Year: 1862

short lease is common even among Chris
tians residing in Persia. A friend of mine in
formed me that be visited Vangeck, village
near Teberan, some years ago, for the purpose
of making marriage of this kind. He and
| a companion sat down under a tree, smoking
kaleons. while the village damsels, under the
| command Of the priests, filed past for inspec
tion When his choice was fixed, the lease
was drawn out in due form. Forty tomayns
"a high rent-about twenty pounds) was paid
for dresses and fine cloths, and thirty tomauns
more were agreed upon as the price of divorce
The average price of an American lady is from
ten to fifteen tomauns They arc horribly
coarse and ugly The smallpox makes shock
ing ravage among them, too.


Boys usually marry betwean twelve and
fourteen. They frequently marry their cousins.
but the race does not degenerate in conse-
quence, as it has been clearly ascertained to
do in other countries.


Children are not the source of embarrass.
ment even to poor people that they are sup.
posed sometimes to be in more civilized coun-
| tries. There need be no anxiety at all about
them, indeed. They can always pick up rice
enough to live somewhere, and the family of q
| rich man is often far too numerous for his
children to expect to be rich men too.
The shah, however, is under some Difficult.
! ty occasionally in finding q new wife. A shah
sent to one of the great khans to propose for
his daughter, very beautiful woman. But
her father begged that she might be excused
so inconvenient an honor, for that when his
Majesty had enjoyed her society for month,
he would probably forget all about her, and
she must then according to custom remain in
a state Of widowhood for the rest of her life.
A shah being an awful person in Persia, his
Majesty is said to have expressed such senti.
ments at being crossed in his caprice, that for
a long time the khan did not dare to marry
his daughter to any one.


There appeared to be no such things as a
mesaIliance in Persia One of the innumer-
very old and ugly woman in humble life
The king tried to joke the young man out of
this strange fancy, All, sir" replied prince,
| if you could only see her with my eyes p
| This vague answer sententious oriental flavor
was considered to settle the affair completely,
and to reply to ali objections-whch perhaps
it did. Even the present king has Illustrated
the prevailing sentiment Of bis subject very
prettily. His queen and favorite wife, ,Geiran.
or she ntelope, was PEASANTS daughter, who
attracted his Majesty's attention one day as
he rode through a village, and whom he has
loved ever since with an unchauging affection
ard most manly tenderness. His passion for
her appears to be the master feeling of his
life. Once upon great day, when her son
was declared heir apparent to the throne, and
when all his woman-kiud appeared before him
arrayed in their best apparel, his quick eye
saw at once that the was not among them
turning codly away from the rest, he asked,
Where is the khanum p No festival cod
be festival without her, and there was no
light for him in his palace or his court until
she came.


Persians have not the same jealousy of their
women as the Turks have. If you are really
very intimate with man, he would be very


likely to introduce you to his wife and the
anteroom is by no means classed like the ha-
rem.


The woman's apartment are usually very
dirty and sovenly, untidy and out OF order
Beautiful china, cut glass. gold trays, and
jeweled pipes, everything to eat, everything
to drink, the sweetmeats the sherbets, the
coffee, the tea, the fruit. are eqnaly abomi-
naby dirty.


There is great license in manners in Tehe-
ran women of the highest rank pay visits to
men without scruple-nsually coming dressed
like beggars, to avoid observation. The visits
of ladies to each other are irterminable. They
call at seven or eight o'clock u the morning,
and stop all day, smoking and eating, and
Dragging about their clothes and their huS.
bands. --


Public scandals are rare. If husband
should be too inquistive, he is apt to be pois-
sond and if lover should be indiscrete, he
lnay chance to be short lived A great khan
was stabbed by an unseen hand in broad day.
light not long ago, at Tabreez, for boasting of
a love affair.


Owing to the almost unrestraned liberty
they enjoy, woman mix themselves up with ev
erything in Persia nothing is done without
them they have immense political influence !;
and they, with the wretched tribe Of beldames
and fortune tellers who hag around the ante
rooms, overturn viziers and ministers at will.


Human life is held cheap in Persia; and the
majesty of death has neither awe nor terrors
there A criminal who has been executed will
be left ghastv aud fearful object in the
market-place for the dogs to gnaw at My
horse has often stumbled and SHE'D at the IN.
canny thing but the needless crowd, any one
of whom might be singled out in a minute for
the same fate, pass by jesting or unconcerned.


The FCRLoUGH QUEsTIoN.-Joe Robson en-
listed in the 99th Regiment of State Volun-
teers. The men were in camp, and their
friends were often visiting them. Joe's BROTH
er. John, came to see him, and found Joe very
homesck. He begged so hard for John to
get him a furlough, that his brother went to
the Colonel and told him that his sister was
dead, and be wished leave for his brother to
for 60 dor urac nir