228 
MODE OF LODGING STRANGERS. 
At night they were again confined to the dungeon. If it had not been 
for the humanity of our English artificers who lived in the arsenal, 
these poor people would probably have died from the united miseries 
of hunger and unwholesome lodging. 
The Ambassador, during our stay at Tabriz, was lodged in a house 
provided for him by the Prince, but belonging to one of the wealthiest 
inhabitants of the place, an old man, by name Hajee Khan Mahomed. 
The gentlemen of the suite, as well as all the English officers in the 
Persian service, each occupied a separate house. The owners of these 
houses were dispossessed of them by the Prince’s orders; and though 
they afterwards recovered them, they received no remuneration from 
the Persian government for the injury and the privation. It is now 
twelve years since Hajee Khan Mahomed has ceased to possess his own 
house; nor is it likely that he will ever again occupy it; for no sooner 
has it been left by one person, than it is immediately given to 
another. The one which I occupied belonged to an Armenian family, 
the head of which was a keshish, or priest. It consisted of several 
rooms, built upon elevated terraces, looking upon two sides of a square, 
besides several other small unconnected rooms, situated here and there. 
A garden was attached to it, in which were apple, pear, cherry, walnut, 
and sinjid*' trees, besides rose trees. Beneath my chambers were two 
Mnder-ground rooms, where lived one of the priest’s sons, with his 
«vife. One of the rooms was a magazine for arrack, of which the hus¬ 
band was both a drinker and a vender. But as the Prince had prohi¬ 
bited the sale of this liquor and of wine, under very heavy penalties, 
none was sold except in a clandestine manner, and that to persons well 
known. The noises that issued from the adjoining houses were quite 
characteristic of Persian domestic life. In my immediate vicinity 
lived an old morose Persian, who daily quarrelled with his women; 
and I could distinguish the voice of one particular female, whose 
answers, made in a taunting and querulous tone, did not fail to 
* The sinjid, is the jujube tree, of which there are several sorts in Persia. The 
red Khorasanian jujube is esteemed an excellent specific in fluxes. 
