when they showed him the walls of the Palace or> namented with azure and gold, of which the marvellous workmanship surpassed in costliness the richness of the materials, he replied, there is still a great inconvenience here! it is, that we can never estimate these works well, till we are laid backwards. Signifying by these words, that we never understand these things rightly, till we are upon our death-bed, when we discover their vanity.— D'Herbelot.

Breath'd through his moveless lips, &c.—P. 29.
Las horrendas palabras parecian
salir por una trompa resonante,
y que los yertos labios no movian.

Lupercio Leonardo.

And err not from their aim !-P. 30.

Death is come up into our windows, and entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets.-Jeremiah IX. 21.

The Trees shall give fruit, and who shall gather them? The Grapes shall ripen, and who shall tread them? for all places shall be desolate of men.2 Esdras, XVI. 25.

For strong is his right hand that bendeth the Bow, his arrows that he shooteth are sharp, and

shall not miss when they begin to be shot into the ends of the world.-2 Esdras, XVI. 13.

Seems to partake of life.—P. 33.

There are several trees or shrubs of the genus Mimosa. One of these trees drops 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.-Niebuhr.

Let fall the drops of bitterness and death.-P. 35.

The Angel of Death, say the Rabbis, holdeth his sword in his hand at the bed's head, having on the end thereof three drops of gall; the sick man spying this deadly Angel, openeth his mouth with fear, and then those drops fall in, of which one killeth him, the second maketh him pale, the third rotteth and putrifieth.-Purchas.

Possibly the expression-to taste the bitternes of death, may refer to this.

THALABA THE DESTROYER.

THE SECOND BOOK.

Sint licet expertes vitæ sensusque, capessunt

Jussa tamen superum venti.

Mambruni Constantinus.

Nor in the desert,

Son of Hodeirah,

Wert thou abandon'd!

The coexistent fire,

That in the Dens of Darkness burnt for thee,
Burns yet, and yet shall burn.

In the Domdaniel caverns,

Under the Roots of the Ocean,

Met the Masters of the Spell.

Before them in the vault,

Blazing unfuell'd from the floor of rock,
Ten magic flames arose.

"Burn, mystic fires !" Abdaldar cried, "Burn while Hodeirah's dreaded race exist.

This is the appointed hour,

The hour that shall secure these dens of night."

"Dim they burn!" exclaim'd Lobaba,
"Dim they burn, and now they waver!
Okba lifts the arm of death,

They waver, they go out !"

"Curse on his hasty hand!"
Khawla exclaim'd in wrath;

The woman-fiend exclaim'd,

"Curse on his hasty hand, the fool hath fail'd! Eight only are gone out."

A Teraph stood against the cavern side,
A new-born infant's head,

Which Khawla at his hour of birth had seiz'd,
And from the shoulders wrung.

It stood upon a plate of gold,

An unclean Spirit's name inscrib'd beneath.
The cheeks were deathy dark,

Dark the dead skin upon the hairless skull;
The lips were bluey pale;