the pretensions of beauty, are in constant collision. The usual routine of
the king's life is often interrupted by urgent public affairs, and
sometimes by amusement. The reigning family has hitherto disdained those
enervating and luxurious habits which led the last Seffavean monarchs to
confine themselves to their harams. They not only attend personally to
public business, but are continually practising manly exercises, and engage
in field sports with all the ardour of a race who cherish the habits of
their Tartar ancestors. The present king is an expert marksman and an
excellent horseman; few weeks pass without his partaking in the pleasures
of the chase. The king has always a historiographer and a chief poet. The
one writes the annals of his reign; the other, who has a high rank at
court, composes odes in his praise, and, with grateful ardour, celebrates
the munificence of his patron. A giant and a dwarf were at one period of
the present reign part of the royal establishment; and it is never without
a jester, who enjoys an extraordinary latitude of speech, and, both in his
dress and manner, assumes the habit and appearance of folly. It is usual to
laugh at the witticisms of these jesters, even when they are the most
severe; and the sovereign himself respects their privilege. The tribe to
which Kerreem Khan belonged, speak a language which, from its rudeness, is
denominated "the barbarous dialect." As this prince was one day sitting in
public, he commanded his jester to go and bring him word what a dog, that
was barking very loud, wanted. The courtiers smiled at this sally of their
monarch. The jester went, and, after appearing to listen for some time with
profound attention, returned, and said, with a grave air, "Your majesty
must send one of the chief officers of your own family to report what that
gentleman says: he speaks no language except "the barbarous dialect," with
which they are familiar, but of which I do not understand one word." The
good-humoured monarch laughed heartily at this jest, and gave the wit a
present. This anecdote, to which many similar might be added, shows that
there is little difference between the office of jester at the modern court