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Young fire-eyed disputants, who deem their swords,
On points of faith, more eloquent than words;

And such their zeal, there's not a youth with brand
Uplifted there, but, at the Chief's command,
Would make his own devoted heart its sheath,
And bless the lips that doomed so dear a death!
In hatred to the Caliph's hue of night,1

Their vesture, helms and all, is snowy white;

Their weapons various — some equipped, for speed, With javelins of the light Kathaian reed; 2

Or bows of buffalo horn and shining quivers

3

Fill'd with the stems that bloom on IRAN's rivers;
While some, for war's more terrible attacks,
Wield the huge mace and ponderous battle-axe;
And as they wave aloft in morning's beam
The milk-white plumage of their helms, they seem
Like a chenar-tree grove 5 when winter throws
O'er all its tufted heads his feathering snows.

Between the porphyry pillars, that uphold The rich moresque-work of the roof of gold,

éblouir ceux qui l'approchoient par l'éclat de son visage comme Moyse." D'Herbelot.

1 Black was the color adopted by the Caliphs of the House of Abbas, in their garments, turbans, and standards. -"Il faut remarquer ici touchant les habits blancs des disciples de Hakem, que la couleur des habits, des coeffures et des étendarts des Khalifes Abassides étant la noire, ce chef de Rebelles ne pouvoit pas choisir une qui lui fût plus opposée."-D'Herbelot. 2 "Our dark javelins, exquisitely wrought of Khathaian reeds, slender and delicate." Poem of Amru.

3 Pichula, used anciently for arrows by the Persians.

4 The Persians call this plant Gaz. The celebrated shaft of Isfendiar, one of their ancient heroes, was made of it. -"Nothing can be more beautiful than the appearance of this plant in flower during the rains on the banks of rivers, where it is usually interwoven with a lovely twining asclepias." Sir W. Jones, Botanical Observations on Select Indian

Plants.

-

The Oriental plane. "The chenar is a delightful tree; its bole is of a fine white and smooth bark; and its foliage, which grows in a tuft at the summit, is of a bright green." Morier's Travels.

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Aloft the Haram's curtained galleries rise,
Where through the silken net-work, glancing eyes,
From time to time, like sudden gleams that glow
Through autumn clouds, shine o'er the pomp below. —
What impious tongue, ye blushing saints, would dare
To hint that aught but Heaven hath placed you there?
Or that the loves of this light world could bind,
In their gross chain, your Prophet's soaring mind?
No-wrongful thought!-commissioned from above
To people Eden's bowers with shapes of love,
(Creatures so bright, that the same lips and eyes
They wear on earth will serve in Paradise,)
There to recline among Heaven's native maids,
And crown the' Elect with bliss that never fades
Well hath the Prophet-Chief his bidding done;
And every beauteous race beneath the sun,
From those who kneel at BRAHMA's burning founts,1
To the fresh nymphs bounding o'er YEMEN's mounts;
From PERSIA's eyes of full and fawn-like ray,
To the small, half-shut glances of KATHAY;
And GEORGIA's bloom, and AZAB's darker smiles,
And the gold ringlets of the Western Isles;
All, all are there; —each Land its flower hath given,
To form that fair young Nursery for Heaven!

But why this pageant now? this armed array ? What triumph crowds the rich Divan to-day With turbaned heads, of every hue and race, Bowing before that veiled and awful face,

The burning fountains of Brahma near Chittogong, esteemed as holy.Turner. ? China.

Like tulip-beds,1 of different shape and dyes,
Bending beneath the' invisible West-wind's sighs!
What new-made mystery now, for Faith to sign,
And blood to seal, as genuine and divine,
What dazzling mimicry of God's own power
Hath the bold Prophet planned to grace this hour?

Not such the pageant now, though not less proud; Yon warrior youth, advancing from the crowd, With silver bow, with belt of broidered crape, And fur-bound bonnet of Bucharian shape,2 So fiercely beautiful in form and eye, Like war's wild planet in a summer sky; That youth to-day, ―a proselyte, worth hordes Of cooler spirits and less practised swords, Is come to join, all bravery and belief,

The creed and standard of the heaven-sent Chief.

