Lalla Rookh

Note 1,  p. 2.—He embarked for Arabia.—These particulars of the visit of the King of Bucharia to Aurungzebe are found in Dow’s History of Hindostan, vol. iii. p. 392.

Note 2,  p. 2.—Lalla Rookh.—Tulip cheek.

Note 3,  p. 2.—Leila.—The mistress of Mejnoun, upon whose story so many Romances in all the languages of the East are founded.

Note 4,  p. 2.—Shirine.—For the loves of this celebrated beauty with Khosrou and with Ferhad, see D’Herbelot, Gibbon, Oriental Collections, &c.

Note 5,  p. 2.—Dewildé.—“The history of the loves of Dewildé and Chizer, the son of the Emperor Alla, is written in an elegant poem, by the noble Chusero.”—Ferishta.

Note 6,  p. 2.—Scattering of the Roses.—Gul Reazee.

Note 7,  p. 3.—Emperor’s favour.—“One mark of honour or knighthood bestowed by the Emperor is the permission to wear a small kettledrum at the bows of their saddles, which at first was invented for the training of hawks, and to call them to the lure, and is worn in the field by all sportsmen to that end.”—Fryer’s Travels.

“Those on whom the King has conferred the privilege must wear an ornament of jewels on the right side of the turban, surmounted by a high plume of the feathers of a kind of egret. This bird is found only in Cashmere, and the feathers are carefully collected for the King, who bestows them on his nobles.”—Elphinstone’s Account of Caubul.

Note 8,  p. 3.—Keder Khan.—“Khedar Khan, the Khakan, or King of Turquestan beyond the Gihon (at the end of the eleventh century), whenever he appeared abroad, was preceded by seven hundred horsemen with silver battle-axes, and was followed by an equal number bearing maces of gold. He was a great patron of poetry, and it was he who used to preside at public exercises of genius, with four basins of gold and silver by him to distribute among the poets who excelled.”—Richardson’s Dissertation prefixed to his Dictionary.

Note 9,  p. 3.—Gilt pine-apples.—“The kubdeh, a large golden knob, generally in the shape of a pine-apple, on the top of the canopy over the litter or palanquin.”—Scott’s Notes on the Bahardanush.

Note 10,  p. 4.—Sumptuous litter.—In the Poem of Zohair, in the Moallakat, there is the following lively description of “a company of maidens seated on camels.”

“They are mounted in carriages covered with costly awnings, and with rose-coloured veils, the linings of which have the hue of crimson Andem-wood.

“When they ascend from the bosom of the vale, they sit forward on the saddle-cloth, with every mark of a voluptuous gaiety.

“Now, when they have reached the brink of yon blue-gushing rivulet, they fix the poles of their tents like the Arab with a settled mansion.”

Note 11,  p. 4.—Argus pheasant’s wing.—See Bernier’s description of the attendants on Raucha-nara-Begum, in her progress to Cashmere.

Note 12,  p. 4.—Munificent protector.—This hypocritical Emperor would have made a worthy associate of certain Holy Leagues.—“He held the cloak of religion (says Dow) between his actions and the vulgar; and impiously thanked the Divinity for a success which he owed to his own wickedness. When he was murdering and persecuting his brothers and their families, he was building a magnificent mosque at Delhi, as an offering to God for his assistance to him in the civil wars. He acted as high priest at the consecration of this temple; and made a practice of attending divine service there, in the humble dress of a Fakeer. But when he lifted one hand to the Divinity, he, with the other, signed warrants for the assassination of his relations.”—History of Hindostan, vol. iii. p. 335. See also the curious letter of Aurungzebe, given in the Oriental Collections, vol. i. p. 320.

Note 13,  p. 4.—The idol of Jaghernaut.—“The idol at Jaghernat has two fine diamonds for eyes. No goldsmith is suffered to enter the Pagoda, one having stole one of these eyes, being locked up all night with the Idol.”—Tavernier.

Note 14,  p. 5.—Royal Gardens of Delhi.—See a description of these Royal Gardens in “An Account of the present State of Delhi, by Lieut. W. Franklin.”—Asiat. Research. vol. iv. p. 417.

