'Through Persia on a side-saddle' [‎19] (48/360)

TEHRAN
19
iniicli
good-looking woman among the crowds present, although
most of the ladies had quite fair complexions, regular
features, and fine eyes. The wives were all very stout, and
to European ideas the lengthening of their eyebrows with
streaks of kohl so as to make them meet, and also to be
double their natural breadth, was not becoming; neither
did I appreciate the occasional little kohl moustaches, nor
the thickly rouged and powdered cheeks and the henna-
tinted nails.
There was a sad lack of intelligence on most of the faces,
which, however, all at once brightened up, and there was
quite a commotion among the throngs of women as the
Shah entered the room. His wives pressed forward smirk
ing and smiling, only to be waved aside by their royal
master, a European lady doing the honours of his court,
and presenting us in turn to him. Lady Durand then sat
beside His Majesty on a gilded couch, and they chatted in
French, while I observed the splendid rubies and diamonds
decorating the front of the Shah's uniform, the well-known
diamond aigrette, and his trick of pushing up his spectacles
on to the front of his kolah at intervals. He was accom
panied by Sultan Aziz, the youth who is always with him,
and whom he regarded as a sort of fetish, believing that his
royal life depended in some way on that of his favourite,
who looked about twelve, but was, in reality, aged
eighteen.
After awhile the monarch rose, and calling out "Etrennes !
Jtrennes ! " presented each European lady with a small gold
coin as a memento of her visit, and then he, the Naib, and
the ' fetish' retired, and dancing commenced.
Half a dozen women sang (to my ears the performance
seemed to be a series of howls and yells!), thumping on a