On the 24th, the Envoy was invited to an entertainment, which the King gave. We proceeded to the palace, and having gone through the great gate, leading into the Ark, or more immediate residence of the King, we dismounted at the gate which opens into the Maidan and the first great court of the palace. Opposite to this gate is another; in an open room at the summit of which, the King was seated. We walked across the court, and were led through many passages, and ascended many intricate flights of steps, until we reached the roof of the buildings on the right of the Shah. Over this roof, which in many places was of difficult access, we scrambled, until we came to a little tent prepared for us, which was pitched on the summit of a door-way, close to the King’s room.
The court, in which the different exhibitions were to take place, appeared to us to be near two hundred feet square. On each side of the great gate were sixteen arched compartments, each of which opened into a small room. In the centre was a high pole, with a truck at the top, and small projections for the convenience of ascending it. This pole is for the purpose of horse exercises, and shooting at the mark. Close under the room in which the Shah was seated, was a basin of water, on the other side of which were erected the poles and ropes of a rope-dancer. In a circle round these, were fire-works placed in various forms and quantities. Four figures of paper and linen dressed like Europeans were erected on high, and surrounded with fire-works. At a distance were elephants of paper, stuck all over with rockets; on all the walls were rockets; and, in short, fire-works were placed in every direction. Opposite to the Shah in two lines were the new raised troops, with drummers standing in a row at the furthermost extremity. In the centre of these was the Nasakchee Bashee, who appeared as the director of the entertainment. He had a stick in his hand, and wore on his head a gika, a distinguishing ornament borne by particular people only, to whom the King grants the liberty.
The first ceremony was the introduction of the presents from the different provinces. That from Prince Hossein Ali Mirza, Governor of Shiraz, came first. The Master of the Ceremonies walked up, having with him the conductor of the present, and an attendant, who, when the name and titles of the donor had been proclaimed, read aloud from a paper the list of the articles. The present from Prince Hossein Ali Mirza, consisted of a very long train of large trays placed on men’s heads, on which were shawls, stuffs of all sorts, pearls, &c.; then many trays filled with sugar, and sweetmeats; after that many mules laden with fruit, &c. &c. &c. The next present was from Mahomed Ali Khan, Prince of Hamadan, the eldest born of the King’s sons, but who had been deprived by his father of the succession, because the Georgian slave who bore him was of an extraction less noble than that of the mothers of the younger Princes. His present accorded with the character which is assigned to him; it consisted of pistols and spears, a string of one hundred camels, and as many mules. After this came the present from the Prince of Yezd, another of the King’s sons, which consisted of shawls and the silken stuffs, the manufacture of his own town. Then followed that of the Prince of Mesched; and last of all, and the most valuable, was that from Hajee Mohamed Hossein Khan, Ameen-ed-Doulah. It consisted of fifty mules, each covered with a fine Cashmire shawl, and each carrying a load of one thousand tomauns.
The other offerings had been lodged in the Sandeck Khona, (literally, Trunk Office). This was conveyed in a different direction to the Treasury. Each present, like the first, contained a portion of sugar and sweetmeats. When all the train had passed in procession, one by one before the King, the amusements commenced.
First came the rope-dancer: a boy about twelve years old, ascended the rope, and paced it backwards and forwards. The same rope was continued to the roof of the room in which the King was seated, making first an angle of forty degrees, and then, in a second flight, an angle of fifty degrees, with its horizontal extension. The boy balancing himself with his pole, walked up the first steadily, and with very little more difficulty ascended the second, while the music below animated him in his progress. He then, with the same steadiness descended, walking backwards, and safely reached the horizontal rope. After this a man in a kind of petticoat began a dance of the most extravagant attitudes. A large elephant which had been in waiting amid the crowd, was next brought forward, was made to give a shriek, and then to kneel down, paying as it were his selaam to the King. A company of wrestlers succeeded; and every one, who threw his antagonist on his back, ran before the King and received a tomaun. When ten such feats had been successively performed, a man led in a bear, with which in his turn he wrestled. But the bear always had the advantage; and when his antagonist attempted to throw him into the basin of water, the bear got so much out of humour, that if he had not been deprived of his teeth, he would probably have demolished the unlucky assailant. Then rams were brought into the arena, and in several couples fought for some time with much obstinacy. A poor ox was next introduced, and after him a young lion. The scene, which we had witnessed at Shiraz, was here repeated. The ox was scarcely suffered to walk, before the lion was let loose upon him; twice was the lion dragged off, and twice permitted to return to the charge, which he always made in the rear, and of which the success was secure and easy. A less bloody display succeeded; a bear was brought forwards by a company of looties or mountebanks, and danced for some time to the rude noise and music of its leaders. Then came a man who, on his bare head balanced, among other things, two high vases full of water, which another was to break with his cane.
