134 TEHERAN. 



ordinary a collection of objects, ranging from jewellery 

 and china of enormous value to oleographs, tooth- 

 brushes, and toys ! The greater number of objects of 

 real value have been removed to the inner chambers 

 of the palace, which are, of course, sacred from the 

 stranger's gaze; but the so-called peacock throne, 

 which has been so ruthlessly torn from its high estate 

 by the practical author of ' Persia,' stands at one end 

 of the great hall, which is a perfect museum for a 

 heterogeneous collection of the products of the West. 

 Its appearance is perhaps rather barbaric than beautiful, 

 the great mass of badly cut gems, indifferently set in 

 plated gold, giving a somewhat garish effect. A picture- 

 gallery is situated in another part of the palace, which 

 is as replete with eccentricities as it is with pictures. 

 Side by side with really excellent oil - paintings I 

 observed an advertisement of Brook's cotton, while 

 a little farther along were two cards covered with 

 samples of fish-hooks, and yet again was to be seen a 

 Madonna rubbing shoulders with doubtful illustrations 

 from a French comic paper ! There was one landscape 

 which puzzled me for a long time, until it at length 

 dawned upon me that it was hung upside-down ! The 

 picture itself was perhaps responsible for this slight 

 error, and I admit that I have seen daubs to which 

 such a mishap might excusably occur in other countries 

 besides Persia, though it is not usual to hang them in 

 the courts of royalty or the palaces of kings. 



If, as I have already suggested, the month of 

 Moharrem is a quiet one at the Persian capital, it is 

 nevertheless one which affords the stranger an oppor- 

 tunity of witnessing a spectacle which he would look 

 for in vain in any other country or even here at any 

 other time of the year. For on the last of the ten 

 days during which the Persians mourn the death of 



