'Through Persia on a side-saddle' [‎21] (50/360)

TEHRAN
21
When we came away we passed many ladies waiting
for their carriages, completely shrouded in great black
ckaddars, which only permitted a glimpse of full, green
trousers, their faces being entirely concealed with a white
covering fastened with a jewel at the back of the head,
and having a strip of lace-work in front of the eyes.
I was told that many of the fine ladies we had met that
afternoon would give large sums in the European shops
at Tehran for any brocade or silk which struck their
fancy, and would wear it at the next party to which they
invited their friends, flaunting the new toilette ostenta
tiously before them to fire their jealousy. Usually, how
ever, one of the guests would pay her hostess out by
buying some more of the same material and having it
made up for one of her slave-women. She then would
invite a large company to tea, and the cups would be handed
round by a negress adorned in the rich silk with which
the quondam hostess is probably arrayed, and later on,
the same slave would dance before the assembled guests,
to the intense mortification of one and the equally keen
amusement of the others.
In passing it may be well to make mention of the kavsi
that I noticed in one of the rooms of the palace, and which
is an ingenious arrangement for having a most economical
fire during the winter months. A circular hole in the
floor is filled with burning charcoal, and standing over it is
a sort of wooden table covered with lahafs, under which
the women creep for warmth, hardly leaving the spot
either by day or by night.
The £ At Home' that I have just described was a great
contrast to another at which I was present a few days
later.