Blushing, the girl gives over the weapon, and Jamshid says: "Now for the wager. If I hit the female, shall the lady whom I most admire in this company be mine?" The damsel, her heart bounding with throbs of love, assents. Jamshid drew the string and struck the female bird so skilfully that both wings were transfixed with the body. The male bird flew away, but presently returned and perched itself again upon the bough as if unwilling to leave its stricken mate. The damsel grasped the bow and arrow, and said: "The male bird has returned to his former place; if my aim be successful shall the man whom I choose in this company be my husband?" Just then the aged nurse of the princess appears, and recognizes in King Jamshid him whom the oracles had predicted would be the young girl's spouse. "... happy tidings, blissful to her heart, Increased the ardor of her love for him." They are married. And the story of her father's displeasure and of his treachery toward Jamshid, the latter's betrayal and death, the young wife's inconsolable grief and sad self-slaughter move before the reader in a most thrilling fashion. This Persian poem, setting forth the romantic side of female character, is one of the greatest pieces of literature ever written. The Persian romances delight in making the women do most of the loving and the courting. The heroines are the first to feel passion and the most rapturous in expressing it. They, however, like Saiawush in the _Shahnamah_, are fond of coyness until they have determined to yield to the force of love. But when the love of a Persian woman has once gone out, the Persian poets usually depict it as strong and steadfast to the end. It speaks like that of Manijeh, the unfortunate Byzun: "Can I be faithless then to thee, The choice of this fond heart of mine, Why sought I bonds when I was free, But to be thine, forever thine?" Even the best poets, such as Firdausi, who was called the "poet of Paradise," Persia's great national poet, often present woman's charms in lines highly overdrawn. Such these are concerning the Princess Rudabah: "Screened from public view Her countenance is brilliant as the sun; From head to foot her lovely form is fair As polished ivory. Like the spring, her cheek Presents a radiant bloom--in stature tall, And o'er her silvery brightness, richly flow Dark musky ringlets clustering to her feet." Khakani, considered the most learned of Persia's lyric poets, wrote some beautiful verses in which womanly charms find place. Such is his poem _The Unknown Beauty_, in which occur the lines: "I saw thy form of waving grace! I heard thy soft and gentle sighs; I gazed on that enchanting face, And looked in thy narcissus eyes; Oh! by the hopes thy smiles allowed, Bright soul-inspirer, who art thou?"