'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.' [‎299] (330/582)

TOMB OF SAAD1.
299
From hence we went south-easterly, towards the tomb of Saadi,
which is distant from this nearly a mile. In our road, when about
half-way, we turned up on the left, towards the mountain, along
whose foot our path lay, to see a deep gutter and a small arched
passage, through which a child might barely walk, cut through a
neck of rock, and called by the natives Gaowary-e-Deer, or cradle
of the demons, from a belief that it was the work of genii, and
their nightly place of repose.
From hence, going for a quarter of an hour on the same course,
we came to a large garden, called Dil-i-gushah, or 4 the heart-
opener.' # It might have once been worthy of admiration, but
it was now in a state of great ruin. It had between two walks a
central canal of water, with little falls, like the Prince's garden
before described, and an open building in the centre, remarkable
chiefly for a mixture in its construction of the pointed and the
very flat arch, but containing nothing else worthy of notice.
From hence to the tomb of Saadi the road turned to the
north-east, and went along by the side of the highway, leading to
Yezd, Kerman, &c. the distance being less than half a mile.
We found here a poor brick building, formed of three large re
cesses, or vaulted apartments, open on one side, and a small gar
den, in bad order, in front. The central recess had once been
ornamented,—though the one on the right of it, when looking
towards the garden, was quite plain—and the one on the left
contained the tomb of the philosopher and poet whose name it
bears. This was simply a case of marble, of the size and form of
a common coffin, with little raised posts at the upper corners.
The covering of it was entirely gone, leaving only the two sides
and the two ends, and the outer one of the former had a large
hole wantonly broken through it. The inscriptions were in
Arabic and Cuflc, and the letters of each in relief, but in so old
* When Nadir Shah encamped at Shiraz, Hadjee Hashem, the governor of the city at
that period, gave him an entertainment in this garden, near the tomb of Saadi.—1^. of
Persia, vol. ii. p. 176.
2 q 2