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insalubrity of these parts is indeed so notorious, that when a person is sent with a commission to Ghilan, it is common at Ispahan to ask whether he has committed robbery or murder.* From the end of October till the beginning of May, these northern, or rather north western provinces, are exceedingly plea sant. The Holstein ambassadors, who passed through this country in that agreeable season, describe it as a terrestrial paradise; but Sir John Chardin, Tavernier, and later travellers agree, that during the other part of the year, it is one of the most unpleasant and unhealthful places in the face of the globe.

Vegetable productions.]-Among the vegetable productions of Persia, may be reckoned all kinds of grain of these, wheat and rice are the principal. The former is excellent; and the latter is esteemed the best in the world. The Persians, indeed, consider rice as a most delicious food, and are extremely careful in the mode of its cultivation; but it can be grown only in those parts where the lands are capable of being irri-. gated. The richest pastures are in the ancient Hyrcania, or the provinces of Ghilan and Mazendran, adjoining to the Caspian Sea. The country is here from September to April, an entire pasture, covered with flowers of all kinds, both such as we see in Europe, and others that are peculiar to the soil and climate, displaying more vivid and beautiful colours than those of any other part of the globe. These provinces present entire forests of orange trees, and abound in fruits of all kinds, which, during the winter months, attain to their full perfection, so that the country, when viewed at this season, justifies all the encomiums of the Duke of Holstein's ambassadors; but in summer every thing is destroyed by the excessive heat and malignity of the air. The dates and pomegranates of Persia are esteemed the best in the world. All kinds of European fruits are produced in the highest perfection. Almost

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Chardin, tom. 3. Tavernier, tom. 1. liv. 4 cap. 1. Nothing can more fully shew the mistakes to which travellers are liable, who passing rapidly through a country describe it as it appears at one season, without suspecting what it may be at another, thus the erraneous accounts which the Holstein ambassadors have given of Ghilan and Mazendran. Harris Collec. vol. 2.

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PERSIA.

every province produces grapes; but the wine of Schiras is the best in the whole country. The botany of Persia is a copious subject. In the variety and perfection of its fruits and its flowers, it is supposed to excel all countries on the face of the globe: nor is it less famous for its esculent plants and roots, especially onions and melons. The former are exceedingly large and sweet; the latter are so plentiful, and so greatly esteemed by the Persians, that during four months in the year, they consitute almost the whole food of the common people. So fond are the Persians of fruit, that for one dessert sometimes fifty different sorts are provided at an entertainment.* Persia produces also great quantities of cotton and silk, as well as abundance of drugs, excellent in their kind, but too numerous and various to be here particularized. But, excepting the northern provinces, it is, as already observed, almost wholly destitute of timber. No forests are met with; and the trees which most frequently occur are the plantain, the fir, and the cornel.

Zoology.]-The zoology of Persia is less copious and perfect than its botany. The horse is one of its noblest ornaments. The Persian horses, although less esteemed than those of Arabia, are the most beautiful and showy that are seen in the East, being higher than our saddle horses, and finely proportioned. Although they are very numerous, the great demand from Hindostan on one side, and Turkey on the other, raises their price very high. The mules are also very fine, and held in great estimation. There are two breeds of asses, one heavy and stupid, the other, which is originally from Arabia, docile and tractable, and used solely for the saddle. Camels are also numerous, much used, and greatly esteemed. Oxen, of which there are not any very great number, are generally employed in ploughing, and other kinds of labour, as little beef is eaten in Persia. Sheep and deer are common, but hogs are no where kept except in some districts near the Caspian Sea. Of wild beasts there is no great number, nor in general of beasts of chase, as the country is destitute of forests; but the northern parts, where woods are more plentiful, abound in lions,

*Chardin, tom. 3.

Tavernier. tom. 1. liv. 4.

bears, tigers, &c. as well as in deer, and various kinds of gazeiles; and the goats which furnish the Bezoar, abound both wild and tame. No wolves, however, are found in any part of the country. Persia has all kinds of fowls that are seen in Europe, although in less number. But pigeons are more numerous here than in any other part of the world, being greatly valued for their dung, which is the best manure for melons; and in no country whatever are seen such a number of pigeonhouses. Among the birds of Persia, may be reckoned the pelican. In the mountains, between fifty or sixty miles from Schiras, are some of the finest birds of prey in the world; and the people take great pains in teaching them to fly at game. The Persian monarchs had sometimes several hundreds of them, and for each, a person was appointed as its keeper. From the dryness of the climate, there are few insects or reptiles except some large black scorpions, of which the sting is almost immediately mortal, with lizards of enormous size, and in some provinces vast swarms of locusts. The abundance of fish afforded by the Caspian Sea has already been mentioned; and the Persian Gulf supplies a quantity little inferior. The pearl fishery of Ormus has been long celebrated, and often described.

