Or, where the tempest rives the hoary stone,
The wintry top of giant Lebanon.
Fierce, hardy, proud, in conscious freedom bold,
Those stormy seats the warrior Druses hold *;
From Norman blood their lofty line they trace,
Their lion courage proves their generous race.
They, only they, while all around them kneel
In sullen homage to the Thracian steel,
Teach their pale despot's waning moon to fear †
The patriot terrors of the mountain spear.
Yes, valorous chiefs, while yet your sabres shine, The native guard of feeble Palestine,
O ever thus, by no vain boast dismay'd,
Defend the birthright of the cedar shade!
What though no more for you the' obedient gale
Swells the white bosom of the Tyrian sail;
70
Though now no more your glittering marts unfold
Sidonian dyes and Lusitanian gold ‡ ;
Though not for you the pale and sickly slave
Forgets the light in Ophir's wealthy cave;
Yet your's the lot, in proud contentment blest,
Where cheerful labour leads to tranquil rest.
No robber rage the ripening harvest knows §;
And unrestrain❜d the generous vintage flows:
The untameable spirit, feodal customs, and affection for Europeans, which distinguish this extraordinary race, who boast themselves to be a remnant of the Crusaders, are well described in Pagés. The account of their celebrated Emir, Facciardini, in Sandys, is also very interesting. Puget de S. Pierre, compiled a small volume on their history; Paris, 1763. 12mo.
"The Turkish Sultans, whose moon seems fast approaching to it's wane." Sir W. Jones's 1st. Discourse to the Asiatic Society. The gold of the Tyrians chiefly came from Portugal, which was probably their Tarshish.
In the southern parts of Palestine the inhabitants reap their
Nor less your sons to manliest deeds aspire,
And Asia's mountains glow with Spartan fire.
So when, deep sinking in the rosy main,
The western Sun forsakes the Syrian plain,
His watery rays refracted lustre shed,
And pour their latest light on Carmel's head.
Yet shines your praise, amid surrounding gloom,
As the lone lamp that trembles in the tomb:
For, few the souls that spurn a tyrant's chain,
And small the bounds of freedom's scanty reign.
As the poor outcast on the cheerless wild *,
Arabia's parent, clasp'd her fainting child,
And wander'd near the roof no more her home,
Forbid to linger, yet afraid to roam:
My sorrowing Fancy quits the happier height,
And southward throws her half-averted sight.
For, sad the scenes Judæa's plains disclose,
A dreary waste of undistinguish'd woes:
See War untir'd his crimson pinions spread,
And foul Revenge, that tramples on the dead!
Lo, where from far the guarded fountains shine †,
Thy tents, Nebaioth, rise, and Kedar, thine ‡! 100
"Tis your's the boast to mark the stranger's way,
And spur your headlong chargers on the prey,
Or rouse your nightly numbers from afar,
And on the hamlet pour the waste of war;
corn green, as they are not sure that it will ever be allowed to come to maturity. The oppression to which the cultivators of vineyards are subject throughout the Ottoman empire is well known.
+ The watering places are generally beset with Arabs, who exact tell from all comers. See Harmer and Pagés.
See Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. xiv. p. 43. Ed. Vales
Nor spare the hoary head, nor bid your eye
Revere the sacred smile of infancy.
Such now the clans, whose fiery coursers feed
Where waves on Kishon's bank the whispering reed;
And their's the soil, where, curling to the skies,
Smokes on Gerizim's mount Samaria's sacrifice †. 110
While Israel's sons, by scorpion curses driven,
Outcasts of earth, and reprobate of heaven,
Through the wide world in friendless exile stray,
Remorse and shame sole comrades of their way,
With dumb despair their country's wrongs behold,
And, dead to glory, only burn for gold.
O Thou, their Guide, their Father, and their Lord,
Lov'd for Thy mercies, for Thy power ador'd!
If at Thy Name the waves forgot their force ‡,
And refluent Jordan sought his trembling source; 120
If at Thy Name like sheep the mountains fled,
And haughty Sirion how'd his marble head;
To Israel's woes a pitying ear incline,
And raise from earth Thy long-neglected vine § !
