﻿CAME OF CHESS. l6t 



with an image of war, while his metropolis was 

 closely besieged by Rama, in the second age of the 

 world. He had not heard the story told by Firdatisi, 

 near the close of the Shahnamah ; and k was probably 

 carried into Persia from Canyacuvja, by B>jrzu the 

 favourite 'physician, thence called- Paidyaprya, of the 

 great Anushiravan ; but he said that the Brahmans 

 of Gaur, or Bengal, were once celebrated for superior 

 skill in the game, and that his father, together with his 

 spiritual preceptor Jagahnai'h, now living at Tribeni, 

 had instructed two young Brahmans in all the rules of 

 it, and had sent them to Jayanagar at the request 

 of the late Raja, who had liberally rewarded them. A 

 ship or boat is snbsituted, we see, in this complex 

 game for the rafh, or armed chariot, which the Ben- 

 galese pronounce rot'h, and which the Persians changed 

 into rokh, whence came the rook of some European 

 nations; as the vierge and/o/ of the French are sup- 

 posed to be corruptions of ferz and fil, the prime 

 minister and elephant of the Persian and Arabs. It 

 were in vain to seek an etymology of the word rook in 

 the modern Persian language ; for, in all the passages 

 extracted from Firdausi and Jami, wheie rokh is con- 

 ceived to mean a hero or a fabulous bird, it signifies, 

 I believe, no more than a cheek or a face ; as in the 

 following description of a procession in Egypt: — 

 " When a thousand youths, like cypresses, box-trees, 

 " and firs, with locks as fragrant, cheeks as fair, and 

 " bosoms as delicate as lilies of the valley, were 

 " marching gracefully along, thou wouldst have said 

 " that the new spring was turning his face (not, as 

 Hyde translates the words, carried on rokhs) from 

 " station to station." And as to the battle of the du~ 

 wazdeh rakh, which D 1 Herb clot supposes to mean douze 

 preux chevaliers, I am strongly inclined to think that 



the phrase only signifies a combat of twelve persons 

 face to face, or six on a side. I cannot agree with my 



friend Radhacant, that a ship is properly introduced 

 Vol. II. M 



