[44]. A Century of Ghazels, or a Hundred Odes, selected and translated from the Divān of Hāfiz, by S.R. (Preliminary Notice, pp. viii, ix.)
[45]. Flowers from the “Gulistān” and “Bostān” of Sadi. By S. R.
[46]. It has long been a barbarous practice in Persia to pluck out the eyes of political offenders. Morier, in his romance of Zohrab the Hostage, represents the brutal tyrant Aga Muhammad Shāh, during the horrible massacre which followed the capture of Astrābād, as coolly counting, with the handle of his riding-switch, the number of pairs of eyes placed before him on a tray; and a reference to the account of this monster’s conduct after the capture of Kirmān, in Sir John Malcolm’s History of Persia, will show that the novelist has not exaggerated in this matter.
[47]. Nigārīn: idol-like, beautiful, embellished, a beloved object.
[48]. Under the title of Hindoo Tales (London: Strahan & Co.), Dr P. W. Jacob has issued a very readable translation of this entertaining romance.
[49]. Tibetan Tales, derived from Indian Sources. Translated from the Tibetan of the Kah-Gyur, by F. Anton Von Schiefner. Done into English, from the German, by W. R. S. Ralston, M.A. London: Trübner & Co.
[50]. Descriptive Catalogue of the Mackenzie Collection of Oriental MSS. By H. H. Wilson. Calcutta, 1828. Vol. i, p. 17.
[51]. Translated from the German of Bergmann, by Mr William J. Thoms, and published, in 1834, in his very interesting Lays and Legends of Various Nations, a work which is now become extremely scarce, and well merits being reprinted.
[52]. The King was wont to visit the well where Abū Saber lay, and to jeer and mock his practice of patience.
[53]. That is, the story of Abraha, obscurely referred to in the opening paragraph, page [56]. Abraha, we are there informed, “was the son of the King of Zangībār, who, by chance, had fallen into slavery, and never disclosed the secret to any one.” Lescallier says, that he was reduced to slavery “by some extraordinary adventure,” but the text does not explain the nature of the “adventure.”