there has arisen, on the basis of this story of the martyrs of Kerbela, a drama, a Persian national drama, which Count Gobineau, who has seen and heard it, is bold enough to rank with the Greek drama as a great and serious affair, engaging the heart and life of the people who have given birth to it; while the Latin, English, French, and German drama is, he says, in

more or less intellectual and elegant. To me it seems that the Persian tazyas - for so these pieces are called-find a better parallel in the Ammergau Passion Play than in the Greek drama. They turn entirely on one subject - the sufferings of the Family of the Tent, as the Imam Hussein and the company of persons gathered around him at Kerbela are called. The subject is sometimes introduced by a prologue, which may perhaps one day, as the need of variety is more felt, become a

ducted to the presence of Yezid. But the and their tribute of enthusiastic mourning. commands of the caliph or his lieutenant | But Count Gobineau relates, in his book were stern and absolute, and Hussein was of which I have spoken, a development of informed that he must either submit as a these solemnities which was unknown to captive and a criminal to the Commander Gibbon. Within the present century of the Faithful, or expect the consequences of his rebellion. Do you think,' replied he, to terrify me with death?' And during the short respite of a night he prepared, with calm and solemn resignation, to encounter his fate. He checked the lamentations of his sister Fatima, who deplored the impending ruin of his house. Our trust,' said Hussein, is in God alone. All things, both in heaven and earth, must comparison a mere pastime or amusement, perish and return to their Creator. My brother, my father, my mother, were better than I, and every Mussulman has an example in the Prophet.' He pressed his friends to consult their safety by a timely flight; they unanimously refused to desert or survive their beloved master, and their courage was fortified by a fervent prayer and the assurance of paradise. On the morning of the fatal day he mounted on horseback, with his sword in one hand and the Koran in the other; the flanks and rear of his party were secured by the tent-piece by itself; but at present the prologue ropes and by a deep trench, which they had filled with lighted fagots, according to the practice of the Arabs. The enemy advanced with reluctance; and one of their chiefs deserted, with thirty followers, to claim the partnership of inevitable death. In every close onset or single combat the despair of the Fatimites was invincible; but the surrounding multitudes galled them from a distance with a cloud of arrows, and the horses and men were successively slain. A truce was allowed on both sides for the hour of prayer; and the battle at length expired by the death of the last of the companions of Hussein." The details of Hussein's own death will come better presently; suffice it at this moment to say he was slain, and that the women and children of his family were taken in chains to the Caliph Yezid at Damascus. Gibbon concludes the story thus: "In a distant age and climate, the tragic scene of the death of Hussein will awaken the sympathy of the coldest reader. On the annual festival of his martyrdom, in the devout pilgrimage to his sepulchre, his Persian votaries abandon their souls to the religious phrenzy of sorrow and indignation."

Thus the tombs of Ali and of his son, the Meshed Ali and the Meshed Hussein, standing some thirty miles apart from one another in the plain of the Euphrates, had, when Gibbon wrote, their yearly pilgrims

leads invariably to the martyrs. For in-
stance, the Emperor Tamerlane, in his
conquering progress through the world,
arrives at Damascus the keys of the city
are brought to him by the governor; but
the governor is a descendant of one of the
murderers of the Imam Hussein; Tamer-
lane is informed of it, loads him with
reproaches, and drives him from his pres-
ence. The emperor presently sees the
governor's daughter splendidly dressed,
thinks of the sufferings of the holy women
of the Family of the Tent, and upbraids
and drives her away as he did her father.
But after this he is haunted by the great
tragedy which has been thus brought to
his mind, and he cannot sleep and cannot
be comforted; he calls his vizier, and his
vizier tells him that the only way to soothe
his troubled spirit is to see a tazya.
so the tazya commences. Or, again (and
this will show how strangely, in the reli-
gious world which is now occupying us,
what is most familiar to us is blended with
that of which we know nothing): Joseph
and his brethren appear on the stage, and
the old Bible story is transacted. Joseph
is thrown into the pit and sold to the
merchants, and his blood-stained coat is
carried by his brothers to Jacob; Jacob is
then left alone, weeping and bewailing
himself; the angel Gabriel enters, and
reproves him for his want of faith and
constancy, telling him that what he suffers

And

is not a hundredth part of what Ali Hus-
sein, and the children of Hussein will one
day suffer.
Jacob seems to doubt it;
Gabriel, to convince him, orders the angels
to perform a tazya of what will one day
happen at Kerbela. And so the tazya

commences.

ages

So we are carried back, on this old Asiatic soil, where beliefs and usages are heaped layer upon layer and ruin upon ruin, far past the martyred Imams, past Mahometanism, past Christianity, to the priests of Baal gashing themselves with knives and to the worship of Adonis.

