Queer Things about Persia. By Eustache de Lorey and Douglas
Sladen. (Eveleigh Nash. 21s. net.)—Truly Persia is the most Oriental of Asiatic countries, and the Persian has altered little, as Mr. Sladen says in his preface, since the "Arabian Nights" were written. He lives, rules, and is ruled by the light of instinct and the fear of the " bastinado." M. Eirstache de Lorey takes Us into the real life of the Persian, the life of the bazaar and the life of the Palace, and his descriptions would serve admirably for an explanatory essay on the "Arabian Nights." We have, and ought to have, a curiosity to know the Persian, partly because of his incredible primitiveness, and partly because his country and its future present a problem of near interest to us. Probably its very backwardness explains its existence on the face of the map ; one cannot imagine the organisation of anything Persian. Even your Russian, who naturally understands an EaStern reek, must feel very Western in the presence of the Modern, bat not the less lineal, representatives of All Baba, Scheherazade, the Forty Thieves, and Haroun al-Raschid. If you Want to know the Persian as he is, read M. Eustache de Lorey, from whose dictation Mr. Douglas Sladen has presented us with a fascinating and most instructive book.
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