6

the purpose, bethink them of the citizen Buonaparte, | République; but,' says he, a few shells dislodged unemployed artillery officer, who took Toulon. A them. It was all finished by six." man of head, a man of action. Barras is named "The ship is over the bar, then; free she bounds commandant's clerk; this young artillery officer is shorewards amidst shoutings and riots! Citoyen named commandant. He was in the gallery at the Buonaparte is named general of the interior by acmoment and heard it; he withdrew some half hour clamation; quelled sections have to disarm in such to consider with himself; after a half hour of grim humour as they may; sacred right of insurrection is compressed considering, to be or not to be, he an- gone for ever! The Sieyes' constitution can disemswers yea. bark itself and begin marching. The miraculous

6

"And now a man of head being at the centre of it, convention ship has got to land;-and is, shall we the whole matter gets vital. Swift, to camp of figuratively say, changed, as epic ships are wont, Sablons, to secure the artillery, there are not twenty into a kind of sea nymph, never to sail more; to men guarding it! a swift adjutant, Murat is the roam the waste azure, a miracle in history! name of him, gallops; gets thither some minutes "It is false,' says Napoleon, that we fired first within time, for Lepelletier was also on march that with blank charge; it had been a waste of life to do that. Most false; the firing was with sharp and way the cannon are ours. And now beset this post, and beset that; rapid and firm; at Wicket of the sharpest shot; to all men it was plain that here was Louvre, in Cul de sac Dauphin, in Rue Saint Honoré, no sport; the rabbets and plinths of Saint-Roch from Pont Neuf all along the north quays, southward church show splintered by it to this hour.-Singuto Pont ci-devant Royal-rank round the sanctuary of grapeshot was promised; but it could not have lar; in old Broglie's time, six years ago, this whiff of the Tuileries, a ring of steel discipline; let every been given then; could not have profited then. gunner have his match burning, and all men stand to their arms!

"Thus there is permanent session through the night; and thus at sunrise of the morrow there is seen sacred insurrection once again: vessel of state labouring on the bar; and tumultuous sea all round her, beating générale, arming and sounding-not ringing tocsin, for we have left no tocsin but our own in the Pavilion of Unity. It is an imminence of shipwreck for the whole world to gaze at. Frightfully she labours, that poor ship, within cable length of port; huge peril for her. However, she has a man at the helm. Insurgent messages, received and not received; messenger admitted blindfolded; counsel and counter-counsel: the poor ship labours! Vendémiaire 13th, year 4: curious enough, of all days it is the fifth day of October, anniversary of that Menad march, six years ago; by sacred right of insurrection we are got thus far.

Now, however, the time is come for it, and the man; and behold you have it; and the thing we specifically call French Revolution, is blown into space by it, and become a thing that was!"*-Vol. iii. pp. 394-396.

From Tait's Magazine:

TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

BY THE REV. HORATIO SOUTHGATE. (Concluded from our November number.) The Persians are a much more fickle and volatile

race than the grave and dignified Turks; though it is probable that Mr. Southgate labours under a slight Persians down as a nation of liars-" We always Turkish prepossession, when he sets the hyperbolical lie when we can," said an old man to him; and this he interprets literally.

Mr. Southgate was now on his way to Tebriz; but he was very naturally tempted to diverge to Ourmiah, in order to visit the mission established there by the American board. He spent a week with his countrymen, the missionaries; of whom four families live together in a beautiful seclusion. He

says:

