PERSIAN MANNERS : — WINE-HOUSES. 
349 
za, who has many Russians in his service, not only tolerates 
every man in the privileges of his religion, but has licensed a 
wine-shop in that city for the use of the battalion. This accom¬ 
modation to one party, however, is likely to produce a gradual 
change in the sober habits of his people. The Russian soldiers 
being followed by their Persian comrades to the wine-house, the 
latter, lured by example, swallow similar potations, till with 
little more than what merely refreshes the cold sons of the North, 
their blood takes fire, and quarrels frequently ensue, to the most 
tragical conclusions. Rut when Abbas Mirza ever hears of such 
an abuse of his indulgence, and that Mussulmans have been 
caught drinking within its walls, he never fails to order the 
delinquent a severe flogging; a punishment that may check, 
but will hardly cure the evil, since its temptation now lies level 
to every door. That they fall into it at all, seems to contradict 
a former remark, on the natural indifference of these Asiatics to 
such inebriation. But when we consider, how prone man is to 
imitation, and how use renders that palatable, which at first is 
quite the reverse ; and also, from what small beginnings, infinite 
effects may be produced ; we need not wonder, should this very 
wine-house prove, hereafter, the source of a tacit oblivion, in 
Persia, of the one truly wise law of the Koran. 
We have just seen, that not merely the use, but the excess of 
wine has once been tolerated in this country. And under the 
same race who sanctioned the one vice, we find another autho¬ 
rised in the most open way, by licensing brothels. The existence 
of such infamous places, is now hardly known in the country ; 
but the Sefi princes drew a great increase of revenue from their 
numbers and noteriety. At Ispahan alone, in those days of un¬ 
blushing licentiousness, no less than thirty thousand females, 
