234 THE GREAT DIAMONDS OF THE WORLD
amongst
which was this engraved stone, but also ordered the rebel Sadek Khan to
be bricked up alive in a dungeon. This method of punishment was adopted
because Fat'hh Ali had, on a former occasion, promised on oath never to
shed Sadek's blood.
Yet
Fat'hh Ali, in spite of his inhuman punishment of Sadek, was not
naturally cruel. Many instances are, indeed, related of his kindly and
magnanimous disposition. On one occasion, as he was passing through
the desert from Bastam to Shahrud, it so happened that the ladies of
the harem and their escort lost their way. The king, with a few
attendants, immediately set out in search of them ; but they strayed
so far that all the water was consumed and nothing remained except a
small piece of ice, which was reserved for Fat'hh Ali. Perceiving
however, that a young prince had fainted from weakness and thirst,
this Oriental Sir Philip Sydney relinquished the life-giving morsel,
and with his own hands placed it in the mouth of his exhausted fellow
traveller. Fat'hh Ali was on one occasion visited by Sir R.
Kerr-Porter, who in his Travels thus describes his magnificent
reception : " He entered the saloon from the left, and advanced to the
foot of it with an air and step which belonged entirely to a sovereign.
Had there been any assumption in his manner I could not have been so
impressed. He was one blaze of jewels, which literally dazzled the
sight on first looking at him. A lofty tiara of three elevations was on
his head, which shape appears to have been long peculiar to the crown
of the great king. It was entirely composed of thickly-set diamonds and
pearls,
