12 ON SOME EARLY GARDEN HISTORY 



it is right that I should describe its beauties 

 to you. 



" We Persians, whenever possible, build our 

 gardens on a gentle slope ; and the garden I am 

 describing was so constructed that two streams 

 of crystal -like water met in the front of the 

 building and formed an immense lake, on the 

 surface of which numerous swans, geese, and 

 ducks disported themselves. 



" Below this lake there were seven waterfalls, 

 just as there are seven planets ; and below these 

 again there was a second lake of smaller dimen- 

 sions, and a superb gateway decorated with 

 blue tiles. 



44 Perhaps the reader may think that this was 

 all ; but no, not only in the lakes, but also 

 between the waterfalls, jets of water spouted up 

 into the air so high that the falling spray re- 

 sembled masses of diamonds. And often, when 

 reclining in the beautiful tiled room, the plash 

 of the jets of water and the murmur of the 

 stream hurrying down the terraced garden be- 

 tween rose bushes, backed by weeping willows, 

 planes, acacias, cypresses, and every other 

 description of tree, have moved me strangely ; 

 and I have wept from pure joy, and then have 



