The principal walk is the mount Surkháb (Red-water) near Tabríz; at noon the sea of Rúmie may be distinguished from the top of it; it is at a farsang distance from Tabríz. The number of gardens amounts to forty-seven thousand, the finest is that of Sháh Yakúb, where the Khán gave me a splendid entertainment. Eleven times in the day, seventy dancers and singers exerted themselves in the practice of their art, so that it resembled an evening party of Hossein Bikara. This garden owes its origin to Koja Ferhád Páshá, Governor of Tabríz under Sultán Murad III., who adorned it with numerous koshks, bowers and pleasure-houses; and at the time of the pillage of the town by Murad IV., this garden was preserved by the care of Osmán Aghá. The Chronostic of the koshk where we dined, alluding to the name of the builder, says that, Ferhád built this sweet (Shirín) palace. The walk of Sháh Sefí cannot be praised enough. It is the place of the Maïl; in the centre of it two immense columns lift their tops up to Heaven; on one of them every Friday a silver plate is put, which is aimed at by all the bowmen, who shoot at it, encouraged by the presence of the Khán. On New Year’s day (Nevrúz) or the beginning of spring, battles are fought in this place by horses trained in the dark during forty or fifty days, by camels, buffaloes, sheep, asses, dogs, and cocks. These fights are peculiar to Persia. Every year on the tenth of the month Moharrem, being the feast of A’ashúra, all the population of the town assemble under tents in this large place, and during three days and nights cook many thousand dishes of A’ashúra (a kind of hotch-potch), in remembrance of the martyrs of Kerbela; these dishes are distributed with an abundance of sugar-sherbet, which is carried round in crystal vases, and cups of cornelian and turquoise: at the same time singing certain verses, such as “Their Lord gave them of the purest beverage.” Some of the great men on this day carry cans and tankards round their necks, and go about distributing water like common porters. But the finest show is in the variegated tent of the Khán, where all the great men of Tabríz are assembled, and where a Hymn on the death of Hossein is recited, in the same manner as the Hymn on the Prophet’s birthday is in the Turkish mosques. The hearers listen, sighing and lamenting, but when the reciter arrives at the passage where Hossein is killed by accursed Shabr, a curtain opens behind him, and a severed head and trunk of a body, representing that of the Imám when dead, is thrown on the ground, when there rises such an uproar of cries and lamentations that everybody loses his wits. At this moment some hundred men mingle in the crowd with razors, with which they cut the arms and breasts of all loving believers, who desire to shed their blood on this day in remembrance of the blood shed by the Imám; they make such deep incisions and scars, that the ground appears as if it was blooming with tulips.