she-colt? Mojana, follow your master, or off goes your head. You can't defend yourself—your hand trembles. ZEÏN (wounding him). What think you of that blow? SIDI NOUMAN (striking him). And of this ZEIN (on the ground). Rejoice, Cordovian! you have struck down the heir of Yémén. SIDI NOUMAN. Wretch! I have killed the preserver of my life! ZEIN. And I have drawn upon my guest!—I, Schieck of the tribe of Humeidas the hospitable!-Allah! Allah! thou art just! SIDI NOUMAN. What torments do I not deserve! I have broken the oath sworn by Cuaba the prohibited—and have murdered my friend! MOJANA. My lord SIDI NOUMAN. Miserable!-'tis you have killed him—you are no woman, but some evil spirit-Eblis himself!(15) ZEIN. Eblis-he awaits me! Adieu, brother.-Abjer— forget him not!-A negress of Dongola is with child by me. SIDI NOUMAN. My brother! Zeïn, Zeïn! MOJANA. My lord, permit your slave [Dies. SIDI NOUMAN (striking her with his poniard). There, wretch! the blood of Zeïn mingles with thine. Come, Zeïn, we are friends.-The woman is dead!-Zein, Zeïn! You don't answer, my brother? MUSTAPHA (entering). My lord, supper is ready-and the piece finished! SIDI NOUMAN. Ah! that's another thing. MOJANA. Ladies and Gentlemen : [All rise. Thus finishes African Love; a Comedy, or, if you will, a Tragedy, as the phrase runs at present. You are about to exclaim, "The two gentlemen were very ungallant!"-Agreed: and our author was wrong not to have made his Bedouin more a Spaniard in his sentiments. To this he presumes to reply, by pretending that the Bedouins are not in the habit of going to Madrid to learn to distinguish between persons; and, that their love partakes of the burning heat of the Sahara. What think you of the argument? Just what you please:-but excuse the faults of the author. NOTES. (1) The word Sidi, before a proper name, denotes a Mussulman who has made the pilgrimage to Mecca. (2) I leave it to the learned to determine the value of the dinar. (3) The Caliphs united the temporal and spiritual authorities; the disobedient were cut off from the djemeat, or excommunicated. (4) Poniard. (5) One of the Angels of Death. (6) Place to which the Mussulmen address their prayers: it is a square house, said to have been built by Abraham. (7) Market. (8) Mode of resuscitating travellers overcome by the heat of the desert. (9) See Mr. Otter's Travels to Mount Libanus. (10) Allusion to an Arab superstition. (11) Chief of a tribe. (12) The Devil. (13) South-wind in the desert (see Travels of Ali Bey). (14) See Lady M. W. Montague's Letters. (15) Evil Genius-a kind of Medusa. END. |