about him, they plucked off his leather apron, and converted it into a standard.
The crowd gathered as it advanced. From every street men flowed to join the army, and shortly the blacksmith found himself at the head of a hundred thousand men.
They marched to Demavend, where was the palace of the tyrant. And Kaveh, before attacking it, thus addressed his soldiers, "I am not one to lead you against a king; you need a king to make war against a king."
"Well," said his followers, "we elect you to be our king."
"I am but a simple blacksmith, and am not fit to rule," answered Kaveh, "but there is a royal prince named Afridoun, the son of Djemschid, who has fled from the cruelty of Dhohak: choose him."
They agreed. The prince was found and invested with the sovereignty; then a battle was fought, and Dhohak's army was routed, and the tyrant was slain.
When Afridoun mounted the throne, he named Kaveh governor of Ispahan. And when Kaveh was dead, the king asked his children to give him their father's leathern apron. Then, having obtained it, he placed it among his treasures, and whenever he went to battle he attached the smith's apron to a tall staff, and marched under that banner against his enemies.
In after years, this leathern apron was studded with precious stones, till Omar, despising it, ordered the old piece of leather to be burnt; but Yezdeguerd had already robbed it of its gems.[1]
Afridoun exercised the sovereignty during two hundred years. He was the first to study astronomy, and he founded the science of medicine. He was the first king to ride on an elephant. He had three sons, Tur, Salm, and Irad. He loved the third son, Irad, more than the two elder, and he gave him the sovereignty over Irad, Mosul, Koufa, and Bagdad.
After the death of Afridoun, Tur and Salm marched against Irad, defeated him and killed him, saying: "Our father has divided his inheritance unjustly. He has given to Irad the best portion, the centre of the world; as for us, we are cast out to its extremities."
- ↑ Tabari, i. c. xlii. xliii.