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“Lepelletier has seized the church of Saint-Roch; has seized the Pont Neuf, our piquet there retreating without fire. Stray shots fall from Lepelletier; rattle down on the very Tuileries' staircase. On the other hand, women advance dishevelled, shrieking, Peace; Lepelletier behind them waving his hat in sign that we shall fraternise. Steady! The artillery officer is steady as bronze; can, if need were, be quick as lightning. He sends eight hundred muskets with ball-cartridges to the convention itself; During my visit, I had a full opportunity to behonourable members shall act with these in case of come acquainted with the policy and the prospects extremity; whereat they look grave enough. Four of the mission. Although, from the reports which I of the afternoon is struck. Lepelletier, making had heard and read, I had formed very high expectanothing by messengers, by fraternity, or hat-waving, tions concerning it, they were surpassed by the bursts out, along the southern Quai Voltaire, along reality. Its policy is highly conservative. It aims streets and passages, treble-quick, in huge veritable onslaught! Whereupon, thou bronze artillery officer? The history of the days of Vendémiaire affords a Fire!' says the bronze lips. And roar and thunder, remarkable instance of the worthlessness of official docuroar and again roar, continual volcano-like, goes his ments, as independent sources of history. Two elaborate great gun in the Cul-de-sac Dauphin against the reports of these events were presented to the convention church of Saint-Roch; go his great guns on the -one by Merlin of Thionville, the other by Barras. Pont Royal; go all his great guns;-blow to air The first never mentions Napoleon at all; the other, some two hundred men; mainly about the church of once only, merely announcing his appointment as seSaint-Roch! Lepelletier cannot stand such horse-cond in command. Barras takes all the credit of the play; no sectioner can stand it; the forty thousand military operations to himself; and if the career of Nayield on all sides, scour towards covert. Some hun-poleon had ended there, Barras would cer.ainly have dred or so of them gathered about the Théatre de la kept it.

not at the overthrow of the Nestorian church, to which its labours are almost exclusively directed. The missionaries do not interfere, in the least degree, with the religious practices of the Nestorians. Even those under their immediate charge are left free to attend the worship of their church, and to observe its fasts and festivals. They aim only to impart religious knowledge drawn from the word of God, and secular learning of a useful character. This is as it should be. It is the most politic, as well as the most catholic system. It is to be hoped that they will persevere in it.

the eastern churches. They will take, we are persuaded, the highest conservative ground to which their belief in the indifference of things that we regard essential will lead them; but they will go no farther."

The American episcopalian missionaries are labouring to train native teachers, or preachers, to carry out their designs. When Mr. Southgate was at Ourmiah, they had forty boys as pupils, ten of wholly under their superintendence, and reside with These boys are whom were learning English. and a deacon, were receiving instruction from the them. Besides the boys, a bishop, three priests, missionaries; and, although the bishop was but a learner, the greatest respect was paid to his official

rank.

The time may come when the Nestorians, enlightened by a spiritual knowledge of God's holy word, may find that their church has, in some respects, departed from the purity of apostolic faith and practice. A spirit of inquiry may rise, and this may be followed by a disposition to reform whatever "He and the other clerical pupils ate at the same is corrupt. That time will be a day of trial, when table with the missionaries; where they appeared, those who are now labouring for the welfare of the beside their other gettings, to have acquired a comNestorians, will need a double portion of the spirit petent knowledge of western manners. One or of wisdom and love. They will not then be found, another of them was invited to ask a blessing, or we confidently believe, either aiming at or counte- offer thanks, at every meal, which they did, in their nancing any attempt to mar whatever is now sound. own language, with great propriety. They had The Episcopal ministry and the liturgy of the Nes- also a pleasant custom of repeating each a verse torian church, are no part of its corruptions. The from the Bible in English or Syriac, every morning former they hold, like all the churches of the east, at breakfast. The simplicity and entire decorum of from the apostles; so they and we believe. The their manners were very gratifying. They observe latter, if it is the same among the Nestorians of Per-punctually the duties enjoined by their church, and sia as among those of Mesopotamia, is regarded as keep their fasts as regularly and fully as if they were having been, in part at least, framed by the apostles in their own families. themselves.* With such institutions it were worse than impolitic, it were, in our view, sin to interfere. A blow struck at either would be more disastrous to the mission than to the church. We do not fear that it will be struck on the plain of Ourmiah. We firmly believe that the missionaries will ever, as now, refrain from all interference with the constitution and government of the Nestorian church.

"But we fear that the time may come when this will not be enough, when missionaries among the eastern churches must not only abstain from the introduction of schism themselves, but, if they do their whole duty, must lend their aid to prevent its originating within the bosom of the churches. The revival of spiritual religion we can hardly hope to see effected without agitation."

He

But Mr. Southgate is not content with this. fears, "Our brethren of other denominations will fall short

"Prayers, in the modern language of the Nestorians, which is a corruption of the ancient Syriac, are said in the school. The apartment is in the basement of one of the houses, and is arranged after the style of American school-rooms.

