Thalaba the Destroyer Part 34

_Shaw._

All the Mosques are built nearly in the same style. They are of an oblong square form, and covered in the middle with a large dome, on the top of which is fixed a gilt crescent. In front there is a handsome portico covered with several small cupolas, and raised one step above the pavement of the court. The Turks sometimes in the hot season, perform their devotions there; and between the columns, upon cross iron bars, are suspended a number of lamps, for illuminations on the Thursday nights and on all festivals. The entrance into the Mosque is by one large door. All these edifices are solidly built of freestone, and in several the domes are covered with lead. The minarets stand on one side adjoining to the body of the Mosque. They are sometimes square, but more commonly round and taper, the gallery for the maazeen, or cryers, projecting a little from the column near the top, has some resemblance to a rude capital; and from this the spire tapering more in proportion than before, soon terminates in a point crowned with a crescent.

_Russel's Aleppo._

[55] The Keabe is the point of direction and the centre of union for the prayers of the whole human race, as the Beth-mamour[d] is for those of all the celestial beings; the Kursy[e] for those of the four Arch angels, and the Arsch[f] for those of the cherubims and seraphims who guard the throne of the Almighty. The inhabitants of Mecca, who enjoy the happiness of contemplating the Keabe, are obliged when they pray to fix their eyes upon the sanctuary; but they who are at a distance from this valuable privilege are required only during prayer to direct their attention towards that hallowed edifice. The believer who is ignorant of the position of the Keabe must use every endeavour to gain a knowledge of it; and after he has shown great solicitude, whatever be his success, his prayer is valid.

_D'Ohsson._

[d] Beth mamour, which means the house of prosperity and felicity, is the ancient Keabe of Mecca, which according to tradition, was taken up into heaven by the Angels at the deluge, where it was placed perpendicularly over the present sanctuary.

[e] Kursy, which signifies a seat, is the 8th firmament.

[f] Arsch is the throne of the Almighty, which is thought to be placed on the ninth, which is the higher of the firmaments.

[56] The Bedoweens live in tents, called _Hhymas_, from the shade they afford the inhabitants, and _Beet el Shar_, Houses of hair, from the matter they are made of. They are the same with what the Antients called Mapalia, which being then, as they are to this day, secured from the heat and inclemency of the weather, by a covering only of such hair cloth, as our coal sacks are made of, might very justly be described by Virgil to have thin roofs. When we find any number of them together (and I have seen from 3 to 300) then they are usually placed in a circle, and const.i.tute a Dou-war. The fashion of each tent is the same, being of an oblong figure, not unlike the bottom of a ship turned upside down, as Satl.u.s.t hath long ago described them. However they differ in bigness, according to the number of people who live in them: and are accordingly supported, some with one pillar, others with two or three: whilst a curtain or carpet placed, upon occasion, at each of these divisions, separateth the whole into so many apartments. The pillar which I have mentioned, is a straight pole, 8 or 10 feet high and 3 or 4 inches in thickness, serving, not only to support the tent, but being full of hooks fixd there for the purpose, the Arabs hang upon it their cloaths, baskets, saddles, and accoutrements of war. Holofernes, as we read in Judith, 13. 16. made the like use of the pillar of his tent, by hanging his fauchin upon it, it is there called the _pillar of the bed_, from the custom perhaps, that hath always prevailed, of having the upper end of the carpet, matra.s.s, or whatever else they lie upon, turned from the skirts of the tent that way. But the [Greek: Konopeion], Canopy as we render it (ver. 9) should I presume, be rather called the gnat or muskeeta net, which is a close curtain of gauze or fine linnen, used all over the Levant, by people of better fashion, to keep out the flies. The Arabs have nothing of this kind; who in taking their rest, lie horizontally upon the ground, without bed, matra.s.s or pillow, wrapping themselves up only in their _Hykes_, and lying, as they find room upon a mat or carpet, in the middle or corner of the tent. Those who are married, have each of them a corner of the tent, cantoned off with a curtain.

_Shaw._

The tents of the Moors are somewhat of a conic form, are seldom more than 8 or 10 feet high in the centre, and from 20 to 25 in length. Like those of the remotest antiquity, their figure is that of a ship overset, the keel of which is only seen. These tents are made of twine, composed of goat's hair, camel's wool, and the leaves of the wild palm, so that they keep out water; but, being black, they produce a disagreable effect at a distant view.

