308 
TEHERAN. 
ness of the place, however, lies wholly in this unwholesomeness ; 
for its aspect is far from disagreeable. The very humidity of the 
soil produces early verdure, and clothes the gardens with a more 
abundant shade. Then, immediately behind the town, the high 
ranges of Elborz stretch to the eastward; and over their pic¬ 
turesque heads, in almost a direct line northward, rises the tower¬ 
ing peak of Demewand. The wide plain, we had just traversed, 
affords an open and a noble view to the north-west; while the 
faintly-discerned chain of hills, skirting the horizon to the south, 
and which divide the fertile land from the Salt Desart, hardly 
bound the eye in that quarter. 
Teheran, though modern as a capital, and comparatively 
obscure as a town, has nevertheless had some note of its exist¬ 
ence, so far back as the fourteenth century. A Persian writer 
of that period, remarks it as ct a large village, with productive 
gardens, in the vicinity of the city of Hey; its inhabitants having 
their dwellings under-ground, for two reasons j to avoid the ex¬ 
cessive heat of summer, and the attacks of their hostile neigh¬ 
bours, from the Roudbar mountains.” Nearly three centuries 
after this, in the year 1637, the secretary of the Holstein anv 
bassadors mentions Teheran, as “ one of the towns which en¬ 
joyed the privilege of maintaining no soldiers.” The cold, I am 
told, is severe in the winter months. The weather, towards the 
spring, I found to be delightful; but early in June, the heat be¬ 
comes so intolerable, that the city is almost totally abandoned l 
the court flies to the more temperate plains of Sultania or Oujan, 
and the people either to tents or villages amongst the hills. Nearer 
to the base of the mountains, and a little on the ascent, the earth 
is free from any degree of noxious moisture; the water is good, 
and the air perfectly salubrious. Hence, we cannot but lament, 
