They reach the grove of pine at last : "Bismillah! now the peril's past; For yonder view the opening plain, And there we'll prick our steeds amain: " "Tis he! 'tis he! I know him now; I know him by his pallid brow; As rolls the river into ocean, As the sea-tide's opposing motion, In curling foam and mingling flood, Bismillah-" In the name of God; " the commencement of all the chapters of the Koran but one, and of prayer and thanksgiving. While eddying whirl, and breaking wave, Through sparkling spray, in thundering clash, In awful whiteness o'er the shore, That shines and shakes beneath the roar; And pealing wide or ringing near More suited to the shepherd's tale: With sabre shiver'd to the hilt, Yet dripping with the blood he spilt; His breast with wounds unnumber'd riven, As if the hour that seal'd his fate "Yes, Leila sleeps beneath the wave, But his shall be a redder grave; Her spirit pointed well the steel Which taught that felon heart to feel. He call'd the Prophet, but his power Was vain against the vengeful Giaour: were expected every moment to change their colour, but at last condescended to subside, which, probably, saved more heads than they contained hairs. 4"Amaun," quarter, pardon. The "evil eye," a common superstition in the Levant, and of which the imaginary effects are yet very singular on those who conceive themselves affected. ["That neither gives nor asks for life."-MS.] 7 The flowered shawls generally worn by persons of rank. She saw the planets faintly twinkling: And he bears the gift at his saddle-bow- The Tartar lighted at the gate, [This beautiful passage first appeared in the fifth edition. "If you send more proofs," writes Lord Byron to Mr. Murray (August 10th, 1813)," I shail never finish this infernal story. Ecce signum-thirty-three more lines enclosed! - to the utter discomfiture of the printer, and, I fear, not to your advantage."] 2 ["The mother of Sisera looked out at a window, and cried through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long in coming? why tarry the wheels of his chariot ?"- Judges, c. v. v. 28.] 3 [In the original draft "His mother look'd from the lattice high, The browsing camel bells are tinkling, "The browsing camel bells are tinkling, And the first beam of evening twinkling; And flung to earth his fainting weight."- MS.] The calpac is the solid cap or centre part of the headdress; the shawl is wound round it, and forms the turban, The turban, pillar, and inscriptive verse, decorate the tombs of the Osmanlies, whether in the cemetery or the wilderness. In the mountains you frequently pass similar Me, not from mercy, did they spare, A turban carved in coarsest stone, As ever scorn'd forbidden wine, Or pray'd with face towards the shrine, At solemn sound of "Alla Hu!"7 Impatient to their halls invite, On him shall glance for ever bright; But thou, false Infidel! shalt writhe mementos; and on inquiry you are informed that they record some victim of rebellion, plunder, or revenge. 7 Alla Hu!" the concluding words of the Muezzin's call to prayer from the highest gallery on the exterior of the Minaret. On a still evening, when the Muezzin has a fine voice, which is frequently the case, the effect is solemn and beautiful beyond all the bells in Christendom. -[Valid the son of Abdalmalek, was the first who erected a minaret or turret; and this he placed on the grand mosque at Damascus, for the muezzin, or crier, to announce from it the hour of prayer. The practice is kept to this day. See D'Herbelot.] The following is part of a battle song of the Turks :“I see — I see a dark-eyed girl of Paradise, and she waves a handkerchief, a kerchief of green; and cries aloud, Come, kiss me, for I love thee,'" &c. 9 Monkir and Nekir are the inquisitors of the dead, before whom the corpse undergoes a slight noviciate and preparatory training for damnation. If the answers are none of the clearest, he is hauled up with a scythe and thumped down with a red hot mace till properly seasoned, with a variety of subsidiary probations. The office of these angels is no sinecure; there are but two, and the number of orthodox deceased being in a small proportion to the remainder, their hands are always full. See Relig. Ceremon. and Sale's Koran. 