180 
VISITOR FROM KERMANSHAH. 
errand, I gave him the proper welcome ; and during the cere¬ 
mony of kaliouns and coffee served by my people, he again 
opened his embassy. No flight of Persian compliments was 
spared to myself and my nation, from the august personage 
from whom he came, to prevail on me, if I could not come to 
Kermanshah before he quitted it,* to give my word to his mi¬ 
nister, that I would halt at his camp in my route to Bagdad. 
“ It would lie only a farsang out of the direct road,” continued 
the speaker, “ and my reception should be such, as to honour 
the day for ever, in my remembrance.” Honest man! his zeal 
was like a river overflowing its banks ; and in the earnest¬ 
ness he felt to accomplish the wish of his master, he either 
could not, or would not, see my really evident intention of 
going straight forward. However, not to return without ex¬ 
ecuting some part of his errand, he entered into a conversation 
that fully gave me to understand the various objects my required 
visit was expected to produce; and this insight more deter- 
minately bent my steps another way. But every thing he 
uttered on these, and other subjects, impressed me the more 
with the military and aspiring talents of his master. But there 
are equal talents on the opposite side, and with virtues which 
guarantee their being used to the best purposes. Perhaps the 
characters of the rival brothers cannot be better drawn, than by 
repeating the speech of a moment, which a person of one of the 
warlike tribes addressed to some European gentlemen, travelling 
through this part of the country. They were expatiating on the 
merits of the Shah’s avowed heir, when this rough son of the 
mountain abruptly interrupted them: “You see,” cried he, 
pointing to a village in their way, “ that place before us ! If the 
prince you laud, were riding where we are, the inhabitants would 
at this moment be running to meet him, and eager to pitch his 
