[C] Of the terrible forms of superstition prevalent under the names of Obi, Voodooism, Evil-eye or Tricking, in which a trick-doctor or witch-doctor works against another person's life or health or plans, or seeks to neutralize the influence of another doctor, our subject leads us to say nothing. SELIM. Surrender your soul to the spell of enchantment, And wander with me Where, river of magical fancies, Euphrates Flows down to the sea. What city sleeps fair and mysterious by moonlight Upon the dark shore? Oh, those are the minarets gleaming of Basrah That heavenward soar. And bright are her flower-lit gardens, whose fountains Unceasingly rise, Where oft, when the locust grew shrill and the summer Shone red in the skies, The caliph would hasten from camp and from council To rest and to dream. To forge, in the workshop of silence, such weapons As deadliest gleam. And with him came Selim, the friend of his spirit-- Friend favored and true-- Whose palace of marble Euphrates encircled With girdle of blue. There oft by the murmuring waters the caliph Would calmly recline, And mark how the stars on that earth-sullied bosom Seemed trembling to shine, Until, as one evening the moon rose serenely, Fair pearl of the sky, And filled with her presence the palace and desert, The far and the nigh, A trouble which hung On the aspect of Selim Fell dark on his king, As clouds 'twixt the sun and the sand-billowed ocean Their dusky shapes fling. "O friend of my heart!" quoth the caliph, "what sorrow Lies deep in thy breast?" And Selim, replying, the source of his anguish Thus humbly confessed: "Great lord of my being! life trembles and quivers With fulness of joy: The rays of my hopes are as gold in my pathway, Undimmed by alloy; "Thy banners float far on the breezes of India, Thy counsels are wise; The thoughts of thy valor and strength to thy people As light to their eyes; "Yet still, in the midst of thy glory and power, Thou deignest to rest Thy soul on the soul of thy servant, whom daily Thy favors have blest, "Till he who once couched on his sheepskin reposes On cushions of down, And holds a fair wife in his arms who had only A steed for his own. "Thus over the heaven thy grace has illumined No shadow appears, Save one, at whose coming thy servant unworthy Shrinks, falters and fears-- "The shadow of Azraël, angel of terror, Surpassingly strong, The roar of whose onrushing wings soundeth louder Than laughter or song;