PERSIAN MANNERS. 
239 
the other, save our own pocket-handkerchiefs ; the bread- 
napkin, or plate, having no capability but to be eaten off, and 
wipe the ends of the fingers between every new plunge into the 
opposite dish. A kalioun, with tea, followed ; and continued, 
with a few interruptions, during the conversation which had 
broken the dead silence on the departure of the rolled-up web 
and its appendages. A fresh kalioun finished the entertainment, 
and we then rose to take our leave. With extreme difficulty 
I obeyed the general movement; but when I did get upon my 
legs, they were too cramped to stand, and had it not been for 
the support of one of my countrymen, more accustomed to 
such curveture of limbs, I must have fallen. A few minutes, 
however, restored me to locomotive motion; and having made 
my bow, we passed through the curtained entrance, to resume 
the slippers we had left at the door. 
In Persia, a native never enters a room in boots or slippers; 
and when a foreigner attempts any transgression of this usage, 
it is looked upon as the height of ill-breeding, if not quite a 
premeditated insult. In some cases where it has been intimated, 
reasons of policy have compelled an apparent toleration of the 
objection, by providing the expedient of receiving such visitors 
in the open air; but the necessity is always remembered with 
repugnance to the exactors. In visiting countries of different 
customs from our own, it is one thing to compromise a man’s per¬ 
sonal respectability, or that of his nation, by complying with 
demanded ceremonies out of the way of the usual line ; and 
another, to conform to the established fashions of the people with 
whom we are, in their public or domestic regulations. Indeed 
such compliance seems equally essential to common philanthropy 
and politeness on our parts, as the hospitality so ungraciously 
