In the land of the lion and sun, or, modern Persia

by C. J. Wills

The gold and silver work, except that of Zinjan, is poor in the extreme, but solid; while, for filigree-work especially, Zinjan rivals Malta. There are, however, some great artists. Stones are clumsily set, and often even strung and bored. A few clever gem-setters have come from Constantinople to the capital.

The use of starch is unknown in Persia, and the laundresses very bad. As in most Eastern countries, the washing is done at the side of a stream, the minimum amount of soap and the maximum of beating being employed. Such rough washing rapidly destroys one’s linen. Nowadays most Europeans keep a laundress, or what is called a washerman, of greater or less skill, and their shirts are “got up” as in Europe.

The Persians understand ironing, and the trade of ironer is a common one. The dresses of the common people are ornamented by lines drawn on them parallel with each other, by means of a kind of iron. The garment is laid on a large jar of clay, and, holding this between his knees, the ironer (“ūtū-kesh”) makes his pattern upon the new garment of silk or cotton.

The same means are used to mark the stuffs for quilting, which is much in fashion. A Persian wears always at least one quilted garment, and his quilts (“lahaf”) are simply large sheets of thick quilting. New cloth clothes are also carefully ironed, a box-iron, filled, with live charcoal, being generally employed.

The needlework of the Persians is very beautiful, silk being used for sewing to the total exclusion of cotton. Some of the patterns of embroidery, particularly those on silk, are very original; while the networks of white silk, done with the needle on the “rubanda,” or veils, at the part covering the eyes, being done wholly with the needle, are almost monuments of art work.

Women as well as men smoke the kalian, and the aged ladies are often opium-eaters to a large extent.

The great amusement of the Persian women of every rank is the bath. Generally three or four hours in the week are passed by the very poorest in the “hammām.”[32] As for the wealthier, they have baths in their own houses, and use them almost daily. The middle classes make parties to go to the hammām, and assist each other in the various processes of shampooing, washing with the “keesa,” or rough glove, and washing the hair with pipe-clay of Shiraz—a plan, by the way, which it is worth while to follow, for the hair is rendered thereby cleaner than when eggs are used. The pipe-clay is made up in little round cakes much resembling biscuits.

A traveller of the pessimist type, who was posting through the country to India, once showed me a pocketful of these cakes of clay, and drew my attention to the “beastly native biscuits, that a fellow couldn’t eat!” He had got a large handful for a copper as he passed through a roadside bazaar.

Serious matters are the dyeing of the hair and beard, the use of the depilatory, and the smoothing of the soles with pumice, and, lastly, the dyeing of the soles and palms of the hands with “henna.” The very poor seize the opportunity to wash their rags in the public bath at the same time that they bathe. These public baths are open free of charge and without distinction to rich and poor. A few coppers are given to the “delaks,” or bath attendants, male and female. These pay for fuel, hot water, etc. Certain hours are appropriated to each sex. The whole bath can be always exclusively hired for a few kerans.

As to bread, it is of three varieties, and is all made from leavened dough. The “sangak” is of the thickness of a finger, some three feet long and a foot wide. This is baked in a peculiar manner, and from the word “sang,” a stone, it obtains its name. A huge arched oven is half filled with small pebbles from the river. Upon these pebbles is placed a pile of brushwood; this is fired and fed till the stones are sufficiently hot; the fire is then pushed into a corner, and the flaps of dough are placed on the heated stones by means of a peel, as many as twenty loaves being put on at a time. Batch after batch is baked in this way, the stones being stirred occasionally when they get too cool to bake well, and the fire is raked forward and fed again, and so on. Or at times the fire is simply shifted from place to place in the oven, the loaves being placed on the stones as they are heated. Thoroughly good bread is the result, crisp, appetising, and satisfying. Eaten hot with butter, it is the finest of breads after the Russian. Of course it is absolutely pure. The term “flap-jack” is applied to this form of bread by the Europeans in Persia.