dangerous voyages offered up. vows for their safe return. If the lamp sunk immediately, the omen was disastrous; but if it went shining down the stream, and continued to burn till entirely out of sight, the return of the beloved object was considered as certain.

LALLA ROOKH, as they moved on, more than once looked back, to observe how the young Hindoo's lamp proceeded; and, while she saw with pleasure that it was still unextinguished, she could not help fearing that all the hopes of this life were no better than that feeble light upon the river. The remainder of the journey was passed in silence. She now, for the first time, felt that shade of melancholy, which comes over the youthful maiden's heart, as sweet and transient as her own breath upon a mirror; nor was it till she heard the lute of FERAMORZ, touched lightly at the door of her pavilion, that she waked from the reverie in which she had been wandering. Instantly her eyes were lighted up with pleasure; and, after a few unheard remarks from FADLADEEN upon the indecorum of a poet seating himself in presence of a Princess, every thing was arranged as on the preceding evening, and all listened with eagerness, while the story was thus continued:

WHOSE are the gilded tents that crowd the way, Where all was waste and silent yesterday? This City of War which, in a few short hours, Hath sprung up here, as if the magic powers Of Him who, in the twinkling of a star, Built the high pillared halls of CHILMINAR,2 Had conjured up, far as the eye can see,

This world of tents, and domes, and sun-bright armory:

Princely pavilions, screened by many a fold

Of crimson cloth, and topped with balls of gold:Steeds, with their housings of rich silver spun, Their chains and poitrels glittering in the sun; And camels, tufted o'er with Yemen's shells,3 Shaking in every breeze their light-toned bells!

1 "The Lescar or Imperial Camp is divided, like a regular town, into squares, alleys, and streets, and from a rising ground furnishes one of the most agreeable prospects in the world. Starting up in a few hours in an uninhabited plain, it raises the idea of a city built by enchantment. Even those who leave their houses in cities to follow the prince in his progress, are frequently so charmed with the Lescar, when situated in a beautiful and convenient place, that they cannot prevail with themselves to remove. To prevent this inconvenience to the court, the Emperor, after sufficient time is allowed to the tradesmen to follow, orders them to be burnt out of their tents."-Dow's Hindostan.

Colonel Wilks gives a lively picture of an Eastern encampment :-" His camp, like that of most Indian armies, exhibited a motley collection of covers from the scorching sun and dews of the night, variegated according to the taste or means of each individual, by extensive enclosures of colored calico surrounding superb suites of tents; by ragged cloths or blankets stretched over sticks or branches; palm leaves hastily spread over similar supports; handsome tents and splendid canopies; horses, oxen, elephants, and camels; all intermixed without any exterior mark of order or design, except the flags of the chiefs, which usually mark the centres of a congeries of these masses; the only regular part of the encampment being the streets of shops, each of which is constructed nearly in the manner of a booth at an English fair." Historical Sketches of the South of India.

2 The edifices of Chilminar and Balbec are supposed to have been built by the Genii, acting under the orders of Jan ben Jan, who governed the world long before the time of Adam.

"A superb camel, ornamented with strings and tufts of small shells.”. Ali Bey.

But yester-eve, so motionless around,

So mute was this wide plain, that not a sound
But the far torrent, or the locust bird1

Hunting among the thickets, could be heard ;-
Yet hark! what discords now, of every kind,
Shouts, laughs, and screams are revelling in the wind;
The neigh of cavalry;-the tinkling throngs
Of laden camels and their driver's songs;2-
Ringing of arms, and flapping in the breeze
Of streamers from ten thousand canopies;
War-music, bursting out from time to time,
With gong and tymbalon's tremendous chime ; —
Or, in the pause, when harsher sounds are mute,
The mellow breathings of some horn or flute,
That far off, broken by the eagle note
Of the' Abyssinian trumpet,3 swell and float.

Who leads this mighty army?-ask ye "who?" And mark ye not those banners of dark hue, The Night and Shadow, over yonder tent?— It is the CALIPH's glorious armament. Roused in his Palace by the dread alarms, That hourly came, of the false Prophet's arms,

1 A native of Khorassan, and allured southward by means of the water of a fountain between Shiraz and Ispahan, called the Fountain of Birds, of which it is so fond that it will follow wherever that water is carried.

