A partner of the principal mercantile firm established in the Persian Gulf came to Ispahan to examine the branch of their business there and test the value of the trade. The great difficulty with Persian opium is to obtain it of sufficient purity; the Persian opium is always very deficient in morphia, and upon the percentage of morphia by analysis the value of the drug is determined in London. As opium when bought in the country has to be taken in small quantities and purchased blindfold, or rather on the opinion of judges, whose fiat is possibly _influenced_, the whole business is risky in the extreme. The ryot adds all sorts of abominations to the fresh opium, to increase the weight, as the pulp of apples, grape sugar, etc., and a further adulteration is generally practised by Armenian middlemen. The system generally adopted by the respectable merchant is to buy direct of the ryot, if possible; even to go so far at times, if the farmer be a substantial man, as to make him advances against his future opium crop. Having purchased the opium, the merchant pours it into large copper pots, some of which may contain a quarter of a ton of opium. He then proceeds to the “teriak-mali,” or preparation, literally opium-rubbing. Having engaged skilled workmen headed by a “reis” or “boss,” he contracts to pay these men so much per chest, or by daily wages; and then, if the weather be cold, the semi-liquid contents of the pots are simmered over a very slow charcoal fire. The more solid portions being previously removed, when the “sherbet” or juice has become pretty thick, it is mixed again with the original more solid portion and the whole beaten up; it is, of course, frequently weighed to prevent thefts. Now commences the regular “teriak-mali;” weighed portions, from half a pound to one pound, as may be found convenient, are smeared upon thin planks with a wooden spreader or spatula. It is first spread perpendicularly, then horizontally, just as in old days medical men used to spread a blister; it is done with great rapidity and exactness. As each plank is covered it is placed on end in the strong sun, and when sufficiently dry, scraped off for rolling into cakes. If the opium be very moist, or the sun weak, this has to be done many times. The washings of the pots and utensils are carefully boiled down that nothing may be lost, and after many weighings and much manipulation, the opium, in theory absolutely pure, is made into pound cakes, generally the shape and appearance of a squared penny bun of large size, each weighing exactly one pound. The cakes are varnished with some of the liquor or a composition, having in the case where I was present been stamped with a seal bearing the name of the makers.