Though few his years, the West already knows Young Azim's fame ;- beyond the' Olympian snows Ere manhood darkened o'er his downy cheek, O'erwhelmed in fight and captive to the Greek,3 He lingered there, till peace dissolved his chains; — O, who could, even in bondage, tread the plains Of glorious GREECE, nor feel his spirit rise Kindling within him? who, with heart and eyes,

1 "The name of tulip is said to be of Turkish extraction, and given to the flower on account of its resembling a turban." - Beckmann's History of Inventions.

2 "The inhabitants of Bucharia wear a round cloth bonnet, shaped much after the Polish fashion, having a large fur border. They tie their kaftans about the middle with a girdle of a kind of silk crape, several times round the body." Account of Independent Tartary, in Pinkerton's Collection.

3 In the war of the Caliph Mahadi against the Empress Irene, for an ac count of which vide Gibbon, vol. x.

Could walk where Liberty had been, nor see
The shining foot-prints of her Deity,

Nor feel those god-like breathings in the air,
Which mutely told her spirit had been there?
Not he, that youthful warrior,-no, too well
For his soul's quiet worked the' awakening spell;
And now, returning to his own dear land,
Full of those dreams of good that, vainly grand,
Haunt the young heart,—proud views of human-kind,
Of men to Gods exalted and refined,

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False views, like that horizon's fair deceit,

Where earth and heaven but seem, alas, to meet!
Soon as he heard an Arm Divine was raised
To right the nations, and beheld, emblazed
On the white flag MOKANNA's host unfurled,
Those words of sunshine, "Freedom to the World,”
At once his faith, his sword, his soul obeyed
The' inspiring summons; every chosen blade
That fought beneath that banner's sacred text
Seemed doubly edged, for this world and the next;
And ne'er did Faith with her smooth bandage bind
Eyes more devoutly willing to be blind,
In virtue's cause; -never was soul inspired
With livelier trust in what it most desired,
Than his, the' enthusiast there, who kneeling, pale
With pious awe, before that Silver Veil,

Believes the form, to which he bends his knee,
Some pure, redeeming angel, sent to free
This fettered world from every bond and stain,
And bring its primal glories back again!

Low as young Azıм knelt, that motley crowd Of all earth's nations sunk the knee and bowed,

With shouts of "ALLA!" echoing long and loud; While high in air, above the Prophet's head, Hundreds of banners, to the sunbeam spread, Waved, like the wings of the white birds that fan The flying throne of star-taught SOLIMAN.1

Then thus he spoke: "Stranger, though new the frame

"Thy soul inhabits now, I've tracked its flame "For many an age,2 in every chance and change "Of that existence, through whose varied range, "As through a torch-race, where, from hand to hand, "The flying youths transmit their shining brand, — "From frame to frame the unextinguished soul Rapidly passes, till it reach the goal!

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"Nor think 'tis only the gross Spirits, warmed "With duskier fire and for earth's medium formed, "That run this course; Beings, the most divine, "Thus deign through dark mortality to shine. "Such was the Essence that in ADAM dwelt, "To which all Heaven, except the Proud One, knelt: 3 "Such the refined Intelligence that glowed "In MOUSSA's 4 frame, -and, thence descending,

flowed

1 This wonderful Throne was called The Star of the Genii. For a full description of it, see the Fragment, translated by Captain Franklin, from a Persian MS. entitled "The History of Jerusalem," Oriental Collections, vol. i. p. 235.-When Soliman travelled, the eastern writers say, "He had a carpet of green silk on which his throne was placed, being of a prodigious length and breadth, and sufficient for all his forces to stand upon, the men placing themselves on his right hand, and the spirits on his left; and that when all were in order, the wind, at his command, took up the carpet, and transported it, with all that were upon it, wherever he pleased; the army of birds at the same time flying over their heads, and forming a kind of canopy to shade them from the sun." Sale's Koran, vol. ii. p. 214, note. 2 The transmigration of souls was one of his doctrines. - Vide D'Her

belot.

3 "And when we said unto the angels, Worship Adam, they all wor shipped him except Eblis, (Lucifer,) who refused.". The Koran, chap. ii

4 Moses.

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