palate of exultation, they filled his heart with. arrogance and his bowels with ambition." Mounting the stirrup of impatience, and vaulting into the saddle of hope, he presented his "rackum" to the prince. Who shall paint his astonishment when the prince refused to obey it! "Laullah a ilullah," said he, "There is no God but God," and then following it up with "foozoel," "ghoraumsang," fool, scoundrel. "Beru," be off; and he was threatened with the bastinado. Returning once more to the King, he complained bitterly of this treatment, and was only ridiculed as having any fault to find-the "rackum" had been granted according to promise, and it was for him to contend with the existing authorities. The prince was so exasperated at the Khan's application to the King, that he invited him back, with fair promises of remuneration, and then pillaged him of every thing he had, took away from him his villages, and sent him into exile.

Persian finances are much deranged in this way; they grant what is called a "huget" on a particular district. These are generally payable just after harvest time. If the bill cannot be paid in money, they pay it in corn or other produce.

This is a matter of arrangement between the debtor or creditor. Get what you can is the general order of the day where money is so scarce. The chancellor of the exchequer's budget must be of rather a miscelleneous description here, particularly of income. Instead of post-office, excise, tea, it is wheat and barley, straw and rice. I only know that his exchequer bills were at a terrible discount when I was at Tabreez, amounting almost to fifty per cent. The merchants will have nothing to do with them, since there is considerable danger in asking for payment. They will grant orders sometimes on the customs, and, perhaps, the farmer of the customs will accept it at long date. In the meanwhile he is removed, and the new comer recognises none of the obligations of his predecessors.

It is wonderful the labyrinth these people get into by their crooked ways, when a tenth part of the labour would suffice in the straight path. The remote parts of his Majesty's empire sometimes get into a very disorganised state, entirely respecting "the ways and means;" and they take such desperate measures to raise the said "ways and means" as are quite unknown in other parts

of the world. This occurred during my sojourn in Persia, at Bushire, where considerable wealth was accumulated, belonging to merchants and others, in the transit of goods from India. The resident merchants were known to be very rich, and these considerations offered a tempting bait to those who were stronger than they.

It is not an uncommon thing in this part of the country to find organised bands of plunderers, and in this affair they conducted themselves most systematically. A large party of them went down to Bushire; indeed, an irresistible force to any thing which the inhabitants could oppose to them. Individuals paraded the town, offering, for a certain sum, to certain rich people, protection for their property from the plunder about to take place. Some of them yielded to this exaction, and were actually so protected; whilst their less fortunate neighbours lost their all. A Jew stood out to make a very hard bargain; they asked him one hundred tomauns; he offered them twenty, and so on to fifty, but would go no farther; the consequence was, that he lost ultimately many thousands of tomauns. Bushire was literally sacked. Forty persons are said to have been killed, and

ninety persons wounded. Property to the amount of thirty lacs of rupees, or three hundred thousand pounds sterling, is said to have been carried off by a desperate and ferocious gang, gloating over their prey, although stained with so much blood.

It was said at the time that this gang had been organised by a prince of the blood, the governor of Shiraz; although he did not personally head it, he was its founder, and shared the produce of its infamy. Such was the on-dit of the day. Sir John Malcolm, in his Persian Sketches, tells of a certain Khan, who when he first viewed the wealth and extent of Calcutta, exclaimed, "What a fine place for plunder!"

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CHAPTER XV.

THE "RAMAZAN."

It

THIS is the name of the ninth month of the Hegira, and is the Lent fast of the Persians. was instituted thus by Mahomet:-"The month of Ramazan shall ye fast, in which the Koran was sent down from heaven, a declaration unto men, &c. God would make this an ease unto you, and would not make it a difficulty unto you, that ye may fulfil the number of days and glorify God, for that he hath directed you, and ye may give thanks." Its commencement (in February) was governed by the appearance of the new moon; the moment the brilliant crescent shows itself in the heavens, the gun fires, and the fast commences,