1 (return)
[ It is perhaps almost needless to remind the reader, that the Mussulmans are divided into two inimical sects; viz. suni and shiah; and that the Turks are of the former, and the Persians of the latter, persuasion. The Sunies hold, that Omar, Osman and Abubekr, were the lawful successors of Mohamed. The Shiahs assert that they were usurpers, and that Ali, his son-in-law, was the next in succession.]

2 (return)
[ This is the Persian pipe, made upon the principle of the Indian hookah.]

3 (return)
[ Officers whose duties are to find quarters for the pilgrims, establish the prices of provisions, make arrangements for their supply, regulate the hours of march, settle disputes, announce the time of prayer, etc.]

4 (return)
[ This takes place in the spring, when the sun enters Aries, and is called the No Ruz, or the new day. The festival is not of Mohamedan origin, and dates from very remote antiquity.]

5 (return)
[ By heel ropes is meant those fastenings which are used to secures horses in the East.]

6 (return)
[ The Turcomans, as well as the Turks, their descendants, are of the Suni persuasion: with them green is a sacred colour; but it is not so among the Shiahs.]

7 (return)
[ The word Sultan, which in Europe is generally used to designate the sovereign of Turkey, among the Tartars, Turcomans, etc., means captain or chief, and is given frequently to subalterns, as well as to those of higher rank.]

8 (return)
[ Banou implies a female head or chief; thus in the Arabian Nights, Paribanou, or more properly Peribanou means the chief of the fairies. The King of Persia's principal wife is styled Banou Harem, chief of the harem.]

9 (return)
[ All classes of Mohamedans shave the crown of the head. In Persia two patches of hair are left behind each ear by way of curls. In Turkey, a tuft is left on the very summit of the head.]

10 (return)
[ The Turks differ materially from the Persians in their tastes for women, the one admiring corpulency, whilst the latter show greater refinement, and esteem those forms which are mostly prized in Europe.]

11 (return)
[ The races that take place among the Turcomans and the Persians are intended to try the bottom, rather than the actual speed of their horses.]

12 (return)
[ The bread here alluded to is baked on small and convex iron plates, and when prepared is about the thickness of brown paper.]

13 (return)
[ Rustam is the fabulous hero of Persian history, so much celebrated in the Shah Nameh as a paragon of strength and courage. His duel with Asfendiar, which lasted two whole days, is the theme of Persian romance.]

14 (return)
[ A parasang is equivalent to about three and a half geographical miles.]

15 (return)
[ A full-equipped horseman in the East generally carries with him an iron peg, to which is affixed a rope terminated by a noose, with which he pickets his horse wherever he may alight. The rope is buttoned to the fore-leg, whilst the peg is driven into the ground with a stone.]

16 (return)
[ A tomaun is the principal gold coin of Persia, worth about 14s.]

17 (return)
[ The dinar is the smallest denomination of money in Persia.]

18 (return)
[ Twenty-four grains make one miscal.]

19 (return)
[ The loves of these personages have been treated by various Oriental writers. Majnoun is looked upon as the model of a lover, and Leilah as the most beautiful and perfect of her sex.]

20 (return)
[ In sketching the history of the poet Asker, the author has attempted to record part of the life of the late Fatteh Ali Khan, poet- laureate to the Shah, a most ingenious and amiable man, well known to the English who were at Tehran in the years 1812 and 1813.]

21 (return)
[ Seizing the skirt of a man in authority, or the heel ropes of his horses in the stable, are as great protection to a culprit in Persia as the precincts of a church are in Roman Catholic countries.]

22 (return)
[ It is no uncommon circumstance in Persia to find men of the lowest estate well versed in their poets. The Persians are eminently a poetical people.]

23 (return)
[ The luties are privileged buffoons, usually keeping monkeys, bears, and other animals.]

24 (return)
[ A ghauz is a small copper coin.]

25 (return)
[ A beard is held so sacred in the East, that every hair which grows upon a Mohamedan's chin is protected from molestation by a heavy fine.]

26 (return)
[ The mohteshib is an officer who perambulates the city, and examines weights and measures, and qualities of provisions.]

27 (return)
[ Twenty shahies make the groush, or piastre, which is worth about two shillings British.]

28 (return)
[ The felek is a long pole, with a noose in the middle, through which the feet of him who is to be bastinadoed are passed, whilst its extremities are held up by two men for the two others who strike.]

29 (return)
[ Saadi, Hafiz, and the Koran, are the three books to which the Persians most willingly refer for this mode of divination. Its resemblance to that of the Sortes Virgilianoe must occur to every reader.]

30 (return)
[ A Persian letter is folded up like a lady's thread paper, and fastened in the middle by a slip of adhesive paper, which is moistened with the tongue, and then stamped with the seal of the writer. Thus, letters are frequently opened and closed without detection.]

31 (return)
[ The stirrup, which is a sort of iron shovel, sharp at the edge, in Persia as well as in Turkey, is used by way of spur.]

32 (return)
[ The Persians have a particular aversion to horses which have white legs on one side, which they call chup; and they also very much undervalue a horse that has the ableh, which consists of white leprous marks on its nose, round the eyes, and under the tail.]

33 (return)
[ The chenar tree is a species of sycamore.]

34 (return)
[ This alludes to tapping in cases of dropsy,—an operation unknown among the Persians until our surgeons taught it them.]

35 (return)
[ Locman is the most celebrated of the Eastern sages, and is supposed by some to be the same as Aesop. The title usually given to a doctor in Persia is Locman al zeman, the Locman of his day.]

36 (return)
[ Isauvi, a follower of Jesus.]

