711 
PER 
fiat-roofed, without windows, placed in little connexion. 
In vain he looks for what It i s idea of a ftreet may be: he 
makes his way through the narrowed lanes, incumbered 
with filth, dead animals, and mangy dogs. He hears a 
language totally new to him, fpoken by a people whofe 
looks and drefs are equally extraordinary. Inftead of our 
fmooth chins and tight drelVes, he finds rough faces, 
tnafked with beards and muftachios, and long flapping 
clothes. He fees no active people walking about, with 
an appearance of fomething to do; but here and there he 
meets a native juIt crawling along in flip-fhod fhoes. 
When he feeks the markets and (hops, a new and original 
fcene prefents to him. Little open (beds in rows, be¬ 
tween which is a pafl'age, ferving as a llreet, of about 
eight feet in breadth, are to be feen, inftead of our clofely- 
Ihut (hop's with windows gaily decked. Here the vender 
fits, furrounded with his wares. In a country where 
there is fo little apparent fecurity of property, it is 
1'urprifing how a man fo eafily expofes his goods to the 
pilfer of rogues. .Companions might be made without 
end ; bur, however diftreffing the tranfition from great 
civilization to comparative barbarity may be, yet it is 
certain that firft imprefiions foon wear oft’, and that the 
mind receives a new acceflion of feelings adapted pre- 
cifely to the fituation in which it is placed. 
There are noifes peculiar to every city and country ; 
and none are more diflinft and charaCteriftic than thofe 
in Perfia. Firft, at the dawn of day, the muezzins are 
heard in a great variety of tones, calling the people to 
prayers from the tops of the mofques; thefe are mixed 
■with the founds of cow-horns, blown by the keepers of 
the hummums , to inform the women, who bathe before 
the men, that the baths are heated, and ready for their 
reception. The cow-horns fet all the dogs in the city 
howling in a frightful manner. The afles of the town, gene¬ 
rally beginning to bray about the fame time, are anfwered 
by all the afles in the neighbourhood ; a thoufand cocks 
then intrude their fhrill voices, which, with the other 
fublidiary noifes of perfons calling to each other, knock¬ 
ing at doors, cries of children, complete a din very umi- 
fual to the ears of an European. In the futnmer feafon, as 
the operations of domeftic life are moftly performed in 
the open air, every noife is heard. At night, all deep 
on the tops of their houfes, their beds being fpread upon 
their terraces, without any other covering over their 
heads than the vault of heaven. The poor feldom have 
a fcreen to keep them from the gaze of paffengers; and, 
os we generally rode out on horfeback at a very early 
hour, (fays Mr. Morier,) we perceived, on the tops of 
the houfes, people either ftill in bed, or juft getting up; 
and certainly no fight was ever ftranger. The women 
appeared to be always up the firft, whilft the men were 
frequently feen lounging in bed long after the fun was 
rifen. This univerfal culiom of deeping on the houfe-top 
fpeaks much in favour of the climate of Perfia; and in¬ 
deed repofe in the open air is much more refreftiing than 
in the confinement of a room. 
As to the character, manners, and cuftoms, of the Per- 
fians, though they differ in many particulars from the 
Turks, yet they differ fo much more from Europeans, 
that we think our readers will admit the juftice of the 
following quotation from Las Cafes’Journal, vol. iii. now 
publiftring. “ In the courfe of the converfation in the 
evening, the emperor, fpeaking of different nations, faid 
he only knew of two, the Orientals and the inhabitants 
of the Weft. The Englifh, the French, the Italians, &c. 
faid he, compofe one family, and form the weftern divi¬ 
sion ; they have the fame laws, the fame manners, the 
lame cuftoms, and differ entirely from the Orientals, par¬ 
ticularly with refpeft to their women and their fervants. 
The Orientals have flaves; our fervants are free: the 
Orientals (hut up their women ; our women fliare in all 
ourrights: the Orientals keep a feraglio ; but polygamy has 
never been admitted in the Weft at any period: with the 
Orientals every thing is calculated to enable them to 
Vol. XIX. No. 1337. 
