i84 
PERSIAN POLITICS. 
each other, as to make it appear that they had been severed. This is 
done by way of penance; but in hot weather the violence of the exertion 
has been known to produce death. The whole ceremony was ter¬ 
minated by the hhotheh^ which is an action of prayer for Mahomed, his 
descendants, and for the prosperity of the King; and was delivered in a 
loud voice by a man, the best crier of his time^ (as Xenophon calls Tol- 
mides*,) who is celebrated for his strong voice, and indeed deservedly 
so; for at about fifty yards’ distance from us we heard every word he 
said, notwithstanding the noise of the multitude which surrounded us. 
After the solemnities of the Moharrem were over, the Persian 
ministers entered upon the negociation of a definitive treaty with the 
Ambassador which occupied them during the winter; and I should have 
been happy to give an account of the discussions which the subject of 
it involved, if the official character which I held in the Embassy did not 
forbid it. Unacquainted as the Persians are with the law of nations, 
and unaccustomed to the discussion of great political questions, we 
found their ignorance a great impediment to the progress of business. 
Whatever demand we made, however clear and self-evident, they always 
thought that it had, or might have, some recondite meaning, which they 
could not understand, consequently they never acceded to it without 
discussions so long and violent, as frequently to end in quarrel. They 
have but a very confused idea of Europe, and the position of its dif¬ 
ferent states. The great mass of Persians, very much like their ances¬ 
tors f, look upon Europe as one state, which they call Fireng, and all 
Europeans Firengees. Those who are a little better informed, divide 
us into Franciz and Ingliz; and the Grand Vizier, who perhaps has 
seen every European'that has been at the Persian Court during the pre¬ 
sent reign, has at length acquired the names of the different nations of 
Europe, and those of the prime ministers of the leading courts. Of 
Buonaparte, from the likeness of his history to that of their own Nadir 
Shah, they have a very high idea; and as many of his acts were quite 
in the oriental style of despotism, they not only feared but admired 
* Anab. lib. ii. 
f Herodotus, Polymnia. iii. 
