Richland beacon., 1873-08-23
Sitting Upon a Man.
New York Herald


The Persian creditor having once de
termined to get his money calls Tor II
early in the morning and can not be per-
shaded to 60 away till he is paid. He
brings his carpet with him and sits down
in his debtors bedroom, eating, drink
ing, sleeping, and smoking there TIL
he is brought off. Some years ago, not
many. a Persian had, or fancled that he
had. a claim onthe English foreign office.
SO one dav he travelled away from Tehe-
ran. and. after many strange adventures,
arrived IL London, taking his carpet with
him, and fully prepared to sit upon the
foreign office, which he supposed to be
person, till he was satisfied. Lord
Palmerston was secretary of state Tor
foreign affairs at the time. and took the
thing good-humoredly but MIR. Ham
mond. the under secretary of state, who
is sharp tempered gentleman, and was
already high up in the Office, was for
calling policeman.
The practice of sitting upon man,
as it it is called, universally prevails III
Persia, and it is not easy to deal with 1t.
Still it may be dealt with, and Sir John
McNeill, shrewd old Scotch diploma
! tist, who was Orce accredited to the Per
sian court, cOntrived to get rid of Per
sian who bad tried to sit upon him by
rather clever device.
At the new year, which is kept as
| great festival in Persia, religious medl-
cants go about, not so much asking for
aims as insisting upon fixed sum-
They generally tax a foreign ambassador
rather highly, and one of them, dervls,
| demanded an eXtravagant sum from Sir
| John McNeill The Scotch d;plomatist
offered to compromise with him for any
reasonable amount, but his offer was re-
fused, and as he would not give more,
the dervis proceeded to sit upon him.
He established himself in Sir Johns gar
den Just before his study windows, and
every now and then during the day and
whenever he woke up at night this
dervis set up horrible hullabaloO and
blew cracked trumpet as if the iudg-
ment day was come. Sir John, who did
not like to have his rest disturbed III
this way, determined to put stop to
the dervis tricks and eject him by force
but he was sOlemnly warned by the Per-
sian authorities that it would he danger
Ous to lay hands upon the dervis. "Get
rid of him if you can, said they. laugh-
, ing, as they are wont to do at a minister's
perplexity, "but do not touch him."
"Very well, said Sir john, dryly;
and he sent for bricklayer.
"Build me wall round that bowling
heggar in my garden said Sir John To
, the brcklaver, "and then roof it i'm
The dervis looked on composedlv while
the wall rose slowly round him. and
made more noise than ever: but when
he perceived that they really meant to
shut him mp in a tomb, alive, he jumped
over the lowest part of the wall and
rushed away like a maniac Sir John
was probably the only European that
ever got the better of "A dervis.
Weddings in Tangier are very fire.
quent, and make night hideous with
their noise. All except the very poor
est are accompanied with gun-tiring and
music. When these luxuires are be-
. yond the means of the families, the wo-
men shrek ten times more to make no
, for the deficiency. This is a cheap
, noise, and noise appears to be the great
{ disideratum at these celebrations. No
, religious ceremony takes place, as far
as could ascertain, in connection with
marriages In Morocco, beyond the bride
groom saying a certain number of
prayers, in one of the mosques, previ-
Ously. The fattening of the bride is
! the only preparation on her part for en-
trance into the "holy state" For this
purpose, from the time of her betroth-
, al, she is confined to one room, not per
mitted to take any exercise, and COM
PEELED to swallow large quantities of
kesksOo every day. This system, pur
, sued steadfastly for few weeks, brings
, her into condition of what is consid-
cred in Morocco becoming obesity. /
, have heard of an intended bride so fat
, that she was unable to stOop to pick up
. her pocket-handkerchief when she drop
ped it, and who could with difficulty
move acrose the room without assist
ance. Another curious custom observed
I on these occasions is, that the bride is
not permitted to leave her bed for eight
days after her marriage ; nor, though
she is visited all this time by all her
married female relations and friends,
may she open her eyes or speak. On
the eighth day she gets ont OF bed
q for the first time; her sash is put on
with this exception she has always ap-
$ peared in full-drcss); she opens her
II ewes, speaks, and walks round her
d house. This occasion is made a great
s gala of, and the house is thrown open
l. to every one, of course of the female
s sex, who wishes to come in.-ApptetOn' s
y Journal.
q A LAUDABLE AMBITION.-I honor the
n man whose ambition it is not to win
n laurels in the state or the army, not to
!. | no a iuriot or q naturalist n0t To he n