Page:Lalla Rookh - Moore - 1817.djvu/20

The Great MOKANNA. O'er his features hung
The Veil, the Silver Veil, which he had flung
In mercy there, to hide from mortal sight
His dazzling brow, till man could bear its light.
For, far less luminous, his votaries said,
Were even the gleams, miraculously shed
O'er MOUSSA'S^[1] cheek, when down the Mount he trod
All glowing from the presence of his God!

  On either side, with ready hearts and hands,
His chosen guard of bold Believers stands;
Young fire-eyed disputants, who deem their swords,
On points of faith, more eloquent than words;

And such their zeal, there's not a youth with brand
Uplifted there, but at the Chief's command,
Would make his own devoted heart its sheath,
And bless the lips that doomed so dear a death!
In hatred to the Caliph's hue of night,^[2]
Their vesture, helms and all, is snowy white;

1. Moses.
2. Black was the color adopted by the Caliphs of the House of Abbas, in their garments, turbans, and standards.