“Thou hast possessed thyself of my heart; thou hast fixed thy abode, and art settled there, as a beloved and cherished inhabitant. “Yet how can I visit my fair one, whilst her family have their _vernal mansion_ in Oneizatain, and mine are stationed in Ghailem?” Xenophon relates, in his Anabasis, that it was customary for the kings of Persia θεριζειν και εριζειν, to pass the _summer_ and _spring_ in Susa and Ecbatana; and Plutarch observes further, that their winters were spent in Babylon, their summers in Media (that is, _Ecbatana_), and the pleasantest part of _spring_ in Susa: Καιτοι τουσγε Περσων βασιλεας εμακαριζον εν βαβυλωνι τον χειμωνα διαγονιας· εν δε Μηδιᾳ το θερος· εν δε Σουσοις, το ἡδιστον του ΕΑΡΟΣ.--_De Exil._, p. 604. PAGE 231. _... red characters_ The laws of Draco are recorded by Plutarch, in his _Life of Solon_, to have been written in blood. If more were meant by this expression, than that those laws were of a sanguinary nature, they will furnish the earliest instance of the use of _red characters_, which were afterwards considered as appropriate to supreme authority, and employed to denounce some requisition or threatening design to strike terror. According to Suidas, this manner of writing was, likewise, practised in _magic rites_. Hence their application to the instance here mentioned. TROTZ, _In Herm. Hugonem_, pp. 106, 307. SUIDAS _sub voc._ Θετταλη γυνη. PAGE 231. _... thy body shall be spit upon_ There was no mark of contempt amongst the Easterns so ignominious as this.--_Arabian Nights_, vol. i, p. 115.; vol. iv, p. 275. It was the same in the days of Job. Herodotus relates of the Medes, ΠΤΥΕΙΝ αντιον ΑΙΣΧΡΟΝ εστι, and Xenophon relates, ΑΙΣΧΡΟΝ εστι Περσαις το ΑΠΟΠΤΥΕΙΝ. Hence the reason is evident for spitting on our Saviour. PAGE 231. _... bats will nestle in thy belly_ Bats in these countries were very abundant, and, both from their numbers and nature, held in abhorrence. See what is related of them by THEVENOT, part i, pp. 132, 133, EGMONT and HAYMAN, vol. ii, p. 87, and other travellers in the East. PAGE 232. _... the Bismillah_ This word (which is prefixed to every chapter of the Koran except the ninth) signifies, “in the name of the most merciful God.” It became not the initiatory formula of prayer till the time of Moez the Fatimite. D’HERBELOT, p. 326. PAGE 232. _... inscription_ Inscriptions of this sort are still retained. Thus Ludeke: “Interni non solum Divani pluriumque conclavium parietes, sed etiam frontispicia super portas inscriptiones habent.”--_Expositio_, p. 54. In the History of Amine, we find an inscription over a gate, in letters of gold, analogous to this of Fakreddin: “Here is the abode of everlasting pleasures and content.”--_Arabian Nights_, vol. i, p. 193. PAGE 232. _... a magnificent tecthtrevan_ This kind of _moving throne_, though more common at present than in the days of Vathek, is still confined to persons of the highest rank. PAGE 233. _... your ivory limbs_