Morning journal and courier., 1886-06-18

l fifty years ago, it being deemed sacrilegs to ! attempt translation into modern vulgar | tongue) and get a literal translation, Thus they read as follows:
 ''They will ask thee concerning wine and games of chance. Answer: In both there man, but their sinfulness is greater than their use"
 This, you will remark is not direct pro- h1bltion. But the second passage is It reads:
 70, believersl Surely wines and games of chance and st tues and the divining arrows are all abom;1ations of Satan's work. Avoid them that ye may prosperI'
 You will notice that this only speaks of wine, although in Mohammed's time they had already the date brandy (which is con sumed in large quantities to this present day in Arabia, Persia and Syria), but the afore- said wise men of the East think that Mo hammed had so much to write and think of that he forgot to put in an amendment cov- ering spirits. However that may be, certain 1t is that the wealthier Persians are hard drinkers. Ardesheer, an old uncle of the Shah, used to drink so hard that his royal nephew once said, when the question was discussed of prohibiting the import of Flu ropean wines: ''Send my uncle to the iron tier! He won't let drop pass into Persia" I have not been to any well-to-do Persian's house without seeing evidences of wine bib- ping. Last week too at big dinner given Minister Winston by the minister of foreign affairs, at which most of the highest digni- taries of the kingdom-all Moslem Persians of course-were present, there were only four out of the fifty that did not drink wine (and lots of it), and even of them I hear they drink on the sly. Your genuine old Persian will retire at nightfall into his ande- run (harem), and there amid all the blandish- ments of female beauty he will enter on 8 n11 6 md f711 iolr that he sinks down and sleeps on the very spot of his bacchanalian sacrifices until next morning, unable to rise even. Male relatives will invite each other for these drinking bouts, always conducting them in the ande- run, because sure of not being disturbed or interfered with there. The Persian most emphatically drinks to get drunk. Their liquor, called Arrak in Persia, is the next thing to Jersey lightning, but more unpleas- ant to thetaste, because the fusel oil has re- mained in it. Their wines are all very heady and contain much larger percentage of al cohol than sherry or port, in some cases up to twenty and twenty-five per cent. They taste nice though once you get over the pecu- liar flavor they all have. The latter I think must be due to their imperfect mode of making wine. The Shiraz wine, because more carefully manufactured, is relatively free from it. Of the Shiraz wine again the choicest and most fragrant is tue reuuini. brown voriAty (oa1led Khaller). and this is highly prized and well paid for by the Per sian gourmets. There is also good wine made, however, in Teheran, Resht, Ghas- weis, Hamadan (which resembles burgundy very much), Ispahan and other places. I told you that the law forbade the manufac- ture and sale of wine and spirits here, and that it is the Jews and Americans who are the Iawbreakers and grow fat on the trade. Well, the Persian authorities resemble the Chicago police very much in this; that every once in awhile they will swoop down on these liquor dealers, arrest them, fine them heavily and confseate and destroy their bottles, tubs and apparatus; and still the trade foRrishes.