Abou prey. a brocade. The head was uncovered. The dread of these furious animals comMousa and his attendants were astonished; for pelled Mr. Monteith and myself to take shelter having measured the nose, they found that pro- for the night within the walls that encompass portionally he must have exceeded the common Daniel's tomb.” To the same effect, Sir John size of men. The people now informed Abou Malcolm, in his History of Persia, writes : Mousa that this was the body of an ancient sage “ Every species of wild beast roams at large who formerly lived in Irak, and that whenever over that spot on which some of the proudest the want of rain occasioned a famine or scarcity, palaces ever raised by human art once stood.” the inhabitants applied to this holy man, and Yes, reader, they rove over the ruins of Susa, through the efficacy of his prayers, obtained without one human being to dispute their reign, copious showers of rain from heaven. It hap- save the poor dervise who holds watch over the pened afterwards that Sus also suffered from ex- tomb of the prophet. The chambers of royalty cessive drought, and the people in distress re- where Ahasuerus exhibited the riches of his quested that their neighbours would allow this kingdom, “and the honour of his excellent mavenerable personage to reside a few days among jesty,” for “an hundred and fourscore days," them, expecting to derive the blessing of rain unto his princes and servants, the power of Mefrom his intercession with the Almighty; but dia and Persia, with the nobles and princes of the Irakians would not grant this request. Fifty one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, men then went, deputed by the people of Sus, stretching from India even to Ethiopia, are now who again petitioned the ruler of Irak, saying, the abodes of the beasts of the desert. The voice Let this holy person visit our country, and de- of festive mirth, once heard in the gorgeous halls tain the fifty men until his return. These terms of Susa, is exchanged for the howlings of the were accepted, and the holy person came to Sus, lion, the wolf, and the hyena, as they roam where, through the influence of his prayers, rain abroad in quest of prey; while birds of evil note, fell in great abundance, and saved the land as they fly over the ruins, give additional sofrom famine; but the people would not permit lemnity to the desolation. Alas! alas! for huhim to return, and the fifty men were detained man grandeur ! as hostages in Irak. Such, said those who ac- When Major Monteith visited Sus, the dervise companied Abou Mousa, is the history of the who watches the tomb of Daniel showed him dead man. The Arabian general then asked several blocks of stone, curiously sculptured, and them by what name this extraordinary person- of great antiquity. The sides of one of these age had been known among them? They re- stones, which was a green granite, was covered plied, “The people of Irak called him Daniel with hieroglyphical figures, occupying five rows. Hakim, or Daniel the Sage.' After this, Abou The first row contained forms supposed to reMousa remained some time in Sus, and de- present the sun, the moon, and one of the stars ; spatched a messenger to Omar the Commander the second, animals resembling a horse, a bird, of the Faithful, with an account of all his con- and a dog ; the third, a figure with the head and quests in Khuzistan, and of the various treasures lower extremities of a tiger, the arms of a man, that had fallen into his possession. He related and the tail of a goat; the fourth, an animal realso the discovery of Daniel's body. When sembling an antelope, a serpent, a scorpion, and Omar had received this account, he demanded the ornamented top of a staff or sceptre; and the from his chief officers some information concern- fifth depicts a trident, two spears, a hawk, and ing Daniel; but all were silent, except Ali, on some other bird, with a Greek cross. Two sides whom be the blessing of God. He declared that of the stone are occupied by inscriptions in the Daniel had been a prophet, though not of the cuneiform character, which is scarcely legible. highest order; that in ages long since he had This is one of the principal remains of Susa. dwelt with Bakht al Nassar (Nebuchadnezzar) and the kings who had succeeded him ; and Ali related the whole of Daniel's history from the This city, which is called by some ancient beginning to the end. Omar then, by the advice writers, Aritoana, Artacanda, Artacoana, and of his counsellor Ali, caused letters to be directed Bitaxa, and by Ptolemy, Aria, answers to the to Abou Mousa to remove, with due respect and modern Heraut, which is situated in an ample veneration, the body of Daniel to some place plain of great fertility, and surrounded by lofty where the people of Sus could no longer enjoy mountains. The situation of Heraut is placed the possession of it. Abou Mousa, immediately differently on different maps, and by different on the receipt of this order, obliged the people of writers: in Kinneir's Memoir, in 