330 OF THE DERVISES. 



" And, when the dervises are intoxicated with the love of God, the prophet 

 Khyzir (Elias) brings them water to drink from the fountain of life.* 



" The prince of the true believers, Ali, who was the son-in-law of the pro- 

 phet, girded himself for the poor with the girdle of service, and exclaimed, ' / 

 am the servant of the poor.' 



" And thou also, Chems of Tauris ! or rather Djebal ! follow devotedly the 

 career of the dervises, give thyself to the service of the poor ; and in these 

 pious usages thou wilt find the spring of immortality." 



The following ode will give some idea of the morality taught by 

 the ancient dervises. The poem is in the lyric stanza. The poet here 

 treads earthly honours under foot, and in the thought of death sees 

 only an incitement to lead a life conformable to religious principles. 



ODE. 



" Arise, my soul, the morning breaks, awake thou and adore the Eternal ; 

 there is no act more meritorious. Happy is he whom the dawn arouses ! It is 

 thou only, O religvous man ! thou privileged being ! that rises up with the 

 dawn. I recognize thee by thy wisdom ; the delights of the other world will 

 be reserved for thee ! 



" At day-break the diligent cock cries, ' Arise, stand up, whosoever thou 

 art, cast off thy supineness.' But thou who liest inebriated with sleep,, thou 

 nearest him not, neither understandeth what he says. To understand him 

 thou must be wise and viligant. Reason says, ' Arise !' Sloth replies, ' Yet 

 a moment more/ Trample upon sloth, and remember that the dawn is the 

 instant when the Sovereign Master issues his mandates. 



" Weak and contemptible being ! slave of imperious passions ! call to re- 

 membrance, if only for an instant, that thou must die ; yes, thou must die ! 



" All that remains for thee to do is, then, to rise up, that thou mayest shed 

 the precious tears of repentance, and avoid the snares of the great enemy of 

 thy weakness. 



" And thou also must wake with the dawn. What matters it whether 

 thou art called Chems f or Sultan ? Soon, very soon, will thy dust be mingled 

 with the earth : and what then will become of the pomps and distinctions in 

 which thou now glorifiest thyself? " 



The Mevlevi dervises have several convents at Constantinople. The 

 principal is in the suburb of Pera. The oratory, or teke, is divided 

 from the convent, and stands in the burial-ground of the order. This 

 burial ground contains the tomb of the renowned Count Bonneval, 

 who is designated, in the Turkish inscription upon it, by the name of 

 Achmet Pacha. 



The Bedevi dervises in our next number. 



HOPE. 



HOPE gilds the stream of time with sunny ray, 



While swiftly gliding to oblivion's sea ; 

 But O how drear and sad its darkling way 



When that bright gleam has flashed its destiny! 



* Kyzir is here supposed to be the only mortal who had found the fountain of life, 

 whose waters he drank, which rendered him immortal. 'The author calls him the cup- 

 bearer of the dervises. Several Mussulmans confound him with the prophet Elias. 



tDjelaleddin was sultan by birth. Chems-eddin means in Arabic sun of the faith. 

 The poet alludes to the excitements to pride offered by those two names. 



