POPULATION OF ISPAHAN. 
141 
perhaps, a good illustration for the passage in Isaiah, Who are these that 
fly G5S a cloud, and as the doves to their windows? lx. 8.* Their great 
numbers and the compactness of their mass, literally look like a cloud 
at a distance, and obscure the sun in their passage. 
The dung of pigeons is the dearest manure that the Persians use; 
and as they apply it almost entirely for the rearing of melons, it is pro¬ 
bable on that account that the melons of Ispahan are so much finer 
than those of other cities. The revenue of a pigeon-house is about 
100 tomauns per annum; and the great value of this dung, which 
rears a fruit that is indispensable to the existence of the natives during 
the great heats of Summer, will probably throw some light upon that 
passage in Scripture, when in the famine of Samaria, the fourth part of 
a cab of doves' dung was sold for five pieces of silver. 2 Kings, vi. 25. 
No regulations are in force against shooting pigeons on the wing, or 
in a field ; but if they are shot at when perched on a pigeon-house, then 
complaints are soon made. The Persians do not eat pigeons, although 
we found them well-flavoured. It is remarkable that neither here nor 
in the South of Persia have I ever seen a white pigeon, which He¬ 
rodotus remarks, was a bird held in aversion by the ancient Persians. 
Clio, ISS.'I' These in question are of a cindery blue. 
An imperfect mode of approximating the truth, with respect to the po¬ 
pulation of Ispahan, is by the number of sheep daily killed at the public 
slaughter-houses. Every sheep that is killed by the butchers is taxed 
five shaheesX by the government, and 175, on an average, are daily con¬ 
sumed in Ispahan. In the days of Chardin, 2000 sheep daily paid 
duty at the slaughter-house, which by his account served 600,000 
souls: the 175 sheep then, of our day, would serve 52,500 souls; but 
* The word which we translate windows is by some of the later interpreters rendered 
“ Columbaria.” 
f It is a curious fact, that in the West of England, an extraordinary superstition is pre¬ 
served in more than one ancient family, that when the principal of the family dies, a white 
■pigeon is seen hovering over the bed of the deceased: Was such a bird anciently considered 
the prophetical precursor of death ? 
$ About sixpence. 
