The sands of Oxus, toilsome though they be, Beneath my feet were soft as silk to me. Glad at the friend's return, the Oxus deep Up to our girths in laughing waves shall leap. Long live Bukhárá! Be thou of good cheer! Joyous towards thee hasteth our Amír! The Moon's the Prince, Bukhárá, is the sky; O sky, the Moon shall light thee by and bye! Bukhárá, is the mead, the Cypress he; Receive at last, O Mead, thy Cypress-tree! This particular Amír seems to have been fond of flattery, and he found the daintily turned song of Rúdagí more acceptable to his vanity than even the beauty of Herát. He accordingly took his departure immediately the song had concluded, and, in his absent-mindedness, forgot to put on his boots, which were carried by an attendant who rode in hot pursuit. Poetry in those days was evidently a remunerative pursuit. Nīzamī tells us that Khidr Khán always had in readiness four trays of gold. "These he used to dispense by the handful" to the successful poets. Though the royal favour towards the poets was extremely bountiful, Persian poets were not always particularly courteous the one to the other. Nīzamī tells an amusing story of a minor poet named Rashídí. At the king's command the Poet-Laureate was asked to express his opinion of Rashídí's poetry. The Poet-Laureate accordingly remarked: "His verse is extremely good and chaste and correct, but it wants spice." The king afterwards repeated these words to Rashídí and bade him compose a fitting rejoinder. Rashídí composed the following verse: You stigmatise my verse as "wanting spice," And possibly, my friend, you may be right. My verse is honey-flavoured, sugar-sweet, And spice with such could scarcely cause delight. Spice is for you, you blackguard, not for me, For beans and turnips is the stuff you write! This was not kind; but Rashídí received all four baskets of gold that day! The technical study of prosody was instituted by Khalil ibn i Ahmad i Bicrí. He is said to have discovered this science by listening to the rythmic beats of the fuller's mallets upon his clothes. This story is mentioned in Saifi's _Treatise on Prosody_.[1]