1834.] Georgia, Persia, and Mesopotamia. 583 



their women. Indeed, the feelings which they have towards them is 

 well expressed in the word " Zaifah," which we should translate into 

 frailty, or weakness. Shakspeare's celehrated apothegm in Hamlet, 

 " Frailty, thy name is woman," is highly characteristic of the Persian 

 ladies. 



Before finally quitting Tabriz, I may observe, that during the time 

 of my stay, the weather was in general temperate. The thermometer 

 in the shade ranged from 41° to 51°. The air was kept so constantly 

 loaded with moisture by the melting of the snow, that Leslie's hygro- 

 meter never sunk below 50° in the shade ; but when exposed tu the sun, 

 it sometimes rose to 95°. The sky was for the most part clear, and 

 the air both keen and bracing. 



We quitted Tabriz on the 31st of March, at the hour when the 

 once-worshipped god of the Persians was lifting his glorious forehead 

 over the heights of the city, and from every mosque the Mussulmans' 

 loud voice called on all true-believers to rise to their orisons. Our first 

 stage was made to the village of Khosru-Sha'h, distant about four far - 

 sangs, or sixteen miles, and seated in the fertile and lovely valley of 

 Uz-Koh. On our route we passed the village of Sardery, which pre- 

 sents itself from an eminence, and occupies the base of a hill, upon 

 the summit of which are the ruins of a fort. From this spot I took 

 some geographical bearings. The city we had left, and the over-hang- 

 ing mountains were on our right, while the peninsula of Shahi was 

 on the left. The bed of the salt stream which we crossed previous to our 

 arrival at Tabriz pursued its tranquil course through the plain, from the 

 gorge of the mountains, whence it escapes, to the head of the lake Ou- 

 rumia, where it discharges itself, and is lost altogether. The disposi- 

 tion of the surrounding plain would lead to the idea, that the lake once 

 extended over it, and such is the delusive effect of the mirage, which 

 plays over its saline surface, that it is very difficult to believe what one 

 sees is vapour and not water. This optical deception has been noticed 

 from the remotest times. It is alluded to by the prophet Isaiah, when 

 he says, " And the parched ground shall become a pool." (Chap. xxxv. 

 v. 2.) And again, " I will make the wilderness a pool of water." (Chap, 

 xli. v. 18.) Quintus Curtius, in describing Alexander's march 

 through the Sogdian desert, says, that " the plains wore the appearance 

 of a vast and deep sea," (Quin. Cur. lib. vii. chap. 5,) which is a true 

 and perfect description of the mirage of the Persian and Arabian de- 

 serts. Bishop Lowth has rendered what we read " parched ground," 

 in our Bibles, into " glowing sand," (Isaiah, xxxvth chap. 7th verse,) 

 which is highly expressive of this illusive appearance. — (Lowth's 

 Isaiah, chap. ix. page 88.) 



