Page:The Six Voyages of John Baptista Tavernier.djvu/184

Fountain all cover'd with Carpets. At every corner of the Portico is a Room to sit and take the fresh Air; and behind another large Room, the floor whereof is spread with Carpets, Mattresses, and Cushions, according to the quality of the Master of the House. Upon the two sides of the Portico are two other Chambers, and doors to go from one Chamber to another: and thus are the Houses of the great Lords built, but only they are more spacious. For their Houses consist of four great Parlours, that look toward the our corners of the World, and every Parlour has two Chambers upon each side, which make eight Chambers, that surround a great Hall in the middle. The King's Palace is also built after the same fashion: and generally the Persian Houses are very low, it being a rare thing to see one three Stories high. Yet all their Chambers and Rooms are arch'd, wherein the Persian exceeds us. For without all that trouble and time that we spend, they will presently raise an Arch so broad and high as easily demonstrates the skill of the Work-man. The tops of their Houses are flat and terrass'd; being plaster'd with Earth mixt with Straw chopt very small, and well temper'd; which they bind together with a layer of Lime beat'n for seven days together, which makes it as hard as Marble, and if they want Lime, they pave the Terrass with square Tiles bak'd in an Oven, so that the Rain can do no harm. But they are very careful to shovel off the Snow, for fear it crack the Terrass with lying. Without the Houses show nothing, but within they are curiously painted with Birds and Flowers, wherein the Persians are no bad Artists. They take great delight to have several little Chambers, with several Doors, and Lattice-windows, the quarrels whereof are of Glass of various colours. This sort of glazing serves generally, and indeed more properly, for the Apartments where the Women may come. For they might have Crystal-windows if they pleas'd, but they glaze the void spaces in this manner, that their Women may not be seen; after they have fram'd the op'n place that gives light, like a Flower-Pot with several Flowers in it, which the Glass of several colours imitates to the life; whereby it is impossible that the Windows should be peer'd through; besides, that it is pleasant to the Eye. The Doors of their Houses are of Tchinar-Wood, which is very noble, and their Wainscoting is as neat. The Persians that love ostentation, always display their rich Carpets, Mattresses, Cushions, Coverlets, and all the most costly Furniture they have, in the fore part of their dwellings: For the Haram, or the Women's Quarter is but meanly adorn'd, in regard they are never visited by any men but their Husbands. In some of their Rooms they have very narrow Chimnies; for the Persians set all their Wood upright which they burn, because of the Smoak; besides, they make but small Fires, in regard they have so great a scarcity of Wood. When they would go to sleep, they lye down upon a Plank cover'd with a Carpet, and wrap themselves in a quilted Blanket. In the Summer they sleep in the open Air, upon their Terrasses; and in regard the Women lye there too, there is an order obtain'd, that the Moullahs that sing upon the Mosquees shall not presume to go up in the morning, because it might be their hap to see the Women as they lay; it being one of the highest pieces of infamy imaginable for a Woman to be discover'd with her Face op'n.

There are some Houses that belong to great Lords, that have a square place before their Doors, where they that come to visit them may put their Horses, to the end the Street should not be pester'd. If you look upon the Front of their Houses, there is little ornament to be seen, unless it be upon some which have been lately built.

Ispahan, Sphahan, or Sphaon, as the Persians pronounce it, which some Travellers have too unwarily affirm'd to be a fine City, lyes in the Province of Hierac, which composes some part of the ancient Kingdom of the Parthians. It is the Capital City of all Persia, and a very large place, where the King usually keeps his Court. The Records of the Persians declare that formerly it was two contiguous Towns, onepart