else
to record. Perhaps he liked a little Farming too, so often as
he speaks of the 'Edge of the Tilth' on which he loved to rest
with his Diwan of Verse, his Loaf--and his Wine.

"His Takhallus or poetical name (Khayyam) signifies a
Tent-maker, and he is said to have at one time exercised that
trade, perhaps before Nizam al Mulk's generosity raised him to
independence. Many Persian poets similarly derive their names
from their occupations: thus we have Attar 'a druggist,' Assar
'an oil presser,' etc. Omar himself alludes to his name in the
following whimsical lines:--

"'Khayyam, who stitched the tents of science,
Has fallen in grief's furnace and been suddenly burned;
The shears of Fate have cut the tent ropes of his life,
And the broker of Hope has sold him for nothing!'

"We have only one more anecdote to give of his Life, and that
relates to the close; related in the anonymous preface which
is sometimes prefixed to his poems; it has been printed in the
Persian in the appendix to Hyde's _Veterum Persarum Religio_,
p. 449; and D'Herbelot alludes to it in his Bibliotheque,
under _Khiam_[B]:--

"'It is written in the chronicles of the ancients that this
King of the Wise, Omar Khayyam, died at Naishapur in the year
of the Hegira, 517 (A.D. 1123); in science he was
unrivalled,--the very paragon of his age. Khwajah Nizami of
Samarcand, who was one of his pupils, relates the following
story: "I often used to hold conversation with my teacher,
Omar Khayyam, in a garden; and one day he said to me, 'My tomb
shall be in a spot where the north wind may scatter roses over
it.' I wondered at the words he spake, but I knew that his
were no idle words. Years after, when I chanced to revisit
Naishapur I went to his final resting place, and lo! it was
just outside a garden, and trees laden with fruit stretched
their boughs over the garden wall, and dropped their flowers
upon his tomb, so as the stone was hidden under them."'"

Much discussion has arisen in regard to the meaning of Omar's poetry.
Some writers have insisted on a mystical interpretation and M. Nicholas
goes so far as to state his opinion that Omar devoted himself "avec
passion a l'etude de la philosphie des Soufis." On the other hand Von
Hammer, the author of a _History of the Assassins_, refers to Omar as a
Fre