A broader and a broader stream,

That rock'd the little boat!

The Cormorant stands upon its shoals,
His black and dripping wings
Half open'd to the wind.

The Sun goes down, the crescent Moon
Is brightening in the firmament;
And what is yonder roar,

That sinking now, and swelling now,

But roaring, roaring still,

Still louder, louder, grows?

The little boat falls rapidly
Adown the rapid tide,

The Moon is bright above,

And the wide Ocean opens on their way.

Then did the Damsel speak again,
"Wilt thou go on with me?

"The Moon is bright, the sea is calm,
" And I know well the ocean-paths; .

"Wilt thou go on with me? .. "Deliverer! yes! thou dost not fear! "Thou wilt go on with me!"

"Sail on, sail on!" quoth Thalaba, "Sail on, in Allah's name!"

The Moon is bright, the sea is calm,
The little boat rides rapidly

Across the ocean waves;

The line of moonlight on the deep,
Still follows as they voyage on;
The winds are motionless;
The gentle waters gently part

In murmurs round the prow.

He looks above, he looks around,

The boundless heaven, the boundless sea,

The crescent moon, the little boat,
Nought else above, below.

The Moon is sunk, a dusky grey
Spreads o'er the Eastern sky,

The Stars grow pale and paler; .. Oh beautiful! the godlike Sun

Is rising o'er the sea!

Without an oar, without a sail,
The little boat rides rapidly; .

10

Is that a cloud that skirts the sea?

There is no cloud in heaven!

And nearer now, and darker now

It is it is the Land!

For yonder, are the rocks that rise

Dark in the reddening morn,

For loud around their hollow base
The surges rage and roar.

The little boat rides rapidly,

And now with shorter toss it heaves

Upon the heavier swell;

And now so near, they see

The shelves and shadows of the cliff,

And the low-lurking rocks,

O'er whose black summits, hidden-half,
The shivering billows burst; ..

And nearer now they feel the breaker's spray. Then spake the Damsel," yonder is our path "Beneath the cavern arch.

"Now is the ebb, and till the ocean-flow,

"We cannot over-ride the rocks.

"Go thou, and on the shore

"Perform thy last ablutions, and with prayer "Strengthen thy heart.. I too have need to pray."

She held the helm with steady hand

Amid the stronger waves ;

Through surge and surf she drove,
The adventurer leapt to land.

NOTES TO BOOK XI.

[Green Warbler of the Bowers of Paradise.-P. 222.

The souls of the blessed are supposed by some of the Mahommedans to animate green birds in the groves of paradise. Was this opinion invented to conciliate the Pagan Arabs, who believed, that of the blood near the dead person's brain was formed a bird named Hamah, which once in a hundred years visited the sepulchre ? "Then

To this there is an allusion in the Moallakat. I knew with certainty, that, in so fierce a contest with them, many a heavy blow would make the perched birds of the brain fly quickly from every skull."

Poem of Antara.

In the Bahar-Danush, parrots are called the green-vested resemblers of Heaven's dwellers. The following passages in the same work may, perhaps, allude to the same superstition, or perhaps are merely metaphorical, in the usual style of its true oriental bombast. "The bird