By the Way 1 5 1 



mitted to in Persia is trying to the normal 

 mufti-loving Briton. An arrival in any provincial 

 capital is a specially troublous time. There is 

 to start with the istagbal or official welcome. A 

 mile or two outside the town two tents are 

 pitched, in one of which you change into uni- 

 form, in the other are met by the reception 

 party who then and there entertain you to tea 

 and sweetmeats. The expressions of politeness 

 decreed by custom are interchanged, and though 

 in the fulfilment of this duty the plain English- 

 man is unlikely to stray into flights of fancy, it 

 is as well to remember that attempts at origin- 

 ality are not likely to be rewarded in the way 

 they deserve. 1 This over, the whole party pro- 

 ceeds in solemn state into the town, where it 

 is for you to give precisely the same class of 

 entertainment. The " bloods " of the place look 

 on these processions as opportunities of showing 



1 " A chair pushed one inch or two forward or backward so as 

 to trangress the border of a particular carpet marked for its 

 limit, may cause serious offence ; a cup of tea or a tobacco-pipe 

 missing from the conventional number offered to a guest, may 

 awake hostile feelings ; there may be hidden meaning in a mis- 

 applied word of welcome or farewell, in a clumsy gesture, in a 

 new-fashioned article of wearing apparel. Trifles could hardly 

 go further in the way of puerility ; but it is a part of common- 

 sense diplomacy to acknowledge with gravity things which to 

 all seeming are most opposed to common-sense." Morier's ' Second 

 Journey through Persia.' 