"The Nestorians of Persia reside chiefly upon the plain of Ourmiah. There are but few of them in the city itself: but they form a large part of the population of the villages in the vicinity. They belong to the same branch of the Nestorian church with the independent and hardy population who reside among the mountains of Kurdistan. The seat of their patriarch, Mar Shimon, is at Julamerik, a few days' journey from Ourmiah, in the heart of the Kurdish country. The missionaries have had some correspondence with the patriarch, but, on account of the dangerous character of the country which intervenes, have never visited the region where he resides."

The missionaries are treated with reverence and

of what we hold to be the catholic rule. If they respect; which is, however, imagined to be in part content themselves with merely a neutral position, from the novelty and singularity of their work. On they will, we believe, overlook the very point of the heights around Ourmiah, mounds are seen, which danger. And yet, how can they in consistency go the missionaries conjecture to have been the ancient farther? Regarding the episcopal ministry of the

eastern churches as having no better foundation than places of worship of the fire-worshippers. Mr. Southexpediency, esteeming their use of a liturgy as rather gate visited the Begler Bey, or governor of the city, an imperfection than a praise, entertaining for them by whom he was received in the courtly Persian none of that sympathy and benevolent regard which style, and entertained with teas of excellent flavour. arises from a similarity of ecclesiastical institutions, of the villages around Ourmiah. The stranger rethey may think it too much to ask, it is certainly ceived a most cordial welcome. Some of the old too much to expect, that they should labour to up-men embraced and kissed him. He relates:hold and preserve the unity and external order of

With one of the missionaries he also visited some

"We were conducted to a roof, where carpets had * The oldest member of the mission in Ourmiah as-been spread, and every thing provided that was ne sured me, that there was very little, if any thing, in the cessary for our comfort. Presently an aged bishop, liturgy of the Nestorians which he wished to see changed. Mar Elias by name, came up to see us. He in

quired about my route through Kurdistan, which he | their devotions, and which, in the present instance, had once travelled himself, and expressed great joy seemed to show that the place had some better uses at my safe arrival, saying, God alone has brought than the display of worldly vanity." you safely over so dangerous a road.'

"Our dinner was served upon the roof where we sat, the bishop imploring a blessing in his own language. After the meal, conversation turned on various matters. At one time the clear blue sky above us attracted our attention. One of the company gave an amusing explanation of the milky way, which I omitted afterwards to record, and have now forgotten. The boy mentioned before as an inmate of the mission-families was present. As soon as he learned the subject of conversation, he broke forth in a hymn which he had learned from his teachers. The lines were commemorative of the works of

and peculiarly healthy city of Tebriz, in which he Mr. Southgate was much pleased with the fine remained during the greater part of August and September, 1837, earnestly pursuing those investigations which had brought him so far from home. He there engaged an empty house, consisting of two rooms on the ground floor-the only floor common in Persian dwellings-another in a kind of tower rising from the centre of the building, which he kept for himself, and a kitchen, cellar, and servant's room. For this he paid at the rate, in English money, of about a pound a-month. Furniture he hired from a bazaar, and the British agent lent him a chair and a table, His dwelling had a court adorned with a "The bishop left us at an early hour; beds were brought and spread upon the roof; and we slept on reservoir. The care of the purse and of household profusion of the beautiful morning-flower, and a the same spot where we had dined and talked. Be-affairs was entrusted to John, who showed himself a fore returning to the city the next morning, we visit-faithful and an able maitre d'hotel. The population ed the school-room, this being one of the villages of Tebriz was once reckoned at above a half million, where the missionaries have established a school. The apartment was remarkably neat, and the slates, hanging against the walls, gave it a very familiar appearance."

God.

and by the Persians themselves, at 1,100,000. It was probably never so large as even the lesser number, and cannot now be reckoned at above 80,000. The public buildings of the city have decayed with Mr. Southgate, on leaving Ourmiah, fell into a the population. Tebriz, like most of the eastern track which Morier has described; and, in particular, towns, is still walled, though many of the inhabitthe plain of Khoy; though that of Ourmiah, which ants live without the walls. It boasts of many beauMorier did not visit, in the opinion of Mr. South-tiful gardens. The citadel or arsenal, named in gate, far surpasses it, both in beauty and the variety Persian the Ark, is its most remarkable building. of its products. It was originally a mosque, though now an arsenal; but, the Shah's finances being in a low state, the arsenal is imperfectly furnished; and the notes of the government already paid to the contractor for the cannon supplied, are at a discount of forty per cent., and not easily exchangeable even at this rate. In barracks, within the arsenal, Mr. Southgate saw a number of unfortunate Russian deserters in a wretched condition; and, this more interesting sight:

A gentleman, a missionary to the Jews, accompanied Mr. Southgate to Ourmiah and Khoy, and his American friends escorted him for some distance. To their adventures we cannot advert, save, for the sake of the ladies, to this incidental description of the interior of an humble Persian harem, which was evacuated in haste, in order to accommodate the traveller.