Note 15,  p. 5.—Lake of Pearl.—“In the neighbourhood is Notte Gill, or the Lake of Pearl, which receives this name from its pellucid water.” Pennant’s Hindoostan.

Note 16,  p. 5.—Isles of the West.—Sir Thomas Roe, Ambassador from James I. to Jehan-Guire.

Note 17,  p. 6.—Ezra.—“The romance Wemakweazra, written in Persian verse, which contains the loves of Wamak and Ezra, two celebrated lovers who lived before the time of Mahomet.”—Note on the Oriental Tales.

Note 18,  p. 6.—Rodahver.—Their amour is recounted in the Shah-Namêh of Ferdousi; and there is much beauty in the passage which describes the slaves of Rodahver sitting on the bank of the river and throwing flowers into the stream, in order to draw the attention of the young Hero who is encamped on the opposite side.—See Champion’s translation.

Note 19,  p. 6.—White Demon.—Rustam is the Hercules of the Persians. For the particulars of his victory over the Sepeed Deeve, or White Demon, see Oriental Collections, vol. ii. p. 45.—“Near the city of Shirauz is an immense quadrangular monument, in commemoration of this combat, called the Kelaat-i-Deev Sepeed, or castle of the White Giant, which Father Angelo, in his Gazophilacium Persicum, p. 127, declares to have been the most memorable monument of antiquity which he had seen in Persia.”—See Ouseley’s Persian Miscellanies.

Note 20,  p. 6.—Golden anklets.—“The women of the Idol, or dancing girls of the Pagoda, have little golden bells, fastened to their feet, the soft harmonious tinkling of which vibrates in unison with the exquisite melody of their voices.”—Maurice’s Indian Antiquities.

“The Arabian courtesans, like the Indian women, have little golden bells fastened round their legs, neck and elbows, to the sound of which they dance before the King. The Arabian princesses wear golden rings on their fingers, to which little bells are suspended, as well as in the flowing tresses of their hair, that their superior rank may be known, and they themselves receive in passing the homage due to them.”—See Calmet’s Dictionary, art. Bells.

Note 21,  p. 6.—Delicious opium.—“Abou-Tige, ville de la Thebaïde, où il croît beaucoup de pavot noir, dont se fait le meilleur opium.”—D’Herbelot.

Note 22,  p. 7.—Crishna.—The Indian Apollo.—“He and the three Rámas are described as youths of perfect beauty; and the princesses of Hindustán were all passionately in love with Chrishna, who continues to this hour the darling God of the Indian women.”—Sir W. Jones, on the Gods of Greece, Italy, and India.

Note 23,  p. 7.—Shawl-goats of Tibet.—See Turner’s Embassy for a description of this animal, “the most beautiful among the whole tribe of goats.” The material for the shawls (which is carried to Cashmere) is found next the skin.

Note 24,  p. 8.—Veiled Prophet of Khorassan.—For the real history of this Impostor, whose original name was Hakem ben Haschem, and who was called Mocanna from the veil of silver gauze (or, as others say, golden) which he always wore, see D’Herbelot.

Note 25,  p. 9.—Khorassan.—Khorassan signifies, in the old Persian language, Province or Region of the Sun.—Sir W. Jones.

Note 26,  p. 11.—Flow’rets and fruits, blush over ev’ry stream.

“The fruits of Meru are finer than those of any other place; and one cannot see in any other city such palaces with groves, and streams, and gardens.”—Ebn Haukal’s Geography.

Note 27,  p. 12.—Among Merou’s bright palaces and groves.

One of the royal cities of Khorassan.

Note 28,  p. 12.—Moussa’s.—Moses.

Note 29,  p. 12.—O’er Moussa’s cheek, when down the Mount he trod.

“Ses disciples assuroient qu’il se couvroit le visage, pour ne pas éblouir ceux qui l’approchoient par l’éclat de son visage comme Moyse.”—D’Herbelot.

Note 30,  p. 12.—In hatred to the Caliph’s hue of night.

Black was the colour adopted by the Caliphs of the House of Abbas, in their garments, turbans, and standards.—“Il faut remarquer ici touchant les habits blancs des disciples de Hakem, que la couleur des habits, des coëffures et des étendards des Khalifes Abassides étant la noire, ce chef de Rebelles ne pouvoit pas choisir une qui lui fut plus opposée.”—D’Herbelot.

