SOHRAB AND RUSTUM.

AN EPISODE.

AND the first gray of morning filled the east,
And the fog rose out of the Oxus stream;
But all the Tartar camp along the stream
Was hushed, and still the men were plunged
in sleep.

Sohrab alone, he slept not; all night along
He had lain wakeful, tossing on his bed;
But when the gray dawn stole into his tent,
He rose, and clad himself, and girt his sword,
And took his horseman's cloak, and left his
tent,

And went abroad into the cold wet fog,
Through the dim camp to Peran-Wisa's tent.
Through the black Tartar tents he passed,

which stood,

Clustering like bee-hives, on the low flat
strand

Of Oxus, where the summer floods o'erflow
When the sun melts the snows in high Pa-

mere:

All night long I lie

But Sohrab came to the bedside, and said:
"Thou know'st me, Peran-Wisa; it is I.
The sun is not yet risen, and the foe
Sleep; but I sleep not.
Tossing and wakeful; and I come to thee.
For so did King Afrasiab bid me seek
Thy counsel, and to heed thee as thy son,
In Samarcand, before the army marched;
And I will tell thee what my heart desires.
Thou knowest if, since from Ader-baijan first
I came among the Tartars, and bore arms,
I have still served Afrasiab well, and shown,
At my boy's years, the courage of a man.
This, too, thou know'st, that while I still
bear on

The conquering Tartar ensigns through the
world,

And beat the Persians back on every field,
I seek one man, one man, and one alone.
Rustum, my father; who, I hoped, should
greet,

Should one day greet upon some well-fought

field

His not unworthy, not inglorious son.
So I long hoped, but him I never find.

Through the black tents he passed, o'er that Come then, hear now, and grant me what

low strand,

And to a hillock came, a little back

ask.

Let the two armies rest to-day; but I

From the stream's brink, the spot where first Will challenge forth the bravest Persian lords
a boat,
To meet me, man to man. If I prevail,
Crossing the stream in summer, scrapes the Rustum will surely hear it; if I fall-
Old man, the dead need no one, claim no kin.

land.

The men of former times had crowned the Dim is the rumor of a common fight,

top

With a clay fort. But that was fallen; and

now

The Tartars built there Peran-Wisa's tent,
A dome of laths; and o'er it felts were
spread.

And Sohrab came there, and went in, and
stood

Upon the thick-piled carpets in the tent,
And found the old man sleeping on his bed
Of rugs and felts; and near him lay his arms.
And Peran-Wisa heard him, though the step
Was dulled; for he slept light, an old man's
sleep;

And he rose quickly on one arm, and said:
"Who art thou? for it is not yet clear
dawn.

Where host meets host, and many names are

sunk;

But of a single combat fame speaks clear."

He spoke and Peran-Wisa took the hand Of the young man in his, and sighed, and said:

"O Sohrab, an unquiet heart is thine! Canst thou not rest among the Tartar chiefs, And share the battle's common chance with

us

Who love thee, but must press for ever first,
In single fight incurring single risk,
To find a father thou hast never seen?
That were far best, my son, to stay with us
Unmurmuring—in our tents, while it is war;
And when 't is truce, then in Afrasiab'e
towns.

Speak! is there news, or any night alarm?" But, if this one desire indeed rules all,

SOHRAB AND RUSTUM.

461

To seek out Rustum-seek him not through | Stream over Casbin, and the southern slopes

fight;

Seek him in peace, and carry to his arms-
O Sohrab, carry an unwounded son!
But far hence seek him; for he is not here.
For now it is not as when I was young,
When Rustum was in front of every fray;
But now he keeps apart, and sits at home,
In Siestan, with Zal, his father old;
Whether that his own mighty strength at last
Feels the abhorred approaches of old age;
Or in some quarrel with the Persian king.
There go;-Thou wilt not? yet my heart
forebodes

Danger or death awaits thee on this field.

Fain would I know thee safe and well, though lost

Of Elburz, from the A:alian estuaries,
Or some frore Caspian reed-bed-southward
bound

For the warm Persian sea-board: so they
streamed-

The Tartars of the Oxus, the king's guard, First, with black sheep-skin caps, and with long spears;

Large men, large steeds; who from Bokhara come,

And Khiva, and ferment the milk of mares. Next the more temperate Toorkmuns of the south,

The Tukas, and the lances of Salore,

And those from Attruck and the Caspian sands

To us-fain therefore send thee hence, in Light men, and on light steeds, who only

peace

To seek thy father, not seek single fights
In vain. But who can keep the lion's cub
From ravening? and who govern Rustum's
son?

Go! I will grant thee what thy heart desires."
So said he, and dropped Sohrab's hand, and
left

His bed, and the warm rugs whereon he lay;
And o'er his chilly limbs his woollen coat
He passed, and tied his sandals on his feet,
And threw a white cloak round him; and he
took

In his right hand a ruler's staff, no sword;
And on his head he placed his sheep-skin

сар

Black, glossy, curled, the fleece of Kara-Kul;
And raised the curtain of his tent, and called
His herald to his side, and went abroad.

The sun, by this, had risen, and cleared the
fog

drink

The acrid milk of camels, and their wells.
And then a swarm of wandering horse, who

came

From far, and a more doubtful service
owned-

The Tartars of Ferghana, from the banks
Of the Jaxartes-men with scanty beards
And close-set skull-caps; and those wilder
hordes

Who roam o'er Kipchak and the northern
waste,

Kalmuks and unkemped Kuzzaks, tribes who
stray

Nearest the pole; and wandering Kirghizes,
Who come on shaggy ponies from Pamere.
These all filed out from camp into the plair.
And on the other side the Persians formed:
First a light cloud of horse, Tartars they
seemed,

The Ilyats of Khorassan; and behind,

From the broad Oxus and the glittering The royal troops of Persia, horse and foot,

sands;

And from their tents the Tartar horsemen filed
Into the open plain: so Haman bade-
Haman, who, next to Peran-Wisa, ruled
The host, and still was in his lusty prime.
From their black tents, long files of horse,
they streamed:

Marshalled battalions bright in burnished
steel.

But Peran-Wisa with his herald came
Threading the Tartar squadrons to the front,
And with his staff kept back the foremost
ranks.

And when Ferood, who led the Persians, saw

As when, some grey November morn, the That Peran-Wisa kept the Tartars back, files,

He took his spear, and to the front he came

In marching order spread, of long-necked And checked his ranks, and fixed them where

"Old man, be it agreed as thou hast said. "Ferood, and ye, Persians and Tartars, Let Sohrab arm, and we will find a man.”

A side of roasted sheep, and cakes of bread, Long flocks of travelling birds dead on the And dark green melons. And there Rustum

Choked by the air; and scarce can they Listless, and held a falcon on his wrist,

So the pale Persians held their breath with And greeted Gudurz with both hands, and fear.

Yet champion have we none to match this But not to-day: to-day has other needs.