moment suspect that the well-known epitaph on a celebrated vender of earthenware at Chester36 was borrowed from a Persian tetrastich, composed in the twelfth century by Omar Khayám, who calls for wine that he may banish care, expecting on a future occasion to be once more in his favourite. haunt-a potter's workshop, under the form of some earthen vessel." Thus the epitaph above-mentioned advises the weeping friends of "Catharine Gray" to abate their grief, since, after a "run of years," "In some tall pitcher, or broad pan, She in her shop may be again." Sufficient reasons have now, I trust, been adduced to show, that until further discoveries among manuscripts, a Latin writer is justified in claiming those fabulous anecdotes of Alexander, which once were regarded (at least by me) as the productions of a Persian poet,-fables that future researches may, nevertheless, prove of Eastern origin; whilst, on the other hand, many fictions, hitherto only known to us as European compositions, are claimed by Arabian and Persian authors. Several proofs might be given, besides the instances above quoted; but I am here induced to close these remarks, from an apprehension that they have already been protracted beyond a reasonable extent. NOTES. 'Arrian. De Exped. Alex. in Proœmio. 2 See Plutarch, Justin, Freinshem's "Suppl. in Q. Curtium," &c. and a multitude of Eastern authors, Nizámi, Nasri, Cázi Beizavi, Benáketi, Mirkhond, Khondemir, Kapchak Khán, &c. See an abridgment of the Sháhnámeh, preserved among the Oriental manuscripts in the British Museum. (Hyde: Royal: 16. B. xiv.) It was made, at the desire of an English gentleman, by a Parsi of Surat, who undertook to reduce into prose the sixty-five thousand couplets of Firdausi's great heroic poem, as I have already observed in the second volume of my "Travels," (p. 541.) where this Ms. is more particularly described. The Parsi in his account of Alexander, as on some other occasions, considerably deviates from the work which he professed to abridge. The tradition declaring that conqueror to be actually a son of Eblís, or the Devil, is thus mentioned in his story of the Princess Náhíd () the Olympias of classic writers : کویند که ابله مس در آنجا در خواب با او صحبت میکرد و همان ساعت از ابلیس او بارور شر VOL. I. PART II. с وسکندر Secander + اسکندر or Iscander “Arabicè 3 Dhul-karnain, id est Bicornis, accipitur communiter pros Alexandro, nempe Macedone." See Maracci's notes or "Refutationes" in Alcoranum, (vol. ii. p. 426.) "The Jews will ask thee concerning Dhu'l karnein; answer, I will rehearse unto you an account of him." So were translated by Sale the Arabic words which first mention this two-horned personage in the Korán : They occur in the eighteenth chapter, and verse 85, according to Maracci's numeration, or 82, if we adopt Hinckelmann's. 66 6 For the horns of Jupiter Ammon which Alexander affected to wear, see a passage quoted by Athenæus from Ephippus, who says, ὡς ̓Αλέξανδρος καὶ τὰς ἱερὰς ἐσθῆτας ἐφέρει ἐν τοῖς δείπνοις· ὁτὲ μὲν τὴν τοῦ ̓Αμμωνος πορφυρίδα καὶ περισχιδεῖς καὶ κέρατα, καθάπερ ὁ θεός (Deipn. lib. xii.) and the words of Clemens Alexandrinus (Cohort. ad Gent.) "'Eẞouλero 'Aλéžavdpos "Aμμwvos υἱὸς εἶναι δοκεῖν, καὶ κερασφόρος ἀναπλάττεσθαι πρὸς τῶν ἀγαλματοποιῶν, τὸ καλὸν ἀνθρώπου ὑβρίσαι σteúdwν kéρari. Among the finest medals representing Alexander's head with Ammon's horn, may be reckoned that of which Dr. Vincent has given a beautiful engraving in the second edition of his "Nearchus." It is of silver, and once belonged to Lord Winchelsea's Collection; but now forms part of the Bodleian treasures at Oxford. In Dr. Clarke's work on the "Tomb of Alexander" is a spirited engraving of the hero's head with a ram's horn, from a silver coin of Lysimachus. See also the horned heads in different editions of Q. Curtius,-Janson's, Snakenburg's, &c.; in Schlæger's "Commentatio de Numo Alexandri ;" in Eckhel" De Doctrina Numorum veterum;" in the Atlas to Chaussard's French translation of Arrian, where plates viii. and ix. illustrate the opinions of Winkelmann, Barthelemy, Le Blond, Visconti, and other antiquaries on the "Monumens du Portrait d'Alexandre:" many likewise are preserved in cabinets, of which descriptions have been published. 