semi-domes, again spring other smaller semi-domes, and so on. There is a large fire- 

 place (with a chimney) and a mantle-shelf, both made out of white cement. The 

 doors are numerous i ; they have a great deal of glass in them, and are usually secured 

 by a chain and staple. The floors are paved with flat, square, bricks, each set of rooms 

 having a plinth. The floor of one or two of the rooms is generally raised as much as 

 two or three feet above the courtyard. One end of a room is frequently made into a 

 platform about the height of a chair. This is called a tambal-khana , which may be 

 translated ' lolling place.' It is carpeted with felt, and furnished with pillows or 

 cushions. The whole of the floor, too, is covered with a thick brown felt, and for furni- 

 ture there are a few carpets. In the walls are arched niches, which are used as 

 shelves. There are also two narrow ledges, called raff, that run round the room, one 

 low and one high ; these are used as shelves for small articles. Everything inside 

 a room must be symmetrical : if there is a carpet of a certain size and pattern 2 in one 

 corner, it must be balanced by its exact counterpart in a corresponding corner. A 

 clock, or an oleograph of the Shah on one side of the mantlepiece, must be balanced 

 by a precisely similar clock or oleograph on the other. To have a portrait of a king 

 on one side, and of a queen on the other, would, to a Persian eye, be upsetting. 



The courtyards are paved with flat bricks. If there is no tank with fountain, 

 there is usually a flower bed. Probably there is a cypress tree, or two, and a wild rose, 

 and perhaps a Judas tree. 



The kitchen fireplaces (ujaq), which are numerous, are made of brick, and are 

 often ornamented. They are nearer to an English kitchen range in pattern than to an 

 Indian chula. Even in the houses of the poor, the fireplace admits of cooking being 

 carried out in an erect position. 



The rooms and the courtyards are kept spotlessly clean. The water in the 

 tank may be green and foul, and, though not used for drinking purposes, tea cups may 

 be washed in it. If the water is sufficiently pure, there are usually some gold and 

 silver fish in the tank. 



Many houses have a Turkish bath attached. 



The talar is a verandah, or rather a living room ; it has pillars on one side, no 

 doors, and looks on to the open-air courtyard : it is in fact a living room permanently 

 open on one side. 



The openrair or summer stable has mangers let into the wall at regular inter- 

 vals. 



In suitable places outside the outer wall, and also in the open-air stable, there 

 are basin-like depressions in the walls with a stout stick let in across them : these are 

 for tethering animals. 



The word shikasta in " si-dari-yi shikasta ' ' means that either a corner has been 

 partitioned off, or that one of the walls is not continuous, being perhaps " broken " 

 for an entrance to a flight of steps. 



D. C. Phiixott. 



1 One room the writer used had thirteen glass doors. 2 Carpets are always woven in pairs, except by the tent-folk. 



