364 
RUINS OF RFIEY. 
first throne of the beginner of the sovereigns he had for ever 
deposed. 
When we turned from these ruins, so full of interest from 
memory; and so full of treasures, united with that interest, in 
themselves, might those mounds and hollows be laid open to 
investigation ; I could not but more deeply lament the suspicion 
which prevails over all Mahometan countries, that no man can 
put a spade into any ground, (that is not for building, or agri¬ 
culture, or digging a grave,) without the hope of finding some 
golden or jewelled deposit within. They can seldom be made 
to believe it possible that we could put ourselves to the trouble 
of exploring these, or any similar ruins, merely with the view 
of finding a lettered fragment, or a few old coins, bearing with 
them the connecting memoranda of the place’s history ; and 
which would be equally valuable to us on common stone, as on 
marble; on copper, as on gold. The last blow which sealed the 
fate of this city, was received from the insatiable avarice and 
thirst of blood, which marked the dominion of the immediate 
successors of Zingis Khan ; and, before the lapse of two centuries 
after their direful sacking of its walls, it was so lost, as to be no 
i 
more named as a residence of man. 
To set forth on any distant journey, in this country, requires 
no small preparations ; the traveller being obliged, almost li¬ 
terally, to take “ house and home” along with him. To be ready 
against all exigencies, that might happen on a road without 
other inns than, in general, the bare walls of a caravansary. 
And, often, not even those; when he must either depend on the 
tent he may have provided on the backs of his mules, or be con¬ 
tent to bivouac at their side. In starting from Tabreez with 
the Prince-Governor, all journey-preparations for Teheran were 
