517 (A.D. 1123); in science he was unrivaled,--the very paragon of his
age. Khwajah Nizami of Samarcand, who was one of his pupils, relates
the following story: "I often used to hold conversations with my
teacher, Omar Khayyam, in a garden; and one day he said to me,
'My tomb shall be in a spot where the north wind may scatter roses
over it.' I wondered at the words he spake, but I knew that his were
no idle words.<4> Years after, when I chanced to revisit Naishapur, I
went to his final resting-place, and lo! it was just outside a garden,
and trees laden with fruit stretched their boughs over the garden
wall, and dropped their flowers upon his tomb, so that the stone was
hidden under them."'"

<3>"Philosophe Musulman qui a vecu en Odeur de Saintete dans sa
Religion, vers la Fin du premier et le Commencement du second
Siecle," no part of which, except the "Philosophe," can apply to our
Khayyam.

<4>The Rashness of the Words, according to D'Herbelot, consisted in
being so opposed to those in the Koran: "No Man knows where he shall
die."--This story of Omar reminds me of another so naturally--and
when one remembers how wide of his humble mark the noble sailor
aimed--so pathetically told by Captain Cook--not by Doctor
Hawkworth--in his Second Voyage (i. 374). When leaving Ulietea,
"Oreo's last request was for me to return. When he saw he could not
obtain that promise, he asked the name of my Marai (burying-place).
As strange a question as this was, I hesitated not a moment to tell
him 'Stepney'; the parish in which I live when in London. I was
made to repeat it several times over till they could pronounce it;
and then 'Stepney Marai no Toote' was echoed through an hundred
mouths at once. I afterwards found the same question had been put