A VISIT TO ISPAHAN. host" and his auxiliaries the waiter; by no means-a caravanserai is On the eleventh, we arrived at Seinsin, where, by a remarkable coincidence, as I discovered by some writing on the walls, the English embassy to the Persian court, under Sir Harford Jones, had stopped that very same day twenty years before. After a long ride, we arrived, on the twelfth, at Kashan, a small ruinous town, where I saw nothing worth notice, excepting a long, wide, and paved street, leading completely from one end of the place to the other. Three men were severely bastinadoed in front of our They had been guilty of theft: one caravanserai during the afternoon. of them received no less than nine hundred blows on the soles of his feet, which were beaten to a jelly; I am sure the poor wretch was lamed for life. . On the thirteenth, at about four fursuks from Kashan, we began to ascend some very lofty hills; and having proceeded for some time up a circuitous path, we suddenly came in sight of a most beautiful The waterfall, of a great height, the water of which was supplied by a small lake, situated half way up the mountains, between two ranges. water of this lake was of a fine clear blue; it was the most beautiful spot I had seen in Persia. Having ridden two fursuks further, we arrived in sight of a well cultivated valley, thickly wooded, in the midst of which was a village called Kohrood. It must be a delightful place of residence during the summer season; the cold, however, of I saw here some of the most beautiful winter is excessively severe. women I had ever beheld; they had large dark black eyes, so bright, In the valley, innumerable species they seemed to look through one. of fruit-trees flourish; it yields also an abundance of corn, particularly barley. On preparing to depart, on the following morning, we found that a recent fall of snow had so completely blocked up the main path that it was impassable. A couple of villagers, however, offered to guide us through the mountains by a roundabout route, where the snow, by their account, did not lie so deep; we accordingly mounted and followed them. Our guides proceeded on foot, feeling the way with long sticks. After having, however, advanced about half a fursuk, they stopped, and protested that it was impossible to proceed further, as the snow was much too deep. However, by the use of both threats and promises, we induced them to persevere and after much difficulty, we managed to force a passage, and at length descended upon plain at the foot of the hills, where we quitted our guides and the snowy regions at the same time. In the evening of the next day we arrived at Moorchauhaut, a caravanserai nine fursuks distant from Ispahan, for which city we started long before dawn on the sixteenth. At sunrise we arrived at Gez, a small village, where we breakfasted the and rested for an hour. The day was sunny and warm, and the plain entirely free from snow. Early in the day we came in sight of the excapital of Persia; it is a city of infinitely greater extent than Teheran, and was the most picturesque Persian town I had hitherto beheld. Its numerous mosques, with their vaulted and gilded domes, shining brightly in the rays of the glorious Eastern sun, gave it an appearance of grandeur far beyond that of the present comparatively insignificant capital. Having entered the city by the Teheran gate, we proceeded at once to Julfa, a suburb situated towards the south, and inhabited by an Armenian colony. We procured here a lodging in a house standing in the midst of a very beautiful garden, full of fruit trees. We had not been long arrived, when an old Italian priest called upon us. He was, it appeared, the chief of the Roman Catholics in Julfa, which are not so numerous as the Armenians of the Armenian church, who have a bishop of their own. We found Padré Johannes, for such was the name of the Roman Catholic priest, a most kind and excellent personage; he was of the greatest service to us during our stay. On the seventeenth, we set off on an excursion through Ispahan, accompanied by the padre. We firstly visited the royal palace, which is an extensive building, situated at the upper end of an avenue of tall trees, which are considered to be the finest in the country. The interior of the palace is well worth seeing. Many of the apartments, and chiefly the banqueting halls, are ornamented with ancient Persian pictures, consisting mostly of battle-pieces, in which the Persians were always represented as getting the better of their enemies. The most conspicuous figures are those of the kings, who are painted in the act of putting whole legions to flight by the prowess of their single arms. Although the colouring of these paintings is very beautiful, there is in general a great want of attention to the perspective; and in more than one of the pictures, the victorious kings seem to be cleaving the head of an enemy distant many miles. Besides the battle-pieces were others representing Oriental entertainments, in which were grouped beautiful dancing-girls performing before the guests; there were also portaits from the royal harems of Shah Abbas and his successors, some of the faces in which were really lovely. The view down the avenue is magnificent; this row of trees was planted by Shah Abbas, but as the old trees are decaying fast, and young ones are never