[Footnote 28: Milton alludes to this custom in Paradise Lost:
Where the gorgeous east with richest hand
Showers on her Kings barbaric pearl and gold.
In the note on this passage by Warburton, it is said to have been an eastern ceremony, at the coronation of their Kings, to powder them with gold-dust and seed-pearl. The expression in Firdusi is, "he showered or scattered gems." It was usual at festivals, and the custom still exists, to throw money amongst the people. In Háfiz, the term used is nisar, which is of the same import. Clarke, in the second volume of his Travels, speaks of the four principal Sultanas of the Seraglio at Constantinople being powdered with diamonds:
"Long spangled robes, open in front, with pantaloons embroidered in gold and silver, and covered by a profusion of pearls and precious stones, displayed their persons to great advantage. Their hair hung in loose and very thick tresses on each side of their cheeks, falling quite down to the waist, and covering their shoulders behind. Those tresses were quite powdered with diamonds, not displayed according to any studied arrangement, but as if carelessly scattered, by handfuls, among their flowing locks."
—Vol. ii. p. 14.]
[Footnote 29: In his descriptions of battle-array, Firdusi seldom omits "golden slippers," which, however, I have not preserved in this place.]
[Footnote 30: The original is Sandur[=u]s, sandaraca; for which I have substituted amber, Sandur[=u]s is the Arabic name for Gum Juniper.]
[Footnote 31: The banners were adorned with the figure of an elephant, to denote his royal descent.]
[Footnote 32: The text says that he was also the son-in-law of Rustem.]
[Footnote 33: The word Guráz signifies a wild boar, but this acceptation is not very accordant to Mussulman notions, and consequently it is not supposed, by the orthodox, to have that meaning in the text. It is curious that the name of the warrior, Guráz, should correspond with the bearings on the standard. This frequently obtains in the heraldry of Europe. Family bearings seem to be used in every country of any degree of civilization. Krusenstern, the Russian circumnavigator, speaking of the Japanese, says, "Everyone has his family arms worked into his clothes, in different places, about the size of a half dollar, a practice usual to both sexes; and in this manner any person may be recognized, and the family to which he belongs easily ascertained. A young lady wears her father's arms until after her marriage, when she assumes those of her husband. The greatest mark of honor which a Prince or a Governor can confer upon any one, is to give him a cloak with his arms upon it, the person having such a one wearing his own arms upon his under dress.">[