After the law they purified themselves,
And bent their faces to the earth in prayer.

All, save Abdaldar; over Thalaba

He stands, and lifts the dagger to destroy. Before his lifted arm receiv'd

Its impulse to descend,

The Blast of the Desert came.

Prostrate in prayer, the pious family

Felt not the Simoom pass.

They rose, and lo! the Sorcerer lying dead, Holding the dagger in his blasted hand..

NOTES TO BOOK II.

A Teraph stood against the cavern side.—P. 66. The manner how the Teraphim were made is fondly conceited thus among the Rabbies. They killed a man that was a first-born son, and wrung off his head, and seasoned it with salt and spices, and wrote, upon a plate of gold, the name of an unclean spirit, and put it under the head upon a wall, and lighted candles before it, and worshipped it.— Godwyn's Moses and Aaron.

By Rabbi Eleazar, it is said to be the head of a child.

But Eblis, &c.-P. 71:

The Devil, whom Mahommed names Eblis, from his despair, was once one of those angels who are nearest to God's presence, called Azazil; and fell (according to the doctrine of the Koran), for refusing to pay homage to Adam at the command of God.-Koran, ch. 2. 7. 15.

God created the body of Adam of Salzal, that is, of dry but unbaked clay; and left it forty nights, or, according to others, forty years, lying without a

soul; and the Devil came to it, and kicked it, and it sounded. And God breathed into it a soul with his breath, sending it in at his eyes; and he himself saw his nose still dead clay, and the soul running through him, till it reached his feet, when he stood upright.-Maracci.

In the Nuremberg Chronicle is a print of the creation of Adam; the body is half made, growing out of a heap of clay under the Creator's hands. A still more absurd print represents Eve half way out of his side.

The fullest Mahommedan Genesis is to be found in Rabadan the Morisco's Poem.

God, designing to make known to his whole choir of Angels, high and low, his scheme concerning the Creation, called the Arch-angel Gabriel, and delivering to him a pen and paper, commanded him to draw out an instrument of fealty and homage; in which, as God had dictated to his Secretary Gabriel, were specified the pleasures and delights he ordained to his creatures in this world; the term of years he would allot them; and how, and in what exercises, their time in this life was to be employed. This being done, Gabriel said, Lord, what more must I write? The pen resisteth, and refuseth to be guided forwards! God then took the deed, and, before he folded it, signed it with his sacred hand, and affixed thereunto his royal signet, as an indica. tion of his incontestible and irrevocable promise

and covenant. Then Gabriel was commanded to convey what he had written throughout the hosts of Angels; with orders that they all, without exception, should fall down and worship the same: and it was so abundantly replenished with glory, that the angelical potentates universally reverenced and paid homage thereunto. Gabriel returning, said, O Lord! I have obeyed thy commands; what else am I to do? God replied, Close up the writing in this crystal; for this is the inviolable covenant of the feaky the mortals I will hereafter create shall pay unto me, and by the which they shall acknowledge me. El Hassan tells us, that no sooner had the blessed Angel closed the said crystal, but so terrible and astonishing a voice issued out thereof, and it cast so unusual and glorious a light, that, with the surprise of so great and unexpected a mystery, the Angel remained fixed and immoveable; and although he had a most ardent desire to be let into the secret Arcanas of that wonderful prodigy, yet all his innate courage, and beavenly magnanimity, were not sufficient to furnish him with assurance, or power to make the inquiry.

All being now completed, and put in order, God said to his Angels, "Which of you will descend to the Earth, and bring me up a handful thereof "" When immediately such infinite numbers of celestial spirits departed, that the universal surface was covered with them; where, consulting among them

selves, they unanimously confirmed their loathing and abhorrence to touch it, saying, How dare we be so presumptuous as to expose, before the throne of the Lord, so glorious and sovereign as ours is, a thing so filthy, and of a form and composition so vile and despicable! and, in effect, they all returned, fully determined not to meddle with it. After these went others, and then more; but not one of them, either first or last, dared to defile the purity of their hands with it. Upon which Azarael, an Angel of an extraordinary stature, flew down, and, from the four corners of the Earth, brought up a handful of it which God had commanded: From the south and the north, from the west and from the east, took he it; of all which four different qua, lities, human bodies are composed.

The Almighty, perceiving in what manner Az, arael had signalized himself in this affair, beyond the rest of the Angels, and taking particular notice of his goodly form and stature, said to him; "O Azarcel, it is my pleasure to constitute thee to be Death itself; thou shalt be him who separateth the souls from the bodies of those creatures I am about to make; Thou henceforth shalt be called Azarael Malec el Mout or Azarael, the Angel of Death."

Then God caused the Earth, which Azarael had brought, to be washed and purified in the fountains of Heaven: and El Hassan tells us, that it became