358 
RESIDENCE AT DEMAWEND. 
opposite hills : these they assert were closed by thick walls, and gates, 
of which not the smallest remains at present exist. They are called 
DehanehSi or mouths ; the difference between a Dehaneh and a Teng is, 
that the former is the interval between the bases of two hills, the 
latter a narrow defile between two perpendicular lands or rocks. In 
the Descriptio PersicB, Demawend is called Dehenna Kassabi Demawend, 
and is placed in 87° 27'long, and 36° 10' lat. from the tables of Ulugbeg: 
its climate is certainly the most delightful of any place which I have 
seen in Persia. During the summer the thermometer scarcely ever 
rose above 80, and in the greatest heats, and at the commencement of 
September, in the morning before sun-rise, it was at 55°. The serenity 
of the weather during the three months of our residence there, was 
unvaried, and we were never once incommoded by the violent wind 
and suffocating atmosphere, so common to Teheran and its vicinities. 
Including our excursion to the King’s camp, we remained three months 
at Demawend. Our principal lodging consisted of the second best house 
in the place, the first being the Governor’s: it belonged to a man of 
respectability, a sort of principal farmer, who was then absent, but 
part of whose family lived in an adjoining house. It consisted of a 
Serder, or a room over the principal entrance, which formed the Biroon, 
or the place where the master received his male visitors, and of the 
Anderoon, which was occupied by his women and family. This forming 
the principal corps de logis, consisted of different suites of apartments 
and closets; and considering the rank of the persons to whom they 
belonged, were very clean and neat. In point of lodging, the pea¬ 
sants of Persia are well provided: their habits are so simple and their 
wants so few, that it is easy to accommodate them. To accommodate 
the different persons attached to the mission, it was necessary to empty 
seven houses besides the one already described, and they were mostly 
situated in the same street. The horses of the mission and those of the 
bodyguard were picquetted in a most picturesque spot, about two hundred 
yards off under some spreading walnut-trees, whilst the servants at¬ 
tached to them took up their quarters in the open air near them. 
