THE CROCUS. 163 



The following story is told in connexion with 

 saffron, and the town of Zaffouroonee. 



A Persian, they say, in the good old times, when 

 men really did things a little out of the common 

 way, found a large treasure on a certain spot, now 

 now called Zaflburoonee, and in gratitude, made a 

 vow to expend the whole in good works reserving 

 to himself only the pleasure he might derive from 

 his own benevolence. His first act was to build 

 a karavanserai for distressed travellers. While 

 engaged on the foundations seeing a merchant pass 

 by looking weary and depressed, he said, " Friend, 

 why is thy brow sad, and thine eyes cast down?" 

 " I am sad/' replied the merchant, " because I 

 have travelled from Khorassan to Baghdad with 

 three kharvars (nearly a ton) of saffron, and times 

 are so bad, that I am obliged to return to my 

 own city a ruined man : the saffron, on which 

 I depended for the next year's sustenance, I have 

 brought back unsold, and there will now be no 

 market for it before it is spoiled by keeping/' " The 

 saffron, then, is useless to thee," replied the first 

 speaker ; " if so, shoot it out on the ground, and 

 mix it with the mortar." The merchant mechani- 

 cally obeyed, without questioning the wisdom of 

 the order, and to his astonishment received in pay- 

 ment three kharvars of precious stones; and from 

 that time the karavanserai received the name it 

 bears to the present day, of Zaffouroonee !* 



* The story is told in Terrier's " Caravan Journey through 

 Persia," but I quote from memory. 



