Who thundering comes on blackest steed, What time shall strengthen, not efface: On-on he hasten'd, and he drew Why looks he o'er the olive wood? The crescent glimmers on the hill, The mosque's high lamps are quivering stiil: "Tophaike," musket.-The Bairam is announced by the cannon at sunset; the ille mination of the mosques, and the firing of all kinds of small arms, loaded with ball proclaims it during the night.-B The flashes of each joyous peal He stood-some dread was on his face, Here loud his raven charger neigh'd Down glanced that hand, and grasp'd his blade; As Slumber starts at owlet's scream. The spur hath lanced his courser's sides; Swift as the hurl'd on high jerreed* Shakes with the clattering tramp no more; For infinite as boundless space The thought that Conscience must embrace, • Jerreed, or Djerrid, a blunted Turkish javelin, which is darted from horseback with great force and precision. It is a favourite excercise of the Mussulmans; but I know not if it can be called a manly one, since the most expert in the art are the black eunuchs of Constantinople. I think, next to these, a Mamlouk at Smyrna was the most skilful that came within my observation.-B. Which in itself can comprehend The hour is past, the Giaour is gone; Woe to that hour he came or went! Dark tree, still sad when others' grief is fled, The steed is vanish'd from the stall; The wild-dog howls o'er the fountain's brim, For the stream has shrunk from its marble bed, Where the weeds and the desolate dust are spread. "Twas sweet of yore to see it play And chase the sultriness of day, In whirls fantastically flew, And flung luxurious coolness round The air, and verdure o'er the ground. "Twas sweet, when cloudless stars were bright, To view the wave of watery light, And hear its melody by night. And oft had Hassan's Childhood play'd Around the verge of that cascade; And oft upon his mother's breast Be heard to rage, regret, rejoice. The last sad note that swell'd the gale That quench'd in silence, all is still, But the lattice that flaps when the wind is shrill ; The blast of the desert, fatal to everything living, and often alluded to in eastern poetry.-B. |