Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-08-20
A LAND OF LIARS.
Methods by which Persians Evade
The Truth.

From a Letter in San Francisco ChronicIs.
After speaking of their parental and
flial affection, their respect for the aged,
their pollteness and hospitality, writer
on Persia winds up apropos of the people
of the country with the following phrase:
But as a race thew are untruthful and
procrastinatng." About these two traits
of the Persian character I'd like to say
word. You've often heard OF the cham
piOn liar, an1 many people in the United
States even at this present day pretend to
| believe that the book agent, the lightning
rod man and Eli Perkins are the three
great liars of the world. But these peo-
pie don't know the Persians, With our
liars at home mendacity is an acquired
| science and has taken years and much
| hard study to develop, and even then they
| Often-at least ACKNOWLEDGMENT the
truth. With them artistic lying is an ef-
fort. 1t takes thought and pains to pro-
duce it in its perfection. Not so with the
Persian. The modern Parsee is a natural
liar. 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 isIliable to feel in
such cases, how astOnished the Parsee is
when he has caught himself unawares
telling the truth. He then is out OF his
role, and feels so abashed and ashamed of
himself that he looks sheepish and guilty;
much as an American might after getting
off an awful fib. Even with sucn a peo-
pie, however, when the noble art OF ro-
mancing is carried to such perfection,
moments will arise when it Is desirable
TO know and near the truth. And for
such occasions the stock OF Persian adj
Duration, oaths, curses and appeals, seems
almost inc xbaustible. One of the funniest
is "Rishe mera Kaffan Kerdi" (Lite-
rally, may you put my beard in the wind
ing sheet.) do not know where they get
their lying propensities from, these Per-
SANS; but that they are the most invidi-
GUS, Insidious, unconsciOnable story tell
ers in the world there is no doubt. 1t is
true that every race which has suffered
for many centuries from oppression and
has been trampled under the foot Of de-
spotic rulers of foreign blood has become
stepped in insincerIty, and that Punic
faith has taken with them the place of the
genuine article. The Irish of our day
plead that as an excuse for their whole
sale disregard of the truth, and l believe,
with reason. And the people of Persia
have been 80 down-trOdden, A. isruled and
frightened out of their wits for thou
sand years past that that fact may ex-
plain all don't know. / leave that for
somebody else to find out.
Reconstruction is another besetting sin
of theirs. "Foran mikonam" is their re-
ply when you want a thing done at once,
and another great phrase of theirs is
Chashon meaning, by my eyes, I'll do
it'). But that means an hour, next day,
next month, or next year, according to
Observation-Disclosures at once. TO dis
patch a thing and be done with IT, to hurry
up, seems to be utterly impossible to the
Persian, who is lavish of nothing so much
as OF time. You give your servant, for
instance, tchibOuk TO be mended, and
tell him you must have 1t back repaired
next morning. Your servant knows he
will get ii ts il he does not attend to it at
once, and that he will probably get little
present if he does. The pipemaker across
the street keeps little shop aud has
large and hungry family at home 10 keep
out OF the very slender profits OF his trade.
He knows, too, be will be paid thrice the
ordinary price if he does the job at once
enough to keep the pot boiling for his en-
tire family for one day at least. Still, so
inprained is the policy OF hardness with
both these gentlemen that you are mighty
lucky If you get your Textbook back in a
week. The other day had business at
the central post ounce mere. 1 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
a huge table on which stood a clumsy
scale. were extremely busy dong moth
ing; or, rather, they chatted and took
pulls by rotation from a common CHAT
van. The chief came in at this juncture
"a very handsome but somewhat foppish
looking man--to whom | was introduced.
The chief sat down and made the fifth in
this happy gathering. l 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
we're very polite aud amlable and talked
pleasantly, but il took ten minutes OF my
eIoquence TO induce one OF the quartet TO
let up on his ghatyan aud tend TO bust
ness, and 1t took me just forty minutes to
have my letters registered and TO buy
those stamps. The latter he counted over
ABOUT a score Of times, very slowly and
deliberately, before he consented TO re-
lease his hold on them. IL was not Gus
sedness on his part--it was just his natu-
raj love of doing things slowly. His chief
SAT there and evidently thought his clerk