God himself, you are whart out sackless of art, part, way, witting, ridd, kenning, having or recetting of any of the goods and chattells named in this bill. So help you God." (Nicolson and Burn, 1. xxv.) This, however, is assertion without proof, and would not have been admitted by Theophylus and his bishops. That old and only Bird. - P. 234. Simorg Anka, says my friend Mr. Fox, in a note to his Achmed Ardebeili, is a bird or griffon of extraordinary strength and size, (as its name imports, signifying as large as thirty eagles,) which, according to the Eastern writers, was sent by the Supreme Being to subdue and chastise the rebellious Dives. It was supposed to possess rational faculties, and the gift of speech. The Caherman Nameh relates, that Simorg Anka being asked his age, replied, this world is very ancient, for it has already been seven times replenished with beings different from man, and as often depopulated. That the age of Adam, in which we now are, is to endure seven thousand years, making a great cycle; that himself had seen twelve of these revolutions, and knew not how many more he had to see. I am afraid that Mr. Fox and myself have fallen into a grievous heresy, both respecting the unity and the sex of the Simorg. For this great bird is a hen; there is indeed a cock also, but he seems to be of some inferior species, a sort of Prince George of Denmark, the Simorg's consort, not the cock Simorg. In that portion of the Shah-Nameh which has been put into English rhyme by Mr. Champion, some anecdotes may be found concerning this all-knowing bird, who is there represented as possessing one species of knowledge, of which she would not be readily suspected. Zalzer, the father of Rustam, is exposed in his infancy by his own father, Saum, who takes him for a young deviling, because his body is black, and his hair white. The infant is laid at the foot of Mount Elburs, where the Simorg has her nest, and she takes him up, and breeds him with her young, who are very desirous of eating him, but she preserves him. When Zalzer is grown up, and leaves the nest, the Simorg gives him one of her feathers, telling him, whenever he is in great distress, to burn it, and she will immediately come to his assistance. Zalzer mar ries Rodahver, who is likely to die in childing; he then burns the feather, and the Simorg appears and orders the Cæsarean operation to be performed. As these stories are not Ferdusi's invention, but the old traditions of the Persians, collected and arranged by him, this is, perhaps, the earliest fact concerning that operation which is to be met with, earlier probably than the fable of Semele. Zalzer was ordered first to give her wine, which acts as a powerful opiate, and after sewing up the incision, to anoint it with a mixture of milk, musk, and grass, pounded together, and dried in the shade, and then to rub it with a Simorg's feather. In Mr. Fox's collection of Persic books, is an illuminated copy of Ferdusi, containing a picture of the Simorg, who is there represented as an ugly dragon-looking sort of bird. I should be loth to believe that she has so bad a physiognomy; and as, in the same volume, there are blue and yellow horses, there is good reason to conclude that this is not a genuine portrait. When the Genius of the Lamp is ordered by Aladin to bring a roc's egg, and hang it up in the hall, he is violently enraged, and exclaims, Wretch, wouldst thou have me hang up my master! From the manner in which rocs are usually mentioned in the Arabian Tales, the reader feels as much surprised at this indignation as Aladin was himself. Perhaps the original may have Simorg instead of roc. To think, indeed, of robbing the Simorg's nest, either for the sake of drilling the eggs, or of poaching them, would, in a believer, whether Shiah or Sunni, be the height of human impiety. Since this note was written, the eighth volume of the Asiatic Researches has appeared, in which Captain Wilford identifies the roc with the Simorg. "Sindbad," he says, was exposed to many dangers from the birds called Rocs or Simorgs, the Garudas of the Pauranics, whom Persian Romancers represent as living in Madagascar, according to Marco Polo." But the Roc of the Arabian Tales has none of the characteristics of the Simorg; and it is only in the instance which I have noticed, that any mistake of one for the other can be suspected. The spring was clear, the water deep.-P. 245. Some travellers may perhaps be glad to know, that the spring from which this description was taken, is near Bristol, about a mile from Stokes-Croft turnpike, and known by the name of the Boiling-Well. Other, and larger springs, of the same kind, called the Lady Pools, are near Shobdon, in Herefordshire. It ran a river deep and wide. — P. 249. A similar picture occurs in Miss Baillie's Comedy, "The Second Marriage." "By Heaven, there is nothing so interesting to me as to trace the course of a prosperous man through this varied world. First, he is seen like a little stream, wearing its shallow bed through the grass, circling and winding, and gleaning up its treasures from every twinkling rill, as it passes; further on, the brown sand fences its margin, the dark rushes thicken on its side ; further on still, the broad flags shake their green ranks, the willows bend their wide boughs o'er its course; and yonder, at last, the fair river appears, spreading his bright waves to the light." |