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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13749 ***
+
+AROUND THE WORLD ON A BICYCLE
+
+        Volume II.
+
+From Teheran To Yokohama
+
+By Thomas Stevens
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+           CHAPTER I.                               PAGE
+THE START FROM TEHERAN,  ........                   1
+
+           CHAPTER II.
+PERSIA AND THE MESHED PILGRIM ROAD, ......          34
+
+           CHAPTER III.
+PERSIA AND THE MESHED PILGRIM ROAD,......           43
+
+           CHAPTER IV.
+THROUGH KHORASSAN,..........                        65
+
+           CHAPTER V.
+MESHED THE HOLY,..........                          84
+
+           CHAPTER VI.
+THE UNBEATEN TRACKS Of KHORASSAN,......             109
+
+           CHAPTER VII.
+BEERJAND AND THE FRONTIER OF AFGHANISTAN, .. ..     135
+
+           CHAPTER VIII
+ACROSS THE "DESERT OF DESPAIR,".......              160
+
+           CHAPTER  IX.
+AFGHANISTAN,............                            181
+
+           CHAPTER X.
+ARRESTED AT FURRAH,.........                        197
+
+           CHAPTER XI.
+UNDER ESCORT TO HERAT,.........                     209
+
+           CHAPTER XII.
+TAKEN BACK TO PERSIA,.........                      230
+
+           CHAPTER XIII.
+ROUNDABOUT TO INDIA,......                          255
+
+           CHAPTER XIV.
+THROUGH INDIA,...........                           284
+
+           CHAPTER XV.
+DELHI AND AGRA,..........                           809
+
+           CHAPTER XVI.
+FROM AGRA TO SINGAPORE,........                     833
+
+           CHAPTER XVII.
+THROUGH CHINA,...........                           365
+
+           CHAPTER XVIII.
+DOWN THE KAN-KIANG VALLEY,........                  400
+
+           CHAPTER XIX.
+THROUGH JAPAN,............                          432
+
+           CHAPTER XX.
+THE HOME STRETCH,..........                         451
+
+
+
+CAMBRIDGE, MASS., April 10, 1887.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+FROM TEHERAN TO YOKOHAMA.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE START FROM TEHERAN.
+
+The season of 1885-86 has been an exceptionally mild winter in the
+Persian capital. Up to Christmas the weather was clear and bracing,
+sufficiently cool to be comfortable in the daytime, and with crisp,
+frosty weather at night. The first snow of the season commenced falling
+while a portion of the English colony were enjoying a characteristic
+Christmas dinner of roast-beef and plum-pudding, at the house of the
+superintendent of the Indo-European Telegraph Station, and during January
+and February, snow-storms, cold and drizzling rains alternated with brief
+periods of clearer weather. When the sun shines from a cloudless sky in
+Teheran, its rays are sometimes uncomfortably warm, even in midwinter; a
+foot of snow may have clothed the city and the surrounding plain in a
+soft, white mantle during the night, but, asserting his supremacy on the
+following morning, he will unveil the gray nakedness of the stony plain
+again by noon. The steadily retreating snow line will be driven back-back
+over the undulating foot-hills, and some little distance up the rugged
+slopes of the Elburz range, hard by, ere he retires from view in the
+evening, rotund and fiery. This irregular snow-line has been steadily
+losing ground, and retreating higher and higher up the mountain-slopes
+during the latter half of February, and when March is ushered in, with
+clear sunny weather, and the mud begins drying up and the various
+indications of spring begin to put in their appearance, I decide to make
+a start. Friends residing here who have been mentioning April 15th as the
+date I should be justified in thinking the unsettled weather at an end
+and pulling out eastward again, agree, in response to my anxious
+inquiries, that it is an open spell of weather before the regular spring
+rains, that may possibly last until I reach Meshed.
+
+During the winter I have examined, as far as circumstances have
+permitted, the merits and demerits of the different routes to the Pacific
+Coast, and have decided upon going through Turkestan and Southern Siberia
+to the Amoor Valley, and thence either follow down the valley to
+Vladivostok or strike across Mongolia to Pekin--the latter route by
+preference, if upon reaching Irkutsk I find it to be practicable; if not
+practicable, then the Amoor Valley route from necessity. This route I
+approve of, as it will not only take me through some of the most
+interesting country in Asia, but will probably be a more straightaway
+continuous land-journey than any other. The distance from Teheran to
+Vladivostok is some six thousand miles, and, well aware that six thousand
+miles with a bicycle over Asiatic roads is a task of no little magnitude,
+I at once determine upon taking advantage of the fair March weather to
+accomplish at least the first six hundred miles of the journey between
+Teheran and Meshed, one of the holy cities of Persia.
+
+The bicycle is in good trim, my own health is splendid, my experience of
+nearly eight thousand miles of straightaway wheeling over the roads of
+three continents ought to count for something, and it is with every
+confidence of accomplishing my undertaking without serious misadventure
+that I set about making my final preparations to start. The British
+Charge d'Affaires gives me a letter to General Melnikoff, the Russian
+Minister at the Shah's court, explaining the nature and object of my
+journey, and asking him to render me whatever assistance he can to get
+through, for most of the proposed route lies through Russian territory.
+Among my Teheran friends is Mr. M------, a lively, dapper
+little telegraphist, who knows three or four different languages, and who
+never seems happier than when called upon to act the part of interpreter
+for friends about him.
+
+Among other distinguishing qualities, Mr. M------shines in
+Teheran society as the only Briton with sufficient courage to wear a
+chimney-pot hat. Although the writer has seen the "stove-pipe" of the
+unsuspecting tenderfoot from the Eastern States made short work of in a
+far Western town, and the occurrence seemed scarcely to be out of place
+there, I little expected to find popular sentiment running in the same
+warlike groove, and asserting itself in the same destructive manner in
+the little English community at Teheran. Such, however, is the grim fact,
+and I have ventured to think that after this there is no disputing the
+common destiny of us Anglo-Saxons, whatever clime, country, or government
+may at present claim us as its own. Having seen this unfortunate
+headgear of our venerable and venerated forefathers shot as full of
+holes as a colander in the West, I come to the East only to find it
+subjected to similar indignities here. I happen to be present at the
+wanton destruction of Mr. M------'s second or third importation from
+England, see it taken ruthlessly from his head, thrust through and
+through with a sword-stick, and then made to play the unhappy and
+undignified part of a football so long as there is anything left to kick
+at. More than our common language, methinks--more than common customs and
+traditions--more than all those characteristic traits that distinguish us
+in common, and at the same time also distinguish us from all other
+peoples--more than anything else, does this mutual spirit of
+destructiveness, called into play by the sight of a stove-pipe hat, prove
+the existence of a strong, resistless undercurrent of sympathy that is
+carrying the most distant outposts of Anglo-Saxony merrily down the
+stream of time together, to some particular end; perchance a glorious
+end, perchance an ignominious end, but certainly to an end that will not
+wear a stove-pipe hat.
+
+Mr. M------'s linguistic accomplishments include a fair
+knowledge of Russian, and he readily accompanies me to the Russian
+Legation to interpret. The Russian Legation is situated down in the old
+Oriental quarter (birds of a feather, etc.) of the city, and, for us at
+least, necessitated the employment of a guide to find it. On the way
+down, Mr. M------, who prides himself on a knowledge of
+Russian character, impresses upon me his assurance that General Melnikoff
+will turn out to be a nice, pleasant sort of a gentleman. "All the
+better-class Russians are delightfully jolly and agreeable, much more
+agreeable to have dealings with than the same class of people of any
+other country," he says, and with these favorable comments we reach the
+legation and send up my letter. After waiting what we both consider an
+unnecessarily long time in the vestibule, a full-faced, sensual-looking,
+or, in other words, well-to-do Persian-looking individual, in the full
+costume of a Persian nobleman, comes out, bearing my letter unopened in
+his hand. Bestowing upon us a barely perceptible nod, he walks straight
+on past, jumps into a carriage at the door, and is driven off.
+
+Mr. M------looks nonplussed at me, and I suppose I looked
+equally nonplussed at him; anyhow, he proceeds to relieve his feelings in
+language anything but complimentary to the Russian Minister. He's
+the--well, I've met scores of Russians, but--him, queer! I
+never saw a Russian act half as queer as this before, never!"
+
+"Small prospect of getting any assistance from this quarter," I suggest.
+
+"Seems deucedly like it," assents Mr. M------. "I said,
+just now, that, being a Russian, he was sure to be courteous and
+agreeable, if nothing else; but it seems as if there are exceptions to
+this rule as to others;" and, talking together, we try to find
+consolation in the thought that he may be merely eccentric, and turn out
+a very good sort of fellow after all. While thus commenting, a liveried
+servant presents himself and motions for us to follow him in the wake of
+the departing carriage. Following his guidance a short distance through
+the streets, he leads us into the court-yard of a splendid Persian
+mansion, delivers us into the charge of another liveried servant, who
+conducts us up a broad flight of marble stairs, at the top of which he
+delivers us into the hands of yet a third flunky, who now escorts us into
+the most gorgeously mirrored room it has ever been my fortune to see. The
+apartment is perfectly dazzling in its glittering splendor; the floor is
+of highly polished marble, the walls consist of mirror-work entirely, as
+also does the lofty, domed ceiling; not plain, large squares of
+looking-glass, but mirrored surfaces of all shapes and sizes, pitched at
+every conceivable angle, form niches, panels, and geometrical designs--yet
+each separate piece plays well its part in working out the harmonious and
+decidedly pretty effect of the whole. All the furniture the large
+apartment boasts is a crimson-and-gold divan or two, a few strips of rich
+carpet, and an ebony stand-table, inlaid with mother-of-pearl; but
+suspended from the ceiling are several magnificent cut-glass chandeliers.
+At night, when these Persian mirrored rooms are lit up, they present a
+scene of barbaric splendor well calculated to delight the eye of the
+sumptuous Oriental; every tiny square of glass reflects a point of light,
+and every larger one reproduces a chandelier; for every lamp he lights,
+the Persian voluptuary finds himself surrounded by a thousand.
+
+Seated on a divan toward one end of this splendid room, with an open box
+of cigarettes before him, is the man who a few minutes ago passed us by
+on the other side and drove off in his carriage. Offering us cigarettes,
+he bids us be seated, and then, in very fair English (for he has once
+been Persian Minister to England), introduces himself as "Nasr-i-Mulk,"
+the Shah's Minister for Foreign Affairs; the same gentleman, it will be
+remembered, to whom I was introduced on the morning of my appearance
+before the Shah. (Vol. I.) I readily recognize him now, and he recognizes
+me, and asks me when I am going to leave Teheran; but in the gloomy
+vestibule of the other palace, my own memory of his face and figure was
+certainly at fault. It turns out, after all, that the wretch whom we paid
+to guide us to the Russian Legation, in his ignorance guided us into the
+Persian Foreign Office.
+
+"I knew--yes, dash it all! I knew he wasn't the Russian Minister the
+moment I saw him," says Mr. M------as we take our departure from the
+glittering room. His confidence in his knowledge of Russian character,
+which a moment ago had dropped down to zero, revives wonderfully upon
+discovering our ludicrous mistake, and, small as he is, it is all I can
+do to keep up with him as we follow the guide Nasr-i-Mulk has kindly sent
+to show us to the Russian Legation. A few minutes' walk brings us to our
+destination, where we find, in the person of General Melnikoff, a
+gentleman possessing the bland and engaging qualities of a good
+diplomatist in a most eminent degree.
+
+"Which is Mr. Stevens?" he exclaims, with something akin to enthusiasm,
+as he advances almost to the door to meet us, his face fairly beaming
+with pleasure; and, grasping me warmly by the hand, he proceeds to
+express his great satisfaction at meeting a person, who had "made so
+wonderful a journey," etc., etc., and etc. Never did Mr. Pickwick beam
+more pleasantly at the deaf gentleman, or regard more benignantly Master
+Humphrey's clock, than the Russian Minister regards the form and features
+of one whom, he says, he feels "honored to meet." For several minutes we
+discuss, through the medium of Mr. M------, my journey from San Francisco
+to Teheran, and its proposed continuation to the Pacific; and during the
+greater part, of the interview General Melnikoff holds me quite
+affectionately by the hand. "Wonderful!" he says, "wonderful! nobody ever
+made half such a remarkable journey; my whole heart will go with you
+until your journey is completed."
+
+Mr. M------looks on and interprets between us, with a fixed and confident
+didn't-I-tell-you-so smile, that forms a side study of no mean quality.
+"There will be no trouble about getting permission to go through
+Turkestan?" I feel constrained to inquire; for such excessive display of
+affection and bonhommie on the Russian diplomat's part could scarce fail
+to arouse suspicions. "Oh dear, no!" he replies. "Oh dear, no! I will
+telegraph to General Komaroff, at Askabad, to remove all obstacles, so
+that nothing shall interfere with your progress." Having received this
+positive assurance, we take our leave, Mr. M-------reminding me gleefully
+of what he had said about the Russians being the most agreeable people on
+earth, and the few remaining clouds of doubt about getting the road
+through Turkestan happily dissipated by the Russian Minister's assurances
+of assistance.
+
+Searching through the bazaar, I succeed, after some little trouble, in
+finding and purchasing a belt-full of Russian gold, sufficient to carry
+me clear through to Japan; and on the morning of March 10th I bid
+farewell to the Persian capital, well satisfied at the outlook ahead.
+While packing up my traps on the evening before starting, it begins
+raining for the first time in ten days; but it clears off again before
+midnight, and the morning opens bright and promising as ever. Six members
+of the telegraph staff have determined to accompany me out to
+Katoum-abad, the first chapar-station on the Meshed pilgrim road, a
+distance of seven farsakhs. "Hodge-podge," the cook, and Meshedi Ali, the
+gholam, were sent ahead yesterday with plenty of substantial refreshments
+and sun-dry mysterious black bottles--for it is the intention of the
+party to remain at Katoum-abad overnight, and give me a proper send-off
+from that point to-morrow morning.
+
+Some little delay is occasioned by a difficulty in meeting the fastidious
+tastes of some of the party as regards saddle-horses; but there is no
+particular hurry, and ten o'clock finds me bowling briskly through the
+suburbs toward the Doshan Tepe gate, with four Englishmen, an Irishman,
+and a Welshman cantering merrily along on horseback behind.
+
+"Khuda rail pak Kumad!" (May God sweep your road!), All Akbar had
+exclaimed as I mounted at the door, and as we pass through the city gate
+the old sentinel, when told that I am at last starting on the promised
+journey to Meshed on the asp-i-awhan, supplements this with "Padaram
+daromad!" (My father has come out!), a Persian metaphorical exclamation,
+signifying that such wonderful news has had the effect of calling his
+father from the grave.
+
+The weather has changed again since early morning; it is evidently in a
+very fitful and unsettled mood; the gray clouds are swirling in confusion
+about the white summit of Demavend as we emerge on the level plain
+outside the ramparts, and fleecy fugitives are scudding southward in wild
+haste. Imperfect but ridable donkey-trails follow the dry moat around to
+the Meshed road, which takes a straight course southeastward from the
+city and is seen in the distance ahead, leading over a sloping pass, a
+depression in the Doshan Tepe spur of the Elburz range. The road near the
+city is now in better condition for wheeling than at any other time of
+the year; the daily swarms of pack-animals bringing produce into Teheran
+have trodden it smooth and hard during the ten days' continuous fine
+weather, while it has not been dry sufficiently long to develop into
+dust, as it does later in the season. Our road is level and good for
+something over a farsakh, after which comes the rising ground leading
+gently upward to the pass. The gradient is sufficiently gentle to be
+ridable for some little distance, when it becomes too rocky and steep,
+and I have to dismount and trundle to the summit. The summit of the pass
+is only about nine miles from the city walls, and we pause a minute to
+investigate a bottle of homemade wine from the private cellar of Mr.
+North, one of our party, and to allow me to take a farewell glance at
+Teheran, and the many familiar objects round about, ere riding down the
+eastern slope and out of sight.
+
+Teheran is in semi-obscurity beneath the same hazy veil observed when
+first approaching it from the west, and which always seems to hover over
+it. This haziness is not sufficiently pronounced to hide any conspicuous
+building, and each familiar object in the city is plainly visible from
+the commanding summit of the pass. The different gates of the city, each
+with its little cluster of bright-tiled minars, trace at a glance the
+size and contour of the outer ditch and wall; the large framework of the
+pavilion beneath which the Shah gives his annual tazzia (representation
+of the religious tragedy of Hussein and Hassan), denuded of its canvas
+covering, suggests from this distance the naked ribs of some monster
+skeleton. The square towers of the royal anderoon--which the Shah
+professes to believe is the tallest dwelling-house in the
+world--loom conspicuously skyward above the mass of indefinable mud
+buildings and walls that characterize the habitations of humbler folk,
+but perhaps happier on the whole than the fair occupants of that
+seven-storied gilded prison.
+
+Hundreds of women-wives, concubines, slaves, and domestics are understood
+to be dwelling within these palace walls in charge of sable eunuchs, and
+the fate of any female whose bump of discretion in an evil moment fails
+her, is to be hurled headlong from the summit of one of the anderoon
+towers--such, at least, is the popular belief in Teheran; it may or
+may not be an exaggeration. Some even assert that the Shah's chief object
+in building the anderoon so high was to have the certainty of this awful
+doom ever present before its numerous inmates, the more easily to keep
+them in a submissive frame of mind. Off to the right, below our position,
+is the Doshan Tepe palace, a memorable spot for me, where I had the
+satisfaction of first introducing bicycle-riding to the notice of the
+Persian monarch. Off to the left, the Parsee "tower of silence" is
+observed perched among the lonely gray hills far from human habitation or
+any traversed road; on a grating fixed in the top of this tower, the
+Guebre population of Teheran deposit their dead, in order that the
+carrion-crows and the vultures may pick the carcass clean before they
+deposit the whitened bones in the body of the tower.
+
+Having duly investigated the bottle of wine and noticed these few
+familiar objects, we all remount and begin the descent. It is a gentle
+declivity from top to bottom, and ridable the whole distance, save where
+an occasional washout or other small obstacle compels a dismount. The
+wind is likewise favorable, and from the top of the pass the bicycle
+outdistances the horsemen, except two who are riding exceptionally good
+nags and make a special effort to keep up; and at two o'clock we arrive
+at Katoum-abad. Katoum-abad consists of a small mud village and a
+half-ruined brick caravansarai; in one of the rooms of the latter we find
+"Hodge-podge" and Me-shedi Ali, with an abundance of roast chickens, cold
+mutton, eggs, and the before-mentioned mysterious black bottles.
+
+The few Persian travellers in the caravansarai and the villagers come
+flocking around as usual to worry me about riding the bicycle, but the
+servants drive them away in short order. "We want to see the sahib ride
+the aap-i-awhan," they explain,-no doubt thinking their request most
+natural and reasonable. "The sahib won't let you see it, nor ride on it
+this evening," reply the servants; and, given to understand that we won't
+put up with their importunities, they worry us no more. "Oh, that I could
+get rid of them thus readily always!" I mentally exclaim; for I feel
+instinctively that the farther east I get, the more wretchedly worrying
+and inquisitive I shall find the people. We arrive hungry and thirsty,
+and in condition to do ample justice to the provisions at hand. After
+satisfying the pressing needs of hunger, we drink several appropriate
+toasts from the contents of the mysterious black bottles--toasts for the
+success of my journey, and to the bicycle that has stood by me so well
+thus far on my journey, and promises to stand by me equally as well for
+the future.
+
+About four o'clock two of the company, who have been thoughtful enough to
+bring shotguns along, sally forth in quest of ducks. They come plodding
+wearily back again shortly after dark, without any game, but with deep
+designs on the credulity of the non-sporting members of the company. In
+reply to the general and stereotyped query, "Shoot anything?" one of the
+erring pair replies, "Yes, we shot several canvas-backs, but lost them in
+the reeds; didn't we, old un?" "Yes, five," promptly asserts "old un," a
+truthful young man of about three-and-twenty summers. After this, the
+silence for the space of a minute is so profound that we can hear each
+other think, until one of the company, acting as spokesman for the silent
+reflections of the others, inquires, "Anybody know of any reeds about
+Katoum-abad?" Some one is about to reply, but sportsman No. 1 artfully
+waives further examination by heaping imprecations on the unkempt head of
+a dervish, who at this opportune moment commences a sing-song monotone,
+in a most soul-harrowing key, outside our menzil doorway.
+
+A slight drizzling rain is falling when the early riser of the company
+wakes up and peeps out at daybreak next morning, but it soon ceases, and
+by seven o'clock the ground is quite dry. The road for a mile or so is
+too lumpy to admit of mounting, as is frequently the case near a village,
+and my six companions accompany me to ridable ground. As I mount and
+wheel away, they wave hats and send up three ringing cheers and a
+"tiger," hurrahs that roll across the gray Persian plain to the echoing
+hills, the strangest sound, perhaps, these grim old hills have ever
+echoed; certainly, they never before echoed an English cheer.
+
+And now, as my friends of the telegraph staff turn about and wend their
+way back to Teheran, is as good a time as any to mention briefly the
+manner in which these genial lightning-jerkers assisted to render my five
+months' sojourn in the Persian capital agreeable. But a few short hours
+after my arrival in Teheran, I was sought out by Messrs. Meyrick and
+North, who no sooner learned of my intention to winter here, than they
+extended a cordial invitation to join them in their already established
+bachelors' quarters, where four disconsolate halves of humanity were
+already messing harmoniously together. With them I took up my quarters,
+and, under the liberal and wholesome gastronomic arrangements of the
+establishment, soon acquired my usual semi-embon-point condition, and
+recovered from that gaunt, hungry appearance that the hardships and scant
+fare of the journey from Constantinople had imparted. The house belonged
+to Mr. North, and he managed to give me a little room to myself for
+literary work, and, under the influence of a steady stream of letters and
+papers from friends and well-wishers in England and America, that snug
+little apartment, with a round, moon-like hole in the thick mud wall for
+a window, soon acquired the den-like aspect that seems inseparable from
+the occupation of distributing ink.
+
+Three native servants cooked for us, waited on us, turned up missing when
+wanted for anything particular, cheated us and each other, swore eternal
+honesty and fidelity to our faces, called us infidel dogs and pedar sags
+behind our backs, quarrelled daily among themselves over their modokal
+(legitimate pickings and stealings--ten per cent, on everything
+passing through their hands), and meekly bore with any abuse bestowed
+gratuitously upon them, for an aggregate of one hundred and thirty kerans
+a month--and, of course, their modokal. Some enterprising members of
+the colony had formed themselves into a club, and imported a
+billiard-table from England; this, also, was installed in Mr. North's
+house, and it furnished the means for many an hour of pleasant diversion.
+Like all Persian houses, the house was built around a square court-yard.
+Mr. North had also a pair of small white bull-dogs, named, respectively,
+"Crib" and "Swindle." The last-named animal furnished us with quite an
+exciting episode one February evening. He had been acting rather
+strangely for two or three days; we thought that one of the servants had
+been giving him a dose of bhang in revenge for having worried his kitten,
+and that he would soon recover; but on this particular day, when out for
+a run with his owner, his strange behavior took the form of leaping
+impulsively at Mr. North, and, with seemingly wild frolic, seizing and
+shaking his garments. When Mr. North returned home he took the
+precautionary measure of chaining him up in the yard. Shortly afterward,
+I came in from my customary evening walk, and, all unconscious of the
+change in his behavior, went up to him; with a half-playful, half-savage
+spring he seized the leg of my trousers, and, with an evidently
+uncontrollable impulse, shook a piece clean out of it. He became
+gradually worse as the evening wore away; the wild expression of his eyes
+developed in an alarming manner; he would try to get at any person who
+showed himself, and he made night hideous with the fearful barking howl
+of a mad dog. Poor Swindle had gone mad; and I had had a narrow escape
+from being bitten. We lassoed him from opposite directions and dragged
+him outside and shot him. Swindle was a plucky little dog, and so was
+Crib; one day they chased a vagrant cat up on to the roof; driven to
+desperation, the cat made a wild leap down into the court-yard, a
+distance of perhaps twenty feet; without a moment's hesitation, both dogs
+sprang boldly after her, recking little of the distance to the ground and
+the possibility of broken bones.
+
+Sometimes the colony drives dull care and ennui away by indulging in
+private theatricals; this winter they organized an amateur company,
+called themselves the "Teheran Bulbuls," and, with burnt-corked faces and
+grotesque attire, they rehearsed and perfected themselves in "Uncle
+Ebenezer's Visit to New York," which, together with sundry duets, solos,
+choruses, etc., they proposed to give, an entertainment for the benefit
+of the poor of the city. When the Shah returned from Europe, he was moved
+by what he had seen there to build a small theatre; the theatre was
+built, but nothing is ever done with it. The Teheran Bulbuls applied for
+its use to give their entertainment in, and the Shah was pleased to grant
+their request. The mollahs raised objections; they said it would have a
+tendency to corrupt the morals of the Persians. Once, twice, the
+entertainment was postponed; but the Shah finally overruled the bigoted
+priests' objections, and "Uncle Ebenezer's Visit to New York" was played
+twice in Nasr-e-Deen's little gilded theatre a few days after I left,
+with great success; the first night, before the Shah and his nobles and
+the foreign ambassadors, and the second night before more common folk.
+The two postponements and my early departure prevented me from being on
+hand as prompter. The winter before, these dusky-faced "bul-buls" had
+performed before a Teheran audience, and one who was a member at that
+time tells an amusing story of the individual who acted as prompter on
+that occasion. One of the performers appeared on the stage sufficiently
+charged with stage-fright to cause him to entirely forget his piece.
+Expecting every moment to get the cue from the prompter's box, what was
+his horror to hear, after waiting what probably seemed to him about an
+hour, instead of the cue, in a hoarse whisper that could be distinctly
+heard all over the room, the comforting remark, "I say, Charlie, I've
+lost the blooming place!"
+
+The American missionaries have a small chapel in Teheran, and on Sunday
+morning we sometimes used to go; the little congregation gathered there
+was composed of strange elements collected together from far-off places.
+From Colonel F ______, the grizzled military adventurer, now in the
+Shah's service, and who was also with Maximilian in Mexico, to the young
+American lady who is said to have turned missionary and come,
+broken-hearted, to the distant East because her lover had died a few days
+before they were to be married, they are an audience of people each with
+a more or less adventurous history. It is perfectly natural that it
+should be so; it is the irrepressible spirit of adventure that is either
+directly or indirectly responsible for their presence here.
+
+Half an hour after the echoes of the three cheers and the "tiger" have
+died away finds me wet-footed and engaged in fording a series of
+aggravating little streams, that obstruct my path so frequently that to
+stop and shed one's foot-gear for each soon becomes an intolerable
+nuisance. I should think I can lay claim, without exaggeration, to
+crossing fifty of these streams inside of ten miles. A good-sized stream
+emerges from the Elburz foot-hills; after reaching the plain it follows
+no regular channel, but spreads out like an open fan into a gradually
+widening area of small streams, that play their part in irrigating a few
+scattering fields and gardens, and are then lost in the sands of the
+desert to the south. Situated where it can derive the most benefit from
+these streams is the village of Sherifabad, and beyond Sherifabad
+stretches a verdureless waste to Aivan-i-Kaif. On this desert, I sit
+down, for a few minutes, on one of those little mounds of stones piled up
+at intervals to mark the road when the trail is buried beneath the winter
+snows; a green-turbaned descendant of the Prophet, bestriding a bay
+horse, comes from the opposite direction, stops, dismounts, squats down
+on his hams close by, and proceeds to regale himself with bread and figs,
+meanwhile casting fugitive glances at the bicycle. Presently he advances
+closer, gives me a handful of figs, squats down closer to the bicycle,
+and commences a searching investigation of its several parts.
+
+"Where are you going?" he finally asks. "Meshed."  "Where have you come
+from?" "Teheran." With that he hands me another handful of figs,
+remounts his horse, and rides away without another word. Inquisitiveness
+is seen almost bristling from the loose sleeves and flowing folds of his
+sky-blue gown, but his over-whelming sense of his own holiness forbids
+him holding anything like a lengthy intercourse with an unhallowed
+Ferenghi, and, much as he would like to know everything about the
+bicycle, he goes away without asking a single question about it.
+
+Shortly after parting company with the sanctimonious seyud, I encounter a
+prosperous-looking party of dervishes. Some of them are mounted on
+excellent donkeys, and for dervishes they look exceptionally flourishing
+and well to do. As I ride slowly past, they accost me with their
+customary "huk yah huk," and promise to pray Allah for a safe journey to
+wherever I am going, if I will only favor them with the necessary
+backsheesh to command their good offices.
+
+There are some stretches of very good road across this desert, and I
+reach Aivan-i-Kaif near noon. There has been no drinkable water for a
+long distance, and, being thirsty, my first inquiry is for tea. "There is
+a tchai-khan at the umbar (water-cistern), yonder," I am told, and
+straightway proceed to the place pointed out; but "tchai-khan neis" is
+the reply upon inquiring at the umbar. In this manner am I promptly
+initiated into one peculiarity of the people along this portion of the
+Meshed pilgrim road, a peculiarity that distinguishes them from the
+ordinary Persian as fully as the shaking of their heads for an
+affirmative reply does the people of the Maritza Valley from other people
+of the Balkan Peninsula. They will frequently ask you if you want a
+certain article, simply for the purpose of telling you they haven't got
+it. Whether this queer inconsistency comes of simon-pure inquisitiveness,
+to hear what one will say in reply, or whether they derive a certain
+amount of inquisitorial pleasure from raising a person's expectations one
+moment so as to witness his disappointment the next, is a question I
+prefer to leave to others, but more than once am I brought into contact
+with this peculiarity during the few brief hours I stay at Aivan-i-Kaif.
+It is not improbable that these people are merely carrying their ideas of
+politeness to the insane length of holding out the promise of what they
+think or ascertain one wants, knowing at the same time their inability to
+supply it.
+
+It is threatening rain as I pick my way through a mile or so of mud
+ruins, tumble-down walls, and crooked paths, leading from the umbar to
+the house of the Persian telegraph-jee, who has been requested, from
+Teheran, to put me up, and, in view of the threatening aspect of the
+weather, I conclude to remain till morning. The English Government has
+taken charge of the Teheran and Meshed telegraph-line, during the
+delimitation of the Afghan and Turkestan boundary, and, besides
+guaranteeing the native telegraph-jees their regular salary-which is not
+always forthcoming from the Persian Government-they pay them something
+extra. In consequence of this, the telegraph-jees are at present very
+favorably disposed toward Englishmen, and Mirza Hassan readily tenders me
+the hospitality of the little mud office where he amuses himself daily
+clicking the keys of his instrument, smoking kalians, drinking tea, and
+entertaining his guests. Mr. Mclntire and Mr. Stagno are somewhere
+between here and Meshed, inspecting and repairing the line for the
+English Government, for they received it from the Persians in a wretched,
+tumble-down condition, and Mr. Gray, telegraphist for the Afghan Boundary
+Commission, is stationed temporarily at Meshed, so that, thanks to the
+boundary troubles, I am pretty certain of meeting three Europeans on the
+first six hundred miles of my journey.
+
+Mirza Hassan is hospitable and well meaning, but, like most Persians, he
+is slow about everything but asking questions. Being a telegraph-jee, he
+is, of course, a comparatively enlightened mortal, and, among other
+things, he is acquainted with the average Englishman's partiality for
+beer. One of the first questions he asks, is whether I want any beer. It
+strikes me at once as a rather strange question to be asked in a Persian
+village, but, thinking he might perchance have had a bottle or two left
+here by one of the above-mentioned telegraph-inspectors, I signify my
+willingness to sample a little. True to the peculiar inconsistency of his
+fellows, he replies: "Ob-i-jow neis" (beer, no). If he hasn't ob-i-jow,
+however, he has tea, and in about an hour after my arrival he produces
+the samovar, a bowl of sugar, and the tiny glasses in which tea is always
+served in Persia.
+
+Visitors begin dropping in as usual, and, before long, hundreds of
+villagers are swarming about the telegraph-khana, anxious to see me ride.
+It is coming on to rain, but, in order to rid the telegraph-office of the
+crowd, I take the bicycle out. Willing men carry both me and the bicycle
+across a stream that runs through the village, to smooth ground on the
+opposite side, where I ride back and forth several times, to the wild and
+boisterous delight of the entire population.
+
+In this manner I succeed in ridding the telegraph-office of the crowd;
+but there is no getting rid of the visitors. Everybody in the place who
+thinks himself a little better than the ragamuffin ryots comes and squats
+on his hams in the little hut-like office, sips the telegraph-jee's
+sweetened tea, smokes his kalians, and spends the afternoon in staring
+wonderingly at me and the bicycle. Having picked up a little Persian
+during the winter, I am able to talk with them, and understand them,
+rather better than last season, and, Persian-like, they ply me
+mercilessly with questions. Often, when some one asks a question of me,
+Mirza Hassan, as becomes a telegraphies, and a person of profound
+erudition, thoughtfully saves me the trouble of replying by undertaking
+to furnish the desired information himself. One old mollah wants to know
+how many farsakhs it is from Aivan-i-Kaif to Yenghi Donia (New
+World-America); ere I can frame a suitable reply, Mirza Hassan forestalls
+my intentions by answering, in a decisive tone of voice that admits of no
+appeal, "Khylie!" "Khylie" is a handy word that the Persians always fall
+back on when their knowledge of great numbers or long distances is vague
+and shadowy; it is an indefinite term, equivalent to our word "many."
+Mirza Hassan does not know whether America is two hundred farsakhs away
+or two thousand, but he knows it to be "khylie farsakhs," and that is
+perfectly satisfactory to himself, and the white-turbaned questioner is
+perfectly satisfied with "khylie" for an answer.
+
+A person from the New World is naturally a rara avis with the simple
+villagers of Aivan-i-Kaif, and their inquisitiveness concerning Yenghi
+Donia and Yenghi Donians fairly runs riot, and shapes itself into all
+manner of questions. They want to know whether the people smoke kalians
+and ride horses--real horses, not asps-i-awhans-in Yenghi Donia, and
+whether the Valiat smoked the kalian with me at Hadji Agha. Mirza Hassan
+explains about the kalian and horses; he enlightens his wondering
+auditors to the extent that Yenghi Donians smoke nargilehs and chibouques
+instead of kalians, and he contemptuously pooh-poohs the idea of them
+keeping riding-horses when they are clever enough to make iron horses
+that require nothing to eat or drink and no rest. About the question of
+the Heir Apparent smoking the kalian with me he betrays as lively an
+interest as anybody in the room, but he maintains a discreet silence
+until I answer in the negative, when he surveys his guests with the air
+of one who pities their ignorance, and says, "Kalian neis."
+
+A lusty-lunged youngster of about three summers has been interrupting the
+genial flow of conversation by making "Rome howl" in an adjoining room,
+and Mirza Hassan fetches him in and consoles him with sundry lumps of
+sugar. The advent of the limpid-eyed toddler leads the thoughts and
+questions of the company into more domestic channels. After exhaustive
+questioning about my own affairs, Mirza Hassan, with more than
+praiseworthy frankness and becoming gravity, informs me that, besides the
+embryo telegraphjee and sugar-consumer in the room, he is the happy
+father of "yek nim" (one and a half others). I cast my eye around the
+room at this extraordinary announcement, expecting to find the company
+indulging in appreciative smiles, but every person in the room is as
+sober as a judge; plainly, I am the only person present who regards the
+announcement as anything uncommon.
+
+After an ample supper of mutton pillau, Mirza Hassan proceeds to say his
+prayers, borrowing my compass to get the proper bearings for Mecca, which
+I have explained to him during the afternoon. With no little dismay he
+discovers that, according to my explanations, he has for years been
+bobbing his head daily several degrees east of the holy city, and, like a
+sensible fellow, and a person who has become convinced of the
+infallibility of telegraph instruments, compasses, and kindred aids to
+the accomplishment of human ends, he now rectifies the mistake.
+
+Everybody along this route uses a praying-stone, a small cake of stone or
+hardened clay, containing an inscription from the Koran. These
+praying-stones are obtained from the sacred soil of Meshed, Koom, or
+Kerbela, and are placed in position on the ground in front of the
+kneeling devotee during his devotions, so that, instead of touching his
+forehead to the carpet or the common ground of his native village, he can
+bring it in contact with the hallowed soil of one of these holy cities.
+Distance lends enchantment to a holy place, and adds to the efficacy of a
+prayer-stone in the eyes of its owner, and they are valued highly or
+lightly according to the distance and the consequent holiness of the city
+they are brought from. For example, a Meshedi values a prayer-stone from
+Kerbela, and a Kerbeli values one from Meshed, neither of them having
+much faith in the efficacy of one from his own city; familiarity with
+sacred things apparently breeds doubts and indifference. The prayer-stone
+is reverently touched to lips, cheeks, and forehead at the finish of
+prayers, and then carefully wrapped up and stowed away until praying-time
+comes round again. To a sceptical and perhaps irreverent observer, these
+praying-stones would seem to bear about the same relation to a pilgrimage
+to Meshed or Kerbela as a package of prepared sea-salt does to a season
+at the sea-side.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+PERSIA AND THE MESHED PILGRIM ROAD
+
+It rains quite heavily during the night, but clears off again in the
+early morning, and at eight o'clock I take my departure, Mirza Hassan
+refusing to allow his son and heir to accept a present in acknowledgment
+of the hospitality received at his hands. The whole male population of
+the village is assembled again at the spot where their experience of
+yesterday has taught them I should probably mount; and the house-tops
+overlooking the same spot, and commanding a view of the road across the
+plain to the eastward, are crowded with women and children. The female
+portion of my farewell audience present quite a picturesque appearance,
+being arrayed in their holiday garments of red, blue, and other bright
+colors, in honor of Friday, the Mohammedan Sabbath.
+
+Pour miles of most excellent camel-path lead across a gravelly plain,
+affording a smooth, firm, wheeling surface, notwithstanding the heavy
+rains of the previous night; but beyond the plain the road leads over the
+pass of the Sardara Kooh, one of the many spurs of the Elburz range that
+reach out toward the south. This spur consists of saline hills that
+present a very remarkable appearance in places; the rocks are curiously
+honey-combed by the action of the salt, and the yellowish earthy portion
+of the hills are fantastically streaked and seamed with white. A trundle
+of a couple of miles brings me to the summit, from which point I am able
+to mount, and, with brake firmly in hand, glide smoothly down the eastern
+slope. After descending about a mile, I am met by a party of travellers
+who give me friendly warning of deep water a little farther down the
+mountain. After leaving them, my road follows down the winding bed of a
+stream that is probably dry the greater part of the year; but during the
+spring thaws, and immediately after a rain-storm, a stream of brackish,
+muddy water a few inches deep trickles down the mountain and forms a most
+disagreeable area of sticky salt mud at the bottom. The streak this
+morning can more truthfully be described as yellow liquid mud than as
+water, and both myself and wheel present anything but a prepossessing
+appearance in ten minutes after starting down its grimy channel. I am,
+however, congratulating myself upon finding it so shallow, and begin to
+think that, in describing the water as nearly over their donkeys' backs,
+the travellers were but indulging their natural propensity as subjects of
+the Shah, and worthy followers in the footsteps of Ananias.
+
+About the time I have arrived at this comforting conclusion, I am
+suddenly confronted by a pond of liquid mud that bars my farther progress
+down the mountain. A recent slide of land and rock has blocked up the
+narrow channel of the stream, and backed up the thick yellow liquid into
+a pool of uncertain depth. There is no way to get around it;
+perpendicular walls of rock and slippery yellow clay rise sheer from the
+water on either side. There is evidently nothing for it but to disrobe
+without more ado and try the depth. Besides being thick with mud, the
+water is found to be of that icy, cutting temperature peculiar to cold
+brine, and after wading about in it for fifteen minutes, first finding a
+fordable place, and then carrying clothes and wheel across, I emerge on
+to the bank formed by the land-slip looking as woebegone a specimen of
+humanity as can well be imagined. Plastered with a coat of thin yellow
+mud from head to foot, chilled through and through, and shivering like a
+Texas steer in a norther, feet cut and bleeding in several places from
+contact with the sharp rocks, and no clean water to wash off the mud!
+With the assistance of knife, pocket-handkerchief, and sundry theological
+remarks which need not be reproduced here, I finally succeed in getting
+off at least the greater portion of the mud, and putting on my clothes.
+The discomfort is only of temporary duration; the agreeable warmth of the
+after-glow exhilarates both mind and body, and with the disappearance of
+the difficulty to the rear cornea the satisfaction of having found it no
+harder to overcome.
+
+A little good wheeling is encountered toward the bottom of the pass, and
+then comes an area of wet salt-flats, interspersed with saline
+rivulets--those innocent-looking little streamlets the deceptive clearness
+of which tempts the thirsty and uninitiated wayfarer to drink. Few
+travellers in desert countries but have been deceived by these
+innocuous-looking streamlets once, and equally few are the people who
+suffer themselves to be deceived by their smooth, pellucid aspect a
+second time; for a mouthful of either strongly saline or alkaline water
+from one of them creates an impression on the deceived one's palate and
+his mind that guarantees him to be wariness personified for the remainder
+of his life. Since a certain experience in the Bitter Creek country,
+Wyoming, the writer prides himself on being able to distinguish drinkable
+water from the salty or alkaline article almost as far as it can be seen,
+and a stream about which the least suspicion is entertained is invariably
+tasted with gingerly hesitancy to begin with.
+
+Soon after noon I reach the village of Kishlag, where a halt of an hour
+or so is made to refresh the inner man with tea, raw eggs, and
+figs--a queer enough bill of fare for dinner, but no more queer than
+the people from whom it is obtained. Some of my readers have doubtless
+heard of the Milesian waiter who could never be brought to see any
+inconsistency in asking the guests of the restaurant whether they would
+take tea or coffee, and then telling them there was no tea, they would
+have to take coffee. The proprietor of the little tchai-khan at Kishlag
+asks me if I want coffee, and then, in strict conformity with the curious
+inconsistency first discovered and spoken of at Aivan-i-Kaif, he informs
+me that he has nothing but tea. The country hereabout is evidently the
+birthplace of Irish bulls; when the ancestors of modern Handy Andys were
+running wild on the bogs of Connemara, the people of Aivan-i-Kaif and
+Kishlag were indulging in Irish bulls of the first water.
+
+The crowd at Kishlag are good-natured and comparatively well-behaved. In
+reply to their questionings, I tell them that I am journeying from Yenghi
+Donia to Meshed. The New World is a far-away, shadowy realm to these
+ignorant Persian villagers, almost as much out of their little,
+unenlightened world as though it were really another planet; they
+evidently think that in going to Meshed I am making a pilgrimage to the
+shrine of Imam Riza, for some of them commence inquiring whether or no
+Yenghi Donians are Mussulmans.
+
+The weather-clerk inaugurates a regular March zephyr in the east, during
+the brief halt at Kishlag; and in addition to that doubtful favor blowing
+against me, the road leading out is lumpy as far as the cultivated area
+extends, and then it leads across a rough, stony plain that is traversed
+by a network of small streams, similar to those encountered yesterday at
+Sherifabad. To the left, the abutting front of the Elburz Mountains is
+streaked and frescoed with salt, that in places vies in whiteness with
+the lingering-patches of snow higher up; to the right extends the gray,
+level plain, interspersed with small cultivable areas for a farsakh or
+two, beyond which lies the great dasht-i-namek (salt desert) that
+comprises a large portion of the interior of Persia.
+
+Wild asses abound on the dasht-i-namek, and wandering bands of these
+animals occasionally stray up in this direction. The Persians consider
+the flesh of the wild donkey as quite a delicacy, and sometimes hunt them
+for their meat; they are said to be untamable, unless caught when very
+young, and are then generally too slender-limbed to be of any service in
+carrying weights. Wild goats abound in the Elburz Mountains; the
+villagers hunt them also for their meat, but the flesh of the wild goat
+is said to contribute largely to the prevalence of sore eyes among the
+people. The Persian will eat wild donkey, wild goat, and the flesh of
+camels, but only the very poor people--people who cannot afford to be
+fastidious--ever touch a piece of beef; gusht-i-goosfang (mutton) is the
+staple meat of the country.
+
+The general aspect of the country immediately south of the Elburz
+Mountains, beyond the circumscribed area of cultivation about the
+villages, is that of a desert, desolate, verdureless, and forbidding. One
+can scarcely realize that by simply crossing this range a beautiful
+region is entered, where the prospect is as different as is light from
+darkness. An entirely different climate characterizes the Province of
+Mazanderan, comprising the northern slopes of these mountains and the
+Caspian littoral. With a humid climate the whole year round, and the
+entire face of the country covered with dense jungle, the northern slopes
+of the Elburz Mountains present a striking contrast to the barren,
+salt-frescoed foot-hills facing the south hereabout. Here, as at Resht,
+the moisture from the Caspian Sea does for the province of Mazanderan
+what similar influences from the Pacific do for California. It makes all
+the difference between California and Nevada in the one case, and
+Mazanderan and the desert-like character of Central Persia in the other.
+
+In striking and effective contrast to the general aspect of death and
+desolation that characterizes the desert wastes of Persia--an effect
+that is heightened by the ruins of caravansaries or villages, that are
+seldom absent from the landscape--are the cultivated spots around the
+villages. Wherever there is a permanent supply of water, there also is
+certain to be found a mud-built village, with fields of wheat and barley,
+pomegranate orchards, and vineyards. In a country of universal greenness
+these would count for nothing, but, situated like islands in the sea of
+sombre gray about them, they often present an appearance of extreme
+beauty that the wondering observer is somewhat puzzled to account for; it
+is the beauty of contrast, the great and striking contrast between
+vegetable life and death.
+
+These impressions are nowhere more strongly brought into notice than when
+approaching Aradan, a village I reach about five o'clock. Like almost all
+Persian towns and villages, Aradan has evidently occupied a much larger
+area at one time than it does at present; and the mournful-looking ruins
+of mosques, gateways, walls, and houses are scattered here and there over
+the plain for a mile before reaching the present limits of habitation.
+The brown ruins of a house are seen standing in the middle of a
+wheat-field; the wheat is of that intense greenness born of irrigation
+and a rich sandy soil, and the mud ruins, dead, desolate, and crumbling
+to dust, look even more deserted and mournful from the great contrast in
+color, and from the myriad stems of green young life that wave and nod
+about them with every passing breeze. The tumble-down windows and
+doorways form openings through which the blue sky and the green waving
+sea of vegetation beyond are seen as in a picture, and the ruined mud
+mosque, its dome gone, its windows and doorways crumbled to shapeless
+openings, seems like a weather-beaten skeleton of Persia's past, while
+the ever-moving waves of verdant life about it, seem to be beating
+against it and persistently assailing it, like waves of the sea beating
+against an isolated rock.
+
+While engaged in fording a stream on the stony plain between road. The
+shagird-chapar is with them, on a third "bag of bones," worse, if
+possible, than the others. Taking the world over, there is perhaps no
+class of horses that are, subject to so much cruelty and ill-treatment as
+the chapar horses of Persia, With back raw, ribs countable a hundred
+yards away, spavined, blind of an eye, fistula, and cursed with every ill
+that horseflesh in the hands of human brutes is subject to, the chapar
+horse is liable to be taken out at any hour of the day or night,
+regardless of previous services being but just finished. He is goaded on
+with unsparing lash to the next station, twenty, or perhaps thirty miles
+away, staggering beneath the weight of the traveller, or his servant,
+with ponderous saddlebags.
+
+This chapar, or post-service, is established along the great highways of
+travel between Teheran and Tabreez, Teheran and Meshed, and Teheran and
+Bushire, with a branch route from the Tabreez trail to the Caspian port
+of Enzeli; the stations vary from four to eight farsakhs apart. Not all
+the chapar horses are the wretched creatures just described, however, and
+by engaging beforehand the best horses at each station along the route,
+certain travellers have made quite remarkable time between points
+hundreds of miles apart. In addition to horses for himself and servants,
+the traveller is required to pay for one to carry the shagird-chapar who
+accompanies them to the next station to bring back the horses. The
+ordinary charge is one keran a farsakh for each horse. It wouldn't be a
+Persian institution, however, if there wasn't some little underhanded
+arrangement on hand to mulct the traveller of something over and above
+the legitimate charges. Accordingly, we find two distinct measurements of
+distance recognized between each station--the "chapar distance" and the
+correct distance. If, for instance, the actual distance is six farsakhs,
+the "chapar distance" will be seven, or seven and a half; the difference
+between the two is the chapar-jee's modokal; without modokal there is no
+question but that a Persian would feel himself to be a miserable,
+neglected mortal.
+
+Aradan is another telegraph control station, and Mr. Stagno informs me
+that the telegraph-jee is looking forward to my arrival, and is fully
+prepared to accommodate me over night; and, furthermore, that all along
+the line the people of the telegraph towns are eagerly anticipating the
+arrival of the Sahib, with the marvellous vehicle, of which they have
+heard such strange stories. Aradan is reached about five o'clock; the
+road leading into the village is found excellent wheeling, enabling me to
+keep the saddle while following at the heels of a fleet-footed ryot, who
+voluntarily guides me to the telegraph-khana. The telegraph-jee is
+temporarily absent when I arrive, but his farrash lets me inside the
+office yard, spreads a piece of carpet for me to sit on, and with
+commendable thoughtfulness shuts out the crowd, who, as usual,
+immediately begin to collect. The quickness with which a crowd collects
+in a Persian town has to be seen to be fully comprehended. For the space
+of half an hour, I sit in solitary state on the carpet, and endure the
+wondering gaze and the parrot-like chattering of a thin, long row of
+villagers, sitting astride the high mud wall that encloses three sides of
+the compound, and during the time find some amusement in watching the
+scrambling and quarrelling for position. These irrepressible sight-seers
+commenced climbing the wall from the adjoining walls and houses the
+moment the farash shut them out of the yard, and in five minutes they are
+packed as close as books on a shelf, while others are quarreling noisily
+for places; in addition to this, the roof of every building commanding a
+view into the chapar-khana compound is swarmed with neck-craning,
+chattering people.
+
+Soon the telegraph-jee puts in an appearance; he proves to be an
+exceptionally agreeable fellow, and one of the very few Persians one
+meets with having blue eyes. He appears to regard it as quite an
+understood thing that I am going to remain over night with him, and
+proceeds at once to make the necessary arrangements for my accommodation,
+without going to the trouble of extending a formal invitation. He also
+wins my eternal esteem by discouraging, as far as Persian politeness and
+civility will admit, the intrusion of the inevitable self-sufficients who
+presume on their "eminent respectability" as loafers, in contradistinction
+to the half-naked tillers of the soil, to invade the premises and satisfy
+their inordinate curiosity, and their weakness for kalian, smoking and
+tea-drinking at another's expense. After duly discussing between us a
+samovar of tea, we take a stroll through the village to see the old
+castle, and the umbars that supply the village with water. The telegraph-
+gee cleared the walls upon his arrival, but the housetops are out of his
+jurisdiction, and before starting he wisely suggests putting the bicycle
+in some conspicuous position, as an inducement for the crowd to remain
+and concentrate their curiosity upon it, otherwise there would be no
+keeping them from following us about the village. We set it up in plain
+view on the bala-khana, and returning from our walk, are amused to find
+the old farrash delivering a lecture on cycling.
+
+The fortress at Aradan is the first one of the kind one sees when
+travelling eastward from Teheran, but as we shall come to a larger and
+better preserved specimen at Lasgird, in a couple of days, it will,
+perhaps, be advisable to postpone a description till then. They are all
+pretty much alike, and were all built to serve the same purpose, of
+affording shelter and protection from Turkoman raiders. The Aradan umbars
+are nothing extraordinary, except perhaps that the conical brick-work
+roofs are terraced so that one can walk, like ascending stairs, to the
+summit; and perhaps, also, because they are in a good state of repair
+--asufficiently unusual thing in a Persian village to merit remark. These
+umbars are filled by allowing the water to flow in from a street ditch
+connecting with the little stream to which every village owes its
+existence; when the umbar is full, a few spadefuls of dirt shut the water
+off.
+
+The chief occupation of the Eastern female is undoubtedly carrying water;
+the women of Oriental villages impress the observant Occidental, as
+people who will carry water-worlds may be created and worlds destroyed;
+all things else may change, and habits and costumes become revolutionized
+by the march of time, but nothing will prevent the Oriental female from
+carrying water, and carrying it in huge earthenware jugs! At any hour of
+the day--I won't speak positively about the night--women may be seen
+at the unbars filling large earthenware jugs, coming and going, going and
+coming. I don't remember ever passing one of these cisterns without
+seeing women there, filling and carrying away jars of water. No doubt
+there are occasional odd moments when no women are there, but any person
+acquainted with village life in the East will not fail to recognize this
+as simply the plain, unvarnished truth. As the ditch from which the umbar
+is filled not infrequently runs through half the length of the village
+first, the personal habits of a Mohammedan population insure that it
+reaches the umbar in anything but a fit condition for human consumption.
+But the Koran teaches that flowing water cannot be contaminated or
+defiled, consequently, when he takes a drink or fills the village
+reservoir, your thoroughbred Mussulman never troubles his head about what
+is going on up-stream. The Koran is to him a more reliable guide for his
+own good than the evidence of all his seven senses combined.
+
+Stagnant pools of water, covered, even this early in the season (March
+12th), with green scum, breed fever and mosquitoes galore in Aradan; the
+people know it, acknowledge it readily, and suffer from it every summer,
+but they take no steps to remedy the evil; the spirit of public
+enterprise has dwindled to such dimensions in provincial Persia, that it
+is no longer equal to filling up a few fever-breeding pools of water in
+the centre of a village. The telegraph-jee himself acknowledges that the
+water-holes cause fever and mosquitoes, but, intelligent and enlightened
+mortal though he be in comparison with his fellow-villagers, when
+questioned about it, he replies: "Inshalla! the water don't matter; if it
+is our kismet to take the fever and die, nothing can prevent it; if it is
+our kismet not to take it, nothing can give it to us." Such unanswerable
+logic could only originate in the brain of a fatalist; these people are
+all fatalists, and--as we can imagine--especially so when the
+doctrine comes in handy to dodge doing anything for the public weal.
+
+All Persian villages, except those clustered about the immediate vicinity
+of a large city, have some peculiarity of their own to offer in the
+matter of the people's dress. The pantaloons of any Persian village are
+not by any means stylish garments, according to Western ideas; but the
+male bipeds of Aradan have something really extraordinary to offer, even
+among the many startling patterns of this garment met with in Eastern
+lands. To note the quantity of material that enters into the composition
+of a pair of Aradan pantaloons, would lead an uninitiated person into
+thinking the people all millionaires, were it not likewise observed that
+the material is but coarse blue cotton, woven and dyed by the wearer's
+wife, mother, or sister. One of the most conspicuous features about them
+is that their shape--if they can truthfully be said to have any
+shape--seems to be a wild, rambling pattern of our own ideas
+concerning the shape this garment ought to assume. The legs, instead of
+being gathered, Oriental fashion, at the ankles, dangle loosely about the
+feet; and yet it is these same legs that are the chief distinguishing
+feature of the pants. One of the legs, cut off and sewed up at one end,
+would make the nicest kind of an eight-bushel grain sack; rather too
+wide, perhaps, in proportion to the depth, to make a shapely grain sack,
+but there is no question about the capacity for the eight bushels. No
+doubt these people would be puzzled to say why they are wearing yards and
+yards of stuff that is not only useless, but positively in the way,
+except that it has been the fashion in Aradan from time immemorable to do
+so. These simple Persian peasants, when they make any pretence of
+sprucing up, probably find themselves quite as much enslaved by fashion
+as our very fastidious selves; a wide difference betaken ourselves and
+them, however, being, that while they cling tenaciously to some
+prehistoric style of garment, and regard innovations with abhorrence,
+fashion demands of us to be constantly changing.
+
+The Aradan telegraph-jee is a young man skin-full of piety, rejoicing in
+the possession of a nice little praying-carpet, a praying-stone from holy
+Kerbela, the holiest of all except Mecca, and he owns a string of beads
+of the same soul-comforting material as the stone. During his waking
+hours he is seldom without the rosary in his hand, passing the holy beads
+back and forth along the string; and five times a day he produces the
+praying-stone from its little leathern pouch and goes through the
+ceremony of saying his prayers, with becoming earnestness. At eventide,
+when he spreads his praying-carpet and places the little oblong tablet
+from Kerbela in its customary position, preparatory to commencing his
+last prayers for the day, it is furthermore ascertained by the compass
+that he has been pretty accurate in his daily prostrations toward Mecca.
+With all these enviable advantages--the praying-carpet, the praying-stone,
+the holy rosary, and the happy accuracy as regards Mecca--the Aradan
+telegraph-jee is a Mussulman who ought to feel tolerably certain of a
+rose-garden, a gurgling rivulet, and any number of black-eyed houris to
+contribute to his happiness in the paradise he hopes to enter beyond the
+tomb.
+
+Indications have not been wanting during the day that the weather is in
+anything but a settled condition, and upon waking in the morning I fancy
+I hear the pattering music of the rain. Fortunately it proves to be only
+fancy, and the telegraph-jee, assuming the part of a weather-prophet,
+reassures me by remarking, "Inshalla, am roos, baran neis" (Please God,
+it will not rain to-day). Being a Persian, he says this, not because he
+has any particular confidence in his own predictions, but because his
+idea of making himself agreeable is to frame his predictions by the
+measurement of what he discovers to be my wishes.
+
+The road into Aradan led me through one populous cemetery, and the road
+out again leads me through another; beyond the cemetery it follows
+alongside a meandering streamlet that flows, sluggishly along over a bed
+of deep gray mud. The road is lumpy but ridable, and I am pedalling
+serenely along, happy in the contemplation of better roads ahead than I
+had yesterday, when one of those ludicrous incidents happen that have
+occurred at intervals here and there all along my journey. A party of
+travellers have been making a night march from the east, and as we
+approach each other, a wary kafaveh-carrying mule, suspicious about the
+peaceful character of the mysterious object bearing down toward him,
+pricks up his ears, wheels round, and inaugurates confusion among his
+fellows, and then proceeds to head them in a determined bolt across the
+stream. Unfortunately for the women in the kajavehs, the mud and water
+together prove to be deeper than the mule expected to find them, and the
+additional fright of finding himself in a well-nigh swamped condition,
+causes him to struggle violently to get out again. In so doing he bursts
+whatever fastenings may have bound him and his burden together, scrambles
+ashore, and leaves the kajavehs floating on the water!
+
+The women began screaming the moment the mule wheeled round and bolted,
+and now they find themselves afloat in their queer craft, these
+characteristic female signals of distress are redoubled in energy; and
+they may well be excused for this, for the kajavehs are gradually filling
+and sinking; it was never intended that kajavehs should be capable of
+acting in the capacity of a boat. The sight of their companion's
+difficulties has the effect of causing the other mules to change their
+minds about crossing the stream, and almost to change their minds about
+indulging in the mulish luxury of a scare; and fortunately the charvadars
+of the party succeed in rescuing the kajavehs before they sink. Nobody is
+injured, beyond the women getting wet; no damage is done worth
+mentioning, and as the two heroines of the adventure emerge from their
+novel craft, their garments dripping with water, their doleful looks are
+rewarded with unsympathetic merriment from the men. Few have been my
+wheeling days on Asian roads that have not witnessed something in the
+shape of an overthrow or runaway; so far, nobody has been seriously
+injured by them, but I have sometimes wondered whether it will be my good
+fortune to complete the bicycle journey around the world without some
+mishap of the kind, resulting in broken limbs for the native and trouble
+for myself.
+
+After a couple of miles the road and the meandering stream part company,
+the latter flowing southward and the road traversing a flat, curious,
+stone-strewn waste; an area across which one could step from one large
+boulder to another without touching the ground. Once beyond this, and the
+road develops into several parallel trails of smooth, hard gravel, that
+afford as good, or better, wheeling than the finest macadam. While
+spinning at a highly satisfactory rate of speed along these splendid
+paths, a small herd of antelopes cross the road some few hundred yards
+ahead, and pass swiftly southward toward the dasht-i-namek. These are the
+first antelopes, or, for that matter, the first big game I have
+encountered since leaving the prairies of Western Nebraska. The Persian
+antelope seems to be a duplicate of his distinguished American relative
+in a general, all-round sense; he is, if anything, even more
+nimble-footed than the spring-heeled habitue of the West, possesses the
+same characteristic jerky jump, and hoists the same conspicuous white
+signal of retreat. He is a decidedly slimmer-built quadruped, however,
+than the American antelope; the body is of the same square build, but is
+sadly lacking in plumpness, and he seems to be an altogether lankier and
+less well-favored animal. For this constitutional difference, he is
+probably indebted to the barren and inhospitable character of the country
+over which he roams, as compared with the splendid feeding-grounds of
+the--Far West. The Persians sometimes hunt the antelope on horseback,
+with falcons and greyhounds; the falcons are taught to fly in advance and
+attack the fleeing antelopes about the head, and so confuse them and
+retard their progress in the interest of the pursuing hounds and
+horsemen.
+
+The little village of Deh Namek is reached about mid-day, where my
+ever-varying bill of fare takes the shape of raw eggs and pomegranates.
+Deh Namek is too small and unimportant a place to support a public
+tchai-khan; but along the Meshed pilgrim road the villagers are keenly
+alive to the chance of earning a stray keran, and the advent of one of
+those inexhaustible keran-mines, a "Sahib," is the signal for some
+enterprising person, sufficiently well-to-do to own a samovar, to get up
+steam in it and prepare tea.
+
+East of Deh Namek, the wheeling continues splendid for a dozen miles,
+traversing a level desert on which one finds no drinkable water for about
+twenty miles. Across the last eight miles of the desert the road is
+variable, consisting of alternate stretches of ridable and unridable
+ground, the latter being generally unridable by reason of sand and loose
+gravel, or thickly strewn flints. More antelopes are encountered east of
+Deh Namek; at one place, particularly, I enjoy quite a little exciting
+spurt in an effort to intercept a band that are heading across my road
+from the Elburz foot-hills to the desert. The wheeling is here
+magnificent, the spurt develops into a speed of fourteen miles an hour;
+the antelopes see their danger, or, at all events, what they fancy to be
+danger, and their apprehensions are not by any mean lessened by the new
+and startling character of their pursuer. Wild antelopes are timid things
+at all times, and, as may be readily imagined, the sight of a mysterious
+glistening object, speeding along at a fourteen or fifteen mile pace to
+intercept them, has a magical effect upon their astonishing powers of
+locomotion. They seem to fly rather than run, and to skim like swallows
+over the surface of the level plain rather than to touch the ground; but
+they were some distance from the road when they first realized my
+terrifying presence, and I am within fifty yards of the band when they
+flash like a streak of winged terror across the road. These antelopes do
+not cease their wild flight within the range of my powers of observation;
+long after the mousy hue of their bodies has rendered their forms
+indistinguishable in the distance from the sympathetic coloring of the
+desert, rapidly bobbing specks of white betray the fact that their
+supposed narrow escape from the vengeful pursuit of the bicycle has given
+them a fright that will make them suspicious of the Meshed pilgrim road
+for weeks.
+
+"Deh Namek" means "salt village;" and it derives its name from the salt
+flats that are visible to the south of the road, and the general saline
+character of the country round about. Salt enters very largely into the
+composition of the mountains that present a solid and fantastically
+streaked front a few miles to the north; and the streams flowing from
+these mountains are simply streams of brine, whose mission would seem to
+be conveying the saline matter from the hills, and distributing it over
+the flats and swampy areas of the desert. These flats are visible from
+the road, white, level, and impressive; like the Great American Desert,
+Utah, as seen from the Matlin section house, and described in a previous
+chapter (Vol. I.), it looks as though it might be a sheet of water,
+solidified and dead.
+
+At the end of the twenty miles one comes to a small and unpretentious
+village and an equally small and unpretentious wayside tchai-khan, both
+owing their existence to a stream of fresh water as small and
+unpretentious as themselves. Beyond this cheerless oasis stretches again
+the still more cheerless desert, the rivulets of undrinkable salt water,
+the glaring white salt-flats to the south, and the salt-encrusted
+mountains to the north. The shameless old party presiding at the
+tchai-khan evidently realizes the advantages of his position, where many
+travellers from either direction, reaching the place in a thirsty
+condition, have no choice but between his decoction and cold water.
+Instead of the excellent tea every Persian knows very well how to make,
+he serves out a preparation that is made, I should say, chiefly from
+camelthorn buds plucked within a mile of his shanty; he furthermore
+illustrates in his own methods the baneful effects of being without the
+stimulus of a rival, by serving it up in unwashed glasses, and without
+noticing whether it is hot or cold.
+
+Much loose gravel prevails between this memorable point and Lasgird, and
+while trundling laboriously through it I am overtaken by a rain-storm,
+accompanied by violent wind, that at first encompasses me about in the
+most peculiar manner. The storm comes howling from the northwest and
+advances in two sections, accompanied by thunder and lightning; the two
+advancing columns seem to be dense masses of gray cloud rolling over the
+surface of the plain, and between them is a clear space of perhaps half a
+mile in width. The rain-dispensing columns pass me by on either side with
+muttering rolls of thunder and momentary gleams of lightning, enveloping
+me in swirling eddies of dust and bewildering atmospheric disturbances,
+but not a drop of rain. It is plainly to be seen, however, that the two
+columns are united further west, and that it behooves me to don my
+gossamer rubbers; but before being overtaken by the rain, the heads of
+the flying columns are drawn together, and for some minutes I am
+surrounded entirely by sheets of falling moisture and streaming clouds
+that descend to the level plain and obscure the view in every direction;
+and yet the clear sky is immediately above, and the ground over which I
+am walking is perfectly dry. After the first violent burst there is very
+little wind, and the impenetrable walls of vapor encompassing me round
+about at so near a distance, and yet not interfering with me in any way,
+present a most singular appearance. While appreciating the extreme
+novelty of the situation, I can scarce say in addition that I appreciate
+the free play of electricity going on in all directions, and the
+irreverent manner in which the nickeled surface of the bicycle seems to
+glint at it and defy it; on the contrary, I deem it but an act of common
+discretion to place the machine for a short time where the lightning can
+have a fair chance at it, without involving a respectful non-combatant in
+the destruction. In half an hour the whole curious affair is over, and
+nothing is seen but the wild-looking tail-end of the disturbance climbing
+over a range of mountains in the southeast.
+
+The road now edges off in a more northeasterly course, and by four
+o'clock leads me to the base of a low pass over a jutting spur of the
+mountains. At the base of the spur, a cultivated area, consisting of
+several wheat-fields and terraced melon-gardens, has been rescued from
+the unproductive desert by the aid of a bright little mountain stream,
+whose wild spirit the villagers of Lasgird have curbed and tamed for
+their own benefit, by turning it from its rocky, precipitous channel, and
+causing it to descend the hill in a curious serpentine ditch. The contour
+of the ditch is something like this: ~~~~~~~~~~~; it brings the water
+down a pretty steep gradient, and its serpentine form checks the speed of
+its descent to an uniform and circumspect pace. The road over the pass
+leads through a soft limestone formation, and here, as in similar places
+in Asia Minor, are found those narrow, trench-like trails, worn by the
+feet of pilgrims and the pack-animal traffic of centuries, several feet
+deep in the solid rock. On a broad cultivated plain beyond the pass is
+sighted the village of Lasgird, its huge mud fortress, the most
+conspicuous object in view, rising a hundred feet above the plain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+PERSIA AND THE MESHED PILGRIM ROAD.
+
+A mile or so through the cultivated fields brings me to the village just
+in time to be greeted by the shouts and hand-clapping of a wedding
+procession that is returning from conducting the bride to the bath. Men
+and boys are beating rude, home-made tambourines, and women are dancing
+along before the bride, clicking castanets, while a crowd of at least two
+hundred villagers, arrayed in whatever finery they can muster for the
+occasion, are following behind, clapping their hands in measured chorus.
+This hand-clapping is, I believe, pretty generally practiced by the
+villagers all over Central Asia on festive occasions. As a result of
+riding for the crowd, I receive an invitation to take supper at the house
+of the bridegroom's parents. Having obtained sleeping quarters at the
+chapar-khana, I get the shagird-chapar to guide me to the house at the
+appointed hour, and arrive just in time for supper. The dining-room is a
+low-ceiled apartment, about thirty feet long and eight wide, and is dimly
+lighted by rude grease lamps, set on pewter lamp-stands on the floor.
+
+Squatting on the floor, with their backs to the wall, about fifty
+villagers form a continuous human line around the room. These all rise
+simultaneously to their feet as I am announced, bob their heads
+simultaneously, simultaneously say, "Sahib salaam," and after I have been
+provided with a place, simultaneously resume their seats. Pewter trays
+are now brought in by volunteer waiters, and set on the floor before the
+guests, one tray for every two guests, and a separate one for myself. On
+each tray is a bowl of mast (milk soured with rennet--the "yaort" of Asia
+Minor), a piece of cheese, one onion, a spoonful or two of pumpkin butter
+and several flat wheaten cakes. This is the wedding supper. The guests
+break the bread into the mast and scoop the mixture out with their
+fingers, transferring it to their mouths with the dexterity of Chinese
+manipulating a pair of chop-sticks; now and then they take a nibble at
+the piece of cheese or the onion, and they finish up by consuming the
+pumpkin butter. The groom doesn't appear among the guests; he is under
+the special care of several female relations in another apartment, and is
+probably being fed with tid-bits from the henna-stained fingers of old
+women, who season them with extravagant and lying stories of the bride's
+beauty, and duly impress upon him his coming matrimonial
+responsibilities.
+
+Supper eaten and the dishes cleared, an amateur luti from among the
+villagers produces a tambourine and castanets, and, taking the middle of
+the room, proceeds to amuse the company by singing extempore love songs
+in praise of the bride and groom to tambourine accompaniment and
+pendulous swayings of the body. Pretending to be carried away by the
+melodiousness and sentiment of his own productions, he gradually bends
+backward with hands outstretched and castanets jingling, until his head
+almost touches the floor, and maintains that position while keeping his
+body in a theatrical tremor of delight. This is the finale of the
+performance, and the luti comes and sets his skull-cap in front of me for
+a present; my next neighbor, the bridegroom's father, takes it up and
+hands it back with a deprecatory wave of the hand; the luti replies by
+promptly setting it down again; this time my neighbor lets it remain, and
+the luti is made happy by a coin.
+
+Torchlight processions to the different baths are now made from the house
+of both bride and groom, for this is the "hammam night," devoted to
+bathing and festivities before the wedding-day. Torches are made with dry
+camelthorn, the blaze being kept up by constant renewal; a boy, with a
+lighted candle, walks immediately ahead of the bridegroom and his female
+relations, and a man with a farnooze brings up the rear. Nobody among the
+onlookers is permitted to lag behind the man with the farnooze, everybody
+being required to either walk ahead or alongside. The tambourine-beating
+and shouting and hand-clapping of the afternoon is repeated, and every
+now and then the procession stops to allow one or two of the women to
+face the bridegroom and favor him with an exhibition of their skill in
+the execution of the hip-dance.
+
+The bridal procession is coming down another street, and I stop to try
+and obtain a glimpse of the bride; but she is completely enveloped in a
+flaming red shawl, and is supported and led by two women. There seems to
+be little difference in the two processions, except the preponderance of
+females in the bride's party; everything is arranged in the same order,
+and women dance at intervals before the bride as before the groom.
+
+It begins raining before I retire for the night; it rains incessantly all
+night, and is raining heavily when I awake in the morning. The weather
+clears up at noon, but it is useless thinking of pushing on, for miles of
+tenacious mud intervene between the village and the gravelly desert;
+moreover, the prospect of the fine weather holding out looks anything but
+reassuring. The villagers are all at home, owing to the saturated
+condition of their fields, and I come in for no small share of worrying
+attention during the afternoon. A pilgrim from Teheran turns up and tells
+the people about my appearance before the Shah; this increases their
+interest in me to an unappreciated extent, and, with glistening eyes and
+eagerly rubbing fingers, they ask "Chand pool Padishah?" (How much money
+did the King give you?) "I showed the Shah the bicycle, and the Shah
+showed me the lions, and tigers, and panthers at Doshan Tepe," I tell
+them; and a knowing customer, called Meshedi Ali, enlightens them still
+further by telling them I am not a luti to receive money for letting the
+Shah-in-Shah see me ride. Still, luti or no luti, the people think I
+ought to have received a present. I am worried to ride so incessantly
+that I am forced to seek self-protection in pretending to have sprained
+my ankle, and in returning to the chapar-khana with a hypocritical limp.
+I station myself ostensibly for the remainder of the day on the
+bala-khana front, and busy myself in taking observations of the villagers
+and their doings.
+
+Time was, among ourselves, or more correctly, among our ancestors, when
+blood-letting was as much the professional calling of a barber as
+scraping chins or trimming hair, and when our respected beef-eating and
+beer-drinking forefathers considered wholesale blood-letting as a
+well-nigh universal panacea for fleshly ills. In travelling through
+Persia, one often observes things that suggest very strikingly those
+"good old days" of Queen Bess. The citizens of Zendjan offering the Shah
+a present of 60,000 tomans, as an inducement not to visit their city, as
+they did when he was on his way to Europe, has a true Elizabethan ring
+about it, a suggestion of the Virgin Queen's rabble retinue travelling
+about, devouring and destroying, and of justly apprehensive citizens,
+seeing ruin staring them in the face, petitioning their regal mistress to
+spare them the dread calamity of a royal visit.
+
+The ancient Zoroastrian barber, no doubt, bled his patients and customers
+on the public streets of Persian towns, for the benefit of their healths,
+when we pinned our pagan faith on Druidical incantations and mystic rites
+and ceremonies; his Mussulman descendants were doing the same thing when
+we at length arrived at the same stage of enlightenment, and the Persian
+wielder of razor and tweezers to-day performs the same office as
+belonging to his profession. From my vantage point on the bala-khana of
+the Lasgird chapar station, I watch, with considerable interest, the
+process of bleeding a goodly share of the male population of the village;
+for it is spring-time, and in spring, every Persian, whether well or
+unwell, considers the spilling of half a pint or so of blood very
+necessary for the maintenance of health.
+
+The village barber, with his arms bared, and the flowing, o'er-ample legs
+of his Aradan-Lasgird pantaloons tucked up at his waist, like a
+washerwoman's skirt, a bunch of raw cotton in lieu of lint under his left
+arm, and his keen-edged razor, looks like a man who thoroughly realizes
+and enjoys the importance of the office he is performing, as from the
+bared arm or open mouth of one after the other of his neighbors he starts
+the crimson stream. The candidates for the barber's claret-tapping
+attentions bare their right arms to the shoulder, and bind for each other
+a handkerchief or piece of something tightly above the elbow, and the
+barber deftly slits a vein immediately below the hollow of the
+elbow-joint, pressing out the vein he wishes to cut by a pressure of the
+left thumb. The blood spurts out, the patient looks at the squirting
+blood, and then surveys the onlookers with a "who-cares?--I-don't" sort of
+a grin. He then squats down and watches it bleed about a half-pint,
+occasionally working the elbow-joint to stimulate the flow. Half a pint
+is considered about the correct quantity for an adult to lose at one
+bleeding; the barber then binds on a small wad of cotton.
+
+Now and then a customer gives the barber a trifling coin by way of
+backsheesh, but the great majority give nothing. In a mere village like
+Lasgird, these periodical blood-lettings by the barber are, no doubt,
+regarded as being all in the family, rather than of professional services
+for a money consideration. The communal spirit obtains to a great extent
+in village life throughout both Asia Minor and Persia; nevertheless
+backsheesh would be expected in Persia from those able to afford it. Some
+few prefer being bled in the roof the mouth, and they all squat on their
+hams in rows, some bleeding from the arm, others from the mouth, while
+the inevitable crowd of onlookers stand around, gazing and giving advice.
+While the barber is engaged in binding on the wad of cotton, or during
+any interval between patients, he inserts the handle of the razor between
+his close-fitting skull-cap and his forehead, letting the blade hang down
+over his face, edge outward; a peculiar disposition of his razor, that he
+would, no doubt, be entirely at a loss to account for, except that he is
+following the custom of his fathers. As regards the customs of his
+ancestors, whose trade or profession he invariably follows, the Asiatic
+is the most conservative of mortals. "What was good enough for my father
+and grandfather," he says, "is certainly good enough for me;" and
+earnestly believing in this, he never, of his own accord, thinks of
+changing his occupation or of making improvements.
+
+Later in the afternoon I descend from the bala-khana and take a strolling
+look at the village, and with the shagird-chapar for guide, pay a visit
+to the old fortress, the conspicuous edifice seen from the trail-worn
+limestone pass. Forgetting about my subterfuge of the sprained ankle, I
+wander forth without the aforementioned limp; but the people seem to have
+forgotten it as completely as I had; at all events, nobody makes any
+comments. A ripple of excitement is caused by a two-storied house
+collapsing from the effects of the soaking rains, an occurrence by no
+means infrequent in the spring in a country of mud-built houses. A crowd
+soon appears upon the scene, watching, with unconcealed delight, the
+spectacle of tumbling roof and toppling wall, giving vent to their
+feelings in laughter and loud shouts of approval, like delighted
+children, whenever another bulky square of mud and thatch comes tumbling
+down. Fortunately, nobody happens to be hurt, beyond the half-burying in
+the debris of some donkeys, which are finally induced to extricate
+themselves by being vigorously bombarded with stones. No sympathy appears
+to be given on the part of the spectators, and evidently nothing of the
+kind is expected by the tenants of the tumbling house; the wailing women,
+and the look of consternation on the face of the men who barely escaped
+from the falling roof, seem to be regarded by the spectators as a tomasha
+(show), to be stared at and enjoyed, as they would stare at and enjoy
+anything not seen every day; on the other hand, the occupants of the
+house regard their misfortune as kismet.
+
+Returning to the chapar-ktiana, I get the shayird to pilot me into and
+round about the fortress. It is rapidly falling to decay, but is still in
+a sufficiently good state of preservation to show thoroughly its former
+strength and conformation. The fortress is a decidedly massive building,
+constructed entirely of mud and adobe bricks, a hundred feet high, of
+circular form, and some two hundred yards in circumference. The
+disintegrated walls and debris of former towers form a sloping mound or
+foundation about fifty feet in height, and from this the perpendicular
+walls of the castle rise up, huge and ugly, for another hundred feet.
+Following a foot-trail up the mound-like base, we come to a low, gloomy
+passage-way leading into the interior of the fort. A door, composed of
+one massive stone slab, that nothing less than a cannon-shot would
+shatter, guards the entrance to this passage, which is the only
+accessible entrance to the place. Following it along for perhaps thirty
+yards, we emerge upon a scene of almost indescribable squalor--a scene
+that instantly suggests an overcrowded "rookery" in the tenement-house
+slums of New York. The place is simply swarming with people, who, like
+rabbits in an old warren, seem to be moving about among the tumble-down
+mud huts, anywhere and everywhere, as though the old ruined fortress were
+burrowed through and through, or that the people now moved through, over,
+under, and around the remnants of what was once a more orderly collection
+of dwellings, having long forsaken regular foot-ways.
+
+The inhabitants are ragged and picturesque, and meandering about among
+them, on the most familiar terms, are hundreds of goats. Although
+everything is in a more or less dilapidated condition, huts or cells
+still rise above each other in tiers, and the people clamber about from
+tier to tier, as if in emulation of their venturesome four-footed
+associates, who are here, we may well imagine, in as perfect a paradise
+as vagrom goatish nature would care for or expect. At a low estimate, I
+should place the present population of the old fortress at a thousand
+people, and about the same number of goats. In the days when the bold
+Turkoman raiders were wont to make their dreaded damans almost up to the
+walls of Teheran, and such strongholds as this were the only safeguard of
+out-lying villagers, the interior of Lasgird fortress resembled a
+spacious amphitheatre, around which hundreds of huts rose, tier above
+tier, like the cells of a monster pigeon-house, affording shelter in
+times of peril to all the inhabitants of Lasgird, and to such refugees as
+might come in. At the first alarm of the dreaded man-stealers' approach,
+the outside villagers repaired to the fortress with their portable
+property; the donkeys and goats were driven inside and occupied the
+interior space, and the massive stone door was closed and barricaded. The
+villagers' granaries were inside the fortress, and provisions for
+obtaining water were not overlooked; so that once inside, the people were
+quite secure against any force of Turkomans, whose heaviest arms were
+muskets.
+
+The suggestion of an amphitheatre, as above described, is quite patent at
+the present day, in something like two or three hundred tiered dwellings;
+in the days of its usefulness there must have been a thousand. Thanks to
+the Russian occupation of Turkestan, there is no longer any need of the
+fortress, and the present population seem to be occupying it at the peril
+of having it some day tumble down about their ears; for, massive though
+its walls most certainly are, they are but mud, and the people are
+indifferent about repairs. Failing to surprise the watchful villagers in
+their fields or outside dwellings, the baffled marauders would find
+confronting them fifty feet of solid mud wall without so much as an
+air-hole in it, rising sheer above the mound-like foundation, and above
+this, tiers of rooms or cells, from inside which archers or musketeers
+could make it decidedly interesting for any hostile party attempting to
+approach. This old fortress of Lasgird is very interesting, as showing
+the peaceful and unwarlike Persian ryot's method of defending his life
+and liberty against the savage human hawks that were ever hovering near,
+ready to swoop down and carry him and his off to the slave markets of
+Khiva and Bokhara. These were times when seed was sown and harvest
+garnered in fear and trembling, for the Turkoman raiders were adepts at
+swooping down when least expected, and they rode horses capable of making
+their hundred miles a day over the roughest country. (Incredible as this
+latter fact may seem, it is, nevertheless, a well-known thing in Central
+Asia that the Turkoman's horse is capable of covering this remarkable
+distance, and of keeping it up for days.)
+
+A thunder-storm is raging violently and drenching everything as I retire
+for the night, dampening, among other things, my hopes of getting away
+from Lasgird for some days; for between the village and the gravelly, and
+consequently always traversable, desert, are some miles of slimy clay of
+the kind that in wet weather makes an experienced cycler wince to think
+of crossing. The floor of the bala-khana forms once again my nocturnal
+couch; but the temperature lowers perceptibly as the night advances and
+the rain continues, and toward morning it changes into snow. The doors
+and windows of my room are to be called doors and windows only out of
+courtesy to a rude, unfinished effort to imitate these things, and the
+floor, at daybreak, is nicely carpeted with an inch or so of "the
+beautiful snow," and a four-inch covering of the same greets my vision
+upon looking outside.
+
+Determined to make the best of the situation, I remove my quarters from
+the cold and draughty bala-khana to the stable, and send the
+shagird-chapar out in quest of camel-thorn, bread, eggs, and
+pomegranates, thinking thus to obtain the luxury of a bit of fire and
+something to eat in comparative seclusion. This vain hope proves that I
+have not even yet become thoroughly acquainted with the Persians. No
+sooner does my camel-thorn blaze begin to crackle and the smoke to betray
+the whereabouts of a fire, than shivering, blue-nosed villagers begin to
+put in their appearance, their backs humped up and their bare ankles and
+slip-shod feet adding not a little to the general aspect of wretchedness
+that seems inseparable from Persians in cold weather.
+
+And these are the people who, during a gleam of illusory sunshine
+yesterday, were so nonchalantly parting with their blood--of which, by the
+by, your bread and cucumber eating, and cold water drinking Persian has
+little enough, and that little thin enough at any time. These
+rag-bedecked, shivering wretches hop up on the raised platform where the
+fire is burning and squat themselves around it in the most sociable
+manner; and under the thawing process of passing their hands through the
+flames, poking the coals together, and close attention to the details of
+keeping it burning, they quickly thaw out in more respects than one.
+Fifteen minutes after my fire is lighted, the spot where I anticipated a
+samovar of tea and a pomegranate or two in peace, is occupied by as many
+Persians as can find squatting room, talking, shouting, singing, and
+kalian-smoking, meanwhile eagerly and expectantly watching the
+preparations for making tea. Preferring to leave them in full possession
+rather than be in their uncongenial midst, I pass the time in promenading
+back and forth behind the horses. After walking to and fro a few times,
+the, to them, singular performance of walking back and forth excites
+their easily-aroused curiosity, and the wondering attention of all
+present becomes once again my unhappy portion. An Asiatic's idea of
+enjoying himself in cold weather is squatting about a few coals of fire,
+making no physical exertion whatever beyond smoking and conversing; and
+the spectacle of a Ferenghi promenading back and forth, when he might be
+following their example of squatting by the fire, is to them a subject of
+no little wonder and speculation.
+
+The redeeming feature of my enforced sojourn at Lasgird is the excellence
+of the pomegranates, for which the place is famous, and of which there
+seems an abundance left over through the winter. A small quantity of
+seedless pomegranates, a highly valued variety, are grown here at
+Lasgird, but they are all sent to Teheran for the use of the Shah and his
+household, and are not to be obtained by anyone. It has been a raw,
+disagreeable day, and at night I decide to sleep in the stable, where it
+is at least warmer, though the remove is but a compromise by which one's
+olfactory sensibilities are sacrificed in the interest of securing a few
+hours' sleep.
+
+An unexpected, but none the less welcome, deliverance appears on the
+following morning in the shape of a frost, that forms on the sticky mud a
+crust of sufficient thickness to enable me to escape across to the
+welcome gravel beyond the Lasgird Plain ere it thaws out. Thus on the
+precarious path of a belated morning frost, breaking through here,
+jumping over there, I leave Lasgird and its memories of wedding
+processions, and blood-letting, its huge mud fortress, its pomegranates,
+and its discomforts.
+
+Three miles of mostly ridable gravel bring me to another village, and to
+four miles of horrible mud in getting through its fields and over its
+ditches. A raw wind is blowing, and squally gusts of snow come scudding
+across the dreary prospect--a prospect flanked on the north by cold, gray
+hills, and the face of nature generally furrowed with tell-tale lines of
+winter's partial dissolution. While trundling through this village, both
+myself and bicycle plastered to a well-nigh unrecognizable state with
+mud, feeling pretty thoroughly disgusted with the weather and the roads,
+an ancient-looking Persian emerges from a little stall with a last
+season's muskmelon in hand, and advancing toward me, shouts, "H-o-i"
+loud enough to wake the seven sleepers. Shouting "H-o-i!!" at a person
+close enough to hear a whisper, as loud as though he were a good mile
+away, is a peculiarity of the Persians that has often irritated
+travellers to the pitch of wishing they had a hot potato and the
+dexterity to throw it down their throats; and in my present unenviable
+condition, and its accompanying unenviable frame of mind, I don't mind
+admitting that I mentally relegated this vociferous melon-vender to a
+place where infinitely worse than hot potatoes would overtake him.
+Knowing full well that a halt of a single minute would mean a general
+mustering of the population, and an importuning rabble following me
+through the unridable mud, I ignore the old melon-man's foghorn efforts
+to arrest my onward progress; but he proves a most vociferous and
+persistent specimen of his class. Nothing less than a dozen exclamation
+points can give the faintest idea of how a "hollering" Persian shouts
+"H-o-i."
+
+Seven miles over very good gravel, and my road leads into the labyrinth
+of muddy lanes, ditches, and water-holes, tumble down walls, and
+disorderly-looking cemeteries of the suburbs of Semnoon. In traversing
+the cemeteries, one cannot help observing how many of the graves are
+caved in by the rains and the skeletons exposed to view. Mohammedans bury
+their dead very shallow, usually about two feet, and in Persia the grave
+is often arched over with soft mud bricks; these weaken and dissolve
+after the rains and snows of winter, and a cemetery becomes a place of
+exposed remains and of pitfalls, where an unwary step on what appears
+solid ground may precipitate one into the undesirable company of a
+skeleton. By the time Semnoon is reached the day has grown warmer, and
+the sun favors the cold, dismal earth with a few genial rays, so that the
+blooming orchards of peach and pomegranate that brighten and enliven the
+environs of the city, and which suggest Semnoon to be a mild and
+sheltered spot, seem quite natural, notwithstanding the patches of snow
+lying about. The crowds seem remarkably well behaved as I trundle through
+the bazaar toward the telegraph office, the total absence of missiles
+being particularly noticeable. The telegraph-jee proves to be a sensible,
+enlightened fellow, and quite matter-of-fact in his manner for a Persian;
+apart from his duty to the Governor and a few bigwigs of the place, whom
+it would be unpardonable in him to overlook or ignore, he saves me as
+much as possible from the worrying of the people.
+
+Prince Anushirvan Mirza, Governor of Semnoon, Damghan, and Shahrood, is
+the Shah's cousin, son of Baahman Mirza, uncle of the Shah, and formerly
+Governor of Tabreez. Baahman Mirza was discovered intriguing with the
+Russians, and, fearing the vengeance of the Shah, fled from the country;
+seeking an asylum among the Russians, he is now--if not dead--a refugee
+somewhere in the Caucasus. But the father's disgrace did not prejudice
+the Shah against his sons, and Prince Anushirvan and his sons are honored
+and trusted by the Shah as men capable of distinguishing between the
+friends and enemies of their country, and of conducting themselves
+accordingly.
+
+The Governor's palace is not far from the north gate of the city, and
+after the customary round of tea and kalians, without which nothing can
+be done in Persia, he walks outside with his staff to a piece of good
+road in order to see me ride to the best advantage. (As a specimen of
+Persian extravagance--to use a very mild term--it may be as well to
+mention here as anywhere, that the Governor telegraphed to his son,
+acting as his deputy at Shahrood, that he had ridden some miles with me
+out of the city!)
+
+During the evening one of the Governor's sons, Prince Sultan Madjid
+Mirza, comes in with a few leading dignitaries to spend an hour in
+chatting and smoking. This young prince proves one of the most
+intelligent Persians I have met in the country; besides being very well
+informed for a provincial Persian, he is bright and quick-witted. Among
+the gentlemen he brings in with him is a man who has made the pilgrimage
+to Mecca via "Iskenderi" (Alexandria) and Suez, and has, consequently,
+seen and ridden on the Egyptian railway. The Prince has heard his
+description of this railway, and the light thus gained has not
+unnaturally had the effect of whetting his curiosity to hear more of the
+marvellous iron roads of Frangistan; and after exhausting the usual
+programme of queries concerning cycling, the conversation leads, by easy
+transition, to the subject of railways.
+
+"Do they have railways in Yenghi Donia?" questioned the Prince.
+
+"Plenty of railways; plenty of everything," I reply.
+
+"Like the one at Iskenderi and Stamboul?"
+
+"Better and bigger than both these put together a hundred times over; the
+Iskenderi railroad is very small."
+
+Nods and smiles of acquiescence from Prince and listeners follow this
+statement, which show plainly enough that they consider it a pardonable
+lie, such as every Persian present habitually indulges in himself and
+thinks favorably of in others.
+
+"Railroads are good things, and Ferenghis are very clever people," says
+the Prince, renewing the subject and handing me a handful of salted melon
+seeds from his pocket, meanwhile nibbling some himself.
+
+"Yes; why don't you have railroads in Iran? You could then go to Teheran
+in a few hours."
+
+The Prince smiles amusingly at the thought, as though conscious of
+railroads in Persia being a dream altogether too bright to ever
+materialize, and shaking his head, says: "Pool neis" (we have no money).
+
+"The English have money and would build the railroad; but, 'Mollah neis'
+--Baron Reuter?--you know Baron Reuter--' Mollah neis,'
+not 'pool neis.'"
+
+The Prince smiles, and signifies that he is well enough aware where the
+trouble lies; but we talk no more of railroads, for he and his father and
+brothers belong to the party of progress in Persia, and the triumph of
+priests and old women over the Shah and Baron Reuter's railway is to them
+a distressful and humiliating subject.
+
+The late lamented O'Donovan, of "To the Merve" fame, used to make Semnoon
+his headquarters while dodging about on the frontier, and was personally
+known to everyone present. Semnoon is celebrated for the excellence of
+its kalian tobacco, and O'Donovan was celebrated in Semnoon for his love
+of the kalian. This evening, in talking about him, the telegraph-jee says
+that "when he pulled at the kalian he pulled with such tremendous
+eagerness that the flames leaped up to the ceiling, and after three
+whiffs you couldn't see anybody in the room for smoke!"
+
+The telegraph-jee's farrash builds a good wood fire in a cozy little room
+adjoining the office; blankets are provided, an ample supper is sent
+around from the telegraph-jee's house, and what is still better
+appreciated, I am left to enjoy these substantial comforts without so
+much as a single spectator coming to see me feed; no one comes near me
+till morning.
+
+The morning breaks cold and clear, and for some six miles the road is
+very fair wheeling; after this comes a gradual inclination toward a
+jutting spur of hills; the following twenty miles being the toughest kind
+of a trundle through mud, snow-fields, and drifts. This is a most
+uninviting piece of country to wheel through, and it would seem but
+little less so to traverse at this time of the year with a caravan of
+camels, two or three of these animals being found exhausted by the
+roadside, and a couple of charvadars encountered in one place skinning
+another, while its companion is lying helplessly alongside watching the
+operation and waiting its own turn to the same treatment. It is said to
+be characteristic of a camel that, when he once slips down, cold and
+weary, in the mud, he never again tries to regain his feet. The weather
+looks squally and unsettled, and I push ahead as rapidly as the condition
+of the ground will permit, fearing a snow-storm in the hills.
+
+About three p.m. I arrive at the caravansarai of Ahwan, a dreary,
+inhospitable place in an equally dreary, inhospitable country. Situated
+in a region of wind and snow and bleak, open hills, the wretched serai of
+Ahwan is remembered as a place where the keen, raw wind seems to come
+whistling gleefully and yet maliciously from all points of the compass,
+seemingly centring in the caravansarai itself; these winds render any
+attempt to kindle a fire a dismal failure, resulting in smoke and watery
+eyes. Here I manage to obtain half-frozen bread and a few eggs; after an
+ineffectual attempt to roast the latter and thaw out the former, I am
+forced to eat them both as they are; and although the sun looks ominously
+low, and it is six farsakhs to the next place, I conclude to chance
+anything rather than risk being snow-bound at Ahwan. Fortunately, after
+about five miles more of snow, the trail emerges upon a gravelly plain
+with a gradual descent from the hills just crossed to the lower level of
+the Damghan plain. The favorable gradient and the smooth trails induce a
+smart pace, and as the waning daylight merges into the soft, chastened
+light of a cloud-veiled moon, I alight at the village and serai of
+Gusheh.
+
+There are at the caravansarai a number of travellers, among them a moujik
+of the Don, travelling to Teheran and beyond in company with a Tabreez
+Turk. The Russian peasant at once invites me to his menzil in the
+caravansarai; and although he looks, if anything, a trifle more
+indifferent about personal cleanliness than either a Turkish or Persian
+peasant, I have no alternative but to accept his well-meant invitation.
+At this juncture, when one's thoughts are swayed and influenced by an
+appetite that the cold day and hard tugging through the hills have
+rendered well-nigh uncontrollable, a prosperous-looking Persian
+traveller, returning from a pilgrimage to Meshed with his wives, family,
+and servitors, quite a respectable-sized retinue, emerges from the
+seclusion of his quarters to see the bicycle.
+
+Of course he requests me to ride, sending his link-boys to bring out all
+the farnoozes to supplement fair Luna's coy and inefficient beams; and
+after the performance, the old gentleman promises to send me round a dish
+of pillau. In due time the promised pillau comes round, an ample dish,
+sufficient to satisfy even my present ravenous appetite, and after this
+he sends round tea, lump sugar, and a samovar. The moujik turns to and
+gets up steam in the samovar, and over tiny glasses of the cheering but
+non-intoxicating beverage, he sings a Russian regimental song, and his
+comrade, the Tabreez Turk, warbles the praises of Stamboul. But although
+they make merry over the tea, methinks both of them would have made still
+merrier over something stronger, for the moujik puts in a good share of
+the evening talking about vodka consumed at Shahrood, and smacking his
+lips at the retrospective bliss embodied in its consumption; while the
+Turk from Tabreez catches me aside and asks mysteriously if my packages
+contain any "raki" (arrack). Like the Ah wan caravansarai, the one at
+Gusheh seems to draw the chilly winds from every direction, and I arise
+from a rude couch, made wretchedly uncomfortable by draughts, the attacks
+of insects, and the persistent determination of a horse to use my
+prostrate form as a rest for his nose-bag, to find myself the possessor
+of a sore throat.
+
+Persian travellers are generally up and off before daylight, and the
+clicking noise (Persian curry-combs are covered with small rings that
+make a rattling noise when being used) of currying horses begins as early
+as three o'clock. The attendants of the old gentleman of happy
+remembrance in connection with last night's pillau and samovar, have been
+busy for two hours, and his taktrowan and kajauehs are already occupied
+and starting, when by the first gleam of awakening dawn I mount and wheel
+eastward. A shallow, unbridged stream obstructs my path but a short
+distance from Gusheh, and I manage to get in knee-deep in trying to avoid
+the necessity of removing my footgear; I then wander several miles off
+my road to an outlying village. This happy commencement of a new day is
+followed by a variable road leading sometimes over stony or gravelly
+plains where the wheeling varies through all the stages of goodness,
+badness, and indifference, and sometimes through grazing grounds and
+cultivable areas adjoining the villages.
+
+Scattered about the grazing and arable country are now small towers of
+refuge, loop-holed for defense, to which ryots working in the fields, or
+shepherds tending their flocks, fled for safety in case of a sudden
+appearance of Turcoman marauders. But a few years ago men hereabouts went
+to plough, sow, or reap with a gun slung at their backs, and a few of
+them reaching the shelter of one of these compact little mud towers were
+able, through the loop-holes, to keep the Turcomans at bay until relief
+arrived. The towers are of circular form, about twenty feet high and
+fifteen in diameter; the entrance is a very small doorway, often a mere
+hole to crawl into, and steps inside lead to the summit; some are roofed
+in near the top, others are mere circular walls of mud. On grazing
+grounds a lower wall often encompasses the tower, fencing in a larger
+space that formed a corral for the flocks; the shepherds then, while
+defending themselves, were also defending their sheep or goats. In the
+more exposed localities these little towers of refuge are often but a
+couple of hundred yards apart, thickly dotting the country in all
+directions, while watch-towers are seen perched on peaks and points of
+vantage, the whole scene speaking eloquently of the extraordinary
+precautions these poor people were compelled to adopt for the
+preservation of their lives and property. No wonder Russian intrigue
+makes headway in Khorassan and all along the Turco-inan-Perso frontier,
+for the people can scarcely help being favorably impressed by the
+stoppage of Turcoman deviltry in their midst, and the wholesale
+liberation of Persian slaves.
+
+The town of Damghan is reached near noon, and I am not a little gratified
+to learn that the telegraph-jee has been notified of my approach, and has
+stationed his farrash at the entrance to the bazaar, so that I should
+have no trouble in finding the office. This augurs well for the reception
+awaiting me there, and I am accordingly not surprised to find him an
+exceptionally affable youth, proud of a word or two of English he had
+somehow acquired, and of his knowledge of how to properly entertain a
+Ferenghi. This latter qualification assumes the eminently practical, and,
+it is needless to add, acceptable form of a roast chicken, a heaping dish
+of pillau, and sundry other substantial proofs of anticipatory
+preparations. The telegraph-jee takes great pleasure in seeing roast
+chicken mysteriously disappear, and the dish of pillau gradually diminish
+in size; in fact, the unconcealed satisfaction afforded by these savory
+testimonials of his cook's abilities give him such pleasure that he urges
+me to remain his guest for a day and rest up. But Shahrood is only forty
+miles away, and here I shall have the pleasure of meeting Mr. McIntyre,
+before mentioned as line-inspector, who is making his temporary
+headquarters at that city. Moreover, angry-looking storm-dogs have
+accompanied the sun on his ante-meridian march to-day, and such
+experience as mine at Lasgird has the effect of making one, if not
+weather-wise, at least weather-wary.
+
+In approaching Damghan, long before any other indications of the city
+appear, twin minarets are visible, soaring above the stony plain like a
+pair of huge pillars; these minars belong to the same mosque, and form a
+conspicuous landmark for travellers and pilgrims in approaching Damghan
+from any direction; at a distance they appear to rise up sheer from the
+barren plain, the town being situated in a depression. Six farsakhs from
+Damghan is the village of Tazaria, noted in the country round about for
+the enormous size of the carrots grown there; the minarets of Damghan and
+the extraordinary size of the Tazaria vegetables furnish the material for
+a characteristic little Eastern story, current among the inhabitants.
+
+Finding that people came from far and near to see the graceful minarets
+of Damghan, and that nobody came to see Tazaria, the good people of that
+neglected village became envious, and they reasoned among themselves and
+said: "Why should Damghan have two minarets and Tazaria none?" So they
+gathered together their pack-donkeys, their ropes and ladders, and a
+large company of men, and reached Damghan in the silence and darkness of
+the night, intending to pull down and carry off one of the minarets and
+erect it in Tazaria. The ropes were fastened to the summit of the minar,
+but at the first great pull the brick-work gave way and the top of the
+tall minaret came tumbling down with a crash and clatter, killing several
+of its would-be removers. The Damghan people turned out, and after
+hearing the unhappy Tazarians' laments, some sarcastic citizen gave them
+a few carrot-seeds, bidding them go home and sow them, and they could
+grow all the minarets they wanted. The carrots grew famously, and the
+villagers of Tazaria, instead of the promised minarets, found themselves
+in possession of a new and useful vegetable that fetched a good price in
+the Damghan bazaars. The Damghanians, meeting a Tazarian ryot coming in
+with a donkey-load of these huge carrots, cannot resist twitting him
+regarding the minars; but the now practical Tazarians no longer mourn the
+absence of minarets in their village, and when twitted about it, reply:
+"We have more minarets than you have, but our minarets grow downward and
+are good to eat."
+
+During the afternoon I pass many ruined villages and castles, said to
+have been destroyed by an earthquake many years ago. Some few natives
+find remunerative employment in excavating and washing over the dirt and
+debris of the ruined castles, in which they find coins, rubies, agates,
+turquoise, and women's ornaments; sometimes they unearth skeletons with
+ornaments still attached. The sun shines out warm this afternoon, and its
+genial rays are sufficiently tempting to induce the jackals to emerge
+from their hiding-places and bask in its beaming smiles on the sunny side
+of the ruins. Wherever there are ruins and skeletons and decay in Eastern
+lands--and where are there not?--there also is sure to be found the
+prowling and sneakish-looking jackal.
+
+Shelter, and the usual rude accommodation, supplemented on this occasion
+by a wandering luti and his vicious-looking baboon, as also a company of
+riotous charvadars, who insist on singing accompaniments to the luti's
+soul-harrowing tom-toming till after midnight, are obtained at the
+caravansarai of Deh Mollah. From Deh Mollah it is only a couple of
+farsakhs to Shahrood, and after the first three miles, which is slightly
+upgrade and not particularly smooth, it is downgrade and very fair
+wheeling the remainder of the distance. The road forks a couple of miles
+from Shahrood, and while I am entering by one road, Mr. McIntyre is
+leaving on horseback by the other to meet me, guessing, from word
+received from Damghan, that I must have spent last night at Deh Mollah,
+and would arrive at Shahrood this morning.
+
+Only those who have experienced it know anything of the pleasure of two
+Europeans meeting and conversing in a country like Persia, where the
+habits and customs of the natives are so different, and, to most
+travellers, uncongenial, and only to be tolerated for a time.
+
+I have met Mr. Mclntyre in Teheran, so we are not total strangers, which,
+of course, makes it still more agreeable. After the customary interchange
+of news, and the discussion of refreshments, Mr. Mclntyre hands me a
+telegram from Teheran, which bears a date several days old. It is from
+the British Legation, notifying me that permission is refused to go
+through the Turcoman country; an appendage from the Charge d'Affaires
+suggests that I repair to Astrakhan and try the route through Siberia.
+And this, then, is the result of General Melnikoff's genial smiles and
+ready promises of assistance; after providing myself with proper money
+and information for the Turkestan route, on the strength of the Russian
+Minister's promises, I am overtaken, when three hundred miles away, with
+a veto against which anything I might say or do would be of no avail!
+
+Sultan Ahmed Mirza, a sou of Prince Anushirvan, is deputy governor of
+Shahrood, responsible to his father; and ere I have arrived an hour the
+usual request is sent round for a "tomasha," the word now used by people
+wanting to see me ride, and which really means an exhibition. His place
+is found in a brick court-yard with the usual central tank, and the airy
+rooms of the building all opening upon it, and once again comes the
+feeling of playing a rather ridiculous role, as I circle awkwardly around
+the tank over very uneven bricks, and around short corners where an upset
+would precipitate me into the tank--amid, I can't help thinking, "roars of
+laughter." The Prince is very lavish of his flowery Persian compliments,
+and says, "You English have now left nothing more to do but to bring the
+dead back to life." In the court-yard my attention is called to a set of
+bastinado poles and loops, and Mr. McIntyre asks the Prince if he hasn't
+a prisoner on hand, so that he can give us a tomasha in return for the
+one we are giving him; but it is now the Persian New Year, and the
+prisoners have all been liberated.
+
+Here, gentle reader, in Shahrood--but it now behooves us to be dark and
+mysterious, and deal in hints and whispers, for the Persian proprieties
+must not be ruthlessly violated and then as ruthlessly exposed to satisfy
+the prying curiosity of far off Frangistan that would never do.
+
+Behold, then, Mr. Mclntyre absent; behold all male humans absent save
+myself and a couple of sable eunuchs, whose smooth, whiskerless faces
+betray inward amusement at the extreme novelty of the situation, and we
+all alone between the high brick walls that encircle the secrecy of an
+inner court--and yet not all alone, fortell it in whispers--some half-dozen
+shrouded female forms are clustered together in one corner. Yashmaks are
+drawn aside, and plump oval faces and bright eyes revealed, faces brown
+and soft of outline, eyes black, large and lustrous, with black lines
+skillfully drawn to make them look still larger, and lashes deeply
+stained to impart love and languor to their wondrous depths. Whisper it
+not in Gath, and tell it not in the streets of Frangistan, that the
+wondrous asp-i-awhan has proved an open sesame capable of revealing to an
+inquisitive and all-observant Ferenghi the collective charms of a Persian
+swell's harem!
+
+We can imagine these ladies in the seclusion of the zenana hearing of the
+Ferenghi and his wonderful iron horse, and overwhelmed with feminine
+curiosity, with much coaxing and promising, obtaining reluctant consent
+for a strictly secret and decorous tomasha, with covered faces and no one
+present but the attendant eunuchs and the Ferenghi, who, fortunately,
+will soon leave the country, never to return. Mohammedan women are merely
+overgrown children, and the promise of strict decorousness is forgotten
+or ignored the moment the tomasha begins; and the fun and the wickedness
+of removing their yashmaks in the presence of a Ferenghi is too rare an
+opportunity to be missed, and, no doubt, furnishes them with material for
+amusing conversation for many a day after. Rare fun these ladies think it
+to uncover their olive faces and let the Ferenghi see their beauty; the
+eunuchs are generally indulgent to their charges whenever they can safely
+be so, and on this occasion they content themselves with looking on and
+saying nothing. After seeing me ride, the ladies cluster boldly around
+and examine the bicycle, chatting freely among themselves the while
+concerning its capabilities; but some of the younger ladies regard me
+with fully as much curiosity as the bicycle, for never before did they
+have such an opportunity of scrutinizing a Ferenghi.
+
+And now, while granted the privilege of this little revelation, we must
+be very careful not to reveal the secret of whose harem we have seen
+unveiled, and whose inner court our paran wheels have pressed; for the
+whirligig of time brings about strange things, and apparently trifling
+things that have been indiscreetly published by travellers in books at
+home, have sometimes found their way back to the far East, and caused
+embarrassment and chagrin to people who treated them with hospitality and
+respect.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THROUGH KHORASSAN.
+
+Shahrood is at the exit from the mountains of the caravan route from
+Asterabad, Mazanderan, and the Caspian coast. The mountains overlooking
+it are bare and rocky. A good trade seems to be done by several firms of
+Russian-Armenians in exporting wool, cotton, and pelts to Russia, and
+handling Russian iron and petroleum. But for the iniquitous method of
+taxation, which consists really of looting the producing classes of all
+they can stand, the volume of trade here might easily be tenfold what it
+is.
+
+Shahrood is, or rather was, one of the "four stations of terror,"
+Mijamid, Miandasht, and Abassabad being the other three, so called on
+account of their exposed position and the consequent frequency of
+Turcoman attacks. Even nowadays they have their little ripples of
+excitement; rumors of Turcoman raids are heard in the bazaars, and news
+was brought in and telegraphed to Teheran a week ago that fifteen
+thousand sheep had been carried off from a district north of the
+mountains. Word comes back that a regiment of soldiers is on its way to
+chastise the Turcomans and recover the property; what really will happen,
+will be a horde of soldiers staying there long enough to devour what few
+sheep the poor people have left, and then returning without having seen,
+much less chastised, a Turcoman. The Persian Government will notify the
+Russian Minister of the misdoings of the Turcomans, and ask to have them
+punished and the sheep restored; the Russian Minister will reply that
+these particular Turcomans were Persian subjects, and nothing further
+will be done.
+
+Mr. Mclntyre is a canny Scot, a Royal Engineer, and weighs fully three
+hundred pounds; but with this avoirdupois he is far from being inactive,
+and together we ramble up the Asterabad Pass to take a look at the Bostam
+Valley on the other side. The valley isn't much to look at; no verdure,
+only a brown, barren plain, surrounded on all sides by equally brown,
+barren mountains. In the evening the Prince sends round a pheasant, and
+shortly after calls himself and partakes of tea and cigarettes,
+
+I accept Mr. McIntyre's invitation to remain and rest up, but only for
+another day, my experience being that, when on the road, one or two days'
+rest is preferable to a longer period; one gets rested without getting
+out of condition. We take a stroll through the bazaar in the morning, and
+call in at the wine-shop of a Russian-Armenian trader named Makerditch,
+who keeps arrack and native wine, and sample some of the latter. In his
+shop is a badly stuffed Mazanderaii tiger, and the walls of the private
+sitting-room are decorated with rude, old-fashioned prints of saints and
+scriptural scenes. It is now the Persian New Year, and bright new
+garments and snowy turbans impart a gay appearance to the throngs in the
+bazaar, for everybody changed his wardrobe from tip to toe on
+eid-i-noo-roos (evening before New Year's Day), although the "great
+unwashed" of Persian society change never a garment for the next twelve
+months. Considering that the average lower-class Persian puts in a good
+share of this twelve months in the unprofitable process of scratching
+himself, one would think it must be an immense relief for him to cast
+away these old habiliments with all their horrid load of filth and
+vermin, and don a clean, new outfit; but the new ones soon get as thickly
+tenanted as the old; and many even put the new garments on over certain
+of the old ones, caring nothing for comfort and cleanliness, and
+everything for appearance. The Persian New Year's holiday lasts thirteen
+days, and on the evening of the thirteenth day everybody goes out into
+the fields and plucks flowers and grasses to present to his or her
+friends.
+
+Governors of provinces who retain their position in consequence of having
+sent satisfactory tribute to the Shah, and ruled with at least a
+semblance of justice, get presents of new robes on New Year's Day, and
+those who have been unfortunate enough to lose the royal favor get
+removed: New Year's Day brings either sorrow or rejoicing to every
+Persian official's house.
+
+The morning of my departure opens bright and warm after a thunder-storm
+the previous evening, and Mr. Mclntyre accompanies me to the outskirts of
+the city, to put me on the right road to Mijamid, my objective point for
+the day, eleven farsakhs distant. The streets are, of course, muddy and
+unridable, and ere the suburbs are overcome a messenger overtakes us from
+the Prince, begging me to return and drink tea with him before starting.
+
+"Tell the Prince, the sahib sends salaams, but cannot spare the time to
+return," replies my companion, who knows Persian thoroughly. "You must
+come," says the messenger, "for the Khan of Bostam has arrived to pay the
+New Year's salaam to the Prince, and the Prince wants you to show him the
+bicycle."
+
+"'Must come!' Tell the Prince that when the sahib gets fairly started, as
+he is now, with his bicycle, he wouldn't turn back for the Shah himself."
+
+The messenger looks glum and crestfallen, as though very reluctant to
+return with such a message, a message that probably sounds to him
+strangely disrespectful, if not positively treasonable; but he sees the
+uselessness of bandying words, and so turns about, feeling and looking
+very foolish, for he addressed us very boldly and confidently before the
+whole crowd when he overtook us.
+
+A few small streams have to be crossed on leaving Shahrood for the cast;
+splendid rivulets of clear, cold water in which there ought to be trout.
+After these streams the road launches at once on to a level camel-thorn
+plain, the gravelled surface of which provides excellent wheeling. An
+outlying village and caravanserai is passed through at a couple of
+farsakhs, where, as might be expected in the "district of terror," are
+hundreds of the little towers of refuge. This village would be in a very
+exposed position, and it looks as though it is but just now being rebuilt
+and repopulated after a period of ruin and desertion. Beyond this village
+the towers of refuge and other signs of human occupation disappear; the
+uncultivated desert reigns supreme on either hand; but the wheeling
+continues fairly good, although a strong headwind somewhat impedes my
+progress. Beyond the level plain and the lower hills to the north are the
+snowy heights of the Elburz range; a less ambitious range of mountains
+forms a barrier some twenty miles to the south, and in the distant
+southeast there looms up a dark, massive pile that recalls at a glance
+memories of Elk Mountain, Wyoming; though upon a closer inspection there
+is no doubt but that the densely wooded slopes of our old acquaintance of
+the Rockies would be found wanting.
+
+Twenty miles of this level plain is traversed, and I find myself gazing
+curiously at a range of mica-flecked hills off to the right. These hills
+present a very curious appearance; the myriads of flakes of mica
+scattered all about glitter and glint in the bright sunlight as if they
+might be diamonds, and it requires but an easy effort of the imagination
+to fancy one's self in some strange, rich land of the "gorgeous East,"
+where precious jewels are scattered about like stones. These
+mica-spangled hills bear about the same relation to what one's
+imagination might conceive them to be as the "gorgeous East" as it
+actually exists does to the "gorgeous East" we read of in fairytales.
+
+Beyond the mica hills, I pass through a stretch of abandoned cultivation,
+where formerly existed fields and ditches, and villages with an abundance
+of portable property tempted Turkoman raiders to guide their matchless
+chargers hither. But small outlying settlements hereabout were precarious
+places to live in, and the persistent damans generally caused them to be
+abandoned entirely from time to time.
+
+The road has averaged good to-day, and Mijamid is reached at four
+o'clock. Seeking the shelter of the chapar-khana, that devoted building
+is soon surrounded by a new-dressed and accordingly a good-natured and
+vociferous crowd shouting--"Sowar shuk! sowar shuk! tomasha!
+tomasha!"
+
+As I survey the grinning, shouting multitude from my retreat on the roof,
+and note the number of widely-opened mouths, the old wicked thoughts
+about hot potatoes and dexterity in throwing them persist in coming to
+the fore. Several scrimmages and quarrels occur between the chapar-jee
+and his shagirds, and the crowd, who persist in invading the premises,
+and the tumult around is something deafening, for it is holiday times and
+the people feel particularly self-indulgent and disinclined for
+self-denial. In the midst of the uproar, from out the chaotic mass of
+rainbow-colored costumes, there forms a little knot of mollahs in huge
+snowy turbans and flowing gowns of solid blue or green, and at their head
+the gray-bearded patriarchal-looking old khan of the village in his
+flowered robe of office from the governor. These gay-looking, but
+comparatively sober-sided representatives of the village, endeavor to
+have the crowd cease their clamorous importunities--an attempt,
+however, that results in signal failure--and they constitute
+themselves a delegation to approach me in a respectful and decorous
+manner, and ask me to ride for the satisfaction of themselves and the
+people.
+
+The profound salaams and good taste of these eminently respectable
+personages are not to be resisted, and after satisfying them, the khan
+promises to provide me with supper, which at a later hour turns up in the
+form of the inevitable dish of pillau.
+
+Two miles on the road next morning and it begins raining; at five miles
+it develops into a regular downpour, that speedily wets me through. A
+small walled village is finally reached and shelter obtained beneath its
+ample portals, a place that seems to likewise be the loafing-place of the
+village. The entrance is a good-sized room, and here on wet days the men
+can squat about and smoke, and at the same time see everything that
+passes on the road. The village is defended by a strong mud wall some
+thirty feet high, and strengthened with abutting towers at frequent
+intervals; the only entrance is the one massive door, and inside there is
+plenty of room for all the four-footed possessions of the people; the
+houses are the usual little mud huts with thatched beehive roofs, built
+against the wall. The flocks of goats and sheep are admitted inside every
+evening, and taken out again to graze in the morning; the appearance of
+the interior is that of a very filthy, undrained, and utterly neglected
+farmyard, and as no breath of wind ever passes through it, or comes any
+nearer the ground than the top of the thirty-foot wall, living in its
+reeking, pent-up exhalations must be something abominable.
+
+Such a place as this in Persia would be fairly swarming with noxious
+insect life, of which fleas would be the most tolerable variety, and
+two-thirds of the people would be suffering from chronic ophthalmia. This
+little village, doubtless, had enough to do a few years ago to maintain
+its existence, even with its remarkably strong walls; and on the highest
+mountain peaks round about they point out to me their watch-towers, where
+sentinels daily scanned the country round for the wild horsemen they so
+much dreaded. Four men and three women among the little crowd gathered
+about me here, are pointed out as having been released from slavery by
+the Russians, when they captured Khiva and liberated the Persian slaves
+and sent them home. Every village and hamlet along this part of the
+country contains its quota of returned captives who, no doubt, entertain
+lively recollections of being carried off and sold.
+
+Soon after my arrival here, a little, weazen-faced, old seyud, in a
+threadbare and badly-faded green gown, comes hobbling through the rain
+and the mahogany-colored slush of the village yard to the gate. Everybody
+rises respectfully as he comes in, and the old fellow, accustomed to
+having this deference paid him by everybody about him, and wishing to
+show courtesy to a Ferenghi, motions for me to keep seated. Seeing that I
+had no intention of rising, this courtesy was somewhat superfluous, but
+the incident serves to show how greatly these simple villagers are
+impressed with the idea of a seyud's superiority, to say nothing of the
+seyud's assumption of the same. They explain to me that the little,
+unwashed, unkempt, and well-nigh unclad specimen of humanity examining
+the bicycle is a seyud, with the manner of people pointing out a being of
+unapproachable superiority. Still, looking at the poor old fellow's rags,
+and remembering that it is new year and the time for a change of raiment,
+one cannot help thinking, "Old fellow, you evidently come in for more
+resect, after all, than material assistance, and would, no doubt,
+willingly exchange a good deal of the former for a little of the latter."
+Still, one must not be too confident of this; the bodily requirements of
+a wrinkled old seyud would be very trifling, while his egotism would, on
+the other hand, be insufferable. This is a grazing village chiefly, and
+the gravelly desert comes close up to the walls, so that there is no
+difficulty about pushing on immediately after it ceases raining.
+
+Two farsakhs of variable wheeling through a belt of low hills and broken
+country, and two more over the level Miandasht Plain, and the
+caravanserai of Miandasht is reached. Here the village, the telegraph
+office and everything is enclosed within the protecting walls of an
+immense Shah Abbas caravanserai, a building capable of affording shelter
+and protection to five thousand people. In the old--and yet not so very
+old--dangerous days, it was necessary, for safety, that travellers and
+pilgrims should journey together through this section of country in large
+caravans, otherwise disaster was sure to overtake them; and Shah Abbas
+the Great built these huge caravanserais for their accommodation. In
+deference to the memory of this monarch as a builder of caravanserais all
+over the country, any large serai is nowadays called a Shah Abbas
+caravanserai, whether built by him or not. Certainly not less than three
+hundred pack-camels, besides other animals, are resting and feeding, or
+being loaded up for the night march as I ride up, their myriad clanging
+bells making a din that comes floating across the plain to meet me as I
+approach.
+
+Miandasht is the first place in Khorassan proper, and among the motley
+gathering of charmdars, camel-drivers, pilgrims, travellers, villagers
+and hangers-on about the serai, are many Khorassanis wearing huge
+sheepskin busbies, similar to the head-gear of the Roumanians and Tabreez
+Turks of Ovahjik and the Perso-Turkish border. Most of these busbies are
+black or brown, but some affect a mixture of black and white, a piebald
+affair that looks very striking and peculiar.
+
+The telegraph-jee here turns out to be a person of immense importance in
+his own estimation, and he has evidently succeeded in impressing the same
+belief upon the unsophisticated minds of the villagers, who, apparently,
+have come to regard him as little less than "monarch of all he surveys."
+True, there isn't much to survey at Miaudasht, everything there being
+within the caravanserai walls; but whenever the telegraph-jee emerges
+from the seclusion of his little office, it is to blossom forth upon the
+theatre of the crowd's admiring glances in the fanciful habiliments of a
+la-de-da Persian swell. Very punctilious as regards etiquette, instead of
+coming forth in a spontaneous manner to see who I am and look at the
+bicycle, he pays me a ceremonious visit at the chapar-khana half an hour
+later. In this visit he is preceded by his farrash, and he walks with a
+magnificent peacock strut that causes the skirts of his faultless
+roundabout to flop up and down, up and down, in rhythmic accompaniment to
+his steps. Apart from his insufferable conceit, however, he tries to make
+himself as agreeable as possible, and after tea and cigarettes, I give
+him and the people a tomasha, at the conclusion of which he asks
+permission to send in my supper.
+
+The room in which I spend the evening is a small, dome-roofed apartment,
+in which a circular opening in the apex of the dome is expected to fill
+the triple office of admitting light, ventilation, and carrying off smoke
+from the fire; the natural consequence being that the room is dark,
+unventilated, and full of smoke. Now and then some determined sightseer
+on the roof fills this hole up completely with his head, in an effort to
+peer down through the smoke and obtain a glimpse of myself or the
+bicycle, or a mischievous youngster, unable to resist the temptation,
+drops down a stone.
+
+The shagird-chapar here is a man who has been to Askabad and seen the
+railroad; and when the inevitable question of Russian versus English
+marifet (mechanical skill) comes up, he endeavors to impress upon the
+open-mouthed listeners the marvellous character of the locomotive. "It is
+a wonderful atesh-gharri" (fire-wagon), he would say, "and runs on an
+awhan rah (iron road); the charvadar puts in atesh and ob. It goes chu,
+chu! chu!! ch-ch-ch-chu-ch-u-u-u!!! spits fire and smoke, pulls a
+long-khylie long-caravan of forgans with it, and goes ten farsakhs an
+hour." But in order to thoroughly appreciate this travelled and highly
+enlightened person's narrative, one must have been present in the
+smoke-permeated room, and by the nickering light of a camel-thorn fire
+have watched the gesticulations of the speaker and the rapt attention of
+the listeners; must have heard the exclamations of "Mashal-l-a-h!" escape
+honestly and involuntarily from the parted lips of wonder-stricken
+auditors as they endeavored to comprehend how such things could possibly
+be. And yet there is no doubt that, five minutes afterward, the verdict
+of each listener, to himself, was that the shagird-chapar, in describing
+to them the locomotive, was lying like a pirate--or a Persian--and, after
+all, they couldn't conceive of anything more wonderful than the bicycle
+and the ability to ride it, and this they had seen with their own eyes.
+
+It is the change of the moon, and a most wild-looking evening; the sun
+sets with a fiery forge glowing about it, and fringing with an angry
+border the banks of darksome clouds that mingle their weird shapes with
+the mountain masses to the west, the wind sighs and moans through the
+archways and menzils of the huge caravanserai, breathing of rain and
+unsettled weather. These warning signals are not far in advance, for a
+drenching rain soaks and saturates everything during the night,
+converting the parallel trails of the pilgrim road into twenty narrow,
+silvery streaks, that glisten like trails of glass ahead, as I wheel
+along them to meet the newly-risen sun. It is a morning of hurrying,
+scudding clouds and fitful sunshine, but fresh and bracing after the
+rain; a country of broken hills and undulating road is reached in an
+hour; the broken hills are covered with blossoming shrubs and green young
+camel-thorn, in which birds are cheerily piping.
+
+Six farsakhs bring me to Abbasabad, the last of the four stations of
+terror. A lank villager is on the lookout a couple of miles west of the
+place, the people having been apprised of my coming by some travellers
+who left Miandasht yesterday evening. Tucking the legs of his pantaloons
+in his waistband, leaving his legs bare and unencumbered, he follows me
+at a swinging trot into the village, and pilots me to the caravanserai.
+The population of the place are found occupying their housetops, and
+whatever points of vantage they can climb to, awaiting my appearance,
+their curiosity having been wrought to the highest pitch by their
+informant's highly exaggerated accounts of what they might expect to see.
+The prevailing color of the female costume is bright red, and the swarms
+of these gayly-dressed people congregated on the housetops, and mingled
+promiscuously with the dark gray of the mud walls and domes, makes a
+picture long to be remembered.
+
+And long also to be remembered is the reception awaiting me inside the
+caravanserai yard--the surging, pushing, struggling, shouting mob, among
+whom I notice, with some wonderment and speculation, a far larger
+proportion of blue-eyed people than I have hitherto seen in Persia. Upon
+inquiry it is learned that Abbasabad is a colony of Georgians, planted
+and subsidized here by Shah Abbas the Great, as a check on the Turkomans,
+whose frequent alamans rendered the roads hereabout well-nigh impassable
+for caravans. These warlike mountaineers were brought from the Caucasus
+and colonized here, with lands, exemption from taxes, and given an annual
+subsidy. They were found to be of good service as a check on the
+Turkomans, but were not much of an improvement upon the Turkomans
+themselves in many respects. As seen in the caravanserai to-day, they
+seem a turbulent, headstrong crowd of people, accustomed to be petted,
+and to do pretty much as they please.
+
+At the caravanserai is a traveller who says he hails from the Pishin
+Valley, and he produces a certificate in English, recommending him as a
+stone mason. The certificate settles all doubts of his being from India,
+for were one to meet an Hindostani in the classic shades of purgatory
+itself, he would immediately produce a certificate recommending him for
+something or other. As the crowd surge and struggle for some position
+around me where they can enjoy the exquisite delight of seeing me sip
+tiny glasses of scalding hot tea, prepared by the enterprising individual
+who met me two miles out, the Pishin Valley man tries to look amused at
+them, and to rise superior to the situation, as becomes a person to whom
+a Sahib, and whatever wonderful things he may possess, are nothing
+extraordinary. The crowd seem very loath to let such an extraordinary
+thing as the bicycle and its rider depart from among them so soon,
+although at the same time anxious to see me speed along the smooth,
+straight trails that fortunately lead directly from the caravanserai
+eastward. Scores of the shouting, yelling mob race, bare-footed and
+bare-legged, over the stones and gravel alongside the bicycle, until I
+can put on a spurt and out-distance them, which I take care to do as soon
+as practicable, thankful to get away and eat the bread pocketed in
+disgust at the caravanserai in the peace and quietude of the desert.
+
+Beyond Abbasabad my road skirts Mazinan Lake to the north, passing
+between the slimy mud-flats of the lake shore and the ever-present Elburz
+foot-hills, and then through several wholly ruined or partially ruined
+villages to Mazinan, where I arrive about sunset, my wheel yet again a
+mass of mud, for the Mazinan lake country is a muddy hole in spring. A
+drizzling rain ushers in the dusky shades of the evening, as I repair to
+the chaparkhana, a wretched hole, in a most dilapidated condition. The
+balakhana is little better than being out of doors; the roof leaks like a
+colander, the windows are mere unglazed holes in the wall, and the doors
+are but little better than the windows. It promises to be a cold,
+draughty, comfortless night, and the prospects for supper look gloomy
+enough in the light of smoky camel-thorn and no samovar to make a cup of
+tea.
+
+Such is the cheerless prospect confronting me after a hard day's run,
+when, soon after dark, a man arrives with a thrice-welcome invitation
+from a Russian officer, who he says is staying at the caravanserai. The
+officer, he says, has pillau, kabobs, wine, plenty of everything, and
+would be glad if I would bring my machine and come and accept his
+hospitality for the night. Under the circumstances nothing could be more
+welcome news than this; and picturing to myself a pleasant evening with a
+genial, hospitable gentleman, I take the bicycle down the slippery and
+broken mud stairway, and follow my guide through drizzling rain and
+darkness, over ditches and through miry byways, to the caravanserai.
+
+The officer is found squatting, Asiatic-like, on his menzil floor, his
+overcoat over his shoulders. He is watching his cook broiling kabobs for
+his supper. It is a cheery, hopeful prospect, the glowing charcoal fire
+sparkling in response to the vigorous waving of half a saddle-flap, the
+savory, sizzling kabobs and the carpeted menzil, in comparison with the
+dreary tumble-down place I have just left. My first impression of the
+officer himself, however, is scarcely so favorable as my impression of
+the picture in which he is set--the picture as just described; a sinister
+leer characterizes the expression of his face, and what appears like a
+nod, with an altogether unnecessary amount of condescension in it,
+characterizes his greeting. Hopping down to the ground, lamp in hand, he
+examines the bicycle minutely, and then indirectly addressing the
+by-standers, he says, "Pooh! this thing was made in Tiflis; there's
+hundreds of them in Tiflis." Having delivered himself of this lying
+statement, he hops up on the menzil front again and, without paying the
+slightest attention to me, resumes his squatting position at the fire,
+and his occupation of watching the preparations of his cook. Nothing is
+more evident to me than that he had never before seen a bicycle, and
+astounded at this conduct on the part of an officer who doubtless thinks
+himself a civilized being, even though he might not understand anything
+of our own conception of an "officer and a gentleman," I begin looking
+around for an explanation from the fellow who brought me the invitation,
+thinking there must be some mistake. The man has disappeared and is
+nowhere to be found.
+
+The chapar-jee accompanied us to the caravanserai, and seeing that this
+man has bolted, and that the Russian officer's intentions toward me are
+anything but hospitable, he calls the missing man--or the officer, I
+don't know which--a pedar suktar (son of a burnt father), and
+suggests returning to the cold comfort of the bala-khana. My own feelings
+upon realizing that this wretched, unscrupulous Muscovite has craftily
+designed and executed this plan for no other purpose but to insult and
+humiliate one whom he took for granted to be an Englishman, in the eyes
+of the Persian travellers present, I prefer to pass over and leave to the
+reader's imagination. After sleeping on it and thinking it over, early
+next morning I returned to the caravanserai, bent on finding the fellow
+who brought the invitation, giving him a thrashing, and seeing if the
+officer would take it up in his behalf. In the morning, the cossacks said
+he had gone away; whether gone away or hiding somewhere in the
+caravanserai, he was nowhere to be found; which perhaps was just as well,
+for the affair might have ended in bloodshed, and in a fight the chances
+would have been decidedly against myself.
+
+This incident, disagreeable though it be to think of, is instructive as
+showing the possibilities for mean and contemptible action that may lurk
+beneath the uniform of a Russian officer. Russian officers as a general
+thing, however, it is but fair to add, would show up precisely the
+reverse of this fellow, under similar circumstances, being genial and
+hospitable to a fault; still, I venture that in no other army in the
+world, reckoning itself civilized, could be found even one officer
+capable of displaying just such a spirit as this.
+
+The unwelcome music of pattering rain and flowing water in the concert I
+have to sit and listen to all the forenoon, and a glance outside is
+rewarded by the dreariest of prospects. The landscape as seen from my
+lone and miserable lookout, consists of gray mud-fields and gray
+mud-ruins, wet and slimy with the constant rains; occasional
+barley-fields mosaic the dreary prospect with bright green patches, but
+across them all--the mud-flats, the ruins, and the barley-fields--the
+driving rain sweeps remorselessly along, and the wind moans dismally.
+There is only one corner of my room proof against the drippings from the
+roof, and through the wretched apologies for doors and windows the
+driving rain comes in. Everything seems to go wrong in this particular
+place. I obtain tea and sugar, but there is no samovar, and the
+chapar-jee attempts to make it in an open kettle; the result is sweetened
+water, lukewarm and smoky. I then send for pomegranates, which turn out
+to be of a sour, uneatable variety; but worse than all is the dreary
+consciousness of being hopelessly imprisoned for an uncertain period.
+
+It grows gradually colder, and toward noon the rain changes to snow; the
+cold and the penetrating snow drive me into the shelter of the
+ill-smelling stables. It blows a perfect hurricane all the afternoon,
+accompanied by fitful squalls of snow and hail, and the same programme
+continues the greater part of the night. But in the morning I am thankful
+to discover that the wind has dried the surface sufficiently to enable me
+to escape from my mud-environed prison and its uncongenial associations.
+
+Before getting many miles from Mazinan, I encounter the startling novelty
+of streams of liquid mud, rolling their thick, yellow flood over the
+plain in treacly waves, travelling slowly, like waves of molten lava. The
+mud is only a few inches deep, but the streams overspread a considerable
+breadth of country, as my road is some miles from where they leave the
+mountains, and they seem to have no well-defined channels to flow in. A
+stream of slimy, yellow mud, two hundred yards wide, is a most
+disagreeable obstacle to overcome with a bicycle; but confined in narrow,
+deep channels, the conditions would be infinitely worse. It is a dreary
+and forbidding stretch of country hereabout, the carcasses of camels that
+have dropped exhausted by the roadside, are frequently passed, and
+jackals feasting on them slink off at my approach, watch my progress past
+with evident impatience, and then return again to their feast. Occasional
+stretches of very fair wheeling are passed over, and at six farsakhs I
+reach Mehr, the usual combination of brick caravanserai and mud village.
+
+Here a halt is made for tea and such rude refreshments as are obtainable,
+consuming them in the presence of the usual sore-eyed and
+miserable-looking crowd; more than one poor wretch appealing to me to
+cure his rapidly-failing sight. A gleam of warm sunshine brightens my
+departure from Mehr, and after shaking off several following horsemen,
+the going seems quite pleasant, the wheeling being very good indeed. The
+mountains off to the left are variegated and beautiful on the lower and
+intermediate slopes, and are crested with snow; scudding cloudlets, whose
+multiform shadows are continually climbing up and over the mountains,
+produce a pleasing kaleidoscopic effect, and here and there a sunny,
+glistening peak rises superior to the changeful scenes below.
+
+Sheepskin-busbied shepherds are tending flocks of very peculiar-looking
+sheep on this plain, the first of the kind I have noticed. The fatty
+continuation of the body, popularly regarded as an abnormal growth of
+tail, is wanting; but what is lacking in this respect is amply
+compensated for in the pendulous ears, these members hanging almost to
+the ground; they have a goatish appearance generally, and may possibly be
+the result of a cross. Herds of antelope also frequent this locality,
+which by and by develops into a level mud-plain that affords smooth and
+excellent wheeling, and over which I take the precaution of making the
+best time possible, conscious that a few minutes' rain would render it
+impassable for a bicycle; and wild wind-storms are even now careering
+over it, accompanied by spits of snow and momentary squalls of hail.
+
+A lone minar, looming up directly ahead like a tall factory chimney,
+indicates my approach to Subzowar. The minaret is reached by sunset; it
+turns out to be a lone shrine of some imam, from which it is yet two
+farsakhs to Subzowar. The wheeling from this point, however, is very
+good, and I roll into Subzowar, or, at least, up to its gate, for
+Subzowar is a walled city, shortly after dark. Sherab (native wine) they
+tell me, is obtainable in the bazaar, but when I inquire the price per
+bottle, with a view of sending for one, several eager aspirants for the
+privilege of fetching it shout out different prices, the lowest figure
+mentioned being three times the actual price. Being rather indifferent
+about the doubtful luxury of drinking wine for the amusement of an
+eagerly curious crowd, which I know only too well beforehand will be my
+unhappy portion, I conclude to chagrin and disappoint the whole dishonest
+crew by doing without. One gets so thoroughly disgusted with the
+ever-present trickery, dishonesty, and prying, unrestrained curiosity of
+the ragged, sore-eyed and garrulous crowds that gather about one at every
+halting place, that a person actually comes to prefer a mere crust of
+bread in peace by a road-side pool to the best a city bazaar affords.
+
+A well-dressed individual makes his salaam and intrudes his person upon
+the scene of my early preparations to depart, on the following morning,
+and, when I start, takes upon himself the office of conducting me through
+the labyrinthian bazaar and to the gate of exit beyond. I am wondering
+somewhat who this individual may be, and wherefore the officiousness of
+his demeanor to the crowd at our heels; but his mission is soon revealed,
+for on the way out he pilots me into the court-yard of the Reis, or mayor
+of the city. The Reis receives me with the glad and courteous greeting of
+a person desirous of making himself agreeable and of creating a favorable
+impression; trays of sweetmeats are produced, and tea is served up in
+little porcelain cups.
+
+As soon as tea and sweetmeats and kalians appear on the board, mollahs
+and seyuds mysteriously begin to put in an appearance likewise, filing
+noiselessly in and taking their places near or distant from the Reis,
+according to their respective rank and degree of holiness. My
+observations everywhere in the Land of the Lion and the Sun all tend to
+the conclusion that whenever and wherever a samovar of tea begins to sing
+its cheery and aromatic song, and the soothing hubble-bubble of the
+kalian begins telling its seductive tale of solid comfort and social
+intercourse, a huge green or white turban is certain to appear on the
+scene, a robed figure steps out of its slippers at the door, glides
+noiselessly inside, puts its hand on its stomach, salaams, and drops, as
+silently as a ghost might, in a squatting attitude among the guests.
+Hardly has this one taken his position than another one appears at the
+door and goes through precisely the same programme, followed shortly
+afterward by another, and yet others; these foxy-looking members of the
+Persian priesthood always seem to me to possess the faculty of scenting
+these little occasions from afar and of following their noses to the
+place with unerring precision.
+
+Upon emerging from the shelter of the city and adjacent ruins, I find
+myself confronted by a furious head-wind, against which it is quite
+impossible to ride, and almost impossible to trundle. During the forenoon
+I meet on the road a disgraced official, in the person of the
+Asaf-i-dowleh, Governor-General of Khorassan, returning to Teheran from
+Meshed, having been recalled at New Year's by the Shah to give an account
+of himself for "oppressing the people, insulting the Prophet, and
+intriguing with the Russians." The Asaf-i-dowleh made himself very
+obnoxious to the priests and people of the holy city by arresting a
+criminal within the place of refuge at Imam Riza's tomb, and by an
+outrageous devotion to his own pecuniary interests at the public expense.
+Riots occurred, the mob taking possession of the telegraph-office and
+smashing the windows, because they fancied their petition to the Shah was
+being tampered with. A timely rain-storm dispersed the mob and gave time
+for the Shah's reply to arrive, promising the Asaf-i-dowleh's removal and
+disgrace. The ex-Governor is in a carriage drawn by four grays; his own
+women are in gayly gilded taktrowans, upholstered with crimson satin; the
+women of his followers occupy several pairs of kajavehs, and the
+household goods of the party follow behind in a number of huge Russian
+forgans or wagons, each drawn by four mules abreast. Besides these are a
+long string of pack-camels, mules, and attendants on horseback, forming
+altogether the most imposing cavalcade I have met on a Persian road. How
+they manage to get the heavily loaded forgans and the Governor's carriage
+over such places as the pass near Lasgird is something of a
+mystery--but there may be another route--at any rate, hundreds of
+villagers would be called out to assist.
+
+An opportunity also presents this morning of seeing the amount of
+obstinacy and perverseness that manages to find lodgement within the
+unsightly curves and angles of a runaway camel. A riding-camel, led by
+its owner, scares at the bicycle, and, breaking away, leads him a lively
+chase through a belt of low sand ridges near the road, jolting various
+packages off his back as he runs. Every time the man gets almost within
+seizing distance of the rope, the contrary camel starts off again in a
+long, awkward lope, slowing up again, as though maliciously inviting his
+owner to try it over again, when he has covered a couple of hundred
+yards. These manoeuvres are repeated again and again, until the chase has
+extended to perhaps four miles, when a party of travellers assist in
+rounding him up; the man then has to re-traverse the whole four miles and
+gather up the things.
+
+A late luncheon of bread, warm from the oven, is obtained at the village
+of Lafaram, where I likewise obtain a peep behind the scenes of everyday
+village life, and see something of their mode of baking bread. The walled
+village of Lafaram presents a picture of manure heaps, holes of filthy
+water, mud-hovels, naked, sore eyed youngsters, unkempt, unwashed,
+bedraggled females, goats, chickens, and all the unsavory elements that
+enter into the composition of a wretched, semi-civilized community. With
+bare, uncombed heads, bare-armed, bare-breasted, and bare-limbed, and
+with their nakedness scarcely hidden beneath a few coarse rags, some of
+the women are engaged in making and baking bread, and others in the
+preparation of tezek from cow manure and chopped straw. In carrying on
+these two occupations the women mingle, chat, and help each other with
+happy-go-lucky indifference to consequences, and with a breezy
+unconsciousness of there being anything repulsive about the idea of
+handling hot cakes with one hand and tezek with the other. The ovens are
+huge jars partially sunk in the ground; fire is made inside and the jar
+heated; flat cakes of dough are then stuck in the inside of the jar, a
+few minutes sufficing for the baking. The hand and arm the woman inserts
+inside the heated jar is wrapped with old rags and frequently dipped in a
+jar of water standing by to keep it cooled; the bread thus baked tastes
+very good when fresh, but it requires a stomach rendered unsqueamish by
+dire necessity to relish it after seeing it baked.
+
+The plain beyond Lafaram assumes the character of an acclivity, that in
+four farsakhs terminates in a pass through a spur of hills. The adverse
+wind blows furiously all day and shows no signs of abating as the dusk of
+evening settles down over the landscape. A wayside caravanserai is
+reached at the entrance to the pass, and I determine to remain till
+morning. Here I meet with a piece of good fortune in a small way, in the
+shape of a leg of wild goat, obtained from a native Nimrod; a thin rod of
+iron, obtained from the serai-jee, serves for a skewer, and I spend the
+evening in roasting and eating wild-goat kabobs, while a youth fans the
+little charcoal fire for me with the sole of an old geiveh.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+MESHED THE HOLY.
+
+Warning spits of snow accompany my early morning departure from the
+wayside caravanserai, and it quickly develops into a blinding snow-storm
+that effectually obscures the country around, although melting as it
+touches the ground.
+
+A mile from the caravanserai the trails fork, and, taking the wrong one,
+I wander some miles up the mountains ere discovering my mistake.
+Retracing my way, the right road is finally taken; but the gale increases
+in violence, the cold is numbing to unprotected hands and ears, and the
+wind and driving snow difficult to face. At one point the trail leads
+through a morass, in which are two dead horses, swamped in attempting to
+cross, and near by lies an abandoned camel, lying in the mud and wearily
+munching at a heap of kali (cut barley-straw) placed before him by his
+owners before leaving him to his kismet; perchance with a forlorn hope
+that he might pull through and finally regain his feet.
+
+I have a narrow escape from swamping in the treacherous morass myself,
+sinking knee-deep in the slimy, oozing mud-mass, pulling off my geivehs
+and having no end of trouble in recovering them.
+
+Shurab is reached about noon, where the customary crowd and customary
+rude accommodations await me. Quite an unaccustomed luxury, however, is
+obtained at Shurab--a substance made from grapes, called sheerah,
+which resembles thin molasses. A communal dish, which I see the
+chapar-jee and his sliagirds prepare for themselves and eat this evening,
+consists of one pint of sheerah, half that quantity of grease, a handful
+of chopped onions and a quart of water. This awful mixture is stewed for
+a few minutes and then poured over a bowl of broken bread; they then
+gather around and eat it with their hands--that they also eat it with
+great gusto goes without saying.
+
+Opium smoking appears to be indulged in to a great extent here, two out
+of the three chapar men putting in a good portion of their time "hitting"
+the seductive pipe, and tinkering with their opium-smoking apparatus.
+They only have one outfit between them; both of them are half blind with
+ophthalmia, and the bane of their wretched existence seems to be a
+Russian candle-lamp, with a broken globe, that persists in falling apart
+whenever they attempt to use it--which, by the by, is well-nigh all
+the time--in manipulating the opium needle and pipe. Observing them
+from my rude shake-down, after supper, bending persistently over this
+broken, or ever-breaking lamp, their sore eyes and shrunken features, the
+suzzle-suzzle of the opium as they suck it into the primer and inhale the
+fumes--the indescribable odor of the drug pervading the
+room--all this would seem to be a picture of an ideal Chinese opium
+den rather than of a chapar-khana in Persia.
+
+A broken bridge and miles of deep mud not far ahead has been the burthen
+of information gathered from the villagers during the afternoon, and the
+chapar-jee urges upon me the necessity of employing men and horses to
+carry me and the bicycle across these obstructions into Nishapoor.
+Preferring to take my chances of getting through, however, I pay no heed
+to these warnings, well aware that the chapar-jee's interest in the
+matter begins and ends in the fact that he has horses to hire himself.
+
+In imitation of my example yesterday, I wander off the proper road again
+this morning, taking a road that leads to an abandoned ford instead of to
+the bridge, a mistake that is probably a very good one to have made when
+viewed from the stand-point of mud, as my road is at least the shorter
+one of the two.
+
+A wild-looking, busby-decked crowd of Khorassani goatherds from a
+neighboring village follow behind me across the level mudflats leading to
+the stream, vociferously clamoring for me to ride. They shout
+persistently: "H-o-i! Sowar shuk; tomasha! tomasha!" even when they see
+the difficult task I have of it getting the bicycle through the mud. I
+have singled out a big, sturdy goat-herder to assist me across the
+streams, of which I learn there are two, a mile or thereabout apart, and
+his compatriots are accompanying us to see us cross, as well as being
+impelled by prying curiosity to see how many kerans he gets for his
+trouble. The first stream is found to be arm-pit deep, with a fairly
+strong current. My sturdy Khorassani crosses over first, to try the
+bottom, feeling his way with a long-handled spade; he then returns and
+carries the bicycle across on his head, afterward carrying me across
+astride his shoulders, landing me safely with nothing worse than wet
+feet.
+
+A mile of awful saline mud, and stream number two is reached and crossed
+in a similar manner--although here I unfortunately cross part way
+over fairly sitting on the water. The water and the weather are both
+uncomfortably chilly, and my assistant emerges from the second stream
+with chattering teeth and goose-pimply flesh. A liberal and well-deserved
+present makes him forget personal discomforts, and, fervently kissing my
+hand and pressing my palm to his forehead, he tells me there is no more
+water ahead, and, recrossing the stream, he wends his way homeward again.
+
+Fortunately the road improves rapidly, developing beyond the Nishapoor
+Valley into smooth, upland camel-trails that afford quite excellent
+wheeling. The Nishapoor Valley impresses me as about the finest area of
+cultivation seen in Persia, except, perhaps, the Tabreez Plain; and
+toward Gadamgah the country gets positively beautiful--at least, beautiful
+in comparison. Crystal streamlets come purling and gurgling across the
+road over pebbly beds; and, looking northward for their source, one finds
+that the usually gray and uninteresting foot-hills have changed into
+bright, green slopes, on whose cheerful brows are seen an occasional pine
+or cedar. Overtopping these green, grassy slopes are dark, rugged rocks,
+and higher still the grim white region of--winter. Somewhere behind
+these emerald foot-hills, near Gadamgah, are the famous turquoise mines
+alluded to in the "Veiled Prophet of Khorassan." The mines are worked at
+the present time, but only in a desultory and unenterprising manner.
+
+Favored with good roads, I succeed in reaching Gadamgah before dark,
+where, besides a comfortable and commodious caravanserai, and the
+pleasure of seeing around a number of fine-spreading cedars, one can
+obtain the rare luxury of pine-wood to build a fire.
+
+Immediately upon my arrival a knowing and respectable-looking old
+pilgrim, who calls himself a hadji and a dervish from Mazan-deran,
+rescues me from the annoying importunities of the people and invites me
+to share the accommodation of his menzil. Augmenting his scanty stock of
+firewood and obtaining eggs and bread, quite a comfortable evening is
+spent in reclining beside the blazing pine-wood fire, which is itself no
+trifling luxury in a country of scanty camel-thorn and tezek. Whenever
+the prying curiosity of the occupants of neighboring menzils impels them
+to visit our quarters, to stand and stare at me, my friend the hadji
+waxes indignant, and, waving a stick of firewood threateningly toward
+them, he pours forth a torrent of withering and sarcastic remarks. Once,
+in his wrath, he hops lightly off the menzil floor, seizes an individual
+twice his own size by the kammerbund, jerks him violently forward, bids
+him stare until he gets ashamed of staring, and then, turning him round,
+shoves him unceremoniously away again, pursuing him as he retreats to his
+own quarters with vengeful shouts of "y-a-h!"
+
+To a few eminently respectable travellers, however, the hadji graciously
+accords the coveted privilege of squatting around our fire and chatting.
+Being himself a person who dearly loves the music of his own voice, he
+holds forth at great length on the subject of himself in particular,
+dervishes in general, and the Province of Mazanderaii. Like a good many
+other people conscious of their own garrulousness, the hadji evidently
+suspects his auditors of receiving his statements with a good deal of
+allowance; consequently, when impressing upon them the circumstance of
+his hailing from Mazanderan--a fact that he seems to think creditable in
+some way to himself--he produces from the depths of his capacious
+saddlebags several dried fish of a variety for which that province is
+celebrated, and exhibits them in confirmation of his statements.
+
+It is genuine wintry weather, and with no bedclothes, save a narrow
+horse-blanket borrowed from my impromptu friend, I spend a cold,
+uncomfortable night, for a caravanserai menzil is but a mere place of
+shelter after all. The hadji rises early and replenishes the fire, and
+with his little brass teapot we make and drink a glass of tea together
+before starting out.
+
+At daybreak the hadji goes outside to take a preliminary peep at the
+weather, and returns with the unwelcome intelligence that it is snowing.
+
+"Better snow than rain," I conclude, as I prepare to start, little
+thinking that I am entering upon the toughest day's experience of the
+whole journey through Persia.
+
+Before covering three miles, the snow-storm develops into a regular
+blizzard; a furious, driving storm that would do credit to Dakota.
+Without gloves, and in summer clothes throughout, I quickly find myself
+in a most unenviable plight. It is no common snow-storm; every few
+minutes a halt has to be made, hands buffeted and ears rubbed to prevent
+these members from freezing; yet foot-gear has to be removed and streams
+waded in the bitter cold.
+
+The road leads up into a region of broken hills, and the climax of my
+discomfort is reached, when the blizzard is raging with ever-increasing
+fury, and the cold has already slightly nipped one finger. While
+attempting to cross a deep, narrow stream without disrobing, it is my
+unhappy fate to drop the bicycle into the water, and furthermore to front
+the necessity of instantly plunging in, armpit deep, to its rescue. When
+I emerge upon the opposite bank my situation is really quite critical; in
+a few moments my garments are frozen stiff; everything I have with me is
+wet; my leathern case, containing the small stock of medicines, matches,
+writing material, and other small but necessary articles, is full of
+water, and, with hands benumbed, I am unable to unstrap it.
+
+My only salvation consists in vigorous exercise, and, conscious of this,
+I splurge ahead through the blinding storm and the fast-deepening snow,
+fording several other streams, often emerging dripping from the icy water
+to struggle through waist-deep snow-drifts that are rapidly accumulating
+under the influence of the driving blast and fast-falling snow. Uncertain
+of the distance to the next caravanserai, I push determinedly forward in
+this condition for several hours, making but slow progress. Everything
+must come to an end, however, and twenty miles from Gadamgah the welcome
+outlines of a road-side caravanserai become visible through the thickly
+falling snow-flakes, and the din of many jangling camel-bells proclaims
+it already occupied.
+
+The caravanserai is found so densely crowded with people, horses, camels,
+and their loads that it is impossible to at first carry the bicycle
+inside. Confusion, and more than confusion, reigns supreme; every menzil
+is occupied, and the whole interior space is a confused mass of
+charvadars, stoutly vociferating at one another and at the pack-animals
+lying down, wandering about, or being unloaded.
+
+Leaving the bicycle outside in the snow, I clamber over the humpy forms
+of kneeling camels, through an intricate maze of mules and over
+barricades of miscellaneous merchandise, and, making a virtue of dire
+necessity, invade the menzil of a well-to-do looking traveller. Here,
+waiving all considerations of whether my presence is acceptable or the
+reverse, I take a seat beside their fire and forthwith proceed to shed my
+saturated foot-gear. Under ordinary conditions this proceeding would be
+nothing less than a piece of sublime assurance; but necessity knows no
+law, and my case is really very urgent. When I explain to the occupants
+of the menzil that this nolens volens invasion of their premises is but a
+temporary arrangement, in the flowery language of polite Persian they
+tell me that the menzil, the fire, and everything they have is mine.
+
+After the inevitable examination of my map, compass, and sundry effects,
+I begin to fancy my presence something of an embarrassment, and
+consequently am not a little gratified at hearing the authoritative voice
+of my friend the hadji shouting loudly at the charvadars, telling them
+that he is a hadji and a Mazanderan dervish, for whom they cannot clear
+the way too quickly. Looking round, I see him appear at the caravanserai
+entrance with a party of pilgrims, in whose company he has journeyed from
+Gadamgah. The combined excellences that enter into the composition of a
+person who is both a dervish and an ex-Mecca pilgrim are of great benefit
+in securing the respect and consideration of the common herd in Persia;
+and as, in addition to this, our hadji commands attention by the peculiar
+tone and volume of his voice when delivering his commands, his tall,
+angular steed is quickly tied up in a snug and sheltered corner and his
+saddle-bags deposited on the floor of a fellow-pilgrim's menzil.
+
+Hearing of my arrival, he straightway seeks me out and invites me to
+share the accommodation of his new-found quarters, not forgetting to
+explain to the people he finds me with, however, that he is a hadji, a
+dervish, and that he hails from Mazanderan. I shouldn't be much surprised
+to see him back up the latter assertion by producing a dried fish from
+the ample folds of his kammerbund; but these finny witnesses are reserved
+to perform their role later in the evening.
+
+As the gloom of night envelopes the interior of the caravanserai, and the
+scores of little brushwood fires smoke and glimmer and twinkle fitfully,
+the scene appeals to an observant Occidental as being decidedly unique,
+and totally unlike anything to be seen outside of Persia. Around each
+little fire, from four to a dozen figures are squatting, each group
+forming a most social gathering; some are singing, some chatting
+pleasantly, some quarrelling and arguing violently; some are shouting
+lustily at each other across the whole width of the serai; all are taking
+turns at smoking the kalian or sipping tea, or preparing supper.
+Occasionally a fiery wheel glows through the darkness, from which fly
+myriads of sparks, looking very pretty as it describes rapid circles.
+This is a. little wire cage, full of live charcoal, that is being swung
+round and round like a sling to enliven the coals for priming the kalian.
+In the middle space, crowded with animals and their loads, the horses,
+being all stallions, are constantly squealing and fighting; camels, are
+grunting dolefully, donkeys are braying and bells clanging, and grooms
+and charvadars are shouting and quarrelling. Taken all in all, the
+interior of a crowded caravanserai is a decidedly animated place.
+
+The snow-storm subsides during the night, and a clear, frosty morning
+breaks upon a wintry landscape, in which nothing is visible but snow. The
+hadji announces his intention of "Inshallah Meshed, am roos" (please God,
+we will reach Meshed to-day) as he covers up the obtrusive tail of a fish
+emerging from one of the saddle-bags and prepares to mount. I give him my
+packages to carry, by way of lightening my burden as much as possible for
+the struggle through the snow, and promise him a bottle of arrack, upon
+reaching Meshed, as a reward for thus assisting me through. Arrack is
+forbidden fruit to a hadji above all things else, so that nothing I could
+promise him would likely prove more tempting or acceptable, or be better
+appreciated!
+
+It proves slavish work trundling, tugging, and carrying the bicycle
+through the deep snow along a half-broken trail made by a few horses, and
+through deep drifts; but the cold, bracing air is favorable for exertion,
+and by ten o'clock we reach Shahriffabad, where a halt is made to prepare
+a cup of tea and to give the hadji's horse a feed of barley. At
+Shahriffabad we are warned that on the hills between here and Meshed snow
+will be found two feet deep, streams belly deep to the hadji's horse will
+have to be forded, and, toward Meshed, mud knee-deep. Conscious that the
+mud will be "knee-deep" the whole distance, after the disappearance of
+the snow, this makes us only the more eager to push on while we may.
+
+The sun has by this time become uncomfortably warm, and the narrow trail
+is fast becoming a miry pathway of mud and slush under the trampling feet
+of the animals gone ahead, and of villagers' donkeys returning from the
+city. Mile after mile is devoted to the unhappy task of trundling the
+bicycle ahead, rear wheel aloft, through mud and slush varying from
+ankle-deep to worse, occasionally varying the programme by fording a
+stream.
+
+Late in the afternoon we arrive at the summit of the hills overlooking
+the Meshed Plain, and the hadji points out enthusiastically the golden
+dome of Imam Biza's sanctuary; the yellow, glistening goal whose famed
+sanctity has attracted hosts of pilgrims from all quarters of Central
+Asia for ages past. The hills hereabout are of a rocky character, and
+pious pilgrims have gathered into little mounds every loose piece of
+rock, it being customary for each pilgrim to find a stone and add it to
+one of these piles upon first viewing the bright golden dome of the holy
+city from this commanding spot.
+
+Below the rocky paths of this declivity the snow disappears in favor of
+slippery mud, and the hadji's wearied charger slips and slides about, to
+the imminent danger of its rider's neck; and all the time the slim
+Turkoman! steed trembles visibly in terror of the old Mazanderan
+dervish's whip and his awful threats. Two miles down the bed of the
+stream, crossing and recrossing it a dozen times, often thigh-deep, and
+we emerge upon the gently sloping area of the Meshed Plain, with the
+yellow beacon-light of Meshed glowing in the mellow light of the evening
+sun six miles away.
+
+The late storm has been chiefly rain in the lower altitude of the plain,
+and the day's sunshine has partially dried the surface, but leaving it
+slippery and treacherous here and there. After leaving the bed of the
+stream the hadji becomes anxious about reaching Meshed before dark, and
+advises me to mount and put on the speed.
+
+"Inshallah, Meshed yek saat," he says, and so I mount and bid him follow
+along behind. By vocal suasion and a liberal application of his cruel,
+triple-thonged, raw-hide whip, he urges his well-nigh staggering animal
+into a canter, lifting his forefeet clear of the ground seemingly by the
+bridle at every jump. Suspicious as to his lank and angular steed's
+sure-footedness under the strain, I take the very laudable precaution of
+keeping as far from him as possible, not caring to get mixed up in a
+catastrophe that seems inevitable every time the horse, goaded by the
+stinging stimulus of the whip and the threats, makes another jump. Not
+more than a mile of the six is covered when I have ample reason for
+congratulating myself on taking this precaution, for the horse stumbles,
+and, being too far gone to recover himself, comes down on his nose, and
+the "hadji and Mazanderau dervish" is cutting a most ridiculous figure in
+the mud. His tall lambskin hat flies off and lands in a pool of muddy
+water some distance ahead; the ponderous saddle-bags, which are merely
+laid on the saddle, shoot forward athwart the horse's neck, the horse's
+nose roots quite a furrow in the road, and the horse's owner picks
+himself up and takes a woeful survey of his own figure. It is needless to
+say that the survey includes a good deal more real estate than the hadji
+cares to claim, even though it be the semi-sacred soil of the Meshed
+Plain.
+
+The poor horse is altogether too tired to attempt to recover his legs of
+his own inclination; but, regarding him as the author of his ignominious
+misadventure, the hadji surveys him with a wrathful eye for a moment,
+mutters a few awful imprecations--imported, no doubt, from Mazanderan--and
+then attacks him savagely about the head with the whip. In his wrath and
+determination to make a lasting impression of each blow given, the hadji
+emphasizes each visitation with a very audible grunt; and, to speak
+correctly, so does the horse. It goes without saying, however, that
+master and animal grunt from widely different motives; although, so far
+as the mere audible performance is concerned, one grunt might almost be
+an echo of the other.
+
+At length, by adopting a more circumspect pace, we reach the gate of the
+holy city about sunset without further mishap. The hadji leads the way
+through a bewildering labyrinth of narrow streets that consist of an open
+sewage-ditch in the centre, at present full of filth, and a narrow
+footway of rough, broken, and mud-bespattered cobble-stones on either
+side. Of course we are followed through these fearful thoroughfares by a
+surging and vociferous crowd of people such as a Central Asian city alone
+can produce; but I can this time happily afford to smile at these usually
+irritating accompaniments to my arrival in a populous city, for ten
+minutes after entering the gate finds me shaking hands with Mr. Gray, the
+genial telegraphist of the Afghan Boundary Commission. With a
+well-guarded gate between our cosey quarters and the shouting mob
+outside, the evening is spent very pleasantly and quietly, in striking
+comparison with what it would have been had no one been here to afford me
+a place of refuge.
+
+Meshed is "the jumping off place" of telegraphy; the electric spider
+spins his galvanized web no farther in this direction, and the dirge-like
+music of civilization's--AEolian harp, that, like the roll of
+England's drum, is heard around the world, approaches the barbarous
+territory of Afghanistan from two directions, but recoils from entering
+that fanatical and conservative domain. It approaches from Persia on the
+one side, and from India on the other; but as yet it only approaches. The
+drum has already been there; it is only a question of time when the
+AEolian harp will follow.
+
+It is with lively recollection of Khorassani March weather and the
+experience of the last few days that, after a warm bath, I array myself
+in a suit of Mr. Gray's clothing, elevate my slippered feet, "Yenghi
+Donia fashion," on a pile of Turcoman! carpets, and, abetted by the
+cheering presence of a bottle of Shiraz wine, exchange my recent
+experiences on the road for telegraphic scraps of the latest news. How
+utterly unsatisfactory and altogether wretched seems even the gilded
+palace of a Persian provincial governor--the meaningless compliments, the
+salaaming lackeys and empty show of courtesy, when compared with the
+cosey quarters, the hearty welcome, the honest ring of an Englishman's
+voice, and the genuineness of everything!
+
+Shortly after my arrival, a gentleman with a coal-black complexion, a
+retreating forehead, and an overshadowing wealth of lip appears at the
+door bearing a tray of sweetmeats. Making a profound salaam, he steps out
+of his slipper-like shoes, enters, and places the sweetmeats on the
+table, smiling a broad expectant-of-backsheesh smile the while he
+explains his mission.
+
+"The Sartiep has sent you his salaams and a present of sweetmeats,
+preparatory to calling round himself," explains mine host; "he is a
+Persian gentleman, Ali Akbar Khan, at the head of the Meshed
+telegraph-service, and has the rank of general or Sartiep." The Sartiep
+himself arrives shortly afterward, accompanied by his favorite son, a
+budding youth of some eight or ten summers, of whose beauty he feels very
+justly proud. The Sartiep's son is one of those remarkably handsome boys
+met with occasionally in modern Persia, and which so profusely adorn old
+Persian paintings. With soft, girlish features, big, black, lustrous
+eyes, and an abundance of long hair, they remind one of the beautiful
+youths of Oriental romance; his fond parent takes him about on his visits
+and finds much gratification in the admiring remarks bestowed upon the
+son.
+
+The Sartiep is an ideal Persian official, courteous and complimentary,
+but never forgetful of Ali Akbar Khan; his full, round figure and sensual
+Oriental face speak eloquently of mutton pillau and other fattening
+dishes galore, sweetmeats, cucumbers, and melons; and deep draughts from
+pleasure's intoxicating cup have not failed to leave their indelible
+marks. In this particular the Sartiep is but a casually selected sample
+of the well-to-do Persian official. Leaving out a few notable exceptions,
+this brief description of him suffices to describe them all.
+
+Following in the train of the Sartiep arrive more servants, bearing
+dishes of kabobs, herb-seasoned pillau, and various other strange, savory
+dishes, which, Mr. Gray explains, are considered great delicacies among
+the upper-class Persians and are intended as a great compliment to me.
+
+Although Mohammedans, and particularly Shiite Mohammedans, are forbidden
+by their religion to indulge in alcoholic beverages, the average high
+official in Persia is anything but a sanctimonious individual, and
+partakes with a keen relish of the forbidden fruit in an open-secret
+manner. The thin, transparent veil of abstemiousness that the Persian
+noble wears in deference to the sanctimonious pretensions of the mollahs
+and seyuds and the public eye at large, is cast aside altogether in the
+presence of intimate friends, and particularly if that intimate friend is
+a Ferenghi. Owing to their association in the telegraph-service, mine
+host and the Sartiep are on the most intimate terms.  The Sartiep soon
+after his arrival intimates, with a humorous twinkle of the eye, that he
+feels the need of a little medicine. Mr. Gray, as becomes a good
+physician who knows well the constitutional requirements of his patient,
+and who knows what to prescribe without even going through the
+preliminary act of feeling the pulse, produces a pale-green bottle and a
+tumbler and pours out a full dose of its contents for an adult.
+
+The patient swallows it at a gulp, nibbles a piece of sweetmeat, and
+strokes his stomach in token of approval.
+
+"What was the medicine you prescribed, Gray?" "High wines," says the
+physician, "95 proof alcohol; a bottle that the entomologist of the
+Boundary Commission happened to leave here a year ago; it was the only
+thing in the house except wine. The patient pronounces it the 'best
+arrack' he ever tasted; the firier these fellows can get it the better
+they like it."
+
+"Why, it didn't even make him gasp!"
+
+"Gasp--nonsense; you haven't been in Persia as long as I have yet, or you
+wouldn't say 'gasp' even at 95% alcohol."
+
+But how polite, how complimentary, these French of Asia are, and how
+imaginative and fanciful their language! Not having shaved since leaving
+Teheran, after surveying myself in the glass, I feel called upon, in the
+interest of fellow-wheelmen elsewhere, to explain to our discerning
+visitors that all bicyclers are not distinguished from their fellow men
+by a bronzed and stubby phiz and an all-around vagrom appearance.
+
+The Sartiep strokes his beard and stomach, casts a lingering glance at
+the above-mentioned green-glass bottle, smiles, and replies: "Having
+accomplished so wonderful a journey, you are now prettier with your
+rough, unshaven face than you ever were before; you can now survey
+yourself in the looking-glass of fame instead of in a common mirror that
+reflects all the imperfections of ordinary mortals." Having delivered
+himself of this compliment, the Sartiep's eye wanders in the direction of
+the 95% alcohol again, and the next minute is again smacking his lips and
+complacently stroking his stomach.
+
+In the morning, before I am up, a servant arrives from a Mesh-edi notable
+named Hadji Mahdi, bringing salaams from his master, and a letter clothed
+in the fine "apparel diplomatique" of the Orient. The letter, although in
+reality nothing more than a request to be allowed to come and see the
+bicycle, reads in substance as follows: "Salaams from Hadji Mahdi--may he
+be your sacrifice!-to Gray Sahib and the illustrious Sahib who has
+arrived in Holy Meshed from Teheran, on the wonderful asp-i-awhan, the
+fame of whose deeds reaches to the ends of the earth. Bismillah! May your
+shadows never grow less! Your sacrifice's brother, Hadji Mollah Hassan,
+whose eyes were gladdened by a sight of the asp-i-awhan Sahib at
+Shahrood, and who now sends his salaams, telegraphs me--his unworthy
+brother--that upon the Sahib's arrival in Meshed I should render him
+any assistance he might need. Inshallah, with your permission--may
+it not be withheld--your sacrifice will be pleased to call and
+gladden his eyes with a sight of Gray Sahib and the illustrious Sahib his
+guest."
+
+As might have been expected, the advent of a Ferenghi on so strange a
+vehicle as a bicycle, arriving in the sacred city of Imam Eiza's
+sanctuary, arouses universal curiosity; and not only the Sartiep and
+Hadji Mahdi, but hundreds of big-turbaned Meshedi notables, mollahs, and
+seyuds are admitted during the day to enjoy the happy privilege of
+feasting their eyes on the latest proof of the Ferenghis' wonderful
+marifet,
+
+Upon receipt of the telegram at Shahrood refusing me permission to go
+through Turkestan, I telegraphed to Mr. Gray, requesting him to obtain
+leave for me to go to the Boundary Commission Camp, and accompany them
+back to India, or reach India from the camp alone. Mr. Gray kindly
+forwarded my request to the camp, and now urges me to consider myself his
+guest until the return courier arrives with the answer. This turns out to
+mean a stop-over of seven days, and on the second day immense crowds of
+people assemble in the street, shouting for me to come out and ride the
+bicycle. The clamor on the streets renders it impossible for them to
+transact business in the telegraph office, and several times requests are
+sent in begging me to appease them and stop the uproar by riding to and
+fro along the street. An outer door separates the compound in which the
+house is built from the street, and to prevent the rabble from invading
+the premises, and the possibility of unpleasant consequences, the
+Governor-General stations a guard of four soldiers at the door. This
+precaution works very well so far as the common herd are concerned, but
+every hour through the day little knots of priestly men in the flowing
+new garments and spotless turbans representing their Noo Roos purchases,
+or the lamb's-wool cylinder and semi-European garb of the official,
+bribe, coerce, or command the guard to let them in.
+
+These persistent people generally stand in a respectful attitude just
+inside the outer gate, and send word in by a servant that a Shahzedah
+(relative of the Shah) wishes to see the bicycle. After the first
+"Shahzedah" has been treated with courtesy and consideration in deference
+to his royal relative at Teheran, fully two-thirds of those who come
+after unblushingly proclaim themselves uncles, cousins, or nephews of
+"His Majesty, the King of Kings and Ruler of the Universe!" The constant
+worry and annoyance of these people compel us to adopt measures of
+self-defence, and so, after admitting about a hundred uncles, twice that
+number of nephews, and Heaven knows how many cousins, we conclude that
+blood-relations of the Shah are altogether too numerous in Meshed to be
+of much consequence. Soon after arriving at this conclusion, Mr. Gray's
+farrash, an Armenian he brought with him from Ispahan, comes in with a
+message that another Shahzedah has succeeded in getting past the guard
+and sends in his salaams. "Shahzedah be d----d! Turn him out--put him
+outside, and tell the guards to let nobody else in without our
+permission!"
+
+A moment later the farrash re-enters with the look of a man scarcely able
+to control his risibilities, and says the man and his friends are still
+inside the gate.
+
+"Why the devil don't you put them out, as you are told, then?"
+
+"He says he is the Padishah's step-father."
+
+"Well, what if he is the Padishah's step-father? It's nothing to be the
+Shah's step-father; the Shah probably has five hundred step-father's, to
+say the least--turn him out. No; hold hard; let him stay."
+
+We conclude that a step-father to the king, whether genuine or only a
+counterfeit, is at least something of a relief after the swarms of
+nephews, cousins, and uncles, and so order him to be shown in He proves
+to be a corpulent little man about sixty, who advances up the bricked
+walk toward us, making about three extra profound salaams to the rod and
+smiling in a curious, apprehensive manner, as though not quite assured of
+his reception. About a dozen long-robed mollahs and seyuds follow with
+timid hesitancy in his wake. Strange to say, he makes no allusion to his
+illustrious step-son, the King of Kings at Teheran; and plainly betrays
+embarrassment when Gray mentions the fact of my having appeared before
+him on the wheel. We conclude that the Shah's step-father and the little
+group of holy men clubbed together and paid the Persian guard about a
+keran to let them in, and perhaps another half-keran to the Armenian
+farrash for not summarily turning them out. He tries very hard, however,
+to make himself agreeable, and when told about the Russians refusing me
+the road, exclaims artfully: "I was not an enemy of the Russians before I
+heard this, but now I am their worst enemy! Suppose the Sahib's iron
+horse was a wheel of fire, what harm would it do their country even
+then?"
+
+Our most distinguished caller to-day is Mirza Abbas Khan, C. I. E., a
+Kandahari gentleman, who has been the British political agent at Meshed
+for many years. He makes a formal call in all the glory of his official
+garments, a magnificent Cashmere coat lined with Russian sable and
+profusely trimmed with gold braid; a servant leads his gayly caparisoned
+horse, and another brings up the rear with a richly mounted kalian.
+
+Appearances count for something among the people of Northeastern Persia,
+and Abbas Khan draws a sufficiently large salary to enable him to wear
+gorgeous clothes, and thereby dim the lustre of his bitter rival, the
+political agent of Russia.
+
+Abbas Khan is perhaps the handsomest man in Meshed, is in the prime of
+life, dyes his flowing beard an orthodox red, and possesses most charming
+manners; in addition to his ample salary he owns the revenue of a village
+near Meshed, and seems to be altogether the right man in the right place.
+
+Abbas Khan and a friend of his from Herat both agree that the
+difficulties and dangers of Afghanistan will be likely to prove
+insurmountable; at the same time promising any assistance they can render
+me in getting to India, consistent, of course, with Abbas Khan's duties
+as British Agent. It seems to be a pretty general opinion that
+Afghanistan will prove a stumbling-block in my path; friends at Teheran
+telegraph again, advising me to go anywhere rather than risk the dangers
+to be apprehended in that most lawless and fanatical territory. Nothing
+can be decided on, however, until the arrival of an answer from the
+Commission.
+
+In the meantime, the days slowly pass away in Meshed; every day come
+scores of visitors and invitations to go and ride for the delectation of
+sundry high officials; ever-present are the crowds in the streets
+shouting, "Tomasha! tomasha! Sowar shuk!" and the frequent squabbles at
+the gate between the guard and the people wanting to come in.
+
+Above the din and clamor of the crowd outside there sometimes arise the
+chanting voices of a party of newly arrived pilgrims making their way
+joyously through the thronged streets toward the gold-domed sanctuary of
+Imam Riza, the tomb being situated a couple of hundred yards down the
+street from our quarters. Sometimes we hear parties of men uttering
+strange cries and sounding aloud the praises of Imam Riza, Houssein,
+Hassan, and other worthies of the Mohammedan world, in response to which
+are heard the swelling voices of a multitude of people shouting in
+chorus, "Allah be praised! Allah be praised!!" These weird chanters are
+dervishes, who, with tiger-skin mantles drawn carelessly about them,
+clubs or battle-axes on shoulder, their long unkempt hair dangling down
+their backs, look wildly grotesque as they parade the streets of the
+Persian Mecca.
+
+Meshed is a strange city for a Ferenghi to live in; every day are heard
+the chanting and singing of newly arriving bands of pilgrims, the
+strange, wild utterances of dervishes preaching on the streets, and the
+shouting responses of their auditors. Conspicuous above everything else
+in the city, as gold is conspicuous from dross, is the golden dome and
+gold-tipped minarets of the holy edifice that imparts to the city its
+sacred character. The gold is in thin plates covering the hemispherical
+roof like sheets of tin; like most Eastern things, its appearance is more
+impressive from a distance than at close quarters. Grains of barley
+deposited on the roof by pigeons have sprouted and grown in rank bunches
+between the thin gold plates, many of which are partially loose,
+imparting to the place an air of neglect and decay. By resting their feet
+on the dome of this sacred edifice, the pigeons of Meshed have themselves
+become objects of veneration; shooting them is strictly prohibited, and a
+mob would soon be about the ears of anyone venturing to do them harm.
+
+The two most important persons in Meshed are the acting Governor-General
+of Khorassan, and Mardan Khan, Ex-Governor of Sarakhs and Hereditary
+Chief of the powerful tribe of Timurees. Of course, the Governor sends
+his salaams, and invites me to come round to the government konak and
+favor him with an exhibition. Since our refusal to entertain any more of
+the "Shah's relations," we find that the worthy and long-suffering Abbas
+Khan has been worried almost to the verge of despair by requests from all
+over the city begging the privilege of seeing me ride.
+
+"Knowing that you have been worried in the same way yourselves," says
+Abbas Kahu, "I have replied to them, 'Is the Sahib a giraffe and I his
+keeper? Why, then, do you come to me? The Sahib has travelled a long way,
+and is stopping here to rest, not to make an exhibition of himself."
+
+An exception is of course made in favor of the Governor-General and
+Mardan Khan. The Government compound is a large enclosure, and to reach
+the Governor-General's quarters one has to traverse numerous long
+court-yards connected with one another by long, gloomy passage-ways of
+brick, where the tramping of the sentinels and the march of retiring and
+relieving guards resound through the vaults like an echo of mediaeval
+times.
+
+There is nothing particularly interesting about the Governor's
+apartments, but Mardan Khan's palace is a revelation of barbaric splendor
+entirely different from anything hitherto seen in the country. In
+contradistinction to the dazzling, silvery glitter of the mirror-work and
+stuccoed halls of the Teheran palaces, the home of the wealthy Timuree
+Chieftain is distinguished by a striking and lavish display of colored
+glass, gilt, and tinsel.
+
+Mardan Khan is a valued friend of Mirza Abbas Khan and a man of powerful
+influence; besides this, he is a pronounced admirer of the Ingilis as
+against the Oroos, and my reception at his palace almost takes the
+character of an ovation. News of the great tomasha has evidently been
+widely spread, crowds of outsiders fill the streets leading to the
+palace, and inside the large garden are scores of the elite of the city,
+mollahs, seyuds, official and private gentlemen; the numerous niches of
+the walls are occupied by groups of closely veiled females. Trundling
+through this interesting and expectant crowd with Abbas Khan, Mardan Khan
+issues forth in flowing gown of richest Cashmere-shawl material and gold
+braid, to greet us and to take a preliminary peep at the bicycle, and to
+lead the way into his gorgeously colored room of state.
+
+The scene in this room is an ideal picture of the popular occidental
+conception of the "gorgeous East." Abbas Khan and Mar-dan Khan sit
+cross-legged side by side on a rich Turcoman rug, salaaming and
+exchanging compliments after the customary flowery and extravagant
+language of the Persian nobility. The marvellous pattern and costly
+texture of Abbas Khan's coat, the gold braid, the Russian sable lining,
+and the black Astrakhan cylinder he wears, are precisely matched by the
+garments of Mardan Khan. Twenty or thirty of the most important
+dignitaries and mollahs of the city are ranged according to their
+respective rank or degree of holiness around the room; prominent among
+them is the Chief Imam of Meshed, a very important and influential person
+in the holy city.
+
+The Chief Imam is a slim-built, sharp-looking individual of about forty
+summers, with a face pale, refined, and intellectual; hands white and
+slender as a lady's, and a foot equally shapely and feminine. He wears a
+monster green turban, takes his turn regularly at the kalian, and passes
+it on to the next with the easy gracefulness that comes of good breeding;
+and by his manners and appearance he creates an impression of being a
+person rather superior to his surroundings.
+
+Liveried pages pass around little glasses of tea, kalians, cigarettes,
+and sweetmeats, as well as tiny bottles of lemon-juice and rose-water, a
+few drops of these two last-named articles being used by some of the
+guests to impart a fanciful flavor to their tea. Now and then a new guest
+arrives, steps out of his shoes in the hallway, salaams, and takes his
+proper position among the people already here. Everybody sits on the
+carpet except me, for whom a three-legged camp-stool has been
+thoughtfully provided.
+
+Finally, all the guests having arrived, I ride several times around the
+brick-walks, the strange audience of turbaned priests and veiled women
+showing their great approval in murmuring undertones of "kylie khoob" and
+involuntary acclamations of "Mashallah! mash-all-ah!" as they witness
+with bated breath the strange and incomprehensible scene of a Ferenghi
+riding a vehicle, that will not stand alone.
+
+Altogether, the great tomasha at Mardan Khan's is a decided success.
+Scarcely can this be said, however, of the "little tomasha" given to the
+members of Abbas Khan's own family on the way home. Abbas Khan's compound
+is very small, and the brick-walks very rough and broken; therefore, it
+is hardly surprising to me, though probably somewhat surprising to him,
+when, in turning a corner I execute an undignified header into a bunch of
+busbies.
+
+The third day after my arrival in Meshed, I received a telegram from the
+British Charge d'Affaires at Teheran saying: "You must not attempt to
+cross the frontier of Afghanistan at any point." Two days later the
+expected courier arrives from the Boundary Commission Camp with a letter
+saying: "It is useless for you to raise the question of coming to the
+Commission Camp. In the first place, the Afghans would never allow you to
+come here; and if you should happen to reach here, you would never be
+able to get away again."
+
+These two very encouraging missives from our own people seem at first
+thought more heartless than even the "permission refused" of the
+Russians. It occurs to me that this "you must not attempt to cross the
+Afghan frontier" might just as easily have been told me at the Legation
+at Teheran as when I had travelled six hundred miles to get to it; but
+the ways of diplomacy are past the comprehension of ordinary mortals.
+
+What, after all, are the ambitions and enterprises of an individual,
+compared to the will and policy of an empire? No matter whether the
+empire be semi-civilized and despotic, or free and enlightened, the
+obscure and struggling individual is usually rated 0000.
+
+Russia--"permission refused." England--paternally--"must
+not attempt;" cold, offish language this for a lone cycler to be
+confronted with away up here in the northeast corner of Persia, from
+representatives of the two greatest empires of the world. What is to be
+done?
+
+Mr. Gray, returning from the telegraph office later in the evening, finds
+me endeavoring to unravel the Gordian knot of the situation through the
+medium of a brown-study. My geographical ruminations have already
+resulted in a conviction that there is no possible way to unravel it and
+reach India with a bicycle; my only chance of doing so is to cut it and
+abide by the consequences.
+
+"I have just been communicating with Teheran," says Mr. Gray. "Everybody
+wants to know what you propose doing."
+
+"Tell them I am going down to Beerjand to consult with Heshmet-i-Molk,
+the Ameer of Seistan, and see if it is possible to get through to Quetta
+via Beerjand."
+
+"Ever hear of Dadur?" queries Mr. Gray. "Ever hear of Dadur, the place of
+which the Persians tritely say: 'Seeing that there is Dadur, why did
+Allah, then, make the infernal regions?' That is somewhere in
+Beloochistan. You'll find yourself slowly broiling to death on a
+geographical gridiron if you attempt to reach India down that way."
+
+"Never mind; tell them at Teheran I am going that way anyhow."
+
+Having entered upon this decision, I bid my genial host farewell on April
+7th, and mounting at the door, depart in the presence of a well-behaved
+crowd of spectators. In my pocket is a general letter from the
+Governor-General of Khorassan to subordinate officials of the province,
+ordering them to render me any assistance I may require, and another from
+a prominent person in Meshed to his friend Heshmet-i-Molk, the Ameer of
+Kain and Governor of Seistan, a powerful and influential chief, with his
+seat of government at Beerjand.
+
+Couched in the sentimental language of the country, one of these letters
+concludes with the touching remark: "The Sahib, of his own choice is
+travelling like a dervish, with no protection but the protection of
+Allah."
+
+It is a fine bracing morning as I leave the Mecca of Khorassan behind,
+and the paths leading round outside the walls and moat of the city from
+gate to gate afford excellent wheeling. The Beerjand trail branches off
+from the Teheran and Meshed road about a farsakh east of Shahriffabad;
+for this distance I shall be retraversing the road by which I came, and
+shall be confronted at every turn of my wheel by reminiscences of dried
+fish, a Mazanderau dervish, and an angular steed.
+
+The streams that under the influence of the storm ran thigh-deep have now
+dwindled to mere rivulets, and the narrow, miry trail through the melting
+snow has become dry and smooth enough to ride wherever the grade permits.
+The hills are verdant with the green young life of early spring, and are
+clothed in one of nature's prettiest costumes--a costume of seal-brown
+rocks and green turf studded with a profusion of blue and yellow flowers.
+
+Shahriffabad is reached early in the afternoon, and the threatening
+aspect of the changed weather forbids going any farther today.
+
+Shortly after taking up my quarters in the chapar-khana, a party of
+Persian travellers appear upon the scene, and with them a fussy little
+man in big round spectacles and semi-European clothes. Scarcely have they
+had time to alight and seek out quarters than the little man makes his
+appearance at my menzil door in all the glory of a crimson velvet
+dressing-cap and blue slippers, and beaming gladsomely through his
+moon-like spectacles, he comes forward and without further ceremony
+shakes hands. "Some queer little French professor, geologist,
+entomologist, or something, wandering about the country in search of
+scientific knowledge," is the instinctive conclusion I arrive at the
+moment he appears; and my greeting of "bonjour, monsieur," is quite as
+involuntary as the conclusion.
+
+"Paruski ni?" he replies, arching his eyebrows and smiling.
+
+"Paruski ni; Ingilis."
+
+"Parsee namifami?"
+
+"Parsee kam-kam."
+
+In this brief interchange of words in the vernacular of the country we
+define at once each other's nationality and linguistic abilities. He is a
+Russian and can speak a little Persian. It is difficult, however, to
+believe him anything else than a little French professor, wise above his
+generation and skin-full of occult wisdom in some particular branch of
+science; but then the big round spectacles, the red dressing-cap, and the
+cerulean leather slippers of themselves impart an air of owlish and
+preternatural wisdom.
+
+Six times during the afternoon he bounces into my quarters and shakes
+hands, and six times shakes hands and bounces out again. Every time he
+renews his visit he introduces one or more natives, who take as much
+interest in the hand-shaking as they do in the bicycle. Evidently his
+object in coming round so frequently is to exhibit for the gratification
+of his own vanity and the curiosity of the Persians, this European mode
+of greeting, and the profound depth of his own knowledge of the subject.
+
+Later in the evening the women of the village come round in a body to see
+the Ferenghi and his iron horse, and the wearer of the spectacles, the
+red cap, and blue slippers, takes upon himself the office of showman for
+the occasion; pointing out, with a good deal of superficial enthusiasm,
+the peculiar points of both steed and rider.
+
+Particularly is it impressed upon these woefully ignorant fail-ones, that
+the bicycle is not a horse, but a machine--a thing of iron and not
+of flesh and blood.
+
+The fair ones nod their heads approvingly, but it is painfully apparent
+that they don't comprehend in the least, how, since it is an asp-i-awhan,
+it can be anything else but a horse, regardless of the material entering
+into its composition.
+
+When supper-time arrives the chapar-Jee announces his willingness to turn
+cook and prepare anything I order. Knowing well enough that this
+seemingly sweeping proposition embraces but two or three articles, I
+order him to prepare scrambled eggs, bread, and sheerah. An hour later he
+brings in the scrambled eggs, swimming in hot molasses and grease! He has
+stirred the grease and molasses together, and in this outlandish mixture
+cooked the eggs.
+
+Off the main road the country assumes the character of low hills of red
+clay, across which it would be extremely difficult to take the bicycle in
+wet weather, but which is now fortunately dry. After three or four
+farsakhs it develops into a curious region of heterogeneous parts; rocky,
+precipitous mountains, barren, salt-streaked hills, saline streams, and
+pretty little green valleys. Here, one feels the absence of any plain,
+well-travelled road, the dim and ill-defined trail being at times very
+difficult to distinguish from the branch trails leading to some isolated
+village. The few people one meets already betray a simplicity and a lack
+of "gumption" that distinguish them at once from the people frequenting
+the main road.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE UNBEATEN TRACKS OF KHORASSAN.
+
+During the afternoon I traverse a rocky canon, crossing and recrossing a
+clear, cold stream that winds its serpentine course from one precipitous
+wall to another. Mountain trout are observed disporting in this stream,
+and big, gray lizards scuttle nimbly about among the loose rocks on the
+bank. The canon gradually dwindles into a less confined passage between
+sloping hills of loose rock and bowlders, a wild, desolate region through
+which the road leads gradually upward to a pass.
+
+Part way up this gorge is a rude stone tower about twenty feet high, on
+the summit of which is perched a little mud hut, looking almost as though
+it might be a sentry-box. While yet a couple of hundred yards away, a
+rough-looking customer emerges from the tower and appears to be awaiting
+my approach. His head is well-nigh hidden beneath a huge Khorassani
+busby, and he wears the clothes of an irregular soldier. The long, shaggy
+wool of the sheepskin head-dress dangling over his eyes imparts a very
+ferocious appearance, and he is armed with the ordinary Persian sword and
+one of those antiquated flint-lock muskets that are only to be seen on
+the deserts of the East or in museums of ancient weapons.
+
+Taken all in all, he presents a very ferocious front; he is, in fact,
+about the most ruffianly-looking specimen I have seen outside of Asiatic
+Turkey. As I ride up he motions for me to alight, at the same time
+retreating a few steps toward his humble stronghold, betraying a spirit
+of apprehension lest, perchance, he might be unwittingly standing in the
+way of danger. Greeting him with the customary "Salaam aleykum" and being
+similarly greeted in reply, I dismount to ascertain who and what he is.
+He retreats another step or two in the direction of his strange abode,
+and eyes the bicycle with evident distrust, edging off to one side as I
+turn toward him, as though fearful lest it might come whizzing into his
+sacred person at a moment's notice like a hungry buzz-saw. In response to
+my inquiries, he points up toward the pass and offers to accompany me
+thither for the small sum of "yek keran;" giving me to understand that
+without his presence it is highly indiscreet to proceed.
+
+Little penetration is required to understand that this is one of the
+little black-mailing schemes peculiar to semi-civilization, and which, it
+is perhaps hardly necessary to explain, comes a trifle too late in the
+chapter of my Asiatic experiences to influence my movements or to
+replenish the exchequer of the picturesque and enterprising person
+desirous of shielding me from imaginary harm.
+
+This wily individual is making his living by the novel and ingenious
+process of trading on the fears and credulity of stray travellers, making
+them believe the pass is dangerous and charging them a small sum for his
+services as guard. It is not at all unlikely that he is the present
+incumbent of an hereditary right to extort blackmail from such travellers
+along this lonely road as may be prevailed upon without resorting to
+violence to pay it, and is but humbly following in the footsteps of his
+worthy sire and still more worthy grandsire.
+
+The pass ahead is neither very steep nor difficult, and the summit once
+crossed, and the first few hundred yards of rough and abrupt declivity
+overcome, I am able to mount and wheel swiftly down long gradients of
+smooth, hard gravel for four or five miles, alighting at the walled
+village of Assababad in the presence of its entire population.
+
+Some keen-sighted villager has observed afar off the strange apparition
+gliding swiftly down the open gravel slopes, and the excited population
+have all rushed out in breathless expectancy to try and make out its
+character. The villagers of Assababad are simple-hearted people, and both
+men and women clap their hands like delighted children to have so rare a
+novelty suddenly appear upon the scene of their usually humdrum and
+uneventful lives. Quilts are spread for me on the sunny side of the
+village wall, and they gather eagerly around to feast to the full their
+unaccustomed eyes. A couple of the men round up a matronly goat and exact
+from her the tribute of a bowl of milk; others contribute bread, and the
+frugal repast is seasoned with the unconcealed delight of my hospitable
+audience.
+
+They are not overly clean in their habits, though, these rude and
+isolated people; and to keep off prying housewives, bent on satisfying
+their curiosity regarding the texture of my clothing and the comparative
+whiteness of my skin, I am compelled to adopt the defensive measure of
+counter curiosity. The signal and instantaneous success of this plan,
+resulting in the hasty, scrambling retreat of the women, is greeted with
+boisterous merriment, by the entire crowd.
+
+I have about made up my mind to remain over-night with the hospitable
+people of Assababad; but at the solicitation of a Persian traveller who
+comes along, I conclude to accompany him to a building observable in the
+distance ahead which he explains is a small but comfortable serai. The
+good villagers seem very loath to let me, go so soon, and one young man
+kneels down and kisses my dusty geivehs and begs me to take him with me
+to Hindostan--strange, unsophisticated people; how simple-hearted,
+how childlike they seem!
+
+The caravanserai is but a couple of miles ahead, but it is situated in
+the dip of an extensive, basin-like depression between two mountain
+ranges, and the last half mile consists of mud and water eighteen inches
+deep. The caravanserai itself stands on a slight elevation, and is found
+occupied by a couple of families, who make the place their permanent
+abode and gain a livelihood by supplying food, firewood, and horse-feed
+to travellers.
+
+Upon our arrival, a woman makes her appearance and announces her
+willingness to cater to our wants.
+
+"Noon ass?"
+
+"Yes, plenty of bread."
+
+"Toke-me-morge neis f"
+
+"Neis; loke-me-morge-neis."
+
+"Sheerah ass?"
+
+"Sheerah neis."
+
+"What have you then besides bread?"
+
+For answer the woman points to a few beruffled chickens scratching for
+grains of barley among a heap of rubbish that has evidently been
+exploited by them times without number before, and says she can sell us
+chickens at one keran apiece.
+
+Seeing the absence of anything else, I order her forthwith to capture one
+for me, and the Persian gentleman orders another. The woman sets three
+youngsters and a yellow, tailless dog to run down the chickens, and in a
+few minutes presents herself before us, holding in each hand the plucked
+and scrawny carcass of a fowl that has had to scratch hard and
+persistently for its life for heaven knows how many years. One of the
+chickens is considerably larger than the other, and I tell the Persian
+gentleman to take his choice, thinking that with himself and his two
+servants he would be glad to accept the larger fowl. On the contrary,
+however, he fixes his choice on the smaller one.
+
+Touched by what appears to be a simple act of unselfishness, I endeavor
+to persuade him to take the other, pointing out that he has three mouths
+to fill while I have only one. My importunities are, however, wasted on
+so polite and disinterested a person, and so I reluctantly take
+possession of the bulkier fowl.
+
+The Persian's servant dissects his master's purchase and stows it away
+for future use, the three making their supper off bread and a mixture of
+grease, chopped onions and sheerah from the larder of their saddle-bags.
+The woman readily accepts the offer of an additional half keran for
+relieving me of the onerous task of cooking my own supper, and takes her
+departure, promising to cook it as quickly as possible.
+
+Happy in the contemplation of a whole chicken for supper, I sit around
+and chat and drink tea with my disinterested friend for the space of an
+hour. To a hungry person an hour seems an ominously long period of time
+in which to cook a chicken, and, becoming impatient, the Persian
+gentleman's servant volunteers to go inside and investigate. I fancy
+detecting a shadow of amusement passing over the face of the gentleman as
+his servant departs, and when he returns with the intelligence that the
+chicken won't be tender enough to eat for another hour, his risibilities
+get the better of his politeness and he gives way to uncontrollable
+laughter. Then it is that a gleam of enlightenment steals over my
+unsuspecting soul and tells me why my guileless fellow-traveller so
+politely and yet so firmly selected the smallest of the fowls--he is a
+better judge of Persian "morges" than I. The woman finally turns up,
+bringing the result of her two hours' culinary perseverance in a large
+pewter bowl; she has cut the chicken up into several pieces and has been
+industriously keeping the pot boiling from the beginning. The result of
+this laudable effort is meat of gutta-percha toughness, upon which one's
+teeth are exercised in vain; but I make a very good supper after all by
+breaking bread into the broth. I don't know but that the patriarchal
+ruler of the roost makes at least the richer broth.
+
+Thin ice covers the water when I leave this caravanserai in the gray of
+the morning, and the Persian travellers, who nearly always start before
+daybreak, have already departed. Stories were heard yesterday evening of
+streams between here and the southern chain of mountains, deep and
+difficult to cross; and I pull out fully expecting to have to strip and
+do some disagreeable work in the water. Considerable mud is encountered,
+and three small streams, not over three feet deep, are crossed; but
+further on I am brought to a stand by a deep, sluggish stream flowing
+along ten feet below the level of the ground. Though deep, it is very
+narrow in places, and might almost be described as a yawning crack in the
+earth, filled with water to within ten feet of the top.
+
+A little way up stream is a spot fordable for horses, and, of course,
+fordable also for a cycler; but the prevailing mud and the chilliness of
+the morning combine to influence me to try another plan. A happy plan it
+seems at the moment, a credit to my inventive genius, and spiced with the
+seductive condiment of novelty, the stream is sufficiently narrow at one
+place to be overcome with a running jump; but people cannot take running
+jumps encumbered with a bicycle. The bicycle, however, can quickly and
+easily be taken into several parts and thrown across, the jump made, and
+the wheel put together again.
+
+Packages, pedals, and backbone with rear wheel are tossed successfully
+across, but the big wheel attached to fork and handle-bar, unfortunately
+rolls back and disappears with a splash beneath the water. The details of
+the unhappy task of recovering this all-important piece of property--how I
+have to call into requisition for the first time the small, strong rope I
+have carried from Constantinople--how, in the absence of anything in the
+shape of a stick, in all the unproductive country around, I have to
+persuade my unwilling and goose-pimpled frame into the water and duck my
+devoted head beneath the waves several times before succeeding in passing
+a slip-noose over the handle--is too harrowing a tale to tell; it makes me
+shiver and shrink within myself, even as I write.
+
+Beyond the stream the road approaches the southern framework of the plain
+with a barely discernible rise, and dry, hard, paths afford fair
+wheeling. Looking back one can see the white, uneven crest of the Elburz
+Range peeping over the lesser chain of hills crossed over yesterday,
+showing wondrously sharp and clear in the transparent atmosphere of a
+more or less desert country.
+
+A region of red-clay hills and innumerable little streams ends my riding
+for the present, and the road eventually leads into a cul-de-sac, the
+source of the little streams and the home of spongy morasses whose
+deceptive mossy surface may or may not bear one's weight. Bound about the
+cul-de-sac is a curious jumble of rocks and red-clay heights; the strata
+of the former inclining to the perpendicular and sometimes rising like
+parallel walls above the earth, reminding one of the "Devil's Slide" in
+Weber Canon, Utah. A stiff pass leads over the brow of the range, and on
+the summit is perched another little stone tower; but no valiant champion
+of defenceless wayfarers issues forth to proffer his protection
+here--perhaps our acquaintance of yesterday comes down here when he wants
+a change of air.
+
+From the pass the descent is into a picturesque region of huge rocks and
+splendid streams that come bubbling out from among them, and farther
+along is a more open space, a few fields of grain, and the little hamlet
+of Kahmeh. Stopping here an hour for refreshments, the country again
+becomes rough and hilly for several miles; the road then descends a rocky
+slope to the plain, where a few miles ahead can be seen the crenelated
+walls and suburban orchards and villages of Torbet-i-Haiderie.
+
+Remembering my letter from the Governor-General to subordinate officials,
+I permit a uniformed horseman, who seems anxious to make himself useful
+in the premises, to pilot me into the city, telling him to lead the way
+to the Mustapha's office. Guiding me through the narrow, crowded streets
+into the still more crowded bazaar, he descants, from his commanding
+position in the saddle, to the listening crowd, on the marvellous nature
+of my steed and the miraculous ability required to ride it as he had seen
+me riding it outside the walls. Having accomplished his vain purpose of
+attracting public attention to himself through me, and by his utterances
+aroused the popular curiosity to an ungovernable pitch, he rides off and
+leaves me to extricate myself and find the Mustapha as best I can.
+
+The ignorant, inconsiderate mob at once commence shouting for me to ride.
+"Sowar shuk; sowar shuk! tomasha; tomasha!" a thousand people cry in the
+stuffy, ill-paved bazaar as they struggle and push and surge about me,
+giving me barely room to squeeze through them. When it is discovered that
+I am seeking the Mustapha, there is a great rush of the crowd to reach
+the municipal compound and gain admittance, lest perchance the gates
+should be closed after I had entered and a tomasha be given without them
+seeing.
+
+Following along with the crowd, the compound is reached and found to be
+jammed so tightly with people that the greatest difficulty is experienced
+in forcing my way through them to the Mustapha's quarters. Nobody seems
+to take a particle of interest in the matter, save to lend their voices
+to help swell the volume of the cry for me to ride; nobody in all the
+tumultuous mob seems capable of the simple reflection that there is no
+room whatever to ride, not so much as a yard of space unoccupied by human
+beings. They might with equal propriety be shouting for a fish to swim
+without providing him with water.
+
+The Mustapha is found seated on the raised floor of his open-fronted
+office, examining, between whiffs of the kalian, papers brought to him by
+his subordinates, and I hand him my general letter of recommendation.
+Taking a cursory glance at the contents, he gives a sweep of his chin
+toward the bicycle, and says, "Sowar shuk; tomasha." Pointing out the
+utter impossibility of complying with his request in a badly-paved
+compound packed to its utmost capacity with people; he looks wearily at
+the ragged and unruly multitude before him, as though conscious that it
+would be useless to try and do anything with them, and then giving some
+order to an officer resumes his official labors.
+
+The officer summons a couple of farrashes, and with long willow switches
+they flog their way through the crowd, opening a narrow, but instantly
+filled again, passage for me to follow. Outside the compound the officer
+practically forsakes me and goes over body and soul to the enemy. Filled
+with the same dense ignorance and overwhelming desire to see the bicycle
+ridden, he desires also to gain the approbation of the crowd, and so
+brings all his powers of persuasion to bear against me. Time and again,
+while traversing with the greatest difficulty the narrow bazaar in the
+midst of a surging mob, he faces about and makes the same insane request,
+shouting like a maniac to make his voice audible above the din of a
+thousand clamorous appeals to the same purpose. Had I the power to
+annihilate the whole crazy, maddening multitude with a sweep of the hand,
+I am afraid they would at this juncture have received but small mercy.
+
+The caravanserai is a big, commodious affair, a quadrangular structure of
+brick surrounding fully an acre of ground, and with a small open space
+outside. There is plenty of room to satisfy their insane curiosity here
+without jeopardizing my own neck, and in a fruitless effort to gratify
+them I essay to ride. My appearance in the saddle is greeted with wild
+shouts of exultation, and in their eagerness to come closer and see
+exactly how the bicycle is propelled and prevented from falling over,
+they close up in front as well as behind, compelling an instant dismount
+to prevent disagreeable consequences to myself. Howls of disapproval
+greet this misinterpreted action, and the officer and farrashes commence
+flogging right and left to clear a space for another trial.
+
+This time, while circling about in the small amphitheatre, walled around
+by shouting, grinning human beings, wanton youngsters from the rear shy
+several stones, and the officer comes near giving me a header by
+accidentally inserting his willow staff in the front wheel while pointing
+out to the crowd the action of the pedals and the modus operandi of
+things in general. The officer evidently regards me as the merest dummy,
+unable to speak or comprehend a word of the language, or help myself in
+any way--the result, it is presumed, of some explanation to that effect in
+the letter--and he stalks about with the proud bearing and
+self-conscious expression of a showman catering successfully to an
+appreciative and applauding populace.
+
+The accommodation provided at the caravanserai consists of doorless
+menzils, elevated three feet above the ground; a walled partition, with
+an open archway, divides the quarters into a room behind and an open
+porch in front. Conducting me to one of these free-for-anybody places,
+which I could just as easily have found and occupied without his
+assistance, he takes his departure, leaving me to the tender
+consideration of an overbearing, ragamuffin mob, in whom the spirit of
+wantonness is already aroused.
+
+I attempt to appeal to the reason of my obstreperous audience by standing
+on the menzil front and delivering a harangue in such Persian as I have
+at command.
+
+"Sowar shuk, neis, tomasha, caravanserai neis rah koob neis. Inshalla
+saba, gitti koob rah Beerjandi, khylie koob lomasha-kh-y-l-ie koob
+tomasha saba," is the burden of this harangue; but eloquent though it be
+in its simplicity, it fails to accomplish the desired end. Their reply to
+it all takes the form of howls of disapproval, and the importunities to
+ride become more clamorous than ever.
+
+An effort to keep them from taking possession of my quarters by shoving
+them off the front porch, results in my being seized roughly by the
+throat by one determined assailant and cracked on the head with a stick
+by another. Ignorant of a Ferenghi's mode of attack, the presumptuous
+individual, with his hand twisted in my neck-handkerchief, cocks his head
+in a semi-sidewise attitude, in splendid position to be dropped like a
+pole-axed steer by a neat tap on the temple. He wears the green
+kammerbund of a seyud, however; and even under the shadow of the
+legations in Teheran, it is a very serious and risky thing to strike a
+descendant of the Prophet. For a lone infidel to do so in the presence of
+two thousand Mussulman fanatics, already imbued with the spirit of
+wantonness, would be little less than deliberate suicide, so a sense of
+discretion intervenes to spare him the humiliation of being knocked out
+of time by an unhallowed fist. The stiff, United States army helmet,
+obtained, it will be remembered, at Fort Sidney, Nebraska, and worn on
+the road ever since, saves my bump of veneration from actual contact with
+the stick of number two; and finding me making only a passive resistance,
+the valiant individual in the green kammerbund relaxes both the severity
+of his scowl and his grip on my neck gear.
+
+After this there is no use trying to keep them from invading my quarters,
+and I deem it advisable to stand closely by the bicycle, humoring their
+curiosity and getting along with them as peaceably as possible. The crowd
+present is constantly augmented by new arrivals from without; at least
+two thousand people are struggling, pushing and shouting, some coming
+forward to invade my menzil, others endeavoring to escape from the crush.
+While the rowdiest portion of the crowd struggle and push and shout in
+the foreground of this remarkable scene, little knots of big-turbaned
+mollahs and better-class citizens are laying their precious heads
+together scheming against me in the rear. Now and then a messenger in the
+semi-military garb of a farrash, pushes his way to the front and delivers
+a message from these worthies, full of lies and deceit. From the top of
+their shaved and turbaned heads to the soles of their slip-shod feet they
+are filled with a pig-headed determination to accomplish their object of
+seeing the bicycle ridden. They send me all sorts of messages, from one
+of but ordinary improbability, saying that the Mustapha is outside and
+wants me to come out and ride, to one altogether ridiculous in its wild
+absurdity, promising me a present of two tomans.
+
+Occasionally a dervish holds aloft the fantastic paraphernalia of his
+profession, battles his way through the surging human surf, and with his
+black, ferret-like eyes gleaming with unconscious ferocity through a
+vision of unkempt hair, thrusts his cocoa-nut alms-receiver under my nose
+and says, "Huk yah huk!" or "backsheesh!" Shouted at, gesticulated at,
+intrigued against and solicited for alms all at the same time, and with
+brain-turning persistency, the classic halls of Bedlam would, in
+contrast, be a reposeful and calm retreat. Driven by my tormentors almost
+to the desperate resolve of emptying my six-shooter among them, let the
+result to myself be what it may, the sun of my persecutions has not
+reached the meridian even yet. The officer who an hour ago
+inconsiderately left me to my own resources, now returns with a large
+party of friends, bent on seeing the same wonderful sight that has
+seemingly set the whole city in an uproar. He has been about the place
+collecting friends and acquaintances for the purpose of treating them to
+an exhibition of my skill on the wheel. The purpose of the officer's
+return, with his friends, is readily understood by the crowd, and his
+arrival is announced by a universal roar of "Sowar shuk! tomasha!" as
+though not one of this insatiable mob had yet seen me ride.
+
+Appearing before the elevated porch of the menzil, he beckons me to "come
+ahead" in quite an authoritative manner. The peculiar beckoning twist of
+this presumptuous individual's chin and henna-stained beard summoning me
+to come out and "perform" reminds me of nothing so much as some tamer of
+wild animals ordering a trained baboon to spruce himself up and dance for
+the edification of the circus-going public. Signifying my unwillingness
+to be thus made a circus of over and over again, the officer beckons even
+more peremptorily than before, and even makes a feint of coming and
+fetching me out by force.
+
+As may well be believed, the sum of my patience is no longer equal to the
+strain, and jerking my revolver around from the obscurity of its
+hiding-place at my hip to where it can plainly be seen, and laying a hand
+menacingly on the butt, I warn him to clear off, in a manner that causes
+him to wilt and turn pale. He leaves the caravanserai at once in high
+dudgeon. It has been a most humiliating occasion for him, to fall so
+ignobly from the very high horse on which he just entered with his bosom
+friends; but it is no more than he rightly deserves.
+
+Shortly after this little incident the part-proprietor of a tchai-khan
+not far from the caravanserai, proposes that I leave my menzil and come
+with him to his place. Happy in the prospect of any kind of a change that
+will secure me a little peace, I readily agree to the proposal and at
+once take my departure. A few stones are thrown, fortunately without
+doing any damage, ere the tchai-khan is reached; but once inside, the
+situation is materially improved.
+
+It soon transpires that the speculative proprietors have conceived the
+bright idea of utilizing me as an attraction to draw customers to their
+place of business. Two men are stationed at the door with clubs, and
+admittance is only granted to likely-looking people who have money to
+spend on water-pipes and tea. A rival attraction already occupies the
+field in the person of a Tabreez Turkish luti with a performing rib-nosed
+mandril and a drum. Now and then, when the crowd with no money to spend
+becomes too clamorous about the doorway, the luti goes to the assistance
+of the guards, and giving the mandril the length of his chain, chases the
+people away.
+
+These wandering troubadours and their performing monkeys are common
+enough all over Persia, and one often meets them on the road or in the
+villages; but the bicycle is quite a different thing, and the
+enterprising Tchan-jees do a roaring business all the evening with
+customers pouring in to see it and me. The bicycle, the luti, and the
+mandril occupy the back part of the large room, where several lamps and
+farnooses envelop this attractive and drawing combination with a garish
+and stagy glow, so that they can be seen to advantage by the throngs of
+eager visitors. My own place, as the lion of the occasion, is happily in
+the vicinity of the samovar, where liberal-minded customers can treat me
+to cigarettes and tea.
+
+Ridiculous as is my position in the tchai-khan, it is, of course,
+infinitely superior in point of comfort and freedom from annoyance, to my
+exposed quarters over at the caravanserai. The luti sings doubtful love
+songs to the accompaniment of finger-strumming on the drum, and the
+mandril now and then condescends to stand on its head, grunt loudly in
+response to questions, spin round and round like a dancing dervish, and
+otherwise give proof of his intelligence and accomplishments. Its long
+hair is shorn from the lower portion of its body, but its head and
+shoulders are covered with a wealth of silvery-grayish hair that overlaps
+the nakedness of its body and gives it the grotesque appearance of
+wearing a tippet. The animal's temper is anything but sweet,
+necessitating the habitual employment of a muzzle to prevent him from
+biting. Every ten or fifteen minutes, as regular almost as the movements
+of Father Time, the mandril's bottled discontent at being made to perform
+seems to reach the explosive point, and springing suddenly at his master,
+he buries his nose viciously among his clothing in a. determined effort
+to chew him up. This spasmodic rage subsides in horrible grunts of
+disappointment at being unable to use his teeth, and he becomes
+reasonably tractable again for another ten minutes.
+
+The luti himself is filled with envy and covetousness at the immense
+drawing powers of the bicycle; and in a burst of confidence wants to know
+if I am an "Ingilis lut;" at the same time placing his forefingers
+together as an intimation that if I am we ought by all means to form a
+combination and travel the country together. About ten o'clock the
+khan-jees make me up quite a comfortable shake-down, and tired out with
+the tough journey over the mountains and the worrying persecutions of the
+afternoon, I fall asleep while yet the house is doing a thriving trade;
+the luti singing, the mandril grunting, kalians bubbling, and people
+talking, all fail to keep me awake.
+
+The mental and physical exhaustion that makes this possible, does not,
+however, prevent me from falling asleep with a firm determination to
+leave Torbet-i-Haiderie and its turbulent population too early in the
+morning for any more crowds to gather. Accordingly, the morning star has
+scarcely risen above the horizon ere I turn out, waken one of the
+khan-jees, pocket some bread and depart.
+
+Beyond the streams and villages about Torbet-i-Haiderie, the country
+develops into a level desert, stretching away southward as far as eye can
+reach. The trail is firm gravel, the wind is favorable, the morning cool,
+and the fresh, clear air of the desert exhilarating; under these
+favorable conditions I bowl rapidly along, overtaking in a very short
+time night-marching camel-riders that left the city last night. Traces of
+old irrigating ditches and fields in one or two places tell the tale of
+an attempt to reclaim portions of this desert long ago; but now the
+camel-thorn and kindred hardy shrubs hold undisputed sway on every hand.
+During the forenoon a small oasis is found among some low, shaly hills
+that give birth to a little stream, and consequent subsistence, to a few
+families of people; they live together inside a high mud-walled enclosure
+and cultivate a few small fields of grain. The place is called Kair-abad,
+and the people mix chopped garlic with their bread before baking it, or
+sprinkle the dough liberally with garlic seeds.
+
+About 2 p.m. is reached a much larger oasis containing a couple of
+villages; beyond this are diverging trails with no one anywhere near to
+ask the way. Choosing the one that seems to take the most southerly
+course, the trail continues hard and ridable for a few more miles, when
+it becomes lost in a sea of shifting sand. Firmer ground is visible in
+the distance ahead, and on it are seen the small black tents of a few
+families of Eliautes. Considerable difficulty is experienced in getting
+through the sand; but the width is not great, and the dim trail is
+recovered on the southern side with the assistance of a chance
+acquaintance.
+
+This chance acquaintance is an Eliaute goat-herd, whom I unwittingly
+scared nearly out of his senses, and whose gratitude at finding himself
+confronting a kindly-disposed human being instead of some supernatural
+agent of destruction, is very great indeed. He was slumbering at his
+post, this gentle guardian of a herd of goats, stretched at full length
+on the ground. Surveying his unconscious form for a moment and carried
+away by the animal-like simplicity of his face, I finally shout "Hoi!"
+Opening his eyes with a start and seeing a white-helmeted head surveying
+him over the top of a weird, bristling object, the natural impulse of
+this simple-hearted child of the desert is to seek safety in flight.
+Recovering his head, however, upon hearing reassuring words, he adopts
+the propitiatory course of rushing impulsively forward and kissing my
+hand.
+
+Spending his whole life here on the lonely desert in the constant society
+of a herd of goats, rarely seeing a stranger or meeting anybody to speak
+to outside the very limited members of his own tribesmen in yonder tents,
+he seems to have almost lost the power of conversation. His replies are
+mere guttural gruntings, as though the ever-present music of bleating
+goats has had the lamentable effect of neutralizing the naturally
+superior articulation of a human being and dragging his powers of
+utterance down almost to the ignoble level of "mb-b-a-a."
+
+My small stock of Persian words seems also to be altogether lost upon his
+warped and blunted powers of understanding, and it is only by an
+elaborate use of pantomime that I finally succeed in making my wants
+understood. He possesses the simple hospitable instincts of a child of
+Nature's broad solitudes; he leads the way for over a mile to put me on
+the now scarcely perceptible continuation of the trail, and with a
+worshipfully anxious face he begs of me to go and stay over night at the
+tents.
+
+My road leads right past the little cluster of black tents; several women
+outside collecting stunted brushwood greet me with the silent, wondering
+stare of people incapable of any deeper display of emotion than the
+animals they daily associate with and subsist upon; half-naked children
+stare at me in a dreamy sort of way from beneath the tents. Even the dogs
+seem to have lost their canine propensity to resent innovations; the
+result, no doubt, of the same dreary, uneventful round of existence, in
+which the faculty of resentment has become dwarfed by the general absence
+of anything new or novel to bark at.
+
+The tents of the Eliautes are small and inelegant as compared with the
+tents of well-to-do Koords, and the physique and general appearance of
+the Eliautes themselves is vastly inferior to the magnificent fellows
+that we found loafing about the headquarters of the Koordish sheikhs in
+Asia Minor and Western Persia.
+
+The trail I am now following is evidently but little used, requiring the
+tracking instincts of an Indian almost to keep it in view. It leads due
+southward across the broad, level wastes of the Goonabad Desert, the
+surface of which affords most excellent wheeling even where there is not
+the faintest indication of a trail. Much of the surface partakes of the
+character of bare mud-flats that afford as smooth a wheeling surface as
+the alkali flats of the West; the surface is covered all over with crisp
+sun peelings--the thin, shiny surface of mud, baked and curled upward by
+the fierce heat of the sun, and which now crackle like myriads of dried
+twigs beneath the wheel. Occasionally I pass through thousands of acres
+of wild tulips, and scattering bands of antelopes are observed feeding in
+the distance. The bulbous roots of a great many of the tulips have been
+eaten by herbivorous animals of epicurean tastes---our fastidious
+friends, the antelopes, no doubt. The flags are bitten off and laid
+aside, the tender, white interior of the bulb alone is extracted and
+eaten, the less tender outside layers being left in the hole. It is a
+glorious ride across the Goonabad Desert, a ten-mile pace being quite
+possible most of the way; sometimes the trail is visible and sometimes it
+is not. With but the vaguest idea of the distance to the next abode of
+man, or the nature of the country ahead, I bowl along southward, led by
+the strange infatuation of a pathfinder traversing terra incognita, and
+rejoicing in the sense of boundless freedom and unrestraint that comes of
+speeding across open country where Nature still holds her primitive sway.
+
+Twice I wheel past the ruins of wayside umbars, whose now utterly
+neglected condition and the well-nigh obliterated trail point out that I
+am travelling over a route that has for some reason been abandoned. A
+variation from the otherwise universal level occurs in the shape of a
+cluster of low, mound-like hills, whose modest proportions are made
+gorgeous and interesting by flakes of mica that glint and glisten in the
+sunlight as though the hills might be strewn with precious jewels.
+
+The sun is getting pretty low, and no signs of human habitation anywhere
+about; but the wheeling is excellent, and the termination of the
+lake-like level is observable in the distance ahead in favor of low
+hills. Between my present position and the hills the prospect is that of
+continuous level ground. Imagine my astonishment, then, at shortly
+finding myself standing on the bank of a stream about thirty yards wide,
+its yellow waters flowing sluggishly along twenty feet below the surface
+of the desert. The abrupt nature of its banks, and an evidently
+unpleasant habit of becoming unfordable after a rain, tell the story of
+the abandoned trail I have been following. Whether three feet deep or
+thirty, the thick, muddy character of its moving water refuses to reveal,
+as, standing on the bank, I ruefully survey the situation.
+
+No time is to be lost in idle speculation, unless I want to stretch my
+supperless form on the barren, brown bosom of mother earth, and dream the
+dreary visions conjured up by the clamorous demands of unsatisfied
+nature; for the sun has well-nigh sunk below the horizon. Clambering down
+the almost perpendicular bank I succeed, after several attempts, in
+discovering a passage that can be forded, and so, wrapping my clothing,
+money, revolver, etc. tightly within my rubber coat, I essay to carry the
+bundle across. All goes well until I reach a point just beyond the middle
+of the stream, when the bed of the stream breaks through with my weight
+and lets me down into a watery cavern to which there appears to be no
+bottom. The bed of the stream at this point seems to be a mere thin
+shell, beneath which there are other aqueous depths, and fearful lest the
+undercurrent should carry me beneath the crust and prevent me recovering
+myself, I loose the bundle and regain the surface without more ado. The
+rubber covering preserves the clothes from getting much of a wetting, and
+I swim and wade to the opposite shore with them without much trouble.
+
+To get the bicycle over, however, looks a far more serious undertaking;
+for to break through in this way with a bicycle held aloft would probably
+result in getting entangled in the wheel and held under the water. It
+would be equally risky to take that important piece of property apart and
+cross over with it piece by piece, for the loss of any part would be a
+serious matter here.
+
+Several new places are tried, but this one is the only passage that can
+be forded. My rope is also too short to be of avail in swimming over and
+pulling the bicycle across. Finally, after many attempts, I succeed in
+finding a ford immediately alongside where I had broken through, and
+after thoroughly testing the strength of the crust by standing and
+jumping up and down, I conclude to risk carrying the wheel. Owing to the
+extreme difficulty of following the same line, it is scarcely necessary
+to remark that every step forward is made with extreme caution and every
+foot of the riverbed traversed tested as thoroughly as possible, under
+the circumstances, before fully trusting my weight upon it. Once the
+crust breaks through again, letting me down several inches; but,
+fortunately, the second bottom is here but a matter of inches below the
+first shell, and I am able to recover myself without dropping the
+bicycle; and the southern bank is reached without further misadventure.
+
+No trail is visible on the crackled surface of the mud-flat across the
+river, as I continue in a general southward course, hoping to find it
+again ere it becomes too dark Soon a man riding on a camel is descried
+some distance off to the right, and deeming it advisable to seek for
+information at his hands, I shape my course toward him and give chase.
+Becoming conscious of a strange-looking object careering over the plain
+in his direction, the man surveys me for a moment from the back of his
+awkward steed and then steers his ship of the desert in another
+direction. The lumbering camel is quickly overtaken, however, and the
+gallant but apprehensive rider makes a stand and threateningly waves me
+away. Observing the absence of the familiar long-barrelled gun, I persist
+in my purpose of interviewing him regarding the road, and finally learn
+from him that the village of Goonabad is eight miles farther south, and
+that the trail will be easier followed when I reach the hills. Had he
+been armed with a gun, there would have been more or less risk in
+approaching him in the dusky shades of evening on so strange a vehicle of
+travel; but before I depart he alights from his camel for the
+characteristic purpose of kissing my hand.
+
+A couple of miles brings me to the hills, where my riding abruptly comes
+to an end; the hills are simply huge waves of sand and dust collected on
+the shore of the desert and held together by a growth of coarse shrubs.
+The dim light of the young moon proves insufficient for my purpose of
+keeping the trail, and the difficulty in trundling through the sand
+compels me to seek the cold comfort of a night in the desert, after all.
+
+Goonabad appears to be a sort of general rendezvous for wandering tribes
+of Eliautes that roam the desert country around with their flocks and
+herds, the tent population of the place far outnumbering the soil-tilling
+people of the village itself. A complete change is here observable in
+both the climate and the people; north of the desert the young barley is
+in a very backward state, but at Goonabad both wheat and barley are
+headed out, and the sun strikes uncomfortably hot as soon as it rises
+above the horizon. It is a curious change in so short a distance. The men
+affect the long, dangling, turban-end of the Afghans and the women
+blossom forth in the gayest of colors; the people are refreshingly
+simple-hearted and honest, as compared with the knowing customers along
+the Teheran-Meshed road.
+
+Sand-hills, scattering fields and villages, and a bewildering time
+generally, in keeping my course, characterize the experience of the
+forenoon. The people of one particular village passed through are
+observed to be all descendants of the Prophet, wearing monster green
+turbans and green kammerbunds; the women are dressed in white
+throughout--white socks, white pantalettes, and white shrouds; they
+move silently about, more like ghostly visitants than human beings.
+Distinctly different types of people from the majority are sometimes met
+with--full-bearded, very dark-skinned men, whose bared breasts betray the
+fact that they are little less hairy than a bison.
+
+Beyond the sand-hills, the villages, and the cultivation is a stony plain
+extending for sixteen miles, a gradual upward slant to a range of
+mountains. At the base of the mountains an area of dark-green coloring
+denotes the presence of fields and orchards and the whereabouts of the
+important village of Kakh. Beautifully terraced wheat-fields and
+vineyards, and peach and pomegranate orchards in full bloom, gladden the
+eyes and present a most striking contrast to the stony plain as the
+vicinity of Kakh is reached, and another pleasing and conspicuous feature
+is the dome of a mesjid mosaicked with bright-colored tiles.
