They had, said Mr.E----, experienced no less than nine severe shocks of earthquake the night before, one of which had rent the wall of his house from top to bottom.

His wife and children were living in a tent in the garden, and most of the inhabitants of the village had deserted their mud huts, and rigged up temporary shanties of palm leaves in the road.

"We will have breakfast, anyhow," continued our host.

"You must be hungry"-- leading the way into the dining-room, where a long, deep crack in the whitewashed wall showed traces of last night's disaster.
The latter had, apparently, considerably upset my host, who, throughout the meal, kept continually rising and walking to the open window and back again, in an evidently uneasy state of mind; so much so that I was about to propose an adjournment to the garden, when a diversion was created by the entrance of a servant with a dish of "Sklitch," which he had no sooner placed on the table, than he rapidly withdrew.

Sklitch is peculiar to this part of Persia.