perfectly resembling a couch or bed, and a lion very well executed at -the upper end of it, by way of pillow; the whole of one piece, being -part of the hill itself. This the Bramins, inhabitants of the place, -call the bed of Dhermarâjah, or Judishter, the eldest of the five -brothers, whose exploits are the leading subject in the Mahabhârit. And -at a considerable distance from this, at such a distance, indeed, as the -apartments of the women might be supposed to be from that of the men, is -a bath, excavated also from the rock, with steps in the inside, which -the Bramins call the Bath of Dropedy, the wife of Judishter and his -brothers. How much credit is due to this tradition, and whether this -stone couch may not have been anciently used as a kind of throne, rather -than a bed, is matter for future enquiry. A circumstance, however, which -may seem to favour this idea is, that a throne, in the Shanscrit and -other Hindoo languages, is called <i>Singhâsen</i>, which is compounded of -<i>Sing</i>, a lion, and <i>ásen</i>, a seat. -</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{170}</span></p> - -<p> -But though these works may be deemed stupendous, they are surpassed by -others that are to be seen at the distance of about a mile, or mile and -half, to the south of the hill. They consist of two pagodas, of about -30 feet long, by 20 feet wide, and about as many in height, cut out of -the solid rock, and each consisting originally of one single stone. -Their form is different from the style of architecture according to -which idol temples are now built in that country. These sculptures -approach nearer to the Gothic taste, being surmounted by arched roofs, -or domes, not semicircular, but composed of two segments of circles -meeting in a point at top. Near these also stand an elephant full as big -as life, and a lion much larger than the natural size, both hewn also -out of one stone. -</p> - -<p> -The great rock is about 50 or 100 yards from the sea; but close to the -sea are the remains of a pagoda built of brick, and dedicated to Sîb, -the greatest part of which has evidently been swallowed up by that -element; for the door of the innermost apartment, in which the idol is -placed, and before which there are always two or three spacious courts -surrounded with walls, is now washed by the waves, and the pillar used -to discover the meridian at the time of founding the pagoda is seen -standing at some distance in the sea. In the neighbourhood of <span class="pagenum">{171}</span> this -building there are some detached rocks, washed also by the waves, on -which there appear sculptures, though now much worn and defaced: And the -natives of the place declared to the writer of this account, that the -more aged people among them remembered to have seen the tops of several -pagodas far out in the sea, which, being covered with copper, (probably -gilt,) were particularly visible at sun-rise, as their shining surface -used then to reflect the sun’s rays, but that now that effect was no -longer produced, as the copper had since become incrusted with mould and -verdigrease.—<span class="sc">Chambers</span>. <i>Asiatic Researches</i>. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>Thou hast been called, O Sleep! the friend of Woe,</i><br/> -<i>But ’tis the happy who have call’d thee so.</i>—XV. p. 36. -</div> - -<p> -Daniel has a beautiful passage concerning Richard II.—sufficiently -resembling this part of the poem to be inserted here: -</p> - -<div class="quote_o"><div class="quote_i"> -<span class="v1">To <i>Flint</i>, from thence, unto a restless bed,</span> -<span class="v0">That miserable night he comes convey’d;</span> -<span class="v0">Poorly provided, poorly followed,</span> -<span class="v0">Uncourted, unrespected, unobey’d;</span> -<span class="v0">Where, if uncertain Sleep but hovered</span> -<span class="v0">Over the drooping cares that heavy weigh’d,</span> -<!-- <span class="v0">{172}</span> --> -<span class="v0">Millions of figures Fantasy presents</span> -<span class="v0">Unto that sorrow wakened grief augments.</span> -<br/> -<span class="v1">His new misfortune makes deluded Sleep</span> -<span class="v0">Say ’twas not so:—false dreams the truth deny:</span> -<span class="v0">Wherewith he starts; feels waking cares do creep</span> -<span class="v0">Upon his soul, and gives his dream the lie,</span> -<span class="v0">Then sleeps again:—and then again as deep</span> -<span class="v0">Deceits of darkness mock his misery.</span> -<span class="right"><i>Civil War</i>, Book II. st. 52, 53.</span> -</div></div> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>The Aullay.</i>—XVI. p. 40. -</div> - -<p> -This monster of Hindoo imagination is a horse with the trunk of an -elephant, but bearing about the same proportion to the elephant in size, -that the elephant itself does to a common sheep. In one of the prints to -Mr. Kindersley’s “Specimens of Hindoo Literature,” an aullay is -represented taking up an elephant with his trunk. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>——Did then the Ocean wage</i><br/> -<i>His war for love and envy, not in rage,</i><br/> -<i>O thou fair City, that he spares thee thus?</i>—XVI. p. 40. -</div> - -<p> -Malecheren, (which is probably another name for Baly), in an excursion -which he made one day alone, and in <span class="pagenum">{173}</span> disguise, came to a garden in -the environs of his city Mahâbalipoor, where was a fountain so -inviting, that two celestial nymphs had come down to bathe there. The -Rajah became enamoured of one of them, who condescended to allow of his -attachment to her; and she and her sister nymph used thenceforward to -have frequent interviews with him in that garden. On one of those -occasions they brought with them a male inhabitant of the heavenly -regions, to whom they introduced the Rajah; and between him and -Malecheren a strict friendship ensued; in consequence of which he -agreed, at the Rajah’s earnest request, to carry him in disguise to see -the court of the divine Inder,—a favour never before granted to any -mortal. The Rajah returned from thence with new ideas of splendour and -magnificence, which he immediately adopted in regulating his court and -his retinue, and in beautifying his seat of government. By this means -Mahâbalipoor became soon celebrated beyond all the cities of the earth; -and on account of its magnificence having been brought to the gods -assembled at the court of Inder, their jealousy was so much excited at -it, that they sent orders to the God of the Sea to let loose his -billows, and overflow a place which impiously pretended to vie in -splendour with their celestial mansions. This <span class="pagenum">{174}</span> command he obeyed, -and the city was at once overflowed by that furious element, nor has it -ever since been able to rear its head.—<span class="sc">Chambers</span>. <i>Asiat. Res.</i> -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>Round those strange waters they repair.</i>—XVI. p. 44. -</div> - -<p> -In the Bahia dos Artifices, which is between the river Jagoarive and S. -Miguel, there are many springs of fresh water, which may be seen at low -tide, and these springs are frequented by fish and by the sea-cow, which -they say comes to drink there.—<i>Noticias do Brazil</i>. MSS. i. 8. -</p> - -<p> -The inhabitants of the Feroe Islands seek for cod in places where there -is a fresh-water spring at the bottom.—<span class="sc">Landt</span>. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>The Sheckra.</i>—XVII. p. 65. -</div> - -<p> -This weapon, which is often to be seen in one of the wheel-spoke hands -of a Hindoo god, resembles a quoit: the external edge is sharp: it is -held in the middle, and, being whirled along, cuts wherever it strikes. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>The writing which, at thy nativity,</i><br/> -<i>All-knowing Nature wrought upon thy brain.