After some hours’ work the seventy “lodahs” (or hampers) of grapes were got into the courtyard; then they had to be weighed, a lengthy process; there were exactly twelve hundred maunds Tabriz, or eight thousand four hundred pounds nett of grapes. They were quite ripe, and unbruised, and were carefully packed in the lodahs with leaves and covered with brushwood. And now commenced the wine-making. Basket after basket was emptied into hasseens, or flat earthen pans. In these the grapes were trodden thoroughly out, and the juice, stalks, and husks were shot into the jars. As each jar was filled within an eighth of the top the cloth was spread over the mouth of it, and the lid placed on it. It then was left to ferment. The treading-out process occupied forty-eight hours, and I was heartily glad when it was over. Either the Hadji or I was present all the time, to see that the work was thoroughly done, and that _no water_, under any pretext, was brought to the scene of operations. The slightest moisture spoils the wine. The bunches were sorted as they were taken from the lodahs; all the unripe or rotten grapes, of which there were very few, removed; and the examined bunches were then thrown under the feet of the treaders. When each pan was thoroughly trodden its contents were carefully gone over, to see that there were no unbroken grapes. Those that were discovered were crushed at once by the fingers, and then the panful was emptied into the jar. The “Cholar” grape is generally white, very few black vines being found. These grapes, being grown on terraces on the mountains, cannot be irrigated; hence the keeping properties of the wine. Probably no other wine would keep, made in such a hot climate as Shiraz is, more than the year. That from the Cholar grape _never_ goes bad. The grape is quite globular, and the size of a large marble-taw; they cannot be mistaken for any other kind. They are not nice for eating, having a harsh skin and many stones. At last all the grapes being crushed and in the jars, or kumrahs, as they are called, the room was carefully swept out again and the door locked. Fermentation had already commenced, as a slight crackling noise could be heard from the jars that had been filled first. The Hadji now prepared three plungers of wood. Each was made like what laundresses call a copper-stick, but had at the extremity four blades of thin plank at right angles to the stick, about six inches long and two broad. These were for thoroughly mixing and working up the mass of husks, stalks, and juice.