A few anecdotes about Persian poets are also given.  Thus “Dichterkampf,” p 233, gives the amusing story of the literary contest between Anvari and Rasid, surnamed Vatvat “the swallow” (Hammer, Red. p. 121; David Price, Chronological Retrospect, London, 1821, ii. 391, 392), and on p. 243 we are told how Kamal ud-din curses his native city Ispahan and how the curse was fulfilled. (Hammer, Red. p. 159.)

The seventh book contains two of Rueckert’s best known parables, the famous “Es ging ein Mann im Syrerland,” p. 303,[175] and “Der Sultan laesst den Mewlana rufen,” p. 305 (Red. p. 338).

* * * * *

It will be noticed that the Oriental poems which we have thus far discussed were mainly derived from Arabic and Persian sources.  We may now turn our attention to a collection in which Rueckert’s studies on matters connected with India are also represented.

This collection Brahmanische Erzaehlungen, published in the year 1839 (vol. iii.), does not, however, as its title might lead us to suppose, consist exclusively of Indic material.  Some of the poems are not even Oriental; “Annikas Freier,” p. 217, for example, is from the Finnic.  Of others, again, the subject-matter, whether originally Oriental or not, has long ago become the common property of the world’s fable-literature, as, for instance, “Weisheit aus Vogelmund,” p. 239, the story of which may be found in the Gesta Romanorum, and in French, English and German, as well as in Persian, fable-books.[176] Some are from Arabic sources, as from the Thousand and One Nights, e.g.  “Der schwanke Ankergrund,” p. 357,[177] “Elephant, Nashorn und Greif,” p. 367,[178] “Die Kokosnuesse,” p. 359.[179] The poem “Rechtsanschauung in Afrika,” p. 221, is a Hebrew parable from the Talmud and had been already used by Herder.[180]

A considerable number of the poems contain nothing but Persian material.  Thus “Wettkampf,” p. 197, is from the Gulistan (i. 28; K.S. tr. p. 27); and from the same source we have “Rache fuer den Steinwurf,” p. 219 (Gul. i. 22; K.S. 21), “Fluch und Segen,” p. 234 (Gul. i. 1), and “Busurgimihr,” p. 225 (Gul. i. 32; K.S. 31).  “Die Bibliothek des Koenigs,” p. 405, is from the Baharistan (K.S., p. 31; Red. p. 338).  Three episodes from the Iskandar Namah are narrated on pp. 214-217:  the story of the invention of the mirror (Isk. tr.  Clark, xxiii. p. 247), the battle between the two cocks (ibid., xxii. p. 234 seq.), and the message of Dara to Alexander with the latter’s reply (ibid. xxiv. p. 263).[181]