And mounting featly for the mead, IX. His head was leant upon his hand, His eye look'd o'er the dark blue water That swiftly glides and gently swells Between the winding Dardanelles ; But yet he saw nor sea nor strand, Nor even his Pacha's turban'd band Mix in the game of mimic slaughter, Careering cleave the folded felt 3 With sabre stroke right sharply dealt; Nor mark'd the javelin-darting crowd, Nor heard their Ollahs wild and loudHe thought but of old Giaffir's daughter! X. No word from Selim's bosom broke; mouth-piece, and sometimes the ball which contains the leaf is adorned with precious stones, if in possession of the wealthier orders. "Maugrabee," Moorish mercenaries. 2 "Delis," bravos who form the forlorn hope of the cavalry, and always begin the action. 3 A twisted fold of felt is used for scimitar practice by the Turks, and few but Mussulman arms can cut through it at a single stroke: sometimes a tough turban is used for the same purpose. The jerrced is a game of blunt javelins, animated and graceful. 4" Ollahs," Alla il Allah, the "Leilies," as the Spanish poets call them, the sound is Ollah; a cry of which the Turks, for a silent people, are somewhat profuse, particularly during the jerrced, or in the chase, but mostly in battle. Their ani The next fond moment saw her seat XI. "What! not receive my foolish flower? Nay then I am indeed unblest : On me can thus thy forehead lower? And know'st thou not who loves thee best? Since words of mine, and songs must fail, I knew our sire at times was stern, When flies that shaft, and fly it must, XII. He lived - he breathed - he moved - he felt; By the fringe of its willows, In the light of its billows; mation in the field, and gravity in the chamber, with their pipes and comboloios, form an amusing contrast. "Atar-gul," ottar of roses. The Persian is the finest. 6 The ceiling and wainscots, or rather walls, of the Mussul. man apartments are generally painted, in great houses, with one eternal and highly coloured view of Constantinople, wherein the principal feature is a noble contempt of perspective; below, arms, scimitars, &c. are in general fancifully and not inelegantly disposed. 7 It has been much doubted whether the notes of this "Lover of the rose" are sad or merry; and Mr. Fox's remarks on the subject have provoked some learned controversy as to the opinions of the ancients on the subject. I dare not venture à conjecture on the point, though a little inclined to the "errare mallem," &c. if Mr. Fox was mistaken. 8 แ Azrael," the angel of death. As the bolt bursts on high From the black cloud that bound it, Through the long lashes round it. With life to keep, and scarce with life resign; That vow hath saved more heads than one : I know the wretch who dares demand But let that pass-to none be told Our oath; the rest shall time unfold. To me and mire leave Osman Bey; I've partisans for peril's day: Think not I am what I appear; I've arms, and friends, and vengeance near.' XIII. "Think not thou art what thou appearest ! For, Alla! sure thy lips are flame : What fever in thy veins is flushing? 99 My own have nearly caught the same, I meant that Giaffir should have heard He left me all in leaving thee. And such it feels while lurking here; Nor leave me thus to thoughts of fear. I tremble now to meet his eye- XIV. "Zuleika - to thy tower's retreat Of firmans, impost, levies, state. For which the Giaour may give him thanks! 3 Egripo," the Negropont. According to the proverb, the Turks of Egripo, the Jews of Salonica, and the Greeks of Athens, are the worst of their respective races. Tchocadar "one of the attendants who precedes a man of authority. G Our Sultan hath a shorter way Such costly triumph to repay. But, mark me, when the twilight drum Then softly from the Haram creep Which some have felt, and more may feel. THE winds are high on Helle's wave, The lonely hope of Sestos' daughter. And shrieking sea-birds warn'd him home; With signs and sounds, forbade to go, He could not see, he would not hear, Or sound or sign foreboding fear; The only star it hail'd above; His ear but rang with Hero's song, May nerve young hearts to prove as true. 1 The wrangling about this epithet, "the broad Hellespont" or the "boundless Hellespont," whether it means one or the other, or what it means at all, has been beyond all possibility of detail. I have even heard it disputed on the spot; and not foreseeing a speedy conclusion to the controversy, amused myself with swimming across it in the mean time; and probably may again, before the point is settled. Indeed, the question as to the truth of "the tale of Troy divine still continues, much of it resting upon the talismanic word augos:" probably Homer had the same notion of distance that a coquette has of time; and when he talks of boundless, means half a mile; as the latter, by a like figure, when she says eternal attachment, simply specifies three weeks. 