34° 12' n. Sus to turn the stream which supplied them with latitude; by Captain Grant, 63° 14'; in Kinneir's water from its natural course. Then he brought map, 60° 55' E. longitude; in Elphinstone's map forth the body of Daniel, and having wrapped it of Caubul, in 34° 47' n. latitude, and 61° 55' E. in another shroud of gold brocade, he com- longitude ; in Rennell's map of the twenty samanded a grave to be made in the dry channel trapies of Darius Hystaspes, 61° 5' E. longitude ; of the river, and therein deposited the venerable and in D'Anville's map, 59° 34' of the same. remains of the prophet. The grave was then concerning the ancient town, nothing is known; firmly secured and covered with stones of con- but Captain Grant says of Heraut, that the plain siderable size; the river was restored to its on which it stands is watered by an ample wonted channel, and the waters of Sus now flow stream, crowded with villages teeming with poover the body of Daniel.” pulation, and covered with fields of corn. The Sir John Kinneir, writing on this subject, says, landscape receives additional beauty and variety “The city of Shus is now a gloomy wilderness, from the numerous mosques, tombs, and other infested by lions, hyenas, and other beasts of edifices, intermingled with trees and gardens, ARIA. ZADRACARTA. ZARANG. MARACANDA. with which it is embellished, and the mountain According to Arrian, this was the largest city “the yellow and contains a population of 45,000. The city city; and it was given to it from the great numoccupies an area of four square miles. ber of orange, lemon, and other fruit trees which grew in the environs of that city. Hence it is by D'Anville, Rochette, and other geographers, Zarang, or Seistan, is identified by some geo identified with Saru, which Pietro Della Valle graphers of high note, with the modern Doos- says, in his Travels, signifies yellow. It is prohauk, or Jellallabad, which is about 260 miles bable that Zadracarta and Saru are the same due south from Heraut. This city is situated with the Syringis of Polybius, taken from Aron the banks of the Ilmend, pear its outlet into saces II. by Antiochus the Great, in his fruitless the lake of Durrah, and it is encompassed by cania and Parthia to the Syrian crown. Hanway, attempt to reunite the revolted provinces of Hyrruins, testifying its ancient grandeur. Captain Christie saw those of a great bund, or dyke, who visited Saru A.D. 1734, mentions four ancient called the “Bund of Rustum,” the Persian Her- Magian temples as still standing, built in the cules. Zarang was chiefly desolated by Timur form of rotundas, each thirty feet in diameter, Bek, who obtained for himself a Goth-like cele and near 120 in height. But Sir W. Ouseley, brity for the destruction cities, and the exter who was there in 1811, has pronounced these to mination of his fellow-men. He razed this city be masses of brick masonry of the Mohammedan to its foundations, destroyed the edifice called the age. One of them only is now standing, the “ Mound of Rustum," and left no traces of that others having been overturned by an earthquake. ancient monument. Sheriffedin, in his Life of This and other remains of similar buildings, this destroyer, in the spirit of oriental romance, other mystic personages, whose celebrity had bear the names of Firedoon, Salm, Toor, and says, that a voice was heard, which invoked the soul of Rustum to arise from his resting place, their erection. One of them was called the tomb been established about 2000 years anterior to and behold the calamities which had overtaken his country, in these words : “ Lift up thy head; of Kaus, and was supposed to contain the ashes behold the condition of thy country, which is at of Cyrus. Sir William Ouseley thinks it was length reduced by the power of the Tartars.” that of Kabus, or Kaus, the son of Washmakin, who governed Mazanderan in the fourth century of the Hejira. It was at Saru that the ashes of the youthful hero, Sohraub, were deposited by This city is supposed, with great probability, his father, Roostum, after he had unwittingly to be the modern slain him in single combat. Saru is celebrated for its abundance of gardens, which emit a “Samarcand, by Oxus, Temar's throne,”—(MILTON,) pleasing fragrance in the vernal and summer which in Elphinstone's map is placed 230 Bri- months. Oriental hyperbole declares, that the tish miles N.n.w. of Bactria, in 39° 37' n. lati-gates of paradise derive sweetness from the air tude, and nearly 65° E. longitude. It is situated of Saru, and the flowers of Eden their fragrance on the southern side of the Sogd, which has its from its soil. source in the ridge of Pamer, and which running south-west from the Beloot-Taugh, divides the Hecatompylos, which was so called because of waters south to the Oxus from those that run its hundred gates, or because all the roads in the north to the Jaxartes. According to Curtius, Parthian dominions entered here, is the modern when the city was besieged by Alexander, it was Damgan. Its distance from the Caspian Straits, three