[ Page 275.] Carathis on the back of an afrit
The expedition of the afrit in fetching Carathis is characteristic of this order of dives. We read in the Koran that another of the fraternity offered to bring the Queen of Sheba’s throne to Solomon before he could rise from his place.—Ch. xxvii.
[ Page 277.] ... glanced off in a rapid whirl that rendered her invisible
It was not ill conceived to punish Carathis by a rite, and one of the principal characteristics of that science in which she so much delighted, and which was the primary cause of Vathek’s perdition and of her own. The circle, the emblem of eternity, and the symbol of the sun, was held sacred in the most ancient ceremonies of incantations; and the whirling round deemed as a necessary operation in magical mysteries. Was not the name of the greatest enchantress in fabulous antiquity, Circe, derived from κιρκος, a circle, on account of her magical revolutions, and of the circular appearance and motion of the sun, her father? The fairies and elves used to arrange themselves in a ring on the grass; and even the augur, in the liturgy of the Romans, whirled round to encompass the four cardinal points of the world. It is remarkable, that a derivative of the verb, rendered, to whirl in a magical manner ([see page 257]), which corresponds to the Hebrew סחר, and is interpreted scindere, secare se in orbem, inde notio circinandi, mox gyrandi, et hinc à motu versatili, fascinavit, incantavit, signifies in the Koran the glimmering of twilight: a sense deducible from the shapeless glimpses of objects when hurried round with the velocity here described, and very applicable to the sudden disappearance of Carathis, who, like the stone in a sling, by the progressive and rapid increase of the circular motion, soon ceased to be perceptible. Nothing can impress a greater awe upon the mind than does this passage in the original.
[Transcriber’s Note, continued:]
Inconsistent or obsolete spelling has not been changed.
Asterisks indicating notes to Vathek were added by the transcriber.
The following changes were also made to the text:
Title Page: missing round bracket added (after “d. 1946”)
[p. 15]: happy valley to Happy Valley (his design to leave the Happy Valley)