+
+The good people of Kakh are inquisitive even above their fellows, if such
+can be possible, but they are well-behaved and mild-mannered with it.
+After taking the ragged edge off their curiosity by riding up and down
+the main thoroughfare of the village, the keeper of a mercantile affair
+locks the bicycle up in his room, and I spend the evening hobnobbing with
+him and his customers in his little stall-like place of business. Kakh is
+famous for the production of little seedless raisins like those of
+Smyrna. Bushels of these are kicking about the place, and our merchant
+friend becomes filled with a wild idea that I might, perchance, buy the
+lot. A moment's reflection would convince him that ten bushels of
+sickly-sweet raisins would be about the last thing he could sell to a
+person travelling on a bicycle; but his supply of raisins is evidently so
+outrageously ahead of the demand that his ambition to reduce his stock
+obscures his better judgment like a cloud, and places him in the position
+of a drowning man clutching wildly at a straw.
+
+Considerable opium is also grown hereabouts, and the people make it into
+sticks about the size of a carpenter's pencil; hundreds of these also
+occupy the merchant's shelves. He seems to have very little that isn't
+grown in the neighborhood except tea and loaf-sugar.
+
+Eyots, who were absent in their fields when I arrived, come crowding
+around the store in the evening, bothering me to ride; the shop-keeper
+bids them wait till my departure in the morning, telling them I am not a
+luti, riding simply to let people see. He provides me with a door that
+fastens inside, and I am soon in the land of dreams.
+
+Early in the morning I am awakened by people pounding at the door and
+shouting, "A/tab, Sahib-a/tab.'" It is the belated ryots of yesterday
+eve; thoroughly determined to be on hand and see the start, they are
+letting me know that it is sunrise.
+
+A boisterous mountain stream, tearing along at racing speed over a rocky
+bed a hundred and fifty yards wide, provides Kakh with perpetual music,
+and furnishes travellers going southward with an interesting time getting
+across. This stream must very frequently become a raging torrent, quite
+impassable; for although it is little more than knee-deep this morning,
+the swift water carries down stones as large as a brick, that strike
+against the ankles and well-nigh knock one off his feet.
+
+Beyond Kakh the trail winds its circuitous way through a mountainous
+region, following one little stream to its source, climbing over the
+crest of an intervening ridge and down the bed of another stream. It is
+but an indistinct donkey trail at best, and the toilsome mountain
+climbing reminds me vividly of the worst parts of Asia Minor. Toward
+nightfall I wander into the village of Nukhab, a small place perched
+among the hills, inhabited by kindly-disposed, hospitable folks.
+
+Having seen the unhappy effect of the Governor-General's letter of
+recommendation at Torbet-i-Haiderie, and desirous of seeing what effect
+it might, perchance, have on the more simple-hearted people of Nukhab, I
+present it to the little, old, blue-gowned Khan of the village. Like a
+very large proportion of his people, the Khan is suffering from chronic
+ophthalmia; but he peruses the letter by the glimmer of a blaze of
+camel-thorn. The intentions of these people were plainly most hospitable
+from the beginning, so that it is difficult to determine about the effect
+of the letter.
+
+Willing hands sweep out the quarters assigned for my accommodation, the
+improvised besoms filling the place with a cloud of dust; the doorway is
+ruthlessly mutilated to make it large enough to admit the bicycle;
+nummuds are spread and a crackling fire soon fills the room with mingled
+smoke and light. The people are allowed to circulate freely in and out to
+see me, but only the Khan himself and a few of the leading lights of the
+village are permitted to indulge in the coveted privilege of spending the
+entire evening in my company. The village is ransacked for eatables to
+honor their guest, resulting in a bountiful repast of eggs, pillau, mast,
+and sheerah.
+
+Away down here among the mountains and out of the world, these people see
+nothing more curious than their next-door neighbors from year to year;
+they take the most ridiculous interest in such small affairs as my
+note-book and pencil, and everything about me seems to strike them as
+peculiar.
+
+The entire village, as usual, assembles to see me dispose of the eatables
+so generously provided; and later in the evening there is another
+highly-expectant assembly waiting around, out of curiosity, to see what
+sort of a figure a Ferenghi cuts at his evening devotions. Poor benighted
+followers of the False Prophet, how little they comprehend us Christians!
+Suddenly it seems to dawn upon the mind of the simple old Khan that,
+being a stranger in a strange land, I might, perchance, be a trifle mixed
+about my bearings, and so he kindly indicates the direction of Mecca.
+When informed that the Ingilis never prostrate themselves toward Mecca
+and say "Allah-il-allah!" they evince the greatest astonishment; and then
+the strange, unnatural impiousness of people who never address themselves
+to Allah nor prostrate toward the Holy City, impresses their simple minds
+with something akin to the feeling entertained among certain of ourselves
+toward extra dare-devil characters, and they seem to take a deeper and
+kindlier interest in me than ever. The disappointment at not seeing what
+I look like at prayers is more than offset by the additional novelty
+imparted to my person by the, to them, strange and sensational omission.
+
+They seem greatly disappointed to learn that I am going away in the
+morning; they have plenty of toke-me-morge, pillau, mast, and sheerah,
+they say--plenty of everything; and they want me to stay with them
+always. Revolving the matter over in my mind, I am forcibly struck with
+the calm, reposeful state of Nukhab society; and what a brilliant field
+of enterprise for an ambitious person the place would be. Turned
+Mussulman, joined in wedlock to three or four sore-eyed village damsels;
+worshipped as a sort of strange, superior being, hakim and eye-water
+dispenser; consulted as a walking store-house of occult philosophy on all
+occasions; endeavoring to educate the people up to habits of all-round
+cleanliness; chiding the mothers for allowing the flies to swarm and
+devour the poor little babies' eyes--all this, for toke-me-morge, pillau,
+mast, and sheerah, twice or thrice a day! Involuntarily my eye roams over
+the gladsome countenances of the eligible portion of my female auditors,
+as though driven by this whimsical flight of fancy to the necessity of at
+once making a choice. There is only one present with any pretence to
+comeliness; and embarrassed, no doubt, by the extreme tenderness of the
+stranger's glance, she shrinks from view behind an aged and ugly person
+whom I take to be her mother.
+
+Everybody stops to see what a Ferenghi looks like en deshabille, and when
+I am snugly sandwiched between the quilts provided, they gather about me
+and peer curiously down into my face.
+
+An enterprising youth is on hand at daybreak making a fire; but it is
+eight o'clock before I am able to get away; they seem to be mildly
+scheming among themselves to keep me with them as long as possible.
+
+The trail winds and twists about among the mountains, following in the
+train of a wayward little stream, then leads over a pass and emerges, in
+the company of another stream, upon a slanting plateau leading down to an
+extensive plain. Rounding the last spur of the hills, I find myself
+approaching a crowd numbering at least a hundred people. Hats are waved
+gleefully, voices are lifted up in joyous shouts of welcome, and the
+whole company give way to demonstrations of delight at my approach. A
+minute later I find myself surrounded by the familiar faces of the
+population of Nukhab--my road has followed a roundabout course of
+six or seven miles, and our enterprising friends have taken a short cut
+over the lulls to intercept me at this point, where they can watch my,
+progress across the open plain. They have brought along the kind old
+Kahn's kalian and tobacco-bag, and the wherewithal to make me a parting
+glass of tea.
+
+Eight or ten miles of fair wheeling across the plain, through the
+isolated village of Mohammedabad, and the trail loses itself among the
+rank, dead stalks of the assafoetida plant that here characterizes the
+vegetation of the broad, level sweep of plain. The day is cloudy, and
+with no trail visible, my compass has to be brought into requisition;
+though oft-times finding it useful, it is the first time I have found
+this article to be really indispensable so far on the tour.
+
+The atmosphere of an assafoetida desert is among those things that can
+better be imagined than described; the aroma of the fetid gum is wafted
+to and fro, and assails the nostrils in a manner quite the reverse of
+"Araby the blest." The plant is a sturdy specimen among the annuals: its
+straight, upright stem is but three or four feet high, but often
+measuring four inches in diameter, and it not infrequently defies the
+blasts of the Khorassan winter and the upheaving thaws of spring, and
+preserves its upright position for a year after its death. The thick,
+dead stems and branching tops of last year's plants are seen by the
+thousands, sturdily holding their ground among the rank young shoots of
+the new growth.
+
+Mountainous territory is again entered during the afternoon, and shortly
+after sunset I arrive at a cluster of wretched mud hovels, numbering
+about two dozen. Here my reception is preeminently commercial and
+business-like, the people requiring payment in advance for the bread and
+eggs and rogan provided.
+
+A nonsensical custom among the people of Southern Khorassan is to offer
+one's food in turn to everybody present and say, "Bis-millah," before
+commencing to eat it yourself. Although a ridiculous piece of humbug, it
+is generally my custom to fall in with the peculiar ways of the country,
+and for days past have invariably offered my food to scores of people
+whom I knew beforehand would not take it. The lack of courtesy at this
+hamlet in exacting payment in advance would seem naturally to preclude
+the right to expect the following of courteous customs in return. In
+this, however, I find myself mistaken; for my omission to say
+"Bis-millah" not only fills these people with astonishment, but excites
+unfavorable comment.
+
+The door-ways of the houses here are entirely too small to admit the
+bicycle, and that much-enduring vehicle has to take its chances on the
+low roof with a score or so inquisitive and meddlesome goats that
+instantly gather around it, as though revolving in their pugnacious minds
+some fell scheme of destruction. Outside are several camels tied to their
+respective pack-saddles, which have been taken off and laid on the
+ground. Before retiring for the night, it occurs to my mind that the
+total depravity of a goat's appetite bodes ill for the welfare of my
+saddle, and that, everything considered, the bicycle could, perhaps, be
+placed safer on the ground; in addition to regarding the saddle as a
+particularly toothsome morsel, the goats' venturesome disposition might
+lead them to clambering about on the spokes, and generally mixing things
+up. So, taking it down, I stand it up against the wall, and place a heap
+of old pack-saddle frames and camel-trappings before it as an additional
+precaution. During the night some of the camels break loose and are heard
+chasing one another around the house, knocking things over and bellowing
+furiously. Apprehensive of my wheel, I get up and find it knocked over,
+but, fortunately, uninjured; I then take off the saddle and return it to
+the tender care and consideration of the goats.
+
+Four men and a boy share with me a small, unventilated den, about ten
+feet square; one of them is a camel-driving descendant of the Prophet,
+and sings out "Allah-il-allah!" several times during the night in his
+sleep; another is the patriarch of the village, a person guilty of
+cheating the undertaker, lo! these many years, and who snuffles and
+catches his breath. The other two men snore horribly, and the boy gives
+out unmistakable signs of a tendency to follow their worthy example;
+altogether, it is anything but a restful night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+BEERJAND AND THE FRONTIER OF AFGHANISTAN.
+
+Thirty miles over hill and dale, after leaving the little hamlet, and
+behold, the city of Beerjand appears before me but a mile or thereabouts
+away, at the foot of the hills I am descending. One's first impression of
+Beerjand is a sense of disappointment; the city is a jumbled mass of
+uninteresting mud buildings, ruined and otherwise, all of the same dismal
+mud-brown hue. Not a tree exists to relieve the eye, nor a solitary green
+object to break the dreary monotony of the prospect; the impression is
+that of a place existing under some dread ban of nature that forbids the
+enlivening presence of a tree, or even the redeeming feature of a bit of
+greensward.
+
+The broad, sandy bed of a stream contains a sluggishly-flowing reminder
+of past spring freshets; but the quickening presence of a stream of water
+seems thrown away on Beerjand, except as furnishing a place for
+closely-veiled females to come and wash clothes, and for the daily wading
+and disporting of amphibious youngsters. In any other city a part of its
+mission would be the nurturing of vegetation.
+
+The Ameer, Heshmet-i-Molk, I quickly learn, is living at his
+summer-garden at Ali-abad, four farsakhs to the east. Curious to see
+something of a place so much out of the world, and so little known as
+Beerjand, I determine upon spending the evening and night here, and
+continuing on to Ali-abad next morning.
+
+There appears to be absolutely nothing of interest to a casual observer
+about the city except its population, and they are interesting from their
+strange, cosmopolitan character, and as being the most unscrupulous and
+keenest people for money one can well imagine. The city seems a seething
+nest of hard characters, who buzz around my devoted person like wasps,
+seemingly restrained only by the fear of retribution from pouncing on my
+personal effects and depriving me of everything I possess.
+
+The harrowing experiences of Torbet-i Haiderie have taught a useful
+lesson that stands me in good stead at Beerjand. Ere entering the city
+proper, I enlist the services of a respectable-looking person to guide
+the way at once where the pressing needs of hunger can be attended to
+before the inevitable mob gathers about me and renders impossible this
+very necessary part of the programme. Having duly fortified myself
+against the anticipated pressure of circumstances by consuming bread and
+cheese and sheerah in the semi-seclusion of a suburban bake-house, my
+guide conducts me to the caravanserai, receives his backsheesh, and loses
+himself in the crowd that instantly fills the place.
+
+The news of my arrival seems to set the whole city in a furore; besides
+the crowds below, the galched roof of the caravanserai becomes standing
+room for a mass of human beings, to the imminent danger of breaking it
+in. So, at least, thinks the caravanserai-jee, who becomes anxious about
+it and tries to persuade them to come down; but he might as well attempt
+to summon down from above the unlistening clouds.
+
+Around two sides of the caravanserai compound is a narrow, bricked walk,
+elevated to the level of the menzil floors; at the imminent risk of
+breaking my neck, I endeavor to appease the clamorous multitude, riding
+to and fro for the edification of what is probably the wildest-looking
+assembly that could be collected anywhere in the world. Afghans, with
+tall, conical, gold-threaded head-dresses, converted into monster turbans
+by winding around them yards and yards of white or white-and-blue cloth,
+three feet of which is left dangling down the back; Beloochees in flowing
+gowns that were once white; Arabs in the striped mantles and peculiar
+headdress of their country; dervishes, mollahs, seyuds, and the whole
+fantastic array of queer-looking people living in Beerjand, travelling
+through, or visiting here to trade.
+
+Some of the Afghans wear a turban and kammerbund, all of one piece; after
+winding the long cotton sheet a number of times about the peaked
+head-dress, it is passed down the back and then ends its career in the
+form of a kammerbund about the waist. Fights and tumults occur as the
+result of the caravanserai-jee's attempt to shut the gate and keep them
+out, and in despair he puts me in a room and locks the door. In less than
+five minutes the door is broken down, and a second attempt to seclude
+myself results in my being summarily pelted out again with stones through
+a hole in the roof.
+
+A Yezdi traveller, occupying one of the menzils--all of which at
+Beeriand are provided with doors and locks--now invites me to his
+quarters; locking the door and keeping me out of sight, he hopes by
+making me his guest to assist in getting rid of the crowd. Whatever his
+object, its consummation is far from being realized; the unappeased
+curiosity of the crowds of newly arriving people finds expression in
+noisy shouts and violent hammering on the door, creating a din so
+infernal that the well-meaning traveller quickly tires of his bargain.
+Following the instincts of the genuine Oriental, he conjures up the
+genius of diplomacy to rid himself of his guest and the annoyance
+occasioned by my presence.
+
+"If you go outside and ride around the place once more," he says,
+"Inshallah, the people will all go home."
+
+This is a very transparent proposition--a broad hint, covered with
+the thin varnish of Persian politeness. No sooner am I outside than the
+door is locked, and the wily Yezdi has accomplished his purpose of
+ousting me and thereby securing a little peace for himself. No
+right-thinking person will blame him for turning me out; on the contrary,
+he deserves much praise for attempting to take me in.
+
+I now endeavor to render my position bearable by locking up the bicycle
+and allowing the populace to concentrate their eager gaze on me, perching
+myself on the roof in position to grant them a fair view. Swarms of
+people come flocking up after me, evidently no more able to control their
+impulse to follow than if they were so many bleating sheep following the
+tinkling leadership of a bellwether or a goat. The caravanserai-jee begs
+me to come down again, fearing the weight will cause the roof to cave in.
+well-nigh at my wit's end what to do, I next take up a squatting position
+in a corner and resign myself to the unhappy fate of being importuned to
+ride, shouted at in the guttural tones of desert tribesmen, questioned in
+unknown tongues, solicited for alms and schemed against and worried for
+this, that, and the other, by covetous and evil-minded ruffians.
+
+"The Ingilis have khylie pool-k-h-y-lie pool!" (much money) says one
+ferocious-looking individual to his companion, and their black eyes
+glisten and their fingers rub together feverishly as they talk, as if the
+mere imagination of handling my money were a luxury in itself.
+
+"He must have khylie pool if he is going all the way to
+Hindostan-k-h-y-lie pool!" suggests another; and the coveteousness of
+dozens of keenly interested listeners finds expression in "Pool, pool;
+the Ingilis have khylie pool."
+
+One eager ragamuffin brings me half-a-dozen sour and shrivelled oranges,
+utterly worthless, for which he asks the outrageous sum of three kerans;
+a second villainous-looking specimen worries me continuously to leave the
+caravanserai and go with him somewhere. I never could make out where.
+
+He looks the veriest cutthroat, and, curious to penetrate the secret of
+his intentions, and perchance secure something interesting for my
+note-book, I at length make pretence of acceding to his wishes.
+Bystanders at once interfere to prevent him enticing me away, and when he
+angrily remonstrates he is hustled unceremoniously out into the street.
+
+"He is a bad man," they say; "neis koob adam."
+
+Nothing daunted by the summary ejection of this person, a dervish, with
+the haggard face and wild, restless eyes of one addicted to bhang, now
+volunteers to take me under his protection and lead me out of the
+caravanserai to--where? He vouchsafes no explanation where; none, at
+least, that is at all comprehensible to me. Where do these interesting
+specimens of Beerjand's weird population want to entice me to? why do
+they want to entice me anywhere? I conclude to go with the dervish and
+find out.
+
+The crowd enter their remonstrances again; but the dervish wears the garb
+of holy mendicancy; violent hands must not be laid on the sacred person
+of a dervish. Our path is barred at the outer gate of the caravanserai,
+however, by two men in semi-military uniforms, armed with swords and huge
+clubs; they chide the dervish for wanting to take me with him, and have
+evidently been placed at their post by the authorities.
+
+Soon a uniformed official comes in and tries to question me. He is a
+person of very limited intelligence, incapable of understanding and
+making himself understood through the medium of the small stock of his
+native tongue at my command. The linguistic abilities of the strange,
+semi-civilized audience about us comprise Persian, Turkish, Hindostani,
+and even a certain amount of Russian; not a soul besides myself knows a
+single word of English.
+
+After queries have been propounded to me in all these tongues, my
+intellectual interviewer gives me up in despair, and, addressing the
+crowd about us, cries out in astonishment: "Parsee neis! Turkchi binmus!
+Hindostani nay! Paruski nicht! mashallah, what language does he speak?"
+
+"Ingilis! Ingilis! Ingilis!" shout at least a dozen more knowing people
+than himself.
+
+"Oh, I-n-g-i-l-i-s!" says the officer, condemning his own lack of
+comprehension by the tone of his voice. "Aha, I-n-g-i-l-i-s, aha!" and he
+looks over the crowd apologetically for not having thought of so simple a
+thing before. But having ascertained that I speak English, he now
+proceeds to treat me to a voluble discourse in simon-pure Persian. Seeing
+that I fail to comprehend the tenor of the officer's remarks, some of the
+garrulous crowd vouchsafe to explain in Turkish, others in Hindostani,
+and one in Russian!
+
+In the absence of a lunatic asylum to dodge into, I fasten on to the
+officer and get him to take me out and show me the Ali-abad road, so that
+I can find the way out early in the morning.
+
+Another caravanserai is found located nearer the road leading from the
+city eastward, and I determine to change my quarters quietly by the light
+of the moon, leaving the crowd in ignorance of my whereabouts, so that
+there will be no difficulty in getting through the streets in the
+morning.
+
+Late at night, when the now quieted city is bathed in the soft, mellow
+light of the moon, and the crenellated mud walls and old ruins and
+archways cast weird shadows across the silent streets, with a few chosen
+companions, parties to the secret of the removal, the bicycle is trundled
+through the narrow, crooked streets and under arched alleyways, to the
+caravanserai on the eastern edge of the city.
+
+Seated beneath the shadowy archway of the first caravanserai is a silent
+figure smoking a kalian; as we open the gate to leave, the figure rises
+up and thrusts forth an alms-receiver and in a loud voice sings out,
+"Backsheesh, backsheesh; huk yah huk!" It is the same dervish that was
+turned back with me by the guards at this same gate this afternoon.
+
+My much-needed slumbers at my new quarters are rudely disturbed--as a son
+of Erin might, perhaps, declare under similar circumstances--before they
+are commenced, by the fearful yowling of Beerjand cats. Several of these
+animals are paying their feline compliments to the moon from different
+roofs and walls hard by, and their utterances strike my unaccustomed
+(unaccustomed to the Beerjand variety of cat-music) ears as about the
+most unearthly sound possible.
+
+Fancying the noise is made by women wailing for the dead, from a striking
+resemblance to the weird night-sounds heard, it will be remembered, at
+Bey Bazaar, Asia Minor (Vol. I), I go outside and listen. Many guesses
+would most assuredly be made by me before guessing cats as the authors of
+such unearthly music; but cats it is, nevertheless; for, seeing me
+listening outside by the door, one of the sharers of my rude quarters
+comes out and removes all doubt by drawing the rude outlines of a cat in
+the dust with his finger, and by delivering himself of an explanatory
+"meow." The yowl of a Beerjand cat is several degrees more soul-harrowing
+than anything inflicted by midnight prowlers upon the Occidental world,
+and I learn afterward that they not infrequently keep it up in the
+daytime.
+
+An early start, sixteen miles of road without hills or mountains, but
+embracing the several qualities of good, bad, and indifferent, and at
+eight o'clock I dismount in the presence of a little knot of
+Heshmet-i-Molk's retainers congregated outside his summer-garden, and a
+goodly share of the population of the adjacent village of Ali-abad. While
+yet miles away, Ali-abad is easily distinguished as being something out
+of the ordinary run of Persian villages by the luxuriant foliage of the
+Ameer's garden. The whole country around is of the same desert-like
+character that distinguishes well-nigh all this country, and the dark,
+leafy grove of trees standing alone on the gray camel-thorn plain,
+derives additional beauty and interest from the contrast.
+
+The village of Ali-abad, consisting of the merest cluster of low mud
+hovels and a few stony acres wrested from the desert by means of
+irrigation, the people ragged, dirty, and uncivilized, looks anything but
+an appropriate dwelling-place for a great chieftain. The summer garden
+itself is enclosed within a high mud wall, and it is only after passing
+through the gate and shutting out the rude hovels, the rag-bedecked
+villagers, and the barren desert, that the illusion of unfitness is
+removed.
+
+My letter is taken in to the Ameer, and in a few minutes is answered in a
+most practical manner by the appearance of men carrying carpets,
+tent-poles, and a round tent of blue and white stripes. Winding its
+silvery course to the summer garden, from a range of hills several miles
+distant, is a clear, cold stream; although so narrow as to be easily
+jumped, and nowhere more than knee-deep, the presence of trout betrays
+the fact that it never runs dry.
+
+The tent is pitched on the banks of this bright little stream, the
+entrance but a half-dozen paces from its sparkling water, and a couple of
+guards are stationed near by to keep away intrusive villagers; an
+abundance of eatables, including sweetmeats, bowls of sherbet, and dried
+apricots, and pears from Foorg, are provided at once.
+
+A neatly dressed attendant squats himself down on the shady side of the
+tent outside, and at ridiculously short intervals brings me in a newly
+primed kalian and a samovar of tea. Everything possible to contribute to
+my comfort is attended to and nothing overlooked; and the Ameer
+furthermore proves himself sensible and considerate above the average of
+his fellow-countrymen by leaving me to rest and refresh myself in the
+quiet retreat of the tent till four o'clock in the afternoon.
+
+Reclining on the rich Persian carpet beneath the gayly striped tent,
+entertained by the babbling gossip of the brook, provided with luxuriant
+food and watchful attendants, taking an occasional pull at a jewelled
+kalian primed with the mild and seductive product of Shiraz, or sipping
+fragrant tea, it is very difficult to associate my present conditions and
+surroundings with the harassing experiences of a few hours ago. This
+marvellous transformation in so short a time--from the madding clamor of
+an inconsiderate mob, to the nerve-soothing murmur of the little stream;
+from the crowded and filthy caravanserai to the quiet shelter of the
+luxurious tent; in a word, from purgatory to Paradise--what can have
+brought it about? Surely nothing less than the good genii of Aladdin's
+lamp.
+
+A very agreeable, and, withal, intelligent young man, the incumbunt of
+some office about the Ameer's person, no doubt a mirza, pays me a visit
+at noon, apparently to supervise the serving up of the--more than
+bountiful repast sent in from his master's table. My attention is at once
+arrested by the English coat-of-arms on his sword-belt; both belt and
+clasp have evidently wandered from the ranks of the British army.
+
+"Pollock Sahib," he says, in reply to my inquiries--it is a relic of
+the Seistan Boundary Commission.
+
+About four o'clock, this same young man and a companion appear with the
+announcement that the Ameer is ready to receive me, and requests that I
+bring the bicycle with me into the garden. The stream flows through a low
+arch beneath the wall and lends itself to the maintenance of an
+artificial lake that spreads over a large proportion of the enclosed
+space. The summer garden is a fabrication of green trees and the cool
+glimmer of shaded water, rather than the flower-beds, the turf, and
+shrubbery of the Occidental conception of a garden; the Ameer's quarters
+consist of an un-pretentious one-storied building fronting on the lake.
+
+The Ameer himself is found seated on a plain divan at the open-windowed
+front, toying with a string of amber beads; a dozen or so retainers are
+standing about in respectful and expectant attitudes, ready at a moment's
+notice to obey any command he may give or to anticipate his personal
+wants. He is a stoutly built, rather ponderous sort of individual, with a
+full, rotund face and a heavy, unintellectual, but good-natured
+expression; one's first impression of him is apt to be less flattering to
+his head than to his heart. He is a person, however, that improves with
+acquaintance, and is probably more intelligent than he looks. He seems to
+be living here in a very plain and unpretentious manner; no gaudy stained
+glass, no tinsel, no mirror-work, no vain gew-gaws of any description
+impart a cheap and garish glitter to the place; no gorgeous apparel
+bedecks his ample proportions. Clad in the ordinary dress of a well-to-do
+Persian nobleman, Heshmet-i-Molk, happy and contented in the enjoyment of
+creature comforts and the universal esteem of his people, probably finds
+his chief pleasure in sitting where we now find him, looking out upon the
+green trees and glimmering waters of the garden, smoking his kalian, and
+attending to the affairs of state in a quiet, unostentatious manner. With
+a refreshing absence of ceremonial, he discusses with me the prospects of
+my being able to reach India overland. The conversation on his part,
+however, almost takes the form of trying to persuade me from my purpose
+altogether, and particularly not to attempt Afghanistan.
+
+"The Harood is as wide as from here to the other side of the lake yonder
+(200 yards); tund (swift) as a swift-running horse and deep as this
+house," he informs me.
+
+"No bridge? no ferry-boat? no means of getting across?"
+
+"Eitch" (no), replies the Ameer. "Pull neis, kishti neis."
+
+"Can't it be forded with camels?"
+
+"Shutor neis."
+
+"No village, with people to assist with poles or skins to make a raft?"
+
+"Afghani dasht-adam (nomads), no poles; you might perhaps find skins; but
+the river is tund-t-u-n-d! skins neis, poles neis; t-u-n-d!!" and the
+Ameer points to a bird hopping about on the garden walk, intimating that
+the Harood flows as swiftly as the flight of a bird.
+
+The result of the conference I have been so anxiously looking forward to
+is anything but an encouraging picture--a picture of insurmountable
+obstacles on every hand. The deep sand and burning heat of the dreadful
+Lut Desert intervenes between me and the Mekran coast; the route through
+Beloochistan, barely passable with camels and guides and skins of water
+in the winter, is not only impracticable for anything in the summer, but
+there is the additional obstacle of the spring floods of the Helmund and
+the Seistan Lake.
+
+The Ameer's description of the Lut Desert and Beloochistan is but a
+confirmation of my own already-arrived-at conclusions concerning the
+utter impracticability of crossing either in the summer and with a
+bicycle; but the wish gives birth to the thought that perhaps he may not
+unlikely be indulging in the Persian weakness for exaggeration in his
+graphic portrayal of the difficulties presented by the Harood.
+
+The region between Beerjand and the Harood is on my map a dismal-looking,
+blankety-blank stretch of country, marked with the ominous title
+"Dasht-i" which, being interpreted into English, means Desert of Despair.
+A gleam of hope that things may not be quite so hopeless as pictured is
+born of the fact that, in dwelling on the difficulties of the situation,
+the Ameer makes less capital out of this same Desert of Despair than of
+the Harood, which has to be crossed on its eastern border.
+
+As regards interference from the Legation of Teheran, thank goodness I am
+now three hundred miles from the nearest telegraph-pole, and shall enter
+Afghanistan at a point so much nearer to Quetta than to the Boundary
+Commission Camp that the chances seem all in favor of reaching the former
+place if I only succeed in reaching the Dasht-i-na-oomid and the Harood.
+
+The result of the foregoing deliberations is a qualified (qualified by
+the absence of any alternative save turning back) determination to point
+my nose eastward, and follow its leadership toward the British outpost at
+Quetta.
+
+"Khylie koob" (very well), replies the Ameer, as he listens to my
+determination; "khylie koob;" and he takes a few vigorous whiffs at his
+kalian as though, conscious of the uselessness of arguing the matter any
+further with a Ferenghi, he were dismissing the ghost of his own opinions
+in a cloud of smoke.
+
+Shortly after sunrise on the following morning a couple of well-mounted
+horsemen appear at the door of my tent, armed and equipped for the road.
+Their equipment consists of long guns with resting-fork attachment, the
+prongs of which project above the muzzle like a two-pronged pitchfork;
+swords, pistols, and the brave but antique display of warlike
+paraphernalia characteristic of the East. One of them, I am pleased to
+observe, is the genial young mirza whose snuff-colored roundabout is held
+in place by the "dieu et mon droit" belt of yesterday; his companion is
+the ordinary sowar, or irregular horseman of the country. They announce
+themselves as bearers of the Ameer's salaams, and as my escort to Tabbas,
+a village two marches to the east.
+
+A few miles of plain, with a gradual inclination toward the mountains;
+ten miles up the course of a mountain-stream-up, up, up to where thawing
+snow-banks make the pathway anything but pleasant for my escort's horses
+and ten times worse for a person reduced to the necessity of lugging his
+horse along; over the summit, and down, down, down again over a fearful
+trail for a wheelman, or, more correctly, over no trail at all, but
+scrambling as best one can over rocks, along ledges, often in the water
+of the stream, and finally reaching the village of Darmian, the end of
+our first day's march, about 3 p.m.
+
+Darmian is situated in a rugged gulch, and the houses, gardens, and
+orchards ramble all over the place--with little regard to
+regularity, although some attempt has been made at forming streets.
+Darmian and Poorg are twin villages, but a short distance apart, in this
+same gulch, and are famous for dried apricots, pears, and dried
+beetroots, and for the superior quality of its sheerah.
+
+Among the absurdities that crop up during the course of an eventful
+evening at Darmian is the case of a patriarchal villager whose broad and
+enlightening experience of some threescore years has left him in the
+possession of a marvellously logical and comprehensive mind. Hearing of
+the arrival of a Ferenghi with an iron horse, this person's subtle
+intellect pilots him into the stable of the place we are stopping at and
+leads him to search curiously therein, with the expectation, we may
+reasonably presume, of seeing the bicycle complacently munching kah and
+jow. This is perhaps not so much to be wondered at, when it is reflected
+that plenty of people hereabout have no conception whatever of a wheeled
+vehicle, never having seen a vehicle of any description.
+
+The good people of Darmian, as is perhaps quite natural in people near
+the frontier, betray a pardonable pride in comparing Persia with
+Afghanistan, always to the prodigious disadvantage of the latter. In the
+course of the usual examination of my effects, they are immensely
+gratified to learn from my map that Persia is much the larger country of
+the two. A small corner of India is likewise visible on the map, and,
+taking it for granted that the map represents India as fully as it does
+Persia, the khan, on whom I am unwittingly bestowing the rudiments of a
+false but patriotic geographical education, turns around, and with
+swelling pride informs the delighted people that Seistan is larger than
+India, and Iran bigger than all the rest of the world, he taking it for
+granted that my map of Persia is a map of the whole world.
+
+More and more fantastic grow the costumes of the people as one gets
+farther, so to speak, out of civilization and off the beaten roads. The
+ends of the turbans here are often seen gathered into a sort of bunch or
+tuft on the top; the ends are fringed or tipped with gold, and when
+gathered in this manner create a fanciful, crested appearance--impart a
+sort of cock-a-doodle-doo aspect to the wearer.
+
+Among the most interesting of my callers are three boys of eight to
+twelve summers, who enter the room chewing leathery chunks of dried
+beetroot. Although unwashed, "unwiped," and otherwise undistinguishable
+from others of the same age about the place, they are gravely introduced
+as khan this, that, and the other respectively; and while they remain in
+the room, obsequiousness marks the deportment of everybody present except
+their father, and he regards them with paternal pride.
+
+They are sons of the village khan, and as such are regarded superior
+beings by the common people about them. It looks rather ridiculous to see
+grown people bearing themselves in a retiring, servile manner in
+deference to youngsters glaringly ignorant of how to use a
+pocket-handkerchief, and who look as if their chief pastime were chewing
+dried beetroot and rolling about in the dust.
+
+But presently it is revealed that their first visit has been a mere
+informal call to satisfy the first impulse of youthful curiosity. By and
+by their fond parent takes them away for half an hour, and then ushers
+them into my presence again, transformed into gorgeous youths with nice
+clean faces and wiped noses. Marshalling themselves gravely opposite
+where I am sitting, they put their hands solemnly on their youthful
+stomachs, salaam, and gracefully drop down into a cross-legged position
+on the carpet.
+
+They look like real little chieftains now, both in dress and deportment.
+Scarlet roundabouts, trimmed with a profusion of gold braid, bedeck their
+consequential bodies; red slippers embroidered with gold thread cover
+their feet, and their snowy turbans end in a gold-flecked tuft of
+transparent muslin that imparts a bantam-like air of superiority. Their
+father comes and squats down beside me, and, as we sip tea together, he
+bestows a fond, parental smile upon the three scarlet poppies sitting
+motionless, with heads slightly bent and eyes downcast, before us, and
+inquires by an eloquent sweep of his chin what I think of them as
+specimens of simon-pure nobility.
+
+All through Persia the word "ob" has heretofore been used for water; but
+linguistic changes are naturally to be expected near the frontier, and
+the Darmian people use the term "ow." Upon my calling for ob, the khan's
+attendant stares blankly in reply; but an animated individual in the
+front ranks of the crowd about the doors and windows enlightens him and
+me at the same time by shouting out, "Ow! ow! ow!"
+
+The muezzin, calling the faithful to their evening prayers, likewise
+utters the summons here at Darmian quite differently from anything of the
+kind heard elsewhere.
+
+The cry is difficult to describe; but without meaning to cast reflections
+on the worthy muezzin's voice, I may perhaps be permitted to mention that
+the people are twice admonished, and twice a listening katir (donkey)
+awakens the echoing voices of the rock-ribbed gulch in vociferous
+response.
+
+The mother-in-law of the mirza lives at Darmian, and, like a dutiful son,
+he lingers in her society until nine o'clock next morning. At that hour
+he turns his horse's footsteps down the bed of the stream, while his
+comrade guides me for a couple of miles over a most abominable
+mountain-trail, rejoining the river and the dutiful son-in-law at Foorg.
+Foorg is situated at the extremity of the gulch, and is distinguished by
+a frowning old castle or fort, that occupies the crest of a precipitous
+hill overtopping the village and commanding a very comprehensive view of
+the country toward the Afghan frontier.
+
+The villages of Darmian and Foorg, looking out upon wild frontier
+territory, inhabited chiefly by turbulent and lawless tribes-people whose
+hereditary instincts are diametrically opposed to the sublime ethics of
+the decalogue have no doubt often found the grim stronghold towering so
+picturesquely above them an extremely convenient thing.
+
+The escort points it out and explains that it belongs to the "Padishah at
+Teheran," and not to his own master, the Ameer--a national, as
+distinct from a provincial, fortification. The cultivated environs of
+Foorg present a most discouraging front to a wheelman; walled gardens,
+rocks, orchards, and ruins, with hundreds of water-ditches winding and
+twisting among them, the water escaping through broken banks and creating
+new confusion where confusion already reigns supreme. Among this
+indescribable jumble of mud, water, rocks, ruins, and cultivation,
+pitched almost at an angle of forty-five degrees, the natives climb about
+bare-legged, impressing one very forcibly as so many human goats as they
+scale the walls, clamber over rocks, or wade through mud and water.
+
+A willing Foorgian divests himself of everything but his hat, and carries
+the bicycle across the stream, while I am taken up behind the mirza. As
+the mirza's iron-gray gingerly enters the water, an interesting and
+instructive spectacle is afforded by a hundred or more Foorgians
+following the shining example of the classic figure carrying the bicycle,
+for the purpose of being on hand to see me start across the plain toward
+Tabbas.
+
+Some of these good people are wearing turbans the size of a bandbox;
+others wear enormous sheep-skin busbies. A number of tall, angular
+figures stemming the turbid stream in the elegant costumes of our first
+parents, but wearing Khorassani busbies or Beerjand turbans, makes a
+bizarre and striking picture.
+
+A gravelly trail, with the gradient slightly in my favor, enables me to
+create a better impression of a bicycler's capabilities on the mind of
+the mirza and the sowar than was possible yesterday, by quickly leaving
+them far in the rear. Some miles are covered when I make a halt for them
+to overtake me, seeking the welcome shelter of a half-ruined wayside
+umbar.
+
+An Eliaute camp is but a short distance away, and several sun-painted
+children of the desert are eagerly interviewing the bicycle when my
+escort comes galloping along; not seeing me anywhere in view ahead, they
+had wondered what had become of their wheel-winged charge and are quite
+relieved at finding me here hobnobbing with the Eliautes behind the
+umbar.
+
+The mirza's fond mother-in-law has presented him with a quantity of dried
+pears with half a walnut imbedded in each quarter; during a brief halt at
+the umbar these Darmian delicacies are fished out of his saddle-bags and
+duly pronounced upon, and the genial Eliautes contribute flowing bowls of
+doke (soured milk, prepared in some manner that prevents its spoiling).
+
+High noon finds us at our destination for the day, the village of Tabbas,
+famous in all the country around for a peculiar windmill used in grinding
+grain. A grist-mill, or mills, consists of a row of one-storied mud huts,
+each of which contains a pair of grindstones. Connecting with the upper
+stone is a perpendicular shaft of wood which protrudes through the roof
+and extends fifteen feet above it. Cross-pieces run through at right
+angles and, plaited with rushes, transform the shaft into an upright
+four-bladed affair that the wind blows around and turns the millstones
+below.
+
+So far, this is only a very primitive and clumsy method of harnessing the
+wind; but connected with it is a very ingenious contrivance that redeems
+it entirely from the commonplace. A system of mud walls are built about,
+the same height or a little higher than the shaft, in such a manner as to
+concentrate and control the wind in the interest of the miller,
+regardless of which direction it is blowing in.
+
+The suction created by the peculiar disposition of the walls whisks the
+rude wattle sails around in the most lively manner. Forty of these mills
+are in operation at Tabbas; and to see them all in full swing, making a
+loud "sweeshing" noise as they revolve, is a most extraordinary sight.
+Aside from Tabbas, these novel grist-mills are only to be seen in the
+territory about the Seistan Lake.
+
+The door-way of the quarters provided for our accommodation being too
+small to admit the bicycle, not the slightest hesitation is made about
+knocking out the threshold. Every male visible about the place seems
+eagerly desirous of lending a hand in sweeping out the room, spreading
+nummuds, bringing quilts, tea, kalians, or something.
+
+A slight ripple upon the smooth and pleasing surface of the universal
+inclination to do us honor is a sententious controversy between the mirza
+and a blatant individual who enters objections about killing a sheep.
+Whether, in the absence of the village khan, the objections are based on
+an unwillingness to supply the mutton, or because the sheep are miles
+away on the plain, does not appear; but whatever the objections, the
+mirza overcomes them, and we get freshly slaughtered mutton for supper.
+
+Tea is evidently a luxury not to be lightly regarded at Tabbas; after the
+leaves have served their customary purpose, they are carefully emptied
+into a saucer, sprinkled with sugar, and handed around--each guest takes a
+pinch of the sweetened leaves and eats it.
+
+The modus operandi of manipulating the kalian likewise comes in for a
+slight modification here. The ordinary Persian method, before handing the
+water-pipe to another, is to lift off the top while taking the last pull,
+and thus empty the water-chamber of smoke. The Tabbasites accomplish the
+same end by raising the top and blowing down the stem. This mighty
+difference in the manner of clearing the water-chamber of a hubble-bubble
+will no doubt impress the minds of intellectual Occidentals as a
+remarkably important and valuable piece of information. Not less
+interesting and remarkable will likewise seem the fact that the
+flour-frescoed proprietors of these queer little Tabbas grist-mills are
+nothing less than the boundary-mark between that portion of the
+water-pipe smoking world which blows the remaining smoke out and that
+portion which inhales it. The Afghan, the Indian, and the Chinaman adopt
+the former method; the Turk, the Persian, and the Arab the latter.
+
+Yet another interesting habit, evidently borrowed from their uncultivated
+neighbors beyond the Dasht-i-na-oomid, is the execrable practice of
+chewing snuff. Almost every man carries a supply of coarse snuff in a
+little sheepskin wallet or dried bladder; at short intervals he rubs a
+pinch of this villainous stuff all over his teeth and gums and deposits a
+second pinch away in his cheek.
+
+Abdurraheim Khan, the chief of several small villages on the Tabbas
+plain, turns up in the evening. He is the mildest-mannered,
+kindliest-looking human being I have seen for a long time; he does the
+agreeable in a manner that leads his guests to think he worships the
+"Ingilis" people humbly at a distance, and is highly honored in being
+able to see and entertain one of those very worshipful individuals. Like
+nearly all Persians, he is ignorant of the Western custom of shaking
+hands; the sun-browned paw extended to him as he enters is stared at a
+moment in embarrassment and then clasped between both his palms.
+
+The turban of Abdurraheim Khan is a marvellous evidence of skill in the
+arranging of that characteristic Eastern head-dress; the snowy whiteness
+of the material, the gracefulness of the folds, and the elegant
+crest-like termination are not to be described and done justice to by
+either word or pen.
+
+In reply to my inquiries, I am glad to find that Abdurraheim Khan speaks
+less discouragingly of the Harood than did the Ameer at Ali-abad; he says
+it will be fordable for camels, and there will be no difficulty in
+finding nomads able to provide me an animal to cross over with.
+
+Some cause of delay, incomprehensible to me, appears to interfere with
+the continuation of my journey in the morning, most of the forenoon being
+spent in a discussion of the subject between Abdurraheim Khan and the
+mirza. About noon a messenger arrives from Ali-abad, bringing a letter
+from the Ameer, which seems to clear up the mystery at once. The letter
+probably contains certain instructions about providing me an escort that
+were overlooked in the letter brought by the mirza.
+
+When about starting, the khan presents me with a bowl of sweet stuff
+--a heavy preparation of sugar, grease, and peppermint. A very small
+portion of this lead-like concoction suffices to drive out all other
+considerations in favor of a determination never to touch it again. An
+attempt to distribute it among the people about us is interpreted by the
+well-meaning khan as an impulse of pure generosity on my own part; the
+result being that he ties the stuff up nicely in a clean handkerchief
+that an unlucky bystander happens to display at that moment and bids me
+carry it with me.
+
+An ancient retainer, without any teeth to speak of, and an annoying habit
+of shouting "h-o-i!" at a person, regardless of the fact that one is
+within hearing of the merest whisper, is detailed to guide me to a few
+hovels perched among the mountains, four farsakhs to the southeast, from
+which point the journey across the Dasht-i-na-oomid is to begin, with an
+escort of three sowars, who are to join us there later in the evening.
+
+A couple of miles over fairly level ground, and then commences again the
+everlasting hills, up, up, down, up, down, clear to our destination for
+the day. While trundling along over the rough foot-hills, I am approached
+by some nomads who are tending goats near by. Seeing them gather about
+me, my aged but valiant protector comes galloping briskly up and
+imperatively waves them away. A grandfatherly party, with a hacking
+cough, a rusty cimeter, and a flint-lock musket of "ye olden tyme," I
+fancied "The Aged" merely a guide to show me the road. As I worry along
+over the rough, unridable mountains, the irritation of being shouted
+"hoi!" at for no apparent reason, except for the luxury of hearing the
+music of his own voice, is so annoying that I have about resolved to
+abandon him to a well-deserved fate, in case of attack.
+
+But now, instead of leaning on me for protection, he blossoms forth at
+once as not only the protector of his own person, but of mine as well! As
+he comes galloping bravely up and dismisses the wild-looking children of
+the desert with a grandiloquent sweep of his hand, he is almost rewarded
+by an involuntary "bravo, old un!" from myself, so superior to the
+occasion does he seem to rise.
+
+The little nest of mud huts are found, after a certain amount of
+hesitation and preliminary going ahead by "The Aged," and toward
+nightfall three picturesque horsemen ride up and dismount; they are the
+sowars detailed by the Ameer's orders to Abdurraheim, or some other
+border-land khan, to escort me across the Desert of Despair.
+
+"The Aged" bravely returns to Tabbas in the morning by himself. When on
+the point of departing, he surveys me wistfully across a few feet of
+space and shouts "h-o-i!" He then regards me with a peculiar and
+indescribable smile. It is not a very hard smile to interpret, however,
+and I present him with the customary backsheesh. Pocketing the coins, he
+shouts "h-o-i!'" again, and delivers himself of another smile even more
+peculiar and indescribable than the other.
+
+"Persian-like, receiving a present of money only excites his cupidity for
+more," I think; and so reply by a deprecatory shake of the head. This
+turns out to be an uncharitable judgment, however, for once; he goes
+through the pantomime of using a pen and says, "Abdurraheim Khan." He saw
+me write my name, the date of my appearance at Tabbas, etc., on a piece
+of paper and give it to Abdurraheim Khan, and he wants me to do the same
+thing for him.
+
+The three worthies comprising my new escort are most interesting
+specimens of the genus sowar; the leader and spokesman of the trio says
+he is a khan; number two is a mirza, and number three a mudbake. Khans
+are pretty plentiful hereabouts, and it is nothing surprising to happen
+across one acting in the humble capacity of a sowar; a mirza gets his
+title from his ability to write letters; the precise social status of a
+mudbake is more difficult to here determine, but his proper
+roosting-place is several rungs of the social ladder below either of the
+others. They are to take me through to the Khan of Grhalakua, the first
+Afghan chieftain beyond the desert, and to take back to the Ameer a
+receipt from him for my safe delivery.
+
+It is a far easier task to reckon up their moral calibre than their
+social. Before being in their delectable company an hour they reveal that
+strange mingling of childlike simplicity and total moral depravity that
+enters into the composition of semi-civilized kleptomaniacs. The khan is
+a person of a highly sanguine temperament and possesses a headstrong
+disposition; coupled with his perverted notions of meum and tuum, these
+qualities will some fine day end in his being brought up with a round
+turn and required to part company with his ears or nose, or to be turned
+adrift on the cold charity of the world, deprived of his hands by the
+crude and summary justice of Khorassan. His eyes are brown and large, and
+spherical almost as an owl's eyes, and they bulge out in a manner that
+exposes most of the white. He wears long hair, curled up after the manner
+of Persian la-de-da-dom, and in his crude, uncivilized sphere evidently
+fancies himself something of a dandy.
+
+The mirza is quiet and undemonstrative in his manners, as compared with
+his social superior; and as becomes a person gifted with the rare talent
+of composing and writing letters, his bump of cautiousness is several
+degrees larger than the khan's, but is, nevertheless, not large enough to
+counterbalance the pernicious effect of an inherited and deeply rooted
+yearning for filthy lucre and a lamentable indifference as to the manner
+of obtaining it.
+
+The mudbake is the oldest man of the three, and consequently should be
+found setting the others a good example; but, instead of this, his
+frequent glances at my packages are, if anything, more heavily freighted
+with the molecules of covetousness and an eager longing to overhaul their
+contents than either the khan's or the mirza's.
+
+"Pool, pool, pool--keran, keran, keran," the probable amount in my
+possession, the amount they expect to receive as backsheesh, and kindred
+speculations concerning the financial aspect of the situation, form
+almost the sole topic of their conversation. Throwing them off their
+guard, by affecting greater ignorance of their language than I am really
+guilty of, enables me to size them up pretty thoroughly by their
+conversation, and thus to adopt a line of policy to counteract the
+baneful current of their thoughts. Their display of cunning and rascality
+is ridiculous in the extreme; fancying themselves deep and unfathomable
+as the shades of Lucifer himself, they are, in reality, almost as
+transparent and simple as children; their cunning is the cunning of the
+school-boy. Well aware that the safety of their own precious carcasses
+depends on their returning to Khorassan with a receipt from the Khan of
+Ghalakua for my safe delivery, there is little reason to fear actual
+violence from them, and their childish attempts at extortion by other
+methods will furnish an amusing and instructive study of barbarian
+character.
+
+The hovel in which our queerly assorted company of eight people sleep
+--the owners of the shanty, "The Aged," the khan, the mirza, the
+mudbake, and myself--is entered by a mere hole in the wall, and the
+bicycle has to stand outside and take the brunt of a heavy thunder-storm
+during the night. In this respect, however, it is an object of envy
+rather than otherwise, for myriads of fleas, larger than I would care to
+say, for fear of being accused of exaggeration, hold high revel on our
+devoted carcasses all the livelong night. From the swarms of these frisky
+insects that disport and kick their heels together in riotous revelry on
+and about my own person, I fancy, forsooth, they have discovered in me
+something to be made the most of, as a variety of food seldom coming
+within their province. But the complaining moans of "Ali-Akbar" from "The
+Aged," the guttural grunts of disapproval from the mirza and the mudbake,
+and the impatient growls of "kek" (flea) from the khan, tell of their
+being at least partial companions in misery; but, being thicker-skinned,
+and withal well seasoned to this sort of thing, their sufferings are less
+than mine.
+
+The rain has cleared up, but the weather looks unsettled, as about eight
+o'clock next morning our little party starts eastward under the guidance
+of a villager whom I have employed to guide us out of the immediate range
+of mountains, the sowars betraying a general ignorance of the
+commencement of the route.
+
+My escort are a great improvement as regards their arms and equipments
+upon "The Aged." Among the three are two percussion double-barrelled
+shot-guns, a percussion musket, six horse-pistols of various degrees of
+serviceableness, swords, daggers, ornamental goat's-paunch
+powder-pouches, peculiar pendent brass rings containing spring nippers
+for carrying and affixing caps, leathern water-bottles, together with
+various odds and ends of warlike accoutrements distributed about their
+persons or their saddles.
+
+"Inshallah, Ghalakua, Gh-al-a-kua!" exclaims the khan, as he swings
+himself into the saddle. "Inshallah, Al-lah," is the response of the
+mirza and the mudbake, as they carelessly follow his example, and the
+march across the Dasht-i-na-oomid begins.
+
+The ryot leads the way afoot, following along the partially empty beds of
+mountain torrents, through patches of rank camel-thorn, over
+bowlder-strewn areas and drifts of sand, sometimes following along the
+merest suggestion of a trail, but quite as frequently following no trail
+at all. At certain intervals occurs a piece of good ridable ground; our
+villager-guide then looks back over his shoulder and bounds ahead with a
+swinging trot, eager to enjoy the spectacle of the bicycle spinning along
+at his heels; the escort bring up the rear in a leisurely manner,
+absorbed in the discussion of "pool."
+
+Several miles are covered in this manner, when we emerge upon a more open
+country, and after consulting at some length with the villager, the khan
+declares himself capable of finding the way without further assistance.
+It is a strange, wild country, where we part from our local guide; it
+looks as though it might be the battleground of the elements. A trail,
+that is only here and there to be made out, follows a southeasternly
+course down a verdureless tract of country strewn with rocks and bowlders
+and furrowed by the rushing waters of torrents now dried up. Jagged rocks
+and bowlders are here mingled in indescribable confusion on a surface of
+unproductive clay and smaller stones. On the east stretches a waste of
+low, stony hills, and on the west, the mountains we have recently emerged
+from rise two thousand feet above us in an almost unbroken wall of
+precipitous rock.
+
+By and by the khan separates himself from the party and gallops away out
+of sight to the left, his declared mission being to purchase "goosht-i"
+(mutton) from a camp of nomads, whose whereabouts he claims to know. As
+the commissaire of the party, I have, of course, intrusted him with a
+sufficient quantity of money to meet our expenses; and the mirza and the
+mudbake no sooner find themselves alone than another excellent trait of
+their character conies to the surface. Upon comparing their thoughts,
+they find themselves wonderfully unanimous in their suspicions as to the
+honesty of the khan's intentions toward--not me, but themselves!
+
+These worthy individuals are troubled about the khan's independent
+conduct in going off alone to spend money where they cannot witness the
+transaction. They are sorely troubled as to probable sharp practice on
+the part of their social superior in the division of the spoils.
+
+The "spoils!" Shades of Croesus! The whole transaction is but an affair
+of battered kermis, intrinsically not worth a moment's consideration; but
+it serves its purpose of affording an interesting insight into the
+character of my escort.
+
+The poor mirza and the mudbake are, no doubt, fully justified in
+entertaining the worst opinions possible of the khan; he is a sad
+scoundrel, on a small scale, to say the least. While they are growling
+out to each other their grievances and apprehensions, that artful schemer
+is riding his poor horse miles and miles over the stony hills to the
+camping-ground of some hospitable Eliaute chieftain, from whom he can
+obtain goosht-i-goosfany for nothing, and come back and say he bought it.
+
+Several miles are slowly travelled by us three, when, no sign of the khan
+appearing, we decide upon a halt until he rejoins us. In an hour or so
+the bizarre figure of the absentee is observed approaching us from over
+the hills, and before many minutes he is welcomed by a simultaneous query
+of "chand pool?" (how much money?) from his keenly suspicious comrades,
+delivered in a ludicrously sarcastic tone of voice.
+
+"Doo Tceran," promptly replies the khan, making a most hopeless effort to
+conceal his very palpable guilt beneath a transparent assumption of
+innocence. The mirza and the mudbake make no false pretence of taking him
+at his word, but openly accuse him of deceiving them. The khan maintains
+his innocence with vehement language and takes refuge in
+counter-accusations. The wordy warfare goes merrily on for some minutes
+as earnestly as if they were quarrelling over their own honest money
+instead of over mine. The joint query of "chand pool?" gathers an
+additional load of irony from the fact that they didn't seem to think it
+worth while to even ask him what he had bought.
+
+Across the pommel of his saddle he carries a young kid, which is now
+handed to the mudbake to be tethered to a shrub; he then dismounts and
+produces three or four pounds of cold goat meat. Before proceeding again
+on our way we consume this cold meat, together with bread brought from
+last night's rendezvous. By reason of his social inferiority the mudbake
+is now required to assume the burden of carrying the youthful goat; he
+takes the poor kid by the scruff of the neck and flings it roughly across
+his saddle in a manner that causes the gleeful spirits of the khan to
+find vent in a peal of laughter. Even the usually imperturbable
+countenance of the mirza lightens up a little, as though infected by the
+khan's overflowing merriment and the mudbake's rough handling of the
+young goat. They know each other thoroughly--as thoroughly as
+orchard-looting, truant-playing, teacher-deceiving school-boys--these
+three hopeful aspirants to the favor of Allah; they are an amusing trio,
+and not a little instructive.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+ACROSS THE "DESERT OF DESPAIR."
+
+For some hours we are traversing a singularly wild-looking country; it
+seems as though the odds and ends of all creation were tossed
+indiscriminately together. Rocky cliffs, sloping hills, riverbeds, dry
+save from last night's thunder-storm, bits of sandy desert, strips of
+alkaline flat or hard gravel, have been gathered up from various parts of
+the earth and tossed carelessly in a heap here. It is an odd corner in
+which the chips, the sweepings and trimmings, gathered up after the
+terrestrial globe was finished, were apparently brought and dumped. There
+is even a little bit of pasture, and at one point a little area of arable
+land. Here are found four half-naked representatives of this strange,
+wild border-land, living beneath one rude goat-hair tent, watching over a
+few grazing goats and several acres of growing grain.
+
+We arrive at this remarkable little community shortly after noon, and
+halt a couple of hours to rest and feed the horses, and to kill and cook
+the unhappy kid slung across the mudbake's saddle. The poor little
+creature doesn't require very much killing; all the way from where it was
+given into his tender charge its infantile bleatings have seemed to grate
+harshly on the mudbake's unsympathetic ear, and he has handled it anywise
+but tenderly. The four men found here are Persian Eliautes, a numerous
+tribe, that seem to form a sort of connecting link between the genuine
+nomads and the tillers of the soil. They are frequently found combining
+the occupations of both, and might aptly be classed as semi-nomads.
+Pitching their tents beside some outlying, isolated piece of cultivable
+ground in the spring, they sow it with wheat or barley, and three months
+later they reap a supply of grain to carry away with them when they
+remove their flocks to winter pasturage.
+
+An iron kettle is borrowed to stew the kid in, and when cooked a portion
+is stowed away to carry with us. The Eliaute quartette contribute bowls
+of mast and doke, and off this and the remainder of the stewed kid we all
+make a hearty meal.
+
+More than once of late have I been impressed by the striking, even
+startling, resemblance of some person among the people of Southern
+Khorassan, to the familiar face of some acquaintance at home. And,
+strange it is, but true, that one of these four Eliautes blossoms forth
+upon my astonished vision as the veritable double of one of America's
+most prominent knights of the pen and wheel. The gentleman himself, an
+enthusiastic tourist, and to use his own expression, fond of "walking
+large," has taken considerable interest in my tour of the world. Can it
+be--I think, upon first confronting this extraordinary reproduction--can
+it be, that Karl Kron's enthusiasm has caused him to start from the
+Pacific coast of China on his wheel to try and beat my time in
+circumcycling the globe?
+
+And after getting as far as this strange terrestrial chip-pile, he has
+been so unfortunately susceptible as to fall in love with some
+slender-limbed daughter of the desert?--has he been captivated by a
+pair of big, opthamalmia-proof, black eyes, a coy sidewise glance, or a
+graceful, jaunty style of shouldering a half-tanned goat-skin of doke?
+
+The very first question the nomad asks of the khan, however, removes all
+suspicions of his being the author and publisher of X. M. M.--he
+asks if I am a Ferenghi and whither I am going; Kron would have asked me
+for tabulated statistics of my tour through Persia.
+
+A couple of hours' rest in the Eliaute camp, and we bid adieu to this
+queer little oasis of human life within the barbarous boundary-line of
+the Dasht-i-na-oomid, and proceed on our way. One of the Eliautes
+accompanies us some little distance to guide us through a belt of badly
+broken country immediately surrounding their camp. The country continues
+to be a regular jumble of odds and ends of physical geography all the
+afternoon, and several times the horses of the sowars, without
+preliminary warning, break through the thin upper crust of some
+treacherous boggy spot and sink suddenly to their bellies. During the
+afternoon the mirza is pitched headlong over his horse's head once, and
+the khan and the mudbake twice. In one tumble the khan's loosely sheathed
+sword slips from its scabbard, and he well nigh falls a victim to the
+accident a la King Saul. While traversing this treacherous belt of
+territory I make the sowars lead the way and perform the office of
+pathfinder for myself and wheel. Whenever one of them gets stuck in boggy
+ground, and his horse flounders wildly about, to the imminent risk of
+unseating its rider, his two hopeful comrades bubble over with merriment
+at his expense; his own sincere exclamations of "Allah!" being answered
+by unsympathetic jeers and sarcastic remarks. A few minutes later,
+perchance one of the hilarious twain finds himself unexpectedly in the
+same predicament; it then becomes his turn to look scared and importune
+Allah for protection, and also his turn to be the target for the wild
+hilarity of the others.
+
+And so this lively and eventful afternoon passes away, and about five
+o'clock we round the base of a conglomerate hill that has been shutting
+out the prospect ahead, cross a small spring freshet, and emerge upon an
+extensive gravelly plain stretching away eastward to the horizon. It is
+the central plain of the Dasht-i-na-oomid, the heart of the desert, of
+which the wild, heterogeneous territory traversed since morning forms the
+setting. So far as the utility of the bicycle and the horses is
+concerned, the change is decidedly for the better, even more so for the
+former than for the latter. The gravelly plain presents very good
+wheeling surface, and I forge ahead of my escort, following a trail so
+faint that it is barely distinguishable from the general surface. Shortly
+after leaving the mountainous country the three sowars hip their horses
+into a smart canter to overtake the bicycle. As they come clattering up,
+the khan shouts loudly for me to stop, and the mirza and mudbake
+supplement his vocal exertions by gesticulating to the same purpose.
+Dismounting, and allowing them to approach, in reply to my query of "Chi
+mi khoi?" the khan's knavish countenance becomes overspread with a
+ridiculously thin and transparent assumption of seriousness and
+importance, and pointing to an imaginary boundary-line at his horse's
+feet he says: "Bur-raa (brother), Afghanistan." "Khylie koob, Afghanistan
+inja-koob, hoob, sowari." (Very good, I understand, we are entering
+Afghanistan; all right, ride on.) "Sowari neis," replies the khan; and he
+tries hard to impress upon me that our crossing the Afghan frontier is a
+momentous occasion, and not to be lightly regarded. Several times during
+the day has my delectable escort endeavored to fathom the extent of my
+courage by impressing upon me the danger to be apprehended in Afghanistan
+by a Ferenghi. Not less than half a dozen times have they indulged in the
+grim pantomime of cutting their own throats, and telling me that this is
+the tragic fate that would await me in Afghanistan without their valuable
+protection. And now, as we stand on the boundary line, their bronzed and
+bared throats are again subjected to this highly expressive treatment;
+and transfixing me with a penetrating stare, as though eager to read in
+my face some responsive sign of fear or apprehension, the khan repeats
+with emphasis: "Bur-raa-ther, Afghanistan." Seeing me still inclined to
+make light of the matter, he turns to his comrades for confirmation. "O,
+bur-raa-ther, Afghanistan," assents the mirza; and the mudbake chimes in
+with the same words. "Well, yes, I understand; Afghanistan--what of
+it?" I inquire, amused at this theatrical display of their childish
+knavery.
+
+For answer they start to loading up their guns and pistols, which up to
+now they have neglected to do; and they examine, with a ludicrous show of
+importance, the edges of their swords and the points of their daggers,
+staring the while at me to see what kind of an impression all this is
+making. Their scrutiny of my countenance brings them small satisfaction,
+methinks, for so ludicrous seems the scene, and so transparent the
+motives of this warlike movement, that no room is there for aught but a
+genuine expression of amusement.
+
+Having loaded up their imposing array of firearms, the khan gives the
+word to advance, with as much show of solemnity as though leading a
+forlorn hope on some desperate undertaking, and he impresses upon me the
+importance of keeping as close to then as possible, instead of riding
+ahead. All around us is the unto-habited plain; not a living thing or
+sign of human being anywhere; but when I point this out, and picking up a
+stone, ask the khan if it is these that are dangerous, he replies, as
+before: "Bur-raa-ther, Afghanistan," and significantly taps his weapons.
+As we advance the level plain becomes covered with a growth of wild thyme
+and camel-thorn, the former permeating the desert air with its agreeable
+perfume. The evening air is soft and balmy I as we halt in the dusk of
+the evening to camp alongside the trail; each sowar has a large leathern
+water-bottle swinging from his stirrup-strap filled at the little freshet
+above mentioned, and for food we have bread and the remains of the cold
+kid. The horses are fastened to stout shrubs, and a fire is kindled with
+dried camel-thorn collected by the mudbake. Not a sound breaks the
+stillness of the evening as we squat around the fire and eat our frugal
+supper--all about us is the oppressive silence and solitude of the
+desert Away off in the dim distance to the northeast can be seen a single
+speck of light--the camp-fire of some wandering Afghan tribe.
+
+"What is the fire yonder?" I ask of the khan. The khan looks at it, says
+something to his comrades, and then looks at me and draws his finger yet
+again across his throat; the mirza and the mudbake follow suit. The
+ridiculous frequency of this tragic demonstration causes me to laugh
+outright, in spite of an effort to control my risibilities. The khan
+replies to this by explaining, "Afghani Noorzais-dasht-adam," and then
+goes on to explain that the Noorzais are very bad Afghans, who would like
+nothing better than to murder a Ferenghi. From the beginning of our
+acquaintance I have allowed my escort to think my understanding of the
+conversation going on among themselves is extremely limited. By this
+means have they been thrown somewhat off their guard, and frequently
+committed themselves within my hearing. It is their laudable purpose, I
+have discovered, to steal money from me if an opportunity presents
+without the chance of being detected. Besides being inquisitive about the
+probable amount in my possession, there has evolved from their collective
+brain during the day, a deep-laid scheme to find out something about the
+amount of backsheesh they may expect me to bestow upon them at the end of
+our journey. This deep-laid scheme is for the khan to pretend that he is
+sending the mirza and the mudbake back to Beerjand from this point, and
+for these two hopeful accomplices to present themselves before me as
+about ready to depart, and so demand backsheesh. This little farce is
+duly played shortly after our arrival; it is a genuine piece of light
+comedy, acted on the strangely realistic stage of the lonely desert, to
+which the full round moon just rising above the eastern horizon. These
+advances are met on my part by broad intimations that if they continue to
+act as ridiculously during the remainder of the journey as they have
+to-day they will surely get well bastinadoed, instead of backsheeshed,
+when we reach Ghalakua. The actors retire from the stage with visible
+discomfiture and squat themselves around the fire. Long after I have
+stretched my somewhat weary frame upon a narrow strip of saddle-blanket
+for the night, my three "protectors" squat around the smouldering embers
+of the camel-thorn fire, discussing the all-absorbing topic of my money.
+Little do they suspect that concealed in a leathern money-belt beneath my
+clothes are one hundred Russian gold Imperials, the money obtained in
+Teheran for the journey through Turkestan and Siberia to the Pacific.
+Though sleeping with the traditional one eye open and my Smith & Wesson
+where it can be readily used, there is little apprehension of being
+robbed, owing to their obligation to take back the receipt for my safe
+delivery to Heshmet-i-Molk.
+
+It is the weather-changeful period of the full moon, and about midnight a
+clap of thunder rolls over the desert, and a smart shower descends from a
+small dark cloud, that sails slowly across the sky, obscuring for a brief
+period the moist-looking countenance of the moon, and then disappears. A
+couple of hours later a rush of wind is heard careering across the desert
+toward us, accompanied by a wildly scudding cloud. The cloud peppers us
+with hailstones in the most lively manner, and the wind strikes us almost
+with the force of a tornado, knocking over the bicycle, which I have
+leaned against a clump of shrubs at my head, and favoring us with a
+blinding fusilade of sand and gravel.
+
+It rains and hails enough to make us wet and uncomfortable, and the
+mudbake gets up and kindles another fire. In a short time the squally
+midnight weather has given place to a dead calm; the clouds have
+dispersed; the moon shines all the brighter from having had its face
+washed; the stars twinkle themselves out one by one as the gray dawn
+gradually makes itself manifest. It is a most lovely morning; the
+bruising hailstones and the moistening rain have proved themselves
+stimulants in the laboratory of the wild-thyme shrubs, setting free and
+disseminating a new supply of aroma; and while until now the voice of
+animate nature has been conspicuous by its absence, the morning vespers
+of song-birds seed almost to be issuing, like flowers, from the ground.
+There is an indescribable charm about this morning's experience on the
+desert; dawn appears, the moon hangs low-suspended in the heavens, the
+birds carol merrily, and every inspiration one takes is a tonic to
+stimulate the system. Half an hour later the sun has risen, the
+song-birds have one and all lapsed into silence, the desert is itself
+again, stern, silent, uncompromising, and apparently destitute of life.
+
+Total depravity, it appears, has not yet claimed my worthy escort for its
+own entirely, for while saddling up their horses during this brief
+display of nature's kindlier mood they call my attention to the singing
+of the birds and the grateful perfumery in the air. The germ of goodness
+still lingers within their semi-civilized conception of things about
+them; they are the children of Nature, and are profoundly impressed by
+their mother's varying moods. Their prostrations toward Mecca and their
+matutinal prayers to Allah seem to gain something of sincerity from the
+accompanying worship of the birds and the sympathetic essence of the
+awakening day. Eastward from our camping-ground the trail is oftentimes
+indistinguishable; but a few loose stones have been tossed together at
+intervals of several hundred yards, to guide wayfarers across the desert.
+A surface of mingled sand and gravel characterizes the way; sometimes it
+is unridably heavy, and sometimes the wheeling is excellent for a mile or
+two at a stretch, enabling me to leave the ambling yahoos of the sowars
+far behind. Beautiful mirages sometimes appear in the distance
+--lakes of water, waving groves of palms, and lovely castles; and
+often, when far enough ahead, I can look back, and see the grotesque
+figures of the khan, the mirza, and the mudbake apparently riding through
+the air.
+
+Perhaps twenty miles are covered, when we arrive at a pile of dead brush
+that has been erected for a landmark, and find a dilapidated well
+containing water. The water is forty feet below the surface, and contains
+a miscellaneous assortment of dead lizards, the carcasses of various
+small mammalia, and sundry other unfortunate representatives of animated
+nature that have fallen in. Beyond this well the country assumes the
+character of a broad sink or mud-basin, the shiny surface of its mud
+glistening in the sun like a sheet of muddy water. Sloughs innumerable
+meander through it, fringed with rank rushes and shrubs. A far heavier
+down-pour than we were favored with on the plain has drenched a region of
+stony hills adjacent, and the drainage therefrom has, for the time being,
+filled and overflowed the winding sloughs.
+
+A dozen or more of these are successfully forded, though not without some
+difficulty; but we finally arrive at the parent slough, of which the
+others are but tributaries. This proves too deep for the sowars' horses
+to ford, and after surveying the yellow flood some minutes and searching
+up and down, the khan declares ruefully that we shall have to return to
+Beerjand. As I remonstrate with him upon his lack of enterprise in
+turning from so trifling a difficulty, the khan finally orders the
+mudbake to strip off his purple and fine linen and try the depth. The
+mudbake proceeds to obey his superior, with many apprehensive glances at
+the muddy freshet, and wades gingerly in, muttering prayers to Allah the
+while. Deeper and deeper the yellow waters creep up his shivering form,
+and when nearly up to his neck, a sudden deepening causes him to bob
+unexpectedly down almost over his head. Hurriedly retreating, spluttering
+and whining, he scrambles hastily ashore, where his two companions,
+lolling lazily on their horses, watching his attempt, are convulsed with
+merriment over his little misadventure and his fright.
+
+The shivering mudbake, clad chiefly in goose-pimples, now eagerly
+supplements the khan's proposition for us all to return to Beerjand, and
+the mirza with equal eagerness murmurs his approval of the same course of
+action. Making light of their craven determination, I prepare to cross
+the freshet without their assistance, and announce my intention of
+proceeding alone. The stream, though deep, is not over thirty yards wide,
+and a very few minutes suffices for me to swim across with my clothes, my
+packages, and the saddle of the bicycle; the small, strong rope I have
+carried from Constantinople is then attached to the bicycle, and,
+swimming across with the end, the wheel is pulled safely through the
+water. Neither of the sowars can swim, and they regard the prospect of
+being left behind with no little consternation. Their guileful souls seem
+to turn naturally to Allah in their perplexity; and they all prostrate
+themselves toward Mecca, and pray with the apparent earnestness of deep
+sincerity. Having duly strengthened and fortified themselves with these
+devotional exercises, they bravely prepare to resign themselves to kismet
+and follow my instructions about crossing the stream.
+
+The khan's iron-gray being the best horse of the three, and the khan
+himself of a more sanguine and hopeful disposition, I make him tie all
+his clothes and damageable things into a bundle and fasten them on his
+saddle; the rope is then tied to the bridle and the horse pulled across,
+his gallant rider clinging to his tail, according to my orders, and
+praying aloud to Allah on his own account. The gray swims the unfordable
+middle portion nobly, and the khan comes through with no worse damage
+than a mouthful or two of muddy water. As the dripping charger scrambles
+up the bank, the khan allows himself to be hauled up high and dry by its
+tail; he then looks back at his comrades and favors them with a brief but
+highly exaggerated account of his sensations.
+
+The mirza and the mudbake deliver themselves of particularly deep-chested
+acclamations of "Allah, Allah!" at the prospect of undergoing similar
+sensations to those described by the khan, whereupon that unsympathetic
+individual vents his hilarity in a gleeful, heartless peal of laughter,
+and tells them, with a diabolical chuckle of delight, that they will most
+likely fare ten times worse than himself on account of the inferiority of
+their horses compared with the gray. Much threatening, bantering, and
+persuasion is necessary to induce them to follow the leadership of the
+khan; but, trusting to kismet, they finally venture, and both come
+through without noteworthy misadventure. The khan's wild hilarity and
+ribaldish jeers at the expense of his two subordinates, as he stands on
+the solid foundation of a feat happily already accomplished and surveys
+their trepidation, and hears their prayers as they are pulled like human
+dinghies through the water, is in such ludicrous contrast to his own
+prayerful utterances under the same circumstances a minute before that my
+own risibilities are not to be wholly controlled.
+
+This little episode makes a profound impression upon the minds of my
+escort; they now regard me as a very dare-devil and determined
+individual, a person entirely without fear, and their deference during
+the remainder of the afternoon is in marked contrast to their previous
+attempts to work upon my presumed apprehensions of the dangers of
+Afghanistan.
+
+Following the guidance of a few rude landmarks of piled brush, we
+discover, a few miles off to the left, and on the eastern environ of the
+slough-veined basin, a considerable body of tents and a herd of grazing
+camels. The sowars pronounce them to be a certain camp of Einiucks that
+they have been expecting to find somewhere in this vicinity, and with
+whose chief the khan says he is acquainted.
+
+Wending our way thither we find a large camp of about fifty tents
+occupying a level stretch of clean gravelly ground, slightly elevated
+above the mud-flats. The tents are of brownish-black goat-hair, similar
+in material to the tents of Koords and Eliautes; in size and structure
+they are larger and finer than those of the Eliautes, but inferior to the
+splendid tent-palaces of Koordistan. A couple of hundred yards from the
+tents is a small spring of water, enclosed within a rude wall of
+loosely-piled stone; the water is allowed to trickle through this wall
+and accumulate in a basin outside. Here, as we ride up, are several women
+filling goat-skin vessels to carry to the tents.
+
+The tent of the chief stands out conspicuously from the others, and the
+khan, desirous of giving his "bur-raa-ther," as he now terms the Eimuck
+chieftain, a surprise, suggests that I ride ahead of the horsemen and
+dismount before his tent. This capital little arrangement is somewhat
+interfered with by the fact that a goodly proportion of the male
+population present have already become cognizant of our presence, and are
+standing in white-robed groups about their tents trying with hand-shaded
+eyes to penetrate the secret of my strange appearance. Nevertheless, I
+ride ahead and alight at the entrance to the chief's tent. The chief is a
+middle-aged man of medium height and inclined to obesity. He and all the
+men are arrayed in garments of coarse white cotton stuff throughout,
+loose pantaloons, bound at the ankles, and an over-garment of a pattern
+very much like a night-shirt; on their heads are the regulation Afghan
+turbans, with long, dangling ends, and their feet are incased in rude
+moccasins with upturned toes. As I dismount, and the chief fully realizes
+that I am a Ferenghi, his face turns red with embarrassment. Instead of
+the smiles or the grave kindliness of a Koordish sheikh, or the simple,
+childlike greeting of an Eliaute, the Eimuck chief motions me into his
+tent in a brusque, offish manner, his countenance all aglow with the
+redness of what almost looks like a guilty conscience.
+
+With the intuition that comes of long and changeful association with
+strange peoples, the changing countenance of the Afghan chief impresses
+me at once as the fiery signal of inbred Mussulman fanaticism, lighting
+up spontaneously at the unexpected and unannounced arrival of a lone
+Ferenghi in his presence. It savors somewhat of bearding a dangerous lion
+in his own den. He certainly betrays deep embarrassment at my appearance;
+which, however, may partly result from not yet knowing the character of
+my companions, or the wherefore of this strange visitation. When my
+escort rides up his whole demeanor instantly undergoes a change; the
+cloud of embarrassment lifts from his face, he and the khan recognize and
+greet each other cordially as "bur-raa-ther," and kiss each-other's
+hands; some of his men standing by exchange similar brotherly greetings
+with the mirza and the mudbake.
+
+After duly refreshing and invigorating ourselves with sundry bowls of
+doke, the inevitable tomasha is given, and the chief asks the khan to get
+me to ride up before one row of tents and down the other for the
+edification of the women and children, curious groups of whom are
+gathered at every door. The ground between the two long, even rows of
+tents resembles a macadam boulevard for width and smoothness, and I give
+the wild Eimuck tribes-people a ten minutes' exhibition of circling,
+speeding, and riding with hands off handles. A strange and novel
+experience, surely, this latest triumph of high Western civilization,
+invading the isolated nomad camp on the Dasht-i-na-oomid and disporting
+for the amusement of the women and children. Some of the women are
+attired in quite fanciful colors; Turkish pantaloons of bright blue and
+jackets of equally bright red render them highly picturesque, and they
+wear a profusion of bead necklaces and the multifarious gewgaws of
+semi-civilization. The younger girls wear nose-rings of silver in the
+left nostril, with a cluster of tiny beads or stones decorating the side
+of the nose. The wrists of most of the men are adorned with bracelets of
+plain copper wire about the size of ordinary telegraph wire; they average
+large and well-proportioned, and seem intellectually superior to the
+Eliautes. A very striking peculiarity of the people in this particular
+camp is a sort of lisping, hissing accent to their speech. When first
+addressed by the chief, I fancied it simply an individual case of
+lisping; but every person in the camp does likewise. Another peculiarity
+of expression, that, while not peculiar to this particular camp, is made
+striking by reason of its novelty to me at this time, the use of the
+expression "O" as a term of assent, in lieu of the Persian "balli." The
+sowars, from their proximity to the frontier, have sometimes used this
+expression, but here, in the Eimuck camp, I come suddenly upon a people
+who use it to the total exclusion of the Persian word. The change from
+the "balli sahib" of the Tabbas villagers to the "O, O, O" of the Afghan
+nomads is novel and entertaining in the extreme, and I sit and listen
+with no small interest to the edifying conversation of the khan, the
+mirza, and the mudbake on the one side, and the Eimuck chieftain and
+prominent members of the tribe on the other.
+
+Standing behind the chief, who sits cross-legged on a Persian nummud, is
+a handsome, intelligent-looking man, who seems to be the most
+pleasant-faced and entertaining conversationalist of the nomads. The kahn
+grows particularly talkative and communicative, the evening hours flow
+on, and while addressing his remarks and queries directly to the chief,
+he gazes about him to observe the effects of his words on the general
+assembly gathered inside and crowded about the tent-entrance. The
+pleasant-faced man does far more talking in reply than does the chief
+himself. In reply to the khan's innumerable queries he replies, in the
+peculiar, hissing shibboleth of the camp, "O, O, O-O bus-s-s-orah,
+b-s-s-s-orah." Sometimes the khan delivers himself of quite a lengthy
+disquisition, and as his remarks are followed by the assembled nomads
+with the eager interest of people who seldom hear anything but the music
+of their own voices, the interesting individual above referred to
+sprinkles his assenting "O, O, O" thickly along the line of the khan's
+presumably edifying narrative; now and then the chief himself chimes in
+with a quiet "b-s-s-s-orah." Here also, in this camp of surprises and
+innovations, do I first hear the word "India" used in lieu of "Hindostan"
+among Asiatics.
+
+The fatigue of the day's journey, and the imperfect rest of the two
+preceding nights, cause me to be overcome with drowsiness, early in the
+evening, and I stretch oat alongside the bicycle and fall into a deep
+sleep. An hour or two later I am awakened for the evening meal. Flat,
+pancake-like sheets of unleavened bread, inferior to the bread of Persia,
+and partaking somewhat of the character of the chupalties of India,
+boiled goat, and the broth preserved from the same, together with the
+regulation mast and doke, constitute the Eimuek supper. A liberal bowl of
+the broth, an abundance of meat, bread, mast and doke are placed before
+me on a separate wooden tray, while my escort, the chief, and several of
+his men gather around a communal spread of the same variety of edibles. A
+crowd of curious people occupy the remainder of the space inside, and
+stand at the door. As I rise and prepare to eat, all eyes are turned upon
+me as though anticipating some surprising exhibition of the strange
+manners of a Ferenghi at his meals. Surveying the broth, I motion the
+khan to try and obtain a spoon. The chief looks inquiringly at the khan,
+and the khan with the gladsome expression of a person conscious of having
+on hand a rare piece of information for his friends, explains that a
+Ferenghi eats soup with a spoon. The chief and his men smile incredibly,
+but the khan emphasizes his position by appealing to the mirza and the
+mudbake for confirmation. "Eat soup with a spoon?" queries the chief in
+Persian; and he casts about him a look of unutterable astonishment.
+
+Recovering somewhat from his incredulity, however, he orders an attendant
+to fetch one, which shortly results in the triumphant production of a
+rude wooden ladle. These uncivilized children of the desert watch me
+drink broth from the ladle with most intense curiosity. In their own
+case, an attendant tears several of the sheets of bread into pieces and
+puts them in the broth; each person then helps himself to the
+broth-soaked bread with his fingers. What broth remains at the bottom of
+the bowl is drunk by them from the vessel itself in turns. After
+consuming several generous chunks of "gusht" bread and mast and broth,
+and supplementing this with a bowl of doke, I stretch myself out again
+and at once become wrapped in sound, refreshing slumbers that last till
+morning.
+
+It is a glorious morning as, after breakfasting off the cold remains of
+the meat left over from the evening meal, we bid farewell to the
+hospitable Eimuek camp and resume our journey. As we leave, I offer to
+shake hands with the chief to see if he understands our mode of greeting;
+he seizes my hand between his two palms and kisses it. For the first few
+miles the country is gravelly and undulating, after which it changes to a
+sort of basin, partially covered by dense patches of tall, rank weeds. On
+either side are rocky hills, almost rising to the dignity of mountains;
+the rain and melting snow evidently convert this basin into a swamp at
+certain periods, but it is now dry. A mile or so off to the right we
+catch a glimpse, of some wild animal chasing a small herd of antelope.
+From its size and motion, I judge it to be a leopard or cheetah; the
+sowars regard it, bounding along after the fleet-footed antelope, with
+lively interest; they call it a "baab" (tiger), and say there are many in
+the reeds. It looks quite a likely spot for tigers, and it is not at all
+unlikely that it may have been one, for, while not plentiful hereabout,
+Tigris Asiaticus occasionally makes his presence known in the patches of
+reed and jungle in Southern Afghanistan and Seistan.
+
+All three of the sowars are frisky as kittens this morning, the result,
+it is surmised, of the generous hospitality of the Eimuek chief
+--gusht galore and rich broth cause their animal spirits to run
+riot. Like overfed horses they "feel their oats" as they sniff the fresh
+and invigorating morning air, and they point toward the shadowy form of
+the racing baab a mile away, and pretend to take aim at it with their
+guns. They sing and shout and swoop down on one another about the basin,
+flourishing their swords and aiming with their guns, and they whip their
+poor, long-suffering yahoos into wild, sweeping gallops as they swoop
+down on some imaginary enemy. This wild hilarity and mimic warfare of the
+desert is kept up until the ragged edge of their exuberance is worn away,
+and their horses are well-nigh fagged out; we then halt for an hour to
+allow the horses to recuperate by nibbling at a patch of reeds.
+
+About ten miles from the Eimuek camp, the country develops into a
+wilderness of deep, loose sand and bowlders. Across this sandy region
+stretches a range of dark volcanic hills; the bases of the hills
+terminate in billows of whitish-yellow sand; the higher waves of the
+sandy sea stretch well up the sides like giant ocean breakers driven by
+the gale up the side of the rocky cliffs. It is a tough piece of country
+even for the sowars' horses, and dragging a bicycle through the mingled
+sand and bowlders is abominable in the extreme. The heat becomes
+oppressive as we penetrate deeper into the belt of sand-hills, and after
+five miles of desperate tugging I become tired and distressed. The sowars
+lolling lazily in their saddles, well-nigh sleeping, while I am struggling
+and perspiring, form another chapter of experience entirely novel in the
+field of European travel in Asia. Usually it is the natives who have to
+sweat and toil and administer to the comfort of the traveller.
+
+Revolving these things over in my mind, and becoming really wearied, I
+suggest to the khan that he change places for a brief spell and give me a
+chance to rest. The idea of himself trundling the asp-i-awhan appeals to
+the khan as decidedly novel, and he bites at the bait quite readily.
+Mounting his vacated saddle, I join the mirza and the mudbake in watching
+him struggle along through the sand with it for some two hundred yards.
+Along that brief course he topples over with it not less than half a
+dozen times. The novel spectacle of the khan trundling the asp-i-awhan
+arouses his two comrades from the warmth-inspired semi-torpidity of their
+condition, and whenever the khan topples over, they favor him with jeers
+and laughter. At the end of two hundred, yards the khan declares himself
+exhausted and orders the mudbake to dismount and try it; this, however,
+the mudbake bluntly refuses to do. After a little persuasion the inirza
+is induced to try the experiment of a trundle; it is but an experiment,
+however, for, being less active than the khan, the first time he tumbles
+the bicycle over finds him sprawling on top of it, and, fearful lest he
+should snap some spokes, I take it in hand again myself.
+
+Another couple of miles and the eastern edge of the sandy area I is
+reached, after which a compensational proportion of smooth gravel
+abounds. Shortly after noon another small camp of nomads I is reached,
+some half-dozen inferior tents, pitched on the shelterless edge of an
+exposed gravelly slope. The afternoon is oppressively hot, and the men
+are comfortably snoozing in all sorts of outlandish places among the
+scrubby camel-thorn. Only the I women and children are visible as we
+approach the tents; but youngsters are despatched forthwith, and, lo!
+several tall white-robed figures seem to rise up literally out of the
+ground at different spots round about; they were burrowed away under the
+low, bushy shrubbery like rabbits. The women and children among these
+nomads always seem industriously engaged, the former with domestic duties
+about the tents, and the latter tending the flocks; but the men put in
+most of their unprofitable lives loafing, sleeping, and gossiping.
+
+We are not invited into the tents, but bread and mast is provided, and,
+while we eat, four men hold the corners of an ample blue turban sheet
+over us to shelter us from the sun. Spread out on sheets and on the roofs
+of the tents are bushels of curds drying in the sun; the curds are
+compressed into round balls the size of an apple, and when dried into
+hard balls are excellent things to put in the pocket and nibble along the
+road. Here we learn that the Harood is only one farsakh distant, and a
+couple of stalwart young nomads accompany us to assist us across. At
+Beerjand the Harood was "deep as a house;" at our last night's camp we
+were told that it was fordable with camels; here we learn, that, though
+very swift, it is really fordable for men and horses. First we come to a
+branch less than waist-deep. My nether garments are handed to the khan;
+in the pocket of my pantaloons is a purse containing a few kerans. While
+engaged in fording this branch the khan ferrets out the purse and
+extracts something from it, which he deftly slips into the folds of his
+kammerbund. All this I silently observe from the corners of my eyes, but
+say nothing.
+
+Emerging from the stream, the wily khan points across the intervening
+three hundred yards or thereabout to the main stream, and motions for me
+to go ahead. The discovery of the purse and the purloined kerans has
+aroused all the latent cupidity of his soul, and he wants me to ride
+ahead, so that he can straggle along in the rear and investigate the
+contents of the purse at his leisure. While winking at the amusing little
+act of petty larceny already detected, I do not propose to give his
+kleptomaniac tendencies full swing, and so I meet his proposal to sowar
+and go ahead by peremptorily ordering him to take the lead.
+
+Arriving at the bank of the Harood, I retire behind a clump of reeds, and
+fold my money-belt, full of gold, up in the middle of my clothes, making
+a compact bundle, with my gossamer rubber wrapped around the outside. The
+river is about a hundred and fifty yards wide at the ford, with a
+sand-bar about mid-stream, and is not above shoulder-deep along the ridge
+that renders it fordable; the current, however, is frightfully strong.
+Like the Indians of the West, the Afghan nomads are accustomed from
+infancy to battling with the elements, and are comparatively fearless in
+regard to rivers and deserts and storms, etc.
+
+Such, at least, is the impression created by the conduct of the two young
+men who have come to assist us across. The bicycle, my clothes, and all
+the effects of the sowars are carried across on their heads, the rushing
+waters threatening to sweep them off their feet at every step; but
+nothing is allowed to get wet. When they are carrying across the last
+bundle, the khan, solicitous for my safety, wants me to hang on to a
+short rope tied around the waist of the strongest of the nomads.
+Naturally disdaining any such arrangement as this, however, I declare my
+intention of crossing without assistance, and wade in forthwith. Ere I
+have progressed thirty yards, the current fairly sweeps me off my feet
+and I have to swim for it. Fancying that I am overcome and in a fair way
+of being drowned, the sowars set up a wild howl of apprehension, and
+shout excitedly to the nomads to rescue me from a watery grave. The
+Afghans are not so excited, however, over the outlook; they see that I am
+swimming all right, and they confine themselves to motioning the
+direction for me to take. The current carries me some little distance
+down stream, when I find footing on the lower extremity of the sand-bar,
+and on it, wade up; stream again with some difficulty against swiftly
+rushing water four feet deep. The khan thinks I have had the narrowest
+possible escape, and in tones of desperation he shouts out and begs me
+not to attempt to cross the other channel without assistance. "The
+receipt!" he shouts, "the receipt! Allah preserve us! the receipt; Hesh
+met-i-Molk." The worthy khan is afflicted with a keen consciousness of
+coming punishment awaiting him at Beerjand, should I happen to come to
+grief while under his protection, and he, no doubt, suffers an agony of
+apprehension during the fifteen minutes I am battling with the rapid
+current of the Harood.
+
+The second channel is found less swift and comparatively easy to ford.
+The sturdy nomads, having transported all of my escort's damageable
+effects, those three now stark-naked worthies mount with fear and
+trembling their equally stark-naked steeds-naked all, save for the
+turbans of the men and the bridles of their horses. Whatever of
+intrepidity the khan possesses is of a quantity scarcely visible to the
+naked eye, and it is, therefore, scarcely surprising to find him trying
+to persuade, first the mudbake and then the mirza, to take the
+initiative. His efforts prove wholly ineffectual, however, to bring the
+feebly flowing tide of their courage up to the high-water level of
+assuming the duties of leadership, and so in the absence of any
+alternative, he finally screws up his own courage and leads the way. The
+others allow their horses to follow closely behind. The horses seem to
+regard the rushing volume of yellow water about them with far less
+apprehension than do their riders. While dressing myself on the eastern
+bank, the frightened mutterings of "Allah" from these gallant horsemen
+come floating across the water, and, as they reach the sand-bar in the
+middle of the stream, I can hear their muttered importunities for
+Providential protection change, like the passing shadow-whims of Nature's
+children that they are, into gleeful chuckles at their escape.
+
+When the khan emerges from the water, the ruling passion within his
+avaricious nature asserts itself with ridiculous promptness. With the
+water dripping from his dangling feet, he rides hastily to where I am
+dressing and whispers, "Pool neis; Afghani dasht-adam, pool neis." By
+this he desires me to understand that the men who have been so
+industrious and ready in helping us across, being Afghan nomads, will not
+expect any backsheesh for their trouble. The above-mentioned ruling
+passion is wonderfully strong in the rude breast of the khan, and in view
+of his own secret machinations against my money he, no doubt, entertains
+objections to leakages in other directions. So far as presenting these
+hospitable souls of the desert with money for their services is
+concerned, the khan's advice probably contains a good deal more wisdom
+than would appear from a superficial view of the case merely. Assisting
+travellers across streams and through difficult places evidently appeals
+to these people as the most natural thing in the world for them to do. It
+is a part of the un-written code of the hospitality of their uncivilized
+country, and is, in all probability, undertaken without so much as a
+mercenary thought. Presenting them with a money-consideration for their
+services certainly has a tendency to awaken the latent spirit of
+cupidity, generally resulting in their transformation from simple and
+unsophisticated children, hospitable both by nature and tradition, into
+wretched mercenaries, who regard the chance traveller solely from a
+backsheesh-giving stand-point. The baneful result of this is today
+glaringly apparent along every tourist route in the East; and, among the
+pool-loving subjects of the Shah of Persia, travellers do not have to
+appear very frequently to keep alive and foster a wild yearning for
+backsheesh that effectually suppresses all loftier considerations.
+
+These Afghans, however, seem to be people of an altogether different
+mould; the ubiquitous Western traveller has not yet become a palpable
+factor in their experiences. The hidden charms of backsheesh will not
+become apparent to the wild Afghans until their fierce Mussulman
+fanaticism has cooled sufficiently to allow the Ferenghi tourist to
+wander through their territory without being in danger of his life.
+
+The danger of corruption in the present instance is exceedingly small,
+considering that I am the only representative of the Occident that has
+ever happened along this way, and the probability that none other will
+follow for many a year after; therefore I ignore the khan's wholly
+disinterested advice and make the two worthy nomads a small present. They
+accept the proffered kerans with a look of bewilderment, as though quite
+unable to comprehend why I should tender them money, and they lay it
+carelessly down on the sand while they assist the sowars to resaddle
+their horses. To see the indifference with which the magnificent Afghan
+nomads toss the silver pieces on the sand, and the eager, covetous
+expression that the sight of the same coins lying there inspires in the
+three Persians is, of itself, an instructive lesson on the difference
+between the two peoples. The sowars become inspired, as if touched by the
+magic wand of alchemy, to the discussion of their favorite theme; but the
+Afghans pay no more heed to their remarks about money than if they were
+talking in an unknown tongue. They really act as though they regarded the
+subject of money as something altogether beyond their comprehension.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+AFGHANISTAN.
+
+A few miles across a stretch of gravelly river-bottom, interspersed with
+scattering patches of cultivation, brings us to a hamlet of some twenty
+mud dwellings. The houses are small, circular structures, unattached, and
+each one removed some dozen paces from its neighbor; they are built of
+mud with the roof flat, as in Asia Minor. The sun is setting as we reach
+this little Harood hamlet, and, as Ghalakua is some three farsakhs
+distant, we decide to remain here for the night. We pitch our camp on a
+smooth threshing-floor in the centre of the village, and the headman
+brings pieces of carpet for me to recline on, together with a sort of a
+carpet bolster for a pillow.
+
+The khan impresses upon these simple-minded, out-of-the-world people a
+due sense of my importance as the guest of his master, the Ameer of
+Seistan, and they skirmish around in the liveliest manner to provide what
+creature comforts their meagre resources are equal to. The best they can
+provide in the way of eatables is bread and eggs, and muscal, but they
+make full amends for the absence of variety by bestowing upon us a
+superabundance of what they have, and no slaves of Oriental despot ever
+displayed more eager haste to anticipate their ruler's wants than do
+these, my first acquaintances among the Afghan tillers of the soil, to
+wait upon us. All the evening long no female ventures anywhere near our
+alfresco quarters; the rigid exclusion of the female sex in this
+conservative Mohammedan territory forbids them making any visible show of
+interest in the affairs of men whatsoever. When the hour arrives for the
+preparation of the evening meal, closely shrouded figures flit hastily
+through the dusk from house to house, bearing camel-thorn torches. They
+are women who have been to their neighbors to obtain a light for their
+own fire. From the number of these it is plainly evident that the
+housewives of the entire village light their fires from one original
+kindling. The shrouds of the women are red and black plaid; the men wear
+overshirts of coarse white; material that reach to their knees, pointed
+shoes that turn up at the toes, white Turkish trousers, and the
+regulation Afghan turban. The night is most lovely, and frogs innumerable
+are in the lowlands round about us, croaking their appreciation of the
+mellow moonlight, the balmy air, and the overflowing waters of the river.
+For hours they favor us with a musical melange, embracing everything
+between the hoarse bass croak of the full-blown bull-frog, to the tuneful
+"p-r" of the little green tree-frogs ensconced in the clumps of
+dwarf-willow hard by. Soothed by the music of the frogs I spend a restful
+night beneath the blue, calm dome of the Afghan sky, though awakened once
+or twice by the sowars' horses breaking loose and fighting.
+
+There are no geldings to speak of in Central Asia, and unless eternal
+vigilance is maintained and the horses picketed very carefully, a fight
+or two is sure to occur among them during the night. As it seems
+impossible for semi-civilized people to exercise forethought in small
+matters of this kind, a night without being disturbed by a horse-fight is
+a very rare occurrence, when several are travelling together.
+
+The morning opens as lovely as the close of evening yesterday; a sturdy
+villager carries me and the bicycle through a small tributary of the
+Harood. He shakes his head when I offer him a present. How strange that
+an imaginary boundary-line between two countries should make so much
+difference in the people! One thinks of next to nothing but money, the
+other refuses to take it when offered.
+
+The sowars are in high glee at having escaped what seems to me the
+imaginary terrors of the passage across the Dasht-i-na-oomid, and as we
+ride along toward Ghalakua their exuberant animal spirits find expression
+in song. Few things are more harrowing and depressing to the
+unappreciative Ferenghi ear than Persian sowars singing, and three most
+unmelodious specimens of their kind at it all at once are something
+horrible.
+
+The country hereabouts is a level plain, extending eastward to the Furrah
+Rood; within the first few miles adjacent to the Harood are seen the
+crenellated walls of several villages and the crumbling ruins of as many
+more. Clumps of palm-trees and fields of alfalfa and green young wheat
+environ the villages, and help to render the dull gray ruins picturesque.
+The atmosphere seems phenomenally transparent, and the trees and ruins
+and crenellated walls, rising above the level plain, are outlined clear
+and distinct against the sky.
+
+In the distance, at all points of the compass, rocky mountains rise sheer
+from the dead level of the plain, looking singularly like giant cliffs
+rising abruptly from the bed of some inland sea. One of these may be
+thirty miles away, yet the wondrous clearness of the air renders apparent
+distances so deceptive that it looks not more than one-third the
+distance. It is a strikingly interesting country, and its inhabitants are
+a no less strikingly interesting people.
+
+A farsakh from our Harood-side camping-place, we halt to obtain
+refreshments at a few rude tents pitched beneath the walls of a little
+village. The owners of the tents are busy milking their flocks of goats.
+It is an animated scene. No amount of handling, nor years of human
+association, seems capable of curbing the refractory and restless spirit
+of a goat. The matronly dams that are being subjected to the milking
+process this morning have, no doubt, been milked regularly for years; yet
+they have to be caught and held firmly by the horns by one person, while
+another robs them of what they seem reluctant enough to give up.
+
+The sun grows uncomfortably warm, and myriads of flies buzz hungrily
+about our morning repast. Before we resume our journey a little damsel,
+in flaming red skirt and big silver nose-ring, enters the garden and
+plucks several roses, which she brings to me on a pewter salver. These
+people are Eliautes, and the women are less fearful of showing themselves
+than at the village where we passed the night. Several of them apply to
+me for medical assistance. The chief trouble is chronic ophthalmia;
+nearly all the children are afflicted with this disease, and at the eyes
+of each poor helpless babe are a mass of hungry flies. The wonder is, not
+that ophthalmia runs amuck among these people, but rather, that any of
+the children escape total blindness.
+
+Several villages are passed through en route to Ghalakua; the people turn
+out en masse and indulge in uproarious demonstrations at the advent of
+the Ferenghi and the bicycle. These people seem as incapable of
+controlling their emotions and their voices as so many wild animals; they
+shout and gesticulate excitedly, and run about like people bereft of
+their senses. The uncivilization crops out of these obscure Harood
+villagers far plainer than it does in the tents of the wandering tribes.
+They are noisier and more boisterous than the nomads, who, as a matter of
+fact, are sober-sided and sedate in their deportment.
+
+No women appear among the crowd on the street, but a carefully covered
+head is occasionally caught peeping furtively from behind a chimney on
+the roof of a house, or around some corner. A glance from me, and the
+head is withdrawn as rapidly as if one were taking hostile aim at it with
+a rifle.
+
+Fine large irrigating ditches traverse this partially cultivable area,
+and in them are an abundance of fish. In one ditch I catch sight of a
+splendid specimen of the speckled trout, that must have been three feet
+long. Travelling leisurely next morning, we arrive at Ghalakua in the
+middle of the forenoon; quarters are assigned us by Aminulah Khan, the
+Chief of the Ghalakua villages and tributary territory. In appearance he
+is a typical Oriental official, his fluffy, sensuous countenance bearing
+traces of such excesses as voluptuous Easterns are wont to indulge in,
+and this morning he is suffering with an attack of "tab" (fever). Wrapped
+in a heavy fur-lined over-coat, he is found seated on the front platform
+of a inenzil beneath the arched village gateway, smoking cigarettes; in
+his hand is a bouquet of roses, and numerous others are scattered about
+his feet. Dancing attendance upon him is a smart-looking little fellow in
+a sheepskin busby almost as bulky in proportion as his whole body, and
+which renders his appearance grotesque in the extreme. His keen black
+eyes sparkle brightly through the long wool of his remarkable headgear,
+the ends of which dangle over his eyes like an overgrown and wayward
+bang. The bravery of his attire is measurably enhanced by a cavalry
+sword, long enough and heavy enough for a six-foot dragoon, a green
+kammerbund, and top-boots of red leather. This person stands by the side
+of Aminulah Khan, watches keenly everything that is being said and done,
+receives orders from his master, and transmits them to the various
+subordinates lounging about. He looks the soul of honesty and
+watchfullness, his appearance and demeanor naturally conjuring up
+reflections of faithful servitors about the persons of knights and nobles
+of old; he is apparently the Khan of Ghalakua's confidential retainer and
+general supervisor of affairs about his person and headquarters.
+
+Our quarters are in the bala-khana of a small half-ruined konak outside
+the village, and shortly after retiring thither the khan's sprightly
+little retainer brings in tea and fried eggs, besides pomegranates and
+roses for myself. A new departure makes its appearance in the shape of
+sugar sprinkled over the eggs. While we are discussing these refreshments
+our attendant stands in the doorway and addresses the sowars at some
+length in Persian. He is apparently delivering instructions received from
+his master; whatever it is all about, he delivers it with the air of an
+orator addressing an audience, and he supplements his remarks with
+gestures that would do credit to a professional elocutionist. He is as
+agreeable as he is picturesque; he and I seem to fall en rapport at once,
+as against the untrustworthiness of the remainder of our company. As his
+keen, honest eyes scrutinize the countenances of the sowars, and then
+seek my own face, I feel instinctively that he has sized my escort up
+correctly, and that their innate rascality is as well revealed to him as
+if he had accompanied us across the desert.
+
+Several visitors drop in to pay their respects; they salaam respectfully
+to me, and greet the sowars as "bur-raa-thers," and kiss, their hands.
+One simple, unsophisticated mortal, who in his isolated life has never
+had the opportunity of discriminating between a Mussulman and a Ferenghi,
+addresses me also as "bur-raa-ther," and favors my palm with the
+regulation osculatory greeting. The Afghans present view this
+extraordinary proceeding with dignified silence, and if moved in any
+manner by the spectacle, manage to conceal their emotions beneath a
+stolid exterior. The risibilities of the sowars, however, are stirred to
+their deepest depths, and they nearly choke themselves in desperate
+efforts to keep from laughing outright.
+
+Offerings of roses are brought into our quarters by the various visitors,
+and boys and men toss others in through door and windows, until our room
+is gratefully perfumed and roses are literally carpeting the floor. One
+might well imagine the place to be Gulistan itself; every person is
+carrying bunches of roses in his hands, smelling of them, and wearing
+them in his turban and kammerbund. The people seem to be fairly revelling
+in the delights of these choicest gems from Flora's evidently overflowing
+storehouse. The men average tall and handsome; they look like veritable
+warrior-priests in their flowing white costumes, and they make a strange
+picture of mingled barbarism and aestheticism as they loaf in lazy
+magnificence about the tumble-down ruins of the konak, toying with their
+roses in silence. They seem contented and happy in their isolation from
+the great busy outer world, and, impressed by their universal
+appreciation of a flower, it occurs to me, on the impulse of ocular
+evidence, that it would be the greatest pity to disturb and corrupt these
+people by attempting to thrust upon them our Western civilization--they
+seem far happier than a civilized community.
+
+The khan obtains his receipt for my delivery, and by and by Aminulah Khan
+sends his man to request the favor of a tomasha. Leaving my other effects
+behind in charge of the sowars, I take the bicycle and favor him with a
+few turns in front of the village gate. Among the various contents of my
+leathern case is a bag of kerans; but, although the case is not locked,
+it is provided with a peculiar fastening which I fondly imagine to be
+beyond the ingenuity of the khan to open. So that, while well enough
+aware of that guileful individual's uncontrollable avarice in general,
+and his deep, dark designs on my money in particular, I think little of
+leaving it with him for the few minutes I expect to be absent. It strikes
+me as a trifle suspicious, however, upon discovering that while everybody
+else comes to see the tomasha, all three of the sowars remain behind.
+
+Instinctively I arrive at the conclusion that with these three worthy
+kleptomaniacs left alone in a room with some other person's portable
+property, something is pretty sure to happen to the property; so,
+excusing myself as quickly as courtesy will permit, I hasten back to our
+quarters. The mudbake is found posted at the outer gate of the konak. He
+is keeping watch while his delectable comrades search the package in
+which they sagaciously locate the silver lucre they so much covet. Seeing
+me approaching, he makes a trumpet of his hands and sings out warningly
+to his accomplices that I am coming back. Taking no more notice of him
+than usual, I pass inside and repair at once to the bala-khana, to find
+that the khan and the mirza have disappeared. The mudbake follows me in
+to watch my movements. In the simplicity of his semi-civilized
+understanding he is wondering within himself whether or no I entertain
+suspicions of anything being wrong, and he is watching me closely to find
+out. In his dense ignorance he imagines the khan and the mirza artful
+almost beyond human comprehension, and in thinking this he no doubt
+merely supplements the sentiments of these two wily individuals
+themselves. Time and again on the journey from Tabbas has he joined them
+in chuckling with ghoulish glee over some self-laudatory exposition of
+their own deep, deep, cunning. They well know themselves to be
+unfathomably cute beside the simple-hearted and honest ryots and nomads
+with whom they are wont to compare themselves, and from these standards
+they confidently judge the world at large. The mudbake colors up like a
+guilty school-boy upon seeing me proceed without delay to examine the
+leathern case. The erstwhile orderly arranged contents are found tumbled
+about in dire confusion. My bag of about one hundred kerans have dwindled
+nearly half that number as the result of being in their custody ten
+minutes.
+
+"Some of you pedar sags have stolen my money; who is it? where's the
+khan?" I inquire, addressing the guilty-looking mud-bake. He is now
+shivering visibly with fright, but makes a ludicrous effort to put a bold
+face on the matter, and brazenly asks, "Chand pool" (How much is
+missing?). "Khylie! where is the khan and the inirza? I will take you all
+to Aminulah Khan and have you bastinadoed!" The poor mudbake turns pale
+at the bare suggestion of the bastinado, and stoutly maintains his own
+innocence. He would no doubt as stoutly proclaim the guilt of his
+comrades if by so doing he could escape punishment himself. Nor is this
+so surprising, when one reflects that either of these worthies would,
+without a moment's hesitation, perform the same office for him or for
+each other.
+
+Without wasting time in bandying arguments with the mudbake, I sally
+forth in search of the others, and meet them just outside the gate; they
+are returning from hiding the money in the ruins. The crimson flood of
+guilt overspreads their faces as I raise my finger and shake it at them
+by way of admonition. With them following behind with all the meekness of
+discovered guilt, I lead the way back up into the bala-khana. Arriving
+there, both of them wilt so utterly and completely, and proceed to plead
+for mercy with such ludicrous promptness, that my sense of the ridiculous
+outweighs all other considerations, and I regard their demonstrations of
+remorse with a broad smile of amusement. It is anything but a laughing
+matter from their own standpoint, however; the mudbake warns them
+forthwith that I have threatened to have them bastinadoed, and they
+fairly writhe and groan in an agony of apprehension. The khan, owing to
+his more sanguine temperament, and a lively conception that the heaviest
+burden of guilt and accompanying punishment would naturally fall on his
+own shoulders as the chief of my escort, removes his turban and then lies
+down on the floor and grovels at my feet.
+
+All the hair he possesses is a little tuft or two left on his otherwise
+smoothly shaven pate, by which he confidently expects at his demise to be
+tenderly lifted up into Paradise by the Prophet Mohammed. After kissing
+most of the dust off my geivehs, and banging his head violently against
+the floor, he signifies his willingness to relinquish all anticipations
+of eternal happiness, black-eyed houris and the like, by attempting to
+yank out even this Celestial hand-hold, hoping that the woeful depth of
+his anguish and the sincerity of his repentance may prove the means of
+escaping present punishment. His eyes roll wildly about in their sockets,
+and in a voice choking with emotion he begs me pathetically to keep the
+matter a secret from the Khan of Ghalakua. "O Sahib, Sahib! Hoikim no,
+hoikim no!" he pleads, and the anguish-stricken khan accompanies these
+pleadings with a look of unutterable agony, and furthermore indulges in
+the pantomime of sawing off his ears and his hands with his forefinger.
+This latter tragic demonstration is to let me know that the result of
+exposure would be to have the former, and perhaps the latter, of these
+useful members cut off, after the cruel and summary justice of this
+country. The mirza and mudbake cluster around and supplement their
+superior's pathetic pleadings with deep-drawn groans of "Allah, Allah!"
+and sundry prostrations toward Mecca.
+
+It is a ludicrous and yet a strangely touching spectacle to see these
+three poor devils grovelling and pleading before me, and at the same time
+praying to Allah for protection in the little bala-khana, hoping thereby
+to save themselves from cruel mutilation and lifelong disgrace. A
+watchful eye is kept outside by the mirza, who does his groaning and
+praying near the door, and the sight of an Afghan approaching is the
+signal for a mute appeal for mercy from all three, and a transformation
+to ordinary attitudes and vocations, the completeness of which would do
+credit to professional comedians.
+
+When a favorable opportunity presents, with much peering about to make
+sure of being unobserved, his comrades lower the khan down over the rear
+wall of the bala-khana, and a minute later they hoist him up again with
+the same show of caution.
+
+Producing from his kammerbund a red handkerchief containing the stolen
+kerans, he advances and humbly lays it at my feet, at the same time
+kneeling down and implanting yet another osculatory favor on my geivehs.
+Joyful at seeing my readiness to second them in keeping the matter hidden
+from stray Afghans that come dropping in, the guilty sowars are still
+fearful lest they have not yet secured my complete forgiveness.
+Consequently, the khan repeatedly appeals to me as "bur-raa-ther," lays
+his forefingers together, and enlarges upon the fact that we have passed
+through the dangers and difficulties of the Dasht-i-na-oomid together.
+The dread spectre of possible mutilation and disgrace as the consequence
+of their misdeeds pursues these guileful, grown-up children even in their
+dreams. All through the night they are moaning and muttering uneasily in
+their sleep, and tossing restlessly about; and long before daybreak are
+they up, prostrating themselves and filling the room with rapidly
+muttered prayers, The khan comes over to my corner and peers anxiously
+down into my face. Finding me awake, he renews his plea for mercy and
+forgiveness, calling me "bur-raa-ther" and pleading earnestly "Hoikim no,
+hoikim no!"
+
+The sharp-eyed wearer of the big busby, the cavalry sword, and red
+jack-boots turns up early next morning. He dropped in once or twice
+yesterday, and being possessed of more brains than the three sowars put
+together, he gathered from appearances, and his general estimation of
+their character, that all is not right. These suspicions he promptly
+communicated to his master. Aminulah Khan is only too well acquainted
+with the weakest side of the Persian character, and at once jumps to the
+conclusion that the sowars have stolen my money. Sending for me and
+summoning the sowars to his presence, without preliminary palaver he
+accuses them of robbing me of "pool." Addressing himself to me, he
+inquires: "Sahib, Parses namifami?" (Do you understand Persian?) "Kam
+Kam" (a little), I reply. "Sowari pool f pool koob; rupee-rupee Jcoob?"
+"O, O, pool koob; rupee koob; sowari neis, sowari khylie koob adam." In
+this brief interchange of disconnected Persian the khan has asked me
+whether the sowars have stolen money from me, and I have answered that
+they have not, but that, on the contrary, they are most excellent men,
+both "trustie and true." May the recording angel enter my answer down
+with a recommendation for mercy! During this examination the little
+busby-wearer stands and closely scrutinizes the changeful countenances of
+the accused. He thoroughly understands that I am mercifully shielding
+them from what he considers their just deserts, and he chips in a word
+occasionally to Aminulah Khan, aside, like a sharp lawyer watching the
+progress of a cross-examination. The chief himself, though ostensibly
+accepting my statement, has his own suspicions to the same purpose, and
+before dismissing them he shakes his finger menacingly at the sowars and
+significantly touches the hilt of his sword. The three culprits look
+guilty enough to satisfy the most merciful of judges, but, relying on my
+operation to shield them, they stoutly maintain their innocence.
+
+Some little delay occurs about starting for Furrah, my next objective
+point on the road to India; the khan explains that all of his sowars have
+been sent off to help garrison Herat; that the best he can provide in the
+form of a mounted escort is an elderly little man whom he points out,
+with an evident doubt as to my probable appreciation.
+
+The man looks more like a Persian than an Afghan, which he probably is,
+as the population of these borderland districts is much mixed. Nothing
+would have pleased me better than to have had Aminulah Khan bid me go
+ahead without any escort whatever, but next to nobody at all, the most
+satisfactory arrangement is the harmless-looking old fellow in the
+Persian lamb's-wool hat. Telling him that he has done well in sending his
+sowars to Herat, and that the old fellow will answer very well as guide,
+I prepare to take my departure. My guide disappears, and shortly returns
+mounted on a powerful and spirited gray. Aminulah Khan gives him a
+letter, and after mutual salaams, and "good ahfis," the old sowar leads
+the way at a pace which shows him to be filled with exaggerated ideas
+about my speediness.
+
+Irrigating ditches and fields characterize the way for some few miles,
+after which we emerge upon a level desert whose hard gravel surface is
+ridable in any direction without regard to beaten trails. Numerous
+lizards of a peculiar spotted variety are observed scuttling about on
+this gravelly plain as we ride along. The sun grows hot, but the way is
+level and smooth, and about ten o'clock we arrive at the oasis of
+Mahmoudabad, five farsakhs from Ghalakua. Mahmoudabad consists of a few
+mud dwellings surrounded by a strong wall, and a number of tents. Water
+is brought in a ditch from some distant source, and my faculty of
+astonishment is once again assailed by the sight of flourishing little
+patches of "Windsor beans." This is the first growth of these particular
+legumes that have come beneath my notice in Asia; dropping on them in the
+little oasis of Mahmoudabad is something of a surprise, to say the least.
+
+The men of Mahmoudabad wear bracelets and ankle-ornaments of thick copper
+wire, and necklaces of beads. Nothing whatever is seen of the women; so
+far as ocular evidence is concerned, Mahmoudabad might be a community of
+men and boys exclusively. The plain continues level and gravelly, and
+pretty soon it becomes thinly covered with green young camel-thorn. The
+widely scattered shrubs fail to cover up much of the desert's nakedness
+at close quarters, but a wider view gives a pleasant green plain, out of
+which the dark, massive mountains rise abrupt with striking effect.
+
+Late in the afternoon the hard surface of the desert gives place to the
+loose adobe soil of the Furi-ah Eooi bottom-lands. For some distance this
+is so loose and soft that one sinks in shoe-top deep at every step, and
+the path becomes a mere trail through dense thickets of reeds that wave
+high above one's head. Beyond this is a narrow area of cultivation and
+several walled villages, most of which are distinguished by one or two
+palms. Arriving at one of these villages, an hour before sunset, the old
+guide advocates remaining for the night. In obedience to his orders the
+headman brings out a carpet and spreads it beneath the shadow of the
+wall, and pointing to it, says, "Sahib, bismillah!" Taking the proffered
+seat, I inquire of him the distance to Furrah. Ho says it is across the
+Furrah Rood, and distant one farsakh. "Kishtee ass?" "O, Idshtee" Turning
+to the guide, I suggest: "Bismillah Furrah." The old fellow looks
+disappointed at the idea of going on, but he replies, "Bismillah." The
+carpet is taken away again, and the village headman sends a younger man
+to guide us through the fields and gardens to the river.
+
+The Furrah Rood is broader and swifter here than the Harood, and when at
+sunset we reach the ferry, it is to find that the boat is on the other
+side and the ferrymen gone to their homes for the night. Several hundred
+yards back from the river the city of Furrah reveals itself in the shape
+of a sombre-looking high mud wall, forming a solid parallelogram, I
+should judge a third of a mile long and of slightly less width. The walls
+are crenellated, and strengthened by numerous buttresses. It occupies
+slightly rising ground, and nothing is visible from without but the
+walls. The old guide shouts lustily at a couple of men visible on the
+opposite bank; but he only gets shouted back at for his pains.
+
+Darkness is rapidly settling down upon us, and I begin to realize my
+mistake in not abiding by the guide's judgment and stopping at the
+village. Another village is seen a couple of miles across the reedy
+lowland to our rear, and thitherward we shape our course. The intervening
+space is found to consist largely of tall reeds, swampy or overflowed
+areas, and irrigating ditches. Many of the latter are too deep to ford,
+and darkness overtakes us long before the village is reached. Finding it
+impossible to do anything with the bicycle, I remove my packages and lay
+the naked wheel on top of a conspicuous place on the bank of a ditch,
+where it may be readily found in the morning.
+
+For some reason unintelligible to me accommodation is refused us at the
+village. The old guide addresses the people in tones loud and
+authoritative, but all to no purpose--they refuse to let us remain. While
+hesitating about what course to pursue, one of the men comes out and
+volunteers to guide us to a camp of nomads not far away. Following his
+guidance, a camp of a dozen tents is shortly reached, and in their
+hospitable midst we spend the night on a piece of carpet beneath the sky.
+The usual simple refreshments are provided, as also quilts for covering.
+Upon waking in the morning I am surprised to find the bicycle lying close
+to my head. The hospitable nomads, having heard the story of its
+abandonment from the guide, have been out in the night and found it and
+brought it in.
+
+The same friendly person who brought us to the camp turns up at daybreak
+and voluntarily guides us through the area of ditches and impenetrable
+reed-patches to the river. Several people are squatting on the bank
+watching a crew of half-naked men tugging a rude but strong ferryboat
+up-stream toward them. The boat is built of heavy hewn timber, and
+capable of ferrying fifty passengers.
+
+The Furrah Rood, at the ferry, is about two hundred yards wide, and with
+a current of perhaps five miles an hour. A dozen stalwart men with rude,
+heavy sweeps propel the boat across; but at every passage the swift
+current takes it down-stream twice as far as the river's width. After
+disembarking the passengers, the boatmen have to tow it this distance
+up-stream again before making the next crossing. The boatmen wear a
+single garment of blue cotton that in shape resembles a plain loose
+shirt. When nearing the shore, three or four of them deftly slip their
+arms out of the sleeves, bunch the whole garment up around their necks,
+and spring overboard. Swimming to shallow water with a rope, they brace
+themselves to stay the down-stream career of the boat.
+
+A small gathering of wild-looking men are collected at the landing-place,
+and my astonishment is awakened by the familiar figure of a Celestial
+among the crowd. He is a veritable John Chinaman--beardless face,
+queue, almond eyes, and everything complete. The superior thriftiness of
+the Chinaman over the Afghans needs no further demonstration than the
+ocular evidence that among them all he wears by far the best and the
+tidiest clothes. In this, not less than in the strong Mongolian type of
+face, is he a striking figure among the people.
+
+John Chinaman is a very familiar figure to me, and I regard this strange
+specimen with almost as great interest as if I had thus unexpectedly met
+a European. His grotesque figure and dress, representing, so it seems to
+me at the moment, a speck of civilization among the barbarousness of my
+surroundings, is quite a relief to the senses. A closer investigation,
+however, on the bank, while waiting for the guide's horse, reveals the
+fact that he is far from being the John Chinaman of Chinatown, San
+Francisco. Instead of hailing from the rice-fields of Quangtung, this
+fellow is a native of Kashga-ria, a country almost as wild as
+Afghanistan. A moment's scrutiny of his face removes him as far from the
+civilized seaboard Celestials of our acquaintance as is the Zulu warrior
+from the plantation-darky of the South. Except for the above-mentioned
+comparative neatness of appearance, it is very evident that the Mongolian
+is every bit as wild as the Afghans about him.
+
+The people regard me with a deep and peculiar interest; very few remarks
+are made among themselves, and no one puts a single question to me or
+ventures upon any remarks. All this is in strange contrast to the
+everlasting gabble and the noisy and persistent importunities of the
+Persians. The Afghans are plainly full of speculations concerning my
+mission, who I am, and what I am doing in their country; although they
+regard the bicycle with great curiosity, the machine is evidently a
+matter of secondary importance. Like the Eimuck chieftain on the Dasht-i
+several of these men change countenance when I favor them with a glance.
+Whether this peculiar reddening of the face among the Afghans comes of
+embarrassment, or what it is, it always impresses me as much like the
+"perturbation of a wild animal at finding himself suddenly confronted
+with a human being."
+
+Hiding part way to the city gate, I send the guide ahead to notify the
+governor of my arrival, and to present the letter from Aininulah Khan. He
+is absent what appears to me an unnecessarily long time, and I determine
+to follow him in and take my chances on the tide of circumstances, as in
+the cities of Persia. It is not without certain lively apprehensions of
+possible adventure, however, that I approach the little arched gateway of
+this gray-walled Afghan city, conscious of its being filled with the most
+fanatical population in the world. In addition to this knowledge is the
+disquieting reflection of being a trespasser on forbidden territory, and
+therefore outside the pale of governmental sympathy should I get into
+trouble.
+
+The fascination of penetrating the strange little world within those high
+walls, however, ill brooks these retrospective reflections, or thoughts
+of unpleasant consequences, and I make no hesitation about riding up to
+the gate. A sharp, short turn and abrupt rise in the road occurs at the
+gate, necessitating a dismount and a trundle of about thirty yards, when
+I suddenly find myself confronting a couple of sentries beneath the
+archway of the gate. The sensation of surprise seems quite in order of
+late, and these sentries furnish yet another sensation, for they are
+wearing the red jackets of British infantrymen and the natty peaked caps
+of the Royal Artillery. The same crimson flush of embarrassment--or
+whatever it may be--that was observed in the countenance of the
+Eimuck chief, overspreads their faces, and they seem overcome with
+confusion and astonishment; but they both salute mechanically as I pass
+in. Fifty yards of open waste ground enables me to mount and ride into
+the entrance of the principal street. I have precious little time to look
+about me, and no opportunity to discover what the result of my temerity
+would be after the people had recovered from their amazement, for hardly
+have I gotten fairly into the street when I am met by my old guide,
+conducting a guard of twelve soldiers who have been sent to bring me in.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+ARRESTED AT FURRAH.
+
+Perhaps no stranger occurrence in the field of personal adventure in
+Central Asia has happened for many a year than my entrance into Furrah on
+a bicycle. Only those who know Afghanistan and the Afghans can fully
+realize the ticklish character of this little piece of adventure.
+
+My soldier-escort are fine-looking fellows, wearing the well-known red
+jackets of the British Army, evidently the uniform of some sepoy
+regiment. Forming around me, they conduct me through the gate of an inner
+enclosure near by, and usher me into a small compound where Mahmoud
+Yusuph Khan, the commander-in-chief of the garrison, is engaged in
+holding a morning reception of his subordinate chiefs and officers. The
+spectacle that greets my astonished eyes is a revelation indeed; the
+whole compound is filled with soldiers wearing the regimentals of the
+Anglo-Indian army. As I enter the compound and trundle the bicycle
+between long files of soldiers toward Mahmoud Yusuph Khan and his
+officers, five hundred pairs of eyes are fixed on me with intense
+curiosity. These are Cabooli soldiers sent here to garrison Furrah, where
+they will be handy to march to the relief of Herat, in case of
+demonstrations against that city by the Russians. The tension over the
+Penjdeh incident has not yet (April, 1886) wholly relaxed, and I feel
+instinctively that I am suspected of being a Russian spy.
+
+In the centre of the compound is a large bungalow, surrounded by a
+slightly raised porch. Seated on a mat at one end of this is Mahmoud
+Yusuph Khan, and ranged in two long rows down the porch are his chiefs
+and officers. They are all seated cross-legged on a strip of carpet, and
+attendants are serving them with tea in little porcelain cups. They are
+the most martial-looking assembly of humans I ever set eyes on. They are
+fairly bristling with quite serviceable looking weapons, besides many of
+the highly ornamented, but less dangerous, "gewgaws of war" dear to the
+heart of the brave but conservative warriors of Islam. Prominent among
+the peculiarities observed are strips of chain mail attached to portions
+of their clothing as guards against sword-cuts, noticeably on the
+sleeves. Some are wearing steel helmets, some huge turbans, and others
+the regular Afghan military hat, this latter a rakish-looking head-piece
+something like the hat of a Chinese Tartar general.
+
+Mahmoud Yusupli Khan himself is wearing one of these hats, and is attired
+in a tight-fitting suit of buckram, pipe-clayed from head to foot; in his
+hat glitters a handsome rosette of nine diamonds, which I have an
+opportunity of counting while seated beside him. He is a stoutish person,
+full-faced, slightly above middle age, less striking in appearance than
+many of his subordinates. When I have walked up between the two rows of
+seated chieftains and gained his side, he forthwith displays his
+knowledge of the English mode of greeting by shaking hands. He orders an
+attendant to fetch a couple of camp chairs, and setting one for me, he
+rises from the carpet and occupies the other one himself. Tea is brought
+in small cups instead of glasses, and is highly sweetened after the
+manner of the Persians; sweetmeats are handed round at the same time.
+After ascertaining that I understand something of Persian, he expresses
+his astonishment at my appearance in Furrah. At first it is painfully
+evident that he suspects me of being a Russian spy; but after several
+minutes of questions and answers, he is apparently satisfied that I am
+not a Muscovite, and he explains to his officers that I am an "Ingilis
+nockshi" (correspondent). He is greatly astonished to hear of the route
+by which I entered the country, as no traveller ever entered Afghanistan
+across the Dasht-i-na-oomid before. I tell him that I am going to
+Kandahar and Quetta, and suggest that he send a sowar with me to guide
+the way. He smiles amusedly at this suggestion, and shaking his head
+vigorously, he says, "Kandahar neis; Afghanistan's bad; khylie bad;" and
+he furthermore explains that I would be sure to get killed. "Kliylie
+koob; I don't want any sowar, I will go alone; if I get killed, then
+nobody will be blamable but myself." "Kandahar neis," he replies, shaking
+his finger and head, and looking very serious; "Kandahar neis; beest (20)
+sowars couldn't see you safely through to Kandahar; Afghanistan's bad; a
+Ferenghi would be sure to get killed before reaching Kandahar."
+Pretending to be greatly amused at this, I reply, "koob; if I get killed,
+all right; I don't want any sowars; I will go alone." At hearing this, he
+grows still more serious, and enters into quite an eloquent and lengthy
+explanation, to dissuade me from the idea of going. He explains that the
+Ameer has little control over the fanatical tribes in Zemindavar, and
+that although the Boundary Commission had a whole regiment of sepoys, the
+Ameer couldn't guarantee their safety if they came to Furrah. He
+furthermore expresses his surprise that I wasn't killed before getting
+this far. The officer of the guard who brought me in, and who is standing
+against the porch close by, speaks up at this stage of the interview and
+tells with much animation of how I was riding down the street, and of the
+people all speechless with astonishment.
+
+Mahmoud Yusuph Khan repeats this to his officers, with comments of his
+own, and they look at one another and smile and shake their heads,
+evidently deeply impressed at what they consider the dare-devil
+recklessness of a Ferenghi in venturing alone into the streets of Furrah.
+The warlike Afghans have great admiration for personal courage, and they
+evidently regard my arrival here without escort as a proof that I am
+possessed of a commendable share of that desirable quality. As the
+commander-in-chief and a few grim old warriors squatting near us exchange
+comments on the subject of my appearance here, and my willingness to
+proceed alone to Kandahar, notwithstanding the known probability of being
+murdered, their glances of mingled amusement and admiration are agreeably
+convincing that I have touched a chord of sympathy in their rude, martial
+breasts.
+
+Half an hour is passed in drinking tea and asking questions. Mahmoud
+Yusuph Khan proves himself not wholly ignorant of English and
+British-Indian politics. "General Roberts Sahib, Cabool to Kandahar?" he
+queries first. The Afghans regard General Roberts' famous march as a
+wonderful performance, and consequently hold that distinguished officer's
+name in high repute. He asks about Sir Peter Lumsden and Colonel Sir West
+Ridgeway; and speaks of the Governor-General of India. By way of testing
+the extent of his knowledge, I refer to Lord Ripon as the present
+Governor-General of India, when he at once corrects me with, "No; Lord
+Dufferin Sahib." He speaks of London, and wants to know about Mr.
+Gladstone and Lord Salisbury--which is now Prime Minister? I
+explain by pantomime that the election is not decided; he acknowledges
+his understanding of my meaning by a nod. He then grows inquisitive about
+the respective merits of the two candidates. "Gladstone koob or Salisbury
+koob?" he queries. "Gladstone koob, England, ryot, nune, gusht,
+kishrnish, pool-Salisbury koob, India, Afghanistan, Ameer, Russia
+soldier, officer," is the reply. To the average reader this latter reads
+like so much unintelligible shibboleth; but it is a fair sample of the
+disjointed language by which I manage to convey my meaning plainly to the
+Afghan chieftain. He understands by these few disconnected nouns that I
+consider Gladstone to be the better statesman of the two for England's
+domestic affairs, and Salisbury the better for the foreign policy of the
+Empire.
+
+All this time the troops are being put through their exercises, marching
+about the compound in companies and drilling with their muskets. Some are
+uniformed in the picturesque Anglo-Oriental regimentals of the Indian
+sepoy, and others in neat red jackets, peaked caps, and white trousers
+with red stripes. The buttons, belts, bandoleers, and buckles are all
+wanderers from the ranks of the British army. The men themselves--many of
+them, at least--might quite as readily be credited to that high standard
+of military prowess which characterizes the British army as the clothes
+and accoutrements they are wearing, judging from outward appearances. Not
+only do their faces bear the stamp of both fearlessness and intelligence,
+but some of them are possessed of the distinctively combative physiognomy
+of the born pugilist. The captain of the Governor's guard has a
+particularly plucky and aggressive expression; he is a man whose face
+will always remain pictured on my memory. The interesting expression this
+officer habitually wears is that of a prize-ring champion, with a
+determined bull-dog phiz, watching eagerly to pounce on some imaginary
+antagonist. Seeing that his attention is keenly centred upon me the whole
+time I am sitting by the side of his chief, he becomes an object of more
+than passing interest. He watches me with the keen earnestness of a
+bull-dog expectantly awaiting the order to attack.
+
+Mahmoud Yusuph Khan now attempts to explain at length sundry reasons why
+it is necessary to place me, for the time being, under guard. He seems
+very anxious to convey this unpleasant piece of information in the
+flowery langue diplomatique of the Orient, or in other words, to coat the
+bitter pill of my detention with a sugary coating of Eastern politeness.
+
+His own linguistic abilities being unequal to the occasion, he sends off
+somewhere for a dusky Hindostani, who shortly arrives and, in obedience
+to orders, forthwith begins jabbering at me in his own tongue. Of this I,
+of course, know literally nothing, and, ever swayed by suspicion, it is
+easily perceivable that their first impression of my being a Russian spy
+is in a measure revived by my ignorance of Hindostani. They seem to think
+it inconsistent that one could be an Englishman and not understand the
+language of a native of India. After the interview the twelve red-jackets
+that appear to constitute the Governor's bodyguard are detailed to
+conduct me to a walled garden--outside the city. Before departing,
+however, I give the strange assembly of Afghan warriors an exhibition of
+riding around the compound. The guard, under the leadership of the
+officer with the bull-dog phiz, fix bayonets and form into a file on
+either side of me as I trundle back through the same street traversed
+upon my arrival. Accompanying us is a man on a gray horse whom everybody
+addresses respectfully as "Kiftan Sahib" (Captain), and another
+individual afoot in a bottle-green roundabout, a broad leathern belt, a
+striped turban, white baggy pantalettes, and pointed red shoes. Kiftan
+Sahib looks more like an English game-keeper than an Afghan captain; he
+wears a soiled Derby hat, a brown cut-away coat, striped pantaloons, and
+Northampton-made shoes without socks; his arms are a cavalry sabre and a
+revolver.
+
+Outside the gate, at the suggestion of the young man in the bottle-green
+roundabout, I mount and ride, wheeling slowly along between the little
+files of soldiers. The soldiers are delighted at the novelty of their
+duty, and they swing briskly along as I pedal a little faster. They smile
+at the exertion necessary to keep up, and falling in with their spirit of
+amusement, I gradually increase my speed, and finally shoot ahead of them
+entirely. Kiftan Sahib comes galloping after me on the gray, and with
+good-humored anxiety motions for me to stop and let the soldiers catch
+up. He it is upon whom the commander-in-chief has saddled the
+responsibility for my safe-keeping, and this little display of levity and
+my ability to so easily out-distance the soldiers, awakens in him the
+spirit of apprehension at once. One can see that he breathes easier as
+soon as we are safely inside the garden gate.
+
+A couple of little whitewashed bungalows are the only buildings in the
+garden, and one of these is assigned to me for my quarters. Kiftan Sahib
+and the young man in the bottle-green roundabout give orders about the
+preparation of refreshments, and then squat themselves down near me to
+gladden their eyes with a prolonged examination of my face. The
+red-jackets separate into three reliefs of four each; one relief
+immediately commences pacing back and forth along the four sides of the
+bungalow, one soldier on each side, while the remainder seek the shade of
+a pomegranate grove that occupies one side of the garden. By-and-by
+servitors appear bearing trays of sweetmeats and more substantial fare.
+The variety and abundance of eatables comprising the meal, are such as to
+thoroughly delight the heart of a person who has grown thin and gaunt and
+wolfish from semi-starvation and prolonged physical exertion. The two
+long skewers of smoking kabobs and the fried eggs are most excellent
+eating, the pillau is delicious, and among other luxuries is a sort of
+pomegranate jam, some very good butter (called muscal), a big bowl of
+sherbet, and dishes of nuts, sweetmeats, and salted melon seeds. After
+dinner the young man in bottle-green, who seems anxious to cultivate my
+good opinion, smiles significantly at me and takes his departure; he
+turns up again in a few minutes bearing triumphantly an old Phillips'
+Atlas, which he deferentially places at my feet. Opening it, I find that
+the chief countries and cities of the world are indicated in written
+Hindostani characters. In this manner some English officer has probably
+been the undesigning medium of giving these Afghans a peep into the
+configuration of the earth they live on, and their first lesson in
+geography.
+
+I reward the young man by asking him whether he too is a "kiftan." He
+acknowledges the compliment by a broad grin and two salaams made in rapid
+succession.
+
+After noon a messenger arrives from Mahmoud Yusuph Khan bringing salaams
+and a pair of stout English walking-boots to replace my old worn-out
+geivehs; and a cake of toilet soap, also of English make. Both shoes and
+soap, as may be easily imagined, are highly acceptable articles. The
+advent of the former likewise answers the purpose of enlightening me a
+trifle in regard to matters philological; the Afghans call their
+foot-gear "boots" (the Chinese call their foot-wear "shoes," and their
+gloves "tung-shoes," or hand-shoes).
+
+About four o'clock I am visited by a fatherly old khan in a sky-blue
+gown, and an interesting Cabooli cavalry colonel, with pieces of chain
+mail distributed about his uniform, and a fierce-looking moustache that
+stands straight out from his upper lip. Sweetmeats enough to start a
+small candy shop have been sent me during the afternoon, and setting them
+out before my guests, we are soon on the most familiar terms. The colonel
+shows me his weapons in return for a squint down the shining rifled
+barrel of my Smith & Wesson, and he explains the merits and demerits of
+both his own firearms and mine. The 38-calibre S. & W. he thinks a
+perfect weapon in its way, but altogether too small for Afghanistan. With
+expressive pantomime he explains that, while my 38 bullet would kill a
+person as well as a larger one, it requires a heavier missile to crash
+into a man who is making for you with a knife or sword, and stop him. His
+favorite weapon for close quarters is a murderous-looking piece, half
+blunderbuss, half pistol, that he carries thrust in his kammerbund, so
+that the muzzle points behind him. This weapon has a small single-hand
+musket stock, and the bell-mouthed barrel is filled nearly to the muzzle
+with powder and round bullets the size of buckshot. This formidable
+firearm is for hand-to-hand fighting on horseback, and at ten paces might
+easily be warranted to blow a man's head into smithereens.
+
+The colonel is an amiable old warrior, and kindly points this interesting
+weapon at my head for me to peer down the barrel and satisfy myself that
+it is really loaded almost to the top! Like Injun-slaying youngsters in
+America, the doughty Afghan warriors seem to delight in having their
+weapons loaded, their sidearms sharp, and their bayonets fixed, and seem
+anxious to impress the beholder with the fact that they are real
+warriors, and not mere make-believe soldiers. The colonel wears a
+dark-brown uniform profusely trimmed with braid, a Kashgarian military
+hat, and English army shoes. In matters pertaining to his wardrobe it is
+very evident that he has profited to no small extent by Afghanistan being
+adjacent territory to British India; but his semi-civilized ambition has
+not yet soared into the aesthetic realm of socks; doubtless he considers
+Northampton-made shoes sufficiently luxurious without the addition of
+socks.
+
+The mission of these two officers is apparently to prepare me gradually
+for the intelligence that I am to be taken back to Herat. So skillfully
+and diplomatically does the old khan in the cerulean gown acquit himself
+of this mission, that I thoroughly understand what is to be my
+disposition, although Herat is never mentioned. He talks volubly about
+the Ameer, the Wali, the Padishah, the dowleh, Cabool, Allah, and a host
+of other subjects, out of which I readily evolve my fate; but, as yet, he
+breathes nothing but diplomatic hints, and these are clothed in the most
+pleasant and reassuring smiles, and given in tones of paternal
+solicitude. The colonel sits and listens intently, and now and then
+chimes in with a word of soothing assent by way of emphasizing the
+subject, when the khan is explaining about the Ameer, or Allah, or
+kismet. Mahmoud Tusuph Khan himself comes to the garden in the cool of
+the evening, and for half an hour occupies bungalow No. 2. He betrays a
+spark of Oriental vanity by having an attendant follow behind, bearing a
+huge and wonderful sun-shade, into the make-up of which peacock feathers
+and other gorgeous material largely enters. Noticing this, I make a
+determined assault upon his bump of Asiatic self-esteem, by asking him if
+he is brother to the Ameer. He smiles and says he is a brother of Shere
+Ali, the ex-Ameer deposed in favor of Abdur Bahman. His remarks during
+our second interview are largely composed of furtive queries, intended to
+penetrate what he evidently, even as yet, suspects to be the secret
+object of my mysterious appearance in the heart of the country. The
+Afghan official is nothing if not suspicious, and although he professed
+his own conviction, in the morning, of my being an English "nokshi," his
+constitutionally suspicious nature forbids him accepting this impression
+as final.
+
+During this interview two more natives of India are produced and ordered
+to assail my long-suffering ears with the battery of their vernacular.
+They are an interesting pair, and they evince the liveliest imaginable
+interest in finding a Sahib alone in the hands of the Afghans. They are
+vivacious and intelligent, and try hard to make themselves understood.
+From their own vocal and pantomimic efforts and the Persian of the
+Afghans, I learn that they are sepoys in charge of three prisoners from
+the Boundary Commission camp, whom they are taking through to Quetta.
+
+They seem very anxious to do something in my behalf, and want Mahmoud
+Yusuph Khan to let them take me with them to Quetta. I lose no time in
+signifying my approval of this suggestion; but the Governor shakes his
+head and orders them away, as though fearful even to have such a
+proposition entertained. All the time the sepoys are endeavoring to make
+themselves understood, every Afghan present regards my face with the
+keenest scrutiny; so glaringly evident are their suspicions that the
+situation becomes too much for my gravity. The sepoys grin broadly in
+response, whereupon the pugilistic-faced captain of the Governor's guard
+remonstrates with them for their levity, by roughly making them stand in
+a more respectful attitude. I dislike very much to see them ordered off,
+for they are evidently anxious to champion my cause; moreover, it would
+have been interesting to have accompanied them through to Quetta.
+Understanding thoroughly by this time that I am not to be allowed to go
+through by way of Giriskh and Kandahar, and dreading the probability of
+being taken back into Persia, I ask permission to travel south to Jowain
+and the frontier of Beloochistan. The Afghan-Beloochi boundary is not
+more than fifty or sixty miles south of Furrah, and while it would be
+difficult to say what advantage would be gained by reaching there, it
+would at all events be some consolation to find myself at liberty.
+
+The interview ends, however, without much additional light being shed on
+their intentions; but the advent of more sweetmeats shortly after the
+Governor's departure, and the unexpected luxury of a bottle of Shiraz
+wine, heightens the conviction that my own wishes in the matter are to be
+politely ignored. The red-jackets patrol my bungalow till dark, when they
+are relieved by soldiers in dark-blue kilts, loose Turkish pantalettes,
+and big turbans. I sit on the threshold during the evening, watching
+their soldierly bearing with much interest; on their part they comport
+themselves as though proudly conscious of making a good impression. I
+judge they have been especially ordered to acquit themselves well in my
+presence, and so impress me, whether I am English or Russian, with a
+sense of their military proficiency. All about the garden red-coated
+guards are seen prostrating themselves toward Mecca in the prosecution of
+their evening devotions. Full of reflections on the exciting events of
+the day and the strange turn affairs have taken, I stretch myself on a
+Turkoman rug and doze off to sleep. The last sound heard ere reaching the
+realms of unconsciousness is the steady tramp of the sentinels pacing to
+and fro. Scarcely have I fallen asleep--so at least it seems to me
+--when I am awakened by my four guards singing out, one after
+another, "Kujawpuk! Ki-i-puk!!" This appears to be their answer to the
+challenge of the officer going his rounds, and they shout it out in tones
+clear and distinct, in succession. This programme is repeated several
+times during the night, and, notwithstanding the sleep-inducing fatigues
+of the last few days, my slumbers are light enough to hear the reliefs of
+the guard and their strange cry of "Kujawpuk, ki-i-puk" every time it is
+repeated.
+
+As the sun peeps over the wall of the garden my red-jackets reappear at
+their post; roses are stuck in their caps' and their buttonholes, and
+fastened to their guns. A big bouquet of the same fragrant "guls" is
+presented to me, and a dozen gholams are busy gathering all that are
+abloom in the garden. These are probably gathered every morning in the
+rose season, and used for making rose-water by the officers' wives.
+During the forenoon the blue-gowned old khan and his major-domo, the
+mail-clad colonel, again present themselves at my bungalow. They are
+gracious and friendly to a painful degree, and sugar would scarcely melt
+in the mouth of the paternal old khan as he delivers the "Wall's salaams
+to the Sahib." Tea and sweetmeats are handed around, and Kiftan Sahib and
+Bottle Green join our company.
+
+Nothing but the formal salaams has yet been said; but intuition is a
+faithful forerunner, and ere another word is spoken, I know well enough
+that the khan and the colonel have been sent to break the disagreeable
+news that I am to be taken to Herat, and that Kiftan Sahib and Bottle
+Green have dropped in out of curiosity to see how I take it.
+
+The kindly old khan finds his task of awakening the spirit of
+disappointment anything but congenial, and he seems very loath to deliver
+the message. When he finally unburdens himself, it is with averted eyes
+and roundabout language. He commences by a rambling disquisition on the
+dangers of the road to Kandahar, apologizing profusely for the Ameer's
+inability to guarantee the good behavior of the wandering tribes, and the
+consequent necessity of forbidding travellers to enter the country.
+
+He dwells piously and at considerable length upon our obligations to
+submit to the will of Allah, not forgetting a liberal use of the Oriental
+fatalist's favorite expression: "kismet." For the sake of argument,
+rather than with any hope of influencing things in my favor, I reply:"
+All right, I don't ask the Ameer's protection; I will go to Kandahar and
+Quetta alone, on my own responsibility; then if I get murdered by the
+Ghilzais, nobody but myself will be to blame." "The Wali has his orders
+from the Padishah, the Ameer Abdur Eahman Khan, that no Ferenghi is to
+come in the country." "Tell the Wali that Afghanistan is Allah's country
+first and Abdur Eahman's country second. Inshallah, Allah gives everybody
+the road." The old khan is evidently at a loss how to meet so logical an
+argument, and the colonel, Kiftan Sahib, and Bottle Green are deeply
+impressed at what they consider my unanswerable wisdom. They look at one
+another and shake their heads and smile.
+
+The chief concern of the khan is apparently to convince me that it is
+only out of consideration for my own safety that I am forbidden to go
+through, and, after a brief consultation with the others, he again
+addresses his flowery eloquence to me. He comes and squats beside me,
+and, with much soothing patting of my shoulder, he says: "The Wali is
+only taking you to Herat to obtain Ridgeway Sahib's and Faramorz Khan's
+permission for you to go through. Inshallah, after you have seen Herat,
+if it is the will of Allah, and your kismet to go to Kandahar, the Ameer
+will let you go." To this comforting assurance I deem it but justice to
+the well-meaning old chieftain to signify my submission to the
+inevitable. Before departing, he requests the humble present of a
+pencil-sketch of the bicycle as a souvenir of my visit to Furrah. During
+the day I get on quite intimate terms with my guard, and among other
+things compete with them in the feat of holding a musket out at arm's
+length, gripping the extreme end of the barrel. Tall, strapping fellows
+some of them are, but they are not muscular in comparison; out of a round
+dozen competitors I am the only one capable of fairly accomplishing this
+feat.
+
+Many of the soldiers carry young pheasants about with them in cages, and
+seem to derive a good deal of pleasure in feeding them and attending to
+their wants. The cages are merely pieces of white muslin, or
+mosquito-netting, about the size of a pocket-handkerchief, enclosing a
+four-inch disk of wood for the inmate to stand on. The crape is gathered
+and loosely tied at the corners. It is carried as one would carry
+anything suspended in a handkerchief, and is hung on the limb of a tree
+in the same manner.
+
+Late in the afternoon of the second clay my scarlet guard marshal
+themselves in front of the bungalow, and Kiftan Sahib and Bottle Green
+bid me prepare for departure to Herat. The old khan and the colonel, and
+several other horsemen, appear at the gate; the soldiers form themselves
+into two files, and between them I trundle from my circumscribed
+quarters. The rude ferry-boat is awaiting our coming, and in a few
+minutes the khan and the colonel bid me quite an affectionate farewell on
+the river-bank, gazing eagerly into my face as though regretful at the
+necessity of parting so soon. My escort favor me with the, same lingering
+gaze. These people are evidently fascinated by the strange and mysterious
+manner of my coming among them; who am I, what am I, and wherefore my
+marvellous manner of travelling, are questions that appeal strongly to
+their Asiatic imagination, and they are intensely loath to see me
+disappear again without having seen more of me and my wonderful iron
+horse, and learned more about it.
+
+Several horsemen have already crossed and are awaiting us on the opposite
+shore. Kiftan Sahib and another officer with a henna-tinted beard are in
+charge of the party taking me back. Besides myself and these two, the
+party consists of eleven horsemen; with sundry modifications, their
+general appearance, arms, and dress resemble the make-up of a Persian
+sowar rather than the regular Afghan soldier. The sun is just setting
+behind those western mountains I passed three days ago as we reach the
+western shore, the boatmen are unloading the saddles and accoutrements of
+our party, and I sit down on the bank and survey the strange scene just
+across the river. The steep bluff opposite is occupied by people who
+accompanied us to the river. Many of them are seizing this opportune
+moment to prostrate themselves toward the Holy City, the geographical
+position of which is happily indicated by the setting sun.
+
+Prominent among the worshippers are seen side by side the cerulean figure
+of the khan, and the colonel in all the bravery of his military
+trappings, his chain armor glistening brightly in the waning sunlight. A
+little removed from the crowd, the twelve red-coats are ranged in a row,
+performing the same pious ceremony; as their bared heads bob up and down
+one after another, the scarlet figures outlined in a row against the
+eastern sky are strangely suggestive of a small flock of flamingoes
+engaged in fishing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+UNDER ESCORT TO HERAT.
+
+Our party camps near a village not far from the river, but it takes us
+till after dark to reach the place, owing to ditches and overflow. A few
+miles of winding trails and intricate paths through the reedy
+river-bottom next morning, and we emerge upon a flinty upland plain. At
+first a horseman is required to ride immediately ahead of the bicycle, my
+untutored escort being evidently suspicious lest I might suddenly forge
+ahead, and with the swiftness of a bird disappear from their midst.
+
+As this leader, in his ignorance, occasionally stops right in the narrow
+path, and considers himself in duty bound to limit my speed to that of
+the walking horses, this arrangement quickly becomes very monotonous.
+Appealing to Kiftan Sahib, I point out the annoyance of having a horse
+just in front, and promise not to go too far ahead. He points appealingly
+to a little leathern pouch attached to his belt. The pouch contains a
+letter to the Governor of Herat, and he it is whom Mahmoud Yusuph Khan
+expects to take back a receipt. The chief responsibility for my safe
+delivery rests upon his shoulders, and he is disposed to be abnormally
+apprehensive and suspicious.
+
+Reassuring him of my sincerity, he permits the horseman to follow along
+behind. When the condition of the road admits of my pushing ahead a
+little, this sowar canters along immediately behind, while the remainder
+of the party follow more leisurely.
+
+One of the party carries a skin of water, and as the morning grows
+fearfully hot, frequent halts are made to wait for him and get a drink,
+otherwise we two are usually some distance ahead. These water-vessels are
+merely goat-skins, taken off with as little mutilation of the hide as
+possible; one of the legs serves as a faucet, and the tying or untying of
+a piece of string opens or closes the "tap." It is the handiest
+imaginable contrivance for carrying liquids on horseback, the tough,
+pliant goat-skin resisting any amount of hard usage and accommodating
+itself readily to the contour of the pack-saddle, or itself forming a
+soft enough seat to the rider.
+
+Near noon we reach the ruins of Suleimanabad, entirely deserted save by
+hideous gray lizards a foot long, numbers of which scuttle off into their
+hiding places at our approach. In the distance ahead are visible the
+black tents of a nomad camp. The glowing, reflected heat of the stony
+desert produces an unquenchable thirst, and the generous bowls of cool,
+acidulous doke obtained in the tents are quaffed most eagerly by the
+entire party.
+
+The solicitude of Kiftaii Sahib as displayed on my behalf is quite
+amusing, not to say affecting; while the others are attending to their
+horses he squats down before me underneath the little goat-hair tent and
+gazes at me with an attention so close that one might imagine him afraid
+lest I should mysteriously change into some impalpable spirit and float
+away.
+
+The nomads themselves appear to be amiably disposed, intent chiefly on
+supplying our wants and fulfilling the traditions of tented hospitality.
+They look wild enough, but, withal, pleasant and intelligent. Kiftan
+Sahib, however, watches every movement of the stalwart nomads with keen
+interest; and small power of penetration is required to see that
+apprehension, if not positive suspicion, enters very largely into his
+thoughts concerning them and myself.
+
+A howling wind and dust-storm comes careering across the plain, creating
+a wild scene, and black cloud-banks gather and pile up ominously in the
+west. The threatened rain-storm, however, passes off with a pyrotechnic
+display of great brilliancy, and the evening air lowers to a refreshing
+temperature as we stretch ourselves out on nummuds, fifty yards away from
+the tents. Kiftan Sahib spreads his own couch on the right side of mine
+and the red-whiskered chief of the sowars occupies the left.
+
+Waking up during the night, I am somewhat taken by surprise at finding
+one of my escort standing guard over me with fixed bayonet. This
+extraordinary precaution appears to me at the time as being altogether
+superfluous; while recognizing these nomads as lawless and fanatical, I
+should nevertheless have no hesitation in venturing alone among them.
+
+The morning star is just soaring above the eastern horizon, and the
+feeble rays of Luna's half-averted face are imparting a ghostly glimmer
+of light, when I am awakened from a sound sleep. The horses have all been
+saddled and packed, and everybody is ready to start. Daylight comes on
+apace and, finding the trail hard and reasonably smooth, I am happily
+able to "sowari," and not only able to ride but to forge right ahead of
+the party. The country is level and open, and uninhabited, so that Kiftan
+Sahib is far less apprehensive than he was yesterday.
+
+I am perhaps a couple of miles ahead when I come to a splendid, large,
+irrigating canal, evidently conveying water from the Harood down across
+the desert to the low cultivable lands near the Furrah Rood. The water is
+three feet deep, and I revel in the luxury of a cooling and refreshing
+bath until overtaken by the escort.
+
+The plain, heretofore hard, now changes into loose sand and gravel, and
+the trail becomes quite obliterated. In addition to these undesirable
+changes, the wind commences blowing furiously from the north, making it
+absolutely impossible to ride. Rounding the base of an abutting mountain,
+we emerge upon the grassy lowlands of the Harood in the vicinity of
+Subzowar. Subzowar is a sort of way-station between Furrah and Herat, the
+only inhabited place, except tents, on the whole journey. It is on the
+west side of the Harood and the broad, swift stream is full to
+overflowing, a turgid torrent rushing along at a dangerous pace.
+
+After much shouting and firing of guns, a score of villagers appear on
+the opposite bank, and several of them come wading and swimming across.
+They seem veritable amphibians, capable of stemming the tide that
+well-nigh sweeps strong horses off their feet. The river is fordable by
+following a zigzag course well known to the local watermen. One of them
+carries the bicycle safely across on his head, and others lead the
+sowars' horses by the bridle.
+
+When all the Afghans but Kiftan Sahib have been assisted over, the
+strongest horse of the party is brought back for my own passage. A dozen
+natives are made to form a close cordon about me to rescue me in case of
+misadventure, while one leads the horse by his bridle and another
+steadies him by holding on to his tail. Kiftan Sahib himself brings up
+the rear, and, as the rushing waters deepen around us, he abjures me to
+keep a steady seat and, in a voice that almost degenerates into an
+apprehensive whine, he mutters: "The receipt, Sahib, the receipt."
+
+A ripple of excitement occurs in the middle of the river by one the men
+being swept off his feet and carried down stream; and, although he swims
+like a duck, the treacherous undercurrent sucks him under several times.
+It looks as though he would be drowned; a number of his comrades race
+down the bank and plunge in to swim to his rescue, but he finally secures
+footing on a submerged sand-bank, and after resting a few minutes swims
+ashore.
+
+The remainder of the day, and the night, are passed in tents near
+Subzowar, it being very evidently against Afghan social etiquette for
+strangers to take shelter within the confines of the village itself.
+
+Whether from their knowledge of the unsuitableness of the country ahead,
+or from a new spasm of apprehension concerning their responsibility, does
+not appear; but in the morning Kiftan Sahib and the chief of the sowars
+insist upon me mounting a horse and handing the bicycle over to the
+tender mercies of the person in charge of the nummud pack-horse. They
+point in the direction of Herat, and deliver themselves of a marvellous
+quantity of deprecatory pantomime. My own impression is that, having
+recrossed the Harood, the only great obstacle in the path of a wheelman
+between Furrah and Herat, their abnormally suspicious minds imagine that
+there is now nothing to prevent me taking wings and outdistancing them to
+the latter place.
+
+Finding them determined, and, moreover, nothing loath to try a horse for
+a change, on the back-stretch, I take the wheel apart and distribute
+fork, backbone, and large wheel among the sowars. The only fit place for
+the latter is on the top of the nummuds and blankets on the spare
+pack-horse, and, before starting, I see to fastening it securely on top
+of the load. This pack-horse is a powerful black stallion that puts in a
+good share of his time trying to attack the other horses. Owing to this
+uncontrollable pugnacity, he is habitually led along at some considerable
+distance from the party, generally to the rear.
+
+The person in charge of him is a young negro as black, and
+proportionately powerful, as himself. Wild and ferocious as is the
+stallion, he is a civilized and mild-mannered animal compared with his
+manager. In the matter of facial expression and intellectual development
+this uncivilized descendant of Ham is first cousin to a wild gorilla, and
+it is not without certain misgivings that I leave the web-like
+bicycle-wheel in his charge. He has been a very interesting study of
+uncivilization all along, and his bump of destructiveness is as large as
+an orange. The military Afghans, one and all, impress me as being
+especially created to destroy the fruits of other people's industry and
+thrift, whether it be in wearing out clothes and shoes made in England,
+or devouring the substance of the peaceful villagers of their own
+territory; and this untamed darkey fairly bristles with the evidence of
+his capacity as a destroyer.
+
+Everything about him is in a dilapidated condition; the leathern scabbard
+of his sword is split half way up, revealing a badly notched and rusted
+blade. An orang-outang, fresh from the jungles of Sumatra, could scarcely
+display less intelligence concerning human handicraft than he; he bubbles
+over with laughter at seeing anything upset or broken, growls sullenly at
+receiving uncongenial orders, calls on Allah, and roars threateningly at
+the stallion, all in the same breath. No wonder I ride ahead, feeling
+somewhat apprehensive; and yet the wheel looks snug and safe enough on
+top of the big pile of soft nummuds.
+
+The day's march is long and dreary, through a country of desert wastes
+and stony hills. The only human habitation seen is a small cluster of
+tents near some wells of water. The people seem overjoyed at the sight of
+travellers, and come running to the road with their kammerbunds full of
+little hard balls of sun-dried mast. We fill our pockets with these and
+nibble and chew them as we ride along. They are pleasantly sour,
+containing great thirst-quemhing properties, as well as being very
+nourishing.
+
+The sun goes down and dusk settles over our trail, and still the chief of
+the sowars and Kiftan Sahib lead the way. Many of the horses are pretty
+badly fagged, they have had nothing to eat all day and next to nothing to
+drink, and the party are straggling along the trail for a couple of miles
+back. At length lights are observed twinkling in the darkness ahead. Half
+an hour later we dismount in a nomad camp, and one after another the
+remainder of the party come straggling in, some of them leading their
+horses. Both men and animals are well-nigh overcome with fatigue.
+
+The shrill neighing of the ferocious and spirited black stallion is heard
+as he approaches and realizes that he is coming into camp; he is a
+glorious specimen of a horse, neither hunger nor thirst can curb his
+spirit. He is carrying far the heaviest load of the party, yet he comes
+into camp at ten o'clock, after hustling along over stones and sand since
+before daylight, without food or water; neighing loudly and ready to
+fight all the horses within reach. The chief of the sowars goes out to
+superintend the unloading of the black stallion; and soon I hear him
+addressing the negro in angry tones, supplementing his reproachful words
+with several resounding blows of his riding-whip. The wild darkey's
+disapproval of these proceedings finds expression in a roar of pain and
+fear that would do justice to a yearling bull being dragged into the
+shambles.
+
+The cause of this turmoil shortly turns up in the shape of my wheel, with
+no less than eleven spokes broken, and the rim considerably twisted out
+of shape. Kiftan Sahib surveys 'the damaged wheel a moment, draws his own
+rawhide from his kammerbund, and rises to his feet. With a hoarse cry of
+alarm the negro vanishes into the surrounding gloom; the next moment is
+heard his eager chuckling laugh, the spontaneous result of his lucky
+escape from Kiftan Sahib's vengeful rawhide. Kiftan Sahib keeps a
+desultory lookout for him all the evening, but the wary negro is more
+eagerly watchful than he, and during supper-time he hovers perpetually
+about the encircling wall of darkness, ready to vanish into its
+impenetrable depths at the first aggressive demonstration.
+
+The explanation of the negro is that the black horse laid down with his
+load. The wheel presents a well-nigh ruined appearance, and I retire to
+my couch in a most unenviable frame of mind; lying awake for hours,
+pondering over the probability of being able to fix it up again at Herat.
+
+One of our party of stragglers has failed to come in, and a couple of
+nomads start out about 2 a.m. to try and find him; but neither absentee
+nor searchers turn up at daybreak, and so we pull out without him.
+
+The wind blows raw and chilly from the north as we depart at early dawn,
+and the men muffle themselves up in whatever wraps they happen to have.
+Unwilling to trust the wheel further in the charge of the negro, I carry
+it myself, resting it on one stirrup, and securing it with a rope over my
+shoulder. It is a most awkward thing to carry on horseback; but, unhandy
+though it be, I regret not having so carried it the whole way from
+Subzowar.
+
+Our route leads through a dreary country, much the same character as
+yesterday, but we pass a pool of very good water about mid-day, and meet
+three men driving laden pack-horses from Herat. They are halted and
+questioned at great length concerning the contents of their packages,
+whither they are bound and whence they come; and their firearms are
+examined and commented upon. The members of our party appear to address
+them with a very domineering spirit, as though wantonly revelling in the
+sense of their own numerical superiority. On the other hand, the three
+honest travellers comport themselves with what looks like an altogether
+unnecessary amount of humility during the interview, and they seem very
+thankful and relieved when permitted to take their departure. The
+significance of all this, I imagine, is that my escort were sorely
+tempted to overhaul the effects of the weaker party, and see if they had
+any toothsome eatables from the bazaars of Herat; and the latter, justly
+apprehensive of these designs on their late purchases, consider
+themselves fortunate in escaping without being ruthlessly looted.
+
+Toward evening we pass a comparatively new cemetery on a knoll; no signs
+of human habitation are about, and Kiftan Sahib, in response to my
+inquiries, explains that it is the graveyard of a battle-field.
+
+Several times during the afternoon we lose the trail; we seem to be going
+across an almost trailless country, and more than once have to call a
+halt while men are sent to the summit of some neighboring hill to survey
+the surrounding country for landmarks.
+
+At dark we pitch our camp in a grassy hollow, where the horses are made
+happy with heaps of pulled bottom-grass. Neither trees nor houses are
+anywhere in sight; but the chief of the sowars and another man ride away
+over the hills, and late at night return with two men carrying bread and
+mast and fresh goat-milk enough to feed the whole hungry party.
+
+We make a leisurely start next morning, the reason of the dalliance being
+that we are but a few farsakhs from Herat. The country develops into
+undulating, grassy upland prairie, the greensward being thickly spangled
+with yellow flowers. A two flours' ride brings us to a camp of probably
+not less than one hundred tents. Large herds of camels are peacefully
+browsing over the prairie, numbers of them being females rejoicing in the
+possession of woolly youngsters, whose uncouth but tender proportions are
+swathed in old quilts and nummuds to protect them from the fierce rays of
+the sun.
+
+Sheep are being sheared and goats milked by men and boys; some of the
+women are baking bread, some are jerking skin churns, suspended on
+tripods, vigorously back and forth, and others are preparing balls of
+mast for drying in the sun. The whole camp presents a scene of
+picturesque animation.
+
+From the busy nomad camp, the trail seems to make a gradual ascent until,
+on the morning of April 30th, we arrive at the bluff-like termination of
+a rolling upland country, and behold! spread out below is the famous
+valley of Herat. Like a panorama suddenly opened up before me is the
+charmed stretch of country that has time and again created such a stir in
+the political and military circles of England and Russia, the famous
+"gate to India" about which the two greatest empires of the world have
+sometimes almost come to blows. Several populous villages are scattered
+about the valley within easy range of human vision; the Heri Rood, now
+bursting its natural boundaries under the stimulus of the spring floods,
+glistens broadly at intervals like a chain of small lakes. The fortress
+of Herat is dimly discernible in the distance beyond the river, probably
+about twenty miles from our position; it is rendered distinguishable from
+other masses of mud-brown habitations by a cluster of tall minarets,
+reminding one of a group of factory chimneys. The whole scene, as viewed
+from the commanding view of our ridge, embraces perhaps four hundred
+square miles of territory; about one-tenth of this appears to be under
+cultivation, the remainder being of the same stony, desert-like character
+as the average camel-thorn dasht.
+
+Doubtless a good share of this latter might be reclaimed and rendered
+productive by an extensive system of irrigating canals, but at present no
+incentive exists for enterprise of this character. In its present state
+of cultivation the valley provides an abundance of food for the
+consumption of its inhabitants, and as yet the demand for exportation is
+limited to the simple requirements of a few thousand tributary nomads.
+The orchards and green areas about the villages render the whole scene,
+as usual, beautiful in comparison with the surrounding barrenness, but
+that is all. Compared with our own green hills and smiling valleys, the
+Valley of Herat would scarcely seem worth all the noise that has been
+made about it. There has been a great amount of sentiment wasted in
+eulogizing its alleged beauty. Of its wealth and commercial importance in
+the abstract, I should say much exaggeration has been indulged in. Still,
+there is no gainsaying that it is a most valuable strategical position,
+which, if held by either England or Russia, would exercise great
+influence on Central Asian and Indian affairs. Such are my first
+impressions of the Herat Valley, and a sojourn of some ten days in one of
+its villages leaves my conjectures about the same.
+
+A few miles along a stony and gradually descending trail, and we are
+making our way across the usual chequered area of desert, patches,
+abandoned fields, and old irrigating ditches that so often tell the tale
+of decay and retrogression in the East. These outlying evidences of
+decay, however, soon merge into green fields of wheat and barley, poppy
+gardens, and orchards, and flowing ditches; and two hours after obtaining
+the first view of Herat finds us camped in a walled apricot garden in the
+important village of Rosebagh (?).
+
+Overtopping our camping ground are a pair of dilapidated brick minarets,
+attached to what Kiftan Sahib calls the Jami Mesjid, and which he
+furthermore volunteers was erected by Ghengis Khan. The minarets are of
+circular form, and one is broken off fifteen feet shorter than its
+neighbor. In the days of their glory they were mosaicked with blue, green
+and yellow glazed tiles; but nothing now remains but a few
+mournful-looking patches of blue, surviving the ravages of time and
+decay. Pigeons have from time to time deposited grains of barley on the
+dome, and finding sustenance from the gathered dirt and the falling
+rains, they have sprouted and grown, and dotted the grand old mosque with
+patches of green vegetation.
+
+One corner of the orchard is occupied by a stable, to the flat roof of
+which I betake myself shortly after our arrival to try and ascertain my
+bearings, and see something of the village. High walls rise up between
+the roofs of the houses and divide one garden from another, so that
+precious little opportunity exists for observation immediately around,
+and from here not even the tall minarets of Herat are visible.
+
+The adjacent houses are mostly bee-hive roofed, and within the little
+gardens attached the soil is evidently rich and productive. Pomegranate,
+almond, and apricot trees abound, and produce a charming contrast to the
+prevailing crenellated mud walls. A very conspicuous feature of the
+village is a cluster of some half-dozen venerable cedars.
+
+The stable roof provides sleeping accommodation for the chief of the
+sowars, Kiftan Sahib, and myself, the remainder of the party curl
+themselves up beneath the apricot-trees below. During the night one of
+the sowars, an old fellow whose morose and sulky disposition has had the
+effect of rendering him socially objectionable to his comrades on the
+march from Furrah, comes scrambling on the roof, and in loud tones of
+complaint addresses himself to Kiftan Sahib's peacefully snoozing
+proportions. His midnight eruption consists of some grievance against his
+fellows; perhaps some such wanton act of injustice as appropriating his
+blanket or stealing his "timbakoo" (tobacco).
+
+The only satisfaction he obtains from his superior takes the form of
+angry upbraidings for daring to disturb our slumbers; and, continuing his
+complaints, Kiftan. Sahib springs up from beneath his red blanket and
+administers several resounding cuffs.
+
+Having meted our this summary interpretation of Afghan petty justice,
+Kiftan Sahib resumes his blanket, and the old sowar comes and squats
+alongside my own rude couch, and endeavors to heal his wounded spirit by
+muttering appeals to Allah. His savage groanings render it impossible for
+me to go to sleep, and several times I motion him away; but he affects
+not to take any notice.
+
+Determined to drive him away, I rise up hastily as though about to attack
+him,--a piece of strategy that causes him to scramble off the roof
+far quicker than he climbed on. His fit of rage lasts through the night,
+finding vent in mutterings that are heard long after his hurried
+departure from my vicinity, and in the morning he is seen perched in a
+corner of the wall by himself, still angry and unappeased.
+
+The rising sun ushers in May-day with unmistakable indications of his
+growing powers, and when he glares fiercely over the walls of our little
+orchard retreat, we find it profitable to crouch in the shade. It is
+already evident that I am not to be permitted to enter Herat proper, or
+see or learn any more of my surroundings than my keepers can help.
+
+Letters are forwarded to the city immediately upon our arrival, and on
+the following morning an officer and several soldiers make their
+appearance, to receive me from Kiftan Sahib and duly receipt for my
+transfer. The officer announces himself as having once been to Bombay,
+and proceeds to question me in a mixture of Persian and Hindostani.
+
+Finding me ignorant of the latter language, he openly accuses me of being
+a Russian, raising his finger and wagging his head in a deprecatory
+manner. He is a simple-minded individual, however, and open to easy
+conviction, and moreover inclined to be amiable and courteous. He tells
+me that Faramorz Khan is "Wall of the soldiers" and Niab Alookimah Khan
+the "dowleh" (civil governor), and after listening to my explanation of
+being English and not Russian, he takes upon himself to deliver salaams
+from them both.
+
+"Merg Sahib," the political agent of the Boundary Commission, he says is
+at Murghab, and "Ridgeway Sahib" at Maimene. Learning that a courier is
+to be sent at once to them with letters in regard to myself, I quickly
+embrace the opportunity of sending a letter to each by the same
+messenger, explaining the situation, and asking Colonel Ridgeway to try
+and render me some assistance in getting through to India.
+
+By request of the officer I send the governor of Herat a sketch of the
+bicycle, to enlighten him somewhat concerning its character and
+appearance. No doubt, it would be a stretching of his Asiatic dignity as
+the governor of an important city, to come to Rosebagh on purpose to see
+it for himself, and on no circumstances can I, an unauthorized Ferenghi
+invading the country against orders, be permitted to visit Herat.
+
+The transfer having been duly made, I am conducted, a mile or so, to the
+garden of a gentleman named Mohammed Ahziin Khan, my quarters there being
+an open bungalow just large enough to stretch out in. Here is provided
+everything necessary for the rude personal comfort of the country, and
+such additional luxuries as raisins and pomegranates are at once brought.
+Here, also, I very promptly make the acquaintance of Moore's famous
+bul-buls, the "sweet nightingales" of Lalla Eookh. The garden is full of
+fruit-trees and grape-vines, and here several pairs of bul-buls make
+their home. They are great pets with the Afghans, and when Mohammed Ahzim
+Khan calls "bul-bul, bul-bul," they come and alight on the bushes close
+by the bungalow and perk their heads knowingly, evidently expecting to be
+favored with tid-bits. They are almost tame enough to take raisins out of
+the hand, and hesitate not to venture after them when placed close to our
+feet. It is the first time I have had the opportunity of a close
+examination of the bul-bul. They are almost the counterpart of the
+English starling as regards size and shape, but their bodies are of a
+mousey hue; the head and throat are black, with little white patches on
+either "cheek;" the tail feathers are black, tipped with white, and on
+the lower part of the body is a patch of yellow; the feathers of the head
+form a crest that almost rises to the dignity of a tassel.
+
+While the bul-bul is a companionable little fellow and possessed of a
+cheery voice, his warble in no respects resembles the charming singing of
+the nightingale, and why he should be mentioned in connection with the
+sweet midnight songster of the English woodlands is something of a
+mystery. His song is a mere "clickety click" repeated rapidly several
+times. His popularity comes chiefly from his boldness and his
+companionable associations with mankind. The bul-bul is as much of a
+favorite in the Herat Valley as is robin red-breast in rural England, or
+the bobolink in America.
+
+The second day in the garden is remembered as the anniversary of my start
+from Liverpool, and I have plenty of time for retrospection. It is
+unnecessary to say that the year has been crowded with strange
+experiences. Not the least strange of all, perhaps, is my present
+predicament as a prisoner in the Herat Valley.
+
+In the afternoon there arrives from Herat a Peshawari gentleman named
+Mirza Gholam Ahmed, who is stationed here in the capacity of native agent
+for the Indian government. He is an individual possessed of considerable
+Asiatic astuteness, and his particular mission is very plainly to
+discover for the governor of Herat whether I am English or Russian. He is
+a somewhat fleshy, well-favored person, and withal of prepossessing
+manners. He introduces himself by shaking hands and telling me his name,
+and forthwith indulges in a pinch of snuff preparatory to his task of
+interrogation. Accompanying him is the officer who received me from
+Kiftan Sahib in the apricot garden, and whose suspicions of my being a
+Russian spy are anything but allayed.
+
+During the interview he squats down on the threshold of the little
+bungalow, and concentrates his curiosity and suspicion into a protracted
+penetrating stare, focused steadily at my devoted countenance. Mohammed
+Ahzim Khan imitates him to perfection, except that his stare contains
+more curiosity and less suspicion.
+
+Mirza Gholam Ahmed proceeds upon his mission of fathoming the secret of
+my nationality with extreme wariness, as becomes an Oriental official
+engaged in a task of significant import, and at first confines himself to
+the use of Persian and Hindostani. It does not take me long, however, to
+satisfy the trustworthy old Peshawari that I am not a Muscov, and fifteen
+minutes after his preliminary pinch of snuff, he is unbosoming himself to
+me to the extent of letting me know that he served with General Pollock
+on the Seistan Boundary Commission, that he went with General Pollock to
+London, and moreover rejoices in the titular distinction of C. I. E.
+(Companion Indian Empire), bestowed upon him for long and faithful civil
+and political services. The C. I. E. he designates, with a pardonable
+smile of self-approval, as "backsheesh" given him, without solicitation,
+by the government of India; a circumstance that probably appeals to his
+Oriental conception as a most extraordinary feature in his favor.
+Bribery, favoritism, and personal influence enter so largely into the
+preferments and rewards of Oriental governments, that anything obtained
+on purely meritorious grounds may well be valued highly.
+
+He understands English sufficiently well to comprehend the meaning of my
+remarks and queries, and even knows a few words himself. From him I learn
+that I will not be permitted to visit Herat, and that I am to be kept
+under guard until Faramorz Khan's courier returns from the Boundary
+Commission Camp with Colonel Ridgeway's answer. He tells me that the fame
+of the bicycle has long ago been brought to Herat by pilgrims returning
+from Meshed, and the marvellous stories of my accomplishments are current
+in the bazaars. Fourteen farsakhs (fifty-six miles) an hour, and nothing
+said about the condition of the roads, is the average Herati's
+understanding of it; and many a grave, turbaned merchant in the bazaar,
+and wild warrior on the ramparts, indulges in day-dreams of an iron horse
+little less miraculous in its deeds than the winged steed of the air we
+read of in the Arabian Nights.
+
+The direct results of Mirza Gholam Ahmed's visit and favorable report to
+the Governor of Herat, are made manifest on the following day by the
+appearance of his companion of yesterday in charge of two attendants,
+bringing me boxes of sweetmeats, almonds, raisins, and salted nuts,
+together with a package of tea and a fifteen-pound cone of loaf-sugar;
+all backsheesh from the Governor of Herat. Mirza Gholam Ahmed himself
+contributes a cake of toilet soap, a few envelopes and sheets of paper,
+and Huntley & Palmer's Beading biscuits. Upon stumbling upon these latter
+acceptable articles, one naturally falls to wondering whether this
+world-famed firm of biscuit-makers suspect that their wares sometimes
+penetrate even inside the battlemented walls of Herat. With them come
+also three gunsmiths, charged with the duty of assisting in the
+reparation of the bicycle, badly damaged by the horse, it is remembered,
+on the way from Furrah.
+
+Their implements consist of a pair of peculiar goat-skin bellows,
+provided with wooden nozzles tipped with iron. A catgut bowstring drills
+for boring holes, and screw-drills for cutting threads, hammers, and an
+anvil. A rude but ingenious forge is constructed out of a few handfuls of
+stiff mud, and, building a charcoal fire, they spend the evening in
+sharpening and tempering drills for tomorrow's operations.
+
+Everybody seems more attentive and anxious to contribute to my pleasure,
+the result, evidently, of orders from Herat. The officer, who but two
+days ago openly accused me of being a Russian, is to-day obsequious
+beyond measure, and his efforts to atone for Ma openly assured suspicions
+are really quite painful and embarrassing; even going the length of
+begging me to take him with me to London. The supper provided to-day
+consists of more courses and is better cooked and better served; Mohammed
+Ahzim Khan himself squats before me, diligently engaged in picking hairs
+out of the butter, pointing out what he considers the choicest morsels,
+and otherwise betrays great anxiety to do the agreeable.
+
+The whole of the fifth and sixth days are consumed in the task of
+repairing the damages to the bicycle, the result being highly
+satisfactory, considering everything. Six new spokes that I have with me
+have been inserted, and sundry others stretched and the ends newly
+threaded. The gunsmiths are quite expert workmen, considering the tools
+they have to work with, and when they happen to drill a hole a trifle
+crooked, they are full of apologies, and remind me that this is
+Afghanistan and not Frangistan. They know and appreciate good material
+when they see it, and during the process of heating and stretching the
+spokes, loud and profuse are the praises bestowed upon the quality of the
+iron. "Koob awhan," they say, "Khylie koob awhan; Ferenghi awhan koob."
+As artisans, interested in mechanical affairs, the ball-bearings of the
+pedals, one of which I take apart to show them, excites their profound
+admiration as evidence of the marvellous skill of the Ferenghis. Much
+careful work is required to spring the rim of the wheel back into a true
+circle, every spoke having to be loosened and the whole wheel newly
+adjusted. Except for the handy little spoke-vice which I very fortunately
+brought with me, this work of adjustment would have been impossible. As
+there is probably nothing obtainable in Herat that would have answered
+the purpose, no alternative would have been left but to have carried the
+bicycle out of the country on horseback. After the coterie of gunsmiths
+have exhausted their ingenuity and my own resources have been expended,
+three spokes are missing entirely, two others are stretched and weakened,
+and of the six new ones some are forced into holes partially spoiled in
+the unskillful boring out of broken ends. Yet, with all these defects, so
+thoroughly has it stood the severest tests of the roads, that I apprehend
+little or no trouble about breakages.
+
+Day after day passes wearily along; wearily, notwithstanding the kindly
+efforts of my guardians to make things pleasant and comfortable. From an
+Asiatic's standpoint, nothing could be more desirable than my present
+circumstances; with nothing to do but lay around and be waited on,
+generous meals three times daily, sweetmeats to nibble and tea to drink
+the whole livelong day; conscious of requiring rest and generous diet--all
+this, however, is anything but satisfactory in view of the reflection
+that the fine spring weather is rapidly passing away, and that every day
+ought to see me forty or fifty miles nearer the Pacific Coast.
+
+Time hangs heavily in the absence of occupation, and I endeavor to
+relieve the tedium of slowly creeping time by cultivating the friendship
+of our new-found acquaintances, the bul-buls. My bountiful supply of
+raisins provides the elements of a genuine bond of sympathy between us,
+and places us on the most friendly terms imaginable from the beginning.
+During the day my bungalow is infested with swarms of huge robber ants,
+that make a most determined onslaught on the raisins and sweetmeats,
+invading the boxes and lugging them off to their haunts among the
+grape-vines. A favorite occupation of the bul-buls is sitting on a twig
+just outside the bungalow and watching for the appearance of these ants
+dragging away raisins. The bul-bul hops to the ground, seizes the raisin,
+shakes the ant loose, flies back up in his tree, and swallows the
+captured raisin, and immediately perks his head in search of another
+prize.
+
+Among other ideas intended to contribute to my enjoyment, a loud-voiced
+pee-wit imprisoned in a crape cage is brought and hung up outside the
+bungalow. At intervals that seem almost as regular as the striking of a
+clock, this interesting pet stretches itself up at full length and gives
+utterance to a succession of rasping cries, strangely loud for so small a
+creature. A horse is likewise brought into the garden, for the pleasure
+it will presumably afford me to watch it munch bunches of pulled grass,
+and switch horseflies away with his tail. The horse is tied up about
+twenty yards from my quarters, but in his laudable zeal to cater to my
+amusement Mohammed Ahzim Khan volunteers to station it close by if more
+agreeable.
+
+All these trifling occurrences serve to illustrate the Asiatic's idea of
+personal enjoyment.
+
+Every day a subordinate called Abdur Rahman Khan rides into Herat to
+report to the Governor, and Mohammed Ahzim Khan himself keeps watch and
+ward over my person with faithful vigil. Sometimes I wander about the
+little garden for exercise, and either he or one of his assistants
+follows close behind, faithful in their attendance as a shadow.
+Occasionally I grow careless and indifferent about possible danger, and
+leave my revolver hanging up in the bungalow; noticing its absence, he
+bids me buckle it around me, saying warningly, "Afghanistan;
+Afghanistan;" he also watches me retire at night to make sure that I put
+it under my pillow.
+
+One day, a visitor appears upon the scene, carrying a walking-cane.
+Mohammed Ahzim Khan pounces upon him instantly and I grabbing the stick,
+examines it closely, evidently suspicious lest it should be a
+sword-stick. He is the most persistent "gazer" I have yet met in Asia;
+hour after hour he squats on his hams at my feet and stares intently into
+my face, as though trying hard to read my inmost thoughts. Oriental-like,
+he is fascinated by the mystery of my appearance here, and there is no
+such thing as shaking off his silent, wondering gaze for a minute. He is
+on hand promptly in the morning to watch my rude matinual toilet, and he
+always watches me retire for the night. Even when I betake myself to a
+retired part of the garden in the dusk of evening to take a sluice-bath
+with a bucket of water, his white-robed figure is always loitering near.
+
+Four men are stationed about my bungalow at night; their respective
+armaments vary from a Martini-Henry rifle attached to a picturesque
+Asiatic stock, owned by Abdur Rahman Khan, to an immense knobbed cudgel
+wielded by a titleless youth named Osman.
+
+Osman's sole wardrobe consists of a coarse night-shirt style of garment,
+that in the early part of its career was probably white, but which is now
+neither white nor equal to the task of protecting him from the
+penetrating rays of the summer sun. His occupation appears to be that of
+all-round utility man for whomsoever cares to order him about. Osman has
+to bring water and pour it on my hands whenever I want to wash, hie him
+away to the bazaar to search for dates or anything my epicurean taste
+demands in addition to what is provided, feed the horse, change the
+position of the pee-wit to keep it in the shade, sweep out my bungalow,
+and perform all sorts of menial offices. Every noble loafer about my
+person seems anxious to have Osman continually employed in contributing
+to my comfort; Mohammed Ahzim Khan even deprecates the independence
+displayed in lacing up my own shoes. "Osman," he says, "let Osman do it."
+
+Osman's chief characteristic is a reckless disregard for the
+conventionalities of social life and religion; he never seems to bother
+himself about either washing his person or saying his prayers. Somewhere,
+not far away, every evening the faithful are summoned to prayer by a
+muezzin with the most musical and pathetic voice I have heard in all
+Islam. The voice of this muezzin calling "Allah-il-A-l-l-a-h," as it
+comes floating over the houses and gardens in the calm silence of the
+summer evenings, is wonderfully impressive. From the pulpits of all
+Christendom I have yet to hear an utterance so full of pathos and
+supplication, or that carries with it the impressions of such deep
+sincerity as the "Allah-il-A-l-l-a-h" of this Afghan muezzin in the Herat
+Valley. It is a supplication to the throne of grace that rings in my ears
+even as I write, months after, and it touches the hearts of every Afghan
+within hearing and taps the fountain of their piety like magic. It calls
+forth responsive prayers and pious sighings from everybody around my
+bungalow--everybody except Osman. Osman can scarcely be called
+imperturbable, for he has his daily and hourly moods, and is of varying
+temper; but he carries himself always as though conscious of being an
+outcast, whom nothing can either elevate or defile. When his fellow
+Mussulmans are piously prostrating themselves and uttering religious
+sighs sincere as fanaticism can make them, Osman is either curled up
+beneath a pomegranate bush asleep, feeding the horse, or attending to the
+pee-wit.
+
+Observing this, I often wonder whether he is considered, or considers
+himself, too small a potato in this world to hope for any attention from
+the Prophet in the next. The paradise of the Mohammedans, its shady
+groves, marble fountains, walled gardens, and cool retreats, its kara
+ghuz kiz and wealth of material pleasures, no doubt seem to poor Osman,
+with his one tattered garment and unhappy servility, far beyond the
+aspirations of such as he. Like the gutter-snipe of London or New York
+who gazes into the brilliant shop windows, he feels privileged to feast
+his imagination, perchance, but that is all.
+
+Big bouquets of roses are gathered for me every morning, and when the
+store in our own little garden is exhausted they are procured from
+somewhere else. The efforts of those about me to render my forced
+detention as pleasant as possible is very gratifying, and all the time I
+am buoyed up by the hope that the Boundary Commissioners will be able to
+do something to help me get through to India.
+
+The Boundary Commission camp is stationed over two hundred miles from
+Herat; eight days roll wearily by and my movements are still carefully
+confined to the little garden, and my person attended by guards day and
+night. Every day I amuse myself with giving raisins to the robber ants,
+for the sake of seeing the ever-watchful bul-buls pounce upon them and
+rob them. Morning and evening the imprisoned pee-wit awakens the echoes
+with his ratchetty call, and every sunset is commemorated by the
+sincerely plaintive utterances of the muezzin mentioned above.
+
+Thus the days of my detention pass away, until the ninth day after my
+arrival here. On the evening of May 8th, the officer who first
+interviewed me in the apricot orchard comes to my bungalow, and brings
+salaams from Faramorz Khan. He and Mohammed Ahzim Khan, after a brief
+discussion between themselves, commence telling me, in the same
+roundabout manner as the blue-gowned Khan at Furrah, that the Ameer at
+Cabool has no control over the fanatical nomads of Zemindavar. Mohammed
+Ahzim Khan draws his finger across his throat, and the officer repeats
+"Afghan badmash, badmash, b-a-d-m-a-s-h." (desperado).
+
+This parrot-like repetition is uttered in accents so pleaful, and is,
+withal, accompanied by such a searching stare into my face, that its
+comicality for the minute overcomes any sense of disappointment at the
+fall of my hopes. For my experience at Furrah teaches me that this is
+really the object of their visit.
+
+Another ingenious argument of these polite and, after a certain childish
+fashion, astute Asiatics, is a direct appeal to my magnaminity. "We know
+you are brave, and to accomplish your object would even allow the
+Ghilzais to cut your throat; but the Wali begs you to sacrifice yourself
+for the reputation of his country, by keeping out of danger," they plead.
+"If you get killed, Afghanistan will get a bad name."
+
+They are in dead earnest about converting me by argument and pleadings to
+their view of the case. I point out that, so far as the reputation of
+Afghanistan is concerned, there can be little difference between
+forbidding travellers to go through for fear of their getting murdered,
+and their actual killing. I remind them, too, that I am a "nokshi," and
+can let the people of Frangistan understand this if I am turned back.
+
+These arguments, of course, avail me nothing; the upshot of instructions
+received from the Boundary Commission camp, is that I am to be conducted
+at once back into Persia.
+
+Horses have to be shod, and all sorts of preparations made next morning,
+and it is near about noon before we are ready to start. Our destination
+is the Persian frontier village of Karize, about one hundred miles to the
+west. Everything is finally ready; when it transpires that Mohammed Ahzim
+Khan's orders are to put me on a horse and carry the bicycle on another.
+This programme I utterly refuse to sanction, knowing only too well what
+the result is likely to be to the bicycle. In defence of the arrangement,
+Mohammed Ahzim Khan argues that, as the bicycle goes fourteen farsakhs an
+hour, the horses will not be able to keep up; and strict orders are
+issued from Herat that I am not to separate myself from my escort while
+on Afghan territory.
+
+Off posts Abdur Kahman Khan, hot haste to Herat, to report the difficulty
+to the Governor, while we return to the garden. It being too late in the
+day when he returns, our departure is postponed till morning, and Osman,
+with his knobbed stick, performs the office of nocturnal guard yet once
+again.
+
+During the evening Mohammed Ahzim Khan unearths from somewhere a couple
+of photographs of English ladies. These, he tells me, came into his
+possession from one of Ayoob Khan's fugitive warriors after their
+dispersion in the Herat Valley, on their flight before General Roberts'
+command at Kandahar. They were among the effects gathered up by Ayoob
+Khan's plundering crew from the disastrous field of Maiwand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+TAKEN BACK TO PERSIA.
+
+The Governor of Herat sends "khylie salaams" and permission for me to
+ride the bicycle, stipulating that I keep near the escort. So, with many
+an injunction to me about dasht-adam, kooh, dagh, etc., by way of warning
+me against venturing too far ahead, we bid farewell to the garden, with
+its strange associations, in the early morning. Beside Mohammed Ahzim
+Khan and myself are three sowars, mounted on splendid horses.
+
+The morning is bright and cheerful, and shortly after starting the animal
+spirits of the sowars find vent in song. I have been laboring under the
+impression that, for soul-harrowing vocal effort, the wild-eyed sowars of
+Khorassan, as exemplified in my escort from Beerjand, were entitled to
+the worst execrations of a discriminating Ferenghi, but the Afghans can
+go them one better. If it is possible to imagine anything in the whole
+world of sound more jarring and discordant than the united efforts of
+these Afghan sowars, I have never yet discovered it. Out of pure
+consideration and courtesy, I endure it for some little time; but they
+finally reach a high-searching key that is positively unendurable, and I
+am compelled in sheer self-protection to beg the khan to suppress their
+exuberance. "These men are not bul-buls; then why do they sing?" is all
+that is necessary for me to say. They all laugh heartily at the remark,
+and the khan orders them to sing no more. Over a country that consists
+chiefly of trailless hills and intervening strips of desert, we wend our
+weary way, the bicycle often proving more of a drag than a benefit. The
+weather gets insufferably hot; in places the rocks fairly shimmer with
+heat, and are so hot that one can scarce hold the hand to them. We camp
+for the first night at a village, and on the second at an umbar that
+suggests our approach to Persia, and in the morning we make an early
+start with the object of reaching Karize before evening.
+
+The day grows warm apace, and, at ten miles, the khan calls a halt for
+the discussion of what simple refreshments we have with us. Our larder
+embraces dry bread and cold goat-meat and a few handfuls of raisins. It
+ought also to include water in the leathern bottle swinging from the
+stirrup of one of the sowars; but when we halt, it is to discover that
+this worthy has forgotten to fill his bottle. The way has been heavy for
+a bicycle, trundling wearily through sand mainly, with no riding to speak
+of; and young as is the day, I am well-nigh overcome with thirst and
+weariness. I am too thirsty to eat, and, miserably tired and disgusted,
+one gets an instructive lesson in the control of the mind over the body.
+Much of my fatigue comes of low spirits, born of disappointment at being
+conducted back into Persia.
+
+One of the sowars is despatched ahead to fill his bottle with water at a
+well known to be some five miles farther ahead, and to meet us with it on
+the way. On through the sand and heat we plod wearily, myself almost sick
+with thirst, fatigue, and disgust. Mohammed Ahzim Khan, observing my
+wretched condition, insists upon me letting one of the sowars try his
+hand at trundling the wheel, while I rest myself by riding his horse.
+Both the sowars bravely try their best to relieve me, but they cut
+ridiculous figures, toppling over every little while. At length one of
+them upsets the bicycle into a little gully, and falling on it, snaps
+asunder two spokes. The khan gives him a good tongue-lashing for his
+carelessness; but one can hardly blame the fellow, and I take it under my
+own protection again, before it goes farther and fares worse.
+
+About 2 p.m. the sowar sent forward meets us with water; but it is almost
+undrinkable. Far better luck awaits us, however, farther along. Sighting
+an Eimuck camel-rider in the distance, one of the sowars gives chase and
+halts him until we can come up. Slung across his camel he has a skin of
+doke, the most welcome thing one can wish for under the circumstances.
+Everybody helps himself liberally of the refreshing beverage, shrinking
+the Eimuck's supply very perceptibly. The Eimuck joins heartily with our
+party in laughing at the altered contour of the pliant skin, as pointed
+out jocularly by Mohammed Ahzim Khan, bids us "salaam aleykum," and
+pursues his way across country.
+
+During the afternoon we cross several well-worn trails; though evidently
+but little used of late, they have seen much travel. My escort explains
+that they are daman trails, in other words the trails worn by Turkoman
+raiders passing back and forth on their man-stealing expeditions, before
+their subjugation by the Russians.
+
+By and by we emerge from a belt of low hills, and descend into a broad,
+level plain. A few miles off to the right can be seen the Heri Rood, its
+sinuous course plainly outlined by a dark fringe of jungle. Some miles
+ahead the village-fortress of Kafir Kaleh is visible. A horseman comes
+galloping across the plain to intercept us. Mohammed Ahzim Khan produces
+his written orders concerning my delivery at Karize and reads it to the
+new arrival. Thereupon ensues a long explanation, which ends in, our
+turning about and following the new-comer across the trailless plain
+toward the Heri Rood.
+
+"What's up now?" I wonder; but the only intelligible reply I get in reply
+to queries is that we are going to camp in the jungle. Misgivings as to
+possible foul play mingle with speculations regarding this person's
+mission, as I follow in the wake of the Afghans.
+
+We camp on a plot of rising ground that elevates us above the overflow,
+and shortly after our arrival we are visited by a band of nomads who are
+hunting through the jungle with greyhounds, Mohammed Ahzim Khan informs
+me that both baabs, and palangs (panthers) are to be found along the
+Heri Rood.
+
+Luxuriant beds of the green stuff known in the United States as
+lamb's-quarter, abound, and I put one of the sowars to gathering some
+with the idea of cooking it for supper. None of our party know anything
+about its being good to eat, and Mohammed Ahzim Khan shakes his head
+vigorously in token of disapproval. A nomad visitor, however,
+corroborates my statement about its edibleness, and fills our chief with
+wonderment that I should know something in common with an Afghan nomad,
+that he, a resident of the country, knows nothing about. By way of
+stimulating his wonderment still further, I proceed to call off the names
+of the various nomad tribes inhabiting Afghanistan, together with their
+locations.
+
+"Where did you learn all this." he queries, evidently suspicious that I
+have been picking up altogether too much information.
+
+"London," I reply.
+
+"London!" he says; "Mashallah! they know everything at London."
+
+The horseman who intercepted us rode away when we camped for the night.
+Nothing more was seen of him, and at a late hour I turn in for the night
+--if one can be said to turn in, when the process takes the form of
+stretching one's self out on the open ground. No explanation of our
+detention here has been given me during the evening, and as I lay down to
+sleep all sorts of speculations are indulged in, varying from having my
+throat cut before morning, to a reconsideration by the authorities of the
+orders sending me back to Persia.
+
+Some time in the night I am awakened. A strange horseman has arrived in
+camp with a letter for me. He wears the uniform of a military courier.
+The sowars make a blaze of brushwood for me to read by. It is a letter
+from Mr. Merk, the political agent of the Boundary Commission. It is a
+long letter, full of considerate language, but no instructions affecting
+the orders of my escort. Mr. Merk explains why Mahmoud Yusuph Khan could
+not take the responsibility of allowing me to proceed to Kandahar. The
+population of Zemindavar, he points out, are particularly fanatical and
+turbulent, and I should very probably have been murdered; etc.
+
+The march toward Karize is resumed in good season in the morning. "What
+was that? a cuckoo?" At first I can scarcely believe my own senses, the
+idea of cuckoos calling in the jungles of Afghanistan being about the
+last thing I should have expected to hear, never having read of
+travellers hearing them anywhere in Central Asia, nor yet having heard
+them myself before. But there is no mistake; for ere we pass Kafir Kaleh,
+I hear the familiar notes again and again.
+
+The road is a decided improvement over anything we have struck since
+leaving Herat, and by noon we arrive at Karize. For some inexplicable
+reason the Sooltan of Karize receives our party with very ill grace. He
+looks sick, and is probably suffering from fever, which may account for
+the evident sourness of his disposition.
+
+Mohammed Ahzim Khan is anything but pleased at our reception, and as soon
+as he receives the receipt for my delivery makes his preparations to
+return. I don't think the Sooltan even tendered my escort a feed of grain
+for their horses, a piece of inhospitality wholly out of place in this
+wild country.
+
+As for myself, he simply orders a villager to supply me with food and
+quarters, and charge me for it. Mohammed Ahzim Khan comes to my quarters
+to bid me good-by, and he takes the opportunity to explain "this is Iran,
+not Afghanistan. Iran, pool; Afghanistan, pool neis." There is no need of
+explanation, however; the people rubbing their fingers eagerly together
+and crying, "pool, pool," when I ask for something to eat, tells me
+plainer than any explanations that I am back again among our pool-loving
+friends, the subjects of the Shah. As I bid Mohammed Ahzim Khan farewell,
+I feel almost like parting--from a friend; he is a good fellow, and
+with nine-tenths of his inquisitiveness suppressed, would make a very
+agreeable companion.
+
+And so, here I am within a hundred and sixty miles of Meshed again. More
+than a month has flown past since I last looked back upon its golden
+dome; it has been an eventful month. My experiences have been exceptional
+and instructive, but I ought now to be enjoying the comforts of the
+English camp at Quetta, instead of halting overnight in the mud huts of
+the surly Sooltan of Karize.
+
+The female portion of Karize society make no pretence of covering up
+their faces, which impresses me the more as I have seen precious little
+of female faces since entering Afghanistan. All the women of Karize are
+ugly; a fact that I attribute to the handsomest specimens being carried
+off to Bokhara, for decades past, by the Turkomans. The people that
+assemble to gaze upon me are the same sore-eyed crowd that characterizes
+most Persian villages; and among them is one man totally blind. The loss
+of sight has not dimmed his inquisitiveness any, however; nothing could
+do that, and he gets someone to lead him into my room, where he makes an
+exhaustive examination of the bicycle with his hands.
+
+A village luti entertains me during the evening with a dancing deer; a
+comical affair of wood, made to dance on a table by jerking a string. The
+luti plays a sort of "whangadoodle" tune on a guitar, and manipulates the
+string so as to make the deer keep time to the tune. He tells me he
+obtained it from Hindostan.
+
+Among the wiseacres gathered around me plying questions, is one who asks,
+"Chand menzils inja to London?" He wants to know how many marches, or
+stopping-places, there are between Karize and London. This is a fair
+illustration of what these people think the world is like. His idea of a
+journey from here to London is that of stages across a desert country
+like Persia from one caravanserai to another; beyond that conception
+these people know nothing. London, they think, would be some such place
+as Herat or Meshed.
+
+At the hour of my departure from Karize, on the following morning, a
+little old man presents himself, and wants me to employ him as an escort.
+The old fellow is a shrivelled-up little bit of a man, whom I could
+well-nigh hold out at arm's length and lift up with one hand. Not feeling
+the need of either guide or guard particularly, I decline the old
+fellow's services "with thanks," and push on; happy, in fact, to find
+myself once more untrammelled by native company.
+
+Small towers of refuge, dotting the plain thickly about Karize, tell of
+past depredations by the Turkomans. An outlying village like Karize must,
+indeed, have had a hard struggle for existence; right in the heart of the
+daman country, too. For miles the plain is found to be grassy as the
+Western prairies; an innovation from the dreary gray of the camel-thorn
+dasht that is quite refreshing. A stream or two has to be forded, and
+many Afghans are met returning from pilgrimage to Meshed.
+
+The village of Torbet-i-Sheikh Jahm is reached at noon, a pleasant town
+containing many shade-trees. Here, I find, resides Ab-durrahzaak Khan, a
+sub-agent of Mirza Abbas Khan, and consequently a servant of the Indian
+Government. He is one of the frontier agents, whose duty it is to keep
+track of events in a certain section of country and report periodically
+to headquarters. He, of course, receives me hospitably, does the
+agreeable with tea and kalians, and provides substantial refreshments.
+The soothing Shi-razi tobacco provided with his kalians, and the
+excellent quality of his tea, provoke me to make comparison between them
+and the wretched productions of Afghanistan. Abdurrahzaak laughs
+good-humoredly at my remark, and replies, "Mashallah! there is nothing
+good in Afghanistan." He isn't far from right; and the English officer
+who named the products of Afghanistan as "stones and fighting men" came
+equally near the truth.
+
+Fair roads prevail for some distance after leaving Torbet-i-Sheikh Jahm;
+a halt is made at an Eliaute camp to refresh myself with a bowl of doke.
+A picturesque dervish emerges from one of the tents and presents his
+alms-receiver, with "huk yah huk." Both man and voice seem familiar, and
+after a moment I recognize him as a familiar figure upon the streets of
+Teheran last winter. He says he is going to Cabool and Kandahar. A unique
+feature of his makeup is a staff with a bayonet fixed on the end, in
+place of the usual club or battle-axe.
+
+The night is spent in an Eliaute camp; nummuds seem scarce articles with
+them, and I spend a cold and uncomfortable night, scarcely sleeping a
+wink. The camp is not far from the village of Mahmoudabad, and a rowdy
+gang of ryots come over to camp in the middle of the night, having heard
+of my arrival.
+
+From Mahmoudabad the road follows up a narrow valley with a range of
+hills running parallel on either hand. The southern range are quite
+respectable mountains, with lingering patches of snow, and--can it
+be possible!--even a few scattering pines. Pines, and, for that
+matter, trees of any kind, are so scarce in this country that one can
+hardly believe the evidence of his own eyes when he sees them.
+
+On past the village of Karizeno my road leads, passing through a hard,
+gravelly country, the surface generally affording fair riding except for
+a narrow belt of sand-hills. At Karizeno, a glimpse is obtained of our
+old acquaintances the Elburz Mountains, near Shah-riffabad. They are
+observed to be somewhat snow-crowned still, though to a measurably less
+extent than they were when we last viewed them on the road to Torbeti.
+
+The approach of evening brings my day's ride to a close at Furriman, a
+village of considerable size, partially protected by a wall and moat,
+Stared at by the assembled population, and enduring their eager gabble
+all the evening, and then a nummud on the roof of a villager's house till
+morning. The night is cold, and sleeplessness, with shivering body, again
+rewards me for a long, hard day's journey. But now it is but about six
+farsakhs to Meshed, where, "Inshallah," a good bed and all kindred
+comforts await me beneath Mr. Gray's hospitable roof. Ere the forenoon is
+passed the familiar gold dome once again appears as a glowing yellow
+beacon, beckoning me across the Meshed plain.
+
+A camel runs away and unseats his rider in deference to his timidity at
+my strange appearance as I bowl briskly across the Meshed plain at noon.
+By one o'clock I am circling around the moat of the city, and by two am
+snugly ensconced in my old quarters, relating the adventures of the last
+five weeks to Gray, and receiving from him in exchange the latest scraps
+of European news. I have made the one hundred and sixty miles from Karize
+in two days and a half--not a bad showing with a bicycle that has
+been tinkered up by Herati gunsmiths.
+
+Among other interesting items of news, it is learned that a hopeful
+Meshedi blacksmith has been inspired to try his "prentice hand" at making
+a bicycle. One would like to have seen that bicycle, but somehow I didn't
+get an opportunity. Friendly telegrams reach me from Teheran, and also
+another order from the British Legation, instructing me not to attempt
+Afghanistan again.
+
+Since my departure from Meshed, southward bound, another wandering
+correspondent has invaded the Holy City. Mr. E------, "special" of a
+great London daily paper, whom I had the pleasure of meeting once or
+twice in Teheran, has come eastward in an effort to enter Afghanistan.
+He has been halted by peremptory orders at Meshed. Disgusted with his
+ill-luck at not being permitted to carry out his plans, he is on the eve
+of returning to Constantinople. As I am heading for the same point
+myself, we arrange to travel there in company. Being somewhat under the
+weather from a recent attack of fever, he has contracted for a Russian
+fourgon to carry him as far as Shahrood, the farthest point on our route
+to which vehicular conveyance is practicable. Our purpose is to reach the
+Caspian port of Bunder Guz, thence embark on a Russian steamer to Baku,
+over the Caucasus Railway to Batoum, thence by Black Sea steamer to
+Constantinople.
+
+On the afternoon of May 18th, R------makes a start with
+the fourgon. It is a custom (unalterable as the laws of, etc.) with all
+Persians starting on a journey of any length to go a short distance only
+for the first stage. The object of this is probably to find out by actual
+experience on the road whether anything has been forgotten or overlooked,
+before they get too far away to return and rectify the mistake.
+Semi-civilized peoples are wedded very strongly to the customs in vogue
+among them, and the European traveller finds himself compelled, more or
+less, to submit to them. My intention is to overtake the fourgon the
+following day at Shahriffabad.
+
+Accordingly, soon after sunrise on the morrow, the road around the outer
+moat of Meshed is circled once again. A middle-aged descendant of the
+Prophet, riding a graceful dapple-gray mare, spurs his steed into a
+swinging gallop for about five miles across the level plain in an effort
+to bear me company. Three miles farther, and for miles over the steep and
+unridable gradients of the Shah-riffabad hills, I may anticipate the
+delights of having his horse's nose at my shoulder, and my heels in
+constant jeopardy. To avoid this, I spurt ahead, and ere long have the
+satisfaction of seeing him give it up.
+
+In the foothills I encounter, for the first time, one of those
+characteristics of Mohammedan countries, and more especially of Persia, a
+caravan of the dead. Thousands of bodies are carried every year, on
+horseback or on camels, from various parts of Persia, to be buried in
+holy ground at Meshed, Kerbella, or Mecca. The corpses are bound about
+with canvas, and slung, like bales of merchandise, one on either side of
+the horse. The stench from one of these corpse-caravans is something
+fearful, nothing more nor less than the horrible stench of putrid human
+bodies. And yet the drivers seem to mind it very little indeed. One stout
+horse in the party I meet this morning carries two corpses; and in the
+saddle between them rides a woman. "Mashallah." perchance those very
+bodies, between which she sits perched so indifferently, are the remains
+of small-pox victims. But, what cares the woman?--is she not a
+Mohammedan, and a female one at that?--and does she not believe in
+kismet. What cares she for Ferenghi "sanitary fads?"--if it is her
+kismet to take the small-pox, she will take it; if it is her kismet not
+to, she won't. One would think, however, that common sense and common
+prudence would instruct these people to imitate the excellent example of
+the Chinese, in taking measures to dispose of the flesh before
+transporting the bones to distant burial-places. Many of the epidemics of
+disease that decimate the populations of Eastern countries, and sometimes
+travel into the West, originate from these abominable caravans of the
+dead and kindred irrationalities of the illogical and childlike Oriental.
+
+As the golden dome of Imam Riza's sanctuary glimmers upon my retreating
+figure yet a fourth time as I reach the summit of the hill whence we
+first beheld it, I breathe a silent hope that I may never set eyes on it
+again. The fourgon is overtaken, as agreed upon, at Shahriffabad, and
+after an hour's halt we conclude to continue on to the caravanserai,
+where, it will be remembered, my friend the hadji and Mazanderan dervish
+and myself found shelter from the blizzard.
+
+B___'s Turkish servant, Abdul, a handy fellow, speaking three or four
+languages, and numbering, among other accomplishments, the knack of
+always having on hand plenty of cold chicken and mutton, is a vast
+improvement upon obtaining food direct from the villagers. Resting here
+till 2 a.m., we make a moonlight march to Gadamgah, arriving there for
+breakfast. The trail is a revelation of smoothness, in comparison to my
+expectations, based upon its condition a few weeks ago. The moon is about
+full, and gives a light as it only does in Persia, and one can see to
+ride the parallel camel-paths very successfully.
+
+Persians are very much given to night-travelling, and as I ride well
+ahead of the fourgon, the strange, weird object, gliding noiselessly
+along through the moonlight, fills many a superstitious pilgrim with
+misgivings that he has caught a glimpse of Sheitan. I can hear them
+rapidly muttering "Allah." as they edge off the road and hurry along on
+their way.
+
+Many Arabs from the Lower Euphrates valley are now mingled with the
+pilgrim throngs en route to Meshed. They are evil-looking customers,
+black as negroes almost; they look capable of any atrocity under the sun.
+These Arab pilgrims are hadjis almost to a man, coming, as they do, from
+much nearer Mecca than the Persians; but their holiness does not prevent
+them bearing the unenviable reputation of being the most persistent
+thieves. Abdul knows them well, and when any of them are about, keeps a
+sharp lookout to see that none of them approach our things.
+
+On the following evening, at a caravanserai near Nishapoor, we meet and
+spend the night with a French scientific party of three sent out by the
+Paris Geographical Society to make geographical and geological researches
+in Turkestan. The three Frenchmen are excellent company; they entertain
+us with European news, their views on the political aspect, and of
+incidents on their fourgon journey from Tiflis. Among their charvadars is
+a man who saw me last autumn at Ovahjik.
+
+Much good riding surface prevails, and we pass the night of the 21st at
+Lafaram. The crowds that everywhere gather about us are very annoying to
+K------, whose fever and consequent weakness is hardly calculated to
+sweeten his temper under trying circumstances. A whole swarm of women
+gather to stare at us at Lafaram. "I'll soon scatter them, anyway," says
+R------; and he reaches for a pair of binoculars hanging up in the
+fourgon. Adjusting them to his eyes, he levels them at the bunch of
+females, expecting to see them scatter like a flock of partridges.
+Scattering is evidently about the last thing the women are thinking of
+doing, however; they merely turn their attention to the binoculars and
+concentrate their comments upon them instead of on other of our effects,
+for the moment, but that is all.
+
+In the vicinity of Subzowar we find the people engaged in harvesting the
+crop of opium. The way they do it is to go through the fields of poppy
+every morning and scarify the green heads with a knife-blade notched for
+the purpose, like a saw. During the day the milky juice oozes out and
+solidifies. In the evening the harvesters pass through the fields again,
+scrape off the exuded opium, and collect it in vessels. This, after the
+watery substance has been worked out with frequent kneadings and drying,
+is the opium of commerce. The chief opium emporium of Persia is Shiraz,
+where buyers ship it by camel-caravan to Bushire for export. Persian
+opium commands the topmost prices in foreign markets.
+
+Here every idler about the villages seems to be amusing himself by
+working a ball of opium about in his hands, much as a boy delights in
+handling a chunk of putty. Lumps as large as the fist are freely offered
+me by friendly people, as they would hand one a piece of bread or a
+pomegranate; I might collect pounds of the stuff by simply taking what is
+offered me without the asking.
+
+In the caravanserai at Miandasht, Abdul's failure to appreciate our
+whilom and egotistical friend, the la-de-da telegraph-jee, at his own
+valuation comes near resulting in a serious fracas. One of Abdul's most
+valued services is keeping at a respectful distance the crowds of
+villagers that invariably swarm about us when we halt. In doing this he
+sometimes flogs about him pretty lively with the whip. As a general thing
+the natives take this sort of thing in the greatest good humor; in fact,
+rather enjoy it than otherwise.
+
+At Miandasht, however, Abdul's whip happens to fall rather heavily upon
+the shoulders of the telegraph-jee's farrash, who is in the crowd. This
+individual, reflecting something of his master's self-esteem, takes
+exceptions to this, and complains, with the customary Persian
+elaboration, no doubt, to the consequential head of the place. The
+consequence is that a gang of villagers, headed by the telegraph-jee
+himself, gather around, and suddenly attack poor Abdul with clubs. Except
+for the prompt assistance of R------and myself, he would
+have been mauled pretty severely. As it is, he gets bruised up rather
+badly; though he inflicts almost as much damage as he receives, with a
+hatchet hastily grabbed from the fourgon. The fact of his being a Turk,
+whom the Persians consider far less holy than themselves, Abdul explains,
+accounts for the attack on him as much as anything else.
+
+A new surprise awaits us at Mijamid, something that we are totally
+unprepared for. As we reach the chapar-khana there, a voice from the roof
+greets us with "Sprechen sie Deutsch." Looking up in astonishment, we
+behold Colonel G------, a German officer in the Shah's army, whom both of
+us are familiarly acquainted with by sight, from seeing him so often at
+the morning reviews in the military maiden at Teheran. But this is not
+all, for with him are his wife and daughter. This is the first time
+European ladies have traversed the Meshed-Teheran road, Teheran being the
+farthest point eastward in Persia that lady travellers have heretofore
+penetrated to. Colonel G has been appointed to the staff of the new
+Governor-General of Khorassan, and is on his way to Meshed. The
+appearance of Ferenghi ladies in the Holy City will be an innovation that
+will fairly eclipse the introduction of the bicycle. All Meshed will be
+wild with curiosity, and the poor ladies will never be able to venture
+into the streets without disguise.
+
+There is furor enough over them in Mijamid; the whole population is
+assembled en masse before the chapar-khana. The combination of the
+bicycle, three Ferenghis, and, above all, two Ferenghi ladies, is an
+event that will form a red-letter mark in the history of Mijamid for
+generations of unborn Persian ryots to talk about and wonder over.
+
+The colonel produces a bottle of excellent Shiraz wine and a box of
+Russian cigarettes. The ladies have become sufficiently Orientalized to
+number among their accomplishments the smoking of cigarettes. They are
+delighted at meeting us, and are already acquainted with the main
+circumstances of my misadventure in Afghanistan. Camp-stools are brought
+out, and we spend a most pleasant hour together, before continuing on our
+opposite courses. The wondering natives are almost speechless with
+astonishment at the spectacle of the two ladies sitting out there, faces
+all uncovered, smoking cigarettes, sipping claret, and chatting freely
+with the men. It is a regular circus-day for these poor, unenlightened
+mortals. The ladies are charming, and the charm of female society loses
+nothing, the reader may be sure, from one's having been deprived of it
+for a matter of months.
+
+The colonel's lingual preference is German, Mrs. G------'s, French, and
+the daughter's, English; so that we are quite cosmopolitan in the matter
+of speech. All of us know enough Persian to express ourselves in that
+language too. In commenting upon my detention by the Afghans, the colonel
+characterizes them as "pedar sheitans," Madame as "le diable Afghans,"
+and Miss G------as well, "le diable" in plain yet charmingly broken
+English.
+
+The next day, soon after noon, we roll into Shahrood, where B------
+discharges his fourgon and we engage mules to transport us over the Tash
+Pass, a breakneck bridle-trail over the Elburz range to the Asterabad
+Plain and the Caspian.
+
+A half-day search by Abdul results in the employment of an outfit
+comprising three charvadars, with three mules, a couple of donkeys, and
+riding horses for ourselves. A liberal use of the whip by R on the
+charvadars' shoulders, awful threats, and sundry other persuasive
+arguments, assist very materially in getting started at a decent hour on
+the morning following our arrival. The bicycle is taken apart and placed
+on top of the mule-packs, where, in remembrance of its former fate under
+somewhat similar conditions, I keep it pretty strictly under
+surveillance.
+
+The Asterabad trail is a steady ascent from the beginning; and before
+many miles are covered, scattering dwarf pines on the, mountains indicate
+a change from the utter barrenness that characterizes their southern
+aspect. One lone tree of quite respectable dimensions, standing a mile or
+so off to our left, suggests a special point of demarcation between utter
+barrenness and where a new order of things begins.
+
+Our way leads up fearful rocky paths, where the horses have to be led,
+and at times assisted; up, up, until our elevation is nearly ten thousand
+feet, and we are among a chaotic wilderness of precipitous rocks and
+scrub pines. A false step in some places, and our horses would roll down
+among the craggy rocks for hundreds of feet. It is a toilsome march, but
+we cross the Tash Pass, camp for the night in a little inter-mountain
+valley, beside a stream at the foot of a pine-covered mountain. The
+change from the interior plains is already novel and refreshing. Grass
+abounds abundance, and the prospect is the greenest I have seen for nine
+months. We camp out in the open, and are put to some discomfort by
+passing showers in the night.
+
+A march of a dozen miles from this valley over a tortuous mountain trail
+brings us into a country the existence of which one could never, by any
+stretch of the imagination, dream of in connection with Persia, as one
+sees it in its desert-like character south of the mountains. The
+transformation is from one extreme of vegetable nature to the other. We
+camp for lunch on velvety greensward beneath a grove of oak and cherry
+trees. Cuckoos are heard calling round about, singing birds make melody,
+and among them we both recognize the cheery clickety-click of my
+raisin-loving Herati friends, the bul-buls. Flowers, too, are here at our
+feet in abundance, forget-me-nots and other familiar varieties.
+
+The view from our position is remarkably fine, reminding me forcibly of
+the Balkans south of Nisch, and of the Californian slopes of the Sierra
+Nevadas, where they overlook the Sacramento Valley. The Asterabad Plain
+is spread out below us like a vast map.
+
+We can trace the windings and twistings of the various streams, the
+tracts of unreclaimed forest, and the cultivated fields. Asterabad and
+numerous villages dot the plain, and by taking R------'s
+binoculars we can make out, through the vaporous atmosphere, the
+shimmering surface of the Caspian Sea. It is one of the most remarkable
+views I ever saw, and the novelty and grandeur of it appeals the more
+forcibly to one's imagination, no doubt, because of its striking contrast
+to what the eyes have from long usage become accustomed to. From dreary,
+barren dasht, and stony wastes, to densely wooded mountains,
+jungle-covered plains, tall, luxurious tiger-grass, and beyond all this
+the shimmering background of the sea is a big change to find but little
+more than a day's march apart. We are both captivated by the change, and
+agree that the Caspian slope is the only part of Persia fit to look at.
+
+The descent of the northern slope is even steeper than the other side;
+but instead of rocks, it is the rich soil of virgin forests. Open parks
+are occasionally crossed, and on one of these we find a large camp of
+Turcomans, numbering not less than a hundred tents. Mountaineers are
+always picturesquely dressed, and so, too, are nomads. When, therefore,
+one finds mountaineer nomads, it seems superfluous almost to describe
+them as being arrayed chiefly in gewgaws and bright-colored clothes.
+Camped here amid the dark, luxurious vegetation, they and their tents
+make a charming picture--a scene of life and of contrast in colors which
+if faithfully transferred to canvas would be worth a king's ransom.
+
+Down paths of break-neck steepness and slipperiness, our way descends
+into a dark region where vegetation runs riot in the shape of fine tall
+timber, of a semi-tropical variety. Many of the trees present a fantastic
+appearance, by reason of great quantities of hanging moss, that in some
+instances fairly load down the weaker branches. Banks of beautiful ferns,
+and mossy rocks join with the splendid trees in making our march through
+these northern foothills of the Elburz Mountains an experience long to be
+remembered.
+
+A curious and interesting comparison that comes under our observation is
+that, on the gray plains and rocky mountains of the interior the lizards
+are invariably of a dull and uninteresting color, quite in keeping with
+their surroundings. No sooner, however, do we find ourselves in a
+district where nature's deft hand has painted the whole canvas of the
+country a bright green, than the lizards which we see scuttling through
+the ferns and moss-beds are also the greenest of all the green things.
+These scaly little reptiles shine and glisten like supple shapes of
+emerald, as one sees them gliding across the path. This is but another
+link in the chain of evidence that seems to prove that animals derive
+much of their distinctive character and appearance from the nature of
+their surroundings. In Northern China are a species of small monkey with
+a quite heavy coat of fur. They are understood to be the descendants of a
+comparatively hairless variety which found its way there from the warm
+jungles of the South, the change from a warm climate to a cold one being
+responsible for the coat of fur. In the same way, after noting the
+complete change that has come over the lizards, we conclude that, if a
+colony of the gray species from the other side of the mountains were
+brought and turned loose among the green foot-hills here, their
+descendants, a few generations hence, would be found with coats as green
+as those of the natives. This conviction gathers force from the fact that
+no gray lizards whatever are encountered here; all the lizards we see are
+green.
+
+Emerging from the foot-hills, we find ourselves in a country the general
+appearance of which reminds me of a section of Missouri more than
+anything I have seen in Asia. Fields and pastures are fenced in with the
+same rude corduroy-fences one sees in the Missouri Valley, some well kept
+and others neglected. The pastures are blue grass and white clover; bees
+are humming and buzzing from flower to flower, and, to make the
+similitude complete, one hears the homely tinkle of cow-bells here and
+there. It is difficult to realize that all this is in Persia, and that
+one has not been transported in some miraculous manner back to the United
+States. A little farther out from the base of the mountains, however, and
+we come upon wild figs, pomegranates, and other indigenous evidences of
+Eastern soil; and by and by our path almost becomes a tunnel, burrowing
+through a wealth of tiger-grass twenty feet high. The fields and little
+clearings which, a few miles back, were devoted to the cultivation of
+wheat and rye, now become rice-fields overflowed from irrigating ditches,
+and in which bare-legged men and women are paddling about, over their
+knees in mud and water.
+
+Early in the evening we reach the city of Asterabad, which we find
+totally different from the sombre, mud-built cities of the interior. The
+wall surrounding it is topped with red tiles, and the outer moat is
+choked with rank vegetation. The houses are gabled, and roofed with tiles
+or heavy thatch, presenting an appearance very suggestive of the
+picturesque towns and villages about Strasburg. The streets are narrow
+and ill-paved, and neglect and decay everywhere abound. The cemeteries
+are a chaotic mass of tumbledown tombstones and vagrant vegetation. Pools
+of water covered with green scum, and heaps of filth everywhere, fill the
+reeking atmosphere with malaria and breed big clouds of mosquitoes. The
+people have a yellowish, waxy complexion that tells its own story of the
+unhealthiness of the place, without instituting special inquiry. One can
+fairly sniff fever and ague in the streets.
+
+Much taste is displayed in architectural matters by the wealthier
+residents. The walls surrounding the little compounds are sometimes
+adorned with house-leeks or cactus, tastefully set out along the top;
+and, in other cases, with ornamental tiles. The walls of the houses are
+decorated with paintings depicting, in bright colors, scenes of the
+chase, birds, animals, and mythological subjects.
