of the brain and the occasion of megrims; for tongues which had been bound, have by one approved and clever speech solved many difficult knots; and mischievous words have by a single inopportune allusion, bound the neck of the speaker with heavy chains.

O king! if these words should reach Shanzabah, and he should discover the nature of his situation and ascertain his disgrace, it is possible that he may attempt to resist, and begin to fight or excite rebellion: and masters of prudence have not thought secret punishment suitable for a public offence, nor assigned public punishment to secret crimes. The advisable course is to meet his concealed offence with a hidden retribution.' The Lion said, 'To banish and remove my intimates on mere suspicion, and, without a palpable certainty, to endeavour to ignore all their claims, is with one's own hand to strike an axe against one's own foot, and to turn suddenly aside from the path of generous conduct and the road of good faith.

STANZA.

Nor law, nor reason, could to this agree,

That without proof, kings should their judgment give;
For their high mandate, like heaven's own decree,

Now snatches life away-now grants to live.'

Damnah replied, "There is no evidence that rulers can have better than their own discernment. When this perfidious traitor approaches, let the king cast a scrutinizing glance upon him, and the foulness of his principles will be exhibited in his graceless visage, and the deformity of his purpose in his repulsive appearance, and the crookedness of his heart will be shewn by his changing color, and his emotion as he advances, and by his looking to the left and right, and before and behind him, and by his being prepared for a struggle and collected for an encounter.' The Lion said, 'Thou hast well said, and if any of these signs be observable, of course the dust of doubt will be removed from the path of certainty, and the anxiety of suspicion will be changed for a state of absolute conviction.' When Damnah perceived that

1 Keene translates, and the proof to be given is this, that a witty thing, not said before, may distress a man by vexation of heart, or give him life.' In the next sentence he renders kamin 'the ambush,' but I take it as an adjective agreeing with lafzí.

2 Lit. Gives the speaker to the wind, the instant that he utters it.' 3 Changing colour' is certainly very inapplicable to an ox. This is the absurdity of an apologue, which, after all, seems to me a most unnatural and unnecessary invention.

by his mischief-exciting insinuations, the fire of calamity had begun to blaze on that side, he wished to see the Ox, and on his part, too, to kindle the flame of disastrous results.

Like fire is strife betwixt two enemies,

COUPLET.

The luckless mischief-maker wood supplies.1

He bethought himself that his interview with Shanzabah ought also to spring from the Lion's suggestion and advice, that he might avoid suspicion. He said [therefore], 'O king! if the high command obtains the honor of being issued, I will see Shanzabah, and having ascertained somewhat of the secrets of his mind and of his hoarded intentions, I will respectfully state it.' The Lion gave his permission, and Damnah approached Shanzabah like one grief-stricken and visited by calamity, and performed the required salutations and compliments. Shanzabah, after shewing him suitable respect, thus, with courtesy and affection, addressed him; 'O Damnah!

HEMISTICH.

Bethink thee ever thou forgettest me!

It is many days since thou hast enlightened the eyes of thy intimates with the rays of thy beauty, or converted the cottage of thy friends into a rose-garden with the flowers of the plants of social and kindly intercourse.

COUPLET.

Through ages thou-one moment e'en-thy friend recallest not,

Yet not one moment is by him the thought of thee forgot.'

Damnah said, 'Though personally I have been excluded from the honor of an interview, yet in thought and spirit I have constantly kept company with the idea of thy heart-enlivening beauty, and have unceasingly sown the seed of friendship and affection in the ground of the heart.

COUPLET.

To thee my soul! I from my heart have secret windows made,
Unknown to thee, and yet with thee, full oft in love I've played.

And in the cell of retirement and the corner of solitude, I have been engaged in the daily duties of prayer and praise, which may be to thee the cause of increasing fortune; and I shall continue so occupied.' The Ox said, 'What is the cause of this retirement?' Damnah replied, 'When a person cannot be master of his own will, and is captive to the authority of another, and draws not a single breath without fear and danger, and does not pass a moment without dread and trembling for his life and body, and when he cannot utter a word without terror and alarm, wherefore not choose the corner of his cot and close the door in retirement against both stranger and acquaintance?

1 These lines occur in the eighth chapter of the Gulistán, p. 267, 1. 15 of my translation.

QUATRAIN.

From the mischief of this troublous [false and fickle] world [of pain],

Up, [my friend!] and some asylum-where thou canst it find-obtain ;
But if thou no foot to flee hast, then at least thy hand extend!

Grasp the skirt of safe retirement [and there let thy sorrow end].'

The Ox answered, 'O Damnah! develope thy statement more clearly, and explain, in detail, the matter to which thou hast briefly alluded, in order that the advantage of thy counsels may be more general, and the benefit of thy discourse more complete.' Damnah responded, Six things in this world. are impossible without six things, viz. :—worldly wealth without pride, and1 the pursuit of the objects of desire without difficulty, and to sit with women without calamity, and to expect aught from the sordid without disgrace, and association with the wicked without regret, and attendance on kings without misfortune. To no one do they give a draught from the wine-cellar of the world, but he becomes intoxicated and presumptuous, and raises up the head of rebellion from the collar of contumacy and pride. And no one moves a step in pursuit of lust that he does not fall into a state of ruin; and no man sits with women but he becomes calamitously involved in a variety of mischievous results; and no person enters into friendship with wicked and depraved men, but eventually loads himself with remorse; and no one applies to mean and low people who does not become contemptible and dishonored; and not an individual chooses to attend on princes without finding it impossible to escape from that cruel vortex.

