Persis

“ Persĭcum mare, or Persicus sinus, a part of the Indian ocean on the coast of Persia and Arabia, now called the gulf of Balgora.
Persis, a province of Persia, bounded by Media, Carmania, Susiana, and the Persian gulf. It is often taken for Persia itself.
Aulus Persius Flaccus, a Latin poet of Volaterræ. He was of an equestrian family, and he made himself known by his intimacy with the most illustrious Romans of the age. The early part of his life was spent in his native town, and at the age of 16 he was removed to Rome, where he studied philosophy under Cornutus the celebrated stoic. ”

“ Persis had replied, looking up with tears in her eyes. “I wish I had to be vain, ’cause I couldn’t help it. Mellicent is the youngest and looks like an angel, and Lisa is the oldest and looks like a queen, and I’m just the middle sizedest and don’t look like anything.”
“Never mind, my child,” replied grandma, now quite softened, “you can always look like a lady.” And this Persis never forgot, although the acting like a lady was something she did not always remember. In secret she mourned over her dusky black hair and wished it were curly like Lisa’s or golden like Mellicent’s. ”

“ They were in reality devotedly attached to each other; but Persis chafed under Lisa’s imperious demands, and Lisa resented Persis’s strict appeals to justice, feeling that she as the oldest of the sisters had greater rights than either of the others. It is not an uncommon state of affairs, and is one that often adjusts itself to an accepted consideration and forbearance as young people mature and learn to respect the good points in one another. ”

“ I wish I didn’t have to say it, but Porter is awfully plausible.”
“Yes he is,” agreed Persis. “He is very agreeable [Pg 100] when he wants to be, and he knows just how to get around one. Is—is anything wrong, Basil?”
“I hope not, but I thought I’d just ask.” And Basil began to walk around the room, his hands in his pockets and an occupied look upon his face.
“Can I do anything?” hesitatingly asked Persis. “Maybe I shouldn’t ask,” she continued, quickly, “but you know papa and mamma have always said we all ought to be sisters to you, and I would do anything I could.” ”

“ Now and then, indeed, when twilight came on, she rushed in and out of the room, alternately defying the kitten and flying from it; but not the most unimaginative cat on earth can resist the excitement of the growing darkness, when the eyes flash out in amethyst and topaz, and the pupils dilate with dramatic terror and eagerness. But twilight deepened into dark, and candles were lighted and fairyland stopped, and the legs of the tables and chairs ceased to be tree-trunks in a jungle, and Persis came back to life in the schoolroom, and despair clouded back on to her brow. ”

“ Lisa fretted more than any one else against enforced economies, but, after all, managed to enjoy herself by taking on new duties and new pleasures. Her kindergarten studies gave her plenty of mental application, and she also became interested in a church guild, talking with a little womanly air about her “girls” and their needs. There was less friction between her and Persis now, for the latter was obliged to concede that Lisa, as a society lady, must have more latitude than a school-girl, and enjoyed nothing more than to see her handsome sister arrayed for a dance or a theatre party. ”

“ I have not had the heart to banish the kitten altogether, yet when she is there I can seldom get a purr or a look from the cat. One day I persuaded her to let me stroke her under the ears and the throat; this is almost like mesmerism to a cat, and if one can persuade them to let one begin, one can do almost anything with them; and so I was gradually bringing her to a happier state of mind, when the friendly kitten, perceiving that something sociable was going on, came up to share in it. They met face to face as Persis took turns up and down under my hand. ”

“ Persis lives in a condition of perpetual, jealous misery; if she thinks the kitten is sent away, or that she is exclusively favoured, then only does she emerge out of sullenness. And yet she is not really devoted to me; she is only a complete egoist, and cannot be happy unless I am devoted to her. After all, am I not bound to her? Was she not once my sole and only cat, carried about, exhibited to company, hunted for if she got lost? And yet Pasht is much fonder of me than Persis ever was; Pasht will run after me,27 while Persis wishes to run away and be fetched back. ”

