Bokhara, and lone Khiva in the waste,

And the black Toorkmun tents; and only drunk
The desert rivers, Moorghab and Tejend,
Kohik, and where the Kalmuks' feed their sheep,
The northern Sir; and this great Oxus stream,
The yellow Oxus, by whose brink I die."

May see my tomb a great way off, and cry,
'Sohrab, the mighty Rustum's son, lies there,
Whom his great father did in ignorance kill!'
And I be not forgotten in my grave."

And, with a mournful voice, Rustum replied:
"Fear not; as thou hast said, Sohrab, my son,
So shall it be for I will burn my tents

And quit the host, and bear thee hence with me,
And carry thee away to Seïstan

And place thee on a bed and mourn for thee,
With the snow-headed Zal and all my friends.
And I will lay thee in that lovely earth,
And heap a stately mound above thy bones,
And plant a far-seen pillar over all :

And men shall not forget thee in thy grave.
And I will spare thy host; yea, let them go :
Let them all cross the Oxus back in peace.
What should I do with slaying any more?
For would that all whom I have ever slain

Might be once more alive, my bitterest foes,

And they who were called champions, in their time,
And through whose death I won that fame I have,-
And I were nothing but a common man,

A poor, mean soldier, and without renown;
So thou mightest live too, my son, my son !
Or rather, would that I, even I myself,
Might now be lying on this bloody sand,

Near death, and by an ignorant stroke of thine,
Not thou of mine; and I might die, not thou;
And I, not thou, be borne to Seïstan;

And Zal might weep above my grave, not thine;
And

say, son, I weep thee not too sore,

For willingly, I know, thou met'st thine end!'

But now in blood and battles was my youth,
And full of blood and battles is my age,
And I shall never end this life of blood."

Then, at the point of death, Sohrab replied:
"A life of blood indeed, thou dreadful man !
But thou shalt yet have peace; only not now,
Not yet but thou shalt have it on that day,
When thou shalt sail in a high-masted ship,
Thou and the other peers of Kai Khosroo,
Returning home over the salt blue sea,

From laying thy dear master in his grave.”

And Rustum gazed on Sohrab's face and said: "Soon be that day, my son, and deep that sea! Till then, if Fate so wills, let me endure."

He spoke and Sohrab smiled on him, and took
The spear and drew it from his side, and eased
His wound's imperious anguish : but the blood
Came welling from the open gash, and life

Flowed with the stream: all down his cold white side

5

10

15

20

The crimson torrent ran, dim now, and soiled,

Like the soiled tissue of white violets

Left freshly gathered on their native bank,
By romping children, whom their nurses call

From the hot fields at noon his head drooped low,
His limbs grew slack; motionless, white, he lay —
White, with eyes closed; only when heavy gasps,
Deep, heavy gasps, quivering through all his frame,

5

10

15

20

Convulsed him back to life, he opened them
And fixed them feebly on his father's face:
Till now all strength was ebbed and from his limbs
Unwillingly the spirit fled away,

Regretting the warm mansion which it left,

And youth and bloom, and this delightful world.
So, on the bloody sand, Sohrab lay dead.
And the great Rustum drew his horseman's cloak
Down o'er his face, and sat by his dead son.
As those black granite pillars, once high-reared
By Jemshid in Persepolis, to bear

His house, now, mid their broken flights of steps,
Lie

prone, enormous, down the mountain side,
So in the sand lay Rustum by his son.

And night came down over the solemn waste,
And the two gazing hosts, and that sole pair,
And darkened all; and a cold fog with night
Crept from the Oxus.
Soon a hum arose,

As of a great assembly loosed, and fires

Began to twinkle through the fog: for now

Both armies moved to camp and took their meal :
The Persians took it on the open sands
Southward; the Tartars, by the river marge:
And Rustum and his son were left alone.

Se'is tan or Sis'tan, a province, Hĕl'mund, a river, and Zir'räh, a lake, in Afghanistan, where Rustum had extensive possessions granted him by the Persian monarch. Zal: a Persian hero, the father of Rustum. Ăf rā'sì ăb: a semifabulous king of Persia, the enemy of Rustum. Toork'mun: a tribe inhabiting.

Moor'glab, Te jend' (yĕnd),
Kǎl'můcks: nomadic tribes

a region east of the Caspian Sea. and Ko hik': rivers of Turkestan. of the Mongolian race inhabiting parts of Russia and China. Sir or Sỹr-Där'ia (yä) and Ŏx'ús or Ä mu'-Där'ia (yä): rivers in Turkestan. Kai Khos'roo: the Persian name of Cyrus the Great, the greatest of Persian kings, who lived in the sixth century before Christ. Jĕm'shïd: an ancient king of Persia, who greatly improved and embellished Per sěp'ô lîs, an ancient Persian city now in ruins.

Vindication of Ireland

By R. L. SHEIL

Richard Lalor Sheil (1793-1851): An Irish orator and patriot. Besides eloquent speeches in parliament he was the author of several popular dramas and "Sketches of the Irish Bar."

This extract is from a speech on the Irish Municipal Bill, delivered in the House of Commons, February 22, 1837.

There is, however, one man of great abilities, not a member of this house, but whose talents and whose boldness have placed him in the topmost place in his party, who disdaining all imposture, and thinking it the best. course to appeal directly to the religious and national 5 antipathies of the people of this country, abandoning all reserve, and flinging off the slender veil by which his political associates affect to cover, although they cannot hide, their motives distinctly and audaciously tells the Irish people that they are not entitled to the same 10 privilege as Englishmen ; and pronounces them, in any particular which could enter his minute enumeration of the circumstances by which fellow-citizenship is created,