These pieces are given in the first ten The tekyas, or theatres for the drama days of the month of Moharrem, the an- which calls forth these celebrations, are niversary of the martyrdom at Kerbela. constantly multiplying. The king, the They are so popular that they now invade great functionaries, the towns, the wealthy other seasons of the year also; but this is citizens like the king's goldsmith, or any the season when the world is given up to private person who has the means and the them. King and people, every one is in desire, provide them. Every one sends mourning; and at night and while the contributions; it is a religious act to furtazyas are not going on, processions keep nish a box or to give decorations for a passing, the air resounds with the beating tekya; and as religious offerings, all gifts of breasts and with litanies of "O Hassan! down to the very smallest are accepted. Hussein!" while the Seyids, a kind of There are tekyas for not more than three popular friars claiming to be descendants or four hundred spectators, and there are of Mahomet, and in whose incessant popu- teky as for three or four thousand. At larizing and amplifying of the legend of Ispahan there are representations which Kerbela in their homilies during pilgrim- bring together more than twenty thousand and at the tombs of the martyrs, the people. At Teheran, the Persian capital, tazyas, no doubt, had their origin, — keep each quarter of the town has its tekyas, up by their sermons and hymns the enthu- every square and open place is turned to siasm which the drama of the day has ex- account for establishing them, and spaces cited. It seems as if no one went to bed; have been expressly cleared, besides, for and certainly no one who went to bed fresh tekyas. Count Gobineau describes could sleep. Confraternities go in proces- particularly one of these theatres, -a sion with a black flag and torches, every tekya of the best class, to hold an audience man with his shirt torn open, and beating of about four thousand, - at Teheran. The himself with the right hand on the left arrangements are very simple; the tekya shoulder in a kind of measured cadence to is a walled parallelogram, with a brick accompany a canticle in honour of the platform, sakou, in the centre of it; this martyrs. These processions come and sakou is surrounded with black poles at take post in the theatres where the Seyids some distance from each other, the poles are preaching. Still more noisy are the are joined at the top by horizontal rods of companies of dancers, striking a kind of the same color, and from these rods hang wooden castanets together, at one time in coloured lamps, which are lighted for the front of their breasts, at another time be- praying and preaching at night when the hind their heads, and marking time with representation is over. The sakou, or cenmusic and dance to a dirge set up by the tral platform, makes the stage; in conbystanders, in which the names of the nection with it, at one of the opposite Imams perpetually recur as a burden. extremities of the parallelogram lengthNoisiest of all are the Berbers, men of a wise, is a reserved box, tâgnumâ, higher darker skin and another race, their feet than the sakou; this box is splendidly decand the upper part of their body naked, orated, and is used for peculiarly interestwho carry, some of them tambourines and ing and magnificent tableaux, the court cymbals, others iron chains and long nee- of the Caliph, for example, - which occur dles. One of their race is said to have in the course of the piece. A passage of formerly derided the Imams in their afflic- a few feet wide is left free between the tion, and the Berbers now appear in expia- stage and this box; all the rest of the tion of that crime. At first their music space is for the spectators, of whom the and their march proceed slowly together, foremost rows are sitting on their heels but presently the music quickens, the close up to this passage, so that they help chain and needle-bearing Berbers move the actors to mount and descend the high violently round, and begin to beat them- steps of the tagnumâ when they have to selves with their chains and to prick their pass between that and the sakou. On each arms and cheeks with the needles-first side of the tâgnumâ are boxes, and along gently, then with more vehemence; till one wall of the enclosure are other boxes. suddenly the music ceases, and all stops. with fronts of elaborate woodwork, which

