306 
TEHERAN. 
brothers, who were gathered together for the solemnity of the 
festival, appeared at the head of the procession ; a great con¬ 
course of nobles, and half the population of the city, followed 
them ; and yet the ceremony of the entre was not so bustling, 
though much more splendid than that of Casvin. On my arri¬ 
val, I of course became the guest of His Britannic Majesty’s 
Charge d’Affaires, Captain Willock, and was lodged in the palace 
of embassy. 
Half a century ago, Teheran, the present metropolis of all 
Persia, would hardly have been considered a town of sufficient 
importance to be styled the capital of a province. It occupies 
a central situation, in the north-eastern districts of Irak-Ajem; 
an extensive division of the empire, comprising the greatest 
part of Media, and a lesser share of Parthia; or, rather, certain 
lands which the Princes of the latter country had conquered and 
annexed to their own. Parthia Proper was a very small tract, 
lying east of Khorasan. So much more has the spirit of a 
people, than their numbers, to do with making them a name, 
and gaining them possessions. Irak-Ajem is bounded on the 
north, by Azerbijan (which also was part of Media), Gliilan, and 
Mazanderan (ancient Hyrcania) ; to the south, by Farsistan and 
Ivuzistan (ancient Susiana); to the west, by Kurdistan; and to 
the east, by Khorasan, and the Salt Desart. 
Teheran, according to observations made by several British 
officers, lately resident in that city, is in latitude 35° 37' N. 
Mr. M‘JDonald makes its longitude 50° 52' E. It stands on a 
very low tract of ground, near to the foot of the Elborz moun¬ 
tains ; which at this part have an older and more romantic cele¬ 
brity attached to them, than the gloomy fame they derive from 
Hassan Saheb, and his sanguinary race. The ancient Hyrcania, 
