126 KERMANSHAH TO TEHERAN. 



way to see them. I was asked if I did not find 

 them — the streets — the worst I had ever seen, but 

 felt obhged to reply that between streets of the 

 unredeemed Orient I found it difficult to discrim- 

 inate. It is sufficiently obvious that no great degree 

 of cleanliness can be postulated for any street that, 

 in addition to its own duties, has to fulfil the office 

 of main sewer ! And in no part of Persia that I 

 have visited have I found any indication that the 

 Dea Cloacina finds any place in the national 

 hierarchy. 



The tombs of the Jewish queen and her uncle 

 are in a small building close to the Musjid-i-Jama. 

 Entering by a low stone door about four feet high, 

 one finds oneself in an ante - chamber, from which 

 a still smaller door, through which one can just 

 squeeze, gives access to the sacred chamber. Here 

 in the centre, beneath a domed roof, stand two 

 sarcophagi, each made in three parts, one standing 

 on the top of the other, of some dark hardwood, 

 carved all over with inscriptions in Hebrew. In 

 each case the top and smaller part seem to have 

 been removed at the time of the Afghan invasion, 

 and restored at a later date. I have seen it written 

 that the remains of the deceased repose in these 

 sarcophagi, but this is incorrect, and the informa- 

 tion of the Jewish custodian, to the effect that they 

 were never placed in them, is corroborated by the 

 epitaph on that of Mordecai : " Those whose bodies 

 are now beneath in this earth, when animated by 

 Thy mercy, were great." The italics are mine. 

 Beneath the floor of the chamber is a vault, and 

 it is beneath this vault that the corpses are sup- 

 posed to lie. I was further informed that a lamp 

 was kept continually burning. Being an inquisitive 