Note 31,  p. 12.—With javelins of the light Kathaian reed.

“Our dark javelins, exquisitely wrought of Khathaian reeds, slender and delicate.”—Poem of Amru.

Note 32,  p. 13.—Fill’d with the stems.

Pichula, used anciently for arrows by the Persians.

Note 33,  p. 13.—That bloom on Iran’s rivers.

The Persians call this plant Gaz. The celebrated shaft of Isfendiar, one of their ancient heroes, was made of it.—“Nothing can be more beautiful than the appearance of this plant in flower during the rains on the banks of rivers, where it is usually interwoven with a lovely twining asclepias.”—Sir W. Jones, Botanical Observations on Select Indian Plants.

Note 34,  p. 13.—Like a chenar-tree grove, when winter throws.

The oriental plane. “The chenar is a delightful tree; its bole is of a fine white and smooth bark; and its foliage, which grows in a tuft at the summit, is of a bright green.”—Morier’s Travels.

Note 35,  p. 14.—From those who kneel at Brahma’s burning founts.

The burning fountains of Brahma near Chittogong, esteemed as holy.—Turner.

Note 36,  p. 14.—To the small, half-shut glances of Kathay.—China.

Note 37,  p. 15.—Like tulip-beds, of different shape and dyes.

“The name of tulip is said to be of Turkish extraction, and given to the flower on account of its resembling a turban.”—Beckmann’s History of Inventions.

Note 38,  p. 15.—And fur-bound bonnet of Bucharian shape.

“The inhabitants of Bucharia wear a round cloth bonnet, shaped much after the Polish fashion, having a large fur border. They tie their kaftans about the middle with a girdle of a kind of silk crape, several times round the body.”—Account of Independent Tartary, in Pinkerton’s Collection.

Note 39,  p. 15.—O’erwhelm’d in fight and captive to the Greek.

In the war of the Caliph Mahadi against the Empress Irene, for an account of which vide Gibbon, vol. x.

Note 40,  p. 18.—The flying throne of star-taught Soliman.

This wonderful Throne was called The Star of the Genii. For a full description of it, see the Fragment, translated by Captain Franklin, from a Persian MS. entitled “The History of Jerusalem,” Oriental Collections, vol. i. p. 235.—When Soliman travelled, the eastern writers say, “He had a carpet of green silk on which his throne was placed, being of a prodigious length and breadth, and sufficient for all his forces to stand upon, the men placing themselves on his right hand, and the spirits on his left; and that when all were in order, the wind, at his command, took up the carpet, and transported it, with all that were upon it, wherever he pleased; the army of birds at the same time flying over their heads, and forming a kind of canopy to shade them from the sun.”—Sale’s Koran, vol ii. p. 214, note.

Note 41,  p. 18.—For many an age, in every chance and change.

The transmigration of souls was one of his doctrines.—Vide D’Herbelot.

Note 42,  p. 18.—To which all Heaven, except the Proud One, knelt.

“And when we said unto the angels, Worship Adam, they all worshipped except Eblis (Lucifer), who refused.”—The Koran, chap. ii.

Note 43,  p. 18.—In Moussa’s frame—and, thence descending, flow’d.—Moses.

Note 44,  p. 18.—Through many a Prophet’s breast.

This is according to D’Herbelot’s account of the doctrines of Mokanna:—“Sa doctrine étoit, que Dieu avoit pris une forme et figure humaine, depuis qu’il eut commandé aux Anges d’adorer Adam, le premier des hommes. Qu’après la mort d’Adam, Dieu étoit apparu sous la figure de plusieurs Prophètes, et autres grands hommes qu’il avoit choisis, jusqu’à ce qu’il prit celle d’Abu Moslem, Prince de Khorassan, lequel professoit l’erreur de la Tenassukhiah ou Metempschychose; et qu’après la mort de ce Prince, la Divinité étoit passée, et descendue en sa personne.”

Note 45,  p. 18.—In Issa shone.—Jesus.

Note 46,  p. 22.—Born by that ancient flood, which from its spring.

