About
this period the refuse sinks to the bottom of the jar, and the wine is
drawn off and bottled. In forty days, at most, it is fit to drink.
My time at Ispahan was limited, so much so that I was not able to pay
a visit to the "Shaking minarets," about six miles off. These mud
towers, of from twenty to thirty feet high, are so constructed that a
person, standing on the roof of the building between the two, can, by
a slight movement of his feet, cause them to vibrate.
I spent most of my time, as usual, strolling about the
least-frequented parts of the city, or in the cool, picturesque
gardens of the Madrassa. The people of Teheran, and other Persian
cities, are generally civil to strangers; but at Ispahan the prejudice
against Europeans is very strong, and I more than once had to make a
somewhat hasty exit from some of the lower quarters of the city.
Mrs. S - - , the wife of a telegraph official, was stabbed by some
miscreants while walking in broad daylight on the outskirts of the
town, a few months before my visit. The offenders were never caught;
probably, as Ispahan is under the jurisdiction of the Zil-i-Sultan,
were never meant to be.
The Zil-i-Sultan returned to Ispahan before I left. He is rightly
named "Shadow of the King," for, saving his somewhat more youthful
appearance, he is as like Nasr-oo-din as two peas.
