process of eating
when I had an audience of him some days before, still lying undisturbed
upon a small desk. The Shah's special chair was embroidered in red and
blue.

All this was reflected myriads of times in the diamond-shaped mirror
ceiling and walls, and the effect was somewhat dazzling. The room had a
partition, and on the other side was an ample couch for his Majesty to
rest upon. In each reception room is to be seen a splendid grand piano,
the music of which, when good, the Shah is said passionately to enjoy.
One of his aides de camp--a European--is an excellent pianist and
composer.

We now come to the world-renowned "Jewelled-Globe" room, and of course
one makes at once for the priceless globe enclosed in a glass case in the
centre of the room. The frame of the large globe is said to be of solid
gold and so is the tripod stand, set in rubies and diamonds. The Globe,
to do justice to its name, is covered all over with precious stones, the
sea being represented by green emeralds, and the continents by rubies.
The Equator line is set in diamonds and also the whole area of Persian
territory.

There is nothing else of great artistic interest here, and it depressed
one to find that, although the portraits in oil and photographs of the
Emperors of Russia and Austria occupied prominent places of honour in the
Shah's apartments, the only image of our Queen Victoria was a wretched
faded cabinet photograph in a twopenny paper frame, thrown carelessly
among empty envelopes and writing paper in a corner of his Majesty's
writing desk. Princess Beatrice's photograph was near it, and towering
above them in the most prominent place was another picture of the Emperor
of Russia. We, ourselves, may attach little meaning to these trifling
details, but significant are the inferences drawn by the natives
themselves.

In this room, as in most of the others, there is Bohemian glass in great
profusion, and a "one year chronometer" of great precision. A really
beautiful inlaid ivory table is disfigured by a menagerie of coloured
miniature leaden cats, lions, lizards, dogs, a children's kaleidoscope,
and some badly-stuffed birds, singing automatically. On another table
were more glass vases and a variety of articles made of cockle shells on
pasteboard, cycle watches, and brass rings with imitation stones.

Adjoining this room is a small boudoir, possessing the latest appliances
of civilisation. It contains another grand piano, a la