part of the Koran. The terms upon which a youth is taught the slender amount of information which the village instructor can convey to him are very moderate ; but, notwithstanding this, education is still so far behindhand in Persia, that a man who can read and write prefixes the word meerza to his name by way of an advertisement of his acquirements. Girls are allowed to attend a moollah's class up to the age of seven years, after which their education is confided to the care of a learned woman. Children of high rank are instructed in their father's house by persons hired for the purpose. Girls are taught to read, and to write, and to sew, and occasionally their education includes some instruction in Persian music. But the range of their ideas is by no means wide, and a man more instructed than a Persian generally is would not, probably, find their society very engaging.
An exception to the rule by which education in Persia is left to private persons, is in the case of the college which has been established by the Government at Tehran. The pupils in that establishment are maintained at the Shah's expense during the course of their instruction. The college is placed under the direction of the Minister for Public Works, and amongst the professors there are several Europeans. The French language is taught to those who wish to study it, and the English language is professed and taught by a Frenchman. The other branches of an ordinary country education in Europe are also more or less provided for.
Of late years the Shah has been in the habit of sending a certain number of youths to France to be there instructed in medicine and in the different other branches
