these, one of the most prominent was
Professor H. Brugsch, secretary of the Prussian embassy to Persia in
1860, who in his book of travels thus descants on his futile efforts:
"No one could inform us where the last earthly remains of a certain
Mirza-Schaffy were laid to rest. We consoled ourselves with the
reflection that neither mounds nor monuments are requisite to preserve
a poet's fame, but that through his songs is his name transmitted to
posterity. Yet even here we were doomed to disappointment. No one
whom we encountered knew aught of the songs of the jovial, genial
Mirza-Schaffy which in our German Fatherland have penetrated to the
very life of the people."

Some years later the Russian imperial state counselor Berge, while
chief of educational institutions in Caucasus, also made the matter
a subject of investigation, and in the year 1870 gave the history
thereof to the world in the _Journal of the German Oriental Society_.
He tells of his vain efforts to learn something of the genius of
Mirza-Schaffy in his own land, and the amusement he created by his
queries concerning possible posthumous works, and finally settles the
question beyond dispute concerning the authorship of the poems.

After this, Bodenstedt yielded to the solicitations of friends to give
in the pages of the popular German magazine _Daheim_ a correct version
of the whole affair.

Let the reader present to his mind's eye a picture of the Eastern
scribe, clad in the apparel before described, seated on the
comfortable divan, with legs crossed after the fashion of the country,
the long _tschibuq_ caressingly held in one hand, the other uplifted,
and with finger pointed to his brow, haranguing the German man of
letters at his side on the advantages to be enjoyed under his tuition,
and on the idle pretensions of those who call themselves learned
without so much as comprehending the sacred languages. He cherished,
however, the pious hope that in the course of time, thanks to his
efforts, the enlightenment of the East might take effect in the West,
which hope was strengthened by the encouraging fact that Bodenstedt
was the fifth scholar who had felt the need of migrating to Tiflis to
profit by his instructions. In his excess of national modesty the wise
man of Gjaendsha only styled himself the first wise man of the East,
but since the children of the West dwelt under a dark cloud of
unbelief, it resulted as a matter of course that he must be the wis