Vlll 
PREFACE. 
changes of Government and of Religion, are still the same: they are 
living impressions from an original mould ; and at every step some 
object, some idiom, some dress, or some custom of common life reminds 
the traveller of antient times, and confirms, above all, the beauty, the 
accuracy, and the propriety of the language and the history of the 
Bible. There is perhaps no part of the East to which these observ¬ 
ations might not apply; for whatever differences of creed, of govern¬ 
ment, or of language may exist between them, there is still no line of 
separation between any two Eastern nations so strong, as that which is 
drawn between Europeans and Asiatics. 
The length of my absence from this country, during which my ear 
was more accustomed to other languages than to English, may in some 
measure apologize for some foreign idioms which will perhaps be de¬ 
tected in the style of my narrative, and which would have been still 
more numerous, if they had not been corrected by my friends. 
To Mr. Inglis, the editor of my last volume, my obligations have 
greatly increased, by the assistance which he has rendered me in 
the publication of this; and I shall ever feel grateful for the help and 
advice which I have received from the very Reverend Dr. Ireland, the 
Dean of Westminster. 
I am also indebted to Sir Gore Ouseley, Bart. K. L. S., late His 
Majesty’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary in 
Persia, for his communications; and, in general, to all my com¬ 
panions in Persia, particularly to Captain Monteith, of the Madras 
Engineers, and to Mr. Bruce, the East India Company’s Resident at 
Bush ire. 