"It consisted of one large room with two smaller ones adjacent, the latter being intended as recepta"In another part of the enclosure, a company of cles for the beds which at night are spread upon the workman were engaged in the manufacture of shawls. ground. The principal apartment was neatly plas- They were from Kerman, and had been brought tered, and the whole furniture consisted of the Per-hither by Abbas Mirza, for this same purpose. The sian carpets which covered the floor. The room was process was so difficult that they accomplished only lighted by one large latticed window, which occu-half an inch daily, and six months, they said, were pied the whole side of the room, looking upon the necessary to complete a shawl of one yard and a court. The doorways were screened by large heavy half in length. They said that they had been curtains hanging before them. In the centre of the brought from their native country against their will; ceiling overhead, was an inscription taken from the and, when asked about their compensation, replied Koran, whose sacred words, according to the super-that it was enough not to die upon.” stition of the Mussulmans, are efficacious to preserve the person or place that bears them from harm.* In the niches of the walls were displayed all the articles of a Persian toilet; here a mirror, ornamented with the face of a Persian lady, there a bag of surmeh, with a bodkin of sandal wood for its application; here combs and perfumes interspersed, and there one of those pieces of clay which the Persians use in

The reader will be reminded of the phylacteries of the Jews; the superstition of the Mohammedans, on this point, being one of the innumerable particulars in which their religion resembles corrupted Judaism.

A powder used by eastern ladies for staining the eyebrows and eyelashes.

MUSEUM.-DEC. 1840.

This is hardly a shade better than the condition of our hand-loom weavers.

sian language, which he had begun at ConstantinoMr. Southgate here renewed the study of the Perple. His teacher was a young man who had been the instructer of those German missionaries, who, before this, were recalled by the Basle Missionary Society; because, as we are led to conjecture, they had not pretended to work miracles of sudden conversion, but had attempted something better.

"The plan which they had formed was, to establish a seminary of a high character, in Tebriz, for the purpose of training teachers for the nation. This plan they had began to act upon. Several young Per

51

sians had been under their instruction; the Governor of Tebriz himself was, at one time, a pupil; Abbas Mirza, during his life-time, had patronised their undertaking; and the present Shah had declared his warmest approbation of the design, and had conferred upon one of them the unsought-for honour of the Royal Order of the Lion and the Sun. The foreign languages which they had taught were English and French. They had used Martyn's translation of the New Testament, as a text-book in Persian, and the same had been examined and approved by some mollahs of the city. They had wisely avoided all controversy on doctrinal subjects, believing it inexpedient and useless. They trusted rather to the gradual impartation of knowledge, for those high and holy effects which they hoped their labours would, at length, attain. They had commenced translations of European works of science, and a volume on geography had already been laid at the foot of the throne."

duced, I was told, by Abbas Mirza, under the same impression which seems to have possessed the Sultan of Turkey, that European dress would make European soldiers.

"On the tenth of August, I received a message from Melik Cassam Mirza, a Persian prince, and one of the numerous uncles of the Shah. Having heard of my arrival, and being partly informed of my design in visiting Persia, he sent, requesting to see me. I went immediately in quest of him. After having wasted the greater part of a day in following the false directions that were given me, I found him, at last, in an old dilapidated palace within the walls. The building had two courts, of which the apartments around the interior one were alone inhabitable. I found the prince in the midst of a room crowded with European articles of all kinds, from which he was making a selection of such as pleased him best, while a scribe sat by, recording the names and prices of those which he chose. He was himself seated in In short, these missionaries set to work, in the a chair, from which he rose upon my entrance, and only feasible way for ensuring success, and for this saluted me with a hearty English shake of the hand, their constituents had no patience. The very weak- and a cordial How do you do? His English, howness of the Persian character, together with their ever, soon ran out, and we turned to French, which, accessibility, frankness, and lively curiosity, render he said, he had learned from an old French lady them far more impressionable than the Turks; and travelling in Persia. they are much less prejudiced and intolerant; but they have less perseverance than the Turks, and are more fickle and reckless. Mr. Southgate considers Tebriz the most eligible place in Persia for commencing an effort at education and religious improve

ment.