2 Before his Persian invasion, and crowned the altar with laurel, &c. He was afterwards imitated by Caracalla in his II. The winds are high, and Helle's tide Rolls darkly heaving to the main ; And Night's descending shadows hide That field with blood bedew'd in vain, The desert of old Priam's pride; The tombs, sole relics of his reign, All -save immortal dreams that could beguile The blind old man of Scio's rocky isle! III. Oh! yet-for there my steps have been; To trace again those fields of yore, Contains no fabled hero's ashes, And that around the undoubted scene Thine own "broad Hellespont" still dashes, Be long my lot! and cold were he IV. The night hath closed on Helle's stream, But conscious shepherds bless it still. Of him who felt the Dardan's arrow : That mighty heap of gather'd ground Which Ammon's son ran proudly round, 2 By nations raised, by monarchs crown'd, Is now a lone and nameless barrow ! Within - thy dwelling-place how narrow ! Without - can only strangers breathe The name of him that was beneath : Dust long outlasts the storied stone; But Thou- thy very dust is gone! V. Late, late to-night will Dian cheer The only lamp of this lone hour Is glimmering in Zuleika's tower. Yes there is light in that lone chamber, And o'er her silken Ottoman Are thrown the fragment beads of amber, O'er which her fairy fingers ran; 9 race. It is believed that the last also poisoned a friend, narned Festus, for the sake of new Patroclan games. I have seen the sheep feeding on the tombs of Esietes and Antilochus: the first is in the centre of the plain. 3 When rubbed, the amber is susceptible of a perfume, which is slight but not disagreeable. [On discovering that, in some of the early copies, the all-importaut monosyllable "not" had been omitted, Lord Byron wrote to Mr. Murray, -"There is a diabolical mistake which must be corrected; it is the omission of 'not' before disagreeable, in the note on the amber rosary. This is really horrible, and nearly as bad as the stumble of mine at the threshold- I mean the misnomer of Bride. Pray do not let a copy go without the 'not :' it is nonsense, and worse than nonsense. I wish the printer was saddled with a vampire."] Near these, with emerald rays beset, Could smooth this life, and win the next; A Koran of illumined dyes; And many a bright emblazon'd rhyme Are gather'd in that gorgeous room: She, of this Peri cell the sprite, What doth she hence, and on so rude a night? VI. Wrapt in the darkest sable vest, Which none save noblest Moslem wear, To guard from winds of heaven the breast As heaven itself to Selim dear, With cautious steps the thicket threading, And starting oft, as through the glade The gust its hollow moanings made, Till on the smoother pathway treading, More free her timid bosom beat, The maid pursued her silent guide; And though her terror urged retreat, How could she quit her Selim's side? How teach her tender lips to chide? VII. They reach'd at length a grotto, hewn VIII. Since last she visited the spot Some change seem'd wrought within the grot : A ray of no celestial hue; ! The belief in amulets engraved on gems, or enclosed in gold boxes, containing scraps from the Koran, worn round the neck, wrist, or arm, is still universal in the East. The Koorsee (throne) verse in the second cap. of the Koran describes the attributes of the Most High, and is engraved in this manner, and worn by the pious, as the most esteemed and sublime of all sentences. ↑ "Comboloio "— a Turkish rosary. The MSS., particularly those of the Persians, are richly adorned and illuminated. The Greek females are kept in utter ignorance; but many of the Turkish girls are highly accomplished, though not actually But in a nook within the cell But brands of foreign blade and hilt, IX. His robe of pride was thrown aside, His brow no high-crown'd turban bore, But in its stead a shawl of red, Wreathed lightly round, his temples wore : No longer glitter'd at his waist, The greaves below his knee that wound X. "I said I was not what I seem'd ; And now thou see'st my words were true : I must not see thee Osman's bride : XI. - "Oh! not my brother!-yet unsayGod! am I left alone on earth To mourn-I dare not curse-the day+ Oh! thou wilt love me now no more! qualified for a Christian coterie. Perhaps some of our own blues" might not be worse for bleaching. 