=632. Of age and looks=, etc. That is, of such age as he (Sohrab) would be, if born of his (Rustum's) union with Tahmineh.
=658-660. I tell thee, prick'd upon this arm=, etc. This is Arnold's conception. In the original story Sohrab wore an onyx stone as an amulet. The onyx was supposed to incite the wearer to deeds of valor.
=664. corselet.= Protective armor for the body.
=679. griffin.= In the natural history of the ancients, an imaginary animal, half lion and half eagle. Here the Simurgh. See note, l. 232.
=708-710. unconscious hand.= Note how the dying Sohrab seeks to console the grief-stricken Rustum.
"Such is my destiny, such is the will of fortune. It was decreed that I should perish by the hand of my father."
=717. have found= (him). Note the ellipsis.
=723-724. I came ... passing wind.= The _Shah Nameh_ has--
"I came like a flash of lightning, and now I depart like the wind."
=736. caked the sand.= Hardened into cakes.
=752. Zirrah.= Another lake in Seistan, southeast of Hamoon, now almost dry.
=763-765. Moorghab, Tejend and Kohik.= Rivers of Turkestan which lose themselves in the deserts to the south of Bokhara. The northern Sir is the Sir Daria, or Jaxartes. See note, l. 129.
=788. And heap a stately mound=, etc. Persian tradition says that a large monument, in shape like the hoof of a horse, was placed over the spot where Sohrab was buried.
=830. on that day.= Shortly after the death of Afrasiab, the Persian monarch Kai Khosroo, accompanied by a large number of his nobles, went to a spring far to the north, the location fixed upon as a place for their repose. Here the king died, and those who went with him afterward perished in a tempest. Sohrab predicted Rustum would be one of those lost, but tradition does not have it so.
=861. Persepolis.= An ancient capital of Persia, the ruins of which are known as "the throne of Jemshid," after a mythical king.
=878. Chorasma.= A region of Turkestan, the seat of a powerful empire in the twelfth century, but now greatly reduced. Its present limits are about the same as those of Khiva. See note, l. 120.
=880. Right for the polar star.= That is, due north. =Orgunje.= A village on the Oxus some seventy miles below Khiva, and near the head of its delta.