PER 
tiling but a fpy, Tent to reconnoitre bis country, and to 
ferve as a guide to an army coming to drive him from if. 
This diftruft fcarcely ever troubles the minds of the Per- 
fians. A ftranger may go through the countries which 
they-inhabit, and examine them with attention, without 
exciting the leaft fufpicion by his curiofity. The govern¬ 
ment even carries its confidence fo far, that, during the 
war fubfilling againft the Ruffians, the communications 
were not interrupted. The caravans continued to go 
from the interior of Perfia into 'Georgia; the Ruffian 
veffels touched on the coafts of Guilanand Mazanderan; 
the Ruffians had fecret correfpondences with Armenians, 
and even with Perfians; and yet the government teftified 
no difquietude. To what is this tranquillity to be attri¬ 
buted ? to the conftitution of the government, or to its 
fupinenefs ? It is certainly a very remarkable difference, 
when we confider that thefe are two neighbouring em¬ 
pires, both abfolute, and both profeffing the fame reli¬ 
gion. 
“In commercial tranfafiions the Turk is juft, and 
rarely breaks his word ; the Perfinn barters his oath like 
any other commodity. We read in Plato and Herodo¬ 
tus, that the ancient Perfians had a horror of lying : how 
much their defendants have degenerated ! The Perfians 
ot the prefent day are the moll lying people upon earth. 
They are accuftomed in their infancy to diflemble, and 
to get out of a fcrape by any fubterfuge. Cunning and 
deceitful, thePerfian is never afraid to break his engage¬ 
ments: when he keeps his word, it is only becaufe it is 
impoffible to do otherwife. The crime of theft, which 
is very rare among tjie Ottomans, is frequent with the 
Perfians, who commit it without fcruple. 
“The Turk is magnificent in his prefents, whether 
guided by oftentation, gratitude, or humanity. But the 
hand of the Perfian, always open to receive, is never 
open to give: when he cannot do otherwife than give, 
his gifts are confined within very narrow limits. He 
ruins himfelf only in promifes, and in thefe he may, in¬ 
deed, be faid to be munificent. If you extol the beauty 
of aliorfe, a fabre, or any other article, he immediately 
fays, ‘ I give it you.’ If you are delighted with a field 
bearing a rich crop, or with a fmiling valley, he fays, ‘I 
make you a prelent of it.’ But this is all mere ceremony, 
and never turns out to mean any thing. The Spaniards 
have the fame cuftom, which they have no doubt derived 
from the Arabs. 
“ The Perfians and Turks of the prefent day are not, 
as their forefathers were, rigid obfervers of the precept 
which forbids the drinking of wine. Neverthelefs, thofe 
who tranfgrefs are ftill obliged to do it in fecret. In 
every part of Perfia where the vine grows, the Armeni¬ 
ans and Jews make the wine, and fell it to the Perfians. 
The Turks are more addidled than their neighbours tn 
the vice of drunkennefs. 
“Underan able government, the Perfians would re¬ 
build their cities, re-eftablifh their commerce, and repair 
the injuries which theiragriculture has fuftained. With 
a vigorous, aftive, and intelligent, government, the Turk 
would perhaps once more ftrike terror intoTurope. 
“From thefe different traits we are authorized to con¬ 
clude, that the fociety of the Perfians is agreeable, if the 
connexion between the parties is difinterefted; but we 
mlift not expert from them either fincere friendfhip, drift 
integrity, or refined delicacy.” Monthly Mag. vol. 
liii. liv. 
To judge from the Guebres, the relics of the ancient 
Perfians, they were originally a coarfe-looking race of 
people; but their blood has fince been refined by the in¬ 
termixture with that of Georgia and Gircaffia. There 
are few Perfians of quality who are not fprung from wo¬ 
men of thofe nations ; and, as this intermixture lias been 
pradlifed for feveral centuries, both fexes have been 
greatly improved by it. The men are tall and well-pro¬ 
portioned, vigorous, aftive, and comely. The women, 
S I A. 713 
without being qualified to vie With thefe of Georgia in 
beauty, are in general handfome in face and figure. 