+
+The charvadars lead the way to a big caravanserai in the heart of the
+city. The place is found to be filled with a miscellaneous crowd of
+caravan people, travellers, merchants, and dervishes. The serai also
+appears to be a custom-house and emporium for wool, cotton, and other
+products of the tributary country. Horses, camels, and merchandise crowd
+the central court, and rising fifty feet above all this confusion and
+babel is a wooden tower known as a tullar. This is a dilapidated
+framework of poles that sways visibly in the wind, the uses of which at
+first sight it is not easy to determine. Some of the natives motion for
+us to take possession of it, however; and we subsequently learn that the
+little eyrie-like platform is used as a sleeping-place by travellers of
+distinction. The elevation and airiness are supposed to be a safeguard
+against the fever and a refuge from the terrible mosquitoes, of which
+Asterabad is over-full.
+
+An hour after our arrival, Abdul goes out and discovers a Persian
+gentleman named Mahmoud Turki Aghi, who presents himself in the capacity
+of British agent here. As we were in ignorance of the presence of any
+such official being in Asterabad, he comes as a pleasant surprise, and
+still more pleasant comes an invitation to accept his hospitality.
+
+From him we learn that the steamer we expect to take at Bunder Guz, the
+port of Asterabad, eight farsakhs distant, will not sail until six days
+later. Mindful of the fever, from which he is still a sufferer to an
+uncomfortable extent, E------looks a trifle glum at this
+announcement, and, after our traps are unpacked at Mahmoud Turki Aghi's,
+he ferrets out a book of travels that I had often heard him refer to as
+an authority on sundry subjects. Turning over the leaves, he finds a
+reference to Bunder Guz, and reads out the story of a certain
+"gimlet-tailed fly" that makes life a burden to the unwary traveller who
+elects to linger there on the Caspian shore. Between this gimlet-tailed
+pest, however, and the mosquitoes of Asterabad we decide that there can
+be very little to choose, and so make up our minds to accept our host's
+hospitality for a day and then push on.
+
+During the day we call on the Russian consul to get our passports vised.
+As between English and Russian prestige, the latter are decidedly to the
+fore in Asterabad. The bear has his big paw firmly planted on this
+fruitful province--it is more Russian than Persian now; before long it
+will be Russian altogether. Nothing is plainer to us than this, as we
+reach the Russian Consulate and are introduced by Mahmoud Turki Aghi to
+the consul. He is no "native agent." On the contrary, he is one of the
+biggest "personages" I have seen anywhere. He is the sort of man that the
+Russian Government invariably picks out for its representation at such
+important points in Asia as Asterabad.
+
+A six-footer of magnificent physique, with a smooth and polished address,
+all smiles and politeness, the Russian consul wears a leonine mustache
+that could easily be tied in a knot at the back of his head. Although he
+is the only European resident of Asterabad save a few Cossack attendants,
+he wears fashionable Parisian clothes, a wealth of watch-chain, rings,
+and flash jewellery, patent-leather shoes, and all the accompaniments of
+an ostentatious show of wealth and personal magnificence. His rooms are
+equally gorgeous, and contain large colored portraits of the Czar and
+Czarina.
+
+The intent and purpose of all this display is to fill the minds of the
+natives, and particularly the native officials, with an overwhelming
+sense of Russian grandeur and power. No Persian can enter the presence of
+this Russian consul in his rooms without experiencing a certain measure
+of awe and admiration. They regard with covetous eyes the rich and
+comfortable appointments of the rooms, and the big gold watch-chains and
+rings on the consul's person. They too would like to be in the Russian
+service if its rewards are on such a magnificent scale. Of patriotism to
+the Shah they know nothing--self-interest is the only master they
+willingly serve.
+
+No one knows this better than the Russian consul; and in the case of
+influential officials and other useful persons, he sees to it that gold
+watches and such-like tokens of the Czar's esteem are not lacking. The
+result is that Asterabad, both city and province, is even now more
+Russian than Persian, and when the proper time arrives will drop into the
+bear's capacious maw like a ripe plum.
+
+At daybreak on the morning of departure the charvadars wake us up by
+pounding on the outer gate and shouting "hadji" to Abdul Abdul lets them
+in, and the next hour passes in violent and wordy disputation among them
+as they load up their horses.
+
+All three have purchased new Asterabad hats, big black busbies much
+prized by Persians from beyond the mountains. The acquisition of these
+imposing head-dresses has had the effect of increasing their self-esteem
+wonderfully. They regard each other with considerable hauteur, and
+quarrel almost continually for the first few miles. E puts up with their
+angry shouting and quarrelling for awhile, and then chases them around a
+little with the long hunting whip he carries. This brings them to their
+senses again, and secures a degree of peace; but the inflating effect of
+the new hats crops out at intervals all day.
+
+Our road from Asterabad leads through jungle nearly the whole distance to
+Bunder Guz. In the woods are clearings consisting of rice-fields,
+orchards, and villages. The villages are picturesque clusters of wattle
+houses with peaked thatch roofs that descend to within a few feet of the
+ground. Groves of English walnut-trees abound, and plenty of these trees
+are also scattered through the jungle.
+
+During the day we encounter a gang of professional native hunters hunting
+wild boars, of which these woods contain plenty, as well as tigers and
+panthers. They are a wild-looking crowd, with long hair, and sleeves
+rolled up to their elbows. Big knives are bristling in their kammerbunds,
+besides which they are armed with spears and flint-lock muskets. They
+make a great deal of noise, shouting and hallooing one to another; one
+can tell when they are on a hot trail by the amount of noise they make,
+just as you can with a pack of hounds.
+
+We reach our destination by the middle of the afternoon, and find the
+place a wretched village, right on the shore of the Caspian. We repair to
+the caravanserai, but find the rooms so evil-smelling that we decide upon
+camping out and risking the fever rather than court acquaintance with
+possible cholera, providing no better place can be found elsewhere. This
+serai is a curious place, anyway. All sorts of people, some of them so
+peculiarly dressed that none of our party are able to make out their
+character or nationality. A dervish is exhorting a crowd of interested
+listeners at one end of the court-yard, and a strolling band of lutis are
+entertaining an audience at the other end. There are six of these lutis;
+while two are performing, four are circulating among the crowd collecting
+money. In any other country but Persia, five would have been playing and
+one passing the hat.
+
+E------and Abdul go ahead to try and secure better
+quarters, and shortly the latter returns, and announces that they have
+been successful. So I, and the charvadars, with the horses, follow him
+through a crooked street of thatched houses, at the end of which we find
+R------seated beneath the veranda of a rude hotel kept by
+an Armenian Jew. As we approach I observe that my companion looks happier
+than I have seen him look for days. He is pretty thoroughly disgusted
+with Persia and everything in it, and this, together with his fever, has
+kept him in anything but an amiable frame of mind. But now his face is
+actually illumined with a smile.
+
+On the little table before him stand a half-dozen black bottles, imperial
+pints, bearing labels inscribed with outlandish Russian words.
+
+"This is civilization, my boy--civilization reached at last," says
+E------, as he sees me coming.
+
+"What, this wretched tumble-down hole." I exclaim, waving my hand at the
+village.
+
+"No, not that," replies E------; "this--this is civilization," and he
+holds up to the light a glass of amber Russian beer.
+
+Apart from Russians, we are the first European travellers that have
+touched at Bunder Guz since McGregor was here in 1875. We keep a loose
+eye out for the gimlet-tailed flies, but are not harassed by them half so
+much as by fleas and the omnipresent mosquito. These two latter insects
+have dwindled somewhat from the majestic proportions described by
+McGregor; they are large enough and enterprising enough as it is; but
+McGregor found one species the size of "cats," and the other "as large as
+camels." Bunder Guz is simply a landing and shipping point for Asterabad
+and adjacent territory. A good deal of Russian bar iron, petroleum, iron
+kettles, etc., are piled up under rude sheds; and wool from the interior
+is being baled by Persian Jews, naked to the waist, by means of
+hand-presses. Cotton and wool are the chief exports. Of course, the whole
+of the trade is in the hands of the Russians, who have driven the
+Persians quite off the sea. The Caspian is now nothing more nor less than
+a Russian salt-water lake.
+
+The harbor of Bunder Guz is so shallow that one may ride horseback into
+the sea for nearly a mile. The steamers have to load and unload at a
+floating dock a mile and a half from shore. Very pleasant, in spite of
+the wretched hole we are in, is it to find one's self on the seashore
+--to see the smoke of a steamer, and the little smacks riding at
+anchor.
+
+The day after our arrival, a man comes round and tells Abdul that he has
+three fine young Mazanderan tigers he would like to sell the Sahibs. We
+send Abdul to investigate, and he returns with the report that a party of
+Asterabad tiger-hunters have killed a female tiger and brought in three
+cubs. The man comes back with him and impresses upon us the assertion
+that they are khylie koob baabs (very splendid tigers), and would be dirt
+cheap at three hundred kerans apiece, the price he pretends to want for
+them. From this we know that the tigers could be bought very cheap, and
+since Mazanderan tigers are very rare in European menageries, we
+determine to go and look at them anyway. They are found to be the merest
+kittens, not yet old enough to see. They are savage little brutes, and
+spend their whole time in dashing recklessly against the bars of the coop
+in which they are confined. They refuse to eat or drink, and although the
+Persians declare that they would soon learn to feed, we conclude that
+they would be altogether too much trouble, even if it were possible to
+keep them from dying of starvation.
+
+On the evening of June 3d we put off, together with a number of native
+passengers, in a lighter, for the vessel which is loading up with bales
+of cotton at the floating dock. Most of the night is spent in sitting on
+deck and watching the Persian roustabouts carry the cargo aboard, for the
+shouting, the inevitable noisy squabbling, and the thud of bales dumped
+into the hold render sleep out of the question.
+
+The steamer starts at sunrise, and the captain comes round to pay his
+respects. He is more of a German than a Russian, and seems pleased to
+welcome aboard his ship the first English or American passengers he has
+had for years. He makes himself agreeable, and takes a good deal of
+interest in explaining anything about the burning of petroleum residue on
+the Caspian steamers, instead of coal. He takes us down below and shows
+us the furnaces, and explains the modus operandi. We are delighted at the
+evident superiority of this fuel over coal, and the economy and ease of
+supplying the furnaces. Seven copecks the forty pounds, the captain says,
+is the cost of the fuel, and two and a half roubles the expense of
+running the vessel at full speed an hour. There is not an ounce of coal
+aboard, the boiler-house is as clean and neat as a parlor, and no cinders
+fall upon the deck or awnings. In place of huge coal-bunkers, taking up
+half the vessel's carrying space, compact tanks above the furnaces hold
+all the liquid fuel. Pipes convey it automatically, much or little, as
+easily as regulating a water-tap, to the fire-boxes. Jets of steam
+scatter it broadcast throughout the box in the form of spray, and insures
+its spontaneous combustion into flame. A peep in these furnaces displays
+a mass of flame filling an iron box in which no fuel is to be seen. A
+slight twist of a brass cock increases or diminishes this flame at once.
+A couple of men in clean linen uniforms manage the whole business. We
+both concluded that it was far superior to coal.
+
+Many windings and tackings are necessary to get outside Ashdurada Bay;
+sometimes we are steaming bow on for Bunder Guz, apparently returning to
+port; at other times we are going due south, when our destination is
+nearly north. This, the captain explains, is due to the intricacy of the
+channel, which is little more than a deeper stream, so to speak,
+meandering crookedly through the shallows and sand-bars of the bay. Buoys
+and sirens mark the steamer's course to the Russian naval station of
+Ashdurada. Here we cross a bar so shallow that no vessel of more than
+twelve feet draught can enter or leave the bay. Our own ship is a
+light-draught steamer of five hundred tons burden.
+
+A little steam-launch puts out from Ashdurada, bringing the mails and
+several naval officers bound for Krasnovodsk and Baku. The scenery of the
+Mazanderan coast is magnificent. The bold mountains seem to slope quite
+down to the shore, and from summit to surf-waves they present one
+dark-green mass of forest.
+
+The menu of these Caspian steamers is very good, based on the French
+school of cookery rather than English. No early breakfast is provided,
+however; breakfast at eleven and dinner at six are the only refreshments
+provided by the ship's regular service--anything else has to be paid for
+as extras. At eleven o'clock we descend to the dining saloon, where we
+find the table spread with caviare, cheese, little raw salt fishes,
+pickles, vodka, and the unapproachable bread of Russia. The captain and
+passengers are congregated about this table, some sitting, others
+standing, and all reaching here and there, everybody helping himself and
+eating with his fingers. Now and then each one tosses off a little
+tumbler of vodka. We proceed to the table and do our best to imitate the
+Russians in their apparent determination to clean off the table. The
+edibles before us comprise the elements of a first-class cold luncheon,
+and we sit down prepared to do it ample justice. By and by the Russians
+leave this table one by one, and betake themselves to another, on the
+opposite side of the saloon. As they sit down, waiters come in bearing
+smoking hot roasts and vegetables, wine and dessert.
+
+A gleam of intelligence dawns upon my companion as he realizes that we
+are making a mistake, and pausing in the act of transferring bread and
+caviare to his mouth, he says to me, impressively: "This is only sukuski,
+you know, on this table." "Why, of course. Didn't you know that. Your
+ignorance surprises me; I thought you knew.". And then we follow the
+example of everybody else and pass over to the other side.
+
+The sukuski is taken before the regular meal in Russia. The tidbits and
+the vodka are partaken of to prepare and stimulate the appetite for the
+regular meal. Not yet, however, are we fully initiated into the mysteries
+of the Caspian steamer's service. Wine is flowing freely, and as we seat
+ourselves the captain passes down his bottle. Presently I hold my glass
+to be refilled by a spectacled naval officer sitting opposite. With a
+polite bow he fills it to the brim. The next moment, I happen to catch
+the captain's eye, it contains a meaning twinkle of amusement. Heavens!
+this is not a French steamer, even if the cookery is somewhat Frenchy;
+neither is it a table-d'hote with claret flowing ad libitum. The
+ridiculous mistake has been made of taking the captain's polite
+hospitality and the liberal display of bottles for the free wine of the
+French table-d'hote. The officer with the eyeglasses lands at Tchislikar
+in the afternoon, for which I am not sorry.
+
+At Tchislikar we are met by a lighter with several Turcoman passengers.
+The sea is pretty rough, and the united efforts of several boatmen are
+required to hoist aboard each long-gowned Turcoman, each woman and child.
+They are Turcoman traders going to Baku and Tiflis with bales of the
+famous kibitka hangings and carpets. Tchislikar is the port whence a few
+years ago the Russian expedition set out on their campaign against the
+Tekke Turcomans. Three hundred miles inland is the famous fortress of
+Geoke Tepe, where disaster overtook the Russians, and where, in a
+subsequent campaign, occurred that massacre of women and children which
+caused the Western world to wonder anew at the barbarism of the Russian
+soldiery.
+
+Still steaming north, our little craft ploughs her way toward
+Krasnovodsk, an important military station on the eastern coast.
+
+At night the surface of the sea becomes smooth and glassy, the sun sets,
+rotund and red, in a haze suggestive of Indian summer in the West. The
+cabins are small and stuffy, so I sleep up on the hurricane-deck,
+wrapping a Persian sheepskin overcoat about me. An awning covers this
+deck completely, but this does not prevent everything beneath getting
+drenched with dew. Never did I see such a fall of dew. It streams off the
+big awning like a shower of rain, and soaks through it and drips, drips
+on to my recumbent form and everything on the hurricane-deck.
+
+Early in the morning we moor our ship to the dock at Krasnovodsk, and
+load and unload merchandise till noon. Here is where railway material for
+the Transcaspian railway to Merv is landed, the terminus being at
+Michaelovich, near by. We go ashore for a couple of hours and look about.
+The inmates of a military convalescent hospital are passing from the
+doctor's office to their barracks. They are wearing long dressing-gowns
+of gray stuff, with hoods that make them look wonderfully like a lot of
+monks arrayed in cowls. A company of infantry are target-practising at
+the foot of rocky buttes just outside the town. Not a tree nor a green
+thing is visible in the place nor on all the hills around--nothing but the
+blue waters of the Caspian and the dull prospect of rude rock buildings
+and gray hills.
+
+Except for the sea, and the raggedness and abject servility of the poor
+class of people, one might imagine Krasnovodsk some Far Western fort.
+Scarcely a female is seen on the streets, soldiers are everywhere, and in
+the commercial quarter every other place is a vodka-shop. We visit one of
+these and find men in red shirts and cowhide boots playing billiards and
+drinking, others drinking and playing cards. Rough and sturdy men they
+look--frontiersmen; but there is no spirit, no independence, in
+their expression; they look like curs that have been chastised and
+bullied until the spirit is completely broken. This peculiar humbled and
+resigned expression is observable on the faces of the common people from
+one end of Russia to the other. It is quite extraordinary for a common
+Russian to look one in the eye. Nor is this at all deceptive; a social
+superior might step up and strike one of these men brutally in the face
+without the slightest provocation, and, though the victim of the outrage
+might be strong as an ox, no remonstrance whatever would be made. It is
+difficult for us to comprehend How human beings can possibly become so
+abjectly servile and spiritless as the lower-class Russians. But the
+terrors of the knout and Siberia are ever present before them. Cheap
+chromolithographs of Gregorian saints hang on the walls of the saloon,
+and with them are mingled fancy pictures of Tiflis and Baku cafe-chantant
+belles. Long rows of vodka-bottles are the chief stock-in-trade of the
+place, but "peevo" (beer) can be obtained from the cellar.
+
+Quite a number of army officers, with their wives, come aboard at
+Krasnovodsk. They seem good fellows, nearly all, and inclined to
+cultivate our acquaintance. Individually, the better-class Russian and
+the Englishman have many attributes in common that make them like each
+other. Except for imperial matters, Russian and English officers would be
+the best of friends, I think. The ladies all smoke cigarettes
+incessantly. There is not a handsome woman aboard, and they show the
+lingering traces of Russian barbarism by wearing beads and gewgaws.
+
+The most interesting of our passengers is a Persian dealer in precious
+stones. He is a well-educated individual, quite a linguist, and a
+polished gentleman withal. He is taking diamonds and turquoises that he
+has collected in Persia, to Vienna and Paris.
+
+Another night of drenching dew, and by six o'clock next morning we are
+drawing near to the great petroleum port of Baku. From Krasnovodsk we
+have crossed the Caspian from east to west right on the line of latitude
+40 deg.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+ROUNDABOUT TO INDIA.
+
+Baku looks the inartistic, business-like place it is, occupying the base
+of brown, verdureless hills. Scarcely a green thing is visible to relieve
+the dull, drab aspect roundabout, and only the scant vegetation of a few
+gardens relieves the city a trifle itself. To the left of the city the
+slopes of one hill are dotted with neatly kept Christian cemeteries, and
+the slopes of another display the disorderly multitude of tombstones
+characteristic of the graveyards of Islam. On the right are seen numbers
+of big iron petroleum-tanks similar to those in the oil regions of
+Pennsylvania. Numbers of petroleum-schooners are riding at anchor in the
+harbor, and two or three small steamers are moored to the dock.
+
+Our steamer moves up alongside a stout wooden wharf, the gang-plank is
+ran out, and the passengers permitted to file ashore. A cordon of police
+prevents them passing down the wharf, while custom-house officers examine
+their baggage. We are, of course, merely in transit through the country;
+more than that, the Russian authorities seem anxious, for some reason, to
+make a very favorable impression upon us two Central Asian travellers; so
+a special officer comes aboard, takes our passports, and with an
+excessive show of politeness refuses to take more than a mere formal
+glance at our traps. A horde of ragamuffin porters struggle desperately
+for the privilege of carrying the passengers' baggage. Poor, half-starved
+wretches they seem, reminding me, in their rags and struggles, of
+desperate curs quarrelling savagely over a bone. American porter's strive
+for passengers' baggage for the sake of making money; with these
+Russians, it seems more like a fierce resolve to obtain the wherewithal
+to keep away starvation. Burly policemen, armed with swords, like the
+gendarmerie of France, and in blue uniforms, assail the wretched porters
+and strike them brutally in the face, or kick them in the stomach,
+showing no more consideration than if they were maltreating the merest
+curs. Such brutality on the one hand, and abject servility and human
+degradation on the other is to be seen only in the land of the Czar.
+Servility, it is true exists everywhere in Asia, but only in Russia does
+one find the other extreme of coarse brutality constantly gloating over
+it and abusing it.
+
+Our stay in Baku is limited to a few hours. We are to take the train for
+Tiflis the same afternoon, as we land at two o'clock so can spare no time
+to see much of the city or of the oil-refineries.
+
+Summoning one of the swarm of drosky-drivers that beset the exit from the
+wharf, we are soon tearing over the Belgian blocks to the Hotel de
+l'Europe. The Russian drosky-driver, whether in Baku or in Moscow, seems
+incapable of driving at a moderate pace. Over rough streets or smooth he
+plies the cruel whip, shouts vile epithets at his half-wild steed, and
+rattles along at a furious pace.
+
+Baku is the first Europeanized city either R------or I have been in for
+many months; the rows of shops, the saloons, drug-stores, barber-shops,
+and, above all, the hotels--how we appreciate it all after the bazaars
+and wretched serais of Persia!
+
+We patronize a barber-shop, and find the tonsorial accommodations equal
+in every respect to those of America. One of the chairs is occupied by a
+Cossack officer. He is the biggest dandy in the way of a Cossack we have
+yet seen. Scarce had we thought it possible that one of these hardy
+warriors of the Caucasus could blossom forth in the make-up that bursts
+upon our astonished vision in this Baku barber-chair. The top-boots he
+wears are the shiniest of patent leather from knee to toe; lemon-colored
+silk or satin is the material of the long, gown-like coat that
+distinguishes the Cossack from all others. His hair is parted in the
+middle to a hair, and smoothed carefully with perfumed pomade; his
+mustache is twirled and waxed, his face powdered, and eyebrows pencilled.
+A silver-jointed belt, richly chased, encircles his waist, and the
+regulation row of cartridge-pockets across his breast are of the same
+material. He wears a short sword, the hilt and scabbard of which display
+the elaborate wealth of ornament affected by the Circassians. During the
+forenoon we take a stroll about the city afoot, but the wind is high, and
+clouds of dust sweep down the streets. A Persian in gown and turban steps
+quietly up behind us in a quiet street, and asks if we are mollahs. We
+know his little game, however, and gruffly order him off. The houses of
+Baku are mostly of rock and severely simple in architecture; they look
+like prisons and warehouses mostly--massive and gloomy.
+
+Everywhere, everywhere, hovers the shadow of the police. One seems to
+breathe dark suspicion and mistrust in the very air. The people in the
+civil walks of life all look like whipped curs. They wear the expression
+of people brooding over some deep sorrow. The crape of dead liberty seems
+to be hanging on every door-knob. Nobody seems capable of smiling; one
+would think the shadow of some great calamity is hanging gloomily over
+the city. Nihilism and discontent run riot in the cities of the Caucasus;
+government spies and secret police are everywhere, and the people on the
+streets betray their knowledge of the fact by talking little and always
+in guarded tones.
+
+Our stay at the hotel is but a few hours, but eleven domestics range
+themselves in a row to wait upon our departure and to smirk and extend
+their palms for tips as we prepare to go. No country under the sun save
+the Caucasus could thus muster eleven expectant menials on the strength
+of one meal served and but three hours actual occupation of our rooms.
+
+Another wild Jehu drives us to the station of the Tiflis & Baku Railway,
+and he loses a wheel and upsets us into the street on the way. The
+station is a stone building, strong enough almost for a fort. Military
+uniforms adorn every employee, from the supercilious station-master to
+the ill-paid wretch that handles our baggage. Mine is the first bicycle
+the Tiflis & Baku Railroad has ever carried. Having no precedent to
+govern themselves by, and, withal, ever eager to fleece and overcharge,
+the railway officials charge double rates for it; that is, twice as much
+as an ordinary package of the same weight. No baggage is carried free on
+the Tiflis & Baku Railroad except what one takes with him in the
+passenger coach.
+
+The cars are a compromise between the American style and those of
+England. They are divided into several compartments, but the partitions
+have openings that enable one to pass from end to end of the car. The
+doors are in the end compartments, but lead out of the side, there being
+no platform outside, nor communication between the cars. The seats are
+upholstered in gray plush and are provided with sliding extensions for
+sleeping at night. Overhead a second tier of berths unfolds for sleeping.
+No curtains are employed; the arrangements are only intended for
+stretching one's self out without undressing. The engines employed on the
+Tiflis & Baku Railway are without coal-tenders. They burn the residue of
+petroleum, which is fed to the flames in the form of spray by an
+atomizer. A small tank above the furnace holds the liquid, and a pipe
+feeds it automatically to the fire-box. The result of this excellent
+arrangement is spontaneous conversion into flame, a uniformly hot fire,
+cleanliness aboard the engine, a total absence of cinders, and almost an
+absence of smoke. The absence of a tender gives the engine a peculiar,
+bob-tailed appearance to the unaccustomed eye.
+
+The speed of our train is about twenty miles an hour, and it starts from
+Baku an hour behind the advertised time. For the first few miles unfenced
+fields of ripe wheat characterize the landscape, and a total absence of
+trees gives the country a dreary aspect. The day is Sunday, but peasants,
+ragged and more wretched-looking than any seen in Persia, are harvesting
+grain. The carts they use are most peculiar vehicles, with wheels eight
+or ten feet in diameter. The tremendous size of the wheels is understood
+to materially lighten their draught. After a dozen miles the country
+develops into barren wastes, as dreary and verdureless as the deserts of
+Seistan. At intervals of a mile the train whirls past a solitary stone
+hut occupied by the family of the watchman or section-hand. Sometimes a
+man stands out and waves a little flag, and sometimes a woman. Whether
+male or female, the flag-signaller is invariably an uncouth bundle of
+rags. The telegraph-poles consist of lengths of worn-out rail, with an
+upper section of wood on which to fasten the insulators. These make
+substantial poles enough, but have a make-shift look, and convey the
+impression of financial weakness to the road. The stations are often
+quite handsome structures of mingled stone and brickwork. The names are
+conspicuously exposed in Russian and Persian and Circassian. Beer, wine,
+and eatables are exposed for sale at a lunch-counter, and pedlers vend
+boiled lobsters, fish, and fruit about the platforms. On the platform of
+every station hangs a bell with a string attached to the tongue. When
+almost ready for the train to start, an individual, invested with the
+dignity of a military cap with a red stripe, jerks this string slowly and
+solemnly thrice. Half a minute later another man in a full military
+uniform blows a shrill whistle; yet a third warning, in the shape of a
+smart toot from the engine itself, and the train pulls out. Full half the
+crowd about the stations appear to be in military uniform; the remainder
+are a heterogeneous company, embracing the modern Russian dandy, who
+affects the latest Parisian fashions, the Circassians and Georgians in
+picturesque attire, and the ever-present ragamuffin moujik. At one
+station we pass an institution peculiarly Russian--a railway
+prison-car conveying convicts eastward. It resembles an ordinary box-car,
+with iron grating toward the top. We can see the poor wretches peeping
+through the bars, and the handcuffs on their wrists. Outside at either
+end is a narrow platform, where stands, with loaded guns and fixed
+bayonets, a guard of four soldiers.
+
+Once or twice before dark the train stops to replenish the engine's
+supply of fuel. Elevated iron tanks containing a supply of the liquid
+fuel take the place of the coal-sheds familiar to ourselves. The
+petroleum is supplied to the smaller tank on the engine through a pipe,
+as is water to the reservoir.
+
+Such villages as we pass are the most unlovely clusters of mud hovels
+imaginable. Only the people are interesting, and the life of the railway
+itself. The Circassian peasantry are picturesque in bright colors, and
+the thin veneering of Western civilization spread over the semi-barbarity
+of the Russian officials and first-class passengers is an interesting
+study in itself.
+
+We have been promising ourselves a day in Tiflis, the old Georgian
+capital, and now the head-quarters of the Russian army of the Caucasus,
+which our friends of the French scientific party said we would find
+interesting.
+
+We find it both pleasant and interesting, for here are all modern
+improvements of hotel and street, as well as English telegraph officers,
+one a former acquaintance at Teheran. Tiflis now claims about one hundred
+and sixty thousand inhabitants, and is situated quite picturesquely in
+the narrow valley of the Kur. The old Georgian quarters still retain
+their Oriental appearance--gabled houses, narrow, crooked streets, and
+filth. The modernized, or European, portion of the city contains broad
+streets, rows of shops in which is displayed everything that could be
+found in any city in Europe, and street-railways.
+
+These latter were introduced in 1882, and at first met with fierce
+antagonism from the drosky-drivers, who swarm here as in every city in
+Russia. These wild Jehus of the Caucasus expected the tram-cars to turn
+out the same as any other vehicle. Four people were killed by collisions
+the first day. Severe punishment had to be resorted to in order to stop
+the hostility of the drosky-drivers against the strange innovation.
+
+The day is spent in seeing the city and visiting the hot sulphur baths
+and in the evening we attend a big bal masque in a suburban garden. A
+regimental band of fifty pieces plays "Around the World," by order of
+Prince Nicholas F, who exerts himself to make things pleasant for us in
+the garden. The famed beauties of Georgia, Circassia, and Mingrelia,
+masked and costumed, promenade and waltz with Russian officers, and
+sometimes join Circassian officers in a charming native dance.
+
+We spend our promised clay in Tiflis, enjoy it thoroughly, and then
+proceed to Batoum. The Tiflis railway-station is a splendid building,
+with fountains and broad nights of stone terrace leading up to it from
+the street behind. Our drosky-driver rattles up to the foot of these
+terraced approaches at 8 a.m., and draws up a steed with an abruptness
+peculiar to the half-wild Jehus of the Caucasus. The same employee of the
+Hotel de Londres who had mysteriously hailed us by name from the platform
+as our train glided in from Baku the morning before, accompanies us to
+the depot now. All English travellers in Russia are supposed to be
+millionaires; all Americans, possessed of unlimited wealth. Bearing this
+in mind, our Russian-Armenian henchman has from first to last been most
+assiduous in his attentions, paying out of his own pocket the few odd
+copecks to porters carrying our luggage up from drosky to depot, in order
+to save us bother.
+
+The station is crowded with people going away themselves or seeing
+friends off. As usual, the military overshadows and predominates
+everything. Between civilians and the wearers of military uniforms one
+plainly observes in a Russian Caucasus crowd that no love is lost. The
+strained relationship between the native population and the military
+aliens from the north is generally made the more conspicuous by the
+comparative sociability of the Georgians among themselves and kindred
+people of the Caucasus. Circassian officers in their picturesque uniforms
+and beautifully chased swords and pistols mingle sociably with the
+civilians, and are evidently great favorites; but that the blue-coated,
+white-capped Russians are hated with a bitter, sullen hatred requires no
+penetrating eye to see. The military brutality that crushed the brave and
+warlike people of Georgia, Circassia, and Mingrelia, and well-nigh
+depopulated the country, has left sore wounds that will take the wine and
+oil of time many a generation to heal completely up.
+
+With an inner consciousness of duty well done and services faithfully
+rendered, our friend from the hotel flicks off our seats in the car with
+the tail of his long linen duster. Not that they need dusting; but as a
+gentle reminder of the extraordinary care he has bestowed upon us, in
+little things as well as in bigger, during our brief acquaintance with
+him, he dusts them off. That last attentive flick of his coat-tail is the
+finishing touch of an elaborate retrospective panorama we are expected to
+conjure up of the valuable services he has rendered us, and for which he
+is now justly entitled to his reward.
+
+The customary three bells are struck, the inevitable military-looking
+official blows shrilly on his little whistle, and still the train
+lingers; lastly, the engine toots, however, and we pull slowly out of
+Tiflis. The town lies below us to the left, the River Kur follows us
+around a bend, the train speeds through deep gravel cuttings, and when we
+emerge from them the Georgian capital is no longer visible.
+
+Between Baku and Tiflis, the Caucasus Railway runs for the most part
+through a flat, uninteresting country. Wastes as dreary and desolate as
+the steppes of Central Russia or the deserts of Turkestan sometimes
+stretched away to the horizon on either side of the track. At other
+points were gray, verdureless slopes and rocky buttes, or saline
+mud-flats that looked like the old bed of some ancient sea. Occasional
+oases of life appeared here and there, a few wheat-fields and a wretched
+mud-built village, or a picturesque scene of smoke-browned tents, gayly
+dressed nomads, and grazing flocks and herds. At night we had passed
+through a grassy steppe, a facsimile of the rolling prairies of the West.
+Though but the 6th of June, the country was parched, and the grass dried,
+as it stood, into hay by the heat and drought. We saw at one point a wide
+sweep of flame that set the darkening sky aglow and caused the
+railway-rails ahead to gleam. It was the steppe on fire--another
+reproduction of a Far Western prairie scene.
+
+All this had changed as we woke up an hour before reaching Tiflis. The
+country became green, lovely, and populous in comparison. The people
+seemed less 'ragged, poverty-stricken, and wretched; the native women
+wore garments of brightest red and blue; the men put on more style, with
+their long Circassian coats and ornamental daggers, than I had yet
+observed. East of Tiflis, the Caucasus Hallway may, roughly speaking, be
+said to traverse the dreary wastes of an Asiatic country; west of it to
+wind around among the green hills and forest-clad heights of Europe's
+southeastern extremity. Lovelier and more beautifully green grows the
+country, and more interesting, too, grow the people and the towns, as our
+train speeds westward toward Batoum and the Black Sea coast. Everything
+about the railway, also, seems to be more prosperous, and better
+equipped. The improvised telegraph poles of worn-out lengths of rail seen
+east of Tiflis give place to something more becoming. Sometimes we speed
+for miles past ordinary cedar poles, procured, no doubt, from the
+mountain forests near at hand. Occasionally are stretches of iron poles
+imported from England, and then poles composed of two iron railway-rails
+clamped together. For much of the way we see the splendidly equipped
+Indo-European Telegraph Company's line, the finest telegraph line in the
+world. Equipped with substantial iron poles throughout, and with every
+insulator covered with an iron cap in countries where the half-civilized
+natives are wont to do them damage, this line runs through the various
+countries of Europe and Asia to Teheran, Persia, where it joins hands
+with the British Government line to India.
+
+Following along the valley of the River Kur, our train is sometimes
+rattling along up a wild gorge between rugged heights whose sides are
+bristling with dark coniferous growth, or more precipitous, with huge
+jagged rocks and the variegated vegetation of the Caucasus strewn in wild
+confusion. Again, we emerge upon a peaceful grassy valley, lovely enough
+to have been the Happy Valley of Rasselas, and walled in almost
+completely with forest-clad mountains. Through it, perhaps, there winds a
+mountain stream, fed by welling springs and hidden rivulets, and on the
+stream is sure to be a town or village. An old Georgian town it would be,
+picturesque but dirty, built, too, with an eye to security from attack.
+One town is particularly noteworthy--not a very large town, but more
+important, doubtless, in times past than now. Out of the valley there
+rises a rocky butte, abrupt almost as though it were some monstrous
+vegetable growth. On the summit of this natural fortress some old
+Georgian chief had, in the good old days of independence, built a massive
+castle, and nestling beneath its protecting shadow around the base of the
+butte is the town, a picturesque town of adobe and wattle walls and
+quaint red tiles. So intensely verdant is the valley, so thickly wooded
+the dark surrounding mountains, so brown the walls, so red the tiles, and
+so picturesque the elevated castle, that even K goes into raptures, and
+calls the picture beautiful.
+
+The improvement in the Russian telegraph line, perhaps, owes something to
+its brief association with the invading stranger from England; and now
+among the sublime loveliness of this Caucasian Switzerland one finds the
+station-houses built with far more pretence to the picturesque than on
+the barren steppes toward Baku and the Caspian. Here is the Caucasia of
+our youthful dreams, and the mystic hills and vales whence Mingrelian
+princes issued forth to deeds of valor in old romantic tales. Urchins,
+small mountaineers, more picturesquely clad than anything seen in Alpine
+Italy, even, now offer us little baskets of wild strawberries at ten
+copecks a basket-strawberries they and their little brothers and sisters
+have gathered this very morning at the foot of the hills. The cuisine at
+the lunch-counters embraces fresh trout from neighboring mountain
+streams, caught by vagrant Mingrelian Isaac Waltons, who bring them in on
+strings of plaited grass to sell.
+
+Humorous scenes sometimes enliven our stops at the stations. The Russian
+warnings for travellers to seek the train before it is everlastingly too
+late cover fully a minute of time. First come three raps of a bell
+suspended on the platform, afterward a station employe blows a little
+whistle, and lastly comes a toot from the engine itself, by way of an
+ultimatum. Once this afternoon a woman leaves the train to enter the
+waiting-room for something. Just as she is entering, the station-man
+rings the bell. The woman, evidently unaccustomed to railway travel,
+rushes hastily back to the train. Everybody greets her performance with
+good-natured merriment. Finding the train not pulling out, and encouraged
+by some of the passengers, the woman ventures to try it again. As she
+reaches the waiting-room door, the station-man blows a shrill blast on
+his whistle. The woman rushes back, as before. Again the people laugh,
+and again words of encouragement tempt her to venture back again. This
+time it is the toot of the engine that brings that poor female scurrying
+back across the platform amid the unsympathetic laughter of her
+fellow-passengers, and this time the train really starts. From this it
+would appear that too many signals are quite as objectionable at
+railway-stations as not signals enough. Every stoppage at a lunch-counter
+station, or where venders of things edible come on the platform, gives us
+opportunity to turn our minds judicially upon the civilization of our
+fellow first-class passengers. They present a curious combination of
+French fashion and polite address, on the one hand, and want of taste and
+ignorance of civilization's usages on the other. Gentlemen and ladies,
+dressed in the latest Parisian fashions, stand out on the platform and
+devour German sausage or dig their teeth into big chunks of yellow cheese
+with the gusto of half-starved barbarians.
+
+We double our engines--our compact, tenderless, petroleum-burning
+engines--at the foot of the Suran Pass. At its base, a stream disappears
+in an arched cave at the foot of a towering rocky cliff, and I have
+bethought me since of whether, like Allan Quatermain's subterranean
+stream, it would, if followed, reveal things heretofore unseen. And so we
+climb the lovely Suran Pass, rattle down the western slope upon the Black
+Sea coast, and reach Batoum at 11 p.m.
+
+As the chief mercantile port of the Caucasus, Batoum is an important
+shipping point. By the famous Berlin treaty it was made a free port; but
+nothing is likely to remain free any length of time upon which the
+Russian bear has managed to lay his greedy paw. Consequently, Batoum is
+now afflicted with all sorts of commercial taxes and restrictions,
+peculiar to a protective and autocratic semi-Oriental government.
+Notwithstanding this, however, ships from various European ports crowd
+its harbor, for not only is it the shipping point of Baku petroleum, but
+also the port of entry for much of the Persian and Central Asian
+importations from Europe. An oil-pipe line is seriously contemplated from
+Baku to replace the iron-tank cars now run on the railroad.
+
+Big fortifications are under headway to protect the harbor; its strategic
+importance as the terminus of the Caucasus Railway and the shipping point
+for troops and war material making Batoum a place of special solicitation
+on the part of the Russian military authorities. R------and I walk around
+and take a look at the fortification works, as well as one can do this;
+but no strangers are allowed very near, and we are conscious of close
+surveillance the whole time we are walking out near the scene of
+operations.
+
+A pleasant day in Batoum, and we take passage aboard a Messageries
+Maritimes steamer for Constantinople. Late at night we depart, amid the
+glare and music of a violent thunder-storm, and in the morning wake up in
+the roadstead of Trebizond.
+
+To fully realize the difference between mock-civilization and the genuine
+article, one cannot do better than to transfer from a Russian Caspian
+steamer to a Messageries Maritimes. The Russians affect French methods
+and manners in pretty much everything; but the thinness and transparency
+of the varnish becomes very striking in contrast aboard the steamers.
+
+The scenery along the Anatolian coast is striking and lovely in the
+extreme as we steam along in full view of it all next day. It is
+mountainous the whole distance, but the prospect is charmingly variable.
+Sometimes the mountains are heavily wooded down to the water's edge, and
+sometimes the slopes are prettily chequered with clearings and
+cultivation.
+
+More and more lovely it grows next day, as we pass Samsoon, celebrated
+throughout the East for chibouque tobacco; Sinope, memorable as the place
+where the first blow of the Crimean War was delivered; and, on the
+morning of the third day, Ineboli, the "town of wines."
+
+On the evening of the third day we lay off the entrance to the Bosphorus
+till morning, when we steam down that charming strait to Constantinople.
+It is almost a year since I took, in company with our friend Shelton Bey,
+a pleasure trip up the Bosphorus and gazed for the first time on its
+wondrous beauties. I have seen considerable since, but the Bosphorus
+looks as fresh and lovely as ever.
+
+While yielding as full a measure of praise to the Bosphorus as any of its
+most ardent admirers, I would, however, at the same time, recommend those
+in search of lovely coast scenery to take a coasting voyage along the
+southern shore of the Black Sea in June. I have no hesitation in saying
+that the traveller who goes into raptures over the beauties of the
+Bosphorus would, if he saw it, include the whole Anatolian coast to
+Batoum.
+
+Several very pleasant days are spent in Constantinople, talking over my
+Central Asian adventures with former acquaintances and seeing the city.
+But as these were pretty thoroughly described in Volume I., there is no
+need of repetition here. With many regrets I part company with R, who has
+proved a very pleasant companion indeed, and set sail for India.
+
+The steamers of the Khedivial Line, plying between Constaninople and
+Alexandria, have their mooring buoys near the Stamboul side of the Golden
+Horn, between Seraglio Point and the Galata bridge. During the forenoon,
+Shelton Bey, R--, and I had taken a caique and sought out from among
+the crowd of shipping in the harbor the steamship Behera, of the
+above-mentioned line, on which I have engaged my passage to Alexandria,
+so that we should have no difficulty in finding it in the afternoon. In
+the afternoon the Behera is found surrounded by a swarm of caiques,
+bringing passengers and friends who have come aboard to see them off.
+These slender-built craft are paddling about the black hull of the
+steamer in busy confusion. A fussy and authoritative little police boat
+seems to take a wanton delight in increasing the confusion by making
+sallies in among them to see that newly arriving passengers have provided
+themselves with the necessary passports, and that their baggage has been
+duly examined at the custom-house. All is bustle and confusion aboard the
+Behera, and in two hours after the advertised time (pretty prompt for an
+Egyptian-owned boat) a tug-boat assists her from her moorings, paddles
+glibly to one side, and in ten minutes Seraglio Point is rounded, and we
+are steaming down the Marmora with the domes and minarets of the Ottoman
+capital gradually vanishing to the rear.
+
+People whose experience of steamship travel is confined to voyages in
+western waters, and the orderliness and neatness aboard an Atlantic
+steamer, can form little idea of the appearance aboard an Oriental
+passenger boat. The small foredeck is reserved for the use of first and
+second-class passengers; the remainder of the deck-room is pretty well
+crowded with the most motley and picturesque gathering imaginable. Arabs
+and Egyptians returning from a visit to Stamboul, pilgrims going to Mecca
+via Egypt, Greeks, Levantines, and Armenians, all more or less
+fantastically attired and occupying themselves in their own peculiar way.
+The nomadic instinct of the Arabs asserts itself even on the deck of the
+steamer; ere she is an hour from Stamboul they may be seen squatting in
+little circles around small pans of charcoal, cooking their evening meal
+in precisely the same manner in which they are wont to cook it in the
+desert, leaving out, of course, the difference between camel chips and
+charcoal.
+
+The soothing "bubble bubble" of the narghileh is heard issuing from all
+sorts of quiet corners, where dreamy-looking Turks are perched
+cross-legged, happy and contented in the enjoyment of their beloved
+water-pipe and in the silent contemplation of the moving scenes about
+them. As we ply our way at a ten-knot speed through the blue waves of the
+Marmora, and the sun sinks with a golden glow below the horizon, the
+spirit moves one of the Mecca pilgrims to climb on top of a chicken coop
+and shout "Allah-il!" for several minutes; the dangling ends of his
+turban flutter in the fresh evening breeze, streaming out behind him as
+he faces the east, and flapping in his swarthy face as he turns round
+facing to the opposite point of the compass. His supplications seem to be
+addressed to the dancing, white-capped waves, but the old Osmanlis mutter
+"Allah, Allah," in response between meditative whiffs of the narghileh,
+and the Arab and his fellow Mecca pilgrims swell the chorus with
+deep-fetched sighs of "Allah, Ali Akbar!"
+
+A narrow space is walled off with canvas for the exclusive use of the
+female deck passengers, and in this enclosure scores of women and
+children of the above-named nationalities are huddled together
+indiscriminately for the night, packed, I should say, closer than
+sardines in a tin box. Male sleepers and family groups are sprawled about
+the deck in every conceivable position, and in walking from the foredeck
+to the after-cabins by the ghostly glimmer of the ship's lanterns, one
+has to pick his way cautiously among them. Woe to the person who attempts
+this difficult feat without the aid of a good pair of sea-legs; he is
+sure to be pitched head foremost by the motion of the vessel into the
+bosom of some family peacefully snoozing in a promiscuous heap, or to
+step on the slim, dusky figure of an Arab.
+
+The ubiquitous Urasian who can speak "a leetle Inglis" soon betrays his
+presence aboard by singling me out and proceeding to make himself
+sociable. I am sitting on the foredeck perusing a late copy of a magazine
+which I had obtained in Constantinople, when that inevitable individual
+introduces himself by peeping at the corner of the magazine, and, with a
+winning smile, deliberately spells out its name; and soon we are engaged
+in as animated a discussion of the magazine as his limited knowledge of
+English permits. After listening with much interest to the various
+subjects of which it treats, he parades his profuse knowledge of
+Anglo-Saxon athletics by asking: "Does it also speak of ballfoot?"
+
+The cuisine in both first and second-class cabins aboard the Egyptian
+liners is excellent, being served after the French style, with several
+courses and wine ad libitum. At our table is one solitary female, a Greek
+lady with an interesting habit of talking and gesticulating during
+meal-times, and of promenading the fore-deck in a profoundly pensive mood
+between meals. I have good reason to remember her former peculiarity, as
+she accidentally knocks a bottle of wine over into my soup-plate while
+gesticulating to a couple of Levantines across the table. She is a
+curious woman in more respects than one: she always commences to pick her
+teeth at the beginning of the meal, and between courses she sticks the
+little wooden toothpick, pen-fashion, behind her ear. Being Greek, of
+course she smokes cigarettes, and being Greek, of course she is also
+arrayed in one of those queer-looking garments that resemble an inverted
+cloth balloon, with the feet protruding from holes in the bottom. She
+sometimes absent-mindedly keeps the toothpick behind her ear while
+promenading the deck, and I have humbly thought that a woman promenading
+pensively back and forth in the national Greek costume, smoking a
+cigarette, and with a wooden toothpick behind her starboard ear, was
+deserving of passing mention.
+
+The chief engineer of the ship is an Englishman with a large experience
+in the East; he has served with the late lamented General Gordon in the
+suppression of the slave trade in the Red Sea, and was anchored in
+Alexandria harbor during the last bombardment of the forts by the English
+ships. "The best thing about the whole bombardment," he says, "was to see
+the enthusiasm aboard the Yankee ships; the rigging swarmed with men,
+waving hats and cheering the English gunners, and whenever a more telling
+shot than usual struck the forts, wild hurrahs of approval from the
+American sailors would make the welkin ring again."
+
+"There was no holding the Yankee sailors back when the English were
+preparing to go ashore," the old engineer continues, a gleam of
+enthusiasm lighting up his face, "and it was arranged that they should go
+ashore to protect the American Consulate--only to protect the
+American Consulate, you know," and the engineer winks profoundly, and
+thinking I might not comprehend the meaning of a profound wink, he winks
+knowingly as he repeats, "only to protect the American Consulate, you
+know." The engineer winds up by remarking: "That little affair in
+Alexandria harbor taught me more about the true feeling between the
+English and Americans than all the newspaper gabble on the subject put
+together." We touch at Smyrna and the Piraeus, and at the latter place a
+number of recently disbanded Greek soldiers come aboard; some are
+Albanian Greeks whose costume is sufficiently fantastic to merit
+description. Beginning at the feet, these extremities are incased in
+moccasins of red leather, with pointed toes that turn upward and inward
+and terminate in a black worsted ball. The legs look comfortable and
+active in tights of coarse gray cloth, but the piece de resistance of the
+costume is the kilt. This extends from the hips to the middle of the
+thighs, and instead of being a simple plaited cloth, like the kilt of the
+Scotch Highlanders, it consists of many folds of airy white material that
+protrude in the fanciful manner of the stage costume of a coryphee. A
+jacket of the same material as the tights covers the body, and is
+embellished with black braid; this jacket is provided with open sleeves
+that usually dangle behind like immature wings, but which can be buttoned
+around the wrists so as to cover the back of the arm. The head-gear is a
+red fez, something like the national Turkish head-dress, but with a huge
+black tassel that hangs half-way down the back, and which seems ever on
+the point of pulling the fez off the wearer's head with its weight. At
+noon of the fifth day out we arrive in Alexandria Harbor, to find the
+shipping gayly decorated with flags and the cannon booming in honor of
+the anniversary of Her Majesty Queen Victoria's coronation.
+
+Alexandria is the most flourishing and Europeanized city I have thus far
+seen in the East. That portion of the city destroyed by the incendiary
+torches of Arabi Pasha is either built up again or in process of
+rebuilding. Like all large city fires, the burning would almost seem to
+have been more of a benefit than otherwise, in the long-run, for imposing
+blocks of substantial stone buildings, many with magnificent marble
+fronts, have risen, Phoenix-like, from the ashes of the inferior
+structures destroyed by the fire. After seeing Constantinople, Teheran,
+or even Tiflis, one cannot but be surprised at Alexandria--surprised at
+finding its streets well paved with massive stone blocks, smoothly laid,
+and elevated in the middle, after the most approved methods; surprised at
+the long row of really splendid shops, in which is displayed everything
+that can be found in a European city; surprised at the swell turn-outs on
+the Khediveal Boulevard of an evening; surprised at the many evidences of
+wealth and European enterprise. In the yet unfinished quarters of the
+city, houses are going up everywhere, the large gangs of laborers, both
+men and women, engaged in their erection, create an impression of
+beehive-like activity, and everybody looks happy and contented. After so
+many surprises comes a feeling of regret that this commercial and
+industrial rose, that looks so bright and flourishing under the
+stimulating influence of the English occupation, should ever again be
+exposed to the blighting influence of an Oriental administration.
+Red-coated "Tommy Atkins," stalking in conscious superiority down the
+streets, or standing guard in front of the barracks, is no doubt chiefly
+responsible for much of this flourishing state of affairs in Alexandria,
+and the withdrawal of his peace--insuring presence could not fail to
+operate adversely to the city's good.
+
+The many groves of date-palms, rising up tall and slender, vying in
+gracefulness with the tapering minarets of the mosques, and with their
+feathery foliage mingling with and overtopping the white stone buildings,
+lends a charm to Alexandria that is found wanting in Constantinople
+--albeit the Osmanli capital presents by far the more lovely
+appearance from the sea. Massive marble seats are ranged along the
+Khediveal Boulevard beneath the trees, and dusky statues, in the scant
+drapery of the Egyptian plebe, are either sitting on them or reclining at
+lazy length, an occasional movement of body alone betraying that they are
+not part and parcel of the tomb-like marble slabs.
+
+The tall, slim figures of Soudanese and Arabs mingle with the
+cosmopolitan forms in the streets; Nubians black as ebony, their skins
+seemingly polished, and their bare legs thin almost as beanpoles, slouch
+lazily along, or perhaps they are bestriding a diminutive donkey, their
+long, bony feet dangling idly to the ground. All the donkeys of
+Alexandria are not diminutive, however. Some of the finest donkeys in the
+world are here, large, sleek-coated, well-fed-looking animals, that
+appear quite as intelligent as their riders, or as the native donkey-boys
+who follow behind and persuade them along. These donkeys are for hire on
+every street-corner, and all sorts and conditions of people, from an
+English soldier to a lean Arab, may be seen coming jollity-jolt along the
+streets on the hurricane-deck of a donkey, with a half-naked donkey-boy
+racing behind, belaboring him along. The population of Alexandria is
+essentially cosmopolitan, but, considering the English occupation, one is
+scarcely prepared to find so few English. The great majority of Europeans
+are Germans, French, and Italian, nearly all the shopkeepers being of
+these nationalities. But English language and Bullish money seem to be
+almost universally understood, and probably the Board of Trade returns
+would show that English commerce predominates, and that it is only the
+retail trade in which the foreign element looms so conspicuously to the
+fore. An English evening paper, the Egyptian Gazette, has taken root
+here, and the following rather humorous account of a series of camel
+races, copied from its pages, serves to show something of how the
+sporting proclivities of the English army of occupation enlist the
+services of even the awkward and ungainly ships of the desert:
+
+5.15 p.m.-Camel race, for gentlemen riders. Once round and a distance.
+Sweepstakes, 10 shillings. Don Juan, a fine, long-maned, fast-looking
+dromedary, started first favorite, Commodore Goodridge, K. N., our
+popular naval transport officer, being as good a judge of the ship of the
+desert as he is of a man-of-war. There was some difficulty at the post to
+get the riders together, owing to the fractiousness of Don Juan, who,
+with Kobert the Devil (ridden by Surgeon Porke), did not seem quite
+agreed about the Professional Beauty (ridden by Surgeon Moir). At the
+start Shaitan (ridden by Mr. Airey, E. N.) shoved to the front, closely
+followed by Surgeon Robertson's Mother-in-law, who, with Lieutenant
+Shuckburg's Purely Patience, Mr. Dumreicher's First Love, and Surgeon
+Halle's Microbe, rather shut out Don Juan. They kept this order until
+rounding Tattenham Corner, when Mr. Dumreicher brought his camel to the
+front, proving to his backers that he meant business with his First Love,
+and won a splendid race by her neck, Don Juan making a good second, with
+Professional Beauty about a length behind.
+
+6.15 p.m.-Camel race, for sailors and soldiers. Once round and a
+distance. First prize, 10s.; second, 5s.; third, 2s. 6d. Eleven
+competitors turned up for this race, which was very well contested,
+although one of the camels appeared to think it too much trouble to run,
+and quietly squatted down immediately after the start, and could not be
+induced to join his fellows. Abdel Hal Hassin of the Coast Guard came in
+first, with Wickers of the Royal Artillery second, and Simpson of the
+commissariat and transport corps third.
+
+"Second camel race, for gentlemen riders. This was got up on the course
+by a sporting naval officer. Five camels started: G. O. M., Hartington,
+Goschen, Chamberlain, and Unionist. This looked a certainty for G. O. M.,
+as all but Unionist were in the same stable. However, the jockeys seem to
+have been 'got at,' for although G. O. M. got away with a good start, yet
+rounding the second corner he was shut out by a combined effort of
+Hartington, Goschen, Chamberlain, and Unionist, the latter winning, amid
+thunders of applause, by 30 lengths."
+
+Egypt is pre-eminently the land of backsheesh, and Alexandria, as the
+chief port of arrival and departure, naturally comes in for its share of
+this annoying attention. From ship to hotel, and from hotel to
+railway-station, the traveller has to run the gauntlet of people deeply
+versed in the subtle arts and wiles of backsheesh diplomacy. At any time,
+as you stroll down the street, some native will suddenly bob up like a
+sable ghost beside you, point out something you don't want to see, and
+brazenly demand backsheesh for showing it. Cook's tourists' office is but
+a few hundred yards from my hotel. I have passed it before, and know
+exactly where it is, but one of these dusky shadows glides silently
+behind me, until the office is nearly reached, when he slips ahead,
+points it out, and with consummate assurance demands backsheesh for
+guiding me to it. The worst of it is there is no such thing as getting
+rid of these pests; they are the most persevering and unscrupulous
+blackmailers in their own small way that could be imagined. People whom
+you could swear you never set eyes on before will boldly declare they
+have acted as guide or something, and dog your footsteps all over the
+city; most of them are as "umble" as Uriah Heep himself in their annoying
+importunities, but some will not even hesitate to create a scene to gain
+their object, and, as the easiest way to get rid of them, the harassed
+traveller generally gives them a coin.
+
+In leaving by the train, after one has backsheeshed the hungry swarm of
+hotel servitors, backsheeshed the porter who has doggedly persisted in
+coming with you to the station, regardless of repeatedly telling him he
+wasn't wanted, backsheeshed the baggage man, and bolted almost like a
+hunted thing into the railway-carriage from a small host of people who
+want backsheesh--one because he happened to detect your wandering
+gaze in search of the station clock and eagerly pointed out its
+whereabouts, another because he has told you, without being asked, that
+the train starts in ten minutes, another because he pointed out your
+carriage, which for a brief transitory instant you failed to recognize,
+and others for equally trivial things, for which they all seem keenly on
+the alert--you shut yourself in with a feeling of relief that must be
+something akin to escaping from a gang of brigands. King Backsheesh
+evidently rules supreme in Egypt yet.
+
+My route to India takes me along the Egyptian Railway to Suez, thence by
+steamer down the Red Sea to Aden and Karachi. A passenger train on this
+railway consists of carriages divided into classes as they are in
+England, the first and second class cars being modelled on the same lines
+as the English. The third-class cars, however, are mere boxes provided
+with seats, and with iron bars instead of windows. Nice airy vehicles
+these, where the conditions of climate render airiness desirable, but it
+must be extremely interesting to ride in one of them through an Egyptian
+sand-storm.
+
+At the Alexandria station, an old wrinkle-faced native, bronzed and
+leathery almost as an Egyptian mummy, pulls a bell-rope three times, the
+conductor comes to the car-window for the second time and examines your
+ticket, the engine gives a cracked shriek and pulls out. As the train
+glides through the suburbs one's attention is arrested by well-kept
+carriage-drives, lined and overarched with feathery palm-tree groves, and
+other evidences of municipal thrift.
+
+From the suburbs we plunge at once into a rich and populous agricultural
+country, the famed Nile Delta, of which a passing descriptive glimpse
+will not here be considered out of place. Cotton seems to be the most
+important crop as seen from the windows of my car, and for many a mile
+after leaving Alexandria we glide through luxuriant fields of that
+important Egyptian staple.
+
+Interspersed among the darker green of the growing cotton are fields of
+young rice, sometimes showing bright and green in contrast to the darker
+shade of the cotton, and sometimes being represented by square areas of
+glistening water, beneath which the young rice is submerged.
+
+The Nile Delta is a net-work of irrigating ditches from end to end. Large
+canals, big enough to float barges, and on which considerable commerce is
+carried, tap the Nile above the Delta, and traversing it in all
+directions, furnish water to systems of smaller ditches and canals, and
+these again to still smaller channels of distribution.
+
+The water in these channels is all below the surface, and a goodly
+proportion of the whole teeming population of the delta is engaged
+between seed-time and harvest in pumping the life-giving water from these
+ditches into the small surface trenches that conduct it over their fields
+and gardens. The water-pumping fellahs, ranged along the net-work of
+canals, often at intervals of not more than one hundred yards, create an
+impression of marvellous industry pervading the whole scene, as the train
+speeds its way alongside the larger canals.
+
+The pumping in most cases is done by men or buffaloes, and the
+clumsy-looking but effective Egyptian water-wheel, a rough wooden
+contrivance that as it revolves, raises the water from below and pours it
+from holes in the side into a wooden trough, from whence it flows over
+the field.
+
+Small rude shelters are erected close by, beneath which the attendant
+fellah can squat in the shade and keep the meek and gentle, but lazy
+buffaloes up to their task, by constant threats and bellicose
+demonstrations. Most of these animals are blindfolded, a contrivance
+that, no doubt, inspires them to pace round and round their weary circle
+with becoming perseverance, inasmuch as it tends to keep them in
+perpetual fear of the dusky driver beneath the shade.
+
+People too poor, or with holdings too small, to justify the employment of
+oxen in pumping water, raise it from the ditches themselves, with buckets
+at the end of long well-sweeps; in some localities one can cast his eye
+over the landscape and see scores of these rude sweeps continually rising
+and falling, rising and falling.
+
+A few windmills are also used for pumping, but the wind is a fickle thing
+to depend on, and his utter dependence on the water supply makes the
+Egyptian agriculturist unwilling to run such risks. Steam-engines, both
+stationary and portable, are observed at frequent intervals. Both the
+engines and the coal for fuel have to be imported from England; but they
+evidently pump enough water to repay the outlay, otherwise there would
+not be so many of them in use. It must be a rich, productive soil that
+can afford the expensive luxury of importing steam-engines and coal from
+a distant market to supply it with water for irrigation.
+
+The sediment from the Nile, which settles in the canals and ditches, is
+cleaned out at frequent intervals and spread over the fields, providing a
+new dressing of rich alluvial soil to annually stimulate the productive
+capacity of the soil.
+
+In the larger cotton-fields the dusky sons and daughters of Egypt are
+seen strung out in long rows, wielding cumbersome hoes, reminding one of
+old plantation days in Dixie; or they are paddling about in the inundated
+rice-fields like amphibious things. Swarms of happy youngsters are
+splashing about in the canals and ditches; all about is teeming with life
+and animation.
+
+Villages are populous and close together. They are, for the most part,
+mere jumbles of low, mud houses with curious domed roofs, and they rise
+above the dead level of the delta like mounds. Many of these villages
+have probably occupied the same site since the days of the Pharaohs, the
+debris and rubbish of centuries have accumulated and been built upon
+again and again as the unsubstantial mud dwellings have crumbled away,
+until they have gradually developed into mounds that rise like huge
+mole-hills above the plain, and on which the present houses are built.
+Near each village is a graveyard, also forming a mound-like excrescence
+on the dead level of the surrounding surface.
+
+At intervals the train passes some stately white mansion, looking lovely
+and picturesque enough for anything, peeping from a grove of date-palms
+or other indigenous vegetation. The tall, slender palms with their
+beautiful feathery foliage, lend a charm to the sunny Egyptian landscape
+with its golden dawns and sunsets that is simply indescribable. There
+seems no reason why every village on the whole delta should not be hiding
+its ugliness beneath a grove of this charming vegetation. Further east,
+near Fantah, nearly every village is found thus embowered, and date-palm
+groves form a very conspicuous feature of the landscape. One need hardly
+add that here the fellaheen look more intelligent, more prosperous and
+happy.
+
+At all the larger stations women come to the train with roast quails
+stuffed with rice, which they sell at six-pence apiece, and at every
+station along the line children bring water in the porous clay bottles of
+the country. This latter is badly needed, for the train rattles along
+most of the time in a stifling cloud of dust, that penetrates the car and
+settles over one in incredible quantities.
+
+During the afternoon we pass the battle-field of Tel-el-Kebre, the train
+whisking right through the centre of Arabi Pasha's earthworks. Near the
+battle-field is a little cemetery where the English soldiers killed in
+the battle were buried. The cemetery is kept green and tidy, and
+surrounded by a neat iron fence; amid the gray desert that begins at
+Tel-el-Kebre this little cemetery is the only bright spot immediately
+about. From Tel-el-Kebre to Suez the country is a sandy desert, where
+sand-fences, like the snow-fences of the Rocky Mountains, have been found
+necessary to protect the railway from the shifting sand. On this dreary
+waste are seen herds of camels, happy, no doubt, as clams at high tide,
+as they roam about and search for tough camel-thorn shrubs, that here and
+there protrude above the wavy ridges of white sand. Put a camel in a
+pasture of rich, succulent grass and he will roam about with a far-away,
+disconsolate look and an expression of disgust, but here, on the glaring
+white sands of the desert with nothing to browse upon but prickly dry
+shrubs he is in the seventh 'heaven of a camel's delight.
+
+Very curious it looks as we approach Suez to see the spars and masts of
+big steamers moving along the ship-canal, close at hand, without seeing
+anything of the water. The high dumps, representing the excavations from
+the canal, conceal everything but the masts and the top of the funnels
+even when one is close by.
+
+Several days are spent at Suez, waiting for the steamer which we will
+call the Mandarin, on which I am to take passage to Karachi. Suez is a
+wretched hole, although there is a passably good English hotel facing the
+water-front. It is the month of Bairam, however, and there is
+consequently a good deal of picturesque life in the native quarters.
+
+Suez seems swarming with guides, and as I am, for the greater part of a
+week, the only guest at the hotel, they show me far more attention than a
+dozen people would know what to do with. Some want to take me to see the
+place where Moses struck the rock, others urge me to visit the spot where
+the Israelites crossed the Red Sea; both these places being suspiciously
+handy to Suez.
+
+Donkey boys dog one's footsteps with their long-eared chargers, whenever
+one ventures outside the hotel. "I'm the Peninsular and Oriental Donkey
+Boy, sir, Jimmy Johnson; I have a good donkey, sir, when you want to
+ride, ask for Jimmy Johnson." To all this, sundry seductive offers are
+added, such as a short trial trip along the bund.
+
+The Mandarin comes along on July 7th, and a decidedly stably smell is
+wafted over the waters toward us as we follow behind her with the little
+launch that is to put me aboard when the steamer condescends to ease up
+and allow us to approach. The Mandarin, owing to the quarantine, has kept
+me waiting several days at Suez, and when at last she steams out of the
+canal and we give chase with the little launch, and finally range
+alongside, the whole length of the deck is observed to be bristling with
+ears. Some particularly hopeful agent of the Indian Government has been
+sanguine enough to ship one hundred and forty mules from Italy to Karachi
+during the monsoon season, on the deck of a notoriously rolling ship, and
+with nothing but temporary plank fittings to confine the mules. The mules
+are ranged along either side of the deck, seventy mules on each side,
+heads facing inward, and with posts and a two-inch plank separating them
+from the remainder of the deck, and into stalls of six mules each.
+Cocoanut matting is provided for them to stand on, and a plank nailed
+along the deck for them to brace their feet against when the vessel
+rolls. Nothing could be more happily arranged than this, providing the
+mules were unanimously agreed about remaining inside the railed-off
+space, and providing the monsoons had agreed not to roll the Mandarin
+violently about. With unpardonable short-sightedness, however, it seems
+that neither of these important factors in the case has been seriously
+considered or consulted, and, as an additional insult to the mules, the
+plank in front of them is elevated but four feet six above the deck.
+
+They are a choice lot of four-year-old mules, unbroken and wild,
+harum-skarum and skittish. Well-fed four-year-old mules are skin-full of
+deviltry under any circumstances, and ranged like so many red herrings in
+their boxes, with no exercise, and every motion of the ship jostling them
+against one another, they very quickly developed a capacity for
+simon-pure cussedness that caused the officers of the ship no little
+anxiety from day to day, and a good deal more anxiety when they reflected
+on the weather that would be encountered on the Indian Ocean.
+
+The officers of the Mandarin are excellent seamen; they are perfectly at
+home and at their ease when it comes to managing a vessel, but their
+knowledge of mules is not so profound and exhaustive as of vessels; in
+short, their experience of mules has hitherto been confined to casually
+noticing meek and sober-sided specimens attached to the street cars of
+certain cities they have visited. Three Italian muleteers have been hired
+to assist and instruct the coolies in feeding and watering the mules, and
+to supervise their general welfare. The three muleteers is an excellent
+arrangement, providing there were but three mules, but unfortunately
+there are one hundred and forty, and before they had been aboard the
+Mandarin two days it became apparent that they ought to have engaged an
+equal number of Italians to keep the mules out of devilment.
+
+Uneasy in their minds at the wild restlessness and seemingly dare-devil
+and inconsiderate pranks of their long-eared and unspeakable charges, the
+officers are naturally anxious to avail themselves of any stray grains of
+enlightenment concerning their management they might perchance drop on to
+by appealing to persons they come in contact with. Accordingly, one of
+them approaches me, the only passenger aboard, except some Hindoos
+returning home from a visit to the Colinderies, and asks me if I
+understand anything about mules. I modestly own up to having reared,
+broken, driven, and generally handled mules in the West, whereat the
+officer is much pleased, and proceeds to unburden his mind concerning the
+animals aboard the ship. "Fine young mules," he says they are, and in
+reply to a question of what the government of India is importing mules
+from Europe for, instead of raising them in India, he says he thinks they
+must be intended for breeding purposes.
+
+Understanding well enough that all this is quite natural and excusable in
+a sea-faring man, I succeed in checking a rising smile, and gently, but
+firmly, convince the officer of the erroneousness of this conclusion. The
+officer is delighted to find a person possessing so complete a knowledge
+of mules, and I am henceforth regarded as the oracle on this particular
+subject, and the person to be consulted in regard to sundry things they
+don't quite understand.
+
+Between the two-inch plank and the awning overhead is a space of about
+three feet; the mate says he is a trifle misty as to how a sixteen-hand
+mule can leap through this small space without touching either the plank
+or the awning; "and yet," he says, "there is hardly a mule on board that
+has not performed this seemingly miraculous feat over and over again, and
+a good many of them, make a practice of doing it every night." This
+jumping mania makes him feel uneasy every night, the mate goes on to
+explain, for fear some of the reckless and "light-heeled cusses" should
+make a mistake and jump over the bulwarks into the sea; the bulwarks are
+no higher than the plank, yet, while half the mules were found outside
+the plank every morning, none of them had happened to jump outside the
+bulwarks so far. Many of the mules, he says, were putting in most of
+their time bulldozing their fellows, and doing their best to make their
+life unbearable, and the downtrodden specimens seem so desperately scared
+of the bulldozers that he expects to see some of them jump overboard from
+sheer fright and desperation.
+
+At this juncture we are joined by another officer, and the mate joyfully
+informs him that I am a man who knows more about mules than anybody he
+had ever talked mule with. His brother officer is delighted to hear this,
+as he has been uneasy about the mules' appetites; they would devour all
+the hay and coarse feed they could get hold of, but didn't seem to have
+that constant hankering after grain that he had always understood to be
+part and parcel of a horse's, and, consequently, a mule's, nature. He
+knows something about horses, he says, for his wife keeps a pony in
+Scotland, and the pony would leave hay at any time to eat oats and bran;
+consequently, he thinks there must be something radically wrong with the
+mules; and yet they seem lively enough--in fact, they seem d-d lively.
+
+The two salts are also troubled somewhat in their minds at the marvellous
+kicking powers and propensities of the mules. One says he could
+understand an animal kicking to defend itself when attacked in the rear,
+or when anything tickled its heels, but the mules aboard the Mandarin had
+their heels in the air most of the time, and they battered away at one
+another, and pounded the iron bulwarks, without the slightest
+provocation. "Yes," chimes in the other officer, "and, more than that,
+I've seen 'em throw their heels clear over the bulwarks, kicking at a
+white-capped wave--if you'll believe me, sir, actually kicking at a
+white-capped wave--that happened to favor them with a trifle of
+spray." I say I have no doubt what the officer says is true, and not
+necessarily exaggerated, and the officer says: "No, there is no
+exaggeration about it. You'll see the same thing yourself before you've
+been aboard twelve hours. There'll be h-ll to pay aboard this ship when
+we strike the monsoons."
+
+After explaining to the officers that there are not men enough, nor
+bulldozing and tyrannical mules enough, aboard the Mandarin to scare the
+timidest mule of the consignment into jumping over the bulwarks into the
+sea; that it is quite natural for mules to prefer hay to bran and oats,
+and that it is as natural and necessary for a four-year-old mule to kick
+as it is to breathe, they thank me and say they shall sleep sounder
+tonight than they have for a week. The heat, as we steam slowly down the
+Red Sea, is almost overpowering at this time of the year, July. A
+universal calm prevails; day after day we glide through waters smooth as
+a mirror, resort to various expedients to keep cool, and witness fiery
+red sunsets every evening. Every day the deck presents a scene of
+animation, from the pranks and vagaries of our long-eared cargo.
+
+All goes well with them, however, as we glide along the placid bosom of
+the Red Sea; the oppressive heat has a wilting effect even on the riotous
+spirits of the young mules. They still exhibit their mulish contempt for
+the barriers reared so confidingly around them, and develop new and
+startling traits of devilment every day; but it is not until we leave
+Aden, and the long swells come rolling up from the monsoon region, that
+the real fun begins. The Mandarin lurches and rolls awfully, making it
+extremely difficult at times for any of the mules to keep their feet;
+each mule seems to think his next neighbor responsible for the jostling
+and crowding, and the kicking and squealing is continuous along both
+lines. While battering away at each other, each mule seems to be at the
+same time keeping a loose eye behind him for the oncoming waves and
+swells that occasionally curl over the bulwarks and irrigate and irritate
+them in the rear. Most of the mules seem capable of kicking at their
+neighbors and at a wave at the same time; but it is when their undivided
+attention is centred upon the crested billow of a swell that sweeps
+alongside the ship and flings a white, foamy cataract at the business end
+of each mule as it advances, that their marvellous heel-flinging capacity
+becomes apparent. Each mule batters frantically away as the wave strikes
+him, and the rattle of nimble and indignant hoofs on the iron bulwarks
+follows the wave along from one end of the ship to the other.
+
+One of the most arrogant and overbearing of the animals aboard is a
+ginger-colored mule stationed almost amidships on the starboard side.
+This mule soon develops the extraordinary capacity of casting its eye
+over the heaving waste of waters and distinguishing the particular wave
+that intends coming over the bulwarks long before it reaches the vessel.
+The historical arrogance of Canute's followers in thinking the waves
+would recede at his command, is nothing in comparison to the cheeky
+assumption of this ginger mule. This mule will fold back its ears, look
+wild, and raise its heels menacingly at a white-crested wave when the
+wave is yet a hundred yards away; and on the second day out from Aden its
+arrogance develops in such an alarming degree that it bristles up and
+lifts its heels at waves that its experience and never-flagging
+observation must have taught it wouldn't come half-way up the bulwarks!
+
+Now and then a mule will be caught off his guard and be flung violently
+to the deck, but the look of astonishment dies away as it nimbly regains
+its feet, and gives place to angry attack on its neighbor and a
+half-reproachful, half-apprehensive look at the sea. So far, however, the
+mules seem to more than hold their own, and, all oblivious of what is
+before them, they are comparatively happy and mischievous. But on the
+night of the third day out from Aden, the full force of the monsoon
+swells strikes the Mandarin, and, true to her character, she responds by
+rolling and pitching about in the trough of the sea in a manner that
+fills the mules with consternation, and ends in their utter collapse and
+demoralization. Planks break and give way as the whole body of mules are
+flung violently and simultaneously forward, and before midnight the mules
+are piled up in promiscuous and struggling heaps, while tons of water
+come on deck and wash and tumble them about in all imaginable shapes and
+forms.
+
+All hands are piped up and kept busy tying the mules' legs, to prevent
+them regaining their feet only to be flung violently down again in the
+midst of a struggling heap of their fellows. There is only one mule
+actually dead in the morning, but the others are the worst used up,
+discouraged lot of mules I ever saw. Mules that but the day before would
+nearly jump out of their skins if one attempted to pat their noses, now
+seem anxious to court human attention and to atone for past sins. Many of
+them are pretty badly skinned up and bruised, and a few of them are
+well-nigh flayed alive from being see-sawed back and forth about the
+deck. It is not a pleasant picture to dwell upon, and it would be much
+pleasanter to have to record that the mules proved too much for the
+monsoon, but truth will prevail, and before we reach Karachi the monsoon
+has scored fourteen mules dead and pretty much all the others more or
+less wounded. But this is no discredit to the mules; in fact, I have
+greater respect for the staying qualities of a mule than ever before,
+since the monsoon only secures ten per cent of them for the sharks after
+all.
+
+A week from Aden, and fourteen days from Suez we reach Karachi. The tide
+happens to be out at the time, and so we have to lay to till the
+following morning, when the Mandarin crosses the bar and drops anchor
+preparatory to unloading the now badly demoralized mules into lighters.
+
+Karachi bids fair to develop into a very prominent sea-port in the near
+future. The extension of the frontier into Beloochistan gives Karachi a
+strategic importance as the port of arrival of troops and war material
+from England. Not less is its importance from a purely commercial view;
+for down the Indus Valley Railway to Karachi for shipment, come the
+enormous and yearly increasing wheat exportations from the Punjab.
+
+Thus far my precise plans have been held in abeyance until my arrival on
+Indian soil. Whether I would find it practicable to start on the wheel
+again from Karachi, or whether it would be necessary to proceed to the
+northeast, I had not yet been able to find out. At any rate, it is always
+best to leave these matters until one gets on the spot.
+
+The result of my investigations at once proves the impossibility, even
+were it desirable, of starting from Karachi. The Indus River is at flood,
+inundating the country, which is also jungly and wild and without roads.
+The heat throughout Scinde in July is something terrific; and to endeavor
+to force a way through flooded jungle with a bicycle at such a time would
+be little short of madness.
+
+Under these conditions I decide to proceed by rail to Lahore, the capital
+of the Punjab, whence, I am told, there will be a good road all the way
+to Calcutta. As the crow flies, Lahore is nearer to Furrah than Karachi
+is, so that my purpose of making a continuous trail will be better served
+from that point anyhow.
+
+It is an interesting jaunt by rail up the Indus Valley; but one's first
+impression of India is sure to be one of disappointment by taking this
+route. It is a desert country, taken all in all, this historic Scinde;
+through which, however, the Indus Valley makes a narrow streak of
+agricultural richness.
+
+The cars on the railroad are provided with kus-kus tatties to mollify the
+intense heat. They are fixed into the windows so that the passengers may
+turn them round from time to time to raise the water from the lower half
+to the top, whence it trickles back again and cools the heated air that
+percolates through.
+
+The heat increases as we reach Rohri and Sukhar, where passengers are
+transferred by ferry across the Indus; the country seems a veritable
+furnace, cracking and blistering with heat. At Sukhar our train glides
+through some rich date-palms, the origin of which, legend says, were the
+date-stones thrown away by the soldiers of Alexander the Great. They seem
+to have taken root in congenial soil, anyway, for every tree is heavily
+laden with ripe and ripening dates. Reclining under the date-trees or
+wandering about are many dusky sons and daughters of Scinde, the latter
+in bright raiment and with children in no raiment whatever. The heat, the
+fruitful date-palms, and the lotus-eating natives combine to make up a
+truly tropical scene.
+
+Much of the country population seems to be nomadic, or semi-nomadic,
+dwelling in tents with which they remove to the higher ground when the
+Indus becomes inundated, and return again to the valley to cultivate and
+harvest their crops. They seem a picturesque people mostly, sometimes
+strangely incongruous in the matter of apparel, as, for instance, one I
+saw wearing a white breech-cloth and a hussar coat. This was the whole
+extent of his wardrobe, for he had neither shoes, shirt, nor hat.
+
+Water-buffaloes are wading and swimming about in the overflowed jungle,
+browsing off bulrushes and rank grass. Youngsters are sometimes seen
+perched on the buffaloes' backs, taking care of the herd.
+
+About Mooltan the aspect of the country changes to level, barren plain,
+and this, as we gradually approach Lahore, gives place to a cultivated
+country of marvellous richness. Here one first sees the matchless kunkah
+roads, traversing the country from town to town, the first glimpse of
+which is very reassuring to me.
+
+It is July 28th when I at length find myself in Lahore. The heat is not
+only well-nigh unbearable, but dangerous. Prickly heat has seized hold
+upon me with a promptness that is anything but agreeable; the thermometer
+in my room at Clarke's Hotel registers 108 deg. at midnight. A
+punkah-wallah is indispensable night and day.
+
+A couple of days are spent in affixing a new set of tires to my wheel and
+seeing something of the lions of Lahore. The Shalamar Mango Gardens, a
+few miles east of the city, and Shah-Jehan's fort, museum, etc., are the
+regular things to visit.
+
+In the museum is a rare collection of ancient Asiatic arms, some of which
+throw a new light on the origin of modern firearms. Here are revolving
+muskets that were no doubt used long before the revolving principle was
+ever applied to arms in the West. But our narrative must not linger amid
+the antiquities of Lahore, fascinating as they may, peradventure, be.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THROUGH INDIA.
+
+The heat is intense, being at the end of the heated term at the
+commencement of the earliest monsoons. It is certainly not less than 130
+deg. Fahr., in the sun, when at 3 p.m. I mount and shape my course toward
+Amritza, some thirty-five miles down the Grand Trunk Road.
+
+In such a temperature and beneath such a sun it behooves the discreet
+Caucasian to dress as carefully for protection against the heat as he
+would against the frost of an Arctic winter. The United States army
+helmet which I have constantly worn since obtaining it at Fort Sydney,
+Neb., has now to be discarded in favor of a huge pith solar topee an inch
+thick and but little smaller than an umbrella. This overshadowing
+head-dress imparts a cheerful, mushroom-like aspect to my person, and
+casts a shadow on the smooth whitish surface of the road, as I ride
+along, that well-nigh obliterates the shadow of the wheel and its rider.
+
+Thus sheltered from the rays of the Indian sun, I wheel through the
+beautifully shaded suburban streets of Lahore, past dense thickets of
+fruitful plantains, across the broad switch-yard of the Scinde, Delhi &
+Punjab Railway, and out on to the smooth, level surface of the Grand
+Trunk Road. This road is, beyond a doubt, the finest highway in the whole
+world. It extends for nearly sixteen hundred miles, an unbroken highway
+of marvellous perfection, from Peshawur on the Afghan frontier to
+Calcutta. It is metalled for much of its length with a substance peculiar
+to the country, known as kunkah. Kunkah is obtained almost anywhere
+throughout the Land of the Five Rivers, underlying the surface soil. It
+is a sort of loose nodular limestone, which when wetted and rolled
+cements together and forms a road-surface smooth and compact as an
+asphaltum pavement, and of excellent wearing quality. It is a magnificent
+road to bicycle over; not only is it broad, level, and smooth, but for
+much of the way it is converted into a veritable avenue by spreading
+shade-trees on either side. Far and near the rich Indian vegetation,
+stimulated to wear its loveliest garb by the early monsoon rains, is
+intensely green and luxuriant; and through the richly verdant landscape
+stretches the wide, straight belt of the road, far as eye can reach, a
+whitish streak, glaring and quivering with reflected heat.
+
+The natives of the Punjab, the most loyal, perhaps, of the Indian races,
+are beginning to regard the Christian Sabbath as a holiday, and happy
+crowds of people in holiday attire are gathered at the Shalamar Mango
+Gardens, a few miles out of Lahore. Beyond the gardens, I meet a native
+in a big red turban and white clothes, en route to Lahore on a
+bone-shaker. He is pedalling ambitiously along, with his umbrella under
+his left arm. As we approach each other his swarthy countenance lights up
+with a "glad, fraternal smile," and his hand touches his turban in
+recognition of the mystic brotherhood of the wheel. There is a mysterious
+bond of sympathy recognizable even between the old native-made
+bone-shaker and its Punjabi rider and the pale-faced Ferenghi Sahib
+mounted on his graceful triumph of Western ingenuity and mechanical
+skill. The free display of ivories as we approach, the expectation of
+fraternal recognition so plainly evident in his face, and the friendly
+and respectful, rather than obsequious, manner of saluting, tell
+something of that levelling tendency of the wheel we sometimes hear
+spoken of.
+
+The park-like expanse of country on either hand continues as mile after
+mile is reeled off; the shady trees, the ruins, the villages, and the
+roadside kos-minars, with the perfect highway leading through it all--what
+more could wheelman ask than this. A wayside police-chowkee is now seen
+ahead, a snug little edifice of brick beneath the sacred branches of a
+spreading peepul. A six-foot Sikh, in the red-and-blue turban and neat
+blue uniform of the Punjab soldier-police, stands at the door and
+executes a stiff military salute as I wheel past. A row of conical white
+pillars and a grass-grown plot of ground containing a few bungalows and
+camping space for a regiment indicate a military reservation. These
+spaces are reserved at intervals of ten or twelve miles all down the
+Grand Trunk Road; the distance from each represents a day's march for
+Indian troops in time of peace.
+
+A bend in the road, and the bicycle sweeps over a substantial brick
+bridge, spanning an irrigating canal large enough to float a three-masted
+schooner. The bridge and the ditch convey early evidence of English
+enterprise no less conspicuous than the road itself. Neatly trimmed banks
+and a tropical luxuriance of overhanging vegetation give the long
+straight reach of water the charming appearance of flowing through a
+leafy tunnel. Under the stimulus of the monsoon rains and the more than
+tropical heat, the soil seems bursting with fatness, and earth, air, and
+water are teeming with life. The roadway itself is swarming with
+pedestrians, trudging along in both directions; some there are with the
+inevitable umbrellas held above their heads, but more are carrying them
+under their arms, as though in lofty contempt of 130 deg. Fahr.
+
+Vehicles jingle past by the hundred, filled with villagers who have been
+visiting or shopping at Lahore or Amritza. Their light bamboo carts are
+provided with numbers of little brass cymbals that clash together
+musically in response to the motion of the vehicle; the occupants are
+fairly loaded down with silver jewellery, and for color and
+picturesqueness generally it is safe to assume that "not even Solomon in
+all his glory was arrayed like one of these." The women particularly seem
+to literally revel in the exuberance of bright coloring adorning their
+dusky proportions, the profusion of jewellery, the merry jingle-jangle of
+the cymbals, the more than generous heat, and the seeming bountifulness
+of everything. These Sikh and Jatni merry-makers early impress me as
+being particularly happy and light-hearted people.
+
+Splendid wheeling though it be, it soon becomes distressingly apparent
+that propelling a bicycle has now to be considered in connection with the
+overpowering heat. Half the distance to Amritza is hardly covered, and
+the riding time scarcely two hours, yet it finds me reclining beneath the
+shade of a roadside tree more used up than five times the distance would
+warrant in a less enervating climate. The greensward around me as I
+recline in the shade is teeming with busy insects, and the trees are
+swarming with the beautiful winged life of the tropical air. Flocks of
+paroquets with most gorgeous plumage--blue, red, green, gold, and every
+conceivable hue--flit hither and thither, or sweep past in whirring
+flight.
+
+Some of the native pedestrians pause for a moment and cast a wondering
+look at the unaccustomed spectacle of a Sahib and a bicycle reclining
+alone beneath a wayside tree. All salaam deferentially as they pass by,
+but there is a refreshing absence of the spirit of obtrusion that
+sometimes made life a burden among the Turks and Persians. In his disgust
+at the aggressive curiosity of the Persians, Captain E, my companion from
+Meshed to Constantinople, had told me, "You'll find, when you get to
+India, that a Sahib there is a Sahib," and the strikingly deferential
+demeanor of the natives I have encountered on the road to-day forcibly
+reminds me of his remarks.
+
+The myriads of soldier-ants crossing the road in solid phalanx or
+climbing the trees, the winged jewels of the air flitting silently here
+and there, the picturesque natives and their deferential salaams--all
+these only serve to wean one's thoughts from the oppressive heat for a
+moment. At times one fairly gasps for breath and looks involuntarily
+about in forlorn search of some place of escape, if only for a moment,
+from the stifling atmosphere. A feeling of utter lassitude and loss of
+ambition comes over one; the importance of accomplishing one's object
+diminishes, and the necessity of yielding to the pressure of the fearful
+heat and taking things easy becomes the all-absorbing theme of the
+imagination. A supreme and heroic effort of the will is necessary to
+arouse one from the inclination to remain in the shade indefinitely,
+regardless of everything else.
+
+No sort of accommodation is to be obtained this side of Amritza, however,
+so, waiting until the dreadful power of the sun is tempered somewhat by
+his retirement beneath the trees, I resume my journey, making several
+brief halts in deference to an overwhelming sense of lassitude ere
+completing the thirty-five miles. Owing to these frequent halts, it is
+after dark when I arrive at Amritza--a thoroughly wilted individual,
+and suffering agonies from the prickly heat aggravated by the feverish
+temperature superinduced by the exertion of the afternoon ride. My karki
+suit and underclothes hold almost as much moisture as though I had just
+been fished out of the river, and my dry-drained corporeal system is
+clamorous for the wherewithal to quench the fires of its feverish heat as
+I alight in the suburbs of Amritza and inquire for the dak bungalow.
+
+A willing native guides me to a hotel where a smooth-mannered Parsee
+Boniface accommodates Sahibs with supper, charpoy, and chota-hazari for
+the small sum of Rs4; punkah-wallahs, pahnee-wallahs, sweepers, etc.,
+extra. A cooling douche with water kept at a low temperature in the
+celebrated porous bottles, a change of underclothing, and a punkah-wallah
+vigorously engaged in creating an artificial breeze, soon change things
+for the better. All these refreshing and renovating appliances, however,
+barely suffice to stimulate one's energy up to the duty of jotting down
+in one's diary a brief summary of the day's happenings.
+
+The punkah of India is a long, narrow fan, suspended by cords from the
+ceiling; attached to it is another cord which finds its way outside
+through a convenient hole in the wall or window-frame. For the
+magnificent sum of three annas (six cents) the hopeful punkah-wallah sits
+outside and fills the room with soothing, sleep-inducing breezes for the
+space of a day or night, by a constant seesawing motion of the string.
+Few Europeans are able to sleep at night or exist during the day without
+the punkah-wallah's services, for at least nine months in the year. The
+slightest negligence on his part at night is sufficient to summon the
+sleeper instantly from the land of dreams to the stern reality that the
+dusky imp outside has himself dropped off to sleep. A pardonable
+imprecation, delivered in loud, threatening tones; or, in the case of a
+person vengefully inclined, or once too often made a victim, a stealthy
+visit to the open door, a well-aimed boot, and the pendulous punkah again
+swings to and fro, banishing the newly awakened prickly heat, and fanning
+the recumbent figure on the charpoy with grateful breezes that quickly
+send him off to sleep again.
+
+A slight fall of rain during the night tempers somewhat the oppressive
+heat, and the zephyrs of the prevailing monsoons blow stiffly against me
+as I pedal southward in the early morning. The rain has improved rather
+than injured the kunkah road, and it is, moreover, something of a toss-up
+as to whether the adverse wind is advantageous or otherwise. On the one
+hand it exacts increased muscular effort to ride against it, but on the
+other, its beneficent services as a cooler are measurably apparent.
+
+One needs only to traverse the Grand Trunk Road for a few days in order
+to obtain a comprehensive idea of India's teeming population. Vehicles
+and pedestrians throng the road again this morning, pouring into Amritza
+as though to attend some great festival. The impression of some festive
+occasion obtains additional color from parties of musicians who keep up a
+perpetual tom-tom-ing on their drums as they trudge along; the object of
+their noisiness is apparently to gratify their own love of the sounding
+rattle of the drums.
+
+At the police-chowkee of Ghundeala, ten miles from Amritza, a halt is
+made for rest and a drink of water. To avoid trampling on the caste
+prejudices, or the sanctimonious religious feelings of the natives,
+everybody drinks from his hands, or from a cheap earthenware dish that
+may afterward be smashed. The Sikhs and Mohammedans of the Punjab are far
+more reasonable in this matter than are the Brahmans and other ultra-holy
+idolaters of the country farther south. Among the Hindoos, where caste
+prejudices exist throughout all the strata of society, to avoid the awful
+consequences of touching their lips to a vessel out of which some
+unworthy wretch a shade less holy has previously drunk, the fastidious
+worshipper of Krishna, Vishnu, or Kamadeva always drinks from his hands,
+unless possessed of a private drinking vessel of his own. The hands are
+held in position to form a trough leading to the mouth; while an
+assistant pours water in at one end, the recipient receives it at the
+other. No little skill and care is required to prevent the water running
+down one's sleeve: the average native seems to think the human throat a
+gutter down which the water will flow as fast as he can pour it into the
+hands.
+
+The flowing yellow flood of Beas River, now at flood, and spreading
+itself over the width of a mile, makes an impassable break in my road
+soon after mid-day. A ferryboat usually plies across the stream, but by
+reason of the broad area of overflow, and the consequent difficulty of
+working it, it is moored up for the time being. Fortunately, the Scinde,
+Punjab & Delhi Railroad crosses the river on a fine bridge near by, with
+a regular ferry-train service in operation. Repairing thither, I find, in
+charge of the ferry-train, an old Anglo-Indian engineer, who prevails
+upon me to accept his hospitality for the night.
+
+Hundreds of natives pass the night round about the railway-station,
+waiting to cross the bridge on the first morning train. Nowhere else in
+the world does a gathering of people present so picturesque and
+interesting a sight as in sunny Hindostan. These people gathered about
+the Beas River station look more like a company rigged out for the
+spectacular stage than ordinary, everyday mortals attending to the
+prosaic business of life. The nose-rings worn by many of the women are so
+massive and heavy that silken cords are attached and carried to some
+support on the head to relieve the nostril of the weight. The rims of the
+ears are likewise grievously overburdened with ornaments. These
+unoffending appendages are pierced with a number of holes all round the
+rim from lobe to top; each hole contains a massive ring almost large and
+heavy enough for a bracelet, the weight of which pulls the ear all out of
+shape. Simple yet gaudy costumes prevail-garments of red, yellow, blue,
+green, olive, and white, with gold tinsel, drape the graceful forms of
+the dusky Sikh or Jatni belles; and not a whit less picturesque and
+parti-colored are the costumes of their husbands, brothers, and
+fathers-fine fellows mostly, tall, straight, military-looking men, with
+handsome faces and fierce mustashios. Not a few thoroughbred Jats are
+mingled in the crowd--the "stout-built, thick-limbed Jats," the
+warlike race with the steel or silver discus surmounting their queer
+pyramidal headdress. Under the independent government of their people by
+the Gurus, or ruler-priests, of the last century, and particularly under
+the regulations of the celebrated Guru Govind, every Sikh was considered
+a warrior from his birth, and was always required to wear steel iri some
+form or other about his person. The Jats, being the most enterprising and
+warlike tribe of the territory acknowledging the rule of the Gurus and
+the religious teachings of the Adi Granth as their faith, take especial
+pride in commemorating the bravery and warlike qualities of their
+ancestors by still wearing the distinguishing steel quoits on their
+heads.
+
+Seesum or banyan trees, shading twenty yards' width of luxuriant
+greensward on either side of the road, and each and every tree
+sheltering groups of natives, resting, idling, washing their clothes in
+some silent pool, or tending a few grazing buffaloes, form a truly
+Arcadian scene for mile after mile next day. These buffaloes are huge,
+unwieldy animals with black, hairless hides, strong and heavy almost as
+rhinoceroses. In striking contrast to them are the aristocratic little
+cream-colored Brahmani cows, with the curious big "camel-hump" on their
+withers. These latter animals are pampered and revered and made much of
+among the Brahmans; mythology has it that Brahma created cows and
+Brahmans at the same time, and the cow is therefore an object of worship
+and veneration.
+
+Taken all in all, the worship of the Hindoos has something eminently
+rational about it; their worship is frequently bestowed upon some
+tangible object that contributes directly to their material enjoyment. It
+is very much like going back to the first principles of gratitude for
+direct blessings received to worship "Mother Ganga," the noble stream
+that brings down the moisture from the Himalayas to water their plains
+and quicken into life their needy crops, or to worship the gentle bovine
+that provides them daily with milk and cheese and ghee. Wonderful legends
+are told of the cow in Hindoo mythology. The Ramayana tells of a certain
+marvellous cow owned by a renowned hermit. The hermit being honored by a
+visit from the king, who had with him a numerous retinue, was sorely
+puzzled how to provide refreshments for his princely guests. The cow,
+however, proved herself equal to the emergency, and--"Obedient to
+her saintly lord, Viands to suit each taste outpoured. Honey she gave,
+and roasted grain, Mead, sweet with flowers, and sugar-cane. Each
+beverage of flavor rare, And food of every sort, were there. Hills of hot
+rice, and sweetened cakes, And curdled milk, and soup in lakes. Vast
+beakers flowing to the brim, With sugared drink prepared for him; And
+dainty sweetmeats, deftly made, Before the hermit's guest were laid."
+
+In all Brahman communities are sacred bulls, allowed to roam at their own
+sweet will among the crops and help themselves.
+
+Chowel and dood (rice-and-milk) is obtained at noon from a village
+eating-stall; the rice is dished up to all customers in basins improvised
+from a broad banyan-leaf, so that nobody's caste may be jeopardized by
+handling spoons or dishes that others have touched. Most of the natives
+manage to eat with their fingers, but they bring for the Sahib a stiff
+green leaf which is bent into the form of a scoop and made to answer the
+purpose of a spoon. The milk is served in valueless earthenware basins
+that are tossed into the street and broken after being once used. There
+is a regular caste of artisans in India whose hereditary profession is
+the manufacture of this cheap pottery; almost every village has its
+family of pottery-makers, who manufacture them for the use of the
+community. The people are curious about the bicycle, and the Sahib's
+peculiar manner of travelling without the usual native servant and eating
+rice at an ordinary village stall. They are, however, far from being in
+the least obtrusive or annoying; on the contrary, their respectfulness
+and conservatism is something to admire; although they gather about the
+bicycle in a compact ring, not a hand in all the company is meddlesome
+enough to touch it.
+
+Through the smooth kunkah-laid bazaars of Jullundar, so different from
+the unridable bazaars we have heretofore been made familiar with, and I
+wheel past the Queen's Gardens and into the cantonment along lovely
+avenues and perfect roads. The detachment of Royal Artillery, whose
+quarters my road leads directly past, is composed largely of the gallant
+sons of Erin, and as I wheel into the cantonment, an artilleryman seated
+on a eharpoy beneath a spreading neem-tree, sings out to his comrades,
+"Be jabbers, bhoys; here's the Yankee phat's travellin' around the
+worruld wid a bicycle."
+
+I have with me a letter of introduction to an officer stationed at
+Jullundar. Upon inquiry, however, I find that he is absent at Simla on
+leave. Desirous of seeing something of Tommy Atkins in his Indian
+quarters, I therefore accept an invitation to remain at the barracks of
+the Royal Artillery until ready to resume my journey in the morning. At
+this season of the year, an Indian cantonment presents the appearance of
+a magnificent park. The barracks are large, commodious structures, built
+with a view to securing the best results for the health and comfort of
+the troops.
+
+No soldiers in the world are so well fed, housed, and clothed as the
+British soldiers in India, and none receive as much pay, except the
+soldiers of the United States army. That they are justly entitled to
+everything that can contribute to their happiness and welfare, goes
+without saying. For actual service rendered, and the importance of the
+responsibilities resting on their shoulders, it is little enough to say
+that the British soldiers in India are entitled to a greater measure of
+consideration than the soldiers of any other army in existence. This
+little army of fifty or sixty thousand men is practically responsible for
+the good behavior of one-sixth of the world's population, saying nothing
+of affairs without. And in addition to this is the wearisome round of
+existence in an Indian barrack, the enervating climate and the ennui, so
+poisonous to the active Anglo-Saxon temperament.
+
+After all that is said for or against the Anglo-Indian army, the
+unprejudiced critic cannot fail to admit that they are the finest body of
+fighting men in existence, a force against which it would be impossible
+for an equal number of the soldiers of any other country to contend. That
+the old dominant spirit of the British soldier is yet rampant as ever may
+be seen, perhaps, plainer in the cantonments of India than anywhere else.
+The manifest superiority of Tommy Atkins as a fighter stands out in bold
+relief against the gentle populations of India, who regard him as the
+very incarnation of war and warlike attributes. His own confidence in his
+ability to whip all the multitudinous enemies of England put together, is
+as great to-day as it ever was, and nothing would suit him better than a
+campaign against the military colossus of the North in defence of the
+British interests in India he now so faithfully guards.
+
+The interest in my appearance is deepened by my recent adventures in
+Afghanistan and letters partly descriptive of the same that have appeared
+in late issues of the Indian press. A mile or so from the Artillery
+barracks are the quarters of a detachment of the Connaught Rangers. A
+couple of non-commissioned officers in the Rangers, I am happy to
+discover, are wheelmen, and when the tidings of the Around the World
+rider's arrival reaches them, they wheel over and endeavor to have me
+become their guest. The Royal Artillery boys refuse to give their protege
+up, however, and the rivalry is compromised by my paying the Rangers a
+visit and then coming back to my first entertainers' quarters for the
+night.
+
+The evening is spent pleasantly in telling stories of camp-life in India
+and Afghanistan. Some of the soldiers present have been recently
+stationed at Peshawur and other points near the northern frontier, and
+tell of the extraordinary precautions that had to be adopted to prevent
+their rifles being stolen at night from the very racks within the
+barrack-rooms where they were sleeping.
+
+An officer at the cantonment claims to have cured himself of enlarged
+spleen, the bane of so many Anglo-Indian officers, by daily riding on a
+tricycle. He then disposed of it to advantage to a native gentleman who
+had noted the marvellous improvement it had wrought in his health, and
+who was also affected with the same disease. The native also cured
+himself, and now firmly believes the tricycle possessed of some magic
+properties.
+
+Reliefs of punkah-wallahs are provided for the barracks, a number of
+punkahs being connected so that one coolie fans the occupants of a dozen
+or more charpoys. In talking about these useful and very necessary
+servants, some of the comments indulged in by the gentleman who first
+invited me into the barracks are well worth repeating: "Be jabbers, an'
+yeez have to kape wide awake all night to swear at the lazy divils, in
+orther to git a wink av shlape"--and--"The moment yeez dhrap
+ashlape, yeez are awake," are choice specimens, heard in reference to the
+punkah-wallahs' confirmed habit of dozing off in the silent watches of
+the night.
+
+The two wheelmen of the Connaught Rangers, accompany me five miles to the
+Bane River ferry, in the cool of early morning. They would have escorted
+me as far as Umballa, they say, had they known of my coming in time to
+arrange leave' of absence. Twenty-five miles of continuously smooth and
+level kunkah, bring me to Phillour, a Mohammedan town of several thousand
+inhabitants. The fort of Phillour is a conspicuous object on the left of
+the road; it was formerly an important depot of military supplies, and in
+the time of Sikh independence was regarded by them as the key to the
+Punjab. Since the mutiny it has dwindled in importance as a military
+stronghold, but is held by a detachment of native infantry.
+
+A mile or so from Phillour is a splendid girder railway bridge crossing
+the River Sutlej. The overflow of the river extends for miles, converting
+the depressions into lakes and the dry ditches into sloughs and creeks.
+Resting under the shade of a peepul-tree, I while away a passing hour
+watching native fishermen endeavoring to beguile the finny denizens of
+the overflow into their custody. Their tactics are to stir up the water
+and make it muddy for a space around, so that the fish cannot see them;
+they then toss a flat disk of wood so that it falls with an audible
+splash a few yards away. This manoeuvre is intended to deceive the fish
+into thinking something eatable has fallen into the water. Woe betide the
+guileless fish, however, whose innocent, confiding nature is thus imposed
+upon, for "swish" goes a circular drop-net over the spot, from the meshes
+of which the luckless captive tries in vain to struggle.
+
+The River Sutlej has its source in the holy lake of Manas Saro-vara, in
+Thibet's most mountainous regions, and for several hundred miles its
+course leads through mighty canons, grand and rugged as the canons of the
+Colorado and the Gunnison. It is on the upper reaches of the Sutlej that
+the celebrated swing bridges called karorus are in operation. A karorus
+consists of a bagar-grass or yak-hair rope, stretched from bank to bank,
+across which passengers are pulled, suspended in a swinging chair or
+basket. The karorus is also largely patronized by the swarms of monkeys
+inhabitating the foot-hill jungles of the Himalayas; nothing could well
+be more congenial to these festive animals than the Blondin-like
+performance of crossing over some deep, roaring gorge along the swaying
+rope of a karorus.
+
+Like other rivers of the level Punjab plains, the Sutlej has at various
+times meandered from its legitimate channel; eight miles south of its
+present bed the large and flourishing city of Ludhiana once stood on its
+bank. Ludhiana and its dak bungalow, provides refreshments and a three
+hours' siesta beneath the cooling and seductive punkah, besides an
+interesting and instructive tete-a-tete with a Eurasian civil officer
+spending the day here. Among other startling confidences, this
+olive-tinted gentleman declares that to him the punkah is unbearable, its
+pendulous, swinging motion invariably making him "sea-sick."
+
+Through a country of alternate sandy downs and grazing areas my road
+leads at length through the territory of the Rajah of Sir-hind.
+Picturesque and impressive fortresses, and high, crenellated stone walls
+around the villages give the rajah's little dominion here a most decided
+mediaeval appearance, and dark, dense patches of sugar-cane attest the
+marvellous richness of the sandy soil, wherever water can be applied.
+Moreover, as if to complete the interesting picture of a native prince's
+rule, on the road is encountered a gayly dressed party in charge of some
+youthful big-wig on a monster elephant. A thick, striped mattress makes a
+soft platform on the elephant's broad back, and here the young voluptuary
+squats as naturally as on the floor of his room. Some of the attendants
+are dancing along before him, noisily knuckling tambourines and drums,
+while others trudge alongside or behind. The elephant regards the bicycle
+with symptoms of mild apprehension, and swerves slightly to one side.
+
+The police-officer of Kermandalah chowkee, just off the Rajah of
+Sirhind's territory, voluntarily tenders me the shelter of his quarters,
+just as the sun is finishing his race for the day by painting the sky
+with fanciful tints and streaks. The long, straight avenue which I have
+wheeled down, for miles hereabout runs east and west. The sun, rotund and
+fiery, sets immediately in the perspective of the avenue; and at his
+disappearance there shoot from the same point iridescent javelins that
+spread, fan-like, over the whole heavens. A sight never to be forgotten
+is the long white road and the ribs of the glorious celestial fan meeting
+together in the vista-like distance; and--oh, for the brush and
+palette and genius of a Turner!--one of the rainbow-tinted javelins
+spits the crescent moon and holds it to toast before the glowing sunset
+fires, like a piece of green cheese.
+
+The heat of the night is ominously suggestive of shed's popularly
+conceived temperature, and, in the absence of the customary punkah and
+nodding, see-sawing wallah, a villager is employed to sit beside my
+charpoy and agitate the air immediately about my head with a big
+palm-leaf fan. But sleep is next to impossible; the morning finds me
+feeling but little refreshed and with a decided yearning to remain all
+day long in the shade instead of taking to the road. Not a moment's
+respite is possible from the oppressive heat; an hour in the saddle
+develops a sensation of grogginess and an amphibian inclination for
+wallowing in some road-side tank.
+
+South of Sirhind the country develops into low, flat jungle, with much of
+it partly overflowed. The road through these semi-submerged lowlands is
+an embankment, rising many feet above the general level, and provided
+with numerous culverts and bridges to prevent the damming of the waters
+and the danger of washing away the road. The jungle is full of busy life.
+The air is thick with the low, murmuring hum of busy insect-life, birds
+shriek, whistle, call, hoot, peep, chirp, and sing among the intertwining
+branches, and frogs croak hoarsely in the watery shallows beneath.
+Noises, too, are heard, that would puzzle, I venture to say, many a
+scholarly, book-wise and specimen-wise naturalist to define as coming
+from the articulatory organs of bird, beast, or fish. The slow, measured
+sweep of giant wings beating the air is heard above, and the next moment
+a huge bustard floats down through the trees and alights in a moist
+footing of jungle-grass and water.
+
+A little Brahman village at the railway station of Rajpaira is reached in
+the middle of the afternoon; but it provides little or nothing in the way
+of accommodation for a European. The chow-keedar of the dak bungalow
+blandly declares his inability to provide anything eatable for a Sahib,
+and the Eurasian employes at the railway station are unaccommodating and
+indifferent, owing to the travel-stained and ordinary appearance of my
+apparel. The Eurasians, by the by, impress me far less favorably as a
+race than do the better-class full-blood natives. It seems to be the
+unfortunate fate of most mixed races to inherit the more undesirable
+qualities of both progenitors, and the better characteristics of neither.
+No less than the mongrel populations of certain West Indian islands, the
+Spanish-speaking republics, and the mulattoes of the Southern States, do
+the Eurasians of India present in their character eloquent argumentation
+against the error of miscegenation.
+
+A little Brahman village is anything but, an encouraging place for a
+traveller to penetrate in search of eatables. A thin, yellow-skinned
+Brahman, with a calico fig-leaf suspended from a cocoa-nut-fibre
+waist-string, and the white-and-red tattooing of his holy caste on his
+forehead, presides over a big lump of goodakoo (a preparation of tobacco,
+rose-leaves, jaggeree, bananas, opium, and cardamom seed, used for
+hookah-smoking), and his double performs the same office for sickly, warm
+goats' milk and doughy, unleavened chup-patties. Uninviting as is the
+prospect, one is compelled, by the total absence of any alternative, to
+patronize the proprietor of the latter articles.
+
+As I step inside his little shed-like establishment to see what he has,
+he holds up his hands in holy trepidation at the unhallowed intrusion,
+and begs me to be seated outside. My entrance causes as much
+consternation as the traditional bull in the china shop, the explanation
+of which is to be found in the fact that anything I might happen to touch
+becomes at once defiled beyond redemption for the consumption of native
+customers. With the weather wilting hot, doughy chuppaties and lukewarm,
+unstrained, strong-tasting goats' milk can scarcely be called an
+appetizing meal, and the latter is served in the usual cheap, earthenware
+platter, which is at once tossed out and broken.
+
+The natives of India are probably less concerned about their stomachs
+than the people of any other country in the world. They seem to delight
+in fasting, and growing thin and emaciated; their ordinary meal is a
+handful of parched grain and a few swallows of milk or water. Among the
+aesthetic Brahmans are many specimens reduced by habitual fasting and
+general meagreness of diet to the condition of living skeletons; yet they
+seem to enjoy splendid health, and live to a shrivelled old age. The
+Brahman shop-keeper squats contentedly among his wares, passing the hours
+in dreamy meditation and in consoling pipes of goodakoo. Nothing seems to
+disturb his calm serenity, any more than the reposeful expression on the
+countenance of a marble Buddha could be affected--nothing but the
+approach of a Sahib toward his shop. It is interesting to observe the
+mingled play of politeness, apprehension, and alarm in the actions of a
+Brahman shopkeeper at the appearance of a blundering, but withal
+well-meaning Sahib, among his wares. Knowing, from long experience, that
+the Englishman would on no account wilfully injure his property or
+trample wantonly on his caste prejudices, he is at his wits' end to
+comport himself deferentially and at the same time prevent anything from
+being handled. Money has to be placed where the Brahman can pick it up
+without incurring the awful danger of personal contact with an unhallowed
+kaffir.
+
+The fifty miles, that from the splendid condition of the roads I have
+thought little enough for the average day's run, is duly reeled off as I
+ride into the splendid civil lines and cantonment of Um-balla at dusk.
+But my few days' experience on the roads of India have sufficed to
+convince me that fifty miles is entirely beyond the bounds of discretion.
+It is, in fact, beyond the bounds of discretion to be riding any distance
+in the present season here; fifty miles is overcome to-day only by the
+exercise of almost superhuman will-power.
+
+The average native, when asked for the dak bungalow, is quite as likely
+to direct one to the post-office, the kutcherry, or any other government
+building, from a seeming inability to discriminate between them. At the
+entrance to Umballa one of these hopeful participants in the blessings of
+enlightened government informs me, with sundry obsequious salaams, that
+the dak bungalow is four miles farther. So thoroughly has my fifty-mile
+ride used up my energy that even this four miles, on a most perfect road,
+seems utterly impossible of accomplishment; besides which, experience has
+taught that following the directions given would very likely bring me to
+the post-office and farther away from the dak bungalow than ever.
+
+Above the trees, not far away, is observed the weathercock of a
+chapel-spire, plainly indicating the location of the European quarter.
+Taking a branch road leading in that direction, I discover a party of
+English and native gentlemen playing a game of lawn-tennis. Arriving on
+the scene just as the game is breaking up, I am cordially invited to
+"come in and take a peg." To the uninitiated a "peg" is a rather
+ambiguous term, but to the Anglo-Indian its interpretation takes the
+seductive form of a big tumbler of brandy and soda, a "long drink," than
+which nothing could be more acceptable in my present fagged-out
+condition. No hesitation is therefore made in accepting; and, under the
+stimulating influence of the generous brandy and soda, exhausted nature
+is quickly recuperated. While not an advocate of indiscriminate
+indulgence in alcoholic stimulants, after an enervating ride through the
+wilting heat of an Indian day I am convinced that nothing is more
+beneficial than what Anglo-Indians laconically describe as a "peg."
+
+This very opportune meeting results, naturally enough, in a pressing
+invitation to stay over and recruit up for a day, a programme to which I
+offer no objections, feeling rather overdone and in need of rest and
+recuperation. Mine hosts are police-commissioners, having supervision
+over the police-district of Uniballa. One of their number is on the eve
+of departure for his summer vacation in the Himalayas and, in honor of
+the event, several guests call round to partake of a champagne dinner,
+the sparkling Pommery Sec being quaffed ad libitum from pint tumblers. At
+the present time, no surer does water seek its level than the
+after-dinner conversation of Anglo-Indian officials turns into the
+discussion of the great depreciation of the silver rupee and its relation
+to the exchange at home. As the rate of exchange goes lower and lower,
+and no corresponding increase of salary takes place, the natural result
+is a great deal of hardship and dissatisfaction among those who, from
+various causes, have to send money to England. From the Anglo-Indians'
+daily association with Orientals and their peculiarly subtle
+understandings, it is perhaps not so surprising to find an occasional
+flight of fancy brought to bear upon the subject that would do credit to
+a professional romancer. One ingenious young civil officer present
+evolves a deep, deep scheme to get even with the government for present
+injustice that for far-reaching and persistent revenge speaks volumes for
+the young gentleman's determination to carry his point. His brilliant
+scheme is to retire on a pension at the proper time, live to the age of
+eighty years, and then marry a healthy girl of sixteen. As the pension of
+an Anglo-Indian government officer descends to his surviving widow, the
+ingenuity and depth of this person's reasoning powers becomes at once
+apparent. He proposes to take revenge for the present shortcomings of the
+government by saddling it with a pension for a hundred years or more
+after his retirement from active service.
+
+Tusked and antlered trophies of the chase adorning the walls,
+and panther and tiger skins scattered about the floor, attest the
+police-commissioners' prowess with the rifle in the surrounding jungle.
+The height of every young Englishman's ambition when he comes to India is
+to kill a tiger; not until with his own rifle he has laid low a genuine
+Tigris Indicus, and handed its striped pelt over to the taxidermist, does
+he feel entitled to hold his chin at a becoming elevation and to indulge
+in the luxury of talking about the big game of the jungle on an equality
+with his fellows. Among the pets of the establishment are a youthful
+black bear that spends much of its time in climbing up and down a post on
+the lawn, a recently captured monkey that utters cries of alarm and looks
+badly frightened when approached by a white person, and a pair of spotted
+deer. These, together with several hunting dogs that delight in taking
+wanton liberties with the bear and deer, form quite a happy, though not
+altogether trustful family party in the grounds.
+
+The day's rest does me a world of good, and upon resuming my journey the
+voice of my own experience is augmented by the advice of my entertainers,
+in warning me against overexertion and fatigue in so trying a climate as
+India. It has rained during the night, and the early morning is signalled
+by cooler weather than has yet been experienced from Lahore. Companies of
+tall Sikhs, magnificent-looking fellows, in their trim karki uniforms and
+monster turbans, are drilling within the native-infantry lines as I wheel
+through the broad avenues of one of the finest cantonments in all India,
+and English officers and their wives are taking the morning air on
+horseback.
+
+This splendid cantonment contains no less than seven thousand two hundred
+and twenty acres and might well be termed a magnificent park throughout.
+
+It is in the hilly tracts of the Umballa district that the curious custom
+prevails of placing infants beneath little cascades of water so that the
+stream of water shall steadily descend on the head. The cool water of
+some mountain-rivulet is converted into a number of streams appropriate
+for the purpose, by means of bamboo ducts or spouts. The infants are
+brought thither in the morning by their mothers and placed in proper
+position on beds of grass; the trickling water, pouring on their heads,
+keeps the brain cool and is popularly supposed to be efficacious in the
+prevention of many infantile diseases peculiar to the country. Children
+not subjected to this curious hydropathic treatment are said to generally
+die young, or grow up weaklings in comparison with the others.
+
+A sudden freshet in the ordinarily shallow and partially dry bed of the
+Donglee River tells of the heaviness of last night's rainstorm among the
+hills, and compels a halt of a couple of hours until the rapidly
+subsiding water gets low enough to admit of fording it with a native
+bullock gharri. A branch of the same stream is crossed in a similar
+manner, and yet a third river, a few miles farther, has to be crossed on
+a curious raft made of a number of buoyant earthenware jars fixed in a
+bamboo frame. A splendid bridge spans the swollen torrent of the more
+formidable Markunda, and the well-metalled highway now cuts a wide
+straight swath through inundated jungle. A big wild monkey, the first of
+his species thus far encountered on the road, utters a shrill squeak of
+apprehension at seeing the bicycle come bowling down the road, and in his
+fright he leaps from the branches of a road-side tree into the shallow
+water and escapes into the jungle with frantic leaps and bounds.
+
+Travelling leisurely, and resting often, for thirty miles, the afternoon
+brings me to the small town of Peepli, where a dak bungalow provides food
+and shelter of a certain kind. The sleeping-accommodation of the dak
+bungalow may hardly be described as luxurious; ants and other insects
+swarm in myriads, and lizards drag their slimy length about the timber of
+the walls and ceiling. The wild jungle encroaches on the village, and the
+dak bungalow occupies an isolated position at one end. The jungle
+resounds with the strange noises of animals and birds, and a friendly
+native, who speaks a little English, confides the joyful information that
+the deadly cobra everywhere abounds.
+
+For the first time it is cool enough to sleep without the services of the
+punkah-wallah, and not a soul remains about the dak bungalow after
+nightfall. The night is dark and cloudy, but not by any means silent, for
+the "noises of the night" are multitudinous and varied, ranging from the
+tuneful croaking of innumerable frogs to the yelping chorus of the
+jackals-the weird nocturnal concert of the Indian jungle, a musical
+melange far easier to imagine than describe. About ten o'clock, out from
+the gloomy depths of the jungle near by is suddenly heard the
+unmistakable caterwauling of a panther, followed by that cunning
+arch-dissembler's inimitable imitation of a child in distress. As though
+awed and paralyzed by this revelation of the panther's dread presence,
+the chirping and juggling and p-r-r-r-ring and yelping of inferior
+creatures cease as if by mutual impulse moved, and the pitter-patter of
+little feet are heard on the clay floor of my bungalow. The cry of the
+forest prowler is repeated, nearer than before to my quarters, and
+presently something hops up on the foot of the charpoy on which my
+recumbent form is stretched; and still continues the pattering of feet on
+the floor. It is pitchy dark within the bungalow, and, uncertain of the
+nature of my strange visitant, I kick and "qu-e-e-k" at him and scare him
+off; but, evidently terrorized by the appearance of the panther, the next
+minute he again invades my couch.
+
+To have one's room turned nolens volens into a place of refuge for timid
+animals, hiding from a prowling panther which is not unlikely to follow
+them inside, is anything but a desirable experience in the dark. Should
+his panthership come nosing inside the bungalow, in his eagerness to
+secure something for supper he might not pause to discriminate between
+brute and human; and as his awe-inspiring voice is heard again,
+apparently quite near by, I deem it expedient to warn him off. So
+reaching my Smith & Wesson from under the pillow, I fire a shot up into
+the thatched roof. The little intruders, whatever they may be, scamper
+out of the bungalow, nor wait upon the order of their going, and a loud
+scream some distance away a moment later tells of the panther's rapid
+retreat into the depths of the jungle.
+
+Soon a courageous bull-frog gives utterance to a subdued, hesitative
+croak; his excellent example is quickly followed by others; answering
+noises spring up in every direction, and ere long the midnight concert of
+the jungle is again in full melody.
+
+A comparatively cooling breeze blows across flooded jungle and rice-field
+in the morning. The country around resembles a shallow lake from out of
+which the rank vegetation of the jungle rears its multiform foliage; much
+of the water is merely the temporary overflow of the Markunda, silently
+moving through the shady forest, but over the more permanently submerged
+areas is gathered a thick green scum. Not unlike a broad expanse of level
+meadow-land do some of these open spaces seem, and the yellow, fallen
+blossoms of the gum arabic trees, scattered thickly about, are the
+buttercups spangling and beautifying the meadows.
+
+Forty-eight miles from Umballa the Grand Trunk road leads through the
+civil lines and past the towering walls of ancient Kurnaul. Formerly on
+the banks of the river Jumna, Kurnaul is now removed several miles from
+that stream, owing to the wayward trick of Indian rivers carving out for
+themselves new channels during seasons of extraordinary flood. The city
+is old beyond the records of history, its name and fame glimmering
+faintly in the dim and distant perspective of ancient Hindostani legend
+and mythical tales. Within the last few hundred years, Kurnaul has been
+taken and retaken, plundered and destroyed, by Sikh, Rajput, Mogul, and
+Mahratta freebooters, and was occupied in 1795 by the celebrated
+adventurer George Thomas, who figured so largely in the military history
+of India during the latter part of the last century. Here also was fought
+the great battle between Nadir Shah and Mohammed Shah, the Emperor of
+Delhi, that resulted in the defeat of the latter, the subsequent looting
+of Delhi, and the carrying off to Persia of the famous peacock throne.
+Splendid water-tanks, spreading banyans, feathery date-palms, and
+toddy-palms render the suburbs of Kurnaul particularly attractive, these
+days; but the place is unhealthy, being very low and the surrounding
+country subject to the overflow that induces fever.
+
+A letter of introduction from Umballa to Mr. D, deputy commissioner at
+Kurnaul, insures me hospitable recognition and creature comforts upon
+reaching the latter place at 9 a.m. Spending the heat of mid-day in Mr. D
+'s congenial society, recounting the incidents of my journey and learning
+in return much valuable information in regard to India, I continue on my
+journey again when the fiercest heat of the sun has subsided in favor of
+the slightly more tolerable evening. The country grows more and more
+interesting from various standpoints as my progression carries me
+southward. Not only does it become intensely interesting by reason of its
+historical associations in connection with the old Mogul Empire, but in
+its peculiar aspect of Indian life to-day. Monkeys are hopping about all
+over the place, moving leisurely about the roofs and walls of the
+villages, or complacently examining one another's phrenological
+peculiarities beneath the trees. About the streets, shops, and houses
+these mischievous anthropoids are seen in droves, moving hither and
+thither at their own sweet will, as much at home as the human occupants
+and owners of the houses themselves.
+
+Monkeys, being held sacred by the Hindoos, are allowed to remain in the
+towns and villages unmolested, doing pretty much as they please.
+Sometimes they swarm in such numbers that eternal vigilance alone keeps
+them from devouring the fruit, grain, and other eatables displayed for
+sale in front of the shops. When they get to be an insufferable nuisance,
+although the pious Hindoos would suffer from their depredations even to
+ruin rather than do them injury, they offer no objections to being
+relieved of their charges by the government officials, so long as the
+measures taken are not of a sanguinary nature. Sometimes the monkeys are
+caught and shipped off in car-loads to some point miles away and turned
+loose in the jungle. The appearance of a car-load of these exiles,
+however, always excites the sympathies of the pious Hindoo, and instances
+have been known when they have been stealthily liberated while the train
+was waiting at some other town.
+
+An effectual remedy has been recently discovered in cleaning out colonies
+of the smaller varieties of monkeys and inducing them to remove somewhere
+else, by introducing into their midst a certain warlike and aggressive
+variety from somewhere in the Himalaya foot-hills. This particular race
+of monkey, being a veritable anthropoidal Don Juan among his fellows,
+when turned loose in a village commences making violent love to the wives
+and sweethearts of the resident monkeys. The faithless fair, ever ready
+for coquetry and flirtation, flattered beyond measure by the attentions
+of the gallant stranger, forsake their first loves by the wholesale, and
+bask shamelessly in the sunshine of his favor. The result is that the
+outraged males, afraid to attack the warlike libertine so rudely
+introduced into their peaceful community, gather up their erring spouses,
+giddy daughters, and small children and betake themselves off forever.
+
+Not far from Kurnaul I overtake an interesting party of gypsies, moving
+with their bag and baggage piled on the backs of diminutive cows led by
+strings. Numbers of the smaller children also bestride the gentle little
+bovines, but the rest of the party are afoot. The ruling passion of the
+Romany, the wide world over, asserts itself at my approach; brown-bodied
+youngsters with sparkling, coal-black eyes race after the bicycle,
+holding out their hands and begging, "pice, sahib, pice, pice."
+
+Facsimile in cry and gesture almost, and in appearance, are these
+Hindostani gypsies of their relatives in distant Hungary, who, fifteen
+months before, raced alongside the bicycle, and begged for "kreuzer,
+kreuzer." Many ethnologists believe India to have been the original
+abiding place of the now widely scattered Romanies; certain it is that no
+country and no clime would be so well adapted to their shiftless habits
+and wandering tent-life as India. Their language, subjected to analysis,
+has been traced in a measure to Sanscrit roots, and although spread
+pretty much all over the surface of the globe, this strange, romantic
+people are said to recognize one another by a common language, even
+should the one hail from India and the other from the frozen North.
+Certain professors claim to have discovered a connecting link between the
+gypsies of the Occident and the Jats of the Punjab.
+
+A boy tending a sacred cow undertakes to drive that worshipful animal out
+of my way as he sees me come bowling briskly down the road. The bovine,
+pampered and treated with the greatest deference and consideration from
+her earliest calfhood, resents this treatment by making a short but
+determined spurt after me as I sweep past. Whether the sacred cows of
+India are spoiled by generations of overindulgence, or whether the
+variety is constitutionally evil-tempered does not appear, but they one
+and all take pugnacious exception to the bicycle. Spurting away from a
+chasing Brahmani cow is an every-day experience.
+
+Mr. D has kindly telegraphed from Kurnaul to Nawab Ali Ahmed Khan, a
+hospitable Mohammedan gentleman at Paniput, apprising him of my coming.
+More ancient even than Kurnaul, Paniput's vast antiquity is reputed to
+extend back to the period of the great Pandava War described in the
+Mahabharat, and supposed to have been fought nearly four thousand years
+ago. The city occupies a commanding position to the left of the road, and
+is rendered conspicuous by several white marble domes and minarets.
+
+The nawab and another native gentleman, physician to the Paniput
+Hospital, are seated in a dog-cart watching for my appearance, at a fork
+in the road near one of the city gates. The nawab's place is a mile and a
+half off the main road, but the smooth, level kunkah leads right up to
+the fine, commodious bungalow, in which I am duly installed. A tepid
+bath, prepared in deference to the nawab's anticipation of my preference,
+is awaiting my pleasure, and from the moment of arrival I am the
+recipient of unstinted attention. A large reclining chair is placed
+immediately beneath the punkah, and a punkah-wallah, ambitious to please,
+causes the frilled hangings of this desirable and necessary piece of
+furniture to wave vigorously to and fro but a foot or eighteen inches
+above my head. A smiling servant kneels at my feet and proceeds to knead
+and "groom" the muscles of the legs. Judging from the attentions lavished
+upon my pedal extremities, one might well imagine me to be a race-horse
+that had just endeared himself to his groom and owner by winning the
+Derby.
+
+An ample supper is followed by a most refreshing sleep, and in the
+morning, when ready to depart, my watchful attendants present themselves
+with broad smiles and sheets of paper. Each one wants a certificate
+showing that he has contributed to my comfort and entertainment, and
+lastly comes the nawab himself and his bosom friend, the hospital doctor,
+to bid me farewell and request the same favor. This certificate-foible is
+one of the greatest bores in India; almost every native who performs any
+service for a Sahib, whether in the capacity of a mere waiter at a native
+hotel, or as retainer of some wealthy nabob--and not infrequently
+the nabob himself, if a government official--wants a testimonial
+expressing one's approval of his services. An old servitor who has
+mingled much among Europeans must have whole reams of these useless
+articles stowed away. What in the world they want with them is something
+of a puzzler; though the idea is, probably, that they might come in
+useful to obtain a situation some time or other.
+
+South of Paniput the trees alongside the road are literally swarming with
+monkeys; they file in long strings across the road, looking anxiously
+behind, evidently frightened at the strange appearance of the bicycle.
+Shinnying up the toddy-palms, they ensconce themselves among the foliage
+and peer curiously down at me as I wheel past, giving vent to their
+perturbation in excited cries. Twenty-five miles down the road, an hour
+is spent beneath a grove of shady peepuls, watching the amusing antics of
+a troop of monkeys in the branches. Their marvellous activity among the
+trees is here displayed to perfection, as they quarrel and chase one
+another from tree to tree. The old ones seem passively irritable and
+decidedly averse to being bothered by the antics and mischievous activity
+of the youngsters. Taking possession of some particular branch, they warn
+away all would-be intruders with threatening grimaces and feints. The
+youthful members of the party are skillful of pranks and didoes, carried
+on to the great annoyance of their more aged and sedate relatives, who,
+in revenge, put in no small portion of their time punishing or pursuing
+them with angry cries for their deeds of wanton annoyance. One monkey,
+that has very evidently been there many and many a time before on the
+same thievish errand, with an air of amusing secrecy and roguishness,
+slips quickly along a horizontal bough and thrusts its arm into a hole.
+Its eyes wander guiltily around, as though expectant of detection and
+attack--an apprehension that quickly justifies itself in the shape of a
+blue-plumaged bird that flutters angrily about the robber's head, causing
+it to beat a hasty retreat. Birds' eggs are the booty it expected to
+find, and, me-thinks, as I note the number and activity of the
+freebooters to whom birds' eggs would be most toothsome morsels, watchful
+indeed must be the parent-bird whose maternal ambition bears its
+legitimate fruit in this monkey-infested grove. In me the monkeys seem to
+recognize a possible enemy, and at my first appearance hasten to hide
+themselves among the thickest foliage; peering; cautiously down, they
+yield themselves up to excited chattering and broad grimaces.
+
+Peacocks, too, are strutting majestically about the greensward beneath
+the trees, their gorgeous tails expanded, or, perched on some horizontal
+branch, they awake the screaming echoes in reply to others of their
+kindred calling in the jungle. In the same way that monkeys are regarded
+and worshipped as the representatives of the great mythological
+monkey-king Hanumiin, who assisted Kama, in his war with Havana for the
+possession of Sita, so is the peacock revered and held sacred as the bird
+upon which rode Kartikeya the god of war and commander-in-chief of the
+armies of the Puranic gods. Thus do both these denizens of the jungle
+obtain immunity from harm at the hands of the natives, by reason of
+mythological association. English sportsmen shoot them, however, except
+in certain specified districts where the government has made their
+killing prohibitory, in deference to the religious prejudices of the
+Hindoos. The Rajput warriors of Ulwar used to march to battle with a
+peacock's feather in their turbans; they believe that the reason why this
+fine-plumaged bird screams so loudly when it thunders is because it
+mistakes the noise for the roll of war-drums. Large, two-storied
+passenger-vans, drawn sometimes by one camel and sometimes two, are now
+frequently encountered; they are regular two-storied cages, with iron
+bars, like the animal-vans in a menagerie. The passengers squat on the
+floors, and when travelling at night, or through wild districts, are
+locked in between stages to guard against surprise and robbery.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+DELHI AND AGRA.
+
+From the police-thana of Rai, where the night is spent, to Delhi, the
+character of the road changes to a mixture of clay and rock, altogether
+inferior to kunkah. The twenty-one miles are covered, however, by 8.30
+a.m., that hour finding me wheeling down the broad suburban road to the
+Lahore Gate amid throngs of country people carrying baskets of mangoes,
+plantains, pomegranates, and other indigenous products into the markets
+of the old Mogul capital. Massive archways, ruined forts and serais,
+placid water-tanks, lovely gardens, feathery toddy-palms,
+plantain-hedges, and throngs of picturesque people make the approach to
+historic Delhi a scene long to be remembered.
+
+Entering the Lahore Gate, suitable accommodation is found at Northbrook
+Hotel, a comfortable hostelry under native management near the Moree
+Gate, and overlooking from its roof the scenes of the most memorable
+events connected with the siege of Delhi in 1857. Letters are found at
+the post-office apprising me of a bicycle-camera and paper negatives
+awaiting my orders at the American Consulate at Calcutta, and it behooves
+me to linger here for a few days until its arrival in reply to a
+telegram. No more charming spot could possibly be found to linger in than
+the old Mogul capital, with its wondrous wealth of historical
+associations, both remotely antique and comparatively modern, its
+glorious monuments of imperial Oriental splendor and its reminiscences of
+heroic deeds in battle.
+
+A letter of introduction to an English gentleman, brought from Kurnaul,
+secures me friends and attention at once; in the cool of the evening we
+drive out together in his pony-phaeton along the historic granite ridge
+that formed the site of the British camp during the siege. The operations
+against the city were conducted mostly from this ridge and the
+intervening ground; on the ridge itself is erected a beautiful red
+granite monument memorial, bearing the names of prominent officers and
+the numbers of men killed, the names of the regiments, etc., engaged in
+the siege and assault. Here, also, is Hindoo Rao's house, and ancient
+obelisks.
+
+East of the Moree Gate is the world-famed Cashmere Gate--world-famed
+in connection with the brilliant exploit of the little forlorn hope that,
+on the morning of September 14, 1857, succeeded, in the face of a deadly
+fusillade from the, walls and the wicket gates, in carrying bags of
+gunpowder and blowing it up. Through the opening thus effected poured the
+eager troops that rescued the city from ten times their own number of
+mutineers and turned the beams of the scale in which the fate of the
+whole British Indian Empire was at the moment balanced. Perhaps in all
+the world's battles no more heroic achievement was ever attempted or
+carried out than the blowing up of the Cashmere Gate. "Salkeld laid his
+bags of powder, in the face of a deadly fire from the open wicket not ten
+feet distant; he was instantly shot through the arm and leg, and fell
+back on the bridge, handing the port-fire to Sergeant Burgess, bidding
+him light the fuse. Burgess was instantly shot dead in the attempt.
+Sergeant Carmichael then advanced, took up the port-fire, and succeeded
+in firing the fuse, but immediately fell, mortally wounded. Sergeant
+Smith, seeing him fall, advanced at a run, but finding that the fuse was
+already burning, flung himself into the ditch."
+
+Difficult, indeed, would it be to crowd more heroism into the same number
+of words that I have here quoted from Colonel Medley, an eye-witness of
+the affair. Between the double archways of the gate is a red-sandstone
+memorial tablet, placed there by Lord Napier of Magdala, upon which is
+inscribed the names, rank, and regiment of those who took part in the
+forlorn hope. All is now peaceful and lovely enough, but the stone
+bastions and parapets still remain pretty much as when the British
+batteries ceased their plunging rain of shot and shell thirty years ago.
+
+Not far from the Moree Gate is the tomb of General Nicholson, one of the
+most conspicuous and heroic characters of that trying period, and
+generally regarded as the saviour of Delhi. Enshrined in the hearts of
+the brave Sikhs no less than in the hearts of his own countrymen, his
+tomb has become a regular place of pilgrimage for the old Sikh warriors
+who fought side by side with the English against the mutineers.
+
+It has been my good fortune, I find, to arrive at the old Mogul capital
+the day before the commencement of an annual merrymaking, picnicking, and
+general holiday at the celebrated Kootub Minar. The Kootub Minar is about
+eleven miles out of Delhi, situated amid the ruins of ancient Dilli
+(Delhi), the old Hindoo city from which the more modern city takes its
+name. It is conceded to be the most beautiful minar-monument in the
+world, and ranks with the Taj Mahal at Agra as one of the beautiful
+architectural triumphs peculiar to the splendid era of Mohammedan rule in
+India, and which are not to be matched elsewhere. The day following my
+arrival I conclude to take a spin out on my bicycle as far as the Kootub,
+and see something of it, the ruins amid which it stands, and the Hindoos
+in holiday attire. I choose the comparative coolness of early morning for
+the ride out; but early though it be, the road thither is already
+swarming with gayly dressed people bent on holiday-making. The road is a
+worthy offshoot of the Grand Trunk, not a whit less smooth of surface,
+nor less lovely in its wealth of sacred shade-trees. Moreover, it passes
+through a veritable wilderness of ruined cities, mosques, tombs, and
+forts the whole distance, and leads right through the magnificent remains
+of the ancient Hindoo city itself.
+
+The Kootub Minar is found to be a beautifully fluted column, two hundred
+and forty feet high, and it soars grandly above the mournful ruins of old
+Dilli, its hoary wealth of crumbled idol temples, tombs, and forts. The
+minar is supposed to have been erected in the latter part of the twelfth
+century to celebrate the victory of the Mohammedans over the Hindoos of
+Dilli. The general effect of the tall, stately Mohammedan monument among
+the Hindoo ruins is that of a proud gladiator standing erect and
+triumphant amid fallen foes. At least, that is how it looks to me, as I
+view it in connection with the ruins at its base and ponder upon its
+history. A spiral stairway of three hundred and seventy-five steps leads
+to the summit. A group of natives are already up there, enjoying the cool
+breezes and the prospect below. In the comprehensive view from the summit
+one can read an instructive sermon of centuries of stirring Indian
+history in the gray stone-work of ruined mosques and tombs and fortresses
+and pagan temples that dot the valley of the Jumna hereabout almost as
+thickly as the trees.
+
+Strange crowds have congregated on this rare old historic camping-ground
+in ages past. It was a strange crowd, gathered here for a strange
+purpose, on that traditional occasion, when Rajah Pithora, in the fourth
+century of the Christian era, had the celebrated iron shaft dug up to
+satisfy his curiosity as to whether it had transfixed the subterranean
+snake-god Vishay. There is a strange crowd gathered here to-day, too; I
+can hear their shouting and their tom-toming come floating up from among
+the ruins and the dark-green foliage as I look down from my beautiful
+eyrie on top of the Kootub upon their pygmy forms, thronging the walks
+and roads, brown and busy as swarms of ants.
+
+It is a vast concourse of people, characteristic of teeming India; but
+they are not, on this occasion, congregated to witness pagan rites and
+ceremonies, nor to encourage iconoclastic Moolahs in smashing Hindoo gods
+and chipping offensive Hindoo carvings off their temples; they are a
+mixed crowd of Hindoos, Sikhs, and Mohammedans, who, having to some
+extent buried the hatchet of race and religious animosities under the
+just and tolerant rule of a Christian government, have gathered here amid
+the ruins and relics of their respective past histories to enjoy
+themselves in innocent recreation.
+
+Descending from the Kootub Minar, I am resting beneath the shade of the
+dak bungalow hard by, when a gray-bearded Hindoo approaches, salaams, and
+hands me a paper. The paper is a certificate, certifying that the bearer,
+Chunee Lai, had performed before Captain Somebody of the Fusileers, and
+had afforded that officer excellent amusement. Before I have quite
+grasped the situation, or comprehended the purport of the tendered
+missive, several men and boys deposit a miscellaneous assortment of boxes
+and baskets before me and range themselves in a semicircle behind them.
+The old fellow with the certificate picks out a small box and raises the
+lid; a huge cobra thrusts out its hideous head and puffs its hooded neck
+to the size of a man's hand. It then dawns upon me that the gray-bearded
+Hindoo is a conjurer; and being curious to see something of Indian
+prestidigitation, I allow him to proceed.
+
+Many of the tricks are quite commonplace and transparent even to a
+novice. For example, he mixes red, yellow, and white powders together in
+a tumbler of water and swallows the mixture, making, of course, a wry
+face, as though taking a dose of bitter medicine. He then calls a boy
+from among the by-standers and blows first red powder, then yellow, then
+white into the youngster's face. I judge he had small bags of dry powder
+stowed away in his cheek. He performs his tricks on the bare ground,
+without any such invaluable adjunct as the table of his European rival,
+and some of them, viewed in the light of this disadvantage, are indeed
+puzzling. For instance, he fills an ordinary tin pot nearly full of
+water, puts in a handful of yellow sand and a handful of red powder, and
+thoroughly stirs them up; he then thrusts his naked hand into the water
+and brings forth a handful of each kind, dry as when he put them in. A
+simple enough trick, no doubt, to the initiated; but the old conjurer's
+arm is bared, and the tin is, as far as I can discover, but an ordinary
+vessel, and the trick is performed without any cover, table, or cloth.
+After this he expectorates a number of glass marbles, and ends with a
+couple of solid iron jingal balls that he can scarce get out of his
+mouth. There is no mistake about their being of solid iron, and the old
+conjurer opens his mouth and lets me see them emerging from his throat.
+From what I see him do as the final act, and which there is no deception
+about, I am inclined to think the old fellow has actually acquired the
+power of swallowing these jingal balls and reproducing them at pleasure.
+
+After a number of tricks too familiar to justify mentioning here he
+covers his head with a cloth for a minute, and then reappears with brass
+eyeballs, with a small hole bored in the centre of each to represent the
+pupils; and his mouth is rendered hideous with a set of teeth belonging
+to some animal. In this horrible make-up the old Hindoo tom-toms on a
+small oblong drum, while one of his assistants sings in broken English
+"Buffalo Gals." He then openly removes the false teeth, and taking out
+the brass eyeballs, he casts them jingling on the gravel at my feet. They
+are simply hemispheres of sheet-brass, and fitted closely over the
+eyeballs, beneath the lids. The conjurer's eyes water visibly after the
+brass covers are removed; and well enough they might; there is no
+sleight-of-hand about this--it is purely an act of self-torture.
+
+In most of the conjuring tricks the conjurer would purposely make a
+partial failure in the first attempt; an assistant would then impart the
+necessary power by muttering cabalistic words over a monkey's skull.
+
+A mongoose had been tethered to a stake at the beginning of the
+performance, and the little ferret-like enemy of the snake family kept
+tugging at his tether and sniffing suspiciously about whenever snakes
+appeared in the conjurer's manipulations. He bad promised me a fight
+between the mongoose and a snake, and before presenting his little brass
+bowl for backsheesh he holds out a four-foot snake toward the eager
+little animal at the stake. The snake writhes and struggles to get away,
+evidently badly scared at the prospect of an encounter with the mongoose;
+but the man succeeds in depositing him within his adversary's reach. The
+mongoose nabs him by the neck in an instant, and would no doubt soon have
+finished him; but the assistants part them with wire crooks, putting the
+snake in a basket with several others and the mongoose in another.
+
+While watching the interesting performances of the Hindoo, conjurers I
+have left the bicycle at a little dak bungalow near the old
+entrance-gate. From the commanding height of the Kootub-one could see
+that the Delhi road is a solid mass of vehicles and pedestrians (how the
+people in teeming India do swarm on these festive occasions!). It looks
+impossible to make one's way with a bicycle against that winding stream
+of human beings, and so, after wandering about a while among the striking
+and peculiar colonnades of the ancient pagan temples, paying the
+regulation tribute of curiosity to the enigmatic iron column, and doing
+the place in general, I return to the bungalow, thinking of starting back
+to Delhi, when I find that my "cycle of strange experiences" has
+attracted to itself a no less interesting gathering than a troupe of
+Nautch girls and their chaperone. The troupe numbers about a dozen girls,
+and they have come to the merry-making at the Kootub to gather honest
+shekels by giving exhibitions of their terpsichorean talents in the
+Nautch dance.
+
+I had been wondering whether an opportunity to see this famous dance
+would occur during my trip through India; and so when four or five of the
+prettiest of these dusky damsels gather about me, smile at me winsomely
+ogle me with their big black eyes, smile again, smile separately, smile
+unanimously, smile all over their semi-mahogany but nevertheless not
+unhandsome faces, and every time displaying sets of pearly teeth, what
+could I do, what could anyone have done, but smile in return?
+
+There is no language more eloquent or more easily understood than the
+language of facial expression. No verbal question or answer is necessary.
+I interpret the winsome smiles of the Nautchnees aright, and they
+interpret very quickly the permission to go ahead that reveals itself in
+the smile they force from me. Eight of the twelve are commonplace girls
+of from fourteen to eighteen, and the other four are "dark but
+comely"--quite handsome, as handsomeness goes among the Hindoos.
+Their arms are bare of everything save an abundance of bracelets, and the
+upper portion of the body is rather scantily draped, after the manner and
+custom of all Hindoo females; but an ample skirt of red calico reaches to
+the ankle. Rings are worn on every toe, and massive silver anklets with
+tiny bells attached make music when they walk of dance. They wear a
+profusion of bracelets, necklaces of rupees, head-ornaments, ear-rings,
+and pendent charms, and a massive gold or brass ring in the left nostril.
+The nostril is relieved of its burden by a string that descends from a
+head-ornament and takes up the weight.
+
+The Nautch girls arrange themselves into a half-circle, their scarlet
+costumes forming a bright crescent, terminating in a mass of spectators,
+whose half-naked bodies, varying in color from pale olive to mahogany,
+are arrayed in costumes scarcely less showy than the dancers. The
+chaperone and eight outside girls tom-tom an appropriate Nautch
+accompaniment on drums with their fingers, the four prettiest girls
+advance, and favoring me with sundry smiles, and coquettish glances from
+their bright black eyes, they commence to dance.
+
+An idea seems to prevail in many Occidental minds that the Nautch dance
+is a very naughty thing; but nothing is further from the truth. Of course
+it can be made naughty, and no doubt often is; but then so can many
+another form of innocent amusement. The Nautch dance is a decorous and
+artistic performance when properly danced; the graceful motions and
+elegant proportions of the human form, as revealed by lithe and graceful
+dancers, are to be viewed with an eye as purely artistic and critical as
+that with which one regards a Venus or other production of the sculptor's
+studio.
+
+The four dancers take the lower hem of their red garment daintily between
+the thumb and finger of the right hand, spreading its ample folds into
+the figure of an opened fan, by bringing the outstretched arm almost on a
+level with the shoulder. A mantle of transparent muslin, fringed with
+silver spangles, is worn about the head and shoulders in the same
+indescribably graceful manner as the mantilla of the Spanish senorita.
+Raising a portion of this aloft in the left hand, and keeping the "fan"
+intact with the right, the dancers twirl around and change positions with
+one another, their supple figures meanwhile assuming a variety of
+graceful motions and postures from time to time. Now they imitate the
+spiral movement of a serpent climbing around and upward on an imaginary
+pole; again they assume an attitude of gracefulness, their dusky
+countenances half hidden in seeming coquetry behind the muslin mantle,
+the large red fan waving gently to and fro, the feet unmoving, but the
+undulating motions of the body and the tremor of the limbs sufficing to
+jingle the tiny ankle-bells. On the whole, the Nautch dance would be
+disappointing to most people witnessing it; its fame leads one to expect
+more than it really amounts to.
+
+Before starting back to Delhi, I take a stroll through the adjacent
+village of Kootub, a place named after the minar, I suppose. The crooked
+main street of the village of Kootub itself presents to-day a scene of
+gayety and confusion that beggars description. Bunting floats gayly from
+every window and balcony, in honor of the festival, and is strung across
+the street from house to house. Thousands of globular colored lanterns
+are hanging about, ready to be lighted up at night. The streets are
+thronged with people in the gayest of costumes, and with vehicles the
+gilt and paint and glitter of which equal the glittering wagons and
+chariots of a circus parade at home.
+
+The balconies above the shops are curtained with blue gauze, behind which
+are seen numbers of ladies, chatting, eating fruits and sweetmeats, and
+peeping down through the semi-transparent screens upon the animated scene
+in the streets. On the stalls, choice edibles are piled up by the bushel,
+and busy venders are hawking fruits, sweets, toddy, and all imaginable
+refreshments about among the crowds. Vacant lots are occupied by the
+tents of visiting peasants, and in out-of-the-way corners acrobatics,
+jugglery, and Nautch-dancing attract curious crowds.
+
+The incoming tide of human life is at its flood as I start back to Delhi
+by the same road I came. Here one gets a glimpse of the real gorgeousness
+of India without seeking for it at the pageants of princes and rajahs.
+Small zemindars from outlying villages are bringing their wives and
+daughters to the festivities at the Kootub in circusy-looking
+bullock-chariots covered with gilt and carvings, and draped and twined
+with parti-colored ribbons. Some of these gaudy turn-outs are drawn by
+richly caparisoned, milk-white oxen, with gilded horns. Cymbals and
+sleigh-bells galore keep up a merry jingle, and tom-toming parties make
+their noisy presence known all along the line.
+
+Still more gorgeous and interesting than the gilded ox-gharries of the
+ordinary zemindars are miniature chariots drawn by pairs of well-matched,
+undersized oxen covered with richly spangled trappings, and with horns
+curiously gilded and tipped with tiny bells. These are the vehicles of
+petted young nabobs in charge of attendants: tiny oxen with gorgeous
+trappings, tiny chariots richly gilded and carved and painted, tiny
+occupants richly dressed and jewelled. Troupes of Nautchnees add their
+picturesque appearance to the brilliant throngs, and here and there is
+encountered a holy fakir, unkempt and unwashed, having, perchance,
+registered a vow years ago never more to apply water to his skin, his
+only clothing a dirty waist-cloth and the yellow clay plastered on his
+body. Long strings of less pretentious bullock-gharries almost block the
+roadway, and people constantly dodging out from behind them in front of
+my wheel make it extremely difficult to ride.
+
+Several days are passed at Delhi, waiting the arrival of a small
+bicycle-camera from Calcutta, which has been forwarded from America. Most
+of this time is spent in the pleasant occupation of reclining in an
+arm-chair beneath the punkah, the only comfortable situation in Delhi at
+this season of the year. Nevertheless, I manage to spin around the city
+mornings and evenings, and visit the famous fort and palace of Shah
+Jehan.
+
+In the magnificent--magnificent even in the decline of its grandeur
+--fort-palace of the Mogul Emperor named, British soldiers now find
+comfortable quarters. This fort, together with modern Delhi (the real
+Indian name of Delhi is Shahjehanabad, after the emperor Shah Jehan, who
+had it built), is but about two hundred and fifty years old, the entire
+affair having been built to gratify the Mogul ambition for founding new
+capitals.
+
+Although so modern compared with other cities near by, both city and
+palace have gone through strangely stirring and tragic experiences, and
+events have happened in the latter that, although sometimes trivial in
+themselves, have led to momentous results.
+
+In this palace, in 1716, was given permission, by the Emperor Furrokh
+Seeur, to the Scotch physician, Gabriel Hamilton, the privileges that
+have gradually led up to the British conquest of the whole peninsula. As
+a reward for professional services rendered, permission to establish
+factories on the Hooghly was given; the Presidency of Fort William sprung
+therefrom, and at length the British Indian Empire. Twenty years after
+this, the terrible Nadir Shah, from Persia, occupied the palace, and held
+high jinks within while his army slaughtered over a hundred thousand of
+the inhabitants in the streets. When this red-handed marauder took his
+departure he carried away with him booty to the value of eighty millions
+sterling in the value of that time. Among the plunder was the famous
+Peacock Throne, alone reputed to be worth six million pounds. This
+remarkable piece of kingly furniture is said to be in the possession of
+the Shah of Persia at the present time. It is very probable, however,
+that only some unique portion of the throne is preserved, as it could
+hardly have been carried back to Persia by Nadir intact. This throne is
+thus described by a writer: "The throne was six feet long and four broad,
+composed of solid gold inlaid with precious stones. It was surmounted by
+a canopy of gold, supported on twelve pillars of the same material.
+Around the canopy hung a fringe of pearls; on each side of the throne
+stood two chattahs, or umbrellas, symbols of royalty, formed of crimson
+velvet richly embroidered with gold thread and pearls, and with handles
+of solid gold, eight feet long, studded with diamonds. The back of the
+throne was a representation of the expanded tail of a peacock, the
+natural colors of which were imitated by sapphires, rubies, emeralds, and
+other gems." This Peacock Throne was the envy and admiration of every
+contemporary monarch who heard of it, and was undoubtedly one of the
+chief elements in exciting the cupidity of the outer world that finally
+ended in the dissolution of the Mogul Empire.
+
+Less than ten years after the departure of Nadir Shah, Ahmud Khan
+advanced with an army from Cabool, and took pretty much everything of
+value that the Khorassani freebooter had overlooked, besides committing
+more atrocities upon the population. At the end of another decade an army
+of Mahrattas took possession, and completed the spoilation by ripping the
+silver filigree-work off the ceiling of the Throne-room. Not long after
+this, yet another adventurer took a hand in the work of destruction,
+tortured the members of the imperial family, and put out the eyes of the
+helpless old emperor, Shah Alum. Here Lord Lake's cavalcade arrived, too,
+in 1803, and found the blinded chief of the royal house of Timour and his
+magnificent successors, who built Delhi and Agra, seated beneath the
+tattered remnants of a little canopy, a mockery of royalty, with every
+external appearance of misery and helplessness And lastly, here, in May,
+1857, the last representative of the great Moguls, a not unwilling tool
+in the hands of the East India Company's mutinous soldiery, presided over
+the butchery of helpless English women and children.
+
+It is difficult to realize that Delhi has been the theatre of such a
+stirring and eventful history, as nowadays one strolls down the Chandni
+Chouk and notes the air of peace and contentment that pervades the whole
+city. It seems quite true, as Edwin Arnold says in his "India Revisited,"
+that Derby is now not more contentedly British than is Delhi. Whatever
+may be the faults of British rule in India, no impartial critic can say
+that the people are not in better hands than they have ever been before.
+One of the most interesting objects in the city is the Jama Mesjid, the
+largest mosque in India, and the second-largest in all Islam, ranking
+next to St. Sophia at Constantinople. Broad flights of red sandstone
+steps lead up to handsome gateways surmounted by rows of small milk-white
+marble domes or cupolas. Inside is a large quadrangular court, paved with
+broad slabs of sandstone; occupying the centre of this is a white marble
+reservoir of water. The mosque proper is situated on the west side of the
+quadrangle, an oblong structure two hundred feet long by half that many
+in width, ornamented and embellished by Arabic inscriptions and three
+shapely white marble domes. Very elegant indeed is the pattern and
+composition of the floor, each square slab of white marble having a
+narrow black border running round it, like the border of a mourning
+envelope. Very charming, also, are the two graceful minarets at either
+end, one hundred and thirty feet high, alternate strips of white marble
+and red sandstone producing a very pretty and striking effect.
+
+In the northeastern corner of the quadrangle is a small cabinet
+containing the inevitable relics of the Prophet. Three separate guides
+have accumulated at my heels since entering the gate, and now a fourth,
+ancient and hopeful, appears to unravel, for the Sahib's benefit, the
+mysteries of the little cabinet. Unlocking the door, he steps out of his
+slippers into the entrance, stooping beneath an iron rail that further
+bars the entrance.
+
+From an inner receptacle he first produces some ancient manuscript, which
+he explains was written by the same scribes who copied the Koran for
+Mohammed's grandson. Putting these carefully away, the Ancient and
+Hopeful then unwraps, very mysteriously, a handkerchief, and reveals a
+small oblong tin box with a glass face. The casket contains what upon
+casual observation appears to be a piece of bark curling up at the edges;
+this, I am informed, however, is nothing less than the sole of one of
+Mohammed's sandals. Putting away this venerable relic of the great
+founder of Islam, the old Mussulman assumes a look of profound importance
+and mystery. One would think, from his expression and manners, that he
+was about to reveal to the sacrilegious gaze of an infidel nothing less
+than the Prophet's fifth rib or the parings from his pet corn. Instead of
+these he exhibits a flat piece of rock bearing marks resembling the shape
+of a man's foot--the imprint of Mohammed's foot, miraculously made.
+To one whose soulful gaze has been enraptured with an imprint of the
+first Sultan's hand on the wall of St. Sophia, and the mosaic figure of
+the Virgin Mary persistently refusing to be painted out of sight on the
+dome of the same mosque, this piece of rock would scarcely seem to
+justify the vast display of reverence that is evidently expected of all
+visitors by the Ancient and Hopeful.
+
+But perhaps it is on account of the place of honor it occupies
+immediately preceding what is undoubtedly a very precious relic indeed, a
+relic that fills the worthy custodian with mystery and importance. Or,
+perchance, mystery and importance have been found, during his long and
+varied experience with the unsophisticated tourist, excellent things to
+increase the volume of importance attached to the exhibited articles, and
+the volume of "pice" in his exchequer. At any rate, the Ancient and
+Hopeful assumes more mystery and importance than ever as he uncovers a
+second tin casket with a glass front. Glued to the glass, inside, is a
+single coarse yellow hair about two inches long; the precious relic,
+which has a suspicious resemblance to a bristle, is considered the gem of
+the collection, being nothing less than a hair from the Prophet's
+venerable mustache. Mohammedans swear by the beard of the Prophet, just
+as good Christians swear by "the great horned spoon," or by "great
+Caesar's ghost," so that the possession of even this one poor little
+hair, surrounded as it is by a blue halo of suspicion as to its
+authenticity, sheds a ray of glory upon the great Jama Mesjid scarcely
+surpassed by its importance as the second-largest mosque in the world.
+The two-inch yellow hair is considered the piece de resistance of the
+collection, and the Ancient and Hopeful stows it away with all due
+reverence, strokes his henna-stained beard with the air of a man who has
+got successfully through a very important task, steps into his slippers,
+and presents himself for "pice."
+
+Pice is duly administered to him and his three salaaming associates,
+when, lo! a fifth candidate mysteriously appears, also smiling and
+salaaming expectantly. Although I haven't had the pleasure of a previous
+acquaintance with this gentleman, the easiest way to escape gracefully
+from the sacred edifice is to backsheesh him along with the others. These
+backsheesh considerations are, of course, small and immaterial matters,
+and one ought to feel extremely grateful to all concerned for the happy
+privilege of feasting one's soul with ever so brief a contemplation of
+the things in the cabinet, and more especially on the bristle-like yellow
+hair. These joy-inspiring objects, ramshackled from the storehouse of the
+musty past, fulfil the double mission of keeping alive the reverence of
+devout Mussulmans who visit the mosque, and keeping the Ancient and
+Hopeful well supplied with goodakoo.
+
+My camera having duly arrived, together with a package of letters, which
+are always doubly welcome to a wanderer in distant lands, I prepare to
+resume my southward journey. The few days' rest has enabled me to recover
+from the wilting effects of riding in the terrific heat, and I have seen
+something of one of the most interesting points in all Asia. Delhi is
+sometimes called the "Home of Asia," which, it seems to me, is a very
+appropriate name to give it.
+
+Neatly clad and modest-looking females, native converts to Christianity,
+are walking in orderly procession to church, testaments in hand, as I
+wheel through the streets of Delhi on Sunday morning toward the Agra
+road. Very interesting is it to see these dusky daughters of heathendom
+arrayed in modest white muslin gowns, their lithe and graceful forms
+freed from the barbarous jewellery that distinguishes the persons of
+their unconverted sisters. Very charming do they look in their
+Christianized simplicity and self-contained demeanor as they walk
+quietly, and at a becoming Sabbath-day pace, two by two, down the Chandni
+Chouk. They present an instructive comparison to the straggling groups of
+heathen damsels who watch them curiously as they walk past and then
+proceed to chant idolatrous songs, apparently in a spirit of wanton
+raillery at the Christian maidens and their simple, un-ornamented attire.
+The fair heathens of Delhi have a sort of naughty, Parisian reputation
+throughout the surrounding country, and so there is nothing surprising in
+this exhibition of wanton hilarity directed at these more strait-laced
+converts to the religion of the Ferenghis. The heathen damsels, arrayed
+in very worldly costumes, consisting of flaring red, yellow, and blue
+garments, the whole barbaric and ostentatious array of nose-rings,
+ear-rings, armlets, anklets, rupee necklaces, and pendents, and the
+multifarious gewgaws of Hindoo womankind, look surpassingly wicked and
+saucy in comparison with their converted sisters. The gentle converts try
+hard to regard their heathen songs with indifference, and to show by
+their very correct deportment the superiority of meekness, virtue, and
+Christianity over gaudy clothes, vulgar silver jewellery, and heathenism.
+The whole scene reminds one very forcibly of a gang of wicked street-boys
+at home, poking fun at a Sunday-school procession or a platoon of
+Salvation Army soldiers parading the streets.
+
+Past the Queen's Gardens and the fort, down a long street of native
+shops, and out of the Delhi gate I wheel, past the grim battlements of
+Firozabad, along a rather flinty road that extends for ten miles, after
+which commences again the splendid kunkah. Villages are numerous, and the
+country populous; tombs and the ruins of cities dot the landscape,
+pahnee-chowkees, where yellow Brahmans dispense water to thirsty
+wayfarers, line the road, and at one point three splendid, massive
+archways, marking some place that has lost its former importance, span my
+road.
+
+Hindoos are now the prevailing race, and their religion finds frequent
+expression in idol temples and shrines beneath little roadside groves.
+The night is spent on the porch of a dak bungalow just outside the walls
+of Pullwal, a typical Hindoo city, with all its curious display of
+hideous idols, idolatrous paintings, and beautiful carved temples with
+gilded spires. The groves about the bungalow are literally swarming with
+green parrots; in big flocks they sweep past near my charpoy, producing a
+great wh-r-r-r-ring commotion with their wings. A flock of parrots may be
+so far aloft as to be well-nigh beyond the range of human vision in the
+ethery depths, but the noise of their wings will be plainly audible.
+
+A two hours' terrific downpour delays me at the village of Hodell next
+day, and affords an opportunity to inspect an ordinary little Hindoo
+village temple. The captain of the police-thana sends a tall Sikh
+policeman to show me in. The temple is only a small tapering marble
+edifice about thirty feet high, surmounted by a gilded crescent, and
+resting on a hollow plinth, the hollow of which provides quarters for the
+priest. One is expected to remove his foot-gear before going inside, the
+same as in a Mohammedan mosque. A taper is burning in a niche of the
+wall; mural paintings of snakes, many-handed gods, bulls, monsters, and
+mythical deities create a cheap and garish impression. In the centre of
+the floor is a marble linga, and grouped around it a miniature man,
+woman, and elephant; before these are laid offerings of flowers. The
+interior of the temple is not more than eight feet square, a mere cell in
+which the deities are housed; the worshippers mostly perform their
+prostrations on the plinth outside. The villagers gather in a crowd about
+the temple and watch every movement of my brief inspection; they seem
+pleased at the sight of a Sahib honoring their religion by removing his
+shoes and carefully respecting their feelings. When I descend from the
+plinth they fall back and greet me with smiles and salaams.
+
+The rain clears up and I forge ahead, finding the kunkah road-bed none
+the worse for the drenching it has just received. Hour by hour one gets
+more surprised at the multitudes of pedestrians on the road; neither rain
+nor sun seems to affect their number. Some of the costumes observed are
+quite startling in their ingenuity and effect. One garment much affected
+by the Rajput women are yellowish shawls or mantles, phool-karis, in
+which, are set numerous small circular mirrors about the circumference of
+a silver half-dollar; the effect of these in the bright Indian sun, as
+the wearer trudges along in the distance, is as though she were all
+ablaze with gems. Whenever I wheel past a group of Rajput females, they
+either stand with averted faces or cover up their heads with their
+shawls.
+
+The road-inspector's bungalow at Chattee affords me shelter, and an
+intelligent native gentleman, who speaks a misleading quality of English,
+supplies me with a supper of curried rice and fowl. Hard by is a Hindoo
+temple, whence at sunset issue the sweetest chimes imaginable from a peal
+of silver-toned bells. My charpoy is placed on the porch facing the east,
+and soon the rotund face of the rising moon floats above the trees, and
+the silvery tinkle of the bells is followed by a chorus of jackals paying
+their noisy compliments to its loveliness. My slumbers can hardly be said
+to be unbroken to-night, three pariah dogs have taken a fancy to my
+quarters; two of them sit on their haunches and howl dismally in response
+to the jackals, while number three reclines sociably beneath my charpoy
+and growls at the others as though constituting himself my protector.
+Some Indian Romeo is serenading his dusky Juliet in the neighboring town;
+flocks of roysteriug parrots go whirring past at all hours of the night,
+and a too liberal indulgence in red-hot curry keeps me on the verge of a
+nightmare almost till the silvery tinkle-tinkle of the Brahman bells
+announces the break of day.
+
+Cynics have sometimes denounced Christians as worse than the heathens, in
+requiring loud church-bells to summon them to worship. Such, it appears,
+are putting the case rather thoughtlessly. Mohammedans have their
+muezzins, while both Christians and idolaters have their chiming bells.
+Neither Christians, nor Mohammedans, nor heathens need these agencies to
+summon them to their respective worldly enjoyments, so that, taken all in
+all, we are pretty much alike--cynics, notwithstanding, to the contrary,
+we are little or no worse than the heathens.
+
+A loudly wailing woman with her head covered up, and supported between
+two companions who are vainly trying to console her, and a party
+conveying two cassowaries, a pair of white peacocks, and a kangaroo from
+Calcutta to some rajah's menagerie up country, are among the curiosities
+encountered on the road the following day. Spending the afternoon and
+night in the quarters of the Third Dragoon Guards at Muttra Cantonment, I
+resume my journey early in the morning, dodging from shelter to shelter
+to avoid frequent heavy showers.
+
+It is but thirty-five miles from Muttra to Agra, and notwithstanding
+showers and heat, the distance is covered by half-past ten. Wheeling at
+this pace, however, is an indiscretion, and the completion of the stretch
+is signalized by a determination to seek shade and quiet for the
+remainder of the day. Once again the sociable officers of the garrison
+tender me the hospitality of their quarters, and the ensuing day is spent
+in visiting that wonder of the world, the Taj Mahal, Akbar's fort, and
+other wonderful monuments of the palmy days of the Mogul Empire.
+
+Finer and more imposing in appearance even than the fort at Delhi, is
+that at Agra. Walls of red sandstone, seventy feet high, and a mile and a
+half in circuit, picturesquely crenellated, and with imposing gateways
+and a deep, broad moat, Complete a work of stupendous dimensions. One is
+overcome with a sense of grandeur upon first beholding these Indian
+palace-forts, after seeing nothing more imposing than mud walls in Persia
+and Afghanistan; they are magnificent looking structures. The contrast,
+too, of the red sandstone walls and gates and ramparts, with the white
+marble buildings of the royal quarters, is very striking. The domes of
+the latter, seen at a distance, seem like snow-white bubbles resting ever
+so lightly and airily upon the darker mass; one almost expects to see
+them rise up and float away on the passing zephyrs like balloons.
+
+Passing inside over a drawbridge and through the massive Delhi Gate, we
+proceed into the interior of the fort, traversing a broad ascent of
+sandstone pavement. Everything around us shows evidence of unstinted
+outlay in design, execution, and completion of detail in the carrying out
+of a stupendous undertaking. Everywhere the spirit of Akbar the
+Magnificent seems to hover amid his creations. One emerges from the
+covered gateway and the walled corrugated causeway, upon the parade
+ground. Crenellated walls, a park of artillery, and roomy English
+barracks greet the vision. Sentinels--Sepoy sentinels in huge
+turbans, and English sentinels in white sun-helmets--are pacing
+their beats. But not on these does the gaze of the visitor rest. Straight
+ahead of him there rises, above the red sandstone walls and the bare
+parade ground, three marble domes, white as newly-fallen snow, and just
+beyond are seen the gilt pinnacles of Akbar's palace.
+
+We wander among the beautiful marble creations, gaze in wonder at the
+snowy domes supported on marble pillars, mosaiced with jasper, agate,
+blood-stone, lapis-lazuli, and other rare stones. We stand on the white
+marble balustrades, carved so exquisitely as to resemble lace-work, and
+we look out upon the yellow waters of the Jumna, flowing sluggishly along
+seventy feet below. Here is where the Grand Mogul, Akbar, used to sit and
+watch elephant fights and boat races. There are none of these to be seen
+now; but that does not mean that the prospect is either tame or
+uninteresting. The banks of the Jumna are alive with hundreds of dusky
+natives engaged in washing clothes and spreading linen out in the sun to
+bleach. The prospect beyond is a revelation of vegetable luxuriance and
+wealth, and of historical reminiscence in the shape of ruins and tombs.
+
+One's eyes, however, are drawn away from the contemplation of the
+picturesque life below, and from the prospect of grove and garden and
+crumbling tombs, by the mesmerism, of the crowning glory of all Indian
+architectural triumphs, the famous Taj. This matchless mausoleum rests on
+the right-hand bank of the Jumna, about a mile down stream. The Taj, with
+its marvellous beauty and snowy whiteness, seems to cast a spell over the
+beholder, from the first; one can no more keep his eyes off it, when it
+is within one's range of vision, than he can keep from breathing. It
+draws one's attention to itself as irresistibly as though its magnetism
+were a living and breathing force exerted directly to that end. It is the
+subtlety of its unapproachable loveliness, commanding homage from all
+beholders, whether they will or no.
+
+We turn away from it awhile, however, and find ample scope for admiration
+close at hand. We tread the marble aisles of the Pearl Mosque, considered
+the most perfect gem of its kind in existence. One stands in its
+court-yard and finds himself in the chaste and exclusive companionship of
+snowy marble and blue sky. One feels almost ill at ease, as though
+conscious of being an imperfect thing, marring perfection by his
+presence. "Quiet as a nun, breathless with adoration," one enthusiastic
+visitor exclaims, in an effort to put his sentiments and impressions of
+the Moti Mesjid into words. Like this adoring traveller, the average
+visitor will rest content to be carried away by the contemplation of its
+chaste beauty, without prying around for possible defects in the details
+of the particular school of architecture it graces. He will have little
+patience with carping critics who point to the beautiful screens, of
+floriated marble tracery, and say: "Nuns should not wear collars of point
+lace."
+
+From the Moti Mesjid, we visit the Shish Mahal, or mirrored bath-rooms.
+The chambers and passages here remind me of the mirrored rooms of Persia;
+here, as there, thousands of tiny mirrors are used in working out various
+intricate designs. My three uniformed companions at once reflect not less
+than half a regiment of British soldiers therein.
+
+From the fort we drive in a native gharri to the Taj, a mile-drive
+through suburban scenery, plantain-gardens, groves, and ruins. In
+approaching the garden of the Taj, one passes through a bazaar, where the
+skilful Hindoo artisans are busy making beautiful inlaid tables,
+inkstands, plates, and similar fancies, as well as models of the Taj, out
+of white Jeypore marble. These are the hereditary descendants and
+successors of the men who in the palmy days of the Mogul power spent
+their lives in decorating the royal palaces and tombs with mosaics and
+tracery. Nowadays their skill is expended on mere articles of virtue, to
+be sold to European tourists and English officers. Some of them are
+occasionally employed by the Indian Government to repair the work
+desecrated by vandals during the mutiny, and under the purely commercial
+government of the East India Company. One curious phase of this work is,
+that the men employed to replace with imitations the original stones that
+have been stolen receive several times higher pay than the men in Akbar's
+time, who did such splendid work that it is not to be approached, these
+days. Several months' imprisonment is now the penalty of prying out
+stones from the mosaic-work of the Taj.
+
+This lovely structure has been described so often by travellers that one
+can scarce venture upon a description without seeming to repeat what has
+already been said by others. One of the best descriptions of its
+situation and surroundings is given by Bayard Taylor. He says: "The Taj
+stands on the bank of the Jumna, rather more than a mile to the eastward
+of the Fort of Agra. It is approached by a handsome road cut through the
+mounds left by the ruins of ancient palaces. It stands in a large garden,
+inclosed by a lofty wall of red sandstone, with arched galleries around
+the interior, and entered by a superb gateway of sandstone, inlaid with
+ornaments and inscriptions from the Koran in white marble. Outside this
+grand portal, however, is a spacious quadrangle of solid masonry, with an
+elegant structure, intended as a caravanserai, on the opposite side.
+Whatever may be the visitor's impatience, he cannot help pausing to
+notice the fine proportions of these structures, and the massive style of
+their construction. Passing under the open demi-vault, whose arch hangs
+high above you, an avenue of dark Italian cypress appears before you.
+Down its centre sparkles a long row of fountains, each casting up a
+single slender jet. On both sides, the palm, the banyan, and feathery
+bamboo mingle their foliage; the song of birds meets your ears, and the
+odor of roses and lemon-flowers sweetens the air. Down such a vista, and
+over such a foreground, rises the Taj."
+
+Of the Taj itself, fault has been found with its proportions by severe
+critics, like the party who regards the Moti Mesjid "nun" as faulty
+because she wears a point-lace collar; but the ordinary visitor will find
+room for nothing but admiration and wonder. It is hard to believe that
+there is any defect, even in its proportions, for so perfect do these
+latter appear, that one is astonished to learn that it is a taller
+building than the Kootub Minar. One would never guess it to be anywhere
+near so tall as 243 feet. The building rests on a plinth of white marble,
+eighteen feet high and a hundred yards square. At each corner of the
+plinth stands a minaret, also of white marble, and 137 feet high. The
+mausoleum itself occupies the central space, measuring in depth and width
+186 feet. The entire affair is of white Jeypore marble, resting upon a
+lower platform of sandstone: "A thing of perfect beauty and of absolute
+finish in every detail, it might pass for the work of a genii, who knew
+naught of the weaknesses and ills with which mankind are beset. It is not
+a great national temple erected by a free and united people, it owes its
+creation to the whim of an absolute ruler who was free to squander the
+resources of the State in commemorating his personal sorrows or his
+vanity."
+
+Another distinguished visitor, commenting on the criticisms of those who
+profess to have discovered defects, says: "The Taj is like a lovely
+woman; abuse her as you please, but the moment you come into her
+presence, you submit to its fascination."
+
+"If to her share some female errors fall, Look in her face, and you'll
+forget them all."
+
+Passing beneath the vaulted gateway, we find a sign-board, telling that
+the best place from which to view the Taj is from the roof of the
+gateway. A flight of steps leads us to the designated vantage-point, when
+the tropic garden, the fountains, the twin mosques in the far corners,
+the river, the minarets, and, above all, the Taj itself lay spread out
+before us for our inspection. The scene might well conjure up a vision of
+Paradise itself. The glorious Taj: "So light it seems, so airy, and so
+like a fabric of mist and moonbeams, with its great dome soaring up, a
+silvery bubble," that it is difficult, even at a few hundred yards'
+distance, to believe it a creation of human hands. While gazing on the
+Taj, men let their cigars go out, and ladies drop their fans without
+noticing it.
+
+Descending the steps again, we pass inside, and again pause to survey it
+from the end of the avenue. An element of the ridiculous here appears in
+the person and the appeals of an old Hindoo fruit-vender. This hopeful
+agent of Pomona squats beside a little tray, and, as we stand and feast
+our eyes on the sublimest object in the world of architecture, he
+persistently calls our attention to a dozen or two half-decayed mangoes
+and custard-apples that comprise his stock in trade.
+
+We pass down the cypress aisle, and invade the plinth. Hundreds of
+natives, both male and female, are wandering about it. The dazzling
+whiteness of the promenade is in striking contrast to the color of their
+own bodies. As the groups of women walk about, their toe-rings and
+ankle-ornaments jingle against the marble, and their particolored raiment
+and barbarous gewgaws look curiously out of place here. The place seems
+more appropriate to vestal virgins, robed in white, than to dusky Hindoo
+females, arrayed in all the colors of the rainbow. Many of these people
+are pilgrims who have come hundreds of miles to see the Taj, and to pay
+tribute to the memory of Shah Jehan, and his faithful wife the Princess
+Arjumund, whose mausoleum is the Taj. Two young men we see, leading an
+aged female, probably their mother, down the steps to the vault, where,
+side by side, the remains of this royal pair repose. The old lady is
+going down there to deposit a rose or two upon Arjumund's tomb, a tender
+tribute paid to-day, by thousands, to her memory.
+
+We climb the spiral stairs of one of the miuars, and sit out on the
+little pavilion at the top, watching the big ugly crocodiles float lazily
+on the surface of the Jumna at our feet. Before departing, we enter the
+Taj and examine the wonderful mosaics on the cenotaphs and the encircling
+screen-work. This inlaid flower-work is quite in keeping with the general
+magnificence of the mausoleum, many of the flowers containing not less
+than twenty-five different stones, assorted shades of agate, carnelian,
+jasper, blood-stone, lapis lazuli, and turquoise. Ere leaving we put to
+test the celebrated echo; that beautiful echoing, that--"floats and
+soars overhead in a long, delicious undulation, fading away so slowly
+that you hear it after it is silent, as you see, or seem to see, a lark
+you have been watching, after it is swallowed up in the blue vault of
+heaven."
+
+We leave this garden of enchantment by way of one of the mosques. An
+Indian boy is licking up honey from the floor of the holy edifice with
+his tongue. We look up and perceive that enough rich honey-comb to fill a
+bushel measure is suspended on one of the beams, and so richly laden is
+it that the honey steadily drips down. The sanctity of the place, I
+suppose, prevents the people molesting the swarm of wild bees that have
+selected it for their storehouse, or from relieving them of their honey.
+
+The Taj is said to have cost about two million pounds, even though most
+of the labor was performed without pay, other than rations of grain to
+keep the workmen from starving. Twenty thousand men were employed upon it
+for twenty-two years, and for its inlaid work "gems and precious stones
+came in camel-loads from various countries."
+
+The next morning I bid farewell to Agra, more than satisfied with my
+visit to the Taj. It stands unique and distinct from anything else one
+sees the whole world round. Nothing one could say about it can give the
+satisfaction derived from a visit, and no word-painting can do it
+justice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+FROM AGRA TO SINGAPORE.
+
+A couple of miles from the cantonment, and the broad Jumna is crossed on
+a pontoon bridge, the buoys of which are tubular iron floats instead of
+boats. Crocodiles are observed floating, motionless as logs, their heads
+turned up-stream and their snouts protruding from the water. The road is
+undulating for a few miles and then perfectly level, as, indeed, it has
+been most of the way from Lahore.
+
+Pilgrims carrying little red flags, and sometimes bits of red paper tied
+to sticks, are encountered by the hundred; mayhap they have come from
+distant points to gaze upon the beauties of the Taj Mahal, the fame of
+which resounds to the farthermost corners of India. They can now see it
+across the Jumna, resting on the opposite bank, looking more like a
+specimen of the architecture of the skies than anything produced by mere
+earthly agency.
+
+A partly dilapidated Mohammedan mosque in the middle of a forty-acre
+walled reservoir, overgrown with water-lilies, forms a charming subject
+for the attention of my camera. The mosque is approached from an adjacent
+village by a viaduct of twenty arches; a propos of its peculiar
+surroundings, one might easily fancy the muezzin's call to prayer taking
+the appropriate form of, "Come where the water-lilies bloom," instead of
+the orthodox, "Allah-il-allah."
+
+Villages are now rows of shops lining the road on either side, sometimes
+as much as half a mile in length. The entrance is usually marked by a
+shrine containing a hideous idol, painted red and finished off with
+cheap-looking patches of gold or silver tinsel. In the larger towns,
+evidences of English philanthropy loom conspicuously above the hut-like
+shops and inferior houses of the natives in the form of large and
+substantial brick buildings, prominently labelled "Ferozabad Hospital" or
+"Government Free Dispensary." A discouraging head-wind blows steadily all
+day, and it is near sunset when the thirty-seven miles to Sbikarabad is
+covered. A mile west of the town, I am told, is the Rohilcund Railway,
+the dak bungalow, and the bungalow of an English Sahib. Quite suitable
+for a one-mile race-track as regards surface is this little side-stretch,
+and a spin along its smooth length is rewarded by a most comfortable
+night at the bungalow of Mr. S, an engineer of the Ganges Canal, a
+magnificent irrigating enterprise, on the banks of which his bungalow
+stands. Several school-boys from Allahabad are here spending their
+vacation, shooting peafowls and fishing. Wild boars abound in the tall
+tiger-grass of the Shikobabad district and the silence of the gloaming is
+broken by the shouting of natives driving them out of their cane-patches,
+where, if not looked after pretty sharply, they do considerable damage in
+the night.
+
+A curious illustration of native vanity and love of fame is pointed out
+here in the case of a wealthy gentleman who has spent some thousands of
+rupees in making and maintaining a beautiful flower-garden in the midst
+of a worthless piece of sandy land, close by the railway station. Close
+by is an abundance of excellent ground, where his garden might have been
+easily and inexpensively maintained. Asked the reason for this strange
+preference and seemingly foolish choice, he replied: "When people see
+this beautiful garden in the midst of the barren sand, they will ask,
+'Whose garden is this?' and thus will my name become known among men.
+If, on the other hand, it were planted on good soil, nobody would see
+anything extraordinary in it, and nobody would trouble themselves to ask
+to whom it belongs."
+
+Youthful Davids, perched on frail platforms that rise above the
+sugar-cane, indigo, or cotton crops, shout and wield slings with
+dexterous aim and vigor, to keep away vagrant crows, parrots, and wild
+pigs, all along the line of my next day's ride to Mainpuri. In many
+fields these young slingers and their platforms are but a couple of
+hundred yards apart, the range of their weapons covering the entire
+crop-area around. Sometimes I endeavor to secure one of these excellent
+subjects for my camera, but the youngsters invariably clamber down from
+their perch at seeing me dismount, and become invisible among the thick
+cane.
+
+To the music of loud, rolling thunder, I speed swiftly over the last few
+miles, and dash beneath the porch of the post-office just in the nick of
+time to escape a tremendous downpour of rain. How it pours, sometimes, in
+India, converting the roads into streams and the surrounding country into
+a shallow lake in the space of a few minutes. Hundreds of youths, naked
+save for the redeeming breech-cloth, disport themselves in the great warm
+shower-bath, chasing one another sportively about and enjoying the
+downpour immensely.
+
+The rain ceases, and, with water flinging from my wheel, I seek the civil
+lines and the dak bungalow three miles farther down the road. Very good
+meals are dished up by the chowkee-dar at this bungalow, who seems an
+intelligent and enterprising fellow; but the lean and slippered
+punkah-wallah is a far less satisfactory part of the accommodation. Twice
+during the night the punkah ceases to wave and the demon of prickly heat
+instantly wakes me up; and both times do I have to turn out and arouse
+him from the infolding arms of Morpheus. On the second occasion the old
+fellow actually growls at being disturbed. He is wide-awake and
+obsequious enough, however, at backsheesh-time in the morning.
+
+The clock at the little English station-church chimes the hour of six as
+I resume my journey next morning along a glorious avenue of overarching
+shade-trees to Bhogan, where my road, which from Delhi has been a branch
+road, again merges into the Grand Trunk. Groves of tall toddy-palms are a
+distinguishing feature of Bhogan, and a very pretty little Hindoo temple
+marks the southern extremity of the town. A striking red and gilt shrine
+in a secluded grove of peepuls arrests my attention a few miles out of
+town, and, repairing thither, my rude intrusion fills with silent
+surprise a company of gentle Brahman youths and maidens paying their
+matutinal respects to the representation of Kamadeva, the Hindoo cupid
+and god of love. They seem overwhelmed with embarrassment at the
+appearance of a Sahib, but they say nothing. I explain that my object is
+merely a "tomasha" of the exquisitely carved shrine, and a young Brahman,
+with his smooth, handsome face fantastically streaked with yellow,
+follows silently behind as I walk around the building. His object is
+evidently to satisfy himself that nothing is touched by my unhallowed
+Christian hands.
+
+Seven miles from Bhogan is the camping ground of Bheyo, where in
+December, 1869, an English soldier was assassinated in the night while
+standing sentry beneath a tree. His grave, beneath the gnarled mango
+where he fell, is marked by two wooden crosses, and the tree-trunk is all
+covered with memorial plates nailed there, from time to time, by the
+various troops who have camped here on their winter marches.
+
+Twenty-eight miles are duly reeled off when, just outside a village, I
+seek the shade of a magnificent banyan. The kindly villagers,
+unaccustomed to seeing a Sahib without someone attending to his comfort,
+bring me a charpoy to recline on, and they inquire anxiously, "roti?
+pahni? doctor." (am I hungry, thirsty, or ill?). Nor are these people
+actuated by mercenary thoughts, for not a pice will they accept on my
+departure. "Nay, Sahib, nay," they reply, eagerly, smiling and shaking
+their heads, "pice, nay." The narrow-gauge Rohilcuud Railway now follows
+along the Grand Trunk road, being built on one edge of the broad
+road-bed. Miran Serai, a station on this road, is my destination for the
+day; there, however, no friendly dak bungalow awaits my coming and no
+hostelry of any kind is to be found.
+
+The native station-master advises me to go to the superintendent of
+police across the way; the police-officer, in turn, suggests applying to
+the station-master. The police-thana here is a large establishment, and a
+number of petty prisoners are occupying railed-off enclosures beneath the
+arched entrance. They accost me through the bars of their temporary,
+cage-like prison with smiles, and "Sahib" spoken in coaxing tones, as
+though moved by the childish hope that I might perchance take pity on
+them and order the police to set them at liberty.
+
+A small and pardonable display of "bounce" at the railway station finally
+secures me the quarters reserved for the accommodation of English
+officers of the road, and a Mohammedan employe about the station procures
+me a supply of curried rice and meat. The station-master himself is a
+high-caste Hindoo and can speak English; he politely explains the
+difficulty of his position, as an extra-holy person, in being unable to
+personally attend to the wants of a Sahib. Upon discovering that I have
+taken up my quarters in the station, the police-superintendent comes over
+and begs permission to send over my supper, as he is evidently anxious to
+cultivate my good opinion, or, at all events, to make sure of giving no
+offence in failing to accommodate me with sleeping quarters at the thana.
+He supplements the efforts of the Mohammedan employe, by sending over a
+dish of sweetened chuppaties.
+
+On the street leading out of Miran Serai is a very handsome and
+elaborately ornamented temple. Passing by early in the morning, I pay it
+a brief, unceremonious visit of inspection, kneeling on the steps and
+thrusting my helmeted head in to look about, not caring to go to the
+trouble of removing my shoes. Inside is an ancient Brahman, engaged in
+sweeping out the floral offerings of the previous day; he favors me with
+the first indignant glance I have yet received in India. When I have
+satisfied my curiosity and withdrawn from the door-way, he comes out
+himself and shuts the beautifully chased brazen door with quite an angry
+slam. The day previous was the anniversary of Krishna's birth, and the
+blood of sacrificial goats and bullocks is smeared profusely about the
+altar. It is, probably, the enormity of an unhallowed unbeliever in one
+god, thrusting his infidel head inside the temple at this unseemly hour
+of the morning, while the blood of the mighty Krishna's sacrificial
+victims is scarcely dry on the walls, that arouses the righteous wrath of
+the old heathen priest--as well, indeed, it might.
+
+Passing through a village abounding in toddy-palms, I avail myself of an
+opportunity to investigate the merits of a beverage that I have been
+somewhat curious about since reaching India, having heard it spoken of so
+often. The famous "palm-wine" is merely the sap of the toddy-palm,
+collected much as is the sap from the maple-sugar groves of America,
+although the palm-juice is generally, if not always, obtained from the
+upper part of the trunk. When fresh, its taste resembles sweetened water;
+in a day or two fermentation sets in, and it changes to a beverage that,
+except for slightly alcoholic properties, might readily be mistaken for
+vinegar and water.
+
+Every little village or hamlet one passes through, south of Agra, seems
+laudably determined to own a god of some sort; those whose finances fail
+to justify them in sporting a nice, red-painted god with gilt trimmings,
+sometimes console themselves with a humble little two-dollar soapstone
+deity that looks as if he has been rudely chipped into shape by some
+unskilful prentice hand. God-making is a highly respectable and lucrative
+profession in India, but only those able to afford it can expect the
+luxury of a nice painted and varnished deity right to their hand every
+day. People cannot expect a first-class deity for a couple of rupees;
+although the best of everything is generally understood to be the
+cheapest in the end, it takes money to buy marble, red paint, and
+gold-leaf. A bowl of pulse porridge, sweet and gluey, is prepared and
+served up in a big banyan-leaf at noon by a villager. In the same village
+is one of those very old and shrivelled men peculiar to India. From
+appearances, he must be nearly a hundred years old; his skin resembles
+the epidermis of a mummy, and hangs in wrinkles about his attenuated
+frame. He spends most of his time smoking goodakoo from a neat little
+cocoa-nut hookah.
+
+The evening hour brings me into Cawnpore, down a fine broad street
+divided in the centre by a canal, with flights of stone steps for banks
+and a double row of trees--a street far broader and finer than the Chandni
+Chouk--and into an hotel kept by a Parsee gentleman named Byramjee. Life
+at this hostelry is made of more than passing interest by the familiar
+manner in which frogs, lizards, and birds invade the privacy of one's
+apartments. Not one of these is harmful, but one naturally grows curious
+about whether a cobra or some other less desirable member of the reptile
+world is not likely at any time to join their interesting company. The
+lizards scale the walls and ceiling in search of flies, frogs hop
+sociably about the floor, and a sparrow now and then twitters in and out.
+
+A two weeks' drought has filled the farmers of the Cawnpore district with
+grave apprehensions concerning their crops; but enough rain falls
+to-night to gladden all their hearts, and also to leak badly through the
+roof of my bedroom.
+
+My punkah-wallah here is a regular automaton--he has acquired the valuable
+accomplishment of pulling the punkah-string back and forth in his sleep;
+he keeps it up some time after I have quitted the room in the morning,
+until a comrade comes round and wakes him up.
+
+For three days the rains continue almost without interruption, raining as
+much as seven inches in one night. Slight breaks occur in the downpour,
+during which it is possible to get about and take a look at the Memorial
+Gardens and the native town. The Memorial Gardens and the well enclosed
+therein commemorate one of the most pathetic incidents of the mutiny--the
+brutal massacre by Nana Sahib of about two hundred English women and
+children. This arch-fiend held supreme sway over Cawnpore from June 6,
+1857, till July 15th, and in that brief period committed some of the most
+atrocious deeds of treachery and deviltry that have ever been, recorded.
+Backed by a horde of blood-thirsty mutineers, he committed deeds the
+memory of which causes tears of pity for his victims to come unbidden
+into the eyes of the English tourist thirty years after. Delicate ladies,
+who from infancy had been the recipients of tender care and
+consideration, were herded together in stifling rooms with the
+thermometer at 120 deg. in the shade, marched through the broiling sun
+for miles, subjected to heart-rending privations, and at length finally
+butchered, together with their helpless children. After the treacherous
+massacre of the few surviving Englishmen at the Suttee Chowra Ghaut, the
+remaining women and children were reserved for further cruelties, and the
+final act of Nana's fiendish vengeance. From the graphic account of this
+murderous period of Cawnpore's history contained in the "Tourists' Guide
+to Cawnpore" is quoted the following brief account of Nana's consummate
+deed of devilment.
+
+But the Nana's reign of terror was now drawing to a close, though not to
+terminate without a stroke destined to make the civilized world shudder
+from end to end. He was now to put the finishing touch to his work of
+mischief. The councils of the wicked were being troubled. Danger was on
+its way. Stories were brought in by scouting Sepoys of terrible bronzed
+men coming up the Grand Trunk Road, before whose advance the rebel hosts
+were fleeing like chaff and dust before the fan of the threshing-floor,
+Futtehpore had fallen, and disaster had overtaken the rebel forces at
+Aoung. Reinforcements were despatched by Nana in rapid succession, but
+all was of no avail--on came Havelock and his handful of heroes,
+carrying everything before them in their determination to rescue the
+hapless women and children imprisoned at Cawnpore. About noon on July
+15th a few troopers came in from the south and informed Nana that his
+last reinforcement had met the same fate as the others, and reported that
+the English were coming up the road like mad horses, caring for neither
+cannon nor musketry; nor did these appear to have any effect on them. The
+guilty Nana, with the blood of the recent treacherous massacre on his
+hands, grew desperate at the hopelessness of the situation, and called a
+council of war. What plans could they devise to keep out the English?
+what steps could they adopt to stay their advance. The conclusion arrived
+at in that council of human tigers could have found expression nowhere
+save in the brains of Asiatics, illogical, and diabolically cruel. "We
+will destroy the maims and baba logues," they said, "and inform the
+English force of it; they will then be disheartened, and go back, for
+they are only a handful in number!"
+
+How the unfortunate innocents were butchered in cold blood in the
+beebeegurch where they were confined, by Sepoys who gloried in trying
+their skill at severing the ladies' heads from their bodies at one cut,
+in splitting little children in twain, and in smearing themselves with
+the blood of their helpless victims, is too harrowing a tale to dwell
+upon here. On the following morning "the mangled bodies of both dead and
+dying" were cast into the well over which now hovers the marble
+representation of the Pitying Angel. When the victorious relieving force
+scattered Nana's remaining forces and entered the city, two days later,
+instead of the living forms of those they had made such heroic efforts to
+save, they looked down the well and saw their ghastly remains.
+
+In this lovely garden, where all is now so calm and peaceful, scarcely
+does it seem possible that beneath the marble figure of this Pitying
+Angel repose the dust of two hundred of England's gentle martyrs, whose
+murdered and mutilated forms, but thirty years ago, choked up the well
+into which they were tossed. While I stand and read the sorrowful
+inscription it rains a gentle, soft, unpattering shower. Are these gentle
+droppings the tender tribute of angels' tears. I wonder, and does it
+always rain so soft and noiselessly here as it does to-day?
+
+No natives are permitted in this garden without special permission; and
+an English soldier keeps sentinel at the entrance-gate instead of the
+Sepoy usually found on such duty. The memory of this tragedy seems to
+hang over Cawnpore like a cloud even to this day, and to cause a feeling
+of bitterness in the minds of Englishmen, who everywhere else regard the
+natives about them with no other feelings than of the kindliest possible
+nature. Other monuments of the mutiny exist, notably the Memorial Church,
+a splendid Lombard-Gothic structure erected in memoriam of those who fell
+in the mutiny here. The church is full of tablets commemorating the death
+of distinguished people, and the stained-glass windows are covered with
+the names of the victims of Nana Sahib's treachery, and of those who fell
+in action.
+
+Cawnpore is celebrated for the number and extensiveness of its
+manufactures, and might almost be called the Manchester of India;
+woollen, cotton, and jute mills abound, leather factories, and various
+kindred industries, giving employment to millions of capital and
+thousands of hands.
+
+A stroll through the native quarter of any Indian city is interesting,
+and Cawnpore is no exception. One sees buildings and courts the
+decorations and general appearance of which leave the beholder in doubt
+as to whether they are theatre or temple. Music and tom-toming would seem
+rather to suggest the former, but upon entering one sees fakirs and
+Hindoo devotees, streaked with clay, fanciful paintings and hideous
+idols, and all the cheap pomp and pageantry of idolatrous worship.
+Strolling into one of these places, an attendant, noting my curious
+gazing, presents himself and points to a sign-board containing characters
+as meaningless to me as Aztec hieroglyphics.
+
+In one narrow street a crowd of young men are struggling violently for
+position about a door, where an old man is flinging handfuls of yellow
+powder among the crowd. The struggling men are aspirants for the honor of
+having a portion of the powder alight on their persons. I inquire of a
+native by-stander what it all means; the explanation is politely given,
+but being in the vernacular of the country, it is wasted on the
+unprofitable soil of my own lingual ignorance.
+
+Impatient to be getting along, I misinterpret a gleam of illusory
+sunshine at noon on the third day of the rain-storm and pull out, taking
+a cursory glance at the Memorial Church as I go. A drenching shower
+overtakes me in the native military lines, compelling me to seek shelter
+for an hour beneath the portico of their barracks. The road is perfectly
+level and smooth, and well rounded, so that the water drains off and
+leaves it better wheeling than ever; and with alternate showers and
+sunshine I have no difficulty in covering thirty-four miles before
+sunset. This brings me to a caravanserai, consisting of a quadrangular
+enclosure with long rows of cell-like rooms. The whole structure is much
+inferior to a Persian caravanserai, but there is probably no need of the
+big brick structures of Shah Abbas in a winterless country like India.
+
+Interesting subjects are not wanting for my camera through the day; but
+the greatest difficulty is experienced about changing the negatives at
+night. A small lantern with a very feeble light, made still more feeble
+by interposing red paper, suffices for my own purpose; but the too
+attentive chowkee-dar, observing that my room is in darkness, and
+fancying that my light has gone out accidentally, comes flaring in with a
+torch, threatening the sensitive negatives with destruction.
+
+The morning opens with a fine drizzle or extra-heavy mist that is
+penetrating and miserable, soaking freely into one's clothes, and
+threatening every minute to change into a regular rain. It is fourteen
+miles to Futtehpore, and thence two miles off the straight road to the
+railway-station, where I understand refreshments are to be obtained. The
+reward of my four-mile detour is a cup of sloppy tea and a few
+weevil-burrowed biscuits, as the best the refreshment-room can produce on
+short notice. The dense mist moves across the country in big banks,
+between which are patches of comparatively decent atmosphere. The country
+is perfectly flat, devoted chiefly to the cultivation of rice, and the
+depressions alongside the road are, of course, filled with water.
+
+Timid youngsters, fleeing from the road at my approach, in their
+scrambling haste sometimes tumble "head-over-heels" in the water; but,
+beyond a little extra terror lest the dreadful object they see coming
+bowling along should overtake them, it doesn't matter--they haven't
+any clothes to spoil or soil. Neither rain nor heat nor dense, reeking,
+foggy atmosphere seems to diminish the swarms of people on the road, nor
+the groups bathing or washing clothes beneath the trees. Some of these
+latter make a very interesting picture. The reader has doubtless visited
+the Zoo and observed one monkey gravely absorbed in a "phrenological
+examination" of another's head. With equal gravity and indifference to
+the world at large, dusky humans are performing a similar office for one
+another beneath the roadside shade-trees.
+
+Roasted ears of maize and a small muskmelon form my noontide repast, and
+during its consumption quite a comedy is enacted down the street between
+a fat, paunchy vender of goodakoo and the shiny-skinned proprietor of a
+dhal-shop. The scene opens with a wordy controversy about something;
+scene two shows the fat goodakoo merchant advanced midway between his own
+and his adversary's premises, capering about, gesticulating, and uttering
+dire threats; scene three finds him retreating and the valorous man of
+dhal held in check by his wife to prevent him following after with
+hostile intent. The men seem boiling over with rage and ready to chew
+each other up; but, judging from the supreme indifference of everybody
+else about, nobody expects anything serious, to happen. This is
+mentionable as being the first quarrel I have seen in India; as a general
+thing the people are gentleness personified.
+
+Several tattooed Hindoo devotees are observed this afternoon paying
+solemn devotions to bel-trees streaked with red paint, near the road.
+Many of the trees also shelter rude earthenware animals, and
+hemispherical vessels, which are also objects of worship, as representing
+the linga. The bel-tree is sacred to Siva the Destroyer, and the third
+person in the Hindoo Triad, whom Brahma himself is said to have
+worshipped, although he is regarded as the Creator. In the absence of
+Siva himself, the worship of the bel-tree is supposed to be as
+efficacious as worshipping the idol direct.
+
+Soon I overtake an individual doing penance for his sins by crawling on
+his stomach all the way to Benares, the Mecca of the Hindoo religion. In
+addition to crawling, he is dragging a truck containing his personal
+effects by a rope tied about his waist. Every fifty yards or so he stands
+up and stretches himself; then he lies prostrate again and worms his
+wearisome way along the road like a snake. Benares is still about a
+hundred miles distant, and not unlikely this determined devotee has
+already been crawling in this manner for weeks. This painful sort of
+penance was formerly indulged in by Hindoo fanatics very largely; but the
+English Government has now all but abolished the practice by mild methods
+of discouragement. The priests of the different idols in Benares annually
+send out thousands of missionaries to travel throughout the length and
+breadth of India to persuade people to make pilgrimages to that city.
+Each missionary proclaims the great benefits to be derived by going to
+worship the particular idol he represents; in this manner are the priests
+enriched by the offerings presented. Not long since one of these zealous
+pilgrim-hunters persuaded a wealthy rajah into journeying five hundred
+miles in the same manner as the poor wretch passed on the road to-day.
+The infatuated rajah completed the task, after months of torture, on
+all-fours, accompanied the whole distance by a crowd of servants and
+priests, all living on his bounty.
+
+Many people now wear wooden sandals held on the feet by a spool-like
+attachment, gripped between the big and second toes. Having no straps,
+the solid sole of the sandal flaps up and mildly bastinadoes the wearer
+every step that is taken.
+
+Another night in a caravanserai, where rival proprietors of rows of
+little chowkees contend for the privilege of supplying me char-poy, dood,
+and chowel, and where thousands of cawing rooks blacken the trees and
+alight in the quadrangular serai in noisy crowds, and I enter upon the
+home-stretch to Allahabad.
+
+In proof that the cycle is making its way in India it may be mentioned
+that at both Cawnpore and Allahabad the native postmen are mounted on
+strong, heavy bicycles, made and supplied from the post-office workshops
+at Allighur. They are rude machines, only a slight improvement upon the
+honored boneshaker; but their introduction is suggestive of what may be
+looked for in the future. As evidence, also, of the oft-repeated saying
+that "the world is small," I here have the good fortune to meet Mr.
+Wingrave, a wheelman whom I met at the Barnes Common tricycle parade when
+passing through London.
+
+There is even a small cycle club in quasi existence at Allahabad; but it
+is afflicted with chronic lassitude, as a result of the enervating
+climate of the Indian plains. Young men who bring with them from England
+all the Englishman's love of athletics soon become averse to exercise,
+and prefer a quiet "peg" beneath the punkah to wheeling or cricket.
+During the brief respite from the hades-like temperature afforded by
+December and January, they sometimes take club runs down the Ganges and
+indulge in the pastime of shooting at alligators with small-bore rifles.
+
+The walks in the beautiful public gardens and every other place about
+Allahabad are free to wheelmen, and afford most excellent riding.
+
+Messrs. Wingrave and Gawke, the two most enterprising wheelmen, turn out
+at 6 a.m. to escort me four miles to the Ganges ferry. Some idea of the
+trying nature of the climate in August may be gathered from the fact that
+one of my companions arrives at the river fairly exhausted, and is
+compelled to seek the assistance of a native gharri to get back home. The
+exposure and exercise I am taking daily is positively dangerous, I am
+everywhere told, but thus far I have managed to keep free from actual
+sickness.
+
+The sacred river is at its highest flood, and hereabout not less than a
+mile and half wide. The ferry service is rude and inefficient, being
+under the management of natives, who reck little of the flight of time or
+modern improvements. The superintendent will bestir himself, however, in
+behalf of the Sahib who is riding the Ferenghi gharri around the world:
+instead of putting me aboard the big slow ferry, he will man a smaller
+and swifter boat to ferry me over. The "small boat" is accordingly
+produced, and turns out to be a rude flat-boat sort of craft, capable of
+carrying fully twenty tons, and it is manned by eight oarsmen. Their oars
+are stout bamboo poles with bits of broad board nailed or tied on the
+end.
+
+Much of the Ganges' present width is mere overflow, shallow enough for
+the men to wade and tow the boat. It is tugged a considerable distance
+up-stream, to take advantage of the swift current in crossing the main
+channel. The oars are plied vigorously to a weird refrain of "deelah,
+sahlah-deelah, sahlah!" the stroke oarsman shouting "deelah" and the
+others replying "sahlah" in chorus. Two hours are consumed in crossing
+the river, but once across the road is perfection itself, right from the
+river's brink.
+
+Through the valley of the sacred river, the splendid kunkah road leads
+onward to Benares, the great centre of Hindoo idolatry, a city that is
+more to the Hindoo than is Mecca to the Mohammedans or Jerusalem to the
+early Christians. Shrines and idols multiply by the roadside, and tanks
+innumerable afford bathing and purifying facilities for the far-travelled
+pilgrims who swarm the road in thousands. As the heathen devotee
+approaches nearer and nearer to Benares he feels more and more
+devotionally inclined, and these tanks of the semi-sacred water of the
+Ganges Valley happily afford him opportunity to soften up the crust of
+his accumulated transgressions, preparatory to washing them away entirely
+by a plunge off the Kamnagar ghaut at Benares. Many of the people are
+trudging their way homeward again, happy in the possession of bottles of
+sacred water obtained from the river at the holy city. Precious liquid
+this, that they are carrying in earthenware bottles hundreds of weary
+miles to gladden the hearts of stay-at-home friends and relations.
+
+At every tank scores of people are bathing, washing their clothes, or
+scouring out the brass drinking vessel almost everyone carries for
+pulling water up from the roadside wells. They are far less particular
+about the quality of the water itself than about the cleanliness of the
+vessel. Many wells for purely drinking purposes abound, and Brahmans
+serve out cool water from little pahnee-chowkees through window-like
+openings. Wealthy Hindoos, desirous of performing some meritorious act to
+perpetuate their memory when dead, frequently build a pahnee-chowkee by
+the roadside and endow it with sufficient land or money to employ a
+Brahman to serve out drinking-water to travellers.
+
+Thirty miles from Allahabad, I pause at a wayside well to obtain a drink.
+It is high noon, and the well is on unshaded ground. For a brief moment
+my broad-brimmed helmet is removed so that a native can pour water into
+my hands while I hold them to my mouth. Momentary as is the experience,
+it is followed by an ominous throbbing and ringing in the ears--the voice
+of the sun's insinuating power. But a very short distance is covered when
+I am compelled to seek the shelter of a little road-overseer's chowkee,
+the symptoms of fever making their appearance with alarming severity.
+
+The quinine that I provided myself with at Constantinople is brought into
+requisition for the first time; it is found to be ruined from not being
+kept in an air-tight vessel. A burning fever keeps me wide awake till 2
+a.m., and in the absence of a punkah, prickly heat prevents my slumbering
+afterward. This wakeful night by the roadside enlightens me to the
+interesting fact that the road is teeming with people all night as well
+as all day, many preferring to sleep in the shade during the day and
+travel at night.
+
+It is fifty miles from my chowkee to Benares, and the dread of being
+overtaken with serious illness away from medical assistance urges upon me
+the advisability of reaching there to-day, if possible. The morning is
+ushered in with a stiff head-wind, and the fever leaves me feeling
+anything but equal to pedalling against it when I mount my wheel at early
+daybreak. By sheer strength of will I reel off mile after mile, stopping
+to rest frequently at villages and under the trees.
+
+A troop of big government elephants are having their hoofs trimmed at a
+village where a halt is made to obtain a bite of bread and milk. The
+elephants enter unmistakable objections to the process in the way of
+trumpeting, and act pretty much like youngsters objecting to soap and
+water. But a word and a gentle tap from the mahout's stick and the
+monster brutes roll over on their sides and submit to the inevitable with
+a shrill protesting trumpet.
+
+Another diversion not less interesting than the elephants is a wrestling
+tournament at the police-thana, where twenty stalwart policemen, stripped
+as naked as the proprieties of a country where little clothing is worn
+anyhow will permit, are struggling for honor in the arena. Vigorous
+tom-toming encourages the combatants to do their best, and they flop one
+another over merrily, in the dampened clay, to the applause of a
+delighted crowd of lookers-on. The fifty miles are happily overcome by
+four o'clock, and with the fever heaping additional fuel on the already
+well-nigh unbearable heat, I arrive pretty thoroughly exhausted at
+Clarke's Hotel, in the European quarter of Benares.
+
+Of all the cities of the East, Benares is perhaps the most interesting at
+the present day to the European tourist. Its fourteen hundred shivalas or
+idol temples, and two hundred and eighty mosques, its wonderful bathing
+ghauts swarming with pilgrims washing away their sins, the burning
+bodies, the sacred Ganges, the hideous idols at every corner of the
+streets, and its strange idolatrous population, make up a scene that
+awakens one to a keen appreciation of its novelty. One realizes fully
+that here the idolatry, the "bowing down before images" that in our
+Sunday-school days used to seem so unutterably wicked and perverse, so
+monstrous, and so far, far away, is a tangible fact. To keep up their
+outward appearance on a par with the holiness of their city, men streak
+their faces and women mark the parting in their hair with red. Sacred
+bulls are allowed to roam the streets at will, and the chief business of
+a large proportion of the population seems to be the keeping of religious
+observances and paying devotion to the multitudinous idols scattered
+about the city.
+
+The presiding deity of Benares is the great Siva--"The Great God,"
+"The Glorious," "The Three-Eyed," and lord of over one thousand similarly
+grandiloquent titles, and he is represented by the Bishesharnath ka
+shivala, a temple whose dome shines resplendent with gold-leaf, and which
+is known to Europeans as the Golden Temple. Siva is considered the king
+of all the Hindoo deities in the Benares Pauch-kos, and is consequently
+honored above all other idols in the number of devotees that pay homage
+to him daily. His income from offerings amounts to many thousands of
+rupees annually: there is a reservoir for the reception of offerings
+about three feet square by half that in depth. The Maharajah Ranjit
+Singh, Rajah of the Punjab, once filled this place with gold mohurs; many
+wealthy Hindoos have from time to time filled it with rupees.
+
+The old guide whom I have employed to show me about then conducts me into
+the "Cow Temple," a filthy court containing a number of pampered-looking
+Brahman bulls, and several youthful bovines whose great privilege it is
+to roam about the court-yard and accept tid-bits from the hands of
+devotees. In the same court-yard-like shivala are several red idols, and
+the numerous comers and goers make the place as animated as a vegetable
+market at early morning. Priests, too, are here in numbers; seated on a
+central elevation they make red marks on the faces of the devotees,
+dipping in the mixture with their finger; in return they receive a small
+coin, or a pinch of rice or grain is thrown into a vessel placed there for
+the purpose.
+
+In many stalls are big piles of flower-petals which devotees purchase to
+present as offerings. Men and women by the hundred are encountered in the
+narrow streets, passing briskly along with baskets containing a supply of
+these petals, a dish of rice, and a bowl of water; one would think, from
+their business-like manner, that they were going, or had been, marketing.
+They are going the morning round of their favorite gods, or the gods
+whose particular services they happen to stand in need of at the time;
+before these idols they pause for a moment, mutter their supplications,
+and sprinkle them with water and flower-petals, passing from one deity to
+another in a most business-like, matter-of-fact manner. Women unblessed
+with children throng to the idols of Sidheswari and Sankatadevi,
+bestowing offerings and making supplication for sons and daughters;
+pilgrims from afar are flocking to Sakhi-Banaik, whose office it is to
+testify in the next world of their pilgrimage in this. No matter how far
+a pilgrim has come, and how many offerings he has bestowed since his
+arrival, unless he repair to the shivala of Sakhi Banaik and duly report
+his appearance, his pilgrimage will have been performed in vain.
+
+Everywhere, in niches of the walls, under trees, on pedestals at frequent
+corners, are idols, hideously ugly; red idols, idols with silver faces
+and stone bodies, some with mouths from ear to ear, big idols, little
+idols, the worst omnium gatherum imaginable. Sati, nothing visible but
+her curious silver face, beams over a black mother-hubbard sort of gown
+that conceals whatever she may possess in the way of a body; Jagaddatri,
+the Mother of the World, with four arms, seated on a lion; Brahma, with
+five eyes and four mouths, curiously made to supply quadruple faces.
+Karn-adeva, the handsome little God of Love (the Hindoo Cupid), whom the
+cruel Siva once slew with a beam from his third eye--all these and
+multitudinous others greet the curious sight-seer whichever way he turns.
+Hanuman, too, is not forgotten, the great Monkey King who aided Kama in
+his expedition to Ceylon; outside the city proper is the monkey temple,
+where thousands of the sacred anthropoids do congregate and consider
+themselves at home. Then there is the fakirs' temple, the most
+beautifully carved shivala in Benares; here priests distribute handfuls
+of soaked grain to all mendicants who present themselves. The grain is
+supplied by wealthy Hindoos, and both priests and patrons consider it a
+great sin to allow a religious mendicant to go away from the temple
+empty-handed.
+
+Conspicuous above all other buildings in the city is the mosque of
+Aurungzebe, with its two shapely minarets towering high above everything
+else. The view from the summit of the minarets is comprehensive and
+magnificently lovely; the wonderful beauty of the trees and shivalas, the
+green foliage, and the gilt and red temples, so beautifully carved and
+gracefully tapering; the broad, flowing Ganges, the busy people, the
+moving boats, the rajahs' palaces along the water-front, make up a truly
+beautiful panorama of the Sacred City of the Hindoos. From here we take a
+native boat and traverse the water-front to see the celebrated bathing
+ghauts and the strange, animated scene of pilgrims bathing, bodies
+burning, and swarms of people ascending and descending the broad flights
+of steps. How intensely eager do these dusky believers in the efficacy of
+"Mother Ganga" as a purifier of sin dip themselves beneath the yellow
+water, rinse out their mouths, scrape their tongues, nib, duck, splash,
+and disport; they fairly revel in the sacred water; happy, thrice happy
+they look, as well indeed they might, for now are they certain of future
+happiness. What the "fountain filled with blood" is to the Christian, so
+is the precious water of dear Ganga to the sinful Hindoo: all sins, past,
+present, and future, are washed away.
+
+Next to washing in the sacred stream during life, the Hindoo's ambition
+is to yield up the ghost on its bank, and then to be burned on the
+Burning Ghaut and have his ashes cast adrift on the waters. On the
+Manikarnika ghaut the Hindoos burn their dead. To the unbelieving
+Ferenghi tourist there seems to be a "nigger in the fence" about all
+these heathen ceremonies, and in the burning of the dead the wily
+priesthood has managed to obtain a valuable monopoly on firewood, by
+which they have accumulated immense wealth. No Hindoo, no matter how
+pious he has been through life, how many offerings he has made to the
+gods, or how thoroughly he has scoured his yellow hide in the Ganges, can
+ever hope to reach Baikunt (heaven) unless the wood employed at his
+funeral pyre come from a domra. Domras are the lowest and most despised
+caste in India, a caste which no Hindoo would, under any consideration,
+allow himself to touch during life, or administer food to him even if
+starving to death; but after his holier brethren have yielded up the
+ghost, then the despised domra has his innings. Then it is that the
+relatives of the deceased have to humble themselves before the domra to
+obtain firing to burn the body. Realizing that they now have the pull,
+the wily domras sometimes bleed their mournful patrons unmercifully. As
+many as a thousand rupees have been paid for a fire by wealthy rajahs.
+The domra who holds the monopoly at the Manikarnika ghaut is one of the
+richest men in Benares.
+
+Two or three bodies swathed in white are observed waiting their turn to
+be burned, others are already burning, and in another spot is the corpse
+of some wealthier person wrapped in silver tinsel. Not the least
+interesting of the sights is that of men and boys here and there engaged
+in dipping up mud from the bottom and washing it in pans similar to the
+gold-pans of placer-miners; they make their livelihood by finding
+occasional coins and ornaments, accidentally lost by bathers. A very
+unique and beautifully carved edifice is the Nepaulese temple; but the
+carvings are unfit for popular inspection.
+
+The whole river-front above the ghauts is occupied by temples and the
+palaces of rajahs, who spend a portion of their time here preparing
+themselves for happiness hereafter, by drinking Ganges water and
+propitiating the gods. On festival occasions, and particularly during an
+eclipse, as many as one hundred thousand people bathe in the Ganges at
+once; formerly many were drowned in the great crush to obtain the
+peculiar blessings of bathing during an eclipse, but now a large force of
+police is employed to regulate the movements of the people on such
+occasions. Formerly, also, fights were very frequent between the
+Mohammedans and Hindoos, owing to the clashing of their religious
+beliefs, but under the tolerant and conciliatory system of the British
+Government they now get along very well together.
+
+A rest of two days and a few doses of quinine subdue the fever and put me
+in condition to resume my journey. Twelve miles from Benares, on the East
+Indian Kail way, is Mogul Serai, to which I deem it advisable to wheel in
+the evening, by way of getting started without over-exertion at first.
+Two English railroad engineers are stationed at Mogul Serai, and each of
+them is a wheelman. They, of course, are delighted to offer me the
+hospitality of their quarters for the night, and, moreover, put forth
+various inducements for a longer stay; but being anxious to reach
+Calcutta, I decide to pull out again next morning.
+
+My entertainers accompany me for a few miles out. Mogul Serai is four
+hundred and twelve miles from Calcutta, and at the four hundred and
+fourth milestone my companions bid me hearty bon voyage and return.
+Splendid as are the roads round about Mogul Serai, this eight-mile stone
+is farther down the road than they have ever ridden before.
+
+Twenty-five miles farther, and a sub-inspector of police begs my
+acceptance of curried chicken and rice. He is a five-named Mohammedan,
+and tells me a long story about his grandfather having been a reminder of
+a hundred and fifty villages, and an officer in the East India Company's
+army. On the pinions of his grandparents' virtues, his Oriental soul
+soars ambitiously after present promotion; on the strength of sundry
+eulogistic remarks contained in certificates already in his possession,
+he wants one from myself recommending him to the powers that be for their
+favorable consideration. He is the worst "certificate fiend" that I have
+met.
+
+Near Sassaram I meet a most picturesque subject for my camera, a Kajput
+hill-man in all the glory of shield, spear, and gayly feathered helmet.
+He is leading a pack-pony laden with his travelling kit, and mechanically
+obeys when I motion for him to halt. He remains stationary, and regards
+my movements with much curiosity while I arrange the camera. When the
+tube is drawn out, however, and pointed at him, and I commence peeping
+through to arrange the focus, he gets uneasy, and when I am about ready
+to perpetuate the memory of his fantastic figure forever, he moves away.
+Nor will any amount of beckoning obtain for me another "sitting," nor the
+production and holding aloft of a rupee. Whether he fancied the camera in
+danger of going off, or dreaded the "evil eye," can only be surmised.
+
+The famous fleet-footed mail-carriers of Bengal are now frequently
+encountered on the road; they are invariably going at a bounding trot of
+eight or ten miles an hour. The letter-bag is attached to the end of a
+stick carried over the shoulder, which is also provided with rings that
+jingle merrily in response to the motions of the runner. The day is not
+far distant when all these men will be mounted on bicycles, judging from
+the beginning already made at Allahabad and Cawnpore. The village women
+hereabouts wear massive brass ankle-ornaments, six inches broad, and
+which are apparently pounds in weight.
+
+A deluge of rain during the night at Dilli converts the road into
+streams, and covers the low, flat land with a sheet of water. The ground
+is soaked full, like a wet sponge, and can absorb no more; rivers are
+overflowing, every weed, every blade of grass, and every tree-leaf is
+jewelled with glistening drops. The splendid kunkah is now gradually
+giving place to ordinary macadam, which is far less desirable, the heavy,
+pelting rain washing away the clay and leaving the surface rough.
+
+Not less than four hours are consumed in crossing the River Sone at Dilli
+in a native punt, so swiftly runs the current and so broad is the
+overflow. The frequent drenching rains, the lowering clouds, and the
+persistent southern wind betoken the full vigor of the monsoons. One can
+only dodge from shelter to shelter between violent showers, and pedal
+vigorously against the stiff breeze. The prevailing weather is stormy,
+and inky clouds gather in massy banks at all points of the compass,
+culminating in violent outbursts of thunder and lightning, wind and rain.
+Occasionally, by some unaccountable freak of the elements, the monsoon
+veers completely around, and blowing a gale from the north, hustles me
+along over the cobbly surface at great speed.
+
+Just before reaching Shergotti, on the evening of the third day from
+Benares, a glimpse is obtained of hills on the right. They are the first
+relief from the dead level of the landscape all the way from Lahore;
+their appearance signifies that I am approaching the Bengal Hills. From
+Mogul Serai my road has been through territory not yet invaded by the
+revolutionizing influence of the railway, and consequently the dak
+bungalows are still kept up in form to provide travellers with
+accommodation. Chowkeedar, punkah-wallah, and sweeper are in regular
+attendance, and one can usually obtain curried rice, chicken, dhal, and
+chuppatties. An official regulation of prices is posted conspicuously in
+the bungalow: For room and charpoy, Rs 1; dinner, Rs 1-8; chota-hazari,
+Rs 1, and so on through the scale. The prices are moderate enough, even
+when it is considered that a dinner consists of a crow-like chicken,
+curried rice, and unleavened chuppatties. The chowkeedar is usually an
+old Sepoy pensioner, who obtains, in addition to his pension, a
+percentage on the money charged for the rooms--a book is kept in
+which travellers are required to enter their names and the amount paid.
+The sweepers and punkah-wallahs are rewarded separately by the recipient
+of their attentions. Sometimes, if a Mohammedan, and not prohibited by
+caste obligations from performing these menial services, the old
+pensioner brings water for bathing and sweeps out one's own room himself,
+in which case he of course pockets the backsheesh appertaining to these
+duties also.
+
+A few miles south of Shergotti the bridge spanning a tributary of the
+Sone is broken down, and no ferry is in operation. The stream, however,
+is fordable, and four stalwart Bengalis carry me across on a charpoy,
+hoisted on their shoulders; they stem the torrent bravely, and keep up
+their strength and courage by singing a refrain. From this point the road
+becomes undulating, and of indifferent surface; the macadam is badly
+washed by the soaking monsoon rains, and the low, level country is
+gradually merging into the jungle-covered hills of Bengal.
+
+The character of the people has undergone a decided change since leaving
+Delhi and Agra, and the Bengalis impress one decidedly unfavorably in
+comparison with the more manly and warlike races of the Punjab. Abject
+servility marks the demeanor of many, and utter uselessness for any
+purpose whatsoever, characterizes one's intuitive opinion of a large
+percentage of the population of the villages. Except for the pressing
+nature of one's needs, the look of unutterable perplexity that comes over
+the face of a Bengali villager, to-day, when I ask him to obtain me
+something to eat, would be laughable in the extreme. "N-a-y, Sahib,
+n-a-y." he replies, with a show of mental distraction as great as though
+ordered to fetch me the moon. An appeal for rice, milk, dhal,
+chuppatties, at several stalls results in the same failure; everybody
+seems utterly bewildered at the appearance of a Sahib among them
+searching for something to eat. The village policeman is on duty in the
+land of dreams, a not unusual circumstance, by the way; but a youth
+scuttles off and wakes him up, and notifies him of my arrival. Anxious to
+atone for his shortcomings in slumbering at his post, he bestirs himself
+to obtain the wherewithal to satisfy my hunger, his authoritative efforts
+culminating in the appearance of a big dish of dhal.
+
+The country becomes hillier, and the wild, jungle-covered hills and dark
+ravines alongside the road are highly suggestive of royal Bengal tigers.
+The striped monsters infest these jungles in plenty; during the afternoon
+I pass through a village where a depredatory man-eater has been carrying
+off women and children within the last few days.
+
+The chowkeedar at Burhee, my stopping-place for the night in the hill
+country, is a helpless old duffer, who replies "nay-hee, Sahib, nay-hee,"
+with a decidedly woe-begone utterance in response to all queries about
+refreshments. A youth capable of understanding a little English turns up
+shortly, and improves the situation by agreeing to undertake the
+preparation of supper. Still more hopeful is the outlook when a Eurasian
+and a native school-master appear upon the scene, the former acting as
+interpreter to the genial pedagogue, who is desirous of contributing to
+my comfort by impressing upon my impromptu cook the importance of his
+duties. They become deeply interested in my tour of the world, which the
+scholarly pedagogue has learned of through the medium of the vernacular
+press. The Eurasian, not being a newspaper-reader, has not heard anything
+of the journey. But he has casually heard of the River Thames, and his
+first wondering question is as to "how I managed to cross the Thames!"
