[132] The dust which overspreads these beds of sand is so fine, that the lightest animal, the smallest insect, leaves there as on snow, the vestiges of its track. The varieties of these impressions produce a pleasing effect, in spots where the saddened soul expects to meet with nothing but symptoms of the proscriptions of nature. It is impossible to see any thing more beautiful than the traces of the passage of a species of very small lizards extremely common in these desarts. The extremity of their tail forms regular sinuosities, in the middle of two rows of delineations, also regularly imprinted by their four feet, with their five slender toes. These traces are multiplied and interwoven near the subterranean retreats of these little animals, and present a singular assemblage which is not void of beauty.
Sonnini.
[133] These lines are feebly adapted from a passage in Burnet’s Theory of the Earth.
Hæc autem dicta vellem de genuinis & majoribus terræ montibus; non gratos Bacchi colles hîc intelligimus, aut amœnos illos monticulos, qui viridi herbâ & vicino fonte & arboribus, vim æstivi solis repellunt: hisce non deest sua qualiscunque elegantia, & jucunditas. Sed longe aliud hic respicimus, nempe longæva illa, tristia & squalentia corpora, telluris pondera, quæ duro capiti rigent inter nubes, infixisque in terram saxeis pedibus, ab innumeris seculis steterunt immobilia, atque nudo pectore pertulerunt tot annorum ardentes soles, fulmina & procellas. Hi sunt primævi & immortales illi montes, qui non aliunde, quam ex fractâ mundi compage ortum suum ducere potuerunt, nec nisi cum eâdem perituri sunt.
The whole chapter de montibus is written with the eloquence of a Poet. Indeed Gibbon bestowed no exaggerated praise on Burnet in saying that he had “blended scripture, history, and tradition into one magnificent system, with a sublimity of imagination scarcely inferior to Milton himself.” This work should be read in Latin, the Author’s own translation is miserably inferior. He lived in the worst age of English prose.
[134] The Zaccoum is a tree which issueth from the bottom of Hell: the fruit thereof resembleth the heads of Devils; and the damned shall eat of the same, and shall fill their bellies therewith; and there shall be given them thereon a mixture of boiling water to drink; afterwards shall they return to Hell.
Koran. Chap. 37.
This hellish Zaccoum has its name from a thorny tree in Tehâma, which bears fruit like an almond, but extremely bitter; therefore the same name is given to the infernal tree.
Sale.
[135] When the sister of the famous Derar was made prisoner before Damascus with many other Arabian women, she excited them to mutiny, they seized the poles of the tents and attacked their captors. This bold resolution, says Marigny, was not inspired by impotent anger. Most of these women had military inclinations already; particularly those who were of the tribe of Hemiar or of the Homerites, where they are early exercised in riding the horse, and in using the bow, the lance, and the javelin. The revolt was successful, for during the engagement Derar came up to their assistance.