diff options
Diffstat (limited to '38827.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 38827.txt | 12681 |
1 files changed, 12681 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/38827.txt b/38827.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1d79da4 --- /dev/null +++ b/38827.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12681 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan, Volume I +(of 2), by Isabella L. Bird + +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: Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan, Volume I (of 2) + Including a Summer in the Upper Karun Region and a Visit + to the Nestorian Rayahs + +Author: Isabella L. Bird + +Release Date: February 11, 2012 [EBook #38827] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOURNEYS IN PERSIA, KURDISTAN, VOL I *** + + + + +Produced by Julia Miller, Melissa McDaniel and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + + + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + + Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have + been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. + + Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. + + Two of the Letters are entitled "Letter XIV." + + Macrons (straight lines above the characters) are represented as + [=a], [=e], [=i], and [=u]. + + + + + + + + JOURNEYS + IN + PERSIA AND KURDISTAN + + + + + + [Illustration: MRS. BISHOP (ISABELLA L. BIRD).] + + + + + + JOURNEYS + IN + PERSIA AND KURDISTAN + + INCLUDING A SUMMER IN THE UPPER KARUN + REGION AND A VISIT TO THE + NESTORIAN RAYAHS + + BY MRS. BISHOP + (ISABELLA L. BIRD) + + HONORARY FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SCOTTISH GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY + AUTHOR OF 'SIX MONTHS IN THE SANDWICH ISLANDS' + 'UNBEATEN TRACKS IN JAPAN,' ETC. + + IN TWO VOLUMES--VOL. I. + + WITH PORTRAIT, MAPS, AND ILLUSTRATIONS + + LONDON + JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET + 1891 + + + + + + TO + The Untravelled Many, + THESE VOLUMES + ARE CORDIALLY DEDICATED + + + + + +WORKS BY MRS. BISHOP. + + + "Miss Bird's fascinating and instructive work on Japan fully + maintains her well-earned reputation as a traveller of the first + order, and a graphic and picturesque writer. Miss Bird is a born + traveller, fearless, enthusiastic, patient, instructed, knowing + as well what as how to describe. No peril daunts her, no + prospect of fatigue or discomfort disheartens or repels + her."--_Quarterly Review._ + +I. UNBEATEN TRACKS IN JAPAN, Including Visits to the Aborigines of +Yezo and the Shrines of Nikko and Ise. + +With Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. + +II. A LADY'S LIFE IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. + +With Illustrations. Post 8vo. 7s. 6d. + +III. THE HAWAIIAN ARCHIPELAGO: Six Months Among the Palm Groves, Coral +Reefs, and Volcanoes of the Sandwich Islands. + +With Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. + +IV. THE GOLDEN CHERSONESE AND THE WAY THITHER. + +With Map and Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 14s. + + +JOHN MURRAY, Albemarle Street. + + + + + +PREFACE + + +The letters of which these volumes are composed embrace the second +half of journeys in the East extending over a period of two years.[1] +They attempt to be a faithful record of facts and impressions, but +were necessarily written in haste at the conclusion of fatiguing +marches, and often in circumstances of great discomfort and +difficulty, and I relied for their correction in the event of +publication on notes made with much care. Unfortunately I was robbed +of nearly the whole of these, partly on my last journey in Persia and +partly on the Turkish frontier,--a serious loss, which must be my +apology to the reader for errors which, without this misfortune, would +not have occurred. + +The bibliography of Persia is a very extensive one, and it may well be +that I have little that is new to communicate, except on a part of +Luristan previously untraversed by Europeans; but each traveller +receives a different impression from those made upon his predecessors, +and I hope that my book may be accepted as an honest attempt to make a +popular contribution to the sum of knowledge of a country and people +with which we are likely to be brought into closer relations. + +As these volumes are simply travels in Persia and Eastern Asia Minor, +and are _not a book on either country_, the references to such +subjects as were not within the sphere of my observation are brief and +incidental. The administration of government, the religious and legal +systems, the tenure of land, and the mode of taxation are dismissed in +a few lines, and social customs are only described when I came in +contact with them. The Ilyats, or nomadic tribes, form a very +remarkable element of the population of Persia, but I have only +noticed two of their divisions--the Bakhtiari and Feili Lurs. The +antiquities of Persia are also passed over with hardly a remark, as +well as many other subjects, which have been "threshed out" by +previous writers with more or less of accuracy. + +I make these omissions with all the more satisfaction, because most +that is "knowable" concerning Persia will be accessible on the +publication of a work now in the Press, _Persia and the Persian +Question_, by the Hon. George N. Curzon, M.P., who has not only +travelled extensively in the country, but has bestowed such enormous +labour and research upon it, and has had such exceptional +opportunities of acquiring the latest and best official information, +that his volumes may fairly be described as "exhaustive." + +It is always a pleasant duty to acknowledge kindness, and I am deeply +grateful to several friends for the help which they have given me in +many ways, and for the trouble which some of them have taken to +recover facts which were lost with my notes, as well as for the +careful revision of a portion of my letters in MS. I am indebted to +the Indian authorities for the materials for a sketch map, for +photographs from which many of the illustrations are taken, and for +the use of a valuable geographical report, and to Mr. Thistleton Dyer, +Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, for the identification +of a few of my botanical specimens. + +In justice to the many kind friends who received me into their homes, +I am anxious to disclaim having either echoed or divulged their views +on Persian or Turkish subjects, and to claim and accept the fullest +responsibility for the opinions expressed in these pages, which, +whether right or wrong, are wholly my own. It is from those who know +Persia and Kurdistan the best that I am sure of receiving the most +kindly allowance wherever, in spite of an honest desire to be +accurate, I have fallen into mistakes. + +The retention, not only of the form, but of the reality of diary +letters, is not altogether satisfactory either to author or reader, +for the author sacrifices the literary and artistic arrangement of his +materials, and however ruthlessly omissions are made, the reader is +apt to find himself involved in a multiplicity of minor details, +treated in a fashion which he is inclined to term "slipshod," and to +resent the egotism which persistently clings to familiar +correspondence. Still, even with all the disadvantages of this form of +narrative, I think that letters are the best mode of placing the +reader in the position of the traveller, and of enabling him to share, +not only first impressions in their original vividness, and the +interests and enjoyments of travelling, but the hardships, +difficulties, and tedium which are their frequent accompaniments! + +For the lack of vivacity which, to my thinking, pervades the following +letters, I ask the reader's indulgence. They were originally written, +and have since been edited, under the heavy and abiding shadow, not +only of the loss of the beloved and only sister who was the +inspiration of my former books of travel, and to whose completely +sympathetic interest they owed whatever of brightness they possessed, +but of my beloved husband, whose able and careful revision +accompanied my last volume through the Press. + +Believing that these letters faithfully reflect what I saw of the +regions of which they treat, I venture to ask for them the same kindly +and lenient criticism with which my travels in the Far East and +elsewhere were received in bygone years, and to express the hope that +they may help to lead towards that goal to which all increase of +knowledge of races and beliefs tends--a truer and kindlier recognition +of the brotherhood of man, as seen in the light of the Fatherhood of +God. + + ISABELLA L. BISHOP. + + _November 12, 1891._ + +FOOTNOTE: + +[1] I left England with a definite object in view, to which others +were subservient, but it is not necessary to obtrude it on the reader. + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +IN VOLUME I. + + + Mrs. Bishop (Isabella L. Bird) _Frontispiece_ + + A Gopher _Page_ 19 + + A Turkish Frontier Fort _To face page_ 78 + + Lodgings for Travellers 82 + + Persian Bread-making 159 + + The Shrine of Fatima 167 + + A Dervish 237 + + Castle of Ardal 318 + + Imam Kuli Khan 326 + + The Karun at Dupulan _To face page_ 351 + + Ali Jan 362 + + Armenian Women of Libasgun 366 + + Wall and Gate of Libasgun _To face page_ 368 + + A Perso-Bakhtiari Cradle 372 + + A Dastgird Tent _To face page_ 378 + + + + +GLOSSARY + + +_Abambar_, a covered reservoir. + +_Agha_, a master. + +_Andarun_, women's quarters, a _haram_. + +_Arak_, a coarse spirit. + +_Badg[=i]r_, wind-tower. + +_Badragah_, a parting escort. + +_Balakhana_, an upper room. + +_Bringals_, egg plants. + +_Chapar_, post. + +_Chapar Khana_, post-house. + +_Chapi_, the Bakhtiari national dance. + +_Charvadar_, a muleteer. + +_Far[=a]sh_, _lit._ a carpet-spreader. + +_Farsakh_, from three and a half to four miles. + +_Gardan_, a pass. + +_Gaz_, a sweetmeat made from manna. + +_Gelims_, thin carpets, drugget. + +_Gheva_, a summer shoe. + +_Gholam_, an official messenger or attendant. + +_H[=a]kim_, a governor. + +_Hak[=i]m_, a physician. + +_Hammam_, a Turkish or hot bath. + +_Ilyats_, the nomadic tribes of Persia. + +_Imam_, a saint, a religious teacher. + +_Imamzada_, a saint's shrine. + +_Istikbal_, a procession of welcome. + +_Jul_, a horse's outer blanket. + +_Kabob_, pieces of skewered meat seasoned and toasted. + +_Kafir_, an infidel, a Christian. + +_Kah_, chopped straw. + +_Kajawehs_, horse-panniers. + +_Kalian_, a "hubble-bubble" or water-pipe for tobacco. + +_Kamarband_, a girdle. + +_Kanaat_, an underground water-channel. + +_Kanat_, the upright side of a tent. + +_Karsi_, a wooden frame for covering a fire-hole. + +_Katirgi_ (Turkish), a muleteer. + +_Ketchuda_, a headman of a village. + +_Khan_, lord or prince; a designation as common as esquire. + +_Khan_ (Turkish), an inn. + +_Khanjar_, a curved dagger. + +_Khanji_ (Turkish), the keeper of a _khan_. + +_Khanum_, a lady of rank. + +_Khurjins_, saddle bags. + +_Kizik_, a slab of animal fuel. + +_Kotal_, _lit._ a ladder, a pass. + +_Kourbana_ (Syriac), the Holy Communion. + +_Kran_, eightpence. + +_Kuh_, mountain. + +_Lira_ (Turkish), about L1. + +_Malek_ (Syriac, _lit._ king), a chief or headman. + +_Mamachi_, midwife. + +_Mangel_, a brazier. + +_Mast_, curdled milk. + +_Medresseh_, a college. + +_Mirza_, a scribe, secretary, or gentleman. An educated man. + +_Modakel_, illicit percentage. + +_Mollah_, a religious teacher. + +_Munshi_, a clerk, a teacher of languages. + +_Namad_, felt. + +_Nasr_, steward. + +_Odah_ (Turkish), a room occupied by human beings and animals. + +_Piastre_, a Turkish coin worth two-pence-halfpenny. + +_Pirahan_, a chemise or shirt. + +_Pish-kash_, a nominal present. + +_Qasha_ (Syriac), a priest. + +_Rayahs_, subject Syrians. + +_Roghan_, clarified butter. + +_Samovar_, a Russian tea-urn. + +_Sartip_, a general. + +_Seraidar_, the keeper of a caravanserai. + +_Sharbat_, a fruit syrup. + +_Shroff_, a money-changer. + +_Shuldari_ (_Shooldarry_), a small tent with two poles and a ridge +pole, but without _kanats_. + +_Shulwars_, wide trousers. + +_Sowar_, a horseman, a horse soldier. + +_Takch[=a]h_, a recess in a wall. + +_Taktrawan_, a mule litter. + +_Tand[=u]r_, an oven in a floor. + +_Tang_, a rift or defile. + +_Tufangchi_, a foot soldier, an armed footman. + +_Tuman_, seven shillings and sixpence. + +_Vakil_, an authorised representative. + +_Vakil-u-Dowleh_, agent of Government. + +_Yabu_, a pony or inferior horse. + +_Yailaks_, summer quarters. + +_Yekdan_, a mule or camel trunk, made of leather. + +_Yohoort_ (Turkish), curdled milk. + +_Zaptieh_ (Turkish), a _gendarme_. + + + + +LETTER I + + + BASRAH, ASIATIC TURKEY, _Jan. 1, 1890_. + +A _shamal_ or N.W. wind following on the sirocco which had accompanied +us up "the Gulf" was lashing the shallow waters of the roadstead into +reddish yeast as we let go the anchor opposite the sea front of +Bushire, the most important seaport in Persia. _The_ Persian +man-of-war _Persepolis_, officered by Germans, H.M. ship _Sphinx_, two +big steamers owned in London, a British-built three-masted clipper, +owned and navigated by Arabs, and a few Arab native vessels tugged at +their anchors between two and three miles from the shore. Native +_buggalows_ clustered and bumped round the trading vessels, hanging on +with difficulty, or thumped and smashed through the short waves, close +on the wind, easily handled and sailing magnificently, while the +Residency steam-launch, puffing and toiling, was scarcely holding her +own against a heavy head sea. + +Bushire, though it has a number of two-storied houses and a population +of 15,000, has a most insignificant appearance, and lies so low that +from the _Assyria's_ deck it gave the impression of being below the +sea-level. The _shamal_ was raising a sand storm in the desert beyond; +the sand was drifting over it in yellow clouds, the mountains which at +a greater or less distance give a wild sublimity to the eastern shores +of the Gulf were blotted out, and a blurred and windy shore +harmonised with a blurred and windy sea. + +The steam-launch, which after several baffled attempts succeeded in +reaching the steamer's side, brought letters of welcome from Colonel +Ross, who for eighteen years has filled the office of British Resident +in the Persian Gulf with so much ability, judgment, and tact as to +have earned the respect and cordial esteem of Persians, Arabs, the +mixed races, and Europeans alike. Of his kindness and hospitality +there is no occasion to write, for every stranger who visits the Gulf +has large experience of both. + +The little launch, though going shorewards with the wind, was tossed +about like a cork, shipping deluges of spray, and it was so cold and +generally tumultuous, that it was a relief to exchange the shallow, +wind-lashed waters of the roadstead for the shelter of a projecting +sea-wall below the governor's house. A curricle, with two fiery little +Arab horses, took us over the low windy stretch of road which lies +behind Bushire, through a part of the town and round again to the +sea-shore, on which long yellow surges were breaking thunderously in +drifts of creamy foam. The Residency, a large Persian house, with that +sort of semi-fortified look which the larger Eastern houses are apt to +have, is built round courtyards, and has a fine entrance, which was +lined with well-set-up men of a Bombay marine battalion. As is usual +in Persia and Turkey, the reception rooms, living rooms, and guest +rooms are upstairs, opening on balconies, the lower part being +occupied by the servants and as domestic offices. Good fires were a +welcome adjunct to the genial hospitality of Colonel Ross and his +family, for the mercury, which for the previous week had ranged from +84 deg. to 93 deg., since the sunrise of that day had dropped to 45 deg., and the +cold, damp wind suggested an English February. Even the Residency, +thick as its walls are, was invaded by sea sand, and penetrated by +the howlings and shriekings of the _shamal_ and the low hiss at +intervals of wind-blown spray. + +This miserable roadstead does a large trade,[2] though every bale and +chest destined for the cities of the interior must be packed on mules' +backs for carriage over the horrible and perilous _kotals_ or rock +ladders of the intervening mountain ranges. The chief caravan route in +Persia starts from Bushire _via_ Shiraz, Isfahan, Kashan, and Kum, to +Tihran. A loaded mule takes from thirty to thirty-five days to +Isfahan, and from Isfahan to Tihran from twelve to sixteen days, +according to the state of the roads. + +Bushire does not differ in appearance from an ordinary eastern town. +Irregular and uncleanly alleys, dead mud walls, with here and there a +low doorway, bazars in which the requirements of caravans are largely +considered, and in which most of the manufactured goods are English, a +great variety in male attire, some small mosques, a marked +predominance of the Arab physiognomy and costume, and ceaseless +strings of asses bringing skins of water from wells a mile from the +town, are my impressions of the first Persian city that I have ever +seen. The Persian element, however, except in officialism and the +style of building, is not strong, the population being chiefly +composed of "Gulf Arabs." There are nearly fifty European residents, +including the telegraph staff and the representatives of firms doing a +very large business with England, the Persian Gulf Trading Company, +Messrs. Hotz and Company, Messrs. Gray, Paul, and Company, and the +British India Steam Navigation Company, which has enormously developed +the trade of the Gulf. + +Bushire is the great starting-point of travellers from India who +desire "to go home through Persia" by Shiraz and Persepolis. +_Charvadars_ (muleteers) and the necessary outfit are obtainable, but +even the kindness of the Resident fails to overcome the standing +difficulty of obtaining a Persian servant who is both capable and +trustworthy. Having been forewarned by him not to trust to Bushire for +this indispensable article, I had brought from India a Persian of good +antecedents and character, who, desiring to return to his own country, +was willing to act as my interpreter, courier, and sole attendant. +Grave doubts of his ability to act in the two latter capacities +occurred to me before I left Karachi, grew graver on the voyage, and +were quite confirmed as we tossed about in the Residency launch, where +the "young Persian gentleman," as he styled himself, sat bolt upright +with a despairing countenance, dressed in a tall hat, a beautifully +made European suit, faultless tan boots, and snowy collar and cuffs, a +man of truly refined feeling and manners, but hopelessly out of place. +I pictured him helpless among the _deshabille_ and roughnesses of a +camp, and anticipated my insurmountable reluctance to ask of him +menial service, and was glad to find that the same doubts had occurred +to himself. + +I lost no time in interviewing Hadji,--a Gulf Arab, who has served +various travellers, has been ten times to Mecca, went to Windsor with +the horses presented to the Queen by the Sultan of Muscat, speaks more +or less of six languages, knows English fairly, has some +recommendations, and professes that he is "up to" all the requirements +of camp life. The next morning I engaged him as "man of all work," and +though a big, wild-looking Arab in a rough _abba_ and a big turban, +with a long knife and a revolver in his girdle, scarcely looks like a +lady's servant, I hope he may suit me, though with these antecedents +he is more likely to be a scamp than a treasure. + +The continuance of the _shamal_ prevented the steamer from unloading +in the exposed roadstead, and knocked the launch about as we rejoined +her. We called at the telegraph station at Fao, and brought off Dr. +Bruce, the head of the Church Missionary Society's Mission at Julfa, +whose long and intimate acquaintance with the country and people will +make him a great acquisition on the Tigris. + +"About sixty miles above the bar outside the Shat-el-Arab" (the united +Tigris and Euphrates), "forty miles above the entrance to that estuary +at Fao, and twenty miles below the Turkish port of Basrah, the present +main exit of the Karun river flows into the Shat-el-Arab from the +north-east by an artificial channel, whose etymology testifies to its +origin, the Haffar" (dug-out) "canal. When this canal was cut, no one +knows.... Where it flows into the Shat-el-Arab it is about a quarter +of a mile in width, with a depth of from twenty to thirty feet. + +"The town of Mohammerah is situated a little more than a mile up the +canal on its right bank, and is a filthy place, with about 2000 +inhabitants, and consists mainly of mud huts and hovels, backed by a +superb fringe of date palms."[3] In the rose flush of a winter morning +we steamed slowly past this diplomatically famous confluence of the +Haffar and Shat-el-Arab, at the angle of which the Persians have +lately built a quay, a governor's house, and a large warehouse, in +expectation of a trade which shows few signs of development. + +A winter morning it was indeed, splendid and invigorating after the +ferocious heat of the Gulf. To-day there has been frost! + +The Shat-el-Arab is a noble river or estuary. From both its Persian +and Turkish shores, however, mountains have disappeared, and dark +forests of date palms intersected by canals fringe its margin heavily, +and extend to some distance inland. The tide is strong, and such +native boats as _belems_, _buggalows_, and dug-outs, loaded with +natives and goods, add a cheerful element of busy life. + +We anchored near Basrah, below the foreign settlement, and had the +ignominy of being placed for twenty-four hours in quarantine, flying +the degrading yellow flag. Basrah has just been grievously ravaged by +the cholera, which has not only carried off three hundred of the +native population daily for some time, but the British Vice-Consul and +his children. Cholera still exists in Turkey while it is extinct in +Bombay, and the imposition of quarantine on a ship with a "clean bill +of health" seems devised for no other purpose than to extract fees, to +annoy, and to produce a harassing impression of Turkish officialism. + +After this detention we steamed up to the anchorage, which is in front +of a few large bungalows which lie between the belt of palms and the +river, and form the European settlement of Margil. A fever-haunted +swamp, with no outlet but the river; canals exposing at low water +deep, impassable, and malodorous slime separating the bungalows; a +climate which is damp, hot, malarious, and prostrating except for a +few weeks in winter, and a total absence of all the resources and +amenities of civilisation, make Basrah one of the least desirable +places to which Europeans are exiled by the exigencies of commerce. It +is scarcely necessary to say that the few residents exercise unbounded +hospitality, which is the most grateful memory which the stranger +retains of the brief halt by the "River of Arabia." + +This is the dead season in the "city of dates." An unused river +steamer, a large English trader, two Turkish ships-of-war painted +white, the _Mejidieh_, one of two English-owned steamers which are +allowed to ply on the Tigris, and the _Assyria_ of the B.I.S.N. Co., +constitute the fleet at anchor. As at Bushire, all cargo must be +loaded and unloaded by boats, and crowds of native craft hanging on to +the trading vessels give a little but not much vivacity. + +October, after the ingathering of the date harvest, is the busiest +month here. The magnitude of the date industry may be gathered from +the fact that in 1890, 60,000 tons of dates were exported from Basrah, +20,000 in boxes, and the remainder in palm-leaf mats, one vessel +taking 1800 tons. The quantity of wood imported for the boxes was 7000 +tons in cut lengths, with iron hooping, nails, and oiled paper for +inside wrapping, brought chiefly from England. + +A hundred trees can be grown on an acre of ground. The mature tree +gives a profit of 4s., making the profit on an acre L20 annually. The +Governor of Mohammerah has lately planted 30,000 trees, and date palms +to the number of 60,000 have been recently planted on Persian soil. + +It is said that there are 160 varieties of dates, but only a few are +known to commerce. These great sombre date forests or "date gardens," +which no sunshine can enliven, are of course artificial, and depend +upon irrigation. The palms are propagated by means of suckers taken +from the female date. The young trees begin to bear when they are +about five years old, reach maturity at nine, and may be prolific for +two centuries. Mohammed said wisely, "Honour the palm, it is your +paternal aunt." One soon learns here that it not only provides the +people with nutritious food, but with building materials, as well as +with fuel, carpets, ropes, and mats. But it is the least beautiful of +the palms, and the dark monotonous masses along the river contrast +with my memories of the graceful coco palm fringing the coral islands +of the Pacific. + +I left the _Assyria_ with regret. The captain and officers had done +all that intelligence and kindness could do to make the voyage an +agreeable one, and were altogether successful. On shore a hospitable +reception, a good fire, and New Year's Day come together +appropriately. The sky is clear and cloudless, and the air keen. The +bungalows belonging to the European firms are dwelling-houses above +and offices below, and are surrounded by packing-yards and sheds for +goods. In line with them are the Consulates. + +The ancient commercial glories of Basrah are too well known to need +recapitulation. Circumstances are doing much to give it something of +renewed importance. The modern Basrah, a town which has risen from a +state of decay till it has an estimated population of 25,000, is on +the right bank of the river, at some distance up a picturesque +palm-fringed canal. Founded by Omar soon after the death of Mohammed, +and tossed like a shuttlecock between Turk and Persian, it is now +definitely Turkish, and the great southern outlet of Chaldaea and +Mesopotamia, as well as the port at which the goods passing to and +from Baghdad "break bulk." A population more thoroughly polyglot could +scarcely be found, Turks, Arabs, Sabeans, Syrians, Greeks, Hindus, +Armenians, Frenchmen, Wahabees, Britons, Jews, Persians, Italians, and +Africans, and there are even more creeds than races. + +_S.S. Mejidieh, River Tigris, Jan. 4._--Leaving Basrah at 4 P.M. on +Tuesday we have been stemming the strong flood of the Tigris for three +bright winter days, in which to sit by a red-hot stove and sleep under +a pile of blankets have been real luxuries after the torrid heat of +the "Gulf." The party on board consists of Dr. Bruce, Mr. Hammond, who +has been for some months pushing British trade at Shuster, the +Assistant Quartermaster-General for India, a French-speaking Jewish +merchant, the Hon. G. Curzon, M.P., and Mr. Swabadi, a Hungarian +gentleman in the employment of the Tigris and Euphrates Steam +Navigation Company, a very scholarly man, who in the course of a long +residence in Southern Turkey has acquainted himself intimately with +the country and its peoples, and is ever ready to place his own stores +of information at our disposal. Mr. Curzon has been "prospecting" the +Karun river, and came on board from the _Shushan_, a small stern-wheel +steamer with a carrying capacity of 30 tons, a draught when empty of +18 inches, and when laden of from 24 to 36. She belongs to the Messrs. +Lynch Brothers, of the Tigris and Euphrates S.N. Co. They run her once +a fortnight at a considerable loss between Mohammerah and Ahwaz. Her +isolated position and diminutive size are a curious commentary on the +flourish of trumpets and _blether_ of exultation with which the +English newspapers announced the very poor concession of leave to run +steamers on the Karun between the Shat-el-Arab and Ahwaz. + +[Since this letter was written, things have taken rather a singular +turn, and the development of trade on the Karun has partly fallen into +the hands of a trading corporation of Persians, the _Nasiri_ Company. +By them, and under their representative partner, Haja Mahomad, a man +of great energy, the formidable rapids at Ahwaz are being circumvented +by the construction of a tramway 2400 yards long, which is proceeding +steadily. A merchants' caravanserai has already been built on the +river bank at the lower landing-place and commencement of the tramway, +and a bakery, butchery, and carpentry, along with a _cafe_ and a +grocery and general goods stores, have already been opened by men +brought to Ahwaz by H. Mahomad. + +A river face wall, where native craft are to lie, is being constructed +of hewn stone blocks and sections of circular pillars, remains of the +ancient city. + +The _Nasiri_ Company has a small steamer, the _Nasiri_, plying on the +lower Karun, chiefly as a tug, taking up two Arab boats of +twenty-seven tons each, lashed alongside of her. On her transference +at the spring floods of this year to the river above Ahwaz, the +_Karun_, a steam launch of about sixty tons, belonging to the Governor +of Mohammerah, takes her place below, and a second steamer belonging +to the same company is now running on the lower stream. Poles from +Zanzibar have been distributed for a telegraph line from Mohammerah to +Ahwaz. The Messrs. Lynch have placed a fine river steamer of 300 tons +on the route; but this enterprising firm, and English capitalists +generally, are being partially "cut out" by the singular "go" of this +Persian company, which not only appears to have strong support from +Government quarters, but has gained the co-operation of the +well-known and wealthy Sheikh Mizal, whose personal influence in +Arabistan is very great, and who has hitherto been an obstacle to the +opening of trade on the Karun. + +A great change for the better has taken place in the circumstances of +the population, and villages, attracted by trade, are springing up, +which the _Nasiri_ Company is doing its best to encourage. The +land-tax is very light, and the cultivators are receiving every +encouragement. Much wheat was exported last year, and there is a brisk +demand for river lands on leases of sixty years for the cultivation of +cotton, cereals, sugar-cane, and date palms. + +Persian soldiers all have their donkeys, and at Ahwaz a brisk and +amusing competition is going on between the soldiers of a fine +regiment stationed there and the Arabs for the transport of goods past +the rapids, and for the conveyance of tramway and building materials. +This competition is enabling goods to pass the rapids cheaply and +expeditiously. + +One interesting feature connected with these works is the rapidly +increased well-being of the Arabs. In less than a year labour at 1 +_kran_ (8d.) a day has put quite a number of them in possession of a +pair of donkeys and a plough, and seed-corn wherewith to cultivate +Government lands on their own account, besides leaving a small balance +in hand on which to live without having to borrow on the coming crop +at frightfully usurious rates. + +Until now the sheikhs have been able to command labour for little more +than the poorest food; and now many of the very poor who depended on +them have started as small farmers, and things are rapidly changing. + +The careful observer, from whose report on Persia to the Foreign +Office, No. 207, I have transferred the foregoing facts, wrote in +January 1891: "It was a sight to see the whole Arab population on the +river banks hard at work taking advantage of the copious rain which +had just fallen; every available animal fit for draught was yoked to +the plough--horses, mules, bullocks, and donkeys, and even mares, with +their foals following them up the furrows." + +This, which is practically a Persian opening of the trade of the +Karun, is not what was expected, however much it was to be desired. +After a journey of nine months through Persia, I am strongly of +opinion that if the Empire is to have a solid and permanent +resurrection, it must be through the enterprise of Persians, aided it +may be by foreign skill and capital, though the less of the latter +that is employed the more hopefully I should regard the Persian +future. The _Nasiri_ Company and the Messrs. Lynch may possibly unite, +and the New Road Company may join with them in making a regular +transport service by river and road to Tihran, by which England may +pour her manufactured goods even into Northern Persia, as this route +would compete successfully both with the Baghdad and Trebizond routes. + +Already, owing to the improved circumstances of the people, the import +of English and Indian cotton goods and of sugar has increased; the +latter, which is French, from its low price, only 21/2d. a pound in the +Gulf, pushing its way as far north as Sultanabad. Unfortunately the +shadow of Russia hangs over the future of Persia.] + +At present two English and four Turkish boats run on the Tigris. They +are necessarily of light draught, as the river is shallow at certain +seasons and is full of shifting sand-banks. The _Mejidieh_ is a +comfortable boat, with a superabundance of excellent food. Her saloon, +state-rooms, and engines are on the main deck, which is open fore and +aft, and has above it a fine hurricane deck, on the fore part of which +the deck passengers, a motley crowd, encamp. She is fully loaded with +British goods. + +The first object of passing interest was Kornah, reputed among the +Arabs to be the site of the Garden of Eden, a tongue of land at the +junction of the Tigris and Euphrates. The "Garden of Eden" contains a +village, and bright fires burned in front of the mat-and-mud houses. +Women in red and white, and turbaned men in brown, flitted across the +firelight; there was a mass of vegetation, chiefly palms with a number +of native vessels moored to their stems, and a leaning minaret. A +frosty moonlight glorified the broad, turbid waters, Kornah and the +Euphrates were left in shadow, and we turned up the glittering +waterway of the Tigris. The night was too keenly frosty for any dreams +of Paradise, even in this classic Chaldaea, and under a sky blazing +down to the level horizon with the countless stars which were not to +outnumber the children of "Faithful Abraham." + +Four hours after leaving Kornah we passed the reputed tomb of Ezra the +prophet. At a distance and in the moonlight it looked handsome. There +is a buttressed river wall, and above it some long flat-roofed +buildings, the centre one surmounted by a tiled dome. The Tigris is so +fierce and rapid, and swallows its alluvial banks so greedily, that it +is probable that some of the buildings described by the Hebrew +traveller Benjamin of Tudela as existing in the twelfth century were +long since carried away. The tomb is held in great veneration not only +by Jews and Moslems but also by Oriental Christians. It is a great +place of Jewish pilgrimage, and is so venerated by the Arabs that it +needs no guard.[4] + +Hadji brought my breakfast, or as he called it, "the grub," the next +morning, and I contemplated the Son of Abraham with some astonishment. +He had discarded his turban and _abba_, and looked a regular +uncivilised desert Ishmaelite, with knives and rosaries in his belt, +and his head muffled in a _kiffiyeh_, a yellow silk shawl striped with +red, with one point and tassels half a yard long hanging down his +back, and fastened round his head by three coils of camel's-hair rope. +A loose coat with a gay girdle, "breeks" of some kind, loose boots +turned up at the toes and reaching to the knees, and a striped +under-garment showing here and there, completed his costume. + +The view from the hurricane deck, though there are no striking +varieties, is too novel to be monotonous. The level plains of Chaldaea, +only a few feet higher than the Tigris, stretch away to the distant +horizon, unbroken until to-day, when low hills, white with the first +snows of winter, are softly painted on a pure blue sky, very far away. +The plains are buff and brown, with an occasional splash, near +villages as buff and brown as the soil out of which they rise, of the +dark-green of date gardens, or the vivid green of winter wheat. With +the exception of these gardens, which are rarely seen, the vast +expanse is unbroken by a tree. A few miserable shrubs there are, the +_mimosa agrestis_ or St. John's bread, and a scrubby tamarisk, while +liquorice, wormwood, capers, and some alkaline plants which camels +love, are recognisable even in their withered condition. + +There are a few villages of low mud hovels enclosed by square mud +walls, and hamlets of mat huts, the mats being made of woven sedges +and flags, strengthened by palm fronds, but oftener by the tall, tough +stems of growing reeds bent into arches, and woven together by the +long leaves of aquatic plants, chiefly rushes. The hovels, so +ingeniously constructed, are shared indiscriminately by the Arabs and +their animals, and crowds of women and children emerged from them as +we passed. Each village has its arrangement for raising water from the +river. + +Boats under sail, usually a fleet at a time, hurry downstream, owing +more to the strong current than to the breeze, or are hauled up +laboriously against both by their Arab crews. + +The more distant plain is sparsely sprinkled with clusters of brown +tents, long and low, and is dotted over with flocks of large brown +sheep, shepherded by Arabs in _kiffiyehs_, each shepherd armed with a +long gun slung over his shoulder. Herds of cattle and strings of +camels move slowly over the brown plain, and companies of men on +horseback, with long guns and lances, gallop up to the river bank, +throw their fiery horses on their haunches, and after a moment of +gratified curiosity wheel round and gallop back to the desert from +which they came. Occasionally a stretch of arable land is being +ploughed up by small buffaloes with most primitive ploughs, but the +plains are pastoral chiefly, tents and flocks are their chief +features--features which have changed little since the great Sheikh +Abraham, whose descendants now people them, left his "kindred" in the +not distant Ur of the Chaldees, and started on the long march to +Canaan. + +Reedy marshes, alive with water-fowl, arable lands, bare buff plains, +brown tents, brown flocks, mat huts, mud and brick villages, groups of +women and children, flights of armed horsemen, alternate rapidly,--the +unchanging features are the posts and wires of the telegraph. + +The Tigris in parts is wonderfully tortuous, and at one great bend, +"The Devil's Elbow," a man on foot can walk the distance in less than +an hour which takes the steamer four hours to accomplish. The current +is very strong, and the slow progress is rendered slower at this +season of low water by the frequent occurrence of sand-banks, of which +one is usually made aware by a jolt, a grinding sound, a cessation of +motion, some turns astern, and then full speed ahead, which often +overcomes the obstacle. Some hours' delay and the floats of one +paddle-wheel injured were the most serious disasters brought about; +and in spite of the shallows at this season, the Tigris is a noble +river, and the voyage is truly fascinating. Not that there are many +remarkable objects, but the desert atmosphere and the desert freedom +are in themselves delightful, the dust and _debris_ are the dust and +_debris_ of mighty empires, and there are countless associations with +the earliest past of which we have any records. + +Aimarah, a rising Turkish town of about 7000 people, built at a point +where the river turns at a sharp angle to the left, is interesting as +showing what commerce can create even here, in less than twenty years. +A caravan route into Persia was opened and Aimarah does a somewhat +busy trade. Flat-faced brick buildings, with projecting lattice +windows, run a good way along the left bank of the river, which is so +steep and irregular that the crowd which thronged it when the steamer +made fast was shown to great advantage--Osmanlis, Greeks, Persians, +Sabeans, Jews of great height and superb _physique_, known by +much-tasselled turbans, and a predominating Arab element. + +We walked down the long, broad, covered bazar, with a broken water +channel in the middle, where there were crowds, solely of men, meat, +game, bread, fruit, grain, lentils, horse-shoes, pack saddles, +Manchester cottons, money-changers, silversmiths, and scribes, and +heard the roar of business, and the thin shouts of boys unaccustomed +to the sight of European women. The crowds pressed and followed, +picking at my clothes, and singing snatches of songs which were not +complimentary. It had not occurred to me that I was violating rigid +custom in appearing in a hat and gauze veil rather than in a _chadar_ +and face cloth, but the mistake was made unpleasantly apparent. In +Moslem towns women go about in companies and never walk with men. + +We visited an enclosed square, where there are barracks for _zaptiehs_ +(gendarmes), the Kadi's court, and the prison, which consists of an +open grating like that of a menagerie, a covered space behind, and +dark cells or dens opening upon it, all better than the hovels of the +peasantry. There were a number of prisoners well clothed, and +apparently well fed, to whom we were an obvious diversion, but the +guards gesticulated, shouted, and brandished their side-arms, making +us at last understand that our presence in front of the grating was +forbidden. After seeing a large barrack yard, and walking, still +pursued by a crowd, round the forlorn outskirts of Aimarah, which +include a Sabean village, we visited the gold and silversmiths' shops +where the Sabeans were working at their craft, of which in this region +they have nearly a monopoly, not only settling temporarily in the +towns, but visiting the Arab encampments on the plains, where they are +always welcome as the makers and repairers of the ornaments with which +the women are loaded. These craftsmen and others of the race whom I +have seen differ greatly from the Arabs in appearance, being white +rather than brown, very white, _i.e._ very pale, with jet-black hair; +large, gentle, intelligent eyes; small, straight noses, and small, +well-formed mouths. The handsome faces of these "Christians of St. +John" are very pleasing in their expression, and there was a dainty +cleanliness about their persons and white clothing significant of +those frequent ablutions of both which are so remarkable a part of +their religion. The children at Aimarah, and generally in the riparian +villages, wear very handsome chased, convex silver links, each as +large as the top of a breakfast cup, to fasten their girdles. + +The reedy marshes, the haunts of pelicans and pigs, are left behind at +Aimarah, and tamarisk scrub and liquorice appear on the banks. At +Kut-al-Aimarah, a small military post and an Arab town of sun-dried +bricks on the verge of a high bank above the Tigris, we landed again, +and ragamuffin boys pressed very much upon us, and ragamuffin +_zaptiehs_,[5] grotesquely dressed in clothes of different European +nationalities, pelted them with stones. To take up stones and throw +them at unwelcome visitors is a frequent way of getting rid of them in +the less civilised parts of the East. + +A _zaptieh_ station, barracks, with a large and badly-kept parade +ground, a covered bazar well supplied, houses with blank walls, large +_cafes_ with broad matted benches, asafoetida, crowds of men of +superb _physique_, picturesque Arabs on high-bred horses, and a total +invisibility of women, were the salient features of Kut-al-Aimarah. +Big-masted, high-stemmed boats, the broad, turbid Tigris with a great +expanse of yellowish sand on its farther shore, reeds "shaken with the +wind," and a windy sky, heavily overcast, made up the view from the +bank. There were seen for the first time by the new-comers the most +venerable boats in the world, for they were old even when Herodotus +mentions them--_kufas_ or _gophers_, very deep round baskets covered +with bitumen, with incurved tops, and worked by one man with a paddle. +These remarkable tubs are used for the conveyance of passengers, +goods, and even animals. + + [Illustration: A GOPHER.] + +Before leaving we visited the Arab Khan or Sheikh in his house. He +received us in an upper room of difficult access, carpeted with very +handsome rugs, and with a divan similarly covered, but the walls of +brown mud were not even plastered. His manner was dignified and +courteous, and his expression remarkably shrewd. A number of men +sitting on the floor represented by their haughty aspect and +magnificent _physique_ the royalty of the Ishmaelite descent from +Abraham. This Khan said that his tribe could put 3000 fighting men +into the field, but it was obvious that its independence is broken, +and that these tribal warriors are reckoned as Osmanli irregulars or +Bashi Bazouks. The Khan remarked that "the English do not make good +friends, for," he added, "they back out when difficulties arise." + +On board the steamer the condition of the Arabs is much discussed, +and the old residents describe it as steadily growing worse under the +oppression and corruption of the Osmanli officials, who appear to be +doing their best to efface these fine riparian tribes by merciless +exactions coming upon the top of taxation so heavy as to render +agriculture unprofitable, the impositions actually driving thousands +of them to seek a living in the cities and to the Persian shores of +the Gulf, where they exchange a life of hereditary freedom for a +precarious and often scanty subsistence among unpropitious +surroundings. Still, the Arab of the desert is not conquered by the +Turks. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] According to the returns for 1889, the British tonnage entering +the Bushire roadstead was 111,745 out of 118,570 tons, and the imports +from British territory amounted to a value of L744,018 out of +L790,832. The exports from Bushire in the same year amounted to +L535,076, that of opium being largely on the increase. Among other +things exported are pistachio nuts, gum, almonds, madder, wool, and +cotton. Regarding gum, the wars in the Soudan have affected the supply +of it, and Persia is reaping the benefit, large quantities now being +collected from certain shrubs, especially from the wild almond, which +abounds at high altitudes. The drawback is that firewood and charcoal +are becoming consequently dearer and scarcer. The gum exported in 1889 +was 7472 cwts., as against 14,918 in 1888, but the value was more than +the same. + +The imports into Bushire, as comparing 1889 with 1888, have increased +by L244,186, and the exports by L147,862. The value of the export of +opium, chiefly to China, was L231,521, as against L148,523 in 1888. + +[3] "The Karun River," Hon. G. Curzon, M.P., _Proceedings of R.G.S._, +September 1890. + +[4] Sir A. H. Layard describes the interior of the domed building as +consisting of two chambers, the outer one empty, and the inner one +containing the Prophet's tomb, built of bricks covered with white +stucco, and enclosed in a wooden case or ark, over which is thrown a +large blue cloth, fringed with yellow tassels, the name of the donor +being inscribed in Hebrew characters upon it.--Layard's _Early +Adventures_, vol. i. p. 214. + +[5] A year later in Kurdistan, the _zaptiehs_, all time-expired +soldiers and well set up soldierly men, wore neat, serviceable, dark +blue braided uniforms, and high riding-boots. + + + + +LETTER I (_Continued_) + + + BAGHDAD, _Jan. 5_. + +The last day on the Tigris passed as pleasantly as its predecessors. +There was rain in the early morning, then frost which froze the rain +on deck, and at 7 A.M. the mercury in my cabin stood at 28 deg. + +In the afternoon the country became more populous, that is, there were +_kraals_ of mat huts at frequent intervals, and groups of tents to +which an external wall of mats gave a certain aspect of permanence. +Increased cultivation accompanied the increased population. In some +places the ground was being scratched with a primitive plough of +unshod wood, or a branch of a tree slightly trimmed, leaving a scar +about two inches deep. These scars, which pass for furrows, are about +ten inches apart, and camel thorn, tamarisk, and other shrubs inimical +to crops stand between them. The seed is now being sown. After it +comes up it grows apace, and in spite of shallow scratches, camel +thorn, and tamarisk the tilth is so luxuriant that the husbandmen +actually turn cattle and sheep into it for two or three weeks, and +then leave it to throw up the ear! They say that there are from +eighteen to thirty-five stalks from each seed in consequence of this +process! The harvest is reaped in April, after which water covers the +land. + +Another style of cultivation is adopted for land, of which we saw a +good deal, very low lying, and annually overflowed, usually +surrounding a nucleus of permanent marsh. This land, after the water +dries up, is destitute of vegetation, and presents a smooth, moist +surface full of cracks, which scales off later. No scratching is +needed for this soil. The seed is sown broadcast over it, and such of +it as is not devoured by birds falls into the cracks, and produces an +abundant crop. All this rich alluvial soil is stoneless, but is strewn +from Seleucia to Babylon with fragments of glass, bricks, and pottery. +Artificial mounds also abound, and remains of canals, all denoting +that these fertile plains in ancient days supported a large stationary +population. Of all that once was, this swirling river alone remains, +singing in every eddy and ripple-- + + "For men may come and men may go, + But I go on for ever." + +As we were writing in the evening we were nearly thrown off our chairs +by running aground with a thump, which injured one paddle wheel and +obliged us to lie up part of the night for repairs near the ruins of +the ancient palace of Ctesiphon. Seleucia, on the right bank of the +river, is little more now than a historic name, but the palace of +Tak-i-Kasr, with its superb archway 100 feet in height, has been even +in recent times magnificent enough in its ruin to recall the glories +of the Parthian kings, and the days when, according to Gibbon, +"Khosroes Nushirwan gave audience to the ambassadors of the world" +within its stately walls. Its gaunt and shattered remains have even +still a mournful grandeur about them, but they have suffered so +severely from the barbarous removal of the stones and the fall of much +of the front as to be altogether disappointing. + +Soon after leaving Ctesiphon there is increased cultivation, and +within a few miles of Baghdad the banks of the river, which is its +great high road, become populous. "Palatial residences," in which the +women's apartments are indicated by the blankness of their walls, are +mixed up with mud hovels and goat's-hair tents; there are large +farmhouses with enclosures for cattle and horses; date gardens and +orange groves fringe the stream, and arrangements for drawing water +are let into its banks at frequent intervals. Strings of asses laden +with country produce, companies of horsemen and innumerable foot +passengers, all moved citywards. + +The frosty sun rose out of an orange sky as a disc of blood and flame, +but the morning became misty and overcast, so that the City of the +Arabian Nights did not burst upon the view in any halo of splendour. A +few tiled minarets, the blue domes of certain mosques, handsome +houses,--some of them European Consulates, half hidden by orange +groves laden with their golden fruitage,--a picturesque bridge of +boats, a dense growth of palms on the right bank, beyond which gleam +the golden domes of Kazimain and the top of Zobeide's tomb, the +superannuated British gun-boat _Comet_, two steamers, a crowd of +native craft, including _kufas_ or _gophers_, a prominent +Custom-house, and decayed alleys opening on the water, make up the +Baghdad of the present as seen from the _Mejidieh's_ deck. + +As soon as we anchored swarms of _kufas_ clustered round us, and +swarms of officials and _hamals_ (porters) invaded the deck. Some of +the passengers had landed two hours before, others had proceeded to +their destinations at once, and as my friends had not come off I was +alone for some time in the middle of a tremendous Babel, in which +every man shouted at the top of his voice and all together, Hadji +assuming a deportment of childish helplessness. Certain officials +under cover of bribes lavished on my behalf by a man who spoke +English professed to let my baggage pass unopened, then a higher +official with a sword knocked Hadji down, then a man said that +everything would be all right if I would bestow another gold _lira_, +about L1, on the officers, and I was truly glad when kind Captain +Dougherty with Dr. Sutton came alongside in the _Comet's_ boat, and +brought me ashore. The baggage was put into another of her boats, but +as soon as we were out of sight it was removed, and was taken to the +Custom-house, where they insisted that some small tent poles in a +cover were guns, and smashed a box of dates in the idea that it was +tobacco! + +The Church Mission House, in which I am receiving hospitality, is a +"native" house, though built and decorated by Persians, as also are +several of the Consulates. It is in a narrow roadway with blank walls, +a part of the European quarter; a door of much strength admits into a +small courtyard, round which are some of the servants' quarters and +reception rooms for Moslem visitors, and within this again is a +spacious and handsome courtyard, round which are kitchens, domestic +offices, and the _serdabs_, which play an important part in Eastern +life. + +These _serdabs_ are semi-subterranean rooms, usually with arched +fronts, filled in above-ground with latticework. They are lofty, and +their vaulted roofs are supported in rich men's houses on pillars. The +well of the household is often found within. The general effect of +this one is that of a crypt, and it was most appropriate for the +Divine Service in English which greeted my arrival. The cold of it +was, however, frightful. It was only when the Holy Communion was over +that I found that I was wearing Hadji's revolver and cartridge belt +under my cloak, which he had begged me to put on to save them from +confiscation! In these vaulted chambers both Europeans and natives +spend the hot season, sleeping at night on the roofs. + +Above this lower floor are the winter apartments, which open upon a +fine stone balcony running round three sides of the court. On the +river side of the house there is an orange garden, which just now +might be the garden of the Hesperides, and a terrace, below which is +the noble, swirling Tigris, and beyond, a dark belt of palms. These +rooms on the river front have large projecting windows, six in a row, +with screens which slide up and down, and those which look to the +courtyard are secluded by very beautiful fretwork. The drawing-room, +used as a dormitory, is a superb room, in which exquisitely beautiful +ceiling and wall decorations in shades of fawn enriched with gold, and +fretwork windows, suggest Oriental feeling at every turn. The +plaster-work of this room is said to be distinctively Persian and is +very charming. The house, though large, is inconveniently crowded, +with the medical and clerical mission families, two lady missionaries, +and two guests. Each apartment has two rows of vaulted recesses in its +walls, and very fine cornices above. It is impossible to warm the +rooms, but the winter is very short and brilliant, and after ulsters, +greatcoats, and fur cloaks have been worn for breakfast, the sun +mitigates the temperature. + + I. L. B. + + + + +LETTER II + + + BAGHDAD, _Jan. 9_. + +Baghdad is too well known from the careful descriptions given of it by +Eastern travellers to justify me in lingering upon it in detail, and I +will only record a few impressions, which are decidedly _couleur de +rose_, for the weather is splendid, making locomotion a pleasure, and +the rough, irregular roadways which at other seasons are deep in foul +and choking dust, or in mud and pestilential slime, are now firm and +not remarkably dirty. + +A little earlier than this the richer inhabitants, who have _warstled_ +through the summer in their dim and latticed _serdabs_, emerge and +pitch their tents in the plains of Ctesiphon, where the men find a +stimulating amusement in hunting the boar, but it is now the "season" +in the city, the liveliest and busiest time of the year. The cholera, +which is believed to have claimed 6000 victims, has departed, and the +wailing of the women, which scarcely ceased day or night for a month, +is silent. The Jewish troubles, which apparently rose out of the +indignation of the Moslems at the burial within the gates, contrary to +a strict edict on the subject, of a Rabbi who died of cholera, have +subsided, and the motley populations and their yet more motley creeds +are for the time at peace. + +In the daytime there is a roar or hum of business, mingled with +braying of asses, squeals of belligerent horses, yells of +camel-drivers and muleteers, beating of drums, shouts of beggars, +hoarse-toned ejaculations of fakirs, ear-splitting snatches of +discordant music, and in short a chorus of sounds unfamiliar to +Western ears, but the nights are so still that the swirl of the Tigris +as it hurries past is distinctly heard. Only the long melancholy call +to prayer, or the wail of women over the dead, or the barking of dogs, +breaks the silence which at sunset falls as a pall over Baghdad. + +Under the blue sunny sky the river view is very fine. The river itself +is imposing from its breadth and volume, and in the gorgeous sunsets, +with a sky of crimson flame, and the fronds of the dark date palms +mirrored in its reddened waters, it looks really beautiful. The city +is stately enough as far as the general _coup-d'oeil_ of the river +front goes, and its river _facade_ agreeably surprises me. The Tigris, +besides being what may be called the main street, divides Baghdad into +two unequal parts, and though the city on the left bank has almost a +monopoly of picturesque and somewhat stately irregularity in the +houses of fair height, whose lattices and oriel windows overhang the +stream from an environment of orange gardens, the dark date groves +dignify the meaner buildings of the right bank. The rush of a great +river is in itself attractive, and from the roof of this house the +view is fascinating, with the ceaseless movements of hundreds of boats +and _kufas_, the constant traffic of men, horses, asses, and caravans +across the great bridge of boats, and the long lines of buildings +which with more or less picturesqueness line the great waterway. + +Without the wearisomeness of sight-seeing there is much to be seen in +Baghdad, and though much that would be novel to a new-comer from the +West is familiar to me after two years of Eastern travel, there is a +great deal that is really interesting. The _kufas_ accumulating at +their landing, freighted with the products of the Upper Tigris, the +transpontine city, in which country produce takes the foremost place; +the tramway to Kazimain constructed during the brief valiship of +Midhat Pasha, on which the last journey of the day is always performed +at a gallop, _coute que coute_; the caravans of asses, each one with a +huge fish, the "Fish of Tobias," hanging across its back; the strings +of the same humble animal, carrying skins of water from the river +throughout the city; the tombs, the mosques, the churches, the great +caravans of mules and camels, almost monopolising the narrow roadways, +Arabs and Osmanlis on showy horses, Persians, Turks, Arabs, Jews, +Armenians, Chaldaeans, in all the variety of their picturesque national +costumes, to which the niggardly clothing of a chance European acts as +an ungraceful foil; Persian dead, usually swaddled, making their last +journey on mule or horseback to the holy ground at Kerbela, and the +occasional march of horse or foot through the thronged bazars, are +among the hourly sights of a city on which European influence is +scarcely if at all perceptible. + +Turkish statistics must be received with caution, and the population +of Baghdad may not reach 120,000 souls, but it has obviously recovered +wonderfully from the effects of war, plague, inundation, and famine, +and looks busy and fairly prosperous, so much so indeed that the +account given of its misery and decay in Mr. Baillie Fraser's charming +_Travels in Kurdistan_ reads like a story of the last century. If +nothing remains of the glories of the city of the Caliphs, it is +certainly for Turkey a busy, growing, and passably wealthy +nineteenth-century capital. It is said to have a hundred mosques, +twenty-six minarets, and fifteen domes, but I have not counted them! + +Its bazars, which many people regard as the finest in the East outside +of Stamboul, are of enormous extent and very great variety. Many are +of brick, with well-built domed roofs, and sides arcaded both above +and below, and are wide and airy. Some are of wood, all are covered, +and admit light scantily, only from the roof. Those which supply the +poorer classes are apt to be ruinous and squalid--"_ramshackle_," to +say the truth, with an air of decay about them, and their roofs are +merely rough timber, roughly thatched with reeds or date tree fronds. +Of splendour there is none anywhere, and of cleanliness there are few +traces. The old, narrow, and filthy bazars in which the gold and +silversmiths ply their trade are of all the most interesting. The +trades have their separate localities, and the buyer who is in search +of cotton goods, silk stuffs, carpets, cotton yarn, gold and silver +thread, ready-made clothing, weapons, saddlery, rope, fruit, meat, +grain, fish, jewellery, muslins, copper pots, etc., has a whole alley +of contiguous shops devoted to the sale of the same article to choose +from. + +At any hour of daylight at this season progress through the bazars is +slow. They are crowded, and almost entirely with men. It is only the +poorer women who market for themselves, and in twos and threes, at +certain hours of the day. In a whole afternoon, among thousands of +men, I saw only five women, tall, shapeless, badly-made-up bundles, +carried mysteriously along, rather by high, loose, canary-yellow +leather boots than by feet. The face is covered with a thick black +gauze mask, or cloth, and the head and remainder of the form with a +dark blue or black sheet, which is clutched by the hand below the +nose. The walk is one of tottering decrepitude. All the business +transacted in the bazars is a matter of bargaining, and as Arabs shout +at the top of their voices, and buyers and sellers are equally keen, +the roar is tremendous. + +Great _cafes_, as in Cairo, occur frequently. In the larger ones from +a hundred to two hundred men are seen lounging at one time on the +broad matted seats, shouting, chaffering, drinking coffee or _sharbat_ +and smoking _chibouks_ or _kalians_. Negro attendants supply their +wants. These _cafes_ are the clubs of Baghdad. Whatever of public +opinion exists in a country where the recognised use of words is to +"conceal thought," is formed in them. They are centres of business +likewise, and much of the noise is due to bargaining, and they are +also manufactories of rumours, scandals, and fanaticism. The great +caravanserais, such as the magnificent Khan Othman, are also resorts +of merchants for the display and sale of their goods. + +Europeans never make purchases in the bazars. They either have the +goods from which they wish to make a choice brought to their houses, +or their servants bargain for them, getting a commission both from +buyer and seller. + +The splendour of the East, if it exists at all, is not to be seen in +the bazars. The jewelled daggers, the cloth of silver and gold, the +diaphanous silk tissues, the brocaded silks, the rich embroideries, +the damascened sword blades, the finer carpets, the inlaid armour, the +cunning work in brass and inlaid bronze, and all the articles of +_vertu_ and _bric-a-brac_ of real or spurious value, are carefully +concealed by their owners, and are carried for display, with much +secrecy and mystery, to the houses of their ordinary customers, and to +such European strangers as are reported to be willing to be +victimised. + +Trade in Baghdad is regarded by Europeans and large capitalists as +growing annually more depressed and unsatisfactory, but this is not +the view of the small traders, chiefly Jews and Christians, who start +with a capital of L5 or upwards, and by buying some cheap lot in +Bombay,--gay handkerchiefs, perfumery, shoes, socks, buttons, tin +boxes with mirror lids, scissors, pocket-knives, toys, and the +like,--bid fair to make small fortunes. The amount of perfumery and +rubbish piled in these ramshackle shops is wonderful. The trader who +picks up a desert Arab for a customer and sells him a knife, or a +mirror box, or a packet of candles is likely to attract to himself a +large trade, for when once the unmastered pastoral hordes of Al +Jaz[=i]ra, Trak, and Stram[=i]ya see such objects, the desire of +possession is aroused, and the refuse of Manchester and Birmingham +will find its way into every tent in the desert. + +The best bazars are the least crowded, though once in them it is +difficult to move, and the strings of asses laden with skins of water +are a great nuisance. The foot-passenger is also liable at any moment +to be ridden down by horsemen, or squeezed into a jelly by the passage +of caravans. + +It is in the meat, vegetable, cotton, oil, grain, fruit, and fish +bazars that the throngs are busiest and noisiest, and though +cucumbers, the great joy of the Turkish palate, are over, vegetables +"of sorts" are abundant, and the slant, broken sunbeams fall on +pyramids of fruit, and glorify the warm colouring of melons, apples, +and pomegranates. + +A melon of 10 lbs. weight can be got for a penny, a sheep for five or +six shillings, and fish for something like a farthing per pound, that +is the "Fish of Tobias," the monster of the Tigris waters, which is +largely eaten by the poor. Poultry and game are also very cheap, and +the absolute necessaries of life, such as broken wheat for porridge, +oil, flour, and cheese, cost little. + +Cook-shops abound, but their viands are not tempting, and the bazars +are pervaded by a pungent odour of hot sesamum oil and rancid fat, +frying being a usual mode of cooking in these restaurants. An +impassive Turk, silently smoking, sits cross-legged on a platform at +each Turkish shop door. He shows his goods as if he had no interest in +them, and whether he sells or not seems a matter of indifference, so +that he can return to his pipe. It is not to him that the overpowering +din is owing, but to the agitated eagerness of the other +nationalities. + +The charm of the bazars lies in the variety of race and costume and in +the splendid _physique_ of the greater number of the men. The European +looks "nowhere." The natural look of a Moslem is one of _hauteur_, but +no words can describe the scorn and lofty Pharisaism which sit on the +faces of the Seyyids, the descendants of Mohammed, whose hands and +even garments are kissed reverently as they pass through the crowd; or +the wrathful melancholy mixed with pride which gives a fierceness to +the dignified bearing of the magnificent beings who glide through the +streets, their white turbans or shawl head-gear, their gracefully +flowing robes, their richly embroidered under-vests, their Kashmir +girdles, their inlaid pistols, their silver-hilted dirks, and the +predominance of red throughout their clothing aiding the general +effect. Yet most of these grand creatures, with their lofty looks and +regal stride, would be accessible to a bribe, and would not despise +even a perquisite. These are the _mollahs_, the scribes, the traders, +and the merchants of the city. + +The Bedouin and the city Arabs dress differently, and are among the +marked features of the streets. The under-dress is a very coarse shirt +of unbleached homespun cotton, rarely clean, over which the Sheikhs +and richer men wear a robe of striped silk or cotton with a Kashmir +girdle of a shawl pattern in red on a white ground. The poor wear +shirts of coarse hair or cotton, without a robe. The invariable +feature of Arab dress is the _abba_--a long cloak, sleeveless, but +with holes through which to pass the arms, and capable of many +adaptations. It conceals all superabundance and deficiency of attire, +and while it has the dignity of the _toga_ by day it has the utility +of a blanket by night. The better-class _abba_ is very hard, being +made of closely-woven worsted, in broad brown and white or black and +white perpendicular stripes. The poorest _abba_ is of coarse brown +worsted, and even of goat's-hair. I saw many men who were destitute of +any clothing but tattered _abbas_ tied round their waists by frayed +hair ropes. The _abba_ is the distinctive national costume of the +Arabs. The head-gear is not the turban but a shawl of very thick silk +woven in irregular stripes of yellow and red, with long cords and +tassels depending, made of the twisted woof. This handsome square is +doubled triangularly, the double end hangs down the back, and the +others over the shoulders. A loosely-twisted rope of camel's-hair is +wound several times round the crown of the head. When the weather is +cold, being like all Orientals very sensitive in their heads, they +bring one side of the shawl over the whole of the face but the eyes, +and tuck it in, in great cold only exposing one eye, and in great heat +also. Most Moslems shave the head, but the Arabs let their hair grow +very long, and wear it in a number of long plaits, and these elf-locks +mixed up with the long coloured tassels of the _kiffiyeh_, and the +dark glittering eyes looking out from under the yellow silk, give them +an appearance of extreme wildness, aided by the long guns which they +carry and their long desert stride. + +The Arab moves as if he were the ruler of the country, though the grip +of the Osmanli may be closing on him. His eyes are deeply set under +shaggy eyebrows, his nose is high and sharp, he is long and thin, his +profile suggests a bird of prey, and his demeanour a fierce +independence. + +The Arab women go about the streets unveiled, and with the _abba_ +covering their very poor clothing, but it is not clutched closely +enough to conceal the extraordinary tattooing which the Bedouin women +everywhere regard as ornamental. There are artists in Baghdad who make +their living by this mode of decorating the person, and vie with each +other in the elaboration of their patterns. I saw several women +tattooed with two wreaths of blue flowers on their bosoms linked by a +blue chain, palm fronds on the throat, stars on the brow and chin, and +bands round the wrists and ankles. These disfigurements, and large +gold or silver filigree buttons placed outside one nostril by means of +a wire passed through it, worn by married women, are much admired. +When these women sell country produce in the markets, they cover their +heads with the ordinary _chadar_. + +The streets are narrow, and the walls, which are built of fire-burned +bricks, are high. Windows to the streets are common, and the oriel +windows, with their warm brown lattices projecting over the roadways +at irregular heights, are strikingly picturesque. Not less so are +latticework galleries, which are often thrown across the street to +connect the two houses of wealthy residents, and the sitting-rooms +with oriel windows, which likewise bridge the roadways. Solid doorways +with iron-clasped and iron-studded doors give an impression of +security, and suggest comfort and to some extent home life, and sprays +of orange trees, hanging over walls, and fronds of date palms give an +aspect of pleasantness to the courtyards. + +The best parts of the city, where the great bazars, large +dwelling-houses, and most of the mosques are, is surrounded by a +labyrinth of alleys, fringing off into streets growing meaner till +they cease altogether among open spaces, given up to holes, heaps, +rubbish, the slaughter of animals, and in some favoured spots to the +production of vegetables. Then come the walls, which are of +kiln-burned bricks, and have towers intended for guns at intervals. +The wastes within the walls have every element of decay and meanness, +the wastes without, where the desert sands sweep up to the very foot +of the fortifications, have many elements of grandeur. + +Baghdad is altogether built of chrome-yellow kiln-dried bricks. There +are about twenty-five kilns, chiefly in the hands of Jews and +Christians in the wastes outside the city, but the demand exceeds the +supply, not for building only, but for the perpetual patchings which +houses, paths, and walls are always requiring, owing to the absorption +of moisture in the winter. + +Bricks at the kilns sell for 36s. per thousand twelve inches square, +and 18s. per thousand seven inches square. They are carried from the +kilns on donkeys, small beasts, each taking ten large or twenty-five +small bricks. + +Unskilled labour is abundant. Men can be engaged at 9d. a day, and +boys for 5d. + +This afternoon, in the glory of a sunset which reddened the yellow +waste up to the distant horizon, a caravan of mules, mostly in single +file, approached the city. Each carried two or four white bales slung +on his sides, or two or more long boxes, consisting of planks roped +rather than nailed together. This is the fashion in which thousands of +Persian Moslems (Shiahs or "Sectaries") have been conveyed for ages +for final burial at Kerbela, the holiest place of the Shiahs, an easy +journey from Baghdad, where rest the ashes of Ali, regarded as +scarcely second to Mohammed, and of Houssein and Hassan his sons, +whose "martyrdom" is annually commemorated by a Passion Play which is +acted in every town and village in Persia. To make a pilgrimage to +Kerbela, or to rest finally in its holy dust, or both, constitutes +the ambition of every Shiah. The Sunnis, or "Orthodox," who hate the +Shiahs, are so far kept in check that these doleful caravans are not +exposed to any worse molestation than the shouts and ridicule of +street Arabs. + +The mode of carrying the dead is not reverent. The _katirgis_, who +contract for the removal, hurry the bodies along as goods, and pile +them in the yards of the caravanserais at night, and the mournful +journey is performed, oftener than not, without the presence of +relations, each body being ticketed with the name once borne by its +owner. Some have been exhumed and are merely skeletons, others are in +various stages of decomposition, and some are of the newly dead.[6] + +Outside the walls predatory Arabs render the roads unsafe for solitary +travellers, and at times for feeble caravans; but things in this +respect are better than they were. + +Visits to the Armenian and Chaldaean Churches, to the Mosque of Abdel +Kader, with its courts thronged by Afghan pilgrims, and to the Jewish +quarter, have been very interesting. There are said to be 30,000 Jews +here, and while a large proportion of them are in poverty, on the +whole they are an influential nationality, and some of them are very +rich. + +Through the liberality of Sir Albert Sassoon a Jewish High School has +been opened, where an admirable education is given. I was extremely +pleased with it, and with the director, who speaks French fluently, +and with the proficiency in French of the elder students. He describes +their earnestness and energetic application as being most remarkable. + +The French Carmelite monks have a large, solid "Mission Church" or +Cathedral with a fine peal of bells, and a very prosperous school +attached, in which are boys belonging to all the many creeds professed +in Baghdad. The sisters of St. Joseph have a school for girls, which +Turkish children are not slow to avail themselves of. The sisters find +a remarkable unhandiness among the women. Few, if any, among them have +any idea of cutting out or repairing, and rich and poor are equally +incapable of employing their fingers usefully. + +The people here are so used to the sight of Europeans that it is quite +easy for foreign ladies to walk in this quarter only attended by a +servant, and I have accompanied Mrs. Sutton on visits to several +Armenian houses. The Armenians are in many cases wealthy, as their +admirably-designed and well-built houses testify. The Christian +population is estimated at 5000, and its wealth and energy give it +greater importance than its numbers warrant. One of the houses which +we visited was truly beautiful and in very good taste, the solidity of +the stone and brickwork, the finish of the wood, and the beauty of the +designs and their execution in hammered iron being quite remarkable. +The lofty roofs and cornices are elaborately worked in plaster, and +this is completely concealed by hundreds or thousands of mirrors set +so as to resemble facets, so that roof and cornices flash like +diamonds. This is a Persian style of decoration, and is extremely +effective in large handsome rooms. Superb carpets and divans and tea +tables inlaid with mother-of-pearl furnish the reception and smoking +rooms, and the bedrooms and nurseries over which we were taken were +simply arranged with French bedsteads and curtains of Nottingham +mosquito net. As in other Eastern houses, there were no traces of +occupation, no morning room or den sacred to litter; neither was there +anything to look at--the opposite extreme from our overloaded +drawing-rooms--or any library. Cigarettes and black coffee in minute +porcelain cups, in gold filigree receptacles, were presented on each +occasion, and the kind and courteous intention was very pleasing. + +The visits which I paid with Dr. Sutton were very different. He has +worked as a medical missionary here for some years, and his unaffected +benevolence and quiet attention to all suffering persons, without +distinction of race or creed, and his recent extraordinary labours by +night and day among the cholera-smitten people, have won for him +general esteem and confidence, and he is even allowed to enter Moslem +houses and prescribe for the women in some cases. + +The dispensary, in which there is not half enough accommodation, is +very largely attended by people of all creeds, and even Moslem women, +though exclusively of the poorer classes, avail themselves of it. +Yesterday, when I was there, the comfortable seats of the cheerful +matted waiting-room were all occupied by Armenian and Chaldaean women, +unveiled and speaking quite freely to Dr. Sutton; while a few Moslem +women, masked rather than veiled, and enveloped in black sheets, +cowered on the floor and scarcely let their voices be heard even in a +tremulous whisper. + +I am always sorry to see any encroachment made by Christian teachers +on national customs where they are not contrary to morality, and +willingly leave to Eastern women the _pardah_ and the veil, but still +there is a wholesomeness about the unveiled, rosy, comely, frank faces +of these Christian women. But--and it is a decided but--though the +women were comely, and though some of the Armenian girls are +beautiful, every one has one or more flattish depressions on her +face--scars in fact--the size of a large date stone. Nearly the whole +population is thus disfigured. So universal is it among the +fair-skinned Armenian girls, that so far from being regarded as a +blemish, it is viewed as a token of good health, and it is said that a +young man would hesitate to ask for the hand of a girl in marriage if +she had not a "date mark" on her face. + +These "date boils," or "Baghdad boils," as they are sometimes called, +are not slow in attacking European strangers, and few, if any, escape +during their residence here. As no cause can reasonably be assigned +for them, so no cure has been found. Various remedies, including +cauterisation, have been tried, but without success, and it is now +thought wisest to do nothing more than keep them dry and clean, and +let them run their natural course, which lasts about a year. Happily +they are not so painful as ordinary boils. The malady appears at first +as a white point, not larger than a pin's head, and remains thus for +about three months. Then the flesh swells, becomes red and hard and +suppurates, and underneath a rough crust which is formed is corroded +and eaten away as by vitriol. On some strangers the fatal point +appears within a few days of their arrival. + +In two years in the East I have not seen any European welcomed so +cordially as Dr. Sutton into Moslem homes. The _Hak[=i]m_, exhibiting +in "quiet continuance in well-doing" the legible and easily-recognised +higher fruits of Christianity, while refraining from harsh and +irreverent onslaughts on the creeds of those whose sufferings he +mitigates, is everywhere blessed.[7] + +To my thinking, no one follows in the Master's footprints so closely +as the medical missionary, and on no agency for alleviating human +suffering can one look with more unqualified satisfaction. The +medical mission is the outcome of the living teachings of our faith. I +have now visited such missions in many parts of the world, and never +saw one which was not healing, helping, blessing; softening prejudice, +diminishing suffering, making an end of many of the cruelties which +proceed from ignorance, restoring sight to the blind, limbs to the +crippled, health to the sick, telling, in every work of love and of +consecrated skill, of the infinite compassion of Him who came "not to +destroy men's lives, but to save them." + +In one house Dr. Sutton was welcome because he had saved a woman's +life, in another because a blind youth had received his sight, and so +on. Among our visits was one to a poor Moslem family in a very poor +quarter. No matter how poor the people are, their rooms stand back +from the street, and open on yards more or less mean. It is a misnomer +to call this dwelling a house, or to write that it _opens_, for it is +merely an arched recess which can never be shut! + +In a hole in the middle of an uneven earthen floor there was a fire of +tamarisk root and animal fuel, giving off a stinging smoke. On this +the broken wheat porridge for supper was being cooked in a copper pot, +supported on three rusty cannon-balls. An earthenware basin, a wooden +spoon, a long knife, a goat-skin of water, a mallet, a long hen-coop, +which had served as the bed for the wife when she was ill, some ugly +hens, a clay jar full of grain, two heaps of brick rubbish, and some +wadded quilts, which had taken on the prevailing gray-brown colour, +were the plenishings of the arch. + +Poverty brings one blessing in Turkey--the poor man is of necessity a +monogamist. Wretched though the place was, it had the air of home, and +the smoky hole in the floor was a fireside. The wife was unveiled and +joined in the conversation, the husband was helping her to cook the +supper, and the children were sitting round or scrambling over their +parents' knees. All looked as happy as people in their class anywhere. +It is good to have ocular demonstration that such homes exist in +Turkey. God be thanked for them! The man, a fine frank-looking Turk, +welcomed Dr. Sutton jovially. He had saved the wife's life and was +received as their best friend. Who indeed but the medical missionary +would care for such as them and give them of his skill "without money +and without price"? The hearty laugh of this Turk was good to hear, +his wife smiled cordially, and the boys laughed like their father. The +eldest, a nice, bright fellow of nine, taught in the mosque school, +was proud to show how well he could read Arabic, and read part of a +chapter from St. John's Gospel, his parents looking on with wonder and +admiration. + +Among the Christian families we called on were those of the dispenser +and catechist--people with very small salaries but comfortable homes. +These families were living in a house furnished like those of the rich +Armenians, but on a very simple scale, the floor and dais covered with +Persian carpets, the divan with Turkish woollen stuff, and there were +in addition a chair or two, and silk cushions on the floor. In one +room there were an intelligent elderly woman, a beautiful girl of +seventeen, married a few days ago, and wearing her bridal ornaments, +with her husband; another man and his wife, and two bright, +ruddy-cheeked boys who spoke six languages. All had "date marks" on +their faces. After a year among Moslems and Hindus, it was startling +to find men and women sitting together, the women unveiled, and taking +their share in the conversation merrily and happily. Even the young +bride took the initiative in talking to Dr. Sutton. + +Of course the Christian women cover their faces in the streets, but +the covering is of different material and arrangement, and is really +magnificent, being of very rich, stiff, corded silk--self-coloured +usually--black, heliotrope, or dark blue, with a contrasting colour +woven in deep vandykes upon a white ground as a border. The silk is +superb, really capable of standing on end with richness. Such a sheet +costs about L5. The ambition of every woman is to possess one, and to +gratify it she even denies herself in the necessaries of life. + +The upper classes of both Moslem and Christian women are rarely seen +on foot in the streets except on certain days, as when they visit the +churches and the mosques and burial-grounds. Nevertheless they go +about a great deal to visit each other, riding on white asses, which +are also used by _mollahs_ and rich elderly merchants. All asses have +their nostrils slit to improve their wind. A good white ass of long +pedigree, over thirteen hands high, costs as much as L50. As they are +groomed till they look as white as snow, and are caparisoned with red +leather trappings embroidered with gold thread and silks, and as a +rider on a white ass is usually preceded by runners who shout and +brandish sticks to clear the way, this animal always suggests +position, or at least wealth. + +Women of the upper classes mounted on these asses usually go to pay +afternoon visits in companies, with mounted eunuchs and attendants, +and men to clear the way. They ride astride with short stirrups, but +the rider is represented only by a shapeless blue bundle, out of which +protrude two yellow boots. Blacks of the purest negro type frequently +attend on women, and indeed consequence is shown by the possession of +a number of them. + +Of the Georgian and Circassian _belles_ of the harams, a single +lustrous eye with its brilliancy enhanced by the use of _kohl_ is all +that one sees. At the bottom of the scale are the Arab women and the +unsecluded women of the lower orders generally, who are of necessity +drudges, and are old hags before they are twenty, except in the few +cases in which they do not become mothers, when the good looks which +many of them possess in extreme youth last a little longer. If one's +memories of Baghdad women were only of those to be seen in the +streets, they would be of leathery, wrinkled faces, prematurely old, +figures which have lost all shape, and henna-stained hands crinkled +and deformed by toil. + +Baghdad is busy and noisy with traffic. Great quantities of British +goods pass through it to Persia, avoiding by doing so the horrible +rock ladders between Bushire and Isfahan. The water transit from +England and India, only involving the inconvenience of transhipment at +Basrah, makes Baghdad practically into a seaport, with something of +the bustle and vivacity of a seaport, and caravans numbering from +20,000 to 26,000 laden mules are employed in the carriage of goods to +and from the Persian cities. A duty of one per cent is levied on goods +in transit to Persia.