+
+My saturated karki clothing has been duly wrung out and hung up inside
+the dak bungalow, the only place where it will not get wetter instead of
+dryer, and my cook is searching the town in quest of meat, when an
+English lady and gentleman drive up in a dog-cart and halt before the
+bungalow. Unaware of the presence of English people in the place, I am
+taken completely by surprise.
+
+They are Mr. and Mrs. B, an internal revenue officer and his wife, who,
+having heard of my arrival, have come to invite me to dinner. Of course I
+am delighted, and they are equally pleased to entertain one about whose
+adventures they have recently been reading. Their ayah saw me ride in,
+and went and told her mistress of seeing a "wonderful Sahib on wheels,"
+and already the report has spread that I have come down from Lahore in
+four days!
+
+A very agreeable evening is spent at Mr. E 's house, talking about the
+incidents of my journey, Mr. E 's tiger-hunting exploits in the
+neighborhood, and kindred topics. Mr. R devotes a good deal of time in
+the winter season to hunting tigers in the jungle round about his
+station, and numerous fine trophies of his prowess adorn the rooms of his
+house. He knows of the man-eater's depredations in the village I passed
+to-day, and also of another one ahead which I shall go through to-morrow;
+he declares his intention of bagging them both next season.
+
+Mrs. R arrived from Merrie England but eighteen months ago, a romantic
+girl whose knowledge of royal Bengal tigers was confined to the subdued
+habitues of sundry iron-barred cages in the Zoo. She is one of those dear
+confiding souls that we sometimes find out whose confidence in the
+omnipotent character of their husbands' ability is nothing if not
+charming and sublime. Upon her arrival in the wilds of Bengal she was
+fascinated with the loveliness of the country, and wanted her liege lord
+to take her into the depths of the jungle and show her a "real wild
+tiger." She had seen tigers in cages, but wanted to see how a real wild
+one looked in his native lair. One day they were out taking horseback
+exercise together, when, a short distance from the road, the horrible
+roar of a tiger awoke the echoes of the jungle and reverberated through
+the hills like rolling thunder. Now was the long-looked-for opportunity,
+and her husband playfully invited her to ride with him toward the spot
+whence came the roars. Mrs. R, however, had suddenly changed her mind.
+
+Mrs. R was the first white lady the people of many of the outlying
+villages had ever seen on horseback, or perhaps had ever seen at all, and
+the timidest of them would invariably bolt into the jungle at her
+appearance. When her husband or any other Englishman went among them
+alone, the native women would only turn away their faces, but from the
+lady herself they would hastily run and hide. Here, also, I learn that
+the natives in this district are dying by the hundred with a malignant
+type of fever; that the present season is an exceptionally sickly one,
+all of which gives reason for congratulation at my own health being so
+good.
+
+It is all but a sub-aqueous performance pedalling along the road next
+morning; the air is laden with a penetrating drizzle, the watery clouds
+fairly hover on the tree-tops and roll in dark masses among the hills,
+while the soaked and saturated earth reeks with steam. The road is
+macadamized with white granite, and after one of those tremendous
+downpourings that occur every hour or so the wheel-worn depressions on
+either side become narrow streams, divided by the white central ridge.
+Down the long, straight slopes these twin rivulets course right merrily,
+the whirling wheels of the bicycle flinging the water up higher than my
+head. The ravines are roaring, muddy torrents, but they are all well
+bridged, and although the road is lumpy, an unridable spot is very rarely
+encountered. For days I have not had a really dry thread of clothing,
+from the impossibility of drying anything by hanging it out. Under these
+trying conditions, a relapse of the fever is matter for daily and hourly
+apprehension.
+
+The driving drizzle to-day is very uncomfortable, but less warm than
+usual; it is anything but acceptable to the natives; thousands are seen
+along the road, shivering behind their sheltering sun-shields, from which
+they dismally essay to extract a ray of comfort. These sun-shields are
+umbrella-like affairs made of thin strips of bamboo and broad leaves;
+they are without handles, and for protection against the sun or rain are
+balanced on the head like an inverted sieve. When carried in the hand
+they may readily be mistaken for shields. In addition to this, the men
+carry bamboo spears with iron points as a slipshod measure of defence
+against possible attacks from wild animals. When viewed from a
+respectable distance these articles invest the ultra-gentle Bengali with
+a suggestion of being on the war-path, a delusion that is really absurd
+in connection with the meek Bengali ryot.
+
+The houses of the villages are now heavily thatched, and mostly enclosed
+with high bamboo fencing, prettily trailed with creepers; the bazaars are
+merely two rows of shed-like stalls between which runs the road. In lieu
+of the frequent painted idol, these jungle villagers bestow their
+devotional exercises upon rude and primitive representations of
+impossible men and animals made of twisted straw. These are sometimes set
+up in the open air on big horseshoe-shaped frames, and sometimes they are
+beneath a shed. In the privacy of their own dwellings the Bengali ryot
+bows the knee and solemnly worships a bowl of rice or a cup of arrack.
+The bland and childlike native of Hindostan falls down and worships
+almost everything that he recognizes as being essential to his happiness
+and welfare, embracing a wide range of subjects, from Brahma, who created
+all things, to the denkhi with which their women hull the rice. This
+denkhi is merely a log of wood fixed on a pivot and with a hammer-like
+head-piece. The women manipulate it by standing on the lever end and then
+stepping off, letting it fall of its own weight, the hammer striking into
+a stone bowl of rice. The denkhi is said to have been blessed by Brahma's
+son Narada, the god who is distinguished as having cursed his venerable
+and all-creating sire and changed him from an object of worship and
+adoration to a luster after forbidden things.
+
+The country continues hilly, with the dense jungle fringing the road; all
+along the way are little covered platforms erected on easily climbed
+poles from twelve to twenty feet high. These are apparently places of
+refuge where benighted wayfarers can seek protection from wild animals.
+Occasionally are met the fleet-footed postmen, their rings jangling
+merrily as they bound briskly along; perhaps the little platforms are
+built expressly for their benefit, as they are not infrequently the
+victims of stealthy attack, the jingle of their rings attracting Mr.
+Tiger instead of repelling him.
+
+Mount Parisnath, four thousand five hundred and thirty feet high, the
+highest peak of the Bengal hills, overlooks my dak bungalow at Doomree,
+and also a region of splendid tropical scenery, dark wooded ridges, deep
+ravines, and rolling masses of dark-green vegetation.
+
+During the night the weather actually grows chilly, a raw wind laden with
+moisture driving me off the porch into the shelter of the bungalow. No
+portion of Parisnath is visible in the morning but the base, nine-tenths
+of its proportions being above the line of the cloud-masses that roll
+along just above the trees. Another day through the hilly country and, a
+hundred and fifty miles from Calcutta, the flourishing coal-mining
+district of Asansol brings me again to the East India Railway and
+semi-European society and accommodation. Instead of doughy chuppatties,
+throat-blistering curry, and octogenarian chicken, I this morning
+breakfast off a welcome bottle of Bass's ale, baker's bread, and American
+cheese.
+
+My experience of hotels and hotel proprietors has certainly been somewhat
+wide and varied within the last two years; but it remains for Rannegunj
+to produce something entirely novel in the matter of tariff even to one
+of my experience. The cuisine and service of the hotel is excellent, and
+well worth the charges; but the tariff is arranged so that it costs more
+to stay part of a day than a whole one, and more to take two meals than
+to take three. If a person remains a whole day, including room and three
+meals, it is Rs 4, and he can, of course, suit himself about staying or
+going if he engages or pays in advance; but should he only take dinner,
+room, and chota-hazari, his bill reads: Dinner, Rs 2; room, Rs 1, 8
+annas; chota-hazari, rupees 1; total, Rs 4, 8 annas, or 8 annas more than
+if he had remained and taken another square meal. The subtle-minded
+proprietor of this establishment should undoubtedly take out a patent on
+this very unique arrangement and issue licences throughout all
+Bonifacedom; there would be more "millions in it" than in anything
+Colonel Sellers ever dreamed of.
+
+And now, beyond Rannegunj, comes again the glorious kunkah road, after
+nearly three hundred miles of variable surface. Level, smooth, and broad
+it continues the whole sixty-five miles to Burd-wan. Notwithstanding an
+adverse wind, this is covered by three o'clock. The road leads through
+the marvellously fertile valley of the Dammoodah, an interesting region
+where groves of cocoa-nut palms, bamboo thickets, and thatched villages
+give the scenery a more decidedly tropical character than that north of
+the Bengal hills. Rice is still the prevailing crop, and the overflow of
+the Dammoodah is everywhere. Men and women are busily engaged among the
+pools, fishing for land-crabs, mussels, and other freshwater shell-fish,
+with triangular nets.
+
+As my southward course brings me next day into the valley of the Hooghli
+River, the road partakes almost of the character of a tunnel burrowing
+through a mass of dense tropical vegetation. Cocoa-nut and toddy-palms
+mingle their feathery foliage with the dark-green of the mango, the wild
+pomolo, giant bamboo, and other vegetable exuberances characteristic of a
+hot and humid climate, and giant creepers swing from tree to tree and
+wind among the mass in inextricable confusion.
+
+In this magnificent conservatory of nature big, black-faced monkeys, with
+tails four feet long, romp and revel through the trees, nimbly climb the
+creepers, and thoroughly enjoy the life amid the sylvan scenes about
+them. It is a curious sight to see these big anthropoids, almost as large
+as human beings, swing themselves deftly up among the festooned creepers
+at my approach--to see their queer, impish black faces peering
+cautiously out of their hiding-place, and to hear their peculiar squeak
+of surprise and apprehension as they note the strange character of my
+conveyance. Sometimes a gang of them will lope awkwardly along ahead of
+the bicycle, looking every inch like veritable imps of darkness pursuing
+their silent course through the chastened twilight of green-grown,
+subterranean passageways, their ridiculously long tails raised aloft, and
+their faces most of the time looking over their shoulders.
+
+Youthful lotus-eaters, sauntering lazily about in the vicinity of some
+toddy-gatherer's hamlet, hidden behind the road's impenetrable
+environment of green, regard with supreme indifference the evil-looking
+apes, bigger far than themselves, romping past; but at seeing me they
+scurry off the road and disappear as suddenly as the burrow-like openings
+in the green banks will admit.
+
+Women are sometimes met carrying baskets of plantains or mangoes to the
+village bazaars; sometimes I endeavor to purchase fruit of them, but they
+shake their heads in silence, and seem anxious to hurry away. These women
+are fruit-gatherers and not fruit-sellers, consequently they cannot sell
+a retail quantity to me without violating their caste.
+
+My experiences in India have been singularly free from snakes; nothing
+have I seen of the dreaded cobra, and about the only reminder of Eve's
+guileful tempter I encounter is on the road this morning. He is only a
+two-foot specimen of his species, and is basking in a streak of sunshine
+that penetrates the green arcade above. Remembering the judgment
+pronounced upon him in the Garden of Eden, I attempt to acquit myself of
+the duty of bruising his head, by riding over him. To avoid this
+indignity his snakeship performs the astonishing feat of leaping entirely
+clear of the ground, something quite extraordinary, I believe, for a
+snake. The popular belief is that a snake never lifts more than
+two-thirds of his length from the ground.
+
+From the city of Hooghli southward, the road might with equal propriety
+be termed a street; it follows down the west side of the Hooghli River
+and links together a chain of populous towns and villages, the straggling
+streets of which sometimes fairly come together. Fruit-gardens, crowded
+with big golden pomolos, delicious custard, apples, and bananas abound;
+in the Hooghli villages the latter can be bought for two pice a dozen.
+Depots for the accumulation and shipment of cocoa-nuts, where tons and
+tons of freshly gathered nuts are stacked up like measured mounds of
+earth, are frequent along the river. Jute factories with thousands of
+whirring spindles and the clackety-clack of bobbins fill the morning air
+with the buzz and clatter of vigorous industrial life. Juggernaut cars,
+huge and gorgeous, occupy central places in many of the towns passed
+through. The stalls and bazaars display a variety of European beverages
+very gratifying from the stand-point of a hot and thirsty wayfarer,
+ranging from Dublin ginger ale to Pommery Sec. California Bartlett pears,
+with seductive and appetizing labels on their tin coverings, are seen in
+plenty, and shiny wrappers envelop oblong cakes of Limburger cheese.
+
+For a few minutes my wheel turns through a district where the names of
+the streets are French, and where an atmosphere of sleepy Catholic
+respectability pervades the streets. This is Chandernagor, a wee bit of
+territory that the French have been permitted to retain here, a rosebud
+in the button-hole of la belle France's national vanity. Chanderuagor is
+a bite of two thousand acres out of the rich cake of the lower Hooghli
+Valley; but it is invested with all the dignity of a governor-general's
+court, and is gallantly defended by a standing army of ten men. The
+Governor-General of Chandernagor fully makes up in dignity what the place
+lacks in size and importance; when the East India Railway was being built
+he refused permission for it to pass through his territory. There is no
+doubt but that the land forces of Chandernagor would resist like bantams
+any wanton or arbitrary violation of its territorial prerogatives by any
+mercenary railroad company, or even by perfide Albion herself, if need
+be. The standing army of Chandernagor hovers over peaceful India, a
+perpetual menace to the free and liberal government established by
+England. Some day the military spirit of Chandernagor will break loose,
+and those ten soldiers will spread death and devastation in some peaceful
+neighboring meadow, or ruthlessly loot some happy, pastoral melon-garden.
+Let the Indian Government be warned in time and increase its army.
+
+By nine o'clock the bicycle is threading its way among the moving throngs
+on the pontoon bridge that spans the Hooghli between Howrah and Calcutta,
+and half an hour later I am enjoying a refreshing bath in Cook's Adelphi
+Hotel.
+
+I have no hesitation in saying that, except for the heat, my tour down
+the Grand Trunk Road of India has been the most enjoyable part of the
+whole journey, thus far. What a delightful trip a-wheel it would be, to
+be sure, were the temperature only milder!
+
+My reception in Calcutta is very gratifying. A banquet by the Dalhousie
+Athletic Club is set on foot the moment my arrival is announced. With
+such enthusiasm do the members respond that the banquet takes place the
+very next day, and over forty applicants for cards have to be refused for
+want of room. For genuine, hearty hospitality, and thoroughness in
+carrying out the interpretation of the term as understood in its real
+home, the East, I unhesitatingly yield the palm to Anglo-Indians. Time
+and again, on my ride through India, have I experienced Anglo-Indian
+hospitality broad and generous as that of an Arab chief, enriched and
+rendered more acceptable by a feast of good-fellowship as well as
+creature considerations.
+
+The City of Palaces is hardly to be seen at its best in September, for
+the Viceregal Court is now at Simla, and with it all the government
+officials and high life. Two months later and Calcutta is more brilliant,
+in at least one particular, than any city in the world. Every evening in
+"the season" there is a turn-out of splendid equipages on the bund road
+known as the Strand, the like of which is not to be seen elsewhere, East
+or West. It is the Rotten Row of Calcutta embellished with the
+gorgeousness of India. Wealthy natives display their luxuriousness in
+vying with one another and with the government officials in the splendor
+of their carriages, horses, and liveries.
+
+Mr. P, a gentleman long resident in Calcutta, and a prominent member of
+the Dalhousie Club, drives me in his dog-cart to the famous Botanical
+Gardens, whose wealth of unique vegetation, gathered from all quarters of
+the world, would take volumes to do it justice should one attempt a
+description. Its magnificent banyan is justly entitled to be called one
+of the wonders of the world. Not less striking, however, in their way,
+are the avenues of palms; so straight, so symmetrical are these that they
+look like rows of matched columns rather than works of nature. Fort
+William, the original name of the city, and the foundation-stone of the
+British Indian Empire, is visited with Mr. B, the American Consul, a
+gentleman from Oregon. The glory of Calcutta, its magnificent Maidan, is
+overlooked by the American Consulate, and one of the most conspicuous
+objects in the daytime is the stars and stripes floating from the
+consulate flag-staff.
+
+On the 18th sails the opium steamer Wing-sang to Hong-Kong, aboard which
+I have been intending to take passage, and whose date of departure has
+somewhat influenced my speed in coming toward Calcutta. To cross overland
+from India to China with a bicycle is not to be thought of. This I was
+not long in finding out after reaching India. Fearful as the task would
+be to reach the Chinese frontier, with at least nine chances out of ten
+against being able to reach it, the difficulties would then have only
+commenced.
+
+The day before sailing, the bicycle branch of the Dalhousie Athletic Club
+turns out for a club run around the Maidan, to the number of seventeen.
+It is in the evening; the long rows of electric lamps stretching across
+the immense square shed a moon-like light over our ride, and the smooth,
+broad roads are well worthy the metropolitan terminus of the Grand Trunk.
+
+My stay of five days in the City of Palaces has been very enjoyable, and
+it is with real regret that I bid farewell to those who come down to the
+shipping ghaut to see me off.
+
+The voyage to the Andamans is characterized by fine weather enough; but
+from that onward we steam through a succession of heavy rain-storms; and
+down in the Strait of Malacca it can pour quite as heavily as on the
+Gangetic plains. At Penang it keeps up such an incessant downpour that
+the beauties of that lovely port are viewed only from beneath the ship's
+awning. But it is lovely enough even as seen through the drenching rain.
+Dense groves of cocoa-nut palms line the shores, seemingly hugging the
+very sands of the beach. Solid cliffs of vegetation they look, almost, so
+tall, dark, and straight, and withal so lovely, are these forests of
+palms. Cocoa-nut palms flourish best, I am told, close to the sea, a
+certain amount of salt being necessary for their healthful growth.
+
+The weather is more propitious as we steam into Singapore, at which point
+we remain for half a day, on the tenth day out from Calcutta. Singapore
+is indeed a lovely port. Within a stone's-throw of where the Wing-sang
+ties up to discharge freight the dark-green mangrove bushes are bathing
+in the salt waves. Very seldom does one see green vegetation mingling
+familiarly with the blue water of the sea--there is usually a strip of
+sand or other verdureless shore--but one sees it at lovely
+Singapore.
+
+A fellow-passenger and I spend an hour or two ashore, riding in the first
+jiniriksha that has come under my notice, from the wharf into town, about
+half a mile. We are impressed by the commercial activity of the city; as
+well as by the cosmopolitan character of its population. Chinese
+predominate, and thrifty, well-conditioned citizens these Celestials
+look, too, here in Singapore. "Wherever John Chinaman gets half a show,
+as under the liberal and honest government of the Straits Settlements or
+Hong-Kong, there you may be sure of finding him prosperous and happy."
+
+Hindoos, Parsees, Armenians, Jews, Siamese, Klings, and all the various
+Eurasian types, with Europeans of all nationalities, make up the
+conglomerate population of Singapore. Here, on the streets, too, one sees
+the strange cosmopolitan police force of the English Eastern ports, made
+up of Chinese, Sikhs, and Englishmen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+THROUGH CHINA.
+
+Daily rains characterize our voyage from Singapore through the China
+Sea--rather unseasonable weather, the captain says; and for the second
+time in his long experience as a navigator of the China Sea, St. Elmo's
+lights impart a weird appearance to the spars and masts of his vessel.
+The rain changes into misty weather as we approach the Ladrone Islands,
+and, emerging completely from the wide track of the typhoon's
+moisture-laden winds on the following morning, we learn later, upon
+landing at Hong-kong, that they have been without rain there for several
+weeks.
+
+It is my purpose to dwell chiefly on my own experiences, and not to write
+at length upon the sights of Kong-kong and Canton; hundreds of other
+travellers have described them, and to the average reader they are no
+longer unique. Several days' delay is experienced in obtaining a passport
+from the Viceroy of the two Quangs, and during the delay most of the
+sights of the city are visited. The five-storied pagoda, the temple of
+the five hundred genii, the water-clock, the criminal court--where several
+poor wretches are seen almost flayed alive with bamboos-flower-boats,
+silk, jade-stone, ivory-carving shops, temple of tortures, and a dozen
+other interesting places are visited under the pilotage of the genial
+guide and interpreter Ah Kum.
+
+The strange boat population, numbering, according to some accounts, two
+hundred thousand people, is one of the most interesting features of
+Canton life. Wonderfully animated is the river scene as viewed from the
+balcony of the Canton Hotel, a hostelry kept by a Portuguese on the
+opposite bank of the river from Canton proper.
+
+The consuls and others express grave doubts about the wisdom of my
+undertaking in journeying alone through China, and endeavor to dissuade
+me from making the attempt. Opinion, too, is freely expressed that the
+Viceroy will refuse his permission, or, at all events, place obstacles in
+my way. The passport is forthcoming on October 12th, however, and I lose
+no time in making a start.
+
+Thirteen miles from Canton I reach the city of Fat-shan. Five minutes
+after entering the gate I am in the midst of a crowd of struggling,
+pushing natives, whose aggressive curiosity renders it extremely
+difficult for me to move either backward or forward, or to do aught but
+stand and endeavor to protect the bicycle from the crush. They seem a
+very good-natured crowd, on the whole, and withal inclined to be
+courteous, but the pressure of numbers, and the utter impossibility of
+doing anything, or prosecuting my search for the exit on the other side
+of the city, renders the good intentions of individuals wholly
+inoperative.
+
+With perseverance I finally succeed in extricating myself and following
+in the wake of an intelligent-looking young man whom I fondly fancy I
+have enlightened to the fact that I am searching for the Sam-shue road.
+The crowd follow at our heels as we tread the labyrinthine alleyways,
+that seem as interminable as they are narrow and filthy. Every turn we
+make I am expecting the welcome sight of an open gate and the green
+rice-fields beyond, when, after dodging about the alleyways of what seems
+to be the toughest quarter of the city, my guide halts and points to the
+closed gates of a court.
+
+It now becomes apparent that he has been mistaken from the beginning in
+regard to my wants: instead of taking me to the Sam-shue gate, he has
+brought me to some kind of a house. "Sam-shue, Sam-shue," I explain,
+making gestures of disapproval at the house. The young man regards me
+with a look of utter bewilderment, and forthwith betakes himself off to
+the outer edge of the crowd, henceforth contenting himself to join the
+general mass of open-eyed inquisitives. Another attempt to again enlist
+his services only results in alienating his sympathies still further: he
+has been grossly taken in by my assumption of intelligence. Having
+discovered in me a jackass incapable of the Fat-shan pronunciation of
+Sam-shue, he retires on his dignity from further interest in my affairs.
+
+Female faces peer curiously through little barred apertures in the gate,
+and grin amusedly at the sight of a Fankwae, as I stand for a few minutes
+uncertain of what course to pursue. From sheer inability to conceive of
+anything else I seize upon a well-dressed youngster among the crowd,
+tender him a coin, and address him questioningly--"Sam-shue lo.
+Sam-shue lo." The youth regards me with monkeyish curiosity for a second,
+and then looks round at the crowd and giggles. Nothing is plainer than
+the evidence that nobody present has the slightest conception of what I
+want to do, or where I wish to go. Not that my pronunciation of Sam-shue
+is unintelligible (as I afterward discover), but they cannot conceive of
+a Fankwae in the streets of Fat-shan inquiring for Sam-shue; doubtless
+many have never heard of that city, and perhaps not one in the crowd has
+ever been there or knows anything of the road. As a matter of fact, there
+is no "road," and the best anyone could do would be to point out its
+direction in a general way. All this, however, comes with
+after-knowledge.
+
+Imagine a lone Chinaman who desired to learn the road to Philadelphia
+surrounded by a dense crowd in the Bowery, New York, and uttering the one
+word "Phaladilfi," and the reader gains a feeble conception of my own
+predicament in Fat-shan, and the ludicrousness of the situation. Finally
+the people immediately about me motion for me to proceed down the street.
+
+Like a drowning man, I am willing to clutch wildly even at a straw, in
+the absence of anything more satisfactory, and so follow their
+directions. Passing through squalid streets occupied by loathsome
+beggars, naked youngsters, slatternly women, matronly sows with Utters of
+young pigs, and mangy pariahs, we emerge into the more respectable
+business thoroughfares again, traversing streets that I recognize as
+having passed through an hour ago. Having brought me here, the leaders in
+the latest movement seem to think they have accomplished their purpose,
+leaving me again to my own resources.
+
+Yet again am I in the midst of a tightly wedged crowd, helpless to make
+myself understood, and equally helpless to find my own way. Three hours
+after entering the city I am following-the Fates only know whither--the
+leadership of an individual who fortunately "sabes" a word or so of
+pidgin English, and who really seems to have discovered my wants. First
+of all he takes me inside a temple-like building and gives me a drink of
+tea and a few minutes' respite from the annoying pressure of the crowds;
+he then conducts me along a street that looks somewhat familiar, leads me
+to the gate I first entered, and points triumphantly in the direction of
+Canton!
+
+I now know as much about the road to Sam-shue as I did before reaching
+Fat-shan, and have learned a brief lesson of Chinese city experience that
+is anything but encouraging for the future. The feeling of relief at
+escaping from the narrow streets and the garrulous, filthy crowds,
+however, overshadows all sense of disappointment. The lesson of Fat-shan
+it is proposed to turn to good account by following the country paths in
+a general course indicated by my map from city to city rather than to
+rely on the directions given by the people, upon whom my words and
+gestures seem to be entirely thrown away.
+
+For a couple of miles I retraverse the path by which I reached Fat-shan
+before encountering a divergent pathway, acceptable as, leading
+distinctly toward the northwest. The inevitable Celestial is right on
+hand, extracting no end of satisfaction from following, shadow-like,
+close behind and watching my movements. Pointing along the divergent
+northwest road, I ask him if this is the koon lo to Sam-shue; for answer
+he bestows upon me an expansive but wholly expressionless grin, and
+points silently toward Canton. These repeated failures to awaken the
+comprehension of intelligent-looking Chinamen, or, at all events, to
+obtain from them the slightest information in regard to my road, are
+somewhat bewildering, to say the least. So much of this kind of
+experience crowded into the first day, however, is very fortunate, as
+awakening me with healthy rudeness to a realizing sense of what I am to
+expect; it places me at once on my guard, and enables me to turn on the
+tap of self-reliance and determination to the proper notch.
+
+Shaking my head at the almond-eyed informant who wants me to return to
+Canton, I strike off in a northwesterly course. The Chinaman grins and
+chuckles humorously at my departure, as though his risibilities were
+probed to their deepest depths at my perverseness in going contrary to
+his directions. As plainly as though spoken in the purest English, his
+chuckling laughter echoes the thought: "You'll catch it, Mr. Fankwae,
+before you have gone very far in that direction; you'll wish you had
+listened to me and gone back to 'Quang-tung.'"
+
+The country is a marvellous field-garden of rice, vegetables, and
+sugar-cane for some miles. The villages, with their peculiar,
+characteristic Chinese architecture and groves of dark bamboo, are
+striking and pretty. The paths seem to wind about regardless of any
+special direction; the chief object of the road-makers would appear to
+have been to utilize every little strip of inferior soil for the public
+thoroughfare wherever it might be found. A scrupulous respect for
+individual rights and the economy of the soil has resulted in adding many
+a weary mile of pathway between one town and another. To avoid destroying
+the productive capacity of a dozen square yards of alluvial soil,
+hundreds of people are daily obliged to follow horseshoe bends around the
+edges of graveyards that after two hundred paces bring them almost to
+within jumping distance of their first divergence.
+
+Occasionally the path winds its serpentine course between two tall
+patches of sugar-cane, forming an alleyway between the dark-green walls
+barely wide enough for two people to pass. Natives met in these confined
+passages, as isolated from the eyes of the world as though between two
+walls of brick, invariably recoil a moment with fright at the unexpected
+apparition of a Fankwae; then partially recovering themselves, they
+nimbly occupy as little space as possible on one side, and eye me with
+suspicion and apprehension as I pass.
+
+Great quantities of sugar-cane are chewed in China, both by children and
+grown people, and these patches grown in the rich Choo-kiang Valley for
+the Fat-shan, Canton, and Hong-kong markets are worth the price of a
+day's journeying to see. So marvellously neat and thrifty are they, that
+one would almost believe every separate stalk had been the object of
+special care and supervision from day to day since its birth; every
+cane-garden is fenced with neat bamboo pickets, to prevent depredation at
+the hands of the thousands of sweet-toothed kleptomaniacs who file past
+and eye the toothsome stalks wistfully every day.
+
+After a few miles the hitherto dead level of the valley is broken by low
+hills of reddish clay, and here the stone paths merge into well-beaten
+trails that on reasonably level soil afford excellent wheeling. The
+hillsides are crowded with graves, which, instead of the sugar-loaf "ant
+hillocks" of the paddy-fields, assume the traditional horseshoe shape of
+the Chinese ancestral grave. On the barren, gravelly hills, unfit for
+cultivation, the thrifty and economical Celestial inters the remains of
+his departed friends. Although in making this choice he is supposed to be
+chiefly interested in securing repose for his ancestors' souls, he at the
+same time secures the double advantage of a well-drained cemetery, and
+the preservation of his cultivable lands intact. Everything, indeed,
+would seem to be made subservient to this latter end; every foot of
+productive soil seems to be held as of paramount importance in the
+teeming delta of the Choo-kiang.
+
+Beyond the first of these cemetery hills, peopled so thickly with the
+dead, rise the tall pawn-towers of the large village of Chun-Kong-hoi.
+The natural dirt-paths enable me to ride right up to the entrance-gate of
+the main street. Good-natured crowds follow me through the street; and
+outside the gate of departure I favor them with a few turns on the smooth
+flags of a rice-winnowing floor. The performance is hailed with shouts of
+surprise and delight, and they urge me to remain in Chun-Kong-hoi all
+night.
+
+An official in big tortoise-shell spectacles examines my passport,
+reading it slowly and deliberately aloud in peculiar sing-song tones to
+the crowd, who listen with all-absorbing attention. He then orders the
+people to direct me to a certain inn. This inn blossoms forth upon my as
+yet unaccustomed vision as a peculiarly vile and dingy little hovel,
+smoke-blackened and untidy as a village smithy. Half a dozen rude benches
+covered with reed mats and provided with uncomfortable wooden pillows
+represent what sleeping accommodations the place affords. The place is so
+forbidding that I occupy a bench outside in preference to the
+evil-smelling atmosphere within.
+
+As it grows dark the people wonder why I don't prefer the interior of the
+dimly lighted hittim. My preference for the outside bench is not
+unattended with hopes that, as they can no longer see my face, my
+greasy-looking, half-naked audience would give me a moment's peace and
+quiet. Nothing, however, is further from their thoughts; on the contrary,
+they gather closer and closer about me, sticking their yellow faces close
+to mine and examining my features as critically as though searching the
+face of an image. By and by it grows too dark even for this, and then
+some enterprising individual brings a couple of red wax tapers, placing
+one on either side of me on the bench.
+
+By the dim religious light of these two candles, hundreds of people come
+and peer curiously into my face, and occasionally some ultra-inquisitive
+mortal picks up one of the tapers and by its aid makes a searching
+examination of my face, figure, and clothes. Mischievous youngsters, with
+irreligious abandon, attempt to make the scene comical by lighting
+joss-sticks and waving bits of burning paper.
+
+The tapers on either side, and the youngsters' irreverent antics, with
+the evil-spirit-dispersing joss-sticks, make my situation so ridiculously
+suggestive of an idol that I am perforce compelled to smile. The crowd
+have been too deeply absorbed in the contemplation of my face to notice
+this side-show; but they quickly see the point, and follow my lead with a
+general round of merriment. About ten o'clock I retire inside; the
+irrepressible inquisitives come pouring in the door behind me, but the
+hittim-keeper angrily drives them out and bars the door.
+
+Several other lodgers occupy the room in common with myself; some are
+smoking tobacco, and others are industriously "hitting the pipe." The
+combined fumes of opium and tobacco are well-nigh unbearable, but thera
+is no alternative. The next bench to mine is occupied by a peripatetic
+vender of drugs and medicines. Most of his time is consumed in smoking
+opium in dreamy oblivion to all else save the sensuous delights embodied
+in that operation itself. Occasionally, however, when preparing for
+another smoke, he addresses me at length in about one word of
+pidgin-English to a dozen of simon-pure Cantonese. In a spirit of
+friendliness he tenders me the freedom of his pipe and little box of
+opium, which is, of course, "declined with thanks."
+
+Long into the midnight hours my garrulous companions sit around and talk,
+and smoke, and eat peanuts. Mosquitoes likewise contribute to the general
+inducement to keep awake; and after the others have finally lain down, my
+ancient next neighbor produces a small mortar and pestle and busies
+himself pounding drugs. For this operation he assumes a pair of large,
+round spectacles, that in the dimly lighted apartment and its nocturnal
+associations are highly suggestive of owls and owlish wisdom. The old
+quack works away at his mortar, regardless of the approach of daybreak,
+now and then pausing to adjust the wick in his little saucer of grease,
+or to indulge in the luxury of a peanut.
+
+Such are the experiences of my first night at a Chinese village hittim;
+they will not soon be forgotten.
+
+The proprietor of the hittim seems overjoyed at my liberality as I
+present him a ten-cent string of tsin for the night's lodging. Small as
+it sounds, this amount is probably three or four times more than he
+obtains from his Chinese guests.
+
+The country beyond Chun-Kong-hoi is alternately level and hilly, the
+former highly cultivated, and the latter occupied mostly with graves.
+Peanut harvest is in progress, and men, women, and children are
+everywhere about the fields. The soil of a peanut-bed to the depth of
+several inches is dug up and all passed through a sieve, the meshes of
+which are of the proper size to retain the nuts. The last possible grain,
+nut, or particle of life-sustaining vegetable or insect life is extracted
+from the soil, ducks and chickens being cooped and herded on the fields
+and gardens after human ingenuity has reached its limit of research.
+
+Big wooden pails of warm tea stand about the fields, from which everybody
+helps himself when thirsty. A party of peanut-harvesters are regaling
+themselves with stewed turnips and tough, underdone pieces of dried
+liver. They invite me to partake, handing me a pair of chopsticks and a
+bowl.
+
+Gangs of coolies, strung in Indian file along the paths, are met,
+carrying lacquer-ware from some interior town to Fat-shau and Canton.
+Others are encountered with cages of kittens and puppies, which they are
+conveying to the same market. These are men whose business is collecting
+these table delicacies from outlying villages for the city markets, after
+the manner of egg and chicken buyers in America.
+
+My course at length brings me to the town of Si-noun, on the south bank
+of the Choo-kiang. The river is here prevented from inundating the low
+country adjacent by strong levees; along these are well-tramped paths
+that afford much good wheeling, as well as providing a well-defined
+course toward Sam-shue. After following the river for some miles,
+however, I conclude that its course is altogether more southerly than
+there is any necessity for me to go; so, crossing the river at a village
+ferry, I strike a trail across-country in a north-westerly direction that
+must sooner or later bring me to the banks of the Pi-kiang. Sam-shue is
+at the junction of these two rivers, the one flowing from west to east
+and the other from north to south; by striking across-country, but one
+side of a triangle is traversed instead of the two formed by the rivers.
+My objective point for the night is Lo-pow, the first town of any size up
+the Pi-kiang.
+
+A volunteer guide from one of the villages extricates me from a
+bewildering network of trails in the afternoon, and guides me across to
+the bottom-lands of the Pi-kiang. Receiving a reward, he eyes the piece
+of silver a moment wistfully, puts it away, and guides me half a mile
+farther. Pointing to the embankment of the Pi-kiang in the distance
+ahead, he presents himself for further reward. Receiving this, he
+thereupon conceives the brilliant idea of piloting me over successive
+short stages, with a view of obtaining tsin at the end of each stage.
+
+John Chinaman is no more responsible, morally, for the "dark ways and
+vain tricks" accredited to him in the Western World than a crow is for
+the blackness of his plumage. The desperate struggle for existence in
+this crowded empire, that has no doubt been a normal condition of its
+society for ages, has developed traits of character in these later
+generations which are as unchangeable as the skin of the Ethiopian or the
+spots of the leopard. Either of these can be whitened over, but not
+readily changed; the same may be truthfully said of the moral leprosy of
+the average Celestial. Here is a simple peanut-farmer's son, who knows
+nothing of the outer world, yet no sooner does a stray opportunity
+present than he develops immediately financial trickery worthy of a
+Constantinople guide.
+
+The paths across the Pi-kiang Valley are more walls than paths, often
+rising ten feet above the paddy-fields, and presenting a width of not
+more than two feet. Good riding, however, is happily found on the levees,
+and a few miles up-stream brings me to Lo-pow.
+
+The hittim at Lo-pow is somewhat superior to that of yesterday; it is a
+two-storied building, and the proprietor hustles me up-stairs in short
+order, and locks me in. This is to prevent any possible hostility from
+the crowd that immediately swarms the place; for while I am in his house
+he is in a measure held responsible for my treatment. The bicycle is kept
+down-stairs, where it performs the office of a vent for the rampant
+curiosity of the thousands who besiege the proprietor for a peep at me.
+
+A little cup and a teapot of hot tea is brought me at once, and my order
+taken for supper; the characters on ray limited written vocabulary
+proving invaluable as an aid toward making my g-astro-nomic preferences
+understood. A dish of boiled fish, pickled ginger, chicken entrees, young
+onions, together with rice enough to feed a pig, form the ingredients of
+a very good Chinese meal. Chop-sticks are, of course, provided; but, as
+yet, my dexterity in the manipulation of these articles is decidedly of
+the negative order, and so my pocket-knife performs the dual office of
+knife and fork; for the rice, one can use, after a manner, the little
+porcelain dipper provided for ladling an evil-smelling liquid over that
+staple. Bread, there is none in China; rice is the bread of both this
+country and Japan. During the night one gets a reminder of the bek-jees
+of Constantinople in the performances of a night policeman, who passes by
+at intervals loudly beating a drum. This, together with roystering
+mosquitoes, and a too liberal indulgence in strong tea, banishes sleep
+to-night almost as effectually as the pounding of the old drug-vender's
+pestle did at Chun-Kong-hoi.
+
+The rooms below are full of sleeping coolies, cat-and-dog hucksters and
+travellers, when I descend at day-break to start. The first two hours are
+wasted in wandering along a levee that leads up a tributary stream,
+coming back again and getting ferried to the right embankment. The riding
+is variable, and the zigzagging of the levee often compels me to travel
+three miles for the gaining of one. My elevated path commands a good view
+of the traffic on the river, and of the agricultural operations on the
+adjacent lowlands.
+
+The boating scenes on the river are animated, and peculiarly Chinese. The
+northern monsoons, called typhoons in China, are blowing strongly down
+stream, while the current itself is naturally strong; under the influence
+of wind and current combined, junks and sampans with butterfly sails all
+set are going down stream at racing speed. In striking contrast to these,
+are the up-stream boats, crawling along at scarcely perceptible pace
+against the current, in response to the rhythmical movements of a line of
+men, women, and children harnessed one behind another to a long tow-line.
+
+The water in the river is low, and the larger boats have to be watched
+carefully to prevent grounding; sometimes, when the river is wide and the
+passable channel but a narrow place in the middle, the tow-people have to
+take to the water, often wading waist deep. Men and women are dressed
+pretty much alike, but in addition to the broad-legged pantaloons and
+blue blouse, the women are distinguished by a checked apron. Some of them
+wear broad bamboo hats, while others wear nothing but nature's covering,
+or perchance a handkerchief tied around their heads. The traffic on the
+river is something enormous, scores of boats dotting the river at every
+turn. It is no longer difficult to believe the oft-heard assertion, that
+the tonnage of China's inland fleet is equal to the ocean tonnage of all
+the world.
+
+Below me on the right the scene is scarcely less animated; one would
+think the whole population of the country were engaged in pumping water
+over the rice-fields, by the number of tread-wheels on the go. One of the
+most curious sights in China is to see people working these irrigating
+machines all over the fields. Instead of the buffaloes of Egypt and
+India, everything here is accomplished by the labor of man. The
+tread-wheel is usually worked by two men or women, who steady themselves
+by holding to a cross-bar, while their weight revolves the tread-wheel
+and works a chain of water-pockets. The pockets dip water from a hole or
+ditch and empty it into troughs, whence it spreads over the field. The
+screeching of these wheels can be heard for miles, and the grotesque
+Chinese figures stepping up, up, up in pairs, yet never ascending, the
+women singing in shrill, falsetto voices, and the incessant gabble of
+conversation, makes a picture of industry the like of which is to be seen
+in no other part of the world.
+
+Chin-yuen, my next halting-place, forma something of a crescent on the
+west shore of the river, and is distinguished by a seven-storied pagoda
+at the southern extremity of its curvature. As seen from the east bank,
+the city and its background of reddish hills, two peaks of which rise to
+the respectable height of, I should judge, two thousand feet, is not
+without certain pretensions to beauty. Many of the houses on the river
+front are built over the water on piles, and broad flights of stone steps
+lead down to the water.
+
+The usual boat population occupy a swarm of sampans anchored before the
+city, while hundreds of others are moving hither and thither. The water
+is intensely blue, and the broad reaches of Band are dazzlingly white; on
+either bank are dark patches of feathery bamboo; the white, blue and
+green, the pagoda, the city with its towering pawn-houses, and the whole
+flanked by red clay hills, forms a picture that certainly is not wanting
+in life and color.
+
+The quarters assigned me at the hittim, here, are again upstairs, and my
+room-companion is an attenuated opium smoker, who is apparently a
+permanent lodger. This apartment is gained by a ladder, and after
+submitting to much annoyance from the obtrusive crowds below invading our
+quarters, my companion drives them all out with the loud lash of his
+tongue, and then draws up the only avenue of communication. He is engaged
+in cooking his supper and in washing dirty dishes; when the crowd below
+gets too noisy and clamorous he steps to the opening and coolly treats
+them to a basin of dish-water. This he repeats a number of times during
+the evening, saving his dish-water for that special purpose.
+
+The air is reeking with smoke and disagreeable odors from below, where
+cooking is going on, and pigs wallow in filth in a rear apartment. The
+back-room of a Chinese inn is nearly always a pigsty, and a noisome place
+on general principles. Later in the evening a few privileged characters
+are permitted to come up, and the room quickly changes into a regular
+opium-den. A tough day's journey and two previous nights of wakefulness,
+enable me to fall asleep, notwithstanding the evil smells, the presence
+of the opium-smoking visitors, and the grunting pigs and talkative humans
+down below.
+
+During the day I have sprained my right knee, and it becomes painful in
+the night and wakes me up. In the morning my way is made through the
+waking city with a painful limp, that gives rise to much unsympathetic
+giggling among the crowd at my heels. Perhaps they think all Pankwaes
+thus hobble along; their giggling, however, is doubtless evidence of the
+well-known pitiless disposition of the Chinese. The sentiments of pity
+and consideration for the sufferings of others, are a well-nigh invisible
+quality of John Chinaman's character, and as I limp slowly along, I
+mentally picture myself with a broken leg or serious illness, alone among
+these people. A Fankwae with his leg broken! a Fankwae lying at the point
+of death! why, the whole city would want to witness such an extraordinary
+sight; there would be no keeping them out; one would be the centre of a
+tumultuous rabble day and night!
+
+The river contains long reaches leading in a totally contrary direction
+to what I know my general course to be. My objective point is a little
+east of north, but for miles this morning I am headed considerably south
+of the rising sun. There is nothing for it, however, but to keep the
+foot-trail that now follows along the river bank, conforming to all its
+multifarious crooks and angles. Every mile or two the path is overhung by
+a big bamboo hedge, behind which is hidden a village.
+
+The character of these little riverside villages varies from peaceful
+agricultural and fishing communities, to nests of river-pirates and hard
+characters generally, who covertly prey on the commerce of the Pi-kiang,
+and commit depredations in the surrounding country. A glimpse of me is
+generally caught by someone behind the hedge as I ride or trundle past;
+shouts of "the Fankwae, the Fankwae," and screams of laughter at the
+prospect of seeing one of those queer creatures, immediately follow the
+discovery. The gabble and laughter and hurrying from the houses to the
+hedge, the hasty scrambling through the little wicket gates, all occurs
+with a flutter and noisy squabble that suggest a flock of excited geese.
+
+A few miles above Chin-yuen the river enters a rocky gorge, and the
+marvellous beauty of the scenery rivets me to the spot in wondering
+contemplation for an hour. It is the same picture of rocky mountains,
+blue water, junks, bridges, temples, and people, one sometimes sees on
+sets of chinaware. Never was water so intensely blue, or sand so
+dazzlingly white, as the Pi-kiang at the entrance to this gorge this
+sunny morning; on its sky-blue bosom float junks and sampans, their
+curious sails appearing and disappearing around a bend in the canon. The
+brown battlemented cliffs are relieved by scattering pines, and in the
+interstices by dense thickets of bamboo; temples, pagodas, and a village
+complete a scene that will be long remembered as one of the loveliest
+bits of scenery the whole world round. The scene is pre-eminently
+characteristic, and after seeing it, one no longer misunderstands the
+Chinaman who persists in thinking his country the great middle kingdom of
+landscape beauty and sunshine, compared to which all others
+are--"regions of mist and snow."
+
+Across the creeks which occasionally join issue with the river, are
+erected frail and wabbly bamboo foot-rails; some of these are evidently
+private enterprises, as an ancient Celestial is usually on hand for the
+collection of tiny toll. Narrow bridges, rude steps cut in the face of
+the cliffs, trails along narrow ledges, over rocky ridges, down across
+gulches, and anon through loose shale on ticklishly sloping banks,
+characterize the passage through the canon. The sun is broiling hot, and
+my knee swollen and painful. It is barely possible to crawl along at a
+snail's pace by keeping my game leg stiff; bending the knee is attended
+with agony. Frequent rests are necessary, and an examination reveals my
+knee badly inflamed.
+
+Hours are consumed in scrambling for three or four miles up and down
+steps, and over the most abominable course a bicycle was ever dragged,
+carried, up-ended and lugged over. At the end of that time I reach a
+temple occupying a romantic position in a rocky defile, and where a
+flight of steps leads down to the water's edge. All semblance of anything
+in the nature of a continuous path terminates at the temple, and hailing
+a sampan bound up stream, I obtain passage to the northern extremity of
+the canyon.
+
+The sampan is towed by a team of seven coolies, harnessed to a small,
+strong rope made of bamboo splint. It is interesting, yet painful, to see
+these men clambering like goats about the rocky cliffs, sometimes as much
+as a hundred feet above the water; one of the number does nothing else
+but throw the rope over protuberant points of rock. One would naturally
+imagine that Chinese enterprise would be sufficient to construct
+something like a decent towpath through this caiion, considering the
+number of boats towed through it daily; but everything in China seems to
+be done by the main strength and awkwardness of individuals.
+
+The boatmen seem honest-hearted fellows; at noon they invite me to
+participate in their frugal meal of rice and turnips. Passing sampans are
+greeted by the crew of our boat with the intelligence that a Fankwae is
+aboard; the news being invariably conveyed with a droll "ha-ha!" and
+received with the same. Indeed, the average Chinese river-man or
+agriculturist, the simple-hearted children of the water and the soil,
+seem to regard the Fankwae as a creature so remarkably comical, that the
+mere mention of him causes them to laugh.
+
+Near the end of the canon the boat is moored at a village for the day,
+and my knee feeling much better from the rest, I pursue my course up the
+bank of the river. The bank is level in a general sense, but much cut up
+with small tributary creeks.
+
+While I am resting on the bank of one of these creeks, partly hidden
+behind a clump of bamboo, a slave-woman carrying her mistress pick-a-back
+appears upon the scene. Catching sight of me, the golden lily utters a
+little cry of alarm and issues hurried orders to her maid. The latter
+wheels round and scuttles back along the path with her frightened burden,
+both maid and golden lily no doubt very thankful at finding themselves
+unpursued. A few minutes after their hasty flight, three men approach my
+resting-place with pitchforks. The frightened females have probably told
+them of the presence of some queer-looking object lurking behind the
+bushes, and like true heroes they have shouldered their pitchforks and
+sallied forth to investigate. A whoop and a feint from me would either
+put them to flight, or precipitate a conflict, as is readily seen from
+the extreme cautiousness of their advance. As I remained perfectly still,
+however, they approach by short stages, and with many stops for
+consultation, until near enough to satisfy themselves of my peaceful
+character. They loiter around until my departure, when they follow behind
+for a few hundred yards, watching me narrowly until I am past their own
+little cluster of houses.
+
+It is almost dark when I arrive at the next village, prepared to seek
+such accommodations for the night as the place affords, if any. The
+people, however, seem decidedly inclined to give me the cold shoulder,
+eying me suspiciously from a respectful distance, instead of clustering,
+as usual, close about me. Being pretty tired and hungry, and knowing
+absolutely nothing of the distance to the next place, I endeavor to
+cultivate their friendship by smiles, and by addressing the nearest
+youngster in polite greetings of "chin-chin."
+
+All this proves of no avail; they seem one and all to be laboring under
+the impression that my appearance is of evil portent to themselves.
+Perchance some social calamity they have just been visited with, is
+attributed in their superstitious minds to the fell influence of the
+foreign devil, who has so suddenly bobbed up in their midst just at this
+unhappy, inauspicious moment. Perad-venture some stray and highly
+exaggerated bit of news in regard to Fankwae aggression in Tonquin (the
+French Tonquin expedition) has happened to reach the little interior
+village this very day, and the excited people see in me an emissary of
+destruction, here for the diabolical purpose of spying out their country.
+A dozen reasons, however, might be here advanced, and all be far wide of
+the truth.
+
+Whatever their hostility is all about is a mystery to me, the innocent
+object of sundry scowls and angry gestures. One individual contemplates
+me for a minute with unconcealed aversion, and then breaks out into a
+torrent of angry words and excited gestures. From all appearances, it
+behooves me to be clearing out, ere the pent-up feelings of the people
+find vent in some aggressive manner, as a result of this person's
+incitant eloquence. Greatly puzzled to account for this unpleasant
+reception, I quietly take myself off.
+
+It is now getting pretty dark, and considering the unfortunate condition
+of my knee, the situation is, to say the least, annoying. It is not
+without apprehensions of being followed that I leave the village; and ere
+I am two hundred yards away, torches are observed moving rapidly about,
+and soon loud shouts of "Fankwae, Fankwae!" tell me that a number of men
+are in pursuit.
+
+Darkness favors my retreat, and scrambling down the river bank, I shape
+my course across the sand and shallow side-channels to a small island,
+thickly covered with bamboo, the location of which is now barely outlined
+against the lingering streaks of daylight in the western sky. Half an
+hour is consumed in reaching this; but no small satisfaction is derived
+from seeing the flaming torches of my pursuers continue on up the bank.
+The dense bamboo thickets afford an excellent hiding-place, providing my
+divergence is not suspected. A little farther up-stream, on the bank, are
+the lights of another village; and as I crouch here in the darkness I can
+see the torches of the pursuing party entering this village, and can hear
+them making shouting inquiries of their neighbors about the foreign
+devil.
+
+The thicket is alive with ravenous mosquitoes that issue immediately
+their peculiar policy of assurance against falling asleep. Unappeased
+hunger, mosquitoes, and the perilousness of the situation occupy my
+attention for some hours, when, seeing nothing further of the vengeful
+aspirants for my gore, I drag my weary way up-stream, through sand and
+shallow water. Keeping in the river-bed for several miles, I finally
+regain the bank, and, although my inflamed knee treats me to a twinge of
+agony at every step, I steadily persevere till morning.
+
+An hour or two of morning light brings me to the town of Quang-shi, after
+an awful tugging through sand-hills, unbridged ravines and water. Hardly
+able to stand from fatigue and the pain of my knee, the desperate nature
+of the road, or, more correctly, the entire absence of anything of the
+kind, and the disquieting incident of the night, awaken me to a realizing
+sense of my helplessness should the people of Quang-shi prove to be
+hostile. Conscious of my inability to run or ride, savagely hungry, and
+desperately tired, I enter Quang-shi with the spirit of a hunted animal
+at bay. With revolver pulled round to the front ready to hand, and half
+expecting occasion to use it in defence of my life, I grimly speculate on
+the number of my cartridges and the probability of each one bagging a
+sore-eyed Celestial ere my own lonely and reluctant ghost is yielded up.
+
+All this, fortunately, is found to be superfluous speculation, for the
+good people of Quang-shi prove, at least, passively friendly; a handful
+of tsin divided among the youngsters, and a general spendthrift
+scatterment of ten cents' worth of the same base currency among the
+stall-keepers for chow-chow heightens their friendly interest in me to an
+appreciable extent.
+
+Chao-choo-foo is the next city marked on my itinerary, but as Quang-shi
+is not on my map I have no means of judging whether Chao-choo-foo is four
+li up-stream or forty. All attempts to obtain some idea of the distance
+from the natives result in the utter bewilderment of both questioned and
+querist. No amount of counting on fingers, or marking on paper, or
+interrogative arching of eyebrows, or repetition of "Chao-choo-foo li"
+sheds a glimmer of light on the mind of the most intelligent-looking
+shopkeeper in Quang-shi concerning my wants. Yet, withal, he courteously
+bears with my, to him, idiotic pantomime and barbarous pronunciation, and
+repeats parrot-like after me "Chao-choo-foo li; Chao-choo-foo li" with
+sundry beaming smiles and friendly smirks.
+
+Far easier, however, is it to make them understand that I want to go to
+that city by boat. The loquacious owner of a twenty-foot sampan puts in
+his appearance as soon as my want is ascertained, and favors me with an
+unpunctuated speech of some five minutes' duration. For fear I shouldn't
+quite understand the tenor of his remarks, he insists on thrusting his
+yellow Mongolian phiz within an inch or two of mine own. At the end of
+five minutes I thrust my fingers in my ears out of sheer consideration
+for his vocal organs, and turn away; but the next moment he is fronting
+me again, and repeating himself with ever-increasing volubility. Finding
+my dulness quite impenetrable, he searches out another loquacious mortal,
+and by the aid of the tiny beam-scales every Chinaman carries for
+weighing broken silver, they finally make it understood that for six big
+rounds (dollars) he will convey me in his boat to Chao-choo-foo.
+Understanding this, I promptly engage his services.
+
+Bundles of joss-sticks, rice, fish, pork, and a jar of samshoo (rice
+arrack) are taken aboard, and by ten o'clock we are underway. Two men,
+named respectively Ah Sum and Yung Po, a woman, and a baby of eighteen
+months comprise the company aboard. Ah Sum, being but an inconsequential
+wage-worker, at once assumes the onerous duties of towman; Yung Po,
+husband, father, and sole proprietor of the sampan, manipulates the
+rudder, which is in front, and occasionally assists Ah Sum by poling. The
+boat-wife stands at the stern and regulates the length of the tow-line;
+the baby puts in the first few hours in wondering contemplation of
+myself.
+
+The strange river-life of China is all about us; small fishing-boats are
+everywhere plying their calling. They are constructed with a central
+chamber full of auger-holes for the free admittance of water, in which
+the fish are conveyed alive to market, or imprisoned during the owner's
+pleasure. Big freight sampans float past, propelled by oars if going
+down-stream, and by the combined efforts of tow-line and poles if against
+the current. The propelling poles are fitted with neatly carved
+"crutch-trees" to fit the shoulder; the polers, sometimes numbering as
+many as a dozen, walk back and forth along side-planks and encourage
+themselves with cries of "ha-i, ha-i, ha-i." A peculiar and indescribable
+inflection would lead one, hearing and not seeing these boatmen, to fancy
+himself listening to a flight of brants in stormy weather. Yung Po,
+poling by himself, gives utterance to a prolonged cry of "Atta-atta-atta
+aaoo ii," every time he hustles along the side-plank.
+
+Much of the scenery along the river is lovely in the extreme, and at dark
+we cast anchor in a smooth, silent reach of the river just within the
+frowning gateway of a rocky canon. Dark masses of rock tower skyward five
+hundred feet in a perpendicular wall, casting a dark shadow over the
+twilight shimmer of the water. In the north, the darksome prospect is
+invested with a lurid glow, apparently from some large fire; the canon
+immediately about our anchoring place is alive with moving torches,
+representing the restless population of the river, and on the banks
+clustering points of light here and there denote the locality of a
+village.
+
+The last few miles has been severe work for poor Ah Sum, clambering among
+rocks fit only for the footsteps of a goat. He sticks to the tow-line
+manfully to the end, but wading out to the boat when over-heated, causes
+him to be seized with violent cramps all over; in his agony he rolls
+about the deck and implores Yung Po to put him out of his misery
+forthwith. His case is evidently urgent, and Yung Po and his wife proceed
+to administer the most heroic treatment. Hot samshoo is first poured down
+his throat and rubbed on his joints, then he is rolled over on his
+stomach; Yung Po then industriously flagellates him in the bend of the
+knees with a flat bamboo, and his wife scrapes him vigorously down the
+spine with the sharp edge of a porcelain bowl. Ah Sam groans and winces
+under this barbarous treatment, but with solicitous upbraidings they hold
+him down until they have scraped and pounded him black and blue, almost
+from head to foot. Then they turn him over on his back for a change of
+programme. A thick joint of bamboo, resembling a quart measure, is
+planted against his stomach; lighted paper is then inserted beneath, and
+the "cup" held firmly for a moment, when it adheres of its own accord.
+
+This latter instrument is the Chinese equivalent of our cupping-glass;
+like many other inventions, it was probably in use among them ages before
+anything of the kind was known to us. Its application to the stomach for
+the relief of cramps would seem to indicate the possession of drawing
+powers; I take it to be a substitute for mustard plasters. While the wife
+attends to this, Yung Po pinches him severely all over the throat and
+breast, converting all that portion of his anatomy into little blue
+ridges. By the time they get through with him, his last estate seems a
+good deal worse than his first, but the change may have saved his life.
+
+Before retiring for the night lighted joss-sticks are stuck in the bow of
+the sampan, and lighted paper is waved about to propitiate the spirit of
+the waters and of the night; small saucers of rice, boiled turnip, and
+peanut-oil are also solemnly presented to the tutelary gods, to enlist
+their active sympathies as an offset against the fell designs of
+mischievous spirits. Falling asleep under the soothing influence of these
+extraordinary precautions for our safety and a supper of rice, ginger,
+and fresh fish, I slumber peacefully until well under way next morning.
+Ah Sum is stiff and sore all over, but he bravely returns to his post,
+and under the combined efforts of pole and tow-line we speed along
+against a swift current at a pace that is almost visible to the naked
+eye.
+
+This morning I purchase a splendid trout, weighing seven or eight pounds,
+for about twenty cents; off this we make a couple of quite excellent
+meals. Observing my awkward attempts to pick up pieces of fish with the
+chop-sticks, the good, thoughtful boat-wife takes a bone hair-pin out of
+her sleek, oily back hair, and offers it to me to use as a fork!
+
+Before noon we emerge into a more open country; straight ahead can be
+seen an eight-storied pagoda. Beaching the pagoda, we pass, on the
+opposite shore, the town of Yang-tai (?). Fleets of big junks sail gayly
+down stream, laden with bales and packages of merchandise from
+Chao-choo-foo, Nam-hung, and other manufacturing points up the river.
+Others resemble floating hay-ricks, bearing huge cargoes of coarse hay
+and pine-needles down for the manufacture of paper.
+
+Several war-junks are anchored before Yang-tai; unlike the peaceful (?)
+merchantmen on the Choo-kiang, they are armed with but a single cannon.
+They are, however, superior vessels compared with other craft on the
+river, and are manned with crews of twenty to thirty theatrical-looking
+characters; rows of muskets and boarding-pikes are observed, and
+conspicuous above all else are several large and handsome flags of the
+graceful triangular shape peculiar to China.
+
+The crew of these warlike vessels are uniformed in the gayest of red, and
+in the middle of their backs and breasts are displayed white "bull's
+eyes" about twelve inches in diameter. The object of these big white
+circular patches appears to be the presentation of a suitable place for
+the conspicuous display of big characters, denoting the district or city
+to which they belong; or in other words labels. The wicked and sarcastic
+Fankwaes in the treaty ports, however, render a far different
+explanation. They say that a Chinese soldier always misses a bull's-eye
+when he shoots at it--under no circumstances does he score a bull's-eye.
+Observing this, the authorities concluded that Fankwae soldiers were
+tarred with the same unhappy feather. With true Asiatic astuteness, they
+therefore conceived and carried out the brilliant idea of decorating all
+Celestial warriors with bull's-eyes, front and rear, as a measure of
+protection against the bullets of the Fankwae soldiers in battle.
+
+Ah Sum becomes sick and weary at noon and is taken aboard, Tung Po and
+his better half taking alternate turns at the line. Toward evening the
+river makes a big sweep to the southeast, bringing the prevailing north
+wind round to our advantage; if advantage it can be called, in blowing us
+pretty well south when our destination lies north. The sail is hoisted,
+and the crew confines itself to steering and poling the boat clear of
+bars.
+
+Poor Ah Sum is subjected to further clinical maltreatment this evening as
+we lay at anchor before No-foo-gong; while we are eating rice and pork
+and listening to the sounds of revelry aboard the big passenger junks
+anchored near by, he is writhing and groaning with pain.
+
+He is too stiff and sore and exhausted to do anything in the morning; the
+woman goes out to pull, and the babe makes Rome howl, with little
+intermission, till she comes back. The boat-woman seems an industrious,
+wifely soul; Yung Po probably paid as high as forty dollars for her; at
+that price I should say she is a decided bargain. Occasionally, when Yung
+Po cruelly orders her overboard to take a hand at the tow-line, or to
+help shove the sampan off a sand ridge, she enters a playful demurrer;
+but an angry look, an angry word, or a cheerful suggestion of "corporeal
+suasion," and she hops lightly into the water.
+
+A few miles from No-foo-gong and a rocky precipice towers up on the west
+shore, something like a thousand feet high. The crackling of
+fire-crackers innumerable and the report of larger and noisier explosions
+attract my attention as we gradually crawl up toward it; and coming
+nearer, flocks of pigeons are observed flying uneasily in and out of
+caves in the lower levels of the cliff.
+
+In the course of time our sampan arrives opposite and reveals a curious
+two-storied cave temple, with many gayly dressed people, pleasure
+sampans, and bamboo rafts. This is the Kum-yam-ngan, a Chinese Buddhist
+temple dedicated to the Goddess of Mercy. It is the home of flocks of
+sacred pigeons, and the shrine to which many pilgrims yearly come; the
+pilgrims manage to keep their feathered friends in a chronic state of
+trepidation by the agency of fire-crackers and miniature bombs. Outside,
+under the shelter of the towering cliffs to the' right, are more temples
+or dwellings of the priests; they present a curious mixture of blue
+porcelain, rock, and brick which is intensely characteristic of China.
+
+During the day we pass, on the same side of the river, yet another
+remarkable specimen of man's handiwork on the scene of one of nature's
+curious rockwork conceptions. Leading from base to summit of a sloping
+mountain are two perpendicular ridges of rock, looking very much like a
+couple of walls. Across the summit of the mountain, from wall to wall,
+some fanciful architect three hundred years ago built a massive
+battlement; in the middle he left a big round hole, which presents a very
+curious appearance, and materially heightens the delusion that the whole
+affair, from foot to summit, is the handiwork of man. This place is known
+as Tan-tsy-shan, or Bullet Mountain, and is the scene of a fight that
+occurred some time during the Ming dynasty. A legend is current among the
+people, that the robber Wong, a celebrated freebooter of that period,
+while firing on a pursuing party of soldiers, shot this moon---like
+hole through the mountain battlement with the huge musket he used to
+slaughter his enemies.
+
+Many huge rafts of pine logs are now encountered floating down stream to
+the cities of the lower country; numbers of them are sometimes met,
+following close behind one another. Several huts are erected on each big
+raft, so that the sight not infrequently suggests a long straggling
+village floating with the tide. This suggestion is very much heightened
+by the score or more people engaged in poling, steering, al fresco
+cooking, etc., aboard each raft.
+
+And anon there come along men, poling with surprising swiftness
+slender-built craft on which are perched several solemn and
+important-looking cormorants. These are the celebrated cormorant fishers
+of the Chinese rivers. Their craft is simply three or four stems of the
+giant bamboo turned up at the forward end; on this the naked fisherman
+stands and propels himself by means of a slender pole. His stock-in-trade
+consists of from four to eight cormorants that balance themselves and
+smooth their wet wings as the lightsome raft speeds along at the rate of
+six miles an hour from one fishing ground to another. Arriving at some
+likely spot the eager aspirant for finny prizes rests on his oars, and
+allows his aquatic confederates to take to the water in search of their
+natural prey, the fishes. A ring around the cormorants' necks prevents
+them swallowing their captives, and previous training teaches them to
+balance themselves on the propelling pole that the watchful fisherman
+inserts beneath them the moment they rise to the surface with a fish;
+captive and captor are then lifted aboard the raft, the cormorant robbed
+of his prey and hustled quickly off again to business. The sight of these
+nimble craft, skimming along with scarcely an effort, almost fills me
+with a resolve to obtain one of them myself and abandon Tung Po and his
+dreary lack of speed forever.
+
+The third day of our voyage against the prevailing typhoons and the rapid
+current of the Pi-kiang, comes to an end, and finds us again anchored
+within the dark shadow of a towering cliff. Anchored alongside us is a
+big junk freighted with bags of rice and bales of paper; the hands aboard
+this boat indulge in a lively quarrel, during the evening chow-chow, and
+bang one another about in the liveliest manner. The peculiar indignation
+that finds expression in abusive language no doubt reaches its highest
+state of perfection in the Celestial mind. No other human being is
+capable of soaring to the height of the Chinaman's falsetto modulations,
+as he heaps reproaches and cuss-words on his enemy's queue-adorned head.
+A big boat's crew of naked Chinamen cursing and gesticulating excitedly,
+advancing and retreating, chasing one another about with billets of wood,
+knocking things over, and raising Cain generally, in the ghostly glimmer
+of fantastic paper lanterns, is a spectacle both weird and wild.
+
+Another weird, but this time noiseless, affair is a long string of
+nocturnal cormorant fishers, each with a big, flaming torch attached to
+the prow of his raft, propelling themselves along close under the dark
+frowning cliff. The torches light up the black face of the precipice with
+a wild glare, and streak the shimmering water with moon-like reflections.
+
+The country through which our watery, serpentine course winds all next
+day, is hilly rather than mountainous; grassy hills slope down to the
+water's blue ripples at certain places, but the absence of grazing
+animals is quite remarkable. Regions, which in other countries would be
+covered with flocks of sheep and herds of cows and horses, are without so
+much as a sign of herbivorous animals. Pigs are the prevailing
+meat-producing animals of Southern China; all the way up country I have
+not yet seen a single sheep, and but very few cattle; I have also yet to
+see the first horse. Instead of herbivorous quadrupeds peacefully
+browsing, are swarms of men, women, and children cutting, bundling, and
+stacking the grass for the manufacture of paper.
+
+Among the fleeting curiosities of the day are a crowd of sampans flying
+black flags, evidently some military expedition; they are bound down
+stream, and it occurs to me that they are perhaps a reinforcement of
+these famous free-lances going to join the hordes of that denomination
+making things so uncomfortable for the French in Tonquin and Quang-tse.
+We also pass a district where the women enhance their physical charms by
+the aid of broad circular hats that resemble an inverted sieve. The
+edges, however, are not wood, but circular curtains of black calico; the
+roof of the hat is bleached bamboo chip.
+
+Officers board us in the evening to search the vessel for dutiable goods;
+but they find nothing. The privilege of levying customs on salt and opium
+is farmed out by the government to people in various cities along the
+rivers. The tax on these articles from first to last of a long river
+voyage is very heavy, customs being levied at various points; it is
+scarcely necessary to add that under these arbitrary arrangements, the
+oily, conscienceless and tsin-loving Celestial boatman has reduced the
+noble art of smuggling to a science. Yung Po smiles blandly at the
+officer as he searches carefully every nook and corner of the sampan,
+even rooting about with a stick in the moderate amount of bilge-water
+collected between the ribs, and when he is through, dismisses him with an
+air of innocence and a wealth of politeness that is artfully calculated
+to secure less rigorous search next time.
+
+The poling and towing is prolonged till nearly midnight, when we cast
+anchor among a lot of house-boats and miscellaneous craft before a city.
+Even at this unseemly hour we are visited by an owlish pedler, whose boat
+is fitted up with boxes containing various dishes toothsome to the
+heathen palates of the water-men. Yung Po and Ah Sum look wistfully over
+the ancient pastry-ped-ler's wares, and pick out tiny dishes of sweetened
+rice gruel; this they consume with the same unutterable satisfaction that
+hungry monkeys display when eating chestnuts, ending the performance by
+licking the platters. Although the price is nearly a farthing a dish,
+with wanton prodigality Yung Po orders dishes for the whole company,
+including even his passenger!
+
+From various indications, it is surmised, as I seek my couch, that the
+city opposite is Chao-choo-foo. Inquiry to that effect, as usual, elicits
+nothing but a bland grin from Yung Po. When, however, he takes the
+unnecessary precaution of warning me not to venture outside the covered
+sleeping quarters during the night, intimating that I should probably get
+stabbed if I do, I am pretty well satisfied of our arrival. This cautious
+proceeding is to be explained by the fact that I am Yung Po's debtor for
+two days' diet of rice, turnips, and flabby pork, and he is suspicious
+that I might creep forth in the silence and darkness of the night and
+leave him in the lurch.
+
+Yung Po now summons his entire pantomimic ability, to inform me that
+Chao-choo-foo is still some distance up the river, at all events that is
+my interpretation of his words and gestures. On this supposition I enter
+no objections when he bids me accompany him to the market and purchase a
+new supply of provisions for the remainder of the journey.
+
+Impatient to proceed to Chao-choo-foo I now motion for them to make a
+start. Yung Po points to the frowning walls of the city we have just
+visited, and blandly says, "Chao-choo-foo." Having accomplished his
+purpose of bamboozling me into replenishing his larder, by making me
+believe our destination is yet farther upstream, he now turns round and
+tells me that we have already arrived. The neat little advantage he has
+just been taking of my ignorance with such brilliant results to the
+larder of the boat, has visibly stimulated his cupidity, and he now
+brazenly demands the payment of filthy lucre, making a circular hole with
+his thumb and finger to intimate big rounds in contradistinction to mere
+tsin.
+
+The assumption of dense ignorance has not been without its advantages at
+various times on my journey around the world, and regarding Yung Po's
+gestures with a blankety blank stare, I order him to proceed up stream to
+Chao-choo-foo. The result of my refusal to be further bamboozled by the
+wily Yung Po, without knowing something of what I am doing, is that I am
+shortly threading the mazy alleyways of Chao-choo-foo with Ah Sum and
+Yung Po for escort. What the object of this visit may be I haven't the
+remotest idea, unless we are proceeding to the quarters of some official
+to have my passport seen to, or to try and enlighten my understanding in
+regard to Yung Po's claims for battered Mexican dollars.
+
+Vague apprehensions arise that, peradventure, the six dollars paid at
+Quang-shi was only a small advance on the cost of my passage up, and that
+Yung Po is now piloting me to an official to establish his just claims
+upon pretty much all the money I have with me. Ignorant of the proper
+rate of boat-hire, disquieting visions of having to retreat to Canton for
+the lack of money to pay the expenses of the journey through to Kui-kiang
+are flitting through my mind as I follow the pendulous motions of Yung
+Po's pig-tail along the streets. The office that I have been conjuring up
+in my mind is reached at last, and found to be a neat room provided with
+forms and a pulpit like desk.
+
+A pleasant-faced little Chinaman in a blue silk gown is examining a sheet
+of written characters through the medium of a pair of tortoise-shell
+spectacles. On the wall I am agreeably astonished to see a chromo of Her
+Majesty Queen Victoria, with an inscription in Chinese characters. The
+little man chin-chins (salaams) heartily, removes his spectacles and
+addresses me in a musical tone of voice. Yung Po explains obsequiously
+that my understanding Chinese is conspicuously unequal to the occasion, a
+fact that at once becomes apparent to the man in blue silk; whereupon he
+quickly substitutes written words for spoken ones and presents me the
+paper. Finding me equally foggy in regard to these, he excuses my
+ignorance with a courteous smile and bow, and summons a gray-queued
+underling to whom he gives certain directions. This person leads the way
+out and motions for me to follow. Yung Po and Ah Sum bring up behind,
+keeping in order such irrepressibles as endeavor to peer too obtrusively
+into my face.
+
+Soon we arrive at a quarter with big monstrous dragons painted on the
+walls, and other indications of an official residence; palanquin-bearers
+in red jackets and hats with tassels of red horse-hair flit past at a
+fox-trot with a covered palanquin, preceded by noisy gong-beaters and a
+gayly comparisoned pony. This is evidently the yamen or mandarin's
+quarter, and here we halt before a door, while our guide enters another
+one, and disappears. The door before us is opened cautiously by a
+Celestial who looks out and bestows upon mo a friendly smile. A curly
+black dog emerges from between his legs and presents himself with much
+wagging of tail and other manifestations of canine delight.
+
+All this occurs to me as very strange; but not for a moment does it
+prepare me for the agreeable surprise that now presents itself in the
+appearance of a young Englishman at the door. It would be difficult to
+say which of us is the most surprised at the other's appearance. Mutual
+explanations follow, and then I learn that, all unsuspected by me, two
+missionaries of the English Presbyterian mission are stationed at
+Chao-choo.
+
+At Canton I was told that I wouldn't see a European face nor hear an
+English word between that city and Kui-kiang. On their part, they have
+read in English papers of my intended tour through China, but never
+expected to see me coming through Chao-choo-foo.
+
+I am, of course, overjoyed at the opportunity presented by their
+knowledge of the language to arrange for the continuation of my journey
+in a manner to know something about what I am doing. They are starting
+down the river for Canton to-morrow, so that I am very fortunate in
+having arrived today. As their guest for the day I obtain an agreeable
+change of diet from the swashy preparations aboard the sampan, and learn
+much valuable information about the nature of the country ahead from
+their servants. They have never been higher up the river than
+Chao-choo-foo themselves, and rather surprise me by giving the distances
+to Canton as two hundred and eighty miles.
+
+By their kind offices I am able to make arrangements for a couple of
+coolies to carry the bicycle over the Mae-ling Mountains as far as the
+city of Nam-ngan on the head waters of the Kan-kiang, whence, if
+necessary, I can descend into the Yang-tsi-kiangby river. The route leads
+through a mountainous country up to the Mae-ling Pass, thence down to the
+head waters of the Kan-kiang.
+
+All is ready by eight o'clock on the morning of October 22d; the coolies
+have lashed the bicycle to parallel bamboo poles, as also a tin of lunch
+biscuits, a tin of salmon, and of corned beef, articles kindly presented
+by the missionaries.
+
+Nam-ngan is said to be two hundred miles distant, but subsequent
+experience would lessen the distance by about fifty miles. Our way leads
+first through the cemeteries of Chao-choo-foo, and along little winding
+stone-ways through the fields leading, in a general sense, along the
+right bank of the Pi-kiang.
+
+The villagers in the upper districts of Quang-tung are peculiarly wanting
+in facial attractiveness; in some of the villages on the Upper Pi-kiang
+the entire population, from puling infants to decrepit old stagers whose
+hoary cues are real pig-tails in respect to size, are hideously ugly.
+They seem to be simple, primitive people, bent on satisfying their
+curiosity; but in the pursuit of this they are, if anything, somewhat
+more considerate or more conservative than the Persians.
+
+Mothers hurry home and fetch their babies to see the Fankwae, pointing me
+out to their notice, very much like pointing out a chimpanzee in the
+Zoological gardens. In these village inns the spirit of democracy
+embraces all living things; sore-eyed coolies, leprous hangers-on to the
+thread of life, matronly sows and mangy dogs, come, go, and freely mingle
+and associate in these filthy little kitchens. When cooking is in
+progress, nothing is set off the fire on to the ground but that a hungry
+pig stands and eyes it wistfully, but sundry burnings of their sensitive
+snouts during the days of their youthful inexperience have made them
+preternaturally cautious, so that they are not very meddlesome. The
+sleeping room is really a part of the pig-sty, nothing but an open
+railing separating pigs and people. A cobble-stone path now leads through
+a hilly country, divided up into little rice-fields, peanut gardens, pine
+copses, and cemeteries. Peanut stalls one encounters at short intervals,
+where ancient dames or wrinkled old men preside over little saucers of
+half-roasted nuts, peanut sweet cakes, peanut plain cakes, peanut
+crullers, peanut dough, peanut candy, peanuts sprinkled with sugar,
+peanuts sprinkled with salt, and peanuts fresh from the ground. The
+people seem to be well-nigh living on peanuts, which unhappy diet
+probably has something to do with their marvellous ugliness.
+
+In a gathering of villagers standing about me are people with eyes that
+are pitched at the most peculiar angles, varying from long, narrow eyes
+that slope downward toward the cheek-bone, to others that seem almost
+perpendicular. No less astonishing is the contour of their mouths; ragged
+holes in their ugly faces are these for the most part, shapeless and
+uncouth as anything well could be. They are the most unprepossessing
+humans I have seen the whole world round.
+
+As, on the evening of the third day from Chao-choo-foo, we approach
+Nam-hung, the people and the country undergo a great change for the
+better. The land is more level and better cultivated; villages are
+thicker and more populous, and the people are no longer conspicuously
+ill-favored. All evidence goes to prove that meagre diet and hard lines
+generally, continued from generation to generation, result in the
+production of an ill-conditioned and inferior race of people.
+
+A three-storied pagoda on a prominent hill to the right marks the
+approach to Nam-hung, and another of nine stories marks the entrance.
+Swarms of people follow us through the streets, rushing with eager
+curiosity to obtain a glimpse of my face. Sometimes the surging masses of
+people, struggling and pushing and dodging, separate me from the coolies,
+and the din of the shouting and laughing is so great that my shouts to
+them to stop are unheard. A shout, or a wave of the hand results only in
+a quickening of the people's curiosity and an increase in the volume of
+their own noisiness. Thus hemmed in among a compact mass of apparently
+well-meaning, but highly inflammable Chinese, hooting, calling, laughing,
+and gesticulating, I follow the lead of Ching-We and Wong-Yup through a
+mile of streets to the hittim.
+
+Rich native wares are displayed in great abundance, silks, satins, and
+fur-lined clothing so costly and luxurious, and in such numbers, that one
+wonders where they find purchasers for them all. Side by side with these
+are idol factories, where Joss may be seen in every stage of existence,
+from the unhewn log of his first estate to the proud pre-eminence of his
+highly finished condition, painted, gilded, and furbished. Coffin
+warehouses in which burial cases are displayed in tempting array are
+always conspicuous in a Chinese city. The coffins are made of curious
+slabs, jointed together in imitation of a solid log; some of these are
+varnished in a style calculated to make the eyes of a prospective corpse
+beam with joyous anticipation; others are plainly finished, destined for
+the abode of humbler and less pretentious remains.
+
+At the hittim, with much angry expostulation and firmness of decision,
+the following mob are barred entrance to our room. They are not, by any
+means satisfied, however; they quickly smash in a little closed panel so
+they can look in, and every crack between the boards betrays a row of
+peering eyes. Ching-We is a hollow-eyed victim of the drug, and yearns
+for peace and quiet so that he can pass away the evening amid the
+seductive pleasures of the opium-smoker's heaven. The rattle and racket
+of the determined sight-seers outside, clamorously demanding to come in
+and see the Fankwae, annoy him to the verge of desperation under the
+circumstances.
+
+He patiently endeavors to forget it all, however, and to banish the whole
+troublesome world from his thoughts, by producing his opium-pipe and lamp
+and attempting to smoke. But just as he is getting comfortably settled
+down to rolling the little knob of opium on the needle and has puckered
+his lips for a good pull, a decayed turnip comes sailing through the open
+panel and hits him on the back. The people looking in add insult to
+injury by indulging in an audible snicker, as Ching-We springs up and
+glares savagely into their faces. This indiscreet expression of their
+levity at once seals their doom, for Ching-We grabs a pole and hits the
+boards such a resounding whack, and advances upon them so savagely, that
+only a few undaunted youngsters remain at their post; the panel is
+repaired, and comparative peace and quiet restored for a short time. No
+sooner, however, has Ching-We mounted to the first story of heavenly
+beatitude from the effects of the first pipe of opium, than loud howls of
+"Fankwae. Fankwae!" are heard outside, and a shower of stones comes
+rattling against the boards. Ching-We goes to the partition door and
+indulges in an angry and reproachful attack upon the unoffending head of
+the establishment. The unoffending head of the establishment goes
+immediately to the other door and indulges in an angry and reproachful
+attack upon the shouters and stone-throwers outside. The Chinese are
+peculiar in many things, and in nothing, perhaps, more than their respect
+for words of reproach. Whether the long-suffering innkeeper hurled at
+their heads one of the moral maxims of Confucius, or an original
+production of his own brain, is outside the pale of my comprehension; but
+whatever it is, there is no more disturbance outside.
+
+It must be about midnight when I am awakened from a deep sleep by the
+gabble of many people in the room. Transparent lanterns adorned with big
+red characters held close to my face cause me to blink like a cat upon
+opening my wondering eyes. These lanterns are held by yameni-runners in
+semi-military garb, to light up my features for the inspection of an
+officer wearing a rakish Tartar hat with a brass button and a red
+horse-hair tassel. The yameni-runners wear the same general style of
+head-dress, but with a loop instead of the brass button. The officer is
+possessed of a wonderfully soft, musical voice, and holds forth at great
+length concerning me, with Ching-We.
+
+The officer takes my passport to the yamen, and ere leaving the room,
+pantomimically advises me to go to sleep again. In the morning Ching-We
+returns the two-foot square document with the Viceregal seal, and winks
+mysteriously to signify that everything is lovely, and that the goose of
+permission to go ahead to Nam-ngan hangs auspiciously high.
+
+The morning opens up cool and cloudy, the pebble pathway is wider and
+better than yesterday, for it is now the thoroughfare along which
+thousands of coolies stagger daily with heavy loads of merchandise to the
+commencement of river navigation at Nam-hung. The district is populous
+and productive; bales of paper, bags of rice and peanuts, bales of
+tobacco, bamboo ware, and all sorts of things are conveyed by muscular
+coolies to Nam-hung to be sent down the river.
+
+Gradually have we been ascending since leaving Nam-hung, and now is
+presented the astonishing spectacle of a broad flight of stone steps,
+certainly not less than a mile in length, leading up, up, up, to the
+summit of the Mae-ling Pass. Up and down this wonderful stairway hundreds
+of coolies are toiling with their burdens, scores of travellers in
+holiday attire and several palanquins bearing persons of wealth or
+official station. The stairway winds and zigzags up the narrow defile,
+averaging in width about twenty feet. Refreshment houses are perched here
+and there along the side, sometimes forming a bridge over the steps.
+
+The stairway terminates at the summit in a broad stone archway of ancient
+build, over which are several rooms; this is evidently an office for the
+collection of revenue from the merchandise carried over the pass.
+Standing beneath this arch one obtains a comprehensive view of the
+country below to the north; a pretty picture is presented of gabled
+villages and temples, green hills, and pale-gold ripening rice-fields.
+The little silvery contributaries of the Kan-kiang ramify the picture
+like veins in the human palm, and the brown, cobbled pathways are seen
+leading from village to village, disappearing from view at short
+intervals beneath a cluster of tiled houses.
+
+Steeper but somewhat shorter steps lead down from the pass, and the
+pathway follows along the bank of a tiny stream, leading through an
+almost continuous string of villages to the walls of Nam-ngan.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+DOWN THE KAN-KIANG VALLEY.
+
+The country is still nothing but river and mountains, and a sampan is
+engaged to float me down the Kan-kiang as far as Kan-tchou-foo, from
+whence I hope to be able to resume my journey a-wheel. The water is very
+low in the upper reaches of the river, and the sampan has to be abandoned
+a few miles from where it started. I then get two of the boatmen to carry
+the wheel, intending to employ them as far as Kan-tchou-foo.
+
+From the stories current at Canton, the reputation of Kan-tchou-foo is
+rather calculated to inspire a lone Fankwae with sundry misgivings. Some
+time ago an English traveller, named Cameron, had in that city an
+unpleasantly narrow escape from being burned alive. The Celestials
+conceived the diabolical notion of wrapping him in cotton, saturating him
+with peanut-oil, and setting him on fire. The authorities rescued him not
+a moment too soon.
+
+Ere traversing many miles of mountain-paths we emerge upon a partially
+cultivated country, where the travelling is somewhat better than in
+Quang-tung. The Mae-ling Pass was the boundary line between the provinces
+of Quang-tung and Kiang-se; my journey from Nam-ngan will lead me through
+the whole length of the latter great province, between three hundred and
+four hundred miles north and south.
+
+The paths hereabout are of dirt mostly, and although wretched roads for a
+wheelman in the abstract, are nevertheless admirable in comparison with
+the stone-ways of Quang-tung. Gratified at the prospect of being able to
+proceed to Kui-kiang by land after all, I determine at once that, if the
+country gets no worse by to-morrow, I will dismiss the boatmen and pursue
+my way alone again on the bicycle. This resolve very quickly develops
+into an earnest determination to rid myself of the incubus of the
+snail-like movements of my new carriers, who are decidedly out of their
+element when walking, as I am very quickly brought to understand by the
+annoying frequency of their halts at way-side tea-houses to rest and
+smoke and eat.
+
+Ere we are five miles from the sampan these festive mariners of the
+Kan-kiang have developed into shuffling, shirking gormandizers, who peer
+longingly into every eating-house we pass by and evince a decided
+tendency to convert their task into a picnic. Finding me uncomplaining in
+footing their respective "bills of lading" at the frequent places where
+they rest and indulge their appetites for tid-bits, they advance, in the
+brief space of four hours, from a simple diet of peanuts and bubbles of
+greasy pastry to such epicurean dishes as pickled duck, salted eggs, and
+fricasseed kitten!
+
+Fricasseed kitten is all very well for people who have been reared in the
+lap of luxury, and tenderly nurtured; but neither of these half-clad
+Kan-kiang navigators was born with the traditional silver spoon. From
+infancy they have had to thrive the best way they could on rice,
+turnip-tops, peanuts, and delusive expectations of pork and fish; their
+assumption of the delicacies above mentioned betrays the possession of
+bumps of assurance bigger than goose-eggs. It is equivalent to a
+moneyless New York guttersnipe sailing airily into Delmonico's and
+ordering porter-house steak and terrapin, because some benevolent person
+volunteered to feed him for a day or two at his expense. Fearful lest
+their ambitious palates should soar into the extravagant and bankrupting
+realms of bird-nest soup, shark's fins, and deer-horn jelly, I firmly
+resolve to dispense with their services at the first favorable
+opportunity.
+
+Many of the larger villages we pass through are walled with enormously
+massive brick walls, all bearing evidence of battering at the hands of
+the Tai-pings. Owing to the frequent restings of the carriers we are
+overtaken toward evening by a fellow boat-passenger, Oolong, who after
+our departure determined to follow our enterprising example and walk to
+Kan-tchou-foo. He comes trudging briskly along with a little white
+tea-pot swinging in his hand and an umbrella under his arm.
+
+The day is disagreeably cold by reason of the chilly typhoons that blow
+steadily from the north. I have considerately encased the thinnest clad
+carrier in my gossamer rubbers to shield him from the wind, but Oolong is
+even thinner clad than he, and he has to hustle along briskly to keep his
+Celestial blood in circulation.
+
+No sooner do we reach the hittim where it is proposed to remain over
+night than poor Oolong gets into trouble by appropriating to his own use
+the quilted garment of one of the employes of the place, which he finds
+lying around loose. The irate owner of the garment loudly accuses Oolong
+of wanting to steal it, and notwithstanding his vigorous protestations to
+the contrary he is denounced as a thief and summarily ejected from the
+premises.
+
+The last I ever see of Oolong and his white tea-pot and umbrella is when
+he pauses for a moment to give his accusers a bit of his mind before
+vanishing into outer darkness.
+
+The morning is quite wintry, and the people are clad in the seasonable
+costumes of the country. Huge quilted garments are put on one over
+another until their figures are almost of ball-like rotundity; the hands
+are drawn up entirely out of sight in the long, loosely flowing sleeves,
+while the head is half-hidden by being drawn, turtle-like, into their
+blue-quilted shells. Like the Persians, they seem nipped and miserable in
+the cold; looking at them, standing about with humped backs and pinched
+faces this morning, I wonder, with the Chinaman's happy nonchalance about
+committing suicide, why they don't all seek relief within the nice warm
+tombs at the end of the village. Surely it can be nothing but their
+rampant curiosity, urging them to live on and on in the hopes of seeing
+something new and novel, that keeps them from collapsing entirely in the
+winter.
+
+My epicurean carriers indulge largely in chopped cayenne peppers this
+morning, which they mis liberally with their food.
+
+The paths at least get no worse than they were yesterday, and to-day I
+meet the first passenger-wheelbarrow, with its big wheel in the centre, a
+bulky female with a baby on one side, and a bale of merchandise on the
+other. Sometimes our road brings us to the banks of the Kan-kiang, and
+most of the time, even when a mile or two away, we can see the queer,
+corrugated sails of the sampans.
+
+Once to-day we happen upon a fleet of fourteen cormorant fishers at a
+moment when the excitement of their pursuit is at its height. About
+seventy or eighty cormorants are diving and chasing about among a shoal
+of fish in a big silent pool, while fourteen wildly excited Chinamen,
+clad in abbreviated breech-cloths, dart their bamboo rafts about hither
+and thither, urging each one his own cormorants to dive by tapping them
+smartly with their poles. The scene is animated in the extreme, a unique
+picture of Chinese river-life not to be easily forgotten.
+
+About two o'clock in the afternoon we arrive at a city that I flatter
+myself is Kan-tchou-foo; all attempts to question the carriers or anybody
+else in regard to the matter results in the hopeless bewilderment of both
+them and myself. The carriers are not such ignoramuses in the art of
+pantomime, however, but that they are able to announce their intention of
+stopping here for the remainder of the day, and night.
+
+The liberality of my purse for a short day and a half, with its
+concomitant luxurious living, has so thoroughly demoralized the
+unaccustomed river-men, that they encroach still further upon my bounty
+and forbearance by revelling all night in the sensuous delights of opium,
+at my expense, and turning up in the morning in anything but fit
+condition for the road. Putting this and that together, I conclude that
+we have not yet readied Kan-tchou-foo; but the carriers have developed
+into an insufferable nuisance, a hinderance to progress, rather than a
+help, so I determine to take them no farther.
+
+I tell them nothing of my intentions until we reach a lonely spot a mile
+from the city. Here I tender them suitable payment for their services and
+the customary present, attach my loose effects to the bicycle and about
+my person, and motion them to return. As I anticipated, they make a
+clamorous demand for more money, even seizing hold of the bicycle and
+shouting angrily in my face. This I had easily foreseen, and wisely
+preferred to have their angry demonstrations all to myself, rather than
+in a crowded city where they could perhaps have excited the mob against
+me.
+
+For the first time in China I have to appeal to my Smith & Wesson in the
+interests of peace; without its terrifying possession I should on this
+occasion undoubtedly have been under the necessity of "wiping up a small
+section of Kiang-se" with these two worthies in self defence. In the
+affairs of individuals, as of nations, it sometimes operates to the
+preservation of peace to be well prepared for war. How many times has
+this been the case with myself on this journey around the world!
+
+The barometer of satisfaction at the prospect of reaching Kui-kiang
+before the appearance of old age rises from zero-level to a quite
+flattering height, as I find the pathways more than half ridable after
+delivering myself of the dead weight of native "assistance." Twelve miles
+farther and I am approaching the grim high walls of a large city that
+instinctively impresses me as being Kan-tchou-foo. The confused babel of
+noises within the teeming wall-encompassed city reaches my ears in the
+form of an "ominous buzz," highly suggestive of a hive of bees, into the
+interior of which it would be extremely ticklish work for a Fankwae to
+enter. "Half an hour hence," I mentally speculate, "the pitying angels
+may be weeping over the spectacle of my seal-brown roasted remains being
+dragged about the streets by the ribald and exultant rag, tag, and
+bobtail of Kan-tchou-foo."
+
+Reflecting on the horrors of cotton, peanut-oil, and fire, I sit down for
+half an hour at a peanut-seller's stall, eat peanuts, and meditatively
+argue the situation of whether it would be better, if seized by a
+murderous mob, to take the desperate chances of being, like Cameron,
+rescued at the last minute from the horrors of incineration, or to take
+my own life. Fourteen cartridges and a 38 Smith & Wesson is the sum total
+of my armament. Emptying my revolver among the mob, and then being caught
+while reloading, would mean a lingering death by the most diabolical
+tortures, processes that the heathen Chinee has reduced to a refinement
+of cruelty unsurpassed in the old Spanish inquisition chambers.
+
+The saucer of peanuts eaten, I pursue my way along the cobblestone path
+leading to the gate, without having come to any more definite conclusion
+than to keep cool and govern my actions according to circumstances. Ten
+minutes after taking this precaution I am trundling along a paved street,
+somewhat wider than the average Chinese city street, in the thick of the
+inevitable excited crowd.
+
+The city probably contains two hundred thousand people, judging from the
+length of this street and the wonderful quantity and richness of the
+goods displayed in the shops. Along this street I see a more lavish
+display of rich silks, furs, tiger-skins, and other evidences of opulence
+than was shown me at Canton. The pressure of the crowds reduces me at
+once to the necessity of drifting helplessly along, whithersoever the
+seething human tide may lead. Sometimes I fancy the few officiously
+interested persons about me, whom I endeavor to question in regard to the
+hoped-for Jesuit mission, have interpreted my queries aright and are
+piloting me thither; only to conclude by their actions, the next minute,
+that they have not the remotest conception of my wants, beyond reaching
+the other side of the city. Now and then some ruffian in the crowd, in a
+spirit of wanton devilment, utters a wild, exultant whoop and raises the
+cry of "Fankwae. Fankwae." The cry is taken up by others of his kind, and
+the whoops and shouts of "Fankwae" swell into a tumultuous howl.
+
+Anxious moments these; the spirit of wanton mischief fairly bristles
+through the crowd, evidently needing but the merest friction to set it
+ablaze and render my situation desperate. My coat-tail is jerked, the
+bicycle stopped, my helmet knocked off, and other trifling indignities
+offered; but to these acts I take no exceptions, merely placing my helmet
+on again when it is knocked off, and maintaining a calm serenity of face
+and demeanor.
+
+A dozen times during this trying trundle of a mile along the chief
+business thoroughfare of Kan-tchou-foo, the swelling whoops and yells of
+"Fankwae" seem to portend the immediate bursting of the anticipated
+storm, and a dozen times I breathe easier at the subsidence of its
+volume. The while I am still hoping faintly for a repetition in part of
+my delightful surprise at Chao-choo-foo, we arrive at a gate leading out
+on to a broad paved quay of the Kan-kiang, which flows close by the
+walls.
+
+Here I first realize the presence of Imperial troops, and awaken to the
+probability that I am indebted to their known proximity for the
+self-restraint of the mob, and their comparatively mild behavior. These
+Celestial warriors would make excellent characters on the spectacular
+stage; their uniforms are such marvels of color and pattern that it is
+difficult to disassociate them from things theatrical. Some are uniformed
+in sky blue, and others in the gayest of scarlet gowns, blue aprons with
+little green pockets, and blue turbans or Tartar hats with red tassels.
+Their gowns and aprons are patterned so as to spread out to a ridiculous
+width at bottom, imparting to the gay warrior an appearance not unlike an
+opened fan, his head constituting the handle.
+
+As a matter of fact, the soldiers of the Imperial army are the biggest
+dandies in the country; when on the march coolies are provided to carry
+their muskets and accoutrements. As seen today, beneath the walls of
+Kan-tchou-foo, they impress me far more favorably as dandies than as
+soldiers equal to the demand of modern warfare.
+
+Like soldiers the whole world round, however, they seem to be a
+good-natured, superior class of men; no sooner does my presence become
+known than several of them interest themselves in checking the aggressive
+crowding of the people about me. Some of them even accompany me down to
+the ferry and order the ancient ferryman to take me across for nothing.
+This worthy individual, however, enters such a wordy protestation against
+this that I hand him a whole handful of the picayunish tsin. The soldiers
+make him give me back the over-payment, to the last tsin. The sordid
+money-making methods of the commercial world seem to be regarded with
+more or less contempt by the gallant sons of Mars everywhere, not
+excepting even the soldiers of the Chinese army.
+
+The scene presented by the city and the camp from across the river is of
+a most pronounced mediaeval character, as well as one of the prettiest
+sights imaginable. The grim walla of the city extend for nearly a mile
+along the undulating bank of the Kan-kiang, with a narrow strip of
+greensward between the solid gray battlements and the blue, wind-rippled
+waters of the river. Along the whole distance, rising and falling with
+the undulations of the bank, are ranged a continuous row of gayly
+fluttering banners-red, purple, blue, green, yellow, and all these colors
+combined in others that are striped as prettily as the prettiest of
+barber-poles-probably not less than five hundred flags. These
+multitudinous banners flutter from long, spear-headed bamboo-staves, and
+of themselves present a wonderfully pretty effect in combination with the
+blue waters, the verdant bank, and the gray walls. But in addition to
+these are thousands of soldiers, equally gaudy as to raiment, reclining
+irregularly along the same greensward, each warrior a bright bit of
+coloring on the verdant groundwork of the bank.
+
+Over variable paths and through numerous villages and hamlets my way now
+leads, my next objective point being Ki-ngan-foo. At first a country of
+curious red buttes, terraced rice-fields, and reservoirs of
+mountain-drift water, serving the double purpose of fish-ponds and
+irrigating reservoirs, it develops later into a more mountainous region,
+where the bicycle quickly degenerates into a thing more ornamental than
+useful.
+
+On a narrow mountain-trail is met a gentleman astride of a chunky
+twelve-hand pony. This diminutive steed is almost concealed beneath a
+wealth of gay trappings, to which are attached hundreds of jingling bells
+that fill the air with music as he walks or jogs along. In his fright at
+the bicycle, or me, he charges wildly up the steep mountain-slope,
+unseating his rider and making for the mountain-top like the
+all-possessed. His rider takes the sensible course of immediately
+pursuing the pony, instead of wasting time in unprofitable fault-finding
+with me.
+
+Few people of these obscure mountain-hamlets have ever seen a Fankwae;
+many, doubtless, have never even heard of the existence of such queer
+beings. They gather in a crowd about me when I stay to seek refreshments;
+the general query of "What is he? what is he?" passed from one to
+another, sometimes elicits the laconically expressed information of"
+Fankwae" from some knowing villager or traveller passing through, but
+often their question remains unanswered, because among the whole assembly
+there is nobody who really knows what I am.
+
+The wonderful industry of these people is more apparent in this
+mountain-country than anywhere else. The valleys are very narrow, often
+little more than mere ravines between the mountains, and wherever a
+square yard of productive soil is to be found it is cultivated to its
+utmost capacity. In places the mountain-ravines are terraced, to their
+very topmost limits, tier after tier of substantial rock wall banking up
+a few square yards of soil that have been gathered with infinite labor
+and patience from the ledges and crevices of the rocky hills. The
+uppermost terrace is usually a pond of water, gathered by the artificial
+drainage of still higher levels, and reserved for the irrigation of the
+score or more descending "steps" of the rice-growing stairway beneath it.
+
+Notwithstanding the mountainous nature of the country and the dallying
+progress through Kan-tchou-foo, so lightsome does it seem to be once more
+journeying along, free and unencumbered, that I judge my day's progress
+to be not less than fifty miles when nightfall overtakes me in a little
+mountain-village. It is the first day's progress in China with which I
+have been really satisfied. Nevertheless, it has been a toilsome day,
+taken altogether, and when nothing but tea and rice confronts me at
+supper the reward seems so wretchedly inadequate that I rise in rebellion
+at once.
+
+Neither eggs, fish, nor meat are to be obtained, the good woman at the
+little hittim explains in a high key; neither loan, ue, nor ue-ah,
+nothing but ch'ung-ch'a and mai. The woman is evidently a dear,
+considerate mortal, however, for she surveys my evident disgust with
+sorrowful visage, and then, suddenly brightening up, motions for me to be
+seated and leaves the house. Presently the good dame returns with a smile
+of triumph on her face and an object in her hand that, from casual
+observation, might be the hind-quarters of a rabbit. Bringing it to me in
+the most matter-of-fact manner, she holds it near my face and, pointing
+to it with the air of a cateress proudly conscious of having secured
+something that she knows will be unusually acceptable to her guest, she
+explains "me-aow, me-aow!" The woman's naivete is simply sublime, and her
+sagacity in explaining the nature of the meat by imitating a kitten's cry
+instead of telling me its Chinese name stamps her as superior to her
+surroundings; but, for all that, I conclude to draw the line at kitten
+and sup off plain rice and tea. "Me-aow, me-aow" might not be altogether
+objectionable if one knew it to have been a nice healthy kitten, but my
+observations of Chinese unsqueamishness about the food they eat leaves an
+abundance of room for doubt about the nature of its death and its
+suitableness for human consumption. I therefore resist the temptation to
+indulge.
+
+A clear morning and a white frost usher in the commencement of another
+march across the mountains, over cobbled paths for the greater part of
+the forenoon. The sun is warm, but the mountain-breezes are cool and
+refreshing. About noon I ferry across a large tributary of the Kan-kiang,
+and follow for miles a cobble-stone path that leads down its eastern
+bank.
+
+According to my map, Ki-ngan-foo should be about fifty miles south of
+Kan-tchou-foo, so that I ought to have reached there by noon to-day. All
+due allowance, however, must be made for the map-makers in mapping out a
+country where their opportunities for accuracy must have been of the
+meagerest kind. Small occasion for fault-finding under the circumstances,
+I think, for in the middle of the afternoon the gray battlements, the
+pagodas, and the bright coloring of military flags a few miles farther
+down stream tell me that the geographers have not erred to any
+considerable extent.
+
+It is about sunset when I enter the gates and find myself within the
+Manchu quarter, that portion of the city walled off for the residence of
+the Manchu garrison and their families. The hittim to which the quickly
+gathering crowd conduct me is found to be occupied by a rather
+prepossessing female, who, however, looks frightened at my approach and
+shuts the door. Nor will she consent to open it again until reassured of
+my peaceful character by the lengthy explanation of the people outside,
+and a searching scrutiny of my person through a crack. After opening the
+door again, and receiving what I opine to be a statement of the financial
+possibilities of the situation from some person who has heard fabulous
+accounts of the Fankwaes' liberality, her apprehensiveness dissolves into
+a smile of welcome and she motions for me to come in.
+
+The evening is chilly, and everybody is swollen out to ridiculous
+proportions by the numerous thick-quilted garments they are wearing. All
+present, whether male or female, are likewise distinguished by abnormally
+protruding stomachs. Being Manchus, and therefore the accredited warriors
+of the country, it occurs to ine that perhaps the fashionable fad among
+them is to pad out their stomachs in token of the possession of
+extraordinary courage, the stomach being regarded by the Chinese as the
+seat of both courage and intelligence. In the absence of large stomachs
+provided by nature, perhaps these proud Manchus come to the correction of
+niggardly nature with wadding, as do various hollow-chested people in the
+"regions of mist and snow," the dreary, sunless land whence cometh the
+genus Fankwae.
+
+But are the females also ambitious to be regarded as warriors, Amazonian
+soldiers, full of courage and warlike aspirations. As though in direct
+reply to my mental queries, a woman standing by solves the problem for me
+at once by producing from beneath her garments a wicker-basket containing
+a jar of hot ashes; stirring the deadened coals up a little she replaces
+it, evidently attaching it to her garments underneath by a little hook.
+
+Among the hundreds of visitors that drop in to see the Fankwae and his
+bicycle is an intelligent old officer who actually knows that the great
+country of the Fankwaes is divided into different nationalities; either
+that, or else he thinks the Fankwaes have another name, said name being
+"Ying-yun" (English). Some idea of the dense ignorance of the Chinese of
+the interior concerning the rest of the world may be gathered from the
+fact that this officer is the first person since leaving Chao-choo-foo,
+upon whom the word "Ying-yun" has not been wholly thrown away.
+
+Scenes of more than democratic equality and fraternity are witnessed in
+this Manchu hittim, where silk-robed mandarins and uncouth ragamuffins
+stand side by side and enjoy the luxury of seeing me take lessons in the
+use of the chop-sticks. All through China one cannot fail to be impressed
+with the freedom of intercourse between people of high and low degree;
+beggars with unwashed faces and disgusting sores and well-nigh naked
+bodies stand and discuss my appearance and movements with mandarins of
+high degree, without the least show of presumption on the one hand or
+condescension on the other.
+
+Fully under the impression that Ki-ngan-foo has now peacefully come and
+peacefully gone from the pale of my experiences, I follow along awful
+stone paths next morning, leading across a level, cultivated country for
+several miles. Before long, however, a country of red clay hills and
+limited cultivable depressions is reached, where well-worn foot-trails
+over the natural soil afford more or less excellent going. In this
+particular district the women are observed to be all golden lilies,
+whereas the proportion of deformed feet in other rural districts has been
+rather small. Seeing that deformed feet add fifty or a hundred per cent,
+to the social and matrimonial value of a Chinese female, one cannot help
+applauding the enterprise of the people in this district as compared to
+the apathy existing on the same subject in some others. The comparative
+poverty of their clayey undulations has doubtless awakened them to the
+opportunities of increasing values in other directions. Hence they
+convert all their female infants into golden lilies, for whom some
+prospective husband will be willing to pay a hundred dollars more than if
+they were possessed of vulgar extremities as provided by nature.
+
+The people hereabout seem unusually timid and alarmed at my strange
+appearance; it is both laughable and painful to see the women hobble off
+across the fields, frightened almost out of their wits. At times I can
+look about me and, within a radius of five hundred yards, see twenty or
+thirty females, all with deformed feet, scuttling off toward the villages
+with painful efforts at speed. One might well imagine them to be a colony
+of crippled rabbits, alarmed at the approach of a dog, endeavoring to
+hobble away from his destructive presence.
+
+In the villages they seem equally apprehensive of danger, making it
+somewhat difficult to obtain anything to eat. At one village where I halt
+for refreshments the people scurry hastily into their houses at seeing me
+coming, and peep timidly out again after I have passed. Leaning the
+bicycle against a wall, I proceed in search of something to eat. A basket
+of oranges first attracts my attention; they are setting just inside the
+door of a little shop. The two women in charge look scared nearly out of
+their wits as I appear at the door and point to the basket; both of them
+retreat pell-mell into a rear apartment, and, holding the door ajar, peep
+curiously through to see what I am going to do. While my attention is
+directed for a moment to something down the street, one daring soul darts
+out and bears the basket of oranges triumphantly into the back room. For
+this heroic deed I beg to recommend this brave woman for the Victoria
+Cross; among the golden lilies of the Celestial Empire are no doubt many
+such brave souls, coequal with Grace Darling or the Maid of Saragossa.
+
+Baffled and out-generaled by this brilliant sortie, I meander down to the
+other end of the village and invade the premises of an old man engaged in
+chopping up a piece of pork with a cleaver. The gallant pork-butcher
+gathers up the choicest parts of his meat and carries them into a rear
+room; with a wary yet determined look in his eye he then returns, and
+proceeds to mince up the few remaining odds and ends. It is plainly
+evident that he fancies himself in dangerous company, and is prepared to
+defend himself desperately with his meat-chopper in case he gets cornered
+up.
+
+Finally I discover a really courageous individual, in the person of a man
+presiding over a peanut and treacle-cake establishment; this man, while
+evidently uneasy in his mind, manfully steels his nerves to the task of
+attending to my wants. Presently the people begin to gather at a
+respectful distance to watch me eat, and five minutes later, by a
+judicious distribution of a few saucers of peanuts among the youngsters,
+I gain their entire confidence.
+
+About four o'clock in the afternoon my road once again brings me to a
+ferry across the Kan-kiang. Just previous to reaching the river, I meet
+on the road eight men, carrying a sedan containing a hideous black idol
+about twice as large as a man. A mile back from the ferry is another
+large walled city with a magnificent pagoda; this city I fondly imagine
+to be Lin-kiang, next on my map and itinerary to Ki-ngan-foo, and I
+mentally congratulate myself on the excellent time I have been making for
+the last two days.
+
+Across the ferry are several official sampans with a number of boys gayly
+dressed in red and carrying old battle-axes; also a small squad of
+soldiers with bows and arrows. No sooner does the ferryman land me than
+the officer in charge of the party, with a wave of his hand in my
+direction, orders a couple of soldiers to conduct me into the city; his
+order is given in an off-hand manner peculiarly Chinese, as though I were
+a mere unimportant cipher in the matter, whose wishes it really was not
+worth while to consult. The soldiers conduct me to the city and into the
+yamen or official quarter, where I am greeted with extreme courtesy by a
+pleasant little officer in cloth top-boots and a pigtail that touches his
+heels. He is one of the nicest little fellows I have met in China, all
+smiles and bustling politeness and condescension; a trifle too much of
+the latter, perhaps, were we at all on an equality; but quite excusable
+under the conditions of Celestial refinement and civilization on one
+side, and untutored barbarism on the other.
+
+Having duly copied my passport (apropos of the Chinese doing almost
+everything in a precisely opposite way to ourselves may be pointed out
+the fact that, instead of attaching vises to the traveller's passport,
+like European nations, each official copies off the entire document), the
+little officer with much bowing and scraping leads the way back to the
+ferry. My explanation that I am bound in the other direction elicits
+sundry additional bobbings of the head and soothing utterances and
+smiles, but he points reassuringly to the ferry. Arriving at the river,
+the little officer is dumbfounded to discover that I have no sampan--that
+I am not travelling by boat, but overland on the bicycle. Such a
+possibility had never entered his head; nor is it wonderful that it
+should not, considering the likelihood that nobody, in all his
+experience, had ever travelled to Kui-kiang from here except by boat.
+Least of all would he imagine that a stray Fankwae should be travelling
+otherwise.
+
+At the ferry we meet the officer who first ordered the soldiers to take
+me in charge, and who now accompanies us back to the yamen. Evidently
+desirous of unfathoming the mystery of my incomprehensible mode of
+travelling through the country, these two officers spend much of the
+evening with me in the hittim smoking and keeping up an animated effort
+to converse. Notwithstanding my viceregal passport, the superior officer
+very plainly entertains suspicions as to my motives in undertaking this
+journey; his superficial politeness no more conceals his suspicions than
+a glass globe conceals a fish. Before they take their departure three
+yameni-runners are stationed in my room to assume the responsibility for
+my safe-keeping during the night.
+
+An hour or so is spent waiting in the yamen next morning, apparently for
+the gratification of visitors continually arriving. When the yamen is
+crowded with people I am provided with a boiled fish and a pair of
+chop-sticks. Witnessing the consumption of this fish by the Fankwae is
+the finale of the "exhibition," and candor compels me to chronicle the
+fact that it fairly brings down the house.
+
+It is a drizzly, disagreeable morning as I trundle out of the city gate
+over cobble-stones, made slippery by the rain. Walking before me is a
+slim young yameni-runner with a short bamboo-spear, and on his back a
+white bull's-eye eighteen inches in diameter; he is bare-footed and
+bare-headed and bare-legged. In the poverty of his apparel, the all-round
+contempt of personal appearance and cleanliness, and the total absence of
+individual ambition, this young person reminds me forcibly of our
+happy-go-lucky friend Osman, in the garden at Herat.
+
+In striking contrast to him is the dandified individual who brings up the
+rear, about ten paces behind the bicycle. He likewise is a yameni-runner,
+but of higher degree than his compatriot of the advance; instead of a
+vulgar and rusty spear, he is armed with an oiled paper parasol, a
+flaming red article ornamented with blue characters and gilt women.
+Besides this gay mark of distinction and social superiority, he owns both
+shoes and hat, carrying the former, however, chiefly in his hand; when
+fairly away from town, he deliberately turns his red-braided jacket
+inside out to prevent it getting dirty. This transformation brings about
+a change from the two white bull's-eyes, to big rings of stitching by
+which these distinguishing appendages are attached.
+
+A substantial meal of yams and pork is obtained at a way-side
+eating-house, after which yet another evidence of the sybaritic tastes of
+the rear-guard comes to light, in the form of a beautiful jade-stone
+opium pipe, with which he regales himself after chow-chow. He is, withal,
+possessed of more than average intelligence; it is from questioning him
+that I learn the rather startling fact that, instead of having reached
+Lin-kiang, I have not yet even come to Ki-ngan-foo. Ta-ho is the name of
+the city we have just left, and Ki-ngan-foo is whither we are now
+directly bound.
+
+The weather at noon becomes warm, and the luxurious personage at the rear
+delivers his parasol, and shoes, and jade-stone pipe over to the slender
+and lissom advance guard to carry, to spare himself the weariness of
+their weight. Tea and tid-bit houses are plentiful, and stoppages for
+refreshing ourselves frequent. The rear guard assumes considerable
+dignity when in the presence of a crowd of sore-eyed rustics; he chides
+their ill-bred giggling at my appearance and movements by telling them,
+no matter how funny I appear to them here, I am a mandarin in my own
+country. After hearing this the crowd regard me with even more curiosity;
+but their inquisitiveness is now heavily freighted with respect.
+
+Some of the costumes of the women in this region are very pretty and
+characteristic, and many of the females are themselves not devoid of
+beauty, as beauty goes among the Mongols. Particularly do I notice one
+to-day, whose tiny, doll-like extremities are neatly bound with red,
+blue, and green ribbon; her face is a picture of refinement, her
+head-dress a marvel of neatness and skill, and her whole manner and
+make-up attractive. Unlike her timid and apprehensive sisters of
+yesterday, she sees nothing in me to be afraid of; on the contrary, she
+comes and sits beside ine on the bench and makes herself at home with the
+peanuts and sweets I purchase, and laughs merrily when I offer to give
+her a ride on the bicycle.
+
+The sun is sinking behind the mountains to the west when we approach the
+city of Ki-ngan-foo, its northern extremity marked by a very ancient
+pagoda now rapidly crumbling to decay. The city forms a crescent on the
+west bank of the Kan-kiang, the main street running parallel with the
+river for something like half a mile before terminating at the walls of
+the Manchu quarter.
+
+The fastidious gentleman at the rear has betrayed symptoms of a very
+uneasy state of mind during the afternoon, and now, as he halts the
+procession a moment to turn the bull's-eye side of his coat outward, and
+to put on his shoes, he gives me a puzzled, sorrowful look and shakes his
+head dolefully. The trickiness of former acquaintances causes me to
+misinterpret this display of emotion into an hypocritical assumption of
+sorrow at the near prospect of our parting company, with ulterior designs
+on the nice long strings of tsin he knows to be in my leathern case. It
+soon becomes evident, however, that trouble of some kind is anticipated
+in Ki-ngan-foo, for he points to my revolver and then to the city and
+solemnly shakes his head.
+
+The crescent water-front, the broad blue river and white sand, the plain
+dotted with smiling villages opposite, the tall pagodas, the swarms of
+sampans with their quaint sails, form the composite parts of a very
+pretty and striking picture, as seen from the northern tip of the
+crescent.
+
+Near the old ruined pagoda the rear-guard points in an indifferent sort
+of a way to a substantial brick edifice surmounted by a plain wooden
+cross. Ah! a Jesuit mission, so help me Pius IX! now shall I meet some
+genial old French priest, who will make me comfortable for the night and
+enlighten me in regard to my bearings, distances, and other subjects
+about which I am in a very thick fog. Instead of the fifty miles from
+Kan-tchou-foo to Ki-ngan-foo indicated on my map, it has proved to be
+considerably over a hundred.
+
+The sole occupant of the building, however, is found to be a fat,
+monkish-looking Chinaman, who knows never a word of either French or
+pidgeon English. He says he knows Latin, but for all the benefit this
+worthy accomplishment is to me he might as well know nothing but his own
+language. He informs me, by an expressive motion of the hand, that the
+missionaries have departed; whether gone to their everlasting reward,
+however, or only on a temporary flight, his pantomimic language fails to
+record. Subsequently I learn that they were compelled to flee the
+country, owing to the hostility aroused by the operations of the French
+in Tonquin.
+
+Instead of extending that cordial greeting and consideration one would
+naturally expect from a converted Chinaman whose Fankwae accomplishments
+soar to the classic altitude of Latin, the Celestial convert seems rather
+anxious to get rid of me; he is evidently on pins and needles for fear my
+presence should attract a mob to the place and trouble result therefrom.
+
+As we proceed down the street my appearance seems to stir the population
+up to a pitch of wild excitement. Merchants dart in and out of their
+shops, people in rags, people in tags, and people in gorgeous apparel,
+buzz all about me and flit hither and thither like a nest of stirred-up
+wasps. If curiosity has seemed to be rampant in other cities it passes
+all the limits of Occidental imagination in Ki-ngau-foo. Upon seeing me
+everybody gives utterance to a peculiar spontaneous squeak of surprise,
+reminding me very much of the monkeys' notes of alarm in the tree-tops
+along the Grand Trunk road, India.
+
+One might easily imagine the very lives of these people dependent upon
+their success in obtaining a glimpse of my face. Well-dressed citizens
+rush hastily ahead, stoop down, and peer up into my face as I trundle
+past, with a determination to satisfy their curiosity that our language
+is totally inadequate to describe, and which our temperament renders
+equally difficult for us to understand.
+
+By the time we are half-way along the street the whole city seems in wild
+tumult. Men rush ahead, peer into my face, deliver themselves of the
+above-mentioned peculiar squeak, and run hastily down some convergent
+alley-way. Stall-keepers quickly gather up their wares, and shop-keepers
+frantically snatch their goods inside as they hear the tumult and see the
+mob coming down the street. The excitement grows apace, and the same
+wanton cries of "Fank-wae. Fankwae!" that followed me through
+Kan-tchou-foo are here repeated with wild whoops and exultant cries. One
+would sometimes think that all the devils of Dante's "Inferno" had gotten
+into the crowd and set them wild with the spirit of mischief.
+
+By this time the yameni-runners are quaking with fear; he of the paper
+parasol and jade-stone pipe walks beside me, convulsively clutching my
+arm, and with whiningly anxious voice shouts out orders to his
+subordinate. In response to these orders the advance-guard now and then
+hurries forward and peeps around certain corners, as though expecting
+some hidden assailants.
+
+Thus far, although the symptoms of trouble have been gradually assuming
+more and more alarming proportions, there has been nothing worse than
+demoniacal howls. The chief reason of this, however, it now appears, has
+been the absence of loose stones, for no sooner do we enter an inferior
+quarter where loose stones and bricks are scattered about, than they come
+whistling about our ears. The poor yameni-runners shout deprecatingly at
+the mob; in return the mob loudly announce their intention of working
+destruction upon my unoffending head. Fortunately for me that head is
+pretty thoroughly hidden beneath the thick pith thatch-work of my Indian
+solar topee, otherwise I should have succumbed to the first fusillade of
+stones at the instance of a cracked pate. Stones that would have knocked
+me out of time in the first round rattle harmlessly on the 3/4-inch pith
+helmet, the generous proportions of which effectually protect head and
+neck from harm. Once, twice, it is knocked off by a stone striking it on
+the brim, but it never reaches the ground before being recovered and
+jammed more firmly than ever in its place. Things begin to look pretty
+desperate as we approach the gate of the Manchu quarter; an immense crowd
+of people have hurried down back streets and collected at this gate;
+fancying they are there for the hostile purpose of heading us off, I come
+very near dodging into an open door way with a view of defending myself
+till the yameni-runners could summon the authorities. There is no time
+for second thought, however; precious little time, in fact, for anything
+but to keep my helmet in its place and hurry along with the bicycle. The
+yameni-runners repeatedly warn the crowd that I am armed with a
+top-fanchee (revolver); this, doubtless, prevents them from closing in on
+us, and keeps their aggressive spirit within certain limits.
+
+A moment's respite is happily obtained at the Manchu gate; the crowd
+gathered there in advance are comparatively peaceful, and the mob, for a
+moment, seem to hesitate about following us inside. Making the most of
+this opportunity, we hurry forward toward the yamen, which, I afterward
+learn, is still two or three hundred yards distant. Ere fifty yards are
+covered the mob come pouring through the gate, yelling like demons and
+picking up stones as they hurry after us. "A horse, a horse, my kingdom
+for a horse." or, what would suit me equally as well, a short piece of
+smooth road in lieu of break-neck cobble-stones.
+
+Again are we overtaken and bombarded vigorously; ignorant of the distance
+to the yamen, I again begin looking about for some place in which to
+retreat for defensive purposes, unwilling to abandon the bicycle to
+destruction and seek doubtful safety in flight. At this juncture a brick
+strikes the unfortunate rear-guard on the arm, injuring that member
+severely, and quickening the already badly frightened yameni-runners to
+the urgent necessity of bringing matters to an ending somehow.
+
+Pointing forward, they persist in dragging me into a run. Thus far I have
+been very careful to preserve outward composure, feeling sure that any
+demonstration of weakness on my part would surely operate to my
+disadvantage. The runners' appealing cries of "Yameni! yameni!" however,
+prove that we are almost there, and for fifty or seventy-five yards we
+scurry along before the vengeful storm of stones and pursuing mob.
+
+As I anticipated, our running only increases the exultation of the mob,
+and ere we get inside the yamen gate the foremost of them are upon us.
+Two or three of the boldest spirits seize the bicycle, though the
+majority are evidently afraid I might turn loose on them with the
+top-fanchee. We are struggling to get loose from these few determined
+ruffians when the officials of the yamen, hearing the tumult, come
+hurrying to our rescue.
+
+The only damage done is a couple of spokes broken out of the bicycle, a
+number of trifling bruises about my body, a badly dented helmet, and the
+yameni-runner's arm rather severely hurt. When fairly inside and away
+from danger the pent-up feelings of the advance-guard escape in silent
+tears, and his superior of the jade-stone pipe sits down and mournfully
+bemoans his wounded arm. This arm is really badly hurt, probably has
+sustained a slight fracture of the bone, judging from its unfortunate
+owner's complaints.
+
+The Che-hsein, as I believe the chief magistrate is titled, greets me
+while running out with his subordinates, with reassuring cries of "S-s-o,
+s-s-o, s-s-o, s-s-o," repeated with extraordinary rapidity between shouts
+of deprecation to the mob. The mob seem half inclined to pursue us even
+inside the precincts of the yamen, but the authoritative voice of the
+Che-hsein restrains their aggressiveness within partly governable
+measure; nevertheless, in spite of his presence, showers of stones are
+hurled into the yamen so long as I remain in sight.
+
+As quickly as possible the Che-hsein ushers me into his own office, where
+he quickly proves himself a comparatively enlightened individual by
+arching his eyebrows and propounding the query, "French?" "Ying-yun," I
+reply, feeling the advantage of being English or American, rather than
+French, more appreciably perhaps than I have ever done before or since.
+
+This question of the Che-hsein's at once reveals a gleam of explanatory
+light concerning the hostility of the people. For aught I know to the
+contrary it may be but a few days ago since the Jesuit missionaries were
+compelled to flee for their lives. The mob cannot be expected to
+distinguish between French and English; to the average Celestial we of
+the Western world are indiscriminately known as Fankwaes, or foreign
+devils; even to such an enlightened individual as the Che-hsein himself
+these divisions of the Fankwae race are but vaguely understood.
+
+After satisfying himself by questioning the yameni-runners, that I am
+without companions or other baggage save the bicycle, the Che-hsein
+ferrets out a bottle of samshoo and tenders me a liberal allowance in a
+tea-cup. This is evidently administered with the kindly intention of
+quieting my nerves, which he imagines to be unstrung from the alarmingly
+rough treatment at the hands of his riotous townmen.
+
+Riotous they are, beyond a doubt, for even as the Che-hsein pours out the
+samshoo the clamorous howls of "Fankwae. Fankwae." seem louder than ever
+at the gates. Now and then, as the tumult outside seems to be increasing,
+the Che-hsein writes big red characters on flat bamboo-staves and sends
+it out by an officer to be read to the mob; and occasionally, as he sits
+and listens attentively to the clamor, as though gauging the situation by
+the volume of the noise, he addresses himself to me with a soothing and
+reassuring "S-s-o, s-s-o, s-s-o, s-o."
+
+Shortly after my arrival the worthy-minded Che-hsein knits his brow for a
+moment in a profound study, and then, lightening up suddenly, delivers
+himself of "No savvy," a choice morsel of pidgeon English that he has
+somehow acquired. This is the full extent of his knowledge, however; but,
+feeble glimmer of my own mother tongue though it be, it sounds quite
+cheery amid the wilderness wild of Celestial gabble in the office. For
+although the shackles of authority hold in check the murderous mob,
+howling for my barbarian gore outside, a constant stream of officials and
+their friends are admitted to see me and the bicycle.
+
+In making an examination of the bicycle, the peculiar "Ki-ngan-foo
+squeak" finds spontaneous expression at every new surprise. A man enters
+the room, peers wonderingly into my face-squeak!--comes closer, and looks
+again--squeak!--notices the peculiar cut of my garments--squeak!--observes
+my shoes--squeak!--sees helmet on table--squeak!--sees the
+bicycle--squeak!--goes and touches it--squeak!--finds out that the pedals
+twirl round--squeak! and thus he continues until he has seen everything
+and squeaked at everything; he then takes a lingering survey of the room
+to satisfy himself that nothing has been overlooked, gives a parting
+squeak, and leaves the room.
+
+The Che-hsein provides me with a chicken, boiled whole, head included,
+for supper, and consumes his own meal at the same time. The difference
+between the Che-hsein, eating little prepared meatballs and rice, with
+gilded chop-sticks, and myself tearing the spraggly-looking rooster
+asunder and gnawing the drum-sticks greedily with my teeth, no doubt
+readily appeals to the interested lookers-on as an instructive picture of
+Chinese civilization and outer barbarism as depicted in our respective
+modes of eating, side by side.
+
+More than once during the evening the tumult at the gate swells into a
+fierce hubbub, as though pandemonium had broken loose, and the
+blood-thirsty mob were determined to fetch me out. Every minute, at these
+periodical outbursts, I expect to see them come surging in through the
+doorway. A sociable young man, whose chief concern is to keep me supplied
+with pipes and tea, explains, with the aid of a taper, that the crowd are
+desirous of burning me alive. This cheerful piece of information, the
+sociable young man imparts with a characteristic Chinese chuckle of
+amusement; the thought of a Fankwae squirming and sizzling in the oil-fed
+flames touches the chord of his risibilities, and makes him giggle
+merrily. The Che-hsein himself occasionally goes out and harangues the
+excited mob, the authoritative tones of his voice being plainly heard
+above the squabbling and yelling.
+
+It must be near about midnight when the excitement has finally subsided,
+and the mob disperse to their homes. Six yameni-runners then file into
+the room, paper umbrellas slung at their backs in green cloth cases, and
+stout bamboo quarter-staves in hand. The Che-hsein gives them their
+orders and delivers a letter into the hands of the officer in charge; he
+then bids me prepare to depart, bidding me farewell with much polite
+bowing and scraping, and sundry memorable "chin-chins."
+
+A closely covered palanquin is waiting outside the door; into this I am
+conducted and the blinds carefully drawn. A squad of men with flaming
+torches, the Che-hsein, and several officials lead the way, maintaining
+great secrecy and quiet; stout carriers hoist the palanquin to their
+shoulders and follow on behind; others bring up the rear carrying the
+bicycle.
+
+Back through the Manchu quarter and out of the gate again our little
+cavalcade wends its way, the officials immediately about the palanquin
+addressing one another in undertones; back, part way along the same
+street which but a few short hours ago resounded with the hoots and yells
+of the mischievous mob, down a long flight of steps, and the palanquin is
+resting at the end of a gang-plank leading aboard a little
+passenger-sampan. The worthy Che-hsein bows and scrapes and chin-chins me
+along this gang-plank, the bicycle is brought aboard, the six
+yameni-runners follow suit, and the boat is poled out into the river. The
+squad of torch-bearers are seen watching our progress until we are well
+out into the middle of the stream, and the officer in charge of my little
+guard stands out and signals them with his lantern, notifying them, I
+suppose, that all is well. One would imagine, from their actions, that
+they were apprehensive of our sampan being pursued or ambushed by some
+determined party. And yet the scene, as we drift noiselessly along with
+the current, looks lovely and peaceful as the realms of the blest; the
+crescent moon, the shimmering water--and the slowly receding lights of the
+city; what danger can there possibly be in so quiet and peaceful a scene
+as this?
+
+By daylight we are anchored before another walled city, which I think is
+Ki-shway, a city of considerable pretentions as to wall, but full of
+social and moral rottenness and commercial decadence within, judging, at
+least, from outward appearances. Few among the crowds that are permitted
+free access to the yamen here do not betray, in unmistakable measure, the
+sins of former generations; while, as regards trade, half the place is in
+a ruinous, tumble-down condition.
+
+The mandarin here is a fleshy, old-fashioned individual, with thick lips
+and an expression of great good humor. He provides me with a substantial
+breakfast of rice and pork, and fetches his wife and children in to enjoy
+the exhibition of a Fankwae feeding, likewise permitting the crowd to
+look in through the doors and windows. He is a phlegmatic, easy-going
+Celestial, and occupies about two hours copying my passport and writing a
+letter. At the end of this time he musters a squad of twelve retainers in
+faded red uniforms and armed with rusty pikes, who lead the way back to
+the river, followed by three yameni-runners, equipped, as usual, each
+with an umbrella and a small string of tsin to buy their food. The
+gentlemen with the mediaeval weapons accompany us to the river and keep
+the crowd from pressing too closely upon us until I and the
+yameni-runners board a Ki shway sampan that is to convey me to the next
+down-stream city.
+
+It now becomes apparent that my bicycling experiences in China are about
+ending, and that the authorities have determined upon passing me down the
+Kan-kiang by boat to the Yang-tsi-kiang. I am to be passed on from city
+to city like a bale of merchandise, delivered and receipted for from day
+to day.
+
+A few miles down stream we overtake a fleet of some twenty war-junks,
+presenting a most novel and interesting sight, crowded as each one is
+with the gayest of flags and streaming pennants galore. The junks are
+cumbersome enough, in all conscience, as utterly useless for purposes of
+modern warfare as the same number of floating hogsheads; yet withal they
+make a gallant sight, the like of which is to be seen nowhere these days
+but on the inland waters of China. Each junk is propelled by a crew of
+fourteen oarsmen, dressed in uniforms corresponding in color to the
+triangular flags that flutter gayly in the breeze at the stern. Not the
+least interesting part of the spectacle are these same oarsmen, as they
+ply. their long unwieldy sweeps in admirable unison; the sleeves of their
+coats are almost as broad as the body of the garment, and at every sweep
+of the oar these all flap up and down together in a manner most comical
+to behold.
+
+All day long our modest little sampan keeps company with this gay fleet,
+giving me an excellent opportunity of witnessing its manoeuvres. Said
+manoeuvres and evolutions consist of more or less noisy greetings and
+demonstrations at every town and village we pass. In the case of a small
+town, a number of pikemen and officials assemble on the shore, erect a
+few flags, hammer vigorously on a resonant gong, shout out some sing-song
+greeting and shoot off a number of bombs and fire-crackers. The foremost
+vessel of the fleet replies to these noisy compliments by a salute of its
+one gun, and mayhap throws in two or three bombs, according to the
+liberality of the salutation ashore.
+
+At the larger towns the amount of gunpowder burned and noise created is
+something wonderful. Bushels of fire-crackers are snapping and rattling
+away, the while gongs are beating, bombs exploding by the score, and
+salvoes of artillery are making the mountains echo, from every vessel in
+the fleet. Beneath the walls of a town we pass soon after noon are ranged
+fifteen other junks; as the fleet passes, these vessels simultaneously
+discharge all their guns, while at the same instant there burst upon the
+startled air detonations from hundreds of bombs, big heaps of
+firecrackers, and the din of many resonant gongs. Not to be outdone, the
+fleet of twenty return the compliment in kind, and with cheers from the
+crews thrown in for interest.
+
+The fifteen now join the procession, adding volume and picturesqueness
+to the already wonderfully pretty scene, by their hundreds of
+brilliant-hued banners, and theatrically costumed oarsmen. About four
+o'clock, as we are approaching the city of Hat-kiang, our destination for
+the day, there comes to meet the gallant navy a pair of twin vessels
+surpassing all the others in the gorgeousness of their flags and the
+picturesqueness of the costumes. Purple is the prevailing color of both
+flags and crew. At their splendid appearance our yameni-runners announce
+in tones of enthusiasm and admiration that these new-comers hail from
+Lin-kiang, a large city down stream, that I fancied, it will be
+remembered, having reached at Ta-ho.
+
+The officials are still abed when, in the early morning of the third day,
+we reach Sin-kiang, and repair to the yamen. A large crowd, however,
+gather and follow us from the market-place, swelling gradually by
+reenforcements to a multitude that surges in and out of the shanty-like
+office in such swarms that the frail board walls bulge and crack with the
+pressure. When the crowd overwhelm the place entirely, the officials
+clear them out by angry gesticulations and moral suasion, sometimes
+menacingly shaking the end of their own queues at them as though they
+were wielding black-snake whips. Having driven them out, no further
+notice is taken of them, so they immediately begin swarming in again,
+until the room is again inundated, when they are again driven out.
+
+The permitting of this ebbing and flowing of the multitude into the
+official quarters is something quite incomprehensible to me; the mob is
+swayed and controlled--as far as they are controlled at all--without any
+organized effort of those in authority; when the officials commence
+screaming angrily at them they begin moving out; when the shouting ceases
+they begin swarming back. Thus in the course of an hour the room will,
+perchance, be filled and emptied with angry remonstrance half a dozen
+times, when, from our own stand-point, a couple of men stationed at the
+door with authority to keep them out would prevent all the bother and
+annoyance. Sure enough the Chinaman is "a peculiar little cuss," whether
+seen at home or abroad.
+
+If the inhabitants of Ki-shway are scrofulous, sore-eyed, and mangy, they
+are at least an improvement on the disgusting state of the public health
+at Sin-kiang, as revealed in the lamentable condition of the crowd at the
+yamen and in the markets. Scarcely is it possible to single out a human
+being of sound and healthful appearance from among them all. Everybody
+has sore eyes, some have horribly diseased scalps, sores on face and
+body, and all the horrible array of acquired and hereditary diseases.
+One's hair stands on end almost at the thought of being among them, to
+say nothing of eating in their presence, and of their own cooking. Of my
+new escort from Sin-kiang all three have dreadfully sore eyes, and one
+wretched mortal is as piebald as a circus pony, from head to foot, with
+the leprosy. Added to these recommendations, they have the manners and
+instincts of swine rather than of human beings.
+
+The same sampan is re-engaged to convey us farther down stream; beneath
+the housing of bamboo-mats, the rice-chaff leaves barely room for us to
+crowd in and huddle together from the rain and cold prevailing outside.
+The worst the elements can do, however, is far preferable to personal
+contact with these vile creatures; and so I don my blanket and gossamer
+rubbers, and sit out in the rain. The rain ceases and the chilly night
+air covers everything with a coating of hoar-frost, but all this is
+nothing compared with the horrible associations inside, the reeking fumes
+of opium and tobacco adding yet another abomination to be remembered.
+
+At early morn we land and pursue our way for a few miles across country
+to Lin-kiang, which is situated on a big tributary stream a few miles
+above its junction with the Kan-kiang. Our way loads through a rich strip
+of low country, sheltered and protected from inundations by an extensive
+system of dykes. Here we pass through orchards of orange-trees bristling
+with the small blood-red mandarin oranges; we help ourselves freely from
+the trees, for their great plenteousness makes them of very little value.
+On the stalls they can be purchased six for one cent; like the people in
+the great peanut producing country below Nam-hung, the cheapness and
+abundance of oranges here seems an inducement for the people to almost
+subsist thereon.
+
+Everybody is either buying, stealing, selling, packing, gathering,
+carrying, or eating oranges; coolies are staggering Lin-kiang-ward
+beneath big baskets of newly plucked fruit, and others are conveying them
+in wheelbarrows; boats are being loaded for conveyance along the river.
+Every orange-tree is distinguished by white characters painted on its
+trunk, big enough so that those who run may read the rightful owner's
+name and take warning accordingly.
+
+Three more wearisome but eventful days, battling against adverse winds,
+and we come to anchor in a little slough, where a war-junk and several
+fishing vessels are already moored for the night. While supper is
+preparing I pass the time promenading back and forth along a little
+foot-trail leading for a short distance round the shore. The crew of the
+war-vessel are engaged in drying freshwater shrimps, tiny minnows, and
+other drainings and rakings of the water to store away for future use.
+One of the younger officers stalks back and forth along the same path as
+myself, brusquely maintaining the road whenever we meet, evidently bent
+on showing off his contempt for the boasted prowess of the Fankwaes, by
+compelling me to step to one side. His demeanor is that of a bully
+stalking about with the traditional chip on his shoulder, daring me to
+come and knock it off. Considering the circumstances about us, this is a
+wonderfully courageous performance on his part; nothing but his ignorance
+of my Smith & Wesson can explain his temerity in assuming a bellicose
+attitude with only one man-of-war at his back. Out of consideration for
+this ignorance, I studiously avoid interfering with the chip.
+
+At length the river-voyage comes to an end at Wu-chang, on the Poyang
+Hoo, when I am permitted to proceed overland with an escort to Kui-kiang.
+
+Spending the last night at a village inn, we pursue our way over awful
+bowlder paths next morning, for several miles; over a low mountain-pass
+and down the northern slope to a level plain. A towering white pagoda is
+observable in the distance ahead; thia the yameni-runner says is
+Kui-kiang. At a little way-side tea-house, I find Christmas numbers of
+the London Graphic pasted on the walls; yet with all this, so utterly
+unreliable has my information heretofore been, and so often have my hopes
+and expectations turned out disappointing, that I am almost afraid to
+believe the evidence of my own senses. The Graphic pictures are of the
+Christmas pantomimes; the good woman of the tea-house points out to me
+the tremendous noses, the ear-to-ear mouths, and the abnormal growths of
+chin therein depicted, with much amusement; "Fankwae," she says, "te-he,
+te-he," apparently fancying them genuine representations of certain types
+of that queer, queer people.
+
+The paths improve, and soon I see the smoke of a steamer on the Yang-tsi
+than which, it is needless to say, no more welcome sight has greeted my
+vision the whole world round. Only the smoke is seen, rising above the
+city; it cannot be a steamer, it is too good to be possible! this isn't
+Kui-kiang; this is another wretched disappointment, the smoke is some
+Chinese house on fire! Not until I get near enough to distinguish flags
+on the consulates, and the crosses on the mission churches, do I permit
+myself fully to believe that I am at last actually looking at Kui-kiang,
+the city that I have begun to think a delusion and a snare, an ignis
+fatuus that was dancing away faster than I was approaching.
+
+The sight of all these unmistakable proofs that I am at last bidding
+farewell to the hardships, the horrible filth, the soul-harrowing crowds,
+the abominable paths, and the ever-present danger and want of
+consideration; that in a little while all these will be a dream of the
+past, gives wings to my wheel wherever it can be mounted, and ridden. The
+yameni-runner is left far behind, and I have already engaged a row-boat
+to cross the little lake in the rear of the city, and the boatman is
+already pulling me to the "Ying-yun," when the poor yameni-runner comes
+hurrying up and shouts frantically for me to come back and fetch him.
+
+Knowing that the man has to take back his receipt I yield to his request,
+follow him first to the Kui-kiang yamen, and from thence proceed to the
+English consulate. Captain McQuinn, of the China Steam Navigation
+Company's steamer Peking, and the consulate doctor see me riding down the
+smooth gravelled bund, followed by a crowd of delighted Celestials.
+"Hello! are you from Canton" they sing out in chorus. "Well, well, well!
+nobody expected to ever see anything of you again; and so you got through
+all safe, eh?"
+
+"What's the matter? you look bad about the eyes," says the observant
+doctor, upon shaking hands; "you look haggard and fagged out."
+
+Upon surveying myself in a mirror at the consulate I can see that the
+doctor is quite justified in his apprehensions. Hair long, face unshaved
+for five weeks, thin and gaunt-looking from daily hunger, worry, and hard
+dues generally, I look worse than a hunted greyhound. I look far worse,
+however, than I feel; a few days' rest and wholesome fare will work
+wonders.
+
+An appetizing lunch of cold duck, cheese, and Bass's ale is quickly
+provided by Mr. Everard, the consul, who seems very pleased that the
+affair at Ki-ngan-foo ended without serious injury to anybody.
+
+The Peking starts for Shanghai in an hour after my arrival; a warm bath,
+a shave, and a suit of clothes, kindly provided by pilot King, brings
+about something of a transformation in my appearance. Bountiful meals,
+clean, springy beds, and elegantly fitted cabins, form an impressive
+contrast to my life aboard the sampans on the Kan-kiang. The genii of
+Aladdin's lamp could scarcely execute any more marvellous change than
+that from my quarters and fare and surroundings at the village hittim,
+where my last night on the road from Canton was spent, and my first night
+aboard the elegant and luxurious Peking, only a day later.
+
+A pleasant run down the Yang-tsi-kiang to Shanghai, and I arrive at that
+city just twenty-four hours before the Japanese steamer, Yokohama Maru,
+sails for Nagasaki. Taking passage aboard it leaves me but one brief day
+in the important and interesting city of Shanghai, during which time I
+have to purchase a new outfit of clothes, see about money matters, and
+what not.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THROUGH JAPAN.
+
+An uneventful run of two days, and the Yokohama Maru steams into the
+beautiful harbor of Nagasaki. The change from the filth of a Chinese city
+to Nagasaki, clean as if it had all just been newly scoured and
+varnished, is something delightful. One gets a favorable impression of
+the Japs right away; much more so, doubtless, by coming direct from China
+than in any other way. Two days of preparation and looking about leaves
+almost a pang of regret at having to depart so soon. The American consul
+here, Mr. B, is a very courteous gentleman; to him and Mr. M, an American
+gentleman, instructor in the Chinese navy, I am indebted for an
+exhibition of the geisha dance, and many other courtesies.
+
+Having duly supplied myself with Japanese paper-money--ten, five, and one
+yen notes; fractional currency of fifty, twenty, and ten sen notes,
+besides copper sen for tea and fruit at road-side teahouses, on Tuesday
+morning, November 23d, I start on my journey of eight hundred miles
+through lovely Nippon to Yokohama.
+
+Captain F and Mr. B, the American consul, have come to the hotel to see
+me off. A showery night has made the roads a trifle muddy. Through the
+long, neat-looking streets of Nagasaki, into a winding road, past crowded
+hill-side cemeteries, adorned with queer stunted trees and quaint designs
+in flowers, I ride, followed by wondering eyes and a running fire of
+curious comments from the Japs.
+
+Nagasaki lies at the shoreward base of a range of hills, over a pass
+called the Himi-toge, which my road climbs immediately upon leaving the
+city. A good road is maintained over the pass, and an office established
+there to collect toll from travellers and people bringing produce into
+Nagasaki. The aged and polite toll-collector smiles and bows at me as I
+trundle innocently past his sentry-box-like office up the steep incline,
+hoping that I may take the hint and spare him the necessity of telling me
+the nature of his duty. My inexperience of Japanese tolls and roads,
+however, renders his politeness inoperative, and, after allowing me to
+get past, duty compels him to issue forth and explain. A wooden ticket
+containing Japanese characters is given me in exchange for a few tiny
+coins. This I fancy to be a passport for another toll-place higher up.
+Subsequently, however, I learn it to be a return ticket, the old
+toll-keeper very naturally thinking I would return, by and by, to
+Nagasaki.
+
+Ponies and buffaloes, laden with baskets of rice, fodder, firewood, and
+various agricultural products, are encountered on the pass, in charge of
+Japanese rustics in broad bamboo-hats, red blankets, bare legs, and straw
+sandals, who lead their charges by long halter-ropes. Both horses and
+buffaloes are shod with shoes of the same unsubstantial material as the
+men. When the Japanese traveller sets out on a journey, he provides
+himself with a new pair of straw sandals; these last him for a tramp of
+from ten to twenty miles, according to the nature of the road. When worn
+out, his foot-gear may be readily renewed at any village for a mere song.
+The same may be said of his horse or buffalo, although several extra
+shoes are generally carried along in case of need.
+
+The summit of the pass is distinguished by a very deep cutting through
+the ridge rock of the mountain, and a series of successive sharp turns
+back and forth along narrow-terraced gardens and fields bring the road
+down into the valley of a clear little stream, called the Himi-gawa.
+Smooth, hard roads follow along this purling rivulet, now and then
+crossing it on a stone or wooden bridge. A small estuary, reaching inland
+like a big bite out of a cake, is passed, and the pretty little village
+of Yagami reached for dinner. The eating-house, like nearly all Japanese
+eating-places, is neat and cleanly, the brown wood-work being fairly
+polished bright from floor to ceiling.
+
+Sitting down on the edge of the raised floor, I am approached by the
+landlady, who kneels down and bows her forehead to the floor. Her
+politeness is very charming, and her smile would no doubt be more or less
+winsome were it not for the hideous blackening of the teeth. Blackened
+teeth is the distinguishing mark between maid and matron in the flowery
+kingdom of the Mikados. The teeth are stained black at marriage, and
+henceforth a smile that heretofore displayed rows of small white ivories,
+and perchance was fairly bewitching, becomes positively repulsive to the
+Western mind.
+
+Fish and rice (sakana and meshi) are the most readily obtainable things
+to eat at a Japanese hotel, and often form the only bill of fare. Sake,
+or rice-beer, is usually included in the Jap's own meal, but the average
+European traveller at first prefers limiting his beverage to tea. The
+sake is served up in big-necked bottles of cheap porcelain holding about
+a pint. The bottle is set for a few minutes in boiling water to warm the
+sake, the Japs preferring to drink it warm. Sake is more like spirits
+than beer, an honest alcoholic production from rice that soon recommends
+itself to the European palate, though rather offensive at first.
+
+Every tea-house along the road is made doubly attractive by prettily
+dressed attendants-smiling girls who come out and invite passing
+travellers to rest and buy tea and refreshments. Their solicitations are
+chiefly winsome smiles and polite bows and the cheerful greeting "O-ai-o"
+(the Japanese "how do you do"). A tiny teapot, no larger than those the
+little girls at home play at "keeping house" with, and shell-like cup to
+match, is brought on a lacquered tray and placed before one, with
+charming grace, if a halt is made at one of these tea-houses. Persimmons,
+sweets, cakes, and various tid-bits are temptingly arrayed on the sloping
+stand in front. The most trifling purchase is rewarded with an exhibition
+of good-nature and politeness worth many times the money.
+
+About sunset I roll into the smooth, clean streets of Omura, a good-sized
+town, and seek the accommodation of a charming yadoya (inn) pointed out
+by a youth in semi-European clothes, who seems bubbling over with
+pleasure at the opportunity of rendering me this slight assistance. A
+room is assigned me upstairs, a mat spread for me to recline on, by a
+polite damsel, who touches her forehead to the floor both when she makes
+her appearance and her exit. Having got me comfortably settled down with
+the customary service of tea, sweets, little boxed brazier of live
+charcoal, spittoon, etc., the proprietor, his wife, and daughter, all
+come up and prostrate themselves after the most approved fashion.
+
+After all the salaaming and deferentiality experienced in other Eastern
+countries, one still cannot help being impressed with the spectacle of
+several grotesque Japs bowing before one's seated figure like Hindoos
+prostrating themselves before some idol With any other people than the
+Japs this lowly attitude would seem offensively servile; but these
+inimitable people leave not the slightest room for thinking their actions
+obsequious. The Japs are a wonderful race; they seem to be the happiest
+people going, always smiling and good-natured, always polite and gentle,
+always bowing and scraping.
+
+After a bountiful supper of several fishy preparations and rice, the
+landlord bobs his head to the floor, sucks his breath through the teeth
+after the peculiar manner of the Japs when desirous of being excessively
+polite, and extends his hands for my passport. This the yadoya proprietor
+is required to take and have examined at the police station, provided no
+policeman calls for it at the house.
+
+The Japanese Government, in its efforts to improve the institutions of
+the country, has introduced systems of reform from various countries.
+Commissions were sent to the different Western countries to examine and
+report upon the methods of education, police, army, navy, postal matters,
+judiciary, etc. What was believed to be the best of the various systems
+was then selected as the model of Japan's new departure and adoption of
+Western civilization. Thus the police service is modelled from the
+French, the judiciary from the English, the schools after the American
+methods, etc. Having inaugurated these improvements, the Japs seem
+determined to follow their models with the same minute scrupulosity they
+exhibit in copying material things. There is probably as little use for
+elaborate police regulations in Japan as in any country under the sun;
+but having chosen the splendid police service of France to pattern by,
+they can now boast of having a service that lacks nothing in
+effectiveness.
+
+A very good road, with an avenue of fine spreading conifers of some kind,
+leads out of Omura. To the left is the bay of Omura, closely skirted at
+times by the road. At one place is observed an inland temple, connected
+with the mainland by a causeway of rough rock. The little island is
+covered with dark pines and jagged rocks, amid which the Japs have
+perched their shrine and erected a temple. Both the Chinese and Japs seem
+fond of selecting the most romantic spots for their worship and the
+erection of religious edifices.
+
+The day is warm, and a heavy shower during the night has made the road
+heavy in places, although much of it is clean gravel that is not injured
+by the rain. Over hill and down dale the ku-ruma road leads to Ureshino,
+a place celebrated for its mineral springs and bath. On the way one
+passes through charming little ravines, where tiny cataracts come
+tumbling down the sides of moss-grown precipices, a country of pretty
+thatched cottages, temples, groves, and purling rivulets.
+
+On the streams are numerous rice-hulling machines, operated by the
+ingenious manipulation of the water. In a little hut is a mortar
+containing the rice. Attached to a pivot is a long beam having a pestle
+at one end and a trough at the other. The pestle is made to fall upon the
+rice in the mortar by the filling and automatic emptying of the trough
+outside. The trough, filling with water, drops down and empties of its
+own weight; this causes the opposite end to fall suddenly. This operation
+repeats itself about every two seconds through the day.
+
+The gravelly hills about Ureshino are devoted to the cultivation of tea;
+the green tea-gardens, with the undulating, even rows of thick shrubs,
+looking very beautiful where they slope to the foot of the bare rocky
+cliffs. Ureshino and the baths are some little distance off the main road
+to Shimonoseki; so, not caring particularly to go there, I continue on to
+the village of Takio, where rainy weather compels a halt of several
+hours. Everything is so delightfully superior, as compared with China,
+that the Japanese village yadoya seems a veritable paradise during these
+first days of my acquaintance with them. Life at a Chinese village hittim
+for a week would well-nigh unseat the average Anglo-Saxon's reason,
+whereas he might spend the same time very pleasantly in a Japanese
+country inn. The region immediately around Takio is not only naturally
+lovely, but is embellished by little artificial lakes, islands, grottoes,
+and various landscape novelties such as the Japs alone excel in.
+
+An eight-wire telegraph line threads the road from Takio to Ushidzu,
+passing through numerous villages that almost form a continuous street
+from one town to the other. As one notices such improvements, and sees
+the police and telegraph officials in trim European uniforms seated in
+their neat offices, an American clock invariably on the wall within, and,
+moreover, notes the uniform friendliness of the people, it is difficult
+to imagine that thirty years ago one would have been in more danger
+travelling through here than through China. Passing through the main
+streets of Ushidzu in search of the best yadoya, I am accosted by a
+middle-aged woman with, "Hello! you wanchee room? wanchee chow-chow." Her
+mother keeps a yadoya, she tells me, and leads the way thither, chatting
+gayly in pidgeon English, all the way. She seems very pleased at the
+opportunity to exercise her little stock of broken English, and tells me
+she learned it at Shanghai, where she once resided for a couple of years
+in an English family. Her name, she says, is O-hanna, but her English
+friends used to call her Hannah, without the prefix. Understanding from
+experience what I would be most likely to appreciate for supper, she
+rustles around and prepares a nice fish, plenty of Ureshino tea, sugar,
+sweet-cakes, and sliced pomolo; this, together with rice, is the extent
+of Ushidzu's present gastronomic limits.
+
+The following morning opens with a white frost, the road is level and
+good, and the yadoya people see that I am provided with a substantial
+breakfast in good season. My boots, I find, have been cleaned even. They
+were cleaned with a rag, O-hanna apologizing for the absence of
+shoe-brushes and blacking in pidgeon English: "Brush no have got."
+
+In striking contrast to China, here are gangs of "cantonniers" taking
+care of the road; men in regular blue uniforms with big white
+"bull's-eyes," and characters like our Celestial friends the
+yameni-runners. Troops of school-children are passed on the road going to
+school with books and tally-boards under their arm. They sometimes range
+themselves in rows alongside the road, and, as I wheel past, bob their
+heads simultaneously down to the level of their knees and greet me with a
+polite "O-ai-o."
+
+The country hereabout is rich and populous, and the people seemingly
+well-to-do. The tea-houses, farm-houses, and even the little ricks of
+rice seem built with an eye to artistic effect. One sees here the gradual
+encroachment of Western mechanical improvements. The first two-handled
+plough I have seen since leaving Europe is encountered this morning; but
+alongside it are men using the clumsy Japanese digging-tool of their
+ancestors, and both men and women stripped to the waist, hulling rice by
+pounding it in mortars with long-headed pestles. It is merely a question
+of a few years, however, until the intelligent Japs will discard all
+their old clumsy methods and introduce the latest agricultural
+improvements of the West into their country. Passing through a mile or
+more of Saga's smooth and continuously ridable streets, past big
+school-houses where hundreds of children are reciting aloud in chorus,
+past the big bronze Buddha for which Saga is locally famous, the road
+continues through a somewhat undulating country, ridable, generally
+speaking, the whole way. Long cedar or cryptomerian avenues sometimes
+characterize the way. Strings of peasants are encountered, leading
+pack-ponies and bullocks. The former seem to be vicious little wretches,
+rather masters, on the whole, than servants of their leaders.
+
+The Japanese horse objects to a tight girth, objects to being overloaded,
+and to various other indignities that his relations of other countries
+meekly endure. To suit his fastidious requirements he is allowed to
+meander carelessly along at the end of a twenty-foot string, and he is
+decorated all over with gay and fanciful trappings. A very peculiar trait
+of his character is that of showing fight at anything he doesn't like the
+looks of, instead of scaring at it after the orthodox method of
+horse-flesh in other countries. This peculiarity sometimes makes it
+extremely interesting for myself. Their usual manner of taking exception
+to me and the bicycle is to rear up on the hind feet and squeal and paw
+the air, at the same time evincing a disposition to come on and chew me
+up. This necessitates continual wariness on my part when passing a
+company of peasants, for the men never seem to think it worth while to
+restrain their horses until the actions of the latter render it
+absolutely necessary.
+
+Jinrikishas now become quite frequent, pulled by sturdy-limbed men, who,
+naked almost as the day they were born, trot along between the shafts of
+their two-wheeled vehicles at the rate of six miles an hour. Men also are
+met pulling heavy hand-carts, loaded with tiles, from country factories
+to the city. Most of the heaviest labor seems to be performed by human
+beings, though not to the same extent as in China.
+
+In every town and village one is struck with the various imitations of
+European goods. Ludicrous mistakes are everywhere met with, where this
+serio-comical people have attempted to imitate name, trade-mark, and
+everything complete. In one portion of the eating-house where lunch is
+obtained to-day are a number of umbrella-makers manufacturing gingham
+umbrellas; on every umbrella is stamped the firm-name "John Douglas,
+Manchester." Cigarettes, nicely made and equal in every respect to those
+of other countries, are boldly labelled "cigars:" thus do these curious
+imitators make mistakes. Had Shakespeare seen the Japs one could better
+understand his "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely
+players;" for most other nations life is a serious enough problem, the
+Japs alone seem to be merely "playing at making a livelihood." They
+always impress me as happy-go-lucky harlequins, to whom this whole
+business of coming into the world and getting a living for a few years is
+nothing more nor less than a huge joke.
+
+The happiest state of affairs seems to exist among all classes and
+conditions of people in Japan. One passes school-houses and sees the
+classes out on the well-kept grounds, going through various exercises,
+such as one would never expect to see in the East. To-day I pause a while
+before the public-school in Nakabairu, watching the interesting exercises
+going on. Under the supervision of teachers in black frock-coats and
+Derby hats, a class of girls are ranged in two rows, throwing and
+catching pillows, altogether back and forth at the word of command.
+Classes of boys are manipulating wooden dumb-bells and exercising their
+muscles by various systematic exercises. The youngsters are enjoying it
+hugely, and the whole affair looks so thoroughly suggestive of the best
+elements of Occidental school-life that it is difficult to believe the
+evidence of one's own eyes. I suspect the Japanese children are about the
+only children in the wide, wide world who really enjoy studying their
+lessons and going to school. One of the teachers comes to the gate and
+greets me with a polite bow. I address him in English, but he doesn't
+know a word.
+
+The wooden houses of Japan seem frail and temporary, but they look new
+and bright mostly in the country. The government buildings,
+police-offices, post-offices, schools, etc., all look new and bright and
+artistic, as though but lately finished. The roads, too, are sometimes
+laid out straight and trim, suggestive of an attempt to imitate the roads
+of France; then, again, one traverses for miles the counterpart of the
+green lanes of Merrie England--narrow, winding, and romantic. The Japanese
+roads are mainly about ten or twelve feet wide, giving ample room for two
+jinrikishas to pass, these being the only wheeled vehicles on the roads.
+Rustic bridges frequently span lovely little babbling brooks, and
+waterfalls abound this afternoon as I approach, at early eve, Futshishi.
+Rain necessitates a lay-over of a day at Futshishi, but there is nothing
+unendurable about it; the proprietor of the house is a blind man, who
+plays the samosan, and makes the girls sing and dance the geisha for my
+edification. Beef and chicken are both forthcoming at Futshishi, and the
+fish, as in almost all Japanese towns, are very excellent.
+
+The weather opens clear and frosty after the rain, and the road to
+Fukuoko is most excellent wheeling; the country continues charming, and
+every day the people seem to get more and more polite and agreeable. A
+novel sight of the morning's ride is a big gang of convicts working the
+roads. They are fastened together with light chains, wear neat brown
+uniforms, and seem to regard the unconvicted world of humans outside
+their own company with an expression of apology. To look in their
+serio-comic faces it is difficult to imagine them capable of doing
+anything wrong, except in fun: they look, in fact, as if their being
+chained together and closely attended by guards was of itself anything
+but a serious affair.
+
+Cavalry officers, small, smart-looking, and soldierly, in yellow-braided
+uniforms, are seen in Fukuoko, looking as un-Asiatic in make-up as the
+schools, policemen, and telegraph-operators. A collision with a
+jinrikisha that treats me to a header, and another with a diminutive Jap,
+that bowls him over like a ninepin, and a third with a bobtailed cat,
+that damages nothing but pussy's dignity, enter into my reminiscences of
+Fukuoko. The numbers of jinrikishas, and the peculiar habits of the
+people, necessitate lynx-eyed vigilance to prevent collisions every hour
+of the day. The average Jap leaves the door of a house backward, and bows
+and scrapes his way clear out into the middle of the street, in bidding
+adieu to the friends he has been calling upon, or even the shopkeeper he
+has been patronizing. Scarcely a village is passed through but some
+person waltzes backward out of a door and right in front of the bicycle.
+
+A curious sight one frequently sees along the road is an acre or two of
+ground covered with paper parasols, set out in the sun to dry after being
+pasted, glued, and painted ready for market. Umbrellas and paper lanterns
+are as much a part of the Japanese traveller's outfit as his clothes.
+These latter, nowadays, are sometimes a very grotesque mixture of native
+and European costume. The craze for foreign innovations pervades all
+ranks of society, and every village dandy aspires to some article of
+European clothing. The result is that one frequently encounters men on
+the road wearing a Derby hat, a red blanket, tight-fitting white drawers,
+and straw sandals. The villager who sports a European hat or coat comes
+around to my yadoya, wearing an amusing expression of self-satisfaction,
+as though filled with an inward consciousness of inv approval of the
+same. Whereas, every European traveller deprecates the change from their
+native costume to our own.
+
+Following for some distance along the bank of a large canal I reach the
+village of Hakama for the night. The yadoya here is simply spotless from
+top to bottom; however the Japanese hotel-keeper manages to transact
+business and preserve such immaculate apartments is more of a puzzle
+every day. The regulation custom at a yadoya is for the newly arrived
+guest to take a scalding hot bath, and then squat beside a little brazier
+of coals, and smoke and chat till supper-time. The Japanese are more
+addicted to hot-water bathing than the people of any other country. They
+souse themselves in water that has been heated to 140 deg. Fahr., a
+temperature that is quite unbearable to the "Ingurisu-zin" or
+"Amerika-zin" until he becomes gradually hardened and accustomed to it.
+Both men and women bathe regularly in hot water every evening. The Japs
+have not yet imbibed any great quantity of mauvaise honte from their
+association with Europeans, so the sexes frequent the bath-tub
+indiscriminately, taking no more notice of one another than if they were
+all little children. "Venus disporting in the waves"--of a bath-tub--is a
+regular feature of life at a Japanese inn. Nor can they quite understand
+why the European tourist should object to the proprietor, his wife and
+children, chambermaids, tea-girls, guests and visitors crowding around to
+see him undress and waltz into the tub. Bless their innocent Japanese
+souls! why should he object. They are only attracted out of curiosity to
+see the whiteness of his skin, to note his peculiar manner of undressing,
+and to satisfy a general inquisitiveness concerning his corporeal
+possibilities. They have no squeamishness whatever about his watching
+their own natatorial duties; why, then, should he shrink within himself
+and wave them off?
+
+The regular hotel meals consist of rice, fish in various forms, little
+slices of crisp, raw turnip, pickles, and a catsup-like sauce. Meat is
+rarely forthcoming, unless specially ordered, when, of course, extra
+charges are made; sake also has to be purchased separately. After supper
+one is supplied with a teapot of tea and a brazier of coals.
+
+Passing the following night at Hakama, I pull out next morning for
+Shimonoseki. Traversing for some miles a hilly country, covered with
+pine-forest, my road brings me into Ashiyah, situated on a small estuary.
+Here, at Ashiyah, I indulge in nay first simon-pure Japanese shave,
+patronizing the village barber while dodging a passing shower. The
+Japanese tonsorial artist shaves without the aid of soap, merely wetting
+the face by dipping his fingers in a bowl of warm water. During the
+operation of shaving he hones the razor frequently on an oil-stone. He
+shaves the entire face and neck, not omitting even the lobes of the ear,
+the forehead, and nose. If the European traveller didn't keep his senses
+about him, while in the barber-chair of a Japanese village, he would find
+himself with every particle of fuzz scraped off his face and neck, save,
+of course, his regular whiskers or mustache, and with eye-brows
+considerably curtailed.
+
+From Ashiyah my road follows up alongside a small tidal canal to
+Hakamatsu, traversing a lowland country, devoted entirely to the
+cultivation of rice. Scores of coal-barges are floating along the canal,
+propelled solely by the flowing of the tide. I can imagine them floating
+along until the tide changes, then tying up and waiting patiently until
+it ebbs and flows again; from long experience they, no doubt, have come
+to calculate upon one, two, or three tides, as the case may be, floating
+their barges up to certain landings or villages.
+
+The streets of Hakamatsu present a lively and picturesque scene, swarming
+with country people in the gayest of costumes; the stalls are fairly
+groaning beneath big piles of tempting eatables, toys, clothing,
+lanterns, tissue-paper flowers, and every imaginable Japanese thing.
+Street-men are attracting small crowds about them by displaying
+curiosities. One old fellow I pause awhile to look at is selling tiny
+rolls of colored paper which, when cast into a bowl of water, unfold into
+flowers, boats, houses, birds, or animals. In explanation of the
+holiday-making, a young man in a custom-house uniform, who knows a few
+words of English, explains "Japan God "-it is some religious festival
+these smiling, chatting, bowing, and comical-looking crowds are keeping
+with such evident relish.
+
+Prom Hakamatsu to Kokura the country is hilly and broken; from Kokura one
+can look across the narrow strait and see Shimonoseki, on the mainland of
+Japan. Thus far we have been traversing the island of Kiu-shiu, separated
+from the main island by a strait but a few hundred yards wide at
+Shimonoseki. From Kokura the jinrikisha road leads a couple of ri farther
+to Dairi; thence footpaths traverse hills and wax-tree groves for another
+two miles (a ri is something over two English miles) to the village of
+Moji. Here I obtain passage on a little ferry-boat across to Shimonoseki,
+arriving there about two o'clock in the afternoon.
+
+A twenty-four hours' halt is made at Shimonoseki in deference to rainy
+weather. The landlady of the yadoya understands enough about European
+cookery to prepare me a very decent beefsteak and a pot of coffee.
+Shimonoseki is full of European goods, and clever imitations of the same;
+a stroll of an hour through the streets reveals the extent of the Japs'
+appreciation of foreign things. Every other shop, almost, seems devoted
+to the goods that come from other countries, or their counterfeits. Not
+content with merely copying an imported article, the Japanese artisan
+generally endeavors to make some improvement on the original. For
+instance, after making an exact imitation of a petroleum-lamp, the Jap
+workman constructs a neat little lacquer cabinet to set it in when not in
+use. The coffee-pot in which the coffee served at my yadoya is prepared
+is an ingenious contrivance with three chambers, evidently a reproduction
+of Yankee ingenuity.
+
+A big Shinto temple occupies the crest of a little hill near by, and
+flights of stone steps lead up to the entrance. At the foot of the steps,
+and repeated at several stages up the slope, are the peculiar torii, or
+"bird-perches," that form the distinctive mark of a Shinto temple.
+Numerous shrines occupy the court-yard of the temple; the shrines are
+built of wood mostly, and contain representations of the various gods to
+whose particular worship they are dedicated. Before each shrine is a
+barred receptacle for coins. The Japanese devotee poses for a minute
+before the shrine, bowing his head and smiting together the palms of his
+hands; he then tosses a diminutive coin or two into the barred treasury,
+and passes on round to the next shrine he wishes to pay his respects to.
+In the main building are numerous pictures, bows, arrows, swords, and
+various articles, evidently votive offerings. The shrine of the deity
+that presides over the destiny of fishermen is distinguished by a huge
+silver-paper fish and numerous three-pronged fish-spears. Among other
+queer objects whose meaning defies the penetration of the traveller
+unversed in Japanese mythology is a monstrous human face, with a nose at
+least three feet long, and altogether out of proportion.
+
+Strolling about to while away a rainy forenoon I pass big school-houses
+full of children reciting aloud. Their wooden clogs and paper umbrellas
+are stowed away in racks, provided for the purpose, at the door. The
+cheerfulness with which they shout out their exercises proves plainly
+enough that they are only keeping "make-believe" school. Female vegetable
+and fruit venders, neat and comely as Normandy dairy-maids, are walking
+about chatting and smiling and bowing, "playing at selling vegetables."
+While I pause a moment to inspect the stock of a curio-dealer, the
+proprietor, seated over a brazier of coals, smoking, bows politely and
+points, with a chuckle of amusement, at the fierce-looking effigy of a
+daimio in armor. There is not the slightest hint of a mercenary thought
+about his actions; plainly enough, he hasn't the remotest wish to sell me
+anything--he merely wants to call my attention to the grotesqueness of
+this particular figure. He is only playing curio-dealer; he doesn't try
+to sell anything, but would do so out of the abundance of his good-nature
+if requested to, no doubt. A pair of little old-fashioned fire-engines
+repose carelessly against the side of a municipal building. They have
+grown tired of playing at extinguishing fires and have thrown aside their
+toys. I wander to the water-front and try to locate my hotel from that
+point of observation. Watermen are lounging about in wistaria waterproof
+coats. They want me to ride to my destination in one of their boats, very
+evidently, from their manner, only for the fun of the thing. Everybody is
+smiling and urbane, nobody looks serious; no careworn faces are seen, no
+pinched poverty. Wonderful people! they come nearer solving the problem
+of living happily than any other nation. Even the professional mendicants
+seem to be amused at their own poverty, as if life to them was a mere
+humorous experiment, scarcely deserving of a serious thought.
+
+The weather clears up at noon, and in the face of a strong northern
+breeze I bid farewell to Shimonoseki.
+
+The road follows for some miles along the shore, a smooth, level road
+that winds about the bases of the hills that here slope down to toy and
+dally with the restless surf of the famous Inland Sea. Following the
+shore in a general sense, the road now and then leads inland for a mile
+or two, for the purpose of linking together the numerous towns and
+villages that dot the little alluvial valleys between the hills. Passing
+through one large village, my attention is attracted by the sign "English
+Books," over a book-shop. Desirous of purchasing some kind of a guide for
+the road to Kobe, I enter the establishment, expecting at least to find
+some one capable of understanding English. The young man in charge knows
+never a word of English, and his stock of "English books" consists of
+primers, spelling-books, etc., for the use of school-children.
+
+The architecture of the villages above Shimonoseki is strikingly
+artistic. The quaint gabled houses are painted a snowy white, and are
+roofed with brown glazed tiles of curious pattern, also rimmed with
+white. About the houses are hedges grotesquely clipped and trained in
+imitation of storks, animals, or fishes, miniature orange and persimmon
+trees, pretty flower-gardens and little landscape vanities peculiar to
+the Japanese. Circling around through little valleys, over small
+promontories and along smooth, gravelly stretches of sea-shore road, for
+thirty miles, brings me to anchor for the night in a good-sized village.
+
+Among my visitors for the evening is a young gentleman arrayed in shiny
+top-boots, tight-fitting corduroy trousers, and jockey cap. In his
+general make-up he is the "horsiest" individual I have seen for many a
+day. One could readily imagine him to be a professional jockey. The
+probability is, however, that he has never mounted a horse in his life.
+In all likelihood he has become infatuated with this style of Western
+clothes from studying a copy of the London Graphic, has gone to great
+trouble and expense to procure the garments from Yokohama, and now
+blossoms forth upon the dazed provincials of his native town in a make-up
+that stamps him as the swellest of the swell He affects great interest in
+the bicycle--much more so than the average Jap--from which I infer
+that he has actually imbibed certain notions of Western sport, and is
+desirous of posing before his uninitiated and, consequently,
+unappreciative, countrymen, as an exponent of athletics. Altogether the
+horsey young gentleman is the most startling representative of "New
+Japan" I have yet encountered.
+
+A cold drizzle ushers in the commencement of my next day's journey. One
+is loath to exchange the neat yadoya, with everything within so spotless
+and so pleasant, the tiny garden, not over ten yards square, but
+containing a miniature lake, grottos, quaint stone lanterns, bronze
+storks, flowers, and stunted trees, for the road. Disagreeable weather
+has followed me, however, from Nagasaki like an avenging Fate, bent on
+preventing the consummation of my tour from being too agreeable. Even
+with rain and mud and consequent delays my first few days in Japan have
+seemed a very paradise after my Chinese experiences; what, then, would
+have been my impressions of country and people amid sunshine and
+favorable conditions of weather and road, when the novelty of it all
+first burst upon my Chinese-disgusted senses?
+
+The country round about is mountainous, snow lying upon the summits of a
+few of the higher peaks. The road, though hilly at times, manages to
+twist and wind its way along from one little valley to another without
+any very long hills. Peasants from the mountains are met with, leading
+ponies loaded with firewood and rice. Their old Japanese aboriginal
+costumes of wistaria raincoats, broad bamboo-hats, and rude straw-sandals
+make a conspicuous contrast to their countrymen of "New Japan," in Derby
+hats or jockey suits. Notwithstanding the rapid Europeanizing of the
+city-bred Japs, the government's progressive policy, the blue-coated
+gendarmerie, and the general revolutionizing of the country at large,
+many a day will come and go ere these mountaineers forsake the ways and
+methods and grotesque costumes of their ancestors. For decades Japan will
+present an interesting study of mountaineer conservatism and
+ultra-liberal city life. One party will be wearing foreign clothes, aping
+foreign manners, adopting foreign ways of doing everything; the other
+will be clinging tenaciously to the wistaria garments, bamboo sieve-hats,
+straw-sandals, and the traditions of "Old Japan."
+
+Most farm-houses are now thatched with straw; one need hardly add that
+they are prettily and neatly thatched, and that they are embellished by
+various unique contrivances. Some of them, I notice, are surrounded by a
+broad, thick hedge of dark-green shrubbery. The hedge is trimmed so that
+the upper edge appears to be a continuation of the brown thatch, which
+merely changes its color and slopes at the same steep gradient to the
+ground. This device produces a very charming effect, particularly when a
+few neatly trimmed young pines soar above the hedge like green sentinels
+about the dwelling. One inimitable piece of "botanical architecture"
+observed to-day is a thick shrub trimmed into an imitation of a mountain,
+with trees growing on the slopes, and a temple standing in a grove.
+Before many of the houses one sees curious tree-roots or rocks, that have
+been brought many a mile down from the mountains, and preserved on
+account of some fanciful resemblance to bird, reptile, or animal.
+Artificial lakes, islands, waterfalls, bridges, temples, and groves
+abound; and at occasional intervals a large figure of the Buddha squats
+serenely on a pedestal, smiling in happy contemplation of the peace,
+happiness, prosperity, and beauty of everything and everybody around.
+Happy people! happy country. Are the Japs acting wisely or are they
+acting foolishly in permitting European notions of life to creep in and
+revolutionize it all. Who can tell. Time alone will prove. They will get
+richer, more powerful, and more enterprising, because of the necessity of
+waking themselves up to keep abreast of the times; but wealth and power,
+and the buzz and rattle of machinery and commerce do not always mean
+happiness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE HOME STRETCH.
+
+During the afternoon the narrow kuruma road merges into a broad, newly
+made macadam, as fine a piece of road as I have seen the whole world
+round. Wonderful work has been done in grading it from the low-lying
+rice-fields, up, up, up, by the most gentle and even gradient, to where
+it seemingly terminates, far ahead between high rocky cliffs. The picture
+of charming houses and beautiful terraced gardens climbing to the very
+upper stories of the mountains here beggars description; one no longer
+marvels at what he has seen in the way of terraced mountains in China.
+
+New sensations of astonishment await me as the upper portion of the
+smooth boulevard is reached, and I find myself at the entrance to a
+tunnel about five hundred yards long and thirty feet wide. The tunnel is
+lit up by means of big reflectors in the middle, shining through the
+gloom as one enters, like locomotive headlights. It is difficult to
+imagine the Japs going to all this trouble and expense for mere
+jinrikisha and pedestrian travel; yet such is the case, for no other
+vehicular traffic exists in the country. It is the only country in which
+I have found a tunnel constructed for the ordinary roadway, although
+there may be similar improvements that have not happened to come to my
+notice or ear. One would at least expect to find a toll-keeper in such a
+place, especially as a person has to be employed to maintain the lights,
+but there is nothing of the kind.
+
+A few miles beyond the tunnel the broad road terminates in a good-sized
+seaport, whence I encounter some little difficulty in finding my way
+along zigzag field-paths to my proper road for the north. The rain has
+fallen at intervals throughout the day, but the roads have averaged good.
+Fifty miles, or thereabout, must have been reeled off when, at early
+eventide, I pull up at a village ya-doya. Before settling myself down,
+for rest and supper, I take a stroll through the village in quest of
+possible interesting things. Not far from the yadoya my attention is
+arrested by a prominent sign, in italics, "uropean eating, Kameya hous."
+Entertaining happy visions of beefsteak and Bass's ale for supper, I
+enter the establishment and ask the young man in charge whether the place
+is an hotel. He smiles, bows, and intimates his woeful ignorance of what
+I am saying.
+
+The following morning is frosty, and low, scudding clouds denote
+unsettled weather, as I resume my journey. Much of the time my road
+practically follows the shore, and sometimes simply follows the windings
+and curvatures of the gravelly beach. Most of the low land near the shore
+appears to be reclaimed from the sea--low, flat-looking mud-fields,
+protected from overflow by miles and miles of stout dikes and rock-ribbed
+walls. Fishing villages abound along the shore, and for long distances a
+recent typhoon has driven the sea inland and washed away the road.
+Thousands of men and women are engaged in repairing the damages with the
+abundance of material ready to hand on the sloping granite-shale hills
+around the foot of which the roadway winds.
+
+Fish are cheaper and more plentiful here than anything else, and the old
+dame at the yadoya of a fishing village cooks me a big skate for supper,
+which makes first-rate eating, in spite of the black, malodorous sauce
+she uses so liberally in the cooking.
+
+In this room is a wonderful brass-bound cabinet, suggestive of
+soul-satisfying household idols and comfortable private worship. During
+the evening I venture to open and take a peep in this cabinet to satisfy
+a pardonable curiosity as to its contents. My trespass reveals a little
+wax idol seated amid a wealth of cheap tinsel ornaments, and bits of
+inscribed paper. Before him sets an offering of rice, sake, and dried
+fish in tiny porcelain bowls.
+
+Clear and frosty opens the following morning; the road is good, the
+country gradually improves, and by nine o'clock I am engaged in looking
+at the military exercises of troops quartered in the populous city of
+Hiroshima. The exercises are conducted within a large square, enclosed
+with a low bank of earth and a ditch. Crowds of curious civilians are
+watching the efforts of raw cavalry recruits to ride stout little horses,
+that buck, kick, bite, and paw the air. Every time a soldier gets thrown
+the on-lookers chuckle with delight. Both men and horses are undersized,
+but look stocky and serviceable withal. The uniform of the cavalry is
+blue, with yellow trimmings. The artillery looks trim and efficient, and
+the horses, although rather small, are powerful and wiry, just the horses
+one would select for the rough work of a campaign.
+
+North of Hiroshima the country assumes a hilly character, the road
+following up one mountain-stream and down another. In this mountainous
+region one meets mail-carriers, the counterpart almost of the
+fleet-footed postmen of Bengal. The Japanese postman improves upon nature
+by the addition of a waist-cloth and a scant shirt of white and blue
+cotton check; his letter-pouch is fastened to a bamboo-staff; as he
+bounds along with springy stride he warns people to clear the way by
+shouting in a musical voice, "Honk, honk." This cry resembles in a very
+striking degree the utterances of an old veteran brant, or wild-goose,
+when speeding northward in the spring to escape a warm wave from the
+south.
+
+Among these mountains one is filled with amazement at the tremendous work
+the industrious Japs have done to secure a few acres of cultivable land.
+Dikes have been thrown up to narrow the channels of the streams, so that
+the remaining width of the bed may be converted into fields and gardens.
+The streams have been literally turned out of their beds for the sake of
+a few acres of alluvial soil. Among the mountains, chiefly between the
+mountains and the shore, are level areas of a few square miles,
+supporting a population that seems largely out of proportion to the size
+of the land. Many of these sea-shore people however, get their livelihood
+from the blue waters of the Inland Sea; fish sharing the honors with rice
+in being the staple food of provincial Japan.
+
+The weather changes to quite a disagreeable degree of cold by the time I
+reach the end of to-day's ride. This introduces me promptly into the
+mysteries of how the Japanese manage to keep themselves warm in their
+flimsy houses of wooden ribs and semi-transparent paper in cold weather.
+An opening in the floor accommodates a brazier of coals; over this stands
+an open wood-work frame; quilts covered over the frame retain the heat.
+The modus operandi of keeping warm is to insert the body beneath this
+frame, wrapping the covering about the shoulders, snugly, to prevent the
+escape of the warm air within. The advantage of this unique arrangement
+is that the head can be kept cool, while, if desirable, the body can be
+subjected to a regular hot-air bath.
+
+The following day is chilly and raw, with occasional skits of snow.
+People are humped up and blue-nosed, and seemingly miserable. Yet,
+withal, they seem to be only humorously miserable, and not by any means
+seriously displeased with the rawness and the snow. Straw wind-breaks are
+set up on the windward side of the tea-houses, and there is much stopping
+among pedestrians to gather around the tea-house braziers and gossip and
+smoke.
+
+Everybody in Japan smokes, both men and women. The universal pipe of the
+country is a small brass tube about six inches long, with the end turned
+up and widened to form the bowl. This bowl holds the merest pinch of
+tobacco; a couple of whiffs, a smart rap on the edge of the brazier to
+knock out the residue, and the pipe is filled again and again, until the
+smoker feels satisfied. The girls that wait on one at the yadoyas and
+tea-houses carry their tobacco in the capacious sleeve-pockets of their
+dress, and their pipes sometimes thrust in the sash or girdle, and
+sometimes stuck in the back of the hair.
+
+Many of the Buddhas presiding over the cross-roads and village entrances
+along my route to-day are provided with calico bibs, the object of which
+it is impossible for me to determine, owing to my ignorance of the
+vernacular. The bibs are, no doubt, significant of some particular season
+of religious observance.
+
+The important city of Okoyama provides abundant food for observation--the
+clean, smooth streets, the wealth of European goods in the shops, and the
+swarms of ever-interesting people, as I wheel leisurely through it on
+Saturday, December 4th. No human being save Japs has so far crossed my
+path since leaving Nagasaki, nor am I expecting to meet anybody here. An
+agreeable surprise, however, awaits me, for at the corner of one of the
+principal business thoroughfares a couple of American missionaries appear
+upon the scene. Introducing themselves as Mr. Carey and Mr. Kowland, they
+inform me that three families of missionaries reside together here, and
+extend a cordial invitation to remain over Sunday. I am very glad indeed
+to accept their hospitality for to-morrow, as well as to avail myself of
+an opportunity to get my proper bearings. Nothing in the way of a
+reliable map or itinerary of the road I have been traversing from
+Shimonoseki was to be obtained at Nagasaki, and I have travelled with but
+the vaguest idea of my whereabouts from day to day. Only from them do I
+learn that the city we meet in is Okoyama, and that I am now within a
+hundred miles of Kobe, north of which place "Murray's Handbook" will
+prove of material assistance in guiding me aright.
+
+The little missionary colony is charmingly situated on a pine-clad hill
+overlooking the city from the east. Several lady missionaries are
+visiting from other points, all Americans, making a pleasant party for
+one to meet in such an unexpected manner.
+
+On Sunday morning I accompany Mr. Carey to see his native congregation in
+the nice new church which he says they have erected from their own means
+at a cost of two thousand yen. This latter is a very gratifying
+statement, not to say surprisingly so, for it savors of something like
+sincerity on the part of the converts. In most countries the converts
+seem to be brought to a knowledge of their evil ways, and to perceive the
+beauties of the Christian religion through the medium of material
+assistance provided from the mission. Instead of spending money
+themselves for the cause they profess to embrace, they expect to receive
+something from it of a tangible earthly nature. Here, however, we find
+the converts themselves building their own meeting-house, and bidding
+fair ere long to support the mission without outside aid. This is
+encouraging from the stand-point of those who believe in converting "the
+heathen" from their own religion to ours, and gratifying to the student
+of Japanese character.
+
+About five hundred people congregate in the church, seating themselves
+quietly and orderly on the mat-covered floor. They embrace all classes,
+from the samurai lawyer or gentleman to the humblest citizen, and from
+gray-haired old men and women to shock-headed youngsters, who merely come
+with their mothers. Many of these same mothers have been persuaded by the
+missionaries to cease the heathenish practice of blackening their teeth,
+and so appear at the meeting in even rows of becoming white ivories like
+their unmarried sisters. Numbers of curious outsiders congregate about
+the open doors and peep in and stand and listen to the sermon of Mr.
+Carey, and the singing. The hymns are sung to the same tunes as in
+America, the words being translated into Japanese. Everybody seems to
+enjoy the singing, and they listen intently to the sermon.
+
+After the sermon, several prominent members of the congregation stand up
+and address their countrymen and women in convincing words and gestures.
+Mr. Carey tells me that any ordinary Jap seems capable of delivering a
+fluent, off-hand exposition of his views in public without special effort
+or embarrassment. Altogether the Japanese Christian congregation,
+gathered here in ita own church, sitting on the floor, singing,
+sermonizing, and looking happy, is a novel and interesting sight to see.
+One can imagine missionary life among the genial Japs as being very
+pleasant.
+
+Saturday and Sunday pass pleasantly away, and, with happy memories of the
+little missionary colony, I wheel away from Oko-yama on Monday morning,
+passing through a country of rich rice-fields and numerous villages for
+some miles. The scene then changes into a beautiful country of small
+lakes and pine-covered hills, reminding me very much of portions of the
+Berkshire Hills, Mass. The weather is cool and clear, and the road
+splendid, although in places somewhat hilly.
+
+Fifty-three miles are duly scored when, at three o'clock in the
+afternoon, I arrive at the city of Himeji. The yadoya here is a superior
+sort of a place, and Himeji numbers among its productions European pan
+(bread), steak, and bottled beer. The Japs are themselves rapidly coming
+to an appreciation of this latter article, and even to manufacture it, a
+big brewery being already established somewhere near Tokio. A couple of
+young dandies of "New Japan" drop in during the evening, send out for
+bottles of beer, and seem to take particular delight in showing off their
+appreciation of the newly introduced beverage before their countrymen of
+the "ancient regime."
+
+Beyond Himeji one leaves behind the mountains, emerging upon a broad,
+level, rice-producing plain, which extends eastward to Kobe and the
+sea-shore. The fine level road traversing the plain passes through
+numerous towns and villages, and for the latter half of the distance
+skirts the shore. Old dismantled stone forts, tea-houses, eating-stalls,
+fishermen's huts, house-boats, and swarms of jinrikishas and pedestrians
+make their sea-shore road lively and interesting. The single artery
+through which the life of all the southern tributary country ebbs and
+flows to trade at the busiest treaty port in Japan, this road is
+constantly swarming with people. Over the Minato-gawa Kiver by an
+elevated bridge, and one finds himself in a broad street leading through
+Hiogo to Kobe. These two cities are practically joined together, although
+bearing different names. Like many of the rivers of Japan, the bed of the
+Minato-gawa is elevated considerably above the surrounding plain.
+Confined between artificial banks to prevent the flooding of the adjacent
+fields in spring, the debris brought down from year to year has gradually
+raised the bed, and necessitated continued raising also of the levees.
+These operations have very naturally ended in raising the whole affair to
+an elevation that leaves even the bottom of the stream several feet
+higher than the fields around.
+
+Kobe is one of the treaty ports of Japan, and nowadays is reputed to do
+more foreign trade than any of the others. One can imagine Kobe being a
+very pleasant and desirable place to live; the foreign settlement is
+quite extensive, the surroundings attractive, and the climate mild and
+healthful.
+
+Pleasant days are spent at Kobe and Ozaka. Twenty-seven miles of level
+road from the latter city, following the course of the Yodo-gawa, a broad
+shallow stream that flows from Lake Biwa to the sea, brings me to Kioto.
+From the eighth century until 1868 Kioto was the capital of the Japanese
+empire, and is generally referred to as the old capital of the country.
+The present population is about a quarter of a million, about half of
+what it was supposed to be in the heyday of its ancient glory as the seat
+of empire.
+
+Living at Kioto is Mr. B, an American ex-naval officer, who several years
+ago forsook old Neptune's service to embark in the more peaceful pursuit
+of teaching the ideas of youthful Japs to shoot. The occasion was
+auspicious, for the whole country was fired with enthusiasm for learning
+English. English was introduced into the public schools as a regular
+study. Mr. B is settled at Kioto, and now instructs a large and
+interesting class of boys in the mysteries of his mother tongue. Taking a
+letter of introduction he makes me comfortable for the afternoon and
+night at his pleasant residence on the banks of the Yodo-gawa. Under the
+pilotage of his private jinrikisha-man, I spend a portion of the
+afternoon in making a flying visit to various places of interest. A party
+of American tourists are unexpectedly met in the first temple we visit,
+that of Nishi Hon-gwan-ji. The paintings and decorations of this temple,
+one of the ladies says with something akin to enthusiasm, are quite equal
+to those of the great temple at Nikko. This lady appears to be a
+missionary resident, or, at all events, a person well versed in Japanese
+temples and things. Her companions are fleeting tourists, who listen to
+her explanations with respect, but, like myself, know nothing more when
+they leave the temple than when they entered. Japanese mythology,
+religion, temples, politics, history, and titles, seem to me to be the
+worst mixed up and the most difficult for off-hand comprehension of
+anything I have yet undertaken to peep into. The multitudinous gods of
+the Hindoos, with their no less multitudinous functions, seem to me to be
+easily understood in comparison with the weird legends and mazy mythology
+of the Flowery Kingdom.
+
+Near this temple is a lovely little garden that gives much more
+satisfaction to the casual visitor than the temples. It is always a
+pleasure to visit a Japanese garden, and, in addition to its landscape
+attractions, historical interest lends to this one additional charm. The
+artificial lake is stocked with tame carp, which come crowding to the
+side when visitors clap their hands, in the expectation of being fed. A
+pair of unhappy-looking geese are imprisoned beneath an iron grating
+within the garden. They are kept there in commemoration of some
+historical incident; what the incident is, however, even the
+well-informed lady of the party doesn't seem to know; neither does
+Murray's voluminous guide-book condescend to explain. A small palace,
+with interior decorations of the usual conventional subjects--storks,
+flying geese, rising moons, bamboo-shoots, etc.--together with a
+small, round, thatched summer-house, where, five hundred years ago,
+Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, the Shogun monk, was wont to pass the time in
+meditation, form the remaining sole attractions of the garden.
+
+The one place I have been anticipating some real pleasure in visiting is
+the Shu-gaku-In gardens, one of the most famous gardens in this country
+where, above all others, gardening is pursued as a fine art. This,
+however, is not accessible to-day, and wearied already of temples, gods,
+and shaven-pated priests, I give the jin-rikisha-coolie orders to return
+home. A mile or two through the smooth and level streets and the hopeful
+and sanguine "riksha" man dumps me out at another temple. Fancying that,
+perchance, he might have brought me to something extraordinary, I follow
+him wearily in. A graduate in the Shinto religion would no doubt find
+something different about these temples, but to the ordinary, every-day
+human, to see one is to see them all. My man, however, seems determined
+to give me a surfeit of temples, and hurries me off to yet another one,
+ere awakening to the fact that I am trying to get him to return to Mr. B
+'s. The third one I positively refuse to have anything to do with.
+
+At Mr. B 's I find awaiting my coming an interesting deputation,
+consisting of the assistant superintendent of the young ladies' seminary,
+together with three of his most interesting pupils. They have been
+reading about my tour in the native papers, and, in the assistant
+superintendent's own words, "are very curious at seeing so famous a
+traveller." The three young ladies stand in a row, like the veritable
+"three little maids from school" in "The Mikado," and giggle their
+approval of the teacher's explanation. They are three very pretty girls,
+and two of them have their hair banged after the most approved American
+style.
+
+Sweetcakes and tea are indulged in by the visitors, and before they leave
+an agreement is entered into by which I am to visit their school in the
+morning before leaving and hear them sing "Bonny Boon" and "The
+fire-fly's light," in return for riding the bicycle in the school-house
+grounds. "The fire-fly's light" is sung to the tune of "Auld lang syne,"
+the Japanese words of which commemorate a legend of the tea-district of
+Uji near Lake Biwa. The legend states that certain learned men repaired
+to a secluded spot near Uji to pursue their studies. On one occasion,
+being out of oil and unable to procure the means of lighting their
+apartment, myriads of fire-flies came and illumined the place with their
+tiny lamps sufficient for their purpose.
+
+My compact with the "three little maids from school" takes me down into
+the city on something of a detour from my nearest road out next morning.
+The detour is well repaid, however; besides the singing and organ-playing
+promised, the many departments of industrial study into which the school
+is divided are very interesting. Laces and embroidery for the Tokio
+market, dresses for themselves and to sell, are made by the girls, the
+proceeds going toward the maintenance of the institution. One of the most
+curious scholarships of the place is the teaching of what is known as the
+"Japanese ceremony." It seems to be a perpetuation of some old court
+ceremony of making tea for the Mikado. Expressing a wish to see the
+ceremony, I am conducted to a small room divided off by the usual sliding
+paper panels. A class of girls are kneeling in a row, confronting a very
+neat-looking old lady who sits beside a small brazier of coals. The old
+lady is the teacher; when she claps her hands, one of the paper screens
+slides gently aside and one of the scholars enters, bearing a small
+lacquer tray with tiny teapot and cups, a canister of tea, and various
+other paraphernalia. There is really very little to the "ceremony," the
+graceful motions of the tea-maker being by far the more interesting part
+of the performance. The tea used is finely powdered and comes from Uji,
+where it is grown especially for the use of the Mikado's household. The
+tea-dust is mixed with hot water by means of a curiously splintered
+bamboo mixer that looks very much like a shaving-brush. The result is a
+very aromatic cup of tea, delicious to the nostrils, but hardly
+acceptable to the European palate.
+
+My jinrikisha-man of yesterday precedes me through the streets, shouting
+the "honk, honk, honk." of the mail-runners, to clear the way. To see him
+cleave a way through the multitudes for me to follow, keeping up a
+six-mile pace the while, swinging his arms like a windmill, one might
+well imagine me a real dai-mio on wheels with faithful samurai-runner
+ahead, warning away the common herd from my path.
+
+At Kioto begins the Tokaido, the most famous highway of Japan, a road
+that is said to have been the same great highway of travel, that it is
+to-day, for many centuries. It extends from Kioto to Tokio, a distance of
+three hundred and twenty-five miles.
+
+Another road, called the Nakasendo, the "Road of the Central Mountains,"
+in contradistinction to the Tokaido, the "Road of the Eastern Sea," also
+connects the old capital with the new; but, besides being somewhat
+longer, the Nakasendo is a hillier road, and less interesting than the
+Tokaido. After leaving the city the Tokaido leads over a low pass through
+the hills to Otsu, on the lovely sheet of water known as Biwa Lake.
+
+This lake is of about the same dimensions as Lake Geneva, and fairly
+rivals that Switzer gem in transcendental beauty. The Japs, with all
+their keen appreciation of the beauties of nature, go into raptures over
+Biwa Lake. Much talk is made of the "eight beauties of Biwa." These eight
+beauties are: The Autumn Moon from Ishi-yama, the Evening Snow on
+Hira-yama, the Blaze of Evening at Seta, the Evening Bell of Mii-dera,
+the Boats sailing back from Yabase, a Bright Sky with a Breeze at Awadzu,
+Bain by Night at Karasaki, and the Wild Geese alighting at Katada. All
+the places mentioned are points about the lake. All sorts of legends and
+romantic stories are associated with the waters of Lake Biwa. Its origin
+is said to be due to an earthquake that took place several centuries
+before the Christian era; the legend states that Fuji rose to its
+majestic height from the plain of Suruga at the same moment the lake was
+formed. Temples and shrines abound, and pilgrims galore come from far-off
+places to worship and see its beauties.
+
+One object of special curiosity to tourists is a remarkable pine-tree,
+whose branches have been trained in horizontal courses over upright
+posts, until it forms a broad shelter over several hundred square yards.
+A smaller imitation of the large tree is also spreading to ambitious
+proportions on the Tokaido side.
+
+Snow has fallen and rests on the upper slopes of the mountains
+overlooking the lake, little steamers and numerous sailing-craft are
+plying on the smooth waters, and wild geese are flying about. With these
+beauties on the left and tea-gardens on the right, the Tokaido leads
+through rows of stately pines, and past numerous villages along the lake
+shore.
+
+The Nakasendo branches off to the left at the village of Kusa-tsu,
+celebrated for the manufacture of riding-whips. Through Ishibe and
+beyond, to where it crosses the Yokota-gawa, the Tokaido continues level
+and good. Near the crossing of this stream is a curious stone monument,
+displaying the carved figures of three monkeys covering up their eyes,
+mouth, and ears, to indicate that they will "neither see, hear, nor say
+any evil thing." All through here the country is devoted chiefly to
+growing tea; very pretty the undulating ridges and rolling slopes of the
+broken foot-hills look, set out in thick, bushy, well-defined rows and
+clumps of dark, shiny tea-plants.
+
+Down a very steep declivity, by sharp zigzags, the Tokaido suddenly dips
+into the little valley of the Yasose-gawa. At the foot of the hill is a
+curious shrine cave, containing several rude idols, a trough with tame
+goldfish, and one of the crudest Buddhas I ever saw. The aim of the
+ambitious sculptor of Buddhas is to produce a personification of "great
+tranquillity." The figure in the Valley of Yasose-gawa is certainly
+something of a masterpiece in this direction; nothing could well be more
+tranquil than an oblong bowlder with the faintest chiselling of a mouth
+and nose, poised on the top of an upright slab of stone rudely chipped
+into a dim semblance of the human form.
+
+A mile or two farther and my day's ride of forty-six miles terminates at
+the village of Saka-no-shita. A comfortable yadoya awaits me here, no
+better nor worse, however, than almost every Jap village affords; but on
+the Tokaido the innkeepers are more accustomed to European guests than
+they are south of Kobe. Every summer many European and American tourists
+journey between Yokohama and Kobe by jinrikisha.
+
+At this yadoya I first become acquainted with that peculiar institution
+of Japan, the blind shampooer. Seated in my little room, my attention is
+attracted by a man who approaches on hands and knees, and butts his
+shaven pate accidentally against the corner of the open panel that forms
+my door. He halts at the entrance and indulges in the pantomime of
+pinching and kneading his person; his mission is to find out whether I
+desire his services. For a small gratuity the blind shampooer of Japan
+will rub, knead, and press one into a pleasant sensation from head to
+foot. This office is relegated to sightless individuals or ugly old
+women; many Japs indulge in their services after a warm bath, finding the
+treatment very pleasant and beneficial, so they say.
+
+One of the most amusing illustrations of Jap imitativeness is displayed
+in the number of American clocks one sees adorning the walls of the
+yadoyas in nearly every village. The amusing feature of the thing is that
+the owners of these time-pieces seem to have the vaguest ideas of what
+they are for. One clock on the wall of my yadoya indicates eleven
+o'clock, another half-past nine, and a third seven-fifteen as I pull out
+in the morning. Other clocks through the village street vary in similar
+degree. Watching out for these widely varying clocks as I wheel through
+the villages has come to be one of the diversions of the day's ride.
+
+The road averages good, although somewhat hilly in places, from Saka-no
+through lovely valleys and pine-clad mountains to Yokka-ichi. Yokka-ichi
+is a small seaport, whence most travellers along the Tokaido take passage
+to Miya in the steam passenger launches plying between these points. The
+kuruma road, however, continues good to the Ku-wana, ten miles farther,
+whence, to Miya, one has to traverse narrower paths through a flat
+section of rice-fields, dikes, canals, and sloughs.
+
+A ri beyond Okabe and the pass of Utsunoya necessitates a mile or two of
+trundling. Here occurs a tunnel some six hundred feet in length and
+twelve wide; a glimmer of sunshine or daylight is cast into the tunnel by
+a system of simple reflectors at either entrance. These are merely glass
+mirrors, set at an angle to reflect the rays of light into the tunnel.
+
+Descending this little pass the Tokaido traverses a level rice-field
+plain, crosses the Abe-kawa, and approaches the sea-coast at Shidzuoka, a
+city of thirty thousand inhabitants. The view of Fuji, now but a short
+distance ahead, is extremely beautiful; the smooth road sweeps around the
+gravelly beach, almost licked by the waves. The breakers approach and
+recede, keeping time to the inimitable music of the surf; vessels are
+dotting the blue expanse; villages and tea-houses are seen resting along
+the crescent-sweep of the shore for many a mile ahead, where Fuji slopes
+so gracefully down from its majestic snow-crowned summit to the sea.
+
+It is indeed a glorious ride around the crescent bay, through the
+sea-shore villages of Okitsu, Yui, Kambara, and Iwabuchi to Yoshiwara, a
+little town on the footstool of the big, gracefully sweeping cone. The
+stretch of shore hereabout is celebrated in Japanese poetry as
+Taga-no-ura, from the peculiarly beautiful view of Fuji obtained from it.
+
+This remarkable mountain is the highest in Japan, and is probably the
+finest specimen of a conical mountain in existence. Native legends
+surround it with a halo of romance. Its origin is reputed to be
+simultaneous with the formation of Biwa Lake, near Kioto, both mountain
+and lake being formed in a single night--one rising from the plain
+twelve thousand eight hundred feet, the other sinking till its bed
+reached the level of the sea.
+
+The summit of Fuji is a place of pilgrimage for Japanese ascetics who are
+desirous of attaining "perfect peace" by imitating Shitta-Tai-shi, the
+Japanese Buddha, who climbed to the summit of a mountain in search of
+nirvana (calm). Orthodox Japs believe that the grains of sand brought
+down on the sandals of the pilgrims ascend to the summit again of their
+own accord during the night.
+
+Tradition is furthermore responsible for the belief that snow disappears
+entirely from the mountain for a few hours on the fifteenth day of the
+sixth moon, and begins to fall again during the following night. Formerly
+an active volcano, Fuji even now emits steam from sundry crevices near
+the summit, and will some day probably fill the good people at Yoshiwara
+and adjacent villages with a lively sense of its power. Fuji is the
+special pride of the Japs, its loveliness appealing strongly to the
+national sense of landscape beauty. Of it their poet sings:
+
+"Great Fusiyama, tow'ring to the sky. A treasure art thou, giv'n to
+mortal man, A god-protector watching o'er Japan: On thee forever let me
+feast mine eye."
+
+Fuji is passed and left behind, and sixteen miles reeled off from
+Yoshiwara, when Mishima, my destination for the night, is reached. A
+festival in honor of Oyama-tsumi-no-Kami, the god of "mountains in
+general," is being held here; for, behold, to-day is November 15th, the
+"middle day of the bird," one of the several festivals held in his honor
+every year. The big temple grounds are swarming with people, and pedlers,
+stalls, jugglers, and all sorts of attractions give the place the
+appearance of a country fair.
+
+Leaving the bicycle outside, I wander in and stroll about among the
+crowds. Sacred ponds on either side of the footway are swarming with
+sacred fish. An ancient dame is doing a roaring trade, in a small way, in
+feathery bread-puffs, which the people buy and throw to the fish, for the
+fun of seeing them swarm around and eat.
+
+Interested groups are gathered around veritable fac-similes of the Yankee
+"street-men," selling to credulous villagers little boxes of powder for
+"coating things with silver." Others are selling song-books, attracting
+customers by the novel and interesting performances of a quartette of
+pretty girls, who sing song after song in succession. Here also are
+little travelling peep-shows, containing photographic scenes of famous
+temples and places in distant parts of the country.
+
+Among the various shrines in this temple is one dedicated to an ancient
+wood-cutter, who used to work and spend his wages on drink for his aged
+father, who was now too old to earn money for the purpose himself. At his
+father's demise the son was rewarded for his filial devotion by the
+discovery of a "cascade of pure sake."
+
+A gayly decorated car and a closed tumbril, that looks very much like an
+old ammunition-wagon, have been wheeled out of their enclosures for the
+occasion. Strings of little bells are suspended on these; mothers hold
+their little ones up and allow them to strike these bells, toss a coin
+into the contribution-box, and pass on. The vehicles probably contain
+relics of the gods.
+
+A wooden horse, painted red, stands in solemn and lonely state behind the
+wooden bars of his stall--but I have almost registered a vow against
+temples and their belongings, in Japan, so inexplicable are most of the
+things to be seen. A person who has delved into the mysteries of Japanese
+mythology would no doubt derive much satisfaction from a visit to the
+Oyama-tsumi-uo-Kami temple, but the average reader would weary of it all
+after seeing others. What to ordinary mortals signify such hideous
+mythological monsters as saru-tora-hebi (monkey-tiger-serpent), or the
+"Twenty-four Paragons of Filial Piety" on the architrave. Yet, of such as
+these is the ornamentation of all Japanese temples. Some few there are
+that are admirable as works of art, but most of them are hideous daubs
+and representations more than passing rude.
+
+Down the street near my yadoya, within a boarded enclosure, a dozen
+wrestlers are giving an entertainment for a crowd of people who have paid
+two sen apiece entrance-fee. The wrestlers of Japan form a distinct class
+or caste, separated from the ordinary society of the country by long
+custom, that prejudices them against marrying other than the daughter of
+one of their own profession. As the biggest and more muscular men have
+always been numbered in the ranks of the wrestlers, the result of this
+exclusiveness and non-admixture with physical inferiors is a class of
+people as distinct from their fellows as if of another race. The Japanese
+wrestler stands head and shoulders above the average of his countrymen,
+and weighs half as much more. As a class they form an interesting
+illustration of what might be accomplished in the physical improvement of
+mankind by certain Malthusian schemes that have been at times advocated.
+
+Within a twelve-foot arena the sturdy athletes struggle for the mastery,
+bringing to bear all their strength and skill. No "hippodroming" here:
+stripped to the skin, the muscles on their brown bodies standing out in
+irregular knots, they fling one another about in the liveliest manner.
+The master of ceremonies, stiff and important, in a faultless gray
+garment bearing a samurai crest, stands by and wields the fiddle-shaped
+lacquered insignia of his high office, and utter his orders and decisions
+in an authoritative voice.
+
+The wrestlers squat around the ring and shiver, for the evening is cold,
+until called out by the master of ceremonies. The two selected take a
+small handful of salt from baskets of that ingredient suspended on posts,
+and fling toward each other. They then advance into the arena, and
+furthermore challenge and defy their opponent by stamping their bare feet
+on the ground, in a manner to display their superior muscularity. Another
+order from the gentleman wielding the fiddle-shaped insignia, and they
+rush violently together, engage in a "catch-as-catch-can" scuffle, which,
+in less than half a minute usually, results in a decisive victory for one
+or the other. The master of ceremonies waves them out of the ring,
+straightens himself up, assumes a very haughty expression, until he looks
+like the very important personage he feels himself to be, and announces
+the name of the victor to the spectators.
+
+The one portion of the Tokaido impassable with a wheel commences at
+Mishima, the famous Hakone Pass, which for sixteen miles offers a steep
+surface of rough bowlder-paved paths. Coolies at Mishima make their
+livelihood by carrying goods and passengers over the pass on kagoa (the
+Japanese palanquin). Obtaining a couple of men to carry the bicycle, the
+chilly weather proves an inducement for following them afoot, rather than
+occupy a kago myself. The block road is broad enough for a wagon, being
+constructed, no doubt, with a view to military transport service. The
+long steep slopes are literally carpeted in places with the worn-out
+straw shoes of men and horses.
+
+The country observed from the elevation of the Hakone Pass is extremely
+beautiful, the white-tipped cone of the magnificent Fuji towering over
+all, like a presiding genius. Near the hamlet of Yamanaka is a famous
+point, called Fuji-mi-taira (terrace for looking at Fuji). Big
+cryptomerias shade the broad stony path along much of its southern slope
+to Hakone village and lake.
+
+Hakone is a very lovely and interesting region, nowadays a favorite
+summer resort of the European residents of Tokio and Yokohama. From the
+latter place Hakone Lake is but about fifty miles distant, and by
+jinrikisha and kago may be reached in one day. The lake is a most
+charming little body of water, a regular mountain-gem, reflecting in its
+clear, crystal depths the pine-clad slopes that encompass it round about,
+as though its surface were a mirror. Japanese mythology peopled the
+region round with supernatural beings in the early days of the country's
+history, when all about were impenetrable thickets and pathless woods.
+Until the revolution of 1868, when all these old feudal customs were
+ruthlessly swept away, the Tokaido here was obstructed with one of the
+"barriers," past which nobody might go without a passport. These barriers
+were established on the boundaries of feudal territories, usually at
+points where the traveller had no alternate route to choose.
+
+A magnificent avenue of cryptomeria shades the Tokaido for a short
+distance out of Hakone village; on the left is passed a large government
+sanitarium, one of those splendid modern-looking structures that speak so
+eloquently of the present Mikado's progressive and enlightened policy.
+The road then turns up the steep mountain-slopes, fringed with
+impenetrable thickets of bamboo. Fuji, from here, presents a grand and
+curious sight. The wind has risen, and the summit of the cone is almost
+hidden behind clouds of drifting snow, which at a distance might almost
+be mistaken for a steamy eruption of the volcano. Close by, too, the
+spirit of the wind moves through the bamboo-brakes, rubbing the myriad
+frost-dried flags together and causing a peculiar rustling noise--the
+whispering of the spirits of the mountains.
+
+The summit reached, the Tokaido now leads through glorious pine-woods,
+descending toward the valley of the Sakawagawa by a series of breakneck
+zigzags. The region is picturesque in the extreme; a small
+mountain-stream tumbles along through a deep ravine on the left,
+mountains tower aloft on the other side, and here and there give birth to
+a cataract that tumbles and splashes down from a height of several
+hundred feet.
+
+By 1 p.m. Yomoto and the recommencement of the jinrikisha road is
+reached; a broiled fish and a bottle of native beer are consumed for
+lunch, and the kago coolies dismissed. The road from Yomoto is a gradual
+descent, for four miles, to Odawara, a town of some thirteen thousand
+inhabitants, on the coast. The road now becomes level and broader than
+heretofore; vehicles drawn by horses mingle with the swarms of
+jinrikishas and pedestrians. Both horses and drivers of the former seem
+sleepy, woe-begone and careless, as though overcome with a consciousness
+of being out of place.
+
+Gangs of men are dragging stout hand-carts, loaded with material for the
+construction of the Tokaido railway, now rapidly being pushed forward.
+Every mile of the road is swarming with life--the strangely
+interesting life of Japan. Thirty miles from Yomoto, and Totsuka provides
+me a comfortable yadoya, where the people quickly show their knowledge of
+the foreigner's requirements by cooking a beefsteak with onions, also in
+the morning by charging the first really exorbitant price I have been
+confronted with along the Tokaido. Totsuka is within the treaty limits of
+Yokohama. A mile or so toward Yokohama I pass, in the morning, the "White
+Horse Tavern," kept in European style as a sort of road-house for
+foreigners driving out from that city or Tokio.
+
+A fierce wind, blowing from the south, fairly wafts me along the last
+eleven miles of the Tokaido, from Totsuka to Yokohama. The wind, indeed,
+has been generally favorable since the rain-storm at Okabe, but it fairly
+whistles this morning. It calls to mind the Kansas wheelman, who claimed
+to have once spread his coat-tails to the breeze and coasted from
+Lawrence to Kansas City in three hours. Unfortunately I am wearing a coat
+the pattern of which does not admit of using the tails for sails
+otherwise the homestretch of the tour around the world might have
+provided one of the most unique incidents of the many I have encountered
+on the journey.
+
+A battery of field-artillery, the smartest seen since leaving Germany, is
+encountered in the streets of Kanagawa, at which point the road to
+Yokohama branches off from the Tokaido. The great Imperial highway, along
+which I have travelled from the old capital almost to the new, continues
+on to the latter, seventeen miles farther. Since the completion of the
+railway between Tokio and Kanagawa, travellers journeying from the
+capital down the Tokaido usually ride on the train to Kanagawa, so that
+the jinrikisha journey proper nowadays commences at the latter city.
+
+Kanagawa is practically a suburban part of Yokohama: one Japanese-owned
+clock observed here points to the hour of eight, another to eleven, and a
+third to half past-nine, but the clock at the Club Hotel, on the Yokohama
+bund, is owned by an Englishman, and is just about striking ten, when the
+last vault from the saddle of the bicycle that has carried me through so
+many countries is made. And so the bicycle part of the tour around the
+world, which was begun April 22, 1884, at San Francisco, California, ends
+December 17, 1886, at Yokohama.
+
+At this port I board the Pacific mail steamer City of Peking, which in
+seventeen days lands me in San Francisco. Of the enthusiastic reception
+accorded me by the San Francisco Bicycle Club, the Bay City Wheelmen, and
+by various clubs throughout the United States, the daily press of the
+time contains ample record. Here, I beg leave to hope that the courtesies
+then so warmly extended may find an echoing response in this long record
+of the adventures that had their beginning and ending at the Golden Gate.
+
+
+
+
+ITINERARY:
+GIVING THE NAME AND DATE OF EACH SLEEPING-POINT ON THE BICYCLE TOUR
+                      AROUND THE WORLD.
+
+VOLUME I.
+UNITED STATES.
+  CALIFORNIA.
+    1884
+    April 23 San Francisco
+    23 House in the tuiles
+    24 Elmira
+    25 Sacramento
+    26 Near Rocklin
+    27-28 Clipper Gap
+    29 Blue Canon
+    30 Summit House
+  NEVADA.
+    May 1 Verdi
+    2 Ranch on Truckee River
+    3 Hot Springs
+    4 Lovelocks
+    5 Mill City
+    6 Winnemucca
+    7 Stone House
+    8 Ranch on Humboldt
+    9 Palisade
+    10 Carlin
+    11 Halleck
+    12 C P Section House
+  UTAH.
+    13 Tacoma
+    14 Matlin
+    15 Salt House
+    16 Near Corrinne
+    17 Willard City
+    18 Ogden
+    19 Echo City
+    20 Castle Rocks
+  WYOMING TERRITORY.
+    May 21 Evanston
+    22 Hilliard
+    23 In abandoned freight wagon
+    24 Carter Station
+    25 Near Granger
+    26 Rocks Springs
+    27 Ranch
+    28-29 Rawlins
+    30 Carbon
+    31 Lookout June
+    1-2 Laramie City
+    3 Cheyenne
+  NEBRASKA.
+    4 Pine Bluffs
+    5 Potter Station
+    6 Lodge Pole
+    7 Ranch on Platte
+    8 Ogallala
+    9 In a "dug-out"
+    10 Brady Island
+    11 Plum Creek
+    12 Kearney Junction
+    13 Grand Island
+    14 Duncan
+    15 North Bend
+    16 Fremont
+    17-18 Omaha
+  IOWA.
+    19 Farm near Nishnebotene
+    20 Farm near Griswold
+    June 21 Farm near Menlo
+    22 Farm near De Soto
+    23 Altoona
+    24 Kellogg
+    25 Victor
+    26 Tiffin
+    27 MOSCOW-ILLINOIS.
+    28 Rock Island
+    29 Atkinson
+    30 La Moile
+    July 1 Yorkville
+    2 Naperville
+    3 Lyons
+    4-11 Chicago
+  INDIANA.
+    12 Miller Station
+    13 Beneath a wheat shock
+    14 Goshen
+    15 Farm
+  OHIO.
+    10 Ridgeville
+    17 Empire House
+    18 Bellevue
+    19 Village near Cleveland
+    20 Madison
+  PENNSYLVANIA.
+    21 Roadside Hotel near
+    Erie
+  NEW YORK.
+    22 Angola
+    23 Buffalo
+    24 Leroy
+    25 Farm near Canandaigua
+    26 Marcellns
+    27 East Syracuse
+    28 Erie Canal Inn
+    29 Indian Castle
+    80 Crane's Village
+    31 Westfalls Inn
+  MASSACHUSETTS.
+    Aug. 1 Otis
+    2 Palmer
+    3 Worcester
+    4 Boston
+EUROPE.
+  ENGLAND.
+    1885 Liverpool
+    May 2 Warrington
+    3 Stone
+    4 Coventry
+    5 Fenny Stratford
+    6 Great Berkhamstead
+    7-8 London
+    9 Croydon
+    10 British Channel Steamer
+  FRANCE
+    Via Dieppe
+    11 Elbeuf
+    12 Mantes
+    13-15 Paris
+    16 Sezanne
+    17 Bar le Duo
+    18 Trouville
+    19 Nancy
+  GERMANY.
+    20 Phalzburg Via Strasburg
+    21 Oberkirch
+    22 Rottenburg
+    23 Blauburen
+    24 Augsburg
+    25-26 Munich
+    27 Alt Otting
+  AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.
+    28 Hoag
+    29 Strenberg
+    80 Neu Lengbach
+    31 Vienna
+    June 1-3
+    4 Altenburg
+    5 Neszmely
+    6-7 Budapest
+    8 Duna Pentele
+    9 Szegszard
+    10 Duna Szekeso
+    11-12 Eszek
+    13 Sarengrad
+    14 Neusatz
+    15 Batauitz
+  SERVIA, BULGARIA, AND TURKEY.
+    16-17 Belgrade
+    18 Jagodina
+    19 Nisch
+    June 20-31 Bela Palanka
+    22 Sofia
+    23 Ichtiman
+    24 Near Tartar Bazardjic
+    25 Cauheme
+    26 Near Adrianople
+    27-28 Eski Baba
+    29 Small Village
+    30 Tchorlu
+    July 1 Camped out
+    2 Constantinople
+
+6,000 miles wheeled from San Francisco.
+ASIA.
+  ASIA MINOR.
+    Aug. 10 Ismidt
+    11 Geiveh
+    12 Terekli
+    13 Beyond Torbali
+    14 Nalikhan
+    15 Bey Bazaar
+    16-17 Angora
+    18 Village
+    19 Camped out
+    20 Koordish Camp
+    21 Yuzgat
+    22 Camped out
+    23 Village
+    24-25 Sivas
+    26 Zara
+    Mar. 27 Armenian Village
+    28 Camp in a cave
+    29 Merriserriff
+    30 Erzingan
+    31 Houssenbeg Khan
+    Sept. 1 Village in Euphrates Valley
+    2-6 Erzeroum
+    7 Hassan Kaleh
+    8 Dela Baba
+    9 Malosman
+    10 Sup Ogwanis Monastery
+  PERSIA.
+    11 Ovahjik
+    12 Koodish Camp
+    13 Peri
+    14 Khoi
+    15 Village near Lake Ooroomiah
+    16 Village near Tabreez
+    17-20 Tabreez
+    21 Hadji Agha
+    22 Turcomanchai
+    23 Miana
+    24 Koordish Camp
+    25-26 Zendjan
+    27 Heeya
+    28 Kasveen
+    29 Yeng Imam
+    30 Teheran
+
+VOLUME II.
+1886
+    Mar. 10 Katoum-abad
+    11 Aivan-i-Kaif
+    12 Aradan
+    13-14-15 Lasgird
+    16 Semnoon
+    17 Gusheh
+    18 Deh Mollah
+    19-20 Shahrood
+    21 Mijamid
+    22 Miandasht
+    23-24 Mazinan
+    25 Subzowar
+    26 Wayside caravanserai
+    27 Shiirab
+    28 Gadamgah
+    Mar. 29 Wayside caravanserai
+    30-Ap. 6 Meshed
+    April 7 Shahriffabad
+    8 Caravanserai
+    9 Torbet-i-Haidorai
+    10 Camp on Gounabad Desert
+    11 Kakh
+    12 Nukhab
+    13 Small hamlet
+    14 Beerjand
+    15 Ali-abad
+    16 Darmian
+    17 Tabbas
+    18 Huts on desert edge
+  AFGHANISTAN.
+    April 19 Camp on Desert of Despair
+    20 Nomad camp
+    31 Village ou Harud
+    22 Ghalakua
+    23 Nomad camp
+    24-25 Furrali (arrested by Afghans)
+    26 Nomad camp
+    27 Subzowar
+    28 Nomad camp
+    29 Camp out
+    30-May 9 Herat
+    May 10 Village
+    11 Roadside umbar
+    12 Camp in Heri-rood jungle
+  PERSIA.
+    13 Karize (released by Afghans)
+    14 Nomad camp
+    15 Furriman
+    16-18 Meshed
+    19 Caravanserai
+    20 Near Nishapoor
+    21 Lafaram
+    22 Wayside umbar
+    23 Mazinan
+    24 Near caravanserai
+    25 Camp out
+    26-27 Shahrood
+    28 Camp out
+    29 Asterabad
+    30 Bunder Guz
+
+Russian steamer to Baku;
+rail to Batoum; steamer to Constantinople and India.
+Renewed bicycle tour:
+
+  INDIA.
+    August Lahore
+    1 Amritza
+    2 Beas River 8 Jullunder
+    4 Police chowkee
+    5-6 Umballa
+    7 Peepli
+    8 Paniput
+    9 Police chowkee
+    10-14 Delhi
+    15 Dak bungalow
+    16 Bungalow
+    17 Muttra
+    Aug. 18-19 Agra
+    20 Mainipoor
+    21 Miran-serai
+    22-26 Cawnpore
+    27 Caravanserai
+    28 Caravanserai
+    29-30 Allahabad
+    31 Roadside hut
+    Sept. 1-2 Benares
+    3 Mogul-serai
+    4 Caravanserai
+    5 Dilli
+    6 Shergotti
+    7 D`ak bungalow
+    8 D`ak bungalow
+    9 Burwah
+    10 Ranuegunj
+    11 Burdwan
+    12 Hooghli
+    13-17 Calcutta Steamer to Canton
+  CHINA.
+    Oct. 7-12 Canton
+    13 Chun-kong-hi
+    14 Low-pow
+    15 Chin-ynen
+    16 Bamboo thicket
+    17-20 Aboard sampan
+    21 Schou-chou-foo
+    22 Small village
+    23 Do.
+    24 Nam-hung
+    25-28 Nam-ngan
+    29 Aboard sampan
+    30 Large village
+    31 Large village near Kan-tchou-i'oo
+    Nov. 1 Small mountain hamlet
+    2 Walled garrison city
+    3 Ta-ho
+    4 Ki-ngan foo (under arrest)
+    5-15 Under arrest on sampan
+    16 Inn near Kui-Kiang
+    17 Yangtsi-Kiang steamer
+    18 Shanghai
+    19-20 Japanese steamer
+  JAPAN.
+    21-22 Nagasaki
+    23 Omura
+    Nov. 24 Ushidza
+    25-26 Futshishi
+    27 Hakama
+    28 Shemonoseki
+    29 Village
+    30 Do.
+    Dec. 1 A small fishing hamlet
+    2 Do.
+    3 Do.
+    4-5 Okoyama
+    Dec. 6 Himeji
+    7-8 Kobe
+    9 Ozaka
+    10 Kioto
+    11 Saka-no-shita
+    12 Miya
+    13 Hamamatsu
+    14 Roadside inn
+    15 Mishima
+    16 Totsuka
+    17 Yokohama
+
+DISTANCE ACTUALLY WHEELED, ABOUT 13,500 MILES.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Around the World on a Bicycle Volume
+II., by Thomas Stevens
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13749 ***
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+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #13749 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13749)
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Around the World on a Bicycle Volume II.
+by Thomas Stevens
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Around the World on a Bicycle Volume II.
