according to the Urf, or customary law. All appointments to offices throughout the kingdom are made by the Shah or by those to whom he delegates his authority. The King of Persia is constantly attended by a set of gentlemen who are denominated peishkhidmets, or waiters in the presence. They correspond in rank and title to the lords and gentlemen in waiting at the courts of Europe. They are not only contented, like them, to assume the denomination of household servants, but they perform the actual duties of domestic retainers. The Shah's dishes at breakfast and at dinner are placed upon the tablecloth by men holding a high position in the country, some of them being the sons of his ministers, and others being themselves governors of provinces. The Shah's kalean, or pipe, is held by a nobleman, when his Majesty thinks proper to smoke ; and when he leaves the room the royal slippers are placed before his feet by a man who may, perhaps, any day be chosen to represent the majesty of Persia at a foreign court. Indeed, some of the favoured aides-de-camp and gentlemen-in-waiting would scarcely care to exchange their position, in which they bask continually in the sunshine of the royal presence, for a mission to a foreign court, which they would consider at best as a sort of honourable banishment. Those of the Shah's personal attendants who have been appointed to be governors of provinces seldom or never care to proceed to their respective governments. They appoint deputies to rule in their place, whilst they continue to stand in the presence of the king, subject though they be to those little inconveniences that arise from the sudden ebullitions of temper to
