and
dependants. 'Mabaarukh Nou-Roze!'[26] (May the New Year be fortunate!) are
the terms of salutation exchanged by all classes of society, the King
himself setting the example. The day is devoted to amusements, a public
breakfast at the palace, sending presents, exchanging visits, &c.

The trays of presents prepared by the ladies for their friends are
tastefully set out, and the work of many days' previous arrangement. Eggs
are boiled hard, some of these are stained in colours resembling our
mottled papers; others are neatly painted in figures and devices; many are
ornamented with gilding; every lady evincing her own peculiar taste in the
prepared eggs for 'Nou-Roze'. All kinds of dried fruits and nuts,
confectionary and cakes, are numbered amongst the necessary articles for
this day's offering: they are set out in small earthen plates, lacquered
over to resemble silver, on which is placed coloured paper, cut out in
curious devices (an excellent substitute for vine leaves) laid on the
plate to receive the several articles forming 'Nou-Roze' presents.

Amongst the young people these trays are looked forward to with child-like
anxiety. The ladies rival each other in their display of novelty and good
taste, both in the eatables and the manner of setting them off with effect.

The religious community have prayers read in their family, and by them it
is considered both a necessary duty and a propitious commencement to bring
in the new year by 'prayer and praises'.

When it is known that the Nou-Roze will occur by daylight, the ladies have
a custom of watching for the moment the year shall commence by a fresh
rose, which being plucked from the stalk is thrown into a basin of water,
the eye downwards. They say, this rose turns over of itself towards the
sun at the very moment of that luminary passing into the sign Aries. I
have often found them thus engaged; but I never could say I witnessed the
actual accomplishment of their prediction.

The Nou-Roze teems with friendly tokens between the two families of a
bride and bridegroom elect, whose interchange of presents are also
strictly observed. The children receive gifts from their elders; their
nurses reap a harvest from the day; the tutor writes an ode in praise of
his pupil, and receives gifts from the child's parents; the servants and
slaves are regaled with dainties and with presents from the superiors of
the establishment; the poor are remembered with clothes, money an