'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.' [‎229] (260/582)

PALACE OF OUR RESIDENCE.
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and the splendour of its decorations, were in no way inferior to
those of the Chehel Sitoon, and other buildings in the Hasht
Behest; and though of equal, or even older date, it was in a much
higher state of preservation than either of these. A large closed
room led off from one end of this, which, as it was .entered by small
latticed doors, and afterwards solid double ones, was most proba
bly a banqueting room of the King, when retired with his fe
males. The domed roof of this was particularly beautiful;—
the pictured subjects were appropriate to retired pleasures, the
stained glass windows gave a rich and mellowed light, and there
were balconies, or galleries, ascended to by steps, as if for musi
cians, or singers. My own room communicated with the principal
hall by three sets of double-doors, and opened on the other side
into a high walled court, perfectly secluded even from the high
est point of view without. This was also said to have been one
of the female apartments, which appeared extremely probable,
from its comparatively small size, the style of its decorations, and
the manner of its communication, by double-doors, with the hall
on one side, and by an equal number of the same kind with the
garden and court on the other. The walls of this, from the floor
to the roof, were of raised gold-work, on a blue ground, and the
lower recesses were executed in the same way, with devices of
flowers, trees, birds, &c. In the upper recesses, which were sepa
rated from the lower by a rich broad frieze of gold ground, with
flowers, were a succession of historical paintings. In these, females
were always the heroines of the story : sometimes they appeared
in the chase—at others, in the act of being sold as slaves—love
and intrigue were depicted in some—and in one, the sight of a
female bathing in a stream had checked the speed of an amorous
prince, who gazed on her with intense desire. The story of Ba
haram Gour, or Baharam the Fifth, and his fair favourite, fills the
last compartment near the door, and is perfectly undei stood by
even the children of the country. This monarch, whose reign has
ended nearly fourteen hundred years, has been pronounced to be
;