Cif AR #A-CoT ERS, 
olds, fluxes, and fevers being very 
general. In winter, a vaft deal of 
inow falls, and very thick, but ice 
is rarely to be found, except on the 
fummits of the mountains, or to- 
wards Ifpahan, and the more nor- 
thern parts of Perfia. One thing, 
which is moft to be efteemed in this 
country, and renders it preferable 
to any other part of the world, is 
their nights, which are always clear 
and bright ; and the dew, that in 
moft places is of fo pesnicious and 
dangerous a nature, is not of the 
leaft ill confequence here: there is 
none at all in fummer, and in the 
other feafons it is of fuch a nature, 
that if the brighte% f{cimitar fhould 
be expofed to it all the night, it 
would not receive the leaft ruft; 
a circumftance I have myfelf expe- 
rienced. This drynefs in the air 
caufes their buildings to laft a great 
while, and is undoubtedly one of 
the principal reafons that the cele- 
brated ruins of Perfepolis have en- 
dured for fo many ages, and com- 
paratively fpeaking, in fo perfe& a 
ilate; that place being fituated in 
much fuch another valley as Shi- 
rauz, and but twodays journey from 
thence. The nights in Perfia, and 
more particularly in the fouthern 
parts of it, are moft excellently 
adapted for the fcience of aftronomy, 
being of extraordinary brightnefs, 
and far preferable in that point to 
what I have obferved in any coun- 
try in which it has been my fortune 
to refide. 
In attempting to fay any thing 
of the charatter of the Perfians, I 
am fenfible of the difficulty of the 
undertaking, from my being fo 
fhort a time amongft them. An 
acquaintance with the real charaéter 
-ot a people, is only capable of being 
attained by a very long refidence; 
4t 
yet as, during my ftay in Perfia, 
from the fituation I was placed in, 
by living in a native family, I had 
an opportunity of feeing more of 
the nature and difpofition of the 
middliag fort of people, and their 
manners and cuftoms, than perhaps 
has falien to the lot of moft tra- 
vellers, I am induced to give the 
few obfervations I made during 
that -perrod. The Perfians, with 
refpect to outward behaviour, are 
certainly the Parifians of the Eaft. 
Whilft a rude and infolent de- 
meanour peculiarly marks the cha- 
ractet of the Turkith nation to- 
wards foreigners and Chriftians, . 
the behaviour of the Perfians would, 
on the contrary, do honour to the 
moft civilized nations: they~ are 
kind, courteous, civil and obliging: 
to all ftrangers, without being 
guided by thofe religious prejudices 
fo very prevalent in every other 
Mahomedan nation; they are fond 
of enquiring after the manners and 
cuftoms of Europe; and, in return, 
very readily afford any information 
in refpeét to their own country. 
The praétice of hofpitality is with 
them fo grand a point, that a man 
thinks himfelf highly honoured, if 
you will enter his: houfe and par- 
take of what the family affords; 
whereas, going out of a honfe, with- 
out fmoking a Calean, or taking 
any other refrefhment, is deemed, in 
Perfia, a high affront ; they fay that 
every meal a ftranger partakes with 
them, brings a blefling upon the 
houfe: to account for this, we mutt 
underftand it as a pledge of faith 
and protection, when we confider 
that the continual wars in which 
this country has been involved, 
with very little ceffation, fince the 
extin¢étion of the Seti family, have 
greatly tended to an univerfal de- 
ravity 