VERSE.

Wouldst thou judge right of princes' company?

Then view it as a vast and shoreless sea.

To such an ocean full of risk and fear,

Most wretched aye the man that is most near.

And on the same subject they have said,

COUPLET.

Upon the sea 'tis true is boundless gain

Wouldst thou be safe?-upon the shore remain. '3

Shanzabah said, 'Thy words indicate that thou hast met with something offensive from the Lion, and that thou art overcome with dread and alarm of his terrors.' Damnah replied, 'I do not speak these words with reference to my own person, nor am I distressed on my own account, but I am thinking more of my friends than of myself in this matter, and this grief and chagrin

1 Keene appears to have taken mutaba' at out of its proper place. He renders the passage 'worldly wealth without pride and subserviency,' but this makes but indifferent sense, and destroys the equality of the sentences which are demarcated by the wa. I read wa mutaba'at-i hawa as one sentence.

2 Keene translates tam'a ba laimán, a desire for indulgence,' or perhaps he read the passage differently, for laim signifies sordid,' 'base,'

3 These lines occur in the Gulistán, ch, i., story xvi., p. 63, of my translation.

which has overwhelmed me is for thy sake, and thou knowest how the antecedents of friendship and early ties of attachment have existed between us, and the promises and compacts which we formed at the first, and which during this interval have been mainly fulfilled with good faith; and I have no alternative but to convey to thee information of whatever may have occurred, whether good or bad, beneficial or injurious.' Shanzabah quaked inwardly, and rejoined, O kind comrade and sympathising friend! acquaint me, with all speed, as to the true state of the case, and fail in no particular of the minutiae of kind feeling and attachment.' Damnah answered, 'I have heard from an authentic source, that the Lion has spoken with his august tongue to this effect, Shanzabah has become excessively fat, and he is not wanted at this court, and it is no matter whether he be absent or present. I shall give an entertainmeut to the beasts with his flesh, and I will make of his body, one day, the royal repast and a banquet for the public.' I, when I heard this speech-being aware of his violence and injustice came hither, that, having warned thee, I might establish the goodness of my faith by a clear proof, and might fulfil what is incumbent on me by the law of honor and the rules of right feeling and generosity.

COUPLET.

I tell thee all that he who sent me bade,

Whether my words thee warn or make thee sad.

At present it appears to me that thy advisable course is to devise a plan, and with the utmost expedition to turn thy attention to the preparation of some expedient, and the encountering this crisis; if peradventure, a means of escape from this vortex should appear, and by some ingenious device salvation from this peril be attainable.' When Shanzabah had heard the words of Damnah, and resolved in his mind the promises and covenants of the Lion, he said, 'O Damnah! It is impossible that the Lion should play me false, and now moreover I have displayed no perfidy, and my firm step has not slipped from the path of true service, and again I have a belief of the sincerity of thy words, and an opinion of thy good intentions. The conclusion is therefore that [some parties] have concocted falsehoods against me, and by imposture and deceit have moved the Lion to wrath, and in his service there is a faction of worthless persons all profound masters of slander, and bold and audacious in treason and violence, and them he has oft proved, and has observed a variety of treacherous acts and foul deeds, and of course whatever they say, on that head, of others he believes and judges accordingly, and assuredly through the evil influence of the society of the wicked, evil suspicions arise with regard to the good, and by these groundless doubts the right course becomes concealed, and the story of the Goose and his false impressions from experience, is a proof of what I have said quite sufficient, and bears ample testimony to this state of things.' Damnah inquired, 'How was that?'

STORY XVII.

Shanzabah said, 'A Goose saw the brightness of the moon in the water, and, thinking that it was the moon, tried to lay hold of it, but got nothing. Several times it made a similar effort, and when it saw that all it got by the chace was what the man athirst gets by gazing on the mirage, or what the deluded destitute obtains by searching through ruined habitations [for treasures], it altogether abandoned the pursuit of fish, and all at once discontinued its occupation. The next night, whenever it saw a fish, it fancied it was the glitter of the moon, and made no effort after it, and gave no heed whatever to it, and exclaimed,

HEMISTICH.

Who tries the tried-on him will fall regret.1

So the fruit of his experience was this, that he continued hungry and passed his time fasting and foodless.

And if they have made the Lion listen to anything about me, and, in accordance with the saying, he who listens is alienated,' a feeling of aversion has arisen in his heart, and he has given credit to what has been said, the cause of all this has been that same experience which he has had of others; and yet in point of reality, there is as much difference between me and the rest, as between bright day and dark night, and the vault of heaven and earth's centre.

DISTICHS.

Think not the virtuous and thyself the same;
Shir has two meanings with a single name.2
In the same meadow feed two wasp-like things,
Yet one gives honey, and the other stings.
Together graze two deer, from one proceeds
Pure fragrant musk, the other simply bleeds.'

Damnah said, 'Perhaps the aversion of the lion may not spring from this cause, but on account of its being a custom with kings to promote a person to high rank, undeserved on his part, while without any apparent reason they make another, who is a man of worth, the object of ruinous spoliation.'

1 That is, Who attempts to do a thing after decided failures, will only meet with disappointment.'

2 Shir signifies' milk' and 'lion,' and is pronounced, as is evident by this line, in both cases, identically, and not, as some pretend, with the m'aruf sound of the vowel in the former case, and the majhúl in the latter.