[39] When a Persian monarch desires to show his special regard for any great man who has come to his court, he presents him with a khil’at, or robe of honour, which is often very valuable.
[40] Compared with this what was the archery feat of Locksley (alias Robin Hood), as described in Ivanhoe? It seems to have been a common practice in Persia to suspend a finger-ring as the mark and prize in an archery competition. A story is told of a Sháh who, while on a pleasure excursion to Massala Shíráz, appointed an archery contest for the amusement of himself and his courtiers. He caused a gold ring, set with a valuable gem, to be fixed on the dome of ’Asád, and it was announced that whosoever should send an arrow through the ring should obtain it as the reward of his skill. The four hundred skilled archers forming the royal body-guard each shot at the ring without success. It happened that a boy on a neighbouring house-top was at the same time diverting himself with a little bow, when one of his arrows, shot at random, went through the ring. The boy, having thus obtained the prize, immediately burned his bow, shrewdly observing that he had done so in order that the reputation of this his first feat should never be impaired. (Sa’dí’s Gulistân, or Rose-Garden, ch. iii). The famous Persian poet and robber-chief Kurroglú had a band of 777 men under his command, and Demurchy-oglú (i.e. the son of the blacksmith) offered himself for a vacancy. Kurroglú, in order to test the nerve of the candidate, bade him sit down; then taking an apple from his pocket and a ring from his finger, he stuck the ring in the apple, and ordered one of his men to remove the cap from the head of the new comer. Having placed the apple on the young man’s head, Kurroglú rode to one side and bent his bow and continued to pass one arrow after another through the ring. Out of sixty arrows that were shot not one went astray. (Chodzko’s Popular Poetry of Persia, pp. 88, 89). Here we have the feat of William Tell—with a difference.
[41] The duty of the muezzin is to chant the call to prayer (adán) from the minaret of the mosque five times every day. Blind men are generally employed as muezzins, in order that they should not overlook the terraces, or flat roofs, of the houses, where the inmates generally sleep during very hot weather.
[42] The Súfís are the mystics of Islám, and profess to have attained, by meditation, so advanced a stage of spiritual perfection as to render the teachings of the Kurán and the ordinary religious observances quite unnecessary to them. They are generally considered by the “orthodox” as arrant infidels. For an interesting account of some of their public “religious” performances, see the chapter on the Dancing Darveshes in Lane’s Modern Egyptians.
[43] Muhammed.
[44] In primitive times even kings were proud of their skill in the art of cookery. Thus in the charming story of Nala and Damayanti (an episode of the great Hindú epic, the Mahábhárata) the good Rájá is recognised by his devoted wife, who had been long separated from him, by some meat of his dressing. And in the other grand Indian epic, the Rámáyana, the demi-god Rámá is represented as killing and cooking the dinner of his spouse Sitá and himself:
Their thirst allayed, the princes ply the chase,
And a fat stag soon falls beneath their arrows.
A fire they kindle next, and dress their prize;
Then, offering to the gods and manes made,