[8] + +The trade of Baghdad is not to be despised. The principal articles +which were imported from Europe amounted in 1889 to a value of +L621,140, and from India to L239,940, while the exports from Baghdad +to Europe and America were valued in the same year at L469,200, and +to India by British India Company steamers only at L35,150. In looking +through the Consular list of exports, it is interesting to notice that +13,400 cwts. of gum of the value of L70,000 were exported in 1889. +Neither the Indian postage stamps nor ours should suffer from the +partial failure of the Soudan supply. + +Liquorice roots to the value of L7800 were exported in 1888, almost +solely to America, to be used in the preparation of quid tobacco and +"fancy drinks"! + +The gall nuts which grow in profusion on the dwarf oaks which cover +many hillsides, were exported last year to the value of L35,000, to be +used chiefly in the production of ink, so closely is commerce binding +countries one to the other. + +Two English firms have concessions for pressing wool and making it +into bales suitable for shipment. There are five principal English +firms here, three French, and six Turkish, not including the small +fry. There are five foreign Consulates. + +The carriage of goods is one of the most important of Persian and +Turkish industries, and the breeding of mules and the manufacture of +caravan equipments give extensive employment; but one shudders to +think of the amount of suffering involved in sore backs and wounds, +and of exhausted and over-weighted animals lying down forlornly to +die, having their eyes picked out before death. + +The mercury was at 37 deg. at breakfast-time this morning. Fuel is scarce +and dear, some of the rooms are without fireplaces, and these good +people study, write, and work cheerfully in this temperature in open +rooms, untouched by the early sun. + +The preparations for to-morrow's journey are nearly complete. Three +mules have been engaged for the baggage--one for Hadji, and a saddle +mule for myself; stores, a revolver, and a _mangel_ or brazier have +been bought; a permit to travel has been obtained, and my hosts, with +the most thoughtful kindness, have facilitated all the arrangements. I +have bought two mule _yekdans_, which are tall, narrow leather trunks +on strong iron frames, with stout straps to buckle over the top of the +pack saddle. On the whole I find that it is best to adopt as far as +possible the travelling equipments of the country in which one +travels. The muleteers and servants understand them better, and if any +thing goes wrong, or wears out, it can be repaired or replaced. I have +given away _en route_ nearly all the things I brought from England, +and have reduced my camp furniture to a folding bed and a chair. I +shall start with three novelties--a fellow-traveller,[9] a saddle +mule, and an untried saddle. + +It is expected that the journey will be a very severe one, owing to +the exceptionally heavy snowfall reported from the Zagros mountains +and the Persian plateau. The Persian post has arrived several days +late. I. L. B. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[6] I heard that the Shah had prohibited this "Dead March" to Kerbela, +on account of the many risks to the public health involved in it, but +nearly a year later, in Persian Kurdistan, I met, besides thousands of +living pilgrims, a large caravan of the dead. + +[7] Six months later a Bakhtiari chief, a bigoted Moslem, said to me +at the conclusion of an earnest plea for European medical advice, +"Yes, Jesus was a great prophet; _send us a Hak[=i]m in His +likeness_," and doubtless the nearer that likeness is the greater is +the success. + +[8] The entire trade of Baghdad is estimated at about L2,500,000, of +which the Persian transit trade is nearly a quarter. The Persian +imports and exports through Baghdad are classified thus: Manufactured +goods, including Manchester piece goods, and continental woollens and +cottons, 7000 to 8000 loads. Indian manufactures, 1000 loads. Loaf +sugar, chiefly from Marseilles, 6000 loads. Drugs, pepper, coffee, +tea, other sugars, indigo, cochineal, copper, and spelter, 7000 loads. +The Persian exports for despatch by sea include wool, opium, cotton, +carpets, gum, and dried fruits, and for local consumption, among +others, tobacco, _roghan_ (clarified butter), and dried and fresh +fruits, with a probable bulk of from 12,000 to 15,000 loads. + +[9] I had given up the idea of travelling in Persia, and was preparing +to leave India for England, when an officer, with whom I was then +unacquainted, and who was about to proceed to Tihran on business, +kindly offered me his escort. The journey turned out one of extreme +hardship and difficulty, and had it not been for his kindness and +efficient help I do not think that I should have accomplished it. + + + + +LETTER III[10] + + + YAKOBIYEH, ASIATIC TURKEY, _Jan. 11_. + +Whether for "well or ill" the journey to Tihran is begun. I am ashamed +to say that I had grown so nervous about its untried elements, and +about the possibilities of the next two months, that a very small +thing would have made me give it up at the last moment; but now that I +am fairly embarked upon it in splendid weather, the spirit of travel +has returned. + +Much remained for the last morning,--debts to be paid in complicated +money, for Indian, Turkish, and Persian coins are all current here; +English circular notes to be turned into difficult coin, and the usual +"row" with the muleteers to be endured. This disagreeable farce +attends nearly all departures in the East, and I never feel the +comfortable assurance that it means nothing. + +The men weighed my baggage, which was considerably under weight, the +day before, but yesterday three or four of them came into the +courtyard, shouting in Arabic at the top of their loud harsh voices +that they would not carry the loads. Hadji roared at them, loading his +revolver all the time, calling them "sons of burnt fathers," and other +choice names. Dr. Bruce and Dr. Sutton reasoned with them from the +balcony, when, in the very height of the row, they suddenly +shouldered the loads and went off with them. + +Two hours later the delightful hospitalities of Dr. and Mrs. Sutton +were left behind, and the farewell to the group in the courtyard of +the mission house is a long farewell to civilisation. Rumours of +difficulties have been rife, and among the various dismal prophecies +the one oftenest repeated is that we shall be entangled in the snows +of the Zagros mountains; but the journey began propitiously among +oranges and palms, bright sunshine and warm good wishes. My mule turns +out a fine, spirited, fast-walking animal, and the untried saddle +suits me. My marching equipment consists of two large holsters, with a +revolver and tea-making apparatus in one, and a bottle of milk, and +dates in the other. An Afghan sheepskin coat is strapped to the front +of the saddle, and a blanket and stout mackintosh behind. I wear a +cork sun-helmet, a gray mask instead of a veil, an American mountain +dress with a warm jacket over it, and tan boots, scarcely the worse +for a year of Himalayan travel. Hadji is dressed like a wild +Ishmaelite. + +Captain Dougherty of H.M.S. _Comet_ and his chief engineer piloted us +through the narrow alleys and thronged bazars,--a _zaptieh_, or +gendarme, with a rifle across his saddle-bow, and a sheathed sabre in +his hand, shouting at the donkey boys, and clearing the crowd to right +and left. Through the twilight of the bazars, where chance rays of +sunshine fell on warm colouring, gay merchandise, and picturesque +crowds; along narrow alleys, overhung by brown lattice windows; out +under the glorious blue of heaven among ruins and graves, through the +northern gateway, and then there was an abrupt exchange of the roar +and limitations of the City of the Caliphs for the silence of the +desert and the brown sweep of a limitless horizon. A walled Eastern +city has no suburbs. It is a literal step from a crowded town to +absolute solitude. The contrast is specially emphasised at Baghdad, +where the transition is made from a great commercial city with a +crowded waterway, to an uninhabited plain in the nudity of mid-winter. + +A last look at gleaming domes, coloured minarets, and massive +mausoleums, rising out of an environment of palms and orange groves, +at the brick walls and towers of the city, at the great gate to which +lines of caravans were converging from every quarter, a farewell to +the kindly pilots, and the journey began in earnest. + +The "Desert" sweeps up to the walls of Baghdad, but it is a misnomer +to call the vast level of rich, stoneless, alluvial soil a desert. It +is a dead flat of uninhabited earth; orange colocynth balls, a little +wormwood, and some alkaline plants which camels eat, being its chief +products. After the inundations reedy grass grows in the hollows. It +is a waste rather than a desert, and was once a populous plain, and +the rich soil only needs irrigation to make it "blossom as the rose." +Traces of the splendid irrigation system under which it was once a +garden abound along the route. + +The mid-day and afternoon were as glorious as an unclouded sky, a warm +sun, and a fresh, keen air could make them. The desert freedom was all +around, and the nameless charm of a nomadic life. The naked plain, +which stretched to the horizon, was broken only by the brown tents of +Arabs, mixed up with brown patches of migrating flocks, strings of +brown camels, straggling caravans, and companies of Arab horsemen +heavily armed. An expanse of dried mud, the mirage continually seen, a +cloudless sky, and a brilliant sun--this was all. I felt better at +once in the pure, exhilarating desert air, and nervousness about the +journey was left behind. I even indulged in a gallop, and except for +her impetuosity, which carried me into the middle of a caravan, and +turning round a few times, the mule behaved so irreproachably that I +forgot the potential possibilities of evil. Still, I do not think that +there can ever be that perfect correspondence of will between a mule +and his rider that there is between a horse and his rider. + +The mirage was almost continual and grossly deceptive. Fair blue lakes +appeared with palms and towers mirrored on their glassy surfaces, +giving place to snowy ranges with bright waters at their feet, fringed +by tall trees, changing into stately processions, all so absolutely +real that the real often seemed the delusion. These deceptions, +continued for several hours, were humiliating and exasperating. + +Towards evening the shams disappeared, the waste purpled as the sun +sank, and after riding fifteen miles we halted near the mud village of +Orta Khan, a place with brackish water and no supplies but a little +brackish sheep's milk. The caravanserai was abominable, and we rode on +to a fine gravelly camping-ground, but the headman and some of the +villagers came out, and would not hear of our pitching the tents where +we should be the prey of predatory hordes, strong enough, they said, +to overpower an officer, two _zaptiehs_, and three orderlies! Being +unwilling to get them into trouble, we accepted a horrible +camping-ground, a mud-walled "garden," trenched for dates, and lately +irrigated, as damp and clayey as it could be. My _dhurrie_ will not be +dry again this winter. The mules could not get in, the baggage was +unloaded at some distance, and was all mixed up, and Hadji showed +himself incapable; my tent fell twice, remained precarious, and the +_kanats_ were never pegged down at all. + +The _dhurrie_ was trampled into the mud by clayey feet. Baggage had to +be disentangled and unpacked after dark, and the confusion apt to +prevail on the first night of a march was something terrible. It +opened my eyes to the thorough inefficiency of Hadji, who was so dazed +with opium this morning that he stood about in a dream, ejaculating +"_Ya Allah!_" when it was suggested that he should bestir himself, +leaving me to do all the packing, groaning as he took up the tent +pegs, and putting on the mule's bridle with the bit hanging under her +chin! + +The night was very damp, not quite frosty, and in the dim morning the +tent and its contents were wet. Tea at seven, with Baghdad rusks, with +a distinctly "native taste," two hours spent in standing about on the +damp, clayey ground till my feet were numb, while the men, most of +whom were complaining of rheumatism, stumbled through their new work; +and then five hours of wastes, enlivened by caravans of camels, mules, +horses, or asses, and sometimes of all mixed, with their wild, armed +drivers. The leader of each caravan carries a cylinder-shaped bell +under his throat, suspended from a red leather band stitched with +cowries, another at his chest, and very large ones, often twenty-four +inches long by ten in diameter, hanging from each pack. Every other +animal of the caravan has smaller bells, and the tones, which are +often most musical, reach from the deep note of a church bell up to +the frivolous jingle of sleigh bells; jingle often becomes jangle when +several caravans are together. The _katirgis_ (muleteers) spend large +sums on the bells and other decorations. Among the loads we met or +overtook were paraffin, oranges, pomegranates, carpets, cotton goods, +melons, grain, and chopped straw. The waste is covered with tracks, +and a guide is absolutely necessary. + +The day has been still and very gloomy, with flakes of snow falling at +times. The passing over rich soil, once cultivated and populous, now +abandoned to the antelope and partridge, is most melancholy. The +remains of canals and water-courses, which in former days brought the +waters of the Tigris and the Diyalah into the fields of the great +grain-growing population of these vast levels of Chaldaea and +Mesopotamia, are everywhere, and at times create difficulties on the +road. By road is simply meant a track of greater or less width, +trodden on the soil by the passage of caravans for ages. On these two +marches not a stone has been seen which could strike a ploughshare. + +Great ancient canals, with their banks in ruins and their deep beds +choked up and useless, have been a mournful feature of rather a dismal +day's journey. We crossed the bed of the once magnificent Nahrwan +canal, the finest of the ancient irrigation works to the east of the +Tigris, still in many places from twenty-five to forty feet deep and +from 150 to 200 feet in breadth. + +For many miles the only permanent village is a collection of miserable +mud hovels round a forlorn caravanserai, in which travellers may find +a wretched refuge from the vicissitudes of weather. There is a +remarkable lack of shelter and provender, considering that this is not +only one of the busiest of caravan routes, but is enormously +frequented by Shiah pilgrims on their way from Persia to the shrines +of Kerbela. + +After crossing the Nahrwan canal the road keeps near the right bank of +the Diyalah, a fine stream, which for a considerable distance runs +parallel with the Tigris at a distance of from ten to thirty miles +from it, and falls into it below Baghdad; and _imamzadas_ and villages +with groves of palms break the line of the horizon, while on the left +bank for fully two miles are contiguous groves of dates and +pomegranates. These groves are walled, and among them this +semi-decayed and ruinous town is situated, miserably shrunk from its +former proportions. We entered Yakobiyeh after crossing the Diyalah +by a pontoon bridge of twelve boats, and found one good house with +projecting lattice windows, and a large entrance over which the head +and ears of a hare were nailed; narrow, filthy lanes, a covered bazar, +very dark and ruinous, but fairly well supplied, an archway, and +within it this caravanserai in which the baggage must be waited for +for two hours. + +This first experience of a Turkish inn is striking. There is a large +square yard, heaped with dirt and rubbish, round which are stables and +some dark, ruinous rooms. A broken stair leads to a flat mud roof, on +which are some narrow "stalls,"--_rooms_ they cannot be called,--with +rude doors fastening only from the outside, for windows small round +holes mostly stuffed with straw near the roof, for floors sodden +earth, for fireplaces holes in the same, the walls slimy and +unplastered, the corners full of ages of dusty cobwebs, both the walls +and the rafters of the roof black with ages of smoke, and beetles and +other abominations hurry into crannies, when the doors are opened, to +emerge as soon as they are shut. A small hole in the wall outside each +stall serves for cooking. The habits of the people are repulsive, foul +odours are only hybernating, and so, mercifully, are the vermin. + +While waiting for the "furniture" which is to make my "unfurnished +apartment" habitable, I write sitting on my camp stool with its back +against the wall, wrapped up in a horse-blanket, a heap of saddles, +swords, holsters, and gear keeping the wind from my feet. The Afghan +orderly smokes at the top of the stair. Plumes of palms and +faintly-seen ridges of snowy hills appear over the battlements of the +roof. A snow wind blows keenly. My fingers are nearly numb, and I am +generally stiff and aching, but so much better that discomforts are +only an amusement. Snow is said to be impending. I have lunched +frugally on sheep's milk and dates, and feel everything but my present +surroundings to be very far off, and as if I had lived the desert +life, and had heard the chimes of the great caravans, and had seen the +wild desert riders, and the sun sinking below the level line of the +desert horizon, for two months instead of two days. + +Yakobiyeh is said to have 800 houses. It has some small mosques and +several caravanserais, of which this is the best! It was once a +flourishing place, but repeated ravages of the plague and chronic +official extortions have reduced it to decay. Nevertheless, it grows +grain enough for its own needs on poorly irrigated soil, and in its +immense gardens apples, pears, apricots, walnuts, and mulberries +flourish alongside of the orange and palm. + +_Kizil Robat, Jan. 14._--It was not very cold at Yakobiyeh. At home +few people would be able to sit in a fireless den, with the door open, +on a January night, but fireless though it was, my slender camp +equipage gave it a look of comfort, and though rats or mice ate a bag +of rusks during the night, and ran over my bed, there were no other +annoyances. Hadji grows more dazed and possibly more unwilling every +day, as he sees his vista of perquisites growing more limited, and to +get off, even at nine, I have to do the heavy as well as the light +packing myself. + +There was a great "row," arising out of an alleged delinquency of the +_katirgis_ concerning payment, when we left Yakobiyeh the following +morning. The owners of the caravanserai wanted to detain us, and the +archway was so packed with a shouting, gesticulating, scowling, and +not kindly crowd, mostly armed, that it was not easy for me to mount. +The hire of mules always includes their fodder and the keep of the +men, but in the first day or two the latter usually attempt to break +their bargain, and compel their employer to provide for them. So long +as Arabic is spoken Hadji acts as sole interpreter, and though +soldiers and _zaptiehs_ were left with him he was scared at being left +behind with the baggage. The people stormed and threatened at the top +of their voices, but doubtless it was not so bad as it sounded, for we +got through the bazars without molestation, and then into a perplexing +system of ancient water-courses whose high broken banks and deep +waterless beds intersect each other and the road. In contrast to this +magnificent irrigation system there are modern water-channels about a +foot wide, taken from the river Diyalah, which, small as they are, +turn the rich deep soil into a "fruitful field." + +After these glimpses of a prosperity which once was and might be again +(for these vast alluvial plains, which extend from the Zagros +mountains to the Euphrates and up to the Syrian desert, are capable +with irrigation and cultivation of becoming the granary of Western +Asia), the road emerges on a level and somewhat gravelly waste, on +which after a long ride we were overtaken by a _zaptieh_ sent by the +Persian agent in Yakobiyeh, to say that the baggage and servants were +being forcibly detained, but shortly afterwards with a good glass the +caravan was seen emerging from the town. + +The country was nearly as featureless as on the preceding day, and on +the whole quite barren; among the few caravans on the road there were +two of immense value, the loads being the best description of Persian +carpets. There were a few families on asses, migrating with all their +possessions, and a few parties of Arab horsemen picturesquely and very +fully armed, but no dwellings, till in the bright afternoon sunshine, +on the dreariest stretch of an apparently verdureless waste, we came +on the caravanserai of Wiyjahea, a gateway with a room above it, a +square court with high walls and arched recesses all round for goods +and travellers, and large stables. A row of reed huts, another of Arab +tents, and a hovel opposite the gateway, where a man with two guns +within reach sells food, tobacco, and hair ropes, make up this place +of horror. For, indeed, the only water is a brackish reedy pool, with +its slime well stirred by the feet of animals, and every man's hand is +against his brother. + +We proposed to pitch my tent in a ruined enclosure, but the headman +was unwilling, and when it was suggested that it should be placed +between the shop and the caravanserai, he said that before sunset all +the predatory Arabs for ten miles round would hear that "rich +foreigners were travelling," and would fall upon and plunder us, so we +must pitch, if at all, in the filthy and crowded court of the +caravanserai. The _balakhana_, or upper room, was too insecure for me, +and had no privacy, as the fodder was kept in it, and there was no +method of closing the doors, which let in the bitterly cold wind. + +We arrived at 3 P.M., and long before sunset a number of caravans came +in, and the courtyard was full of horses, mules, and asses. When they +halted the loads were taken off and stacked in the arched recesses; +next, the great padded pack-saddles, which cover nearly the whole +back, were removed, revealing in most cases deep sores and ulcers. +Then the animals were groomed with box curry-combs, with "clatters" +like the noise of a bird-scarer inside them. Fifty curry-combs going +at once is like the din of the cicada. Then the beasts were driven in +batches to the reedy pool, and came flying back helter-skelter through +the archway, some fighting, others playing, many rolling. One of them +nearly pulled my tent over by rolling among the tent ropes. It had +been pitched on damp and filthy ground in a corner of the yard, among +mules, horses, asses, dogs, and the roughest of rough men, but even +there the damp inside looked like home. + +After this brief hilarity, the pack-saddles, which serve as blankets, +were put on, the camels were made to lie down in rows, most of the +mules and horses were tethered in the great stable, where they +neighed, stamped, and jangled their bells all night, and others were +picketed in the yard among the goats and donkeys and the big dogs, +which wandered about yelping. Later, the small remaining space was +filled up with sheep. It was just possible to move, but no more, and +sheep and goats were even packed under the _flys_ of my tent. The +muleteers and travellers spread their bedding in the recesses, lighted +their fires of animal fuel, and cooked their food. + +At sunset the view from the roof was almost beautiful. Far away, in +all directions, stretched the level desert purpling in the purple +light. Very faintly, on the far horizon to the north-east, mountain +ranges were painted in amethyst on an orange sky. Horsemen in +companies galloped to tents which were not in sight, strings of camels +cast their long shadows on the purple sand, and flocks of big brown +sheep, led by armed shepherds, converged on the reedy pool in long +brown lines. The evening air was keen, nearly frosty. + +The prospects for the night were not encouraging, and on descending +the filthy stair on which goats had taken up their quarters, I found +the malodorous, crowded courtyard so blocked, that shepherds, with +much pushing, shouting, and barking of big dogs, with difficulty made +a way for me to pass through the packed mass of sheep and goats into +the cold, damp tent, which was pitched on damp manure, two or three +feet deep, into which heavy feet had trampled the carpet. The uproar +of _katirgis_ and travellers went on for another two hours, and was +exchanged later for sounds of jangling bells, yelping and quarrelling +dogs, braying asses, bleating sheep, and coarsely-snoring men. + +At 9 P.M. the heavy gates, clamped with iron, were closed and barred, +and some belated travellers, eager to get in from the perils of the +outside, thundered at them long and persistently, but "the door was +shut," and they encountered a hoarse refusal. The _seraidar_ said that +400 horses and mules, besides camels and asses, 2000 sheep, and over +70 men were lodged in the caravanserai that night. + +The servants were in a recess near, and Hadji professed that he +watched all night, and said that he fired at a man who tried to rob my +tent after the light went out, but I slept too soundly to be +disturbed, till the caravans and flocks left at daybreak, after a +preliminary uproar of two hours. It was bitterly cold, and my tent and +its contents were soaked with the heavy dew, nearly doubling their +weight. + +I started at 9 A.M., before the hoar-frost had melted, and rode with +the _zaptieh_ over flat, stoneless, alluvial soil, with some +irrigation and the remains of some fine canals. There are villages to +be seen in the distance, but though the soil is rich enough to support +a very large population, there are no habitations near the road except +a few temporary reed huts, beside two large caravanserais. There was +little of an interesting kind except the perpetual contrast between +things as they are and things as they were and might be. Some large +graveyards, with brick graves, a crumbling _imamzada_, a pointed arch +of brick over the Nahrud canal, a few ass caravans, with a live fowl +tied by one leg on the back of each ass, and struggling painfully to +keep its uneasy seat, some cultivation and much waste, and then we +reached the walled village of Sheraban, once a town, but now only +possessing 300 houses. + +Passing as usual among ruinous dwellings and between black walls with +doors here and there, by alleys foul with heaps of refuse, and +dangerous from slimy pitfalls, in the very foulest part we turned into +the caravanserai, its great courtyard reeking with filth and puddles, +among which are the contaminated wells from which we are supposed to +drink. The experience of the night before was not repeated. There were +fairly good rooms, mine looking into a palm garden, through a wooden +grating, cold truly, but pleasant. I fear we may never have such +"luxury" again. I remarked to my fellow-traveller that our early +arrival had fortunately given us the "choice of rooms," and he +replied, "choice of pig-styes,--choice of dens!" but my experience at +Wiyjahea has deprived me of the last remnants of fastidiousness! + +I walked through the ruinous, wretched town, and its poor bazar, where +the very fine _physique_ of the men was in marked contrast with their +wretched surroundings, and gives one the impression that under honest +officials they might be a fine people. They are not genial to +strangers, however. There was some bad language used in the bazar, and +on the roads they pass one in silence at the best, so unlike the +Tibetans with their friendly _Tzu_. At Sheraban one of the muleteers +forced his way into my room, and roughly turned over my saddle and +baggage, accusing me of having taken his blanket! Hadji is useless +under such circumstances. He blusters and fingers his revolver, but +carries no weight. Indeed his defects are more apparent every day. I +often have to speak to him two or three times before I can rouse him +from his opium dream, and there is a growing inclination to shirk his +very light work when he can shift it upon somebody else. I hope that +he is well-meaning, as that would cover a multitude of faults, but he +is very rough and ignorant, and is either unable or unwilling to learn +anything, even how to put up my trestle bed! + +Open rooms have sundry disadvantages. In the night a cat fell from +the roof upon my bed, and was soon joined by more, and they knocked +over the lamp and milk bottle, and in the darkness had a noisy quarrel +over the milk. + +The march of eighteen miles here was made in six hours, at a good +caravan pace. The baggage animals were sent off in advance, and the +_zaptieh_ led a mule loaded with chairs, blankets, and occupations. I +ride with the _zaptieh_ in front of me till I get near the +halting-place, when M---- and his orderly overtake me, as it might be +disagreeable for a European woman to enter a town alone. + +The route lies over treeless levels of the same brown alluvial soil, +till it is lifted on a gentle gravelly slope to a series of low +crumbling mounds of red and gray sandstone, mixed up with soft +conglomerate rocks of jasper and porphyry pebbles. These ranges of +mounds, known as the Hamrin Hills, run parallel to the great Kurdistan +ranges, from a point considerably below Baghdad, nearly to Mosul and +the river Zab. They mark the termination in this direction of the vast +alluvial plains of the Tigris and Euphrates, and are the first step to +the uplifted Iranian plateau. + +Arid and intricate ravines, dignified by the name of passes, furrow +these hills, and bear an evil reputation, as Arab robbers lie in wait, +"making it very unsafe for small caravans." A wild, desolate, +ill-omened-looking region it is. When we were fairly within the pass, +the _zaptieh_ stopped, and with much gesticulation and many +repetitions of the word _effendi_, made me understand that it was +unsafe to proceed without a larger party. We were unmolested, but it +is a discredit to the administration of the province that an organised +system of pillage should be allowed to exist year after year on one of +the most frequented caravan routes in Turkey. There were several +companies of armed horsemen among the ranges, and some camels +browsing, but we met no caravans. + +From the top of the descent there was a striking view over a great +brown alluvial plain, watered by the Beladruz and the Diyalah, with +serrated hills of no great height, but snow-covered; on its east side +a silent, strange, weird view, without interest or beauty as seen +under a sullen sky. There are no villages on this march, but ancient +canals run in all directions, and fragments of buildings, as well as +of brick and pottery, scattered over the unploughed surface, are +supposed by many to mark the situation of Dastagird, the residence of +Khosroe Parviz in the seventh century. I have no books of reference +with me, and can seldom write except of such things as I see and hear. + +Farther on a multitude of irrigation ditches have turned a plain of +dry friable soil into a plain of mud, through which it was difficult +to struggle. Then came a grove of palms, and then the town or village +of Kizil Robat (Red Shrine), with its _imamzada_, whose reputation for +sanctity is indicated by the immense number of graves which surround +it. The walls of this decayed and wretched town are of thick layers of +hardened but now crumbling earth, and on the east side there is an old +gateway of burned brick. There are said to be 400 houses, which at the +lowest computation would mean a population of 2000, but inhabited +houses and ruins are so jumbled up together that one cannot form any +estimate. + +So woe-begone and miserable a place I never saw, and the dirt is +appalling even in this dry weather. In spring the alleys of the town +are impassable, and people whose business calls them out cross from +roof to roof on boards. Pools of filthy water, loathsome ditches with +broad margins of trodden slime full of abominations, ruins of houses, +yards foul with refuse, half-clothed and wholly unwashed children, men +of low aspect standing in melancholy groups, a well-built brick bazar, +in which Manchester cottons are prominent, more mud and dirt, some +ruinous caravanserais, and near the extremity of the town or village +is the horrible one in which I now am, said to be the best, with a +yard a foot deep in manure and slush, in the midst of which is the +well, and around which are stables and recesses for travellers. + +At first it seemed likely that I should fall so low as to occupy one +of these, but careful investigation revealed a ruinous stair leading +to the roof, up which were two rooms, or shall I say three?--an arched +recess such as coals are kept in, a small room within it, and a low +wood hole. The open arch, with a _mangel_ or iron pan of charcoal, +serves as the "parlour" this January night, M---- occupies the wood +hole, and I the one room, into which Hadji, with many groans and +ejaculations of "_Ya Allah!_" has brought up the essential parts of my +baggage. The evening is gray and threatening, and low, snow-covered +hills look grimly over the bare brown plain which lies outside this +mournful place. + +_Khannikin, Jan. 15._--This has been a hard, rough march, but there +will be many worse ahead. Rain fell heavily all night, converting the +yard into a lake of trampled mud, and seemed so likely to continue +that it was difficult to decide whether to march or halt. Miserable it +was to see mules standing to be loaded, up to their knees in mud, +bales of tents and bedding lying in the quagmire, and the shivering +Indian servants up to their knees in the swamp. In rain steadily +falling the twelve animals were loaded, and after the usual scrimmage +at starting, in which the _bakhsheesh_ is often thrown back at us, we +rode out into a sea of deep mud, through which the mules, struggling +and floundering, got on about a mile an hour. + +After a time we came to gravel, then relapsed into deep alluvial soil, +which now means deep mire, then a low range of gravelly hills on +which a few sheep and camels were browsing on artemisia and other +aromatic herbs gave a temporary respite, then again we floundered +through miles of mud, succeeded by miles of gravel and stones. The +rain fell in torrents, and there was a cold strong wind to fight +against. There was that amount of general unpropitiousness which is +highly stimulating and inspiriting. + +When noon came, there was not a rock or bush for shelter, and turning +our backs to the storm we ate our lunch in our saddles. There was +nothing to look at but brown gravel, or brown mud, brooded over by a +gray mist. So we tramped on, hour after hour, in single file, the +_zaptieh_ leading, everything but his gun muffled in his brown _abba_, +splashing through mud and water, the water pouring from my hat and +cloak, the six woollen thicknesses of my mask dripping, seeing neither +villages nor caravans, for caravans of goods do not travel in such +rain as this. Then over a slope we went down into a lake of mud, where +the _aide-de-camp_ of the Governor of Khannikin, in a fez and military +frock-coat and trousers, with a number of Bashi Bazouks or irregulars, +met M---- with courtesies and an invitation. + +From the top of the next slope there was a view of Khannikin, a +considerable-looking town among groves of palms and other trees. Then +came a worse sea of mud, and a rudely cobbled causeway, so horrible +that it diverted us back into the mud, which was so bottomless that it +drove us back to the causeway, and the causeway back to the mud, the +rain all the time coming down in sheets. This causeway, without +improvement, is carried through Khannikin, a town with narrow blind +alleys, upon which foul courtyards open, often so foul as to render +the recent ravages of cholera (if science speaks truly) a matter of +necessity. The mud and water in these alleys was up to the knees of +the mules. Not a creature was in the streets. No amount of curiosity, +even regarding the rare sight of a Frank woman, could make people face +the storm in flimsy cotton clothes. + +Where the road turns to the bridge a line of irregular infantry was +drawn up, poorly dressed, soaked creatures, standing in chilly mud up +to their ankles, in soaked boots reaching to their knees. These joined +and headed the cavalcade, and I fell humbly in the rear. Poor fellows! +To keep step was impossible when it was hard work to drag their feet +out of the mire, and they carried their rifles anyhow. It was a +grotesque procession. A trim officer, forlorn infantry, wild-looking +Bashi Bazouks, Europeans in stout mackintoshes splashed with mud from +head to foot, mules rolling under their bespattered loads, and a +_posse_ of servants and orderlies crouching on the top of baggage, +muffled up to the eyes, the asses which carry the _katirgis_ and their +equipments far behind, staggering and nearly done up, for the march of +seventeen miles had taken eight and a half hours. + +An abrupt turn in the causeway leads to the Holwan, a tributary of the +Diyalah, a broad, rapid stream, over which the enterprise of a Persian +has thrown a really fine brick bridge of thirteen heavily-buttressed +arches, which connects the two parts of the town and gives some +dignity and picturesqueness to what would otherwise be mean. On the +left bank of the Holwan are the barracks, the governor's house, some +large caravanserais, the Custom-house, and a quarantine station, +quarantine having just been imposed on all arrivals from Persia, +giving travel and commerce a decided check. + +After half a mile of slush on the river bank we entered by a handsome +gateway a nearly flooded courtyard, and the Governor's house +hospitably engorged the whole party. + +The fully-laden mules stuck in the mud a few miles off, and did not +come in for two hours, and in spite of covers everything not done up +in waterproof was very wet. The servants looked most miserable, and +complained of chills and rheumatism, and one of the orderlies is +really ill. We cannot move till the storm is over. + +The rain falls heavily still, the river is rising, the alleys are two +feet deep in slush, travel is absolutely suspended, and it is not +possible without necessity to go out. It was well indeed that we +decided to leave the shelterless shelter of Kizil Robat. Nothing can +exceed the wretchedness of Khannikin or any Turkish town in such rain +as this. Would that one could think that it would be washed, but as +there are no channels to carry off the water it simply lodges and +stagnates in every depression, and all the accumulations of summer +refuse slide into these abominable pools, and the foul dust, a foot +deep, becomes mud far deeper; buried things are half uncovered; +torrents, not to be avoided, pour from every roof, the courtyards are +knee-deep in mud, the cows stand disconsolately in mud; not a woman is +to be seen, the few men driven forth by the merciless exigences of +business show nothing but one eye, and with "loins girded" and big +staffs move wearily, stumbling and plunging in the mire. + +After some hours the flat mud roofs begin to leak, water finds out +every weak place in the walls, the bazars, only half open for a short +time in the day, are deserted by buyers, and the patient sellers +crouch over _mangels_, muffled up in sheepskins, the caravanserais are +crammed and quarrelsome; the price of fodder and fuel rises, and every +one is drowned in rain and wretchedness. Even here, owing to the +scarcity of fuel, nothing can be dried; the servants in their damp +clothes come in steaming; Hadji in his misshapen "jack-boots," which +he asserts he cannot take off, spreads fresh mud over the carpets +whenever he enters; I shift from place to place to avoid the drip from +the roof--and still the rain comes down with unabated vigour! + +FOOTNOTE: + +[10] I present my diary letters much as they were written, believing +that the details of travel, however wearisome to the experienced +traveller, will be interesting to the "Untravelled Many," to whom +these volumes are dedicated. + + + + +LETTER III (_Continued_) + + +The house consists of two courtyards, with buildings round them. The +larger and handsomer is the _haram_ or women's house, which is +strictly enclosed, has no exterior windows, and its one door into the +men's house is guarded by a very ancient eunuch. The courtyard of this +house is surrounded partly by arched _serdabs_, with green lattice +fronts, and partly by a kitchen, bakery, wood-house, _hammam_ or hot +bath, and the servants' quarters. The _haram_ has a similar +arrangement on the lower floor. A broad balcony, reached by a steep +and narrow stair, runs round three sides of the upper part of this +house. There are very few rooms, and some of them are used for storing +fruit. The wet baggage is mostly up here, and under the deep roof the +servants and orderlies camp, looking miserable. The _haram_ has a +balcony all round it, on which a number of reception and living rooms +open, and though not grand or elaborately decorated, is convenient and +comfortable. + +The Turkish host evidently did not know what to do with such an +embarrassing guest as a European woman, and solved the difficulty by +giving me the guest-chamber in the men's house, a most fortunate +decision, as I have had quiet and privacy for three days. Besides, +this room has a projecting window, with panes of glass held in by +nails, and there is not only a view of the alley with its slush, but +into the house of some poor folk, and over that to the Holwan, +sometimes in spate, sometimes falling, and through all the hours of +daylight frequented by grooms for the purpose of washing their horses. +Some shingle banks, now overflowed, sustain a few scraggy willows, and +on the farther side is some low-lying land. There may be much besides, +but the heavy rain-clouds blot out all else. + +My room is whitewashed, and is furnished with Persian rugs, Austrian +bent-wood chairs, and a divan in the window, on which I sleep. Lamps, +_samovars_, and glasses are kept in recesses, and a black slave is +often in and out for them. Otherwise no one enters but Hadji. I get my +food somewhat precariously. It is carved and sent from table at the +beginning of meals, chiefly pillau, curry, _kabobs_, and roast +chicken, but apparently it is not etiquette for me to get it till +after the men have dined, and it is none the better for being cold. + +The male part of the household consists of the Governor and his +brother-in-law, a Moslem judge, and the quarantine doctor, a Cretan, +takes his meals in the house. The Governor and doctor speak French. My +fellow-traveller lives with them. + +The night we arrived, the Governor in some agitation asked me to go +and see his wife, who is very ill. The cholera has only just +disappeared, and the lady had had a baby, which died of it in three +days, and "being a boy her heart was broken," and "something had come +under her arm." So I went with him into the _haram_, which seemed +crowded with women of various races and colours, peeping from behind +curtains and through chinks of doors, tittering and whispering. The +wife's room is richly carpeted and thoroughly comfortable, with a huge +charcoal brazier in the centre, and cushions all over the floor, +except at one end, where there is a raised alcove with a bed in it. + +On this the lady sat--a rather handsome Kurdish woman, about +thirty-five, dressed in a silk quilted jacket, and with a black gauze +handkerchief round her head, and a wadded quilt over her crossed legs. +She was supported by a pile of pillows. Since then I have been sent +for to see her several times every day, and found her always in the +same position. There is surely something weird about it. She says she +sits there all night, and has not lain down for two months. A black +slave was fanning her, and two women, shrouded in veils of tinselled +gauze, sat on the bed combing her luxuriant hair. She is not really +beautiful at all, but her husband assures me constantly that she is +"_une femme savante_." She has property and the consideration which +attaches to it. She was burning with fever and very weak. + +I had scarcely returned to my room when my host sent again, begging +that I would go back and see the doctor. I found that it was expected +that I should persuade the lady to consent to have the abscess, or +whatever it is, reopened. The room was full of women and eunuchs, and +the chief eunuch, an elderly Arab, sat on the bed and supported her +while the doctor dressed the wound, and even helped him with it. Her +screams were fearful, and five people held her with difficulty. Her +husband left the room, unable to bear her cries. + +Quite late I was sent for again, and that time by the lady, to know if +I thought she would die. It appears that her brother, the judge, +remains here to see that she is not the victim of foul play, but I +don't like to ask to whom the suspicion points, or whether our host, +although the civil governor, keeps him here that he may not be +suspected in case his rich wife dies. + +Except for the repeated summonses to the sick-room, a walk on the +slime of the roof when the rain ceases for a time, and on the balcony +of the _haram_ when it does not, and a study of the habits of my +neighbours over the way, it is very dull. I have patched and mended +everything that gave any excuse for either operation, have written +letters which it is not safe to post, and have studied my one book on +Persia till I know it throughout, and still the rain falls nearly +without cessation and the quagmires outside deepen. + +So bad is it that, dearly as Orientals love bazars and _hammams_, +Hadji refuses leave to go to either. I remarked to him that he must be +glad of such a rest, and he replied in his usual sententious fashion: +"They who have to work must work. God knows all." I fear he is very +lazy, and he has no idea of making one comfortable or of keeping +anything clean. He stamps the mud of the courtyard into the carpets, +and wipes my plates without washing them, with his shirt. He considers +that our host has attained the height of human felicity. "What is +there left to wish for?" he says. "He has numbers of slaves, and he's +always buying more, and he's got numbers of women and eunuchs, and +everything, and when he wants money he just sends round the villages. +God is great! _Ya Allah!_" + +Khannikin, being the nearest town to the Persian frontier, should be a +place of some importance. It is well situated at an altitude of 1700 +feet among groves of palms, on both banks of the Holwan, and having +plenty of water, the rich alluvium between it and Yakobiyeh is able to +support its own population, though it has to import for caravans. Most +of the Persian trade with Baghdad and thousands of Shiah pilgrims +annually pass through it. It is a customs station, and has a regiment +of soldiers. Nevertheless, it is very ruinous, and its population has +diminished of late years from 5000 to about 1800 (exclusive of the +troops), and of this number a fifth have been carried off by cholera +within the last few weeks. It has no schools, and no special +industries. The stamp of decay rests upon it. Exactions, crushing +hope out of the people, the general insecurity of property, and the +misrule which has blighted these fine Asiatic provinces everywhere, +sufficiently explain its decadence. + +The imposition of quarantine on arrivals from Persia has all but +stopped the supply of charcoal, and knowing the scarcity in the house, +I am going without a fire, as most of the inhabitants are doing. A +large caravanserai outside the walls is used as a quarantine station, +and three others are taken as lazarettos. Out of these arrangements +the officials make a great deal of money in fees, but anything more +horrible than the sanitary state of these places cannot be conceived. +The water appears to be the essence of typhoid fever and cholera, and +the unfortunate _detenus_ are crowded into holes unfit for beasts, +breathing pestiferous exhalations, and surrounded by such ancient and +modern accumulations of horrors that typhus fever, cholera, and even +the plague might well be expected to break out. + +Yesterday, for a brief interval, hills covered with snow appeared +through rolling black clouds, and a change seemed probable, but rain +fell in torrents all night; there is a spate in the river, and though +we were ready to start at eight this morning, the _katirgis_ declined +to move, saying that the road could not be travelled because of the +depth of the fords and the mud. + +The roof, though a good one, is now so leaky that I am obliged to +sleep under my waterproof cloak, and the un-puttied window-frames let +in the rain. Early this morning a gale from the south-west came on, +and the howling and roaring have been frightful, the rain falling in +sheets most of the time. Sensations are not wanting. One of the +orderlies is seriously ill, and has to be left behind under medical +care till he can be sent to India,--the second man who has broken +down. A runner came in with the news that all caravans are stopped in +the Zagros mountains by snow, which has been falling for five days, +and that the road is not expected to be open for a fortnight. Later, +the Persian agent called to say that on the next march the road, which +is carried on a precipice above the river, has slid down bodily, and +that there are fifteen feet of water where there should be only two. +Of course this prolonged storm is "exceptional." The temperature is +falling, and it is so cold without a fire that though my bed is only a +blanket-covered dais of brick and lime, dripped upon continually, in a +window with forty draughts, I am glad to muffle myself up in its +blankets and write among wraps. + +The Governor, recognising the craze of Europeans for exercise, sent +word that M---- might walk in the balcony of the _haram_ if I went to +chaperon him, and this great concession was gladly accepted, for it +was the only possible way of getting warm. The apparition of a strange +man, and a European, within the precincts of the _haram_ was a great +event, and every window, curtain, and doorway was taken advantage of +by bright dark eyes sparkling among folds of cotton and gauze. The +enjoyment was surreptitious, but possibly all the more keen, and +sounds of whispering and giggling surged out of every crevice. There +are over thirty women, some of them negresses. Some are Kurds and very +handsome, but the faces of the two handsomest, though quite young, +have something fiendish in their expression. I have seldom seen a +_haram_ without its tragedies of jealousy and hate, and every fresh +experience makes me believe that the system is as humiliating to men +as it is to women. + +The _haram_ reception-rooms here are large and bright, with roofs and +cornices worked daintily in very white plaster, and there are superb +carpets on the floors, and divans covered with Damascus embroidery in +gold silk on cream muslin. + +Each day the demands for my presence in the sick-room are more +frequent, and though I say that I can scarcely aspire to be a nurse, +they persist in thinking that I am a _Haki[=i]m_, and possibly a +useful spy on the doctor. I have become aware that unscrupulous +jealousy of the principal wife exists, and, as is usual in the East, +everybody distrusts everybody else, and prefers to trust strangers. +The husband frequently asks me to remove what seems a cancerous +tumour, and the doctor says that an operation is necessary to save the +lady's life, but when I urge him to perform it, and offer a nurse's +help, he replies that if she were to die he would be at once accused +of murder, and would run a serious risk. + +The Governor to-day was so anxious that I should persuade the lady to +undergo an operation that he even brought Hadji into the room to +interpret what I said in Arabic. His ceaseless question is, "Will she +die?" and she asks me the same many times every day. She insists that +I shall be present each day when the wound is dressed, and give help, +lest the doctor without her leave should plunge a knife into the +swelling. These are most distressing occasions, for an hour of +struggle and suffering usually ends in delirium. + +This afternoon, however, she was much freer from pain, and sent for me +to amuse her. She wore some fine jewels, and some folds of tinselled +gauze round her head, and looked really handsome and intelligent. Her +husband wished that we could converse without his imperfect +interpreting, and repeated many times, "She is a learned woman, and +can write and read several languages." The room was as usual full of +women, who had removed their veils at their lord's command. I showed +the lady some Tibetan sketches, but when I came to one of a man the +women replaced their veils! + +When I showed some embroidery, the Governor said he had heard that the +Queen of England employed herself with her needle in leisure hours, +but that it is not _comme il faut_ here for ladies to work. It seems +that the making of sweetmeats is the only occupation which can be +pursued without loss of dignity. Is it wonderful that intolerable +_ennui_ should be productive of the miserable jealousies, rivalries, +intrigues, and hatreds which accompany the system of polygamy? + +The host, although civil governor of a large district, also suffers +from _ennui_. The necessary official duties are very light, and the +accounts and reports are prepared by others. If money is wanted he +makes "an exaction" on a village, and subordinates screw it out of the +people. Justice, or the marketable commodity which passes for such, is +administered by a _kadi_. He clatters about the balconies with +slippered feet, is domestic, that is, he spends most of the day in the +_haram_, smokes, eats two meals of six or seven courses each, and +towards evening takes a good deal of wine, according to a habit which +is becoming increasingly common among the higher classes of Moslems. +He is hospitable, and is certainly anything but tyrannical in his +household. + +The customs and ways of the first Turkish house I have visited in +would be as interesting to you as they were to myself, but it would be +a poor return for hospitality to dwell upon anything, unless, like the +difficulties regarding the illness of the principal wife, it were a +matter of common notoriety. + +It is a punishable act in Persia, and possibly here also, to look into +a neighbour's house, but I cannot help it unless I were to avoid the +window altogether. Wealth and poverty are within a few feet of each +other, and as Moslems are charitable to a degree and in a manner +which puts us to shame, the juxtaposition is advantageous. + +My neighbour's premises consist of a very small and mean yard, now a +foot deep in black mire, a cow-shed, and a room without door or +windows, with a black uneven floor, and black slimy rafters--neither +worse nor better than many hovels in the Western Isles of Scotland. A +man in middle life, a woman of dubious age, two girls from eight to +ten years old, and a boy a little older are the occupants. The +furniture consists of some wadded quilts, a copper pot, an iron +girdle, a clay ewer or two, a long knife, a wooden spoon, a clay +receptacle for grain, two or three earthenware basins, glazed green, +and a wicker tray. The cow-shed contains--besides the cow, which is +fed on dried thistles--a spade, an open basket, and a baggage pad. A +few fowls live in the house, and are disconcerted to find that they +cannot get out of it without swimming. + +The weather is cold and raw, fuel is enormously dear, work is at a +standstill, and cold and _ennui_ keep my neighbours in bed till the +day is well advanced. "Bed" consists of a wadded quilt laid on the +floor, with another for a covering. The man and boy sleep at one end +of the room, the woman and girls at the other, with covered heads. +None make any change in their dress at night, except that the man +takes off the _pagri_ of his turban, retaining only a skull cap. + +The woman gets up first, lights a fire of tamarisk twigs and thistles +in a hole in the middle of the floor, makes porridge of some coarse +brownish flour and water, and sets it on to warm--to _boil_ it, with +the means at her disposal, is impossible. She wades across the yard, +gives the cow a bunch of thistles, milks it into a basin, adds a +little leaven to the milk, which she shakes in a goat skin till it is +thick, carries the skin and basket to the house, feeds the fowls from +the basket, and then rouses her lord. He rises, stretches himself, +yawns, and places himself cross-legged by the fire, after putting on +his _pagri_. The room is dense with pungent wood smoke, which escapes +through the doorway, and only a few embers remain. The wife hands him +an earthen bowl, pours some porridge into it, adds some "thick milk" +from the goat skin, and stands before him with her arms crossed while +he eats, then receives the bowl from his hands and kisses it, as is +usual with the slaves in a household. + +Then she lights his pipe, and while he enjoys it she serves her boy +with breakfast in the same fashion, omitting the concluding ceremony, +after which she and the girls retire to a respectful distance with the +big pot, and finish its contents simultaneously. The pipe over, she +pours water on her lord's hands, letting it run on the already damp +floor, and wipes them with her _chadar_. No other ablution is +customary in the house. + +Poor as this man is, he is a Hadji, and having brought from Mecca a +"prayer stone," with the Prophet's hand upon it, he takes it from his +girdle, puts it on the floor, bows his forehead on it, turning +Mecca-ward, and says his prayers, repeating his devotions towards +evening. The first day or two he went out, but the roads now being +almost impassable, he confines himself to the repairing of a small +dyke, which keeps the water from running into the room, which is lower +than the yard, and performs its duty very imperfectly, the soak from +the yard and the drip from the roof increasing the sliminess hourly. +These repairs, an occasional pipe, and much sleep are the record of +this man's day till an hour before sunset, when the meal of the +morning is repeated with the addition of some cheese. + +The children keep chiefly in bed. Meanwhile the woman, the busy bee of +the family, contrives to patter about nearly all day in wet clothing, +carrying out rubbish in single handfuls, breaking twigs, cleaning the +pot, and feeding the cow. The roof, which in fine weather is the scene +of most domestic occupations, is reached by a steep ladder, and she +climbs this seven times in succession, each time carrying up a fowl, +to pick for imaginary worms in the slimy mud. Dyed yarn is also +carried up to steep in the rain, and in an interval of dryness some +wool was taken up and carded. An hour before sunset she lights the +fire, puts on the porridge, and again performs seven journeys with +seven fowls, feeds them in the house, attends respectfully to her +lord, feeds her family, including the cow, paddles through mire to +draw water from the river, and unrolls and spreads the wadded quilts. +By the time it is dark they are once more in bed, where I trust this +harmless, industrious woman enjoys a well-earned sleep. + +The clouds are breaking, and in spite of adverse rumours it is decided +_coute que coute_ to start to-morrow. For my own part I prefer the +freedom even with the "swinishness" of a caravanserai to receiving +hospitality for which no fitting return can be made. + + I. L. B. + + + + +LETTER IV + + + SARIPUL-I-ZOHAB, _Jan. 21_. + +The rain at last ceased, and after the _katirgis_ had squabbled for an +hour over the baggage, we got off at ten, two days ago, very grateful +for shelter and hospitality under such untoward circumstances. Six +Bashi Bazouks and two _zaptiehs_ on foot in ragged and incongruous +uniforms escorted us to the Turkish frontier. + +The streets were in a terrible condition, and horse and footmen, after +an attempt to march in pairs, fell perforce into a floundering and +disorderly single file, the footmen occasionally pulling themselves +out of mud holes by the tails of the horses. Outside the town there +was an expanse of mud and flooded water-channels which broke up the +last attempt at a procession, and led to a general _sauve qui peut_. +The mire was tenacious and up to the horses' knees, half the mules +were down with their loads, Hadji rolled into the mud, my capable +animal snorted and struggled, some went on banks and some took to +streams, the asses had to be relieved of their loads, and the air was +full of shouts and objurgations, till after much delay the forlorn +rabble all struggled to the _terra firma_ of a gravelly slope, +splashed from head to foot. + +The road crosses low, rolling, gravelly hills, with an occasional +outcrop of red sandstone, and ascends on the whole. The sun was +bright, but the wind was strong and very cold. The Bashi Bazouk escort +was altogether harum-scarum and inconsequent, careering in circles, +and firing at birds (which they never hit) from the saddle, and when +we reached some low hills bearing a bad reputation, the officer, in +order to represent danger and his vigilant care, threw them out in all +directions scouting for robbers, till we came to a steepish hill +crowned by a round tower with a mushroom top, a few ruinous mud +buildings, and a tattered tent. Here the escort formed into one line, +and the ragged garrison into another, with an officer facing them, and +were photographed as they shivered in the biting wind. This tower is a +Turkish frontier fort. + +Soon afterwards the Persian frontier is crossed, the hills increase +considerably in size, and mud was exchanged for firm, rough gravel. A +feature of the otherwise featureless landscape is the frequent +occurrence of towers like martello towers, on hill-tops, placed there +for the shelter of the guards who formerly kept a look-out for +robbers. In the uninteresting gravel lie pebbles of jasper and agate, +emerald green, red, yellow, and purple. The first object of the +slightest interest in this new country was a village of Ilyats, built +of reed screens, with roofs of goat's-hair cloth, and with small yards +with reed walls in front. The women, who wore full trousers and short +jackets, were tall, somewhat striking-looking, and unveiled. Their +hair hung down in long plaits, and they wore red handkerchiefs knotted +at the back of the head. + +There an escort of four Persian _sowars_ joined us. The type of face +was that with which we are familiar on Sasanian coins and sculptured +stones, the brow and chin receding considerably, and the nose thin and +projecting, the profile suggesting a beak rather than a human face, +and the skin having the appearance of being drawn so tightly over the +bones as to force the eyes into singular prominence. + + [Illustration: A TURKISH FRONTIER FORT.] + +A six hours' march ended at the wildly-situated village of +Kasr-i-Shirin, high on the right bank of the Holwan, with a plantation +of dates on the left bank and considerable cultivation in the valley. +It has only eighty houses of the most wretched construction, rivalled +in height and size by middens, the drainage of which wastes itself on +the wretched roadway. A caravanserai of the most miserable +description, a square fort with a small garrison, and some large +graveyards with domed tombs and curious obelisks, are the salient +features of this village. Its wretched aspect is accounted for by its +insecurity. It has been destroyed by robber tribes as often as there +was anything worth destroying, and it has been so tossed to and fro +between Turkey and Persia as not to have any of the special +characteristics of either empire. + +We stopped short of the village, at a great pile of building on a +height, in massiveness and irregularity resembling a German medieval +castle, in which a letter had secured accommodation. It has been +unoccupied since its owner, Jan Mir, a sheikh of a robber tribe, and +the terror of the surrounding neighbourhood, was made away with by the +Persian Government. + +The accommodation consisted of great, dark, arched, vaulted rooms, +with stone-flagged floors, noble in size, but needing fifty candles +and huge log fires to light up and warm their dark recesses, and +gruesome and damp with one candle and a crackle of twigs. They were +clean, however, and their massive walls kept out the cold. The village +is at an elevation of 2300 feet, and the temperature has greatly +changed. + +The interest of Kasr-i-Shirin is that it lies among masses of ancient +rubble, and that the slopes which surround it are completely covered +with hewn and unhewn stones of all sizes, the relics of a great city, +at the western extremity of which the present wretched hamlet +stands.[11] The walls, which are easily traced, enclose an irregular +square, the shortest front of which is said to be three miles long. +They are built of roughly-hewn blocks of gray and red sandstone, and +very hard mortar or concrete. The blocks are so huge in many places as +to deserve the often misused epithet Cyclopean. + +Within this enclosure are remains of houses built of water-worn round +stones, which lie in monstrous heaps, and of a large fort on an +eminence. In another direction are the ruins of an immense palace of +quadrangular form, with only one entrance, and large underground rooms +now nearly choked up. There are remains of what must have been very +fine archways, but as the outer coating of hewn stone and all the +decorations have fallen off, leaving only the inner case of rough +rubble and concrete, the architectural forms are very badly defined, +and the aspect of what must once have been magnificent is now +forbidding and desolate. The remains of an aqueduct cut in the rock, +and of troughs and stone pipes by which water was brought into the +palace and city, from a distance of fifteen miles, are still traceable +among the desolations, but of the beautiful gardens which they +watered, and with which Khosroe surrounded the beautiful Shirin, not a +trace remains. There was a pale sunset, flushing with pale pink +distant leagues of sodden snow, and right across a lurid opening in a +heavy mass of black clouds the great ruined pile of the palace of +Khosroe the Magnificent stood out, a dismal commentary on splendour +and fame. + +The promise of the evening was fulfilled the next day in windy rain, +which began gently, but afterwards fell in persistent torrents, varied +by pungent swirls of sleet and snow. Leaving the gash through cliffs +with curious stratification in white and red, formed by the Holwan, +the day was spent in skirting or crossing low hills. The mud was very +deep and tenacious, and the rate of progress barely two miles an hour. +There were no caravans, travellers, or population, and no birds or +beasts. The rain clouds hung low and heavy, mists boiled up from among +the folds of the hills, the temperature fell perceptibly. It was +really inspiriting for people protected by good mackintoshes. + +After riding for six hours the rain changed into sleet and wet snow, +blotting out the hills and creating an unnatural twilight, in which we +floundered in mud up to the mules' knees into the filthiest village I +have ever seen, a compound of foul, green ditches, piles of dissolving +manure, mud hovels looking as if they were dissolving too, reed huts, +and an Ilyat village, grouped round the vilest of caravanserais, the +entrance to which was knee-deep in mire. To lodge in it was voted +impossible, and the escort led us in the darkening mist and pelting +sleet to an adjacent mud hamlet as hopeless-looking on the other side +of the bridge, where, standing up to the knees of the mules in liquid +manure, we sought but vainly for shelter, forded the Holwan, and +returned to the caravanserai through almost impassable slush. + +It was simply loathsome, with its stench, its foulness, and its mire, +and was already crowded and noisy with men and beasts. There was a +great courtyard with arched recesses all round, too abominable to be +occupied, too exposed and ruinous, even had they been cleaned, to give +shelter from the driving sleet. The last resource was to pass through +an archway into the great, lofty mule stable, on both sides of which +are similar recesses or mangers, about ten feet by seven and about +eight feet high. The stable was of great size and height with a domed +roof. Probably it runs half-way round the quadrangle at the back of +the uninhabitable recesses. There were at least four hundred mules in +this place, jangling their great bells, and crowds of _katirgis_, +travellers, and _zaptiehs_, all wet and splashed over their heads with +mud, some unloading, others making fires and feeding their mules, all +shouting when they had anything to say, the Babel aggravated by the +clatter of the rattles of a hundred curry-combs and the squeals of +fighting horses. + + [Illustration: LODGINGS FOR TRAVELLERS.] + +The floor was deep with the manure of ages and piled with bales and +boxes. In the side recesses, which are about the height of a mule's +back, the muleteers camped with their fires and their goods, and laid +the provender for their beasts in the front. These places are the +mangers of the eastern caravanserai, or _khan_, or inn. Such must have +been the inn at Bethlehem, and surely the first step to the +humiliation of "the death of the cross" must have been the birth in +the manger, amidst the crowd and horrors of such a stable. + +The odour was overpowering and the noise stunning, and when our wet, +mud-covered baggage animals came in, adding to the din, there was +hardly room to move, far less for the roll in which all mules indulge +when the loads are taken off; and the crush resulted in a fight, and +one mule got his fore-feet upon my "manger," and threatened to share +it with me. It was an awful place to come to after a six hours' march +in rain and snow, but I slid off my mule into the recess, had it +carpeted, put down my chair, hung a blanket up in front, and prepared +to brave it, when the inhabitants of this room, the one place which +has any pretensions to being a room in the village, were bribed by an +offer of six _krans_ (about four shillings) to vacate it for me. Its +"pretensions" consist in being over a gateway, and in having a door, +and a square hole looking on the street; a crumbling stair slippery +with mud leads up to it. The roof leaks in every direction, and the +slimy floor is full of pools, but it is luxury after the caravanserai +stable, and with one waterproof sheet over my bed and another over +myself I have fared well, though the door cannot be shut, and the rest +of the party are in the stable at an impassable distance. + +Our language happily has no words in which the state of this village +can be described. In front of this room is a broken ditch full of +slimy greenish water, which Hadji took for my tea! There has been a +slight snowfall during the night, and snow is impending. We have now +reached a considerable altitude, and may expect anything. Hadji has +just climbed the stair with groans of "_Ya Allah_," and has almost +wailed out, "Colonel says we go--God help us." + +_Kirrind, Jan. 23._--From Saripul-i-Zohab we are taking the most +southerly of the three routes to Kirmanshah traversed by Sir H. +Rawlinson in 1836.[12] A sea of mud varied by patches of sodden snow, +walls of rock with narrow passes, great snow-covered mountains, seen +spectrally for a minute at a time through swirling snow-clouds, black +tents of nomads, half-drowned villages, and a long, cold, steep +ascent, among scrub oaks and dwarf ash, to snow which was not melting, +and the hospitalities of a Kurdish village, comprise the interests of +the march from Saripul to Myan Tak, so far as they lie on the surface, +but in various ways this part of Kurdistan has many interests, not to +be absolutely ignored even in a familiar letter. + +Here the Ilyats, who are supposed to constitute a fifth of the rural +population of Persia, are met with in large numbers, and their brown +flocks and herds are still picking up a scanty subsistence. The great +chief of this, the Gur[=a]n tribe, holds the region on an annual +payment to the Persian Government, gives grain to his tribesmen, and +receives from them, of corn one-half, and of rice two-thirds of the +crop. These people sow their grain in early spring, and then move up +with their flocks to the mountain pastures, leaving behind only a few +men to harvest the crops. They use no manure, this being required for +fuel, and in the case of rice they allow a fallow of at least seven +years. There are very few cultivators resident upon these lands, but +Ilyat camps occur frequently. + +The region is steeped in history. The wretched village of Saripul is +the Calah of Asshur and the Halah of the Israelitish captivity,[13] +and gave to the surrounding country the name of Chalonitis, which we +have on our old maps. A metropolitan See in the fifth century A.D., +soon after the institution of the Nestorian hierarchy, it was called +Calah, Halah, and Holwan. If the Diyalah be the ancient Gyndes, +noteworthy for the singular delay of Cyrus on his march to Babylon, +and Saripul the ancient Holwan, and if in addition to the numerous +Chaldaean and Sasanian remains there are relics of Semiramis and of the +fire-temples of the Magi, the crowd of historic associations is almost +too much for one day, and I will return to the insignificant details +of the journey. + +We left at nine, crossed the Holwan by a four-arched brick bridge, and +in falling snow and deep mud rode over fairly level ground till we +came to an abrupt range of limestone rock, with a natural rift, across +which the foundations of a wall still remain. The clouds were rolling +low, and the snow was driving wildly, so as to make it impossible to +see the sculptured tablet described by Rawlinson and Layard, on which +a high-priest of the Magi is represented, with one hand raised in +benediction, and the other grasping a scroll, the dress being the +pontifical robe worn by the Zoroastrian priests, with a square cap, +pointed in front, and lappets covering the mouth. Above this is a tomb +with an ornamented entrance. + +We were now among a very strange and mysterious people, of whose +ancestry and actual beliefs very little is known. They are Ali-Ilahis, +but Europeans often speak of them as "Davidites," from their special +veneration for King David. This tomb in the rift is called +Dukkani-Daoud, or David's shop, and the people believe that he still +dwells there, and come on pilgrimages and to offer animals in +sacrifice from all parts of Kurdistan. He is believed to work as a +smith, and the _katirgis_ say that he makes suits of fine armour. A +part of the tomb which is divided from the rest by a low partition is +believed to be a reservoir containing the water which he uses to +temper his metal. A great mound with some building in the centre, on +the right of the road near this gorge, though properly it bears +another name, is called by the people "David's Fort." Jewish +traditions abound, specially concerning David, who is regarded by the +tribes as their great tutelar prophet. + +The Gur[=a]ns and Kalhurs, who are the nomadic inhabitants of this +district, are of a very marked type of physiognomy, so Israelitish +indeed that, taken along with certain traditions of their origin, +their Jewish names, and their veneration for David, they have been put +forward as claimants to the dignity of being the "lost tribes." The +great Hebrew traveller of the twelfth century, to whom I have referred +before, believed that the whole of the Ali-Ilahis were Jews, and +writes of 100 synagogues in the Zagros mountains, and of 50,000 Jewish +families in the neighbourhood. + +As we shall be for some days among these people, I will abbreviate Sir +H. Rawlinson's sketch of their tenets. He considers that Ali-Ilahism +bears evident marks of Judaism, mixed up with Moslem, Christian, and +Sabaean legends. The Ali-Ilahis believe in 1001 incarnations of the +Godhead in a series; among them Benjamin, Moses, Elias, David, Jesus +Christ, Ali and Salman his tutor, the Imam Houssein and the Haft[=a]n +(or seven bodies), the chief spiritual guides in the early ages of +Islam, "and each, worshipped as a Deity, is an object of adoration in +some locality of Kurdistan." The tomb of one of these, B[=a]b[=a] +Yadg[=a]r, is their holy place, and this was regarded as the dwelling +of Elijah at the time when the Arabs invaded Persia. All these +incarnations are regarded as of one and the same person. All that +changes is the bodily form of the Divine manifestation. There are +degrees in the perfection of the development, and the most perfect +forms are Benjamin, David, and Ali. + +Practically, however, the metaphysical speculations involved in this +creed of successive incarnations are unknown, and the Imam Ali, the +cousin of Mohammed, is the great object of worship. Though professing +Mohammedanism the Ali-Ilahis are held in great horror by "believers," +and those of this region lie under the stigma of practising unholy +rites as a part of their religion, and have received the name of +"Chiragh Sonderan," the putters-out of lights.