The military, in proportion to their respective ranks, had assigned to them costly dresses, vigorous steeds with trappings and saddles inlaid with precious stones, equipments, some of solid gold and silver, and others plated with gold or silver, and helmets. The distinguished men were equally remote from parsimony and profuseness. The nobles of Ajem wore a crown worth a hundred thousand dinars of gold: the regal diadem being appropriated to the king. All the great Amirs wore helmets and zones of gold; they also had trappings and sandals of the same. When the soldiers set out on an expedition, they took with them arms of every description, a flag and a poignard;[361] they were habituated to privations, and entered on long expeditions with scanty supplies: they were never confined within the enclosure of tents and pavilions, but braved alike the extremes of heat and cold. In the day of battle, as long as the king or his lieutenant stood at his post, if any one turned his back on the foe, no person would join him in eating or drinking, or contract alliance with him, except those who like himself had consigned their persons to infamy and degradation. Lunatics, buffoons, and depraved characters found no access to the king or chieftains. On the death of a person who had been raised to dignity, his post was conferred on his son, or some one of his legitimate connections adequate to its duties; thus no innocent person was ever deprived of office, so that their noble families continued from the time of _Sháî Kilîv_ to that of _Sháî Mahbul_. When king _Khusró_, the son of _Faridún_, the son of _Abtin_, the son of _Forzad_, the son of _Shái Kiliv_, had sent _Gurgin_[362] the son of _Lás_ to a certain post, that dignity remained in his family more than a thousand years; and when, in the reign of the resplendent sovereign, king _Ardeshir_, _Madhur_ the descendant of Gurgin had become a lunatic, the king confined him to his house, and promoted his son _Mábzád_ to the government; and similar to this was the system of Shah _Ismail Safavi_. But if an Amir’s son were unfit for governing, he was dismissed from office, and had a suitable pension assigned him. Nay, animals, such as the cow, ass, and horse, which were made to labor when young, were maintained by their masters in a state of ease when they grew old; the quantity of burden which each animal was to carry was defined, and whoever exceeded that limit received due chastisement. In like manner, when any of the infantry or cavalry grew feeble, infirm, or old, although he might not have performed effective service, they appointed his son to succeed him; and if the latter was not yet of mature age, they settled on him a daily allowance from the royal treasury. But if he had no son, they assigned him during his life such an allowance as would keep him from distress, which allowance was continued after his decease to his wife, daughter, or other survivors. Whatever constitutes the duty of a parent was all