n years ago
when parts of the empire were overrun by about 60,000 Kurds, a tribe of
wild nomads. They spoiled the villages wherever they went but could not
take the walled cities. The streets of cities are generally narrow and
crooked, and are not paved. The best houses are brick with stone
foundation. Some poor men build homes with sun dried brick and still
others make the walls of mud. The roof is flat and made of mud
supported by timber. The houses are built adjoining one another, so
that men can walk all over the city on the housetops. This is the
common way of travel in winter when the streets are muddy. In some of
the large cities like the capital, Tehran, and Isphahan and Shiraz
modern paving of streets with stone is being introduced.

On each business street a single line of goods is sold. One will be
devoted to drygoods, another to groceries, another to carpenter shops,
another to iron and silver smiths, etc. The streets are from ten to
thirty feet in width, and many of them are arched over with brick, so
that rain and snow are shut out. Light is let into these enclosed
streets by openings in the top of the arch. Camels, horses and donkeys
bearing burdens of various kinds of goods may be seen passing through
the streets. And in open squares of the city there stand many of these
animals belonging to men who have come to the city to buy or sell
goods. Before some of the mosques may be seen secretaries or mollahs
whose business it is to write documents in business transactions for
which they get from two to fifteen cents.

In buying goods in Persia a stranger is liable to be cheated. It is a
custom among dealers to ask two or three times what an article is
worth, expecting to come down with the price before making a sale. The
silver smiths do some highly skillful work in making rings for the ears
and fingers, and belts for the ladies. In all Persia you cannot find a
lady selling goods in a store, except in one street where poor old
women and widows are allowed to come for a few hours each day to sell
such articles as caps, purses, sacks and soaps. Their faces must be
covered except the eyes. Only a few women of the lower class are seen
in the stores buying goods, and they must not have their faces exposed
to view. No Christian can sell fluids such as milk, oil, syrups or
juicy fruits like grapes. It is against the Mohammedan law to buy such
things from a Christian. If a Christian wishes to buy any such goods
fro