imagination had fondly conceived might be usefully put
together. I have always held in respect most of the customs and habits
of the Orientals, many of which, to the generality of Europeans, appear
so ridiculous and disgusting, because I have ever conceived them to be
copies of ancient originals. For, who can think the custom of eating
with one's fingers disgusting, as now done in the East, when two or more
put their hands into the same mess, and at the same time read that part
of our sacred history which records, 'He that dippeth his hand with me
in the dish,' etc.? I must own, every time that, dining with my Eastern
friends, I performed this very natural operation (although, at the same
time, let it be understood that I have a great respect for knives and
forks), I could not help feeling myself to be a living illustration of
an ancient custom, and a proof of the authenticity of those records
upon which our happiness depends. Whenever I heard the exclamation so
frequently used in Persia, on the occasion of little miseries, 'What
ashes are fallen on my head!' instead of seeing anything ridiculous in
the expression, I could not but meditate on the coincidence which
so forcibly illustrated one of the commonest expressions of grief as
recorded in ancient writ.

It is an ingenious expression which I owe to you, sir, that the manners
of the East are, as it were, stereotype. Although I do not conceive that
they are quite so strongly marked, yet, to make my idea understood,
I would say that they are like the last impressions taken from a
copperplate engraving, where the whole of the subject to be represented
is made out, although parts of it from much use have been obliterated.

If I may be allowed the expression, a picturesqueness pervades the whole
being of Asiatics, which we do not find in our own countries, and in
my eyes makes everything relating to them so attractive as to create a
desire to impart to others the impressions made upon myself. Thus, in
viewing a beautiful landscape, the traveller, be he a draughtsman or
not, _tant bien que mal_, endeavours to make a representation of it;
and thus do I apologise for venturing before the public even in the
character of a humble translator.

Impressed with such feelings you may conceive the fulness of my joy,
when not very long after the conversation above mentioned, having
returned to England, I was fortunate enough to be appointed to fill an
official situation in the sui