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CHAPTER VII.

PERSIAN FESTIVALS.

THE Persian fête of the "Takieh" commemorates the martyrdom of the Imans Hassan and Hussein. They were the sons of Ali, and, according to the Shiahs' creed, the successors of Mahomet after their father. They are considered as martyrs, and this festival is kept up to remind the Persians of these memorable events, and to excite their hatred against the Sunnites, or Turkish Mahomedans.

The great Nadir Shah attempted to extinguish these fêtes. As one of the conditions of his accepting the crown, he ordered the discontinuance of the tumultuous meetings at the commemoration of Hussein's death. He did not, however, succeed in abolishing this festival.

VOL. II.

I witnessed this fête in part, and will relate what I saw, and add to it the narrative of a most respectable witness. It takes place on the first ten days of the month Moharrem, being the first month of the Mahomedan year,* at which period, they say, the Koran in detached portions was sent down from heaven.

I have before alluded to the religious respect of the Persians for their scriptures, and their selfdenying observance of the Ramazan; their further zeal I witnessed on this extraordinary commemoration, in the form of penances, self-inflicting degradations, and soul-felt grief-for so it appeared to me. During these days of mourning the mosques are hung with black, and the "maidans," or large squares, wherein the performance is to take place, are covered over with awnings. Here and there pulpits are placed, from whence the moolahs address the audience. The effects of these addresses are very powerful; the sobbings and groanings which take place are of the most boisterous kind.

A master of the ceremonies directed the dramatis persona of the performance, the leading features of which appeared to be the sudden loss of a child

Called by them "Ayam Almadoodant."

out of a cradle, which the angel was supposed to have carried up into heaven. This specimen of the winged seraphim by no means tended to exalt my notions of that order of beings. It was an uncouth looking female, or male disguised, appearing certainly to be any thing but etherial.

The women were particularly noisy in their grief; and I thought that, in many instances, it was not feigned. When, however, the angel brought down the infant again, the rejoicings were equally boisterous. The whole was a singing pantomime, if I may so say-and such singing! The ceremonies having lasted some hours, they were adjourned to the following day. Men ran through the city gashing themselves with knives, and howling and shouting out, "Hassan! Hussein!" the moolahs in their pulpits doled out their lamentations, which were responded to by the people with groans and tears; the men smote their breasts, at the same time laying them bare. These are the leading features of the mourning for the time. At other places they are excited by drums and trumpets. Every one assumes a dark garb, and their black caps and beards always constitute a sort of half mourning.

At Tehran, in the great court of the King's palace, the representations of the last few days take place, where the “shah zadehs,” or princes, sometimes attend barefooted, and superintend the ceremonies, dealing about their sticks to keep order amongst the multitude. The family of Hussein is represented by men in women's dresses; and as the performances proceed to the dismal fate of the Iman on the plains of Kerbeleh, they utter dreadful shrieks and groans, and fill the air with their lamentations.

As I did not behold the whole of this festival, I will briefly relate an account furnished me by an eye-witness:-"The first part of the tragedy is the arrival of about fifty horsemen. The army of the Iman then appears in the square opposed to the Caliph Yezid. The battle commences. This is the moment of intense interest to the lookers-on. Hussein soon falls from his horse, and being covered with wounds, Yezid orders his head to be cut off. When the death blow is given by the executioner, the lamentations of the people increase; they fall upon the enemy almost with personal violence, so much so, that it is difficult to procure people to perform this part of the tra

gedy. They then attempt to represent the dead bodies of the martyrs.*

"On the following day the tragedy continues. Yezid successively destroys the two children of Hussein, who had fallen into his power. Then comes a general procession of men carrying rich flags and banners of cachmere shawls, exhibiting a strange contrast with the poverty of the people in their black dresses. Some led horses, magnificently caparisoned, follow, their trappings rich with jewels and gold; then litters bearing figures of dead bodies, covered with blood and pierced with daggers, followed by naked bleeding men having scimetars and arrows apparently stuck into them, as though they had been pierced in battle. Succeeding these was a train of camels, mounted by men all in black, with female mourners throwing ashes over themselves and chopped straw.

"These hideous scenes are now varied by a pompous and imposing spectacle; some hundreds of

It has been stated, that the executioner, in his extreme zeal to please the King, did on one occasion actually cut off the head of the man who performed Hussein. His Majesty, far from being shocked at the loss of a faithful subject, ordered the executioner to pay a fine of a hundred tomauns!-so good an opportunity of bringing money to the royal treasury was not to be forgotten.