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-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
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