ABSTRACT
ALTHOUGH, owing to the kindness of my friends, life in I\.. the capital was pleasant enough to make me in no hurry to leave it, nevertheless the praises of beautiful Shfraz and the descriptions of venerable Persepolis which I so often heard were not without their effect. I began to grow restless, and to suffer a kind of dread lest, if I tarried much longer, some unforeseen event might occur to cut short my travels and to prevent me from reaching what was really the goal of my journey. After all, Persis (Fars) is really Persia, and Shiraz is the capital thereof; to visit Persia and not to reach Fars is only a degree better than staying at home. Therefore, when one morning the Nawwab came into my room to inform me that he had received instructions to proceed to Mashhad in the course of a week or two, and asked me what I would do, I replied without hesitation that I would start for the South. As he expected to leave Teheran about loth February, I determined to arrange my departure for the 7th, which, being my birthday, seemed to me an auspicious day for resuming my travels.
