Their morality appears to have consisted in the acknowledgment of all natural virtues; piety, justice, charity, sobriety; wine and strong drinks were forbidden; above all a tenderness towards all living creatures was recommended; and the severity against those who slew innoxious animals was carried to such an excess, than even sons punished their fathers with death, and fathers their sons, for the slaughter of a sheep or an elk.[95] Their political constitution appears from the earliest time to have been that of an absolute monarchy: this is the curse attached to Asiatics. The king was to be of a noble descent, and bound to acknowledge the _Farhang-Abad_, “code of Abad.” All dignities, military and civil, were hereditary from father to son. The royal court and inner apartments appear to have been regulated in much the same manner as they are still in Asia; his cup-bearers and familiar servants, as well as those of his sons, and other nobles, were always females. The interior administration of cities and villages is sufficiently detailed in the Dabistán. An active police was established, with numerous spies and secret reporters, for the security of government. We are glad to find in such early times hospitals for the relief of the suffering, and caravansaras for the convenience of travellers. Moreover, post-stations of horses and messengers were distributed for the rapid communication of news, from all sides of the vast empire, to the monarch.[96] Not a little care was bestowed upon the discipline and continual exercise of numerous armies. The military chiefs were distinguished by the magnificent decorations of their persons, horses, and arms, in which they prided themselves. They were bound to treat their soldiers kindly, nay, obliged to produce certificates, from their subordinates, of having behaved well towards them. An order of battle was prescribed, in which they were to encounter the enemy; no plunder after victory was permitted; they never slew, nor treated with violence, a man who had thrown down his arms and asked for quarter. History may well be referred to religion, which is an ancient intellectual monument, living in the human soul from generation to generation. I have hitherto marked two religious periods: the first, that of the _Desátir_, through the Mahabadian dynasty; the second, that of _Paiman-í-Farhang_, prevailing during the Pésh-dadi-race until the middle of the Kayanian reign; I now come to the third. [90] The first word is pure Persian; the other may be derived from the Sanscrit _kaya_, “body, form,” and _mrita_, “earth.” [91] See vol. I. p. 31, note 1. [92] His Works, vol. III. the sixth Anniversary Discourse, p. 108. [93] _Ibid._, vol. XII. p. 399. [94] See page 63. [95] See vol. I. pp. 181. 184. [96] _Parasang_, _Farsang_, even in our days a Persian word, is found and determined as a lineal measure of distances in Herodotus, lib. II. V. and VI.