their genuine sense of the seriousness of the business they are engaged in. They are, like the public around them, penetrated with this, and so the actor throws his whole soul into what he is about, the public meets the actor halfway, and effects of extraordinary impressiveness are the result. "The actor is under a charm," says Count Gobineau; "he is under it so strongly and completely that almost always one sees Yezid himself (the usurping caliph), the wretched Ibn-Said (Yezid's general), the infamous Shemer (Ibn-Said's lieutenant), at the moment they vent the cruelest insults against the Imams whom they are going to massacre, or against the women of the Imam's family whom they are ill-using, burst into tears and repeat their part with sobs. The public is neither surprised nor displeased at this; on the contrary, it beats its breast at the sight, throws up its arms towards heaven with invocations of God, and redoubles its

are left to stand as a permanent part of the construction; facing these, with the floor and stage between, rise tiers of seats ́as in an ampitheatre. All places are free; the great people have generally provided and furnished the boxes, and take care to fill them; but if a box is not occupied when the performance begins, any ragged street-urchin or beggar may walk in and seat himself there. A row of gigantic masts run across the middle of the space, one or two of them being fixed in the sakou itself; and from these masts is stretched an immense awning which protects the whole audience. Up to a certain height these masts are hung with tiger and panther skins, to indicate the violent character of the scenes to be represented. Shields of steel and of hippopotamus skin, and flags and naked swords, are also attached to these masts. A sea of colour and splendour meets the eye all round. Woodwork and brickwork disappear under cushions, rich carpets, silk hangings, India groans. So it often happens that the actor muslin embroidered with silver and gold, shawls from Kerman and from Cashmere; there are lamps, lustres of coloured crystal, mirrors, Bohemian and Venetian glass, porcelain vases of all degrees of magnitude from China and from Europe, paintings and engravings displayed in profusion everywhere; the taste may not always be soberly correct, but the whole spectacle has just the effect of prodigality, colour, and sumptuousness which we are accustomed to associate with the splendours of the Arabian Nights.

identifies himself with the personage he represents to such a degree that, when the situation carries him away, he cannot be said to act, he is with such truth, such complete enthusiasm, such utter self-forgetfulness, what he represents, that he reaches a reality at one time sublime, at another terrible, and produces impressions on his audience which it would be simply absurd to look for from our more artificial performances. There is nothing stilted, nothing false, nothing conventional; nature, and the facts represented, themselves speak."

In marked contrast with this display is the poverty of scenic contrivance and The actors are men and boys, the parts stage illusion. The subject is far too in- of angels and women being filled by boys; teresting and too solemn to need them; but the children who appear in the piece the actors are visible on all sides, and the are often the children of the principal exits, entrances, and stage-play of our families of Teheran; their appearance in theatres are impossible; the imagination this religious solemnity (for such it is of the spectator fills up all gaps and meets thought) being supposed to bring a blessall requirements. On the Ammergau ar- ing npon them and their parents. "Nothrangements one feels that the archæolo- ing is more touching," says Count Gobigists and artists of Munich have laid their neau, "than to see these little things of correct finger; at Teheran there has been three or four years old, dressed in black no schooling of this sort. A copper basin gauze frocks with large sleeves, and having of water represents the Euphrates; a heap on their heads small round black caps emof chopped straw in a corner is the sand broidered with silver and gold, kneeling of the desert of Kerbela, and the actor beside the body of the actor who repregoes and takes up a handful of it, when sents the martyr of the day, embracing his part is about to require him to throw, him, and, with their little hands, covering in Oriental fashion, dust upon his head. themselves with chopped straw for sand, There is no attempt at proper costume; in sign of grief. These children evidently," all that is sought is, to do honour to the he continues, "do not consider themselves personages of chief interest by dresses to be acting; they are full of the feeling and jewels which would pass for rich and handsome things to wear in modern Persian life. The power of the actors is in

that what they are about is something of deep seriousness and importance; and though they are too young to comprehend

fully the story, they know, in general, that stantly on the stage, gives the actors their it is a matter sad and solemn. They are cue, puts the children and any inexperinot distracted by the audience, and they enced actor in their right places, dresses are not shy, but go through their pre- the martyr in his winding-sheet when he scribed part with the utmost attention is going to his death, holds the stirrup for and seriousness, always crossing their him to mount his horse, and inserts a suparms respectfully to receive the blessing ply of chopped straw into the hands of of the Imam Hussein; the public beholds those who are about to want it. Let us them with emotions of the liveliest satis- now see him at work. faction and symyathy."

