HIS RAPACITY. 
569 
East. With regard to the wives and daughters of Senna, they 
make such liberal use of the freedom of their face and habits, 
that, my informer told me, “ they seem to fear neither God nor 
their husbands.” 
The harems of the wealthy inhabitants, independent of the 
four wives allowed by the Koran, contain vast numbers of other 
women, but those most in favour, are usually the Luzmoonies; 
and, therefore, it is not surprising that their conduct, as well as 
manners, should be gradually copied by all the rest. In the 
midst of this apparently general abandonment to the most dis¬ 
sipated pleasures, every creature so thoroughly sympathises with 
the trembling lord of it all, as to be in constant dread of some 
destructive evil befalling themselves, from his avarice, suspicions, 
or habitual cruelty. From this apprehension, many alfect po¬ 
verty ; and others carry their terror to such extremity, as to 
make the earth alone the repository of their riches. Indeed, 
this has been a custom of long standing in Persia and its ad¬ 
jacent countries ; and I cannot give a more notable instance than 
Ahmed Khan, the late rapacious tyrant of Maraga, whose wealth 
was considered unbounded. After he died, much was discovered 
buried in a thousand improbable places under ground, but the 
greater part, every body believes, is yet to be dug up by chance; 
that determined miser always having taken good care that the 
confidential persons who assisted him to inhume his idol, should 
soon sleep by its side. In short, so insatiable has been this 
universal thirst for gold all over “ the great kingdom,” and such 
is the vibration still trembling in the nerves of all who remember 
the avarice, and the violence of Aga Mahomet Khan and his 
emissaries, in its collection, that I cannot more distinctly picture 
the idea a Persian yet conceives of the insecurity of his property, 
4 D 
VOL. II. 
