A literary history of Persia

THE PERSIAN EPICitsDevil, who beguiles him from the primitive and innocentvegetarianism supposed to have hitherto prevailed into theeating of animal food and ultimate cannibalism. His demandfor fresh victims to feed his snakes ultimately,after he hasreigned nearly a thousand years, drives his wretched subjectsinto revolt, to which they are chiefly incited by the blacksmithKawa, whose leathern apron, by a patriotic apotheosis, becomesthe standard of national liberty. The young Feridun (AvesticThraetaona^ Indian Thraitana\ son or Abtln^ adescendant of Tahmurath and "of the seed ofthe Kayan," is brought forth from his hiding-place and hailedas king. He defeats Dahak, and chains him alive, Prometheuslike,in a cave at the summit of Mount Damawand (or Dunbdwand),the great conical peak of which is so clearly visible tothe north-east of Tihran, after which, amidst general rejoicings,he becomes king, and rules with great justice and splendour forfive hundred years,so that of him it is saidFaridun-i-famikh farishla na-bnd:Zi mushk u zi ' anbai sarishta na-bud.Bi-ddd u dahish ydft dn niku'i :Tit dad u dahish kun : Faridun tii'i !" Feridun the fortunate was not an angel:He was not compounded of musk and of ambergris.By justice and bounty he attained such excellence :Be thou just and bountiful, and thou shalt be a Feridun !"Yet for allthis he was not exempt from bitter trouble in hisown house. Having given his three sons in marriage to theFendw n ns.lhrecthree daughters of Sarv (or Surv, according to al-Bundari's Arabic prose translation of the Shdhnama ymade about A.D. I223),1ne divided between themhis vast dominions, giving to Iraj, the youngest,the land ofIran (Eran-shahr). His other two sons, Salm and Tir,1Cambridge MS. QQ. 46, a fine old fourteenth century MS. of this importantcompilation, concerning which see Noldeke's Das IranischcNatioHalepos, p. 77 and n. 2.