Then a pipe was brought for the prince, a
splendid golden kalion filled with rose-water,
and having a long red silken tube and an
enamelled mouthpiece. When he had smoked out
of it a few moments he handed it to me. Then
the servants brought in coffee. Each servant
as he appeared at the door of the tent placed
the palm of his right hand upon his right thigh,
and saluted his highness with a sideward
moon, which is the very perfection of acted humility.
The servants were all handsomely dressed
in long embroidered gowns of fine white cloth,
and high caps of black lambswool.

I contrasted his quiet, subdued talk with the
blustering manners of some other princes I
have seen, who thought it necessary to bawl
themselves into importance, and the contrast
was very much to the Persian's advantage.
There is no more refined gentleman in the
world as to outward manner than the Persian
nobleman.

I cannot paraphrase respecting the Shah what
was erroneously said of a certain European
prince nearer home, that he is the finest gentleman
in Asia. He is a young man of about
thirty years of age, and he sits upon the throne
which, is doubtless the most brilliant remaining
in the East. It was upon some great public
occasion that I first went to see him, and
formed one of a long line of officials in state
costumes wending our way through the
narrowest streets and shady bazaars of his majesty's
capital city of Tehran. We were the theme of
much comment among the gossip-loving
Persians, and of some laughter. Indeed, our
appearance must have been comical enough in the
eyes of the decorously-robed and bearded
Orientals. We must have seemed to them as
though we had tried all the arts of civilisation
to make ourselves uncomfortable. Our clothing
was thick and heavy, and tight and stiff with
gold lace. Our tail-coats are neither seemly
nor decent in the view of Asiatics, and are,
indeed, perhaps the most absurd garment ever
devised by the insane fancy of a tailor. The
sun was hot and fierce, but our heads were only
protected from it by the cocked-hat, which is
surely the funniest head-dress ever worn by
man—tight, stiff, brimless, heavy, unmanageable,
dingy, awkward, absurd. Some of us, too,
I remember, were not quite master of our
horses, which were gaunt and fiery animals of
the famous Turcoman breed, such as are used
by officials in Persia in public procession and
ceremonies. Woe betide the unskilful rider
who is mounted upon one of these terrible
chargers, for their manes are cropped closely,
after the fashion of the country, so that an
unsteady horseman has no place to catch hold of
and right himself after a dangerous plunge.
Thus it chanced that when we got out upon the
Maidan, or large open space before the king's
palace, where the household troops were
assembled on parade, and our horses heard the
discordant thundering of military bands, the
order of our procession was broken in a very
laughable manner, and some of our company
gave the Persians an involuntary show of
horsemanship which appeared to delight them
amazingly.

There is little outward state about the palace
of the King of Persia. It is a low building,
with a spacious court and fountains in the
centre, but without any pretensions to
magnificence, or to architectural beauty. A few
slip-shod soldiers in the oddest uniforms, a few
Russian-looking officers of state, were sprinkled
about here and there, and at last the prime
minister, a grave and dignified looking man,
conducted us to the king's chamber.

It was a mean apartment, and scantily
furnished, the only fine thing about it being a
very beautiful carpet from the looms of Resht.
His majesty received us standing. When he
had spoken to us for a few minutes he went
away, and left us in the room. At first sight he
looked something like an Austrian noble; and,
indeed, was a good deal surrounded by Austrians,
and may have thus insensibly acquired some of
their mannerism.

His dress was a kind of short frock-coat, made
of shawl-work, and awkwardly cut. It stuck
out in sharp angles at the skirts, and was tightly
belted in at the waist. He wore small red
high-heeled pointed shoes, European trousers of black
cloth, narrow, and badly made. On his head was
a high Persian cap of black lambskin, shaped like
a sugar-loaf. His manners were easy and familiar.
He had a jaunty bobbing sort of way with him;
but a good deal of sterling pride, and a kind of
dryness in speaking sometimes, as if he knew a
great many things which he did not intend to
discuss. I remarked that this last peculiarity
was very effective. He had, moreover, a short
decisive royal manner of speaking, and came
abruptly to the point at once. On the whole, his
appearance struck me as being prepossessing,
although the resemblance to the kindly and
debonair lords of Austria wore away when one
looked at him more closely. In person his
majesty is small and slight; he is dark, with
regular features, but his face is not marked with
any peculiar elevation of thought or expression.
He has fine black eyes of the shape of an
almond, which are considered a great beauty in
Persia, and although he kept them nearly closed,
there was evidently a smouldering fire in them,
that it might be dangerous to kindle. The worst
of the eyes is that they never look anybody in
the face, but shift about uneasily, like those of
a lion in a cage; but this may have been owing
to some slight defect of vision. The king wore a
long drooping black moustache, and had a way of
twisting it while speaking. His face, with the
exception of the upper lip, was closely shaven.

The King of Persia is said to dislike Europeans
generally, and to believe that the Emperor
of France and himself are the only two great
sovereigns in the world. He has formed this
opinion chiefly with the aid of a French
illustrated newspaper, which he receives, and of
which such parts as are likely to please him are
translated for his edification. The French have,
therefore, great influence over his mind.