PERSIA. 
males. The judge fits at the extremity of the apartment 
in the eaftern fafhion : his head is covered with a large 
turban ; the lower part of his face is concealed by a very 
black bulhy beard, while his body is wrapped in an am¬ 
ple robe. Long experience has given him a correfil eye; 
and, before he has even heard the parties, he can difco- 
ver from their drefs which of them is right and which 
wrong. Not a motion, not a gefture, efcapes him ; he rea¬ 
dily comprehends their fignification, and in his decifion 
he is guided much lefs by confcience than the expecta¬ 
tion of a prefent. It is, indeed, the cuftom to make him 
one: the wealthy give Huffs, confectionary, or coffee; 
the artifan or the hufbandman, a lamb, a Iheep, or fruit; 
and it is neceffary to conciliate the favour of his fervant 
alfo by fome gift or other. (Jourdain, vol. iii. p. 199.) 
It has been already obferved that the Perfians have no 
idea of our law-proceedings; they have therefore neither 
counfel nor attorneys. Every man pleads his own caufe. 
The firft ftep towards what we fhould call bringing an 
aCtion againft a perfon is to prefent a petition to the judge, 
who writes on the margin of it an order for bringing be¬ 
fore him the party againft whom complaint is made. 
One of his officers immediately puts this order in execu¬ 
tion. It is cuftomary for the defendant to pay this offi¬ 
cer for his trouble by the way; for he has no other fa- 
lary than what arifes from fees of this kind, and even 
thefe he has to divide with his employer. The parties 
commonly appear together with their witneffes : both in¬ 
fill on being in the right ; they warmly maintain their 
point; the altercation becomes violent, and they abufe 
one another in the groffelt terms. When they are peo¬ 
ple of fortune or diftinClion, the judge lets them go on ; 
but, if they belong to the lower claffes, a few thumps on 
the head or back from his attendants allay the warmth of 
the difpute. The uproar is twice as great when the par¬ 
ties are of the female fex; for it is to be obferved that 
women alfo perfonally defend themfelves. They appear 
before the court covered with a veil, and remain in the 
fmali feparate apartment already mentioned. 
For want of witneffes, the Koran is brought. The 
judge, after refpeCifully killing and raifing it to his fore¬ 
head, prefents it to the defendant, to do the fame, and 
receives the oath of the latter on the open book. If the 
defendant fwears, he gains his caufe, as it is not to be 
fuppofed that the allurement of worldly and perilhable 
lucre would induce a man to incur the punifhment refer- 
ved for perjury in a future life. When the defendant is 
fummoned on account of debt, and he is unable to pay 
it, the Koran enjoins that a delay be allowed him: but, 
if he has feveral times availed himfelf of this indulgence 
without fulfilling his engagements, or if he has betrayed 
in his conduft a want ot integrity, he is delivered to his 
creditor, who has a right to do with him what he pleafes, 
except maiming or putting him to death. He may then 
fell him, as well as his wife, detain him prifoner, mal¬ 
treat him, and beat him publicly in the ftreets of the 
town. 
Quarrels and aflaults in the ftreets are ufually pu- 
niftied with a fine and the baftinado. Whenever any dif- 
turbance takes place, an officer of the police nifties among 
the combatants, ftriking indifcriminately the aggreffors, 
the perfons affaulted, and the lookers-on, who take to 
their heels. Such of them as he can fecure he carries be¬ 
fore the judge, driving them along and belabouring 
them with hisftaff. On reaching the tribunal, the judge 
enquires their names and profeffions. The fentence is 
ufually the infliction of the baftinado as well on the 
complainant as on the aggreffor; and they are moreover 
obliged to pay a fine. As the money goes into the cof¬ 
fers of the judge, the fine is never remitted ; but it is pof- 
fible to avoid the beating, by paying another fine to the 
officer. 
The flighteft faults are feverely puniflied in Perfia. 
