“_Amān Agha!_” “Mercy, Lord!” “Oh, hakim-bashi!” “Oh, merciless Jews!” “Oh, Mussulmans!” “Oh, doctor, sahib!” “Oh, Lord, without mercy!” “Oh, rascal Jews!” “Sons of dog fathers!” “Mer—cy!” The hakim-bashi now addressed them—“Rascals, do you know now that you are not to oppress the king’s subjects?” “Ah,” replied one man, “but _Jews_—” He had better have been silent, for the hakim-bashi raised his hand, and the beating recommenced. I now interceded, and the men were led off, limping. I asked the doctor if such beatings would not lame the men. He replied, “Not in the least; they will be all right in two days, if a little tender to-morrow. I have myself had quite as bad a beating from my achōn (schoolmaster) when a boy. There is no degradation in the punishment; all are liable to it, from the Prime Minister downwards. What you have seen is merely a warning; one and two thousand sticks are often given—I mean to say fairly broken over the soles of the feet—and thicker sticks than mine; say, six thousand blows.” I asked what was the result of such beating. “Well,” said the doctor, “I _have_ known them fatal; but it is very rare, and only in the case of the victim being old or diseased.” I was told that it is really very much a matter of bribing the farrashes (carpet-spreaders) who administer the punishment. As a rule, a severe beating, such as is given by the king’s farrashes, keeps a man in bed for weeks or months. Culprits much prefer it to a fine. Here the doctor called one of his servants. “Which would you prefer,” said he, “to lose a month’s pay or take such a beating as those soldiers had?” “The beating, of course,” replied the man. “His pay is ten kerans a month,” said the doctor (seven-and-sixpence). Custom, I suppose, is everything; to _our_ tender feet such a beating would be very terrible, but Persians of the lower class walk much barefoot; in fact, like our own tramps, unless the road be very stony, one sees them on the march take off their boots and go bare, to save shoe-leather or sore feet. The doctor told me of the trials and troubles of his position, his long hours of duty, and his many anxieties when his young charge was ill. “Your arrival is a great thing,” he said; “you can speak as I cannot dare to, and you can insist on proper directions being carried out. At present, when the prince is indisposed, all the visitors and all the old women prescribe, and as he _tries_ all the remedies, he becomes really ill.