+       From Teheran To Yokohama
+
+Author: Thomas Stevens
+
+Release Date: October 14, 2004 [EBook #13749]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BICYCLE VOLUME II. ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Ray Schumacher
+
+
+
+
+
+AROUND THE WORLD ON A BICYCLE
+
+        Volume II.
+
+From Teheran To Yokohama
+
+By Thomas Stevens
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+           CHAPTER I.                               PAGE
+THE START FROM TEHERAN,  ........                   1
+
+           CHAPTER II.
+PERSIA AND THE MESHED PILGRIM ROAD, ......          34
+
+           CHAPTER III.
+PERSIA AND THE MESHED PILGRIM ROAD,......           43
+
+           CHAPTER IV.
+THROUGH KHORASSAN,..........                        65
+
+           CHAPTER V.
+MESHED THE HOLY,..........                          84
+
+           CHAPTER VI.
+THE UNBEATEN TRACKS Of KHORASSAN,......             109
+
+           CHAPTER VII.
+BEERJAND AND THE FRONTIER OF AFGHANISTAN, .. ..     135
+
+           CHAPTER VIII
+ACROSS THE "DESERT OF DESPAIR,".......              160
+
+           CHAPTER  IX.
+AFGHANISTAN,............                            181
+
+           CHAPTER X.
+ARRESTED AT FURRAH,.........                        197
+
+           CHAPTER XI.
+UNDER ESCORT TO HERAT,.........                     209
+
+           CHAPTER XII.
+TAKEN BACK TO PERSIA,.........                      230
+
+           CHAPTER XIII.
+ROUNDABOUT TO INDIA,......                          255
+
+           CHAPTER XIV.
+THROUGH INDIA,...........                           284
+
+           CHAPTER XV.
+DELHI AND AGRA,..........                           809
+
+           CHAPTER XVI.
+FROM AGRA TO SINGAPORE,........                     833
+
+           CHAPTER XVII.
+THROUGH CHINA,...........                           365
+
+           CHAPTER XVIII.
+DOWN THE KAN-KIANG VALLEY,........                  400
+
+           CHAPTER XIX.
+THROUGH JAPAN,............                          432
+
+           CHAPTER XX.
+THE HOME STRETCH,..........                         451
+
+
+
+CAMBRIDGE, MASS., April 10, 1887.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+FROM TEHERAN TO YOKOHAMA.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE START FROM TEHERAN.
+
+The season of 1885-86 has been an exceptionally mild winter in the
+Persian capital. Up to Christmas the weather was clear and bracing,
+sufficiently cool to be comfortable in the daytime, and with crisp,
+frosty weather at night. The first snow of the season commenced falling
+while a portion of the English colony were enjoying a characteristic
+Christmas dinner of roast-beef and plum-pudding, at the house of the
+superintendent of the Indo-European Telegraph Station, and during January
+and February, snow-storms, cold and drizzling rains alternated with brief
+periods of clearer weather. When the sun shines from a cloudless sky in
+Teheran, its rays are sometimes uncomfortably warm, even in midwinter; a
+foot of snow may have clothed the city and the surrounding plain in a
+soft, white mantle during the night, but, asserting his supremacy on the
+following morning, he will unveil the gray nakedness of the stony plain
+again by noon. The steadily retreating snow line will be driven back-back
+over the undulating foot-hills, and some little distance up the rugged
+slopes of the Elburz range, hard by, ere he retires from view in the
+evening, rotund and fiery. This irregular snow-line has been steadily
+losing ground, and retreating higher and higher up the mountain-slopes
+during the latter half of February, and when March is ushered in, with
+clear sunny weather, and the mud begins drying up and the various
+indications of spring begin to put in their appearance, I decide to make
+a start. Friends residing here who have been mentioning April 15th as the
+date I should be justified in thinking the unsettled weather at an end
+and pulling out eastward again, agree, in response to my anxious
+inquiries, that it is an open spell of weather before the regular spring
+rains, that may possibly last until I reach Meshed.
+
+During the winter I have examined, as far as circumstances have
+permitted, the merits and demerits of the different routes to the Pacific
+Coast, and have decided upon going through Turkestan and Southern Siberia
+to the Amoor Valley, and thence either follow down the valley to
+Vladivostok or strike across Mongolia to Pekin--the latter route by
+preference, if upon reaching Irkutsk I find it to be practicable; if not
+practicable, then the Amoor Valley route from necessity. This route I
+approve of, as it will not only take me through some of the most
+interesting country in Asia, but will probably be a more straightaway
+continuous land-journey than any other. The distance from Teheran to
+Vladivostok is some six thousand miles, and, well aware that six thousand
+miles with a bicycle over Asiatic roads is a task of no little magnitude,
+I at once determine upon taking advantage of the fair March weather to
+accomplish at least the first six hundred miles of the journey between
+Teheran and Meshed, one of the holy cities of Persia.
+
+The bicycle is in good trim, my own health is splendid, my experience of
+nearly eight thousand miles of straightaway wheeling over the roads of
+three continents ought to count for something, and it is with every
+confidence of accomplishing my undertaking without serious misadventure
+that I set about making my final preparations to start. The British
+Charge d'Affaires gives me a letter to General Melnikoff, the Russian
+Minister at the Shah's court, explaining the nature and object of my
+journey, and asking him to render me whatever assistance he can to get
+through, for most of the proposed route lies through Russian territory.
+Among my Teheran friends is Mr. M------, a lively, dapper
+little telegraphist, who knows three or four different languages, and who
+never seems happier than when called upon to act the part of interpreter
+for friends about him.
+
+Among other distinguishing qualities, Mr. M------shines in
+Teheran society as the only Briton with sufficient courage to wear a
+chimney-pot hat. Although the writer has seen the "stove-pipe" of the
+unsuspecting tenderfoot from the Eastern States made short work of in a
+far Western town, and the occurrence seemed scarcely to be out of place
+there, I little expected to find popular sentiment running in the same
+warlike groove, and asserting itself in the same destructive manner in
+the little English community at Teheran. Such, however, is the grim fact,
+and I have ventured to think that after this there is no disputing the
+common destiny of us Anglo-Saxons, whatever clime, country, or government
+may at present claim us as its own. Having seen this unfortunate
+headgear of our venerable and venerated forefathers shot as full of
+holes as a colander in the West, I come to the East only to find it
+subjected to similar indignities here. I happen to be present at the
+wanton destruction of Mr. M------'s second or third importation from
+England, see it taken ruthlessly from his head, thrust through and
+through with a sword-stick, and then made to play the unhappy and
+undignified part of a football so long as there is anything left to kick
+at. More than our common language, methinks--more than common customs and
+traditions--more than all those characteristic traits that distinguish us
+in common, and at the same time also distinguish us from all other
+peoples--more than anything else, does this mutual spirit of
+destructiveness, called into play by the sight of a stove-pipe hat, prove
+the existence of a strong, resistless undercurrent of sympathy that is
+carrying the most distant outposts of Anglo-Saxony merrily down the
+stream of time together, to some particular end; perchance a glorious
+end, perchance an ignominious end, but certainly to an end that will not
+wear a stove-pipe hat.
+
+Mr. M------'s linguistic accomplishments include a fair
+knowledge of Russian, and he readily accompanies me to the Russian
+Legation to interpret. The Russian Legation is situated down in the old
+Oriental quarter (birds of a feather, etc.) of the city, and, for us at
+least, necessitated the employment of a guide to find it. On the way
+down, Mr. M------, who prides himself on a knowledge of
+Russian character, impresses upon me his assurance that General Melnikoff
+will turn out to be a nice, pleasant sort of a gentleman. "All the
+better-class Russians are delightfully jolly and agreeable, much more
+agreeable to have dealings with than the same class of people of any
+other country," he says, and with these favorable comments we reach the
+legation and send up my letter. After waiting what we both consider an
+unnecessarily long time in the vestibule, a full-faced, sensual-looking,
+or, in other words, well-to-do Persian-looking individual, in the full
+costume of a Persian nobleman, comes out, bearing my letter unopened in
+his hand. Bestowing upon us a barely perceptible nod, he walks straight
+on past, jumps into a carriage at the door, and is driven off.
+
+Mr. M------looks nonplussed at me, and I suppose I looked
+equally nonplussed at him; anyhow, he proceeds to relieve his feelings in
+language anything but complimentary to the Russian Minister. He's
+the--well, I've met scores of Russians, but--him, queer! I
+never saw a Russian act half as queer as this before, never!"
+
+"Small prospect of getting any assistance from this quarter," I suggest.
+
+"Seems deucedly like it," assents Mr. M------. "I said,
+just now, that, being a Russian, he was sure to be courteous and
+agreeable, if nothing else; but it seems as if there are exceptions to
+this rule as to others;" and, talking together, we try to find
+consolation in the thought that he may be merely eccentric, and turn out
+a very good sort of fellow after all. While thus commenting, a liveried
+servant presents himself and motions for us to follow him in the wake of
+the departing carriage. Following his guidance a short distance through
+the streets, he leads us into the court-yard of a splendid Persian
+mansion, delivers us into the charge of another liveried servant, who
+conducts us up a broad flight of marble stairs, at the top of which he
+delivers us into the hands of yet a third flunky, who now escorts us into
+the most gorgeously mirrored room it has ever been my fortune to see. The
+apartment is perfectly dazzling in its glittering splendor; the floor is
+of highly polished marble, the walls consist of mirror-work entirely, as
+also does the lofty, domed ceiling; not plain, large squares of
+looking-glass, but mirrored surfaces of all shapes and sizes, pitched at
+every conceivable angle, form niches, panels, and geometrical designs--yet
+each separate piece plays well its part in working out the harmonious and
+decidedly pretty effect of the whole. All the furniture the large
+apartment boasts is a crimson-and-gold divan or two, a few strips of rich
+carpet, and an ebony stand-table, inlaid with mother-of-pearl; but
+suspended from the ceiling are several magnificent cut-glass chandeliers.
+At night, when these Persian mirrored rooms are lit up, they present a
+scene of barbaric splendor well calculated to delight the eye of the
+sumptuous Oriental; every tiny square of glass reflects a point of light,
+and every larger one reproduces a chandelier; for every lamp he lights,
+the Persian voluptuary finds himself surrounded by a thousand.
+
+Seated on a divan toward one end of this splendid room, with an open box
+of cigarettes before him, is the man who a few minutes ago passed us by
+on the other side and drove off in his carriage. Offering us cigarettes,
+he bids us be seated, and then, in very fair English (for he has once
+been Persian Minister to England), introduces himself as "Nasr-i-Mulk,"
+the Shah's Minister for Foreign Affairs; the same gentleman, it will be
+remembered, to whom I was introduced on the morning of my appearance
+before the Shah. (Vol. I.) I readily recognize him now, and he recognizes
+me, and asks me when I am going to leave Teheran; but in the gloomy
+vestibule of the other palace, my own memory of his face and figure was
+certainly at fault. It turns out, after all, that the wretch whom we paid
+to guide us to the Russian Legation, in his ignorance guided us into the
+Persian Foreign Office.
+
+"I knew--yes, dash it all! I knew he wasn't the Russian Minister the
+moment I saw him," says Mr. M------as we take our departure from the
+glittering room. His confidence in his knowledge of Russian character,
+which a moment ago had dropped down to zero, revives wonderfully upon
+discovering our ludicrous mistake, and, small as he is, it is all I can
+do to keep up with him as we follow the guide Nasr-i-Mulk has kindly sent
+to show us to the Russian Legation. A few minutes' walk brings us to our
+destination, where we find, in the person of General Melnikoff, a
+gentleman possessing the bland and engaging qualities of a good
+diplomatist in a most eminent degree.
+
+"Which is Mr. Stevens?" he exclaims, with something akin to enthusiasm,
+as he advances almost to the door to meet us, his face fairly beaming
+with pleasure; and, grasping me warmly by the hand, he proceeds to
+express his great satisfaction at meeting a person, who had "made so
+wonderful a journey," etc., etc., and etc. Never did Mr. Pickwick beam
+more pleasantly at the deaf gentleman, or regard more benignantly Master
+Humphrey's clock, than the Russian Minister regards the form and features
+of one whom, he says, he feels "honored to meet." For several minutes we
+discuss, through the medium of Mr. M------, my journey from San Francisco
+to Teheran, and its proposed continuation to the Pacific; and during the
+greater part, of the interview General Melnikoff holds me quite
+affectionately by the hand. "Wonderful!" he says, "wonderful! nobody ever
+made half such a remarkable journey; my whole heart will go with you
+until your journey is completed."
+
+Mr. M------looks on and interprets between us, with a fixed and confident
+didn't-I-tell-you-so smile, that forms a side study of no mean quality.
+"There will be no trouble about getting permission to go through
+Turkestan?" I feel constrained to inquire; for such excessive display of
+affection and bonhommie on the Russian diplomat's part could scarce fail
+to arouse suspicions. "Oh dear, no!" he replies. "Oh dear, no! I will
+telegraph to General Komaroff, at Askabad, to remove all obstacles, so
+that nothing shall interfere with your progress." Having received this
+positive assurance, we take our leave, Mr. M-------reminding me gleefully
+of what he had said about the Russians being the most agreeable people on
+earth, and the few remaining clouds of doubt about getting the road
+through Turkestan happily dissipated by the Russian Minister's assurances
+of assistance.
+
+Searching through the bazaar, I succeed, after some little trouble, in
+finding and purchasing a belt-full of Russian gold, sufficient to carry
+me clear through to Japan; and on the morning of March 10th I bid
+farewell to the Persian capital, well satisfied at the outlook ahead.
+While packing up my traps on the evening before starting, it begins
+raining for the first time in ten days; but it clears off again before
+midnight, and the morning opens bright and promising as ever. Six members
+of the telegraph staff have determined to accompany me out to
+Katoum-abad, the first chapar-station on the Meshed pilgrim road, a
+distance of seven farsakhs. "Hodge-podge," the cook, and Meshedi Ali, the
+gholam, were sent ahead yesterday with plenty of substantial refreshments
+and sun-dry mysterious black bottles--for it is the intention of the
+party to remain at Katoum-abad overnight, and give me a proper send-off
+from that point to-morrow morning.
+
+Some little delay is occasioned by a difficulty in meeting the fastidious
+tastes of some of the party as regards saddle-horses; but there is no
+particular hurry, and ten o'clock finds me bowling briskly through the
+suburbs toward the Doshan Tepe gate, with four Englishmen, an Irishman,
+and a Welshman cantering merrily along on horseback behind.
+
+"Khuda rail pak Kumad!" (May God sweep your road!), All Akbar had
+exclaimed as I mounted at the door, and as we pass through the city gate
+the old sentinel, when told that I am at last starting on the promised
+journey to Meshed on the asp-i-awhan, supplements this with "Padaram
+daromad!" (My father has come out!), a Persian metaphorical exclamation,
+signifying that such wonderful news has had the effect of calling his
+father from the grave.
+
+The weather has changed again since early morning; it is evidently in a
+very fitful and unsettled mood; the gray clouds are swirling in confusion
+about the white summit of Demavend as we emerge on the level plain
+outside the ramparts, and fleecy fugitives are scudding southward in wild
+haste. Imperfect but ridable donkey-trails follow the dry moat around to
+the Meshed road, which takes a straight course southeastward from the
+city and is seen in the distance ahead, leading over a sloping pass, a
+depression in the Doshan Tepe spur of the Elburz range. The road near the
+city is now in better condition for wheeling than at any other time of
+the year; the daily swarms of pack-animals bringing produce into Teheran
+have trodden it smooth and hard during the ten days' continuous fine
+weather, while it has not been dry sufficiently long to develop into
+dust, as it does later in the season. Our road is level and good for
+something over a farsakh, after which comes the rising ground leading
+gently upward to the pass. The gradient is sufficiently gentle to be
+ridable for some little distance, when it becomes too rocky and steep,
+and I have to dismount and trundle to the summit. The summit of the pass
+is only about nine miles from the city walls, and we pause a minute to
+investigate a bottle of homemade wine from the private cellar of Mr.
+North, one of our party, and to allow me to take a farewell glance at
+Teheran, and the many familiar objects round about, ere riding down the
+eastern slope and out of sight.
+
+Teheran is in semi-obscurity beneath the same hazy veil observed when
+first approaching it from the west, and which always seems to hover over
+it. This haziness is not sufficiently pronounced to hide any conspicuous
+building, and each familiar object in the city is plainly visible from
+the commanding summit of the pass. The different gates of the city, each
+with its little cluster of bright-tiled minars, trace at a glance the
+size and contour of the outer ditch and wall; the large framework of the
+pavilion beneath which the Shah gives his annual tazzia (representation
+of the religious tragedy of Hussein and Hassan), denuded of its canvas
+covering, suggests from this distance the naked ribs of some monster
+skeleton. The square towers of the royal anderoon--which the Shah
+professes to believe is the tallest dwelling-house in the
+world--loom conspicuously skyward above the mass of indefinable mud
+buildings and walls that characterize the habitations of humbler folk,
+but perhaps happier on the whole than the fair occupants of that
+seven-storied gilded prison.
+
+Hundreds of women-wives, concubines, slaves, and domestics are understood
+to be dwelling within these palace walls in charge of sable eunuchs, and
+the fate of any female whose bump of discretion in an evil moment fails
+her, is to be hurled headlong from the summit of one of the anderoon
+towers--such, at least, is the popular belief in Teheran; it may or
+may not be an exaggeration. Some even assert that the Shah's chief object
+in building the anderoon so high was to have the certainty of this awful
+doom ever present before its numerous inmates, the more easily to keep
+them in a submissive frame of mind. Off to the right, below our position,
+is the Doshan Tepe palace, a memorable spot for me, where I had the
+satisfaction of first introducing bicycle-riding to the notice of the
+Persian monarch. Off to the left, the Parsee "tower of silence" is
+observed perched among the lonely gray hills far from human habitation or
+any traversed road; on a grating fixed in the top of this tower, the
+Guebre population of Teheran deposit their dead, in order that the
+carrion-crows and the vultures may pick the carcass clean before they
+deposit the whitened bones in the body of the tower.
+
+Having duly investigated the bottle of wine and noticed these few
+familiar objects, we all remount and begin the descent. It is a gentle
+declivity from top to bottom, and ridable the whole distance, save where
+an occasional washout or other small obstacle compels a dismount. The
+wind is likewise favorable, and from the top of the pass the bicycle
+outdistances the horsemen, except two who are riding exceptionally good
+nags and make a special effort to keep up; and at two o'clock we arrive
+at Katoum-abad. Katoum-abad consists of a small mud village and a
+half-ruined brick caravansarai; in one of the rooms of the latter we find
+"Hodge-podge" and Me-shedi Ali, with an abundance of roast chickens, cold
+mutton, eggs, and the before-mentioned mysterious black bottles.
+
+The few Persian travellers in the caravansarai and the villagers come
+flocking around as usual to worry me about riding the bicycle, but the
+servants drive them away in short order. "We want to see the sahib ride
+the aap-i-awhan," they explain,-no doubt thinking their request most
+natural and reasonable. "The sahib won't let you see it, nor ride on it
+this evening," reply the servants; and, given to understand that we won't
+put up with their importunities, they worry us no more. "Oh, that I could
+get rid of them thus readily always!" I mentally exclaim; for I feel
+instinctively that the farther east I get, the more wretchedly worrying
+and inquisitive I shall find the people. We arrive hungry and thirsty,
+and in condition to do ample justice to the provisions at hand. After
+satisfying the pressing needs of hunger, we drink several appropriate
+toasts from the contents of the mysterious black bottles--toasts for the
+success of my journey, and to the bicycle that has stood by me so well
+thus far on my journey, and promises to stand by me equally as well for
+the future.
+
+About four o'clock two of the company, who have been thoughtful enough to
+bring shotguns along, sally forth in quest of ducks. They come plodding
+wearily back again shortly after dark, without any game, but with deep
+designs on the credulity of the non-sporting members of the company. In
+reply to the general and stereotyped query, "Shoot anything?" one of the
+erring pair replies, "Yes, we shot several canvas-backs, but lost them in
+the reeds; didn't we, old un?" "Yes, five," promptly asserts "old un," a
+truthful young man of about three-and-twenty summers. After this, the
+silence for the space of a minute is so profound that we can hear each
+other think, until one of the company, acting as spokesman for the silent
+reflections of the others, inquires, "Anybody know of any reeds about
+Katoum-abad?" Some one is about to reply, but sportsman No. 1 artfully
+waives further examination by heaping imprecations on the unkempt head of
+a dervish, who at this opportune moment commences a sing-song monotone,
+in a most soul-harrowing key, outside our menzil doorway.
+
+A slight drizzling rain is falling when the early riser of the company
+wakes up and peeps out at daybreak next morning, but it soon ceases, and
+by seven o'clock the ground is quite dry. The road for a mile or so is
+too lumpy to admit of mounting, as is frequently the case near a village,
+and my six companions accompany me to ridable ground. As I mount and
+wheel away, they wave hats and send up three ringing cheers and a
+"tiger," hurrahs that roll across the gray Persian plain to the echoing
+hills, the strangest sound, perhaps, these grim old hills have ever
+echoed; certainly, they never before echoed an English cheer.
+
+And now, as my friends of the telegraph staff turn about and wend their
+way back to Teheran, is as good a time as any to mention briefly the
+manner in which these genial lightning-jerkers assisted to render my five
+months' sojourn in the Persian capital agreeable. But a few short hours
+after my arrival in Teheran, I was sought out by Messrs. Meyrick and
+North, who no sooner learned of my intention to winter here, than they
+extended a cordial invitation to join them in their already established
+bachelors' quarters, where four disconsolate halves of humanity were
+already messing harmoniously together. With them I took up my quarters,
+and, under the liberal and wholesome gastronomic arrangements of the
+establishment, soon acquired my usual semi-embon-point condition, and
+recovered from that gaunt, hungry appearance that the hardships and scant
+fare of the journey from Constantinople had imparted. The house belonged
+to Mr. North, and he managed to give me a little room to myself for
+literary work, and, under the influence of a steady stream of letters and
+papers from friends and well-wishers in England and America, that snug
+little apartment, with a round, moon-like hole in the thick mud wall for
+a window, soon acquired the den-like aspect that seems inseparable from
+the occupation of distributing ink.
+
+Three native servants cooked for us, waited on us, turned up missing when
+wanted for anything particular, cheated us and each other, swore eternal
+honesty and fidelity to our faces, called us infidel dogs and pedar sags
+behind our backs, quarrelled daily among themselves over their modokal
+(legitimate pickings and stealings--ten per cent, on everything
+passing through their hands), and meekly bore with any abuse bestowed
+gratuitously upon them, for an aggregate of one hundred and thirty kerans
+a month--and, of course, their modokal. Some enterprising members of
+the colony had formed themselves into a club, and imported a
+billiard-table from England; this, also, was installed in Mr. North's
+house, and it furnished the means for many an hour of pleasant diversion.
+Like all Persian houses, the house was built around a square court-yard.
+Mr. North had also a pair of small white bull-dogs, named, respectively,
+"Crib" and "Swindle." The last-named animal furnished us with quite an
+exciting episode one February evening. He had been acting rather
+strangely for two or three days; we thought that one of the servants had
+been giving him a dose of bhang in revenge for having worried his kitten,
+and that he would soon recover; but on this particular day, when out for
+a run with his owner, his strange behavior took the form of leaping
+impulsively at Mr. North, and, with seemingly wild frolic, seizing and
+shaking his garments. When Mr. North returned home he took the
+precautionary measure of chaining him up in the yard. Shortly afterward,
+I came in from my customary evening walk, and, all unconscious of the
+change in his behavior, went up to him; with a half-playful, half-savage
+spring he seized the leg of my trousers, and, with an evidently
+uncontrollable impulse, shook a piece clean out of it. He became
+gradually worse as the evening wore away; the wild expression of his eyes
+developed in an alarming manner; he would try to get at any person who
+showed himself, and he made night hideous with the fearful barking howl
+of a mad dog. Poor Swindle had gone mad; and I had had a narrow escape
+from being bitten. We lassoed him from opposite directions and dragged
+him outside and shot him. Swindle was a plucky little dog, and so was
+Crib; one day they chased a vagrant cat up on to the roof; driven to
+desperation, the cat made a wild leap down into the court-yard, a
+distance of perhaps twenty feet; without a moment's hesitation, both dogs
+sprang boldly after her, recking little of the distance to the ground and
+the possibility of broken bones.
+
+Sometimes the colony drives dull care and ennui away by indulging in
+private theatricals; this winter they organized an amateur company,
+called themselves the "Teheran Bulbuls," and, with burnt-corked faces and
+grotesque attire, they rehearsed and perfected themselves in "Uncle
+Ebenezer's Visit to New York," which, together with sundry duets, solos,
+choruses, etc., they proposed to give, an entertainment for the benefit
+of the poor of the city. When the Shah returned from Europe, he was moved
+by what he had seen there to build a small theatre; the theatre was
+built, but nothing is ever done with it. The Teheran Bulbuls applied for
+its use to give their entertainment in, and the Shah was pleased to grant
+their request. The mollahs raised objections; they said it would have a
+tendency to corrupt the morals of the Persians. Once, twice, the
+entertainment was postponed; but the Shah finally overruled the bigoted
+priests' objections, and "Uncle Ebenezer's Visit to New York" was played
+twice in Nasr-e-Deen's little gilded theatre a few days after I left,
+with great success; the first night, before the Shah and his nobles and
+the foreign ambassadors, and the second night before more common folk.
+The two postponements and my early departure prevented me from being on
+hand as prompter. The winter before, these dusky-faced "bul-buls" had
+performed before a Teheran audience, and one who was a member at that
+time tells an amusing story of the individual who acted as prompter on
+that occasion. One of the performers appeared on the stage sufficiently
+charged with stage-fright to cause him to entirely forget his piece.
+Expecting every moment to get the cue from the prompter's box, what was
+his horror to hear, after waiting what probably seemed to him about an
+hour, instead of the cue, in a hoarse whisper that could be distinctly
+heard all over the room, the comforting remark, "I say, Charlie, I've
+lost the blooming place!"
+
+The American missionaries have a small chapel in Teheran, and on Sunday
+morning we sometimes used to go; the little congregation gathered there
+was composed of strange elements collected together from far-off places.
+From Colonel F ______, the grizzled military adventurer, now in the
+Shah's service, and who was also with Maximilian in Mexico, to the young
+American lady who is said to have turned missionary and come,
+broken-hearted, to the distant East because her lover had died a few days
+before they were to be married, they are an audience of people each with
+a more or less adventurous history. It is perfectly natural that it
+should be so; it is the irrepressible spirit of adventure that is either
+directly or indirectly responsible for their presence here.
+
+Half an hour after the echoes of the three cheers and the "tiger" have
+died away finds me wet-footed and engaged in fording a series of
+aggravating little streams, that obstruct my path so frequently that to
+stop and shed one's foot-gear for each soon becomes an intolerable
+nuisance. I should think I can lay claim, without exaggeration, to
+crossing fifty of these streams inside of ten miles. A good-sized stream
+emerges from the Elburz foot-hills; after reaching the plain it follows
+no regular channel, but spreads out like an open fan into a gradually
+widening area of small streams, that play their part in irrigating a few
+scattering fields and gardens, and are then lost in the sands of the
+desert to the south. Situated where it can derive the most benefit from
+these streams is the village of Sherifabad, and beyond Sherifabad
+stretches a verdureless waste to Aivan-i-Kaif. On this desert, I sit
+down, for a few minutes, on one of those little mounds of stones piled up
+at intervals to mark the road when the trail is buried beneath the winter
+snows; a green-turbaned descendant of the Prophet, bestriding a bay
+horse, comes from the opposite direction, stops, dismounts, squats down
+on his hams close by, and proceeds to regale himself with bread and figs,
+meanwhile casting fugitive glances at the bicycle. Presently he advances
+closer, gives me a handful of figs, squats down closer to the bicycle,
+and commences a searching investigation of its several parts.
+
+"Where are you going?" he finally asks. "Meshed."  "Where have you come
+from?" "Teheran." With that he hands me another handful of figs,
+remounts his horse, and rides away without another word. Inquisitiveness
+is seen almost bristling from the loose sleeves and flowing folds of his
+sky-blue gown, but his over-whelming sense of his own holiness forbids
+him holding anything like a lengthy intercourse with an unhallowed
+Ferenghi, and, much as he would like to know everything about the
+bicycle, he goes away without asking a single question about it.
+
+Shortly after parting company with the sanctimonious seyud, I encounter a
+prosperous-looking party of dervishes. Some of them are mounted on
+excellent donkeys, and for dervishes they look exceptionally flourishing
+and well to do. As I ride slowly past, they accost me with their
+customary "huk yah huk," and promise to pray Allah for a safe journey to
+wherever I am going, if I will only favor them with the necessary
+backsheesh to command their good offices.
+
+There are some stretches of very good road across this desert, and I
+reach Aivan-i-Kaif near noon. There has been no drinkable water for a
+long distance, and, being thirsty, my first inquiry is for tea. "There is
+a tchai-khan at the umbar (water-cistern), yonder," I am told, and
+straightway proceed to the place pointed out; but "tchai-khan neis" is
+the reply upon inquiring at the umbar. In this manner am I promptly
+initiated into one peculiarity of the people along this portion of the
+Meshed pilgrim road, a peculiarity that distinguishes them from the
+ordinary Persian as fully as the shaking of their heads for an
+affirmative reply does the people of the Maritza Valley from other people
+of the Balkan Peninsula. They will frequently ask you if you want a
+certain article, simply for the purpose of telling you they haven't got
+it. Whether this queer inconsistency comes of simon-pure inquisitiveness,
+to hear what one will say in reply, or whether they derive a certain
+amount of inquisitorial pleasure from raising a person's expectations one
+moment so as to witness his disappointment the next, is a question I
+prefer to leave to others, but more than once am I brought into contact
+with this peculiarity during the few brief hours I stay at Aivan-i-Kaif.
+It is not improbable that these people are merely carrying their ideas of
+politeness to the insane length of holding out the promise of what they
+think or ascertain one wants, knowing at the same time their inability to
+supply it.
+
+It is threatening rain as I pick my way through a mile or so of mud
+ruins, tumble-down walls, and crooked paths, leading from the umbar to
+the house of the Persian telegraph-jee, who has been requested, from
+Teheran, to put me up, and, in view of the threatening aspect of the
+weather, I conclude to remain till morning. The English Government has
+taken charge of the Teheran and Meshed telegraph-line, during the
+delimitation of the Afghan and Turkestan boundary, and, besides
+guaranteeing the native telegraph-jees their regular salary-which is not
+always forthcoming from the Persian Government-they pay them something
+extra. In consequence of this, the telegraph-jees are at present very
+favorably disposed toward Englishmen, and Mirza Hassan readily tenders me
+the hospitality of the little mud office where he amuses himself daily
+clicking the keys of his instrument, smoking kalians, drinking tea, and
+entertaining his guests. Mr. Mclntire and Mr. Stagno are somewhere
+between here and Meshed, inspecting and repairing the line for the
+English Government, for they received it from the Persians in a wretched,
+tumble-down condition, and Mr. Gray, telegraphist for the Afghan Boundary
+Commission, is stationed temporarily at Meshed, so that, thanks to the
+boundary troubles, I am pretty certain of meeting three Europeans on the
+first six hundred miles of my journey.
+
+Mirza Hassan is hospitable and well meaning, but, like most Persians, he
+is slow about everything but asking questions. Being a telegraph-jee, he
+is, of course, a comparatively enlightened mortal, and, among other
+things, he is acquainted with the average Englishman's partiality for
+beer. One of the first questions he asks, is whether I want any beer. It
+strikes me at once as a rather strange question to be asked in a Persian
+village, but, thinking he might perchance have had a bottle or two left
+here by one of the above-mentioned telegraph-inspectors, I signify my
+willingness to sample a little. True to the peculiar inconsistency of his
+fellows, he replies: "Ob-i-jow neis" (beer, no). If he hasn't ob-i-jow,
+however, he has tea, and in about an hour after my arrival he produces
+the samovar, a bowl of sugar, and the tiny glasses in which tea is always
+served in Persia.
+
+Visitors begin dropping in as usual, and, before long, hundreds of
+villagers are swarming about the telegraph-khana, anxious to see me ride.
+It is coming on to rain, but, in order to rid the telegraph-office of the
+crowd, I take the bicycle out. Willing men carry both me and the bicycle
+across a stream that runs through the village, to smooth ground on the
+opposite side, where I ride back and forth several times, to the wild and
+boisterous delight of the entire population.
+
+In this manner I succeed in ridding the telegraph-office of the crowd;
+but there is no getting rid of the visitors. Everybody in the place who
+thinks himself a little better than the ragamuffin ryots comes and squats
+on his hams in the little hut-like office, sips the telegraph-jee's
+sweetened tea, smokes his kalians, and spends the afternoon in staring
+wonderingly at me and the bicycle. Having picked up a little Persian
+during the winter, I am able to talk with them, and understand them,
+rather better than last season, and, Persian-like, they ply me
+mercilessly with questions. Often, when some one asks a question of me,
+Mirza Hassan, as becomes a telegraphies, and a person of profound
+erudition, thoughtfully saves me the trouble of replying by undertaking
+to furnish the desired information himself. One old mollah wants to know
+how many farsakhs it is from Aivan-i-Kaif to Yenghi Donia (New
+World-America); ere I can frame a suitable reply, Mirza Hassan forestalls
+my intentions by answering, in a decisive tone of voice that admits of no
+appeal, "Khylie!" "Khylie" is a handy word that the Persians always fall
+back on when their knowledge of great numbers or long distances is vague
+and shadowy; it is an indefinite term, equivalent to our word "many."
+Mirza Hassan does not know whether America is two hundred farsakhs away
+or two thousand, but he knows it to be "khylie farsakhs," and that is
+perfectly satisfactory to himself, and the white-turbaned questioner is
+perfectly satisfied with "khylie" for an answer.
+
+A person from the New World is naturally a rara avis with the simple
+villagers of Aivan-i-Kaif, and their inquisitiveness concerning Yenghi
+Donia and Yenghi Donians fairly runs riot, and shapes itself into all
+manner of questions. They want to know whether the people smoke kalians
+and ride horses--real horses, not asps-i-awhans-in Yenghi Donia, and
+whether the Valiat smoked the kalian with me at Hadji Agha. Mirza Hassan
+explains about the kalian and horses; he enlightens his wondering
+auditors to the extent that Yenghi Donians smoke nargilehs and chibouques
+instead of kalians, and he contemptuously pooh-poohs the idea of them
+keeping riding-horses when they are clever enough to make iron horses
+that require nothing to eat or drink and no rest. About the question of
+the Heir Apparent smoking the kalian with me he betrays as lively an
+interest as anybody in the room, but he maintains a discreet silence
+until I answer in the negative, when he surveys his guests with the air
+of one who pities their ignorance, and says, "Kalian neis."
+
+A lusty-lunged youngster of about three summers has been interrupting the
+genial flow of conversation by making "Rome howl" in an adjoining room,
+and Mirza Hassan fetches him in and consoles him with sundry lumps of
+sugar. The advent of the limpid-eyed toddler leads the thoughts and
+questions of the company into more domestic channels. After exhaustive
+questioning about my own affairs, Mirza Hassan, with more than
+praiseworthy frankness and becoming gravity, informs me that, besides the
+embryo telegraphjee and sugar-consumer in the room, he is the happy
+father of "yek nim" (one and a half others). I cast my eye around the
+room at this extraordinary announcement, expecting to find the company
+indulging in appreciative smiles, but every person in the room is as
+sober as a judge; plainly, I am the only person present who regards the
+announcement as anything uncommon.
+
+After an ample supper of mutton pillau, Mirza Hassan proceeds to say his
+prayers, borrowing my compass to get the proper bearings for Mecca, which
+I have explained to him during the afternoon. With no little dismay he
+discovers that, according to my explanations, he has for years been
+bobbing his head daily several degrees east of the holy city, and, like a
+sensible fellow, and a person who has become convinced of the
+infallibility of telegraph instruments, compasses, and kindred aids to
+the accomplishment of human ends, he now rectifies the mistake.
+
+Everybody along this route uses a praying-stone, a small cake of stone or
+hardened clay, containing an inscription from the Koran. These
+praying-stones are obtained from the sacred soil of Meshed, Koom, or
+Kerbela, and are placed in position on the ground in front of the
+kneeling devotee during his devotions, so that, instead of touching his
+forehead to the carpet or the common ground of his native village, he can
+bring it in contact with the hallowed soil of one of these holy cities.
+Distance lends enchantment to a holy place, and adds to the efficacy of a
+prayer-stone in the eyes of its owner, and they are valued highly or
+lightly according to the distance and the consequent holiness of the city
+they are brought from. For example, a Meshedi values a prayer-stone from
+Kerbela, and a Kerbeli values one from Meshed, neither of them having
+much faith in the efficacy of one from his own city; familiarity with
+sacred things apparently breeds doubts and indifference. The prayer-stone
+is reverently touched to lips, cheeks, and forehead at the finish of
+prayers, and then carefully wrapped up and stowed away until praying-time
+comes round again. To a sceptical and perhaps irreverent observer, these
+praying-stones would seem to bear about the same relation to a pilgrimage
+to Meshed or Kerbela as a package of prepared sea-salt does to a season
+at the sea-side.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+PERSIA AND THE MESHED PILGRIM ROAD
+
+It rains quite heavily during the night, but clears off again in the
+early morning, and at eight o'clock I take my departure, Mirza Hassan
+refusing to allow his son and heir to accept a present in acknowledgment
+of the hospitality received at his hands. The whole male population of
+the village is assembled again at the spot where their experience of
+yesterday has taught them I should probably mount; and the house-tops
+overlooking the same spot, and commanding a view of the road across the
+plain to the eastward, are crowded with women and children. The female
+portion of my farewell audience present quite a picturesque appearance,
+being arrayed in their holiday garments of red, blue, and other bright
+colors, in honor of Friday, the Mohammedan Sabbath.
+
+Pour miles of most excellent camel-path lead across a gravelly plain,
+affording a smooth, firm, wheeling surface, notwithstanding the heavy
+rains of the previous night; but beyond the plain the road leads over the
+pass of the Sardara Kooh, one of the many spurs of the Elburz range that
+reach out toward the south. This spur consists of saline hills that
+present a very remarkable appearance in places; the rocks are curiously
+honey-combed by the action of the salt, and the yellowish earthy portion
+of the hills are fantastically streaked and seamed with white. A trundle
+of a couple of miles brings me to the summit, from which point I am able
+to mount, and, with brake firmly in hand, glide smoothly down the eastern
+slope. After descending about a mile, I am met by a party of travellers
+who give me friendly warning of deep water a little farther down the
+mountain. After leaving them, my road follows down the winding bed of a
+stream that is probably dry the greater part of the year; but during the
+spring thaws, and immediately after a rain-storm, a stream of brackish,
+muddy water a few inches deep trickles down the mountain and forms a most
+disagreeable area of sticky salt mud at the bottom. The streak this
+morning can more truthfully be described as yellow liquid mud than as
+water, and both myself and wheel present anything but a prepossessing
+appearance in ten minutes after starting down its grimy channel. I am,
+however, congratulating myself upon finding it so shallow, and begin to
+think that, in describing the water as nearly over their donkeys' backs,
+the travellers were but indulging their natural propensity as subjects of
+the Shah, and worthy followers in the footsteps of Ananias.
+
+About the time I have arrived at this comforting conclusion, I am
+suddenly confronted by a pond of liquid mud that bars my farther progress
+down the mountain. A recent slide of land and rock has blocked up the
+narrow channel of the stream, and backed up the thick yellow liquid into
+a pool of uncertain depth. There is no way to get around it;
+perpendicular walls of rock and slippery yellow clay rise sheer from the
+water on either side. There is evidently nothing for it but to disrobe
+without more ado and try the depth. Besides being thick with mud, the
+water is found to be of that icy, cutting temperature peculiar to cold
+brine, and after wading about in it for fifteen minutes, first finding a
+fordable place, and then carrying clothes and wheel across, I emerge on
+to the bank formed by the land-slip looking as woebegone a specimen of
+humanity as can well be imagined. Plastered with a coat of thin yellow
+mud from head to foot, chilled through and through, and shivering like a
+Texas steer in a norther, feet cut and bleeding in several places from
+contact with the sharp rocks, and no clean water to wash off the mud!
+With the assistance of knife, pocket-handkerchief, and sundry theological
+remarks which need not be reproduced here, I finally succeed in getting
+off at least the greater portion of the mud, and putting on my clothes.
+The discomfort is only of temporary duration; the agreeable warmth of the
+after-glow exhilarates both mind and body, and with the disappearance of
+the difficulty to the rear cornea the satisfaction of having found it no
+harder to overcome.
+
+A little good wheeling is encountered toward the bottom of the pass, and
+then comes an area of wet salt-flats, interspersed with saline
+rivulets--those innocent-looking little streamlets the deceptive clearness
+of which tempts the thirsty and uninitiated wayfarer to drink. Few
+travellers in desert countries but have been deceived by these
+innocuous-looking streamlets once, and equally few are the people who
+suffer themselves to be deceived by their smooth, pellucid aspect a
+second time; for a mouthful of either strongly saline or alkaline water
+from one of them creates an impression on the deceived one's palate and
+his mind that guarantees him to be wariness personified for the remainder
+of his life. Since a certain experience in the Bitter Creek country,
+Wyoming, the writer prides himself on being able to distinguish drinkable
+water from the salty or alkaline article almost as far as it can be seen,
+and a stream about which the least suspicion is entertained is invariably
+tasted with gingerly hesitancy to begin with.
+
+Soon after noon I reach the village of Kishlag, where a halt of an hour
+or so is made to refresh the inner man with tea, raw eggs, and
+figs--a queer enough bill of fare for dinner, but no more queer than
+the people from whom it is obtained. Some of my readers have doubtless
+heard of the Milesian waiter who could never be brought to see any
+inconsistency in asking the guests of the restaurant whether they would
+take tea or coffee, and then telling them there was no tea, they would
+have to take coffee. The proprietor of the little tchai-khan at Kishlag
+asks me if I want coffee, and then, in strict conformity with the curious
+inconsistency first discovered and spoken of at Aivan-i-Kaif, he informs
+me that he has nothing but tea. The country hereabout is evidently the
+birthplace of Irish bulls; when the ancestors of modern Handy Andys were
+running wild on the bogs of Connemara, the people of Aivan-i-Kaif and
+Kishlag were indulging in Irish bulls of the first water.
+
+The crowd at Kishlag are good-natured and comparatively well-behaved. In
+reply to their questionings, I tell them that I am journeying from Yenghi
+Donia to Meshed. The New World is a far-away, shadowy realm to these
+ignorant Persian villagers, almost as much out of their little,
+unenlightened world as though it were really another planet; they
+evidently think that in going to Meshed I am making a pilgrimage to the
+shrine of Imam Riza, for some of them commence inquiring whether or no
+Yenghi Donians are Mussulmans.
+
+The weather-clerk inaugurates a regular March zephyr in the east, during
+the brief halt at Kishlag; and in addition to that doubtful favor blowing
+against me, the road leading out is lumpy as far as the cultivated area
+extends, and then it leads across a rough, stony plain that is traversed
+by a network of small streams, similar to those encountered yesterday at
+Sherifabad. To the left, the abutting front of the Elburz Mountains is
+streaked and frescoed with salt, that in places vies in whiteness with
+the lingering-patches of snow higher up; to the right extends the gray,
+level plain, interspersed with small cultivable areas for a farsakh or
+two, beyond which lies the great dasht-i-namek (salt desert) that
+comprises a large portion of the interior of Persia.
+
+Wild asses abound on the dasht-i-namek, and wandering bands of these
+animals occasionally stray up in this direction. The Persians consider
+the flesh of the wild donkey as quite a delicacy, and sometimes hunt them
+for their meat; they are said to be untamable, unless caught when very
+young, and are then generally too slender-limbed to be of any service in
+carrying weights. Wild goats abound in the Elburz Mountains; the
+villagers hunt them also for their meat, but the flesh of the wild goat
+is said to contribute largely to the prevalence of sore eyes among the
+people. The Persian will eat wild donkey, wild goat, and the flesh of
+camels, but only the very poor people--people who cannot afford to be
+fastidious--ever touch a piece of beef; gusht-i-goosfang (mutton) is the
+staple meat of the country.
+
+The general aspect of the country immediately south of the Elburz
+Mountains, beyond the circumscribed area of cultivation about the
+villages, is that of a desert, desolate, verdureless, and forbidding. One
+can scarcely realize that by simply crossing this range a beautiful
+region is entered, where the prospect is as different as is light from
+darkness. An entirely different climate characterizes the Province of
+Mazanderan, comprising the northern slopes of these mountains and the
+Caspian littoral. With a humid climate the whole year round, and the
+entire face of the country covered with dense jungle, the northern slopes
+of the Elburz Mountains present a striking contrast to the barren,
+salt-frescoed foot-hills facing the south hereabout. Here, as at Resht,
+the moisture from the Caspian Sea does for the province of Mazanderan
+what similar influences from the Pacific do for California. It makes all
+the difference between California and Nevada in the one case, and
+Mazanderan and the desert-like character of Central Persia in the other.
+
+In striking and effective contrast to the general aspect of death and
+desolation that characterizes the desert wastes of Persia--an effect
+that is heightened by the ruins of caravansaries or villages, that are
+seldom absent from the landscape--are the cultivated spots around the
+villages. Wherever there is a permanent supply of water, there also is
+certain to be found a mud-built village, with fields of wheat and barley,
+pomegranate orchards, and vineyards. In a country of universal greenness
+these would count for nothing, but, situated like islands in the sea of
+sombre gray about them, they often present an appearance of extreme
+beauty that the wondering observer is somewhat puzzled to account for; it
+is the beauty of contrast, the great and striking contrast between
+vegetable life and death.
+
+These impressions are nowhere more strongly brought into notice than when
+approaching Aradan, a village I reach about five o'clock. Like almost all
+Persian towns and villages, Aradan has evidently occupied a much larger
+area at one time than it does at present; and the mournful-looking ruins
+of mosques, gateways, walls, and houses are scattered here and there over
+the plain for a mile before reaching the present limits of habitation.
+The brown ruins of a house are seen standing in the middle of a
+wheat-field; the wheat is of that intense greenness born of irrigation
+and a rich sandy soil, and the mud ruins, dead, desolate, and crumbling
+to dust, look even more deserted and mournful from the great contrast in
+color, and from the myriad stems of green young life that wave and nod
+about them with every passing breeze. The tumble-down windows and
+doorways form openings through which the blue sky and the green waving
+sea of vegetation beyond are seen as in a picture, and the ruined mud
+mosque, its dome gone, its windows and doorways crumbled to shapeless
+openings, seems like a weather-beaten skeleton of Persia's past, while
+the ever-moving waves of verdant life about it, seem to be beating
+against it and persistently assailing it, like waves of the sea beating
+against an isolated rock.
+
+While engaged in fording a stream on the stony plain between road. The
+shagird-chapar is with them, on a third "bag of bones," worse, if
+possible, than the others. Taking the world over, there is perhaps no
+class of horses that are, subject to so much cruelty and ill-treatment as
+the chapar horses of Persia, With back raw, ribs countable a hundred
+yards away, spavined, blind of an eye, fistula, and cursed with every ill
+that horseflesh in the hands of human brutes is subject to, the chapar
+horse is liable to be taken out at any hour of the day or night,
+regardless of previous services being but just finished. He is goaded on
+with unsparing lash to the next station, twenty, or perhaps thirty miles
+away, staggering beneath the weight of the traveller, or his servant,
+with ponderous saddlebags.
+
+This chapar, or post-service, is established along the great highways of
+travel between Teheran and Tabreez, Teheran and Meshed, and Teheran and
+Bushire, with a branch route from the Tabreez trail to the Caspian port
+of Enzeli; the stations vary from four to eight farsakhs apart. Not all
+the chapar horses are the wretched creatures just described, however, and
+by engaging beforehand the best horses at each station along the route,
+certain travellers have made quite remarkable time between points
+hundreds of miles apart. In addition to horses for himself and servants,
+the traveller is required to pay for one to carry the shagird-chapar who
+accompanies them to the next station to bring back the horses. The
+ordinary charge is one keran a farsakh for each horse. It wouldn't be a
+Persian institution, however, if there wasn't some little underhanded
+arrangement on hand to mulct the traveller of something over and above
+the legitimate charges. Accordingly, we find two distinct measurements of
+distance recognized between each station--the "chapar distance" and the
+correct distance. If, for instance, the actual distance is six farsakhs,
+the "chapar distance" will be seven, or seven and a half; the difference
+between the two is the chapar-jee's modokal; without modokal there is no
+question but that a Persian would feel himself to be a miserable,
+neglected mortal.
+
+Aradan is another telegraph control station, and Mr. Stagno informs me
+that the telegraph-jee is looking forward to my arrival, and is fully
+prepared to accommodate me over night; and, furthermore, that all along
+the line the people of the telegraph towns are eagerly anticipating the
+arrival of the Sahib, with the marvellous vehicle, of which they have
+heard such strange stories. Aradan is reached about five o'clock; the
+road leading into the village is found excellent wheeling, enabling me to
+keep the saddle while following at the heels of a fleet-footed ryot, who
+voluntarily guides me to the telegraph-khana. The telegraph-jee is
+temporarily absent when I arrive, but his farrash lets me inside the
+office yard, spreads a piece of carpet for me to sit on, and with
+commendable thoughtfulness shuts out the crowd, who, as usual,
+immediately begin to collect. The quickness with which a crowd collects
+in a Persian town has to be seen to be fully comprehended. For the space
+of half an hour, I sit in solitary state on the carpet, and endure the
+wondering gaze and the parrot-like chattering of a thin, long row of
+villagers, sitting astride the high mud wall that encloses three sides of
+the compound, and during the time find some amusement in watching the
+scrambling and quarrelling for position. These irrepressible sight-seers
+commenced climbing the wall from the adjoining walls and houses the
+moment the farash shut them out of the yard, and in five minutes they are
+packed as close as books on a shelf, while others are quarreling noisily
+for places; in addition to this, the roof of every building commanding a
+view into the chapar-khana compound is swarmed with neck-craning,
+chattering people.
+
+Soon the telegraph-jee puts in an appearance; he proves to be an
+exceptionally agreeable fellow, and one of the very few Persians one
+meets with having blue eyes. He appears to regard it as quite an
+understood thing that I am going to remain over night with him, and
+proceeds at once to make the necessary arrangements for my accommodation,
+without going to the trouble of extending a formal invitation. He also
+wins my eternal esteem by discouraging, as far as Persian politeness and
+civility will admit, the intrusion of the inevitable self-sufficients who
+presume on their "eminent respectability" as loafers, in contradistinction
+to the half-naked tillers of the soil, to invade the premises and satisfy
+their inordinate curiosity, and their weakness for kalian, smoking and
+tea-drinking at another's expense. After duly discussing between us a
+samovar of tea, we take a stroll through the village to see the old
+castle, and the umbars that supply the village with water. The telegraph-
+gee cleared the walls upon his arrival, but the housetops are out of his
+jurisdiction, and before starting he wisely suggests putting the bicycle
+in some conspicuous position, as an inducement for the crowd to remain
+and concentrate their curiosity upon it, otherwise there would be no
+keeping them from following us about the village. We set it up in plain
+view on the bala-khana, and returning from our walk, are amused to find
+the old farrash delivering a lecture on cycling.
+
+The fortress at Aradan is the first one of the kind one sees when
+travelling eastward from Teheran, but as we shall come to a larger and
+better preserved specimen at Lasgird, in a couple of days, it will,
+perhaps, be advisable to postpone a description till then. They are all
+pretty much alike, and were all built to serve the same purpose, of
+affording shelter and protection from Turkoman raiders. The Aradan umbars
+are nothing extraordinary, except perhaps that the conical brick-work
+roofs are terraced so that one can walk, like ascending stairs, to the
+summit; and perhaps, also, because they are in a good state of repair
+--asufficiently unusual thing in a Persian village to merit remark. These
+umbars are filled by allowing the water to flow in from a street ditch
+connecting with the little stream to which every village owes its
+existence; when the umbar is full, a few spadefuls of dirt shut the water
+off.
+
+The chief occupation of the Eastern female is undoubtedly carrying water;
+the women of Oriental villages impress the observant Occidental, as
+people who will carry water-worlds may be created and worlds destroyed;
+all things else may change, and habits and costumes become revolutionized
+by the march of time, but nothing will prevent the Oriental female from
+carrying water, and carrying it in huge earthenware jugs! At any hour of
+the day--I won't speak positively about the night--women may be seen
+at the unbars filling large earthenware jugs, coming and going, going and
+coming. I don't remember ever passing one of these cisterns without
+seeing women there, filling and carrying away jars of water. No doubt
+there are occasional odd moments when no women are there, but any person
+acquainted with village life in the East will not fail to recognize this
+as simply the plain, unvarnished truth. As the ditch from which the umbar
+is filled not infrequently runs through half the length of the village
+first, the personal habits of a Mohammedan population insure that it
+reaches the umbar in anything but a fit condition for human consumption.
+But the Koran teaches that flowing water cannot be contaminated or
+defiled, consequently, when he takes a drink or fills the village
+reservoir, your thoroughbred Mussulman never troubles his head about what
+is going on up-stream. The Koran is to him a more reliable guide for his
+own good than the evidence of all his seven senses combined.
+
+Stagnant pools of water, covered, even this early in the season (March
+12th), with green scum, breed fever and mosquitoes galore in Aradan; the
+people know it, acknowledge it readily, and suffer from it every summer,
+but they take no steps to remedy the evil; the spirit of public
+enterprise has dwindled to such dimensions in provincial Persia, that it
+is no longer equal to filling up a few fever-breeding pools of water in
+the centre of a village. The telegraph-jee himself acknowledges that the
+water-holes cause fever and mosquitoes, but, intelligent and enlightened
+mortal though he be in comparison with his fellow-villagers, when
+questioned about it, he replies: "Inshalla! the water don't matter; if it
+is our kismet to take the fever and die, nothing can prevent it; if it is
+our kismet not to take it, nothing can give it to us." Such unanswerable
+logic could only originate in the brain of a fatalist; these people are
+all fatalists, and--as we can imagine--especially so when the
+doctrine comes in handy to dodge doing anything for the public weal.
+
+All Persian villages, except those clustered about the immediate vicinity
+of a large city, have some peculiarity of their own to offer in the
+matter of the people's dress. The pantaloons of any Persian village are
+not by any means stylish garments, according to Western ideas; but the
+male bipeds of Aradan have something really extraordinary to offer, even
+among the many startling patterns of this garment met with in Eastern
+lands. To note the quantity of material that enters into the composition
+of a pair of Aradan pantaloons, would lead an uninitiated person into
+thinking the people all millionaires, were it not likewise observed that
+the material is but coarse blue cotton, woven and dyed by the wearer's
+wife, mother, or sister. One of the most conspicuous features about them
+is that their shape--if they can truthfully be said to have any
+shape--seems to be a wild, rambling pattern of our own ideas
+concerning the shape this garment ought to assume. The legs, instead of
+being gathered, Oriental fashion, at the ankles, dangle loosely about the
+feet; and yet it is these same legs that are the chief distinguishing
+feature of the pants. One of the legs, cut off and sewed up at one end,
+would make the nicest kind of an eight-bushel grain sack; rather too
+wide, perhaps, in proportion to the depth, to make a shapely grain sack,
+but there is no question about the capacity for the eight bushels. No
+doubt these people would be puzzled to say why they are wearing yards and
+yards of stuff that is not only useless, but positively in the way,
+except that it has been the fashion in Aradan from time immemorable to do
+so. These simple Persian peasants, when they make any pretence of
+sprucing up, probably find themselves quite as much enslaved by fashion
+as our very fastidious selves; a wide difference betaken ourselves and
+them, however, being, that while they cling tenaciously to some
+prehistoric style of garment, and regard innovations with abhorrence,
+fashion demands of us to be constantly changing.
+
+The Aradan telegraph-jee is a young man skin-full of piety, rejoicing in
+the possession of a nice little praying-carpet, a praying-stone from holy
+Kerbela, the holiest of all except Mecca, and he owns a string of beads
+of the same soul-comforting material as the stone. During his waking
+hours he is seldom without the rosary in his hand, passing the holy beads
+back and forth along the string; and five times a day he produces the
+praying-stone from its little leathern pouch and goes through the
+ceremony of saying his prayers, with becoming earnestness. At eventide,
+when he spreads his praying-carpet and places the little oblong tablet
+from Kerbela in its customary position, preparatory to commencing his
+last prayers for the day, it is furthermore ascertained by the compass
+that he has been pretty accurate in his daily prostrations toward Mecca.
+With all these enviable advantages--the praying-carpet, the praying-stone,
+the holy rosary, and the happy accuracy as regards Mecca--the Aradan
+telegraph-jee is a Mussulman who ought to feel tolerably certain of a
+rose-garden, a gurgling rivulet, and any number of black-eyed houris to
+contribute to his happiness in the paradise he hopes to enter beyond the
+tomb.
+
+Indications have not been wanting during the day that the weather is in
+anything but a settled condition, and upon waking in the morning I fancy
+I hear the pattering music of the rain. Fortunately it proves to be only
+fancy, and the telegraph-jee, assuming the part of a weather-prophet,
+reassures me by remarking, "Inshalla, am roos, baran neis" (Please God,
+it will not rain to-day). Being a Persian, he says this, not because he
+has any particular confidence in his own predictions, but because his
+idea of making himself agreeable is to frame his predictions by the
+measurement of what he discovers to be my wishes.
+
+The road into Aradan led me through one populous cemetery, and the road
+out again leads me through another; beyond the cemetery it follows
+alongside a meandering streamlet that flows, sluggishly along over a bed
+of deep gray mud. The road is lumpy but ridable, and I am pedalling
+serenely along, happy in the contemplation of better roads ahead than I
+had yesterday, when one of those ludicrous incidents happen that have
+occurred at intervals here and there all along my journey. A party of
+travellers have been making a night march from the east, and as we
+approach each other, a wary kafaveh-carrying mule, suspicious about the
+peaceful character of the mysterious object bearing down toward him,
+pricks up his ears, wheels round, and inaugurates confusion among his
+fellows, and then proceeds to head them in a determined bolt across the
+stream. Unfortunately for the women in the kajavehs, the mud and water
+together prove to be deeper than the mule expected to find them, and the
+additional fright of finding himself in a well-nigh swamped condition,
+causes him to struggle violently to get out again. In so doing he bursts
+whatever fastenings may have bound him and his burden together, scrambles
+ashore, and leaves the kajavehs floating on the water!
+
+The women began screaming the moment the mule wheeled round and bolted,
+and now they find themselves afloat in their queer craft, these
+characteristic female signals of distress are redoubled in energy; and
+they may well be excused for this, for the kajavehs are gradually filling
+and sinking; it was never intended that kajavehs should be capable of
+acting in the capacity of a boat. The sight of their companion's
+difficulties has the effect of causing the other mules to change their
+minds about crossing the stream, and almost to change their minds about
+indulging in the mulish luxury of a scare; and fortunately the charvadars
+of the party succeed in rescuing the kajavehs before they sink. Nobody is
+injured, beyond the women getting wet; no damage is done worth
+mentioning, and as the two heroines of the adventure emerge from their
+novel craft, their garments dripping with water, their doleful looks are
+rewarded with unsympathetic merriment from the men. Few have been my
+wheeling days on Asian roads that have not witnessed something in the
+shape of an overthrow or runaway; so far, nobody has been seriously
+injured by them, but I have sometimes wondered whether it will be my good
+fortune to complete the bicycle journey around the world without some
+mishap of the kind, resulting in broken limbs for the native and trouble
+for myself.
+
+After a couple of miles the road and the meandering stream part company,
+the latter flowing southward and the road traversing a flat, curious,
+stone-strewn waste; an area across which one could step from one large
+boulder to another without touching the ground. Once beyond this, and the
+road develops into several parallel trails of smooth, hard gravel, that
+afford as good, or better, wheeling than the finest macadam. While
+spinning at a highly satisfactory rate of speed along these splendid
+paths, a small herd of antelopes cross the road some few hundred yards
+ahead, and pass swiftly southward toward the dasht-i-namek. These are the
+first antelopes, or, for that matter, the first big game I have
+encountered since leaving the prairies of Western Nebraska. The Persian
+antelope seems to be a duplicate of his distinguished American relative
+in a general, all-round sense; he is, if anything, even more
+nimble-footed than the spring-heeled habitue of the West, possesses the
+same characteristic jerky jump, and hoists the same conspicuous white
+signal of retreat. He is a decidedly slimmer-built quadruped, however,
+than the American antelope; the body is of the same square build, but is
+sadly lacking in plumpness, and he seems to be an altogether lankier and
+less well-favored animal. For this constitutional difference, he is
+probably indebted to the barren and inhospitable character of the country
+over which he roams, as compared with the splendid feeding-grounds of
+the--Far West. The Persians sometimes hunt the antelope on horseback,
+with falcons and greyhounds; the falcons are taught to fly in advance and
+attack the fleeing antelopes about the head, and so confuse them and
+retard their progress in the interest of the pursuing hounds and
+horsemen.
+
+The little village of Deh Namek is reached about mid-day, where my
+ever-varying bill of fare takes the shape of raw eggs and pomegranates.
+Deh Namek is too small and unimportant a place to support a public
+tchai-khan; but along the Meshed pilgrim road the villagers are keenly
+alive to the chance of earning a stray keran, and the advent of one of
+those inexhaustible keran-mines, a "Sahib," is the signal for some
+enterprising person, sufficiently well-to-do to own a samovar, to get up
+steam in it and prepare tea.
+
+East of Deh Namek, the wheeling continues splendid for a dozen miles,
+traversing a level desert on which one finds no drinkable water for about
+twenty miles. Across the last eight miles of the desert the road is
+variable, consisting of alternate stretches of ridable and unridable
+ground, the latter being generally unridable by reason of sand and loose
+gravel, or thickly strewn flints. More antelopes are encountered east of
+Deh Namek; at one place, particularly, I enjoy quite a little exciting
+spurt in an effort to intercept a band that are heading across my road
+from the Elburz foot-hills to the desert. The wheeling is here
+magnificent, the spurt develops into a speed of fourteen miles an hour;
+the antelopes see their danger, or, at all events, what they fancy to be
+danger, and their apprehensions are not by any mean lessened by the new
+and startling character of their pursuer. Wild antelopes are timid things
+at all times, and, as may be readily imagined, the sight of a mysterious
+glistening object, speeding along at a fourteen or fifteen mile pace to
+intercept them, has a magical effect upon their astonishing powers of
+locomotion. They seem to fly rather than run, and to skim like swallows
+over the surface of the level plain rather than to touch the ground; but
+they were some distance from the road when they first realized my
+terrifying presence, and I am within fifty yards of the band when they
+flash like a streak of winged terror across the road. These antelopes do
+not cease their wild flight within the range of my powers of observation;
+long after the mousy hue of their bodies has rendered their forms
+indistinguishable in the distance from the sympathetic coloring of the
+desert, rapidly bobbing specks of white betray the fact that their
+supposed narrow escape from the vengeful pursuit of the bicycle has given
+them a fright that will make them suspicious of the Meshed pilgrim road
+for weeks.
+
+"Deh Namek" means "salt village;" and it derives its name from the salt
+flats that are visible to the south of the road, and the general saline
+character of the country round about. Salt enters very largely into the
+composition of the mountains that present a solid and fantastically
+streaked front a few miles to the north; and the streams flowing from
+these mountains are simply streams of brine, whose mission would seem to
+be conveying the saline matter from the hills, and distributing it over
+the flats and swampy areas of the desert. These flats are visible from
+the road, white, level, and impressive; like the Great American Desert,
+Utah, as seen from the Matlin section house, and described in a previous
+chapter (Vol. I.), it looks as though it might be a sheet of water,
+solidified and dead.
+
+At the end of the twenty miles one comes to a small and unpretentious
+village and an equally small and unpretentious wayside tchai-khan, both
+owing their existence to a stream of fresh water as small and
+unpretentious as themselves. Beyond this cheerless oasis stretches again
+the still more cheerless desert, the rivulets of undrinkable salt water,
+the glaring white salt-flats to the south, and the salt-encrusted
+mountains to the north. The shameless old party presiding at the
+tchai-khan evidently realizes the advantages of his position, where many
+travellers from either direction, reaching the place in a thirsty
+condition, have no choice but between his decoction and cold water.
+Instead of the excellent tea every Persian knows very well how to make,
+he serves out a preparation that is made, I should say, chiefly from
+camelthorn buds plucked within a mile of his shanty; he furthermore
+illustrates in his own methods the baneful effects of being without the
+stimulus of a rival, by serving it up in unwashed glasses, and without
+noticing whether it is hot or cold.
+
+Much loose gravel prevails between this memorable point and Lasgird, and
+while trundling laboriously through it I am overtaken by a rain-storm,
+accompanied by violent wind, that at first encompasses me about in the
+most peculiar manner. The storm comes howling from the northwest and
+advances in two sections, accompanied by thunder and lightning; the two
+advancing columns seem to be dense masses of gray cloud rolling over the
+surface of the plain, and between them is a clear space of perhaps half a
+mile in width. The rain-dispensing columns pass me by on either side with
+muttering rolls of thunder and momentary gleams of lightning, enveloping
+me in swirling eddies of dust and bewildering atmospheric disturbances,
+but not a drop of rain. It is plainly to be seen, however, that the two
+columns are united further west, and that it behooves me to don my
+gossamer rubbers; but before being overtaken by the rain, the heads of
+the flying columns are drawn together, and for some minutes I am
+surrounded entirely by sheets of falling moisture and streaming clouds
+that descend to the level plain and obscure the view in every direction;
+and yet the clear sky is immediately above, and the ground over which I
+am walking is perfectly dry. After the first violent burst there is very
+little wind, and the impenetrable walls of vapor encompassing me round
+about at so near a distance, and yet not interfering with me in any way,
+present a most singular appearance. While appreciating the extreme
+novelty of the situation, I can scarce say in addition that I appreciate
+the free play of electricity going on in all directions, and the
+irreverent manner in which the nickeled surface of the bicycle seems to
+glint at it and defy it; on the contrary, I deem it but an act of common
+discretion to place the machine for a short time where the lightning can
+have a fair chance at it, without involving a respectful non-combatant in
+the destruction. In half an hour the whole curious affair is over, and
+nothing is seen but the wild-looking tail-end of the disturbance climbing
+over a range of mountains in the southeast.
+
+The road now edges off in a more northeasterly course, and by four
+o'clock leads me to the base of a low pass over a jutting spur of the
+mountains. At the base of the spur, a cultivated area, consisting of
+several wheat-fields and terraced melon-gardens, has been rescued from
+the unproductive desert by the aid of a bright little mountain stream,
+whose wild spirit the villagers of Lasgird have curbed and tamed for
+their own benefit, by turning it from its rocky, precipitous channel, and
+causing it to descend the hill in a curious serpentine ditch. The contour
+of the ditch is something like this: ~~~~~~~~~~~; it brings the water
+down a pretty steep gradient, and its serpentine form checks the speed of
+its descent to an uniform and circumspect pace. The road over the pass
+leads through a soft limestone formation, and here, as in similar places
+in Asia Minor, are found those narrow, trench-like trails, worn by the
+feet of pilgrims and the pack-animal traffic of centuries, several feet
+deep in the solid rock. On a broad cultivated plain beyond the pass is
+sighted the village of Lasgird, its huge mud fortress, the most
+conspicuous object in view, rising a hundred feet above the plain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+PERSIA AND THE MESHED PILGRIM ROAD.
+
+A mile or so through the cultivated fields brings me to the village just
+in time to be greeted by the shouts and hand-clapping of a wedding
+procession that is returning from conducting the bride to the bath. Men
+and boys are beating rude, home-made tambourines, and women are dancing
+along before the bride, clicking castanets, while a crowd of at least two
+hundred villagers, arrayed in whatever finery they can muster for the
+occasion, are following behind, clapping their hands in measured chorus.
+This hand-clapping is, I believe, pretty generally practiced by the
+villagers all over Central Asia on festive occasions. As a result of
+riding for the crowd, I receive an invitation to take supper at the house
+of the bridegroom's parents. Having obtained sleeping quarters at the
+chapar-khana, I get the shagird-chapar to guide me to the house at the
+appointed hour, and arrive just in time for supper. The dining-room is a
+low-ceiled apartment, about thirty feet long and eight wide, and is dimly
+lighted by rude grease lamps, set on pewter lamp-stands on the floor.
+
+Squatting on the floor, with their backs to the wall, about fifty
+villagers form a continuous human line around the room. These all rise
+simultaneously to their feet as I am announced, bob their heads
+simultaneously, simultaneously say, "Sahib salaam," and after I have been
+provided with a place, simultaneously resume their seats. Pewter trays
+are now brought in by volunteer waiters, and set on the floor before the
+guests, one tray for every two guests, and a separate one for myself. On
+each tray is a bowl of mast (milk soured with rennet--the "yaort" of Asia
+Minor), a piece of cheese, one onion, a spoonful or two of pumpkin butter
+and several flat wheaten cakes. This is the wedding supper. The guests
+break the bread into the mast and scoop the mixture out with their
+fingers, transferring it to their mouths with the dexterity of Chinese
+manipulating a pair of chop-sticks; now and then they take a nibble at
+the piece of cheese or the onion, and they finish up by consuming the
+pumpkin butter. The groom doesn't appear among the guests; he is under
+the special care of several female relations in another apartment, and is
+probably being fed with tid-bits from the henna-stained fingers of old
+women, who season them with extravagant and lying stories of the bride's
+beauty, and duly impress upon him his coming matrimonial
+responsibilities.
+
+Supper eaten and the dishes cleared, an amateur luti from among the
+villagers produces a tambourine and castanets, and, taking the middle of
+the room, proceeds to amuse the company by singing extempore love songs
+in praise of the bride and groom to tambourine accompaniment and
+pendulous swayings of the body. Pretending to be carried away by the
+melodiousness and sentiment of his own productions, he gradually bends
+backward with hands outstretched and castanets jingling, until his head
+almost touches the floor, and maintains that position while keeping his
+body in a theatrical tremor of delight. This is the finale of the
+performance, and the luti comes and sets his skull-cap in front of me for
+a present; my next neighbor, the bridegroom's father, takes it up and
+hands it back with a deprecatory wave of the hand; the luti replies by
+promptly setting it down again; this time my neighbor lets it remain, and
+the luti is made happy by a coin.
+
+Torchlight processions to the different baths are now made from the house
+of both bride and groom, for this is the "hammam night," devoted to
+bathing and festivities before the wedding-day. Torches are made with dry
+camelthorn, the blaze being kept up by constant renewal; a boy, with a
+lighted candle, walks immediately ahead of the bridegroom and his female
+relations, and a man with a farnooze brings up the rear. Nobody among the
+onlookers is permitted to lag behind the man with the farnooze, everybody
+being required to either walk ahead or alongside. The tambourine-beating
+and shouting and hand-clapping of the afternoon is repeated, and every
+now and then the procession stops to allow one or two of the women to
+face the bridegroom and favor him with an exhibition of their skill in
+the execution of the hip-dance.
+
+The bridal procession is coming down another street, and I stop to try
+and obtain a glimpse of the bride; but she is completely enveloped in a
+flaming red shawl, and is supported and led by two women. There seems to
+be little difference in the two processions, except the preponderance of
+females in the bride's party; everything is arranged in the same order,
+and women dance at intervals before the bride as before the groom.
+
+It begins raining before I retire for the night; it rains incessantly all
+night, and is raining heavily when I awake in the morning. The weather
+clears up at noon, but it is useless thinking of pushing on, for miles of
+tenacious mud intervene between the village and the gravelly desert;
+moreover, the prospect of the fine weather holding out looks anything but
+reassuring. The villagers are all at home, owing to the saturated
+condition of their fields, and I come in for no small share of worrying
+attention during the afternoon. A pilgrim from Teheran turns up and tells
+the people about my appearance before the Shah; this increases their
+interest in me to an unappreciated extent, and, with glistening eyes and
+eagerly rubbing fingers, they ask "Chand pool Padishah?" (How much money
+did the King give you?) "I showed the Shah the bicycle, and the Shah
+showed me the lions, and tigers, and panthers at Doshan Tepe," I tell
+them; and a knowing customer, called Meshedi Ali, enlightens them still
+further by telling them I am not a luti to receive money for letting the
+Shah-in-Shah see me ride. Still, luti or no luti, the people think I
+ought to have received a present. I am worried to ride so incessantly
+that I am forced to seek self-protection in pretending to have sprained
+my ankle, and in returning to the chapar-khana with a hypocritical limp.
+I station myself ostensibly for the remainder of the day on the
+bala-khana front, and busy myself in taking observations of the villagers
+and their doings.
+
+Time was, among ourselves, or more correctly, among our ancestors, when
+blood-letting was as much the professional calling of a barber as
+scraping chins or trimming hair, and when our respected beef-eating and
+beer-drinking forefathers considered wholesale blood-letting as a
+well-nigh universal panacea for fleshly ills. In travelling through
+Persia, one often observes things that suggest very strikingly those
+"good old days" of Queen Bess. The citizens of Zendjan offering the Shah
+a present of 60,000 tomans, as an inducement not to visit their city, as
+they did when he was on his way to Europe, has a true Elizabethan ring
+about it, a suggestion of the Virgin Queen's rabble retinue travelling
+about, devouring and destroying, and of justly apprehensive citizens,
+seeing ruin staring them in the face, petitioning their regal mistress to
+spare them the dread calamity of a royal visit.
+
+The ancient Zoroastrian barber, no doubt, bled his patients and customers
+on the public streets of Persian towns, for the benefit of their healths,
+when we pinned our pagan faith on Druidical incantations and mystic rites
+and ceremonies; his Mussulman descendants were doing the same thing when
+we at length arrived at the same stage of enlightenment, and the Persian
+wielder of razor and tweezers to-day performs the same office as
+belonging to his profession. From my vantage point on the bala-khana of
+the Lasgird chapar station, I watch, with considerable interest, the
+process of bleeding a goodly share of the male population of the village;
+for it is spring-time, and in spring, every Persian, whether well or
+unwell, considers the spilling of half a pint or so of blood very
+necessary for the maintenance of health.
+
+The village barber, with his arms bared, and the flowing, o'er-ample legs
+of his Aradan-Lasgird pantaloons tucked up at his waist, like a
+washerwoman's skirt, a bunch of raw cotton in lieu of lint under his left
+arm, and his keen-edged razor, looks like a man who thoroughly realizes
+and enjoys the importance of the office he is performing, as from the
+bared arm or open mouth of one after the other of his neighbors he starts
+the crimson stream. The candidates for the barber's claret-tapping
+attentions bare their right arms to the shoulder, and bind for each other
+a handkerchief or piece of something tightly above the elbow, and the
+barber deftly slits a vein immediately below the hollow of the
+elbow-joint, pressing out the vein he wishes to cut by a pressure of the
+left thumb. The blood spurts out, the patient looks at the squirting
+blood, and then surveys the onlookers with a "who-cares?--I-don't" sort of
+a grin. He then squats down and watches it bleed about a half-pint,
+occasionally working the elbow-joint to stimulate the flow. Half a pint
+is considered about the correct quantity for an adult to lose at one
+bleeding; the barber then binds on a small wad of cotton.
+
+Now and then a customer gives the barber a trifling coin by way of
+backsheesh, but the great majority give nothing. In a mere village like
+Lasgird, these periodical blood-lettings by the barber are, no doubt,
+regarded as being all in the family, rather than of professional services
+for a money consideration. The communal spirit obtains to a great extent
+in village life throughout both Asia Minor and Persia; nevertheless
+backsheesh would be expected in Persia from those able to afford it. Some
+few prefer being bled in the roof the mouth, and they all squat on their
+hams in rows, some bleeding from the arm, others from the mouth, while
+the inevitable crowd of onlookers stand around, gazing and giving advice.
+While the barber is engaged in binding on the wad of cotton, or during
+any interval between patients, he inserts the handle of the razor between
+his close-fitting skull-cap and his forehead, letting the blade hang down
+over his face, edge outward; a peculiar disposition of his razor, that he
+would, no doubt, be entirely at a loss to account for, except that he is
+following the custom of his fathers. As regards the customs of his
+ancestors, whose trade or profession he invariably follows, the Asiatic
+is the most conservative of mortals. "What was good enough for my father
+and grandfather," he says, "is certainly good enough for me;" and
+earnestly believing in this, he never, of his own accord, thinks of
+changing his occupation or of making improvements.
+
+Later in the afternoon I descend from the bala-khana and take a strolling
+look at the village, and with the shagird-chapar for guide, pay a visit
+to the old fortress, the conspicuous edifice seen from the trail-worn
+limestone pass. Forgetting about my subterfuge of the sprained ankle, I
+wander forth without the aforementioned limp; but the people seem to have
+forgotten it as completely as I had; at all events, nobody makes any
+comments. A ripple of excitement is caused by a two-storied house
+collapsing from the effects of the soaking rains, an occurrence by no
+means infrequent in the spring in a country of mud-built houses. A crowd
+soon appears upon the scene, watching, with unconcealed delight, the
+spectacle of tumbling roof and toppling wall, giving vent to their
+feelings in laughter and loud shouts of approval, like delighted
+children, whenever another bulky square of mud and thatch comes tumbling
+down. Fortunately, nobody happens to be hurt, beyond the half-burying in
+the debris of some donkeys, which are finally induced to extricate
+themselves by being vigorously bombarded with stones. No sympathy appears
+to be given on the part of the spectators, and evidently nothing of the
+kind is expected by the tenants of the tumbling house; the wailing women,
+and the look of consternation on the face of the men who barely escaped
+from the falling roof, seem to be regarded by the spectators as a tomasha
+(show), to be stared at and enjoyed, as they would stare at and enjoy
+anything not seen every day; on the other hand, the occupants of the
+house regard their misfortune as kismet.
+
+Returning to the chapar-ktiana, I get the shayird to pilot me into and
+round about the fortress. It is rapidly falling to decay, but is still in
+a sufficiently good state of preservation to show thoroughly its former
+strength and conformation. The fortress is a decidedly massive building,
+constructed entirely of mud and adobe bricks, a hundred feet high, of
+circular form, and some two hundred yards in circumference. The
+disintegrated walls and debris of former towers form a sloping mound or
+foundation about fifty feet in height, and from this the perpendicular
+walls of the castle rise up, huge and ugly, for another hundred feet.
+Following a foot-trail up the mound-like base, we come to a low, gloomy
+passage-way leading into the interior of the fort. A door, composed of
+one massive stone slab, that nothing less than a cannon-shot would
+shatter, guards the entrance to this passage, which is the only
+accessible entrance to the place. Following it along for perhaps thirty
+yards, we emerge upon a scene of almost indescribable squalor--a scene
+that instantly suggests an overcrowded "rookery" in the tenement-house
+slums of New York. The place is simply swarming with people, who, like
+rabbits in an old warren, seem to be moving about among the tumble-down
+mud huts, anywhere and everywhere, as though the old ruined fortress were
+burrowed through and through, or that the people now moved through, over,
+under, and around the remnants of what was once a more orderly collection
+of dwellings, having long forsaken regular foot-ways.
+
+The inhabitants are ragged and picturesque, and meandering about among
+them, on the most familiar terms, are hundreds of goats. Although
+everything is in a more or less dilapidated condition, huts or cells
+still rise above each other in tiers, and the people clamber about from
+tier to tier, as if in emulation of their venturesome four-footed
+associates, who are here, we may well imagine, in as perfect a paradise
+as vagrom goatish nature would care for or expect. At a low estimate, I
+should place the present population of the old fortress at a thousand
+people, and about the same number of goats. In the days when the bold
+Turkoman raiders were wont to make their dreaded damans almost up to the
+walls of Teheran, and such strongholds as this were the only safeguard of
+out-lying villagers, the interior of Lasgird fortress resembled a
+spacious amphitheatre, around which hundreds of huts rose, tier above
+tier, like the cells of a monster pigeon-house, affording shelter in
+times of peril to all the inhabitants of Lasgird, and to such refugees as
+might come in. At the first alarm of the dreaded man-stealers' approach,
+the outside villagers repaired to the fortress with their portable
+property; the donkeys and goats were driven inside and occupied the
+interior space, and the massive stone door was closed and barricaded. The
+villagers' granaries were inside the fortress, and provisions for
+obtaining water were not overlooked; so that once inside, the people were
+quite secure against any force of Turkomans, whose heaviest arms were
+muskets.
+
+The suggestion of an amphitheatre, as above described, is quite patent at
+the present day, in something like two or three hundred tiered dwellings;
+in the days of its usefulness there must have been a thousand. Thanks to
+the Russian occupation of Turkestan, there is no longer any need of the
+fortress, and the present population seem to be occupying it at the peril
+of having it some day tumble down about their ears; for, massive though
+its walls most certainly are, they are but mud, and the people are
+indifferent about repairs. Failing to surprise the watchful villagers in
+their fields or outside dwellings, the baffled marauders would find
+confronting them fifty feet of solid mud wall without so much as an
+air-hole in it, rising sheer above the mound-like foundation, and above
+this, tiers of rooms or cells, from inside which archers or musketeers
+could make it decidedly interesting for any hostile party attempting to
+approach. This old fortress of Lasgird is very interesting, as showing
+the peaceful and unwarlike Persian ryot's method of defending his life
+and liberty against the savage human hawks that were ever hovering near,
+ready to swoop down and carry him and his off to the slave markets of
+Khiva and Bokhara. These were times when seed was sown and harvest
+garnered in fear and trembling, for the Turkoman raiders were adepts at
+swooping down when least expected, and they rode horses capable of making
+their hundred miles a day over the roughest country. (Incredible as this
+latter fact may seem, it is, nevertheless, a well-known thing in Central
+Asia that the Turkoman's horse is capable of covering this remarkable
+distance, and of keeping it up for days.)
+
+A thunder-storm is raging violently and drenching everything as I retire
+for the night, dampening, among other things, my hopes of getting away
+from Lasgird for some days; for between the village and the gravelly, and
+consequently always traversable, desert, are some miles of slimy clay of
+the kind that in wet weather makes an experienced cycler wince to think
+of crossing. The floor of the bala-khana forms once again my nocturnal
+couch; but the temperature lowers perceptibly as the night advances and
+the rain continues, and toward morning it changes into snow. The doors
+and windows of my room are to be called doors and windows only out of
+courtesy to a rude, unfinished effort to imitate these things, and the
+floor, at daybreak, is nicely carpeted with an inch or so of "the
+beautiful snow," and a four-inch covering of the same greets my vision
+upon looking outside.
+
+Determined to make the best of the situation, I remove my quarters from
+the cold and draughty bala-khana to the stable, and send the
+shagird-chapar out in quest of camel-thorn, bread, eggs, and
+pomegranates, thinking thus to obtain the luxury of a bit of fire and
+something to eat in comparative seclusion. This vain hope proves that I
+have not even yet become thoroughly acquainted with the Persians. No
+sooner does my camel-thorn blaze begin to crackle and the smoke to betray
+the whereabouts of a fire, than shivering, blue-nosed villagers begin to
+put in their appearance, their backs humped up and their bare ankles and
+slip-shod feet adding not a little to the general aspect of wretchedness
+that seems inseparable from Persians in cold weather.
+
+And these are the people who, during a gleam of illusory sunshine
+yesterday, were so nonchalantly parting with their blood--of which, by the
+by, your bread and cucumber eating, and cold water drinking Persian has
+little enough, and that little thin enough at any time. These
+rag-bedecked, shivering wretches hop up on the raised platform where the
+fire is burning and squat themselves around it in the most sociable
+manner; and under the thawing process of passing their hands through the
+flames, poking the coals together, and close attention to the details of
+keeping it burning, they quickly thaw out in more respects than one.
+Fifteen minutes after my fire is lighted, the spot where I anticipated a
+samovar of tea and a pomegranate or two in peace, is occupied by as many
+Persians as can find squatting room, talking, shouting, singing, and
+kalian-smoking, meanwhile eagerly and expectantly watching the
+preparations for making tea. Preferring to leave them in full possession
+rather than be in their uncongenial midst, I pass the time in promenading
+back and forth behind the horses. After walking to and fro a few times,
+the, to them, singular performance of walking back and forth excites
+their easily-aroused curiosity, and the wondering attention of all
+present becomes once again my unhappy portion. An Asiatic's idea of
+enjoying himself in cold weather is squatting about a few coals of fire,
+making no physical exertion whatever beyond smoking and conversing; and
+the spectacle of a Ferenghi promenading back and forth, when he might be
+following their example of squatting by the fire, is to them a subject of
+no little wonder and speculation.
+
+The redeeming feature of my enforced sojourn at Lasgird is the excellence
+of the pomegranates, for which the place is famous, and of which there
+seems an abundance left over through the winter. A small quantity of
+seedless pomegranates, a highly valued variety, are grown here at
+Lasgird, but they are all sent to Teheran for the use of the Shah and his
+household, and are not to be obtained by anyone. It has been a raw,
+disagreeable day, and at night I decide to sleep in the stable, where it
+is at least warmer, though the remove is but a compromise by which one's
+olfactory sensibilities are sacrificed in the interest of securing a few
+hours' sleep.
+
+An unexpected, but none the less welcome, deliverance appears on the
+following morning in the shape of a frost, that forms on the sticky mud a
+crust of sufficient thickness to enable me to escape across to the
+welcome gravel beyond the Lasgird Plain ere it thaws out. Thus on the
+precarious path of a belated morning frost, breaking through here,
+jumping over there, I leave Lasgird and its memories of wedding
+processions, and blood-letting, its huge mud fortress, its pomegranates,
+and its discomforts.
+
+Three miles of mostly ridable gravel bring me to another village, and to
+four miles of horrible mud in getting through its fields and over its
+ditches. A raw wind is blowing, and squally gusts of snow come scudding
+across the dreary prospect--a prospect flanked on the north by cold, gray
+hills, and the face of nature generally furrowed with tell-tale lines of
+winter's partial dissolution. While trundling through this village, both
+myself and bicycle plastered to a well-nigh unrecognizable state with
+mud, feeling pretty thoroughly disgusted with the weather and the roads,
+an ancient-looking Persian emerges from a little stall with a last
+season's muskmelon in hand, and advancing toward me, shouts, "H-o-i"
+loud enough to wake the seven sleepers. Shouting "H-o-i!!" at a person
+close enough to hear a whisper, as loud as though he were a good mile
+away, is a peculiarity of the Persians that has often irritated
+travellers to the pitch of wishing they had a hot potato and the
+dexterity to throw it down their throats; and in my present unenviable
+condition, and its accompanying unenviable frame of mind, I don't mind
+admitting that I mentally relegated this vociferous melon-vender to a
+place where infinitely worse than hot potatoes would overtake him.
+Knowing full well that a halt of a single minute would mean a general
+mustering of the population, and an importuning rabble following me
+through the unridable mud, I ignore the old melon-man's foghorn efforts
+to arrest my onward progress; but he proves a most vociferous and
+persistent specimen of his class. Nothing less than a dozen exclamation
+points can give the faintest idea of how a "hollering" Persian shouts
+"H-o-i."
+
+Seven miles over very good gravel, and my road leads into the labyrinth
+of muddy lanes, ditches, and water-holes, tumble down walls, and
+disorderly-looking cemeteries of the suburbs of Semnoon. In traversing
+the cemeteries, one cannot help observing how many of the graves are
+caved in by the rains and the skeletons exposed to view. Mohammedans bury
+their dead very shallow, usually about two feet, and in Persia the grave
+is often arched over with soft mud bricks; these weaken and dissolve
+after the rains and snows of winter, and a cemetery becomes a place of
+exposed remains and of pitfalls, where an unwary step on what appears
+solid ground may precipitate one into the undesirable company of a
+skeleton. By the time Semnoon is reached the day has grown warmer, and
+the sun favors the cold, dismal earth with a few genial rays, so that the
+blooming orchards of peach and pomegranate that brighten and enliven the
+environs of the city, and which suggest Semnoon to be a mild and
+sheltered spot, seem quite natural, notwithstanding the patches of snow
+lying about. The crowds seem remarkably well behaved as I trundle through
+the bazaar toward the telegraph office, the total absence of missiles
+being particularly noticeable. The telegraph-jee proves to be a sensible,
+enlightened fellow, and quite matter-of-fact in his manner for a Persian;
+apart from his duty to the Governor and a few bigwigs of the place, whom
+it would be unpardonable in him to overlook or ignore, he saves me as
+much as possible from the worrying of the people.
+
+Prince Anushirvan Mirza, Governor of Semnoon, Damghan, and Shahrood, is
+the Shah's cousin, son of Baahman Mirza, uncle of the Shah, and formerly
+Governor of Tabreez. Baahman Mirza was discovered intriguing with the
+Russians, and, fearing the vengeance of the Shah, fled from the country;
+seeking an asylum among the Russians, he is now--if not dead--a refugee
+somewhere in the Caucasus. But the father's disgrace did not prejudice
+the Shah against his sons, and Prince Anushirvan and his sons are honored
+and trusted by the Shah as men capable of distinguishing between the
+friends and enemies of their country, and of conducting themselves
+accordingly.
+
+The Governor's palace is not far from the north gate of the city, and
+after the customary round of tea and kalians, without which nothing can
+be done in Persia, he walks outside with his staff to a piece of good
+road in order to see me ride to the best advantage. (As a specimen of
+Persian extravagance--to use a very mild term--it may be as well to
+mention here as anywhere, that the Governor telegraphed to his son,
+acting as his deputy at Shahrood, that he had ridden some miles with me
+out of the city!)
+
+During the evening one of the Governor's sons, Prince Sultan Madjid
+Mirza, comes in with a few leading dignitaries to spend an hour in
+chatting and smoking. This young prince proves one of the most
+intelligent Persians I have met in the country; besides being very well
+informed for a provincial Persian, he is bright and quick-witted. Among
+the gentlemen he brings in with him is a man who has made the pilgrimage
+to Mecca via "Iskenderi" (Alexandria) and Suez, and has, consequently,
+seen and ridden on the Egyptian railway. The Prince has heard his
+description of this railway, and the light thus gained has not
+unnaturally had the effect of whetting his curiosity to hear more of the
+marvellous iron roads of Frangistan; and after exhausting the usual
+programme of queries concerning cycling, the conversation leads, by easy
+transition, to the subject of railways.
+
+"Do they have railways in Yenghi Donia?" questioned the Prince.
+
+"Plenty of railways; plenty of everything," I reply.
+
+"Like the one at Iskenderi and Stamboul?"
+
+"Better and bigger than both these put together a hundred times over; the
+Iskenderi railroad is very small."
+
+Nods and smiles of acquiescence from Prince and listeners follow this
+statement, which show plainly enough that they consider it a pardonable
+lie, such as every Persian present habitually indulges in himself and
+thinks favorably of in others.
+
+"Railroads are good things, and Ferenghis are very clever people," says
+the Prince, renewing the subject and handing me a handful of salted melon
+seeds from his pocket, meanwhile nibbling some himself.
+
+"Yes; why don't you have railroads in Iran? You could then go to Teheran
+in a few hours."
+
+The Prince smiles amusingly at the thought, as though conscious of
+railroads in Persia being a dream altogether too bright to ever
+materialize, and shaking his head, says: "Pool neis" (we have no money).
+
+"The English have money and would build the railroad; but, 'Mollah neis'
+--Baron Reuter?--you know Baron Reuter--' Mollah neis,'
+not 'pool neis.'"
+
+The Prince smiles, and signifies that he is well enough aware where the
+trouble lies; but we talk no more of railroads, for he and his father and
+brothers belong to the party of progress in Persia, and the triumph of
+priests and old women over the Shah and Baron Reuter's railway is to them
+a distressful and humiliating subject.
+
+The late lamented O'Donovan, of "To the Merve" fame, used to make Semnoon
+his headquarters while dodging about on the frontier, and was personally
+known to everyone present. Semnoon is celebrated for the excellence of
+its kalian tobacco, and O'Donovan was celebrated in Semnoon for his love
+of the kalian. This evening, in talking about him, the telegraph-jee says
+that "when he pulled at the kalian he pulled with such tremendous
+eagerness that the flames leaped up to the ceiling, and after three
+whiffs you couldn't see anybody in the room for smoke!"
+
+The telegraph-jee's farrash builds a good wood fire in a cozy little room
+adjoining the office; blankets are provided, an ample supper is sent
+around from the telegraph-jee's house, and what is still better
+appreciated, I am left to enjoy these substantial comforts without so
+much as a single spectator coming to see me feed; no one comes near me
+till morning.
+
+The morning breaks cold and clear, and for some six miles the road is
+very fair wheeling; after this comes a gradual inclination toward a
+jutting spur of hills; the following twenty miles being the toughest kind
+of a trundle through mud, snow-fields, and drifts. This is a most
+uninviting piece of country to wheel through, and it would seem but
+little less so to traverse at this time of the year with a caravan of
+camels, two or three of these animals being found exhausted by the
+roadside, and a couple of charvadars encountered in one place skinning
+another, while its companion is lying helplessly alongside watching the
+operation and waiting its own turn to the same treatment. It is said to
+be characteristic of a camel that, when he once slips down, cold and
+weary, in the mud, he never again tries to regain his feet. The weather
+looks squally and unsettled, and I push ahead as rapidly as the condition
+of the ground will permit, fearing a snow-storm in the hills.
+
+About three p.m. I arrive at the caravansarai of Ahwan, a dreary,
+inhospitable place in an equally dreary, inhospitable country. Situated
+in a region of wind and snow and bleak, open hills, the wretched serai of
+Ahwan is remembered as a place where the keen, raw wind seems to come
+whistling gleefully and yet maliciously from all points of the compass,
+seemingly centring in the caravansarai itself; these winds render any
+attempt to kindle a fire a dismal failure, resulting in smoke and watery
+eyes. Here I manage to obtain half-frozen bread and a few eggs; after an
+ineffectual attempt to roast the latter and thaw out the former, I am
+forced to eat them both as they are; and although the sun looks ominously
+low, and it is six farsakhs to the next place, I conclude to chance
+anything rather than risk being snow-bound at Ahwan. Fortunately, after
+about five miles more of snow, the trail emerges upon a gravelly plain
+with a gradual descent from the hills just crossed to the lower level of
+the Damghan plain. The favorable gradient and the smooth trails induce a
+smart pace, and as the waning daylight merges into the soft, chastened
+light of a cloud-veiled moon, I alight at the village and serai of
+Gusheh.
+
+There are at the caravansarai a number of travellers, among them a moujik
+of the Don, travelling to Teheran and beyond in company with a Tabreez
+Turk. The Russian peasant at once invites me to his menzil in the
+caravansarai; and although he looks, if anything, a trifle more
+indifferent about personal cleanliness than either a Turkish or Persian
+peasant, I have no alternative but to accept his well-meant invitation.
+At this juncture, when one's thoughts are swayed and influenced by an
+appetite that the cold day and hard tugging through the hills have
+rendered well-nigh uncontrollable, a prosperous-looking Persian
+traveller, returning from a pilgrimage to Meshed with his wives, family,
+and servitors, quite a respectable-sized retinue, emerges from the
+seclusion of his quarters to see the bicycle.
+
+Of course he requests me to ride, sending his link-boys to bring out all
+the farnoozes to supplement fair Luna's coy and inefficient beams; and
+after the performance, the old gentleman promises to send me round a dish
+of pillau. In due time the promised pillau comes round, an ample dish,
+sufficient to satisfy even my present ravenous appetite, and after this
+he sends round tea, lump sugar, and a samovar. The moujik turns to and
+gets up steam in the samovar, and over tiny glasses of the cheering but
+non-intoxicating beverage, he sings a Russian regimental song, and his
+comrade, the Tabreez Turk, warbles the praises of Stamboul. But although
+they make merry over the tea, methinks both of them would have made still
+merrier over something stronger, for the moujik puts in a good share of
+the evening talking about vodka consumed at Shahrood, and smacking his
+lips at the retrospective bliss embodied in its consumption; while the
+Turk from Tabreez catches me aside and asks mysteriously if my packages
+contain any "raki" (arrack). Like the Ah wan caravansarai, the one at
+Gusheh seems to draw the chilly winds from every direction, and I arise
+from a rude couch, made wretchedly uncomfortable by draughts, the attacks
+of insects, and the persistent determination of a horse to use my
+prostrate form as a rest for his nose-bag, to find myself the possessor
+of a sore throat.
+
+Persian travellers are generally up and off before daylight, and the
+clicking noise (Persian curry-combs are covered with small rings that
+make a rattling noise when being used) of currying horses begins as early
+as three o'clock. The attendants of the old gentleman of happy
+remembrance in connection with last night's pillau and samovar, have been
+busy for two hours, and his taktrowan and kajauehs are already occupied
+and starting, when by the first gleam of awakening dawn I mount and wheel
+eastward. A shallow, unbridged stream obstructs my path but a short
+distance from Gusheh, and I manage to get in knee-deep in trying to avoid
+the necessity of removing my footgear; I then wander several miles off
+my road to an outlying village. This happy commencement of a new day is
+followed by a variable road leading sometimes over stony or gravelly
+plains where the wheeling varies through all the stages of goodness,
+badness, and indifference, and sometimes through grazing grounds and
+cultivable areas adjoining the villages.
+
+Scattered about the grazing and arable country are now small towers of
+refuge, loop-holed for defense, to which ryots working in the fields, or
+shepherds tending their flocks, fled for safety in case of a sudden
+appearance of Turcoman marauders. But a few years ago men hereabouts went
+to plough, sow, or reap with a gun slung at their backs, and a few of
+them reaching the shelter of one of these compact little mud towers were
+able, through the loop-holes, to keep the Turcomans at bay until relief
+arrived. The towers are of circular form, about twenty feet high and
+fifteen in diameter; the entrance is a very small doorway, often a mere
+hole to crawl into, and steps inside lead to the summit; some are roofed
+in near the top, others are mere circular walls of mud. On grazing
+grounds a lower wall often encompasses the tower, fencing in a larger
+space that formed a corral for the flocks; the shepherds then, while
+defending themselves, were also defending their sheep or goats. In the
+more exposed localities these little towers of refuge are often but a
+couple of hundred yards apart, thickly dotting the country in all
+directions, while watch-towers are seen perched on peaks and points of
+vantage, the whole scene speaking eloquently of the extraordinary
+precautions these poor people were compelled to adopt for the
+preservation of their lives and property. No wonder Russian intrigue
+makes headway in Khorassan and all along the Turco-inan-Perso frontier,
+for the people can scarcely help being favorably impressed by the
+stoppage of Turcoman deviltry in their midst, and the wholesale
+liberation of Persian slaves.
+
+The town of Damghan is reached near noon, and I am not a little gratified
+to learn that the telegraph-jee has been notified of my approach, and has
+stationed his farrash at the entrance to the bazaar, so that I should
+have no trouble in finding the office. This augurs well for the reception
+awaiting me there, and I am accordingly not surprised to find him an
+exceptionally affable youth, proud of a word or two of English he had
+somehow acquired, and of his knowledge of how to properly entertain a
+Ferenghi. This latter qualification assumes the eminently practical, and,
+it is needless to add, acceptable form of a roast chicken, a heaping dish
+of pillau, and sundry other substantial proofs of anticipatory
+preparations. The telegraph-jee takes great pleasure in seeing roast
+chicken mysteriously disappear, and the dish of pillau gradually diminish
+in size; in fact, the unconcealed satisfaction afforded by these savory
+testimonials of his cook's abilities give him such pleasure that he urges
+me to remain his guest for a day and rest up. But Shahrood is only forty
+miles away, and here I shall have the pleasure of meeting Mr. McIntyre,
+before mentioned as line-inspector, who is making his temporary
+headquarters at that city. Moreover, angry-looking storm-dogs have
+accompanied the sun on his ante-meridian march to-day, and such
+experience as mine at Lasgird has the effect of making one, if not
+weather-wise, at least weather-wary.
+
+In approaching Damghan, long before any other indications of the city
+appear, twin minarets are visible, soaring above the stony plain like a
+pair of huge pillars; these minars belong to the same mosque, and form a
+conspicuous landmark for travellers and pilgrims in approaching Damghan
+from any direction; at a distance they appear to rise up sheer from the
+barren plain, the town being situated in a depression. Six farsakhs from
+Damghan is the village of Tazaria, noted in the country round about for
+the enormous size of the carrots grown there; the minarets of Damghan and
+the extraordinary size of the Tazaria vegetables furnish the material for
+a characteristic little Eastern story, current among the inhabitants.
+
+Finding that people came from far and near to see the graceful minarets
+of Damghan, and that nobody came to see Tazaria, the good people of that
+neglected village became envious, and they reasoned among themselves and
+said: "Why should Damghan have two minarets and Tazaria none?" So they
+gathered together their pack-donkeys, their ropes and ladders, and a
+large company of men, and reached Damghan in the silence and darkness of
+the night, intending to pull down and carry off one of the minarets and
+erect it in Tazaria. The ropes were fastened to the summit of the minar,
+but at the first great pull the brick-work gave way and the top of the
+tall minaret came tumbling down with a crash and clatter, killing several
+of its would-be removers. The Damghan people turned out, and after
+hearing the unhappy Tazarians' laments, some sarcastic citizen gave them
+a few carrot-seeds, bidding them go home and sow them, and they could
+grow all the minarets they wanted. The carrots grew famously, and the
+villagers of Tazaria, instead of the promised minarets, found themselves
+in possession of a new and useful vegetable that fetched a good price in
+the Damghan bazaars. The Damghanians, meeting a Tazarian ryot coming in
+with a donkey-load of these huge carrots, cannot resist twitting him
+regarding the minars; but the now practical Tazarians no longer mourn the
+absence of minarets in their village, and when twitted about it, reply:
+"We have more minarets than you have, but our minarets grow downward and
+are good to eat."
+
+During the afternoon I pass many ruined villages and castles, said to
+have been destroyed by an earthquake many years ago. Some few natives
+find remunerative employment in excavating and washing over the dirt and
+debris of the ruined castles, in which they find coins, rubies, agates,
+turquoise, and women's ornaments; sometimes they unearth skeletons with
+ornaments still attached. The sun shines out warm this afternoon, and its
+genial rays are sufficiently tempting to induce the jackals to emerge
+from their hiding-places and bask in its beaming smiles on the sunny side
+of the ruins. Wherever there are ruins and skeletons and decay in Eastern
+lands--and where are there not?--there also is sure to be found the
+prowling and sneakish-looking jackal.
+
+Shelter, and the usual rude accommodation, supplemented on this occasion
+by a wandering luti and his vicious-looking baboon, as also a company of
+riotous charvadars, who insist on singing accompaniments to the luti's
+soul-harrowing tom-toming till after midnight, are obtained at the
+caravansarai of Deh Mollah. From Deh Mollah it is only a couple of
+farsakhs to Shahrood, and after the first three miles, which is slightly
+upgrade and not particularly smooth, it is downgrade and very fair
+wheeling the remainder of the distance. The road forks a couple of miles
+from Shahrood, and while I am entering by one road, Mr. McIntyre is
+leaving on horseback by the other to meet me, guessing, from word
+received from Damghan, that I must have spent last night at Deh Mollah,
+and would arrive at Shahrood this morning.
+
+Only those who have experienced it know anything of the pleasure of two
+Europeans meeting and conversing in a country like Persia, where the
+habits and customs of the natives are so different, and, to most
+travellers, uncongenial, and only to be tolerated for a time.
+
+I have met Mr. Mclntyre in Teheran, so we are not total strangers, which,
+of course, makes it still more agreeable. After the customary interchange
+of news, and the discussion of refreshments, Mr. Mclntyre hands me a
+telegram from Teheran, which bears a date several days old. It is from
+the British Legation, notifying me that permission is refused to go
+through the Turcoman country; an appendage from the Charge d'Affaires
+suggests that I repair to Astrakhan and try the route through Siberia.
+And this, then, is the result of General Melnikoff's genial smiles and
+ready promises of assistance; after providing myself with proper money
+and information for the Turkestan route, on the strength of the Russian
+Minister's promises, I am overtaken, when three hundred miles away, with
+a veto against which anything I might say or do would be of no avail!
+
+Sultan Ahmed Mirza, a sou of Prince Anushirvan, is deputy governor of
+Shahrood, responsible to his father; and ere I have arrived an hour the
+usual request is sent round for a "tomasha," the word now used by people
+wanting to see me ride, and which really means an exhibition. His place
+is found in a brick court-yard with the usual central tank, and the airy
+rooms of the building all opening upon it, and once again comes the
+feeling of playing a rather ridiculous role, as I circle awkwardly around
+the tank over very uneven bricks, and around short corners where an upset
+would precipitate me into the tank--amid, I can't help thinking, "roars of
+laughter." The Prince is very lavish of his flowery Persian compliments,
+and says, "You English have now left nothing more to do but to bring the
+dead back to life." In the court-yard my attention is called to a set of
+bastinado poles and loops, and Mr. McIntyre asks the Prince if he hasn't
+a prisoner on hand, so that he can give us a tomasha in return for the
+one we are giving him; but it is now the Persian New Year, and the
+prisoners have all been liberated.
+
+Here, gentle reader, in Shahrood--but it now behooves us to be dark and
+mysterious, and deal in hints and whispers, for the Persian proprieties
+must not be ruthlessly violated and then as ruthlessly exposed to satisfy
+the prying curiosity of far off Frangistan that would never do.
+
+Behold, then, Mr. Mclntyre absent; behold all male humans absent save
+myself and a couple of sable eunuchs, whose smooth, whiskerless faces
+betray inward amusement at the extreme novelty of the situation, and we
+all alone between the high brick walls that encircle the secrecy of an
+inner court--and yet not all alone, fortell it in whispers--some half-dozen
+shrouded female forms are clustered together in one corner. Yashmaks are
+drawn aside, and plump oval faces and bright eyes revealed, faces brown
+and soft of outline, eyes black, large and lustrous, with black lines
+skillfully drawn to make them look still larger, and lashes deeply
+stained to impart love and languor to their wondrous depths. Whisper it
+not in Gath, and tell it not in the streets of Frangistan, that the
+wondrous asp-i-awhan has proved an open sesame capable of revealing to an
+inquisitive and all-observant Ferenghi the collective charms of a Persian
+swell's harem!
+
+We can imagine these ladies in the seclusion of the zenana hearing of the
+Ferenghi and his wonderful iron horse, and overwhelmed with feminine
+curiosity, with much coaxing and promising, obtaining reluctant consent
+for a strictly secret and decorous tomasha, with covered faces and no one
+present but the attendant eunuchs and the Ferenghi, who, fortunately,
+will soon leave the country, never to return. Mohammedan women are merely
+overgrown children, and the promise of strict decorousness is forgotten
+or ignored the moment the tomasha begins; and the fun and the wickedness
+of removing their yashmaks in the presence of a Ferenghi is too rare an
+opportunity to be missed, and, no doubt, furnishes them with material for
+amusing conversation for many a day after. Rare fun these ladies think it
+to uncover their olive faces and let the Ferenghi see their beauty; the
+eunuchs are generally indulgent to their charges whenever they can safely
+be so, and on this occasion they content themselves with looking on and
+saying nothing. After seeing me ride, the ladies cluster boldly around
+and examine the bicycle, chatting freely among themselves the while
+concerning its capabilities; but some of the younger ladies regard me
+with fully as much curiosity as the bicycle, for never before did they
+have such an opportunity of scrutinizing a Ferenghi.
+
+And now, while granted the privilege of this little revelation, we must
+be very careful not to reveal the secret of whose harem we have seen
+unveiled, and whose inner court our paran wheels have pressed; for the
+whirligig of time brings about strange things, and apparently trifling
+things that have been indiscreetly published by travellers in books at
+home, have sometimes found their way back to the far East, and caused
+embarrassment and chagrin to people who treated them with hospitality and
+respect.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THROUGH KHORASSAN.
+
+Shahrood is at the exit from the mountains of the caravan route from
+Asterabad, Mazanderan, and the Caspian coast. The mountains overlooking
+it are bare and rocky. A good trade seems to be done by several firms of
+Russian-Armenians in exporting wool, cotton, and pelts to Russia, and
+handling Russian iron and petroleum. But for the iniquitous method of
+taxation, which consists really of looting the producing classes of all
+they can stand, the volume of trade here might easily be tenfold what it
+is.
+
+Shahrood is, or rather was, one of the "four stations of terror,"
+Mijamid, Miandasht, and Abassabad being the other three, so called on
+account of their exposed position and the consequent frequency of
+Turcoman attacks. Even nowadays they have their little ripples of
+excitement; rumors of Turcoman raids are heard in the bazaars, and news
+was brought in and telegraphed to Teheran a week ago that fifteen
+thousand sheep had been carried off from a district north of the
+mountains. Word comes back that a regiment of soldiers is on its way to
+chastise the Turcomans and recover the property; what really will happen,
+will be a horde of soldiers staying there long enough to devour what few
+sheep the poor people have left, and then returning without having seen,
+much less chastised, a Turcoman. The Persian Government will notify the
+Russian Minister of the misdoings of the Turcomans, and ask to have them
+punished and the sheep restored; the Russian Minister will reply that
+these particular Turcomans were Persian subjects, and nothing further
+will be done.
+
+Mr. Mclntyre is a canny Scot, a Royal Engineer, and weighs fully three
+hundred pounds; but with this avoirdupois he is far from being inactive,
+and together we ramble up the Asterabad Pass to take a look at the Bostam
+Valley on the other side. The valley isn't much to look at; no verdure,
+only a brown, barren plain, surrounded on all sides by equally brown,
+barren mountains. In the evening the Prince sends round a pheasant, and
+shortly after calls himself and partakes of tea and cigarettes,
+
+I accept Mr. McIntyre's invitation to remain and rest up, but only for
+another day, my experience being that, when on the road, one or two days'
+rest is preferable to a longer period; one gets rested without getting
+out of condition. We take a stroll through the bazaar in the morning, and
+call in at the wine-shop of a Russian-Armenian trader named Makerditch,
+who keeps arrack and native wine, and sample some of the latter. In his
+shop is a badly stuffed Mazanderaii tiger, and the walls of the private
+sitting-room are decorated with rude, old-fashioned prints of saints and
+scriptural scenes. It is now the Persian New Year, and bright new
+garments and snowy turbans impart a gay appearance to the throngs in the
+bazaar, for everybody changed his wardrobe from tip to toe on
+eid-i-noo-roos (evening before New Year's Day), although the "great
+unwashed" of Persian society change never a garment for the next twelve
+months. Considering that the average lower-class Persian puts in a good
+share of this twelve months in the unprofitable process of scratching
+himself, one would think it must be an immense relief for him to cast
+away these old habiliments with all their horrid load of filth and
+vermin, and don a clean, new outfit; but the new ones soon get as thickly
+tenanted as the old; and many even put the new garments on over certain
+of the old ones, caring nothing for comfort and cleanliness, and
+everything for appearance. The Persian New Year's holiday lasts thirteen
+days, and on the evening of the thirteenth day everybody goes out into
+the fields and plucks flowers and grasses to present to his or her
+friends.
+
+Governors of provinces who retain their position in consequence of having
+sent satisfactory tribute to the Shah, and ruled with at least a
+semblance of justice, get presents of new robes on New Year's Day, and
+those who have been unfortunate enough to lose the royal favor get
+removed: New Year's Day brings either sorrow or rejoicing to every
+Persian official's house.
+
+The morning of my departure opens bright and warm after a thunder-storm
+the previous evening, and Mr. Mclntyre accompanies me to the outskirts of
+the city, to put me on the right road to Mijamid, my objective point for
+the day, eleven farsakhs distant. The streets are, of course, muddy and
+unridable, and ere the suburbs are overcome a messenger overtakes us from
+the Prince, begging me to return and drink tea with him before starting.
+
+"Tell the Prince, the sahib sends salaams, but cannot spare the time to
+return," replies my companion, who knows Persian thoroughly. "You must
+come," says the messenger, "for the Khan of Bostam has arrived to pay the
+New Year's salaam to the Prince, and the Prince wants you to show him the
+bicycle."
+
+"'Must come!' Tell the Prince that when the sahib gets fairly started, as
+he is now, with his bicycle, he wouldn't turn back for the Shah himself."
+
+The messenger looks glum and crestfallen, as though very reluctant to
+return with such a message, a message that probably sounds to him
+strangely disrespectful, if not positively treasonable; but he sees the
+uselessness of bandying words, and so turns about, feeling and looking
+very foolish, for he addressed us very boldly and confidently before the
+whole crowd when he overtook us.
+
+A few small streams have to be crossed on leaving Shahrood for the cast;
+splendid rivulets of clear, cold water in which there ought to be trout.
+After these streams the road launches at once on to a level camel-thorn
+plain, the gravelled surface of which provides excellent wheeling. An
+outlying village and caravanserai is passed through at a couple of
+farsakhs, where, as might be expected in the "district of terror," are
+hundreds of the little towers of refuge. This village would be in a very
+exposed position, and it looks as though it is but just now being rebuilt
+and repopulated after a period of ruin and desertion. Beyond this village
+the towers of refuge and other signs of human occupation disappear; the
+uncultivated desert reigns supreme on either hand; but the wheeling
+continues fairly good, although a strong headwind somewhat impedes my
+progress. Beyond the level plain and the lower hills to the north are the
+snowy heights of the Elburz range; a less ambitious range of mountains
+forms a barrier some twenty miles to the south, and in the distant
+southeast there looms up a dark, massive pile that recalls at a glance
+memories of Elk Mountain, Wyoming; though upon a closer inspection there
+is no doubt but that the densely wooded slopes of our old acquaintance of
+the Rockies would be found wanting.
+
+Twenty miles of this level plain is traversed, and I find myself gazing
+curiously at a range of mica-flecked hills off to the right. These hills
+present a very curious appearance; the myriads of flakes of mica
+scattered all about glitter and glint in the bright sunlight as if they
+might be diamonds, and it requires but an easy effort of the imagination
+to fancy one's self in some strange, rich land of the "gorgeous East,"
+where precious jewels are scattered about like stones. These
+mica-spangled hills bear about the same relation to what one's
+imagination might conceive them to be as the "gorgeous East" as it
+actually exists does to the "gorgeous East" we read of in fairytales.
+
+Beyond the mica hills, I pass through a stretch of abandoned cultivation,
+where formerly existed fields and ditches, and villages with an abundance
+of portable property tempted Turkoman raiders to guide their matchless
+chargers hither. But small outlying settlements hereabout were precarious
+places to live in, and the persistent damans generally caused them to be
+abandoned entirely from time to time.
+
+The road has averaged good to-day, and Mijamid is reached at four
+o'clock. Seeking the shelter of the chapar-khana, that devoted building
+is soon surrounded by a new-dressed and accordingly a good-natured and
+vociferous crowd shouting--"Sowar shuk! sowar shuk! tomasha!
+tomasha!"
+
+As I survey the grinning, shouting multitude from my retreat on the roof,
+and note the number of widely-opened mouths, the old wicked thoughts
+about hot potatoes and dexterity in throwing them persist in coming to
+the fore. Several scrimmages and quarrels occur between the chapar-jee
+and his shagirds, and the crowd, who persist in invading the premises,
+and the tumult around is something deafening, for it is holiday times and
+the people feel particularly self-indulgent and disinclined for
+self-denial. In the midst of the uproar, from out the chaotic mass of
+rainbow-colored costumes, there forms a little knot of mollahs in huge
+snowy turbans and flowing gowns of solid blue or green, and at their head
+the gray-bearded patriarchal-looking old khan of the village in his
+flowered robe of office from the governor. These gay-looking, but
+comparatively sober-sided representatives of the village, endeavor to
+have the crowd cease their clamorous importunities--an attempt,
+however, that results in signal failure--and they constitute
+themselves a delegation to approach me in a respectful and decorous
+manner, and ask me to ride for the satisfaction of themselves and the
+people.
+
+The profound salaams and good taste of these eminently respectable
+personages are not to be resisted, and after satisfying them, the khan
+promises to provide me with supper, which at a later hour turns up in the
+form of the inevitable dish of pillau.
+
+Two miles on the road next morning and it begins raining; at five miles
+it develops into a regular downpour, that speedily wets me through. A
+small walled village is finally reached and shelter obtained beneath its
+ample portals, a place that seems to likewise be the loafing-place of the
+village. The entrance is a good-sized room, and here on wet days the men
+can squat about and smoke, and at the same time see everything that
+passes on the road. The village is defended by a strong mud wall some
+thirty feet high, and strengthened with abutting towers at frequent
+intervals; the only entrance is the one massive door, and inside there is
+plenty of room for all the four-footed possessions of the people; the
+houses are the usual little mud huts with thatched beehive roofs, built
+against the wall. The flocks of goats and sheep are admitted inside every
+evening, and taken out again to graze in the morning; the appearance of
+the interior is that of a very filthy, undrained, and utterly neglected
+farmyard, and as no breath of wind ever passes through it, or comes any
+nearer the ground than the top of the thirty-foot wall, living in its
+reeking, pent-up exhalations must be something abominable.
+
+Such a place as this in Persia would be fairly swarming with noxious
+insect life, of which fleas would be the most tolerable variety, and
+two-thirds of the people would be suffering from chronic ophthalmia. This
+little village, doubtless, had enough to do a few years ago to maintain
+its existence, even with its remarkably strong walls; and on the highest
+mountain peaks round about they point out to me their watch-towers, where
+sentinels daily scanned the country round for the wild horsemen they so
+much dreaded. Four men and three women among the little crowd gathered
+about me here, are pointed out as having been released from slavery by
+the Russians, when they captured Khiva and liberated the Persian slaves
+and sent them home. Every village and hamlet along this part of the
+country contains its quota of returned captives who, no doubt, entertain
+lively recollections of being carried off and sold.
+
+Soon after my arrival here, a little, weazen-faced, old seyud, in a
+threadbare and badly-faded green gown, comes hobbling through the rain
+and the mahogany-colored slush of the village yard to the gate. Everybody
+rises respectfully as he comes in, and the old fellow, accustomed to
+having this deference paid him by everybody about him, and wishing to
+show courtesy to a Ferenghi, motions for me to keep seated. Seeing that I
+had no intention of rising, this courtesy was somewhat superfluous, but
+the incident serves to show how greatly these simple villagers are
+impressed with the idea of a seyud's superiority, to say nothing of the
+seyud's assumption of the same. They explain to me that the little,
+unwashed, unkempt, and well-nigh unclad specimen of humanity examining
+the bicycle is a seyud, with the manner of people pointing out a being of
+unapproachable superiority. Still, looking at the poor old fellow's rags,
+and remembering that it is new year and the time for a change of raiment,
+one cannot help thinking, "Old fellow, you evidently come in for more
+resect, after all, than material assistance, and would, no doubt,
+willingly exchange a good deal of the former for a little of the latter."
+Still, one must not be too confident of this; the bodily requirements of
+a wrinkled old seyud would be very trifling, while his egotism would, on
+the other hand, be insufferable. This is a grazing village chiefly, and
+the gravelly desert comes close up to the walls, so that there is no
+difficulty about pushing on immediately after it ceases raining.
+
+Two farsakhs of variable wheeling through a belt of low hills and broken
+country, and two more over the level Miandasht Plain, and the
+caravanserai of Miandasht is reached. Here the village, the telegraph
+office and everything is enclosed within the protecting walls of an
+immense Shah Abbas caravanserai, a building capable of affording shelter
+and protection to five thousand people. In the old--and yet not so very
+old--dangerous days, it was necessary, for safety, that travellers and
+pilgrims should journey together through this section of country in large
+caravans, otherwise disaster was sure to overtake them; and Shah Abbas
+the Great built these huge caravanserais for their accommodation. In
+deference to the memory of this monarch as a builder of caravanserais all
+over the country, any large serai is nowadays called a Shah Abbas
+caravanserai, whether built by him or not. Certainly not less than three
+hundred pack-camels, besides other animals, are resting and feeding, or
+being loaded up for the night march as I ride up, their myriad clanging
+bells making a din that comes floating across the plain to meet me as I
+approach.
+
+Miandasht is the first place in Khorassan proper, and among the motley
+gathering of charmdars, camel-drivers, pilgrims, travellers, villagers
+and hangers-on about the serai, are many Khorassanis wearing huge
+sheepskin busbies, similar to the head-gear of the Roumanians and Tabreez
+Turks of Ovahjik and the Perso-Turkish border. Most of these busbies are
+black or brown, but some affect a mixture of black and white, a piebald
+affair that looks very striking and peculiar.
+
+The telegraph-jee here turns out to be a person of immense importance in
+his own estimation, and he has evidently succeeded in impressing the same
+belief upon the unsophisticated minds of the villagers, who, apparently,
+have come to regard him as little less than "monarch of all he surveys."
+True, there isn't much to survey at Miaudasht, everything there being
+within the caravanserai walls; but whenever the telegraph-jee emerges
+from the seclusion of his little office, it is to blossom forth upon the
+theatre of the crowd's admiring glances in the fanciful habiliments of a
+la-de-da Persian swell. Very punctilious as regards etiquette, instead of
+coming forth in a spontaneous manner to see who I am and look at the
+bicycle, he pays me a ceremonious visit at the chapar-khana half an hour
+later. In this visit he is preceded by his farrash, and he walks with a
+magnificent peacock strut that causes the skirts of his faultless
+roundabout to flop up and down, up and down, in rhythmic accompaniment to
+his steps. Apart from his insufferable conceit, however, he tries to make
+himself as agreeable as possible, and after tea and cigarettes, I give
+him and the people a tomasha, at the conclusion of which he asks
+permission to send in my supper.
+
+The room in which I spend the evening is a small, dome-roofed apartment,
+in which a circular opening in the apex of the dome is expected to fill
+the triple office of admitting light, ventilation, and carrying off smoke
+from the fire; the natural consequence being that the room is dark,
+unventilated, and full of smoke. Now and then some determined sightseer
+on the roof fills this hole up completely with his head, in an effort to
+peer down through the smoke and obtain a glimpse of myself or the
+bicycle, or a mischievous youngster, unable to resist the temptation,
+drops down a stone.
+
+The shagird-chapar here is a man who has been to Askabad and seen the
+railroad; and when the inevitable question of Russian versus English
+marifet (mechanical skill) comes up, he endeavors to impress upon the
+open-mouthed listeners the marvellous character of the locomotive. "It is
+a wonderful atesh-gharri" (fire-wagon), he would say, "and runs on an
+awhan rah (iron road); the charvadar puts in atesh and ob. It goes chu,
+chu! chu!! ch-ch-ch-chu-ch-u-u-u!!! spits fire and smoke, pulls a
+long-khylie long-caravan of forgans with it, and goes ten farsakhs an
+hour." But in order to thoroughly appreciate this travelled and highly
+enlightened person's narrative, one must have been present in the
+smoke-permeated room, and by the nickering light of a camel-thorn fire
+have watched the gesticulations of the speaker and the rapt attention of
+the listeners; must have heard the exclamations of "Mashal-l-a-h!" escape
+honestly and involuntarily from the parted lips of wonder-stricken
+auditors as they endeavored to comprehend how such things could possibly
+be. And yet there is no doubt that, five minutes afterward, the verdict
+of each listener, to himself, was that the shagird-chapar, in describing
+to them the locomotive, was lying like a pirate--or a Persian--and, after
+all, they couldn't conceive of anything more wonderful than the bicycle
+and the ability to ride it, and this they had seen with their own eyes.
+
+It is the change of the moon, and a most wild-looking evening; the sun
+sets with a fiery forge glowing about it, and fringing with an angry
+border the banks of darksome clouds that mingle their weird shapes with
+the mountain masses to the west, the wind sighs and moans through the
+archways and menzils of the huge caravanserai, breathing of rain and
+unsettled weather. These warning signals are not far in advance, for a
+drenching rain soaks and saturates everything during the night,
+converting the parallel trails of the pilgrim road into twenty narrow,
+silvery streaks, that glisten like trails of glass ahead, as I wheel
+along them to meet the newly-risen sun. It is a morning of hurrying,
+scudding clouds and fitful sunshine, but fresh and bracing after the
+rain; a country of broken hills and undulating road is reached in an
+hour; the broken hills are covered with blossoming shrubs and green young
+camel-thorn, in which birds are cheerily piping.
+
+Six farsakhs bring me to Abbasabad, the last of the four stations of
+terror. A lank villager is on the lookout a couple of miles west of the
+place, the people having been apprised of my coming by some travellers
+who left Miandasht yesterday evening. Tucking the legs of his pantaloons
+in his waistband, leaving his legs bare and unencumbered, he follows me
+at a swinging trot into the village, and pilots me to the caravanserai.
+The population of the place are found occupying their housetops, and
+whatever points of vantage they can climb to, awaiting my appearance,
+their curiosity having been wrought to the highest pitch by their
+informant's highly exaggerated accounts of what they might expect to see.
+The prevailing color of the female costume is bright red, and the swarms
+of these gayly-dressed people congregated on the housetops, and mingled
+promiscuously with the dark gray of the mud walls and domes, makes a
+picture long to be remembered.
+
+And long also to be remembered is the reception awaiting me inside the
+caravanserai yard--the surging, pushing, struggling, shouting mob, among
+whom I notice, with some wonderment and speculation, a far larger
+proportion of blue-eyed people than I have hitherto seen in Persia. Upon
+inquiry it is learned that Abbasabad is a colony of Georgians, planted
+and subsidized here by Shah Abbas the Great, as a check on the Turkomans,
+whose frequent alamans rendered the roads hereabout well-nigh impassable
+for caravans. These warlike mountaineers were brought from the Caucasus
+and colonized here, with lands, exemption from taxes, and given an annual
+subsidy. They were found to be of good service as a check on the
+Turkomans, but were not much of an improvement upon the Turkomans
+themselves in many respects. As seen in the caravanserai to-day, they
+seem a turbulent, headstrong crowd of people, accustomed to be petted,
+and to do pretty much as they please.
+
+At the caravanserai is a traveller who says he hails from the Pishin
+Valley, and he produces a certificate in English, recommending him as a
+stone mason. The certificate settles all doubts of his being from India,
+for were one to meet an Hindostani in the classic shades of purgatory
+itself, he would immediately produce a certificate recommending him for
+something or other. As the crowd surge and struggle for some position
+around me where they can enjoy the exquisite delight of seeing me sip
+tiny glasses of scalding hot tea, prepared by the enterprising individual
+who met me two miles out, the Pishin Valley man tries to look amused at
+them, and to rise superior to the situation, as becomes a person to whom
+a Sahib, and whatever wonderful things he may possess, are nothing
+extraordinary. The crowd seem very loath to let such an extraordinary
+thing as the bicycle and its rider depart from among them so soon,
+although at the same time anxious to see me speed along the smooth,
+straight trails that fortunately lead directly from the caravanserai
+eastward. Scores of the shouting, yelling mob race, bare-footed and
+bare-legged, over the stones and gravel alongside the bicycle, until I
+can put on a spurt and out-distance them, which I take care to do as soon
+as practicable, thankful to get away and eat the bread pocketed in
+disgust at the caravanserai in the peace and quietude of the desert.
+
+Beyond Abbasabad my road skirts Mazinan Lake to the north, passing
+between the slimy mud-flats of the lake shore and the ever-present Elburz
+foot-hills, and then through several wholly ruined or partially ruined
+villages to Mazinan, where I arrive about sunset, my wheel yet again a
+mass of mud, for the Mazinan lake country is a muddy hole in spring. A
+drizzling rain ushers in the dusky shades of the evening, as I repair to
+the chaparkhana, a wretched hole, in a most dilapidated condition. The
+balakhana is little better than being out of doors; the roof leaks like a
+colander, the windows are mere unglazed holes in the wall, and the doors
+are but little better than the windows. It promises to be a cold,
+draughty, comfortless night, and the prospects for supper look gloomy
+enough in the light of smoky camel-thorn and no samovar to make a cup of
+tea.
+
+Such is the cheerless prospect confronting me after a hard day's run,
+when, soon after dark, a man arrives with a thrice-welcome invitation
+from a Russian officer, who he says is staying at the caravanserai. The
+officer, he says, has pillau, kabobs, wine, plenty of everything, and
+would be glad if I would bring my machine and come and accept his
+hospitality for the night. Under the circumstances nothing could be more
+welcome news than this; and picturing to myself a pleasant evening with a
+genial, hospitable gentleman, I take the bicycle down the slippery and
+broken mud stairway, and follow my guide through drizzling rain and
+darkness, over ditches and through miry byways, to the caravanserai.
+
+The officer is found squatting, Asiatic-like, on his menzil floor, his
+overcoat over his shoulders. He is watching his cook broiling kabobs for
+his supper. It is a cheery, hopeful prospect, the glowing charcoal fire
+sparkling in response to the vigorous waving of half a saddle-flap, the
+savory, sizzling kabobs and the carpeted menzil, in comparison with the
+dreary tumble-down place I have just left. My first impression of the
+officer himself, however, is scarcely so favorable as my impression of
+the picture in which he is set--the picture as just described; a sinister
+leer characterizes the expression of his face, and what appears like a
+nod, with an altogether unnecessary amount of condescension in it,
+characterizes his greeting. Hopping down to the ground, lamp in hand, he
+examines the bicycle minutely, and then indirectly addressing the
+by-standers, he says, "Pooh! this thing was made in Tiflis; there's
+hundreds of them in Tiflis." Having delivered himself of this lying
+statement, he hops up on the menzil front again and, without paying the
+slightest attention to me, resumes his squatting position at the fire,
+and his occupation of watching the preparations of his cook. Nothing is
+more evident to me than that he had never before seen a bicycle, and
+astounded at this conduct on the part of an officer who doubtless thinks
+himself a civilized being, even though he might not understand anything
+of our own conception of an "officer and a gentleman," I begin looking
+around for an explanation from the fellow who brought me the invitation,
+thinking there must be some mistake. The man has disappeared and is
+nowhere to be found.
+
+The chapar-jee accompanied us to the caravanserai, and seeing that this
+man has bolted, and that the Russian officer's intentions toward me are
+anything but hospitable, he calls the missing man--or the officer, I
+don't know which--a pedar suktar (son of a burnt father), and
+suggests returning to the cold comfort of the bala-khana. My own feelings
+upon realizing that this wretched, unscrupulous Muscovite has craftily
+designed and executed this plan for no other purpose but to insult and
+humiliate one whom he took for granted to be an Englishman, in the eyes
+of the Persian travellers present, I prefer to pass over and leave to the
+reader's imagination. After sleeping on it and thinking it over, early
+next morning I returned to the caravanserai, bent on finding the fellow
+who brought the invitation, giving him a thrashing, and seeing if the
+officer would take it up in his behalf. In the morning, the cossacks said
+he had gone away; whether gone away or hiding somewhere in the
+caravanserai, he was nowhere to be found; which perhaps was just as well,
+for the affair might have ended in bloodshed, and in a fight the chances
+would have been decidedly against myself.
+
+This incident, disagreeable though it be to think of, is instructive as
+showing the possibilities for mean and contemptible action that may lurk
+beneath the uniform of a Russian officer. Russian officers as a general
+thing, however, it is but fair to add, would show up precisely the
+reverse of this fellow, under similar circumstances, being genial and
+hospitable to a fault; still, I venture that in no other army in the
+world, reckoning itself civilized, could be found even one officer
+capable of displaying just such a spirit as this.
+
+The unwelcome music of pattering rain and flowing water in the concert I
+have to sit and listen to all the forenoon, and a glance outside is
+rewarded by the dreariest of prospects. The landscape as seen from my
+lone and miserable lookout, consists of gray mud-fields and gray
+mud-ruins, wet and slimy with the constant rains; occasional
+barley-fields mosaic the dreary prospect with bright green patches, but
+across them all--the mud-flats, the ruins, and the barley-fields--the
+driving rain sweeps remorselessly along, and the wind moans dismally.
+There is only one corner of my room proof against the drippings from the
+roof, and through the wretched apologies for doors and windows the
+driving rain comes in. Everything seems to go wrong in this particular
+place. I obtain tea and sugar, but there is no samovar, and the
+chapar-jee attempts to make it in an open kettle; the result is sweetened
+water, lukewarm and smoky. I then send for pomegranates, which turn out
+to be of a sour, uneatable variety; but worse than all is the dreary
+consciousness of being hopelessly imprisoned for an uncertain period.
+
+It grows gradually colder, and toward noon the rain changes to snow; the
+cold and the penetrating snow drive me into the shelter of the
+ill-smelling stables. It blows a perfect hurricane all the afternoon,
+accompanied by fitful squalls of snow and hail, and the same programme
+continues the greater part of the night. But in the morning I am thankful
+to discover that the wind has dried the surface sufficiently to enable me
+to escape from my mud-environed prison and its uncongenial associations.
+
+Before getting many miles from Mazinan, I encounter the startling novelty
+of streams of liquid mud, rolling their thick, yellow flood over the
+plain in treacly waves, travelling slowly, like waves of molten lava. The
+mud is only a few inches deep, but the streams overspread a considerable
+breadth of country, as my road is some miles from where they leave the
+mountains, and they seem to have no well-defined channels to flow in. A
+stream of slimy, yellow mud, two hundred yards wide, is a most
+disagreeable obstacle to overcome with a bicycle; but confined in narrow,
+deep channels, the conditions would be infinitely worse. It is a dreary
+and forbidding stretch of country hereabout, the carcasses of camels that
+have dropped exhausted by the roadside, are frequently passed, and
+jackals feasting on them slink off at my approach, watch my progress past
+with evident impatience, and then return again to their feast. Occasional
+stretches of very fair wheeling are passed over, and at six farsakhs I
+reach Mehr, the usual combination of brick caravanserai and mud village.
+
+Here a halt is made for tea and such rude refreshments as are obtainable,
+consuming them in the presence of the usual sore-eyed and
+miserable-looking crowd; more than one poor wretch appealing to me to
+cure his rapidly-failing sight. A gleam of warm sunshine brightens my
+departure from Mehr, and after shaking off several following horsemen,
+the going seems quite pleasant, the wheeling being very good indeed. The
+mountains off to the left are variegated and beautiful on the lower and
+intermediate slopes, and are crested with snow; scudding cloudlets, whose
+multiform shadows are continually climbing up and over the mountains,
+produce a pleasing kaleidoscopic effect, and here and there a sunny,
+glistening peak rises superior to the changeful scenes below.
+
+Sheepskin-busbied shepherds are tending flocks of very peculiar-looking
+sheep on this plain, the first of the kind I have noticed. The fatty
+continuation of the body, popularly regarded as an abnormal growth of
+tail, is wanting; but what is lacking in this respect is amply
+compensated for in the pendulous ears, these members hanging almost to
+the ground; they have a goatish appearance generally, and may possibly be
+the result of a cross. Herds of antelope also frequent this locality,
+which by and by develops into a level mud-plain that affords smooth and
+excellent wheeling, and over which I take the precaution of making the
+best time possible, conscious that a few minutes' rain would render it
+impassable for a bicycle; and wild wind-storms are even now careering
+over it, accompanied by spits of snow and momentary squalls of hail.
+
+A lone minar, looming up directly ahead like a tall factory chimney,
+indicates my approach to Subzowar. The minaret is reached by sunset; it
+turns out to be a lone shrine of some imam, from which it is yet two
+farsakhs to Subzowar. The wheeling from this point, however, is very
+good, and I roll into Subzowar, or, at least, up to its gate, for
+Subzowar is a walled city, shortly after dark. Sherab (native wine) they
+tell me, is obtainable in the bazaar, but when I inquire the price per
+bottle, with a view of sending for one, several eager aspirants for the
+privilege of fetching it shout out different prices, the lowest figure
+mentioned being three times the actual price. Being rather indifferent
+about the doubtful luxury of drinking wine for the amusement of an
+eagerly curious crowd, which I know only too well beforehand will be my
+unhappy portion, I conclude to chagrin and disappoint the whole dishonest
+crew by doing without. One gets so thoroughly disgusted with the
+ever-present trickery, dishonesty, and prying, unrestrained curiosity of
+the ragged, sore-eyed and garrulous crowds that gather about one at every
+halting place, that a person actually comes to prefer a mere crust of
+bread in peace by a road-side pool to the best a city bazaar affords.
+
+A well-dressed individual makes his salaam and intrudes his person upon
+the scene of my early preparations to depart, on the following morning,
+and, when I start, takes upon himself the office of conducting me through
+the labyrinthian bazaar and to the gate of exit beyond. I am wondering
+somewhat who this individual may be, and wherefore the officiousness of
+his demeanor to the crowd at our heels; but his mission is soon revealed,
+for on the way out he pilots me into the court-yard of the Reis, or mayor
+of the city. The Reis receives me with the glad and courteous greeting of
+a person desirous of making himself agreeable and of creating a favorable
+impression; trays of sweetmeats are produced, and tea is served up in
+little porcelain cups.
+
+As soon as tea and sweetmeats and kalians appear on the board, mollahs
+and seyuds mysteriously begin to put in an appearance likewise, filing
+noiselessly in and taking their places near or distant from the Reis,
+according to their respective rank and degree of holiness. My
+observations everywhere in the Land of the Lion and the Sun all tend to
+the conclusion that whenever and wherever a samovar of tea begins to sing
+its cheery and aromatic song, and the soothing hubble-bubble of the
+kalian begins telling its seductive tale of solid comfort and social
+intercourse, a huge green or white turban is certain to appear on the
+scene, a robed figure steps out of its slippers at the door, glides
+noiselessly inside, puts its hand on its stomach, salaams, and drops, as
+silently as a ghost might, in a squatting attitude among the guests.
+Hardly has this one taken his position than another one appears at the
+door and goes through precisely the same programme, followed shortly
+afterward by another, and yet others; these foxy-looking members of the
+Persian priesthood always seem to me to possess the faculty of scenting
+these little occasions from afar and of following their noses to the
+place with unerring precision.
+
+Upon emerging from the shelter of the city and adjacent ruins, I find
+myself confronted by a furious head-wind, against which it is quite
+impossible to ride, and almost impossible to trundle. During the forenoon
+I meet on the road a disgraced official, in the person of the
+Asaf-i-dowleh, Governor-General of Khorassan, returning to Teheran from
+Meshed, having been recalled at New Year's by the Shah to give an account
+of himself for "oppressing the people, insulting the Prophet, and
+intriguing with the Russians." The Asaf-i-dowleh made himself very
+obnoxious to the priests and people of the holy city by arresting a
+criminal within the place of refuge at Imam Riza's tomb, and by an
+outrageous devotion to his own pecuniary interests at the public expense.
+Riots occurred, the mob taking possession of the telegraph-office and
+smashing the windows, because they fancied their petition to the Shah was
+being tampered with. A timely rain-storm dispersed the mob and gave time
+for the Shah's reply to arrive, promising the Asaf-i-dowleh's removal and
+disgrace. The ex-Governor is in a carriage drawn by four grays; his own
+women are in gayly gilded taktrowans, upholstered with crimson satin; the
+women of his followers occupy several pairs of kajavehs, and the
+household goods of the party follow behind in a number of huge Russian
+forgans or wagons, each drawn by four mules abreast. Besides these are a
+long string of pack-camels, mules, and attendants on horseback, forming
+altogether the most imposing cavalcade I have met on a Persian road. How
+they manage to get the heavily loaded forgans and the Governor's carriage
+over such places as the pass near Lasgird is something of a
+mystery--but there may be another route--at any rate, hundreds of
+villagers would be called out to assist.
+
+An opportunity also presents this morning of seeing the amount of
+obstinacy and perverseness that manages to find lodgement within the
+unsightly curves and angles of a runaway camel. A riding-camel, led by
+its owner, scares at the bicycle, and, breaking away, leads him a lively
+chase through a belt of low sand ridges near the road, jolting various
+packages off his back as he runs. Every time the man gets almost within
+seizing distance of the rope, the contrary camel starts off again in a
+long, awkward lope, slowing up again, as though maliciously inviting his
+owner to try it over again, when he has covered a couple of hundred
+yards. These manoeuvres are repeated again and again, until the chase has
+extended to perhaps four miles, when a party of travellers assist in
+rounding him up; the man then has to re-traverse the whole four miles and
+gather up the things.
+
+A late luncheon of bread, warm from the oven, is obtained at the village
+of Lafaram, where I likewise obtain a peep behind the scenes of everyday
+village life, and see something of their mode of baking bread. The walled
+village of Lafaram presents a picture of manure heaps, holes of filthy
+water, mud-hovels, naked, sore eyed youngsters, unkempt, unwashed,
+bedraggled females, goats, chickens, and all the unsavory elements that
+enter into the composition of a wretched, semi-civilized community. With
+bare, uncombed heads, bare-armed, bare-breasted, and bare-limbed, and
+with their nakedness scarcely hidden beneath a few coarse rags, some of
+the women are engaged in making and baking bread, and others in the
+preparation of tezek from cow manure and chopped straw. In carrying on
+these two occupations the women mingle, chat, and help each other with
+happy-go-lucky indifference to consequences, and with a breezy
+unconsciousness of there being anything repulsive about the idea of
+handling hot cakes with one hand and tezek with the other. The ovens are
+huge jars partially sunk in the ground; fire is made inside and the jar
+heated; flat cakes of dough are then stuck in the inside of the jar, a
+few minutes sufficing for the baking. The hand and arm the woman inserts
+inside the heated jar is wrapped with old rags and frequently dipped in a
+jar of water standing by to keep it cooled; the bread thus baked tastes
+very good when fresh, but it requires a stomach rendered unsqueamish by
+dire necessity to relish it after seeing it baked.
+
+The plain beyond Lafaram assumes the character of an acclivity, that in
+four farsakhs terminates in a pass through a spur of hills. The adverse
+wind blows furiously all day and shows no signs of abating as the dusk of
+evening settles down over the landscape. A wayside caravanserai is
+reached at the entrance to the pass, and I determine to remain till
+morning. Here I meet with a piece of good fortune in a small way, in the
+shape of a leg of wild goat, obtained from a native Nimrod; a thin rod of
+iron, obtained from the serai-jee, serves for a skewer, and I spend the
+evening in roasting and eating wild-goat kabobs, while a youth fans the
+little charcoal fire for me with the sole of an old geiveh.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+MESHED THE HOLY.
+
+Warning spits of snow accompany my early morning departure from the
+wayside caravanserai, and it quickly develops into a blinding snow-storm
+that effectually obscures the country around, although melting as it
+touches the ground.
+
+A mile from the caravanserai the trails fork, and, taking the wrong one,
+I wander some miles up the mountains ere discovering my mistake.
+Retracing my way, the right road is finally taken; but the gale increases
+in violence, the cold is numbing to unprotected hands and ears, and the
+wind and driving snow difficult to face. At one point the trail leads
+through a morass, in which are two dead horses, swamped in attempting to
+cross, and near by lies an abandoned camel, lying in the mud and wearily
+munching at a heap of kali (cut barley-straw) placed before him by his
+owners before leaving him to his kismet; perchance with a forlorn hope
+that he might pull through and finally regain his feet.
+
+I have a narrow escape from swamping in the treacherous morass myself,
+sinking knee-deep in the slimy, oozing mud-mass, pulling off my geivehs
+and having no end of trouble in recovering them.
+
+Shurab is reached about noon, where the customary crowd and customary
+rude accommodations await me. Quite an unaccustomed luxury, however, is
+obtained at Shurab--a substance made from grapes, called sheerah,
+which resembles thin molasses. A communal dish, which I see the
+chapar-jee and his sliagirds prepare for themselves and eat this evening,
+consists of one pint of sheerah, half that quantity of grease, a handful
+of chopped onions and a quart of water. This awful mixture is stewed for
+a few minutes and then poured over a bowl of broken bread; they then
+gather around and eat it with their hands--that they also eat it with
+great gusto goes without saying.
+
+Opium smoking appears to be indulged in to a great extent here, two out
+of the three chapar men putting in a good portion of their time "hitting"
+the seductive pipe, and tinkering with their opium-smoking apparatus.
+They only have one outfit between them; both of them are half blind with
+ophthalmia, and the bane of their wretched existence seems to be a
+Russian candle-lamp, with a broken globe, that persists in falling apart
+whenever they attempt to use it--which, by the by, is well-nigh all
+the time--in manipulating the opium needle and pipe. Observing them
+from my rude shake-down, after supper, bending persistently over this
+broken, or ever-breaking lamp, their sore eyes and shrunken features, the
+suzzle-suzzle of the opium as they suck it into the primer and inhale the
+fumes--the indescribable odor of the drug pervading the
+room--all this would seem to be a picture of an ideal Chinese opium
+den rather than of a chapar-khana in Persia.
+
+A broken bridge and miles of deep mud not far ahead has been the burthen
+of information gathered from the villagers during the afternoon, and the
+chapar-jee urges upon me the necessity of employing men and horses to
+carry me and the bicycle across these obstructions into Nishapoor.
+Preferring to take my chances of getting through, however, I pay no heed
+to these warnings, well aware that the chapar-jee's interest in the
+matter begins and ends in the fact that he has horses to hire himself.
+
+In imitation of my example yesterday, I wander off the proper road again
+this morning, taking a road that leads to an abandoned ford instead of to
+the bridge, a mistake that is probably a very good one to have made when
+viewed from the stand-point of mud, as my road is at least the shorter
+one of the two.
+
+A wild-looking, busby-decked crowd of Khorassani goatherds from a
+neighboring village follow behind me across the level mudflats leading to
+the stream, vociferously clamoring for me to ride. They shout
+persistently: "H-o-i! Sowar shuk; tomasha! tomasha!" even when they see
+the difficult task I have of it getting the bicycle through the mud. I
+have singled out a big, sturdy goat-herder to assist me across the
+streams, of which I learn there are two, a mile or thereabout apart, and
+his compatriots are accompanying us to see us cross, as well as being
+impelled by prying curiosity to see how many kerans he gets for his
+trouble. The first stream is found to be arm-pit deep, with a fairly
+strong current. My sturdy Khorassani crosses over first, to try the
+bottom, feeling his way with a long-handled spade; he then returns and
+carries the bicycle across on his head, afterward carrying me across
+astride his shoulders, landing me safely with nothing worse than wet
+feet.
+
+A mile of awful saline mud, and stream number two is reached and crossed
+in a similar manner--although here I unfortunately cross part way
+over fairly sitting on the water. The water and the weather are both
+uncomfortably chilly, and my assistant emerges from the second stream
+with chattering teeth and goose-pimply flesh. A liberal and well-deserved
+present makes him forget personal discomforts, and, fervently kissing my
+hand and pressing my palm to his forehead, he tells me there is no more
+water ahead, and, recrossing the stream, he wends his way homeward again.
+
+Fortunately the road improves rapidly, developing beyond the Nishapoor
+Valley into smooth, upland camel-trails that afford quite excellent
+wheeling. The Nishapoor Valley impresses me as about the finest area of
+cultivation seen in Persia, except, perhaps, the Tabreez Plain; and
+toward Gadamgah the country gets positively beautiful--at least, beautiful
+in comparison. Crystal streamlets come purling and gurgling across the
+road over pebbly beds; and, looking northward for their source, one finds
+that the usually gray and uninteresting foot-hills have changed into
+bright, green slopes, on whose cheerful brows are seen an occasional pine
+or cedar. Overtopping these green, grassy slopes are dark, rugged rocks,
+and higher still the grim white region of--winter. Somewhere behind
+these emerald foot-hills, near Gadamgah, are the famous turquoise mines
+alluded to in the "Veiled Prophet of Khorassan." The mines are worked at
+the present time, but only in a desultory and unenterprising manner.
+
+Favored with good roads, I succeed in reaching Gadamgah before dark,
+where, besides a comfortable and commodious caravanserai, and the
+pleasure of seeing around a number of fine-spreading cedars, one can
+obtain the rare luxury of pine-wood to build a fire.
+
+Immediately upon my arrival a knowing and respectable-looking old
+pilgrim, who calls himself a hadji and a dervish from Mazan-deran,
+rescues me from the annoying importunities of the people and invites me
+to share the accommodation of his menzil. Augmenting his scanty stock of
+firewood and obtaining eggs and bread, quite a comfortable evening is
+spent in reclining beside the blazing pine-wood fire, which is itself no
+trifling luxury in a country of scanty camel-thorn and tezek. Whenever
+the prying curiosity of the occupants of neighboring menzils impels them
+to visit our quarters, to stand and stare at me, my friend the hadji
+waxes indignant, and, waving a stick of firewood threateningly toward
+them, he pours forth a torrent of withering and sarcastic remarks. Once,
+in his wrath, he hops lightly off the menzil floor, seizes an individual
+twice his own size by the kammerbund, jerks him violently forward, bids
+him stare until he gets ashamed of staring, and then, turning him round,
+shoves him unceremoniously away again, pursuing him as he retreats to his
+own quarters with vengeful shouts of "y-a-h!"
+
+To a few eminently respectable travellers, however, the hadji graciously
+accords the coveted privilege of squatting around our fire and chatting.
+Being himself a person who dearly loves the music of his own voice, he
+holds forth at great length on the subject of himself in particular,
+dervishes in general, and the Province of Mazanderaii. Like a good many
+other people conscious of their own garrulousness, the hadji evidently
+suspects his auditors of receiving his statements with a good deal of
+allowance; consequently, when impressing upon them the circumstance of
+his hailing from Mazanderan--a fact that he seems to think creditable in
+some way to himself--he produces from the depths of his capacious
+saddlebags several dried fish of a variety for which that province is
+celebrated, and exhibits them in confirmation of his statements.
+
+It is genuine wintry weather, and with no bedclothes, save a narrow
+horse-blanket borrowed from my impromptu friend, I spend a cold,
+uncomfortable night, for a caravanserai menzil is but a mere place of
+shelter after all. The hadji rises early and replenishes the fire, and
+with his little brass teapot we make and drink a glass of tea together
+before starting out.
+
+At daybreak the hadji goes outside to take a preliminary peep at the
+weather, and returns with the unwelcome intelligence that it is snowing.
+
+"Better snow than rain," I conclude, as I prepare to start, little
+thinking that I am entering upon the toughest day's experience of the
+whole journey through Persia.
+
+Before covering three miles, the snow-storm develops into a regular
+blizzard; a furious, driving storm that would do credit to Dakota.
+Without gloves, and in summer clothes throughout, I quickly find myself
+in a most unenviable plight. It is no common snow-storm; every few
+minutes a halt has to be made, hands buffeted and ears rubbed to prevent
+these members from freezing; yet foot-gear has to be removed and streams
+waded in the bitter cold.
+
+The road leads up into a region of broken hills, and the climax of my
+discomfort is reached, when the blizzard is raging with ever-increasing
+fury, and the cold has already slightly nipped one finger. While
+attempting to cross a deep, narrow stream without disrobing, it is my
+unhappy fate to drop the bicycle into the water, and furthermore to front
+the necessity of instantly plunging in, armpit deep, to its rescue. When
+I emerge upon the opposite bank my situation is really quite critical; in
+a few moments my garments are frozen stiff; everything I have with me is
+wet; my leathern case, containing the small stock of medicines, matches,
+writing material, and other small but necessary articles, is full of
+water, and, with hands benumbed, I am unable to unstrap it.
+
+My only salvation consists in vigorous exercise, and, conscious of this,
+I splurge ahead through the blinding storm and the fast-deepening snow,
+fording several other streams, often emerging dripping from the icy water
+to struggle through waist-deep snow-drifts that are rapidly accumulating
+under the influence of the driving blast and fast-falling snow. Uncertain
+of the distance to the next caravanserai, I push determinedly forward in
+this condition for several hours, making but slow progress. Everything
+must come to an end, however, and twenty miles from Gadamgah the welcome
+outlines of a road-side caravanserai become visible through the thickly
+falling snow-flakes, and the din of many jangling camel-bells proclaims
+it already occupied.
+
+The caravanserai is found so densely crowded with people, horses, camels,
+and their loads that it is impossible to at first carry the bicycle
+inside. Confusion, and more than confusion, reigns supreme; every menzil
+is occupied, and the whole interior space is a confused mass of
+charvadars, stoutly vociferating at one another and at the pack-animals
+lying down, wandering about, or being unloaded.
+
+Leaving the bicycle outside in the snow, I clamber over the humpy forms
+of kneeling camels, through an intricate maze of mules and over
+barricades of miscellaneous merchandise, and, making a virtue of dire
+necessity, invade the menzil of a well-to-do looking traveller. Here,
+waiving all considerations of whether my presence is acceptable or the
+reverse, I take a seat beside their fire and forthwith proceed to shed my
+saturated foot-gear. Under ordinary conditions this proceeding would be
+nothing less than a piece of sublime assurance; but necessity knows no
+law, and my case is really very urgent. When I explain to the occupants
+of the menzil that this nolens volens invasion of their premises is but a
+temporary arrangement, in the flowery language of polite Persian they
+tell me that the menzil, the fire, and everything they have is mine.
+
+After the inevitable examination of my map, compass, and sundry effects,
+I begin to fancy my presence something of an embarrassment, and
+consequently am not a little gratified at hearing the authoritative voice
+of my friend the hadji shouting loudly at the charvadars, telling them
+that he is a hadji and a Mazanderan dervish, for whom they cannot clear
+the way too quickly. Looking round, I see him appear at the caravanserai
+entrance with a party of pilgrims, in whose company he has journeyed from
+Gadamgah. The combined excellences that enter into the composition of a
+person who is both a dervish and an ex-Mecca pilgrim are of great benefit
+in securing the respect and consideration of the common herd in Persia;
+and as, in addition to this, our hadji commands attention by the peculiar
+tone and volume of his voice when delivering his commands, his tall,
+angular steed is quickly tied up in a snug and sheltered corner and his
+saddle-bags deposited on the floor of a fellow-pilgrim's menzil.
+
+Hearing of my arrival, he straightway seeks me out and invites me to
+share the accommodation of his new-found quarters, not forgetting to
+explain to the people he finds me with, however, that he is a hadji, a
+dervish, and that he hails from Mazanderan. I shouldn't be much surprised
+to see him back up the latter assertion by producing a dried fish from
+the ample folds of his kammerbund; but these finny witnesses are reserved
+to perform their role later in the evening.
+
+As the gloom of night envelopes the interior of the caravanserai, and the
+scores of little brushwood fires smoke and glimmer and twinkle fitfully,
+the scene appeals to an observant Occidental as being decidedly unique,
+and totally unlike anything to be seen outside of Persia. Around each
+little fire, from four to a dozen figures are squatting, each group
+forming a most social gathering; some are singing, some chatting
+pleasantly, some quarrelling and arguing violently; some are shouting
+lustily at each other across the whole width of the serai; all are taking
+turns at smoking the kalian or sipping tea, or preparing supper.
+Occasionally a fiery wheel glows through the darkness, from which fly
+myriads of sparks, looking very pretty as it describes rapid circles.
+This is a. little wire cage, full of live charcoal, that is being swung
+round and round like a sling to enliven the coals for priming the kalian.
+In the middle space, crowded with animals and their loads, the horses,
+being all stallions, are constantly squealing and fighting; camels, are
+grunting dolefully, donkeys are braying and bells clanging, and grooms
+and charvadars are shouting and quarrelling. Taken all in all, the
+interior of a crowded caravanserai is a decidedly animated place.
+
+The snow-storm subsides during the night, and a clear, frosty morning
+breaks upon a wintry landscape, in which nothing is visible but snow. The
+hadji announces his intention of "Inshallah Meshed, am roos" (please God,
+we will reach Meshed to-day) as he covers up the obtrusive tail of a fish
+emerging from one of the saddle-bags and prepares to mount. I give him my
+packages to carry, by way of lightening my burden as much as possible for
+the struggle through the snow, and promise him a bottle of arrack, upon
+reaching Meshed, as a reward for thus assisting me through. Arrack is
+forbidden fruit to a hadji above all things else, so that nothing I could
+promise him would likely prove more tempting or acceptable, or be better
+appreciated!
+
+It proves slavish work trundling, tugging, and carrying the bicycle
+through the deep snow along a half-broken trail made by a few horses, and
+through deep drifts; but the cold, bracing air is favorable for exertion,
+and by ten o'clock we reach Shahriffabad, where a halt is made to prepare
+a cup of tea and to give the hadji's horse a feed of barley. At
+Shahriffabad we are warned that on the hills between here and Meshed snow
+will be found two feet deep, streams belly deep to the hadji's horse will
+have to be forded, and, toward Meshed, mud knee-deep. Conscious that the
+mud will be "knee-deep" the whole distance, after the disappearance of
+the snow, this makes us only the more eager to push on while we may.
+
+The sun has by this time become uncomfortably warm, and the narrow trail
+is fast becoming a miry pathway of mud and slush under the trampling feet
+of the animals gone ahead, and of villagers' donkeys returning from the
+city. Mile after mile is devoted to the unhappy task of trundling the
+bicycle ahead, rear wheel aloft, through mud and slush varying from
+ankle-deep to worse, occasionally varying the programme by fording a
+stream.
+
+Late in the afternoon we arrive at the summit of the hills overlooking
+the Meshed Plain, and the hadji points out enthusiastically the golden
+dome of Imam Biza's sanctuary; the yellow, glistening goal whose famed
+sanctity has attracted hosts of pilgrims from all quarters of Central
+Asia for ages past. The hills hereabout are of a rocky character, and
+pious pilgrims have gathered into little mounds every loose piece of
+rock, it being customary for each pilgrim to find a stone and add it to
+one of these piles upon first viewing the bright golden dome of the holy
+city from this commanding spot.
+
+Below the rocky paths of this declivity the snow disappears in favor of
+slippery mud, and the hadji's wearied charger slips and slides about, to
+the imminent danger of its rider's neck; and all the time the slim
+Turkoman! steed trembles visibly in terror of the old Mazanderan
+dervish's whip and his awful threats. Two miles down the bed of the
+stream, crossing and recrossing it a dozen times, often thigh-deep, and
+we emerge upon the gently sloping area of the Meshed Plain, with the
+yellow beacon-light of Meshed glowing in the mellow light of the evening
+sun six miles away.
+
+The late storm has been chiefly rain in the lower altitude of the plain,
+and the day's sunshine has partially dried the surface, but leaving it
+slippery and treacherous here and there. After leaving the bed of the
+stream the hadji becomes anxious about reaching Meshed before dark, and
+advises me to mount and put on the speed.
+
+"Inshallah, Meshed yek saat," he says, and so I mount and bid him follow
+along behind. By vocal suasion and a liberal application of his cruel,
+triple-thonged, raw-hide whip, he urges his well-nigh staggering animal
+into a canter, lifting his forefeet clear of the ground seemingly by the
+bridle at every jump. Suspicious as to his lank and angular steed's
+sure-footedness under the strain, I take the very laudable precaution of
+keeping as far from him as possible, not caring to get mixed up in a
+catastrophe that seems inevitable every time the horse, goaded by the
+stinging stimulus of the whip and the threats, makes another jump. Not
+more than a mile of the six is covered when I have ample reason for
+congratulating myself on taking this precaution, for the horse stumbles,
+and, being too far gone to recover himself, comes down on his nose, and
+the "hadji and Mazanderau dervish" is cutting a most ridiculous figure in
+the mud. His tall lambskin hat flies off and lands in a pool of muddy
+water some distance ahead; the ponderous saddle-bags, which are merely
+laid on the saddle, shoot forward athwart the horse's neck, the horse's
+nose roots quite a furrow in the road, and the horse's owner picks
+himself up and takes a woeful survey of his own figure. It is needless to
+say that the survey includes a good deal more real estate than the hadji
+cares to claim, even though it be the semi-sacred soil of the Meshed
+Plain.
+
+The poor horse is altogether too tired to attempt to recover his legs of
+his own inclination; but, regarding him as the author of his ignominious
+misadventure, the hadji surveys him with a wrathful eye for a moment,
+mutters a few awful imprecations--imported, no doubt, from Mazanderan--and
+then attacks him savagely about the head with the whip. In his wrath and
+determination to make a lasting impression of each blow given, the hadji
+emphasizes each visitation with a very audible grunt; and, to speak
+correctly, so does the horse. It goes without saying, however, that
+master and animal grunt from widely different motives; although, so far
+as the mere audible performance is concerned, one grunt might almost be
+an echo of the other.
+
+At length, by adopting a more circumspect pace, we reach the gate of the
+holy city about sunset without further mishap. The hadji leads the way
+through a bewildering labyrinth of narrow streets that consist of an open
+sewage-ditch in the centre, at present full of filth, and a narrow
+footway of rough, broken, and mud-bespattered cobble-stones on either
+side. Of course we are followed through these fearful thoroughfares by a
+surging and vociferous crowd of people such as a Central Asian city alone
+can produce; but I can this time happily afford to smile at these usually
+irritating accompaniments to my arrival in a populous city, for ten
+minutes after entering the gate finds me shaking hands with Mr. Gray, the
+genial telegraphist of the Afghan Boundary Commission. With a
+well-guarded gate between our cosey quarters and the shouting mob
+outside, the evening is spent very pleasantly and quietly, in striking
+comparison with what it would have been had no one been here to afford me
+a place of refuge.
+
+Meshed is "the jumping off place" of telegraphy; the electric spider
+spins his galvanized web no farther in this direction, and the dirge-like
+music of civilization's--AEolian harp, that, like the roll of
+England's drum, is heard around the world, approaches the barbarous
+territory of Afghanistan from two directions, but recoils from entering
+that fanatical and conservative domain. It approaches from Persia on the
+one side, and from India on the other; but as yet it only approaches. The
+drum has already been there; it is only a question of time when the
+AEolian harp will follow.
+
+It is with lively recollection of Khorassani March weather and the
+experience of the last few days that, after a warm bath, I array myself
+in a suit of Mr. Gray's clothing, elevate my slippered feet, "Yenghi
+Donia fashion," on a pile of Turcoman! carpets, and, abetted by the
+cheering presence of a bottle of Shiraz wine, exchange my recent
+experiences on the road for telegraphic scraps of the latest news. How
+utterly unsatisfactory and altogether wretched seems even the gilded
+palace of a Persian provincial governor--the meaningless compliments, the
+salaaming lackeys and empty show of courtesy, when compared with the
+cosey quarters, the hearty welcome, the honest ring of an Englishman's
+voice, and the genuineness of everything!
+
+Shortly after my arrival, a gentleman with a coal-black complexion, a
+retreating forehead, and an overshadowing wealth of lip appears at the
+door bearing a tray of sweetmeats. Making a profound salaam, he steps out
+of his slipper-like shoes, enters, and places the sweetmeats on the
+table, smiling a broad expectant-of-backsheesh smile the while he
+explains his mission.
+
+"The Sartiep has sent you his salaams and a present of sweetmeats,
+preparatory to calling round himself," explains mine host; "he is a
+Persian gentleman, Ali Akbar Khan, at the head of the Meshed
+telegraph-service, and has the rank of general or Sartiep." The Sartiep
+himself arrives shortly afterward, accompanied by his favorite son, a
+budding youth of some eight or ten summers, of whose beauty he feels very
+justly proud. The Sartiep's son is one of those remarkably handsome boys
+met with occasionally in modern Persia, and which so profusely adorn old
+Persian paintings. With soft, girlish features, big, black, lustrous
+eyes, and an abundance of long hair, they remind one of the beautiful
+youths of Oriental romance; his fond parent takes him about on his visits
+and finds much gratification in the admiring remarks bestowed upon the
+son.
+
+The Sartiep is an ideal Persian official, courteous and complimentary,
+but never forgetful of Ali Akbar Khan; his full, round figure and sensual
+Oriental face speak eloquently of mutton pillau and other fattening
+dishes galore, sweetmeats, cucumbers, and melons; and deep draughts from
+pleasure's intoxicating cup have not failed to leave their indelible
+marks. In this particular the Sartiep is but a casually selected sample
+of the well-to-do Persian official. Leaving out a few notable exceptions,
+this brief description of him suffices to describe them all.
+
+Following in the train of the Sartiep arrive more servants, bearing
+dishes of kabobs, herb-seasoned pillau, and various other strange, savory
+dishes, which, Mr. Gray explains, are considered great delicacies among
+the upper-class Persians and are intended as a great compliment to me.
+
+Although Mohammedans, and particularly Shiite Mohammedans, are forbidden
+by their religion to indulge in alcoholic beverages, the average high
+official in Persia is anything but a sanctimonious individual, and
+partakes with a keen relish of the forbidden fruit in an open-secret
+manner. The thin, transparent veil of abstemiousness that the Persian
+noble wears in deference to the sanctimonious pretensions of the mollahs
+and seyuds and the public eye at large, is cast aside altogether in the
+presence of intimate friends, and particularly if that intimate friend is
+a Ferenghi. Owing to their association in the telegraph-service, mine
+host and the Sartiep are on the most intimate terms.  The Sartiep soon
+after his arrival intimates, with a humorous twinkle of the eye, that he
+feels the need of a little medicine. Mr. Gray, as becomes a good
+physician who knows well the constitutional requirements of his patient,
+and who knows what to prescribe without even going through the
+preliminary act of feeling the pulse, produces a pale-green bottle and a
+tumbler and pours out a full dose of its contents for an adult.
+
+The patient swallows it at a gulp, nibbles a piece of sweetmeat, and
+strokes his stomach in token of approval.
+
+"What was the medicine you prescribed, Gray?" "High wines," says the
+physician, "95 proof alcohol; a bottle that the entomologist of the
+Boundary Commission happened to leave here a year ago; it was the only
+thing in the house except wine. The patient pronounces it the 'best
+arrack' he ever tasted; the firier these fellows can get it the better
+they like it."
+
+"Why, it didn't even make him gasp!"
+
+"Gasp--nonsense; you haven't been in Persia as long as I have yet, or you
+wouldn't say 'gasp' even at 95% alcohol."
+
+But how polite, how complimentary, these French of Asia are, and how
+imaginative and fanciful their language! Not having shaved since leaving
+Teheran, after surveying myself in the glass, I feel called upon, in the
+interest of fellow-wheelmen elsewhere, to explain to our discerning
+visitors that all bicyclers are not distinguished from their fellow men
+by a bronzed and stubby phiz and an all-around vagrom appearance.
+
+The Sartiep strokes his beard and stomach, casts a lingering glance at
+the above-mentioned green-glass bottle, smiles, and replies: "Having
+accomplished so wonderful a journey, you are now prettier with your
+rough, unshaven face than you ever were before; you can now survey
+yourself in the looking-glass of fame instead of in a common mirror that
+reflects all the imperfections of ordinary mortals." Having delivered
+himself of this compliment, the Sartiep's eye wanders in the direction of
+the 95% alcohol again, and the next minute is again smacking his lips and
+complacently stroking his stomach.
+
+In the morning, before I am up, a servant arrives from a Mesh-edi notable
+named Hadji Mahdi, bringing salaams from his master, and a letter clothed
+in the fine "apparel diplomatique" of the Orient. The letter, although in
+reality nothing more than a request to be allowed to come and see the
+bicycle, reads in substance as follows: "Salaams from Hadji Mahdi--may he
+be your sacrifice!-to Gray Sahib and the illustrious Sahib who has
+arrived in Holy Meshed from Teheran, on the wonderful asp-i-awhan, the
+fame of whose deeds reaches to the ends of the earth. Bismillah! May your
+shadows never grow less! Your sacrifice's brother, Hadji Mollah Hassan,
+whose eyes were gladdened by a sight of the asp-i-awhan Sahib at
+Shahrood, and who now sends his salaams, telegraphs me--his unworthy
+brother--that upon the Sahib's arrival in Meshed I should render him
+any assistance he might need. Inshallah, with your permission--may
+it not be withheld--your sacrifice will be pleased to call and
+gladden his eyes with a sight of Gray Sahib and the illustrious Sahib his
+guest."
+
+As might have been expected, the advent of a Ferenghi on so strange a
+vehicle as a bicycle, arriving in the sacred city of Imam Eiza's
+sanctuary, arouses universal curiosity; and not only the Sartiep and
+Hadji Mahdi, but hundreds of big-turbaned Meshedi notables, mollahs, and
+seyuds are admitted during the day to enjoy the happy privilege of
+feasting their eyes on the latest proof of the Ferenghis' wonderful
+marifet,
+
+Upon receipt of the telegram at Shahrood refusing me permission to go
+through Turkestan, I telegraphed to Mr. Gray, requesting him to obtain
+leave for me to go to the Boundary Commission Camp, and accompany them
+back to India, or reach India from the camp alone. Mr. Gray kindly
+forwarded my request to the camp, and now urges me to consider myself his
+guest until the return courier arrives with the answer. This turns out to
+mean a stop-over of seven days, and on the second day immense crowds of
+people assemble in the street, shouting for me to come out and ride the
+bicycle. The clamor on the streets renders it impossible for them to
+transact business in the telegraph office, and several times requests are
+sent in begging me to appease them and stop the uproar by riding to and
+fro along the street. An outer door separates the compound in which the
+house is built from the street, and to prevent the rabble from invading
+the premises, and the possibility of unpleasant consequences, the
+Governor-General stations a guard of four soldiers at the door. This
+precaution works very well so far as the common herd are concerned, but
+every hour through the day little knots of priestly men in the flowing
+new garments and spotless turbans representing their Noo Roos purchases,
+or the lamb's-wool cylinder and semi-European garb of the official,
+bribe, coerce, or command the guard to let them in.
+
+These persistent people generally stand in a respectful attitude just
+inside the outer gate, and send word in by a servant that a Shahzedah
+(relative of the Shah) wishes to see the bicycle. After the first
+"Shahzedah" has been treated with courtesy and consideration in deference
+to his royal relative at Teheran, fully two-thirds of those who come
+after unblushingly proclaim themselves uncles, cousins, or nephews of
+"His Majesty, the King of Kings and Ruler of the Universe!" The constant
+worry and annoyance of these people compel us to adopt measures of
+self-defence, and so, after admitting about a hundred uncles, twice that
+number of nephews, and Heaven knows how many cousins, we conclude that
+blood-relations of the Shah are altogether too numerous in Meshed to be
+of much consequence. Soon after arriving at this conclusion, Mr. Gray's
+farrash, an Armenian he brought with him from Ispahan, comes in with a
+message that another Shahzedah has succeeded in getting past the guard
+and sends in his salaams. "Shahzedah be d----d! Turn him out--put him
+outside, and tell the guards to let nobody else in without our
+permission!"
+
+A moment later the farrash re-enters with the look of a man scarcely able
+to control his risibilities, and says the man and his friends are still
+inside the gate.
+
+"Why the devil don't you put them out, as you are told, then?"
+
+"He says he is the Padishah's step-father."
+
+"Well, what if he is the Padishah's step-father? It's nothing to be the
+Shah's step-father; the Shah probably has five hundred step-father's, to
+say the least--turn him out. No; hold hard; let him stay."
+
+We conclude that a step-father to the king, whether genuine or only a
+counterfeit, is at least something of a relief after the swarms of
+nephews, cousins, and uncles, and so order him to be shown in He proves
+to be a corpulent little man about sixty, who advances up the bricked
+walk toward us, making about three extra profound salaams to the rod and
+smiling in a curious, apprehensive manner, as though not quite assured of
+his reception. About a dozen long-robed mollahs and seyuds follow with
+timid hesitancy in his wake. Strange to say, he makes no allusion to his
+illustrious step-son, the King of Kings at Teheran; and plainly betrays
+embarrassment when Gray mentions the fact of my having appeared before
+him on the wheel. We conclude that the Shah's step-father and the little
+group of holy men clubbed together and paid the Persian guard about a
+keran to let them in, and perhaps another half-keran to the Armenian
+farrash for not summarily turning them out. He tries very hard, however,
+to make himself agreeable, and when told about the Russians refusing me
+the road, exclaims artfully: "I was not an enemy of the Russians before I
+heard this, but now I am their worst enemy! Suppose the Sahib's iron
+horse was a wheel of fire, what harm would it do their country even
+then?"
+
+Our most distinguished caller to-day is Mirza Abbas Khan, C. I. E., a
+Kandahari gentleman, who has been the British political agent at Meshed
+for many years. He makes a formal call in all the glory of his official
+garments, a magnificent Cashmere coat lined with Russian sable and
+profusely trimmed with gold braid; a servant leads his gayly caparisoned
+horse, and another brings up the rear with a richly mounted kalian.
+
+Appearances count for something among the people of Northeastern Persia,
+and Abbas Khan draws a sufficiently large salary to enable him to wear
+gorgeous clothes, and thereby dim the lustre of his bitter rival, the
+political agent of Russia.
+
+Abbas Khan is perhaps the handsomest man in Meshed, is in the prime of
+life, dyes his flowing beard an orthodox red, and possesses most charming
+manners; in addition to his ample salary he owns the revenue of a village
+near Meshed, and seems to be altogether the right man in the right place.
+
+Abbas Khan and a friend of his from Herat both agree that the
+difficulties and dangers of Afghanistan will be likely to prove
+insurmountable; at the same time promising any assistance they can render
+me in getting to India, consistent, of course, with Abbas Khan's duties
+as British Agent. It seems to be a pretty general opinion that
+Afghanistan will prove a stumbling-block in my path; friends at Teheran
+telegraph again, advising me to go anywhere rather than risk the dangers
+to be apprehended in that most lawless and fanatical territory. Nothing
+can be decided on, however, until the arrival of an answer from the
+Commission.
+
+In the meantime, the days slowly pass away in Meshed; every day come
+scores of visitors and invitations to go and ride for the delectation of
+sundry high officials; ever-present are the crowds in the streets
+shouting, "Tomasha! tomasha! Sowar shuk!" and the frequent squabbles at
+the gate between the guard and the people wanting to come in.
+
+Above the din and clamor of the crowd outside there sometimes arise the
+chanting voices of a party of newly arrived pilgrims making their way
+joyously through the thronged streets toward the gold-domed sanctuary of
+Imam Riza, the tomb being situated a couple of hundred yards down the
+street from our quarters. Sometimes we hear parties of men uttering
+strange cries and sounding aloud the praises of Imam Riza, Houssein,
+Hassan, and other worthies of the Mohammedan world, in response to which
+are heard the swelling voices of a multitude of people shouting in
+chorus, "Allah be praised! Allah be praised!!" These weird chanters are
+dervishes, who, with tiger-skin mantles drawn carelessly about them,
+clubs or battle-axes on shoulder, their long unkempt hair dangling down
+their backs, look wildly grotesque as they parade the streets of the
+Persian Mecca.
+
+Meshed is a strange city for a Ferenghi to live in; every day are heard
+the chanting and singing of newly arriving bands of pilgrims, the
+strange, wild utterances of dervishes preaching on the streets, and the
+shouting responses of their auditors. Conspicuous above everything else
+in the city, as gold is conspicuous from dross, is the golden dome and
+gold-tipped minarets of the holy edifice that imparts to the city its
+sacred character. The gold is in thin plates covering the hemispherical
+roof like sheets of tin; like most Eastern things, its appearance is more
+impressive from a distance than at close quarters. Grains of barley
+deposited on the roof by pigeons have sprouted and grown in rank bunches
+between the thin gold plates, many of which are partially loose,
+imparting to the place an air of neglect and decay. By resting their feet
+on the dome of this sacred edifice, the pigeons of Meshed have themselves
+become objects of veneration; shooting them is strictly prohibited, and a
+mob would soon be about the ears of anyone venturing to do them harm.
+
+The two most important persons in Meshed are the acting Governor-General
+of Khorassan, and Mardan Khan, Ex-Governor of Sarakhs and Hereditary
+Chief of the powerful tribe of Timurees. Of course, the Governor sends
+his salaams, and invites me to come round to the government konak and
+favor him with an exhibition. Since our refusal to entertain any more of
+the "Shah's relations," we find that the worthy and long-suffering Abbas
+Khan has been worried almost to the verge of despair by requests from all
+over the city begging the privilege of seeing me ride.
+
+"Knowing that you have been worried in the same way yourselves," says
+Abbas Kahu, "I have replied to them, 'Is the Sahib a giraffe and I his
+keeper? Why, then, do you come to me? The Sahib has travelled a long way,
+and is stopping here to rest, not to make an exhibition of himself."
+
+An exception is of course made in favor of the Governor-General and
+Mardan Khan. The Government compound is a large enclosure, and to reach
+the Governor-General's quarters one has to traverse numerous long
+court-yards connected with one another by long, gloomy passage-ways of
+brick, where the tramping of the sentinels and the march of retiring and
+relieving guards resound through the vaults like an echo of mediaeval
+times.
+
+There is nothing particularly interesting about the Governor's
+apartments, but Mardan Khan's palace is a revelation of barbaric splendor
+entirely different from anything hitherto seen in the country. In
+contradistinction to the dazzling, silvery glitter of the mirror-work and
+stuccoed halls of the Teheran palaces, the home of the wealthy Timuree
+Chieftain is distinguished by a striking and lavish display of colored
+glass, gilt, and tinsel.
+
+Mardan Khan is a valued friend of Mirza Abbas Khan and a man of powerful
+influence; besides this, he is a pronounced admirer of the Ingilis as
+against the Oroos, and my reception at his palace almost takes the
+character of an ovation. News of the great tomasha has evidently been
+widely spread, crowds of outsiders fill the streets leading to the
+palace, and inside the large garden are scores of the elite of the city,
+mollahs, seyuds, official and private gentlemen; the numerous niches of
+the walls are occupied by groups of closely veiled females. Trundling
+through this interesting and expectant crowd with Abbas Khan, Mardan Khan
+issues forth in flowing gown of richest Cashmere-shawl material and gold
+braid, to greet us and to take a preliminary peep at the bicycle, and to
+lead the way into his gorgeously colored room of state.
+
+The scene in this room is an ideal picture of the popular occidental
+conception of the "gorgeous East." Abbas Khan and Mar-dan Khan sit
+cross-legged side by side on a rich Turcoman rug, salaaming and
+exchanging compliments after the customary flowery and extravagant
+language of the Persian nobility. The marvellous pattern and costly
+texture of Abbas Khan's coat, the gold braid, the Russian sable lining,
+and the black Astrakhan cylinder he wears, are precisely matched by the
+garments of Mardan Khan. Twenty or thirty of the most important
+dignitaries and mollahs of the city are ranged according to their
+respective rank or degree of holiness around the room; prominent among
+them is the Chief Imam of Meshed, a very important and influential person
+in the holy city.
+
+The Chief Imam is a slim-built, sharp-looking individual of about forty
+summers, with a face pale, refined, and intellectual; hands white and
+slender as a lady's, and a foot equally shapely and feminine. He wears a
+monster green turban, takes his turn regularly at the kalian, and passes
+it on to the next with the easy gracefulness that comes of good breeding;
+and by his manners and appearance he creates an impression of being a
+person rather superior to his surroundings.
+
+Liveried pages pass around little glasses of tea, kalians, cigarettes,
+and sweetmeats, as well as tiny bottles of lemon-juice and rose-water, a
+few drops of these two last-named articles being used by some of the
+guests to impart a fanciful flavor to their tea. Now and then a new guest
+arrives, steps out of his shoes in the hallway, salaams, and takes his
+proper position among the people already here. Everybody sits on the
+carpet except me, for whom a three-legged camp-stool has been
+thoughtfully provided.
+
+Finally, all the guests having arrived, I ride several times around the
+brick-walks, the strange audience of turbaned priests and veiled women
+showing their great approval in murmuring undertones of "kylie khoob" and
+involuntary acclamations of "Mashallah! mash-all-ah!" as they witness
+with bated breath the strange and incomprehensible scene of a Ferenghi
+riding a vehicle, that will not stand alone.
+
+Altogether, the great tomasha at Mardan Khan's is a decided success.
+Scarcely can this be said, however, of the "little tomasha" given to the
+members of Abbas Khan's own family on the way home. Abbas Khan's compound
+is very small, and the brick-walks very rough and broken; therefore, it
+is hardly surprising to me, though probably somewhat surprising to him,
+when, in turning a corner I execute an undignified header into a bunch of
+busbies.
+
+The third day after my arrival in Meshed, I received a telegram from the
+British Charge d'Affaires at Teheran saying: "You must not attempt to
+cross the frontier of Afghanistan at any point." Two days later the
+expected courier arrives from the Boundary Commission Camp with a letter
+saying: "It is useless for you to raise the question of coming to the
+Commission Camp. In the first place, the Afghans would never allow you to
+come here; and if you should happen to reach here, you would never be
+able to get away again."
+
+These two very encouraging missives from our own people seem at first
+thought more heartless than even the "permission refused" of the
+Russians. It occurs to me that this "you must not attempt to cross the
+Afghan frontier" might just as easily have been told me at the Legation
+at Teheran as when I had travelled six hundred miles to get to it; but
+the ways of diplomacy are past the comprehension of ordinary mortals.
+
+What, after all, are the ambitions and enterprises of an individual,
+compared to the will and policy of an empire? No matter whether the
+empire be semi-civilized and despotic, or free and enlightened, the
+obscure and struggling individual is usually rated 0000.
+
+Russia--"permission refused." England--paternally--"must
+not attempt;" cold, offish language this for a lone cycler to be
+confronted with away up here in the northeast corner of Persia, from
+representatives of the two greatest empires of the world. What is to be
+done?
+
+Mr. Gray, returning from the telegraph office later in the evening, finds
+me endeavoring to unravel the Gordian knot of the situation through the
+medium of a brown-study. My geographical ruminations have already
+resulted in a conviction that there is no possible way to unravel it and
+reach India with a bicycle; my only chance of doing so is to cut it and
+abide by the consequences.
+
+"I have just been communicating with Teheran," says Mr. Gray. "Everybody
+wants to know what you propose doing."
+
+"Tell them I am going down to Beerjand to consult with Heshmet-i-Molk,
+the Ameer of Seistan, and see if it is possible to get through to Quetta
+via Beerjand."
+
+"Ever hear of Dadur?" queries Mr. Gray. "Ever hear of Dadur, the place of
+which the Persians tritely say: 'Seeing that there is Dadur, why did
+Allah, then, make the infernal regions?' That is somewhere in
+Beloochistan. You'll find yourself slowly broiling to death on a
+geographical gridiron if you attempt to reach India down that way."
+
+"Never mind; tell them at Teheran I am going that way anyhow."
+
+Having entered upon this decision, I bid my genial host farewell on April
+7th, and mounting at the door, depart in the presence of a well-behaved
+crowd of spectators. In my pocket is a general letter from the
+Governor-General of Khorassan to subordinate officials of the province,
+ordering them to render me any assistance I may require, and another from
+a prominent person in Meshed to his friend Heshmet-i-Molk, the Ameer of
+Kain and Governor of Seistan, a powerful and influential chief, with his
+seat of government at Beerjand.
+
+Couched in the sentimental language of the country, one of these letters
+concludes with the touching remark: "The Sahib, of his own choice is
+travelling like a dervish, with no protection but the protection of
+Allah."
+
+It is a fine bracing morning as I leave the Mecca of Khorassan behind,
+and the paths leading round outside the walls and moat of the city from
+gate to gate afford excellent wheeling. The Beerjand trail branches off
+from the Teheran and Meshed road about a farsakh east of Shahriffabad;
+for this distance I shall be retraversing the road by which I came, and
+shall be confronted at every turn of my wheel by reminiscences of dried
+fish, a Mazanderau dervish, and an angular steed.
+
+The streams that under the influence of the storm ran thigh-deep have now
+dwindled to mere rivulets, and the narrow, miry trail through the melting
+snow has become dry and smooth enough to ride wherever the grade permits.
+The hills are verdant with the green young life of early spring, and are
+clothed in one of nature's prettiest costumes--a costume of seal-brown
+rocks and green turf studded with a profusion of blue and yellow flowers.
+
+Shahriffabad is reached early in the afternoon, and the threatening
+aspect of the changed weather forbids going any farther today.
+
+Shortly after taking up my quarters in the chapar-khana, a party of
+Persian travellers appear upon the scene, and with them a fussy little
+man in big round spectacles and semi-European clothes. Scarcely have they
+had time to alight and seek out quarters than the little man makes his
+appearance at my menzil door in all the glory of a crimson velvet
+dressing-cap and blue slippers, and beaming gladsomely through his
+moon-like spectacles, he comes forward and without further ceremony
+shakes hands. "Some queer little French professor, geologist,
+entomologist, or something, wandering about the country in search of
+scientific knowledge," is the instinctive conclusion I arrive at the
+moment he appears; and my greeting of "bonjour, monsieur," is quite as
+involuntary as the conclusion.
+
+"Paruski ni?" he replies, arching his eyebrows and smiling.
+
+"Paruski ni; Ingilis."
+
+"Parsee namifami?"
+
+"Parsee kam-kam."
+
+In this brief interchange of words in the vernacular of the country we
+define at once each other's nationality and linguistic abilities. He is a
+Russian and can speak a little Persian. It is difficult, however, to
+believe him anything else than a little French professor, wise above his
+generation and skin-full of occult wisdom in some particular branch of
+science; but then the big round spectacles, the red dressing-cap, and the
+cerulean leather slippers of themselves impart an air of owlish and
+preternatural wisdom.
+
+Six times during the afternoon he bounces into my quarters and shakes
+hands, and six times shakes hands and bounces out again. Every time he
+renews his visit he introduces one or more natives, who take as much
+interest in the hand-shaking as they do in the bicycle. Evidently his
+object in coming round so frequently is to exhibit for the gratification
+of his own vanity and the curiosity of the Persians, this European mode
+of greeting, and the profound depth of his own knowledge of the subject.
+
+Later in the evening the women of the village come round in a body to see
+the Ferenghi and his iron horse, and the wearer of the spectacles, the
+red cap, and blue slippers, takes upon himself the office of showman for
+the occasion; pointing out, with a good deal of superficial enthusiasm,
+the peculiar points of both steed and rider.
+
+Particularly is it impressed upon these woefully ignorant fail-ones, that
+the bicycle is not a horse, but a machine--a thing of iron and not
+of flesh and blood.
+
+The fair ones nod their heads approvingly, but it is painfully apparent
+that they don't comprehend in the least, how, since it is an asp-i-awhan,
+it can be anything else but a horse, regardless of the material entering
+into its composition.
+
+When supper-time arrives the chapar-Jee announces his willingness to turn
+cook and prepare anything I order. Knowing well enough that this
+seemingly sweeping proposition embraces but two or three articles, I
+order him to prepare scrambled eggs, bread, and sheerah. An hour later he
+brings in the scrambled eggs, swimming in hot molasses and grease! He has
+stirred the grease and molasses together, and in this outlandish mixture
+cooked the eggs.
+
+Off the main road the country assumes the character of low hills of red
+clay, across which it would be extremely difficult to take the bicycle in
+wet weather, but which is now fortunately dry. After three or four
+farsakhs it develops into a curious region of heterogeneous parts; rocky,
+precipitous mountains, barren, salt-streaked hills, saline streams, and
+pretty little green valleys. Here, one feels the absence of any plain,
+well-travelled road, the dim and ill-defined trail being at times very
+difficult to distinguish from the branch trails leading to some isolated
+village. The few people one meets already betray a simplicity and a lack
+of "gumption" that distinguish them at once from the people frequenting
+the main road.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE UNBEATEN TRACKS OF KHORASSAN.
+
+During the afternoon I traverse a rocky canon, crossing and recrossing a
+clear, cold stream that winds its serpentine course from one precipitous
+wall to another. Mountain trout are observed disporting in this stream,
+and big, gray lizards scuttle nimbly about among the loose rocks on the
+bank. The canon gradually dwindles into a less confined passage between
+sloping hills of loose rock and bowlders, a wild, desolate region through
+which the road leads gradually upward to a pass.
+
+Part way up this gorge is a rude stone tower about twenty feet high, on
+the summit of which is perched a little mud hut, looking almost as though
+it might be a sentry-box. While yet a couple of hundred yards away, a
+rough-looking customer emerges from the tower and appears to be awaiting
+my approach. His head is well-nigh hidden beneath a huge Khorassani
+busby, and he wears the clothes of an irregular soldier. The long, shaggy
+wool of the sheepskin head-dress dangling over his eyes imparts a very
+ferocious appearance, and he is armed with the ordinary Persian sword and
+one of those antiquated flint-lock muskets that are only to be seen on
+the deserts of the East or in museums of ancient weapons.
+
+Taken all in all, he presents a very ferocious front; he is, in fact,
+about the most ruffianly-looking specimen I have seen outside of Asiatic
+Turkey. As I ride up he motions for me to alight, at the same time
+retreating a few steps toward his humble stronghold, betraying a spirit
+of apprehension lest, perchance, he might be unwittingly standing in the
+way of danger. Greeting him with the customary "Salaam aleykum" and being
+similarly greeted in reply, I dismount to ascertain who and what he is.
+He retreats another step or two in the direction of his strange abode,
+and eyes the bicycle with evident distrust, edging off to one side as I
+turn toward him, as though fearful lest it might come whizzing into his
+sacred person at a moment's notice like a hungry buzz-saw. In response to
+my inquiries, he points up toward the pass and offers to accompany me
+thither for the small sum of "yek keran;" giving me to understand that
+without his presence it is highly indiscreet to proceed.
+
+Little penetration is required to understand that this is one of the
+little black-mailing schemes peculiar to semi-civilization, and which, it
+is perhaps hardly necessary to explain, comes a trifle too late in the
+chapter of my Asiatic experiences to influence my movements or to
+replenish the exchequer of the picturesque and enterprising person
+desirous of shielding me from imaginary harm.
+
+This wily individual is making his living by the novel and ingenious
+process of trading on the fears and credulity of stray travellers, making
+them believe the pass is dangerous and charging them a small sum for his
+services as guard. It is not at all unlikely that he is the present
+incumbent of an hereditary right to extort blackmail from such travellers
+along this lonely road as may be prevailed upon without resorting to
+violence to pay it, and is but humbly following in the footsteps of his
+worthy sire and still more worthy grandsire.
+
+The pass ahead is neither very steep nor difficult, and the summit once
+crossed, and the first few hundred yards of rough and abrupt declivity
+overcome, I am able to mount and wheel swiftly down long gradients of
+smooth, hard gravel for four or five miles, alighting at the walled
+village of Assababad in the presence of its entire population.
+
+Some keen-sighted villager has observed afar off the strange apparition
+gliding swiftly down the open gravel slopes, and the excited population
+have all rushed out in breathless expectancy to try and make out its
+character. The villagers of Assababad are simple-hearted people, and both
+men and women clap their hands like delighted children to have so rare a
+novelty suddenly appear upon the scene of their usually humdrum and
+uneventful lives. Quilts are spread for me on the sunny side of the
+village wall, and they gather eagerly around to feast to the full their
+unaccustomed eyes. A couple of the men round up a matronly goat and exact
+from her the tribute of a bowl of milk; others contribute bread, and the
+frugal repast is seasoned with the unconcealed delight of my hospitable
+audience.
+
+They are not overly clean in their habits, though, these rude and
+isolated people; and to keep off prying housewives, bent on satisfying
+their curiosity regarding the texture of my clothing and the comparative
+whiteness of my skin, I am compelled to adopt the defensive measure of
+counter curiosity. The signal and instantaneous success of this plan,
+resulting in the hasty, scrambling retreat of the women, is greeted with
+boisterous merriment, by the entire crowd.
+
+I have about made up my mind to remain over-night with the hospitable
+people of Assababad; but at the solicitation of a Persian traveller who
+comes along, I conclude to accompany him to a building observable in the
+distance ahead which he explains is a small but comfortable serai. The
+good villagers seem very loath to let me, go so soon, and one young man
+kneels down and kisses my dusty geivehs and begs me to take him with me
+to Hindostan--strange, unsophisticated people; how simple-hearted,
+how childlike they seem!
+
+The caravanserai is but a couple of miles ahead, but it is situated in
+the dip of an extensive, basin-like depression between two mountain
+ranges, and the last half mile consists of mud and water eighteen inches
+deep. The caravanserai itself stands on a slight elevation, and is found
+occupied by a couple of families, who make the place their permanent
+abode and gain a livelihood by supplying food, firewood, and horse-feed
+to travellers.
+
+Upon our arrival, a woman makes her appearance and announces her
+willingness to cater to our wants.
+
+"Noon ass?"
+
+"Yes, plenty of bread."
+
+"Toke-me-morge neis f"
+
+"Neis; loke-me-morge-neis."
+
+"Sheerah ass?"
+
+"Sheerah neis."
+
+"What have you then besides bread?"
+
+For answer the woman points to a few beruffled chickens scratching for
+grains of barley among a heap of rubbish that has evidently been
+exploited by them times without number before, and says she can sell us
+chickens at one keran apiece.
+
+Seeing the absence of anything else, I order her forthwith to capture one
+for me, and the Persian gentleman orders another. The woman sets three
+youngsters and a yellow, tailless dog to run down the chickens, and in a
+few minutes presents herself before us, holding in each hand the plucked
+and scrawny carcass of a fowl that has had to scratch hard and
+persistently for its life for heaven knows how many years. One of the
+chickens is considerably larger than the other, and I tell the Persian
+gentleman to take his choice, thinking that with himself and his two
+servants he would be glad to accept the larger fowl. On the contrary,
+however, he fixes his choice on the smaller one.
+
+Touched by what appears to be a simple act of unselfishness, I endeavor
+to persuade him to take the other, pointing out that he has three mouths
+to fill while I have only one. My importunities are, however, wasted on
+so polite and disinterested a person, and so I reluctantly take
+possession of the bulkier fowl.
+
+The Persian's servant dissects his master's purchase and stows it away
+for future use, the three making their supper off bread and a mixture of
+grease, chopped onions and sheerah from the larder of their saddle-bags.
+The woman readily accepts the offer of an additional half keran for
+relieving me of the onerous task of cooking my own supper, and takes her
+departure, promising to cook it as quickly as possible.
+
+Happy in the contemplation of a whole chicken for supper, I sit around
+and chat and drink tea with my disinterested friend for the space of an
+hour. To a hungry person an hour seems an ominously long period of time
+in which to cook a chicken, and, becoming impatient, the Persian
+gentleman's servant volunteers to go inside and investigate. I fancy
+detecting a shadow of amusement passing over the face of the gentleman as
+his servant departs, and when he returns with the intelligence that the
+chicken won't be tender enough to eat for another hour, his risibilities
+get the better of his politeness and he gives way to uncontrollable
+laughter. Then it is that a gleam of enlightenment steals over my
+unsuspecting soul and tells me why my guileless fellow-traveller so
+politely and yet so firmly selected the smallest of the fowls--he is a
+better judge of Persian "morges" than I. The woman finally turns up,
+bringing the result of her two hours' culinary perseverance in a large
+pewter bowl; she has cut the chicken up into several pieces and has been
+industriously keeping the pot boiling from the beginning. The result of
+this laudable effort is meat of gutta-percha toughness, upon which one's
+teeth are exercised in vain; but I make a very good supper after all by
+breaking bread into the broth. I don't know but that the patriarchal
+ruler of the roost makes at least the richer broth.
+
+Thin ice covers the water when I leave this caravanserai in the gray of
+the morning, and the Persian travellers, who nearly always start before
+daybreak, have already departed. Stories were heard yesterday evening of
+streams between here and the southern chain of mountains, deep and
+difficult to cross; and I pull out fully expecting to have to strip and
+do some disagreeable work in the water. Considerable mud is encountered,
+and three small streams, not over three feet deep, are crossed; but
+further on I am brought to a stand by a deep, sluggish stream flowing
+along ten feet below the level of the ground. Though deep, it is very
+narrow in places, and might almost be described as a yawning crack in the
+earth, filled with water to within ten feet of the top.
+
+A little way up stream is a spot fordable for horses, and, of course,
+fordable also for a cycler; but the prevailing mud and the chilliness of
+the morning combine to influence me to try another plan. A happy plan it
+seems at the moment, a credit to my inventive genius, and spiced with the
+seductive condiment of novelty, the stream is sufficiently narrow at one
+place to be overcome with a running jump; but people cannot take running
+jumps encumbered with a bicycle. The bicycle, however, can quickly and
+easily be taken into several parts and thrown across, the jump made, and
+the wheel put together again.
+
+Packages, pedals, and backbone with rear wheel are tossed successfully
+across, but the big wheel attached to fork and handle-bar, unfortunately
+rolls back and disappears with a splash beneath the water. The details of
+the unhappy task of recovering this all-important piece of property--how I
+have to call into requisition for the first time the small, strong rope I
+have carried from Constantinople--how, in the absence of anything in the
+shape of a stick, in all the unproductive country around, I have to
+persuade my unwilling and goose-pimpled frame into the water and duck my
+devoted head beneath the waves several times before succeeding in passing
+a slip-noose over the handle--is too harrowing a tale to tell; it makes me
+shiver and shrink within myself, even as I write.
+
+Beyond the stream the road approaches the southern framework of the plain
+with a barely discernible rise, and dry, hard, paths afford fair
+wheeling. Looking back one can see the white, uneven crest of the Elburz
+Range peeping over the lesser chain of hills crossed over yesterday,
+showing wondrously sharp and clear in the transparent atmosphere of a
+more or less desert country.
+
+A region of red-clay hills and innumerable little streams ends my riding
+for the present, and the road eventually leads into a cul-de-sac, the
+source of the little streams and the home of spongy morasses whose
+deceptive mossy surface may or may not bear one's weight. Bound about the
+cul-de-sac is a curious jumble of rocks and red-clay heights; the strata
+of the former inclining to the perpendicular and sometimes rising like
+parallel walls above the earth, reminding one of the "Devil's Slide" in
+Weber Canon, Utah. A stiff pass leads over the brow of the range, and on
+the summit is perched another little stone tower; but no valiant champion
+of defenceless wayfarers issues forth to proffer his protection
+here--perhaps our acquaintance of yesterday comes down here when he wants
+a change of air.
+
+From the pass the descent is into a picturesque region of huge rocks and
+splendid streams that come bubbling out from among them, and farther
+along is a more open space, a few fields of grain, and the little hamlet
+of Kahmeh. Stopping here an hour for refreshments, the country again
+becomes rough and hilly for several miles; the road then descends a rocky
+slope to the plain, where a few miles ahead can be seen the crenelated
+walls and suburban orchards and villages of Torbet-i-Haiderie.
+
+Remembering my letter from the Governor-General to subordinate officials,
+I permit a uniformed horseman, who seems anxious to make himself useful
+in the premises, to pilot me into the city, telling him to lead the way
+to the Mustapha's office. Guiding me through the narrow, crowded streets
+into the still more crowded bazaar, he descants, from his commanding
+position in the saddle, to the listening crowd, on the marvellous nature
+of my steed and the miraculous ability required to ride it as he had seen
+me riding it outside the walls. Having accomplished his vain purpose of
+attracting public attention to himself through me, and by his utterances
+aroused the popular curiosity to an ungovernable pitch, he rides off and
+leaves me to extricate myself and find the Mustapha as best I can.
+
+The ignorant, inconsiderate mob at once commence shouting for me to ride.
+"Sowar shuk; sowar shuk! tomasha; tomasha!" a thousand people cry in the
+stuffy, ill-paved bazaar as they struggle and push and surge about me,
+giving me barely room to squeeze through them. When it is discovered that
+I am seeking the Mustapha, there is a great rush of the crowd to reach
+the municipal compound and gain admittance, lest perchance the gates
+should be closed after I had entered and a tomasha be given without them
+seeing.
+
+Following along with the crowd, the compound is reached and found to be
+jammed so tightly with people that the greatest difficulty is experienced
+in forcing my way through them to the Mustapha's quarters. Nobody seems
+to take a particle of interest in the matter, save to lend their voices
+to help swell the volume of the cry for me to ride; nobody in all the
+tumultuous mob seems capable of the simple reflection that there is no
+room whatever to ride, not so much as a yard of space unoccupied by human
+beings. They might with equal propriety be shouting for a fish to swim
+without providing him with water.
+
+The Mustapha is found seated on the raised floor of his open-fronted
+office, examining, between whiffs of the kalian, papers brought to him by
+his subordinates, and I hand him my general letter of recommendation.
+Taking a cursory glance at the contents, he gives a sweep of his chin
+toward the bicycle, and says, "Sowar shuk; tomasha." Pointing out the
+utter impossibility of complying with his request in a badly-paved
+compound packed to its utmost capacity with people; he looks wearily at
+the ragged and unruly multitude before him, as though conscious that it
+would be useless to try and do anything with them, and then giving some
+order to an officer resumes his official labors.
+
+The officer summons a couple of farrashes, and with long willow switches
+they flog their way through the crowd, opening a narrow, but instantly
+filled again, passage for me to follow. Outside the compound the officer
+practically forsakes me and goes over body and soul to the enemy. Filled
+with the same dense ignorance and overwhelming desire to see the bicycle
+ridden, he desires also to gain the approbation of the crowd, and so
+brings all his powers of persuasion to bear against me. Time and again,
+while traversing with the greatest difficulty the narrow bazaar in the
+midst of a surging mob, he faces about and makes the same insane request,
+shouting like a maniac to make his voice audible above the din of a
+thousand clamorous appeals to the same purpose. Had I the power to
+annihilate the whole crazy, maddening multitude with a sweep of the hand,
+I am afraid they would at this juncture have received but small mercy.
+
+The caravanserai is a big, commodious affair, a quadrangular structure of
+brick surrounding fully an acre of ground, and with a small open space
+outside. There is plenty of room to satisfy their insane curiosity here
+without jeopardizing my own neck, and in a fruitless effort to gratify
+them I essay to ride. My appearance in the saddle is greeted with wild
+shouts of exultation, and in their eagerness to come closer and see
+exactly how the bicycle is propelled and prevented from falling over,
+they close up in front as well as behind, compelling an instant dismount
+to prevent disagreeable consequences to myself. Howls of disapproval
+greet this misinterpreted action, and the officer and farrashes commence
+flogging right and left to clear a space for another trial.
+
+This time, while circling about in the small amphitheatre, walled around
+by shouting, grinning human beings, wanton youngsters from the rear shy
+several stones, and the officer comes near giving me a header by
+accidentally inserting his willow staff in the front wheel while pointing
+out to the crowd the action of the pedals and the modus operandi of
+things in general. The officer evidently regards me as the merest dummy,
+unable to speak or comprehend a word of the language, or help myself in
+any way--the result, it is presumed, of some explanation to that effect in
+the letter--and he stalks about with the proud bearing and
+self-conscious expression of a showman catering successfully to an
+appreciative and applauding populace.
+
+The accommodation provided at the caravanserai consists of doorless
+menzils, elevated three feet above the ground; a walled partition, with
+an open archway, divides the quarters into a room behind and an open
+porch in front. Conducting me to one of these free-for-anybody places,
+which I could just as easily have found and occupied without his
+assistance, he takes his departure, leaving me to the tender
+consideration of an overbearing, ragamuffin mob, in whom the spirit of
+wantonness is already aroused.
+
+I attempt to appeal to the reason of my obstreperous audience by standing
+on the menzil front and delivering a harangue in such Persian as I have
+at command.
+
+"Sowar shuk, neis, tomasha, caravanserai neis rah koob neis. Inshalla
+saba, gitti koob rah Beerjandi, khylie koob lomasha-kh-y-l-ie koob
+tomasha saba," is the burden of this harangue; but eloquent though it be
+in its simplicity, it fails to accomplish the desired end. Their reply to
+it all takes the form of howls of disapproval, and the importunities to
+ride become more clamorous than ever.
+
+An effort to keep them from taking possession of my quarters by shoving
+them off the front porch, results in my being seized roughly by the
+throat by one determined assailant and cracked on the head with a stick
+by another. Ignorant of a Ferenghi's mode of attack, the presumptuous
+individual, with his hand twisted in my neck-handkerchief, cocks his head
+in a semi-sidewise attitude, in splendid position to be dropped like a
+pole-axed steer by a neat tap on the temple. He wears the green
+kammerbund of a seyud, however; and even under the shadow of the
+legations in Teheran, it is a very serious and risky thing to strike a
+descendant of the Prophet. For a lone infidel to do so in the presence of
+two thousand Mussulman fanatics, already imbued with the spirit of
+wantonness, would be little less than deliberate suicide, so a sense of
+discretion intervenes to spare him the humiliation of being knocked out
+of time by an unhallowed fist. The stiff, United States army helmet,
+obtained, it will be remembered, at Fort Sidney, Nebraska, and worn on
+the road ever since, saves my bump of veneration from actual contact with
+the stick of number two; and finding me making only a passive resistance,
+the valiant individual in the green kammerbund relaxes both the severity
+of his scowl and his grip on my neck gear.
+
+After this there is no use trying to keep them from invading my quarters,
+and I deem it advisable to stand closely by the bicycle, humoring their
+curiosity and getting along with them as peaceably as possible. The crowd
+present is constantly augmented by new arrivals from without; at least
+two thousand people are struggling, pushing and shouting, some coming
+forward to invade my menzil, others endeavoring to escape from the crush.
+While the rowdiest portion of the crowd struggle and push and shout in
+the foreground of this remarkable scene, little knots of big-turbaned
+mollahs and better-class citizens are laying their precious heads
+together scheming against me in the rear. Now and then a messenger in the
+semi-military garb of a farrash, pushes his way to the front and delivers
+a message from these worthies, full of lies and deceit. From the top of
+their shaved and turbaned heads to the soles of their slip-shod feet they
+are filled with a pig-headed determination to accomplish their object of
+seeing the bicycle ridden. They send me all sorts of messages, from one
+of but ordinary improbability, saying that the Mustapha is outside and
+wants me to come out and ride, to one altogether ridiculous in its wild
+absurdity, promising me a present of two tomans.
+
+Occasionally a dervish holds aloft the fantastic paraphernalia of his
+profession, battles his way through the surging human surf, and with his
+black, ferret-like eyes gleaming with unconscious ferocity through a
+vision of unkempt hair, thrusts his cocoa-nut alms-receiver under my nose
+and says, "Huk yah huk!" or "backsheesh!" Shouted at, gesticulated at,
+intrigued against and solicited for alms all at the same time, and with
+brain-turning persistency, the classic halls of Bedlam would, in
+contrast, be a reposeful and calm retreat. Driven by my tormentors almost
+to the desperate resolve of emptying my six-shooter among them, let the
+result to myself be what it may, the sun of my persecutions has not
+reached the meridian even yet. The officer who an hour ago
+inconsiderately left me to my own resources, now returns with a large
+party of friends, bent on seeing the same wonderful sight that has
+seemingly set the whole city in an uproar. He has been about the place
+collecting friends and acquaintances for the purpose of treating them to
+an exhibition of my skill on the wheel. The purpose of the officer's
+return, with his friends, is readily understood by the crowd, and his
+arrival is announced by a universal roar of "Sowar shuk! tomasha!" as
+though not one of this insatiable mob had yet seen me ride.
+
+Appearing before the elevated porch of the menzil, he beckons me to "come
+ahead" in quite an authoritative manner. The peculiar beckoning twist of
+this presumptuous individual's chin and henna-stained beard summoning me
+to come out and "perform" reminds me of nothing so much as some tamer of
+wild animals ordering a trained baboon to spruce himself up and dance for
+the edification of the circus-going public. Signifying my unwillingness
+to be thus made a circus of over and over again, the officer beckons even
+more peremptorily than before, and even makes a feint of coming and
+fetching me out by force.
+
+As may well be believed, the sum of my patience is no longer equal to the
+strain, and jerking my revolver around from the obscurity of its
+hiding-place at my hip to where it can plainly be seen, and laying a hand
+menacingly on the butt, I warn him to clear off, in a manner that causes
+him to wilt and turn pale. He leaves the caravanserai at once in high
+dudgeon. It has been a most humiliating occasion for him, to fall so
+ignobly from the very high horse on which he just entered with his bosom
+friends; but it is no more than he rightly deserves.
+
+Shortly after this little incident the part-proprietor of a tchai-khan
+not far from the caravanserai, proposes that I leave my menzil and come
+with him to his place. Happy in the prospect of any kind of a change that
+will secure me a little peace, I readily agree to the proposal and at
+once take my departure. A few stones are thrown, fortunately without
+doing any damage, ere the tchai-khan is reached; but once inside, the
+situation is materially improved.
+
+It soon transpires that the speculative proprietors have conceived the
+bright idea of utilizing me as an attraction to draw customers to their
+place of business. Two men are stationed at the door with clubs, and
+admittance is only granted to likely-looking people who have money to
+spend on water-pipes and tea. A rival attraction already occupies the
+field in the person of a Tabreez Turkish luti with a performing rib-nosed
+mandril and a drum. Now and then, when the crowd with no money to spend
+becomes too clamorous about the doorway, the luti goes to the assistance
+of the guards, and giving the mandril the length of his chain, chases the
+people away.
+
+These wandering troubadours and their performing monkeys are common
+enough all over Persia, and one often meets them on the road or in the
+villages; but the bicycle is quite a different thing, and the
+enterprising Tchan-jees do a roaring business all the evening with
+customers pouring in to see it and me. The bicycle, the luti, and the
+mandril occupy the back part of the large room, where several lamps and
+farnooses envelop this attractive and drawing combination with a garish
+and stagy glow, so that they can be seen to advantage by the throngs of
+eager visitors. My own place, as the lion of the occasion, is happily in
+the vicinity of the samovar, where liberal-minded customers can treat me
+to cigarettes and tea.
+
+Ridiculous as is my position in the tchai-khan, it is, of course,
+infinitely superior in point of comfort and freedom from annoyance, to my
+exposed quarters over at the caravanserai. The luti sings doubtful love
+songs to the accompaniment of finger-strumming on the drum, and the
+mandril now and then condescends to stand on its head, grunt loudly in
+response to questions, spin round and round like a dancing dervish, and
+otherwise give proof of his intelligence and accomplishments. Its long
+hair is shorn from the lower portion of its body, but its head and
+shoulders are covered with a wealth of silvery-grayish hair that overlaps
+the nakedness of its body and gives it the grotesque appearance of
+wearing a tippet. The animal's temper is anything but sweet,
+necessitating the habitual employment of a muzzle to prevent him from
+biting. Every ten or fifteen minutes, as regular almost as the movements
+of Father Time, the mandril's bottled discontent at being made to perform
+seems to reach the explosive point, and springing suddenly at his master,
+he buries his nose viciously among his clothing in a. determined effort
+to chew him up. This spasmodic rage subsides in horrible grunts of
+disappointment at being unable to use his teeth, and he becomes
+reasonably tractable again for another ten minutes.
+
+The luti himself is filled with envy and covetousness at the immense
+drawing powers of the bicycle; and in a burst of confidence wants to know
+if I am an "Ingilis lut;" at the same time placing his forefingers
+together as an intimation that if I am we ought by all means to form a
+combination and travel the country together. About ten o'clock the
+khan-jees make me up quite a comfortable shake-down, and tired out with
+the tough journey over the mountains and the worrying persecutions of the
+afternoon, I fall asleep while yet the house is doing a thriving trade;
+the luti singing, the mandril grunting, kalians bubbling, and people
+talking, all fail to keep me awake.
+
+The mental and physical exhaustion that makes this possible, does not,
+however, prevent me from falling asleep with a firm determination to
+leave Torbet-i-Haiderie and its turbulent population too early in the
+morning for any more crowds to gather. Accordingly, the morning star has
+scarcely risen above the horizon ere I turn out, waken one of the
+khan-jees, pocket some bread and depart.
+
+Beyond the streams and villages about Torbet-i-Haiderie, the country
+develops into a level desert, stretching away southward as far as eye can
+reach. The trail is firm gravel, the wind is favorable, the morning cool,
+and the fresh, clear air of the desert exhilarating; under these
+favorable conditions I bowl rapidly along, overtaking in a very short
+time night-marching camel-riders that left the city last night. Traces of
+old irrigating ditches and fields in one or two places tell the tale of
+an attempt to reclaim portions of this desert long ago; but now the
+camel-thorn and kindred hardy shrubs hold undisputed sway on every hand.
+During the forenoon a small oasis is found among some low, shaly hills
+that give birth to a little stream, and consequent subsistence, to a few
+families of people; they live together inside a high mud-walled enclosure
+and cultivate a few small fields of grain. The place is called Kair-abad,
+and the people mix chopped garlic with their bread before baking it, or
+sprinkle the dough liberally with garlic seeds.
+
+About 2 p.m. is reached a much larger oasis containing a couple of
+villages; beyond this are diverging trails with no one anywhere near to
+ask the way. Choosing the one that seems to take the most southerly
+course, the trail continues hard and ridable for a few more miles, when
+it becomes lost in a sea of shifting sand. Firmer ground is visible in
+the distance ahead, and on it are seen the small black tents of a few
+families of Eliautes. Considerable difficulty is experienced in getting
+through the sand; but the width is not great, and the dim trail is
+recovered on the southern side with the assistance of a chance
+acquaintance.
+
+This chance acquaintance is an Eliaute goat-herd, whom I unwittingly
+scared nearly out of his senses, and whose gratitude at finding himself
+confronting a kindly-disposed human being instead of some supernatural
+agent of destruction, is very great indeed. He was slumbering at his
+post, this gentle guardian of a herd of goats, stretched at full length
+on the ground. Surveying his unconscious form for a moment and carried
+away by the animal-like simplicity of his face, I finally shout "Hoi!"
+Opening his eyes with a start and seeing a white-helmeted head surveying
+him over the top of a weird, bristling object, the natural impulse of
+this simple-hearted child of the desert is to seek safety in flight.
+Recovering his head, however, upon hearing reassuring words, he adopts
+the propitiatory course of rushing impulsively forward and kissing my
+hand.
+
+Spending his whole life here on the lonely desert in the constant society
+of a herd of goats, rarely seeing a stranger or meeting anybody to speak
+to outside the very limited members of his own tribesmen in yonder tents,
+he seems to have almost lost the power of conversation. His replies are
+mere guttural gruntings, as though the ever-present music of bleating
+goats has had the lamentable effect of neutralizing the naturally
+superior articulation of a human being and dragging his powers of
+utterance down almost to the ignoble level of "mb-b-a-a."
+
+My small stock of Persian words seems also to be altogether lost upon his
+warped and blunted powers of understanding, and it is only by an
+elaborate use of pantomime that I finally succeed in making my wants
+understood. He possesses the simple hospitable instincts of a child of
+Nature's broad solitudes; he leads the way for over a mile to put me on
+the now scarcely perceptible continuation of the trail, and with a
+worshipfully anxious face he begs of me to go and stay over night at the
+tents.
+
+My road leads right past the little cluster of black tents; several women
+outside collecting stunted brushwood greet me with the silent, wondering
+stare of people incapable of any deeper display of emotion than the
+animals they daily associate with and subsist upon; half-naked children
+stare at me in a dreamy sort of way from beneath the tents. Even the dogs
+seem to have lost their canine propensity to resent innovations; the
+result, no doubt, of the same dreary, uneventful round of existence, in
+which the faculty of resentment has become dwarfed by the general absence
+of anything new or novel to bark at.
+
+The tents of the Eliautes are small and inelegant as compared with the
+tents of well-to-do Koords, and the physique and general appearance of
+the Eliautes themselves is vastly inferior to the magnificent fellows
+that we found loafing about the headquarters of the Koordish sheikhs in
+Asia Minor and Western Persia.
+
+The trail I am now following is evidently but little used, requiring the
+tracking instincts of an Indian almost to keep it in view. It leads due
+southward across the broad, level wastes of the Goonabad Desert, the
+surface of which affords most excellent wheeling even where there is not
+the faintest indication of a trail. Much of the surface partakes of the
+character of bare mud-flats that afford as smooth a wheeling surface as
+the alkali flats of the West; the surface is covered all over with crisp
+sun peelings--the thin, shiny surface of mud, baked and curled upward by
+the fierce heat of the sun, and which now crackle like myriads of dried
+twigs beneath the wheel. Occasionally I pass through thousands of acres
+of wild tulips, and scattering bands of antelopes are observed feeding in
+the distance. The bulbous roots of a great many of the tulips have been
+eaten by herbivorous animals of epicurean tastes---our fastidious
+friends, the antelopes, no doubt. The flags are bitten off and laid
+aside, the tender, white interior of the bulb alone is extracted and
+eaten, the less tender outside layers being left in the hole. It is a
+glorious ride across the Goonabad Desert, a ten-mile pace being quite
+possible most of the way; sometimes the trail is visible and sometimes it
+is not. With but the vaguest idea of the distance to the next abode of
+man, or the nature of the country ahead, I bowl along southward, led by
+the strange infatuation of a pathfinder traversing terra incognita, and
+rejoicing in the sense of boundless freedom and unrestraint that comes of
+speeding across open country where Nature still holds her primitive sway.
+
+Twice I wheel past the ruins of wayside umbars, whose now utterly
+neglected condition and the well-nigh obliterated trail point out that I
+am travelling over a route that has for some reason been abandoned. A
+variation from the otherwise universal level occurs in the shape of a
+cluster of low, mound-like hills, whose modest proportions are made
+gorgeous and interesting by flakes of mica that glint and glisten in the
+sunlight as though the hills might be strewn with precious jewels.
+
+The sun is getting pretty low, and no signs of human habitation anywhere
+about; but the wheeling is excellent, and the termination of the
+lake-like level is observable in the distance ahead in favor of low
+hills. Between my present position and the hills the prospect is that of
+continuous level ground. Imagine my astonishment, then, at shortly
+finding myself standing on the bank of a stream about thirty yards wide,
+its yellow waters flowing sluggishly along twenty feet below the surface
+of the desert. The abrupt nature of its banks, and an evidently
+unpleasant habit of becoming unfordable after a rain, tell the story of
+the abandoned trail I have been following. Whether three feet deep or
+thirty, the thick, muddy character of its moving water refuses to reveal,
+as, standing on the bank, I ruefully survey the situation.
+
+No time is to be lost in idle speculation, unless I want to stretch my
+supperless form on the barren, brown bosom of mother earth, and dream the
+dreary visions conjured up by the clamorous demands of unsatisfied
+nature; for the sun has well-nigh sunk below the horizon. Clambering down
+the almost perpendicular bank I succeed, after several attempts, in
+discovering a passage that can be forded, and so, wrapping my clothing,
+money, revolver, etc. tightly within my rubber coat, I essay to carry the
+bundle across. All goes well until I reach a point just beyond the middle
+of the stream, when the bed of the stream breaks through with my weight
+and lets me down into a watery cavern to which there appears to be no
+bottom. The bed of the stream at this point seems to be a mere thin
+shell, beneath which there are other aqueous depths, and fearful lest the
+undercurrent should carry me beneath the crust and prevent me recovering
+myself, I loose the bundle and regain the surface without more ado. The
+rubber covering preserves the clothes from getting much of a wetting, and
+I swim and wade to the opposite shore with them without much trouble.
+
+To get the bicycle over, however, looks a far more serious undertaking;
+for to break through in this way with a bicycle held aloft would probably
+result in getting entangled in the wheel and held under the water. It
+would be equally risky to take that important piece of property apart and
+cross over with it piece by piece, for the loss of any part would be a
+serious matter here.
+
+Several new places are tried, but this one is the only passage that can
+be forded. My rope is also too short to be of avail in swimming over and
+pulling the bicycle across. Finally, after many attempts, I succeed in
+finding a ford immediately alongside where I had broken through, and
+after thoroughly testing the strength of the crust by standing and
+jumping up and down, I conclude to risk carrying the wheel. Owing to the
+extreme difficulty of following the same line, it is scarcely necessary
+to remark that every step forward is made with extreme caution and every
+foot of the riverbed traversed tested as thoroughly as possible, under
+the circumstances, before fully trusting my weight upon it. Once the
+crust breaks through again, letting me down several inches; but,
+fortunately, the second bottom is here but a matter of inches below the
+first shell, and I am able to recover myself without dropping the
+bicycle; and the southern bank is reached without further misadventure.
+
+No trail is visible on the crackled surface of the mud-flat across the
+river, as I continue in a general southward course, hoping to find it
+again ere it becomes too dark Soon a man riding on a camel is descried
+some distance off to the right, and deeming it advisable to seek for
+information at his hands, I shape my course toward him and give chase.
+Becoming conscious of a strange-looking object careering over the plain
+in his direction, the man surveys me for a moment from the back of his
+awkward steed and then steers his ship of the desert in another
+direction. The lumbering camel is quickly overtaken, however, and the
+gallant but apprehensive rider makes a stand and threateningly waves me
+away. Observing the absence of the familiar long-barrelled gun, I persist
+in my purpose of interviewing him regarding the road, and finally learn
+from him that the village of Goonabad is eight miles farther south, and
+that the trail will be easier followed when I reach the hills. Had he
+been armed with a gun, there would have been more or less risk in
+approaching him in the dusky shades of evening on so strange a vehicle of
+travel; but before I depart he alights from his camel for the
+characteristic purpose of kissing my hand.
+
+A couple of miles brings me to the hills, where my riding abruptly comes
+to an end; the hills are simply huge waves of sand and dust collected on
+the shore of the desert and held together by a growth of coarse shrubs.
+The dim light of the young moon proves insufficient for my purpose of
+keeping the trail, and the difficulty in trundling through the sand
+compels me to seek the cold comfort of a night in the desert, after all.
+
+Goonabad appears to be a sort of general rendezvous for wandering tribes
+of Eliautes that roam the desert country around with their flocks and
+herds, the tent population of the place far outnumbering the soil-tilling
+people of the village itself. A complete change is here observable in
+both the climate and the people; north of the desert the young barley is
+in a very backward state, but at Goonabad both wheat and barley are
+headed out, and the sun strikes uncomfortably hot as soon as it rises
+above the horizon. It is a curious change in so short a distance. The men
+affect the long, dangling, turban-end of the Afghans and the women
+blossom forth in the gayest of colors; the people are refreshingly
+simple-hearted and honest, as compared with the knowing customers along
+the Teheran-Meshed road.
+
+Sand-hills, scattering fields and villages, and a bewildering time
+generally, in keeping my course, characterize the experience of the
+forenoon. The people of one particular village passed through are
+observed to be all descendants of the Prophet, wearing monster green
+turbans and green kammerbunds; the women are dressed in white
+throughout--white socks, white pantalettes, and white shrouds; they
+move silently about, more like ghostly visitants than human beings.
+Distinctly different types of people from the majority are sometimes met
+with--full-bearded, very dark-skinned men, whose bared breasts betray the
+fact that they are little less hairy than a bison.
+
+Beyond the sand-hills, the villages, and the cultivation is a stony plain
+extending for sixteen miles, a gradual upward slant to a range of
+mountains. At the base of the mountains an area of dark-green coloring
+denotes the presence of fields and orchards and the whereabouts of the
+important village of Kakh. Beautifully terraced wheat-fields and
+vineyards, and peach and pomegranate orchards in full bloom, gladden the
+eyes and present a most striking contrast to the stony plain as the
+vicinity of Kakh is reached, and another pleasing and conspicuous feature
+is the dome of a mesjid mosaicked with bright-colored tiles.
