There are abortive negotiations, but the campaign continues. Many Túránian chiefs are slain by Rustam, who takes the Khán of Chín prisoner. He also slays Káfúr, the man-eater. Afrásiyáb summons Púládwand to his aid, but again Rustam is triumphant. He returns victorious to Írán, is welcomed and rewarded by Kai Khusrau, and then departs to Sístán.

§ 14. It is said that when Firdausí was buried in his own garden at Tús,*

the great Shaikh of the time—Abúl Kásim of Gurgán—refused to be present because, he said, Firdausí, though a learned and religious man, had deserted his principles and spent his time in discoursing of men of bad religion and fire-worshippers. That night the Shaikh had a dream of Paradise. He saw a magnificent palace with a jewelled throne, and asked whose it was. “It is for Firdausí,” was the reply. Then the poet appeared wearing a green robe and an emerald-coloured crown upon his head. “O Firdausí!” said the Shaikh, “whence this rank and splendour?” The poet answered: “From a couplet or two con­fessing the Unity of God.” The Shaikh, when he woke, went and prayed at Firdausí's tomb. Probably the lines referred to are those at the end of this section.*

§ 20. Cannibalism was not unknown in former times among the savage tribes of the North, as we learn from Herodotus. On the upper waters of the Borysthenes (the Dnieper) dwelt the Androphagoi proper, who seem to have been of Finnish race, some tribes of which appear to have retained their cannibalistic propensity as late as the Middle Ages.*

On the steppes east of the Caspian dwelt the Massagetæ, and to the north of them, and south-east of the Ural Mountains, the Issedones. Both these tribes were to some extent cannibals.*

The legend in the text of a man-eating community can be accounted for without difficulty.