صفحة 357 من 1116

Would Heaven my real son were his match in morals and manners." I

took the reed, and stretching out my paw, dipped it in ink and

wrote, in the hand used for letters,[FN#229] these two couplets:-

Time hath recorded gifts she gave the great; * But none recorded

thine which be far higher Allah ne'er orphan men by loss of thee

* Who be of Goodness mother. Bounty's sire.

And I wrote in Rayhani or larger letters elegantly

curved[FN#230]:-

Thou hast a reed[FN#231] of rede to every land, * Whose driving

causeth all the world to thrive; Nil is the Nile of Misraim by

thy boons * Who makest misery smile with fingers five

Then I wrote in the Suls[FN#232] character:-

There be no writer who from Death shall fleet, * But what his

hand hath writ men shall repeat: Write, therefore, naught save

what shall serve thee when * Thou see't on Judgment-Day an so

thou see't!

Then I wrote in the character Naskh[FN#233]:-