stress.' The other asked, 'Who
could procure me that felicity?' The friend went away, but returned in
a short time bearing a covered platter, which he placed before him,
saying, 'Uncover this basin,' and lo! it contained a female head,
weltering in its own gore, and on beholding it the man nearly fainted
with grief. His friend, however, said: 'Be not dismayed, but tell me
how you obtained this brooch, which I had presented to my wife, whose
head is before you.' He replied that he had found the brooch on a
certain day on the road, and described the spot, adding that he
imagined the owner of it must be beautiful, and conceived a warm
affection for her, but that he had never seen her face, and knew not
who she might have been. The friend said: 'This is true enough,
because she told me one day that she had lost it; hence no blame rests
on you.' The two men parted; the would-be lover, however, took this
melancholy event so much to heart that he not only repented of his
folly, but died of grief.

The following curious philosophic discourse is taken from the
'Siraj-ul-Muluk,' or Lamp of Kings, a well-known work composed about
A.D. 1126, and typographed at Cairo A.D. 1872:

'Allah, the Most High, has said (Koran, vi., verse 38): "There is no
kind of beast on earth, nor fowl which flieth with its wing, but the
same is a people like unto you." Allah the Most High has accordingly
established a resemblance between us and all the animals. It is well
known that they are not like us in their figures and forms as
perceived by the eye, but in their demeanour; and there is not a human
being who does not possess some qualities peculiar to animals. When
you perceive that a man's character is unusual, you must endeavour to
find out the qualities of the animal with which it may be compared,
and judge of him according to these; and to avoid all
misunderstanding, and to maintain intercourse with him, you must
behave towards him in conformity with them.

'Accordingly, when you see an ignorant man of rude behaviour, strong
in body, whose anger overpowers him at any moment, you are to compare
him to a tiger, and there is an Arab proverb: "He is more stupid than
a tiger." When you see a tiger, you avoid him, and do not fight with
him, therefore towards an individual of this kind you must behave in
the same manner.

'When you observe a man wantonly attacking the reputation of others,
compare him to a dog, because it is his nature. When a dog