enforced in the 24th chapter of the Koran-"And speak unto the believing women, that they restrain their eyes, and preserve their modesty, and discover not their ornaments, except what necessarily appeareth thereof; and let them throw their veils over their bosoms, and not show their ornaments, unless to their husbands," &c.

They imagine it perfect pollution to the female for any strange man's eyes to light upon her. Of their extreme jealousy many instances came before me, both of the upper and lower orders. I was coming into Sulimania very early in the morning, having made a night travel of it from Tehran, when I met the "takht revan" of one of the royal wives, in which she was being conveyed to that city. The machine was so completely covered in, and enveloped by curtains and wrappers, as to render it impossible to see the person within, even were they not cowled and coiled in shawl. A troop of "faroshs," with numerous other attendants and eunuchs, were clearing the way with menacing aspect. "Baulch!" cried out the eunuch. I was then so far off as to render it impossible to see any thing; but the road must be cleared, and I was obliged to go to an inconvenient distance, to avoid

seeing even the machine which contained the royal prisoner.*

What an absurdity does this appear to us! but unless the strictest attention be given by the ferengee" stranger to this custom, his Persian travel might be much endangered. I was once riding around the walls of Tabreez, when suddenly I saw some horsemen galloping towards me. "Beru! beru!" said the "farosh ;" I enquired why, since this was a public path. I must immediately get out of it, he said, as a daughter of the Shah and the "Kaimacan's" wife had taken a fancy to promenade a little on this road, which must be immediately cleared for her presence.

These eunuchs are most important officers of the royal establishments; their influence with the Shah or the Prince is often pre-eminent to that of the grand vizier himself; he forms the nucleus

• It were endless to narrate instances of Persian jealousy as regards female seclusion. A Khan with whom I was well acquainted, and who was lately married, had offered a large sum to her father for permission to see his bride elect. The offer was scoffed at; the seeing her would have been deemed a profanation; and who can tell but that it might have cancelled the marriage contract? The circumstance has sometimes happened in Persia, of a Laban deceiving a Jacob, who thought he had married "Rachael, and behold it was Leah!"

of all intrigues within and without the palace. From the unbounded sway which he exercises over the ladies of the harem, he becomes the terror and the courted of the fair prisoners. The ugliest stamp which nature can imprint forms one of the requisites for office; brutality, intrigue, and all the other dark shades of character, make him up a very Machiavel.

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CHAPTER III.

THE "MESHEDEES."

THE Meshedees are pilgrims, who having made a visit to the saint's shrine, "Imaum. Reza," at Meshed, in Khorassan, are from thenceforth always thus styled—a sort of religious honour, of which the Persians are very tenacious. I had made a long march of it one day, when I met large parties of them on the "Khoflan Khu."

This mountainous district divides ancient Media from "Irak Adjemi." Some part of it bears the remains of a pavement, said to have been constructed by Abbas the Great, and there are further and more ancient proofs of antiquity on the summit of a rock-the ruins of a fortress, called " Virgin's

Fort." The story is, that Artaxerxes built this fort, where he imprisoned a princess of the blood royal; but from its having become the resort of robbers, it was reduced to its present fragments.

At the foot of the mountain winds a muddy stream," the Kizzil Ozzan," which runs into the Caspian. Its crumbling bridge bespeaks not only antiquity, but danger, and requires the utmost care to avoid the pits in it, the wear and tear of time and rough usage.*

This "kafilah" of pilgrims was headed by the Moolahs, and the train was composed of numerous devotees, including females, and what is more extraordinary, bearing with them the corpses of their deceased friends to be interred in this consecrated ground, which is by some Mahomedans deemed indispensable to their admittance into paradise.

It was near this bridge that the murder of Major Brown took place some thirty years ago, as was then stated, by banditti. Persia was at that time in a comparatively barbarous state; great jealousy was felt, even by the Shah, at Europeans visiting the country. Our gallant countryman, well armed, and confiding in the strength of his attendants, although cautioned of the probable danger, embarked heedlessly on his journey. The attack was instantaneous; he fell, his servants dispersed, and some of the booty was subsequently traced at Tehran. No attempt was made to discover the murderers, and the poor victim was unrevenged.