PERSIAN TOMBS. 
151 
The coachman was sewn up in a blanket, (for coffins are not used in 
Persia,) and thus deposited in the earth. We attended his funeral in 
great procession. The Ambassador read the service over him, and Ar¬ 
menians were his grave-diggers. 
To the eastward of this, is a most extensive Persian burial-ground, 
in the district of Takht Poulad, which is much ruined and ne¬ 
glected. The tombs of the Persians are much like those of the 
Armenians, but with inscriptions in Persian and Arabic. Those 
of the poorer sort of people are built with bricks, with a small 
piece ot marble at the head for the epitaph: the poorest have only a 
piece of broken stone at the end of the grave. Stone lions and rams 
rudely sculptured, are very frequently seen in Persian burial grounds, 
and aie placed over the tombs of soldiers, or those famed for their 
com age. The lich over their tombs have small cupolas, which rest 
upon four pilasters. The largest and most considerable are called 
takieh, and are built over the remains of holy and learned men: many 