_Chenier._

[57] In the kingdom of Imam the men of all ranks shave their heads. In some other countries of Yemen all the Arabs, even the Sheiks themselves, let their hair grow and wear neither bonnet nor _Sasch_, but a handkerchief instead, in which they tie the hair behind. Some let it fall upon their shoulders and bind a small cord round their heads instead of a turban. The Bedouins upon the frontiers of Hedsjas and of Yemen wear a bonnet of palm leaves, neatly platted.

_Niebuhr._

[58] The music of the Bedoweens rarely consists of more than one strain, suitable to their homely instruments, and to their simple invention. The Arabebbah as they call the bladder and string, is in the highest vogue, and doubtless of great antiquity, as is also the Gaspah, which is only a common reed, open at each end, having the side of it bored, with three or more holes, according to the ability of the Person who is to touch it: tho' the compa.s.s of their tunes rarely or ever exceeds an octave.

Yet sometimes, even in this simplicity of harmony, they observe something of method and ceremony, for in their historical _Cantatas_ especially, they have their preludes and symphonies; each stanza being introduced with a flourish from the Arabebbah, while the narration itself is accompanied with the softest touches they are able to make, upon the Gaspah. The Tarr, another of their instruments, is made like a Sive, consisting (as Isidore describeth the Tympanum) of a thin rim or hoop of wood, with a skin of parchment stretched over the top of it.

This serves for the Ba.s.s in all their Concerts, which they accordingly touch very artfully with their fingers, and the knuckles or palms of their hands, as the time and measure require, or as force and softness are to be communicated to the several parts of the performance. The Tarr is undoubtedly the Tympanum of the Antients, which appears as well from the general use of it all over Barbary, Egypt and the Levant, as from the method of playing upon it, and the figure of the instrument itself, being exactly of the same fashion, with what we find in the hands of Cybele and the Baccha.n.a.ls among the Ba.s.so Relievos and Statues of the Antiets.

_Shaw._

The Arabs have the _Cussuba,_ or cane, which is only a piece of large cane, or reed, with stops, or holes, like a flute, and somewhat longer, which they adorn with tossels of black silk and play upon like the German flute.

_Morgan's Hist. of Algiers._

The young fellows, in several towns, play prettily enough on pipes made, and sounding very much like our flagelet, of the thigh bones of cranes, storks, or such large fowl.

_Morgan's Hist. of Algiers._

How great soever may have been the reputation the Libyans once had, of being famous musicians, and of having invented the pipe or flute, called by Greek author _Hippophorbos_, I fancy few of them would be now much liked at our Opera. As for this _tibicen_, flute or pipe, it is certainly lost, except it be the _gayta_, somewhat like the hautbois, called _zurna_, in Turkish, a martial instrument. Julius Pollux, in a chapter ent.i.tled _de tibiarum specie_, says, _Hippophorbos quam quidem Libyes Scenetes invenerunt_, and again, shewing the use and quality thereof, _haec ver apud equorum pascua utuntur, ejusque materia decorticata laurus est, cor enim ligni extractum acutissimam dat sonum_.

The sound of the _gayta_ agrees well with this description, tho' not the make. Several Poets mention the _tibicen Libycus_ and _Arabicus_: and Alhenaeus quotes Duris, and says, _Libycas tibia Poetae appellant, ut inquit Duris, libro secundo de rebus gestis Agathoclis, quod Scirites, primus, ut credunt, tibicinum artis inventor, e gente Nomadum Libycorum fuerit, primusque tibia Cerealium hymnorum cantor._

_Morgan's Hist. of Algiers._

[59] Persae "pulcherrima usi translatione, pro _versus facere_ dic.u.n.t _margaritas nectere;_ quemadmodum in illo Ferdusii versiculo "_Siquidem calami ac.u.mine adamantine_ margaritas nexi; _in scientiae mare penitus me immersi_."

_Poeseos Asiaticae Commentarii._

This is a favourite Oriental figure. "After a little time lifting his head from the collar of reflection, he removed the talisman of silence from the treasure of speech, and scattered skirts-full of brilliant gems and princely pearls before the company in his mirth-exciting deliveries."

_Bahar Da.n.u.sh._

Again in the same work--"he began to weigh his stored pearls in the scales of delivery."

Abu Temam, who was an excellent poet himself, used to say, that, "fine sentiments delivered in prose were like gems scattered at random; but that when they were confined in a poetical measure, they resembled bracelets and strings of pearls."

