one who plays away his head only. used to express their devotion to the king's service; for they are not in reality entered into a state of servitude by actual purchase: on the contrary, they are particularly honoured by the king, and his own favourite Ismael Beg is their com mander. This chief is one of those who still exercise the noose with great skill; it is called kummund, and there are some instances of its being still used in their engagements. "The twelve thousand who form the king's body-guard are taken indiscriminately from the tribes, or from the population of the cities, but principally from Mazanderan and the tribes connected with the king's own race. They have their families and homes at Teheran, and in the neighbouring villages, and are ready at every call. They are divided into bodies of three thousand men, and do duty by turns in the Dress.-The dress of the Persians king's palace, called the ark. They is much changed since the time of are called kechekchees or guards, Chardin. It never possessed the and every such body has a ser dignity and solidity of the Turkish kechekchee, or head of the guard, dress, and much less now than who always attends when his corps ever. So materially indeed have their is on duty; and on the relief of the fashions altered, that in comparing guard a mirza belonging to the with the modes of the present day, corps reads over every man's name, the pictures and descriptions in and in case of non-attendance the de- Chardin and Le Brun, we can refaulter receives punishment. These cognize no longer the same people. ser kechekchees are men of so much It is extraordinary that an Asiatic family and distinction, that one of nation, so much charmed by show the king's own sons enjoys the and brilliancy, (as the Persians have dignity. The kechekchees are dis- always been supposed to be), should tributed in all parts of the palace, have adopted for their apparel the and are always seen on guard on dark and sombre colours, which are the towers of the ark. Their watch- now universal among all ranks. In word is hazir, or ready,' which the reign of the Zund family indeed, they continually pass from one to light colours were much in vogue; the other. They are a distinct but the present race, perhaps from body from the kechekchees of the a spirit of opposition, cherish dark city, who are solely attached to the ones. A Persian therefore looks a police office, and do the duty of most melancholy personage, and reour watchmen, with this difference, sembles much some of the Armenian that they have a right to ascend the priests and holy men, whom I have tops of the houses in their midnight seen in Turkey. Browns, dark rounds. olives, bottle greens, and dark blues, are the colours mostly worn. Red they dislike; and it is singular that this is a hue, which fashion seems to have discarded even in the countries far beyond the northern and eastern confines of Persia; for the merchants of Bokhara, who come down annually to Bushire to buy cloths, totally disregard scarlets, and "Besides this body-guard of twelve thousand, the king has three thousand goulams or slaves, who are horsemen, and always attend him when he makes an excursion. All these prople, both horse and foot, are paid, fed, clothed, armed, and mounted at the king's expense. Goulam (slave) is here figuratively for for that colour will not give any thing like the price, which they will pay for others. 66 Although the climate requires full as much clothing as that of Turkey, I did not find in my stay among them, that the Persians clothed themselves by any means so warmly as the Turks. As the cold increases, the Turk increases the number of his pelisses, till in the progress of the winter I have frequently seen a small and puny man expand into a very robust and athletic figure but the Persian's wardrobe does not thus extend over him as the season advances. : "The following is a general catalogue of the articles of their dress : 1. The zeer jumah: a pair of very wide trowsers, either of red silk or blue cotton, reaching below the ande, and fastened by a string which passes through the top, and is tied before. 2. The peera hawn: a shirt generally of silk, which, going over the trowsers, reaches a few inches below the hips, and is fastened by two buttons over the top of the right shoulder. It goes close round the lower part of the neck, where it is sometimes ornamented by a ribband or thin cord of silk. The opening of the shirt extends to the bottom of the ribs. 3. The alcalock: a tight vest, made of chintz, and quilted with cotton, which ties at. the side, and reaches as low as the thin part of the calf of the leg. It has sleeves extending to the wrist, but open from the elbow. 4. The caba: which is a long vest descending to the ancle, but fitting tight to the body as far only as the hips: it then buttons at the side. The sleeves go over those of the alcalock, and from the elbow are closed by buttons only, that they may be opened thus far for the purpose of ablution, when the namaz or prayer is said. There is another species of caba, called the bagalee, which crosses over the breast, and fastens all down the side by a range of buttons to the hip. This is generally made of cloth, or of shawl or cotton quilted, and, as the warmer, is most used in winter. . 