His awful presence o’er the alarmèd world.
Among the sublime fictions of the Hindoo mythology, it is one article of belief, that the Deity Brahma has descended nine times upon the world in various forms, and that he is yet to appear a tenth time, in the figure of a warrior upon a white horse, to cut off all incorrigible offenders. “Avatar” is the word used to express his descent.
PART II.
Note to [Page 31].
Or learn the fate that bleeding thousands bore,
Marched by their Charles to Dneiper’s swampy shore.
“In this extremity,” says the biographer of Charles XII. of Sweden, speaking of his military exploits before the battle of Pultowa, “the memorable winter of 1709, which was still more remarkable in that part of Europe than in France, destroyed numbers of his troops; for Charles resolved to brave the seasons as he had done his enemies, and ventured to make long marches during this mortal cold. It was in one of these marches that two thousand men fell down dead with cold before his eyes.”
Note to [Page 32].
As Iona’s saint.
The natives of the island of Iona have an opinion, that on certain evenings every year the tutelary saint Columba is seen on the top of the church spires counting the surrounding islands, to see that they have not been sunk by the power of witchcraft.