planted, before very long a few stumps will alone remain to commemorate this still beautiful spot. Like almost everything else in the once glorious Persia, the palace is falling to ruins from neglect and want of proper repairs. Having quitted the royal mansion, we proceeded through the streets, some of which, although in a ruinous state, are still very fine, and show remnants of former grandeur. The bazaar is spacious; but the lack of merchandize evinces the little commercial prosperity that exists in the country. The mosques are the buildings which are in the best state of preservation; and their gilded domes, glittering in the rays of the sun, produce a very striking effect. While we were sauntering down the main street, a soldier approached, and informed us that the commander of the Ispahanee forces requested us to honour him with a visit. We accordingly pro ceeded at once to the house of that personage, which was close at hand, where we were most hospitably received. The commander-in-chief was a Georgian, and his power is secondary only to that of the princegovernor. His dress was a mixture of Asiatic and European fashion; his coat, which was a frock of red cloth, was ornamented with an enormous pair of gold epaulets; he wore large Turkish trousers, tied round the ankle by bandages of red cashmere; at his side hung a Khorasan scimitar; and in his girdle was a Georgian dagger. Like. the generality of his countrymen, he was a remarkably handsome man. The second in command was present; he also was a Georgian. After a short visit, during which kalianus, tea, and sweatmeats were handed round, we took our leave. The following day, as we were proceeding along the main street, we observed a very large crowd, and on inquiring what was the reason of the people collecting together, we were informed that an execution was about to take place. The sufferers were a man and a woman; the former a Jew, the latter a Mussulman. They had been caught in the act of adultery, and as the crime, in the opinion of the Persians, was aggravated by the religion of the male culprit, the husband had abstained from taking summary vengeance, and had appealed to public justice. The consequence was, the guilty parties were condemned to be hanged in the midst of the main street. My being a Frank caused the mob to make way for me, and I managed to get close to the place of execution. A rude temporary gallows had been raised, and at the foot were the two condemned parties, in the custody of the executioners, six ruffianly-looking men. The woman was veiled; but it was easy to perceive that her whole form was trembling with fear and agitation. Close at hand was the husband, an ill-looking old man of sixty. The Jew was a very handsome youth, and evinced great firmness at that awful moment. To the yells and screams of " Accursed Jew!" "Unclean dog!" "How dare such a filthy animal attempt to defile our hearths," &c., which issued from the mouths of the populace, the wretched man returned a sneer of contempt. He was, as it were, alone in the midst of that great crowd; no one of his religion was present; indeed, to have been so, would certainly have been fatal to any Jew, considering the excited state of the spectators. A few minutes after our arrival, the executioners proceeded to tie a rope round the neck of the Jew, and then began to perform the same ceremony with regard to the woman, who, on being touched, screamed fearfully. In her struggles her veil and chauder* fell off, and her form and face became revealed. I seldom, if ever, indeed, beheld such a beautiful creature; notwithstanding the pallor of her countenance, caused by fright, her loveliness was so perfect, that it caused a general burst of surprise. She could not have been sixteen. I turned to Padre Johannes, and asked him whether there were no means of saving her life; the worthy man, who was weeping, bitterly shook his head, and whispered, "There is no hope for her." The fatal cord was now fastened round her neck, and, together with the Jew, she was hoisted on the shoulders of some of the executioners, while the others proceeded to fasten the ropes round the beam. The scene was at this moment heart-rending: the screams of the woman were dreadful to • A chauder is the large veil which covers the form. hear, and so great was the poor creature's horror, that a few moments before she was launched into eternity streams of blood began to flow from her nostrils. All was now ready; the veil and chauder were thrown over the female sufferer, and the two wretched beings having been thrown off the shoulders of the executioners, were instantly hanging by their necks, when the face of the Jew being uncovered, became so horridly convulsed, that I could no longer bear the sight, and hurried away. On the twenty-second of the month, the fast of the Ramazan ended, to the great joy of the inhabitants of the city, who passed the day in rejoicings and festivity. It may be as well to observe, that the fast is one of the greatest strictness, and is a most severe penance during its continuance, which is a lunar month. No Mussulman must taste food of any kind whatever, or drink one drop of liquid from sunrise to sunset: even smoking is interdicted. The consequence naturally is, that during this fast night is turned into day, and is passed in debauchery and drunkenness. On account of the