Commerce has already acted there as the pioneer of civilisation. At Tebriz, there are several English

merchants and handicraftsmen, and the bazaars are full of European articles. The Russians, who keep a very sharp look-out on the English in Persia, have a consul at Tebriz.

He spoke it with fluency and tolerable correctness. His dress, excepting the Persian cap, was in the style formerly described as prevailing in the Turkish court; he had a handsome and intelligent face, and wore a short beard. I had long of education in Persia, and I esteemed it a providenbefore heard of him as one of the most zealous friends tial favour that he had visited the city during my stay. His own residence was in Shishevan, on the eastern border of the lake of Ourmiah, and he had come to Tebriz for the laudable purpose of eating fruit.

"He turned the conversation, at once, to the subThere is either a typographical blunder in the text, ject of education, and went on to detail his past or some want of clearness; but, we presume, Mr. efforts and his plans for the future. He had established a school, some six months before, in his own Southgate means to say that the annual European trade with Tebriz consists of 15,000 packages of the village, in which he intended that instruction should average value of £30 each package. Six eighths of be given in Persian, Armenian, French, and English. the whole is English. The exportations of Tebriz The principal was an Armenian, who had been are silk, the nut-galls of Kurdistan, cherry-wood pipe- educated in Bishop's College, Calcutta; but, alsticks for the Turkish market, and dye-stuffs and though a man of ability and learning, his manageguns. Shawls are also sent to Constantinople, and ment of the school had not been altogether satisfaccarpets, properly Persian, though called Turkey, to tory. He wished now to procure a teacher from Europe.

The political revolutions and condition of Persia are foreign to Mr. Southgate's design; but as the political state of the country must affect his ulterior objects, it is incidentally noticed. One fact and one character, a patron of learning, and a person who may be paralleled in many latitudes, will afford the reader a glimpse of the social and moral condition of

Persia.

·

America; he would prefer a physician; but would be content with any one competent to the duty. He had desired to see me, hoping that I might aid him in accomplishing his object. His school, he said, was only a commencement and a very humble attempt. He had not the means to accomplish all that he was ambitious to undertake. This is a vile country," he exclaimed, there are great difficulties in the way, and I am not Shah.' He was determined, he said, to make a dictionary of the Persian and English, as "In my rides about the city, I used frequently to soon as he was qualified for the undertaking. The see two or three companies going through their drills Shah had written to him, approving highly the plan under the instruction of an English serjeant. They of his school, and he was entertaining sanguine hopes were dressed in European military coats, made by of royal patronage. He spoke freely of missionary one of the Frank tailors of the city, and large trousers, operations in Persia, and expressed his opinion of an order between pantaloons and shalvars. I could not learn that this adoption of European costume had excited any prejudice, although the Persians are even more scrupulous than the Turks about the exposure of the natural figure of the body. It was first intro

that we should not engage in personal controversy, or circulate books of a disputatious character. He said that much was to be feared from the mollahs, and that the only safe course was to instruct and enlighten the people gradually. I offered to visit

Shishevan and examine the state of the school, pro- compelled, however, to conclude that the Prince had mising, if I should consider the project a feasible no just idea of the nature of his own undertaking, nor one, that I would render him all the aid in my power. the stability of purpose necessary for its prosecution. He demurred strongly to the proposal, and seemed to Still, my conviction is that, in the hands of an entertain some secret aversion to my knowing the efficient missionary, the Prince might be made the exact state of things. I left him, therefore, with a instrument of great good to his country; and his general expression of my interest in his efforts, and school, or a better one in its stead, might become, of my desire to promote the cause of education in under the same direction, the germ of a noble work Persia. in Persia."

Such are the imperfect instruments which, in the commencement of a great and difficult work, must be

used.