“ While we were homeless for a year or more, Persis was lodged at the old home farm, and lorded it over the animals. Two cats were there: one the revered and hideous Tom, with whose white hair Persis had bestrewn a room in a fit of passion. He had left the house at once for the farm and wisely refused to return. Now he was a prop of the establishment. He killed the rats, he sat serene in the sun, was able to ignore the village dogs and cuff the boisterous collie puppies of the [Pg 8] farm. So he met Persis on secure and dignified terms. ”

“ Holmes. “There may be pleasant persons in the neighborhood, and you may have a better time than you expect. One does not always have the happiest time at a fashionable watering-place.”
This somewhat consoled Lisa, although she made her preparations for her summer outing in rather a half-hearted way.
Persis, on the contrary, was in great glee over the prospect. To have grandma and Annis, not to mention her “brother” Basil, was quite enough to insure her a happy time, she reflected. ”

“ Some children on the place had a tame rabbit which was very fond of cats. One day she met him out of doors. He saw her and came running to play with her; she looked with a horrified face for a moment14 then turned and fled; she must have thought him a deformed sort of cat; much as if children met a human being with huge pendent ears and an uncouth way of walking who wanted to come and play with them.
Persis was very musical. If one whistled to her she would come from any part of the room, creep up as near to one’s face as she could, purr loudly, lick one’s face in growing rapture ”

“ Persia proper was a table-land, lying between the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf, with deep valleys and rapid rivers. It was such a country, with such a climate, as required a constant struggle by mankind for existence. Thus was produced a vigorous race, a race of our own blood, Aryans, that had one great wave of emigration to the West, peopling Europe, and a later wave into India. The Persians were quick, keen-witted, lovers of art and poetry, filled with energy and courage, and having a very high regard for truth. ”

“ At the same instant, I saw the grisly image rise again from the rag-bin, but with a look so portentous, that I trembled in every limb. In the agony of the moment, I uttered a shriek, which awoke me, and behold, “The Reminiscences of a Rag” were but a dream!
Persia. The present kingdom of Persia, called Ivan by the natives, covers a space of four hundred and fifty thousand square miles, lying between 25° and 40° N. latitude, and 44° and 62° E. longitude, constituting an elevated table land. On the east and north are extensive plains, and on the south lie the Persian Gulf and the Indian Sea. ”

“ The dry, rarefied climate of the high table-land of Persia redeems its inhabitants from sluggish dulness of the imagination, but it does not redeem them from the listlessness produced by the Eastern Sun.
The inhabitants of Persia are contented with their condition and dead to all desire of progress, to which indeed their religion is a sufficient bar. Under these circumstances it is in vain to look for the dawn of a brighter day over the realms of Iran until a fresh element be introduced into its population. ”

“ In the most eastern part of Persia, and in the province of Kirmân, which forms its frontier to the east, there have remained some of those ancient and true Persians, who, although they have mixed with the others, and by uniting themselves to their conquerors, have become like one people, all the same retain their primitive [44] mode of living, their customs and their religion. ”

“ The silver, next in value and endurance, of which were the arms and breast, stands for Persia. Centuries ago Persia was the great Power of the earth. At one time it would seem as if she never would decay or ever have a rival; but her day came, and she has dwindled down to the little kingdom and monarchy—the Persia of to-day. Her power is gone, she is consumptive, and will soon disappear as a separate kingdom. ”

“ Persia proper was a small country, three hundred miles from north to south, and two hundred and eighty from east to west, inhabited by an Aryan race, who brought with them, from the country beyond the Indus, a distinctive religion, language, and political institutions. Their language was closely connected with the Aryan dialects of India, and the tongues of modern Europe. Hence the Persians were noble types of the great Indo-European family, whose civilization has spread throughout the world. ”

