washing, but vulgar people (Tolúnkí and Tokir) wipe their right hand under their left shoulder, and their left hand under the right. _Bad and reprehensible things in Irán._ It is a bad custom in Persia that only twelve classes of the troops and as many of the Ulemás and the other ranks of society are allowed to have regular kitchens in their houses; all the rest eat from the market, therefore, although their dinner is cheap it is very bad. The army has its cooks, who cook in that way at a fixed price, so that they are not allowed to take a grain more or to furnish a grain less than the established quantity. When the army takes the field, the kitchen is established in tents made of felt. Another bad thing in Persia is that they do not kill or hang their delinquents, but the Darogha and Mohtessíb (two officers of police), bring them to the public place, where the executioners torment them in a most cruel manner; during three days and nights, they inflict on them three hundred and sixty different kinds of torture. They first give them three hundred strokes of the whip and Korbáj, press their knees, introduce reeds under their nails, cauterize the whole body with fire, force them to swallow greasy rags with a rope attached, which if dragged out again brings the stomach and bowels with it; nail their hands and feet down, bore holes in the elbows and knees, and then pour melted lead in the holes so that the lead runs out with the marrow: they tie the four first fingers and toes tight together, suspend the delinquent and perfume him with sulphur and asses’ urine, so that the poor men’s cries pierce the skies; they cut pieces out of the back, and attach burning candles to the shoulders; they squeeze the testicles, tickle the nose with pointed thorns, put iron kettles on the head, and blind the eyes; and inflict even more horrible tortures than those already described. God forgive us our sins! They paralyse thieves by cutting the sinews. They cut off the ears, noses, and hands and feet of false witnesses, and fasten other delinquents to seven different kinds of gibbets and pales, and leave them so exposed during three days and nights. The Khán having one day glorified himself with these cruel tortures, in my presence, I asked him, “What was the object of such manifold cruelties;” he said, “That death being pronounced on these culprits, the tortures were added, in order to terrify others by the example.” I said, “That it was not lawful, because the text of the Korán states no other punishment for thieves but cutting off the hand, and retaliation in cases of murder; and that this was quite sufficient to keep the people in terror and awe.” He was obliged to acknowledge that I was right. These additional tortures have been contrived by them, because their people are all riotous and heretical, that they may be kept in order the easier. So they established it as law. _Pilgrimages and Visits in the town of Tabríz._