004 llajji Daba in KnglahJ. 



likely have rejected, he accepts with joy/' What they want in excellence, 

 too, is " made up in fine sounding titles." " One covered with marks, 

 foreboding ill luck, was called Khodabaksh, or the Godsend. Another, 

 white with age, was the Pearl. A third, who would never permit its 

 ears, to, be touched, was known by the sportive name of Sermcst, or the 

 Drunkard. Besides which, there was a Hawk, a Hero, and a Bosom- 

 friend, all names descriptive of the qualities of the animal." It had 

 been in contemplation " to add an elephant to the horses (seeing that 

 its daily consumption of food was very inconvenient to the shah's 

 treasury) ; but, the ambassador having remarked that it would be 

 difficult to transport it on shipboard, this part of the plan was omitted.'* 

 Two letters are composed with much care from the shah, and banou of 

 Persia, to the king and queen of England. And a discussion, almost 

 fatal to the embassy, arises between the English ambassador and the 

 Persian minister, as to " what part of the letter the royal seal shall be 

 placed upon :" the position being a mark of greater or less respect to 

 Persians. At length, by a happy invention, it is agreed that the seal 

 ff shall be sent on a separate piece of paper, loose in the letter in order 

 that each party may be able to swear that it was intended for any part 

 he may deem most convenient:" and, " with a warning to learn all the 

 languages of Frangistan, to express no surprise at any thing which 

 they may hear or see, and to do every thing in England for the shah's 

 honour, that his face may be white in the eyes of the infidels ;" the 

 mission, accompanied by a young Englishman, who is to act as inter-* 

 preter, quits Ispahan on, its way to St. James's. 



The chief ambassador from Persia, Mirza Firouz, is by no means 

 devoted to the task assigned him. In fact, he receives the honour at the 

 suggestion of a vizier, who is jealous of his favour with the sultan, and 

 thinks it advisable to get him out of the way. Hajji Baba, whose 

 fortune it is to be protected by the jealous vizier, (and who goes "tor 

 England as secretary of the embassy") therefore stands in no great 

 odour in the nostrils of his superior officer ; and the latter, at starting, 

 expresses his feelings on the affair generally and, particularly, as Hajji's 

 patron is concerned in the following soliloquy : 



c< ' I have done the needful to his father's grave ; I will neither spare his 

 wife nor his sisters. May an old ass make love to his mother ! By tn bless- 

 ing of the Prophet, a hundred dogs, one after another, will make a corner- 

 stone of his beard, and every day bring their friends to follow their examples ! 

 Oh, thou old flint-heart ! thou whose stone never sweats ! Inshallah 1 please 

 Allah ! whatever curse was ever conceived, or whatever misfortune was ever 

 known to befall, may they all alight on thy head at once !' Then, turning 

 round to me, he exclaimed, 'Hajji! by my soul, and by your own death! 

 you who know the world, who have eaten the dirt both of Turk and Turcor 

 man, how is it possible that you would consent to eat that of an old niggard?' 

 Then looking straight forwards, and talking aloud as he rode at the head of 

 the party, l Well, and now I am an elchi ! and to whom ? to the Kranks to 

 the king of the Franks ! May they and their fathers' graves be eternally 

 defiled ! And I am, forsooth, to leave my family, my child, my country, to 

 go wandering into unknown regions, amongst beardless infidels, all because this 

 old, ill-begotten vizier chooses to think that the shah was beginning to be too 

 mindful of me !' " 



The inferior persons of the embassy, as well as their chief; are a good 

 deal at a loss Avhat to think of a journey to Europe :-r-_. 



