till, however, by her Begum's consent, residing with her lady,
who was much attached to her. The freedom of intercourse, occasioned by
the slave's exaltation, had the effect of lessening the young creature's
former respect for her still kind mistress, to whom she evinced some
ungrateful returns for the many indulgences she had through life received
at her hands. The exact nature of her offences I never heard, but it was
deemed requisite, for the sake of example in a house where some hundreds
of female slaves were maintained, that the lady should adopt some such
method of testifying her displeasure towards this pretty favourite, as
would be consistent with her present elevated station. A stout silver
chain was therefore made, by the Begum's orders, and with this the slave
was linked to her bedstead a certain number of hours every day, in the
view of the whole congregated family of slaves. This punishment would be
felt as a degradation by the slave; not the confinement to her bedstead,
where she would perhaps have seated herself from choice, had she not been
in disgrace.

'Once a slave, and always a slave,' says Fierdowsee the great poet of
Persia; but this apophthegm was in allusion to the 'mean mind' of the King
who treated him scurvily after his immense labour in that noble work, 'The
Shah Namah.' I have a sketch of Fierdowsee's life, which my husband
translated for me; but I must forbear giving it here, as I have heard the
whole work itself is undergoing a translation by an able Oriental scholar,
who will doubtless do justice both to 'The Shah Namah' and the character
of Fierdowsee, who is in so great estimation with the learned Asiatics.[10]

The Mussulmauns quote their favourite poets with much the same freedom
that the more enlightened nations are wont to use with their famed authors.
The moral precepts of Saadie[11] are often introduced with good effect,
both in writing and speaking, as beacons to the inexperienced.

Haafiz[12] has benefited the Mussulmaun world by bright effusions of
genius, which speak to successive generations the wonders of his
extraordinary mind. He was a poet of great merit; his style is esteemed
superior to the writers of any other age; and, notwithstanding the world
is rich with the beauties of his almost inspired mind, yet, strange as it
may appear, he never compiled a single volume. Even in the age in which he
lived his merit as a poet was in great estimation; but he never thought of
ei