'Military report on Tehran and adjacent Provinces of North-West Persia (including the Caspian Littoral)' [‎103v] (211/610)

The defects of the Persian character are thus portrayed on
page 12 of R. G. Watson’s history of Persia :—
“ One cannot live amongst the Persians without becoming
nware of the absence from their character of many of the qua
lities that make life most pleasant, and of the presence in their
stead, of many of the habits and vices that are held elsewhere
to disgrace humanity. If there be any beauty in truth, in
honesty in dealings between man and man, in uprightness and
independence of character; in wedded love, in family life and
affection, in readiness to sacrifice fortune or life, if necessary
for the public good, in tolerance-towards others in points relat
ing to religion, in fair play towards others, in gratitude for
pas* kindness, in modesty in a consistent endeavour to provide
for the well-being of posterity—such beauty it would be vain
to expect to meet with in Persia.”
The Persians were originally an Aryan race but wave after
wave of invaders has submerged the country and mingled
with the inhabitants.
The upper classes and town population are of poor physi
que due to their indolent and sedentary habits and addicted
ness to opium and vice, of medium height, white skinned,
sharp featured with dark hair and eyebrows and lustrous eyes,
which, by contrast with a pale complexion, often appear very
handsome.
The peasantry possess great physical strength and endurance,
and are coarser featured.
The characteristics of the Farsi correspond to their geo
graphical position as Southerners intermediate between East
and West.
They are styled the Frenchmen of the East and rather
resemble the so-called ‘ Dagoes ’ of Southern Europe. Morier’s
portrait of Haji Baba of Isfahan, two parts knave and one part
good fellow, is true to life. The dry rarefied climate of the
high tableland, while conducive to keeness of wits and of the
imagination, ‘‘ does not redeem them from the listness pro
duced by the Eastern sun ” and they are lacking in moral not
intellectual qualities.
They are some of the most polite, and hospitable, and at
the same time vain, unprincipled, unreliable and unpractical
people in the world, lavish in promises which they have no
intention or capacity to fulfil, brave in speech, shameless in
syc ophanty and intrigue and cowardly in action, quick to
pick up new ideas or start a new work, but lacking in perse