surnamed Vatvat "the swallow" (Hammer, _Red._
p. 121; David Price, _Chronological Retrospect_, London, 1821, ii. 391,
392), and on p. 243 we are told how Kamal ud-din curses his native city
Ispahan and how the curse was fulfilled. (Hammer, _Red._ p. 159.)

The seventh book contains two of Rueckert's best known parables, the
famous "Es ging ein Mann im Syrerland," p. 303,[175] and "Der Sultan
laesst den Mewlana rufen," p. 305 (_Red._ p. 338).

* * * * *

It will be noticed that the Oriental poems which we have thus far
discussed were mainly derived from Arabic and Persian sources. We may
now turn our attention to a collection in which Rueckert's studies on
matters connected with India are also represented.

This collection _Brahmanische Erzaehlungen_, published in the year 1839
(vol. iii.), does not, however, as its title might lead us to suppose,
consist exclusively of Indic material. Some of the poems are not even
Oriental; "Annikas Freier," p. 217, for example, is from the Finnic. Of
others, again, the subject-matter, whether originally Oriental or not,
has long ago become the common property of the world's fable-literature,
as, for instance, "Weisheit aus Vogelmund," p. 239, the story of which
may be found in the _Gesta Romanorum_, and in French, English and
German, as well as in Persian, fable-books.[176] Some are from Arabic
sources, as from the Thousand and One Nights, e.g. "Der schwanke
Ankergrund," p. 357,[177] "Elephant, Nashorn und Greif," p. 367,[178]
"Die Kokosnuesse," p. 359.[179] The poem "Rechtsanschauung in Afrika," p.
221, is a Hebrew parable from the Talmud and had been already used by
Herder.[180]

A considerable number of the poems contain nothing but Persian material.
Thus "Wettkampf," p. 197, is from the _Gulistan_ (i. 28; K.S. tr. p.
27); and from the same source we have "Rache fuer den Steinwurf," p. 219
(_Gul._ i. 22; K.S. 21), "Fluch und Segen," p. 234 (_Gul._ i. 1), and
"Busurgimihr," p. 225 (_Gul._ i. 32; K.S. 31). "Die Bibliothek des
Koenigs," p. 405, is from the _Baharistan_ (K.S., p. 31; _Red._ p. 338).
Three episodes from the _Iskandar Namah_ are narrated on pp. 214-217:
the story of the invention of the mirror (_Isk._ tr. Clark, xxiii. p.
247), the battle between the two cocks (ibid., xxii. p. 234 seq.), and
the message of Dara to Alexander with the latter's reply (ibid. xxiv. p.
263).[181]

On p. 329 Rueckert offers a free, but faithful, even if abr