“Thence he returnèd war with the Worm to wage,
He with his warriors bold, bent on its slaughter.
World-tried and war-wise came he with armed hosts
Numbering two thousand over ten thousand.
When thus his scattered hosts he had assembled
'Twixt the two mountains boldly he brought them.Then spake King Ardashír unto his captain,
*
One who was skilled in war and wise in counsel,
Shahr-gír named, ‘Taker of cities’:
‘Watchful and wakeful thou shalt abide here,
Keeping thy scouts alert day-time and night-time,
Ringing thy camp around with ready horsemen;
Sentries about thee, warders around thee,
By night and day shall keep watch o'er thine army.
Such cunning wile of war now will I venture,
As did Isfandiyár, my noble forbear.If then thy sentry by day a smoke-cloud
Sees, or at night a fire like the sun flaming,
Know then at last the Worm's witcheries ended,
Know that its star is set, its strength departed.’Out of his captains then seven men chose he,
Brave men and valiant all, lions in warfare;
E'en from the winds of heav'n kept he his counsel.
Then from his coffers fair gems he gathered,
Gold coins and rare brocades and rich possessions,
Holding things priceless cheap in his prudence.
With lead and copper then two chests he crammed full,
And, midst his baggage bound one brazen cauldron,
Being well skilled in crafts and devices.When in this wise his wares had been chosen
From the horse-master ten asses claimed he,
And like an ass-herd in coarse apparel clad,
But with his bales filled full with gold and silver
Fared he with anxious heart forth on the forward way,
And from the camp set his face to the fortress.
Also those two brave peasants who gave him
Harbour and shelter once in disaster
Chose he as comrades on his forth-faring,
Since he had proved them loyal and wary.
Thus on the road they drew near to the fortress,
Breasted the hill-ridge, rested to breathe again.For the Worm's service sixty were set apart,
Eager and earnest each in his service,
Of whom one cried aloud as they approached,
‘What have ye hidden there in your boxes?’
Thus the King answered that stern inquiry:
‘Of every precious stuff samples I bring you:
Red gold and silver white, ornaments, raiment,
Dínárs and fine brocades, jewels and sable.
I from Khurásán come as a merchant,
Leaving luxurious ease for toilsome journeys.
Much wealth have I amassed by the Worm's blessing,
And now I grateful come unto the Worm's throne;
Since by its favour my fortunes prospered,
Right do I deem it service to render.’When the Worm's warders thus heard the tale he told
Forthwith the fortress-gates wide they flung open.
Then, when his loads were laid safe in the fortress,
Thus did the King prepare his task to finish.
Swiftly before them spread he the wares he brought,
Graciously gave to each what he most cravèd.
Then for the warders spread he a rich repast,
And like a servitor stood there to serve them,
Cast loose the locks and clasps of chest and coffer,
Brought forth a beaker brimming with date-wine.
But from the brimming bowl those who were chargèd
With the Worm's feeding turnèd their faces.
Since milk and rice for its meal must they carry
Feared they that wine might their footsteps unsteady.Then to his feet leaped Ardashír lightly,
Crying, ‘With me I bear much milk and fine rice.
Let me, I pray you, for days and nights three,
Gladden my spirit with the Worm's service.
Thus in the world fair fame shall I win me,
And from the Worm's luck borrow new blessing.
Blithely three days and nights quaff ye the wine-cup,
And on the fourth day, when the world-kindler
Rises, a booth right royal I'll build me,
Which shall o'ertop the towers of the Palace.
I am a chapman, eager for custom,
And by the Worm much fame shall I win me.’He by these cunning words his aim accomplished:
‘Feed thou the Worm,’ they cried, ‘so an it please thee.’
Thus did the ass-herd win by his wiles his aim,
While unto wine and song wended the warders.When these had drunk deep wine overcame them;
Thus to wine-worship turned they from watching.
And when their souls were deep steeped in the wine-cup
Forth fared the Prince with his hosts of the hamlet,
Brought with him copper and brazen cauldron,
Kindled a flaming fire in the white daylight.
So to the Worm at its meal-time was measured
In place of milk and rice much molten metal.
Unto its trench he brought that liquid copper;
Soft from the trench its head the Worm upraisèd.
Then they beheld its tongue, like brazen cymbal,
Thrust forth to take its food as was its custom.Into its open jaws that molten metal
Poured he, while in the trench helpless the worm writhed.
Crashed from its throat the sound of fierce explosion
Such that the trench and whole fort fell a-quaking.
Swift as the wind Ardashír and his comrades
Hastened with drawn swords, arrows, and maces.
Of the Worm's warders, wrapped in their wine-sleep,
Not one escaped alive from their fierce onslaught.
Then from the Castle-keep raised he the smoke-wreaths
Which his success should tell to his captains.
Hasting to Shahr-gír swift came the sentry,
Crying, ‘King Ardashír his task hath finished!’
Quickly the captain then came with his squadrons,
Leading his mail-clad men unto the King's aid.”
