294 Journal of the Astatic Society of Bengal. [August, 1909. 
leaders of the army, the administrators of the kingdom, and 
the chief artisans should be cut in the face of the rock at 
Persepolis. The length of the reign of Amir Istakhruj was 
400 years, and on his death Amir Alhang, his eldest son, came 
to the throne. The Wazir, however, survived the death of his 
master by about two years. Amir ang turned out to be 
a worthless and incompetent ruler, and not long after the 
death of the Wazir, his kingdom was utterly destroyed and the 
rule of the demons came to an end. 
Vil. 
BELIEF THAT THE FIGURES AT PERSEPOLIS ARE CHARMS 
BY WHICH THE SPIRITS OF DISEASE, ETC., ARE 
HELD IN Bonn. 
s 
Many of the villagers of the plain of Mervdasht say that 
the Takht, or platform, did not belong to Jamshid, but to 
King Solomon. According to them the figures of beasts 
engraved on the stones of the buildings are plagues and dis- 
ase i 
cholera, the tiger that of plague, etc., etc. It is said that cer- 
tain of these charms have been broken by Europeans, with a 
result that disease and sickness have become more rife in Fars 
than in former days. 
2. 
Viti. 
BELIEF THAT THE StoNE FIGURES AT PERSEPOLIS WERE 
BEINGS OVER WHOM A SPELL WAS CAST. 
The people of the neighbourhood of Persepolis relate that 
at one time the country of Persia was in the hands of Jins. 
