the place which could compensate for his
individual disappointment; at least, he
perceived nothing. One day, in crossing the
market-place, he saw eight men lying with
their heads cut off; executed for being
religious fanatics, who had assumed the
character of prophets. At another time there
were six men put to death for highway
robbery; and the mode of death was full of
horror, whatever their crimes might be. They
were hung head downwards, with the right
arm and leg cut off; one of them dragged out
life in this state for three days. Even the
minor punishments are cruel and vindictive,
as they always are where the power and
execution of the laws is uncertain. One of
the penalties inflicted for slight offences, is
to have a string passed through the nostrils,
and be led for three successive days through
the bazaars aud market-places by a crier,
proclaiming the nature of his misdemeanour.
Blindness is very common; Mr. Burton has
often seen six or eight blind men walking in
a string, each with his right arm on the
shoulder of his precursor; partly caused by
ophthalmia produced by the dust, and partly
because the Schah has it in his power to inflict
the punishment of pulling both or one of the
eyes out. The great-grandfather of the
present Schah, Aga Mohammed, the founder of
the Kujur dynasty, had large baskets-full of
the eyes of his enemies presented to him after
his accession to the throne.

Let us change the subject to attar of roses;
though all the perfumes of Arabia will not
sweeten the memory of that last sentence.
Attar of roses is made and sold in the bazaars;
the rose employed is the common single pink,
which must be gathered before the sudden
rise of the hot sun causes the dew to evaporate.
By the side of the attar sellers may be seen
the Jew, selling trinkets; the Armenians
(Christians in name, and, as such, bound by
no laws of Mahomet), selling a sweetish red
wine, and arrakee, a spirit made from the
refuse of grapes, and resembling gin; while
through the bazaars men go, having leathern
bags on their backs containing bad, dirty
water, and a lump of ice in a basin, into
which they pour out draughts for their
customers. Ice is brought down from the
mountains, and sold at the rate of a large lump for
two or three pools—a pool being a small
copper coin, of which thirty make one koraun
(silver), value eleven-pence; and ten korauns
make one tomaun, a gold coin of the value of
nine shillings. The drinking-water is
procured from open drains, or from tanks, in
which all the washing the Persians ever give
their clothes is done. They use no soap even for
shaving; but soapy water would be preferable
to the vermin which float on the surface of
the beverage obtained from these sources.
No wonder that the cholera returns every
three years, and is a fatal scourge; especially
when we learn that the doctors and barbers
in Teheran, as formerly in England, unite the
two professions and that the great resource
in all cases of illness is the lancet.

Besides the shops in the bazaars, where
provisions and beverages of various kinds are
sold, there are others for silks, carpets,
embroidered pieces, something like the Indian
shawls, but smaller in size, and purchased by
the Europeans for waistcoats; and Cashmere
shawls, which even there, and not always new,
bear the high prices of from fifty pounds to
one hundred pounds. Those which were
presented to the ladies of the Embassy were
worth, at Teheran, one hundred pounds
apiece. There are also lamb's-skin caps, or
fezes, about half a yard high, conical in shape,
and open, or crownless, at the top; heavier
than a hat, but much cooler, owing to the
ventilation produced by this opening. No
Europeans wear hats, except one or two
at the Embassy. Cotton materials are used
for dresses by the common people, manufactured
at Teheran. There are very few articles
of British manufacture sold in the bazaars;
but French, German, and Russian things
abound. A fondness for watches seems to be
a Persian weakness; some of the higher
classes will wear two at a time, like the
English dandies sixty years ago; and
sometimes both these watches will be in the state
of stand-still. It is therefore no wonder
that a little German watchmaker, who is
settled at Teheran, is making his fortune.
The mode of reckoning time is from sunrise
to sunset—prayers being said by the faithful
before each of these. The day and night are
each divided into "watches" of three hours
long; subdividing the time between sunrise
and mid-day, mid-day and sunset.

Mr. Burton saw little of the religious
ceremonies of the Persians, He had never been
inside a mosque; but had seen people saying
their prayers at the appointed times (at the
expiration of every watch through the day, he
believed), on raised platforms, erected for the
purpose, up and down the town. The form of
washing the hands before they say their
prayers is gone through by country-people on
the dusty plain, using soil instead of water;
the more purifying article of the two, one
would suppose, after hearing Mr. Burton's
account of the state of the drains and tanks in
Teheran. The priests are recognised by the
white turbans which they wear as a class
distinction; and our English gardener does
not seem to have come in contact with any of
them, excepting in occasional rencontres in
the streets; where the women, veiled and
shrouded, shuffle along—their veils being
transparent just at the eyes, so as to enable
them to see without being seen; while their
clumsy, shapeless mantles effectually prevent
all recognition even from husband or father.
The higher class (the wives of Mirzas, or
noblemen) are conveyed in a kind of covered
hand-barrow from place to place. This species
of rude carriage will hold two ladies sitting
upright, and has a small door on either side;