CV. FĪRŪZA OF KĀBUL.*

He was brought up in the household of Mīrzā Muḥammad Ḥakīm.* By birth he belongs to the Langāh* clan. It seems 298 probable that he was captured by a soldier in some of the wars in Hindūstān and was placed in the service of the late Emperor, and was then brought up with Mīrzā Muḥammad Ḥakīm. He is somewhat studious, in a desultory manner, and is moderately skilled in penmanship. He has a general knowledge of music, and can beat the drum after a fashion.* In body he is well pro­portioned. He came to court and paid his respects, with Qāẓī Khān of Badakhshān, between Jaunpūr and Āgra, when the Em­peror was returning from his expedition to Patna. Although he does not study assiduously he is naturally somewhat ready in etymology, and it gradually becomes evident that he has under­stood the whole drift of any stiff argument.

The following verses are his:—
“Thou hast made a stranger the object of thy regard.
What means this?
Thou hast cast out the slave from thy regard. What
means this?
I have seen nobody in this age to equal thee in beauty and
grace.
But thou hast destroyed the value of beauty. What
means this?”

“What remedy is there but death for this sick body?
Go, physician, waste not thy pains on me.”

Nowadays it is reported that he boasts that he has written an­swers * to most of the odes in the dīvāns of ancient and modern poets. As to what he has discovered from these sources it may perhaps become more generally known than it is at present.