would gather the flowers he had cherished
with, care, and present them to any chief who
came into the Baugh-el-Kanai; and the pre-
sent they received in turn constituted their only
means of livelihood. Sometimes Mr. Burton
was the sole labourer in this garden; and he
had the charge of Baugh-el-Colleza, twenty
square acres in size, and at some distance
from El Kanai, where he lived. When the
hot weather came on, he fell ill of diarrhœa,
and for three months lay weary and ill on his
mat, unable to superintend, if there had been
gardeners, or to work himself, if there were
none.

After he recovered, he seems to have been
hopeless of doing any good in such a climate,
and among such a people. The Schah took
little interest in horticulture. He
sometimes came into the gardens of El Kanai (in
which his palace was situated), and would
ask some questions, through an interpreter,
in a languid, weary kind of way. Sometimes,
when Mr. Burton had any vegetables ready,
he requested leave to present them himself to
the Schah; when this was accorded, he wove
the twigs of the white poplar (the tree which
most abounded on the great barren plain
surrounding Teheran), and filling this with
lettuces, or peas, or similar garden produce,
he was ushered with much ceremony into one
of the courts ("small yards," as Mr. Burton
once irreverently called them) belonging to
the palace. There, in a kind of balcony
projecting from one of the windows, the Schah sat;
and the English gardener, without shoes, but
with the lamb's-skin "fez" covering his head,
bowed low three times, as he gave up his
basket to be handed to the Schah. Mr.
Burton did not perform the Persian salaam,
considering such a slave-like obeisance
unbefitting a European. The Schah received
these baskets of vegetables, some of which
were new to him, with great indifference, not
caring to ask any questions. The spirit of
curiosity, however, was alive in the harem,
if nowhere else; and one day Mr. Burton was
surprised to receive a command to go and
sow some annuals in one of the courts of the
harem, for such was the Queen-mother's
desire. So, taking a few packets of common
flower-seeds, he went through some rooms in
the palace before he arrived at the courts,
which open one out of another. These rooms
Mr. Burton considered as little better, either
in size, construction, or furniture, than his
own garden-dwelling; but there are some
apartments in this royal palace which are said
to be splendid; one lined with plate-glass, and
several fitted up with the beautiful painted
windows for which Persia is celebrated. On
entering the courts belonging to the harem,
Mr. Burton found himself attended by three
or four soldiers, and two eunuchs—all with
drawn swords, which they made a little
parade of holding above him, rather to his
amusement, especially as he seems to have
had occasional glimpses of peeping ladies, who
ought rather to have had the swords held
over them. Before passing from one yard to
another, one or two soldiers would precede
him, to see that the coast was clear. And if
a veiled lady chanced, through that ignorance
which is bliss all the world over, to come into
the very yard where he was, the soldiers
seized him, huddled him into a dark corner,
and turned his face to the wall she, mean-
while, passing through under the cover of her
servant's large cloak, something like a chicken
peeping from under the wing of the hen.
Whatever might have been their danger from
the handsome young Englishman, he, at least,
was not particularly attracted by their appearance.
The utmost praise he could bestow
was, that "one or two were tolerably good-
looking;" and, on being pressed for details,
he said that those ladies of the harem of
whom he caught a glimpse resembled all other
Persian women, in having very large features,
very coarse complexions, with large eyes.
They (as well as the men) paint the eyebrows,
so as to make them appear to meet. They
are stout-made. Such were the observations
which Mr. Burton made, as he was passing
through the yards, or courts, which led into
the small garden where he was to sow his
flower-seeds. Here the Queen-mother sat in
a projecting balcony; but as soon as she saw
the stranger she drew back. She is about
ihirty-five years of age, and possesses much
influence in the country; which, as she is a
cruel and ambitious woman, has produced
great evils.

One day, Mrs. Shell's maid, who had
accompanied her mistress on a visit to the ladies in
the harem, fell in with a Frenchwoman who
had been an inhabitant there for more than
twenty years. She seemed perfectly
contented with her situation, and had no wish to
exchange it for any other.

Every now and then Mr. Burton sent flowers
to the harem; such as he could cultivate in
the dry hot garden, with no command of
labour. Marvel of Peru, African marigolds,
single stocks, and violets planted along the
sides of the walks between planes and poplars,
were the flowers he gathered to form his
nosegays. But all gardening was weary and
dreary work; partly owing to the great heat
of the climate, partly to the scarcity of water,
but most especially because there was no
service or assistance to be derived from any
other man. The men appointed to assist him
grew more careless and lazy than ever as time
rolled on; he had no means of enforcing
obedience, or attention, and if he had had, he
would not have dared to use it, and so to
increase the odium that attached to him as a
foreigner. Moreover, no one cared whether
the gardens flourished or decayed. If it had
not been for the kindness of some of the
English residents, among whom he especially
mentioned Mr. Reade, his situation would
have been utterly intolerable.

There was nothing in the external life of