Her rifled fruits behold the heathen bear,
And wild-wood boars her mangled clusters tear.
Was it for this she stretch'd her peopled reign
From far Euphrates to the western main?
For this, o'er many a hill her boughs she threw,
And her wide arms like goodly cedars grew?
For this, proud Edom slept beneath her shade,
And o'er the' Arabian deep her branches play'd?
O feeble boast of transitory power!
Vain, fruitless trust of Judah's happier hour!
"Thine eye shall not spare them."
+ A miserable remnant of Samaritan worship still exists on Mount Gerizim. Maundrell relates his conversation with the high priest. § See Psalm 1xxx. 8-14.
Not such their hope, when through the parted main The cloudy wonder led the warrior train:
Not such their hope, when through the fields of night
The torch of heaven diffus'd its friendly light:
Not, when fierce Conquest urg'd the onward war,
And hurl'd stern Canaan from his iron car:
Nor, when five monarchs led to Gibeon's fight
In rude array, the harness'd Amorite:
Yes-in that hour, by mortal accents stay'd,
The lingering Sun his fiery wheels delay'd;
The Moon, obedient, trembled at the sound,
Curb'd her pale car, and check'd her mazy round!
Let Sinai tell-for she beheld his might,
And God's own darkness veil'd her mystic height:
(He, cherub-borne, upon the whirlwind rode,
And the red mountain like a furnace glow'd:)
Let Sinai tell-but who shall dare recite
His praise, his power,-eternal, infinite?—
Awe-struck I cease; nor bid my strains aspire,
Or serve his altar with unhallow'd fire †.
Such were the cares that watch'd o'er Israel's fate, And such the glories of their infant state. -Triumphant race! and did your power decay? Fail'd the bright promise of your early day?
No;-by that sword, which, red with heathen gore,
A giant spoil, the stripling champion bore;
By him, the chief to farthest India known ‡,
The mighty master of the ivory throne;
In heaven's own strength, high towering o'er her foes
Victorious Salem's lion banner rose:
Alluding to the fate of Nadab and Abihu.
Solomon. Ophir is by most geographers placed in the Aurea
Chersonesus. See Tavernier and Raleigh.
Before her footstool prostrate nations lay,
And vassal tyrants crouch'd beneath her sway.
-And he, the warrior sage, whose restless mind *
Through nature's mazes wander'd unconfin'd;
Who every bird, and beast, and insect knew,
And spake of every plant that quaffs the dew;
To him were known-so Hagar's offspring tell-
The powerful sigill and the starry spell;
The midnight call, hell's shadowy legions dread,
And sounds that burst the slumbers of the dead.
Hence all his might; for, who could these oppose?
And Tadmor thus, and Syrian Balbec rose t.
Yet e'en the works of toiling Genii fall,
And vain was Estakhar's enchanted wall.
In frantic converse with the mournful wind ‡,
There oft the houseless Santon rests reclin'd; 180
Strange shapes he views, and drinks with wondering ears
The voices of the dead, and songs of other years.
* The Arabian mythology respecting Solomon is in itself so fascinating, is so illustrative of the present state of the country, and on the whole so agreeable to Scripture, that it was judged improper to omit all mention of it, though it's wildness might have operated as an objection to making it a principal object in the poem.
Palmyra ("Tadmor in the desart") was really built by Solomon, (1 Kings ix. 2 Chron. viii.) and universal tradition marks him out, with great probability, as the founder of Balbec. Estakhar, is also attributed to him by the Arabs. See the Romance of Vathek, and the various travels into the east, more particularly Chardin's, in which, after a minute and interesting description of the majestic ruins of Estakhar, or Persepolis, the ancient capital of Persia, an account follows of the wild local traditions just alluded to. Vol. II. 190. Ed. Amst. 1735. 4to. Vide also Sale's Koran ;-D'Herbelot Bibl. Orient. (article Soliman Ben Daoud;)—and the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, passim.
It is well known that the Santons are real or affected madmen, pretending to extraordinary sanctity, who wander about the country, sleeping in caves or old ruins.
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