S I A. 
watch over their wives, and make fure of them ; all our 
ihftitutions in the Weft tend, on the contrary, to put it 
out of our power to watch over our’s, and to make it ne- 
ceffary for us to rely upon them alone. There are feveral 
other diftin&ions, faid the emperor: fome aver that as 
many as eighty have been reckoned. The inhabitants of 
the Eaft and the Weft are therefore really two diftinft 
nations.” 
Yet fomething of an approximation may in time he 
made. We have feen that the Perfians, influenced by 
the difcernment of Abbas Mirza, the heir apparent, have 
been willing to adopt European tadfics ; for inftruCting 
them in which, we may perhaps one day repent. It 
feems, moreover, that the heir of that fplendid monarchy 
has difcernment enough to appreciate the fuperioriry of 
more civilized dates in other particulars; and that he 
has, on feveral occafions, fnown an anxiety to introduce 
into his native country a tafte for the more advanced 
ltages of the ornamental and ufeful arts. We are told that 
he has ordered, through the mirza now refident in Lon¬ 
don, different fpecimens of that beautiful manufacture of 
china in which England now furpaffes all other coun¬ 
tries. We are fully aware of the exceeding beauty of 
colour, and of the tranfparent delicacy of material, for 
which the real Chinefe ware is remarkable. Take the 
manufactory, how’ever, as a whole, as an union of elegant 
forms, of fkilful drawing, of beautiful colours, and of de¬ 
licate materials, and we do not hefttate to fay that the 
Englifh china is the bed. The mirza, before he decided, 
infpeCted the two beft depofitaries in Europe, that of 
Seves in France, and that of Meflrs. Flight and Barr in 
England ; and he decided in favour of the latter. The 
firft order has been fo well executed, that we have no 
doubt it will create a demand for much larger fupplies, 
It conflfts of two parts ; a fet of fmall portraits, or ena¬ 
melled medallions, and a complete fervice of banquetting- 
cups. The medallions reprefent the Shah of Perfia, and 
his heir apparent. The paintings are as well executed as 
oil or water-colour miniatures, and the material in which 
they are fet has all the appearance of the pureft pearl, 
though, of courfe, it is nothing but porcelain. The cups 
are ornamented with portraits and bouquets of flowers, 
done in that ftyle which has long made this manufactory 
rank among the fine arts. We may add, as a much 
ftronger iiluftration of the prince royal’s wifh to adopt 
the advantages of more civilized ftates of fociety, that he 
has an Englifh woman to inftruCt his daughters accor¬ 
ding to the plan of Englifh education : thus declaring, 
perhaps for the firft time in an oriental court, that a 
woman has a mind to be cultivated, as well as a body to 
be adorned. 
In delineating the character of the P.erfians, we can 
fcarcely have a better guide than Chardin, whofe long 
refidence in the country, and whofe intercourfe with the 
great, enabled him to make himfelf intimately acquainted 
with the character of the nation, rather than with that of 
the lower clafles, the number of whofe vices is increafed 
by the want of education. 
The Perfians, as he informs us, are pre-eminent for in¬ 
tellectual qualities, while their moral character exhibits 
a compound of the moil odious defeCts. They have a 
found underftanding, a quick imagination, a ready me¬ 
mory, and a happy capacity for the feiences and the libe¬ 
ral and mechanical arts. Under the appearance of a 
proud indifference, they derive information from the fo¬ 
ciety of foreigners, and profit by their knowledge: they 
receive them kindly, patronize them, tolerate their reli¬ 
gion, and regard them with pity rather than contempt. 
In illnefs and affliction they even folicit the prayers of 
infidels; but this may proceed from fuperftition rather 
than from toleration. 
In converfation, the Perfians affect elegant language, 
and are fond pf introducing quotations from the works 
of their beft poets, fuch as Saadi, Hafiz, and Djami, 
This love of quotations is common alike to perfons of 
8 T diftimftiot*. 
