NATIONAL STORY-TELLERS. 
311 
deemed expedient, in Europe also, when the state of the times 
rendered fortified places the only secure places; and this 
occasional necessity may account, in some measure, for the 
wretched alleys I have just described. But the natives give ano¬ 
ther reason ; that were they wider it would be impossible to pass 
along them, under the unshaded fire of the summer’s sun. This 
may appear feasible; but the evil is only half averted ; confined 
heat, crowd, and odious smells, producing effects, to European 
feelings at least, more intolerable than the most vertical beams 
in a free atmosphere. Where any place does present a little 
more room than ordinary, or under the covered ways attached 
to the shops, we generally find one of the national story-tellers, 
surrounded by groups of people ; some well-clad, others in rags, 
and not a few nearly naked, attending with the most lively in¬ 
terest to tales they must have heard a thousand times before. 
He recounts them with a change of gesticulation, and a varied 
tone of voice, according to his subject; whether it be the loves of 
Ivhosroo and Shireene, the exploits of Rustum their favourite 
hero, or any number of historic couplets from Ferdoussi, the 
Homer of their land. From the humblest peasant, to the head 
that wears the diadem, all have the same passion for this kind of 
entertainment. His present Majesty, and also the several Prince- 
governors, have each a court story-teller; in listening to whose 
powers of memory, or of eloquence, the royal personage fre¬ 
quently passes the leisure of the day ; and when on a long jour¬ 
ney, this necessary officer is always within call, to beguile the 
tedium of the way. Such a living chronicle of noble exemplars 
is certainly a more creditable adjunct to a great man’s train, than 
the saucy motleys of our old courts; whose wit might as often 
be a vehicle of mischief, as of innocent pastime, to the invited 
