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UNSUCCESSFUL NEGOTIATIONS. 
shireen^ the i?weet; the former of which is always handed about first, 
and then the latter. The Vizier said to me, pointing to the Ge¬ 
neral, “ As we are not yet at peace, let us begin with drinking the 
“ shireen first, in order that it may be propitious to our business, and 
that our words may partake of its quality.” But when the conference 
had terminated without success, then the Vizier called for the coffee, 
and said, “ Now we must drink the talkhee^ the bitter, togetherand 
handed a cup of it to the General. 
During our stay here, one of our servants was bitten by a snake, 
evidently poisonous, for its bite produced many of the consequent 
symptoms, such as great drowsiness, lassitude, &c.; but he recovered 
by the aid of our medicine. Many snakes were seen ; and the ap¬ 
parently fabulous accounts which the Persians relate of the vast quan- . 
tides of these reptiles that infest Mogan, were in some measure veri¬ 
fied by what came under our observation. On their account Abbas 
Mirza was once obliged to move his camp; and there are other 
instances in Persian history, equally corroborative of their great 
numbers. 
I returned to the Prince’s camp on the 11th of October, and it is 
worthy of remark, that the heat of the sun in some parts of the road 
was so violent, that it blistered the skin of that part of my body 
most exposed to it. I was seized on the road with a bilious suf¬ 
fusion, which laid the foundation of a severe illness; and the same 
heat, although it did not act so immediately upon the English servant 
who accompanied me, yet it brought on so violent a bilious dis¬ 
order, that after a few days’ illness, he was laid in his grave. There 
is a searching heat in a Persian sun, which even to those who had 
lived long in India is quite insupportable; and in regard to health, 
a stranger must consider it as his principal care to expose himself to it 
as little as possible. 
The Ambassador broke up his camp three days after my return, and 
commenced his journey back to Teheran, by the road of Ardebil; whilst 
the Prince departed for Maranloii, a place about three fursungs from the 
Araxes, in order to carry on his operations against the Russians. 
