them remains but the canals which encircled their tents, and the Thumaam plants with which they were repaired.” 66 15. They hastened their camels, till the sultry vapour gradually stole them from thy sight." 66 34. They divide the waters of the full stream, whose banks are covered with the plants of Kolaam. Banks which a grove of reeds, part erect and part laid prostrate, overshades or clothes us with a mantle." 53. "When the flashes of the noon-tide dance over the plain, and the sultry vapour. mist clothes the parched hills." 62. "On many a cold morning, when the freezing winds howl, and the hand of the North holds their reins, I turn aside their blast from the travellers whom I receive in my tent." Poem of Hareth. P. 64. "THEY surprised you not indeed by a sudden assault, but they advanced, and the sultry vapour of noon, through which you saw them, increased their magnitude." 74. "We thrust them before us till the muscles of their thighs were breeched in gore." Run, Madoc's Brother's Death. A. D. 1143." SHORTLIE after died Run, the sonne of Prince Owen of North Wales, a faire and a goodlie yoong man, whose death when it came to his father's eares did so trouble him, that no kind of plesure could comfort his heavie hart, so that he led the night in teares and the day in heavinesse." 76. "To the cords of my tent approaches -POWELL's History of Cambria. every needy matron."—Ibid. Battle of Ceireoc.1 A. D. 1165. "THE King gathered another armie of chosen men through all his dominions, as England, Normandie, Anjow, Gascoine and Gwyen, sending for succours from Flanders and Brytaine, and then returned towardes North Wales, minding utterlie to destroie all that had life in the land, and comming to Croes Oswalt, called Oswaldstree, incamped there. On the contrarie side, Prince Owen and his brother Cadwallader, with all the power of North Wales, and the Lord Rees with the power of South Wales, and O. Cyverl and the sonnes of Madoc ap Meredyth with the power of Powys, and the two sonnes of Madoc ap Ednerth with the people betwixt Wye and Seaverne, gathered themselves togither and came to Corwen in Edeyrneon, purposing to defend their countrie. But the King understanding that they were so nigh, being wonderfull desirous of battell, came to the river Ceireoc, and caused the woods to be hewen downe. Whereupon a number of the Welshmen understanding the passage, unknowing to their captaines, met with the King's ward, where were placed the piked men of all the armie, and there began a hote skirmish, where diverse worthie men were slaine on either side; but in the end the King wanne the passage, and came to the mountaine of Berwyn, where he laie in campe certaine daies, and so both the armies stood in awe each of other; for the King kept the open plaines, and was affraid to be intrapped in straits; but the Welshmen watched for the advantage of the place, and kept the King so straitlie, that neither forrage nor victuall might come to his camp, neither durst anie souldiour stir abroad: and to augment their miseries, there fell such raine that the King's men could scant stand upon their feete upon those slipperie hilles. "Dost thou not remember, brother, Madoc in Wales, part i. ii.-J. W. W. In the end, the King was compelled to returne home without his purpose, and that with great losse of men and munition besides his charges. Therefore in a great choler he caused the pledges eies, whom he had received long before that, to be put out: which were Rees and Cadwalhon the sonnes of Owen, and Cynwric and Meredyth the sonnes of Rees and other."-Ibid. Dogs know the Dog-killer. "IT is a common experience that dogs know the dog-killer; when as in times of infection some petty fellow is sent out to kill the dogs; and that though they have never seene him before, yet they will all come forth and barke and flie at him."LORD BACON'S Sylva Sylvarum. Ladies drawn by Cows. "PIACENZA.-I observed in this town a notable peece of thriftiness used by the gentlewomen, who make no scruple to be carried to their country-houses near the town in coaches drawn by two cowes yoaked together. These will carry the Signora a pretty round trot unto her villa; they afford her also a dish of their milk, and after collation bring her home again at night without spending a penny." The Voyage of Italy, by RICH. LASSELS, Gent. who travelled through Italy five times, as tutor to several of the English nobility and gentry. Printed at Paris, 1670. Battle of Montargis. "I SAW but one extraordinery thing in the rest of the way to Lyons, an old inscription in letters of gold, upon a wooden fabric, a mile before I came to Montargis, importing, that the English being encamped here, had been forced to raise their siege before Montargis, by reason of great raynes and sudden inundations. Some of the French historians will have it, that it was the C. de Dunois that forced the English to raise the siege here; but I had rather believe publick inscriptions than private flattery, and it was more honourable for the English to be overcome by God than by men."