which appears, however, in his odes and elegies, as in Hafiz
and Dschami. As for the incessant return of the poet's name,--which
appears to be a sort of registry of copyrights,--the Persians often
relieve this heavy custom by wit and audacious sallies.

The Persians construct with great intrepidity their mythology and
legends of typical men. Jamschid, who reigned seven hundred years, and
was then driven from his throne, is their favorite example of the turns
of fortune. Karun or Corah, the alchemist, who converted all things to
gold, but perished with his treasures at the word of Moses, is their
Croesus. Lokman, the AEsop of the East, lived to an enormous age, was
the great-grandson of Noah, etc. Saadi relates, that Lokman, in his last
years, dwelt on the border of a reedy marsh, where he constructed a
cabin, and busied himself with making osier baskets. The Angel of Death
appeared to him, and said,--"Lokman, how is it, that, in three thousand
years that you have lived in the world, you have never known how to
build a house?" Lokman replied,--"O Azrael! one would be a fool, knowing
that you were always at his heels, to set himself at building a house."
Hatem Tai is their type of hospitality, who, when the Greek emperor sent
to pray him to bestow on him his incomparable horse, received the
messenger with honor, and, having no meat in his tent, killed the horse
for his banquet, before he yet knew the object of the visit. Nushirvan
the Just is their Marcus Antoninus, or Washington, to whom every wise
counsel in government is attributed. And the good behavior of rulers is
a point to which Saadi constantly returns. It is one of his maxims, that
the "_bons mots_ of kings are the kings of _bons mots_." One of these
is,--"At night thou must go in prayer a beggar, if by day thou wilt
carry thyself as a king." Again,--"A king is like a great and massive
wall: as soon as he leans from the perpendicular [of equity], he is near
his ruin." Again,--"You, O king, sit in the place of those who are gone,
and of those who are to come: how can you establish a firm abode between
two non-existences?" Dzoul Noun, of Grand Cairo, said to the Caliph,--"I
have learned that one to whom you have given power in the country treats
the subjects with severity, and permits daily wrongs and violences
there." The Caliph replied,--"There will come a day when I will severely
punish him." "Yes," returned the other, "you will wait until he has
taken all the