And in my collection of his poems, there is a long account of the way a Fal, or Istukharu, is to be taken.

One of his verses contains a natural desire, of possessing wine of two years age, and a mistress of fourteen; which is, by the wisdom of his commentators, perverted into a sublime allusion to Moohummud and the Koran.* It would be a tedious and useless task to examine the merits of the question, but the verses of Hafiz flow so easy and unconstrained, that I doubt whether he ever troubled himself to recollect that Moohummud was forty years old before he commenced his prophetic mission, and that he was two years in delivering the inspired work. Sir William Jones quotes this verse as one that would only bear a literal interpretation; but what beauties will not a skilful commentator discover?

The Huftun, one of the gardens near Sheeraz, contains the remains of Sooltan Sooja, and has, on one side of it, a small building, ornamented with a variety of pictures. I left Gabriel, Moses, and the Prophet, to view the portraits of Hafiz and Sadee. The latter is drawn as an old man,"with a silver beard; and the former in the bloom of youth, with a fine ruddy complexion. He was originally drawn without mustachios; but some painter, taking offence at this appearance of want of manhood, supplied the defect, and has entirely disfigured his countenance. Hafiz is dressed more like a woodman than a poet; and, had I not expected to see his portrait, I should have taken him for a labouring peasant. In this building they have likewise the picture of three elephants, sent by Tippoo Sultan to the King of Persia, ill drawn, and out of proportion. The tomb of Sadee is situated near a small village. Kurcem

The wine two years old signifies the Koran, and chardu becomes forty by dividing the syllables, and multiplying them 4 × 10=40.

Khan spent ten thousand piastres in repairing and embellishing the building, which contains the grave of the learned Sheikh ; but since his time it has fallen into decay, and is now only worthy of notice for possessing, or rather having possessed, the remains of this celebrated poet.* Sadee has written, in the Boostan, a beautiful epitaph for himself; but the Persians wanted the taste to inscribe it upon his tomb:

الا اي که بر خاک ما بكندري

مجاگ غیرنران که یاد آوری

که درزند کي خاک بودست اسم که کرخاک شد سعدي اورا چه غسم

به بچار کي تن فرا خاک داد

چو باد دکر کرد عالم بر آمد

دکر باره باد مش بي لم برد

برد میح

خوش نگفت بلبل جنین خوش

بر استخوانش نروید گلي که

before me.

"O passenger! who walkest over my grave, think of the virtuous persons who have What has Sadee to appregone "hend from being turned into dust? he was but earth when alive. "He humbled himself to the ground, and, like the wind, he encompassed the whole world. He will not continue dust long, "for the winds will scatter him over the whole universe. Yet as long as the garden of science has bloomed, not a nightingale has "warbled so sweetly in it. It would be strange if such a nightingale should die, and not a rose grow upon its grave !”f

66

66

* Tavernier says his tomb was in a mosque.

+ A similar thought is to be found in Dryden.

I beg no pity for this mouldering clay,

For if you give it burial, there it takes

Possession of your earth;

If burnt, and scattered in the air, the winds

That strew my dust, diffuse my royalty,

And spread me o'er your clime; for where one atom

Of mine shall light, know there Sebastian reigns.

Sadee's prophecy may remind us of Horace's, lib. ii. ode 20; or of Ovid's Jamque opus exegi, &c.

Near this is a very curious Chushmu, or canal full of fish, which flows from the hill, apparently through an excavated channel.* I was surprised at not meeting with a Durweesh at Sadee's tomb ; but though his works are much admired, he does not meet with that degree of veneration and respect which is paid to the memory of Hafiz.

The Dil Goosha (heart expanding) is near this, and is the best garden without the city. It is ornamented with some handsome buildings; a stream runs through it, which descends in falls, and the prospect here is more extensive than at any other garden. The Juhan Nooma contains several handsome buildings, particularly one, which is very magnificent. Near to this is the Kolahi Firungee, which derives its name from a building which the Persians say resembles the hat of Europeans, and another known by the name of the Tukhti Qujeereeu. These gardens in general abound in flowers and fruit trees; and the cypress flourishes here in the greatest perfection. None of them appeared to me to be well attended; many of the walks were impassable from the luxuriant growth of the trees; and the flower-beds and fruit-trees appeared to be almost choaked up with weeds. They are rented by persons, whose interest-it is to employ as few labourers as possible. The prince's garden, in the city, I thought superior to any that grace the entrance into Sheeraz; indeed he has robbed all the other gardens of their choicest trees to improve his own. Before I con

clude this chapter, it may be worth while to remark, that the AbiRoknabad is a contemptible little stream, and is not, after it has been joined by many other streams which flow from the hills, at any place six feet broad. Such consequence can poets give to trifling subjects! I entered Sheeraz with a determination to be

Every traveller speaks of this curious building; you descend by a flight of seventy steps to the water; there are recesses for you to sit in, where you may smoke, and enjoy a very different climate to that of Sheeraz.

pleased; there is a degree of enthusiasm, which you feel on visiting a place you have long known at a distance, that ensures a favourable reception to every thing you may behold. You recognise objects with the cordiality of an old acquaintance; and although every thing is novel, you are not indebted to tiresome explanations for a knowledge of their minutest beauties. Under such a prepossession I entered Sheeraz; but whether my expectations were originally too high I cannot determine; I was, however, disappointed.

G

CHAPTER IX.

Persian Method of quartering their Troops and Servants—Celebration of the Death of Omar-Reverence paid to Ali.

WHILE at Sheeraz, I was witness to a scene which appears conformable to the customs of Persia. A few days after the prince's arrival, the troops which had accompanied him from Tuhran, and his servants, were directed to provide themselves with houses in the city. They accordingly divided themselves into parties of eight or ten, and whenever they determined on a house, turned out its possessor. My neighbour, an unfortunate Sy,yud,* was so unlucky as to have a good house. Not content with driving the man, his wife, and family into the streets, they seized on the little furniture he had, and treated his frequent appeals to Ali with shameful irreverence. He went and made a complaint to the governor; but all the consolation he got was, that he would soon have his house again.

About the middle of this month the Persians celebrated the death of the Calif Omar. They erected a large platform, on which they fixed an image, disfigured and deformed as much as possible. Addressing themselves to the image, they began to revile it for having supplanted Ali, the lawful successor of Moohummud; at length, having exhausted all their expressions of abuse, they suddenly attacked the image with stones and sticks, until they had shattered it into pieces. The inside was hollow, and full of sweet

A Sy,yud is descended from the prophet. The Persians will not admit the claims of the Sy,yuds of India.