Natural curiosities.]—The natural curiosities of Persia are numerous; but our knowledge of them is not very complete : and in a country so little explored by Europeans, description is often blended with fable. The river Mahmoudker, at some distance from Ispahan, is mentioned by travellers as a curious feature of nature. Passing through certain openings in at range of rocks resembling the embrasures of a bastion, through which the winds also rush with astonishing violence, it fails into a noble bason, formed partly by nature and partly by art. In the ascent of the mountain, certain natural chasms shew the water at the bottom of it, like a dormant lake covered with rocks. Its depth is thought to be unfathomable; and when stones are thrown into it, they cause an astonishing noise that almost deafens the hearer. After its descent from the bason, it rolls along the plain, and at last falls into the river Zende

See Asiatic Russia.

roud. The beroar, found in the stomach of a certain kind of

goat, and once highly esteemed as a counterpoison in this quarter of the world, as it is still in the East, although now nearly expelled from the European practice of medicine, must be regarded as a natural curiosity. The rarities of Persia, whether real or fictitious, which travellers have described, are numerous, but it is difficult to make a just distinction.

Artificial curiosities, antiquities, &c.]-Persia, however, displays some remains of antiquity, highly worthy of notice, as they exhibit lasting memorials of her ancient grandeur, and excite an interesting recollection of an important portion of the history of mankind. The ruins of Persepolis, once the capital of the Persian empire, are superior to every thing of the kind now seen in the world, except those of Rome and Thebes, and want only the mysterious antiquity of the latter to render the view of them equally impressive. The antiquity of Thebes, as already observed, lies beyond the reach of history and tradition: that of Persepolis can ascend no higher than Cyrus; but whether that monarch, or Darius Hystaspes, was its founder, is a matter which cannot now be ascertained. The plain in which Persepolis was situated, is one of the finest on the surface of the globe, being nearly sixty miles in length, with an irregular breadth of from six to twelve, and in some places near twenty miles, being watered by the Araxes, now called Bendemir, and by a great number of rivulets. The whole plain is, or at least was lately, crowded with villages, adorned with gardens, and planted with planes, and other shady trees. The entrance of the plain from the west has received as much grandeur from nature as the city could acquire from art. A range of high and steep mountains, twelve miles in length, and two in breadth, forms two flat banks, with a rising terrace in the middle, and appears to be the station where the advanced guards from Persepolis posted themselves on Alexander's approach, and from whence he dislodged them with great difficulty. In this magnificent ridge are such openings, with terraces so fine and so even, that the whole would seem the effect of art, did not the vast extent and elevation shew it to be a work that nature alone could produce. On the east and the north, the plain is defended by similar fortifica

tions. The palace of the ancient monarchs of Persia was situated close. the foot of the rocky mountain, and its stupendous ruins, called Chilminar, or Forty Pillars, impress the mind of the spectator with the highest ideas of their magnificence, as well as of the instability of human greatness.* The front extends 600 paces from north to south, and 390 from west to east, quite to the rock. Three of the walls are yet standing; and on the east side is the mountain. It would here be a vain attempt to describe the particulars of these interesting ruins, the numerous staircases and columns, the rich marbles, the various sculptured figures, some of which are of a colossal size, the grand portico, &c. These have all been described at large by various travellers and writers of different nations, but by none with such accuracy as by Sir J. Chardin and M. Le Brun. To their luminous descriptions and elegant drawings, therefore, the curious inquirer must be referred for a particular account of those interesting remains of antiquity. In this general view it suffices to remark, that the stupendous ruins of Persepolis must impress exalted ideas of the magnificence and taste of the ancient Persians, before public calamities had depressed the national genius. There are also curious remains of antiquity in other parts of Persia, particularly in the neighbourhood of Schiras. Nothing, however, is seen that bears any comparison with the magnificent ruins of Persepolis.

See the descriptions and drawings of Chardin and Le Brun. Chardin. tom. 2. Le Brun, tom. 2.

Among the travellers who have visited and described the ruins of Persepolis, may be enumerated Mr. Ducket, Sir Thomas Herbert, Thevenot, and Dr. Gemell Carreri. Sir J. Chardin has perhaps given the best general account of Persia, and has described these ruins with great perspicuity and accuracy. Le Brun had the advantage of a longer stay, and being by profession a painter, he examined them with the eye of an artist He cavils with Chardin in regard to some minutiæ, but agrees with him on all subjects of importance.

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