[213] Bahrám is the Persian name of the planet Mars; and of all who have ever borne the name, the Persian king Bahrám-i Ghúr (so called from his passion for hunting the wild ass) is the most renowned in song or story.
[214] In the East no person ever visits his superior without carrying in his hand a present of some kind, called the nazar in Persian.—See the First Book of Samuel, ix, 7.
[215] To wit, Mulk-i Nighárín, the country appropriated by Táj ul-Mulúk, where he caused his grand palace to be erected by the fairies.—See ante, p. [281].
[216] A much greater “crush” than even that in Ceylon!—see [preceding page].
[217] See ante, notes on pp. [232] and [297].
[218] “Violet.”
[219] “To account for the allegorical passion entertained by the nightingale for the rose, which is the subject of so much beautiful imagery in Persian poetry, we must consider,” says Sir William Ouseley, “that the plaintive voice of that sweet bird is first heard at the same season of the year in which the rose begins to blow. By a natural association of ideas they are therefore connected as the constant and inseparable attendants of the spring. It is probable, too, that the nightingale’s favourite retreat may be the rose-garden, and the leaves of that flower occasionally its food; but it is certain that he is delighted with its odour and sometimes indulges the fragrant luxury (if I may be allowed the expression) to such excess as to fall from the branch intoxicated and helpless to the ground.”—Persian Miscellanies, p. 91.
[220] The transformation of a man into a bird occurs very often in Asiatic fictions: there are numerous instances in the Kathá Sarit Ságara and other Indian collections. This is commonly done by fastening a string round the victim’s neck, or sticking a pin in his head, and uttering certain magical words; and by removing the string or the pin the man is at once restored to his natural form.
[221] Here, in the original, the pious author thus addresses his reader: “My friend, you are as blind as they! You seek at Heaven’s footstool for the Being who dwells, without your suspecting it, in the habitation of your own heart. You seek far, far away, when he is quite near.” Cf. Acts, xvii, 27.
[222] “Rose-cheek.”