After we had been seated a short time, the presents were announced. I was a little anxious when one of the ministers began to read the list. There had been a great desire to give them a name which denoted inferiority of rank on the part of the person from whom they were sent; but the Elchee would not allow of any such term being used, and he told the prime minister, that if any attempt of the kind were made, he would, notwithstanding the strict etiquette of the Persian court, instantly address the king, and tell him, that the presents he brought were neither tribute nor offerings, as his secretary had from inadvertence called them, but rarities and curiosities sent from the British ruler of India, in token of his regard and friendship for the king of Persia. This communication had the desired effect; our presents were termed rarities, and the high rank of the governor-general, as a person intrusted with sovereign functions, was on this occasion upheld. This visit was at its commencement very formal, but the king, evidently desirous to give it another character, said to the Elchee, "I have heard a report which I cannot believe, that your king has only one wife." "No Christian prince can have more," said the Elchee. "O, I know that! but he may have a little lady."[126] "Our gracious king, George the Third," replied the Envoy, "is an example to his subjects of attention to morality and religion in this respect, as in every other." "This may all be very proper," concluded his majesty of Persia, laughing, "but I certainly should not like to be king of such a country." A curious incident occurred as we left the palace. The king's giant, a man above eight feet high, and stout in proportion, was placed against one of the walls of the gate through which we were to retire, and he had in his hand a club of enormous dimensions. It was expected that the Elchee, on seeing him, would start with astonishment if not alarm; but he passed without taking any notice of this redoubtable personage, except by a slight glance. The fact was, as he afterwards confessed, it never entered into his imagination that it was a human being. Paintings of Roostem and his club (which the giant was dressed to imitate) are very common in Persia, and in the hurry of passing he took this to be one. He was first made sensible of his mistake by the praises of his mehmandar. "Admirable!" said the latter to him: "nothing could be better: the fools wished to try to startle you with giants and clubs stuck up against a wall. They are rightly served; your eye hardly rested on him for a moment, evidently not thinking him worthy of your notice. I shall tell them," he added, with a feeling that showed he considered his honour was associated with that of the person of whom he had charge, "that such men are quite common in your country, and that this giant would hardly be tall enough for one of the guards of the king of England."