SHÍRAZ, a celebrated city in Persia, capital of Fars, from its site and thoroughly Iranian population may be considered the central point, as it were, of Farsi or Parsi (otherwise Persian) nationality. Owing to the pasture land in its vicinity some derive the name from the native word shir, "milk;” others again, asserting the number and physical powers of its inhabitants, accept the same word in its sense of “lion,” or take the whole dissyllable as an obsolete word meaning the “lion’s paunch.” To this effect is cited a local saying to the effect that, “like the lion, it devours all they bring into it.” Shíráz is situated in 29° 36' 30" N. lat. and 52° 32' 9" E. long., in a high plain or valley more than 20 miles long and less than half as broad, and is approached on the south from the sea—a distance of 170 miles —through lofty mountain passes reaching some 7000 feet above the level of the waters of the Persian Gulf. On the north the approach is also through chains of mountains separating the plains of Shíráz from the valley of the Marv Dasht, intersecting which is the Band Amir river, more poetically than accurately described in Lalla Rookh. At Kodiyan, a few miles to the northwest of Shiraz, is the source of another river, which, crossing the high road south of the town under the name of the “Kâra Agatch,” falls into the sea about 70 miles below Bushahr (Bushire), after a tortuous course of 300 miles. The city has a handsome bazaar and some good private residences; but its unattractive streets are narrow, and, though not so crowded with beggars as Ispahan, contain many living objects distressing to the eye. The mosques and minarets, albeit of local repute, look more picturesque to the stranger in the distance than under close inspection. ...