THE A WRIER'S MEMOIRS.
(TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIE;It may be of interest to point out, in connection with your review of the Ameer Abdurrahman's memoirs in the Spectator of December 8th, that one small incident in his career, as told by himself, bears a striking resemblance to a story in the " Siasset Nameh " of the Vizier a treatise on the art of government composed in Persian by the statesman Abu All Hassan for his master Malik Shah, a Seljuk Monarch of the eleventh century. In the third chapter of that work it is told how Amru ibn Lais of Bokhara was routed and taken prisoner by Ismail of Khorassan, some two centuries earlier. The defeated general was left to cook his meagre dinner by a camp-fire, when the smell attracted a prowling dog. The dog poked its nose into the pot, scalded it severely, and being unable to get its head free, dashed off howling with pot and dinner. Amru turned to his guards and said: " Take example by this ! This morning four hundred camels carried my kitchen furniture,- to-night one dog has borne it away !" These seem to be the very words quoted by the Ameer in somewhat similar circum-
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