it
does not do to analyse too closely--but he devotes so much time to
thinking that he seldom can do anything else. His mind--like the minds
of all people unaccustomed to hard work and steady, solidly-built
enterprise--runs to the fantastic, and he ever expects immense returns
for doing nothing. The returns, if any, and no matter how large they may
be, are ever too small to satisfy his expectations.

As for time, there is no country where it is worth less than to the
natives of Persia. The _manana_ of the Spaniards sinks into perfect
insignificance when compared with the habits of the land of Iran.
Punctuality is unknown--especially in payments, for a Persian must take
time to reflect over everything. He cannot be hurried. A three months'
limit of credit--or even six months--seems outrageously short in the eyes
of Persians. Twelve months and eighteen, twenty, or twenty-four months
suit him better, but even then he is never ready to pay, unless under
great pressure. He does disburse the money in the end, capital and
interest, but why people should worry over time, and why it should matter
whether payment occurs to-day or to-morrow are quite beyond him.

If he does transact business, days are wasted in useless talk and
compliments before the subject with which he intends to deal is
incidentally approached in conversation, and then more hours and days and
weeks, even months have to elapse before he can make up his mind what to
do. Our haste, and what we consider smartness in business, are looked
upon by the Persian as quite an acute form of lunacy,--and really, when
one is thrown much in contact with such delightful placidity, almost
torpor, and looks back upon one's hard race for a living and one's
struggle and competition in every department, one almost begins to fancy
that we are lunatics after all!

[Illustration: The Arrival of a Caravan of Silver at the Imperial Bank of
Persia.]

The Persian must have his hours for praying, his hours for ablutions,
more hours for meditation, and the rest for sleep and food. Whether you
hasten or not, he thinks, you will only live the number of years that God
wills for you, and you will live those years in the way that He has
destined for you. Each day will be no longer and no shorter, your life no
sadder and no happier. Why then hurry?

Amid such philosophic views, business in European fashion does not
promise to prosper.

Unable to attach a true meaning to words--his language