Or sterner hate, than IRAN's outlawed men, 2 Where aged saints in dreams of heaven expire ; From BADKU, and those fountains of blue flame That burn into the CASPIAN,3 fierce they came, Careless for what or whom the blow was sped, So vengeance triumphed, and their tyrants bled. Such was the wild and miscellaneous host, That high in air their motley banners tossed Around the Prophet-Chief—all eyes still bent Upon that glittering Veil, where'er it went, That beacon through the battle's stormy flood, That rainbow of the field, whose showers were blood! Twice hath the sun upon their conflict set, And risen again, and found them grappling yet; While streams of carnage, in his noontide blaze, Smoke up to heaven-hot as that crimson haze, 1 The Ghebers or Guebres, those original natives of Persia, who adhered to their ancient faith, the religion of Zoroaster, and who, after the conquest of their country by the Arabs, were either persecuted at home, or forced to become wanderers abroad. 2 "Yezd, the chief residence of those ancient natives, who worship the Sun and the Fire, which latter they have carefully kept lighted, without being once extinguished for a moment, about 3000 years, on a mountain near Yezd, called Ater Quedah, signifying the House or Mansion of the Fire. He is reckoned very unfortunate who dies off that mountain.”. Stephen's Persia. 3" When the weather is hazy, the springs of Naphtha (on an island near Baku) boil up the higher, and the Naphtha often takes fire on the surface of the earth, and runs in a flame into the sea to a distance almost incredible." -Hanway on the Everlasting Fire at Baku. By which the prostrate Caravan is awed,1 In the red Desert, when the wind's abroad. "On, Swords of God!" the panting CALIPH calls, "Thrones for the living-heaven for him who "On, brave avengers, on," MOKANNA cries, "And EBLIS blast the recreant slave that flies!" Now comes the brunt, the crisis of the day They clash-they strive-the CALIPH's troops give way! MOKANNA'S self plucks the black Banner down, Savary says of the south wind, which blows in Egypt from February to May, "Sometimes it appears only in the shape of an impetuous whirlwind, which passes rapidly, and is fatal to the traveller, surprised in the middle of the deserts. Torrents of burning sand roll before it, the firmament is enveloped in a thick veil, and the sun appears of the color of blood. Sometimes whole caravans are buried in it." 2 In the great victory gained by Mahomed at Beder, he was assisted, say the Mussulmans, by three thousand angels, led by Gabriel, mounted on his horse Hiazum. See The Koran and its Commentators. Among the fugitive clouds that, hurrying by, To foes that charge and coward friends that fly, Right towards MOKANNA now he cleaves his path, Impatient cleaves, as though the bolt of wrath He bears from Heaven withheld its awful burst From weaker heads, and souls but half way cursed, To break o'er Him, the mightiest and the worst! But vain his speed—though, in that hour of blood, Had all God's seraphs round MOKANNA stood, With swords of fire, ready like fate to fall, MOKANNA'S Soul would have defied them all, Yet now, the rush of fugitives, too strong For human force, hurries ev'n him along; In vain he struggles 'mid the wedged array Of flying thousands he is borne away; And the sole joy his baffled spirit knows, Turns, ev'n in drowning, on the wretched flocks, And, to the last, devouring on his way, "Alla illa Alla!" the glad shout renew "Alla Akbar!"-the Caliph's in MEROU. Hang out your gilded tapestry in the streets, And light your shrines and chant your ziraleets.2 The Swords of God have triumphed on his throne Your Caliph sits, and the Veiled Chief hath flown. Who does not envy that young warrior now, To whom the Lord of Islam bends his brow, In all the graceful gratitude of power, For his throne's safety in that perilous hour? He turns away-coldly, as if some gloom A dark, cold calm, which nothing now can break, Upon whose surface morn and summer shed 1 The Tecbir, or cry of the Arabs. "Alla Acbar!" says Ockley, means, "God is most mighty." 2 The ziraleet is a kind of chorus, which the women of the East sing upon joyful occasions. Russel. 3 The Dead Sea, which contains neither animal nor vegetable life. Hearts there have been, o'er which this weight of woe One sole desire, one passion now remains To keep life's fever still within his veins, Vengeance!-dire vengeance on the wretch who cast O'er him and all he loved that ruinous blast. For this, when rumors reached him in his flight Far, far away, after that fatal night,— Rumors of armies, thronging to the' attack Of the Veiled Chief,- for this he winged him back, For this he still lives on, careless of all But safe as yet that Spirit of Evil lives; With a small band of desperate fugitives, The last sole stubborn fragment, left unriven, Of the proud host that late stood fronting Heaven, |