+
+The good people of Kakh are inquisitive even above their fellows, if such
+can be possible, but they are well-behaved and mild-mannered with it.
+After taking the ragged edge off their curiosity by riding up and down
+the main thoroughfare of the village, the keeper of a mercantile affair
+locks the bicycle up in his room, and I spend the evening hobnobbing with
+him and his customers in his little stall-like place of business. Kakh is
+famous for the production of little seedless raisins like those of
+Smyrna. Bushels of these are kicking about the place, and our merchant
+friend becomes filled with a wild idea that I might, perchance, buy the
+lot. A moment's reflection would convince him that ten bushels of
+sickly-sweet raisins would be about the last thing he could sell to a
+person travelling on a bicycle; but his supply of raisins is evidently so
+outrageously ahead of the demand that his ambition to reduce his stock
+obscures his better judgment like a cloud, and places him in the position
+of a drowning man clutching wildly at a straw.
+
+Considerable opium is also grown hereabouts, and the people make it into
+sticks about the size of a carpenter's pencil; hundreds of these also
+occupy the merchant's shelves. He seems to have very little that isn't
+grown in the neighborhood except tea and loaf-sugar.
+
+Eyots, who were absent in their fields when I arrived, come crowding
+around the store in the evening, bothering me to ride; the shop-keeper
+bids them wait till my departure in the morning, telling them I am not a
+luti, riding simply to let people see. He provides me with a door that
+fastens inside, and I am soon in the land of dreams.
+
+Early in the morning I am awakened by people pounding at the door and
+shouting, "A/tab, Sahib-a/tab.'" It is the belated ryots of yesterday
+eve; thoroughly determined to be on hand and see the start, they are
+letting me know that it is sunrise.
+
+A boisterous mountain stream, tearing along at racing speed over a rocky
+bed a hundred and fifty yards wide, provides Kakh with perpetual music,
+and furnishes travellers going southward with an interesting time getting
+across. This stream must very frequently become a raging torrent, quite
+impassable; for although it is little more than knee-deep this morning,
+the swift water carries down stones as large as a brick, that strike
+against the ankles and well-nigh knock one off his feet.
+
+Beyond Kakh the trail winds its circuitous way through a mountainous
+region, following one little stream to its source, climbing over the
+crest of an intervening ridge and down the bed of another stream. It is
+but an indistinct donkey trail at best, and the toilsome mountain
+climbing reminds me vividly of the worst parts of Asia Minor. Toward
+nightfall I wander into the village of Nukhab, a small place perched
+among the hills, inhabited by kindly-disposed, hospitable folks.
+
+Having seen the unhappy effect of the Governor-General's letter of
+recommendation at Torbet-i-Haiderie, and desirous of seeing what effect
+it might, perchance, have on the more simple-hearted people of Nukhab, I
+present it to the little, old, blue-gowned Khan of the village. Like a
+very large proportion of his people, the Khan is suffering from chronic
+ophthalmia; but he peruses the letter by the glimmer of a blaze of
+camel-thorn. The intentions of these people were plainly most hospitable
+from the beginning, so that it is difficult to determine about the effect
+of the letter.
+
+Willing hands sweep out the quarters assigned for my accommodation, the
+improvised besoms filling the place with a cloud of dust; the doorway is
+ruthlessly mutilated to make it large enough to admit the bicycle;
+nummuds are spread and a crackling fire soon fills the room with mingled
+smoke and light. The people are allowed to circulate freely in and out to
+see me, but only the Khan himself and a few of the leading lights of the
+village are permitted to indulge in the coveted privilege of spending the
+entire evening in my company. The village is ransacked for eatables to
+honor their guest, resulting in a bountiful repast of eggs, pillau, mast,
+and sheerah.
+
+Away down here among the mountains and out of the world, these people see
+nothing more curious than their next-door neighbors from year to year;
+they take the most ridiculous interest in such small affairs as my
+note-book and pencil, and everything about me seems to strike them as
+peculiar.
+
+The entire village, as usual, assembles to see me dispose of the eatables
+so generously provided; and later in the evening there is another
+highly-expectant assembly waiting around, out of curiosity, to see what
+sort of a figure a Ferenghi cuts at his evening devotions. Poor benighted
+followers of the False Prophet, how little they comprehend us Christians!
+Suddenly it seems to dawn upon the mind of the simple old Khan that,
+being a stranger in a strange land, I might, perchance, be a trifle mixed
+about my bearings, and so he kindly indicates the direction of Mecca.
+When informed that the Ingilis never prostrate themselves toward Mecca
+and say "Allah-il-allah!" they evince the greatest astonishment; and then
+the strange, unnatural impiousness of people who never address themselves
+to Allah nor prostrate toward the Holy City, impresses their simple minds
+with something akin to the feeling entertained among certain of ourselves
+toward extra dare-devil characters, and they seem to take a deeper and
+kindlier interest in me than ever. The disappointment at not seeing what
+I look like at prayers is more than offset by the additional novelty
+imparted to my person by the, to them, strange and sensational omission.
+
+They seem greatly disappointed to learn that I am going away in the
+morning; they have plenty of toke-me-morge, pillau, mast, and sheerah,
+they say--plenty of everything; and they want me to stay with them
+always. Revolving the matter over in my mind, I am forcibly struck with
+the calm, reposeful state of Nukhab society; and what a brilliant field
+of enterprise for an ambitious person the place would be. Turned
+Mussulman, joined in wedlock to three or four sore-eyed village damsels;
+worshipped as a sort of strange, superior being, hakim and eye-water
+dispenser; consulted as a walking store-house of occult philosophy on all
+occasions; endeavoring to educate the people up to habits of all-round
+cleanliness; chiding the mothers for allowing the flies to swarm and
+devour the poor little babies' eyes--all this, for toke-me-morge, pillau,
+mast, and sheerah, twice or thrice a day! Involuntarily my eye roams over
+the gladsome countenances of the eligible portion of my female auditors,
+as though driven by this whimsical flight of fancy to the necessity of at
+once making a choice. There is only one present with any pretence to
+comeliness; and embarrassed, no doubt, by the extreme tenderness of the
+stranger's glance, she shrinks from view behind an aged and ugly person
+whom I take to be her mother.
+
+Everybody stops to see what a Ferenghi looks like en deshabille, and when
+I am snugly sandwiched between the quilts provided, they gather about me
+and peer curiously down into my face.
+
+An enterprising youth is on hand at daybreak making a fire; but it is
+eight o'clock before I am able to get away; they seem to be mildly
+scheming among themselves to keep me with them as long as possible.
+
+The trail winds and twists about among the mountains, following in the
+train of a wayward little stream, then leads over a pass and emerges, in
+the company of another stream, upon a slanting plateau leading down to an
+extensive plain. Rounding the last spur of the hills, I find myself
+approaching a crowd numbering at least a hundred people. Hats are waved
+gleefully, voices are lifted up in joyous shouts of welcome, and the
+whole company give way to demonstrations of delight at my approach. A
+minute later I find myself surrounded by the familiar faces of the
+population of Nukhab--my road has followed a roundabout course of
+six or seven miles, and our enterprising friends have taken a short cut
+over the lulls to intercept me at this point, where they can watch my,
+progress across the open plain. They have brought along the kind old
+Kahn's kalian and tobacco-bag, and the wherewithal to make me a parting
+glass of tea.
+
+Eight or ten miles of fair wheeling across the plain, through the
+isolated village of Mohammedabad, and the trail loses itself among the
+rank, dead stalks of the assafoetida plant that here characterizes the
+vegetation of the broad, level sweep of plain. The day is cloudy, and
+with no trail visible, my compass has to be brought into requisition;
+though oft-times finding it useful, it is the first time I have found
+this article to be really indispensable so far on the tour.
+
+The atmosphere of an assafoetida desert is among those things that can
+better be imagined than described; the aroma of the fetid gum is wafted
+to and fro, and assails the nostrils in a manner quite the reverse of
+"Araby the blest." The plant is a sturdy specimen among the annuals: its
+straight, upright stem is but three or four feet high, but often
+measuring four inches in diameter, and it not infrequently defies the
+blasts of the Khorassan winter and the upheaving thaws of spring, and
+preserves its upright position for a year after its death. The thick,
+dead stems and branching tops of last year's plants are seen by the
+thousands, sturdily holding their ground among the rank young shoots of
+the new growth.
+
+Mountainous territory is again entered during the afternoon, and shortly
+after sunset I arrive at a cluster of wretched mud hovels, numbering
+about two dozen. Here my reception is preeminently commercial and
+business-like, the people requiring payment in advance for the bread and
+eggs and rogan provided.
+
+A nonsensical custom among the people of Southern Khorassan is to offer
+one's food in turn to everybody present and say, "Bis-millah," before
+commencing to eat it yourself. Although a ridiculous piece of humbug, it
+is generally my custom to fall in with the peculiar ways of the country,
+and for days past have invariably offered my food to scores of people
+whom I knew beforehand would not take it. The lack of courtesy at this
+hamlet in exacting payment in advance would seem naturally to preclude
+the right to expect the following of courteous customs in return. In
+this, however, I find myself mistaken; for my omission to say
+"Bis-millah" not only fills these people with astonishment, but excites
+unfavorable comment.
+
+The door-ways of the houses here are entirely too small to admit the
+bicycle, and that much-enduring vehicle has to take its chances on the
+low roof with a score or so inquisitive and meddlesome goats that
+instantly gather around it, as though revolving in their pugnacious minds
+some fell scheme of destruction. Outside are several camels tied to their
+respective pack-saddles, which have been taken off and laid on the
+ground. Before retiring for the night, it occurs to my mind that the
+total depravity of a goat's appetite bodes ill for the welfare of my
+saddle, and that, everything considered, the bicycle could, perhaps, be
+placed safer on the ground; in addition to regarding the saddle as a
+particularly toothsome morsel, the goats' venturesome disposition might
+lead them to clambering about on the spokes, and generally mixing things
+up. So, taking it down, I stand it up against the wall, and place a heap
+of old pack-saddle frames and camel-trappings before it as an additional
+precaution. During the night some of the camels break loose and are heard
+chasing one another around the house, knocking things over and bellowing
+furiously. Apprehensive of my wheel, I get up and find it knocked over,
+but, fortunately, uninjured; I then take off the saddle and return it to
+the tender care and consideration of the goats.
+
+Four men and a boy share with me a small, unventilated den, about ten
+feet square; one of them is a camel-driving descendant of the Prophet,
+and sings out "Allah-il-allah!" several times during the night in his
+sleep; another is the patriarch of the village, a person guilty of
+cheating the undertaker, lo! these many years, and who snuffles and
+catches his breath. The other two men snore horribly, and the boy gives
+out unmistakable signs of a tendency to follow their worthy example;
+altogether, it is anything but a restful night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+BEERJAND AND THE FRONTIER OF AFGHANISTAN.
+
+Thirty miles over hill and dale, after leaving the little hamlet, and
+behold, the city of Beerjand appears before me but a mile or thereabouts
+away, at the foot of the hills I am descending. One's first impression of
+Beerjand is a sense of disappointment; the city is a jumbled mass of
+uninteresting mud buildings, ruined and otherwise, all of the same dismal
+mud-brown hue. Not a tree exists to relieve the eye, nor a solitary green
+object to break the dreary monotony of the prospect; the impression is
+that of a place existing under some dread ban of nature that forbids the
+enlivening presence of a tree, or even the redeeming feature of a bit of
+greensward.
+
+The broad, sandy bed of a stream contains a sluggishly-flowing reminder
+of past spring freshets; but the quickening presence of a stream of water
+seems thrown away on Beerjand, except as furnishing a place for
+closely-veiled females to come and wash clothes, and for the daily wading
+and disporting of amphibious youngsters. In any other city a part of its
+mission would be the nurturing of vegetation.
+
+The Ameer, Heshmet-i-Molk, I quickly learn, is living at his
+summer-garden at Ali-abad, four farsakhs to the east. Curious to see
+something of a place so much out of the world, and so little known as
+Beerjand, I determine upon spending the evening and night here, and
+continuing on to Ali-abad next morning.
+
+There appears to be absolutely nothing of interest to a casual observer
+about the city except its population, and they are interesting from their
+strange, cosmopolitan character, and as being the most unscrupulous and
+keenest people for money one can well imagine. The city seems a seething
+nest of hard characters, who buzz around my devoted person like wasps,
+seemingly restrained only by the fear of retribution from pouncing on my
+personal effects and depriving me of everything I possess.
+
+The harrowing experiences of Torbet-i Haiderie have taught a useful
+lesson that stands me in good stead at Beerjand. Ere entering the city
+proper, I enlist the services of a respectable-looking person to guide
+the way at once where the pressing needs of hunger can be attended to
+before the inevitable mob gathers about me and renders impossible this
+very necessary part of the programme. Having duly fortified myself
+against the anticipated pressure of circumstances by consuming bread and
+cheese and sheerah in the semi-seclusion of a suburban bake-house, my
+guide conducts me to the caravanserai, receives his backsheesh, and loses
+himself in the crowd that instantly fills the place.
+
+The news of my arrival seems to set the whole city in a furore; besides
+the crowds below, the galched roof of the caravanserai becomes standing
+room for a mass of human beings, to the imminent danger of breaking it
+in. So, at least, thinks the caravanserai-jee, who becomes anxious about
+it and tries to persuade them to come down; but he might as well attempt
+to summon down from above the unlistening clouds.
+
+Around two sides of the caravanserai compound is a narrow, bricked walk,
+elevated to the level of the menzil floors; at the imminent risk of
+breaking my neck, I endeavor to appease the clamorous multitude, riding
+to and fro for the edification of what is probably the wildest-looking
+assembly that could be collected anywhere in the world. Afghans, with
+tall, conical, gold-threaded head-dresses, converted into monster turbans
+by winding around them yards and yards of white or white-and-blue cloth,
+three feet of which is left dangling down the back; Beloochees in flowing
+gowns that were once white; Arabs in the striped mantles and peculiar
+headdress of their country; dervishes, mollahs, seyuds, and the whole
+fantastic array of queer-looking people living in Beerjand, travelling
+through, or visiting here to trade.
+
+Some of the Afghans wear a turban and kammerbund, all of one piece; after
+winding the long cotton sheet a number of times about the peaked
+head-dress, it is passed down the back and then ends its career in the
+form of a kammerbund about the waist. Fights and tumults occur as the
+result of the caravanserai-jee's attempt to shut the gate and keep them
+out, and in despair he puts me in a room and locks the door. In less than
+five minutes the door is broken down, and a second attempt to seclude
+myself results in my being summarily pelted out again with stones through
+a hole in the roof.
+
+A Yezdi traveller, occupying one of the menzils--all of which at
+Beeriand are provided with doors and locks--now invites me to his
+quarters; locking the door and keeping me out of sight, he hopes by
+making me his guest to assist in getting rid of the crowd. Whatever his
+object, its consummation is far from being realized; the unappeased
+curiosity of the crowds of newly arriving people finds expression in
+noisy shouts and violent hammering on the door, creating a din so
+infernal that the well-meaning traveller quickly tires of his bargain.
+Following the instincts of the genuine Oriental, he conjures up the
+genius of diplomacy to rid himself of his guest and the annoyance
+occasioned by my presence.
+
+"If you go outside and ride around the place once more," he says,
+"Inshallah, the people will all go home."
+
+This is a very transparent proposition--a broad hint, covered with
+the thin varnish of Persian politeness. No sooner am I outside than the
+door is locked, and the wily Yezdi has accomplished his purpose of
+ousting me and thereby securing a little peace for himself. No
+right-thinking person will blame him for turning me out; on the contrary,
+he deserves much praise for attempting to take me in.
+
+I now endeavor to render my position bearable by locking up the bicycle
+and allowing the populace to concentrate their eager gaze on me, perching
+myself on the roof in position to grant them a fair view. Swarms of
+people come flocking up after me, evidently no more able to control their
+impulse to follow than if they were so many bleating sheep following the
+tinkling leadership of a bellwether or a goat. The caravanserai-jee begs
+me to come down again, fearing the weight will cause the roof to cave in.
+well-nigh at my wit's end what to do, I next take up a squatting position
+in a corner and resign myself to the unhappy fate of being importuned to
+ride, shouted at in the guttural tones of desert tribesmen, questioned in
+unknown tongues, solicited for alms and schemed against and worried for
+this, that, and the other, by covetous and evil-minded ruffians.
+
+"The Ingilis have khylie pool-k-h-y-lie pool!" (much money) says one
+ferocious-looking individual to his companion, and their black eyes
+glisten and their fingers rub together feverishly as they talk, as if the
+mere imagination of handling my money were a luxury in itself.
+
+"He must have khylie pool if he is going all the way to
+Hindostan-k-h-y-lie pool!" suggests another; and the coveteousness of
+dozens of keenly interested listeners finds expression in "Pool, pool;
+the Ingilis have khylie pool."
+
+One eager ragamuffin brings me half-a-dozen sour and shrivelled oranges,
+utterly worthless, for which he asks the outrageous sum of three kerans;
+a second villainous-looking specimen worries me continuously to leave the
+caravanserai and go with him somewhere. I never could make out where.
+
+He looks the veriest cutthroat, and, curious to penetrate the secret of
+his intentions, and perchance secure something interesting for my
+note-book, I at length make pretence of acceding to his wishes.
+Bystanders at once interfere to prevent him enticing me away, and when he
+angrily remonstrates he is hustled unceremoniously out into the street.
+
+"He is a bad man," they say; "neis koob adam."
+
+Nothing daunted by the summary ejection of this person, a dervish, with
+the haggard face and wild, restless eyes of one addicted to bhang, now
+volunteers to take me under his protection and lead me out of the
+caravanserai to--where? He vouchsafes no explanation where; none, at
+least, that is at all comprehensible to me. Where do these interesting
+specimens of Beerjand's weird population want to entice me to? why do
+they want to entice me anywhere? I conclude to go with the dervish and
+find out.
+
+The crowd enter their remonstrances again; but the dervish wears the garb
+of holy mendicancy; violent hands must not be laid on the sacred person
+of a dervish. Our path is barred at the outer gate of the caravanserai,
+however, by two men in semi-military uniforms, armed with swords and huge
+clubs; they chide the dervish for wanting to take me with him, and have
+evidently been placed at their post by the authorities.
+
+Soon a uniformed official comes in and tries to question me. He is a
+person of very limited intelligence, incapable of understanding and
+making himself understood through the medium of the small stock of his
+native tongue at my command. The linguistic abilities of the strange,
+semi-civilized audience about us comprise Persian, Turkish, Hindostani,
+and even a certain amount of Russian; not a soul besides myself knows a
+single word of English.
+
+After queries have been propounded to me in all these tongues, my
+intellectual interviewer gives me up in despair, and, addressing the
+crowd about us, cries out in astonishment: "Parsee neis! Turkchi binmus!
+Hindostani nay! Paruski nicht! mashallah, what language does he speak?"
+
+"Ingilis! Ingilis! Ingilis!" shout at least a dozen more knowing people
+than himself.
+
+"Oh, I-n-g-i-l-i-s!" says the officer, condemning his own lack of
+comprehension by the tone of his voice. "Aha, I-n-g-i-l-i-s, aha!" and he
+looks over the crowd apologetically for not having thought of so simple a
+thing before. But having ascertained that I speak English, he now
+proceeds to treat me to a voluble discourse in simon-pure Persian. Seeing
+that I fail to comprehend the tenor of the officer's remarks, some of the
+garrulous crowd vouchsafe to explain in Turkish, others in Hindostani,
+and one in Russian!
+
+In the absence of a lunatic asylum to dodge into, I fasten on to the
+officer and get him to take me out and show me the Ali-abad road, so that
+I can find the way out early in the morning.
+
+Another caravanserai is found located nearer the road leading from the
+city eastward, and I determine to change my quarters quietly by the light
+of the moon, leaving the crowd in ignorance of my whereabouts, so that
+there will be no difficulty in getting through the streets in the
+morning.
+
+Late at night, when the now quieted city is bathed in the soft, mellow
+light of the moon, and the crenellated mud walls and old ruins and
+archways cast weird shadows across the silent streets, with a few chosen
+companions, parties to the secret of the removal, the bicycle is trundled
+through the narrow, crooked streets and under arched alleyways, to the
+caravanserai on the eastern edge of the city.
+
+Seated beneath the shadowy archway of the first caravanserai is a silent
+figure smoking a kalian; as we open the gate to leave, the figure rises
+up and thrusts forth an alms-receiver and in a loud voice sings out,
+"Backsheesh, backsheesh; huk yah huk!" It is the same dervish that was
+turned back with me by the guards at this same gate this afternoon.
+
+My much-needed slumbers at my new quarters are rudely disturbed--as a son
+of Erin might, perhaps, declare under similar circumstances--before they
+are commenced, by the fearful yowling of Beerjand cats. Several of these
+animals are paying their feline compliments to the moon from different
+roofs and walls hard by, and their utterances strike my unaccustomed
+(unaccustomed to the Beerjand variety of cat-music) ears as about the
+most unearthly sound possible.
+
+Fancying the noise is made by women wailing for the dead, from a striking
+resemblance to the weird night-sounds heard, it will be remembered, at
+Bey Bazaar, Asia Minor (Vol. I), I go outside and listen. Many guesses
+would most assuredly be made by me before guessing cats as the authors of
+such unearthly music; but cats it is, nevertheless; for, seeing me
+listening outside by the door, one of the sharers of my rude quarters
+comes out and removes all doubt by drawing the rude outlines of a cat in
+the dust with his finger, and by delivering himself of an explanatory
+"meow." The yowl of a Beerjand cat is several degrees more soul-harrowing
+than anything inflicted by midnight prowlers upon the Occidental world,
+and I learn afterward that they not infrequently keep it up in the
+daytime.
+
+An early start, sixteen miles of road without hills or mountains, but
+embracing the several qualities of good, bad, and indifferent, and at
+eight o'clock I dismount in the presence of a little knot of
+Heshmet-i-Molk's retainers congregated outside his summer-garden, and a
+goodly share of the population of the adjacent village of Ali-abad. While
+yet miles away, Ali-abad is easily distinguished as being something out
+of the ordinary run of Persian villages by the luxuriant foliage of the
+Ameer's garden. The whole country around is of the same desert-like
+character that distinguishes well-nigh all this country, and the dark,
+leafy grove of trees standing alone on the gray camel-thorn plain,
+derives additional beauty and interest from the contrast.
+
+The village of Ali-abad, consisting of the merest cluster of low mud
+hovels and a few stony acres wrested from the desert by means of
+irrigation, the people ragged, dirty, and uncivilized, looks anything but
+an appropriate dwelling-place for a great chieftain. The summer garden
+itself is enclosed within a high mud wall, and it is only after passing
+through the gate and shutting out the rude hovels, the rag-bedecked
+villagers, and the barren desert, that the illusion of unfitness is
+removed.
+
+My letter is taken in to the Ameer, and in a few minutes is answered in a
+most practical manner by the appearance of men carrying carpets,
+tent-poles, and a round tent of blue and white stripes. Winding its
+silvery course to the summer garden, from a range of hills several miles
+distant, is a clear, cold stream; although so narrow as to be easily
+jumped, and nowhere more than knee-deep, the presence of trout betrays
+the fact that it never runs dry.
+
+The tent is pitched on the banks of this bright little stream, the
+entrance but a half-dozen paces from its sparkling water, and a couple of
+guards are stationed near by to keep away intrusive villagers; an
+abundance of eatables, including sweetmeats, bowls of sherbet, and dried
+apricots, and pears from Foorg, are provided at once.
+
+A neatly dressed attendant squats himself down on the shady side of the
+tent outside, and at ridiculously short intervals brings me in a newly
+primed kalian and a samovar of tea. Everything possible to contribute to
+my comfort is attended to and nothing overlooked; and the Ameer
+furthermore proves himself sensible and considerate above the average of
+his fellow-countrymen by leaving me to rest and refresh myself in the
+quiet retreat of the tent till four o'clock in the afternoon.
+
+Reclining on the rich Persian carpet beneath the gayly striped tent,
+entertained by the babbling gossip of the brook, provided with luxuriant
+food and watchful attendants, taking an occasional pull at a jewelled
+kalian primed with the mild and seductive product of Shiraz, or sipping
+fragrant tea, it is very difficult to associate my present conditions and
+surroundings with the harassing experiences of a few hours ago. This
+marvellous transformation in so short a time--from the madding clamor of
+an inconsiderate mob, to the nerve-soothing murmur of the little stream;
+from the crowded and filthy caravanserai to the quiet shelter of the
+luxurious tent; in a word, from purgatory to Paradise--what can have
+brought it about? Surely nothing less than the good genii of Aladdin's
+lamp.
+
+A very agreeable, and, withal, intelligent young man, the incumbunt of
+some office about the Ameer's person, no doubt a mirza, pays me a visit
+at noon, apparently to supervise the serving up of the--more than
+bountiful repast sent in from his master's table. My attention is at once
+arrested by the English coat-of-arms on his sword-belt; both belt and
+clasp have evidently wandered from the ranks of the British army.
+
+"Pollock Sahib," he says, in reply to my inquiries--it is a relic of
+the Seistan Boundary Commission.
+
+About four o'clock, this same young man and a companion appear with the
+announcement that the Ameer is ready to receive me, and requests that I
+bring the bicycle with me into the garden. The stream flows through a low
+arch beneath the wall and lends itself to the maintenance of an
+artificial lake that spreads over a large proportion of the enclosed
+space. The summer garden is a fabrication of green trees and the cool
+glimmer of shaded water, rather than the flower-beds, the turf, and
+shrubbery of the Occidental conception of a garden; the Ameer's quarters
+consist of an un-pretentious one-storied building fronting on the lake.
+
+The Ameer himself is found seated on a plain divan at the open-windowed
+front, toying with a string of amber beads; a dozen or so retainers are
+standing about in respectful and expectant attitudes, ready at a moment's
+notice to obey any command he may give or to anticipate his personal
+wants. He is a stoutly built, rather ponderous sort of individual, with a
+full, rotund face and a heavy, unintellectual, but good-natured
+expression; one's first impression of him is apt to be less flattering to
+his head than to his heart. He is a person, however, that improves with
+acquaintance, and is probably more intelligent than he looks. He seems to
+be living here in a very plain and unpretentious manner; no gaudy stained
+glass, no tinsel, no mirror-work, no vain gew-gaws of any description
+impart a cheap and garish glitter to the place; no gorgeous apparel
+bedecks his ample proportions. Clad in the ordinary dress of a well-to-do
+Persian nobleman, Heshmet-i-Molk, happy and contented in the enjoyment of
+creature comforts and the universal esteem of his people, probably finds
+his chief pleasure in sitting where we now find him, looking out upon the
+green trees and glimmering waters of the garden, smoking his kalian, and
+attending to the affairs of state in a quiet, unostentatious manner. With
+a refreshing absence of ceremonial, he discusses with me the prospects of
+my being able to reach India overland. The conversation on his part,
+however, almost takes the form of trying to persuade me from my purpose
+altogether, and particularly not to attempt Afghanistan.
+
+"The Harood is as wide as from here to the other side of the lake yonder
+(200 yards); tund (swift) as a swift-running horse and deep as this
+house," he informs me.
+
+"No bridge? no ferry-boat? no means of getting across?"
+
+"Eitch" (no), replies the Ameer. "Pull neis, kishti neis."
+
+"Can't it be forded with camels?"
+
+"Shutor neis."
+
+"No village, with people to assist with poles or skins to make a raft?"
+
+"Afghani dasht-adam (nomads), no poles; you might perhaps find skins; but
+the river is tund-t-u-n-d! skins neis, poles neis; t-u-n-d!!" and the
+Ameer points to a bird hopping about on the garden walk, intimating that
+the Harood flows as swiftly as the flight of a bird.
+
+The result of the conference I have been so anxiously looking forward to
+is anything but an encouraging picture--a picture of insurmountable
+obstacles on every hand. The deep sand and burning heat of the dreadful
+Lut Desert intervenes between me and the Mekran coast; the route through
+Beloochistan, barely passable with camels and guides and skins of water
+in the winter, is not only impracticable for anything in the summer, but
+there is the additional obstacle of the spring floods of the Helmund and
+the Seistan Lake.
+
+The Ameer's description of the Lut Desert and Beloochistan is but a
+confirmation of my own already-arrived-at conclusions concerning the
+utter impracticability of crossing either in the summer and with a
+bicycle; but the wish gives birth to the thought that perhaps he may not
+unlikely be indulging in the Persian weakness for exaggeration in his
+graphic portrayal of the difficulties presented by the Harood.
+
+The region between Beerjand and the Harood is on my map a dismal-looking,
+blankety-blank stretch of country, marked with the ominous title
+"Dasht-i" which, being interpreted into English, means Desert of Despair.
+A gleam of hope that things may not be quite so hopeless as pictured is
+born of the fact that, in dwelling on the difficulties of the situation,
+the Ameer makes less capital out of this same Desert of Despair than of
+the Harood, which has to be crossed on its eastern border.
+
+As regards interference from the Legation of Teheran, thank goodness I am
+now three hundred miles from the nearest telegraph-pole, and shall enter
+Afghanistan at a point so much nearer to Quetta than to the Boundary
+Commission Camp that the chances seem all in favor of reaching the former
+place if I only succeed in reaching the Dasht-i-na-oomid and the Harood.
+
+The result of the foregoing deliberations is a qualified (qualified by
+the absence of any alternative save turning back) determination to point
+my nose eastward, and follow its leadership toward the British outpost at
+Quetta.
+
+"Khylie koob" (very well), replies the Ameer, as he listens to my
+determination; "khylie koob;" and he takes a few vigorous whiffs at his
+kalian as though, conscious of the uselessness of arguing the matter any
+further with a Ferenghi, he were dismissing the ghost of his own opinions
+in a cloud of smoke.
+
+Shortly after sunrise on the following morning a couple of well-mounted
+horsemen appear at the door of my tent, armed and equipped for the road.
+Their equipment consists of long guns with resting-fork attachment, the
+prongs of which project above the muzzle like a two-pronged pitchfork;
+swords, pistols, and the brave but antique display of warlike
+paraphernalia characteristic of the East. One of them, I am pleased to
+observe, is the genial young mirza whose snuff-colored roundabout is held
+in place by the "dieu et mon droit" belt of yesterday; his companion is
+the ordinary sowar, or irregular horseman of the country. They announce
+themselves as bearers of the Ameer's salaams, and as my escort to Tabbas,
+a village two marches to the east.
+
+A few miles of plain, with a gradual inclination toward the mountains;
+ten miles up the course of a mountain-stream-up, up, up to where thawing
+snow-banks make the pathway anything but pleasant for my escort's horses
+and ten times worse for a person reduced to the necessity of lugging his
+horse along; over the summit, and down, down, down again over a fearful
+trail for a wheelman, or, more correctly, over no trail at all, but
+scrambling as best one can over rocks, along ledges, often in the water
+of the stream, and finally reaching the village of Darmian, the end of
+our first day's march, about 3 p.m.
+
+Darmian is situated in a rugged gulch, and the houses, gardens, and
+orchards ramble all over the place--with little regard to
+regularity, although some attempt has been made at forming streets.
+Darmian and Poorg are twin villages, but a short distance apart, in this
+same gulch, and are famous for dried apricots, pears, and dried
+beetroots, and for the superior quality of its sheerah.
+
+Among the absurdities that crop up during the course of an eventful
+evening at Darmian is the case of a patriarchal villager whose broad and
+enlightening experience of some threescore years has left him in the
+possession of a marvellously logical and comprehensive mind. Hearing of
+the arrival of a Ferenghi with an iron horse, this person's subtle
+intellect pilots him into the stable of the place we are stopping at and
+leads him to search curiously therein, with the expectation, we may
+reasonably presume, of seeing the bicycle complacently munching kah and
+jow. This is perhaps not so much to be wondered at, when it is reflected
+that plenty of people hereabout have no conception whatever of a wheeled
+vehicle, never having seen a vehicle of any description.
+
+The good people of Darmian, as is perhaps quite natural in people near
+the frontier, betray a pardonable pride in comparing Persia with
+Afghanistan, always to the prodigious disadvantage of the latter. In the
+course of the usual examination of my effects, they are immensely
+gratified to learn from my map that Persia is much the larger country of
+the two. A small corner of India is likewise visible on the map, and,
+taking it for granted that the map represents India as fully as it does
+Persia, the khan, on whom I am unwittingly bestowing the rudiments of a
+false but patriotic geographical education, turns around, and with
+swelling pride informs the delighted people that Seistan is larger than
+India, and Iran bigger than all the rest of the world, he taking it for
+granted that my map of Persia is a map of the whole world.
+
+More and more fantastic grow the costumes of the people as one gets
+farther, so to speak, out of civilization and off the beaten roads. The
+ends of the turbans here are often seen gathered into a sort of bunch or
+tuft on the top; the ends are fringed or tipped with gold, and when
+gathered in this manner create a fanciful, crested appearance--impart a
+sort of cock-a-doodle-doo aspect to the wearer.
+
+Among the most interesting of my callers are three boys of eight to
+twelve summers, who enter the room chewing leathery chunks of dried
+beetroot. Although unwashed, "unwiped," and otherwise undistinguishable
+from others of the same age about the place, they are gravely introduced
+as khan this, that, and the other respectively; and while they remain in
+the room, obsequiousness marks the deportment of everybody present except
+their father, and he regards them with paternal pride.
+
+They are sons of the village khan, and as such are regarded superior
+beings by the common people about them. It looks rather ridiculous to see
+grown people bearing themselves in a retiring, servile manner in
+deference to youngsters glaringly ignorant of how to use a
+pocket-handkerchief, and who look as if their chief pastime were chewing
+dried beetroot and rolling about in the dust.
+
+But presently it is revealed that their first visit has been a mere
+informal call to satisfy the first impulse of youthful curiosity. By and
+by their fond parent takes them away for half an hour, and then ushers
+them into my presence again, transformed into gorgeous youths with nice
+clean faces and wiped noses. Marshalling themselves gravely opposite
+where I am sitting, they put their hands solemnly on their youthful
+stomachs, salaam, and gracefully drop down into a cross-legged position
+on the carpet.
+
+They look like real little chieftains now, both in dress and deportment.
+Scarlet roundabouts, trimmed with a profusion of gold braid, bedeck their
+consequential bodies; red slippers embroidered with gold thread cover
+their feet, and their snowy turbans end in a gold-flecked tuft of
+transparent muslin that imparts a bantam-like air of superiority. Their
+father comes and squats down beside me, and, as we sip tea together, he
+bestows a fond, parental smile upon the three scarlet poppies sitting
+motionless, with heads slightly bent and eyes downcast, before us, and
+inquires by an eloquent sweep of his chin what I think of them as
+specimens of simon-pure nobility.
+
+All through Persia the word "ob" has heretofore been used for water; but
+linguistic changes are naturally to be expected near the frontier, and
+the Darmian people use the term "ow." Upon my calling for ob, the khan's
+attendant stares blankly in reply; but an animated individual in the
+front ranks of the crowd about the doors and windows enlightens him and
+me at the same time by shouting out, "Ow! ow! ow!"
+
+The muezzin, calling the faithful to their evening prayers, likewise
+utters the summons here at Darmian quite differently from anything of the
+kind heard elsewhere.
+
+The cry is difficult to describe; but without meaning to cast reflections
+on the worthy muezzin's voice, I may perhaps be permitted to mention that
+the people are twice admonished, and twice a listening katir (donkey)
+awakens the echoing voices of the rock-ribbed gulch in vociferous
+response.
+
+The mother-in-law of the mirza lives at Darmian, and, like a dutiful son,
+he lingers in her society until nine o'clock next morning. At that hour
+he turns his horse's footsteps down the bed of the stream, while his
+comrade guides me for a couple of miles over a most abominable
+mountain-trail, rejoining the river and the dutiful son-in-law at Foorg.
+Foorg is situated at the extremity of the gulch, and is distinguished by
+a frowning old castle or fort, that occupies the crest of a precipitous
+hill overtopping the village and commanding a very comprehensive view of
+the country toward the Afghan frontier.
+
+The villages of Darmian and Foorg, looking out upon wild frontier
+territory, inhabited chiefly by turbulent and lawless tribes-people whose
+hereditary instincts are diametrically opposed to the sublime ethics of
+the decalogue have no doubt often found the grim stronghold towering so
+picturesquely above them an extremely convenient thing.
+
+The escort points it out and explains that it belongs to the "Padishah at
+Teheran," and not to his own master, the Ameer--a national, as
+distinct from a provincial, fortification. The cultivated environs of
+Foorg present a most discouraging front to a wheelman; walled gardens,
+rocks, orchards, and ruins, with hundreds of water-ditches winding and
+twisting among them, the water escaping through broken banks and creating
+new confusion where confusion already reigns supreme. Among this
+indescribable jumble of mud, water, rocks, ruins, and cultivation,
+pitched almost at an angle of forty-five degrees, the natives climb about
+bare-legged, impressing one very forcibly as so many human goats as they
+scale the walls, clamber over rocks, or wade through mud and water.
+
+A willing Foorgian divests himself of everything but his hat, and carries
+the bicycle across the stream, while I am taken up behind the mirza. As
+the mirza's iron-gray gingerly enters the water, an interesting and
+instructive spectacle is afforded by a hundred or more Foorgians
+following the shining example of the classic figure carrying the bicycle,
+for the purpose of being on hand to see me start across the plain toward
+Tabbas.
+
+Some of these good people are wearing turbans the size of a bandbox;
+others wear enormous sheep-skin busbies. A number of tall, angular
+figures stemming the turbid stream in the elegant costumes of our first
+parents, but wearing Khorassani busbies or Beerjand turbans, makes a
+bizarre and striking picture.
+
+A gravelly trail, with the gradient slightly in my favor, enables me to
+create a better impression of a bicycler's capabilities on the mind of
+the mirza and the sowar than was possible yesterday, by quickly leaving
+them far in the rear. Some miles are covered when I make a halt for them
+to overtake me, seeking the welcome shelter of a half-ruined wayside
+umbar.
+
+An Eliaute camp is but a short distance away, and several sun-painted
+children of the desert are eagerly interviewing the bicycle when my
+escort comes galloping along; not seeing me anywhere in view ahead, they
+had wondered what had become of their wheel-winged charge and are quite
+relieved at finding me here hobnobbing with the Eliautes behind the
+umbar.
+
+The mirza's fond mother-in-law has presented him with a quantity of dried
+pears with half a walnut imbedded in each quarter; during a brief halt at
+the umbar these Darmian delicacies are fished out of his saddle-bags and
+duly pronounced upon, and the genial Eliautes contribute flowing bowls of
+doke (soured milk, prepared in some manner that prevents its spoiling).
+
+High noon finds us at our destination for the day, the village of Tabbas,
+famous in all the country around for a peculiar windmill used in grinding
+grain. A grist-mill, or mills, consists of a row of one-storied mud huts,
+each of which contains a pair of grindstones. Connecting with the upper
+stone is a perpendicular shaft of wood which protrudes through the roof
+and extends fifteen feet above it. Cross-pieces run through at right
+angles and, plaited with rushes, transform the shaft into an upright
+four-bladed affair that the wind blows around and turns the millstones
+below.
+
+So far, this is only a very primitive and clumsy method of harnessing the
+wind; but connected with it is a very ingenious contrivance that redeems
+it entirely from the commonplace. A system of mud walls are built about,
+the same height or a little higher than the shaft, in such a manner as to
+concentrate and control the wind in the interest of the miller,
+regardless of which direction it is blowing in.
+
+The suction created by the peculiar disposition of the walls whisks the
+rude wattle sails around in the most lively manner. Forty of these mills
+are in operation at Tabbas; and to see them all in full swing, making a
+loud "sweeshing" noise as they revolve, is a most extraordinary sight.
+Aside from Tabbas, these novel grist-mills are only to be seen in the
+territory about the Seistan Lake.
+
+The door-way of the quarters provided for our accommodation being too
+small to admit the bicycle, not the slightest hesitation is made about
+knocking out the threshold. Every male visible about the place seems
+eagerly desirous of lending a hand in sweeping out the room, spreading
+nummuds, bringing quilts, tea, kalians, or something.
+
+A slight ripple upon the smooth and pleasing surface of the universal
+inclination to do us honor is a sententious controversy between the mirza
+and a blatant individual who enters objections about killing a sheep.
+Whether, in the absence of the village khan, the objections are based on
+an unwillingness to supply the mutton, or because the sheep are miles
+away on the plain, does not appear; but whatever the objections, the
+mirza overcomes them, and we get freshly slaughtered mutton for supper.
+
+Tea is evidently a luxury not to be lightly regarded at Tabbas; after the
+leaves have served their customary purpose, they are carefully emptied
+into a saucer, sprinkled with sugar, and handed around--each guest takes a
+pinch of the sweetened leaves and eats it.
+
+The modus operandi of manipulating the kalian likewise comes in for a
+slight modification here. The ordinary Persian method, before handing the
+water-pipe to another, is to lift off the top while taking the last pull,
+and thus empty the water-chamber of smoke. The Tabbasites accomplish the
+same end by raising the top and blowing down the stem. This mighty
+difference in the manner of clearing the water-chamber of a hubble-bubble
+will no doubt impress the minds of intellectual Occidentals as a
+remarkably important and valuable piece of information. Not less
+interesting and remarkable will likewise seem the fact that the
+flour-frescoed proprietors of these queer little Tabbas grist-mills are
+nothing less than the boundary-mark between that portion of the
+water-pipe smoking world which blows the remaining smoke out and that
+portion which inhales it. The Afghan, the Indian, and the Chinaman adopt
+the former method; the Turk, the Persian, and the Arab the latter.
+
+Yet another interesting habit, evidently borrowed from their uncultivated
+neighbors beyond the Dasht-i-na-oomid, is the execrable practice of
+chewing snuff. Almost every man carries a supply of coarse snuff in a
+little sheepskin wallet or dried bladder; at short intervals he rubs a
+pinch of this villainous stuff all over his teeth and gums and deposits a
+second pinch away in his cheek.
+
+Abdurraheim Khan, the chief of several small villages on the Tabbas
+plain, turns up in the evening. He is the mildest-mannered,
+kindliest-looking human being I have seen for a long time; he does the
+agreeable in a manner that leads his guests to think he worships the
+"Ingilis" people humbly at a distance, and is highly honored in being
+able to see and entertain one of those very worshipful individuals. Like
+nearly all Persians, he is ignorant of the Western custom of shaking
+hands; the sun-browned paw extended to him as he enters is stared at a
+moment in embarrassment and then clasped between both his palms.
+
+The turban of Abdurraheim Khan is a marvellous evidence of skill in the
+arranging of that characteristic Eastern head-dress; the snowy whiteness
+of the material, the gracefulness of the folds, and the elegant
+crest-like termination are not to be described and done justice to by
+either word or pen.
+
+In reply to my inquiries, I am glad to find that Abdurraheim Khan speaks
+less discouragingly of the Harood than did the Ameer at Ali-abad; he says
+it will be fordable for camels, and there will be no difficulty in
+finding nomads able to provide me an animal to cross over with.
+
+Some cause of delay, incomprehensible to me, appears to interfere with
+the continuation of my journey in the morning, most of the forenoon being
+spent in a discussion of the subject between Abdurraheim Khan and the
+mirza. About noon a messenger arrives from Ali-abad, bringing a letter
+from the Ameer, which seems to clear up the mystery at once. The letter
+probably contains certain instructions about providing me an escort that
+were overlooked in the letter brought by the mirza.
+
+When about starting, the khan presents me with a bowl of sweet stuff
+--a heavy preparation of sugar, grease, and peppermint. A very small
+portion of this lead-like concoction suffices to drive out all other
+considerations in favor of a determination never to touch it again. An
+attempt to distribute it among the people about us is interpreted by the
+well-meaning khan as an impulse of pure generosity on my own part; the
+result being that he ties the stuff up nicely in a clean handkerchief
+that an unlucky bystander happens to display at that moment and bids me
+carry it with me.
+
+An ancient retainer, without any teeth to speak of, and an annoying habit
+of shouting "h-o-i!" at a person, regardless of the fact that one is
+within hearing of the merest whisper, is detailed to guide me to a few
+hovels perched among the mountains, four farsakhs to the southeast, from
+which point the journey across the Dasht-i-na-oomid is to begin, with an
+escort of three sowars, who are to join us there later in the evening.
+
+A couple of miles over fairly level ground, and then commences again the
+everlasting hills, up, up, down, up, down, clear to our destination for
+the day. While trundling along over the rough foot-hills, I am approached
+by some nomads who are tending goats near by. Seeing them gather about
+me, my aged but valiant protector comes galloping briskly up and
+imperatively waves them away. A grandfatherly party, with a hacking
+cough, a rusty cimeter, and a flint-lock musket of "ye olden tyme," I
+fancied "The Aged" merely a guide to show me the road. As I worry along
+over the rough, unridable mountains, the irritation of being shouted
+"hoi!" at for no apparent reason, except for the luxury of hearing the
+music of his own voice, is so annoying that I have about resolved to
+abandon him to a well-deserved fate, in case of attack.
+
+But now, instead of leaning on me for protection, he blossoms forth at
+once as not only the protector of his own person, but of mine as well! As
+he comes galloping bravely up and dismisses the wild-looking children of
+the desert with a grandiloquent sweep of his hand, he is almost rewarded
+by an involuntary "bravo, old un!" from myself, so superior to the
+occasion does he seem to rise.
+
+The little nest of mud huts are found, after a certain amount of
+hesitation and preliminary going ahead by "The Aged," and toward
+nightfall three picturesque horsemen ride up and dismount; they are the
+sowars detailed by the Ameer's orders to Abdurraheim, or some other
+border-land khan, to escort me across the Desert of Despair.
+
+"The Aged" bravely returns to Tabbas in the morning by himself. When on
+the point of departing, he surveys me wistfully across a few feet of
+space and shouts "h-o-i!" He then regards me with a peculiar and
+indescribable smile. It is not a very hard smile to interpret, however,
+and I present him with the customary backsheesh. Pocketing the coins, he
+shouts "h-o-i!'" again, and delivers himself of another smile even more
+peculiar and indescribable than the other.
+
+"Persian-like, receiving a present of money only excites his cupidity for
+more," I think; and so reply by a deprecatory shake of the head. This
+turns out to be an uncharitable judgment, however, for once; he goes
+through the pantomime of using a pen and says, "Abdurraheim Khan." He saw
+me write my name, the date of my appearance at Tabbas, etc., on a piece
+of paper and give it to Abdurraheim Khan, and he wants me to do the same
+thing for him.
+
+The three worthies comprising my new escort are most interesting
+specimens of the genus sowar; the leader and spokesman of the trio says
+he is a khan; number two is a mirza, and number three a mudbake. Khans
+are pretty plentiful hereabouts, and it is nothing surprising to happen
+across one acting in the humble capacity of a sowar; a mirza gets his
+title from his ability to write letters; the precise social status of a
+mudbake is more difficult to here determine, but his proper
+roosting-place is several rungs of the social ladder below either of the
+others. They are to take me through to the Khan of Grhalakua, the first
+Afghan chieftain beyond the desert, and to take back to the Ameer a
+receipt from him for my safe delivery.
+
+It is a far easier task to reckon up their moral calibre than their
+social. Before being in their delectable company an hour they reveal that
+strange mingling of childlike simplicity and total moral depravity that
+enters into the composition of semi-civilized kleptomaniacs. The khan is
+a person of a highly sanguine temperament and possesses a headstrong
+disposition; coupled with his perverted notions of meum and tuum, these
+qualities will some fine day end in his being brought up with a round
+turn and required to part company with his ears or nose, or to be turned
+adrift on the cold charity of the world, deprived of his hands by the
+crude and summary justice of Khorassan. His eyes are brown and large, and
+spherical almost as an owl's eyes, and they bulge out in a manner that
+exposes most of the white. He wears long hair, curled up after the manner
+of Persian la-de-da-dom, and in his crude, uncivilized sphere evidently
+fancies himself something of a dandy.
+
+The mirza is quiet and undemonstrative in his manners, as compared with
+his social superior; and as becomes a person gifted with the rare talent
+of composing and writing letters, his bump of cautiousness is several
+degrees larger than the khan's, but is, nevertheless, not large enough to
+counterbalance the pernicious effect of an inherited and deeply rooted
+yearning for filthy lucre and a lamentable indifference as to the manner
+of obtaining it.
+
+The mudbake is the oldest man of the three, and consequently should be
+found setting the others a good example; but, instead of this, his
+frequent glances at my packages are, if anything, more heavily freighted
+with the molecules of covetousness and an eager longing to overhaul their
+contents than either the khan's or the mirza's.
+
+"Pool, pool, pool--keran, keran, keran," the probable amount in my
+possession, the amount they expect to receive as backsheesh, and kindred
+speculations concerning the financial aspect of the situation, form
+almost the sole topic of their conversation. Throwing them off their
+guard, by affecting greater ignorance of their language than I am really
+guilty of, enables me to size them up pretty thoroughly by their
+conversation, and thus to adopt a line of policy to counteract the
+baneful current of their thoughts. Their display of cunning and rascality
+is ridiculous in the extreme; fancying themselves deep and unfathomable
+as the shades of Lucifer himself, they are, in reality, almost as
+transparent and simple as children; their cunning is the cunning of the
+school-boy. Well aware that the safety of their own precious carcasses
+depends on their returning to Khorassan with a receipt from the Khan of
+Ghalakua for my safe delivery, there is little reason to fear actual
+violence from them, and their childish attempts at extortion by other
+methods will furnish an amusing and instructive study of barbarian
+character.
+
+The hovel in which our queerly assorted company of eight people sleep
+--the owners of the shanty, "The Aged," the khan, the mirza, the
+mudbake, and myself--is entered by a mere hole in the wall, and the
+bicycle has to stand outside and take the brunt of a heavy thunder-storm
+during the night. In this respect, however, it is an object of envy
+rather than otherwise, for myriads of fleas, larger than I would care to
+say, for fear of being accused of exaggeration, hold high revel on our
+devoted carcasses all the livelong night. From the swarms of these frisky
+insects that disport and kick their heels together in riotous revelry on
+and about my own person, I fancy, forsooth, they have discovered in me
+something to be made the most of, as a variety of food seldom coming
+within their province. But the complaining moans of "Ali-Akbar" from "The
+Aged," the guttural grunts of disapproval from the mirza and the mudbake,
+and the impatient growls of "kek" (flea) from the khan, tell of their
+being at least partial companions in misery; but, being thicker-skinned,
+and withal well seasoned to this sort of thing, their sufferings are less
+than mine.
+
+The rain has cleared up, but the weather looks unsettled, as about eight
+o'clock next morning our little party starts eastward under the guidance
+of a villager whom I have employed to guide us out of the immediate range
+of mountains, the sowars betraying a general ignorance of the
+commencement of the route.
+
+My escort are a great improvement as regards their arms and equipments
+upon "The Aged." Among the three are two percussion double-barrelled
+shot-guns, a percussion musket, six horse-pistols of various degrees of
+serviceableness, swords, daggers, ornamental goat's-paunch
+powder-pouches, peculiar pendent brass rings containing spring nippers
+for carrying and affixing caps, leathern water-bottles, together with
+various odds and ends of warlike accoutrements distributed about their
+persons or their saddles.
+
+"Inshallah, Ghalakua, Gh-al-a-kua!" exclaims the khan, as he swings
+himself into the saddle. "Inshallah, Al-lah," is the response of the
+mirza and the mudbake, as they carelessly follow his example, and the
+march across the Dasht-i-na-oomid begins.
+
+The ryot leads the way afoot, following along the partially empty beds of
+mountain torrents, through patches of rank camel-thorn, over
+bowlder-strewn areas and drifts of sand, sometimes following along the
+merest suggestion of a trail, but quite as frequently following no trail
+at all. At certain intervals occurs a piece of good ridable ground; our
+villager-guide then looks back over his shoulder and bounds ahead with a
+swinging trot, eager to enjoy the spectacle of the bicycle spinning along
+at his heels; the escort bring up the rear in a leisurely manner,
+absorbed in the discussion of "pool."
+
+Several miles are covered in this manner, when we emerge upon a more open
+country, and after consulting at some length with the villager, the khan
+declares himself capable of finding the way without further assistance.
+It is a strange, wild country, where we part from our local guide; it
+looks as though it might be the battleground of the elements. A trail,
+that is only here and there to be made out, follows a southeasternly
+course down a verdureless tract of country strewn with rocks and bowlders
+and furrowed by the rushing waters of torrents now dried up. Jagged rocks
+and bowlders are here mingled in indescribable confusion on a surface of
+unproductive clay and smaller stones. On the east stretches a waste of
+low, stony hills, and on the west, the mountains we have recently emerged
+from rise two thousand feet above us in an almost unbroken wall of
+precipitous rock.
+
+By and by the khan separates himself from the party and gallops away out
+of sight to the left, his declared mission being to purchase "goosht-i"
+(mutton) from a camp of nomads, whose whereabouts he claims to know. As
+the commissaire of the party, I have, of course, intrusted him with a
+sufficient quantity of money to meet our expenses; and the mirza and the
+mudbake no sooner find themselves alone than another excellent trait of
+their character conies to the surface. Upon comparing their thoughts,
+they find themselves wonderfully unanimous in their suspicions as to the
+honesty of the khan's intentions toward--not me, but themselves!
+
+These worthy individuals are troubled about the khan's independent
+conduct in going off alone to spend money where they cannot witness the
+transaction. They are sorely troubled as to probable sharp practice on
+the part of their social superior in the division of the spoils.
+
+The "spoils!" Shades of Croesus! The whole transaction is but an affair
+of battered kermis, intrinsically not worth a moment's consideration; but
+it serves its purpose of affording an interesting insight into the
+character of my escort.
+
+The poor mirza and the mudbake are, no doubt, fully justified in
+entertaining the worst opinions possible of the khan; he is a sad
+scoundrel, on a small scale, to say the least. While they are growling
+out to each other their grievances and apprehensions, that artful schemer
+is riding his poor horse miles and miles over the stony hills to the
+camping-ground of some hospitable Eliaute chieftain, from whom he can
+obtain goosht-i-goosfany for nothing, and come back and say he bought it.
+
+Several miles are slowly travelled by us three, when, no sign of the khan
+appearing, we decide upon a halt until he rejoins us. In an hour or so
+the bizarre figure of the absentee is observed approaching us from over
+the hills, and before many minutes he is welcomed by a simultaneous query
+of "chand pool?" (how much money?) from his keenly suspicious comrades,
+delivered in a ludicrously sarcastic tone of voice.
+
+"Doo Tceran," promptly replies the khan, making a most hopeless effort to
+conceal his very palpable guilt beneath a transparent assumption of
+innocence. The mirza and the mudbake make no false pretence of taking him
+at his word, but openly accuse him of deceiving them. The khan maintains
+his innocence with vehement language and takes refuge in
+counter-accusations. The wordy warfare goes merrily on for some minutes
+as earnestly as if they were quarrelling over their own honest money
+instead of over mine. The joint query of "chand pool?" gathers an
+additional load of irony from the fact that they didn't seem to think it
+worth while to even ask him what he had bought.
+
+Across the pommel of his saddle he carries a young kid, which is now
+handed to the mudbake to be tethered to a shrub; he then dismounts and
+produces three or four pounds of cold goat meat. Before proceeding again
+on our way we consume this cold meat, together with bread brought from
+last night's rendezvous. By reason of his social inferiority the mudbake
+is now required to assume the burden of carrying the youthful goat; he
+takes the poor kid by the scruff of the neck and flings it roughly across
+his saddle in a manner that causes the gleeful spirits of the khan to
+find vent in a peal of laughter. Even the usually imperturbable
+countenance of the mirza lightens up a little, as though infected by the
+khan's overflowing merriment and the mudbake's rough handling of the
+young goat. They know each other thoroughly--as thoroughly as
+orchard-looting, truant-playing, teacher-deceiving school-boys--these
+three hopeful aspirants to the favor of Allah; they are an amusing trio,
+and not a little instructive.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+ACROSS THE "DESERT OF DESPAIR."
+
+For some hours we are traversing a singularly wild-looking country; it
+seems as though the odds and ends of all creation were tossed
+indiscriminately together. Rocky cliffs, sloping hills, riverbeds, dry
+save from last night's thunder-storm, bits of sandy desert, strips of
+alkaline flat or hard gravel, have been gathered up from various parts of
+the earth and tossed carelessly in a heap here. It is an odd corner in
+which the chips, the sweepings and trimmings, gathered up after the
+terrestrial globe was finished, were apparently brought and dumped. There
+is even a little bit of pasture, and at one point a little area of arable
+land. Here are found four half-naked representatives of this strange,
+wild border-land, living beneath one rude goat-hair tent, watching over a
+few grazing goats and several acres of growing grain.
+
+We arrive at this remarkable little community shortly after noon, and
+halt a couple of hours to rest and feed the horses, and to kill and cook
+the unhappy kid slung across the mudbake's saddle. The poor little
+creature doesn't require very much killing; all the way from where it was
+given into his tender charge its infantile bleatings have seemed to grate
+harshly on the mudbake's unsympathetic ear, and he has handled it anywise
+but tenderly. The four men found here are Persian Eliautes, a numerous
+tribe, that seem to form a sort of connecting link between the genuine
+nomads and the tillers of the soil. They are frequently found combining
+the occupations of both, and might aptly be classed as semi-nomads.
+Pitching their tents beside some outlying, isolated piece of cultivable
+ground in the spring, they sow it with wheat or barley, and three months
+later they reap a supply of grain to carry away with them when they
+remove their flocks to winter pasturage.
+
+An iron kettle is borrowed to stew the kid in, and when cooked a portion
+is stowed away to carry with us. The Eliaute quartette contribute bowls
+of mast and doke, and off this and the remainder of the stewed kid we all
+make a hearty meal.
+
+More than once of late have I been impressed by the striking, even
+startling, resemblance of some person among the people of Southern
+Khorassan, to the familiar face of some acquaintance at home. And,
+strange it is, but true, that one of these four Eliautes blossoms forth
+upon my astonished vision as the veritable double of one of America's
+most prominent knights of the pen and wheel. The gentleman himself, an
+enthusiastic tourist, and to use his own expression, fond of "walking
+large," has taken considerable interest in my tour of the world. Can it
+be--I think, upon first confronting this extraordinary reproduction--can
+it be, that Karl Kron's enthusiasm has caused him to start from the
+Pacific coast of China on his wheel to try and beat my time in
+circumcycling the globe?
+
+And after getting as far as this strange terrestrial chip-pile, he has
+been so unfortunately susceptible as to fall in love with some
+slender-limbed daughter of the desert?--has he been captivated by a
+pair of big, opthamalmia-proof, black eyes, a coy sidewise glance, or a
+graceful, jaunty style of shouldering a half-tanned goat-skin of doke?
+
+The very first question the nomad asks of the khan, however, removes all
+suspicions of his being the author and publisher of X. M. M.--he
+asks if I am a Ferenghi and whither I am going; Kron would have asked me
+for tabulated statistics of my tour through Persia.
+
+A couple of hours' rest in the Eliaute camp, and we bid adieu to this
+queer little oasis of human life within the barbarous boundary-line of
+the Dasht-i-na-oomid, and proceed on our way. One of the Eliautes
+accompanies us some little distance to guide us through a belt of badly
+broken country immediately surrounding their camp. The country continues
+to be a regular jumble of odds and ends of physical geography all the
+afternoon, and several times the horses of the sowars, without
+preliminary warning, break through the thin upper crust of some
+treacherous boggy spot and sink suddenly to their bellies. During the
+afternoon the mirza is pitched headlong over his horse's head once, and
+the khan and the mudbake twice. In one tumble the khan's loosely sheathed
+sword slips from its scabbard, and he well nigh falls a victim to the
+accident a la King Saul. While traversing this treacherous belt of
+territory I make the sowars lead the way and perform the office of
+pathfinder for myself and wheel. Whenever one of them gets stuck in boggy
+ground, and his horse flounders wildly about, to the imminent risk of
+unseating its rider, his two hopeful comrades bubble over with merriment
+at his expense; his own sincere exclamations of "Allah!" being answered
+by unsympathetic jeers and sarcastic remarks. A few minutes later,
+perchance one of the hilarious twain finds himself unexpectedly in the
+same predicament; it then becomes his turn to look scared and importune
+Allah for protection, and also his turn to be the target for the wild
+hilarity of the others.
+
+And so this lively and eventful afternoon passes away, and about five
+o'clock we round the base of a conglomerate hill that has been shutting
+out the prospect ahead, cross a small spring freshet, and emerge upon an
+extensive gravelly plain stretching away eastward to the horizon. It is
+the central plain of the Dasht-i-na-oomid, the heart of the desert, of
+which the wild, heterogeneous territory traversed since morning forms the
+setting. So far as the utility of the bicycle and the horses is
+concerned, the change is decidedly for the better, even more so for the
+former than for the latter. The gravelly plain presents very good
+wheeling surface, and I forge ahead of my escort, following a trail so
+faint that it is barely distinguishable from the general surface. Shortly
+after leaving the mountainous country the three sowars hip their horses
+into a smart canter to overtake the bicycle. As they come clattering up,
+the khan shouts loudly for me to stop, and the mirza and mudbake
+supplement his vocal exertions by gesticulating to the same purpose.
+Dismounting, and allowing them to approach, in reply to my query of "Chi
+mi khoi?" the khan's knavish countenance becomes overspread with a
+ridiculously thin and transparent assumption of seriousness and
+importance, and pointing to an imaginary boundary-line at his horse's
+feet he says: "Bur-raa (brother), Afghanistan." "Khylie koob, Afghanistan
+inja-koob, hoob, sowari." (Very good, I understand, we are entering
+Afghanistan; all right, ride on.) "Sowari neis," replies the khan; and he
+tries hard to impress upon me that our crossing the Afghan frontier is a
+momentous occasion, and not to be lightly regarded. Several times during
+the day has my delectable escort endeavored to fathom the extent of my
+courage by impressing upon me the danger to be apprehended in Afghanistan
+by a Ferenghi. Not less than half a dozen times have they indulged in the
+grim pantomime of cutting their own throats, and telling me that this is
+the tragic fate that would await me in Afghanistan without their valuable
+protection. And now, as we stand on the boundary line, their bronzed and
+bared throats are again subjected to this highly expressive treatment;
+and transfixing me with a penetrating stare, as though eager to read in
+my face some responsive sign of fear or apprehension, the khan repeats
+with emphasis: "Bur-raa-ther, Afghanistan." Seeing me still inclined to
+make light of the matter, he turns to his comrades for confirmation. "O,
+bur-raa-ther, Afghanistan," assents the mirza; and the mudbake chimes in
+with the same words. "Well, yes, I understand; Afghanistan--what of
+it?" I inquire, amused at this theatrical display of their childish
+knavery.
+
+For answer they start to loading up their guns and pistols, which up to
+now they have neglected to do; and they examine, with a ludicrous show of
+importance, the edges of their swords and the points of their daggers,
+staring the while at me to see what kind of an impression all this is
+making. Their scrutiny of my countenance brings them small satisfaction,
+methinks, for so ludicrous seems the scene, and so transparent the
+motives of this warlike movement, that no room is there for aught but a
+genuine expression of amusement.
+
+Having loaded up their imposing array of firearms, the khan gives the
+word to advance, with as much show of solemnity as though leading a
+forlorn hope on some desperate undertaking, and he impresses upon me the
+importance of keeping as close to then as possible, instead of riding
+ahead. All around us is the unto-habited plain; not a living thing or
+sign of human being anywhere; but when I point this out, and picking up a
+stone, ask the khan if it is these that are dangerous, he replies, as
+before: "Bur-raa-ther, Afghanistan," and significantly taps his weapons.
+As we advance the level plain becomes covered with a growth of wild thyme
+and camel-thorn, the former permeating the desert air with its agreeable
+perfume. The evening air is soft and balmy I as we halt in the dusk of
+the evening to camp alongside the trail; each sowar has a large leathern
+water-bottle swinging from his stirrup-strap filled at the little freshet
+above mentioned, and for food we have bread and the remains of the cold
+kid. The horses are fastened to stout shrubs, and a fire is kindled with
+dried camel-thorn collected by the mudbake. Not a sound breaks the
+stillness of the evening as we squat around the fire and eat our frugal
+supper--all about us is the oppressive silence and solitude of the
+desert Away off in the dim distance to the northeast can be seen a single
+speck of light--the camp-fire of some wandering Afghan tribe.
+
+"What is the fire yonder?" I ask of the khan. The khan looks at it, says
+something to his comrades, and then looks at me and draws his finger yet
+again across his throat; the mirza and the mudbake follow suit. The
+ridiculous frequency of this tragic demonstration causes me to laugh
+outright, in spite of an effort to control my risibilities. The khan
+replies to this by explaining, "Afghani Noorzais-dasht-adam," and then
+goes on to explain that the Noorzais are very bad Afghans, who would like
+nothing better than to murder a Ferenghi. From the beginning of our
+acquaintance I have allowed my escort to think my understanding of the
+conversation going on among themselves is extremely limited. By this
+means have they been thrown somewhat off their guard, and frequently
+committed themselves within my hearing. It is their laudable purpose, I
+have discovered, to steal money from me if an opportunity presents
+without the chance of being detected. Besides being inquisitive about the
+probable amount in my possession, there has evolved from their collective
+brain during the day, a deep-laid scheme to find out something about the
+amount of backsheesh they may expect me to bestow upon them at the end of
+our journey. This deep-laid scheme is for the khan to pretend that he is
+sending the mirza and the mudbake back to Beerjand from this point, and
+for these two hopeful accomplices to present themselves before me as
+about ready to depart, and so demand backsheesh. This little farce is
+duly played shortly after our arrival; it is a genuine piece of light
+comedy, acted on the strangely realistic stage of the lonely desert, to
+which the full round moon just rising above the eastern horizon. These
+advances are met on my part by broad intimations that if they continue to
+act as ridiculously during the remainder of the journey as they have
+to-day they will surely get well bastinadoed, instead of backsheeshed,
+when we reach Ghalakua. The actors retire from the stage with visible
+discomfiture and squat themselves around the fire. Long after I have
+stretched my somewhat weary frame upon a narrow strip of saddle-blanket
+for the night, my three "protectors" squat around the smouldering embers
+of the camel-thorn fire, discussing the all-absorbing topic of my money.
+Little do they suspect that concealed in a leathern money-belt beneath my
+clothes are one hundred Russian gold Imperials, the money obtained in
+Teheran for the journey through Turkestan and Siberia to the Pacific.
+Though sleeping with the traditional one eye open and my Smith & Wesson
+where it can be readily used, there is little apprehension of being
+robbed, owing to their obligation to take back the receipt for my safe
+delivery to Heshmet-i-Molk.
+
+It is the weather-changeful period of the full moon, and about midnight a
+clap of thunder rolls over the desert, and a smart shower descends from a
+small dark cloud, that sails slowly across the sky, obscuring for a brief
+period the moist-looking countenance of the moon, and then disappears. A
+couple of hours later a rush of wind is heard careering across the desert
+toward us, accompanied by a wildly scudding cloud. The cloud peppers us
+with hailstones in the most lively manner, and the wind strikes us almost
+with the force of a tornado, knocking over the bicycle, which I have
+leaned against a clump of shrubs at my head, and favoring us with a
+blinding fusilade of sand and gravel.
+
+It rains and hails enough to make us wet and uncomfortable, and the
+mudbake gets up and kindles another fire. In a short time the squally
+midnight weather has given place to a dead calm; the clouds have
+dispersed; the moon shines all the brighter from having had its face
+washed; the stars twinkle themselves out one by one as the gray dawn
+gradually makes itself manifest. It is a most lovely morning; the
+bruising hailstones and the moistening rain have proved themselves
+stimulants in the laboratory of the wild-thyme shrubs, setting free and
+disseminating a new supply of aroma; and while until now the voice of
+animate nature has been conspicuous by its absence, the morning vespers
+of song-birds seed almost to be issuing, like flowers, from the ground.
+There is an indescribable charm about this morning's experience on the
+desert; dawn appears, the moon hangs low-suspended in the heavens, the
+birds carol merrily, and every inspiration one takes is a tonic to
+stimulate the system. Half an hour later the sun has risen, the
+song-birds have one and all lapsed into silence, the desert is itself
+again, stern, silent, uncompromising, and apparently destitute of life.
+
+Total depravity, it appears, has not yet claimed my worthy escort for its
+own entirely, for while saddling up their horses during this brief
+display of nature's kindlier mood they call my attention to the singing
+of the birds and the grateful perfumery in the air. The germ of goodness
+still lingers within their semi-civilized conception of things about
+them; they are the children of Nature, and are profoundly impressed by
+their mother's varying moods. Their prostrations toward Mecca and their
+matutinal prayers to Allah seem to gain something of sincerity from the
+accompanying worship of the birds and the sympathetic essence of the
+awakening day. Eastward from our camping-ground the trail is oftentimes
+indistinguishable; but a few loose stones have been tossed together at
+intervals of several hundred yards, to guide wayfarers across the desert.
+A surface of mingled sand and gravel characterizes the way; sometimes it
+is unridably heavy, and sometimes the wheeling is excellent for a mile or
+two at a stretch, enabling me to leave the ambling yahoos of the sowars
+far behind. Beautiful mirages sometimes appear in the distance
+--lakes of water, waving groves of palms, and lovely castles; and
+often, when far enough ahead, I can look back, and see the grotesque
+figures of the khan, the mirza, and the mudbake apparently riding through
+the air.
+
+Perhaps twenty miles are covered, when we arrive at a pile of dead brush
+that has been erected for a landmark, and find a dilapidated well
+containing water. The water is forty feet below the surface, and contains
+a miscellaneous assortment of dead lizards, the carcasses of various
+small mammalia, and sundry other unfortunate representatives of animated
+nature that have fallen in. Beyond this well the country assumes the
+character of a broad sink or mud-basin, the shiny surface of its mud
+glistening in the sun like a sheet of muddy water. Sloughs innumerable
+meander through it, fringed with rank rushes and shrubs. A far heavier
+down-pour than we were favored with on the plain has drenched a region of
+stony hills adjacent, and the drainage therefrom has, for the time being,
+filled and overflowed the winding sloughs.
+
+A dozen or more of these are successfully forded, though not without some
+difficulty; but we finally arrive at the parent slough, of which the
+others are but tributaries. This proves too deep for the sowars' horses
+to ford, and after surveying the yellow flood some minutes and searching
+up and down, the khan declares ruefully that we shall have to return to
+Beerjand. As I remonstrate with him upon his lack of enterprise in
+turning from so trifling a difficulty, the khan finally orders the
+mudbake to strip off his purple and fine linen and try the depth. The
+mudbake proceeds to obey his superior, with many apprehensive glances at
+the muddy freshet, and wades gingerly in, muttering prayers to Allah the
+while. Deeper and deeper the yellow waters creep up his shivering form,
+and when nearly up to his neck, a sudden deepening causes him to bob
+unexpectedly down almost over his head. Hurriedly retreating, spluttering
+and whining, he scrambles hastily ashore, where his two companions,
+lolling lazily on their horses, watching his attempt, are convulsed with
+merriment over his little misadventure and his fright.
+
+The shivering mudbake, clad chiefly in goose-pimples, now eagerly
+supplements the khan's proposition for us all to return to Beerjand, and
+the mirza with equal eagerness murmurs his approval of the same course of
+action. Making light of their craven determination, I prepare to cross
+the freshet without their assistance, and announce my intention of
+proceeding alone. The stream, though deep, is not over thirty yards wide,
+and a very few minutes suffices for me to swim across with my clothes, my
+packages, and the saddle of the bicycle; the small, strong rope I have
+carried from Constantinople is then attached to the bicycle, and,
+swimming across with the end, the wheel is pulled safely through the
+water. Neither of the sowars can swim, and they regard the prospect of
+being left behind with no little consternation. Their guileful souls seem
+to turn naturally to Allah in their perplexity; and they all prostrate
+themselves toward Mecca, and pray with the apparent earnestness of deep
+sincerity. Having duly strengthened and fortified themselves with these
+devotional exercises, they bravely prepare to resign themselves to kismet
+and follow my instructions about crossing the stream.
+
+The khan's iron-gray being the best horse of the three, and the khan
+himself of a more sanguine and hopeful disposition, I make him tie all
+his clothes and damageable things into a bundle and fasten them on his
+saddle; the rope is then tied to the bridle and the horse pulled across,
+his gallant rider clinging to his tail, according to my orders, and
+praying aloud to Allah on his own account. The gray swims the unfordable
+middle portion nobly, and the khan comes through with no worse damage
+than a mouthful or two of muddy water. As the dripping charger scrambles
+up the bank, the khan allows himself to be hauled up high and dry by its
+tail; he then looks back at his comrades and favors them with a brief but
+highly exaggerated account of his sensations.
+
+The mirza and the mudbake deliver themselves of particularly deep-chested
+acclamations of "Allah, Allah!" at the prospect of undergoing similar
+sensations to those described by the khan, whereupon that unsympathetic
+individual vents his hilarity in a gleeful, heartless peal of laughter,
+and tells them, with a diabolical chuckle of delight, that they will most
+likely fare ten times worse than himself on account of the inferiority of
+their horses compared with the gray. Much threatening, bantering, and
+persuasion is necessary to induce them to follow the leadership of the
+khan; but, trusting to kismet, they finally venture, and both come
+through without noteworthy misadventure. The khan's wild hilarity and
+ribaldish jeers at the expense of his two subordinates, as he stands on
+the solid foundation of a feat happily already accomplished and surveys
+their trepidation, and hears their prayers as they are pulled like human
+dinghies through the water, is in such ludicrous contrast to his own
+prayerful utterances under the same circumstances a minute before that my
+own risibilities are not to be wholly controlled.
+
+This little episode makes a profound impression upon the minds of my
+escort; they now regard me as a very dare-devil and determined
+individual, a person entirely without fear, and their deference during
+the remainder of the afternoon is in marked contrast to their previous
+attempts to work upon my presumed apprehensions of the dangers of
+Afghanistan.
+
+Following the guidance of a few rude landmarks of piled brush, we
+discover, a few miles off to the left, and on the eastern environ of the
+slough-veined basin, a considerable body of tents and a herd of grazing
+camels. The sowars pronounce them to be a certain camp of Einiucks that
+they have been expecting to find somewhere in this vicinity, and with
+whose chief the khan says he is acquainted.
+
+Wending our way thither we find a large camp of about fifty tents
+occupying a level stretch of clean gravelly ground, slightly elevated
+above the mud-flats. The tents are of brownish-black goat-hair, similar
+in material to the tents of Koords and Eliautes; in size and structure
+they are larger and finer than those of the Eliautes, but inferior to the
+splendid tent-palaces of Koordistan. A couple of hundred yards from the
+tents is a small spring of water, enclosed within a rude wall of
+loosely-piled stone; the water is allowed to trickle through this wall
+and accumulate in a basin outside. Here, as we ride up, are several women
+filling goat-skin vessels to carry to the tents.
+
+The tent of the chief stands out conspicuously from the others, and the
+khan, desirous of giving his "bur-raa-ther," as he now terms the Eimuck
+chieftain, a surprise, suggests that I ride ahead of the horsemen and
+dismount before his tent. This capital little arrangement is somewhat
+interfered with by the fact that a goodly proportion of the male
+population present have already become cognizant of our presence, and are
+standing in white-robed groups about their tents trying with hand-shaded
+eyes to penetrate the secret of my strange appearance. Nevertheless, I
+ride ahead and alight at the entrance to the chief's tent. The chief is a
+middle-aged man of medium height and inclined to obesity. He and all the
+men are arrayed in garments of coarse white cotton stuff throughout,
+loose pantaloons, bound at the ankles, and an over-garment of a pattern
+very much like a night-shirt; on their heads are the regulation Afghan
+turbans, with long, dangling ends, and their feet are incased in rude
+moccasins with upturned toes. As I dismount, and the chief fully realizes
+that I am a Ferenghi, his face turns red with embarrassment. Instead of
+the smiles or the grave kindliness of a Koordish sheikh, or the simple,
+childlike greeting of an Eliaute, the Eimuck chief motions me into his
+tent in a brusque, offish manner, his countenance all aglow with the
+redness of what almost looks like a guilty conscience.
+
+With the intuition that comes of long and changeful association with
+strange peoples, the changing countenance of the Afghan chief impresses
+me at once as the fiery signal of inbred Mussulman fanaticism, lighting
+up spontaneously at the unexpected and unannounced arrival of a lone
+Ferenghi in his presence. It savors somewhat of bearding a dangerous lion
+in his own den. He certainly betrays deep embarrassment at my appearance;
+which, however, may partly result from not yet knowing the character of
+my companions, or the wherefore of this strange visitation. When my
+escort rides up his whole demeanor instantly undergoes a change; the
+cloud of embarrassment lifts from his face, he and the khan recognize and
+greet each other cordially as "bur-raa-ther," and kiss each-other's
+hands; some of his men standing by exchange similar brotherly greetings
+with the mirza and the mudbake.
+
+After duly refreshing and invigorating ourselves with sundry bowls of
+doke, the inevitable tomasha is given, and the chief asks the khan to get
+me to ride up before one row of tents and down the other for the
+edification of the women and children, curious groups of whom are
+gathered at every door. The ground between the two long, even rows of
+tents resembles a macadam boulevard for width and smoothness, and I give
+the wild Eimuck tribes-people a ten minutes' exhibition of circling,
+speeding, and riding with hands off handles. A strange and novel
+experience, surely, this latest triumph of high Western civilization,
+invading the isolated nomad camp on the Dasht-i-na-oomid and disporting
+for the amusement of the women and children. Some of the women are
+attired in quite fanciful colors; Turkish pantaloons of bright blue and
+jackets of equally bright red render them highly picturesque, and they
+wear a profusion of bead necklaces and the multifarious gewgaws of
+semi-civilization. The younger girls wear nose-rings of silver in the
+left nostril, with a cluster of tiny beads or stones decorating the side
+of the nose. The wrists of most of the men are adorned with bracelets of
+plain copper wire about the size of ordinary telegraph wire; they average
+large and well-proportioned, and seem intellectually superior to the
+Eliautes. A very striking peculiarity of the people in this particular
+camp is a sort of lisping, hissing accent to their speech. When first
+addressed by the chief, I fancied it simply an individual case of
+lisping; but every person in the camp does likewise. Another peculiarity
+of expression, that, while not peculiar to this particular camp, is made
+striking by reason of its novelty to me at this time, the use of the
+expression "O" as a term of assent, in lieu of the Persian "balli." The
+sowars, from their proximity to the frontier, have sometimes used this
+expression, but here, in the Eimuck camp, I come suddenly upon a people
+who use it to the total exclusion of the Persian word. The change from
+the "balli sahib" of the Tabbas villagers to the "O, O, O" of the Afghan
+nomads is novel and entertaining in the extreme, and I sit and listen
+with no small interest to the edifying conversation of the khan, the
+mirza, and the mudbake on the one side, and the Eimuck chieftain and
+prominent members of the tribe on the other.
+
+Standing behind the chief, who sits cross-legged on a Persian nummud, is
+a handsome, intelligent-looking man, who seems to be the most
+pleasant-faced and entertaining conversationalist of the nomads. The kahn
+grows particularly talkative and communicative, the evening hours flow
+on, and while addressing his remarks and queries directly to the chief,
+he gazes about him to observe the effects of his words on the general
+assembly gathered inside and crowded about the tent-entrance. The
+pleasant-faced man does far more talking in reply than does the chief
+himself. In reply to the khan's innumerable queries he replies, in the
+peculiar, hissing shibboleth of the camp, "O, O, O-O bus-s-s-orah,
+b-s-s-s-orah." Sometimes the khan delivers himself of quite a lengthy
+disquisition, and as his remarks are followed by the assembled nomads
+with the eager interest of people who seldom hear anything but the music
+of their own voices, the interesting individual above referred to
+sprinkles his assenting "O, O, O" thickly along the line of the khan's
+presumably edifying narrative; now and then the chief himself chimes in
+with a quiet "b-s-s-s-orah." Here also, in this camp of surprises and
+innovations, do I first hear the word "India" used in lieu of "Hindostan"
+among Asiatics.
+
+The fatigue of the day's journey, and the imperfect rest of the two
+preceding nights, cause me to be overcome with drowsiness, early in the
+evening, and I stretch oat alongside the bicycle and fall into a deep
+sleep. An hour or two later I am awakened for the evening meal. Flat,
+pancake-like sheets of unleavened bread, inferior to the bread of Persia,
+and partaking somewhat of the character of the chupalties of India,
+boiled goat, and the broth preserved from the same, together with the
+regulation mast and doke, constitute the Eimuek supper. A liberal bowl of
+the broth, an abundance of meat, bread, mast and doke are placed before
+me on a separate wooden tray, while my escort, the chief, and several of
+his men gather around a communal spread of the same variety of edibles. A
+crowd of curious people occupy the remainder of the space inside, and
+stand at the door. As I rise and prepare to eat, all eyes are turned upon
+me as though anticipating some surprising exhibition of the strange
+manners of a Ferenghi at his meals. Surveying the broth, I motion the
+khan to try and obtain a spoon. The chief looks inquiringly at the khan,
+and the khan with the gladsome expression of a person conscious of having
+on hand a rare piece of information for his friends, explains that a
+Ferenghi eats soup with a spoon. The chief and his men smile incredibly,
+but the khan emphasizes his position by appealing to the mirza and the
+mudbake for confirmation. "Eat soup with a spoon?" queries the chief in
+Persian; and he casts about him a look of unutterable astonishment.
+
+Recovering somewhat from his incredulity, however, he orders an attendant
+to fetch one, which shortly results in the triumphant production of a
+rude wooden ladle. These uncivilized children of the desert watch me
+drink broth from the ladle with most intense curiosity. In their own
+case, an attendant tears several of the sheets of bread into pieces and
+puts them in the broth; each person then helps himself to the
+broth-soaked bread with his fingers. What broth remains at the bottom of
+the bowl is drunk by them from the vessel itself in turns. After
+consuming several generous chunks of "gusht" bread and mast and broth,
+and supplementing this with a bowl of doke, I stretch myself out again
+and at once become wrapped in sound, refreshing slumbers that last till
+morning.
+
+It is a glorious morning as, after breakfasting off the cold remains of
+the meat left over from the evening meal, we bid farewell to the
+hospitable Eimuek camp and resume our journey. As we leave, I offer to
+shake hands with the chief to see if he understands our mode of greeting;
+he seizes my hand between his two palms and kisses it. For the first few
+miles the country is gravelly and undulating, after which it changes to a
+sort of basin, partially covered by dense patches of tall, rank weeds. On
+either side are rocky hills, almost rising to the dignity of mountains;
+the rain and melting snow evidently convert this basin into a swamp at
+certain periods, but it is now dry. A mile or so off to the right we
+catch a glimpse, of some wild animal chasing a small herd of antelope.
+From its size and motion, I judge it to be a leopard or cheetah; the
+sowars regard it, bounding along after the fleet-footed antelope, with
+lively interest; they call it a "baab" (tiger), and say there are many in
+the reeds. It looks quite a likely spot for tigers, and it is not at all
+unlikely that it may have been one, for, while not plentiful hereabout,
+Tigris Asiaticus occasionally makes his presence known in the patches of
+reed and jungle in Southern Afghanistan and Seistan.
+
+All three of the sowars are frisky as kittens this morning, the result,
+it is surmised, of the generous hospitality of the Eimuek chief
+--gusht galore and rich broth cause their animal spirits to run
+riot. Like overfed horses they "feel their oats" as they sniff the fresh
+and invigorating morning air, and they point toward the shadowy form of
+the racing baab a mile away, and pretend to take aim at it with their
+guns. They sing and shout and swoop down on one another about the basin,
+flourishing their swords and aiming with their guns, and they whip their
+poor, long-suffering yahoos into wild, sweeping gallops as they swoop
+down on some imaginary enemy. This wild hilarity and mimic warfare of the
+desert is kept up until the ragged edge of their exuberance is worn away,
+and their horses are well-nigh fagged out; we then halt for an hour to
+allow the horses to recuperate by nibbling at a patch of reeds.
+
+About ten miles from the Eimuek camp, the country develops into a
+wilderness of deep, loose sand and bowlders. Across this sandy region
+stretches a range of dark volcanic hills; the bases of the hills
+terminate in billows of whitish-yellow sand; the higher waves of the
+sandy sea stretch well up the sides like giant ocean breakers driven by
+the gale up the side of the rocky cliffs. It is a tough piece of country
+even for the sowars' horses, and dragging a bicycle through the mingled
+sand and bowlders is abominable in the extreme. The heat becomes
+oppressive as we penetrate deeper into the belt of sand-hills, and after
+five miles of desperate tugging I become tired and distressed. The sowars
+lolling lazily in their saddles, well-nigh sleeping, while I am struggling
+and perspiring, form another chapter of experience entirely novel in the
+field of European travel in Asia. Usually it is the natives who have to
+sweat and toil and administer to the comfort of the traveller.
+
+Revolving these things over in my mind, and becoming really wearied, I
+suggest to the khan that he change places for a brief spell and give me a
+chance to rest. The idea of himself trundling the asp-i-awhan appeals to
+the khan as decidedly novel, and he bites at the bait quite readily.
+Mounting his vacated saddle, I join the mirza and the mudbake in watching
+him struggle along through the sand with it for some two hundred yards.
+Along that brief course he topples over with it not less than half a
+dozen times. The novel spectacle of the khan trundling the asp-i-awhan
+arouses his two comrades from the warmth-inspired semi-torpidity of their
+condition, and whenever the khan topples over, they favor him with jeers
+and laughter. At the end of two hundred, yards the khan declares himself
+exhausted and orders the mudbake to dismount and try it; this, however,
+the mudbake bluntly refuses to do. After a little persuasion the inirza
+is induced to try the experiment of a trundle; it is but an experiment,
+however, for, being less active than the khan, the first time he tumbles
+the bicycle over finds him sprawling on top of it, and, fearful lest he
+should snap some spokes, I take it in hand again myself.
+
+Another couple of miles and the eastern edge of the sandy area I is
+reached, after which a compensational proportion of smooth gravel
+abounds. Shortly after noon another small camp of nomads I is reached,
+some half-dozen inferior tents, pitched on the shelterless edge of an
+exposed gravelly slope. The afternoon is oppressively hot, and the men
+are comfortably snoozing in all sorts of outlandish places among the
+scrubby camel-thorn. Only the I women and children are visible as we
+approach the tents; but youngsters are despatched forthwith, and, lo!
+several tall white-robed figures seem to rise up literally out of the
+ground at different spots round about; they were burrowed away under the
+low, bushy shrubbery like rabbits. The women and children among these
+nomads always seem industriously engaged, the former with domestic duties
+about the tents, and the latter tending the flocks; but the men put in
+most of their unprofitable lives loafing, sleeping, and gossiping.
+
+We are not invited into the tents, but bread and mast is provided, and,
+while we eat, four men hold the corners of an ample blue turban sheet
+over us to shelter us from the sun. Spread out on sheets and on the roofs
+of the tents are bushels of curds drying in the sun; the curds are
+compressed into round balls the size of an apple, and when dried into
+hard balls are excellent things to put in the pocket and nibble along the
+road. Here we learn that the Harood is only one farsakh distant, and a
+couple of stalwart young nomads accompany us to assist us across. At
+Beerjand the Harood was "deep as a house;" at our last night's camp we
+were told that it was fordable with camels; here we learn, that, though
+very swift, it is really fordable for men and horses. First we come to a
+branch less than waist-deep. My nether garments are handed to the khan;
+in the pocket of my pantaloons is a purse containing a few kerans. While
+engaged in fording this branch the khan ferrets out the purse and
+extracts something from it, which he deftly slips into the folds of his
+kammerbund. All this I silently observe from the corners of my eyes, but
+say nothing.
+
+Emerging from the stream, the wily khan points across the intervening
+three hundred yards or thereabout to the main stream, and motions for me
+to go ahead. The discovery of the purse and the purloined kerans has
+aroused all the latent cupidity of his soul, and he wants me to ride
+ahead, so that he can straggle along in the rear and investigate the
+contents of the purse at his leisure. While winking at the amusing little
+act of petty larceny already detected, I do not propose to give his
+kleptomaniac tendencies full swing, and so I meet his proposal to sowar
+and go ahead by peremptorily ordering him to take the lead.
+
+Arriving at the bank of the Harood, I retire behind a clump of reeds, and
+fold my money-belt, full of gold, up in the middle of my clothes, making
+a compact bundle, with my gossamer rubber wrapped around the outside. The
+river is about a hundred and fifty yards wide at the ford, with a
+sand-bar about mid-stream, and is not above shoulder-deep along the ridge
+that renders it fordable; the current, however, is frightfully strong.
+Like the Indians of the West, the Afghan nomads are accustomed from
+infancy to battling with the elements, and are comparatively fearless in
+regard to rivers and deserts and storms, etc.
+
+Such, at least, is the impression created by the conduct of the two young
+men who have come to assist us across. The bicycle, my clothes, and all
+the effects of the sowars are carried across on their heads, the rushing
+waters threatening to sweep them off their feet at every step; but
+nothing is allowed to get wet. When they are carrying across the last
+bundle, the khan, solicitous for my safety, wants me to hang on to a
+short rope tied around the waist of the strongest of the nomads.
+Naturally disdaining any such arrangement as this, however, I declare my
+intention of crossing without assistance, and wade in forthwith. Ere I
+have progressed thirty yards, the current fairly sweeps me off my feet
+and I have to swim for it. Fancying that I am overcome and in a fair way
+of being drowned, the sowars set up a wild howl of apprehension, and
+shout excitedly to the nomads to rescue me from a watery grave. The
+Afghans are not so excited, however, over the outlook; they see that I am
+swimming all right, and they confine themselves to motioning the
+direction for me to take. The current carries me some little distance
+down stream, when I find footing on the lower extremity of the sand-bar,
+and on it, wade up; stream again with some difficulty against swiftly
+rushing water four feet deep. The khan thinks I have had the narrowest
+possible escape, and in tones of desperation he shouts out and begs me
+not to attempt to cross the other channel without assistance. "The
+receipt!" he shouts, "the receipt! Allah preserve us! the receipt; Hesh
+met-i-Molk." The worthy khan is afflicted with a keen consciousness of
+coming punishment awaiting him at Beerjand, should I happen to come to
+grief while under his protection, and he, no doubt, suffers an agony of
+apprehension during the fifteen minutes I am battling with the rapid
+current of the Harood.
+
+The second channel is found less swift and comparatively easy to ford.
+The sturdy nomads, having transported all of my escort's damageable
+effects, those three now stark-naked worthies mount with fear and
+trembling their equally stark-naked steeds-naked all, save for the
+turbans of the men and the bridles of their horses. Whatever of
+intrepidity the khan possesses is of a quantity scarcely visible to the
+naked eye, and it is, therefore, scarcely surprising to find him trying
+to persuade, first the mudbake and then the mirza, to take the
+initiative. His efforts prove wholly ineffectual, however, to bring the
+feebly flowing tide of their courage up to the high-water level of
+assuming the duties of leadership, and so in the absence of any
+alternative, he finally screws up his own courage and leads the way. The
+others allow their horses to follow closely behind. The horses seem to
+regard the rushing volume of yellow water about them with far less
+apprehension than do their riders. While dressing myself on the eastern
+bank, the frightened mutterings of "Allah" from these gallant horsemen
+come floating across the water, and, as they reach the sand-bar in the
+middle of the stream, I can hear their muttered importunities for
+Providential protection change, like the passing shadow-whims of Nature's
+children that they are, into gleeful chuckles at their escape.
+
+When the khan emerges from the water, the ruling passion within his
+avaricious nature asserts itself with ridiculous promptness. With the
+water dripping from his dangling feet, he rides hastily to where I am
+dressing and whispers, "Pool neis; Afghani dasht-adam, pool neis." By
+this he desires me to understand that the men who have been so
+industrious and ready in helping us across, being Afghan nomads, will not
+expect any backsheesh for their trouble. The above-mentioned ruling
+passion is wonderfully strong in the rude breast of the khan, and in view
+of his own secret machinations against my money he, no doubt, entertains
+objections to leakages in other directions. So far as presenting these
+hospitable souls of the desert with money for their services is
+concerned, the khan's advice probably contains a good deal more wisdom
+than would appear from a superficial view of the case merely. Assisting
+travellers across streams and through difficult places evidently appeals
+to these people as the most natural thing in the world for them to do. It
+is a part of the un-written code of the hospitality of their uncivilized
+country, and is, in all probability, undertaken without so much as a
+mercenary thought. Presenting them with a money-consideration for their
+services certainly has a tendency to awaken the latent spirit of
+cupidity, generally resulting in their transformation from simple and
+unsophisticated children, hospitable both by nature and tradition, into
+wretched mercenaries, who regard the chance traveller solely from a
+backsheesh-giving stand-point. The baneful result of this is today
+glaringly apparent along every tourist route in the East; and, among the
+pool-loving subjects of the Shah of Persia, travellers do not have to
+appear very frequently to keep alive and foster a wild yearning for
+backsheesh that effectually suppresses all loftier considerations.
+
+These Afghans, however, seem to be people of an altogether different
+mould; the ubiquitous Western traveller has not yet become a palpable
+factor in their experiences. The hidden charms of backsheesh will not
+become apparent to the wild Afghans until their fierce Mussulman
+fanaticism has cooled sufficiently to allow the Ferenghi tourist to
+wander through their territory without being in danger of his life.
+
+The danger of corruption in the present instance is exceedingly small,
+considering that I am the only representative of the Occident that has
+ever happened along this way, and the probability that none other will
+follow for many a year after; therefore I ignore the khan's wholly
+disinterested advice and make the two worthy nomads a small present. They
+accept the proffered kerans with a look of bewilderment, as though quite
+unable to comprehend why I should tender them money, and they lay it
+carelessly down on the sand while they assist the sowars to resaddle
+their horses. To see the indifference with which the magnificent Afghan
+nomads toss the silver pieces on the sand, and the eager, covetous
+expression that the sight of the same coins lying there inspires in the
+three Persians is, of itself, an instructive lesson on the difference
+between the two peoples. The sowars become inspired, as if touched by the
+magic wand of alchemy, to the discussion of their favorite theme; but the
+Afghans pay no more heed to their remarks about money than if they were
+talking in an unknown tongue. They really act as though they regarded the
+subject of money as something altogether beyond their comprehension.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+AFGHANISTAN.
+
+A few miles across a stretch of gravelly river-bottom, interspersed with
+scattering patches of cultivation, brings us to a hamlet of some twenty
+mud dwellings. The houses are small, circular structures, unattached, and
+each one removed some dozen paces from its neighbor; they are built of
+mud with the roof flat, as in Asia Minor. The sun is setting as we reach
+this little Harood hamlet, and, as Ghalakua is some three farsakhs
+distant, we decide to remain here for the night. We pitch our camp on a
+smooth threshing-floor in the centre of the village, and the headman
+brings pieces of carpet for me to recline on, together with a sort of a
+carpet bolster for a pillow.
+
+The khan impresses upon these simple-minded, out-of-the-world people a
+due sense of my importance as the guest of his master, the Ameer of
+Seistan, and they skirmish around in the liveliest manner to provide what
+creature comforts their meagre resources are equal to. The best they can
+provide in the way of eatables is bread and eggs, and muscal, but they
+make full amends for the absence of variety by bestowing upon us a
+superabundance of what they have, and no slaves of Oriental despot ever
+displayed more eager haste to anticipate their ruler's wants than do
+these, my first acquaintances among the Afghan tillers of the soil, to
+wait upon us. All the evening long no female ventures anywhere near our
+alfresco quarters; the rigid exclusion of the female sex in this
+conservative Mohammedan territory forbids them making any visible show of
+interest in the affairs of men whatsoever. When the hour arrives for the
+preparation of the evening meal, closely shrouded figures flit hastily
+through the dusk from house to house, bearing camel-thorn torches. They
+are women who have been to their neighbors to obtain a light for their
+own fire. From the number of these it is plainly evident that the
+housewives of the entire village light their fires from one original
+kindling. The shrouds of the women are red and black plaid; the men wear
+overshirts of coarse white; material that reach to their knees, pointed
+shoes that turn up at the toes, white Turkish trousers, and the
+regulation Afghan turban. The night is most lovely, and frogs innumerable
+are in the lowlands round about us, croaking their appreciation of the
+mellow moonlight, the balmy air, and the overflowing waters of the river.
+For hours they favor us with a musical melange, embracing everything
+between the hoarse bass croak of the full-blown bull-frog, to the tuneful
+"p-r" of the little green tree-frogs ensconced in the clumps of
+dwarf-willow hard by. Soothed by the music of the frogs I spend a restful
+night beneath the blue, calm dome of the Afghan sky, though awakened once
+or twice by the sowars' horses breaking loose and fighting.
+
+There are no geldings to speak of in Central Asia, and unless eternal
+vigilance is maintained and the horses picketed very carefully, a fight
+or two is sure to occur among them during the night. As it seems
+impossible for semi-civilized people to exercise forethought in small
+matters of this kind, a night without being disturbed by a horse-fight is
+a very rare occurrence, when several are travelling together.
+
+The morning opens as lovely as the close of evening yesterday; a sturdy
+villager carries me and the bicycle through a small tributary of the
+Harood. He shakes his head when I offer him a present. How strange that
+an imaginary boundary-line between two countries should make so much
+difference in the people! One thinks of next to nothing but money, the
+other refuses to take it when offered.
+
+The sowars are in high glee at having escaped what seems to me the
+imaginary terrors of the passage across the Dasht-i-na-oomid, and as we
+ride along toward Ghalakua their exuberant animal spirits find expression
+in song. Few things are more harrowing and depressing to the
+unappreciative Ferenghi ear than Persian sowars singing, and three most
+unmelodious specimens of their kind at it all at once are something
+horrible.
+
+The country hereabouts is a level plain, extending eastward to the Furrah
+Rood; within the first few miles adjacent to the Harood are seen the
+crenellated walls of several villages and the crumbling ruins of as many
+more. Clumps of palm-trees and fields of alfalfa and green young wheat
+environ the villages, and help to render the dull gray ruins picturesque.
+The atmosphere seems phenomenally transparent, and the trees and ruins
+and crenellated walls, rising above the level plain, are outlined clear
+and distinct against the sky.
+
+In the distance, at all points of the compass, rocky mountains rise sheer
+from the dead level of the plain, looking singularly like giant cliffs
+rising abruptly from the bed of some inland sea. One of these may be
+thirty miles away, yet the wondrous clearness of the air renders apparent
+distances so deceptive that it looks not more than one-third the
+distance. It is a strikingly interesting country, and its inhabitants are
+a no less strikingly interesting people.
+
+A farsakh from our Harood-side camping-place, we halt to obtain
+refreshments at a few rude tents pitched beneath the walls of a little
+village. The owners of the tents are busy milking their flocks of goats.
+It is an animated scene. No amount of handling, nor years of human
+association, seems capable of curbing the refractory and restless spirit
+of a goat. The matronly dams that are being subjected to the milking
+process this morning have, no doubt, been milked regularly for years; yet
+they have to be caught and held firmly by the horns by one person, while
+another robs them of what they seem reluctant enough to give up.
+
+The sun grows uncomfortably warm, and myriads of flies buzz hungrily
+about our morning repast. Before we resume our journey a little damsel,
+in flaming red skirt and big silver nose-ring, enters the garden and
+plucks several roses, which she brings to me on a pewter salver. These
+people are Eliautes, and the women are less fearful of showing themselves
+than at the village where we passed the night. Several of them apply to
+me for medical assistance. The chief trouble is chronic ophthalmia;
+nearly all the children are afflicted with this disease, and at the eyes
+of each poor helpless babe are a mass of hungry flies. The wonder is, not
+that ophthalmia runs amuck among these people, but rather, that any of
+the children escape total blindness.
+
+Several villages are passed through en route to Ghalakua; the people turn
+out en masse and indulge in uproarious demonstrations at the advent of
+the Ferenghi and the bicycle. These people seem as incapable of
+controlling their emotions and their voices as so many wild animals; they
+shout and gesticulate excitedly, and run about like people bereft of
+their senses. The uncivilization crops out of these obscure Harood
+villagers far plainer than it does in the tents of the wandering tribes.
+They are noisier and more boisterous than the nomads, who, as a matter of
+fact, are sober-sided and sedate in their deportment.
+
+No women appear among the crowd on the street, but a carefully covered
+head is occasionally caught peeping furtively from behind a chimney on
+the roof of a house, or around some corner. A glance from me, and the
+head is withdrawn as rapidly as if one were taking hostile aim at it with
+a rifle.
+
+Fine large irrigating ditches traverse this partially cultivable area,
+and in them are an abundance of fish. In one ditch I catch sight of a
+splendid specimen of the speckled trout, that must have been three feet
+long. Travelling leisurely next morning, we arrive at Ghalakua in the
+middle of the forenoon; quarters are assigned us by Aminulah Khan, the
+Chief of the Ghalakua villages and tributary territory. In appearance he
+is a typical Oriental official, his fluffy, sensuous countenance bearing
+traces of such excesses as voluptuous Easterns are wont to indulge in,
+and this morning he is suffering with an attack of "tab" (fever). Wrapped
+in a heavy fur-lined over-coat, he is found seated on the front platform
+of a inenzil beneath the arched village gateway, smoking cigarettes; in
+his hand is a bouquet of roses, and numerous others are scattered about
+his feet. Dancing attendance upon him is a smart-looking little fellow in
+a sheepskin busby almost as bulky in proportion as his whole body, and
+which renders his appearance grotesque in the extreme. His keen black
+eyes sparkle brightly through the long wool of his remarkable headgear,
+the ends of which dangle over his eyes like an overgrown and wayward
+bang. The bravery of his attire is measurably enhanced by a cavalry
+sword, long enough and heavy enough for a six-foot dragoon, a green
+kammerbund, and top-boots of red leather. This person stands by the side
+of Aminulah Khan, watches keenly everything that is being said and done,
+receives orders from his master, and transmits them to the various
+subordinates lounging about. He looks the soul of honesty and
+watchfullness, his appearance and demeanor naturally conjuring up
+reflections of faithful servitors about the persons of knights and nobles
+of old; he is apparently the Khan of Ghalakua's confidential retainer and
+general supervisor of affairs about his person and headquarters.
+
+Our quarters are in the bala-khana of a small half-ruined konak outside
+the village, and shortly after retiring thither the khan's sprightly
+little retainer brings in tea and fried eggs, besides pomegranates and
+roses for myself. A new departure makes its appearance in the shape of
+sugar sprinkled over the eggs. While we are discussing these refreshments
+our attendant stands in the doorway and addresses the sowars at some
+length in Persian. He is apparently delivering instructions received from
+his master; whatever it is all about, he delivers it with the air of an
+orator addressing an audience, and he supplements his remarks with
+gestures that would do credit to a professional elocutionist. He is as
+agreeable as he is picturesque; he and I seem to fall en rapport at once,
+as against the untrustworthiness of the remainder of our company. As his
+keen, honest eyes scrutinize the countenances of the sowars, and then
+seek my own face, I feel instinctively that he has sized my escort up
+correctly, and that their innate rascality is as well revealed to him as
+if he had accompanied us across the desert.
+
+Several visitors drop in to pay their respects; they salaam respectfully
+to me, and greet the sowars as "bur-raa-thers," and kiss, their hands.
+One simple, unsophisticated mortal, who in his isolated life has never
+had the opportunity of discriminating between a Mussulman and a Ferenghi,
+addresses me also as "bur-raa-ther," and favors my palm with the
+regulation osculatory greeting. The Afghans present view this
+extraordinary proceeding with dignified silence, and if moved in any
+manner by the spectacle, manage to conceal their emotions beneath a
+stolid exterior. The risibilities of the sowars, however, are stirred to
+their deepest depths, and they nearly choke themselves in desperate
+efforts to keep from laughing outright.
+
+Offerings of roses are brought into our quarters by the various visitors,
+and boys and men toss others in through door and windows, until our room
+is gratefully perfumed and roses are literally carpeting the floor. One
+might well imagine the place to be Gulistan itself; every person is
+carrying bunches of roses in his hands, smelling of them, and wearing
+them in his turban and kammerbund. The people seem to be fairly revelling
+in the delights of these choicest gems from Flora's evidently overflowing
+storehouse. The men average tall and handsome; they look like veritable
+warrior-priests in their flowing white costumes, and they make a strange
+picture of mingled barbarism and aestheticism as they loaf in lazy
+magnificence about the tumble-down ruins of the konak, toying with their
+roses in silence. They seem contented and happy in their isolation from
+the great busy outer world, and, impressed by their universal
+appreciation of a flower, it occurs to me, on the impulse of ocular
+evidence, that it would be the greatest pity to disturb and corrupt these
+people by attempting to thrust upon them our Western civilization--they
+seem far happier than a civilized community.
+
+The khan obtains his receipt for my delivery, and by and by Aminulah Khan
+sends his man to request the favor of a tomasha. Leaving my other effects
+behind in charge of the sowars, I take the bicycle and favor him with a
+few turns in front of the village gate. Among the various contents of my
+leathern case is a bag of kerans; but, although the case is not locked,
+it is provided with a peculiar fastening which I fondly imagine to be
+beyond the ingenuity of the khan to open. So that, while well enough
+aware of that guileful individual's uncontrollable avarice in general,
+and his deep, dark designs on my money in particular, I think little of
+leaving it with him for the few minutes I expect to be absent. It strikes
+me as a trifle suspicious, however, upon discovering that while everybody
+else comes to see the tomasha, all three of the sowars remain behind.
+
+Instinctively I arrive at the conclusion that with these three worthy
+kleptomaniacs left alone in a room with some other person's portable
+property, something is pretty sure to happen to the property; so,
+excusing myself as quickly as courtesy will permit, I hasten back to our
+quarters. The mudbake is found posted at the outer gate of the konak. He
+is keeping watch while his delectable comrades search the package in
+which they sagaciously locate the silver lucre they so much covet. Seeing
+me approaching, he makes a trumpet of his hands and sings out warningly
+to his accomplices that I am coming back. Taking no more notice of him
+than usual, I pass inside and repair at once to the bala-khana, to find
+that the khan and the mirza have disappeared. The mudbake follows me in
+to watch my movements. In the simplicity of his semi-civilized
+understanding he is wondering within himself whether or no I entertain
+suspicions of anything being wrong, and he is watching me closely to find
+out. In his dense ignorance he imagines the khan and the mirza artful
+almost beyond human comprehension, and in thinking this he no doubt
+merely supplements the sentiments of these two wily individuals
+themselves. Time and again on the journey from Tabbas has he joined them
+in chuckling with ghoulish glee over some self-laudatory exposition of
+their own deep, deep, cunning. They well know themselves to be
+unfathomably cute beside the simple-hearted and honest ryots and nomads
+with whom they are wont to compare themselves, and from these standards
+they confidently judge the world at large. The mudbake colors up like a
+guilty school-boy upon seeing me proceed without delay to examine the
+leathern case. The erstwhile orderly arranged contents are found tumbled
+about in dire confusion. My bag of about one hundred kerans have dwindled
+nearly half that number as the result of being in their custody ten
+minutes.
+
+"Some of you pedar sags have stolen my money; who is it? where's the
+khan?" I inquire, addressing the guilty-looking mud-bake. He is now
+shivering visibly with fright, but makes a ludicrous effort to put a bold
+face on the matter, and brazenly asks, "Chand pool" (How much is
+missing?). "Khylie! where is the khan and the inirza? I will take you all
+to Aminulah Khan and have you bastinadoed!" The poor mudbake turns pale
+at the bare suggestion of the bastinado, and stoutly maintains his own
+innocence. He would no doubt as stoutly proclaim the guilt of his
+comrades if by so doing he could escape punishment himself. Nor is this
+so surprising, when one reflects that either of these worthies would,
+without a moment's hesitation, perform the same office for him or for
+each other.
+
+Without wasting time in bandying arguments with the mudbake, I sally
+forth in search of the others, and meet them just outside the gate; they
+are returning from hiding the money in the ruins. The crimson flood of
+guilt overspreads their faces as I raise my finger and shake it at them
+by way of admonition. With them following behind with all the meekness of
+discovered guilt, I lead the way back up into the bala-khana. Arriving
+there, both of them wilt so utterly and completely, and proceed to plead
+for mercy with such ludicrous promptness, that my sense of the ridiculous
+outweighs all other considerations, and I regard their demonstrations of
+remorse with a broad smile of amusement. It is anything but a laughing
+matter from their own standpoint, however; the mudbake warns them
+forthwith that I have threatened to have them bastinadoed, and they
+fairly writhe and groan in an agony of apprehension. The khan, owing to
+his more sanguine temperament, and a lively conception that the heaviest
+burden of guilt and accompanying punishment would naturally fall on his
+own shoulders as the chief of my escort, removes his turban and then lies
+down on the floor and grovels at my feet.
+
+All the hair he possesses is a little tuft or two left on his otherwise
+smoothly shaven pate, by which he confidently expects at his demise to be
+tenderly lifted up into Paradise by the Prophet Mohammed. After kissing
+most of the dust off my geivehs, and banging his head violently against
+the floor, he signifies his willingness to relinquish all anticipations
+of eternal happiness, black-eyed houris and the like, by attempting to
+yank out even this Celestial hand-hold, hoping that the woeful depth of
+his anguish and the sincerity of his repentance may prove the means of
+escaping present punishment. His eyes roll wildly about in their sockets,
+and in a voice choking with emotion he begs me pathetically to keep the
+matter a secret from the Khan of Ghalakua. "O Sahib, Sahib! Hoikim no,
+hoikim no!" he pleads, and the anguish-stricken khan accompanies these
+pleadings with a look of unutterable agony, and furthermore indulges in
+the pantomime of sawing off his ears and his hands with his forefinger.
+This latter tragic demonstration is to let me know that the result of
+exposure would be to have the former, and perhaps the latter, of these
+useful members cut off, after the cruel and summary justice of this
+country. The mirza and mudbake cluster around and supplement their
+superior's pathetic pleadings with deep-drawn groans of "Allah, Allah!"
+and sundry prostrations toward Mecca.
+
+It is a ludicrous and yet a strangely touching spectacle to see these
+three poor devils grovelling and pleading before me, and at the same time
+praying to Allah for protection in the little bala-khana, hoping thereby
+to save themselves from cruel mutilation and lifelong disgrace. A
+watchful eye is kept outside by the mirza, who does his groaning and
+praying near the door, and the sight of an Afghan approaching is the
+signal for a mute appeal for mercy from all three, and a transformation
+to ordinary attitudes and vocations, the completeness of which would do
+credit to professional comedians.
+
+When a favorable opportunity presents, with much peering about to make
+sure of being unobserved, his comrades lower the khan down over the rear
+wall of the bala-khana, and a minute later they hoist him up again with
+the same show of caution.
+
+Producing from his kammerbund a red handkerchief containing the stolen
+kerans, he advances and humbly lays it at my feet, at the same time
+kneeling down and implanting yet another osculatory favor on my geivehs.
+Joyful at seeing my readiness to second them in keeping the matter hidden
+from stray Afghans that come dropping in, the guilty sowars are still
+fearful lest they have not yet secured my complete forgiveness.
+Consequently, the khan repeatedly appeals to me as "bur-raa-ther," lays
+his forefingers together, and enlarges upon the fact that we have passed
+through the dangers and difficulties of the Dasht-i-na-oomid together.
+The dread spectre of possible mutilation and disgrace as the consequence
+of their misdeeds pursues these guileful, grown-up children even in their
+dreams. All through the night they are moaning and muttering uneasily in
+their sleep, and tossing restlessly about; and long before daybreak are
+they up, prostrating themselves and filling the room with rapidly
+muttered prayers, The khan comes over to my corner and peers anxiously
+down into my face. Finding me awake, he renews his plea for mercy and
+forgiveness, calling me "bur-raa-ther" and pleading earnestly "Hoikim no,
+hoikim no!"
+
+The sharp-eyed wearer of the big busby, the cavalry sword, and red
+jack-boots turns up early next morning. He dropped in once or twice
+yesterday, and being possessed of more brains than the three sowars put
+together, he gathered from appearances, and his general estimation of
+their character, that all is not right. These suspicions he promptly
+communicated to his master. Aminulah Khan is only too well acquainted
+with the weakest side of the Persian character, and at once jumps to the
+conclusion that the sowars have stolen my money. Sending for me and
+summoning the sowars to his presence, without preliminary palaver he
+accuses them of robbing me of "pool." Addressing himself to me, he
+inquires: "Sahib, Parses namifami?" (Do you understand Persian?) "Kam
+Kam" (a little), I reply. "Sowari pool f pool koob; rupee-rupee Jcoob?"
+"O, O, pool koob; rupee koob; sowari neis, sowari khylie koob adam." In
+this brief interchange of disconnected Persian the khan has asked me
+whether the sowars have stolen money from me, and I have answered that
+they have not, but that, on the contrary, they are most excellent men,
+both "trustie and true." May the recording angel enter my answer down
+with a recommendation for mercy! During this examination the little
+busby-wearer stands and closely scrutinizes the changeful countenances of
+the accused. He thoroughly understands that I am mercifully shielding
+them from what he considers their just deserts, and he chips in a word
+occasionally to Aminulah Khan, aside, like a sharp lawyer watching the
+progress of a cross-examination. The chief himself, though ostensibly
+accepting my statement, has his own suspicions to the same purpose, and
+before dismissing them he shakes his finger menacingly at the sowars and
+significantly touches the hilt of his sword. The three culprits look
+guilty enough to satisfy the most merciful of judges, but, relying on my
+operation to shield them, they stoutly maintain their innocence.
+
+Some little delay occurs about starting for Furrah, my next objective
+point on the road to India; the khan explains that all of his sowars have
+been sent off to help garrison Herat; that the best he can provide in the
+form of a mounted escort is an elderly little man whom he points out,
+with an evident doubt as to my probable appreciation.
+
+The man looks more like a Persian than an Afghan, which he probably is,
+as the population of these borderland districts is much mixed. Nothing
+would have pleased me better than to have had Aminulah Khan bid me go
+ahead without any escort whatever, but next to nobody at all, the most
+satisfactory arrangement is the harmless-looking old fellow in the
+Persian lamb's-wool hat. Telling him that he has done well in sending his
+sowars to Herat, and that the old fellow will answer very well as guide,
+I prepare to take my departure. My guide disappears, and shortly returns
+mounted on a powerful and spirited gray. Aminulah Khan gives him a
+letter, and after mutual salaams, and "good ahfis," the old sowar leads
+the way at a pace which shows him to be filled with exaggerated ideas
+about my speediness.
+
+Irrigating ditches and fields characterize the way for some few miles,
+after which we emerge upon a level desert whose hard gravel surface is
+ridable in any direction without regard to beaten trails. Numerous
+lizards of a peculiar spotted variety are observed scuttling about on
+this gravelly plain as we ride along. The sun grows hot, but the way is
+level and smooth, and about ten o'clock we arrive at the oasis of
+Mahmoudabad, five farsakhs from Ghalakua. Mahmoudabad consists of a few
+mud dwellings surrounded by a strong wall, and a number of tents. Water
+is brought in a ditch from some distant source, and my faculty of
+astonishment is once again assailed by the sight of flourishing little
+patches of "Windsor beans." This is the first growth of these particular
+legumes that have come beneath my notice in Asia; dropping on them in the
+little oasis of Mahmoudabad is something of a surprise, to say the least.
+
+The men of Mahmoudabad wear bracelets and ankle-ornaments of thick copper
+wire, and necklaces of beads. Nothing whatever is seen of the women; so
+far as ocular evidence is concerned, Mahmoudabad might be a community of
+men and boys exclusively. The plain continues level and gravelly, and
+pretty soon it becomes thinly covered with green young camel-thorn. The
+widely scattered shrubs fail to cover up much of the desert's nakedness
+at close quarters, but a wider view gives a pleasant green plain, out of
+which the dark, massive mountains rise abrupt with striking effect.
+
+Late in the afternoon the hard surface of the desert gives place to the
+loose adobe soil of the Furi-ah Eooi bottom-lands. For some distance this
+is so loose and soft that one sinks in shoe-top deep at every step, and
+the path becomes a mere trail through dense thickets of reeds that wave
+high above one's head. Beyond this is a narrow area of cultivation and
+several walled villages, most of which are distinguished by one or two
+palms. Arriving at one of these villages, an hour before sunset, the old
+guide advocates remaining for the night. In obedience to his orders the
+headman brings out a carpet and spreads it beneath the shadow of the
+wall, and pointing to it, says, "Sahib, bismillah!" Taking the proffered
+seat, I inquire of him the distance to Furrah. Ho says it is across the
+Furrah Rood, and distant one farsakh. "Kishtee ass?" "O, Idshtee" Turning
+to the guide, I suggest: "Bismillah Furrah." The old fellow looks
+disappointed at the idea of going on, but he replies, "Bismillah." The
+carpet is taken away again, and the village headman sends a younger man
+to guide us through the fields and gardens to the river.
+
+The Furrah Rood is broader and swifter here than the Harood, and when at
+sunset we reach the ferry, it is to find that the boat is on the other
+side and the ferrymen gone to their homes for the night. Several hundred
+yards back from the river the city of Furrah reveals itself in the shape
+of a sombre-looking high mud wall, forming a solid parallelogram, I
+should judge a third of a mile long and of slightly less width. The walls
+are crenellated, and strengthened by numerous buttresses. It occupies
+slightly rising ground, and nothing is visible from without but the
+walls. The old guide shouts lustily at a couple of men visible on the
+opposite bank; but he only gets shouted back at for his pains.
+
+Darkness is rapidly settling down upon us, and I begin to realize my
+mistake in not abiding by the guide's judgment and stopping at the
+village. Another village is seen a couple of miles across the reedy
+lowland to our rear, and thitherward we shape our course. The intervening
+space is found to consist largely of tall reeds, swampy or overflowed
+areas, and irrigating ditches. Many of the latter are too deep to ford,
+and darkness overtakes us long before the village is reached. Finding it
+impossible to do anything with the bicycle, I remove my packages and lay
+the naked wheel on top of a conspicuous place on the bank of a ditch,
+where it may be readily found in the morning.
+
+For some reason unintelligible to me accommodation is refused us at the
+village. The old guide addresses the people in tones loud and
+authoritative, but all to no purpose--they refuse to let us remain. While
+hesitating about what course to pursue, one of the men comes out and
+volunteers to guide us to a camp of nomads not far away. Following his
+guidance, a camp of a dozen tents is shortly reached, and in their
+hospitable midst we spend the night on a piece of carpet beneath the sky.
+The usual simple refreshments are provided, as also quilts for covering.
+Upon waking in the morning I am surprised to find the bicycle lying close
+to my head. The hospitable nomads, having heard the story of its
+abandonment from the guide, have been out in the night and found it and
+brought it in.
+
+The same friendly person who brought us to the camp turns up at daybreak
+and voluntarily guides us through the area of ditches and impenetrable
+reed-patches to the river. Several people are squatting on the bank
+watching a crew of half-naked men tugging a rude but strong ferryboat
+up-stream toward them. The boat is built of heavy hewn timber, and
+capable of ferrying fifty passengers.
+
+The Furrah Rood, at the ferry, is about two hundred yards wide, and with
+a current of perhaps five miles an hour. A dozen stalwart men with rude,
+heavy sweeps propel the boat across; but at every passage the swift
+current takes it down-stream twice as far as the river's width. After
+disembarking the passengers, the boatmen have to tow it this distance
+up-stream again before making the next crossing. The boatmen wear a
+single garment of blue cotton that in shape resembles a plain loose
+shirt. When nearing the shore, three or four of them deftly slip their
+arms out of the sleeves, bunch the whole garment up around their necks,
+and spring overboard. Swimming to shallow water with a rope, they brace
+themselves to stay the down-stream career of the boat.
+
+A small gathering of wild-looking men are collected at the landing-place,
+and my astonishment is awakened by the familiar figure of a Celestial
+among the crowd. He is a veritable John Chinaman--beardless face,
+queue, almond eyes, and everything complete. The superior thriftiness of
+the Chinaman over the Afghans needs no further demonstration than the
+ocular evidence that among them all he wears by far the best and the
+tidiest clothes. In this, not less than in the strong Mongolian type of
+face, is he a striking figure among the people.
+
+John Chinaman is a very familiar figure to me, and I regard this strange
+specimen with almost as great interest as if I had thus unexpectedly met
+a European. His grotesque figure and dress, representing, so it seems to
+me at the moment, a speck of civilization among the barbarousness of my
+surroundings, is quite a relief to the senses. A closer investigation,
+however, on the bank, while waiting for the guide's horse, reveals the
+fact that he is far from being the John Chinaman of Chinatown, San
+Francisco. Instead of hailing from the rice-fields of Quangtung, this
+fellow is a native of Kashga-ria, a country almost as wild as
+Afghanistan. A moment's scrutiny of his face removes him as far from the
+civilized seaboard Celestials of our acquaintance as is the Zulu warrior
+from the plantation-darky of the South. Except for the above-mentioned
+comparative neatness of appearance, it is very evident that the Mongolian
+is every bit as wild as the Afghans about him.
+
+The people regard me with a deep and peculiar interest; very few remarks
+are made among themselves, and no one puts a single question to me or
+ventures upon any remarks. All this is in strange contrast to the
+everlasting gabble and the noisy and persistent importunities of the
+Persians. The Afghans are plainly full of speculations concerning my
+mission, who I am, and what I am doing in their country; although they
+regard the bicycle with great curiosity, the machine is evidently a
+matter of secondary importance. Like the Eimuck chieftain on the Dasht-i
+several of these men change countenance when I favor them with a glance.
+Whether this peculiar reddening of the face among the Afghans comes of
+embarrassment, or what it is, it always impresses me as much like the
+"perturbation of a wild animal at finding himself suddenly confronted
+with a human being."
+
+Hiding part way to the city gate, I send the guide ahead to notify the
+governor of my arrival, and to present the letter from Aininulah Khan. He
+is absent what appears to me an unnecessarily long time, and I determine
+to follow him in and take my chances on the tide of circumstances, as in
+the cities of Persia. It is not without certain lively apprehensions of
+possible adventure, however, that I approach the little arched gateway of
+this gray-walled Afghan city, conscious of its being filled with the most
+fanatical population in the world. In addition to this knowledge is the
+disquieting reflection of being a trespasser on forbidden territory, and
+therefore outside the pale of governmental sympathy should I get into
+trouble.
+
+The fascination of penetrating the strange little world within those high
+walls, however, ill brooks these retrospective reflections, or thoughts
+of unpleasant consequences, and I make no hesitation about riding up to
+the gate. A sharp, short turn and abrupt rise in the road occurs at the
+gate, necessitating a dismount and a trundle of about thirty yards, when
+I suddenly find myself confronting a couple of sentries beneath the
+archway of the gate. The sensation of surprise seems quite in order of
+late, and these sentries furnish yet another sensation, for they are
+wearing the red jackets of British infantrymen and the natty peaked caps
+of the Royal Artillery. The same crimson flush of embarrassment--or
+whatever it may be--that was observed in the countenance of the
+Eimuck chief, overspreads their faces, and they seem overcome with
+confusion and astonishment; but they both salute mechanically as I pass
+in. Fifty yards of open waste ground enables me to mount and ride into
+the entrance of the principal street. I have precious little time to look
+about me, and no opportunity to discover what the result of my temerity
+would be after the people had recovered from their amazement, for hardly
+have I gotten fairly into the street when I am met by my old guide,
+conducting a guard of twelve soldiers who have been sent to bring me in.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+ARRESTED AT FURRAH.
+
+Perhaps no stranger occurrence in the field of personal adventure in
+Central Asia has happened for many a year than my entrance into Furrah on
+a bicycle. Only those who know Afghanistan and the Afghans can fully
+realize the ticklish character of this little piece of adventure.
+
+My soldier-escort are fine-looking fellows, wearing the well-known red
+jackets of the British Army, evidently the uniform of some sepoy
+regiment. Forming around me, they conduct me through the gate of an inner
+enclosure near by, and usher me into a small compound where Mahmoud
+Yusuph Khan, the commander-in-chief of the garrison, is engaged in
+holding a morning reception of his subordinate chiefs and officers. The
+spectacle that greets my astonished eyes is a revelation indeed; the
+whole compound is filled with soldiers wearing the regimentals of the
+Anglo-Indian army. As I enter the compound and trundle the bicycle
+between long files of soldiers toward Mahmoud Yusuph Khan and his
+officers, five hundred pairs of eyes are fixed on me with intense
+curiosity. These are Cabooli soldiers sent here to garrison Furrah, where
+they will be handy to march to the relief of Herat, in case of
+demonstrations against that city by the Russians. The tension over the
+Penjdeh incident has not yet (April, 1886) wholly relaxed, and I feel
+instinctively that I am suspected of being a Russian spy.
+
+In the centre of the compound is a large bungalow, surrounded by a
+slightly raised porch. Seated on a mat at one end of this is Mahmoud
+Yusuph Khan, and ranged in two long rows down the porch are his chiefs
+and officers. They are all seated cross-legged on a strip of carpet, and
+attendants are serving them with tea in little porcelain cups. They are
+the most martial-looking assembly of humans I ever set eyes on. They are
+fairly bristling with quite serviceable looking weapons, besides many of
+the highly ornamented, but less dangerous, "gewgaws of war" dear to the
+heart of the brave but conservative warriors of Islam. Prominent among
+the peculiarities observed are strips of chain mail attached to portions
+of their clothing as guards against sword-cuts, noticeably on the
+sleeves. Some are wearing steel helmets, some huge turbans, and others
+the regular Afghan military hat, this latter a rakish-looking head-piece
+something like the hat of a Chinese Tartar general.
+
+Mahmoud Yusupli Khan himself is wearing one of these hats, and is attired
+in a tight-fitting suit of buckram, pipe-clayed from head to foot; in his
+hat glitters a handsome rosette of nine diamonds, which I have an
+opportunity of counting while seated beside him. He is a stoutish person,
+full-faced, slightly above middle age, less striking in appearance than
+many of his subordinates. When I have walked up between the two rows of
+seated chieftains and gained his side, he forthwith displays his
+knowledge of the English mode of greeting by shaking hands. He orders an
+attendant to fetch a couple of camp chairs, and setting one for me, he
+rises from the carpet and occupies the other one himself. Tea is brought
+in small cups instead of glasses, and is highly sweetened after the
+manner of the Persians; sweetmeats are handed round at the same time.
+After ascertaining that I understand something of Persian, he expresses
+his astonishment at my appearance in Furrah. At first it is painfully
+evident that he suspects me of being a Russian spy; but after several
+minutes of questions and answers, he is apparently satisfied that I am
+not a Muscovite, and he explains to his officers that I am an "Ingilis
+nockshi" (correspondent). He is greatly astonished to hear of the route
+by which I entered the country, as no traveller ever entered Afghanistan
+across the Dasht-i-na-oomid before. I tell him that I am going to
+Kandahar and Quetta, and suggest that he send a sowar with me to guide
+the way. He smiles amusedly at this suggestion, and shaking his head
+vigorously, he says, "Kandahar neis; Afghanistan's bad; khylie bad;" and
+he furthermore explains that I would be sure to get killed. "Kliylie
+koob; I don't want any sowar, I will go alone; if I get killed, then
+nobody will be blamable but myself." "Kandahar neis," he replies, shaking
+his finger and head, and looking very serious; "Kandahar neis; beest (20)
+sowars couldn't see you safely through to Kandahar; Afghanistan's bad; a
+Ferenghi would be sure to get killed before reaching Kandahar."
+Pretending to be greatly amused at this, I reply, "koob; if I get killed,
+all right; I don't want any sowars; I will go alone." At hearing this, he
+grows still more serious, and enters into quite an eloquent and lengthy
+explanation, to dissuade me from the idea of going. He explains that the
+Ameer has little control over the fanatical tribes in Zemindavar, and
+that although the Boundary Commission had a whole regiment of sepoys, the
+Ameer couldn't guarantee their safety if they came to Furrah. He
+furthermore expresses his surprise that I wasn't killed before getting
+this far. The officer of the guard who brought me in, and who is standing
+against the porch close by, speaks up at this stage of the interview and
+tells with much animation of how I was riding down the street, and of the
+people all speechless with astonishment.
+
+Mahmoud Yusuph Khan repeats this to his officers, with comments of his
+own, and they look at one another and smile and shake their heads,
+evidently deeply impressed at what they consider the dare-devil
+recklessness of a Ferenghi in venturing alone into the streets of Furrah.
+The warlike Afghans have great admiration for personal courage, and they
+evidently regard my arrival here without escort as a proof that I am
+possessed of a commendable share of that desirable quality. As the
+commander-in-chief and a few grim old warriors squatting near us exchange
+comments on the subject of my appearance here, and my willingness to
+proceed alone to Kandahar, notwithstanding the known probability of being
+murdered, their glances of mingled amusement and admiration are agreeably
+convincing that I have touched a chord of sympathy in their rude, martial
+breasts.
+
+Half an hour is passed in drinking tea and asking questions. Mahmoud
+Yusuph Khan proves himself not wholly ignorant of English and
+British-Indian politics. "General Roberts Sahib, Cabool to Kandahar?" he
+queries first. The Afghans regard General Roberts' famous march as a
+wonderful performance, and consequently hold that distinguished officer's
+name in high repute. He asks about Sir Peter Lumsden and Colonel Sir West
+Ridgeway; and speaks of the Governor-General of India. By way of testing
+the extent of his knowledge, I refer to Lord Ripon as the present
+Governor-General of India, when he at once corrects me with, "No; Lord
+Dufferin Sahib." He speaks of London, and wants to know about Mr.
+Gladstone and Lord Salisbury--which is now Prime Minister? I
+explain by pantomime that the election is not decided; he acknowledges
+his understanding of my meaning by a nod. He then grows inquisitive about
+the respective merits of the two candidates. "Gladstone koob or Salisbury
+koob?" he queries. "Gladstone koob, England, ryot, nune, gusht,
+kishrnish, pool-Salisbury koob, India, Afghanistan, Ameer, Russia
+soldier, officer," is the reply. To the average reader this latter reads
+like so much unintelligible shibboleth; but it is a fair sample of the
+disjointed language by which I manage to convey my meaning plainly to the
+Afghan chieftain. He understands by these few disconnected nouns that I
+consider Gladstone to be the better statesman of the two for England's
+domestic affairs, and Salisbury the better for the foreign policy of the
+Empire.
+
+All this time the troops are being put through their exercises, marching
+about the compound in companies and drilling with their muskets. Some are
+uniformed in the picturesque Anglo-Oriental regimentals of the Indian
+sepoy, and others in neat red jackets, peaked caps, and white trousers
+with red stripes. The buttons, belts, bandoleers, and buckles are all
+wanderers from the ranks of the British army. The men themselves--many of
+them, at least--might quite as readily be credited to that high standard
+of military prowess which characterizes the British army as the clothes
+and accoutrements they are wearing, judging from outward appearances. Not
+only do their faces bear the stamp of both fearlessness and intelligence,
+but some of them are possessed of the distinctively combative physiognomy
+of the born pugilist. The captain of the Governor's guard has a
+particularly plucky and aggressive expression; he is a man whose face
+will always remain pictured on my memory. The interesting expression this
+officer habitually wears is that of a prize-ring champion, with a
+determined bull-dog phiz, watching eagerly to pounce on some imaginary
+antagonist. Seeing that his attention is keenly centred upon me the whole
+time I am sitting by the side of his chief, he becomes an object of more
+than passing interest. He watches me with the keen earnestness of a
+bull-dog expectantly awaiting the order to attack.
+
+Mahmoud Yusuph Khan now attempts to explain at length sundry reasons why
+it is necessary to place me, for the time being, under guard. He seems
+very anxious to convey this unpleasant piece of information in the
+flowery langue diplomatique of the Orient, or in other words, to coat the
+bitter pill of my detention with a sugary coating of Eastern politeness.
+
+His own linguistic abilities being unequal to the occasion, he sends off
+somewhere for a dusky Hindostani, who shortly arrives and, in obedience
+to orders, forthwith begins jabbering at me in his own tongue. Of this I,
+of course, know literally nothing, and, ever swayed by suspicion, it is
+easily perceivable that their first impression of my being a Russian spy
+is in a measure revived by my ignorance of Hindostani. They seem to think
+it inconsistent that one could be an Englishman and not understand the
+language of a native of India. After the interview the twelve red-jackets
+that appear to constitute the Governor's bodyguard are detailed to
+conduct me to a walled garden--outside the city. Before departing,
+however, I give the strange assembly of Afghan warriors an exhibition of
+riding around the compound. The guard, under the leadership of the
+officer with the bull-dog phiz, fix bayonets and form into a file on
+either side of me as I trundle back through the same street traversed
+upon my arrival. Accompanying us is a man on a gray horse whom everybody
+addresses respectfully as "Kiftan Sahib" (Captain), and another
+individual afoot in a bottle-green roundabout, a broad leathern belt, a
+striped turban, white baggy pantalettes, and pointed red shoes. Kiftan
+Sahib looks more like an English game-keeper than an Afghan captain; he
+wears a soiled Derby hat, a brown cut-away coat, striped pantaloons, and
+Northampton-made shoes without socks; his arms are a cavalry sabre and a
+revolver.
+
+Outside the gate, at the suggestion of the young man in the bottle-green
+roundabout, I mount and ride, wheeling slowly along between the little
+files of soldiers. The soldiers are delighted at the novelty of their
+duty, and they swing briskly along as I pedal a little faster. They smile
+at the exertion necessary to keep up, and falling in with their spirit of
+amusement, I gradually increase my speed, and finally shoot ahead of them
+entirely. Kiftan Sahib comes galloping after me on the gray, and with
+good-humored anxiety motions for me to stop and let the soldiers catch
+up. He it is upon whom the commander-in-chief has saddled the
+responsibility for my safe-keeping, and this little display of levity and
+my ability to so easily out-distance the soldiers, awakens in him the
+spirit of apprehension at once. One can see that he breathes easier as
+soon as we are safely inside the garden gate.
+
+A couple of little whitewashed bungalows are the only buildings in the
+garden, and one of these is assigned to me for my quarters. Kiftan Sahib
+and the young man in the bottle-green roundabout give orders about the
+preparation of refreshments, and then squat themselves down near me to
+gladden their eyes with a prolonged examination of my face. The
+red-jackets separate into three reliefs of four each; one relief
+immediately commences pacing back and forth along the four sides of the
+bungalow, one soldier on each side, while the remainder seek the shade of
+a pomegranate grove that occupies one side of the garden. By-and-by
+servitors appear bearing trays of sweetmeats and more substantial fare.
+The variety and abundance of eatables comprising the meal, are such as to
+thoroughly delight the heart of a person who has grown thin and gaunt and
+wolfish from semi-starvation and prolonged physical exertion. The two
+long skewers of smoking kabobs and the fried eggs are most excellent
+eating, the pillau is delicious, and among other luxuries is a sort of
+pomegranate jam, some very good butter (called muscal), a big bowl of
+sherbet, and dishes of nuts, sweetmeats, and salted melon seeds. After
+dinner the young man in bottle-green, who seems anxious to cultivate my
+good opinion, smiles significantly at me and takes his departure; he
+turns up again in a few minutes bearing triumphantly an old Phillips'
+Atlas, which he deferentially places at my feet. Opening it, I find that
+the chief countries and cities of the world are indicated in written
+Hindostani characters. In this manner some English officer has probably
+been the undesigning medium of giving these Afghans a peep into the
+configuration of the earth they live on, and their first lesson in
+geography.
+
+I reward the young man by asking him whether he too is a "kiftan." He
+acknowledges the compliment by a broad grin and two salaams made in rapid
+succession.
+
+After noon a messenger arrives from Mahmoud Yusuph Khan bringing salaams
+and a pair of stout English walking-boots to replace my old worn-out
+geivehs; and a cake of toilet soap, also of English make. Both shoes and
+soap, as may be easily imagined, are highly acceptable articles. The
+advent of the former likewise answers the purpose of enlightening me a
+trifle in regard to matters philological; the Afghans call their
+foot-gear "boots" (the Chinese call their foot-wear "shoes," and their
+gloves "tung-shoes," or hand-shoes).
+
+About four o'clock I am visited by a fatherly old khan in a sky-blue
+gown, and an interesting Cabooli cavalry colonel, with pieces of chain
+mail distributed about his uniform, and a fierce-looking moustache that
+stands straight out from his upper lip. Sweetmeats enough to start a
+small candy shop have been sent me during the afternoon, and setting them
+out before my guests, we are soon on the most familiar terms. The colonel
+shows me his weapons in return for a squint down the shining rifled
+barrel of my Smith & Wesson, and he explains the merits and demerits of
+both his own firearms and mine. The 38-calibre S. & W. he thinks a
+perfect weapon in its way, but altogether too small for Afghanistan. With
+expressive pantomime he explains that, while my 38 bullet would kill a
+person as well as a larger one, it requires a heavier missile to crash
+into a man who is making for you with a knife or sword, and stop him. His
+favorite weapon for close quarters is a murderous-looking piece, half
+blunderbuss, half pistol, that he carries thrust in his kammerbund, so
+that the muzzle points behind him. This weapon has a small single-hand
+musket stock, and the bell-mouthed barrel is filled nearly to the muzzle
+with powder and round bullets the size of buckshot. This formidable
+firearm is for hand-to-hand fighting on horseback, and at ten paces might
+easily be warranted to blow a man's head into smithereens.
+
+The colonel is an amiable old warrior, and kindly points this interesting
+weapon at my head for me to peer down the barrel and satisfy myself that
+it is really loaded almost to the top! Like Injun-slaying youngsters in
+America, the doughty Afghan warriors seem to delight in having their
+weapons loaded, their sidearms sharp, and their bayonets fixed, and seem
+anxious to impress the beholder with the fact that they are real
+warriors, and not mere make-believe soldiers. The colonel wears a
+dark-brown uniform profusely trimmed with braid, a Kashgarian military
+hat, and English army shoes. In matters pertaining to his wardrobe it is
+very evident that he has profited to no small extent by Afghanistan being
+adjacent territory to British India; but his semi-civilized ambition has
+not yet soared into the aesthetic realm of socks; doubtless he considers
+Northampton-made shoes sufficiently luxurious without the addition of
+socks.
+
+The mission of these two officers is apparently to prepare me gradually
+for the intelligence that I am to be taken back to Herat. So skillfully
+and diplomatically does the old khan in the cerulean gown acquit himself
+of this mission, that I thoroughly understand what is to be my
+disposition, although Herat is never mentioned. He talks volubly about
+the Ameer, the Wali, the Padishah, the dowleh, Cabool, Allah, and a host
+of other subjects, out of which I readily evolve my fate; but, as yet, he
+breathes nothing but diplomatic hints, and these are clothed in the most
+pleasant and reassuring smiles, and given in tones of paternal
+solicitude. The colonel sits and listens intently, and now and then
+chimes in with a word of soothing assent by way of emphasizing the
+subject, when the khan is explaining about the Ameer, or Allah, or
+kismet. Mahmoud Tusuph Khan himself comes to the garden in the cool of
+the evening, and for half an hour occupies bungalow No. 2. He betrays a
+spark of Oriental vanity by having an attendant follow behind, bearing a
+huge and wonderful sun-shade, into the make-up of which peacock feathers
+and other gorgeous material largely enters. Noticing this, I make a
+determined assault upon his bump of Asiatic self-esteem, by asking him if
+he is brother to the Ameer. He smiles and says he is a brother of Shere
+Ali, the ex-Ameer deposed in favor of Abdur Bahman. His remarks during
+our second interview are largely composed of furtive queries, intended to
+penetrate what he evidently, even as yet, suspects to be the secret
+object of my mysterious appearance in the heart of the country. The
+Afghan official is nothing if not suspicious, and although he professed
+his own conviction, in the morning, of my being an English "nokshi," his
+constitutionally suspicious nature forbids him accepting this impression
+as final.
+
+During this interview two more natives of India are produced and ordered
+to assail my long-suffering ears with the battery of their vernacular.
+They are an interesting pair, and they evince the liveliest imaginable
+interest in finding a Sahib alone in the hands of the Afghans. They are
+vivacious and intelligent, and try hard to make themselves understood.
+From their own vocal and pantomimic efforts and the Persian of the
+Afghans, I learn that they are sepoys in charge of three prisoners from
+the Boundary Commission camp, whom they are taking through to Quetta.
+
+They seem very anxious to do something in my behalf, and want Mahmoud
+Yusuph Khan to let them take me with them to Quetta. I lose no time in
+signifying my approval of this suggestion; but the Governor shakes his
+head and orders them away, as though fearful even to have such a
+proposition entertained. All the time the sepoys are endeavoring to make
+themselves understood, every Afghan present regards my face with the
+keenest scrutiny; so glaringly evident are their suspicions that the
+situation becomes too much for my gravity. The sepoys grin broadly in
+response, whereupon the pugilistic-faced captain of the Governor's guard
+remonstrates with them for their levity, by roughly making them stand in
+a more respectful attitude. I dislike very much to see them ordered off,
+for they are evidently anxious to champion my cause; moreover, it would
+have been interesting to have accompanied them through to Quetta.
+Understanding thoroughly by this time that I am not to be allowed to go
+through by way of Giriskh and Kandahar, and dreading the probability of
+being taken back into Persia, I ask permission to travel south to Jowain
+and the frontier of Beloochistan. The Afghan-Beloochi boundary is not
+more than fifty or sixty miles south of Furrah, and while it would be
+difficult to say what advantage would be gained by reaching there, it
+would at all events be some consolation to find myself at liberty.
+
+The interview ends, however, without much additional light being shed on
+their intentions; but the advent of more sweetmeats shortly after the
+Governor's departure, and the unexpected luxury of a bottle of Shiraz
+wine, heightens the conviction that my own wishes in the matter are to be
+politely ignored. The red-jackets patrol my bungalow till dark, when they
+are relieved by soldiers in dark-blue kilts, loose Turkish pantalettes,
+and big turbans. I sit on the threshold during the evening, watching
+their soldierly bearing with much interest; on their part they comport
+themselves as though proudly conscious of making a good impression. I
+judge they have been especially ordered to acquit themselves well in my
+presence, and so impress me, whether I am English or Russian, with a
+sense of their military proficiency. All about the garden red-coated
+guards are seen prostrating themselves toward Mecca in the prosecution of
+their evening devotions. Full of reflections on the exciting events of
+the day and the strange turn affairs have taken, I stretch myself on a
+Turkoman rug and doze off to sleep. The last sound heard ere reaching the
+realms of unconsciousness is the steady tramp of the sentinels pacing to
+and fro. Scarcely have I fallen asleep--so at least it seems to me
+--when I am awakened by my four guards singing out, one after
+another, "Kujawpuk! Ki-i-puk!!" This appears to be their answer to the
+challenge of the officer going his rounds, and they shout it out in tones
+clear and distinct, in succession. This programme is repeated several
+times during the night, and, notwithstanding the sleep-inducing fatigues
+of the last few days, my slumbers are light enough to hear the reliefs of
+the guard and their strange cry of "Kujawpuk, ki-i-puk" every time it is
+repeated.
+
+As the sun peeps over the wall of the garden my red-jackets reappear at
+their post; roses are stuck in their caps' and their buttonholes, and
+fastened to their guns. A big bouquet of the same fragrant "guls" is
+presented to me, and a dozen gholams are busy gathering all that are
+abloom in the garden. These are probably gathered every morning in the
+rose season, and used for making rose-water by the officers' wives.
+During the forenoon the blue-gowned old khan and his major-domo, the
+mail-clad colonel, again present themselves at my bungalow. They are
+gracious and friendly to a painful degree, and sugar would scarcely melt
+in the mouth of the paternal old khan as he delivers the "Wall's salaams
+to the Sahib." Tea and sweetmeats are handed around, and Kiftan Sahib and
+Bottle Green join our company.
+
+Nothing but the formal salaams has yet been said; but intuition is a
+faithful forerunner, and ere another word is spoken, I know well enough
+that the khan and the colonel have been sent to break the disagreeable
+news that I am to be taken to Herat, and that Kiftan Sahib and Bottle
+Green have dropped in out of curiosity to see how I take it.
+
+The kindly old khan finds his task of awakening the spirit of
+disappointment anything but congenial, and he seems very loath to deliver
+the message. When he finally unburdens himself, it is with averted eyes
+and roundabout language. He commences by a rambling disquisition on the
+dangers of the road to Kandahar, apologizing profusely for the Ameer's
+inability to guarantee the good behavior of the wandering tribes, and the
+consequent necessity of forbidding travellers to enter the country.
+
+He dwells piously and at considerable length upon our obligations to
+submit to the will of Allah, not forgetting a liberal use of the Oriental
+fatalist's favorite expression: "kismet." For the sake of argument,
+rather than with any hope of influencing things in my favor, I reply:"
+All right, I don't ask the Ameer's protection; I will go to Kandahar and
+Quetta alone, on my own responsibility; then if I get murdered by the
+Ghilzais, nobody but myself will be to blame." "The Wali has his orders
+from the Padishah, the Ameer Abdur Eahman Khan, that no Ferenghi is to
+come in the country." "Tell the Wali that Afghanistan is Allah's country
+first and Abdur Eahman's country second. Inshallah, Allah gives everybody
+the road." The old khan is evidently at a loss how to meet so logical an
+argument, and the colonel, Kiftan Sahib, and Bottle Green are deeply
+impressed at what they consider my unanswerable wisdom. They look at one
+another and shake their heads and smile.
+
+The chief concern of the khan is apparently to convince me that it is
+only out of consideration for my own safety that I am forbidden to go
+through, and, after a brief consultation with the others, he again
+addresses his flowery eloquence to me. He comes and squats beside me,
+and, with much soothing patting of my shoulder, he says: "The Wali is
+only taking you to Herat to obtain Ridgeway Sahib's and Faramorz Khan's
+permission for you to go through. Inshallah, after you have seen Herat,
+if it is the will of Allah, and your kismet to go to Kandahar, the Ameer
+will let you go." To this comforting assurance I deem it but justice to
+the well-meaning old chieftain to signify my submission to the
+inevitable. Before departing, he requests the humble present of a
+pencil-sketch of the bicycle as a souvenir of my visit to Furrah. During
+the day I get on quite intimate terms with my guard, and among other
+things compete with them in the feat of holding a musket out at arm's
+length, gripping the extreme end of the barrel. Tall, strapping fellows
+some of them are, but they are not muscular in comparison; out of a round
+dozen competitors I am the only one capable of fairly accomplishing this
+feat.
+
+Many of the soldiers carry young pheasants about with them in cages, and
+seem to derive a good deal of pleasure in feeding them and attending to
+their wants. The cages are merely pieces of white muslin, or
+mosquito-netting, about the size of a pocket-handkerchief, enclosing a
+four-inch disk of wood for the inmate to stand on. The crape is gathered
+and loosely tied at the corners. It is carried as one would carry
+anything suspended in a handkerchief, and is hung on the limb of a tree
+in the same manner.
+
+Late in the afternoon of the second clay my scarlet guard marshal
+themselves in front of the bungalow, and Kiftan Sahib and Bottle Green
+bid me prepare for departure to Herat. The old khan and the colonel, and
+several other horsemen, appear at the gate; the soldiers form themselves
+into two files, and between them I trundle from my circumscribed
+quarters. The rude ferry-boat is awaiting our coming, and in a few
+minutes the khan and the colonel bid me quite an affectionate farewell on
+the river-bank, gazing eagerly into my face as though regretful at the
+necessity of parting so soon. My escort favor me with the, same lingering
+gaze. These people are evidently fascinated by the strange and mysterious
+manner of my coming among them; who am I, what am I, and wherefore my
+marvellous manner of travelling, are questions that appeal strongly to
+their Asiatic imagination, and they are intensely loath to see me
+disappear again without having seen more of me and my wonderful iron
+horse, and learned more about it.
+
+Several horsemen have already crossed and are awaiting us on the opposite
+shore. Kiftan Sahib and another officer with a henna-tinted beard are in
+charge of the party taking me back. Besides myself and these two, the
+party consists of eleven horsemen; with sundry modifications, their
+general appearance, arms, and dress resemble the make-up of a Persian
+sowar rather than the regular Afghan soldier. The sun is just setting
+behind those western mountains I passed three days ago as we reach the
+western shore, the boatmen are unloading the saddles and accoutrements of
+our party, and I sit down on the bank and survey the strange scene just
+across the river. The steep bluff opposite is occupied by people who
+accompanied us to the river. Many of them are seizing this opportune
+moment to prostrate themselves toward the Holy City, the geographical
+position of which is happily indicated by the setting sun.
+
+Prominent among the worshippers are seen side by side the cerulean figure
+of the khan, and the colonel in all the bravery of his military
+trappings, his chain armor glistening brightly in the waning sunlight. A
+little removed from the crowd, the twelve red-coats are ranged in a row,
+performing the same pious ceremony; as their bared heads bob up and down
+one after another, the scarlet figures outlined in a row against the
+eastern sky are strangely suggestive of a small flock of flamingoes
+engaged in fishing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+UNDER ESCORT TO HERAT.
+
+Our party camps near a village not far from the river, but it takes us
+till after dark to reach the place, owing to ditches and overflow. A few
+miles of winding trails and intricate paths through the reedy
+river-bottom next morning, and we emerge upon a flinty upland plain. At
+first a horseman is required to ride immediately ahead of the bicycle, my
+untutored escort being evidently suspicious lest I might suddenly forge
+ahead, and with the swiftness of a bird disappear from their midst.
+
+As this leader, in his ignorance, occasionally stops right in the narrow
+path, and considers himself in duty bound to limit my speed to that of
+the walking horses, this arrangement quickly becomes very monotonous.
+Appealing to Kiftan Sahib, I point out the annoyance of having a horse
+just in front, and promise not to go too far ahead. He points appealingly
+to a little leathern pouch attached to his belt. The pouch contains a
+letter to the Governor of Herat, and he it is whom Mahmoud Yusuph Khan
+expects to take back a receipt. The chief responsibility for my safe
+delivery rests upon his shoulders, and he is disposed to be abnormally
+apprehensive and suspicious.
+
+Reassuring him of my sincerity, he permits the horseman to follow along
+behind. When the condition of the road admits of my pushing ahead a
+little, this sowar canters along immediately behind, while the remainder
+of the party follow more leisurely.
+
+One of the party carries a skin of water, and as the morning grows
+fearfully hot, frequent halts are made to wait for him and get a drink,
+otherwise we two are usually some distance ahead. These water-vessels are
+merely goat-skins, taken off with as little mutilation of the hide as
+possible; one of the legs serves as a faucet, and the tying or untying of
+a piece of string opens or closes the "tap." It is the handiest
+imaginable contrivance for carrying liquids on horseback, the tough,
+pliant goat-skin resisting any amount of hard usage and accommodating
+itself readily to the contour of the pack-saddle, or itself forming a
+soft enough seat to the rider.
+
+Near noon we reach the ruins of Suleimanabad, entirely deserted save by
+hideous gray lizards a foot long, numbers of which scuttle off into their
+hiding places at our approach. In the distance ahead are visible the
+black tents of a nomad camp. The glowing, reflected heat of the stony
+desert produces an unquenchable thirst, and the generous bowls of cool,
+acidulous doke obtained in the tents are quaffed most eagerly by the
+entire party.
+
+The solicitude of Kiftaii Sahib as displayed on my behalf is quite
+amusing, not to say affecting; while the others are attending to their
+horses he squats down before me underneath the little goat-hair tent and
+gazes at me with an attention so close that one might imagine him afraid
+lest I should mysteriously change into some impalpable spirit and float
+away.
+
+The nomads themselves appear to be amiably disposed, intent chiefly on
+supplying our wants and fulfilling the traditions of tented hospitality.
+They look wild enough, but, withal, pleasant and intelligent. Kiftan
+Sahib, however, watches every movement of the stalwart nomads with keen
+interest; and small power of penetration is required to see that
+apprehension, if not positive suspicion, enters very largely into his
+thoughts concerning them and myself.
+
+A howling wind and dust-storm comes careering across the plain, creating
+a wild scene, and black cloud-banks gather and pile up ominously in the
+west. The threatened rain-storm, however, passes off with a pyrotechnic
+display of great brilliancy, and the evening air lowers to a refreshing
+temperature as we stretch ourselves out on nummuds, fifty yards away from
+the tents. Kiftan Sahib spreads his own couch on the right side of mine
+and the red-whiskered chief of the sowars occupies the left.
+
+Waking up during the night, I am somewhat taken by surprise at finding
+one of my escort standing guard over me with fixed bayonet. This
+extraordinary precaution appears to me at the time as being altogether
+superfluous; while recognizing these nomads as lawless and fanatical, I
+should nevertheless have no hesitation in venturing alone among them.
+
+The morning star is just soaring above the eastern horizon, and the
+feeble rays of Luna's half-averted face are imparting a ghostly glimmer
+of light, when I am awakened from a sound sleep. The horses have all been
+saddled and packed, and everybody is ready to start. Daylight comes on
+apace and, finding the trail hard and reasonably smooth, I am happily
+able to "sowari," and not only able to ride but to forge right ahead of
+the party. The country is level and open, and uninhabited, so that Kiftan
+Sahib is far less apprehensive than he was yesterday.
+
+I am perhaps a couple of miles ahead when I come to a splendid, large,
+irrigating canal, evidently conveying water from the Harood down across
+the desert to the low cultivable lands near the Furrah Rood. The water is
+three feet deep, and I revel in the luxury of a cooling and refreshing
+bath until overtaken by the escort.
+
+The plain, heretofore hard, now changes into loose sand and gravel, and
+the trail becomes quite obliterated. In addition to these undesirable
+changes, the wind commences blowing furiously from the north, making it
+absolutely impossible to ride. Rounding the base of an abutting mountain,
+we emerge upon the grassy lowlands of the Harood in the vicinity of
+Subzowar. Subzowar is a sort of way-station between Furrah and Herat, the
+only inhabited place, except tents, on the whole journey. It is on the
+west side of the Harood and the broad, swift stream is full to
+overflowing, a turgid torrent rushing along at a dangerous pace.
+
+After much shouting and firing of guns, a score of villagers appear on
+the opposite bank, and several of them come wading and swimming across.
+They seem veritable amphibians, capable of stemming the tide that
+well-nigh sweeps strong horses off their feet. The river is fordable by
+following a zigzag course well known to the local watermen. One of them
+carries the bicycle safely across on his head, and others lead the
+sowars' horses by the bridle.
+
+When all the Afghans but Kiftan Sahib have been assisted over, the
+strongest horse of the party is brought back for my own passage. A dozen
+natives are made to form a close cordon about me to rescue me in case of
+misadventure, while one leads the horse by his bridle and another
+steadies him by holding on to his tail. Kiftan Sahib himself brings up
+the rear, and, as the rushing waters deepen around us, he abjures me to
+keep a steady seat and, in a voice that almost degenerates into an
+apprehensive whine, he mutters: "The receipt, Sahib, the receipt."
+
+A ripple of excitement occurs in the middle of the river by one the men
+being swept off his feet and carried down stream; and, although he swims
+like a duck, the treacherous undercurrent sucks him under several times.
+It looks as though he would be drowned; a number of his comrades race
+down the bank and plunge in to swim to his rescue, but he finally secures
+footing on a submerged sand-bank, and after resting a few minutes swims
+ashore.
+
+The remainder of the day, and the night, are passed in tents near
+Subzowar, it being very evidently against Afghan social etiquette for
+strangers to take shelter within the confines of the village itself.
+
+Whether from their knowledge of the unsuitableness of the country ahead,
+or from a new spasm of apprehension concerning their responsibility, does
+not appear; but in the morning Kiftan Sahib and the chief of the sowars
+insist upon me mounting a horse and handing the bicycle over to the
+tender mercies of the person in charge of the nummud pack-horse. They
+point in the direction of Herat, and deliver themselves of a marvellous
+quantity of deprecatory pantomime. My own impression is that, having
+recrossed the Harood, the only great obstacle in the path of a wheelman
+between Furrah and Herat, their abnormally suspicious minds imagine that
+there is now nothing to prevent me taking wings and outdistancing them to
+the latter place.
+
+Finding them determined, and, moreover, nothing loath to try a horse for
+a change, on the back-stretch, I take the wheel apart and distribute
+fork, backbone, and large wheel among the sowars. The only fit place for
+the latter is on the top of the nummuds and blankets on the spare
+pack-horse, and, before starting, I see to fastening it securely on top
+of the load. This pack-horse is a powerful black stallion that puts in a
+good share of his time trying to attack the other horses. Owing to this
+uncontrollable pugnacity, he is habitually led along at some considerable
+distance from the party, generally to the rear.
+
+The person in charge of him is a young negro as black, and
+proportionately powerful, as himself. Wild and ferocious as is the
+stallion, he is a civilized and mild-mannered animal compared with his
+manager. In the matter of facial expression and intellectual development
+this uncivilized descendant of Ham is first cousin to a wild gorilla, and
+it is not without certain misgivings that I leave the web-like
+bicycle-wheel in his charge. He has been a very interesting study of
+uncivilization all along, and his bump of destructiveness is as large as
+an orange. The military Afghans, one and all, impress me as being
+especially created to destroy the fruits of other people's industry and
+thrift, whether it be in wearing out clothes and shoes made in England,
+or devouring the substance of the peaceful villagers of their own
+territory; and this untamed darkey fairly bristles with the evidence of
+his capacity as a destroyer.
+
+Everything about him is in a dilapidated condition; the leathern scabbard
+of his sword is split half way up, revealing a badly notched and rusted
+blade. An orang-outang, fresh from the jungles of Sumatra, could scarcely
+display less intelligence concerning human handicraft than he; he bubbles
+over with laughter at seeing anything upset or broken, growls sullenly at
+receiving uncongenial orders, calls on Allah, and roars threateningly at
+the stallion, all in the same breath. No wonder I ride ahead, feeling
+somewhat apprehensive; and yet the wheel looks snug and safe enough on
+top of the big pile of soft nummuds.
+
+The day's march is long and dreary, through a country of desert wastes
+and stony hills. The only human habitation seen is a small cluster of
+tents near some wells of water. The people seem overjoyed at the sight of
+travellers, and come running to the road with their kammerbunds full of
+little hard balls of sun-dried mast. We fill our pockets with these and
+nibble and chew them as we ride along. They are pleasantly sour,
+containing great thirst-quemhing properties, as well as being very
+nourishing.
+
+The sun goes down and dusk settles over our trail, and still the chief of
+the sowars and Kiftan Sahib lead the way. Many of the horses are pretty
+badly fagged, they have had nothing to eat all day and next to nothing to
+drink, and the party are straggling along the trail for a couple of miles
+back. At length lights are observed twinkling in the darkness ahead. Half
+an hour later we dismount in a nomad camp, and one after another the
+remainder of the party come straggling in, some of them leading their
+horses. Both men and animals are well-nigh overcome with fatigue.
+
+The shrill neighing of the ferocious and spirited black stallion is heard
+as he approaches and realizes that he is coming into camp; he is a
+glorious specimen of a horse, neither hunger nor thirst can curb his
+spirit. He is carrying far the heaviest load of the party, yet he comes
+into camp at ten o'clock, after hustling along over stones and sand since
+before daylight, without food or water; neighing loudly and ready to
+fight all the horses within reach. The chief of the sowars goes out to
+superintend the unloading of the black stallion; and soon I hear him
+addressing the negro in angry tones, supplementing his reproachful words
+with several resounding blows of his riding-whip. The wild darkey's
+disapproval of these proceedings finds expression in a roar of pain and
+fear that would do justice to a yearling bull being dragged into the
+shambles.
+
+The cause of this turmoil shortly turns up in the shape of my wheel, with
+no less than eleven spokes broken, and the rim considerably twisted out
+of shape. Kiftan Sahib surveys 'the damaged wheel a moment, draws his own
+rawhide from his kammerbund, and rises to his feet. With a hoarse cry of
+alarm the negro vanishes into the surrounding gloom; the next moment is
+heard his eager chuckling laugh, the spontaneous result of his lucky
+escape from Kiftan Sahib's vengeful rawhide. Kiftan Sahib keeps a
+desultory lookout for him all the evening, but the wary negro is more
+eagerly watchful than he, and during supper-time he hovers perpetually
+about the encircling wall of darkness, ready to vanish into its
+impenetrable depths at the first aggressive demonstration.
+
+The explanation of the negro is that the black horse laid down with his
+load. The wheel presents a well-nigh ruined appearance, and I retire to
+my couch in a most unenviable frame of mind; lying awake for hours,
+pondering over the probability of being able to fix it up again at Herat.
+
+One of our party of stragglers has failed to come in, and a couple of
+nomads start out about 2 a.m. to try and find him; but neither absentee
+nor searchers turn up at daybreak, and so we pull out without him.
+
+The wind blows raw and chilly from the north as we depart at early dawn,
+and the men muffle themselves up in whatever wraps they happen to have.
+Unwilling to trust the wheel further in the charge of the negro, I carry
+it myself, resting it on one stirrup, and securing it with a rope over my
+shoulder. It is a most awkward thing to carry on horseback; but, unhandy
+though it be, I regret not having so carried it the whole way from
+Subzowar.
+
+Our route leads through a dreary country, much the same character as
+yesterday, but we pass a pool of very good water about mid-day, and meet
+three men driving laden pack-horses from Herat. They are halted and
+questioned at great length concerning the contents of their packages,
+whither they are bound and whence they come; and their firearms are
+examined and commented upon. The members of our party appear to address
+them with a very domineering spirit, as though wantonly revelling in the
+sense of their own numerical superiority. On the other hand, the three
+honest travellers comport themselves with what looks like an altogether
+unnecessary amount of humility during the interview, and they seem very
+thankful and relieved when permitted to take their departure. The
+significance of all this, I imagine, is that my escort were sorely
+tempted to overhaul the effects of the weaker party, and see if they had
+any toothsome eatables from the bazaars of Herat; and the latter, justly
+apprehensive of these designs on their late purchases, consider
+themselves fortunate in escaping without being ruthlessly looted.
+
+Toward evening we pass a comparatively new cemetery on a knoll; no signs
+of human habitation are about, and Kiftan Sahib, in response to my
+inquiries, explains that it is the graveyard of a battle-field.
+
+Several times during the afternoon we lose the trail; we seem to be going
+across an almost trailless country, and more than once have to call a
+halt while men are sent to the summit of some neighboring hill to survey
+the surrounding country for landmarks.
+
+At dark we pitch our camp in a grassy hollow, where the horses are made
+happy with heaps of pulled bottom-grass. Neither trees nor houses are
+anywhere in sight; but the chief of the sowars and another man ride away
+over the hills, and late at night return with two men carrying bread and
+mast and fresh goat-milk enough to feed the whole hungry party.
+
+We make a leisurely start next morning, the reason of the dalliance being
+that we are but a few farsakhs from Herat. The country develops into
+undulating, grassy upland prairie, the greensward being thickly spangled
+with yellow flowers. A two flours' ride brings us to a camp of probably
+not less than one hundred tents. Large herds of camels are peacefully
+browsing over the prairie, numbers of them being females rejoicing in the
+possession of woolly youngsters, whose uncouth but tender proportions are
+swathed in old quilts and nummuds to protect them from the fierce rays of
+the sun.
+
+Sheep are being sheared and goats milked by men and boys; some of the
+women are baking bread, some are jerking skin churns, suspended on
+tripods, vigorously back and forth, and others are preparing balls of
+mast for drying in the sun. The whole camp presents a scene of
+picturesque animation.
+
+From the busy nomad camp, the trail seems to make a gradual ascent until,
+on the morning of April 30th, we arrive at the bluff-like termination of
+a rolling upland country, and behold! spread out below is the famous
+valley of Herat. Like a panorama suddenly opened up before me is the
+charmed stretch of country that has time and again created such a stir in
+the political and military circles of England and Russia, the famous
+"gate to India" about which the two greatest empires of the world have
+sometimes almost come to blows. Several populous villages are scattered
+about the valley within easy range of human vision; the Heri Rood, now
+bursting its natural boundaries under the stimulus of the spring floods,
+glistens broadly at intervals like a chain of small lakes. The fortress
+of Herat is dimly discernible in the distance beyond the river, probably
+about twenty miles from our position; it is rendered distinguishable from
+other masses of mud-brown habitations by a cluster of tall minarets,
+reminding one of a group of factory chimneys. The whole scene, as viewed
+from the commanding view of our ridge, embraces perhaps four hundred
+square miles of territory; about one-tenth of this appears to be under
+cultivation, the remainder being of the same stony, desert-like character
+as the average camel-thorn dasht.
+
+Doubtless a good share of this latter might be reclaimed and rendered
+productive by an extensive system of irrigating canals, but at present no
+incentive exists for enterprise of this character. In its present state
+of cultivation the valley provides an abundance of food for the
+consumption of its inhabitants, and as yet the demand for exportation is
+limited to the simple requirements of a few thousand tributary nomads.
+The orchards and green areas about the villages render the whole scene,
+as usual, beautiful in comparison with the surrounding barrenness, but
+that is all. Compared with our own green hills and smiling valleys, the
+Valley of Herat would scarcely seem worth all the noise that has been
+made about it. There has been a great amount of sentiment wasted in
+eulogizing its alleged beauty. Of its wealth and commercial importance in
+the abstract, I should say much exaggeration has been indulged in. Still,
+there is no gainsaying that it is a most valuable strategical position,
+which, if held by either England or Russia, would exercise great
+influence on Central Asian and Indian affairs. Such are my first
+impressions of the Herat Valley, and a sojourn of some ten days in one of
+its villages leaves my conjectures about the same.
+
+A few miles along a stony and gradually descending trail, and we are
+making our way across the usual chequered area of desert, patches,
+abandoned fields, and old irrigating ditches that so often tell the tale
+of decay and retrogression in the East. These outlying evidences of
+decay, however, soon merge into green fields of wheat and barley, poppy
+gardens, and orchards, and flowing ditches; and two hours after obtaining
+the first view of Herat finds us camped in a walled apricot garden in the
+important village of Rosebagh (?).
+
+Overtopping our camping ground are a pair of dilapidated brick minarets,
+attached to what Kiftan Sahib calls the Jami Mesjid, and which he
+furthermore volunteers was erected by Ghengis Khan. The minarets are of
+circular form, and one is broken off fifteen feet shorter than its
+neighbor. In the days of their glory they were mosaicked with blue, green
+and yellow glazed tiles; but nothing now remains but a few
+mournful-looking patches of blue, surviving the ravages of time and
+decay. Pigeons have from time to time deposited grains of barley on the
+dome, and finding sustenance from the gathered dirt and the falling
+rains, they have sprouted and grown, and dotted the grand old mosque with
+patches of green vegetation.
+
+One corner of the orchard is occupied by a stable, to the flat roof of
+which I betake myself shortly after our arrival to try and ascertain my
+bearings, and see something of the village. High walls rise up between
+the roofs of the houses and divide one garden from another, so that
+precious little opportunity exists for observation immediately around,
+and from here not even the tall minarets of Herat are visible.
+
+The adjacent houses are mostly bee-hive roofed, and within the little
+gardens attached the soil is evidently rich and productive. Pomegranate,
+almond, and apricot trees abound, and produce a charming contrast to the
+prevailing crenellated mud walls. A very conspicuous feature of the
+village is a cluster of some half-dozen venerable cedars.
+
+The stable roof provides sleeping accommodation for the chief of the
+sowars, Kiftan Sahib, and myself, the remainder of the party curl
+themselves up beneath the apricot-trees below. During the night one of
+the sowars, an old fellow whose morose and sulky disposition has had the
+effect of rendering him socially objectionable to his comrades on the
+march from Furrah, comes scrambling on the roof, and in loud tones of
+complaint addresses himself to Kiftan Sahib's peacefully snoozing
+proportions. His midnight eruption consists of some grievance against his
+fellows; perhaps some such wanton act of injustice as appropriating his
+blanket or stealing his "timbakoo" (tobacco).
+
+The only satisfaction he obtains from his superior takes the form of
+angry upbraidings for daring to disturb our slumbers; and, continuing his
+complaints, Kiftan. Sahib springs up from beneath his red blanket and
+administers several resounding cuffs.
+
+Having meted our this summary interpretation of Afghan petty justice,
+Kiftan Sahib resumes his blanket, and the old sowar comes and squats
+alongside my own rude couch, and endeavors to heal his wounded spirit by
+muttering appeals to Allah. His savage groanings render it impossible for
+me to go to sleep, and several times I motion him away; but he affects
+not to take any notice.
+
+Determined to drive him away, I rise up hastily as though about to attack
+him,--a piece of strategy that causes him to scramble off the roof
+far quicker than he climbed on. His fit of rage lasts through the night,
+finding vent in mutterings that are heard long after his hurried
+departure from my vicinity, and in the morning he is seen perched in a
+corner of the wall by himself, still angry and unappeased.
+
+The rising sun ushers in May-day with unmistakable indications of his
+growing powers, and when he glares fiercely over the walls of our little
+orchard retreat, we find it profitable to crouch in the shade. It is
+already evident that I am not to be permitted to enter Herat proper, or
+see or learn any more of my surroundings than my keepers can help.
+
+Letters are forwarded to the city immediately upon our arrival, and on
+the following morning an officer and several soldiers make their
+appearance, to receive me from Kiftan Sahib and duly receipt for my
+transfer. The officer announces himself as having once been to Bombay,
+and proceeds to question me in a mixture of Persian and Hindostani.
+
+Finding me ignorant of the latter language, he openly accuses me of being
+a Russian, raising his finger and wagging his head in a deprecatory
+manner. He is a simple-minded individual, however, and open to easy
+conviction, and moreover inclined to be amiable and courteous. He tells
+me that Faramorz Khan is "Wall of the soldiers" and Niab Alookimah Khan
+the "dowleh" (civil governor), and after listening to my explanation of
+being English and not Russian, he takes upon himself to deliver salaams
+from them both.
+
+"Merg Sahib," the political agent of the Boundary Commission, he says is
+at Murghab, and "Ridgeway Sahib" at Maimene. Learning that a courier is
+to be sent at once to them with letters in regard to myself, I quickly
+embrace the opportunity of sending a letter to each by the same
+messenger, explaining the situation, and asking Colonel Ridgeway to try
+and render me some assistance in getting through to India.
+
+By request of the officer I send the governor of Herat a sketch of the
+bicycle, to enlighten him somewhat concerning its character and
+appearance. No doubt, it would be a stretching of his Asiatic dignity as
+the governor of an important city, to come to Rosebagh on purpose to see
+it for himself, and on no circumstances can I, an unauthorized Ferenghi
+invading the country against orders, be permitted to visit Herat.
+
+The transfer having been duly made, I am conducted, a mile or so, to the
+garden of a gentleman named Mohammed Ahziin Khan, my quarters there being
+an open bungalow just large enough to stretch out in. Here is provided
+everything necessary for the rude personal comfort of the country, and
+such additional luxuries as raisins and pomegranates are at once brought.
+Here, also, I very promptly make the acquaintance of Moore's famous
+bul-buls, the "sweet nightingales" of Lalla Eookh. The garden is full of
+fruit-trees and grape-vines, and here several pairs of bul-buls make
+their home. They are great pets with the Afghans, and when Mohammed Ahzim
+Khan calls "bul-bul, bul-bul," they come and alight on the bushes close
+by the bungalow and perk their heads knowingly, evidently expecting to be
+favored with tid-bits. They are almost tame enough to take raisins out of
+the hand, and hesitate not to venture after them when placed close to our
+feet. It is the first time I have had the opportunity of a close
+examination of the bul-bul. They are almost the counterpart of the
+English starling as regards size and shape, but their bodies are of a
+mousey hue; the head and throat are black, with little white patches on
+either "cheek;" the tail feathers are black, tipped with white, and on
+the lower part of the body is a patch of yellow; the feathers of the head
+form a crest that almost rises to the dignity of a tassel.
+
+While the bul-bul is a companionable little fellow and possessed of a
+cheery voice, his warble in no respects resembles the charming singing of
+the nightingale, and why he should be mentioned in connection with the
+sweet midnight songster of the English woodlands is something of a
+mystery. His song is a mere "clickety click" repeated rapidly several
+times. His popularity comes chiefly from his boldness and his
+companionable associations with mankind. The bul-bul is as much of a
+favorite in the Herat Valley as is robin red-breast in rural England, or
+the bobolink in America.
+
+The second day in the garden is remembered as the anniversary of my start
+from Liverpool, and I have plenty of time for retrospection. It is
+unnecessary to say that the year has been crowded with strange
+experiences. Not the least strange of all, perhaps, is my present
+predicament as a prisoner in the Herat Valley.
+
+In the afternoon there arrives from Herat a Peshawari gentleman named
+Mirza Gholam Ahmed, who is stationed here in the capacity of native agent
+for the Indian government. He is an individual possessed of considerable
+Asiatic astuteness, and his particular mission is very plainly to
+discover for the governor of Herat whether I am English or Russian. He is
+a somewhat fleshy, well-favored person, and withal of prepossessing
+manners. He introduces himself by shaking hands and telling me his name,
+and forthwith indulges in a pinch of snuff preparatory to his task of
+interrogation. Accompanying him is the officer who received me from
+Kiftan Sahib in the apricot garden, and whose suspicions of my being a
+Russian spy are anything but allayed.
+
+During the interview he squats down on the threshold of the little
+bungalow, and concentrates his curiosity and suspicion into a protracted
+penetrating stare, focused steadily at my devoted countenance. Mohammed
+Ahzim Khan imitates him to perfection, except that his stare contains
+more curiosity and less suspicion.
+
+Mirza Gholam Ahmed proceeds upon his mission of fathoming the secret of
+my nationality with extreme wariness, as becomes an Oriental official
+engaged in a task of significant import, and at first confines himself to
+the use of Persian and Hindostani. It does not take me long, however, to
+satisfy the trustworthy old Peshawari that I am not a Muscov, and fifteen
+minutes after his preliminary pinch of snuff, he is unbosoming himself to
+me to the extent of letting me know that he served with General Pollock
+on the Seistan Boundary Commission, that he went with General Pollock to
+London, and moreover rejoices in the titular distinction of C. I. E.
+(Companion Indian Empire), bestowed upon him for long and faithful civil
+and political services. The C. I. E. he designates, with a pardonable
+smile of self-approval, as "backsheesh" given him, without solicitation,
+by the government of India; a circumstance that probably appeals to his
+Oriental conception as a most extraordinary feature in his favor.
+Bribery, favoritism, and personal influence enter so largely into the
+preferments and rewards of Oriental governments, that anything obtained
+on purely meritorious grounds may well be valued highly.
+
+He understands English sufficiently well to comprehend the meaning of my
+remarks and queries, and even knows a few words himself. From him I learn
+that I will not be permitted to visit Herat, and that I am to be kept
+under guard until Faramorz Khan's courier returns from the Boundary
+Commission Camp with Colonel Ridgeway's answer. He tells me that the fame
+of the bicycle has long ago been brought to Herat by pilgrims returning
+from Meshed, and the marvellous stories of my accomplishments are current
+in the bazaars. Fourteen farsakhs (fifty-six miles) an hour, and nothing
+said about the condition of the roads, is the average Herati's
+understanding of it; and many a grave, turbaned merchant in the bazaar,
+and wild warrior on the ramparts, indulges in day-dreams of an iron horse
+little less miraculous in its deeds than the winged steed of the air we
+read of in the Arabian Nights.
+
+The direct results of Mirza Gholam Ahmed's visit and favorable report to
+the Governor of Herat, are made manifest on the following day by the
+appearance of his companion of yesterday in charge of two attendants,
+bringing me boxes of sweetmeats, almonds, raisins, and salted nuts,
+together with a package of tea and a fifteen-pound cone of loaf-sugar;
+all backsheesh from the Governor of Herat. Mirza Gholam Ahmed himself
+contributes a cake of toilet soap, a few envelopes and sheets of paper,
+and Huntley & Palmer's Beading biscuits. Upon stumbling upon these latter
+acceptable articles, one naturally falls to wondering whether this
+world-famed firm of biscuit-makers suspect that their wares sometimes
+penetrate even inside the battlemented walls of Herat. With them come
+also three gunsmiths, charged with the duty of assisting in the
+reparation of the bicycle, badly damaged by the horse, it is remembered,
+on the way from Furrah.
+
+Their implements consist of a pair of peculiar goat-skin bellows,
+provided with wooden nozzles tipped with iron. A catgut bowstring drills
+for boring holes, and screw-drills for cutting threads, hammers, and an
+anvil. A rude but ingenious forge is constructed out of a few handfuls of
+stiff mud, and, building a charcoal fire, they spend the evening in
+sharpening and tempering drills for tomorrow's operations.
+
+Everybody seems more attentive and anxious to contribute to my pleasure,
+the result, evidently, of orders from Herat. The officer, who but two
+days ago openly accused me of being a Russian, is to-day obsequious
+beyond measure, and his efforts to atone for Ma openly assured suspicions
+are really quite painful and embarrassing; even going the length of
+begging me to take him with me to London. The supper provided to-day
+consists of more courses and is better cooked and better served; Mohammed
+Ahzim Khan himself squats before me, diligently engaged in picking hairs
+out of the butter, pointing out what he considers the choicest morsels,
+and otherwise betrays great anxiety to do the agreeable.
+
+The whole of the fifth and sixth days are consumed in the task of
+repairing the damages to the bicycle, the result being highly
+satisfactory, considering everything. Six new spokes that I have with me
+have been inserted, and sundry others stretched and the ends newly
+threaded. The gunsmiths are quite expert workmen, considering the tools
+they have to work with, and when they happen to drill a hole a trifle
+crooked, they are full of apologies, and remind me that this is
+Afghanistan and not Frangistan. They know and appreciate good material
+when they see it, and during the process of heating and stretching the
+spokes, loud and profuse are the praises bestowed upon the quality of the
+iron. "Koob awhan," they say, "Khylie koob awhan; Ferenghi awhan koob."
+As artisans, interested in mechanical affairs, the ball-bearings of the
+pedals, one of which I take apart to show them, excites their profound
+admiration as evidence of the marvellous skill of the Ferenghis. Much
+careful work is required to spring the rim of the wheel back into a true
+circle, every spoke having to be loosened and the whole wheel newly
+adjusted. Except for the handy little spoke-vice which I very fortunately
+brought with me, this work of adjustment would have been impossible. As
+there is probably nothing obtainable in Herat that would have answered
+the purpose, no alternative would have been left but to have carried the
+bicycle out of the country on horseback. After the coterie of gunsmiths
+have exhausted their ingenuity and my own resources have been expended,
+three spokes are missing entirely, two others are stretched and weakened,
+and of the six new ones some are forced into holes partially spoiled in
+the unskillful boring out of broken ends. Yet, with all these defects, so
+thoroughly has it stood the severest tests of the roads, that I apprehend
+little or no trouble about breakages.
+
+Day after day passes wearily along; wearily, notwithstanding the kindly
+efforts of my guardians to make things pleasant and comfortable. From an
+Asiatic's standpoint, nothing could be more desirable than my present
+circumstances; with nothing to do but lay around and be waited on,
+generous meals three times daily, sweetmeats to nibble and tea to drink
+the whole livelong day; conscious of requiring rest and generous diet--all
+this, however, is anything but satisfactory in view of the reflection
+that the fine spring weather is rapidly passing away, and that every day
+ought to see me forty or fifty miles nearer the Pacific Coast.
+
+Time hangs heavily in the absence of occupation, and I endeavor to
+relieve the tedium of slowly creeping time by cultivating the friendship
+of our new-found acquaintances, the bul-buls. My bountiful supply of
+raisins provides the elements of a genuine bond of sympathy between us,
+and places us on the most friendly terms imaginable from the beginning.
+During the day my bungalow is infested with swarms of huge robber ants,
+that make a most determined onslaught on the raisins and sweetmeats,
+invading the boxes and lugging them off to their haunts among the
+grape-vines. A favorite occupation of the bul-buls is sitting on a twig
+just outside the bungalow and watching for the appearance of these ants
+dragging away raisins. The bul-bul hops to the ground, seizes the raisin,
+shakes the ant loose, flies back up in his tree, and swallows the
+captured raisin, and immediately perks his head in search of another
+prize.
+
+Among other ideas intended to contribute to my enjoyment, a loud-voiced
+pee-wit imprisoned in a crape cage is brought and hung up outside the
+bungalow. At intervals that seem almost as regular as the striking of a
+clock, this interesting pet stretches itself up at full length and gives
+utterance to a succession of rasping cries, strangely loud for so small a
+creature. A horse is likewise brought into the garden, for the pleasure
+it will presumably afford me to watch it munch bunches of pulled grass,
+and switch horseflies away with his tail. The horse is tied up about
+twenty yards from my quarters, but in his laudable zeal to cater to my
+amusement Mohammed Ahzim Khan volunteers to station it close by if more
+agreeable.
+
+All these trifling occurrences serve to illustrate the Asiatic's idea of
+personal enjoyment.
+
+Every day a subordinate called Abdur Rahman Khan rides into Herat to
+report to the Governor, and Mohammed Ahzim Khan himself keeps watch and
+ward over my person with faithful vigil. Sometimes I wander about the
+little garden for exercise, and either he or one of his assistants
+follows close behind, faithful in their attendance as a shadow.
+Occasionally I grow careless and indifferent about possible danger, and
+leave my revolver hanging up in the bungalow; noticing its absence, he
+bids me buckle it around me, saying warningly, "Afghanistan;
+Afghanistan;" he also watches me retire at night to make sure that I put
+it under my pillow.
+
+One day, a visitor appears upon the scene, carrying a walking-cane.
+Mohammed Ahzim Khan pounces upon him instantly and I grabbing the stick,
+examines it closely, evidently suspicious lest it should be a
+sword-stick. He is the most persistent "gazer" I have yet met in Asia;
+hour after hour he squats on his hams at my feet and stares intently into
+my face, as though trying hard to read my inmost thoughts. Oriental-like,
+he is fascinated by the mystery of my appearance here, and there is no
+such thing as shaking off his silent, wondering gaze for a minute. He is
+on hand promptly in the morning to watch my rude matinual toilet, and he
+always watches me retire for the night. Even when I betake myself to a
+retired part of the garden in the dusk of evening to take a sluice-bath
+with a bucket of water, his white-robed figure is always loitering near.
+
+Four men are stationed about my bungalow at night; their respective
+armaments vary from a Martini-Henry rifle attached to a picturesque
+Asiatic stock, owned by Abdur Rahman Khan, to an immense knobbed cudgel
+wielded by a titleless youth named Osman.
+
+Osman's sole wardrobe consists of a coarse night-shirt style of garment,
+that in the early part of its career was probably white, but which is now
+neither white nor equal to the task of protecting him from the
+penetrating rays of the summer sun. His occupation appears to be that of
+all-round utility man for whomsoever cares to order him about. Osman has
+to bring water and pour it on my hands whenever I want to wash, hie him
+away to the bazaar to search for dates or anything my epicurean taste
+demands in addition to what is provided, feed the horse, change the
+position of the pee-wit to keep it in the shade, sweep out my bungalow,
+and perform all sorts of menial offices. Every noble loafer about my
+person seems anxious to have Osman continually employed in contributing
+to my comfort; Mohammed Ahzim Khan even deprecates the independence
+displayed in lacing up my own shoes. "Osman," he says, "let Osman do it."
+
+Osman's chief characteristic is a reckless disregard for the
+conventionalities of social life and religion; he never seems to bother
+himself about either washing his person or saying his prayers. Somewhere,
+not far away, every evening the faithful are summoned to prayer by a
+muezzin with the most musical and pathetic voice I have heard in all
+Islam. The voice of this muezzin calling "Allah-il-A-l-l-a-h," as it
+comes floating over the houses and gardens in the calm silence of the
+summer evenings, is wonderfully impressive. From the pulpits of all
+Christendom I have yet to hear an utterance so full of pathos and
+supplication, or that carries with it the impressions of such deep
+sincerity as the "Allah-il-A-l-l-a-h" of this Afghan muezzin in the Herat
+Valley. It is a supplication to the throne of grace that rings in my ears
+even as I write, months after, and it touches the hearts of every Afghan
+within hearing and taps the fountain of their piety like magic. It calls
+forth responsive prayers and pious sighings from everybody around my
+bungalow--everybody except Osman. Osman can scarcely be called
+imperturbable, for he has his daily and hourly moods, and is of varying
+temper; but he carries himself always as though conscious of being an
+outcast, whom nothing can either elevate or defile. When his fellow
+Mussulmans are piously prostrating themselves and uttering religious
+sighs sincere as fanaticism can make them, Osman is either curled up
+beneath a pomegranate bush asleep, feeding the horse, or attending to the
+pee-wit.
+
+Observing this, I often wonder whether he is considered, or considers
+himself, too small a potato in this world to hope for any attention from
+the Prophet in the next. The paradise of the Mohammedans, its shady
+groves, marble fountains, walled gardens, and cool retreats, its kara
+ghuz kiz and wealth of material pleasures, no doubt seem to poor Osman,
+with his one tattered garment and unhappy servility, far beyond the
+aspirations of such as he. Like the gutter-snipe of London or New York
+who gazes into the brilliant shop windows, he feels privileged to feast
+his imagination, perchance, but that is all.
+
+Big bouquets of roses are gathered for me every morning, and when the
+store in our own little garden is exhausted they are procured from
+somewhere else. The efforts of those about me to render my forced
+detention as pleasant as possible is very gratifying, and all the time I
+am buoyed up by the hope that the Boundary Commissioners will be able to
+do something to help me get through to India.
+
+The Boundary Commission camp is stationed over two hundred miles from
+Herat; eight days roll wearily by and my movements are still carefully
+confined to the little garden, and my person attended by guards day and
+night. Every day I amuse myself with giving raisins to the robber ants,
+for the sake of seeing the ever-watchful bul-buls pounce upon them and
+rob them. Morning and evening the imprisoned pee-wit awakens the echoes
+with his ratchetty call, and every sunset is commemorated by the
+sincerely plaintive utterances of the muezzin mentioned above.
+
+Thus the days of my detention pass away, until the ninth day after my
+arrival here. On the evening of May 8th, the officer who first
+interviewed me in the apricot orchard comes to my bungalow, and brings
+salaams from Faramorz Khan. He and Mohammed Ahzim Khan, after a brief
+discussion between themselves, commence telling me, in the same
+roundabout manner as the blue-gowned Khan at Furrah, that the Ameer at
+Cabool has no control over the fanatical nomads of Zemindavar. Mohammed
+Ahzim Khan draws his finger across his throat, and the officer repeats
+"Afghan badmash, badmash, b-a-d-m-a-s-h." (desperado).
+
+This parrot-like repetition is uttered in accents so pleaful, and is,
+withal, accompanied by such a searching stare into my face, that its
+comicality for the minute overcomes any sense of disappointment at the
+fall of my hopes. For my experience at Furrah teaches me that this is
+really the object of their visit.
+
+Another ingenious argument of these polite and, after a certain childish
+fashion, astute Asiatics, is a direct appeal to my magnaminity. "We know
+you are brave, and to accomplish your object would even allow the
+Ghilzais to cut your throat; but the Wali begs you to sacrifice yourself
+for the reputation of his country, by keeping out of danger," they plead.
+"If you get killed, Afghanistan will get a bad name."
+
+They are in dead earnest about converting me by argument and pleadings to
+their view of the case. I point out that, so far as the reputation of
+Afghanistan is concerned, there can be little difference between
+forbidding travellers to go through for fear of their getting murdered,
+and their actual killing. I remind them, too, that I am a "nokshi," and
+can let the people of Frangistan understand this if I am turned back.
+
+These arguments, of course, avail me nothing; the upshot of instructions
+received from the Boundary Commission camp, is that I am to be conducted
+at once back into Persia.
+
+Horses have to be shod, and all sorts of preparations made next morning,
+and it is near about noon before we are ready to start. Our destination
+is the Persian frontier village of Karize, about one hundred miles to the
+west. Everything is finally ready; when it transpires that Mohammed Ahzim
+Khan's orders are to put me on a horse and carry the bicycle on another.
+This programme I utterly refuse to sanction, knowing only too well what
+the result is likely to be to the bicycle. In defence of the arrangement,
+Mohammed Ahzim Khan argues that, as the bicycle goes fourteen farsakhs an
+hour, the horses will not be able to keep up; and strict orders are
+issued from Herat that I am not to separate myself from my escort while
+on Afghan territory.
+
+Off posts Abdur Kahman Khan, hot haste to Herat, to report the difficulty
+to the Governor, while we return to the garden. It being too late in the
+day when he returns, our departure is postponed till morning, and Osman,
+with his knobbed stick, performs the office of nocturnal guard yet once
+again.
+
+During the evening Mohammed Ahzim Khan unearths from somewhere a couple
+of photographs of English ladies. These, he tells me, came into his
+possession from one of Ayoob Khan's fugitive warriors after their
+dispersion in the Herat Valley, on their flight before General Roberts'
+command at Kandahar. They were among the effects gathered up by Ayoob
+Khan's plundering crew from the disastrous field of Maiwand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+TAKEN BACK TO PERSIA.
+
+The Governor of Herat sends "khylie salaams" and permission for me to
+ride the bicycle, stipulating that I keep near the escort. So, with many
+an injunction to me about dasht-adam, kooh, dagh, etc., by way of warning
+me against venturing too far ahead, we bid farewell to the garden, with
+its strange associations, in the early morning. Beside Mohammed Ahzim
+Khan and myself are three sowars, mounted on splendid horses.
+
+The morning is bright and cheerful, and shortly after starting the animal
+spirits of the sowars find vent in song. I have been laboring under the
+impression that, for soul-harrowing vocal effort, the wild-eyed sowars of
+Khorassan, as exemplified in my escort from Beerjand, were entitled to
+the worst execrations of a discriminating Ferenghi, but the Afghans can
+go them one better. If it is possible to imagine anything in the whole
+world of sound more jarring and discordant than the united efforts of
+these Afghan sowars, I have never yet discovered it. Out of pure
+consideration and courtesy, I endure it for some little time; but they
+finally reach a high-searching key that is positively unendurable, and I
+am compelled in sheer self-protection to beg the khan to suppress their
+exuberance. "These men are not bul-buls; then why do they sing?" is all
+that is necessary for me to say. They all laugh heartily at the remark,
+and the khan orders them to sing no more. Over a country that consists
+chiefly of trailless hills and intervening strips of desert, we wend our
+weary way, the bicycle often proving more of a drag than a benefit. The
+weather gets insufferably hot; in places the rocks fairly shimmer with
+heat, and are so hot that one can scarce hold the hand to them. We camp
+for the first night at a village, and on the second at an umbar that
+suggests our approach to Persia, and in the morning we make an early
+start with the object of reaching Karize before evening.
+
+The day grows warm apace, and, at ten miles, the khan calls a halt for
+the discussion of what simple refreshments we have with us. Our larder
+embraces dry bread and cold goat-meat and a few handfuls of raisins. It
+ought also to include water in the leathern bottle swinging from the
+stirrup of one of the sowars; but when we halt, it is to discover that
+this worthy has forgotten to fill his bottle. The way has been heavy for
+a bicycle, trundling wearily through sand mainly, with no riding to speak
+of; and young as is the day, I am well-nigh overcome with thirst and
+weariness. I am too thirsty to eat, and, miserably tired and disgusted,
+one gets an instructive lesson in the control of the mind over the body.
+Much of my fatigue comes of low spirits, born of disappointment at being
+conducted back into Persia.
+
+One of the sowars is despatched ahead to fill his bottle with water at a
+well known to be some five miles farther ahead, and to meet us with it on
+the way. On through the sand and heat we plod wearily, myself almost sick
+with thirst, fatigue, and disgust. Mohammed Ahzim Khan, observing my
+wretched condition, insists upon me letting one of the sowars try his
+hand at trundling the wheel, while I rest myself by riding his horse.
+Both the sowars bravely try their best to relieve me, but they cut
+ridiculous figures, toppling over every little while. At length one of
+them upsets the bicycle into a little gully, and falling on it, snaps
+asunder two spokes. The khan gives him a good tongue-lashing for his
+carelessness; but one can hardly blame the fellow, and I take it under my
+own protection again, before it goes farther and fares worse.
+
+About 2 p.m. the sowar sent forward meets us with water; but it is almost
+undrinkable. Far better luck awaits us, however, farther along. Sighting
+an Eimuck camel-rider in the distance, one of the sowars gives chase and
+halts him until we can come up. Slung across his camel he has a skin of
+doke, the most welcome thing one can wish for under the circumstances.
+Everybody helps himself liberally of the refreshing beverage, shrinking
+the Eimuck's supply very perceptibly. The Eimuck joins heartily with our
+party in laughing at the altered contour of the pliant skin, as pointed
+out jocularly by Mohammed Ahzim Khan, bids us "salaam aleykum," and
+pursues his way across country.
+
+During the afternoon we cross several well-worn trails; though evidently
+but little used of late, they have seen much travel. My escort explains
+that they are daman trails, in other words the trails worn by Turkoman
+raiders passing back and forth on their man-stealing expeditions, before
+their subjugation by the Russians.
+
+By and by we emerge from a belt of low hills, and descend into a broad,
+level plain. A few miles off to the right can be seen the Heri Rood, its
+sinuous course plainly outlined by a dark fringe of jungle. Some miles
+ahead the village-fortress of Kafir Kaleh is visible. A horseman comes
+galloping across the plain to intercept us. Mohammed Ahzim Khan produces
+his written orders concerning my delivery at Karize and reads it to the
+new arrival. Thereupon ensues a long explanation, which ends in, our
+turning about and following the new-comer across the trailless plain
+toward the Heri Rood.
+
+"What's up now?" I wonder; but the only intelligible reply I get in reply
+to queries is that we are going to camp in the jungle. Misgivings as to
+possible foul play mingle with speculations regarding this person's
+mission, as I follow in the wake of the Afghans.
+
+We camp on a plot of rising ground that elevates us above the overflow,
+and shortly after our arrival we are visited by a band of nomads who are
+hunting through the jungle with greyhounds, Mohammed Ahzim Khan informs
+me that both baabs, and palangs (panthers) are to be found along the
+Heri Rood.
+
+Luxuriant beds of the green stuff known in the United States as
+lamb's-quarter, abound, and I put one of the sowars to gathering some
+with the idea of cooking it for supper. None of our party know anything
+about its being good to eat, and Mohammed Ahzim Khan shakes his head
+vigorously in token of disapproval. A nomad visitor, however,
+corroborates my statement about its edibleness, and fills our chief with
+wonderment that I should know something in common with an Afghan nomad,
+that he, a resident of the country, knows nothing about. By way of
+stimulating his wonderment still further, I proceed to call off the names
+of the various nomad tribes inhabiting Afghanistan, together with their
+locations.
+
+"Where did you learn all this." he queries, evidently suspicious that I
+have been picking up altogether too much information.
+
+"London," I reply.
+
+"London!" he says; "Mashallah! they know everything at London."
+
+The horseman who intercepted us rode away when we camped for the night.
+Nothing more was seen of him, and at a late hour I turn in for the night
+--if one can be said to turn in, when the process takes the form of
+stretching one's self out on the open ground. No explanation of our
+detention here has been given me during the evening, and as I lay down to
+sleep all sorts of speculations are indulged in, varying from having my
+throat cut before morning, to a reconsideration by the authorities of the
+orders sending me back to Persia.
+
+Some time in the night I am awakened. A strange horseman has arrived in
+camp with a letter for me. He wears the uniform of a military courier.
+The sowars make a blaze of brushwood for me to read by. It is a letter
+from Mr. Merk, the political agent of the Boundary Commission. It is a
+long letter, full of considerate language, but no instructions affecting
+the orders of my escort. Mr. Merk explains why Mahmoud Yusuph Khan could
+not take the responsibility of allowing me to proceed to Kandahar. The
+population of Zemindavar, he points out, are particularly fanatical and
+turbulent, and I should very probably have been murdered; etc.
+
+The march toward Karize is resumed in good season in the morning. "What
+was that? a cuckoo?" At first I can scarcely believe my own senses, the
+idea of cuckoos calling in the jungles of Afghanistan being about the
+last thing I should have expected to hear, never having read of
+travellers hearing them anywhere in Central Asia, nor yet having heard
+them myself before. But there is no mistake; for ere we pass Kafir Kaleh,
+I hear the familiar notes again and again.
+
+The road is a decided improvement over anything we have struck since
+leaving Herat, and by noon we arrive at Karize. For some inexplicable
+reason the Sooltan of Karize receives our party with very ill grace. He
+looks sick, and is probably suffering from fever, which may account for
+the evident sourness of his disposition.
+
+Mohammed Ahzim Khan is anything but pleased at our reception, and as soon
+as he receives the receipt for my delivery makes his preparations to
+return. I don't think the Sooltan even tendered my escort a feed of grain
+for their horses, a piece of inhospitality wholly out of place in this
+wild country.
+
+As for myself, he simply orders a villager to supply me with food and
+quarters, and charge me for it. Mohammed Ahzim Khan comes to my quarters
+to bid me good-by, and he takes the opportunity to explain "this is Iran,
+not Afghanistan. Iran, pool; Afghanistan, pool neis." There is no need of
+explanation, however; the people rubbing their fingers eagerly together
+and crying, "pool, pool," when I ask for something to eat, tells me
+plainer than any explanations that I am back again among our pool-loving
+friends, the subjects of the Shah. As I bid Mohammed Ahzim Khan farewell,
+I feel almost like parting--from a friend; he is a good fellow, and
+with nine-tenths of his inquisitiveness suppressed, would make a very
+agreeable companion.
+
+And so, here I am within a hundred and sixty miles of Meshed again. More
+than a month has flown past since I last looked back upon its golden
+dome; it has been an eventful month. My experiences have been exceptional
+and instructive, but I ought now to be enjoying the comforts of the
+English camp at Quetta, instead of halting overnight in the mud huts of
+the surly Sooltan of Karize.
+
+The female portion of Karize society make no pretence of covering up
+their faces, which impresses me the more as I have seen precious little
+of female faces since entering Afghanistan. All the women of Karize are
+ugly; a fact that I attribute to the handsomest specimens being carried
+off to Bokhara, for decades past, by the Turkomans. The people that
+assemble to gaze upon me are the same sore-eyed crowd that characterizes
+most Persian villages; and among them is one man totally blind. The loss
+of sight has not dimmed his inquisitiveness any, however; nothing could
+do that, and he gets someone to lead him into my room, where he makes an
+exhaustive examination of the bicycle with his hands.
+
+A village luti entertains me during the evening with a dancing deer; a
+comical affair of wood, made to dance on a table by jerking a string. The
+luti plays a sort of "whangadoodle" tune on a guitar, and manipulates the
+string so as to make the deer keep time to the tune. He tells me he
+obtained it from Hindostan.
+
+Among the wiseacres gathered around me plying questions, is one who asks,
+"Chand menzils inja to London?" He wants to know how many marches, or
+stopping-places, there are between Karize and London. This is a fair
+illustration of what these people think the world is like. His idea of a
+journey from here to London is that of stages across a desert country
+like Persia from one caravanserai to another; beyond that conception
+these people know nothing. London, they think, would be some such place
+as Herat or Meshed.
+
+At the hour of my departure from Karize, on the following morning, a
+little old man presents himself, and wants me to employ him as an escort.
+The old fellow is a shrivelled-up little bit of a man, whom I could
+well-nigh hold out at arm's length and lift up with one hand. Not feeling
+the need of either guide or guard particularly, I decline the old
+fellow's services "with thanks," and push on; happy, in fact, to find
+myself once more untrammelled by native company.
+
+Small towers of refuge, dotting the plain thickly about Karize, tell of
+past depredations by the Turkomans. An outlying village like Karize must,
+indeed, have had a hard struggle for existence; right in the heart of the
+daman country, too. For miles the plain is found to be grassy as the
+Western prairies; an innovation from the dreary gray of the camel-thorn
+dasht that is quite refreshing. A stream or two has to be forded, and
+many Afghans are met returning from pilgrimage to Meshed.
+
+The village of Torbet-i-Sheikh Jahm is reached at noon, a pleasant town
+containing many shade-trees. Here, I find, resides Ab-durrahzaak Khan, a
+sub-agent of Mirza Abbas Khan, and consequently a servant of the Indian
+Government. He is one of the frontier agents, whose duty it is to keep
+track of events in a certain section of country and report periodically
+to headquarters. He, of course, receives me hospitably, does the
+agreeable with tea and kalians, and provides substantial refreshments.
+The soothing Shi-razi tobacco provided with his kalians, and the
+excellent quality of his tea, provoke me to make comparison between them
+and the wretched productions of Afghanistan. Abdurrahzaak laughs
+good-humoredly at my remark, and replies, "Mashallah! there is nothing
+good in Afghanistan." He isn't far from right; and the English officer
+who named the products of Afghanistan as "stones and fighting men" came
+equally near the truth.
+
+Fair roads prevail for some distance after leaving Torbet-i-Sheikh Jahm;
+a halt is made at an Eliaute camp to refresh myself with a bowl of doke.
+A picturesque dervish emerges from one of the tents and presents his
+alms-receiver, with "huk yah huk." Both man and voice seem familiar, and
+after a moment I recognize him as a familiar figure upon the streets of
+Teheran last winter. He says he is going to Cabool and Kandahar. A unique
+feature of his makeup is a staff with a bayonet fixed on the end, in
+place of the usual club or battle-axe.
+
+The night is spent in an Eliaute camp; nummuds seem scarce articles with
+them, and I spend a cold and uncomfortable night, scarcely sleeping a
+wink. The camp is not far from the village of Mahmoudabad, and a rowdy
+gang of ryots come over to camp in the middle of the night, having heard
+of my arrival.
+
+From Mahmoudabad the road follows up a narrow valley with a range of
+hills running parallel on either hand. The southern range are quite
+respectable mountains, with lingering patches of snow, and--can it
+be possible!--even a few scattering pines. Pines, and, for that
+matter, trees of any kind, are so scarce in this country that one can
+hardly believe the evidence of his own eyes when he sees them.
+
+On past the village of Karizeno my road leads, passing through a hard,
+gravelly country, the surface generally affording fair riding except for
+a narrow belt of sand-hills. At Karizeno, a glimpse is obtained of our
+old acquaintances the Elburz Mountains, near Shah-riffabad. They are
+observed to be somewhat snow-crowned still, though to a measurably less
+extent than they were when we last viewed them on the road to Torbeti.
+
+The approach of evening brings my day's ride to a close at Furriman, a
+village of considerable size, partially protected by a wall and moat,
+Stared at by the assembled population, and enduring their eager gabble
+all the evening, and then a nummud on the roof of a villager's house till
+morning. The night is cold, and sleeplessness, with shivering body, again
+rewards me for a long, hard day's journey. But now it is but about six
+farsakhs to Meshed, where, "Inshallah," a good bed and all kindred
+comforts await me beneath Mr. Gray's hospitable roof. Ere the forenoon is
+passed the familiar gold dome once again appears as a glowing yellow
+beacon, beckoning me across the Meshed plain.
+
+A camel runs away and unseats his rider in deference to his timidity at
+my strange appearance as I bowl briskly across the Meshed plain at noon.
+By one o'clock I am circling around the moat of the city, and by two am
+snugly ensconced in my old quarters, relating the adventures of the last
+five weeks to Gray, and receiving from him in exchange the latest scraps
+of European news. I have made the one hundred and sixty miles from Karize
+in two days and a half--not a bad showing with a bicycle that has
+been tinkered up by Herati gunsmiths.
+
+Among other interesting items of news, it is learned that a hopeful
+Meshedi blacksmith has been inspired to try his "prentice hand" at making
+a bicycle. One would like to have seen that bicycle, but somehow I didn't
+get an opportunity. Friendly telegrams reach me from Teheran, and also
+another order from the British Legation, instructing me not to attempt
+Afghanistan again.
+
+Since my departure from Meshed, southward bound, another wandering
+correspondent has invaded the Holy City. Mr. E------, "special" of a
+great London daily paper, whom I had the pleasure of meeting once or
+twice in Teheran, has come eastward in an effort to enter Afghanistan.
+He has been halted by peremptory orders at Meshed. Disgusted with his
+ill-luck at not being permitted to carry out his plans, he is on the eve
+of returning to Constantinople. As I am heading for the same point
+myself, we arrange to travel there in company. Being somewhat under the
+weather from a recent attack of fever, he has contracted for a Russian
+fourgon to carry him as far as Shahrood, the farthest point on our route
+to which vehicular conveyance is practicable. Our purpose is to reach the
+Caspian port of Bunder Guz, thence embark on a Russian steamer to Baku,
+over the Caucasus Railway to Batoum, thence by Black Sea steamer to
+Constantinople.
+
+On the afternoon of May 18th, R------makes a start with
+the fourgon. It is a custom (unalterable as the laws of, etc.) with all
+Persians starting on a journey of any length to go a short distance only
+for the first stage. The object of this is probably to find out by actual
+experience on the road whether anything has been forgotten or overlooked,
+before they get too far away to return and rectify the mistake.
+Semi-civilized peoples are wedded very strongly to the customs in vogue
+among them, and the European traveller finds himself compelled, more or
+less, to submit to them. My intention is to overtake the fourgon the
+following day at Shahriffabad.
+
+Accordingly, soon after sunrise on the morrow, the road around the outer
+moat of Meshed is circled once again. A middle-aged descendant of the
+Prophet, riding a graceful dapple-gray mare, spurs his steed into a
+swinging gallop for about five miles across the level plain in an effort
+to bear me company. Three miles farther, and for miles over the steep and
+unridable gradients of the Shah-riffabad hills, I may anticipate the
+delights of having his horse's nose at my shoulder, and my heels in
+constant jeopardy. To avoid this, I spurt ahead, and ere long have the
+satisfaction of seeing him give it up.
+
+In the foothills I encounter, for the first time, one of those
+characteristics of Mohammedan countries, and more especially of Persia, a
+caravan of the dead. Thousands of bodies are carried every year, on
+horseback or on camels, from various parts of Persia, to be buried in
+holy ground at Meshed, Kerbella, or Mecca. The corpses are bound about
+with canvas, and slung, like bales of merchandise, one on either side of
+the horse. The stench from one of these corpse-caravans is something
+fearful, nothing more nor less than the horrible stench of putrid human
+bodies. And yet the drivers seem to mind it very little indeed. One stout
+horse in the party I meet this morning carries two corpses; and in the
+saddle between them rides a woman. "Mashallah." perchance those very
+bodies, between which she sits perched so indifferently, are the remains
+of small-pox victims. But, what cares the woman?--is she not a
+Mohammedan, and a female one at that?--and does she not believe in
+kismet. What cares she for Ferenghi "sanitary fads?"--if it is her
+kismet to take the small-pox, she will take it; if it is her kismet not
+to, she won't. One would think, however, that common sense and common
+prudence would instruct these people to imitate the excellent example of
+the Chinese, in taking measures to dispose of the flesh before
+transporting the bones to distant burial-places. Many of the epidemics of
+disease that decimate the populations of Eastern countries, and sometimes
+travel into the West, originate from these abominable caravans of the
+dead and kindred irrationalities of the illogical and childlike Oriental.
+
+As the golden dome of Imam Riza's sanctuary glimmers upon my retreating
+figure yet a fourth time as I reach the summit of the hill whence we
+first beheld it, I breathe a silent hope that I may never set eyes on it
+again. The fourgon is overtaken, as agreed upon, at Shahriffabad, and
+after an hour's halt we conclude to continue on to the caravanserai,
+where, it will be remembered, my friend the hadji and Mazanderan dervish
+and myself found shelter from the blizzard.
+
+B___'s Turkish servant, Abdul, a handy fellow, speaking three or four
+languages, and numbering, among other accomplishments, the knack of
+always having on hand plenty of cold chicken and mutton, is a vast
+improvement upon obtaining food direct from the villagers. Resting here
+till 2 a.m., we make a moonlight march to Gadamgah, arriving there for
+breakfast. The trail is a revelation of smoothness, in comparison to my
+expectations, based upon its condition a few weeks ago. The moon is about
+full, and gives a light as it only does in Persia, and one can see to
+ride the parallel camel-paths very successfully.
+
+Persians are very much given to night-travelling, and as I ride well
+ahead of the fourgon, the strange, weird object, gliding noiselessly
+along through the moonlight, fills many a superstitious pilgrim with
+misgivings that he has caught a glimpse of Sheitan. I can hear them
+rapidly muttering "Allah." as they edge off the road and hurry along on
+their way.
+
+Many Arabs from the Lower Euphrates valley are now mingled with the
+pilgrim throngs en route to Meshed. They are evil-looking customers,
+black as negroes almost; they look capable of any atrocity under the sun.
+These Arab pilgrims are hadjis almost to a man, coming, as they do, from
+much nearer Mecca than the Persians; but their holiness does not prevent
+them bearing the unenviable reputation of being the most persistent
+thieves. Abdul knows them well, and when any of them are about, keeps a
+sharp lookout to see that none of them approach our things.
+
+On the following evening, at a caravanserai near Nishapoor, we meet and
+spend the night with a French scientific party of three sent out by the
+Paris Geographical Society to make geographical and geological researches
+in Turkestan. The three Frenchmen are excellent company; they entertain
+us with European news, their views on the political aspect, and of
+incidents on their fourgon journey from Tiflis. Among their charvadars is
+a man who saw me last autumn at Ovahjik.
+
+Much good riding surface prevails, and we pass the night of the 21st at
+Lafaram. The crowds that everywhere gather about us are very annoying to
+K------, whose fever and consequent weakness is hardly calculated to
+sweeten his temper under trying circumstances. A whole swarm of women
+gather to stare at us at Lafaram. "I'll soon scatter them, anyway," says
+R------; and he reaches for a pair of binoculars hanging up in the
+fourgon. Adjusting them to his eyes, he levels them at the bunch of
+females, expecting to see them scatter like a flock of partridges.
+Scattering is evidently about the last thing the women are thinking of
+doing, however; they merely turn their attention to the binoculars and
+concentrate their comments upon them instead of on other of our effects,
+for the moment, but that is all.
+
+In the vicinity of Subzowar we find the people engaged in harvesting the
+crop of opium. The way they do it is to go through the fields of poppy
+every morning and scarify the green heads with a knife-blade notched for
+the purpose, like a saw. During the day the milky juice oozes out and
+solidifies. In the evening the harvesters pass through the fields again,
+scrape off the exuded opium, and collect it in vessels. This, after the
+watery substance has been worked out with frequent kneadings and drying,
+is the opium of commerce. The chief opium emporium of Persia is Shiraz,
+where buyers ship it by camel-caravan to Bushire for export. Persian
+opium commands the topmost prices in foreign markets.
+
+Here every idler about the villages seems to be amusing himself by
+working a ball of opium about in his hands, much as a boy delights in
+handling a chunk of putty. Lumps as large as the fist are freely offered
+me by friendly people, as they would hand one a piece of bread or a
+pomegranate; I might collect pounds of the stuff by simply taking what is
+offered me without the asking.
+
+In the caravanserai at Miandasht, Abdul's failure to appreciate our
+whilom and egotistical friend, the la-de-da telegraph-jee, at his own
+valuation comes near resulting in a serious fracas. One of Abdul's most
+valued services is keeping at a respectful distance the crowds of
+villagers that invariably swarm about us when we halt. In doing this he
+sometimes flogs about him pretty lively with the whip. As a general thing
+the natives take this sort of thing in the greatest good humor; in fact,
+rather enjoy it than otherwise.
+
+At Miandasht, however, Abdul's whip happens to fall rather heavily upon
+the shoulders of the telegraph-jee's farrash, who is in the crowd. This
+individual, reflecting something of his master's self-esteem, takes
+exceptions to this, and complains, with the customary Persian
+elaboration, no doubt, to the consequential head of the place. The
+consequence is that a gang of villagers, headed by the telegraph-jee
+himself, gather around, and suddenly attack poor Abdul with clubs. Except
+for the prompt assistance of R------and myself, he would
+have been mauled pretty severely. As it is, he gets bruised up rather
+badly; though he inflicts almost as much damage as he receives, with a
+hatchet hastily grabbed from the fourgon. The fact of his being a Turk,
+whom the Persians consider far less holy than themselves, Abdul explains,
+accounts for the attack on him as much as anything else.
+
+A new surprise awaits us at Mijamid, something that we are totally
+unprepared for. As we reach the chapar-khana there, a voice from the roof
+greets us with "Sprechen sie Deutsch." Looking up in astonishment, we
+behold Colonel G------, a German officer in the Shah's army, whom both of
+us are familiarly acquainted with by sight, from seeing him so often at
+the morning reviews in the military maiden at Teheran. But this is not
+all, for with him are his wife and daughter. This is the first time
+European ladies have traversed the Meshed-Teheran road, Teheran being the
+farthest point eastward in Persia that lady travellers have heretofore
+penetrated to. Colonel G has been appointed to the staff of the new
+Governor-General of Khorassan, and is on his way to Meshed. The
+appearance of Ferenghi ladies in the Holy City will be an innovation that
+will fairly eclipse the introduction of the bicycle. All Meshed will be
+wild with curiosity, and the poor ladies will never be able to venture
+into the streets without disguise.
+
+There is furor enough over them in Mijamid; the whole population is
+assembled en masse before the chapar-khana. The combination of the
+bicycle, three Ferenghis, and, above all, two Ferenghi ladies, is an
+event that will form a red-letter mark in the history of Mijamid for
+generations of unborn Persian ryots to talk about and wonder over.
+
+The colonel produces a bottle of excellent Shiraz wine and a box of
+Russian cigarettes. The ladies have become sufficiently Orientalized to
+number among their accomplishments the smoking of cigarettes. They are
+delighted at meeting us, and are already acquainted with the main
+circumstances of my misadventure in Afghanistan. Camp-stools are brought
+out, and we spend a most pleasant hour together, before continuing on our
+opposite courses. The wondering natives are almost speechless with
+astonishment at the spectacle of the two ladies sitting out there, faces
+all uncovered, smoking cigarettes, sipping claret, and chatting freely
+with the men. It is a regular circus-day for these poor, unenlightened
+mortals. The ladies are charming, and the charm of female society loses
+nothing, the reader may be sure, from one's having been deprived of it
+for a matter of months.
+
+The colonel's lingual preference is German, Mrs. G------'s, French, and
+the daughter's, English; so that we are quite cosmopolitan in the matter
+of speech. All of us know enough Persian to express ourselves in that
+language too. In commenting upon my detention by the Afghans, the colonel
+characterizes them as "pedar sheitans," Madame as "le diable Afghans,"
+and Miss G------as well, "le diable" in plain yet charmingly broken
+English.
+
+The next day, soon after noon, we roll into Shahrood, where B------
+discharges his fourgon and we engage mules to transport us over the Tash
+Pass, a breakneck bridle-trail over the Elburz range to the Asterabad
+Plain and the Caspian.
+
+A half-day search by Abdul results in the employment of an outfit
+comprising three charvadars, with three mules, a couple of donkeys, and
+riding horses for ourselves. A liberal use of the whip by R on the
+charvadars' shoulders, awful threats, and sundry other persuasive
+arguments, assist very materially in getting started at a decent hour on
+the morning following our arrival. The bicycle is taken apart and placed
+on top of the mule-packs, where, in remembrance of its former fate under
+somewhat similar conditions, I keep it pretty strictly under
+surveillance.
+
+The Asterabad trail is a steady ascent from the beginning; and before
+many miles are covered, scattering dwarf pines on the, mountains indicate
+a change from the utter barrenness that characterizes their southern
+aspect. One lone tree of quite respectable dimensions, standing a mile or
+so off to our left, suggests a special point of demarcation between utter
+barrenness and where a new order of things begins.
+
+Our way leads up fearful rocky paths, where the horses have to be led,
+and at times assisted; up, up, until our elevation is nearly ten thousand
+feet, and we are among a chaotic wilderness of precipitous rocks and
+scrub pines. A false step in some places, and our horses would roll down
+among the craggy rocks for hundreds of feet. It is a toilsome march, but
+we cross the Tash Pass, camp for the night in a little inter-mountain
+valley, beside a stream at the foot of a pine-covered mountain. The
+change from the interior plains is already novel and refreshing. Grass
+abounds abundance, and the prospect is the greenest I have seen for nine
+months. We camp out in the open, and are put to some discomfort by
+passing showers in the night.
+
+A march of a dozen miles from this valley over a tortuous mountain trail
+brings us into a country the existence of which one could never, by any
+stretch of the imagination, dream of in connection with Persia, as one
+sees it in its desert-like character south of the mountains. The
+transformation is from one extreme of vegetable nature to the other. We
+camp for lunch on velvety greensward beneath a grove of oak and cherry
+trees. Cuckoos are heard calling round about, singing birds make melody,
+and among them we both recognize the cheery clickety-click of my
+raisin-loving Herati friends, the bul-buls. Flowers, too, are here at our
+feet in abundance, forget-me-nots and other familiar varieties.
+
+The view from our position is remarkably fine, reminding me forcibly of
+the Balkans south of Nisch, and of the Californian slopes of the Sierra
+Nevadas, where they overlook the Sacramento Valley. The Asterabad Plain
+is spread out below us like a vast map.
+
+We can trace the windings and twistings of the various streams, the
+tracts of unreclaimed forest, and the cultivated fields. Asterabad and
+numerous villages dot the plain, and by taking R------'s
+binoculars we can make out, through the vaporous atmosphere, the
+shimmering surface of the Caspian Sea. It is one of the most remarkable
+views I ever saw, and the novelty and grandeur of it appeals the more
+forcibly to one's imagination, no doubt, because of its striking contrast
+to what the eyes have from long usage become accustomed to. From dreary,
+barren dasht, and stony wastes, to densely wooded mountains,
+jungle-covered plains, tall, luxurious tiger-grass, and beyond all this
+the shimmering background of the sea is a big change to find but little
+more than a day's march apart. We are both captivated by the change, and
+agree that the Caspian slope is the only part of Persia fit to look at.
+
+The descent of the northern slope is even steeper than the other side;
+but instead of rocks, it is the rich soil of virgin forests. Open parks
+are occasionally crossed, and on one of these we find a large camp of
+Turcomans, numbering not less than a hundred tents. Mountaineers are
+always picturesquely dressed, and so, too, are nomads. When, therefore,
+one finds mountaineer nomads, it seems superfluous almost to describe
+them as being arrayed chiefly in gewgaws and bright-colored clothes.
+Camped here amid the dark, luxurious vegetation, they and their tents
+make a charming picture--a scene of life and of contrast in colors which
+if faithfully transferred to canvas would be worth a king's ransom.
+
+Down paths of break-neck steepness and slipperiness, our way descends
+into a dark region where vegetation runs riot in the shape of fine tall
+timber, of a semi-tropical variety. Many of the trees present a fantastic
+appearance, by reason of great quantities of hanging moss, that in some
+instances fairly load down the weaker branches. Banks of beautiful ferns,
+and mossy rocks join with the splendid trees in making our march through
+these northern foothills of the Elburz Mountains an experience long to be
+remembered.
+
+A curious and interesting comparison that comes under our observation is
+that, on the gray plains and rocky mountains of the interior the lizards
+are invariably of a dull and uninteresting color, quite in keeping with
+their surroundings. No sooner, however, do we find ourselves in a
+district where nature's deft hand has painted the whole canvas of the
+country a bright green, than the lizards which we see scuttling through
+the ferns and moss-beds are also the greenest of all the green things.
+These scaly little reptiles shine and glisten like supple shapes of
+emerald, as one sees them gliding across the path. This is but another
+link in the chain of evidence that seems to prove that animals derive
+much of their distinctive character and appearance from the nature of
+their surroundings. In Northern China are a species of small monkey with
+a quite heavy coat of fur. They are understood to be the descendants of a
+comparatively hairless variety which found its way there from the warm
+jungles of the South, the change from a warm climate to a cold one being
+responsible for the coat of fur. In the same way, after noting the
+complete change that has come over the lizards, we conclude that, if a
+colony of the gray species from the other side of the mountains were
+brought and turned loose among the green foot-hills here, their
+descendants, a few generations hence, would be found with coats as green
+as those of the natives. This conviction gathers force from the fact that
+no gray lizards whatever are encountered here; all the lizards we see are
+green.
+
+Emerging from the foot-hills, we find ourselves in a country the general
+appearance of which reminds me of a section of Missouri more than
+anything I have seen in Asia. Fields and pastures are fenced in with the
+same rude corduroy-fences one sees in the Missouri Valley, some well kept
+and others neglected. The pastures are blue grass and white clover; bees
+are humming and buzzing from flower to flower, and, to make the
+similitude complete, one hears the homely tinkle of cow-bells here and
+there. It is difficult to realize that all this is in Persia, and that
+one has not been transported in some miraculous manner back to the United
+States. A little farther out from the base of the mountains, however, and
+we come upon wild figs, pomegranates, and other indigenous evidences of
+Eastern soil; and by and by our path almost becomes a tunnel, burrowing
+through a wealth of tiger-grass twenty feet high. The fields and little
+clearings which, a few miles back, were devoted to the cultivation of
+wheat and rye, now become rice-fields overflowed from irrigating ditches,
+and in which bare-legged men and women are paddling about, over their
+knees in mud and water.
+
+Early in the evening we reach the city of Asterabad, which we find
+totally different from the sombre, mud-built cities of the interior. The
+wall surrounding it is topped with red tiles, and the outer moat is
+choked with rank vegetation. The houses are gabled, and roofed with tiles
+or heavy thatch, presenting an appearance very suggestive of the
+picturesque towns and villages about Strasburg. The streets are narrow
+and ill-paved, and neglect and decay everywhere abound. The cemeteries
+are a chaotic mass of tumbledown tombstones and vagrant vegetation. Pools
+of water covered with green scum, and heaps of filth everywhere, fill the
+reeking atmosphere with malaria and breed big clouds of mosquitoes. The
+people have a yellowish, waxy complexion that tells its own story of the
+unhealthiness of the place, without instituting special inquiry. One can
+fairly sniff fever and ague in the streets.
