the sown,' even if one would have to search long to find the exact phrase in the original.^ We had already often tasted
- the well of life ' amid * annihilation's waste ' — veritable reali-
ties — although both these and the ' phantom caravan ' of the version appear to have been derived from a blurred conception of the Persian verse that means literally, ' the caravan of life is passing strangely by.' ^ At all events, the caravan had been an ever-passing actuality, so often had the approach of this slowly moving train been proclaimed in the silent night by the deep- donging bell that swung from the leading camels' necks. But the only ' distant drum ' which I saw — not heard — as we neared Nishapur, was a huge tambour on the front of a post-wagon filled with ragged Persian soldiers. The head of the drum was broken, however, and I fancy that no * brave music ' or ' rumble ' could have come from its gaping lips.^
A few minutes later we were driving beneath the low bastioned walls of Nishapur and were hurrying forward toward the bazar, Omar's 'market-place,' amid the idle crowds that gathered to gape and ask questions, ^sfarangls come seldom to Nishapur. As pointed out in a chapter after this, the city has shifted its position somewhat with the lapse of ages, and its beauty, so extolled a thousand years ago, has departed forever; but its general aspect and the characteristics of its inhabitants
iFG. 10(11); the nearest approach caravan of life is strangely passing
in the Persian is H-A. 32, fasl-i gul u by ; comprehend the moment that is
tarafjuibdr u lab-i kisht, 'in the time joyously passing by.' Possibly Fitz-
of the rose and on the side of a river Gerald mistook the word '■ajab, ' won-
and the edge (lit. lip) of the sown drously, strangely,' as ^ajb, one of the
land.' Heron- Allen (loc. cit.) notes meanings of which is ' the termination
a somewhat remote parallel in Jami's of a sandy tract,' and made of it 'an-
Baharistan, 6. nihilation's waste.'
2 The original two Persian verses » FG. 1 ed. 12, 'brave music of a
out of which FitzGerald has made a distant drum,' 4 ed. 'rumble,' cf. Th.
stanza of four verses (FG. 1 ed. 38 = 12, H-A. 34, P. 95, Wh. 108, k-avdz
4 ed. 48) read in the manuscripts duhul shanldan az dur khush-ast, ' for
(Th. 38, H-A. 60, cf. Wh. 136), In it is pleasant to hear the noise of a
kdfilah-i ^amr '■ajab mi-guzarad daridb drum from afar.' dami kih bd tarab mi-guzarad, ' This
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