he
name of the monarch who instituted the national festival of Persia
(Neurouz).

Having accomplished all these wonderful things, Jemshid became so
conceited that he wished to be worshipped, whereupon a neighboring
volcano vomited smoke and ashes and innumerable snakes infested the
land. Then Prince Zohak of Arabia was sent by the Evil Spirit to drive
away Jemshid and to take possession of his throne. Although at first
Zohak was very virtuous, the Evil Spirit, having gotten him in his
power, began to serve him in guise of a cook. Once, having succeeded
in pleasing him, he begged permission as reward to kiss the king
between his shoulders. But no sooner had this demon's lips touched the
royal back than two black serpents sprang up there, serpents which
could not be destroyed, and which could only be kept quiet by being
fed with human brains.

"If life hath any charm for thee,
The brains of men their food must be."

Zohak, "the Serpent King," as he is now invariably called, was
therefore obliged to prey upon his subjects to satisfy the appetite
of these serpents, and, as two men were required daily for that
purpose during the next thousand years, the realm was sorely
depopulated.

The serpents still on human brains were fed,
And every day two youthful victims bled;
The sword, still ready, thirsting still to strike,
Warrior and slave were sacrificed alike.

Naturally, all the Persians grew to loathe their monarch, and, when
the seventeenth and last child of the blacksmith Kavah was seized to
feed the serpents, this man rebelled, and, raising his leathern apron
as a standard, rallied the Persians around him. He then informed them
that, if they would only fight beneath "the flag of Kavah,"--which is
now the Persian ensign,--he would give them as king Feridoun, a son of
Jemshid, born during his exile. Hearing this, the rebels went in quest
of Feridoun, "the glorious," in regard to whom Zohak has been favored
with sundry visions, although he had been brought up in secret, his
sole nurse being a faithful cow. When this animal died at last, the
grateful Feridoun made a mace of one of its big bones, and armed with
that weapon, defeated Zohak, who was chained to a mountain, where he
was tortured by visions of his victims for a thousand years. Meantime
Feridoun occupied so justly the throne of Persia--where he reigned
some five hundred years--that his realm became an earthly Paradise.

At the end of this long