</i><br/> -—XVIII. p. 69. -</div> - -<p> -Brahma is considered as the immediate creator of all things, and -particularly as the disposer of each person’s <span class="pagenum">{175}</span> fate, which he -inscribes within the skull of every created being, and which the gods -themselves cannot avert.—<span class="sc">Kindersley</span>, p. 21. <span class="sc">Niecamp</span>. vol. i. p. 10. -§ 7. -</p> - -<p> -It is by the sutures of the skull that these lines of destiny are -formed. See also a note to Thalaba, (vol. i. p. 260, second edition,) -upon a like superstition of the Mahommedans. -</p> - -<p> -<i>Quand on leur reproche quclque vice, ou qu’on les reprend d’une -mauvaise action, ils répondent froidement, que cela est écrit sur leur -tête, et qu’ils n’ont pu faire autrement. Si vous paroissez étonné de -ce langage nouveau, et que vous demandiez à voir oú cela est ecrit, -ils vous montrent les diverses jointures du crâne de leur tête, -prétendant que les sutures même sont les caracteres de cette écriture -mysterieuse. Si vous les pressez de dechiffrer ces caracteres, et de -vous faire connoitre ce qu’ils signifient, ils avouent qu’ils ne le -sçavent pas. Mais puisque vous ne sçavez pas lire cette ecriture, -disois-je quelquefois à ces gens entêtés, qui est-ce donc qui vous la -lit? qui estce qui vous en explique le sens, et qui vous fait connoitre -ce qu’elle contient? D’ailleurs ces pretendus caracteres etant les memes -sur la tête de tous les hommes, d’ oú vient qu’ils agissent si -différemment, et qu’ils sont si contraires les uns aux autres dans -leurs vues, dans leurs desseins, et dans leurs projets?</i> -</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{176}</span></p> - -<p> -<i>Les Brames m’ecoutoient de sang froid, et sans s’inguieter ni des -contradictions oú ils tomboient, ni des consequences ridicules qu’ils -etoient obligés d’avouer, Enfin, lorsgu’ils se sentoient vivement -presses, toute leur ressource éloit de se retirer sans rien dire.</i>—<span class="sc">P. -Mauduit</span>. Lettres Edifiantes, t. x. p. 248. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>The Seven Earths.</i>—XIX. p. 77. -</div> - -<p> -The seas which surround these earths are, 1. of salt water, inclosing -our inmost earth; 2. of fresh water; 3. of <i>tyre</i>, curdled milk; 4. of -<i>ghee</i>, clarified butter; 5. of <i>cauloo</i>, a liquor drawn from the -<i>pullum</i> tree; 6. of liquid sugar; 7. of milk. The whole system is -inclosed in one broad circumference of pure gold, beyond which reigns -impenetrable darkness.—<span class="sc">Kindersley</span>. -</p> - -<p> -I know not whether the following fable was invented to account for the -saltness of our sea: -</p> - -<p> -“Agastya is recorded to have been very low in stature; and one day, -previously to the rectifying the too oblique posture of the earth, -walking with Veeshnu on the shore of the ocean, the insolent Deep asked -the God, who that dwarf was strutting by his side? Veeshnu replied, it -was the patriarch Agastya going to restore the earth to its true -balance. The sea, in utter contempt of his pigmy, form, dashed him with -his spray as he passed along; on, which the sage, greatly incensed at -the designed affront, <span class="pagenum">{177}</span> scooped up some of the water in the hollow -of his hand, and drank it off: he again and again repeated the draught, -nor desisted till he had drained the bed of the ocean of the entire -volume of its waters. Alarmed at this effect of his holy indignation, -and dreading an universal drought, the Devatas made intercession with -Agastya to relent from his anger, and again restore an element so -necessary to the existence of nature, both animate and inanimate. -Agastya, pacified, granted their request, and discharged the imbibed -fluid in a way becoming the histories of a gross physical people to -relate, but by no means proper for this page; away, however, that -evinced his sovereign power, while it marked his ineffable contempt for -the vain fury of an element, contending with a being armed with the -delegated power of the Creator of all things. After this miracle, the -earth being, by the same power, restored to its just balance, Agastya -and Veeshnu separated: when the latter, to prevent any similar accident -occurring, commanded the <i>great serpent</i> (that is, of the sphere) to -wind its enormous folds round the seven continents, of which, according -to Sanscreet geography, the earth consists, and appointed, as perpetual -guardians, to watch over and protect it, the eight powerful genii, so -renowned in the Hindoo system of mythology, as presiding over the eight -points of the world.”—<span class="sc">Maurice</span>. -</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{178}</span></p> - -<p> -The Pauranics (said Ramachandra to Sir William Jones) will tell you that -our earth is a plane figure studded with eight mountains, and surrounded -by seven seas of milk, nectar, and other fluids; that the part which we -inhabit is one of seven islands, to which eleven smaller isles are -subordinate; that a god, riding on a huge elephant, guards each of the -eight regions; and that a mountain of gold rises and gleams in the -centre.—<i>Asiatic Researches</i>. -</p> - -<p> -“Eight original mountains and seven seas, <span class="sc">Brahma</span>, <span class="sc">Indra</span>, the <span class="sc">Sun</span>, -and <span class="sc">Rudra</span>, <i>these are permanent;</i> not thou, not I, not this or that -people. Wherefore then should anxiety be raised in our minds?”—<i>Asiatic -Res</i>. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>Mount Calasay.</i>—XIX. p. 77. -</div> - -<p> -The residence of <i>Ixoru</i> is upon the silver mount <i>Calaja</i>, to the south -of the famous mountain <i>Mahameru</i>, being a most delicious place, planted -with all sorts of trees, that bear fruit all the year round. The roses -and other flowers send forth a most odoriferous scent; and the pond at -the foot of the mount is inclosed with pleasant walks of trees, that -afford an agreeable shade, whilst the peacocks and divers other birds -entertain the ear with their harmonious noise, as the beautiful women do -the eyes. The circumjacent woods are inhabited by a certain people <span class="pagenum">{179}</span> -called <i>Munis</i>, or <i>Rixis</i>, who, avoiding the conversation of others, -spend their time in offering daily sacrifices to their god. -</p> - -<p> -It is observable, that though these pagans are generally black -themselves, they do represent these <i>Rixis</i> to be of a fair complexion, -with long white beards, and long garments hanging cross-ways, from about -the neck down over the breast. They are in such high esteem among them, -they believe that whom they bless are blessed, and whom they curse are -cursed. -</p> - -<p> -Within the mountain lives another generation, called <i>Jexaquinnera</i> and -<i>Quendra</i>, who are free from all trouble, spend their days in continual -contemplations, praises, and prayers to God. Round about the mountain -stand seven ladders, by which you ascend to a spacious plain, in the -middle whereof is a bell of silver, and a square table, surrounded with -nine precious stones, of divers colours. Upon this table lies a silver -rose, called <i>Tamora Pua</i>, which contains two women as bright and fair -as a pearl: one is called <i>Brigasiri</i>, i. e. <i>the Lady of the Mouth;</i> -the other <i>Tarasiri</i>, i.e. <i>the Lady of the Tongue</i>,—because they -praise God with the mouth and tongue. In the centre of this rose is the -<i>triangle</i> of <i>Quivelinga</i>, which they say is the permanent residence of -God.—<span class="sc">Baldæus</span>. -</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{180}</span></p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>O All-containing Mind,</i><br/> -<i>Thou who art every where!</i>—XIX. p. 80. -</div> - -<p> -“Even I was even at first, not any other thing; that which exists, -unperceived, supreme: afterwards I am that which is; and he who must -remain, am I. -</p> - -<p> -“Except the First Cause, whatever may appear, and may not appear, in the -mind, know that to be the mind’s <i>Máyá</i>, or <i>delusion</i>, as light, as -darkness. -</p> - -<p> -“As the great elements are in various beings, entering, yet not -entering, (that is, pervading, not destroying,) thus am I in them, yet -not in them. -</p> - -<p> -“Even thus far may inquiry be made by him who seeks to know the -principle of mind in union and separation, which must be <i>everywhere, -always</i>.”