From Allah, love, for you and me.”
“Husband,” quoth she, “God helps us all,
Both prince and beggar, great and small.”
Abdul replied, “But, girl, you see,
God would have perished but for me!”
Facsimile of Rude Persian Woodcut.
The reading of poetry is much in vogue among the upper classes to promote sleep! and even the most ignorant can rattle off long recitations. So common is the habit of introducing poetry, that Europeans are looked on as very ignorant, because their conversation is prosaic; and one of the staff obtained quite a reputation as a well-read man in a curious manner. He was acquainted with one (and only one) verse of Persian poetry, a very well-known one. It was this:—
“For the mole on the cheek of that girl of Shiraz
I would give away Samarkand and Bokhara.”