There lived once in persia a very wise and noble warrior whose name was Zal.He had been white -haired from birth,and his father,Sahm,believing that this betokened some grate calamity to his house,had carried him to a mountain and left him there to die.But Allah had willed otherwise,and the babe was carried off by a supernatural creature,the simurgh,to its nest ,and this creature nourished him until he was ready to seek his fortune in the world.The Shah of persia,the good minuchir,loved him dearly,and honored him above all his other nobles;and when a son was born to Zal,Minuchir rejoiced to think that here was another hero who would serve his country in the years to come as devotedly as his father had done before him.This boy,when he was a day old,was as big and strong as a one-year's child,and every year his stature and his strength increased so marvelously that through all the land men spoke with wonder of Rustem,the son of Zal.watch out for chapter 2