Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1886-07-09
THE PERSIANS.
Some characteristics OF An
Oriental People.
A Country of Natural Liars and Alto
gether Hopeless Procrastinltors

A Country of Natural Liars AMI Alto
gether Hopeless PrOcrastinltors,
The modern Farsee is a natural liar,
says Teheran letter to the San Francis
co Chronicle. 1t goes against his grain,
against all he holds most sacred in this
queer world, to speak the truth. 1t is
born with him, this inveterate love Of
prevarication, and it is bred in the bone
for generations and generations. have
noticed with the interest the student Of
human nature is liable to feel in such
cases how astonished the Farsee is when
he has caught himself unaware telling
the truth. He then IS out of his role,
and feels so abashed and ashamed of him
self that he looks sheepish and guilty;
much as an American might after get
ting of an awful fb. Even with such a
| people, however, where the noble art Of
romancing is carried to such perfection,
moments will arise when it is desirable
to know and hear the truth. And for
such occasions the stock of Persian ad-
Duration, Oaths, curses and appeals seems
almost inexhaustible. One of the fun
niest is "Rjshe mera Kan,m Rerdip'
Uiterally, May you put my beard in the
winding sheeD
Procrastination is another besetting
sin of theirs. "F5ran mikonam" is their
reply when you want a thing done at
once, and another great phrase of theirs
is Chason (mcaning BY my eyes I'll do
it'). But that means an hour, next day,
next month, or next year, according to
circumstances at once To des-
patch a thing and be done with it, to
hurry up, !" seems to be utterly impossi-
bic to the Persian, who is lavish Of moth
ing so much as of time. You give your
servant, for instance, tchbouk to be
mended, and tell him you must have it
back repaired next morning. Your SER
want knows he will "get fits" if he does
not attend to it at once, and that he will
probably get little money if he does.
The pipemaker across the street keeps a
little shop, and has a large and hungry
family at home to keep out of the very
slender profit of his trade He knows,
too, he will be paid thrice the ordinary
price if he does the job at once-enough
to keep the pot boiling for his entire
family for one day at least. Still, so in
grained is the policy of tardiness with
both these gentlemen that you are mi ghty
lucky if you get your tchibouk back in
week.
The other day had business at the
central post office here | wanted to
register five letters and buy postage
stamps for eight other ones. entered
the little office-eight feet by TENN
which the registration of letters is per
formed. -Four native gentlemen, seated
around huge table, on which stood a
clumsy scale, where extremely busy do
ing nothing; or, rather, they chatted and
took pulls by rotation from a common
ghatyan. The chief came in at this
juncture-a very handsome but foppsh-
looking man-to whom was introduced.
The chief sat down and made the fifth in
this happy gathering. told them was
in hurry and wished to have my letters
registered and to buy fourteen kerauns'
worth of stamps. They could not under
stand how could be in hurry. They
were very polite and amable and talked
pleasantly, but it took ten minutes of my
eloquence to induce one of the quartet to
let up on his ghatyan and tend to bust
ness, and it took me just forty minutes
to have my letters registered and to buy
over at least a score of times, very slowly
and deliberately, before he consented to
release his hold on them. 1t was not
cussedness on his part-it was just his
natural love of doing things slowly His
chief sat there and evidently thought
his clerk very rash and suspicously
active young man. And for Persian
the young fellow had really been quick
about it.
tits one of the great trials which every
foreigner has to 90 through with after his
arrival here-the promiscuous lying 60
ing on all around him, and the exasper-
ating slowness of people. To see Per
sian write letter or sign a document IS
a treat He seizes his reed pen with an
awful deal of circumspection, and dips 1t
slowly, hesitatingly, into the ink, then
as slowly brings it on a straight line with
his optics and examines it carefully, |
if the ink hasn't since disappearcd-van-
ished into thin air, as it were. Having /
convinced himself that NJ such piece oil
magic has been performed by an unseen
power, he gets himself into shape to pen
his first letter. This requires various
painful and violent contortions OF the
body, similar to those Sammy Weller, ol
Pickwickian fame, used to undergo
when indicting his valentine ana then
the paper is seized, again very slowly
and unwillingly, and brought to Wltnln
six inches of his nose. Then dao Is
made The first letter is done. 1t Is
taken up and duly admired, whereupon
a rest of five minutes is taken, when 'n0
same series of evoutions and manGuyrs' -
is repeated to give birth to another le''sF
and so on. l watched a professional /
mira Scribe the other day. lie was g
man noted for his quick work. II @ .0VS .
him eighteen minutes by the watcn " i i
write his first line. III
1t is related of Old Doc, horse oi -, ~
Toronto fire department, recently A'as ~ -, 4
while on duty, that one night he g0' i :, :,