for nervous headache, another is told
which ascribes to a lady the withdrawal of a royal decree against the
sale and use of wine. The Shah Hussein, on his accession to the throne
in 1694, displayed his religious zeal by forbidding the sale of wine,
and he ordered the destruction of all the stock of it that was in the
royal cellars at Ispahan. But his grandmother, by feigning herself ill,
and wholly dependent upon wine for cure, not only prevailed upon him to
revoke the decree, but also persuaded him to drink some in pure regard
to herself, with the result that he fell away from priestly influence
and became a tippler. Unfortunately for the nation, this grandmother's
guidance led Shah Hussein to ruin by wine and women, and dragged him
down to the deep degradation of surrendering Persia to the cruel tyranny
of the Afghan occupation.

Wood being scarce in Persia, and poles, stakes, and sticks for upright
and lateral support not being easily procurable, the mode of culture of
the vine has come to be by planting in deep broad trenches, with high
sloping banks, up and over which the stems and branches run and fall.
The trenches are made to lie so as to allow of the bank-slopes having
the best exposure. This is the system followed on the flat, but in hilly
ground, by means of careful trimming and the assistance of piled stones,
the plants are made to develop strong standard stems, with bunchy,
bushy tops. I was particularly struck a few years ago with the neat,
well-tended vineyards at the village of Imam-Zadeh-Ismail, in the hills
about forty miles north-west of Persepolis. Almost the whole of the
village lands were laid out in vineyards, well walled and beautifully
kept. The vines looked as if they were tended by those who understood
their culture well, and they appeared to thrive wonderfully on the light
soil of the place. Surprising energy had been shown in clearing the
ground, which was naturally stony; and there was abundant evidence of
much patient labour in the garden-like enclosures. Vineyards occupied
all the flat ground on which the village stood, and they extended up the
slopes. Hillside clearing was going on all around for further planting
of vines, which were seen to flourish there. Raisins are largely made
there, and I was told by my Kashkai conductor (for I was well off the
beaten track and required a guide), who seemed to know what he was
talking about, that the fresh grapes were used for wine, but not in the