quota of men. For this service there are no volunteers, as the hardships of a Persian soldier's life are too well known throughout the country to induce the peasants willingly to encounter them. Each regiment is recruited from the district where it was raised, and the men serve not for any specified period, but until they are no longer capable of serving. In their old age they may obtain their discharge and find other occupation for themselves, or be thrown on public charity. The Persian regiments are not generally provided with a surgeon, but the hospital arrangements of each corps are under the superintendence of the commanding officer, and they are bad or not, according to his honesty or capacity.
There is no commissariat department in the Shah's army, and all baggage is carried by asses. The troops are armed with percussion muskets, which are now supplied from the Persian arsenals. As the soldiers are generally without any ready money, and get no rations, they receive permission to work as labourers in the fields, or as mechanics. It is on the proceeds of such labour that a large portion of the army mainly subsists. The officers, excepting those in the higher grades, occupy a very modest position in a Persian social point of view. An officer below the rank of major is not considered to be a gentleman. All grades in the army are filled up from favour or from bribery, and consequently there is much incapacity to be met with amongst the officers in command. As a general rule they have little or no knowledge of military affairs, and they have as little reliance on themselves as their men have confidence in them. They are not wanting individually in physical courage, but their moral
