The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1877-07-07
STYLE OF PERSIAN VILLAGES.

Il
fair specimen Of Persian village The
earth is brown, the houses are brown, ant
crumbling into the dust of the plain, from
the mud Of which they have been made
If human beings We're wont TO burrow il
the earth, their habitations would | sup
pose, look from distance very much like
the mud.built villages of Persia There i,
no street, no order in the arrangement of tn,
huts, no provision whatever for drainage
The houses are set together anyhow; some
times with space enough between for {
loaded mule to pass, put rarely more
though the plain is so vast and barren
The miserable kennel of dried mud il
which we rested was the only elevation
and its raised position was the cause
Of one of us having fall which might
have had a very serious result. Tn,
roof outside our sleeping place was very
inirm, and my shadow concealed hole
jagged with broken sticks which lay be
meath the clay. In the early morning
when we were preparing to start, my wife
stepped through this hole, and to a con,
siderable extent disappeared. 1t wa.
most fortunate that she was not badly
hurt.
Our path lay directly to Kasveen, or Gas
been, formerly one of the chief towns OF
Persia, city which was famous in Mil
tons day, for the author of paradise
Lost" wrote
G.nn n,,tr,n, g., A..
OF Turkish crescent, leaves all waste beyond
The realm of Aladule, in his retreat
To Taurus or Casbeen.n
Kasveen is half ruined, famine stricken
dust-heap. During the famine of 1870.
II the poor Kasveen died by hundreds
As We rode through the bazaar on our
way to the post-house, We saw what il
might cost to have blind horse in Persia
Every now and then there was deer
square hole, open and unguarded, in the
centre of the street, for cleansing the
water.coursc which runs beneath. Near
the entrance to the mud-built chapar.
khanah, there were two dervishcs grovel.
ling in the dust and screaming for aims
One a strongly built man, nearly naked,
was hoarse and half stupifed with his
shouts, which, though few regarded, none
Knocked or laughed at The other, an old
man, was more methodical. la fanati-
cal burst, he now and then threw out Ali
Ali !" nothing more being needed, espe,
cially in Ramadan, to show his devotion to
Ali, the great son-in-law of Mohammed.
The deryishcs Of Persia are a privileged
institution. They are not caste, for |
believe any one is free to take up the
profession of religious medicaucy to which
they seem devoted. The madder their
actions, the more respect they appear to
gain. Nobody "chaffs' dervish, and in
none do his eccentrics provoke ridicule
When, after passing through many by
paths and crooked ways, We reached the
chapar-khanah, our mules rushed to the
hangers, and We mounted the roof of the
stables by steps, of which some were nearly
two feet high, to the bala-khanah Kas-
veen is still regarded as town of much
importance, where traveller might ex-
pect to find accommodation for man and
beast, yet our servants have to build a
stove of bricks on the roof for cooking
our dinner, which consisted Of chicken
broth, followed by the stewed chicken,
with rice and sweetmeats The Kasveen
suffered horribly in the recent famine,
and this may account for some of the ruin
which surrounded us. But the decay Of
Kasveen is of long standing, and will not,
apparently, be arrested by the absence of
famine. There are miles and miles of
ruined mud-walls in and about the town
At all times, and under any circumstances
a Persian town has a desolate appearance
Even in a town as large as Kasveen, with
twenty or thirty thousand inhabitants,
there are not dozen houses with a Sec
ond story, and not single private house
with window opening upon the street.
In Turkey, the windows of the harem-the
women's part of the house-are, it is true,
jealousy latticed, aud the lattice has
sometimes pretty appearance from the
street; but one cannot see an inch into the
"anderoon," or harem, of Persian house.
The streets, except in the bazaars, are
bounded by mud-wals, with no opening
or variation except the door, which is very
rarely uniastened.
COSTUME OF PERSIAN LADIES.
We were standing on the roof of the
chapar-khanah, looking down into the
dusty street, when a number of women re-
turning from mosque passed beneath,
chattering and laughing. They lifted
their heads to look at us, but not an eye
was visible; aud though they were proba-
bly, only neighbors, and certainly belonged
to different houses and families, there was
a precise similarity in their coloring-the
indigo ehudder and trousers and the white
veil-as if they had worn the uniform of
one regiment, The indoor costume of
Persian women of the higher class appears
indelicate to Europeans. The chudder
and trousers are the invariable walking
costume. Indoors the dress of Persian
lady is more like that of ballet-girl, ex-
cept the Persian lady's legs are not cover.
ed, and that her bodice makes even less
pretention to be covering than that of a
ddnseuse of these decolietees days. In the
anderoons of Persian royalty, my wife
was received by princesses thus attired,
or rather unattired, the high fashion being
for the short skirts to stand out in the
most approved manner of the ballet,
have often thought it would make the
canal scenes of Venice far more beautiful
If the gondolas were not so invariably
painted with sombre black, a survival, |
believe, of the stern equality of the repub-
licau epoch. And to see the Persian
women stumbling slipshod or riding over
the miserable roads, all disguised in the
same dismal covering dress far more
ugly than was ever worn by nun or Sister
Of Mercy-is to pity the wearers of a cos
tune which custom and the rule of the
koran have made acceptable. In Turkey,
again, the women are yelled, but their dress
is many colors; in Persia, no part of their
person, not an eye is visible, and their
outdoor costume has this painful and
sombre uniformity,
CITY OF THE SHAH.
No European could enter the gates Of
Teharan for the first time without n feel.