[13] Gen. x. 11; 2 Kings xviii. 11; 1 Chron. v. 26.
[14] See Sir A. H. Layard's Early Adventures, vol. i. p. 217.
[15] I had the pleasure of seeing Agha Hassan at the British Legation at Tihran. He is charming, both in appearance and manner, a specimen of the highest type of Arab good breeding, with a courteous kindliness and grace of manner, and is said to have made a very favourable impression when he went to England lately to be made a C.M.G. Both father and son wear the Arab dress, in plain colours but rich materials, with very large white turbans of Damascus embroidery in gold silk, and speak only Arabic and Persian.
[16] A journey of nine months in Persia, chiefly in the west and north-west, convinced me that this aspect of ruin and decay is universal.
[17] The reader curious as to this and other customs of modern Persia should read Dr. Wills's book, The Land of the Lion and the Sun.
[18] A rug only eight feet by five feet was given me by a Persian in Tihran, which was valued for duty at Erzerum at £3 the square yard, with the option of selling it to the Custom-house at that price, which implies that its value is from 70s. to 80s. per yard. It has a very close pile, nearly as short and fine as velvet.
[19] For the Sasanian inscriptions, vide Early Sasanian Inscriptions, by E. Thomas. The great work published by the French Government, Voyage en Perse, Paris, 1851, by Messieurs Flandin et Coste, contains elaborate and finely-executed representations of these rock sculptures, which are mostly of the time of the later Sasanian monarchs.
[20] This custom, supposed to be an allusion to our Lord and His mother, is described by Morier in his Second Journey in Persia.
[21] Jairud exports fruit to Kûm and even to Tihran, and in the autumn I was interested to find that the best pears and peaches in the Hamadan market came from its luxuriant orchards.
[22] I spent two days at Kûm five weeks later, and saw the whole of it in disguise, and in order to attain some continuity of description I put my two letters together.