THE PALACE. 
235 
which answered to the space open to the garden, exhibited a 
superb window, almost stretching from side to side of the 
room, and filled with variegated panes of coloured glass. The 
floor was entirely overspread with Herat carpets, those of that 
manufacture being the richest that can be made ; these, and 
nummuds of a particularly fine and beautiful fabric, were the 
whole furniture of the saloon. So simple are the necessaries 
required in this country, by prince or peasant, for seat, bed, table, 
or altar! In no house do we see more than these, and hardly 
less in any; the only difference being, that as the wealth of the 
possessor decreases, the quality of the stuff impoverishes also. 
And, as I have observed before, these people using the carpet 
not merely for domestic purposes, but to kneel down on when 
they say their prayers, it is considered in some measure sacred ; 
and hence arises the custom of a visitor always leaving his slip¬ 
pers at the room door. In mentioning the door, I mean what¬ 
ever denotes the way of ingress to the apartment; for though in 
general there is a double door of carved or painted wood, which 
may be closed at pleasure, yet it is so seldom shut in the day, 
we usually find a silk curtain filling the vacant space of the en¬ 
trance ; its light drapery being not only a cooler, but a more 
elegant appendage than a thick, heavy door. An attending 
servant raises the curtain at the approach of a visitor, and drops 
it on his having entered. That the custom of such draperies is 
an ancient one, we find in several authors ; an instance from one 
may suffice. Plutarch, in writing of Alexander the Great’s en¬ 
raged passions, remarks, “ upon this, Alexander snatched a spear 
from one of the guards, and meeting Clytus as he was drawing 
back the door curtain , ran him through the body.” 
Immediately on my arrival at Tabreez, I had been visited by 
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