"A few days after this interview, the Prince's Armenian teacher made his appearance at my house. He introduced himself as a deacon of the Armenian Church, and produced very satisfactory testimonials from the late Bishop of Calcutta, and from the Prin- wanderings, or, without an associate, to prosecute After long internal debate whether to curtail his cipal of Bishop's College. His name was Mesrop his projected long tour in Mesopotamia, Syria, and David Taliatine. He spoke English fluently, and showed me a copy of Bishop Heber's Palestine, with the condition of the Christians in Mesopotamia was, Egypt, our traveller decided to proceed. To note a translation in Armenian verse from his own pen. with him, an object of exceeding interest. His man, He had been partly educated at the seat of the Arme- John, agreed to go on; and a medical friend, attached nian Catholicos in Etchmiadzin, and he gave me a long detail of his trials among his own countrymen. ply of medicines, with directions for their use. to the English embassy, gave Mr. Southgate a supHe came, at length, upon the history of his recent residence with the Prince Melik Cassam Mirza, at lessness of their temperament, are, though less strict The Persians, from the natural liveliness and restShishevan, and told a very different story from that Mussulmans, much fonder of going on pilgrimages of the Prince himself. The pupils in the school were the Prince's own boys, and the Prince, also, the observance of this exciting superstition. Every than the Turks. They have other inducements to had received instruction with them. He had been engaged with an express stipulation as to the salary; distinction of rank; until when he has performed the pilgrimage performed entitles the devotee to some but, after the first two or three months, no pay had been given him. The pupils were so irregular in great pilgrimage to Mecca, he acquires the proud title their attendance, that they received little or no profit their attractions; and many of the devout contrive to of Haji, or Pilgrim. Fashion and notoriety lend from his instructions. The Prince, who was fond of kill two birds with one stone, by doing a little busihunting, always took several of them away with him in his excursions, so that, of some fifteen who were to Meshed brings back, besides his new stock of ness at some point on the route. Thus, the pilgrim nominally his pupils, only three had attended regu- merit, a valuable supply of Bokhara skins." larly. The Prince, he said, was no Mussulman, because he drank wine and ate hog's flesh.

An Arme

children.

66

Troops of mounted pilgrims, women as well as "The teacher affirmed that the peace of his own men, were frequently met going or returning to family was endangered by the habits of the boys, for Mecca; the women slung in the fashion of gipsy they were all addicted to vicious courses. nian female, connected with his family, had been enticed into the Prince's harem, and was detained there against her will. The Prince had written to the Shah, soon after the establishment of the school, and the Shah had sent him, in return, a letter full of

The caravansaries, in some of the towns, are mainly supported, as of old was the Tabard renowned by Chaucer. The American missionary, who often met them in these places of public resort, these devout personages, and heartily wished to see was far from admiring the character and manners of

sweet words, but without the more substantial accom- no more of them. They were noisy and brawling; paniment that the Prince had expected. From that and, to him, he says, time, his interest in the school began to decline.

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They appeared a compound of self-complacency, The teacher had long meditated an escape: but fear- arrogance, and bluster. The old keeper testified ing lest the Prince should find means to detain him, that when they were on their way to Kerbela, they he had not communicated to him his intention, and, could be endured, but on their return they had beat length, had found an opportunity of absconding come so important that they were absolutely intoleprivately. He declared that he would not return to rable. They never addressed each other without the Prince until all arrears had been paid; and, as the title of Kerbelaï, of which they seemed extravathis was a hopeless condition, he was ready to try gantly proud. The poor beggars who thronged the his fortune elsewhere. I advised him to go to Con- caravansera prefaced all their supplications for charity stantinople, where his Armenian learning would be with the same honourable appellation, as if expeof service to him. He was pleased with the idea, rience had taught them that no argument would prove but said that he could not command the means neces- more conciliatory and moving. Being among pilsary for the purpose. He succeeded, however, in grims, we were constantly saluted in the same way; accomplishing his object, for, when I reached Con- and when every other plea had proved unavailing, stantinople the next spring, he was already there. they would stand at our door, and repeat, in suppli"I found good reason, afterwards, to believe that his story respecting the seminary of Melik Cassam Mirza, was, in the main, true. I had, at first, felt a lively interest in it, as being the effort of a Persian noble, and the earliest of the kind of which I had any information as having been made in Persia. I was

cating tones, Kerbelaï, Kerbelaï. Thousands of pilgrims annually pass through the country, to perform their devotions at the tombs of Ali and Hossein in the vicinity of Bagdad. These pilgrims come back imbued with a more enthusiastic reverence for the founders of their sect, which they diffuse