—<i>Asiatic Researches</i>. Sir <span class="sc">W. Jones</span>, <i>from the Bhagavat</i>. -</p> - -<p> -I am the creation and the dissolution of the whole universe. There is -not any thing greater than I, and all things hang on me, even as -precious gems upon a string. I am moisture in the water, light in the -sun and moon, invocation in the <i>Veds</i>, sound in the firmament, human -nature in mankind, sweet-smelling savour in the earth, glory in the -source of light: In all things I am life; and I am zeal in the zealous: -and know, O Arjoon! that I am the eternal seed of all nature. I am the -understanding <span class="pagenum">{181}</span> of the wise, the glory of the proud, the strength of -the strong, free from lust and anger; and in animals I am desire -regulated by moral fitness.—<span class="sc">Kreeshna</span>, <i>in the Bhagavat-Geeta</i>. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>Heart cannot think, nor tongue declare,</i><br/> -<i>Nor eyes of angel bear</i><br/> -<i>That Glory, unimaginably bright.</i>—XIX. p. 81. -</div> - -<p> -Being now in the splendorous lustre of the divine bliss and glory, I -there saw in spirit the choir of the holy angels, the choir of the -prophets and apostles, who, with heavenly tongues and music, sing and -play around the throne of God; yet not in just such corporeal forms or -shapes as are those we <i>now</i> bear and walk about in; no, but in shapes -all spiritual: the holy angels in the shape of a multitude of flames of -fire, the souls of believers in the shape of a multitude of glittering -or luminous sparkles; God’s throne in the shape, or under the appearance -of a great splendour.—<span class="sc">Hans Engelbrecht</span>. -</p> - -<p> -Something analogous to this unendurable presence of Seeva is found amid -the nonsense of Joanna Southcott. Apollyon is there made to say of the -Lord, “thou knowest it is written, he is a consuming fire, and who can -dwell in everlasting burnings? who could abide in devouring flames? Our -backs are not brass, nor our sinews <span class="pagenum">{182}</span> iron, to dwell with God in -heaven.”—<i>Dispute between the Woman and the Powers of Darkness</i>. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>The Sun himself had seem’d</i><br/> -<i>A speck of darkness there.</i>—XIX. p. 82. -</div> - -<p> -“There the sun shines not, nor the moon and stars: these lightnings -flash not in that place: how should even fire blaze there? God -irradiates all this bright substance, and by its effulgence the universe -is enlightened.”—<i>From the Yajurveda. Asiat. Res.</i> -</p> - -<div class="quote_o"><div class="quote_i"> -<span class="v0">Hæc ait, et sese radiorum nocte suorum</span> -<span class="v0">Claudit inaccessum.——<span class="sc">Carrara</span>.</span> -</div></div> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>Whose cradles from some tree</i><br/> -<i>Unnatural hands suspended.</i>—XXI. p. 92. -</div> - -<p> -I heard a voice crying out under my window; I looked out, and saw a poor -young girl lamenting the unhappy case of her sister. On asking what was -the matter, the reply was, <i>Boot Laggeeosa</i>, a demon has seized her. -These unhappy people say <i>Boot Laggeeosa</i>, if a child newly born will -not suck; and they expose it to death in a basket, hung on the branch of -a tree. One day, as Mr. Thomas and I were riding out, we saw a basket -hung in a tree, in which an infant had been exposed, the skull of which -remained, <span class="pagenum">{183}</span> the rest having been devoured by ants.—<i>Periodical -Accounts of the Baptist Missionaries</i>. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>That strange Indian Bird.</i>—XXI. p. 93. -</div> - -<p> -The Chatookee. They say it never drinks at the streams below, but, -opening its bill when it rains, it catches the drops as they fall from -the clouds.—<i>Periodical Accounts of the Baptist Missionaries</i>, vol. ii. -p. 309. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>The footless fowl of Heaven.</i>—XXI. p. 93. -</div> - -<p> -There is a bird that falls down out of the air dead, and is found -sometimes in the Molucco Islands, that has no feet at all. The bigness -of her body and bill, as likewise the form of them, is much the same as -a swallow’s; but the spreading out of her wings and tail has no less -compass than an eagle’s. She lives and breeds in the air, comes not near -the earth but for her burial, for the largeness and lightness of her -wings and tail sustain her without lassitude. And the laying of her -eggs, and breeding of her young, is upon the back of the male, which is -made hollow, as also the breast of the female, for the more easy -incubation. Also two strings, like two shoemaker’s ends, come from the -hinder parts of the male, wherewith it is conceived that he is fastened -closer to the female, while she hatches her eggs on the hollow of <span class="pagenum">{184}</span> -his back. The dew of heaven is appointed her for food, her region being -too far removed from the approach of flies and such like insects. -</p> - -<p> -This is the entire story and philosophy of this miraculous bird in -<i>Cardan</i>, who professes himself to have seen it no less than thrice, and -to have described it accordingly. The contrivances whereof, if the -matter were certainly true, are as evident arguments of a Divine -Providence, as that copper-ring, with the Greek<sup><a href="#fn36b" id="fn36a">36</a></sup> inscription upon -it, was an undeniable monument of the artifice and finger of man. -</p> - -<p> -But that the reproach of over-much credulity may not lie upon <i>Cardan</i> -alone, Scaliger, who lay at catch with him to take him tripping wherever -he could, cavils not with any thing in the whole narration but the -bigness of wings and the littleness of the body; which he undertakes to -correct from one of his own which was sent him by <i>Orvesanus</i> from Java. -Nay, he confirms what his antagonist has wrote, partly by history and -partly by reason; affirming, that himself, in his own garden, found two -<span class="pagenum">{185}</span> little birds with membranaceous wings utterly devoid of legs, -their form was near to that of a bat’s. Nor is he deterred from the -belief of the perpetual flying of the <i>Manucodiata</i>, by the gaping of -the feathers of her wings, which seem thereby less fit to sustain her -body, but further makes the narration probable by what he has observed -in kites hovering in the air, as he saith, for a whole hour together -without flapping of her wings, or changing place. And he has found also -how she may sleep in the air, from the example of fishes, which he has -seen sleeping in the water without sinking themselves to the bottom, and -without changing place, but lying stock still, <i>pinnulis tantum nescia -quid motiuncule meditantes</i>, only wagging a little their fins, as -heedlessly and unconcernedly as horses while they are asleep wag their -ears to displace the flies that sit upon them. Wherever Scaliger -admitting that the Menucodiata is perpetually on the wing in the air, he -must of necessity admit also that manner of incubation that Cardan -describes, else how could their generations continue? -</p> - -<p> -Franciscus Hernandeo affirms the same with Cardan expressly in every -thing: As also Eusebius Nierembergius, who is so taken with the story of -this bird, that he could not abstain from celebrating her miraculous -properties in a short but elegant copy of verses; and does <span class="pagenum">{186}</span> after, -though confidently opposed, assert the main matter again in prose. -</p> - -<p> -Such are the sufferages of Cardan, Scaliger, Hernandeo, Nierembergius. -But Aldrovandus rejects that fable of her feeding on the dew of