_Sir W. Jones. Essay on the Poetry of the Eastern nations._

In Mr. Carlyle's translations from the Arabic, a Poet says of his friends and himself

They are a row of Pearls, and I The silken thread on which they lie.

I quote from memory, and recollect not the Author's name. It is somewhat remarkable that the same metaphor is among the quaintnesses of Fuller.

"Benevolence is the silken thread, that should run thro' the pearl chain of our virtues."

_Holy State._

It seems the Arabs are still great rhymers, and their verses are sometimes rewarded, but I should not venture to say that there are great Poets among them. Yet I was a.s.sured in Yemen that it is not uncommon to find them among the wandering Arabs in the country of Dsjaf. It is some few years since a Sheik of these Arabs was in prison at Sana: seeing by chance a bird upon a roof opposite to him, he recollected that the devout Mohammedans believe they perform an action agreable to G.o.d in giving liberty to a bird encaged. He thought therefore he had as much right to liberty as a bird, and made a poem upon the subject, which was first learnt by his guards, and then became so popular that at last it reached the Imam. He was so pleased with it that he liberated the Sheik, whom he had arrested for his robberies.

_Niebuhr. Desc. de L'Arabie._

[60] They are fond of singing with a forced voice in the high tones, and one must have lungs like theirs to support the effort for a quarter of an hour. Their airs, in point of character and execution, resemble nothing we have heard in Europe, except the Seguidillas of the Spaniards. They have divisions more laboured even than those of the Italians, and cadences and inflections of tone impossible to be imitated by European throats. Their performance is accompanied with sighs and gestures, which paint the pa.s.sions in a more lively manner than we snould venture to allow. They may be said to excell most in the melancholy strain. To behold an Arab with his head inclined, his hand applied to his ear, his eye brows knit, his eyes languishing; to hear his plaintive tones, his lengthened notes, his sighs and sobs, it is almost impossible to refrain from tears, which as their expression is, are far from bitter: and indeed they must certainly find a pleasure in shedding them, since among all their songs, they constantly prefer that which excites them most, as among all accomplishments singing is that they most admire.

_Volney._

All their literature consists in reciting tales and histories, in the manner of the Arabian Nights Entertainments. They have a peculiar pa.s.sion for such stories: and employ in them almost all their leisure, of which they have a great deal. In the evening they seat themselves on the ground at the door of their tents, or under cover if it be cold, and there, ranged in a circle, round a little fire of dung, their pipes in their mouths, and their legs crossed, they sit awhile in silent meditation, till, on a sudden, one of them breaks forth with, _Once upon a time_,--and continues to recite the adventures of some young Shaik and female Bedouin: he relates in what manner the youth first got a secret glimpse of his mistress, and how he became desperately enamoured of her: he minutely describes the lovely fair, extols her black eyes, as large and soft as those of the gazelle; her languid and empa.s.sioned looks; her arched eye brows, resembling two bows of ebony; her waist, straight and supple as a lance; he forgets not her steps, light as those of the _young filley_, nor her eye-lashes blackened with _kohl_, nor her lips painted blue, nor her nails, tinged with the golden coloured _henna_, nor her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, resembling two pomegranates, nor her words, sweet as honey. He recounts the sufferings of the young lover, _so wasted with desire and pa.s.sion, that his body no longer yields any shadow_. At length, after detailing his various attempts to see his mistress, the obstacles on the part of the parents, the invasions of the enemy, the captivity of the two lovers, &c. he terminates, to the satisfaction of the audience, by restoring them, united and happy, to the paternal tent, and by receiving the tribute paid to his eloquence, in the _ma sha allah_[g] he has merited. The Bedouins have likewise their love songs, which have more sentiment and nature in them than those of the Turks, and inhabitants of the towns; doubtless because the former, whose manners are chaste, know what love is; while the latter, abandoned to debauchery, are acquainted only with enjoyment.

_Volney._

[g] An exclamation of praise, equivalent to _admirably well_!

[61] We read in an old Arabian Ma.n.u.script, that when the Ostrich would hatch her eggs, she does not cover them as other fowls do, but both the male and female contribute to hatch them by the efficacy of their looks only; and therefore when one has occasion to go to look for food, it advertises its companion by its cry, and the other never stirs during its absence, but remains with its eyes fixed upon the eggs, till the return of its mate, and then goes in its turn to look for food, and this care of theirs is so necessary that it cannot be suspended for a moment, for if it should their eggs would immediately become addle.

_Vanslebe. Harris's Collection._

This is said to emblem the perpetual attention of the Creator to the Universe.