7 بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم : "In the name of God! the clement, the merciful !" تاریخ کبیر The Tarikh Kebir : or "Great Chronicle" of Tabris-and the Sháh Book of Kings" by Firdausi, Námeh xoli or "Book of Kings" by Firdausi, فردوسي He describes these records as "Jewish, Christian, and Persian." يهودي و نصراني و پهلوي By the term Nasráni, or "Christian," he probably means Greek and Latin. The Jews in their Rabbinical Hebrew works often mention d17710ǝb8, Aleksandrus. 10 Muhammed Ali Hazineda, born at Ispahán in 1691, fled into India from the tyranny of Nádir Sháh, and concluded at Dehli in 1741 a volume of highly interesting memoirs. "It is, he thinks, a surprising circumstance that this manuscript "ne fasse mention ni d'Alexandre ni de Mahomet. Ce silence prouveroit-il que l'original du Boundehesch," &c. See Zendavesta, tom. ii. P. 338. In the same page we read that " Alexandre brule en Enfer pour avoir condamné au feu les Nosks," the books, or different portions that formed the sacred Avesta, and for the "Sept ouvrages merveilleux faits par Djemschid dans un de ses palais, et détruits par Alexandre." See tom. i. part. 2. Notices P. xxxvi. 12 66 "Cependant je pense que l'original du faux Callisthène, qui me paroit remonter au dixième siècle, n'est pas venu jusqu'à nous, et que l'ouvrage dont il est ici question ne peut en être qu'une espèce de traduction, peu fidelle, interpolée ou amplifiée en beaucoup d'endroits. Cette conjecture est fondée sur le style de cet ouvrage et la mention des Turcs qui se trouve à la fin.”Examen Critique des anciens Historiens d'Alexandre le Grand. 2nde edition, 1804. p. 165. 13 Julius Valerius and Firdausi agree in describing the trees as male and female; the male speaking by day, the female by night; when a fragrant odour was emitted from the leaves, as the Persian poet says— بشب ماده کویا و بویا شود چو روشن شود نر کویا شود The oracle was delivered in a loud voice, "which proceeded from the leaves of that lofty tree,” که آمد از برک درخت بلند and terrified even Alexander. The votaries of Jupiter at Dodona were not so alarmed,— "Who hear from rustling oaks thy dark decrees, And catch the fates low whispered in the breeze." But for these "low whispers" we have only the authority of Pope's Iliad (Book xvi. 1. 290), as they are not mentioned in Homer's. According to different copies of the Shahnámeh, these trees درخت سخن کو and درخت کویا (are styled (in the heads of the chapter describing them "speaking trees." One manuscript confounds them with the , or speaking trees that in an island called Wák. grew 14 of the wéleial or "doves," that frequently appear in ancient oracles, see Herodotus (ii.), Pausanias (vii.), &c. &c. 15 Firdausi's words are or according to some copies of the تنش مردم و سرش همچون کراز تن مردم و سربسان کراز Shahnameh 16 The corresponds to the extraordinary #ny" or fountain, mentioned by Arrian in his account of the Hammonian Temple. (De Exp. Alex. iii. 4.) The surrounding soil produced fossile salt, Γίγνονται δὲ καὶ ἅλες αυτόματοι ἐν τῷ χώριῳ τούτῳ ορυκτοί. (ib.) This was the Fountain of the Sun,” (ovopazoμévn žλíov kpývn) mentioned by Diodorus Siculus. (xvii.) 17 Eschines contra Ctesiphontem. 18 Lucan. Pharsal. lib. x. vs. 36 et seq. 19 See the "Ichthyophagi" and "Island of Nosala," in the Indian History of Arrian, (ch. 31.) who mentions the loss or disappearance of those sent by Nearchus in a small vessel to that island, and some fables concerning it. According to Captain Blair, (quoted by Dr. Vincent in his Nearchus, p. 299. 2nd edit.) Ashtola might be supposed the Nóraλa of Arrian, or the en chanted island. From a sketch which I made in 1811, the form of Ashtola is delineated in Plate vi. of my "Travels." Strabo mentions the island reputed fatal to those who should approach it, (lib. xv.) also the immense whales that terrified Nearchus's sailors, but disappeared when a loud noise was made with trumpets and voices. (See also Arrian. Hist. Ind. 31.) Firdausi having described the Ichthyophagi, those "whose food consisted wholly of fish," زماهي بريشان همه خوردني confounds the "enchanted island" with one of those immense whales noticed by Arrian and and the thirty men sent كوهي برآمد ازاب سي represent those whom Nearchus sent in a thirty-oared vessel to examine the "enchanted island,” as Arrian informs us, Νέαρχος δὲ πέμπει κύκλῳ περὶ τὴν νῆσον