"دليل بلاد فارس، المجلد I ويشمل محافظات أستراباد، شاهرود-بوستان، خراسان، وسيستان" [و‎‎٢‎٢‎٤] (٧٢٢/٤٥٤)

quick apprehensioiij and of agreeable and prepossessing manners. As a
nation, they may be termed brave; though the valour they have displayed,
like that of every other people in a similar condition of society, has in a
great degree depended upon the character of their leaders and the nature
of those objects for which they have fought. Their vices are still more
prominent than their virtues. Compelled, by the nature of their govern
ment, to have recourse on every occasion to art or violence, they are
alternately submissive and tyrannical. Many of their more serious defects
of chaiactei may be attributed to the same cause; and there is, perhaps,
no country in which so much of the immorality of its inhabitants
can be referred to a bad system of internal administration as Persia. This
reflection, though it may mitigate the sense we entertain of the depravity
of individuals, leaves but little hope of their amendment; for it is evident
that that can alone be effected by the concurrence of many radical changes,
with a complete alteration in their political condition—an event which
neither their past history nor present state can lead us to anticipate/'’
The following description by Morier of an entertainment which was
given in his honour at Shiraz, is interesting, as showing something of the
amusements of the higher classes :—
As soon as we were seated, the amusements commenced ; and at the
same moment the rope-dancer vaulted, the dancing-boys danced, the water-
spouter spouted, the fire-eater devoured fire, the singers sang, the musicians
played on their < kamanchas/ and the drummers beat lustily on their drums.
This singular combination of noises, objects, and attitudes, added to the
cries and murmurs of the crowd around, amused, yet almost distracted us.
“ The rope-dancer performed some feats, which really did credit to his
profession. He first walked over his rope with his balancing pole ; then
vaulted on high. He ascended the rope to a tree in an angle of 45°;
but, as he was reaching the very extremity of the upper range of the angle,
he could proceed no further, and remained in an uncertain position for the
space of two minutes. He afterwards tied his hands to a rope-ladder of
three large steps, and, first balancing his body by the middle on the main
line, let fall the ladder and himself, and was only brought up by the strength
of his wrists thus fastened to their support. He next put on a pair of higher
heeled shoes and paraded about again. Then put his feet into two saucepans,
and walked backward and forward. After this he suspended himself
by his feet from the rope, and, taking a gun, deliberately loaded and
primed it; and, in that pendent position, took an aim at an egg (placed on
the ground beneath him), and put his ball through it. After this he carried
on his back a child, whom he contrived to suspend, with his own body
besides, from the rope, and thence placed in safety on the ground. His
feats were numerous; and as he was mounted on a rope much more elevated
than those on which such exploits are displayed in England, they were
also proportionately dangerous. A trip would have been his inevitable
destruction. He was dressed in a fantastical jacket, and wore a pair of
breeches of crimson satin, something like those of Europeans. The boys
danced, or rather paced the ground, snapping their fingers to keep time
with the music, jingling their small brass castanets, and uttering extra
ordinary cries. To us all this was tiresome, but, to the Persians, it appeared
very clever. One of the boys, having exerted himself in various difficult
leaps, at last took two ‘ khanjars/ or daggers, one in each hand ; and with
these, springing forward and placing their points in the ground, turned
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