[14] This accusation, +Sir A. H. Layard observes, may be only a calumny invented, like many +another, to justify persecution. + +Passing through the rift in the Dukkani-Daoud range which has led to +this digression, we entered an ascending valley between the range +through which we had passed and some wild mountains covered with snow, +which were then actively engaged in brewing a storm. Farther on there +was irrigation and cultivation, and then the wretched village of Pai +Tak, and the ruins of a bridge. There, the people told us, we must +halt, as the caravanserai at the next place was already full, and we +plunged about in the snow and mud looking for a hovel in which to take +shelter, but decided to risk going on, and shortly began the ascent of +the remarkable pass known as "The Gates of Zagros," on the ancient +highway between Babylonia and Media, by which, in a few hours, the +mountain barrier of Zagros is crossed, and the plain of Kirrind, a +part of the great Iranian plateau, is reached. + +This great road, which zigzags steeply up the pass, is partly composed +of smoothed boulders and partly of natural rock, somewhat dressed, and +much worn by the continual passage of shod animals. It is said to be +much like a torrent bed, but the snow was lying heavily upon it, +filling up its inequalities. Dwarf oaks, hawthorn, ash, and other +scrub find root-hold in every crevice. All that may be ugly was draped +in pure white, and looking back from the surrounding glitter, the view +of low ranges lying in indigo gloom was very striking. On the ascent +there is a remarkable arch of great blocks of white marble, with a +vaulted recess, called the "Tak-i-Girreh," "the arch holding the +road," which gives the popular name of Gardan-i-Tak-i-Girreh (the pass +of Tak-i-Girreh) to the ascent, though the geographers call it +Akabah-i-Holwan (the defile of Holwan). + +After the deep mud of the earlier part of the march it was a pleasure +to ride through pure, deep, powdery snow, and to find the dirt of the +village of Myan Tak, a Kurdish hamlet situated on a mountain torrent +among steep hills and small trees, covered with this radiant mantle. +The elevation of the pass is 4630 feet, but Myan Tak is at a lower +altitude an hour farther on. + +The small and ruinous caravanserai was really full of caravans +detained by the snowstorm, and we lodged in a Kurdish house, typical +of the style of architecture common among the settled tribes. Within a +wide doorway without a door, high enough for a loaded mule to enter, +is a very large room, with a low, flat mud roof, supported on three +rows of misshapen trunks of trees, with their branches cut off about a +foot from the stem, all black and shiny with smoke. Mud and rubble +platforms, two feet high, run along one side and one end, and on the +end one there is a clay, beehive-shaped fireplace, but no chimney. +Under this platform the many fowls are shut in at night by a stone at +the hole by which they enter. Within this room is a perfectly dark +stable of great size. Certainly forty mules, besides asses and oxen, +were lodged in it, and the overflow shared the living-room with a +number of Kurds, _katirgis_, servants, dogs, soldiers, and Europeans. +The furniture consisted of guns and swords hanging on the walls. + +The owner is an old Kurd with some handsome sons with ruddy +complexions and auburn hair. The big house is the patriarchal roof, +where the patriarch, his sons, their wives and children, and their +animals, dwell together. The women, however, had all been got rid of +somehow. The old Kurd made a great fire on the dais, wood being +plentiful, and crouched over it. My bed was pitched near it, and +enclosed by some reed screens. With chairs and a table, with routes, +maps, writing materials, and a good lantern upon it, an excellent +dinner of soup and a leg of mutton, cooked at a bonfire in the middle +of the floor, and the sight of all the servants and _katirgis_ lying +round it, warm and comfortable, and the knowledge that we were above +the mud, the clouds of blinding smoke which were the only drawback +scarcely affected the cheerfulness and comfort of the blazing, +unstinted fire. The doorway gave not only ample ventilation but a +brilliant view of snow, and of myriads of frosty stars. + +It was infinitely picturesque, with the fitful firelight falling on +the uncouth avenues of blackened tree-stumps, on big dogs, on +mild-eyed ox faces and long ass ears, on turbaned Indian heads, and on +a confused crowd of Turks, Kurds, and Persians, some cooking, some +sleeping, some smoking, while from the black depth beyond a startling +bray of an ass or the abortive shriek of a mule occasionally +proceeded, or a stray mule created a commotion by rushing in from the +snow outside. + +I slept comfortably, till I was awakened early by various country +sounds--the braying of an ass into my ear (for I was within a few +inches of the stable), the crowing of cocks, and some hens picking up +crumbs upon my bed. The mules were loaded in the living-room. The +mercury was only 26 deg. at 9 A.M., and under cloudless sunshine the +powdery snow glittered and crackled. There were difficulties ahead, we +heard. The road heavily blocked with snow was only just open, and the +Persian post, which should have passed forty-eight hours before, had +not been heard of, showing that the snow is very deep farther on. + +It was beautiful, that uplifted, silent world of snow and mountains, +on whose skirts for some miles grew small apple and pear trees, oak, +ash, and hawthorn, each twig a coral spray. In the deepest depression, +among great rocks, now masses of snow, tumbles a now partially +arrested stream, gleaming with icicles, one of the head-waters of the +Holwan. After getting through this picturesque forest of scrub, the +road emerges on the plateau of the Kirrind valley, the greatest +altitude of which is about 5800 feet. It is said to be irrigated and +fertile. It is now, as I describe it, a wide valley, without a tree or +bush, a rolling plain of snow from two to three feet deep, marked only +by lines made by birds' feet and the beating of the tips of birds' +wings, the track across it a corrugated trench, wide enough for one +mule, the sun brilliant, the sky blue, the surface of the snow +flashing light from millions of crystals with a glitter not to be +borne, all dazzling, "glistering," silent,--a white world and a blue +heaven, with a sun "shining in his strength,"--light without heat. + +It has been a tremendous day's march, only fourteen miles in seven and +a half hours of severe toil! The _katirgis_ asked us to keep together +in case of difficulties with caravans. Difficulties indeed! A mild +term! I was nearly smashed. I little knew what meeting a caravan in +these circumstances meant till we met the first sixty animals, each +laden with two heavy packing-cases. The question arises who is to +give way, and who is to drive his heavily-laden beasts off the track, +to struggle, flounder, and fall in three feet of snow, not to get up +again without being unloaded, and even then with difficulty. + +The rub came on a bank near a stream where there was a deep drift. I +decided to give way, but nothing would induce my mule to face the +snow. An orderly was in front and Hadji behind. Down the track came +sixty animals, loaded with their great packing-cases. They could not +and would not give way, and the two caravans came into collision. +There were mules struggling and falling, loads overturned, muleteers +yelling and roaring, Hadji groaning "God help us!" my mule, a new one, +a big strong animal, unused to a bit, plunging and kicking, in the +middle of a "free fight." I was struck hard on my ankle by a +packing-case and nearly knocked off. Still, down they came, in +apparently endless hordes; my mule plunged her bridle off, and kicked +most violently; there were yells all round. My snow spectacles were +knocked off and lost, then came another smash, in which I thought a +bone was broken. Fearing that I should be laid up with a broken limb +for weeks in some horrible caravanserai, and really desperate with the +danger and confusion, I called over and over again to Hadji to get off +and pull my mule into the snow or I should be killed! He did not stir, +but sat dazed on his pack moaning "God help us!" till he, the mule, +and the load were rolled over in the drift. The orderly contrived to +get the bridle on my mule, and to back his own in front of me, and as +each irrepressible animal rolled down the bank he gave its load a +push, which, nicely balanced as these loads are, made it swerve, and +saved me from further damage. Hadji had rolled off four times +previously, and the last I saw of him at that time and of the caravan +was a man, five mules, and their loads buried in the snow. The +personal results to me of what is euphemistically called a +"difficulty," are my blue glasses gone, a number of bruises, a +badly-torn riding-skirt, and a bad cut, which bled profusely, and then +the blood froze. + +A number of caravans snowed up for several days were _en route_, and +there were many similar encounters, and donkeys and mules falling with +their loads and rolling into the deep snow, and _katirgis_ coming to +blows over the right-of-way. If a donkey is forced off the track it +goes down at once. I unfortunately caught my foot in the pack of one +and rolled it over, and as it disappeared in the snow its pack and +saddle fell over its head and displayed the naked vertebrae of its poor +back. + +This Kirrind valley must be fully twenty miles long by from two to +five broad, but there was only one village inhabited and two in ruins. +As we floundered along in the snow with our jaded animals, two +well-armed men on fine horses met and joined us, sent by the _Agha_ +Abdul Rahim, son of the British agent at Kirmanshah, whose guests we +are to be. Following them was a _taktrawan_ or litter for me, a wooden +box with two side doors, four feet high, six feet long, and three feet +wide. At each end are long shafts, and between each pair of shafts a +superb mule, and each mule has a man to lead him. I could never use +such a thing except in case of a broken limb, but I am very grateful +to Abdul Rahim for sending it fifty-six miles. + +The temperature fell with the sun; the snowy hills took on every shade +of rose and pink, and in a universal blush of tender colouring we +reached Kirrind. All of a sudden the colour died out, the rose-flushed +sky changed to blue-gray, and pallid wastes of unbroken snow +stretching into the gray distance made a glorious winter landscape. +We are now fairly in for the rigours of a Persian winter. + +Kirrind, the capital of the Kirrind Kurds, is either grotesquely or +picturesquely situated in and around a narrow gap in a range of lofty +hills, through which the Ab-i-Kirrind rushes, after rising in a spring +immediately behind. The gap suggests the word jaws, and in these open +jaws rise one above another flat-roofed houses straggling down upon +the plain among vineyards, poplars, willows, fruit-trees, and immense +walnuts and gardens. There are said to be 900 houses, but many of them +are ruinous. The stream which bursts from the hills is divided into +innumerable streamlets, which must clothe these gardens with beauty. + +A _far[=a]sh_ riding on ahead had engaged a house, so we avoided the +horrors of the immense caravanserai, crammed to-night with storm-bound +caravans. The house is rough, but has three adjoining rooms, and the +servants are comfortable. A fire, with its usual accompaniment of +stinging smoke, fails to raise the temperature of my room to the +freezing-point, yet it is quite possible to be comfortable and employ +oneself. + +_Mahidasht, Jan. 24._--My room at Kirrind was very cold. The ink +froze. The mercury fell to 2 deg. below zero in it, and outside in the sun +was only 14 deg. at 8.30. There was a great Babel at starting. Some men +had sold four chickens for the high price of 2s. each, the current +price being 6d., and had robbed the servants of two, and they took one +of the mules, which was sent after us by an official. Slipping, +floundering, and falling in the deep snow, and getting entangled among +caravans, we rode all day over rolling levels. The distance seemed +interminable over the glittering plains, and the pain and stiffness +produced by the intense cold were hard to bear, and it was not +possible to change the cramped position by walking. The mercury fell +to 4 deg., as with tired animals we toiled up the slope on which Harunabad +stands. + +A very large caravanserai and a village of sixty houses occupy the +site of a town built by Harun-al-Raschid on the upper waters of the +Kerkhah. It has the reputation of being one of the coldest places in +Persia, so cold that its Ilyat inhabitants desert it in winter, +leaving two or three men who make a business of supplying caravans. +Usually people come out of the villages in numbers as we arrive, but +we passed group after group of ruinous hovels without seeing a +creature. We obtained awfully cold rooms at a great height above a +bazar, now deserted. I write "awfully" advisedly, for the mercury in +them at sunset was 2 deg. below zero, the floors were plaster, slippery +with frozen moisture, the walls were partly wood, with great apertures +between the planks; where they were mud the blistered plaster was +fringed with icicles. Later the mercury sank to 12 deg., and before +morning to 16 deg. below zero, and the hot water froze in my basin before +I could use it! + +We were to have started at eight, as there was no possible way of +dividing the nine hours' march, but when the time came the _katirgis_ +said it was too cold to rope the loads, a little later that we could +only get half-way, and later that there was no accommodation for mules +half-way and that we must go the whole way! At nine the mercury was at +4 deg. below zero, and the slipperiness was fearful. The poor animals +could scarcely keep on their feet. We have crossed two high passes, +Nal Shikan (the Horse-Shoe breaking pass) and the Charzabar Pass, in +tremendous snow, riding nine hours, only dismounting to walk down one +hill. At the half-way hamlet I decided to go on, having still a +lingering prejudice against sharing a den with a quantity of human +beings, mules, asses, poultry, and dogs. + +On one long ascent we encountered a "blizzard," when the mercury was +only 3 deg. above zero. It was awful. The men covered their heads with +their _abbas_ and turned their backs to the wind. I got my heavy +mackintosh over everything, but in taking off three pairs of gloves +for one minute to button it the pain of my hand was literally +excruciating. At the summit the snow was four feet deep, and a number +of mules were down, but after getting over the crest of the Nal Shikan +Pass and into the Zobeideh valley it became better. But after every +descent there was another ascent to face till we reached the pass +above the Cheshmeh-i-Charzabar torrent, in a picturesque glen, with a +village and some primitive flour mills. + +Below this height lies the vast and fertile plain of Mahidasht, one +expanse of snow, broken by mud villages looking like brown islands, +and the truncated cone of Goree, a seat of the ancient fire-worship. +In the centre of the plain is an immense caravanserai with some houses +about it. When this came into sight it was only five miles off, but we +were nearly three hours in reaching it! The view was wonderful. Every +speck on the vast plain was seen distinctly; then came a heavy snow +blink, above which hovered ghosts of snow mountains rising into a pale +green sky, a dead and lonely wilderness, looking as if all things +which lived and moved had long ago vanished from it. Those hours after +first sighting the village were very severe. It seemed to grow no +nearer. I was half-dead with the journey of twenty-two miles at a slow +foot's pace, and was aching and cramped from the intense cold, for as +twilight fell the mercury sank to 3 deg. below zero. The Indian servants, +I believe, suffered more than I did, and some of the _katirgis_ even +more than they. + +At last by a pointed brick bridge we crossed the little river of +Mahidasht, and rode into the house of the headman, who is a sort of +steward of Abdul Rahim, our future host, the owner of many villages on +this plain. The house is of the better class of Kurdish houses, with a +broad passage, and a room on each side, at the end a great, low, dark +room, half living-room, half stable, which accommodates to-night some +of the mules, the muleteers, the servants, and the men of the family. +Beyond this again is a large stable, and below-ground, reached by a +sloping tunnel, is the sheep-fold. One room has neither door nor +window, mine has an outer and inner door, and a fire of live embers in +a hole in the floor. + +The family in vacating the room have left their goods behind,--two +plank beds at one end heaped with carpets and felts, a sacking cradle +hanging from the roof, two clay jars five feet high for storing grain, +and in the _takchahs_, or recesses of the walls, _samovars_ or +tea-urns, pots, metal vases, cartridge belts, and odds and ends. Two +old guns, an old sword, and a coarse coloured print of the Russian +Imperial family are on the wall. + +I was lifted from the mule to my bed, covered with all available +wraps, a pot of hot embers put by the bed, my hands and feet rubbed, +hot syrup coloured with tea produced in Russian glasses, and in two +hours I was able to move. The caravan, which we thought could not get +through the snow, came in three hours later, men and mules thoroughly +knocked up, and not till nine could we get a scanty dinner. It has +been a hard day all round. The _far[=a]shes_ in the kitchen are +cursing the English sahibs, who will travel in the winter, wishing our +fathers may be burned, etc., two of the muleteers have been howling +with pain for the last two hours, and I went into the kitchen to see +the poor fellows. + +In a corner of the big room, among the rough trunks of trees which +support the sooty roof, the muleteers were lying in a heap in their +big-sleeved felt coats round a big fire, about another the servants +were cooking their food, the _far[=a]shes_ were lying round another, +and some of the house people about a fourth, and through smoke and +flame a background of mules and wolf-like dogs was dimly seen, a gleam +now and then falling into the dark stable beyond, where the jaded +baggage animals were lying in heaps. + +Mahidasht is said to be one of the finest and most fertile plains in +Persia, seventy-two miles long by fifteen broad, and is irrigated +throughout by a small stream swarming with turtles. Its population, +scattered over it in small villages, is estimated--over-estimated +probably--at 4000. At a height of 5050 feet the winters are severe. +The snow is nearly three feet deep already, and more is impending. + +The mercury in my room fell to 5 deg. below zero before midnight, but rose +for a gray cloudy day. The men and animals were so done up that we +could not start till nearly eleven. The march, though not more than +sixteen miles, was severe, owing to the deep snow and cold wind. Five +miles over the snowy billows of the Mahidasht plain, a long ascent, on +which the strong north wind was scarcely bearable, a succession of +steep and tiresome ridges, many "difficulties" in passing caravans, +and then a gradual descent down a long wide valley, opened upon the +high plateau, on which Kirmanshah, one of the most important cities in +Persia, is situated. + +Trees, bare and gaunt, chiefly poplars, rising out of unsullied snow, +for two hours before we reached it, denoted the whereabouts of the +city, which after many disappointments bursts upon one suddenly. The +view from the hill above the town was the most glorious snow view I +ever saw. All around, rolled to a great height, smooth as the icing of +a cake, hills, billowy like the swell of the Pacific after a storm--an +ocean of snow; below them a plateau equally unsullied, on the east +side of which rises the magnificently precipitous Besitun range, +sublime in its wintry grandeur, while on the distant side of the +plateau pink peaks raised by an atmospheric illusion to a colossal +height hovered above the snow blink, and walled in the picture. Snow +was in the air, snow clouds were darkening over the Besitun range; +except for those pink peaks there were no atmospheric effects; the +white was very pallid, and the gray was very black; no illusions were +possible, the aspect was grim, desolate, and ominous, and even before +we reached the foot of the descent the huge peaks and rock masses of +Besitun were blotted out by swirls of snow. + +Kirmanshah, approached from the south-west, added no elements of +picturesqueness to the effect. A ruinous wall much too large for the +shrunken city it encloses, parts of it lying in the moat, some ruinous +loopholed towers, lines of small domes denoting bazars below, a few +good-looking houses rising above the insignificant mass, gardens, +orchards, vineyards, and poplars stretching up the southerly hollow +behind, and gardens, now under frozen water, to the north, made up a +not very interesting contrast with the magnificence of nature. + +We circled much of the ruinous wall on thin ice, turned in between +high walls and up an alley cumbered with snow, dismounted at a low +door, were received by a number of servants, and were conducted +through a frozen courtyard into a handsomely-carpeted room with divans +beside a blazing fire, a table in the centre covered with apples, +oranges, and sweetmeats, and the large Jubilee photograph of Queen +Victoria hanging over the fireplace. + + I. L. B. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[11] Another interest, however, is its connection with many of the +romantic legends still told of Khosroe Parviz and his beautiful queen, +complicated with love stories concerning the sculptor Farhad, to whom +the Persians attribute some of their most famous rock sculptures. One +of the most romantic of these legends is that Farhad loved Shirin, and +that Khosroe was aware of it, and promised to give her to him if he +could execute the impossible task of bringing to the city the abundant +waters of the mountains. Farhad set himself to the Herculean labour, +and to the horror of the king nearly accomplished it, when Khosroe, +dreading the advancing necessity of losing Shirin or being +dishonoured, sent to inform him of her death. Being at the time on the +top of a precipice, urging on the work of the aqueduct, the news +filled him with such ungovernable despair that he threw himself down +and was killed. + +[12] The Pashalik of Zohab, now Persian territory, is fully described +by Major Rawlinson in a most interesting paper in _The Journal of the +Royal Geographical Society_, vol. ix. part 1, p. 26. + +[13] Gen. x. 11; 2 Kings xviii. 11; 1 Chron. v. 26. + +[14] See Sir A. H. Layard's _Early Adventures_, vol. i. p. 217. + + + + +LETTER V + + + KIRMANSHAH, _Jan. 31_. + +This hospitable house is the residence of the British Agent or _Vakil_ +for Kirmanshah, in whose absence at Tihran, his son, Abdul Rahim, +performs the duties of hospitality in a most charming manner, as if +though a very busy man he had nothing else to do but carry out the +wishes of his guests. His hospitality is most unobtrusive also, and +considerate. If such a wish is expressed as to visit the sculptures of +the Takt-i-Bostan, or anything else, everything is quietly and +beautifully arranged; a landau-and-four with outriders, superb led +saddle-horses, and arrangements for coffee are ready outside the +walls, with the host as _cicerone_, ready to drive or ride at the +pleasure of his guests. The rooms in which he receives Europeans are +on the opposite side of the courtyard from the house, and have been +arranged according to European ideas. + +The family history, as usually told, is an interesting one. They are +Arabs, and the grandfather of our host, Hadji Khalil, was a trusted +_katirgi_ in the employment of Sir Henry Rawlinson, and saved his life +when he fell from a scaffolding while copying the Besitun +inscriptions. His good qualities, and an honesty of character and +purpose rare among Orientals, eventually placed him in the important +position of British _Vakil_ here, and he became a British subject, and +was succeeded in his position by his son, Agha Hassan, who is now by +virtue of singular business capacities the wealthiest man in this +province and possibly in Persia, and bears the very highest character +for trustworthiness and honour.[15] + +Abdul Rahim is a very fine-looking man, with noticeable eyes, very +large and prominent. He has a strong sense of humour, which flits over +his face in an amused smile. He and his father are very large +landowners, and are always adding land to land, and are now the owners +of the magnificent sculptures and pleasure-grounds of the +Takt-i-Bostan. They are bankers likewise, and money-lenders, merchants +on a large scale, and have built a very fine caravanserai, with great +brick warehouses for the use of traders. Agha Hassan travels _en +prince_, driving to Tihran and back in an English landau with four +horses and a number of outriders and attendants, and his son +entertains visitors in the same way, mounting even the outriders and +pipe-bearers on well-bred Arabs. When he walks in the city it is like +a royal progress. Everybody bows low, nearly to the ground, and his +purse-bearer follows, distributing alms among the poor. + +I mention all this because it is a marvel in Persia, where a +reputation for wealth is the last thing a rich man desires. To elevate +a gateway or to give any external sign of affluence is to make himself +a mark for the official rapacity which spares none. The policy is to +let a man grow quietly rich, to "let the sheep's wool grow," but as +soon as he shows any enjoyment of wealth to deprive him of his gains, +according to a common Persian expression, "He is ripe, he must be +squeezed." The _Vakil_ and his son are the only men here who are not +afraid to show their wealth, and for the simple reason that it cannot +be touched, because they are British subjects. They can neither be +robbed, squeezed, nor mulcted beyond the legitimate taxation by +Persian officials, and are able to protect the property of others when +it is entrusted to their keeping. British protection has been in fact +the making of these men. + +The _menage_ is simple. The dining-room is across the frozen +courtyard. The meals are served in European fashion, the _major-domo_ +being an ancient man, "born in the house," who occasionally inserts a +remark into the conversation or helps his master's memory. The +interpreter sits on the floor during meals. I breakfast in my room, +but lunch and dine with our host, who spends the evening in the +_salon_; sherbet is provided instead of wine. Abdul Rahim places me at +the head of the table, and I am served first! The interpreting is from +Persian into Hindustani, and _vice versa_. Our host expresses almost +daily regret that he cannot talk with me on politics! + +Kirmanshah, which is said to be a favourable specimen of a Persian +town, is absolutely hideous and uninteresting. It is really half in +ruins. It has suffered terribly from "plague, pestilence, and famine," +and from the awful rapacity of governors. It once had 12,000 houses, +but the highest estimate of its present population is 25,000. So +severely have the town and province been oppressed that some years ago +three-quarters of the inhabitants migrated, the peasants into Turkey, +and the townspeople into the northern province of Azerbijan. If a +governor pays 30,000 _tumans_ (L10,000) to the Shah for an +appointment, of which he may be deprived any day, it can scarcely be +expected of Oriental, or indeed of any human nature, that he will not +make a good thing of it while he has it, and squeeze all he can out of +the people. + +The streets are very narrow, and look narrower just now, because the +snow is heaped almost to the top of the mud walls, which are not +broken up as in Turkish towns by projecting lattice windows, but are +absolutely blank, with the exception of low-arched entrances to the +courtyards within, closed by heavy, unpainted wooden doors, studded +with wooden nails. The causeways, on which, but for the heaps of +slippery snow two men might walk abreast, have a ditch two or three +feet wide between them, which is the roadway for animals. There are +some open spaces, abounding in ruinous heaps, others where goods are +unloaded, surrounded with warehouses, immense brick bazars with domed +roofs, a citadel or _ark_, where the Governor lives, a large parade +ground and barracks for 2000 men, mosques of no pretensions, public +baths, caravanserais, brick warehouses behind the bazars, public +gardens, with fountains and avenues of poplars, a prison, and some +good houses like this one, hidden behind high mud walls. Although the +snow kindly veils a good deal of deformity, the city impresses one as +ruinous and decayed; yet it has a large trade, and is regarded as one +of the most prosperous places in the Empire.[16] + +The bazars are spacious and well stocked with European goods, +especially with Manchester cottons of colours and patterns suited to +Oriental taste, which loves carnation red. There are many Jews, +otherwise the people are Shiah Moslems, with an increasing admixture +of the secret sect of the _B[=a]bis_. In some respects the Shiahs are +more fanatical than the Sunnis, as, for instance, it is quite possible +to visit a mosque in Turkey, but here a Christian is not allowed to +cross the threshold of the outer gate. Certain customs are also more +rigidly observed. A Persian woman would be in danger of death from the +mob if she appeared unveiled in the streets. When I walked through the +town, though attended by a number of men, the _major-domo_ begged me +to exchange my gauze veil for a mask, and even when I showed this +deference to custom the passing through the bazars was very +unpleasant, the men being decidedly rude, and inclined to hoot and use +bad language. Even the touch of a Christian is regarded as polluting, +and I nearly got into trouble by handling a "flap-jack," mistaking it +for a piece of felt. The bazars are not magnificent. No rich carpets +or other goods are exposed to view for fear of exactions. A buyer +wanting such things must send word privately, and have them brought to +his house. + +Justice seems to be here, much as in Turkey, a marketable commodity, +which the working classes are too poor to buy. A man may be kept in +prison because he is too poor to get out, but justice is usually +summary, and men are not imprisoned for long terms. If prisoners have +friends, the friends feed them, if not they depend on charity, and +charity is a Moslem virtue. There is no prison here for women. They +are punished by having their heads shaved, and by being taken through +the town on asses. Various forms of torture are practised, such as +burning with hot irons, the bastinado, and squeezing the fingers in a +vice. The bastinado is also most extensively used as a punishment. + +Yesterday by appointment we were received by the Governor of the +Province. Riding through the slippery snow-heaped alleys is not what +Europeans would think of, and our host with his usual courtesy +humoured the caprice by walking with us himself, preceded by six +_far[=a]shes_ (lit. carpet-spreaders) and followed by his purse-bearer +casting money to the poor, and a train of servants. The Citadel, or +Governor's residence, like all else, is forlorn, dirty, and ruinous in +its approaches, which are long vaulted corridors capable of much +adornment. Crowds of soldiers, _mollahs_, dervishes, and others were +there to see the visit, which was one of ceremony. The Palace and +Government offices are many-windowed, well-built brick-and-tile +buildings, arranged round a large _place_ with trees and fountains. + +Two little fellows in scarlet uniform were at the entrance, and the +lobby upstairs was crowded with Persian and Negro servants, all in +high, black lambskin caps, tight black trousers, and tight coats with +full skirts. The Governor received us in a very large, lofty, +vacant-looking room, and shook hands. I never saw a human being more +nearly like an ape in appearance, and a loud giggle added to the +resemblance. This giggle and a fatuous manner are possibly assumed, +for he has the widespread reputation of being a very able man, shrewd +in business and officially rapacious, as was his father before him. +The grotesque figure, not more than five feet high, was dressed in a +black Astrakan cap, a coat of fine buff Russian kerseymere with full +skirts, and tight trousers of the same, and an under-coat of rich, +Kerman silk brocade, edged with costly fur. He made a few curt remarks +to his foreign guests, and then turned to Abdul Rahim, and discussed +local affairs for the remainder of a very long visit. + +A table covered with exquisite-looking sweetmeats was produced, and we +were regaled with tea _a la Russe_ in Russian glasses, ice-cream, and +_gaz_. Then young, diminutive, raw-looking soldiers in scarlet coats +and scarlet trousers with blue stripes marched into the courtyard, and +stood disconsolately in the snow, and two bands brayed and shrieked +for an hour. Then _kalians_ were smoked, and coffee was handed round, +the cups being in gold filigree holders incrusted with turquoises. +This was the welcome signal for the termination of a very tedious +visit. The reception-room is a dismal combination of Persian and +European taste, invariably a failure. The carpets are magnificent, but +the curtains are common serge bordered with white cotton lace, and the +tea-table with its costly equipments was covered with a tawdry +cretonne cover, edged with some inferior black cotton lace. The lofty +walls of plain plaster of Paris have their simplicity destroyed by +some French girandoles with wax grapes hanging from them. + +The Governor returned the visit to-day, arriving on horseback with +fully forty mounted attendants, and was received in a glass room on +the roof, furnished with divans, tables covered with beautiful +confectionery, and tea and coffee equipages. The conversation was as +local as yesterday, in spite of our host's courteous efforts to +include the strangers in it. The Governor asked if I were going to +Tihran to be _Hak[=i]m_ to the Shah's _haram_, which our host says is +the rumour in Kirmanshah! During such visits there are crowds of +attendants in the room all the time pouring out tea, filling +_kalians_, and washing cups on the floor, and as any guest may be a +spy and an enemy, the conversation is restricted to exaggerated +compliments and superficial remarks. + +Everything is regulated by an elaborate code of etiquette, even the +compliments are meted out by rule, and to give a man more than he is +entitled to is understood to be intended as sarcasm. The number of +bows made by the entertainer, the distance he advances to meet his +guest, and the position in which he seats him are matters of careful +calculation, and the slightest mistake in any particular is liable to +be greatly resented by a superior. + +The Persian is a most ceremonious being. Like the Japanese he is +trained from infancy to the etiquette of his class, and besides the +etiquette of class there is here the etiquette of religion, which is +far more strict than in Turkey, and yields only when there is daily +contact, as in the capital, between Moslems and Christians. Thus, a +Moslem will not accept refreshments from a Christian, and he will not +smoke a pipe after a Christian even if he is his guest, and of equal +or higher rank. + +The custom is for a visitor, as in the case of the Governor, to +announce his visit previously, and he and his train are met, when he +is the superior, by a mounted servant of the recipient of the honour, +who precedes him to the door, where the servants are arranged +according to their rank, and the host waits to take his hand and lead +him to a seat. On entering the room a well-bred Persian knows at once +what place he ought to take, and it is rare for such a _fiasco_ as +that referred to in Luke xiv. 9 to occur. Refreshments and pipes are +served at regulated intervals, and the introduction of a third cup of +tea or coffee and a third _kalian_ is the signal for the guest to +retire. But it is necessary to ask and receive permission to do so, +and elaborate forms of speech regulated by the rank of the visitor are +used on the occasion. If he is of equal or superior rank, the host, +bowing profoundly, replies that he can have no other wish than that of +his guest, that the house has been purified by his presence, that the +announcement of the visit brought good luck to the house, that his +headache or toothache has been cured by his arrival, and these flowery +compliments escort the ordinary guest to the door, but if he be of +superior rank the host walks in advance to the foot of the stairs, +and repeats the compliments there. + +The etiquette concerning pipes is most elaborate.[17] _Kalians_ are +invariably used among the rich. The great man brings his own, and his +own pipe-bearer. The _kalian_ is a water pipe, and whatever its form +the principle is the same, the smoke being conducted to the bottom of +a liberal supply of water, to be sucked up in bubbles through it with +a gurgling noise, as in the Indian "hubble-bubble." This water-holder +is decanter-shaped, of plain or cut glass, with a wide mouth; the +fire-holder, as in the case of the Governor's pipe, is often a work of +high art, in thin gold, chased, engraved, decorated with _repousse_ +work, or incrusted with turquoises, or ornamented with rich enamel, +very costly, L40 or even L50 being paid by rich men for the decoration +of a single pipe-head. Between this and the water-holder is a wooden +tube about fourteen inches long, from one end of which an inner tube +passes to the bottom of the water. A hole in the side of the tube +admits the flexible smoking tube, more used in Turkey than in Persia, +or the wooden stem, about eighteen inches long. The fire-holder is +lined with clay and plaster of Paris. Besides these there is the +wind-guard, to prevent the fire from falling or becoming too hot, +usually of silver, with dependent silver chains, and four or six +silver or gold chains terminating in flat balls hang from the +fire-holder. + +The _kalian_ is one of the greatest institutions of Persia. No man +stirs without it, and as its decoration gives an idea of a man's +social position, immense sums are lavished upon it, and the +pipe-bearer is a most important person. The lighting is troublesome, +and after all there seems "much ado about nothing," for a few whiffs +exhaust its capacities. + +The tobacco, called _tumbaku_, which is smoked in _kalians_ is +exceptionally poisonous. It cannot be used the first year, and +improves with age, being preserved in bags sewn up in raw hide. Unless +it is moistened it produces alarming vertigo. When the _kalian_ is +required, about three-quarters of an ounce is moistened, squeezed like +a sponge, and packed in the fire-holder, and morsels of live charcoal, +if possible made from the root of the vine, are laid upon it and blown +into a strong flame. The pipe-bearer takes two or three draws, and +with an obeisance hands it with much solemnity to his master. Abdul +Rahim smokes three or four pipes every evening, and coffee served with +the last is the signal for his departure. + +A guest, if he does not bring his own pipe and pipe-bearer has a +_kalian_ offered to him, but if the host be of higher rank any one but +an ignoramus refuses it till he has smoked first. If under such +circumstances a guest incautiously accepts it, he is invariably +mortified by seeing it sent into the ante-room to be cleaned and +refilled before his superior will smoke. If it be proper for him to +take it, he offers it in order of rank to all present, but takes good +care that none accept it till he has enjoyed it, after which the +attendant passes it round according to rank. In cases of only one +_kalian_ and several guests, they smoke in order of position, but each +one must pay the compliment of suggesting that some one else should +smoke before himself. The etiquette of smoking is most rigid. I heard +of a case here in which a _mollah_, who objected to smoke after a +European, offered it to one after he had smoked it himself--so gross a +piece of impertinence that the other called the pipe-bearer, saying, +"You can break that pipe to pieces, and burn the stick, I do not care +to smoke it," upon which the _mollah_, knowing that his violation of +etiquette merited this sharp rebuke, turned pale and replied, "You say +truly, I have eaten dirt." + +The lower classes smoke a coarse Turkish tobacco, or a Persian mild +sort looking like whitish sawdust, which is merely the pounded leaf, +stalk, and stem. The pipe they use and carry in their girdles has a +small iron, brass, or clay head, and a straight cherry-wood stick, +with a very wide bore and no mouthpiece, and it is not placed in the +teeth but is merely held between the lips. Smoking seems a necessity +rather than a luxury in Persia, and is one of the great features of +social life. + +Kirmanshah is famous for its "rugs," as carpets are called in this +country. There are from twenty-five to thirty kinds with their +specific names. Aniline dyes have gone far to ruin this manufacture, +but their import is now prohibited. A Persian would not look at the +carpets loosely woven and with long pile, which are made for the +European market, and are bought just now from the weavers at 13s. the +square yard. A carpet, according to Persian notions, must be of fast +colours, fine pile, scarcely longer than Utrecht velvet, and ready to +last at least a century. A rug can scarcely be said to have reached +its prime or artistic mellowness of tint till it has been "down" for +ten years. The permanence of the dyes is tested by rubbing the rug +with a wet cloth, when the worthless colours at once come off. + +Among the real, good old Persian carpets there are very few patterns, +though colouring and borders vary considerably. A good carpet, if new, +is always stiff; the ends when doubled should meet evenly. There must +be no creases, or any signs on the wrong side of darning or +"fine-drawing" having been resorted to for taking out creases, and +there must be no blue in the white cotton finish at the ends. Carpets +with much white are prized, as the white becomes primrose, a colour +which wears well. Our host has given me a rug of the oldest Persian +pattern, on a white ground, very thin and fine. Large patterns and +thick wool are comparatively cheap. It is nearly impossible to say +what carpets sell at, for if one has been made by a family and poverty +presses, it may be sold much under value, or if it is a good one and +they can hold on they may force a carpet fancier to give a very high +price. From what Abdul Rahim says, the price varies from 13s. to 50s. +a square yard, the larger carpets, about fourteen feet by eight feet, +selling for L40.[18] + +Abdul Rahim took me to see carpet-weaving, a process carried on in +houses, hovels, and tents by women and children. The "machinery" is +portable and marvellously simple, merely two upright beams fixed in +the floor, with a cross-beam near the top and bottom, round which the +stout cotton or woollen threads which are the basis of the carpet are +stretched. The wools are cut in short lengths and are knotted round +two threads, according to the pattern, which, however elaborate, the +weaver usually carries in her head. After a few inches have been woven +in this simple way the right side is combed and the superfluous length +cut off with rough scissors. Nothing can be more simple than the +process or more beautiful than the result. The vegetable dyes used are +soft and artistic, specially a madder red and the various shades of +indigo. A soft turquoise blue is much used, and an "olive green," +supposed to be saffron and indigo. The dull, rich tints, even when +new, are quite beautiful. The women pursue this work chiefly in odds +and ends of time, and in some cases make it much of a pastime. Men +being present they were very closely veiled, and found great +difficulty in holding on the _chadars_ and knotting the wool at the +same time. + +After taking tea in the pleasant upper room of the carpet-weaver's +house, we visited the large barracks and parade ground. The appearance +of the soldiers could not possibly impress a stranger favourably. They +looked nothing better than "dirty, slouching ragamuffins," slipshod, +in tattered and cast-off clothes of all sorts, on the verge of actual +mendicancy, bits of rusty uniform appearing here and there amongst +their cotton rags. The quarters are not bad. The rank and file get one +and a half pounds of bread daily and five rupees a month nominally, +but their pay is in arrears, and they eke it out by working at +different trades. These men had not been drilled for two months, and +were slovenly and unsoldierly to a degree, as men must be who have no +proper pay, rations, instruction, clothing, or equipments. + +The courtesy of the host leaves nothing unthought of. In returning +from a long stroll round the city a wet place had to be crossed, and +when we reached it there were saddle-horses ready. On arriving at dusk +in the bazar several servants met us with lanterns. The lantern is an +important matter, as its size is supposed to indicate the position of +the wearer. The Persian lantern has a tin or iron top and bottom, +between which is a collapsible wired cylinder of waxed muslin. The +light from the candle burning inside is diffused and soft. Three feet +long and two feet wide is not an uncommon size. They are carried close +to the ground, illustrating "Thy Word is a lamp unto my path," and +none but the poor stir out after dark without a lantern-bearer in +front. Our lanterns, as befits the _Vakil's_ position, are very large. + +There is something Biblical in the progress of Abdul Rahim through +the streets, always reminding me of "greetings in the market-place," +and "doing alms to be seen of men,"--not that I think our kind host +sins in either direction. "Peace be with you," say the people, bending +low. "To you be peace," replies the Agha. + +A wish having been expressed to visit the rock-sculptures of the +Takt-i-Bostan, a winter picnic was quietly arranged for the purpose. +There was a great snowstorm on the night we arrived, succeeded by +intense frost and clear blue skies,--glorious Canadian winter weather. +Outside the wall an English landau, brought in pieces from Baghdad, +awaited us, with four Arab horses, two of them ridden. There were +eleven outriders and some led horses, and a Turki pipe-bearer rode +alongside the carriage with two cylinders of leather containing +_kalians_ in place of holsters, on one side, behind a leather +water-bottle, and on the other a brazier of lighted charcoal hanging +by chains much below the horse's body. Another pipe-bearer lighted the +_kalian_ at intervals and handed it into the carriage to his master. +Some of the horsemen carried rifles and wore cartridge-belts. + +Reaching the Karasu river we got out into deep mud, were ferried over +in a muddy box hauling on a rope, and drove to the Takt-i-Bostan, +where several tanks of clear water, a house built into the rock, a +number of Kurds on fine horses, the arched recesses in the rock which +contain the sculptures, and the magnificent range of the +Jabali-Besitun formed a very striking scene. + +Sir H. Rawlinson considers these sculptures the finest in Persia, and +regards them as the work of Greek artists. The lower of the two +bas-reliefs at the back of the main recess is a colossal figure of a +king on horseback, "the staff of whose spear is as a weaver's beam." +On the sides of the recess, and, like the equestrian figure, in very +high relief and very much undercut, are scenes from the chase of a +most spirited description, representing a king and court mounted on +elephants, horses, and camels, hunting boars, stags, and other +animals, their enthusiasm in the pursuit being successfully conveyed +by the art of the sculptor. In the spandrels of the archway of the +main recess are carved, winged female figures. In the smaller arch, +also containing a bas-relief, is a Pehlevi inscription.[19] + +There is a broad stone platform in front of the arch, below which +flows direct from the mountain a great volume of water, which +replenishes the tanks. The house, which also contains a tank fed by +the same living water, the mountain and its treasures, the tanks, and +some miles of avenues of willows, have been bought by the _Vakil_, and +his son laughingly says that he hopes to live to see a time when Cook +will give "tourist excursion tickets" by rail to the Takt-i-Bostan! + +Coffee and _kalians_ were served to the Kurds in the arch, and +mounting the horses we rode to a country house belonging to our host +in the midst of large rose gardens, and with a wonderful view of the +magnificent Besitun range, of the rolling snowy hills on which +Kirmanshah and its plantations lay like a black splotch, and of this +noble plain, six miles long from north to south, and thirty from east +to west, its absolutely unbroken snow gleaming like satin, and shadows +lying upon it in pure blue. Many servants and a large fire awaited us +in that pleasant bungalow, as well as coffee and sweetmeats, and we +stayed there till the sinking sun flushed all the surrounding hills +with pink, and the gray twilight came on. + +I rode a splendid Arab, with a neck "clothed with thunder," a horse +to make one feel young again, with his elastic stride and pride of +bearing, but indeed I "snatched a fearful joy," for the snow was +extremely slippery, and thirteen Arab horses in high condition +restrained to a foot's pace had belligerent views of their own, +tending to disconcert an unwary rider. We crossed the Karasu by a deep +and devious ford up to the girths, and had an exhilarating six miles' +ride by moonlight in keen frost, the powdery snow crackling under the +horses' feet. It was too slippery to enter the town on horseback, but +servants with lanterns awaited us at the gates and roaring fires and +dinner were ready here, after a delightful expedition. + +I dined alone with our host, Hadji, who understands and speaks English +fairly well, acting as interpreter. Abdul Rahim at once plunged into +politics, and asked very many intelligent questions about English +politics and parties, the condition and housing of our working +classes, and then about my own family and occupations. He is a zealous +Moslem, and the pious phrases which sit so oddly on Hadji come very +naturally from his lips. In reply to a sketch of character which I +gave him he said: "What God does is good. He knows, we submit. He of +whom you speak laid up great treasure for another life. Whoso loves +and befriends the poor is acceptable to God. One day we shall know +all. God is good." He said he had been too busy to learn English, but +that he understands a great deal, and added, with a roguish gleam +lighting up his whole face, and a very funny laugh, "And I hear what +M---- says." He has seen but very few English ladies, and it shows +great quickness of apprehension that he should never fail in the +respectfulness and quiet courteous attentions which would be shown to +a lady by an English host. + +Even after India, the quantity of servants employed in such a +household as this is very impressive. Besides a number who are with +the _Vakil_ in Tihran, there are the _nazr_ or steward, who under the +master is supreme, cooks and their assistants, table servants, +_far[=a]shes_, who are sweepers and message-runners, in any number, +pipe-bearers, coffee and ice-makers, plate-cleaners, washermen, +lamp-cleaners, who are also lantern-bearers, a head groom, with a +groom for each horse under him, and a number more, over forty in all, +receiving, if paid at the usual rate of wages in Kirmanshah, which is +a cheap place, from sixty _krans_ a month down to twenty, the _kran_ +being now about 8d. These wages do not represent the actual gains of a +servant, for he is entitled to perquisites, which are chiefly in the +form of commissions on things bought and sold by his master, and which +are regarded as legitimate if they do not exceed 10 per cent. It is of +no use to fight again this "_modakel_," or to vex one's soul in any +way about it. Persians have to submit to it as well as Europeans. +Hadji has endeavoured to extract from 50 to 80 per cent on purchases +made by him for me, but this is thought an outrage. + +This _modakel_ applies to all bargains. If a _charvadar_ (no longer a +_katirgi_) is hired, he has to pay one's servant 10 per cent on the +contract price. If I sell a horse, my servant holds out for a good +price, and takes his 10 per cent, and the same thing applies to a pair +of shoes, or a pound of tea, or a chicken, or a bottle of milk. The +system comes down from the highest quarters. The price paid by the +governor of a province to the Shah is but the Shah's _modakel_, and +when a governor farms the taxes for 60,000 _tumans_ and sells them for +80,000, the difference is his _modakel_, and so it goes on through all +official transactions and appointments, and is a fruitful source of +grinding oppression, and of inefficiency in the army and other +departments. The servant, poor fellow, may stop at 10 per cent, but +the Shah's servant may think himself generous if he hesitates at 50 +per cent. I have heard it said that when the late Shah was dying he +said to the present sovereign: "If you would sit long upon the throne, +see that there is only one spoon among ten men," and that the system +represented by this speech is faithfully carried out. + + I. L. B. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[15] I had the pleasure of seeing Agha Hassan at the British Legation +at Tihran. He is charming, both in appearance and manner, a specimen +of the highest type of Arab good breeding, with a courteous kindliness +and grace of manner, and is said to have made a very favourable +impression when he went to England lately to be made a C.M.G. Both +father and son wear the Arab dress, in plain colours but rich +materials, with very large white turbans of Damascus embroidery in +gold silk, and speak only Arabic and Persian. + +[16] A journey of nine months in Persia, chiefly in the west and +north-west, convinced me that this aspect of ruin and decay is +universal. + +[17] The reader curious as to this and other customs of modern Persia +should read Dr. Wills's book, _The Land of the Lion and the Sun_. + +[18] A rug only eight feet by five feet was given me by a Persian in +Tihran, which was valued for duty at Erzerum at L3 the square yard, +with the option of selling it to the Custom-house at that price, which +implies that its value is from 70s. to 80s. per yard. It has a very +close pile, nearly as short and fine as velvet. + +[19] For the Sasanian inscriptions, vide _Early Sasanian +Inscriptions_, by E. Thomas. The great work published by the French +Government, _Voyage en Perse_, Paris, 1851, by Messieurs Flandin et +Coste, contains elaborate and finely-executed representations of these +rock sculptures, which are mostly of the time of the later Sasanian +monarchs. + + + + +LETTER VI + + + KIRMANSHAH, _Feb. 2_. + +On January 28 there was a tremendous snowfall, and even before that +the road to Hamadan, which was our possible route, had been blocked +for some days. The temperature has now risen to 31 deg., with a bitter +wind, and much snow in the sky. The journey does not promise well. Two +of the servants have been ill. I am not at all well, and the reports +of the difficulties farther on are rather serious. These things are +certain,--that the marches are very long, and without any possibility +of resting _en route_ owing to mud or snow, and that the food and +accommodation will be horrible. + +Hadji is turning out very badly. He has fever now, poor fellow, and is +even more useless than usual. Abdul Rahim does not like him to +interpret, and calls him "the savage." He does no work, and is both +dirty and dishonest. The constant use of pious phrases is not a good +sign either of Moslem or Christian. I told him this morning that I +could not eat from so dirty a plate. "God is great," he quietly +answered. He broke my trestle bed by not attending to directions, and +when I pointed out what he had done, he answered, "God knows all, God +ordains all things." It is really exasperating. + +It is necessary to procure an additional outfit for the journey--a +slow process--masks lined with flannel, sheepskin bags for the feet, +the thick felt coats of the country for all the servants, additional +blankets, _kajawehs_ for me, and saddle-horses. The marches will +frequently be from twenty to thirty miles in length, and the fatigue +of riding them at a foot's pace when one cannot exchange riding for +walking will be so great that I have had a pair of _kajawehs_ made in +which to travel when I am tired of the mule. These panniers are oblong +wooden boxes, eighteen inches high, with hoops over them for curtains. +One hangs on each side of the mule on a level with his back, and they +are mounted, _i.e._ they are scrambled into from the front by a +ladder, which is carried between them. Most women and some men travel +in them. They are filled up with quilts and cushions. The mule which +is to carry them is a big and powerful animal, and double price is +charged for him. + +Horses are very good and cheap here. A pure Arab can be bought for +L14, and a cross between an Arab and a Kurdish horse--a breed noted +for endurance--for even less. But to our thinking they are small, +never exceeding fifteen hands. The horses of the Kirmanshah province +are esteemed everywhere, and there is a steady drain upon them for the +Indian market. The stud of three horses requires a groom, and Abdul +Rahim is sending a _sowar_, who looks a character, to attend us to +Tihran. A muleteer, remarkable in appearance and beauty, and twelve +fine mules have been engaged. The _sowar_ and several other men have +applied to me for medicine, having fearful coughs, etc., but I have +not been fortunate enough to cure them, as their maladies chiefly +require good feeding, warm bedding, and poultices, which are +unattainable. It is pitiable to see the poor shivering in their thin +cotton clothes in such weather. The men make shift with the seamless +felt coats--more cloaks than coats, with long bag-like sleeves +tapering to the size of a glove but with a slit midway, through which +the hands can be protruded when need arises. The women have no outer +garment but the thin cotton _chadar_. + +I have tried to get a bed made, but there is no wood strong enough for +the purpose, and the bazars cannot produce any canvas. + +_Sannah, Feb. 5._--Yesterday we were to have started at nine, but the +usual quarrelling about loads detained us till 10.30, so that it was +nearly dark when we reached the end of the first stage of a three +weeks' journey. From the house roof the prospect was most dismal. It +was partly thawing, and through the whiteness of the plain ran a brown +trail with sodden edges, indicating mud. The great mass of the +Jabali-Besitun, or Behistun, or Behishtan, though on the other side of +the plain, seemed actually impending over the city, with its great +black rock masses, too steep to hold the snow, and the Besitun +mountain itself, said to be twenty-four miles away, looming darkly +through gray snow clouds, looked hardly ten. Our host had sent men on +to see if the landau could take me part of the way at least; but their +verdict was that the road was impassable. + +After much noise the caravan got under way, but it was soon evident +that the fine mules we had engaged had been changed for a poor, +sore-backed set, and that the fine saddle-mule I was to have had was +metamorphosed into a poor weak creature, which began to drop his leg +from the shoulder almost as soon as we were outside the walls, and on +a steep bridge came down on his nose with a violent fall, giving me a +sharp strain, and fell several times afterwards; indeed, the poor +animal could scarcely keep on his legs during the eight hours' march. + +Hadji rode in a _kajaweh_, balanced by some luggage, and was to keep +close to me, but when I wanted to change my broken-down beast for a +pannier he was not to be seen, then or afterwards, and came in late. +The big mule had fallen, he was bruised, the _kajawehs_ were smashed +to pieces, and were broken up for firewood, and I am now without any +means of getting any rest from riding! "It's the pace that kills." In +snow and mud gallops are impossible, and three miles an hour is good +going. + +An hour from Kirmanshah the road crosses the Karasu by a good brick +bridge, and proceeds over the plain for many miles, keeping the +Besitun range about two miles on the left, and then passes over +undulating ground to the Besitun village. Two or three large villages +occur at a distance from the road, now shut in, and about eight miles +from Besitun there are marble columns lying on the ground among some +remains of marble walls, now only hummocks in the snow. + +The road was churned into deep mud by the passage of animals, and the +snow was too deep to ride in. My mule lost no opportunity of tumbling +down, and I felt myself a barbarian for urging him on. Hills and +mountains glistened in all directions. The only exception to the +general whiteness was Piru, the great rock mass of Besitun, which ever +loomed blackly overhead through clouds and darkness, and never seemed +any nearer. It was very solitary. I met only a caravan of carpets, and +a few men struggling along with laden asses. + +It was the most artistic day of the whole journey, much cloud flying +about, mountains in indigo gloom, or in gray, with storm clouds round +their heads, or pure white, with shadows touched in with cobalt, while +peaks and ridges, sun-kissed, gleamed here and there above indigo and +gray. Not a tree or even bush, on them or on the plain, broke the +monotony after a summer palace of the Shah, surrounded by poplars, was +passed. There is plenty of water everywhere. + +As the sun was stormily tinging with pink the rolling snow-clouds here +and there, I halted on the brow of a slope under the imposing rock +front of Besitun to wait for orders. It was wildly magnificent: the +huge precipice of Piru, rising 1700 feet from the level, the mountains +on both sides of the valley approaching each other, and behind Piru a +craggy ravine, glorified here and there by touches of amber and pink +upon the clouds which boiled furiously out of its depths. In the +foreground were a huge caravanserai with a noble portal, a solitary +thing upon the snow, not a dwelling, but offering its frigid +hospitality to all comers; a river with many windings, and the ruinous +hovels of Besitun huddled in the mud behind. An appalling view in the +wild twilight of a winter evening; and as the pink died out, a +desolate ghastliness fell upon it. As I waited, all but worn out by +the long march, the tumbling mule, and the icy wind, I thought I +should like never to hear the deep chimes of a Persian caravan, or see +the huge portal of a Persian caravanserai any more. These are cowardly +emotions which are dispelled by warmth and food, but at that moment +there was not much prospect of either. + +Through seas of mud and by mounds of filth we entered Besitun, a most +wretched village of eighteen hovels, chiefly ruinous, where we +dismounted in the mixed snow and mud of a yard at a hovel of three +rooms vacated by a family. It was a better shelter than could have +been hoped for, though after a fire was made, which filled the room +with smoke, I had to move from place to place to avoid the drip from +the roof. + +Hadji said he was ill of fever, and seemed like an idiot; but the orderly +said that the illness was shammed and the stupidity assumed in order not +to work. I told him to put the mattress on the bed; "Pour water on the +mattress," he replied. I repeated, "Put--the--mattress--on--the--bed," +to which he replied, "Put the mattress into water!" I said if he felt +too ill for his work he might go to bed. "God knows," he answered. +"Yes, knows that you are a lazy, good-for-nothing, humbugging +brute"--a well-timed objurgation from M----, which elicited a +prolonged "_Ya Allah!_" but produced no effect, as the tea and +_chapatties_ were not relatively but absolutely cold the next morning. + +The next day dawned miserably, and the daylight when it came was only +a few removes from darkness, yet it was enough to bring out the +horrors of that wretched place, and the dirt and poverty of the +people, who were a prey to skin diseases. Many readers will remember +that Sir H. Rawlinson considers that there are good geographical and +etymological reasons for identifying Besitun with the Baghistan, or +Place of Gardens of the Greeks, and with the famous pleasure-grounds +which tradition ascribes to Semiramis. But of these gardens not a +trace remains. A precipitous rock, smoothed at its lower part, a +vigorous spring gushing out at the foot of the precipice, two tablets, +one of which, at a height of over 300 feet, visible from the road but +inaccessible, is an Achaemenian sculpture portraying the majesty of +Darius, with about a thousand lines of cuneiform writing, are all that +survive of the ancient splendours of Besitun, with the exception of +some buttresses opposite the rock, belonging to a vanished Sasanian +bridge over the Gamasiab, and some fragments of other buildings of the +Sasanian epoch. These deeply interesting antiquities have been +described and illustrated by Sir H. Rawlinson, Flandin and Coste, and +others. + +It has been a severe day. It was so unpromising that a start was only +decided on after many pros and cons. Through dark air small flakes of +snow fell sparsely at intervals from a sky from which all light had +died out. Gusts of icy wind swept down every gorge. Huge ragged masses +of cloud drifted wildly round the frowning mass of Piru. Now and then +the gusts ceased, and there was an inauspicious calm. + +I rode a big mule not used to the bit, very troublesome and mulish at +first, but broken in an hour. A clear blink revealed the tablets, but +from their great altitude the tallest of the figures only looked two +feet high. There is little to see on this march even under favourable +circumstances. A few villages, the ruined fort of Hassan Khan, now +used as a caravanserai, on a height, the windings of the Gamasiab, and +a few canals crossed by brick bridges, represent its chief features. +Impressions of a country received in a storm are likely to be +incorrect, but they were pleasurable. Everything seemed on a grand +scale: here desolate plateaus pure white, there high mountains and +tremendous gorges, from which white mists were boiling up--everything +was shrouded in mystery--plain prose ceased to be for some hours. + +The others had to make several halts, so I left the "light division" +and rode on alone. It became dark and wild, and presently the surface +of the snow began to move and to drift furiously for about a foot +above the ground. The wind rose to a gale. I held my hat on with one +half-frozen hand. My mackintosh cape blew inside out, and struck me +such a heavy blow on the eyes that for some time I could not see and +had to trust to the mule. The wind rose higher; it was furious, and +the drift, not only from the valley but from the mountain sides, was +higher than my head, stinging and hissing as it raced by. It was a +"blizzard," a brutal snow-laden north-easter, carrying fine, sharp, +hard-frozen snow crystals, which beat on my eyes and blinded them. + +After a short experience of it my mule "turned tail" and needed +spurring to make him face it. I fought on for an hour, crossed what +appeared to be a bridge, where there were a few mud hovels, and +pressed on down a narrower valley. The blizzard became frightful; +from every ravine gusts of storm came down, sweeping the powdery snow +from the hillsides into the valley; the mountains were blotted out, +the depression in the snow which erewhile had marked the path was +gone, I could not even see the mule's neck, and he was floundering in +deep snow up to the girths; the hiss of the drift had increased to a +roar, the violence of the storm produced breathlessness and the +intense cold numbness. It was dangerous for a solitary traveller, and +thinking that M---- would be bothered by missing one of the party +under such circumstances, I turned and waited under the lee of a +ruinous mud hovel for a long, long time till the others came up--two +of the men having been unhorsed in a drift. + +In those hovels there were neither accommodation nor supplies, and we +decided to push on. It was never so bad again. The wind moderated, wet +snow fell heavily, but cleared off, and there was a brilliant blue +heaven with heavy sunlit cloud-wreaths, among which colossal mountain +forms displayed themselves, two peaks in glorious sunlight, high, high +above a whirling snow-cloud, which was itself far above a great +mountain range below. There were rifts, valleys, gorges, naked, nearly +perpendicular rocks, the faces of mountains, half of which had fallen +down in the opposite direction, a snow-filled valley, a winding river +with brief blue stretches, a ruined fort on an eminence, a sharp turn, +a sudden twilight, and then another blizzard far colder than the last, +raging down a lateral ravine, up which, even through the blinding +drift, were to be seen, to all seeming higher than mountains of this +earth, the twin peaks of Shamran lighted by the sun. I faced the +blizzard for some time, and then knowing that Hadji and the cook, who +were behind me, would turn off to a distant village, all trace of a +track having disappeared, I rode fully a mile back and waited half an +hour for them. They were half-frozen, and had hardly been able to urge +their mules, which were lightly laden, through the snow, and Hadji was +groaning "_Ya Allah!_" + +The blizzard was over and the sky almost cloudless, but the mercury +had fallen to 18 deg., and a keen wind was still blowing the powdery snow +to the height of a foot. I sent the two men on in front, and by dint +of calling to them constantly, kept them from getting into drifts of +unknown depth. We rode up a rising plateau for two hours--a plateau of +deep, glittering, blinding, trackless snow, giving back the sunshine +in millions of diamond flashings. Through all this region thistles +grow to a height of four feet, and the only way of finding the track +was to look out for a space on which no withered thistle-blooms +appeared above the snow. + +This village of Sannah lies at an altitude of about 5500 feet, among +poplar plantations and beautiful gardens, in which fine walnut trees +are conspicuous. Though partly ruinous it is a flourishing little +place, its lands being abundantly watered by streams which run into +the Gamasiab. It is buried now in snow, and the only mode of reaching +it is up the bed of a broad sparkling stream among the gardens. The +_sowar_ met us here, the navigation being difficult, and the "light +division" having come up, we were taken to the best house in the +village, where the family have vacated two rooms, below the level of a +yard full of snow. The plateau and its adjacent mountains were flushed +with rose as we entered Sannah, and as soon as the change to the +pallor of death came on the mercury raced down to zero outside, and it +is only 6 deg. in the room in which I am writing. + +There is a large caravanserai at the entrance to Sannah, and I suspect +that the _sowar_ in choosing private quarters bullies the _ketchuda_ +(headman) and throws the village into confusion, turning the women and +children out of the rooms, the owners, though they get a handsome sum +for the accommodation, having to give him an equally handsome +_modakel_. + +After nearly nine hours of a crawling pace and exposure to violent +weather, I suffered from intense pain in my joints, and was dragged +and lifted in and put into a chair. I write "put," for I was nearly +helpless, and had to take a teaspoonful of whisky in warm milk. While +the fire was being made two women, with a gentle kindliness which won +my heart, chafed my trembling, nearly frozen hands with their own, +with kindly, womanly looks, which supplied the place of speech. + +I lay down under a heap of good blankets, sorry to see them in thin +cotton clothes, and when I was less frozen observed my room and its +grotesquely miserable aspect, "the Savage" never taking any trouble to +arrange it. There are no windows, and the divided door does not shut +by three inches. A low hole leads into the granary, which is also the +fowl-house, but the fowls have no idea of keeping to their own +apartment. Two sheep with injured legs lie in a corner with some +fodder beside them. A heap of faggots, the bed placed diagonally to +avoid the firehole in the floor, a splashed tarpaulin on which Hadji +threw down the saddle and bridle plastered with mud, and all my +travelling gear, a puddle of frozen water, a plough, and some ox +yokes, an occasional gust of ashes covering everything, and clouds of +smoke from wood which refuses to do anything but smoke, are the +luxuries of the halt. The house is full of people, and the women come +in and out without scruple, and I am really glad to see them, though +it is difficult to rouse Hadji from his opium pipe and coffee, and his +comfortable lounge by a good fire, to interpret for them. + +The day's experiences remind me of the lines-- + + "Bare all he could endure, + And bare not always well." + +But tired and benumbed as I am I much prefer a march with excitements +and difficulties to the monotony of splashing through mud in warm +rain. + +_Hamilabad, Feb. 7._--The next morning opened cloudless, with the +mercury at 18 deg., which was hardly an excuse for tea and _chapatties_ +being quite cold. I was ready much too early, and the servants having +given out that I am a _Hak[=i]m_, my room was crowded with women and +children, all suffering from eye diseases and scrofula, five women not +nearly in middle life with cataract advanced in both eyes, and many +with incurved eyelids, the result of wood smoke. It was most painful +to see their disappointment when I told them that it would need time +to cure some of them, and that for others I could do nothing. Could I +not stay? they pleaded. I could have that room and milk and eggs--the +best they had. "And they lifted up their voices and wept." I felt like +a brute for leaving them. The people there showed much interest in our +movements, crowding on the roofs to see our gear, and the start. + +The order of march now is--light division, three mules with an +orderly, Hadji, and the cook upon them, the two last carrying what is +absolutely necessary for the night in case the heavy division cannot +get on. M---- and an orderly, the _sowar_, Abbas Khan, another who is +changed daily, the light division and I, sometimes start together; but +as the others are detained by work on the road, I usually ride on +ahead with the two servants. + +To write that we all survived the march of that day is strange, when +the same pitiless blast or "demon wind," blowing from "the roof of the +world"--the Pamir desert, made corpses of five men who started with a +caravan ahead of us that morning. We had to climb a long ascending +plateau for 1500 feet, to surmount a pass. The snow was at times three +feet deep, and the tracks even of a heavy caravan which crossed before +us were effaced by the drift in a few minutes. + +A sun without heat glared and scintillated like an electric light, +white and unsympathetic, out of a pitiless sky without a cloud. As +soon as we emerged from Sannah the "demon wind" seized on us--a +steady, blighting, searching, merciless blast, no rise or fall, no +lull, no hope. Steadily and strongly it swept, at a temperature of 9 deg., +across the glittering ascent--swept mountain-sides bare; enveloped us +at times in glittering swirls of powdery snow, which after biting and +stinging careered over the slopes in twisted columns; screeched down +gorges and whistled like the demon it was, as it drifted the light +frozen snow in layers, in ripples, in waves, a cruel, benumbing, +blinding, withering invisibility! + +The six woollen layers of my mask, my three pairs of gloves, my +sheepskin coat, fur cloak, and mackintosh piled on over a swaddling +mass of woollen clothing, were as nothing before that awful blast. It +was not a question of comfort or discomfort, or of suffering more or +less severe, but of life or death, as the corpses a few miles ahead of +us show. I am certain that if it had lasted another half-hour I too +should have perished. The torture of my limbs down to my feet, of my +temples and cheekbones, the anguish and uselessness of my hands, from +which the reins had dropped, were of small consequence compared with a +chill which crept round my heart, threatening a cessation of work. + +There were groans behind me; the cook and Hadji had rolled off into +the snow, where Hadji was calling on Him "who is not far from every +one of us." M---- was on foot. His mask was frozen hard. He was using +a scientific instrument, and told his orderly, an Afghan, a smart +little "_duffadar_" of a crack Indian _corps_, to fasten a strap. The +man replied sadly, "I can't, Sahib." His arms and hands were useless. +My mask was frozen to my lips. The tears extorted from my eyes were +frozen. I was so helpless, and in such torture, that I would gladly +have lain down to die in the snow. The mercury fell to 4 deg. + +After fighting the elements for three hours and a half, we crossed the +crest of the pass at an altitude of 7000 feet, to look down upon a +snow world stretched out everywhere, pure, glistering, awful; +mountains rolling in snowy ranges, valleys without a trace of man, a +world of horror, glittering under a mocking sun. + +Hadji, with many pious ejaculations, gasped out that he was dying (in +fact, for some time all speech had been reduced to a gasp); but when +we got over the crest there was no more wind, and all the benumbed +limbs resumed sensation, through an experience of anguish. + +The road to Kangawar lies through a broad valley, which has many +streams. Among the mountains which encompass it are the Kuh-i-Hassan, +Boka, the Kuh-i-Paran, and the Kuh-i-Bozah. I rode on with the two +servants, indulging in no higher thoughts than of the comfort I should +have in lying down, when just in front of me Hadji turned a +somersault, my alpenstock flying in one direction and the medicine +chest in another, while he lay motionless, flat on his back with all +his limbs stretched out, just as soldiers who have been shot lie in +pictures. In getting to him my mule went down in a snow-drift, out of +which I extricated him with difficulty. I induced Hadji, who said his +back was broken, and was groaning and calling on Allah, to get up, and +went on to secure his mule, which had the great pack-saddle under its +body, and was kicking with all its might at my bed and "hold-all," +which were between its hind legs, and succeeded in catching and +holding it till Hadji came up. I told him to unfasten the surcingle, +for the animal was wild with the things among its legs, and he wrung +his hands and beat his breast, exclaiming, "God is great! God knows I +shall never see Bushire again!" and was quite helpless. Seeing a +caravan of asses approaching, I rode on as fast as I could to the +well-situated little town of Kangawar, expecting him to follow +shortly. At present the entrance into Kangawar is up the bed of a +stream. + +We had been promised good accommodation there, and the town could +evidently afford it, but Abbas Khan had chosen something very +wretched, though it was upstairs, and had an extensive snow view. +Crumbling, difficult stairs at each end of a crumbling mud house led +to rooms which barely afforded a shelter, with a ruinous barn between, +where the servants, regardless of consequences, kept up a bonfire. A +man shovelled most of the snow out of my room, and tried to make a +fire but failed, as neither he nor I could stand the smoke produced by +the attempt. This imperfect shelter had a window-frame, with three out +of its four wooden panes gone, and a cracked door, which could only +ensure partial privacy by being laid against the posts from the outer +landing, which was a flat roof. The wall was full of cracks big enough +for a finger, through which the night wind rioted in a temperature 5 deg. +below zero. + +There was nothing to sit upon, and I walked up and down for two hours, +half-frozen, watching the straggling line of the caravan as it crawled +along the valley, till the sunset flush changed into the chill +blue-gray of twilight. Hadji arrived with it, having broken his girth +after I left him. There was not much comfort after the severe march, +owing to the draughts and the smoke, but one is always hungry and +sleepy, and the hybernation of the insects makes up for any minor +discomforts. It was so cold that some water in a cup froze before I +could drink it, and the blanket over my face was hard frozen. + +Kangawar was full of mourning. The bodies of two men and a boy, who +had perished on the plain while we were struggling up the pass, had +been brought in. This boy of twelve was "the only son of his mother +and she was a widow." He had started from Kangawar in the morning with +five asses laden with chopped straw to sell for her, and had miserably +perished. The two men were married, and had left families. + +Kangawar is a town of a thousand people built below a high hill, on +some natural and artificial mounds. Some traditions regarding +Semiramis are localised there, and it is supposed to be on the site of +Pancobar, where she erected a temple to Anaitis or Artemis. Ruins of a +fortress, now snow-buried, occupy the crest of a hill above the town, +and there are other ruins, regarded by antiquaries as Grecian, +representing a temple or palace, "a vast building constructed of +enormous blocks of dressed stone." Of these remains I saw nothing but +some columns and a pilaster, which are built into the miserable mud +walls of a house near the bazar. + +At night the muleteers were beseeching on their knees. They said that +they could not go on, that the caravan which had attempted to leave +Kangawar in the morning had put back with three corpses, and that they +and their mules would perish. In the morning it was for some time +doubtful whether they could be induced or bribed to proceed. The day +was fine and still, but they said that the snow was not broken. At +last they agreed to start if we would promise to return at the first +breath of wind! + +Every resource against cold was brought out and put on. One eye was +all that was visible of the servants' faces. The _charvadars_ relied +on their felt coats and raw sheepskins, with the fur inside, roped +round their legs. There is danger of frost-bite even with all +precautions. In addition to double woollen underclothing I put on a +pair of thick Chitral socks over two pairs of woollen stockings, and +over these a pair of long, loose Afghan boots, made of sheepskin with +the fur inside. Over my riding dress, which is of flannel lined with +heavy homespun, I had a long homespun jacket, an Afghan sheepskin +coat, a heavy fur cloak over my knees, and a stout "regulation" +waterproof to keep out the wind. Add to this a cork helmet, a +fisherman's hood, a "six-ply" mask, two pairs of woollen gloves with +mittens and double gauntlets, and the difficulty of mounting and +dismounting for a person thus _swaddled_ may be imagined! The Persians +are all in cotton clothes. + +However, though they have no "firesides," and no cheerful crackle and +blaze of wood, they have an arrangement by which they can keep +themselves warm for hours by the expenditure of a few handfuls of +animal fuel. The fire hole or _t[=a]nd[=u]r_ in the middle of the +floor is an institution. It is circular, narrows somewhat at the top +and bottom, has a flue leading to the bottom from the outside, and is +about three feet deep and two in diameter. It is smoothly lined with +clay inside. + +Over this is the _karsi_ or platform, a skeleton wooden frame like an +inverted table, from two to five feet square, covered with blankets or +a thickly-wadded cotton quilt, which extends four or five feet beyond +it. Cushions are placed under this, and the women huddle under it all +day, and the whole family at night, and in this weather all day--the +firepot in the hole giving them comfortable warmth both for sleeping +and waking. They very rarely wash, and the _karsi_ is so favourable +for the development of vermin that I always hurry it out of the room +when I enter. So excellent and economical is the contrivance, that a +_t[=a]nd[=u]r_ in which the fire has not been replenished for eighteen +hours has still a genial heat. + +It was a serious start, so terribly slippery in the heaped-up alleys +and uncovered bazars of Kangawar that several of the mules and men +fell. Outside the town was a level expanse of deep, wrinkled, drifted, +wavy, scintillating snow, unbroken except for a rut about a foot wide, +a deep long "mule ladder," produced by heavily-laden mules and asses +each stepping in its predecessor's footsteps, forming short, deep +corrugations, in which it is painful and tedious for horses or +lightly-laden animals to walk. For nine hours we marched through this +corrugated rut. + +Leaving on the left the summer route to Tihran _via_ Hamadan, which is +said to have been blocked for twenty days, we embarked upon a +glittering plain covered with pure snow, varying in depth from two +feet on the level to ten and fifteen in the drifts, crossed by a +narrow and only slightly beaten track. + +Ere long we came on solemn traces of the struggle and defeat of the +day before: every now and then a load of chopped straw thrown away, +then the deep snow much trampled, then the snow dug away and piled +round a small space, in which the _charvadars_ had tried to shelter +themselves from the wind as the shadows of death fell, then more +straw, and a grave under a high mound of snow; farther on some men +busy burying one of the bodies. The air was still, and the sun shone +as it had shone the day before on baffled struggles, exhaustion, and +death. The trampling of the snow near the track marked the place where +the caravan had turned, taking three out of the five bodies back to +Kangawar. The fury with which the wind had swept over the plain was +shown by the absolute level to which it had reduced the snow, the deep +watercourses being filled up with the drifts. + +After crossing a brick bridge, and passing the nearly buried village +of Husseinabad, we rode hour after hour along a rolling track among +featureless hills, till in the last twilight we reached the village of +Pharipah, a low-lying place ("low-lying" must never be understood to +mean anything lower than 5000 feet) among some frozen irrigated lands +and watered gardens. I arrived nearly dead from cold, fatigue, and the +severe pains in the joints which are produced by riding nine hours at +a foot's pace in a temperature of 20 deg. My mule could only be urged on +by spurring, and all the men and animals were in a state of great +fatigue. My room was very cold, as much of one side was open to the +air, and a fire was an impossibility. + +Except for the crossing of a pass with an altitude of 7500 feet, the +next day's route was monotonous, across plains, among mountains, all +pure white, the only incidents being that my chair was broken by the +fall of a mule, and that my mule and I went over our heads in a +snow-drift. The track was very little broken, and I was four hours in +doing ten miles. + +Hamilabad is a village of about sixty mud hovels, and in common with +all these mountain hamlets has sloping covered ways leading to pens +under the house, where cattle, sheep, and goats spend much of the +winter in darkness and warmth. + +I have a house, _i.e._ a mud room, to myself. These two days I have +had rather a severe chill, after getting in, including a shivering +lasting about two hours, perhaps owing to the severe fatigue; and I +was lying down with the blankets over my face and was just getting +warm when I heard much buzzing about me, and looking up saw the room +thronged with men, women, and children, just such a crowd as +constantly besieged our blessed Lord when the toilsome day full of +"the contradiction of sinners against Himself" was done, most of them +ill of "divers diseases and torments," smallpox, rheumatism, ulcers on +the cornea, abortive and shortened limbs, decay of the bones of the +nose, palate, and cheek, tumours, cancers, skin maladies, ophthalmia, +opaque films over the eyes, wounds, and many ailments too obscure for +my elementary knowledge. Nothing is more painful than to be obliged to +say that one cannot do anything for them. + +I had to get up, and for nearly two hours was hearing their tales of +suffering, interpreted by Hadji with brutal frankness; and they +crowded my room again this morning. All I could do was to make various +ointments, taking tallow as the basis, drop lotion into some eyes, +give a few simple medicines, and send the majority sadly away. The +_sowar_, Abbas Khan, is responsible for spreading my fame as a +_Hak[=i]m_. He is being cured of a severe cough, and comes to my room +for medicine (in which I have no faith) every evening, a lean man with +a lean face, lighted with a rapacious astuteness, with a _kaftan_ +streaming from his brow, except where it is roped round his shaven +skull, a zouave jacket, a skirt something like a kilt, but which +stands out like a ballet dancer's dress, all sorts of wrappings round +his legs, a coarse striped red shirt, a double cartridge-belt, and a +perfect armoury in his girdle of pistols and knives. He is a wit and a +rogue. Dogs, deprived of their usual shelter, shook my loose door at +intervals all night. This morning is gray, and looks like change. + +_Nanej, Feb. 9._--It was thawing, and the march here was very soft +and splashy. The people are barbarous in their looks, speech, manners, +and ways of living, and have a total disregard of cleanliness of +person, clothing, and dwellings. Whether they are actually too poor to +have anything warmer than cotton clothing, or whether they have buried +hoards I do not know; but even in this severe weather the women of +this region have nothing on their feet, and their short blue cotton +trousers, short, loose, open jackets, short open chemises, and the +thin blue sheet or _chadar_ over their heads, are a mere apology for +clothing. + +The journey yesterday was through rolling hills, enclosing level +plains much cultivated, with villages upon them mostly at a +considerable distance from the road. I passed through two, one larger +and less decayed than usual, but fearfully filthy, and bisected by a +foul stream, from which people were drinking and drawing water. Near +this is a lofty mound, a truncated cone, with some "Cyclopean" masonry +on its summit, the relics of a fire temple of the Magi. Another poorer +and yet filthier village was passed through, where a man was being +buried; and as I left Hamilabad in the morning, a long procession was +escorting a corpse to its icy grave, laid on its bedding on a bier, +both these deaths being from smallpox, which, though very prevalent, +is not usually fatal, and seldom attacks adults. Indeed, it is +regarded as a childish malady, and is cured by a diet of melons and by +profuse perspirations. + +A higher temperature had turned the path to slush, and made the +crossing of the last plain very tedious. This is an abominable +village, and the thaw is revealing a state of matters which the snow +would have concealed; but it has been a severe week's journey, and I +am glad of Sunday's rest even here. It is a disheartening place. I +dismounted in one yard, in slush up to my knees, and from this +splashed into another, round which are stables, cowsheds, and rooms +which were vacated by the _ketchuda_ and his family, but only +partially, as the women not only left all their "things" in my room, +but had a _godown_ or storehouse through it, to which they resorted +continually. I felt ill yesterday, and put on a blister, which +rendered complete rest desirable; but it is not to be got. The room +filled with women as soon as I settled myself in it. + +They told me at once that I could not have a fire unless I had it +under the _karsi_, that the smoke would be unbearable. When I asked +them to leave me to rest, they said, "There's no shame in having women +in the house." M---- came an hour later and cleared the room, but as +soon as he went away it filled again, and with men as well as women, +and others unscrupulously tore out the paper panes from the windows. +This afternoon I stayed in bed feeling rather ill, and about three +o'clock a number of women in blue sheets, with a very definite leader, +came in, arranged the _karsi_, filling the room with smoke, as a +preliminary, gathered themselves under the quilt, and sat there +talking loudly to each other. I felt myself the object of a focused +stare, and covered my head with a blanket in despair. Then more women +came in with tea-trays, and they all took tea and sat for another hour +or two talking and tittering, Hadji assuring me that they were doing +it out of kindness, because I was not well, and they thought it dull +for me alone! The room was again cleared, and I got up at dark, and +hearing a great deal of whispering and giggling, saw that they had +opened the door windows, and that a crowd was outside. When I woke +this morning a man was examining my clothes, which were hanging up. +They feel and pull my hair, finger all my things, and have broken all +the fine teeth out of my comb. They have the curiosity without the +gracefulness of the Japanese. + +This is a house of the better sort, though the walls are not +plastered. A carpet loom is fixed into the floor with a half-woven +carpet upon it. Some handsome rugs are laid down. There are two +much-decorated marriage chests, some guns and swords, a quantity of +glass teacups and ornaments in the recesses, and coloured woodcuts of +the Russian Imperial family, here, as in almost every house, are on +the walls. + +There is great rejoicing to-night "for joy that a man is born into the +world," the first-born of the _ketchuda's_ eldest son. In their +extreme felicity they took me to see the mother and babe. The room was +very hot, and crowded with relations and friends. The young mother was +sitting up on her bed on the floor and the infant lay beside her +dressed in swaddling clothes. She looked very happy and the young +father very proud. I added a small offering to the many which were +brought in for luck, and it was not rejected. + +A sword was brought from my room, and with it the _mamache_ traced a +line upon the four walls, repeating a formula which I understood to +be, "I am making this tower for Miriam and her child."