[154]. The affection of parents for their children is often a blind instinct, and sometimes selfish, though, after all, there is doubtless truth in these lines:
“A mother’s love!
If there be one thing pure,
Where all beside is sullied,
That can endure
When all else pass away:
If there be aught
Surpassing human deed, or word, or thought,
It is a mother’s love!”
[155]. Surma is a collyrium applied to the edges of the eyelids to increase the lustre of the eyes. A Persian poet, addressing the damsel of whom he is enamoured, says, “For eyes so intoxicated with love’s nectar what need is there of surma?”—This part of the story seems to be garbled; in another text of the romance of Hatim Ta’í it is only after the surma has been applied to the covetous man’s eyes that he beholds the hidden treasures.