The following sketch of a Persian cavalier has the richness and freshness
of one of Heber's, or Morier's or Sir John Malcolm's pages:--"He was a
man of goodly stature, and powerful frame; his countenance, hard,
strongly marked, and furnished with a thick, black beard, bore testimony
of exposure to many a blast, but it still preserved a prepossessing
expression of good humour and benevolence. His turban, which was formed
of a cashmere shawl, sorely tached and torn, and twisted here and there
with small steel chains, according to the fashion of the time, was wound
around a red cloth cap, that rose in four peaks high above the head. His
oemah, or riding coat, of crimson cloth much stained and faded, opening
at the bosom, showed the links of a coat of mail which he wore below; a
yellow shawl formed his girdle; his huge shulwars, or riding trousers, of
thick, fawn-coloured Kerman woollen-stuff, fell in folds over the large
red leather boots in which his legs were cased: by his side hung a
crooked scymetar in a black leather scabbard, and from the holsters of
his saddle peeped out the butt ends of a pair of pistols; weapons of
which I then knew not the use, any more than of the matchlock which was
slung at his back. He was mounted on a powerful but jaded horse, and
appeared to have already travelled far."--_Kuzzilbash._
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