582 
of native princes covered, with citics, 
and towns, and fertility ; a country, 
which even its Grecian conquerors em- 
bellished with, the noblest. structures, 
and Roman. inyaders , adorned with 
bridges, agueducts, and castles. But 
of all these towns, villages, and struc- 
tures, the erections of so many different 
ages and generations of men, few remain 
of any kind that are not sunk ip ruin, or 
furrowed with decay. Where were 
once cilics, and hamlets, and cultivated 
ficlds, are now vast solitudes; without 
house, or hut, or tree, or blade of grass, 
for many, many miles. Indeed, so fre- 
quent are these monotonous tracts, 
dreary to the eye, and dismal to the 
heart, that the glimpse of a mouldering 
wall, round some long-abandoned village 
seen from afar ; or a distant view of the 
broken massive arches of a lonely cara- 
vansary, surrendered to the wild animals 
of the waste; beiug memorials that bu- 
man footsteps once were there, are 
sights of welcome to the cbeerless tra- 
veller, way-wearied by such unvaried 
seenes of desert-solilariness, Besides 
such really melancholy sources of the 
ennw Which so often accompanies the 
Muropean through these burning tracts, 
is the unchanging serenity of the sky. 
Day after day, nay, month after month 
passes, and not a film is seen on its daz- 
zling surface ; not a cloud, even light as 
the thinnest vapour, varies the towering 
summits of the mountains by its fleecy 
shroud, por tinges the vale beneath with 
its flitting shadow. In vain we look 
here for those sweet concealments of na- 
ture, Which at times hide her beauties in 
a veil; or those sublime mysteries, 
which give infinitude to grandeur, by the 
occasional darkness in which she enve- 
lopes it. At no season of the year, in 
this southern part of Persia, can we sce 
the storm gathering in the heavens ; nor 
the thirsty earth opening its bosom to re- 
ceive the milder shower, pouring abun- 
dance and beauty in its bland retresh- 
ment, In fact, I have not seen asingle 
drop of rain since the morning of my 
quitting Teheran; and ~ dew  secms 
equally interdicted, I have often 
thought, while panting through. this 
waveless sea, of shadeless jheat, that if 
those of my countrymen who indulge 
themselves in’ murmurs against. our 
cloudy, humid climate, were only to be 
transplanted ‘hither for one. summer- 
journey, they might find a parallel ex- 
ample to the unhappy lover of riches, 
who obtained the object of bis passion 
to so grievous ap extent, that whatever 
Sir R. Ker Porter's, Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, &e. 
he touched became gold ; for, wherever 
they, go-here, they would mect dryness, 
and cloudless, fervent sunshine, 
AGRICULTURE OF THE PRASANTRY- 
Trayelling onward, we found bands of 
peasants engaged in the, different rural 
occupations. of ihe season; some separ 
rating the graiu from the, straw, others 
cutting down the, corn that h d heen 
left. standing, Dut air aaa 8 husi- 
ness with a sickle so far unlike ours, as 
to be scareely bended in the blade, "Fhe 
threshing operation, is, managed by a 
maehine, composed of, a large square 
frame of wood, which contains two 
wooden cylinders placed parallel to each 
other, and which haye a turning motion. 
They are stuck full of spikes, with sharp 
square points, but not all of a Jength- 
These rollers haye the appearance of the 
barrels in an organ, and fheir projections, 
when brought in contact with the corn, 
break the stalk, and disengage the ear. 
They are put. in motion by,a couple of 
cows, or oxen, yoked to the frame, and 
guided by a man sitting on the plank 
that covers the frame which contains 
the cylinders. He drives this. agricul, 
tural equipage in a circle, round any 
great accumulation of just-gathered 
harvest, keeping at a certain distance 
from the verge of the heap; elose to 
which a second, peasant stands, holding 
a long-handled twenty-pronged. fork, 
shaped like the spread sticks of. a fan; 
and with which he throws the unheund 
sheaves forward to mect the rotary, mo- 
tion of the machine. He has a shoyel 
also ready, with which he removes to a 
considerable distance the corn that has 
already passed the wheel. Other men 
are on the spot, with the like implement, 
which they fill with the broken, mate- 
rial, and throw it aloft in the air, where 
the wind blows away the chaff, and the 
grain Jalls to the ground, ‘The latter 
process is repeated till the corn is com- 
pletely winnowed from its refuse, when 
it is gathered up, carried home, and de- 
posited for use in large earthen jars. 
The straw also is preserved with care, 
being the sole winter food of the horses 
and mules. But while I looked on, at 
this patriarchal style of husbandry, and 
at the strong yet docile animal which, 
for so many ages, had been the right 
hand of man.in his business of tilling and 
reaping the ground, I could not but re- 
vere, the beneficent Jaw, which pro- 
nounced, “ muzzle not the ox when he 
treads out the corn.” a 
HAMADAN, THE ANCIENT ECBATANA. 
I had not expected to see Eebatana as 
Alexander 