37 (return)
[ This is the most approved form of speech among well- educated Persians whenever any allusion to the mysteries of the harem is intended.]

38 (return)
[ A piastre is about two shillings.]

39 (return)
[ This dye is used throughout the whole of Asia, and produces a strong orange or auburn colour. The Persians dye the whole of their hands as far as the wrist with it, and also the soles of their feet. The Turks more commonly only tinge the nails; both use it for the hair.]

40 (return)
[ The Yezeedies are a tribe of the Curds, who are said to worship the devil.]

41 (return)
[ The Persians give the most magnificent names to their negro slaves. Thus Nur Jehan means "light of the world."]

42 (return)
[ Khanum is the title usually given to a Persian lady, and is equivalent to "madam."]

43 (return)
[ The priest is so called who invites the Mohamedans to prayers from the minaret, or from the roof of the mosque.]

44 (return)
[ This no doubt relates to certain mysterious and obscene customs which are said to be practised among the Yezeedies, at the village of Kerrund, in the Curdistan, and peculiar to the tribe of Nusiri, commonly called Chiragh Kush, or lamp extinguishers. Antiquarians pretend in them to trace a resemblance to the abominable worship of Venus, as practised by the Babylonians, and recorded in Herodotus, book i. sect. cxcix.]

45 (return)
[ The cherkajis (literally wheelers about) in Oriental armies are skirmishers, who are thrown out from the main body to engage in the fight, and are generally esteemed the most expert horsemen and the best soldiers.]

46 (return)
[ The point to which the Mohamedans turn in prayer.]

47 (return)
[ Light of the world. The Persians are apt to give high- sounding names to their slaves, and particularly to the guardians of their women.]

48 (return)
[ Aga is used in the sense of master.]

49 (return)
[ The surme is a collyrium.]

50 (return)
[ The sham is, in truth, the evening meal, and is served up at sunset.]

51 (return)
[ The ceremony of the pahendaz consists in spreading rich stuffs for the king to walk upon.]

52 (return)
[ This is an ancient Persian custom, and is supposed to secure good fortune—sweetness, and consequently sugar, being an emblem of felicity.]

53 (return)
[ The musnud, in Eastern acceptation, is, in fact, the throne; but on occasions such as the one here described the mode of making a musnud is to double up a thick carpet, by which means there is only room for one person to be seated upon it.]

54 (return)
[ Catherine II. is so styled by the Persians.]

55 (return)
[ Kizzil Bash, or Red Head, is a sort of nickname given from old times to the Persians.]

56 (return)
[ The inner, or women's apartment.]

57 (return)
[ Mumiai and pahzer are antidotes in which the Persians have great faith. Our bezoar is evidently a corruption of pahzer.]

58 (return)
[ This is a Persian idiom, and is intended to denote the fascinations of a brunette.]

59 (return)
[ The jika is an upright ornament worn in front of the crown, and is an insignia of royalty.]

60 (return)
[ Roast meat.]

61 (return)
[ So Hippocrates is called in Persia.]

62 (return)
[ The gate of the palace, where public business is transacted.]

63 (return)
[ Perhaps the description of this personage will bring to the recollection of those who were in Persia in the years 1813 and 1814 the character of the nasakchi bashi of that day.]

64 (return)
[ Luti here is used in the sense of polisson.]

65 (return)
[ Celebrated heroes in the Shah Nameh, a book which is believed, by the present Persians, to contain their ancient history.]

66 (return)
[ Strict Mussulmans hold silk unclean.]

67 (return)
[ In the direction of Mecca.]

68 (return)
[ The third month in the Arabic calendar.]

69 (return)
[ A ghez is not quite a yard.]

70 (return)
[ Shir bi pir—a lion without a saint, is a favourite Persian epithet, when applied to a desperado, a fellow without compassion.]

72 (return)
[ A maun is seven pounds and a half; a miscal, twenty-four grains.]

73 (return)
[ The Shah's great diamond, which he wears in one of his armlets, is called the koh nur, or the mountain of light.]

74 (return)
[ The camel tie is made by fastening the lower and upper limb of one of the forelegs together, which is done to prevent an unruly animal from straying from the pasture ground.]

75 (return)
[ It is supposed that the instruments here alluded to were hand-grenades.]

76 (return)
[ Hassan Khan Serdan, the governor of Erivan, was said to have attacked Armenian villages in the manner here described, by throwing grenades into the houses from the orifice at the top.]

77 (return)
[ This is a circumstance which is said to have really happened.]

78 (return)
[ I.e. Mecca, to which all Mohamedans turn in their prayers.]

79 (return)
[ Khon-khor, literally "blood-drinker"; so the Sultan of Roum, or Turkey, is styled in Persia.]

80 (return)
[ The kabob shops at Constantinople are eating-houses, where, at a moment's notice, a dish of roast meat, and small bits of meat done on skewers, are served up to whoever asks for them.]

81 (return)
[ So the Persians call Freemasons, about whom they are very inquisitive.]

82 (return)
[ Sheikh Attar and Jelaledin Rumi are the two great doctors of the Sufies.]

83 (return)
[ A mollah who is a schoolmaster is also styled ahkon.]

84 (return)
[ It is a popular belief that near the city of Kashan there exists a well of fabulous depth, at the bottom of which are found enchanted groves and gardens.]

85 (return)
[ A real is about two shillings—eight reals one tomaun.]

86 (return)
[ Peder sukhteh is the most common term of abuse in a Persian's mouth. It implies "one whose father is burning in eternal fires."

87 (return)
[ Quarantine, we presume, is meant here.]

88 (return)
[ The word rishweh, "bribery," is also used for "manure" in agriculture.]

Printed by R.& R. CLARK, Edinburgh