2 "Some of the camels have bells about their necks, and some about their legs, like those which our carriers put about their fore-horses' necks, which, together with the servants (who belong to the camels, and travel on foot) singing all night, make a pleasant noise, and the journey passes away delightfully."-Pitt's Account of the Mahometans.

"The camel-driver follows the camels singing, and sometimes playing upon his pipe; the louder he sings and pipes, the faster the camels go. Nay, they will stand still when he gives over his music."— Tavernier.

3This trumpet is often called, in Abyssinia, nesser cano, which signifies the Note of the Eagle."- Note of Bruce's Editor.

4 The two black standards borne before the Caliphs of the House of Abbas were called, allegorically, The Night and The Shadow. - See Gibbon.

And of his host of infidels, who hurled
Defiance fierce at Islam, and the world, —
Though worn with Grecian warfare, and behind
The veils of his bright Palace calm reclined,
Yet brooked he not such blasphemy should stain,
Thus unrevenged, the evening of his reign;
But, having sworn upon the Holy Grave 2
To conquer or to perish, once more gave
His shadowy banners proudly to the breeze,
And with an army nursed in victories,
Here stands to crush the rebels that o'errun
His blest and beauteous Province of the Sun.

.3

Ne'er did the march of MAHADI display Such pomp before; - not ev'n when on his way TO MECCA'S Temple, when both land and sea Were spoiled to feed the Pilgrim's luxury; When round him, mid the burning sands, he saw Fruits of the North in icy freshness thaw, And cooled his thirsty lip, beneath the glow Of MECCA'S sun, with urns of Persian snow: 4 Nor e'er did armament more grand than that Pour from the kingdoms of the Caliphat. First, in the van, the People of the Rock,5 On their light mountain steeds, of royal stock; 6

1 The Mahometan religion.

"The Persians swear by the Tomb of Shah Besade, who is buried at Casbin; and when one desires another to asseverate a matter, he will ask him if he dare swear by the Holy Grave."

Struy.

3 Mahadi, in a single pilgrimage to Mecca, expended six millions of dinars of gold.

4 Nivem Meccam apportavit, rem ibi aut nunquam aut raro visam. Abulfeda.

5 The inhabitants of Hejaz or Arabia Petræa, called by an Eastern writer "The People of the Rock."- Ebn Haukal.

6 "Those horses, called by the Arabians Kochlani, of whom a written genealogy has been kept for 2000 years. They are said to derive their origin from King Solomon's steeds". Niebuhr.

Then, chieftains of DAMASCUS, proud to see
The flashing of their swords' rich marquetry;1
Men from the regions near the VOLGA's mouth,
Mixed with the rude, black archers of the South;
And Indian lancers, in white-turbaned ranks,
From the far SINDE, or ATTOCK's sacred banks,
With dusky legions from the Land of Myrrh,2
And many a mace-armed Moor, and Mid-sea islander.

Nor less in number, though more new and rude In warfare's school, was the vast multitude That, fired by zeal, or by oppression wronged, Round the white standard of the' Impostor thronged, Beside his thousands of Believers-blind, Burning and headlong as the Samiel windMany who felt, and more who feared to feel The bloody Islamite's converting steel, Flocked to his banner;-Chiefs of the' UZBEK race, Waving their heron crests with martial grace; 3 TURKOMANS, Countless as their flocks, led forth From the' aromatic pastures of the North; Wild warriors of the turquoise hills, and those Who dwell beyond the everlasting snows Of HINDOO KOSH,5 in stormy freedom bred, Their fort the rock, their camp the torrent's bed. But none, of all who owned the Chief's command, Rushed to that battle-field with bolder hand,

1 "Many of the figures on the blades of their swords are wrought in gold or silver, or in marquetry with small gems."-Asiat. Misc. v. i.

2 Azab or Saba.

3 "The chiefs of the Uzbek Tartars wear a plume of white heron's feathers in their turbans."- Account of Independent Tartary.

4 In the mountains of Nishapour and Tous (in Khorassan) they find turquoises. Ebn Haukal.

5 For a description of these stupendous ranges of mountains, see Elphinstone's Caubul.