5. The outer coat is always made of cloth, and is worn or thrown off according to the heat of the weather. Of this dress, there are many sorts;-the tekmeh; which has sleeves open from the elbow, but which are yet so fashioned as to admit occasionally the lower part also of the arm. These sleeves are generally permitted to hang behind. The coat itself is quite round, buttons before, and drops like a petticoat over the shawl that goes round the waist. The oymeh, which is like the tekmeh, except that from the hips downwards, it is open at the sides. The baroonee, which is a loose and ample robe with proportionably ample arms, generally made of cloth and faced with velvet, and thrown negligently over the shoulders.. 6. Over the caba, comes the shal kemer, which is the bandage round the waist. This is made either of Cashmirian shawl, or of the common shawl of Kerman, or of English chintz, or of flowered muslin. The proper size is about eight yards long, and one broad. To this is fastened (by a string neatly tied around it) a kunjur, or dagger, ornamented according to the wealth of the possessor, from an enamelled pummel set in precious stones, to a common handle of bone and wood. 7. Besides the outer clothes, which I have just mentioned, they have also coats trimmed with fur. Such is the catebee, which is an uncommonly rich dress, covering the whole of the body, with fur over the back and shoulders, fur at the cuffs, and fur fur inside. It is made of cloth of gold and brocades, with large ornaments of gold lace in front, and forms altogether the most dignified among the habits that I remarked in Persia. 8. They have also a short jacket, called the coordee, which fits close to the body, but with loose flaps as low as the commencement of the swell of the thigh. 9. The warmest of their dresses is a sheep-skin with the fur inside, and the leather part outside. It is called, from its sudorific qualities, the hummum or bath, but it is more generally named the pooshtee or skin. It is an ugly and unplea sant article. The better sheep-skins come from Bokhara, and are covered with the finest wool certainly that I ever saw. "The head-dress of every Persian, from the king to his lowest subject, is composed of one substance, and consists of a black cap about one foot and a half high. These caps are all jet black, and are all made of skins of the same animals. The finest are taken from the lamb, in the first moments of its birth; and they decrease in value down to the skin of the full-grown sheep, which the common Rayat wears. The lambskins are also used to line coats, and make very comfortable pelisses. The only distinction in the headdress of Persia, is that of a shawl wrapped round the black cap; and this distinction is confined to the king, to the princes his sons, and to some of the nobility and great officers of state. Cashmire shawls have been discouraged of late, in order to promote the domestic manufacture of brocade shawls. "Like the Turks, and indeed generally like other Asiatics, the Per-ians are very careful in preservnth in the feet. In winter a thick woollen sock; and in the air or in a journey, they bind their feet and legs with a long bandage of cloth, which they increase with the advance of the cold. They have three different sorts of shoes, and two sorts of boots. 1. A green slipper, with a heel about an inch and a half high, with a painted piece of bone at the top. These are worn by the higher classes, and by all before the king. 2. A-flat slipper, either of red or yellow leather, with a little iron shoe under the heel, and with a piece of bone over that shoe, on which, as in the first instance, the heel rests. 3. A stout shoe (with a flat sole, turning up at the toe) which covers the whole foot, and is made either of leather, or of thick quilted cotton. It is worn by the peasants, and by the chatters, or walking footinen. "The boots are, 1. a very large pair with high heels, turned up at the toe, made generally of Russia leather, and covering the leg. 2. A smaller and tighter kind, buttoning at the side, and reaching only to the calf of the leg. When the Persians ride, they put on a loose trowser of cloth, called shalwar, into which they insert the skirts of the alkalock, as well as the silken trowsers; so that the whole looks like an inflated bladder. The shalwar is very useful in carrying light baggage, as handkerchiefs, small books, &c. &c. not unfrequently a slight meal. "The Persians shave all the head except a tuft of hair just on the crown, and two locks behind the cars: but they suffer their beards to grow, and to a much larger size than the Turks, and to spread more about the ears and temples. They almost universally dye them black, by an operation not very pleasant, and necessary to be repeated generally once a fortnight. It is always per formed formed in the hot-bath, where the hair being well saturated takes the colour better. A thick paste of Khenna is first made, which is largely plastered over the beard, and which after remaining an hour is all completely washed off, and leaves the hair of a very strong orange colour, bordering upon that of brickdust. After this, as thick a paste is made of the leaf of the indigo, (which previously has been pounded to a fine powder), and of this also a deep layer is put upon the beard; but this second process, to be taken well, requires two full hours. During all this operation, the patient lies quietly flat upon his back; whilst the dye (more particularly the indigo, which is a great astringent) contracts the features of his face in a very mournful manner, and causes all the lower part of