Ramazan continuing for a lunar month, and taking place every twelve months, it occurs sometimes during summer, when it becomes a terrible penance, and many persons are much hurt by suffering from thirst. There was one person in Ispahan to whom the beginning of a new month was not altogether a day of rejoicing-namely, our jellowdah, whom we found guilty of gross cheating. He had, besides, starved our noble steeds in such a cruel manner, that had we not detected his conduct, they would soon have been irrevocably injured. Notwithstanding the testimony of various persons to whom he had sold the stolen provender, the fellow continued to deny his guilt. We took him, therefore, before Dawood Khan, the Georgian commander-in-chief, who soon settled the business, by ordering him to be bastinadoed, which punishment was inflicted so sharply that the culprit roared out an acknowledgment of his guilt. We of course dismissed him from our service. His punishment, however, did not quite finish with the bastinado he had received, for he was sent for the time to prison. We afterwards heard that, before his liberation, he was favoured with a second infliction of the sticks, for robbing a fellow prisoner. The suburb of Julfa, where we resided during our stay at Ispahan, is entirely inhabited by Armenians, who, by paying a certain tribute to the King of Persia, are accorded various privileges. They are all Christians, and are divided into two sects, of one of which (the Roman Catholics) our friend, Padré Johannes, was chief, at the period we visited Ispahan. An Armenian bishop is at the head of the remainder, who are of the Armenian church. Ispahan was governed, at the period of our visit, by one of the shah's younger sons, whose age was not more than nineteen; but who has already a family consisting of eight children, the offspring of several wives. The elevation of the plain upon which the city is situated is less than that of Teheran, being only three thousand five hundred feet above the level of the sea, consequently the winter season is much less severe in the former place than in the latter; indeed, little snow, comparatively, falls, and several species of fruit-trees flourish on the plain of Ispahan which are unknown at Teheran. Ispahan is seen to the best advantage from about three miles dis tance, when you are somewhat elevated above it, and can see the whole city at once it forms, indeed, a magnificent view. I could not, however, look upon it without regret, as I remarked the too evident approaches of decay; indeed, not many years hence, the traveller in Persia, as he passes by this plain, will probably look upon the "RUINS OF ISPAHAN." TOWN LIFE IN ITALY. THE FIASCO. BY L. MARIOTTI. "THERE was a sound of revelry by night;" there was bustle and confusion, and a throng of tilting carriages in the court of the Palazzo Rospigliosi, at Florence. There were flaring torches, stamping horses, coachmen swearing in English, German, and Russian. Lady Phillimore gave one of her grand cosmopolitie routs. It was not a ball, nor a concert, nor yet one of those harum-scarum entertainments that go by the name of "mobs." The object of the meeting was known to few, and understood by none. It was to be a lettura, an improvisazione, a seccatura, a literary réunion after the fashion of the country. Lady Phillimore had, on this occasion, been extremely particular in her invitations-that is, she had drained Florence of its motley population. The guests were from the four corners of the globe. The accomplished and the wealthy, the great and the learned of many regions, were blended in a crowd. There were long-haired professors, and bewigged Danish sarans, bare-necked German artists, and lorgnetted French attachés, and amongst a few of a better class, many of that vulgar breed, whom gold enables to haunt the idle towns of the continent, the two varieties most prevalent in the European menagerie-the Russian bears and the English bores. Conspicuous among the latter, and distinguishable by their colossal turbans, and by their air of familiarity with the lady of the house, were two female dabblers in literature, a Mrs. Brattle, a notorious novelist, who had, as she expressed it, walked half the courts of Europe; and a lady Emmelina Bruton, a person of whom her best friends said she had all bumps in her head save that of adhesiveness-a mal-maritata, who dipped her pen in gall, and emptied her quiver at all mankind, with a hope that some random shaft might find its way to her ill-wedded lord. The rest of the company was made up of dowager countesses and consumptive spinsters; a lord bishop, with a swarm of his daughters, and the squires and lordlings licensed to flirt with the said bishop's daughters- besides sundry lean and lank poets, magazine editors, wits, rakes, sharpers, and missionaries. The "natives' were few; and there would have been none but for the circumstance that one of their number was to be exhibited as the hero or the victim-the lion of the night. They shrunk back and clustered together in a corner, awed and abashed by the consciousness of their own insignificance. All good understanding between the Italians and their foreign visitors, especially the English, is for ever at an end. Tourists may have their neat hotels in the best quarter of the town. The grand-duke-that inn-keeper on a larger scale-may throw |