_Artesius ruit ecce furens, finesque propinquos Insultans, stragem agricolis fugientibus infert. Quid facerem? matrem, ut potui, tenerumque puellum Raptabam, et mediis abdebam corpora silvis. Aspera jam frigebat hyems, frondosaque quercus Pro tecto et latebris ramos præbebat opacos; Algentem fovi matrem; fovet illa rigentem Infantem gremio. Sub prima crepuscula lucis Progredior, tectum miseris si forte pateret; Silvam fusus eques telis infensus habebat; Bona fugio, et capio compendia tuta viarum. Conditur atra dies; cœlo nox horrida surgit. Quam longis mihi nox misero producitur horis! Quos gemitus fletusque dedi: quam proxima votum Lux fuit! heu tristi lux infensissima clade! Currebam ad notam quercum per devia tesqua. Dux amor est. Annam video, puerumque jacentem Affixum uberibus, duræ succumbere morti. Ipsa parens, postquam ad vocem conversa vocantis In me amplexantem morientia lumina fixit, Eluctantem animam glaciato e corpore mittit. Obrigui, frigusque novum penetravit in ossa: Felix, si simili potuissem occumbere letho; Sors infesta vetat. Restabat cura sepulchri, Quo foderem ferrum deerat; miserabile corpus Frondibus obtexi, puerum nec ab ubere vulsi Sicut erat foliis tegitur; funusque paratur, Heu nimis incertum, et primis violabile ventis._ * * * * * ——_their white signal-flag._—XXIII. p. 212. A white flag, called _El Alem_, the signal, is hoisted every day at twelve o’clock, to warn the people out of hearing, or at a great distance, to prepare, by the necessary preliminary ablutions, to prostrate themselves before God at the service of prayer.—_Jackson’s Morocco_, p. 149. * * * * * _The Humma’s happy wings have shadowed him._—XXIII. p. 213. The humma is a fabulous bird: The head over which its shadow once passes will assuredly be encircled with a crown.—_Wilkes_, _S. of India_, v. i. p. 423. * * * * * _Life hath not left his body._—XXIII. p. 217. Among the _Prerogatives et Propriétés singulières du Prophète_, Gagnier states that, “_Il est vivant dans son Tombeau. Il fait la prière dans ce Tombeau à chaque fois que le Crieur en fait la proclamation, et au même tems qu’on la recite. Il y a un Ange posté sur son Tombeau qui a le soin de lui donner avis des Pri res que les Fidèles font pour lui._”—Vie de Mahomet, l. vii. c. 18. The common notion that the impostor’s tomb is suspended by means of a loadstone is well known. Labat, in his Afrique Occidentale (T. ii. p. 143.) mentions the lie of a Marabout, who, on his return from a pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, affirmed, “_que le tombeau de Mahomet etoit porté en l’air par le moyen de certains Anges qui se relayent d’heure en heures pour soutenir ce fardeau_.” These fables, however, are modest in comparison with those which the Franciscans and Dominicans have invented to magnify their founders.