ler of hearts, who unites the magic of talismans with loveliness
transcending that of the _peris!_ When she bent the soft arch of her
eyebrows, she pierced the heart through and through with the arrows of her
eyelashes; and when she smiled, the heart of the most rigid ascetic was
intoxicated! She was gorgeously arrayed, and covered all over with
jewels--and the _tout-ensemble_ of her appearance was such as would have
riveted the gaze of the inhabitants of the spheres--what, then, more can a
mere mortal say?"[9]

[9] The sober prose of the Parsees presents, as usual, an amusing
contrast with the highflown rhapsodies of the Moslem; their
remarks on the same lady are comprised in the pithy
observation--"We should not have taken her for more than
twenty-six years of age; but we are told she is near fifty."

At Rundell and Bridge's, to a view of the glittering treasures of whose
establishment the Khan was next introduced, he was not less astonished at
the incalculable value of the articles he saw exhibited, "where the
precious metals and magnificent jewellery of all sorts were scattered
about as profusely as so many sorts of fruit in our Delhi bazars"--as
surprised at being informed that many of the nobles, and even of the royal
family, here deposited their plate and jewels for safe custody; and that,
"though all these valuables were left without a guard of soldiers, this
shop has never been known to be attacked and plundered by robbers and
thieves, who not unfrequently break into other houses.' Among the models
of celebrated gems here shown him, he particularizes a jewel which, for
ages, has been the wonder of the East--"the famous _Koh-in-Noor_,
(Mountain of Light,) now in the possession of the ruler of Lahore and well
known to have been forcibly seized by him from Shah-Shoojah, king of Cabul,
when a fugitive in the Panjab;" as well as another, (the Pigot diamond,)
"now belonging to Mohammed Ali of Egypt." The Adelaide Gallery of Science
is passed over with the remark, that it is, on the whole, inferior to the
Polytechnic, which he had previously visited. But the Diorama, with the
views of Damascus, Acre, &c., seems to have afforded him great
gratification, as well as to have perplexed him not a little, by the
apparent accuracy of its perspective. "Some objects delineated actually
appeared to be several _kos_ (a measure of about two miles) from us,
others nearer, and some quite close. I marvelled how su