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Dato Mansur, his executive, met us at the landing and escorted us into the presence of the Sultan and his wife, where we were offered soda-water and whiskey, and we remained an hour. They are both likeable, but the Sultan appears rather nervous and frail, and it is rumoured that his health has suffered as a result of overindulgence in spiritualistic seances.
Quoth Mansur, "O Salih, I beg thee of thy favour to bring me to my house, that I may take leave of my children and family and give my kinsfolk my last injunctions." Now Salih relateth: "So I went with him to his house where he fell to bidding his family farewell, and the house was filled with a clamour of weeping and lamentations and calling for help on Almighty Allah.
Firdausi positively knew no Pahlavi and as for Arabic he knew next to nothing. He did employ written sources preponderatingly if not exclusively and these were in modern Persian. So far our information is surely trustworthy. For, Biruni testifies to a Shahname by Abu Mansur bin Abdar Razzak of Tus.
The Frank, however, listened to it with some interest as the three walked out together. In the watches of the night Elias had remembered how years ago a muleteer, by name Mansur, had brought a piece of gold to show him secretly. This man had been upon a journey to the Wady Mûsa with some English gentlemen of the kind who seek adventure in wild places.
In the canvass of 1842 the Whigs had nominated John P. Robinson. He was not an acceptable candidate, and the candidate of the Abolitionists received a large vote. The Democratic candidate was Joseph W. Mansur of Lowell. In the first contest he was near an election by a majority. At the second trial his friends had high hopes of success.
Mansur furnished me with a very good table in the morning, I had buttermilk, bread, cucumber, and on one occasion dates roasted in butter, which, however, was not very palatable; in the evening mutton and rice, or a quodlibet of rice, barley, maize, cucumber, onions and minced meat. I found it all very good as I was healthy, and had a good appetite.
Sultan Mahaya was considered the best and most just ruler in those quarters; and when Speke proposed crossing the lake to the island of the Ukerewe, he urged him on no account to make the attempt. Mansur also did his best to dissuade him, and, boats not being obtainable, he was compelled to give up his design.
That same evening I went to the caravansary, and the next morning, 18th July, was on the road before sunrise. Mr. Mansur was to the last very hospitable. He not only gave me a letter to a Persian living in Sauh-Bulak, but also provided me with bread for the journey, some melons, cucumbers, and a small bottle of sour milk.
And as I looked and marvelled at her case, she turned her glance upon me and, seeing me standing at the door, said to me, 'Well come, and welcome and all hail to thee, O Ibn Mansur! Come in. So I entered and saluting her gave her the letter; and she read it and when she understood it, she said laughingly to me, 'O Ibn Mansur, the poet lied not when he sang,
Quoth I, 'By Allah, O my lady, when he shall read these verses, his soul will depart his body! Quoth she, 'O Ibn Mansur, is passion indeed come to such a pass with him that thou sayest this saying? Quoth I, 'Had I said more than this verily it were but the truth: but mercy is of the nature of the noble. Now when she heard this her eyes brimmed over with tears and she wrote him a note, I swear by Allah, O Commander of the Faithful, there is none in thy Chancery could write the like of it; and therein were these couplets,
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