SHIRAZ. 
119 
we had yet seen, and if it could have been transported to England, 
would probably have excited universal admiration, and a new taste in 
the interior decoration of rooms. Like almost all the public rooms or 
dewan khoneh of a Persian house, it was in shape a parallelogram, with 
a recess formed by a Saracenic arch, in the centre of the superior line 
of the figure. The ground of the wall was of a beautiful varnished 
white, and richly painted in gold in ornaments of the most neat and in¬ 
genious composition. The entablature, if it may be so called, was 
inlaid glass placed in angular and prismatic positions, which reflected 
a variety of beautiful lights and colours. The ceiling was all of the 
same composition. In the arched recess was a chimney piece formed 
in front by alternate layers of glass and painting. The whole side 
fronting the arch was composed of windows, the frames of which opened 
from the ground ; and, though of clumsy workmanship compared with 
frames in England, yet aided by the richness of the painted glass inter¬ 
mixed with the gilding of the wood-work, they filled up the space splen¬ 
didly and symmetrically. 
This fete corresponded in all it parts with the others that I have 
described; except that there was a greater variety of entertainments. 
Besides the rope-dancer, water-spouter, dancing boys, and fire-eater, we 
had an exhibition of wrestlers, a combat of rams, and a sanguinary 
scene of a lion killing an ox. The wrestling was opened by two dwarfs, 
about three feet and a half in height: one with a beard descending 
to his girdle, with deformed arms and hands, but with strong and mus¬ 
cular legs. The other, with bad legs, but with regular and well shaped 
arms. Both had the appearance of those animals represented in my¬ 
thological pictures as satyrs, or perhaps of the Asmodeus of Le Sage. 
The figure with the beard was the victor, and fairly tossed his antago¬ 
nist into an adjoining basin of water. The professional wrestlers suc¬ 
ceeded ; the hero of whom threw and discomfited eight others, in most 
rapid succession. In this the combat of rams resembled that of the 
wrestlers : one bold and superb ram, belonging to the Prince, remained 
the undisputed master of the field, for although a great number of his 
