'Through Persia on a side-saddle' [‎174] (207/360)

174 THROUGH PERSIA ON A SIDE-SADDLE
servants of the house, as social distinctions are in some
ways less regarded in Persia than in Europe.
Besides their teacher proper the boys are in charge of a
lala, an old man, who performs the functions of the Greek
pedagogue, taking his charges out for walks, and keeping
a keen eye on all their movements.
If they refuse to learn, two fcrashes, who are always in
attendance at the door of their schoolroom, enter armed
with the apparatus for applying the bastinado to unruly
pupils, which punishment is no disgrace, the sons of the
Shah and the highest officials having had perhaps to
submit to it. Their education goes on to the age of
eighteen, and it is a wonder if they gain much from it, as
the meaning of what they read is not insisted upon in the
least, a parrot-gabble of the Koran being considered a high
achievement.
There is no great amount of family affection in Persia,
the fathers often disliking their sons, unless sharp and
clever, and appearing to be indifferent to their daughters.
One of my Persian friends described to me the way in
which his father treated him on the lad's return from the
Military College at Tehran after a successful career there.
The youth was delighted to be at home again, and
hastened to greet his parent, who was in a room with all
the servants round him, and who hardly deigned to
respond to his son's salutations, telling him to retire after
a few moments.
The poor fellow rushed from the room cut to the heart,
and assured me that he would have taken his life if some
of the old family retainers had not followed him and so
prevented the rash act.
Suicide in Persia is looked upon as a great sin, because