Penny Dreadfuls, 1900 · page 111 of 142
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, and the Salaman and Absal of Jami — page 111: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains running prose poetry from a work titled "Salámán and Absál" (page 85). The text describes Salámán constructing a crescent-shaped vessel from scented woods and sailing away with Absál across the sea, using elaborate imagery comparing their departure to celestial bodies. A footnote explains Eastern astronomical mythology regarding the Sidereal Dragon and its relation to lunar nodes, citing Sir W. Jones's scholarly works. The page appears to be from a Victorian-era literary publication, likely a serialized edition of this romantic or mystical narrative.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
SALAMAN AND ABSAL. Scarce visible, hither and hither slipping, As silver scissors slice a blue brocade ; But should the Dragon coil’d in the abyss’ Kmerge to light, his starry counter-sign Would shrink into the depth of Heav’n aghast. SaLt{mAn eyed the moving wilderness On which he thought, once launcht, no foot, nor eye Should ever follow; forthwith he devis’d Of sundry scented woods along the shore A little shallop like a Quarter-moon, Wherein Absaél and He like Sun and Moon Enter’d as into some Celestial Sign ; That, figured like a bow, but arrow-like In flight, was feather’d with a little sail, And, pitcht upon the water like a duck, So with her bosom sped to her Desire. When they had sailed their vessel for a Moon, And marr’d their beauty with the wind o’ the Sea, 1 The Sidereal Dragon, whose Head, according to the Pauranic (or poetic) astronomers of the East, devoured the Sun and Moon in Eclipse. “ But we know,” said Ramachandra to Sir W. Jones, “that the supposed Head and Tail of the Dragon mean only the Nodes, or points formed by intersections of the Ecliptic and the Moon’s Orbit.”—Sir W. Jones’ Works, vol. iv., } p. 74. Or COMmiclbooks.com