rapaciousness and cruelty are a proverb in. Persia. The daughters of these
mountaineers, especially in.the province of Ghelan, are extremely beautiful.
In. the towns, from causes already mentioned, the inhabitants present a very
different aspect; for the long admixture of Georgian and Circassian blood has done
much to improve the Tartar physiognomy of the rural tribes, and the somewhat
heavy figures and sallow color of the original Persians.
“At the present time,” says Chardin, “ there is scarcely a man of rank in
Persia whose mother is not either a Georgian or Circassian. The King himself
is mostly derived, on the maternal side, from this exotic source; and as it is a long
time since this mixture commenced, the women of Persia have also become much
more beautiful, though they do not equal those of Georgia. As for the men, they
are generally tall and erect, yyith a graceful manner and agreeable deportment.”*
The modern Persians are polite and polished in their manners, and extravagantly
addicted to flattery. They are obsequious to their superiors, but affect to
despise all foreigners. They are proverbial adepts in deception, and like the
Arabs, make a merit of their frauds when these have been practised with adroitness.
They are lively and imaginative, fond of music and poetry, and idolise the
names of Hafez and Saadi. The Persian language is a dialect of that of Fars, and
is used in poetry and general literature, but the Turkish is the court language.
The present rulers of Persia (who are Tartars of the Kujur race) have, of course,
established Mahomedanism as the state religion; but the Ghebres and Parsees still
worship fire as the emblem of the Supreme Being. The great body of this, sect,
however, was driven from Persia by the Arabs under the Chalif Omar in the
seventh century. They established themselves in India, and especially in the
province of Surat, where they are still numerous, and constitute an industrious
population.
The Iliyats, or wandering tribes of Persia, are chiefly of exotic extraction,
and form a distinct body of people. Morier compares them to foreign shoots,
grafted on the original Persian stock. They date from the conquest by the
Saracens, A. D. 651, and their numbers were augmented during the subsequent
invasions of Genghiz and Tamerlane* They are of Mongol-Tartar extraction, but
have mingled for centuries with the Persians, to whom they have imparted their
roving propensities. They are by turns cultivators, shepherds, soldiers, and free-
booters.f
Chardin, Voy. II, p. 34. t Morier, in Jour. Roy. Geog. Soc., VII, p. 230.
The inhabitants of Afghanistan, on the skirts of Persia, are also of the
Caucasian family. They are spare in person, strong and bony. Their noses are
prominent and aquiline, their cheek bones high, their faces long. Their manner
is singularly hospitable to strangers, at the same time that their lives' are mostly
spent in predatory Violence on the neighboring provinces, or passing caravans.
Their customs resemble those of the Arabs, from whom they claim descent; for,
although they despise a Jew, they call themselves Ben i Israel—the children of
Israel, whence some writers suppose them to be Jews converted to Mahomedanism.*
Koordistan, to the east of the Tigris, and proximate to Persia, is inhabited by
two sorts of people, the clansmen, or military Koords, and the peasants, or cultivators,
the latter being literally the bondsmen of the former. “ The peasant,” says
Mr. Rich, “Is in a moment to be distinguished, both in countenance and speech,
from the true tribesman; nor would it be possible for him to pass himself for his
countryman of nobler race. The difference in physiognomy between the clansman
and peasant Koord is perfectly distinguishable. The latter has a much
softer, and more regular countenance ; the features are sometimes quite Grecian.
The tribesman is more what is called a hard-featured man, with a thick, prominent
forehead, abrupt lines, and eyes sunk in his head, which are usually fixed in
a kind of stare. Light gray, and even blue, is a common color for the eye.”f
They treat their women more kindly than either the Turks or Persians, and have
a better idea of domestic comfort; yet they are haughty and cruel, fond of war
and pillage, and fight among themselves when they have no common enemy4
3. The Pelasgic Branch derives its name from the Pelasgi, who are first
mentioned in history as the inhabitants of Thessaly. Enterprising and migratory
in their habits, they spread over all Greece, and passing thence into northern
Italy, gave birth to the Etruscans. For political reasons they assumed the name
of Hellenes, and were the lineal progenitors of the; Greeks or Acheans. It has
been observed by a late writer, that the Greeks had no sooner obtained the
elements of literature and the arts from the Phoenicians, than they advanced
rapidly to the highest state of civilisation, until they may be said to have become,
in their descendants, the masters of the world. We are taught even from our
infancy to study their letters and their arts, which are justly regarded as models
of perfection, seldom equalled and still more rarely surpassed. ■
* Barnes, Trav. in Bokhara, II, p. 32. Wolff, Miss. Res. p. 157.
t Residence m Koordistan, p. 89, 320.
% Ibid. p. 150.