The theatre is filled, and the heat is The dramatic pieces themselves are great; young men of rank, the king's without any author's name. They are in pages, officers of the army, smart funcpopular language, such as the commonest tionaries of State, move through the crowd and most ignorant of the Persian people with water-skins slung on their backs, can understand, free from learned Arabic dealing out water all round, in memory of words, free, comparatively speaking, the thirst which on these solemn days the from Oriental fantasticality and hyper- Imams suffered in the sands of Kerbela. bole. The Seyids, or popular friars, al- Wild chants and litanies, such as we have ready spoken of, have probably had a already described, are from time to time set hand in the composition of many of them. up by a dervish, a soldier, a workman in The Moollahs, or regular ecclesiastical the crowd. These chants are taken up, authorities, condemn the whole thing. It more or less, by the audience; sometimes is an innovation which they disapprove and they flag and die away for want of supthink dangerous; it is addressed to the port, sometimes they are continued till eye, and their religion forbids to represent they reach a paroxysm, and then abruptly religious things to the eye; it departs stop. Presently a strange, insignificant from the limits of what is revealed and figure in a green cotton garment, looking appointed to be taught as the truth, and like a petty tradesman of one of the brings in novelties and heresies; for these Teheran bazaars, mounts upon the sakou. dramas keep growing under the pressure He beckons with his hand to the audience, of the actor's imagination and emotion, who are silent directly, and addresses them and of the imagination and emotion of in a tone of lecture and expostulation, the public, and receive new developments thus: :every day. The learned, again, say that these pieces are a heap of lies, the production of ignorant people, and have no words strong enough to express their contempt for them. Still, so irresistible is the vogue of these sacred dramas that, from the king on the throne to the beggar in the street, every one, except perhaps the Moollahs, attends them, and is carried away by them. The Imams and their family speak always in a kind of lyrical chant, said to have rhythmical effects, often, of great pathos and beauty; their persecutors, the villains of the piece, speak always in prose.

66

Well, you seem happy enough, Mussulmans, sitting there at your ease under the awning; and you imagine Paradise already wide open to you. Do you know what Paradise is? It is a garden, doubtless, but such a garden as you have no idea of. You will say to me: Friend, tell us what it is like.' I have never been there, certainly; but plenty of prophets have described it, and angels have brought news of it. However, all I will tell you is, that there is room for all good people there, for it is 330,000 cubits long. If you do not believe, inquire. As for getting to be one of the good people, let me tell you it is not The stage is under the direction of a cho- enough to read the Koran of the Prophet ragus, called oostad, or "master," who is a (the salvation and blessing of God be sacred personage by reason of the func- upon him!); it is not enough to do everytions which he performs. Sometimes he thing which this divine book enjoins; it is addresses to the audience a commentary not enough to come and weep at the tazyas, on what is passing before them, and asks as you do every day, you sons of dogs you, their compassion and tears for the mar- who know nothing which is of any use; it tyrs; sometimes, in default of a Seyid, he behoves, besides, that your good works (if prays and preaches. He is always listened you ever do any, which I greatly doubt) to with veneration, for it is he who ar- should be done in the name and for the ranges the whole sacred spectacle which love of Hussein. It is Hussein, Mussulso deeply moves everybody. With no mans, who is the door to Paradise; it is attempt at concealment, with the book Hussein, Mussulmans, who upholds the of the piece in his hand, he remains con- world; it is Hussein, Musslumans, by

Cry, Hassan, there rush in a number of big and fierce boys, and begin to pelt the little Imams "O Hassan! with stones. A companion shields Hussein with his own body, but he is struck down with a stone, and with another stone Hussein, too, is stretched on the ground senseless. Who are these boy-tyrants and persecutors? They are Ibn-Said, and Shemer and others, the future murderers at Kerbela. The audience perceive it with a shudder; the hateful assailants go off in triumph; Ali re-enters, picks up the stunned and wounded children, brings them round, and takes Hussein back to his mother Fatima.