The Amoo, which rises in the Belur Tag, or Dark Mountains, and running nearly from east to west, splits into two branches; one of which falls into the Caspian sea, and the other into Aral Nahr, or the Lake of Eagles.

Note 47,  p. 24.—The bulbul utters, ere her soul depart.—The nightingale.

Note 48,  p. 34.—In holy Koom, or Mecca’s dim arcades.

The cities of Com (or Koom) and Cashan are full of mosques, mausoleums, and sepulchres of the descendants of Ali, the Saints of Persia.—Chardin.

Note 49,  p. 34.—Stood vases, fill’d with Kishmee’s golden wine.

An island in the Persian Gulf, celebrated for its white wine.

Note 50,  p. 34.—Like Zemzem’s Spring of Holiness, had power.

The miraculous well at Mecca; so called, says Sale, from the murmuring of its waters.

Note 51,  p. 35.—Whom India serves, the monkey deity.

The God Hannaman.—“Apes are in many parts of India highly venerated, out of respect to the God Hannaman, a deity partaking of the form of that race.”—Pennant’s Hindoostan.

See a curious account, in Stephen’s Persia, of a solemn embassy from some part of the Indies to Goa, when the Portuguese were there, offering vast treasures for the recovery of a monkey’s tooth, which they held in great veneration, and which had been taken away upon the conquest of the kingdom of Jafanapatan.

Note 52,  p. 35.—To bend in worship, Lucifer was right.

This resolution of Eblis not to acknowledge the new creature, man, was, according to Mahometan tradition, thus adopted:—“The earth (which God had selected for the materials of his work) was carried into Arabia to a place between Mecca and Tayef, where, being first kneaded by the angels, it was afterwards fashioned by God himself into a human form, and left to dry for the space of forty days, or, as others say, as many years; the angels, in the mean time, often visiting it, and Eblis (then one of the angels nearest to God’s presence, afterwards the devil) among the rest; but he, not contented with looking at it, kicked it with his foot till it rung; and knowing God designed that creature to be his superior, took a secret resolution never to acknowledge him as such.”—Sale on the Koran.

Note 53,  p. 36.—From dead men’s marrow guides them best at night.

A kind of lantern formerly used by robbers, called the Hand of Glory, the candle for which was made of the fat of a dead malefactor. This, however, was rather a western than an eastern superstition.

Note 54,  p. 37.—In that best marble of which Gods are made.

The material of which images of Gaudma (the Birman Deity) are made, is held sacred. “Birmans may not purchase the marble in mass, but are suffered, and indeed encouraged, to buy figures of the Deity ready made.”—Symes’s Ava, vol. ii. p. 376.

Note 55,  p. 41.—Of Kerzrah flowers, came fill’d with pestilence.

“It is commonly said in Persia, that if a man breathe in the hot south wind, which in June or July passes over that flower (the Kerzereh), it will kill him.”—Thevenot.

Note 56,  p. 44.—Within the crocodile’s stretch’d jaws to come.

The humming-bird is said to run this risk for the purpose of picking the crocodile’s teeth. The same circumstance is related of the lapwing, as a fact to which he was witness, by Paul Lucas, Voyage fait en 1714.

The ancient story concerning the Trochilus, or humming-bird, entering with impunity into the mouth of the crocodile, is firmly believed at Java.—Barrow’s Cochin-China.

Note 57,  p. 46.—That rank and venomous food on which she lives.

“Circum easdem ripas (Nili, viz.) ales est Ibis. Ea serpentium populatur ova, gratissimamque ex his escam nidis suis refert.”—Solinus.

Note 58,  p. 48.—Yamtcheou.—“The feast of Lanterns is celebrated at Yamtcheou with more magnificence than anywhere else: and the report goes, that the illuminations there are so splendid, that an Emperor once, not daring openly to leave his Court to go thither, committed himself with the Queen and several Princesses of his family into the hands of a magician, who promised to transport them thither in a trice. He made them in the night to ascend magnificent thrones that were borne up by swans, which in a moment arrived at Yamtcheou. The Emperor saw at his leisure all the solemnity, being carried upon a cloud that hovered over the city and descended by degrees; and came back again with the same speed and equipage, nobody at court perceiving his absence.”—The present State of China, p. 156.