leagues (or nine miles) in circumference. in Kinneir's map, is 125 miles north-east; RenAfterwards it was much enlarged, and surrounded nell, however, makes it only seventy-eight geoby a wall. It was taken by Jenghis Khan, A. D. graphical miles. This city was visited by Alex1220, after an obstinate resistance. Samarcand ander in his pursuit of Darius. By some writers, was the favourite residence of Timur Bek, and it Hecatompylos is identified with Ispahan, now is still the seat of an Usbeck-Khan, but its glory one of the most populous towns of Persia ; but it is departed. does not appear to be authenticated. The above are all the towns of ancient Persia, Strabo mentions this city among those of Hyr- concerning which any descriptive account can cania, and Ptolemy places it in Margiana. Ren- be offered to the reader. The names of many nell identifies it with the modern Naisahour, but others will occur in the pages of this history, it is more probably the modern Nesa. This has but little beyond the fact of their having once always been a city of note. It is situated bec existed, is known. There are, it is true, the tween the mountains that bound the district of mouldering remnants of many cities scattered Toos, or Mesched, and the desert of Khowar- about the vast tracts of Persia ; but they are not asm; and fifty geographical miles south-east of identified with any city whose names are in the Bawerd and twenty east of Kelat. It was taken pages of ancient historians, or if they be, little by the Tartars under Jenghis Khan, A.D. 1220, is known of their histories. Thus, at Mourghab, when 70,000 of its inhabitants perished. It is forty-nine miles N.N.E. of Istakher, are extensupposed that the famed Nisæan horses and sive ruins, resembling those of Persepolis, and in Nisæan plains derived their name from this the neighbourhood of Firoze-abad, there are city. others seventeen miles in length, and half that HECATOMPYLOS. NISEA. Who bows the knee to man distance in width, which have never been exa- and culpable honours. “The great king,” and mined by European travellers. Ruins of con- “the king of kings,” were the common titles siderable extent occur, also, in the neighbourhood given to the Persian monarchs, and divine hoof Darabgerd, and various other places. All nours were paid to them by all ranks of Persia. these, and more, occur in the single province of None dared approach them without that humble Farsistan, or the ancient Persis. prostration due to the Majesty of heaven alone. Reader, what shall we say to these things? Knowing all this, shall we look upon earth as our As a divinity, deprives the God place of abode, and on the mighty cities that Who made him and preserves him, of his rights ; now teem with human kind as enduring in their For to that end was he created man. natures? Rather let us point to Thebes, Babylon, Nineveh, Persepolis, and the many mighty Reverence to majesty should proceed from cities of old that now embrace the earth, and civil obligations alone, not from adoration of their say, “They shall one day be as these are.” Nay, persons. Beyond this, it savours of idolatry. let us look upon our fair earth, and the sun It was not only of their own subjects that the which shines upon us by day, and the moon and kings of Persia exacted this homage, but of the stars that give us light by night, and exclaim strangers likewise. Herodotus, relating the cirwith holy awe, “ These, also, mighty and beau cumstance of two Spartans being sent to Xerxes, tiful as they are, and stable as they appear, are as an atonement for the destruction of his amdoomed to perish !" One great question arises bassadors, who had been sent to demand of them out of this, which the poet has well supplied :- “ earth and water," as a token of their submis sion to this haughty monarch, says: “ When “That day of wrath, that dreadful day, introduced, on their arrival at Susa, to the royal When heaven and earth shall pass away, presence, they were first ordered by the guards What power shall be the sinner's stay? How shall he meet that dreadful day? to fall prostrate, and adore the king, and some force was used to compel them. But this they “When, shivering like a parched scroll, refused to do, even if they should dash their The flaming heavens together roll: heads against the ground. They were not, they When louder yet, and yet more dread, Swells the high trump that wakes the dead: said, accustomed to adore a man, nor was it for this purpose that they came. After persevering “Oh! on that day, that wrathful day, in such conduct, they addressed Xerxes himself When man to judgment wakes from clay, Be Thou the trembling sinner's stay, in these words : King of the Medes, (or PerThough heaven and earth shall pass away!" sians,*) we are sent by our countrymen to make SIR WALTER SCOTT. atonement for those ambassadors who perished at Sparta.?” And the baughty monarch was obliged to yield to their inflexibility. This conduct was uniformly the disposition of the Greeks, with the exception of Themistocles, CHAPTER III. and