Note 148 — THE TEN WAZIRS; OR THE HISTORY OF KING AZADBAKHT AND HIS SON.[130]
Richard Francis Burton translation · Edition 2
In the Braj Bákhá dialect of Hindi, we find quoted in the Akhlák-i-Hindi, “Tale of the old Tiger and the Traveller”:—
Jo jáko paryo subháo jáe ná jío-sun;
Ním na mitho hoe sichh gur ghio sun.
Ne’er shall his nature fail a man whate’er that nature be,
The Ním-tree bitter shall remain though drenched with Gur and Ghí.
The Ním (Melia Azadirachta) is the “Persian lilac,” whose leaves, intensely bitter, are used as a preventive to poison: Gur is the Anglo-Indian Jaggeri = raw sugar and Ghi = clarified butter. Roebuck gives the same proverb in Hindostani.