C. J. Wills

“ Here all who are expecting an audience of his Royal Highness or his people, wait; great men and their servants, merchants, artisans, priests, veiled women, wrestlers; a few well-dressed servants of the prince swagger about, while his carpet-spreaders, or farrashes, with long sticks, are present to keep order or administer the bastinado; a few executioners, dressed in red, and shunned save by the lowest, skulk in one corner, while half-a-dozen Jews gesticulate and shake their fists in each other’s faces in another. ”

“ One soon finds out that one has reached another country. Instead of the thrift of the Ispahani and his mortified look—his dress made purely for comfort and economy, and his donkey or ambling pony—the Shirazi smiling, joking, singing, clad if he can by any means attain it in gayest-coloured silk, the turban frequently discarded, even among the aged, for the jaunty hat of finest cloth or lambskin, the well-dyed and kept moustaches, and the long love-locks, with the hat of the smallest size and latest mode cocked with a knowing air among the beaux ”

“ In the sunken beds of many of the courtyards are orange trees; the scent from the blossoms of these is rather overpowering in spring; the beds beneath are generally covered with a tangle of luxuriant convolvulus or clover. The oranges are the bitter orange, like that of Seville; generally a few of the fruit are allowed to remain, and all through the winter the golden balls make the trees gay. In the bazaar the sweet oranges from Kafr and Kazerān, limes, fresh dates, pomiloes, shaddocks, and fresh lemons, show that we are in a warmer zone. And the complexions of the natives are more swarthy. ”

“ Endless yarns are told in Persia of the road and its vicissitudes, every one has had his special experiences; a few sweet, many bitter, and each man starts fully determined in his heart to make the fastest time on record, but a succession of bad horses, an ugly fall, or a very wet day, often upset the most careful plans; or the dearness of grain, or a series of couriers, may provide the rider with a number of half-starved or tired horses, or he may lose his way and find himself “on the road to nowhere.” ”

“ Here the curtain is raised, and the greatest man in Ispahan (I speak of some years ago) , whose word to the priests and mob can give endless trouble to the king—the “Imām-i-Jūma,” or high priest, and head of the law, for he was both—appears, followed by two other priests of high rank. His turban is dark blue, almost black; all bend and salaam to him. I stop to give him a military salute. He is an old patient of mine; he smiles and speaks in a stage whisper, saying to the other priests what a very superior unbeliever I am. ”

“ Here on the Thursday night the youth and bloods of Shiraz meet to race and show off their handsome horses and exhibit their gayest attire. Pistols are discharged, and light sticks, flung when at full gallop against the ground, are caught after having rebounded high in air; below the gardens, in the cemetery at one side of this Rotten Row of Shiraz, and only separated from it by a low wall, promenade the Shiraz ladies in search of fun, or it may be intrigue. Veiled as they are, all are outwardly decorous ”

“ The tales of “Saadi,” and a smattering of Arabic, form the climax of what is learnt at school.
At many village schools a few only of the boys learn to write, all to read. This power of reading they soon lose, but a villager has little occasion for it, and the repeating from memory of a few prayers, and passages from the Koran, with some verses of poetry, is generally all that remains to the villager of his education.
The quoting of poetry in Persia is universal; it is in every man’s mouth from highest to lowest, and is introduced into the most unpoetical conversations. ”

“ Towards the latter part of the afternoon the streets become thronged; as sunset approaches every one gets more lively, and at the fire of the sunset gun the longed-for pipe is seized, a cup of tea taken, and in half-an-hour every one sits down to a heavy meal. ”

“ Another celebrated dervish, who is a man of some property, draws a good pension from the Shah, and is sent yearly to some shrine to pray for the king, his expenses being defrayed from the royal purse. He perpetually rotates his head, after the manner of the harlequin of the old school, and incessantly vociferates in a loud voice, Ali Oh! Ali Oh! As he is always bareheaded, and an old man rather inclined to corpulence, the result is not edifying; but his perquisites must be very large, as he is well known to possess the royal favour. ”

“ The banker in Persia is looked on simply as a small tradesman—in fact, the business of the serof is despised; as being a usurer on the sly, he cannot be a good Mussulman, to whom usury is forbidden. His office is often merely a stall in the bazaar, at which are exposed old bracelets, gold, silver, and copper coin, and jewels always full of flaws. His principal profit consists in the remittance of moneys from town to town, and the buying and selling of bills on India and London. ”

“ From the roof of the post-house I perceived a big burly villager, who was employed in robbing the children, as they went out, of their slender store, even throwing them on the ground and taking the coin from their mouths. The other villagers, of whom there was a large mob, merely laughed, but did not interfere. But getting down from the back wall of the post-house by means of horse-ropes, the postmaster, my groom and I succeeded in catching the fellow, and dragging him into the post-house, and then the post-boys gave him a good hiding by my order, and we took the money away. ”

“ They are never sold, save on importation, though at times they are given away. Strange as it may appear, to the mind of any one who has lived in Persia, slavery in that country to the African is an unmixed good. Of course the getting to Persia, and the being caught, is another thing. But I have never seen a Persian unkind to his own horse or his slave, and when overtaken by poverty he first would sell his shirt, then his slave. ”

“ We got to a village two hours after midnight, slept for four hours, and arrived in Fussa at four, doing the journey under the time; the small bay seemingly not at all distressed, and prepared to go back to Shiraz at once at the same rate if desired. I was then surprised; I know that any one of my own well-fed big horses would have knocked up. But these little animals, used to the severest continuous work, do it in the most extraordinary manner. I am a big, heavy man; my saddle was a heavy English hussar saddle, and my bags and bedding certainly weighed forty pounds or more. ”

