THE PALACE OF FORTY PILLARS. 
413 
and painting ; some twisting spirally; others winding in golden 
wreaths, or running into lozenges, stars, connecting circles, and 
I know not what intricacies of fancy and ingenious workmanship. 
The ceiling was equally iris-hued, with flowers, fruits, birds, 
butterflies, and even couching tigers, in gold, silver, and paint¬ 
ing, amidst hundreds of intermingling compartments of glitter¬ 
ing mirror. At some distance, within this open chamber, are 
two more pillars of similar taste to the range; and from their 
capitals springs a spacious arch, forming the entrance to a vast 
interior saloon ; in which all the caprices and labours and cost of 
Eastern magnificence, have been lavished to an incredible pro¬ 
digality. The pillars, the walls, the cieling, might be a study 
for ages, for designers in these gorgeous labyrinthine ornaments. 
The floors of both apartments were covered with the richest 
carpets, of the era in which the building was constructed, the 
age of Shah Abbas, and were as fresh as if just laid down ; 
there needs no other proof of the purity of the climate. From 
one angle of the interior chamber, two low folding-doors opened 
into a very spacious and lofty hall, the sides of which were hung 
with pictures of various dimensions ; most of them descriptive 
of convivial scenes; and the doors, and pannels of the room near 
the floor, being also emblazoned with the same merry-making 
subjects, fully declared the purpose of the place. But a very 
odd addition was made to the ornaments of the wall. Little 
recesses spotted its lower range, taking the shapes of bottles, 
flaggons, goblets, and other useful vessels ; all equally indispen¬ 
sable, in those days, at a Persian feast. Very different from 
the temperance, which now presides there; and, how directly 
the reverse of the abstemiousness and its effects, that marked the 
board of the great Cyrus ! 