τριηκόντορον, &c. (Hist. Ind. 31.) The "yellow fish” (→) of Firdausi may remind us of Ariosto's immense whale seen by Astolfo near the Indian coast, and mistaken for an island— Che ella sia una isoletta ci credemo ; and on this monster was Astolfo carried through the waves, with Alcina the fair enchantress ; La Balena a l'ufficio diligente Nuotando se n'ando per l'onde salse. Orlando Furioso, cant. vi. Here Alcina exercises her magic power on fishes of every kind, the most rare and wonderful; Di tutti i pesci sorti differenti, which she calls forth from the water and displays to Astolfo. This seems but an amplification of the adventures related by Firdausi in a chapter entitled رسیدن اسکندر بدریا و ديدن ماهي زرد و عجايبها ديكر "Alexander's arrival at the sea, and his beholding the yellow fish and other wonderful objects." A Spanish romance of the thirteenth century, and an old German poem, (as we learn from Dr. Southey's notes to "Madoc,") mention Alexander's going down into the sea (inclosed in a case or box made of glass) to examine the living wonders of the deep, and see how the small fishes lived among the great. To a learned member of the Royal Society of Literature, the Rev. Mr. Payne, I am indebted for the Welch words and a literal translation of Taliesin's poem Rhyfeddodau Alexander, or "The Wonders of Alexander," in which we read of that hero's descent "beneath the ocean's depth, among the fishy tribes." It is also noticed by the ingenious author of "Celtic Researches," the Rev. Mr. Davies, (p. 196.) 20 See the Ms. Masnavi (s) of the great Maulavi, Jelál aďdín Rúmi ;(جلال الدين رومي) (J); that "astonishing" work, as it is styled by Sir William Jones, who, in his Discourse on "The Mystical Poetry of the Persians and Hindús," (Asiat. Researches, vol. iii.) has translated the opening verses : 11 The Bahár-e-Dánesh (4), the “Spring or Garden of Knowledge,” by Enaiut ullah (x) “şlic), as translated by Dow, appeared in 1768 (two small volumes): Dr. Scott's translation (three volumes) in 1799. Having examined the Persian text in three different manuscripts, I do not hesitate to pronounce decidedly in favour of Dr. Scott's translation. It is true, that the copy used by Colonel Dow may have differed, in some of the tales, from other manuscripts. 22 See in the Ms. Hadikeh (s) of Hakim Senái (si) the story beginning آن شنيدي که بد بشهر هري -Mulana Abid Zagani. For the Muhamme مولانا عبيد زاكاني of هزليات .See the Ms dan “Tartuffe," or hypocritical Záhid (ssl;) of the story, as related in Senáï's work abovequoted, Abid Zagáni substitutes a "poet," and thus contrives for himself an opportunity of adding much point to the original, by the witty application of an Arabic sentence rendered appropriate by that change, expressing the licence peculiarly allowed to poets : 24 يجوز لشاعر و ما لا يجوز لغيره --- Through the Divine Dialogues of Dr. Henry More, Howell's Letters, Sir Percy Herbert's Conceptions, the Contes Dévots of Legrand, Les Vies des Pères, the Sermones de Tempore of a German monk, &c. 25 See an article "On the Liberty of Prophesying," by "Gulchin," in the Classical Journal, No. liii. (March, 1823) p. 64. 26 The story of Barsísá (a) is related by Saadi (s) in his fifth (prose) Risáleh or Majlis (m), and by Zacaríá Cazvíni () in his Ms. work entitled Ajaïeb al Makhlucát (s) or "Wonders of Creation.” (رساله) (عجایب المخلوقات) Chapter on the Deceptions practised by Satan." See the 27 See "Observations on some Medals and Gems bearing Inscriptions in the Pahlavi, or ancient Persic character," a little work which I published in 1801, and which gives (p. 12.) an anecdote extracted from the Ms. Chronicle of Ebn Asim of Cúfah. 28 The Tarikh (5) (تاریخ) (بحر الانساب) is entitled بناتي or Chronicle of Benaketi Bahr al ansáb, or "The Ocean of Genealogies." 29 D'Herbelôt, in his Bibliothèque Orientale, gives an outline of this story, (art. Homai,) w which he appears to have chiefly taken from the Lubbat'touaríkh (¿ül), and some other epitomes of Persian history; but the Tarikh Guzideh, he says, does not mention this queen :-" Le Tarikh Cozideh ou Montekheb ne fait aucune mention de cette reine dans la dynastie des Caianides." I find, however, that my two copies of the Guzideh commemorate queen Humái (ṣl) in an article from which the Lubb at'touarikh appears to have borrowed |