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'Through Persia on a side-saddle' [‎18] (47/360)

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The record is made up of 1 volume (313 pages). It was created in 1901. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: Printed Collections.

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i8 THROUGH PERSIA ON A SIDE-SADDLE
The favourite wife was brilliant in a vivid blue silk, and
the majority of the ladies wore fine jewels, big rubies,
diamonds, and emeralds galore, buttons of precious stones,
bracelets and necklaces of pearls, and sometimes the entire
front of the jacket a mass of diamonds, sewn on in patterns.
We sat and sipped tea or sherbet, partook of sweetmeats
and biscuits, handed round by slaves as gaudily attired as
their mistresses, and watched these latter smoke their
kalians.
This pipe is composed of a bowl for the water, above
which is an elaborately adorned holder for the burning
charcoal and tobacco, the whole thing corresponding to the
Turkish hubble-bubble. I never thought that it was a very
satisfactory invention, as it is troublesome to light, and
when ready, the smoker only enjoys half a dozen puffs or
so, a servant sucking at it for some seconds first of all to
get rid of the fumes of charcoal, and then bringing it to
his master or mistress at the right moment.
All Persian ladies delight in the kalian, and when they
visited me they used to beg me to follow their example ;
but although a Persian proverb says, "If you are in a room
be of the same colour as the people in it," I always declined,
as it was not pleasant to put my lips to the same tube at
which a servant had been vigorously puffing, though such
trifles do not weigh with Orientals.
On the occasion of this royal party, I wished very much
that I could have talked Persian, as one lady in a mag
nificent cashmere shawl examined my bangles without
ceremony, laughing pleasantly as she thrust her hands into
my muff, which was handed on to others to examine, and
looking quite disappointed when her efforts to draw me
into conversation were in vain. I did not see a really

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Content

Through Persia on a side-saddle.

With an introduction by Major-General Sir Frederic John Goldsmid, CB, KCSI.

Author: Ella C Sykes

Publication details: London, John Macqueen, 1901.

Physical description: xvi, 313 p; 8º.

Extent and format
1 volume (313 pages)
Arrangement

This volume contains a table of contents giving chapter headings ans page references. There is also a list of illustrations giving titles and page references.

Physical characteristics

Dimensions: 225mm x 150mm

Written in
English in Latin script
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'Through Persia on a side-saddle' [‎18] (47/360), British Library: Printed Collections, ORW.1986.a.1864, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100023828976.0x000030> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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