Contrary to the custom in Ispahan, the houses are here built of kiln-dried bricks. In Ispahan the houses built with mud or sun-dried bricks stand at times five and six hundred years, but the clay is peculiarly tenacious and the climate extremely dry there. Here all save the houses of the very poor are built of burnt bricks, which are beautifully white, cheap, and good. The brickwork in Shiraz is often highly ornamental; elaborate patterns are made in bricks of very small size upon the walls; these are ever in the best taste and very chaste in design; the interiors, however, fall short of the Ispahan and Teheran work; brighter and more gaudy colours are used to suit the more florid taste of the Shirazi, and the effect is not so good. In the sunken beds of many of the courtyards are orange trees; the scent from the blossoms of these is rather overpowering in spring; the beds beneath are generally covered with a tangle of luxuriant convolvulus or clover. The oranges are the bitter orange, like that of Seville; generally a few of the fruit are allowed to remain, and all through the winter the golden balls make the trees gay. In the bazaar the sweet oranges from Kafr and Kazerān, limes, fresh dates, pomiloes, shaddocks, and fresh lemons, show that we are in a warmer zone. And the complexions of the natives are more swarthy. Here, too, we see the type of the ancient inhabitant of Fars, the tall straight figure, the clear-cut features, and the _aquiline_ nose; the eye, too, is much larger, and the foot much smaller; quite a Jewish cast of countenance is often seen. Here, too, the ladies’ dresses are gayer. The hideous blue veil is often of silk, and, among the ladies of rank, generally trimmed with gold braid. These “Chadūr,” or veils, are very expensive, at times costing, when the embroidery is deep (and it is always _really_ gold thread), some ten pounds. The shirts are clean and white, the big baggy trousers always of bright silk and always fitting the feet like a glove, the slippers tiny; whereas the Ispahan lady never goes beyond a sad-coloured cotton for her nether garment, and the feet coverings are much larger and less natty in cut and material, as are the feet themselves. The tall hats of the lower orders are often of felt, and the hideous triangular cap of chintz of the Ispahani is unknown, save among the Jews. As evening approaches the sound of music and singing is heard in every direction, and the professional musicians, singers, and dancers, under their Mūrshed, Chelinjeh Khan, drive a roaring trade. There are here, too, many amateurs among the upper classes even; such a thing in Ispahan as an amateur is very rare. The “kosh guzerān,” or “free liver,” is openly a toper, and considerable licence is the rule. Even the merchant out of office hours enjoys himself, and as a rule does not work more than four days a week.