Note 59,  p. 48.—Sceneries of bamboo-work.—See a description of the nuptials of Vizier Alee in the Asiatic Annual Register of 1804.

Note 60,  p. 49.—Chinese illuminations.—“The vulgar ascribe it to an accident that happened in the family of a famous mandarin, whose daughter walking one evening upon the shore of a lake, fell in and was drowned; this afflicted father, with his family, ran thither, and, the better to find her, he caused a great company of lanterns to be lighted. All the inhabitants of the place thronged after him with torches. The year ensuing they made fires upon the shores the same day; they continued the ceremony every year, every one lighted his lantern, and by degrees it commenced into a custom.”—Present State of China.

Note 61,  p. 51.—Like Seba’s Queen could vanquish with that one.

“Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes.”—Sol. Song.

Note 62,  p. 51.—The fingers’ ends with a bright roseate hue.

“They tinged the ends of her fingers scarlet with Henna, so that they resembled branches of coral.”—Story of Prince Futtun in Bahardanush.

Note 63,  p. 51.—To give that long, dark languish to the eye.

“The women blacken the inside of their eyelids with a powder named the black Kohol.”—Russel.

“None of these ladies,” says Shaw, “take themselves to be completely dressed, till they have tinged the hair and edges of their eyelids with the powder of lead ore. Now, as this operation is performed by dipping first into the powder a small wooden bodkin of the thickness of a quill, and then drawing it afterwards through the eyelids over the ball of the eye, we shall have a lively image of what the Prophet (Jer. iv. 30) may be supposed to mean by rending the eyes with painting. This practice is no doubt of great antiquity; for besides the instance already taken notice of, we find that where Jezebel is said (2 Kings, ix. 30) to have painted her face, the original words are, she adjusted her eyes with the powder of lead ore.”—Shaw’s Travels.

Note 64,  p. 52.—In her full lap the Champac’s leaves of gold.

The appearance of the blossoms of the gold-coloured Campac on the black hair of the Indian women has supplied the Sanscrit Poets with many elegant allusions.—See Asiatic Researches, vol. iv.

Note 65,  p. 52.—The sweet Elcaya, and that courteous tree.

A tree famous for its perfume, and common on the hills of Yemen.—Niebuhr.

Note 66,  p. 52.—Which bows to all who seek its canopy.

Of the genus mimosa, “which droops its branches whenever any person approaches it, seeming as if it saluted those who retire under its shade.”—Ibid.

Note 67,  p. 53.—The bowers of Tibet, send forth odorous light.

“Cloves are a principal ingredient in the composition of the perfumed rods, which men of rank keep constantly burning in their presence.”—Turner’s Tibet.

Note 68,  p. 54.—With odoriferous woods of Comorin.

“C’est d’où vient le bois d’aloès que les Arabes appellent Oud Comari, et celui du sandal, qui s’y trouve en grande quantité.”—D’Herbelot.

Note 69,  p. 54.—The crimson blossoms of the coral tree.

“Thousands of variegated loories visit the coral-trees.”—Barrow.

Note 70,  p. 54.—Mecca’s blue sacred pigeon.

“In Mecca there are quantities of blue pigeons, which none will affright or abuse, much less kill.”—Pitt’s Account of the Mahometans.

Note 71,  p. 54.—The thrush of Hindostan.

“The Pagoda Thrush is esteemed among the first choristers of India. It sits perched on the sacred pagodas, and from thence delivers its melodious song.”—Pennant’s Hindostan.

Note 72,  p. 55.—About the gardens, drunk with that sweet food.

Tavernier adds, that while the birds of Paradise lie in this intoxicated state, the emmets come and eat off their legs; and that hence it is they are said to have no feet.

Note 73,  p. 55.—Whose scent hath lur’d them o’er the summer flood.

Birds of Paradise, which, at the nutmeg season, come in flights from the southern isles to India; and “the strength of the nutmeg,” says Tavernier, “so intoxicates them, that they fall dead drunk to the earth.”

Note 74,  p. 55.—Build their high nests of budding cinnamon.

