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Chap. IT. of MortfîëiîFT averniel 203 



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going himfelf in perfon to Mefhed in Pilgrimage to the Tomb of Iman-rez. al- J% / / t 

 ready fpoken of, over which one of the Legs of Mahomet s Camel hangs as ai // .J.J\. f 

 a great Relict j and upon his return relating and giving out ftrange Miracles -~ 

 of Jman-rez. t on purpofe to divert his Subjects from going to Mecca. 



Among the reft of the cunning knacks that Sha- Abbas made tife of, to know 

 how fquares Went in his Kingdom, without trufting too much to his Minifters, 

 he oft'n difguis'd himfelf, and went about the City like an ordinary inhabi- 

 tant, under pretence of buying and felling, making it his bufinefs to dil'cover 

 whether Merchants us'd falfe weights or meafures or no. To this intent one evening 

 going out of his Palacein the habit of a Countryman, he went to a Bakers to buy a 

 Man of Bread, and thence to a Cook to buy a Man of Roft-meat, ( a Man 

 is fix Pound, fixteen Ounces to the Pound ). The King having bought his Bar- 

 gains return'd to Court, where he caus'd the Athemadottlet to weigh both 

 the Bread and the Meat exactly. He found the Bread to want lifty-fèven 

 Drams, and the Meat forty-three. The King feeing that, fell into a great chafe 

 againft three or four of them that were about him, whofe bufinefs k Was to 

 look after thof things ; but efpecially againft the Governour of the City, whofe 

 Belly he had caus'd to have been ript up, but for the interceffion of certain' 

 Lords. Befldes the reproaches that he threw upon them for being, fo 

 negligent in their Employments -, and for their little affection to the pubfiek 

 good, he laid before them the injuftice of falfe weights j and how fadly the 

 cheat fell upon poor men, who having great Families, and thinking, to give 

 them eight hundred Drams of Bread, by that fraud depriv'd them of a hun- 

 dred and forty three. Then turning to the Lords that were prefent, he de- 

 manded of them, what fort of juftice ought to be done thofe people ? When 

 none of them daring to open their mouths, while he was in that paffion, he com- 

 manded a great Oven to be made in the Piaz.z.a, together with a Spit long 

 enough to roaft a man; and that the Oven mould be heated all night, and 1 

 that they fhould make another fire to be kindl'd hard by the Oven. The next 

 morning the King caus'd the Baker and the Cook to be apprehended, and to 

 be led quite thorough the City, with two men going before them, who cry'd 1 

 to the people, We are going to put the Baker into a red hot Oven made in 

 the PJaz.z.a, where he is- to be bak'd alive, for having utter'd Bread by falfe 

 weights j and the Cook is to be roafted alive, for having fold meat by falfe 

 weights. Thus tholè two men lerv'd for an example not only to Ifpahan, 

 but to all the Kingdom, where every one dreaded the fevere juftice of Sha* 

 Abbas, 



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CHAP. 



