178 
VISITOR FROM KERMANSHAH. 
This bas-relief is finished in only a few places ; parts, are 
merely begun; but what has been completed, both in this and 
the one opposite, is executed in the most masterly style. I 
never saw the elephant, the stag, or the boar, pourtrayed with 
greater truth and spirit. The attempts here, at detailed human 
form, are far inferior. 
During my occupation in sketching the several sculptured 
antiquities of this arch, I had been favoured with many un- 
wished-for visitors from Kermanshah. In spite of my caution, 
the news of a stranger’s arrival, and taking up his abode for 
some time at the village of Tackt-i-Bostan, had soon reached the 
city ; and curiosity bringing out numbers of the inhabitants to 
explore his business, they never failed to return with full accounts 
of the Frangy traveller. However, I had been seated the third 
morning, at the feet of the royal fair in the great group under 
the arch, before I was disturbed by any person of note; but on 
September the 26 th, one of the ministers of Mahmoud Ali 
Mirza presented himself in my apartment, bearing a message 
from the prince his master, inviting me into the city, and to be 
his guest. I was in no small dilemma at this royal courtesy ; 
reverence for the one brother, preventing me accepting it; and 
due acknowledgment for the hospitality intended by the other, 
equally commanded me not to reject the proffered distinction 
with disrespect. I pleaded, the shortness of the time I could 
allow myself to stay in the neighbourhood ; and the object that 
brought me there, so employing my every moment, that it was 
impossible for me, under these circumstances, to inhabit any 
other place than the village; and, therefore, with proper com¬ 
pliments, I begged permission to decline the honour proposed. 
But all these excuses were vain, in stemming the strenuous advo- 
