of the Koran in perfect Arabic, which apparently satisfied the priest, for he let him depart with his blessing.  Had the trick been discovered, he would undoubtedly have been roughly treated, if not killed, for the Shirazis have an unmitigated contempt for Europeans.  There are few places, too, in Asia where Jews are more persecuted than in Shiraz, although they have their own quarter, in the lowest, most poverty-stricken part of the town, and other privileges are granted them by the Government.  Shortly before my visit, a whole family was tortured and put to death by a mob of infuriated Mohammedans.  The latter accused them of stealing young Moslem children, and sacrificing them at their secret ceremonies. [A] Guilty or innocent of the charge, the assassins were left unpunished.

The climate of Shiraz is delicious, but dangerous.  Though to a new-comer the air feels dry, pure, and exhilarating, the city is a hot-bed of disease, and has been christened the “Fever Box.”  Small-pox, typhus, and typhoid are never absent, and every two or three years an epidemic of cholera breaks out and carries off a fearful percentage of the inhabitants.  In spring-time, during heavy rains, the plains are frequently inundated to a depth of two or three feet, and the water, stagnating and rotting under a blazing sun, produces towards nightfall a thick white mist, pregnant with miasma and the dreaded Shiraz fever which has proved fatal to so many Europeans, to say nothing of natives.  Medical science is at a very low ebb in Persia; purging and bleeding are the two remedies most resorted to by the native hakim.  If these fail, a dervish is called in, and writes out charms, or forms of prayer, on bits of paper, which are rolled up and swallowed like pills.  Inoculation is performed by placing the patient in the same bed as another suffering from virulent small-pox.  Under these circumstances, it is scarcely to be wondered at that the Shirazis die like sheep during an epidemic, and indeed at all times.  Persian surgery is not much better.  In cases of amputation the limb is hacked off by repeated blows of a heavy chopper.  In the case of fingers or toes a razor is used, the wound being dipped into boiling oil or pitch immediately after the operation.

The office of the Indo-European Telegraph is in Shiraz, but the private dwellings of the staff are some distance outside the city.  A high wall surrounds the grounds in which the latter are situated—­half a dozen comfortable brick buildings, bungalow style, each with its fruit and flower garden.  Looking out of my bedroom window the morning following my arrival, on the shrubberies, well-kept lawns, bright flower-beds, and lawn-tennis nets, I could scarcely realize that this was Persia; that I was not at home again, in some secluded part of the country in far-away England.  Long residence in the East had evidently not changed my host Mr. F——­ ’s ideas as to the necessity for European comforts.  The cheerful, sunlit, chintz-covered bedroom, with its white furniture, blue-and-white wall-paper, and lattice windows almost hidden by rose and jasmine bushes, was a pleasant coup d’oeil after the grimy, bug-infested post-houses; and the luxuries of a good night’s rest and subsequent shave, cold tub, and clean linen were that morning appreciated as they only can be by one who has spent many weary days in the saddle, uncombed, unshaven, and unwashed.