and looking most intently on the Ghiaour making his way to the seat of honour. At the farther end the Pasha was sitting in state, surrounded by the officers of his household; the Kaveh Bashi, the Tchibook Bashi, and other Bashis, looking very fierce, bare-legged, and well armed.

I was accosted with the "kush guelden," or welcome, and a seat placed for me at the Pasha's left hand. Coffee and pipes were immediately introduced, and we drew some long whiffs together before the conversation was introduced. It related to the purport of my visit, the place whence I came, and whither I was going-all this passing through my dragoman, the Pasha not understanding Persian, and I not speaking Turkish. I had previously laid the "backshish" or present at his feet, which he did not deign to notice nor to examine, much less to thank me for it. This was the tribute money, and the only way to Koordish favour. After sundry talk, he at length asked what I wanted of him? This was coming to the point, and I was rather puzzled so to frame my request that I might not show distrust of his own people; so I requested, in case of danger or difficulty in this strange country, the mighty protec

tion of his passport, and the convoy of some of his troopers. This was immediately granted, the audience broke up, and I was conducted with the same ceremony to resume my saddle.

On coming out, the numerous Bashis surrounded my dragoman, crying out "backshish." I replied that I had already rendered it to the Pasha. But the hungry servants must be feed too; so to avoid Koordish mobbing, I was obliged to draw my purse-strings, and count out the ducats, which my dragoman distributed amongst them. As I rode off, the Pasha came out to enquire what I had given to the servants, as he takes the greater part of it from them! I heard afterwards that he was satisfied with what I had given; which was more than I could say myself; for I found a Koordish audience rather expensive. The servants have no other pay in Turkey than what they get from visitors; and their masters (as in this case) often divide the spoils with them.

We see in the Koordish tribes many millions of people remaining unsubdued to any yoke, forming fine troops if you can discipline them; impetuous warriors if you can guide them. In these fine provinces are boundless estates, open to all occu

piers, rent and tax free; and if civilization could but throw her mantle over them, and bring order out of confusion, good government out of anarchy, what a blessing would it prove to the Asiatic traveller!

CHAPTER III.

PERSIAN SOVEREIGNTY.

THERE is no difficulty in penetrating into the genius of the Persian government, since it is all comprised in "the purest despotism." The sovereign of Iran is deemed to be the most absolute in the world; the will of the King rules every thing; his subjects are "less than the dust of the earth" in his presence; with the breath of his mouth he can annihilate them.

It is a remarkable fact in the history of this country, that from the reign of Ahaseurus (now more than two thousand years ago), notwithstanding the various revolutions which have so devastated Persia, the same despotic power has been handed

down even to the present sovereign. We behold Ahaseurus, by the word of his mouth, threatening to destroy "all the Jews that were throughout all the kingdom." At later periods we see Abbas the Great putting to death with his own hand an innocent traveller while asleep, because his horse started at him; and Agha Mahomed Shah putting out the eyes of those who ventured to look at his hideous countenance.

With such extraordinary power, it cannot be wondered at that the characters of the Persian sovereigns should be brutalised, and from their being accustomed to the shedding of blood, to directing and witnessing all executions, that their nature should become hardened. But the reverse of this was the general characteristic of the late Shah; and on comparing history with history, it is an astonishing fact, as stated by Hollinshed, that in England, "during one reign, more than seventy thousand persons suffered by the common executioner; which is at least six daily, Sundays included! To contrast this with the results of a despotic government, I learnt that in Persia, in the province of Azerbijan, containing nearly a million of people, only seven executions had taken place