We see from the above extracts not only the fidelity with which Firdawsí followed the Pahlawí legend (known to him, Ardashír a historical figure surrounded by legends. as Nöldeke has shown, not in the original, but in Persian translations), but also to what extent legends and fables gathered round the perfectly historical figure of “Artakhshír, King of kings of Persia and non-Persia, son of Pápak the King,” known to us not only from historical works, but from coins and inscriptions * dating from his own time. With him, indeed, the native tradition may be said to pass from mythology to history (for the Alexander-legend, as we have already seen, is an importation from without), a point well put by the historian Ibn Wáḍiḥ al-Ya'qúbí (ed. Houtsma, vol. i, pp. 178-179), who flourished towards the end of the ninth century of our era, in the following words:—
“Persia claims many supernatural attributes for its kings which
cannot be accepted as credible, such as that one had a number of
al-Ya'qúbí on
Persian legend
and Persian
history.
mouths and eyes, and another a face of copper,*
and
that on the shoulders of another grew two snakes
which ate human brains,*
the long duration of their
lives, their keeping death from mankind, and the like
of this; things which reason rejects, and which must be referred to
the category of idle tales and frivolous fables, devoid of actuality.
But such of the Persians as possess sense and knowledge, or nobility
and distinguished extraction, alike princes and squires (dihqán), tradi-
Shápúr, the son of Ardashír (the interesting legend of whose birth and recognition, given in the Kár-námak, the Sháh-náma, Shápúr I. and most of the Arabian historians, I am compelled to omit for lack of space) is notable in Western history for his successful campaigns against the “Romans” and his capture of the Emperor Valerian, achievements com- Shápúr's inscriptions and monuments. memorated in the sculptures of Naqsh-i-Rustam and Shápúr.* The Greek translation attached to the short bi-lingual Pahlawí inscription of this king at Naqsh-i-Rajab (which formed, as we have seen, the starting-point of the decipherment of both the Sásánian and the Achæmenian inscriptions) was probably cut by some Greek The Ḥájí-ábád inscription. prisoner. The longer Ḥájí-ábád inscription still presents some difficulties, in spite of the labours of Thomas (1868), West (1869), Haug (1870), and other scholars, and the excellent reproductions of it (casts, copies, and photographs) available. Thomas did excellent service in publishing all the available Pahlawí inscriptions, but he was more successful in decipherment than in interpretation, where his results were of the most amazing kind, for he explained several of these edicts as professions of faith on the part of the Sásánian kings in the God of the Jews and Christians, and in consequence the divergence between the translations offered by him and the other scholars mentioned is so great that Lord Curzon says in his work on Persia (vol. ii, pp. 116-117):—
“That the decipherment of the Pehlevi character has reached no scientific stage of development is manifest from the different readings that have been given of the Hájíábád lines; and sooner than pin my faith either to the philo-Christian theory of Mr. Thomas, or to the bowshot theory of Dr. M. Haug, although I believe the latter has secured the verdict of most scholars, I prefer the security of unshamed ignorance.”
No one, however, who is at all capable of weighing the
evidence can doubt the general correctness of the renderings
of Haug and West, who had the advantage over Thomas of
being familiar with the book Pahlawí. Out of the 115 words
which constitute the Sásánian-Pahlawí version, not more than
half a dozen are uncertain in meaning (though unfortunately
they are of importance for the understanding of the sense), and
the meaning of the first six lines and a half is perfectly certain.
The difficulty of fully comprehending the whole largely arises
from our absence of information as to the nature of the
ceremony described, and the exact object of the shooting of
the arrow by the King out of this lonely little cave. Parallels,
however, are not wanting, and evidently the shooting of an
arrow to determine a site was not unusual in Sásánian times.
Thus Ṭabarí (Nöldeke's translation, pp. 263-264) and Dína-
We ought, however, to refer in this connection to a very ingenious attempt at a new translation of this inscription F. Müller's interpretation of the Ḥájí-ábád inscription. made by Friedrich Müller in the Vienna Oriental Journal for 1892 (vol. vi, pp. 71-75). Citing for illustration and comparison a passage from the Iliad (xxiii, 852) and an episode from the life of Charles VI (M. Bermann's Maria Theresa u. Joseph II, p. 38), he takes minô (translated by Haug as “spirit”) as a conventional honorific epithet of Royalty at this time (similar to “sublime” in modern Turkey and Persia and “celestial” in China), chêtâk (= Balúchí chêdag, “a stone-arrow”) as a pillar set up as a target (= Homer's <text in Greek script omitted>), and wayâk as a bird (= Homer's <text in Greek script omitted>); and thus translates the enigmatical inscription.
“This is the edict of me, the Mazda worshipper, Sháhpuhr, placed
amongst the gods, King of kings of Persia and non-Persia, of
celestial descent from God, son of the Mazda-worshipper Artakh-
“And when we shot this arrow, then we shot it in the presence of the Satraps, the Princes, the Great ones and the Nobles: we set the foot on this stone* and shot out the arrow at one of these targets: where the arrow was shot, however, there was no bird at hand, where, if the targets had been rightly set up, the arrow would have been found outwardly visible [or ‘sticking in the ground.’]
“Then we ordered a target specially set apart for His Majesty to be erected in this place. The Celestial hand [i.e., the hand of His Majesty] wrote this: ‘Let no one set foot on this stone or shoot an arrow at this target.’ Then I shot the arrow destined for the Royal use at these targets.
“This hath the hand [of the King] written.”