184 
THE SCULPTOR FERHAUD. 
bridal beauties of his incomparable Shirene of “ his huntings, 
and his victories and of “ Shub-deez, his fine Arabian charger, 
more powerful than the thunderbolt, and fleeter than the wind.” 
These tales then go on rather preposterously, for they say, that 
soon after the nuptials of Khosroo with this peerless princess* 
and that he had brought her into Persia to share his crown, he 
wished to perpetuate her wonderful charms in marble; and also 
to execute other marvellous works along the great mountain- 
range of Be-Sitoon. Accordingly, he sought far and near for an 
artist of the excellency required ; and, by a fortunate concurrence 
of events, Ferhaud, the most celebrated sculptor of the age, pre¬ 
sented himself before him ; but when the young man beheld the 
face of the queen, “ whose blazing charms,” Ferdousi describes 
“ to confound the light of the sun !” and whose statue was his 
first employment to model, he became so franticly enamoured 
as to demand her favour as the price of this, and all his future 
labours. The king, it seems, with equal extravagancy, entered 
into the engagement, appearing to be willing at any expence of 
truth, to purchase the vast works in his contemplation. Ferhaud 
began; inflicting new wounds on his heart, at every stroke of the 
chisel which pourtrayed her thousand unimaginable beauties. 
That finished, mountains were pierced, enormous reservoirs ex¬ 
cavated, palaces reared, and streams brought through the solid 
rock, to play in the fountains of her presence. In short, the 
lover’s chisel seemed a magician’s wand: and all that he had 
© ' 
commanded, rose so immediately before the king, that, dreading 
to be called upon to repay the indefatigable Ferhaud with the 
divinity he himself adored, he determined to get rid of the debt 
and his fears together, with the life of the enamoured workman. 
Accordingly, he suborned an old woman, who was in his con- 
