By the Way 159 



of dignity. 1 The " Glory," however, was de- 

 terred by no such considerations. He even went 

 further, and took off his long pleated Persian coat 

 to play, thereby making himself perilously like 

 a Faranghi, whose costume, as every Persian 

 thinks, verges on the indecent. 



Tennis-players used to green English lawns 

 would have been amused at the games played 

 in a rough and dusty courtyard, surrounded by 

 an outwardly admiring, but inwardly scandal- 

 ised, crowd of black -coated retainers. The loud 

 applause that greeted each good stroke of the 

 governor's ! the even more eloquent silence that 

 followed each good shot of his opponent ! the 

 lies they told about the balls that went out of 

 court ! The latter is but natural. A Persian 

 proverb runs "If by day the king should say, 

 'It is night,' you should rejoin, 'Behold the 

 moon and Pleiades." 1 Should "a king" hit a 

 tennis-ball out of court, I feel sure the correct 



1 The Islamic doctrine is that for a man all amusements are 

 vain except three the breaking in of his horse, the drawing of 

 his bow, and playing and amusing himself with his wives. This 

 is, however, considered out of date. Persians the men at least 

 play no outdoor games, but are fond of chess and cards, the 

 time for playing which is the fast of Kamazan, when they sleep 

 all day and wake all night. It is whispered that at these card- 

 parties the freedom of language and behaviour indulged in by 

 even the highest in the land would surprise those used only to 

 Persian "company manners." 