“ The Mussulman world has a horrible idea that a certain body of water, however great the quantity, or disgusting the nature, of the filth poured into it, remains absolutely pure, and the result is that a great deal of serious illness is produced; this is one of the reasons why cholera is so very severe in the East, irrespective of the natural action of the climate. I can only say that I was obliged, while in Shiraz, never to drink water save when from the two springs, or in the form of tea, when it was of course boiled; one glass of sherbet or one tumbler of water making me ill. ”

“ As these gigantic planes decay in the inside, they are felled and become the perquisite of somebody: at times in great gales they fall with a crash, the inside being quite gone. Also whenever the Governor wants a big tree for any purpose he takes one, but nobody plants any new ones.
A high wall bounds the Char Bagh on either side; at intervals are edifices pierced by gates of from three to four stories, of no architectural pretensions; they are of brick, ornamented with barbarous designs on plaster in flaring colours, which time has happily toned down ”

“ Happily, it did not in our time, but when we got a bigger trap, a park phaeton, with a pair of horses, the pleasure of our drive was somewhat damped by the possibility of a capsize at night in the dark! But the cherub that always keeps a watch over poor Jack must have been on duty, for we never did have an accident. It was Hobson’s choice, that road or none.
Crossing the river at Marnūn became our favourite ride, and here one could canter for miles on a good road, the greater part of which was shaded by the gardens and orchards on either side. ”

“ Careful to allow himself to be looted, at times nearly ruined, by the powerful king’s uncle, the Hissam-u-Sultaneh, he has always thus secured a friend at court, and while feathering his own nest during the governorship of the Zil-es-Sultan, he has always satisfied the young prince by large subsidies. Having several daughters, all ladies of mature age and all married save the favourite child—for whom he obtained the title of Lika-ul-Molk—on the Muschir’s death, the Governor of Shiraz, whoever he may happen to be, will have a gigantic prize. ”

“ The roads from the commencement of the famine were very unsafe, and they were as glad to increase the force of my caravan as I was to get a reinforcement of two determined well-armed men. The little daughter delighted in the tremendous name of Bēbē Sakineh Sultan Khanum, and was very like a pet monkey, being mischief personified. The presence of these people broke the monotony of the fifteen days’ march to Shiraz.
One thing that attracts one’s attention when marching is the road-beetle. ”

“ And yet with such a hideous disguise, a Persian coquette will manage to let the curious know if she have a good face and eye, by lifting her veil in a sly and half-timid way. The only thing I know exceeding in folly the chimney-pot hat, is the outdoor dress of the Persian woman. Expensive, ugly, uncomfortable, hot in summer, cold in winter, words fail to express its numerous disadvantages ”

“ The rest of the town is wholly Oriental. Dead walls of mud and brick are seen in every direction. The streets are mud in winter and dust in summer.
The principal feature in Teheran is the numerous tiled gates. These structures, covered with floridly-coloured tiles in elaborate patterns, mostly geometrical, having centre-pieces of representations of scenes from the mythology of Persia, were certainly novel and curious. As a rule, the modern tile-work is in striking contrast to the ancient, which is much chaster, and in better taste. ”

“ The actors are mostly well up in their rôles; many of those sustaining the principal characters have come from Ispahan, where the tradition of the tazzia is handed down from father to son; and year by year they have played the mournful tragedy, making it a business as well as a religious act. They are fed, dressed, and paid by the Governor. The numerous bands of well-drilled supernumeraries who combat on the stage are eager volunteers. Each speaking actor carries his part written out on a small scroll on the palm of his hand, and calmly reads it when memory fails him. ”

“ The Kawam, his wealthy and ancient rival, was at once taken into the Governor’s favour, and titles of honour and local governorships conferred on his son, a youth long supposed to be an idiot, but who now showed a capacity for Persian political life which astonished even his own people. The hungry sons of the Motummad, despatched into the richest governorships of the province, proceeded to fleece the dependants of the Muschir. And to be a dependant, friend, or adherent of the old man became a crime. ”

“ These are supplied in great profusion, and, save for the want of colour, they are quite equal to any effort of European pyrotechny.
A row of wretched Jews are now pushed into the tank—a proceeding which always accompanies any official display of fireworks. I know not why, unless it is to let the poor Jews feel, even in times of rejoicing, the wretchedness of their position. Dancing boys dressed as girls twirl and tumble, buffoons dance and pose grotesquely, the noise of music and singing is at its loudest. ”

“ The gist of the matter is, that in Hamadan and its environs, the Armenian is simply a Persian, not a Mahommedan; while in Julfa he is an Armenian of the Armenians; “and the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.”
As to the Jews, their position is terrible. Probably in no country in the world are they treated worse than in Persia. Beaten, despised, and oppressed, cursed even by slaves and children, they yet manage to exist, earning their living as musicians, dancers, singers, jewellers, silver- and gold-smiths, midwives, makers and sellers of wine and spirits. ”

“ I met the Prince-Governor one day on horseback, and he asked me if I had ever seen a camel fight. I replied that I had not; he told me to ride on with him and he would show me sport, as he was going to amuse himself with one. We rode to the back of the royal garden, or “Bagh-i-No” (new garden) ; here are always encamped hundreds of mules and camels. No sooner did the prince arrive than the camel-men attempted to run away, but the farrashes with their long sticks and a few horsemen soon brought them back. ”

“ On leaving Erivan, which was covered with snow, we reached in a day and night Nakchewan; round this place I saw cotton bushes—of course they were bare. Here we rested a night.
Going on next morning, we came to Julfa, the frontier village of a few hovels. Crossing the river Araxes, a shallow stream, we put up in the windowless telegraph office. As we saw nothing but snow since we left Tiflis, there has been little to describe in the way of scenery; as may be fancied, the cold was intense. We are now in Persia. ”