“That bird which liveth in Arabia, and buildeth its nest with cinnamon.”—Brown’s Vulgar Errors.

Note 75,  p. 55.—Sleeping in light, like the green birds that dwell.

“The spirits of the martyrs will be lodged in the crops of green birds.” Gibbon, vol. ix. p. 421.

Note 76,  p. 55.—More like the luxuries of that impious King.

Shedad, who made the delicious gardens of Irim, in imitation of Paradise, and was destroyed by lightning the first time he attempted to enter them.

Note 77,  p. 57.—In its blue blossoms hum themselves to sleep.

“My Pandits assure me that the plant before us (the Nilica) is their Sephalica, thus named because the bees are supposed to sleep on its blossoms.”—Sir W. Jones.

Note 78,  p. 59.—As they were captives to the King of Flowers.

“They deferred it till the King of Flowers should ascend his throne of enamelled foliage.”—The Bahardanush.

Note 79,  p. 60.—But a light golden chain-work round her hair.

“One of the head-dresses of the Persian women is composed of a light golden chain-work, set with small pearls, with a thin gold plate pendant, about the bigness of a crown-piece, on which is impressed an Arabian prayer, and which hangs upon the cheek below the ear.”—Hanway’s Travels.

Note 80,  p. 60.—Such as the maids of Yezd and Shiras wear.

“Certainly the women of Yezd are the handsomest women in Persia. The proverb is, that to live happy a man must have a wife of Yezd, eat the bread of Yezdecas, and drink the wine of Shiraz.”—Tavernier.

Note 81,  p. 61.—Upon a musnud’s edge.

Musnuds are cushioned seats, usually reserved for persons of distinction.

Note 82,  p. 61.—In the pathetic mode of Isfahan.

The Persians, like the ancient Greeks, call their musical modes or Perdas by the names of different countries or cities, as the mode of Isfahan, the mode of Irak, &c.

Note 83,  p. 61.—There’s a bower of roses by Bendemeer’s stream.

A river which flows near the ruins of Chilminar.

Note 84,  p. 64.—The hills of crystal on the Caspian shore.

“To the north of us (on the coast of the Caspian, near Badku) was a mountain, which sparkled like diamonds, arising from the sea-glass and crystals with which it abounds.”—Journey of the Russian Ambassador to Persia, 1746.

Note 85,  p. 64.—Of Eden, shake in the eternal breeze.

“To which will be added the sound of the bells, hanging on the trees, which will be put in motion by the wind proceeding from the throne of God, as often as the blessed wish for music.”—Sale.

Note 86,  p. 65.—And his floating eyes—oh! they resemble.

“Whose wanton eyes resemble blue water-lilies, agitated by the breeze.”—Jayadeva.

Note 87,  p. 65.—Blue water-lilies.

The blue lotus, which grows in Cashmere and in Persia.

Note 88,  p. 67.—To muse upon the pictures that hung round.

It has been generally supposed that the Mahometans prohibit all pictures of animals; but Toderini shows that, though the practice is forbidden by the Koran, they are not more averse to painted figures and images than other people. From Mr. Murphy’s work, too, we find that the Arabs of Spain had no objection to the introduction of figures into painting.

Note 89,  p. 67.—Whose orb when half retir’d looks loveliest.

This is not quite astronomically true. “Dr. Hadley (says Keil) has shown that Venus is brightest when she is about forty degrees removed from the sun; and that then but only a fourth part of her lucid disk is to be seen from the earth.”

Note 90,  p. 67.—He read that to be blest is to be wise.

For the loves of King Solomon (who was supposed to preside over the whole race of Genii) with Balkis, the Queen of Sheba or Saba, see D’Herbelot, and the Notes on the Koran, chap. 2.

“In the palace which Solomon ordered to be built against the arrival of the Queen of Saba, the floor or pavement was of transparent glass, laid over running water, in which fish were swimming.” This led the Queen into a very natural mistake, which the Koran has not thought beneath its dignity to commemorate. “It was said unto her, ‘Enter the palace.’ And when she saw it she imagined it to be a great water; and she discovered her legs, by lifting up her robe to pass through it. Whereupon Solomon said to her, ‘Verily, this is the place evenly floored with glass.’”—Chap. 27.