heaven, -and of her incubiture on the back of the male, with much scorn and -indignation. And as for the former, his reasons are no ways -contemptible, he alledging that dew is a body not perfectly enough -mixed, or heterogenial enough for food, nor the hard bill of the bird -made for such easie uses as sipping this soft moisture. -</p> - -<p> -To which I know not what Cardan and the rest would answer, unless this, -that they mean by dew the more unctuous moisture of the air, which as it -may not be alike every where, so these birds may be fitted with a -natural sagacity to find it out where it is. That there is dew in this -sense day and night, (as well as in the morning,) and in all seasons of -the year; and therefore a constant supply of moisture and spirits to -their perpetual flying, which they more copiously imbibe by reason of -their exercise: That the thicker parts of this moisture stick and -convert into flesh, and that the lightness of their feathers is so -great, that their pains in sustaining themselves are not over-much. That -what is homogeneal and simple to our sight is fit enough to be the -rudiments of generation, <span class="pagenum">{187}</span> all animals being generated of a kind of -clear crystalline liquor; and that, therefore, it may be also of -nutrition; that orpine and sea-house-leek are nourished and grow, being -hung in the air, and that dock-weed has its root no deeper than near the -upper parts of the water; and, lastly, that the bills of these birds are -for their better flying, by cutting the way, and for better ornament; -for the rectifying also and composing of their feathers, while they swim -in the air with as much ease as swans do in river. -</p> - -<p> -To his great impatiency against their manner of incubation, they would -happily return this answer: That the way is not ridiculous; but it may -be rather necessary from what Aldrovandus himself not only acknowledges -but contends for, namely, that they have no feet at all. For hence it is -manifest, that they cannot light upon the ground, nor any where rest on -their bellies, and be able to get on wing again, because they cannot -creep out of holes of rocks, as swifts and such like short-footed birds -can, they having no feet at all to creep with. Besides, as Aristotle -well argues concerning the long legs of certain water-fowl, that they -were made so long, because they were to wade in the water and catch -fish, adding that excellent aphorism, τὰ γαρ ὄργανα -πρὸς τὸ ἔργον ἡ φύσις ποιεῖ ἀλλ᾽ ὐ -τὸ ἔργον πρὸς τὰ ὄργανα, so may we rationally -conclude, will they say, that as the long legs of these water-fowl <span class="pagenum">{188}</span> -imply a design of their haunting the water, so want of legs in these -Manucodiatas argue they are never to come down to the earth, because -they can neither stand there nor get off again. And if they never come -on the earth, or any other resting-place, where can their eggs be laid -or hatched but on the back of the male? -</p> - -<p> -Besides that Cardan pleases himself with that Antiphonie in nature, that -as the Ostrich being a bird, yet never flies in the air, and never rests -upon the earth. And as for Aldrovandus, his presumption from the five -several Manucodiatas that he had seen, and in which he could observe no -such figuration of parts as implied a fitness for such a manner of -incubation, Cardan will answer, Myself has seen three, and Scaliger one, -who both agree against you. -</p> - -<p> -However, you see that both Cardan, Aldrovandus, and the rest do jointly -agree in allowing the Manucodiata no feet, as also in furnishing her -with two strings, hanging at the hinder parts of her body, which -Aldrovandus will have to be in the female as well as in the male, though -Cardan’s experience reacheth not so far. -</p> - -<p> -But Pighafetta and Clusius will easily end this grand controversy -betwixt Cardan and Aldrovandus, if it be true which they report, and if -they speak of the same kind of Birds of Paradise. For they both affirm -that they <span class="pagenum">{189}</span> have feet a palm long, and that with all confidence -imaginable; but Nierembergius on the contrary affirms, that one that was -an eye witness, and that had taken up one of these birds newly dead, -told him that it had no feet at all. Johnston also gives his suffrage -with Nierembergius in this, though with Aldrovandus he rejects the -manner of their incubation. -</p> - -<p> -But unless they can raise themselves from the ground by the stiffness of -some of the feathers of their wings, or rather by virtue of those -nervous strings which they may have a power to stiffen when they are -alive, by transfusing spirits into them, and making them serve as well -instead of legs to raise them from the ground as to hang upon the boughs -of trees, by a slight thing being able to raise or hold up their -light-feathered bodies in the air, as a small twig will us in the water, -I should rather incline to the testimony of Pighafetta and Clusius than -to the judgment of the rest, and believe those mariners that told him -that the legs are pulled off by them that take them, and extenterate -them and dry them in the sun for either their private use or sale. -</p> - -<p> -Which conclusion would the best solve the credit of Aristotle, -who long since has so peremptorily pronounced ὄτι πτηνὸν μόνον -ὐδὲν ἐσιν ὥσπερ νευσικὸν μόνον ἐσιν ὶχθὸς. That there is not any -bird that only flies as the fish only swims. -</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{190}</span></p> - -<p> -But thus our Bird of Paradise is quite flown and vanished into a figment -or fable. But if any one will condole the loss of so convincing an -argument for a Providence that fits one thing to another, I must take -the freedom to tell him, that, unless he be a greater admirer of novelty -than a searcher into the indissoluble consequences of things, I shall -supply his meditation with what of this nature is as strongly -conclusive, and remind, that it will be his own reproach if he cannot -spy as clear an inference from an ordinary truth as from either an -uncertainty or a fiction. And in this regard, the bringing this doubtful -narration into play may not justly seem to no purpose, it carrying so -serious and castigatory a piece of pleasantry with it. -</p> - -<p> -The manucodiata’s living on the dew is no part of the convictiveness of -a Providence in this story: But the being excellently well provided of -wings and feathers, <i>tanta levitatis supellectile exornata</i>, as -Nierembergius speaks, being so well furnished with all advantages for -lightness, that it seems harder for her to sink down, as he conceits, -than to be borne up in the air; that a bird thus fitted for that region -should have no legs to stand on the earth, this would be a considerable -indication of a discriminating Providence, that on purpose avoids all -uselessness and superfluities. -</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{191}</span></p> - -<p> -The other remarkable, and it is a notorious one, is the cavity on the -back of the male and in the breast of the female, for incubation; and -the third and last, the use of those strings, as Cardan supposes, for -the better keeping them together in incubiture. -</p> - -<p> -If these considerations of this strange story strike so strongly upon -thee as to convince thee of a Providence, think it humour and not -judgment, if what I put in lieu of them, and is but ordinary, have not -the same force with thee. -</p> - -<p> -For is not the fish’s wanting feet, (as we observed before,) she being -sufficiently supplied with fins in so thick an element as the water, as -great an argument for a Providence as so light a bird’s wanting feet in -that thinner element of the air, the extream lightness of her furniture -being appropriated to the thinness of that element? And is not the same -Providence seen, and that as conspicuously, in allotting but very short -legs to those birds that are called Apodeo both in Plinie and Aristotle, -upon whom she has bestowed such large and strong wings, and