+
+Much taste is displayed in architectural matters by the wealthier
+residents. The walls surrounding the little compounds are sometimes
+adorned with house-leeks or cactus, tastefully set out along the top;
+and, in other cases, with ornamental tiles. The walls of the houses are
+decorated with paintings depicting, in bright colors, scenes of the
+chase, birds, animals, and mythological subjects.
+
+The charvadars lead the way to a big caravanserai in the heart of the
+city. The place is found to be filled with a miscellaneous crowd of
+caravan people, travellers, merchants, and dervishes. The serai also
+appears to be a custom-house and emporium for wool, cotton, and other
+products of the tributary country. Horses, camels, and merchandise crowd
+the central court, and rising fifty feet above all this confusion and
+babel is a wooden tower known as a tullar. This is a dilapidated
+framework of poles that sways visibly in the wind, the uses of which at
+first sight it is not easy to determine. Some of the natives motion for
+us to take possession of it, however; and we subsequently learn that the
+little eyrie-like platform is used as a sleeping-place by travellers of
+distinction. The elevation and airiness are supposed to be a safeguard
+against the fever and a refuge from the terrible mosquitoes, of which
+Asterabad is over-full.
+
+An hour after our arrival, Abdul goes out and discovers a Persian
+gentleman named Mahmoud Turki Aghi, who presents himself in the capacity
+of British agent here. As we were in ignorance of the presence of any
+such official being in Asterabad, he comes as a pleasant surprise, and
+still more pleasant comes an invitation to accept his hospitality.
+
+From him we learn that the steamer we expect to take at Bunder Guz, the
+port of Asterabad, eight farsakhs distant, will not sail until six days
+later. Mindful of the fever, from which he is still a sufferer to an
+uncomfortable extent, E------looks a trifle glum at this
+announcement, and, after our traps are unpacked at Mahmoud Turki Aghi's,
+he ferrets out a book of travels that I had often heard him refer to as
+an authority on sundry subjects. Turning over the leaves, he finds a
+reference to Bunder Guz, and reads out the story of a certain
+"gimlet-tailed fly" that makes life a burden to the unwary traveller who
+elects to linger there on the Caspian shore. Between this gimlet-tailed
+pest, however, and the mosquitoes of Asterabad we decide that there can
+be very little to choose, and so make up our minds to accept our host's
+hospitality for a day and then push on.
+
+During the day we call on the Russian consul to get our passports vised.
+As between English and Russian prestige, the latter are decidedly to the
+fore in Asterabad. The bear has his big paw firmly planted on this
+fruitful province--it is more Russian than Persian now; before long it
+will be Russian altogether. Nothing is plainer to us than this, as we
+reach the Russian Consulate and are introduced by Mahmoud Turki Aghi to
+the consul. He is no "native agent." On the contrary, he is one of the
+biggest "personages" I have seen anywhere. He is the sort of man that the
+Russian Government invariably picks out for its representation at such
+important points in Asia as Asterabad.
+
+A six-footer of magnificent physique, with a smooth and polished address,
+all smiles and politeness, the Russian consul wears a leonine mustache
+that could easily be tied in a knot at the back of his head. Although he
+is the only European resident of Asterabad save a few Cossack attendants,
+he wears fashionable Parisian clothes, a wealth of watch-chain, rings,
+and flash jewellery, patent-leather shoes, and all the accompaniments of
+an ostentatious show of wealth and personal magnificence. His rooms are
+equally gorgeous, and contain large colored portraits of the Czar and
+Czarina.
+
+The intent and purpose of all this display is to fill the minds of the
+natives, and particularly the native officials, with an overwhelming
+sense of Russian grandeur and power. No Persian can enter the presence of
+this Russian consul in his rooms without experiencing a certain measure
+of awe and admiration. They regard with covetous eyes the rich and
+comfortable appointments of the rooms, and the big gold watch-chains and
+rings on the consul's person. They too would like to be in the Russian
+service if its rewards are on such a magnificent scale. Of patriotism to
+the Shah they know nothing--self-interest is the only master they
+willingly serve.
+
+No one knows this better than the Russian consul; and in the case of
+influential officials and other useful persons, he sees to it that gold
+watches and such-like tokens of the Czar's esteem are not lacking. The
+result is that Asterabad, both city and province, is even now more
+Russian than Persian, and when the proper time arrives will drop into the
+bear's capacious maw like a ripe plum.
+
+At daybreak on the morning of departure the charvadars wake us up by
+pounding on the outer gate and shouting "hadji" to Abdul Abdul lets them
+in, and the next hour passes in violent and wordy disputation among them
+as they load up their horses.
+
+All three have purchased new Asterabad hats, big black busbies much
+prized by Persians from beyond the mountains. The acquisition of these
+imposing head-dresses has had the effect of increasing their self-esteem
+wonderfully. They regard each other with considerable hauteur, and
+quarrel almost continually for the first few miles. E puts up with their
+angry shouting and quarrelling for awhile, and then chases them around a
+little with the long hunting whip he carries. This brings them to their
+senses again, and secures a degree of peace; but the inflating effect of
+the new hats crops out at intervals all day.
+
+Our road from Asterabad leads through jungle nearly the whole distance to
+Bunder Guz. In the woods are clearings consisting of rice-fields,
+orchards, and villages. The villages are picturesque clusters of wattle
+houses with peaked thatch roofs that descend to within a few feet of the
+ground. Groves of English walnut-trees abound, and plenty of these trees
+are also scattered through the jungle.
+
+During the day we encounter a gang of professional native hunters hunting
+wild boars, of which these woods contain plenty, as well as tigers and
+panthers. They are a wild-looking crowd, with long hair, and sleeves
+rolled up to their elbows. Big knives are bristling in their kammerbunds,
+besides which they are armed with spears and flint-lock muskets. They
+make a great deal of noise, shouting and hallooing one to another; one
+can tell when they are on a hot trail by the amount of noise they make,
+just as you can with a pack of hounds.
+
+We reach our destination by the middle of the afternoon, and find the
+place a wretched village, right on the shore of the Caspian. We repair to
+the caravanserai, but find the rooms so evil-smelling that we decide upon
+camping out and risking the fever rather than court acquaintance with
+possible cholera, providing no better place can be found elsewhere. This
+serai is a curious place, anyway. All sorts of people, some of them so
+peculiarly dressed that none of our party are able to make out their
+character or nationality. A dervish is exhorting a crowd of interested
+listeners at one end of the court-yard, and a strolling band of lutis are
+entertaining an audience at the other end. There are six of these lutis;
+while two are performing, four are circulating among the crowd collecting
+money. In any other country but Persia, five would have been playing and
+one passing the hat.
+
+E------and Abdul go ahead to try and secure better
+quarters, and shortly the latter returns, and announces that they have
+been successful. So I, and the charvadars, with the horses, follow him
+through a crooked street of thatched houses, at the end of which we find
+R------seated beneath the veranda of a rude hotel kept by
+an Armenian Jew. As we approach I observe that my companion looks happier
+than I have seen him look for days. He is pretty thoroughly disgusted
+with Persia and everything in it, and this, together with his fever, has
+kept him in anything but an amiable frame of mind. But now his face is
+actually illumined with a smile.
+
+On the little table before him stand a half-dozen black bottles, imperial
+pints, bearing labels inscribed with outlandish Russian words.
+
+"This is civilization, my boy--civilization reached at last," says
+E------, as he sees me coming.
+
+"What, this wretched tumble-down hole." I exclaim, waving my hand at the
+village.
+
+"No, not that," replies E------; "this--this is civilization," and he
+holds up to the light a glass of amber Russian beer.
+
+Apart from Russians, we are the first European travellers that have
+touched at Bunder Guz since McGregor was here in 1875. We keep a loose
+eye out for the gimlet-tailed flies, but are not harassed by them half so
+much as by fleas and the omnipresent mosquito. These two latter insects
+have dwindled somewhat from the majestic proportions described by
+McGregor; they are large enough and enterprising enough as it is; but
+McGregor found one species the size of "cats," and the other "as large as
+camels." Bunder Guz is simply a landing and shipping point for Asterabad
+and adjacent territory. A good deal of Russian bar iron, petroleum, iron
+kettles, etc., are piled up under rude sheds; and wool from the interior
+is being baled by Persian Jews, naked to the waist, by means of
+hand-presses. Cotton and wool are the chief exports. Of course, the whole
+of the trade is in the hands of the Russians, who have driven the
+Persians quite off the sea. The Caspian is now nothing more nor less than
+a Russian salt-water lake.
+
+The harbor of Bunder Guz is so shallow that one may ride horseback into
+the sea for nearly a mile. The steamers have to load and unload at a
+floating dock a mile and a half from shore. Very pleasant, in spite of
+the wretched hole we are in, is it to find one's self on the seashore
+--to see the smoke of a steamer, and the little smacks riding at
+anchor.
+
+The day after our arrival, a man comes round and tells Abdul that he has
+three fine young Mazanderan tigers he would like to sell the Sahibs. We
+send Abdul to investigate, and he returns with the report that a party of
+Asterabad tiger-hunters have killed a female tiger and brought in three
+cubs. The man comes back with him and impresses upon us the assertion
+that they are khylie koob baabs (very splendid tigers), and would be dirt
+cheap at three hundred kerans apiece, the price he pretends to want for
+them. From this we know that the tigers could be bought very cheap, and
+since Mazanderan tigers are very rare in European menageries, we
+determine to go and look at them anyway. They are found to be the merest
+kittens, not yet old enough to see. They are savage little brutes, and
+spend their whole time in dashing recklessly against the bars of the coop
+in which they are confined. They refuse to eat or drink, and although the
+Persians declare that they would soon learn to feed, we conclude that
+they would be altogether too much trouble, even if it were possible to
+keep them from dying of starvation.
+
+On the evening of June 3d we put off, together with a number of native
+passengers, in a lighter, for the vessel which is loading up with bales
+of cotton at the floating dock. Most of the night is spent in sitting on
+deck and watching the Persian roustabouts carry the cargo aboard, for the
+shouting, the inevitable noisy squabbling, and the thud of bales dumped
+into the hold render sleep out of the question.
+
+The steamer starts at sunrise, and the captain comes round to pay his
+respects. He is more of a German than a Russian, and seems pleased to
+welcome aboard his ship the first English or American passengers he has
+had for years. He makes himself agreeable, and takes a good deal of
+interest in explaining anything about the burning of petroleum residue on
+the Caspian steamers, instead of coal. He takes us down below and shows
+us the furnaces, and explains the modus operandi. We are delighted at the
+evident superiority of this fuel over coal, and the economy and ease of
+supplying the furnaces. Seven copecks the forty pounds, the captain says,
+is the cost of the fuel, and two and a half roubles the expense of
+running the vessel at full speed an hour. There is not an ounce of coal
+aboard, the boiler-house is as clean and neat as a parlor, and no cinders
+fall upon the deck or awnings. In place of huge coal-bunkers, taking up
+half the vessel's carrying space, compact tanks above the furnaces hold
+all the liquid fuel. Pipes convey it automatically, much or little, as
+easily as regulating a water-tap, to the fire-boxes. Jets of steam
+scatter it broadcast throughout the box in the form of spray, and insures
+its spontaneous combustion into flame. A peep in these furnaces displays
+a mass of flame filling an iron box in which no fuel is to be seen. A
+slight twist of a brass cock increases or diminishes this flame at once.
+A couple of men in clean linen uniforms manage the whole business. We
+both concluded that it was far superior to coal.
+
+Many windings and tackings are necessary to get outside Ashdurada Bay;
+sometimes we are steaming bow on for Bunder Guz, apparently returning to
+port; at other times we are going due south, when our destination is
+nearly north. This, the captain explains, is due to the intricacy of the
+channel, which is little more than a deeper stream, so to speak,
+meandering crookedly through the shallows and sand-bars of the bay. Buoys
+and sirens mark the steamer's course to the Russian naval station of
+Ashdurada. Here we cross a bar so shallow that no vessel of more than
+twelve feet draught can enter or leave the bay. Our own ship is a
+light-draught steamer of five hundred tons burden.
+
+A little steam-launch puts out from Ashdurada, bringing the mails and
+several naval officers bound for Krasnovodsk and Baku. The scenery of the
+Mazanderan coast is magnificent. The bold mountains seem to slope quite
+down to the shore, and from summit to surf-waves they present one
+dark-green mass of forest.
+
+The menu of these Caspian steamers is very good, based on the French
+school of cookery rather than English. No early breakfast is provided,
+however; breakfast at eleven and dinner at six are the only refreshments
+provided by the ship's regular service--anything else has to be paid for
+as extras. At eleven o'clock we descend to the dining saloon, where we
+find the table spread with caviare, cheese, little raw salt fishes,
+pickles, vodka, and the unapproachable bread of Russia. The captain and
+passengers are congregated about this table, some sitting, others
+standing, and all reaching here and there, everybody helping himself and
+eating with his fingers. Now and then each one tosses off a little
+tumbler of vodka. We proceed to the table and do our best to imitate the
+Russians in their apparent determination to clean off the table. The
+edibles before us comprise the elements of a first-class cold luncheon,
+and we sit down prepared to do it ample justice. By and by the Russians
+leave this table one by one, and betake themselves to another, on the
+opposite side of the saloon. As they sit down, waiters come in bearing
+smoking hot roasts and vegetables, wine and dessert.
+
+A gleam of intelligence dawns upon my companion as he realizes that we
+are making a mistake, and pausing in the act of transferring bread and
+caviare to his mouth, he says to me, impressively: "This is only sukuski,
+you know, on this table." "Why, of course. Didn't you know that. Your
+ignorance surprises me; I thought you knew.". And then we follow the
+example of everybody else and pass over to the other side.
+
+The sukuski is taken before the regular meal in Russia. The tidbits and
+the vodka are partaken of to prepare and stimulate the appetite for the
+regular meal. Not yet, however, are we fully initiated into the mysteries
+of the Caspian steamer's service. Wine is flowing freely, and as we seat
+ourselves the captain passes down his bottle. Presently I hold my glass
+to be refilled by a spectacled naval officer sitting opposite. With a
+polite bow he fills it to the brim. The next moment, I happen to catch
+the captain's eye, it contains a meaning twinkle of amusement. Heavens!
+this is not a French steamer, even if the cookery is somewhat Frenchy;
+neither is it a table-d'hote with claret flowing ad libitum. The
+ridiculous mistake has been made of taking the captain's polite
+hospitality and the liberal display of bottles for the free wine of the
+French table-d'hote. The officer with the eyeglasses lands at Tchislikar
+in the afternoon, for which I am not sorry.
+
+At Tchislikar we are met by a lighter with several Turcoman passengers.
+The sea is pretty rough, and the united efforts of several boatmen are
+required to hoist aboard each long-gowned Turcoman, each woman and child.
+They are Turcoman traders going to Baku and Tiflis with bales of the
+famous kibitka hangings and carpets. Tchislikar is the port whence a few
+years ago the Russian expedition set out on their campaign against the
+Tekke Turcomans. Three hundred miles inland is the famous fortress of
+Geoke Tepe, where disaster overtook the Russians, and where, in a
+subsequent campaign, occurred that massacre of women and children which
+caused the Western world to wonder anew at the barbarism of the Russian
+soldiery.
+
+Still steaming north, our little craft ploughs her way toward
+Krasnovodsk, an important military station on the eastern coast.
+
+At night the surface of the sea becomes smooth and glassy, the sun sets,
+rotund and red, in a haze suggestive of Indian summer in the West. The
+cabins are small and stuffy, so I sleep up on the hurricane-deck,
+wrapping a Persian sheepskin overcoat about me. An awning covers this
+deck completely, but this does not prevent everything beneath getting
+drenched with dew. Never did I see such a fall of dew. It streams off the
+big awning like a shower of rain, and soaks through it and drips, drips
+on to my recumbent form and everything on the hurricane-deck.
+
+Early in the morning we moor our ship to the dock at Krasnovodsk, and
+load and unload merchandise till noon. Here is where railway material for
+the Transcaspian railway to Merv is landed, the terminus being at
+Michaelovich, near by. We go ashore for a couple of hours and look about.
+The inmates of a military convalescent hospital are passing from the
+doctor's office to their barracks. They are wearing long dressing-gowns
+of gray stuff, with hoods that make them look wonderfully like a lot of
+monks arrayed in cowls. A company of infantry are target-practising at
+the foot of rocky buttes just outside the town. Not a tree nor a green
+thing is visible in the place nor on all the hills around--nothing but the
+blue waters of the Caspian and the dull prospect of rude rock buildings
+and gray hills.
+
+Except for the sea, and the raggedness and abject servility of the poor
+class of people, one might imagine Krasnovodsk some Far Western fort.
+Scarcely a female is seen on the streets, soldiers are everywhere, and in
+the commercial quarter every other place is a vodka-shop. We visit one of
+these and find men in red shirts and cowhide boots playing billiards and
+drinking, others drinking and playing cards. Rough and sturdy men they
+look--frontiersmen; but there is no spirit, no independence, in
+their expression; they look like curs that have been chastised and
+bullied until the spirit is completely broken. This peculiar humbled and
+resigned expression is observable on the faces of the common people from
+one end of Russia to the other. It is quite extraordinary for a common
+Russian to look one in the eye. Nor is this at all deceptive; a social
+superior might step up and strike one of these men brutally in the face
+without the slightest provocation, and, though the victim of the outrage
+might be strong as an ox, no remonstrance whatever would be made. It is
+difficult for us to comprehend How human beings can possibly become so
+abjectly servile and spiritless as the lower-class Russians. But the
+terrors of the knout and Siberia are ever present before them. Cheap
+chromolithographs of Gregorian saints hang on the walls of the saloon,
+and with them are mingled fancy pictures of Tiflis and Baku cafe-chantant
+belles. Long rows of vodka-bottles are the chief stock-in-trade of the
+place, but "peevo" (beer) can be obtained from the cellar.
+
+Quite a number of army officers, with their wives, come aboard at
+Krasnovodsk. They seem good fellows, nearly all, and inclined to
+cultivate our acquaintance. Individually, the better-class Russian and
+the Englishman have many attributes in common that make them like each
+other. Except for imperial matters, Russian and English officers would be
+the best of friends, I think. The ladies all smoke cigarettes
+incessantly. There is not a handsome woman aboard, and they show the
+lingering traces of Russian barbarism by wearing beads and gewgaws.
+
+The most interesting of our passengers is a Persian dealer in precious
+stones. He is a well-educated individual, quite a linguist, and a
+polished gentleman withal. He is taking diamonds and turquoises that he
+has collected in Persia, to Vienna and Paris.
+
+Another night of drenching dew, and by six o'clock next morning we are
+drawing near to the great petroleum port of Baku. From Krasnovodsk we
+have crossed the Caspian from east to west right on the line of latitude
+40 deg.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+ROUNDABOUT TO INDIA.
+
+Baku looks the inartistic, business-like place it is, occupying the base
+of brown, verdureless hills. Scarcely a green thing is visible to relieve
+the dull, drab aspect roundabout, and only the scant vegetation of a few
+gardens relieves the city a trifle itself. To the left of the city the
+slopes of one hill are dotted with neatly kept Christian cemeteries, and
+the slopes of another display the disorderly multitude of tombstones
+characteristic of the graveyards of Islam. On the right are seen numbers
+of big iron petroleum-tanks similar to those in the oil regions of
+Pennsylvania. Numbers of petroleum-schooners are riding at anchor in the
+harbor, and two or three small steamers are moored to the dock.
+
+Our steamer moves up alongside a stout wooden wharf, the gang-plank is
+ran out, and the passengers permitted to file ashore. A cordon of police
+prevents them passing down the wharf, while custom-house officers examine
+their baggage. We are, of course, merely in transit through the country;
+more than that, the Russian authorities seem anxious, for some reason, to
+make a very favorable impression upon us two Central Asian travellers; so
+a special officer comes aboard, takes our passports, and with an
+excessive show of politeness refuses to take more than a mere formal
+glance at our traps. A horde of ragamuffin porters struggle desperately
+for the privilege of carrying the passengers' baggage. Poor, half-starved
+wretches they seem, reminding me, in their rags and struggles, of
+desperate curs quarrelling savagely over a bone. American porter's strive
+for passengers' baggage for the sake of making money; with these
+Russians, it seems more like a fierce resolve to obtain the wherewithal
+to keep away starvation. Burly policemen, armed with swords, like the
+gendarmerie of France, and in blue uniforms, assail the wretched porters
+and strike them brutally in the face, or kick them in the stomach,
+showing no more consideration than if they were maltreating the merest
+curs. Such brutality on the one hand, and abject servility and human
+degradation on the other is to be seen only in the land of the Czar.
+Servility, it is true exists everywhere in Asia, but only in Russia does
+one find the other extreme of coarse brutality constantly gloating over
+it and abusing it.
+
+Our stay in Baku is limited to a few hours. We are to take the train for
+Tiflis the same afternoon, as we land at two o'clock so can spare no time
+to see much of the city or of the oil-refineries.
+
+Summoning one of the swarm of drosky-drivers that beset the exit from the
+wharf, we are soon tearing over the Belgian blocks to the Hotel de
+l'Europe. The Russian drosky-driver, whether in Baku or in Moscow, seems
+incapable of driving at a moderate pace. Over rough streets or smooth he
+plies the cruel whip, shouts vile epithets at his half-wild steed, and
+rattles along at a furious pace.
+
+Baku is the first Europeanized city either R------or I have been in for
+many months; the rows of shops, the saloons, drug-stores, barber-shops,
+and, above all, the hotels--how we appreciate it all after the bazaars
+and wretched serais of Persia!
+
+We patronize a barber-shop, and find the tonsorial accommodations equal
+in every respect to those of America. One of the chairs is occupied by a
+Cossack officer. He is the biggest dandy in the way of a Cossack we have
+yet seen. Scarce had we thought it possible that one of these hardy
+warriors of the Caucasus could blossom forth in the make-up that bursts
+upon our astonished vision in this Baku barber-chair. The top-boots he
+wears are the shiniest of patent leather from knee to toe; lemon-colored
+silk or satin is the material of the long, gown-like coat that
+distinguishes the Cossack from all others. His hair is parted in the
+middle to a hair, and smoothed carefully with perfumed pomade; his
+mustache is twirled and waxed, his face powdered, and eyebrows pencilled.
+A silver-jointed belt, richly chased, encircles his waist, and the
+regulation row of cartridge-pockets across his breast are of the same
+material. He wears a short sword, the hilt and scabbard of which display
+the elaborate wealth of ornament affected by the Circassians. During the
+forenoon we take a stroll about the city afoot, but the wind is high, and
+clouds of dust sweep down the streets. A Persian in gown and turban steps
+quietly up behind us in a quiet street, and asks if we are mollahs. We
+know his little game, however, and gruffly order him off. The houses of
+Baku are mostly of rock and severely simple in architecture; they look
+like prisons and warehouses mostly--massive and gloomy.
+
+Everywhere, everywhere, hovers the shadow of the police. One seems to
+breathe dark suspicion and mistrust in the very air. The people in the
+civil walks of life all look like whipped curs. They wear the expression
+of people brooding over some deep sorrow. The crape of dead liberty seems
+to be hanging on every door-knob. Nobody seems capable of smiling; one
+would think the shadow of some great calamity is hanging gloomily over
+the city. Nihilism and discontent run riot in the cities of the Caucasus;
+government spies and secret police are everywhere, and the people on the
+streets betray their knowledge of the fact by talking little and always
+in guarded tones.
+
+Our stay at the hotel is but a few hours, but eleven domestics range
+themselves in a row to wait upon our departure and to smirk and extend
+their palms for tips as we prepare to go. No country under the sun save
+the Caucasus could thus muster eleven expectant menials on the strength
+of one meal served and but three hours actual occupation of our rooms.
+
+Another wild Jehu drives us to the station of the Tiflis & Baku Railway,
+and he loses a wheel and upsets us into the street on the way. The
+station is a stone building, strong enough almost for a fort. Military
+uniforms adorn every employee, from the supercilious station-master to
+the ill-paid wretch that handles our baggage. Mine is the first bicycle
+the Tiflis & Baku Railroad has ever carried. Having no precedent to
+govern themselves by, and, withal, ever eager to fleece and overcharge,
+the railway officials charge double rates for it; that is, twice as much
+as an ordinary package of the same weight. No baggage is carried free on
+the Tiflis & Baku Railroad except what one takes with him in the
+passenger coach.
+
+The cars are a compromise between the American style and those of
+England. They are divided into several compartments, but the partitions
+have openings that enable one to pass from end to end of the car. The
+doors are in the end compartments, but lead out of the side, there being
+no platform outside, nor communication between the cars. The seats are
+upholstered in gray plush and are provided with sliding extensions for
+sleeping at night. Overhead a second tier of berths unfolds for sleeping.
+No curtains are employed; the arrangements are only intended for
+stretching one's self out without undressing. The engines employed on the
+Tiflis & Baku Railway are without coal-tenders. They burn the residue of
+petroleum, which is fed to the flames in the form of spray by an
+atomizer. A small tank above the furnace holds the liquid, and a pipe
+feeds it automatically to the fire-box. The result of this excellent
+arrangement is spontaneous conversion into flame, a uniformly hot fire,
+cleanliness aboard the engine, a total absence of cinders, and almost an
+absence of smoke. The absence of a tender gives the engine a peculiar,
+bob-tailed appearance to the unaccustomed eye.
+
+The speed of our train is about twenty miles an hour, and it starts from
+Baku an hour behind the advertised time. For the first few miles unfenced
+fields of ripe wheat characterize the landscape, and a total absence of
+trees gives the country a dreary aspect. The day is Sunday, but peasants,
+ragged and more wretched-looking than any seen in Persia, are harvesting
+grain. The carts they use are most peculiar vehicles, with wheels eight
+or ten feet in diameter. The tremendous size of the wheels is understood
+to materially lighten their draught. After a dozen miles the country
+develops into barren wastes, as dreary and verdureless as the deserts of
+Seistan. At intervals of a mile the train whirls past a solitary stone
+hut occupied by the family of the watchman or section-hand. Sometimes a
+man stands out and waves a little flag, and sometimes a woman. Whether
+male or female, the flag-signaller is invariably an uncouth bundle of
+rags. The telegraph-poles consist of lengths of worn-out rail, with an
+upper section of wood on which to fasten the insulators. These make
+substantial poles enough, but have a make-shift look, and convey the
+impression of financial weakness to the road. The stations are often
+quite handsome structures of mingled stone and brickwork. The names are
+conspicuously exposed in Russian and Persian and Circassian. Beer, wine,
+and eatables are exposed for sale at a lunch-counter, and pedlers vend
+boiled lobsters, fish, and fruit about the platforms. On the platform of
+every station hangs a bell with a string attached to the tongue. When
+almost ready for the train to start, an individual, invested with the
+dignity of a military cap with a red stripe, jerks this string slowly and
+solemnly thrice. Half a minute later another man in a full military
+uniform blows a shrill whistle; yet a third warning, in the shape of a
+smart toot from the engine itself, and the train pulls out. Full half the
+crowd about the stations appear to be in military uniform; the remainder
+are a heterogeneous company, embracing the modern Russian dandy, who
+affects the latest Parisian fashions, the Circassians and Georgians in
+picturesque attire, and the ever-present ragamuffin moujik. At one
+station we pass an institution peculiarly Russian--a railway
+prison-car conveying convicts eastward. It resembles an ordinary box-car,
+with iron grating toward the top. We can see the poor wretches peeping
+through the bars, and the handcuffs on their wrists. Outside at either
+end is a narrow platform, where stands, with loaded guns and fixed
+bayonets, a guard of four soldiers.
+
+Once or twice before dark the train stops to replenish the engine's
+supply of fuel. Elevated iron tanks containing a supply of the liquid
+fuel take the place of the coal-sheds familiar to ourselves. The
+petroleum is supplied to the smaller tank on the engine through a pipe,
+as is water to the reservoir.
+
+Such villages as we pass are the most unlovely clusters of mud hovels
+imaginable. Only the people are interesting, and the life of the railway
+itself. The Circassian peasantry are picturesque in bright colors, and
+the thin veneering of Western civilization spread over the semi-barbarity
+of the Russian officials and first-class passengers is an interesting
+study in itself.
+
+We have been promising ourselves a day in Tiflis, the old Georgian
+capital, and now the head-quarters of the Russian army of the Caucasus,
+which our friends of the French scientific party said we would find
+interesting.
+
+We find it both pleasant and interesting, for here are all modern
+improvements of hotel and street, as well as English telegraph officers,
+one a former acquaintance at Teheran. Tiflis now claims about one hundred
+and sixty thousand inhabitants, and is situated quite picturesquely in
+the narrow valley of the Kur. The old Georgian quarters still retain
+their Oriental appearance--gabled houses, narrow, crooked streets, and
+filth. The modernized, or European, portion of the city contains broad
+streets, rows of shops in which is displayed everything that could be
+found in any city in Europe, and street-railways.
+
+These latter were introduced in 1882, and at first met with fierce
+antagonism from the drosky-drivers, who swarm here as in every city in
+Russia. These wild Jehus of the Caucasus expected the tram-cars to turn
+out the same as any other vehicle. Four people were killed by collisions
+the first day. Severe punishment had to be resorted to in order to stop
+the hostility of the drosky-drivers against the strange innovation.
+
+The day is spent in seeing the city and visiting the hot sulphur baths
+and in the evening we attend a big bal masque in a suburban garden. A
+regimental band of fifty pieces plays "Around the World," by order of
+Prince Nicholas F, who exerts himself to make things pleasant for us in
+the garden. The famed beauties of Georgia, Circassia, and Mingrelia,
+masked and costumed, promenade and waltz with Russian officers, and
+sometimes join Circassian officers in a charming native dance.
+
+We spend our promised clay in Tiflis, enjoy it thoroughly, and then
+proceed to Batoum. The Tiflis railway-station is a splendid building,
+with fountains and broad nights of stone terrace leading up to it from
+the street behind. Our drosky-driver rattles up to the foot of these
+terraced approaches at 8 a.m., and draws up a steed with an abruptness
+peculiar to the half-wild Jehus of the Caucasus. The same employee of the
+Hotel de Londres who had mysteriously hailed us by name from the platform
+as our train glided in from Baku the morning before, accompanies us to
+the depot now. All English travellers in Russia are supposed to be
+millionaires; all Americans, possessed of unlimited wealth. Bearing this
+in mind, our Russian-Armenian henchman has from first to last been most
+assiduous in his attentions, paying out of his own pocket the few odd
+copecks to porters carrying our luggage up from drosky to depot, in order
+to save us bother.
+
+The station is crowded with people going away themselves or seeing
+friends off. As usual, the military overshadows and predominates
+everything. Between civilians and the wearers of military uniforms one
+plainly observes in a Russian Caucasus crowd that no love is lost. The
+strained relationship between the native population and the military
+aliens from the north is generally made the more conspicuous by the
+comparative sociability of the Georgians among themselves and kindred
+people of the Caucasus. Circassian officers in their picturesque uniforms
+and beautifully chased swords and pistols mingle sociably with the
+civilians, and are evidently great favorites; but that the blue-coated,
+white-capped Russians are hated with a bitter, sullen hatred requires no
+penetrating eye to see. The military brutality that crushed the brave and
+warlike people of Georgia, Circassia, and Mingrelia, and well-nigh
+depopulated the country, has left sore wounds that will take the wine and
+oil of time many a generation to heal completely up.
+
+With an inner consciousness of duty well done and services faithfully
+rendered, our friend from the hotel flicks off our seats in the car with
+the tail of his long linen duster. Not that they need dusting; but as a
+gentle reminder of the extraordinary care he has bestowed upon us, in
+little things as well as in bigger, during our brief acquaintance with
+him, he dusts them off. That last attentive flick of his coat-tail is the
+finishing touch of an elaborate retrospective panorama we are expected to
+conjure up of the valuable services he has rendered us, and for which he
+is now justly entitled to his reward.
+
+The customary three bells are struck, the inevitable military-looking
+official blows shrilly on his little whistle, and still the train
+lingers; lastly, the engine toots, however, and we pull slowly out of
+Tiflis. The town lies below us to the left, the River Kur follows us
+around a bend, the train speeds through deep gravel cuttings, and when we
+emerge from them the Georgian capital is no longer visible.
+
+Between Baku and Tiflis, the Caucasus Railway runs for the most part
+through a flat, uninteresting country. Wastes as dreary and desolate as
+the steppes of Central Russia or the deserts of Turkestan sometimes
+stretched away to the horizon on either side of the track. At other
+points were gray, verdureless slopes and rocky buttes, or saline
+mud-flats that looked like the old bed of some ancient sea. Occasional
+oases of life appeared here and there, a few wheat-fields and a wretched
+mud-built village, or a picturesque scene of smoke-browned tents, gayly
+dressed nomads, and grazing flocks and herds. At night we had passed
+through a grassy steppe, a facsimile of the rolling prairies of the West.
+Though but the 6th of June, the country was parched, and the grass dried,
+as it stood, into hay by the heat and drought. We saw at one point a wide
+sweep of flame that set the darkening sky aglow and caused the
+railway-rails ahead to gleam. It was the steppe on fire--another
+reproduction of a Far Western prairie scene.
+
+All this had changed as we woke up an hour before reaching Tiflis. The
+country became green, lovely, and populous in comparison. The people
+seemed less 'ragged, poverty-stricken, and wretched; the native women
+wore garments of brightest red and blue; the men put on more style, with
+their long Circassian coats and ornamental daggers, than I had yet
+observed. East of Tiflis, the Caucasus Hallway may, roughly speaking, be
+said to traverse the dreary wastes of an Asiatic country; west of it to
+wind around among the green hills and forest-clad heights of Europe's
+southeastern extremity. Lovelier and more beautifully green grows the
+country, and more interesting, too, grow the people and the towns, as our
+train speeds westward toward Batoum and the Black Sea coast. Everything
+about the railway, also, seems to be more prosperous, and better
+equipped. The improvised telegraph poles of worn-out lengths of rail seen
+east of Tiflis give place to something more becoming. Sometimes we speed
+for miles past ordinary cedar poles, procured, no doubt, from the
+mountain forests near at hand. Occasionally are stretches of iron poles
+imported from England, and then poles composed of two iron railway-rails
+clamped together. For much of the way we see the splendidly equipped
+Indo-European Telegraph Company's line, the finest telegraph line in the
+world. Equipped with substantial iron poles throughout, and with every
+insulator covered with an iron cap in countries where the half-civilized
+natives are wont to do them damage, this line runs through the various
+countries of Europe and Asia to Teheran, Persia, where it joins hands
+with the British Government line to India.
+
+Following along the valley of the River Kur, our train is sometimes
+rattling along up a wild gorge between rugged heights whose sides are
+bristling with dark coniferous growth, or more precipitous, with huge
+jagged rocks and the variegated vegetation of the Caucasus strewn in wild
+confusion. Again, we emerge upon a peaceful grassy valley, lovely enough
+to have been the Happy Valley of Rasselas, and walled in almost
+completely with forest-clad mountains. Through it, perhaps, there winds a
+mountain stream, fed by welling springs and hidden rivulets, and on the
+stream is sure to be a town or village. An old Georgian town it would be,
+picturesque but dirty, built, too, with an eye to security from attack.
+One town is particularly noteworthy--not a very large town, but more
+important, doubtless, in times past than now. Out of the valley there
+rises a rocky butte, abrupt almost as though it were some monstrous
+vegetable growth. On the summit of this natural fortress some old
+Georgian chief had, in the good old days of independence, built a massive
+castle, and nestling beneath its protecting shadow around the base of the
+butte is the town, a picturesque town of adobe and wattle walls and
+quaint red tiles. So intensely verdant is the valley, so thickly wooded
+the dark surrounding mountains, so brown the walls, so red the tiles, and
+so picturesque the elevated castle, that even K goes into raptures, and
+calls the picture beautiful.
+
+The improvement in the Russian telegraph line, perhaps, owes something to
+its brief association with the invading stranger from England; and now
+among the sublime loveliness of this Caucasian Switzerland one finds the
+station-houses built with far more pretence to the picturesque than on
+the barren steppes toward Baku and the Caspian. Here is the Caucasia of
+our youthful dreams, and the mystic hills and vales whence Mingrelian
+princes issued forth to deeds of valor in old romantic tales. Urchins,
+small mountaineers, more picturesquely clad than anything seen in Alpine
+Italy, even, now offer us little baskets of wild strawberries at ten
+copecks a basket-strawberries they and their little brothers and sisters
+have gathered this very morning at the foot of the hills. The cuisine at
+the lunch-counters embraces fresh trout from neighboring mountain
+streams, caught by vagrant Mingrelian Isaac Waltons, who bring them in on
+strings of plaited grass to sell.
+
+Humorous scenes sometimes enliven our stops at the stations. The Russian
+warnings for travellers to seek the train before it is everlastingly too
+late cover fully a minute of time. First come three raps of a bell
+suspended on the platform, afterward a station employe blows a little
+whistle, and lastly comes a toot from the engine itself, by way of an
+ultimatum. Once this afternoon a woman leaves the train to enter the
+waiting-room for something. Just as she is entering, the station-man
+rings the bell. The woman, evidently unaccustomed to railway travel,
+rushes hastily back to the train. Everybody greets her performance with
+good-natured merriment. Finding the train not pulling out, and encouraged
+by some of the passengers, the woman ventures to try it again. As she
+reaches the waiting-room door, the station-man blows a shrill blast on
+his whistle. The woman rushes back, as before. Again the people laugh,
+and again words of encouragement tempt her to venture back again. This
+time it is the toot of the engine that brings that poor female scurrying
+back across the platform amid the unsympathetic laughter of her
+fellow-passengers, and this time the train really starts. From this it
+would appear that too many signals are quite as objectionable at
+railway-stations as not signals enough. Every stoppage at a lunch-counter
+station, or where venders of things edible come on the platform, gives us
+opportunity to turn our minds judicially upon the civilization of our
+fellow first-class passengers. They present a curious combination of
+French fashion and polite address, on the one hand, and want of taste and
+ignorance of civilization's usages on the other. Gentlemen and ladies,
+dressed in the latest Parisian fashions, stand out on the platform and
+devour German sausage or dig their teeth into big chunks of yellow cheese
+with the gusto of half-starved barbarians.
+
+We double our engines--our compact, tenderless, petroleum-burning
+engines--at the foot of the Suran Pass. At its base, a stream disappears
+in an arched cave at the foot of a towering rocky cliff, and I have
+bethought me since of whether, like Allan Quatermain's subterranean
+stream, it would, if followed, reveal things heretofore unseen. And so we
+climb the lovely Suran Pass, rattle down the western slope upon the Black
+Sea coast, and reach Batoum at 11 p.m.
+
+As the chief mercantile port of the Caucasus, Batoum is an important
+shipping point. By the famous Berlin treaty it was made a free port; but
+nothing is likely to remain free any length of time upon which the
+Russian bear has managed to lay his greedy paw. Consequently, Batoum is
+now afflicted with all sorts of commercial taxes and restrictions,
+peculiar to a protective and autocratic semi-Oriental government.
+Notwithstanding this, however, ships from various European ports crowd
+its harbor, for not only is it the shipping point of Baku petroleum, but
+also the port of entry for much of the Persian and Central Asian
+importations from Europe. An oil-pipe line is seriously contemplated from
+Baku to replace the iron-tank cars now run on the railroad.
+
+Big fortifications are under headway to protect the harbor; its strategic
+importance as the terminus of the Caucasus Railway and the shipping point
+for troops and war material making Batoum a place of special solicitation
+on the part of the Russian military authorities. R------and I walk around
+and take a look at the fortification works, as well as one can do this;
+but no strangers are allowed very near, and we are conscious of close
+surveillance the whole time we are walking out near the scene of
+operations.
+
+A pleasant day in Batoum, and we take passage aboard a Messageries
+Maritimes steamer for Constantinople. Late at night we depart, amid the
+glare and music of a violent thunder-storm, and in the morning wake up in
+the roadstead of Trebizond.
+
+To fully realize the difference between mock-civilization and the genuine
+article, one cannot do better than to transfer from a Russian Caspian
+steamer to a Messageries Maritimes. The Russians affect French methods
+and manners in pretty much everything; but the thinness and transparency
+of the varnish becomes very striking in contrast aboard the steamers.
+
+The scenery along the Anatolian coast is striking and lovely in the
+extreme as we steam along in full view of it all next day. It is
+mountainous the whole distance, but the prospect is charmingly variable.
+Sometimes the mountains are heavily wooded down to the water's edge, and
+sometimes the slopes are prettily chequered with clearings and
+cultivation.
+
+More and more lovely it grows next day, as we pass Samsoon, celebrated
+throughout the East for chibouque tobacco; Sinope, memorable as the place
+where the first blow of the Crimean War was delivered; and, on the
+morning of the third day, Ineboli, the "town of wines."
+
+On the evening of the third day we lay off the entrance to the Bosphorus
+till morning, when we steam down that charming strait to Constantinople.
+It is almost a year since I took, in company with our friend Shelton Bey,
+a pleasure trip up the Bosphorus and gazed for the first time on its
+wondrous beauties. I have seen considerable since, but the Bosphorus
+looks as fresh and lovely as ever.
+
+While yielding as full a measure of praise to the Bosphorus as any of its
+most ardent admirers, I would, however, at the same time, recommend those
+in search of lovely coast scenery to take a coasting voyage along the
+southern shore of the Black Sea in June. I have no hesitation in saying
+that the traveller who goes into raptures over the beauties of the
+Bosphorus would, if he saw it, include the whole Anatolian coast to
+Batoum.
+
+Several very pleasant days are spent in Constantinople, talking over my
+Central Asian adventures with former acquaintances and seeing the city.
+But as these were pretty thoroughly described in Volume I., there is no
+need of repetition here. With many regrets I part company with R, who has
+proved a very pleasant companion indeed, and set sail for India.
+
+The steamers of the Khedivial Line, plying between Constaninople and
+Alexandria, have their mooring buoys near the Stamboul side of the Golden
+Horn, between Seraglio Point and the Galata bridge. During the forenoon,
+Shelton Bey, R--, and I had taken a caique and sought out from among
+the crowd of shipping in the harbor the steamship Behera, of the
+above-mentioned line, on which I have engaged my passage to Alexandria,
+so that we should have no difficulty in finding it in the afternoon. In
+the afternoon the Behera is found surrounded by a swarm of caiques,
+bringing passengers and friends who have come aboard to see them off.
+These slender-built craft are paddling about the black hull of the
+steamer in busy confusion. A fussy and authoritative little police boat
+seems to take a wanton delight in increasing the confusion by making
+sallies in among them to see that newly arriving passengers have provided
+themselves with the necessary passports, and that their baggage has been
+duly examined at the custom-house. All is bustle and confusion aboard the
+Behera, and in two hours after the advertised time (pretty prompt for an
+Egyptian-owned boat) a tug-boat assists her from her moorings, paddles
+glibly to one side, and in ten minutes Seraglio Point is rounded, and we
+are steaming down the Marmora with the domes and minarets of the Ottoman
+capital gradually vanishing to the rear.
+
+People whose experience of steamship travel is confined to voyages in
+western waters, and the orderliness and neatness aboard an Atlantic
+steamer, can form little idea of the appearance aboard an Oriental
+passenger boat. The small foredeck is reserved for the use of first and
+second-class passengers; the remainder of the deck-room is pretty well
+crowded with the most motley and picturesque gathering imaginable. Arabs
+and Egyptians returning from a visit to Stamboul, pilgrims going to Mecca
+via Egypt, Greeks, Levantines, and Armenians, all more or less
+fantastically attired and occupying themselves in their own peculiar way.
+The nomadic instinct of the Arabs asserts itself even on the deck of the
+steamer; ere she is an hour from Stamboul they may be seen squatting in
+little circles around small pans of charcoal, cooking their evening meal
+in precisely the same manner in which they are wont to cook it in the
+desert, leaving out, of course, the difference between camel chips and
+charcoal.
+
+The soothing "bubble bubble" of the narghileh is heard issuing from all
+sorts of quiet corners, where dreamy-looking Turks are perched
+cross-legged, happy and contented in the enjoyment of their beloved
+water-pipe and in the silent contemplation of the moving scenes about
+them. As we ply our way at a ten-knot speed through the blue waves of the
+Marmora, and the sun sinks with a golden glow below the horizon, the
+spirit moves one of the Mecca pilgrims to climb on top of a chicken coop
+and shout "Allah-il!" for several minutes; the dangling ends of his
+turban flutter in the fresh evening breeze, streaming out behind him as
+he faces the east, and flapping in his swarthy face as he turns round
+facing to the opposite point of the compass. His supplications seem to be
+addressed to the dancing, white-capped waves, but the old Osmanlis mutter
+"Allah, Allah," in response between meditative whiffs of the narghileh,
+and the Arab and his fellow Mecca pilgrims swell the chorus with
+deep-fetched sighs of "Allah, Ali Akbar!"
+
+A narrow space is walled off with canvas for the exclusive use of the
+female deck passengers, and in this enclosure scores of women and
+children of the above-named nationalities are huddled together
+indiscriminately for the night, packed, I should say, closer than
+sardines in a tin box. Male sleepers and family groups are sprawled about
+the deck in every conceivable position, and in walking from the foredeck
+to the after-cabins by the ghostly glimmer of the ship's lanterns, one
+has to pick his way cautiously among them. Woe to the person who attempts
+this difficult feat without the aid of a good pair of sea-legs; he is
+sure to be pitched head foremost by the motion of the vessel into the
+bosom of some family peacefully snoozing in a promiscuous heap, or to
+step on the slim, dusky figure of an Arab.
+
+The ubiquitous Urasian who can speak "a leetle Inglis" soon betrays his
+presence aboard by singling me out and proceeding to make himself
+sociable. I am sitting on the foredeck perusing a late copy of a magazine
+which I had obtained in Constantinople, when that inevitable individual
+introduces himself by peeping at the corner of the magazine, and, with a
+winning smile, deliberately spells out its name; and soon we are engaged
+in as animated a discussion of the magazine as his limited knowledge of
+English permits. After listening with much interest to the various
+subjects of which it treats, he parades his profuse knowledge of
+Anglo-Saxon athletics by asking: "Does it also speak of ballfoot?"
+
+The cuisine in both first and second-class cabins aboard the Egyptian
+liners is excellent, being served after the French style, with several
+courses and wine ad libitum. At our table is one solitary female, a Greek
+lady with an interesting habit of talking and gesticulating during
+meal-times, and of promenading the fore-deck in a profoundly pensive mood
+between meals. I have good reason to remember her former peculiarity, as
+she accidentally knocks a bottle of wine over into my soup-plate while
+gesticulating to a couple of Levantines across the table. She is a
+curious woman in more respects than one: she always commences to pick her
+teeth at the beginning of the meal, and between courses she sticks the
+little wooden toothpick, pen-fashion, behind her ear. Being Greek, of
+course she smokes cigarettes, and being Greek, of course she is also
+arrayed in one of those queer-looking garments that resemble an inverted
+cloth balloon, with the feet protruding from holes in the bottom. She
+sometimes absent-mindedly keeps the toothpick behind her ear while
+promenading the deck, and I have humbly thought that a woman promenading
+pensively back and forth in the national Greek costume, smoking a
+cigarette, and with a wooden toothpick behind her starboard ear, was
+deserving of passing mention.
+
+The chief engineer of the ship is an Englishman with a large experience
+in the East; he has served with the late lamented General Gordon in the
+suppression of the slave trade in the Red Sea, and was anchored in
+Alexandria harbor during the last bombardment of the forts by the English
+ships. "The best thing about the whole bombardment," he says, "was to see
+the enthusiasm aboard the Yankee ships; the rigging swarmed with men,
+waving hats and cheering the English gunners, and whenever a more telling
+shot than usual struck the forts, wild hurrahs of approval from the
+American sailors would make the welkin ring again."
+
+"There was no holding the Yankee sailors back when the English were
+preparing to go ashore," the old engineer continues, a gleam of
+enthusiasm lighting up his face, "and it was arranged that they should go
+ashore to protect the American Consulate--only to protect the
+American Consulate, you know," and the engineer winks profoundly, and
+thinking I might not comprehend the meaning of a profound wink, he winks
+knowingly as he repeats, "only to protect the American Consulate, you
+know." The engineer winds up by remarking: "That little affair in
+Alexandria harbor taught me more about the true feeling between the
+English and Americans than all the newspaper gabble on the subject put
+together." We touch at Smyrna and the Piraeus, and at the latter place a
+number of recently disbanded Greek soldiers come aboard; some are
+Albanian Greeks whose costume is sufficiently fantastic to merit
+description. Beginning at the feet, these extremities are incased in
+moccasins of red leather, with pointed toes that turn upward and inward
+and terminate in a black worsted ball. The legs look comfortable and
+active in tights of coarse gray cloth, but the piece de resistance of the
+costume is the kilt. This extends from the hips to the middle of the
+thighs, and instead of being a simple plaited cloth, like the kilt of the
+Scotch Highlanders, it consists of many folds of airy white material that
+protrude in the fanciful manner of the stage costume of a coryphee. A
+jacket of the same material as the tights covers the body, and is
+embellished with black braid; this jacket is provided with open sleeves
+that usually dangle behind like immature wings, but which can be buttoned
+around the wrists so as to cover the back of the arm. The head-gear is a
+red fez, something like the national Turkish head-dress, but with a huge
+black tassel that hangs half-way down the back, and which seems ever on
+the point of pulling the fez off the wearer's head with its weight. At
+noon of the fifth day out we arrive in Alexandria Harbor, to find the
+shipping gayly decorated with flags and the cannon booming in honor of
+the anniversary of Her Majesty Queen Victoria's coronation.
+
+Alexandria is the most flourishing and Europeanized city I have thus far
+seen in the East. That portion of the city destroyed by the incendiary
+torches of Arabi Pasha is either built up again or in process of
+rebuilding. Like all large city fires, the burning would almost seem to
+have been more of a benefit than otherwise, in the long-run, for imposing
+blocks of substantial stone buildings, many with magnificent marble
+fronts, have risen, Phoenix-like, from the ashes of the inferior
+structures destroyed by the fire. After seeing Constantinople, Teheran,
+or even Tiflis, one cannot but be surprised at Alexandria--surprised at
+finding its streets well paved with massive stone blocks, smoothly laid,
+and elevated in the middle, after the most approved methods; surprised at
+the long row of really splendid shops, in which is displayed everything
+that can be found in a European city; surprised at the swell turn-outs on
+the Khediveal Boulevard of an evening; surprised at the many evidences of
+wealth and European enterprise. In the yet unfinished quarters of the
+city, houses are going up everywhere, the large gangs of laborers, both
+men and women, engaged in their erection, create an impression of
+beehive-like activity, and everybody looks happy and contented. After so
+many surprises comes a feeling of regret that this commercial and
+industrial rose, that looks so bright and flourishing under the
+stimulating influence of the English occupation, should ever again be
+exposed to the blighting influence of an Oriental administration.
+Red-coated "Tommy Atkins," stalking in conscious superiority down the
+streets, or standing guard in front of the barracks, is no doubt chiefly
+responsible for much of this flourishing state of affairs in Alexandria,
+and the withdrawal of his peace--insuring presence could not fail to
+operate adversely to the city's good.
+
+The many groves of date-palms, rising up tall and slender, vying in
+gracefulness with the tapering minarets of the mosques, and with their
+feathery foliage mingling with and overtopping the white stone buildings,
+lends a charm to Alexandria that is found wanting in Constantinople
+--albeit the Osmanli capital presents by far the more lovely
+appearance from the sea. Massive marble seats are ranged along the
+Khediveal Boulevard beneath the trees, and dusky statues, in the scant
+drapery of the Egyptian plebe, are either sitting on them or reclining at
+lazy length, an occasional movement of body alone betraying that they are
+not part and parcel of the tomb-like marble slabs.
+
+The tall, slim figures of Soudanese and Arabs mingle with the
+cosmopolitan forms in the streets; Nubians black as ebony, their skins
+seemingly polished, and their bare legs thin almost as beanpoles, slouch
+lazily along, or perhaps they are bestriding a diminutive donkey, their
+long, bony feet dangling idly to the ground. All the donkeys of
+Alexandria are not diminutive, however. Some of the finest donkeys in the
+world are here, large, sleek-coated, well-fed-looking animals, that
+appear quite as intelligent as their riders, or as the native donkey-boys
+who follow behind and persuade them along. These donkeys are for hire on
+every street-corner, and all sorts and conditions of people, from an
+English soldier to a lean Arab, may be seen coming jollity-jolt along the
+streets on the hurricane-deck of a donkey, with a half-naked donkey-boy
+racing behind, belaboring him along. The population of Alexandria is
+essentially cosmopolitan, but, considering the English occupation, one is
+scarcely prepared to find so few English. The great majority of Europeans
+are Germans, French, and Italian, nearly all the shopkeepers being of
+these nationalities. But English language and Bullish money seem to be
+almost universally understood, and probably the Board of Trade returns
+would show that English commerce predominates, and that it is only the
+retail trade in which the foreign element looms so conspicuously to the
+fore. An English evening paper, the Egyptian Gazette, has taken root
+here, and the following rather humorous account of a series of camel
+races, copied from its pages, serves to show something of how the
+sporting proclivities of the English army of occupation enlist the
+services of even the awkward and ungainly ships of the desert:
+
+5.15 p.m.-Camel race, for gentlemen riders. Once round and a distance.
+Sweepstakes, 10 shillings. Don Juan, a fine, long-maned, fast-looking
+dromedary, started first favorite, Commodore Goodridge, K. N., our
+popular naval transport officer, being as good a judge of the ship of the
+desert as he is of a man-of-war. There was some difficulty at the post to
+get the riders together, owing to the fractiousness of Don Juan, who,
+with Kobert the Devil (ridden by Surgeon Porke), did not seem quite
+agreed about the Professional Beauty (ridden by Surgeon Moir). At the
+start Shaitan (ridden by Mr. Airey, E. N.) shoved to the front, closely
+followed by Surgeon Robertson's Mother-in-law, who, with Lieutenant
+Shuckburg's Purely Patience, Mr. Dumreicher's First Love, and Surgeon
+Halle's Microbe, rather shut out Don Juan. They kept this order until
+rounding Tattenham Corner, when Mr. Dumreicher brought his camel to the
+front, proving to his backers that he meant business with his First Love,
+and won a splendid race by her neck, Don Juan making a good second, with
+Professional Beauty about a length behind.
+
+6.15 p.m.-Camel race, for sailors and soldiers. Once round and a
+distance. First prize, 10s.; second, 5s.; third, 2s. 6d. Eleven
+competitors turned up for this race, which was very well contested,
+although one of the camels appeared to think it too much trouble to run,
+and quietly squatted down immediately after the start, and could not be
+induced to join his fellows. Abdel Hal Hassin of the Coast Guard came in
+first, with Wickers of the Royal Artillery second, and Simpson of the
+commissariat and transport corps third.
+
+"Second camel race, for gentlemen riders. This was got up on the course
+by a sporting naval officer. Five camels started: G. O. M., Hartington,
+Goschen, Chamberlain, and Unionist. This looked a certainty for G. O. M.,
+as all but Unionist were in the same stable. However, the jockeys seem to
+have been 'got at,' for although G. O. M. got away with a good start, yet
+rounding the second corner he was shut out by a combined effort of
+Hartington, Goschen, Chamberlain, and Unionist, the latter winning, amid
+thunders of applause, by 30 lengths."
+
+Egypt is pre-eminently the land of backsheesh, and Alexandria, as the
+chief port of arrival and departure, naturally comes in for its share of
+this annoying attention. From ship to hotel, and from hotel to
+railway-station, the traveller has to run the gauntlet of people deeply
+versed in the subtle arts and wiles of backsheesh diplomacy. At any time,
+as you stroll down the street, some native will suddenly bob up like a
+sable ghost beside you, point out something you don't want to see, and
+brazenly demand backsheesh for showing it. Cook's tourists' office is but
+a few hundred yards from my hotel. I have passed it before, and know
+exactly where it is, but one of these dusky shadows glides silently
+behind me, until the office is nearly reached, when he slips ahead,
+points it out, and with consummate assurance demands backsheesh for
+guiding me to it. The worst of it is there is no such thing as getting
+rid of these pests; they are the most persevering and unscrupulous
+blackmailers in their own small way that could be imagined. People whom
+you could swear you never set eyes on before will boldly declare they
+have acted as guide or something, and dog your footsteps all over the
+city; most of them are as "umble" as Uriah Heep himself in their annoying
+importunities, but some will not even hesitate to create a scene to gain
+their object, and, as the easiest way to get rid of them, the harassed
+traveller generally gives them a coin.
+
+In leaving by the train, after one has backsheeshed the hungry swarm of
+hotel servitors, backsheeshed the porter who has doggedly persisted in
+coming with you to the station, regardless of repeatedly telling him he
+wasn't wanted, backsheeshed the baggage man, and bolted almost like a
+hunted thing into the railway-carriage from a small host of people who
+want backsheesh--one because he happened to detect your wandering
+gaze in search of the station clock and eagerly pointed out its
+whereabouts, another because he has told you, without being asked, that
+the train starts in ten minutes, another because he pointed out your
+carriage, which for a brief transitory instant you failed to recognize,
+and others for equally trivial things, for which they all seem keenly on
+the alert--you shut yourself in with a feeling of relief that must be
+something akin to escaping from a gang of brigands. King Backsheesh
+evidently rules supreme in Egypt yet.
+
+My route to India takes me along the Egyptian Railway to Suez, thence by
+steamer down the Red Sea to Aden and Karachi. A passenger train on this
+railway consists of carriages divided into classes as they are in
+England, the first and second class cars being modelled on the same lines
+as the English. The third-class cars, however, are mere boxes provided
+with seats, and with iron bars instead of windows. Nice airy vehicles
+these, where the conditions of climate render airiness desirable, but it
+must be extremely interesting to ride in one of them through an Egyptian
+sand-storm.
+
+At the Alexandria station, an old wrinkle-faced native, bronzed and
+leathery almost as an Egyptian mummy, pulls a bell-rope three times, the
+conductor comes to the car-window for the second time and examines your
+ticket, the engine gives a cracked shriek and pulls out. As the train
+glides through the suburbs one's attention is arrested by well-kept
+carriage-drives, lined and overarched with feathery palm-tree groves, and
+other evidences of municipal thrift.
+
+From the suburbs we plunge at once into a rich and populous agricultural
+country, the famed Nile Delta, of which a passing descriptive glimpse
+will not here be considered out of place. Cotton seems to be the most
+important crop as seen from the windows of my car, and for many a mile
+after leaving Alexandria we glide through luxuriant fields of that
+important Egyptian staple.
+
+Interspersed among the darker green of the growing cotton are fields of
+young rice, sometimes showing bright and green in contrast to the darker
+shade of the cotton, and sometimes being represented by square areas of
+glistening water, beneath which the young rice is submerged.
+
+The Nile Delta is a net-work of irrigating ditches from end to end. Large
+canals, big enough to float barges, and on which considerable commerce is
+carried, tap the Nile above the Delta, and traversing it in all
+directions, furnish water to systems of smaller ditches and canals, and
+these again to still smaller channels of distribution.
+
+The water in these channels is all below the surface, and a goodly
+proportion of the whole teeming population of the delta is engaged
+between seed-time and harvest in pumping the life-giving water from these
+ditches into the small surface trenches that conduct it over their fields
+and gardens. The water-pumping fellahs, ranged along the net-work of
+canals, often at intervals of not more than one hundred yards, create an
+impression of marvellous industry pervading the whole scene, as the train
+speeds its way alongside the larger canals.
+
+The pumping in most cases is done by men or buffaloes, and the
+clumsy-looking but effective Egyptian water-wheel, a rough wooden
+contrivance that as it revolves, raises the water from below and pours it
+from holes in the side into a wooden trough, from whence it flows over
+the field.
+
+Small rude shelters are erected close by, beneath which the attendant
+fellah can squat in the shade and keep the meek and gentle, but lazy
+buffaloes up to their task, by constant threats and bellicose
+demonstrations. Most of these animals are blindfolded, a contrivance
+that, no doubt, inspires them to pace round and round their weary circle
+with becoming perseverance, inasmuch as it tends to keep them in
+perpetual fear of the dusky driver beneath the shade.
+
+People too poor, or with holdings too small, to justify the employment of
+oxen in pumping water, raise it from the ditches themselves, with buckets
+at the end of long well-sweeps; in some localities one can cast his eye
+over the landscape and see scores of these rude sweeps continually rising
+and falling, rising and falling.
+
+A few windmills are also used for pumping, but the wind is a fickle thing
+to depend on, and his utter dependence on the water supply makes the
+Egyptian agriculturist unwilling to run such risks. Steam-engines, both
+stationary and portable, are observed at frequent intervals. Both the
+engines and the coal for fuel have to be imported from England; but they
+evidently pump enough water to repay the outlay, otherwise there would
+not be so many of them in use. It must be a rich, productive soil that
+can afford the expensive luxury of importing steam-engines and coal from
+a distant market to supply it with water for irrigation.
+
+The sediment from the Nile, which settles in the canals and ditches, is
+cleaned out at frequent intervals and spread over the fields, providing a
+new dressing of rich alluvial soil to annually stimulate the productive
+capacity of the soil.
+
+In the larger cotton-fields the dusky sons and daughters of Egypt are
+seen strung out in long rows, wielding cumbersome hoes, reminding one of
+old plantation days in Dixie; or they are paddling about in the inundated
+rice-fields like amphibious things. Swarms of happy youngsters are
+splashing about in the canals and ditches; all about is teeming with life
+and animation.
+
+Villages are populous and close together. They are, for the most part,
+mere jumbles of low, mud houses with curious domed roofs, and they rise
+above the dead level of the delta like mounds. Many of these villages
+have probably occupied the same site since the days of the Pharaohs, the
+debris and rubbish of centuries have accumulated and been built upon
+again and again as the unsubstantial mud dwellings have crumbled away,
+until they have gradually developed into mounds that rise like huge
+mole-hills above the plain, and on which the present houses are built.
+Near each village is a graveyard, also forming a mound-like excrescence
+on the dead level of the surrounding surface.
+
+At intervals the train passes some stately white mansion, looking lovely
+and picturesque enough for anything, peeping from a grove of date-palms
+or other indigenous vegetation. The tall, slender palms with their
+beautiful feathery foliage, lend a charm to the sunny Egyptian landscape
+with its golden dawns and sunsets that is simply indescribable. There
+seems no reason why every village on the whole delta should not be hiding
+its ugliness beneath a grove of this charming vegetation. Further east,
+near Fantah, nearly every village is found thus embowered, and date-palm
+groves form a very conspicuous feature of the landscape. One need hardly
+add that here the fellaheen look more intelligent, more prosperous and
+happy.
+
+At all the larger stations women come to the train with roast quails
+stuffed with rice, which they sell at six-pence apiece, and at every
+station along the line children bring water in the porous clay bottles of
+the country. This latter is badly needed, for the train rattles along
+most of the time in a stifling cloud of dust, that penetrates the car and
+settles over one in incredible quantities.
+
+During the afternoon we pass the battle-field of Tel-el-Kebre, the train
+whisking right through the centre of Arabi Pasha's earthworks. Near the
+battle-field is a little cemetery where the English soldiers killed in
+the battle were buried. The cemetery is kept green and tidy, and
+surrounded by a neat iron fence; amid the gray desert that begins at
+Tel-el-Kebre this little cemetery is the only bright spot immediately
+about. From Tel-el-Kebre to Suez the country is a sandy desert, where
+sand-fences, like the snow-fences of the Rocky Mountains, have been found
+necessary to protect the railway from the shifting sand. On this dreary
+waste are seen herds of camels, happy, no doubt, as clams at high tide,
+as they roam about and search for tough camel-thorn shrubs, that here and
+there protrude above the wavy ridges of white sand. Put a camel in a
+pasture of rich, succulent grass and he will roam about with a far-away,
+disconsolate look and an expression of disgust, but here, on the glaring
+white sands of the desert with nothing to browse upon but prickly dry
+shrubs he is in the seventh 'heaven of a camel's delight.
+
+Very curious it looks as we approach Suez to see the spars and masts of
+big steamers moving along the ship-canal, close at hand, without seeing
+anything of the water. The high dumps, representing the excavations from
+the canal, conceal everything but the masts and the top of the funnels
+even when one is close by.
+
+Several days are spent at Suez, waiting for the steamer which we will
+call the Mandarin, on which I am to take passage to Karachi. Suez is a
+wretched hole, although there is a passably good English hotel facing the
+water-front. It is the month of Bairam, however, and there is
+consequently a good deal of picturesque life in the native quarters.
+
+Suez seems swarming with guides, and as I am, for the greater part of a
+week, the only guest at the hotel, they show me far more attention than a
+dozen people would know what to do with. Some want to take me to see the
+place where Moses struck the rock, others urge me to visit the spot where
+the Israelites crossed the Red Sea; both these places being suspiciously
+handy to Suez.
+
+Donkey boys dog one's footsteps with their long-eared chargers, whenever
+one ventures outside the hotel. "I'm the Peninsular and Oriental Donkey
+Boy, sir, Jimmy Johnson; I have a good donkey, sir, when you want to
+ride, ask for Jimmy Johnson." To all this, sundry seductive offers are
+added, such as a short trial trip along the bund.
+
+The Mandarin comes along on July 7th, and a decidedly stably smell is
+wafted over the waters toward us as we follow behind her with the little
+launch that is to put me aboard when the steamer condescends to ease up
+and allow us to approach. The Mandarin, owing to the quarantine, has kept
+me waiting several days at Suez, and when at last she steams out of the
+canal and we give chase with the little launch, and finally range
+alongside, the whole length of the deck is observed to be bristling with
+ears. Some particularly hopeful agent of the Indian Government has been
+sanguine enough to ship one hundred and forty mules from Italy to Karachi
+during the monsoon season, on the deck of a notoriously rolling ship, and
+with nothing but temporary plank fittings to confine the mules. The mules
+are ranged along either side of the deck, seventy mules on each side,
+heads facing inward, and with posts and a two-inch plank separating them
+from the remainder of the deck, and into stalls of six mules each.
+Cocoanut matting is provided for them to stand on, and a plank nailed
+along the deck for them to brace their feet against when the vessel
+rolls. Nothing could be more happily arranged than this, providing the
+mules were unanimously agreed about remaining inside the railed-off
+space, and providing the monsoons had agreed not to roll the Mandarin
+violently about. With unpardonable short-sightedness, however, it seems
+that neither of these important factors in the case has been seriously
+considered or consulted, and, as an additional insult to the mules, the
+plank in front of them is elevated but four feet six above the deck.
+
+They are a choice lot of four-year-old mules, unbroken and wild,
+harum-skarum and skittish. Well-fed four-year-old mules are skin-full of
+deviltry under any circumstances, and ranged like so many red herrings in
+their boxes, with no exercise, and every motion of the ship jostling them
+against one another, they very quickly developed a capacity for
+simon-pure cussedness that caused the officers of the ship no little
+anxiety from day to day, and a good deal more anxiety when they reflected
+on the weather that would be encountered on the Indian Ocean.
+
+The officers of the Mandarin are excellent seamen; they are perfectly at
+home and at their ease when it comes to managing a vessel, but their
+knowledge of mules is not so profound and exhaustive as of vessels; in
+short, their experience of mules has hitherto been confined to casually
+noticing meek and sober-sided specimens attached to the street cars of
+certain cities they have visited. Three Italian muleteers have been hired
+to assist and instruct the coolies in feeding and watering the mules, and
+to supervise their general welfare. The three muleteers is an excellent
+arrangement, providing there were but three mules, but unfortunately
+there are one hundred and forty, and before they had been aboard the
+Mandarin two days it became apparent that they ought to have engaged an
+equal number of Italians to keep the mules out of devilment.
+
+Uneasy in their minds at the wild restlessness and seemingly dare-devil
+and inconsiderate pranks of their long-eared and unspeakable charges, the
+officers are naturally anxious to avail themselves of any stray grains of
+enlightenment concerning their management they might perchance drop on to
+by appealing to persons they come in contact with. Accordingly, one of
+them approaches me, the only passenger aboard, except some Hindoos
+returning home from a visit to the Colinderies, and asks me if I
+understand anything about mules. I modestly own up to having reared,
+broken, driven, and generally handled mules in the West, whereat the
+officer is much pleased, and proceeds to unburden his mind concerning the
+animals aboard the ship. "Fine young mules," he says they are, and in
+reply to a question of what the government of India is importing mules
+from Europe for, instead of raising them in India, he says he thinks they
+must be intended for breeding purposes.
+
+Understanding well enough that all this is quite natural and excusable in
+a sea-faring man, I succeed in checking a rising smile, and gently, but
+firmly, convince the officer of the erroneousness of this conclusion. The
+officer is delighted to find a person possessing so complete a knowledge
+of mules, and I am henceforth regarded as the oracle on this particular
+subject, and the person to be consulted in regard to sundry things they
+don't quite understand.
+
+Between the two-inch plank and the awning overhead is a space of about
+three feet; the mate says he is a trifle misty as to how a sixteen-hand
+mule can leap through this small space without touching either the plank
+or the awning; "and yet," he says, "there is hardly a mule on board that
+has not performed this seemingly miraculous feat over and over again, and
+a good many of them, make a practice of doing it every night." This
+jumping mania makes him feel uneasy every night, the mate goes on to
+explain, for fear some of the reckless and "light-heeled cusses" should
+make a mistake and jump over the bulwarks into the sea; the bulwarks are
+no higher than the plank, yet, while half the mules were found outside
+the plank every morning, none of them had happened to jump outside the
+bulwarks so far. Many of the mules, he says, were putting in most of
+their time bulldozing their fellows, and doing their best to make their
+life unbearable, and the downtrodden specimens seem so desperately scared
+of the bulldozers that he expects to see some of them jump overboard from
+sheer fright and desperation.
+
+At this juncture we are joined by another officer, and the mate joyfully
+informs him that I am a man who knows more about mules than anybody he
+had ever talked mule with. His brother officer is delighted to hear this,
+as he has been uneasy about the mules' appetites; they would devour all
+the hay and coarse feed they could get hold of, but didn't seem to have
+that constant hankering after grain that he had always understood to be
+part and parcel of a horse's, and, consequently, a mule's, nature. He
+knows something about horses, he says, for his wife keeps a pony in
+Scotland, and the pony would leave hay at any time to eat oats and bran;
+consequently, he thinks there must be something radically wrong with the
+mules; and yet they seem lively enough--in fact, they seem d-d lively.
+
+The two salts are also troubled somewhat in their minds at the marvellous
+kicking powers and propensities of the mules. One says he could
+understand an animal kicking to defend itself when attacked in the rear,
+or when anything tickled its heels, but the mules aboard the Mandarin had
+their heels in the air most of the time, and they battered away at one
+another, and pounded the iron bulwarks, without the slightest
+provocation. "Yes," chimes in the other officer, "and, more than that,
+I've seen 'em throw their heels clear over the bulwarks, kicking at a
+white-capped wave--if you'll believe me, sir, actually kicking at a
+white-capped wave--that happened to favor them with a trifle of
+spray." I say I have no doubt what the officer says is true, and not
+necessarily exaggerated, and the officer says: "No, there is no
+exaggeration about it. You'll see the same thing yourself before you've
+been aboard twelve hours. There'll be h-ll to pay aboard this ship when
+we strike the monsoons."
+
+After explaining to the officers that there are not men enough, nor
+bulldozing and tyrannical mules enough, aboard the Mandarin to scare the
+timidest mule of the consignment into jumping over the bulwarks into the
+sea; that it is quite natural for mules to prefer hay to bran and oats,
+and that it is as natural and necessary for a four-year-old mule to kick
+as it is to breathe, they thank me and say they shall sleep sounder
+tonight than they have for a week. The heat, as we steam slowly down the
+Red Sea, is almost overpowering at this time of the year, July. A
+universal calm prevails; day after day we glide through waters smooth as
+a mirror, resort to various expedients to keep cool, and witness fiery
+red sunsets every evening. Every day the deck presents a scene of
+animation, from the pranks and vagaries of our long-eared cargo.
+
+All goes well with them, however, as we glide along the placid bosom of
+the Red Sea; the oppressive heat has a wilting effect even on the riotous
+spirits of the young mules. They still exhibit their mulish contempt for
+the barriers reared so confidingly around them, and develop new and
+startling traits of devilment every day; but it is not until we leave
+Aden, and the long swells come rolling up from the monsoon region, that
+the real fun begins. The Mandarin lurches and rolls awfully, making it
+extremely difficult at times for any of the mules to keep their feet;
+each mule seems to think his next neighbor responsible for the jostling
+and crowding, and the kicking and squealing is continuous along both
+lines. While battering away at each other, each mule seems to be at the
+same time keeping a loose eye behind him for the oncoming waves and
+swells that occasionally curl over the bulwarks and irrigate and irritate
+them in the rear. Most of the mules seem capable of kicking at their
+neighbors and at a wave at the same time; but it is when their undivided
+attention is centred upon the crested billow of a swell that sweeps
+alongside the ship and flings a white, foamy cataract at the business end
+of each mule as it advances, that their marvellous heel-flinging capacity
+becomes apparent. Each mule batters frantically away as the wave strikes
+him, and the rattle of nimble and indignant hoofs on the iron bulwarks
+follows the wave along from one end of the ship to the other.
+
+One of the most arrogant and overbearing of the animals aboard is a
+ginger-colored mule stationed almost amidships on the starboard side.
+This mule soon develops the extraordinary capacity of casting its eye
+over the heaving waste of waters and distinguishing the particular wave
+that intends coming over the bulwarks long before it reaches the vessel.
+The historical arrogance of Canute's followers in thinking the waves
+would recede at his command, is nothing in comparison to the cheeky
+assumption of this ginger mule. This mule will fold back its ears, look
+wild, and raise its heels menacingly at a white-crested wave when the
+wave is yet a hundred yards away; and on the second day out from Aden its
+arrogance develops in such an alarming degree that it bristles up and
+lifts its heels at waves that its experience and never-flagging
+observation must have taught it wouldn't come half-way up the bulwarks!
+
+Now and then a mule will be caught off his guard and be flung violently
+to the deck, but the look of astonishment dies away as it nimbly regains
+its feet, and gives place to angry attack on its neighbor and a
+half-reproachful, half-apprehensive look at the sea. So far, however, the
+mules seem to more than hold their own, and, all oblivious of what is
+before them, they are comparatively happy and mischievous. But on the
+night of the third day out from Aden, the full force of the monsoon
+swells strikes the Mandarin, and, true to her character, she responds by
+rolling and pitching about in the trough of the sea in a manner that
+fills the mules with consternation, and ends in their utter collapse and
+demoralization. Planks break and give way as the whole body of mules are
+flung violently and simultaneously forward, and before midnight the mules
+are piled up in promiscuous and struggling heaps, while tons of water
+come on deck and wash and tumble them about in all imaginable shapes and
+forms.
+
+All hands are piped up and kept busy tying the mules' legs, to prevent
+them regaining their feet only to be flung violently down again in the
+midst of a struggling heap of their fellows. There is only one mule
+actually dead in the morning, but the others are the worst used up,
+discouraged lot of mules I ever saw. Mules that but the day before would
+nearly jump out of their skins if one attempted to pat their noses, now
+seem anxious to court human attention and to atone for past sins. Many of
+them are pretty badly skinned up and bruised, and a few of them are
+well-nigh flayed alive from being see-sawed back and forth about the
+deck. It is not a pleasant picture to dwell upon, and it would be much
+pleasanter to have to record that the mules proved too much for the
+monsoon, but truth will prevail, and before we reach Karachi the monsoon
+has scored fourteen mules dead and pretty much all the others more or
+less wounded. But this is no discredit to the mules; in fact, I have
+greater respect for the staying qualities of a mule than ever before,
+since the monsoon only secures ten per cent of them for the sharks after
+all.
+
+A week from Aden, and fourteen days from Suez we reach Karachi. The tide
+happens to be out at the time, and so we have to lay to till the
+following morning, when the Mandarin crosses the bar and drops anchor
+preparatory to unloading the now badly demoralized mules into lighters.
+
+Karachi bids fair to develop into a very prominent sea-port in the near
+future. The extension of the frontier into Beloochistan gives Karachi a
+strategic importance as the port of arrival of troops and war material
+from England. Not less is its importance from a purely commercial view;
+for down the Indus Valley Railway to Karachi for shipment, come the
+enormous and yearly increasing wheat exportations from the Punjab.
+
+Thus far my precise plans have been held in abeyance until my arrival on
+Indian soil. Whether I would find it practicable to start on the wheel
+again from Karachi, or whether it would be necessary to proceed to the
+northeast, I had not yet been able to find out. At any rate, it is always
+best to leave these matters until one gets on the spot.
+
+The result of my investigations at once proves the impossibility, even
+were it desirable, of starting from Karachi. The Indus River is at flood,
+inundating the country, which is also jungly and wild and without roads.
+The heat throughout Scinde in July is something terrific; and to endeavor
+to force a way through flooded jungle with a bicycle at such a time would
+be little short of madness.
+
+Under these conditions I decide to proceed by rail to Lahore, the capital
+of the Punjab, whence, I am told, there will be a good road all the way
+to Calcutta. As the crow flies, Lahore is nearer to Furrah than Karachi
+is, so that my purpose of making a continuous trail will be better served
+from that point anyhow.
+
+It is an interesting jaunt by rail up the Indus Valley; but one's first
+impression of India is sure to be one of disappointment by taking this
+route. It is a desert country, taken all in all, this historic Scinde;
+through which, however, the Indus Valley makes a narrow streak of
+agricultural richness.
+
+The cars on the railroad are provided with kus-kus tatties to mollify the
+intense heat. They are fixed into the windows so that the passengers may
+turn them round from time to time to raise the water from the lower half
+to the top, whence it trickles back again and cools the heated air that
+percolates through.
+
+The heat increases as we reach Rohri and Sukhar, where passengers are
+transferred by ferry across the Indus; the country seems a veritable
+furnace, cracking and blistering with heat. At Sukhar our train glides
+through some rich date-palms, the origin of which, legend says, were the
+date-stones thrown away by the soldiers of Alexander the Great. They seem
+to have taken root in congenial soil, anyway, for every tree is heavily
+laden with ripe and ripening dates. Reclining under the date-trees or
+wandering about are many dusky sons and daughters of Scinde, the latter
+in bright raiment and with children in no raiment whatever. The heat, the
+fruitful date-palms, and the lotus-eating natives combine to make up a
+truly tropical scene.
+
+Much of the country population seems to be nomadic, or semi-nomadic,
+dwelling in tents with which they remove to the higher ground when the
+Indus becomes inundated, and return again to the valley to cultivate and
+harvest their crops. They seem a picturesque people mostly, sometimes
+strangely incongruous in the matter of apparel, as, for instance, one I
+saw wearing a white breech-cloth and a hussar coat. This was the whole
+extent of his wardrobe, for he had neither shoes, shirt, nor hat.
+
+Water-buffaloes are wading and swimming about in the overflowed jungle,
+browsing off bulrushes and rank grass. Youngsters are sometimes seen
+perched on the buffaloes' backs, taking care of the herd.
+
+About Mooltan the aspect of the country changes to level, barren plain,
+and this, as we gradually approach Lahore, gives place to a cultivated
+country of marvellous richness. Here one first sees the matchless kunkah
+roads, traversing the country from town to town, the first glimpse of
+which is very reassuring to me.
+
+It is July 28th when I at length find myself in Lahore. The heat is not
+only well-nigh unbearable, but dangerous. Prickly heat has seized hold
+upon me with a promptness that is anything but agreeable; the thermometer
+in my room at Clarke's Hotel registers 108 deg. at midnight. A
+punkah-wallah is indispensable night and day.
+
+A couple of days are spent in affixing a new set of tires to my wheel and
+seeing something of the lions of Lahore. The Shalamar Mango Gardens, a
+few miles east of the city, and Shah-Jehan's fort, museum, etc., are the
+regular things to visit.
+
+In the museum is a rare collection of ancient Asiatic arms, some of which
+throw a new light on the origin of modern firearms. Here are revolving
+muskets that were no doubt used long before the revolving principle was
+ever applied to arms in the West. But our narrative must not linger amid
+the antiquities of Lahore, fascinating as they may, peradventure, be.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THROUGH INDIA.
+
+The heat is intense, being at the end of the heated term at the
+commencement of the earliest monsoons. It is certainly not less than 130
+deg. Fahr., in the sun, when at 3 p.m. I mount and shape my course toward
+Amritza, some thirty-five miles down the Grand Trunk Road.
+
+In such a temperature and beneath such a sun it behooves the discreet
+Caucasian to dress as carefully for protection against the heat as he
+would against the frost of an Arctic winter. The United States army
+helmet which I have constantly worn since obtaining it at Fort Sydney,
+Neb., has now to be discarded in favor of a huge pith solar topee an inch
+thick and but little smaller than an umbrella. This overshadowing
+head-dress imparts a cheerful, mushroom-like aspect to my person, and
+casts a shadow on the smooth whitish surface of the road, as I ride
+along, that well-nigh obliterates the shadow of the wheel and its rider.
+
+Thus sheltered from the rays of the Indian sun, I wheel through the
+beautifully shaded suburban streets of Lahore, past dense thickets of
+fruitful plantains, across the broad switch-yard of the Scinde, Delhi &
+Punjab Railway, and out on to the smooth, level surface of the Grand
+Trunk Road. This road is, beyond a doubt, the finest highway in the whole
+world. It extends for nearly sixteen hundred miles, an unbroken highway
+of marvellous perfection, from Peshawur on the Afghan frontier to
+Calcutta. It is metalled for much of its length with a substance peculiar
+to the country, known as kunkah. Kunkah is obtained almost anywhere
+throughout the Land of the Five Rivers, underlying the surface soil. It
+is a sort of loose nodular limestone, which when wetted and rolled
+cements together and forms a road-surface smooth and compact as an
+asphaltum pavement, and of excellent wearing quality. It is a magnificent
+road to bicycle over; not only is it broad, level, and smooth, but for
+much of the way it is converted into a veritable avenue by spreading
+shade-trees on either side. Far and near the rich Indian vegetation,
+stimulated to wear its loveliest garb by the early monsoon rains, is
+intensely green and luxuriant; and through the richly verdant landscape
+stretches the wide, straight belt of the road, far as eye can reach, a
+whitish streak, glaring and quivering with reflected heat.
+
+The natives of the Punjab, the most loyal, perhaps, of the Indian races,
+are beginning to regard the Christian Sabbath as a holiday, and happy
+crowds of people in holiday attire are gathered at the Shalamar Mango
+Gardens, a few miles out of Lahore. Beyond the gardens, I meet a native
+in a big red turban and white clothes, en route to Lahore on a
+bone-shaker. He is pedalling ambitiously along, with his umbrella under
+his left arm. As we approach each other his swarthy countenance lights up
+with a "glad, fraternal smile," and his hand touches his turban in
+recognition of the mystic brotherhood of the wheel. There is a mysterious
+bond of sympathy recognizable even between the old native-made
+bone-shaker and its Punjabi rider and the pale-faced Ferenghi Sahib
+mounted on his graceful triumph of Western ingenuity and mechanical
+skill. The free display of ivories as we approach, the expectation of
+fraternal recognition so plainly evident in his face, and the friendly
+and respectful, rather than obsequious, manner of saluting, tell
+something of that levelling tendency of the wheel we sometimes hear
+spoken of.
+
+The park-like expanse of country on either hand continues as mile after
+mile is reeled off; the shady trees, the ruins, the villages, and the
+roadside kos-minars, with the perfect highway leading through it all--what
+more could wheelman ask than this. A wayside police-chowkee is now seen
+ahead, a snug little edifice of brick beneath the sacred branches of a
+spreading peepul. A six-foot Sikh, in the red-and-blue turban and neat
+blue uniform of the Punjab soldier-police, stands at the door and
+executes a stiff military salute as I wheel past. A row of conical white
+pillars and a grass-grown plot of ground containing a few bungalows and
+camping space for a regiment indicate a military reservation. These
+spaces are reserved at intervals of ten or twelve miles all down the
+Grand Trunk Road; the distance from each represents a day's march for
+Indian troops in time of peace.
+
+A bend in the road, and the bicycle sweeps over a substantial brick
+bridge, spanning an irrigating canal large enough to float a three-masted
+schooner. The bridge and the ditch convey early evidence of English
+enterprise no less conspicuous than the road itself. Neatly trimmed banks
+and a tropical luxuriance of overhanging vegetation give the long
+straight reach of water the charming appearance of flowing through a
+leafy tunnel. Under the stimulus of the monsoon rains and the more than
+tropical heat, the soil seems bursting with fatness, and earth, air, and
+water are teeming with life. The roadway itself is swarming with
+pedestrians, trudging along in both directions; some there are with the
+inevitable umbrellas held above their heads, but more are carrying them
+under their arms, as though in lofty contempt of 130 deg. Fahr.
+
+Vehicles jingle past by the hundred, filled with villagers who have been
+visiting or shopping at Lahore or Amritza. Their light bamboo carts are
+provided with numbers of little brass cymbals that clash together
+musically in response to the motion of the vehicle; the occupants are
+fairly loaded down with silver jewellery, and for color and
+picturesqueness generally it is safe to assume that "not even Solomon in
+all his glory was arrayed like one of these." The women particularly seem
+to literally revel in the exuberance of bright coloring adorning their
+dusky proportions, the profusion of jewellery, the merry jingle-jangle of
+the cymbals, the more than generous heat, and the seeming bountifulness
+of everything. These Sikh and Jatni merry-makers early impress me as
+being particularly happy and light-hearted people.
+
+Splendid wheeling though it be, it soon becomes distressingly apparent
+that propelling a bicycle has now to be considered in connection with the
+overpowering heat. Half the distance to Amritza is hardly covered, and
+the riding time scarcely two hours, yet it finds me reclining beneath the
+shade of a roadside tree more used up than five times the distance would
+warrant in a less enervating climate. The greensward around me as I
+recline in the shade is teeming with busy insects, and the trees are
+swarming with the beautiful winged life of the tropical air. Flocks of
+paroquets with most gorgeous plumage--blue, red, green, gold, and every
+conceivable hue--flit hither and thither, or sweep past in whirring
+flight.
+
+Some of the native pedestrians pause for a moment and cast a wondering
+look at the unaccustomed spectacle of a Sahib and a bicycle reclining
+alone beneath a wayside tree. All salaam deferentially as they pass by,
+but there is a refreshing absence of the spirit of obtrusion that
+sometimes made life a burden among the Turks and Persians. In his disgust
+at the aggressive curiosity of the Persians, Captain E, my companion from
+Meshed to Constantinople, had told me, "You'll find, when you get to
+India, that a Sahib there is a Sahib," and the strikingly deferential
+demeanor of the natives I have encountered on the road to-day forcibly
+reminds me of his remarks.
+
+The myriads of soldier-ants crossing the road in solid phalanx or
+climbing the trees, the winged jewels of the air flitting silently here
+and there, the picturesque natives and their deferential salaams--all
+these only serve to wean one's thoughts from the oppressive heat for a
+moment. At times one fairly gasps for breath and looks involuntarily
+about in forlorn search of some place of escape, if only for a moment,
+from the stifling atmosphere. A feeling of utter lassitude and loss of
+ambition comes over one; the importance of accomplishing one's object
+diminishes, and the necessity of yielding to the pressure of the fearful
+heat and taking things easy becomes the all-absorbing theme of the
+imagination. A supreme and heroic effort of the will is necessary to
+arouse one from the inclination to remain in the shade indefinitely,
+regardless of everything else.
+
+No sort of accommodation is to be obtained this side of Amritza, however,
+so, waiting until the dreadful power of the sun is tempered somewhat by
+his retirement beneath the trees, I resume my journey, making several
+brief halts in deference to an overwhelming sense of lassitude ere
+completing the thirty-five miles. Owing to these frequent halts, it is
+after dark when I arrive at Amritza--a thoroughly wilted individual,
+and suffering agonies from the prickly heat aggravated by the feverish
+temperature superinduced by the exertion of the afternoon ride. My karki
+suit and underclothes hold almost as much moisture as though I had just
+been fished out of the river, and my dry-drained corporeal system is
+clamorous for the wherewithal to quench the fires of its feverish heat as
+I alight in the suburbs of Amritza and inquire for the dak bungalow.
+
+A willing native guides me to a hotel where a smooth-mannered Parsee
+Boniface accommodates Sahibs with supper, charpoy, and chota-hazari for
+the small sum of Rs4; punkah-wallahs, pahnee-wallahs, sweepers, etc.,
+extra. A cooling douche with water kept at a low temperature in the
+celebrated porous bottles, a change of underclothing, and a punkah-wallah
+vigorously engaged in creating an artificial breeze, soon change things
+for the better. All these refreshing and renovating appliances, however,
+barely suffice to stimulate one's energy up to the duty of jotting down
+in one's diary a brief summary of the day's happenings.
+
+The punkah of India is a long, narrow fan, suspended by cords from the
+ceiling; attached to it is another cord which finds its way outside
+through a convenient hole in the wall or window-frame. For the
+magnificent sum of three annas (six cents) the hopeful punkah-wallah sits
+outside and fills the room with soothing, sleep-inducing breezes for the
+space of a day or night, by a constant seesawing motion of the string.
+Few Europeans are able to sleep at night or exist during the day without
+the punkah-wallah's services, for at least nine months in the year. The
+slightest negligence on his part at night is sufficient to summon the
+sleeper instantly from the land of dreams to the stern reality that the
+dusky imp outside has himself dropped off to sleep. A pardonable
+imprecation, delivered in loud, threatening tones; or, in the case of a
+person vengefully inclined, or once too often made a victim, a stealthy
+visit to the open door, a well-aimed boot, and the pendulous punkah again
+swings to and fro, banishing the newly awakened prickly heat, and fanning
+the recumbent figure on the charpoy with grateful breezes that quickly
+send him off to sleep again.
+
+A slight fall of rain during the night tempers somewhat the oppressive
+heat, and the zephyrs of the prevailing monsoons blow stiffly against me
+as I pedal southward in the early morning. The rain has improved rather
+than injured the kunkah road, and it is, moreover, something of a toss-up
+as to whether the adverse wind is advantageous or otherwise. On the one
+hand it exacts increased muscular effort to ride against it, but on the
+other, its beneficent services as a cooler are measurably apparent.
+
+One needs only to traverse the Grand Trunk Road for a few days in order
+to obtain a comprehensive idea of India's teeming population. Vehicles
+and pedestrians throng the road again this morning, pouring into Amritza
+as though to attend some great festival. The impression of some festive
+occasion obtains additional color from parties of musicians who keep up a
+perpetual tom-tom-ing on their drums as they trudge along; the object of
+their noisiness is apparently to gratify their own love of the sounding
+rattle of the drums.
+
+At the police-chowkee of Ghundeala, ten miles from Amritza, a halt is
+made for rest and a drink of water. To avoid trampling on the caste
+prejudices, or the sanctimonious religious feelings of the natives,
+everybody drinks from his hands, or from a cheap earthenware dish that
+may afterward be smashed. The Sikhs and Mohammedans of the Punjab are far
+more reasonable in this matter than are the Brahmans and other ultra-holy
+idolaters of the country farther south. Among the Hindoos, where caste
+prejudices exist throughout all the strata of society, to avoid the awful
+consequences of touching their lips to a vessel out of which some
+unworthy wretch a shade less holy has previously drunk, the fastidious
+worshipper of Krishna, Vishnu, or Kamadeva always drinks from his hands,
+unless possessed of a private drinking vessel of his own. The hands are
+held in position to form a trough leading to the mouth; while an
+assistant pours water in at one end, the recipient receives it at the
+other. No little skill and care is required to prevent the water running
+down one's sleeve: the average native seems to think the human throat a
+gutter down which the water will flow as fast as he can pour it into the
+hands.
+
+The flowing yellow flood of Beas River, now at flood, and spreading
+itself over the width of a mile, makes an impassable break in my road
+soon after mid-day. A ferryboat usually plies across the stream, but by
+reason of the broad area of overflow, and the consequent difficulty of
+working it, it is moored up for the time being. Fortunately, the Scinde,
+Punjab & Delhi Railroad crosses the river on a fine bridge near by, with
+a regular ferry-train service in operation. Repairing thither, I find, in
+charge of the ferry-train, an old Anglo-Indian engineer, who prevails
+upon me to accept his hospitality for the night.
+
+Hundreds of natives pass the night round about the railway-station,
+waiting to cross the bridge on the first morning train. Nowhere else in
+the world does a gathering of people present so picturesque and
+interesting a sight as in sunny Hindostan. These people gathered about
+the Beas River station look more like a company rigged out for the
+spectacular stage than ordinary, everyday mortals attending to the
+prosaic business of life. The nose-rings worn by many of the women are so
+massive and heavy that silken cords are attached and carried to some
+support on the head to relieve the nostril of the weight. The rims of the
+ears are likewise grievously overburdened with ornaments. These
+unoffending appendages are pierced with a number of holes all round the
+rim from lobe to top; each hole contains a massive ring almost large and
+heavy enough for a bracelet, the weight of which pulls the ear all out of
+shape. Simple yet gaudy costumes prevail-garments of red, yellow, blue,
+green, olive, and white, with gold tinsel, drape the graceful forms of
+the dusky Sikh or Jatni belles; and not a whit less picturesque and
+parti-colored are the costumes of their husbands, brothers, and
+fathers-fine fellows mostly, tall, straight, military-looking men, with
+handsome faces and fierce mustashios. Not a few thoroughbred Jats are
+mingled in the crowd--the "stout-built, thick-limbed Jats," the
+warlike race with the steel or silver discus surmounting their queer
+pyramidal headdress. Under the independent government of their people by
+the Gurus, or ruler-priests, of the last century, and particularly under
+the regulations of the celebrated Guru Govind, every Sikh was considered
+a warrior from his birth, and was always required to wear steel iri some
+form or other about his person. The Jats, being the most enterprising and
+warlike tribe of the territory acknowledging the rule of the Gurus and
+the religious teachings of the Adi Granth as their faith, take especial
+pride in commemorating the bravery and warlike qualities of their
+ancestors by still wearing the distinguishing steel quoits on their
+heads.
+
+Seesum or banyan trees, shading twenty yards' width of luxuriant
+greensward on either side of the road, and each and every tree
+sheltering groups of natives, resting, idling, washing their clothes in
+some silent pool, or tending a few grazing buffaloes, form a truly
+Arcadian scene for mile after mile next day. These buffaloes are huge,
+unwieldy animals with black, hairless hides, strong and heavy almost as
+rhinoceroses. In striking contrast to them are the aristocratic little
+cream-colored Brahmani cows, with the curious big "camel-hump" on their
+withers. These latter animals are pampered and revered and made much of
+among the Brahmans; mythology has it that Brahma created cows and
+Brahmans at the same time, and the cow is therefore an object of worship
+and veneration.
+
+Taken all in all, the worship of the Hindoos has something eminently
+rational about it; their worship is frequently bestowed upon some
+tangible object that contributes directly to their material enjoyment. It
+is very much like going back to the first principles of gratitude for
+direct blessings received to worship "Mother Ganga," the noble stream
+that brings down the moisture from the Himalayas to water their plains
+and quicken into life their needy crops, or to worship the gentle bovine
+that provides them daily with milk and cheese and ghee. Wonderful legends
+are told of the cow in Hindoo mythology. The Ramayana tells of a certain
+marvellous cow owned by a renowned hermit. The hermit being honored by a
+visit from the king, who had with him a numerous retinue, was sorely
+puzzled how to provide refreshments for his princely guests. The cow,
+however, proved herself equal to the emergency, and--"Obedient to
+her saintly lord, Viands to suit each taste outpoured. Honey she gave,
+and roasted grain, Mead, sweet with flowers, and sugar-cane. Each
+beverage of flavor rare, And food of every sort, were there. Hills of hot
+rice, and sweetened cakes, And curdled milk, and soup in lakes. Vast
+beakers flowing to the brim, With sugared drink prepared for him; And
+dainty sweetmeats, deftly made, Before the hermit's guest were laid."
+
+In all Brahman communities are sacred bulls, allowed to roam at their own
+sweet will among the crops and help themselves.
+
+Chowel and dood (rice-and-milk) is obtained at noon from a village
+eating-stall; the rice is dished up to all customers in basins improvised
+from a broad banyan-leaf, so that nobody's caste may be jeopardized by
+handling spoons or dishes that others have touched. Most of the natives
+manage to eat with their fingers, but they bring for the Sahib a stiff
+green leaf which is bent into the form of a scoop and made to answer the
+purpose of a spoon. The milk is served in valueless earthenware basins
+that are tossed into the street and broken after being once used. There
+is a regular caste of artisans in India whose hereditary profession is
+the manufacture of this cheap pottery; almost every village has its
+family of pottery-makers, who manufacture them for the use of the
+community. The people are curious about the bicycle, and the Sahib's
+peculiar manner of travelling without the usual native servant and eating
+rice at an ordinary village stall. They are, however, far from being in
+the least obtrusive or annoying; on the contrary, their respectfulness
+and conservatism is something to admire; although they gather about the
+bicycle in a compact ring, not a hand in all the company is meddlesome
+enough to touch it.
+
+Through the smooth kunkah-laid bazaars of Jullundar, so different from
+the unridable bazaars we have heretofore been made familiar with, and I
+wheel past the Queen's Gardens and into the cantonment along lovely
+avenues and perfect roads. The detachment of Royal Artillery, whose
+quarters my road leads directly past, is composed largely of the gallant
+sons of Erin, and as I wheel into the cantonment, an artilleryman seated
+on a eharpoy beneath a spreading neem-tree, sings out to his comrades,
+"Be jabbers, bhoys; here's the Yankee phat's travellin' around the
+worruld wid a bicycle."
+
+I have with me a letter of introduction to an officer stationed at
+Jullundar. Upon inquiry, however, I find that he is absent at Simla on
+leave. Desirous of seeing something of Tommy Atkins in his Indian
+quarters, I therefore accept an invitation to remain at the barracks of
+the Royal Artillery until ready to resume my journey in the morning. At
+this season of the year, an Indian cantonment presents the appearance of
+a magnificent park. The barracks are large, commodious structures, built
+with a view to securing the best results for the health and comfort of
+the troops.
+
+No soldiers in the world are so well fed, housed, and clothed as the
+British soldiers in India, and none receive as much pay, except the
+soldiers of the United States army. That they are justly entitled to
+everything that can contribute to their happiness and welfare, goes
+without saying. For actual service rendered, and the importance of the
+responsibilities resting on their shoulders, it is little enough to say
+that the British soldiers in India are entitled to a greater measure of
+consideration than the soldiers of any other army in existence. This
+little army of fifty or sixty thousand men is practically responsible for
+the good behavior of one-sixth of the world's population, saying nothing
+of affairs without. And in addition to this is the wearisome round of
+existence in an Indian barrack, the enervating climate and the ennui, so
+poisonous to the active Anglo-Saxon temperament.
+
+After all that is said for or against the Anglo-Indian army, the
+unprejudiced critic cannot fail to admit that they are the finest body of
+fighting men in existence, a force against which it would be impossible
+for an equal number of the soldiers of any other country to contend. That
+the old dominant spirit of the British soldier is yet rampant as ever may
+be seen, perhaps, plainer in the cantonments of India than anywhere else.
+The manifest superiority of Tommy Atkins as a fighter stands out in bold
+relief against the gentle populations of India, who regard him as the
+very incarnation of war and warlike attributes. His own confidence in his
+ability to whip all the multitudinous enemies of England put together, is
+as great to-day as it ever was, and nothing would suit him better than a
+campaign against the military colossus of the North in defence of the
+British interests in India he now so faithfully guards.
+
+The interest in my appearance is deepened by my recent adventures in
+Afghanistan and letters partly descriptive of the same that have appeared
+in late issues of the Indian press. A mile or so from the Artillery
+barracks are the quarters of a detachment of the Connaught Rangers. A
+couple of non-commissioned officers in the Rangers, I am happy to
+discover, are wheelmen, and when the tidings of the Around the World
+rider's arrival reaches them, they wheel over and endeavor to have me
+become their guest. The Royal Artillery boys refuse to give their protege
+up, however, and the rivalry is compromised by my paying the Rangers a
+visit and then coming back to my first entertainers' quarters for the
+night.
+
+The evening is spent pleasantly in telling stories of camp-life in India
+and Afghanistan. Some of the soldiers present have been recently
+stationed at Peshawur and other points near the northern frontier, and
+tell of the extraordinary precautions that had to be adopted to prevent
+their rifles being stolen at night from the very racks within the
+barrack-rooms where they were sleeping.
+
+An officer at the cantonment claims to have cured himself of enlarged
+spleen, the bane of so many Anglo-Indian officers, by daily riding on a
+tricycle. He then disposed of it to advantage to a native gentleman who
+had noted the marvellous improvement it had wrought in his health, and
+who was also affected with the same disease. The native also cured
+himself, and now firmly believes the tricycle possessed of some magic
+properties.
+
+Reliefs of punkah-wallahs are provided for the barracks, a number of
+punkahs being connected so that one coolie fans the occupants of a dozen
+or more charpoys. In talking about these useful and very necessary
+servants, some of the comments indulged in by the gentleman who first
+invited me into the barracks are well worth repeating: "Be jabbers, an'
+yeez have to kape wide awake all night to swear at the lazy divils, in
+orther to git a wink av shlape"--and--"The moment yeez dhrap
+ashlape, yeez are awake," are choice specimens, heard in reference to the
+punkah-wallahs' confirmed habit of dozing off in the silent watches of
+the night.
+
+The two wheelmen of the Connaught Rangers, accompany me five miles to the
+Bane River ferry, in the cool of early morning. They would have escorted
+me as far as Umballa, they say, had they known of my coming in time to
+arrange leave' of absence. Twenty-five miles of continuously smooth and
+level kunkah, bring me to Phillour, a Mohammedan town of several thousand
+inhabitants. The fort of Phillour is a conspicuous object on the left of
+the road; it was formerly an important depot of military supplies, and in
+the time of Sikh independence was regarded by them as the key to the
+Punjab. Since the mutiny it has dwindled in importance as a military
+stronghold, but is held by a detachment of native infantry.
+
+A mile or so from Phillour is a splendid girder railway bridge crossing
+the River Sutlej. The overflow of the river extends for miles, converting
+the depressions into lakes and the dry ditches into sloughs and creeks.
+Resting under the shade of a peepul-tree, I while away a passing hour
+watching native fishermen endeavoring to beguile the finny denizens of
+the overflow into their custody. Their tactics are to stir up the water
+and make it muddy for a space around, so that the fish cannot see them;
+they then toss a flat disk of wood so that it falls with an audible
+splash a few yards away. This manoeuvre is intended to deceive the fish
+into thinking something eatable has fallen into the water. Woe betide the
+guileless fish, however, whose innocent, confiding nature is thus imposed
+upon, for "swish" goes a circular drop-net over the spot, from the meshes
+of which the luckless captive tries in vain to struggle.
+
+The River Sutlej has its source in the holy lake of Manas Saro-vara, in
+Thibet's most mountainous regions, and for several hundred miles its
+course leads through mighty canons, grand and rugged as the canons of the
+Colorado and the Gunnison. It is on the upper reaches of the Sutlej that
+the celebrated swing bridges called karorus are in operation. A karorus
+consists of a bagar-grass or yak-hair rope, stretched from bank to bank,
+across which passengers are pulled, suspended in a swinging chair or
+basket. The karorus is also largely patronized by the swarms of monkeys
+inhabitating the foot-hill jungles of the Himalayas; nothing could well
+be more congenial to these festive animals than the Blondin-like
+performance of crossing over some deep, roaring gorge along the swaying
+rope of a karorus.
+
+Like other rivers of the level Punjab plains, the Sutlej has at various
+times meandered from its legitimate channel; eight miles south of its
+present bed the large and flourishing city of Ludhiana once stood on its
+bank. Ludhiana and its dak bungalow, provides refreshments and a three
+hours' siesta beneath the cooling and seductive punkah, besides an
+interesting and instructive tete-a-tete with a Eurasian civil officer
+spending the day here. Among other startling confidences, this
+olive-tinted gentleman declares that to him the punkah is unbearable, its
+pendulous, swinging motion invariably making him "sea-sick."
+
+Through a country of alternate sandy downs and grazing areas my road
+leads at length through the territory of the Rajah of Sir-hind.
+Picturesque and impressive fortresses, and high, crenellated stone walls
+around the villages give the rajah's little dominion here a most decided
+mediaeval appearance, and dark, dense patches of sugar-cane attest the
+marvellous richness of the sandy soil, wherever water can be applied.
+Moreover, as if to complete the interesting picture of a native prince's
+rule, on the road is encountered a gayly dressed party in charge of some
+youthful big-wig on a monster elephant. A thick, striped mattress makes a
+soft platform on the elephant's broad back, and here the young voluptuary
+squats as naturally as on the floor of his room. Some of the attendants
+are dancing along before him, noisily knuckling tambourines and drums,
+while others trudge alongside or behind. The elephant regards the bicycle
+with symptoms of mild apprehension, and swerves slightly to one side.
+
+The police-officer of Kermandalah chowkee, just off the Rajah of
+Sirhind's territory, voluntarily tenders me the shelter of his quarters,
+just as the sun is finishing his race for the day by painting the sky
+with fanciful tints and streaks. The long, straight avenue which I have
+wheeled down, for miles hereabout runs east and west. The sun, rotund and
+fiery, sets immediately in the perspective of the avenue; and at his
+disappearance there shoot from the same point iridescent javelins that
+spread, fan-like, over the whole heavens. A sight never to be forgotten
+is the long white road and the ribs of the glorious celestial fan meeting
+together in the vista-like distance; and--oh, for the brush and
+palette and genius of a Turner!--one of the rainbow-tinted javelins
+spits the crescent moon and holds it to toast before the glowing sunset
+fires, like a piece of green cheese.
+
+The heat of the night is ominously suggestive of shed's popularly
+conceived temperature, and, in the absence of the customary punkah and
+nodding, see-sawing wallah, a villager is employed to sit beside my
+charpoy and agitate the air immediately about my head with a big
+palm-leaf fan. But sleep is next to impossible; the morning finds me
+feeling but little refreshed and with a decided yearning to remain all
+day long in the shade instead of taking to the road. Not a moment's
+respite is possible from the oppressive heat; an hour in the saddle
+develops a sensation of grogginess and an amphibian inclination for
+wallowing in some road-side tank.
+
+South of Sirhind the country develops into low, flat jungle, with much of
+it partly overflowed. The road through these semi-submerged lowlands is
+an embankment, rising many feet above the general level, and provided
+with numerous culverts and bridges to prevent the damming of the waters
+and the danger of washing away the road. The jungle is full of busy life.
+The air is thick with the low, murmuring hum of busy insect-life, birds
+shriek, whistle, call, hoot, peep, chirp, and sing among the intertwining
+branches, and frogs croak hoarsely in the watery shallows beneath.
+Noises, too, are heard, that would puzzle, I venture to say, many a
+scholarly, book-wise and specimen-wise naturalist to define as coming
+from the articulatory organs of bird, beast, or fish. The slow, measured
+sweep of giant wings beating the air is heard above, and the next moment
+a huge bustard floats down through the trees and alights in a moist
+footing of jungle-grass and water.
+
+A little Brahman village at the railway station of Rajpaira is reached in
+the middle of the afternoon; but it provides little or nothing in the way
+of accommodation for a European. The chow-keedar of the dak bungalow
+blandly declares his inability to provide anything eatable for a Sahib,
+and the Eurasian employes at the railway station are unaccommodating and
+indifferent, owing to the travel-stained and ordinary appearance of my
+apparel. The Eurasians, by the by, impress me far less favorably as a
+race than do the better-class full-blood natives. It seems to be the
+unfortunate fate of most mixed races to inherit the more undesirable
+qualities of both progenitors, and the better characteristics of neither.
+No less than the mongrel populations of certain West Indian islands, the
+Spanish-speaking republics, and the mulattoes of the Southern States, do
+the Eurasians of India present in their character eloquent argumentation
+against the error of miscegenation.
+
+A little Brahman village is anything but, an encouraging place for a
+traveller to penetrate in search of eatables. A thin, yellow-skinned
+Brahman, with a calico fig-leaf suspended from a cocoa-nut-fibre
+waist-string, and the white-and-red tattooing of his holy caste on his
+forehead, presides over a big lump of goodakoo (a preparation of tobacco,
+rose-leaves, jaggeree, bananas, opium, and cardamom seed, used for
+hookah-smoking), and his double performs the same office for sickly, warm
+goats' milk and doughy, unleavened chup-patties. Uninviting as is the
+prospect, one is compelled, by the total absence of any alternative, to
+patronize the proprietor of the latter articles.
+
+As I step inside his little shed-like establishment to see what he has,
+he holds up his hands in holy trepidation at the unhallowed intrusion,
+and begs me to be seated outside. My entrance causes as much
+consternation as the traditional bull in the china shop, the explanation
+of which is to be found in the fact that anything I might happen to touch
+becomes at once defiled beyond redemption for the consumption of native
+customers. With the weather wilting hot, doughy chuppaties and lukewarm,
+unstrained, strong-tasting goats' milk can scarcely be called an
+appetizing meal, and the latter is served in the usual cheap, earthenware
+platter, which is at once tossed out and broken.
+
+The natives of India are probably less concerned about their stomachs
+than the people of any other country in the world. They seem to delight
+in fasting, and growing thin and emaciated; their ordinary meal is a
+handful of parched grain and a few swallows of milk or water. Among the
+aesthetic Brahmans are many specimens reduced by habitual fasting and
+general meagreness of diet to the condition of living skeletons; yet they
+seem to enjoy splendid health, and live to a shrivelled old age. The
+Brahman shop-keeper squats contentedly among his wares, passing the hours
+in dreamy meditation and in consoling pipes of goodakoo. Nothing seems to
+disturb his calm serenity, any more than the reposeful expression on the
+countenance of a marble Buddha could be affected--nothing but the
+approach of a Sahib toward his shop. It is interesting to observe the
+mingled play of politeness, apprehension, and alarm in the actions of a
+Brahman shopkeeper at the appearance of a blundering, but withal
+well-meaning Sahib, among his wares. Knowing, from long experience, that
+the Englishman would on no account wilfully injure his property or
+trample wantonly on his caste prejudices, he is at his wits' end to
+comport himself deferentially and at the same time prevent anything from
+being handled. Money has to be placed where the Brahman can pick it up
+without incurring the awful danger of personal contact with an unhallowed
+kaffir.
+
+The fifty miles, that from the splendid condition of the roads I have
+thought little enough for the average day's run, is duly reeled off as I
+ride into the splendid civil lines and cantonment of Um-balla at dusk.
+But my few days' experience on the roads of India have sufficed to
+convince me that fifty miles is entirely beyond the bounds of discretion.
+It is, in fact, beyond the bounds of discretion to be riding any distance
+in the present season here; fifty miles is overcome to-day only by the
+exercise of almost superhuman will-power.
+
+The average native, when asked for the dak bungalow, is quite as likely
+to direct one to the post-office, the kutcherry, or any other government
+building, from a seeming inability to discriminate between them. At the
+entrance to Umballa one of these hopeful participants in the blessings of
+enlightened government informs me, with sundry obsequious salaams, that
+the dak bungalow is four miles farther. So thoroughly has my fifty-mile
+ride used up my energy that even this four miles, on a most perfect road,
+seems utterly impossible of accomplishment; besides which, experience has
+taught that following the directions given would very likely bring me to
+the post-office and farther away from the dak bungalow than ever.
+
+Above the trees, not far away, is observed the weathercock of a
+chapel-spire, plainly indicating the location of the European quarter.
+Taking a branch road leading in that direction, I discover a party of
+English and native gentlemen playing a game of lawn-tennis. Arriving on
+the scene just as the game is breaking up, I am cordially invited to
+"come in and take a peg." To the uninitiated a "peg" is a rather
+ambiguous term, but to the Anglo-Indian its interpretation takes the
+seductive form of a big tumbler of brandy and soda, a "long drink," than
+which nothing could be more acceptable in my present fagged-out
+condition. No hesitation is therefore made in accepting; and, under the
+stimulating influence of the generous brandy and soda, exhausted nature
+is quickly recuperated. While not an advocate of indiscriminate
+indulgence in alcoholic stimulants, after an enervating ride through the
+wilting heat of an Indian day I am convinced that nothing is more
+beneficial than what Anglo-Indians laconically describe as a "peg."
+
+This very opportune meeting results, naturally enough, in a pressing
+invitation to stay over and recruit up for a day, a programme to which I
+offer no objections, feeling rather overdone and in need of rest and
+recuperation. Mine hosts are police-commissioners, having supervision
+over the police-district of Uniballa. One of their number is on the eve
+of departure for his summer vacation in the Himalayas and, in honor of
+the event, several guests call round to partake of a champagne dinner,
+the sparkling Pommery Sec being quaffed ad libitum from pint tumblers. At
+the present time, no surer does water seek its level than the
+after-dinner conversation of Anglo-Indian officials turns into the
+discussion of the great depreciation of the silver rupee and its relation
+to the exchange at home. As the rate of exchange goes lower and lower,
+and no corresponding increase of salary takes place, the natural result
+is a great deal of hardship and dissatisfaction among those who, from
+various causes, have to send money to England. From the Anglo-Indians'
+daily association with Orientals and their peculiarly subtle
+understandings, it is perhaps not so surprising to find an occasional
+flight of fancy brought to bear upon the subject that would do credit to
+a professional romancer. One ingenious young civil officer present
+evolves a deep, deep scheme to get even with the government for present
+injustice that for far-reaching and persistent revenge speaks volumes for
+the young gentleman's determination to carry his point. His brilliant
+scheme is to retire on a pension at the proper time, live to the age of
+eighty years, and then marry a healthy girl of sixteen. As the pension of
+an Anglo-Indian government officer descends to his surviving widow, the
+ingenuity and depth of this person's reasoning powers becomes at once
+apparent. He proposes to take revenge for the present shortcomings of the
+government by saddling it with a pension for a hundred years or more
+after his retirement from active service.
+
+Tusked and antlered trophies of the chase adorning the walls,
+and panther and tiger skins scattered about the floor, attest the
+police-commissioners' prowess with the rifle in the surrounding jungle.
+The height of every young Englishman's ambition when he comes to India is
+to kill a tiger; not until with his own rifle he has laid low a genuine
+Tigris Indicus, and handed its striped pelt over to the taxidermist, does
+he feel entitled to hold his chin at a becoming elevation and to indulge
+in the luxury of talking about the big game of the jungle on an equality
+with his fellows. Among the pets of the establishment are a youthful
+black bear that spends much of its time in climbing up and down a post on
+the lawn, a recently captured monkey that utters cries of alarm and looks
+badly frightened when approached by a white person, and a pair of spotted
+deer. These, together with several hunting dogs that delight in taking
+wanton liberties with the bear and deer, form quite a happy, though not
+altogether trustful family party in the grounds.
+
+The day's rest does me a world of good, and upon resuming my journey the
+voice of my own experience is augmented by the advice of my entertainers,
+in warning me against overexertion and fatigue in so trying a climate as
+India. It has rained during the night, and the early morning is signalled
+by cooler weather than has yet been experienced from Lahore. Companies of
+tall Sikhs, magnificent-looking fellows, in their trim karki uniforms and
+monster turbans, are drilling within the native-infantry lines as I wheel
+through the broad avenues of one of the finest cantonments in all India,
+and English officers and their wives are taking the morning air on
+horseback.
+
+This splendid cantonment contains no less than seven thousand two hundred
+and twenty acres and might well be termed a magnificent park throughout.
+
+It is in the hilly tracts of the Umballa district that the curious custom
+prevails of placing infants beneath little cascades of water so that the
+stream of water shall steadily descend on the head. The cool water of
+some mountain-rivulet is converted into a number of streams appropriate
+for the purpose, by means of bamboo ducts or spouts. The infants are
+brought thither in the morning by their mothers and placed in proper
+position on beds of grass; the trickling water, pouring on their heads,
+keeps the brain cool and is popularly supposed to be efficacious in the
+prevention of many infantile diseases peculiar to the country. Children
+not subjected to this curious hydropathic treatment are said to generally
+die young, or grow up weaklings in comparison with the others.
+
+A sudden freshet in the ordinarily shallow and partially dry bed of the
+Donglee River tells of the heaviness of last night's rainstorm among the
+hills, and compels a halt of a couple of hours until the rapidly
+subsiding water gets low enough to admit of fording it with a native
+bullock gharri. A branch of the same stream is crossed in a similar
+manner, and yet a third river, a few miles farther, has to be crossed on
+a curious raft made of a number of buoyant earthenware jars fixed in a
+bamboo frame. A splendid bridge spans the swollen torrent of the more
+formidable Markunda, and the well-metalled highway now cuts a wide
+straight swath through inundated jungle. A big wild monkey, the first of
+his species thus far encountered on the road, utters a shrill squeak of
+apprehension at seeing the bicycle come bowling down the road, and in his
+fright he leaps from the branches of a road-side tree into the shallow
+water and escapes into the jungle with frantic leaps and bounds.
+
+Travelling leisurely, and resting often, for thirty miles, the afternoon
+brings me to the small town of Peepli, where a dak bungalow provides food
+and shelter of a certain kind. The sleeping-accommodation of the dak
+bungalow may hardly be described as luxurious; ants and other insects
+swarm in myriads, and lizards drag their slimy length about the timber of
+the walls and ceiling. The wild jungle encroaches on the village, and the
+dak bungalow occupies an isolated position at one end. The jungle
+resounds with the strange noises of animals and birds, and a friendly
+native, who speaks a little English, confides the joyful information that
+the deadly cobra everywhere abounds.
+
+For the first time it is cool enough to sleep without the services of the
+punkah-wallah, and not a soul remains about the dak bungalow after
+nightfall. The night is dark and cloudy, but not by any means silent, for
+the "noises of the night" are multitudinous and varied, ranging from the
+tuneful croaking of innumerable frogs to the yelping chorus of the
+jackals-the weird nocturnal concert of the Indian jungle, a musical
+melange far easier to imagine than describe. About ten o'clock, out from
+the gloomy depths of the jungle near by is suddenly heard the
+unmistakable caterwauling of a panther, followed by that cunning
+arch-dissembler's inimitable imitation of a child in distress. As though
+awed and paralyzed by this revelation of the panther's dread presence,
+the chirping and juggling and p-r-r-r-ring and yelping of inferior
+creatures cease as if by mutual impulse moved, and the pitter-patter of
+little feet are heard on the clay floor of my bungalow. The cry of the
+forest prowler is repeated, nearer than before to my quarters, and
+presently something hops up on the foot of the charpoy on which my
+recumbent form is stretched; and still continues the pattering of feet on
+the floor. It is pitchy dark within the bungalow, and, uncertain of the
+nature of my strange visitant, I kick and "qu-e-e-k" at him and scare him
+off; but, evidently terrorized by the appearance of the panther, the next
+minute he again invades my couch.
+
+To have one's room turned nolens volens into a place of refuge for timid
+animals, hiding from a prowling panther which is not unlikely to follow
+them inside, is anything but a desirable experience in the dark. Should
+his panthership come nosing inside the bungalow, in his eagerness to
+secure something for supper he might not pause to discriminate between
+brute and human; and as his awe-inspiring voice is heard again,
+apparently quite near by, I deem it expedient to warn him off. So
+reaching my Smith & Wesson from under the pillow, I fire a shot up into
+the thatched roof. The little intruders, whatever they may be, scamper
+out of the bungalow, nor wait upon the order of their going, and a loud
+scream some distance away a moment later tells of the panther's rapid
+retreat into the depths of the jungle.
+
+Soon a courageous bull-frog gives utterance to a subdued, hesitative
+croak; his excellent example is quickly followed by others; answering
+noises spring up in every direction, and ere long the midnight concert of
+the jungle is again in full melody.
+
+A comparatively cooling breeze blows across flooded jungle and rice-field
+in the morning. The country around resembles a shallow lake from out of
+which the rank vegetation of the jungle rears its multiform foliage; much
+of the water is merely the temporary overflow of the Markunda, silently
+moving through the shady forest, but over the more permanently submerged
+areas is gathered a thick green scum. Not unlike a broad expanse of level
+meadow-land do some of these open spaces seem, and the yellow, fallen
+blossoms of the gum arabic trees, scattered thickly about, are the
+buttercups spangling and beautifying the meadows.
+
+Forty-eight miles from Umballa the Grand Trunk road leads through the
+civil lines and past the towering walls of ancient Kurnaul. Formerly on
+the banks of the river Jumna, Kurnaul is now removed several miles from
+that stream, owing to the wayward trick of Indian rivers carving out for
+themselves new channels during seasons of extraordinary flood. The city
+is old beyond the records of history, its name and fame glimmering
+faintly in the dim and distant perspective of ancient Hindostani legend
+and mythical tales. Within the last few hundred years, Kurnaul has been
+taken and retaken, plundered and destroyed, by Sikh, Rajput, Mogul, and
+Mahratta freebooters, and was occupied in 1795 by the celebrated
+adventurer George Thomas, who figured so largely in the military history
+of India during the latter part of the last century. Here also was fought
+the great battle between Nadir Shah and Mohammed Shah, the Emperor of
+Delhi, that resulted in the defeat of the latter, the subsequent looting
+of Delhi, and the carrying off to Persia of the famous peacock throne.
+Splendid water-tanks, spreading banyans, feathery date-palms, and
+toddy-palms render the suburbs of Kurnaul particularly attractive, these
+days; but the place is unhealthy, being very low and the surrounding
+country subject to the overflow that induces fever.
+
+A letter of introduction from Umballa to Mr. D, deputy commissioner at
+Kurnaul, insures me hospitable recognition and creature comforts upon
+reaching the latter place at 9 a.m. Spending the heat of mid-day in Mr. D
+'s congenial society, recounting the incidents of my journey and learning
+in return much valuable information in regard to India, I continue on my
+journey again when the fiercest heat of the sun has subsided in favor of
+the slightly more tolerable evening. The country grows more and more
+interesting from various standpoints as my progression carries me
+southward. Not only does it become intensely interesting by reason of its
+historical associations in connection with the old Mogul Empire, but in
+its peculiar aspect of Indian life to-day. Monkeys are hopping about all
+over the place, moving leisurely about the roofs and walls of the
+villages, or complacently examining one another's phrenological
+peculiarities beneath the trees. About the streets, shops, and houses
+these mischievous anthropoids are seen in droves, moving hither and
+thither at their own sweet will, as much at home as the human occupants
+and owners of the houses themselves.
+
+Monkeys, being held sacred by the Hindoos, are allowed to remain in the
+towns and villages unmolested, doing pretty much as they please.
+Sometimes they swarm in such numbers that eternal vigilance alone keeps
+them from devouring the fruit, grain, and other eatables displayed for
+sale in front of the shops. When they get to be an insufferable nuisance,
+although the pious Hindoos would suffer from their depredations even to
+ruin rather than do them injury, they offer no objections to being
+relieved of their charges by the government officials, so long as the
+measures taken are not of a sanguinary nature. Sometimes the monkeys are
+caught and shipped off in car-loads to some point miles away and turned
+loose in the jungle. The appearance of a car-load of these exiles,
+however, always excites the sympathies of the pious Hindoo, and instances
+have been known when they have been stealthily liberated while the train
+was waiting at some other town.
+
+An effectual remedy has been recently discovered in cleaning out colonies
+of the smaller varieties of monkeys and inducing them to remove somewhere
+else, by introducing into their midst a certain warlike and aggressive
+variety from somewhere in the Himalaya foot-hills. This particular race
+of monkey, being a veritable anthropoidal Don Juan among his fellows,
+when turned loose in a village commences making violent love to the wives
+and sweethearts of the resident monkeys. The faithless fair, ever ready
+for coquetry and flirtation, flattered beyond measure by the attentions
+of the gallant stranger, forsake their first loves by the wholesale, and
+bask shamelessly in the sunshine of his favor. The result is that the
+outraged males, afraid to attack the warlike libertine so rudely
+introduced into their peaceful community, gather up their erring spouses,
+giddy daughters, and small children and betake themselves off forever.
+
+Not far from Kurnaul I overtake an interesting party of gypsies, moving
+with their bag and baggage piled on the backs of diminutive cows led by
+strings. Numbers of the smaller children also bestride the gentle little
+bovines, but the rest of the party are afoot. The ruling passion of the
+Romany, the wide world over, asserts itself at my approach; brown-bodied
+youngsters with sparkling, coal-black eyes race after the bicycle,
+holding out their hands and begging, "pice, sahib, pice, pice."
+
+Facsimile in cry and gesture almost, and in appearance, are these
+Hindostani gypsies of their relatives in distant Hungary, who, fifteen
+months before, raced alongside the bicycle, and begged for "kreuzer,
+kreuzer." Many ethnologists believe India to have been the original
+abiding place of the now widely scattered Romanies; certain it is that no
+country and no clime would be so well adapted to their shiftless habits
+and wandering tent-life as India. Their language, subjected to analysis,
+has been traced in a measure to Sanscrit roots, and although spread
+pretty much all over the surface of the globe, this strange, romantic
+people are said to recognize one another by a common language, even
+should the one hail from India and the other from the frozen North.
+Certain professors claim to have discovered a connecting link between the
+gypsies of the Occident and the Jats of the Punjab.
+
+A boy tending a sacred cow undertakes to drive that worshipful animal out
+of my way as he sees me come bowling briskly down the road. The bovine,
+pampered and treated with the greatest deference and consideration from
+her earliest calfhood, resents this treatment by making a short but
+determined spurt after me as I sweep past. Whether the sacred cows of
+India are spoiled by generations of overindulgence, or whether the
+variety is constitutionally evil-tempered does not appear, but they one
+and all take pugnacious exception to the bicycle. Spurting away from a
+chasing Brahmani cow is an every-day experience.
+
+Mr. D has kindly telegraphed from Kurnaul to Nawab Ali Ahmed Khan, a
+hospitable Mohammedan gentleman at Paniput, apprising him of my coming.
+More ancient even than Kurnaul, Paniput's vast antiquity is reputed to
+extend back to the period of the great Pandava War described in the
+Mahabharat, and supposed to have been fought nearly four thousand years
+ago. The city occupies a commanding position to the left of the road, and
+is rendered conspicuous by several white marble domes and minarets.
+
+The nawab and another native gentleman, physician to the Paniput
+Hospital, are seated in a dog-cart watching for my appearance, at a fork
+in the road near one of the city gates. The nawab's place is a mile and a
+half off the main road, but the smooth, level kunkah leads right up to
+the fine, commodious bungalow, in which I am duly installed. A tepid
+bath, prepared in deference to the nawab's anticipation of my preference,
+is awaiting my pleasure, and from the moment of arrival I am the
+recipient of unstinted attention. A large reclining chair is placed
+immediately beneath the punkah, and a punkah-wallah, ambitious to please,
+causes the frilled hangings of this desirable and necessary piece of
+furniture to wave vigorously to and fro but a foot or eighteen inches
+above my head. A smiling servant kneels at my feet and proceeds to knead
+and "groom" the muscles of the legs. Judging from the attentions lavished
+upon my pedal extremities, one might well imagine me to be a race-horse
+that had just endeared himself to his groom and owner by winning the
+Derby.
+
+An ample supper is followed by a most refreshing sleep, and in the
+morning, when ready to depart, my watchful attendants present themselves
+with broad smiles and sheets of paper. Each one wants a certificate
+showing that he has contributed to my comfort and entertainment, and
+lastly comes the nawab himself and his bosom friend, the hospital doctor,
+to bid me farewell and request the same favor. This certificate-foible is
+one of the greatest bores in India; almost every native who performs any
+service for a Sahib, whether in the capacity of a mere waiter at a native
+hotel, or as retainer of some wealthy nabob--and not infrequently
+the nabob himself, if a government official--wants a testimonial
+expressing one's approval of his services. An old servitor who has
+mingled much among Europeans must have whole reams of these useless
+articles stowed away. What in the world they want with them is something
+of a puzzler; though the idea is, probably, that they might come in
+useful to obtain a situation some time or other.
+
+South of Paniput the trees alongside the road are literally swarming with
+monkeys; they file in long strings across the road, looking anxiously
+behind, evidently frightened at the strange appearance of the bicycle.
+Shinnying up the toddy-palms, they ensconce themselves among the foliage
+and peer curiously down at me as I wheel past, giving vent to their
+perturbation in excited cries. Twenty-five miles down the road, an hour
+is spent beneath a grove of shady peepuls, watching the amusing antics of
+a troop of monkeys in the branches. Their marvellous activity among the
+trees is here displayed to perfection, as they quarrel and chase one
+another from tree to tree. The old ones seem passively irritable and
+decidedly averse to being bothered by the antics and mischievous activity
+of the youngsters. Taking possession of some particular branch, they warn
+away all would-be intruders with threatening grimaces and feints. The
+youthful members of the party are skillful of pranks and didoes, carried
+on to the great annoyance of their more aged and sedate relatives, who,
+in revenge, put in no small portion of their time punishing or pursuing
+them with angry cries for their deeds of wanton annoyance. One monkey,
+that has very evidently been there many and many a time before on the
+same thievish errand, with an air of amusing secrecy and roguishness,
+slips quickly along a horizontal bough and thrusts its arm into a hole.
+Its eyes wander guiltily around, as though expectant of detection and
+attack--an apprehension that quickly justifies itself in the shape of a
+blue-plumaged bird that flutters angrily about the robber's head, causing
+it to beat a hasty retreat. Birds' eggs are the booty it expected to
+find, and, me-thinks, as I note the number and activity of the
+freebooters to whom birds' eggs would be most toothsome morsels, watchful
+indeed must be the parent-bird whose maternal ambition bears its
+legitimate fruit in this monkey-infested grove. In me the monkeys seem to
+recognize a possible enemy, and at my first appearance hasten to hide
+themselves among the thickest foliage; peering; cautiously down, they
+yield themselves up to excited chattering and broad grimaces.
+
+Peacocks, too, are strutting majestically about the greensward beneath
+the trees, their gorgeous tails expanded, or, perched on some horizontal
+branch, they awake the screaming echoes in reply to others of their
+kindred calling in the jungle. In the same way that monkeys are regarded
+and worshipped as the representatives of the great mythological
+monkey-king Hanumiin, who assisted Kama, in his war with Havana for the
+possession of Sita, so is the peacock revered and held sacred as the bird
+upon which rode Kartikeya the god of war and commander-in-chief of the
+armies of the Puranic gods. Thus do both these denizens of the jungle
+obtain immunity from harm at the hands of the natives, by reason of
+mythological association. English sportsmen shoot them, however, except
+in certain specified districts where the government has made their
+killing prohibitory, in deference to the religious prejudices of the
+Hindoos. The Rajput warriors of Ulwar used to march to battle with a
+peacock's feather in their turbans; they believe that the reason why this
+fine-plumaged bird screams so loudly when it thunders is because it
+mistakes the noise for the roll of war-drums. Large, two-storied
+passenger-vans, drawn sometimes by one camel and sometimes two, are now
+frequently encountered; they are regular two-storied cages, with iron
+bars, like the animal-vans in a menagerie. The passengers squat on the
+floors, and when travelling at night, or through wild districts, are
+locked in between stages to guard against surprise and robbery.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+DELHI AND AGRA.
+
+From the police-thana of Rai, where the night is spent, to Delhi, the
+character of the road changes to a mixture of clay and rock, altogether
+inferior to kunkah. The twenty-one miles are covered, however, by 8.30
+a.m., that hour finding me wheeling down the broad suburban road to the
+Lahore Gate amid throngs of country people carrying baskets of mangoes,
+plantains, pomegranates, and other indigenous products into the markets
+of the old Mogul capital. Massive archways, ruined forts and serais,
+placid water-tanks, lovely gardens, feathery toddy-palms,
+plantain-hedges, and throngs of picturesque people make the approach to
+historic Delhi a scene long to be remembered.
+
+Entering the Lahore Gate, suitable accommodation is found at Northbrook
+Hotel, a comfortable hostelry under native management near the Moree
+Gate, and overlooking from its roof the scenes of the most memorable
+events connected with the siege of Delhi in 1857. Letters are found at
+the post-office apprising me of a bicycle-camera and paper negatives
+awaiting my orders at the American Consulate at Calcutta, and it behooves
+me to linger here for a few days until its arrival in reply to a
+telegram. No more charming spot could possibly be found to linger in than
+the old Mogul capital, with its wondrous wealth of historical
+associations, both remotely antique and comparatively modern, its
+glorious monuments of imperial Oriental splendor and its reminiscences of
+heroic deeds in battle.
+
+A letter of introduction to an English gentleman, brought from Kurnaul,
+secures me friends and attention at once; in the cool of the evening we
+drive out together in his pony-phaeton along the historic granite ridge
+that formed the site of the British camp during the siege. The operations
+against the city were conducted mostly from this ridge and the
+intervening ground; on the ridge itself is erected a beautiful red
+granite monument memorial, bearing the names of prominent officers and
+the numbers of men killed, the names of the regiments, etc., engaged in
+the siege and assault. Here, also, is Hindoo Rao's house, and ancient
+obelisks.
+
+East of the Moree Gate is the world-famed Cashmere Gate--world-famed
+in connection with the brilliant exploit of the little forlorn hope that,
+on the morning of September 14, 1857, succeeded, in the face of a deadly
+fusillade from the, walls and the wicket gates, in carrying bags of
+gunpowder and blowing it up. Through the opening thus effected poured the
+eager troops that rescued the city from ten times their own number of
+mutineers and turned the beams of the scale in which the fate of the
+whole British Indian Empire was at the moment balanced. Perhaps in all
+the world's battles no more heroic achievement was ever attempted or
+carried out than the blowing up of the Cashmere Gate. "Salkeld laid his
+bags of powder, in the face of a deadly fire from the open wicket not ten
+feet distant; he was instantly shot through the arm and leg, and fell
+back on the bridge, handing the port-fire to Sergeant Burgess, bidding
+him light the fuse. Burgess was instantly shot dead in the attempt.
+Sergeant Carmichael then advanced, took up the port-fire, and succeeded
+in firing the fuse, but immediately fell, mortally wounded. Sergeant
+Smith, seeing him fall, advanced at a run, but finding that the fuse was
+already burning, flung himself into the ditch."
+
+Difficult, indeed, would it be to crowd more heroism into the same number
+of words that I have here quoted from Colonel Medley, an eye-witness of
+the affair. Between the double archways of the gate is a red-sandstone
+memorial tablet, placed there by Lord Napier of Magdala, upon which is
+inscribed the names, rank, and regiment of those who took part in the
+forlorn hope. All is now peaceful and lovely enough, but the stone
+bastions and parapets still remain pretty much as when the British
+batteries ceased their plunging rain of shot and shell thirty years ago.
+
+Not far from the Moree Gate is the tomb of General Nicholson, one of the
+most conspicuous and heroic characters of that trying period, and
+generally regarded as the saviour of Delhi. Enshrined in the hearts of
+the brave Sikhs no less than in the hearts of his own countrymen, his
+tomb has become a regular place of pilgrimage for the old Sikh warriors
+who fought side by side with the English against the mutineers.
+
+It has been my good fortune, I find, to arrive at the old Mogul capital
+the day before the commencement of an annual merrymaking, picnicking, and
+general holiday at the celebrated Kootub Minar. The Kootub Minar is about
+eleven miles out of Delhi, situated amid the ruins of ancient Dilli
+(Delhi), the old Hindoo city from which the more modern city takes its
+name. It is conceded to be the most beautiful minar-monument in the
+world, and ranks with the Taj Mahal at Agra as one of the beautiful
+architectural triumphs peculiar to the splendid era of Mohammedan rule in
+India, and which are not to be matched elsewhere. The day following my
+arrival I conclude to take a spin out on my bicycle as far as the Kootub,
+and see something of it, the ruins amid which it stands, and the Hindoos
+in holiday attire. I choose the comparative coolness of early morning for
+the ride out; but early though it be, the road thither is already
+swarming with gayly dressed people bent on holiday-making. The road is a
+worthy offshoot of the Grand Trunk, not a whit less smooth of surface,
+nor less lovely in its wealth of sacred shade-trees. Moreover, it passes
+through a veritable wilderness of ruined cities, mosques, tombs, and
+forts the whole distance, and leads right through the magnificent remains
+of the ancient Hindoo city itself.
+
+The Kootub Minar is found to be a beautifully fluted column, two hundred
+and forty feet high, and it soars grandly above the mournful ruins of old
+Dilli, its hoary wealth of crumbled idol temples, tombs, and forts. The
+minar is supposed to have been erected in the latter part of the twelfth
+century to celebrate the victory of the Mohammedans over the Hindoos of
+Dilli. The general effect of the tall, stately Mohammedan monument among
+the Hindoo ruins is that of a proud gladiator standing erect and
+triumphant amid fallen foes. At least, that is how it looks to me, as I
+view it in connection with the ruins at its base and ponder upon its
+history. A spiral stairway of three hundred and seventy-five steps leads
+to the summit. A group of natives are already up there, enjoying the cool
+breezes and the prospect below. In the comprehensive view from the summit
+one can read an instructive sermon of centuries of stirring Indian
+history in the gray stone-work of ruined mosques and tombs and fortresses
+and pagan temples that dot the valley of the Jumna hereabout almost as
+thickly as the trees.
+
+Strange crowds have congregated on this rare old historic camping-ground
+in ages past. It was a strange crowd, gathered here for a strange
+purpose, on that traditional occasion, when Rajah Pithora, in the fourth
+century of the Christian era, had the celebrated iron shaft dug up to
+satisfy his curiosity as to whether it had transfixed the subterranean
+snake-god Vishay. There is a strange crowd gathered here to-day, too; I
+can hear their shouting and their tom-toming come floating up from among
+the ruins and the dark-green foliage as I look down from my beautiful
+eyrie on top of the Kootub upon their pygmy forms, thronging the walks
+and roads, brown and busy as swarms of ants.
+
+It is a vast concourse of people, characteristic of teeming India; but
+they are not, on this occasion, congregated to witness pagan rites and
+ceremonies, nor to encourage iconoclastic Moolahs in smashing Hindoo gods
+and chipping offensive Hindoo carvings off their temples; they are a
+mixed crowd of Hindoos, Sikhs, and Mohammedans, who, having to some
+extent buried the hatchet of race and religious animosities under the
+just and tolerant rule of a Christian government, have gathered here amid
+the ruins and relics of their respective past histories to enjoy
+themselves in innocent recreation.
+
+Descending from the Kootub Minar, I am resting beneath the shade of the
+dak bungalow hard by, when a gray-bearded Hindoo approaches, salaams, and
+hands me a paper. The paper is a certificate, certifying that the bearer,
+Chunee Lai, had performed before Captain Somebody of the Fusileers, and
+had afforded that officer excellent amusement. Before I have quite
+grasped the situation, or comprehended the purport of the tendered
+missive, several men and boys deposit a miscellaneous assortment of boxes
+and baskets before me and range themselves in a semicircle behind them.
+The old fellow with the certificate picks out a small box and raises the
+lid; a huge cobra thrusts out its hideous head and puffs its hooded neck
+to the size of a man's hand. It then dawns upon me that the gray-bearded
+Hindoo is a conjurer; and being curious to see something of Indian
+prestidigitation, I allow him to proceed.
+
+Many of the tricks are quite commonplace and transparent even to a
+novice. For example, he mixes red, yellow, and white powders together in
+a tumbler of water and swallows the mixture, making, of course, a wry
+face, as though taking a dose of bitter medicine. He then calls a boy
+from among the by-standers and blows first red powder, then yellow, then
+white into the youngster's face. I judge he had small bags of dry powder
+stowed away in his cheek. He performs his tricks on the bare ground,
+without any such invaluable adjunct as the table of his European rival,
+and some of them, viewed in the light of this disadvantage, are indeed
+puzzling. For instance, he fills an ordinary tin pot nearly full of
+water, puts in a handful of yellow sand and a handful of red powder, and
+thoroughly stirs them up; he then thrusts his naked hand into the water
+and brings forth a handful of each kind, dry as when he put them in. A
+simple enough trick, no doubt, to the initiated; but the old conjurer's
+arm is bared, and the tin is, as far as I can discover, but an ordinary
+vessel, and the trick is performed without any cover, table, or cloth.
+After this he expectorates a number of glass marbles, and ends with a
+couple of solid iron jingal balls that he can scarce get out of his
+mouth. There is no mistake about their being of solid iron, and the old
+conjurer opens his mouth and lets me see them emerging from his throat.
+From what I see him do as the final act, and which there is no deception
+about, I am inclined to think the old fellow has actually acquired the
+power of swallowing these jingal balls and reproducing them at pleasure.
+
+After a number of tricks too familiar to justify mentioning here he
+covers his head with a cloth for a minute, and then reappears with brass
+eyeballs, with a small hole bored in the centre of each to represent the
+pupils; and his mouth is rendered hideous with a set of teeth belonging
+to some animal. In this horrible make-up the old Hindoo tom-toms on a
+small oblong drum, while one of his assistants sings in broken English
+"Buffalo Gals." He then openly removes the false teeth, and taking out
+the brass eyeballs, he casts them jingling on the gravel at my feet. They
+are simply hemispheres of sheet-brass, and fitted closely over the
+eyeballs, beneath the lids. The conjurer's eyes water visibly after the
+brass covers are removed; and well enough they might; there is no
+sleight-of-hand about this--it is purely an act of self-torture.
+
+In most of the conjuring tricks the conjurer would purposely make a
+partial failure in the first attempt; an assistant would then impart the
+necessary power by muttering cabalistic words over a monkey's skull.
+
+A mongoose had been tethered to a stake at the beginning of the
+performance, and the little ferret-like enemy of the snake family kept
+tugging at his tether and sniffing suspiciously about whenever snakes
+appeared in the conjurer's manipulations. He bad promised me a fight
+between the mongoose and a snake, and before presenting his little brass
+bowl for backsheesh he holds out a four-foot snake toward the eager
+little animal at the stake. The snake writhes and struggles to get away,
+evidently badly scared at the prospect of an encounter with the mongoose;
+but the man succeeds in depositing him within his adversary's reach. The
+mongoose nabs him by the neck in an instant, and would no doubt soon have
+finished him; but the assistants part them with wire crooks, putting the
+snake in a basket with several others and the mongoose in another.
+
+While watching the interesting performances of the Hindoo, conjurers I
+have left the bicycle at a little dak bungalow near the old
+entrance-gate. From the commanding height of the Kootub-one could see
+that the Delhi road is a solid mass of vehicles and pedestrians (how the
+people in teeming India do swarm on these festive occasions!). It looks
+impossible to make one's way with a bicycle against that winding stream
+of human beings, and so, after wandering about a while among the striking
+and peculiar colonnades of the ancient pagan temples, paying the
+regulation tribute of curiosity to the enigmatic iron column, and doing
+the place in general, I return to the bungalow, thinking of starting back
+to Delhi, when I find that my "cycle of strange experiences" has
+attracted to itself a no less interesting gathering than a troupe of
+Nautch girls and their chaperone. The troupe numbers about a dozen girls,
+and they have come to the merry-making at the Kootub to gather honest
+shekels by giving exhibitions of their terpsichorean talents in the
+Nautch dance.
+
+I had been wondering whether an opportunity to see this famous dance
+would occur during my trip through India; and so when four or five of the
+prettiest of these dusky damsels gather about me, smile at me winsomely
+ogle me with their big black eyes, smile again, smile separately, smile
+unanimously, smile all over their semi-mahogany but nevertheless not
+unhandsome faces, and every time displaying sets of pearly teeth, what
+could I do, what could anyone have done, but smile in return?
+
+There is no language more eloquent or more easily understood than the
+language of facial expression. No verbal question or answer is necessary.
+I interpret the winsome smiles of the Nautchnees aright, and they
+interpret very quickly the permission to go ahead that reveals itself in
+the smile they force from me. Eight of the twelve are commonplace girls
+of from fourteen to eighteen, and the other four are "dark but
+comely"--quite handsome, as handsomeness goes among the Hindoos.
+Their arms are bare of everything save an abundance of bracelets, and the
+upper portion of the body is rather scantily draped, after the manner and
+custom of all Hindoo females; but an ample skirt of red calico reaches to
+the ankle. Rings are worn on every toe, and massive silver anklets with
+tiny bells attached make music when they walk of dance. They wear a
+profusion of bracelets, necklaces of rupees, head-ornaments, ear-rings,
+and pendent charms, and a massive gold or brass ring in the left nostril.
+The nostril is relieved of its burden by a string that descends from a
+head-ornament and takes up the weight.
+
+The Nautch girls arrange themselves into a half-circle, their scarlet
+costumes forming a bright crescent, terminating in a mass of spectators,
+whose half-naked bodies, varying in color from pale olive to mahogany,
+are arrayed in costumes scarcely less showy than the dancers. The
+chaperone and eight outside girls tom-tom an appropriate Nautch
+accompaniment on drums with their fingers, the four prettiest girls
+advance, and favoring me with sundry smiles, and coquettish glances from
+their bright black eyes, they commence to dance.
+
+An idea seems to prevail in many Occidental minds that the Nautch dance
+is a very naughty thing; but nothing is further from the truth. Of course
+it can be made naughty, and no doubt often is; but then so can many
+another form of innocent amusement. The Nautch dance is a decorous and
+artistic performance when properly danced; the graceful motions and
+elegant proportions of the human form, as revealed by lithe and graceful
+dancers, are to be viewed with an eye as purely artistic and critical as
+that with which one regards a Venus or other production of the sculptor's
+studio.
+
+The four dancers take the lower hem of their red garment daintily between
+the thumb and finger of the right hand, spreading its ample folds into
+the figure of an opened fan, by bringing the outstretched arm almost on a
+level with the shoulder. A mantle of transparent muslin, fringed with
+silver spangles, is worn about the head and shoulders in the same
+indescribably graceful manner as the mantilla of the Spanish senorita.
+Raising a portion of this aloft in the left hand, and keeping the "fan"
+intact with the right, the dancers twirl around and change positions with
+one another, their supple figures meanwhile assuming a variety of
+graceful motions and postures from time to time. Now they imitate the
+spiral movement of a serpent climbing around and upward on an imaginary
+pole; again they assume an attitude of gracefulness, their dusky
+countenances half hidden in seeming coquetry behind the muslin mantle,
+the large red fan waving gently to and fro, the feet unmoving, but the
+undulating motions of the body and the tremor of the limbs sufficing to
+jingle the tiny ankle-bells. On the whole, the Nautch dance would be
+disappointing to most people witnessing it; its fame leads one to expect
+more than it really amounts to.
+
+Before starting back to Delhi, I take a stroll through the adjacent
+village of Kootub, a place named after the minar, I suppose. The crooked
+main street of the village of Kootub itself presents to-day a scene of
+gayety and confusion that beggars description. Bunting floats gayly from
+every window and balcony, in honor of the festival, and is strung across
+the street from house to house. Thousands of globular colored lanterns
+are hanging about, ready to be lighted up at night. The streets are
+thronged with people in the gayest of costumes, and with vehicles the
+gilt and paint and glitter of which equal the glittering wagons and
+chariots of a circus parade at home.
+
+The balconies above the shops are curtained with blue gauze, behind which
+are seen numbers of ladies, chatting, eating fruits and sweetmeats, and
+peeping down through the semi-transparent screens upon the animated scene
+in the streets. On the stalls, choice edibles are piled up by the bushel,
+and busy venders are hawking fruits, sweets, toddy, and all imaginable
+refreshments about among the crowds. Vacant lots are occupied by the
+tents of visiting peasants, and in out-of-the-way corners acrobatics,
+jugglery, and Nautch-dancing attract curious crowds.
+
+The incoming tide of human life is at its flood as I start back to Delhi
+by the same road I came. Here one gets a glimpse of the real gorgeousness
+of India without seeking for it at the pageants of princes and rajahs.
+Small zemindars from outlying villages are bringing their wives and
+daughters to the festivities at the Kootub in circusy-looking
+bullock-chariots covered with gilt and carvings, and draped and twined
+with parti-colored ribbons. Some of these gaudy turn-outs are drawn by
+richly caparisoned, milk-white oxen, with gilded horns. Cymbals and
+sleigh-bells galore keep up a merry jingle, and tom-toming parties make
+their noisy presence known all along the line.
+
+Still more gorgeous and interesting than the gilded ox-gharries of the
+ordinary zemindars are miniature chariots drawn by pairs of well-matched,
+undersized oxen covered with richly spangled trappings, and with horns
+curiously gilded and tipped with tiny bells. These are the vehicles of
+petted young nabobs in charge of attendants: tiny oxen with gorgeous
+trappings, tiny chariots richly gilded and carved and painted, tiny
+occupants richly dressed and jewelled. Troupes of Nautchnees add their
+picturesque appearance to the brilliant throngs, and here and there is
+encountered a holy fakir, unkempt and unwashed, having, perchance,
+registered a vow years ago never more to apply water to his skin, his
+only clothing a dirty waist-cloth and the yellow clay plastered on his
+body. Long strings of less pretentious bullock-gharries almost block the
+roadway, and people constantly dodging out from behind them in front of
+my wheel make it extremely difficult to ride.
+
+Several days are passed at Delhi, waiting the arrival of a small
+bicycle-camera from Calcutta, which has been forwarded from America. Most
+of this time is spent in the pleasant occupation of reclining in an
+arm-chair beneath the punkah, the only comfortable situation in Delhi at
+this season of the year. Nevertheless, I manage to spin around the city
+mornings and evenings, and visit the famous fort and palace of Shah
+Jehan.
+
+In the magnificent--magnificent even in the decline of its grandeur
+--fort-palace of the Mogul Emperor named, British soldiers now find
+comfortable quarters. This fort, together with modern Delhi (the real
+Indian name of Delhi is Shahjehanabad, after the emperor Shah Jehan, who
+had it built), is but about two hundred and fifty years old, the entire
+affair having been built to gratify the Mogul ambition for founding new
+capitals.
+
+Although so modern compared with other cities near by, both city and
+palace have gone through strangely stirring and tragic experiences, and
+events have happened in the latter that, although sometimes trivial in
+themselves, have led to momentous results.
+
+In this palace, in 1716, was given permission, by the Emperor Furrokh
+Seeur, to the Scotch physician, Gabriel Hamilton, the privileges that
+have gradually led up to the British conquest of the whole peninsula. As
+a reward for professional services rendered, permission to establish
+factories on the Hooghly was given; the Presidency of Fort William sprung
+therefrom, and at length the British Indian Empire. Twenty years after
+this, the terrible Nadir Shah, from Persia, occupied the palace, and held
+high jinks within while his army slaughtered over a hundred thousand of
+the inhabitants in the streets. When this red-handed marauder took his
+departure he carried away with him booty to the value of eighty millions
+sterling in the value of that time. Among the plunder was the famous
+Peacock Throne, alone reputed to be worth six million pounds. This
+remarkable piece of kingly furniture is said to be in the possession of
+the Shah of Persia at the present time. It is very probable, however,
+that only some unique portion of the throne is preserved, as it could
+hardly have been carried back to Persia by Nadir intact. This throne is
+thus described by a writer: "The throne was six feet long and four broad,
+composed of solid gold inlaid with precious stones. It was surmounted by
+a canopy of gold, supported on twelve pillars of the same material.
+Around the canopy hung a fringe of pearls; on each side of the throne
+stood two chattahs, or umbrellas, symbols of royalty, formed of crimson
+velvet richly embroidered with gold thread and pearls, and with handles
+of solid gold, eight feet long, studded with diamonds. The back of the
+throne was a representation of the expanded tail of a peacock, the
+natural colors of which were imitated by sapphires, rubies, emeralds, and
+other gems." This Peacock Throne was the envy and admiration of every
+contemporary monarch who heard of it, and was undoubtedly one of the
+chief elements in exciting the cupidity of the outer world that finally
+ended in the dissolution of the Mogul Empire.
+
+Less than ten years after the departure of Nadir Shah, Ahmud Khan
+advanced with an army from Cabool, and took pretty much everything of
+value that the Khorassani freebooter had overlooked, besides committing
+more atrocities upon the population. At the end of another decade an army
+of Mahrattas took possession, and completed the spoilation by ripping the
+silver filigree-work off the ceiling of the Throne-room. Not long after
+this, yet another adventurer took a hand in the work of destruction,
+tortured the members of the imperial family, and put out the eyes of the
+helpless old emperor, Shah Alum. Here Lord Lake's cavalcade arrived, too,
+in 1803, and found the blinded chief of the royal house of Timour and his
+magnificent successors, who built Delhi and Agra, seated beneath the
+tattered remnants of a little canopy, a mockery of royalty, with every
+external appearance of misery and helplessness And lastly, here, in May,
+1857, the last representative of the great Moguls, a not unwilling tool
+in the hands of the East India Company's mutinous soldiery, presided over
+the butchery of helpless English women and children.
+
+It is difficult to realize that Delhi has been the theatre of such a
+stirring and eventful history, as nowadays one strolls down the Chandni
+Chouk and notes the air of peace and contentment that pervades the whole
+city. It seems quite true, as Edwin Arnold says in his "India Revisited,"
+that Derby is now not more contentedly British than is Delhi. Whatever
+may be the faults of British rule in India, no impartial critic can say
+that the people are not in better hands than they have ever been before.
+One of the most interesting objects in the city is the Jama Mesjid, the
+largest mosque in India, and the second-largest in all Islam, ranking
+next to St. Sophia at Constantinople. Broad flights of red sandstone
+steps lead up to handsome gateways surmounted by rows of small milk-white
+marble domes or cupolas. Inside is a large quadrangular court, paved with
+broad slabs of sandstone; occupying the centre of this is a white marble
+reservoir of water. The mosque proper is situated on the west side of the
+quadrangle, an oblong structure two hundred feet long by half that many
+in width, ornamented and embellished by Arabic inscriptions and three
+shapely white marble domes. Very elegant indeed is the pattern and
+composition of the floor, each square slab of white marble having a
+narrow black border running round it, like the border of a mourning
+envelope. Very charming, also, are the two graceful minarets at either
+end, one hundred and thirty feet high, alternate strips of white marble
+and red sandstone producing a very pretty and striking effect.
+
+In the northeastern corner of the quadrangle is a small cabinet
+containing the inevitable relics of the Prophet. Three separate guides
+have accumulated at my heels since entering the gate, and now a fourth,
+ancient and hopeful, appears to unravel, for the Sahib's benefit, the
+mysteries of the little cabinet. Unlocking the door, he steps out of his
+slippers into the entrance, stooping beneath an iron rail that further
+bars the entrance.
+
+From an inner receptacle he first produces some ancient manuscript, which
+he explains was written by the same scribes who copied the Koran for
+Mohammed's grandson. Putting these carefully away, the Ancient and
+Hopeful then unwraps, very mysteriously, a handkerchief, and reveals a
+small oblong tin box with a glass face. The casket contains what upon
+casual observation appears to be a piece of bark curling up at the edges;
+this, I am informed, however, is nothing less than the sole of one of
+Mohammed's sandals. Putting away this venerable relic of the great
+founder of Islam, the old Mussulman assumes a look of profound importance
+and mystery. One would think, from his expression and manners, that he
+was about to reveal to the sacrilegious gaze of an infidel nothing less
+than the Prophet's fifth rib or the parings from his pet corn. Instead of
+these he exhibits a flat piece of rock bearing marks resembling the shape
+of a man's foot--the imprint of Mohammed's foot, miraculously made.
+To one whose soulful gaze has been enraptured with an imprint of the
+first Sultan's hand on the wall of St. Sophia, and the mosaic figure of
+the Virgin Mary persistently refusing to be painted out of sight on the
+dome of the same mosque, this piece of rock would scarcely seem to
+justify the vast display of reverence that is evidently expected of all
+visitors by the Ancient and Hopeful.
+
+But perhaps it is on account of the place of honor it occupies
+immediately preceding what is undoubtedly a very precious relic indeed, a
+relic that fills the worthy custodian with mystery and importance. Or,
+perchance, mystery and importance have been found, during his long and
+varied experience with the unsophisticated tourist, excellent things to
+increase the volume of importance attached to the exhibited articles, and
+the volume of "pice" in his exchequer. At any rate, the Ancient and
+Hopeful assumes more mystery and importance than ever as he uncovers a
+second tin casket with a glass front. Glued to the glass, inside, is a
+single coarse yellow hair about two inches long; the precious relic,
+which has a suspicious resemblance to a bristle, is considered the gem of
+the collection, being nothing less than a hair from the Prophet's
+venerable mustache. Mohammedans swear by the beard of the Prophet, just
+as good Christians swear by "the great horned spoon," or by "great
+Caesar's ghost," so that the possession of even this one poor little
+hair, surrounded as it is by a blue halo of suspicion as to its
+authenticity, sheds a ray of glory upon the great Jama Mesjid scarcely
+surpassed by its importance as the second-largest mosque in the world.
+The two-inch yellow hair is considered the piece de resistance of the
+collection, and the Ancient and Hopeful stows it away with all due
+reverence, strokes his henna-stained beard with the air of a man who has
+got successfully through a very important task, steps into his slippers,
+and presents himself for "pice."
+
+Pice is duly administered to him and his three salaaming associates,
+when, lo! a fifth candidate mysteriously appears, also smiling and
+salaaming expectantly. Although I haven't had the pleasure of a previous
+acquaintance with this gentleman, the easiest way to escape gracefully
+from the sacred edifice is to backsheesh him along with the others. These
+backsheesh considerations are, of course, small and immaterial matters,
+and one ought to feel extremely grateful to all concerned for the happy
+privilege of feasting one's soul with ever so brief a contemplation of
+the things in the cabinet, and more especially on the bristle-like yellow
+hair. These joy-inspiring objects, ramshackled from the storehouse of the
+musty past, fulfil the double mission of keeping alive the reverence of
+devout Mussulmans who visit the mosque, and keeping the Ancient and
+Hopeful well supplied with goodakoo.
+
+My camera having duly arrived, together with a package of letters, which
+are always doubly welcome to a wanderer in distant lands, I prepare to
+resume my southward journey. The few days' rest has enabled me to recover
+from the wilting effects of riding in the terrific heat, and I have seen
+something of one of the most interesting points in all Asia. Delhi is
+sometimes called the "Home of Asia," which, it seems to me, is a very
+appropriate name to give it.
+
+Neatly clad and modest-looking females, native converts to Christianity,
+are walking in orderly procession to church, testaments in hand, as I
+wheel through the streets of Delhi on Sunday morning toward the Agra
+road. Very interesting is it to see these dusky daughters of heathendom
+arrayed in modest white muslin gowns, their lithe and graceful forms
+freed from the barbarous jewellery that distinguishes the persons of
+their unconverted sisters. Very charming do they look in their
+Christianized simplicity and self-contained demeanor as they walk
+quietly, and at a becoming Sabbath-day pace, two by two, down the Chandni
+Chouk. They present an instructive comparison to the straggling groups of
+heathen damsels who watch them curiously as they walk past and then
+proceed to chant idolatrous songs, apparently in a spirit of wanton
+raillery at the Christian maidens and their simple, un-ornamented attire.
+The fair heathens of Delhi have a sort of naughty, Parisian reputation
+throughout the surrounding country, and so there is nothing surprising in
+this exhibition of wanton hilarity directed at these more strait-laced
+converts to the religion of the Ferenghis. The heathen damsels, arrayed
+in very worldly costumes, consisting of flaring red, yellow, and blue
+garments, the whole barbaric and ostentatious array of nose-rings,
+ear-rings, armlets, anklets, rupee necklaces, and pendents, and the
+multifarious gewgaws of Hindoo womankind, look surpassingly wicked and
+saucy in comparison with their converted sisters. The gentle converts try
+hard to regard their heathen songs with indifference, and to show by
+their very correct deportment the superiority of meekness, virtue, and
+Christianity over gaudy clothes, vulgar silver jewellery, and heathenism.
+The whole scene reminds one very forcibly of a gang of wicked street-boys
+at home, poking fun at a Sunday-school procession or a platoon of
+Salvation Army soldiers parading the streets.
+
+Past the Queen's Gardens and the fort, down a long street of native
+shops, and out of the Delhi gate I wheel, past the grim battlements of
+Firozabad, along a rather flinty road that extends for ten miles, after
+which commences again the splendid kunkah. Villages are numerous, and the
+country populous; tombs and the ruins of cities dot the landscape,
+pahnee-chowkees, where yellow Brahmans dispense water to thirsty
+wayfarers, line the road, and at one point three splendid, massive
+archways, marking some place that has lost its former importance, span my
+road.
+
+Hindoos are now the prevailing race, and their religion finds frequent
+expression in idol temples and shrines beneath little roadside groves.
+The night is spent on the porch of a dak bungalow just outside the walls
+of Pullwal, a typical Hindoo city, with all its curious display of
+hideous idols, idolatrous paintings, and beautiful carved temples with
+gilded spires. The groves about the bungalow are literally swarming with
+green parrots; in big flocks they sweep past near my charpoy, producing a
+great wh-r-r-r-ring commotion with their wings. A flock of parrots may be
+so far aloft as to be well-nigh beyond the range of human vision in the
+ethery depths, but the noise of their wings will be plainly audible.
+
+A two hours' terrific downpour delays me at the village of Hodell next
+day, and affords an opportunity to inspect an ordinary little Hindoo
+village temple. The captain of the police-thana sends a tall Sikh
+policeman to show me in. The temple is only a small tapering marble
+edifice about thirty feet high, surmounted by a gilded crescent, and
+resting on a hollow plinth, the hollow of which provides quarters for the
+priest. One is expected to remove his foot-gear before going inside, the
+same as in a Mohammedan mosque. A taper is burning in a niche of the
+wall; mural paintings of snakes, many-handed gods, bulls, monsters, and
+mythical deities create a cheap and garish impression. In the centre of
+the floor is a marble linga, and grouped around it a miniature man,
+woman, and elephant; before these are laid offerings of flowers. The
+interior of the temple is not more than eight feet square, a mere cell in
+which the deities are housed; the worshippers mostly perform their
+prostrations on the plinth outside. The villagers gather in a crowd about
+the temple and watch every movement of my brief inspection; they seem
+pleased at the sight of a Sahib honoring their religion by removing his
+shoes and carefully respecting their feelings. When I descend from the
+plinth they fall back and greet me with smiles and salaams.
+
+The rain clears up and I forge ahead, finding the kunkah road-bed none
+the worse for the drenching it has just received. Hour by hour one gets
+more surprised at the multitudes of pedestrians on the road; neither rain
+nor sun seems to affect their number. Some of the costumes observed are
+quite startling in their ingenuity and effect. One garment much affected
+by the Rajput women are yellowish shawls or mantles, phool-karis, in
+which, are set numerous small circular mirrors about the circumference of
+a silver half-dollar; the effect of these in the bright Indian sun, as
+the wearer trudges along in the distance, is as though she were all
+ablaze with gems. Whenever I wheel past a group of Rajput females, they
+either stand with averted faces or cover up their heads with their
+shawls.
+
+The road-inspector's bungalow at Chattee affords me shelter, and an
+intelligent native gentleman, who speaks a misleading quality of English,
+supplies me with a supper of curried rice and fowl. Hard by is a Hindoo
+temple, whence at sunset issue the sweetest chimes imaginable from a peal
+of silver-toned bells. My charpoy is placed on the porch facing the east,
+and soon the rotund face of the rising moon floats above the trees, and
+the silvery tinkle of the bells is followed by a chorus of jackals paying
+their noisy compliments to its loveliness. My slumbers can hardly be said
+to be unbroken to-night, three pariah dogs have taken a fancy to my
+quarters; two of them sit on their haunches and howl dismally in response
+to the jackals, while number three reclines sociably beneath my charpoy
+and growls at the others as though constituting himself my protector.
+Some Indian Romeo is serenading his dusky Juliet in the neighboring town;
+flocks of roysteriug parrots go whirring past at all hours of the night,
+and a too liberal indulgence in red-hot curry keeps me on the verge of a
+nightmare almost till the silvery tinkle-tinkle of the Brahman bells
+announces the break of day.
+
+Cynics have sometimes denounced Christians as worse than the heathens, in
+requiring loud church-bells to summon them to worship. Such, it appears,
+are putting the case rather thoughtlessly. Mohammedans have their
+muezzins, while both Christians and idolaters have their chiming bells.
+Neither Christians, nor Mohammedans, nor heathens need these agencies to
+summon them to their respective worldly enjoyments, so that, taken all in
+all, we are pretty much alike--cynics, notwithstanding, to the contrary,
+we are little or no worse than the heathens.
+
+A loudly wailing woman with her head covered up, and supported between
+two companions who are vainly trying to console her, and a party
+conveying two cassowaries, a pair of white peacocks, and a kangaroo from
+Calcutta to some rajah's menagerie up country, are among the curiosities
+encountered on the road the following day. Spending the afternoon and
+night in the quarters of the Third Dragoon Guards at Muttra Cantonment, I
+resume my journey early in the morning, dodging from shelter to shelter
+to avoid frequent heavy showers.
+
+It is but thirty-five miles from Muttra to Agra, and notwithstanding
+showers and heat, the distance is covered by half-past ten. Wheeling at
+this pace, however, is an indiscretion, and the completion of the stretch
+is signalized by a determination to seek shade and quiet for the
+remainder of the day. Once again the sociable officers of the garrison
+tender me the hospitality of their quarters, and the ensuing day is spent
+in visiting that wonder of the world, the Taj Mahal, Akbar's fort, and
+other wonderful monuments of the palmy days of the Mogul Empire.
+
+Finer and more imposing in appearance even than the fort at Delhi, is
+that at Agra. Walls of red sandstone, seventy feet high, and a mile and a
+half in circuit, picturesquely crenellated, and with imposing gateways
+and a deep, broad moat, Complete a work of stupendous dimensions. One is
+overcome with a sense of grandeur upon first beholding these Indian
+palace-forts, after seeing nothing more imposing than mud walls in Persia
+and Afghanistan; they are magnificent looking structures. The contrast,
+too, of the red sandstone walls and gates and ramparts, with the white
+marble buildings of the royal quarters, is very striking. The domes of
+the latter, seen at a distance, seem like snow-white bubbles resting ever
+so lightly and airily upon the darker mass; one almost expects to see
+them rise up and float away on the passing zephyrs like balloons.
+
+Passing inside over a drawbridge and through the massive Delhi Gate, we
+proceed into the interior of the fort, traversing a broad ascent of
+sandstone pavement. Everything around us shows evidence of unstinted
+outlay in design, execution, and completion of detail in the carrying out
+of a stupendous undertaking. Everywhere the spirit of Akbar the
+Magnificent seems to hover amid his creations. One emerges from the
+covered gateway and the walled corrugated causeway, upon the parade
+ground. Crenellated walls, a park of artillery, and roomy English
+barracks greet the vision. Sentinels--Sepoy sentinels in huge
+turbans, and English sentinels in white sun-helmets--are pacing
+their beats. But not on these does the gaze of the visitor rest. Straight
+ahead of him there rises, above the red sandstone walls and the bare
+parade ground, three marble domes, white as newly-fallen snow, and just
+beyond are seen the gilt pinnacles of Akbar's palace.
+
+We wander among the beautiful marble creations, gaze in wonder at the
+snowy domes supported on marble pillars, mosaiced with jasper, agate,
+blood-stone, lapis-lazuli, and other rare stones. We stand on the white
+marble balustrades, carved so exquisitely as to resemble lace-work, and
+we look out upon the yellow waters of the Jumna, flowing sluggishly along
+seventy feet below. Here is where the Grand Mogul, Akbar, used to sit and
+watch elephant fights and boat races. There are none of these to be seen
+now; but that does not mean that the prospect is either tame or
+uninteresting. The banks of the Jumna are alive with hundreds of dusky
+natives engaged in washing clothes and spreading linen out in the sun to
+bleach. The prospect beyond is a revelation of vegetable luxuriance and
+wealth, and of historical reminiscence in the shape of ruins and tombs.
+
+One's eyes, however, are drawn away from the contemplation of the
+picturesque life below, and from the prospect of grove and garden and
+crumbling tombs, by the mesmerism, of the crowning glory of all Indian
+architectural triumphs, the famous Taj. This matchless mausoleum rests on
+the right-hand bank of the Jumna, about a mile down stream. The Taj, with
+its marvellous beauty and snowy whiteness, seems to cast a spell over the
+beholder, from the first; one can no more keep his eyes off it, when it
+is within one's range of vision, than he can keep from breathing. It
+draws one's attention to itself as irresistibly as though its magnetism
+were a living and breathing force exerted directly to that end. It is the
+subtlety of its unapproachable loveliness, commanding homage from all
+beholders, whether they will or no.
+
+We turn away from it awhile, however, and find ample scope for admiration
+close at hand. We tread the marble aisles of the Pearl Mosque, considered
+the most perfect gem of its kind in existence. One stands in its
+court-yard and finds himself in the chaste and exclusive companionship of
+snowy marble and blue sky. One feels almost ill at ease, as though
+conscious of being an imperfect thing, marring perfection by his
+presence. "Quiet as a nun, breathless with adoration," one enthusiastic
+visitor exclaims, in an effort to put his sentiments and impressions of
+the Moti Mesjid into words. Like this adoring traveller, the average
+visitor will rest content to be carried away by the contemplation of its
+chaste beauty, without prying around for possible defects in the details
+of the particular school of architecture it graces. He will have little
+patience with carping critics who point to the beautiful screens, of
+floriated marble tracery, and say: "Nuns should not wear collars of point
+lace."
+
+From the Moti Mesjid, we visit the Shish Mahal, or mirrored bath-rooms.
+The chambers and passages here remind me of the mirrored rooms of Persia;
+here, as there, thousands of tiny mirrors are used in working out various
+intricate designs. My three uniformed companions at once reflect not less
+than half a regiment of British soldiers therein.
+
+From the fort we drive in a native gharri to the Taj, a mile-drive
+through suburban scenery, plantain-gardens, groves, and ruins. In
+approaching the garden of the Taj, one passes through a bazaar, where the
+skilful Hindoo artisans are busy making beautiful inlaid tables,
+inkstands, plates, and similar fancies, as well as models of the Taj, out
+of white Jeypore marble. These are the hereditary descendants and
+successors of the men who in the palmy days of the Mogul power spent
+their lives in decorating the royal palaces and tombs with mosaics and
+tracery. Nowadays their skill is expended on mere articles of virtue, to
+be sold to European tourists and English officers. Some of them are
+occasionally employed by the Indian Government to repair the work
+desecrated by vandals during the mutiny, and under the purely commercial
+government of the East India Company. One curious phase of this work is,
+that the men employed to replace with imitations the original stones that
+have been stolen receive several times higher pay than the men in Akbar's
+time, who did such splendid work that it is not to be approached, these
+days. Several months' imprisonment is now the penalty of prying out
+stones from the mosaic-work of the Taj.
+
+This lovely structure has been described so often by travellers that one
+can scarce venture upon a description without seeming to repeat what has
+already been said by others. One of the best descriptions of its
+situation and surroundings is given by Bayard Taylor. He says: "The Taj
+stands on the bank of the Jumna, rather more than a mile to the eastward
+of the Fort of Agra. It is approached by a handsome road cut through the
+mounds left by the ruins of ancient palaces. It stands in a large garden,
+inclosed by a lofty wall of red sandstone, with arched galleries around
+the interior, and entered by a superb gateway of sandstone, inlaid with
+ornaments and inscriptions from the Koran in white marble. Outside this
+grand portal, however, is a spacious quadrangle of solid masonry, with an
+elegant structure, intended as a caravanserai, on the opposite side.
+Whatever may be the visitor's impatience, he cannot help pausing to
+notice the fine proportions of these structures, and the massive style of
+their construction. Passing under the open demi-vault, whose arch hangs
+high above you, an avenue of dark Italian cypress appears before you.
+Down its centre sparkles a long row of fountains, each casting up a
+single slender jet. On both sides, the palm, the banyan, and feathery
+bamboo mingle their foliage; the song of birds meets your ears, and the
+odor of roses and lemon-flowers sweetens the air. Down such a vista, and
+over such a foreground, rises the Taj."
+
+Of the Taj itself, fault has been found with its proportions by severe
+critics, like the party who regards the Moti Mesjid "nun" as faulty
+because she wears a point-lace collar; but the ordinary visitor will find
+room for nothing but admiration and wonder. It is hard to believe that
+there is any defect, even in its proportions, for so perfect do these
+latter appear, that one is astonished to learn that it is a taller
+building than the Kootub Minar. One would never guess it to be anywhere
+near so tall as 243 feet. The building rests on a plinth of white marble,
+eighteen feet high and a hundred yards square. At each corner of the
+plinth stands a minaret, also of white marble, and 137 feet high. The
+mausoleum itself occupies the central space, measuring in depth and width
+186 feet. The entire affair is of white Jeypore marble, resting upon a
+lower platform of sandstone: "A thing of perfect beauty and of absolute
+finish in every detail, it might pass for the work of a genii, who knew
+naught of the weaknesses and ills with which mankind are beset. It is not
+a great national temple erected by a free and united people, it owes its
+creation to the whim of an absolute ruler who was free to squander the
+resources of the State in commemorating his personal sorrows or his
+vanity."
+
+Another distinguished visitor, commenting on the criticisms of those who
+profess to have discovered defects, says: "The Taj is like a lovely
+woman; abuse her as you please, but the moment you come into her
+presence, you submit to its fascination."
+
+"If to her share some female errors fall, Look in her face, and you'll
+forget them all."
+
+Passing beneath the vaulted gateway, we find a sign-board, telling that
+the best place from which to view the Taj is from the roof of the
+gateway. A flight of steps leads us to the designated vantage-point, when
+the tropic garden, the fountains, the twin mosques in the far corners,
+the river, the minarets, and, above all, the Taj itself lay spread out
+before us for our inspection. The scene might well conjure up a vision of
+Paradise itself. The glorious Taj: "So light it seems, so airy, and so
+like a fabric of mist and moonbeams, with its great dome soaring up, a
+silvery bubble," that it is difficult, even at a few hundred yards'
+distance, to believe it a creation of human hands. While gazing on the
+Taj, men let their cigars go out, and ladies drop their fans without
+noticing it.
+
+Descending the steps again, we pass inside, and again pause to survey it
+from the end of the avenue. An element of the ridiculous here appears in
+the person and the appeals of an old Hindoo fruit-vender. This hopeful
+agent of Pomona squats beside a little tray, and, as we stand and feast
+our eyes on the sublimest object in the world of architecture, he
+persistently calls our attention to a dozen or two half-decayed mangoes
+and custard-apples that comprise his stock in trade.
+
+We pass down the cypress aisle, and invade the plinth. Hundreds of
+natives, both male and female, are wandering about it. The dazzling
+whiteness of the promenade is in striking contrast to the color of their
+own bodies. As the groups of women walk about, their toe-rings and
+ankle-ornaments jingle against the marble, and their particolored raiment
+and barbarous gewgaws look curiously out of place here. The place seems
+more appropriate to vestal virgins, robed in white, than to dusky Hindoo
+females, arrayed in all the colors of the rainbow. Many of these people
+are pilgrims who have come hundreds of miles to see the Taj, and to pay
+tribute to the memory of Shah Jehan, and his faithful wife the Princess
+Arjumund, whose mausoleum is the Taj. Two young men we see, leading an
+aged female, probably their mother, down the steps to the vault, where,
+side by side, the remains of this royal pair repose. The old lady is
+going down there to deposit a rose or two upon Arjumund's tomb, a tender
+tribute paid to-day, by thousands, to her memory.
+
+We climb the spiral stairs of one of the miuars, and sit out on the
+little pavilion at the top, watching the big ugly crocodiles float lazily
+on the surface of the Jumna at our feet. Before departing, we enter the
+Taj and examine the wonderful mosaics on the cenotaphs and the encircling
+screen-work. This inlaid flower-work is quite in keeping with the general
+magnificence of the mausoleum, many of the flowers containing not less
+than twenty-five different stones, assorted shades of agate, carnelian,
+jasper, blood-stone, lapis lazuli, and turquoise. Ere leaving we put to
+test the celebrated echo; that beautiful echoing, that--"floats and
+soars overhead in a long, delicious undulation, fading away so slowly
+that you hear it after it is silent, as you see, or seem to see, a lark
+you have been watching, after it is swallowed up in the blue vault of
+heaven."
+
+We leave this garden of enchantment by way of one of the mosques. An
+Indian boy is licking up honey from the floor of the holy edifice with
+his tongue. We look up and perceive that enough rich honey-comb to fill a
+bushel measure is suspended on one of the beams, and so richly laden is
+it that the honey steadily drips down. The sanctity of the place, I
+suppose, prevents the people molesting the swarm of wild bees that have
+selected it for their storehouse, or from relieving them of their honey.
+
+The Taj is said to have cost about two million pounds, even though most
+of the labor was performed without pay, other than rations of grain to
+keep the workmen from starving. Twenty thousand men were employed upon it
+for twenty-two years, and for its inlaid work "gems and precious stones
+came in camel-loads from various countries."
+
+The next morning I bid farewell to Agra, more than satisfied with my
+visit to the Taj. It stands unique and distinct from anything else one
+sees the whole world round. Nothing one could say about it can give the
+satisfaction derived from a visit, and no word-painting can do it
+justice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+FROM AGRA TO SINGAPORE.
+
+A couple of miles from the cantonment, and the broad Jumna is crossed on
+a pontoon bridge, the buoys of which are tubular iron floats instead of
+boats. Crocodiles are observed floating, motionless as logs, their heads
+turned up-stream and their snouts protruding from the water. The road is
+undulating for a few miles and then perfectly level, as, indeed, it has
+been most of the way from Lahore.
+
+Pilgrims carrying little red flags, and sometimes bits of red paper tied
+to sticks, are encountered by the hundred; mayhap they have come from
+distant points to gaze upon the beauties of the Taj Mahal, the fame of
+which resounds to the farthermost corners of India. They can now see it
+across the Jumna, resting on the opposite bank, looking more like a
+specimen of the architecture of the skies than anything produced by mere
+earthly agency.
+
+A partly dilapidated Mohammedan mosque in the middle of a forty-acre
+walled reservoir, overgrown with water-lilies, forms a charming subject
+for the attention of my camera. The mosque is approached from an adjacent
+village by a viaduct of twenty arches; a propos of its peculiar
+surroundings, one might easily fancy the muezzin's call to prayer taking
+the appropriate form of, "Come where the water-lilies bloom," instead of
+the orthodox, "Allah-il-allah."
+
+Villages are now rows of shops lining the road on either side, sometimes
+as much as half a mile in length. The entrance is usually marked by a
+shrine containing a hideous idol, painted red and finished off with
+cheap-looking patches of gold or silver tinsel. In the larger towns,
+evidences of English philanthropy loom conspicuously above the hut-like
+shops and inferior houses of the natives in the form of large and
+substantial brick buildings, prominently labelled "Ferozabad Hospital" or
+"Government Free Dispensary." A discouraging head-wind blows steadily all
+day, and it is near sunset when the thirty-seven miles to Sbikarabad is
+covered. A mile west of the town, I am told, is the Rohilcund Railway,
+the dak bungalow, and the bungalow of an English Sahib. Quite suitable
+for a one-mile race-track as regards surface is this little side-stretch,
+and a spin along its smooth length is rewarded by a most comfortable
+night at the bungalow of Mr. S, an engineer of the Ganges Canal, a
+magnificent irrigating enterprise, on the banks of which his bungalow
+stands. Several school-boys from Allahabad are here spending their
+vacation, shooting peafowls and fishing. Wild boars abound in the tall
+tiger-grass of the Shikobabad district and the silence of the gloaming is
+broken by the shouting of natives driving them out of their cane-patches,
+where, if not looked after pretty sharply, they do considerable damage in
+the night.
+
+A curious illustration of native vanity and love of fame is pointed out
+here in the case of a wealthy gentleman who has spent some thousands of
+rupees in making and maintaining a beautiful flower-garden in the midst
+of a worthless piece of sandy land, close by the railway station. Close
+by is an abundance of excellent ground, where his garden might have been
+easily and inexpensively maintained. Asked the reason for this strange
+preference and seemingly foolish choice, he replied: "When people see
+this beautiful garden in the midst of the barren sand, they will ask,
+'Whose garden is this?' and thus will my name become known among men.
+If, on the other hand, it were planted on good soil, nobody would see
+anything extraordinary in it, and nobody would trouble themselves to ask
+to whom it belongs."
+
+Youthful Davids, perched on frail platforms that rise above the
+sugar-cane, indigo, or cotton crops, shout and wield slings with
+dexterous aim and vigor, to keep away vagrant crows, parrots, and wild
+pigs, all along the line of my next day's ride to Mainpuri. In many
+fields these young slingers and their platforms are but a couple of
+hundred yards apart, the range of their weapons covering the entire
+crop-area around. Sometimes I endeavor to secure one of these excellent
+subjects for my camera, but the youngsters invariably clamber down from
+their perch at seeing me dismount, and become invisible among the thick
+cane.
+
+To the music of loud, rolling thunder, I speed swiftly over the last few
+miles, and dash beneath the porch of the post-office just in the nick of
+time to escape a tremendous downpour of rain. How it pours, sometimes, in
+India, converting the roads into streams and the surrounding country into
+a shallow lake in the space of a few minutes. Hundreds of youths, naked
+save for the redeeming breech-cloth, disport themselves in the great warm
+shower-bath, chasing one another sportively about and enjoying the
+downpour immensely.
+
+The rain ceases, and, with water flinging from my wheel, I seek the civil
+lines and the dak bungalow three miles farther down the road. Very good
+meals are dished up by the chowkee-dar at this bungalow, who seems an
+intelligent and enterprising fellow; but the lean and slippered
+punkah-wallah is a far less satisfactory part of the accommodation. Twice
+during the night the punkah ceases to wave and the demon of prickly heat
+instantly wakes me up; and both times do I have to turn out and arouse
+him from the infolding arms of Morpheus. On the second occasion the old
+fellow actually growls at being disturbed. He is wide-awake and
+obsequious enough, however, at backsheesh-time in the morning.
+
+The clock at the little English station-church chimes the hour of six as
+I resume my journey next morning along a glorious avenue of overarching
+shade-trees to Bhogan, where my road, which from Delhi has been a branch
+road, again merges into the Grand Trunk. Groves of tall toddy-palms are a
+distinguishing feature of Bhogan, and a very pretty little Hindoo temple
+marks the southern extremity of the town. A striking red and gilt shrine
+in a secluded grove of peepuls arrests my attention a few miles out of
+town, and, repairing thither, my rude intrusion fills with silent
+surprise a company of gentle Brahman youths and maidens paying their
+matutinal respects to the representation of Kamadeva, the Hindoo cupid
+and god of love. They seem overwhelmed with embarrassment at the
+appearance of a Sahib, but they say nothing. I explain that my object is
+merely a "tomasha" of the exquisitely carved shrine, and a young Brahman,
+with his smooth, handsome face fantastically streaked with yellow,
+follows silently behind as I walk around the building. His object is
+evidently to satisfy himself that nothing is touched by my unhallowed
+Christian hands.
+
+Seven miles from Bhogan is the camping ground of Bheyo, where in
+December, 1869, an English soldier was assassinated in the night while
+standing sentry beneath a tree. His grave, beneath the gnarled mango
+where he fell, is marked by two wooden crosses, and the tree-trunk is all
+covered with memorial plates nailed there, from time to time, by the
+various troops who have camped here on their winter marches.
+
+Twenty-eight miles are duly reeled off when, just outside a village, I
+seek the shade of a magnificent banyan. The kindly villagers,
+unaccustomed to seeing a Sahib without someone attending to his comfort,
+bring me a charpoy to recline on, and they inquire anxiously, "roti?
+pahni? doctor." (am I hungry, thirsty, or ill?). Nor are these people
+actuated by mercenary thoughts, for not a pice will they accept on my
+departure. "Nay, Sahib, nay," they reply, eagerly, smiling and shaking
+their heads, "pice, nay." The narrow-gauge Rohilcuud Railway now follows
+along the Grand Trunk road, being built on one edge of the broad
+road-bed. Miran Serai, a station on this road, is my destination for the
+day; there, however, no friendly dak bungalow awaits my coming and no
+hostelry of any kind is to be found.
+
+The native station-master advises me to go to the superintendent of
+police across the way; the police-officer, in turn, suggests applying to
+the station-master. The police-thana here is a large establishment, and a
+number of petty prisoners are occupying railed-off enclosures beneath the
+arched entrance. They accost me through the bars of their temporary,
+cage-like prison with smiles, and "Sahib" spoken in coaxing tones, as
+though moved by the childish hope that I might perchance take pity on
+them and order the police to set them at liberty.
+
+A small and pardonable display of "bounce" at the railway station finally
+secures me the quarters reserved for the accommodation of English
+officers of the road, and a Mohammedan employe about the station procures
+me a supply of curried rice and meat. The station-master himself is a
+high-caste Hindoo and can speak English; he politely explains the
+difficulty of his position, as an extra-holy person, in being unable to
+personally attend to the wants of a Sahib. Upon discovering that I have
+taken up my quarters in the station, the police-superintendent comes over
+and begs permission to send over my supper, as he is evidently anxious to
+cultivate my good opinion, or, at all events, to make sure of giving no
+offence in failing to accommodate me with sleeping quarters at the thana.
+He supplements the efforts of the Mohammedan employe, by sending over a
+dish of sweetened chuppaties.
+
+On the street leading out of Miran Serai is a very handsome and
+elaborately ornamented temple. Passing by early in the morning, I pay it
+a brief, unceremonious visit of inspection, kneeling on the steps and
+thrusting my helmeted head in to look about, not caring to go to the
+trouble of removing my shoes. Inside is an ancient Brahman, engaged in
+sweeping out the floral offerings of the previous day; he favors me with
+the first indignant glance I have yet received in India. When I have
+satisfied my curiosity and withdrawn from the door-way, he comes out
+himself and shuts the beautifully chased brazen door with quite an angry
+slam. The day previous was the anniversary of Krishna's birth, and the
+blood of sacrificial goats and bullocks is smeared profusely about the
+altar. It is, probably, the enormity of an unhallowed unbeliever in one
+god, thrusting his infidel head inside the temple at this unseemly hour
+of the morning, while the blood of the mighty Krishna's sacrificial
+victims is scarcely dry on the walls, that arouses the righteous wrath of
+the old heathen priest--as well, indeed, it might.
+
+Passing through a village abounding in toddy-palms, I avail myself of an
+opportunity to investigate the merits of a beverage that I have been
+somewhat curious about since reaching India, having heard it spoken of so
+often. The famous "palm-wine" is merely the sap of the toddy-palm,
+collected much as is the sap from the maple-sugar groves of America,
+although the palm-juice is generally, if not always, obtained from the
+upper part of the trunk. When fresh, its taste resembles sweetened water;
+in a day or two fermentation sets in, and it changes to a beverage that,
+except for slightly alcoholic properties, might readily be mistaken for
+vinegar and water.
+
+Every little village or hamlet one passes through, south of Agra, seems
+laudably determined to own a god of some sort; those whose finances fail
+to justify them in sporting a nice, red-painted god with gilt trimmings,
+sometimes console themselves with a humble little two-dollar soapstone
+deity that looks as if he has been rudely chipped into shape by some
+unskilful prentice hand. God-making is a highly respectable and lucrative
+profession in India, but only those able to afford it can expect the
+luxury of a nice painted and varnished deity right to their hand every
+day. People cannot expect a first-class deity for a couple of rupees;
+although the best of everything is generally understood to be the
+cheapest in the end, it takes money to buy marble, red paint, and
+gold-leaf. A bowl of pulse porridge, sweet and gluey, is prepared and
+served up in a big banyan-leaf at noon by a villager. In the same village
+is one of those very old and shrivelled men peculiar to India. From
+appearances, he must be nearly a hundred years old; his skin resembles
+the epidermis of a mummy, and hangs in wrinkles about his attenuated
+frame. He spends most of his time smoking goodakoo from a neat little
+cocoa-nut hookah.
+
+The evening hour brings me into Cawnpore, down a fine broad street
+divided in the centre by a canal, with flights of stone steps for banks
+and a double row of trees--a street far broader and finer than the Chandni
+Chouk--and into an hotel kept by a Parsee gentleman named Byramjee. Life
+at this hostelry is made of more than passing interest by the familiar
+manner in which frogs, lizards, and birds invade the privacy of one's
+apartments. Not one of these is harmful, but one naturally grows curious
+about whether a cobra or some other less desirable member of the reptile
+world is not likely at any time to join their interesting company. The
+lizards scale the walls and ceiling in search of flies, frogs hop
+sociably about the floor, and a sparrow now and then twitters in and out.
+
+A two weeks' drought has filled the farmers of the Cawnpore district with
+grave apprehensions concerning their crops; but enough rain falls
+to-night to gladden all their hearts, and also to leak badly through the
+roof of my bedroom.
+
+My punkah-wallah here is a regular automaton--he has acquired the valuable
+accomplishment of pulling the punkah-string back and forth in his sleep;
+he keeps it up some time after I have quitted the room in the morning,
+until a comrade comes round and wakes him up.
+
+For three days the rains continue almost without interruption, raining as
+much as seven inches in one night. Slight breaks occur in the downpour,
+during which it is possible to get about and take a look at the Memorial
+Gardens and the native town. The Memorial Gardens and the well enclosed
+therein commemorate one of the most pathetic incidents of the mutiny--the
+brutal massacre by Nana Sahib of about two hundred English women and
+children. This arch-fiend held supreme sway over Cawnpore from June 6,
+1857, till July 15th, and in that brief period committed some of the most
+atrocious deeds of treachery and deviltry that have ever been, recorded.
+Backed by a horde of blood-thirsty mutineers, he committed deeds the
+memory of which causes tears of pity for his victims to come unbidden
+into the eyes of the English tourist thirty years after. Delicate ladies,
+who from infancy had been the recipients of tender care and
+consideration, were herded together in stifling rooms with the
+thermometer at 120 deg. in the shade, marched through the broiling sun
+for miles, subjected to heart-rending privations, and at length finally
+butchered, together with their helpless children. After the treacherous
+massacre of the few surviving Englishmen at the Suttee Chowra Ghaut, the
+remaining women and children were reserved for further cruelties, and the
+final act of Nana's fiendish vengeance. From the graphic account of this
+murderous period of Cawnpore's history contained in the "Tourists' Guide
+to Cawnpore" is quoted the following brief account of Nana's consummate
+deed of devilment.
+
+But the Nana's reign of terror was now drawing to a close, though not to
+terminate without a stroke destined to make the civilized world shudder
+from end to end. He was now to put the finishing touch to his work of
+mischief. The councils of the wicked were being troubled. Danger was on
+its way. Stories were brought in by scouting Sepoys of terrible bronzed
+men coming up the Grand Trunk Road, before whose advance the rebel hosts
+were fleeing like chaff and dust before the fan of the threshing-floor,
+Futtehpore had fallen, and disaster had overtaken the rebel forces at
+Aoung. Reinforcements were despatched by Nana in rapid succession, but
+all was of no avail--on came Havelock and his handful of heroes,
+carrying everything before them in their determination to rescue the
+hapless women and children imprisoned at Cawnpore. About noon on July
+15th a few troopers came in from the south and informed Nana that his
+last reinforcement had met the same fate as the others, and reported that
+the English were coming up the road like mad horses, caring for neither
+cannon nor musketry; nor did these appear to have any effect on them. The
+guilty Nana, with the blood of the recent treacherous massacre on his
+hands, grew desperate at the hopelessness of the situation, and called a
+council of war. What plans could they devise to keep out the English?
+what steps could they adopt to stay their advance. The conclusion arrived
+at in that council of human tigers could have found expression nowhere
+save in the brains of Asiatics, illogical, and diabolically cruel. "We
+will destroy the maims and baba logues," they said, "and inform the
+English force of it; they will then be disheartened, and go back, for
+they are only a handful in number!"
+
+How the unfortunate innocents were butchered in cold blood in the
+beebeegurch where they were confined, by Sepoys who gloried in trying
+their skill at severing the ladies' heads from their bodies at one cut,
+in splitting little children in twain, and in smearing themselves with
+the blood of their helpless victims, is too harrowing a tale to dwell
+upon here. On the following morning "the mangled bodies of both dead and
+dying" were cast into the well over which now hovers the marble
+representation of the Pitying Angel. When the victorious relieving force
+scattered Nana's remaining forces and entered the city, two days later,
+instead of the living forms of those they had made such heroic efforts to
+save, they looked down the well and saw their ghastly remains.
+
+In this lovely garden, where all is now so calm and peaceful, scarcely
+does it seem possible that beneath the marble figure of this Pitying
+Angel repose the dust of two hundred of England's gentle martyrs, whose
+murdered and mutilated forms, but thirty years ago, choked up the well
+into which they were tossed. While I stand and read the sorrowful
+inscription it rains a gentle, soft, unpattering shower. Are these gentle
+droppings the tender tribute of angels' tears. I wonder, and does it
+always rain so soft and noiselessly here as it does to-day?
+
+No natives are permitted in this garden without special permission; and
+an English soldier keeps sentinel at the entrance-gate instead of the
+Sepoy usually found on such duty. The memory of this tragedy seems to
+hang over Cawnpore like a cloud even to this day, and to cause a feeling
+of bitterness in the minds of Englishmen, who everywhere else regard the
+natives about them with no other feelings than of the kindliest possible
+nature. Other monuments of the mutiny exist, notably the Memorial Church,
+a splendid Lombard-Gothic structure erected in memoriam of those who fell
+in the mutiny here. The church is full of tablets commemorating the death
+of distinguished people, and the stained-glass windows are covered with
+the names of the victims of Nana Sahib's treachery, and of those who fell
+in action.
+
+Cawnpore is celebrated for the number and extensiveness of its
+manufactures, and might almost be called the Manchester of India;
+woollen, cotton, and jute mills abound, leather factories, and various
+kindred industries, giving employment to millions of capital and
+thousands of hands.
+
+A stroll through the native quarter of any Indian city is interesting,
+and Cawnpore is no exception. One sees buildings and courts the
+decorations and general appearance of which leave the beholder in doubt
+as to whether they are theatre or temple. Music and tom-toming would seem
+rather to suggest the former, but upon entering one sees fakirs and
+Hindoo devotees, streaked with clay, fanciful paintings and hideous
+idols, and all the cheap pomp and pageantry of idolatrous worship.
+Strolling into one of these places, an attendant, noting my curious
+gazing, presents himself and points to a sign-board containing characters
+as meaningless to me as Aztec hieroglyphics.
+
+In one narrow street a crowd of young men are struggling violently for
+position about a door, where an old man is flinging handfuls of yellow
+powder among the crowd. The struggling men are aspirants for the honor of
+having a portion of the powder alight on their persons. I inquire of a
+native by-stander what it all means; the explanation is politely given,
+but being in the vernacular of the country, it is wasted on the
+unprofitable soil of my own lingual ignorance.
+
+Impatient to be getting along, I misinterpret a gleam of illusory
+sunshine at noon on the third day of the rain-storm and pull out, taking
+a cursory glance at the Memorial Church as I go. A drenching shower
+overtakes me in the native military lines, compelling me to seek shelter
+for an hour beneath the portico of their barracks. The road is perfectly
+level and smooth, and well rounded, so that the water drains off and
+leaves it better wheeling than ever; and with alternate showers and
+sunshine I have no difficulty in covering thirty-four miles before
+sunset. This brings me to a caravanserai, consisting of a quadrangular
+enclosure with long rows of cell-like rooms. The whole structure is much
+inferior to a Persian caravanserai, but there is probably no need of the
+big brick structures of Shah Abbas in a winterless country like India.
+
+Interesting subjects are not wanting for my camera through the day; but
+the greatest difficulty is experienced about changing the negatives at
+night. A small lantern with a very feeble light, made still more feeble
+by interposing red paper, suffices for my own purpose; but the too
+attentive chowkee-dar, observing that my room is in darkness, and
+fancying that my light has gone out accidentally, comes flaring in with a
+torch, threatening the sensitive negatives with destruction.
+
+The morning opens with a fine drizzle or extra-heavy mist that is
+penetrating and miserable, soaking freely into one's clothes, and
+threatening every minute to change into a regular rain. It is fourteen
+miles to Futtehpore, and thence two miles off the straight road to the
+railway-station, where I understand refreshments are to be obtained. The
+reward of my four-mile detour is a cup of sloppy tea and a few
+weevil-burrowed biscuits, as the best the refreshment-room can produce on
+short notice. The dense mist moves across the country in big banks,
+between which are patches of comparatively decent atmosphere. The country
+is perfectly flat, devoted chiefly to the cultivation of rice, and the
+depressions alongside the road are, of course, filled with water.
+
+Timid youngsters, fleeing from the road at my approach, in their
+scrambling haste sometimes tumble "head-over-heels" in the water; but,
+beyond a little extra terror lest the dreadful object they see coming
+bowling along should overtake them, it doesn't matter--they haven't
+any clothes to spoil or soil. Neither rain nor heat nor dense, reeking,
+foggy atmosphere seems to diminish the swarms of people on the road, nor
+the groups bathing or washing clothes beneath the trees. Some of these
+latter make a very interesting picture. The reader has doubtless visited
+the Zoo and observed one monkey gravely absorbed in a "phrenological
+examination" of another's head. With equal gravity and indifference to
+the world at large, dusky humans are performing a similar office for one
+another beneath the roadside shade-trees.
+
+Roasted ears of maize and a small muskmelon form my noontide repast, and
+during its consumption quite a comedy is enacted down the street between
+a fat, paunchy vender of goodakoo and the shiny-skinned proprietor of a
+dhal-shop. The scene opens with a wordy controversy about something;
+scene two shows the fat goodakoo merchant advanced midway between his own
+and his adversary's premises, capering about, gesticulating, and uttering
+dire threats; scene three finds him retreating and the valorous man of
+dhal held in check by his wife to prevent him following after with
+hostile intent. The men seem boiling over with rage and ready to chew
+each other up; but, judging from the supreme indifference of everybody
+else about, nobody expects anything serious, to happen. This is
+mentionable as being the first quarrel I have seen in India; as a general
+thing the people are gentleness personified.
+
+Several tattooed Hindoo devotees are observed this afternoon paying
+solemn devotions to bel-trees streaked with red paint, near the road.
+Many of the trees also shelter rude earthenware animals, and
+hemispherical vessels, which are also objects of worship, as representing
+the linga. The bel-tree is sacred to Siva the Destroyer, and the third
+person in the Hindoo Triad, whom Brahma himself is said to have
+worshipped, although he is regarded as the Creator. In the absence of
+Siva himself, the worship of the bel-tree is supposed to be as
+efficacious as worshipping the idol direct.
+
+Soon I overtake an individual doing penance for his sins by crawling on
+his stomach all the way to Benares, the Mecca of the Hindoo religion. In
+addition to crawling, he is dragging a truck containing his personal
+effects by a rope tied about his waist. Every fifty yards or so he stands
+up and stretches himself; then he lies prostrate again and worms his
+wearisome way along the road like a snake. Benares is still about a
+hundred miles distant, and not unlikely this determined devotee has
+already been crawling in this manner for weeks. This painful sort of
+penance was formerly indulged in by Hindoo fanatics very largely; but the
+English Government has now all but abolished the practice by mild methods
+of discouragement. The priests of the different idols in Benares annually
+send out thousands of missionaries to travel throughout the length and
+breadth of India to persuade people to make pilgrimages to that city.
+Each missionary proclaims the great benefits to be derived by going to
+worship the particular idol he represents; in this manner are the priests
+enriched by the offerings presented. Not long since one of these zealous
+pilgrim-hunters persuaded a wealthy rajah into journeying five hundred
+miles in the same manner as the poor wretch passed on the road to-day.
+The infatuated rajah completed the task, after months of torture, on
+all-fours, accompanied the whole distance by a crowd of servants and
+priests, all living on his bounty.
+
+Many people now wear wooden sandals held on the feet by a spool-like
+attachment, gripped between the big and second toes. Having no straps,
+the solid sole of the sandal flaps up and mildly bastinadoes the wearer
+every step that is taken.
+
+Another night in a caravanserai, where rival proprietors of rows of
+little chowkees contend for the privilege of supplying me char-poy, dood,
+and chowel, and where thousands of cawing rooks blacken the trees and
+alight in the quadrangular serai in noisy crowds, and I enter upon the
+home-stretch to Allahabad.
+
+In proof that the cycle is making its way in India it may be mentioned
+that at both Cawnpore and Allahabad the native postmen are mounted on
+strong, heavy bicycles, made and supplied from the post-office workshops
+at Allighur. They are rude machines, only a slight improvement upon the
+honored boneshaker; but their introduction is suggestive of what may be
+looked for in the future. As evidence, also, of the oft-repeated saying
+that "the world is small," I here have the good fortune to meet Mr.
+Wingrave, a wheelman whom I met at the Barnes Common tricycle parade when
+passing through London.
+
+There is even a small cycle club in quasi existence at Allahabad; but it
+is afflicted with chronic lassitude, as a result of the enervating
+climate of the Indian plains. Young men who bring with them from England
+all the Englishman's love of athletics soon become averse to exercise,
+and prefer a quiet "peg" beneath the punkah to wheeling or cricket.
+During the brief respite from the hades-like temperature afforded by
+December and January, they sometimes take club runs down the Ganges and
+indulge in the pastime of shooting at alligators with small-bore rifles.
+
+The walks in the beautiful public gardens and every other place about
+Allahabad are free to wheelmen, and afford most excellent riding.
+
+Messrs. Wingrave and Gawke, the two most enterprising wheelmen, turn out
+at 6 a.m. to escort me four miles to the Ganges ferry. Some idea of the
+trying nature of the climate in August may be gathered from the fact that
+one of my companions arrives at the river fairly exhausted, and is
+compelled to seek the assistance of a native gharri to get back home. The
+exposure and exercise I am taking daily is positively dangerous, I am
+everywhere told, but thus far I have managed to keep free from actual
+sickness.
+
+The sacred river is at its highest flood, and hereabout not less than a
+mile and half wide. The ferry service is rude and inefficient, being
+under the management of natives, who reck little of the flight of time or
+modern improvements. The superintendent will bestir himself, however, in
+behalf of the Sahib who is riding the Ferenghi gharri around the world:
+instead of putting me aboard the big slow ferry, he will man a smaller
+and swifter boat to ferry me over. The "small boat" is accordingly
+produced, and turns out to be a rude flat-boat sort of craft, capable of
+carrying fully twenty tons, and it is manned by eight oarsmen. Their oars
+are stout bamboo poles with bits of broad board nailed or tied on the
+end.
+
+Much of the Ganges' present width is mere overflow, shallow enough for
+the men to wade and tow the boat. It is tugged a considerable distance
+up-stream, to take advantage of the swift current in crossing the main
+channel. The oars are plied vigorously to a weird refrain of "deelah,
+sahlah-deelah, sahlah!" the stroke oarsman shouting "deelah" and the
+others replying "sahlah" in chorus. Two hours are consumed in crossing
+the river, but once across the road is perfection itself, right from the
+river's brink.
+
+Through the valley of the sacred river, the splendid kunkah road leads
+onward to Benares, the great centre of Hindoo idolatry, a city that is
+more to the Hindoo than is Mecca to the Mohammedans or Jerusalem to the
+early Christians. Shrines and idols multiply by the roadside, and tanks
+innumerable afford bathing and purifying facilities for the far-travelled
+pilgrims who swarm the road in thousands. As the heathen devotee
+approaches nearer and nearer to Benares he feels more and more
+devotionally inclined, and these tanks of the semi-sacred water of the
+Ganges Valley happily afford him opportunity to soften up the crust of
+his accumulated transgressions, preparatory to washing them away entirely
+by a plunge off the Kamnagar ghaut at Benares. Many of the people are
+trudging their way homeward again, happy in the possession of bottles of
+sacred water obtained from the river at the holy city. Precious liquid
+this, that they are carrying in earthenware bottles hundreds of weary
+miles to gladden the hearts of stay-at-home friends and relations.
+
+At every tank scores of people are bathing, washing their clothes, or
+scouring out the brass drinking vessel almost everyone carries for
+pulling water up from the roadside wells. They are far less particular
+about the quality of the water itself than about the cleanliness of the
+vessel. Many wells for purely drinking purposes abound, and Brahmans
+serve out cool water from little pahnee-chowkees through window-like
+openings. Wealthy Hindoos, desirous of performing some meritorious act to
+perpetuate their memory when dead, frequently build a pahnee-chowkee by
+the roadside and endow it with sufficient land or money to employ a
+Brahman to serve out drinking-water to travellers.
+
+Thirty miles from Allahabad, I pause at a wayside well to obtain a drink.
+It is high noon, and the well is on unshaded ground. For a brief moment
+my broad-brimmed helmet is removed so that a native can pour water into
+my hands while I hold them to my mouth. Momentary as is the experience,
+it is followed by an ominous throbbing and ringing in the ears--the voice
+of the sun's insinuating power. But a very short distance is covered when
+I am compelled to seek the shelter of a little road-overseer's chowkee,
+the symptoms of fever making their appearance with alarming severity.
+
+The quinine that I provided myself with at Constantinople is brought into
+requisition for the first time; it is found to be ruined from not being
+kept in an air-tight vessel. A burning fever keeps me wide awake till 2
+a.m., and in the absence of a punkah, prickly heat prevents my slumbering
+afterward. This wakeful night by the roadside enlightens me to the
+interesting fact that the road is teeming with people all night as well
+as all day, many preferring to sleep in the shade during the day and
+travel at night.
+
+It is fifty miles from my chowkee to Benares, and the dread of being
+overtaken with serious illness away from medical assistance urges upon me
+the advisability of reaching there to-day, if possible. The morning is
+ushered in with a stiff head-wind, and the fever leaves me feeling
+anything but equal to pedalling against it when I mount my wheel at early
+daybreak. By sheer strength of will I reel off mile after mile, stopping
+to rest frequently at villages and under the trees.
+
+A troop of big government elephants are having their hoofs trimmed at a
+village where a halt is made to obtain a bite of bread and milk. The
+elephants enter unmistakable objections to the process in the way of
+trumpeting, and act pretty much like youngsters objecting to soap and
+water. But a word and a gentle tap from the mahout's stick and the
+monster brutes roll over on their sides and submit to the inevitable with
+a shrill protesting trumpet.
+
+Another diversion not less interesting than the elephants is a wrestling
+tournament at the police-thana, where twenty stalwart policemen, stripped
+as naked as the proprieties of a country where little clothing is worn
+anyhow will permit, are struggling for honor in the arena. Vigorous
+tom-toming encourages the combatants to do their best, and they flop one
+another over merrily, in the dampened clay, to the applause of a
+delighted crowd of lookers-on. The fifty miles are happily overcome by
+four o'clock, and with the fever heaping additional fuel on the already
+well-nigh unbearable heat, I arrive pretty thoroughly exhausted at
+Clarke's Hotel, in the European quarter of Benares.
+
+Of all the cities of the East, Benares is perhaps the most interesting at
+the present day to the European tourist. Its fourteen hundred shivalas or
+idol temples, and two hundred and eighty mosques, its wonderful bathing
+ghauts swarming with pilgrims washing away their sins, the burning
+bodies, the sacred Ganges, the hideous idols at every corner of the
+streets, and its strange idolatrous population, make up a scene that
+awakens one to a keen appreciation of its novelty. One realizes fully
+that here the idolatry, the "bowing down before images" that in our
+Sunday-school days used to seem so unutterably wicked and perverse, so
+monstrous, and so far, far away, is a tangible fact. To keep up their
+outward appearance on a par with the holiness of their city, men streak
+their faces and women mark the parting in their hair with red. Sacred
+bulls are allowed to roam the streets at will, and the chief business of
+a large proportion of the population seems to be the keeping of religious
+observances and paying devotion to the multitudinous idols scattered
+about the city.
+
+The presiding deity of Benares is the great Siva--"The Great God,"
+"The Glorious," "The Three-Eyed," and lord of over one thousand similarly
+grandiloquent titles, and he is represented by the Bishesharnath ka
+shivala, a temple whose dome shines resplendent with gold-leaf, and which
+is known to Europeans as the Golden Temple. Siva is considered the king
+of all the Hindoo deities in the Benares Pauch-kos, and is consequently
+honored above all other idols in the number of devotees that pay homage
+to him daily. His income from offerings amounts to many thousands of
+rupees annually: there is a reservoir for the reception of offerings
+about three feet square by half that in depth. The Maharajah Ranjit
+Singh, Rajah of the Punjab, once filled this place with gold mohurs; many
+wealthy Hindoos have from time to time filled it with rupees.
+
+The old guide whom I have employed to show me about then conducts me into
+the "Cow Temple," a filthy court containing a number of pampered-looking
+Brahman bulls, and several youthful bovines whose great privilege it is
+to roam about the court-yard and accept tid-bits from the hands of
+devotees. In the same court-yard-like shivala are several red idols, and
+the numerous comers and goers make the place as animated as a vegetable
+market at early morning. Priests, too, are here in numbers; seated on a
+central elevation they make red marks on the faces of the devotees,
+dipping in the mixture with their finger; in return they receive a small
+coin, or a pinch of rice or grain is thrown into a vessel placed there for
+the purpose.
+
+In many stalls are big piles of flower-petals which devotees purchase to
+present as offerings. Men and women by the hundred are encountered in the
+narrow streets, passing briskly along with baskets containing a supply of
+these petals, a dish of rice, and a bowl of water; one would think, from
+their business-like manner, that they were going, or had been, marketing.
+They are going the morning round of their favorite gods, or the gods
+whose particular services they happen to stand in need of at the time;
+before these idols they pause for a moment, mutter their supplications,
+and sprinkle them with water and flower-petals, passing from one deity to
+another in a most business-like, matter-of-fact manner. Women unblessed
+with children throng to the idols of Sidheswari and Sankatadevi,
+bestowing offerings and making supplication for sons and daughters;
+pilgrims from afar are flocking to Sakhi-Banaik, whose office it is to
+testify in the next world of their pilgrimage in this. No matter how far
+a pilgrim has come, and how many offerings he has bestowed since his
+arrival, unless he repair to the shivala of Sakhi Banaik and duly report
+his appearance, his pilgrimage will have been performed in vain.
+
+Everywhere, in niches of the walls, under trees, on pedestals at frequent
+corners, are idols, hideously ugly; red idols, idols with silver faces
+and stone bodies, some with mouths from ear to ear, big idols, little
+idols, the worst omnium gatherum imaginable. Sati, nothing visible but
+her curious silver face, beams over a black mother-hubbard sort of gown
+that conceals whatever she may possess in the way of a body; Jagaddatri,
+the Mother of the World, with four arms, seated on a lion; Brahma, with
+five eyes and four mouths, curiously made to supply quadruple faces.
+Karn-adeva, the handsome little God of Love (the Hindoo Cupid), whom the
+cruel Siva once slew with a beam from his third eye--all these and
+multitudinous others greet the curious sight-seer whichever way he turns.
+Hanuman, too, is not forgotten, the great Monkey King who aided Kama in
+his expedition to Ceylon; outside the city proper is the monkey temple,
+where thousands of the sacred anthropoids do congregate and consider
+themselves at home. Then there is the fakirs' temple, the most
+beautifully carved shivala in Benares; here priests distribute handfuls
+of soaked grain to all mendicants who present themselves. The grain is
+supplied by wealthy Hindoos, and both priests and patrons consider it a
+great sin to allow a religious mendicant to go away from the temple
+empty-handed.
+
+Conspicuous above all other buildings in the city is the mosque of
+Aurungzebe, with its two shapely minarets towering high above everything
+else. The view from the summit of the minarets is comprehensive and
+magnificently lovely; the wonderful beauty of the trees and shivalas, the
+green foliage, and the gilt and red temples, so beautifully carved and
+gracefully tapering; the broad, flowing Ganges, the busy people, the
+moving boats, the rajahs' palaces along the water-front, make up a truly
+beautiful panorama of the Sacred City of the Hindoos. From here we take a
+native boat and traverse the water-front to see the celebrated bathing
+ghauts and the strange, animated scene of pilgrims bathing, bodies
+burning, and swarms of people ascending and descending the broad flights
+of steps. How intensely eager do these dusky believers in the efficacy of
+"Mother Ganga" as a purifier of sin dip themselves beneath the yellow
+water, rinse out their mouths, scrape their tongues, nib, duck, splash,
+and disport; they fairly revel in the sacred water; happy, thrice happy
+they look, as well indeed they might, for now are they certain of future
+happiness. What the "fountain filled with blood" is to the Christian, so
+is the precious water of dear Ganga to the sinful Hindoo: all sins, past,
+present, and future, are washed away.
+
+Next to washing in the sacred stream during life, the Hindoo's ambition
+is to yield up the ghost on its bank, and then to be burned on the
+Burning Ghaut and have his ashes cast adrift on the waters. On the
+Manikarnika ghaut the Hindoos burn their dead. To the unbelieving
+Ferenghi tourist there seems to be a "nigger in the fence" about all
+these heathen ceremonies, and in the burning of the dead the wily
+priesthood has managed to obtain a valuable monopoly on firewood, by
+which they have accumulated immense wealth. No Hindoo, no matter how
+pious he has been through life, how many offerings he has made to the
+gods, or how thoroughly he has scoured his yellow hide in the Ganges, can
+ever hope to reach Baikunt (heaven) unless the wood employed at his
+funeral pyre come from a domra. Domras are the lowest and most despised
+caste in India, a caste which no Hindoo would, under any consideration,
+allow himself to touch during life, or administer food to him even if
+starving to death; but after his holier brethren have yielded up the
+ghost, then the despised domra has his innings. Then it is that the
+relatives of the deceased have to humble themselves before the domra to
+obtain firing to burn the body. Realizing that they now have the pull,
+the wily domras sometimes bleed their mournful patrons unmercifully. As
+many as a thousand rupees have been paid for a fire by wealthy rajahs.
+The domra who holds the monopoly at the Manikarnika ghaut is one of the
+richest men in Benares.
+
+Two or three bodies swathed in white are observed waiting their turn to
+be burned, others are already burning, and in another spot is the corpse
+of some wealthier person wrapped in silver tinsel. Not the least
+interesting of the sights is that of men and boys here and there engaged
+in dipping up mud from the bottom and washing it in pans similar to the
+gold-pans of placer-miners; they make their livelihood by finding
+occasional coins and ornaments, accidentally lost by bathers. A very
+unique and beautifully carved edifice is the Nepaulese temple; but the
+carvings are unfit for popular inspection.
+
+The whole river-front above the ghauts is occupied by temples and the
+palaces of rajahs, who spend a portion of their time here preparing
+themselves for happiness hereafter, by drinking Ganges water and
+propitiating the gods. On festival occasions, and particularly during an
+eclipse, as many as one hundred thousand people bathe in the Ganges at
+once; formerly many were drowned in the great crush to obtain the
+peculiar blessings of bathing during an eclipse, but now a large force of
+police is employed to regulate the movements of the people on such
+occasions. Formerly, also, fights were very frequent between the
+Mohammedans and Hindoos, owing to the clashing of their religious
+beliefs, but under the tolerant and conciliatory system of the British
+Government they now get along very well together.
+
+A rest of two days and a few doses of quinine subdue the fever and put me
+in condition to resume my journey. Twelve miles from Benares, on the East
+Indian Kail way, is Mogul Serai, to which I deem it advisable to wheel in
+the evening, by way of getting started without over-exertion at first.
+Two English railroad engineers are stationed at Mogul Serai, and each of
+them is a wheelman. They, of course, are delighted to offer me the
+hospitality of their quarters for the night, and, moreover, put forth
+various inducements for a longer stay; but being anxious to reach
+Calcutta, I decide to pull out again next morning.
+
+My entertainers accompany me for a few miles out. Mogul Serai is four
+hundred and twelve miles from Calcutta, and at the four hundred and
+fourth milestone my companions bid me hearty bon voyage and return.
+Splendid as are the roads round about Mogul Serai, this eight-mile stone
+is farther down the road than they have ever ridden before.
+
+Twenty-five miles farther, and a sub-inspector of police begs my
+acceptance of curried chicken and rice. He is a five-named Mohammedan,
+and tells me a long story about his grandfather having been a reminder of
+a hundred and fifty villages, and an officer in the East India Company's
+army. On the pinions of his grandparents' virtues, his Oriental soul
+soars ambitiously after present promotion; on the strength of sundry
+eulogistic remarks contained in certificates already in his possession,
+he wants one from myself recommending him to the powers that be for their
+favorable consideration. He is the worst "certificate fiend" that I have
+met.
+
+Near Sassaram I meet a most picturesque subject for my camera, a Kajput
+hill-man in all the glory of shield, spear, and gayly feathered helmet.
+He is leading a pack-pony laden with his travelling kit, and mechanically
+obeys when I motion for him to halt. He remains stationary, and regards
+my movements with much curiosity while I arrange the camera. When the
+tube is drawn out, however, and pointed at him, and I commence peeping
+through to arrange the focus, he gets uneasy, and when I am about ready
+to perpetuate the memory of his fantastic figure forever, he moves away.
+Nor will any amount of beckoning obtain for me another "sitting," nor the
+production and holding aloft of a rupee. Whether he fancied the camera in
+danger of going off, or dreaded the "evil eye," can only be surmised.
+
+The famous fleet-footed mail-carriers of Bengal are now frequently
+encountered on the road; they are invariably going at a bounding trot of
+eight or ten miles an hour. The letter-bag is attached to the end of a
+stick carried over the shoulder, which is also provided with rings that
+jingle merrily in response to the motions of the runner. The day is not
+far distant when all these men will be mounted on bicycles, judging from
+the beginning already made at Allahabad and Cawnpore. The village women
+hereabouts wear massive brass ankle-ornaments, six inches broad, and
+which are apparently pounds in weight.
+
+A deluge of rain during the night at Dilli converts the road into
+streams, and covers the low, flat land with a sheet of water. The ground
+is soaked full, like a wet sponge, and can absorb no more; rivers are
+overflowing, every weed, every blade of grass, and every tree-leaf is
+jewelled with glistening drops. The splendid kunkah is now gradually
+giving place to ordinary macadam, which is far less desirable, the heavy,
+pelting rain washing away the clay and leaving the surface rough.
+
+Not less than four hours are consumed in crossing the River Sone at Dilli
+in a native punt, so swiftly runs the current and so broad is the
+overflow. The frequent drenching rains, the lowering clouds, and the
+persistent southern wind betoken the full vigor of the monsoons. One can
+only dodge from shelter to shelter between violent showers, and pedal
+vigorously against the stiff breeze. The prevailing weather is stormy,
+and inky clouds gather in massy banks at all points of the compass,
+culminating in violent outbursts of thunder and lightning, wind and rain.
+Occasionally, by some unaccountable freak of the elements, the monsoon
+veers completely around, and blowing a gale from the north, hustles me
+along over the cobbly surface at great speed.
+
+Just before reaching Shergotti, on the evening of the third day from
+Benares, a glimpse is obtained of hills on the right. They are the first
+relief from the dead level of the landscape all the way from Lahore;
+their appearance signifies that I am approaching the Bengal Hills. From
+Mogul Serai my road has been through territory not yet invaded by the
+revolutionizing influence of the railway, and consequently the dak
+bungalows are still kept up in form to provide travellers with
+accommodation. Chowkeedar, punkah-wallah, and sweeper are in regular
+attendance, and one can usually obtain curried rice, chicken, dhal, and
+chuppatties. An official regulation of prices is posted conspicuously in
+the bungalow: For room and charpoy, Rs 1; dinner, Rs 1-8; chota-hazari,
+Rs 1, and so on through the scale. The prices are moderate enough, even
+when it is considered that a dinner consists of a crow-like chicken,
+curried rice, and unleavened chuppatties. The chowkeedar is usually an
+old Sepoy pensioner, who obtains, in addition to his pension, a
+percentage on the money charged for the rooms--a book is kept in
+which travellers are required to enter their names and the amount paid.
+The sweepers and punkah-wallahs are rewarded separately by the recipient
+of their attentions. Sometimes, if a Mohammedan, and not prohibited by
+caste obligations from performing these menial services, the old
+pensioner brings water for bathing and sweeps out one's own room himself,
+in which case he of course pockets the backsheesh appertaining to these
+duties also.
+
+A few miles south of Shergotti the bridge spanning a tributary of the
+Sone is broken down, and no ferry is in operation. The stream, however,
+is fordable, and four stalwart Bengalis carry me across on a charpoy,
+hoisted on their shoulders; they stem the torrent bravely, and keep up
+their strength and courage by singing a refrain. From this point the road
+becomes undulating, and of indifferent surface; the macadam is badly
+washed by the soaking monsoon rains, and the low, level country is
+gradually merging into the jungle-covered hills of Bengal.
+
+The character of the people has undergone a decided change since leaving
+Delhi and Agra, and the Bengalis impress one decidedly unfavorably in
+comparison with the more manly and warlike races of the Punjab. Abject
+servility marks the demeanor of many, and utter uselessness for any
+purpose whatsoever, characterizes one's intuitive opinion of a large
+percentage of the population of the villages. Except for the pressing
+nature of one's needs, the look of unutterable perplexity that comes over
+the face of a Bengali villager, to-day, when I ask him to obtain me
+something to eat, would be laughable in the extreme. "N-a-y, Sahib,
+n-a-y." he replies, with a show of mental distraction as great as though
+ordered to fetch me the moon. An appeal for rice, milk, dhal,
+chuppatties, at several stalls results in the same failure; everybody
+seems utterly bewildered at the appearance of a Sahib among them
+searching for something to eat. The village policeman is on duty in the
+land of dreams, a not unusual circumstance, by the way; but a youth
+scuttles off and wakes him up, and notifies him of my arrival. Anxious to
+atone for his shortcomings in slumbering at his post, he bestirs himself
+to obtain the wherewithal to satisfy my hunger, his authoritative efforts
+culminating in the appearance of a big dish of dhal.
+
+The country becomes hillier, and the wild, jungle-covered hills and dark
+ravines alongside the road are highly suggestive of royal Bengal tigers.
+The striped monsters infest these jungles in plenty; during the afternoon
+I pass through a village where a depredatory man-eater has been carrying
+off women and children within the last few days.