10 Eblis, the Oriental Prince of Darkness. [D'Herbelot supposes this title to have been a corruption of the Greek Aiabolos. According to Arabian mythology, Eblis had suffered a degradation from his primeval rank for having refused to worship Adam, in conformity to the supreme command; alleging, in justification of his refusal, that himself had been formed of ethereal fire, whilst Adam was only a creature of clay. See Koran.] 11 The Vampire superstition is still general in the Levant. Honest Tournefort tells a long story, which Mr. Southey, in the notes on Thalaba, quotes, about these "Vroucolochas," Then ghastly haunt thy native place, And suck the blood of all thy race; There from thy daughter, sister, wife, At midnight drain the stream of life; Yet loathe the banquet which perforce Must feed thy livid living corse : Thy victims ere they yet expire Shall know the demon for their sire, As cursing thee, thou cursing them, Thy flowers are wither'd on the stem. But one that for thy crime must fall, The youngest, most beloved of all, Shall bless thee with a father's name — That word shall wrap thy heart in flame! Yet must thou end thy task, and mark Her cheek's last tinge, her eye's last spark, And the last glassy glance must view Which freezes o'er its lifeless blue; Then with unhallow'd hand shalt tear The tresses of her yellow hair, Of which in life a lock when shorn The sea from Paynim land he crost, Should brook such stranger's further stay, Which beckons onward to his grave, Thy gnashing tooth and haggard lip; "How name ye yon lone Caloyer? His features I have scann'd before In mine own land: 't is many a year, Since, dashing by the lonely shore, I saw him urge as fleet a steed As ever served a horseman's need. But once I saw that face, yet then It was so mark'd with inward pain, I could not pass it by again; It breathes the same dark spirit now, As death were stamp'd upon his brow. "Tis twice three years at summer tide Since first among our freres he came ; And here it soothes him to abide For some dark deed he will not name. But never at our vesper prayer, His faith and race alike unknown. at he calls them. The Romaic term is "Vardoulacha.” I collect a whole family being terrified by the scream of a bid, which they imagined must proceed from such a visit ton. The Greeks never mention the word without horror. I find that "Broucolokas" is an old legitimate Hellenic apallation at least is so applied to Arsenius, who, according to the Greeks, was after his death animated by the Devil.The moderns, however, use the word I mention. The freshness of the face, and the wetness of the lip with blood, are the never-failing signs of a Vampire. The stories din Hungary and Greece of these foul feeders are singular, ad some of them most incredibly attested. [With the death of Hassan, or with his interment on the place where he fell, or with some moral reflections on his fate, we may presume that the original narrator concluded the tale of which Lord Byron has professed to give us a frag Dark and unearthly is the scowl That claims and keeps ascendency; Will others quail beneath his look, Nor 'scape the glance they scarce can brook How that pale lip will curl and quiver! Forbade him e'er to smile again. ment. But every reader, we are sure, will agree with us in thinking, that the interest excited by the catastrophe is greatly heightened in the modern poem; and that the imprecations of the Turk against the "accursed Giaour," are introduced with great judgment, and contribute much to the dramatic effect of the narrative. The remainder of the poem, we think, would have been more properly printed as a second canto; because a total change of scene, and a chasm of no less than six years in the series of events, can scarcely fail to occasion some little confusion in the mind of the reader.GEORGE ELLIS.] 3 ["of foreign maiden lost at sea.”- MS.] 4 [The remaining lines, about five hundred in number, were, with the exception of the last sixteen, all added to the poem, either during its first progress through the press, or in subsequent editions.] But sadder still it were to trace Of wayward deeds, and fitting doom; A noble soul, and lineage high: Alas! though both bestow'd in vain, Which Grief could change, and Guilt could stain, It was no vulgar tenement To which such lofty gifts were lent, Will scarce delay the passer by; "His floating robe around him folding, Slow sweeps he through the column'd aisle ; And leaves those locks unhallow'd growth, Saint Francis, keep him from the shrine ! Made manifest by awful sign. If ever evil angel bore The form of mortal, such he wore : By all my hope of sins forgiven, Such looks are not of earth nor heaven!" ["Behold-as turns he from the wall." - MS.] 2 ["Must burn before it smite or shine."