said my host politely, in answer to my inquiring
glance, " the cook; we shall have a better pilaff
next time." And, in truth, when I dined with
the khan again, the pilaff was quite a gastronomic
triumph. The stick and its uses are so
well known in Persia, that it is considered the
extreme of ill manners to enter a house with a
cane in one's hand.

In the Persian method of bastinadoing, the
ankles of the culprit are bound to a pole from
ten to fifteen feet long; he is then thrown down
on his back upon the pavement, and the pole is
raised and supported by men at the two ends.
The culprit thus lies entirely helpless, however
much he may struggle, and his legs extending
upwards, the bottoms of his feet present a fine
flat surface to the application of the rod. An
officer brings forward a large bundle of rods,
perhaps a hundred in number, six or eight feet long,
from the storehouse of the magistrate, in which
they are always kept ready; three or four other
officers take each a rod, and thump away till it is
worn out, and then renew it from the bundle.

The late prime minister received three
thousand blows with sticks on the soles of his
feet for striking one of the king's servants. He
was then minister for war. He was laid up for
a long time, and lost all his toe-nails.

Of course the effects of torture in obtaining
confessions from accused people are such as may
be imagined. " How much did you steal?"
inquired a judge of one quivering state criminal.
The man shrieked out in his agony that he had
stolen one hundred thousand tomauns. The
sum missed, however, was only twenty-one
thousand, and he was tortured again till he
named that sum.

Even the very precincts of the court and the
interior of the Anderoon itself, are often the
scene of great barbarity. The following is from
an eye-witness: The queen happened to sneeze.
A little child who was present sneezed also.
"Take away that child for sneezing," said the
queen. " No, no!" interposed one of the
women, kindly, "sneezing is lucky." The queen
complained to the king, who ordered the woman
to be dragged before him by the hair. A common
punishment is to brand a criminal on the
forehead, and then to burn down his house.

Of course such a state of things as this could
only exist together with extreme ignorance, and
truly the ignorance of the Persians can hardly be
surpassed, though they have indeed great natural
wit.

Some innocent American missionaries, who
founded a school among the Nestorians, were
much delighted by the cheerfulness and
regularity with which three scholars, the sons of a
widow, attended at their seminary, and the
comfort and benefit they were glad to declare that
they derived upon all occasions from the instruction
provided for them. This agreeable state of
affairs lasted about three weeks, when the old
lady, their mother, sent in a bill for their
attendance, and upon the astonished missionaries
making some objections to pay a demand so
unexpected, she at once removed her children from
the school, saying, "that they were not slaves
to work all day for nothing, and that the politeness
which they had hitherto shown in reading
the missionaries books for them had its limits,
and was now exhausted."

The ignorance of the Persians is not less than
their intolerance and fanaticism.

A Persian nobleman, who was very sick, was
induced by the example of the court to consult
a Frank doctor, but he begged that a Persian
might be allowed to prepare the medicine which
he was to take, for he could not consent to
swallow anything which had been made up by
Christian hands.

The Persians wash their hands after touching
a Christian even by accident, and say a short
prayer. They will not allow a Christian to go
even to their public baths. They wash a cup
three times after he has drank from it. They
will not again sit upon the same carpet that he
has pressed. But they have learned to know
that some of the Franks are angry men. They
have seen their most terrible chiefs go down
before the Frankish swords like corn before the
sickle. They have seen their clouds of
innumerable horsemen scattered like dust by the
mighty array of Christian armies. They are
also a polite and courteous people—the Frenchmen
of the East. They are therefore at much
pains to reconcile fanaticism and a fear of the
consequence of its exhibition. A Frankish
stranger, on entering a Persian house, will
probably notice that there is a smart carpet laid
down apart in a particular corner of the room
for him, that upon the tea-tray there is one
particular cup prettier than the rest which is offered
to him, and that the sherbet is served to him in
a glass differing from the others, and probably
more costly. All these are devices to conceal
the utter loathing with which he is regarded by
his host.

Their intolerance and superstition are about
on a par, as may be supposed. Though they
pretend to despise the Christian faith, they like
to have a Bible in the room for a sick person.
They suppose that it prevents the entrance of
evil spirits. A sick person is, moreover, never
left alone, for fear of demons.

Among the Koords are a tribe called Sypokees,
who are Zezidees, or reputed worshippers of the
devil. They regard the devil as a malignant
being, but high in rank, and the prime minister
of the Divine displeasure. They call him Milik
Tasos (mighty angel), and regarding such to be
his rank and influence, they deem it at least
good policy for them to conciliate his favour.
Accordingly, while they profess adoration for
the one true God, and much respect for Christ
as his messenger, and higher reverence still for
Mahomet as the greatest of prophets, they are
deeply solicitous to keep on friendly terms with
Satan, and are very careful to say and do nothing
to displease him. When one of another nation
pronounces the word Satan in their presence
they are distressed and offended by it, supposing
that others, whenever they allude to the devil
at all, do it always with disrespect. Not being