[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

was secretly surrounded by invisible beings of two species, the Peris, who were friendly to man, and the
Dives, who exercised their ingenuity in involving them in error and guilt. The Peris were beautiful and
benevolent, but imperfect and offending beings; they are supposed to have borne a considerable resemblance
to the Fairies of the western world. The Dives were hideous in form, and of a malignant disposition. The Peris
subsist wholly on perfumes, which the Dives, being of a grosser nature, hold in abhorrence. This mythology is
said to have been unknown in Arabia till long after Mahomet: the only invisible beings we read of in their
early traditions are the Gins, which term, though now used for the most part as synonimous with Dives,
originally signified nothing more than certain infernal fiends of stupendous power, whose agency was hostile
to man.
There was perpetual war between the Peris and the Dives, whose proper habitation was Kaf, or Caucasus, a
line of mountains which was supposed to reach round the globe. In these wars the Peris generally came off
with the worst; and in that case they are represented in the traditional tales of the East, as applying to some
gallant and heroic mortal to reinforce their exertions. The warriors who figure in these narratives appear all to
have been ancient Persian kings. Tahmuras, one of the most celebrated of them, is spoken of as mounting
upon Simurgh, surrounded with talismans and enchanted armour, and furnished with a sword the dint of
which nothing could resist. He proceeds to Kaf, or Ginnistan, and defeats Arzshank, the chief of the Dives,
but is defeated in turn by a more formidable competitor. The war appears to be carried on for successive ages
with alternate advantage and disadvantage, till after the lapse of centuries Rustan kills Arzshank, and finally
reduces the Dives to a subject and tributary condition. In all this there is a great resemblance to the fables of
Scandinavia; and the Northern and the Eastern world seem emulously to have contributed their quota of
chivalry and romance, of heroic achievements and miraculous events, of monsters and dragons, of amulets
and enchantment, and all those incidents which most rouse the imagination, and are calculated to instil into
generous and enterprising youth a courage the most undaunted and invincible.
GENERAL SILENCE OF THE EAST RESPECTING INDIVIDUAL
NECROMANCERS.
Asia has been more notorious than perhaps any other division of the globe for the vast multiplicity and variety
of its narratives of sorcery and magic. I have however been much disappointed in the thing I looked for in the
first place, and that is, in the individual adventures of such persons as might be supposed to have gained a
high degree of credit and reputation for their skill in exploits of magic. Where the professors are many (and
GENERAL SILENCE OF THE EAST RESPECTING INDIVIDUAL NECROMANCERS. 61
Lives of the Necromancers
they have been perhaps no where so numerous as those of magic in the East), it is unavoidable but that some
should have been more dextrous than others, more eminently gifted by nature, more enthusiastic and
persevering in the prosecution of their purpose, and more fortunate in awakening popularity and admiration
among their contemporaries. In the instances of Apollonius Tyanaeus and others among the ancients, and of
Cornelius Agrippa, Roger Bacon and Faust among the moderns, we are acquainted with many biographical
particulars of their lives, and can trace with some degree of accuracy, their peculiarities of disposition, and
observe how they were led gradually from one study and one mode of action to another. But the magicians of
the East, so to speak, are mere abstractions, not characterised by any of those habits which distinguish one
individual of the human race from another, and having those marking traits and petty lineaments which make
the person, as it were, start up into life while he passes before our eyes. They are merely reported to us as men
prone to the producing great signs and wonders, and nothing more.
Two of the most remarkable exceptions that I have found to this rule, occur in the examples of Rocail, and of
Hakem, otherwise called Mocanna.
ROCAIL.
The first of these however is scarcely to be called an exception, as lying beyond the limits of all credible
history, Rocail is said to have been the younger brother of Seth, the son of Adam. A Dive, or giant of mount
Caucasus, being hard pressed by his enemies, sought as usual among the sons of men for aid that might
extricate him out of his difficulties. He at length made an alliance with Rocail, by whose assistance he arrived
at the tranquillity he desired, and who in consequence became his grand vizier, or prime minister. He
governed the dominions of his principal for many years with great honour and success; but, ultimately
perceiving the approaches of old age and death, he conceived a desire to leave behind him a monument
worthy of his achievements in policy and war. He according erected, we are not told by what means, a
magnificent palace, and a sepulchre equally worthy of admiration. But what was most entitled to notice, he
peopled this palace with statues of so extraordinary a quality, that they moved and performed all the functions
and offices of living men, so that every one who beheld them would have believed that they were actually
informed with souls, whereas in reality all they did was by the power of magic, in consequence of which,
though they were in fact no more than inanimate matter, they were enabled to obey the behests, and perform
the will, of the persons by whom they were visited. [147]
HAKEM, OTHERWISE MOCANNA.
Hakem was a leader in one of the different divisions of the followers of Mahomet. To inspire the greater awe [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]