e hilts and scabbards being of silver, set with
small stones, together with targets covered with gold velvets, some
painted and embossed with gold and silver, all of which he distributed
among his servants. Against this muster many saddles and other
horse-furniture were provided, richly ornamented with gold and precious
stones, intended for spare horses. His boots were embroidered, and every
thing was of the highest magnificence, so that the expence is
wonderful, and the wealth seen daily is inestimable. There is a report
going, that, on the past night, six of the servants of Sultan Churrum
went to murder Sultan Cuserou, but were refused the key by the porter
who has charge of him. It is farther said that the queen mother is gone
to the king to lay before him an account of this matter. But the truth
of these things is hard to be found, and it is dangerous to ask
questions.

In the evening I went to the durbar to wait upon the king, where I met
the Persian ambassador with the first muster of his presents. He seemed
a jester or juggler, rather than a person of any gravity, continually
skipping up and down, and acting all his words like a mimic player, so
that the _Atachikanne_ was converted as it were into a stage. He
delivered all his presents with his own hand, which the king received
with smiles and a chearful countenance, and many gracious words. His
tongue was a great advantage to the Persian in delivering his own
business, which he did with so much flattery and obsequiousness, that he
pleased as much that way as by his gifts, constantly calling his majesty
king and commander of the world, forgetting that his own master had a
share of it; and on every little occasion of favourable acceptance, he
made his _tessalims_. When all was delivered for that day, he prostrated
himself on the ground, making _sizeda_, and knocking his head on the
floor as if he would have entered it.

The gifts this day were a handsome quiver for a bow and arrow, richly
embroidered; all sorts of European fruits, artificially made, and laid
on dishes; many folding purses, and other knacks, of leather, curiously
wrought in coloured silks; shoes stitched and embroidered: great mirrors
in richly inlaid frames; one square piece of velvet, highly embroidered
with gold in panes, between which were Italian pictures wrought in the
stuff, which he said were the king and queen of Venice, being, as I
suppose, the hanging called Venetian tapestry, of which