PERSIAN QUEEN. 
61 
vernor of Pars, the other of the city of Teheran and its environs. She 
resides principally at Shiraz, and has great influence over her son, 
interfering in the administration of affairs, and enriching herself greatly 
by commerce and monopolies. Every now and then she negociates a 
visit to the capital, for which she is generally obliged to make a consi¬ 
derable present to the king, who then permits her to return and reside 
with him as a wife. The Ambassadress was carried to the gate of the 
Harem in her palanqueen by her own bearers, when it was taken up by 
women, who set her down close to the room where the queen was 
seated. The women, like the men, always seat themselves on the 
ground on carpets; but chairs, as a mark of civility, were provided on 
this occasion. The queen was accompanied by her daughter, a princess 
about sixteen years old, whom Lady Ouseley reports as being naturally 
beautiful, but disfigured by the great quantity of red and white daubed 
over her face. Her eyebrows, which were arched, were connected over 
the nose by a great stripe of black paint, and her eyelids and lashes 
strongly tinged with antimony. This young lady is celebrated through¬ 
out the country for her beauty; and to judge of her face by that of her 
brother, one of the handsomest men whom I ever saw, I can believe all 
that is said in favour of it. We were informed that she was betrothed 
to a Cajar, one of the present royal family, now a child of three years old. 
The apartment in which the visit took place was entirely open in front, 
supported by two columns, and shaded by an extended curtain. It 
looked upon a square court, surrounded by walls, laid out in flower 
beds, canals, and basins filled >vith water, and planted with trees in 
formal rows. Along the side of the canal stood the Prince’s wives and 
women in rows, none of whom were beautiful ; but their dresses were 
rich, and covered with precious stones. The queen’s dress was rendered 
so cumbersome by the quantity of jewels embroidered upon it, that she 
could scarcely move under its weight. Her trowsers, in particular, 
were so engrafted with pearl, that they looked more like a piece of 
mosaic than wearing apparel. Padded with cotton inside, stiffened by 
cloth of gold on the out, they were so fashioned as to exclude the 
possibility of discovering the shape of the leg, and kept it cased up, as 
it were, in the shaft of a column. Sweetmeats, fruit, and sherbet, were 
