fastened for precaution to a heavy stone or slung to the arm.
One sees masses of children of all ages and conditions of health, from
the neatly attired son of the wealthy merchant, who disports himself with
his eldest brother, to the orphan boy, starving, and in rags covered with
mud. There is a little cripple with a shrunken leg, and further, an old
man with lupus in its most ghastly form. Disreputably-clothed soldiers
lie about in the crowd, and a woman or two with their faces duly screened
in white cloths may be seen.

The sight of a sahib always excites great curiosity in Persia. Followed
by a crowd of loafers and most insistent beggars, one forces one's way
into the crowded bazaar, while the ghulams of the Consulate--without whom
it would be indecorous to go anywhere--shove the people on one side or
the other without ceremony, drive the donkeys, laden with wood or
panniers of fruit, into the shops--much to the horror of the
shopman,--and disband the strings of mules and the horsemen to make room
for the passing sahib.

It is very difficult, under such circumstances, to stop any length of
time at any particular spot to study the shops, the shop-people, and the
buyers, for instead of being an unobserved spectator, one is at all times
the principal actor in the scene and the centre of attention, and
therefore a most disturbing element in the crowd.

There are so many complicated and tiresome formalities to be adhered to
in order to avoid offending the natives, or the officials, or the
susceptibilities of foreign residents, who seem to feel responsible for
the doings of every traveller--and who, at all events, remain to suffer
for the untactful deeds of some of them,--and there are so many things
one must not do for fear of destroying the prestige of one's country,
that, really, if one possesses a simple and practical mind, one gets
rather tired of Persian town life, with its exaggerated ties, its empty
outward show and pomp and absolute lack of more modest aims which, after
all, make real happiness in life.

[Illustration: The Square, Isfahan.]

As for European ladies it is considered most improper to be seen with
uncovered faces in the bazaar. In fact, walking anywhere in the town they
are generally exposed to insult.

I once took a walk through the various bazaars, but the second time, at
our Consul's recommendation, was advised to ride in state, with
gold-braided, mounted Consulate ghulams preceding and follo