Should so many
beings, should so many souls be rescued from temporal misery and
eternal woe; should only the half of that number, should only the
tenth, nay, should only one poor wretched sheep be saved, there
will be joy in heaven, for much will have been accomplished on
earth, and those lines will have been in part falsified which
filled the stout heart of Mahmoud with dismay:-
'For the root that's unclean, hope if you can;
No washing e'er whitens the black Zigan:
The tree that's bitter by birth and race,
If in paradise garden to grow you place,
And water it free with nectar and wine,
From streams in paradise meads that shine,
At the end its nature it still declares,
For bitter is all the fruit it bears.
If the egg of the raven of noxious breed
You place 'neath the paradise bird, and feed
The splendid fowl upon its nest,
With immortal figs, the food of the blest,
And give it to drink from Silisbel, (46)
Whilst life in the egg breathes Gabriel,
A raven, a raven, the egg shall bear,
And the fostering bird shall waste its care.' -
FERDOUSI.
The principal evidence which the Gitanos have hitherto given that a
partial reformation has been effected in their habits, is the
relinquishment, in a great degree, of that wandering life of which
the ancient laws were continually complaining, and which was the
cause of infinite evils, and tended not a little to make the roads
insecure.
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