Should one day greet, upon some well-fought field

His not unworthy, not inglorious son.

So I long hop'd, but him I never find.

Come then, hear now, and grant me what I ask.
Let the two armies rest to-day: but I

Will challenge forth the bravest Persian lords
To meet me, man to man: if I prevail,

Rustum will surely hear it; if I fall—

Old man, the dead need no one, claim no kin.
Dim is the rumour of a common fight,

Where host meets host, and many names are sunk:
But of a single combat Fame speaks clear."

He spoke and Peran-Wisa took the hand
Of the young man in his, and sigh'd, and said:
"O Sohrab, an unquiet heart is thine!
Canst thou not rest among the Tartar chiefs,
And share the battle's common chance with us
Who love thee, but must press for ever first,
In single fight incurring single risk,
To find a father thou hast never seen?

Or, if indeed this one desire rules all,

To seek out Rustum-seek him not through fight:
Seek him in peace, and carry to his arms,
O Sohrab, carry an unwounded son!

But far hence seek him, for he is not here.
For now it is not as when I was young,
When Rustum was in front of every fray:
But now he keeps apart, and sits at home,
In Seistan, with Zal, his father old.
Whether that his own mighty strength at last
Feels the abhorr'd approaches of old age;
Or in some quarrel with the Persian King.
There go:-Thou wilt not? Yet my

heart forebodes

Danger or death awaits thee on this field.

Fain would I know thee safe and well, though lost
To us: fain therefore send thee hence, in peace
To seek thy father, not seek single fights

In vain :--but who can keep the lion's cub
From ravening? and who `govern Rustum's son?
Go: I will grant thee what thy heart desires."

So said he, and dropp'd Sohrab's hand, and left His bed, and the warm rugs whereon he lay,

And o'er his chilly limbs his woollen coat

He pass'd, and tied his sandals on his feet,
And threw a white cloak round him, and he took
In his right hand a ruler's staff, no sword;
And on his head he plac'd his sheep-skin cap,
Black, glossy, curl'd, the fleece of Kara-Kul;
And rais'd the curtain of his tent, and call'd
His herald to his side, and went abroad.

The sun, by this, had risen, and clear'd the fog
From the broad Oxus and the glittering sands:
And from their tents the Tartar horsemen fil'd
Into the open plain; so Haman bade;

Haman, who next to Peran-Wisa rul'd

The host, and still was in his lusty prime.

From their black tents, long files of horse, they

stream'd:

As when, some grey November morn, the files,

In marching order spread, of long-neck'd cranes,

Stream over Casbin, and the southern slopes

Of Elburz, from the Aralian estuaries,

Or some frore Caspian reed-bed, southward bound For the warm Persian sea-board: so they stream'd. The Tartars of the Oxus, the King's guard,

First, with black sheep-skin caps and with long spears;

Large men, large steeds; who from Bokhara come
And Khiva, and ferment the milk of mares.
Next the more temperate Toorkmuns of the south,
The Tukas, and the lances of Salore,

And those from Attruck and the Caspian sands;
Light men, and on light steeds, who only drink
The acrid milk of camels, and their wells.

And then a swarm of wandering horse, who came
From far, and a more doubtful service own'd;
The Tartars of Ferghana, from the banks

Of the Jaxartes, men with scanty beards

And close-set skull-caps; and those wilder hordes
Who roam o'er Kipchak and the northern waste

Kalmuks and unkemp'd Kuzzaks, tribes who stray
Nearest the Pole, and wandering Kirghizzes,

Who come on shaggy ponies from Pamere.
These all fil'd out from camp into the plain.

And on the other side the Persians form'd:
First a light cloud of horse, Tartars they seem'd,
The Ilyats of Khorassan: and behind,

The royal troops of Persia, horse and foot,

Marshall'd battalions bright in burnished steel.
But Peran-Wisa with his herald came

Threading the Tartar squadrons to the front,
And with his staff kept back the foremost ranks.
And when Ferood, who led the Persians, saw
That Peran-Wisa kept the Tartars back,

He took his spear, and to the front he came,

And check'd his ranks, and fix'd them where they

stood.

And the old Tartar came upon the sand

Betwixt the silent hosts, and spake, and said: —

"Ferood, and ye, Persians and Tartars, hear!