166 
ROOM. 
The mausoleum at Room is one of the most celebrated sanctuaries 
throughout Persia, and thither the Persians frequently take shelter in 
distress. It is very seldom that they are forced out 5 but in cases of great 
criminality they are starved into a surrender. It was here that our friend 
Mirza Abul Hassan Khan took refuge for a considerable time, during 
the disasters which befel his family, and where he was fed in a clan¬ 
destine manner by some compassionate women, who came to him 
on pretence of making their devotions at the shrine of the saint. Al¬ 
though in general the tombs of all their Imam Zadelis (descendants of 
Imams) are looked upon as sanctuaries, yet there are some accounted 
more sacred than others : without this almost single impediment in the 
way of a Persian King’s power, his subjects would be totally at his 
mercy. 
The King frequently visits the Tomb of Fatmeh, and makes costly 
offerings there. By such acts he has acquired among the priesthood a 
great reputation, which, when at Koom, he keeps up by going about on 
foot, an act of great humility in Persian estimation. We may conceive 
the full extent of this humility, where walking is part of the service 
exacted from servants, multitudes of whom are always attached to a 
Prince and a man of consequence in the East. Many are kept exclu¬ 
sively for that purpose: when a great man goes abroad he is mounted 
on a horse, whilst his servants surround him, one bearing his pipe, 
another his shoes, another his cloak, a fourth his saddle-cloth, and so 
on, the number increasing with the dignity of the master. This will 
give great force to the following passage in Ecclesiastes : — I have seen 
servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth, x. 7 . 
During the few days that we were at Koom, we saw great numbers 
of women riding on asses, escorted by men on foot, arriving in bodies 
of ten to fifteen at a time, from the neighbouring villages, to make 
the Ziaret as it is called, or to worship at the tomb of the saint. This 
is one of the few recreations of the peasantry of Persia j and they recur 
to it more perhaps in the spirit of pleasure than in that of devotion. 
As soon as they approached the mausoleum the men chaunted a dirge, 
which at a distance had a very solemn effect. 
