Note 206 — Chapter II · (continued 2)

According to the Shah-nameh, Afrasiab, after many battles, succombed to the fortune of Kaí-Khusro. The king of Turan fled to the mountains of Berdah, where he concealed himself in a cavern. It so happened that Hum, a descendant of Feridun, lived as a hermit in the same desert: there he heard by night a voice of complaint, which he soon recognised to be that of Afrasiab. The hermit had not extinguished the vindictive passion in his breast; he seized and bound the fugitive king, and conducted him to be delivered into the hands of Káí Khusró. On the bank of a large river, Hum, visited by a feeling of pity, loosened the fetters of his prisoner, who profited by these few moments of liberty to escape, and dived into the water, where he remained concealed, as is said above, so that he could not be discovered. Káí Khusró, having in the mean time arrived to receive himself the great captive, Hum advised the king to subject Gorshivez (Afrâsiab’s brother) who was also a prisoner in his hands, to severe tortures, in order that the lamentations of the sufferer might draw Afrasiab out of the water. This stratagem succeeded, and Afrasiab was killed by the sword of Káí Khusró.