a power of -flying so long and swift, as in giving no legs at all to the -manucodiata, who has still a greater power of wing and lightness of -body? -</p> - -<p> -And as for the cavities on the back of the male and in the breast of the -female, is that design of nature any more <span class="pagenum">{192}</span> certain and plain than -in the genital parts of the male and female in all kinds of animals? -What greater argument of counsel and purpose of fitting one thing for -another can there be than that? And if we should make a more inward -search into the contrivances of these parts in an ordinary hen, and -consider how or by what force an egg of so great a growth and bigness is -transmitted from the ovarium through the infundibulum into the processus -of the uterus, the membranes being go thin and the passage so very -small, to see to the principle of that motion cannot be thought less -than divine. -</p> - -<p> -And if you would compare the protuberant paps of teats in the females of -beasts with that cavity in the breast of the she-manucodiata, whether of -them, think you, is the plainer pledge of a knowing and a designing -Providence? -</p> - -<p> -And, lastly, for the strings that are conceived to hold together the -male and female in their incubiture, what a toy is it, if compared with -those invisible links and ties that engage ordinary birds to sit upon -their eggs, they having no visible allurement to such a tedious -service?—<span class="sc">Henry More</span>’s <i>Antidote against Atheism</i>, book 2. ch. 11. -</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{193}</span></p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>And Brama’s region, where the heavenly hours</i><br/> -<i>Weave the vast circle of his age-long day.</i>—XXIII. p. 113. -</div> - -<p> -They who are acquainted with day and night know that the day of Brahma -is as a thousand revolutions of the <i>Yoogs</i>, and that his night -extendeth for a thousand more. On the coming of that day all things -proceed from invisibility to visibility; so, on the approach of night, -they are all dissolved away in that which is called invisible. The -universe, even, having existed, is again dissolved; and now again, on -the approach of day, by divine necessity, it is reproduced. That which, -upon the dissolution of all things else, is not destroyed, is superior -and of another nature from that visibility: it is invisible and eternal. -He who is thus called invisible and incorruptible is even he who is -called the Supreme Abode; which men having once obtained, they never -more return to earth: that is my mansion.—<span class="sc">Kreeshna</span>, <i>in the -Bhagavat-Geeta</i>. -</p> - -<p> -The guess, that Brama and his wife Saraswadi may be Abraham and Sarah, -has more letters in its favour than are usually to be found in such -guesses.—<span class="sc">Niecamp</span>, p. i, c. 10. § 2. -</p> - -<p> -The true cause why there is no idol of Brama (except <span class="pagenum">{194}</span> the head, -which is his share in the Trimourter,) is probably to be found in the -conquest of his sect. A different reason, however, is implied in the -Veeda: “Of Him, it says, whose glory is so great there is no image:—He -is the incomprehensible Being which illumines all, delights all, whence -all proceeded;—that by which they live when born, and that to which all -must return.”—<span class="sc">Moor</span>’s <i>Hindu Pantheon</i>, p. 4. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>Yamen.</i>—XXII. p. 99. -</div> - -<p> -<i>Yama</i> was a child of the Sun, and thence named <i>Vaivaswata</i>; another of -his titles was <i>Dhermaraja</i>, or King of Justice; and a third -<i>Pitripeti</i>, or Lord of the Patriarchs: but he is chiefly distinguished -as Judge of departed souls; for the Hindus believe, that, when a soul -leaves its body, it immediately repairs to <i>Yamapur</i>, or the city of -<i>Yama</i>, where it receives a just sentence from him, and thence either -ascends to <i>Swerga</i>, or the first Heaven; or is driven down to <i>Narac</i>, -the region of serpents; or assumes on earth the form of some animal, -unless its offence had been such, that it ought to be condemned to a -vegetable, or even to a mineral prison.—Sir <span class="sc">W. Jones</span>. -</p> - -<p> -There is a story concerning Yamen which will remind the reader, in its -purport, of the fable of Love and Death. -</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{195}</span></p> - -<p> -“A famous penitent, <i>Morrugandumagarexi</i> by name, had, during a long -series of years, served the gods with uncommon and most exemplary piety. -This very virtuous man having no children, was extremely desirous of -having one, and therefore daily besought the god Xiven (or Seeva) to -grant him one. At length the god heard his desire, but, before he -indulged it him, he asked him, whether he would have several children, -who should be long-lived and wicked, or one virtuous and prudent, who -should die in his sixteenth year? The penitent chose the latter: his -wife conceived, and was happily delivered of the promised son, whom they -named Marcandem. The boy, like his father, zealously devoted himself to -the worship of Xiven; but as soon as he had attained his sixteenth year, -the officers of Yhamen, god of death, were sent on the earth, to remove -him from thence. -</p> - -<p> -“Young Marcandem being informed on what errand they were come, told -them, with a resolute air, that he was resolved not to die, and that -they might go back, if they pleased. They returned to their master, and -told him the whole affair. Yhamen immediately mounted his great buffle, -and set out. Being come, he told the youth that he acted very rashly in -refusing to leave the world, and it was unjust in him, for Xiven had -promised him a life only of sixteen years, and the term was expired. But -<span class="pagenum">{196}</span> this reason did not satisfy Marcandem, who persisted in his -resolution not to die; and, fearing lest the god of death should attempt -to take him away by force, he ran to his oratory, and taking the Lingam, -clasped it to his breast. Mean time Yhamen came down from his buffle, -threw a rope about the youth’s neck, and held him fast therewith, as -also the Lingam, which Marcandem grasped with all his strength, and was -going to drag them both into hell, when Xiven issued out of the Lingam, -drove back the king of the dead, and gave him so furious a blow, that he -killed him on the spot. -</p> - -<p> -“The god of death being thus slain, mankind multiplied so that the earth -was no longer able to contain them. The gods represented this to Xiven, -and he, at their entreaty, restored Yhamen to life, and to all the power -he had before enjoyed. Yhamen immediately dispatched a herald to all -parts of the world, to summon all the old men. The herald got drunk -before he set out, and, without staying till the fumes of the wine were -dispelled, mounted an elephant, and rode up and down the world, pursuant -to his commission; and, instead of publishing this order, he declared, -that it was the will and pleasure of Yamen, that, from this day forward, -all the leaves, fruits, and flowers, whether ripe or green, should fall -to the ground. This proclamation was no sooner <span class="pagenum">{197}</span> issued than men -began to yield to death: But before Yhamen was killed, only the old were -deprived of life, and now people of all ages are summoned -indiscriminately.”—<span class="sc">Picart</span>. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>Two forms inseparable in unity,</i><br/> -<i>Hath Yamen.