QUEER THINGS ABOUT PERSIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2804, 11 December 1907, Page 79

QUEER THINGS ABOUT PERSIA.

In a most interesting and opportune book, M. Eustace -de Lorey's and M* Dong* las Sladen'B "Queer Things- about Persia, * the following description of the Shah's state -dreae makes one doubt whether Milton's SaXaai reallj was more gorgeously enthroned than "The Shadow of God" : High on. a throne of royal «tat«, which far Outshone the wealth of Ormus, or of Ind, Or vhexe the georgeons ISact witfc liobeei head Showees on her Iqngn barbaric pearl an« Satan ecaSted «t. Everyone has read of the incaknlablt riches of the Shah's Peacock Throne, surmounted' bj a parrot made of a single *mmid; bat 1 4P not lodott that faia state 4ress Imb beeif described before. "The Stub, dresses in a black Persian frock- coafc gathered skirts, £hiddy studded with 3diaQMrad& He has diamoad. epaulettes vat ia SHmrlar with* a diamond scabbard ; while on the taH lambskin cap, , called the Tcolah/ there it an aigrette with>an enormous oblong diamond weighing 166 carats, called the "Daria-i-Noor' — the Sea. of Light —the, effect of which is spoiled by bad cutting. His dress varies with the importance of the occasion. The diamond costume is reserved ior the most important ; the pear? ! %ostafne is frogged with ropes of pearl. A great English jeweller once expressed his willingness 'to buy the Shah as he stood in this dress for four millions'"; -which reminds me of Lever's corner-boy, who. said of a gorgeously-uni-formed Hussar officer, "Begor, I'd like to pawn him !" — Raising the Wind. — So superb a personage as the Shah needs financing, and his subjects are bled to pay they interest on Russian loans. When the Shadow of God is short of petty cash he summons all his suite, walks with them into a bazaar, singles out the richest shop, and proposes to its delighted owner to go into temporary partnership with him. The owner may well be delighted, for the .Shadow of God sets up an auction, relying securely upon the loyalty of his suite to run up everything to a hundred times its value. "A thing which is worth a shilling may be^sqld for. £20, since his -courtiers, to curry favour with him, run up the price extravagantly, and have to -pay for it, besides, cash down, for, as the Persian proverb says, 'A box on the car in cash is better than the promise of sweetmeats. 1 When everything is sold, the Shah mokes up the accounts with his temporary partner, who is delighted at such a. windfall." I— A Persian Nabr. _h. — "The starved cat is all fleas," says I Spanish proverb, and poor Persia has" no! only this big flea, the Shah, upon its back, but Smaller fleas that on it pray, And these have smaller still to bite 'em, And so proceed ad infinituxn. The governor of a southern province coveted the garden of a Persian Naboth, who, however, like the great Frederick's famous miller of Sans-Souci, declined to part with it. The governor flung Naboth into prison to bring him to reason, but the man having, suggests M. de Lorey, some obstinate Turkish blood in his veins, continued obdurate. 11 Driven to extremity, the" governor thought of another plan, and sent his servant*, to announce to the old man his freedom, and to advice him to bring hie thanks to the feet of his Highness. Accordingly be was driven to the talar, Where his Highness was trying upon starlings some guns sent to him from Europe. 'May the attention of his Highness growP cried t&e grateful peasant. 'May bir shadow never be less! A|td may thi blessings of God be spread . upon him ac numerous as the stars in the firmament! 1 With a smile the Prince dismissed him, and after many salaams the old man retired. He had only gone -& few pacet when the Prince shouldered his gun, fired, and killed the clod who was going bacl unmoved to his cube of mud." — Persian Punishments.— This old man was rather fortunate ia his death. He might have been crucified or walled up, like the unchaste nun "of tht Middle Ages. Still to-day in Persia they crucify occasionally, though the victim i» nailed to a wall instead of to a cvootv "At the gates of towns may be seen pillars of brick with domed tops about the height of a man, in -which victims are walled up. They may be hewrd calling for water, though generally the pillars are supposed to bay« their bollowo filled n»

E earth, so that victims cannot move die quickly. Another punishment is jry a man up to hie neck in wet slime, Which, when it dries, contracts and fTtdnaJly crushes him — the most terrible of Ui deaths." | " There waa a crowd in front of a '_ butcher's stall as we passed it. To my bmaxement I saw that a man wa*> hooked »y him Iftl lik* % sheep. Th* Mirza ex-

plained to me that he had sold putrid meat, and that this ■« as the ordinary punishment for the offenc-e. In case of very grave oiienccs butchers have been tometimes cut up like carcases, right down the middle. During the last famine, the Mirza told me, the bakers had been baying up the corn to force up the price. The governor of the town came in a fury with his ferrashes to the Bakers' Bazaar,

and, seeing all the stalls empty, he asked the first baker he met why he had no bread out. 'We have nothing to put in the ovens, your Excellency.' 'By the Shah's salt !' cried the, governor, turning to his ferrashea,. 'put.Jiim int,p tlie*oyen^ and we shall' see P On : the following day 1 all the shops were full of hread." If President Roosevelt could but transport Ihe trusts to Persia! Indeed, everyone in Persia must *' walk delicately," like' Agag. Another governor had some criminals bastinadoed whose crime ' was " walking in the bazaars without treading the backs of their slippers ' under their heels."

— Taming of the Shrew. —

To take the taste of these gruesome Persian horrors out of my' readers' mouth I shall quote from M. de Lorey the following pleasant story. , Ali-!Khan, a wealthy Ispahan merchant, was so charmed with one of his dependants, 'AbdOullah, that he gave him his daughter in marriage. Now, the. lady, was a notorious shrew, so notorious that "Abd-Oullah's friend, Housseiri, who was no less unfortunate in his own wife, was quite ironical in his congratulations. To his amazement, however, Houssein found that his congratulations were taken in good part, and that Abd-Oullah really was happy in bis marriage. ' " How on earth did you manage it?" he asked. "The simplest way m the world, my dear fellow. On the night of my marriage I went int«» my bride's apartments in uniform with my ©word on. She did not take the least notice of me, but, putting on a supercilious air, made a parade of stroking her cat. I quietly picked up the cat and cut off his head with my sword, and, taking the head in one hand and the body in the other, I threw them out of the window. My bride was amazed, but she did not show it ; and after a few seconds she broke into a smile, and " ever sinoe she has been the most submissive and charming of wives." Houssein went straight home, and at night time put on. his uniform, went" into the harem, and, seizing the favourite cat of his wife, drew his sword and decapitated it with a stroke.Whereupon* his wife flew at him, scratched his face, tore out his hair, and pummelled him till he was black and blue. " Ha ! ha ! " she cried/ •" you learned that trick from Abd-Oullah. But you're too late. It was on the first night you ought to have done this !"