CH.v]                 AUGURIES FROM HAFIZ                    315

" My desire hath not yet been fulfilled in respect to my craving for
thy lip;
In the hope of the ruby goblet [of thy mouth] I am still a drainer
of dregs."

9.    No. 24 in ji.    R.-Schw., vol. ii, p. 270.

^jaf^  L^^^-^^  AJlsi«M« J'S J^  ^ J-t^

" Arise, that we may seek an opening through the door of the tavern,
That we may sit in the Friend's path and seek [the fulfilment of ] a
wish!"

As will be seen, the answers supplied by these vague
oracles are often of a somewhat uncertain na-

Instances of            ,             i-ii*          i''j^i-                   i          i

appropriate        turc, besidcs bemg limited m number to nine.

to^'Sktr^ ^^^ °^^^^ method of opening the Diwdn at
random gives, of course, much richer results, and
there stands on record many a remarkable response, which
si non e vero e ben trovato. Six of these are recorded at the
end (pp. 122-7) of the little treatise ^n\A\\^di Latifa-i-Ghay¬
biyya which has been already mentioned \

The first refers to Shah Isma'il the Great, the founder
of the Safawi dynasty, who made the Shi'a doctrine the
official creed of Persia, and carried his energy so far in this
endeavour that he ordered the tombs of persons of suspected
orthodoxy or of known Sunni proclivities to be destroyed.
One day, accompanied by a certain ignorant and fanatical
priest known as Mulla Magas^, he visited the tomb of Hafiz,
and Mulla Magas urged him to have it destroyed, alleging
(as had been alleged by the poet's contemporaries) that he
was unorthodox in belief and dissolute in life. The King
thereupon announced his intention of taking an augury
from the Diwdn of Hafiz, which opened at the following
verse:

*^j^a»«j^ yjS^^ 3 vo*^-^ ^*^ L5'**=^     'v^J*^!/^ J':!^^'^ ^ V y^'^ ^J3^

" At dawn Orion displayed his belt before me.
As though to say, ' I am the King's slave, and this I swear.'"

^ See p. 300 supra.             ^ Magas is the Persian for " a fly."