38 



rhime a conftltuent appendage of their poetry. But had the rhime not 

 originally formed a part of their verfe, we cannot fuppofe they would 

 all at once borrow it of their unwelcome vifitors. We know the ftrong 

 reluftance of every conquered people to receive the language of their 

 new mafters : the old Perfians, therefore, feem rather to have adopted a 

 new mode or meafure of verfification, the words of Sir William im- 

 porting no more, than to have been ignorant what the rhime was, till 

 Mahomet had inftrufted them. Thofe, however, who underftand the 

 language, fay, that it is admirably well adapted to poetry, and that its 

 verfe falls naturally into rhime. Thus, it comes to pafs, that the whole 

 of their verfe, with few exceptions, is in rhime, though fometimes per- 

 haps capricious, like that of other eaftern poetry. Of the ftrufture of 

 the Perfian verfe I am wholly ignorant, and therefore fliall fay nothing 

 upon it : but in the wildnefs of its imaginary, and luxuriance of its de- 

 fcription, it bears all the marks and character of the Arabian poetry. 

 Perhaps the fcenery of the country, which flrongly refembles that of 

 Yemen, may tend to infpire the poet with the fame happy fource of 

 ideas, and even modes of expreflion : and all things confidered, we muft 

 fuppofe that the Perfian poetry partakes the nature of the Arabian. 



Obferving, perhaps, not the ftrifteft chronological order, it may be re- 

 marked in this place of the Turks, that as the Perfians borrowed their 

 poetry of the Arabians, thefe, again, after they had carried their arms into 

 Mefopotamia and Syria, borrowed theirs of the Perfians, from whofe 

 language they enriched their own, naturally barren and rugged, with a 

 variety of fimple and compound words, making the form of the Perfian 

 numbers the model of their verfe. Like the Perfian, their poetry is 



wholly 



ind was heard to fay, that it ntioulil lie fpohn on that account in the gardens of Paradife." 

 iji-jlory of Perfta. 



But Sir W)l!iam after*rards gives us a fpecimen of the old Perfic itfelf from the Zend, 

 vhich had been communicated to him as a great favor. He gives it after the profaic 

 aianner, as he received it, but it is exidently rhimed, all the rhimes in ftated returns 

 roding in /. D. Here, then, v/e have an ai!>ual proof that the poetry of the ancient 

 Petfic was in rhime. 



