5th. As we were at dinner on the following day, one of the Prince’s own feroshes brought a dish composed of eggs, &c. made up into a species of omelette, with two small bowls of sherbet, and a plate of powdered spices, which he announced as a present from the Prince himself. These sort of attentions are frequent between friends in Persia, and, at the moment of dinner, it seems that the Prince, who is particularly fond of the dish, was anxious that the Envoy also should partake of it; though at the time of receiving it, the Envoy suspected, that it might have been the trick of some one who calculated on a more valuable largess in return.
6th. A zeeafet or entertainment was given this evening to the Envoy by Mirza Zain Labadeen, Chief Secretary and Private Minister to the Prince. This was so nearly a repetition of the former display, that any description may well be spared. One thing indeed may be remarked; as soon as the Prime Minister came into the room, he took the direction of the feast upon himself; and the master of the house, the real donor, sunk into the character of a guest. This is the case wherever the Minister goes, as he is supposed to be the master of every thing, and to preside in every place, next after the Prince his own immediate superior.
On the 7th, Jaffer Ali Khan, (the English Agent at Shiraz) Mr. Bruce and I, went by the Envoy’s order to the Minister, to propose certain measures. We were introduced into the Bagh-a-Vakeel, a garden belonging to the Prince, and situated contiguous to his palace in the town. In the centre is a pleasure house called Koola-frangee, (and built on the model of the one of the same name in the Bagh-a-Jehan Nemah, on the outside of the city gates.) Here we conferred with the Minister, and as, in quitting him, we were going out of the garden, we chanced to meet the Prince himself, who asked us the common questions of civility, and passed on. In the evening, the Prince invited the Envoy to meet him on horseback at the Maidan, and expressed a wish to see the troop of cavalry go through some of its exercises and evolutions. We accordingly proceeded, and, when we perceived the Prince, we all dismounted from our horses for a moment, and when he waved his hand, we all mounted again, and rode close up to him. His manners and appearance were most elegant and prepossessing. He was dressed most richly: his outer coat was of blue velvet, which fitted tight to his shape; on the shoulders, front pocket, and skirts, was an embroidery of pearl, occasionally (in the different terminations of a point or angle,) enlivened with a ruby, an emerald, or a topaz. Under this was a waistcoat of pearl; and here and there, hanging in a sort of studied negligence, were strings of fine pearl. A dagger, at the head of which blazed a large diamond, was in his girdle. The bridle of his horse was inlaid in every part of the head with precious stones; and a large silver tassel hung under the jaws. The Prince was altogether a very interesting figure.
Cornet Willock paraded his troop much to the Prince’s satisfaction, and in the interval his own men ran their horses up and down the course, firing their muskets in various dextrous ways. Unfortunately one of his cavaliers met with a very dangerous fall.
Ismael Beg, the young Georgian favourite, also shewed off his horse. He carried the Prince’s bow and arrows, which were placed on each side of him, in quivers covered with black velvet and thickly studded with pearls and precious stones. After this, the Prince ordered his Russian prisoners, thirty in number, to draw up and go through their exercise. These poor fellows, commanded by their officer (who goes by the name of Rooss Khan, or Russian Khan), went through every thing that they could do, and even formed a hollow square. To all this the Persians give the name of bazee or play. Nasr Oallah Khan, the Minister, kept at a respectful distance, whilst the rest of the nobles and chief men were stationed in a crowd much further off. The Prince remained an isolated and unsocial being, never speaking but to command, never spoken to but to feel the servitude of others.
It is always the custom for the King and Princes to order their visitors away, which they do, either by a nod of the head or a wave of the hand. We received this kind of licence to depart, and returned to town in the order in which we came out.