To all these different performers, the King threw different sums, as he was severally pleased with their tricks and feats. At sun-set his Majesty retired to say his Namaz, (prayers) when his Nokara Khanah, that is his trumpets and drums, played as usual. At this moment the Envoy retired, happy to escape the noise and smoke of the fire-works, which were to close the entertainment.
25th. The King held the races, at which also the Envoy was desired to be present. From the Casvin gate, at which we left the city, we proceeded about half a mile to a fine even part of the country, where a tent was pitched for the King. All his new raised troops were arranged on the right and in front of it. On the left, facing the tent, we stood in a line, near the Ministers, Mirza Sheffeea, and the Ameen-ed-Doulah. Directly opposite his Majesty were eight of his sons, richly dressed in velvet and gold-brocade coats, all glittering with gold and jewels. One of these carried by his side his father’s bow and his quiver thickly set with precious stones. The Master of the Ceremonies, in the field, was a young Persian who carried an ornamented and gilded spear. One or two of the Princes were mounted on white horses, the legs, belly, and lower parts of the buttock of which were dyed a rich orange colour, terminated at the top by little flowers. The Persians much admire this species of disfigurement, nor in the East is their taste singular. At about fifty paces distance from the Princes, stood the King’s band of music with a troop of looties and their monkies. The state elephants were on the ground, on the largest of which the King, seated in a very elegant howdar, rode forth from the city.
When he alighted he was saluted by a discharge of zombooreks; the salute indeed is always fired when the King alights from his horse or mounts. In one of the courts of the palace at Shiraz we had previously noticed this artillery. The zomboorek is a small gun mounted on the back of a camel. The conductor from his seat behind guides the animal by a long bridle, and loads and fires the little cannon without difficulty. He wears a coat of orange-coloured cloth, and a cap with a brass front; and his camel carries a triangular green and red flag. Of these there were one hundred on the field; and when their salute was fired they retreated in a body behind the King’s tent, where the camels were made to kneel down. Collectively they make a fine military appearance. This species of armament is common to many Asiatic states, yet the effect at best is very trifling. The Persians, however, place great confidence in their execution; and Mirza Sheffeea, in speaking of them to the Envoy, said, “These are what the Russians dread.”
No exhibition could be more miserable than the races, the immediate object of our excursion. They are intended to try rather the bottom than the speed of the horses. The prize is what the King may be pleased to give to the first jockies. On this occasion there were two sets, that came severally from a distance of twelve and twenty-one miles; each consisted of about twelve ill-looking horses, mounted by boys of ten or twelve years old, who were wretchedly dressed in a shirt and pair of breeches, boots and cap. In each race the King’s horses won, of course. Horses are trained in this manner for a reason sufficiently obvious, in a country where the fortunes of the state and of every individual are exposed to such sudden changes. Every one likes to be prepared with some mode of escape, in case of pursuit; now horses thus inured to running will continue on the gallop for a day together, whilst a high conditioned and well-fed animal would drop at the end of ten miles. For this reason the King always keeps himself well supplied with a stud of this description, as a resource in the event of an accident. When, on the death of his uncle, Aga Mahomed Khan, He was summoned (by Hajee Ibrahim, the Minister of the late King) to assume as the heir the sovereignty, he thus travelled from Shiraz to Teheran, a distance of five hundred miles in six days.
In the interval of the race, the King sent the Master of the Ceremonies to desire the Envoy and his suite to come before him. We dismounted from our horses, and proceeded with the Prime Minister and the Ameen-ed-Doulah, before the King’s presence, making low bows as we advanced. When we were about twenty steps from his Majesty we stopped and made our final low bow. The King was seated on a high chair under a canopy, the sides of which were formed of gold cloth, and of looking glasses. The chair itself was beautifully embroidered with enamelled flowers and other ornaments; on one of the arms was a pot of flowers, and on the other a vase of rose-water. On one side was spread a velvet and gold cloth carpet with the pearl pillow. The King was in his riding dress, a close coat of purple velvet embroidered in pearl, the sheep-skin cap, and a pair of Bulgar boots. As he was placed in a good light, we had an excellent view of him. His manners are perfectly easy and unconstrained, with much dignity and affability. He first inquired after the Envoy’s health, of whose good qualities the two Ministers then entered into an immense eulogium, praising him in terms the most extravagant. Then the names of all the party were mentioned to the King, and each was asked how he did. All the conversation was complimentary; and when the comparison was made between us and the French, the King said, “they were haivans, beasts, wild men, savages. These are gentlemen.”