should not escape from his inexorable justice.The greatest part of his bashaws and janizarieswere the offspring of Christian parents; but theglories of the Turkish name were perpetuatedby successive adoption; and in the gradualchange of individuals, the spirit of a legion, a re-giment, or an oda, is kept alive by imitation anddiscipline. In this holy warfare, the Moslems were exhorted to purify their minds with prayer,their bodies with seven ablutions; and to ab-stain from food till the close of the ensuing day.A crowd of dervishes visited the tents, to instilthe desire of martyrdom, and the assurance ofspending an immortal youth amidst the riversand gardens of paradise, and in the embraces ofthe black-eyed virgins. Yet Mahomet princi-pally trusted to the efficacy of temporal and visi-ble rewards. A double pay was promised to thevictorious troops; “ The city and the buildings,”said Mahomet, “ are mine; but I resign to your“ valour the captives and the spoil, the treasures
Should the fierce north, upon his frozen wings.
Bear him aloft above the wondering clouds,
And seat him in the Pleiads golden chariot—
Thence should my fury drag him down to tortures.
Besides the extravagance of the rant, I must observe, 1. That theoperation of the wind must be confined to the lower region of theair. 2. That the name, etymology, and the fable of the Pleiads arepurely Greek (Scholiast ad Homer, z. 686. Eudocia in Ionia, p. 399.Apollodor. I. iii, c. 10. Heine, p. 229, Not. 682), and had no affinitywith the astronomy of the East (Hyde ad Ulugbeg , Tabul. in Syntag-ma Dissert, tom i, p. 40, 42. Goguet, Origine des Arts, &c. tom.vi, p. 73-78. Gebelin, Hist, du Calendrier, p. 73), which Mahomethad studied. 3. The golden chariot does not exist either in science orfiction ; but I much fear that Dr. Johnson has confounded the Pleiadswith the great bear or waggon, the zodiac with a northern constella-tion:
219
CHAP
LXVIII.
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