The stable of the King is deemed one of the most sacred of sanctuaries, and this usage continues in force to the present time.  The stables of the foreign Legations are also regarded, by reason of the Ilchi-Envoy representative sovereign character, as affording a similar asylum, and in 1890 I was witness to protection being thus claimed in the stable of the British Minister.  The military tribes of Persia have always regarded this sanctuary of the stable with the most superstitious reverence.  ’A horse,’ they say, ’will never bear him to victory by whom it is violated.’  In a Persian MS. referred to by Malcolm, all the misfortunes of Nadir Mirza, the grandson of Nadir Shah, are attributed to his having violated the honour of the stable by putting to death a person who had taken refuge there.  The same writer says that the fleeing criminal finds a place of safety at the head of the horse even when tied up in the open air; the fugitive touches the headstall, and is safe so long as he remains there.  Malcolm again tells us of what is still observed, that it is not unusual for those of the military tribes who desire to show their respect at the funerals of chiefs and soldiers of high reputation to send a horse without a rider, but with arms upon the saddle, to swell the train of the mourning cavalcade.  The favourite charger of the departed warrior, carrying his arms and clothes, accompanies the procession; the sheepskin cap he wore is placed on the pommel of his saddle; his scarf sash, or kumarbund, is bound round the horse’s neck, and his boots are laid across the saddle.  In all this may be seen the origin of similar customs now followed by the most civilized nations, and of the regard in which the horse is held as ‘the noble animal.’

The late Shah had not a single English or European riding-horse in his stables, nor are any such seen in the country except some from Russia—­heavy, coarse animals, bred in the Don districts, and used for carriage purposes.  The artillery with the Persian Cossack brigade at Tehran also have a few Russian horses.  Nasr-ed-Din had such a high appreciation of Arab and Eastern horses, of which he was in a position to get the very best, that he found it difficult to understand what he considered the fancy prices paid in England for racing stock.  The story is told that when he was shown Ormonde at Eaton Hall, in 1889, and was informed that L14,000 had been offered for him, he tapped the ground briskly with his cane, and said in a vivacious manner:  ’What!  L14,000 offered for him?  Sell him, sell him now to-day.  Why, he may be dead to-morrow.’  He would have been astonished to hear that Ormonde afterwards changed owners at the advanced price of about L30,000.