[3] The country of the Hyperboreans. These people were supposed to be
placed so far north that the north wind could not affect them; they lived
longer than any other mortals; passed their whole time in music and
dancing, etc.
[4] The Egyptians represented the dawn of day by a young boy seated upon a
lotos. Observing that the lotos showed its head above water at sunrise,
and sank again at his setting, they conceived the idea of consecrating
this flower to Osiris, or the sun.
[5] The ancients esteemed those flowers and trees the sweetest upon which
the rainbow had appeared to rest; and the wood they chiefly burned in
sacrifices, was that which the smile of Iris had consecrated.
RINGS AND SEALS.
"Go!" said the angry, weeping maid,
"The charm is broken!--once betrayed,
"Never can this wronged heart rely
"On word or look, on oath or sigh.
"Take back the gifts, so fondly given,
"With promised faith and vows to heaven;
"That little ring which, night and morn,
"With wedded truth my hand hath worn;
"That seal which oft, in moments blest,
"Thou hast upon my lip imprest,
"And sworn its sacred spring should be
"A fountain sealed[1] for only thee:
"Take, take them back, the gift and vow,
"All sullied, lost and hateful now!"
I took the ring--the seal I took,
While, oh, her every tear and look
Were such as angels look and shed,
When man is by the world misled.
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