TEHERAN TO TABRIZ. 
269 
Mehmandar for his firman , very gravely sat down and read it, then with 
a fine flow of compliments said, that every thing that he had was freely 
at our command; and that we must make his kitchen ours, and that, 
in short, he was our slave. In these countries the manners and facul¬ 
ties ripen long before those of Northern climates. An English boy 
in the same predicament would have run and hid himself in the 
stable. 
We were, however, rather annoyed by a great big fellow, a Ferosh of 
Prince Abbas Mirza, who pretended to much power in the place. 
In the firman which the Mehmandar carried from the King, one of the 
articles with which the village was required to provide him was the sum 
of three tomaims. These he was wont to receive as his own perqui¬ 
site; and this is one of the various modes by which the King pays his 
servants without the necessity of applying to his own treasures. But 
to this, in this instance, the Ferosh objected, swearing that there was no 
money in MiaunSh, and that none could be raised. The Mehmandar , 
on his side, talked of nothing but the King's Royal command, which 
must be obeyed before all things: to this again the Ferosh objected, 
and said that he would abide by nothing but an order from his own im¬ 
mediate superior, the Ferosh Bashee of Prince Abbas Mirza. The 
Mirza was at length obliged to interfere: the Ferosh , in fact, had been 
paid by the peasantry to guard them from the extortion of strangers, 
and like a faithful servant he was endeavouring to do all that he could 
in their favour. To complete the business however, the Mehmandar , 
on our arrival at the close of the day's journey, missed a pair of new 
green slippers, which loss he naturally charged to the dishonesty of his 
antagonist the Ferosh. 
Since there have been such great interests pending in the North of 
Persia with the Russians, the Government has established Chopper 
Khonth , or post-houses, from Tabriz to Teheran, to facilitate the trans¬ 
mission of news, so that a courier may traverse the distance easily in 
three days. A Ferosh has been placed by the Prince Governor of 
Aderbigian, in each of the villages within his territory, (in which these 
