The Khater-bashee, or master of the mules, is a person of the greatest importance. This class of men are generally known by the strength of their frame, and, above all, of their lungs, which are continually exercised in consigning man and beast to every species of torment and evil, both in this world and the next. On the first mission to Persia we had a mule-driver called Hajee Hâshem, who, from his strength and temper, was the terror of caravans. This man, on our second day's march, anxious to unload his mules, refused to pay any attention to the injunctions of Peter, the Elchee's steward, and carelessly cast a box containing glass upon some loose stones, at the hazard of breaking its contents. Peter, who had been educated on board a man-of-war, and was a very stout fellow, irritated beyond bearing at this treatment of his pantry ware, seized Hajee by the waist, and before he had time to make an effort, cast him over the animal he had so rudely unloaded; and while the astonished mule-driver lay sprawling, and not yet knowing whether his bones were broken, Peter, calling his interpreter, a Persian servant, who had learned a little English at Bombay--"Tell that fellow," he said, in a voice which showed his rage was only half expended, "it is lucky for him that his bones are not so brittle as my glass, of which he will take better care another time." Having witnessed this scene, I anticipated a complaint to the Elchee; but what was my surprise to learn, that Hajee Hâshem had petitioned to be exclusively attached, with his mules, to Peter's department! He was so; they continued always the best of friends; and no disappointment could be greater than that of the old Hajee, when he came to furnish cattle for the second mission, at finding his ally Peter was not of the party. The ground of Hajee Hâshem's attachment to his friend may be deemed extraordinary; but had the master muleteer been a historian, he might have pleaded high authority in his own country, for valuing another for superiority in the rough qualities in which he himself excelled. The emperor of Constantinople, Mahmood the Fifth, the great rival of Nadir Shâh, desiring to humble the vanity of that conqueror, and knowing he valued himself more on his superior bodily power and stentorian voice that on any other qualities selected, as an Envoy to Persia, a porter, of extraordinary personal strength and most powerful lungs. The Envoy had merely charge of a letter, which he was told to deliver in person to the king, to require an answer, and return. The fame of this remarkable diplomatist preceded him; and Nadir was advised not to receive him, as his deputation was deemed an insult. But curiosity overcame all other considerations, and he was introduced one day that there was a very full court.