8th. The last and most splendid entertainment was given this evening to the Envoy by our Mehmandar, Mahomed Zeky Khan. His own house was not large enough to contain us and our numerous attendants; he received therefore the Prince’s permission to give it in that of Aga Besheer, the Queen’s head Eunuch. The apartment, into which we were introduced, was still more elegant than any which we had yet seen, and if it could have been transported to England, would probably have excited universal admiration, and a new taste in the interior decoration of rooms. Like almost all the public rooms or dewan khonéh of a Persian house, it was in shape a parallelogram, with a recess formed by a Saracenic arch, in the centre of the superior line of the figure. The ground of the wall was of a beautiful varnished white, and richly painted in gold in ornaments of the most neat and ingenious composition. The entablature, if it may be so called, was inlaid glass placed in angular and prismatic positions, which reflected a variety of beautiful lights and colours. The ceiling was all of the same composition. In the arched recess was a chimney piece formed in front by alternate layers of glass and painting. The whole side fronting the arch was composed of windows, the frames of which opened from the ground; and, though of clumsy workmanship compared with frames in England, yet aided by the richness of the painted glass intermixed with the gilding of the woodwork, they filled up the space splendidly and symmetrically.
This fête corresponded in all its parts with the others that I have described; except that there was a greater variety of entertainments. Besides the rope-dancer, water-spouter, dancing boys, and fire-eater, we had an exhibition of wrestlers, a combat of rams, and a sanguinary scene of a lion killing an ox. The wrestling was opened by two dwarfs, about three feet and a half in height: one with a beard descending to his girdle, with deformed arms and hands, but with strong and muscular legs. The other, with bad legs, but with regular and well shaped arms. Both had the appearance of those animals represented in mythological pictures as satyrs, or perhaps of the Asmodeus of Le Sage. The figure with the beard was the victor, and fairly tossed his antagonist into an adjoining basin of water. The professional wrestlers succeeded; the hero of whom threw and discomfited eight others, in most rapid succession. In this the combat of rams resembled that of the wrestlers: one bold and superb ram, belonging to the Prince, remained the undisputed master of the field, for although a great number of his kind were brought to meet him, none dared to face him after the first butt.
The scene of blood next begun. A poor solitary half-grown ox was then produced, and had not long awaited his fate, when a young lion was conducted before us by a man, who led him with a rope by the neck. For some time he seated himself by the wall regardless of the feast before him. At length, urged by the cries of his keepers, and by the sight of the ox, which was taken close to him, he made a spring and seized his victim on the back. The poor brute made some efforts to get loose, but the lion kept fast hold, until he was dragged away by his keepers. Both were again brought before us, when the ox fell under a second attack of the lion. An order was at length given to cut the throat of the ox, when the lion finished his repast by drinking heartily of his blood. A very small cub of a lion, not larger than a water-spaniel was carried out, and the vigour with which he attacked the ox, was quite amusing. He fed upon him, after he was dead, with a relish which showed how truly carniverous were his young propensities. This bloody scene was pleasing to the Persian spectators in general, although I thought that I perceived some who sympathized with us for the helplessness of the ox.
In the course of the morning the Prince’s present to the Mission was brought by Ismael Beg. It consisted of a sword and two horses to the Envoy, and to each of the gentlemen kalaats, or dresses of gold brocade, a sash, and a shawl. Our appearance, when we wore our new dresses, which had not been made on purpose for us, was probably very ridiculous. We put the rich brocade Persian vest over our English clothes, having only taken off our coats: then wound the brocade sash round our waists, and lastly, put our shawls either over our shoulders, or fastened them into our cocked hats. This, with our red cloth stockings and green high-heeled shoes, completed the adjustment, in which we appeared before the Prince. The morning of the 9th had been fixed for our parting visit; dressed in these gifts with which he had honoured us, we were introduced to the Prince in a room called the private audience, in the Bagh-a-Vakeel. On walking through the garden we met one of his brothers, a little fellow about six years old, and who could just totter under the weight of the brocades, furs, and shawls with which he was hugely encumbered. Several Khans and men of consequence were standing before him, in the same attitudes of respect and humility, as they did before his elder brother, and attending to all his little orders and whims, with as much obsequiousness, as they would have shewn to a full-grown sovereign. It was singular that no notice was taken of an inadvertence which we committed: the dresses which we had received were honours to which a Persian looks forward through his whole life; but as they happened to be extremely inconvenient to us, we threw them off as soon as we left the Prince’s presence. An Englishman just invested with an Order, would hardly so throw off the ribband at the gate of St. James’s. In strictness, the kalaat of Persia should be worn three days, as we afterwards learnt, when again we had received a similar distinction at Teheran, and treated it with similar disrespect.