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Masood was a constant visitor at my place
and many were the delightful evening drives we
had together, during one of which we selected the
present site of the Osmania University. Our
conversation usually took us out of the stale and
unprofitable Hyderabad ways of thought. It was
sometimes about English poetry and sometimes
about Persian; and though Iqbal seemed for a
long time to lord it over Masood's mind, I did
not fail to draw his gaze away towards higher
luminaries, such as Firdausi and Omar Khayyam
and Hafiz ; and he was prompt to own allegiance
to them. He once brought me a valuable book
relating to Firdausi which had once graced his
father's library; and at another time (1925) a
copy of Nizami's " jlrVl jj^ " printed in
London in 1844. Once he presented me with a
pocket edition of Omar Khayyam and, in 1921, he
gave me a magnificent parchment-bound edition
' de luxe J of Montaigne's Essays. This came to
me with the remembered charm of old friendship.
Ross Masood visited Japan in 1925 and re-
turned full of it; and what he had to say about
Japan and the Japanese was addressed to a se-
lect audience at Poona, and is to be found in the
form of an interesting little book—more interesting
now in the light of the recent catastrophe which
has destroyed Japan.
It seemed likely at one time that Nawab
Masood Jung (as he had become by the Nizam's
favour) would be transferred to the Political De-
partment, but it was not to be. He was called away