a pearl. Life, soul also, according to Wilkins.
[34] Ferdousee's great heroic poem. It is remarkable that the Peries are very rarely spoken of in this poem. They merely appear in it with the birds and beasts among the subjects of the first Iranian monarchs.
[35] Chap. xx. translation of Jonathan Scott, 1799.
[36] See below, [Shetland].
[37] i. e. possessed, insane. It is like the νυμφοληπτος of the Greeks.
[38] It must be recollected that the Peries are of both sexes: we have just spoken of Peri kings, and of the brothers of Merjân.
[39] In the Shâh Nâmeh it is said of Prince Siyawush, that when he was born he was bright as a Peri. We find the poets everywhere comparing female beauty to that of superior beings. The Greeks and Romans compared a lovely woman to Venus, Diana, or the nymphs; the Persians to a Peri; the ancient Scandinavians would say she was Frith sem Alfkone, "fair as an Alf-woman;" and an Anglo-Saxon poet says of Judith that she was Elf-sheen, or fair as an Elf. In the Lay of Gugemer it is said,
Dedenz la Dame unt trovée
Ki de biauté resanbloit Fée.
The same expression occurs in Méon (3, 412); and in the Romant de la Rose we meet, jure que plus belle est que fée (10, 425). In the Pentamerone it is said of a king's son, lo quale essenno bello comme a no fato.