Thalaba the Destroyer Part 47

3. _Certissimum quia evidentissimum_--at _Barii_ (Bari on the Adriatic) in Apulia a liquor flows from the bones of St. Nicholas, they call it St. Nicholas's manna, which being preserved in bottles never corrupts or breeds worms--except the possessor be corrupt himself--and daily it works miracles.

4. At Tolentinum (Tolentino in the Marche of Anconia) the arms of St.

Nicholas swell with blood, and pour out copious streams--when any great calamity impends over Christendom.

5. The blood of St. Jaunarius at Naples.

These, says Maracci, are _miracula perseverantia_, permanent miracles--and it cannot be said as of the Mohammedan ones, that they are tricks of the Devil.

[175] In the Bahar-Da.n.u.sh the Simorg is mentioned as a genus--not an individual, this is heresy,--the unity of the Simorg being expressed in all the books of canonical Romance.

The Simorg is a monstrous Bird like a Griffin; in _the History of Caherman_, he is made to say, That he had existed through all the revolutions of ages and of created things, which pa.s.sed before the time of Adam. These created things were reasonable beings, but had not human shape. They were governed by the various Solomons mentioned in the note Vol. I. Page 214.

[176] Araf is a place between the Paradise and the h.e.l.l of the Mohammedans, some deem it a veil of separation, some a strong wall; others hold it to be a Purgatory in which those believers will remain, whose good and evil works have been so equal that they were neither virtuous enough to enter Paradise, nor guilty enough to be condemned to the fire of h.e.l.l. From thence they see the glory of the Blessed, and are near enough to congratulate them; but their ardent desire to partake the same happiness becomes a great pain. At length at the Day of Judgement, when all men before they are judged, shall be cited to render homage to their Creator, those who are here confined shall prostrate themselves before the face of the Lord, in adoration: and by this act of religion which shall be accounted a merit, the number of their good works will exceed their evil ones, and they will enter into glory.

Saadi says that Araf appears a h.e.l.l to the happy, and a Paradise to the d.a.m.ned.

_D'Herbelot._