The Ghosts of the Wicked that wander by night Flit over the magic car. Away away! away! Over the hills and the plains, Over the rivers and rocks, Over the sands of the shore; The waves of ocean heave With unwet hoofs they trample the deep, And now they reach the Island coast, And away to the city the Monarch's abode. Open fly the city gates, Open fly the iron doors, The doors of the palace court. Then stopt the charmed car. The Monarch heard the chariot-wheels, And Thalaba beheld Mohareb in the robes of royalty, Whom erst his arm had thrust Down the bitumen pit. NOTES TO BOOK VIII. "But when the Cryer from the Minaret," &c.—P. 79. As the celestial Apostle, at his retreat from Medina, did not perform always the five canonical prayers at the precise time, his disciples, who often neglected to join with him in the Namaz, assembled one day to fix upon some method of announcing to the public those moments of the day and night when their master discharged this first of religious duties. Flags, bells, trumpets, and fire, were successively proposed as signals. None of these, however, were admitted. The flags were rejected as unsuited to the sanctity of the object; the bells, on account of their being used by Christians; the trumpets, as ap propriated to the Hebrew worship; the fire, as having too near an analogy to the religion of the pyrolators. From this contrariety of opinions, the disciples separated without any determination. But one of them, Abdullah ibn Zeid Abderiyê, saw the night following, in a dream, a VOL. II. E celestial being clothed in green: he immediately request. ed his advice, with the most zealous earnestness, respecting the object in dispute. I am come to inform you, replied the heavenly visitor, how to discharge this important duty of your religion. He then ascended to the roof of the house, and declared the Ezann with a loud voice, and in the same words which have been ever since used to declare the canonical periods. When he awoke, Abdullah ran to declare his vision to the prophet, who loaded him with blessings, and authorized that moment Bilal Habeschy, another of his disciples, to discharge, on the top of his house, that august office, by the title of Muez zinn. These are the words of the Ezann: Most high God! most high God! most high God! I acknowledge that there is no other except God; I acknowledge that there is no other except God! I acknowledge that Mohammed is the Prophet of God! come to prayer! come to prayer! come to the temple of salvation! Great God! great God! there is no God except God. This declaration must be the same for each of the five canonical periods, except that of the morning, when the Muezzinn ought to add, after the words, come to the temple of salvation, the following; prayer is to be preferred to sleep, prayer is to be preferred to sleep. This addition was produced by the zeal and piety of Bilal Habeschy: as he announced one day the Ezann of the dawn in the prophet's antichamber, Aische, in a whisper, informed him, that the celestial envoy was still asleep; this first of the Muezzinns then added these words, prayer is to be preferred to sleep; when he awoke, the prophet applauded him, and commanded Bilal to insert them in all the morning Ezanns. The words must be chanted, but with deliberation and gravity, those particularly which constitute the profes sion of the faith. The Muezzinn must pronounce them distinctly; he must pay more attention to the articulation of the words, than to the melody of his voice; he must make proper intervals and pauses, and not precipitate his words, but let them he clearly understood by the people. He must be interrupted by no other object whatever. During the whole Ezann, he must stand with a finger in each ear, and his face turned, as in prayer, towards the Keabe of Mecca. As he utters these words, come to prayer, come to the temple of salvation, he must turn his face to the right and left, because he is supposed to address all the nations of the world, the whole expanded universe. At this time the auditors must recite, with a low voice, the Tehhlil,. .There is no strength, there is no power, but what is in God, in that supreme Being, in that powerful Being.-D'Ohsson. In the Meidan now, &c.—P. 79. In the Meidan, or Great Place of the city of Tauris, there are people appointed every evening when the sun sets, and every morning when he rises, to make during half an hour a terrible concert of trumpets and drums. They are placed on one side of the square, in a gallery somewhat elevated; and the same practice is established in every city in Persia.-Tavernier. Into the Chamber of the Tomb, &c.-P. 80. If we except a few persons, who are buried within the precincts of some sanctuary, the rest are carried out at a distance from their cities and villages, where a great extent of ground is allotted for that purpose. Each family hath a particular portion of it, walled in like a garden, where the bones of their ancestors have remained undisturbed for many generations. For in these enclo sures the graves are all distinct and separate; having each of them a stone, placed upright, both at the head and feet, inscribed with the name of the person who lieth there interred; whilst the intermediate space is either planted with flowers, bordered round with stone, or paved all over with tiles. The graves of the principal citizens are further distinguished by some square chambers or cupolas + that are built over them. Now, as all these different sorts of tombs and sepulchres, with the very walls likewise of the enclosures, are constantly kept clean, white-washed, and beautified, they continue, to this day, to be an excellent comment upon that expression of our Saviour's where he mentions the garnishing of the sepulchres, and again where he compares the scribes, pharisees, and hypocrites, to whited sepulchres, * They seem to be the same with the ego of the Antients. Thus Euripides. Troad. 1. 4141. Αλλ' αντι κεδρε περιβολων τελαίνων Εν τηδε θάψαι παίδα. +Such places probably as these are to be understood, when the Demoniack is said to have his dwelling among the tombs. |