one or two others. Valerius Maximus says, that one Timagoras, an Athenian, having comHISTORY OF THE POLITY OF PERSIA. plied with the demands of the Persian court, was by his countrymen condemned to die, thinking The government of the ancient Persians was the dignity of their city injured and degraded by monarchical, or regal, and the crown hereditary. this act of meanness. And Ælian reports, that At what date this form was adopted is unknown. Ismenias, the Theban, declined it, by letting his Certain it is, however, that this form of govern- ring drop from his finger, and then throwing ment is the most ancient and prevalent, and, himself on the ground to recover it. could the origin of that of Persia be traced, it Prideaux remarks, that this compliment of would, doubtless, reach a remote period of time. prostration before him, must have been paid the But a veil is thrown over it by the romantic ac- king of Persia by the prophets Ezra and Nehecount of Persia given by the early Persian miah, or they could not have bad access to him. writers, Mirkhond and Ferdusi, a veil which From a comparison with the above remarks, modern historians would in vain attempt to this will appear to be erroneous ; for if the throw aside. That which is known, is handed Greeks could gain access without, why should down to our age by the Greek historians, who not Ezra and Nehemiah? It is probable, that knew little of Persia before the era of Cyrus. the kings of Persia, with whom these holy men From these writers, therefore, is chiefly derived had to do, knowing the peculiarity of their manthe following information concerning the polity ners and their religion, would have ceded much of ersia, which, for the sake of distinctness, is to them which the haughty Xerxes would have classed under several heads. denied to the Greeks. At all events, if they did act thus, it was from civil obligations alone, not from a feeling of idolatry; for we know that Eastern monarchs have ever been despots, Mordecai was sufficiently inflexible, as not to regarding their subjects generally as slaves. pay undue honours to Haman. Such were the kings of Persia. They lorded it It is certainly right for subjects to pay due over their subjects with so high a hand, that respect to majesty. Respect, nay, reverence is they were looked upon as more than mortal: due to the supreme power, because it cometh they were regarded, in fact, as the image and from God, and is ordained for the welfare of the vicegerents of the Deity on earth. Hence it was • The Persians were usually comprehended by ancient that their subjects paid them such extraordinary | writers, under the name of Medes. a THE KINGLY POWER. community. “Render therefore,” says the great the care of his health and person, and with the apostle of the Gentiles, “to all their dues : tri- duty of forming his manners and behaviour. bute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom When seven years of age, he was taken from custom ; fear to whom fear; honour to whom these officers, and put into the hands of other honour," Rom. xiii. 7. Where no respect is masters, wbo were to continue the care of his paid to the “higher powers,” there anarchy pre- education, to teach him horsemanship, and to vails, with all its concomitant evils. In the time exercise him in hunting. At fourteen years of of paganism, however, this homage and honour age, when the mind approaches maturity, four of were carried beyond due bounds. It is the the wisest and most virtuous men of the state Christian religion alone that has taught man- were appointed to be his preceptors. The first kind how to act worthily before God and man taught him magic, that is, the worship of their on this point. It is true, not all that are Chris- gods, according to their ancient maxims, and the tians in name, act towards their rulers as the laws of Zoroaster, the son of Oromasdes; he doctrines of Christianity inculcate. Far, very also instructed him in the principles of governfar from this is the actual fact. And whence ment. The second taught him to speak truth, does this arise? Is it not from a laxity of moral and the principles of justice. The duty of the training? third was to teach him not to suffer himself to be overcome by pleasures, that he might be a “The discipline of slavery is unknown king in truth, always free, and master of himself Among us : hence the more do we require and his desires. The fourth was to fortify the The discipline of virtue; order else courage of the young prince against fear, which Cannot subsist, nor confidence, nor peace. would have made him a slave, and to inspire Thus duties rising out of good possessed, And prudent caution needful to avert him with a noble and prudent assurance, so neImpending evil, equally require cessary for those born to command. Each of That the whole people should be taught and these governors excelled in his particular de trained: So shall licentiousness and black resolve partment, adding their own examples to their Be rooted out, and virtuous habits take precepts, thereby