</i>—XXIII. p. 120. -</div> - -<p> -The <i>Dharma-Raja</i>, or king of justice, has two countenances; one is mild -and full of benevolence; those alone who abound with virtue see it. He -holds a court of justice, where are many assistants, among whom are many -just and pious kings: <i>Chitragupta</i> acts as chief secretary. These holy -men determine what is <i>dharma</i> and <i>adharma</i>, just and unjust. His -(<i>Dharma-Raja’s</i>) servant is called <i>Carmala</i>: he brings the righteous -on celestial cars, which go of themselves, whenever holy men are to be -brought in, according to the directions of the <i>Dharma-Raja</i>, who is the -sovereign of the <i>Pitris</i>. This is called his <i>divine countenance</i>, and -the righteous alone do see it. His other <i>countenance</i>, or <i>form</i>, is -called <i>Yama</i>; this the wicked alone can see: It has large teeth and a -monstrous body, <i>Yama</i> is the lord of <i>Patala</i>; there he orders some to -be beaten, some to be cut to pieces, some to be devoured by monsters, -&c. His servant is called <i>Cashmala</i>, who, with ropes round their necks, -drags the wicked over rugged <span class="pagenum">{198}</span> paths, and throws them headlong into -hell. He is unmerciful, and hard is his heart: every body trembles at -the sight of him.—<span class="sc">Wilford</span>. <i>Asiatic Researches</i>. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>Black of aspect, red of eye.</i>—XXIII. p. 120. -</div> - -<p> -Punishment is the Magistrate; Punishment is the Inspirer of Terror; -Punishment is the Defender from Calamity; Punishment is the Guardian of -those that sleep; Punishment, with a black aspect and a red eye, tempts -the guilty.—<span class="sc">Halhed</span>’s <i>Gentoo Code</i>, ch. xxi. sect. 8. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>Azyoruca.</i>—XXIII. p. 121. -</div> - -<p> -In Patala (or the infernal regions) resides the sovereign Queen of the -Nagas, (large snakes, or dragons:) she is beautiful, and her name is -Asyoruca. There, in a cave, she performed Taparya with such rigorous -austerity, that fire sprang from her body, and formed numerous -agnitiraths (places of sacred fire) in Patala. These fires, forcing -their way through the earth, waters, and mountains, formed various -openings or mouths, called from thence the flaming mouths, or juala -muihi. By Samudr, (Oceanus,) a daughter was born unto her, called -Rama-Devi. She is most beautiful; she is Lacshmi; and her name is -Asyotcarsha, or Asyotcrishta. Like a jewel she remains concealed in the -ocean.—<span class="sc">Wilford</span>. <i>Asiat. Res</i>. -</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum">{199}</span></p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>He came in all his might and majesty.</i>—XXIV. p, 124. -</div> - -<p> -What is this to the coming of Seeva, as given us by Mr. Maurice, from -the Seeva Paurana? -</p> - -<p> -“In the place of the right wheel blazed the Sun, in the place of the -left was the Moon; instead of the brazen nails and bolts, which firmly -held the ponderous wheels, were distributed Bramans on the right hand, -and Reyshees on the left; in lieu of the canopy on the top of the -chariot was overspread the vault of Heaven; the counterpoise of the -wheels was on the east and west, and the four Semordres were instead of -the cushions and bolsters; the four Vedas were placed as the horses of -the chariot, and Saraswaty was for the bell; the piece of wood by which -the horses are driven was the three-lettered Mantra, while Brama himself -was the charioteer, and the Nacshatras and stars were distributed about -it by way of ornaments. Sumaru was in the place of a bow, the serpent -Seschanaga was stationed as the string, Veeshnu instead of an arrow, and -fire was constituted its point. Ganges and other rivers were appointed -its precursors; and the setting out of the chariot, with its appendages -and furniture, one would affirm to be the year of twelve months -gracefully moving forwards. -</p> - -<p> -“When Seeva, with his numerous troops and prodigious <span class="pagenum">{200}</span> army, was -mounted, Brama drove so furiously, that thought itself, which, in its -rapid career, compasses Heaven and Earth, could not keep pace with it. -By the motion of the chariot Heaven and Earth were put into a tremor; -and, as the Earth was not able to bear up under this burthen, the Cow of -the Earth, Kam-deva, took upon itself to support the weight. Seeva went -with intention to destroy Treepoor; and the multitude of Devatas and -Reyshees and Apsaras who waited on his stirrup, opening their mouths, in -transports of joy and praise, exclaimed, Jaya! Jaya! so that Parvati, -not being able to bear his absence, set out to accompany Seeva, and, in -an instant, was up with him; while the light which brightened on his -countenance, on the arrival of Parvati, surpassed all imagination and -description. The Genii of the eight regions, armed with all kinds of -weapons, but particularly with <i>agnyastra</i>, or fire-darts, like moving -mountains, advanced in front of the army; and Eendra and other Devetas, -some of them mounted on elephants, some on horses, others on chariots, -or on camels or buffaloes, were stationed on each side, while all the -other order of Devetas, to the amount of some lacs, formed the centre. -The Munietuvaras, with long hair on their heads, like Saniassis, holding -their staves in their hands, danced as they went along; the Syddhyas, -who revolve about <span class="pagenum">{201}</span> the heavens, opening their mouths in praise of -Seeva, rained flowers upon his head; and the vaulted heaven, which is -like an inverted goblet, being appointed in the place of a drum, exalted -his dignity by its majestic resounding.” -</p> - -<p> -Throughout the Hindoo fables there is the constant mistake of bulk for -sublimity. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>By the attribute of Deity</i><br/> -<i>——self-multiplied</i><br/> -<i>The dreadful One appeared on every side.</i>—XXIV. p. 124. -</div> - -<p> -This more than polypus power was once exerted by Krishna, on a curious -occasion. -</p> - -<p> -It happened in <i>Dwarka</i>, a splendid city built by <i>Viswa-karma</i>, by -command of <i>Krishna</i>, on the sea-shore, in the province of <i>Gazerat</i>, -that his musical associate, <i>Nareda</i>, had no wife or substitute; and he -hinted to his friend the decency of sparing him one from his long -catalogue of ladies. <i>Krishna</i> generously told him to win and wear any -one he chose, not immediately in requisition for himself. <i>Nareda</i> -accordingly went wooing to one house, but found his master there; to a -second—he was again forestalled; a third, the same; to a fourth, fifth, -the same: in fine, after the round of sixteen thousand of these -domiciliary visits, he was still forced to sigh and <span class="pagenum">{202}</span> keep single; -for <i>Krishna</i> was in every house, variously employed, and so -domesticated, that each lady congratulated herself on her exclusive and -uninterrupted possession of the ardent deity.—<span class="sc">Moor</span>’s <i>Hindu -Pantheon</i>, p. 204. -</p> - -<p> -Eight of the chief gods have each their <i>sacti</i>, or energy, proceeding -from them, differing from them in sex, but in every other respect -exactly like them, with the same form, the same decorations, the same -weapons, and the same vehicle.—<i>Asiat. Res</i>. 8vo, edit. vol. viii. p. -68. 82. -</p> - -<p> -The manner in which this divine power is displayed by Kehama, in his -combat with Yamen, will remind some readers of the Irishman, who brought -in four prisoners, and being asked how he had taken them, replied, he -had surrounded them. -</p> - - -<div class="note_head"> -<i>The Amreeta,</i><br/> -<i>or</i><br/> -<i>Drink of Immortality.