The venality which prevails among the judges enfures, 
701 
if not the adminiftration of juftice, at leaft the diligent 
exercife of their functions. The reprefiion of irregularities 
of every kind is a fource of profit to the magiftrate. The 
drunkard caught at a tavern, and the debauchee found 
in the houfe of ill fame, purchafe impunity for their 
tranfgreffions. Even murder may be compounded for. 
When a man has been killed, his relatives run with loud 
cries to the refidence of the judge, and demand the blood 
of the murderer, for whofe apprehenfion the magiftrate 
iffues orders. If the murderer be opulent, a negociation 
is opened. The judge propofes the requifite indemnifi¬ 
cation to the complainants, fettingdown a handfomefum 
for his own trouble as mediator; but, if the relatives 
perfift in demanding the murderer, the judge delivers 
him into their hands with thefe words : “ I deliver up to 
you, agreeably to the law, the murdererof your kinfman : 
pay yourfelves for the blood which he has fpilled ; but 
remember that God is generous and merciful.” The of¬ 
ficers then conduCl the culprit to the fpot direCted, and 
infliCl on him fuch torments as they are diredled by the 
relatives, unlefs the latter prefer glutting their rage on 
him themfelves; but, if the murderer, after enduring all 
their tortures, and being left for dead by his executi¬ 
oners, fhould neverthelefs recover, he is free both in re¬ 
gard to his liberty and his life, and the family of the per¬ 
fon whom he killed has no right to perfecute him any 
more. The compromifing mulct paid to the family of a 
murdered man is ufually rated at from fifty to one hun¬ 
dred tomans; but, if a Chriftian happen by any evil 
chance to kill a Muffulman, the Aim commonly exaCled 
is two hundred tomans. A toman is il. 7s. fterling. 
Criminal juftice is adminiftered by thecivil magiftrates, 
according to the ourf, or common law. There is neither 
public prifon nor public executioner: the only places of 
confinement are dark and filthy apartments in the houfes 
of magiftrates, whofe fervants perform the office of exe¬ 
cutioners. The kinds of punifhment are numerous, and 
vary according to the nature of the crime, and the qua¬ 
lity of the culprit. The baftinado is the mod common. 
The legs of the fufferer are tied together and raifed by 
means of a cord fallened to a tree or (lake : the foies of 
the feet are then beaten with a flick. The rule is to give 
at leaft thirty ftrokes, but never more than three hundred. 
When a perfon is convicted of perjury, his throat is 
crammed with tow or rags, and melted lead poured into 
his mouth. Swindlers are branded on the forehead with 
a red-hot iron; houfe-breakers and coiners of counter¬ 
feit money have a hand cut off. Tradcftmen ufing falfe 
weights are put into a kind of walking pillory. A thick 
plank, with a hole in the middle to admit the head, refts 
upon the (boulders of the culprit; to this plank is faf- 
tened a bell: a ftraw cap is placed on his head, and thus 
accoutred he is paraded through the ftreets of the town. 
The rnofl common capital punifhment, called Jhelieh- 
Jterdcn, eonfifts in cutting the body in two lengthwife 
with a fword, beginning between the legs and termina¬ 
ting on the fide of the neck above the fhoulder. For 
this purpofe tlie criminal is fallened by the heels to a 
pack-faddle on the back of a camel, with his head hang¬ 
ing nearly to the ground. After the horrid fentence has 
been executed, the camel with the bifeCted body is led 
through the whole town, preceded by an officer who pro¬ 
claims the nature of the crime. The remains of the cul¬ 
prit are then hung to a pole or a tree, either in the coun¬ 
try or in thefuburbs, or even in the meidan, or open place 
before the palace. 
Mr. Morier relates, that, during the refidence of the 
embafly which he accompanied at Shiraz, the report of a 
gun was one day heard ; and on inquiry it was found to 
he the execution of a thief, who had been blown from 
the mouth of a mortar. Three men had been condemned 
to death by the prince-governor for robbery : one was be¬ 
headed ; the fecond blown up; and the third was cut in 
half, and the two parts of his body hung over two of the 
molt-. 
