102 
POPULAR DISTURBANCES. 
mumbled some words, breathed upon it, and then required that we 
should eat it, in full belief that neither serpent nor scorpion could ever 
more harm us. He then pulled some snakes out of a bag, which some 
of us, whose confidence was strong, ventured to handle and flourish in 
the air. That the practice of snake-charming was in use in earlier days 
we may infer from the Psalms: “ Which will not hearken to the voice of 
the charmers, charming never so wisely.^"^ Psalm Iviii. v. 5. 
About this time, great discontent was manifest at Shiraz, owing to 
kn increase in the price of bread, and there were symptoms of insur¬ 
rection among the people. This grievance was chiefly attributed to 
Mirza Ahady, (fellow-sufferer with Mahomed Nebee Khan,) who having 
been released from prison at Teheran, was permitted to return to Pars, 
to raise such sums on the people as would satisfy the demands of the 
King. 
Mirza Ahady, in conjunction with the Prince’s mother, was believed 
to have monopolised all the corn of the country, and he had no sooner 
reached Shiraz, than he raised its price, which of course produced a cor¬ 
respondent advance in that of bread— Ventre affame n a point (Voreilles — 
the people became outrageous in their misery. As is usual, in all 
public calamities in the East, they commenced by shutting their shops 
in the Bazar, They then resorted to the house of the Sheikh-el-Islam, 
the head of the law, requiring him to issue a fetxvah, which might 
make it lawful to kill Mirza Ahady, and one or two more, whom they 
knew to be his coadjutors in oppressing them. They then appeared in 
a body before the gate of the Prince’s palace, where they expressed 
their grievances in a tumultuous way, and demanded that Mirza Ahady 
should be delivered up to them. Mahomed Zeky Khan, our former Meh- 
mandar, was sent out by the Prince to appease them, accompanied by 
Mirza Banker, the chief baker of the city, who was one of those whose 
life had been denounced. As soon as the latter appeared, he was over¬ 
whelmed with insults and reproaches, but he managed to pacify them, 
by saying, “ What crime have I committed? Mirza Ahady is the 
man to abuse. If he sells us corn at extravagant prices, bread must 
rise in consequence.” In the meantime, Mirza Ahady had secreted 
