MIDDLE CLASS PERSIANS.
PERSIAN BOY.
Cruelty is not a Persian vice; torture and punishments of an unusual and painful nature being part of their judicial system. There are no vindictive punishments, such as solitary confinement, penal servitude for long terms of years, etc. Seldom, indeed, is a man imprisoned more than twelve months, the rule being that there is a general jail delivery at the New Year. Royal clemency is frequently shown, often, perhaps, with want of judgment; still, it is very frequent. A cook I had, was years ago one of the Baabi rebels, and was seized and conducted to Teheran. (His guilt was undoubted; he himself acknowledged it; and these men had made an attempt, nearly successful, on the Shah’s life, actually wounding him.) This cook, “Mehdi,” was chained by the neck, with eleven others, and led out in the Shah’s presence for execution. The eleven men had their throats cut. “Enough,” said the king, “let that poor rascal go!”
He was taken back to prison and his life spared; but though the Shah had meant that he should be released, there being no formal order, he remained in prison for several years, making a good living by selling savoury messes to his fellow-prisoners.
The costume of the Persians may be shortly described as fitted to their active habits. The men invariably wear an unstarched shirt of cotton. This is sewn with white silk, cotton as a sewing material being unknown; it is often, particularly in the south of Persia, elaborately embroidered about the neck. It fastens in front by a flap, having two small buttons or knots at the left shoulder. It seldom comes below the hips. There is no collar, and the sleeves are quite loose, and are not confined at the wrist. The lower orders often have it dyed blue, particularly the villagers; but the servant and upper classes invariably wear a white shirt. Silk shirts used to be worn, but are now seldom seen on men. Among the very religious, during the mourning month (“Mohurrim”), the shirt is at times dyed black.
The “zerejumah,” or trousers, are of cloth among the higher classes, particularly those of the military order, who affect a garment of a tightness approaching that worn by Europeans. But the ordinary “zerejumah” is of cotton, white or dyed blue, or at times red, cut very loose, and exactly similar to the “pyjamas” worn by Europeans in India. They are held up by a thin cord of red or green silk or cotton round the waist, and the labouring classes, when engaged in heavy or dirty work, or when running, generally tuck the end of these garments in under the cord, which leaves their leg bare and free to the middle of the thigh.
The amplitude of these loose garments enables the Persian to sit without discomfort on his heels, his usual mode of sitting, for chairs are only used by the rich, great, or Europeanised; and it is a common thing for a visitor, if on familiar terms, to ask to be allowed to sit on his heels, as the unaccustomed chair tires him.