acting upon that self-evident Their place; and genuine piety descend, truth, that, “words instruct, but examples perLike an inheritance, from age to age.” suade effectually." WORDSWORTH. But “evil communications corrupt good manThe crown of Persia was hereditary, descend ners.” Plato remarks, that all this care was ing from father to son, and generally to the frustrated by the luxury, pomp, and magnifieldest. When an heir to the crown was born, cence with which the young prince was surthe whole empire testified their joy by sacrifices, rounded ; by the numerous train of officers that feasts, etc.; and his birthday was thenceforward waited upon him with servile submission ; by all an annual festival and day of solemnity through the appurtenances, and equipage of a voluptuous out the whole empire. and effeminate life, in which pleasure and the When the reigning monarch undertook long invention of new diversions engrossed all attenor dangerous expeditions, in order to avoid all tion. These are dangers which the most exceldisputes, it was customary for him to name the lent disposition, at least under the pagan sysheir apparent before he commenced his march. tem of moral training, could never surmount. The new king was crowned by the priests at The corrupt manners, therefore, of the nation, Pasagardæ. The ceremony was performed in quickly depraved the mind of the prince, and the temple of the goddess of war, where the drew him into a vortex of pleasures, against king used first of all to clothe himself with the which no education can form an effectual bargarment which Cyrus had worn before he was rier. exalted to the throne. Xenophon thus describes “ Religion! the sole voucher man is man; this garment: “Cyrus himself then appeared, Supporter sole of man above himself: wearing a turban, which was raised high above Even in this night of frailty, change, and death, She gives a soul, (and she alone,) a soul that acts a his head, with a vest of purple colour, half mixed god."-YOUNG. with white, and this mixture of white none else is allowed to wear. On his legs he had yellow But the religion that performs so stupendous buskins, his outer robe was wholly of purple, a work as this, is the religion of the Bible, which and about his turban was a diadem or wreath.” teaches us the gospel of Christ. That of ZoroBeing thus attired, he ate some figs, with a small aster, with all its rites, ceremonies, and fancied quantity of turpentine, and drank a full cup of perfections, lifted not one of its myriads of desour milk. The crown was then placed upon votees above the things of time and sense, the his head by one of the grandees, in whose family low and grovelling pleasures in which human that right was hereditary. Round the crown nature is prone to indulge. It found man dethe king wore a purple and white band or dia- based, it drew him far lower down into the dem, which crown and diadem were the only depths of human degradation. signs of royalty used by the earlier Persian The palace of the kings of Persia had many monarchs. gates, and each gate a body of guards, whose The manner of educating the heir apparent of duty it was to defend the person of the king, and the empire of Persia is extolled by Plato, who to inform him of whatever they saw or heard proposed it to the Greeks as a perfect model for done in any part of the kingdom; whence they the education of a prince. Their routine of edu- were expressively termed “the king's ears,” and cation was as follows :--Shortly after his birth, “ the king's eyes.” To these messengers, all he was committed to the care of eunuchs, chief intelligence worthy of note was sent from the officers of the household, who were charged with remotest provinces of the empire, and they also mascus. received immediate intelligence of sudden com- journals were sometimes read to the Persian motions, by means of beacon-fires, which were monarchs. always ready at certain distances, and lighted as There are many allusions to the above custom occasion required. The guards which attended in the works of ancient writers. Herodotus, in the king's person consisted of 15,000 men. describing the review made by Xerxes of his These were called the king's relations. There army, states that he was attended by secretaries, was, also, a body of 10,000 chosen horsemen, who wrote down the various answers he received who accompanied him in his expeditions, and to the questions which he put as he rode along were called “immortal,” that number being con- the ranks in his chariot. He further states that stantly kept up. These guards received no pay, this monarch, when seated on Mount Ægaleos but were amply provided with the necessaries of to view the battle of Salamis, caused his secrelife. taries to note down the names of such as distinThe Persian monarchs drank no other water guished themselves in the strife, with the city but that of the river Choaspes, which was carried wherein they lived. A similar custom prevails about with them in silver vessels. According to in oriental countries to this