III.—Forbidden Viands.
From the little that has been said of the influence of the Persian clergy you will understand that the priests require their pilgrims to adhere strictly to the letter of the laws appertaining to the prohibition and recommendation of certain articles of food. They must reckon as prohibited and, therefore, impure, twelve things, among which may be counted pork, underdone meat, the blood of animals, and wines. Though a digression, it will not be out of place to mention here that the wine, of which Omar Khayyám and the Súfís in general sing, is more likely to be the juice of the grape than the interpretation put on it by such commentators as see in it a symbol of God’s love. For the effect produced on the brain by the forbidden drink is in itself something of a mystery, as it were, a divine afflatus, more particularly is it so considered by a people of such a temperate habit as the Persians. Some of the higher classes, no doubt, drink hard, and even drink to get drunk, but upon the whole the Muhammadans, and especially the Persians, are, in comparison with the majority of European peoples, extremely sober, bearing their griefs without seeking the consolation of the bottle.