111 compensate for thy impieties by an exemplary life. It is an established article of the Mussulman creed, that the actions of mankind are all weighed in a vast unerring balance, and the future condition of the agents determined according to the preponderance of evil or good. This fiction, which seems to have been borrowed from the Jews, had probably its origin in the figurative language of scripture. Thus, Psalm lxii. 9. Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity:—and, in Daniel, the sentence against the King of Babylon, inscribed on the wall: Thou art weighed in the balance, and found wanting.

112 Balkis. This was the Arabian name of the Queen of Sheba, who went from the south to hear the wisdom and admire the glory of Solomon. The Koran represents her as a worshipper of fire. Solomon is said not only to have entertained her with the greatest magnificence, but also to have raised her to his bed and his throne. Al Koran, ch. XXVII. and Sale’s notes. D’Herbelot, p. 182.

113 Ouranbad. This monster is represented as a fierce flying hydra, and belongs to the same class with the rakshe whose ordinary food was serpents and dragons; the soham, which had the head of a horse, with four eyes, and the body of a flame-coloured dragon; the syl, a basilisk with a face resembling the human, but so tremendous that no mortal could bear to behold it; the ejder, and others. See these respective titles in Richardson’s Persian, Arabic, and English Dictionary.

114 Creatures of clay. Nothing could have been more appositely imagined than this compellation. Eblis, according to Arabian mythology, had suffered a degradation from his primeval rank, and was consigned to these regions, for having refused to worship Adam, in obedience to the supreme command: alledging in justification of his refusal, that himself had been formed of etherial fire, whilst Adam was only a creature of clay. Al Koran, c. 55, &c.

115 the fortress of Aherman. In the mythology of the easterns, Aherman was accounted the Demon of Discord. The ancient Persian romances abound in descriptions of this fortress, in which the inferior demons assemble to receive the behests of their prince; and from whom they proceed to exercise their malice in every part of the world. D’Herbelot, p. 71.

116 the halls of Argenk. The halls of this mighty dive, who reigned in the mountains of Kaf, contained the statues of the seventy-two Solimans, and the portraits of the various creatures subject to them; not one of which bore the slightest similitude to man. Some had many heads; others, many arms; and some consisted of many bodies. Their heads were all very extraordinary, some resembling the elephant’s, the buffalo’s and the boar’s; whilst others were still more monstrous. D’Herbelot, p. 820. Some of the idols worshipped to this day in the Hindostan answer to this description.