no where else to be met with. Taking a walk with the Envoy in a garden, the gardener brought us twenty-six different kinds of pears, the best are the Meleje, Abbássí, Ordúbaí, which when eaten, inundates the mouth and hands with rich juice, like jelly or sirup; there are also ruby-coloured pomegranates. In the cleanly cookshops you find pilaw of Eriván, with excellent herísse (fricassee). The cooks are extremely clean because they are all Moslíms, and in the whole of Persia eatables are never sold by Armenians or Greeks; indeed there are no Greeks at all in Persia, except a few travelling merchants, but there are a great many Shi’ítes and Jews being the sect of the Teberraites and Karaites. There are also Mulhads (impious); Zindíks, (atheists); Ja’aferites, Jeberites, Kadrites, Húrúfites, Zimínites, and other such heretics. After having taken a good view of the gardens at Karabágh we departed, and in seven hours reached the fortress of Nakhshiván, which by some is spelt Nakhjíván, (the cosmetic water of all the towns of Irán;) it is the seat of a Khán (answering to the Turkish Páshá) on the frontier of Azerbeiján and Avján. Its officers are an Itimád-ud-devlet (minister); Kelenter, (provost, in Turkish Súbashí); a Múnshí, (secretary, otherwise Kiatib); a Dárogha, an Agha of the Dízchoken (the troops) a judge and a muftí. It was originally built by Sháh Efrasiáb, and the cupolas are shewn where his ancestors are said to be buried; in their times it was extremely populous and cultivated: it was then pillaged by the Moghols, who levelled the castle with the dust; Sháh Ismaíl rebuilt it, and in the reign of Mohammed III. it was taken possession of by Zúltakár Khán, and again conquered in the time of Sultán Murad IV. by Tabán Yassí Mohammed Páshá. Such is the state of the world where nothing remains unchanged, but every thing perishes except His (God’s) face. After Sultán Murad’s conquest it consisted of twelve thousand houses with terraces, seventy mosques, forty mesjíds, twenty kháns, seven baths, and one thousand shops. The air is mild, but as it has few gardens, it has also but few fruits, one of its best products, is cotton of seven colours, black, yellow, ruby-coloured and of the purest white. The corn and wheat of Nakshiván is praised every where. Above all its painted linen and its Chít (chintz) deserve to be recommended. Its barley is so rich, that if a horse eats four grains of it, it is satiated; its gardens are repositories of melons and water-melons. The youth are all fair and white on account of its excellent air, they wear the Persian turban, Táj, and robes of painted cotton and Chít (chintz) breeches of different colours, and green, red and orange-coloured papúshes. The women wear pointed caps on which they wrap white muslin, and boots of various colours. The fashionable young men wear pelisses of Isfahán, and walk with great pomp and dignity, but they are wholly attached to women. The people pretend to be of the orthodox sect of