192 
Translations from the Tar'ikh i Firuzshahi. 
[No- 3, 
on me wlio cannot put a liorse to speed, nor shoot an arrow, nor 
liurl a spear and have never seen the face of battle, and have 
no fitness or aptitude for governing’ empires and ruling states. 
If you will not abandon this perverse idea which has fixed itself 
in your mind owing to your exclusive intimacy with the emperor, 
you will be the ruin not only of me but of all my children and my 
numerous connections. Nothing worth the pains can come of this 
scheme of yours. The Kotwal wound up his admonition with this 
couplet— 
“ 1 0 fox, wliy could you not remain contented in your rank 
If a lion gives you blow for blow, you’ve but yourself to thank.’ ” 
Again he said—“ You never saw the Emperor Shams-uddin and 
the glory of his reign and his nobles and courtiers, but you have 
seen the Emperor Balban and his chiefs and his laudable and 
austere fashions, how khans and maliks and courtiers and nobles 
scal’ce dared to look in his face for more than a moment, so terrible 
and awful was it ; so overpowering was his grandeur and magnifi¬ 
cence that it turned the gall of tigers to water. We, who for years 
have run before mounted monarchs as servants, though honoured 
ones, how can we now assume the duties of empire and sovereign¬ 
ty ? You may put on a new cap and a white belt and a brocaded 
vest, and mount an Arab horse with trappings of gold, and see a few 
drunken lords and a few scaramouches without name or title before 
and behind you, and think it a fine thing to be an emperor. But 
do you not know or have you not heard that the imperial throne 
and the august masnad are for those who have greatness and nobility 
in their veins ? men who look on life as a plaything, who, in the 
hour of battle can tear the brains out of their foes and open the flood¬ 
gates of blood, and bring earth and heaven together with a crash ? 
You with this form and face and figure and manner of yours, who 
dare not strike a green-grocer with an onion-stalk, or fling a clod 
at a jackal, how can you count yourself a man among men and 
dream of an imperial crown ? Perhaps you have not heard this 
couplet— 
‘ Like a man with warrior aspect enter thou the lists of war! 
Simpering dandies never vanquished Rustam and Isfandiyar.’ 
“ And suppose that the poor drunken and besotted king in some 
