}
Above the rest, as chief of all the band
Was Picus plac'd, a buckler in his hand;
His other wav'd a long divining wand.
Girt in his Gabin gown the hero sate----"

DRYDEN, AEn. vii.

[481]

_Behind her founder Nysa's walls were rear'd----
----at distance far
The Ganges lav'd the wide-extended war.--_

This is in the perspective manner of the beautiful descriptions of the
figures on the shield of Achilles.--IL. xviii.

[482] _Had Semele beheld the smiling boy._--The Theban Bacchus, to whom
the Greek fabulists ascribed the Indian expedition of Sesostris, king of
Egypt.

[483] Semiramis.

[484] _Call'd Jove his father._--The bon-mot of Olympias on this
pretension of her son Alexander, was admired by the ancients. "This
hot-headed youth, forsooth, cannot be at rest unless he embroil me in a
quarrel with Juno."--QUINT. CURT.

[485]

_The tap'stried walls with gold were pictur'd o'er,
And flow'ry velvet spread the marble floor.--_

According to Osorius.

[486] _A leaf._--The Betel.

[487] _More now we add not._--The tenor of this first conversation
between the zamorim and GAMA, is according to the truth of history.

[488] _What terrors oft have thrill'd my infant breast._--The enthusiasm
with which Monzaida, a Moor, talks of the Portuguese, may perhaps to
some appear unnatural. Camoens seems to be aware of this by giving a
reason for that enthusiasm in the first speech of Monzaida to Gama--

_Heav'n sent you here for some great work divine,
And Heav'n inspires my breast your sacred toils to join._

And, that this Moor did conceive a great affection to GAMA, whose
religion he embraced, and to whom he proved of the utmost service, is
according to the truth of history.

[489] _The ruddy juice by Noah found._--Gen. ix. 20. "And Noah began to
be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard, and he drank of the wine,"
etc.

[490]

_His faith forbade with other tribe to join
The sacred meal, esteem'd a rite divine.--_

The opinion of the sacredness of the table is very ancient in the East.
It is plainly to be discovered in the history of Abraham. When
Melchizedek, a king and priest, blessed Abraham, it is said, "And he
brought forth bread and wine and he blessed him."--Gen. xiv. 18. The
patriarchs only drank wine, according to Dr. Stukely, on their more
solemn festivals, when they were said _to rejoice before the Lord_.
Other customs of the Hi