Shorter Novels, Eighteenth Century Part 39

"Thou hast possessed thyself of my heart; thou hast fixed thy abode, and art settled there, as a beloved and cherished inhabitant.

"Yet how can I visit my fair one, whilst her family have their _vernal mansion_ in Oneizatain, and mine are stationed in Ghailem?"

Xenophon relates, in his Anabasis, that it was customary for the kings of Persia ?e???e?? ?a? e???e??, to pa.s.s the _summer_ and _spring_ in Susa and Ecbatana; and Plutarch observes further, that their winters were spent in Babylon, their summers in Media (that is, _Ecbatana_), and the pleasantest part of _spring_ in Susa: ?a?t?? t??s?e ?e?s?? as??ea?

ea?a????? e? a????? t?? ?e???a d?a????a?? e? de ??d?? t? ?e???? e?

de S??s???, t? ?d?st?? t?? ????S.--_De Exil._, p. 604.

PAGE 231. _... red characters_

The laws of Draco are recorded by Plutarch, in his _Life of Solon_, to have been written in blood. If more were meant by this expression, than that those laws were of a sanguinary nature, they will furnish the earliest instance of the use of _red characters_, which were afterwards considered as appropriate to supreme authority, and employed to denounce some requisition or threatening design to strike terror. According to Suidas, this manner of writing was, likewise, practised in _magic rites_. Hence their application to the instance here mentioned. TROTZ, _In Herm. Hugonem_, pp. 106, 307. SUIDAS _sub voc._ Tetta?? ????.

PAGE 231. _... thy body shall be spit upon_

There was no mark of contempt amongst the Easterns so ignominious as this.--_Arabian Nights_, vol. i, p. 115.; vol. iv, p. 275. It was the same in the days of Job. Herodotus relates of the Medes, ?????? a?t???

??S???? est?, and Xenophon relates, ??S???? est? ?e?sa?? t? ?????????.

Hence the reason is evident for spitting on our Saviour.

PAGE 231. _... bats will nestle in thy belly_

Bats in these countries were very abundant, and, both from their numbers and nature, held in abhorrence. See what is related of them by THEVENOT, part i, pp. 132, 133, EGMONT and HAYMAN, vol. ii, p. 87, and other travellers in the East.

PAGE 232. _... the Bismillah_

This word (which is prefixed to every chapter of the Koran except the ninth) signifies, "in the name of the most merciful G.o.d." It became not the initiatory formula of prayer till the time of Moez the Fatimite.

D'HERBELOT, p. 326.

PAGE 232. _... inscription_

Inscriptions of this sort are still retained. Thus Ludeke: "Interni non solum Divani pluriumque conclavium parietes, sed etiam frontispicia super portas inscriptiones habent."--_Expositio_, p. 54. In the History of Amine, we find an inscription over a gate, in letters of gold, a.n.a.logous to this of Fakreddin: "Here is the abode of everlasting pleasures and content."--_Arabian Nights_, vol. i, p. 193.

PAGE 232. _... a magnificent tecthtrevan_

This kind of _moving throne_, though more common at present than in the days of Vathek, is still confined to persons of the highest rank.

PAGE 233. _... your ivory limbs_

The Arabians compare the skin of a beautiful woman to the egg of the ostrich, when preserved unsullied. Thus Amriolkais:

"Delicate was her shape; fair her skin; and her body well proportioned: her bosom was as smooth as a mirror,--

"Or like the pure egg of an ostrich, of a yellowish tint blended with white."

Also the Koran: "Near them shall lie the virgins of Paradise, refraining their looks from beholding any besides their spouses, having large black eyes, and resembling the eggs of an ostrich, covered with feathers from dust."--_Moallakat_, p. 8. _Al Koran_, ch. 27.

But though the Arabian epithet be taken from thence, yet the word ivory is subst.i.tuted, as more a.n.a.logous to European ideas, and not foreign from the Eastern. Thus Amru:

"And two sweet b.r.e.a.s.t.s, smooth and white as vessels of ivory, modestly defended from the hand of those who presume to touch them."--_Moallakat_, p. 77.

PAGE 233. _... baths of rose-water_

The use of perfumed waters for the purpose of bathing is of an early origin in the East, where every odoriferous plant sheds a richer fragrance than is known to our more humid climates. The rose which yields this lotion is, according to Ha.s.selquist, of a beautiful pale blush colour, double, large as a man's fist, and more exquisite in scent than any other species. The quant.i.ties of this water distilled annually at Fajhum, and carried to distant countries, is immense. The mode of conveying it is in vessels of copper coated with wax.--_Voyag._, p. 248.

Ben Jonson makes Volpone say to Celia:

"Their bath shall be the juyce of gillyflowres, Spirit of roses, and of violets."

PAGE 233. _... lamb a la creme_

No dish among the Easterns was more generally admired. The caliph Abdolmelek, at a splendid entertainment, to which whoever came was welcome, asked Amrou, the son of Hareth, what kind of meat he preferred to all others. The old man answered, "An a.s.s's neck, well seasoned and roasted."--"But what say you," replied the caliph, "to the leg or shoulder of a LAMB _a la creme_?" and added:

"How sweetly we live if a shadow would last!"

--_MS. Laud._ No. 161. S. OCKLEY'S _History of the Saracens_, vol. ii, p. 277.

PAGE 233. _... made the dwarfs dance against their will_

Ali Chelebi al Moufti, in a treatise on the subject, held that dancing after the example of the dervishes, who made it a part of their devotion, was allowable. But in this opinion he was deemed to be heterodox; for Mahometans, in general, place dancing amongst the things that are forbidden.--D'HERBELOT, p. 98.

PAGE 233. _... durst not refuse the commander of the faithful_

The mandates of Oriental potentates have ever been accounted irresistible. Hence the submission of these devotees to the will of the caliph.--Esther, i, 19. Daniel, vi, 8. LUDEKE, _Expos. brevis_, p. 60.

PAGE 233. _... the nine hundred and ninety-ninth time_

The Mahometans boast of a doctor who is reported to have read over the Koran not fewer than twenty thousand times.--D'HERBELOT, p. 75.

PAGE 234. _... black eunuchs, sabre in hand_

In this manner the apartments of the ladies were constantly guarded.

Thus, in the Story of the Enchanted Horse, Firouz Schah, traversing a strange palace by night, entered a room, "and by the light of a lantern saw that the persons he had heard snoring were black eunuchs with naked sabres by them, which was enough to inform him that this was the guard-chamber of some queen or princess."--_Arabian Nights_, vol. iv, p.

189.

PAGE 234. _... to let down the great swing_

The swing was an exercise much used in the apartments of the Eastern ladies, and not only contributed to their health, but also to their amus.e.m.e.nt.--_Tales of Inatulla_, vol. i, p. 259.