ARABIAN LEGENDS.

I.

THE PRIDE OF NIMROD.

"THOU art King of all the nations,-
They are thine to take or give,—
We are but thy will's creations,-
In thy breath we die or live."
So the servile courtiers chanted,
But the tyrant's heart replied
That some stronger food was wanted
To content his swollen pride.

Now, behold, the myriads gather
Round him, work as he may bid,
To invade God's realm of æther
By the Babel pyramid :
God the pitiful intrusion

Checks not by his lightning hand,

But imposing and confusion

Frustrates every proud command.

Allah then in arms defying,*

See the tyrant's golden car,

* The Kuran makes Pharaoh also build a huge tower to scale heaven with;

With four harnessed eagles, flying
Upward, through the air afar :
Now he glows in rage delighted,
Thinks he grasps Jehovah's throne,
But that instant falls benighted

On a desert rock alone.

Hear, Believers! hear with wonder
How, at last, God's vengeance came ;

Not in tempest, not in thunder,

Not in pestilence or flame :
One of Nature's meanest features,
Hardly to your vision clear,
Least of tiny insect creatures,
Crept into the Tyrant's ear.

There its subtle life it nested
In the tissues of his brain,
And the anguish never rested,
And his being turned to pain:
Thus four hundred years tormented,
Nature's God he learnt to know,
Yet his pride was unrepented,

And he sunk to endless woe!

Pharaoh ascended it when completed, and having thrown a javelin upwards, which fell back again stained with blood, boasted he had killed the God of Moses; but Gabriel, at one brush of his wing, demolished the tower, which fell, crushing a million of men.

II.

ABRAHAM AND HIS GODS.

ABRAHAM is the great Patriarch of Arabia; he is declared by Mohammed to be neither a Jew nor a Christian, but a Muslim and the friend of God. The great idol of red agate, with a golden hand holding seven divining arrows, which Mohammed destroyed in the Kaabeh, after his capture of Mekkeh, is supposed to have been a representation of Abraham. The Black Stone set in silver, which the Prophet left there, and which has remained an object of idolatrous homage, is said to be one of the precious stones of Paradise, and to have been brought by the angel Gabriel to Abraham, when he was rebuilding the Kaabeh. The Books of Abraham are spoken of with those of Moses, chap. lxxxvii. v. 19; the Kuràn is full of him: Mohammed seems, whether intentionally or not, to have fused his character into his own; he makes Abraham speak as himself, and he himself speaks in the person of the Patriarch. The following story expresses either the process of Abraham's reasoning with himself, or was used, by way of argument, to convince the idolaters among whom he lived. Josephus (lib. i. cap. 8) writes of Abraham, "that he was the first that ventured to publish this notion, that there was but one God, the Creator of the Universe, and that, as to other gods, if they contributed anything to the happiness of man, each of them afford it only according to his appointment, and not by their own power: this his opinion was derived from the irregular phenomena that were visible both at land and sea, as well as those that happen to the sun and moon, and all the heavenly bodies."

BENEATH the full-eyed Syrian moon,

The Patriarch, lost in reverence, raised
His consecrated head, and soon

He knelt, and worshipped while he gazed:

Surely that glorious Orb on high

Must be the Lord of earth and sky!"

Slowly towards its central throne

The glory rose, yet paused not there,

But seemed by influence not its own

Drawn downwards through the western air, Until it wholly sunk away,

And the soft Stars had all the sway.

Then to that hierarchy of light,

With face upturned the sage remained,— "At least Ye stand for ever bright,—

Your power has never waxed or waned!" Even while he spoke, their work was done, Drowned in the overflowing Sun.

Eastward he bent his eager eyes—

"Creatures of Night! false Gods and frail!

Take not the worship of the wise,

There is the Deity we hail;

Fountain of light, and warmth, and love,
He only bears our hearts above."

Yet was that One—that radiant One,
Who seemed so absolute a King,

Only ordained his round to run,
And pass like each created thing;

He rested not in noonday prime,
But fell beneath the strength of time.

Then like one labouring without hope

To bring his toil to fruitful end,

And powerless to discern the scope

Whereto his aspirations tend,

Still Abraham prayed by night and day-"God! teach me to what God to pray!"

Nor long in vain; an inward Light
Arose to which the Sun is pale,

The knowledge of the Infinite,

The sense of Truth that must prevail ;

The presence of the only Lord

By angels and by men adored.