— MS. 3 [Seeing himself accused of having, in this passage, too closely imitated Crabbe, Lord Byron wrote to a friend" I have read the British Review, and really think the writer in most points very right. The only mortifying thing is, the accusation of imitation. Crabbe's passage I never saw; and Scott I no further meant to follow than in his lyric measure, which is Gray's, Milton's, and any one's who likes it. The Giaour is certainly a bad character, but not dangerous; and I think his fate and his feelings will meet with few prose To love the softest hearts are prone, If solitude succeed to grief, Whose beak unlocks her bosom's stream Are rapture to the dreary void. The waste of feelings unemploy'd. 'Mid sullen calm, and silent bay, Than moulder piecemeal on the rock! lytes." The following are the lines of Crabbe which Lord Byron is charged with having imitated : "These are like wax- apply them to the fire, Crabbe's Works, vol. v. p. 163. ed. 1834] The pelican is, I believe, the bird so libelled, by the imputation of feeding her chickens with her blood. 'Father! thy days have pass'd in peace, Thyself without a crime or care, My days, though few, have pass'd below In much of joy, but more of woe; Now leagued with friends, now girt by foes, Of what I was, and would be still, Dark as to thee my deeds may seem Of joys long dead; my hope, their doom: I've braved it-not for honour's boast; I smile at laurels won or lost; ["Though Hope hath long withdrawn her beam."-MS.] This superstition of a second hearing (for I never met with downright second-sight in the East) fell once under my observation. On my third journey to Cape Colonna, ry in 1811, as we passed through the defile that leads from the hamlet between Keratia and Colonna, I observed Dervish Tahiri riding rather out of the path, and leaning his head on his hand, as if in pain. I rode up and inquired. "We are in peril," he answered. "What peril? we are not now Albania, nor in the passes to Ephesus, Messalunghi, or Lepanto; there are plenty of us, well armed, and the Chorates have not courage to be thieves."-"True, Affendi, et nevertheless the shot is ringing in my ears." "The hot! not a tophaike has been fired this morning."-" I hear notwithstanding-Bom-Bom-as plainly as I hear your Then let Life go to him who gave: "I loved her, Friar! nay, adored But these are words that all can useI proved it more in deed than word; There's blood upon that dinted sword, A stain its steel can never lose : 'T was shed for her, who died for me, It warm'd the heart of one abhorr'd: Nay, start not-no-nor bend thy knee, Nor midst my sins such act record; Thou wilt absolve me from the deed, For he was hostile to thy creed ! The very name of Nazarene Was wormwood to his Paynim spleen. Ungrateful fool! since but for brands Well wielded in some hardy hands, And wounds by Galileans given, The surest pass to Turkish heaven, For him his Houris still might wait Impatient at the Prophet's gate. I loved her-love will find its way If passion met not some reward I wish she had not loved again. As filed the troop to where they fell! voice."-" Psha!"-" As you please, Affendi; if it is written, so will it be."-I left this quick-eared predestinarian, and rode up to Basili, his Christian compatriot, whose ears, though not at all prophetic, by no means relished the intelligence. We all arrived at Colonna, remained some hours, and returned leisurely, saying a variety of brilliant things, in more languages than spoiled the building of Babel, upon the mistaken seer. Romaic, Arnaout, Turkish, Italian, and English were all exercised, in various conceits, upon the unfortunate Mussulman. While we were contemplating the beautiful prospect, Dervish was occupied about the columns. I thought he was deranged into an antiquarian, and asked him if he had become a "Palao-castro" man? "No," said he," but these pillars will be useful in making a stand;" and added other remarks, which at least evinced his own belief |