The lizards are of various sizes, some quite small, others more than three feet long, and covered with a coarse rough skin like that of a toad.

They have the character of being venomous, and even dangerous to life; but it may be doubted whether they are not, like our toads and newts, in reality perfectly harmless.
The traveller in Persia suffers less from reptiles than from insects.
Scorpions abound in all parts of the country, and, infesting houses, furniture, and clothes, cause perpetual annoyance.

Mosquitoes swarm in certain places and seasons, preventing sleep and irritating the traveller almost beyond endurance.

A poisonous spider, a sort of tarantula, is said to occur in some localities; and Chardin further mentions a kind of centipede, the bite of which, according to him, is fatal.

To the sufferings which these creatures cause, must be added a constant annoyance from those more vulgar forms of insect life which detract from the delights of travel even in Europe.
Persia, moreover, suffers no less than Babylonia and Media, from the ravages of locusts.