Page:Fairy Tales Their Origin and Meaning.djvu/123

III.] his face black, his body covered with hair, his neck like that of a dragon; two boar's tusks proceed from his mouth, his eyes are wells of blood, his hair bristles like needles, and is so thick and long that pigeons make their nests in it. Between the Peris and the Dīvs there was always war; but the Dīvs were too powerful for the Peris, and used to capture them and hang them in iron cages from the tree-tops, where their companions came and fed them with perfumes, of which the Peris are very fond, and which the Dīvs very much dislike, so that the smell kept the evil spirits away. Sometimes the Peris used to call in the help of men against the Dīvs; and in the older Persian stories there are many tales of the wonders done by these heroes who fought against the Dīvs. The most famous of these were called Tamuras and Rustem. Tamuras conquered so many of the evil spirits that he was called the Dīv-binder. He began his fights in this way. He was a great king, whose help both sides wished to get. So the Peris sent a splendid embassy to him, and so did the Dīvs. Tamuras did not know what to do; so he went to consult a wonderful bird, called the Simūrg, who speaks