receive much in charity they do not seem to indulge in many luxuries. Their heads are bare, and their aspect altogether such as to open the hearts of the charitable. Besides the dervishes, there are many professional beggars in all the towns of Persia. In Tehran they had so increased in numbers, that in the year 1863 all beggars were prohibited from asking for charity in the city. Many of these are real objects of mercy—the halt, the maimed, and the blind—but many of them also are strong men who only put on the appearance of blindness in order to draw down pity. But what they want in real claims they generally make up for in the eloquence and loudness and perseverance with which they ask for alms. There is no hour of the day, and no day of the week, that does not, according to them, seem to afford a special reason why people should at that particular time be charitable. It would seem to be held by them as being almost beyond question, that a mendicant who demands alms on the night of Friday is entitled to receive relief. A still more cogent reason is the recurrence of any feast-day, such as that of the birth of Mahomed, or of Ali, or of Hussein. One is asked for the sake of God, and for the sake of the holy Prophet, for the sake of the blessed Ali, and of the martyred Imam, or for that of the revered Zeinul- Abedein, to take pity on the poor, and to relieve their necessities.[1] A little flattery, too, is generally applied to the passers-by. A domestic servant is called a khan; a syed is loudly reminded that he is the descendant of the blessed Prophet; and a respectable
- ↑ If a European pass, they will appeal in the name of Hezret Eesa, the Jesus, or in that of the Virgin Mary.
