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a North-country Spring. •''♦ "The White Hand of Moses.'' Exodus iv. 6^/ where Moses draws forth his Hand — not, ac^- cording to the Persians, ^^Itprous as Snow^^^^ > but whUe, as our May-blossom in Spring per^ii haps. According to them also the HeaUnJEp> Power of Jesus resided in his Breath.

' ' r.^ (v.) Iram, planted by King Shadddd, and 'now: sunk somewhere in the Sands of Arabia. Sam* ) shyd's Seven-ring'd Cup was typical of the: 7 ) Heavens, 7 Planets, 7 Seas, &c., and was: aJ Divining Cup. ; : >;:: (vi.) PeJdevi, the old Heroic Sanskrit of Psrsia; ; Hdfiz also speaks of the Nightingale's Pehkttfij- which did not change with the People's. ■■' I am not sure if the fourth line refers to the Red Rose looking sickly, or to the Yellow :Ros6 [259] NOTES ^^ that ought to be Red; Red, \Vhite, and Yel- low Roses all coinnioii in Persia.

I think that Southey, in his Common-Place Book, quotes from some Spanish author about the Rose being White till 10 o'clock; "Rosa Perfecta" at 2; and "pcrfecta incamada*^ at 5. (x.) Rustum, the "Hercules" of Persia, and Zal his Father, whose exploits are among the most celebrated in the Sh^nima.

Hdtim Tai, a well- known type o£ Oriental Gntenniiy. (xiii.) A Drum — beaten outside a Palace, (xiv.) That is, the Rose's Golden Centre, (xvni.) Persepolb: calPd also TakH-i-Januhyd — The Thbone of Jaushyd, "Sing Spleyidid,'" of the mythical Pethdadian Dynas^, and supposed (according to the ShdhnAma) to have been founded and built by him.

Others refer it to the Work of the Genie King, Jin Ibn J^ — who also built the Pyramids — before the time of Adam. [ 260] NOTES BahbAm G6r — Bahram qf the Wild Ass — a Sassanian Sovereign — had also his Seven Cas- tles (like the King of Bohemia!) each of a different Coloiur: each with a Royal Mistress within; each of whom teUs him a Story, as told in one of the most famous Poems of Persia, written by Amir Khusraw: all these Sevens also figuring (according to Eastern Mysticism) the Seven Heavens; and perhaps the Book itself that Eighth, into which the mjrstical Seven transcend, and within which they revolve.

The Ruins of Three of those Towers are yet shown by the Peasantry; as also the Swamp in which Bahrdm simk, like the Master of Ravenswood, while piursuing his GUr. 7^ Palace thai to Heaven hispiBars threwy And Kings the forehead on his threshcid drew — / saw the soiiiary Ringdove there^ And ^Cooj cooj coo,'" she cried; and ^^Coo, coo, coo.^ [861] This Quatrain Mr.

Biuoing found, among sev- eral of HAfiz and others, inscribed by some stray hand among the ruins of PereepoHs. The Ringdove's ancient PckUvi Coo, Coo, Coo, signi- fies also in Peraian "}Vhtre> Where? In Attir'a "Bird-parliament" she ia reproved by the Leader of the Birds for sitting still, and for ever harping on that one note of lamenta- tion for her lost YOsuf.

Apropos of Omar's Red Roses in Stanza six, I am reminded of an old English Superstition, that our Anemone Pulsatilla, or purple "Pasque Flower'' (which grows plentifully about the Fleam Dyke, near Cambridge), grows only where Danish Blood has been spilt, (sxi.) A thousand years to each Planet (xxxi.) Saturn, Lord of the Seventh Heaven, (xxxit.) Me-and-Thee: some dividual Existence or Personality distinct from tbe Wbole. (xxxvii.) One of the Persian Poets — Attir, I I'm] NOTES think — has a pretty stoiy about this.

A thirsty Traveller dips his hand into a Spring of Water to drink fix>m. By-and-by comes another who draws up and drinks fix>m an earthen Bowl, and then departs, leaving his Bowl behind him. The first Traveller takes it up for another draught; but is surprised to find that the same Water which had tasted sweet fix>m his own hand tastes bitter fix>m the earthen BowL But a Voice — fix>m Heaven, I think — tells him the clay fix>m which the Bowl is made was once Man; and, into whatever shape renewed, can never lose the bitter flavoiur of Mortality, (xxxix.) The custom of throwing a little Wine on the groimd before drinking still continues in Persia, and perhaps generally in the East.

Nicolas considers it ^^un signe de lib^ralit^, et en meme temps un avertissement que le buveiur doit vider sa coupe jusqu**^ la demi^re goutte.*" Is it not more likely an ancient Superstition; a [963] NOTES Libation to propitiate Earth, or make her an Accomplice in the illicit Revel?