his countrymen, who love intrigues and roundabout
ways, whether necessary or not. A little
management in such a case was also not
unadvisable, lest the king should hear that money
had been sent, and make some inquiry about it.

Presents, however, may go too far for
prudence, and governors who send the revenues of
their provinces in advance, are apt to be
displaced. Presents may also be too few; the
governor of a province was reminded of this once
rather roughly. He was sent for to court and
beaten.

"Why," asked the prime minister of the
smarting wretch—"why have you not sent the
taxes of your province?"

"I have sent them," replied the governor,
moaning piteously.

"But your own tax," replied the minister.,
"you have not sent."

The giving of presents is so much a part of
the manners and customs of the Persians, that
they sometimes offer very strange gifts indeed.
Among other things, a man once brought to a
member of the English embassy his son, whom
he wished to confer as a present, with great
formality. He seemed quite surprised when
the gift was declined.

Amidst all this rapacity the public revenue is
really loosely collected and extravagantly and
foolishly wasted. For instance, a barat is a bill
issued by the government and drawn on the
governor of a province. It is supposed to be
drawn for a portion of the revenue then due
from that province. Of course many more barats
are issued than the amount of revenue available
at the time to meet them. These barats are,
therefore, passed usually to persons of influence,
at a depreciation of seventy to eighty per cent.
They are then forced on the small officials at
their full value, in payment for salaries, and
pensions, and public creditors, and ultimately find
their way into the hands of the Armenian
bankers, who buy them up for a mere nothing,
and wait for a favourable opportunity to obtain
their nominal worth.

But no matter how a Persian gets his money,
or how much he gets, he is sure to squander it.
His love of fine clothes and silly trinkets is a
passion, and his ostentation is only equalled by
his meanness. The greatest princes in the land
asked Malcolm the value of the magnificent
presents which he brought from India; returned
them publicly, lest they should be obliged to share
with anybody, and then privately asked for them
back again. A Persian magnate loads his wives
and concubines with jewels,* he covers the
trappings of his horse with solid gold and gems,
His pipe is of gold and jewels. His very
walking-stick, on state occasions, is covered with
diamonds. He keeps numbers of servants; and,
although they are content to serve him, like the
Roman client, for his protection, yet he must
generally feed and clothe them. Though he is
lavish, yet he is avaricious and cruel. The
tortures used by government to wring money from
people suspected of being rich are sometimes
horrible, and the devices to which they resort
for the same purpose are almost comic. Of
the latter, take the following for an example.
After the late war, the Persian government,
desiring to annoy us, secretly forbade the
merchants in the interior to supply the English
with money, and an official party passing through
Meshed was likely to have been much
inconvenienced, had not the cupidity of an Armenian
prevailed over his fear, and induced him to cash
a bill on the Indian government. He was of
course found out. The petty local tyrant
immediately sent for him, and demanded one hundred
tomauns, saying, dryly, that "as he was rich
enough to supply the English with money, he
could of course relieve the wants of a countryman."

* The weight of gold and silver coins on a woman's
person is sometimes worth ten or twelve pounds.

There is really very little wealth left in the
East in comparison with the poorest of
European countries. Even that which does exist
is unproductive. Most of the money is buried
in holes and secret hiding-places; whence, if
the owner dies suddenly, it perhaps never
returns to the light of day, for it would hardly be
safe for a man to trust his nearest relative with
the secret of his hiding-place; there being little
enough of affection or confidence in families.
The fear of tyranny which prompts the concealment
of property, must have lost immense
sums for ever in this way. So common is the
practice of burying money and valuables, that
there exists a class of persons who prowl all
their lives about mountains and strange out-of-
the-way places in search of hidden treasure,
and often a poor man grows suddenly rich,
who has stumbled on a forgotten hiding-place
of money. Of the floating wealth, much is
spent on toys, or personal adornment, on
horses, on women. The Persian is not a trader.
The Parsees of India, the Armenians, and a
few Greeks, have all the trade of the country
in their hands. The foreign trade has been
for years in the hands of the great Greek house
of Ralli. Fortunes are, however, to be made in
a petty way by shrewd people. Money bears an
immense interest. Twelve per cent per month
is not at all uncommon. But then money cannot
be lent in large sums, for no Persian can
offer satisfactory security. For instance, a
mortgage on land would have no value whatever in
Persia. Mortgages of houses, even at Tehran,
would be doubtful. For no debt could be
recovered under any circumstances from a person
who had a friend in the prime minister, or the
high priest. The creditor would be put off
with some high-sounding phrase, and sent about
his business. If he made himself troublesome
he would be bastinadoed, and the fact of his
having lent money pointing him out as a rich
man, would probably awaken the cupidity of
the authorities; who would take away anything
he had left. Thus even banking and
moneylending is but a huckster's trade in Persia.
Those who drive it, contrive, in the first place, to
get the ear of the minister. Then they cautiously