FOUNDERY OF SHIRAZ. 
715 
and Karkorasany ; the wave or gishor of the latter, particularly, 
being large and black, on a steel so tempered as never to break, 
and to keep an unbluntable edge. Some of these most precious 
weapons were offered to me at a price from fifty to a hundred 
tomauns ; that is, from fifty pounds sterling to twenty-five each. 
The art of founding the metal in the superlative way that formed 
these ancient swords, poignards, knives, &c. is now lost; which 
occasions so very high a value being set on them, when they are 
proved to be genuine ; a fact of some difficulty to ascertain, 
modern artificers so well counterfeiting the appearance of the 
antique blades, it requires no little experience to detect the 
cheat at sight. The manufactures in most esteem next to those 
already mentioned, which includes that of Shiraz, are those of 
Dishy, Lahory, and Kom Lindy. The foundery at Shiraz has 
entirely superseded that at Kom, or Koom ; and the workmen 
have a method of renewing the damask or water-mark on the 
blade by the application of zagh, which they explained to me to 
be the black alum. Georgia too boasts an excellent manufacture 
of this kind ; and there are two native workmen at Tiflis, whose 
swords, daggers, &c. bring the most extravagant prices. There 
were not many more objects of ingenuity to detain my attention, 
in a city which half a century ago commanded the home-traffic to 
the East; and, having made my purchase of a sword and dagger, 
with the regret of a man quitting a place, perhaps for ever, where 
he had experienced the most disinterested kindness, I found the 
time of my sojourn at Shiraz was drawing near a close. If any 
circumstance more than another is calculated to try the disposi¬ 
tions of men, it is when a stranger of a different faith, as well as 
of a different country, is thrown on their sympathy and care. 
4 y 2 