But the Perfians differ as much from us in their notions 
of beauty as they do in thofe of tafte. A large foft and 
languifhing black eye conftitutes with them the perfection 
of beauty, and diffufes an amorous foftnefs over the whole 
countenance, infinitely fuperior to the piercing and ar¬ 
dent glance of majeftic beauty. It is chiefly on this ac¬ 
count that the women ufe the powder of antimony, which, 
while it adds to the vivacity of the eye, throws over it 
a kind of voluptuous languor which makes it appear dif- 
folving, as it were, in blifs. Thus the chief charaffers of 
beauty with tbemare eyes like the antelope’s, a full-moon 
face,and theftatureof the cyprefs; but there aretfecondaiy 
ones which the poets are fond of celebrating. Ferdoufee,in 
the Shah Natneli, thus defcribes the females of Touran : 
“ Their ftature is tall, like that of the cyprefs, and the 
locks of their hair black as mufk. Their cheeks are co¬ 
vered with rofes, and their eyes full of languor; their 
lips qre fweet as fugar and fragrant as the rofe.”—“ How 
admirable is thy form !” exclaims Hafiz ; “ how delight¬ 
ful thy converfe ! Thy heart is as tender as the bud of 
the rofe is frefh; thy beauty is equal to that of the cy¬ 
prefs of the eternal garden !”—Djami defcribes the 
charms of Leilah in thefe terms: “ Her figure was tall 
and elegant, and in her graceful gait (he refembled the 
partridge of the mountains. Beautiful without the af- 
fiftance of art, nature had given the moft delicate rofy 
tinge to her cheeks, radiant with frefhnefs; her eyebrow 
was like a delicate bow, formed of precious amber, and 
her eyelafhes, like fo many little darts of mufk, pierced 
all hearts; her lips had the luftre of rubies without their 
hardnefs. Her enchanting fmile difplayed teeth as white 
as the pureft pearls; you would imagine you beheld the 
bud of the rofe gemmed with the tears of morning.” 
Many of the women of Perfia are as fair as thofe of 
Europe, but confinement robs them of that lovely bloom 
fo becoming and fo eflential to female beauty. The Per¬ 
fian women have a curious cuftom of making their eye¬ 
brows meet; and, if this charm be denied them, they 
paint their forehead witli a kind of preparation made for 
the purpofe. 
The Perfian ladies not only dye their hair and eye¬ 
brows, but alfo ftain their bodies with a variety of fan- 
taftic devices, not unfrequently with the figures of trees, 
birds and beafts, fun, moon, and ftars, as we read was 
the pradlice of our ancient Britifh anceftors. This fort 
of pencil-work fpreads over the bofom, and continues 
down as low as the navel, round which fonie radiated 
figure is generally painted. All this is difplayed by the 
ftyle of their drels, every garment of which, even to the 
light gauzechemife, is open from the neck to that point, 
as may be feen in the figure of a Perfian lady of the royal 
feraglio, in Plate I. in which, however, the appearance 
of the tattooing is omitted. 
The occupations of the Perfian women are more diver- 
fified than might be fuppofed. They fpin, embroider, 
work with the needle, and make their own apparel. 
They fuperintend alfo whatever relates to the interior of 
the houle ; they keep an account of the daily expenditure, 
deliver out the provifions to the fervants, pay their 
wages, adjuft their difputes, and even fee that pro¬ 
per attention is paid to the horfes. In every houfe of any 
confequence, there is a eunuch, called nazir, fteward, 
with w'hom the miftrefs of the houfe daily confults, and 
decides on every thing relating to the fervants and do- 
meftic concerns. 
Sir Robert Porter gives the following lively picture of 
the employments of women belonging to what may be 
called the middling clafs. The originals after whom it 
was delineated, were the four wives of a man in whole 
houfe he was entertained. “From the hour of rifing*” 
lays this traveller, “ to that of going to reft, the houfe 
founded with one continual clatter of female voices, 
mingling 
