ch word, when
pronounced separately, has the accent on the last syllable, but
together they are pronounced as one word, with the accent on the final
syllable.

The Tartars possess no such brilliant stores of literature as the
Persians, but they are endowed with a manly vigor which the latter
have lost. Mirza-Schaffy was a Tartar by birth, nurtured with Persian
culture, and was, when Bodenstedt made his acquaintance, in December,
1843, a man of some forty years of age, of very stately appearance
and excessive neatness. He wore a soft silken suit, about which he
carelessly draped a blue Turkish cloak, while a tall black sheep-skin
hat of sugar-loaf form adorned his shapely head. A dark, well-tended
beard framed his handsomely chiseled face, whose calm, earnest
expression was heightened by the deep, rich hue of his complexion, and
his large, serious eyes were void of the usual cunning of his class.
His high-heeled slippers, whose purity he miraculously preserved
unimpaired when mud was at its height in the streets of Tiflis, he
left always at the threshold of his pupil's room, pressing carpet and
divan only with his immaculate variegated stockings.

But Mirza-Schaffy's main charm lay in his thorough genuineness,
his earnestness of purpose and the tranquillity of his whole being.
Misfortune and sorrow had visited him in many forms, leaving their
impress on his brow, yet he had not been crushed; and thoroughly as he
appreciated the refined enjoyments of life, he could most gracefully
renounce luxuries attainable only by Fortune's favorites. So long as
he could have his _tschibuq_ filled with good tobacco and his goblet
with good wine, both of which were plentiful in Tiflis, he seemed
content with the entire dispensation of the world. Highly as he
prized, however, the beneficent effects of wine, he was an enemy to
excess, having made moderation in all things the law of his life.

The whole atmosphere surrounding the man produced a deep and lasting
impression on Bodenstedt, who, longing to immortalize the name of one
who had unfolded to him the treasures of Eastern lore, and from whom
he had derived so much pleasure and profit, conceived the idea of
representing his teacher in his public characterization with poetic
freedom, as a type of the Eastern poet and man of learning. Poet,
Mirza-Schaffy was not in reality, for although he was skilled in the
art of rhyming, and could translate with ease any simple song from
the Pers