Among her snowy mountains threw
The last light of his worship too!

"Tis HAFED

name of fear, whose sound

Chills like the muttering of a charm; Shout but that awful name around,

And palsy shakes the manliest arm.
'Tis HAFED, most accurst and dire
(So rank'd by Moslem hate and ire)
Of all the rebel Sons of Fire!

Of whose malign, tremendous power
The Arabs, at their mid-watch hour,
Such tales of fearful wonder tell,
That each affrighted sentinel

Pulls down his cowl upon his eyes,
Lest HAFED in the midst should rise!
A man, they say, of monstrous birth,
A mingled race of flame and earth,
Sprung from those old, enchanted kings,
Who in their fairy helms, of yore,

8

8 Tahmuras, and other ancient Kings of Persia; whose adventures in Fairy-Land among the Peris and Dives may be found in Richardson's curious Dissertation. The griffin Simoorgh, they say, took some feathers from her breast for Tahmuras, with which he adorned his helmet, and transmitted them afterwards to his descendants.

>

A feather from the mystic wings

Of the Simoorgh resistless wore;
And gifted by the Fiends of Fire,
Who groan'd to see their shrines expire,
With charms that, all in vain withstood,
Would drown the Koran's light in blood!

Such were the tales, that won belief,

And such the colouring Fancy gave
To a young, warm and dauntless Chief,
One who, no more than mortal brave,
Fought for the land his soul ador'd,
For happy homes and altars free, —

His only talisman, the sword,

His only spell-word, Liberty!

One of that ancient hero line,

Along whose glorious current shine

Names, that have sanctified their blood;
AS LEBANON's small mountain-flood

Is render'd holy by the ranks

Of sainted cedars on its banks ! '

9

9 This rivulet, says Dandini, is called the Holy River from the "cedar-saints" among which it rises.

'Twas not for him to crouch the knee Tamely to Moslem tyranny;

'Twas not for him, whose soul was cast

In the bright mould of ages past,
Whose melancholy spirit, fed

With all the glories of the dead,

Though fram❜d for IRAN's happiest years, Was born among her chains and tears!

'Twas not for him to swell the crowd
Of slavish heads, that shrinking bowed
Before the Moslem, as he pass'd,

Like shrubs beneath the poison-blast
No-far he fled — indignant fled

The pageant of his country's shame;

While every tear her children shed
Fell on his soul, like drops of flame;

And, as a lover hails the dawn

Of a first smile, so welcom'd he

The sparkle of the first sword drawn
For vengeance and for liberty!

But vain was valour vain the flower
Of KERMAN, in that deathful hour,

Against AL HASSAN's whelming power. —

way

-

In vain they met him, helm to helm,
Upon the threshold of that realm
He came in bigot pomp to sway,
And with their corpses block'd his
In vain - for every lance they rais'd,
Thousands around the conqueror blaz'd;
For every arm that lin❜d their shore,
Myriads of slaves were wafted o'er,—
A bloody, bold, and countless crowd,
Before whose swarm as fast they bow'd
As dates beneath the locust-cloud !

There stood but one short league away

From old HARMOZIA'S sultry bay

A rocky mountain, o'er the Sea
Of OMAN beetling awfully.

A last and solitary link

Of those stupendous chains that reach From the broad Caspian's reedy brink Down winding to the Green Sea beach.

Around its base the bare rocks stood,

Like naked giants, in the flood,

As if to guard the Gulf across;

While, on its peak, that brav'd the sky,
A ruin'd Temple tower'd, so high

That oft the sleeping albatross'
Struck the wild ruins with her wing,
And from her cloud-rock'd slumbering
Started to find man's dwelling there

In her own silent fields of air!

Beneath, terrific caverns gave

Dark welcome to each stormy wave
That dash'd, like midnight revellers, in;-
And such the strange, mysterious din
At times throughout those caverns roll❜d, -

And such the fearful wonders told
Of restless sprites imprison'd there,

That bold were Moslem, who would dare,
At twilight hour, to steer his skiff
Beneath the Gheber's lonely cliff.

On the land side, those towers sublime,
That seem'd above the grasp of Time,
Were sever'd from the haunts of men

By a wide, deep, and wizard glen,

These birds sleep in the air. They are most common about the Cape of Good Hope.