hair of solid gold and
silver--The _Atch_--Paintings--The banqueting room--The audience
room--Beautiful carpets--An elaborate clock--Portraits of
sovereigns and their places--Pianos and good music--The
Jewelled-Globe room--Queen Victoria's photograph--Moving
pictures--Conservatory--Roman mosaics--Toys--Adam and Eve--Royal
and imperial oil paintings--A decided slight--The picture
gallery--Valuable collection of arms--Strange
paintings--Coins--Pearls--Printing press--Shah's country places.

One is told that one must not leave Teheran without carefully inspecting
the Shah's Palace, its treasures and its museum. A special permit must be
obtained for this through the Legation or the Foreign Office.

The first large court which I entered on this second visit has pretty
tiled buildings at the sides, with its rectangular reservoir full of
swans, and bordered by trees, is probably the most impressive part of the
Palace. Fountains play in the centre, the spouts being cast-iron women's
heads of the cheapest European kind.

The lofty throne hall stands at the end, its decorative curtains
screening its otherwise unwalled frontage. For my special benefit the
curtains were raised, leaving exposed the two high spiral stone columns
that support the roof in front. The bases of these columns bore
conventionalized vases with sunflowers and leaf ornamentations, while the
capitols were in three superposed fluted tiers, the uppermost being the
largest in diameter. The frieze of the ceiling was concave, made of bits
of looking-glass and gold, and the ceiling itself was also entirely
composed of mirrors. The back was of shiny green and blue, with eight
stars and two large looking-glasses, while at the sides there was a blue
frieze.

Two large portraits of Nasr-ed-din Shah, two battle scenes and two
portraits of Fath-Ali-Shah decorated the walls. The two side doors of the
throne-hall were of beautifully inlaid wood, and the two doors directly
behind the throne were of old Shiraz work with ivory inscriptions upon
them in the centre. The lower part of the wall was of coloured alabaster,
with flower ornaments and birds, principally hawks. There were also other
less important pictures, two of which I was told represented Nadir and
Mahmud Shah, and two unidentified.

High up in the back wall were five windows, of the usual Persian pattern,
and also a cheap gold frame enclosing a large canvas that represe