3" Galiongée "—or Galiongi, a sailor, that is, a Turkish sailor; the Greeks navigate, the Turks work the guns. Their dress is picturesque; and I have seen the Capitan Pacha more than once wearing it as a kind of incog. Their legs, however, are generally naked. The buskins described in the text as sheathed behind with silver are those of an Arnaut robber, who was my host (he had quitted the profession) at his Pyrgo, near Gastouni in the Morea; they were plated in scales one over the other, like the back of an armadillo. ["To curse - if I could curse- the day."- MS.] Thy sister-friend- Zuleika still. Thou led'st me here perchance to kill; If thou hast cause for vengeance, see! My breast is offer'd-take thy fill ! Far better with the dead to be Than live thus nothing now to thee: Perhaps far worse, for now I know Why Giaffir always seem'd thy foc; And I, alas! am Giaffir's child, For whom thou wert contemn'd, reviled. If not thy sister—would'st thou save My life, oh! bid me be thy slave!" XII. "My slave, Zuleika !— nay, I'm thine : But, gentle love, this transport calm, Thy lot shall yet be link'd with mine; I swear it by our Prophet's shrine, And be that thought thy sorrow's balm. So may the Koran verse display'd In danger's hour to guard us both, The name in which thy heart hath prided Although thy Sire's my deadliest foe. That Selim late was deem'd to thee; That gnaws and yet may break his chain. Is boiling; but for thy dear sake Though here I must no more remain. XIII. "How first their strife to rancour grew, If love or envy made them foes, It matters little if I knew ; In fiery spirits, slights, though few And thoughtless, will disturb repose. In war Abdallah's arm was strong, Remember'd yet in Bosniac song, 1 The characters on all Turkish scimitars contain sometimes the name of the place of their manufacture, but more generally a text from the Koran, in letters of gold. Amongst those in my possession is one with a blade of singular construction; it is very broad, and the edge notched into serpentine curves like the ripple of water, or the wavering of flame. I asked the Armenian who sold it, what possible use such a figure could add: he said, in Italian, that he did not know; but the Mussulmans had an idea that those of this form gave a severer wound; and liked it because it was "piu feroce." I did not much admire the reason, but bought it for its peculiarity. 2 It is to be observed, that every allusion to any thing or personage in the Old Testament, such as the Ark, or Cain, is equally the privilege of Mussulman and Jew: indeed, the former profess to be much better acquainted with the lives, true and fabulous, of the patriarchs, than is warranted by our own sacred writ; and not content with Adam, they have a biography of Pre-Adamites. Solomon is the monarch of all necromancy, and Moses a prophet inforior only to Christ and And Paswan's3 rebel hordes attest How little love they bore such guest His death is all I need relate, The stern effect of Giaffir's hate; And how my birth disclosed to me, Whate'er beside it makes, hath made me free. XIV. "When Paswan, after years of strife, At last for power, but first for life, By Giaffir's order drugg'd and given, Dismiss'd Abdallah's hence to heaven. Reclined and feverish in the bath, He, when the hunter's sport was up, But little deem'd a brother's wrath To quench his thirst had such a cup : The bowl a bribed attendant bore; He drank one draught, nor needed more! If thou my tale, Zulieka, doubt, Call Haroun - he can tell it out. XV. "The deed once done, and Paswan's feud Besides, adoption as a son By him whom Heaven accorded none, Preserved me thus ; but not in peace : Mahomet. Zuleika is the Persian name of Potiphar's wife; and her amour with Joseph constitutes one of the finest poems in their language. It is, therefore, no violation of costume to put the names of Cain, or Noah, into the mouth of a Moslem. [Some doubt having been expressed by Mr. Murray, as to the propriety of putting the name of Cain into the mouth of a Mussulman, Lord Byron sent him the preceding note"for the benefit of the ignorant." "I don't care one lump of sugar," he says, "for my poetry; but for my costume, and my correctness on those points, I will combat lustily."] 3 Paswan Ogiou, the rebel of Widin; who, for the last years of his life, set the whole power of the Porte at defiance. 4"Horse-tail," the standard of a Pacha. 5 Giaffir, Pacha of Argyro Castro, or Scutari, I am not sure which, was actually taken off by the Albanian Ali, in the manner described in the text. Ali Pacha, while I was in the country, married the daughter of his victim, some years after the event had taken place at a bath in Sophia, or Adrianople. The poison was mixed in the cup of coffee, which is presented before the sherbet by the bath-keeper, after dressing. |