The Grenada gazette., 1886-01-16
IN TEHERAN.

An Susrnoon's Observations on ths
streets and In the Tea-Hosses Of the Fer
sian Capital.
: 1t is the hour of peace: rosy hgh
bsthcs the house-tops, but the stately
avenues leading north and south are il
shadow, and cooled by the watel
thrown by the sakkahs. The tender
evening light also rests on the snowy
crcsts of the vast ridge of the Shin
Iran, or light of Persia. which scars tt
height of thirteen thousand feet across
the northern side of the plain, but nine
miles away. The evening glow, before
1t fades into twilight, fingers last OF
the snowy cone of Demavend, twenty
one thousand feet high, ever present III
every view, like the presiding genius
that protects the capital of Persia.
With slow and dignified steps the
Persian gentlemen stroll through these
inviting avenues, engaged in genial
converse. Their long robes. their mas
siyc boards, their lofty caps or voluml-
nous turbans, give them lofty state
lincss as they wend along. undisturbed
by the numerous horses or carriages,
or the hidcously unkempt and filthy
dclvishcs who claim aims on account
of their sancti!ied rags,
At this hour the tea-honses are in full
blast. The reader may be surprised to
learn that the national beverage of
Persia is not coffee but tea. One would
naturally suppose that country so
near Araby the Blest and the aromatic
groves of Mocha would, like the Turks,
prefer coffee. Of course great deal
Of coffee. prepared in the Turkish way,
is consumed by tho Persians, but the
fact rcmains that they are essentially a
iea-lrinking race, drinking it in vast
quantities, favored with lemon or
tourchce. which is the prepared juice
of the lime, and sweetened almost to a
syrup. The habit is probably the re-
snlt of the commercial intercourse
which at an early period existed be-
tween Persia and China, and which, as
is now well known, gave an impulse to
the arts of Persia, of which evidences
appear at various stages of her @sthet-
ic history. At Tcheran the tea-houses
take the place of the coffee-houses of
Constmtinoplc. One meets them at
every turn, of every rank, but all alike
resorts for rest, leisure and entertain
ment There one may see public
dancers, who by law are now invaria-
bly, men, although women of question:
able repute cOntrive to evade the laws
sometimes and exhibit in the harcms.
The male dancers are brought up to
this vocation from boyhood. and in
variably wear long hair in imitation of
women, and shave their faces smooth.
What interests an intelligent Euro
pcan more at these tea-houses than the
dances are the recitations from the
poets The songs of Hatiz may be
heard there, and entire cantos from the
great epic of Ferdoonsec, repeated
with loud, sonorous modulation, heard
sometimes at quite distance at the
more inspiring passages, and listened
to with enthusiastic rapture. Here,
too, one may hear the Arabian Nights
tales given without any attempt at ex-
purgaton, exactly as in a recent trans
lation. The reader will recollect that
the characters in the Arabian Nights
are constantly and at every opportunity
quoting long and appropriate passages
from the poets. This may to the Euro
pean appear to be an affectation
or a freak of poetic license on the
part of the author of these tales. On
the contrary, he was simply giving us
another of those traits of Oriental
character the record of which has given
to those inimitable narratives immor-
tality, as the finest picture ever given of
the life of the East, which, after thou
sands of years, is only Just beginning to
feel the transforming influence of west
ern civilization.
As one continues his ramb)e through
Tehcran at this hour, he sees crowd
amused by balloons dancing to the beat
of tambourines- animals which, If they
do not get all the happiness they de-
serve, at least well fulfill their mission
in ministering to the pleasure of myr-
lads by their absurd antics and grim
aces. Or we see a chained lioness put
through her PAGES, or, fatigued by the
part she has been forced to play in life,
..Ad unable to escape from it by suicide,
is sleeping heavily on the pavement.
But one of the most common spectaclcs
Of Teheran in the late afternoon-a
sight which always draws a crowds
amatch of trained wrestlers, Or athletes
exercising with clubs, at both of which
the Persians are very expert, although
they make no great figure in jugglery.
s. g. W Benjamin., in Horpcr's
Magogine.
.