ABSTRACT
When a civilized people have gazed, at their leisure, upon one of those uninstructed productions of rude nature whom they term barbarians, the next object of natural curiosity is, to learn what opinion the barbarian has formed of the new state of society into which he is introduced—what the lion thinks of his visitors. Hajji Baba, as the reader probably well knows, is a roguish boy, the son of a barber of Ispahan, who becomes the attendant upon a merchant, is made prisoner by a band of Turcomans. Hajji Baba obtains the protection of the grand vizier, and of the Shah himself in particular, by the great assiduity he displays in acquiring some knowledge of the European character, which the contest between the French and English, for obtaining superior influence at the court of Ispahan, had rendered an interesting subject of consideration in the councils of Persia.
