'Travels in Assyria, Media, and Persia, including a journey from Bagdad by Mount Zagros, to Hamadan, the ancient Ecbatana, researches in Ispahan and the ruins of Persepolis, and journey from thence by Shiraz and Shapoor to the sea-shore. Description of Bussorah, Bushire, Bahrein, Ormuz, and Muscat, narrative of an expedition against the pirates of the Persian Gulf, with illustrations of the voyage of Nearchus, and passage by the Arabian Sea to Bombay.' [‎43] (74/582)

to artemita, or khan-e-keen.
43
one which it was acknowledged that nothing but the violence of
his passion could enable him to do, was, that he used to come from
Kermanshah and Bisitoon, across the mountains of the Tauk,
passing over river, rock, and valley, in one night, enjoying the
smiles of his beloved, and returning again to his labour there, be
tween the setting and the rising sun. The horse he rode on, said
they, was one from the plains of Bajelan below us, to which there
were then none equal in the world; and this animal, whom he
loved next to Shirine herself,—since by his aid only could he
enjoy those stolen pleasures,—he fed with new milk, and corn
steeped in honey, always from his own hands.
In recounting the end of this renowned beauty, they said that
she either died of grief, or killed herself in despair, from being
detected in admitting the embraces of her devoted lover Ferhad,
Khosroe the King having shut her up, after the discovery, in closer
confinement than before. This, however, does not correspond with
the testimony of Mirkhond, who terminates her romantic history
by a death of self-devotion in the tomb, and on the body of her
former lord Kesra, like the unhappy Juliet over the corpse of her
beloved Romeo. #
It was not for me to decide on the probability of either the
one or the other of these narratives; but after having recited that
version of the tale with which I was most familiar from my read
ing, a young lad of fifteen, who was of our party, very shrewdly
asked, " If the passion of Ferhad was so warmly returned by
Shirine, was it likely that she would kill herself on the tomb of
Kesra ?" All exclaimed. Certainly not. And though it might per-
* On raconte, qu'apres le meurtre de Parviz, son fils 'Schirouieh devint amoreux de
Shirin, et que comme il la sollicitoit vivement de condescendre h sa passion, elle de-
manda k Schirouieh de lui faire ouvrir la porte du lieu oil etoit depose le corps de Parviz.
Ayant obtenu ce qu'elle desiroit, elle se rendit en ce lieu, et avala un poison violent,
dont elle mourut au m^me instant."— Mirkhond: translated by De Sacy, p. 404, et seq.
Paris, 4to.
G 2