-LASSELS. Battle of Murat. Duke Charles the Cock-roaches exorcised. "WE found millions of cock-roaches in the bread room; it is necessary a man should have seen them with his own eyes, to have an idea of the number of these insects. These pests had so much infested the ship, that the holy father, who officiated as chaplain, was obliged to have recourse to exorcisms more than once." - Journal of D. Francisco Antonio Maurelle, in the Fr. La Princesa, 1781. In LA PEROUSE. Death of Bertrand of Clesquin. "BERTRAND of Clesquin died at the siege of the Castle of Rancon, near unto Puy in Auvergne; the besieged yielding after castle upon the deceased body of the captain."-MONTAIGNE, book i. ch. 3. "MURAT.-I was told here that the Duke of Burgundy, seeing his army defeated, and himself environed on one side by the lake here, and on the other side by the enemies conquering army, chose rather to trust himself to the lake than to his enemies. Whereupon spurring his horse into the lake, one of his pages, to save himself also, leaped upwards, were forced to carry the keies of the behind him as he took water. The Duke, out of fear, either perceived him not at first, or dissembled it till he came to the other side of the lake, which is two miles broad. The stout horse tugged through with them both, and saved them both from drowning, but not both from death; for the Duke, seeing in what danger his page had put him, stabbed the page with his dagger. Poor Prince! thou mightest have given another offering of thanksgiving to God for thy escape than this!"-Ibid. Crows-dutiful Children. "IN Exameron it is said that the mildnes of the crow is wonderfull: for when the old crowes in age be both naked and bare of covering of fethers, then the young crowes hide and cover them with their fethers, and gather meate and feed them. And sometime when they waxe olde and feeble, then the young crowes underset them, and reare them up with their wings, and comfort them to use to fly, to bring the members that be diseased into state again." From a book written by BARTHELMEW GLANTVILE, a Franciscan Frier, 1360. Translated by Stephan Batman, Professour in Divinitie. Arabian Horses.1 "THE Arabian horses are divided into two great branches; the Kadischi, whose descent is unknown, and the Kochlani, of whom a written genealogy has been kept for 2000 years. These last are reserved for riding solely, they are highly esteemed and consequently very dear. They are said to derive their origin from King Solomon's studs. However this may be they are fit to bear the greatest fatigues, and can pass whole days without food. They are also said to show uncommon courage against an enemy. It is even asserted, that when a horse of this race finds himself wounded and unable to bear his rider much longer, he retires from the fray, and conveys him to a place of security. If the rider falls upon the ground, his horse remains beside him, and neighs till assistance is brought. The Kochlani are neither large nor handsome but amazingly swift. This is quoted in the notes to Thalaba— "Lo! at his side a courser stood," &c. Sixth Book.-J. W. W. The whole race is divided into several families, each of which has its proper name. Some of these have a higher reputation than others on account of their more ancient and uncontaminated nobility." NIEBUHR. quent and of considerable bulk. In the most arid tracts, near the sea, the dews are singularly copious. But notwithstanding this humidity, the air is so pure that the inhabitants sleep in the open air."-Ibid. The Samiel. "THE Samiel prevails only on the confines of the great desert, where the agitation of the air forms a current for the vapours which are raised by the heat of the sun from that parched territory. The places the most exposed to this destructive wind are the banks of the Euphrates, and sometimes the environs of Mecca, when the north wind blows from the desert. The effects of the Samiel are instant suffocation to every living creature that happens to be within the sphere of its activity, and immediate putrefaction of the carcases of the dead. The Arabians discern its approach by an unusual redness in the air, and they say that they feel a smell of sulphur as it passes. The only means by which any person can preserve himself from suffering from the noxious blasts, is by throwing himself down with his face upon the earth, till this whirlwind of poisonous exhalations has blown over, which always moves at a certain height in the atmosphere. Instinct even teaches the brutes to incline their heads to the ground on these occasions."Niebuhr. Arabian Atmosphere. "A CLEAR Sky seldom obscured by clouds renders storms very unfrequent in the plains. The air discharges its electric matter in globes of fire, and by the phenomena called shooting stars, which are not unfre This is the Shamyela, or wind of Syria, or Simoom. See notes on Thalaba "The blast of the desert came; Prostrate in prayer, the pious family Felt not the simoom pass." Book second.