aving Looms.]

The loom is simple enough, the two sets of long horizontal threads being
kept at high tension by an iron bar fixed into the cylindrical wooden
rollers, round which the threads are rolled. There is then a vertical
arrangement for moving the long horizontal sets of threads alternately up
and down by means of pedals, a cross thread being passed between them
with a spool, and beaten home each time with the large comb suspended in
a vertical position. The threads are kept in position by two additional
combs which represent the width of the cloth, and in which each
horizontal thread is kept firm in its central position by a clever device
of inverted loops between which it is passed and clenched tight. The
cloth is rolled round a wooden cylinder. It is extremely strong and
durable. Almost each house has a weaving loom.

On one side of the court was a recess in the wall for valuables. The
padlock was closed by means of a screw. By the side of the kitchen one
found the lumber and refuse room, and there were corresponding
arrangements on the floor above. Unlike other Persian houses this was
lighted by windows with neat woodwork, instead of by the usual skylight
hole in the dome of the room.

The natives at this village were very handsome. There was a touch of the
Afghan type in the men, and the women had fine faces with magnificent
eyes. One found firm mouths with well-cut and properly developed lips, in
contrast to the weak, drooping mouths of the people one had met in the
western cities; and the noses were finely chiselled, with well-defined
nostrils. There was no unsteadiness in the eyes, so common to the
Persians of the north-west,--and these fellows consequently presented
quite an honest appearance, while the overhanging brow added a look of
pensiveness. The skull was peculiarly formed, slanting upwards
considerably from the forehead to an abnormal height, and giving the
cranium an elongated shape. The ears, too, generally malformed or
under-developed in most Persians, were better shaped in these people,
although by no means perfect. They, nevertheless, showed a certain
refinement of blood and race.

In the matter of men's clothing it was gratifying to find the ugly
pleated frockcoats discarded--or, rather, never adopted--and long
picturesque shirts and ample trousers worn instead, held together by a
kamarband. Over all was thrown a brown burnous, not unlike that of the
Bedouins, and the head was wound in