_ 244 _ travellers and foreign merchants are accommodated There are many baths, in which both men and women go to bathe. There is a separate one for the Jews of the area, and for passing Christians, for there are none [of them living) in the area. They do not drink wine throughout Persia on most severe penalties, which Shah Tahmasp instituted a few years ago after he had been given poison in it, as well be mentioned further on. Before that people drank publicly, and caravans of camels loaded with wine came from Armenia throughout all Persia, like any other merchandise. Here I saw many sheep with four horns, others with tails, which we called “of five quarters”, for the tail is as large as each quarter: the finest lion in all existence, domesticated, in a large square alongside the bazaars, where every afternoon a great crowd of people gathers to listen to some who preach, others who read stories of their prophets, others who place bets, others who every afternoon, on a flat roof, play until night on kettle drums like ours used in the game of canas, and on xabepas which are like reed pipes. All the time I was there I did not see in the streets a women of less than forty years of age, for the others do not
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTg0NzAy