sigh may set a whole world into a flame."

They have related that these verses were inscribed in golden letters
upon Kai-khosráu's crown:--"How many years, and what a continuance of
ages, that mankind shall on this earth walk over my head. As the kingdom
came to me from hand to hand, so it shall pass into the hands of
others."


XXVII

A person had become a master in the art of wrestling; he knew three
hundred and sixty sleights in this art, and could exhibit a fresh trick
for every day throughout the year. Perhaps owing to a liking that a
corner of his heart took for the handsome person of one of his scholars,
he taught him three hundred and fifty-nine of those feats, but he was
putting off the instruction of one, and under some pretence deferring
it.

In short the youth became such a proficient in the art and talent of
wrestling that none of his contemporaries had ability to cope with him,
till he at length had one day boasted before the reigning sovereign,
saying, "To any superiority my master possesses over me, he is beholden
to my reverence of his seniority, and in virtue of his tutorage;
otherwise I am not inferior in power, and am his equal in skill." This
want of respect displeased the king. He ordered a wrestling match to be
held, and a spacious field to be fenced in for the occasion. The
ministers of state, nobles of the court, and gallant men of the realm
were assembled, and the ceremonials of the combat marshalled. Like a
huge and lusty elephant, the youth rushed into the ring with such a