“ Finally, after the conquest, and when Persia was thoroughly made over into a province of the Moslem empire, arises, in the tenth century, the modern Persian, and becomes during several centuries, and even to our own day, the vehicle of an abundant and admirable literature, rich in every department, in poetry, fiction, history, philosophy, science. ”

“ Persia was originally a small province on the Persian Gulf, still known as Fars. But Persia Proper included, besides the sandy plain on the gulf, a mountainous plateau north of it, and was bounded by Media on the north, by Carmania on the east, by the Persian Gulf on the south, and by Elam on the west. Its people were of the Aryan race, and at first subject to the Medes. They revolted under Cyrus the Great, and became the controlling power in the conquest of Nebuchadnezzar's dominion. ”

“ Westward again: and we stand in the vast land of Persia, among the ruins of world-empire, once the home of the worshippers of the sun, and of the hosts of heaven. Persia now turns its back to the rising sun and its face towards Mecca. The Shah, the officers of state, the law, the people, are Moslem, and have been for twelve centuries; in Persia, as in Arabia, the great closed land, Islam has reigned alone. ”

“ The achievements of the Persians in art, literature and religion are by no means contemptible, but somewhat mixed and cosmopolitan. Owing to its position, the Persian state, when it from time to time became a conquering empire, overlapped Asia Minor, Babylon and India, and hence acted as an intermediary for transmitting art and ideas, sending for instance Greek sculpture to India and the cult of Mithra to western Europe. ”

“ Beyond the great river,—Persia, India, and China, form the southern 'Oriens.' Persia is properly to be conceived as reaching from the Persian Gulf to the mountain chains which flank and feed the Indus; and is the true vital power of the East in the days of Marathon: but it has no influence on Christian history except through Arabia; while, of the northern Asiatic tribes, Mede, Bactrian, Parthian, and Scythian, changing into Turk and Tartar, we need take no heed until they invade us in our own historic territory. ”

“ But a semi-barbarous government was not all at once to be brought to observe the customs that are the fruit of many centuries of civilization; and on more than one occasion it has been found necessary to threaten the Ministers of the Shah with the withdrawal of all intercourse with them, in the event of the repetition of certain outbreaks of needless cruelty. On the whole, however, the intercourse between Persia and European nations has been highly beneficial to that country. ”

“ After a journey of nine months through Persia, I am strongly of opinion that if the Empire is to have a solid and permanent resurrection, it must be through the enterprise of Persians, aided it may be by foreign skill and capital, though the less of the latter that is employed the more hopefully I should regard the Persian future. ”

“ HISTORIC OUTLINE. ORIGIN OF PERSIAN LITERATURE—ACCAD AND SUMER—LITERATURE OF NINEVEH—BABYLON—ĪRĀN OR PERSIA—PHYSICAL FEATURES—PERSIAN ART—MANUSCRIPTS—EARLY LITERATURE—THE ARABIAN CONQUEST—LITERATURE OF MODERN PERSIA—PERSIAN ROMANCE.
Every nation has a literature peculiarly her own, even though it may find its sources in foreign fields. As Persia was founded upon the ruins of more ancient monarchies, as she gathered into the halls of her kings the spoils of conquered nations, so also her literature was enriched by the philosophy and science, the poetry and mythology of her predecessors. ”

“ History, however, has some splendid exceptions to this rule, and Persia has had three successive periods of intellectual prosperity,—three times has the national spirit awakened as from a torpor, and for a season it has gleamed like a star in the Orient, but three times it has either died out, or been crushed beneath the storm of conquest. ”

“ AN EASTERN CITY The modern capital of Persia lies in a plain ringed half-way round by mountains, which on the northern side touch with frozen summits the regions of eternal snow, and on the east sink into low ranges of hills, stretching their naked arms into the desert. It is the chief city of a land of dust and stones—waste and desolate, Persia unfolds her monotonous length, broken only by ridges of hills even more barren than the plain itself, southward from the gates of Tehran. ”