+
+The chowkeedar at Burhee, my stopping-place for the night in the hill
+country, is a helpless old duffer, who replies "nay-hee, Sahib, nay-hee,"
+with a decidedly woe-begone utterance in response to all queries about
+refreshments. A youth capable of understanding a little English turns up
+shortly, and improves the situation by agreeing to undertake the
+preparation of supper. Still more hopeful is the outlook when a Eurasian
+and a native school-master appear upon the scene, the former acting as
+interpreter to the genial pedagogue, who is desirous of contributing to
+my comfort by impressing upon my impromptu cook the importance of his
+duties. They become deeply interested in my tour of the world, which the
+scholarly pedagogue has learned of through the medium of the vernacular
+press. The Eurasian, not being a newspaper-reader, has not heard anything
+of the journey. But he has casually heard of the River Thames, and his
+first wondering question is as to "how I managed to cross the Thames!"
+
+My saturated karki clothing has been duly wrung out and hung up inside
+the dak bungalow, the only place where it will not get wetter instead of
+dryer, and my cook is searching the town in quest of meat, when an
+English lady and gentleman drive up in a dog-cart and halt before the
+bungalow. Unaware of the presence of English people in the place, I am
+taken completely by surprise.
+
+They are Mr. and Mrs. B, an internal revenue officer and his wife, who,
+having heard of my arrival, have come to invite me to dinner. Of course I
+am delighted, and they are equally pleased to entertain one about whose
+adventures they have recently been reading. Their ayah saw me ride in,
+and went and told her mistress of seeing a "wonderful Sahib on wheels,"
+and already the report has spread that I have come down from Lahore in
+four days!
+
+A very agreeable evening is spent at Mr. E 's house, talking about the
+incidents of my journey, Mr. E 's tiger-hunting exploits in the
+neighborhood, and kindred topics. Mr. R devotes a good deal of time in
+the winter season to hunting tigers in the jungle round about his
+station, and numerous fine trophies of his prowess adorn the rooms of his
+house. He knows of the man-eater's depredations in the village I passed
+to-day, and also of another one ahead which I shall go through to-morrow;
+he declares his intention of bagging them both next season.
+
+Mrs. R arrived from Merrie England but eighteen months ago, a romantic
+girl whose knowledge of royal Bengal tigers was confined to the subdued
+habitues of sundry iron-barred cages in the Zoo. She is one of those dear
+confiding souls that we sometimes find out whose confidence in the
+omnipotent character of their husbands' ability is nothing if not
+charming and sublime. Upon her arrival in the wilds of Bengal she was
+fascinated with the loveliness of the country, and wanted her liege lord
+to take her into the depths of the jungle and show her a "real wild
+tiger." She had seen tigers in cages, but wanted to see how a real wild
+one looked in his native lair. One day they were out taking horseback
+exercise together, when, a short distance from the road, the horrible
+roar of a tiger awoke the echoes of the jungle and reverberated through
+the hills like rolling thunder. Now was the long-looked-for opportunity,
+and her husband playfully invited her to ride with him toward the spot
+whence came the roars. Mrs. R, however, had suddenly changed her mind.
+
+Mrs. R was the first white lady the people of many of the outlying
+villages had ever seen on horseback, or perhaps had ever seen at all, and
+the timidest of them would invariably bolt into the jungle at her
+appearance. When her husband or any other Englishman went among them
+alone, the native women would only turn away their faces, but from the
+lady herself they would hastily run and hide. Here, also, I learn that
+the natives in this district are dying by the hundred with a malignant
+type of fever; that the present season is an exceptionally sickly one,
+all of which gives reason for congratulation at my own health being so
+good.
+
+It is all but a sub-aqueous performance pedalling along the road next
+morning; the air is laden with a penetrating drizzle, the watery clouds
+fairly hover on the tree-tops and roll in dark masses among the hills,
+while the soaked and saturated earth reeks with steam. The road is
+macadamized with white granite, and after one of those tremendous
+downpourings that occur every hour or so the wheel-worn depressions on
+either side become narrow streams, divided by the white central ridge.
+Down the long, straight slopes these twin rivulets course right merrily,
+the whirling wheels of the bicycle flinging the water up higher than my
+head. The ravines are roaring, muddy torrents, but they are all well
+bridged, and although the road is lumpy, an unridable spot is very rarely
+encountered. For days I have not had a really dry thread of clothing,
+from the impossibility of drying anything by hanging it out. Under these
+trying conditions, a relapse of the fever is matter for daily and hourly
+apprehension.
+
+The driving drizzle to-day is very uncomfortable, but less warm than
+usual; it is anything but acceptable to the natives; thousands are seen
+along the road, shivering behind their sheltering sun-shields, from which
+they dismally essay to extract a ray of comfort. These sun-shields are
+umbrella-like affairs made of thin strips of bamboo and broad leaves;
+they are without handles, and for protection against the sun or rain are
+balanced on the head like an inverted sieve. When carried in the hand
+they may readily be mistaken for shields. In addition to this, the men
+carry bamboo spears with iron points as a slipshod measure of defence
+against possible attacks from wild animals. When viewed from a
+respectable distance these articles invest the ultra-gentle Bengali with
+a suggestion of being on the war-path, a delusion that is really absurd
+in connection with the meek Bengali ryot.
+
+The houses of the villages are now heavily thatched, and mostly enclosed
+with high bamboo fencing, prettily trailed with creepers; the bazaars are
+merely two rows of shed-like stalls between which runs the road. In lieu
+of the frequent painted idol, these jungle villagers bestow their
+devotional exercises upon rude and primitive representations of
+impossible men and animals made of twisted straw. These are sometimes set
+up in the open air on big horseshoe-shaped frames, and sometimes they are
+beneath a shed. In the privacy of their own dwellings the Bengali ryot
+bows the knee and solemnly worships a bowl of rice or a cup of arrack.
+The bland and childlike native of Hindostan falls down and worships
+almost everything that he recognizes as being essential to his happiness
+and welfare, embracing a wide range of subjects, from Brahma, who created
+all things, to the denkhi with which their women hull the rice. This
+denkhi is merely a log of wood fixed on a pivot and with a hammer-like
+head-piece. The women manipulate it by standing on the lever end and then
+stepping off, letting it fall of its own weight, the hammer striking into
+a stone bowl of rice. The denkhi is said to have been blessed by Brahma's
+son Narada, the god who is distinguished as having cursed his venerable
+and all-creating sire and changed him from an object of worship and
+adoration to a luster after forbidden things.
+
+The country continues hilly, with the dense jungle fringing the road; all
+along the way are little covered platforms erected on easily climbed
+poles from twelve to twenty feet high. These are apparently places of
+refuge where benighted wayfarers can seek protection from wild animals.
+Occasionally are met the fleet-footed postmen, their rings jangling
+merrily as they bound briskly along; perhaps the little platforms are
+built expressly for their benefit, as they are not infrequently the
+victims of stealthy attack, the jingle of their rings attracting Mr.
+Tiger instead of repelling him.
+
+Mount Parisnath, four thousand five hundred and thirty feet high, the
+highest peak of the Bengal hills, overlooks my dak bungalow at Doomree,
+and also a region of splendid tropical scenery, dark wooded ridges, deep
+ravines, and rolling masses of dark-green vegetation.
+
+During the night the weather actually grows chilly, a raw wind laden with
+moisture driving me off the porch into the shelter of the bungalow. No
+portion of Parisnath is visible in the morning but the base, nine-tenths
+of its proportions being above the line of the cloud-masses that roll
+along just above the trees. Another day through the hilly country and, a
+hundred and fifty miles from Calcutta, the flourishing coal-mining
+district of Asansol brings me again to the East India Railway and
+semi-European society and accommodation. Instead of doughy chuppatties,
+throat-blistering curry, and octogenarian chicken, I this morning
+breakfast off a welcome bottle of Bass's ale, baker's bread, and American
+cheese.
+
+My experience of hotels and hotel proprietors has certainly been somewhat
+wide and varied within the last two years; but it remains for Rannegunj
+to produce something entirely novel in the matter of tariff even to one
+of my experience. The cuisine and service of the hotel is excellent, and
+well worth the charges; but the tariff is arranged so that it costs more
+to stay part of a day than a whole one, and more to take two meals than
+to take three. If a person remains a whole day, including room and three
+meals, it is Rs 4, and he can, of course, suit himself about staying or
+going if he engages or pays in advance; but should he only take dinner,
+room, and chota-hazari, his bill reads: Dinner, Rs 2; room, Rs 1, 8
+annas; chota-hazari, rupees 1; total, Rs 4, 8 annas, or 8 annas more than
+if he had remained and taken another square meal. The subtle-minded
+proprietor of this establishment should undoubtedly take out a patent on
+this very unique arrangement and issue licences throughout all
+Bonifacedom; there would be more "millions in it" than in anything
+Colonel Sellers ever dreamed of.
+
+And now, beyond Rannegunj, comes again the glorious kunkah road, after
+nearly three hundred miles of variable surface. Level, smooth, and broad
+it continues the whole sixty-five miles to Burd-wan. Notwithstanding an
+adverse wind, this is covered by three o'clock. The road leads through
+the marvellously fertile valley of the Dammoodah, an interesting region
+where groves of cocoa-nut palms, bamboo thickets, and thatched villages
+give the scenery a more decidedly tropical character than that north of
+the Bengal hills. Rice is still the prevailing crop, and the overflow of
+the Dammoodah is everywhere. Men and women are busily engaged among the
+pools, fishing for land-crabs, mussels, and other freshwater shell-fish,
+with triangular nets.
+
+As my southward course brings me next day into the valley of the Hooghli
+River, the road partakes almost of the character of a tunnel burrowing
+through a mass of dense tropical vegetation. Cocoa-nut and toddy-palms
+mingle their feathery foliage with the dark-green of the mango, the wild
+pomolo, giant bamboo, and other vegetable exuberances characteristic of a
+hot and humid climate, and giant creepers swing from tree to tree and
+wind among the mass in inextricable confusion.
+
+In this magnificent conservatory of nature big, black-faced monkeys, with
+tails four feet long, romp and revel through the trees, nimbly climb the
+creepers, and thoroughly enjoy the life amid the sylvan scenes about
+them. It is a curious sight to see these big anthropoids, almost as large
+as human beings, swing themselves deftly up among the festooned creepers
+at my approach--to see their queer, impish black faces peering
+cautiously out of their hiding-place, and to hear their peculiar squeak
+of surprise and apprehension as they note the strange character of my
+conveyance. Sometimes a gang of them will lope awkwardly along ahead of
+the bicycle, looking every inch like veritable imps of darkness pursuing
+their silent course through the chastened twilight of green-grown,
+subterranean passageways, their ridiculously long tails raised aloft, and
+their faces most of the time looking over their shoulders.
+
+Youthful lotus-eaters, sauntering lazily about in the vicinity of some
+toddy-gatherer's hamlet, hidden behind the road's impenetrable
+environment of green, regard with supreme indifference the evil-looking
+apes, bigger far than themselves, romping past; but at seeing me they
+scurry off the road and disappear as suddenly as the burrow-like openings
+in the green banks will admit.
+
+Women are sometimes met carrying baskets of plantains or mangoes to the
+village bazaars; sometimes I endeavor to purchase fruit of them, but they
+shake their heads in silence, and seem anxious to hurry away. These women
+are fruit-gatherers and not fruit-sellers, consequently they cannot sell
+a retail quantity to me without violating their caste.
+
+My experiences in India have been singularly free from snakes; nothing
+have I seen of the dreaded cobra, and about the only reminder of Eve's
+guileful tempter I encounter is on the road this morning. He is only a
+two-foot specimen of his species, and is basking in a streak of sunshine
+that penetrates the green arcade above. Remembering the judgment
+pronounced upon him in the Garden of Eden, I attempt to acquit myself of
+the duty of bruising his head, by riding over him. To avoid this
+indignity his snakeship performs the astonishing feat of leaping entirely
+clear of the ground, something quite extraordinary, I believe, for a
+snake. The popular belief is that a snake never lifts more than
+two-thirds of his length from the ground.
+
+From the city of Hooghli southward, the road might with equal propriety
+be termed a street; it follows down the west side of the Hooghli River
+and links together a chain of populous towns and villages, the straggling
+streets of which sometimes fairly come together. Fruit-gardens, crowded
+with big golden pomolos, delicious custard, apples, and bananas abound;
+in the Hooghli villages the latter can be bought for two pice a dozen.
+Depots for the accumulation and shipment of cocoa-nuts, where tons and
+tons of freshly gathered nuts are stacked up like measured mounds of
+earth, are frequent along the river. Jute factories with thousands of
+whirring spindles and the clackety-clack of bobbins fill the morning air
+with the buzz and clatter of vigorous industrial life. Juggernaut cars,
+huge and gorgeous, occupy central places in many of the towns passed
+through. The stalls and bazaars display a variety of European beverages
+very gratifying from the stand-point of a hot and thirsty wayfarer,
+ranging from Dublin ginger ale to Pommery Sec. California Bartlett pears,
+with seductive and appetizing labels on their tin coverings, are seen in
+plenty, and shiny wrappers envelop oblong cakes of Limburger cheese.
+
+For a few minutes my wheel turns through a district where the names of
+the streets are French, and where an atmosphere of sleepy Catholic
+respectability pervades the streets. This is Chandernagor, a wee bit of
+territory that the French have been permitted to retain here, a rosebud
+in the button-hole of la belle France's national vanity. Chanderuagor is
+a bite of two thousand acres out of the rich cake of the lower Hooghli
+Valley; but it is invested with all the dignity of a governor-general's
+court, and is gallantly defended by a standing army of ten men. The
+Governor-General of Chandernagor fully makes up in dignity what the place
+lacks in size and importance; when the East India Railway was being built
+he refused permission for it to pass through his territory. There is no
+doubt but that the land forces of Chandernagor would resist like bantams
+any wanton or arbitrary violation of its territorial prerogatives by any
+mercenary railroad company, or even by perfide Albion herself, if need
+be. The standing army of Chandernagor hovers over peaceful India, a
+perpetual menace to the free and liberal government established by
+England. Some day the military spirit of Chandernagor will break loose,
+and those ten soldiers will spread death and devastation in some peaceful
+neighboring meadow, or ruthlessly loot some happy, pastoral melon-garden.
+Let the Indian Government be warned in time and increase its army.
+
+By nine o'clock the bicycle is threading its way among the moving throngs
+on the pontoon bridge that spans the Hooghli between Howrah and Calcutta,
+and half an hour later I am enjoying a refreshing bath in Cook's Adelphi
+Hotel.
+
+I have no hesitation in saying that, except for the heat, my tour down
+the Grand Trunk Road of India has been the most enjoyable part of the
+whole journey, thus far. What a delightful trip a-wheel it would be, to
+be sure, were the temperature only milder!
+
+My reception in Calcutta is very gratifying. A banquet by the Dalhousie
+Athletic Club is set on foot the moment my arrival is announced. With
+such enthusiasm do the members respond that the banquet takes place the
+very next day, and over forty applicants for cards have to be refused for
+want of room. For genuine, hearty hospitality, and thoroughness in
+carrying out the interpretation of the term as understood in its real
+home, the East, I unhesitatingly yield the palm to Anglo-Indians. Time
+and again, on my ride through India, have I experienced Anglo-Indian
+hospitality broad and generous as that of an Arab chief, enriched and
+rendered more acceptable by a feast of good-fellowship as well as
+creature considerations.
+
+The City of Palaces is hardly to be seen at its best in September, for
+the Viceregal Court is now at Simla, and with it all the government
+officials and high life. Two months later and Calcutta is more brilliant,
+in at least one particular, than any city in the world. Every evening in
+"the season" there is a turn-out of splendid equipages on the bund road
+known as the Strand, the like of which is not to be seen elsewhere, East
+or West. It is the Rotten Row of Calcutta embellished with the
+gorgeousness of India. Wealthy natives display their luxuriousness in
+vying with one another and with the government officials in the splendor
+of their carriages, horses, and liveries.
+
+Mr. P, a gentleman long resident in Calcutta, and a prominent member of
+the Dalhousie Club, drives me in his dog-cart to the famous Botanical
+Gardens, whose wealth of unique vegetation, gathered from all quarters of
+the world, would take volumes to do it justice should one attempt a
+description. Its magnificent banyan is justly entitled to be called one
+of the wonders of the world. Not less striking, however, in their way,
+are the avenues of palms; so straight, so symmetrical are these that they
+look like rows of matched columns rather than works of nature. Fort
+William, the original name of the city, and the foundation-stone of the
+British Indian Empire, is visited with Mr. B, the American Consul, a
+gentleman from Oregon. The glory of Calcutta, its magnificent Maidan, is
+overlooked by the American Consulate, and one of the most conspicuous
+objects in the daytime is the stars and stripes floating from the
+consulate flag-staff.
+
+On the 18th sails the opium steamer Wing-sang to Hong-Kong, aboard which
+I have been intending to take passage, and whose date of departure has
+somewhat influenced my speed in coming toward Calcutta. To cross overland
+from India to China with a bicycle is not to be thought of. This I was
+not long in finding out after reaching India. Fearful as the task would
+be to reach the Chinese frontier, with at least nine chances out of ten
+against being able to reach it, the difficulties would then have only
+commenced.
+
+The day before sailing, the bicycle branch of the Dalhousie Athletic Club
+turns out for a club run around the Maidan, to the number of seventeen.
+It is in the evening; the long rows of electric lamps stretching across
+the immense square shed a moon-like light over our ride, and the smooth,
+broad roads are well worthy the metropolitan terminus of the Grand Trunk.
+
+My stay of five days in the City of Palaces has been very enjoyable, and
+it is with real regret that I bid farewell to those who come down to the
+shipping ghaut to see me off.
+
+The voyage to the Andamans is characterized by fine weather enough; but
+from that onward we steam through a succession of heavy rain-storms; and
+down in the Strait of Malacca it can pour quite as heavily as on the
+Gangetic plains. At Penang it keeps up such an incessant downpour that
+the beauties of that lovely port are viewed only from beneath the ship's
+awning. But it is lovely enough even as seen through the drenching rain.
+Dense groves of cocoa-nut palms line the shores, seemingly hugging the
+very sands of the beach. Solid cliffs of vegetation they look, almost, so
+tall, dark, and straight, and withal so lovely, are these forests of
+palms. Cocoa-nut palms flourish best, I am told, close to the sea, a
+certain amount of salt being necessary for their healthful growth.
+
+The weather is more propitious as we steam into Singapore, at which point
+we remain for half a day, on the tenth day out from Calcutta. Singapore
+is indeed a lovely port. Within a stone's-throw of where the Wing-sang
+ties up to discharge freight the dark-green mangrove bushes are bathing
+in the salt waves. Very seldom does one see green vegetation mingling
+familiarly with the blue water of the sea--there is usually a strip of
+sand or other verdureless shore--but one sees it at lovely
+Singapore.
+
+A fellow-passenger and I spend an hour or two ashore, riding in the first
+jiniriksha that has come under my notice, from the wharf into town, about
+half a mile. We are impressed by the commercial activity of the city; as
+well as by the cosmopolitan character of its population. Chinese
+predominate, and thrifty, well-conditioned citizens these Celestials
+look, too, here in Singapore. "Wherever John Chinaman gets half a show,
+as under the liberal and honest government of the Straits Settlements or
+Hong-Kong, there you may be sure of finding him prosperous and happy."
+
+Hindoos, Parsees, Armenians, Jews, Siamese, Klings, and all the various
+Eurasian types, with Europeans of all nationalities, make up the
+conglomerate population of Singapore. Here, on the streets, too, one sees
+the strange cosmopolitan police force of the English Eastern ports, made
+up of Chinese, Sikhs, and Englishmen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+THROUGH CHINA.
+
+Daily rains characterize our voyage from Singapore through the China
+Sea--rather unseasonable weather, the captain says; and for the second
+time in his long experience as a navigator of the China Sea, St. Elmo's
+lights impart a weird appearance to the spars and masts of his vessel.
+The rain changes into misty weather as we approach the Ladrone Islands,
+and, emerging completely from the wide track of the typhoon's
+moisture-laden winds on the following morning, we learn later, upon
+landing at Hong-kong, that they have been without rain there for several
+weeks.
+
+It is my purpose to dwell chiefly on my own experiences, and not to write
+at length upon the sights of Kong-kong and Canton; hundreds of other
+travellers have described them, and to the average reader they are no
+longer unique. Several days' delay is experienced in obtaining a passport
+from the Viceroy of the two Quangs, and during the delay most of the
+sights of the city are visited. The five-storied pagoda, the temple of
+the five hundred genii, the water-clock, the criminal court--where several
+poor wretches are seen almost flayed alive with bamboos-flower-boats,
+silk, jade-stone, ivory-carving shops, temple of tortures, and a dozen
+other interesting places are visited under the pilotage of the genial
+guide and interpreter Ah Kum.
+
+The strange boat population, numbering, according to some accounts, two
+hundred thousand people, is one of the most interesting features of
+Canton life. Wonderfully animated is the river scene as viewed from the
+balcony of the Canton Hotel, a hostelry kept by a Portuguese on the
+opposite bank of the river from Canton proper.
+
+The consuls and others express grave doubts about the wisdom of my
+undertaking in journeying alone through China, and endeavor to dissuade
+me from making the attempt. Opinion, too, is freely expressed that the
+Viceroy will refuse his permission, or, at all events, place obstacles in
+my way. The passport is forthcoming on October 12th, however, and I lose
+no time in making a start.
+
+Thirteen miles from Canton I reach the city of Fat-shan. Five minutes
+after entering the gate I am in the midst of a crowd of struggling,
+pushing natives, whose aggressive curiosity renders it extremely
+difficult for me to move either backward or forward, or to do aught but
+stand and endeavor to protect the bicycle from the crush. They seem a
+very good-natured crowd, on the whole, and withal inclined to be
+courteous, but the pressure of numbers, and the utter impossibility of
+doing anything, or prosecuting my search for the exit on the other side
+of the city, renders the good intentions of individuals wholly
+inoperative.
+
+With perseverance I finally succeed in extricating myself and following
+in the wake of an intelligent-looking young man whom I fondly fancy I
+have enlightened to the fact that I am searching for the Sam-shue road.
+The crowd follow at our heels as we tread the labyrinthine alleyways,
+that seem as interminable as they are narrow and filthy. Every turn we
+make I am expecting the welcome sight of an open gate and the green
+rice-fields beyond, when, after dodging about the alleyways of what seems
+to be the toughest quarter of the city, my guide halts and points to the
+closed gates of a court.
+
+It now becomes apparent that he has been mistaken from the beginning in
+regard to my wants: instead of taking me to the Sam-shue gate, he has
+brought me to some kind of a house. "Sam-shue, Sam-shue," I explain,
+making gestures of disapproval at the house. The young man regards me
+with a look of utter bewilderment, and forthwith betakes himself off to
+the outer edge of the crowd, henceforth contenting himself to join the
+general mass of open-eyed inquisitives. Another attempt to again enlist
+his services only results in alienating his sympathies still further: he
+has been grossly taken in by my assumption of intelligence. Having
+discovered in me a jackass incapable of the Fat-shan pronunciation of
+Sam-shue, he retires on his dignity from further interest in my affairs.
+
+Female faces peer curiously through little barred apertures in the gate,
+and grin amusedly at the sight of a Fankwae, as I stand for a few minutes
+uncertain of what course to pursue. From sheer inability to conceive of
+anything else I seize upon a well-dressed youngster among the crowd,
+tender him a coin, and address him questioningly--"Sam-shue lo.
+Sam-shue lo." The youth regards me with monkeyish curiosity for a second,
+and then looks round at the crowd and giggles. Nothing is plainer than
+the evidence that nobody present has the slightest conception of what I
+want to do, or where I wish to go. Not that my pronunciation of Sam-shue
+is unintelligible (as I afterward discover), but they cannot conceive of
+a Fankwae in the streets of Fat-shan inquiring for Sam-shue; doubtless
+many have never heard of that city, and perhaps not one in the crowd has
+ever been there or knows anything of the road. As a matter of fact, there
+is no "road," and the best anyone could do would be to point out its
+direction in a general way. All this, however, comes with
+after-knowledge.
+
+Imagine a lone Chinaman who desired to learn the road to Philadelphia
+surrounded by a dense crowd in the Bowery, New York, and uttering the one
+word "Phaladilfi," and the reader gains a feeble conception of my own
+predicament in Fat-shan, and the ludicrousness of the situation. Finally
+the people immediately about me motion for me to proceed down the street.
+
+Like a drowning man, I am willing to clutch wildly even at a straw, in
+the absence of anything more satisfactory, and so follow their
+directions. Passing through squalid streets occupied by loathsome
+beggars, naked youngsters, slatternly women, matronly sows with Utters of
+young pigs, and mangy pariahs, we emerge into the more respectable
+business thoroughfares again, traversing streets that I recognize as
+having passed through an hour ago. Having brought me here, the leaders in
+the latest movement seem to think they have accomplished their purpose,
+leaving me again to my own resources.
+
+Yet again am I in the midst of a tightly wedged crowd, helpless to make
+myself understood, and equally helpless to find my own way. Three hours
+after entering the city I am following-the Fates only know whither--the
+leadership of an individual who fortunately "sabes" a word or so of
+pidgin English, and who really seems to have discovered my wants. First
+of all he takes me inside a temple-like building and gives me a drink of
+tea and a few minutes' respite from the annoying pressure of the crowds;
+he then conducts me along a street that looks somewhat familiar, leads me
+to the gate I first entered, and points triumphantly in the direction of
+Canton!
+
+I now know as much about the road to Sam-shue as I did before reaching
+Fat-shan, and have learned a brief lesson of Chinese city experience that
+is anything but encouraging for the future. The feeling of relief at
+escaping from the narrow streets and the garrulous, filthy crowds,
+however, overshadows all sense of disappointment. The lesson of Fat-shan
+it is proposed to turn to good account by following the country paths in
+a general course indicated by my map from city to city rather than to
+rely on the directions given by the people, upon whom my words and
+gestures seem to be entirely thrown away.
+
+For a couple of miles I retraverse the path by which I reached Fat-shan
+before encountering a divergent pathway, acceptable as, leading
+distinctly toward the northwest. The inevitable Celestial is right on
+hand, extracting no end of satisfaction from following, shadow-like,
+close behind and watching my movements. Pointing along the divergent
+northwest road, I ask him if this is the koon lo to Sam-shue; for answer
+he bestows upon me an expansive but wholly expressionless grin, and
+points silently toward Canton. These repeated failures to awaken the
+comprehension of intelligent-looking Chinamen, or, at all events, to
+obtain from them the slightest information in regard to my road, are
+somewhat bewildering, to say the least. So much of this kind of
+experience crowded into the first day, however, is very fortunate, as
+awakening me with healthy rudeness to a realizing sense of what I am to
+expect; it places me at once on my guard, and enables me to turn on the
+tap of self-reliance and determination to the proper notch.
+
+Shaking my head at the almond-eyed informant who wants me to return to
+Canton, I strike off in a northwesterly course. The Chinaman grins and
+chuckles humorously at my departure, as though his risibilities were
+probed to their deepest depths at my perverseness in going contrary to
+his directions. As plainly as though spoken in the purest English, his
+chuckling laughter echoes the thought: "You'll catch it, Mr. Fankwae,
+before you have gone very far in that direction; you'll wish you had
+listened to me and gone back to 'Quang-tung.'"
+
+The country is a marvellous field-garden of rice, vegetables, and
+sugar-cane for some miles. The villages, with their peculiar,
+characteristic Chinese architecture and groves of dark bamboo, are
+striking and pretty. The paths seem to wind about regardless of any
+special direction; the chief object of the road-makers would appear to
+have been to utilize every little strip of inferior soil for the public
+thoroughfare wherever it might be found. A scrupulous respect for
+individual rights and the economy of the soil has resulted in adding many
+a weary mile of pathway between one town and another. To avoid destroying
+the productive capacity of a dozen square yards of alluvial soil,
+hundreds of people are daily obliged to follow horseshoe bends around the
+edges of graveyards that after two hundred paces bring them almost to
+within jumping distance of their first divergence.
+
+Occasionally the path winds its serpentine course between two tall
+patches of sugar-cane, forming an alleyway between the dark-green walls
+barely wide enough for two people to pass. Natives met in these confined
+passages, as isolated from the eyes of the world as though between two
+walls of brick, invariably recoil a moment with fright at the unexpected
+apparition of a Fankwae; then partially recovering themselves, they
+nimbly occupy as little space as possible on one side, and eye me with
+suspicion and apprehension as I pass.
+
+Great quantities of sugar-cane are chewed in China, both by children and
+grown people, and these patches grown in the rich Choo-kiang Valley for
+the Fat-shan, Canton, and Hong-kong markets are worth the price of a
+day's journeying to see. So marvellously neat and thrifty are they, that
+one would almost believe every separate stalk had been the object of
+special care and supervision from day to day since its birth; every
+cane-garden is fenced with neat bamboo pickets, to prevent depredation at
+the hands of the thousands of sweet-toothed kleptomaniacs who file past
+and eye the toothsome stalks wistfully every day.
+
+After a few miles the hitherto dead level of the valley is broken by low
+hills of reddish clay, and here the stone paths merge into well-beaten
+trails that on reasonably level soil afford excellent wheeling. The
+hillsides are crowded with graves, which, instead of the sugar-loaf "ant
+hillocks" of the paddy-fields, assume the traditional horseshoe shape of
+the Chinese ancestral grave. On the barren, gravelly hills, unfit for
+cultivation, the thrifty and economical Celestial inters the remains of
+his departed friends. Although in making this choice he is supposed to be
+chiefly interested in securing repose for his ancestors' souls, he at the
+same time secures the double advantage of a well-drained cemetery, and
+the preservation of his cultivable lands intact. Everything, indeed,
+would seem to be made subservient to this latter end; every foot of
+productive soil seems to be held as of paramount importance in the
+teeming delta of the Choo-kiang.
+
+Beyond the first of these cemetery hills, peopled so thickly with the
+dead, rise the tall pawn-towers of the large village of Chun-Kong-hoi.
+The natural dirt-paths enable me to ride right up to the entrance-gate of
+the main street. Good-natured crowds follow me through the street; and
+outside the gate of departure I favor them with a few turns on the smooth
+flags of a rice-winnowing floor. The performance is hailed with shouts of
+surprise and delight, and they urge me to remain in Chun-Kong-hoi all
+night.
+
+An official in big tortoise-shell spectacles examines my passport,
+reading it slowly and deliberately aloud in peculiar sing-song tones to
+the crowd, who listen with all-absorbing attention. He then orders the
+people to direct me to a certain inn. This inn blossoms forth upon my as
+yet unaccustomed vision as a peculiarly vile and dingy little hovel,
+smoke-blackened and untidy as a village smithy. Half a dozen rude benches
+covered with reed mats and provided with uncomfortable wooden pillows
+represent what sleeping accommodations the place affords. The place is so
+forbidding that I occupy a bench outside in preference to the
+evil-smelling atmosphere within.
+
+As it grows dark the people wonder why I don't prefer the interior of the
+dimly lighted hittim. My preference for the outside bench is not
+unattended with hopes that, as they can no longer see my face, my
+greasy-looking, half-naked audience would give me a moment's peace and
+quiet. Nothing, however, is further from their thoughts; on the contrary,
+they gather closer and closer about me, sticking their yellow faces close
+to mine and examining my features as critically as though searching the
+face of an image. By and by it grows too dark even for this, and then
+some enterprising individual brings a couple of red wax tapers, placing
+one on either side of me on the bench.
+
+By the dim religious light of these two candles, hundreds of people come
+and peer curiously into my face, and occasionally some ultra-inquisitive
+mortal picks up one of the tapers and by its aid makes a searching
+examination of my face, figure, and clothes. Mischievous youngsters, with
+irreligious abandon, attempt to make the scene comical by lighting
+joss-sticks and waving bits of burning paper.
+
+The tapers on either side, and the youngsters' irreverent antics, with
+the evil-spirit-dispersing joss-sticks, make my situation so ridiculously
+suggestive of an idol that I am perforce compelled to smile. The crowd
+have been too deeply absorbed in the contemplation of my face to notice
+this side-show; but they quickly see the point, and follow my lead with a
+general round of merriment. About ten o'clock I retire inside; the
+irrepressible inquisitives come pouring in the door behind me, but the
+hittim-keeper angrily drives them out and bars the door.
+
+Several other lodgers occupy the room in common with myself; some are
+smoking tobacco, and others are industriously "hitting the pipe." The
+combined fumes of opium and tobacco are well-nigh unbearable, but thera
+is no alternative. The next bench to mine is occupied by a peripatetic
+vender of drugs and medicines. Most of his time is consumed in smoking
+opium in dreamy oblivion to all else save the sensuous delights embodied
+in that operation itself. Occasionally, however, when preparing for
+another smoke, he addresses me at length in about one word of
+pidgin-English to a dozen of simon-pure Cantonese. In a spirit of
+friendliness he tenders me the freedom of his pipe and little box of
+opium, which is, of course, "declined with thanks."
+
+Long into the midnight hours my garrulous companions sit around and talk,
+and smoke, and eat peanuts. Mosquitoes likewise contribute to the general
+inducement to keep awake; and after the others have finally lain down, my
+ancient next neighbor produces a small mortar and pestle and busies
+himself pounding drugs. For this operation he assumes a pair of large,
+round spectacles, that in the dimly lighted apartment and its nocturnal
+associations are highly suggestive of owls and owlish wisdom. The old
+quack works away at his mortar, regardless of the approach of daybreak,
+now and then pausing to adjust the wick in his little saucer of grease,
+or to indulge in the luxury of a peanut.
+
+Such are the experiences of my first night at a Chinese village hittim;
+they will not soon be forgotten.
+
+The proprietor of the hittim seems overjoyed at my liberality as I
+present him a ten-cent string of tsin for the night's lodging. Small as
+it sounds, this amount is probably three or four times more than he
+obtains from his Chinese guests.
+
+The country beyond Chun-Kong-hoi is alternately level and hilly, the
+former highly cultivated, and the latter occupied mostly with graves.
+Peanut harvest is in progress, and men, women, and children are
+everywhere about the fields. The soil of a peanut-bed to the depth of
+several inches is dug up and all passed through a sieve, the meshes of
+which are of the proper size to retain the nuts. The last possible grain,
+nut, or particle of life-sustaining vegetable or insect life is extracted
+from the soil, ducks and chickens being cooped and herded on the fields
+and gardens after human ingenuity has reached its limit of research.
+
+Big wooden pails of warm tea stand about the fields, from which everybody
+helps himself when thirsty. A party of peanut-harvesters are regaling
+themselves with stewed turnips and tough, underdone pieces of dried
+liver. They invite me to partake, handing me a pair of chopsticks and a
+bowl.
+
+Gangs of coolies, strung in Indian file along the paths, are met,
+carrying lacquer-ware from some interior town to Fat-shau and Canton.
+Others are encountered with cages of kittens and puppies, which they are
+conveying to the same market. These are men whose business is collecting
+these table delicacies from outlying villages for the city markets, after
+the manner of egg and chicken buyers in America.
+
+My course at length brings me to the town of Si-noun, on the south bank
+of the Choo-kiang. The river is here prevented from inundating the low
+country adjacent by strong levees; along these are well-tramped paths
+that afford much good wheeling, as well as providing a well-defined
+course toward Sam-shue. After following the river for some miles,
+however, I conclude that its course is altogether more southerly than
+there is any necessity for me to go; so, crossing the river at a village
+ferry, I strike a trail across-country in a north-westerly direction that
+must sooner or later bring me to the banks of the Pi-kiang. Sam-shue is
+at the junction of these two rivers, the one flowing from west to east
+and the other from north to south; by striking across-country, but one
+side of a triangle is traversed instead of the two formed by the rivers.
+My objective point for the night is Lo-pow, the first town of any size up
+the Pi-kiang.
+
+A volunteer guide from one of the villages extricates me from a
+bewildering network of trails in the afternoon, and guides me across to
+the bottom-lands of the Pi-kiang. Receiving a reward, he eyes the piece
+of silver a moment wistfully, puts it away, and guides me half a mile
+farther. Pointing to the embankment of the Pi-kiang in the distance
+ahead, he presents himself for further reward. Receiving this, he
+thereupon conceives the brilliant idea of piloting me over successive
+short stages, with a view of obtaining tsin at the end of each stage.
+
+John Chinaman is no more responsible, morally, for the "dark ways and
+vain tricks" accredited to him in the Western World than a crow is for
+the blackness of his plumage. The desperate struggle for existence in
+this crowded empire, that has no doubt been a normal condition of its
+society for ages, has developed traits of character in these later
+generations which are as unchangeable as the skin of the Ethiopian or the
+spots of the leopard. Either of these can be whitened over, but not
+readily changed; the same may be truthfully said of the moral leprosy of
+the average Celestial. Here is a simple peanut-farmer's son, who knows
+nothing of the outer world, yet no sooner does a stray opportunity
+present than he develops immediately financial trickery worthy of a
+Constantinople guide.
+
+The paths across the Pi-kiang Valley are more walls than paths, often
+rising ten feet above the paddy-fields, and presenting a width of not
+more than two feet. Good riding, however, is happily found on the levees,
+and a few miles up-stream brings me to Lo-pow.
+
+The hittim at Lo-pow is somewhat superior to that of yesterday; it is a
+two-storied building, and the proprietor hustles me up-stairs in short
+order, and locks me in. This is to prevent any possible hostility from
+the crowd that immediately swarms the place; for while I am in his house
+he is in a measure held responsible for my treatment. The bicycle is kept
+down-stairs, where it performs the office of a vent for the rampant
+curiosity of the thousands who besiege the proprietor for a peep at me.
+
+A little cup and a teapot of hot tea is brought me at once, and my order
+taken for supper; the characters on ray limited written vocabulary
+proving invaluable as an aid toward making my g-astro-nomic preferences
+understood. A dish of boiled fish, pickled ginger, chicken entrees, young
+onions, together with rice enough to feed a pig, form the ingredients of
+a very good Chinese meal. Chop-sticks are, of course, provided; but, as
+yet, my dexterity in the manipulation of these articles is decidedly of
+the negative order, and so my pocket-knife performs the dual office of
+knife and fork; for the rice, one can use, after a manner, the little
+porcelain dipper provided for ladling an evil-smelling liquid over that
+staple. Bread, there is none in China; rice is the bread of both this
+country and Japan. During the night one gets a reminder of the bek-jees
+of Constantinople in the performances of a night policeman, who passes by
+at intervals loudly beating a drum. This, together with roystering
+mosquitoes, and a too liberal indulgence in strong tea, banishes sleep
+to-night almost as effectually as the pounding of the old drug-vender's
+pestle did at Chun-Kong-hoi.
+
+The rooms below are full of sleeping coolies, cat-and-dog hucksters and
+travellers, when I descend at day-break to start. The first two hours are
+wasted in wandering along a levee that leads up a tributary stream,
+coming back again and getting ferried to the right embankment. The riding
+is variable, and the zigzagging of the levee often compels me to travel
+three miles for the gaining of one. My elevated path commands a good view
+of the traffic on the river, and of the agricultural operations on the
+adjacent lowlands.
+
+The boating scenes on the river are animated, and peculiarly Chinese. The
+northern monsoons, called typhoons in China, are blowing strongly down
+stream, while the current itself is naturally strong; under the influence
+of wind and current combined, junks and sampans with butterfly sails all
+set are going down stream at racing speed. In striking contrast to these,
+are the up-stream boats, crawling along at scarcely perceptible pace
+against the current, in response to the rhythmical movements of a line of
+men, women, and children harnessed one behind another to a long tow-line.
+
+The water in the river is low, and the larger boats have to be watched
+carefully to prevent grounding; sometimes, when the river is wide and the
+passable channel but a narrow place in the middle, the tow-people have to
+take to the water, often wading waist deep. Men and women are dressed
+pretty much alike, but in addition to the broad-legged pantaloons and
+blue blouse, the women are distinguished by a checked apron. Some of them
+wear broad bamboo hats, while others wear nothing but nature's covering,
+or perchance a handkerchief tied around their heads. The traffic on the
+river is something enormous, scores of boats dotting the river at every
+turn. It is no longer difficult to believe the oft-heard assertion, that
+the tonnage of China's inland fleet is equal to the ocean tonnage of all
+the world.
+
+Below me on the right the scene is scarcely less animated; one would
+think the whole population of the country were engaged in pumping water
+over the rice-fields, by the number of tread-wheels on the go. One of the
+most curious sights in China is to see people working these irrigating
+machines all over the fields. Instead of the buffaloes of Egypt and
+India, everything here is accomplished by the labor of man. The
+tread-wheel is usually worked by two men or women, who steady themselves
+by holding to a cross-bar, while their weight revolves the tread-wheel
+and works a chain of water-pockets. The pockets dip water from a hole or
+ditch and empty it into troughs, whence it spreads over the field. The
+screeching of these wheels can be heard for miles, and the grotesque
+Chinese figures stepping up, up, up in pairs, yet never ascending, the
+women singing in shrill, falsetto voices, and the incessant gabble of
+conversation, makes a picture of industry the like of which is to be seen
+in no other part of the world.
+
+Chin-yuen, my next halting-place, forma something of a crescent on the
+west shore of the river, and is distinguished by a seven-storied pagoda
+at the southern extremity of its curvature. As seen from the east bank,
+the city and its background of reddish hills, two peaks of which rise to
+the respectable height of, I should judge, two thousand feet, is not
+without certain pretensions to beauty. Many of the houses on the river
+front are built over the water on piles, and broad flights of stone steps
+lead down to the water.
+
+The usual boat population occupy a swarm of sampans anchored before the
+city, while hundreds of others are moving hither and thither. The water
+is intensely blue, and the broad reaches of Band are dazzlingly white; on
+either bank are dark patches of feathery bamboo; the white, blue and
+green, the pagoda, the city with its towering pawn-houses, and the whole
+flanked by red clay hills, forms a picture that certainly is not wanting
+in life and color.
+
+The quarters assigned me at the hittim, here, are again upstairs, and my
+room-companion is an attenuated opium smoker, who is apparently a
+permanent lodger. This apartment is gained by a ladder, and after
+submitting to much annoyance from the obtrusive crowds below invading our
+quarters, my companion drives them all out with the loud lash of his
+tongue, and then draws up the only avenue of communication. He is engaged
+in cooking his supper and in washing dirty dishes; when the crowd below
+gets too noisy and clamorous he steps to the opening and coolly treats
+them to a basin of dish-water. This he repeats a number of times during
+the evening, saving his dish-water for that special purpose.
+
+The air is reeking with smoke and disagreeable odors from below, where
+cooking is going on, and pigs wallow in filth in a rear apartment. The
+back-room of a Chinese inn is nearly always a pigsty, and a noisome place
+on general principles. Later in the evening a few privileged characters
+are permitted to come up, and the room quickly changes into a regular
+opium-den. A tough day's journey and two previous nights of wakefulness,
+enable me to fall asleep, notwithstanding the evil smells, the presence
+of the opium-smoking visitors, and the grunting pigs and talkative humans
+down below.
+
+During the day I have sprained my right knee, and it becomes painful in
+the night and wakes me up. In the morning my way is made through the
+waking city with a painful limp, that gives rise to much unsympathetic
+giggling among the crowd at my heels. Perhaps they think all Pankwaes
+thus hobble along; their giggling, however, is doubtless evidence of the
+well-known pitiless disposition of the Chinese. The sentiments of pity
+and consideration for the sufferings of others, are a well-nigh invisible
+quality of John Chinaman's character, and as I limp slowly along, I
+mentally picture myself with a broken leg or serious illness, alone among
+these people. A Fankwae with his leg broken! a Fankwae lying at the point
+of death! why, the whole city would want to witness such an extraordinary
+sight; there would be no keeping them out; one would be the centre of a
+tumultuous rabble day and night!
+
+The river contains long reaches leading in a totally contrary direction
+to what I know my general course to be. My objective point is a little
+east of north, but for miles this morning I am headed considerably south
+of the rising sun. There is nothing for it, however, but to keep the
+foot-trail that now follows along the river bank, conforming to all its
+multifarious crooks and angles. Every mile or two the path is overhung by
+a big bamboo hedge, behind which is hidden a village.
+
+The character of these little riverside villages varies from peaceful
+agricultural and fishing communities, to nests of river-pirates and hard
+characters generally, who covertly prey on the commerce of the Pi-kiang,
+and commit depredations in the surrounding country. A glimpse of me is
+generally caught by someone behind the hedge as I ride or trundle past;
+shouts of "the Fankwae, the Fankwae," and screams of laughter at the
+prospect of seeing one of those queer creatures, immediately follow the
+discovery. The gabble and laughter and hurrying from the houses to the
+hedge, the hasty scrambling through the little wicket gates, all occurs
+with a flutter and noisy squabble that suggest a flock of excited geese.
+
+A few miles above Chin-yuen the river enters a rocky gorge, and the
+marvellous beauty of the scenery rivets me to the spot in wondering
+contemplation for an hour. It is the same picture of rocky mountains,
+blue water, junks, bridges, temples, and people, one sometimes sees on
+sets of chinaware. Never was water so intensely blue, or sand so
+dazzlingly white, as the Pi-kiang at the entrance to this gorge this
+sunny morning; on its sky-blue bosom float junks and sampans, their
+curious sails appearing and disappearing around a bend in the canon. The
+brown battlemented cliffs are relieved by scattering pines, and in the
+interstices by dense thickets of bamboo; temples, pagodas, and a village
+complete a scene that will be long remembered as one of the loveliest
+bits of scenery the whole world round. The scene is pre-eminently
+characteristic, and after seeing it, one no longer misunderstands the
+Chinaman who persists in thinking his country the great middle kingdom of
+landscape beauty and sunshine, compared to which all others
+are--"regions of mist and snow."
+
+Across the creeks which occasionally join issue with the river, are
+erected frail and wabbly bamboo foot-rails; some of these are evidently
+private enterprises, as an ancient Celestial is usually on hand for the
+collection of tiny toll. Narrow bridges, rude steps cut in the face of
+the cliffs, trails along narrow ledges, over rocky ridges, down across
+gulches, and anon through loose shale on ticklishly sloping banks,
+characterize the passage through the canon. The sun is broiling hot, and
+my knee swollen and painful. It is barely possible to crawl along at a
+snail's pace by keeping my game leg stiff; bending the knee is attended
+with agony. Frequent rests are necessary, and an examination reveals my
+knee badly inflamed.
+
+Hours are consumed in scrambling for three or four miles up and down
+steps, and over the most abominable course a bicycle was ever dragged,
+carried, up-ended and lugged over. At the end of that time I reach a
+temple occupying a romantic position in a rocky defile, and where a
+flight of steps leads down to the water's edge. All semblance of anything
+in the nature of a continuous path terminates at the temple, and hailing
+a sampan bound up stream, I obtain passage to the northern extremity of
+the canyon.
+
+The sampan is towed by a team of seven coolies, harnessed to a small,
+strong rope made of bamboo splint. It is interesting, yet painful, to see
+these men clambering like goats about the rocky cliffs, sometimes as much
+as a hundred feet above the water; one of the number does nothing else
+but throw the rope over protuberant points of rock. One would naturally
+imagine that Chinese enterprise would be sufficient to construct
+something like a decent towpath through this caiion, considering the
+number of boats towed through it daily; but everything in China seems to
+be done by the main strength and awkwardness of individuals.
+
+The boatmen seem honest-hearted fellows; at noon they invite me to
+participate in their frugal meal of rice and turnips. Passing sampans are
+greeted by the crew of our boat with the intelligence that a Fankwae is
+aboard; the news being invariably conveyed with a droll "ha-ha!" and
+received with the same. Indeed, the average Chinese river-man or
+agriculturist, the simple-hearted children of the water and the soil,
+seem to regard the Fankwae as a creature so remarkably comical, that the
+mere mention of him causes them to laugh.
+
+Near the end of the canon the boat is moored at a village for the day,
+and my knee feeling much better from the rest, I pursue my course up the
+bank of the river. The bank is level in a general sense, but much cut up
+with small tributary creeks.
+
+While I am resting on the bank of one of these creeks, partly hidden
+behind a clump of bamboo, a slave-woman carrying her mistress pick-a-back
+appears upon the scene. Catching sight of me, the golden lily utters a
+little cry of alarm and issues hurried orders to her maid. The latter
+wheels round and scuttles back along the path with her frightened burden,
+both maid and golden lily no doubt very thankful at finding themselves
+unpursued. A few minutes after their hasty flight, three men approach my
+resting-place with pitchforks. The frightened females have probably told
+them of the presence of some queer-looking object lurking behind the
+bushes, and like true heroes they have shouldered their pitchforks and
+sallied forth to investigate. A whoop and a feint from me would either
+put them to flight, or precipitate a conflict, as is readily seen from
+the extreme cautiousness of their advance. As I remained perfectly still,
+however, they approach by short stages, and with many stops for
+consultation, until near enough to satisfy themselves of my peaceful
+character. They loiter around until my departure, when they follow behind
+for a few hundred yards, watching me narrowly until I am past their own
+little cluster of houses.
+
+It is almost dark when I arrive at the next village, prepared to seek
+such accommodations for the night as the place affords, if any. The
+people, however, seem decidedly inclined to give me the cold shoulder,
+eying me suspiciously from a respectful distance, instead of clustering,
+as usual, close about me. Being pretty tired and hungry, and knowing
+absolutely nothing of the distance to the next place, I endeavor to
+cultivate their friendship by smiles, and by addressing the nearest
+youngster in polite greetings of "chin-chin."
+
+All this proves of no avail; they seem one and all to be laboring under
+the impression that my appearance is of evil portent to themselves.
+Perchance some social calamity they have just been visited with, is
+attributed in their superstitious minds to the fell influence of the
+foreign devil, who has so suddenly bobbed up in their midst just at this
+unhappy, inauspicious moment. Perad-venture some stray and highly
+exaggerated bit of news in regard to Fankwae aggression in Tonquin (the
+French Tonquin expedition) has happened to reach the little interior
+village this very day, and the excited people see in me an emissary of
+destruction, here for the diabolical purpose of spying out their country.
+A dozen reasons, however, might be here advanced, and all be far wide of
+the truth.
+
+Whatever their hostility is all about is a mystery to me, the innocent
+object of sundry scowls and angry gestures. One individual contemplates
+me for a minute with unconcealed aversion, and then breaks out into a
+torrent of angry words and excited gestures. From all appearances, it
+behooves me to be clearing out, ere the pent-up feelings of the people
+find vent in some aggressive manner, as a result of this person's
+incitant eloquence. Greatly puzzled to account for this unpleasant
+reception, I quietly take myself off.
+
+It is now getting pretty dark, and considering the unfortunate condition
+of my knee, the situation is, to say the least, annoying. It is not
+without apprehensions of being followed that I leave the village; and ere
+I am two hundred yards away, torches are observed moving rapidly about,
+and soon loud shouts of "Fankwae, Fankwae!" tell me that a number of men
+are in pursuit.
+
+Darkness favors my retreat, and scrambling down the river bank, I shape
+my course across the sand and shallow side-channels to a small island,
+thickly covered with bamboo, the location of which is now barely outlined
+against the lingering streaks of daylight in the western sky. Half an
+hour is consumed in reaching this; but no small satisfaction is derived
+from seeing the flaming torches of my pursuers continue on up the bank.
+The dense bamboo thickets afford an excellent hiding-place, providing my
+divergence is not suspected. A little farther up-stream, on the bank, are
+the lights of another village; and as I crouch here in the darkness I can
+see the torches of the pursuing party entering this village, and can hear
+them making shouting inquiries of their neighbors about the foreign
+devil.
+
+The thicket is alive with ravenous mosquitoes that issue immediately
+their peculiar policy of assurance against falling asleep. Unappeased
+hunger, mosquitoes, and the perilousness of the situation occupy my
+attention for some hours, when, seeing nothing further of the vengeful
+aspirants for my gore, I drag my weary way up-stream, through sand and
+shallow water. Keeping in the river-bed for several miles, I finally
+regain the bank, and, although my inflamed knee treats me to a twinge of
+agony at every step, I steadily persevere till morning.
+
+An hour or two of morning light brings me to the town of Quang-shi, after
+an awful tugging through sand-hills, unbridged ravines and water. Hardly
+able to stand from fatigue and the pain of my knee, the desperate nature
+of the road, or, more correctly, the entire absence of anything of the
+kind, and the disquieting incident of the night, awaken me to a realizing
+sense of my helplessness should the people of Quang-shi prove to be
+hostile. Conscious of my inability to run or ride, savagely hungry, and
+desperately tired, I enter Quang-shi with the spirit of a hunted animal
+at bay. With revolver pulled round to the front ready to hand, and half
+expecting occasion to use it in defence of my life, I grimly speculate on
+the number of my cartridges and the probability of each one bagging a
+sore-eyed Celestial ere my own lonely and reluctant ghost is yielded up.
+
+All this, fortunately, is found to be superfluous speculation, for the
+good people of Quang-shi prove, at least, passively friendly; a handful
+of tsin divided among the youngsters, and a general spendthrift
+scatterment of ten cents' worth of the same base currency among the
+stall-keepers for chow-chow heightens their friendly interest in me to an
+appreciable extent.
+
+Chao-choo-foo is the next city marked on my itinerary, but as Quang-shi
+is not on my map I have no means of judging whether Chao-choo-foo is four
+li up-stream or forty. All attempts to obtain some idea of the distance
+from the natives result in the utter bewilderment of both questioned and
+querist. No amount of counting on fingers, or marking on paper, or
+interrogative arching of eyebrows, or repetition of "Chao-choo-foo li"
+sheds a glimmer of light on the mind of the most intelligent-looking
+shopkeeper in Quang-shi concerning my wants. Yet, withal, he courteously
+bears with my, to him, idiotic pantomime and barbarous pronunciation, and
+repeats parrot-like after me "Chao-choo-foo li; Chao-choo-foo li" with
+sundry beaming smiles and friendly smirks.
+
+Far easier, however, is it to make them understand that I want to go to
+that city by boat. The loquacious owner of a twenty-foot sampan puts in
+his appearance as soon as my want is ascertained, and favors me with an
+unpunctuated speech of some five minutes' duration. For fear I shouldn't
+quite understand the tenor of his remarks, he insists on thrusting his
+yellow Mongolian phiz within an inch or two of mine own. At the end of
+five minutes I thrust my fingers in my ears out of sheer consideration
+for his vocal organs, and turn away; but the next moment he is fronting
+me again, and repeating himself with ever-increasing volubility. Finding
+my dulness quite impenetrable, he searches out another loquacious mortal,
+and by the aid of the tiny beam-scales every Chinaman carries for
+weighing broken silver, they finally make it understood that for six big
+rounds (dollars) he will convey me in his boat to Chao-choo-foo.
+Understanding this, I promptly engage his services.
+
+Bundles of joss-sticks, rice, fish, pork, and a jar of samshoo (rice
+arrack) are taken aboard, and by ten o'clock we are underway. Two men,
+named respectively Ah Sum and Yung Po, a woman, and a baby of eighteen
+months comprise the company aboard. Ah Sum, being but an inconsequential
+wage-worker, at once assumes the onerous duties of towman; Yung Po,
+husband, father, and sole proprietor of the sampan, manipulates the
+rudder, which is in front, and occasionally assists Ah Sum by poling. The
+boat-wife stands at the stern and regulates the length of the tow-line;
+the baby puts in the first few hours in wondering contemplation of
+myself.
+
+The strange river-life of China is all about us; small fishing-boats are
+everywhere plying their calling. They are constructed with a central
+chamber full of auger-holes for the free admittance of water, in which
+the fish are conveyed alive to market, or imprisoned during the owner's
+pleasure. Big freight sampans float past, propelled by oars if going
+down-stream, and by the combined efforts of tow-line and poles if against
+the current. The propelling poles are fitted with neatly carved
+"crutch-trees" to fit the shoulder; the polers, sometimes numbering as
+many as a dozen, walk back and forth along side-planks and encourage
+themselves with cries of "ha-i, ha-i, ha-i." A peculiar and indescribable
+inflection would lead one, hearing and not seeing these boatmen, to fancy
+himself listening to a flight of brants in stormy weather. Yung Po,
+poling by himself, gives utterance to a prolonged cry of "Atta-atta-atta
+aaoo ii," every time he hustles along the side-plank.
+
+Much of the scenery along the river is lovely in the extreme, and at dark
+we cast anchor in a smooth, silent reach of the river just within the
+frowning gateway of a rocky canon. Dark masses of rock tower skyward five
+hundred feet in a perpendicular wall, casting a dark shadow over the
+twilight shimmer of the water. In the north, the darksome prospect is
+invested with a lurid glow, apparently from some large fire; the canon
+immediately about our anchoring place is alive with moving torches,
+representing the restless population of the river, and on the banks
+clustering points of light here and there denote the locality of a
+village.
+
+The last few miles has been severe work for poor Ah Sum, clambering among
+rocks fit only for the footsteps of a goat. He sticks to the tow-line
+manfully to the end, but wading out to the boat when over-heated, causes
+him to be seized with violent cramps all over; in his agony he rolls
+about the deck and implores Yung Po to put him out of his misery
+forthwith. His case is evidently urgent, and Yung Po and his wife proceed
+to administer the most heroic treatment. Hot samshoo is first poured down
+his throat and rubbed on his joints, then he is rolled over on his
+stomach; Yung Po then industriously flagellates him in the bend of the
+knees with a flat bamboo, and his wife scrapes him vigorously down the
+spine with the sharp edge of a porcelain bowl. Ah Sam groans and winces
+under this barbarous treatment, but with solicitous upbraidings they hold
+him down until they have scraped and pounded him black and blue, almost
+from head to foot. Then they turn him over on his back for a change of
+programme. A thick joint of bamboo, resembling a quart measure, is
+planted against his stomach; lighted paper is then inserted beneath, and
+the "cup" held firmly for a moment, when it adheres of its own accord.
+
+This latter instrument is the Chinese equivalent of our cupping-glass;
+like many other inventions, it was probably in use among them ages before
+anything of the kind was known to us. Its application to the stomach for
+the relief of cramps would seem to indicate the possession of drawing
+powers; I take it to be a substitute for mustard plasters. While the wife
+attends to this, Yung Po pinches him severely all over the throat and
+breast, converting all that portion of his anatomy into little blue
+ridges. By the time they get through with him, his last estate seems a
+good deal worse than his first, but the change may have saved his life.
+
+Before retiring for the night lighted joss-sticks are stuck in the bow of
+the sampan, and lighted paper is waved about to propitiate the spirit of
+the waters and of the night; small saucers of rice, boiled turnip, and
+peanut-oil are also solemnly presented to the tutelary gods, to enlist
+their active sympathies as an offset against the fell designs of
+mischievous spirits. Falling asleep under the soothing influence of these
+extraordinary precautions for our safety and a supper of rice, ginger,
+and fresh fish, I slumber peacefully until well under way next morning.
+Ah Sum is stiff and sore all over, but he bravely returns to his post,
+and under the combined efforts of pole and tow-line we speed along
+against a swift current at a pace that is almost visible to the naked
+eye.
+
+This morning I purchase a splendid trout, weighing seven or eight pounds,
+for about twenty cents; off this we make a couple of quite excellent
+meals. Observing my awkward attempts to pick up pieces of fish with the
+chop-sticks, the good, thoughtful boat-wife takes a bone hair-pin out of
+her sleek, oily back hair, and offers it to me to use as a fork!
+
+Before noon we emerge into a more open country; straight ahead can be
+seen an eight-storied pagoda. Beaching the pagoda, we pass, on the
+opposite shore, the town of Yang-tai (?). Fleets of big junks sail gayly
+down stream, laden with bales and packages of merchandise from
+Chao-choo-foo, Nam-hung, and other manufacturing points up the river.
+Others resemble floating hay-ricks, bearing huge cargoes of coarse hay
+and pine-needles down for the manufacture of paper.
+
+Several war-junks are anchored before Yang-tai; unlike the peaceful (?)
+merchantmen on the Choo-kiang, they are armed with but a single cannon.
+They are, however, superior vessels compared with other craft on the
+river, and are manned with crews of twenty to thirty theatrical-looking
+characters; rows of muskets and boarding-pikes are observed, and
+conspicuous above all else are several large and handsome flags of the
+graceful triangular shape peculiar to China.
+
+The crew of these warlike vessels are uniformed in the gayest of red, and
+in the middle of their backs and breasts are displayed white "bull's
+eyes" about twelve inches in diameter. The object of these big white
+circular patches appears to be the presentation of a suitable place for
+the conspicuous display of big characters, denoting the district or city
+to which they belong; or in other words labels. The wicked and sarcastic
+Fankwaes in the treaty ports, however, render a far different
+explanation. They say that a Chinese soldier always misses a bull's-eye
+when he shoots at it--under no circumstances does he score a bull's-eye.
+Observing this, the authorities concluded that Fankwae soldiers were
+tarred with the same unhappy feather. With true Asiatic astuteness, they
+therefore conceived and carried out the brilliant idea of decorating all
+Celestial warriors with bull's-eyes, front and rear, as a measure of
+protection against the bullets of the Fankwae soldiers in battle.
+
+Ah Sum becomes sick and weary at noon and is taken aboard, Tung Po and
+his better half taking alternate turns at the line. Toward evening the
+river makes a big sweep to the southeast, bringing the prevailing north
+wind round to our advantage; if advantage it can be called, in blowing us
+pretty well south when our destination lies north. The sail is hoisted,
+and the crew confines itself to steering and poling the boat clear of
+bars.
+
+Poor Ah Sum is subjected to further clinical maltreatment this evening as
+we lay at anchor before No-foo-gong; while we are eating rice and pork
+and listening to the sounds of revelry aboard the big passenger junks
+anchored near by, he is writhing and groaning with pain.
+
+He is too stiff and sore and exhausted to do anything in the morning; the
+woman goes out to pull, and the babe makes Rome howl, with little
+intermission, till she comes back. The boat-woman seems an industrious,
+wifely soul; Yung Po probably paid as high as forty dollars for her; at
+that price I should say she is a decided bargain. Occasionally, when Yung
+Po cruelly orders her overboard to take a hand at the tow-line, or to
+help shove the sampan off a sand ridge, she enters a playful demurrer;
+but an angry look, an angry word, or a cheerful suggestion of "corporeal
+suasion," and she hops lightly into the water.
+
+A few miles from No-foo-gong and a rocky precipice towers up on the west
+shore, something like a thousand feet high. The crackling of
+fire-crackers innumerable and the report of larger and noisier explosions
+attract my attention as we gradually crawl up toward it; and coming
+nearer, flocks of pigeons are observed flying uneasily in and out of
+caves in the lower levels of the cliff.
+
+In the course of time our sampan arrives opposite and reveals a curious
+two-storied cave temple, with many gayly dressed people, pleasure
+sampans, and bamboo rafts. This is the Kum-yam-ngan, a Chinese Buddhist
+temple dedicated to the Goddess of Mercy. It is the home of flocks of
+sacred pigeons, and the shrine to which many pilgrims yearly come; the
+pilgrims manage to keep their feathered friends in a chronic state of
+trepidation by the agency of fire-crackers and miniature bombs. Outside,
+under the shelter of the towering cliffs to the' right, are more temples
+or dwellings of the priests; they present a curious mixture of blue
+porcelain, rock, and brick which is intensely characteristic of China.
+
+During the day we pass, on the same side of the river, yet another
+remarkable specimen of man's handiwork on the scene of one of nature's
+curious rockwork conceptions. Leading from base to summit of a sloping
+mountain are two perpendicular ridges of rock, looking very much like a
+couple of walls. Across the summit of the mountain, from wall to wall,
+some fanciful architect three hundred years ago built a massive
+battlement; in the middle he left a big round hole, which presents a very
+curious appearance, and materially heightens the delusion that the whole
+affair, from foot to summit, is the handiwork of man. This place is known
+as Tan-tsy-shan, or Bullet Mountain, and is the scene of a fight that
+occurred some time during the Ming dynasty. A legend is current among the
+people, that the robber Wong, a celebrated freebooter of that period,
+while firing on a pursuing party of soldiers, shot this moon---like
+hole through the mountain battlement with the huge musket he used to
+slaughter his enemies.
+
+Many huge rafts of pine logs are now encountered floating down stream to
+the cities of the lower country; numbers of them are sometimes met,
+following close behind one another. Several huts are erected on each big
+raft, so that the sight not infrequently suggests a long straggling
+village floating with the tide. This suggestion is very much heightened
+by the score or more people engaged in poling, steering, al fresco
+cooking, etc., aboard each raft.
+
+And anon there come along men, poling with surprising swiftness
+slender-built craft on which are perched several solemn and
+important-looking cormorants. These are the celebrated cormorant fishers
+of the Chinese rivers. Their craft is simply three or four stems of the
+giant bamboo turned up at the forward end; on this the naked fisherman
+stands and propels himself by means of a slender pole. His stock-in-trade
+consists of from four to eight cormorants that balance themselves and
+smooth their wet wings as the lightsome raft speeds along at the rate of
+six miles an hour from one fishing ground to another. Arriving at some
+likely spot the eager aspirant for finny prizes rests on his oars, and
+allows his aquatic confederates to take to the water in search of their
+natural prey, the fishes. A ring around the cormorants' necks prevents
+them swallowing their captives, and previous training teaches them to
+balance themselves on the propelling pole that the watchful fisherman
+inserts beneath them the moment they rise to the surface with a fish;
+captive and captor are then lifted aboard the raft, the cormorant robbed
+of his prey and hustled quickly off again to business. The sight of these
+nimble craft, skimming along with scarcely an effort, almost fills me
+with a resolve to obtain one of them myself and abandon Tung Po and his
+dreary lack of speed forever.
+
+The third day of our voyage against the prevailing typhoons and the rapid
+current of the Pi-kiang, comes to an end, and finds us again anchored
+within the dark shadow of a towering cliff. Anchored alongside us is a
+big junk freighted with bags of rice and bales of paper; the hands aboard
+this boat indulge in a lively quarrel, during the evening chow-chow, and
+bang one another about in the liveliest manner. The peculiar indignation
+that finds expression in abusive language no doubt reaches its highest
+state of perfection in the Celestial mind. No other human being is
+capable of soaring to the height of the Chinaman's falsetto modulations,
+as he heaps reproaches and cuss-words on his enemy's queue-adorned head.
+A big boat's crew of naked Chinamen cursing and gesticulating excitedly,
+advancing and retreating, chasing one another about with billets of wood,
+knocking things over, and raising Cain generally, in the ghostly glimmer
+of fantastic paper lanterns, is a spectacle both weird and wild.
+
+Another weird, but this time noiseless, affair is a long string of
+nocturnal cormorant fishers, each with a big, flaming torch attached to
+the prow of his raft, propelling themselves along close under the dark
+frowning cliff. The torches light up the black face of the precipice with
+a wild glare, and streak the shimmering water with moon-like reflections.
+
+The country through which our watery, serpentine course winds all next
+day, is hilly rather than mountainous; grassy hills slope down to the
+water's blue ripples at certain places, but the absence of grazing
+animals is quite remarkable. Regions, which in other countries would be
+covered with flocks of sheep and herds of cows and horses, are without so
+much as a sign of herbivorous animals. Pigs are the prevailing
+meat-producing animals of Southern China; all the way up country I have
+not yet seen a single sheep, and but very few cattle; I have also yet to
+see the first horse. Instead of herbivorous quadrupeds peacefully
+browsing, are swarms of men, women, and children cutting, bundling, and
+stacking the grass for the manufacture of paper.
+
+Among the fleeting curiosities of the day are a crowd of sampans flying
+black flags, evidently some military expedition; they are bound down
+stream, and it occurs to me that they are perhaps a reinforcement of
+these famous free-lances going to join the hordes of that denomination
+making things so uncomfortable for the French in Tonquin and Quang-tse.
+We also pass a district where the women enhance their physical charms by
+the aid of broad circular hats that resemble an inverted sieve. The
+edges, however, are not wood, but circular curtains of black calico; the
+roof of the hat is bleached bamboo chip.
+
+Officers board us in the evening to search the vessel for dutiable goods;
+but they find nothing. The privilege of levying customs on salt and opium
+is farmed out by the government to people in various cities along the
+rivers. The tax on these articles from first to last of a long river
+voyage is very heavy, customs being levied at various points; it is
+scarcely necessary to add that under these arbitrary arrangements, the
+oily, conscienceless and tsin-loving Celestial boatman has reduced the
+noble art of smuggling to a science. Yung Po smiles blandly at the
+officer as he searches carefully every nook and corner of the sampan,
+even rooting about with a stick in the moderate amount of bilge-water
+collected between the ribs, and when he is through, dismisses him with an
+air of innocence and a wealth of politeness that is artfully calculated
+to secure less rigorous search next time.
+
+The poling and towing is prolonged till nearly midnight, when we cast
+anchor among a lot of house-boats and miscellaneous craft before a city.
+Even at this unseemly hour we are visited by an owlish pedler, whose boat
+is fitted up with boxes containing various dishes toothsome to the
+heathen palates of the water-men. Yung Po and Ah Sum look wistfully over
+the ancient pastry-ped-ler's wares, and pick out tiny dishes of sweetened
+rice gruel; this they consume with the same unutterable satisfaction that
+hungry monkeys display when eating chestnuts, ending the performance by
+licking the platters. Although the price is nearly a farthing a dish,
+with wanton prodigality Yung Po orders dishes for the whole company,
+including even his passenger!
+
+From various indications, it is surmised, as I seek my couch, that the
+city opposite is Chao-choo-foo. Inquiry to that effect, as usual, elicits
+nothing but a bland grin from Yung Po. When, however, he takes the
+unnecessary precaution of warning me not to venture outside the covered
+sleeping quarters during the night, intimating that I should probably get
+stabbed if I do, I am pretty well satisfied of our arrival. This cautious
+proceeding is to be explained by the fact that I am Yung Po's debtor for
+two days' diet of rice, turnips, and flabby pork, and he is suspicious
+that I might creep forth in the silence and darkness of the night and
+leave him in the lurch.
+
+Yung Po now summons his entire pantomimic ability, to inform me that
+Chao-choo-foo is still some distance up the river, at all events that is
+my interpretation of his words and gestures. On this supposition I enter
+no objections when he bids me accompany him to the market and purchase a
+new supply of provisions for the remainder of the journey.
+
+Impatient to proceed to Chao-choo-foo I now motion for them to make a
+start. Yung Po points to the frowning walls of the city we have just
+visited, and blandly says, "Chao-choo-foo." Having accomplished his
+purpose of bamboozling me into replenishing his larder, by making me
+believe our destination is yet farther upstream, he now turns round and
+tells me that we have already arrived. The neat little advantage he has
+just been taking of my ignorance with such brilliant results to the
+larder of the boat, has visibly stimulated his cupidity, and he now
+brazenly demands the payment of filthy lucre, making a circular hole with
+his thumb and finger to intimate big rounds in contradistinction to mere
+tsin.
+
+The assumption of dense ignorance has not been without its advantages at
+various times on my journey around the world, and regarding Yung Po's
+gestures with a blankety blank stare, I order him to proceed up stream to
+Chao-choo-foo. The result of my refusal to be further bamboozled by the
+wily Yung Po, without knowing something of what I am doing, is that I am
+shortly threading the mazy alleyways of Chao-choo-foo with Ah Sum and
+Yung Po for escort. What the object of this visit may be I haven't the
+remotest idea, unless we are proceeding to the quarters of some official
+to have my passport seen to, or to try and enlighten my understanding in
+regard to Yung Po's claims for battered Mexican dollars.
+
+Vague apprehensions arise that, peradventure, the six dollars paid at
+Quang-shi was only a small advance on the cost of my passage up, and that
+Yung Po is now piloting me to an official to establish his just claims
+upon pretty much all the money I have with me. Ignorant of the proper
+rate of boat-hire, disquieting visions of having to retreat to Canton for
+the lack of money to pay the expenses of the journey through to Kui-kiang
+are flitting through my mind as I follow the pendulous motions of Yung
+Po's pig-tail along the streets. The office that I have been conjuring up
+in my mind is reached at last, and found to be a neat room provided with
+forms and a pulpit like desk.
+
+A pleasant-faced little Chinaman in a blue silk gown is examining a sheet
+of written characters through the medium of a pair of tortoise-shell
+spectacles. On the wall I am agreeably astonished to see a chromo of Her
+Majesty Queen Victoria, with an inscription in Chinese characters. The
+little man chin-chins (salaams) heartily, removes his spectacles and
+addresses me in a musical tone of voice. Yung Po explains obsequiously
+that my understanding Chinese is conspicuously unequal to the occasion, a
+fact that at once becomes apparent to the man in blue silk; whereupon he
+quickly substitutes written words for spoken ones and presents me the
+paper. Finding me equally foggy in regard to these, he excuses my
+ignorance with a courteous smile and bow, and summons a gray-queued
+underling to whom he gives certain directions. This person leads the way
+out and motions for me to follow. Yung Po and Ah Sum bring up behind,
+keeping in order such irrepressibles as endeavor to peer too obtrusively
+into my face.
+
+Soon we arrive at a quarter with big monstrous dragons painted on the
+walls, and other indications of an official residence; palanquin-bearers
+in red jackets and hats with tassels of red horse-hair flit past at a
+fox-trot with a covered palanquin, preceded by noisy gong-beaters and a
+gayly comparisoned pony. This is evidently the yamen or mandarin's
+quarter, and here we halt before a door, while our guide enters another
+one, and disappears. The door before us is opened cautiously by a
+Celestial who looks out and bestows upon mo a friendly smile. A curly
+black dog emerges from between his legs and presents himself with much
+wagging of tail and other manifestations of canine delight.
+
+All this occurs to me as very strange; but not for a moment does it
+prepare me for the agreeable surprise that now presents itself in the
+appearance of a young Englishman at the door. It would be difficult to
+say which of us is the most surprised at the other's appearance. Mutual
+explanations follow, and then I learn that, all unsuspected by me, two
+missionaries of the English Presbyterian mission are stationed at
+Chao-choo.
+
+At Canton I was told that I wouldn't see a European face nor hear an
+English word between that city and Kui-kiang. On their part, they have
+read in English papers of my intended tour through China, but never
+expected to see me coming through Chao-choo-foo.
+
+I am, of course, overjoyed at the opportunity presented by their
+knowledge of the language to arrange for the continuation of my journey
+in a manner to know something about what I am doing. They are starting
+down the river for Canton to-morrow, so that I am very fortunate in
+having arrived today. As their guest for the day I obtain an agreeable
+change of diet from the swashy preparations aboard the sampan, and learn
+much valuable information about the nature of the country ahead from
+their servants. They have never been higher up the river than
+Chao-choo-foo themselves, and rather surprise me by giving the distances
+to Canton as two hundred and eighty miles.
+
+By their kind offices I am able to make arrangements for a couple of
+coolies to carry the bicycle over the Mae-ling Mountains as far as the
+city of Nam-ngan on the head waters of the Kan-kiang, whence, if
+necessary, I can descend into the Yang-tsi-kiangby river. The route leads
+through a mountainous country up to the Mae-ling Pass, thence down to the
+head waters of the Kan-kiang.
+
+All is ready by eight o'clock on the morning of October 22d; the coolies
+have lashed the bicycle to parallel bamboo poles, as also a tin of lunch
+biscuits, a tin of salmon, and of corned beef, articles kindly presented
+by the missionaries.
+
+Nam-ngan is said to be two hundred miles distant, but subsequent
+experience would lessen the distance by about fifty miles. Our way leads
+first through the cemeteries of Chao-choo-foo, and along little winding
+stone-ways through the fields leading, in a general sense, along the
+right bank of the Pi-kiang.
+
+The villagers in the upper districts of Quang-tung are peculiarly wanting
+in facial attractiveness; in some of the villages on the Upper Pi-kiang
+the entire population, from puling infants to decrepit old stagers whose
+hoary cues are real pig-tails in respect to size, are hideously ugly.
+They seem to be simple, primitive people, bent on satisfying their
+curiosity; but in the pursuit of this they are, if anything, somewhat
+more considerate or more conservative than the Persians.
+
+Mothers hurry home and fetch their babies to see the Fankwae, pointing me
+out to their notice, very much like pointing out a chimpanzee in the
+Zoological gardens. In these village inns the spirit of democracy
+embraces all living things; sore-eyed coolies, leprous hangers-on to the
+thread of life, matronly sows and mangy dogs, come, go, and freely mingle
+and associate in these filthy little kitchens. When cooking is in
+progress, nothing is set off the fire on to the ground but that a hungry
+pig stands and eyes it wistfully, but sundry burnings of their sensitive
+snouts during the days of their youthful inexperience have made them
+preternaturally cautious, so that they are not very meddlesome. The
+sleeping room is really a part of the pig-sty, nothing but an open
+railing separating pigs and people. A cobble-stone path now leads through
+a hilly country, divided up into little rice-fields, peanut gardens, pine
+copses, and cemeteries. Peanut stalls one encounters at short intervals,
+where ancient dames or wrinkled old men preside over little saucers of
+half-roasted nuts, peanut sweet cakes, peanut plain cakes, peanut
+crullers, peanut dough, peanut candy, peanuts sprinkled with sugar,
+peanuts sprinkled with salt, and peanuts fresh from the ground. The
+people seem to be well-nigh living on peanuts, which unhappy diet
+probably has something to do with their marvellous ugliness.
+
+In a gathering of villagers standing about me are people with eyes that
+are pitched at the most peculiar angles, varying from long, narrow eyes
+that slope downward toward the cheek-bone, to others that seem almost
+perpendicular. No less astonishing is the contour of their mouths; ragged
+holes in their ugly faces are these for the most part, shapeless and
+uncouth as anything well could be. They are the most unprepossessing
+humans I have seen the whole world round.
+
+As, on the evening of the third day from Chao-choo-foo, we approach
+Nam-hung, the people and the country undergo a great change for the
+better. The land is more level and better cultivated; villages are
+thicker and more populous, and the people are no longer conspicuously
+ill-favored. All evidence goes to prove that meagre diet and hard lines
+generally, continued from generation to generation, result in the
+production of an ill-conditioned and inferior race of people.
+
+A three-storied pagoda on a prominent hill to the right marks the
+approach to Nam-hung, and another of nine stories marks the entrance.
+Swarms of people follow us through the streets, rushing with eager
+curiosity to obtain a glimpse of my face. Sometimes the surging masses of
+people, struggling and pushing and dodging, separate me from the coolies,
+and the din of the shouting and laughing is so great that my shouts to
+them to stop are unheard. A shout, or a wave of the hand results only in
+a quickening of the people's curiosity and an increase in the volume of
+their own noisiness. Thus hemmed in among a compact mass of apparently
+well-meaning, but highly inflammable Chinese, hooting, calling, laughing,
+and gesticulating, I follow the lead of Ching-We and Wong-Yup through a
+mile of streets to the hittim.
+
+Rich native wares are displayed in great abundance, silks, satins, and
+fur-lined clothing so costly and luxurious, and in such numbers, that one
+wonders where they find purchasers for them all. Side by side with these
+are idol factories, where Joss may be seen in every stage of existence,
+from the unhewn log of his first estate to the proud pre-eminence of his
+highly finished condition, painted, gilded, and furbished. Coffin
+warehouses in which burial cases are displayed in tempting array are
+always conspicuous in a Chinese city. The coffins are made of curious
+slabs, jointed together in imitation of a solid log; some of these are
+varnished in a style calculated to make the eyes of a prospective corpse
+beam with joyous anticipation; others are plainly finished, destined for
+the abode of humbler and less pretentious remains.
+
+At the hittim, with much angry expostulation and firmness of decision,
+the following mob are barred entrance to our room. They are not, by any
+means satisfied, however; they quickly smash in a little closed panel so
+they can look in, and every crack between the boards betrays a row of
+peering eyes. Ching-We is a hollow-eyed victim of the drug, and yearns
+for peace and quiet so that he can pass away the evening amid the
+seductive pleasures of the opium-smoker's heaven. The rattle and racket
+of the determined sight-seers outside, clamorously demanding to come in
+and see the Fankwae, annoy him to the verge of desperation under the
+circumstances.
+
+He patiently endeavors to forget it all, however, and to banish the whole
+troublesome world from his thoughts, by producing his opium-pipe and lamp
+and attempting to smoke. But just as he is getting comfortably settled
+down to rolling the little knob of opium on the needle and has puckered
+his lips for a good pull, a decayed turnip comes sailing through the open
+panel and hits him on the back. The people looking in add insult to
+injury by indulging in an audible snicker, as Ching-We springs up and
+glares savagely into their faces. This indiscreet expression of their
+levity at once seals their doom, for Ching-We grabs a pole and hits the
+boards such a resounding whack, and advances upon them so savagely, that
+only a few undaunted youngsters remain at their post; the panel is
+repaired, and comparative peace and quiet restored for a short time. No
+sooner, however, has Ching-We mounted to the first story of heavenly
+beatitude from the effects of the first pipe of opium, than loud howls of
+"Fankwae. Fankwae!" are heard outside, and a shower of stones comes
+rattling against the boards. Ching-We goes to the partition door and
+indulges in an angry and reproachful attack upon the unoffending head of
+the establishment. The unoffending head of the establishment goes
+immediately to the other door and indulges in an angry and reproachful
+attack upon the shouters and stone-throwers outside. The Chinese are
+peculiar in many things, and in nothing, perhaps, more than their respect
+for words of reproach. Whether the long-suffering innkeeper hurled at
+their heads one of the moral maxims of Confucius, or an original
+production of his own brain, is outside the pale of my comprehension; but
+whatever it is, there is no more disturbance outside.
+
+It must be about midnight when I am awakened from a deep sleep by the
+gabble of many people in the room. Transparent lanterns adorned with big
+red characters held close to my face cause me to blink like a cat upon
+opening my wondering eyes. These lanterns are held by yameni-runners in
+semi-military garb, to light up my features for the inspection of an
+officer wearing a rakish Tartar hat with a brass button and a red
+horse-hair tassel. The yameni-runners wear the same general style of
+head-dress, but with a loop instead of the brass button. The officer is
+possessed of a wonderfully soft, musical voice, and holds forth at great
+length concerning me, with Ching-We.
+
+The officer takes my passport to the yamen, and ere leaving the room,
+pantomimically advises me to go to sleep again. In the morning Ching-We
+returns the two-foot square document with the Viceregal seal, and winks
+mysteriously to signify that everything is lovely, and that the goose of
+permission to go ahead to Nam-ngan hangs auspiciously high.
+
+The morning opens up cool and cloudy, the pebble pathway is wider and
+better than yesterday, for it is now the thoroughfare along which
+thousands of coolies stagger daily with heavy loads of merchandise to the
+commencement of river navigation at Nam-hung. The district is populous
+and productive; bales of paper, bags of rice and peanuts, bales of
+tobacco, bamboo ware, and all sorts of things are conveyed by muscular
+coolies to Nam-hung to be sent down the river.
+
+Gradually have we been ascending since leaving Nam-hung, and now is
+presented the astonishing spectacle of a broad flight of stone steps,
+certainly not less than a mile in length, leading up, up, up, to the
+summit of the Mae-ling Pass. Up and down this wonderful stairway hundreds
+of coolies are toiling with their burdens, scores of travellers in
+holiday attire and several palanquins bearing persons of wealth or
+official station. The stairway winds and zigzags up the narrow defile,
+averaging in width about twenty feet. Refreshment houses are perched here
+and there along the side, sometimes forming a bridge over the steps.
+
+The stairway terminates at the summit in a broad stone archway of ancient
+build, over which are several rooms; this is evidently an office for the
+collection of revenue from the merchandise carried over the pass.
+Standing beneath this arch one obtains a comprehensive view of the
+country below to the north; a pretty picture is presented of gabled
+villages and temples, green hills, and pale-gold ripening rice-fields.
+The little silvery contributaries of the Kan-kiang ramify the picture
+like veins in the human palm, and the brown, cobbled pathways are seen
+leading from village to village, disappearing from view at short
+intervals beneath a cluster of tiled houses.
+
+Steeper but somewhat shorter steps lead down from the pass, and the
+pathway follows along the bank of a tiny stream, leading through an
+almost continuous string of villages to the walls of Nam-ngan.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+DOWN THE KAN-KIANG VALLEY.
+
+The country is still nothing but river and mountains, and a sampan is
+engaged to float me down the Kan-kiang as far as Kan-tchou-foo, from
+whence I hope to be able to resume my journey a-wheel. The water is very
+low in the upper reaches of the river, and the sampan has to be abandoned
+a few miles from where it started. I then get two of the boatmen to carry
+the wheel, intending to employ them as far as Kan-tchou-foo.
+
+From the stories current at Canton, the reputation of Kan-tchou-foo is
+rather calculated to inspire a lone Fankwae with sundry misgivings. Some
+time ago an English traveller, named Cameron, had in that city an
+unpleasantly narrow escape from being burned alive. The Celestials
+conceived the diabolical notion of wrapping him in cotton, saturating him
+with peanut-oil, and setting him on fire. The authorities rescued him not
+a moment too soon.
+
+Ere traversing many miles of mountain-paths we emerge upon a partially
+cultivated country, where the travelling is somewhat better than in
+Quang-tung. The Mae-ling Pass was the boundary line between the provinces
+of Quang-tung and Kiang-se; my journey from Nam-ngan will lead me through
+the whole length of the latter great province, between three hundred and
+four hundred miles north and south.
+
+The paths hereabout are of dirt mostly, and although wretched roads for a
+wheelman in the abstract, are nevertheless admirable in comparison with
+the stone-ways of Quang-tung. Gratified at the prospect of being able to
+proceed to Kui-kiang by land after all, I determine at once that, if the
+country gets no worse by to-morrow, I will dismiss the boatmen and pursue
+my way alone again on the bicycle. This resolve very quickly develops
+into an earnest determination to rid myself of the incubus of the
+snail-like movements of my new carriers, who are decidedly out of their
+element when walking, as I am very quickly brought to understand by the
+annoying frequency of their halts at way-side tea-houses to rest and
+smoke and eat.
+
+Ere we are five miles from the sampan these festive mariners of the
+Kan-kiang have developed into shuffling, shirking gormandizers, who peer
+longingly into every eating-house we pass by and evince a decided
+tendency to convert their task into a picnic. Finding me uncomplaining in
+footing their respective "bills of lading" at the frequent places where
+they rest and indulge their appetites for tid-bits, they advance, in the
+brief space of four hours, from a simple diet of peanuts and bubbles of
+greasy pastry to such epicurean dishes as pickled duck, salted eggs, and
+fricasseed kitten!
+
+Fricasseed kitten is all very well for people who have been reared in the
+lap of luxury, and tenderly nurtured; but neither of these half-clad
+Kan-kiang navigators was born with the traditional silver spoon. From
+infancy they have had to thrive the best way they could on rice,
+turnip-tops, peanuts, and delusive expectations of pork and fish; their
+assumption of the delicacies above mentioned betrays the possession of
+bumps of assurance bigger than goose-eggs. It is equivalent to a
+moneyless New York guttersnipe sailing airily into Delmonico's and
+ordering porter-house steak and terrapin, because some benevolent person
+volunteered to feed him for a day or two at his expense. Fearful lest
+their ambitious palates should soar into the extravagant and bankrupting
+realms of bird-nest soup, shark's fins, and deer-horn jelly, I firmly
+resolve to dispense with their services at the first favorable
+opportunity.
+
+Many of the larger villages we pass through are walled with enormously
+massive brick walls, all bearing evidence of battering at the hands of
+the Tai-pings. Owing to the frequent restings of the carriers we are
+overtaken toward evening by a fellow boat-passenger, Oolong, who after
+our departure determined to follow our enterprising example and walk to
+Kan-tchou-foo. He comes trudging briskly along with a little white
+tea-pot swinging in his hand and an umbrella under his arm.
+
+The day is disagreeably cold by reason of the chilly typhoons that blow
+steadily from the north. I have considerately encased the thinnest clad
+carrier in my gossamer rubbers to shield him from the wind, but Oolong is
+even thinner clad than he, and he has to hustle along briskly to keep his
+Celestial blood in circulation.
+
+No sooner do we reach the hittim where it is proposed to remain over
+night than poor Oolong gets into trouble by appropriating to his own use
+the quilted garment of one of the employes of the place, which he finds
+lying around loose. The irate owner of the garment loudly accuses Oolong
+of wanting to steal it, and notwithstanding his vigorous protestations to
+the contrary he is denounced as a thief and summarily ejected from the
+premises.
+
+The last I ever see of Oolong and his white tea-pot and umbrella is when
+he pauses for a moment to give his accusers a bit of his mind before
+vanishing into outer darkness.
+
+The morning is quite wintry, and the people are clad in the seasonable
+costumes of the country. Huge quilted garments are put on one over
+another until their figures are almost of ball-like rotundity; the hands
+are drawn up entirely out of sight in the long, loosely flowing sleeves,
+while the head is half-hidden by being drawn, turtle-like, into their
+blue-quilted shells. Like the Persians, they seem nipped and miserable in
+the cold; looking at them, standing about with humped backs and pinched
+faces this morning, I wonder, with the Chinaman's happy nonchalance about
+committing suicide, why they don't all seek relief within the nice warm
+tombs at the end of the village. Surely it can be nothing but their
+rampant curiosity, urging them to live on and on in the hopes of seeing
+something new and novel, that keeps them from collapsing entirely in the
+winter.
+
+My epicurean carriers indulge largely in chopped cayenne peppers this
+morning, which they mis liberally with their food.
+
+The paths at least get no worse than they were yesterday, and to-day I
+meet the first passenger-wheelbarrow, with its big wheel in the centre, a
+bulky female with a baby on one side, and a bale of merchandise on the
+other. Sometimes our road brings us to the banks of the Kan-kiang, and
+most of the time, even when a mile or two away, we can see the queer,
+corrugated sails of the sampans.
+
+Once to-day we happen upon a fleet of fourteen cormorant fishers at a
+moment when the excitement of their pursuit is at its height. About
+seventy or eighty cormorants are diving and chasing about among a shoal
+of fish in a big silent pool, while fourteen wildly excited Chinamen,
+clad in abbreviated breech-cloths, dart their bamboo rafts about hither
+and thither, urging each one his own cormorants to dive by tapping them
+smartly with their poles. The scene is animated in the extreme, a unique
+picture of Chinese river-life not to be easily forgotten.
+
+About two o'clock in the afternoon we arrive at a city that I flatter
+myself is Kan-tchou-foo; all attempts to question the carriers or anybody
+else in regard to the matter results in the hopeless bewilderment of both
+them and myself. The carriers are not such ignoramuses in the art of
+pantomime, however, but that they are able to announce their intention of
+stopping here for the remainder of the day, and night.
+
+The liberality of my purse for a short day and a half, with its
+concomitant luxurious living, has so thoroughly demoralized the
+unaccustomed river-men, that they encroach still further upon my bounty
+and forbearance by revelling all night in the sensuous delights of opium,
+at my expense, and turning up in the morning in anything but fit
+condition for the road. Putting this and that together, I conclude that
+we have not yet readied Kan-tchou-foo; but the carriers have developed
+into an insufferable nuisance, a hinderance to progress, rather than a
+help, so I determine to take them no farther.
+
+I tell them nothing of my intentions until we reach a lonely spot a mile
+from the city. Here I tender them suitable payment for their services and
+the customary present, attach my loose effects to the bicycle and about
+my person, and motion them to return. As I anticipated, they make a
+clamorous demand for more money, even seizing hold of the bicycle and
+shouting angrily in my face. This I had easily foreseen, and wisely
+preferred to have their angry demonstrations all to myself, rather than
+in a crowded city where they could perhaps have excited the mob against
+me.
+
+For the first time in China I have to appeal to my Smith & Wesson in the
+interests of peace; without its terrifying possession I should on this
+occasion undoubtedly have been under the necessity of "wiping up a small
+section of Kiang-se" with these two worthies in self defence. In the
+affairs of individuals, as of nations, it sometimes operates to the
+preservation of peace to be well prepared for war. How many times has
+this been the case with myself on this journey around the world!
+
+The barometer of satisfaction at the prospect of reaching Kui-kiang
+before the appearance of old age rises from zero-level to a quite
+flattering height, as I find the pathways more than half ridable after
+delivering myself of the dead weight of native "assistance." Twelve miles
+farther and I am approaching the grim high walls of a large city that
+instinctively impresses me as being Kan-tchou-foo. The confused babel of
+noises within the teeming wall-encompassed city reaches my ears in the
+form of an "ominous buzz," highly suggestive of a hive of bees, into the
+interior of which it would be extremely ticklish work for a Fankwae to
+enter. "Half an hour hence," I mentally speculate, "the pitying angels
+may be weeping over the spectacle of my seal-brown roasted remains being
+dragged about the streets by the ribald and exultant rag, tag, and
+bobtail of Kan-tchou-foo."
+
+Reflecting on the horrors of cotton, peanut-oil, and fire, I sit down for
+half an hour at a peanut-seller's stall, eat peanuts, and meditatively
+argue the situation of whether it would be better, if seized by a
+murderous mob, to take the desperate chances of being, like Cameron,
+rescued at the last minute from the horrors of incineration, or to take
+my own life. Fourteen cartridges and a 38 Smith & Wesson is the sum total
+of my armament. Emptying my revolver among the mob, and then being caught
+while reloading, would mean a lingering death by the most diabolical
+tortures, processes that the heathen Chinee has reduced to a refinement
+of cruelty unsurpassed in the old Spanish inquisition chambers.
+
+The saucer of peanuts eaten, I pursue my way along the cobblestone path
+leading to the gate, without having come to any more definite conclusion
+than to keep cool and govern my actions according to circumstances. Ten
+minutes after taking this precaution I am trundling along a paved street,
+somewhat wider than the average Chinese city street, in the thick of the
+inevitable excited crowd.
+
+The city probably contains two hundred thousand people, judging from the
+length of this street and the wonderful quantity and richness of the
+goods displayed in the shops. Along this street I see a more lavish
+display of rich silks, furs, tiger-skins, and other evidences of opulence
+than was shown me at Canton. The pressure of the crowds reduces me at
+once to the necessity of drifting helplessly along, whithersoever the
+seething human tide may lead. Sometimes I fancy the few officiously
+interested persons about me, whom I endeavor to question in regard to the
+hoped-for Jesuit mission, have interpreted my queries aright and are
+piloting me thither; only to conclude by their actions, the next minute,
+that they have not the remotest conception of my wants, beyond reaching
+the other side of the city. Now and then some ruffian in the crowd, in a
+spirit of wanton devilment, utters a wild, exultant whoop and raises the
+cry of "Fankwae. Fankwae." The cry is taken up by others of his kind, and
+the whoops and shouts of "Fankwae" swell into a tumultuous howl.
+
+Anxious moments these; the spirit of wanton mischief fairly bristles
+through the crowd, evidently needing but the merest friction to set it
+ablaze and render my situation desperate. My coat-tail is jerked, the
+bicycle stopped, my helmet knocked off, and other trifling indignities
+offered; but to these acts I take no exceptions, merely placing my helmet
+on again when it is knocked off, and maintaining a calm serenity of face
+and demeanor.
+
+A dozen times during this trying trundle of a mile along the chief
+business thoroughfare of Kan-tchou-foo, the swelling whoops and yells of
+"Fankwae" seem to portend the immediate bursting of the anticipated
+storm, and a dozen times I breathe easier at the subsidence of its
+volume. The while I am still hoping faintly for a repetition in part of
+my delightful surprise at Chao-choo-foo, we arrive at a gate leading out
+on to a broad paved quay of the Kan-kiang, which flows close by the
+walls.
+
+Here I first realize the presence of Imperial troops, and awaken to the
+probability that I am indebted to their known proximity for the
+self-restraint of the mob, and their comparatively mild behavior. These
+Celestial warriors would make excellent characters on the spectacular
+stage; their uniforms are such marvels of color and pattern that it is
+difficult to disassociate them from things theatrical. Some are uniformed
+in sky blue, and others in the gayest of scarlet gowns, blue aprons with
+little green pockets, and blue turbans or Tartar hats with red tassels.
+Their gowns and aprons are patterned so as to spread out to a ridiculous
+width at bottom, imparting to the gay warrior an appearance not unlike an
+opened fan, his head constituting the handle.
+
+As a matter of fact, the soldiers of the Imperial army are the biggest
+dandies in the country; when on the march coolies are provided to carry
+their muskets and accoutrements. As seen today, beneath the walls of
+Kan-tchou-foo, they impress me far more favorably as dandies than as
+soldiers equal to the demand of modern warfare.
+
+Like soldiers the whole world round, however, they seem to be a
+good-natured, superior class of men; no sooner does my presence become
+known than several of them interest themselves in checking the aggressive
+crowding of the people about me. Some of them even accompany me down to
+the ferry and order the ancient ferryman to take me across for nothing.
+This worthy individual, however, enters such a wordy protestation against
+this that I hand him a whole handful of the picayunish tsin. The soldiers
+make him give me back the over-payment, to the last tsin. The sordid
+money-making methods of the commercial world seem to be regarded with
+more or less contempt by the gallant sons of Mars everywhere, not
+excepting even the soldiers of the Chinese army.
+
+The scene presented by the city and the camp from across the river is of
+a most pronounced mediaeval character, as well as one of the prettiest
+sights imaginable. The grim walla of the city extend for nearly a mile
+along the undulating bank of the Kan-kiang, with a narrow strip of
+greensward between the solid gray battlements and the blue, wind-rippled
+waters of the river. Along the whole distance, rising and falling with
+the undulations of the bank, are ranged a continuous row of gayly
+fluttering banners-red, purple, blue, green, yellow, and all these colors
+combined in others that are striped as prettily as the prettiest of
+barber-poles-probably not less than five hundred flags. These
+multitudinous banners flutter from long, spear-headed bamboo-staves, and
+of themselves present a wonderfully pretty effect in combination with the
+blue waters, the verdant bank, and the gray walls. But in addition to
+these are thousands of soldiers, equally gaudy as to raiment, reclining
+irregularly along the same greensward, each warrior a bright bit of
+coloring on the verdant groundwork of the bank.
+
+Over variable paths and through numerous villages and hamlets my way now
+leads, my next objective point being Ki-ngan-foo. At first a country of
+curious red buttes, terraced rice-fields, and reservoirs of
+mountain-drift water, serving the double purpose of fish-ponds and
+irrigating reservoirs, it develops later into a more mountainous region,
+where the bicycle quickly degenerates into a thing more ornamental than
+useful.
+
+On a narrow mountain-trail is met a gentleman astride of a chunky
+twelve-hand pony. This diminutive steed is almost concealed beneath a
+wealth of gay trappings, to which are attached hundreds of jingling bells
+that fill the air with music as he walks or jogs along. In his fright at
+the bicycle, or me, he charges wildly up the steep mountain-slope,
+unseating his rider and making for the mountain-top like the
+all-possessed. His rider takes the sensible course of immediately
+pursuing the pony, instead of wasting time in unprofitable fault-finding
+with me.
+
+Few people of these obscure mountain-hamlets have ever seen a Fankwae;
+many, doubtless, have never even heard of the existence of such queer
+beings. They gather in a crowd about me when I stay to seek refreshments;
+the general query of "What is he? what is he?" passed from one to
+another, sometimes elicits the laconically expressed information of"
+Fankwae" from some knowing villager or traveller passing through, but
+often their question remains unanswered, because among the whole assembly
+there is nobody who really knows what I am.
+
+The wonderful industry of these people is more apparent in this
+mountain-country than anywhere else. The valleys are very narrow, often
+little more than mere ravines between the mountains, and wherever a
+square yard of productive soil is to be found it is cultivated to its
+utmost capacity. In places the mountain-ravines are terraced, to their
+very topmost limits, tier after tier of substantial rock wall banking up
+a few square yards of soil that have been gathered with infinite labor
+and patience from the ledges and crevices of the rocky hills. The
+uppermost terrace is usually a pond of water, gathered by the artificial
+drainage of still higher levels, and reserved for the irrigation of the
+score or more descending "steps" of the rice-growing stairway beneath it.
+
+Notwithstanding the mountainous nature of the country and the dallying
+progress through Kan-tchou-foo, so lightsome does it seem to be once more
+journeying along, free and unencumbered, that I judge my day's progress
+to be not less than fifty miles when nightfall overtakes me in a little
+mountain-village. It is the first day's progress in China with which I
+have been really satisfied. Nevertheless, it has been a toilsome day,
+taken altogether, and when nothing but tea and rice confronts me at
+supper the reward seems so wretchedly inadequate that I rise in rebellion
+at once.
+
+Neither eggs, fish, nor meat are to be obtained, the good woman at the
+little hittim explains in a high key; neither loan, ue, nor ue-ah,
+nothing but ch'ung-ch'a and mai. The woman is evidently a dear,
+considerate mortal, however, for she surveys my evident disgust with
+sorrowful visage, and then, suddenly brightening up, motions for me to be
+seated and leaves the house. Presently the good dame returns with a smile
+of triumph on her face and an object in her hand that, from casual
+observation, might be the hind-quarters of a rabbit. Bringing it to me in
+the most matter-of-fact manner, she holds it near my face and, pointing
+to it with the air of a cateress proudly conscious of having secured
+something that she knows will be unusually acceptable to her guest, she
+explains "me-aow, me-aow!" The woman's naivete is simply sublime, and her
+sagacity in explaining the nature of the meat by imitating a kitten's cry
+instead of telling me its Chinese name stamps her as superior to her
+surroundings; but, for all that, I conclude to draw the line at kitten
+and sup off plain rice and tea. "Me-aow, me-aow" might not be altogether
+objectionable if one knew it to have been a nice healthy kitten, but my
+observations of Chinese unsqueamishness about the food they eat leaves an
+abundance of room for doubt about the nature of its death and its
+suitableness for human consumption. I therefore resist the temptation to
+indulge.
+
+A clear morning and a white frost usher in the commencement of another
+march across the mountains, over cobbled paths for the greater part of
+the forenoon. The sun is warm, but the mountain-breezes are cool and
+refreshing. About noon I ferry across a large tributary of the Kan-kiang,
+and follow for miles a cobble-stone path that leads down its eastern
+bank.
+
+According to my map, Ki-ngan-foo should be about fifty miles south of
+Kan-tchou-foo, so that I ought to have reached there by noon to-day. All
+due allowance, however, must be made for the map-makers in mapping out a
+country where their opportunities for accuracy must have been of the
+meagerest kind. Small occasion for fault-finding under the circumstances,
+I think, for in the middle of the afternoon the gray battlements, the
+pagodas, and the bright coloring of military flags a few miles farther
+down stream tell me that the geographers have not erred to any
+considerable extent.
+
+It is about sunset when I enter the gates and find myself within the
+Manchu quarter, that portion of the city walled off for the residence of
+the Manchu garrison and their families. The hittim to which the quickly
+gathering crowd conduct me is found to be occupied by a rather
+prepossessing female, who, however, looks frightened at my approach and
+shuts the door. Nor will she consent to open it again until reassured of
+my peaceful character by the lengthy explanation of the people outside,
+and a searching scrutiny of my person through a crack. After opening the
+door again, and receiving what I opine to be a statement of the financial
+possibilities of the situation from some person who has heard fabulous
+accounts of the Fankwaes' liberality, her apprehensiveness dissolves into
+a smile of welcome and she motions for me to come in.
+
+The evening is chilly, and everybody is swollen out to ridiculous
+proportions by the numerous thick-quilted garments they are wearing. All
+present, whether male or female, are likewise distinguished by abnormally
+protruding stomachs. Being Manchus, and therefore the accredited warriors
+of the country, it occurs to ine that perhaps the fashionable fad among
+them is to pad out their stomachs in token of the possession of
+extraordinary courage, the stomach being regarded by the Chinese as the
+seat of both courage and intelligence. In the absence of large stomachs
+provided by nature, perhaps these proud Manchus come to the correction of
+niggardly nature with wadding, as do various hollow-chested people in the
+"regions of mist and snow," the dreary, sunless land whence cometh the
+genus Fankwae.
+
+But are the females also ambitious to be regarded as warriors, Amazonian
+soldiers, full of courage and warlike aspirations. As though in direct
+reply to my mental queries, a woman standing by solves the problem for me
+at once by producing from beneath her garments a wicker-basket containing
+a jar of hot ashes; stirring the deadened coals up a little she replaces
+it, evidently attaching it to her garments underneath by a little hook.
+
+Among the hundreds of visitors that drop in to see the Fankwae and his
+bicycle is an intelligent old officer who actually knows that the great
+country of the Fankwaes is divided into different nationalities; either
+that, or else he thinks the Fankwaes have another name, said name being
+"Ying-yun" (English). Some idea of the dense ignorance of the Chinese of
+the interior concerning the rest of the world may be gathered from the
+fact that this officer is the first person since leaving Chao-choo-foo,
+upon whom the word "Ying-yun" has not been wholly thrown away.
+
+Scenes of more than democratic equality and fraternity are witnessed in
+this Manchu hittim, where silk-robed mandarins and uncouth ragamuffins
+stand side by side and enjoy the luxury of seeing me take lessons in the
+use of the chop-sticks. All through China one cannot fail to be impressed
+with the freedom of intercourse between people of high and low degree;
+beggars with unwashed faces and disgusting sores and well-nigh naked
+bodies stand and discuss my appearance and movements with mandarins of
+high degree, without the least show of presumption on the one hand or
+condescension on the other.
+
+Fully under the impression that Ki-ngan-foo has now peacefully come and
+peacefully gone from the pale of my experiences, I follow along awful
+stone paths next morning, leading across a level, cultivated country for
+several miles. Before long, however, a country of red clay hills and
+limited cultivable depressions is reached, where well-worn foot-trails
+over the natural soil afford more or less excellent going. In this
+particular district the women are observed to be all golden lilies,
+whereas the proportion of deformed feet in other rural districts has been
+rather small. Seeing that deformed feet add fifty or a hundred per cent,
+to the social and matrimonial value of a Chinese female, one cannot help
+applauding the enterprise of the people in this district as compared to
+the apathy existing on the same subject in some others. The comparative
+poverty of their clayey undulations has doubtless awakened them to the
+opportunities of increasing values in other directions. Hence they
+convert all their female infants into golden lilies, for whom some
+prospective husband will be willing to pay a hundred dollars more than if
+they were possessed of vulgar extremities as provided by nature.
+
+The people hereabout seem unusually timid and alarmed at my strange
+appearance; it is both laughable and painful to see the women hobble off
+across the fields, frightened almost out of their wits. At times I can
+look about me and, within a radius of five hundred yards, see twenty or
+thirty females, all with deformed feet, scuttling off toward the villages
+with painful efforts at speed. One might well imagine them to be a colony
+of crippled rabbits, alarmed at the approach of a dog, endeavoring to
+hobble away from his destructive presence.
+
+In the villages they seem equally apprehensive of danger, making it
+somewhat difficult to obtain anything to eat. At one village where I halt
+for refreshments the people scurry hastily into their houses at seeing me
+coming, and peep timidly out again after I have passed. Leaning the
+bicycle against a wall, I proceed in search of something to eat. A basket
+of oranges first attracts my attention; they are setting just inside the
+door of a little shop. The two women in charge look scared nearly out of
+their wits as I appear at the door and point to the basket; both of them
+retreat pell-mell into a rear apartment, and, holding the door ajar, peep
+curiously through to see what I am going to do. While my attention is
+directed for a moment to something down the street, one daring soul darts
+out and bears the basket of oranges triumphantly into the back room. For
+this heroic deed I beg to recommend this brave woman for the Victoria
+Cross; among the golden lilies of the Celestial Empire are no doubt many
+such brave souls, coequal with Grace Darling or the Maid of Saragossa.
+
+Baffled and out-generaled by this brilliant sortie, I meander down to the
+other end of the village and invade the premises of an old man engaged in
+chopping up a piece of pork with a cleaver. The gallant pork-butcher
+gathers up the choicest parts of his meat and carries them into a rear
+room; with a wary yet determined look in his eye he then returns, and
+proceeds to mince up the few remaining odds and ends. It is plainly
+evident that he fancies himself in dangerous company, and is prepared to
+defend himself desperately with his meat-chopper in case he gets cornered
+up.
+
+Finally I discover a really courageous individual, in the person of a man
+presiding over a peanut and treacle-cake establishment; this man, while
+evidently uneasy in his mind, manfully steels his nerves to the task of
+attending to my wants. Presently the people begin to gather at a
+respectful distance to watch me eat, and five minutes later, by a
+judicious distribution of a few saucers of peanuts among the youngsters,
+I gain their entire confidence.
+
+About four o'clock in the afternoon my road once again brings me to a
+ferry across the Kan-kiang. Just previous to reaching the river, I meet
+on the road eight men, carrying a sedan containing a hideous black idol
+about twice as large as a man. A mile back from the ferry is another
+large walled city with a magnificent pagoda; this city I fondly imagine
+to be Lin-kiang, next on my map and itinerary to Ki-ngan-foo, and I
+mentally congratulate myself on the excellent time I have been making for
+the last two days.
+
+Across the ferry are several official sampans with a number of boys gayly
+dressed in red and carrying old battle-axes; also a small squad of
+soldiers with bows and arrows. No sooner does the ferryman land me than
+the officer in charge of the party, with a wave of his hand in my
+direction, orders a couple of soldiers to conduct me into the city; his
+order is given in an off-hand manner peculiarly Chinese, as though I were
+a mere unimportant cipher in the matter, whose wishes it really was not
+worth while to consult. The soldiers conduct me to the city and into the
+yamen or official quarter, where I am greeted with extreme courtesy by a
+pleasant little officer in cloth top-boots and a pigtail that touches his
+heels. He is one of the nicest little fellows I have met in China, all
+smiles and bustling politeness and condescension; a trifle too much of
+the latter, perhaps, were we at all on an equality; but quite excusable
+under the conditions of Celestial refinement and civilization on one
+side, and untutored barbarism on the other.
+
+Having duly copied my passport (apropos of the Chinese doing almost
+everything in a precisely opposite way to ourselves may be pointed out
+the fact that, instead of attaching vises to the traveller's passport,
+like European nations, each official copies off the entire document), the
+little officer with much bowing and scraping leads the way back to the
+ferry. My explanation that I am bound in the other direction elicits
+sundry additional bobbings of the head and soothing utterances and
+smiles, but he points reassuringly to the ferry. Arriving at the river,
+the little officer is dumbfounded to discover that I have no sampan--that
+I am not travelling by boat, but overland on the bicycle. Such a
+possibility had never entered his head; nor is it wonderful that it
+should not, considering the likelihood that nobody, in all his
+experience, had ever travelled to Kui-kiang from here except by boat.
+Least of all would he imagine that a stray Fankwae should be travelling
+otherwise.
+
+At the ferry we meet the officer who first ordered the soldiers to take
+me in charge, and who now accompanies us back to the yamen. Evidently
+desirous of unfathoming the mystery of my incomprehensible mode of
+travelling through the country, these two officers spend much of the
+evening with me in the hittim smoking and keeping up an animated effort
+to converse. Notwithstanding my viceregal passport, the superior officer
+very plainly entertains suspicions as to my motives in undertaking this
+journey; his superficial politeness no more conceals his suspicions than
+a glass globe conceals a fish. Before they take their departure three
+yameni-runners are stationed in my room to assume the responsibility for
+my safe-keeping during the night.
+
+An hour or so is spent waiting in the yamen next morning, apparently for
+the gratification of visitors continually arriving. When the yamen is
+crowded with people I am provided with a boiled fish and a pair of
+chop-sticks. Witnessing the consumption of this fish by the Fankwae is
+the finale of the "exhibition," and candor compels me to chronicle the
+fact that it fairly brings down the house.
+
+It is a drizzly, disagreeable morning as I trundle out of the city gate
+over cobble-stones, made slippery by the rain. Walking before me is a
+slim young yameni-runner with a short bamboo-spear, and on his back a
+white bull's-eye eighteen inches in diameter; he is bare-footed and
+bare-headed and bare-legged. In the poverty of his apparel, the all-round
+contempt of personal appearance and cleanliness, and the total absence of
+individual ambition, this young person reminds me forcibly of our
+happy-go-lucky friend Osman, in the garden at Herat.
+
+In striking contrast to him is the dandified individual who brings up the
+rear, about ten paces behind the bicycle. He likewise is a yameni-runner,
+but of higher degree than his compatriot of the advance; instead of a
+vulgar and rusty spear, he is armed with an oiled paper parasol, a
+flaming red article ornamented with blue characters and gilt women.
+Besides this gay mark of distinction and social superiority, he owns both
+shoes and hat, carrying the former, however, chiefly in his hand; when
+fairly away from town, he deliberately turns his red-braided jacket
+inside out to prevent it getting dirty. This transformation brings about
+a change from the two white bull's-eyes, to big rings of stitching by
+which these distinguishing appendages are attached.
+
+A substantial meal of yams and pork is obtained at a way-side
+eating-house, after which yet another evidence of the sybaritic tastes of
+the rear-guard comes to light, in the form of a beautiful jade-stone
+opium pipe, with which he regales himself after chow-chow. He is, withal,
+possessed of more than average intelligence; it is from questioning him
+that I learn the rather startling fact that, instead of having reached
+Lin-kiang, I have not yet even come to Ki-ngan-foo. Ta-ho is the name of
+the city we have just left, and Ki-ngan-foo is whither we are now
+directly bound.
+
+The weather at noon becomes warm, and the luxurious personage at the rear
+delivers his parasol, and shoes, and jade-stone pipe over to the slender
+and lissom advance guard to carry, to spare himself the weariness of
+their weight. Tea and tid-bit houses are plentiful, and stoppages for
+refreshing ourselves frequent. The rear guard assumes considerable
+dignity when in the presence of a crowd of sore-eyed rustics; he chides
+their ill-bred giggling at my appearance and movements by telling them,
+no matter how funny I appear to them here, I am a mandarin in my own
+country. After hearing this the crowd regard me with even more curiosity;
+but their inquisitiveness is now heavily freighted with respect.
+
+Some of the costumes of the women in this region are very pretty and
+characteristic, and many of the females are themselves not devoid of
+beauty, as beauty goes among the Mongols. Particularly do I notice one
+to-day, whose tiny, doll-like extremities are neatly bound with red,
+blue, and green ribbon; her face is a picture of refinement, her
+head-dress a marvel of neatness and skill, and her whole manner and
+make-up attractive. Unlike her timid and apprehensive sisters of
+yesterday, she sees nothing in me to be afraid of; on the contrary, she
+comes and sits beside ine on the bench and makes herself at home with the
+peanuts and sweets I purchase, and laughs merrily when I offer to give
+her a ride on the bicycle.
+
+The sun is sinking behind the mountains to the west when we approach the
+city of Ki-ngan-foo, its northern extremity marked by a very ancient
+pagoda now rapidly crumbling to decay. The city forms a crescent on the
+west bank of the Kan-kiang, the main street running parallel with the
+river for something like half a mile before terminating at the walls of
+the Manchu quarter.
+
+The fastidious gentleman at the rear has betrayed symptoms of a very
+uneasy state of mind during the afternoon, and now, as he halts the
+procession a moment to turn the bull's-eye side of his coat outward, and
+to put on his shoes, he gives me a puzzled, sorrowful look and shakes his
+head dolefully. The trickiness of former acquaintances causes me to
+misinterpret this display of emotion into an hypocritical assumption of
+sorrow at the near prospect of our parting company, with ulterior designs
+on the nice long strings of tsin he knows to be in my leathern case. It
+soon becomes evident, however, that trouble of some kind is anticipated
+in Ki-ngan-foo, for he points to my revolver and then to the city and
+solemnly shakes his head.
+
+The crescent water-front, the broad blue river and white sand, the plain
+dotted with smiling villages opposite, the tall pagodas, the swarms of
+sampans with their quaint sails, form the composite parts of a very
+pretty and striking picture, as seen from the northern tip of the
+crescent.
+
+Near the old ruined pagoda the rear-guard points in an indifferent sort
+of a way to a substantial brick edifice surmounted by a plain wooden
+cross. Ah! a Jesuit mission, so help me Pius IX! now shall I meet some
+genial old French priest, who will make me comfortable for the night and
+enlighten me in regard to my bearings, distances, and other subjects
+about which I am in a very thick fog. Instead of the fifty miles from
+Kan-tchou-foo to Ki-ngan-foo indicated on my map, it has proved to be
+considerably over a hundred.
+
+The sole occupant of the building, however, is found to be a fat,
+monkish-looking Chinaman, who knows never a word of either French or
+pidgeon English. He says he knows Latin, but for all the benefit this
+worthy accomplishment is to me he might as well know nothing but his own
+language. He informs me, by an expressive motion of the hand, that the
+missionaries have departed; whether gone to their everlasting reward,
+however, or only on a temporary flight, his pantomimic language fails to
+record. Subsequently I learn that they were compelled to flee the
+country, owing to the hostility aroused by the operations of the French
+in Tonquin.
+
+Instead of extending that cordial greeting and consideration one would
+naturally expect from a converted Chinaman whose Fankwae accomplishments
+soar to the classic altitude of Latin, the Celestial convert seems rather
+anxious to get rid of me; he is evidently on pins and needles for fear my
+presence should attract a mob to the place and trouble result therefrom.
+
+As we proceed down the street my appearance seems to stir the population
+up to a pitch of wild excitement. Merchants dart in and out of their
+shops, people in rags, people in tags, and people in gorgeous apparel,
+buzz all about me and flit hither and thither like a nest of stirred-up
+wasps. If curiosity has seemed to be rampant in other cities it passes
+all the limits of Occidental imagination in Ki-ngau-foo. Upon seeing me
+everybody gives utterance to a peculiar spontaneous squeak of surprise,
+reminding me very much of the monkeys' notes of alarm in the tree-tops
+along the Grand Trunk road, India.
+
+One might easily imagine the very lives of these people dependent upon
+their success in obtaining a glimpse of my face. Well-dressed citizens
+rush hastily ahead, stoop down, and peer up into my face as I trundle
+past, with a determination to satisfy their curiosity that our language
+is totally inadequate to describe, and which our temperament renders
+equally difficult for us to understand.
+
+By the time we are half-way along the street the whole city seems in wild
+tumult. Men rush ahead, peer into my face, deliver themselves of the
+above-mentioned peculiar squeak, and run hastily down some convergent
+alley-way. Stall-keepers quickly gather up their wares, and shop-keepers
+frantically snatch their goods inside as they hear the tumult and see the
+mob coming down the street. The excitement grows apace, and the same
+wanton cries of "Fank-wae. Fankwae!" that followed me through
+Kan-tchou-foo are here repeated with wild whoops and exultant cries. One
+would sometimes think that all the devils of Dante's "Inferno" had gotten
+into the crowd and set them wild with the spirit of mischief.
+
+By this time the yameni-runners are quaking with fear; he of the paper
+parasol and jade-stone pipe walks beside me, convulsively clutching my
+arm, and with whiningly anxious voice shouts out orders to his
+subordinate. In response to these orders the advance-guard now and then
+hurries forward and peeps around certain corners, as though expecting
+some hidden assailants.
+
+Thus far, although the symptoms of trouble have been gradually assuming
+more and more alarming proportions, there has been nothing worse than
+demoniacal howls. The chief reason of this, however, it now appears, has
+been the absence of loose stones, for no sooner do we enter an inferior
+quarter where loose stones and bricks are scattered about, than they come
+whistling about our ears. The poor yameni-runners shout deprecatingly at
+the mob; in return the mob loudly announce their intention of working
+destruction upon my unoffending head. Fortunately for me that head is
+pretty thoroughly hidden beneath the thick pith thatch-work of my Indian
+solar topee, otherwise I should have succumbed to the first fusillade of
+stones at the instance of a cracked pate. Stones that would have knocked
+me out of time in the first round rattle harmlessly on the 3/4-inch pith
+helmet, the generous proportions of which effectually protect head and
+neck from harm. Once, twice, it is knocked off by a stone striking it on
+the brim, but it never reaches the ground before being recovered and
+jammed more firmly than ever in its place. Things begin to look pretty
+desperate as we approach the gate of the Manchu quarter; an immense crowd
+of people have hurried down back streets and collected at this gate;
+fancying they are there for the hostile purpose of heading us off, I come
+very near dodging into an open door way with a view of defending myself
+till the yameni-runners could summon the authorities. There is no time
+for second thought, however; precious little time, in fact, for anything
+but to keep my helmet in its place and hurry along with the bicycle. The
+yameni-runners repeatedly warn the crowd that I am armed with a
+top-fanchee (revolver); this, doubtless, prevents them from closing in on
+us, and keeps their aggressive spirit within certain limits.
+
+A moment's respite is happily obtained at the Manchu gate; the crowd
+gathered there in advance are comparatively peaceful, and the mob, for a
+moment, seem to hesitate about following us inside. Making the most of
+this opportunity, we hurry forward toward the yamen, which, I afterward
+learn, is still two or three hundred yards distant. Ere fifty yards are
+covered the mob come pouring through the gate, yelling like demons and
+picking up stones as they hurry after us. "A horse, a horse, my kingdom
+for a horse." or, what would suit me equally as well, a short piece of
+smooth road in lieu of break-neck cobble-stones.
+
+Again are we overtaken and bombarded vigorously; ignorant of the distance
+to the yamen, I again begin looking about for some place in which to
+retreat for defensive purposes, unwilling to abandon the bicycle to
+destruction and seek doubtful safety in flight. At this juncture a brick
+strikes the unfortunate rear-guard on the arm, injuring that member
+severely, and quickening the already badly frightened yameni-runners to
+the urgent necessity of bringing matters to an ending somehow.
+
+Pointing forward, they persist in dragging me into a run. Thus far I have
+been very careful to preserve outward composure, feeling sure that any
+demonstration of weakness on my part would surely operate to my
+disadvantage. The runners' appealing cries of "Yameni! yameni!" however,
+prove that we are almost there, and for fifty or seventy-five yards we
+scurry along before the vengeful storm of stones and pursuing mob.
+
+As I anticipated, our running only increases the exultation of the mob,
+and ere we get inside the yamen gate the foremost of them are upon us.
+Two or three of the boldest spirits seize the bicycle, though the
+majority are evidently afraid I might turn loose on them with the
+top-fanchee. We are struggling to get loose from these few determined
+ruffians when the officials of the yamen, hearing the tumult, come
+hurrying to our rescue.
+
+The only damage done is a couple of spokes broken out of the bicycle, a
+number of trifling bruises about my body, a badly dented helmet, and the
+yameni-runner's arm rather severely hurt. When fairly inside and away
+from danger the pent-up feelings of the advance-guard escape in silent
+tears, and his superior of the jade-stone pipe sits down and mournfully
+bemoans his wounded arm. This arm is really badly hurt, probably has
+sustained a slight fracture of the bone, judging from its unfortunate
+owner's complaints.
+
+The Che-hsein, as I believe the chief magistrate is titled, greets me
+while running out with his subordinates, with reassuring cries of "S-s-o,
+s-s-o, s-s-o, s-s-o," repeated with extraordinary rapidity between shouts
+of deprecation to the mob. The mob seem half inclined to pursue us even
+inside the precincts of the yamen, but the authoritative voice of the
+Che-hsein restrains their aggressiveness within partly governable
+measure; nevertheless, in spite of his presence, showers of stones are
+hurled into the yamen so long as I remain in sight.
+
+As quickly as possible the Che-hsein ushers me into his own office, where
+he quickly proves himself a comparatively enlightened individual by
+arching his eyebrows and propounding the query, "French?" "Ying-yun," I
+reply, feeling the advantage of being English or American, rather than
+French, more appreciably perhaps than I have ever done before or since.
+
+This question of the Che-hsein's at once reveals a gleam of explanatory
+light concerning the hostility of the people. For aught I know to the
+contrary it may be but a few days ago since the Jesuit missionaries were
+compelled to flee for their lives. The mob cannot be expected to
+distinguish between French and English; to the average Celestial we of
+the Western world are indiscriminately known as Fankwaes, or foreign
+devils; even to such an enlightened individual as the Che-hsein himself
+these divisions of the Fankwae race are but vaguely understood.
+
+After satisfying himself by questioning the yameni-runners, that I am
+without companions or other baggage save the bicycle, the Che-hsein
+ferrets out a bottle of samshoo and tenders me a liberal allowance in a
+tea-cup. This is evidently administered with the kindly intention of
+quieting my nerves, which he imagines to be unstrung from the alarmingly
+rough treatment at the hands of his riotous townmen.
+
+Riotous they are, beyond a doubt, for even as the Che-hsein pours out the
+samshoo the clamorous howls of "Fankwae. Fankwae." seem louder than ever
+at the gates. Now and then, as the tumult outside seems to be increasing,
+the Che-hsein writes big red characters on flat bamboo-staves and sends
+it out by an officer to be read to the mob; and occasionally, as he sits
+and listens attentively to the clamor, as though gauging the situation by
+the volume of the noise, he addresses himself to me with a soothing and
+reassuring "S-s-o, s-s-o, s-s-o, s-o."
+
+Shortly after my arrival the worthy-minded Che-hsein knits his brow for a
+moment in a profound study, and then, lightening up suddenly, delivers
+himself of "No savvy," a choice morsel of pidgeon English that he has
+somehow acquired. This is the full extent of his knowledge, however; but,
+feeble glimmer of my own mother tongue though it be, it sounds quite
+cheery amid the wilderness wild of Celestial gabble in the office. For
+although the shackles of authority hold in check the murderous mob,
+howling for my barbarian gore outside, a constant stream of officials and
+their friends are admitted to see me and the bicycle.
+
+In making an examination of the bicycle, the peculiar "Ki-ngan-foo
+squeak" finds spontaneous expression at every new surprise. A man enters
+the room, peers wonderingly into my face-squeak!--comes closer, and looks
+again--squeak!--notices the peculiar cut of my garments--squeak!--observes
+my shoes--squeak!--sees helmet on table--squeak!--sees the
+bicycle--squeak!--goes and touches it--squeak!--finds out that the pedals
+twirl round--squeak! and thus he continues until he has seen everything
+and squeaked at everything; he then takes a lingering survey of the room
+to satisfy himself that nothing has been overlooked, gives a parting
+squeak, and leaves the room.
+
+The Che-hsein provides me with a chicken, boiled whole, head included,
+for supper, and consumes his own meal at the same time. The difference
+between the Che-hsein, eating little prepared meatballs and rice, with
+gilded chop-sticks, and myself tearing the spraggly-looking rooster
+asunder and gnawing the drum-sticks greedily with my teeth, no doubt
+readily appeals to the interested lookers-on as an instructive picture of
+Chinese civilization and outer barbarism as depicted in our respective
+modes of eating, side by side.
+
+More than once during the evening the tumult at the gate swells into a
+fierce hubbub, as though pandemonium had broken loose, and the
+blood-thirsty mob were determined to fetch me out. Every minute, at these
+periodical outbursts, I expect to see them come surging in through the
+doorway. A sociable young man, whose chief concern is to keep me supplied
+with pipes and tea, explains, with the aid of a taper, that the crowd are
+desirous of burning me alive. This cheerful piece of information, the
+sociable young man imparts with a characteristic Chinese chuckle of
+amusement; the thought of a Fankwae squirming and sizzling in the oil-fed
+flames touches the chord of his risibilities, and makes him giggle
+merrily. The Che-hsein himself occasionally goes out and harangues the
+excited mob, the authoritative tones of his voice being plainly heard
+above the squabbling and yelling.
+
+It must be near about midnight when the excitement has finally subsided,
+and the mob disperse to their homes. Six yameni-runners then file into
+the room, paper umbrellas slung at their backs in green cloth cases, and
+stout bamboo quarter-staves in hand. The Che-hsein gives them their
+orders and delivers a letter into the hands of the officer in charge; he
+then bids me prepare to depart, bidding me farewell with much polite
+bowing and scraping, and sundry memorable "chin-chins."
+
+A closely covered palanquin is waiting outside the door; into this I am
+conducted and the blinds carefully drawn. A squad of men with flaming
+torches, the Che-hsein, and several officials lead the way, maintaining
+great secrecy and quiet; stout carriers hoist the palanquin to their
+shoulders and follow on behind; others bring up the rear carrying the
+bicycle.
+
+Back through the Manchu quarter and out of the gate again our little
+cavalcade wends its way, the officials immediately about the palanquin
+addressing one another in undertones; back, part way along the same
+street which but a few short hours ago resounded with the hoots and yells
+of the mischievous mob, down a long flight of steps, and the palanquin is
+resting at the end of a gang-plank leading aboard a little
+passenger-sampan. The worthy Che-hsein bows and scrapes and chin-chins me
+along this gang-plank, the bicycle is brought aboard, the six
+yameni-runners follow suit, and the boat is poled out into the river. The
+squad of torch-bearers are seen watching our progress until we are well
+out into the middle of the stream, and the officer in charge of my little
+guard stands out and signals them with his lantern, notifying them, I
+suppose, that all is well. One would imagine, from their actions, that
+they were apprehensive of our sampan being pursued or ambushed by some
+determined party. And yet the scene, as we drift noiselessly along with
+the current, looks lovely and peaceful as the realms of the blest; the
+crescent moon, the shimmering water--and the slowly receding lights of the
+city; what danger can there possibly be in so quiet and peaceful a scene
+as this?
+
+By daylight we are anchored before another walled city, which I think is
+Ki-shway, a city of considerable pretentions as to wall, but full of
+social and moral rottenness and commercial decadence within, judging, at
+least, from outward appearances. Few among the crowds that are permitted
+free access to the yamen here do not betray, in unmistakable measure, the
+sins of former generations; while, as regards trade, half the place is in
+a ruinous, tumble-down condition.
+
+The mandarin here is a fleshy, old-fashioned individual, with thick lips
+and an expression of great good humor. He provides me with a substantial
+breakfast of rice and pork, and fetches his wife and children in to enjoy
+the exhibition of a Fankwae feeding, likewise permitting the crowd to
+look in through the doors and windows. He is a phlegmatic, easy-going
+Celestial, and occupies about two hours copying my passport and writing a
+letter. At the end of this time he musters a squad of twelve retainers in
+faded red uniforms and armed with rusty pikes, who lead the way back to
+the river, followed by three yameni-runners, equipped, as usual, each
+with an umbrella and a small string of tsin to buy their food. The
+gentlemen with the mediaeval weapons accompany us to the river and keep
+the crowd from pressing too closely upon us until I and the
+yameni-runners board a Ki shway sampan that is to convey me to the next
+down-stream city.
+
+It now becomes apparent that my bicycling experiences in China are about
+ending, and that the authorities have determined upon passing me down the
+Kan-kiang by boat to the Yang-tsi-kiang. I am to be passed on from city
+to city like a bale of merchandise, delivered and receipted for from day
+to day.
+
+A few miles down stream we overtake a fleet of some twenty war-junks,
+presenting a most novel and interesting sight, crowded as each one is
+with the gayest of flags and streaming pennants galore. The junks are
+cumbersome enough, in all conscience, as utterly useless for purposes of
+modern warfare as the same number of floating hogsheads; yet withal they
+make a gallant sight, the like of which is to be seen nowhere these days
+but on the inland waters of China. Each junk is propelled by a crew of
+fourteen oarsmen, dressed in uniforms corresponding in color to the
+triangular flags that flutter gayly in the breeze at the stern. Not the
+least interesting part of the spectacle are these same oarsmen, as they
+ply. their long unwieldy sweeps in admirable unison; the sleeves of their
+coats are almost as broad as the body of the garment, and at every sweep
+of the oar these all flap up and down together in a manner most comical
+to behold.
+
+All day long our modest little sampan keeps company with this gay fleet,
+giving me an excellent opportunity of witnessing its manoeuvres. Said
+manoeuvres and evolutions consist of more or less noisy greetings and
+demonstrations at every town and village we pass. In the case of a small
+town, a number of pikemen and officials assemble on the shore, erect a
+few flags, hammer vigorously on a resonant gong, shout out some sing-song
+greeting and shoot off a number of bombs and fire-crackers. The foremost
+vessel of the fleet replies to these noisy compliments by a salute of its
+one gun, and mayhap throws in two or three bombs, according to the
+liberality of the salutation ashore.
+
+At the larger towns the amount of gunpowder burned and noise created is
+something wonderful. Bushels of fire-crackers are snapping and rattling
+away, the while gongs are beating, bombs exploding by the score, and
+salvoes of artillery are making the mountains echo, from every vessel in
+the fleet. Beneath the walls of a town we pass soon after noon are ranged
+fifteen other junks; as the fleet passes, these vessels simultaneously
+discharge all their guns, while at the same instant there burst upon the
+startled air detonations from hundreds of bombs, big heaps of
+firecrackers, and the din of many resonant gongs. Not to be outdone, the
+fleet of twenty return the compliment in kind, and with cheers from the
+crews thrown in for interest.
+
+The fifteen now join the procession, adding volume and picturesqueness
+to the already wonderfully pretty scene, by their hundreds of
+brilliant-hued banners, and theatrically costumed oarsmen. About four
+o'clock, as we are approaching the city of Hat-kiang, our destination for
+the day, there comes to meet the gallant navy a pair of twin vessels
+surpassing all the others in the gorgeousness of their flags and the
+picturesqueness of the costumes. Purple is the prevailing color of both
+flags and crew. At their splendid appearance our yameni-runners announce
+in tones of enthusiasm and admiration that these new-comers hail from
+Lin-kiang, a large city down stream, that I fancied, it will be
+remembered, having reached at Ta-ho.
+
+The officials are still abed when, in the early morning of the third day,
+we reach Sin-kiang, and repair to the yamen. A large crowd, however,
+gather and follow us from the market-place, swelling gradually by
+reenforcements to a multitude that surges in and out of the shanty-like
+office in such swarms that the frail board walls bulge and crack with the
+pressure. When the crowd overwhelm the place entirely, the officials
+clear them out by angry gesticulations and moral suasion, sometimes
+menacingly shaking the end of their own queues at them as though they
+were wielding black-snake whips. Having driven them out, no further
+notice is taken of them, so they immediately begin swarming in again,
+until the room is again inundated, when they are again driven out.
+
+The permitting of this ebbing and flowing of the multitude into the
+official quarters is something quite incomprehensible to me; the mob is
+swayed and controlled--as far as they are controlled at all--without any
+organized effort of those in authority; when the officials commence
+screaming angrily at them they begin moving out; when the shouting ceases
+they begin swarming back. Thus in the course of an hour the room will,
+perchance, be filled and emptied with angry remonstrance half a dozen
+times, when, from our own stand-point, a couple of men stationed at the
+door with authority to keep them out would prevent all the bother and
+annoyance. Sure enough the Chinaman is "a peculiar little cuss," whether
+seen at home or abroad.
+
+If the inhabitants of Ki-shway are scrofulous, sore-eyed, and mangy, they
+are at least an improvement on the disgusting state of the public health
+at Sin-kiang, as revealed in the lamentable condition of the crowd at the
+yamen and in the markets. Scarcely is it possible to single out a human
+being of sound and healthful appearance from among them all. Everybody
+has sore eyes, some have horribly diseased scalps, sores on face and
+body, and all the horrible array of acquired and hereditary diseases.
+One's hair stands on end almost at the thought of being among them, to
+say nothing of eating in their presence, and of their own cooking. Of my
+new escort from Sin-kiang all three have dreadfully sore eyes, and one
+wretched mortal is as piebald as a circus pony, from head to foot, with
+the leprosy. Added to these recommendations, they have the manners and
+instincts of swine rather than of human beings.
+
+The same sampan is re-engaged to convey us farther down stream; beneath
+the housing of bamboo-mats, the rice-chaff leaves barely room for us to
+crowd in and huddle together from the rain and cold prevailing outside.
+The worst the elements can do, however, is far preferable to personal
+contact with these vile creatures; and so I don my blanket and gossamer
+rubbers, and sit out in the rain. The rain ceases and the chilly night
+air covers everything with a coating of hoar-frost, but all this is
+nothing compared with the horrible associations inside, the reeking fumes
+of opium and tobacco adding yet another abomination to be remembered.
+
+At early morn we land and pursue our way for a few miles across country
+to Lin-kiang, which is situated on a big tributary stream a few miles
+above its junction with the Kan-kiang. Our way loads through a rich strip
+of low country, sheltered and protected from inundations by an extensive
+system of dykes. Here we pass through orchards of orange-trees bristling
+with the small blood-red mandarin oranges; we help ourselves freely from
+the trees, for their great plenteousness makes them of very little value.
+On the stalls they can be purchased six for one cent; like the people in
+the great peanut producing country below Nam-hung, the cheapness and
+abundance of oranges here seems an inducement for the people to almost
+subsist thereon.
+
+Everybody is either buying, stealing, selling, packing, gathering,
+carrying, or eating oranges; coolies are staggering Lin-kiang-ward
+beneath big baskets of newly plucked fruit, and others are conveying them
+in wheelbarrows; boats are being loaded for conveyance along the river.
+Every orange-tree is distinguished by white characters painted on its
+trunk, big enough so that those who run may read the rightful owner's
+name and take warning accordingly.
+
+Three more wearisome but eventful days, battling against adverse winds,
+and we come to anchor in a little slough, where a war-junk and several
+fishing vessels are already moored for the night. While supper is
+preparing I pass the time promenading back and forth along a little
+foot-trail leading for a short distance round the shore. The crew of the
+war-vessel are engaged in drying freshwater shrimps, tiny minnows, and
+other drainings and rakings of the water to store away for future use.
+One of the younger officers stalks back and forth along the same path as
+myself, brusquely maintaining the road whenever we meet, evidently bent
+on showing off his contempt for the boasted prowess of the Fankwaes, by
+compelling me to step to one side. His demeanor is that of a bully
+stalking about with the traditional chip on his shoulder, daring me to
+come and knock it off. Considering the circumstances about us, this is a
+wonderfully courageous performance on his part; nothing but his ignorance
+of my Smith & Wesson can explain his temerity in assuming a bellicose
+attitude with only one man-of-war at his back. Out of consideration for
+this ignorance, I studiously avoid interfering with the chip.
+
+At length the river-voyage comes to an end at Wu-chang, on the Poyang
+Hoo, when I am permitted to proceed overland with an escort to Kui-kiang.
+
+Spending the last night at a village inn, we pursue our way over awful
+bowlder paths next morning, for several miles; over a low mountain-pass
+and down the northern slope to a level plain. A towering white pagoda is
+observable in the distance ahead; thia the yameni-runner says is
+Kui-kiang. At a little way-side tea-house, I find Christmas numbers of
+the London Graphic pasted on the walls; yet with all this, so utterly
+unreliable has my information heretofore been, and so often have my hopes
+and expectations turned out disappointing, that I am almost afraid to
+believe the evidence of my own senses. The Graphic pictures are of the
+Christmas pantomimes; the good woman of the tea-house points out to me
+the tremendous noses, the ear-to-ear mouths, and the abnormal growths of
+chin therein depicted, with much amusement; "Fankwae," she says, "te-he,
+te-he," apparently fancying them genuine representations of certain types
+of that queer, queer people.
+
+The paths improve, and soon I see the smoke of a steamer on the Yang-tsi
+than which, it is needless to say, no more welcome sight has greeted my
+vision the whole world round. Only the smoke is seen, rising above the
+city; it cannot be a steamer, it is too good to be possible! this isn't
+Kui-kiang; this is another wretched disappointment, the smoke is some
+Chinese house on fire! Not until I get near enough to distinguish flags
+on the consulates, and the crosses on the mission churches, do I permit
+myself fully to believe that I am at last actually looking at Kui-kiang,
+the city that I have begun to think a delusion and a snare, an ignis
+fatuus that was dancing away faster than I was approaching.
+
+The sight of all these unmistakable proofs that I am at last bidding
+farewell to the hardships, the horrible filth, the soul-harrowing crowds,
+the abominable paths, and the ever-present danger and want of
+consideration; that in a little while all these will be a dream of the
+past, gives wings to my wheel wherever it can be mounted, and ridden. The
+yameni-runner is left far behind, and I have already engaged a row-boat
+to cross the little lake in the rear of the city, and the boatman is
+already pulling me to the "Ying-yun," when the poor yameni-runner comes
+hurrying up and shouts frantically for me to come back and fetch him.
+
+Knowing that the man has to take back his receipt I yield to his request,
+follow him first to the Kui-kiang yamen, and from thence proceed to the
+English consulate. Captain McQuinn, of the China Steam Navigation
+Company's steamer Peking, and the consulate doctor see me riding down the
+smooth gravelled bund, followed by a crowd of delighted Celestials.
+"Hello! are you from Canton" they sing out in chorus. "Well, well, well!
+nobody expected to ever see anything of you again; and so you got through
+all safe, eh?"
+
+"What's the matter? you look bad about the eyes," says the observant
+doctor, upon shaking hands; "you look haggard and fagged out."
+
+Upon surveying myself in a mirror at the consulate I can see that the
+doctor is quite justified in his apprehensions. Hair long, face unshaved
+for five weeks, thin and gaunt-looking from daily hunger, worry, and hard
+dues generally, I look worse than a hunted greyhound. I look far worse,
+however, than I feel; a few days' rest and wholesome fare will work
+wonders.
+
+An appetizing lunch of cold duck, cheese, and Bass's ale is quickly
+provided by Mr. Everard, the consul, who seems very pleased that the
+affair at Ki-ngan-foo ended without serious injury to anybody.
+
+The Peking starts for Shanghai in an hour after my arrival; a warm bath,
+a shave, and a suit of clothes, kindly provided by pilot King, brings
+about something of a transformation in my appearance. Bountiful meals,
+clean, springy beds, and elegantly fitted cabins, form an impressive
+contrast to my life aboard the sampans on the Kan-kiang. The genii of
+Aladdin's lamp could scarcely execute any more marvellous change than
+that from my quarters and fare and surroundings at the village hittim,
+where my last night on the road from Canton was spent, and my first night
+aboard the elegant and luxurious Peking, only a day later.
+
+A pleasant run down the Yang-tsi-kiang to Shanghai, and I arrive at that
+city just twenty-four hours before the Japanese steamer, Yokohama Maru,
+sails for Nagasaki. Taking passage aboard it leaves me but one brief day
+in the important and interesting city of Shanghai, during which time I
+have to purchase a new outfit of clothes, see about money matters, and
+what not.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THROUGH JAPAN.
+
+An uneventful run of two days, and the Yokohama Maru steams into the
+beautiful harbor of Nagasaki. The change from the filth of a Chinese city
+to Nagasaki, clean as if it had all just been newly scoured and
+varnished, is something delightful. One gets a favorable impression of
+the Japs right away; much more so, doubtless, by coming direct from China
+than in any other way. Two days of preparation and looking about leaves
+almost a pang of regret at having to depart so soon. The American consul
+here, Mr. B, is a very courteous gentleman; to him and Mr. M, an American
+gentleman, instructor in the Chinese navy, I am indebted for an
+exhibition of the geisha dance, and many other courtesies.
+
+Having duly supplied myself with Japanese paper-money--ten, five, and one
+yen notes; fractional currency of fifty, twenty, and ten sen notes,
+besides copper sen for tea and fruit at road-side teahouses, on Tuesday
+morning, November 23d, I start on my journey of eight hundred miles
+through lovely Nippon to Yokohama.
+
+Captain F and Mr. B, the American consul, have come to the hotel to see
+me off. A showery night has made the roads a trifle muddy. Through the
+long, neat-looking streets of Nagasaki, into a winding road, past crowded
+hill-side cemeteries, adorned with queer stunted trees and quaint designs
+in flowers, I ride, followed by wondering eyes and a running fire of
+curious comments from the Japs.
+
+Nagasaki lies at the shoreward base of a range of hills, over a pass
+called the Himi-toge, which my road climbs immediately upon leaving the
+city. A good road is maintained over the pass, and an office established
+there to collect toll from travellers and people bringing produce into
+Nagasaki. The aged and polite toll-collector smiles and bows at me as I
+trundle innocently past his sentry-box-like office up the steep incline,
+hoping that I may take the hint and spare him the necessity of telling me
+the nature of his duty. My inexperience of Japanese tolls and roads,
+however, renders his politeness inoperative, and, after allowing me to
+get past, duty compels him to issue forth and explain. A wooden ticket
+containing Japanese characters is given me in exchange for a few tiny
+coins. This I fancy to be a passport for another toll-place higher up.
+Subsequently, however, I learn it to be a return ticket, the old
+toll-keeper very naturally thinking I would return, by and by, to
+Nagasaki.
+
+Ponies and buffaloes, laden with baskets of rice, fodder, firewood, and
+various agricultural products, are encountered on the pass, in charge of
+Japanese rustics in broad bamboo-hats, red blankets, bare legs, and straw
+sandals, who lead their charges by long halter-ropes. Both horses and
+buffaloes are shod with shoes of the same unsubstantial material as the
+men. When the Japanese traveller sets out on a journey, he provides
+himself with a new pair of straw sandals; these last him for a tramp of
+from ten to twenty miles, according to the nature of the road. When worn
+out, his foot-gear may be readily renewed at any village for a mere song.
+The same may be said of his horse or buffalo, although several extra
+shoes are generally carried along in case of need.
+
+The summit of the pass is distinguished by a very deep cutting through
+the ridge rock of the mountain, and a series of successive sharp turns
+back and forth along narrow-terraced gardens and fields bring the road
+down into the valley of a clear little stream, called the Himi-gawa.
+Smooth, hard roads follow along this purling rivulet, now and then
+crossing it on a stone or wooden bridge. A small estuary, reaching inland
+like a big bite out of a cake, is passed, and the pretty little village
+of Yagami reached for dinner. The eating-house, like nearly all Japanese
+eating-places, is neat and cleanly, the brown wood-work being fairly
+polished bright from floor to ceiling.
+
+Sitting down on the edge of the raised floor, I am approached by the
+landlady, who kneels down and bows her forehead to the floor. Her
+politeness is very charming, and her smile would no doubt be more or less
+winsome were it not for the hideous blackening of the teeth. Blackened
+teeth is the distinguishing mark between maid and matron in the flowery
+kingdom of the Mikados. The teeth are stained black at marriage, and
+henceforth a smile that heretofore displayed rows of small white ivories,
+and perchance was fairly bewitching, becomes positively repulsive to the
+Western mind.
+
+Fish and rice (sakana and meshi) are the most readily obtainable things
+to eat at a Japanese hotel, and often form the only bill of fare. Sake,
+or rice-beer, is usually included in the Jap's own meal, but the average
+European traveller at first prefers limiting his beverage to tea. The
+sake is served up in big-necked bottles of cheap porcelain holding about
+a pint. The bottle is set for a few minutes in boiling water to warm the
+sake, the Japs preferring to drink it warm. Sake is more like spirits
+than beer, an honest alcoholic production from rice that soon recommends
+itself to the European palate, though rather offensive at first.
+
+Every tea-house along the road is made doubly attractive by prettily
+dressed attendants-smiling girls who come out and invite passing
+travellers to rest and buy tea and refreshments. Their solicitations are
+chiefly winsome smiles and polite bows and the cheerful greeting "O-ai-o"
+(the Japanese "how do you do"). A tiny teapot, no larger than those the
+little girls at home play at "keeping house" with, and shell-like cup to
+match, is brought on a lacquered tray and placed before one, with
+charming grace, if a halt is made at one of these tea-houses. Persimmons,
+sweets, cakes, and various tid-bits are temptingly arrayed on the sloping
+stand in front. The most trifling purchase is rewarded with an exhibition
+of good-nature and politeness worth many times the money.
+
+About sunset I roll into the smooth, clean streets of Omura, a good-sized
+town, and seek the accommodation of a charming yadoya (inn) pointed out
+by a youth in semi-European clothes, who seems bubbling over with
+pleasure at the opportunity of rendering me this slight assistance. A
+room is assigned me upstairs, a mat spread for me to recline on, by a
+polite damsel, who touches her forehead to the floor both when she makes
+her appearance and her exit. Having got me comfortably settled down with
+the customary service of tea, sweets, little boxed brazier of live
+charcoal, spittoon, etc., the proprietor, his wife, and daughter, all
+come up and prostrate themselves after the most approved fashion.
+
+After all the salaaming and deferentiality experienced in other Eastern
+countries, one still cannot help being impressed with the spectacle of
+several grotesque Japs bowing before one's seated figure like Hindoos
+prostrating themselves before some idol With any other people than the
+Japs this lowly attitude would seem offensively servile; but these
+inimitable people leave not the slightest room for thinking their actions
+obsequious. The Japs are a wonderful race; they seem to be the happiest
+people going, always smiling and good-natured, always polite and gentle,
+always bowing and scraping.
+
+After a bountiful supper of several fishy preparations and rice, the
+landlord bobs his head to the floor, sucks his breath through the teeth
+after the peculiar manner of the Japs when desirous of being excessively
+polite, and extends his hands for my passport. This the yadoya proprietor
+is required to take and have examined at the police station, provided no
+policeman calls for it at the house.
+
+The Japanese Government, in its efforts to improve the institutions of
+the country, has introduced systems of reform from various countries.
+Commissions were sent to the different Western countries to examine and
+report upon the methods of education, police, army, navy, postal matters,
+judiciary, etc. What was believed to be the best of the various systems
+was then selected as the model of Japan's new departure and adoption of
+Western civilization. Thus the police service is modelled from the
+French, the judiciary from the English, the schools after the American
+methods, etc. Having inaugurated these improvements, the Japs seem
+determined to follow their models with the same minute scrupulosity they
+exhibit in copying material things. There is probably as little use for
+elaborate police regulations in Japan as in any country under the sun;
+but having chosen the splendid police service of France to pattern by,
+they can now boast of having a service that lacks nothing in
+effectiveness.
+
+A very good road, with an avenue of fine spreading conifers of some kind,
+leads out of Omura. To the left is the bay of Omura, closely skirted at
+times by the road. At one place is observed an inland temple, connected
+with the mainland by a causeway of rough rock. The little island is
+covered with dark pines and jagged rocks, amid which the Japs have
+perched their shrine and erected a temple. Both the Chinese and Japs seem
+fond of selecting the most romantic spots for their worship and the
+erection of religious edifices.
+
+The day is warm, and a heavy shower during the night has made the road
+heavy in places, although much of it is clean gravel that is not injured
+by the rain. Over hill and down dale the ku-ruma road leads to Ureshino,
+a place celebrated for its mineral springs and bath. On the way one
+passes through charming little ravines, where tiny cataracts come
+tumbling down the sides of moss-grown precipices, a country of pretty
+thatched cottages, temples, groves, and purling rivulets.
+
+On the streams are numerous rice-hulling machines, operated by the
+ingenious manipulation of the water. In a little hut is a mortar
+containing the rice. Attached to a pivot is a long beam having a pestle
+at one end and a trough at the other. The pestle is made to fall upon the
+rice in the mortar by the filling and automatic emptying of the trough
+outside. The trough, filling with water, drops down and empties of its
+own weight; this causes the opposite end to fall suddenly. This operation
+repeats itself about every two seconds through the day.
+
+The gravelly hills about Ureshino are devoted to the cultivation of tea;
+the green tea-gardens, with the undulating, even rows of thick shrubs,
+looking very beautiful where they slope to the foot of the bare rocky
+cliffs. Ureshino and the baths are some little distance off the main road
+to Shimonoseki; so, not caring particularly to go there, I continue on to
+the village of Takio, where rainy weather compels a halt of several
+hours. Everything is so delightfully superior, as compared with China,
+that the Japanese village yadoya seems a veritable paradise during these
+first days of my acquaintance with them. Life at a Chinese village hittim
+for a week would well-nigh unseat the average Anglo-Saxon's reason,
+whereas he might spend the same time very pleasantly in a Japanese
+country inn. The region immediately around Takio is not only naturally
+lovely, but is embellished by little artificial lakes, islands, grottoes,
+and various landscape novelties such as the Japs alone excel in.
+
+An eight-wire telegraph line threads the road from Takio to Ushidzu,
+passing through numerous villages that almost form a continuous street
+from one town to the other. As one notices such improvements, and sees
+the police and telegraph officials in trim European uniforms seated in
+their neat offices, an American clock invariably on the wall within, and,
+moreover, notes the uniform friendliness of the people, it is difficult
+to imagine that thirty years ago one would have been in more danger
+travelling through here than through China. Passing through the main
+streets of Ushidzu in search of the best yadoya, I am accosted by a
+middle-aged woman with, "Hello! you wanchee room? wanchee chow-chow." Her
+mother keeps a yadoya, she tells me, and leads the way thither, chatting
+gayly in pidgeon English, all the way. She seems very pleased at the
+opportunity to exercise her little stock of broken English, and tells me
+she learned it at Shanghai, where she once resided for a couple of years
+in an English family. Her name, she says, is O-hanna, but her English
+friends used to call her Hannah, without the prefix. Understanding from
+experience what I would be most likely to appreciate for supper, she
+rustles around and prepares a nice fish, plenty of Ureshino tea, sugar,
+sweet-cakes, and sliced pomolo; this, together with rice, is the extent
+of Ushidzu's present gastronomic limits.
+
+The following morning opens with a white frost, the road is level and
+good, and the yadoya people see that I am provided with a substantial
+breakfast in good season. My boots, I find, have been cleaned even. They
+were cleaned with a rag, O-hanna apologizing for the absence of
+shoe-brushes and blacking in pidgeon English: "Brush no have got."
+
+In striking contrast to China, here are gangs of "cantonniers" taking
+care of the road; men in regular blue uniforms with big white
+"bull's-eyes," and characters like our Celestial friends the
+yameni-runners. Troops of school-children are passed on the road going to
+school with books and tally-boards under their arm. They sometimes range
+themselves in rows alongside the road, and, as I wheel past, bob their
+heads simultaneously down to the level of their knees and greet me with a
+polite "O-ai-o."
+
+The country hereabout is rich and populous, and the people seemingly
+well-to-do. The tea-houses, farm-houses, and even the little ricks of
+rice seem built with an eye to artistic effect. One sees here the gradual
+encroachment of Western mechanical improvements. The first two-handled
+plough I have seen since leaving Europe is encountered this morning; but
+alongside it are men using the clumsy Japanese digging-tool of their
+ancestors, and both men and women stripped to the waist, hulling rice by
+pounding it in mortars with long-headed pestles. It is merely a question
+of a few years, however, until the intelligent Japs will discard all
+their old clumsy methods and introduce the latest agricultural
+improvements of the West into their country. Passing through a mile or
+more of Saga's smooth and continuously ridable streets, past big
+school-houses where hundreds of children are reciting aloud in chorus,
+past the big bronze Buddha for which Saga is locally famous, the road
+continues through a somewhat undulating country, ridable, generally
+speaking, the whole way. Long cedar or cryptomerian avenues sometimes
+characterize the way. Strings of peasants are encountered, leading
+pack-ponies and bullocks. The former seem to be vicious little wretches,
+rather masters, on the whole, than servants of their leaders.
+
+The Japanese horse objects to a tight girth, objects to being overloaded,
+and to various other indignities that his relations of other countries
+meekly endure. To suit his fastidious requirements he is allowed to
+meander carelessly along at the end of a twenty-foot string, and he is
+decorated all over with gay and fanciful trappings. A very peculiar trait
+of his character is that of showing fight at anything he doesn't like the
+looks of, instead of scaring at it after the orthodox method of
+horse-flesh in other countries. This peculiarity sometimes makes it
+extremely interesting for myself. Their usual manner of taking exception
+to me and the bicycle is to rear up on the hind feet and squeal and paw
+the air, at the same time evincing a disposition to come on and chew me
+up. This necessitates continual wariness on my part when passing a
+company of peasants, for the men never seem to think it worth while to
+restrain their horses until the actions of the latter render it
+absolutely necessary.
+
+Jinrikishas now become quite frequent, pulled by sturdy-limbed men, who,
+naked almost as the day they were born, trot along between the shafts of
+their two-wheeled vehicles at the rate of six miles an hour. Men also are
+met pulling heavy hand-carts, loaded with tiles, from country factories
+to the city. Most of the heaviest labor seems to be performed by human
+beings, though not to the same extent as in China.
+
+In every town and village one is struck with the various imitations of
+European goods. Ludicrous mistakes are everywhere met with, where this
+serio-comical people have attempted to imitate name, trade-mark, and
+everything complete. In one portion of the eating-house where lunch is
+obtained to-day are a number of umbrella-makers manufacturing gingham
+umbrellas; on every umbrella is stamped the firm-name "John Douglas,
+Manchester." Cigarettes, nicely made and equal in every respect to those
+of other countries, are boldly labelled "cigars:" thus do these curious
+imitators make mistakes. Had Shakespeare seen the Japs one could better
+understand his "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely
+players;" for most other nations life is a serious enough problem, the
+Japs alone seem to be merely "playing at making a livelihood." They
+always impress me as happy-go-lucky harlequins, to whom this whole
+business of coming into the world and getting a living for a few years is
+nothing more nor less than a huge joke.
+
+The happiest state of affairs seems to exist among all classes and
+conditions of people in Japan. One passes school-houses and sees the
+classes out on the well-kept grounds, going through various exercises,
+such as one would never expect to see in the East. To-day I pause a while
+before the public-school in Nakabairu, watching the interesting exercises
+going on. Under the supervision of teachers in black frock-coats and
+Derby hats, a class of girls are ranged in two rows, throwing and
+catching pillows, altogether back and forth at the word of command.
+Classes of boys are manipulating wooden dumb-bells and exercising their
+muscles by various systematic exercises. The youngsters are enjoying it
+hugely, and the whole affair looks so thoroughly suggestive of the best
+elements of Occidental school-life that it is difficult to believe the
+evidence of one's own eyes. I suspect the Japanese children are about the
+only children in the wide, wide world who really enjoy studying their
+lessons and going to school. One of the teachers comes to the gate and
+greets me with a polite bow. I address him in English, but he doesn't
+know a word.
+
+The wooden houses of Japan seem frail and temporary, but they look new
+and bright mostly in the country. The government buildings,
+police-offices, post-offices, schools, etc., all look new and bright and
+artistic, as though but lately finished. The roads, too, are sometimes
+laid out straight and trim, suggestive of an attempt to imitate the roads
+of France; then, again, one traverses for miles the counterpart of the
+green lanes of Merrie England--narrow, winding, and romantic. The Japanese
+roads are mainly about ten or twelve feet wide, giving ample room for two
+jinrikishas to pass, these being the only wheeled vehicles on the roads.
+Rustic bridges frequently span lovely little babbling brooks, and
+waterfalls abound this afternoon as I approach, at early eve, Futshishi.
+Rain necessitates a lay-over of a day at Futshishi, but there is nothing
+unendurable about it; the proprietor of the house is a blind man, who
+plays the samosan, and makes the girls sing and dance the geisha for my
+edification. Beef and chicken are both forthcoming at Futshishi, and the
+fish, as in almost all Japanese towns, are very excellent.
+
+The weather opens clear and frosty after the rain, and the road to
+Fukuoko is most excellent wheeling; the country continues charming, and
+every day the people seem to get more and more polite and agreeable. A
+novel sight of the morning's ride is a big gang of convicts working the
+roads. They are fastened together with light chains, wear neat brown
+uniforms, and seem to regard the unconvicted world of humans outside
+their own company with an expression of apology. To look in their
+serio-comic faces it is difficult to imagine them capable of doing
+anything wrong, except in fun: they look, in fact, as if their being
+chained together and closely attended by guards was of itself anything
+but a serious affair.
+
+Cavalry officers, small, smart-looking, and soldierly, in yellow-braided
+uniforms, are seen in Fukuoko, looking as un-Asiatic in make-up as the
+schools, policemen, and telegraph-operators. A collision with a
+jinrikisha that treats me to a header, and another with a diminutive Jap,
+that bowls him over like a ninepin, and a third with a bobtailed cat,
+that damages nothing but pussy's dignity, enter into my reminiscences of
+Fukuoko. The numbers of jinrikishas, and the peculiar habits of the
+people, necessitate lynx-eyed vigilance to prevent collisions every hour
+of the day. The average Jap leaves the door of a house backward, and bows
+and scrapes his way clear out into the middle of the street, in bidding
+adieu to the friends he has been calling upon, or even the shopkeeper he
+has been patronizing. Scarcely a village is passed through but some
+person waltzes backward out of a door and right in front of the bicycle.
+
+A curious sight one frequently sees along the road is an acre or two of
+ground covered with paper parasols, set out in the sun to dry after being
+pasted, glued, and painted ready for market. Umbrellas and paper lanterns
+are as much a part of the Japanese traveller's outfit as his clothes.
+These latter, nowadays, are sometimes a very grotesque mixture of native
+and European costume. The craze for foreign innovations pervades all
+ranks of society, and every village dandy aspires to some article of
+European clothing. The result is that one frequently encounters men on
+the road wearing a Derby hat, a red blanket, tight-fitting white drawers,
+and straw sandals. The villager who sports a European hat or coat comes
+around to my yadoya, wearing an amusing expression of self-satisfaction,
+as though filled with an inward consciousness of inv approval of the
+same. Whereas, every European traveller deprecates the change from their
+native costume to our own.
+
+Following for some distance along the bank of a large canal I reach the
+village of Hakama for the night. The yadoya here is simply spotless from
+top to bottom; however the Japanese hotel-keeper manages to transact
+business and preserve such immaculate apartments is more of a puzzle
+every day. The regulation custom at a yadoya is for the newly arrived
+guest to take a scalding hot bath, and then squat beside a little brazier
+of coals, and smoke and chat till supper-time. The Japanese are more
+addicted to hot-water bathing than the people of any other country. They
+souse themselves in water that has been heated to 140 deg. Fahr., a
+temperature that is quite unbearable to the "Ingurisu-zin" or
+"Amerika-zin" until he becomes gradually hardened and accustomed to it.
+Both men and women bathe regularly in hot water every evening. The Japs
+have not yet imbibed any great quantity of mauvaise honte from their
+association with Europeans, so the sexes frequent the bath-tub
+indiscriminately, taking no more notice of one another than if they were
+all little children. "Venus disporting in the waves"--of a bath-tub--is a
+regular feature of life at a Japanese inn. Nor can they quite understand
+why the European tourist should object to the proprietor, his wife and
+children, chambermaids, tea-girls, guests and visitors crowding around to
+see him undress and waltz into the tub. Bless their innocent Japanese
+souls! why should he object. They are only attracted out of curiosity to
+see the whiteness of his skin, to note his peculiar manner of undressing,
+and to satisfy a general inquisitiveness concerning his corporeal
+possibilities. They have no squeamishness whatever about his watching
+their own natatorial duties; why, then, should he shrink within himself
+and wave them off?
+
+The regular hotel meals consist of rice, fish in various forms, little
+slices of crisp, raw turnip, pickles, and a catsup-like sauce. Meat is
+rarely forthcoming, unless specially ordered, when, of course, extra
+charges are made; sake also has to be purchased separately. After supper
+one is supplied with a teapot of tea and a brazier of coals.
+
+Passing the following night at Hakama, I pull out next morning for
+Shimonoseki. Traversing for some miles a hilly country, covered with
+pine-forest, my road brings me into Ashiyah, situated on a small estuary.
+Here, at Ashiyah, I indulge in nay first simon-pure Japanese shave,
+patronizing the village barber while dodging a passing shower. The
+Japanese tonsorial artist shaves without the aid of soap, merely wetting
+the face by dipping his fingers in a bowl of warm water. During the
+operation of shaving he hones the razor frequently on an oil-stone. He
+shaves the entire face and neck, not omitting even the lobes of the ear,
+the forehead, and nose. If the European traveller didn't keep his senses
+about him, while in the barber-chair of a Japanese village, he would find
+himself with every particle of fuzz scraped off his face and neck, save,
+of course, his regular whiskers or mustache, and with eye-brows
+considerably curtailed.
+
+From Ashiyah my road follows up alongside a small tidal canal to
+Hakamatsu, traversing a lowland country, devoted entirely to the
+cultivation of rice. Scores of coal-barges are floating along the canal,
+propelled solely by the flowing of the tide. I can imagine them floating
+along until the tide changes, then tying up and waiting patiently until
+it ebbs and flows again; from long experience they, no doubt, have come
+to calculate upon one, two, or three tides, as the case may be, floating
+their barges up to certain landings or villages.
+
+The streets of Hakamatsu present a lively and picturesque scene, swarming
+with country people in the gayest of costumes; the stalls are fairly
+groaning beneath big piles of tempting eatables, toys, clothing,
+lanterns, tissue-paper flowers, and every imaginable Japanese thing.
+Street-men are attracting small crowds about them by displaying
+curiosities. One old fellow I pause awhile to look at is selling tiny
+rolls of colored paper which, when cast into a bowl of water, unfold into
+flowers, boats, houses, birds, or animals. In explanation of the
+holiday-making, a young man in a custom-house uniform, who knows a few
+words of English, explains "Japan God "-it is some religious festival
+these smiling, chatting, bowing, and comical-looking crowds are keeping
+with such evident relish.
+
+Prom Hakamatsu to Kokura the country is hilly and broken; from Kokura one
+can look across the narrow strait and see Shimonoseki, on the mainland of
+Japan. Thus far we have been traversing the island of Kiu-shiu, separated
+from the main island by a strait but a few hundred yards wide at
+Shimonoseki. From Kokura the jinrikisha road leads a couple of ri farther
+to Dairi; thence footpaths traverse hills and wax-tree groves for another
+two miles (a ri is something over two English miles) to the village of
+Moji. Here I obtain passage on a little ferry-boat across to Shimonoseki,
+arriving there about two o'clock in the afternoon.
+
+A twenty-four hours' halt is made at Shimonoseki in deference to rainy
+weather. The landlady of the yadoya understands enough about European
+cookery to prepare me a very decent beefsteak and a pot of coffee.
+Shimonoseki is full of European goods, and clever imitations of the same;
+a stroll of an hour through the streets reveals the extent of the Japs'
+appreciation of foreign things. Every other shop, almost, seems devoted
+to the goods that come from other countries, or their counterfeits. Not
+content with merely copying an imported article, the Japanese artisan
+generally endeavors to make some improvement on the original. For
+instance, after making an exact imitation of a petroleum-lamp, the Jap
+workman constructs a neat little lacquer cabinet to set it in when not in
+use. The coffee-pot in which the coffee served at my yadoya is prepared
+is an ingenious contrivance with three chambers, evidently a reproduction
+of Yankee ingenuity.
+
+A big Shinto temple occupies the crest of a little hill near by, and
+flights of stone steps lead up to the entrance. At the foot of the steps,
+and repeated at several stages up the slope, are the peculiar torii, or
+"bird-perches," that form the distinctive mark of a Shinto temple.
+Numerous shrines occupy the court-yard of the temple; the shrines are
+built of wood mostly, and contain representations of the various gods to
+whose particular worship they are dedicated. Before each shrine is a
+barred receptacle for coins. The Japanese devotee poses for a minute
+before the shrine, bowing his head and smiting together the palms of his
+hands; he then tosses a diminutive coin or two into the barred treasury,
+and passes on round to the next shrine he wishes to pay his respects to.
+In the main building are numerous pictures, bows, arrows, swords, and
+various articles, evidently votive offerings. The shrine of the deity
+that presides over the destiny of fishermen is distinguished by a huge
+silver-paper fish and numerous three-pronged fish-spears. Among other
+queer objects whose meaning defies the penetration of the traveller
+unversed in Japanese mythology is a monstrous human face, with a nose at
+least three feet long, and altogether out of proportion.
+
+Strolling about to while away a rainy forenoon I pass big school-houses
+full of children reciting aloud. Their wooden clogs and paper umbrellas
+are stowed away in racks, provided for the purpose, at the door. The
+cheerfulness with which they shout out their exercises proves plainly
+enough that they are only keeping "make-believe" school. Female vegetable
+and fruit venders, neat and comely as Normandy dairy-maids, are walking
+about chatting and smiling and bowing, "playing at selling vegetables."
+While I pause a moment to inspect the stock of a curio-dealer, the
+proprietor, seated over a brazier of coals, smoking, bows politely and
+points, with a chuckle of amusement, at the fierce-looking effigy of a
+daimio in armor. There is not the slightest hint of a mercenary thought
+about his actions; plainly enough, he hasn't the remotest wish to sell me
+anything--he merely wants to call my attention to the grotesqueness of
+this particular figure. He is only playing curio-dealer; he doesn't try
+to sell anything, but would do so out of the abundance of his good-nature
+if requested to, no doubt. A pair of little old-fashioned fire-engines
+repose carelessly against the side of a municipal building. They have
+grown tired of playing at extinguishing fires and have thrown aside their
+toys. I wander to the water-front and try to locate my hotel from that
+point of observation. Watermen are lounging about in wistaria waterproof
+coats. They want me to ride to my destination in one of their boats, very
+evidently, from their manner, only for the fun of the thing. Everybody is
+smiling and urbane, nobody looks serious; no careworn faces are seen, no
+pinched poverty. Wonderful people! they come nearer solving the problem
+of living happily than any other nation. Even the professional mendicants
+seem to be amused at their own poverty, as if life to them was a mere
+humorous experiment, scarcely deserving of a serious thought.
+
+The weather clears up at noon, and in the face of a strong northern
+breeze I bid farewell to Shimonoseki.
+
+The road follows for some miles along the shore, a smooth, level road
+that winds about the bases of the hills that here slope down to toy and
+dally with the restless surf of the famous Inland Sea. Following the
+shore in a general sense, the road now and then leads inland for a mile
+or two, for the purpose of linking together the numerous towns and
+villages that dot the little alluvial valleys between the hills. Passing
+through one large village, my attention is attracted by the sign "English
+Books," over a book-shop. Desirous of purchasing some kind of a guide for
+the road to Kobe, I enter the establishment, expecting at least to find
+some one capable of understanding English. The young man in charge knows
+never a word of English, and his stock of "English books" consists of
+primers, spelling-books, etc., for the use of school-children.
+
+The architecture of the villages above Shimonoseki is strikingly
+artistic. The quaint gabled houses are painted a snowy white, and are
+roofed with brown glazed tiles of curious pattern, also rimmed with
+white. About the houses are hedges grotesquely clipped and trained in
+imitation of storks, animals, or fishes, miniature orange and persimmon
+trees, pretty flower-gardens and little landscape vanities peculiar to
+the Japanese. Circling around through little valleys, over small
+promontories and along smooth, gravelly stretches of sea-shore road, for
+thirty miles, brings me to anchor for the night in a good-sized village.
+
+Among my visitors for the evening is a young gentleman arrayed in shiny
+top-boots, tight-fitting corduroy trousers, and jockey cap. In his
+general make-up he is the "horsiest" individual I have seen for many a
+day. One could readily imagine him to be a professional jockey. The
+probability is, however, that he has never mounted a horse in his life.
+In all likelihood he has become infatuated with this style of Western
+clothes from studying a copy of the London Graphic, has gone to great
+trouble and expense to procure the garments from Yokohama, and now
+blossoms forth upon the dazed provincials of his native town in a make-up
+that stamps him as the swellest of the swell He affects great interest in
+the bicycle--much more so than the average Jap--from which I infer
+that he has actually imbibed certain notions of Western sport, and is
+desirous of posing before his uninitiated and, consequently,
+unappreciative, countrymen, as an exponent of athletics. Altogether the
+horsey young gentleman is the most startling representative of "New
+Japan" I have yet encountered.
+
+A cold drizzle ushers in the commencement of my next day's journey. One
+is loath to exchange the neat yadoya, with everything within so spotless
+and so pleasant, the tiny garden, not over ten yards square, but
+containing a miniature lake, grottos, quaint stone lanterns, bronze
+storks, flowers, and stunted trees, for the road. Disagreeable weather
+has followed me, however, from Nagasaki like an avenging Fate, bent on
+preventing the consummation of my tour from being too agreeable. Even
+with rain and mud and consequent delays my first few days in Japan have
+seemed a very paradise after my Chinese experiences; what, then, would
+have been my impressions of country and people amid sunshine and
+favorable conditions of weather and road, when the novelty of it all
+first burst upon my Chinese-disgusted senses?
+
+The country round about is mountainous, snow lying upon the summits of a
+few of the higher peaks. The road, though hilly at times, manages to
+twist and wind its way along from one little valley to another without
+any very long hills. Peasants from the mountains are met with, leading
+ponies loaded with firewood and rice. Their old Japanese aboriginal
+costumes of wistaria raincoats, broad bamboo-hats, and rude straw-sandals
+make a conspicuous contrast to their countrymen of "New Japan," in Derby
+hats or jockey suits. Notwithstanding the rapid Europeanizing of the
+city-bred Japs, the government's progressive policy, the blue-coated
+gendarmerie, and the general revolutionizing of the country at large,
+many a day will come and go ere these mountaineers forsake the ways and
+methods and grotesque costumes of their ancestors. For decades Japan will
+present an interesting study of mountaineer conservatism and
+ultra-liberal city life. One party will be wearing foreign clothes, aping
+foreign manners, adopting foreign ways of doing everything; the other
+will be clinging tenaciously to the wistaria garments, bamboo sieve-hats,
+straw-sandals, and the traditions of "Old Japan."
+
+Most farm-houses are now thatched with straw; one need hardly add that
+they are prettily and neatly thatched, and that they are embellished by
+various unique contrivances. Some of them, I notice, are surrounded by a
+broad, thick hedge of dark-green shrubbery. The hedge is trimmed so that
+the upper edge appears to be a continuation of the brown thatch, which
+merely changes its color and slopes at the same steep gradient to the
+ground. This device produces a very charming effect, particularly when a
+few neatly trimmed young pines soar above the hedge like green sentinels
+about the dwelling. One inimitable piece of "botanical architecture"
+observed to-day is a thick shrub trimmed into an imitation of a mountain,
+with trees growing on the slopes, and a temple standing in a grove.
+Before many of the houses one sees curious tree-roots or rocks, that have
+been brought many a mile down from the mountains, and preserved on
+account of some fanciful resemblance to bird, reptile, or animal.
+Artificial lakes, islands, waterfalls, bridges, temples, and groves
+abound; and at occasional intervals a large figure of the Buddha squats
+serenely on a pedestal, smiling in happy contemplation of the peace,
+happiness, prosperity, and beauty of everything and everybody around.
+Happy people! happy country. Are the Japs acting wisely or are they
+acting foolishly in permitting European notions of life to creep in and
+revolutionize it all. Who can tell. Time alone will prove. They will get
+richer, more powerful, and more enterprising, because of the necessity of
+waking themselves up to keep abreast of the times; but wealth and power,
+and the buzz and rattle of machinery and commerce do not always mean
+happiness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE HOME STRETCH.
+
+During the afternoon the narrow kuruma road merges into a broad, newly
+made macadam, as fine a piece of road as I have seen the whole world
+round. Wonderful work has been done in grading it from the low-lying
+rice-fields, up, up, up, by the most gentle and even gradient, to where
+it seemingly terminates, far ahead between high rocky cliffs. The picture
+of charming houses and beautiful terraced gardens climbing to the very
+upper stories of the mountains here beggars description; one no longer
+marvels at what he has seen in the way of terraced mountains in China.
+
+New sensations of astonishment await me as the upper portion of the
+smooth boulevard is reached, and I find myself at the entrance to a
+tunnel about five hundred yards long and thirty feet wide. The tunnel is
+lit up by means of big reflectors in the middle, shining through the
+gloom as one enters, like locomotive headlights. It is difficult to
+imagine the Japs going to all this trouble and expense for mere
+jinrikisha and pedestrian travel; yet such is the case, for no other
+vehicular traffic exists in the country. It is the only country in which
+I have found a tunnel constructed for the ordinary roadway, although
+there may be similar improvements that have not happened to come to my
+notice or ear. One would at least expect to find a toll-keeper in such a
+place, especially as a person has to be employed to maintain the lights,
+but there is nothing of the kind.
+
+A few miles beyond the tunnel the broad road terminates in a good-sized
+seaport, whence I encounter some little difficulty in finding my way
+along zigzag field-paths to my proper road for the north. The rain has
+fallen at intervals throughout the day, but the roads have averaged good.
+Fifty miles, or thereabout, must have been reeled off when, at early
+eventide, I pull up at a village ya-doya. Before settling myself down,
+for rest and supper, I take a stroll through the village in quest of
+possible interesting things. Not far from the yadoya my attention is
+arrested by a prominent sign, in italics, "uropean eating, Kameya hous."
+Entertaining happy visions of beefsteak and Bass's ale for supper, I
+enter the establishment and ask the young man in charge whether the place
+is an hotel. He smiles, bows, and intimates his woeful ignorance of what
+I am saying.
+
+The following morning is frosty, and low, scudding clouds denote
+unsettled weather, as I resume my journey. Much of the time my road
+practically follows the shore, and sometimes simply follows the windings
+and curvatures of the gravelly beach. Most of the low land near the shore
+appears to be reclaimed from the sea--low, flat-looking mud-fields,
+protected from overflow by miles and miles of stout dikes and rock-ribbed
+walls. Fishing villages abound along the shore, and for long distances a
+recent typhoon has driven the sea inland and washed away the road.
+Thousands of men and women are engaged in repairing the damages with the
+abundance of material ready to hand on the sloping granite-shale hills
+around the foot of which the roadway winds.
+
+Fish are cheaper and more plentiful here than anything else, and the old
+dame at the yadoya of a fishing village cooks me a big skate for supper,
+which makes first-rate eating, in spite of the black, malodorous sauce
+she uses so liberally in the cooking.
+
+In this room is a wonderful brass-bound cabinet, suggestive of
+soul-satisfying household idols and comfortable private worship. During
+the evening I venture to open and take a peep in this cabinet to satisfy
+a pardonable curiosity as to its contents. My trespass reveals a little
+wax idol seated amid a wealth of cheap tinsel ornaments, and bits of
+inscribed paper. Before him sets an offering of rice, sake, and dried
+fish in tiny porcelain bowls.
+
+Clear and frosty opens the following morning; the road is good, the
+country gradually improves, and by nine o'clock I am engaged in looking
+at the military exercises of troops quartered in the populous city of
+Hiroshima. The exercises are conducted within a large square, enclosed
+with a low bank of earth and a ditch. Crowds of curious civilians are
+watching the efforts of raw cavalry recruits to ride stout little horses,
+that buck, kick, bite, and paw the air. Every time a soldier gets thrown
+the on-lookers chuckle with delight. Both men and horses are undersized,
+but look stocky and serviceable withal. The uniform of the cavalry is
+blue, with yellow trimmings. The artillery looks trim and efficient, and
+the horses, although rather small, are powerful and wiry, just the horses
+one would select for the rough work of a campaign.
+
+North of Hiroshima the country assumes a hilly character, the road
+following up one mountain-stream and down another. In this mountainous
+region one meets mail-carriers, the counterpart almost of the
+fleet-footed postmen of Bengal. The Japanese postman improves upon nature
+by the addition of a waist-cloth and a scant shirt of white and blue
+cotton check; his letter-pouch is fastened to a bamboo-staff; as he
+bounds along with springy stride he warns people to clear the way by
+shouting in a musical voice, "Honk, honk." This cry resembles in a very
+striking degree the utterances of an old veteran brant, or wild-goose,
+when speeding northward in the spring to escape a warm wave from the
+south.
+
+Among these mountains one is filled with amazement at the tremendous work
+the industrious Japs have done to secure a few acres of cultivable land.
+Dikes have been thrown up to narrow the channels of the streams, so that
+the remaining width of the bed may be converted into fields and gardens.
+The streams have been literally turned out of their beds for the sake of
+a few acres of alluvial soil. Among the mountains, chiefly between the
+mountains and the shore, are level areas of a few square miles,
+supporting a population that seems largely out of proportion to the size
+of the land. Many of these sea-shore people however, get their livelihood
+from the blue waters of the Inland Sea; fish sharing the honors with rice
+in being the staple food of provincial Japan.
+
+The weather changes to quite a disagreeable degree of cold by the time I
+reach the end of to-day's ride. This introduces me promptly into the
+mysteries of how the Japanese manage to keep themselves warm in their
+flimsy houses of wooden ribs and semi-transparent paper in cold weather.
+An opening in the floor accommodates a brazier of coals; over this stands
+an open wood-work frame; quilts covered over the frame retain the heat.
+The modus operandi of keeping warm is to insert the body beneath this
+frame, wrapping the covering about the shoulders, snugly, to prevent the
+escape of the warm air within. The advantage of this unique arrangement
+is that the head can be kept cool, while, if desirable, the body can be
+subjected to a regular hot-air bath.
+
+The following day is chilly and raw, with occasional skits of snow.
+People are humped up and blue-nosed, and seemingly miserable. Yet,
+withal, they seem to be only humorously miserable, and not by any means
+seriously displeased with the rawness and the snow. Straw wind-breaks are
+set up on the windward side of the tea-houses, and there is much stopping
+among pedestrians to gather around the tea-house braziers and gossip and
+smoke.
+
+Everybody in Japan smokes, both men and women. The universal pipe of the
+country is a small brass tube about six inches long, with the end turned
+up and widened to form the bowl. This bowl holds the merest pinch of
+tobacco; a couple of whiffs, a smart rap on the edge of the brazier to
+knock out the residue, and the pipe is filled again and again, until the
+smoker feels satisfied. The girls that wait on one at the yadoyas and
+tea-houses carry their tobacco in the capacious sleeve-pockets of their
+dress, and their pipes sometimes thrust in the sash or girdle, and
+sometimes stuck in the back of the hair.
+
+Many of the Buddhas presiding over the cross-roads and village entrances
+along my route to-day are provided with calico bibs, the object of which
+it is impossible for me to determine, owing to my ignorance of the
+vernacular. The bibs are, no doubt, significant of some particular season
+of religious observance.
+
+The important city of Okoyama provides abundant food for observation--the
+clean, smooth streets, the wealth of European goods in the shops, and the
+swarms of ever-interesting people, as I wheel leisurely through it on
+Saturday, December 4th. No human being save Japs has so far crossed my
+path since leaving Nagasaki, nor am I expecting to meet anybody here. An
+agreeable surprise, however, awaits me, for at the corner of one of the
+principal business thoroughfares a couple of American missionaries appear
+upon the scene. Introducing themselves as Mr. Carey and Mr. Kowland, they
+inform me that three families of missionaries reside together here, and
+extend a cordial invitation to remain over Sunday. I am very glad indeed
+to accept their hospitality for to-morrow, as well as to avail myself of
+an opportunity to get my proper bearings. Nothing in the way of a
+reliable map or itinerary of the road I have been traversing from
+Shimonoseki was to be obtained at Nagasaki, and I have travelled with but
+the vaguest idea of my whereabouts from day to day. Only from them do I
+learn that the city we meet in is Okoyama, and that I am now within a
+hundred miles of Kobe, north of which place "Murray's Handbook" will
+prove of material assistance in guiding me aright.
+
+The little missionary colony is charmingly situated on a pine-clad hill
+overlooking the city from the east. Several lady missionaries are
+visiting from other points, all Americans, making a pleasant party for
+one to meet in such an unexpected manner.
+
+On Sunday morning I accompany Mr. Carey to see his native congregation in
+the nice new church which he says they have erected from their own means
+at a cost of two thousand yen. This latter is a very gratifying
+statement, not to say surprisingly so, for it savors of something like
+sincerity on the part of the converts. In most countries the converts
+seem to be brought to a knowledge of their evil ways, and to perceive the
+beauties of the Christian religion through the medium of material
+assistance provided from the mission. Instead of spending money
+themselves for the cause they profess to embrace, they expect to receive
+something from it of a tangible earthly nature. Here, however, we find
+the converts themselves building their own meeting-house, and bidding
+fair ere long to support the mission without outside aid. This is
+encouraging from the stand-point of those who believe in converting "the
+heathen" from their own religion to ours, and gratifying to the student
+of Japanese character.
+
+About five hundred people congregate in the church, seating themselves
+quietly and orderly on the mat-covered floor. They embrace all classes,
+from the samurai lawyer or gentleman to the humblest citizen, and from
+gray-haired old men and women to shock-headed youngsters, who merely come
+with their mothers. Many of these same mothers have been persuaded by the
+missionaries to cease the heathenish practice of blackening their teeth,
+and so appear at the meeting in even rows of becoming white ivories like
+their unmarried sisters. Numbers of curious outsiders congregate about
+the open doors and peep in and stand and listen to the sermon of Mr.
+Carey, and the singing. The hymns are sung to the same tunes as in
+America, the words being translated into Japanese. Everybody seems to
+enjoy the singing, and they listen intently to the sermon.
+
+After the sermon, several prominent members of the congregation stand up
+and address their countrymen and women in convincing words and gestures.
+Mr. Carey tells me that any ordinary Jap seems capable of delivering a
+fluent, off-hand exposition of his views in public without special effort
+or embarrassment. Altogether the Japanese Christian congregation,
+gathered here in ita own church, sitting on the floor, singing,
+sermonizing, and looking happy, is a novel and interesting sight to see.
+One can imagine missionary life among the genial Japs as being very
+pleasant.
+
+Saturday and Sunday pass pleasantly away, and, with happy memories of the
+little missionary colony, I wheel away from Oko-yama on Monday morning,
+passing through a country of rich rice-fields and numerous villages for
+some miles. The scene then changes into a beautiful country of small
+lakes and pine-covered hills, reminding me very much of portions of the
+Berkshire Hills, Mass. The weather is cool and clear, and the road
+splendid, although in places somewhat hilly.
+
+Fifty-three miles are duly scored when, at three o'clock in the
+afternoon, I arrive at the city of Himeji. The yadoya here is a superior
+sort of a place, and Himeji numbers among its productions European pan
+(bread), steak, and bottled beer. The Japs are themselves rapidly coming
+to an appreciation of this latter article, and even to manufacture it, a
+big brewery being already established somewhere near Tokio. A couple of
+young dandies of "New Japan" drop in during the evening, send out for
+bottles of beer, and seem to take particular delight in showing off their
+appreciation of the newly introduced beverage before their countrymen of
+the "ancient regime."
+
+Beyond Himeji one leaves behind the mountains, emerging upon a broad,
+level, rice-producing plain, which extends eastward to Kobe and the
+sea-shore. The fine level road traversing the plain passes through
+numerous towns and villages, and for the latter half of the distance
+skirts the shore. Old dismantled stone forts, tea-houses, eating-stalls,
+fishermen's huts, house-boats, and swarms of jinrikishas and pedestrians
+make their sea-shore road lively and interesting. The single artery
+through which the life of all the southern tributary country ebbs and
+flows to trade at the busiest treaty port in Japan, this road is
+constantly swarming with people. Over the Minato-gawa Kiver by an
+elevated bridge, and one finds himself in a broad street leading through
+Hiogo to Kobe. These two cities are practically joined together, although
+bearing different names. Like many of the rivers of Japan, the bed of the
+Minato-gawa is elevated considerably above the surrounding plain.
+Confined between artificial banks to prevent the flooding of the adjacent
+fields in spring, the debris brought down from year to year has gradually
+raised the bed, and necessitated continued raising also of the levees.
+These operations have very naturally ended in raising the whole affair to
+an elevation that leaves even the bottom of the stream several feet
+higher than the fields around.
+
+Kobe is one of the treaty ports of Japan, and nowadays is reputed to do
+more foreign trade than any of the others. One can imagine Kobe being a
+very pleasant and desirable place to live; the foreign settlement is
+quite extensive, the surroundings attractive, and the climate mild and
+healthful.
+
+Pleasant days are spent at Kobe and Ozaka. Twenty-seven miles of level
+road from the latter city, following the course of the Yodo-gawa, a broad
+shallow stream that flows from Lake Biwa to the sea, brings me to Kioto.
+From the eighth century until 1868 Kioto was the capital of the Japanese
+empire, and is generally referred to as the old capital of the country.
+The present population is about a quarter of a million, about half of
+what it was supposed to be in the heyday of its ancient glory as the seat
+of empire.
+
+Living at Kioto is Mr. B, an American ex-naval officer, who several years
+ago forsook old Neptune's service to embark in the more peaceful pursuit
+of teaching the ideas of youthful Japs to shoot. The occasion was
+auspicious, for the whole country was fired with enthusiasm for learning
+English. English was introduced into the public schools as a regular
+study. Mr. B is settled at Kioto, and now instructs a large and
+interesting class of boys in the mysteries of his mother tongue. Taking a
+letter of introduction he makes me comfortable for the afternoon and
+night at his pleasant residence on the banks of the Yodo-gawa. Under the
+pilotage of his private jinrikisha-man, I spend a portion of the
+afternoon in making a flying visit to various places of interest. A party
+of American tourists are unexpectedly met in the first temple we visit,
+that of Nishi Hon-gwan-ji. The paintings and decorations of this temple,
+one of the ladies says with something akin to enthusiasm, are quite equal
+to those of the great temple at Nikko. This lady appears to be a
+missionary resident, or, at all events, a person well versed in Japanese
+temples and things. Her companions are fleeting tourists, who listen to
+her explanations with respect, but, like myself, know nothing more when
+they leave the temple than when they entered. Japanese mythology,
+religion, temples, politics, history, and titles, seem to me to be the
+worst mixed up and the most difficult for off-hand comprehension of
+anything I have yet undertaken to peep into. The multitudinous gods of
+the Hindoos, with their no less multitudinous functions, seem to me to be
+easily understood in comparison with the weird legends and mazy mythology
+of the Flowery Kingdom.
+
+Near this temple is a lovely little garden that gives much more
+satisfaction to the casual visitor than the temples. It is always a
+pleasure to visit a Japanese garden, and, in addition to its landscape
+attractions, historical interest lends to this one additional charm. The
+artificial lake is stocked with tame carp, which come crowding to the
+side when visitors clap their hands, in the expectation of being fed. A
+pair of unhappy-looking geese are imprisoned beneath an iron grating
+within the garden. They are kept there in commemoration of some
+historical incident; what the incident is, however, even the
+well-informed lady of the party doesn't seem to know; neither does
+Murray's voluminous guide-book condescend to explain. A small palace,
+with interior decorations of the usual conventional subjects--storks,
+flying geese, rising moons, bamboo-shoots, etc.--together with a
+small, round, thatched summer-house, where, five hundred years ago,
+Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, the Shogun monk, was wont to pass the time in
+meditation, form the remaining sole attractions of the garden.
+
+The one place I have been anticipating some real pleasure in visiting is
+the Shu-gaku-In gardens, one of the most famous gardens in this country
+where, above all others, gardening is pursued as a fine art. This,
+however, is not accessible to-day, and wearied already of temples, gods,
+and shaven-pated priests, I give the jin-rikisha-coolie orders to return
+home. A mile or two through the smooth and level streets and the hopeful
+and sanguine "riksha" man dumps me out at another temple. Fancying that,
+perchance, he might have brought me to something extraordinary, I follow
+him wearily in. A graduate in the Shinto religion would no doubt find
+something different about these temples, but to the ordinary, every-day
+human, to see one is to see them all. My man, however, seems determined
+to give me a surfeit of temples, and hurries me off to yet another one,
+ere awakening to the fact that I am trying to get him to return to Mr. B
+'s. The third one I positively refuse to have anything to do with.
+
+At Mr. B 's I find awaiting my coming an interesting deputation,
+consisting of the assistant superintendent of the young ladies' seminary,
+together with three of his most interesting pupils. They have been
+reading about my tour in the native papers, and, in the assistant
+superintendent's own words, "are very curious at seeing so famous a
+traveller." The three young ladies stand in a row, like the veritable
+"three little maids from school" in "The Mikado," and giggle their
+approval of the teacher's explanation. They are three very pretty girls,
+and two of them have their hair banged after the most approved American
+style.
+
+Sweetcakes and tea are indulged in by the visitors, and before they leave
+an agreement is entered into by which I am to visit their school in the
+morning before leaving and hear them sing "Bonny Boon" and "The
+fire-fly's light," in return for riding the bicycle in the school-house
+grounds. "The fire-fly's light" is sung to the tune of "Auld lang syne,"
+the Japanese words of which commemorate a legend of the tea-district of
+Uji near Lake Biwa. The legend states that certain learned men repaired
+to a secluded spot near Uji to pursue their studies. On one occasion,
+being out of oil and unable to procure the means of lighting their
+apartment, myriads of fire-flies came and illumined the place with their
+tiny lamps sufficient for their purpose.
+
+My compact with the "three little maids from school" takes me down into
+the city on something of a detour from my nearest road out next morning.
+The detour is well repaid, however; besides the singing and organ-playing
+promised, the many departments of industrial study into which the school
+is divided are very interesting. Laces and embroidery for the Tokio
+market, dresses for themselves and to sell, are made by the girls, the
+proceeds going toward the maintenance of the institution. One of the most
+curious scholarships of the place is the teaching of what is known as the
+"Japanese ceremony." It seems to be a perpetuation of some old court
+ceremony of making tea for the Mikado. Expressing a wish to see the
+ceremony, I am conducted to a small room divided off by the usual sliding
+paper panels. A class of girls are kneeling in a row, confronting a very
+neat-looking old lady who sits beside a small brazier of coals. The old
+lady is the teacher; when she claps her hands, one of the paper screens
+slides gently aside and one of the scholars enters, bearing a small
+lacquer tray with tiny teapot and cups, a canister of tea, and various
+other paraphernalia. There is really very little to the "ceremony," the
+graceful motions of the tea-maker being by far the more interesting part
+of the performance. The tea used is finely powdered and comes from Uji,
+where it is grown especially for the use of the Mikado's household. The
+tea-dust is mixed with hot water by means of a curiously splintered
+bamboo mixer that looks very much like a shaving-brush. The result is a
+very aromatic cup of tea, delicious to the nostrils, but hardly
+acceptable to the European palate.
+
+My jinrikisha-man of yesterday precedes me through the streets, shouting
+the "honk, honk, honk." of the mail-runners, to clear the way. To see him
+cleave a way through the multitudes for me to follow, keeping up a
+six-mile pace the while, swinging his arms like a windmill, one might
+well imagine me a real dai-mio on wheels with faithful samurai-runner
+ahead, warning away the common herd from my path.
+
+At Kioto begins the Tokaido, the most famous highway of Japan, a road
+that is said to have been the same great highway of travel, that it is
+to-day, for many centuries. It extends from Kioto to Tokio, a distance of
+three hundred and twenty-five miles.
+
+Another road, called the Nakasendo, the "Road of the Central Mountains,"
+in contradistinction to the Tokaido, the "Road of the Eastern Sea," also
+connects the old capital with the new; but, besides being somewhat
+longer, the Nakasendo is a hillier road, and less interesting than the
+Tokaido. After leaving the city the Tokaido leads over a low pass through
+the hills to Otsu, on the lovely sheet of water known as Biwa Lake.
+
+This lake is of about the same dimensions as Lake Geneva, and fairly
+rivals that Switzer gem in transcendental beauty. The Japs, with all
+their keen appreciation of the beauties of nature, go into raptures over
+Biwa Lake. Much talk is made of the "eight beauties of Biwa." These eight
+beauties are: The Autumn Moon from Ishi-yama, the Evening Snow on
+Hira-yama, the Blaze of Evening at Seta, the Evening Bell of Mii-dera,
+the Boats sailing back from Yabase, a Bright Sky with a Breeze at Awadzu,
+Bain by Night at Karasaki, and the Wild Geese alighting at Katada. All
+the places mentioned are points about the lake. All sorts of legends and
+romantic stories are associated with the waters of Lake Biwa. Its origin
+is said to be due to an earthquake that took place several centuries
+before the Christian era; the legend states that Fuji rose to its
+majestic height from the plain of Suruga at the same moment the lake was
+formed. Temples and shrines abound, and pilgrims galore come from far-off
+places to worship and see its beauties.
+
+One object of special curiosity to tourists is a remarkable pine-tree,
+whose branches have been trained in horizontal courses over upright
+posts, until it forms a broad shelter over several hundred square yards.
+A smaller imitation of the large tree is also spreading to ambitious
+proportions on the Tokaido side.
+
+Snow has fallen and rests on the upper slopes of the mountains
+overlooking the lake, little steamers and numerous sailing-craft are
+plying on the smooth waters, and wild geese are flying about. With these
+beauties on the left and tea-gardens on the right, the Tokaido leads
+through rows of stately pines, and past numerous villages along the lake
+shore.
+
+The Nakasendo branches off to the left at the village of Kusa-tsu,
+celebrated for the manufacture of riding-whips. Through Ishibe and
+beyond, to where it crosses the Yokota-gawa, the Tokaido continues level
+and good. Near the crossing of this stream is a curious stone monument,
+displaying the carved figures of three monkeys covering up their eyes,
+mouth, and ears, to indicate that they will "neither see, hear, nor say
+any evil thing." All through here the country is devoted chiefly to
+growing tea; very pretty the undulating ridges and rolling slopes of the
+broken foot-hills look, set out in thick, bushy, well-defined rows and
+clumps of dark, shiny tea-plants.
+
+Down a very steep declivity, by sharp zigzags, the Tokaido suddenly dips
+into the little valley of the Yasose-gawa. At the foot of the hill is a
+curious shrine cave, containing several rude idols, a trough with tame
+goldfish, and one of the crudest Buddhas I ever saw. The aim of the
+ambitious sculptor of Buddhas is to produce a personification of "great
+tranquillity." The figure in the Valley of Yasose-gawa is certainly
+something of a masterpiece in this direction; nothing could well be more
+tranquil than an oblong bowlder with the faintest chiselling of a mouth
+and nose, poised on the top of an upright slab of stone rudely chipped
+into a dim semblance of the human form.
+
+A mile or two farther and my day's ride of forty-six miles terminates at
+the village of Saka-no-shita. A comfortable yadoya awaits me here, no
+better nor worse, however, than almost every Jap village affords; but on
+the Tokaido the innkeepers are more accustomed to European guests than
+they are south of Kobe. Every summer many European and American tourists
+journey between Yokohama and Kobe by jinrikisha.
+
+At this yadoya I first become acquainted with that peculiar institution
+of Japan, the blind shampooer. Seated in my little room, my attention is
+attracted by a man who approaches on hands and knees, and butts his
+shaven pate accidentally against the corner of the open panel that forms
+my door. He halts at the entrance and indulges in the pantomime of
+pinching and kneading his person; his mission is to find out whether I
+desire his services. For a small gratuity the blind shampooer of Japan
+will rub, knead, and press one into a pleasant sensation from head to
+foot. This office is relegated to sightless individuals or ugly old
+women; many Japs indulge in their services after a warm bath, finding the
+treatment very pleasant and beneficial, so they say.
+
+One of the most amusing illustrations of Jap imitativeness is displayed
+in the number of American clocks one sees adorning the walls of the
+yadoyas in nearly every village. The amusing feature of the thing is that
+the owners of these time-pieces seem to have the vaguest ideas of what
+they are for. One clock on the wall of my yadoya indicates eleven
+o'clock, another half-past nine, and a third seven-fifteen as I pull out
+in the morning. Other clocks through the village street vary in similar
+degree. Watching out for these widely varying clocks as I wheel through
+the villages has come to be one of the diversions of the day's ride.
+
+The road averages good, although somewhat hilly in places, from Saka-no
+through lovely valleys and pine-clad mountains to Yokka-ichi. Yokka-ichi
+is a small seaport, whence most travellers along the Tokaido take passage
+to Miya in the steam passenger launches plying between these points. The
+kuruma road, however, continues good to the Ku-wana, ten miles farther,
+whence, to Miya, one has to traverse narrower paths through a flat
+section of rice-fields, dikes, canals, and sloughs.
+
+A ri beyond Okabe and the pass of Utsunoya necessitates a mile or two of
+trundling. Here occurs a tunnel some six hundred feet in length and
+twelve wide; a glimmer of sunshine or daylight is cast into the tunnel by
+a system of simple reflectors at either entrance. These are merely glass
+mirrors, set at an angle to reflect the rays of light into the tunnel.
+
+Descending this little pass the Tokaido traverses a level rice-field
+plain, crosses the Abe-kawa, and approaches the sea-coast at Shidzuoka, a
+city of thirty thousand inhabitants. The view of Fuji, now but a short
+distance ahead, is extremely beautiful; the smooth road sweeps around the
+gravelly beach, almost licked by the waves. The breakers approach and
+recede, keeping time to the inimitable music of the surf; vessels are
+dotting the blue expanse; villages and tea-houses are seen resting along
+the crescent-sweep of the shore for many a mile ahead, where Fuji slopes
+so gracefully down from its majestic snow-crowned summit to the sea.
+
+It is indeed a glorious ride around the crescent bay, through the
+sea-shore villages of Okitsu, Yui, Kambara, and Iwabuchi to Yoshiwara, a
+little town on the footstool of the big, gracefully sweeping cone. The
+stretch of shore hereabout is celebrated in Japanese poetry as
+Taga-no-ura, from the peculiarly beautiful view of Fuji obtained from it.
+
+This remarkable mountain is the highest in Japan, and is probably the
+finest specimen of a conical mountain in existence. Native legends
+surround it with a halo of romance. Its origin is reputed to be
+simultaneous with the formation of Biwa Lake, near Kioto, both mountain
+and lake being formed in a single night--one rising from the plain
+twelve thousand eight hundred feet, the other sinking till its bed
+reached the level of the sea.
+
+The summit of Fuji is a place of pilgrimage for Japanese ascetics who are
+desirous of attaining "perfect peace" by imitating Shitta-Tai-shi, the
+Japanese Buddha, who climbed to the summit of a mountain in search of
+nirvana (calm). Orthodox Japs believe that the grains of sand brought
+down on the sandals of the pilgrims ascend to the summit again of their
+own accord during the night.
+
+Tradition is furthermore responsible for the belief that snow disappears
+entirely from the mountain for a few hours on the fifteenth day of the
+sixth moon, and begins to fall again during the following night. Formerly
+an active volcano, Fuji even now emits steam from sundry crevices near
+the summit, and will some day probably fill the good people at Yoshiwara
+and adjacent villages with a lively sense of its power. Fuji is the
+special pride of the Japs, its loveliness appealing strongly to the
+national sense of landscape beauty. Of it their poet sings:
+
+"Great Fusiyama, tow'ring to the sky. A treasure art thou, giv'n to
+mortal man, A god-protector watching o'er Japan: On thee forever let me
+feast mine eye."
+
+Fuji is passed and left behind, and sixteen miles reeled off from
+Yoshiwara, when Mishima, my destination for the night, is reached. A
+festival in honor of Oyama-tsumi-no-Kami, the god of "mountains in
+general," is being held here; for, behold, to-day is November 15th, the
+"middle day of the bird," one of the several festivals held in his honor
+every year. The big temple grounds are swarming with people, and pedlers,
+stalls, jugglers, and all sorts of attractions give the place the
+appearance of a country fair.
+
+Leaving the bicycle outside, I wander in and stroll about among the
+crowds. Sacred ponds on either side of the footway are swarming with
+sacred fish. An ancient dame is doing a roaring trade, in a small way, in
+feathery bread-puffs, which the people buy and throw to the fish, for the
+fun of seeing them swarm around and eat.
+
+Interested groups are gathered around veritable fac-similes of the Yankee
+"street-men," selling to credulous villagers little boxes of powder for
+"coating things with silver." Others are selling song-books, attracting
+customers by the novel and interesting performances of a quartette of
+pretty girls, who sing song after song in succession. Here also are
+little travelling peep-shows, containing photographic scenes of famous
+temples and places in distant parts of the country.
+
+Among the various shrines in this temple is one dedicated to an ancient
+wood-cutter, who used to work and spend his wages on drink for his aged
+father, who was now too old to earn money for the purpose himself. At his
+father's demise the son was rewarded for his filial devotion by the
+discovery of a "cascade of pure sake."
+
+A gayly decorated car and a closed tumbril, that looks very much like an
+old ammunition-wagon, have been wheeled out of their enclosures for the
+occasion. Strings of little bells are suspended on these; mothers hold
+their little ones up and allow them to strike these bells, toss a coin
+into the contribution-box, and pass on. The vehicles probably contain
+relics of the gods.
+
+A wooden horse, painted red, stands in solemn and lonely state behind the
+wooden bars of his stall--but I have almost registered a vow against
+temples and their belongings, in Japan, so inexplicable are most of the
+things to be seen. A person who has delved into the mysteries of Japanese
+mythology would no doubt derive much satisfaction from a visit to the
+Oyama-tsumi-uo-Kami temple, but the average reader would weary of it all
+after seeing others. What to ordinary mortals signify such hideous
+mythological monsters as saru-tora-hebi (monkey-tiger-serpent), or the
+"Twenty-four Paragons of Filial Piety" on the architrave. Yet, of such as
+these is the ornamentation of all Japanese temples. Some few there are
+that are admirable as works of art, but most of them are hideous daubs
+and representations more than passing rude.
+
+Down the street near my yadoya, within a boarded enclosure, a dozen
+wrestlers are giving an entertainment for a crowd of people who have paid
+two sen apiece entrance-fee. The wrestlers of Japan form a distinct class
+or caste, separated from the ordinary society of the country by long
+custom, that prejudices them against marrying other than the daughter of
+one of their own profession. As the biggest and more muscular men have
+always been numbered in the ranks of the wrestlers, the result of this
+exclusiveness and non-admixture with physical inferiors is a class of
+people as distinct from their fellows as if of another race. The Japanese
+wrestler stands head and shoulders above the average of his countrymen,
+and weighs half as much more. As a class they form an interesting
+illustration of what might be accomplished in the physical improvement of
+mankind by certain Malthusian schemes that have been at times advocated.
+
+Within a twelve-foot arena the sturdy athletes struggle for the mastery,
+bringing to bear all their strength and skill. No "hippodroming" here:
+stripped to the skin, the muscles on their brown bodies standing out in
+irregular knots, they fling one another about in the liveliest manner.
+The master of ceremonies, stiff and important, in a faultless gray
+garment bearing a samurai crest, stands by and wields the fiddle-shaped
+lacquered insignia of his high office, and utter his orders and decisions
+in an authoritative voice.
+
+The wrestlers squat around the ring and shiver, for the evening is cold,
+until called out by the master of ceremonies. The two selected take a
+small handful of salt from baskets of that ingredient suspended on posts,
+and fling toward each other. They then advance into the arena, and
+furthermore challenge and defy their opponent by stamping their bare feet
+on the ground, in a manner to display their superior muscularity. Another
+order from the gentleman wielding the fiddle-shaped insignia, and they
+rush violently together, engage in a "catch-as-catch-can" scuffle, which,
+in less than half a minute usually, results in a decisive victory for one
+or the other. The master of ceremonies waves them out of the ring,
+straightens himself up, assumes a very haughty expression, until he looks
+like the very important personage he feels himself to be, and announces
+the name of the victor to the spectators.
+
+The one portion of the Tokaido impassable with a wheel commences at
+Mishima, the famous Hakone Pass, which for sixteen miles offers a steep
+surface of rough bowlder-paved paths. Coolies at Mishima make their
+livelihood by carrying goods and passengers over the pass on kagoa (the
+Japanese palanquin). Obtaining a couple of men to carry the bicycle, the
+chilly weather proves an inducement for following them afoot, rather than
+occupy a kago myself. The block road is broad enough for a wagon, being
+constructed, no doubt, with a view to military transport service. The
+long steep slopes are literally carpeted in places with the worn-out
+straw shoes of men and horses.
+
+The country observed from the elevation of the Hakone Pass is extremely
+beautiful, the white-tipped cone of the magnificent Fuji towering over
+all, like a presiding genius. Near the hamlet of Yamanaka is a famous
+point, called Fuji-mi-taira (terrace for looking at Fuji). Big
+cryptomerias shade the broad stony path along much of its southern slope
+to Hakone village and lake.
+
+Hakone is a very lovely and interesting region, nowadays a favorite
+summer resort of the European residents of Tokio and Yokohama. From the
+latter place Hakone Lake is but about fifty miles distant, and by
+jinrikisha and kago may be reached in one day. The lake is a most
+charming little body of water, a regular mountain-gem, reflecting in its
+clear, crystal depths the pine-clad slopes that encompass it round about,
+as though its surface were a mirror. Japanese mythology peopled the
+region round with supernatural beings in the early days of the country's
+history, when all about were impenetrable thickets and pathless woods.
+Until the revolution of 1868, when all these old feudal customs were
+ruthlessly swept away, the Tokaido here was obstructed with one of the
+"barriers," past which nobody might go without a passport. These barriers
+were established on the boundaries of feudal territories, usually at
+points where the traveller had no alternate route to choose.
+
+A magnificent avenue of cryptomeria shades the Tokaido for a short
+distance out of Hakone village; on the left is passed a large government
+sanitarium, one of those splendid modern-looking structures that speak so
+eloquently of the present Mikado's progressive and enlightened policy.
+The road then turns up the steep mountain-slopes, fringed with
+impenetrable thickets of bamboo. Fuji, from here, presents a grand and
+curious sight. The wind has risen, and the summit of the cone is almost
+hidden behind clouds of drifting snow, which at a distance might almost
+be mistaken for a steamy eruption of the volcano. Close by, too, the
+spirit of the wind moves through the bamboo-brakes, rubbing the myriad
+frost-dried flags together and causing a peculiar rustling noise--the
+whispering of the spirits of the mountains.
+
+The summit reached, the Tokaido now leads through glorious pine-woods,
+descending toward the valley of the Sakawagawa by a series of breakneck
+zigzags. The region is picturesque in the extreme; a small
+mountain-stream tumbles along through a deep ravine on the left,
+mountains tower aloft on the other side, and here and there give birth to
+a cataract that tumbles and splashes down from a height of several
+hundred feet.
+
+By 1 p.m. Yomoto and the recommencement of the jinrikisha road is
+reached; a broiled fish and a bottle of native beer are consumed for
+lunch, and the kago coolies dismissed. The road from Yomoto is a gradual
+descent, for four miles, to Odawara, a town of some thirteen thousand
+inhabitants, on the coast. The road now becomes level and broader than
+heretofore; vehicles drawn by horses mingle with the swarms of
+jinrikishas and pedestrians. Both horses and drivers of the former seem
+sleepy, woe-begone and careless, as though overcome with a consciousness
+of being out of place.
+
+Gangs of men are dragging stout hand-carts, loaded with material for the
+construction of the Tokaido railway, now rapidly being pushed forward.
+Every mile of the road is swarming with life--the strangely
+interesting life of Japan. Thirty miles from Yomoto, and Totsuka provides
+me a comfortable yadoya, where the people quickly show their knowledge of
+the foreigner's requirements by cooking a beefsteak with onions, also in
+the morning by charging the first really exorbitant price I have been
+confronted with along the Tokaido. Totsuka is within the treaty limits of
+Yokohama. A mile or so toward Yokohama I pass, in the morning, the "White
+Horse Tavern," kept in European style as a sort of road-house for
+foreigners driving out from that city or Tokio.
+
+A fierce wind, blowing from the south, fairly wafts me along the last
+eleven miles of the Tokaido, from Totsuka to Yokohama. The wind, indeed,
+has been generally favorable since the rain-storm at Okabe, but it fairly
+whistles this morning. It calls to mind the Kansas wheelman, who claimed
+to have once spread his coat-tails to the breeze and coasted from
+Lawrence to Kansas City in three hours. Unfortunately I am wearing a coat
+the pattern of which does not admit of using the tails for sails
+otherwise the homestretch of the tour around the world might have
+provided one of the most unique incidents of the many I have encountered
+on the journey.
+
+A battery of field-artillery, the smartest seen since leaving Germany, is
+encountered in the streets of Kanagawa, at which point the road to
+Yokohama branches off from the Tokaido. The great Imperial highway, along
+which I have travelled from the old capital almost to the new, continues
+on to the latter, seventeen miles farther. Since the completion of the
+railway between Tokio and Kanagawa, travellers journeying from the
+capital down the Tokaido usually ride on the train to Kanagawa, so that
+the jinrikisha journey proper nowadays commences at the latter city.
+
+Kanagawa is practically a suburban part of Yokohama: one Japanese-owned
+clock observed here points to the hour of eight, another to eleven, and a
+third to half past-nine, but the clock at the Club Hotel, on the Yokohama
+bund, is owned by an Englishman, and is just about striking ten, when the
+last vault from the saddle of the bicycle that has carried me through so
+many countries is made. And so the bicycle part of the tour around the
+world, which was begun April 22, 1884, at San Francisco, California, ends
+December 17, 1886, at Yokohama.
+
+At this port I board the Pacific mail steamer City of Peking, which in
+seventeen days lands me in San Francisco. Of the enthusiastic reception
+accorded me by the San Francisco Bicycle Club, the Bay City Wheelmen, and
+by various clubs throughout the United States, the daily press of the
+time contains ample record. Here, I beg leave to hope that the courtesies
+then so warmly extended may find an echoing response in this long record
+of the adventures that had their beginning and ending at the Golden Gate.
+
+
+
+
+ITINERARY:
+GIVING THE NAME AND DATE OF EACH SLEEPING-POINT ON THE BICYCLE TOUR
+                      AROUND THE WORLD.
+
+VOLUME I.
+UNITED STATES.
+  CALIFORNIA.
+    1884
+    April 23 San Francisco
+    23 House in the tuiles
+    24 Elmira
+    25 Sacramento
+    26 Near Rocklin
+    27-28 Clipper Gap
+    29 Blue Canon
+    30 Summit House
+  NEVADA.
+    May 1 Verdi
+    2 Ranch on Truckee River
+    3 Hot Springs
+    4 Lovelocks
+    5 Mill City
+    6 Winnemucca
+    7 Stone House
+    8 Ranch on Humboldt
+    9 Palisade
+    10 Carlin
+    11 Halleck
+    12 C P Section House
+  UTAH.
+    13 Tacoma
+    14 Matlin
+    15 Salt House
+    16 Near Corrinne
+    17 Willard City
+    18 Ogden
+    19 Echo City
+    20 Castle Rocks
+  WYOMING TERRITORY.
+    May 21 Evanston
+    22 Hilliard
+    23 In abandoned freight wagon
+    24 Carter Station
+    25 Near Granger
+    26 Rocks Springs
+    27 Ranch
+    28-29 Rawlins
+    30 Carbon
+    31 Lookout June
+    1-2 Laramie City
+    3 Cheyenne
+  NEBRASKA.
+    4 Pine Bluffs
+    5 Potter Station
+    6 Lodge Pole
+    7 Ranch on Platte
+    8 Ogallala
+    9 In a "dug-out"
+    10 Brady Island
+    11 Plum Creek
+    12 Kearney Junction
+    13 Grand Island
+    14 Duncan
+    15 North Bend
+    16 Fremont
+    17-18 Omaha
+  IOWA.
+    19 Farm near Nishnebotene
+    20 Farm near Griswold
+    June 21 Farm near Menlo
+    22 Farm near De Soto
+    23 Altoona
+    24 Kellogg
+    25 Victor
+    26 Tiffin
+    27 MOSCOW-ILLINOIS.
+    28 Rock Island
+    29 Atkinson
+    30 La Moile
+    July 1 Yorkville
+    2 Naperville
+    3 Lyons
+    4-11 Chicago
+  INDIANA.
+    12 Miller Station
+    13 Beneath a wheat shock
+    14 Goshen
+    15 Farm
+  OHIO.
+    10 Ridgeville
+    17 Empire House
+    18 Bellevue
+    19 Village near Cleveland
+    20 Madison
+  PENNSYLVANIA.
+    21 Roadside Hotel near
+    Erie
+  NEW YORK.
+    22 Angola
+    23 Buffalo
+    24 Leroy
+    25 Farm near Canandaigua
+    26 Marcellns
+    27 East Syracuse
+    28 Erie Canal Inn
+    29 Indian Castle
+    80 Crane's Village
+    31 Westfalls Inn
+  MASSACHUSETTS.
+    Aug. 1 Otis
+    2 Palmer
+    3 Worcester
+    4 Boston
+EUROPE.
+  ENGLAND.
+    1885 Liverpool
+    May 2 Warrington
+    3 Stone
+    4 Coventry
+    5 Fenny Stratford
+    6 Great Berkhamstead
+    7-8 London
+    9 Croydon
+    10 British Channel Steamer
+  FRANCE
+    Via Dieppe
+    11 Elbeuf
+    12 Mantes
+    13-15 Paris
+    16 Sezanne
+    17 Bar le Duo
+    18 Trouville
+    19 Nancy
+  GERMANY.
+    20 Phalzburg Via Strasburg
+    21 Oberkirch
+    22 Rottenburg
+    23 Blauburen
+    24 Augsburg
+    25-26 Munich
+    27 Alt Otting
+  AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.
+    28 Hoag
+    29 Strenberg
+    80 Neu Lengbach
+    31 Vienna
+    June 1-3
+    4 Altenburg
+    5 Neszmely
+    6-7 Budapest
+    8 Duna Pentele
+    9 Szegszard
+    10 Duna Szekeso
+    11-12 Eszek
+    13 Sarengrad
+    14 Neusatz
+    15 Batauitz
+  SERVIA, BULGARIA, AND TURKEY.
+    16-17 Belgrade
+    18 Jagodina
+    19 Nisch
+    June 20-31 Bela Palanka
+    22 Sofia
+    23 Ichtiman
+    24 Near Tartar Bazardjic
+    25 Cauheme
+    26 Near Adrianople
+    27-28 Eski Baba
+    29 Small Village
+    30 Tchorlu
+    July 1 Camped out
+    2 Constantinople
+
+6,000 miles wheeled from San Francisco.
+ASIA.
+  ASIA MINOR.
+    Aug. 10 Ismidt
+    11 Geiveh
+    12 Terekli
+    13 Beyond Torbali
+    14 Nalikhan
+    15 Bey Bazaar
+    16-17 Angora
+    18 Village
+    19 Camped out
+    20 Koordish Camp
+    21 Yuzgat
+    22 Camped out
+    23 Village
+    24-25 Sivas
+    26 Zara
+    Mar. 27 Armenian Village
+    28 Camp in a cave
+    29 Merriserriff
+    30 Erzingan
+    31 Houssenbeg Khan
+    Sept. 1 Village in Euphrates Valley
+    2-6 Erzeroum
+    7 Hassan Kaleh
+    8 Dela Baba
+    9 Malosman
+    10 Sup Ogwanis Monastery
+  PERSIA.
+    11 Ovahjik
+    12 Koodish Camp
+    13 Peri
+    14 Khoi
+    15 Village near Lake Ooroomiah
+    16 Village near Tabreez
+    17-20 Tabreez
+    21 Hadji Agha
+    22 Turcomanchai
+    23 Miana
+    24 Koordish Camp
+    25-26 Zendjan
+    27 Heeya
+    28 Kasveen
+    29 Yeng Imam
+    30 Teheran
+
+VOLUME II.
+1886
+    Mar. 10 Katoum-abad
+    11 Aivan-i-Kaif
+    12 Aradan
+    13-14-15 Lasgird
+    16 Semnoon
+    17 Gusheh
+    18 Deh Mollah
+    19-20 Shahrood
+    21 Mijamid
+    22 Miandasht
+    23-24 Mazinan
+    25 Subzowar
+    26 Wayside caravanserai
+    27 Shiirab
+    28 Gadamgah
+    Mar. 29 Wayside caravanserai
+    30-Ap. 6 Meshed
+    April 7 Shahriffabad
+    8 Caravanserai
+    9 Torbet-i-Haidorai
+    10 Camp on Gounabad Desert
+    11 Kakh
+    12 Nukhab
+    13 Small hamlet
+    14 Beerjand
+    15 Ali-abad
+    16 Darmian
+    17 Tabbas
+    18 Huts on desert edge
+  AFGHANISTAN.
+    April 19 Camp on Desert of Despair
+    20 Nomad camp
+    31 Village ou Harud
+    22 Ghalakua
+    23 Nomad camp
+    24-25 Furrali (arrested by Afghans)
+    26 Nomad camp
+    27 Subzowar
+    28 Nomad camp
+    29 Camp out
+    30-May 9 Herat
+    May 10 Village
+    11 Roadside umbar
+    12 Camp in Heri-rood jungle
+  PERSIA.
+    13 Karize (released by Afghans)
+    14 Nomad camp
+    15 Furriman
+    16-18 Meshed
+    19 Caravanserai
+    20 Near Nishapoor
+    21 Lafaram
+    22 Wayside umbar
+    23 Mazinan
+    24 Near caravanserai
+    25 Camp out
+    26-27 Shahrood
+    28 Camp out
+    29 Asterabad
+    30 Bunder Guz
+
+Russian steamer to Baku;
+rail to Batoum; steamer to Constantinople and India.
+Renewed bicycle tour:
+
+  INDIA.
+    August Lahore
+    1 Amritza
+    2 Beas River 8 Jullunder
+    4 Police chowkee
+    5-6 Umballa
+    7 Peepli
+    8 Paniput
+    9 Police chowkee
+    10-14 Delhi
+    15 Dak bungalow
+    16 Bungalow
+    17 Muttra
+    Aug. 18-19 Agra
+    20 Mainipoor
+    21 Miran-serai
+    22-26 Cawnpore
+    27 Caravanserai
+    28 Caravanserai
+    29-30 Allahabad
+    31 Roadside hut
+    Sept. 1-2 Benares
+    3 Mogul-serai
+    4 Caravanserai
+    5 Dilli
+    6 Shergotti
+    7 D`ak bungalow
+    8 D`ak bungalow
+    9 Burwah
+    10 Ranuegunj
+    11 Burdwan
+    12 Hooghli
+    13-17 Calcutta Steamer to Canton
+  CHINA.
+    Oct. 7-12 Canton
+    13 Chun-kong-hi
+    14 Low-pow
+    15 Chin-ynen
+    16 Bamboo thicket
+    17-20 Aboard sampan
+    21 Schou-chou-foo
+    22 Small village
+    23 Do.
+    24 Nam-hung
+    25-28 Nam-ngan
+    29 Aboard sampan
+    30 Large village
+    31 Large village near Kan-tchou-i'oo
+    Nov. 1 Small mountain hamlet
+    2 Walled garrison city
+    3 Ta-ho
+    4 Ki-ngan foo (under arrest)
+    5-15 Under arrest on sampan
+    16 Inn near Kui-Kiang
+    17 Yangtsi-Kiang steamer
+    18 Shanghai
+    19-20 Japanese steamer
+  JAPAN.
+    21-22 Nagasaki
+    23 Omura
+    Nov. 24 Ushidza
+    25-26 Futshishi
+    27 Hakama
+    28 Shemonoseki
+    29 Village
+    30 Do.
+    Dec. 1 A small fishing hamlet
+    2 Do.
+    3 Do.
+    4-5 Okoyama
+    Dec. 6 Himeji
+    7-8 Kobe
+    9 Ozaka
+    10 Kioto
+    11 Saka-no-shita
+    12 Miya
+    13 Hamamatsu
+    14 Roadside inn
+    15 Mishima
+    16 Totsuka
+    17 Yokohama
+
+DISTANCE ACTUALLY WHEELED, ABOUT 13,500 MILES.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Around the World on a Bicycle Volume
+II., by Thomas Stevens
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BICYCLE VOLUME II. ***
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