9. Wild animals are numerous in some parts. The chief are lions, leopards, bears, wolves, and wild boars. The sturgeon is caught in the Caspian Sea, and also in the Persian Gulf. Birds are plentiful, and include pheasants, nightingales, and bustards.

10. The artisan population of the towns are skilful and industrious, and exhibit exquisite taste in their productions. Persian rugs and carpets are beautiful in colour, rich in design, and of almost endless wear. Shawls and embroidered work are very highly prized and much sought after. They are mostly made from the long silky hair of the native goat interwoven with threads of gold and silver.

11. The Persians are also celebrated for their inlaid and damascened ware, which is brought to great perfection in the production of jewelry and swords. This trade is usually carried on in the bazaars of the large towns.

12. There is still living in Persia a singular race of people called the Parsees or fire-worshippers. They adore fire, light, and the sun, as the emblem of the Deity. This worship is supposed to have been the early faith of the country.

13. The people of Persia are badly governed, and are very heavily taxed. There are but few good roads in the country, and these are infested with robbers. Shiraz, a town near the Persian Gulf, is noted as the residence and burial-place of two great Persian poets-Hafiz and Saadi.

Assyrian Empire, one of the
most ancient empires.
disruption, breaking up.
Medes, a nation that inhabited
the country of Media, which
was situated to the south-west
of the Caspian Sea.

Cyrus, a Persian king, the founder of the Persian Empire. He defeated the Medes. He also fought against the Assyrians and took Babylon by turning the course of the river Euphrates. He died 529 B.C.

consolidated, made firm.
Alexander the Great was the
King of Macedon, one of the
provinces of Greece. He con-
quered all the countries from
Greece to India. The city of
Alexandria in Egypt was
founded by him. Alexander
died 323 B. C.

Darius III., the last Persian
Emperor, died 330 B.C.
Romans, one of the four great
nations of antiquity.

Arabs, an eastern nation that
came from Arabia.

incapable, unfit.

plateaus, elevated plains.

Tartars, an eastern nation that
came from Tartary in Central
Asia.
impregnated, charged with.
peculiarities, special features.
irrigation, watering by means

of channels or canals.
nomadic, wandering.
exquisite, refined, matchless.
embroidered, ornamental needle-
work.

damascened, inlaid metal work,
so called from Damascus where
it was first worked.

bazaars, eastern markets.
emblem, sign.

infested, annoyed.

Where is Persia situated? Who was its fint great king? What nations did he conquer? Who was its last ruler? By whom was he conquered? By what nations has it been conquered since? Describe the appearance of some large districts in Persia. What is found in great quantities in the soil? What is the chief occupation of the

people? What are the chief objects of culture? Name the domestic For what are the Persians

animals.

Name the wild animals.

noted?

THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS.

And who is he, that wields the might
Of Freedom on the Green Sea brink,
Before whose sabre's dazzling light
The eyes
of Yemen's warriors wink?
Who comes, embower'd in the spears
Of Kerman's hardy mountaineers?
Those mountaineers that truest, last,
Cling to their country's ancient rites,
As if that God, whose eyelids cast

Their closing gleam on Iran's heights,
Among her snowy mountains threw
The last light of his worship too!

'Tis Hafed--name of fear, whose sound
Chills like the muttering of a charm!
Shout but that awful name around,
And palsy shakes the manliest arm.

'Tis Hafed, most accurs'd and dire
(So rank'd by Moslem hate and ire)
Of all the rebel Sons of Fire;
Of whose malign, tremendous power
The Arabs, at their mid-watch hour,
Such tales of fearful wonder tell,
That each affrighted sentinel
Pulls down his cowl upon his eyes,
Lest Hafed in the midst should rise!
A man, they say, of monstrous birth,
A mingled race of flame and earth,
Sprung from those old, enchanted kings,

Who in their fairy helms, of yore A feather from the mystic wings

Of the Simoorgh resistless wore; And gifted by the Fiends of Fire, Who groan'd to see their shrines expire, With charms that, all in vain withstood, Would drown the Koran's light in blood!

Such were the tales that won belief,
And such the colouring Fancy gave
To a young, warm, and dauntless Chief,-
One who, no more than mortal brave,
Fought for the land his soul ador'd,
For happy homes and altars free,-
His only talisman, the sword,
His only spell-word, Liberty!

One of that ancient hero line,
Along whose glorious current shine.
Names that have sanctified their blood;
As Lebanon's small mountain-flood
Is render'd holy by the ranks

Of sainted cedars on its banks.

'Twas not for him to crouch the knee

Tamely to Moslem tyranny;

'Twas not for him, whose soul was cast
In the bright mould of ages past,
Whose melancholy spirit, fed
With all the glories of the dead,
Though fram'd for Iran's happiest years,
Was born among her chains and tears!-
'Twas not for him to swell the crowd
Of slavish heads, that shrinking bow'd
Before the Moslem, as he pass'd,

Like shrubs beneath the poison-blast

No-far he fled-indignant fled

The pageant of his country's shame;
While every tear her children shed
Fell on his soul like drops of flame;
And, as a lover hails the dawn
Of a first smile, so welcom'd he
The sparkle of the first sword drawn
For vengeance and for liberty!

But vain was valour-vain the flower
Of Kerman, in that deathful hour,
Against Al Hassan's whelming power,-
In vain they met him, helm to helm,
Upon the threshold of that realm
He came in bigot pomp to sway,
And with their corpses block'd his way—
In vain-for every lance they rais'd,
Thousands around the conqueror blaz'd;
For every arm that lin'd their shore,
Myriads of slaves were wafted o’er,—
A bloody, bold, and countless crowd,
Before whose swarm as fast they bow'd
As dates beneath the locust cloud.

There stood-but one short league away
From old Harmozia's sultry bay-
A rocky mountain, o'er the Sea
Of Oman beetling awfully;
A last and solitary link

Of those stupendous chains that reach From the broad Caspian's reedy brink Down winding to the Green Sea beach. Around its base the bare rocks stood, Like naked giants, in the flood,