'Travels in Assyria, Media, and Persia, including a journey from Bagdad by Mount Zagros, to Hamadan, the ancient Ecbatana, researches in Ispahan and the ruins of Persepolis, and journey from thence by Shiraz and Shapoor to the sea-shore. Description of Bussorah, Bushire, Bahrein, Ormuz, and Muscat, narrative of an expedition against the pirates of the Persian Gulf, with illustrations of the voyage of Nearchus, and passage by the Arabian Sea to Bombay.' [‎85] (116/582)

TO THE FRIENDS OF MY COMPANION. §5
about one hundred and fifty pounds sterling, were currently
named as the price of the daughter of the Dufterdar Effendi,
one of the Secretaries of State; and this sum was said to have
been actually paid by an old Christian merchant who had a wife
and twelve children of his own !
Amidst all this, I was at a loss to conceive how the Dervish
could find much enjoyment, while labouring under the strong
passion which I supposed he must then have felt for the object of
his affections at Bagdad, whom he had quitted with so much re
luctance. What was my surprise, however, on seeking an expla
nation of this seeming inconsistency, to find it was the son, and
not the daughter, of his friend Elias who held so powerful a
hold on his heart! I shrunk back from the confession as a man
would recoil from a serpent on which he had unexpectedly trodden;
and I was struck silent from further enquiry, as one would be
averse to moving forward while so venomous and deadly a reptile
lay in his path. I was delighted to find, however, at last, that
this was a pure and honourable passion. His fondness for the
boy was of such a nature as that he could not suffer him ever to
leave the house, or be profaned by his exposure to the sight of
others, keeping him always as sacred as the most secluded member
of the harem ; and in answers to enquiries naturally suggested by
the subject, he declared he would rather suffer death than do the
slightest harm to so pure, so innocent, so heavenly a creature as
this. The friendship existing between the father of the child and
its avowed lover, seemed to prove at least that the parent was sa
tisfied as to the nature of the feeling; and all that I saw myself,
though I then thought it was for a female person, still appeared
to me, even after I was undeceived in this particular, to be the
result of a genuine effusion of nature, and in no way the symp
toms of a depraved feeling.
I remembered all that had been said on the subject of the love
of boys among the Greeks, by those who conceived it to be a pure