348 
PERSIAN MANNERS: —WINE. 
religion; and, in consequence, the great men of the country 
following the example, have recovered their dignity, and the 
respect of the people. 
It is a rarity, in these times, to see a Persian of any class in¬ 
toxicated with drink. Yet, I do not mean to pay them the 
compliment of saying that this abstinence arises wholly from 
regard to religious precept. Being naturally of a lively and 
ardent temperament, they have a constitutional indifference to 
all inflammatory cordials ; and indeed, so far from in general 
requiring stimulants of any kind, they seem fond of checking 
the impulse of their blood, by the use of the kalioun and opium; 
either of which, in different degrees, produces a sort of dreamy 
repose of the senses. Yet, I am also aware, that there are ex¬ 
ceptions to these observations, both amongst the high and the 
low ; and with the old, more than the young; for, when age lays 
its freezing hand upon the man, even our glowing Persian 
shrinks at the touch; and we find some few, secretly applying 
to the genial flow of the grape, for temporary restoration. 
Whether it be taken thus as a resource, or drank with less inno¬ 
cent motives, the act is always clandestine ; while the trans¬ 
gressors of the law, vary to themselves, when in their power, 
the degree of guilt incurred, by drinking wine of Christian fa¬ 
bric; rather than that which is doubly drenched in sin, by 
having been the manufacture of a Mussulman. So great is the 
horror of a Mahomedan vintage, that whenever jars of the wine of 
Shiraz are discovered, the chief officers of the town are ordered 
to see them broken to pieces. But all this strictness, relates to 
the Persians alone ; foreigners are neither laid under restriction, 
nor suffer obloquy, for taking the indulgences which their own 
customs allow them ; and, what is yet more liberal, Abbas Mir- 