</i>—XXIV. p. 129. -</div> - -<p> -Mr Wilkins has given the genuine history of this liquor, which was -produced by churning the sea with a mountain. -</p> - -<p> -“There is a fair and stately mountain, and its name is <i>Meroo</i>, a most -exalted mass of glory, reflecting the sunny <span class="pagenum">{203}</span> rays from the splendid -surface of its gilded horns. It is clothed in gold, and is the -respected haunt of <i>Dews</i> and <i>Gandharvas</i>. It is inconceivable, and not -to be encompassed by sinful man; and it is guarded by dreadful serpents. -Many celestial medicinal plants adorn its sides; and it stands, piercing -the heaven with its aspiring summit, a mighty hill, inaccessible even by -the human mind. It is adorned with trees and pleasant streams, and -resoundeth with the delightful songs of various birds. -</p> - -<p> -“The <i>Soors</i>, and all the glorious hosts of heaven, having ascended to -the summit of this lofty mountain, sparkling with precious gems, and for -eternal ages raised, were sitting in solemn synod, meditating the -discovery of the <i>Amreeta</i>, the Water of Immortality. The <i>Dew Narayan</i> -being also there, spoke unto <i>Brahma</i>, whilst the <i>Soors</i> were thus -consulting together, and said, ‘Let the Ocean, as a pot of milk, be -churned by the united labour of the <i>Soors</i> and <i>Asoors</i>; and when the -mighty waters have been stirred up, the <i>Amreeta</i> shall be found. Let -them collect together every medicinal herb, and every precious thing, -and let them stir the Ocean, and they shall discover the <i>Amreeta</i>.’ -</p> - -<p> -“There is also another mighty mountain, whose name is <i>Mandar</i>, and its -rocky summits are like towering <span class="pagenum">{204}</span> clouds. It is clothed in a net of -the entangled tendrils of the twining creeper, and resoundeth with the -harmony of various birds. Innumerable savage beasts infest its borders; -and it is the respected haunt of <i>Kennars</i>, <i>Dews</i>, and <i>Apsars</i>. It -standeth eleven thousand <i>Yojan</i> above the earth, and eleven thousand -more below its surface. -</p> - -<p> -“As the united bands of <i>Dews</i> were unable to remove this mountain, they -went before <i>Veeshnoo</i>, who was sitting with <i>Brahma</i>, and addressed -them in these words: ‘Exert, O masters! your most superior wisdom to -remove the mountain <i>Mandar</i>, and employ your utmost power for our -good.’ -</p> - -<p> -“<i>Veeshnoo</i> and <i>Brahma</i> having said, ‘it shall be according to your -wish,’ he with the lotus eye directed the King of Serpents to appear; -and Ananta arose, and was instructed in that work by Brahma, and -commanded by <i>Narayan</i> to perform it. Then <i>Ananta</i>, by his power, took up -that king of mountains, together with all its forests and every -inhabitant thereof; and the <i>Soors</i> accompanied him into the presence of -the Ocean, whom they addressed, saying, ‘We will stir up thy waters to -obtain the <i>Amreeta</i>,’ And the Lord of the Waters replied, ‘Let me also -have a share, seeing I am to bear the violent agitation that will be -caused by the whirling of the <span class="pagenum">{205}</span> mountain!’ Then the <i>Soors</i> and -<i>Asoors</i> spoke unto <i>Koorna-raj</i>, the King of the Tortoises, upon the -strand of the Ocean, and said, ‘My lord is able to be the supporter of -this mountain.’ The Tortoise replied, ‘Be it so;’ and it was placed upon -his back. -</p> - -<p> -“So the mountain being set upon the back of the Tortoise, <i>Eendra</i> began -to whirl it about as it were a machine. The mountain <i>Mandar</i> served as -a churn, and the serpent <i>Vasoakee</i> for the rope; and thus in former -days did the <i>Dews</i>, and <i>Asoors</i>, and the <i>Danoos</i>, begin to stir up -the waters of the ocean for the discovery of the <i>Amreeta</i>. -</p> - -<p> -“The mighty <i>Asoors</i> were employed on the side of the serpent’s head, -whilst all the <i>Soors</i> assembled about his tail. <i>Ananta</i>, that sovereign -<i>Dew</i>, stood near <i>Narayan</i>. -</p> - -<p> -“They now pull forth the serpent’s head repeatedly, and as often let it -go; whilst there issued from his mouth, thus violently drawing to and -fro by the <i>Soors</i> and <i>Asoors</i>, a continual stream of fire and smoke -and wind, which ascending in thick clouds, replete with lightning, it -began to rain down upon the heavenly bands, who were already fatigued -with their labour; whilst a shower of flowers was shaken from the top of -the mountain, covering the heads of all, both <i>Soors</i> and <span class="pagenum">{206}</span> -<i>Asoors</i>. In the mean time the roaring of the ocean, whilst violently -agitated with the whirling of the mountain <i>Mandar</i> by the <i>Soors</i> and -<i>Asoors</i>, was like the bellowing of a mighty cloud. Thousands of the -various productions of the waters were torn to pieces by the mountain, -and confounded with the briny flood; and every specific being of the -deep, and all the inhabitants of the great abyss which is below the -earth, were annihilated; whilst, from the violent agitation of the -mountain, the forest trees were dashed against each other, and -precipitated from its utmost height, with all the birds thereon; from -whose violent confrication a raging fire was produced, involving the -whole mountain with smoke and flame, as with a dark-blue cloud, and the -lightning’s vivid flash. The lion and the retreating elephant are -overtaken by the devouring flames, and every vital being, and every -specific thing, are consumed in the general conflagration. -</p> - -<p> -“The raging flames, thus spreading destruction on all sides, were at -length quenched by a shower of cloud-borne water, poured down by the -immortal Eendra. And now a heterogeneous stream of the concocted juices -of various trees and plants ran down into the briny flood. -</p> - -<p> -“It was from this milk-like stream of juices, produced <span class="pagenum">{207}</span> from those -trees and plants and a mixture of melted gold, that the <i>Soors</i> obtained -their immortality. -</p> - -<p> -“The waters of the Ocean now being assimilated with those juices, were -converted into milk, and from that milk a kind of butter was presently -produced; when the heavenly bands went again into the presence of -<i>Brahma</i>, the granter of boons, and addressed him, saying, ‘Except -<i>Narayan</i>, every other <i>Soor</i> and <i>Asoor</i> is fatigued with his labour, -and still the <i>Amreeta</i> doth not appear; wherefore the churning of the -Ocean is at a stand.’ Then <i>Brahma</i> said unto <i>Narayan</i>, ‘Endue them -with recruited strength, for thou art their support.’ And <i>Narayan</i> -answered and said, ‘I will give fresh vigour to such as co-operate in -the work. Let <i>Mandar</i> be whirled about, and the bed of the ocean be -kept steady.’ -</p> - -<p> -“When they heard the words of <i>Narayan</i>, they all returned again to the -work, and began to stir about with great force that butter of the ocean, -when there presently arose from out the troubled deep, first the Moon, -with a pleasing countenance, shining with ten thousand beams of gentle -light; next followed <i>Sree</i>, the goddess of fortune, whose seat is the -white lily of the waters; then <i>Soora-Devee</i>, the goddess of wine, and -the white horse called <i>Oochisrava</i>. And after these there was produced -from the unctuous mass the jewel <i>Kowstoobh</i>, that glorious <span class="pagenum">{208}</span> -sparkling gem worn by Narayan on his breast; also <i>Pareejat</i>, the tree -of plenty, and <i>Soorabhee</i>, the cow that granted every heart’s desire. -</p> - -<p> -“The moon, <i>Soora-Devee</i>, the goddess of <i>Sree</i>, and the Horse, as swift -as thought, instantly marched away towards the <i>Dews</i>, keeping in the -path of the Sun. -</p> - -<p> -“Then the <i>Dew Dhanwantaree</i>, in human shape, came forth, holding in his -hand a white vessel filled with the immortal juice <i>Amreeta</i>. When the -<i>Asoors</i> beheld these wondrous things appear, they raised their -tumultuous voices for the <i>Amreeta</i>, and each of them clamorously -exclaimed, ‘This of right is mine.’ -</p> - -<p> -“In the mean time <i>Travat</i>, a mighty elephant, arose, now kept by the -god of thunder; and as they continued to churn the ocean more than -enough, that deadly poison issued from its bed, burning like a raging -fire, whose dreadful fumes in a moment spread throughout the world, -confounding the three regions of the universe with the mortal stench, -until <i>Seev</i>, at the word of <i>Brahma</i>, swallowed the fatal drug, to save -mankind; which, remaining in the throat of that sovereign <i>Dew</i> of magic -form, from that time he hath been called <i>Neel-Kant</i>, because his throat -was stained blue. -</p> - -<p> -“When the <i>Asoors</i> beheld this miraculous deed, they <span class="pagenum">{209}</span> became -desperate, and the <i>Amreeta</i> and the goddess <i>Sree</i> became the source of -endless hatred. -</p> - -<p> -“Then <i>Narayan</i> assumed the character and person of <i>Moheenee Maya</i>, the -power of enchantment, in a female form of wonderful beauty, and stood -before the <i>Asoors</i>, whose minds being fascinated by her presence, and -deprived of reason, they seized the <i>Amreeta</i>, and gave it unto her. -</p> - -<p> -“The <i>Asoors</i> now clothe themselves in costly armour, and, seizing their -various weapons, rush on together to attack the <i>Soors</i>. In the mean -time <i>Narayan</i>, in the female form, having obtained the <i>Amreeta</i> from -the hands of their leader, the hosts of <i>Soors</i>, during the tumult and -confusion of the <i>Asoors</i>, drank of the living water. -</p> - -<p> -“And it so fell out, that whilst the <i>Soors</i> were quenching their thirst -for immortality, <i>Rahoo</i>, an <i>Asoor</i>, assumed the form of a <i>Soor</i>, and -began to drink also: And the water had but reached his throat, when the -Sun and Moon, in friendship to the <i>Soors</i>, discovered the deceit; and -instantly <i>Narayan</i> cut off his head as he was drinking, with his -splendid weapon <i>Chakra</i>. And the gigantic head of the <i>Asoor</i>, emblem -of a mountain’s summit, being thus separated from his body by the -<i>Chakra’s</i> edge, bounded into the heavens with a dreadful cry, whilst -his ponderous trunk fell, cleaving the ground asunder, and <span class="pagenum">{210}</span> shaking -the whole earth unto its foundation, with all its islands, rocks, and -forests: And from that time the head of Rahoo resolved an eternal -enmity, and continueth, even unto this day, at times to seize upon the -Sun and Moon. -</p> - -<p> -“Now Narayan, having quitted the female figure he had assumed, began to -disturb the <i>Asoors</i> with sundry celestial weapons: and from that -instant a dreadful battle was commenced, on the ocean’s briny strand, -between the <i>Asoors</i> and the <i>Soors</i>. Innumerable sharp and missile -weapons were hurled, and thousands of piercing darts and battle-axes -fell on all sides. The <i>Asoors</i> vomit blood from the wounds of the -<i>Chakra</i>, and fall upon the ground pierced by the sword, the spear, and -spiked club. Heads, glittering with polished gold, divided by the -<i>Pattees’</i> blade, drop incessantly; and mangled bodies, wallowing in -their gore, lay like fragments of mighty rocks, sparkling with gems and -precious ores. Millions of sighs and groans arise on every side; and the -sun is overcast with blood, as they clash their arms, and wound each -other with their dreadful instruments of destruction. -</p> - -<p> -“Now the battle is fought with the iron-spiked club, and, as they close, -with clenched fist; and the din of war ascendeth to the heavens. They -cry ‘Pursue! <span class="pagenum">{211}</span> strike! fell to the ground!’ so that a horrid and -tumultuous noise is heard on all sides. -</p> - -<p> -“In the midst of this dreadful hurry and confusion of the fight, <i>Nar</i> -and <i>Narayan</i> entered the field together. <i>Narayan</i>, beholding a -celestial bow in the hand of <i>Nar</i>, it reminded him of his <i>Chakra</i>, the -destroyer of the <i>Asoors</i>. The faithful weapon, by name <i>Soodarsan</i>, -ready at the mind’s call, flew down from heaven with direct and -refulgent speed, beautiful, yet terrible to behold: And being arrived, -glowing like the sacrificial flame, and spreading terror around, -<i>Narayan</i>, with his right arm formed like the elephantine trunk, hurled -forth the ponderous orb, the speedy messenger and glorious ruin of -hostile towns; who, raging like the final all-destroying fire, shot -bounding with desolating force, killing thousands of the <i>Asoors</i> in his -rapid flight, burning and involving, like the lambent flame, and cutting -down all that would oppose him. Anon he climbeth the heavens, and now -again darteth into the field like a <i>Peesach</i>, to feast in blood. -</p> - -<p> -“Now the dauntless <i>Asoors</i> strive, with repeated strength, to crush the -<i>Soors</i> with rocks and mountains, which, hurled in vast numbers into the -heavens, appeared like scattered clouds, and fell, with all the trees -thereon, in millions of fear-exciting torrents, striking <span class="pagenum">{212}</span> violently -against each other with a mighty noise; and in their fall the earth, -with all its fields and forests, is driven from its foundation: they -thunder furiously at each other as they roll along the field, and spend -their strength in mutual conflict. -</p> - -<p> -“Now <i>Nar</i>, seeing the <i>Soors</i> overwhelmed with fear, filled up the path -to Heaven with showers of golden-headed arrows, and split the mountain -summits with his unerring shafts; and the <i>Asoors</i> finding themselves -again sore pressed by the <i>Soors</i>, precipitately flee; some rush -headlong into the briny waters of the ocean, and others hide themselves -within the bowels of the earth. -</p> - -<p> -“The rage of the glorious <i>Chakra</i>, <i>Soodarsan</i>, which for a while burnt -like the oil-fed fire, now grew cool, and he retired into the heavens -from whence he came. And the <i>Soors</i> having obtained the victory, the -mountain <i>Mandar</i> was carried back to its former station with great -respect, whilst the waters also retired, filling the firmament and the -heavens with their dreadful roarings. -</p> - -<p> -“The <i>Soors</i> guarded the <i>Amreeta</i> with great care, and rejoiced -exceedingly because of their success. And <i>Eendra</i>, with all his -immortal bands, gave the water of life into <i>Narayan</i>, to keep it for -their use.”—<span class="sc">Mahabharat</span>. -</p> - -<p> -Amrita, or Immortal, is, according to Sir William <span class="pagenum">{213}</span> Jones, the name -which the mythologists of Tibet apply to a celestial tree, bearing -ambrosial fruit, and adjoining to four vast rocks, from which as many -sacred rivers derive their several streams. -</p> - -<p class="end"> -END OF VOLUME SECOND. -</p> - - -<h2 id="footnotes_2"> -<br/><br/><br/> -FOOTNOTES. -</h2> - -<p class="fn_entry" id="fn30b"> -[30] Properly <i>Teica</i>, an ornament of gold placed above the nose. -</p> -<p class="fn_back"><a href="#fn30a">RETURN</a></p> - - -<p class="fn_entry" id="fn31b"> -[31] Pendents. -</p> -<p class="fn_back"><a href="#fn31a">RETURN</a></p> - - -<p class="fn_entry" id="fn32b"> -[32] <i>Seita Cund</i>, or the <i>Pool of Seita</i>, the wife of Rani, is the name -given to the wonderful spring at Mangeir, with boiling water, of exquisite -clearness and purity. -</p> -<p class="fn_back"><a href="#fn32a">RETURN</a></p> - - -<p class="fn_entry" id="fn33b"> -[33] Her tears, when she was made captive by the giant <i>Rawan</i>. -</p> -<p class="fn_back"><a href="#fn33a">RETURN</a></p> - - -<p class="fn_entry" id="fn34b"> -[34] A small mirror worn in a ring. -</p> -<p class="fn_back"><a href="#fn34a">RETURN</a></p> - - -<p class="fn_entry" id="fn35b"> -[35] Bracelets. -</p> -<p class="fn_back"><a href="#fn35a">RETURN</a></p> - - -<p class="fn_entry" id="fn36b"> -[36] The inscription runs thus: Εἰμι ἐκεῖνος ἰχθὸς ταύτη λίμνη -παντοπρωτος ἐπιτεθεὶς διὰ τῦ κοσμητῦ φεδηρίκυ β τὰς χεῖρας εν τὴ -έ. ἡμερα τῦ Ὁκτωζρίυ. α.σ.λ. This pike was taken about -Hailprun, the imperial city of Suevia, in the year 1497.—<span class="sc">Gesner</span>. -</p> -<p class="fn_back"><a href="#fn36a">RETURN</a></p> - -<p class="end"> -END OF FOOTNOTES. -</p> -</div> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Curse of Kehama, Volume 2 (of 2), by -Robert Southey - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CURSE OF KEHAMA, VOLUME 2 *** - -***** This file should be named 55459-h.htm or 55459-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/5/4/5/55459/ - -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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