372 A HISTORY OF PERSIA. one specified title that of "Jenab" or " Excellency." A person of less rank was in like manner to be addressed by one lesser title. People were astonished to hear of a Vizeer who rejected the incense of flattery ; but they obeyed his commands, and probably few regretted the high-sounding but meaningless expressions to which their ears had been so long accustomed, Persian immorality and dishonesty are unhappily proverbial, and the Ameer-i-Nizam did not hesitate to grapple with these most deeply-ingrained vices of his fellow-countrymen. The public baths of Tehran had been allowed to become the scenes of open debauchery ; and the Minister lost no time in punishing those who made their profit by these practices, which he now put down. Of all the traits which go to make up the Persian character, that which, next to excessive vanity, is most strongly developed, is a constant desire to acquire unlaw- ful gains. The word "mudahil," for which there is no exact English term, has, for Persian ears, a charm which few Europeans can comprehend. " Mudahil" signifies all that one can acquire by receiving bribes, by swindling and extortion, and by all other irregular means. It is " mudahil" and not salary which every Persian official is anxious to secure. A salary regularly paid affords no scope for the display of the talents in which Per- sians most excel for dissimulating and overreaching, oppressing and cringing and, therefore, a post which has only a good salary attached to it, and which affords no good opportunities of making " mudahil," is looked upon by Persians as being but a poor possession. The Ameer-i-Nizam, himself altogether above being bribed, resolved to suppress the wide-spread system of whole-
