med or afraid to measure their courage and numbers with the
proudest sovereigns of Asia. Massoud, the son and successor of Mahmud,
had too long neglected the advice of his wisest Omrahs. "Your enemies,"
they repeatedly urged, "were in their origin a swarm of ants; they are
now little snakes; and, unless they be instantly crushed, they will
acquire the venom and magnitude of serpents." After some alternatives
of truce and hostility, after the repulse or partial success of his
lieutenants, the sultan marched in person against the Turkmans, who
attacked him on all sides with barbarous shouts and irregular onset.
"Massoud," says the Persian historian, [13] "plunged singly to oppose
the torrent of gleaming arms, exhibiting such acts of gigantic force and
valor as never king had before displayed. A few of his friends, roused
by his words and actions, and that innate honor which inspires the
brave, seconded their lord so well, that wheresoever he turned his fatal
sword, the enemies were mowed down, or retreated before him. But now,
when victory seemed to blow on his standard, misfortune was active
behind it; for when he looked round, be beheld almost his whole army,
excepting that body he commanded in person, devouring the paths of
flight." The Gaznevide was abandoned by the cowardice or treachery of
some generals of Turkish race; and this memorable day of Zendecan [14]
founded in Persia the dynasty of the shepherd kings. [15]

[Footnote 11: See a just and natural picture of these pastoral manners,
in the history of William archbishop of Tyre, (l. i. c. vii. in the
Gesta Dei per Francos, p. 633, 634,) and a valuable note by the editor
of the Histoire Genealogique des Tatars, p. 535-538.]

[Footnote 12: The first emigration of the Turkmans, and doubtful origin
of the Seljukians, may be traced in the laborious History of the Huns,
by M. De Guignes, (tom. i. Tables Chronologiques, l. v. tom. iii.
l. vii. ix. x.) and the Bibliotheque Orientale, of D'Herbelot, (p.
799-802, 897-901,) Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. p. 321-333,) and
Abulpharagius, (Dynast. p. 221, 222.)]

[Footnote 13: Dow, Hist. of Hindostan, vol. i. p. 89, 95-98. I have
copied this passage as a specimen of the Persian manner; but I suspect
that, by some odd fatality, the style of Ferishta has been improved by
that of Ossian. * Note: Gibbon's conjecture was well founded. Compare
the more sober and genuine version of Col. Briggs, vol. i. p. 110.-M.]

[Footnote 14: The Ze