Chapter 24

[406] A mode of punishment used in former times in Persia, India, and Arabia, against great enemies or atrocious delinquents. Such treatment the poor emperor Valerian experienced from the haughty _Shapur_ or _Shabar_ (the Sapores of the Greeks), king of Persia or Parthia.

[407] The first _darwesh_.

[408] The second _darwesh_.

[409] The third _darwesh_.

[410] The fourth _darwesh_.

[411] The five pure bodies are _Muhammad_, the prophet; _Fatima_, his daughter; _Ali_, her husband; and _Hazan_ and _Husain_, their chidren.

[412] The fourteen innocents are the children of _Hazan_ and _Husain_.

[413] By an arithmetical operation called in Persian _Abjad_; as Persian letters have arithmetical powers, the letters which compose the words _Bagh O Bahar_ added up, produce the sum 1217. From the inscription on most _Muhammadan_ tombs, and those on the gates of mosques, the dates of demise and erection can be ascertained. We had the same barbarous custom in Europe about the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; see the Spectator (No. 60,) on this ridiculous subject, which was considered as a proof of great ingenuity.

[414] A pun on the word _Bahar_, which means spring, when flowers are in full bloom; but the French word _printemps_ conveys more exactly the compound signification; for _Bahar_ not only means spring, but an agreeable spring. The Persians are as fond of these _double entendres_ as any other people; their poetry is strewed with them, and so is their prose. It is not, however, to be considered as a model of pure taste.