the visage to smart and burn. When the indigo is at last washed off, the beard is of a very dark bottle green, and becomes a jet black only when it has met the air for twenty-four hours. Some, indeed, are content with the Khenna, or orange colour; others, more fastidious, prefer a beard quite blue. The people of Bokhara are famous for their blue beards. It is inconceivable how careful the Persians are of this ornament: all the young men sigh for it, and grease their chins to hasten the growth of the hairs: because, until they have there a repectable covering, they are supposed not fit to enjoy any place of trust. "Another singular custom is that of dying the hands and feet: this is done by the abovementioned Khenna, which is generally put over every part of the hands and nails as far as the wrist, and on the soles of the feet, the toes, and nails. "AS VIEW OF SYRACUSE AND ITS ENVIRONS. FROM MR. VAUGHAN'S PRESENT STATE OF SICILY. S far as Cassibili the soils and the cultivation are exactly like those described above; and we gazed with pleasure upon its little river, and the beauty of it banks, the clearness of its waters, and the attention that was exhibited in the irrigation and fertilization of its adjoining fields. Several of the common peasant women were washing their linen there, whose coarse compliments and rustic expressions made us smile. Behold,' said Signor Tommasi, 'the Naiads;'who, in the songs of the poets, are so amiable, so fair, and so interesting. In reality, they are what you see, simple and homely country wenches.' "From Cassibili to Syracuse the country is not remarkable for the successful efforts of art; but it is beyond measure rich and redundant in the bountiful gifts of nature. It is a large and promising plain, on one side of which is the sea, and various little mountains and hills, which recede more or less from the shore, upon the other. Trees and farm houses are few; the soil, however, is for the greatest part fertile, and in some spots is black, fat, deep, yet crumbling, as can be seen seen or desired: consequently we saw in various spots undoubted proofs of the most vigorous vegeta tion; and excellent oxen, which we judged to be the produce of the Modican bull and country cows: and we agreed, that the fertility of those fields must have contributed in no small degree to the fertility of that spot which was once the admiration of the universe. "In approaching a city that was formerly a competitor in power and grandeur to Athens, and mistress of the arts and urbanity of Rome itself, the sight of the obelisk without the town, and the two only remaining mutilated columns of the famous temple of Olympian Jove, present to the mind a thousand ideas and reflections on the history and fate of cities and nations, already recorded in the annals of the world, or yet lying hid in the impenetrable womb of time. Upon the wings, it may be said, of imagination, we pass rapidly back through the immense space of more than twenty-five ages, and we already think and speak of Archias, of Thrasybulus, of Dionysius, of Dion, of Timoleon, of Agathocles, of Marcellus-when the appearance of centinels and cannon,and redoubts and draw-bridges, and arrival of the carriages and servants of our friends, cut short the thread of our ratiocinations, and oblige us to attend to the civilities of our acquaintance, and the consideration of our accommodation at Syracuse. "We made every possible effort to prevent any one's being forewarned of our arrival, and for that purpose had secretly dispatched a person to secure us two rooms at an inn, or a convent, without saying who we were; but all our projects and precautions were rendered abortive by the watchful attentions and vigilant urbanity of the Marquis Castellentini, who had so cleverly espied out our motions that he knew to a moment when we ought to arrive, and had stationed himself by the middle of the day in his carriage without the walls of the town, and with the provident anticipation of cordiality and regard had provided a philosophical reception, as he called it, at his house, for the administrator and his suite: from this we excused ourselves with unbounded acknowledgments, on account of the way of life we had proposed to ourselves during our stay at that place; nevertheless the marquis repeated his entreaties, and very vehemently urged our compliance: and forthwith there arose between him and Tommasi a most amiable struggle, in which these two reredoubtable champions made their utmost display of graces and compliments, in subtlety and eloquence, till at last it was proposed by the help of two seconds, myself and the accomplished canon Scrofani, and agreed to at last by this courteous Polonius, that we should lodge at the convent, and eat our soup en famille at the house of the marquis without ceremony or display. "The entrance into Syracuse by four bridges and wet ditches partakes of the grand, and is rendered more noble by the gates on each side, and the four orders of fortification which bring to the recollection the works of Coni, of Alexandria, of Lisle, of Valenciennes, and other celebrated fortifications of Europe. To our mortification, however, we discover that the interior of the town does not correspond with so promising an exterior. The popu lation is scanty, and few signs of opulence, or good houses, or streets; so that it should seem the best sort of eulogium to write this inscription: this was the ancient Ortigia.' I |