[FN#10] "The palm is a very common plant in this country,
(Assyria,) and generally fruitful; this they cultivate like fig-trees
and it produces them bread, wine and honey." See Beloe's notes to his
translation of Herodotus. Mr. Gibbon adds, that the diligent natives
celebrated, either in verse or prose, three hundred and sixty uses to
which the trunk, the branches, the leaves, the juice and the fruit of
this plant were applied. Nothing can be more curious and interesting
than the natural history of the palm tree.
XV.
"When gaining sudden strength, he raised his hand,
And in this guise did bless me, "Mayst thou be
A crown to him who weds thee.--In a land
Far distant bides a captive. Hearken me
"And choose thee now a bridegroom meet: to day
O'er broad Euphrates' steepest banks a child
Fled from his youthful nurse's arms; in play
Elate, he bent him o'er the brink, and smiled
"To see their fears who followed him--but who
The keen wild anguish of that scene can tell--
He bend o'er the brink, and in their view,
But ah! too far beyond their aid--he fell.
XVI.
"They wailed--the long torn ringlets of their hair [FN#11]
Freighted the pitying gale; deep rolled the stream
And swallowed the fair child; no succour there--
They women--whither look--who to redeem
"What the fierce waves were preying on?--when lo!
Approached a stranger boy.
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