according to the usual custom in Persia. In the outskirts of Tabriz are several lovely gardens with delicate fruits and luxuriant grapes ; and there are situated modern country houses, one of which, Bagh-shumal, belongs to the Crown Prince, and this I visited in the company of the French Vice-Consul, de Rettel, his charming wife, and his still more fascinating sister-in-law, daughters of the English Consul, Stevens.
For the rest Tabriz consists of an interminable collection of yellowish-grey, wearisome, and uniform houses, intersected by a labyrinth of crooked, narrow, and dusty lanes. Among the Europeans several Russians may be noticed, owing particularly to the construction of the new road, which gives Russia another hold in this direction. As in Urmia, American missionaries have a mission-house in the town, as well as a school. The following incident, which occurred some years before my visit, may serve to illustrate the conditions of life in this country. An American missionary had been murdered by Kurds in Urmia, in mistake for a doctor who was said to have poisoned a patient. The innocent doctor was so terrified that he died of typhoid fever ; and as the culprit could not be tracked, the Government agreed to pay a cornpensation of 50,000 tuman to the family of the murdered man—Americans are practical. The fact, however, seems to have been that the Government did not dare to take any energetic measures against the Kurds, and so let the murderer escape.
Tabriz has long been the residence of the Valiad, or Crown Prince, and one day, more out of curiosity than from respect, I waited on this young man, Ali Muhamed Mirza. He received in a quite simple palace, the courts of which swarmed, however, with servants, most of them in dingy torn coats, although, strange to say, it is reported that their wages are paid with extreme punctuality. In the top-khaneh, or cannon-house, standing with its front to a court, sixteen Austrian cannons are kept in good condition ; but they are never used, for in Persia men live in the deepest, most untroubled peace.
After the soldiers at the door had duly shouldered
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