Winter does not last long in Persia, yet while it lasts it is cold. Then
the poor, instead of sleeping on their roofs, sleep in a very curious
warm bed. In the middle of each cottage there is a round hole in the
floor, where the fire burns. In the evening the fire goes out, but the
hot cinders remain. The Persians place over it a low round table, and
then throw a large coverlid over the table, and all round about. Under
this coverlid the family lie at night, their heads peeping out, and their
feet against the warm fire-place underneath. This the Persians call a
comfortable bed.

The poor wear dirty and ragged clothes, and the children may be seen
crawling about in the dust, and looking like little pigs. Yet in one
respect the Persians are very clean; they bathe often. In every village
there is a large bath.

The poor people have animals of various kinds--a few sheep, or goats, or
cows. In the day one man takes them all out to feed. In the evening he
brings them back to the village, and the animals of their own accord go
home to their own stables. Each cow and each sheep knows where she will
get food and a place to sleep in. The prophet Isaiah said truly, "The ass
knoweth his owner, and the ox his master's crib; but Israel doth not
know, my people doth not consider."

THE PERSIAN LADIES.--They wrap themselves up in a large dark blue
wrapper, and in this dress they walk out where they please. No one who
meets them can tell who they are.

And where do these women go? Chiefly to the bath, where they spend much
of their time drinking coffee and smoking. There too they try to make
themselves handsome by blackening their eyebrows and dyeing their hair.