It Is Pretty And Effective, Though Some Of
The Illustrations On The Backs Of Mirrors, Etc., Are Hardly Fit For A
Drawing-Room Table.
Caligraphy, or the art of writing, is also carried
by the Shirazis to the highest degree of perfection, and they are said
to be the best penmen in the East.
To write really well is considered
as great an accomplishment in Persia as to be a successful musician,
painter, or sculptor in Europe; and a famous writer of the last
century, living in Shiraz, was paid as much as five tomans for every
line transcribed.
My favourite walk, after the heat of the day, was to the little
cemetery where Hafiz, the Persian poet, lies at rest - a quiet,
secluded spot, on the side of a hill, in a clump of dark cypress trees
a gap cut through which shows the drab-coloured city, with its white
minarets and gilt domes shining in the sun half a mile away. The tomb,
a huge block of solid marble, brought across the desert from Yezd, is
covered with inscriptions - the titles of the poet's most celebrated
works. Near it is a brick building containing chambers, where bodies
are put for a year or so previous to final interment at Kermanshah
or Koom. Each corpse was in a separate room - a plain whitewashed
compartment, with a square brick edifice in the centre containing the
body. Some of the catafalques were spread with white table-cloths,
flowers, candles, fruit, and biscuits, which the friends and relations
(mostly women and children) of the defunct were discussing in anything
but a mournful manner.
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