Glimpses of Modern Persia 
A HOUSE AND GARDEN IN KAZVIN 
are ot kiln-dried brick and the foundations 
of stone. No one need be at a loss for 
stone already cut, for the buried piles of cen¬ 
turies ago, which are always near at hand and 
only a little way under the surface, can be 
looted at discretion. Only some digging and 
a considerable expenditure for carrying are 
required. But mud is the handier and far 
cheaper material. The kiln-dried brick are 
generally of the yellow variety ; the red ones 
are only used for ornamental work. As a 
brick mason, the Persian is an artist, and he 
secures some amazingly good effects even 
with the coarse, sun-dried product. But 
whatever the walls be made of, the roofs of 
houses are for the most part mud, and are 
eternally in process of repair. After a storm, 
and particularly if it be a rain storm, it is a 
common thing to see three or four workmen 
with a pile of pulverized dirt, a mortar table, 
trowels, buckets of water and other requisites, 
patching up the roofs of a house. I n humbler 
dwellings the framework which supports this 
mud canopy is of the rudest; small saplings, 
peeled and seasoned, are set into the walls, with 
brush or straw laid over them, and the mud 
fastened thick on these. Some of the more 
substantial buildings, such as bazaars, mosques 
and the like, are roofed with tin, brought 
down from the Caucasian capital or up from 
Bushire at great cost. Even some private 
dwellings are tin-covered, but such are few. 
It is of prime importance that the roof be 
kept sound, not for protection to the interior 
only, but because it is a department of the 
house itself. The smallest acquaintance with 
the East demonstrates the accuracy of the 
many Biblical references to life on the house¬ 
tops. In a Persian city in summer-time, the 
roofs are the general mustering place. The 
evenings on the great central plateaus are cool, 
and after nightfall the Persian mounts to his 
roof, to smoke, and talk, and gaze into the 
starlit and forever cloudless sky. Often he 
makes his couch there, but woe to the man 
whose roof-top commands a view into the 
garden of his neighbor’s anderun. To avoid 
the giving of offence, the wall on the danger 
side is carried up to the height of a man’s 
head or more. 
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