866 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



t 



superior, who must give the bearers the 

 value of the offering in coin of tlie 

 realm. Europeans, on their arrival in 

 the country, are often victimized in this 

 way. x\ dish of apples, a melon, or per- 

 haps a few limes will be presented to a 

 feringJii (foreigner) with great cere- 

 mony, the worthless present placed on a 

 beautifully chased metal tray covered 

 with a magnificently embroidered cloth ! 



The servants purchase everything 

 needed for the household in the bazaars, 

 an honest domestic taking a lo per cent 

 commission on all he buys, and they col- 

 lect the gossip of the town with which 

 to amuse their masters. Servants burst 

 into the conversation of their betters at 

 any moment, and, though in some ways 

 they may like the service of a European, 

 \vith its fixed money wage, yet they con- 

 stantly feel "left out of it" as they hear 

 the unknown language of their em- 

 ployers. 



Curiously enough, the slave has in 

 many ways a most enviable position in 

 Persia. He has cost much money ; there- 

 fore he is given the best of food and 

 clothing and is never forced to do hard 

 work. Having no family of his own, he 

 is supposed to center all his interests in 

 that of his master, and the latter will 

 often leave him in charge of his children 

 and his valuables. A slave frequently 

 amasses a fortune if he is in the service 

 of a highly placed official, for all visitors 

 will bribe him in order that he may curry 

 favor for them with his master ; but he 

 seldom wishes to purchase his freedom. 



SUPI^RSTITION A ]?UNDAMJ:nTAL 

 CHARACTKRISTIC 



From this article it will be judged that 

 Persia is neither an enlightened nor pro- 

 gressive country; but only those who 

 have lived there can understand the state 

 of superstition in which the people live. 

 Soothsayers and dervishes are consulted 

 on every occasion, no business or jour- 

 ney being undertaken, no doctor sum- 

 moned, or even medicine drunk unless 

 the omens are ascertained to be propi- 

 tious. 



Ghouls, demons, jiuiis, and afrits 

 haunt all ruins and lonely places. The 

 former disagreeable visitants are so act- 

 ive at night that no Per-sian will sleep 

 alone, and many a well-to-do man hires 

 a priest to share his room and keep off 

 these powers of darkness. The jinn is 

 usually invisible, and on account of this 

 no one would dare to fling hot water 

 away with a splash or even throw stones, 

 lest a jiim lurking near should be injured 

 and wreak vengeance on its imconscious 

 aggressors. 



From the highest to the lowest there is 

 a firm belief in the ''evil eye". A pros- 

 perous Persian woman will dress her 

 baby boy on his rare outings in common 

 clothing, because, if some passer-by, at- 

 tracted by fine attire, were to admire the 

 child's beauty without adding the saving 

 expression Mashallah (God is great), 

 illness or accident would be sure to 

 follow. 



Blue is the color to avert the "evil 

 eye", and all who can afford it wear a 

 turquoise, the poor and animals being 

 obliged to put up with blue glass beads. 



Medicine must also be classed among 

 the category of superstitions. A man in 

 a burning fever will be laid in the ice- 

 cold water of the channel that flows 

 through the garden, because he is suffer- 

 ing from hell fire ; the jinns are supposed 

 to be beating a man in a fit of epilepsy ; 

 ground-up rubies and pearls are given to 

 the rich as powerful tonics, and pow- 

 dered glass is actually used to allay the 

 inflammation in sore eyes ! Witchcraft 

 is suspected to be the cause of many an 

 ailment, and there are countless recipes 

 for foiling the exponents of the black art. 



But in the limits of a short article it 

 is difficult to do more than give a mere 

 glance at Persia and its people. The 

 writer, however, hopes that what she has 

 written may interest people in a country 

 that has had such a long and often glori- 

 ous history and that is even now engaged 

 in the difficult experiment of changing 

 an old-world autocracy into a constitu- 

 tional government. 



Kh oda h aiiz-i-slinma — Good-bye. 



