The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 19, No. 537, March 10, 1832 — John Shaqi
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 19, No. 537, March 10, 1832Various
General
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 19, No. 537, March 10, 1832
Various
Popular literature -- Great Britain -- Periodicals
"That portion of the eye, generally of a pearly whiteness, in hers was
tinted with a light shade of blue, like the bloom on a purple grape, or
the sky seen through the morning mist. Her mouth was harmony and love;
her face was small and oval, with a wavy outline of ineffable grace
descending to her smooth and unruffled neck, thence swelling at her
bosom, which was high, and just developing into form. Her limbs were
long, full, and rounded, her motion was quick, but not springy, light
as a zephyr. As she then stood canopied beneath the dense shade of that
sacred Hindoo tree, with its drooping foliage hanging in clusters round
her, in every clasped and sensitive leaf of which a fairy is said to
dwell, I fancied she was their queen, and must have dropped from one of
the leaves, to gambol and wanton among the flowers below. Running to
her, I caught her in my arms, and said, 'I watched your fall, and have
you now, dear sprite, and will keep you here!'--pressing her to my
bosom.
"'Oh, put me down! You hurt me,--I have not fallen,--oh, let me go!'
"'Will you promise then not to take flight to your leafy dwelling, in
that your fairy kingdom-tree?'
"'What do you mean? Oh, let me go,--you'll crush me!'
"I gently placed her on the ground, and told her my fears. The instant
I unclutched her, she ran to her old attendant, scared like a young
leveret; and this was my first embrace of my Arab maid.
"That it may not be considered I exaggerate, when speaking of the Arabs
in India generally, I must refer the reader to what a recent, learned,
and unprejudiced traveller says of them: 'The Arabs are numerous in
India; their comparative fairness, their fine, bony, and muscular
figures, their noble countenances, and picturesque dress, intelligent,
bold, and active,' &c.
"Zela's father was all this, and her mother a celebrated beauty brought
from the Georgian Caucasus, and twice made captive by the chance of war.
After giving birth to Zela, she looked, and saw her own image in her
child, blessed it, and yielded up her mortality. Is it to be marvelled
at, that the offspring of such parents was as I have described, or
rather what I have attempted to describe? For I am little skilled in
words, or words are insufficient to represent what the eye sees, and
the heart feels."
We must return to these very attractive volumes.
* * * * *
THE GATHERER.
* * * * *
_A Mistake_.--In consequence of some transposition by which an
announcement of the decease of a country clergyman had got inserted
amongst the announcements of the marriages in a country paper a few
days since, the announcement read thus: "Married the Rev. ----, curate
of ----, to the great regret of all his parishioners, by whom he was
universally beloved. The poor will long have cause to lament the
unhappy event."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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