CHAPTER XIV. Cashan--Scorpions--Câshânee youth--Village of Sinsin--Plundering expeditions of the Tûrkâmâns--Account of that tribe--Wandering tribes--Visit to the dwelling of Mihrâb Khan--Afshâr--Account of his family and adherents--Anecdote of Kerreem Khan 145 CHAPTER XV. Arrival at Koom--Mahomedan ladies--their rights and privileges after marriage--Divorces--Story of Hajee Salâh, the cross-grained 161 CHAPTER XVI. Departure from Koom--Poolee-Dellâk--Deryâ-e-Kebeer--Valley of the Shadow of Death--Story of a Ghool--Remarks on Persian poetry 180 CHAPTER XVII. Distant view of Teheran--Demavend--Rhe--Entrance into the capital--Hajee Ibrahim--Zâl Khan--Terms of courtesy 197 CHAPTER XVIII. Terms of reception at court--Second visit--Delivery of presents--King's grant--Private interviews--King's ancestors--Crown jewels--King's love of a joke--Mode of passing his time--Harem--Royal meals--Hajee Ibrahim--His character and death 207 CHAPTER XIX. Progress of the Russians--Buonaparte--Second visit to Tullanea--King Abbas Meerzâ--Reflections--Electrifying machine--Phantasmagoria--Ministers of the Persian court--Mahomed Hoosein Khan Mervee 225 INTRODUCTION. Once upon a time this island of Great Britain had some spots where men and women and little children dwelt, or were believed to dwell, in innocence, ignorance, and content. Travellers seldom visited them; poets saw them in their dreams, and novelists told stories of them: but these days are now past. Thanks to steam-boats and stagecoaches, there is not a spot to which an ignorant or sage human being can retire, where his eye will not be delighted or offended by a dark column of smoke, or his ear gratified or grated by the rattling wheels of a carriage. It is perhaps a consequence of this invasion of retirement that all are tempted from their homes, and that while one half of the population is on the highways, the other half is on the narrow seas. This love of travel, however, is in the vast majority limited to the neighbouring countries of Europe; but the ardour of curiosity, and an ambitious desire of escaping from the beaten track, has of late years induced not a few scientific and enterprising travellers to overrun the renowned lands of Greece and Egypt, whose inhabitants stare with astonishment at men flying with impatience from town to town, exploring ruins; measuring pyramids; groping in dark caverns; analyzing the various properties of earth, air, and water; carrying off mutilated gods and goddesses; packing up common stones and pebbles, as if they were rubies and diamonds; and even bearing away the carcases of the dead, strangely preferring the withered frame of a female mummy, which