-J. W. W. Arabian Birds, Beasts, and Plants.2 "On the lofty hills of Arabia Petræa are rock-goats. The plains are stocked with gazelles, and this beautiful creature is so common that the Arabian poets draw from it many of their allusions and similitudes. In the sandy tracks are numbers of those little animals called jerboas, Pharaoh's rats, whose flesh the Arabians eat without any dislike. "In places where there was water, we found a beautiful variety of the plover, and sometimes storks. The deserts are not without ostriches, which are called by the inhabitants Thar Edsjammel, the camelbird.3 A beautiful lapwing, called Hudhud, is also common on the shores of the Persian Gulph. Some Arabians have been pursuaded that the language of this bird may be understood, by a fabulous tradition. The vulture is very serviceable, clearing the earth of all carcases which corrupt very rapidly in hot countries. He also destroys the field-mice, which multiply so prodigiously in some provinces, that were it not for this assistance, the peasant might cease from the culture of the fields as absolutely vain. Their performance of these important services induced the ancient Egyptians to pay those birds divine honours; and even at present it is held unlawful to kill them in all the countries which they frequent. The Samarman, or Samarmog, is thought 2 The reader will find most of this imagery worked up in Thalaba.-J. W. W. 3 « And in modern Greek Στρεθοκάμηλος.” -POCOCKE. • See notes to the third book of Thalaba— "And yonder birds our welcome visitants," &c. J. W. W. to be a native of Korasan, for it comes annually into Arabia, in pursuit of the swarms of locusts, of which it destroys incredible numbers. Mr. Forskal ranks it among the thrushes, and calls it Turdus Seleucus. The services done by this bird in countries exposed to the ravages of those insects, have given rise to several ridiculous and superstitious practices in Syria. It is thought to be attracted from Korasan by water, which is for this end brought from a distance with great ceremony, and preserved in a stone reservoir on the top of the tower of a mosque. When this water fails, the inhabitants of Mosul are in despair. But as this bird's instincts prompt it not only to feed on locusts, but to kill as many of them as possible, it naturally follows these insects in the course of their passage. The Achjal is famous for two beautiful feathers with which the Highlanders adorn their bonnets, and to preserve which uninjured the bird it seems, leaves a hole in its nest.-Ibid. "THE swarms of locusts darken the air, and appear at a distance like clouds of smoke; the noise they make in flying is frightful and stunning, like that of a waterfall. "The Termite infests Arabia, it is there called Arda. "In the sandy deserts grows a plant of a new genus named Moscharia by M. Forskal on account of its musky smell."—Ibid. "CAYDBEJA, called by Sir C. Linnæus, Forskalea, in honour of Mr. F., grows in the driest places of the country. It has small feelers, with which it fixes itself so tenaciously upon stuffs and other smooth bodies that it is torn in pieces before it can be removed. "The Volutella is a very extraordinary plant, being, properly a long slender thread, without root or leaves, which entwines itself about trees; it bears, however, a sort of flower, and berries which are eaten by children. The Merium Obesum, a sort of laurel-rose, is remarkable for a singular bulb, close to the earth, and of the size of a man's head, which forms all its trunk, and out of which the branches spring. "The sandy plains are almost destitute of trees, only a few palms are scattered here and there. "The Indian fig-tree is very common. The tamarind is equally useful and agreeable. It has a pulp of a vineous taste, of which a wholesome refreshing liquor is prepared. Its shade shelters houses from the torrid heat of the sun, and its fine figure greatly adorns the scenery of the country. The inhabitants are also fond of raising over their houses the shade of the Indian fig-tree. "The Elcaya and Keura are two trees famous for their perfume; the former is common on the hills of Yemen, and the women steep its fruit in water, which they use for washing and perfuming the head. the second bears some resemblance to the palm, and produces flowers of a rich and delicious smell. These flowers are sold at a high price, as the Keura is rather a scarce plant. But one little knot, if preserved in a cool place, will long continue to diffuse its odours through a whole apartment. "There are several trees or shrubs of the genus Mimosa. One of these trees droops its branches whenever any person approaches it, seeming as if it saluted those who retire under its shade. This mute hospitality has so endeared this tree to the Arabians, that the injuring or cutting of it down is strictly prohibited. Another of these, Mimosa Selam, produces splendid flowers, of a beautiful red colour,' with which the Arabians crown their heads on the days of their festivity. The leaves of another, Mimosa Orfæta, preserve camel's "That with such pride she tricked Thalaba, Book third.-J. W. W. |