day. Travellers Xenophon, the Persians were, in the early of the middle ages, in their descriptions of the period of their history, a temperate and sober Mougol emperors, tell us that when they dined, people. In the time of Herodotus, however, four secretaries were seated under their table they drank profusely; and it is certain, that in to write down their words, which they never later ages, the wines of Shiraz have triumphed might revoke. over the law of Mohammed. Anciently, their Another officer of importance in the king's kings drank only a peculiar wine made at Da- household was his cup-bearer. This is shown The magnificence of the public feasts by several passages in the book of Nehemiah, of the kings of Persia exceeded, as may be seen and in the works both of Herodotus and Xenofrom Esther i., any thing that we read of in the phon. The prophet Nehemiah was, indeed, cuphistories of other nations. Their table was daily bearer to Artaxerxes, and the allusions he makes served with something from each nation subject to his office is well illustrated by profane authors. to them. During their repast, they were enter- Xenophon, in particular, affords some interesttained with the harmony of both vocal and in- ing explanations concerning this office, and the strumental music. manner in which its functions were discharged. The king of Persia seldom admitted to his Speaking of the cup-bearer of Astyages, the table any one besides his wife and mother. grandfather of Cyrus, he describes him as the When he did, the guests were so placed, as not most favoured of the king's household officers; to see, but only to be seen by the king; for they and he adds that he was a very handsome man, and imagined it was a degradation of majesty to let that it was part of his duty to introduce to the their people see that they were subject to the king those who came upon business, and to send common appetites of nature. This desire of ap- away those who applied for an interview whom pearing superior to mankind, was the ruling he, the cup-bearer, did not deem it seasonable to motive of their non-appearance in public. It introduce. This alone must have made the cupwas rarely that they left the precincts of the bearer a person of high consideration at the palace. Their manner of living may be seen in court of Persia. The emoluments of the office the interesting book of Esther. Tully says, that appear to have been very great ; for they enabled the revenues of whole provinces were employed Nehemiah to sustain for many years the state and on the attire of their favourite concubines ; hospitality of the government of the Jews from and Socrates relates, that one country was his own private purse. Xenophon admires the called “the queen's girdle,” and another, “ the manner in which these cup-bearers discharged queen's head-dress.” their office. From his description, it seems that In the three books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and the cup was held in the presence of the monarch, Esther, there are many passages which intimate and, being filled, was presented to him on three the care taken by the Persian government to fingers. This account is explained by the existregister every occurrence. All that the king ing customs in the east, and by the sculptures of said, indeed, was deemed worthy of registration. Persepolis. These sculptures comprehend a great He was usually surrounded by scribes, who took number of figures, bearing cups and vases of note of his words and actions. They were rarely different forms and uses, none of which are absent from him, and always attended him when grasped, as in European countries. If the bearer he appeared in public. They were present at his has but one article, he carries it between both festivals, his reviews of the army, and in the hands, (resting it upon his left hand, and placing tumult of battle, at which times they registered his right hand lightly upon it, to prevent it from whatever words fell from him on those occasions. falling,) with a peculiar grace of action ; if he They were charged, also, with the registrations has two, he bears one upon the palm of each of edicts and ordinances, which were written in hand. It was the duty of the cup-bearer to take the king's presence, sealed with his signet ring, some of the wine from the cup presented to the and then despatched by couriers. These royal king into his left hand, and drink it, to assure the journals or chronicles of Persia were deposited monarchs against poison. at Babylon, Susa, and Ecbatana, and they formed It appears from the book of Esther that the the archives of this people. They have all | Persian kings had but one queen, properly so perished except the few extracts preserved in called. From the same book, however, and from the books of Scripture pointed out, and in the common history, it may be gathered that there older Greek historians. From a transaction re- were a considerable number of secondary wives corded Esther vi. 1, it would appear that these and other females, who had not attained to this |