SORTES.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—The letter of Mr. S. C. Kaines Smith in your issue of October 30th reminds me of a Persian story which may have some interest at the present time when our troops aro marching on Baghdad. The Persians are accustomed to take sortes from the odes of Holz, as the Western peoples took them from the works of Virgil. When Nadir Shah was marching against the Turks who, under the command of Ahmad Pasha, of Baghdad, had invaded Persia and occupied Tabriz, he consulted the .Diwan of Hafiz for an omen, and the book opened at the following passage :— " Irak and Fars, 0 Haft; with thy verse thou hast made glad ; Come, 'tie now the time for Tabriz, and the hour for Baghdad!" Nadir drove the Turks froin Tabriz, and besieged Baghdad, but he could not take the city, and was fain to "save his face" by entering into a convention with Ahmed Pasha. We may trust that Sir John Nixon may bo more successful. The capture of Baghdad by the British may have some moral effect throughout the East, for that city was for some six centuries the capital of the Muslim world, the scene of the tales of the Thousand-and-one Nights, and the *" Laced" "crouched." t "tilwinked" "laboured." "Drain,
Eelled"... "stirred," " bout." § "Gowled" "growled." § "Mooted." a. "'welted,"
chief centre of Arab civilization, and its name still retains much of its ancient fame.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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