MODERN PERSIA AND ITS CAPITAL 



383 



Photograph from Faye Fisher 



THE SHAH OF PERSIANS MAGNIFICENT ALABASTER THRONE 



From this famous dais Persia's ruler holds his New Year's reception (which takes place 

 in March). The ministers of all the countries having diplomatic relations with Persia are 

 present on this occasion, wearing their court costumes, and it is a brilliant assemblage. The 

 Shah sits in a jeweled armchair on the throne and the court poet (in his official regalia, 

 which consists of a long coat of beautiful cashmere) reads his greetings. The Shah's band 

 plays throughout the celebration. 



delicacy throughout the country when 

 prepared in the form of a Persian pilau, 

 but it is second in importance to bread as 

 a staple article of diet. 



Bread is prepared in a number of ways, 

 but the most approved variety in Teheran 

 must be baked in the large ovens of the 

 public bakeries. The dough is spread on 

 huge mounds of red-hot pebbles, comes 

 out deliciously crisp, in thin sheets thirty 

 inches long, and is displayed on sloping 

 counters at the street entrances to the 

 shops (see illustrations, pages 449-450). 



The method of government price con- 

 trol of this important factor in the cost 

 of living is gruesomely effective when put 

 into operation. The path of the profiteer- 

 ing baker is precarious, for he is some- 

 times thrust into his own oven and nicely 

 browned. 



The evidence of one's eyes might not 

 rate the public bath in Persia as an im- 

 portant institution, but it is indispensa- 

 ble : for by religious law it is encumbent 

 upon the devout Moslem to bathe at least 



once in ten days. The fact that in the 

 cheaper baths there is a common pool the 

 water of which remains unchanged for 

 months at a time would seem to militate 

 against the sanitary value of the per- 

 formance, but the high temperature to 

 which the water is raised no doubt has a 

 more or less valuable sterilizing effect. 



The street entrances to the baths are 

 entertainingly marked by lines of vari- 

 colored bath-cloths, groups of semi-nude 

 attendants, and mural paintings resem- 

 bling in spirit and color the comic section 

 illustrations of American Sunday news- 

 papers. The fuel employed in heating 

 the baths — dung collected from the streets 

 and dried in cakes — is but one example of 

 the many ingenious economies practiced 

 by the resourceful Persians. 



rin: TEA-HOUSE is Tin-: Persian club 



The tea-house is the democratic Per- 

 sian's political and social club, a splendid 

 institution for which we have no ade- 

 quate equivalent in America. It is every- 



