48 
MEHMANDAR»S SEALS. 
found in Asia Minor; and it was the avowed intention of Darius to 
remove the Phoenicians to Ionia, and the lonians to Phoenicia.* 
In more modern history, Shah Abbas removed the Armenians of Julfa 
on the Araxes, to a new Julfa at Ispahan; and it is known that the 
great Arabian tribe that now occupies the country between Ardistan, 
Meshed, and Herat, was brought from Nejd by Shah Ismael. Nor 
are the cases of voluntary removal from one region to another by bar¬ 
barous or semi-barbarous tribes, at all less striking than those of people 
transplanted by conquest. 
The day we arrived at Khaumaridge our Mehmandar was thrown into 
great agitation from having missed his seals from his bosom, where 
they are always carried. In order to understand this, it must be 
explained, that the Persians, and indeed almost all Orientals, instead 
of signature by sign manual, use the impression of a seal on which is 
engraved their name. Amongst an intriguing and a malicious people 
it is so easy to turn the possession of a man’s seal to his disgrace, by 
making out false documents, that of course the Mehmandar was greatly 
concerned at the loss. Letters and papers being generally written by 
mirzas, or hired scribes, it is seldom that any clue can be obtained from 
the hand-writing, for it is the seal which makes the document valid or 
not. One of the King’s Ministers once very coolly wiped a seal from 
off a paper which he did not wish to acknowledge, and he then looked 
upon himself as secure. The Mehmandar dispatched one of his ser¬ 
vants back to our former stage, where his seals were found; and he 
testified, by his pleasure at finding them, how important the loss would 
have been to him, had he been so unfortunate as not to have regained 
possession of them. It is not, however, uncommon for the Persians 
to have two seals, which they use as may suit their convenience. If 
they are to send a paper, which they think it may on some future 
day be expedient to disavow, they put the equivocal seal; if otherwise, 
they stamp the lawful one. 
Herodotus, Erato, 3. 