[20] I was +warned by Hadji not to look on the child or to admire him without +saying "Mashallah," lest I should bring on him the woe of the evil +eye. So greatly is it feared, that precautions are invariably taken +against it from the hour of birth, by bestowing amulets and charms +upon the child. A paragraph of the Koran, placed in a silk bag, had +already been tied round the infant's neck. Later, he will wear another +bag round his arm, and turquoise or blue beads will be sewn upon his +cap. + +If a visitor admires a child without uttering the word _Mashallah_, +and the child afterwards falls sick, the visitor at once is regarded +as answerable for the calamity, and the relations take a shred of his +garment, and burn it in a brazier with cress seed, walking round and +round the child as it burns. + +Persian mothers are regarded as convalescent on the third day, when +they go to the _hammam_ to perform the ceremonies required by Moslem +law. A boy is weaned at the end of twenty-six months and a girl at the +end of twenty-four. If possible, on the weaning day the child is +carried to the mosque, and certain devotions are performed. The +weaning feast is an important function, and the relations and friends +assemble, bringing presents, and the child in spite of his reluctance +is forced to partake of the food. + +At the earliest possible period the _mamache_ pronounces in the +infant's ear the Shiah profession of faith: "God is God, there is but +one God, and Mohammed is the Prophet of God, and Ali is the Lieutenant +of God." A child becomes a Moslem as soon as this _Kelemah Islam_ has +been spoken into his ear; but a ceremony attends the bestowal of his +name, which resembles that in use among the Buddhists of Tibet on +similar occasions. + +Unless the father be very poor indeed, he makes a feast for his +friends on an auspicious day, and invites the village _mollahs_. +Sweetmeats are solemnly eaten after the guests have assembled. Then +the infant, stiffened and mummied in its swaddling clothes, is brought +in, and is laid on the floor by one of the _mollahs_. Five names are +written on five slips of paper, which are placed between the leaves of +the Koran, or under the edge of the carpet. The first chapter of the +Koran is then read. One of the slips is then drawn at random, and a +_mollah_ takes up the child, and pronounces in its ear the name found +upon it, after which he places the paper on its clothes. + +The relations and friends give it presents according to their means, +answering to our christening gifts, and thereafter it is called by the +name it has received. Among men's names there is a preponderance of +those taken from the Old Testament, among which Ibrahim, Ismail, +Suleiman, Yusuf, and Moussa are prominent. Abdullah, Mahmoud, Hassan, +Raouf, Baba Houssein, Imam are also common, and many names have the +suffix of Ali among the Shiahs. Fatmeh is a woman's name, but +girl-children usually receive the name of some flower or bird, or +fascinating quality of disposition or person. + +The journey is beginning to tell on men and animals. One of the Arab +horses has had a violent attack of pain from the cold, and several of +the men are ailing and depressed. + +_Dizabad, Feb. 11._--Nanej is the last village laid down on any map on +the route we are taking for over a hundred miles, _i.e._ until we +reach Kum, though it is a caravan route, and it does not appear that +any Europeans have published any account of it. Just now it is a +buried country, for the snow is lying from one to four feet deep. It +is not even possible to pronounce any verdict on the roads, for they +are simply deep ruts in the snow, with "mule ladders." The people say +that the plains are irrigated and productive, and that the hills +pasture their sheep and cattle; and they all complain of the exactions +of local officials. There is no variety in costume, and very little in +dwellings, except as to size, for they are all built of mud or +sun-dried bricks, within cattle yards, and have subterranean pens for +cattle and goats. The people abound in diseases, specially of the eyes +and bones. + +The salient features of the hills, if they have any, are rounded off +by snow, and though many of them rise to a great height, none are +really impressive but Mount Elwand, close to Hamadan. The route is +altogether hilly, but the track pursues valleys and low passes as much +as possible, and is never really steep. + +Yesterday we marched twenty-four miles in eight hours without any +incident, and the "heavy division" took thirteen hours, and did not +come in till ten at night! There are round hills, agglomerated into +ranges, with easy passes, the highest 7026 feet in altitude, higher +summits here and there in view, the hills encircling level plains, +sprinkled sparsely with villages at a distance from the road, denoted +by scrubby poplars and willows; sometimes there is a _kanaat_ or +underground irrigation channel with a line of pits or shafts, but +whatever there was, or was not, it was always lonely, grim, and +desolate. The strong winds have blown some of the hillsides bare, and +they appear in all their deformity of shapeless mounds of black +gravel, or black mud, with relics of last year's thistles and +euphorbias upon them. So great is the destitution of fuel that even +now people are out cutting the stalks of thistles which appear above +the snow. + +As the hours went by, I did rather wish for the smashed _kajawehs_, +especially when we met the ladies of a governor's _haram_, to the +number of thirty, reclining snugly in pairs, among blankets and +cushions, in panniers with tilts, and curtains of a thick material, +dyed Turkey red. The cold became very severe towards evening. + +The geographical interest of the day was that we crossed the watershed +of the region, and have left behind the streams which eventually reach +the sea, all future rivers, however great their volume, or impetuous +their flow, disappearing at last in what the Americans call "sinks," +but which are known in Persia as _kavirs_, usually salt swamps. Near +sunset we crossed a bridge of seven pointed arches with abutments +against a rapid stream, and passing a great gaunt caravanserai on an +eminence, and a valley to the east of the bridge with a few villages +giving an impression of fertility, hemmed in by some shapely +mountains, we embarked on a level plain, bounded on all sides by +hills so snowy that not a brown patch or outbreak of rock spotted +their whiteness, and with villages and caravanserais scattered thinly +over it. On the left, there are the extensive ruins of old Dizabad, +and a great tract of forlorn graves clustering round a crumbling +_imamzada_. + +As the sun sank the distant hills became rose-flushed, and then one by +one the flush died off into the paleness of death, and in the +gathering blue-grayness, in desolation without sublimity, in +ghastliness, impressive but only by force of ghastliness, and in +benumbing cold, we rode into this village, and into a yard encumbered +with mighty piles of snow, on one side of which I have a wretched +room, though the best, with two doors, which do not shut, but when +they are closed make it quite dark--a deep, damp, cobwebby, dusty, +musty lair like a miserable eastern cowshed. + +I was really half-frozen and quite benumbed, and though I had plenty +of blankets and furs, had a long and severe chill, and another to-day. +M---- also has had bad chills, and the Afghan orderly is ill, and +moaning with pain in the next room. Hadji has fallen into a state of +chronic invalidism, and is shaking with chills, his teeth chattering, +and he is calling on Allah whenever I am within hearing. + +The chilly dampness and the rise in temperature again may have +something to do with the ailments, but I think that we Europeans are +suffering from the want of nourishing food. Meat has not been +attainable for some days, the fowls are dry and skinny, and milk is +very scarce and poor. I cannot eat the sour wafers which pass for +bread, and as Hadji cannot boil rice or make flour porridge, I often +start in the morning having only had a cup of tea. I lunch in the +saddle on dates, the milk in the holsters having been frozen lately; +then is the time for finding the value of a double peppermint +lozenge! + +Snow fell heavily last night, and as the track has not been broken, +and the _charvadars_ dared not face it, we are detained in this +miserable place, four other caravans sharing our fate. The pros and +cons about starting were many, and Abbas Khan was sent on horseback to +reconnoitre, but he came back like Noah's dove, reporting that it was +a trackless waste of snow outside. It is a day of rest, but as the +door has to be open on the snow to let in light, my hands are benumbed +with the damp cold. Still, a bowl of Edwards' desiccated soup--the +best of all travelling soups--has been very reviving, and though I +have had a severe chill again, I do not mean to succumb. I do not +dwell on the hardships, but they are awful. The soldiers and servants +all have bad coughs, and dwindle daily. The little orderly is so ill +to-day that we could not have gone on even had the track been broken. + +_Saruk, Feb. 12._--Unladen asses, followed by unladen mules, were +driven along to break the track this morning, and as two caravans +started before us, it was tolerable, though very deep. The solitude +and desolation were awful. At first the snow was somewhat thawed, but +soon it became immensely deep, and we had to plunge through hollows +from which the beasts extricated themselves with great difficulty and +occasionally had to be unloaded and reloaded. + +As I mentioned in writing of an earlier march, it is difficult and +even dangerous to pass caravans when the only road is a deep rut a +foot wide, and we had most tedious experience of it to-day, when some +of our men, weakened by illness, were not so patient as usual. Abbas +Khan and the orderly could hardly sit on their horses, and Hadji +rolled off his mule at intervals. As the _charvadars_ who give way +have their beasts floundering in the deep snow and losing their loads, +both attempt to keep the road, the result of which is a violent +collision. The two animals which "collide" usually go down, and some +of the others come on the top of them, and to-day at one time there +were eight, struggling heels uppermost in the deep snow, all to be +reloaded. + +This led to a serious _melee_. The rival _charvadar_, aggravated by +Hadji, struck him on the head, and down he went into the snow, with +his mule apparently on the top of him, and his load at some distance. +The same _charvadar_ seized the halters of several of our mules, and +drove them into the snow, where they all came to grief. Our +_charvadar_, whose blue eyes, auburn hair and beard, and exceeding +beauty, always bring to mind a sacred picture, became furious at this, +and there was a fierce fight among the men (M---- being ahead) and +much bad language, such epithets as "son of a dog" and "sons of burnt +fathers" being freely bandied about. The fray at last died out, +leaving as its result only the loss of an hour, some broken +surcingles, and some bleeding faces. Even Hadji rose from his "gory +bed" not much worse, though he had been hit hard. + +There was no more quarrelling though we passed several caravans, but +even when the men were reasonable and good nature prevailed some of +the mules on both sides fell in the snow and had to be reloaded. When +the matter is not settled as this was by violence, a good deal of +shouting and roaring culminates in an understanding that one caravan +shall draw off into a place where the snow is shallowest, and stand +still till the other has gone past; but to-day scarcely a shallow +place could be found. I always give place to asses, rather to avoid a +painful spectacle than from humanity. One step off the track and down +they go, and they never get up without being unloaded. + +When we left Dizabad the mist was thick, and as it cleared it froze +in crystallised buttons, which covered the surface of the snow, but +lifting only partially it revealed snowy summits, sun-lit above heavy +white clouds; then when we reached a broad plateau, the highest plain +of the journey, 7800 feet in altitude, gray mists drifted very near +us, and opening in rifts divulged blackness, darkness, and tempest, +and ragged peaks exposed to the fury of a snowstorm. Snow fell in +showers on the plain, and it was an anxious time, for had the storm +which seemed impending burst on that wild, awful, shelterless expanse, +with tired animals, and every landmark obliterated, some of us must +have perished. I have done a great deal of snow travelling, and know +how soon every trace of even the widest and deepest path is effaced by +drift, much more the narrow rut by which we were crossing this most +exposed plateau. There was not a village in sight the whole march, no +birds, no animals. There was not a sound but the venomous hiss of +snow-laden squalls. It was "the dead of winter." + +My admirable mule was ill of cold from having my small saddle on him +instead of his great stuffed pack-saddle, the _charvadar_ said, and he +gave me instead a horse that I could not ride. Such a gait I never +felt; less than half a mile was unbearable. I felt as if my eyes would +be shaken out of their sockets! The bit was changed, but in vain. I +was obliged to get off, and M---- kindly put my saddle on a powerful +Kirmanshah Arab. I soon found that my intense fatigue on this journey +had been caused by riding mules, which have no elasticity of movement. +I rode twenty miles to-day with ease, and could have ridden twenty +more, and had several canters on the few places where the snow was +well trodden. + +I was off the track trying to get past a caravan and overtake the +others, when down came the horse and I in a drift fully ten feet deep. +Somehow I was not quite detached from the saddle, and in the scrimmage +got into it again, and a few desperate plunges brought us out, with +the horse's breastplate broken. + +When we reached the great plateau above this village, a great blank +sheet of snow, surrounded by mountains, now buried in white mists, now +revealed, with snow flurries drifting wildly round their ghastly +heads, I found that the Arab, the same horse which was so ill at +Nanej, was "dead beat," and as it only looked a mile to the village I +got off, and walked in the deep snow along the rungs of the "mule +ladders," which are so fatiguing for horses. But the distance was +fully three miles, with a stream to wade through, half a mile of deep +wet soil to plunge through, and the thawed mud of a large village to +splash through; and as I dared not mount again for fear of catching +cold, I trailed forlornly into Saruk, following the men who were +riding. + +Can it be said that they rode? They sat feebly on animals, swaddled in +felts and furs, the _pagri_ concealing each face with the exception of +one eye in a blue goggle; rolling from side to side, clutching at +ropes and halters, moaning "_Ya Allah!_"--a deplorable cavalcade. + +Saruk has some poplars, and is surrounded by a ruinous mud wall. It is +a village of 150 houses, and is famous for very fine velvety carpets, +of small patterns, in vivid vegetable dyes. At an altitude of 7500 +feet, it has a severe climate, and only grows wheat and barley, sown +in April and reaped in September. All this mountainous region that we +are toiling through is blank on the maps, and may be a dead level so +far as anything there is represented, though even its passes are in +several cases over 7000 feet high. + +_Saruk, Feb. 13._--The circumstances generally are unfavourable, and +we are again detained. The Afghan orderly, who is also interpreter, is +very ill, and though he is very plucky it is impossible for him to +move; the cook seems "all to pieces," and is overcome by cough and +lassitude; Abbas Khan is ill, and his face has lost its comicality; +and in the same room Hadji lies, groaning and moaning that he will not +live through the night. Even M----'s herculean strength is not what it +was. I have chills, but in spite of them and the fatigue am really +much better than when I left Baghdad, so that though I exercise the +privilege of grumbling at the hardships, I ought not to complain of +them, though they are enough to break down the strongest men. I really +like the journey, except when I am completely knocked up, or the smoke +is exceptionally blinding. + +The snow in this yard is lying in masses twelve feet high, rising out +of slush I do not know how many feet deep. It looks as if we had seen +the last of the winter. The mercury is at 32 deg. now. It is very damp and +cold sitting in a room with one side open to the snow, and the mud +floor all slush from the drip from the roof. The fuel is wet, and +though a man has attempted four times to light a fire, he has only +succeeded in making an overpowering smoke, which prefers hanging +heavily over the floor and me to making its exit through the hole in +the roof provided for it. The door must be kept open to let in light, +and it also lets in fowls and many cats. My _dhurrie_ has been +trampled into the slush, and a deadly cold strikes up through it. Last +night a man (for Hadji was _hors de combat_) brought in some live +embers, and heaped some gum tragacanth thorns and animal fuel upon +them; there was no chimney, and the hole in the roof was stopped by a +clod. The result was unbearable. I covered my head with blankets, but +it was still blinding and stifling, and I had to extinguish the fire +with water and bear the cold, which then was about 20 deg. Later, there +was a tempest of snow and rain, with a sudden thaw, and water dripped +with an irksome sound on my well-protected bed, no light would burn, +and I had the mortification of knowing that the same drip was spoiling +writing paper and stores which had been left open to dry! But a +traveller rarely lies awake, and to-day by keeping my feet on a box, +and living in a mackintosh, I am out of both drip and mud. Such a room +as I am now in is the ordinary room of a Persian homestead. It is a +cell of mud, not brick, either sun or kiln dried. Its sides are +cracked and let in air. Its roof is mud, under which is some brushwood +lying over the rafters. It has no light holes, but as the door has +shrunk considerably from the door posts, it is not absolutely dark. It +may be about twelve feet square. Every part of it is blackened by +years of smoke. The best of it is that it is raised two feet from the +ground to admit of a fowl-house below, and opens on a rough platform +which runs in front of all the dwelling-rooms. With the misfitting +door and cracked sides it is much like a sieve. + +I have waited to describe a Persian peasant's house till I had seen +more of them. The yard is an almost unvarying feature, whether a small +enclosure with a low wall and a gateway closed at night by a screen of +reeds, or a great farmyard like this, with an arched entrance and +dwelling-rooms for two or three generations along one or more of the +sides. + +The house walls are built of mud, not sun-dried brick, and are only +one story high. The soil near villages is mostly mud, and by leading +water to a given spot, a pit of mortar for building material is at +once made. This being dug up, and worked to a proper consistency by +the feet of men, is then made into a wall, piece after piece being +laid on by hand, till it reaches a height of four feet and a thickness +of three--the imperative tradition of the Persian builder. This is +allowed a few days for hardening, when another layer of similar height +but somewhat narrower is laid upon it, _takchahs_ or recesses a foot +deep or more being worked into the thickness of the wall, and the +process is repeated till the desired height is attained. When the wall +is thoroughly dry it is plastered inside and outside with a mixture of +mud and chopped straw, and if this plastering is repeated at +intervals, the style of construction is very durable. + +The oven or _t[=a]nd[=u]r_ is placed in the floor of one room, at +least, and answers for cooking and heating. A peasant's house has no +windows, and the roof does not project beyond the wall. + +All roofs are flat. Rude rafters of poplar are laid across the walls +about two feet apart. In a _ketchuda's_ or a wealthier peasant's +house, above these are laid in rows peeled poplar rods, two inches +apart, then a rush mat, and then the resinous thorns of the tragacanth +bush, which are not liable to decay; but in the poorer houses the +owner contents himself with a coarse reed mat or a layer of brushwood +above the rafters. On this is spread a well-trodden-down layer of mud, +then eight or ten inches of dry earth, and the whole is thickly +plastered with mixed straw and mud. A slight slope at the back with a +long wooden spout carries off the water. Such a roof is impervious to +rain except in very severe storms if kept in order, that is, if it be +plastered once a year, and well rolled after rain. Few people are so +poor as not to have a neatly-made stone roller on their roofs. If this +is lacking, the roof must be well tramped after rain by bare feet, and +in all cases the snow must be shovelled off. + +These roofs, among the peasantry, have no parapets. They are the +paradise of dogs, and in hot weather the people take up their beds +and sleep there, partly for coolness and partly because the night +breeze gives freedom from mosquitos. In simple country life, though +the premises of the peasants for the sake of security are contiguous, +there are seldom even balustrades to the roofs, though in summer most +domestic operations are carried on there. Fifty years ago Persian law +sanctioned the stoning without trial or mercy of any one caught in the +act of gazing into the premises of another, unless the gazer were the +king. + +Upon the courtyard stables, barns, and store-rooms open, but so far I +notice that the granary is in the house, and that the six-feet-high +clay receptacles for grain are in the living-room. + +Looking from above upon a plain, the poplars which surround villages +where there is a sufficiency of water attract the eye. At this season +they are nothing but a brown patch on the snow. The villages +themselves are of light brown mud, and are surrounded usually by +square walls with towers at the corners, and all have a great gate. +Within the houses or hovels the families are huddled irregularly, with +all their appurtenances, and in winter the flocks and herds are in +subterranean pens beneath. In summer the animals go forth at sunrise +and return at sunset. The walls, which give most of the villages a +fortified aspect, used to afford the villagers a degree of protection +against the predatory Turkomans, and now give security to the flocks +against Lur and other robbers. + +Every village has its _ketchuda_ or headman, who is answerable for the +taxes, the safety of travellers, and other matters. + +_Siashan, Feb. 16._--The men being a little better, we left Saruk at +nine on the 14th, I on a bright little Baghdadi horse, in such good +case that he frequently threw up his heels in happy playfulness. The +temperature had fallen considerably, there had been a fresh snowfall, +and the day was very bright. The Arab horses are suffering badly in +their eyes from the glare of the snow. + +If I had not had such a lively little horse I should have found the +march a tedious one, for we were six hours in doing eleven and a half +miles on a level! The head _charvadar_ had gone on early to make some +arrangements, and the others loaded the animals so badly that Hadji +and the cook rolled off their mules into the deep semi-frozen slush +from the packs turning just outside the gates. We had three mules with +us with worn-out tackle, and the loads rolled over many times, the +riders, who were too weak to help themselves, getting bad falls. As +each load, owing to the broken tackle, took fifteen minutes to put on +again, and the men could do little, a great deal of hard, exasperating +work fell on M----. After one bad fall in a snowdrift myself, I rode +on alone with one mule with a valuable burden. This, turning for the +fourth time, was soon under his body, and he began to kick violently, +quite dismaying me by the bang of his hoofs against cases containing +scientific instruments. It was a droll comedy in the snow. I wanted to +get hold of his halter, but every time I went near him he whisked +round and flung up his heels, till I managed to cut the ragged +surcingle and set him free, when I caught him in deep snow, in which +my horse was very unwilling to risk himself. + +Soon after leaving Saruk, which, as I mentioned before, is famous for +very fine carpets, we descended gently upon the great plain of +Feraghan, perhaps the largest carpet-producing district of Persia. +These carpets are very fine and their patterns are unique, bringing a +very high price. This plain has an altitude of about 7000 feet, is 45 +miles in length by from 8 to 15 in breadth, is officially stated to +have 650 villages upon it, all agricultural and carpet producing, and +is considerably irrigated by streams, which eventually lose themselves +in a salt lake at its eastern extremity. It is surrounded by hills, +with mountain ranges behind them, and must be, both as to +productiveness and population, one of the most flourishing districts +in Persia. + +We were to have marched to Kashgird, but on reaching the hamlet of +Ahang Garang I found that Abbas Khan had taken quarters there, saying +that Kashgird was in ruins. + +Hadji, who had allowed himself to roll off several times, was moaning +and weeping on the floor of my room, groaning out, with many cries of +_Ya Allah_, "Let me stay here till I'm better; I don't want any wages; +I shall be killed, oh, killed! Oh, my family! I shall never see +Bushire any more!" Though there was much reason to think he was +shamming, I did the little that he calls his "work," and left him to +smoke his opium pipe and sleep by the fire in peace. + +I was threatened with snow-blindness in one eye; in fact I saw nothing +with it, and had to keep it covered up. One of the _charvadars_ lay +moaning outside my room, poor fellow, taking chlorodyne every +half-hour, and another had got a bad foot from frost-bite. They have +been terribly exposed, and the soft snow at a higher temperature has +been worse for them than the dry powdery snow at a low temperature, as +it soaks their socks, shoes, and leggings, and then freezes. Making +Liebig's beef tea warms one, and they like it even from a Christian +hand. The Afghan orderly bore up bravely, but was very weak. Indeed +the prospect of getting these men to Tihran is darkening daily. + +My room, though open to the snow at one end, was comfortable. The oven +had been lighted twelve hours before, and it was delightful to hang +one's feet into the warm hole. There were holes for light in the roof, +and cold though it was, so long as daylight lasted these were never +free from veiled faces looking down. + +In order to become thoroughly warm it was necessary to walk long and +briskly on the roof, and this brought all the villagers below it to +stare the stare of vacuity rather than of curiosity. A snow scene is +always beautiful at sunset, and this was exceptionally so, as the long +indigo shadows on the plain threw into greater definiteness the +gleaming, glittering hills, at one time dazzling in the sunshine, at +another flushed in the sunset. The plain of Feraghan as seen from the +roof was one smooth expanse of pure deep snow, broken only by brown +splashes, where mud villages were emphasised by brown poplars, the +unbroken, unsullied snow, two feet deep on the level and any number in +the drifts, looking like a picture of the Arctic Ocean, magnificent in +its solitude, one difficult track, a foot wide, the solitary link with +the larger world which then seemed so very far away. + +Things went better yesterday on the whole, though the mercury fell to +zero in the night, and I was awakened several times by the cold of my +open room, and when a number of people came at daylight for medicines +my fingers were so benumbed that I could scarcely measure them. What a +splendid field for a medical missionary loving his profession this +plain with its 650 villages would be, where there are curable diseases +by the hundred! Many of the suffering people have told me that they +would give lodging and the best of their food to any English doctor +who would travel among them. + +The loads were well balanced yesterday, and Hadji only pulled his over +once and only rolled off once, when Abbas Khan exclaimed, "He's not a +man; why did Allah make such a creature?" We got off at nine, the +roofs being crowded to see us start. Fuel is very scarce at Ahang +Garang. For the cooking and "parlour" fire, the charge was forty-five +_krans_, or about twenty-eight shillings! Probably this included a +large _modakel_. For a room from two to four _krans_ is expected. + +Through M----'s kindness I now have a good horse to ride, and the +difference in fatigue is incredible. We embarked again on the vast +plain of snow. It was a grim day, and most ghastly and desolate this +end of the plain looked, where the waters having done their +fertilising work are lost in a salt lake, the absolutely white hills +round the plain being emphasised by the blue neutral tint of the sky. +For the first ten miles there was little more than a breeze, for the +last ten a pitiless, ruthless, riotous north-easterly gale, blowing up +the snow in hissing drifts, as it swept across the plain with a +desolate screech. + +The coverings with which we were swaddled were soon penetrated. The +cold seemed to enter the bones, and to strike the head and face like a +red-hot hammer, stunning as it struck, the tears wrung from the eyes +were frozen, at times even the eyelids were frozen together. The +frozen snow hit one hard. Hands and feet were by turns benumbed and in +anguish, terrific blasts loaded with hard lumps of snow came down from +the hills, snow was drifting from all the white ranges above us; on +the more exposed part of the track the gusts burst with such violence +as to force some of the mules off it to flounder in the deep snow; my +Arab was struck so mercilessly on his sore swollen eyes that at times +I could scarcely, with my own useless hands, induce him to face the +swirls of frozen snow. Swifter and more resistless were the ice-laden +squalls, more and more obliterated became the track, till after a +fight of over three hours, and the ceaseless crossing of rolling +hills and deep hollows, we reached the top of a wind-bared slope 7700 +feet in altitude and saw this village, looking from that distance +quite imposing, on a hill on the other side of a stream crossed by a +brick bridge, with a ruined fort on a height above it. It promised +shelter--that was all. Below the village there was an expanse of snow, +sloping up to pure white hills outlined against an indigo depth of +ominous-looking clouds. + +While M---- went up a hill for some scientific work, I followed the +orderly, who could scarcely sit on his horse from pain and weakness, +into the most wretchedly ruinous, deserted-looking village I have yet +seen, epitomising the disenchantment which a near view of an Eastern +city brings, and up a steep alley to a ruinous yard heaped with +snow-covered ruins, on one side of which were some ruinous rooms, +their backs opening on a precipice above the river, and on the +north-east wind. I tumbled off my horse, Abbas Khan, the least sick of +the men, with benumbed hands breaking my fall. The severe cold had +stiffened all my joints. We could scarcely speak; the bones of my face +were in intense pain, and I felt as if the cold were congealing my +heart. + +With Abbas Khan's help I chose the rooms, the worst we have ever had. +The one I took for myself has an open-work door facing the wind, and +it is impossible to have a fire, for the draught blows sticks, ashes, +and embers over the room. The others are worse. It is an awful night, +blowing and snowing; all the men but two are _hors de combat_. The +poor orderly, using an Afghan phrase, said, "The wind has played the +demon with me." He has a fearful cough, and haemorrhage from the lungs +or throat. The cook is threatened with pleurisy. It may truly be +called "Hospital Sunday." The day has been chiefly spent in making +mustard poultices, which M---- is constantly crossing the yard in +three feet of snow to put on, and protectors for the chests and backs, +preparing beef tea, making up medicines, etc. + +Surely things must have reached their worst. Out of seven men only one +servant, and he an Indian lad with a fearful squint and eyes so badly +inflamed that he can hardly see where he puts things down, is able to +do anything. Two of the _charvadars_ are lying ill in the stable. +Mustard plasters, Dover's powders, salicylate of soda, emetics, +poultices, clinical thermometers, chlorodyne, and beef tea have been +in requisition all day. The cook, the Afghan orderly, and Hadji seem +really ill. At eight this morning groans at my door took me out, and +one of the muleteers was lying there in severe pain, with the hard +fine snow beating on him. Later I heard fresh moaning on my threshold, +and found Hadji fallen there with my breakfast. I got him in and he +fell again, upsetting the tea, and while I attended to him the big +dogs ate up the _chapatties_! He had a good deal of fever, and severe +rheumatism, and on looking at his eyes I saw that he was nearly blind. +He lost his blue glasses some days ago. I sent him to bed in the +"kitchen" for the whole day, where he lay groaning in comfort by the +fire with his opium pipe and his tea. He thinks he will not survive +the night, and has just given me his dying directions! + +Afterwards M---- came for the thermometer and chlorodyne, and remarked +that my room was "unfit for a beast." The truth is I share it with +several very big dogs. It did look grotesquely miserable last +night--black, fireless, wet, dirty, with all my things lying on the +dirty floor, having been tumbled about by these dogs in their search +for my last box of Brand's meat lozenges, which they got out of a +strong, tightly-tied-up bag, which they tore into strips. On going for +my fur cloak to-day, these three dogs, who, I believe, would take on +civilisation more quickly than their masters, were all found rolled up +under it, and lying on my bed. + +The mercury in the "parlour" with a large fire cannot be raised above +36 deg. In my room to-night the wet floor is frozen hard and the mercury +is 20 deg. This is nothing after 12 deg. and 16 deg. below zero, but the furious +east wind and a singular dampness in the air make it very severe. +Yesterday, before the sky clouded over, there was a most remarkable +ring or halo of prismatic colours round the sun, ominous of the storm +which has followed. + +This place standing high without shelter is fearfully exposed; there +is no milk and no comfort of any kind for the sick men. We have +decided to wrap them up and move them to Kum, where there is a Persian +doctor with a European education; but it is a great risk, though the +lesser of two. I have just finished four protectors for the back and +chest, three-quarters of a yard long by sixteen inches wide, buttoning +on the shoulders, of a very soft felt _namad_ nearly half an inch +thick--a precaution much to be commended. + +I think that Hadji, though in great pain, poor fellow, is partly +shamming. He professed this evening to have violent fever, and the +thermometer shows that he has none. Even the few things which I +thought he had done for me, such as making _chapatties_, I find have +been done by others. It is a pity for himself as well as for me that +he should be so incorrigibly lazy. + +_Taj Khatan, Feb. 18._--Yesterday we had a severe march, and owing +first to the depth of the snow, and then to the depth of the mud, we +were seven hours in doing twenty-one miles. The wind was still +intensely cold--bitter indeed. There are few remarks to be made about +a country buried in snow. The early miles were across the fag end of +the dazzling plain of Feraghan, which instead of being covered with +villages is an uninhabited desert with a salt lake. Then the road +winds among mountains of an altitude of 8000 and 9000 feet and more, +its highest point being 8350 feet, where we began a descent which will +land us at Tihran at a level under 4000 feet. Snowy mountains and +snowy plains were behind--bare brown earth was to come all too soon. + +Winding wearily round low hills, meeting caravans of camels to which +we had to give way, and of asses floundering in the snow, we came in +the evening to a broad slope with villages, poplars, walnuts, and +irrigated lands, then to the large and picturesquely situated village +of Givr on a steep bank above a rapid stream, and just at dusk to the +important village of Jairud, also on high ground above the same river, +and surrounded by gardens and an extraordinary number of fruit trees. +The altitude is 6900 feet.[21] I had a _balakhana_, very cold, and was +fairly benumbed for some time after the long cold march. + +A great many people applied for medicine, and some of the maladies, +specially when they affect children, make one sick at heart. Hadji is +affecting to be stone deaf, so he no longer interprets for sick +people, which creates an additional difficulty. We left this morning +at ten, descended 2000 feet, and suddenly left the snow behind. Vast, +gray, and grim the snow-covered mountains looked as they receded into +indigo gloom, with snow clouds drifting round their ghastly heads and +across the dazzling snow plains in which we had been floundering for +thirty days. It is strange to see mother earth once more--rocky, or +rather stony hills, mud hills, mud plains, mud slopes, a brown world, +with a snow world above. Two pink hills rise above the brown plain, +and some toothed peaks, but the rest of the view is simply hills and +slopes of mud and gravel, bearing thorns, and the relics of last +year's thistles and wormwood. The atmospheric colouring is, however, +very fine. + + [Illustration: PERSIAN BREAD-MAKING.] + +This is a large village with beehive roofs in, and of, mud. A quagmire +surrounds it and is in the centre of it, and the crumbling houses are +thrown promiscuously down upon it. It is nearly the roughest place I +have seen, and the worst accommodation, though Abbas Khan says it is +the best house in the village. My room has an oven in the floor, +neatly lined with clay, and as I write the women are making bread by a +very simple process. The oven is well heated by the live embers of +animal fuel. They work the flour and water dough, to which a piece of +leaven from the last baking has been added, into a flat round cake, +about eighteen inches in diameter and half an inch thick, place it +quickly on a very dirty cushion, and clap it against the concave +interior of the oven, withdrawing the cushion. In one minute it is +baked and removed. + +A sloping hole in the floor leads to the fowl-house. The skin of a +newly-killed sheep hangs up. A pack saddle and gear take up one +corner, my bed another, and the owner's miscellaneous property fills +up the rest of the blackened, cracked mud hovel, thick with the sooty +cobwebs and dust of generations. The door, which can only be shut by +means of a wooden bolt outside, is six inches from the ground, so that +fowls and cats run in and out with impunity. Behind my bed there is a +doorless entrance to a dark den, full of goat's hair, bones, and other +stores. In front there is a round hole for letting in light, which I +persistently fill up with a blanket which is as persistently +withdrawn. There is no privacy, for though the people are glad to let +their rooms, they only partially vacate them, and are in and out all +the time. Outside there is mud a foot deep, then a steep slope, and a +disgusting green pool, and the drinking water is nauseous and +brackish. The village people here and everywhere seem of a very +harmless sort. + +_Kum, Ash Wednesday, 1890._--It was really very difficult to get away +from Taj Khatan. The _charvadar_ came on here, leaving only two men to +load twelve mules. M---- practically had to load them himself, and to +reload them when the tackle broke and the loads turned. Hadji and the +cook were quite incapable, the Afghan orderly, who seemed like a dying +man, was left behind; in fact there were no servants and no +interpreters, and the groom was so ill he could hardly sit on a horse. + +The march of twenty-five miles took fully eight hours, but on the Arab +horse, and with an occasional gallop, I got through quite comfortably, +and have nothing to complain of. The road lies through a country of +mud hills, brown usually, drab sometimes, streaked with deep madder +red, and occasionally pale green clay--stones, thistles, and thorns +their only crop. [I passed over much of this country in the spring, +and though there were a few flowers, chiefly bulbs, and the thorns +were clothed with a scanty leafage, and the thistles and artemisia +were green-gray instead of buff, the general aspect of the region was +the same.] There was not a village on the route, only two or three +heaps of deserted ruins and two or three ruinous mud _imamzadas_, no +cultivation, streams, or springs, the scanty pools brackish, here and +there the glittering whiteness of saline efflorescence, not a tree or +even bush, nothing living except a few goats, picking up, who knows +how, a scanty living,--a blighted, blasted region, a land without a +_raison d'etre_. + +Then came low mud ranges, somewhat glorified by atmosphere, higher +hills on the left, ghastly with snow which was even then falling, +glimpses far away to the northward of snowy mountains among heavy +masses of sunlit clouds, an ascent, a gap in the mud hills, some low +peaks of white, green, and red clay, a great plain partly green with +springing wheat, and in the centre, in the glow of sunset, the golden +dome and graceful minarets of the shrine of Fatima, the sister of +Reza, groups of trees, and the mud houses, mud walls, and many domes +and minarets of the sacred city of Kum. + +Descending, we trotted for some miles through irrigated wheat, passed +a walled garden or two, rode along the bank of the Abi Khonsar or Abi +Kum, which we had followed down from Givr, admired the gleaming domes +and tiled minarets of the religious buildings on its bank, and the +nine-arched brick bridge which spans it, and reached a sort of hotel +outside the gates, a superior caravanserai with good, though terribly +draughty guest-rooms upstairs, furnished with beds, chairs, and +tables, suited for the upper class of pilgrims who resort to this +famous shrine. + +To have arrived here in good health, and well able for the remaining +journey of nearly a hundred miles, is nothing else than a triumph of +race, of good feeding through successive generations, of fog-born +_physique_, nurtured on damp east winds! + +There is an air of civilisation about this place. The rooms have +windows with glass panes and doors which shut, a fountain in front, +beyond that a garden, and then the river, and the golden shrine of +Fatima and its exquisite minarets. My door opens on a stone-flagged +roof with a fine view of the city and hills--an excellent place for +taking exercise. So strong is Mohammedan fanaticism here that much as +I should like to see the city, it would be a very great risk to walk +through it except in disguise. + +M---- borrowed a _taktrawan_ from the telegraph clerk and sent it back +with two horses to Taj Khatan for the orderly, who was left there very +ill yesterday morning, under Abbas Khan's charge, the Khan feeling so +ill that he lay down inside it instead of riding. Hadji gave up work +altogether, so I unpacked and pitched my bed, glad to be warmed by +exercise. Near 8 P.M. Abbas Khan burst into the "parlour" saying that +the _taktrawan_ horses were stuck in the mud. He evidently desired to +avoid the march back, but two mules have been sent to replace the +horses, and two more are to go to-morrow. The orderly was so ill that +I expect his corpse rather than himself. + +This morning Hadji, looking fearful, told me that he should die +to-day, and he and the cook are now in bed in opposite corners of a +room below, with a good fire, feverish and moaning. It is really a +singular disaster, and shows what the severity of the journey has +been. The Persian doctor, with a European medical education, on whom +our hopes were built, when asked to come and see these poor men, +readily promised to do so; but the Princess, the Shah's daughter, +whose physician he is, absolutely refuses permission, on the ground +that we have come through a region in which there is supposed to be +cholera! + + I. L. B. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[20] This custom, supposed to be an allusion to our Lord and His +mother, is described by Morier in his _Second Journey in Persia_. + +[21] Jairud exports fruit to Kum and even to Tihran, and in the autumn +I was interested to find that the best pears and peaches in the +Hamadan market came from its luxuriant orchards. + + + + +LETTER VII + + + KUM, _Feb. 21_. + +At five yesterday afternoon Abbas Khan rode in saying that the +_taktrawan_, with the orderly much better, was only three miles off. +This was good news; a mattress was put down for him next the fire and +all preparations for his comfort were made. Snow showers had been +falling much of the day, there was a pitiless east wind, and as +darkness came on snow fell persistently. Two hours passed, but no +_taktrawan_ arrived. At 7.30 Abbas Khan was ordered to go in search of +it with a good lantern; 8, 9, 10 o'clock came without any news. At +10.30, the man whose corpse I had feared to see came in much +exhausted, having crawled for two miles through the mire and snow. The +_sowar_, who pretended to start with the lantern, never went farther +than the coffee-room at the gate, where he had spent an +unconscientious but cheery evening! + +In the pitch darkness the _taktrawan_ and mules had fallen off the +road into a gap, the _taktrawan_ was smashed, and a good white mule, +one of the "light division," was killed, her back being broken. This +was not the only disaster. Hadji had lain down on the borrowed +mattress and it had taken fire from the live ashes of his pipe and was +burned, and he was a little scorched. + +The telegraphist was to have started for Isfahan the next morning with +his wife and child in the litter, in order to vacate the house for +the new official and his family, and their baggage had actually +started, but now they are detained till this _taktrawan_ can be +repaired. In the meantime another official has arrived with his goods +and a large family, a most uncomfortable situation for both parties, +but they bear it with the utmost cheerfulness and good nature. + +Last night I made Hadji drink a mug of hot milk with two +tablespoonfuls of brandy in it, and it worked wonders. This morning, +instead of a nearly blind man groping his way about with difficulty, I +beheld a man with nothing the matter but a small speck on one eye. It +must have been snow-blindness. He looks quite "spry." It is not only +the alcohol which has cured him, but that we are parting by mutual +consent; and feeling sorry for the man, I have given him more than his +wages, and his full demand for his journey back to Bushire, with +additional warm clothing. M---- has also given him a handsome present. + +I fear he has deceived me, and that the stone deafness, feebleness, +idiocy, and the shaking, palsied gait of a man of ninety--all but the +snow-blindness--have been assumed in order to get his return journey +paid, when he found that the opportunities for making money were not +what he expected. It is better to be deceived twenty times than to be +hard on these poor fellows once, but he has been exasperating, and I +feel somewhat aggrieved at having worked so hard to help a man who was +"malingering." The last seen of him was an active, erect man walking +at a good pace by the side of his mule, at least forty years thrown +off. [He did not then leave Kum, but being seized with pleurisy was +treated with great kindness by Mr. Lyne the electrician, and +afterwards by the Amin-es-Sultan (the Prime Minister), who was +visiting Kum, and who, thinking to oblige me, brought him up to +Tihran in his train!] Those who had known him for years gave a very +bad account of him, but said that if he liked he could be a good +servant. It is the first time that I have been unfortunate in my +travelling servant. + +The English telegraph line, and a post-office, open once a week, are +the tokens of civilisation in Kum. A telegraphic invitation from the +British Minister in Tihran, congratulatory telegrams on our safety +from Tihran, Bushire, and India, and an opportunity for posting +letters, make one feel once more in the world. The weather is grim, +bitterly cold, with a strong north-east wind, raw and damp, but while +snow is whitening the hills only rain and sleet fall here. The sun has +not shone since we came, but the strong cold air is invigorating like +our own climate. + +Taking advantage of it being Friday, the Mohammedan day of rest, when +most of the shops are closed and the bazars are deserted, we rode +through a portion of them preceded by the wild figure of Abbas Khan, +and took tea at the telegraph office, where they were most kind and +pleasant regarding the accident which had put them to so much +inconvenience. + +Kum is on the beaten track, and has a made road to Tihran. Almost +every book of travels in Persia has something to say upon it, but +except that it is the second city in Persia in point of sanctity, and +that it thrives as much by the bodies of the dead which are brought in +thousands for burial as by the tens of thousands of pilgrims who +annually visit the shrine of Fatima, and that it is renowned for +fanaticism, there is not much to say about it. + +Situated in a great plain, the gleam of its golden dome and its +slender minarets is seen from afar, and the deep green of its +orchards, and the bright green of the irrigated and cultivated lands +which surround it, are a splash of welcome fertility on the great +brown waste. Singular toothy peaks of striated marl of brilliant +colouring--red, blue, green, orange, and salt peaks very white--give a +curious brilliancy to its environment, but this salt, which might be a +source of wealth to the city, is not worked, only an ass-load or two +at a time being brought in to supply the necessities of the market. + + [Illustration: THE SHRINE OF FATIMA.] + +The shrine of Fatima, the sister of Reza the eighth Imam, who sleeps +at Meshed, is better to Kum than salt mines or aught else. Moslems, +though they regard women with unspeakable contempt, agree to reverence +Fatima as a very holy and almost worshipful person, and her dust +renders Kum a holy place, attracting tens of thousands of pilgrims +every year, although, unlike pilgrimages to Meshed and Kerbela, Kum +confers no lifelong designation on those by whom it exists. Its +estimated population is 10,000 souls, and at times this number is +nearly doubled. Pilgrimage consists in a visit to the tomb of Fatima, +paying a fee, and in some cases adding a votive offering. Vows of +abstinence from some special sin are frequently made at the shrine +and are carefully registered. + +The dead, however, who are annually brought in thousands to be buried +in the sacred soil which surrounds the shrine, are the great source of +the wealth of Kum. These corpses travel, as to Kerbela, on mules, four +being lashed on one animal occasionally, some fresh, some decomposing, +others only bags of exhumed bones. The graves occupy an enormous area, +of which the shrine is the centre. The kings of the Kajar dynasty, +members of royal families, and 450 saints are actually buried within +the precincts of the shrine. The price of interments varies with the +proximity to the dust of Fatima from six _krans_ to one hundred +_tumans_. The population may be said to be a population of +undertakers. Death meets one everywhere. The Ab-i-Khonsar, which +supplies the drinking water, percolates through "dead men's bones and +all uncleanness." Vestments for the dead are found in the bazars. +Biers full and empty traverse the streets in numbers. Stone-cutting +for gravestones is a most lucrative business. The _charvadars_ of Kum +prosper on caravans of the dead. There is a legion of gravediggers. +Kum is a gruesome city, a vast charnel-house, yet its golden dome and +minarets brighten the place of death. + +The dome of Fatima is covered with sheets of copper plated with gold +an eighth of an inch in thickness, and the ornament at the top of the +dome, which is of pure gold, is said to weigh 140 lbs. The slender +minarets which front this _imamzada_ are covered with a mosaic of +highly-glazed tiles of exquisite tints, in which an azure blue, a +canary yellow, and an iridescent green predominate, and over all there +is a sheen of a golden hue. The shrine is inaccessible to Christians. +I asked a Persian doctor if I might look in for one moment at the +threshold of the outer court, and he replied in French, "Are you then +weary of life?"[22] + +My Indian servant, an educated man on whose faithful though meagre +descriptions I can rely, visited the shrine and describes the dome as +enriched with arabesques in mosaic and as hung with _ex votos_, +consisting chiefly of strips of silk and cotton. The tomb itself, he +says, is covered with a wooden ark, with certain sacred sentences cut +upon it, and this is covered by a large brown shawl. Round this ark, +which is under the dome, Kerman, Kashmir, and Indian shawls are laid +down as carpets. This open space is surrounded with steel railings +inlaid with gold after the fashion of the _niello_ work of Japan, and +the whole is enclosed with a solid silver fence, the rails of which +are "as thick as two thumbs, and as high as a tall man's head." This +_imamzada_ itself is regarded as of great antiquity. + +Two Persian kings, who reigned in the latter part of the seventeenth +century, are buried near the beautiful minarets, which are supposed to +be of the same date. There are many mosques and minarets in Kum, +besides a quantity of conical _imamzadas_, the cones of which have +formerly been covered with glazed blue tiles of a turquoise tint, some +of which still remain. It was taken by the Afghans in 1772, and though +partially rebuilt is very ruinous. It has a mud wall, disintegrating +from neglect, surrounded occasionally by a ditch, and at other times +by foul and stagnant ponds. The ruinousness of Kum can scarcely be +exaggerated. + +The bazars are large and very busy, and are considerably more +picturesque than those of Kirmanshah. The town lives by pilgrims and +corpses, and the wares displayed to attract the former are more +attractive than usual. There are nearly 450 shops, of which +forty-three sell Manchester goods almost exclusively. Coarse china, +and pottery often of graceful shapes with a sky-blue glaze, and +water-coolers are among the industries of this city, which also makes +shoes, and tans leather with pomegranate bark. + +The Ab-i-Khonsar is now full and rapid, but is a mere thread in +summer. The nine-arched bridge, with its infamously paved roadway +eighteen feet wide, is an interesting object from all points of view, +for while its central arch has a span of forty-five feet, the others +have only spans of twenty. The gateway beyond the bridge is tawdrily +ornamented with blue and green glazed tiles. After seeing several of +the cities of Persia, I am quite inclined to give Kum the palm for +interest and beauty of aspect, when seen from any distant point of +view. + +That it is a "holy" city, and that a pilgrimage to its shrine is +supposed to atone for sin, are its great interests. Its population is +composed in large proportion of _mollahs_ and _Seyyids_, or +descendants of Mohammed, and as a whole is devoted to the reigning +Shiah creed. It has a theological college of much repute, established +by Fath' Ali Shah, which now has 100 students. The women are said to +be very devout, and crowd the mosques on Friday evenings, when their +devotions are led by an _imam_. The men are fanatically religious, +though the fanaticism is somewhat modified. No wine may be sold in +Kum, and no Jew or Armenian is allowed to keep a shop. + +Kum, being a trading city, manufactures a certain amount of public +opinion in its business circles, which differs not very considerably +from that which prevails at Kirmanshah. The traders accept it as a +foregone conclusion that Russia will occupy Persia as far as Isfahan +on the death of the present Shah, and regard such a destiny as +"fate." If only their religion is not interfered with, it matters +little, they say, whether they pay their taxes to the Shah or the +Czar. To judge from their speech, Islam is everything to them, and +their country very little, and the strong bond of the faith which +rules life and thought from the Pillars of Hercules to the Chinese +frontier far outweighs the paltry considerations of patriotism. But my +impression is that all Orientals prefer the tyrannies and exactions, +and the swiftness of injustice or justice of men of their own creed +and race to good government on the part of unintelligible aliens, and +that though Persians seem pretty comfortable in the prospect of a +double occupation of Persia, its actual accomplishment might strike +out a flash of patriotism. + +Probably this ruinous, thinly-peopled country, with little water and +less fuel, and only two roads which deserve the name, has +possibilities of resurrection under greatly changed circumstances. Of +the two occupations which are regarded as certain, I think that most +men, at least in Central and Southern Persia, would prefer an English +occupation, but every one says, "England talks and does not act," and +that "Russia will pour 100,000 troops into Persia while England is +talking in London." + + I. L. B. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[22] I spent two days at Kum five weeks later, and saw the whole of it +in disguise, and in order to attain some continuity of description I +put my two letters together. + + + + +LETTER VIII + + + CARAVANSERAI OF ALIABAD, _Feb. 23_. + +Twelve hours and a half of hard riding have brought us here in two +days. No doctor could be obtained in Kum, and it was necessary to +bring the sick men on as quickly as possible for medical treatment. It +was bitterly cold on the last day, though the altitude is only 3400 +feet, and it was a tiresome day, for I had not only to look over and +repack, but to clean the cooking utensils and other things, which had +not been touched apparently since we left Baghdad! + +This is a tedious part of the journey, a "beaten track" with few +features of interest, the great highway from Isfahan to Tihran, a road +of dreary width; where it is a made road running usually perfectly +straight, with a bank and a ditch on each side. The thaw is now +complete, and travelling consists of an attempt to get on by the road +till it becomes an abyss which threatens to prove bottomless, then +there is a plunge and a struggle to the top of the bank, or over the +bank to the trodden waste, but any move can be only temporary, the +all-powerful mire regulates the march. The snow is nothing to the mud. +Frequently carcasses of camels, mules, and asses, which have lain down +to die under their loads, were passed, then caravans with most of the +beasts entangled in the miry clay, unable to rise till they were +unloaded by men up to their knees in the quagmire, and, worst of all, +mules loaded with the dead, so loosely tied up in planks that in some +cases when the mule flounders and falls, the miserable relics of +humanity tumble out upon the swamp; and these scenes of falling, +struggling, and even perishing animals are repeated continually along +the level parts of this scarcely passable highroad. + +Our loads, owing to bad tackle, were always coming off, the groom's +mule fell badly, the packs came off another, and half an hour was +spent in catching the animal, then I was thrown from my horse into +soft mud. + +Cultivation ceases a short distance from Kum, giving place to a brown +waste, with patches of saline efflorescence upon it, on which high +hills covered partially with snow send down low spurs of brown mud. +The water nearly everywhere is brackish, and only just drinkable. +After crossing a rapid muddy river, nearly dry in summer, by a much +decayed bridge of seven or eight low arches, we reached _terra firma_, +and a long gradual ascent and a series of gallops brought us to the +large caravanserai of Shashgird, an immense place with imposing +pretensions which are fully realised within. In the outer court camels +were lying in rows. A fine tiled archway leads to an immense +quadrangle, with a fine stone _abambar_ or covered receptacle for +water in the middle. All round the quadrangle are arched recesses or +mangers, each with a room at the back, to the number of eighty. At two +of the corners there are enclosed courtyards with fountains, several +superior rooms with beds (much to be avoided), chairs, mirrors, and +tables fairly clean--somewhat dreary luxury, but fortunately at this +season free from vermin. That caravanserai can accommodate 1000 men in +rooms, and 1500 mules. + +To-day's long march, which, however, has had more road suitable for +galloping, has been over wild, weird, desolate, God-forsaken country, +interesting from its desolation and its great wastes, forming part of +the Kavir or Great Salt Desert of Persia, absolutely solitary, with +scarcely a hamlet--miles of the great highway of Persia without a +living creature, no house, no bush, nothing. Later, there were some +vultures feasting on a dead camel, and a mule-load of two bodies down +in the mud. + +Some miles from Shashgird, far from the road, there is a large salt +lake over which some stationary mists were brooding. Beyond this an +ascent among snow clouds along some trenched land where a few vines +and saplings have been planted leads to a caravanserai built for the +accommodation of state officials on their journeys, where in falling +snow we vindicated our origin in the triumphant West by taking lunch +on a windy verandah outside rather than in the forlorn dampness of the +inside, and brought a look of surprise even over the impassive face of +the _seraidar_. + +When we left the snow was falling in large wet flakes, and the snow +clouds were drifting wildly among the peaks of a range which we +skirted for a few miles and then crossed at a considerable height +among wonderful volcanic formations, mounds of scoriae, and outcrops of +volcanic rock, hills of all shapes fantastically tumbled about, +chiefly black, looking as if their fires had only just died out, +streaked and splotched with brilliant ash--orange, carmine, and +green--a remarkable volcanic scene, backed by higher hills looking +ghastly in the snow. + +After passing over an absolutely solitary region of camel-brown plains +and slopes at a gallop, M---- a little in front always, and Abbas +Khan, the wildest figure imaginable, always half a length behind, the +_thud_ of the thundering hoofs mingling with the screech of the +cutting north wind which, coming over the snowy Elburz range, benumbed +every joint, on the slope of a black volcanic hill we came upon the +lofty towers and gaudy tiled front of this great caravanserai, +imposing at a distance in the solitude and snow clouds, but shabby on +a nearer view, and tending to disintegrate from the presence of +saltpetre in the bricks and mortar. + +There are successions of terraces and tanks of water with ducks and +geese upon them, and buildings round the topmost terrace intended to +be imposing. The _seraidar_ is expecting the Amin-es-Sultan (the Prime +Minister) and his train, who will occupy rather a fine though tawdry +"suite of apartments"; but though they were at our service, I prefer +the comparative cosiness of a small, dark, damp room, though with a +very smoky chimney, as I find to my cost. + +_British Legation, Tihran, Feb. 26._--The night was very cold, and the +reveille specially unwelcome in the morning. The people were more than +usually vague about the length of the march, some giving the distance +at twenty-five miles, and others making it as high as thirty-eight. As +we did a good deal of galloping and yet took more than seven hours, I +suppose it may be about twenty-eight. Fortunately we could desert the +caravan, as the caravanserais are furnished and supply tea and bread. +The baggage mules took ten hours for the march. + +The day was dry and sunny, and the scenery, if such a tract of +hideousness can be called scenery, was at its best. Its one charm lies +in the solitude and freedom of a vast unpeopled waste. + +The "made road" degenerates for the most part into a track "made" +truly, but rather by the passage of thousands of animals during a long +course of ages than by men's hands. This track winds among low ranges +of sand and mud hills, through the "Pass of the Angel of Death," +crosses salt and muddy streams, gravelly stretches, and quagmires of +mud and tenacious clay, passing through a country on the whole +inconceivably hideous, unfinished, frothy, and saturated with +salt--the great brown desert which extends from Tihran to Quetta in +Beloochistan, a distance of 2000 miles. + +On a sunny slope we met the Prime Minister with a considerable train +of horsemen. He stopped and spoke with extreme courtesy, through an +interpreter, for, unlike most Persians of the higher class, he does +not speak French. He said we had been for some time expected at +Tihran, and that great fears were entertained for our safety, which we +had heard at Kum. He is a pleasant-looking man with a rather European +expression, not more than thirty-two or thirty-three, and in spite of +intrigues and detractors has managed to keep his hazardous position +for some years. His mother was lately buried at Kum, and he was going +thither on pilgrimage. After the usual compliments he bowed his +farewells, and the gay procession with its brilliant trappings and +prancing horses flashed by. The social standing of a Persian is +evidenced by the size of his retinue, and the first of the Shah's +subjects must have been attended by fully forty well-mounted men, +besides a number of servants who were riding with his baggage animals. + +Shortly after passing him a turn among the hills brought the +revelation through snow clouds of the magnificent snow-covered chain +of the Elburz mountains, with the huge cone of Demavend, their +monarch, 18,600 feet[23] in height, towering high above them, gleaming +sunlit above the lower cloud-masses. Swampy water-courses, a fordable +river crossed by a broad bridge of five arches, more low hills, more +rolling desert, then a plain of mud irrigated for cultivation, +difficult ground for the horses, the ruins of a deserted village +important enough to have possessed two _imamzadas_, and then we +reached the Husseinabad, which has very good guest-rooms, with mirrors +on the walls. + +This caravanserai is only one march from Tihran, and it seemed as if +all difficulties were over. Abbas Khan and the sick orderly were sent +on early, with a baggage mule loaded with evening dress and other +necessities of civilisation; the caravan was to follow at leisure, and +M---- and I started at ten, without attendants, expecting to reach +Tihran early in the afternoon. + +It is six days since that terrible ride of ten hours and a half, and +my bones ache as I recall it. I never wish to mount a horse again. It +had been a very cold night, and for some time after we started it was +doubtful whether snow or rain would gain the day, but after an hour of +wet snow it decided on rain, and there was a steady downpour all day. +The Elburz range, which the day before had looked so magnificent when +fifty miles off, was blotted out. This was a great disappointment. + +An ascent of low, blackish volcanic hills is made by a broad road of +gray gravel, which a torrent has at some time frequented. Thorns and +thistles grow there, and skeletons of animals abound. Everything is +grim and gray. From these hills we descended into the Kavir, a rolling +expanse of friable soil, stoneless, strongly impregnated with salt, +but only needing sufficient water to wash the salt out of it and to +irrigate it to become as prolific as it is now barren. + +It is now a sea of mud crossed by a broad road indicated by dykes, +that never-to-be-forgotten mud growing deeper as the day wore on. Hour +after hour we plunged through it, sometimes trying the road, and on +finding it impassable scrambling through the ditches and over the +dykes to the plain, which after offering firmer foothold for a time +became such a "slough of despond" that we had to scramble back to the +road, and so on, hour after hour, meeting nothing but one ghastly +caravan of corpses, and wretched asses falling in the mud. + +At mid-day, scrambling up a gravel hill with a little wormwood upon +it, and turning my back to the heavy rain, I ate a lunch of dates and +ginger, insufficient sustenance for such fatigue. On again!--the rain +pouring, the mud deepening, my spine in severe pain. We turned off to +a caravanserai, mostly a heap of ruins, the roofs having given way +under the weight of the snow, and there I sought some relief from pain +by lying down for the short thirty minutes which could be spared in +the _seraidar's_ damp room. It was then growing late in the afternoon, +all landmarks had disappeared in a brooding mist, there were no +habitations, and no human beings of whom to ask the way. + +The pain returned severely as soon as I mounted, and increased till it +became hardly bearable. Ceaseless mud, ceaseless heavy rain, a plain +of mud, no refuge from mud and water, attempts to gallop were made +with the risk of the horses falling into holes and even _kanaats_. +M---- rode in front. Not a word was spoken. A gleaming dome, with +minarets and wood, appeared below the Shimran hills. Unluckily, where +two roads met one looked impassable and we took the other, which, +though it eventually took us to Tihran, was a _detour_ of some miles. + +In the evening, when I was hoping that Tihran was at hand, we reached +the town of Shah Abdul Azim, built among the ruins of an ancient city, +either Rhages or Rhei. The gilded dome is the shrine of Abdul Azim, +and is a great place of pilgrimage of the picnic order from Tihran. +The one railroad of Persia runs from the capital to this town. As we +floundered in darkness along wide roads planted with trees, there was +the incongruity of a railway whistle, and with deep breathing and much +glare an engine with some carriages passed near the road, taking away +with its harsh Western noises that glorious freedom of the desert +which outweighs all the hardship even of a winter journey. + +It was several miles from thence to the gate of Tihran. It was nearly +pitch dark when we got out of Abdul Azim and the rain still fell +heavily. In that thick rainy darkness no houses were visible, even if +they exist, there were no passengers on foot or on horseback, it was a +"darkness which might be felt." + +There was a causeway which gave foothold below the mud, but it was +full of holes and broken culverts, deep in slime, and seemed to have +water on each side not particular in keeping within bounds. It was +necessary to get on, lest the city gates should be shut, and by +lifting and spurring the jaded horses they were induced to trot and +canter along that road of pitfalls. I have had many a severe ride in +travelling, but never anything equal to that last two hours. The +severe pain and want of food made me so faint that I was obliged to +hold on to the saddle. I kept my tired horse up, but each flounder I +thought would be his last. There was no guidance but an occasional +flash from the hoofs of the horse in front, and the word "spur" +ringing through the darkness. + +After an hour of riding in this desperate fashion we got into water, +and among such dangerous holes that from that point we were obliged to +walk our horses, who though they were half dead still feebly responded +to bit and spur. We reached the dimly-lighted city gate just as half +of it was shut, and found Abbas Khan waiting there. The caravan with +the other sick men never reached Tihran till late the next morning. + +At the gate we learned that it was two miles farther to the British +Legation, and that there was no way for me to get there but on +horseback. One lives through a good deal, but I all but succumbed to +the pain and faintness. Inside the gate there was an open sea of +liquid mud, across which, for a time, certain lights shed their +broken reflections. There was a railway shriek, and then the +appearance of a station with shunting operations vaguely seen in a +vague glare. + +Then a tramway track buried under several inches of slush came down a +slope, and crowded tramway cars with great single lamps came down the +narrow road on horses too tired to be frightened, and almost too tired +to get out of the way. Then came a street of mean houses and meaner +shops lighted with kerosene lamps, a region like the slums of a new +American city, with _cafes_ and saloons, barbers' shops, and European +enormities such as gazogenes and effervescing waters in several +windows. Later, there were frequent foot passengers preceded by +servants carrying huge waxed cambric lanterns of a Chinese shape, then +a square with barracks and artillery, a causewayed road dimly lit, +then darkness and heavier rain and worse mud, through which the +strange spectacle of a carriage and pair incongruously flashed. + +By that time even the courage and stamina of an Arab horse could +hardly keep mine on his legs, and with a swimming head and dazed brain +I could hardly guide him, as I had done from the gate chiefly by the +wan gleam of Abbas Khan's pale horse; and expecting to fall off every +minute, I responded more and more feebly and dubiously to the question +frequently repeated out of the darkness, "Are you surviving?" + +Just as endurance was on the point of giving way, we turned from the +road through a large gateway into the extensive grounds which surround +the British Legation, a large building forming three sides of a +quadrangle, with a fine stone staircase leading up to the central +door. Every window was lighted, light streamed from the open door, +splashed carriages were dashing up and setting down people in evening +dress, there were crowds of servants about, and it flashed on my +dazed senses that it must be after eight, and that there was a dinner +party! + +Arriving from the mud of the Kavir and the slush of the streets, after +riding ten hours in ceaseless rain on a worn-out horse; caked with mud +from head to foot, dripping, exhausted, nearly blind from fatigue, +fresh from mud hovels and the congenial barbarism of the desert, and +with the rags and travel-stains of a winter journey of forty-six days +upon me, light and festivity were overwhelming. + +Alighting at a side door, scarcely able to stand, I sat down in a long +corridor, and heard from an English steward that "dinner is waiting." +His voice sounded very far off, and the once familiar announcement +came like a memory out of the remote past. Presently a gentleman +appeared in evening dress, wearing a star, which conveyed to my +fast-failing senses that it was Sir H. Drummond Wolff. It was true +that there was a large dinner party, and among the guests the Minister +with thoughtful kindness had invited all to whom I had letters of +introduction. But it was no longer possible to make any effort, and I +was taken up to a room in which the comforts of English civilisation +at first made no impression upon me, and removing only the mackintosh +cloak, weighted with mud, which had served me so well, I lay down on the +hearthrug before a great coal fire till four o'clock the next morning. +And "so the tale ended," and the winter journey with its tremendous +hardships and unbounded mercies was safely accomplished.[24] + + I. L. B. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[23] The altitude of Demavend is variously stated. + +[24] I remained for three weeks as Sir H. Drummond Wolff's guest at +the British Legation, receiving from him that courtesy and considerate +kindness which all who have been under his roof delight to recall. I +saw much of what is worth seeing in Tihran, including the Shah and +several of the Persian statesmen, and left the Legation with every +help that could be given for a long and difficult journey into the +mountains of Luristan. + + + + +NOTES ON TIHRAN[25] + + +It is a matter of individual taste, but few cities in the East +interest me in which national characteristics in architecture, +costume, customs, and ways generally are either being obliterated or +are undergoing a partial remodelling on Western lines. An Eastern city +pure and simple, such as Canton, Niigata, or Baghdad, even with +certain drawbacks, forms a harmonious whole gratifying to the eye and +to a certain sense of fitness; while Cairo, Tokio, Lahore, and I will +now add Tihran, produce the effect of a series of concussions. + +Tihran--set down on a plain, a scorched desert, the sublimity of which +is interfered with by _kanaats_ or underground watercourses with their +gravel mounds and ruinous shafts--has few elements of beauty or +grandeur in its situation, even though "the triumphant barbarism of +the desert" sweeps up to its gates, and the scored and channelled +Shimran range, backed by the magnificent peak, or rather cone, of +Demavend, runs to the north-east of the city within only ten miles of +its walls. + +The winter with its snow and slush disappeared abruptly two days after +I reached Tihran, and as abruptly came the spring--a too transient +enjoyment--and in a few days to brownness and barrenness succeeded a +tender mist of green over the trees in the watered gardens, rapidly +thickening into dark leafage in which the _bulbul_ sang, and nature +helped by art spread a carpet of violets and irises over the brown +earth. But all of verdure and greenery that there is lies within the +city walls. Outside is the unconquerable desert, rolling in endless +shades of buff and brown up to the Elburz range, and elsewhere to the +far horizon. + +Situated in the most depressed part of an uninteresting waste in Lat. +35 deg. 40' N. and Long. 51 deg. 25' E., and at an altitude of 3800 feet, the +climate is one of extremes, the summer extreme being the most severe. +For some weeks the heat is nearly insupportable, and the Legations, +and all of the four hundred Europeans who are not bound to the city by +a fate which they execrate, betake themselves to "yailaks," or summer +quarters on the slopes of the adjacent mountains. + +Entering Tihran in the darkness, it was not till I saw it coming back +from Gulahek, the "yailak" of the British Legation, when the mud was +drying up and the willows were in their first young green, that I +formed any definite idea of its aspect, which is undeniably mean, and +presents no evidences of antiquity; indeed, it has no right to present +any, for as a capital it only came into existence a century ago, with +the first king of the present Kajar dynasty. The walls are said to be +eleven miles in circuit, and give the impression of being much too +large, so many are the vacant spaces within them. They consist chiefly +of a broad ditch, and a high sloping rampart without guns. Twelve +well-built domed gateways give access to the city. These are decorated +with glazed tiles of bright colours and somewhat gaudy patterns and +designs, representing genii, lions, and combats of mythical heroes. + +Above the wall are seen tree-tops, some tile-covered minarets, the +domes of two mosques, and the iron ribs of a roofless theatre in the +Shah's garden, in which under a temporary awning the _Tazieh_ or +Passion Play (elsewhere referred to) is acted once a year in presence +of the Shah and several thousand spectators. + +Entering by a gateway over which is depicted a scene in the life of +Rustem, the Achilles of Persia, or by the Sheikh Abdul Azim gate, +where the custom-house is established and through which all caravans +of goods must reach Tihran, the magnitude of the untidy vacant spaces, +and the shabby mud hovels which fringe them, create an unfavourable +impression. Then there are the inevitable ruinousness, the alleys with +broken gutters in the centre, the pools of slime or the heaps of dust +according to the weather, and the general shabbiness of blank walls of +sun-dried bricks which give one the impression, I believe an unjust +one, of decay and retrogression. I never went through those mean +outskirts of Tihran which are within the city walls without being +reminded of a man in shabby clothes preposterously too big for him. + +The population is variously estimated at from 60,000 to 160,000 souls. +It varies considerably with the presence or absence of the Court. The +streets and bazars are usually well filled with people, and I did not +see many beggars or evidences of extreme poverty, even in the Jewish +quarter. On the whole it impressed me as a bustling place, but the +bustle is not picturesque. It is framed in mean surroundings, and +there is little variety in costume, and much sober if not sad +colouring. + +In "old" Tihran the alleys are crooked, dirty, and narrow, and the +bazars chiefly frequented by the poor are very mean and untidy; but +the better bazars, whether built as some are, round small domed open +spaces, or in alleys roofed with low brick domes, are decidedly +handsome, and are light, wide, clean, and in every way adapted for the +purposes of buying and selling. European women, even though +unattended, can walk through them quite freely without being mobbed or +stared at. + +The best bazars are piled with foreign merchandise, to the _apparent_ +exclusion of native goods, which, if they are of the better quality, +must be searched for in out-of-the-way corners. Indeed, if people want +fine carpets, _curios_, rich embroideries, inlaid arms, and Kerman +stuffs, they must resort to the itinerant dealers, who gauge the +tastes and purchasing powers of every European resident and visitor, +and who may be seen at all hours gliding in a sort of surreptitious +fashion round the Legation compounds, conveying their beautiful +temptations on donkeys' backs. + +It is chiefly in the fine lofty saddlery bazar and some small bazars +that native manufactures are _en evidence_. All travelling is on +horseback, and the Persian, though sober in the colours of his costly +clothing, loves crimson and gold in leather and cloth, embroidered +housings and headstalls, and gorgeous saddle-covers for his horse. The +usual saddle is of plain wood, very high before and behind, and +without stuffing. A thick soft _namad_ or piece of felt covers the +horse's back, and over this are placed two or more saddle-cloths +covered with a very showy and often highly ornamental cover, with +tasselled ends, embroidered in gold and silks and occasionally with +real gems. The saddle itself is smoothly covered with a soft +ornamental cover made to fit it, and the crupper, breastplate, and +headstall are frequently of crimson leather embroidered in gold, or +stitched ingeniously with turquoise beads. + +The mule, whether the pacing saddle-mule worth from L60 to L80, much +affected by rich Persians in Tihran, or the humbler beast of burden, +is not forgotten by the traders in the great saddlery bazar. Rich +_charvadars_ take great pride in the "outfit" of their mules, and do +not grudge twenty _tumans_ upon it. Hence are to be seen elaborate +headstalls, breastplates, and straps for bells, of showy embroidery, +and leather stitched completely over with turquoise beads and +cowries--the latter a favourite adornment--while cowried headstalls +are also ornamented with rows of woollen tassels dyed with beautiful +vegetable dyes. In this bazar too are found _khurjins_--the great +leather or carpet saddle-bags without which it is inconvenient to +travel--small leather portmanteaus for strapping behind the saddles of +those who travel _chapar_, _i.e._ post,--cylindrical cases over two +feet long which are attached in front of the saddle--decorated +holsters, the multifarious gear required for the travelling +pipe-bearers, the deep leather belts which are worn by _chapar_ +riders, the leathern water-bottles which are slung on the saddles, the +courier bags, and a number of other articles of necessity or luxury +which are regarded as essential by the Persian traveller. + +In most of the bazars the shops are packed to the ceiling with foreign +goods. It looks as if there were cottons and woollen cloth for the +clothing of all Persia. I saw scarcely any rough woollen goods or +shoddy. The Persian wears superfine, smooth, costly cloth, chiefly +black and fawn, stiff in texture, and with a dull shine upon it. The +best comes exclusively from Austria, a slightly inferior quality from +Germany, and such cloth fabrics as are worn by Europeans from England +and Russia. + +The European cottons, which are slowly but surely displacing the heavy +durable native goods, either undyed, or dyed at Isfahan with madder, +saffron, and indigo, are of colours and patterns suited to native +taste, white and canary yellow designs on a red ground predominating, +and are both of Russian and English make, and the rivalry which +extends from the Indian frontier, through Central Asia, is at +fever-heat in the cotton bazars of Tihran. It does not appear that at +present either side can claim the advantage. + +In a search for writing paper, thread, tapes, and what are known as +"small wares," I never saw anything that was not Russian. The cheap +things, such as oil lamps, _samovars_, coarse coloured prints of the +Russian Imperial family in tawdry frames, lacquered tin boxes, fitted +work-boxes, glass teacups, china tea-pots, tawdry lacquered trays, +glass brooches, bead necklaces, looking-glasses, and a number of other +things which are coming into use at least in the south-west and the +western portions of the Empire, are almost exclusively Russian, as is +natural, for the low price at which they are sold would leave no +margin of profit on such imports from a more distant country. + +A stroll through the Tihran bazars shows the observer something of the +extent and rapidity with which Europe is ruining the artistic taste of +Asia. Masses of rubbish, atrocious in colouring and hideous in form, +the principle of shoddy carried into all articles along with the +quintessence of vulgarity which is pretence, goods of nominal utility +which will not stand a week's wear, the refuse of European markets--in +art Philistinism, in most else "Brummagem," without a quality of +beauty or solidity to recommend them--are training the tastes and +changing the habits of the people. + +One squarish bazar, much resorted to for glass and hardware and what +the Americans call "assorted notions," is crammed with Austrian glass, +kerosene lamps of all sizes in hundreds, chandeliers, etc. The amount +of glass exhibited there for sale is extraordinary, and not less +remarkable is the glut of cheap hardware and worthless _bijouterie_. +It is the Lowther Arcade put down in Tihran. + +Kerosene and candles may be called a Russian monopoly, and Russia has +completely driven French sugar from the markets. In the foreign town, +as it may be called, there are two or three French shops, an American +shop for "notions," and a German chemist. + +The European quarter is in the northern part of Tihran, and is close +to vacant and airy spaces. There are the Turkish Embassy, and the +Legations of England, France, Germany, Russia, Italy, Belgium, +Austria, and America, and a Dutch Consulate-General, each with its +Persian _gholams_ who perform escort duty. Their large and shady +compounds, brightened by their national flags, and the stir and +circumstance which surround them, are among the features of the city. +The finest of all the Legation enclosures is that of England, which is +beautifully wooded and watered. The reception-rooms and hall of the +Minister's residence are very handsome, and a Byzantine clock tower +gives the building a striking air of distinction. The grounds contain +several detached houses, occupied by the secretaries and others. + +A very distinct part of the foreign quarter is that occupied by the +large and handsome buildings of the American Presbyterian Mission, +which consist of a church occupied at stated hours by a congregation +of the Reformed Armenian Church, and in which in the afternoons of +Sundays Dr. Potter, the senior missionary, reads the English Liturgy +and preaches an English sermon for the benefit of the English-speaking +residents, very fine boarding-schools for Armenian girls and boys, and +the houses of the missionaries--three clerical, one medical, and +several ladies, one of whom is an M.D. + +Outside this fine enclosure is a Medical Missionary Dispensary, and +last year, in a good situation at a considerable distance, a very fine +medical missionary hospital was completed. The boys' and girls' +schools are of a very high class. To my thinking the pupils are too +much Europeanised in dress and habits; but I understand that this is +at the desire of the Armenian parents. The missionaries are not +allowed to receive Moslem pupils; but besides Armenians they educate +Jewish youths, some of whom have become Christians, and a few Guebres +or Zoroastrians. + +I do not think that the capital is a hopeful place for missionary +work. The presence of Europeans of various creeds and nationalities +complicates matters, and the fine, perhaps too fine, mission buildings +in proximity to the houses of wealthy foreigners are at so great a +distance from the Moslem and Jewish quarters, that persons who might +desire to make inquiries concerning the Christian faith must be +deterred both by the space to be traversed and the conspicuousness of +visiting a mission compound in such a position. The members of the +mission church last year were altogether Armenians. The education and +training given in the schools are admirable. + +Indications of the changes which we consider improvements abound in +Tihran. There are many roads accessible to wheeled vehicles. There are +hackney carriages. A tramway carrying thousands of passengers weekly +has been laid down from the _Maidan_ or central square to one of the +southern gates. There are real streets paved with cobble stones, and +bordered with definite sidewalks, young trees, and shops. There is a +railroad about four miles long, from the city to the village of Sheikh +Abdul Azim. There are lamp-posts and fittings, though the light is +somewhat of a failure. There is an organised city police, in smart +black uniforms with violet facings, under the command of Count +Monteforte, an Italian. Soldiers in Europeanised uniforms abound, some +of them, the "Persian Cossacks," in full Russian uniforms; and +military bands instructed by a French bandmaster play European airs, +not always easily recognisable, for the pleasure of the polyglot +public. + +All ordinary business can be transacted at the Imperial Bank, which, +having acquired the branches and business of the New Oriental Bank, +bids fair to reign supreme in the commercial world of Persia, the +Shah, who has hitherto kept his hoards under his own eye, having set +an example of confidence by becoming a depositor. + +European tailors, dressmakers, and milliners render a resort to Europe +unnecessary. There are at least two hotels where a European may exist. +About five hundred European carriages, many of them Russian, with +showy Russian horses harnessed _a la Russe_, dash about the streets +with little regard to pedestrians, though an accident, if a European +were the offender, might lead to a riot. The carriages of the many +Legations are recognisable by their outriders, handsomely-dressed +_gholams_. + +But even the European quarter and its newish road, on which are many +of the Legations, some of the foreign shops, and the fine compound and +handsome buildings of the Imperial Bank, has a Persian admixture. Some +of the stately houses of official and rich Persians are there, easily +recognisable by their low closed gateways and general air of +seclusion. Many of these possess exquisite gardens, with fountains and +tanks, and all the arrangements for the out-of-doors life which +Persians love. In the early spring afternoons the great sight of the +road outside the British Legation is the crowd of equestrians, or +rather of the horses they ride. However much the style of street, +furniture, tastes, art, and costume have been influenced by Europe, +fortunately for picturesque effect the Persian, even in the capital, +retains the Persian saddle and equipments. + +From later observation I am inclined to think very highly of the +hardiness and stamina of the Persian horse, though at the time of my +visit to Tihran I doubted both. Such showy, magnificent-looking +animals, broken to a carriage which shows them to the best advantage, +fine-legged, though not at the expense of strength, small-eared, +small-mouthed, with flowing wavy manes, "necks clothed with thunder," +dilated nostrils showing the carmine interior, and a look of scorn and +high breeding, I never saw elsewhere. The tail, which in obedience to +fashion we mutilate and abridge, is allowed in Persia its full +development, and except in the case of the Shah's white horses, when +it is dyed magenta, is perfectly beautiful, held far from the body +like a flag. The arched neck, haughty bearing, and easy handling which +Easterns love are given by very sharp bits; and a crowd of these +beautiful animals pawing the ground, prancing, caracoling, walking +with a gait as though the earth were too vulgar for their touch, or +flashing past at a gallop, all groomed to perfection and superbly +caparisoned, ridden by men who know how to ride, and who are in +sympathy with their animals, is one of the fascinations of Tihran. + +Creeping along by the side-walk is often seen a handsome pacing +saddle-mule, or large white ass, nearly always led, carrying a Persian +lady attended by servants--a shapeless black bundle, with what one +supposes to be the outline of a hand clutching the enshrouding black +silk sheet tightly over her latticed white mask: so completely +enveloped that only a yellow shoe without a heel, and a glimpse of a +violet trouser can be seen above the short stirrups. + +Another piece of Orientalism unaffected by Western influence is the +music performed daily at sunset in the upper stories of some of the +highly-decorated tiled gateways which lead into and out of the +principal squares. This is evoked from drums, fifes, cymbals, and huge +horns, and as the latter overpower all the former, the effect is much +like that of the braying of the colossal silver horns from the roofs +of the Tibetan _lamaserais_. Many people suppose that this daily +homage to the setting sun is a relic of the ancient fire or sun +worship. + +Two great squares, one of them with a tank in the middle with a big +gun at each corner, artillery barracks on three sides, and a number of +smooth-bore twenty-four-pounder guns on the fourth, are among the +features of Tihran. In this great _Maidan_ there are always soldiers +in multifarious uniforms lounging, people waiting for the tram-cars, +and Royal footmen, whose grotesque costumes border on the ridiculous. +They are indeed a fitting accompaniment to the Royal horses with their +magenta tails and spots, for they wear red coats with ballet-dancer +skirts and green facings, green knee-breeches, white stockings, and +tall stiff erections resembling a fool's cap on the head, topped by +crests suggestive of nothing but a cock's comb. + +A gateway much ornamented leads from the artillery square, or _Maidan +Topkhaneh_, by a short road shaded with trees to the Citadel or Ark, +which is an immense enclosure, rather mangy and unprepossessing in its +exterior, which contains the palace of the Shah, the arsenal, certain +public offices, the royal colleges, etc. Over the gateway floats +rather grandly the Royal standard, bearing the Lion and the Sun in +yellow on a green ground. + +The Shah's palace is very magnificent, and the shady gardens, +beautifully kept, with their fountains and tanks of pale blue tiles, +through which clear water constantly moves, are worthy of a Royal +residence. From the outside above the high wall the chief feature is a +very lofty pavilion, brilliantly and elaborately painted, with walls +inclining inwards, and culminating in two high towers. This striking +structure contains the _andarun_ or _haram_ of the sovereign and his +private apartments. + +This hasty sketch exhausts those features of Tihran which naturally +arrest the stranger's attention. There is no splendour about it +externally, but there is splendour within it, and possibly few +European residences can exceed in taste and magnificence the palaces +of the Minister of Justice (the _Muschir-u-Dowleh_), the +_Naib-es-Sultan_, the _Zil-es-Sultan_, and a few others, though I +regret that much of the furniture has been imported from Europe, as it +vexes the eye more or less with its incongruity of form and colouring. +The current of European influence, which is affecting externals in +Tihran, is not likely now to be stemmed. Eastern civilisation is +doomed, and the transition period is not beautiful, whatever the +outcome may be. + +So much for what is within the walls. That which is outside deserves a +passing notice as the environment of the capital. The sole grandeur of +the situation lies in the near neighbourhood of the Shimran +mountains--a huge wall, white or brown according to the season, with +some irrigated planting near its base, which is spotted with villages +and the _yailaks_ not only of the numerous Legations but of rich +Europeans and Persians. Otherwise the tameless barbarism of a desert, +which man has slashed, tunnelled, delved, and heaped, lies outside the +city walls, deformed by the long lines of _kanaats_--some choked, +others still serviceable--by which the city is supplied with water +from the mountains, their shafts illustrating the Scriptural +expression "ruinous heaps." In the glare of the summer sun, with the +mercury ranging from 95 deg. to 110 deg. in the shade, and with the heated +atmosphere quivering over the burning earth, these wastes are +abandoned to carcasses and the vultures which fatten on them, and +travelling is done at night, when a breeze from the Shimran range +sends the thermometer down from 10 deg. to 15 deg. + +Curving to the south-west of Tihran, the mountains end in a bare +ridge, around the base of which, according to many archaeologists, lie +vestiges of the ancient city of Rhages, known in later days as Rhei. +A tomb of brick with angular surfaces, sacred to the memory of an +ancient and romantic attachment, remains of fortifications, and the +Parsee cemetery on a ledge overlooking these remains, break the +monotony of the waste in that direction. + +This cemetery, or "Tower of Silence," a white splash on the brown +hillside, is visible from afar. The truncated cones which in many +places mark seats of the ancient Zoroastrian worship have been +mentioned here and there, but it is only in Tihran and Yezd that the +descendants of the ancient fire-worshippers are found in such numbers +as to be able to give prominence to their ancient rites of sepulture. +Probably throughout Persia their number does not exceed 8000. Their +head resides in Tihran. They bear a good character for uprightness, +and except in Yezd, where they weave rich stuffs, they are chiefly +agriculturists. They worship firelight and the sun on the principles +symbolised by both, they never use tobacco, and it is impolite to +smoke in their presence because of the sacredness of fire. + +Their belief has been, and is, that to bury the dead in the earth is +to pollute it; and one among the reasons of the persecution of the +early Christians by the Zoroastrians was their abhorrence of the +desecration of the ground produced by the modes of Christian burial. + +This "Tower of Silence" near Tihran is a large round edifice of +whitewashed mud and stone. On the top of it, a few feet below the +circular parapet, the dead are laid to be devoured by birds and +consumed by exposure to the elements. The destiny of the spirit is +supposed to be indicated by the eye which is first devoured by the +fowls of the air, the right eye signifying bliss. + +In a northern direction, to which the eye always turns to be refreshed +by the purity of the icy cone of Demavend, or to watch the rosy light +deepening into purple on the heights of Shimran, are palaces and +country seats in numbers, with a mass of irrigated plantations +extending for twenty miles, from Van[=e]k on the east to Kamarani[=e]h +on the west. These are reached by passing through the Shimran gate, +the most beautiful of the outer gates, tiled all over with yellow, +black, blue, and green tiles in conventional designs, and with an +immense coloured mosaic over the gateway representing Rust[=e]m, +Persia's great mythical hero, conquering some of his enemies. + +On the slopes of the hills are palaces and hunting seats of the Shah, +beginning with the imposing mass of the Kasr-i-Kaj[=a]r, on a low +height, surrounded by majestic groves, in which are enormous tanks. +Palaces and hunting seats of ministers and wealthy men succeed each +other rapidly, a perfect seclusion having been obtained for each by +the rapid growth of poplars and planes, each dwelling carrying out in +its very marked individuality a deference to Persian custom, and each +if possible using running water as a means of decoration. Many of +these palaces are princely, and realise some of the descriptions in +the _Arabian Nights_, with the beauty of their decorated architecture, +the deep shade of their large demesnes, the cool plash of falling +water, the songs of nightingales, and the scent of roses--sensuous +Paradises in which the Persian finds the summer all too short. + +Beyond this enchanting region, and much higher up on the mountain +slopes, are the hunting grounds of the Shah and his sons, well stocked +with game and rigidly preserved; for the Shah is a keen sportsman, and +is said to prefer a free life under canvas and the pleasures of the +chase to the splendid conventionalities of the Court of Tihran. + +The two roads and the many tracks which centre in the capital after +scoring the desert for many miles around it, are a feature of the +landscape not to be overlooked, the Meshed, Resht, Bushire, and Tabriz +roads being the most important, except the route from Baghdad by +Kirmanshah and Hamadan, which in summer can be travelled by caravans +in twenty-eight days, and by which many bulky articles of value, such +as pianos, carriages, and valuable furniture, find their way to +Tihran.[26] + +These are some of the features of the environments of Tihran. A +traveller writing ten years hence may probably have to tell that the +city has extended to its walls, that Western influence is nearly +dominant in externals, and possibly that the _concessionaires_ who for +years have been hanging about the Palace in alternations of hope and +despondency have made something of their concessions, and that goods +reach the capital in another way than on the backs of animals. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[25] A volume of travels in Persia would scarcely be complete without +some slight notice of the northern capital; but for detailed modern +accounts of it the reader should consult various other books, +especially Dr. Wills' and Mr. Benjamin's, if he has not already done +so. + +[26] There are _only_ two roads, properly so called, in Persia, though +in the summer wheeled carriages with some assistance can get from +place to place over several of the tracks. These two are the road from +Kum to the capital, formerly described, and one from Kasvin to the +capital, both under 100 miles in length. Goods are everywhere carried +on the backs of animals. + +The distance between Bushire and Tihran is 698 miles. + + The summer freight per ton is L14 1 8 + The winter do. 20 2 0 + +The distance between Tihran and Resht on the Caspian is 211 miles. + + The summer freight per ton is L4 0 5-4/5 + The winter do. 8 0 11-3/5 + + From the Caspian to the Persian Gulf the summer + freight per ton is L18 2 3 + The winter do. 28 3 4 + inclusive of some insignificant charges. + +The time taken for the transit of goods between Bushire and Tihran is +forty-two days, and between Resht and Tihran twelve days. + +The cost per ton by rail, if taken at Indian rates, between the Gulf +and the Caspian, would be L3:11:10. + +On these figures the promoters of railway enterprise in Persia build +their hopes. + + + + +LETTER IX + + + BRITISH LEGATION, TIHRAN, _March 18_. + +Three weeks have passed quickly by since that terrible ride from +Husseinabad. The snow is vanishing from the Shimran hills, the spring +has come, and I am about to leave the unbounded kindness and +hospitality of this house on a long and difficult journey. It is very +pleasant to go away carrying no memories but those of kindness, +received not only from Europeans and Americans, but from Persians, +including the Amin-es-Sultan and the Muschir-u-Dowleh. + +It is impossible to bear away other than pleasant impressions of +Tihran society. Kindness received personally always sways one's +impressions of the people among whom one is thrown, and even if I had +any unfavourable criticisms to make I should not make them. + +Society, or rather I should say the European population, is divided +into classes and knots. There are the eleven American missionaries, +whose duties and interests lie apart from those of the rest of the +community, the diplomatic body, which has a monopoly of political +interests, the large staff of the Indo-European telegraph, married and +single, with Colonel Wells at its head, and the mercantile class, in +which the manager and _employes_ of the Imperial Bank may be included. +Outside of these recognised classes there is a shifting body of +passing travellers, civil and military, and would-be _concessionaires_ +and adventurers, besides a few Europeans in Persian employment. + +From four to five hundred Europeans is a large foreign settlement, and +it is a motley one, very various in its elements, "and in their +idiosyncrasies, combinations, rivalries, and projects is to be found +an inexhaustible fund of local gossip," writes Mr. Curzon in one of +his recent brilliant letters to the _Times_, "as well as almost the +sole source of non-political interest." + +Outside of the diplomatic circle the relations of England and Russia +with each other and with the Shah afford a topic of ceaseless +interest. England is just now considered to be in the ascendant, so +far as her diplomacy is concerned, but few people doubt that Russian +policy will eventually triumph, and that North Persia at least will be +"absorbed." + +One or two specially pleasant things I must mention. Sir H. Drummond +Wolff kindly wrote asking permission from the Shah for me to see his +Museum, _i.e._ his treasure-house, and we, that is the Minister, the +whole party from the Legation, and Dr. Odling of the telegraph staff +and Mrs. Odling, went there yesterday. There was a great crowd outside +the Palace gates, where we were received by many men in scarlet. The +private gardens are immense, and beautifully laid out, in a more +formal style than I have hitherto seen, with straight, hard gravel +walks, and straight avenues of trees. The effect of the clear running +water in the immense tanks lined with blue tiles is most agreeable and +cool. Continuous rows of orange trees in tubs, and beds of narcissus, +irises, and tulips, with a wealth of trellised roses just coming into +leaf, are full of the promise of beauty. These great pleasure gardens +are admirably kept, I doubt whether a fallen leaf would not be +discovered and removed in five minutes. + +The great irregular mass of the Palace buildings on the garden front +is very fine, the mangy and forlorn aspect being confined to the side +seen by the public. The walls are much decorated, chiefly with glazed +and coloured tiles geometrically arranged, and the general effect is +striking. + +The "Museum," properly the audience chamber, and certainly one among +the finest halls in the world, is approached by a broad staircase of +cream-coloured alabaster. We were received by the Grand Vizier's two +brothers, and were afterwards joined by himself and another high +official. + +The decorations of this magnificent hall are in blue and white stucco +of the hard fine kind, hardly distinguishable from marble, known as +_gatch_, and much glass is introduced in the ceiling. The proportions +of the room are perfect. The floor is of fine tiles of exquisite +colouring arranged as mosaic. A table is overlaid with beaten gold, +and chairs in rows are treated in the same fashion. Glass cases round +the room and on costly tables contain the fabulous treasures of the +Shah and many of the Crown jewels. Possibly the accumulated splendours +of pearls, diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, basins and vessels +of solid gold, ancient armour flashing with precious stones, shields +studded with diamonds and rubies, scabbards and sword hilts incrusted +with costly gems, helmets red with rubies, golden trays and vessels +thick with diamonds, crowns of jewels, chains, ornaments (masculine +solely) of every description, jewelled coats of mail dating back to +the reign of Shah Ismael, exquisite enamels of great antiquity, all in +a profusion not to be described, have no counterpart on earth. They +are a dream of splendour not to be forgotten. + +One large case contains the different orders bestowed on the Shah, all +blazing with diamonds, a splendid display, owing to the European +cutting of the stones, which brings out their full beauty. There are +many glass cases from two to three feet high and twelve inches or more +broad, nearly full of pearls, rubies, diamonds, sapphires, emeralds, +flashing forth their many-coloured light--treasures not arranged, but +piled like tea or rice. Among the extraordinarily lavish uses of gold +and gems is a golden globe twenty inches in diameter, turning on a +frame of solid gold. The stand and meridian are of solid gold set with +rubies. The equator and elliptic are of large diamonds. The countries +are chiefly outlined in rubies, but Persia is in diamonds. The ocean +is represented by emeralds. As if all this were not enough, huge gold +coins, each worth thirty-three sovereigns, are heaped round its base. + +At the upper end of the hall is the Persian throne. Many pages would +be needed for a mere catalogue of some of the innumerable treasures +which give gorgeousness to this hall. Here indeed is "Oriental +splendour," but only a part of the possessions of the Shah; for many +gems, including the Dar-i-nur or Sea of Light, the second most famous +diamond in the world, are kept elsewhere in double-locked iron chests, +and hoards of bullion saved from the revenues are locked up in vaults +below the Palace. + +If such a blaze of splendour exists in this shrunken, shrivelled, +"depopulated" empire, what must have been the magnificence of the +courts of Darius and Xerxes, into which were brought the treasures of +almost "all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them"? Since +seeing this treasure-house I think that many of the early descriptions +of wealth, which I have regarded as Oriental hyperbole, were literal, +and that there was a time in Persia, as in Judea, when "silver was not +accounted of." And to come down from the far off-glories of Darius, +Xerxes, and Khosroe and the Parthian kings, there have been within +almost modern times Persian sovereigns celebrated among other things +for their successful "looting" of foreign kingdoms--Shah Abbas the +great, and Nadir Shah, who scarcely two hundred years ago returned +from the sack of Delhi with gems valued at twenty millions of our +money. + +After we had seen most of what was to be seen the Vizier left us, and +we went to the room in which stands the celebrated Peacock Throne, +brought by Nadir Shah from Delhi, and which has been valued at +L2,500,000. This throne is a large stage, with parapets and a high fan +back, and is reached by several steps. It is entirely of gold enamel, +and the back is incrusted with rubies and diamonds. Its priceless +carpet has a broad border, the white arabesque pattern of which is +formed of pearls closely stitched. You will think that I am lapsing +into Oriental exaggeration! + +While we were admiring the beautiful view of the gardens from the +windows of this room, Hassan Ali Khan, better known as "the Nawab," +suggested that we should retire, as the Shah is in the habit of +visiting and enjoying his treasures at a later hour. However, at the +foot of the stairs on the threshold of the vestibule stood the Shah, +the "King of Kings," the "Asylum of the Universe," and that his +presence there was not an accident was shown by the fact that the +Grand Vizier was with him. + +Sir Henry advanced, attended by "the Nawab," and presented me, lifting +his hat to the king, who neither then nor when he left us made the +slightest inclination of his head. Hassan Ali Khan, in answer to a +question, mentioned some of my travels, and said that with His +Majesty's permission I wished to visit the Bakhtiari country.[27] The +king pushed up his big horn spectacles and focused his eyes, about +which there is something very peculiar, upon me, with a stare which +would have been disconcerting to a younger person, asked if I were +going to travel alone in his dominions, and if fitting arrangements +had been made; if I had been in Pekin, and had visited Borneo and the +Celebes; said a few other things, and then without a bow turned round +abruptly and walked down the garden with the Amin-es-Sultan. + +This accidental and informal presentation was a very pleasant +incident. The Shah is not what I expected from his various portraits. +His manner (though he was said to be very affable on this occasion) +has neither Eastern nor Western polish. He is a somewhat rough-looking +man, well on in middle life, rather dark in complexion, and wearing a +thick dark moustache, probably dyed, as is the custom. The long +twisted moustache conceals the expression of his mouth, and the +spectacles with thick horn rims that of his eyes. He was very simply +dressed. The diamond aigrette and sword with jewelled hilt with which +pictures and descriptions have familiarised us were absent, and this +splendid monarch, the heir of splendour, and the possessor of fabulous +treasures, wore the ordinary Persian high cap of Astrakan lambskin +without any ornament, close-fitting dark trousers with a line of gold +braid, a full-skirted coat of dull-coloured Kerman silk brocade, loose +and open, under which were huddled one or more coats. A watch-chain +composed of large diamonds completed his costume. He did not wear +gloves, and I noticed that his hands, though carefully attended to, +were those of a man used to muscular exercise, strong and wiry. + +As the sovereign and his prime minister walked away, it was +impossible not to speculate upon coming events: what will happen, for +instance, when Nasr-ed-Din, possibly the ablest man in the country +which he rules, and probably the best and most patriotic ruler among +Oriental despots, goes "the way of all the earth"? and again, whether +Ali Askar Khan, who has held his post for five years, and who at +thirty-two is the foremost man in Persia after the king, will weather +the storm of intrigue which rages round his head, and resist the +undermining influence of Russia? + +I have had two interesting conversations with him, and he was good +enough to propose success to my journey at a dinner at the Legation; +and though, as he does not speak French, the services of an +interpreter were necessary, he impressed me very favourably as a man +of thought, intelligence, and patriotism. + +He made one remark which had a certain degree of pathos in it. After +speaking of the severe strictures and harsh criticisms of certain +recent writers, which he said were very painful to Persians, he added, +"I hope if you write you will write kindly, and not crush the +aspirations of my struggling country as some have done." + +This Amin-es-Sultan, the faithful or trusted one of the sovereign, the +Grand Vizier or Prime Minister, the second person in the empire, who +unites in his person at this time the ministries of the Treasury, the +Interior, the Court, and Customs, is of humble antecedents, being the +son of a man who was originally an inferior attendant on the Shah in +his hunting expeditions, and is the grandson of an Armenian captive. +Certain persons of importance are bent upon his overthrow, and it can +only be by the continued favour and confidence of the Shah that he can +sustain himself against their intrigues, combined with those of +Russia. + +My visit to the Palace terminated with the sight of another +throne-room opening upon the garden in which a few days hence, with +surroundings of great magnificence, the Shah will receive the +congratulations of the diplomatic corps, and afterwards give a general +audience to the people. + +This is an annual ceremony at the festival of No Ruz when the Persian +New Year begins, at the time of the spring solstice, and is probably a +relic of the Zoroastrian worship, though the modern Persians, as +Mohammedans, allege that it is observed to celebrate the birthday of +the Prophet's mother.[28] + +Some hours after the close of a splendid ceremony in the audience +chamber, chiefly religious, at which the Shah burns incense on a small +brazier, he descends to the garden, and walking alone along an avenue +of Royal Guards, with the crown of the Kaj[=a]rs, blazing with jewels, +carried in front of him, he seats himself on an alabaster throne, the +foreign ministers having been received previously. This throne is a +large platform, with a very high back and parapets of bold stone +fretwork, supported on marble lions and other figures, and is ascended +by three or four steps. + +The populace, which to the number of many thousands are admitted into +the garden, see him seated on his throne, their absolute master, the +lord of life and death. A voice asks if they are content, and they say +they are. A hymn of congratulation is sung, a chief of the Kaj[=a]r +tribe offers the congratulations of the people of Persia, the Hakim of +the people hands the king a jewelled _kalian_, which he smokes, and +showers of gold fall among the populace. + +The British Minister is understood to be at this time the most +powerful foreigner in Persia; and as we drove through the crowd which +had assembled at the Palace gates, he was received with all Oriental +marks of respect. + +All my intercourse with Persians here has been pleasant, and if I +mention one person particularly, it is owing to a certain interest +which attaches to himself and his possible future, and because some +hours spent at his splendid palace were among the pleasantest of the +many pleasant and interesting ones which I shall hereafter recall. + +Yahia Khan, Minister of Justice and Commerce, whose official title is +Muschir-u-Dowleh, was formerly Minister of Foreign Affairs, but +forfeited the confidence of the British Government in supposed +connection with the escape of Ayoub Khan, and being suspected of +Russian proclivities, which he denies, lost his position. He speaks +French perfectly, is credited with very great abilities, and not only +has courteous and charming manners, but thoroughly understands the +customs of Europe. + +As the possessor of one of the most magnificent palaces in Persia, +married to the Shah's sister, his son, a youth of eighteen, married to +a daughter of the Vali-'ahd, the heir-apparent, and as the brother of +Mirza Hussein Khan--for long Grand Vizier and _Sipah Salar_, or +Commander-in-Chief, whose gorgeous mosque, scarcely finished, the +finest mosque built in late years by any but a royal personage, +adjoins his house, Yahia Khan is in every way an important personage. + +He is the fourth husband of the Shah's sister, who has had a tragic +life and is a very accomplished woman. Her first husband, Mirza +Taghi, when Prime Minister, attempted reforms which would have tended +to diminish the hideous corruption which is the bane of Persian +officialism, and consequently made many enemies, who induced the Shah, +then a young man, to depose him. Worse than deposition was +apprehended, and as it was not etiquette to murder a husband of a +royal princess in her presence, his wife, who loved him, watched him +night and day with ceaseless vigilance for some weeks. But the fatal +day at last came, and a good and powerful man, whose loss is said to +have been an irreparable one to Persia, was strangled by the Shah's +messengers, it is said, in the bath. + +Her son, who has married the Shah's grand-daughter, is courteous like +his father, but is apparently without his force. + +The Muschir-u-Dowleh invited me to breakfast, along with General +Gordon and Hassan Ali Khan. The _dejeuner_ was altogether in European +style, except that in the centre of the table, among lilies and +irises, a concealed fountain sent up jets of rose-water spray. Sevres +and Dresden porcelain, the finest damask, and antique and exquisitely +beautiful silver adorned the table. The cooking was French. The wines +and liqueurs, an innovation on Moslem tables now common, but of recent +date, were both French and Persian. The service was perfection. The +host conversed both thoughtfully and agreeably, and expressed himself +remarkably well in French. + +Afterwards we were invited to go over the palace and its grounds, +which are remarkably beautiful, and then over the magnificent mosque. +Shiah mosques are absolutely tabooed to Christians; but as this has +not yet been used for worship, our entrance was not supposed to +desecrate it. When quite finished it will be one of the most +magnificent buildings dedicated to religious use in the world, and its +four tile-covered minarets, its vast dome, and arches and facades in +tiled arabesques and conventional patterns and exquisite colouring, +show that the Persian artist when adequately encouraged has not lost +his old feeling for beauty. + +Besides the mosque there is a fine building, the low roof of which is +supported by innumerable columns, all of plain brick, resembling a +crypt, which will be used for winter worship. In addition, a lavish +endowment has provided on the grounds a theological college and a +hospital, with most, if not all, of the funds needed for their +maintenance; and on every part of the vast pile of buildings the +architect has lavished all the resources of his art. + +No houses are to my thinking more beautiful and appropriate to the +climate and mode of living than those of the upper classes of +Persians, and the same suitability and good taste run down through the +trading classes till one reaches the mud hovel, coarse and un-ideal, +of the workman and peasant. + +My memory does not serve me for the details of the Muschir-u-Dowleh's +palace, which, though some of the rooms are furnished with European +lounges, tables, and chairs in _marqueterie_ and brocade, is +throughout distinctively Persian; but the impression produced by the +general _coup d'oeil_, and by the size, height, and perfect +proportion of the rooms, galleries, staircases, and halls, is quite +vivid. The rooms have dados of primrose-coloured Yezd alabaster in +slabs four feet high by three broad, clouded and veined most +delicately by nature. The banqueting hall is of immense size, and the +floor is covered with a dark fawn _namad_ three-quarters of an inch +thick, made, I understood, in one piece eighty feet long by fifty +broad. The carpets are the most beautiful which can be turned out by +Persian looms, and that is saying a great deal. + +The roofs, friezes, and even the walls of this house, like those of +others of its class, have a peculiarity of beauty essentially Persian. +This is the form of _gatch_ or fine stucco-work known as _ainah +karee_. I saw it first at Baghdad, and now at Tihran wonder that such +beautiful and costly decoration does not commend itself to some of our +millionaires. Arches filled with honeycomb decoration, either pure +white or tastefully coloured and gilded, are among the architectural +adornments which the Alhambra borrowed from Persia. My impression is +that this exquisite design was taken from snow on the hillsides, which +is often fashioned by a strong wind into the honeycomb pattern. + +But the glory of this form of decoration reaches its height when, +after the _gatch_ ceiling and cornice or deep frieze have been +daringly moulded by the workman into distinct surfaces or facets, he +lays on mirrors while the plaster is yet soft, which adhere, and even +at their edges have scarcely the semblance of a joining. Sometimes, +as in the new summer palace of the Shah's third son, the +Naib-es-Sultaneh, the whole wall is decorated in this way; but I +prefer the reception-rooms of Yahia Khan, in which it is only brought +down a few feet. Immense skill and labour are required in this process +of adornment, but it yields in splendour to none, flashing in +bewildering light, and realising the fabled glories of the palaces of +the _Arabian Nights_. One of the _salons_, about sixty feet by fifty, +treated in this way is about the most beautiful room I ever saw. + +The Persian architect also shows great art in his windows. He masses +them together, and by this means gives something of grandeur even to +an insignificant room. The beauty of the designs, whether in fretwork +of wood or stone, is remarkable, and the effect is enhanced by the +filling in of the interstices with coloured glass, usually amber and +pale blue. So far as I have seen, the Persian house is never +over-decorated, and however gorgeous the mirror-work, or involved the +arrangement of arches, or daring the dreams in _gatch_ ceilings and +pillars, the fancy of the designer is always so far under control as +to give the eye periods of rest. + +Under the palace of the Muschir-u-Dowleh, as under many others, is a +sort of glorified _serdab_, used in hot weather, partly under ground, +open at each end, and finished throughout with marble, the roof being +supported on a cluster of slender pillars with capitals picked out in +gold, and the air being cooled by a fountain in a large marble basin. +But this _serdab_ is far eclipsed by a summer hall in the palace of +the Shah's third son, which, as to walls and ceiling, is entirely +composed of mirror-work, the floor of marble being arranged with +marble settees round fountains whose cool plash even now is delicious. +The large pleasure gardens which surround rich men's houses in the +city are laid out somewhat in the old French style of formality, and +are tended with scrupulous care. + +I did not see the _andarun_ of this or any house here, owing to the +difficulty about an interpreter, but it is not likely that the ladies +are less magnificently lodged than their lords. The _andarun_ has its +own court, no one is allowed to open a window looking upon it, it is +as secluded as a convent. No man but the master of the house may +enter, and when he retires thither no man may disturb him. To all +inquirers it is a sufficient answer to say that he is in the +_andarun_. To the Shah, however, belongs the privilege of looking upon +the unveiled face of every woman in Persia. The domestic life of a +Moslem is always shrouded in mystery, and even in the case of the +Shah "the fierce light that beats upon a throne" fails to reveal to +the outer world the number of wives and women in his _andarun_, which +is variously stated at from sixty to one hundred and ninety. + +It is not easy in any Eastern city to get exactly what one wants for a +journey, especially as a European cannot buy in the bazars; and the +servant difficulty has been a great hindrance, particularly as I have +a strong objection to the regular interpreter-servant who has been +accustomed to travel with Europeans. + +I have now got a Persian cook with sleepy eyes, a portion of a nose, +and a grotesquely "hang-dog" look. For an interpreter and personal +attendant I have an educated young Brahmin, for some years in British +post-office service in the Gulf, and lately a teacher in the American +school here. He speaks educated English, and is said to speak good +Persian. He has never done any "menial" work, but is willing to do +anything in order to get to England. He has a frank, independent +manner and "no nonsense about him." Taking him is an experiment.[29] + + I. L. B. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[27] Some of the Bakhtiari khans or princes, with their families, are +kept by the Shah as hostages in and round Tihran for the loyalty of +their tribes, the conquest of these powerful nomads not being so +complete as it might and possibly will be. + +[28] On the eve of the day, the last of a festival of ten days, the +common people kindle rows of bonfires and leap over them; and, though +not on the same day, but on the night of the 25th of February, sacred +in the Armenian Church as the day of the presentation of our Lord in +the temple, large bonfires are lighted on the mud roofs of the +Armenians of the Persian and Turkish cities, and the younger members +of the households dance and sing and leap through the flames. +Meanwhile the Moslems close their windows, so that the sins which the +Christians are supposed to be burning may not enter. Whether these +"Beltane fires" are a relic of the ancient fire worship or of still +older rites may be a question. Among the Christians the custom is +showing signs of passing away. + +[29] An experiment I never regretted. Mirza Yusuf was with me for nine +months, and I found him faithful, truthful, and trustworthy, very +hard-working, minimising hardships and difficulties, always cheerful, +and with an unruffled temper, his failings being those of a desk-bred +man transplanted into a life of rough out-doorishness. + + + + +LETTER X + + + KUM, _March 23_. + +This so far is a delightful journey. All the circumstances are +favourable. A friend who was sending his servants, horses, and baggage +to Isfahan has lent me a thoroughbred, and with a trustworthy young +soldier as my escort I do not trouble myself about the caravan at all, +and get over much of the ground at a gallop. The roads have nearly +dried up, the country looks cheerful, travellers are numerous, living +and dead, the sun is bright but the air is cool and bracing, and the +insects are still hybernating, Mirza Yusuf is getting into my "ways," +and is very pleasant. I did not think that I could have liked Persian +travelling so well. A good horse and a good pace make an immense +difference. It is not the custom for European ladies to travel +unattended by European gentlemen in Persia, but no objection to my +doing so was made in the highest quarters, either English or Persian, +and so far there have been no difficulties or annoyances. + +I left the British Legation at noon four days ago. The handsome Arab, +with a sheepskin coat rolled on the front of the saddle, holsters, and +Persian housings, looked like a life-guardsman's horse. I nearly came +to grief as soon as I got out of the Legation gate; for he would not +stand my English snaffle, and reared and threw himself about, and my +spur touching him as he did so made him quite wild, and I endured +much apprehension all through Tihran, expecting to find myself on the +rough pavement; but I took off the offending spur, and rode him on the +sharp bit he is used to, and when we were outside the gate he +quietened down, and I had a long gallop. + +How different it all looks! No more floundering through mud! The trees +of Abdul Azim are green. Caravans are moving fast and cheerily. Even +the dead on their last journey look almost cheerful under the sunny +skies. We did not reach Husseinabad till long after dark. It was so +unspeakably dark that my horse and I fell off the road into deep +water, and we passed the caravanserai without knowing that we were +near it. + +The usual disorder of a first night was somewhat worse than usual. The +loads were mixed up, and the servants and _charvadars_ were +quarrelling, and I did not get my dinner till ten; but things are all +right now, and have been since the following morning, when I assumed +the reins of government and saw the mules loaded myself, an efficient +interpreter making my necessary self-assertion intelligible. + +Though the spring has set in, most of the country between this and +Tihran looks a complete desert. In February it was a muddy waste--it +is now a dusty waste, on which sheep, goats, and camels pick up a gray +herbage, which without search is not obvious to the human eye, and +consists mostly of wormwood and other bitter and aromatic plants. Off +the road a few tulips and dwarf irises coming up out of the dry ground +show the change of season. + +I came for some distance on one day by a road which caravans avoid +because of robbers. It crosses a reddish desert with a few salt +streams and much saline efflorescence, a blasted region without a +dwelling or patch of cultivation. Yet a four-mile gallop across one +part of it was most inspiriting. As the two Arabs, excited by the +pace, covering great spaces of ground with each powerful stride, +dashed over the level gravel I thought, "They'll have fleet steeds +that follow"; but no steed or rider or bird or beast was visible +through all that hungry land. We passed also close to a salt lake on +the Kavir, seen in the distance on the former journey, near which are +now pitched a quantity of Ilyat tents, all black. The wealth of these +nomads is in camels, sheep, and goats. Though the camps, five in +number, were small, they had over 200 camels among them. + +Where four weeks ago there was deep mud there is now the glittering +semblance of unsullied snow, and the likeness of frost crystals fills +the holes. _Miles_ of camels loaded with cotton march with stately +stride in single file, the noble mountain camel, with heavy black fur +on neck, shoulder, fore-arm, and haunch, and kindly gentle eyes, +looking, as he is, the king of baggage animals, not degraded by +servitude, though he may carry 800 lbs. + +Some of the sights of the road were painful. For instance, just as I +passed a caravan of the dead bound for Kum a mule collided with +another and fell, and the loosely-put-together boxes on its back gave +way and corpses fell out in an advanced stage of decomposition. A +camel just dead lay in a gully. On a ledge of rock above it seven +gorged vultures (not the bald-headed) sat in a row. They had already +feasted on him to repletion. I passed several dead camels, and one +with a pleading pathetic face giving up the ghost on the road. + +Yesterday I rode in here from the magnificent caravanserai of +Shashgird, sixteen miles in three hours before lunch, and straight +through the crowded bazars to the telegraph office unmolested, an +Afghan camel-driver's coat, with the wool outside, having proved so +good a disguise that the _gholam_ who was sent to meet me returned to +his master saying that he had not seen a lady, but that a foreign +soldier and _sahib_ had come into Kum. + +When my visit was over and I had received from Mr. Lyne the route to +Isfahan, and such full information about rooms, water, and supplies as +will enable me to give my own orders, and escape from the tyranny of +the _charvadars_, having sent the horses to the caravanserai I +disguised myself as a Persian woman of the middle class in the dress +which Mrs. Lyne wears in the city, a thick white _crepe_ veil with +open stitch in front of the eyes, a black sheet covering me from head +to foot, the ends hanging from the neck by long loops, and held with +the left hand just below the eyes, and so, though I failed to imitate +the totter and shuffle of a Persian lady's walk, I passed unnoticed +through the long and crowded streets of this fanatical city, attended +only by a _gholam_, and at the door of my own room was prevented from +entering by the servants till my voice revealed my identity. + +Twice to-day I have passed safely through the city in the same +disguise, and have even lingered in front of shops without being +detected. Mr. and Mrs. Lyne have made the two days here very pleasant, +by introducing me to Persians in whose houses I have seen various +phases of Persian life. On reaching one house, where Mrs. Lyne arrived +an hour later, I was a little surprised to be received by the host in +uniform, speaking excellent French, but without a lady with him. + +He had been very kind to Hadji, who, he says, is rich and has three +wives. The poor fellow's lungs have been affected for two years, and +the affection was for the time aggravated by the terrible journey. He +talked a good deal about Persian social customs, especially polygamy. + +He explained that he has only one wife, but that this is because he +has been fortunate. He said that he regards polygamy as the most +fruitful source of domestic unhappiness, but that so long as +marriages are made for men by their mothers and sisters, a large sum +being paid to the bride's father, a marriage is really buying "a pig +in a poke," and constantly when the bride comes home she is ugly or +bad-tempered or unpleasing and cannot manage the house. "This," he +said, "makes men polygamists who would not otherwise be so. + +"Then a man takes another wife, and perhaps this is repeated, and then +he tries again, and so on, and the house becomes full of turmoil. +There are always quarrels in a polygamous household," he said, "and +the children dispute about the property after the father's death." Had +he not been fortunate, and had not his wife been capable of managing +the house, he said that he must have taken another wife, "for," he +added, "no man can bear a badly-managed house." + +I thought of the number of men in England who have to bear it without +the Moslem resource. + +A lady of "position" must never go out except on Fridays to the +mosque, or with her husband's permission and scrupulously veiled and +guarded, to visit her female friends. Girl-children begin to wear the +_chadar_ between two and three years old, and are as secluded as their +mothers, nor must any man but father or brother see their faces. Some +marry at twelve years old. + +"La vie des femmes dans la Perse est tres triste," he said. The +absence of anything like education for girls, except in Tihran, and +the want of any reading-book but the Koran for boys and girls, he +regards as a calamity. He may be a pessimist by nature: he certainly +has no hope for the future of Persia, and contemplates a Russian +occupation as a certainty in the next twenty years. + +After a long conversation I asked for the pleasure, not of seeing his +wife, but the "mother of his children," and was rewarded by the sight +of a gentle and lovely woman of twenty-one or twenty-two, graceful in +every movement but her walk, exquisitely refined-looking, with a most +becoming timidity of expression, mingled with gentle courtesy to a +stranger. She was followed by three very pretty little girls. The +husband and wife are of very good family, and the lady has an +unmistakably well-bred look. + +Though I knew what to expect in the costume of a woman of the upper +classes, I was astonished, and should have been scandalised even had +women only been present. The costume of ladies has undergone a great +change in the last ninety years, and the extreme of the fashion is as +lacking in delicacy as it is in comfort. However, much travelling +compels one to realise that the modesty of the women of one country +must not be judged of by the rules of another, and a lady costumed as +I shall attempt to describe would avert her eyes in horror by no means +feigned from an English lady in a Court or evening-dress of to-day. + +The under garment, very much _en evidence_, is a short chemise of +tinselled silk gauze, or gold-embroidered muslin so transparent as to +leave nothing to the imagination. This lady wore a skirt of flowered +silver brocade, enormously full, ten or twelve yards wide, made to +stand nearly straight out by some frills or skirts of very stiffly +starched cotton underneath, the whole, not even on a waistband round +the waist, but drawn by strings, and suspended over the hips, the +skirts coming down to within a few inches of the knee, leaving the +white rounded limbs uncovered. The effect of this exaggerated +_bouffante_ skirt is most singular. White socks are worn. Over the +transparent _pirah[=a]n_, or chemise, she wore a short velvet jacket +beautifully embroidered in gold, with its fronts about ten inches +apart, so as to show the flowered chemise. Her eyebrows were +artificially curved and lengthened till they appeared to meet above +her nose, her eyelashes were marked round with _kohl_, and a band of +blue-black paint curving downwards above the nose crossed her +forehead, but was all but concealed by a small white square of silk +_crepe_, on the head and brow and fastened under the chin by a brooch. + +Had she been in another house she would have worn a large square of +gold-embroidered silk, with the points in front and behind, and +fastened under the chin. Under the _crepe_ square there was a small +skull-cap of gold-embroidered velvet, matching her little zouave +jacket, with an aigrette of gems at the side. Her arms were covered +with bracelets, and a number of valuable necklaces set off the beauty +of her dazzlingly white neck. + +Persian ladies paint, or rather smear, but her young pure complexion +needed no such aids. Her front hair, cut to the level of her mouth, +hung down rather straight, and the remainder, which was long, was +plaited into many small glossy plaits. Contrary to custom, it was +undyed, and retained its jet-black colour. Most Persian ladies turn it +blue-black with indigo, or auburn with _henna_, and with the latter +the finger-nails and palms of the hands are always stained. + +Her jewellery was all of solid gold; hollow gold and silver ornaments +being only worn by the poor. She wore a chain with four scent caskets +attached to it exhaling attar of roses and other choice perfumes. + +She was a graceful and attractive creature in spite of her costume. +She waited on her husband and on me, that is, she poured out the tea +and moved about the room for hot water and _bonbons_ with the feeble, +tottering gait of a woman quite unaccustomed to exercise, and to whom +the windy wastes outside the city walls and a breezy gallop are quite +unknown. The little girls were dressed in the style of adults, and +wore tinselled gauze _chad[=a]rs_ or _chargats_. + +After seeing a good deal of home life during some months in Persia, I +have come to the conclusion that there is no child life. Swaddled till +they can walk, and then dressed as little men and women, with the +adult tyrannies of etiquette binding upon them, and in the case of +girls condemned from infancy to the seclusion of the _andarun_, there +is not a trace of the spontaneity and nonsense which we reckon as +among the joys of childhood, or of such a complete and beautiful child +life as children enjoy in Japan. There does not appear to be any child +talk. The Persian child from infancy is altogether interested in the +topics of adults; and as the conversation of both sexes is said by +those who know them best to be without reticence or modesty, the +purity which is one of the greatest charms of childhood is absolutely +unknown. Parental love is very strong in Persia, and in later days the +devotion of the mother to the boy is amply returned by the grown-up +son, who regards her comfort as his charge, and her wishes as law, +even into old age. + +When tea was over the host retired with the remark that the ladies +would prefer to amuse themselves alone, and then a Princess and +another lady arrived attended by several servants. This Princess came +in the black silk sheet with a suggestion of gold about its border +which is the street disguise of women of the richer classes, and she +wore huge bag-like violet trousers, into which her voluminous skirts +were tucked. + +She emerged from these wrappings a "harmony" in rose colour--a comely +but over-painted young woman in rose and silver brocade skirts, a rose +velvet jacket embroidered in silver, a transparent white muslin +_pirah[=a]n_ with silver stars upon it, and a _chargat_ of white +muslin embroidered in rose silk. + +She and the hostess sat on a rug in front of a fire, and servants now +and then handed them _kalians_. The three little girls and the guest's +little girl were in the background. The doors were then fastened and a +number of servants came in and entertained their mistresses. Two sang +and accompanied themselves on a sort of tambourine. Tea was handed +round at intervals. There was dancing, and finally two or three women +acted some little scenes from a popular Persian play. By these +amusements, I am told, the women of the upper classes get rid of time +when they visit each other; and they spend much of their lives in +afternoon visiting, taking care to be back before sunset. After a long +time the gentle hostess, reading in my face that I was not enjoying +the performances, on which indeed unaccustomed English eyes could not +look, brought them to a close, and showed me some of her beautiful +dresses and embroidered fabrics. + +Putting on my disguise and attended by a servant I walked a third time +unrecognised and unmolested through the crowded bazars, through the +gate and across the bridge, when a boy looked quite into my shroud, +which I was not perhaps clutching so tightly as in the crowd, and +exclaiming several times _Kafir_, ran back into the city. I did not +run, but got back to the "hotel" as fast as possible. + +It is very noisy, and my room being on the ground floor, and having +three doors, there is little peace either by day or night. Thirteen +days from the _No Ruz_ or New Year, which was March 21, are kept as a +feast before the severe fast of the Ramazan, and this city of pilgrims +is crowded, and all people put on new clothes, the boys being chiefly +dressed in green. + +To-morrow I begin my journey over new ground. + + I. L. B. + + + + +LETTER XI + + + KASHAN, _March 26_. + +I have seen the last of Kum and hotels and made roads for many months. +So much the better! I had to ride the whole length of the bazars and +the city, a mile and a half, but the camel-driver's coat served again +as a disguise, and I heard no remarks except from two boys. Indeed I +am delighted to find that the "foreign soldier" who rides in front of +me attracts so much curiosity that I pass in his wake unnoticed. + +The ruinous condition of Kum is fearful. Once outside the houses and +bazars which surround the shrine of Fatima, the town is mostly rubbish +and litter, with forlorn, miserable houses created out of the rubbish, +grouped near festering pools; broken causeways infamously paved, full +of holes, heaps of potsherds, bones obtruding themselves, nothing to +please and everything to disgust the eye and sadden the spirit, +religious intolerance, a diminished population, and desolation. + +The pottery bazar, abounding in blue glazed ware of graceful shapes, +and a number of shrines of saints, are the only objects of interest. +The domes of the latter were once covered with blue tiles, but these +have nearly all peeled off, leaving the universal mud--a mud so +self-asserting everywhere that Persia may be called the "Great Mud +Land." The cherry and apricot trees are in full bloom, but as yet +there is little greenery round Kum, and the area of cultivation is +very limited. + +I am now on the road which, with the exception of that from Tihran to +Resht, is best known to travellers,[30] but I cannot help sketching it +briefly, though the interests are few considering the distance +travelled, 280 miles from Tihran to Isfahan. I now see Persia for the +first time; for traversing a country buried in snow is not seeing it. +It would be premature to express the opinion that the less one sees of +it the more one is likely to admire it. + +I have been _en route_ for a week under the best possible +circumstances--the nights always cool, the days never too warm, the +accommodation tolerable, the caravan in excellent working order, no +annoyances, and no grievances. The soldier who attends me arranges +everything for my comfort, and is always bright and kind. I have no +ambition to "beat the record," but long gallops on a fine Arab horse +turn marches of from twenty-two to thirty miles into delightful +morning rides of from three and a half to four and a half hours, with +long pleasant afternoons following them, and sound sleep at night. +These are my halcyon days of Persian travelling; and yet I cannot +write that Persia is beautiful. + +It is early spring, and tulips and irises rise not out of a carpet of +green but, to use the descriptive phrase of Isaiah, "as a root out of +a dry ground," the wormwood is dressed in its gray-green, the buds of +the wild dwarf-almond show their tender pink, the starry blossom of +the narcissus gleams in moist places, the sky is exquisitely blue, and +shining cloud-masses fleck the brown hillsides with violet shadows. +Where there is irrigation carpets of young wheat cover the ground; but +these, like the villages, occur only at long intervals, for the road +passes mainly through a country destitute of water, or rather of +arrangements for storing it. + +As to natural trees there are none, and even the bushes are few and +unlovely, chiefly camel thorn and a rigid and thorny tamarisk. Beyond +Kum there is no made road. A track worn by the caravans of ages +exists,--sometimes parallel ruts for a width of half a mile, sometimes +not two yards wide, and now and then lapsing into illegibility. There +are large and small caravanserais of an inferior class along the +route, and _chapar khanas_ at intervals. Water is often bad and +sometimes brackish. It is usually supplied from small brick +_abambars_, or covered reservoirs. Milk is hard to obtain, often +impossible; at some places fowls can be bought for eightpence each, +and "flap jacks" everywhere. + +Except the snowy cone of Demavend, with purple ranges curtaining his +feet, no special object of admiration exists; the plains are reddish, +yellowish, barren, gravelly, or splotched with salt; the ranges of +hills, which are never far off (for Persia is a land of mountains), +are either shapeless and gravelly, or rocky, rugged, and splintered, +their hue reddish and purplish, their sides scored by the spring rush +of wasted torrents, their aspect one of complete desolation, yet not +without a certain beauty at this season--rose-flushed in the early +morning, passing through shades of cobalt and indigo through the day, +and dying away at sunset in translucent amethyst against a sky of +ruddy gold. + +But, take away the atmospheric colouring--which the advancing heat +will abolish--and the plain English of the route is this, that in +every direction, far as the eye can reach, the country is a salt waste +or a gravelly waste, with a few limited oases of cultivation on the +plains and in the folds of the hills, always treeless, except round a +few of the villages, where there are small groves of poplars and +willows. The villages are clusters of mud hovels, scarcely +distinguishable from the wastes, and many of them are ruined and +deserted, oppressive exactions or a failure of water being common +reasons for a migration. These dismal ruins are shapeless heaps of +mud, the square towers of the square walls alone retaining any +semblance of form. + +Long lines of choked _kanaats_, denoted by their crumbling shafts, +attest the industrious irrigation of a former day. Tracks wind wearily +among shrunken villages, or cross ridges of mud or gravel to take +their unlovely way over arid stony plains. Unwatered tracts of land, +once cultivated, as the _kanaats_ show, but now deserts of sand and +stones, send up gyrating clouds of gritty dust. + +Such is Persia between its two capitals; and yet I repeat that in cool +weather, and on a good horse, the journey is a very pleasant one. Most +European men ride _chapar_, that is, post; but from what I see of the +_chapar_ horses, I would not do it for the sake of doubling the +distance travelled in the day, and therefore cannot describe either +its pleasures or tortures from experience. + +On certain roads, as from Tihran to Shiraz, there are post stations +(_chapar khana_) with horses and men at distances of from twenty to +twenty-five miles, with a charge of one _kran_ (eightpence) per +_farsakh_ (four miles) for each horse engaged, an order having been +previously obtained from a government official. Besides your own horse +you have to take one for the _shasgird chapar_, or post-boy, who has +to take the horses back, and one for the servant. The two latter carry +the very limited kit, which includes a long cotton bag, which, being +filled with chopped straw at night, forms the traveller's bed. The +custom is to ride through all the hours of daylight whenever horses +are to be got, doing from sixty to ninety miles a day, always +inspired by the hope of "cutting the record," even by half an hour, +and winning undying fame. + +The horses, which are kept going at a canter so long as they can be +thrashed into one, are small and active, and do wonders; but from the +strain put upon them, bad feeding, sore backs, and general +dilapidation and exhaustion, are constantly tumbling down. Several +times I have seen wretched animals brought into the yards, apparently +"dead beat," and after getting some chopped straw and a little barley +thrashed into a canter again for twenty-five miles more, because the +traveller could not get a remount. They often fall down dead under +their riders, urged by the heavy _chapar_ whip to the last. + +Riding _chapar_, journeying in a _taktrawan_ or litter, or in a +_kajaweh_, or riding caravan pace, by which only about thirty miles a +day can be covered, are the only modes of travelling in Persia, though +I think that with capable assistance a carriage might make the journey +from Tihran as far as Kashan. + +I lodge in the _chapar khanas_ whenever I can. They consist of mud +walls fourteen feet high, enclosing yards deep in manure, with +stabling for the _chapar_ horses on two sides, and recesses in their +inner walls for mangers. The entrance is an arched gateway. There are +usually two dark rooms at the sides, which the servants occupy and +cook in, and over the gateway is the _balakhana_, an abortive tower, +attained by a steep and crumbling stair, in which I encamp. The one +room has usually two doors, half-fitting and non-shutting, and perhaps +a window space or two, and the ashes of the last traveller's fire. + +Such a breezy rest just suits me, and when my camp furniture has been +arranged and I am enjoying my "afternoon tea," I feel "monarch of all +I survey," even of the boundless desert, over which the cloud shadows +chase each other till it purples in the light of the sinking sun. If +there is the desert desolation there is also the desert freedom. + +The first halt was delicious after the crowds and fanaticism of Kum. A +broad plain with irrigated patches and a ruinous village was passed; +then came the desert, an expanse of camel-brown gravel thickly strewn +with stones, with a range of low serrated brown hills, with curious +stratification, on the east. A few caravans of camels, and the _haram_ +of the Governor of Yezd in closely-covered _kajawehs_, alone broke the +monotony. Before I thought we were half-way we reached the _abambars_, +the small brown caravanserai, and the _chapar khana_ of Passangh[=a]m, +having ridden in three hours a distance on which I have often expended +eight. + +Cool and breezy it was in my room, and cooler and breezier on the flat +mud roof; and the lifting of some clouds in the far distance to the +north, beyond the great sweep of the brown desert, revealed the mighty +Elburz range, white with new-fallen snow. At Sinsin the next evening +it was gloriously cold. There had been another heavy snowfall, and in +the evening the Elburz range, over a hundred miles away, rose in +unsullied whiteness like a glittering wall, and above it the colossal +cone of Demavend, rose-flushed. + +The routine of the day is simple and easy. I get the caravan off at +eight, lie on the floor for an hour, gallop and walk for about half +the march, rest for an hour in some place, where Mahboud, the soldier, +always contrives to bring me a glass of tea, and then gallop and walk +to the halting-place, where I rest for another hour till the caravan +comes in. I now know exactly what to pay, and by giving small presents +get on very easily. + +There were many uncomfortable prophecies about the annoyances and +rudenesses which a lady travelling alone would meet with, but so far +not one has been fulfilled. How completely under such circumstances +one has to trust one's fellow-creatures! There are no fastenings on +the doors of these breezy rooms, and last night there was only the +longitudinal half of a door, but I fell asleep, fearing nothing worse +than a predatory cat. + +The last two days' marches have been chiefly over stony wastes, or +among low hills of red earth, gray gravel, and brown mud, with low +serrated ranges beyond, and farther yet high hills covered with snow, +after which the road leaves the hills and descends upon a pink plain, +much of the centre of which is snow-white from saline efflorescence. +The villages Kasseinabad, Nasrabad, and Aliabad are passed on the +plain, with small fruit trees and barley surrounding them, and great +mud caravanserais at intervals, only remarkable for the number of +camels lying outside of them in rows facing each other. In the fresh +keen air of evening the cone of Demavend was painted in white on the +faint blue sky, reddening into beauty as the purple-madder shadows +deepened over the yellow desert. + +Tea made with saltish water, and salt sheep's milk, have been the only +drawbacks of the six days' march. + +Not far from Kashan we entered on a great alluvial plain formed of +fine brown earth without a single stone--a prolific soil if it had +water, as the fruit trees and abundant crops of young wheat round the +villages show. So level, and on the whole so smooth, is this plain +that it possesses the prodigy of a public conveyance, an omnibus with +four horses abreast, which makes its laborious way with the aid of +several attendants, who lift the wheels out of holes, prevent it from +capsizing, and temporarily fill up the small irrigation ditches which +it has to cross. Its progress is less "by leaps and bounds" than by +jolts and rolls, and as my Arab horse bounded past I wondered that six +men could be found to exchange the freedom of the saddle for such a +jerky, stuffy box. + +Five hundred yards from the gate of Kashan there is a telegraph +station of the Indo-European line, where M. du Vignau and his wife +expected me, and have received me with great kindness and hospitality. +The electricians at these stations are allowed to receive guests in +what is known as the "Inspectors' Room," and they exercise this +liberty most kindly and generously. Many a weary traveller looks back +upon the "Inspectors' Room" as upon an oasis in the desert of dirt; +and though I cannot class myself just now with "weary travellers," I +cordially appreciate the kindness which makes one "at home," and the +opportunity of exchanging civilised ideas for a few hours. + +I must not go beyond Kashan without giving a few words to the Persian +section of the Indo-European telegraph line, one of the greatest +marvels of telegraph construction, considering the nature of the +country which the line traverses. Tihran is the centre of telegraphic +control, and the residence of Colonel Wells, R.E., the Director, with +a staff of twenty telegraphists, who work in relays day and night, and +a Medical Officer. Julfa is another place of importance on the line, +and at Shiraz there is another Medical Officer. + +The prompt repair of the wires in cases of interruption is carefully +arranged for. At suitable places, such as Kum, Soh, Kashan, and other +towns or villages from fifty to eighty miles apart, there are control +or testing stations, each being in charge of a European telegraphist, +who has under him two Persian horsemen, who have been well trained as +linesmen. At stated hours the clerks place their instruments in +circuit, and ascertain if all is right. + +If this testing reveals any fault, it can be localised at once, and +horsemen are despatched from the control stations on either side of +it, with orders to ride rapidly along the line until they meet at the +fault and repair it. As the telegraph crosses passes such as +Kuhr[=u]d, at an altitude of over 8000 feet, the duties of both +inspectors and linesmen are most severe, full not only of hardship but +of danger in terrible winter storms and great depths of snow, yet on +their ceaseless watchfulness and fidelity the safety of our Indian +Empire may some day depend. + +The skill brought to bear upon the manipulation of this Government +line from the Gulf, and throughout the whole system of which it is a +part, is wonderful. Messages from any part of the United Kingdom now +reach any part of India in less than an hour and a half, and in only +about one word in two hundred does even the most trifling mistake +occur in transmission, a result all the more surprising when it is +remembered that the telegrams are almost entirely either in code or +cypher, and that over 1000 are transmitted in the course of a day. + +Among these are the long despatches continually passing between the +Viceroy of India and the India Office on vitally important subjects, +and press telegrams of every noteworthy event. The "exhaustive +summary" of Indian news which appears weekly in the _Times_, +accompanied by a commentary on events, is an altogether un-padded +telegram, and is transmitted with punctuation complete, and even with +inverted commas for quotations.[31] + +The English staff, numbering from fifty to sixty men, is scattered +along a line of 1900 miles. Some of them are married, and most occupy +isolated positions, so far as other Europeans are concerned. It is the +universal testimony of Englishmen and Persians that the relations +between them have been for many years of the most friendly character, +full of good-will and mutual friendly offices, and that the continual +contact brought about by the nature of the duties of the electricians +has been productive not of aversion and distrust, but of cordial +appreciation on both sides. + + I. L. B. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[30] It is new to me, however, and may be new to a large proportion of +the "untravelled many" for whom I write. + +[31] Major-General Sir R. Murdoch Smith, K.C.M.G., late Director of +the Persian section of the Indo-European telegraph, read a very +interesting paper upon it before the Royal Scottish Geographical +Society on December 13, 1888,--a _Sketch of the History of Telegraphic +Communication between the United Kingdom and India_. + + + + +LETTER XI (_Continued_) + + +Kashan is one of the hottest places on the great Persian plateau, but +has the rare luxury of a good water supply brought from a reservoir +some distance off in the Kuhr[=u]d mountains. It has a much-diminished +population, said now to number 30,000 souls. Much of it is in ruins, +and much more is ruinous. It has a thriving colony of Jews. It is +noted for its silks and velvets; but the modern productions are +regarded by judges as degenerate. It is still famous for its work in +copper and for its great copper bazar. + +Silk produced at Resht is brought here to be spun and dyed. Then it is +sent to Sultanabad to be woven into carpets, and is brought back again +to have the pile cut by the sharp instruments used for cutting velvet +pile, and the finished carpets are sent to Tihran for sale. They are +only made in small sizes, and are more suitable for _portieres_ than +for laying on the floor. The colouring is exquisite, and the metallic +sheen and lustre are unique. Silk carpets are costly luxuries. The +price of even a fairly good one of very small size is L50, the silk +alone costing L20. + +Kashan is a great place for _curio_ buyers, who enlist the Jews in +their service. There are some valuable antiques in this +house--embroideries, carpet squares in silk, glass whose greenish +colour and grace of form remind me of Venetian glass, enamels on +porcelain, tiles, metal inlaying and damascening, pierced brasswork, +and many other articles of _vertu_, the art of making which is either +lost or has greatly degenerated. + +It is unaccountable, but it is certain that the secret of producing +the higher types of beauty in various arts, especially the Keramic, +died out more than one hundred and fifty years ago, and that there are +no circumstances of that date to account for its decease, except that +it is recorded that when the Afghan conqueror Mahmoud destroyed +Isfahan he massacred the designers of _reflet_ tiles and other Keramic +beauties, because they had created works which gave great umbrage to +the Sunni sect to which he belonged. + +These _reflets_, for which collectors give fabulous sums, are +intrinsically beautiful, both in the elegant conceptions of their +designs and the fantastic richness of their colouring. There are +designs in shades of brown on a lapis-lazuli ground, or in blue and +green on a purple or umber ground, some of them star-shaped, with a +pure white border composing the rest of the square, on which are +inscribed phrases from the Koran. Looked at from above or frontwise, +one exclaims, "What a beautiful tile!" but it is on turning it to the +light that one's stereotyped phrases of admiration are exchanged for +silence in presence of a singular iridescence which transfigures the +tile, making it seem to gleam from within with golden purples and rosy +gold. + +The mosaic tiles are also beautiful, especially where the mosaic is on +a lapis-lazuli or canary-yellow ground, neither of them reproducible +at this day; and this also refers to other shades of blue, and to +various reds and browns of exceeding richness, the art of making which +has been lost for a century. But enough of art! + +Possibly there may be a resurrection for Persian art; but in the +meantime aniline dyes, tawdry European importations, and Western +models without either grace or originality are doing their best to +deprave it here, as elsewhere. + +Roads from Tihran, Gulpaigan, Yezd, and Isfahan meet here, and it is +something of what the Americans call "a distributing point," but it is +a most uninviting place, in situation and general aspect, and its +unsightly mud ruins, as in other Persian cities, are eloquent of +nothing but paralysis and retrogression. + +_Murcheh Khurt, Palm Sunday, March 30._--Three very pleasant marches, +equal to seventy-six miles, have brought me here, and now Isfahan is +only two days off, and it will end my palmy days of Persian +travelling. + +The first day's march from Kashan was only seven _farsakhs_ (the +_parasang_ of Xenophon), twenty-eight miles, but it is equivalent to +thirty-five, owing to the roughness of the road and the long ascent. +There was scarcely any ground for galloping, the way was lost once, +and the march took over eight hours. + +The track, for only in places did it attain to the dignity of a +bridle-road, lay for hours over a stony desert, and then entered the +mountains, where I halted for an hour at the once magnificent +caravanserai of Gaberabad, in a romantic situation, but falling fast +into ruins, and deserted for no reason, so far as I could make out, +but that people used to be robbed and have their throats cut there. + +Beyond it the scenery became very wild, and the rocks and mountains +highly coloured and snow-patched, and after ascending along the side +of a stream and up a causewayed sort of stair past the reservoir which +supplies Kashan with water, we entered the rising valley of Kuhr[=u]d, +where the snow came nearly down to the road, and every slope was +terraced and every level cultivated, and young wheat was springing and +fruit orchards flourished, with green sward under the branches, and +great poplars in picturesque groups towered above the lower woods. + +We lost the way in the snow, and then took to the pebbly river as the +safest track, and had an hour of fumbling in water and snow under +apple and pear trees for the halting-place. The twilight of a frosty +evening was coming on when we reached the village of Kuhr[=u]d--500 +houses in terraces on a mountain side, and clustering round a fort on +a projecting spur. + +It is surrounded and interpenetrated by groves of walnut, apricot, +cherry, peach, plum, apple, pear, poplar, and vine, with roses +climbing over everything and planted in rows like vines, and through +it passes a fair, bright stream of living water, a stream "whose +waters fail not," turning the mountain valley into an oasis. But at +that altitude of something like 7000 feet, the buds are only just +swelling, and the crimson catkins of the hazels were the only reminder +of spring. It is the one place that I should care to revisit. + +The snow was piled in great heaps in the village and against the wall +of the very wretched, ruinous _chapar khana_ in which I sought rest +and shelter. Mahboud went up to the loft over the gateway, and came +down looking dejected, mustering English enough to say, "No, no, mem +Sahib!" I actually had to occupy one of the two gateway rooms, an +inferior stable, without the smallest window hole, and no door except +two unconnected boards with which one could cover a part of the +doorway. Even when these were not put up a candle was necessary. It +was freezing hard, but one could not have a fire because there was no +smoke-hole. The walls were slimily and inkily black from the smoke of +the fires of people who were less particular than I am. The dust and +rubbish of the floor were swept into one corner. If one wanted a +place to store boxes in, and looked into that room, one would exclaim +dubiously, "Well, it _might_ do for glass and china!" + +Mahboud put a rug on the floor and brought a bowl of delicious milk, +and with an inverted saddle for a pillow I rested quite comfortably, +being too tired to be impatient, till Mirza Yusuf arrived with my +luxuries, and the news that the caravan could not get in for another +hour, for that several of the mules had fallen and the loads were +slipping round constantly. Indeed it was ten before I had dinner. It +is very fortunate to have an attendant always cheerful, never fussy, +caring nothing for personal comfort, and always ready to interpret. + +The _ketchuda_ called with the usual proffer of service, "I am your +sacrifice," etc., and induced me to buy some of the specialties of +Kuhr[=u]d, rose-water in bottles without corks, and a paste made of +rose-water, pounded walnuts, and sugar. The rose-water is not very +clear, but it has much of the overpowering, lingering odour of attar +of roses. + +Kuhr[=u]d seems prosperous. Besides exporting large quantities of +rose-water and walnut paste formed into blocks and done up in white +skins, it sends wheat and fruit in abundance to Kashan. + +Freedom, good sleep, and satisfactory travelling make up for all +annoyances but vermin, and these are still hybernating. In that +precarious privacy I slept soundly, and got the caravan off at eight +the next morning--a glorious winter morning, the icy roads and the +snow-covered valley glittering with frost crystals. We lost the way +again among the pretty orchards, then got into a valley between high +mud mountains, whose shapelessness is now judiciously concealed by +snow from one to three feet deep, through which a track has been +broken a foot wide. It is six miles from Kuhr[=u]d to the summit of +the Kuhr[=u]d Pass, which is over 8000 feet, and it grew very cold +and gray, and ragged masses of cloud swept angrily round the +mountain-tops. + +On the steepest part of the ascent it was extremely slippery, and the +horses not being roughed slipped badly, and I was just fearing an +accident to my borrowed horse and planning some method of dismounting +when down he came on his nose and then on the side of his head, and +fell several times again in his struggles to get up, his feet slipping +from under him. When he did succeed in getting on his legs I was +convinced that he had cut his knees, and slipped off him somehow to +examine them; but my fears were groundless, and I had great difficulty +in getting out of the drift into which I had descended, which was +nearly up to my shoulders. His nose was bleeding a little, but that +was all. + +There was no way of remounting on a path a foot wide between walls of +snow, and besides I was afraid of another accident, so I slipped the +snaffle rein over his head and led him. It was horribly slippery, and +having nails in my boots I fell several times just under his feet, but +the sweet creature always stopped when I fell. + +From the top there was a truly fearful view of "blackness, darkness, +and tempest," inky mists, white mountain-tops showing momentarily +through them to be lost again, and great sheets of very deep snow. +Soon the gathering storm burst, a "blizzard" in which the snow was +quite blinding, snow drifting and hissing as it went by, the wind +tempestuous, mountains, valleys, path obliterated, even the soldier in +front of me constantly lost to sight. An hour of this and I could walk +no more, and somehow scrambled into the saddle. + +At the foot of the descent the sky cleared, the sun shone, and we +picked up the caravan, which had had rather a hard time. The +succeeding route was through an absolutely uninhabited and +uninhabitable country, clay and mud hills, purple, red, gray, pink, +brown, an utter desolation, till we came in sight of the good-sized +and at a distance imposing-looking village of Soh in a keen wind with +frequent snow showers. Soh is a telegraph testing station. + +The electrician was absent, but had kindly left directions that I was +to be received, and I found a most comfortable guest-room quite ready. +A little later an Englishman riding _chapar_ to Isfahan threw a packet +of English letters in at my door--a delightful surprise, which made +havoc of the rest of the evening. + +The desolation of this part of the route may be judged of from the +fact that except the village of Kuhr[=u]d there is not an inhabited +house for forty-six miles. The country traversed reminds me much of +the least interesting part of the route from Lesser Tibet into Kulu. + +Yesterday morning there was ice, and the roads were very slippery on +the gradual descent from the plain which opens out after passing +Bideshk, the _chapar_ station, an hour from Soh. The twenty-four +miles' ride over this gravelly waste, quite uninhabited, was very +pleasant, as it was possible to gallop much of the way, and besides +the beauty of the atmospheric colouring the mirage occurring in most +remarkable forms rendered monotony impossible. + +There were no caravans on the road, but I met several dervishes, and +there is one here to whom I have given what he demanded--a night's +lodging. He carries a large carved almsholder; and the panther skin on +his shoulders, the knotted club, and his lean, hungry, fanatical face +give him a dangerous look. All I have seen on this march have worn +long matted bushy hair, often covering their shoulders, an axe in the +girdle, and peculiar turbans decorated with phrases from the Koran. +They are the "mendicant friars" of Persia, and are under vows of +poverty. Some are said to be learned; but they object to discussing +religious matters with infidels, and almost nothing is known as to +their beliefs. They hold universally the sanctity of idleness, and the +duty of being supported by the community. The lower classes hold them +in reverence, and the upper, though they are apt to loathe them, treat +them with great respect, for fear of laying themselves open to the +charge of laxity in religious matters. + + [Illustration: A DERVISH.] + +Many of them deal in charms, and are consulted as astrologers. Some +are professed tellers of stories, to which I am told no European could +degrade himself by listening, but which are most palatable to a +village audience; and at this moment this unwelcome guest of mine has +a crowd listening to a narrative partly told and partly acted. + +They are credited with many vices, among the least of which are hazy +ideas as to mine and thine, opium and bhang smoking to excess, and +drunkenness. + +They have recognised heads or chiefs, to whom they show great +deference. One of their vows is that of obedience; and besides paying +to the chief a part of the alms they receive, he gives them orders as +to the houses they are to infest, and though the nuisance is not so +common as formerly, a dervish at the door is still a sign of being +great or rich, or both. Their cries, and their rude blasts on the +buffalo horn, which is a usual part of their equipment, are most +obnoxious. In the larger towns, such as Kum and Kirmanshah, there are +shops for the sale of their outfit--the tiger and panther skins, the +axes, the knotted clubs, the almsbowls, etc. + +Some are respectable, and enjoy much consideration, and I hope that +many even of those whom a careful writer has called "disgusting +vagabonds" are not humbugs; but the presumption is so much the other +way that I am always glad when the ground admits of galloping past +them, otherwise the dervish comes forward, with his knotted club much +_en evidence_, with many compliments and good wishes, or else silently +extends his almsholder, ejaculating _Huk_ ("my right"). I usually have +the means of appeasing, if not of satisfying him, but on the rare +occasions when I have had no money the yells and maledictions have +been awful. + +The light and profane use of the Divine name is universal. The +dervishes curse, but every one uses the name _Allah_ wherever they can +bring it in. The _Ya Allah_, as an expression of fatigue, or +discontent, or interest, or nothing, is heard all day, and the boy who +drives a cow, or a team, or a mule in a caravan, cries _Ya Allah_ +incessantly as an equivalent of "go along," and the gardener pushing +his spade into the ground, the chopper with every blow of the axe, the +labourer throwing up bricks, ejaculates the same. _Mashallah_, +_Inshallah_, interlard all conversation. When men are building, the +perpetual sing-song of phrases such as these is heard, "Brother, in +God's name toss me a brick," the other replying, "Brother, in God's +name here is a brick." + +The vocabulary of abuse is also very large, and often involves serious +reflections on the female relatives of the person abused. I hear such +harmless phrases as "son of a burnt father," "son of a dog," +"offspring of a pig," etc., on all occasions. + +Murcheh Khurt is a large village with a good deal of cultivation about +it, a mosque or more, a _hammam_, a _chapar khana_, and a +caravanserai. Here again I found that the smart foreign soldier +attracted all the notice, and that before the people ceased to wonder +at him I had passed them. The _chapar khana_ was full of men, so I +have had to sink to the level of a recessed den with a manger in front +in a ruinous caravanserai crowded with Persian travellers, muleteers, +mules, horses, and asses, and the courtyard half-choked with ruins. I +had not seen the inside of one of these dens before. Travellers have +exhausted the vocabulary of abuse upon them; possibly they deserve it +in the "vermin season"; but there is nothing worse than a square and +perfectly dark room, with unplastered walls blackened by the smoke and +cobwebs of ages, and a door which will not fasten. + +The air is cool and the sky blue, and sitting at the open door is very +pleasant. Mahboud and two of the servants caught cold at Kuhr[=u]d and +are ill, and my Arab has a chill too. He is a very stupid horse. His +gentle eyes never change their expression, and his small ears rarely +move. He has little sense or affection, but when he is patted his +proud neck takes on a loftier arch. Gentle as he is to people he is a +brute to other horses. He would like to fight every one of them, to +stand on his hind-legs and grapple them round the shoulders with his +fore-feet and bite their necks, roaring and squealing all the time. He +and Mahboud's horse are inveterate enemies, and one of the few +difficulties of the journey is the keeping them from a regular +stand-up fight. + +This village is an oasis in the desert. I have been through its gates, +barely wide enough to admit an ass loaded with brushwood, with the +_seraidar_ and Mirza, walked through its narrow alleys, and +inadvertently stumbled into a mosque where a great crowd of women were +listening to a story of one of the twelve Imams told by a _mollah_, +looked down upon it and over the adjacent country from a house roof, +visited several houses, in which some of the inmates were ill and +desired "Feringhi medicine," had a long conversation with the +_ketchuda_, who came to see me to ask for eye lotion, and with the +_seraidar_, and altogether have had quite a pleasant day. + +_Chapar Khana, Gez._--I am sitting in one of the three doorless +doorways of my loft, grieving that the journey is just over, and that +this is the last night of the exhilarating freedom of the desert. I +rode twenty-four miles before one o'clock to-day, over a level +uncultivated plain, bordered as usual by ranges of mountains. In fact, +while I write of levels and plains it must be understood that Persia +is chiefly a land of hills rising from a table-land from 3400 feet to +6000 feet in altitude, and that the traveller is rarely, if ever, more +than fourteen or fifteen miles from mountains from 2000 to 6000 feet +above the plain from which they rise, crowned by Demavend, whose +imposing summit is 18,600 feet above the sea. The hills beyond Isfahan +have assumed lofty proportions, and some of the snowy mountains of +Luristan are to be seen in the far distance. + +It is nearly an unmitigated waste between Murcheh Khurt and Gez, +destitute even of tufts of wormwood; but the latter part of the march +is through a stoneless alluvial desert of dry friable soil, soft +springy galloping ground which water would turn into a paradise of +fertility; and water there has once been, for not far from the road +are the remains of some _kanaats_. + +The questions naturally arise in a traveller's mind, first, what +becomes of the enormous amount of snow which falls on the mountains; +and next, how in a country so arid as the plateaus of Central Asia +water for irrigation, and for the basins and fountains which abound in +rich men's houses, is obtained. + +Wells, unless the artesian borings shortly to be begun in the Tihran +desert should be successful, are all but unknown, except for supplying +drinking water, and there are scarcely any reservoirs, but ingenuity +has devised a plan of subterranean water-channels, which besides their +other advantages prevent loss by evaporation. Tihran has thirty-five +of them, and the water which they distribute is naturally expensive, +as the cost of making them is great. + +It is on the slope of a hill that the spring is found which is the +original source of supply; this is tapped at some depth, and its +waters are led along a tunnel about four feet high by two feet wide +lined with baked pottery where the ground is soft, and having a slight +fall to the next spring or well, which may be from twenty-five to even +sixty yards off. + +As the labourers dig they draw up the earth and arrange it in a circle +round the shaft, and as they come to water they draw up the mud and +pour it on the top of the earth, where it dries and hardens, and +below, the water is conducted as a running underground stream across +great plains, its progress marked by mounds which have been compared +to ant-hills and craters, but to my thinking are more like the shafts +of disused mines. + +Hundreds of these _kanaats_ are seen, ruined and dry, and are the +resort of porcupines and jackals. To construct a _kanaat_ may call a +village or series of villages into being. The letting it fall to ruin +is one cause of deserted villages. Those which are not lined require +annual repairs, which are now going on, but frequently the complete +fall of the roof destroys the fall of the water, and the tunnel +becomes irreparable. + +The peasants are obliged to buy the water, for they cannot steal it, +and the making of a _kanaat_ is often a lucrative speculation. Pigeons +live in them, and many of them are full of fish, which foreigners +amuse themselves by poisoning by throwing a mixture of _cocculus +indicus_ with dough down the wells, when the poisoned but wholesome +fish rise to the surface. They usually recover when they are left in +the water. Dr. Wills describes them as having a muddy taste. The +_kanaats_ are a feature of Persia. + +Ever since leaving Kum all the dry and hard parts of the road have +been covered with the industrious "road beetle," which works, like the +ant, in concert, and carries on its activities at all seasons, +removing from the road to its nest all the excreta of animals, except +in regions where even animal fuel is so exceptionally scarce that boys +with asses and ponies follow caravans for the same purpose. These +beetles hover over the road on the wing, and on alighting proceed to +roll the ball towards the nest, four or five of them standing on their +hind-legs and working it forwards, or else rolling it with their heads +close to the ground. Their instinct is wonderful, and they attract the +attention of all travellers. They are about the size of a small +walnut. Otherwise there is little of animated life to be seen on this +route. + +No day has had fewer noticeable objects. Two or three _abambars_, +several caravanserais in absolute ruins, and a magnificent one in +partial ruins are its record. + +Gez consists of this post-house and a decaying caravanserai. From the +roof as I write I watch the grooming of a whole row of _chapar_ +horses. As each pad is removed there is a horrid revelation of wounds, +deep ulcers, sores often a foot long, and in some cases the white +vertebrae of the spine are exposed. These are the wretched animals +which often carry men from fourteen to seventeen stone who ride fifty +miles in a day. It is hard enough even with extreme carefulness to +keep the back of a horse all right on a continuous journey, but I +never before saw animals ridden in such a state. They wince pitifully +when their pads are put on again. + +The desert is all around, purpling in the sunset, sweeping up to low +broken ridges, and to some higher hills in the north-west covered with +new-fallen snow. That the waste only requires water to make it +prolific is apparent, for below these walls wheat is growing +luxuriantly in some deep pits, irrigated from a dirty ditch out of +which the drinking water comes. Nothing can be got, except by sending +to a village a mile away. + +Four of the men are ill, one with inflammation of the eyes, another +with an abscess, and a third, a very strong man, with something like +bilious fever, and a _charvadar_ with malarial fever. The strong man's +moans often become howls. He insists that he shall die to-night. These +two afternoons have been much taken up with making poultices and +medicines, and I shall be glad for the poor fellows to reach Isfahan +and the care of a competent doctor. + +_Julfa, April 2._--I daresay this journey seems longer to you than it +did to me. It was very pleasant, and its goal is pleasant, and a most +kind welcome and the refinement of cultured English people go far to +compensate for the loss of the desert freedom and the easy stride of +the Arab horse. + +I started the caravan at nine yesterday, with two men with bandaged +eyes, and other two hardly able to sit on their mules; Mahboud, who is +really more seriously ill than any of them, keeping up his pluck and +capableness to the last. The man who threatened to die at Gez was +very much better the next morning. + +Soon after leaving Gez the country changes its aspect, the road +becomes very bad, and passes through nine miles of rich +cultivation--wheat, barley, opium, and vegetables growing abundantly; +orchards are numerous, villages with trees and gardens succeed each +other rapidly, water abounds, and before the gate of Isfahan is +reached, domes and minarets rising among cypresses, planes, and +poplars indicate the remains of the former capital of Persia. + +Inside the shabby gateway the road to Julfa lies among rows of mean +mud houses, heaps of ruins, and shabby provision bazars; and that mile +or more of Isfahan was the one disagreeable part of the journey. + +It was about the last day of the holidays, and the bazars, alleys, and +open spaces were full of men in gay attire, and companies of shrouded +women were moving along the quieter roads. It was too warm for the +sheepskin coat which had served me so well at Kum, and I had dressed +with some regard to European sensibilities. The boys began to shout "A +Feringhi woman! a Nazarene woman!" and then to call bad names; then +men began to make up fiendish laughs,[32] and the howls and outcries +gathered strength as I went on at the inevitable foot's pace, spitting +being quite common, poor Mahboud constantly turning to me a perturbed +wretched face, full of annoyance at the insults of his co-religionists, +which it would have been dangerous to resent. It was a bad half-hour. + +Before passing the residence of the Amir-i-Panj (the commander of +5000) near the Julfa gate the uproar died away, and once through the +gate and in the _Chahar Bagh_ (four gardens) there was peace. A bad +road of cobble stones, with a double avenue of once magnificent +planes, some once ornamental tanks, very high walls, pierced by +storied gates, ornamented with wild designs on plaster in flaring +colours, above which a blue dome is a conspicuous object, leads to a +handsome bridge of thirty-three arches, with a broad level roadway, +and corridors for foot passengers on either side, over the Zainderud, +then came fields with springing wheat, a few houses, a narrow alley, +and two or three miles from Isfahan the gate of its Armenian suburb, +Julfa. + +At once on crossing the bridge there was a change. Ruddy, +cheery-looking unveiled women in red gowns, and pure white _chadars_ +completely enveloping their persons, moved freely about, and the men +wore neither the becoming turban nor the ominous scowl of Islam. In +the quaint narrow streets were churches with open vestibules, through +which pictures of the thorn-crowned Christ and of sweet-faced Madonnas +were visible; priests in black robes and women in white glided along +the narrow roads. There was the fresher, purer air of Christianity, +however debased and corrupted. In the low-browed churches divine +honours are paid to a crowned and risen Christ, and the white-robed +women have been baptized into His name. Never again will the Julfa +alleys be so peaceful and lovable as yesterday, when they offered a +haven from the howling bigots of Isfahan. + +Dr. Bruce has not returned from Baghdad, but Mrs. and Miss Bruce +welcomed me very kindly, and I am already forgetting my unpleasant +reception. I. L. B. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[32] I can imagine now what a hellish laugh that was with which "they +laughed Him to scorn." + +I was a month in Julfa, but never saw anything more of Isfahan, which +is such a fanatical city that I believe even so lately as last year +none of the ladies of the European community had visited it, except +one or two disguised as Persian women. + + + + +LETTER XII + + + JULFA, _April 17_. + +Mr. George Curzon wrote of Julfa: "The younger Julfa is a place wholly +destitute of superficial attractions, consisting as it does of a +labyrinth of narrow alleys closed by doors and plentifully perforated +with open sewers. Life there is 'cabined, cribbed, confined' to an +intolerable degree, and it is a relief to escape from its squalid +precincts." + +I dare not write thus if I would! It is now the early spring. The +"sewers" are clear rapid streams, margined by grass and dandelions, +and shaded by ash trees and pollard willows in their first flush of +green. The "narrow alleys" are scrupulously clean, and there is +neither mud nor dust. If I go up on the roof I see a cultivated oasis, +gardens prolonged indefinitely concealing the desert which lies +between them and the bold mountain ranges which surround this lofty +and breezy plain. Every breeze is laden with the delicious odour of +the bean blossom. A rapid river spanned by noble bridges hurries +through the oasis it has helped to create, and on its other side the +domes and minarets of Isfahan rise out of masses of fine trees, and +bridges and mosques, minarets and mountains, are all seen through a +most exquisite pink mist, for hundreds of standard peach trees are in +full bloom, and look where one may everything is _couleur de rose_. + +I quite admit that Julfa consists of a "labyrinth of alleys." I can +never find my way about it. One alley with its shady central stream +(or "sewer"), its roughly paved paths on either side, its mud walls +pierced by low doors, is very much like another, and however lucky one +may be in "happening on" the right road, it is always a weary time +before one escapes from between mud walls into the gardens and +wheatfields, to the blossoming beans, and the exquisite wild-flowers +among the wheat. + +As to the "cabined, cribbed, confined" life, I can give no testimony +from personal knowledge. All life in European settlements in the East +appears to me "cabined, cribbed, confined," and greatly devoid of +external interests. Perhaps Julfa is deficient in the latter in an +eminent degree, and in a very small foreign community people are +interested chiefly in each other's affairs, sayings, and doings. Lawn +tennis, picnics, and dinner parties are prevalent, the ordinary +etiquette of European society prevails, and in all cases of need the +residents are kind to each other both in life and death. + +The European society is divided into three circles--the missionaries, +the mercantile community, and the telegraph staff. The British agent, +Mr. Aganoor, is an Armenian.[33] No Christians, Armenian or European, +live in Isfahan, and it is practically _defendu_ to European women. +This transpontine restriction undoubtedly narrows the life and +interests of Julfa. It is aggravating and tantalising to be for ever +looking at a city of 60,000 or 70,000 people, the fallen capital of +the Sufari dynasty, and never be able to enter it. + +This Christian town of Julfa has a certain accessible historic +interest. Shah Abbas, justly surnamed the Great, conceived the +sagacious project of introducing among his Persian subjects at +Isfahan--then, in the latter part of the sixteenth century, a +magnificent capital--the Christian habits of trading, sagacity, and +thrift, for then as now the Armenians had commercial dealings with +China, India, and Europe, and had imported several arts into Persia. + +This project he carried out in truly despotic fashion by moving almost +the whole population of Julfa on the Araxes, on the modern +Russo-Persian frontier, to the banks of the Zainderud, making over to +it the best lands in the neighbourhood of Isfahan. Many years later +the new Julfa was a place with twenty-four churches, great prosperity, +and an estimated population of 40,000. Its agriculturists were +prosperous market-gardeners for the huge city of Isfahan, and it had +likewise a great trading community, and was renowned for the making of +jewellery and watches. + +It has now a dwindling population of about 3000, chiefly elderly men, +women, and girls, the young men, after receiving a good education in +the Church Mission and other schools, flying from its stagnation to +India, Java, and even Europe. The twenty-four churches are reduced to +twelve, and these with the vast cemetery in the desert at the base of +Kuh Sufi are its chief objects of interest, apart from those which are +human and living. + +_April 22._--The peach blossoms have long since fallen, but perhaps I +still see Julfa _couleur de rose_, even after three weeks, so very +great is the kindness under this roof, and so fully is my time +occupied with various interests, and the preparations for a difficult +journey. + +This, as you know, is the Church Mission House. Dr. Bruce has been +here for twenty years, and until lately, when the Archbishop of +Canterbury's mission to the Assyrian Christians began its work at +Urmi, near the Turkish frontier in the north-west, this was the only +English mission in the Empire. It was contemplated as a mission to the +Mohammedans, but in this respect has been an apparent failure. It is +true that much prejudice has been disarmed, and, as I have heard from +some leading Mohammedans, Dr. Bruce's zeal and good works have won +their respect. A large part of the Bible has been translated into +Persian and very widely circulated through the adjacent country by +means of colporteurs of the British and Foreign Bible Society. His +preaching of Christianity is listened to respectfully, and even with +interest, wherever he itinerates, and Moslems daily call on him, and +show much friendliness, but the results, as results are usually +estimated, are _nil_--that is, no Mohammedans openly profess +Christianity. + +There is actual though not legal toleration, but Moslem children may +not attend a mission school, and a Moslem who becomes a Christian +loses his means of living, and probably his life is sacrificed to +fanaticism. + +In consequence of these difficulties, and certain encouragements in +another direction, the _ostensible_ work of the mission is among +Armenians. Dr. Bruce has not been afraid of incurring the stigma of +being a proselytiser, and has a large congregation of Armenians +worshipping after the English form, ninety-four being communicants of +the Church of England. On Easter Eve there was an evening Communion, +and the great row of women kneeling at the rail in the pure white +robes which cover them from head to foot, and then moving back to +their places in the dim light, was very picturesque and beautiful. + +Good works have been added one after another, till the mission is now +a very large establishment. The C.M.S. has been liberal to this, its +only Persian agency, and Dr. Bruce, having private means, has +generously expended them largely on missionary work in Julfa. + +The chief features of the compounds are the church, which is both +simple and ecclesiastical in its exterior and interior, and the +library adjoining it, where Dr. Bruce works at the translation of the +Old Testament into Persian and the revision of the New, aided by a +_munshi_, and where through much of the day he is receiving Moslems, +some of whom come to inquire into Christianity, others for religious +disputations, and a third and numerous class out of mere friendliness. +The latter are generally invited into the Mission House, and are +regaled with coffee and _kalians_, in orthodox Persian fashion. Among +the latter visitors has been the Amir-i-Panj, who came to ask me to +call on his wife, accompanied by a general of cavalry, whose name I +cannot spell, and who speaks French remarkably well. + +Among the other buildings are those of the Medical Mission, which +include a roomy courtyard, where the animals which carry the patients +are tethered, rooms for the doctor, a well-arranged dispensary and +consulting-room, with waiting-rooms for both sexes, and rooms above in +which serious surgical cases are received for treatment, and where at +present there are eleven patients, although just now there is no +European doctor, and they are being treated by the native assistants, +most kindly helped by Dr. Scully of the telegraph staff. This hospital +and dispensary are largely taken advantage of by Moslems, who highly +appreciate this form of Christian benevolence. + +The boys' school, with 205 pupils, has been a great benefit to Julfa. +The head-master, Mr. Johannes, was educated in England and was +formerly a master of the Nassik School in India. This school provides +the education of one of our best middle-class schools, and the +teaching is thorough. _Smattering_ would be infinitely despised by +teachers and pupils. In this thorough fashion Latin, French, the first +four books of Euclid, and algebra are taught to the young men of the +upper form. The boys have a large playground, with a great tank for +bathing, and some of the equipments of a gymnasium, a vaulting pole, +parallel bars, etc. + +The girls' schools, containing 100 girls, have their own courtyard, +and they need enlarging, though the process has been more than once +repeated. Mrs. Aidin, an English teacher, is at their head, and +exercises that strong influence which love and firmness give. The +girls are a mass of red, a cool red, without yellow, and when they +disperse they enliven the Julfa alleys with their carnation dresses +and pure white _chadars_. The education is solid and suitable, and +special attention is given to needlework. + +Besides these there is an orphanage, begun for the benefit of those +whose parents died in the famine, in which are twenty boys. Outside +are many other works, a Bible House, from which colporteurs at +intervals proceed on journeys, a Young Men's Christian Association, or +something like it, etc. etc. + +Now as to the Mission House itself, which has to accommodate Dr., +Mrs., and Miss Bruce, Mr. Carless, a clerical missionary, and two +English lady missionaries. So much has been written lately about the +"style of living" of missionaries, their large houses, and somewhat +unnecessary comfort in general, that I am everywhere specially +interested in investigating the subject, having formed no definite +opinion on the question whether living as natives or living as +Europeans is the more likely mode of producing a salutary impression. + +The Mission House here is a native building, its walls and ceilings +simply decorated with pale brown arabesques on a white ground. There +are a bedroom and parlour, with an ante-room between giving access to +both from the courtyard, a storeroom, and a kitchen. Across the court +are servants' quarters and a guest-room for natives. Above these, +reached by an outside stair, are a good room, occupied by Mr. Carless +as study and bedroom, and one small guest-room. Another stair leads to +two rooms above some of the girls' school premises, having enclosed +alcoves used as sleeping and dressing rooms. These are occupied by two +ladies. One room serves as eating-room for the whole mission party, at +present six in number, and as drawing-room and workroom. Books, a +harmonium, Persian rugs on the floor, and just enough furniture for +use constitute its "luxury." + +There are two servants, both of course men, and all the ladies do some +housework. At present the only horse is the dispensary horse, a beast +of such rough and uneven paces that it is a penance to ride him. The +food is abundant, well cooked, and very simple. + +The life, all round, is a very busy one. Visitors are never refused at +any hour. The long flat mud roofs from which one can see the gardens +and the hills are used for exercise, otherwise some of the party would +never have anything better than mud walls for their horizon, and life +in courtyards is rather depressing for Europeans. I have told facts, +and make no comments, and it must be remembered that both Dr. Bruce +and Miss V----, a lady of rare devotion who has lately arrived,[34] are +to a certain extent "honorary" missionaries, and have the means, if +they had the desire, of surrounding themselves with comforts. + +This is about the twenty-third mission circle with which I have become +acquainted during the last eight months, and I see in nearly all the +same difficulties, many of them of a nature which we can hardly +realise at home. + +Women coming to the East as missionaries are by far the greatest +sufferers, especially if they are young, for Eastern custom, which in +their position cannot be defied with advantage, limits free action and +abridges all the comforts of independence. Thus a woman cannot take a +walk or a ride or go to a house without a trusty man-servant in +attendance on her, and this is often inconvenient, so she does not go +out at all, contenting herself with a walk on the roof or in the +courtyard. + +The wave of enthusiasm on which a lady leaves her own country soon +spends its force. The interest which has centred round her for weeks +or even months is left behind. The enthusiastic addresses and farewell +meetings, the journey "up the country" with its excitement and +novelties, and the cordial welcome from the mission circle to which +she is introduced, soon become things of the past. The circle, however +kind, has its own interests and work, and having provided her with a +_munshi_, necessarily goes on its own way more or less, and she is +left to face the fearful difficulties of languages with which ours has +no affinity, in a loneliness which is all the more severely felt +because she is usually, for a time at least, one nominally of a family +circle. + +Unless she is a doctor or nurse she can do nothing till she has +learned the language, and the difficulty of learning is increased by +the loss of the flexible mind and retentive memory which are the +heritage of extreme youth. The temptation is to "go at it" violently. +Then come the aching head, the loss of sleep, the general lassitude +and nervousness, and the self-questionings as to whether she was right +in leaving her fruitful work in England. + +Then, instead of realising the truth of the phrases used at +home--"multitudes flocking as the doves to their windows"--"fields +white unto the harvest," etc.--she finds that the work instead of +seeking her has to be made by her most laboriously, and oftentimes +the glowing hope of telling of the Redeemer's love and death to +throngs of eager and receptive listeners is fulfilled in the drudgery +of teaching sewing and the rudiments of English during the first year. + +It is just this first year under which many women succumb. Then how +many of the failings and weaknesses of the larger world must be +epitomised in a mission group exposed, as Mr. Heyde of Kyelang +feelingly said, "to the lowering influence of daily contact with a +courteous and non-repulsive Heathenism and Mohammedanism"! +Missionaries are not likely to possess, as they certainly are the last +to claim, superior sanctity, and the new-comer, dreaming of a circle +in all respects consecrated, finds herself among frictions, strong +differences as to methods of working, not always gently expressed, and +possible jealousies and criticisms, and an exaggeration of the +importance of trifles, natural where large events are rare. A +venerable American missionary in Turkey said, "Believe me, the +greatest trial of missionaries is missionaries." + +The small group is frequently destitute of social resources outside +itself, it is cut off from friendly visits, services, lectures, music, +new books, news, and the many recreative influences which all men +regard as innocent. The life-work seems at times thrown away, the +heat, the flies, and the mosquitos are depressing and exhausting, and +in the case of young women, especially till they can use the language +colloquially, there is little if any outside movement. Is it wonderful +that supposed slights, tiffs, criticisms which would be utterly +brushed away if a good walk in the open or a good gallop were +possible, should be brooded over till they attain a magnitude which +embitters and depresses life? + +A man constantly finds the first year or two very trying till he has +his tools--the language--at command, and even men at times rub each +other the wrong way, but a man can take a good walk or a solitary +gallop, or better still, a week of itinerating among the villages. +People speak of the dangers and privations of missionary life. I think +that these are singularly over-estimated. But the trials which I have +alluded to, and which, with the hot climates and insufficient +exercise, undermine the health of very many female missionaries, +cannot be exaggerated, and demand our deep sympathy. + +I do not think that the ordinary pious woman, the successful and +patient worker in district visiting, Bible classes, mothers' meetings, +etc., is necessarily suited to be a foreign missionary, but that a +heart which is a well-spring of human love, and a natural "enthusiasm +of humanity" are required, as well as love to the Master, the last +permeating and sanctifying the others, and giving them a perennial +freshness. Fancy G. G---- grumbling and discontented and magnifying +unpropitious trifles, when her heart goes out to every Chinawoman she +sees in a perfect passion of love![35] + +With the _medical_ missionary, whether man or woman, the case is +different. The work seeks the worker even before he is ready for it, +claims him, pursues him, absorbs him, and he is powerful to heal even +where he is impotent to convert. + +I have been to the hospital to see a woman from the Kuhr[=u]d +mountains, who was brought here to undergo an operation. She had spent +all her living on native physicians without result, and her husband +has actually sold his house to get money to give his wife a last +chance of recovery. Fifteen years ago this man nearly took Dr. Bruce's +life. Now, he says, "The fruits of Christianity are good." + +Daily the "labyrinth of alleys" becomes denser with leafage, and the +sun is hot enough to make the shade very pleasant, while occasional +showers keep the greenery fresh. Indeed it is warm enough in my room +to make the cool draught from the _b[=a]dg[=i]r_ very pleasant. These +wind-towers are a feature of all Persian cities, breaking the monotony +of the flat roofs. + +Letters can be sent once a week from Isfahan, and there is another +opportunity very safe and much taken advantage of, the "Telegraph +_chapar_," a British official messenger, who rides up and down between +Bushire and Tihran at stated intervals. The Persian post is a wretched +institution, partaking of the general corruption of Persian +officialism, and nowhere, unless _registered_, are letters less safe +than in Tihran.[36] I shall send this, scrappy as it is, as I may not +be here for another week's mail. + + I. L. B. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[33] Since my visit Mr. Preece, then, and for many previous years, the +superintending electrician of this section of the Indo-European +telegraph, has been appointed Consul, the increasing dimensions of +English interests and the increasing number of resident British +subjects rendering the creation of a Consulate at Isfahan a very +desirable step. + +[34] A few weeks later she died, her life sacrificed, I think, to +over-study of a difficult language, and the neglect of fresh air and +exercise. + +[35] These sentences were written nearly a year ago, but many +subsequent visits to missions have only confirmed my strong view of +the very trying nature of at least the early period of a lady +missionary's life in the East, and of the constant failure of health +which it produces; of the great necessity there is for mission boards +to lay down some general rules of hygiene, which shall include the +duty of riding on horseback, for more rigorous requirements of +vigorous _physique_ in those sent out, and above all, that the +_natural characteristics_ of those who are chosen to be "epistles of +Christ" in the East shall be such as will not only naturally and +specially commend the Gospel, but will stand the wear and strain of +difficult circumstances. + +[36] Nearly all my non-registered letters to England failed to reach +their destination. + + + + +LETTER XIII + + + JULFA, _April 29_. + +Each day has been completely filled up since I wrote, and this is +probably the last here. My dear old Cabul tent, a _shuldari_, also +Indian, and a servants' tent made here on a plan of my own, are +pitched in one of the compounds to exercise the servants in the art, +and it really looks like going after many delays. + +A few festivities have broken the pleasant monotony of life in this +kindly and hospitable house--dinner parties, European and Armenian; a +picnic on the Kuh Sufi, from which there is a very fine panoramic view +of the vast plain and its surrounding mountains, and of the immense +ruins of Isfahan and Julfa, with the shrunken remains of both; and a +"church picnic." + +From Kuh Sufi is seen how completely, and with a sharp line of +definition, the arid desert bounds the green oasis of cultivated and +irrigated gardens which surround the city, and which are famous for +the size and lusciousness of their fruit. From a confusion of ruinous +or ragged walls of mud, of ruined and modern houses standing +complacently among heaps of rubbish, and from amidst a greenery which +redeems the scene, the blue tiled dome of the Masjid-i-Shah, a few +minarets, and the great dome of the Medresseh, denuded of half its +tiles, rise conspicuously. Long lines of mud streets and +caravanserais, gaunt in their ruin, stretch into the desert, and the +city once boasting of 650,000 inhabitants and a splendid court +survives with a population of less than 80,000 at the highest +estimate. + +The "church picnic" was held in a scene of decay, but 260 people, with +all the women but three in red, enlivened it. It was in the grounds of +the old palace of Haft Dast, in which Fatteh Ali Shah died, close to +one of the three remarkable bridges of Isfahan, the Pul-i-Kaj[=u]. +These bridges are magnificent. Their construction is most peculiar, +and their roadways being flat they are almost unique in Persia. + +The Pul-i-Kaj[=u], though of brick, has stone piers of immense size, +which are arched over so as to form a level causeway. On this massive +structure the upper bridge is built, comprising a double series of +rooms at each pier with doorways overlooking the river, and there are +staircases and rooms also in the upper piers. + +The Chahar Bagh bridge is also quaint and magnificent, with its +thirty-three arches, some of them very large, its corridors for foot +passengers, and chambers above each pier, each chamber having three +openings to the river. These bridges have a many-storied look, from +their innumerable windows at irregular altitudes, and form a grand +approach to the city. + +As at first, so now at last the most impressive thing to me about the +Zainderud next to its bridges is the extent to which rinsing, one of +the processes of dyeing, is carried on upon its shingle flats. Isfahan +dyed fabrics are famous and beautiful, heavy cottons of village make +and unbleached cottons of Manchester make being brought here to be +dyed and printed. + +There is quite a population of dyers, and now that the river is fairly +low, many of them have camped for the season in little shelters of +brushwood erected on the gravel banks. For fully half-a-mile these +banks are covered with the rinsers of dyed and printed calicoes, and +with mighty heaps of their cottons. Hundreds of pieces after the +rinsing are laid closely together to dry, indigo and turquoise blue, +brown and purple madder, Turkey red and saffron predominating, a vile +aniline colour showing itself here and there. Some of the smaller +dyers have their colour vats by the river, but most of the cotton is +brought from Isfahan, ready dyed, on donkeys' backs, with the rinsers +in attendance. + +Along the channels among the shingle banks are rows of old millstones, +and during much of the day a rinser stands in front of each up to his +knees in water. His methods are rough, and the cotton must be good +which stands his treatment. Taking in his hands a piece of soaked +half-wrung cotton, from fifteen to twenty yards long, he folds it into +five feet and bangs it on the millstone with all his might, roaring a +tuneless song all the time, till he fails from fatigue. The noise is +tremendous, and there will be more yet, for the river is not nearly at +its lowest point. When the piece has had the water beaten out of it a +boy spreads it out on the gravel, and keeps it wet by dashing water +over it, and then the process of beating is repeated. The coloured +spray rising from each millstone in the bright sunshine is very +pretty. Each rinser has his watchdog to guard the cottons on the bank, +and between the banging, splashing, and singing, the barking of the +dogs and the shouts of the boys, it is a noisy and cheery scene. + +I have heard that certain unscrupulous English makers were in the +habit of sending "loaded" cottons here, but that the calico printers +have been a match for them, for the calico printer weighs his cloth +before he buys it, washes and dries it, and then weighs it again. A +man must "get up very early" if he means to cheat a Persian. + +The patterns and colours are beautiful. Quilts, "table-cloths" (for +use on the floor), and _chadars_ are often things of exquisite beauty. +Indeed I have yielded to temptation, and to gratify my own tastes have +bought some beautiful "table-cloths" for Bakhtiari women, printed +chiefly in indigo and brown madder on a white ground. + +The temptations are great. I really need many things both for my own +outfit and for presents to the Bakhtiaris, and pedlars come every day +and unpack their tempting bundles in the small verandah. No Europeans +and no women of the upper classes can enjoy the delights of shopping +in Persia, consequently the pedlar is a necessary institution. + +Here they are of the humbler sort. They have learned that it is +useless to display rich Turkestan and Feraghan carpets, gold and +silver jewellery, inlaid arms, stuffs worked with gold thread, or any +of the things which tempt the travelling Feringhi, so they bring all +sorts of common fabrics, printed cambrics, worthless woollen stuffs, +and the stout piece cottons and exquisitely-printed cotton squares of +Isfahan. + +At almost any hour of the day a salaaming creature squatting at the +door is seen, caressing a big bundle, which on seeing you he pats in a +deprecating manner, looks up appealingly, declares that he is your +"sacrifice," and that with great trouble and loss he has got just the +thing the _khanum_ wants. If you hesitate for one moment the bundle is +opened, and on his first visit he invariably shows flaring Manchester +cottons first; but if you look and profess disgust, he produces +cottons printed here, strokes them lovingly, and asks double their +value for them. You offer something about half. He recedes and you +advance till a compromise is arrived at representing the fair price. + +But occasionally, as about a table-cloth, if they see that you admire +it very much but will not give the price asked, they swear by Allah +that they will not abate a fraction, pack up their bundle, and move +off in well-simulated indignation, probably to return the next day to +offer the article on your own terms. Mrs. Bruce has done the +bargaining, and I have been only an amused looker-on. I should prefer +doing without things to the worry and tedium of the process of buying +them. + +The higher class of pedlars, such as those who visit the _andaruns_ of +the rich, go in couples, with a donkey or servant to carry their +bundles. + +I mentioned that the Amir-i-Panj had called and had asked me to visit +his wife. I sent a message to say that my entrance into Isfahan had +been so disagreeable that I should be afraid to pass through its gates +again, to which he replied that he would take care that I met with no +incivility. So an afternoon visit was arranged, and he sent a splendid +charger for me, one of the finest horses I have seen in Persia, a +horse for Mirza Yusuf, and an escort of six cavalry soldiers, which +was increased to twelve at the city gate. The horse I rode answered +the description--"a neck clothed with thunder,"--he was perfectly +gentle, but his gait was that of a creature too proud to touch the +earth. It was exhilarating to be upon such an animal. + +The cavalry men rode dashing animals, and wore white Astrakan high +caps, and the _cortege_ quite filled up the narrow alley where it +waited, and as it passed through the Chahar Bagh and the city gate, +with much prancing and clatter, no "tongue wagged" either of dervish +or urchin. + +At the entrance to the Amir's house I was received by an +_aide-de-camp_ and a number of soldier-servants, and was "conducted" +into a long room opening by many windows upon a beautiful garden full +of peach blossom, violets, and irises; the table was covered with +very pretty confectionery, including piles of _gaz_, a favourite +sweetmeat, made of manna which is chiefly collected within eighty +miles of Isfahan. Coffee was served in little cups in filigree gold +receptacles, and then the Amir-i-Panj appeared in a white uniform, +with a white lambskin cap, and asked "permission to have the honour of +accompanying me to the _andarun_." + +Persian politeness is great, and the Amir, though I think he is a Turk +and not a Persian, is not deficient in it. Such phrases as "My house +is purified by your presence, I live a thousand years in this visit," +etc., were freely used. + +This man, who receives from all a very high character, and whom +Moslems speak of as a "saint," is the most interesting Moslem I have +met. In one sense a thoroughly religious man, he practises all the +virtues which he knows, almsgiving to the extent of self-denial, +without distinction of creed, charity in word and deed, truth, purity, +and justice. + +I had been much prepossessed in his favour not only from Dr. Bruce's +high opinion of him but by the unbounded love and reverence which my +interpreter has for him. Mirza Yusuf marched on foot from Bushire to +Isfahan, without credentials, an alien, and penniless, and this good +man hearing of him took him into his house, and treated him as a +welcome guest till a friend of his, a Moslem, a general in the Persian +army, also good and generous, took him to Tihran, where he remained as +his guest for some months, and was introduced into the best Persian +society. From him I learned how beautiful and pure a life may be even +in a corrupt nation. When he bowed to kiss the Amir's hand, with +grateful affection in his face, his "benefactor," as he always calls +him, turned to me and said, "He is to me as a dear son, God will be +with him." + +The garden is well laid out, and will soon be full of flowers. The +Amir seemed to love them passionately. He said that they gave rest and +joy, and are "the fringes of the garment of God." He could not cut +them, he said, "Their beauty is in their completeness from root to +petals, and cutting destroys it." + +A curtained doorway in the high garden wall, where the curtains were +held aside by servants, leads into the court of the _andarun_, where +flowers again were in the ascendant, and vines concealed the walls. +The son, a small boy, met us and kissed my hand. Mirza had told me +that he had never passed through this wall, and had never seen the +ladies, but when I proposed to leave him outside, the Amir said he +would be welcome, that he wished for much conversation, and for his +wife to hear about the position and education of women in England. + +The beautiful reception-room looked something like home. The pure +white walls and honeycombed ceiling are touched and decorated with a +pale shade of blue, and the ground of the patterns of the rich carpets +on the floor is in the same delicate colour, which is repeated in the +brocaded stuffs with which the divans are covered. A half-length +portrait of the Amir in a sky-blue uniform, with his breast covered +with orders, harmonises with the general "scheme" of colour. The +_takchahs_ in the walls are utilised for vases and other objects in +alabaster, jade, and bronze. A tea-table covered with sweetmeats, a +tea equipage on the floor, and some chairs completed the furnishing. + +The Amir stood till his wife came in, and then asked permission to sit +down, placing Mirza, who discreetly lowered his eyes when the lady +entered, and never raised them again, on the floor. + +She is young, tall, and somewhat stout. She was much rouged, and her +eyes, to which the arts of the toilet could add no additional beauty, +were treated with _kohl_, and the eyebrows artificially extended. She +wore fine gray socks, white skin-fitting tights, a black satin skirt, +or rather flounce, embroidered in gold, so _bouffante_ with flounces +of starched crinoline under it that when she sat down it stood out +straight, not even touching the chair. A chemise of spangled gauze, +and a pale blue gold-embroidered zouave jacket completed a costume +which is dress, not clothing. The somewhat startling effect was toned +down by a beautiful Constantinople silk gauze veil, sprigged in pale +pink and gold, absolutely transparent, which draped her from head to +foot. + +I did not get away in less than two hours. The Amir and Mirza, used to +each other's modes of expression, found no difficulties, and Mirza +being a man of education as well as intelligence, thought was conveyed +as easily as fact. The lady kept her fine eyes lowered except when her +husband spoke to her. + +The chief topics were the education and position of women in England, +religion, politics, and the future of Persia, and on all the Amir +expressed himself with a breadth and boldness which were astonishing. +How far the Amir has gone in the knowledge of the Christian faith I +cannot say, nor do I feel at liberty to repeat his most interesting +thoughts. A Sunni, a liberal, desiring complete religious liberty, +absolutely tolerant to the _B[=a]bis_, grateful for the kindness shown +to some of them by the British Legation, and for the protection still +given to them at the C.M.S. house, admiring Dr. Bruce's persevering +work, and above all the Medical Mission, which he regards as "the +crown of beneficence" and "the true imitation of the life of the Great +Prophet, Jesus," all he said showed a strongly religious nature, and a +philosophical mind much given to religious thought. "All true +religions aim at one thing," he said, "to make the heart and life +pure." + +He asked a good deal about my travels, and special objects of interest +in travelling, and was surprised when I told him that I nearly always +travel alone; but after a moment's pause he said, "I do not understand +that you were for a moment alone, for you had everywhere the love, +companionship, and protection of God." + +He regards as the needs of Persia education, religious liberty (the +law which punishes a Moslem with death for embracing Christianity is +still on the statute-book), roads, and railroads, and asked me if I +had formed any opinion on the subject. I said that it appeared to me +that security for the earnings of labour, and equal laws for rich and +poor, administered by incorruptible judges, should accompany +education. I much fear that he thinks incorruptible judges a vision of +a dim future! + +The subject of the position of women in England and the height to +which female education is now carried interested him extremely. He +wished his wife to understand everything I told him. The success of +women in examinations in art, literature, music, and other things, and +the political wisdom and absolutely constitutional rule of Queen +Victoria, all interested him greatly. He asked if the women who took +these positions were equally good as wives and mothers? I could only +refer again to Queen Victoria. An Oriental cannot understand the +position of unmarried women with us, or dissociate it from religious +vows, and the Amir heard with surprise that a very large part of the +philanthropic work which is done in England is done by women who +either from accident or design have neither the happiness nor the +duties of married life. He hopes to see women in Persia educated and +emancipated from the trammels of certain customs, "but," he added, +"all reform in this direction must come slowly, and grow naturally out +of a wider education, if it is to be good and not hurtful." + +He asked me what I should like to see in Isfahan, but when I mentioned +the prison he said he should be ashamed to show it, and that except +for political offences imprisonment is not much resorted to, that +Persian justice is swift and severe--the bastinado, etc., not +incarceration. + +Afterwards I paid a similar visit to the house of Mirza Yusuf's other +"benefactor," also a good and charitable man, who, as he speaks French +well, acted as interpreter in the _andarun_. + +A few days later the Amir-i-Panj, accompanied by General Faisarallah +Khan, called on Dr. Bruce and on me, and showed how very agreeable a +morning visit might be made, and the following day the Amir sent the +same charger and escort for me, and meeting him and Dr. Bruce in the +Chahar Bagh, we visited the _Medresseh_, a combined mosque and +college, and the armoury, where we were joined by two generals and +were afterwards entertained at tea in the Standard Room, while a +military band played outside. The Amir had ordered some artificers +skilled in the brass-work for which Isfahan is famous to exhibit their +wares in one of the rooms at the armoury, and in every way tried to +make the visit more agreeable than an inspection of the jail! He +advises me not to wear a veil in the Bakhtiari country, and to be "as +European as possible." + +The armoury, of which he has had the organising, does not fall within +my province. There are many large rooms with all the appliances of war +in apparently perfect order for the equipment of 5000 men. + +With equal brevity I pass over the _Medresseh_, whose silver gates and +exquisite tiles have been constantly described. Decay will leave +little of this beautiful building in a few years. The tiles of the +dome, which can be seen for miles, are falling off, and even in the +halls of instruction and in the grand mosque under the dome, which are +completely lined and roofed by tiles, the making of some of which is a +lost art, one may augur the approach of ruin from the loss or breakage +here and there. In the rooms or cells occupied by the students, who +study either theology or law, there are some very fine windows +executed in the beautiful tracery common to Persia and Kashmir, but +the effect of beauty passing into preventible decay is very mournful. + +Isfahan too I barely notice, for the best of all reasons, that I have +not seen it! Though a fourth part of it is in ruins, and its +population is not an eighth of what it was in the days of Shah Abbas, +it is a fairly thriving commercial emporium with an increasing British +trade. Indeed here Russian commercial influence may be said to cease, +and that of England to become paramount. It is the paradise of +Manchester and Glasgow cottons: woollen goods come from Austria and +Germany, glass from Austria, crockery from England, candles and +kerosene represent Russia. Our commercial supremacy in Isfahan cannot +be disputed. I am almost tired of hearing of it. Opium, tobacco, +carpets from the different provinces, and cotton and rice for native +consumption, are the chief exports. Opium is increasingly grown round +the city, and up the course of the Zainderud. Of the 4500 cases +exported, worth L90 a case, three-fourths go to China. Its cultivation +is so profitable and has increased so rapidly to the neglect of food +crops that the Prince Governor has issued an order that one part of +cereals shall be sown for every four of the opium poppy. + +The cotton in the bazars, through which one can walk under cover for +between two and three miles, is of the best quality, owing to the +successful measures taken by the calico printers to defeat the roguery +of the cheating manufacturers. All the European necessaries and many +of the luxuries of life are obtainable, and the Isfahan bazars are the +busiest in Persia except those of Tabriz. + +It is only fair to this southern capital to say that if one can walk +over two miles under the roofs of its fine bazars, one can ride for +many miles among its ruins, which have desolation without stateliness, +and are chiefly known for the production of the excellent wild +asparagus which is used lavishly on European tables at this season. + +The "Persian Versailles," the Palace of Forty Pillars, each pillar +formed of shafts enriched with colour and intricate work, and resting +on a marble lion, the shaking Minarets, the Masjid-i-Shah with its +fine dome of peacock-blue tiles, all falling into premature decay, +remain to attest its former greatness; the other noble palaces, +mosques, caravanserais, and _Medressehs_ are ruinous, the superb +pleasure gardens are overgrown with weeds or are used for vetches and +barley, the tanks are foul or filled up, the splendid plane trees have +been cut down for fuel, or are dragging out a hollow existence--every +one, as elsewhere in Persia, destroys, no one restores. The armoury is +the one exception to the general law of decay. + +Yet Isfahan covered an area of twenty-four miles in circumference, and +with its population of 650,000 souls was until the seventeenth century +one of the most magnificent cities of the East. Its destruction last +century by an Afghan conqueror, who perpetrated a fifteen days' +massacre, and the removal of the court to Tihran, have reduced it to a +mere commercial centre, a "distributing point," and as such, its +remains may take a new lease of life. It has a newspaper called the +_Farhang_, which prints little bits of news, chiefly personal. Its +editor moves on European lines so far as to have "interviewed" me! + +There are manufactures in Isfahan other than the successful printing +and dyeing of cottons; viz., earthenware, china, brass-work, velvet, +satin, tents, coarse cottons, glass, swords, guns, pistols, jewellery, +writing paper and envelopes, silk brocades, satins, gunpowder, +bookbinding, gold thread, etc. + +The plateau on which Isfahan stands, about seventy miles from east to +west and twenty from north to south, and enclosed by high mountains +with a striking outline, lies 5400 feet above the sea. The city has a +most salubrious climate, and is free from great extremes both of heat +and cold. The Zainderud, on whose left bank it is situated, endows +much of the plain with fertility on its way to its undeserved doom in +a partially-explored swamp. + +This Christian town, called a suburb, though it is really two and a +half miles from Isfahan, is a well-built and well-peopled nucleus. It +is not mixed up with ruins as Isfahan is. They have a region to +themselves chiefly in the direction of the Kuh Sufi. My impression of +it after a month is that it is clean and comfortable-looking, Mr. +Curzon's is that it is "squalid." I prefer mine! + +It is a "city of waters." Streams taken from a higher level of the +Zainderud glide down nearly all its lanes, shaded by pollard +mulberries, ash, elm, and the "sparrow-tongue" willow, which makes the +best firewood, and being "planted by the rivers of water," grows so +fast that it bears lopping annually, and besides affording fuel +supplies the twigs which are used for roofing such rooms as are not +arched. + +The houses, some of which are more than three centuries old, are built +of mud bricks, the roofs are usually arched, and the walls are from +three to five feet thick. All possess planted courtyards and +vineyards, and gardens into which channels are led from the streams in +the streets. These streams serve other purposes: continually a group +of Armenian women may be seen washing their clothes in them, while +others are drinking or drawing water just below. The lanes are about +twenty feet wide and have narrow rough causeways on both sides of the +water-channel. It is difficult on horseback to pass a foot passenger +without touching him in some of them. + +Great picturesqueness is given to these leafy lanes by the companies +of Armenian women in bright red dresses and pure white robes, slowly +walking through them at all hours of daylight, visions of bright eyes +and rosy cheeks. I have never yet seen a soiled white robe! Long blank +mud walls, low gateways, an occasional row of mean shops, open porches +of churches, dim and cool, and an occasional European on foot or +horseback, and groups of male Armenians, whose dress so closely +approaches the European as to be without interest, and black-robed +priests gliding to the churches are all that is usually to be seen. It +sounds dull, perhaps. + +Many of the houses of the rich Armenians, some of which are now let to +Europeans, are extremely beautiful inside, and even those occupied by +the poorer classes, in which a single lofty room can be rented for +twopence a week, are very pretty and appropriate. But no evidence of +wealth is permitted to be seen from the outside. It is only a few +years since the Armenians were subject to many disabilities, and they +have even now need to walk warily lest they give offence. As, for +instance, an Armenian was compelled to ride an ass instead of a horse, +and when that restriction was relaxed, he had to show his inferiority +by dismounting from his horse before entering the gates of Isfahan. + +They were not allowed to have bells on their churches, (at Easter I +wished they had none still), but now the _Egglesiah Wang_ (the great +church) has a fine campanile over 100 feet high in its inner court. +The ancient mode of announcing the hours of worship is still +affectionately adhered to, however. It consists of drumming with a +mallet on a board hanging from two posts, and successfully breaks the +sleep of the neighbourhood for the daily service which begins before +daylight. + +The Armenians, like the rich Persians, prudently keep to the low +gateways, which, with the absence of windows and all exterior +ornament, give the lanes so mean an aspect, and tend to make one +regard the beauty and even magnificence within with considerable +surprise. + +In England a rich man, partly for his own delectation, and partly, if +he be "the architect of his own fortune," to impose his position +ocularly on his poorer neighbours, displays his wealth in all ways and +on most occasions. In Persia his chief pleasure must be to hoard it +and contemplate it, for any unusual display of it in equipages or +furnishings is certain to bring down upon him a "squeeze," at Tihran +in the shape of a visit from the Shah with its inevitable +consequences, and in the Provinces in that of a requisition from the +governor. + +For a man to "enlarge his gates" is to court destruction. Poor men +have low gates, which involve stooping, to prevent rich men's servants +from entering their houses on horseback on disagreeable errands. +Christian churches have remarkably low doors elsewhere than in Julfa, +to prevent the Moslems from stabling their cattle in them. Rich men +affect mean entrances in order not to excite the rapacity of +officialism, according to the ancient proverb, "He that exalteth his +gate seeketh destruction" (Proverbs xvii. 19). Only Royal gates and +the gates of officials who represent Royalty are high. + +The Armenian merchants have, like the Europeans, their offices in +Isfahan. The rest of the people get their living by the making and +selling of wine, keeping small shops, making watches and jewellery, +carpentering, in which they are very skilful, and market-gardening; +they are thrifty and industrious, and there is very little real +poverty. + +The selling of wine does not conduce to the peace of Julfa. A mixture +of sour wine and _arak_, a coarse spirit, is very intoxicating, and +Persians, when they do drink, drink till they are drunk, and the +abominable concealed traffic in liquor with the Moslems of the town is +apt to produce disgraceful brawls. + +Wine can be bought for fourpence a quart, but the upper classes make +their own, and it costs less than this. Wines are both red and white, +and one red wine is said to be like good Chianti. The Armenians tipple +and also get drunk, priests included. It is said that some of the jars +used in fermenting are between 200 and 300 years old. + +The excellent education given in the C.M.S. schools has had the effect +of stimulating the Armenian schools, and of producing among the young +men a large emigration to India, Batavia, Constantinople, and even +England. Only the dullards as a rule remain in Julfa. Some rise high +in Persian and even in Turkish employment. + +The Armenian women are capital housewives and very industrious. In +these warm evenings the poorer women sit outside their houses in +groups knitting. The knitting of socks is a great industry, and a +woman can earn 4s. a month by it, which is enough to live upon. + +In Julfa, and it may be partly owing to the presence of a European +community, the Christians have nothing to complain of, and, so far as +I can see, they are on terms of equality with the Persians. + +However, Isfahan is full of religious intolerance which can easily be +excited to frenzy, and the arrogance of the _mollahs_ has increased +since the fall from almost regal state of the Zil-i-Sultan, the Shah's +eldest son, into the position of a provincial governor, for he curbed +them somewhat, and now the restraint is removed. However, it is +against the Jews and the _B[=a]bis_, rather than the Christians, that +their hostility is directed. + +A few weeks ago some _B[=a]bis_ were peaceably returning to a +neighbouring village, when they were attacked, and seven of their +number were massacred under atrocious circumstances, the remainder +taking refuge for a time in the British Telegraph office. Several of +both sexes who escaped are in concealment here in a room in the +Hospital compound, one of them with a broken jaw. + +The hiding of these _B[=a]bis_ has given great umbrage to the bigots +of Isfahan, though the Amir-i-Panj justified it on all grounds, and +about the time I arrived it was said that a thousand city fanatics +purposed to attack the mission premises. But at one of the mosques +there is a _mollah_, who with Gamaliel-like wisdom urged upon them +"that if 300 Moslems were killed nothing would happen, but if a single +European were killed, what then?"[37] + +I cannot close this letter without a few words on the Armenian +churches, some of which I visited with Mr. and Dr. Aganoor, and others +with Dr. Bruce. The ceremony representing the washing of the +disciples' feet on the Armenian Holy Thursday was a most magnificent +one as regards the antique splendour and extreme beauty of the +vestments and jewels of the officiating bishop, but the feet, which +are washed in rose-water and anointed, are not, as in Rome, those of +beggars, but of neophytes costumed in pure white. Incense, +embroideries, crowds of white-robed women, and other accessories made +the function an imposing one. + +The Cathedral, a part of the Monastery, has a narrow winding approach +and a thick door, for ecclesiastics were not always as safe as they +are now. In the outer court is the campanile before mentioned. The +floor is paved with monumental slabs, and among the graves are those +of several Europeans. Piles of logs look as if the Julfa carpenters +seasoned their wood in this court! + +The church is divided by a rail into two compartments. The dome is +rich with beaten gold, and the dado is of very fine tiles, which +produce a striking effect. The embroideries and the carpets, some of +which are worth fabulous sums, are between two and three centuries +old. The vestments and ornaments of the priests are very fine, and +suggest the attire of the Aaronic priesthood. + +It is a striking building, and the amount of gold and colour, toned +into a certain harmony by time, produces a gorgeous effect. The outer +compartment has a singular interest, for 230 years ago its walls were +decorated with religious paintings, on a large scale, of events in +Bible history, from the creation downwards. Some are copies, others +original, and they are attributed to Italian artists. They are well +worth careful study as representing the conceptions which found favour +among the Armenian Christians of that day. They are terribly +realistic, but are certainly instructive, especially the illustrations +of the miracles and parables. + +In one of the latter a man with a huge beam sticking out of one eye is +represented as looking superciliously with the other at a man with an +insignificant spike projecting. The death of Dives is a horrible +representation. His soul, in the likeness of a very small nude +figure, is represented as escaping from the top of his head, and is +being escorted to the entrance of the lower regions by a flight of +small black devils. The idea of the soul emerging from the top of the +head is evidently borrowed from the Moslems. + +Our Lord is, I think, everywhere depicted as short, dark, and +dark-haired, with eyebrows much curved, and a very long upper lip, +without beauty or dignity, an ordinary Oriental workman. + +_The_ picture of the Cathedral is an enormous canvas, representing the +day when "before Him shall be gathered all nations." The three persons +of the Trinity are there, and saints and angels are portrayed as +worshipping, or as enjoying somewhat earthly but perfectly innocent +delights. + +In this the conception is analogous to those celebrated circular +pictures in which the Buddhistic future is unrolled, and which I last +saw in the monasteries of Lesser Tibet. The upper or heavenly part is +insignificant and very small, while the torments of the lost in the +lower part are on a very large scale, and both the devils and the nude +human sufferers in every phase of anguish have the appearance of life +size. The ingenuity of torment, however, is not nearly so great, nor +are the scenes so revolting as those which Oriental imagination has +depicted in the Buddhist hells. A huge mythical monster represents the +mouth of hell, and into his flaming and smoking jaws the impenitent +are falling. Does any modern Armenian believe that any of those whose +bones lie under the huge blocks of stone in the cemetery in the red +desert at the foot of Kuh Sufi have passed into "this place of +torment"? + +The other church which claims one's interest, though not used for +worship, is that of St. George, the hero of the fraudulent contract +in bacon, as well as of the dragon fight, to whom the Armenians as +well as ourselves render singular honour. + +This church is a great place for "miracles" of healing, and cells for +the sick who come from a distance are freely provided. In a covered +court are some large stones in a group, one of them evidently the +capital of a column. Two of them have cavities at the top, and the +sick kneel before them, and as the voluble women who were there told +us, "they first pray to God and then to the stones," and finally pour +water into these cavities and drink it. The cure is either +instantaneous or occurs at any time within fifteen days, and in every +case the patient hears the voice of St. George telling him to go home +when it is complete. + +These stones, according to the legend told by the women and popularly +believed by the uneducated, took it into their heads to come from +Etchmiadzin in Armenia, the residence of the _Catholicos_, in one +night, and deposited themselves where the church now stands. Seven +times they were taken into Faraidan, eighty miles from Julfa, and as +often returned, and their manifest predilection was at last rewarded +by a rest of centuries. There were a number of sick people waiting for +healing, for which of course fees are bestowed. + +The Armenians, especially the women, pay great attention to the +externals of their religion. Some of its claims are very severe, such +as the daily service before daylight, winter and summer, and the long +fasts, which they keep with surprising loyalty, _i.e._ among the poor +in towns and in the villages. For at least one-sixth of the year they +are debarred from the use of meat or even eggs, and are permitted only +vegetable oils, fruits, vegetables, and grain. Spirits and wine, +however, are not prohibited. + +I really believe that their passionate attachment to their venerable +church, the oldest of all national churches, is fostered by those +among them who have ceased to believe its doctrines, as a necessity of +national existence. I doubt very much whether the "Reformed" +congregations, which have been gathered out here and elsewhere, would +survive the withdrawal of foreign aid. Rather, I think, they would +revert to the original type. + +Superstitions without number are mixed up with their beliefs, and are +countenanced by the priests. The _meron_ or holy oil used in baptism +and for other purposes has the stamp of charlatanism upon it. It is +made in Etchmiadzin. + +Rose leaves are collected in an immense vat, which is filled with +water, and at a set time the monks and nuns form a circle round it, +and repeat prayers till "fermentation" begins. They claim that the +so-called fermentation is a miracle due to the prayers offered. Oil, +probably attar of roses, rises to the surface, and this precious +_meron_ is sent to the Armenian churches throughout the world about +once in four or five years. In Persia those who bear it are received +with an _istikbal_ or procession of welcome. + +It is used not only in baptism and other rites but at the annual +ceremony of washing the Cross at Christmas, when some of it is poured +into the water and is drunk by the worshippers. In the villages they +make a paste by mixing this water and oil with earth, which is made +into balls and kept in the houses for "luck." If a dog licks a bowl or +other vessel, and thus renders it unclean, rubbing it round with one +of these balls restores it to purity. + +At a village in Faraidan there is an ancient New Testament, reputed to +be of the sixth century. To this MS. people come on pilgrimage from +all quarters, even from Fars, Tihran, and Armenia, to be healed of +their diseases, and they make offerings to it, and practically render +it worship. + +To go and pray on a newly-made grave is a remedy for childlessness +much resorted to by childless wives. When two boys fight, and one of +them is hurt, or when any one is injured by a dog or by a tree +falling, they wash the damaged person in water, and then throw the +water over the boy, dog, or tree which has been the cause of the +injury, believing that in this way the mischief is transferred. + +When any one is ill of fright and the cause is not known, the nuns +come to the house, and pour wax into a basin of boiling water, noting +the form it takes, such as a snake, a dog, or a frog. In a case lately +they went out and killed a snake, for the thing whose form the wax +takes ought to be killed; but as this might often be difficult or +unsuitable, they compromise the matter by throwing the water (not +boiling, I hope) over the nearest dog or toad, or anything else which +is supposed to be the culprit. + +On the first Monday in Lent the women wash their knitting needles for +luck in a stream which runs through Julfa. The children educated in +the Mission schools laugh at these and many other superstitions. + +The dress of the Armenian women is very showy, but too much of a +_huddle_. Red is the dominant colour, a carnation red with white +patterns sprawling over it, They wear coloured trousers concealed by a +long skirt. The visible under-garment is a long, "shaped" dress of +Turkey red. Over this is worn a somewhat scanty gown of red and white +cotton, open in front, and very short-waisted, and over this a plain +red pelisse or outer garment, often quilted, open in front, gashed up +the sides, and falling below the knees. Of course this costume is +liable to many modifications in the way of material, and embroidered +jackets, heavily trimmed with jewellery and the like. As fashion is +unchanging the acquisition and hoarding of garments are carried to a +great extent. + +There are two marked features of Armenian dress, one, the massive +silver girdle made of heavy chased-silver links four inches long by +two deep, often antique and always of antique design, which falls much +below the waist in front, and is used to confine the ends of the white +sheet which envelops an Armenian woman out of doors, so that it may +hang evenly all round. The other is a skull-cap of embroidered silk or +cloth, placed well back on the head above the many hanging plaits in +which the hair is worn, with a black velvet coronet in front, from +which among the richer women rows of coins depend. This, which is very +becoming to the brilliant complexion and comely face below it, is in +its turn covered by a half handkerchief, and over this is gracefully +worn, when not gracelessly clutched, a _chadar_ or drapery of printed +cambric or muslin. A white band bound across the chin up to the lips +suggests a broken jaw, and the _tout ensemble_ of the various +wrappings of the head a perennial toothache. + + I. L. B. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[37] I have written nothing about this fast-increasing sect of the +_B[=a]bis_, partly because being a secret sect, I doubt whether the +doctrines which are suffered to leak out form really any part of its +esoteric teaching, and partly because those Europeans who have studied +the _B[=a]bis_ most candidly are diametrically opposed in their views +of their tenets and practice, some holding that their aspirations are +after a purer life, while others, and I think a majority, believe that +their teachings are subversive of morality and of the purity of +domestic life. + + + + +LETTER XIV + + + JULFA, _April 30_. + +You will be tired of Julfa though I am not. I fully expected to have +left it a fortnight ago, but unavoidable delays have occurred. My +caravan and servants started this morning, and I leave myself in a few +hours. + +Upon my horse I have bestowed the suggestive name of _Screw_. He is +fairly well-bred, big-headed, big-eared, small-bodied, bright bay, +fine-coated, slightly flat-footed, and with his fore hoofs split in +several places from the coronet nearly to the shoe. He is an undoubted +_yabu_, and has carried loads for many a day. He has a long stride, +shies badly, walks very fast, canters easily, and at present shows no +tendency to tumble down.[38] + +I have had pleasant rides alone, crossing the definite dividing line +between the desert and the oasis of cultivation and irrigation, +watching the daily development of the various crops and the brief life +of the wild flowers, creeping through the green fields on the narrow +margins of irrigating ditches, down to the Pul-i-Kaj[=u], and +returning to the green lanes of Julfa by the bright waters of the +Zainderud crimsoning in the setting sun. + +For in the late cool and breezy weather, not altogether free from +clouds and showers, there have been some gorgeous sunsets, and +magnificent colouring of the depth and richness which people call +tropical, has blazed extravagantly; and from the violet desert to the +indigo storm-clouds on the still snow-patched Kuhr[=u]d mountains, +from the vivid green of the oasis to the purple crags in dark relief +against a sky of flame, all things have been new. + +Two Sundays witnessed two incidents, one the baptism of a young Moslem +in a semi-private fashion, who shortly afterwards renounced +Christianity, and the other that of a respectable Mohammedan merchant +in Isfahan, who has long pleaded for baptism, presenting himself at +the altar rails at the Holy Communion, resolved that if he were not +permitted to confess Christ as Divine in one way he would in another. +He was passed over, to my great regret, if he be sincere, but I +suppose the Rubric leaves no choice.[39] + +I have written little about my prospective journey because there has +been a prolonged uncertainty about it, and even now I cannot give any +definite account of the project, except that the route lies through an +altogether mountainous region, in that part of the province of +Luristan known in Persia colloquially as the "Bakhtiari country," from +being inhabited by the Bakhtiari Lurs, chiefly nomads. The pros and +cons as to my going have been innumerable, and the two people in +Persia who know the earlier part of the route say that the character +of the people makes it impossible for a lady to travel among them. On +the other hand, I have the consent and help of the highest +authorities, Persian and English, and shall not go too far, but shall +return to Isfahan in case things should turn out as is feared. The +exploration of a previously unexplored region will be in itself +interesting, but whether there will be sufficient of the human +interests, which I chiefly care for, I doubt; in that case the journey +will be dull. + +At all events I shall probably have to return here in two months,[40] +but such a journey for myself and two servants in such a region +requires extensive preparations, and I have brought all my own +travelling "dodges" into requisition, with a selection of those of +other people. + +It is considered desirable to carry stores from Isfahan for forty +days, except flour and rice, which can be obtained a week's march from +here. At the British Legation I was kindly supplied with many tins of +preserved meat, and milk, and jam, and besides these I am only taking +a quantity of Edwards' Desiccated Soup, portable and excellent, twelve +pounds of tea, and ten pounds of candles. The great thing in planning +is to think of what one can do without. Two small bottles of saccharin +supply the place of forty pounds of sugar. + +Two _yekdans_ contain my stores, cooking and table utensils and +personal luggage, a waterproof bag my bedding, and a divided +packing-case, now empty, goes for the flour and rice. Everything in +the _yekdans_ is put up in bags made of the coarse cotton of the +country. The tents and tent-poles, which have been socketed for easier +transport on crooked mountain paths, and a camp-bed made from a +Kashmiri pattern in Tihran, are all packed in covers made from the +gunny bags in which sugar is imported, and so are double sets of +large and small iron tent-pegs. + +Presents for the "savages" are also essential, and I have succeeded in +getting 100 thimbles, many gross of small china buttons which, it is +said, they like to sew on children's caps, 1000 needles, a quantity of +Russian thread, a number of boxes with mirror tops, two dozen +double-bladed knives, and the same number of strong scissors, Kashmir +_kamarbands_, gay handkerchiefs for women's heads, Isfahan printed +"table-cloths," dozens of bead bracelets and necklaces, leather purses +and tobacco pouches, and many other things. + +I take three tents, including a _shuldari_, five feet square, and only +weighing ten pounds. My kit is reduced to very simple elements, a +kettle, two copper pots which fit into each other, a frying pan, +cooking knife and spoon, a tray instead of a table, a chair, two +plates, a teacup and saucer, a soup plate, mug, and teapot, all of +course in enamelled iron, a knife, fork, and two spoons. This is ample +for one person for any length of time in camp. + +For this amount of baggage and for the sacks of flour and rice, +weighing 160 lbs., which will hereafter be carried, I have four mules, +none heavily laden, and two with such light loads that they can be +ridden by my servants. These mules, two _charvadars_, and a horse are +engaged for the journey at two _krans_ (16d.) a day each, the owner +stipulating for a _bakhsheesh_ of fifty _krans_, if at the end I am +satisfied. This sum is to cover food and all risks. + +The animals are hired from a well-known _charvadar_, who has made a +large fortune and is regarded as very trustworthy; Dr. Bruce calls him +the "prince of _charvadars_." He and his son are going on the "trip." +He has a quiet, superior manner, and when he came to judge of the +weight of my loads, he said they were "very good--very right," a more +agreeable verdict than muleteers are wont to pass upon baggage.[41] + +The making of the contract with Hadji involved two important +processes, the writing of it by a scribe and the sealing of it. The +scribe is one of the most important persons in Persia. Every great man +has one or more, and every little man has occasion for a scribe's +services in the course of a year. He is the trusted depositary of an +infinity of secrets. He moves with dignity and deliberation, his +"writer's inkhorn" pendent from his girdle, and his physiognomy has +been trained to that reticent, semi-mysterious expression common to +successful solicitors in England. + +Writing is a fine art in Persia. The characters are in themselves +graceful, and lend themselves readily to decoration. The old +illuminated MSS. are things of beauty; even my contract is ornamental. +The scribe holds the paper in his left hand, and uses a reed pen with +the nib cut obliquely, writing from right to left. The ink is thick, +and is carried with the pens in a _papier-mache_ inkhorn. + +Hadji tells me with much pride that his son, Abbas Ali, can write "and +will be very useful." + +Sealing is instead of signing. As in Japan, every adult male has his +seal, of agate or cornelian among the rich, and of brass or silver +among the poor. The name is carefully engraved on the seal at a cost +of from a half-penny to 18s. a letter. Tihran is celebrated for its +seal-cutters. No document is authentic without a seal as its +signature. + +Hadji took the contract and applied it to his forehead in token of +respect, touched the paper with his tongue to make it moist and +receptive, waved it in the air to rid it of superfluous moisture, +wetted his fingers on a spongy ball of silk full of Indian ink in the +scribe's inkstand, rubbed the ink on the seal, breathed on it, and +pressed it firmly down on the paper, which he held over the forefinger +of his left hand. The smallest acts in Persia are regulated by rigid +custom. + +The remaining portion of my outfit, but not the least important, +consists of a beautiful medicine chest of the most compact and +portable make, most kindly given to me by Messrs. Burroughes and +Wellcome, containing fifty small bottles of their invaluable +"tabloids," a hypodermic syringe, and surgical instruments for simple +cases. To these I have added a quantity of quinine, and Dr. Odling at +Tihran gave me some valuable remedies. A quantity of bandages, lint, +absorbent cotton, etc., completes this essential equipment. Among the +many uncertainties of the future this appears certain, that the +Bakhtiaris will be clamorous for European medicine. + +I have written of my servants. Mirza Yusuf pleases me very much, +Hassan the cook seems quiet, but not active, and I picture to myself +the confusion of to-night in camp, with two men who know nothing about +camp life and its makeshifts! + +Whatever the summer brings, this is probably my last letter written +from under a roof till next winter. I am sorry to leave Julfa and +these kind friends, but the prospect of the unknown has its charms. + + I. L. B. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[38] _Screw_ never became a friend or companion, scarcely a comrade, +but showed plenty of pluck and endurance, climbed and descended +horrible rock ladders over which a horse with a rider had never passed +before, was steady in fords, and at the end of three and a half months +of severe travelling and occasional scarcity of food was in better +condition than when he left Julfa. + +[39] He has since been baptized, but for safety had to relinquish his +business and go to India, where he is supporting himself, and his +conduct is satisfactory. + +[40] I never returned, and only at the end of three and a half months +emerged from the "Bakhtiari country" at Burujird after a journey of +700 miles. + +[41] Hadji Hussein deserves a passing recommendation. I fear that he +is still increasing his fortune and has not retired. The journey was a +very severe one, full of peril to his mules from robbers and dangerous +roads, and not without risk to himself. With the exception of a few +Orientalisms, which are hardly worth recalling, he was faithful and +upright, made no attempt to overreach, kept to his bargain, was +punctual and careful, and at Burujird we parted good friends. He was +always most respectful to me, and I owe him gratitude for many +kindnesses which increased my comfort. It is right to acknowledge that +a part of the success of the journey was owing to the efficiency of +the transport. + + + + +NOTES ON THE "BAKHTIARI COUNTRY" OR LURI-BUZURG + + +In introducing the following journal of a summer spent in Luri-Buzurg +or Greater Luristan by a few explanatory notes, I desire to +acknowledge the labours of those travellers who have preceded me over +some of the earlier portions of the route, and my obligations to those +careful explorers of half a century ago, who turned the light of +modern research upon the antiquities of Lower Elam and the condition +of its modern inhabitants, and whose earnestness and accuracy the +traveller in Upper Elam and the Bakhtiari country may well desire to +emulate.[42] + +For the correction of those portions of my letters which attempt to +describe a part of mountainous Luristan previously unexplored, I am +deeply indebted to a recent unpublished Geographical Report, to which +any geographical interest which they may possess is altogether due. +For the customs and beliefs of the Bakhtiaris I have had to depend +entirely on my own investigations, made through an intelligent and +faithful interpreter, whose desire for accuracy was scarcely exceeded +by my own. + +The accompanying sketch map represents an area of 15,000 square miles, +lying, roughly speaking, between Lat. 31 deg. and 34 deg. N., and between +Long. 48 deg. and 51 deg. E., and covering a distance of 300 miles from the +Khana Mirza to Khuramabad. + +The itinerary covers a distance of about 700 miles, a journey of three +and a half months, chiefly in the region of the Upper Karun and its +affluents, among which must be included the head-waters of the +Ab-i-Diz. + +During this time the Karun was traced, wherever the nature of its bed +admitted of it, from the gorge of Dupulan, below which several +travellers have investigated and reported its extraordinary windings, +up to the Sar-Cheshmeh-i-Kurang, its reputed source, a vigorous +fountain spring with an altitude of 8000 feet in the steep limestone +face of the north-eastern side of the Zard Kuh range, and upwards to +its real source in the Kuh-i-Rang or "variegated mountain." + +The Ab-i-Diz was found to carry off the water of a larger area than +had been supposed; the north-west branches, the Ab-i-Burujird and the +Kamandab, which drain the well-watered plain of Silakhor, almost +yielding in importance to the Guwa and Gokun, which, uniting to form +what, for convenience' sake, was termed the Ab-i-Basnoi, receive the +drainage of the upper part of Faraidan, an important district of +Persia proper. + +A lake of marvellously coloured water, two and a half miles long by +one mile wide, very deep, and with a persistent level, was found to +occupy a hollow at the inner foot of the grand mountain Shuturun, and +this, having no native name, was marked on the map as Lake Irene. + +The Bakhtiari mountains are chains of precipitous parallel ranges, +generally running north-west and south-east, the valleys which divide +them and carry off their waters taking the same directions as far as +the Kuh-i-Rang, where a remarkable change takes place, noticed in +Letter XVII. This great mountain region, lying between the lofty +plateau of Central Persia and the plains of Khuzistan, has continuous +ranges of singular steepness, but rarely broken up into prominent +peaks, the Kuh-i-Rang, the Kuh-i-Shahan, the Shuturun Kuh, and Dalonak +being detached mountains. + +The great ranges of the Kuh-i-Sukhta, the Kuh-i-Gerra, the Sabz Kuh, +the Kala Kuh, and the Zard Kuh were crossed and recrossed by passes +from 8000 to 11,000 feet in altitude; many of the summits were +ascended, and the deep valleys between them, with their full-watered, +peacock-green streams, were followed up wherever it was possible to do +so. The magnificent mountain Kuh-i-Rang was ascertained to be not only +a notable water-parting, but to indicate in a very marked manner two +distinct mountain systems with remarkable peculiarities of drainage, +as well as to form a colossal barrier between two regions which, for +the sake of intelligible description, were called "Upper Elam" and +the "Bakhtiari country." + +The same authority, for the same purpose, designated the two main and +highest chains of mountains by the terms "Outer" and "Inner" ranges, +the former being the one nearest the great Persian plateau, the latter +the chain nearest to the Khuzistan plains. The conjectural altitudes +of the peaks in this hitherto unexplored region have been brought down +by some thousands of feet, and the "eternal snow" with which rumour +had crested them has turned out a myth, the altitude of the highest +summit being estimated at only a trifle over 13,000 feet. + +The nearly continuous ranges south-east of the Kuh-i-Rang are pierced +for the passage of water by a few remarkable rifts or _tangs_--the +Outer range by the Tang-i-Ghezi, the outlet of the Zainderud towards +Isfahan, and the Tang-i-Darkash Warkash, by which the drainage of the +important districts of the Chahar Mahals passes to the Karun, the +Inner range being pierced at the Tang-i-Dupulan by the Karun itself. +North-west of the Kuh-i-Rang the rivers which carry the drainage of +certain districts of south-west Persia to the sea pierce the main +mountain ranges at right angles, passing through magnificent gorges +and chasms from 3000 to 5000 feet in depth. + +Among the mountains, but especially in the formation south-east of the +Kuh-i-Rang, there are many alpine valleys at altitudes of from 7000 to +8500 feet, rich summer pastures, such as Gurab, Chigakhor, Shorab, and +Cheshmeh Zarin. + +Some of the valleys are of considerable width, many only afford room +for narrow tracks above the streams by which they are usually watered, +while others are mere rifts for torrents and are inaccessible. Among +the limestone ranges fountain springs are of frequent occurrence, +gushing out of the mountain sides with great volume and +impetuosity--the perennial sources of perennial streams. + +Much of the country is absolutely without wood, producing nothing fit +even for fuel but the _Astragalus verus_ and the _Astragalus +tragacantha_. This is especially the case on the outer slopes of the +Outer range, which are formed of rocky ribs with a covering of gravel, +and are "barren, treeless, waterless, and grassless." From the same +crest to the outer slopes of the Inner range, which descend on +Khuzistan, there are splendid pasturage, abundant water, and extensive +forests in the deep valleys and on the hill slopes.[43] + +The trees, however, can rarely be defined as "forest trees." They are +small in girth and are usually stunted and wizened in aspect, as if +the conditions of their existence were not kindly. + +Flowers are innumerable in the months of May and June, beginning with +the tulip, the iris, the narcissus, and a small purple gladiolus, and +a little later many of the hillsides above an altitude of 7000 feet +are aflame with a crimson and terra-cotta _Fritillaria imperialis_, +and a carnation-red anemone, while the margins of the snow-fields are +gay with pink patches of an exquisite alpine primula. Chicory, the +dark blue centaurea, a large orange and yellow snapdragon, and the +scarlet poppy attend upon grain crops there as elsewhere, and the +slopes above the upper Karun are brilliant with pink, mauve, and +white hollyhocks. But it must be admitted that the chief interest of +many of the flowers is botanical only. They are leathery, woolly, +thorny, and sticky, adapted rather for arid circumstances than to +rejoice the eye. + +Among the economic plants observed were the _Centaurea alata_, which +grows in singular abundance at a height of from 5500 to 7000 feet, and +is cut and stacked for fodder; a species of celery of very strong +flavour, which is an important article of food for man and beast, and +the flower-stalks of which, six feet high, are woven into booths by +some of the tribes; the blue linum, red madder, the _Eryngium +caeruleum_, which is cut and stacked for fodder; a purple garlic, the +bulbs of which are eaten; liquorice, and the _Ferula asafetida_ in +small quantities. + +It is a surprise to the traveller to find that a large area is under +cultivation, and that the crops of wheat and barley are clean, and up +to the Persian average, and that the removal of stones and a laborious +irrigation system are the work of nomads who only occupy their +_yailaks_ for five months of the year. It may be said that nearly +every valley and hill-slope where water is procurable is turned to +account for grain crops. + +No part of the world in this latitude is fuller of streams and +torrents, but three only attain to any geographical dignity--the +Zainderud, or river of Isfahan, which after a course full of promise +loses itself ignominiously in a partially-explored swamp; the Karun, +with its Bakhtiari tributaries of the Ab-i-Bazuft, the Darkash +Warkash, the Ab-i-Sabzu, and the Dinarud; and the Ab-i-Diz, which has +an important course of its own before its junction with the Karun at +Bandakir. None of these rivers are navigable during their course +through the Bakhtiari mountains. They are occasionally spanned by +bridges of stone or wickerwork, or of yet simpler construction. + +With the exception of the small area of the Outer range, which +contains the head-waters of the Zainderud, the Bakhtiari country +proper consists of the valleys of the upper Karun and its tributaries. + +The tracks naturally follow the valleys, and are fairly easy in their +gradients to the south-east of the Kuh-i-Rang. To the north-west, +however, being compelled to cross rivers which pierce the ranges at +right angles to their directions, ascents and descents of several +thousand feet are involved at short intervals, formed of rock ladders, +which may be regarded as "impassable for laden animals." + +The so-called roads are nothing better than tracks worn in the course +of centuries by the annual passage of the nomads and their flocks to +and from their summer pastures. In addition to the tracks which follow +the lie of the valleys, footpaths cross the main ranges where foothold +can be obtained. + +There are but two bridle tracks which deserve mention as being +possible for caravan traffic between Isfahan and Shuster, one crossing +the God-i-Murda at a height of 7050 feet and the Karun at Dupulan, the +other, which considerably diminishes the distance between the two +commercial points, crossing the Zard Kuh by the Cherri Pass at an +altitude of 9550 feet and dropping down a steep descent of over 4000 +feet to the Bazuft river. These, the Gurab, and the Gil-i-Shah, and +Pambakal Passes, which cross the Zard Kuh range at elevations of over +11,000 feet, are reported as closed by snow for several months in +winter. In view of the cart-road from Ahwaz to Tihran, which will pass +through the gap of Khuramabad, the possible importance of any one of +these routes fades completely away. + +The climate, though one of extremes, is healthy. Maladies of locality +are unknown, the water is usually pure, and malarious swamps do not +exist. Salt springs produce a sufficiency of salt for wholesome use, +and medicinal plants abound. The heat begins in early June and is +steady till the end of August, the mercury rising to 102 deg. in the shade +at altitudes of 7000 feet, but it is rarely oppressive; the nights are +cool, and greenery and abounding waters are a delightful contrast to +the arid hills and burning plains of Persia. The rainfall is scarcely +measurable, the snowfall is reported as heavy, and the winter +temperatures are presumably low. + +There are few traces of a past history, and the legends connected with +the few are too hazy to be of any value, but there are remains of +bridges of dressed stone, and of at least one ancient road, which must +have been trodden by the soldiers of Alexander the Great and Valerian, +and it is not impossible that the rude forts here and there which the +tribesmen attribute to mythical heroes of their own race may have been +built to guard Greek or Roman communications. + +The geology, entomology, and zoology of the Bakhtiari country have yet +to be investigated. In a journey of three months and a half the only +animals seen were a bear and cubs, a boar, some small ibex, a blue +hare, and some jackals. Francolin are common, and storks were seen, +but scarcely any other birds, and bees and butterflies are rare. It is +the noxious forms of animated life which are abundant. There are +snakes, some of them venomous, a venomous spider, and a stinging +beetle, and legions of black flies, mosquitos, and sand-flies infest +many localities. + +This area of lofty ranges, valleys, gorges, and alpine pasturages is +inhabited by the Bakhtiari Lurs, classed with the savage or +semi-savage races, who, though they descend to the warmer plains in +the winter, invariably speak of these mountains as "their country." On +this journey nearly all the tribes were visited in their own +encampments, and their arrangements, modes of living, customs, and +beliefs were subjects of daily investigation, the results of which are +given in the letters which follow. + +Their own very hazy traditions, which are swift to lose themselves in +the fabulous, represent that they came from Syria, under one chief, +and took possession of the country which they now inhabit. A later +tradition states that a descendant of this chief had two wives equally +beloved, one of whom had four sons, and the other seven; and that +after their father's death the young men quarrelled, separated, and +bequeathed their quarrel to posterity, the seven brothers forming the +Haft Lang division of the Bakhtiaris, and the four the Chahar +Lang.[44] + +The Haft Lang, though originally far superior in numbers, weakened +their power by their unending internal conflicts, and in 1840, when +Sir A. H. Layard visited a part of Luristan not embraced in this +route, and sojourned at Kala-i-Tul, the power and headship of Mehemet +Taki Khan, the great chief of their rivals the Chahar Lang, were +recognised throughout the region. + +The misfortunes which came upon him overthrew the supremacy of his +clan, and now (as for some years past) the Haft Lang supply the ruling +dynasty, the Chahar Lang being, however, still strong enough to decide +any battles for the chieftainship which may be fought among their +rivals. Time, and a stronger assertion of the sovereignty of Persia, +have toned the feud down into a general enmity and aversion, but the +tribes of the two septs rarely intermarry, and seldom encamp near each +other without bloodshed. + +The great divisions of the Bakhtiaris, the Haft Lang, the Chahar Lang, +and the Dinarunis, with the dependencies of the Janiki Garmsir, the +Janiki Sardsir, and the Afshar tribe of Gunduzlu, remain as they were +half a century ago, when they were the subject of careful +investigation by Sir A. H. Layard and Sir H. Rawlinson. + +The tribes (as enumerated by several of the Khans without any +divergence in their statements) number 29,100 families, an increase in +the last half-century. Taking eight to a household, which I believe to +be a fair estimate, a population of 232,800 would be the result.[45] + +A few small villages of mud hovels at low altitudes are tenanted by a +part of their inhabitants throughout the winter, the other part +migrating with the bulk of the flocks; and 3000 families of the two +great Janiki divisions are _deh-nishins_ or "dwellers in cities," +_i.e._ they do not migrate at all; but the rest are nomads, that is, +they have winter camping-grounds in the warm plains of Khuzistan and +elsewhere, and summer pastures in the region of the Upper Karun and +its affluents, making two annual migrations between their _garmsirs_ +and _sardsirs_ (hot and cold quarters). + +Though a pastoral people, they have (as has been referred to +previously) of late years irrigated, stoned, and cultivated a number +of their valleys, sowing in the early autumn, leaving the crops for +the winter and early spring, and on their return weeding them very +carefully till harvest-time in July. + +They live on the produce of their flocks and herds, on leavened cakes +made of wheat and barley flour, and on a paste made of acorn flour. + +In religion they are fanatical Moslems of the Shiah sect, but combine +relics of nature worship with the tenets of Islam. + +The tribes, which were to a great extent united under the judicious +and ambitious policy of Mehemet Taki Khan and Hussein Kuli Khan, +nominally acknowledge one feudal head, the Ilkhani, who is associated +in power with another chief called the Ilbegi. The Ilkhani, who is +appointed by the Shah for a given period, capable of indefinite +extension, is responsible for the tribute, which amounts to about two +_tumans_ a household, and for the good order of Luri-Buzurg. + +The Bakhtiaris are good horsemen and marksmen. Possibly in +inter-tribal war from 10,000 to 12,000 men might take the field, but +it is doubtful whether more than from 6000 to 8000 could be relied on +in an external quarrel. + +The Khan of each tribe is practically its despotic ruler, and every +tribesman is bound to hold himself at his disposal. + +As concerns tribute, they are under the government of Isfahan, with +the exception of three tribes and a half, which are under the +government of Burujird. + +They are a warlike people, and though more peaceable than formerly, +they cherish blood-feuds and are always fighting among themselves. +Their habits are predatory by inclination and tradition, but they have +certain notions of honour and of regard to pledges when voluntarily +given.[46] + +They deny Persian origin, but speak a dialect of Persian. Conquered +by Nadir Shah, who took many of them into his service, they became +independent after his death, until the reign of Mohammed Shah. Though +tributary, they still possess a sort of _quasi_ independence, though +Persia of late years has tightened her grip upon them, and the Shah +keeps many of their influential families in Tihran and its +neighbourhood as hostages for the good behaviour of their clans. + +Of the Feili Lurs, the nomads of Luri-Kushak or the Lesser Luristan, +the region lying between the Ab-i-Diz and the Assyrian plains, with +the province of Kirmanshah to the north and Susiana to the south, +little was seen. These tribes are numerically superior to the +Bakhtiaris. Fifty years ago, according to Sir H. Rawlinson, they +numbered 56,000 families. + +They have no single feudal chieftain like their neighbours, nor are +their subdivisions ruled, as among them, by powerful Khans. They are +governed by _Tushmals_ (lit. "master of a house") and four or five of +these are associated in the rule of every tribal subdivision. On such +occasions as involve tribal well-being or the reverse, these +_Tushmals_ consult as equals. + +Sir H. Rawlinson considered that the Feili Lur form of government is +very rare among the clan nations of Asia, and that it approaches +tolerably near to the spirit of a confederated republic. Their +language, according to the same authority, differs little from that of +the Kurds of Kirmanshah. + +Unlike the Bakhtiaris, they neglect agriculture, but they breed and +export mules, and trade in carpets, charcoal, horse-furniture, and +sheep. + +In faith they are Ali Ilahis, but are grossly ignorant and religiously +indifferent; they show scarcely any respect to Mohammed and the Koran, +and combine a number of ancient superstitions and curious sacrificial +rites with a deep reverence for Sultan Ibrahim, who under the name of +_B[=a]b[=a] Buzurg_ (the great father) is worshipped throughout +Luri-Kushak. + +For the tribute payable to Persia no single individual is responsible. +The sum to be levied is distributed among the tribes by a general +council, after which each subdivision apportions the amount to be paid +by the different camps, and the _Rish-Sefid_ (lit. gray-beard) or head +of each encampment collects from the different families according to +their means. + +The task of the Persian tax-collector is a difficult one, for the +tribes are in a state of chronic turbulence, and fail even in +obedience to their own general council, and the collection frequently +ends in an incursion of Persian soldiers and a Government raid on the +flocks and herds. Many of these people are miserably poor, and they +are annually growing poorer under Persian maladministration. + +The Feili Lurs are important to England commercially, because the +cart-road from Ahwaz to Tihran, to be completed within two years, +passes partly through their country,[47] and its success as the future +trade route from the Gulf depends upon their good-will, or rather +upon their successful coercion by the Persian Government. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[42] The writers who have dealt with some of the earlier portions of +my route are as follows: Henry Blosse Lynch, Esq., _Across Luristan to +Ispahan--Proceedings of the R.G.S._, September 1890. Colonel M. S. +Bell, V.C., _A Visit to the Karun River and Kum--Blackwood's +Magazine_, April 1889. Colonel J. A. Bateman Champain, R.E., _On the +Various Means of Communication between Central Persia and the +Sea--Proceedings of the R.G.S._, March 1883. Colonel H. L. Wells, +R.E., _Surveying Tours in South-Western Persia--Proceedings of +R.G.S._, March 1883. Mr. Stack, _Six Months in Persia_, London, 1884. +Mr. Mackenzie, _Speech--Proceedings of R.G.S._, March 1883. The +following among other writers have dealt with the condition of the +Bakhtiari and Feili Lurs, and with the geography of the region to the +west and south-west of the continuation of the great Zagros chain, +termed in these notes the "Outer" and "Inner" ranges of the Bakhtiari +mountains, their routes touching those of the present writer at +Khuramabad: Sir H. Rawlinson, _Notes of a March from Zohab to +Khuzistan in 1836--Journal of the R.G.S._, vol. ix., 1839. Sir A. H. +Layard, _Early Adventures in Persia, Susiana, and Babylonia, including +a residence among the Bakhtiari and other wild tribes_, 2 vols., +London, 1887. Baron C. A. de Bode, _Travels in Luristan and +Arabistan_, 2 vols., London, 1845. W. F. Ainsworth (Surgeon and +Geologist to the Euphrates Expedition), _The River Karun_, London, +1890. General Schindler travelled over and described the Isfahan and +Shuster route, and published a map of the country in 1884. + +[43] Among the trees and shrubs to be met with are an oak (_Quercus +ballota_), which supplies the people with acorn flour, the _Platanus_ +and _Tamariscus orientalis_, the jujube tree, two species of elm, a +dwarf tamarisk, poplar, four species of willow, the apple, pear, +cherry, plum, walnut, gooseberry, almond, dogwood, hawthorn, ash, +lilac, alder, _Paliurus aculeatus_, rose, bramble, honeysuckle, hop +vine, grape vine, _Clematis orientalis_, _Juniperus excelsa_, and +hornbeam. + +[44] In Persian _haft_ is seven, and _chakar_ four. + +[45] This computation is subject to correction. Various considerations +dispose the Ilkhani and the other Khans to minimise or magnify the +population. It has been stated at from 107,000 to 275,000 souls, and +by a "high authority" to different persons as 107,000 and 211,000 +souls! + +[46] Sir. H. Rawlinson sums up Bakhtiari character in these very +severe words: "I believe them to be individually brave, but of a cruel +and savage character; they pursue their blood-feuds with the most +inveterate and exterminating spirit, and they consider no oath or +obligation in any way binding when it interferes with their thirst for +revenge; indeed, the dreadful stories of domestic tragedy that are +related, in which whole families have fallen by each other's hands (a +son, for instance, having slain his father to obtain the +chiefship--another brother having avenged the murder, and so on, till +only one individual was left), are enough to freeze the blood with +horror. + +"It is proverbial in Persia that the Bakhtiaris have been obliged to +forego altogether the reading of the _F[=a]htihah_ or prayer for the +dead, for otherwise they would have no other occupation. They are also +most dexterous and notorious thieves. Altogether they may be +considered the most wild and barbarous of all the inhabitants of +Persia."--"Notes on a March from Zohab to Khuzistan," _Journal of the +R.G.S._, vol. ix. Probably there is an improvement since this verdict +was pronounced. At all events I am inclined to take a much more +favourable view of the Bakhtiaris than has been given in the very +interesting paper from which this quotation is made. + +[47] A report to the Foreign Office (No. 207) made by an officer who +travelled from Khuramabad to Dizful in December 1890, contains the +following remarks on this route. + +"As to the danger to caravans in passing through these hills, I am +inclined to believe that the Lurs are now content to abandon robbery +with violence in favour of payments and contributions from timid +traders and travellers. They hang upon the rear of a caravan; an +accident, a fallen or strayed pack animal, or stragglers in difficulty +bring them to the spot, and, on the pretence of assistance given, a +demand is made for money, in lieu of which, on fear or hesitation +being shown, they obtain such articles as they take a fancy to. + +"The tribes through whose limits the road runs have annual allowances +for protecting it, but it is a question whether these are regularly +paid. It can hardly be expected that the same system of deferred and +reduced payments, which unfortunately prevails in the Persian public +service, should be accepted patiently by a starving people, who have +long been given to predatory habits, and this may account for +occasional disturbance. They probably find it difficult to understand +why payment of taxes should be mercilessly exacted upon them, while +their allowances remain unpaid. It is generally believed that they +would take readily to work if fairly treated and honestly paid, and I +was told that for the construction of the proposed cart-road there +would be no difficulty in getting labourers from the neighbouring Lur +tribes." + + + + +LETTER XIV + + + KAHVA RUKH, CHAHAR MAHALS, _May 4._ + +I left Julfa on the afternoon of April 30, with Miss Bruce as my guest +and Mr. Douglas as our escort for the first three or four days. The +caravan was sent forward early, that my inexperienced servants might +have time to pitch the tents before our arrival. + +Green and pleasant looked the narrow streets and walled gardens of +Julfa under a blue sky, on which black clouds were heavily massed here +and there; but greenery was soon exchanged for long lines of mud +ruins, and the great gravelly slopes in which the mountains descend +upon the vast expanse of plain which surrounds Isfahan, on which the +villages of low mud houses are marked by dark belts of poplars, +willows, fruit-trees, and great patches of irrigated and cultivated +land, shortly to take on the yellow hue of the surrounding waste, but +now beautifully green. + +Passing through Pul-i-Wargun, a large and much wooded village on the +Zainderud, there a very powerful stream, affording abundant water +power, scarcely used, we crossed a bridge 450 feet long by twelve feet +broad, of eighteen brick arches resting on stone piers, and found the +camps pitched on some ploughed land by a stream, and afternoon tea +ready for the friends who had come to give us what Persians call "a +throw on the road." I examined my equipments, found that nothing +essential was lacking, initiated my servants into their evening +duties, especially that of tightening tent ropes and driving tent pegs +well in, and enjoyed a social evening in the adjacent camp. + +The next day's journey, made under an unclouded sky, was mainly along +the Zainderud, from which all the channels and rills which nourish the +vegetation far and near are taken. A fine, strong, full river it is +there and at Isfahan in spring, so prolific in good works that one +regrets that it should be lost sixty miles east of Isfahan in the +Gas-Khana, an unwholesome marsh, the whole of its waters disappearing +in the _Kavir_. Many large villages with imposing pigeon-towers lie +along this part of its course, surrounded with apricot and walnut +orchards, wheat and poppy fields, every village an oasis, and every +oasis a paradise, as seen in the first flush of spring. On a slope of +gravel is the Bagh-i-Washi, with the remains of an immense enclosure, +where the renowned Shah Abbas is said to have had a menagerie. Were it +not for the beautiful fringe of fertility on both margins of the +Zainderud the country would be a complete waste. The opium poppy is in +bloom now. The use of opium in Persia and its exportation are always +increasing, and as it is a very profitable crop, both to the +cultivators and to the Government, it is to some extent superseding +wheat. + +Leaving the greenery we turned into a desert of gravel, crossed some +low hills, and in the late afternoon came down upon the irrigated +lands which surround the large and prosperous village of Riz, the +handsome and lofty pigeon-towers of which give it quite a fine +appearance from a distance. + +These pigeon-towers are numerous, both near Isfahan and in the +villages along the Zainderud, and are everywhere far more imposing +than the houses of the people. Since the great famine, which made a +complete end of pigeon-keeping for the time, the industry has never +assumed its former proportions, and near Julfa many of the towers are +falling into ruin. + +The Riz towers, however, are in good repair. They are all built in the +same way, varying only in size and height, from twenty to fifty feet +in diameter, and from twenty-five to eighty feet from base to summit. +They are "round towers," narrowing towards the top. They are built of +sun-dried bricks of local origin, costing about two _krans_ or 16d. a +thousand, and are decorated with rings of yellowish plaster, with +coarse arabesques in red ochre upon them. For a door there is an +opening half-way up, plastered over like the rest of the wall. + +Two walls, cutting each other across at right angles, divide the +interior. I am describing from a ruined tower which was easy of +ingress. The sides of these walls, and the whole of the inner surface +of the tower, are occupied by pigeon cells, the open ends of which are +about twelve inches square. According to its size a pigeon-tower may +contain from 2000 to 7000, or even 8000, pairs of pigeons. These birds +are gray-blue in colour. + +A pigeon-tower is a nuisance to the neighbourhood, for its occupants, +being totally unprovided for by their proprietor, live upon their +neighbours' fields. In former days it must have been a grand sight +when they returned to their tower after the day's depredations. "Who +are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?" +probably referred to a similar arrangement in Palestine. + +The object of the towers is the preservation and collection of "pigeon +guano," which is highly prized for the raising of early melons. The +door is opened once a year for the collection of this valuable manure. +A large pigeon-tower used to bring its owner from L60 to L75 per +annum, but a cessation of the great demand for early melons in the +neighbourhood of Isfahan has prevented the re-stocking of the towers +since the famine. + +Our experiences of Riz were not pleasant. One of the party during a +short absence from his tent was robbed of a very valuable scientific +instrument. After that there was the shuffling sound of a multitude +outside the tent in which Miss Bruce and I were resting, and women +concealed from head to foot in blue and white checked sheets, +revealing but one eye, kept lifting the tent curtain, and when that +was laced, applying the one eye to the spaces between the lace-holes, +whispering and tittering all the time. Hot though it was, their +persevering curiosity prevented any ventilation, and the steady gaze +of single eyes here, there, and everywhere was most exasperating. It +was impossible to use the dressing tent, for crowds of boys assembled, +and rows of open mouths and staring eyes appeared between the _fly_ +and the ground. Vainly Miss Bruce, who speaks Persian well and +courteously, told the women that this intrusion on our privacy when we +were very tired was both rude and unkind. "We're only women," they +said, "_we_ shouldn't mind it, we've never seen so many Europeans +before." Sunset ended the nuisance, for then the whole crowd, having +fasted since sunrise, hurried home for food. + +The great fast of the month of Ramazan began before we left Julfa. +Moslems are not at their best while it lasts. They are apt to be +crabbed and irritable; and everything that can be postponed is put off +"till after Ramazan." + +Much ostentation comes out in the keeping of it; very pious people +begin to fast before the month sets in. A really ascetic Moslem does +not even swallow his saliva during the fast, and none but very old or +sick people, children, and travellers, are exempt from the obligation +to taste neither food nor water, and not even to smoke during +daylight, for a whole month. The penance is a fearful one, and as the +night is the only time for feasting, the Persians get through as much +of the day as possible in sleep. + +Welcome indeed is the sunset. With joy men fill their pipes and drink +tea as a prelude to the meal eaten an hour afterwards. Hateful is the +dawn and the cry an hour before it, "Water! oh, water and opium!"--the +warning to the faithful to drink largely and swallow an opium pill +before sunrise. The thirst even in weather like this, and the +abstention from smoking, are severer trials than the fasting from +food. The Persian either lives to smoke, or smokes to live. + +Although travellers are nominally exempt from the fast from water at +least, pious Moslems do not avail themselves of the liberty. Hadji +Hussein, for instance, is keeping it as rigidly as any one, and, like +some others, marches with the end of his _pagri_ tucked over his mouth +and nose, a religious affectation, supposed to prevent the breaking of +the fast by swallowing the animalculae which are believed to infest the +air! + +Beyond Riz, everywhere there are arid yellow mountains and yellow +gravelly plains, except along the Zainderud, where fruit-trees, wheat, +and the opium poppy relieve the eyes from the glare. We took leave of +the Zainderud at Pul-i-Kala, where it is crossed by a dilapidated but +passable and very picturesque stone bridge of eight arches, and the +view from the high right bank of wood, bridge, and the vigorous green +river is very pretty. + +Little enough of trees or greenery have we seen since. This country, +like much of the great Iranian plateau, consists of high mountains with +broad valleys or large or small plateaux between them, absolutely +treeless, and even now nearly verdureless, with scattered oases wherever +a possibility of procuring water by means of laboriously-constructed +irrigation canals renders cultivation possible. + +Water is scarce and precious; its value may be gathered from the +allusions made by the Persian poets to fountains, cascades, shady +pools, running streams, and bubbling springs. Such expressions as +those in Scripture, "rivers of waters," "a spring of water whose +waters fail not," convey a fulness of meaning to Persian ears of which +we are quite ignorant. The first inquiry of a Persian about any part +of his own country is, "Is there water?" the second, "Is the water +good?" and if he wishes to extol any particular region he says "the +water is abundant all the year, and is sweet, there is no such water +anywhere." + +The position of a village is always determined by the water supply, +for the people have not only to think of water for domestic purposes, +but for irrigating their crops, and this accounts for the packing of +hamlets on steep mountain sides where land for cultivation can only be +obtained by laborious terracing, but where some perennial stream can +be relied on for filling the small canals. The fight for water is one +of the hardest necessities of the Persian peasant. A water famine of +greater or less degree is a constant peril. + +Land in Persia is of three grades, the wholly irrigated, the partially +irrigated, and the "rain-lands," usually uplands, chiefly suited for +pasturage. The wholly irrigated land is the most productive. The +assessments for taxes appear to leave altogether out of account the +relative fertility of the land, and to be calculated solely on the +supply of water. A winter like the last, of heavy snow, means a +plenteous harvest, _i.e._ "twelve or fourteen grains for one," as the +peasants put it; a scanty snowfall means famine, for the little rain +which falls is practically of scarcely any use. + +The plan for the distribution of water seems to be far less +provocative of quarrels than that of some other regions dependent on +irrigation, such as Ladak and Nubra. Where it is at all abundant, as +it is in this Zainderud valley, it is only in the great heats of +summer that it is necessary to apportion it with any rigidity. It is +then placed in the hands of a _mirab_ or water officer, who allows it +to each village in turn for so many days, during which time the +villages above get none, or the _ketchudas_ manage it among themselves +without the aid of a _mirab_, for the sad truth, which is applicable +to all Persian officialism, applies in the _mirab's_ case, that if a +village be rich enough to bribe him it can get water out of its turn. + +The blessedness of the Zainderud valley is exceptional, and the +general rule in the majority of districts is that the water must be +carefully divided and be measured by "_tashts_," each _tasht_ being +equivalent to the use of the water supply for eleven minutes. + +"This space of time is estimated in a very ancient fashion by floating +a copper bowl with a needle hole in the bottom in a large vessel of +water. The _tasht_ comes to an end as the bowl sinks. The distribution +is regulated by the number of _tashts_ that each man has a right to. +If he has a right to twenty he will receive water for three and +three-quarter hours of the day or night every tenth day." Land without +water in Persia is about as valuable as the "south lands" were which +were given to Caleb's daughter. + +So far as I can learn, the Persian peasant enjoys a tolerable security +of tenure so long as he pays his rent. A common rate of rent is +two-thirds of the produce, but on lands where the snow lies for many +months, even when they are "wet lands," it is only one-third; but this +system is subject to many modifications specially arising out of the +finding or non-finding of the seed by the owner, and there is no +uniformity in the manner of holding land or in assessing the taxes or +in anything else, though the system established 1400 years ago is +still the basis of the whole.[48] + +The line between the oasis and the desert is always strongly marked +and definite. There is no shading away between the deep green of the +growing wheat and the yellow or red gravel beyond. The general +impression is one of complete nakedness. The flowers which in this +month bloom on the slopes are mostly stiff, leathery, and thorny. The +mountains themselves viewed from below are without any indication of +green. The usual colouring is grayish-yellow or a feeble red, +intensifying at sunset, but rarely glorified owing to the absence of +"atmosphere." + +It is a very solitary route from Pul-i-Kala, without villages, and we +met neither caravans nor foot passengers. The others rode on, and I +followed with two of the Bakhtiari escort, who with Rustem Khan, a +minor chief, had accompanied us from Julfa. These men were most +inconsequent in their proceedings, wheeling round me at a gallop, +singing, or rather howling, firing their long guns, throwing +themselves into one stirrup and nearly off their horses, and one who +rides without a bridle came up behind me with his horse bolting and +nearly knocked me out of the saddle with the long barrel of his gun. +When the village of Charmi came in sight I signed to them to go on, +and we all rode at a gallop, the horsemen uttering wild cries and +going through the pantomime of firing over the left shoulders and +right flanks of their horses. + +The camps were pitched on what might be called the village green. +Charmi, like many Persian villages, is walled, the wall, which is +much jagged by rain and frost, having round towers at intervals, and a +large gateway. Such walls are no real protection, but serve to keep +the flocks and herds from nocturnal depredators. Within the gate is a +house called the Fort, with a very fine room fully thirty feet long by +fifteen high, decorated with a mingled splendour and simplicity +surprising in a rural district. The wall next the courtyard is +entirely of very beautiful fretwork, filled in with amber and pale +blue glass. The six doors are the same, and the walls and the +elaborate roof and cornices are pure white, the projections being +"picked out" in a pale shade of brown, hardly darker than amber. + +The following morning Miss Bruce left on her return home, and Mr. +Douglas and I rode fourteen miles to the large village of Kahva Rukh, +where we parted company. It is an uninteresting march over formless +gravelly hills and small plains thinly grassed, until the +Gardan-i-Rukh, one of the high passes on the Isfahan and Shuster +route, is reached, with its extensive view of brown mountains and +yellow wastes. This pass, 7960 feet in altitude, crossing the +unshapely Kuh-i-Rukh, is the watershed of the country, all the streams +on its southern side falling into the Karun. It is also the entrance +to the Chahar Mahals or four districts, Lar, Khya, Mizak, and +Gandaman, which consist chiefly of great plains surrounded by +mountains, and somewhat broken up by their gravelly spurs. + +Beyond, and usually in sight, is the snow-slashed Kuh-i-Sukhta range, +which runs south-east, and throws out a spur to Chigakhor, the summer +resort of the Bakhtiari chiefs. The Chahar Mahals, for Persia, are +populous, and in some parts large villages, many of which are Armenian +and Georgian, occur at frequent intervals, most of them treeless, but +all surrounded by cultivated lands. The Armenian villages possess +so-called relics and ancient copies of the Gospels, which are +credited with the power of working miracles.[49] + +The Chahar Mahals have been farmed to the Ilkhani of the Bakhtiaris +for about 20,000 _tumans_ (L6000) a year, and his brother, Reza Kuli +Khan, has been appointed their governor. Thus on crossing the Kahva +Rukh pass we entered upon the sway of the feudal head of the great +Bakhtiari tribes. + +We camped outside the village, my tents being pitched in a ruinous +enclosure. The servants are in the habit of calling me the _Hak[=i]m_, +and the report of a Frank _Hak[=i]m_ having arrived soon brought a +crowd of sick people, who were introduced and their ailments described +by a blue horseman, one of the escort. + +His own child was so dangerously ill of pneumonia that I went with him +to his house, put on a mustard poultice, and administered some Dover's +powder. The house was crammed and the little suffering creature had +hardly air to breathe. The courtyard was also crowded, so that one +could scarcely move, all the people being quite pleasant and friendly. +I saw several sick people, and was surprised to find the village +houses so roomy and comfortable, and so full of "plenishings." It was +in vain that I explained to them that I am not a doctor, scarcely even +a nurse. The fame of Burroughes and Wellcome's medicine chest has +spread far and wide, and they think its possessor _must_ be a +_Hak[=i]m_. The horseman said that medicine out of that chest would +certainly cure his child.[50] I was unable to go back to the tea which +had been prepared in the horseman's house, on which he expressed great +dismay, and said I must be "enraged with him." + +Persians always use round numbers, and the _ketchuda_ says that the +village has 300 Persian houses, and 100 more, inhabited during the +winter by Ilyats. It has mud walls with towers at intervals, two +mosques, a clear stream of water in the principal street, some very +good houses with _balakhanas_, and narrow alleys between high mud +walls, in which are entrances into courtyards occupied by animals, and +surrounded by living-rooms. The only trees are a few spindly willows, +but wheat comes up to the walls, and at sunset great herds of cattle +and myriads of brown sheep converge to what seems quite a prosperous +village. + +_May 5._--Yesterday, Sunday, was intended to be a day of rest, but +turned out very far from it. After the last relay of "patients" left +on Saturday evening, and the last medicines had been "dispensed," my +tent was neatly arranged with one _yekdan_ for a table, and the other +for a washstand and medicine stand. The latter trunk contained some +English gold in a case along with some valuable letters, and some +bags, in which were 1000 _krans_, for four months' travelling. This +_yekdan_ was padlocked. It was a full moon, the other camps were quite +near, all looked very safe, and I slept until awakened by the +sharpness of the morning air. + +Then I saw but one _yekdan_ where there had been two! Opening the +tent curtain I found my washing apparatus and medicine bottles neatly +arranged on the ground outside, and the trunk without its padlock +among some ruins a short distance off. The money bags were all gone, +leaving me literally penniless. Most of my store of tea was taken, but +nothing else. Two men must have entered my tent and have carried the +trunk out. Of what use are any precautions when one sleeps so +disgracefully soundly? When the robbery was made known horsemen were +sent off to the Ilkhani, whose guest I have been since I entered his +territory, and at night a Khan arrived with a message that "the money +would be repaid, and that the village would be levelled with the +ground!" Kahva Rukh will, I hope, stand for many years to come, but +the stolen sum will be levied upon it, according to custom. + +The people are extremely vexed at this occurrence, and I would rather +have lost half the sum than that it should have happened to a guest. +In addition to an escort of a Khan and four men, the Ilkhani has given +orders that we are not to be allowed to pay for anything while in the +country. This order, after several battles, I successfully disobey. +This morning, before any steps were taken to find the thief, and after +all the loads were ready, officials came to the camps, and, by our +wish, every man's baggage was unrolled and searched. Our servants and +_charvadars_ are all Moslems, and each of them took an oath on the +Koran, administered by a _mollah_, that he was innocent of the theft. + +_Ardal, May 9._--I left rather late, and with the blue horseman, to +whom suspicion generally pointed, rode to Shamsabad, partly over +gravelly wastes, passing two mixed Moslem and Armenian villages on a +plain, on which ninety ploughs were at work on a stiff whitish soil. + +Shamsabad is a most wretched mud village without supplies, standing +bare on a gravelly slope, above a clear quiet stream, an affluent of +the Karun. This country has not reached that stage of civilisation in +which a river bears the same name from mouth to source, and as these +streams usually take as many names as there are villages on their +course, I do not burden my memory with them. There is a charming +camping-ground of level velvety green sward on the right bank of the +river, with the towering mass of Jehanbin (sight of the world), 12,000 +feet high, not far off. This lawn is 6735 feet above the sea, and the +air keen and pleasant. The near mountain views are grand, and that +evening the rare glory of a fine sunset lingered till it was merged in +the beauty of a perfect moonlight. + +After leaving Shamsabad the road passes through a rather fine defile, +crosses the Shamsabad stream by a ten-arched bridge between the +Kuh-i-Zangun and the Kuh-i-Jehanbin, and proceeds down a narrow valley +now full of wild flowers and young wheat to Khariji, a village of +fifty houses, famous for the excellent quality of its opium. From +Khariji we proceeded through low grassy hills, much like the South +Downs, and over the low but very rough Pasbandi Pass into an irrigated +valley in which is the village of Shalamzar. I rode through it alone +quite unmolested, but two days later the Sahib, passing through it +with his servants, was insulted and pelted, and the people said, +"Here's another of the dog party." These villagers are afflicted with +"divers diseases and torments," and the crowd round my tent was +unusually large and importunate. In this village of less than fifty +houses nearly all the people had one or both eyes more or less +affected, and fourteen had only one eye. + +Between Shalamzar and Ardal lies the lofty Gardan-i-Zirreh, by which +the Kuh-i-Sukhta is crossed at a height of 8300 feet. The ascent +begins soon after leaving the village, and is long and steep--a nasty +climb. The upper part at this date is encumbered with snow, below +which primulas are blooming in great profusion, and lower down +leathery flowers devoid of beauty cover without adorning the hillside. +Two peasants went up with me, and from time to time kindly handed me +clusters of small raisins taken from the breasts of dirty felt +clothing. On reaching the snow I found Rustem Khan's horse half-buried +in a drift, so I made the rest of the ascent on foot. The snow was +three feet deep, but for the most part presented no difficulties, even +to the baggage animals. + +At the summit there were no green things except some plants of +_artemisia_, not even a blade of grass, but among the crevices +appeared small fragile snow-white tulips with yellow centres, mixed +with scarlet and mauve blossoms of a more vigorous make. At that great +height the air was keen and bracing, and to eyes for months accustomed +to regions buried in dazzling snow and to glaring gravelly wastes, +there was something perfectly entrancing about the view on the +Bakhtiari side. Though treeless, it looked like Paradise. Lying at the +foot of the pass is the deep valley of Seligun, 8000 feet high, with +the range of the Kuh-i-Nassar to the south, and of the Kuh-Shah-Purnar +to the north--green, full of springs and streams, with two lakes +bringing down the blue of heaven to earth, with slopes aflame with the +crimson and terra-cotta _Fritillaria imperialis_, and levels one +golden glory with a yellow ranunculus. Rich and dark was the green of +the grass, tall and deep on the plain, but when creeping up the +ravines to meet the snows, short green sward enamelled with tulips. +Great masses of naked rock, snow-slashed, and ranges of snow-topped +masses behind and above, walled in that picture of cool serenity, its +loneliness only broken by three black tents of Ilyats far away. So I +saw Seligun, but those who see it a month hence will find only a brown +and dusty plain! + +The range we crossed divides the Chahar Mahals from the true Bakhtiari +country, a land of mountains which rumour crests with eternal snow, of +unexplored valleys and streams, of feudal chiefs, of blood feuds, and +of nomad tribes moving with vast flocks and herds. + +Mehemet Ali, a new and undesirable acquisition, was loaded with my +_shuldari_, and we clambered down the hillside, leading our horses +amidst tamarisk scrub and a glory of tulips, till we reached the +level, when a gallop brought us to the camps, pitched near a vigorous +spring in the green flower-enamelled grass. + +That halt was luxury for man and beast. Later the air was cool and +moist. The sun-lit white fleeces which had been rolling among the +higher hills darkened and thickened into rain-clouds, drifting +stormily, and only revealing here and there through their rifts +glimpses of blue. A few flocks of sheep on the mountains, and the +mules and horses revelling knee-deep in the juicy grass, were the sole +representatives of animated life. It was a real refreshment to be away +from the dust of mud villages, and to escape from the pressure of +noisy and curious crowds, and the sight of sore eyes. + +Towards evening, a gallop on the Arabs with the Bakhtiari escort took +us to the camp of the lately-arrived Ilyats. Orientals spend much of +their time in the quiet contemplation of cooking pots, and these +nomads were not an exception, for they were all sitting round a +brushwood fire, on which the evening meal of meat broth with herbs was +being prepared. The women were unveiled. Both men and women are of +quite a different type from the Persians. They are completely clothed +and in appearance are certainly only semi-savages. These tents +consisted of stones rudely laid to a height of two feet at the back, +over which there is a canopy with an open front and sides, of woven +goat's-hair supported on poles. Such tents are barely a shelter from +wind and rain, but in them generations of Ilyats are born and die, +despising those of their race who settle in villages. + +There were great neutral-tint masses of rolling clouds, great banks of +glistering white clouds, a cold roystering wind, a lurid glow, and +then a cloudy twilight. _Hak[=i]m_ threw up his heels and galloped +over the moist grass, the Bakhtiaris, two on one horse, laughed and +yelled--there was the desert freedom without the desert. It was the +most inspiriting evening I have spent in Persia. Truth compels me to +add that there were legions of black flies. + +In the early morning, after riding round the south-east end of the +valley, we passed by the lake Seligun or Albolaki, banked up by a +revetment of rude masonry. The wind was strong, and drove the +foam-flecked water in a long line of foam on the shore. Red-legged +storks were standing in a row fishing. Cool scuds of rain made the +morning homelike. Then there was a hill ascent, from which the view of +snowy mountains, gashed by deep ravines and backed by neutral-tint +clouds, was magnificent, and then a steep and rocky defile, which +involved walking, its sides gaudy with the _Fritillaria imperialis_, +which here attains a size and a depth of colouring of which we have no +conception. + +In this pass we met a large number of Ilyat families going up to their +summer quarters, with their brown flocks of sheep and their black +flocks of goats. Their tents with all their other goods were packed in +convenient parcels on small cows, and the women with babies and big +wooden cradles were on asses. The women without babies, the elder +children, and the men walked. + +Whatever beauty these women possessed was in the Meg Merrilees style, +with a certain weirdness about it. They had large, dark, long eyes, +with well-marked eyebrows, artificially prolonged, straight prominent +noses, wide mouths with thin lips, long straight chins, and masses of +black hair falling on each side of the face. Their dress consisted of +enormously full dark blue cotton trousers, drawn in at the ankles, and +suspended over the hips, not from the waist (the invariable custom in +Persia), and loose sleeved vests, open in front. The adult women all +wear a piece of cotton pinned on the head, and falling over the back +and shoulders. The men had their hair in many long plaits, hanging +from under felt skull-caps, and wore wide blue cotton trousers, white +or printed cotton shirts over these, and girdles in which they carried +knives, pipes, and other indispensables. All wore shoes or sandals of +some kind. These men were very swarthy, but the younger women had rich +brunette complexions, and were unveiled. + +Some bad horse-fights worried the remainder of the march, which +included the ascent of an anemone-covered hill, 7700 feet high, from +which we got the first view of the Ardal valley, much cultivated, till +it narrows and is lost among mountains, now partly covered with snow. +In the centre is a large building with a tower, the spring residence +of the Ilkhani, whose goodwill it is necessary to secure. Through a +magnificent gorge in the mountains passes the now famous Karun. A +clatter of rain and a strong wind greeted our entrance into the +valley, where we were met by some horsemen from the Ilkhani. + +The great Ardal plateau is itself treeless, though the lower spurs of +the Kuh-i-Sabz on the south side are well wooded with the _belut_, a +species of oak. There is much cultivation, and at this season the +uncultivated ground is covered with the great green leaves of a fodder +plant, the _Centaurea alata_, which a little later are cut, dried, +and stacked. The rivers of the plateau are the Karun and Sabzu on the +south side, and the river of Shamsabad, which brings to the Karun the +drainage of the Chahar Mahals, and enters the valley through a +magnificent _tang_ or chasm on its north side, called Darkash Warkash. +The village of Ardal is eighty-five miles from Isfahan, on the Shuster +caravan route, and is about 200 from Shuster. Its altitude is 5970 +feet, its Long. 50 deg. 50' E. and its Lat. 32 deg. N. + +On arriving here the grandeur of the Ilkhani's house faded away. +Except for the fortified tower it looks like a second-rate +caravanserai. The village, such as there is of it, is crowded on a +steep slope outside the "Palace." It is a miserable hamlet of low +windowless mud hovels, with uneven mud floors, one or two feet lower +than the ground outside, built in yards with ruinous walls, and full +of heaps and holes. It is an _olla podrida_ of dark, poor, smoky mud +huts; narrow dirt-heaped alleys, with bones and offal lying about; +gaunt yelping dogs; bottle-green slimy pools, and ruins. The people +are as dirty as the houses, but they are fine in physique and face, as +if only the fittest survive. There is an _imamzada_, much visited on +Fridays, on an adjacent slope. The snow lies here five feet deep in +winter, it is said. + +When we arrived the roofs and balconies of the Ilkhani's house were +crowded with people looking out for us. The Agha called at once, and I +sent my letter of introduction from the Amin-es-Sultan. Presents +arrived, formal visits were paid, the Ilkhani's principal wife +appointed an hour at which to receive me, and a number of dismounted +horsemen came and escorted me to the palace. The chief feature of the +house is a large audience-chamber over the entrance, in which the +chief holds a daily _durbar_, the deep balcony outside being usually +thronged by crowds of tribesmen, all having free access to him. The +coming and going are incessant. + + [Illustration: CASTLE OF ARDAL.] + +The palace or castle is like a two-storied caravanserai, enclosing a +large untidy courtyard, round which are stables and cow-houses, and +dens for soldiers and servants. In the outer front of the building are +deep recessed arches, with rooms opening upon them, in which the +Isfahan traders, who come here for a month, expose their wares. +Passing under the Ilkhani's audience-chamber by a broad arched passage +with deep recesses on both sides, and through the forlorn uneven +courtyard, a long, dark arched passage leads into a second courtyard, +where there is an attempt at ornament by means of tanks and willows. +Round this are a number of living-rooms for the Ilkhani's sons and +their families, and here is the _andarun_, or house of the women. On +the far side is the Fort, a tall square tower with loopholes and +embrasures. + +A Cerberus guards the entrance to the _andarun_, but he allowed Mirza +to accompany me. A few steps lead up from the courtyard into a lofty +oblong room, with a deep cushioned recess containing a fireplace. The +roof rests on wooden pillars. The front of the room facing the +courtyard is entirely of fretwork filled in with pale blue and amber +glass. The recess and part of the floor were covered with very +beautiful blue and white grounded carpets, made by the women. The +principal wife, a comely wide-mouthed woman of forty, advanced to meet +me, kissed my hand, raised it to her brow, and sat down on a large +carpet squab, while the other wives led me into the recess, and seated +me on a pile of cushions, taking their places in a row on the floor +opposite, but scarcely raising their eyes, and never speaking one +word. The rest of the room was full of women and children standing, +and many more blocked up the doorways, all crowding forward in spite +of objurgations and smart slaps frequently administered by the +principal wife. + +The three young wives are Bakhtiaris, and their style of beauty is +novel to me--straight noses, wide mouths, thin lips, and long chins. +Each has three stars tattooed on her chin, one in the centre of the +forehead, and several on the back of the hands. The eyebrows are not +only elongated with indigo, but are made to meet across the nose. The +finger-nails, and inside of the hands, are stained with henna. The +hair hangs round their wild, handsome faces, down to their +collar-bones, in loose, heavy, but not uncleanly masses. + +Among the "well-to-do" Bakhtiari women, as among the Persians, the +hair receives very great attention, although it is seldom exhibited. +It is naturally jet black, and very abundant. It is washed at least +once a week with a thin paste of a yellowish clay found among the +Zard-Kuh mountains, which has a very cleansing effect. + +But the women are not content with their hair as it is, and alter its +tinge by elaborate arts. They make a thick paste of henna, leave it on +for two hours, and then wash it off. The result is a rich auburn tint. +A similar paste, made of powdered indigo leaves, is then plastered +over the hair for two hours. On its removal the locks are dark green, +but in twenty-four hours more they become a rich blue-black. The +process needs repeating about every twenty days, but it helps to fill +up the infinite leisure of life. It is performed by the bath +attendants. + +In justice to my sex I must add that the men dye their hair to an +equal extent with the women, from the shining blue-black of the Shah's +moustache to the brilliant orange of the beard of Hadji Hussein, by +which he forfeits, though not in Persian estimation, the respect due +to age. + +Some of the Ilkhani's children and grand-children have the hair dyed +with henna alone to a rich auburn tint, which is very becoming to the +auburn eyes and delicate paleness of some of them. + +The wives wore enormously full black silk trousers, drawn tight at the +ankles, with an interregnum between them and short black vests, loose +and open in front; and black silk sheets attached to a band fixed on +the head enveloped their persons. They have, as is usual among these +people, small and beautiful hands, with taper fingers and nails +carefully kept. The chief wife, who rules the others, rumour says, was +also dressed in black. She has a certain degree of comely dignity +about her, and having seen something of the outer world in a +pilgrimage to Mecca via Baghdad, returning by Egypt and Persia, and +having also lived in Tihran, her intelligence has been somewhat +awakened. The Bakhtiari women generally are neither veiled nor +secluded, but the higher chiefs who have been at the capital think it +_chic_ to adopt the Persian customs regarding women, and the inferior +chiefs, when they have houses, follow their example. + +My conversation with the "queen" consisted chiefly of question and +answer, varied by an occasional divergence on her part into an +animated talk with Mirza Yusuf. Among the many questions asked were +these: at what age our women marry? how many wives the Agha has? how +long our women are allowed to keep their boys with them? why I do not +dye my hair? if I know of anything to take away wrinkles? to whiten +teeth? etc., if our men divorce their wives when they are forty? why +Mr. ---- had refused a Bakhtiari wife? if I am travelling to collect +herbs? if I am looking for the plant which if found would turn the +base metals into gold? etc. + +She said they had very dull lives, and knew nothing of any customs but +their own; that they would like to see the Agha, who, they heard, was +a head taller than their tallest men; that they hoped I should be at +Chigakhor when they were there, as it would be less dull, and she +apologised for not offering tea or sweetmeats, as it is the fast of +the Ramazan, which they observe very strictly. I told them that the +Agha wished to take their photographs, and the Hadji Ilkhani along +with them. They were quite delighted, but it occurred to them that +they must first get the Ilkhani's consent. This was refused, and one +of his sons, whose wife is very handsome, said, "We cannot allow +pictures to be made of our women. It is not our custom. We cannot +allow pictures of our women to be in strange hands. No good women have +their pictures taken. Among the tribes you may find women base enough +to be photographed." The chief wife offered to make me a present of +her grandson, to whom I am giving a tonic, if I can make him strong +and cure his deafness. He is a pale precocious child of ten, with +hazel eyes and hair made artificially auburn. + +When the remarkably frivolous conversation flagged, they brought +children afflicted with such maladies as ophthalmia, scabies, and sore +eyes to be cured, but rejected my dictum that a copious use of soap +and water must precede all remedies. Among the adults headaches, loss +of appetite, and dyspepsia seem the prevailing ailments. Love potions +were asked for, and charms to bring back lost love, with special +earnestness, and the woful looks assumed when I told the applicants +that I could do nothing for them were sadly suggestive. There could +not have been fewer than sixty women and children in the room, many, +indeed most of them, fearfully dirty in dress and person. Among them +were several negro and mulatto slaves. When I came away the balconies +and arches of the Ilkhani's house were full of men, anxious to have a +good view of the Feringhi woman, but there was no rudeness there, or +in the village, which I walked through afterwards with a courtesy +escort of several dismounted horsemen. + +After this the Ilkhani asked me to go to see a man who is very ill, +and sent two of his retainers with me. It must be understood that +Mirza Yusuf goes with me everywhere as attendant and interpreter. The +house was a dark room, with a shed outside, in a filthy yard, in which +children, goats, and dogs were rolling over each other in a foot of +powdered mud. Crowds of men were standing in and about the shed. I +made my way through them, moving them to right and left with my hands, +with the recognised supremacy of a _Hak[=i]m_! There were some wadded +quilts on the ground, and another covered a form of which nothing was +visible but two feet, deadly cold. The only account that the +bystanders could give of the illness was, that four days ago the man +fainted, and that since he had not been able to eat, speak, or move. +The face was covered with several folds of a very dirty _chadar_. On +removing it I was startled by seeing, not a sick man, but the open +mouth, gasping respiration, and glassy eyes of a dying man. His +nostrils had been stuffed with moist mud and a chopped aromatic herb. +The feet were uncovered, and the limbs were quite cold. There was no +cruelty in this. The men about him were most kind, but _absolutely +ignorant_. + +I told them that he could hardly survive the night, and that all I +could do was to help him to die comfortably. They said with one +clamorous voice that they would do whatever I told them, and in the +remaining hours they kept their word. I bade them cleanse the mud from +his nostrils, wrap the feet and legs in warm cloths, give him air, and +not crowd round him. Under less solemn circumstances I should have +been amused with the absolute docility with which these big +savage-looking men obeyed me. I cut up a blanket, and when they had +heated some water in their poor fashion, showed them how to prepare +fomentations, put on the first myself, and bathed his face and hands. + +He was clothed in rags of felt and cotton, evidently never changed +since the day they were put on, though he was what they call +"rich,"--a great owner of mares, flocks, and herds,--and the skin was +scaly with decades of dirt. I ventured to pour a little sal-volatile +and water down his throat, and the glassy eyeballs moved a little. I +asked the bystanders if, as Moslems, they would object to his taking +some spirits medicinally? They were willing, but said there was no +_arak_ in the Bakhtiari country, a happy exemption! The Agha's +kindness supplied some whisky, of which from that time the dying man +took a teaspoonful, much diluted, every two hours, tossed down his +throat with a spoon, Allah being always invoked. There was no woman's +gentleness to soothe his last hours. A wife in the dark den inside was +weaving, and once came out and looked carelessly at him, but men did +for him all that he required with a tenderness and kindness which were +very pleasing. Before I left they asked for directions over again, and +one of the Ilkhani's retainers wrote them down. + +At night the Ilkhani sent to say that the man was much better and he +hoped I would go and see him. The scene was yet more weird than in the +daytime. A crowd of men were sitting and standing round a fire outside +the shed, and four were watching the dying man. The whisky had revived +him, his pulse was better, the fomentation had relieved the pain, and +when it was reapplied he had uttered the word "good." I tried to make +them understand it was only a last flicker of life, but they thought +he would recover, and the Ilkhani sent to know what food he should +have. + +At dawn "death music," wild and sweet, rang out on the still air; he +died painlessly at midnight, and was carried to the grave twelve hours +later. + +When people are very ill their friends give them food and medicine (if +a _Hak[=i]m_ be attainable), till, in their judgment, the case is +hopeless. Then they send for a _mollah_; who reads the Koran in a very +loud sing-song tone till death ensues, the last thirst being +alleviated meantime by _sharbat_ dropped into the mouth. Camphor and +other sweet spices are burned at the grave. If they burn well and all +is pure afterwards, they say that the deceased person has gone to +heaven; if they burn feebly and smokily, and there is any +unpleasantness from the grave, they say that the spirit is in +perdition. A Bakhtiari grave is a very shallow trench. + +The watchers were kind, and carried out my directions faithfully. I +give these minute details to show how much even simple nursing can do +to mitigate suffering among a people so extremely ignorant as the +Bakhtiaris are not only of the way to tend the sick, but of the +virtues of the medicinal plants which grow in abundance around them. A +medical man itinerating among their camps with a light hospital tent +and some simple instruments and medicines could do a great deal of +healing, and much also to break down the strong prejudice which exists +against Christianity. Here, as elsewhere, the _Hak[=i]m_ is respected. +Going in that capacity I found the people docile, respectful, and even +grateful. Had I gone among them in any other, a Christian Feringhi +woman would certainly have encountered rudeness and worse. + +The Ilkhani, who has not been in a hurry to call, made a formal visit +to-day with his brother, Reza Kuli Khan, his eldest son Lutf, another +son, Ghulam, with bad eyes, and a crowd of retainers. The Hadji +Ilkhani,--Imam Kuli Khan, the great feudal chief of the Bakhtiari +tribes, is a quiet-looking middle-aged man with a short black beard, a +parchment-coloured complexion, and a face somewhat lined, with a +slightly sinister expression at times. He wore a white felt cap, a +blue full-skirted coat lined with green, another of fine buff +kerseymere under it, with a girdle, and very wide black silk trousers. + +He is a man of some dignity of deportment, and his usual expression is +somewhat kindly and courteous. He is a devout Moslem, and has a +finely-illuminated copy of the Koran, which he spends much time in +reading. He is not generally regarded as a very capable or powerful +man, and is at variance with the Ilbegi, who, though nominally second +chief, practically shares his power. In fact, at this time serious +intrigues are going on, and some say that the adherents of the two +chiefs would not be unwilling to come to open war. + + [Illustration: IMAM KULI KHAN.] + +The greatest men who in this century have filled the office of Ilkhani +both perished miserably. The fate of Sir H. Layard's friend, Mehemet +Taki Khan, is well known to all readers of the _Early Recollections_, +but it was possibly less unexpected than that of Hussein Kuli Khan, +brother of the present Ilkhani, and father of the Ilbegi Isfandyar +Khan. This man was evidently an enlightened and able ruler; he +suppressed brigandage with a firm hand, and desired to see the +Mohammerah-Shuster-Isfahan route fairly opened to trade. He went so +far as to promise Mr. Mackenzie, of one of the leading Persian Gulf +firms, in writing, that he would hold himself personally responsible +for the safety of caravans in their passage through his territory, and +would repay any losses by robbery. He agreed to take a third share of +the cost of the necessary steamers on the Karun, and to furnish 100 +mules for land transport between Shuster and Isfahan.[51] + +It appears that Persian jealousy was excited by his enterprising +spirit; he fell under the displeasure of the Zil-es-Sultan, and in +1882 was put to death by poison while on his annual visit of homage. +The present Ilkhani, who succeeded him, warned possibly by his +brother's fate, is said to show little, if any, interest in commercial +enterprise, and to have made the somewhat shrewd remark that the +English "under the dress of the merchant often conceal the uniform of +the soldier." + +In 1888 the Shah relented towards Hussein Kuli Khan's sons, the eldest +of whom, Isfandyar Khan, had been in prison for seven years, and they +with their uncle, Reza Kuli Khan, descended with their followers and a +small Persian army upon the plain of Chigakhor, where they surprised +and defeated the Hadji Ilkhani. His brother, Reza, was thereupon +recognised by the Shah as Ilkhani, and Isfandyar as Ilbegi, with the +substance of power. Another turn of the wheel of fortune, and the +brothers became respectively Ilkhani and Governor of the Chahar +Mahals, and their nephew is reinstated as Ilbegi.[52] + +The Ilkhani's word is law, within broad limits, among the numerous +tribes of Bakhtiari Lurs who have consented to recognise him as their +feudal head, and it has been estimated that in a popular quarrel he +could bring from 8000 to 10,000 armed horsemen into the field. He is +judge as well as ruler, but in certain cases there is a possible +appeal to Tihran from his decisions. He is appointed by the Shah, with +a salary of 1000 _tumans_ a year, but a strong man in his position +could be practically independent. + +It can scarcely be supposed that the present Ilkhani will long retain +his uneasy seat against the intrigues at the Persian court, and with a +powerful and popular rival close at hand. It is manifestly the +interest of the Shah's government to weaken the tribal power, and +extinguish the authority and independence of the principal chiefs, and +the Oriental method of attaining this end is by plots and intrigues at +the capital, by creating and fomenting local quarrels, and by +oppressive taxation. It is not wonderful, therefore, that many of the +principal Khans, whose immemorial freedom has been encroached upon in +many recent years by the Tihran Government, should look forward to a +day when one of the Western powers will occupy south-west Persia, and +give them security. + +The _Hadji_ Ilkhani, for the people always prefix the religious title, +discussed the proposed journey, promised me an escort of a horseman +and a _tufangchi_, or foot-soldier, begged us to consider ourselves +here and everywhere as his guests, and to ask for all we want, here +and elsewhere. His brother, Reza Kuli Khan, who has played an +important part in tribal affairs, resembles him, but the sinister look +is more persistent on his face. He was much depressed by the fear that +he was going blind, but on trying my glasses he found he could see. +The surprise of the old-sighted people when they find that spectacles +renew their youth is most interesting. + +Another visitor has been the Ilbegi, Isfandyar Khan. Though not tall, +he is very good-looking, and has beautiful hands and feet. He is able, +powerful, and ambitious, inspires his adherents with great personal +devotion, and is regarded by many as the "coming man." He was in +Tihran when I was in Julfa, and hearing from one of the Ministers that +I was about to visit the Bakhtiari country, he wrote to a general of +cavalry in Isfahan, asking him to provide me with an escort if I +needed it. I was glad to thank him for his courtesy in this matter, +and for more substantial help. Before his visit, his retainer, Mansur, +brought me the money of which I had been robbed in Kahva Rukh! This +man absolutely refused a present, saying that his liege lord would +nearly kill him if he took one. Isfandyar Khan welcomed me kindly, +regretting much that my first night under Bakhtiari rule should have +been marked by a robbery. He said that before his day the tribesmen +not only robbed, but killed, and that he had reduced them to such +order that he was surprised as well as shocked at this occurrence. I +replied that it occurred in a Persian village, and that in many +countries one might be robbed, but in none that I knew of would such +quick restitution be made. + +In cases of robbery, the Ilkhani sends round to the _ketchudas_ or +headmen of the camps or villages of the offending district, to replace +the money, as in my case, or the value of the thing taken, after which +the thief must be caught if possible. When caught, the headmen consult +as to his punishment, which may be the cutting off of a hand or nose, +or to be severely branded. In any case he must be for the future a +marked man. I gather that the most severe penalties are rarely +inflicted. I hope the fine of 800 _krans_ levied on Kahva Rukh may +stimulate the people to surrender the thief. I agreed to forego 200 +_krans_, as Isfandyar Khan says that his men raised all they could, +and the remaining sum would have to be paid by himself. + +After a good deal of earnest conversation he became frivolous! He +asked the Agha his age, and guessed it at thirty-five. On being +enlightened he asked if he dyed his hair, and if his teeth were his +own. Then he said that he dyed his own hair, and wore artificial +teeth. He also asked my age. He and Lutf and Ghulam, the Ilkhani's +sons, who accompanied him, possess superb watches, with two dials, and +an arrangement for showing the phases of the moon. + +Having accepted an invitation from the Ilbegi to visit him at Naghun, +a village ten miles from Ardal, accompanied by Lutf and Ghulam, we +were ready at seven, the hour appointed, as the day promised to be +very hot. Eight o'clock came, nine o'clock, half-past nine, and on +sending to see if the young Khans were coming, the servants replied +that they had "no orders to wake them." So we Europeans broiled three +hours in the sun at the pleasure of "barbarians"! + +During the Ramazan these people revel from sunset to sunrise, with +feasting, music, singing, and merriment, and then they lie in bed till +noon or later, to abridge the long hours of the fast. "Is it such a +fast that I have chosen?" may well be asked. + +The noise during the night in the Ilkhani's palace is tremendous. The +festivities begin soon after sunset and go on till an hour before +dawn. Odours agreeable to Bakhtiari noses are wafted down to my tent, +but I do not find them appetising. An eatable called _zalabi_ is in +great request during the Ramazan. It is made by mixing sugar and +starch with oil of sesamum, and is poured on ready heated copper +trays, and frizzled into fritters. Masses of eggs mixed with rice, +clarified butter, and jams, concealing balls of highly-spiced +mincemeat, _kabobs_, and mutton stewed with preserved lemon juice and +onions are favourite dishes at the Ilkhani's. + +Besides the music and singing, the "Court" entertains itself nightly +with performing monkeys and dancing men, besides story-tellers, and +reciters of the poetry of Hafiz. It is satisfactory to know that the +uproarious merriment which drifts down to my tent along with odours of +perpetual frying, owes none of its inspiration to alcohol, coffee and +_sharbat_ being the drinks consumed. + +We rode without a guide down the Ardal valley, took the worst road +through some deep and blazing gulches, found the sun fierce, and the +treelessness irksome, saw much ploughing, made a long ascent, and +stopped short of the village of Naghun at a large walled garden on the +arid hillside, which irrigation has turned into a shady paradise of +pear, apricot, and walnut trees, with a luxurious undergrowth of roses +and pomegranates. The young Khans galloped up just as we did, laughing +heartily at having slept so late. All the village men were gathered to +see the Feringhis, and the Ilbegi and his brothers received us at the +garden gate, all shaking hands. Certainly this Khan has much power in +his face, and his dignified and easy manner is that of a leader of +men. His dress was becoming, a handsome dark blue cloak lined with +scarlet, and with a deep fur collar, over his ordinary costume. + +So much has been said and written about the Bakhtiaris being "savages" +or "semi-savages," that the entertainment which followed was quite a +surprise to me. Two fine canopy tents were pitched in the shade, and +handsome carpets were laid in them, and under a spreading walnut tree +a _karsi_, or fire cover, covered with a rug, served as a table, and +cigarettes, a bowl of ice, a glass jug of _sharbat_, and some tumblers +were neatly arranged upon it. Iron chairs were provided for the +European guests, and the Ilbegi, his brothers, the Ilkhani's sons, and +others sat round the border of the carpet on which they were placed. +There were fully fifty attendants. Into the midst of this masculine +crowd, a male nurse brought the Ilbegi's youngest child, a dark, +quiet, pale, wistful little girl of four years old, a daintily-dressed +little creature, with a crimson velvet cap, and a green and crimson +velvet frock. She was gentle and confiding, and liked to remain with +me. + +After a long conversation on subjects more or less worth speaking +upon, our hosts retired, to sleep under the trees, leaving us to eat, +and a number of servants brought in a large _karsi_ covered with food. +Several yards of blanket bread, or "flapjacks," served as a +table-cloth, and another for the dish-cover of a huge _pillau_ in the +centre. Cruets, plates, knives and forks, iced water, Russian +lemonade, and tumblers were all provided. The dinner consisted of +_pillau_, lamb cutlets, a curried fowl, celery with sour sauce, +clotted cream, and sour milk. The food was well cooked and clean, and +the servants, rough as they looked, were dexterous and attentive. + +After dinner, by the Ilbegi's wish, I paid a visit to the ladies of +his _haram_. Naghun rivals the other villages of the tribes in +containing the meanest and worst permanent habitations I have ever +seen. Isfandyar Khan's house is a mud building surrounding a +courtyard, through which the visitor passes into another, round which +are the women's apartments. Both yards were forlorn, uneven, and +malodorous, from the heaps of offal and rubbish lying under the hot +sun. I was received by fifteen ladies in a pleasant, clean, +whitewashed apartment, with bright rugs and silk-covered pillows on +the floor, and glass bottles and other ornaments in the _takchahs_. + +At the top of the room I was welcomed, not by the principal wife, but +by a portly middle-aged woman, the Khan's sister, and evidently the +duenna of the _haram_, as not one of the other women ventured to +speak, or to offer any courtesies. A chair was provided for me with a +_karsi_ in front of it, covered with trays of _gaz_ and other +sweetmeats. Mirza and a male attendant stood in the doorway, and +outside shoals of women and children on tip-toe were struggling for a +glance into the room. Several slaves were present, coal-black, +woolly-headed, huge-mouthed negresses. The fifteen ladies held their +gay _chadars_ to their faces so as to show only one eye, so I sent +Mirza behind a curtain and asked for the pleasure of seeing their +faces, when they all unveiled with shrieks of laughter. + +The result was disappointing. The women were all young, or youngish, +but only one was really handsome. The wives are brunettes with long +chins. They wore gay _chadars_ of muslin, short gold-embroidered +jackets, gauze chemises, and bright-coloured balloon trousers. Three +of the others wore black satin balloon trousers, black silk jackets, +yellow gauze vests, and black _chadars_ spotted with white. These +three were literally moon-faced, like the representations of the moon +on old clocks, a type I have not yet seen. All wear the hair brought +to the front, where it hangs in wavy masses on each side of the face. +They wore black silk gold-embroidered skull-caps, set back on their +heads, and long chains of gold coins from the back to the ear, with +two, three, or four long necklaces of the same in which the coins were +very large and handsome. One wife, a young creature, was poorly +dressed, very dejected-looking, and destitute of ornaments. Her mother +has since pleaded for something "to bring back her husband's love." +The eyebrows were painted with indigo and were made to meet in a point +on the bridge of the nose. Each had one stained or tattooed star on +her forehead, three on her chin, and a galaxy on the back of each +hand. + +Before Mirza reappeared they huddled themselves up in their _chadars_ +and sat motionless against the wall as before. After tea I had quite a +lively conversation with the Khan's sister, who has been to Basrah, +Baghdad, and Mecca. + +Besides the usual questions as to my age, dyeing my hair, painting my +face, etc., with suggestions on the improvement which their methods +would make on my eyes and eyebrows, she asked a little about my +journeys, about the marriage customs of England, about divorce, the +position of women with us, their freedom, horsemanship, and +amusements. She said, "We don't ride, we sit on horses." Dancing for +amusement she could not understand. "Our servants dance for us," she +said. The dancing of men and women together, and the evening dress of +Englishwomen, she thought contrary to the elementary principles of +morality. I wanted them to have their photographs taken, but they +said, "It is not the custom of our country; no good women have their +pictures taken, we should have many things said against us if we were +made into pictures." + +They wanted to give me presents, but I made my usual excuse, that I +have made a rule not to receive presents in travelling; then they said +that they would go and see me in my tent at Chigakhor, their summer +quarters, and that I could not refuse what they took in their own +hands. They greatly desired to see the Agha, of whose imposing +_physique_ they had heard, but they said that the Khan would not like +them to go to the garden, and that their wish must remain ungratified. +"We lead such dull lives," the Khan's sister exclaimed; "we never see +any one or go anywhere." It seems that the slightest development of +intellect awakens them to the consciousness of this deplorable +dulness, of which, fortunately, the unawakened intelligence is +unaware. As a fact, two of the ladies have not been out of the Ardal +valley, and are looking forward to the migration to the Chigakhor +valley as to a great gaiety. + +They asked me if I could read, and if I made carpets? They invariably +ask if I have a husband and children, and when I tell them that I am a +widow and childless, they simulate weeping for one or two minutes, a +hypocrisy which, though it proceeds from a kindly feeling, has a very +painful effect. Their occupation in the winter is a little +carpet-weaving, which takes the place of our "fancy-work." They also +make a species of _nougat_, from the manna found on the oaks on some +of their mountains, mixed with chopped almonds and rose-water. When I +concluded my visit they sent a servant with me with a tray of this and +other sweetmeats of their own making. + +The party in the garden was a very merry one. The Bakhtiaris love fun, +and shrieked with laughter at many things. This jollity, however, did +not exclude topics of interesting talk. During this time _Karun_, a +handsome chestnut Arab, and my horse _Screw_ had a fierce fight, and +Karim, a Beloochi, in separating them had his arm severely crunched +and torn, the large muscles being exposed and lacerated. He was +brought in faint and bleeding and in great pain, and will not be of +any use for some time. The Agha asked the Ilbegi for two lads to go +with him to help his servants. The answer was, "We are a wandering +people, Bakhtiaris cannot be servants, but some of our young men will +go with you,"--and three brothers joined us there, absolute savages in +their ways. A cow was offered for the march, and on the Agha jocularly +saying that he should have all the milk, the Ilbegi said that I should +have one to myself, and sent two. He complained that I did not ask for +anything, and said that I was their guest so long as I was in their +country, and must treat them as brothers and ask for all I need. +"Don't feel as if you were in a foreign land" he said; "we love the +English." + + I. L. B. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[48] The readers interested in such matters will find much +carefully-acquired information on water distribution, assessments, and +tenure of land in the second volume of the late Mr. Stack's _Six +Months in Persia_. + +[49] Some of the legends connected with these objects are grossly +superstitious. At Shurishghan there is a "Holy Testament," regarding +which the story runs that it was once stolen by the Lurs, who buried +it under a tree by the bank of a stream. Long afterwards a man began +to cut down the tree, but when the axe was laid to its root blood +gushed forth. On searching for the cause of this miracle the Gospels +were found uninjured beneath. It is believed that if any one were to +take the Testament away it would return of its own accord. It has the +reputation of working miracles of healing, and many resort to it +either for themselves or for their sick friends, from Northern Persia +and even from Shiraz, as well as from the vicinity, and vows are made +before it. The gifts presented to it become the property of its +owners. + +[50] And so it did, though it was then so ill that it seemed unlikely +that it would live through the night, and I told them so before I gave +the medicine, lest they should think that I had killed it. + +[51] _Proceedings of R.G.S._, vol. v. No. 3, New Series. + +[52] I am indebted for the information given above to a valuable paper +by Mr. H. Blosse Lynch, given in the _Proceedings of the R.G.S._ for +September 1890. + + + + +LETTER XV + + + ARDAL, _May 14_. + +The week spent here has passed rapidly. There is much coming and +going. My camp is by the side of a frequented pathway, close to a +delicious spring, much resorted to by Ilyat women, who draw water in +_mussocks_ and copper pots, and gossip there. The Ilyats are on the +march to their summer quarters, and the steady tramp of their flocks +and herds and the bleating of their sheep is heard at intervals +throughout the nights. Sometimes one of their horses or cows stumbles +over the tent ropes and nearly brings the tent down. Servants of the +Ilkhani with messages and presents of curds, celery pickled in sour +cream, and apricots, go to and fro. Sick people come at intervals all +day long, and the medicine chest is in hourly requisition. + +The sick are not always satisfied with occasional visits to the +_Hak[=i]m's_ tent: a man, who has a little daughter ill of jaundice, +after coming twice for medicine, has brought a tent, and has +established himself in it with his child close to me, and a woman with +bad eyes has also pitched a tent near mine; at present thirteen people +come twice daily to have zinc lotion dropped into their eyes. The fame +of the "tabloids" has been widely spread, and if I take common powders +out of papers, or liquids out of bottles, the people shake their heads +and say they do not want those, but "the fine medicines out of the +leather box." To such an extent is this preference carried that they +reject decoctions of a species of _artemisia_, a powerful tonic, +unless I put tabloids of permanganate of potash (Condy's fluid) into +the bottle before their eyes. + +They have no idea of the difference between curable and incurable +maladies. Many people, stone blind, have come long distances for +eye-lotion, and to-night a man nearly blind came in, leading a man +totally blind for eight years, asking me to restore his sight. The +blind had led the blind from a camp twenty-four miles off! +Octogenarians believe that I can give them back their hearing, and men +with crippled or paralysed limbs think that if I would give them some +"Feringhi ointment," of which they have heard, they would be restored. +Some come to stare at a Feringhi lady, others to see my tent, which +they occasionally say is "fit for Allah," and the general result is +that I have very little time to myself. + +The Ardal plateau is really pretty at this season, and I have had many +pleasant evening gallops over soft green grass and soft red earth. The +view from the tent is pleasant: on the one side the green slopes which +fall down to the precipices which overhang the Karun, with the snowy +mountains, deeply cleft, of the region which is still a geographical +mystery beyond them; on the other, mountains of naked rock with grass +running up into their ravines, and between them and me billows of +grass and wild flowers. A barley slope comes down to my tent. The +stalks are only six inches long, and the ears, though ripe, contain +almost nothing. Every evening a servant of the Ilkhani brings three +little wild boars to feed on the grain. Farther down the path are the +servants' and muleteers' camps, surrounded by packing-cases, +_yekdans_, mule-bags, nose-bags, gear of all kinds, and the usual +litter of an encampment. + +The men, whether Indian, Persian, Beloochi, or Bakhtiari, are all +quiet and well-behaved. The motto of the camps is "Silence is golden." +Hadji Hussein is quiet in manner and speech, and though he has seven +muleteers, yells and shouts are unknown. + +There is something exciting in the prospect of travelling through a +region much of which is unknown and unmapped, and overlooked hitherto +by both geographical and commercial enterprise; and in the prospective +good fortune of learning the manners and customs of tribes untouched +by European influence, and about whose reception of a Feringhi woman +doleful prophecies have been made. + +_Tur, May 18._--The last day at Ardal was a busy one. Several of the +Khans called to take leave. I made a farewell visit to the Ilkhani's +_haram_; people came for medicines at intervals from 5 A.M. till 9 +P.M.; numberless eye-lotions had to be prepared; stores, straps, +ropes, and equipments had to be looked to; presents to be given to the +Ilkhani's servants; native shoes, with webbing tops and rag soles, to +be hunted for to replace boots which could not be mended, and it was +late before the preparations were completed. During the night some of +my tent ropes were snapped by a stampede of mules, and a heavy +thunderstorm coming on with wind and rain, the tent flapped about my +ears till dawn. + +It was very hot when we left the next morning. The promised escort was +not forthcoming. The details of each day's march have been much alike. +I start early, taking Mirza with me with the _shuldari_, halt usually +half-way, and have a frugal lunch of milk and biscuits, read till the +caravan has passed, rest in my tent for an hour, and ride on till I +reach the spot chosen for the camp. Occasionally on arriving it is +found that the place selected on local evidence is unsuitable, or the +water is scanty or bad, and we march farther. The greatest luxury is +to find the tent pitched, the camp bed put up, and the kettle boiling +for afternoon tea. I rest, write, and work till near sunset, when I +dine on mutton and rice, and go to bed soon after dark, as I breakfast +at four. An hour or two is taken up daily with giving medicines to +sick people. + +There are no villages, but camps occur frequently. The three young +savages brought from Naghun are very amusing from the savage freedom +of their ways, but they exasperate the servants by quizzing and +mimicking them. The cows are useless. Between them they give at most a +teacupful of milk, and generally none. Either the calves or the boys +take it, or the marches are too much for them. In the Ilyat camps +there is plenty, but as it is customary to mix the milk of sheep, +goats, and cows, and to milk the animals with dirty hands into dirty +copper pots, and almost at once to turn the milk into a sour mass, +like whipped cream in appearance, by shaking it with some "leaven" in +a dirty goat-skin, a European cannot always drink it. Indeed, it goes +through every variety of bad taste. + +The camps halt on Sundays, and the men highly appreciate the rest. +They sleep, smoke, wash and mend their clothes, and are in good humour +and excellent trim on Monday morning, and the mules show their +unconscious appreciation of a holiday by coming into camp kicking and +frolicking. + +The baggage animals are fine, powerful mules and horses, with not a +sore back among them. The pack saddles and tackle are all in good +order. The caravan is led by a horse caparisoned with many bells and +tassels, a splendid little gray fellow, full of pluck and fire, called +Cock o' the Walk. He comes in at the end of a long march, arching his +neck, shaking his magnificent mane, and occasionally kicking off his +load. Sometimes he knocks down two or three men, dashes off with his +load at a gallop, and even when hobbled manages to hop up to the two +Arabs and challenge them to a fight. These handsome horses have some +of the qualities for which their breed is famous, and are as +surefooted as goats, but they are very noisy, and they hate each other +and disturb the peace of the camp by their constant attempts to fight. +My horse, _Screw_, can go wherever a mule can find foothold. He is +ugly, morose, a great fighter, and most uninteresting. The donkeys and +a fat retriever are destitute of "salient points." + +Hadji Hussein, the _charvadar_, has elevated his profession into an +art. On reaching camp, after unloading, each muleteer takes away the +five animals for which he is responsible, and liberates them, with the +saddles on, to graze. After a time they drive them into camp, remove +the saddles, and groom them thoroughly, while the saddler goes over +the equipments, and does any repairs that are needed. After the +grooming each muleteer, having examined the feet of his animals, +reports upon them, and Hadji replaces all lost shoes and nails. The +saddles and the _juls_ or blankets are then put on, the mules are +watered in batches of five, and are turned loose for the night to +feed, with two muleteers to watch them by turns. Hadji, whose soft +voice and courteous manners make all dealings with him agreeable, +receives his orders for the morrow, and he with his young son, Abbas +Ali, and the rest of the muleteers, camp near my tent, cook their +supper of blanket bread with _mast_ or curds, roll their heads and +persons in blankets, put their feet to the fire, and are soon asleep, +but Hadji gets up two or three times in the night to look after his +valuable property. + +At 4 A.M. or earlier, the mules are driven into camp, and are made +fast to ropes, which are arranged the previous night by pegging them +down in an oblong forty feet by twenty. Nose-bags with grain are put +on; and as the loads are got ready the mules are loaded, with Hadji's +help and supervision. No noise is allowed during this operation. + +After an hour or more the caravan moves, led by Cock o' the Walk, +usually with two men at his head to moderate his impetuosity for a +time, with a guide; and Hadji on his fine-looking saddle mule looks +after the safety of everything. He is punctual, drives fast and +steadily, and always reaches the camping-ground in good time. When he +gets near it he dismounts, and putting on the air of "your most +obedient servant," leads in Cock o' the Walk. He is really a very +gentlemanly man for his position, but is unfortunately avaricious, and +though he has amassed what is, for Persia, a very large fortune, he +wears very poor clothes, and eats sparingly of the poorest food. He is +a big man of fifty, wears blue cotton clothing and a red turban, is +very florid, and having a white or very gray beard, has dyed it an +orange red with henna. + +My servants have fallen fairly well into their work, but are +frightfully slow. All pitch the tents, and Hassan cooks, washes, packs +the cooking and table equipments, and saddles my horse. Mirza Yusuf +interprets, waits on me, packs the tent furnishings, rides with me, +and is always within hearing of my whistle. He is good, truthful, and +intelligent, sketches with some talent, is always cheerful, never +grumbles, is quite indifferent to personal comfort, gets on well with +the people, is obliging to every one, is always ready to interpret, +and though well educated has the good sense not to regard any work as +"menial." Mehemet Ali, the "superfluity," is a scamp, and, I fear, +dishonest. The servants feed themselves on a _kran_ (8d.) a day, +allowed as "road money." Sheep are driven with us, and are turned into +mutton as required. Really, they follow us, attaching themselves to +the gray horses, and feeding almost among their feet. My food +consists of roast mutton, rice, _chapatties_, tea, and milk, without +luxuries or variety. Life is very simple and very free from +purposeless bothers. The days are becoming very hot, but the nights +are cool. The black flies and the sand-flies are the chief tormentors. + +On leaving Ardal we passed very shortly into a region little traversed +by Europeans, embracing remarkable gorges and singularly abrupt turns +in ravines, through which the Karun, here a deep and powerful stream, +finds its way. A deep descent over grassy hills to a rude village in a +valley and a steep ascent took us to the four booths, which are the +summer quarters of our former escort, Rustem Khan, who received us +with courteous hospitality, and regaled us with fresh cow's milk in a +copper basin. He introduced me to twelve women and a number of +children, nearly all with sore eyes. There is not a shadow of privacy +in these tents, with open fronts and sides. The carpets, which are +made by the women, serve as chairs, tables, and beds, and the low wall +of roughly-heaped stones at the back for trunks and wardrobe, for on +it they keep their "things" in immense saddle-bags made of handsome +rugs. The visible furniture consists of a big copper bowl for food, a +small one for milk, a huge copper pot for clarifying butter, and a +goat-skin suspended from three poles, which is jerked by two women +seated on the ground, and is used for churning butter and making +curds. + +A steep ascent gives a superb view of a confused sea of mountains, and +of a precipitous and tremendous gorge, the Tang-i-Ardal, through which +the Karun passes, making a singularly abrupt turn after leaving a +narrow and apparently inaccessible canyon or rift on the south side of +the Ardal valley. A steep zigzag descent of 600 feet in less than +three-quarters of a mile brings the path down to the Karun, a deep +bottle-green river, now swirling in drifts of foam, now resting +momentarily in quiet depths, but always giving an impression of volume +and power. Large and small land turtles abound in that fiercely hot +gorge of from 1000 to 2000 feet deep. The narrow road crosses the +river on a bridge of two arches, and proceeds for some distance at a +considerable height on its right bank. There I saw natural wood for +the first time since crossing the Zagros mountains in January, and +though the oak, ash, and maple are poor and stunted, their slender +shade was delicious. Roses, irises, St. John's wort, and other flowers +were abundant. + +The path ascends past a clear spring, up steep zigzags to a graveyard +in which are several stone lions, rudely carved, of natural size, +facing Mecca-wards, with pistols, swords, and daggers carved in relief +on their sides, marking the graves of fighting men. On this +magnificent point above the Karun a few hovels, deserted in summer, +surrounded by apricot trees form the village of Duashda Imams, which +has a superb view of the extraordinary and sinuous chasm through which +the Karun passes for many miles, thundering on its jagged and fretted +course between gigantic and nearly perpendicular cliffs of limestone +and conglomerate. Near this village the pistachio is abundant, and +planes, willows, and a large-leaved clematis vary the foliage. + +Leaving the river at this point, a somewhat illegible path leads +through "park-like" scenery, fair slopes of grass and flowers +sprinkled with oaks singly or in clumps, glades among trees in their +first fresh green, and evermore as a background gray mountains slashed +with snow. + +In the midst of these pretty uplands is the Ilyat encampment of +Martaza, with its black tents, donkeys, sheep, goats, and big fierce +dogs, which vociferously rushed upon _Downie_, the retriever, and were +themselves rushed upon and gripped by a number of women. The people, +having been informed of our intended arrival by Reza Kuli Khan, had +arranged a large tent with carpets and cushions, but we pitched the +camps eventually on an oak-covered slope, out of the way of the noise, +curiosity, and evil odours of Martaza. Water is very scarce there, +three wells or pools, fouled by the feet of animals, being the only +supply. + +I rested on my _dhurrie_ under an oak till the caravan came up. It was +a sweet place, but was soon invaded, and for the rest of the day quiet +and privacy were out of the question, for presently appeared a fine, +florid, buxom dame, loud of speech, followed by a number of women and +children, all as dirty as it is possible to be, and all crowded round +me and sat down on my carpet. This _Khanum Shirin_ is married to the +chief or headman, but being an heiress she "bosses" the tribe. She +brought up bolsters and quilts, and begged us to consider themselves, +the whole region, and all they had as _pishkash_ (a present from an +inferior to a superior), but when she was asked if it included +herself, she blushed and covered her face. After two hours of somewhat +flagging conversation she led her train back again, but after my tent +was pitched she reappeared with a much larger number of women, +including two betrothed girls of sixteen and seventeen years old, who +are really beautiful. + +These maidens were dressed in clean cotton costumes, and white veils +of figured silk gauze enveloped them from head to foot. They unveiled +in my tent, and looked more like _houris_ than any women I have seen +in the East; and their beauty was enhanced by the sweetness and +maidenly modesty of their expression. I wished them to be +photographed, and they were quite willing, but when I took them +outside some men joined the crowd and said it should not be, and that +when their betrothed husbands came home they would tell them how bold +and bad they had been, and would have them beaten. Although these +beauties had been most modest and maidenly in their behaviour, they +were sent back with blows, and were told not to come near us again. +The Agha entertained the _Khanum Shirin_ for a long time, and the +conversation was very animated, but when he set a very fine musical +box going for their amusement the lady and the rest of the crowd +became quite listless and apathetic, and said they much preferred to +talk. When their prolonged visit came to an end the _Khanum_ led her +train away, with a bow which really had something of graceful dignity +in it. + +The next morning her husband, the _Mollah-i-Martaza_, and his son, +mounted on one horse, came with us as guides, and when we halted at +their camp the _Khanum_ took the whip out of my hand and whipped the +women all round with it, except the offending beauties, who were not +to be seen. The _mollah_ is a grave, quiet, and most respectable-looking +man, more like a thriving merchant than a nomad chief, though he does +carry arms. He is a devout Moslem, and is learned, _i.e._ he can read +the Koran. + +In a short time the woodland beauty is exchanged for weedy hills and +slopes strewn with boulders. Getting other guides at an Ilyat camp, we +ascended Sanginak, a mountain 8200 feet high, from the top of which a +good idea of the local topography is gained. The most striking +features are the absence of definite peaks and the tremendous gorges +and abrupt turns of the Karun, which swallows in its passage all minor +streams. Precipitous ranges of great altitude hemmed in by ranges yet +loftier, snow-covered or snow-patched, with deep valleys between them, +well grassed and often well wooded, great clefts, through which at +some seasons streams reach the Karun; mountain meadows spotted with +the black tents of Ilyats, and deserted hovels far below, with patches +of wheat and barley, make up the landscape. + +These hills are covered with celery of immense size. The leaves are +dried and stacked for fodder, and the underground stalks, which are +very white, are a great article of food, both fresh and steeped for a +length of time in sour milk. After resting in some Ilyat tents, where +the people were friendly and dirty, we had a most tiresome march over +treeless hills covered with herbs, and down a steep descent into the +Gurab plain, on which a great wall of rocky mountains of definite and +impressive shapes descends in broken spurs. My guide, who had never +been certain about the way, led me wrong. No tents were visible, the +nomads I met had seen neither tents nor caravan. Two hours went by in +toiling round the bases of green hills, and then there was the joyful +surprise of coming upon my tent pitched, the kettle boiling, the mules +knee-deep in food, close by the Chesmeh-i-Gurab, a copious spring of +good water, of which one could safely drink. + +This Gurab plain, one of very many lying high up among these Luristan +mountains, is green and pretty now--a sea of bulbs and grass, but is +brown and dusty from early in June onwards. It is about four miles +long by nine or ten broad, and is watered by a clear and wonderfully +winding stream, which dwindles to a thread later on. The nomads are +already coming up. + +The rest was much broken by the critical state of Karim's arm, which +was swelled, throbbing, and inflamed all round the wound inflicted by +_Karun_ on May 13, and he had high fever. It was a helpless +predicament, the symptoms were so like those of gangrene. I thought he +would most likely die of the hot marches. It was a very anxious night, +as all our methods of healing were exhausted, and the singular +improvement which set in and has continued must have been the work of +the Great Physician, to whom an appeal for help was earnestly made. +The wound is daily syringed with Condy's fluid, the only antiseptic +available, and has a drainage tube. To-day I have begun to use +eucalyptus oil, with which the man is delighted, possibly because he +has heard that it is very expensive, and that I have hardly any left! + +Yesterday I had the amusement of shifting the camps to another place, +and Hadji was somewhat doubtful of my leadership. On arriving at the +beautiful crystal spring which the guide had indicated as the +halting-place for Sunday, I found that it issued from under a mound of +grass-grown graves, was in the full sun blaze, and at the lowest part +of the plain. The guide asserted that it was the only spring, but +having seen a dark stain of vegetation high among the hills, I halted +the caravan and rode off alone in search of the water I hoped it +indicated, disregarding the suppressed but unmistakably sneering +laughter of the guide and _charvadars_. In less than a mile I came +upon the dry bed of a rivulet, a little higher up on a scanty, +intermittent trickle, higher still on a gurgling streamlet fringed by +masses of blue scilla, and still higher on a small circular spring of +very cold water, with two flowery plateaux below it just large enough +for the camps, in a green quiet corrie, with the mountains close +behind. Hadji laughed, and the guide insisted that the spring was not +always there. A delightful place it is in which to spend Sunday +quietly, with its musical ripple of water, its sky-blue carpet of +scilla, its beds of white and purple irises, its slopes ablaze with +the _Fritillaria imperialis_, and its sweet, calm view of the green +Gurab plain and the silver windings of the Dinarud. + +Above the spring is the precipitous hill of Tur, with the remains of +a rude fort on its shattered rocky summit. Two similar ruins are +visible from Tur, one on a rocky ledge of an offshoot of the +Kuh-i-Gerra, on the other side of the Dinarud valley, the other on the +crest of a noble headland of the Sanganaki range, which is visible +throughout the whole region. The local legend concerning them is that +long before the days of the Parthian kings, and when bows and arrows +were the only weapons known, iron being undiscovered, there was in the +neighbourhood of Gurab a king called Faruk Padishah, who had three +sons, Salmon, Tur, and Iraj. It does not appear to be usual among the +Bakhtiaris for sons to "get on" together after their father's death, +and the three youths quarrelled and built these three impregnable +forts--Killa Tur, the one I examined, Killa Iraj, and Killa Salmon. + +The beautiful valley was evidently too narrow for their ambition, and +leaving their uncomfortable fastnesses they went northwards, and +founded three empires, Salmon to the Golden Horn, where he founded +Stamboul, Tur to Turkistan, and Iraj became the founder of the Iranian +Empire. + +Killa Tur is a stone building mostly below the surface of the +hill-top, of rough hewn stone cemented with lime mortar of the +hardness of concrete. The inner space of the fort is not more than +eighty square yards. The walls are from three to six feet thick. + +_Chigakhor, May 31._--The last twelve days have been spent in marching +through a country which has not been traversed by Europeans, only +crossed along the main track. On leaving the pleasant camp of Tur we +descended to the Gurab plain, purple in patches with a showy species +of garlic, skirted the base of the Tur spur, and rode for some miles +along the left bank of the Dinarud, which, after watering the plain of +Gurab, sparkles and rushes down a grassy valley bright with roses and +lilies, and well wooded with oak, elm, and hawthorn. This river, +gaining continually in volume, makes a turbulent descent to the Karun +a few miles from the point where we left it. This was the finest day's +march of the journey. The mountain forms were grander and more +definite, the vegetation richer, the scenery more varied, and a +kindlier atmosphere pervaded it. In the midst of a wood of fine walnut +trees, ash, and hawthorn, laced together by the tendrils of vines, a +copious stream tumbles over rocks fringed with maiden-hair, and +sparkles through grass purple with orchises. This is the only time +that I have seen the one or the other in Persia, and it was like an +unexpected meeting with dear friends. + +Crossing the Dinarud on a twig bridge, fording a turbulent affluent, +which bursts full fledged from the mountain side, and ascending for +some hours through grassy glades wooded with oak and elm, we camped +for two days on the alpine meadow of Arjul, scantily watered but now +very green. Oak woods come down upon it, the vines are magnificent, +and there is some cultivation of wheat, which is sown by the nomads +before their departure in the late autumn, and is reaped during their +summer sojourn. There are no tents there at present, yet from camps +near and far, on horseback and on foot, people came for eye-lotions, +and remained at night to have them dropped into their eyes. + +The next morning I was awakened at dawn by Mirza's voice calling to +me, "Madam, Hadji wants you to come down and sew up a mule that's been +gored by a wild boar." Awfully gored it was. A piece of skin about ten +inches square was hanging down between its forelegs, and a broad wound +the depth of my hand and fully a foot long extended right into its +chest, with a great piece taken out. I did what I could, but the +animal had to be left behind to be cured by the Mollah-i-Martaza, who +left us there. Another misfortune to Hadji was the loss of the fiery +leader of the caravan, Cock o' the Walk, but late at night he was +brought into camp at Dupulan quite crestfallen, having gone back to +the rich pastures which surround the Chesmeh-i-Gurab. The muleteer who +went in search of him was attacked by some Lurs and stripped of his +clothing, but on some men coming up who said his master was under the +protection of the Ilkhani, his clothes and horse were returned to him. + +The parallel ranges with deep valleys between them, which are such a +feature of this country, are seen in perfection near Arjul. Some of +the torrents of this mountain region are already dry, but their broad +stony beds, full of monstrous boulders, arrest the fury with which at +times they seek the Karun. One of these, the Imamzada, passes through +the most precipitous and narrow gorge which it is possible to travel, +even with unloaded mules. The narrow path is chiefly rude rock +ladders, threading a gorge or chasm on a gigantic scale, with a +compressed body of water thundering below, concealed mainly by gnarled +and contorted trees, which find root-hold in every rift. Where the +chasm widens for a space before narrowing to a throat we forded it, +and through glades and wooded uplands reached Arjul, descending and +crossing the torrent by the same ford on the march to Dupulan the next +day. + +Owing to the loss of two baggage animals and the necessary +re-adjustment of the loads, I was late in starting from Arjul, and the +heat as we descended to the lower levels was very great, the +atmosphere being misty as well as sultry. Passing upwards, through +glades wooded with oaks, the path emerges on high gravelly uplands +above the tremendous gorge of the Karun, the manifold windings of +which it follows at a great height. From the first sight of this river +in the Ardal valley to its emergence at Dupulan, just below these +heights, it has come down with abrupt elbow-like turns and singular +sinuosities--a full, rapid, powerful glass-green volume of water, +through a ravine or gorge or chasm from 1000 to 2000 feet in depth, +now narrowing, now widening, but always _the_ feature of the +landscape. It would be natural to use the usual phrase, and write of +the Karun having "carved" this passage for itself, but I am more and +more convinced that this is not the case, but that its waters found +their way into channels already riven by some of those mighty +operations of nature which have made of this country a region of walls +and clefts. + + [Illustration: THE KARUN AT DUPULAN.] + +A long, very steep gravelly descent leads from these high lands down +to the Karun, and to one of the routes--little used, however--from +Isfahan to Shuster. It is reported as being closed by snow four months +of the year. The scenery changed its aspect here, and for walls and +parapets of splintered rock there are rounded gravelly hills and +stretching uplands. + +The three groups of most wretched mud hovels which form the village of +Dupulan ("Two Bridge Place") are on an eminence on the left bank of +the Karun, which emerges from its long imprisonment in a gorge in the +mountains by a narrow passage between two lofty walls of rock so +smooth and regular in their slope and so perfect a gateway as to +suggest art rather than nature. This river, the volume of which is +rapidly augmenting on its downward course, is here compressed into a +width of about twenty yards. + +At this point a stone bridge, built by Hussein Kuli Khan, of one large +pointed arch with a smaller one for the flood, and a rough roadway +corresponding to the arch in the steepness of its pitch, spans the +stream, which passes onwards gently and smoothly, its waters a deep +cool green. Below Dupulan the Karun, which in that direction has been +explored by several travellers, turns to the south-west, and after a +considerable bend enters the levels above Shuster by a north-westerly +course. Near the bridge the Karun is joined by the Sabzu, a very +vigorous torrent from the Ardal plain, which is crossed by a twig +bridge, safer than it looks. + +The camps were pitched in apricot orchards in the Sabzu ravine, near +some _elaegnus_ trees, which are now bearing their sweet gray and +yellow blossoms, which will be succeeded by auburn tresses of a woolly +but very pleasant fruit. Dupulan has an altitude of only 4950 feet, +and in its course from the Kuh-i-Rang to this point the Karun has +descended about 4000 feet. Though there was a breeze, and both ends of +my tent and the _kanats_ were open, the mercury was at 86 deg. inside, and +at 5 A.M. at 72 deg. outside (on May 21). There were no supplies, and even +milk was unattainable. + +The road we followed ascends the Dupulan Pass, which it crosses at a +height of 6380 feet. The path is very bad, hardly to be called a path. +The valley which it ascends is packed with large and small boulders, +with round water-worn stones among them, and such track as there is +makes sharp zigzags over and among these rocks. _Screw_ was very +unwilling to face the difficulties, which took two hours to surmount. +The ascent was hampered by coming upon a tribe of Ilyats on the move, +who at times blocked up the pass with their innumerable sheep and +goats and their herds of cattle. Once entangled in this migration, it +was only possible to move on a few feet at a time. It straggled along +for more than a mile,--loaded cows and bullocks, innumerable sheep, +goats, lambs, and kids; big dogs; asses loaded with black tents and +short tent-poles on the loads; weakly sheep tied on donkeys' backs, +and weakly lambs carried in shepherds' bosoms; handsome mares, each +with her foal, running loose or ridden by women with babies seated on +the tops of loaded saddle-bags made of gay rugs; tribesmen on foot +with long guns slung behind their shoulders, and big two-edged knives +in their girdles; sheep bleating, dogs barking, mares neighing, men +shouting and occasionally firing off their guns, the whole ravine +choked up with the ascending tribal movement. + +Half-way up the ascent there is a most striking view of mountain +ranges cleft by the great chasm of the Karun. The descent is into the +eastern part of the Ardal valley, over arid treeless hillsides +partially ploughed, to the village of Dehnau, not yet deserted for the +summer. Fattiallah Khan expected us, and rooms were prepared for me in +the women's house, which I excused myself from occupying by saying +that I cannot sleep under a roof. I managed also to escape partaking +of a huge garlicky dinner which was being cooked for me. + +The Khan's house or fort, built like all else of mud, has a somewhat +imposing gateway, over which are the men's apartments. The roof is +decorated with a number of ibex horns. Within is a rude courtyard with +an uneven surface, on which servants and negro slaves were skinning +sheep, winnowing wheat, clarifying butter, carding wool, cooking, and +making cheese. The women's apartments are round the courtyard, and +include the usual feature of these houses, an _atrium_, or room +without a front, and a darkish room within. The floor of the _atrium_ +was covered with brown felts, and there was a mattress for me to sit +upon. The ruling spirit of the _haram_ is the Khan's mother, a comely +matron of enormous size, who occasionally slapped her son's four young +and comely wives when they were too "forward." She wore a short +jacket, balloon-like trousers of violet silk, and a black coronet, to +which was attached a black _chadar_ which completely enveloped her. + +The wives wore figured white _chadars_, print trousers, and strings +of coins. Children much afflicted with cutaneous maladies crawled on +the floor. Heaps of servants, negro slaves, old hags, and young girls +crowded behind and around, all talking at once and at the top of their +voices, and at the open front the village people constantly assembled, +to be driven away at intervals by a man with a stick. A bowl of cow's +milk and some barley bread were given to me, and though a remarkably +dirty negress kept the flies away by flapping the milk bowl with a +dirty sleeve, I was very grateful for the meal, for I was really +suffering from the heat and fatigue. + +A visit to a _haram_ is not productive of mutual elevation. The women +seem exceedingly frivolous, and are almost exclusively interested in +the adornment of their persons, the dress and ailments of their +children, and in the frightful jealousies and intrigues inseparable +from the system of polygamy, and which are fostered by the servants +and discarded wives. The servile deference paid by the other women to +the reigning favourite before her face, and the merciless persistency +of the attempts made behind her back to oust her from her position, +and the requests made on the one hand for charms or potions to win or +bring back the love of a husband, and on the other for something which +shall make the favourite hateful to him, are evidences of the misery +of heart which underlies the outward frivolity. + +The tone of Fattiallah Khan's _haram_ was not higher than usual. The +ladies took off my hat, untwisted my hair, felt my hands, and shrieked +when they found that my gloves came off; laughed immoderately at my +Bakhtiari shoes, which, it seems, are only worn by men; put their +rings on my fingers, put my hat on their own heads, asked if I could +give them better hair dyes than their own, and cosmetics to make their +skins fair; paid the usual compliments, told me to regard everything +as _pishkash_, asked for medicines and charms, and regretted that I +would not sleep in their house, because, as they said, they "never +went anywhere or saw anything." + +They have no occupation, except occasionally a little embroidery. They +amuse themselves, they said, by watching the servants at work, and by +having girls to dance before them. They find the winter, though spent +in a warm climate, very long and wearisome, and after dark employ +female professional story-tellers to entertain them with love stories. +At night the elder lady sent three times for a charm which should give +her daughter the love of her husband. She is married to another Khan, +and I recalled her as the forlorn-looking girl without any jewels who +excited my sympathies in his house. + +Marriages are early among these people. They are arranged by the +parents of both bride and bridegroom. The betrothal feast is a great +formality. The "settlements" having been made by the bridegroom's +father and mother, they distribute sweetmeats among the members of the +bride's family, and some respectable men who are present tie a +handkerchief round the head of the bride, and kiss the hands of her +parents as a sign of the betrothal. The engagement must be fulfilled +by the bride's parents under pain of severe penalties, from which the +bridegroom's parents are usually exempt. But, should he prove +faithless, he is a marked man. It appears that "breach of promise of +marriage" is very rare. The betrothal may take place at the tenderest +age, but the marriage is usually delayed till the bride is twelve +years old, or even older, and the bridegroom is from fifteen to +eighteen. + +The "settlements" made at the betrothal are paid at the time of +marriage, and consist of a sum of money or cattle, mares, or sheep, +according to the circumstances of the bridegroom's parents. It is +essential among all classes that a number of costumes be presented to +the bride. After the marriage is over her parents bestow a suit of +clothes on her husband, but these are usually of an inferior, or, as +my interpreter calls them, of a "trivial" description. + +A Bakhtiari marriage is a very noisy performance. For three days or +more, in fact as long as the festivities can be afforded, the +relations and friends of both parties are assembled at the tents of +the bride's parents, feasting and dancing (men and women on this +occasion dancing together), performing feats of horsemanship, and +shooting at a mark. The noise at this time is ceaseless. Drums, +tom-toms, reeds, whistles, and a sort of bagpipe are all in +requisition, and songs of love and war are chanted. At this time also +is danced the national dance, the _chapi_, of which on no other +occasion (except a burial) can a stranger procure a sight for love or +money. It is said to resemble the _arnaoutika_ of the modern Greeks; +any number of men can join in it. The dancers form in a close row, +holding each other by their _kamarbands_, and swinging along sidewise. +They mark the time by alternately stamping the heel of the right and +left foot. The dancers are led by a man who dances apart, waving a +handkerchief rhythmically above his head, and either singing a war +song or playing on a reed pipe. After the marriage feast the bride +follows her husband to his father's tent, where she becomes subject to +her mother-in-law. + +The messenger, after looking round to see that there were no +bystanders, very mysteriously produced from his girdle a black, +flattish oval stone of very close texture, weighing about a pound, +almost polished by long handling. He told me that it was believed that +this stone, if kept in one family for fifty years and steadily worn +by father and son, would then not only turn to gold, but have the +power of transmuting any metal laid beside it for five years, and he +wanted to know what the wisdom of the Feringhis knew about it. + +I went up to my camp above the village and tried to rest there, but +the buzz of a crowd outside and the ceaseless lifting of curtains and +_kanats_ made this quite impossible. When I opened the tent I found +the crowd seated in a semicircle five rows deep, waiting for +medicines, chiefly eye-lotion, quinine, and cough mixtures. These +daily assemblages of "patients" are most fatiguing. The satisfaction +is that some "lame dogs" are "helped over stiles," and that some +prejudice against Christians is removed. + +After this Fattiallah Khan, with a number of retainers, paid a formal +visit to the Agha, who kindly sent for me, as I do not receive any but +lady visitors in my tent. The Khan is a very good-looking and +well-dressed man of twenty-eight, very amusing, and ready to be +amused. He was very anxious to be doctored, but looked the opposite of +a sick man. He and Isfandyar Khan were in arms against the Ilkhani two +years ago, and a few men were shot. He looked as if he were very sorry +not to have killed him. + +The Bakhtiaris have an enormous conceit of themselves and their +country. It comes out in all ways and on all occasions, and their war +stories and songs abound in legends of singular prowess, one Bakhtiari +killing twenty Persians, and the like. They represent the power of the +Shah over them as merely nominal, a convenient fiction for the time +being, although it is apparent that Persia, which for years has been +aiming at the extinction of the authority of the principal chiefs, has +had at least a partial success. + +At such interviews a private conversation is impossible. The manners +are those of a feudal _regime_. Heaps of retainers crowd round, and +even join in the conversation. A servant brought the Khan a handsome +_kalian_ to smoke three times. He also took tea. A great quantity of +opium for exportation is grown about Dehnau, and the Khan said that +the cultivation of it is always increasing. + +From Dehnau the path I took leads over gravelly treeless hills, +through many treeless gulches, to the top of a great gorge, through +which the Sabzu passes as an impetuous torrent. The descent to a very +primitive bridge is long and difficult, a succession of rocky zigzags. +Picturesqueness is not a usual attribute of mud villages, but the view +from every point of Chiraz, the village on the lofty cliffs on the +other side of the stream, is strikingly so. They are irregularly +covered with houses, partly built on them and partly excavated out of +them, and behind is a cool mass of greenery, apricot orchards, +magnificent walnut and mulberry trees, great standard hawthorns loaded +with masses of blossom, wheat coming into ear, and clumps and banks of +canary-yellow roses measuring three inches across their petals. Groups +of women, in whose attire Turkey red predominated, were on the house +roofs. Wild flowers abounded, and the sides of the craggy path by +which I descended were crowded with leguminous and umbelliferous +plants, with the white and pink dianthus, and with the thorny +_tussocks_ of the gum tragacanth, largely used for kindling, now in +full bloom. + +As I dragged my unwilling horse down the steep descent, his bridle was +taken out of my hands, and I was welcomed by the brother of Fattiallah +Khan, who, with a number of village men escorted me over the twig +bridge, and up to an exquisite halting-place under a large mulberry +tree, where the next two hours were spent in receiving visitors. It +is evident that these fine orchards must have been the pleasure-ground +of some powerful ruler, and the immense yellow roses are such as grow +in one or two places in Kashmir, where they are attributed to +Jehangir. + +The track from Chiraz for many miles follows up the right bank of the +Sabzu at a great height, descends occasionally into deep gulches, +crosses the spurs of mountains whose rifts give root-hold to contorted +"pencil cedars," and winds among small ash trees and hawthorns, or +among rich grass and young wheat, which is grown to a considerable +extent on the irrigated slopes above the river. It is a great surprise +to find so much land under cultivation, and so much labour spent on +irrigation channels. Some of these canals are several miles in length, +and the water always runs in them swiftly, and the right way, although +the "savages" who make them have no levels or any tools but spades. + +Mountains, much scored and canyoned by streams, very grand in form, and +with much snow still upon them, rise to a great height above the +ranges which form the Sabzu valley. From Chaharta, an uninteresting +camping-ground by the river, I proceeded by an elevated and rather +illegible track in a easterly direction to the meeting of two streams, +forded the Sabzu, and camped for two days on the green slope of Sabz +Kuh, at a height of 8100 feet, close to a vigorous spring whose waters +form many streamlets, fringed by an abundance of pink primulas, purple +and white orchises, white tulips, and small fragrant blue irises. + +Lahdaraz is in the very heart of mountain ranges, and as the Ilyats +have not yet come up so high, there were no crowds round my tent for +medicine, but one sick woman was carried thither eleven miles on the +back of her husband, who seemed tenderly solicitous about her. + +On Monday I spent most of the day 1000 feet higher, in most +magnificent scenery on an imposing scale of grandeur. The guide took +us from the camp through herbage, snow, and alpine flowers, up a +valley with fine mountains on either side, terminating on the brink of +a gigantic precipice, a cloven ledge between the Kuh-i-Kaller and a +stupendous cliff or headland, Sultan Ibrahim, over 12,000 feet, which +descends in shelving masses to an abyss of tremendous depth, where +water thunders in a narrow rift. The Sabz Kuh, or "green mountain" +range, famous for the pasturage of its higher slopes, terminates in +Sultan Ibrahim, and unites at its eastern end with the Kuh-i-Kaller, a +range somewhat higher. On the east side of this huge chasm rises +another range of peaks, with green shelves, dark rifts, and red +precipices, behind which rise another, and yet another, whose blue, +snow-patched summits blended with the pure cool blue of the sky. In +the far distance, in a blue veil, lies the green-tinted plain of Khana +Mirza, set as an emerald in this savage scenery, with two ranges +beyond, and above them the great mountain mass of the Riji, whose +snowy peaks were painted faintly on a faint blue heaven. + +That misty valley, irrigated and cultivated, with 100 villages of the +Janiki tribe upon it, is the only fair spot in the savage landscape. +Elsewhere only a few wild flowers and a gnarled juniper here and there +relieve the fierce, blazing verdurelessness of these stupendous +precipices. Never, not even among the Himalayas, have I seen anything +so superlatively grand, though I have always imagined that such scenes +must exist somewhere on the earth. A pair of wild sheep on a ledge, a +serpent or two, and an eagle soaring sunwards represented animate +nature, otherwise the tremendous heights above, the awful depths +below, the snowy mountains, and the valley with its smile, were given +over to solitude and silence, except for the dull roar of the torrent +hurrying down to vivify the Khana Mirza plain. + +After leaving Lahdaraz the path followed the course of the Sabzu +through grass and barley for a few miles. Then there is an abrupt and +disagreeable change to yellow mud slopes and high mud mountains deeply +fissured, the scanty herbage already eaten down by Ilyat flocks--a +desolate land, without springs, streams, or even Ilyat tents. Then +comes a precipice at an altitude of 7500 feet, through a cleft in +which, the Tang-i-Wastagun, the road passes, and descends to the plain +of Gandaman as something little better than a sheep track on a steep +hillside above a stream. The heat was fierce. A pair of stout +gardening gloves does not preserve the hands from blistering. +Spectacles with wire gauze sides have to be abandoned as they threaten +to roast the eyes. In this latitude, 32 deg., the heat of the sun at noon +is tremendous. At the precipice top I crept into a hole at the base of +a rock, for "the shadow of a great rock in a weary land," till the +caravan staggered up. It was difficult to brave the sun's direct rays. +He looked like a ball of magnesium light, white and scintillating, in +the unclouded sky. + +On crossing the Tang-i-Wastagun we left behind the Bakhtiari country +proper for a time, and re-entered the Chahar Mahals, with their mixed +village population of Persians and Armenians. The descent from the +Tang-i-Wastagun is upon a ruined Armenian village with a large +graveyard. The tombstones are of great size, ten feet long by three +feet broad and three feet high, sarcophagus-shaped, and on each stone +are an Armenian epitaph and a finely-engraved cross. The plain of +Gandaman or Wastagun is a very large one, over 7000 feet in altitude, +and is surrounded mainly by high mountains still snow-patched, but to +the north by low rocky hills. Much of it is irrigated and under +cultivation, and grows heavy crops of wheat and barley. The pasturage +is fine and abundant, and the people breed cattle and horses. The +uncultivated slopes are now covered with red tulips and a purple +_allium_, and even the dry gravel added largely to the daily +increasing botanical collection. + + [Illustration: ALI JAN.] + +The camps were pitched on green turf near three springs, a quiet +place, but there was little rest. We were hardly settled before there +was a severe fight among the horses, my sour-tempered _Screw_ being +the aggressor. This was hardly quieted when there was a sharp +"scrimmage" between the _charvadars_ and the Agha's three young +savages, in which one of them, Ali Jan, was badly beaten, and came to +me to have a bleeding face and head dressed. After that the people +began to come in from the villages for eye-washes and medicines. They +have no bottles, nor have I, and the better-off bring great copper +jugs and basins for an ounce or two of lotion! A very poor old woman +much afflicted with ophthalmia said she had three sisters all blind, +that she had nothing for lotion, nothing in the world but a copper +cooking pot, and she cried piteously. I had nothing to give her, and +eventually she returned with an egg-shell, with the top neatly chipped +off. It is the custom to raise the hands to heaven and invoke +blessings on the _Hak[=i]m's_ head, but I never received so many as +from this poor creature. + +The ride to the village of Gandaman, where we halted for two days, was +an agreeable one. After being shut up among mountains and precipices, +space and level ground to gallop over are an agreeable change, and in +the early morning the heat was not excessive. The great plain was a +truly pastoral scene. Wild-looking shepherds with long guns led great +brown flocks to the hills; innumerable yokes of black oxen, ploughing +with the usual iron-shod, pointed wooden share, turned over the rich +black soil, making straight furrows, and crossing them diagonally; +mares in herds fed with their foals; and shepherds busily separated +the sheep from the goats. + +Close to the filthy walled Armenian village of Kunak there is a +conical hill with a large fort, in ruinous condition, upon it, and not +far off are the remains of an Armenian village, enclosed by a square +wall with a round tower at each corner. This must have been until +recently a place of some local importance, as it is approached by a +paved causeway, and had an aqueduct, now ruinous, carried over the +river on three arches. Not only the plain but the hill-slopes up to a +great height are cultivated, and though the latter have the +precariousness of rain-lands, the crops already in ear promise well. + +Crossing a spur which descends upon the north side of the plain, we +reached Gandaman, a good-looking walled Moslem village of 196 houses, +much planted, chiefly with willows, and rejoicing in eight springs, +close together, the overflow of which makes quite a piece of water. It +has an _imamzada_ on an eminence and is fairly prosperous, for besides +pastoral wealth it weaves and exports carpets, and dyes cotton and +woollen yarn with madder and other vegetable dyes. The mountain view +to the south-west is very fine. + +I was in my tent early, but there was little rest, for crowds of +people with bad eyes and woful maladies besieged it until the evening. +At noon a gay procession crossed the green camping-ground, four mares +caparisoned in red trappings, each carrying two women in bright +dresses, but shrouded in pure white sheets bound round their heads +with silver chains. The _ketchuda_ of the Armenian village of +Libasgun, two miles off, accompanied them, and said that they came to +invite me to their village, for they are Christians. Then they all +made the sign of the Cross, which is welcome in this land as a bond of +brotherhood. + +Cleanly, comely, large-eyed, bright-cheeked, and wholesome they +looked, in their pure white _chadars_, gay red dresses, and +embroidered under-vests. They had massive silver girdles, weighing +several pounds, worn there only by married women, red coronets, heavy +tiaras of silver, huge necklaces of coins, and large filigree silver +drops attached down the edges of their too open vests. Their heavy +hair was plaited, but not fastened up. Each wore a stiff +diamond-shaped piece of white cotton over her mouth and the tip of her +nose. They said it was their custom to wear it, and they would not +remove it even to eat English biscuits! They managed to drink tea by +veiling their faces with their _chadars_ and passing the cup +underneath, but they turned their faces quite away as they did it. +They had come for the day, and had brought large hanks of wool to +wind, but the headman had the tact to take them away after arranging +for me to return the visit in the evening. + +He seemed an intelligent man. Libasgun, with its 120 houses, is, +according to his account, a prosperous village, paying its tax of 300 +_tumans_ (L100) a year to the Amin-ud-Daulat, and making a present +only to the Ilkhani. It has 2000 sheep and goats, besides mares and +cattle. It has an oil mill, and exports oil to Isfahan. The women +weave carpets, and embroider beautifully on coarse cotton woven by +themselves, and dyed indigo blue and madder red by their Gandaman +neighbours. This man is proud of being a Christian. Among the +Armenians Christianity is as much a national characteristic as pride +of race and strict monogamy. He remarked that there are no sore eyes +in Libasgun, and attributed it to the greater cleanliness of the +people and to the cross signed in holy oil upon their brows in +baptism! + +I rode to this village in the late afternoon, and was received with +much distinction in the _balakhana_ of the _ketchuda's_ house, where I +was handed to the seat of honour, a bolster at the head of the +handsomely-carpeted room. It soon filled with buxom women in red, with +jackets displaying their figures, or want of figures, down to their +waists. From the red velvet coronets on their heads hung two graduated +rows of silver coins, and their muslin _chadars_ were attached to +their hair with large silver pins and chains. Magnificent necklaces of +gold coins were also worn. + + [Illustration: ARMENIAN WOMEN OF LIBASGUN.] + +Forty women sat on the floor in rows against the wall. Each had rosy +cheeks, big black eyes, and a diamond-shaped white cloth over her +mouth. The uniformity was shocking. They stared, not at me, but at +nothing. They looked listless and soulless, only fit to be what they +are--the servants of their husbands. When they had asked me my age, +and why I do not dye my hair, the conversation flagged, for I could +not get any information from them even on the simplest topics. Hotter +and hotter grew the room, more stolid the vacancy of the eyes, more +grotesque the rows of white diamonds over the mouths, when the happy +thought occurred to me to ask to see the embroidered aprons, which +every girl receives from her mother on her marriage. Two mountains of +flesh obligingly rolled out of the room, and rolled in again bringing +some beautiful specimens of needlework. This is really what is known +as "Russian embroidery," cross stitch in artistic colours on coarse +red or blue cotton. The stomachers are most beautifully worked. The +aprons cover the whole of the front and the sides of the dress. The +mothers begin to embroider them when their daughters are ten. The +diamond-shaped cloth is put on by girls at eight or nine. The women +would not remove it for a moment even to oblige a guest. The perpetual +wearing of it is one of their religious customs, only prevailing, +however, in some localities. They say that when our Lord was born His +mother in token of reverence took a cloth and covered her mouth, hence +their habit. + +When the _ketchuda_ arrived he found the heat of the room unbearable +and proposed an adjournment to the lower roof, which was speedily +swept, watered, and carpeted. + +An elaborate banquet had been prepared in the hope that the Agha would +pay them a visit, and they were much mortified at his non-appearance. +The great copper basins containing the food were heaped together in +the middle of the carpets, and the guests, fifty in number, sat down, +the men on one side, and the women on the other, the wives of the +_ketchuda_ and his brothers serving. There were several _samovars_ +with tea, but only three cups. A long bolster was the place of honour, +and I occupied it alone till the village priests arrived,--reverend +men with long beards, high black head-dresses, and full black cassocks +with flowing sleeves. All the guests rose, and remained standing till +they had been ceremoniously conducted to seats. I found them very +agreeable and cultured men, acquainted with the varying "streams of +tendency" in the Church of England, and very anxious to claim our +Church as a sister of their own. This banquet was rather a gay scene, +and on a higher roof fully one hundred women and children dressed in +bright red stood watching the proceedings below. + +I proposed to see the church, and with the priests, most of the +guests, and a considerable following of the onlookers, walked to it +through filthy alleys. This ancient building, in a dirty and +malodorous yard, differs externally from the mud houses which surround +it only in having two bells on a beam. The interior consists of four +domed vaults, and requires artificial light. A vault with a raised +floor contains the altar and a badly-painted altar-piece representing +the B. V.; a rail separates the men, who stand in front, from the +women, who stand behind. A Liturgy and an illuminated medieval copy of +the Gospels, of which they are very proud, are their only treasures. +They have no needlework, and the altar cloth is only a piece of +printed cotton. Nothing could well look poorer than this small, dark, +vacant building, with a few tallow candles without candlesticks giving +a smoky light. + +They have two daily services lasting from one to two hours each, and +Mass on Sunday is protracted to seven hours! The priests said that all +the men, except two who watch the flocks, and nearly all the women are +at both services on Sunday, and that many of the men and most of the +women are at both daily services, one of which, as is usual, begins +before daylight. There is no school. The fathers teach their boys to +read and write, and the mothers instruct their girls in needlework. + +After visits to the priests' houses, a number of villagers on +horseback escorted me back to Gandaman. The heat of those two days was +very great for May, the mercury marking 83 deg. in the shade at 10 A.M. +One hundred and thirteen people came for medicines, and in their +eagerness they swarmed round both ends of the tent, blocking out all +air. The ailments were much more varied and serious than among the +Bakhtiaris. + + [Illustration: WALL AND GATE OF LIBASGUN.] + +The last march was a hot and tedious one of eighteen miles, along an +uninteresting open valley, much ploughed, bounded by sloping +herbage-covered hills, surmounted by parapets of perpendicular rock. +After passing the large Moslem village of Baldiji, we re-entered the +Bakhtiari country, ascended to the Bakhtiari village of Dastgird, +descended to the plain of Chigakhor, skirted its southern margin, and +on its western side, on two spurs of the great Kuh-i-Kaller range, +with a ravine between them, the camps were pitched. In two days most +of the tents were blown down, and were moved into two ravines with a +hill between them, on which the Sahib on his arrival pitched his camp. + +My ravine has a spring, with exactly space for my tent beside it, and +a platform higher up with just room enough for the servants. A strong +stream, rudely brawling, issuing from the spring, disturbs sleep. +There is no possibility of changing one's position by even a six-feet +stroll, so rough and steep is the ground. Mirza bringing my meals from +the cooking tent has a stick to steady himself. At first there was +nothing to see but scorched mountains opposite, and the green plain on +which the ravine opens, but the _Hak[=i]m's_ tent was soon discovered, +and I have had 278 "patients"! Before I am up in the morning they are +sitting in rows one behind another on the steep ground, their horses +and asses grazing near them, and all day they come. One of the chiefs +of the Janiki tribe came with several saddle and baggage horses and +even a tent, to ask me to go with him to the great plain of Khana +Mirza, three days' march from here, to cure his wife's eyes, and was +grieved to the heart when I told him they were beyond my skill. He +stayed while a great number of sick people got eye-lotions and +medicines, and then asked me why I gave these medicines and took so +much trouble. I replied that our Master and Lord not only commanded us +to do good to all men as we have opportunity, but Himself healed the +sick. "You call Him Master and Lord," he said; "He was a great +Prophet. _Send a Hak[=i]m to us in His likeness._" + +I have heard so much of Chigakhor that I am disappointed with the +reality. There are no trees, most of the snow has melted, the +mountains are not very bold in their features, the plain has a sort of +lowland look about it, and though its altitude is 7500 feet, the days +and even nights are very hot. The interest of it lies in it being the +summer resort of the Ilkhani and Ilbegi, a fact which makes it the +great centre of Bakhtiari life. As many as 400 tents are pitched here +in the height of the season, and the coming and going of Khans and +headmen with tribute and on other business is ceaseless. + +The plain, which is about seven miles long by three broad, is quite +level. Near the south-east end is a shallow reedy mere, fringed by a +fertile swampiness, which produces extraordinary crops of grass far +out into the middle of the level. + +Near the same end is a rocky eminence or island, on which is the +fortress castle of the Ilkhani. The "season" begins in early June, +when the tribes come up from the warm pastures of Dizful and Shuster, +to which they return with their pastoral wealth in the autumn, after +which the plain is flooded and frozen for the winter. At the north end +are the villages of Dastgird and Aurugun and a great deal of irrigated +land producing wheat. Except at that end the plain is surrounded by +mountains; on its southern side, where a part of the Sukhta range +rises into the lofty peak of Challeh Kuh, with its snow-slashes and +snow-fields, they attain an altitude of 12,000 or 13,000 feet. + +It is not easy, perhaps not possible, to pass through the part of the +Bakhtiari country for which we are bound, without some sort of +assistance from its feudal lords, a responsible man, for instance, who +can obtain supplies from the people. Therefore we have been detained +here for many days waiting for the expected arrival of the Ilkhani. A +few days ago a rumour arrived, since unhappily continued, that things +were in confusion below, owing to the discovery of a plot on the part +of the Ilkhani to murder the Ilbegi. Stories are current of the number +of persons "put out of the way" before he attained his present rank +for the second time, and it is not "Bakhtiari custom" to be +over-scrupulous about human life. No doubt his nephew, the Ilbegi, is +a very dangerous rival, and that his retainers are bent on seeing him +in a yet higher position than he now occupies. + +A truce has been patched up, however, and yesterday the Ilkhani and +Isfandyar Khan arrived together, with their great trains of armed +horsemen, their _harams_, their splendid studs, their crowds of +unmounted retainers, their strings of baggage mules and asses laden +with firewood, and all the "rag, tag, and bobtail" in attendance on +Oriental rulers. Following them in endless nocturnal procession come +up the tribes, and day breaks on an ever-increasing number of brown +flocks and herds, of mares, asses, dogs, black tents, and household +goods. When we arrived there were only three tents, now the green +bases of the mountains and all the platforms and ravines where there +are springs are spotted with them, in rows or semicircles, and at +night the camp fires of the multitude look like the lights of a city. +Each clan has a prescriptive right to its camping-ground and pasture +(though both are a fruitful source of quarrels), and arrives with its +_ketchuda_ and complete social organisation, taking up its position +like a division of an army. + +When in the early morning or afternoon the tribe reaches the +camping-ground, everything is done in the most orderly way. The +infants are put into their cradles, the men clear the ground if +necessary, drive the pegs and put up the poles, and if there be +wood--of which there is not a stick here--they make a fence of loose +branches to contain the camp, but the women do the really hard work. +Their lords, easily satisfied with their modicum of labour, soon +retire to enjoy their pipes and the endless gossip of Bakhtiari life. + + [Illustration: A PERSO-BAKHTIARI CRADLE.] + +After the ground has been arranged the tents occupy invariably the +same relative position, whether the camp is in a row, a semicircle, a +circle, or streets, so that the cattle and flocks may easily find +their owners' abodes without being driven. The tents, which are of +black goats' hair cloth, are laid out and beaten, and the women spread +them over the poles and arrange the rest, after which the inside is +brushed to remove the soot. In a good tent, reed screens are put up to +divide the space into two or more portions, and some of the tribes +fence round the whole camp with these screens, leaving one opening, +and use the interior for a sheepfold. The small bushes are grubbed up +for fuel. The women also draw the water, and the boys attend to the +flocks. Many of the camps, however, have neither fences nor environing +screens, and their inmates dwell without any attempt at privacy, and +rely for the safety of their flocks on big and trustworthy dogs, of +which every camp has a number. + +When they move the bulk of the labour again falls on the women. They +first make the baggage into neat small packages suited for the backs +of oxen; then they take up the tent pegs, throw down the tents, and +roll them up in the reed screens, all that the men undertake being to +help in loading the oxen. It is only when a division halts for at +least some days that this process is gone through. In fine weather, if +a tribe is marching daily to its summer or winter camping-grounds, the +families frequently sleep in the open. + +The chief's tent is always recognisable by its size, and is +occasionally white. I have seen a tent of a wealthy Khan fully sixty +feet long. A row of poles not more than ten feet high supported the +roof, which was of brown haircloth, the widths united by a coarse open +stitch. On the windward side the roof was pinned down nearly to the +top of a loosely-laid wall of stones about three feet high. The +leeward side was quite open, and the roof, which could be lowered if +necessary, was elevated and extended by poles six feet high. If the +tent was sixty feet long, it was made by this arrangement twenty feet +broad. At the lower end was a great fire-hole in the earth, and the +floor of the upper end was covered with rugs, quilts, and pillows, the +household stuff being arranged chiefly on and against the rude stone +wall. + +The process of encamping for a camp of seventy tents takes about two +hours, and many interruptions occur, especially the clamorous demands +of unweaned infants of mature years. De-camping the same number of +tents takes about an hour. A free, wild life these nomads lead, full +of frays and plots, but probably happier than the average lot. + +Below the castle is the great encampment of the chiefs, brown tents +and white bell tents, among which the tall white pavilion of the +Ilkhani towers conspicuously. The Ilkhani and Ilbegi called on me, and +as they sat outside my tent it was odd to look back two years to the +time when they were fighting each other, and barely two weeks to the +discovery of the plot of the dark-browed Ilkhani to murder his nephew. +The Ilkhani's face had a very uncomfortable expression. Intrigues +against him at Tihran and nearer home, the rumoured enmity of the +Prime Minister, the turbulence of some of the tribes, the growing +power of the adherents of Isfandyar Khan, and his own baffled plot to +destroy him must make things unpleasant. Several of the small Khans +who have been to see me expect fighting here before the end of the +summer. The Ilkhani had previously availed himself of the resources of +my medicine chest, and with so much benefit that I was obliged to +grant a request which deprived me of a whole bottle of "tabloids." + +In the evening I visited the ladies who are in the castle leading the +usual dull life of the _haram_, high above the bustle which centres +round the Ilkhani's pavilion, with its crowds of tribesmen, mares and +foals feeding, tethered saddle horses neighing, cows being milked, +horsemen galloping here and there, firing at a mark, asses bearing +wood and flour from Ardal being unloaded--a bustle masculine solely. + +Isfandyar Khan, with whose look of capacity I am more and more +impressed, and Lutf received us and led us to the great pavilion, +which is decorated very handsomely throughout with red and blue +_applique_ arabesques, and much resembles an Indian _durbar_ tent. A +brown felt carpet occupied the centre. The Ilkhani, who rose and shook +hands, sat on one side and the Ilbegi on the other, and sons, Khans, +and attendants to the number of 200, I daresay, stood around. We made +some fine speeches, rendered finer, doubtless, by Mirza; repeated an +offer to send a doctor to itinerate in the country for some months in +1891, took the inevitable tea, and while the escorts were being +arranged for I went to the fort. + +It is the fortress of the Haft Lang, one great division of the +Bakhtiari Lurs, which supplies the ruling dynasty. The building is a +parallelogram, flanked by four round towers, with large casemates and +a keep on its southern side. It has two courtyards, surrounded by +stables and barracks, but there is no water within the gates, and +earthquakes and neglect have reduced much of it to a semi-ruinous +condition. Over the gateway and along the front is a handsome suite of +well-arranged balconied rooms, richly decorated in Persian style, the +front and doors of the large reception-room being of fretwork filled +in with amber and pale blue glass, and the roof and walls are covered +with small mirrors set so as to resemble facets, with medallion +pictures of beauties and of the chase let in at intervals. The effect +of the mirrors is striking, and even beautiful. There were very +handsome rugs on the floor, and divans covered with Kashan velvet; but +rugs, divans, and squabs were heaped to the depth of some inches with +rose petals which were being prepared for rose-water, and the +principal wife rose out of a perfect bed of them. + +These ladies have no conversation, and relapse into apathy after +asking a few personal questions. Again they said they wished to see +the Agha, of whose height and prowess many rumours had reached them, +but when I suggested that they might see him from the roof or balcony +they said they were afraid. Again they said they had such dull lives, +and regretted my departure, as they thought they might come and see my +tent. I felt sorry for them, sorrier than I can say, as I realised +more fully the unspeakable degradation and dulness of their lives. A +perfect rabble of dirty women and children filled the passages and +staircase. + +On one of my last evenings I rode, attended only by Mirza, to the +village of Dastgird to see two women whose husband desired medicines +for them. This village is piled upon the hillside at the north end of +the valley and a traveller can be seen afar off. I had never visited +any of the camps so slenderly escorted, and when I saw the roofs +covered with men and numbers more running to the stream with long guns +slung behind their backs and big knives in their girdles, I was much +afraid that they might be rude in the absence of a European man, and +that I should get into trouble. At the stream the _ketchuda_, whose +wives were ill, and several of the principal inhabitants met me. They +salaamed, touched their hearts and brows, two held my stirrups, others +walked alongside, and an ever-increasing escort took me up the steep +rude alley of the village to the low arch by which the headman's +courtyard--all rocks, holes, and heaps--is entered. + +Dismounting was a difficulty. Several men got hold of _Screw_, one +made a step of his back, another of his knee, one grasped my foot, two +got hold of my arms, all shouting and disputing as to how to proceed, +but somehow I was hauled off, and lifted by strong arms up into the +_atrium_, the floor of which was covered with their woven rugs, across +which they led me to an improvised place of honour, a _karsi_ covered +with a red blanket. A brass _samovar_ was steaming hospitably on the +floor, surrounded by tea-glasses, trays, and sugar. The chief paid me +the usual Persian compliment, "Your presence purifies the house;" men +crowded in, shrouded women peeped through doorways; they served me on +bended knees with tea _a la Russe_, and though they shouted very loud, +and often all together, they made me very cordially welcome. They send +their flocks with some of their people to warmer regions for the +winter, but the chief and many families remain, though the snow is +from seven to nine feet deep, according to their marks on a post. + +I rode to the camp where the wives were, with the Khan and a number of +men on foot and on horseback, a messenger having been sent in advance. +In the village the great sheep-dogs, as usual, showed extreme +hostility, and one, madder than the rest, a powerful savage, attacked +me, fixing his teeth in my stirrup guard, and hanging on. The Khan +drew a revolver and shot him through the back, killing him at once, +and threatened to beat the owner. _Screw_ was quite undisturbed by the +incident. + +The power of the _ketchuda_ or headman of a group of families is not +absolute even in this small area. His duties are to arrange the annual +migrations, punish small crimes summarily, to report larger crimes to +the Khan, to collect the tribute, conjointly with the Khan, and to +carry out his orders among the families of his group. Private +oppression appears to be much practised among the _ketchudas_, and +under the feeble rule of Imam Kuli Khan to be seldom exposed. The +_ketchuda's_ office, originally elective, has a great tendency to +become hereditary, but at any moment the Ilkhani may declare it +elective in a special case. + +Though the offices of Ilkhani and Ilbegi are held only annually at the +pleasure of the Shah, and the _ketchudas_ are properly elective, the +office of Khan or chief is strictly hereditary, though it does not +necessarily fall to the eldest son. This element of permanence gives +the Khan almost supreme authority in his tribe, and when the Ilkhani +is a weak man and a Khan is a strong one, he is practically +independent, except in the matter of the tribute to the Shah. + +It was in curbing the power of these Khans by steering a shrewd and +even course among their feuds and conflicts, by justice and +consideration in the collection of the revenues, and by rendering it a +matter of self-interest for them to seek his protection and +acknowledge his headship, that Sir A. H. Layard's friend, Mohammed +Taki Khan, succeeded in reducing these wild tribes to something like +order, and Hussein Kuli Khan, "the last real ruler of the Bakhtiaris," +pursued the same methods with nearly equal success. + +But things have changed, and a fresh era of broils and rivalries has +set in, and in addition to tribal feuds and jealousies, the +universally-erected line of partisanship between the adherents of the +Ilkhani and Ilbegi produces anything but a pacific prospect. These +broils, and the prospects of fighting, are the subjects discussed at +my tent door in the evenings. + + [Illustration: A DASTGIRD TENT.] + +The Dastgird encampment that evening was the romance of camp life. On +the velvety green grass there were four high black canopies, open at +the front and sides, looking across the green flowery plain, on which +the Ilkhani's castle stood out, a violet mass against the sunset gold, +between the snow-streaked mountains. There were handsome carpets, +mattresses, and bolsters; _samovars_ steaming on big brass trays, an +abundance of curds, milk, and whey, and at one end of the largest tent +there were two very fine mares, untethered, with young foals, and +children rolling about among their feet. I was placed, as usual, on +a bolster, and the tent filled with people, all shouting, and +clamouring together, bringing rheumatism ("wind in the bones"), sore +eyes, headaches ("wind in the head"), and old age to be cured. The +Khan's wife, a handsome, pathetic-looking girl, had become an +epileptic a fortnight ago. This malady is sadly common. Of the 278 +people who have come for medicines here thirteen per cent have had +epileptic fits. They call them "faintings," and have no horror of +them. Eye diseases, including such severe forms as cataract and +glaucoma, rheumatism, headaches, and dyspepsia are their most severe +ailments. No people have been seen with chest complaints, bone +diseases, or cancer. + +In the largest tent there was a young mother with an infant less than +twenty-four hours old, and already its eyebrows, or at all events the +place where eyebrows will be, were deeply stained and curved. At seven +or eight years old girls are tattooed on hands, arms, neck, and chest, +and the face is decorated with stars on the forehead and chin. + +Though children of both sexes are dearly loved among these people, it +is only at the birth of a son that there is anything like festivity, +and most of the people are too poor to do more even then than +distribute sweetmeats among their friends and relations. The +"wealthier" families celebrate the birth of a firstborn son with +music, feasting, and dancing. + +At the age of five or six days the child is named, by whispering the +Divine name in its ear, along with that chosen by the parents. + +After a long visit the people all kissed my hand, raising it to their +foreheads afterwards, and the Khan made a mounting block of his back, +and rode with me to the main path. It was all savage, but the +intention was throughout courteous, according to their notions. It +became pitch dark, and I lost my way, and should have pulled _Screw_ +over a precipice but for his sagacious self-will. One of the finest +sights I have seen was my own camp in a thunderstorm, with its white +tents revealed by a flash of lightning, which lighted for a second the +black darkness of the ravine. + +The next morning the Khan of Dastgird's servants brought fifteen +bottles and pipkins for eye-lotions and medicines. In spite of the +directions in Persian which Mirza put upon the bottles, I doubt not +that some of the eye-lotions will be swallowed, and that some of the +medicines will be put into the eyes! + +_June 8._--The last evening has come after a busy day. The +difficulties in the way of getting ready for the start to-morrow have +been great. The iron socket of my tent-pole broke, there was no smith +in the valley, and when one arrived with the Ilkhani, the Ilkhani's +direct order had to be obtained before he would finish the work he had +undertaken. I supplied the iron, but then there was no charcoal. I +have been tentless for the whole day. Provisions for forty days have +to be taken from Chigakhor, and two cwts. of rice and flour have been +promised over and over again, but have only partially arrived +to-night. Hassan has bought a horse and a cow, and they have both +strayed, and he has gone in search of them, and Mirza in search of +him, and both have been away for hours. + +Of the escorts promised by the Ilkhani not one man has arrived, though +it was considered that the letter to him given me by the +Amin-es-Sultan would have obviated any difficulty on this score. An +armed sentry was to have slept in front of my tent, and a _tufangchi_ +was to have been my constant attendant, and I have nobody. Of the +escort promised to the Agha not one man has appeared. In this case we +are left to do what General Schindler and others in Tihran and +Isfahan declared to be impossible, viz. to get through the country +without an escort and without the moral support of a retainer high in +the Ilkhani's service. Whether there have been crooked dealings; or +whether the Ilkhani, in spite of his promises, regards the presence of +travellers in his country with disfavour; or whether, apprehending a +collision, both the Ilkhani and Ilbegi are unwilling to part with any +of their horsemen, it is impossible to decide. + + I. L. B. + + +END OF VOL. I + + + + + +_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, _Edinburgh_. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan, +Volume I (of 2), by Isabella L. Bird + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOURNEYS IN PERSIA, KURDISTAN, VOL I *** + +***** This file should be named 38827.txt or 38827.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/8/2/38827/ + +Produced by Julia Miller, Melissa McDaniel and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. |