conductor, bearing this sadir, and whose duty it is to procure the supplies, and to pass them on their journey. These mehmandars are so very arbitary and oppressive, that they drive the poor villagers sometimes into rebellion, even against majesty's order. They not only levy the requisites, but so much beyond it, that they make a large profit of their journey;-such a temptation to plunder is almost irresistible to the Persians. How far this mehmandar had been known to the villagers I cannot say, but they mounted the roofs of their houses well armed, and absolutely kept him at bay and all his suite, and the insult thus shown to the ambassador, the Persian government had not the power to redress. Fine promises were made of extirpating these "sons of burnt fathers," but nothing was done-the usual mode of settlement in this country.

This village showed dreadful waste, caused by plague a year or two before; it appeared to contain more ruins than tenements; the crumbling walls were becoming "dust to dust," and gaunt-eyed Desolation seemed to have driven her ploughshare through it. The remaining villagers were cheerful, for there is great elasticity in the Persian character.

The caravanseries in Persia are of a very miscellaneous description. Some of them have been built and endowed by private persons, for the Persians are very ambitious of posthumous fame; and their desire of acquiring this leads them to build caravanseries, which are consecrated to hospitality and a refuge for the stranger-some of them heavy, massive buildings, put together seemingly to defy time. The most respectable which I have yet seen is near the Sibley Pass, said to have been built by Shah Abbas, who was famous for his public works in Persia, particularly for the great causeway which runs from Keskar,' at the south-west corner of the Caspian, to Asterabad, a distance of more than three hundred English miles. This caravansery was of brick-work, massive in the extreme, and the arches of that beautiful symmetry which so characterises Persian masonry. It was of an immense extent; I lost myself in its intricacies; and very dark, being lit only by air-holes

which admitted but little light.

smith was making shoes for all

here and there, At the door the comers, and he

seemed to have plenty to do. The keeper of this huge-looking prison, who expects a small fee, has generally a room fitted up for himself, and he waits upon travellers.

survived the days of the Ghebres among the Mahomedans.

The Persian writers say that "God on this day began the creation, and ordered the different planets to move in their respective orbits." No specific season being revealed to us in the Mosaic account of "the beginning," some writers say that even Adam himself kept the "Nu Rooz" on the 21st of March; they say also that on this day Noah descended from the ark, therefore they call it "the feast of the waters."

I am quite disposed to think that this is the proper day for the "Nu Rooz." It is the first of the spring season, the winter being over, and Nature evidently rejoicing in her regeneration. It appears to me to be a much more rational observance of the new year's festival than the gloomy season chosen by the Europeans.

*

Adam

describes it with "each tree loaden with fairest fruit," and when "all things smiled." This is

The new year was so observed in England, viz., on the 25th March, then called "the old or Julian mode of computation," until the year 1752, at which period Gregory I. reformed the calendar, whereby the year was calculated from the 1st January, when an Act of Parliament was passed to adopt the Gregorian calendar in England.

evidently the season when Nature renews her strength; the teeming earth bursts with her vegetable produce, the feathered choristers chaunt their hallelujahs to the God of all creation, and even animal life quickens.

I have much enjoyed this day in Persia, but in the drizzly, frigid climate which we inhabit I question if the sensations of delight can be so lively as under the animating rays of an oriental sun. Such is the power of the animal over the mental system, that the Persian (the Frenchman of the East) knows nothing of that torpidity and langour of the brain so peculiar to "the Englishman of the West."

The "Ede y nu Rooz" is distinguished by a series of fêtes, which continue nearly a week. Chardin's description of them applies to the present day-that it is one of the grandest of the Persian festivals, when, from the prince to the peasant, all must be happy, or appear to be so. The relations of life are renewed (if I may so say) by family ties, friendly ties, and numerous other ties, known only at this time. Then the sequestered haremite comes off her carpet, and bedizened in the costly trappings conferred by her lord,

exchanges courtesies with other splendid prisoners, all happy in that seeming vacuity of existence, which may be likened more to animal than to spiritual life, kissing and embracing each other, with their "Ede y shuma mobarek”—“ May the festival be propitious to you!" Even the men express their congratulations in the same manner. All seem inspired with the sensations of our first parents" With fragrance and with joy my heart. o'erflowed."

The servants are clothed in their new liveries; business is partially suspended; nothing whatever is done by the government authorities for three days at least. The bazaars are deserted, and one general surrender to the dissipation of idle visits seems to pervade all classes.

These visits are very amusing, until they become tiresome with the overflowing bowls of flattery administered from one to the other, the "chum y chum," or compliments, so liberally dealt out, the sending and receiving the "peiscush," or presents. This latter is the most important part of the ceremony; for with all their external civilities, each person expects to receive more than he gives; and here is a fine scope for intrigues amongst the ser