TEHERAN. 
207 
superior on the Norooz. These, indeed, were far from conforming to 
the custom of displaying their holiday clothes, and whether through 
policy or through want, bore on their dress all the marks of poverty 
and misery. 
On the 24th, the Envoy was invited to an entertainment, which the 
King gave. We proceeded to the palace, and having gone through 
the great gate, leading into the Ark, or more immediate residence of 
the King, we dismounted at the gate whlbh opens into the Maidan 
and the first great court of the palace. Opposite to this gate is 
another; in an open room at the summit of which, the King was 
seated. We walked across the court, and were led through many 
passages, and ascended many intricate flights of steps, until we 
reached the roof of the buildings on the right of the Shah. Over this 
roof, which in many places was of difficult access, we scrambled, until 
we came to a little tent prepared for us, which was pitched on the 
summit of a door-way, close to the King's room. 
The court, in which the different exhibitions were to take place, 
appeared to us to be near two hundred feet square. On each side of 
the great gate were sixteen arched compartments, each of which 
opened into a small room. In the centre was a high pole, with a truck 
at the top, and small projections for the convenience of ascending it. 
This pole is for the purpose of horse exercises, and shooting at the 
mark. Close under the room in which the Shah was seated, was a 
basin of water, on the other side of which were erected the poles and 
ropes of a rope-dancer. In a circle round these, were fire-works placed 
in various forms and quantities. Four figures of paper and linen 
dressed like Europeans were erected on high, and surrounded with 
fire-works. At a distance were elephants of paper, stuck all over 
with rockets; on all the walls were rockets ; and, in short, fire-works 
were placed in every direction. Opposite to the Shah in two lines 
were the new raised troops, with drummers standi-ng in a row at the 
furthermost extremity. In the centre of these was the Nasakchee 
Bashee, x who appeared as the director of the entertainment. He had 
