of civilisation,
Jews have been spared the torture of these baths.

The Jew is looked upon as unclean and untrustworthy by the Persian, who
refuses to use him as a soldier, but who gladly employs him to do all
sorts of dirty jobs which Persian pride would not allow him to do
himself. His social level therefore stands even lower than that of the
Shotri of India, the outcast who does not stop at the basest occupations.

The majority of the older Jews are illiterate, but not unintelligent.
Each city has one or more Rabbis or priests, but they have no power and
receive a good share of the insults in the Persian bazaars.

Whatever feeling of repulsion towards the race one may have, the position
of the Jews in Persia--although infinitely better than it was before--is
still a most pathetic one.

CHAPTER XXIX

The square of Isfahan--The Palace gate--The entrance to the
bazaar--Beggars--Formalities and etiquette--The
bazaar--Competition--How Persians buy--Long
credit--Arcades--Hats--Cloth shops--Sweet
shops--Butchers--Leather goods--Saddle-bags--The bell
shop--Trunks.

The great square of Isfahan is looked upon as the centre of the city. It
is a huge oblong, with the great and beautiful dome of the Mesjid-i-Shah
on one side of the long rectangle, and another high domed mosque with two
high minarets at the end. The very impressive red and white quadrangular
palace gate, flat-topped, and with a covered blue verandah supported on
numerous slender columns, stands on the side of the square opposite the
Mesjid-i-Shah mosque.

To the north of the great square one enters the bazaar by a high gate,
handsomely tiled with flower ornamentations; this gateway has three lower
windows and a triple upper one, and a doorway under the cool shade of the
outer projecting pointed archway. To the right of the entrance as one
looks at it, rises a three-storied building as high as the gate of the
bazaar. It has a pretty upper verandah, the roof of which is supported on
transverse sets of three wooden columns each, except the outer corner
roof-supports, which are square and of bricks. In front is an artistic
but most untidy conglomeration of awnings to protect from the sun
pedlars, merchants and people enjoying their kalians, or a thimbleful of
tea.

There are men selling fruit which is displayed upon the dirty ground, and
there are tired horses with dismounted cavaliers sleeping by their side,
the reins