I waited awhile, until His Highness had finished speaking, then when he saw me I took off the Astrakhan busby I had on, went forward and bowed. His Highness enquired very kindly after my health, expressed his pleasure at seeing me, and then directed me to come into the room where he was sitting.
I was very glad to do so, for in spite of my furs the bitter wind began to make me shiver.
I made my way through the door of the Pavilion into the centre hall or passage, turned off to the left, and raising the curtains over the door entered the room where His Highness was. Compared with the outside it was, in spite of the open window, delightfully warm.
His Highness was seated in an arm-chair facing the open window: at his left hand was a little table with a cup of tea on it. He directed a chair to be placed for me and some more tea to be brought. At first the pages placed my chair some little distance from the table, but His Highness ordered them to bring it near. While I was drinking the tea His Highness continued giving judgment in the cases brought before him.
Presently a man, apparently a carpenter, was ushered into the room, bearing in his hand a curiously shaped pair of wooden sandals with spikes of iron fixed into them. His Highness examined them, and then turning to me explained that he had invented these things himself, that they were to fasten on the boots to prevent a slip when one was out shooting among the mountains in the winter.
The Amîr looked very handsome. He was dressed in a postîn of dark purple velvet, trimmed and lined with a valuable fur, called in Persian Pari-pásha, I think a kind of sable. He had gold shoulder knots, and a belt covered with bosses of gold. In his right trouser pocket he had a small nickel-plated revolver, for I saw him take it out when he was searching for a seal to give to one of the secretaries. A fur rug was thrown over his knees, and he wore a beaver busby ornamented with a diamond star.
It was interesting to note the bearing and appearance of the different men as they came before him. Almost everyone, who was not attached to the Court, turned pale, some went white to the lips, or yellow if they were dark skinned. I understood so little Persian then, that I could not follow what was being said, and thus was unable to judge if there were any reason for this emotion, beyond the awe that the presence of majesty inspires.
Presently, with a suddenness that was quite startling, the Amîr turned to me, and said in Persian:—
“Men in autumn and winter are blown upon by cold winds, and at once take hot fever (tâp-i-gurrum). In your eyes, what is the reason of this?”
It seemed pedantry to talk pathology, and I spoke in a sort of parable. I said:—