“The finest ornament for the horses is made of six large flying tassels of long white hair, taken out of the tails of wild oxen, that are to be found in some places of the Indies.”—_Thevenot._ Footnote 293: p. 257.—_Sweet as the angel_ ISRAFIL’S. “The angel Israfil, who has the most melodious voice of all God’s creatures.”—_Sale._ Footnote 294: p. 261.—_Wound slow, as through_ GOLCONDA’S _vale._ See Hoole upon the Story of Sinbad. Footnote 295: p. 265.—_From the wild covert where he lay._ “In this thicket upon the banks of the Jordan several sorts of wild beasts are wont to harbour themselves, whose being washed out of the covert by the overflowings of the river gave occasion to that allusion of Jeremiah, _he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan_.”—_Maundrell_’s Aleppo. Footnote 296: p. 275.—_Like the wind of the south o’er a summer lute blowing._ “This wind (the Samoor) so softens the strings of lutes, that they can never be tuned while it lasts.”—_Stephen_’s Persia. Footnote 297: p. 275.—_With nought but the sea-star to light up her tomb._ “One of the greatest curiosities found in the Persian Gulf is a fish which the English call Star-fish. It is circular, and at night very luminous, resembling the full moon surrounded by rays.”—_Mirza Abu Taleb._ Footnote 298: p. 275.—_And still, when the merry date-season is burning._ For a description of the merriment of the date-time, of their work, their dances, and their return home from the palm-groves at the end of autumn with the fruits, see _Kæmpfer, Amœnitat. Exot._ Footnote 299: p. 276.—_That ever the sorrowing sea-bird has wept._ Some naturalists have imagined that amber is a concretion of the tears of birds.—See _Trevoux, Chambers_. Footnote 300: p. 276.—_We’ll seek where the sands of the Caspian are sparkling._ “The bay Kieselarke, which is otherwise called the Golden Bay, the sand whereof shines as fire.”—_Struy._ Footnote 301: p. 278.—_The summary criticism of the Chabuk._—“The application of whips or rods.”—_Dubois._ Footnote 302: p. 279.—_Chief Holder of the Girdle of Beautiful Forms._—Kæmpfer mentions such an officer among the attendants of the King of Persia, and calls him “formæ corporis estimator.” His business was, at stated periods, to measure the ladies of the Haram by a sort of regulation-girdle, whose limits it was not thought graceful to exceed. If any of them outgrew this standard of shape, they were reduced by abstinence till they came within proper bounds. Footnote 303: p. 279.—_Forbidden River._—The Attock. “Akbar on his way ordered a fort to be built upon the Nilab, which he called Attock, which means in the Indian language Forbidden; for, by the superstition of the Hindoos, it was held unlawful to cross that river.”—_Dow_’s Hindostan. Footnote 304: