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diff --git a/38828.txt b/38828.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..50f369a --- /dev/null +++ b/38828.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14539 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan, Volume II +(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 II (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 #38828] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOURNEYS IN PERSIA, KURDISTAN, VOL II *** + + + + +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_. + + Macrons (straight lines above the characters) are represented as + [=a], [=e], [=i], and [=u]. + + + + + + [Illustration: CHURCH OF MAR SHALITA, KOCHANES. _Frontispiece, + vol. II._] + + + + + + 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. II. + + WITH PORTRAIT, MAPS, AND ILLUSTRATIONS + + LONDON + JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET + 1891 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +IN VOLUME II. + + + Church of Mar Shalita, Kochanes _Frontispiece_ + + Stone Lion and Guide _Page_ 8 + + Karun at Pul-i-Ali-Kuh _To face page_ 10 + + Killa Bazuft " 19 + + Fording the Karun " 23 + + Sar-i-Cheshmeh-i-Kurang " 29 + + Zard Kuh Range " 30 + + Aziz Khan 37 + + Yahya Khan 110 + + A Twig Bridge 114 + + Tomb of Esther and Mordecai 153 + + Kurd of Sujbul[=a]k 208 + + Hesso Khan 264 + + A Syrian Family 273 + + Designs on Tombs at Kochanes _To face page_ 297 + + Syrian Cross 297 + + Syrian Priest and Wife 310 + + A Syrian Girl 315 + + Rock and Citadel of Van _To face page_ 338 + + Kurds of Van 339 + + A Hakkiari Kurd 372 + + + + +LETTER XVI + + + ALI-KUH, _June 12_. + +Two days before we left Chigakhor fierce heat set in, with a blue heat +haze. Since then the mercury has reached 98 deg. in the shade. The call to +"Boot and Saddle" is at 3.45. Black flies, sand-flies, mosquitos, +scorpions, and venomous spiders abound. There is no hope of change or +clouds or showers until the autumn. Greenery is fast scorching up. +"The heaven above is as brass, and the earth beneath is as iron." The +sky is a merciless steely blue. The earth radiates heat far on into +the night. "Man goeth forth to his work," not "till the evening," but +in the evening. The Ilyats, with their great brown flocks, march all +night. The pools are dry, and the lesser streams have disappeared. The +wheat on the rain-lands is scorched before the ears are full, and when +the stalks are only six inches long. This is a normal Persian summer +in Lat. 32 deg. N. The only way of fighting this heat is never to yield to +it, to plod on persistently, and never have an idle moment, but I do +often long for an Edinburgh east wind, for drifting clouds and rain, +and even for a chilly London fog! This same country is said to be +buried under seven or eight feet of snow in winter. + +On leaving Chigakhor we crossed a low hill into the Seligun valley, so +fair and solitary a month ago, now brown and dusty, and swarming with +Ilyats and their flocks, and Lake Albolaki has shrunk into something +little better than a swamp. A path at a great elevation above a stream +and a short rocky ascent brought us to the top of the pass above +Naghun, a wall of rock, with an altitude of 7320 feet, and a very +stiff zigzag descent upon Isfandyar Khan's garden, where the heat made +a long halt necessary. The view from the Naghun Pass of the great +Ardal valley is a striking one, though not so striking as one would +suppose from the altitude of the mountains, which, however, do not +nearly reach the limit of perpetual snow, though the Kuh-i-Kaller, the +Kuh-i-Sabz, the great mass of the Kuh-i-Gerra, the range of the +Kuh-i-Dinar, and the Kuh-i-Zirreh are all from 11,000 to 13,000 feet +in height. Even on the north side the range which we crossed by the +Gardan-i-Zirreh exceeds 9000 feet. The Karun, especially where it +escapes from the Ardal valley by the great Tang-i-Ardal, is a grand +feature of the landscape from the Naghun Pass. + +On leaving Naghun we were joined by Aziz Khan, a petty chief, a +retainer of Isfandyar Khan, who has been deputed to attend on the +Agha, and who may be useful in various ways. + +Between Naghun and Ardal, in an elevated ravine, a species of +_aristolochia_, which might well be mistaken for a pitcher-plant, was +growing abundantly, and on the Ardal plain the "sweet sultan" and the +_Ferula glauca_ have taken the place of the _Centaurea alata_, which +is all cut and stacked. + +A hot and tedious march over the Ardal plateau, no longer green, and +eaten up by the passage of Ilyat flocks, brought us to the village of +Ardal, now deserted and melancholy, the great ibex horns which +decorate the roof of the Ilkhani's barrack giving it a spectral look +in its loneliness. The night was hot, and the perpetual passing of +Ilyats, with much braying and bleating, and a stampede of mules +breaking my tent ropes, forbade sleep. It was hot when we started the +next morning, still following up the Ardal valley and the Karun to +Kaj, a village on bare hummocks of gravel alongside of the Karun, a +most unpromising-looking place, but higher up in a lateral valley +there was a spring and a walled orchard, full of luxuriant greenery, +where we camped under difficulties, for the only entrance was by a +little stream, leading to a low hole with a door of stone, such as the +Afghans use for security, and through which the baggage could not be +carried. The tents had to be thrown over the wall. There was little +peace, for numbers of the Kaj men sat in rows steadily staring, and +there were crowds of people for medicine, ushered in by the +_ketchuda_. + +Four miles above Ardal is a most picturesque scene, which, though I +had ridden to it before, I appreciated far more on a second visit. +This is the magnificent gorge of the Tang-i-Darkash Warkash, a +gigantic gash or rift in the great range which bounds the Ardal and +Kaj valleys on the north, and through which the river, on whose +lawn-like margin the camps were pitched at Shamsabad, find its way to +the Karun. A stone bridge of a single arch of wide span is thrown +across the stream at its exit from the mountains. Above the bridge are +great masses of naked rock, rising into tremendous precipices above +the compressed water, with roses and vines hanging out of their +clefts. + +Below, the river suddenly expands, and there is a small village, now +deserted, with orchards and wheatfields in the depression in which the +Darkash Warkash finds its way across the Kaj valley, a region so +sheltered from the fierce sweep of the east wind, and so desirable in +other respects, that it bears the name of Bihishtabad, the _Mansion of +Heaven_. + +Geographically this _tang_ has a great interest, for the water passing +under the bridge is the united volume of the water system to which +three out of the four districts known as the Chahar Mahals owe their +fertility, and represents the drainage of 2500 square miles. It will +be remembered that we entered the Chahar Mahals by the Kahva Rukh +Pass, and crossed that portion of them lying between Kahva Rukh and +the Zirreh Pass, which is politically, not geographically, a portion +of the Bakhtiari country, and is partially Christian. + +I started at five the next morning to follow the left bank of the +Karun for nearly a whole march, sometimes riding close beside it among +barley-fields, then rising to a considerable height above it. It is +occasionally much compressed between walls of conglomerate, and boils +along furiously, but even where it is stillest and broadest, it is +always deep, full, and unfordable, bridged over, however, at a place +where there are several mills. An ascent from it leads to the village +of Rustam-i, where the people were very courteous and put me on the +road to Ali-kuh, a village not far from the river, at the foot of a +high range very much gashed by its affluents, one of which is very +salt. + +Ali-kuh is quite deserted, and every hovel door is open. There is +nothing to tempt cupidity. The people, when they migrate to the high +pastures, take all their goods with them. There was not a creature +left behind who could tell me of a spring, and it was a tiresome +search before I came, high upon the hillside, on a stream tumbling +down under willows over red rock, in a maze of campanulas and roses. +The first essential of a camping-ground is that there should be space +to camp, and this is lacking; my servants sleep in the open, and my +bed and chair are propped up by stones on the steep slope. Scorpions, +"processional" caterpillars, earwigs, and flies abound. It is very +pretty, but very uncomfortable. The stream is noisy, and a rude flour +mill above has the power, which it has exercised, of turning it into +another channel for irrigation purposes. There are some large Ilyat +camps above, and from these and from Rustam-i the people have been +crowding in. + +The wild flowers about Ali-kuh are in great profusion just now, the +most showy being hollyhocks--white, pink, and mauve, which affect the +cultivated lands. Three parasitic plants are also abundant, one of +them being the familiar dodder. Showy varieties of blue and white +campanulas, a pink mallow, a large blue geranium, chicory, the blue +cornflower, and the scarlet poppy all grow among the crops. + +In the course of a day's expedition to the summit of the Ali-kuh Pass +large Ilyat camps abounded, and the men were engaged in stacking the +leaves and the blossoming stalks of the wild celery for fodder later +in the season. These flower-stalks attain a height of over six feet. +These, and the dried leaves of the _Centaurea alata_, which are laid +in heaps weighted down with stones, are relied upon by the nomads for +the food of their flocks on the way down from the summer to the winter +pastures, and much of their industry, such as it is, is spent in +securing these "crops." + +This Ali-kuh Pass, 9500 feet in altitude, is on the most direct route +from Isfahan to the Bazuft river, but is scarcely used except by the +Ilyats. It is in fact horribly steep on the Ali-kuh side. The great +Bakhtiari ranges on its south-west side, and a deep valley below, +closed by the great mass of Amin-i-lewa, are a contrast to the utterly +shadeless and mostly waterless regions of Persia proper which lie +eastwards, blazing and glaring in the summer sunshine. There is a +little snow and some ice, and the snow patches are bordered by a small +rosy primula, delicate white tulips, and the violet _penguicula_ so +common on our moorlands. Mares with mule foals were grazing at a +height of over 9000 feet. + +The Khan of Rustam-i, married to a daughter of the Ilkhani, "called." +He is very intelligent, has some idea of conversation, and was very +pleasant and communicative. He says the "Bakhtiaris love fighting, and +if there's a fight can't help taking sides, and if they have not guns +fight with stones," and that "one Bakhtiari can beat ten Persians"! I +asked him if he thought there would be fighting at Chigakhor, and he +said it was very likely, and he and his retainers would take the +Ilkani's side. He showed me with great pleasure a bullet wound in his +ankle, and another in his head, where a piece of the skull had been +removed. He wishes that "the English" would send them a doctor. "We +would gladly receive even a _Kafir_," he said. Mirza politely +translated this word Christian. He says they "suffer so much in dying +from want of knowledge." I explained to him the virtues of some of +their own medicinal herbs, and he at once sent his servant to gather +them, and having identified them he wrote down their uses and the +modes of preparing them. + +With the Khan was his prim little son, already, at ten years old, a +bold rider and a good shot, the pale auburn-haired boy whom his +grandmother, the Ilkhani's principal wife, offered me as a present if +I would cure him of deafness, debility, and want of appetite! I gave +him a large bottle of a clandestinely-made decoction of a very bitter +wormwood, into which I put with much ceremony, after the most approved +fashion of a charlatan, some tabloids of _nux vomica_ and of +permanganate of potash. When I saw him at the fort of Chigakhor he was +not any better, but since, probably from leading a healthier life than +in Ardal, he has greatly improved, and being strong is far less deaf, +and consequently the virtues of wormwood have forced themselves on the +Khan's attention. + +The boy had suffered various things. He had been sewn up in raw +sheepskins, his ears had been filled with fresh clotted blood, and he +had been compelled to drink blood while warm, taken from behind the +ear of a mare, and also water which had washed off a verse of the +Koran from the inside of a bowl. It transpired that the Khan, who is a +devout Moslem and a _mollah_, could not allow his son to take my +medicine unless a piece of paper with a verse of the Koran upon it +were soaked in the decoction. + +I asked him why the Bakhtiaris like the English, and he replied, +"Because they are brave and like fighting, and like going shooting on +the hills with us, and don't cover their faces." He added after a +pause, "and because they conquer all nations, and do them good after +they have conquered them." I asked how they did them good, and he +said, "They give them one law for rich and poor, and they make just +laws about land, and their governors take the taxes, and no more, and +if a man gets money he can keep it. Ah," he exclaimed earnestly, "why +don't the English come and take this country? If you don't, Russia +will, and we would rather have the English. We're tired of our lives. +There's no rest or security." + +It may well be believed that there are no schools, though some +deference is paid to a _mollah_, which among the Bahktiaris means only +a man who can write, and who can read the Koran. These rare +accomplishments are usually hereditary. The chiefs' sons are taught to +read and write by _munshis_. A few of the highest Khans send their +sous to Tihran or Isfahan for education, or they attend school while +their fathers are detained as hostages in the capital for the good +behaviour of their clans. There they learn a few words of French and +English, along with pure Persian and Arabic, and the few other +branches of the education of a Persian noble. They are fine manly +boys, and ride and shoot well from an early age. But the worst of them +is that they never are "boys." They are little men, with the stiffness +and elaboration of manner which the more important Khans have copied +from the Persians, and one can never fancy their abandoning themselves +to "miscellaneous impulses." + + [Illustration: STONE LION AND GUIDE.] + +_Killa Bazuft, Bazuft Valley, June 18._--A few days ago we left the +last village of the region behind, to enter upon a country not laid +down in any maps. It is a wild land of precipitous mountain ranges, +rising into summits from 11,000 to 13,000 feet high, enclosing valleys +and gorges or canyons of immense depth, some of them only a few feet +wide, a goodly land in part, watered by springs and streams, and green +with herbage and young wheat, and in part naked, glaring, and +horrible. It is very solitary, although at times we come upon +Bakhtiaris in camp, or moving with their flocks, much darker in +complexion and more uncivilised in appearance than those of Ardal and +its neighbourhood. From these camps Aziz Khan procures guides, milk, +and bread. The heat increases daily, and the hour of getting up is now +2.45. There are many forlorn burial-grounds, and their uncouth stone +lions, more or less rudely carved, are the only permanent inhabitants +of the region. Wheat and barley grow in nearly all the valleys, and +clothe the hill-slopes, but where are the sowers and the reapers, and +where are the barns? Cultivation without visible cultivators is +singularly weird. + +Although the Bakhtiaris expend great labour on irrigation, their +methods of cultivation are most simple. They plough with a small +plough with the share slightly shod with iron; make long straight +furrows, and then cross them diagonally. They do not manure the soil, +but prevent exhaustion by long fallows. After they come up to the +mountains they weed their crops carefully, and they look remarkably +clean. In reaping they leave a stubble five or six inches long. There +is a good deal of spade husbandry in places where they have no oxen, +or where the arable patches are steep. The spades are much longer than +ours, and the upper corners of the sides are turned over for three +inches. + +A spade is worked by two men, one using his hands and one foot, and +the other a rope placed where the handle enters the iron, with which +he gives the implement a sharp jerk towards him. + +In the higher valleys they grow wheat and barley only, but in the +lower rice, cotton, melons, and cucumbers are produced, and opium for +exportation. They plough and sow in the autumn, and reap on their +return to their "yailaks" the following summer. Their rude water +mills, and the hand mills worked by women, grind the wheat into the +coarse flour used by them. + +It appears from the statements of the _Mollah-i-Murtaza_, Aziz Khan, +an intelligent son of Chiragh Ali Khan, and others, that the tenure of +arable lands is very simple and well understood. "From long ago" +certain of such lands have been occupied by certain tribes, and have +been divided among families. Some of the tribes possess documents, +supposed to secure these rights, granted by Ali Mardan Khan, the +Bakhtiari King of Persia, in the anarchical period which followed the +death of Nad[=i]r Shah. Those of them who are without documents +possess the lands by right of use. Nearly all the tribes have +individual rights of tillage, and have expended much labour on their +lands in irrigation and removing stones. A fee for the use of these +lands is paid to the Ilkhani every year in money or cattle. + +For pasturage there is only the right of "use and wont," and the +grazing is free. For camping-grounds each tribe has its special "use +and wont," subject to change by the order of the Ilkhani, but it was +out of quarrels concerning these and the pasture lands that many of +the feuds at present existing arose. + +We left Ali-kuh in a westerly direction, followed and crossed the +Karun, left it at its junction with the Duab, ascended this short +affluent to its source, crossed the Gardan-i-Cherri at an elevation of +9200 feet, and descended 4000 feet into the Bazuft or Rudbar valley, +where the camps now are. The road after leaving Ali-kuh, where the +slopes were covered with pink and white hollyhocks, keeps along a +height above the Karun, and then descends abruptly into a chasm formed +of shelves of conglomerate, on the lowest of which there is just room +for a loaded mule between the cliffs and the water at the narrowest +part. Shadowed by shelf upon shelf of rock, the river shoots +through a narrow passage, as though impatient for its liberation from +an unnatural restraint, and there is what I hesitate to call--a +bridge. At all events there is a something by which men and beasts can +cross the chasm--a rude narrow cradle of heavy branches, filled with +stones, quite solid and safe, resting on projections of rock on either +side. The Karun, where this Pul-i-Ali-kuh crosses it, is only nine +feet six inches in width. I found the zigzag ascent on the right bank +a very difficult one, and had sundry falls. + + [Illustration: KARUN AT PUL-I-ALI-KUH. _To face p. 10, vol. II._] + +Two hours more brought us to the junction of the Karun and Duab ("two +rivers") above which the former is lost to view in a tremendous +ravine, the latter coming down a green valley among high and mostly +bare mountains, on a gravelly slope of one of which we camped, for the +purpose of ascending a spur of a lofty mountain which overhangs the +Karun. On such occasions I take my mule, Suleiman, the most surefooted +of his surefooted race, who brings me down precipitous declivities +which I could not look at on my own feet. After crossing the Duab, a +green, rapid willow-fringed river, by a ford so deep as to be half-way +up the bodies of the mules, and zigzagging up a steep mountain side to +a ridge of a spur of Kaisruh, so narrow that a giant might sit astride +upon it, a view opened of singular grandeur. + +On the southern side of the ridge, between mountains of barren rock, +snow-slashed, and cleft by tremendous rifts, lying in shadows of cool +gray, the deep, bright, winding Duab flows down the green valley which +it blesses, among stretches of wheat and mounds where only the +forgotten dead have their habitation,--a silver thread in the mellow +light. On the northern side lies the huge Tang-i-Karun, formed by the +magnificent mountain Kaisruh on its right bank, and on the left by +mountains equally bold, huge rock-masses rising 3000 feet +perpendicularly, and topped by battlements of terra-cotta rock, which +took on vermilion colouring in the sunset glow. Through this mighty +gorge the Karun finds its way, a green, rapid willow-fringed stream +below the ridge, and visible higher up for miles here and there in +bottle-green pools, everywhere making sharp turns in its stupendous +bed, and disappearing from sight among huge piles of naked rock. Even +on this splintered ridge, at a height of 8000 feet, there were tulips, +celery in blossom, mullein, roses, legions of the _Fritillaria +imperialis_, anemones, blue linum, and a wealth of alpine plants. + +There also are found in abundance the great umbelliferous +plants--_Ferula glauca_, _Ferula candelabra_, and the _Ferula +asafoetida_. The latter I have never seen elsewhere, and was very +much rejoiced to procure some of its "tears," though the odour will +cling to my gloves till they are worn out. Hadji had heard that it is +found in one or two places in the Bakhtiari country, but up to this +time I had searched for it in vain. There also for the first time I +found the _Astragalus verus_, the gum tragacanth of commerce. The +ordinary tragacanth bush, the "goat's thorn," the _Astragalus +tragacantha_, which is found everywhere on the arid hillsides, +produces a gummy juice but no true gum, and its chief value is for +kindling fires. + +Following up the Duab, through brush of tamarisk, _Hippophae +rhamnoides_, and Indian myrtle, above the cultivated lands, and +passing burial mounds with their rude stone lions with their +sculptured sides, we camped in a valley at the foot of the +Gardan-i-Cherri and Kuh-i-Milli, close to the powerful spring in the +hillside which is the source of the stream, where there was abundant +level ground for three camps. The next evening Karim, the man who so +nearly lost his arm some time ago, was carried past my tent fainting, +having been severely kicked in the chest by the same horse that +lacerated his arm. "I _am_ unlucky," he murmured feebly, when he came +to himself in severe pain. + +I have crossed the Gardan-i-Cherri twice, and shall cross it a third +time. It marks a great change in the scenery, and the first intimation +of possible peril from the tribesmen. The ascent from the east, which +is extremely rugged and steep, is one of 2000 feet in three and a half +miles. Near the top were many Ilyats camping without their tents, a +rough-looking set, with immense flocks, and on the summit the Agha, +who was without his attendants, met some men who were threatening both +in speech and gesture. + +From the top there is a wonderful view into an unknown land. The +ranges are heavily wooded, and much broken up into spurs and rounded +peaks. Between the great range, crossed at a height of 9550 feet by +the Cherri Pass, and a wall-like range of mighty mountains of white +limestone with snow on them hardly whiter than themselves, lies the +Bazuft valley, 4000 feet below, and down upon it come sharp +forest-covered spurs, often connected by sharp ridges of +forest-covered rocks cleft by dark forest-filled ravines, with +glimpses now and then of a winding peacock-green river, flowing at +times through green lawns and slopes of grain, at others disappearing +into gigantic canyons--great forest-skirted and snow-slashed mountains +apparently blocking up the valley at its higher end. At the first +crossing all lay glorified in a golden veil, with indigo shadows in +the rifts and white lights on the heights. + +The first part of the descent is fearfully rough, a succession of +ledges of broken rock encumbered here and there with recently dead +horses or mules, and the whole downward course of 4000 feet is without +a break, the climate getting hotter and hotter as one descends. At +8000 feet the oak forests begin. This oak bears acorns nearly three +inches long, which are ground and made into bread. All other +vegetation is dried and scorched, and the trees rise out of dust. In +this forest we came upon a number of Ilyats, some of whom were lying +under a tree, ill of fever, and Aziz Khan insisted that then and there +I should give them quinine. + +At the bottom of this unalleviated descent there is a shady torrent, +working a rude flour mill; a good deal of wheat speckled with +hollyhocks, white campanulas, and large snapdragons; some very old +tufa cones, and below them level lawns, eaten bare, fringed with oaks, +with dry wood for the breaking; and below again the translucent, +rapid, peacock-green, beautiful Bazuft. But not even the sound of the +rush of its cool waters could make one forget the overpowering heat, +100 deg., even in the shade of a spreading tree. + +I know not which is the more trying, the ascent or the descent of the +4000 feet of ledges and zigzags on the southern face of the +Gardan-i-Cherri. The road is completely encumbered with stones, and is +being allowed to fall into total disrepair, although it is the +shortest route between Isfahan and Shuster. Things are undoubtedly +deteriorating. The present Ilkhani is evidently not the man to get and +keep a grip on these turbulent tribesmen. I notice a gradual weakening +of his authority as the distance from Ardal increases. + +When Hussein Kuli Khan, the murdered father of Isfandyar Khan, was +Ilkhani, he not only built substantial bridges such as those over the +Karun in the Tang-i-Ardal and at Dupulan, but by severe measures +compelled every tribe using this road in its spring and autumn +migrations to clear off the stones and repair it. As it is, nearly all +our animals lost one or more of their shoes on the descent. The ascent +and descent took eight hours. + +Some of the cliffs on the right bank of the Bazuft are of gypsiferous +rock, topped with pure white gypsum, resting on high, steep elevations +of red and fawn coloured earths, with outcrops of gravel conglomerate. + +Yesterday was spent in a very severe expedition of twenty-four miles +from Mowaz to the lofty plateau of Gorab, mostly through oak forest, +crossing great canyons 800 feet deep and more, with almost precipitous +sides, descending upon the awful gorge through which the Bazuft passes +before it turns round the base of the Kuh-i-Gerra, the monarch of this +mass of mountains. The ascents and descents were endless and severe as +we crossed the mountain spurs. It was a simple scramble up and down +rock ledges, among great boulders, or up or down smooth slippery +surfaces. Even my trusty mule slipped and fell several times. Often +the animals had to jump up or down ledges nearly as high as their +chests, and through rifts so narrow as only just to admit the riders. +In some places it was absolutely necessary to walk, and in attempting +to get down one bad place on my own feet I fell and hurt my knee +badly--a serious misfortune just at present. + +After twelve miles of a toilsome march the guide led us up among the +boulders of a deep ravine to the treeless plateau of Gorab, an +altitude of 8000 feet, where the air was fresh and cool. The scenery +is on a gigantic scale, and the highly picturesque Bazuft is seen +passing through magnificent canyons of nearly perpendicular rock, and +making sharp turns round the bases of lofty spurs, till after a course +of singular beauty it joins the Karun at Shalil. It is glorious +scenery, full of magnificence and mystery. This beautiful Ab-i-Bazuft, +which for a long distance runs parallel with the Karun within fifteen +or eighteen miles of it, is utterly unlike it, for the Karun is the +most tortuous of streams and the Bazuft keeps a geographically +straight course for a hundred miles. Springs bursting from the +mountain sides keep it always full; it passes nearly ice-cold among +lawns and woods, and its colour is everywhere a pure peacock-green of +the most exquisite tint, contrasting with the deep blue-green of the +Karun. Shuster is only seven marches off, and in the direction in +which it lies scorched barren hills fill up the distance, sinking down +upon yellow barren plains, softened by a yellow haze, in which the +imagination sees those vast alluvial stretches which descend in an +unbroken level to the Shat-el-Arab and the Persian Gulf. Many a lofty +range is seen, but the eye can rest only on the huge Gerra mass, with +the magnificent snowy peak of Dalonak towering above all, bathed in a +heavenly blue. + +The shelter-tent was pitched till the noonday heat moderated. Abbas +Ali and Mehemet Ali were inside it, and I was reading _Ben Hur_ aloud. +Aziz Khan was lying half in and half out, with a quizzical look on his +face, wondering at a woman knowing how to read. Not a creature had +been seen, when as if by magic nine or ten Lurs appeared, established +themselves just outside, and conversed with Aziz. I went on reading, +and they went on talking, the talk growing disagreeably loud, and Aziz +very much in earnest. Half an hour passed thus, the Agha, who +understood their speech, apparently giving all his attention to _Ben +Hur_. + +I did not hear till the evening that the topic of the talk was our +robbery, with possible murder, and that Aziz was spending all his +energies on dissuading them, telling them that we are guests of the +Ilkhani and under the protection of the Shah, and that they and their +tribe would be destroyed if they carried out their intention. They +discovered that his revolvers were not loaded--he had in fact +forgotten his cartridges, and one said to the others, "Don't give him +time to load." + +While the tent was being packed, I sat on a stone watching the Lurs, +dark, handsome savages, armed with loaded clubbed sticks, and the Agha +was asking them about the country, when suddenly there was a _melee_, +and the semblance of an attack on him with the clubs. He seemed to +shake his assailants off, lounged towards his mule, took his revolver +from the holster, fired it in the air, and with an unconcerned, +smiling face, advanced towards the savages, and saying something like +calling attention to the excellences of that sort of firearm, fired +two bullets close over their heads. They dread our arms greatly, and +fell back, and molested us no further. Till later I did not know that +the whole thing was not a joke on both sides. Aziz says that if it had +not been for the Agha's coolness, all our lives would have been +sacrificed. + +In returning, the Agha, walking along a lower track than we were +riding upon, met some Lurs, who, thinking that he was alone, began to +be insolent, and he heard them say to each other, "Strip him, kill +him," when their intention was frustrated by our appearance just +above. After crossing the Serba torrent with its delicious shade of +fine plane trees, the heat of the atmosphere, with the radiation from +rock and gravel, was overpowering. I found the mercury at 103 deg. in my +shady tent. + +Aziz Khan now pays me a visit each evening, to give me such +information as is attainable regarding the people and locality, and, +though he despised me at first, after Moslem fashion, we are now very +good friends. He is a brave man, and made no attempt to magnify the +danger at Gorab, merely saying that he was devoutly thankful that we +had escaped with our lives. He remonstrated with me for pitching my +tent in such a lonely place, quite out of sight of the other camps, +but it was then too dark to move it. He said that there was some risk, +for the Lurs had declared they would "rob us yet," but he should +watch all night. I knew he would, for the sake of his Arab mare! + +This morning, soon after leaving Mowaz, the Sahib's guide galloped up, +saying that his master had been robbed of "everything" the night +before, and was without the means of boiling water. Orders were given +for the camps to close up, for no servants to ride in advance of or +behind the caravan, and that no Ilyats should hang about the tents. + +Although the Bakhtiari Lurs are unified under one chief, who is +responsible to the Shah for the security of the country, and though +there has been a great improvement since Sir A. H. Layard's time, the +advance, I think, is chiefly external. The instincts and traditions of +the tribes remain predatory. Possibly they may no longer attack large +caravans, but undoubtedly they rob, when and where they can, and they +have a horrid habit of stripping their victims, leaving them with but +one under garment, if they do not kill them. They have a gesture, +often used by Aziz Khan in his descriptions of raids, which means +stripping a man to his shirt. The word used is skin, but they are not +such savages as this implies. The gesture consists in putting a finger +into the mouth, slowly withdrawing it, and holding it up with a look +of infinite complacency. Aziz admits with some pride that with twenty +men he fell upon a rich caravan near Shiraz, and robbed it of L600. + + [Illustration: KILLA BAZUFT. _To face p. 19, vol. II._] + +To-day's march has been mainly through very attractive scenery. We +crossed the Ab-i-Mowaz, proceeded over slopes covered with wheat and +flowers, and along a rocky path overhanging the exquisitely tinted +Bazuft, forded the Ab-i-Nozi, at a place abounding in tamarisks +bearing delicate, feathery pink blossoms, and ascended to upland lawns +of great beauty, on which the oaks come down both in clumps and +singly, as if planted. The views from this natural park are +glorious. Besides the great ranges with which I have become familiar, +the Safid-Kuh, or "white mount," on the right bank of the river, at +present deserves its name, its snows descending nearly to the forests +which clothe its lower heights. A deep chasm conceals the Tabarak +stream up to the point of its foamy junction with the Bazuft, which +emerges on the valley by an abrupt turn through a very fine canyon. + +We crossed the pure green waters by a broad ford, and camped on the +right bank on a gravel plateau above it, on which is Killa Bazuft, a +large quadrangular stone fort with round towers at the corners, an +arcaded front, a vaulted entrance, and rooms all round the quadrangle. +It is now ruinous. Some irrigated land near it produces rice and +mosquitos. The Sahib's camp is pitched here. He has been badly robbed, +both of clothing and cooking-pots, and was left without the means of +cooking any food. + +_Dima, June 26._--We retraced our steps as far as the source of the +Duab, crossed into the Shamisiri valley, and by a low pass into the +Karun valley, forded the Karun by a strong deep ford, crossed a low +range into the Zarin valley, where are some of the sources of the +Zainderud, from thence marched to the Tang-i-Ghezi, through which the +Zainderud, there a vigorous river, passes into the Chahar Mahals, went +up the Kherson valley, crossed Gargunak, and by a very steep and +rugged descent reached this camp, a place of springs, forming the +upper waters of the Zainderud. These days have been severe, the heat +great, and the incidents few. + +The ascent of the Gardan-i-Cherri was difficult. The guide misled us, +and took us through a narrow rift in the crest of a ridge on broken +ledges of rock. We camped at a height of 9000 feet in the vicinity of +snow. The new arrangement, which is necessary for safety, does not +increase comfort, for the Arab horses, noisy, quarrelsome fellows, are +in camp, and the mules shake their bells and sneeze and bray at +intervals all night. + +The descent of 2000 feet into the Shamisiri valley, over bare gravel +chiefly, was a very hot one. It is a wide, open valley with stony +hills of no great height enclosing it, with much green sward along the +river banks, above which, running to a great height on the hillsides, +are stretches of irrigated wheat. So far as I have yet seen, the wheat +is all "bearded." It is a most smiling valley; so cultivated, indeed, +and so trim and free from weeds are the crops, that one naturally +looks for neat farm-houses and barns. But one looks in vain, for +except the ruins of some Armenian villages there are no traces of +inhabitants, till night comes, when the glimmer of camp fires here and +there high up on the hillsides shows the whereabouts of some migratory +families. + +I start so early as to get in to the camping-ground about nine now, +and the caravan, two hours later, comes in with mules braying, bells +ringing, horses squealing for a fight, servants shouting. Then the +mules roll, the tent-pegs are hammered down, and in the blazing, +furnace-like afternoons the men, who have been up since 2 A.M., take a +prolonged siesta, and a solemn hush falls on the camp. After the Gorab +affair I loaded my revolver, and now sleep with it under my pillow, +carry it in my holster, and never have it out of my reach. I _think_ I +should only fire it in the air if I were attacked, but the fact of +being known to be armed with such a weapon is more likely than +anything else to prevent attack. No halt is now made on the march. + +The sick people who appeared at Shamisiri, from no one knows where, +were difficult and suspicious, and so they have been since. The +dialect of Persian has somewhat changed, and Aziz Khan now interprets +the strange accounts of maladies to Mirza, and he interprets to me. +When they crowd almost into the tent, Aziz, when appealed to, pelts +them with stones and beats them with a stick, and they take it very +merrily. He thinks that I have appliances in the "leather box" for the +cure of all ills, and when he brings blind people, and I say that I +cannot do anything for them, he loses his temper. No matter where we +camp, dark, handsome men spring up as if by magic, and hang about the +fires for the rest of the day. From among these the guides are usually +selected. + +Numbers of "patients" appear everywhere, and the well assemble with +the sick round my tent. At Berigun the people were very ignorant and +obstinate. After spending a whole hour on two men, and making +medicines up for them, they said they would have the "Feringhi's +ointment," but "nothing that goes down the throat." Another said (and +he had several disciples) that he would not take the medicine "for +fear it should make him a Christian." One man, who has fever, took +away four quinine powders yesterday for four days, and came back +to-day deaf and giddy, saying that I have killed him. He had taken +them all at once! + +It is very pleasant to see how very fond the men are of their +children, and how tender and loving they are to their little girls. +The small children are almost always pretty, but by three years old +the grace and innocence of childhood are completely lost, and as in +Persia there are no child faces; indeed, the charm of childhood +scarcely survives the weaning-day. If they are sick the fathers carry +them for miles on their backs for medicine, and handle them very +gently, and take infinite pains to understand about the medicine and +diet. Even if both father and mother come with a child, the man always +carries it, holds it, is the spokesman, and takes the directions. +Several men have offered me mares and cows if I will cure their +children. All the "patients" ask finally, "What must I eat, and not +eat?" + +The Bakhtiaris have often asked me whether it is unwholesome to live +so much as they do on cheese and sour milk. They attribute much of +their dyspepsia to their diet. They live principally on _mast_ or +curdled milk, buttermilk, cheese, _roghan_ or clarified butter, +_n[=a]n_, a thin leavened cake, made of wheat or acorn flour, bannocks +of barley meal, celery pickled in sour milk, _kabobs_ occasionally, +and broth flavoured with celery stalks and garlic frequently. They +never use fresh milk. They eat all fruits, whether wild or cultivated, +while they are quite unripe. Almonds are eaten green. + +They hunt the ibex and shoot the francolin and the bustard, and make +soup of them. They are always on the hills after game, and spare +nothing that they see. I have seen them several times firing at +red-legged partridges sitting on their nests. They use eggs +considerably, boiling them hard. Alcohol in any form is unknown among +them, and few, except the Khans, have learned the delights of tea and +coffee. Buttermilk, pure water, and _sharbat_, when they can get +lime-juice, are their innocent beverages. The few who drink tea use it +chiefly to colour and flavour syrup. They eat twice in the day. Though +their out-of-doors life is healthy and their diet simple, they rarely +attain old age. A man of sixty is accounted very old indeed. The men +are certainly not polite to their wives, and if they get in their way +or mine they kick them aside, just as rough men kick dogs. + + [Illustration: FORDING THE KARUN. _To face p. 23, vol. II._] + +We have been marching through comparatively lowland scenery, like the +Chahar Mahals, from which we are not far. At Shamisiri, except for the +fine peak of Dilleh, there are no heights to arrest the eye. The +hills on the north side are low, gravelly, and stony, with +perpendicular outbreaks of rock near their summits. To the south they +are of a different formation, with stratification much contorted. The +next march was over low stony hills, with scanty herbage and much gum +tragacanth, camel thorn, and the _Prosopis stephaniana_, down a steep +descent into the Karun valley, where low green foot-hills, cultivated +levels, and cultivation carried to a great altitude on the hillsides +refresh the tired eyes. The Karun, liberated for a space from its +imprisonment in the mountains, divides into several streams, each one +a forcible river, winds sinuously among the grass, gleams like a +mirror, and by its joyous, rapid career gives animation to what even +without it would be at this season a very smiling landscape. Crossing +the first ford in advance of the guide, we got into very deep water, +and _Screw_ was carried off his feet, but scrambled bravely to a +shingle bank, where we waited for a native, who took us by long and +devious courses to the left bank. The current is strong and deep, and +the crossing of the caravan was a very pretty sight. + +We halted for Sunday at Berigun, an eminence on which are a ruinous +fort, a graveyard with several lions rampant, and a grove of very fine +white poplars, one of them eighteen feet in circumference six feet +from the ground. A sea of wheat in ear, the Karun in a deep channel in +the green plateau, some herbage-covered foot-hills, and opposite, in +the south-west, the great rocky, precipitous mass of the Zard Kuh +range, with its wild crests and great snow-fields, made up a pleasant +landscape. The heat at this altitude of 8280 feet, and in the shade, +was not excessive. + +The next day's march was short and uninteresting, partly up the Karun +valley, and partly over gravelly hills with very scanty herbage and no +camps, from which we came down abruptly into the elevated plain of +Cheshmeh Zarin (the Golden Fountain) at a height of 8500 feet, the +plain being about five miles by two and a half. Receding hills with +some herbage upon them border the plateau, and the Zard Kuh, though at +some distance, apparently blocks up the western end. A powerful spring +bursts from under a ridge of rock half-way down the plain, and becomes +at once a clear gentle stream, fifty feet broad, which passes through +the level green sward in a series of turns which are quite marvellous. +Smooth sward, green barley, many yoke of big oxen ploughing up rich +black soil, dark flocks of thousands of sheep and goats, asses, mares, +mules, cows, all feeding, large villages of black tents, one of them +surrounding the white pavilion of a Khan, saddle-horses tethered, +flocks being led to and fro, others being watered, laden asses +arriving and departing, butter being churned, and carpets being woven, +form a scene of quiet but busy industry which makes one feel quite "in +the world." This stream is one of the chief sources of the Zainderud. + +From this cheerful camping-ground we marched over low hills, forded +the Zainderud several times, and came upon several Ilyat camps on low, +rich pasture lands. These nomads had no tents, but dwelt in booths +without fronts, the roofs and backs being made of the tough yellow +flowering stalks of the celery. The path follows the left bank of the +river, there a full, broad stream, flowing through the Tang-i-Ghezi, +through rounded hills, and scenery much like that of the Cheviots. At +the Tang-i-Ghezi we camped, and this morning crossed a low hill into a +heavily-grassed valley watered by the Kherson, ascended a shoulder of +Gargunak, and halted at Aziz Khan's tents, where the women were very +hospitable, bringing out cows' milk, and allowing themselves to be +photographed. + +An unpleasant _contretemps_ occurred to me while we were marching +through some very lonely hills. If Mirza rides as he should, behind +me, his mule always falls out of sight, and he is useless, so lately I +have put him in front. To-day I dropped a glove, and after calling and +whistling to him vainly, got off and picked it up, for I am reduced to +one pair, but attempt after attempt to get on again failed, for each +time, as I put my hand on the saddle, _Screw_ nimbly ran backwards, +and in spite of my bad knee I had to lead him for an hour before I was +missed, running a great risk of being robbed by passing Lurs. When +Mirza did come back he left his mule in a ravine, exposed to robbers, +and Aziz Khan was so infuriated that he threatened to "cut his +throat." Aziz despises him as a "desk-bred" man for his want of +"out-doorishness," and mimics the dreamy, helpless fashion in which he +sits on his mule, but Mirza can never be provoked into any display of +temper or discourtesy. + +From Aziz's camp we had a very steep and rugged descent to this place, +Cheshmeh Dima, where we have halted for two days. Three streams, the +head-waters of the Zainderud, have their sources in this +neighbourhood, and one of them, the Dima, rises as a powerful spring +under a rock here, collects in a basin, and then flows away as a +full-fledged river. The basin or pool has on one side a rocky hill, +with the ruins of a fort upon it, and on the three others low stone +walls of very rude construction. The Lurs, who soon came about us, say +that the ruined fort was the pleasure palace of a great king who +coined money here. The sides of the valley are dotted with camps. +Opposite are the large camp and white tent of Chiragh Ali Khan, a +chief who has the reputation of being specially friendly in his views +of England. + +The heat yesterday was overpowering, and the crowds of Bakhtiari +visitors and of sick people could hardly be received with benevolent +equanimity. This great heat at an altitude of 7600 feet is most +disappointing. These head-waters of the Zainderud, rising in and +beautifying the Zarin, Kharba, and Dima valleys, unite before reaching +the Tang-i-Ghezi, from which they pass to Isfahan, and are, as has +been stated before, eventually lost in a swamp. This is the most +watery region I have seen in Persia. Besides the gushing, powerful +springs which form vigorous streams at the moment of their exit from +the mountain sides, there are many moist, spongy places in the three +valleys, regularly boggy, giving out a pleasant _squish_ under a +horse's tread, and abounding in plants associated in my ideas with +Highland bogs, such as the _Drosera rotundifolia_, which seems to +thrive on a small red fly unknown to me. These waters and swampy +places occupy a small area, just within the Outer range, below the +southern slopes of the Kuh-i-Rang. + +From this place I made an expedition of thirty miles up a very fine +valley, much of which is irrigated and cultivated, by an ascent of +2500 feet to the Gal-i-Bard-i-Jamal, a pass 10,500 feet in altitude, +with a tremendous descent into an apparent abyss, from whose blue +depths rise the imposing mass of the Kuh-i-Shahan, and among other +heights Faidun, a striking peak of naked rock, superimposed on a rocky +ridge. At this height the air was really cool, and it was an escape +from the heat of Dima. + +This region seems much disturbed. We heard of bloodshed two days ago, +and to-day in the Kharba valley of fighting among the Kuh-i-Shahan +mountains with the loss of twelve lives, and horsemen passed us armed +with long guns and swords on their way to tribal war. I fear I shall +have to return to Isfahan. Things are regarded as looking very +precarious farther on, and every movement, retrograde or forward, is +beset with difficulties. + +I. L. B. + + + + +LETTER XVII + + + CAMP GAL-I-GAV, KUH-I-RANG, _July 2_. + +From Dima we ascended to high tablelands, having the snowy Zard Kuh +ever in sight, one nameless peak being at present pure white, and +descended into and crossed the Shorab, a fertile valley, on one side +of which is the famous cleft called Kar Kanun, an artificial gash +across a spur of the Kuh-i-Rang of the same name. After winding among +mountains we descended on the Karun, whose waters, clear, rapid, and +peacock-green, fertilise a plain of fine flowery turf lying at the +base of hills, with another branch of the Karun between them and the +Zard Kuh. + +It is a lovely plain, bright and smiling, contrasting with the savage +magnificence of the Zard Kuh, which comes down upon it with its peaks, +chasms, and precipices, and glittering fields of unbroken snow. It was +given up to mares and foals, but green platforms high above, and +little hollows in the foot-hills were spotted with Ilyat tents, and in +the four days which we spent there the camps were never free from +Ilyat visitors. The Sahib came in the first evening with one man badly +hurt, and another apparently in the first stage of rheumatic fever. A +small tent was rigged for this poor fellow, who was in intense pain +and quite helpless, with a temperature of 104 deg., and every joint +swollen. The usual remedies had no effect on him. I had had a present +of a small quantity of _salol_, a newish drug, with directions for +its use, and his master Hadji undertook to make him take it regularly, +and hot tea when he fancied it, and at the end of twenty-two hours he +was not only free from fever but from pain, and was able to mount a +mule.[1] + +There are two definite objects of interest close to the plain of +Chaman Kushan, the reputed source of the Karun and the great +artificial cleft of Kar Kanun. I visited the first on a misty day, +which exaggerated the height of the mountains, and by filling their +chasms with translucent blue atmosphere gave a rare loveliness to the +whole, for it must be said that the beauties of Persian scenery are +usually staring, hard, and unveiled. The fords of two or three rivers, +including the Karun, some steep ascents and descents, a rough ride +along a stony slope of the Zard Kuh, and the crossing of a very solid +snow-bridge took us to the top of a cliff exactly opposite the +powerful springs in which the Karun has its reputed origin. + +Over this source towers the mighty range of the Zard Kuh,--a colossal +mountain barrier, a mass of yellow and gray limestone, with stupendous +snow-filled chasms, huge precipices, and vast snow-fields, treeless +and destitute of herbage except where the tulip-studded grass runs up +to meet the moisture from the snow-fields. It is the birthplace of +innumerable torrents, but one alone finds its way to the sea. + +These springs are in a lateral slit in a lofty limestone precipice +below a snow-field, at one end of which, as if from a shaft, the +most powerful of them wells up, and uniting with the others in a sort +of grotto of ferns and mosses pours over a ledge in a sheet of foam, a +powerful waterfall, and slides away, a vigorous river of a wonderful +blue-green colour, under a snow-bridge, starting full fledged on its +course. The surroundings of this spring are wild and magnificent. A +few Bakhtiaris crept across the lower part of the face of rock, and +perched themselves above it. The roar of the water, now loud, now +subdued, made wild music, and the snow-bridges added to the +impressiveness of the scene. + + [Illustration: SAR-I-CHESMEH-I-KURANG _To face p. 29, vol. II._] + +Of course the geographical interest of this region is engrossing.[2] +This remarkable spring, called by the Bakhtiaris +Sar-i-Cheshmeh-i-Kurang ("the head source of the Kurang"), and until +this journey held to be the real source, is not, however, the actual +birthplace of the Karun or Kurang, which was afterwards traced up to +its headwaters in the magnificent Kuh-i-Rang.[3] + +A few words on this, the one real river of which Persia can boast, and +which seems destined to play an important part in her commercial +future, will not be out of place. From its source it is a powerful and +important stream, full, deep, and flowing with great velocity for much +of its upper course between precipices varying in height from 1000 to +3000 feet. It is a perennial stream, fordable in very few places, and +then only in its upper waters. Varying in width usually from fifty to +a hundred yards, it is compressed at the Pul-i-Ali-kuh into a breadth +of about nine feet. + +The steepness and height of its banks make it in general useless for +irrigation purposes, but some day it may be turned to account as a +great "water power." Its windings, dictated by the singular formation +of the mountain ranges (for I reject the idea of it having "carved" +its channel), are almost phenomenal. After flowing south-east for a +hundred miles from its source, it makes an acute bend, flows for fifty +miles to the south-west, and then making another fantastic turn it +flows in an exactly opposite direction to that of its earlier course, +proceeding north-west to Shuster for a hundred miles. + +It is calculated that the distance from the Kuh-i-Rang to Shuster as +the crow flies is seventy-five miles, but the distance travelled by +the waters of the Karun is 250 miles, with an aggregate fall of 9000 +feet. + +Besides being fed on its journey through the Bakhtiari country by many +mountain-side fountain springs of pure fresh water, as well as by salt +streams and springs, it receives various tributaries, among the most +important of which are the Ab-i-Bazuft and a stream which, though +known locally under various names, may be called from the Chigakhor +basin in which it rises the Ab-i-Chigakhor, which makes a course of +ninety miles to get over a distance of twenty; the Darkash Warkash +flowing in from the Chahar Mahals near Ardal, the Dinarud rising in +the fair valley of Gorab, and the Ab-i-Cherri or Duab. + +This mountain range, the Zard Kuh, in whose steep side at a height of +over 8000 feet the Sar-i-Cheshmeh-i-Kurang wells up so grandly, is +rather a series of rock summits and precipices than a range of +mountains. In late June its naked shelves and battlements upbore great +snow-fields, and its huge rifts or passes--the Gil-i-Shah, nearly +11,700 feet in altitude, and the Pambakal, 11,400--were full of snow. +But even in four days it melted rapidly, and probably by August little +remains except a few patches, in the highest and most sunless of the +rifts. It is only on the north side that the snow lasts even into +July. + + [Illustration: ZARD KUH RANGE. _To face p. 30, vol. II._] + +The marked features of this range are its narrow wall-like character, +its ruggedness on both sides, its absence of any peaks rising very +remarkably above the ordinary jagged level of the barrier, its lack of +prominent spurs, and its almost complete nakedness. It is grand, but +only under rare atmospheric conditions can it be termed beautiful. Its +length may be about thirty miles. It runs from north-west to +south-east. Some of its highest summits attain an elevation of 13,000 +feet. Its name is a corruption of Sard Kuh, "cold mountain." + +After fording various snow streams and taking a break-neck goat track, +we reached the great snow pass of Gil-i-Shah, by which the Bakhtiaris +come up from the Shuster plains on the firm snow in spring, returning +when the snow is soft in autumn by a very difficult track on the rocky +ledges above. In the mist it looked the most magnificent and +stupendous pass I had ever seen, always excepting the entrance to the +Lachalang Pass in Lesser Tibet, and an atmospheric illusion raised the +mountains which guard it up to the blue sky. I much wished to reach +the summit, but in a very narrow chasm was fairly baffled by a wide +rift in a sort of elevated snow-bridge which the mule could not cross, +and camped there for some hours; but even there nomads crowded round +my tent with more audacity in their curiosity than they usually show, +and Mirza heard two of them planning an ingenious robbery. + +The heat was very great when I returned, 100 deg. in the shade, but rest +was impossible, for numbers of mares and horses were tethered near my +tent, and their riders, men and women, to the number of forty, seized +on me, clamouring for medicines and eye lotions. I often wonder at the +quiet gravity of Mirza's face as he interprets their grotesque +accounts of their ailments. A son of Chiragh Ali Khan came to tell me +that the "Feringhi ointment" had cured a beautiful young woman of his +tribe of an "abscess in her nose"! An instance of real benefit hardly +consoles for many failures, and any cure increases the exhausting +number of "patients." On one day on that plain there was no rest +between eleven and five. + +Small events occurred tending to show that the good order which the +Ilkhani's government secures is chiefly round the centre of rule. +Stories of tribal disputes with violence, and of fights arising out of +blood feuds came in daily, and recent sword cuts and bullet wounds +were brought to the _Hak[=i]m_. One day there was a disturbance in +camp owing to a man attacking Hassan for preventing a woman from +entering my tent in my absence. I learned very soon after coming into +this country that the Bakhtiaris are dangerously sensitive about their +women, although the latter are unveiled and have an amount of latitude +unusual in the East. I have more than once cautioned my servants on +this point, for any supposed insult to a female relative of a +Bakhtiari would have by custom to be wiped out in blood. This extreme +sensitiveness has its good side, for even in the midst of the tribal +wars and broils which are constantly occurring female honour is always +secure, and a woman can travel safely alone through the wildest +regions; a woman betraying her husband would, however, almost +certainly be put to death. One night the camps were threatened by +robbers, upon whom Aziz Khan fired. + +Solitary as is now the general aspect of the surrounding country, it +must have been crowded with workmen and their food providers within +the last two centuries, for in the beginning of the seventeenth +century Shah Abbas the Great, the greatest and most patriotic of +modern Persian kings, in his anxiety to deliver Isfahan once for all +from the risk of famine, formed and partly executed the design of +turning to account the difference in level (about 300 feet) between +the Karun and Zainderud, and by cleaving an intervening mountain spur +to let the waters of the one pass into the other. The work of cleaving +was carried on by his successors, but either the workmen failed to get +through the flint which underlies the free-stone, or the downfall of +the Sufari dynasty made an end of it, and nothing remains of what +should have been a famous engineering enterprise but a huge cleft with +tool marks upon it in the crest of the hill, "in length 300 yards, in +breadth fifteen, and fifty feet deep."[4] Above it are great heaps of +quarried stones and the remains of houses, possibly of overseers, and +below are the remnants of the dam which was to have diverted the Karun +water into the cleft. + +On a cool, beautiful evening I came down from this somewhat mournful +height to a very striking scene, where the peacock-blue branch from +the Sar-i-Cheshmeh unites with the peacock-green stream from +Kuh-i-Rang, the dark, high sides of their channels shutting out the +mountains. Both rivers rush tumultuously above their union, but +afterwards glide downwards in a smooth, silent volume of most +exquisite colour, so deep as to be unfordable, and fringed with green +strips of grass and innumerable flowers. On emerging from the ravine +the noble mass of the Zard Kuh was seen rose-coloured in the sunset, +its crests and spires of snow cleaving the blue sky, and the bright +waters and flower-starred grass of the plain gave a smiling welcome +home. + +The next march was a very beautiful one, most of the way over the +spurs and deeply-cleft ravines of the grand Kuh-i-Rang by sheep and +goat tracks, and no tracks at all, a lonely and magnificent ride, shut +in among mountains of great height, their spurs green with tamarisk, +salvias, and euphorbias, their ravines noisy with torrents, bright +springs bursting from their sides with lawn-like grass below, and +their slopes patched with acres of deep snow, on whose margin purple +crocuses, yellow ranunculuses, and white tulips were springing. But +the grand feature of the march is not the mighty Kuh-i-Rang on the +right, but the magnificent Zard Kuh on the left, uplifting its +snow-fields and snow-crests into the blue of heaven, on the other side +of an ever-narrowing valley. At the pass of Gal-i-Gav, 11,150 (?) feet +in altitude, where we have halted for two days, the Zard Kuh +approaches the Kuh-i-Rang so closely as to leave only a very deeply +cleft ravine between them. From this pass there is a very grand view, +not only of these ranges, but of a tremendous depression into which +the pass leads, beyond which is the fine definite mountain +Kuh-i-Shahan. This pass is the watershed between the Karun and +Ab-i-Diz, though, be it remembered, the latter eventually unites with +the former at Band-i-Kir. All is treeless. + +The Kuh-i-Rang is the only "real mountain" seen on the journey +hitherto. It is unlike all others, not only in its huge bulk and +gigantic and far-reaching spurs, but in being _clothed_. Its name +means the "variegated mountain." It has much Devonshire red about it, +but clad as it is now with greenery, its soil and rock ribs cannot be +investigated. + +It is a mountain rich in waters, both streams and springs. It is +physically and geographically a centre, a sort of knot nearly uniting +what have been happily termed the "Outer" and "Inner" ranges of the +Bakhtiari mountains, and it manifestly divides the country into two +regions, which, for convenience' sake, have been felicitously termed +the Bakhtiari country and Upper Elam, the former lying to the +south-east and the latter to the north-west of this most important +group of peaks, only just under 13,000 feet, which passes under the +general name Kuh-i-Rang. + +A prominent geographical feature of this region is that from this +point south-eastwards the valleys rim parallel with the great ranges, +and are tolerably wide and level, carrying the drainage easily and +smoothly, with plenty of room for the fairly easy tracks which usually +run on both banks of the rivers. + +The reader who has followed the geographical part of my narrative +will, I hope, have perceived that the openings through the Outer and +Inner ranges in the region previously traversed are few and +remarkable, the Tang-i-Ghezi and the Tang-i-Darkash Warkash piercing +the Outer, and the Tang-i-Dupulan the Inner range. + +The Kuh-i-Rang is the definite water-parting and the originating cause +of two drainage systems, and it may be seen from the map, as was +beautifully obvious from the summit of one of the peaks over 11,000 +feet in height, that it marks a singular change in the "lie of the +land," inasmuch as the main drainage no longer runs parallel to the +main ranges, but cuts them across, breaking up Upper Elam into a wild +and confused sea of mountains, riven and gashed, without any attempt +at uniformity. + +This cutting through the ranges at right angles by rivers which +somehow must reach the sea, probably through channels formed by some +tremendous operations of nature, presents serious obstacles to the +traveller, and must effectually prevent commerce flowing in that +direction. The aspect of Upper Elam as seen from the Kuh-i-Rang is of +huge walls of naked rock, occasionally opening out so as to give space +for such a noble mountain as the Kuh-i-Shahan, with tremendous gorges +or canyons among them, with sheer precipices 4000 and 5000 feet high, +below which blue-green torrents, crystalline in their purity, rage and +boom, thundering on their way to join the Ab-i-Diz. The valleys are +short, and elevated from 6000 to 7000 feet, and the tracks dignified +by the name of roads pass along them and at great altitudes on the +sides of the main ranges, but are compelled continually to make dips +and ascents of many thousand feet to reach and emerge from the fords +of the rivers which dash through the magnificent rifts and canyons. + +To the south-east of the Kuh-i-Rang the formation is orderly and +intelligible; to the north-west all is confusion and disorder, but a +sublime confusion. Two great passes to the north and south of this +magnificent mountain are the only ways of communication between the +region of Upper Elam and the Bakhtiari country. The northern pass was +ascended from Dima. The Kharba, one of the head-streams of the +Zainderud, rises on it and fertilises a beautiful valley about +fourteen miles in length. That pass, the Gal-i-Bard-i-Jamal (the pass +of Jamal's stone), the stone being a great detached rock near the +summit, and the Gal-i-Gav (the Cattle Pass) on the southern side, are +both over 10,000 feet in altitude. They are seldom traversed by the +natives, and only in well-armed parties, as both are very dangerous. + +The Kuh-i-Rang must now be regarded as the true birthplace of the +Zainderud and the Karun, though their sources have hitherto been +placed in the Zard Kuh. A tributary of the Ab-i-Diz, and locally +considered as its head-water, rises also in the Kuh-i-Rang. + + [Illustration: AZIZ KHAN.] + +Aziz Khan, who had gone to his tents, has returned with a very nice +young servant and another mare, and with him noise and "go." He has +such a definite personality, and is so energetic in his movements, +that the camps are dull without him. He is a fearful beggar. He asks +me for something every day, and for things he can make no possible use +of, simply out of acquisitiveness. He has got from me among many other +things a new embroidered saddle-cloth, a double-bladed knife, an +Indian _kamarband_, many yards of silk, a large pair of scissors, +bracelets for his wife and daughter, and working materials, and now he +has set his heart on a large combination knife, which is invaluable to +me. "What use is that knife to a woman?" he asks daily. Now he says +that I have given him many things but I have never given him money, +and he must have a purse of money. + +"Why can you do so much more than our women?" he often asks. His +astonishment that I can read, and yet more that I can write, is most +amusing. "Can many women in your country write?" he asked. "Can your +Queen read and write? Can she embroider as you do?" At first he +thought that I only pretended to write, but was convinced when I sent +a letter to the Ilkhani. + +He usually appears when a number of sick people come, interprets their +dialect into good Persian for Mirza, and beats and pelts them with +stones when they crowd too closely, but they do not care. Sometimes +when I say that nothing that I have can do a sick person any good he +begs "for my sake" that I will try, and when I still decline he goes +away in a tantrum, cursing, and shaking his wide _shulwars_ with an +angry strut, but is soon back again with fresh demands. + +He spreads his prayer-carpet and goes through his devotions thrice a +day, but somehow "Aziz Khan praying" seems to suggest some ludicrous +idea, even to his co-religionists. "Feringhis don't fear God," he said +to me; "they never worship." I told him he was wrong, that many are +very devout. He said, "Does ---- pray?" mentioning a European. I said +"Most certainly," and he walked away with the sneering laugh of a +fiend. He is a complete child of nature. He says what he thinks, and +acts chiefly as he pleases, but withal there is a gentlemanliness and +a considerable dignity about him. I think that his ruling religion is +loyalty to Isfandyar Khan, and consequent hatred of the Ilkhani and +all his other enemies. Going through a pantomimic firing of an English +rifle he said, "I hope I may shoot the Shah with this one day!" "For +what reason?" I asked. "Because he murdered Isfandyar Khan's father, +and I hate him." I asked him if he liked shooting, and he replied, "I +like shooting men!" + +He has done a good deal of fighting, and has been shot through the +lung, arm, and leg, besides getting sword cuts, and he takes some +pride in showing his wounds. I think he is faithful. Mirza says that +he has smoothed many difficulties, and has put many crooked things +straight, without taking any credit to himself. His most apparent +faults are greed and a sort of selfish cunning. + +There are many camps about the Gal-i-Gav, and crowds, needing very +careful watching, are always about the tents, wanting to see Feringhi +things, most of the people never having seen a Feringhi. It is a novel +sight in the evenings when long lines of brown sheep in single file +cross the snow-fields, following the shepherds into camp. + +This Gal-i-Gav on the Kuh-i-Rang marks a new departure on the journey, +as well as the establishment of certain geographical facts. It will be +impossible for the future to place the source of the Karun in the Zard +Kuh range, for we followed the stream up to the Kuh-i-Rang, or to +indulge in the supposition that the mountains which lie to the +north-west are "covered with eternal snow," which in this latitude +would imply heights from 17,000 to 20,000 feet. + +It is indeed a disappointment that, look where one may over the great +area filled up by huge rock barriers and vast mountains, from the +softer ridges bounding the fiery Persian plains to the last hills in +which the Inner range descends upon the great alluvial levels of +Khuzistan, not a peak presents itself in the glittering snowy mantle +which I have longed to see. Snow in forlorn patches or nearly hidden +in sunless rifts, and the snow-fields of the Zard Kuh will remain for +a time, but eternal snow is--nowhere, and it does not appear that the +highest of the peaks much exceeds 13,000 feet, either in Upper Elam or +the Bakhtiari country. + +Great difficulties are ahead, not only from tracks which are said to +be impassable for laden animals, but from the disturbed state of the +country. From what I hear from Aziz Khan and from the guides who have +come up here, I gather that the power of the Ilkhani, shaky enough +even nearer Ardal, all but dwindles away here, and is limited to the +collection of the tribute, the petty Khans fighting among themselves, +and doing mainly what is right in their own eyes. + +It is somewhat of a satisfaction to me that it is impossible now to go +back, and that a region absolutely unexplored lies ahead, doubtless +full, as the previously untraversed regions have been, of surprises +and interests. + + I. L. B. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] For the benefit of other travellers I add that the dose of _salol_ +was ten grains every three hours. I found it equally efficacious +afterwards in several cases of acute rheumatism with fever. I hope +that the general reader will excuse the medical and surgical notes +given in these letters. I am anxious to show the great desire for +European medical aid, and the wide sphere that is open to a medical +missionary, at least for physical healing. + +[2] A few geographical paragraphs which follow here and on p. 35 are +later additions to the letter. + +[3] Although the correct name of this river is undoubtedly Kurang, I +have throughout adopted the ordinary spelling _Karun_, under which it +is commercially and politically known. + +[4] _Six Months in Persia._--Stack. + + + + +LETTER XVIII + + + CAMP GOKUN, _July 6_. + +A descent of 5000 feet brought us into the grand and narrow gorge of +the Sahid stream, with willow, walnut, oak, maple, pear, and crab +along its banks, knotted together by sprays of pink roses, with oaks +higher up, and above them again overhanging mountains of naked rock, +scorched, and radiating heat. + +Quite suddenly, after a steep ascent, there is a view of a steep slope +below, where a lateral ravine comes down on the Sahid, green with +crops of wheat and barley, poplars, willows, and a grove of fine +walnuts, and more wonderful still, with an _imamzada_ in good repair, +and a village, also named Sahid, in which people live all the year. +The glen is magnificent, and is the one spot that I have seen in +Persia which suggests Switzerland. + +It is a steep and difficult descent through a walnut grove to the +village, and before I knew it I was on the roof of a house. The +village is built in ten steps up the steep hillside, the posts which +support one projecting roof resting on the back of the roof below. + +The people were timid and suspicious, gave untrue replies to questions +at first, said we were "doing talisman to take their country," and +consulted in Aziz's and Mirza's hearing how they might rob us. It was +even difficult to get them to bring fodder for the horses. They were +fanatical and called us _Kafirs_. Some of the women have never been +out of their romantic mountain-walled hole, in which they are shut up +by snow for four months every winter. Ten families live there, each +one possessing a step. They said they owned sixty-five goats and +sheep, five cows, and seven asses; that they sell their wheat, and +salt from a salt spring at the back of the hill, and that their food +is chiefly acorn flour made into bread, curds, and wild celery. + +This bread is made from the fruit of the _Quercus ballota_, which is +often nearly three inches long. The acorns are not gathered, but +picked up when they fall. The women bruise them between stones to +expel the bitter juices. They are afterwards reduced to flour, which +is well washed to remove the remaining bitterness, and dried in the +sun. It is either made into thin cakes and baked, or is mixed into a +paste with buttermilk and water and eaten raw. The baked cakes are not +very unpalatable, but the paste is nauseous. Acorn flour is never used +from choice. + +The grain is exchanged for blue cottons and tobacco. It is not +possible to imagine a more isolated life. Tihran and Isfahan are names +barely known to these people, and the Shah is little more to them than +the Czar. + +Near the _imamzada_ of Sahid is a burial-ground, rendered holy by the +dust of a _pir_ or saint who lies there. It has many headstones, and +one very large gray stone lion, on whose sides are rude carvings of a +gun, a sword, a dagger, a powder-flask, and a spear. On a few low +headstones a peculiar comb is carved, denoting that the grave is that +of a woman. + +To several stones long locks of hair are attached, some black and +shining, others dead-looking and discoloured. It is customary for the +Bakhtiari women to sacrifice their locks to the memory of their +husbands and other near male relatives. + +I think that they have a great deal of conjugal and family affection, +though their ways are rough, and that they mourn for their dead for a +considerable time. On one grave a young woman was rocking herself to +and fro, wailing with a sound like the Highland coronach, but longer +and more despairing. She was also beating her uncovered bosom +rhythmically, and had cut her face till the blood came. So apparently +absorbed was she in her grief that she took no notice of a Feringhi +and an Indian. She had been bereaved of her husband for a year, his +life having been sacrificed in a tribal fight. + +The next two days were occupied in what might well be called +"mountaineering" on goat tracks; skirting great mountain spurs on +shelving paths not always wide enough for a horse's two feet alongside +of each other, with precipitous declivities of 1000 or 2000 feet; +ascending on ledges of rock to over 9000 feet, then by frightful +tracks descending 2000 or 3000 but to climb again; and at every +descent always seeing in front dizzy zigzags surmounting the crest of +some ragged ridge, only, as one knows, to descend again. _Screw_ +nearly fell over backwards with me once and again, and came down a +smooth face of rock as mules sometimes come down a snow slide in +Switzerland. I was told that I should "break my neck" many times, that +no Bakhtiari had ever ridden over these tracks, or ever would, but my +hurt knee left me no choice. These tracks are simply worn by the +annual passage of the nomads and their flocks. They are frightful +beyond all description. The worst paths in Ladak and Nubra are nothing +to them. + +Occasionally we traversed deep ravines with noisy torrents where the +shade was dense, and willows, ash, walnut, cherry, elm, plum, and oak +were crowded together, with the _Juniperus excelsa_ in rifts above. +With a moist climate it would be a glorious land, but even where the +scenery is finest there is always something lacking. There is no +atmosphere. All is sharp, colourless, naked. Even many of the flowers +are queer, and some are positively ugly. Many have thorns, some are +leather-like, others woolly, a few sticky. Inconspicuous flowers and +large leathery leaves are very common. The seed-vessels of some are +far prettier than the flowers, and brighter in colour. In several the +calyx grows after the corolla has withered, and becomes bright pink or +orange, like a very gay but only partially-opened blossom. +_Umbelliferae_ predominate this month. _Compositae_ too are numerous. +All, even bulbs, send down their roots very deep. + +After leaving camp yesterday and crossing a high pass we descended +into the earth's interior, only to ascend a second pass by a steep +zigzag. Suddenly a wall of rock appeared as if to bar progress, but on +nearing it a narrow V-shaped slit was seen to afford a risky passage, +offering no other foothold than smooth shelving rock on the inside for +a number of yards, with a precipice above on the right and below on +the left. Ledges of slippery rock led up to it, and _Screw_ was +jumping and scrambling up these when the guides howled to me to stop, +and I was lifted off somehow. The white Arab was rolling and +struggling in the V, _Screw_ following lost his footing, and the two +presented a confusion of hoofs and legs in the air and bodies +struggling and rolling through the slit till they picked themselves up +with cut legs. The guides tried vainly to find some way by which the +caravans which followed much later might avoid this risk, and the Agha +went down the pass which had been so laboriously ascended to give +directions for its passage. + +The _charvadars_ on reaching the difficulty made attempts to turn it +but failed; some loads were taken off and carried by men, and each +mule struggled safely through with one man at his head, and one or +two supporting him by his tail. The passage of the V took the caravan +an hour, but meantime there was the enjoyment of the sight of a +confused mass of mountains, whitish precipitous ranges, sun-lit, with +tremendous ravines between them, lying in the cool blue shadows of +early morning; mountains with long straight summits, mountains +snow-covered and snow-slashed, great spires of naked rock, huge ranges +buttressed by huge spurs herbage-covered, with outcrops of barren +rock,--a mighty, solitary, impressive scene, an uplifted wilderness +without a camp. + +The descent of 4000 feet from this summit consists of any number of +zigzag tracks on the narrow top of the narrow ridge of one of the huge +rocky buttresses of Gartak, both sides being precipitous. Even on the +horse I was dizzy, and he went down most unwillingly, not taking any +responsibility as to finding the safest way, and depending solely on +my eye and hand. Mirza, being hampered with the care of his own mule, +was useless, and otherwise I was alone. These thready zigzags ended on +what appeared to be a precipice, from the foot of which human voices +came up, shouting to me to dismount. I did so, and got down, hanging +on to _Screw's_ bridle, and letting myself down over the ledges by my +hands for another hour, having to be careful all the time to avoid +being knocked down by his slips and jumps. I could hardly get him to +face some of the smooth broken faces of rock. A slide of gravel, a +snow-bridge, worn thin, over a torrent, and some slippery rock ledges +to scramble over by its side led to a pathless ascent through grass +and bushes. The guides and Aziz roared to me from a valley below, by +which roars I found my way down a steep hillside to the Gokun, a +mountain river of a unique and most beautiful blue-green colour, +abounding in deep pools from which it emerges in billows of cool +foam. + +I forded it by a broad ford where crystal-green water glides calmly +over brown and red pebbles, with a willow-shaded margin, and as I +crossed a flock of long-bearded goats swam and jumped from rock to +rock from the other side, the whole scene an artist's dream. This +valley has magnificent pasturage, hay not yet "sun cured," long grass, +and abundant clover and vetches brightened by a profuse growth of a +small _helianthus_. + +The march over the Gokun Pass and down to the Gokun river is the worst +I ever made. Had the track been in Ladak or Lahoul it would have been +marked on the Government maps "impassable for laden animals." Yet +Hadji's splendid mules, held at times by both head and tail, +accomplished it, and only minor disasters occurred. One mule had his +head gashed, Mirza had a bad fall, and broke my milk bottle, Hassan, +leading his own horse, fell twenty feet with the animal and cut his +arm, the ridge pole of my tent was broken, and is with difficulty +bandaged so as to hold, and some of the other baggage was damaged. +Hadji grumbles politely, and says that "in all time loaded mules were +never taken over such tracks," and I believe him. Aziz says that I +must be "tired of life," or I should never ride over them, and +certainly _Screw_ carried me at the peril of his life and mine. + +The camps are pitched for Sunday at an altitude of 8000 feet, high +above the river--mine under the befriending shade of a colossal +natural sphinx, so remarkable that two photographs and a sketch by +Mirza were taken of it. It confronted us in a startling way, a grand +man's head with a flowing wig and a legal face, much resembling the +photographs of Lord Chancellor Hatherley. + +The mules have been poorly fed for the last few days, and it is +pleasant to see them revelling in the abundant pasturage. After this +tremendous nine hours' march they came in quite cheerily, Cock o' the +Walk leading the caravan, with his fighting face on, shaking his grand +mane, and stamping as if he had not walked a mile. + +The Sunday has been a very quiet one, except for the fighting of the +horses, which seem intent on murdering each other, the fussiness of +Aziz about a cut which his mare got yesterday, and for which he +expects my frequent attention, and the torment of the sand-flies, +which revel in the heat which kills the mosquitos. + +_Kalahoma, July 11._--On Monday it was a pretty march from the shadow +of the sphinx through a well-irrigated and cultivated valley with many +camps, and by a high pass, to the neighbourhood of the Kuh-i-Shahan, +on which I rested for some hours at a height of 12,010 feet, the +actual summit being somewhat higher. On its north-east side the view +was hideous, of scorched, rolling gravel hills and wide scorched +valleys, with two winding streams, and some patches of wheat +surrounding two scorched mud villages. + +The descent to Camp Kamarun, a deep ravine with a rapid mountain +stream, was blessed by a shower, which cooled the air, and resulted in +the only grand, stormy, wild sunset that I have seen for months. This +valley is blocked at the east end by Gargunaki, on the west by the +Kala Kuh, and the rocky ranges of Faidun and the Kuh-i-Shahan close in +its sides. + +Long, long ago tradition says a certain great chief had eleven sons. +They quarrelled and divided into hostile factions of four and seven, +forming the still hostile groups of the Chahar Lang and the Haft Lang +of to-day. For some time past the ruling dynasty has been of the Haft +Lang division; Aziz also belongs to it, and we have been almost +entirely among its tribes hitherto. This ancient feud, though modified +in intensity, still exists. At this camp we were among tribes of the +Chahar Lang, and there was reason to apprehend robbery and a night +attack; so careful arrangements were made, and the men kept guard by +turns. + +The following day's march, which was also pretty, included a long +descent through a cultivated valley, with willows, plums, and walnuts +growing along a stream, and a steep ascent and descent to the two +villages of Masir on well-cultivated slopes, belonging to Taimur Khan, +the chief of the powerful Magawe tribe, to whom the villagers pay what +they call a moderate "rent" in sheep, goats, and grain. They are of +the Chahar Lang, and deny that they are under the Ilkhani's rule. They +had a fight with a tribe of the Haft Lang ten days ago, killed twelve +men, had seven killed and wounded, and took some guns and horses. +These, however, they have restored at the command of the Ilkhani, +which contradicts their assertion. + +They have a burial-ground with several very white lions rampant upon +it, of most noble aspect, boldly carved, and with the usual +bas-reliefs on their sides. + +The camps were on a gravelly slope with a yellow glare, and the +mercury reached 105 deg. The presence of villages in this country always +indicates a comparatively warm climate, in which people can live +throughout the winter. The Scripture phrase, "maketh the outgoings of +the morning and evening to rejoice," has come to bear a clear and +vivid meaning. In this country, in this fiery latitude, life is merely +a struggle from the time the sun has been up for two hours until he +sinks very low. "There is nothing hid from the heat thereof." One +watches with dismay his flaming disc wheel into the cloudless sky, to +blaze and scintillate mercilessly there for many terrible hours, +scorching, withering, destroying, "turning a fruitful land into a +desert," bringing eye diseases in his train. With sunset, but not much +before, comes a respite, embittered by sand-flies, and life begins to +be possible; then darkness comes with a stride and the day is done. + +Among the many people who came to the _Hak[=i]m_ was a man who had +received a severe sword cut in the recent fight. I disliked his +expression, and remarked on it to Mirza. On the next day's march, +though there were twelve men with the caravan, this man seized and +made off with the handsome chestnut horse Karun, which was being led. +The horse had a sore back and soon kicked off his rider and was +recovered. On the same march Mujid was attacked, and under the threat +of being stripped was obliged to give up all the money he had on his +person. On the same day some women clamorously demanded bracelets, and +when I did not give them two took hold of my bridle and one of my +foot, and were dragging me off, when on Mirza coming up they let me +go. + +Marching among lower hills and broader valleys, irrigated and +cultivated, with much wood along the streams and scattered on the +lower slopes, we passed the inhabited villages of Tarsa and Sah Kala, +surrounded by patches of buckwheat, vetches, and melons, and with much +provision of _kiziks_ for fuel on their roofs, and camped by the +richly-wooded river Guwa, in a grove of fine trees, crossing its +vigorous torrent the next morning by a wicker bridge, the Pul-i-Guwa. +A long ascent among oaks, where the views of mountains and ravines +were grand, an upland meadow where I found a white bee orchis, and a +steep ascent among stones, brought us to the top of a pass 9650 feet +in altitude. On its south-west side there is a very striking view of +gorges of immense depth and steepness, through which the Guwa finds +its way. To the north-east the prospect is of a very feeble country, +which we entered by a tiresome gravelly descent, very open, composed +of low hills with outcrops of rock at their summits, irrigated +rolling valleys and plains, with deep rifts indicative of streams, and +some Magawe villages. + +Our route lay across the most scorched and gravelly part of the upper +slopes of a wide valley, scantily sprinkled with blue _eryngiums_ and +a woolly species of _artemisia_, a very repulsive region, where herds +of camels, kept for breeding purposes, were grazing. On the other side +of this valley a spur of the fine mountain Jalanda projects, and on it +are the two villages and fort of Kalahoma, the residence of Taimur +Khan. + +We halted below the hill while a spring was being searched for, and I +was sitting on horseback eating my lunch, a biscuit in one hand and a +cup in the other. I have mentioned the savagery of the horses, and +especially of _Hak[=i]m_, who has become like a wild beast. He was +standing fully four horse-lengths away from me, with his tail towards +me, and the guide had let go his bridle, when there was a roar or +squeal, and a momentary vision of glaring wild-beast eyes, streaming +mane, and open mouth rushing down upon me and towering above _Screw's_ +head, and the next thing I remember is finding myself on the ground +with my foot in the stirrup and three men lifting me up. + +I was a good deal shaken, and cut my arm badly, but mounted again, and +though falling on my head has given me a sickish headache for two +days, I have not absolutely required rest, and in camp there is no use +in "making a fuss"--if indeed there ever is. + +I shall not have pleasant memories of this camp. The tents were +scarcely pitched before crowds assembled for medicine. I could get no +rest, for if I shut the tent the heat was unbearable, and if I opened +it there was the crowd, row behind row, the hindmost pushing the +foremost in, so that it was 8 P.M. before I got any food. Yesterday +morning at six I was awakened by people all round the tent, some +shaking the curtains and calling "_Hak[=i]m! Hak[=i]m!_" and though I +kept it shut till eleven, and raised the mercury to 115 deg. by doing so, +there was no rest. + +From eleven o'clock till 9 P.M., except for one hour, when I was away +at the Khan's, I was "seeing patients," wishing I were a real instead +of a spurious _Hak[=i]m_, for there was so much suffering, and some of +it I knew not how to relieve. However, I was able (thanks to St. +Mary's Hospital, London) to open three whitlows and two abscesses, and +it was delightful to see the immediate relief of the sufferers. "God +is great," they all exclaimed, and the bystanders echoed, "God is +great." I dressed five neglected bullet wounds, and sewed up a gash of +doubtful origin, and with a little help from Mirza prepared +eye-lotions and medicines for seventy-three people. I asked one +badly-wounded man in what quarrel he had been shot, and he replied +that he didn't know, his Khan had told him to go and fight. + +In the afternoon several very distressed people were brought from an +Armenian village ten miles off, and were laid by those who brought +them at the tent door. At five the crowd was very great and the hubbub +inconceivable, and Mirza failed to keep order in the absence of Aziz +Khan, who had gone on a pilgrimage to a neighbouring _imamzada_. The +mercury had never fallen below 100 deg. I had been standing or kneeling +for six hours, and had a racking headache, so I reluctantly shut up my +medicine chest and went by invitation to call on the Khan's wives, but +the whole crowd surrounded and followed me, swelling as it moved +along, a man with a mare with bad eyes, which had been brought ten +miles for eye-lotion, increasing the clamour by his urgency. "Khanum! +Khanum!" (lady) "Chashma!" (eyes) "Shikam!" (stomach) were shouted on +all sides, with "_Hak[=i]m! Hak[=i]m!_" The people even clutched my +clothing, and hands were raised to heaven to implore blessings on me +if I would attend to them. + +The whole village of Kalahoma was out, thronging, pressing, and almost +suffocating me, and the Khan's servants who came to meet me did not or +could not disperse the people, though every man holds his life at the +Khan's disposal. These villages, which are surrounded by opium fields, +are composed of the rudest of human habitations, built of rough +stones, the walls being only five feet high. There is much +subterranean room for cattle. The stacks of such winter fodder as +celery and _Centaurea alata_, and those of _kiziks_ for fuel, are +larger than the dwellings. The latter are of conical form, and many of +them are built on the house roofs. + +Taimur Khan's fort and _serai_ are in the midst of all this, and are +very poor and ruinous, but the walls are high, and they have a +_balakhana_. As I approached the ladies came out to meet me, veiled in +white cotton _chadars_. The principal wife took my hand and led me +through a hole in the wall, not to be called a doorway, into a +courtyard littered with offal and piled with stacked animal fuel, and +up some high dilapidated steps, into a small dark room, outside of +which are a very small "lobby" and a blackened ladder against the +wall, leading to the roof, on which the ladies sleep in the hot +weather. Some poor rugs covered the floor, and there were besides some +poor cotton-covered bolsters. Everything, even the dress of the +ladies, indicated poverty. The dark hot room was immediately packed +with a crowd of women, children, and babies, all appallingly dirty. It +was a relief when the Khan was announced in the distance, and they +cleared out like frightened sheep, leaving only the four wives, who +stood up at his approach, and remained standing till he was seated. + +No "well-bred" Khan would pay me a visit in his _andarun_ without +sending first with his "homage" to know if I would receive him, nor +did Taimur Khan violate this rule or the other of remaining standing +until I asked him to be seated. He is a tall, very melancholy-looking +man, with a Turkish cast of face, and is dressed in the usual Persian +style. After a few ordinary commonplaces he talked politics and tribal +affairs, _apparently_ frankly, but who can say if truthfully? He knows +that I have letters from the Prime Minister, and he hoped that I might +do him some good at Tihran. As soon as important subjects superseded +trifles, the wives relapsed into complete indifference, and stared +into vacancy. + +His tribe, the Magawe, is estimated at 500 families, and has been +powerful. Taimur Khan is a staunch adherent of the Ilkhani, but at +this point there is a change as to the tribute, half of which is paid +to the Ilkhani and half to the Governor of Burujird. He has many +grievances, and complains most bitterly that he and his tribe are +being ground into poverty by exactions which, he asserts, have this +year raised the tribute from 700 to 4000 _tumans_. + +He asks me to do something to help him, adding that his house is in +ruins, and that he is so oppressed that he cannot build a new one, or +have any surroundings suitable to his rank. I said that I could only +send his statements to the British "Vakil" in Tihran, and he at once +asked how many horses he should present him with. I replied that the +"Vakil" would not accept anything, and that he had lately declined a +superb diamond setting in which the Shah desired to send him his +picture. The Khan raised his hands, with the exclamation "God is +great!" + +Isfandyar Khan and Taimur Khan were at war some years ago, and fought +from mountain to mountain, and Taimur Khan was eventually captured, +taken to Burujird, and sent to Isfahan, where he was kept in irons +for some years, the redoubtable Aziz Khan being one of his captors. +This accounts for the disappearance of Aziz on "pilgrimage" to a +neighbouring _imamzada_, and the consequent dulness of the camp. + +Among a people at once simple and revengeful, it is not unlikely that +such severities may bear their legitimate fruit if an occasion +presents itself, such as the embroilment of Persia with any other +power. Another Khan who was thrown into prison and irons by the +Zil-es-Sultan expressed himself strongly on the subject. "Five years," +he said, holding out his muscular wrists, on which the marks of +fetters are still visible, "I wore the chains. Can I forget?" The +Bakhtiaris do not love the Persians, and are held, I think, by a +brittle thread. + +I have written of the extreme poverty of the surroundings of the Khaja +Taimur or Taimur Khan. It is not a solitary instance. Throughout this +journey I am painfully impressed with the poverty of the tribesmen. As +compared with the wealth of those farther south when visited by Sir A. +H. Layard and the Baron de Bode, their condition is one of +destitution. The Ilkhani and Ilbegi have fine studs, but few of the +Khans have any horses worth looking at, and for some time past none at +all have been seen except a few belonging to the chiefs, and the men +either walk or ride very small asses. + +Their cattle are few and small and their flocks insignificant when +compared with those of the Arab tribes west of the Tigris. Their tents +and furnishings are likewise extremely poor, and they live poorly, +many of them only able to procure acorn flour for bread, and this +though they grow a great deal of grain, and every yard of land is +cultivated if water is procurable. + +The hospitality which those two travellers mention as a feature of the +character of the more southerly Bakhtiaris does not exist among these +people. They have, in fact, little to be hospitable with. They all +speak of better days in the times of their fathers, when they had +brood mares and horses to ride, much pastoral wealth and plenty of +_roghan_, and when their women could wear jewels and strings of coins. + +On this point I believe them, though there may possibly be +exaggeration in Taimur Khan's statements. Persia has undoubtedly +tightened her grip upon them, and she is sucking their life-blood out +of them. This becomes very evident now that we have reached a point +where the government of Burujird comes in, with the infinite +unrighteousness of Persian provincial governors. It is not the tribute +fixed by the Amin-es-Sultan which these Khans complain of, but the +rapacious exactions of the local governors. + +There is a "blood feud" between Taimur Khan and Aslam Khan, the chief +of the Zalaki tribe, on whose territory we shall enter to-day. A +nephew of Taimur killed a relation of Aslam, and afterwards Taimur +sheltered him from legitimate vengeance. Just now the feud is very +active, and cattle-lifting and other reprisals are going on. "Blood +feuds" are of three degrees, according to the nature of the offence. +In the first a man of the one tribe can kill a man of the other +wherever he finds him. In the second he harries his cattle and goods. +In the third he simply "boycotts" him and refuses him a passage +through his territory. The Bakhtiaris have often been called +"bloodthirsty." I doubt whether they are so, though life is of little +account, and they are reckless about spilling blood. + +They have a great deal of family devotion, which in lesser degree +extends to the members of their tribe, and a Bakhtiari often spares +the life of a man who has aggrieved him owing to his fear of creating +a blood feud, which must be transmitted from father to son, and which +must affect the whole tribe. As a deterrent from acts of violence it +acts powerfully, and may account for the singular bloodlessness of +some of the tribal fights. Few men, unless carried away by a whirlwind +of fury, care to involve a tribe in the far-reaching consequences +alluded to, and bad as the custom of blood feuds is, I think there can +be no doubt that it acts as a curb upon the passions of these wild +tribesmen. "There is blood between us and them," is a phrase often +heard. + +Punishments are simple and deterrent, well suited to a simple people. +When a homicide is captured he is handed over to the relatives of the +slain man, who may kill him, banish him, fine him, or pardon him. In +point of fact, "blood-money" is paid to the family of the deceased +person, and to save his life from their vengeance a homicide +frequently becomes a mendicant on the other side of the mountains till +he can gain the required sum. Moslem charity responds freely to a +claim for alms to wipe out a blood stain. The Ilkhani has a right to +fine a homicide. "Blood for blood" is a maxim very early inculcated. + +The present feud between the Magawe and the Zalaki tribes is of the +first degree. It is undoubtedly a part of the truly Oriental policy of +Persia to foment tribal quarrels, and keep them going, with the object +of weakening the power of the clans, which, though less so than +formerly, is a standing menace to the central government. + +On reaching camp after this visit I found a greater crowd than ever, +and as "divers of them came from far," I tried to help them till nine +o'clock, and as Aziz had returned the crowding was not so severe. He +said, "You're very tired, send these people away, you've done enough." +I answered that one had never done enough so long as one could do +more, and he made a remark which led me to ask him if he thought a +_Kafir_ could reach Paradise? He answered "Oh no!" very hastily, but +after a moment's thought said, "I don't know, God knows, _He doesn't +think as we do_, He may be more merciful than we think. If Kafirs fear +God they may have some Paradise to themselves, we don't know." + + I. L. B. + + + + +LETTER XVIII (_Continued_)[5] + + + CAMP KALA KUH, _July 16_. + +The call to "Boot and Saddle" was at three, and I was nearly too tired +to pack in the sultry morning air. The heat is overpowering. Khaja +Taimur no doubt had reasons for a difficulty in providing guides, +which caused delay. The track lay through pretty country, with +abounding herbage, to the village and _imamzada_ of Makhedi. There the +guide said he dared not go any farther for fear of being killed, and +after some time another was procured. During this delay a crowd of +handsome but hardship-aged women gathered round me, many of them +touching the handkerchiefs on their heads and then tapping the palms +of their hands, a significant sign, which throughout Persia, being +interpreted, means, "Give me some money." + +The Agha is in the habit of gathering the little girls about him and +giving them _krans_ as from his own children, a most popular +proceeding usually; but here the people were not friendly, and very +suspicious. Even the men asked me clamorously, "Why does he give them +money? It's poisoned, it's cursed, it's to make them blind." However, +avarice prevailed over fear. The people rarely see money, and it is +not used as a medium of exchange, but they value it highly for paying +the tribute and as ornaments for the women. Barter is the custom, and +with regard to "tradesmen," whether in camps or villages, it is usual +for each family to pay so much grain annually to the blacksmith, the +carpenter, the shoemaker--_i.e._ the man who makes compressed rag or +leather soles for _ghevas_ and unites the cotton webbing ("upper") to +the sole--and the _hammam_ keeper, in the rare cases where there is +one. They were cutting wheat on July 12 there at an altitude of 7000 +feet. Where there are only camps the oxen tread it out at once on the +hard soil of the fields, but where there is a village the sheaves are +brought in on donkeys' backs to a house roof of sun-dried clay, and +are there trodden out, the roofs being usually accessible from the +slope above. + +We descended to a deep ford, crossed the river Ab-i-Baznoi (locally +known as Kakulistan, or "the curl," from its singular windings), there +about sixty feet wide, with clear rapid water of a sky-blue tint, very +strong, and up to the guide's waist, and entered a steep-sided stony +valley, where the heat was simply sickening. There the second guide +left us, saying he should be killed if he went any farther, but +another was willing to succeed him. After a steep ascent we emerged on +a broad rolling upland valley, deeply gashed by a stream, with the +grand range of the Kala Kuh on the south side, and low bare hills on +the north. It is now populous, the valley and hillsides are spotted +with large camps, and the question at once arose, "Hostile or +Friendly?" + +I was riding as usual with Mirza behind me, when a man with a gun +rushed frantically towards me from an adjacent camp, waving his gun +and shouting, "Who are you? Why are you in our country? You're friends +of Khaja Taimur, you've given him presents, we'll rob you"! With +these and many similar words he pursued us, and men started up as by +magic, with long guns, running alongside, the low spurs became covered +with people in no time, and there was much signalling from hill to +hill, "A-hoy-hoy-hoy-hoy," and sending of messengers. Mirza pacified +them by saying that we are friends of Isfandyar Khan, and that I have +presents for Aslam Khan, their chief; but soon the shout of +"Feringhis" was raised, and from group to group along the knolls +swelled the cry of "Feringhis! Feringhis!" mixed with a few shouts of +_Kafir_; but without actual molestation we reached a steep and +uncomfortable camping-ground, Padshah-i-Zalaki, at an altitude of 7800 +feet, with an extensive view of the broad green valley. + +Before we halted Aslam Khan, a very fine-looking man, and others met +us, and performed feats of horsemanship, wheeling their horses in +small circles at a gallop, and firing pantomimically over their left +shoulders and right flanks. The Sahib came in later, so that our party +was a tolerably strong one. + +The first thing the people did was to crowd into the shelter-tent and +lie down, staring fixedly, a thing which never happened before, and +groups steadily occupied the tops of the adjacent spurs. After my tent +was pitched the people assembled round it in such numbers, ostensibly +desiring medicine, that the Khan sent two _tufangchis_ to keep order +among them, and Karim, whose arm is now well, was added as a +protection. The Agha ordered that the people should sit in rows at the +sides and take their turn, one at a time, to come into the verandah, +but no sooner were he and Aziz Khan out of sight than they began to +crowd, to shout, and to become unmanageable, scuffling and pushing, +the _tufangchis_ pretending to beat them with the barrels of their +guns, but really encouraging them, and at length going away, saying +they could not manage them. Karim begged me to stop giving medicine, +for he was overpowered, and if he opposed them any more there would be +a fight. They had said that if he "spoke another word they would kill +him." They were perfectly good-humoured all the time, but acted like +complete savages, getting under the _flys_, tugging at the tent ropes, +and trying to pull my blankets off the bed, etc. At last the hindmost +gave a sudden push, sending the foremost tumbling into the tent and +over me, upsetting a large open packet of sulphate of zinc, just +arrived from Julfa, which was on my lap. + +I left the tent to avoid further mischief, but was nearly suffocated +by their crowding and tugging my dress, shouting "_Hak[=i]m! +Hak[=i]m!_" The Sahib, who came to the rescue, and urged them in +Persian to depart, was quite powerless. In the midst of the confusion +the Khan's wives and daughter came to visit me, but I could only show +them the crowd and walk, followed by it, in the opposite direction +from the tent, till I met the Agha, whose presence restored order. +That night nearly all Hadji's _juls_ or mule blankets and a donkey +were stolen. + +The Zalakis are a large and powerful tribe, predatory by habit and +tradition. Aslam Khan himself directed certain thefts from which we +suffered, and quoted a passage from the Koran not only to extenuate +but to warrant depredations on the goods of "infidels." + +Sunday was spent in the hubbub of a crowd. I was suffering somewhat +from a fall, and yet more from the fatigues of Kalahoma, and longed +for rest, but the temperature of the tent when closed was 106 deg., and +when open the people crowded at the entrance, ostensibly for medicine, +but many from a pardonable and scarcely disguised curiosity to see the +"Feringhi _Hak[=i]m_," and hear her speak. + +In the afternoon, with Mirza and Karim as a guard, I went somewhat +reluctantly to the Khan's camp to return the abortive visit of the +ladies. This camp consists of a number of black tents arranged in a +circle, the Khan's tents only distinguishable from the rest by their +larger size. Mares, dogs, sheep, goats, and fireholes were in the +centre, and some good-looking horses were tethered outside. + +The Khan's mother, a fine, buxom, but coarse-looking woman, met me, +and took me to an open tent, fully forty feet long, the back of which +was banked up by handsome saddle-bags. Bolsters and rugs were laid in +the middle, on which the four legitimate wives and several inferior +ones, with a quantity of babies and children crawling about them, were +seated. Among them was a very handsome Jewish-looking girl of +eighteen, the Khan's daughter, pleasing in expression and graceful in +manner. She is married to a son of Taimur Khan, but he does not care +for her, and has practically discarded her, which adds insult to the +"blood feud" previously existing. + +After I entered the tent the whole camp population, male and female, +crowded in, pressing upon us with clamour indescribable. The Khan's +mother slapped the wives if they attempted to speak and conducted +herself like a ruling virago, occasionally shrieking at the crowd, +while a _tufangchi_ with a heavy stick belaboured all within his +reach, and those not belaboured yelled with laughter. + +The senior lady beckoned Mirza to lean towards her, and told him in a +whisper that her handsome granddaughter is hated and despised by her +husband, and has been sent back with a baby a year old, he having +taken another wife, and that she wanted me to give her a "love +philtre" that would answer the double purpose of giving her back his +love and making her rival hateful in his eyes. During this whispered +conference as many as could reach leant close to the speakers, like +the "savages" that they are. I replied that I knew of no such +philtres, that if the girl's beauty and sweetness could not retain her +husband's love there was no remedy. She said she knew I had them, and +that I kept them, as well as potions for making favourite wives ugly +and odious to their husbands, in a leather box with a gold key! Then +many headaches and sore eyes were brought, and a _samovar_ and tea, +and I distributed presents in a Babel in which anything but the most +staccato style of conversation was impossible. When I left the crowd +surged after me, and a sharp stone was thrown, which cut through my +cloak. + +Later, Aslam Khan, his brothers, and the usual train of retainers +called. He is a very fine-looking man, six feet high, with a most +sinister expression, and a look at times which inspired me with the +deepest distrust of him. His robber tribe numbers 3500 souls, and he +says that he can bring 540 armed horsemen into the field. He too asked +for medicine for headache. Not only is there a blood feud between him +and Khaja Taimur, but between him and Mirab Khan, through whose valley +we must pass. In the evening the Khan's mother returned with several +women, bent on getting the "love philtre." At night Hadji, who was +watching, said that men were prowling round the tents at all hours, +and a few things were taken. + +On Monday morning early all was ready, for the three caravans from +that day were to march together, and I was sitting on my horse talking +with the Sahib, waiting for the Agha to return from the Khan's camp, +when he rushed down the slope exclaiming, "There's mischief!" and I +crossed the stream and watched it. About twenty men with loaded sticks +had surrounded Mujid, and were beating him and finally got him down. +I leapt back to my own camp, where Hassan and Karim were taking a +parting smoke, and ordered them to the rescue. The soldier rushed into +the _melee_, armed with only a cane, which was broken at once, and the +Bakhtiaris got him by his thick hair, and all but forced him down; but +he fought like a bulldog, and so did Hassan, who was unarmed and got +two bad cuts. Dashed too into the fray Hadji Hussein, who fought like +a bull, followed by his muleteers and by Abbas Ali, who, being early +knocked down, hung on to a man's arm with his teeth. The Sahib, who +was endeavouring to make peace, was untouched, possibly because of his +lineage and faith, and he yelled to Mirza (who in a fight is of no +account) to run for the Agha, whose presence is worth fifty men. + +Meanwhile a number of Zalakis, armed, two with guns and the rest with +loaded sticks, crowded round me, using menacing gestures and calling +me a _Kafir_, on which I took my revolver out of the holster, and very +slowly examined the chambers, though I knew well that all were loaded. +This had an excellent effect. They fell back, and were just dispersing +when over the crest of the hill cantered Aziz Khan, followed by the +Agha, who, galloping down the slope, fired a revolver twice over the +head of a man who was running away, who, having stolen a sheep, and +being caught in the act by Mujid, had begun the fray. Aslam Khan +followed, and, the men say, gave the order to fire, but recalled it on +finding that one of his tribesmen had been the aggressor. I thought he +took the matter very coolly, and he almost immediately told Mirza to +ask me for a penknife! + +After this we started, the orders being for the caravans to keep well +together, and if we were absolutely attacked to "fire." After +ascending a spur of the Kala Kuh we left the track for an Ilyat camp +on a steep hill among oaks and pears, where I had promised to see a +young creature very ill of fever. + +Among the trees was a small booth of four poles, roofed with celery +stalks, but without sides or ends, and in this, on a sheepskin, was a +heap out of which protruded two white wasted arms. I uncovered the +back of a head which turned slowly, and revealed, in a setting of +masses of heavy shining hair, the white face of a young girl, with +large brilliant eyes and very beautiful teeth. Her pulse was +fluttering feebly, and I told the crowd that death was very near, for +fear they should think I had poisoned her with the few drops of +stimulant that she was able to swallow. Even here the death penalty +sometimes follows the joy of maternity. She died in the evening, and +now nothing remains of the camp but a heap of ashes, for these people +always at once leave the camping-ground where a death has occurred. + +Meanwhile the Agha was making friends with the people, and giving +_krans_ to the children, as is his habit. Scarcely had we left when he +found that he had been robbed of a fine pair of binocular glasses, +almost a necessity under the circumstances. English rifles, +binoculars, and watches are all coveted by the Bakhtiaris. Aziz Khan +became very grave, and full of dismal prophecies regarding the +remainder of the journey. + +After this divergence the scenery was magnificent. The Kala Kuh range +is certainly finer than the Zard Kuh. It is more broken up into peaks +of definite outline, and is more deeply cut by gorges, many of them +the beds of torrents, densely wooded. In fact it is less of a _range_ +and more of a _group_. The route lay among huge steep mountains of +naked rock, cut up by narrow, deep, and gigantic clefts, from whose +depths rise spires of rock and stupendous, almost perpendicular +cliffs. Green torrents flecked with foam boom through the shadows, or +flash in the sunlight, margined wherever it is possible by walnuts, +oaks, lilacs, roses, the _Lastrea dilatata_, and an entanglement of +greenery revelling in spray. + +A steep zigzag descent through oak and pear trees brought us to the +vigorous torrent Ab-i-Sefid (white water), one of many of the same +name, crossed by a natural bridge of shelving rock, slippery from much +use. One of the Arabs so nearly fell on this that I dismounted, and +just as I did so Abbas Ali's mule fell on his side, and _Screw_ +following did the same, breaking several things in the holster. + +After crossing a deep ravine Abbas Ali sprang back down the steep to +it, and the Sahib, who was behind, also ran down with three men to +what was evidently a disaster. Mirza's mule had fallen over twenty +feet, rolling over him three times with its load, hurting his knee +badly. The Sahib said he never saw so narrow an escape from a broken +neck. The loss of a bottle containing a quart of milk was the chief +damage. A little farther up three men were tugging _Hak[=i]m_ up to +the track by the tail. It was a very steep ascent by stony broken +zigzags and ledges to the fairly level top of a spur of the Kala Kuh +range, with a high battlemented hill behind, at the back of which +dwell robber hordes, and many Seyyids, who pay no tribute, and are +generally feared. + +At this open, breezy height of 9200 feet the camps have been pitched +for three days, and of the many camping-grounds which we have hitherto +occupied I like it the best, so lofty is it, so lonely, so mysterious +and unexplored. It has a glorious view of tremendous wooded ravines, +down which green waters glide or tumble, of small lawn-like plateaux +among woods, and of green peaks in the foreground, and on the other +side of the narrow, sinuous valley, several thousand feet below, +there is a confused mass of mountains, among which the snow-slashed +southern faces of the peaks of the Zard Kuh and the grand bulk of a +mountain of the Faidun range, are the most prominent. + +Five thousand feet below, reached by a remarkable track, is Basnoi, a +lonely depth, with successive terraces of figs, pomegranates, and +walnuts, dense woods, and a luxuriant undergrowth of long grass and +ferns. Among them are the remains of an ancient road of good width and +construction, and of a very fine bridge of small blocks of +carefully-dressed stone, with three arches, now ruined, with fine +piers and stone abutments, the centre arch having a span of sixty +feet. The roadway of the bridge is gone, and a crazy wicker framework +is suspended in its place. The Bakhtiaris attribute these relics of an +extinct civilisation to Shapur, one of the three kings of that name +who reigned in the third and fourth centuries. All these green waters +fall into the Ab-i-Diz. + +Before sunset heads of men and barrels of guns were seen over the +rocky cliff behind us. We had been warned against the outlaw tribes of +that region, and had been told that they were preparing to rob the +camp that night with thirty men, and had declared that if they failed +they would dog us till they succeeded. This news was brought by Aslam +Khan's brother in the afternoon. I asked Aziz with how much I should +reach Burujird, and he answered, "It's well if you take your life +there." + +This and a whole crop of other rumours, magnified as they passed from +man to man, produced a novel excitement in the lonely camps. Hadji +buried his money, of which he had a large sum, and lay down upon it. +Rifles and revolvers were cleaned and loaded, swords and knives +sharpened, voices were loud and ceaseless, and those who were slightly +hurt in the morning's fray recounted their adventures over and over +again. All dispositions for safety were carefully made before night. +Hassan, who has a horse, and large property in good clothes, wanted a +revolver, but was wisely refused, on the ground that to arm +undisciplined men indiscriminately would be to run a great risk of +being ourselves shot in any confusion. There were then four men with +rifles, five with revolvers, and Aslam Khan's brother and two +_tufangchis_ with guns. + +About eight the Bakhtiari signal-call was several times repeated, and +I wondered if it were foe or friend, till Aziz's answering signal rang +out loud and clear, announcing that it was "friends of Isfandyar +Khan." Shortly I heard, "the plot thickens," and the "friends" turned +out to be another brother of Aslam Khan, with four _tufangchis_ and a +promise of eight more, who never arrived. According to these men +reliable information had been received that Khaja Taimur, our friend +of Kalahoma, was sending forty men to rob us on Aslam Khan's territory +in order to get him into trouble. + +This arrival increased the excitement among the men, who piled +tamarisk and the gum tragacanth bush on the fires most recklessly, the +wild, hooded _tufangchis_ and their long guns being picturesque in the +firelight. I am all but positively sure that the rumour was invented +by Aslam Khan, in order to show his vigilant care of guests, and +secure from their gratitude the much-coveted possession of an English +rifle. Hadji came to my tent, telling me "not to be the least afraid, +for they would not harm a lady." The Agha has a resource for every +emergency, the Sahib is cool and brave, and besides that, I strongly +suspected the whole thing to be a ruse of Aslam Khan, whom I distrust +thoroughly. At all events I was asleep very early, and was only +disturbed twice by Aziz calling to know if my servants were watching, +and was only awakened at five by the Sahib and the Agha going past my +tent, giving orders that any stranger approaching the camp was to be +warned off, and was to be fired upon if he disregarded the warning. + +A blissfully quiet day followed the excitement of the night before. +The men slept after their long watch, and the fighting horses were at +a distance. The Agha did not return, and for a day and night I was the +only European in camp. Aziz Khan, with an English rifle, a hundred +cartridges, and two revolvers in his belt, kept faithful watch, and to +"make assurance doubly sure" I walked through the camp twice during +the night to see that the men on guard were awake. + +Before midnight there was a frightful "row" for two hours, which +sounded as if fifty men were taking part in it. I have often wondered +at the idiotic things that Hassan does, and at the hopelessly dazed +way in which he sometimes stands. Now it has come out that he is +smoking more and more opium, and has been supplying Karim with it. + +Mujid, who was formerly the Agha's cook, has been promoted to be +_major-domo_, rules the caravan on the march, heads it on a fine +horse, keeps accounts, and is generally "confidential." Karim resents +all this. He lately bought a horse because he could not bear to ride a +baggage mule when the other man was well mounted, and being that night +mad with opium, and being armed both with rifle and revolver, with +which he threatened to kill Mujid, it was only by the united and +long-continued efforts of all the men that bloodshed was prevented. +The next day Hassan destroyed his opium pipe, and is trying to cure +himself of the habit with the aid of morphia, but he complains of +"agony in the waist," which is just the fearful craving which the +disuse of the drug causes. + +The Agha encountered very predatory Lurs in the lower regions. A mule +was stolen by two Lurs, then robbed from them by three, who in their +turn were obliged to surrender it to some passing Ilyats, from whom he +recovered it. While he was resting at night he was awakened by hearing +some Lurs who had joined them discussing the practicability of robbing +him, but when one told the others that he had found out that "the +Feringhi has six shots," they gave it up. At this camp we are only a +few days' march from classic ground, the ancient Elam with its capital +of Susa, and the remains of so fine a bridge, with the unusual +feature, still to be distinctly traced, of level approaches, the +adjacent ruins, and the tradition of an old-world route, a broad road +having followed the river-bed to the plains of Lower Elam, all point +to an earlier and higher civilisation. Overlooking the bridge on the +left bank of the Ab-i-Basnoi a large square enclosure, with large +stone slabs inside, was found, which had probably been used for a +cistern, and outside there were distinct traces of an aqueduct. + +The "Sang Niwishta" (inscribed stone), which has been talked about for +a hundred miles, and promised to be a great discovery, was +investigated by a most laborious march, and turned out a great +disappointment. It was to be hoped, indeed it might have been +expected, that a journey through these, till now unexplored, regions +would have resulted in the discovery of additional records of the past +carved in stone, but such is not the case. + +Still, it is something to have learned that even here there was once a +higher civilisation, and that in its day there was great traffic along +the Basnoi road, and that every route through this Upper Elam, whether +from north, west, or east, from the Persian highlands to the plains of +Arabistan, and the then populous banks of the Kerkhah, must have +passed through the great gap below Pul-i-Kul. + +The Gokun, Sahid, Guwa, and any number of other streams fall into +this Ab-i-Basnoi, which is the channel for the drainage of far-off +Faraidan, and after a full-watered course joins the Ab-i-Burujird, +which drains the plain of Silakhor, the two forming the Ab-i-Diz, on +which the now famous town of Dizful (lit. Pul-i-Diz or Bridge of Diz) +is situated. + +_Gardan-i-Gunak, July 20._--On July 17 we retraced our steps to +Padshah-i-Zalaki, and camped on a height above Aslam Khan's tents on +ground so steep that the tent floor had to be cut into steps with a +spade. Aslam Khan and others came to meet us, again performing feats +of horsemanship. No sooner were the tents pitched than the crowd +assembled, and it was another noisy and fagging day. Among the things +taken from my tent were an umbrella, knife, scissors, and most of my +slender stock of underclothing. The scissors and cotton were taken by +a young sister-in-law of the Khan, while I was attending to a terrible +hurt outside. It turns out that Aslam Khan has got the Agha's +binocular, and that he told his men to acquire a small but very +powerful telescope which he coveted. My milk bottle in a leather +sling-case has a likeness to it, and this morning as I was giving a +woman some eye-lotion her son withdrew this, almost under my eyes! + +The Khan's face is a most faithful reproduction of that of Judas in +Leonardo da Vinci's "Last Supper." He is so fine-looking that one is +surprised that he should condescend to do small mean things. I sent +him the knife he asked for, and soon he called and asked for a bigger +one. He passed off his handsome daughter, the wife of Taimur Khan's +son, as his wife, in order to get, through her, a travelling-clock +which he coveted. + +They brought a woman to me who might have been produced from a London +slum, ophthalmia in one eye, the other closed up and black, and behind +it and through her nose a deep wound, gaping fully an inch, blood +caked thick and black all over her face and matting her hair, her +upper lip cut through, and two teeth knocked out--a regular hospital +case. Her brother, they said, had quarrelled with her and had thrown +stones at her only the day before, but they had already filled up the +wounds with some horrible paste. I asked Sardah Khan why the Khan did +not have the man thrashed for such a brutality, and he replied that no +one would touch him, as he had killed three men last winter. + +I spent two hours upon the poor creature, and the relief was so great +that her gratitude was profuse, and the blessings invoked manifold. It +was a great pleasure to me. But many things were taken out of the tent +while I sat outside attending to her. The Khan's brothers, +_tufangchis_ with their long guns, Seyyids with their green turbans +and contemptuous scowl, women, and children were all pressing upon me, +hindering and suffocating me in a temperature of nearly 100 deg. They +seem to have no feeling for pain or shrinking from painful spectacles, +and rather to enjoy the groans of the sufferer. Each time a piece of +stone was taken out of the wounds they exclaimed "God is great!" +Occasionally, when the crush interfered with what I was doing, a man +beat them with his gun, or Aziz Khan threw stones at them, but it was +useless. + +The people tell our men that _Kafirs_ have never before entered their +valley, and that if we were not under the Shah's protection they would +take all that we have. I imagine that the difficulties are far greater +than I know, for the Agha, who minimises all danger, remarked last +night that this is a most anxious time, and that he should be most +thankful to get every one out of the country, for it was impossible to +say what a day might bring forth. All idea of my returning to Julfa is +now abandoned. Bad as it is it is safer to go on. + +As the welcome darkness fell the hillsides near and far blazed with +fires, and Aslam Khan's camp immediately below was a very picturesque +sight, its thirty-one tents forming a circle, with the Khan's two +tents in the middle, each having a fire in front. Supper was prepared +in large pots; the men ate first, then the women, children, and dogs. +The noise suggested pandemonium. The sheep and goats bleated, the big +dogs barked, the men and women shouted and shrieked all together, at +the top of their voices, rude musical instruments brayed and +clanged,--it sounded diabolical. Doubtless the inroad of the Feringhis +was the topic of talk. Savage life does not bear a near view. Its +total lack of privacy, its rough brutality, its dirt, its undisguised +greed, its unconcealed jealousies and hatreds, its falseness, its pure +selfishness, and its treachery are all painful on a close inspection. + +The following morning early we came up to the Gunak, the narrow top of +a pass in the Kala Kuh range with an altitude of 10,200 feet, crossing +on the way a steep and difficult snow-slide, and have halted here for +two days. Marching with the caravan is a necessary precaution, but a +most tedious and fatiguing arrangement. No more galloping, only a +crawl at "caravan pace," about two and a half miles an hour for five, +six, or seven hours, and though one is up at 2.45 it is fully five +before the mules are under way, and meantime one is the centre of that +everlasting crowd which, on some pretext or other, asks for medicine. +If no ailment can be produced at present, then the request is, "Give +me something from the leather box, I've a cough in the winter," or an +uncovered copper bowl is brought, the contents of which would +evaporate in a fortnight in this climate, with the plaint, "I've a +brother," or some other relative, "who has sore eyes in spring, please +give me some eye-lotion." Nothing is appreciated made from their own +valuable medicinal herbs. "Feringhi medicine" is all they care for, +and in their eyes every Feringhi is a _Hak[=i]m_. + +I have often wondered that the Moslem contempt for women does not +prevent even the highest chiefs from seeking a woman's medical help, +but their own _Hak[=i]ms_, of whom there are a few, though I have +never seen any, are mostly women, and the profession is hereditary. +The men, they say, are too unsettled to be _Hak[=i]ms_. Some of these +women are renowned for their skill as bullet extractors. If a father +happens to have any medical knowledge he communicates it to his +daughter rather than to his son. Aziz's grandmother learned medicine +from a native Indian doctor in Fars, and his mother had a repute as a +bullet extractor. A woman extracted the three bullets by which he has +been wounded. The "fees" are very high, but depend entirely on the +cure. A poor man pays for the extraction of a bullet and the cure of +the wound from fifteen to twenty _tumans_ (from L5 to L6:10s.), a rich +man from forty to sixty. In all cases they only give medicine so long +as they think there is hope of recovery, and have no knowledge of any +treatment which can alleviate the sufferings of the dying. When death +seems inevitable they stuff the nose with a paste made of aromatic +herbs. + +They dress wounds with an astringent paste made from a very small +gall-nut found on one species of oak. For dyspeptic pains and "bad +blood" they eat bitumen. For snake-bite, which is common, they keep +the bitten person moving about and apply the back part of live hens to +the wound till the hens cease to be affected, or else the intestines +of a goat newly killed. For rheumatism, headache, and debility they +have no remedies, but for fever they use an infusion of willow bark, +which is not efficacious. They have great faith in amulets and charms, +and in chewing and swallowing verses of the Koran in case of illness. +They are rigid "abstainers," and _arak_ is not to be procured in the +Bakhtiari country. This partly accounts for the extreme and almost +startling rapidity of the healing of surgical wounds. + +Ophthalmia, glaucoma, bulging eyeballs, inflamed eyes and eyelids, +eczema, rheumatism, dyspepsia, and coughs are the prevailing maladies, +and among men, bad headaches, which they describe as periodical and +incapacitating, are common. The skin maladies and some of the eye +maladies come from dirt, and the parasites which are its offspring. +Among the common people the clothes are only washed once a year, and +then in cold water, with the root of a very sticky soap wort. They +attribute all ailments but those of the skin and eyes to "wind." +Rheumatism doubtless comes from sleeping in cotton clothing, and +little enough of it, on the damp ground. + +There are no _sages femmes_. Every woman is supposed to be able to +help her neighbour in her hour of need. Maternity is easy. The mother +is often at work the day after the birth of her child, and in less +than a week regains her usual strength. + +Possession by bad spirits is believed in, and cowardice is attributed +to possession. In the latter case medicine is not resorted to, but a +_mollah_ writes a text from the Koran and binds the paper on the +coward's arm. If this does not cure him he must visit a graveyard on +the night of the full moon, and pass seven times under the body of one +of the sculptured lions on the graves, repeating an Arabic prayer. + +This pass gives a little rest. It is solitary, cold (the mercury 48 deg. +at 10 P.M.), and very windy. I appreciate the comparatively low +temperature all the more because the scenery beyond the Zalaki valley, +in which scorched valleys and reddish rocky ranges are repeated _ad +nauseam_, lies under a blazing sun and in a hot dust haze like that of +the Indian plains. The ridge is only just wide enough for the camps, +and falls down in abrupt descents to the source of the Ab-i-Sefid. +Tremendous precipices and the naked peaks of the Kala Kuh surround us, +and to the east the Zard Kuh and the long straight-topped range of the +Kuh-i-Gokun (or Kainu?), deeply cleft, to allow of the exit of the +Ab-i-Gokun, wall in the magnificent prospect, woods and streams and +blue and violet depths suggesting moisture and coolness. The ridge has +a remarkably rich alpine flora. + +Life is now only a "struggle for existence" on the lower altitudes, +with their heat and hubbub; there is no comfort or pleasure in +occupation under 9000 feet. Here there are only the sick people of the +camps to attend to. The guides and guards all need eye-lotion, one bad +wound needs dressing, and the Khan's brother has had fever severely, +which is cured, and he offers me as a present a boy of five years old. +Aslam Khan's face of Judas is not for nothing, but his brother is +beautiful, and has the face of St. John. I. L. B. + + +FOOTNOTE: + +[5] From Kalahoma for the rest of the route the predatory character of +the tribes, the growing weakness of the Ilkhani's authority, the +"blood feuds" and other inter-tribal quarrels, and the unsettled state +of the Feili Lurs, produced a general insecurity and continual peril +for travellers, which rendered constant vigilance and precautions +necessary, as well as an alteration of arrangements. + + + + +LETTER XIX + + + CAMP SHUTURUN, _July 25_. + +After that uplifted halt, which refreshed the Europeans but did not +suit the health of the attendants, we descended, crossed the Zalaki +valley and a low ridge, with populous camps, into the valley of the +Mauri Zarin, where the nomads were busy harvesting, forded the river, +and proceeded up its left bank to a dusty level on which a deep ravine +opens, _apparently_ blocked up by a castellated and nearly +inaccessible rock of great height. At this place, where the Badush +joins the Mauri Zarin, we were obliged to camp close to some Ilyat +tents, which involved crowds, many demands, much noise, and much +vigilance. + +We were then in the territory of Mirab Khan, the chief of the Isawand +tribe, between whom and Aslam Khan there is a blood feud, with most +deadly enmity. He sent word that he was not well, and asked the Agha +to go to see him, which he did, telling him that the _Hak[=i]m_ would +also visit him. Later, taking Mirza and two guides, I forded and +followed up the Ab-i-Arjanak for two miles by a most remarkable canyon. +The lower part of its sides is steep and rocky, though not too steep +for the growth of tamarisk scrub and much herbage, but above are +prodigious conglomerate cliffs, and below, the river, which narrows to +a stream, is concealed by enormous masses of conglomerate rock. This +cleft must be fully 800 feet below the heights which surround it. A +ridge runs across it at Arjanak, and the river passes underground. + +The village and "Diz"[6] of Mirab Khan are reached by a frightfully +steep ascent. Arjanak has been built for security on some narrow +ledges below these colossal walls. It is a mere eyrie, a collection of +rude stone hovels, one above the other, among which the Khan's house +is distinguishable only by its _balakhana_ and larger size. The paths +on the dusty hillside are so narrow and shelving that I needed a +helping hand as well as a stick to enable me to reach a small, oblong, +rug-covered platform under some willow trees, where Mirab Khan +received me, with a very repulsive-looking Seyyid scribe seated by him +in front of a _samovar_ and tea equipage, from which he produced +delicious tea, flavoured with lime-juice. The Khan was courteous, +_i.e._ he rose, and did not sit down till I did. + +He is a most deplorable-looking man, very tall and thin, with faded, +lustreless gray eyes, hollow, sallow cheeks, and a very lank, ugly, +straight-haired beard, light brown in the middle. He and Khaja Taimur +look more like decayed merchants than chiefs of "tribes of armed +horsemen." I was very sorry for him, for he evidently suffers much, +but then and afterwards he impressed me unfavourably, and I much doubt +his good faith. He said he heard I should spend two or three days at +Arjanak, and all he had was mine. He was not "like some people," he +said, "who professed great friendship for people and then forgot all +about them. When I make a friendship," he said, "it is for ever." I +asked him if his tribe was at peace. "Peace," he replied +sententiously, "is a word unknown to the Bakhtiaris." In fact he has +more than one blood feud on hand. He complained bitterly of the +exactions of Persia, and added the conjecture, expressed by many +others, that England would shortly occupy Luristan, and give them +equity and security. Another Khan of some power said to me that if +England were to occupy south-west Persia, he would help her with 400 +horsemen, and added, "An English fleet at Basrah, with an English army +on board, would be the best sight which Bakhtiari eyes could see."[7] + +I had to hear the long story of the Khan's complicated maladies, to +look at many bad eyes, and at the wounds of a poor fellow suffering +from snake-bite, who was carried on another man's back, and to promise +to bring up my medicine chest the following day, the fame of the +"leather box" having reached Arjanak. + +On my way I had called at the _haram_, and the ladies accompanied me +to the _durbar_, conduct which I think was not approved of, as they +told me the next morning that they must not go there. After the Agha +returned, the three wives and many other women clustered timidly round +me. Two of them are very bright and pretty, and one, a Persian, very +affectionate in her manner. She held my hand all the time. There was +also a handsome daughter, with a baby, the discarded wife of a son of +the next Khan. In winter, they said, they amuse themselves by singing, +and playing with their children, and by making a few clothes, and the +Persian embroiders boys' caps. + +Aziz Khan has been irrepressible lately. His Arab mare is his idol, +not because she is a lovable animal and carries him well, but because +she is valuable property. He fusses about her ceaselessly, and if he +were allowed would arrange the marches and the camping-grounds with +reference solely to her well-being. She is washed from her nose to the +tip of her tail every evening, clothed, and kept by the camp-fire. She +is a dainty, heartless, frivolous creature, very graceful and pretty, +and in character much like a selfish, spoilt woman. + +Unfortunately, in one of the many attempted fights among the horses, +_Screw_ kicked her on the chest and fore-leg a few days ago, which has +made a quarrel between Hadji, _Screw's_ owner, and Aziz. Now Aziz is +making me a slave to his animal. That night, after a tiring day, I was +sleeping soundly when I was awakened by Aziz saying I must come to his +mare or he would stay behind with her the next day. This is his daily +threat. So I had to bring her inside my tent, and sleepily make a +poultice and bandage the hurt. I have very little vaseline, and after +putting it twice on the slight graze on her chest, which it cured, I +said, when he asked for it a third time, that I must keep the rest for +men. "Oh," he said, "she's of more value than ten men." Lately he +said, "I don't like you at all, you give me many things, but you don't +give me money; and I don't like the Agha, he doesn't give me half +enough. I'm going back to-morrow, and then you'll be robbed of all +your things, and you'll wish you had given them to me." + +When I do anything, such as opening a whitlow, which he thinks clever, +he exclaims, "May God forgive your sins!" This, and "May God forgive +the sins of your father and mother!" are ejaculations of gratitude or +surprise. One day when I had been attending to sick people for four +hours, I asked him which was the more "meritorious" act, attending to +the sick or going on pilgrimage? He replied, "For a _Kafir_ no act is +good," but soon added, "_Of a truth God doesn't think as we do_, I +don't know." + +Yesterday he came for plaster, and while I cut it he saw a padlock +pincushion with a mirror front on my bed, and said, "You've given me +nothing to-day, you must give me that because my mare kicked me." But +I like him. He is a brave fellow, and with a large amount of the +mingled simplicity and cunning of a savage has a great deal of +thought, information, and ability, and a talk with him is worth +having. + +Mirab Khan had promised that not only guides but his son would +accompany the Agha, but when I arrived at his eyrie the next morning +it was evident that something was wrong, for the Agha looked gloomy, +and Mirab Khan uncomfortable, and as I was dressing the wound of the +snake-bitten man, the former said, "So far as I can see, we are in a +perfect hornets' nest." Neither son nor guides were forthcoming. It +was necessary to use very decided language, after which the Khan +professed that he had withheld them in order to compel us to be his +guests, and eventually they were produced. + +I called again on the ladies, who received me in a sort of open +stable, horses on one side and women on the other, in a crowd and +noise so overpowering that I was obliged to leave them, but not before +I had been asked for needles, scissors, love philtres, etc. Polygamy, +besides being an atrocious system, is very hard on a traveller's +resources. I had brought presents for four legitimate wives, but not +for the crowd of women who asked for them. Each wife wanted to get her +present unknown to the others. Later they returned my visit, and were +most importunate in their requests. + +When I went to say farewell to the Khan I found him on his knees, +bowing his forehead to the earth upon a Mecca prayer-stone, and he +concluded his prayers before he spoke--not like many of us, who would +jump up ashamed and try to seem as if we never demeaned ourselves by +an act of devotion. His village, Diz Arjanak, has a Diz, or +stronghold, with a limited supply of water. It is the _raison d'etre_ +of his residence there. This Diz consists of a few shelves or +cavities, chiefly artificial, scooped out in the face of the +perpendicular cliff above the village. They are only attainable by a +very difficult climb, have no internal communication, and would not +hold more than 150 people. In one cavity there is a small perennial +spring. The largest recess is said to be twelve feet deep by about +twenty long, and has a loop-holed breastwork across the entrance. In +case of attack the Khan and the people provision this hiding-place, +and retire to it, believing it impregnable. + +Mirab Khan on this and a later occasion complained, and apparently +with good reason, of grinding exactions on the part of Persia. The +Isawands, like the Magawes and Zalakis, pay their tribute partly to +Burujird and partly to the Ilkhani. The sum formerly fixed and paid +was 150 _tumans_. It was raised to 300, which was paid for two years. +Now, he says, this year's demand (1890) is for 500. + +We left Diz Arjanak rather late in the afternoon, ascended a valley +which opens out beyond it, forded the green bright waters of the Mauri +Zarin, and crossed beautiful open hillsides and elevated plateaux on +its right bank till we lost it in a highly picturesque gorge. Some +miles of very pleasant riding brought us to a rocky and dangerous path +along the side of a precipice above the river Badush, so narrow as to +involve the unloading of several mules, and a bad slip and narrow +escape on the part of mine. The scenery is singularly wild and severe. +Crossing the Badush, and ascending a narrow ravine through which it +flows, we camped at its source at the junction of two wild gullies, +where the Sahib, after sundry serious risks, had already arrived. We +did not see a single camp after leaving Arjanak, and were quite +unmolested during a halt of two nights; but it is an atmosphere of +danger and possible treachery. + +Camp Badush, at a height of 9100 feet, though shut in by high +mountains, was cool--a barren, rocky, treeless spot. A great deal of +bituminous shale was lying about, which burned in the camp-fires +fairly well, but with a black heavy smoke and a strong smell. + +The limestone fragments which lay about, on being split, emitted a +powerful odour of bitumen. Farther up the gully there is a chalybeate +spring, and the broken fragments of the adjacent rocks are much +stained with iron. After a restful halt we retraced our route by a low +path which avoided the difficult precipices above the Badush, forded +it several times, crossed a low pass, descended to the valley of the +Mauri Zarin, forded the river, and marched for some miles along its +left bank, till the valley opened on great grassy slopes, the skirts +of the rocky spurs which buttress the grand mountain Shuturun, the +"Camel Mountain," so called from its shape. It was a very +uninteresting march, through formless gravelly hills, with their +herbage all eaten down, nothing remaining but tamarisk scrub and a +coarse yellow salvia. There were neither camps nor travellers; indeed, +one need never look for camps where there is no herbage. + +This is a charming camping-ground covered with fine turf, damp, I +fear, and some of the men are "down" with fever and rheumatism. There +is space to see who comes and who goes, and though the altitude is +only 8400 feet, last night was quite cool. Ischaryar, Aziz Khan's +devoted young servant, the gentlest and kindest Bakhtiari I have seen, +became quite ill of acute rheumatism with fever, and felt so very ill +and weak that he thought he was going to die. I sent some medicine to +him, but he would not take it, saying that his master had spoken +unkindly to him, and he had no wish to live. However, this morbid +frame of mind was overcome by firm dealing, and Aziz attended to him +all night, and salol, etc., are curing him. + +He is the one grateful creature that I have seen among these +Orientals, and his gratitude is in return for a mere trifle. We were +fording a stream one hot day, and seeing him scooping up water with +difficulty in his hands, I took out my mug for him. Ever since he has +done anything that he can for me. He brings tasteful little bouquets +of flowers, gathers wild cherries, and shows the little courtesies +which spring from a kindly nature. He said several times to Mirza, "It +isn't only that the _Khanum_ gave me the cup, but she took trouble for +me." It may be imagined what a desert as to grateful and kindly +feeling I am living in when this trifle appears like an oasis. Hard, +cunning, unblushing greed is as painful a characteristic of the +Bakhtiaris as it is of the Persians. + +Hassan is now "down with fever" and the opium craving, and one of the +_charvadars_ with fever. The cold winds of Gunak were too much for +them. All day shots have been heard among the near mountains. The +Hajwands, a powerful tribe, and the Abdulwands are fighting about a +recent cutting off of a cow's tail, but the actual cause of the feud +is deeper, and dates farther back. Aziz Khan wants us to return to Diz +Arjanak, fearing that we may become implicated, and the Agha is +calling him a coward, and telling him to ride back alone. Bang! Bang! +The firing is now close and frequent, and the dropping shots are +varied by straggling volleys. With the glasses I can see the tribesmen +loading and firing on the crests of the near hills. A great number are +engaged. One tribe has put up a stone breastwork at our end of the +valley, but the enemy is attacking the other. + +3 P.M.--An hour ago Mirab Khan arrived with a number of armed horse +and footmen. Before he left he spent, I may say wasted, nearly an hour +of my time again on his maladies, and again wrote down the directions +for his medicines. Volleys fired very near startled him into +departing, and he rode hastily back to Arjanak, fearing, as he said, +an attack. Nominally, he armed the guides and the men he left behind, +but one of the guns has neither caps nor powder, and another has only +three caps. All the animals have been driven in. + +4 P.M.--A man with grimy arms bare to the elbow has just run down to +the Agha's camp from the conflict. He says that his people, who are +greatly inferior to the Hajwands in numbers, thought it was the camp +of the Shah's revenue collector, and sent him to ask him to mediate. +The Agha expressed his willingness to become a mediator on certain +conditions. There is much excitement in camp, all the men who are well +crowding round this envoy, who is guilty of saying that fifty men are +to attack our camps to-night. + +7.30 P.M.--The Agha, with the Sahib and Aziz Khan, three brave men +mounted and armed with rifles and revolvers, went to mediate. I went +to a knoll in the valley with some of our men, above which on either +side were hills occupied by the combatants, and a large number of +tribesmen crowned the crest of a hill lying across the ravine higher +up. The firing was frequent, but at long range, and I was near enough +to see that only one man fell. + +Our party rode on till they reached the top of a low ridge, where they +dismounted, reconnoitred, and then passed out of sight, being fired on +by both parties. The tribesmen kept on firing irregularly from the +hill crests, occasionally running down the slopes, firing and running +into cover. The Sahib's _tufangchi_, who is of Cheragh Ali's tribe, +asked me, "Is this the way they fight in your country," I asked him if +he would not like to be fighting? and he replied, "Yes, if it were my +quarrel." The sun was very bright, the sky very blue, and the smoke +very white as it drifted over the lonely ravine and burst in clouds +from the hill-tops. I saw the combatants distinctly without a glass, +and heard their wild war-shouts. What a matter for regret is this +useless tribal fighting, with its dreary consequences of wailing women +and fatherless children! "Why don't the English come and take us? Why +don't the English come and give us peace?" are surely the utterances +of a tired race. + +After sunset the Agha returned, having so far succeeded in his mission +that the headmen have promised to suspend hostilities for to-morrow, +but still shots are fired now and then. I. L. B. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[6] A "Diz" is a natural fort believed to be impregnable. + +[7] To English people the Bakhtiaris profess great friendliness for +England, and the opinion has been expressed by some well-informed +writers that, in the event of an English occupation of the country, +their light horse, drilled by English officers, would prove valuable +auxiliaries. I am inclined, however, to believe that if a collision +were to occur in south-west Persia between two powers which shall be +nameless, the Bakhtiari horsemen would be sold to the highest bidder. + + + + +LETTER XX + + + LAKE IRENE, _July 27_. + +Yesterday we marched through narrow defiles and along hillsides to +this lake, without seeing a tent, a man, or even a sheep or goat, +following a stream which bears several names and receives several +torrents which burst, full grown, from powerful springs in the +mountain sides--a frequent phenomenon in this country--from its source +till its entrance into this lake. Its two sides differ remarkably. On +the right bank rise the magnificent ranges which form Shuturun, broken +up into precipices, deep ravines, and peaks, all rocky and shapely, +and absolutely denuded of soil. The mountains on the left bank are +great shapeless masses of bare gravel rising into the high but blunt +summit of the Sefid Kuh, with only occasional outcrops of rock; here +and there among the crevices of the rocky spurs of Shuturun the +_Juniperus excelsa_ plants itself; otherwise, on the sun-scorched +gravel only low tamarisk bushes, yellow salvias, a few belated +campanulas, and a very lovely blue _Trichodesma mollis_ remain. + +On reaching the top of a very long ascent there was a unique surprise, +for below, walled in by precipitous mountain sides, lies a lake of +wonderful beauty, owing to its indescribable colour. Wild, fierce, and +rocky are the high mountains in which this gem is set, and now +verdureless, except that in some places where their steep sides enter +the water willows and hawthorns find scanty roothold. Where the river +enters the lake there is a thicket of small willows, and where it +leaves it its bright waters ripple through a wood of cherry, pear, +plum, and hawthorn. A broad high bank of gravel lies across a part of +its lower end, and all seemed so safe and solitary that I pitched my +camp here for Sunday at an unusual distance from the other camps. + +"Things are not what they seem." Two armed Hajwands visited the camps, +shots were heard at intervals this morning, and in the night some of +the watch said they saw a number of men advancing towards us from +under the bushes. I heard the sharp crack of our own rifles twice, and +the Agha and Sahib calling on every one to be on the alert; the mules +were driven in, and a great fire was made, but nothing came of it. +To-night Mirab Khan's guides, who have been with us for some days, +have gone back, journeying at night and hiding in caves by day for +fear of being attacked. + +This lovely lake, having no native name, will be known henceforward +geographically as Lake Irene. Its waters lie in depths of sapphire +blue, with streaks and shallows of green, but what a green! Surely +without a rival on earth! Were a pea transparent, vivid, full of +points and flashes of interior light, that would be the nearest +approach to the colour, which changes never, while through the blazing +hours the blue of the great depths in the centre has altered from +sapphire to turquoise, and from turquoise to lapis-lazuli, one end and +one side being permanently bordered round the margin with liquid +emerald. The mountains have changed from rose to blue, from blue to +gray, from gray to yellow, and are now flushing into pink. It is a +carnival of colour, before the dusty browns and dusty grays which are +to come. + +_Camp Sarawand, July 29._--To-day's march has been a change from the +grand scenery of the Bakhtiari mountains to low passes and gravelly +spurs, which sink down upon a plain. A blazing hillside; a mountain of +gravel among others of similar ugliness, sprinkled with camel thorn +and thistles; a steep and long descent to a stream; ripe wheat on some +irrigated slopes; above these the hundred hovels of the village of +Sarawand clinging one above another to the hillside, their white clay +roofs intolerable in the fierce light; more scorched gravel hills +breaking off abruptly, and then a blazing plain, in a mist of dust and +heat, and low hills on the farther side seen through a brown haze, +make up the view from my tent. The plain is Silakhor in Persia proper, +and, _nolens volens_, that heat and dust must shortly be encountered +in the hottest month of the year. Meanwhile the mercury is at 105 deg. in +the tent. + +Outside is a noisy crowd of a mixed race, more Persian than Lur, row +behind row. The _ketchuda_ said if I would stand outside and show +myself the people would be pacified, but the desired result was not +attained, and the crushing and pushing were fearful--not that the +people here or elsewhere are ever rude, it is simply that their +curiosity is not restrained by those rules which govern ours. The Agha +tried to create a diversion by putting a large musical box at a little +distance, but they did not care for it. I attempted to give each woman +a card of china buttons, which they like for sewing on the caps of +their children, but the crush was so overpowering that I was obliged +to leave it to Aziz. Then came the sick people with their many woes +and wants, and though now at sunset they have all gone, Aziz comes in +every few minutes with the laugh of a lost spirit, bringing a fresh +copper bowl for eye lotion, quite pleased to think of my annoyance at +being constantly dragged up from my writing. + +_Camp Parwez, July 31._--We left early in the morning, _en route_ for +the fort of Yahya Khan, the powerful chief of the Pulawand tribe, with +a tall, well-dressed, and very respectable-looking man, Bagha Khan, +one of his many fathers-in-law, the father of the present "reigning +favourite," as guide. It was a very pretty track, pursuing sheep-paths +over steep spurs of Parwez, and along the narrow crests of ridges, +always with fine views. On reaching an alpine valley, rich in flowers, +we halted till the caravan approached, and then rode on, the "we" that +day being the guide on foot, and the Agha, the Sahib, Aziz Khan, +Mirza, and myself on horseback in single file. Three men looked over +the crest of a ridge to the left and disappeared abruptly, and I +remarked to Mirza that this was the most suspicious circumstance we +had yet seen. There was one man on the hill to the right, with whom +the guide exchanged some sentences in patois. + +The valley opened out on the stony side of a hill, which had to be +crossed. As we climbed it was crested with a number of men with long +guns. Presently a number of shots were fired at us, and the reloading +of the guns was distinctly seen. The order was given to "scatter" and +proceed slowly. When the first shot was fired Bagha Khan, who must +have been well known to all his tribesmen, dodged under a rock. Then +came an irregular volley from a number of guns, and the whistle and +thud of bullets over and among us showed that the tribesmen, whatever +were their intentions, were in earnest. To this volley the Agha +replied by a rifle shot which passed close over their heads, but again +they reloaded rapidly. We halted, and Aziz Khan was sent up to parley +with them. No one could doubt his courage after that solitary ascent +in the very face of the guns. + +Karim cantered up, anxious to fight, Mujid and Hassan, much excited, +dashed up, and we rode on slowly, Hadji and his _charvadars_ bringing +up the caravan as steadily as if there were no danger ahead. Not a man +showed the "white feather," though most, like myself, were "under +fire" for the first time. When we reached the crest of the pass such a +wild lot crowded about us, their guns yet hot from firing upon us. +Such queer arms they had--one gun with a flint lock a century old, +with the "Tower mark" upon it, loaded sticks, and long knives. With +much talking and excitement they accompanied us to this +camping-ground.[8] + +The men varied considerably in their stories. They were frightened, +they said, and fired because they thought we were come to harm them. +At first I was sorry for them, and regarded them as merely defending +their "hearths and homes," for in the alpine valley behind the hill +are their black tents, their families, their flocks and herds--their +world, in fact. But they told another story, and said they took us for +a party of Hajwands. This was untenable, and the Agha told them that +they knew that Hajwands do not ride on English saddles, and carry +white umbrellas, and march with big caravans of mules. To me, when +they desired my services, they said that had they known that one of +the party was a _Hak[=i]m_ they never would have fired. + +Later, from Hadji and others I have heard what I think may be the true +version of the affair. They knew that the party was a small one--only +three rifles; that on the fifteen baggage-animals there were things +which they specially covet, the value of which rumour had doubtless +magnified a hundredfold; and that we had no escort. Behind were a +number of the Sarawand men, and the Pulawands purposed, if we turned +back or showed the "white feather" in any way, to double us up between +the two parties and rob the caravan at discretion. The Agha was +obliged to speak very severely to them, telling them that firing on +travellers is a grave offence, and deserves as such to be represented +to the Governor of Burujird. I cannot acquit the demure-looking guide +of complicity in this transaction. + +At this height of 9400 feet there is a pleasant plain, on which our +assailants are camped, and our camps are on platforms in a gully near +the top of Parwez. It is all very destitute of springs or streams, and +we have only snow-water, and that only during the hot hours of the +day, for ourselves and the animals. + +The tribes among which we are now are powerful and very predatory in +their habits. Their loyalty to the Ilkhani is shadowy, and their +allegiance to the Shah consists in the payment of tribute, which +cannot in all cases be exacted. Indeed, I think that both in Tihran +and Isfahan there is only imperfect information as to the attitude of +the Bakhtiari Lurs. Their unification under the rule of the Ilkhani +grows more and more incomplete as the distance from Isfahan increases, +and these tribes, which are under the government of Burujird +nominally, are practically not under the Ilkhani at all. Blood feuds, +predatory raids, Khans at war with each other, tribal disputes and +hostilities, are nearly universal. It is not for the interest of +Persia to produce by her misrule and intrigues such a chronic state +of insecurity as makes the tribes desire any foreign interference +which will give them security and rest, and relieve them from the +oppressive exactions of the Persian governors. + +On a recent march I was riding alone in advance of the caravan when I +met two men, one mounted, the other on foot. The pedestrian could not +have been passed anywhere unnoticed. He looked like a Sicilian +brigand, very handsome and well dressed, walked with a long elastic +stride, and was armed with a double-barrelled gun and two revolvers. +He looked hard at me, with a jolly but not unfriendly look, and then +seeing the caravan, passed on. This was Jiji, a great robber Khan of +the Hajwand tribe, whose name inspires much fear. Afterwards he met +Aziz Khan, and sent this picturesque message: "Sorry to have missed +you in my own country, as I should have liked to have left you +standing in your skins." + +I went up the Kuh-i-Parwez with Bagha Khan, the guide of whom I have +such grave suspicions, in the early morning, when the cool blue +shadows were still lying in the ravines. Parwez, which on this side is +an uninteresting mountain of herbage-covered gravelly slopes, falls +down 4300 feet to the Holiwar valley on the other in a series of +tremendous battlemented precipices of dark conglomerate rock. + +The level summit of Parwez, though about 11,000 feet in altitude, is +as uninteresting as the shapeless slopes by which we ascended it, but +this dip on the southern side is wonderful, and is carried on to the +gap of Bahrain, where it has a perpendicular scarp from its summit to +the river of 5000 feet, and as it grandly terminates the Outer range, +it looks like a glorious headland abutting on the Silakhor plain. + +As a panoramic view it is the finest I have had from any mountain, +taking in the great Shuturun range--the wide cultivated plain of +Silakhor, with its many villages; the winding Ab-i-Diz, its yellow +crops, hardly distinguishable from the yellow soil and hazy yellow +hills whose many spurs descend upon the plain--all merged in a haze of +dust and heat. The eye is not tempted to linger long upon that +specimen of a Persian summer landscape, but turns with relief to the +other side of the ridge, to a confused mass of mountains of great +height, built up of precipices of solid rock, dark gray, weathered +into black and denuded of soil, a mystery of chasms, rifts, and +river-beds, sheltering and feeding predatory tribes, but unknown to +the rest of the world. + +The chaos of mountain summits, chasms, and precipices is very +remarkable, merging into lower and less definite ranges, with alpine +meadows at great heights, and ravines much wooded, where charcoal is +burned and carried to Burujird and Hamadan. Among the salient points +of this singular landscape are the mighty Shuturun range, the peak of +Kuh-i-Kargun on the other side of the Silakhor plain, the river which +comes down from Lake Irene, the Holiwar, with the fantastic range of +the Kuh-i-Haft-Kuh (seven peaks) on its left bank, descending abruptly +to the Ab-i-Zaz, beyond which again rises the equally precipitous +range of the Kuh-i-Ruhbar. Near the Holiwar valley is a mountain +formed by a singular arrangement of rocky buttresses, surmounted by a +tooth-like rock, the Tuk-i-Karu, of which the guide told the legend +that in "ancient times" a merchant did a large trade in a tent at the +top of it, and before he died buried his treasure underneath it. + +A very striking object from the top is the gorge or canyon, the +Tang-i-Bahrain, by which the Ab-i-Burujird leaves the plain of +Silakhor and enters upon its rough and fretted passage through +ravines, for the most part inaccessible except to practised Ilyat +mountaineers. + +"Had I come up to dig for the hidden treasure of Tuk-i-Karu?" the +guide asked. "Was I seeking gold? Or was I searching for medicine +plants to sell in Feringhistan?" + +The three days here have been rather lively. The information +concerning routes has been singularly contradictory. There is a path +which descends over 4000 feet to the Holiwar valley, through which, +for certain reasons, it is desirable to pass. Some say it is +absolutely impassable for laden mules, others that it can be traversed +with precautions, others again that they would not take even their +asses down; that there are shelving rocks, and that if a mule slipped +it would go down to ----. Hadji with much force urges that we should +descend to the plain, and go by a comparatively safe route to +Khuramabad, leave the heavy baggage there, and get a strong escort of +_sowars_ from the Governor for the country of the Pulawands. There is +much that is plausible in this plan, the Sahib approves of it, and the +Agha, with whom the decision rests, has taken it into very careful +consideration, but I am thoroughly averse to it, though I say nothing. + +Hadji says he cannot risk his mules on the path down to the Holiwar +valley. I could have filled pages with the difficulties which have +been grappled with during the last few weeks of the journey as to +guides, routes, perils, etc., two or three hours of every day being +occupied in the attempt to elicit truth from men who, from either +inherent vagueness and inaccuracy or from a deliberate intention to +deceive, contradict both themselves and each other, but on this +occasion the difficulties have been greater than ever; the order of +march has been changed five times, and we have been obliged to remain +here because the Agha has not considered that the information he has +obtained has warranted him in coming to a decision. + +Yesterday evening the balance of opinion was definitely against the +Holiwar route, and Hadji was so vehemently against it that he shook a +man who said it was passable. This morning the Sahib with a guide and +Abbas Ali examined the road. The Sahib thought it was passable. Abbas +Ali said that the mules would slip off the shelving rocks. All day +long there have been Lur visitors, some saying one thing, and some +another, but a dream last night reconciled Hadji to take the route, +and the Agha after carefully weighing the risks all round has decided +upon it. + +All these pros and cons have been very interesting, and there have +been various little incidents. I have had many visitors and "patients" +from the neighbouring camp, and among them three of the men who fired +upon us. + +The trifle of greatest magnitude was the illness of Aziz's mare, the +result of a kick from _Screw_. She had an enormous swelling from knee +to shoulder, could not sleep, and could hardly eat, and as she belongs +partly to Isfandyar Khan, Aziz Khan has been distracted about her, and +has distracted me by constant appeals to me to open what seemed an +abscess. I had not the courage for this, but it was done, and the cut +bled so profusely that a pad, a stone, and a bandage had to be +applied. Unfortunately there was no relief from this venture, and Aziz +"worrited" me out of my tent three times in the night to look at the +creature. Besides that, he had about twenty ailing people outside the +tent at 6 A.M., always sending to me to "come at once." + +He was told to wash the wound, but he would do nothing till I went out +with my appliances, very grudgingly, I admit. The sweet animal was +indeed suffering, and the swelling was much increased. A number of men +were standing round her, and when I told Aziz to remove the clot from +the wound, they insisted that she would bleed to death, and so the +pros and cons went on till Aziz said, "The _Khanum_ shall do it, these +Feringhi _Hak[=i]ms_ know everything." To be regarded as a _Hak[=i]m_ +on the slenderest possible foundation is distressing, but to be +regarded as a "vet" without any foundation at all is far worse. + +However, the clot was removed, and though the wound was three inches +long there was still no relief, and Aziz said solemnly, "Now do what +you think best." Very gradual pressure at the back of the leg brought +out a black solid mass weighing fully a pound. "God is great!" +exclaimed the bystanders. "May God forgive your sins!" cried Aziz, and +fell at my feet with a genuine impulse of gratitude. He insists that +"a pound of flesh" came out of the swelling. The wound is now syringed +every few hours, and Aziz is learning how to do this, and to dress it. +The mare can both eat and sleep, and will soon be well. + +This evening Aziz said that fifteen _tumans_ would be the charge for +curing his mare, and that, he says, is my present to him. He told me +he wanted me to consider something very thoroughly, and not to answer +hastily. He said, "We're a poor people, we have no money, but we have +plenty of food. We have women who take out bullets, but in all our +nation there is no _Hak[=i]m_ who knows the wisdom of the Feringhis. +Your medicines are good, and have healed many of our people, and +though a _Kafir_ we like you well and will do your bidding. The Agha +speaks of sending a _Hak[=i]m_ among us next year, but you are here, +and though you are old you can ride, and eat our food, and you love +our people. You have your tent, Isfandyar Khan will give you a horse +of pure pedigree, dwell among us till you are very old, and be our +_Hak[=i]m_, and teach us the wisdom of the Feringhis." Then, as if a +sudden thought had struck him, he added, "And you can cure mules and +mares, and get much money, and when you go back to Feringhistan you'll +be very rich." + +In nearly every camp I have an evening "gossip" with the guides and +others of the tribesmen, and, in the absence of news from the larger +world, have become intensely interested in Bakhtiari life as it is +pictured for me in their simple narratives of recent forays, of +growing tribal feuds and their causes, of blood feuds, and of bloody +fights, arising out of trivial disputes regarding camping-grounds, +right of pasture, right to a wounded bird, and things more trivial +still. They are savages at heart. They take a pride in bloodshed, +though they say they are tired of it and would like to live at peace, +and there would be more killing than there is were it not for the +aversion which some of them feel to the creation of a blood feud. When +they do fight, "the life of a man is as the life of a sheep," as the +Persian proverb runs. Mirza says that among themselves their talk is +chiefly of guns and fighting. The affairs of the mountains are very +interesting, and so is the keen antagonism between the adherents of +the Ilkani and those of Isfandyar Khan. + +Sometimes the conversation takes a religious turn. I think I wronged +Aziz Khan in an earlier letter. He is in his way much more religious +than I thought him. A day or two ago I was asking him his beliefs +regarding a future state, which he explained at much length, and which +involve progressive beatitudes of the spirit through a course of one +hundred years. He laid down times and seasons very definitely, and was +obviously in earnest, when two Magawe men who were standing by broke +in indignantly, saying, "Aziz Khan, how dare you speak thus? These +things belong to God, the Judge, He knows, we don't--we see the spirit +fly away to judgment and we know no more. God is great, He alone +knows." + +Apparently they have no idea generally of a future except that the +spirit goes either to heaven or hell, according to its works in the +flesh. Some say that they are told that there is an intermediate place +called _Barjakh_, known as the place of evil spirits, in which those +who have died in sin undergo a probation with the possibility of +beneficent results. + +On asking what is meant by sin the replies all have the same +tendency,--cowardice, breaches of the seventh commandment (which, +however, seem to be so rare as scarcely to be taken into account, +possibly because of the death penalty attaching to them), disobedience +to a chief when he calls on them to go to war, fraternising with +Sunnis, who are "accursed," betraying to an enemy a man of their own +tribe, and compassing the death of another by poison or evil +machinations. + +On being asked what deeds are good, bravery is put first, readiness to +take up a tribal quarrel, charity, i.e. kindness to the poor, undying +hatred to the Caliph Omar, shown by ostracising the Sunnis, hatred of +_Kafirs_, and pilgrimages, especially to Mecca. + +Death in battle ensures an immediate entrance into heaven, and this is +regarded as such a cause of rejoicing that not only is the _chapi_ or +national dance performed at a fighting man's grave, but if his death +at a distance has been lawful, _i.e._ if he has been killed in +fighting, they put up a rude temporary cenotaph with his gun, cap, +knife, pipe, and other things about it, and dance, sing, and rejoice. + +Otherwise their burial rites are simple. The corpse is washed seven +times in water, certain Arabic formulas for the repose of the soul are +recited, and the body, clothed and wrapped in a winding-sheet, is +carried by four men to the burying-place on a bier extemporised out of +tent-poles, and is buried in a shallow grave. It is not customary now +to rejoice at the graves of women or old men, unless the latter have +been distinguished warriors. + +So far as I can learn, even in the case of the deaths of fighting men, +when the _chapi_ is danced at the grave, the women keep up the +ordinary ceremonial of mourning, which is very striking. They howl and +wail, beating their breasts rhythmically, keeping time with their +feet, tearing their hair and gashing their faces with sharp flints, +cutting off also their long locks and trampling upon them with piteous +cries. This last bitter token of mourning is confined to the deaths of +a husband and a first-born son, and the locks so ruthlessly treated +are afterwards attached to the tombstone. + +Mourning for a husband, child, or parent lasts a year, and the +anniversary of the death is kept with the same ceremonies which marked +the beginning of the period of mourning. In the case of a great man +who has died fighting, the women of his tribe wail and beat their +breasts on this anniversary for many subsequent years. + +Nothing is buried with the corpse, and nothing is placed on the grave, +but it is the universal custom to put a stone at the head of the body, +which is always buried facing Mecca-wards. To this position they +attach great importance, and they covet my compass because it would +enable them at any point to find the position of the Kiblah. A comb or +distaff rudely carved on a woman's headstone, and the implements of +war or hunting on that of a man, are common, and few burial-places are +without one or more of the uncouth stone lions to which frequent +reference has been made. + +The graveyards are very numerous, and are usually on small elevations +by the roadside, so that passers-by, if they be Hadjis, may pray for +the repose of the soul. It must be understood that prayer consists in +the repetition of certain formulas in Arabic, which very few if any +of these people understand.[9] + +As to the great matter of their religion, on which I have taken +infinite trouble to gain information, I can come to no satisfactory +conclusion. I think that they have very little, and that what they +have consists in a fusion of some of the tenets of Islam with a few +relics of a nature worship, not less rude than that of the Ainos of +Yezo and other aboriginal tribes. + +They are Shiahs, that is, they hate the Sunnis, and though the belief +in Persia that they compel any one entering their country to swear +eternal hatred to Omar is not absolutely correct, this hate is an +essential part of their religion. They hold the unity of God, and that +Mohammed was His prophet; but practically, though they are not Ali +Ilahis, they place Ali on as high a pedestal as Mohammed. They are +utterly lax in observing the precepts of the Koran, even prayer at the +canonical hours is very rarely practised, and then chiefly by Seyyids +and Hadjis. It has been said that the women are devout, but I think +that this is a mistake. Many of them have said to me, "Women have no +religion, for women won't live again." + +Those of the Khans who can read, and who have made pilgrimages to +Mecca, such as the Hadji Ilkhani, Khaja Taimur, and Mirab Khan, +observe the times of prayer and read the Koran, and when they are so +engaged they allow of no interruption, but these are remarkable +exceptions. + +Pilgrimages and visits to _imamzadas_ are lightly undertaken, either +for the accumulation of merit, or to wash away the few misdeeds which +they regard as sin, or in the hope of gaining an advantage over an +enemy. + +They regard certain stones, trees, hill-tops, and springs as "sacred," +but it is difficult to define the very vague ideas which they attach +to them. I am inclined to think that they look on them as the abodes +of genii, always malignant, and requiring to be propitiated. In +passing such places they use a formula equivalent to "May God avert +evil," and it is common, as in Nubra and Ladak, to hang pieces of rag +on such trees and stones as offerings to the _genius loci_. + +They regard certain places as possibly haunted by spirits, always +evil, and never those of the departed; but this can scarcely be termed +a belief, as it is lightly held, and quite uninfluential, except in +preventing them from passing such places alone in the darkness. + +The opinions concerning God represent Him chiefly as a personification +of a fate, to which they must bow, and as a Judge, to whom, in some +mysterious way, they must account after death. Earthly justice appears +to them as a commodity to be bought and sold, as among the Persians, +or as it is among themselves, as severity solely, without a sentiment +of mercy; and I have asked them often if they think that anything will +be able to affect the judgment of the Judge of all, in case it should +go against them. Usually they reply in the negative, but a few say +that Ali, the Lieutenant of God, will ask for mercy for them, and that +he will not be refused. + +Of God as a moral being I think they have little conception, and less +of the Creator as an object of love. Of holiness as an attribute of +God they have no idea. Their ejaculation, "God is good," has really no +meaning. Charity, under the term "goodness," they attribute to God. +But they have no notion of moral requirements on the part of the +Creator, or of sin as the breaking of any laws which He has laid down. +They concern themselves about the requirements of religion in this +life and about the future of the soul as little as is possible, and +they narrow salvation within the limits of the Shiah sect. + +After Mohammed and Ali they speak of Moses, Abraham, and Jesus as +"Prophets," but of Moses as a lawgiver, and of Jesus as aught else but +a healer, they seem quite ignorant. + +And so they pass away, generation after generation, ignorant of the +Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, of the love to God and +man which is alone the fulfilling of the law, and of the light which +He, who is the resurrection and the life, has shed upon the destiny of +the human spirit. + +Generally I find them quite willing to talk on these subjects; but one +man said contemptuously, "What has a _Kafir_ to do with God?" The +women know nothing, and, except among the sons of the leading Khans, +there is no instruction in the Koran given to the children. If I have +interpreted their views correctly they must be among the most ignorant +of the races bound by the faith of Islam. + +_Khuramabad, August 6._--Leaving the camp on Parwez, and skirting the +gravelly slopes on the north side of its ridge, a sudden dip over the +crest took us among great cliffs of conglomerate, with steep gravelly +slopes below, much covered with oaks growing out of scorched soil. +Grooves, slides, broken ledges, and shelving faces of rock have to be +descended. One part is awfully bad, and every available man and some +passing Bakhtiaris (who wanted to be paid in advance for their +services) went back to help the animals. The _charvadars_ shouted and +yelled, and the horses and some of the mules were taken by their heads +and tails, but though nearly every man had a fall, horses, asses, +mules, and a sheep which follows _Hak[=i]m_ got over that part safely. +It was a fine sight, thirty animals coming down, what looked from +below, a precipice, led by Hadji leading Cock o' the Walk, shaking his +tasselled head, and as full of pride and fire as usual, and the mules +looking wisely, choosing their way, and leaping dexterously upon and +among the rocks. It is not a route for laden animals, but personally, +as I had two men to help me, I did not find it so risky or severe as +the descent of the Gokun Pass. + +Below these conglomerate precipices are steep and dangerous zigzags, +which I was obliged to ride down, and there we were not so fortunate, +for Hadji's big saddle-mule slipped, and being unable to recover +herself fell over the edge some hundred feet and was killed +instantaneously. + +The descent of the southern face of Parwez, abrupt and dangerous most +of the way, is over 4300 feet. The track proceeds down the Holiwar +valley, brightened by a river of clear green water, descending from +Lake Irene. Having forded this, we camped on its left bank on a +gravelly platform at the edge of the oak woods which clothe the lower +spurs of the grand Kuh-i-Haft-Kuh, with a magnificent view of the gray +battlemented precipices of Parwez. The valley is beautiful, and acres +of withered flowers suggested what its brief spring loveliness must +be, but its altitude is only 5150 feet, and the mercury in the shade +was 104 deg., the radiation from the rock and gravel terrible, and the +sand-flies made rest impossible. At midnight the mercury stood at 90 deg. +There were no Bakhtiaris, but two or three patches of scorched-up +wheat, not worth cutting, evidenced their occasional presence. Among +these perished crops, revelling in blazing soil and air like the +breath of a furnace, grew the blue _centaurea_ and the scarlet poppy, +the world-wide attendants upon grain; and where other things were +burned, the familiar rose-coloured "sweet william," a white-fringed +_dianthus_, and a gigantic yellow mullein audaciously braved the heat. + +No one slept that night because of the sand-flies and the need for +keeping a vigilant watch. Indeed, the tents were packed shortly after +sunset, and in a hot dawn we ascended to a considerable height above +the valley, and then for many miles followed a stream in a wooded +glen, where willows, planes, vines, rank grass, and a handsome yellow +pea grew luxuriantly, looped together continually by the fragile +_Clematis orientalis_. All that country would be pretty had it +moisture and "atmosphere." The hillsides are covered with oaks and the +_Paliurus aculeatus_ on their lower slopes, rising out of withered +flowers. All else is uncut sun-cured hay, and its pale uniform buff +colour is soft, and an improvement on the glare of bare gravel. + +Delays, occasioned by the caravan being misled by the guide, took us +into the heat of the day, and before the narrow valley opened out into +the basin surrounded by wooded spurs of hills in which Khanabad +stands, it was noon. Men and animals suffered from the heat and length +of that march. In the middle of this basin there is a good deal of +cultivation, and opium, wheat, cotton, melons, grapes, and cucumbers +grow well. Rice has already succeeded wheat, and will be reaped in +November. Kalla Khanabad, the fort dwelling of Yahya Khan, with +terraces of poplars, mulberries, pomegranates, and apricots below it, +makes a good centre of a rather pretty view. Leaving it on the right +we turned up a narrow valley with a small stream and irrigation +channels, and close to a spring and some magnificent plane trees +camped for Sunday on a level piece of blazing ground where the mercury +stood at 106 deg. on both days. This spot was remarkable for some very +fine _eryngiums_ growing by the stream, with blossoms of a beautiful +"French blue," the size of a Seville orange. + +The Khan's son, a most unprepossessing young man, called on me, and I +received him under the trees, a number of retainers armed with long +guns standing round the edge of the carpet. He was well dressed, but a +savage in speech and deportment. As to the dress of the Bakhtiaris, +the ordinary tribesmen wear coarse cotton shirts fastening at the +side, but generally unfastened, blue cotton trousers, each leg two +yards wide, loose at the bottom and drawn on a string at the top, +webbing shoes, worsted socks if any, woollen girdles with a Kashmir +pattern, and huge loose brown felt coats or cloaks with long sleeves, +costing from fifteen to twenty-five _krans_ each, and wearing for +three or four years. The Khans frequently have their _shulwars_ of +black silk, and wear the ordinary Persian full-skirted coat, usually +black, but "for best" one of fine blue or fawn cloth. All wear brown +or white felt skull-caps, and shave their heads for a width of five +inches from the brow to the nape of the neck, leaving long side-locks. +The girdle supplies the place of pockets, and in it are deposited +knives, the pipe, the tobacco-pouch, the flint and steel, and various +etceteras. + +Every man carries a long smooth-bore gun slung from his left shoulder, +or a stout shillelagh, or a stick split and loaded at one end (the +split being secured with strong leather), or all these weapons of +offence and defence at once. + +These very wide _shulwars_, much like the "divided garment," are not +convenient in rough walking, and on the march a piece of the hem on +the outer side is tucked into the girdle, producing at once the neat +effect of knickerbockers. + +The men are very well made. I have never seen deformity or lameness +except from bullet wounds. They are not usually above the middle +height, though that is exceeded by the men of the Zalaki tribe. They +are darker than the Persians. As a general rule they have straight +noses, with very fully expanded nostrils, good mouths, thin lips, +straight or slightly curved eyebrows, dark gray or black eyes, hazel +in a few instances, deeply set, and usually rather close together, +well-developed foreheads, small ears, very small feet, and small hands +with tapering fingers. The limbs below the knee are remarkably +straight and well-developed, and the walk is always good. + +It is not easy to say how the women are made, as their clothing gives +no indications of form. They are long-limbed, and walk with a firm, +even, elastic stride. They are frequently tall, and except when +secluded are rarely stout. Their hands and feet are small. Their +figures are spoilt (if they ever had any) by early maternity and hard +work. At twenty a woman looks past forty. Many, perhaps it is not an +exaggeration to say most, of them have narrowly escaped being +handsome. Fine eyes, straight noses, and well-formed mouths with thin +lips are the rule. The hair is always glossy and abundant, and the +teeth of both sexes are white, regular, and healthy-looking, though +toothache is a painfully common ailment. + +The women's dress in the "higher classes" is much like that worn by +the ordinary Persian women, with the exception of what I have +elsewhere called "balloon trousers," but the hard-working tribesmen's +wives are clothed in loose blue cotton trousers drawn in at the +ankles, short open chemises, and short open jackets. A black or +coloured kerchief covers the head, the ends hanging down behind or in +front. They wear loose woollen shoes with leather soles. The dress is +not pretty or picturesque, and is apt to be dirty and ragged, but it +suits their lives and their hard work. + +Both sexes stain the finger-nails and the palms of the hands with +henna, and all wear amulets or charms suspended round the neck, or +bound on the upper part of the arm. These consist of passages from the +Koran, which are written on parchment in very small characters, and +are enclosed in cases of silver or leather. + +At night they merely take off the outer garment where they have two. +The scanty ablutions are very curious. Each family possesses a metal +jug of rather graceful form, with a long spout curiously curved, and +the mode of washing, which points to an accustomed scarcity of water, +is to pour a little into the palm of the right hand, and bathe the +face, arms, and hands with it, soap not being used. They conclude by +rinsing the mouth and rubbing the teeth either with the forefinger or +with the aromatic leaf of a small pink salvia. + +I called by appointment on the Khan's wives, sixteen in number. An +ordinary tribesman marries as many wives as he can afford to house and +keep. Poverty and monogamy are not allied here. Women do nearly all +the work, large flocks create much female employment, and as it is +"contrary to Bakhtiari custom" to employ female servants who are not +wives, polygamy is very largely practised. On questioning the guides, +who are usually very poor men, I find that they have two, three, and +even four wives, the reverse of what is customary among the peasants +of Turkey and Persia proper. The influence of a chief increases with +the number of his wives, as it enlarges his own family connections, +and those made by the marriages of his many sons and daughters. Large +families are the rule. Six children is the average in a monogamous +household, and the rate of infant mortality is very low. + +The "fort" is really picturesque, though forlorn and dirty. It is +built on the steep slope of a hill, and on one side is three stories +in height. It has a long gallery in front, with fretwork above the +posts which support the roof, round towers at two of the corners, and +many irregular roofs, and steep zigzags cut in the rock lead up to +it. The centre is a quadrangle. When I reached the gateway under the +tower many women welcomed me, and led me down a darkish passage to the +gallery aforesaid, which has a pretty view of low hills, with +mulberries and pomegranates in the foreground. This gallery runs the +whole length of the fort, and good rooms open upon it. It was +furnished with rugs upon the floor, and two long wooden settees, +covered with checked native blankets in squares of Indian yellow and +madder red. + +I had presents for the favourite wife, but as one man said this was +the favourite, and another that, and the hungry eyes of sixteen women +were fixed on the parcels, I took the safer course of presenting them +to the Khan for the "ladies of the _andarun_." Yahya Khan sent to know +if it would be agreeable to me for him to make his salaam to me, a +proposal which I gladly accepted as a relief from the curiosity and +disagreeable familiarity of the women. There was a complete rabble of +women in the gallery, with crawling children and screaming babies--a +forlorn, disorderly household, in which the component parts made no +secret of their hatred and jealousy of each other. + +I pitied the Khan as he came in to this Babel of intriguing women and +untutored children--of women without womanliness and children without +innocence--the lord and master of the women, but not in any noble +sense their husband, nor is the house, or any polygamous house, in any +sense a home. + +The wife who, I was afterwards told, is the "reigning favourite" sat +on the same settee as her lord, and he ignored the whole of them. Her +father, Bagha Khan, asked me to give into his care the present for +her, lest it should make the other wives jealous. + +Yahya Khan rules a large part of the Pulawand tribe, 1000 families, +and aspires to the chieftainship of its subdivisions, among which are +the Bosakis, Hajwands, Isawands, and Hebidis, numbering 2800 +families.[10] + + [Illustration: YAHYA KHAN.] + +He is a tall, big, middle-aged man with a very wide mouth, and a beard +dyed auburn with henna--very intelligent, especially as regards his +own interests, and very well off, having built his castle himself. + +He asked me if I thought England would occupy south-west Persia in the +present Shah's lifetime? Which has the stronger army, England or +Russia? Why England does not take Afghanistan? Did I think the +Zil-es-Sultan had any chance of succeeding his father? but several +times reverted to what seemed uppermost in his mind, the chances of a +British occupation of Southern Persia, a subject on which I was +unwilling to enter. He complained bitterly of Persian exactions, and +said that the demand made on him this year is exactly double the sum +fixed by the Amin-es-Sultan. + +It is not easy to estimate the legitimate taxation. Probably it +averages two _tumans_, or nearly fifteen shillings a family. The +assessment of the tribes is fixed, but twenty, forty, and even sixty +per cent extra is often taken from them by the authorities, who in +their turn are squeezed at Tihran or Isfahan. Every cow, mule, ass, +sheep, and goat is taxed. Horses pay nothing. + +In order to get away from perilous topics, which had absolutely no +interest for the women. I told him how interested I was in seeing all +his people clothed in blue Manchester cottons, though England does not +grow a tuft of cotton or a plant of indigo. I mentioned that the +number of people dependent on the cotton industry in Britain equals +the whole population of Persia, and this made such an impression on +him that he asked me to repeat it three times. He described his tribe +as prosperous, raising more wheat than it requires, and exporting 1000 +_tumans'_ worth of carpets annually. + +It is curious that nomadic semi-savages should not only sow and +harvest crops, and make carpets of dyed wool, as well as goats-hair +rugs and cloth, horse-furniture, _kh[=u]rjins_, and socks of intricate +patterns, but that they should understand the advantages of trade, and +export not only mules, colts, and sheep, but large quantities of +charcoal, which is carried as far as Hamadan; as well as _gaz_, +gall-nuts, tobacco, opium, rice, gum mastic, clarified butter, the +skins of the fox and a kind of marten, and cherry sticks for pipes. + +Certainly the women are very industrious, rising at daylight to churn, +working all day, weaving in the intervals, and late at night boiling +the butter in their big caldrons. They make their own clothes and +those of their husbands and children, except the felt coats, sewing +with needles like skewers and very coarse loosely-twisted cotton +thread. They sew backwards, _i.e._ from left to right, and seem to use +none but a running stitch. Everywhere they have been delighted with +gifts of English needles and thread, steel thimbles, and scissors. + +When it is remembered that, in addition to all the "household" +avocations which I have enumerated, they pitch and strike tents, do +much of the loading and unloading of the baggage, and attend +faithfully to their own offspring and to that of their flocks and +herds, it will be realised that the life of a Bakhtiari wife is +sufficiently laborious. + +We were to have left that burning valley at 11 P.M., and when I +returned at dusk from the fort the tents were folded and the loads +ready for a moonlight march, but Yahya Khan sent to say that for the +ostensible reason of the path being greatly obstructed by trees we +could not start till daylight! Later he came with a number of +tribesmen and haggled noisily for two hours about the payment of an +escort, and the sheep a day which it would require. It was not a +comfortable night, for the sand-flies were legion, and we did not get +off till 4.30, when we were joined by Yahya Khan and his son, who +accompanied us to the Pul-i-Hawa. + +The path from Kalla Khanabad runs at a considerable elevation on +wooded hillsides and slopes of shelving rock, only descending to cross +some curious ribs of conglomerate and the streams which flow into the +Ab-i-Diz. There are frequent glimpses of the river, which has the +exquisite green colour noticeable in nearly all the streams of this +part of Luristan. At a distance of a few miles from Khanabad the +valley, which has been pretty wide, and allows the river to expand +into smooth green reaches, narrows suddenly, and the Ab-i-Diz, a full, +strong stream, falls in a very fine waterfall over a natural dam or +ledge of rock, which crosses it at its broadest part, and is then +suddenly compressed into a narrow passage between cliffs and ledges of +bituminous limestone, the lowest of which is a continuation of the +path which descends upon it by some steep zigzags. + +Below this gorge the river opens out into a smooth green stretch, +where it reposes briefly before starting on a wild and fretted course +through deep chasms among precipitous mountains, till it emerges on +the plains above Dizful. These limestone cliffs exude much bitumen, +and there is a so-called bituminous spring. Our men took the +opportunity of collecting the bitumen and rolling it into balls for +future use, as it is esteemed a good remedy for dyspepsia and "bad +blood." + +At the narrowest part of its channel the river is crossed by a twig +bridge wide enough for laden animals, supported on the left bank by +some tree-stems kept steady by a mass of stones. In the middle it +takes a steepish upward turn, and hangs on to the opposite cliff at a +considerable elevation. The path up from it to the top of the cliff is +very narrow, and zigzags by broken ledges between walls of rock. For +loaded animals it is a very bad place, and the caravan took an hour +and a half to cross, though only four mules were unloaded, the rest +being helped across by men at their heads and tails. Several of them +fell on the difficult climb from the bridge. It would be bad enough if +the roadway of osiers were level, but it shelves slightly to the +south. That gorge is a very interesting break in an uninteresting and +monotonous region, and the broad fall above the bridge is not without +elements of grandeur. The altitude of the river over which the +Pul-i-Hawa hangs is only 3800 feet, the lowest attained on this +journey. + + [Illustration: A TWIG BRIDGE.] + +The popular nomenclature is adopted here, but it would be more +accurate to call this stream the Ab-i-Burujird, and to defer +conferring the name of Ab-i-Diz upon it till the two great branches +have united far below this point. These are the Ab-i-Burujird, rising +to the west of Burujird, which with the tributaries which enter it +before it reaches the Tang-i-Bahrain, drains the great plain of +Silakhor, and the Ab-i-Basnoi, a part of which has been referred to +under its local name of Kakulistan, or "the Curl," which drains the +upper part of the Persian district of Faraidan, and receives the +important tributaries of the Guwa and the Gokun before its junction +with the Ab-i-Burujird. A tributary rising in the Kuh-i-Rang has been +locally considered the head-water of the Ab-i-Diz. + +Leaving the Ab-i-Diz, the path pursues valleys with streams and dry +torrent-beds, much wooded with oak and hawthorn, with hills above, +buff with uncut sun-cured hay, magnificent pasturage, but scantily +supplied with water. + +The _belut_, or oak, grows abundantly in these valleys, and on it is +chiefly collected the deposit called _gaz_, a sweetish glaze upon the +leaf, which is not produced every year, and which is rather obscure in +its origin. When boiled with the leaves it forms a shiny bottle-green +mass, but when the water is drained from them and carefully skimmed, +it cools into a very white paste which, when made up with rose-water +and chopped almonds, is cut into blocks, and is esteemed everywhere. +It is mentioned by Diodorus Siculus.[11] The unwatered valleys are +wooded with the _Paliurus aculeata_ chiefly, and the jujube tree +(_Zizyphus vulgaris_), which abounds among the Bakhtiari mountains. + +The heat was frightful, and progress was very slow, owing to the low +projecting branches of trees, which delayed the baggage and tore some +of the tents. In places the path was farther obstructed by a species +of liana known in New Zealand as "a lawyer," with hooked thorns. + +We passed by the steep ledgy village of Shahbadar, on the roofs of +which I rode inadvertently, till the shouts of the people showed me my +error, and encamped on the only available spot which could be found, a +steep, bare prominence above a hollow, in which is a spring surrounded +by some fine plane trees. The Shahbadar people live in their village +for three winter months only, and were encamped above us, and there +were two large camps below. Men from each of them warned us to beware +of the others, for they were robbers, and there was a great deal of +dexterous pilfering, which reduced my table equipments to a copper +mug, one plate, and a knife and fork. My _shuldari_ was torn to +pieces, and pulled down over me, by a lively mule which cantered among +the tent ropes. + +The afternoon, with the mercury at 103 deg., was spent in entertaining +successive crowds, not exactly rude, but full of untamed curiosity. I +amused them to their complete satisfaction by letting them blow my +whistle, fill my air-cushion, and put the whalebones into my +collapsible basins. One of Milward's self-threading needles, which had +luckily been found in my carpet, surprised them beyond measure. Every +man and woman insisted on threading it with the eyes shut, and the +_ketchuda_ of one camp offered to barter a sheep for it. They said +that my shabby tent, with its few and shabby equipments, was "fit for +God!" + +The camps passed on that day were constructed of booths made of stems +of trees with the bark on, the roofs being made of closely-woven +branches with the leaves on. These booths are erected round a square +with mat walls, and face outwards, a sort of privacy being obtained by +backs of coarse reed mats four feet high, and mat divisions between +the dwellings. The sheep, goats, and cattle are driven into the square +at night through a narrow entrance walled with mats. + +Since leaving the Karun very few horses have been seen, and the few +have been of a very inferior class. Even Yahya Khan, who has the +reputation of being rich, rode a horse not superior to a common pack +animal. The people we have been among lately have no horses or mares, +the men walk, and the loads are carried on cows and asses. + +In the greater part of this country I have not seen a mule, with the +exception of some mule foals on a high pass near Ali-kuh. The +Bakhtiaris breed mules, however, and sell them in Isfahan in the +spring, but rarely use them for burden. They breed horses in some +places, exporting the colts and keeping the fillies. Their horses are +small and not good-looking, but are wiry and enduring, and as +surefooted as mules. In fact they will go anywhere. One check on the +breeding of good horses is that, when a man has a good foal, he is +often compelled to make a present of it to any superior who fancies +it. + +The horses are shod, as in Persia proper, with thin iron plates +covering nearly the whole hoof, secured by six big-headed nails. +Reared in camps and among children, they are perfectly gentle and +scarcely require breaking. A good Bakhtiari horse can be bought for L6 +or L8. A good mule is worth from L7 to L11. Asses are innumerable, and +are used for transporting baggage, equally with oxen and small cows. A +good donkey can be bought for 30s. + +The goats are very big and long-haired. The sheep, which nearly always +are like the goats brown or black, and very tall, are invariably of +the breed with the great pendulous tails, which sometimes weigh nearly +eight pounds. They give a great deal of milk, and it is on this, not +on cows' milk, that the people rely for the greater part of their +food, their cheese, curds, _mast_, and _roghan_. + +The goat-skins are invaluable to them. They use them for holding water +and milk, and as churns for their butter. They make all their tents, +their tent carpets, and their sacks for holding wool of goat's-hair, +woven on rude portable looms. + +The female costume changed at Shahbadar. The women now wear loose +garments like nightgowns, open to the waist, and reaching from the +neck to the feet, and red trousers, tight below the knee, but rarely +visible below the outer dress. Their notion of ornament consists in +having a branch or frond tattooed up the throat. + +These tribes breed cattle extensively. One camp possessed over 300 +young beasts. The calves are nourished by their mothers up to two +years old. They have a few white angora goats of great beauty, but the +majority are black and are valued chiefly for their milk and for their +long coarse hair. + +A march through fierce heat at a low level brought us at noon to the +village of Imamzada-i-Mamil. The road, after continuing along the same +wooded valley, which in a happier climate would be called a glen, +emerges on scenery truly "park-like," softly-outlined hills covered +with buff grass, and wooded on their gently-curved slopes with oak and +hawthorn, fringing off into clumps and single trees. Smooth broad +valleys, first of buff pasture, and then of golden wheat or green +maize, lie among the hills. All is soft and lowland, and was bathed +that day in a dreamy blue heat haze. Not a mountain rose above the +gently-curved hills which were painted in soft blue on the sky of the +distant horizon. The natural wood ceased. The surroundings underwent +an abrupt change. Is it a change for the better, I wonder? Three +months and a week have been spent in zigzagging among some of the +loftiest mountains and deepest valleys of Persia, and they now lie +behind, among the things that were. In fact, Khuramabad, from which I +write, is not only out of the Bakhtiari country, but the Bakhtiari +Lurs are left behind, and we are among the fierce and undisciplined +tribes of the Feili Lurs. + +The baggage animals were not dubious, as I am, as to the advantages of +the change. When we reached the open, Cock o' the Walk threw up his +beautiful head, knocked down the man who led him, and with a joyous +neigh set off at a canter, followed by all the mules and horses, some +cantering, some trotting, regardless of their loads, and regardless of +everything, proceeding irresponsibly, almost knocking one out of the +saddle by striking one with the sharp edges of _yekdans_ and tent +poles, till they were headed off by mounted men, after which some of +them rolled, loads and all, on the soft buff grass. This escapade +shows what condition they are in after three months of hard mountain +work. + +Reaching the village at noon, we halted till moonrise at midnight on +an eminence with some fine plane and walnut trees upon it above a +stream which issues from below an _imamzada_ on a height, and passes +close to a graveyard. Possibly this contaminates the water, for there +has been a great outbreak of diphtheria, which has been very fatal. It +is quite a small village, but thirteen children suffering from the +most malignant form of the malady, some of them really dying at the +time, were brought to me during the afternoon, as well as some people +ill of what appeared to be typhoid fever. One young creature, very +ill, was carried three miles on her father's back, though I had sent +word that I would call and see her at night. She died a few hours +later of the exhaustion brought on by the journey. The mercury that +afternoon reached 103 deg. in the shade. + +Soon after midnight the mules were silently loaded, and we "stole +silently away," to ride through the territory of the powerful +Sagwands, a robber tribe, and reached this place in eight hours, +having done twenty-two and a half miles. It was a march full of risk, +through valleys crowded with camps, and the guide who rode in front +was very much frightened whenever the tremendous barking of the camp +dogs threatened to bring robbers down on us in the uncertain light. +The caravan was kept in steady order, and the rearguard was +frequently hailed by the leader. Nothing happened, and when day broke +we were in open russet country, among low, formless gravelly hills, +with the striking range of rocky mountains which hems in Khuramabad in +front, under a hazy sky. + +Later, fording the Kashgan, I got upon the Burujird caravan road, +along which are telegraph poles, and on which there was much caravan +traffic. Recrossing the Kashgan, but this time by a good two-arched +bridge of brick on stone piers, the Yafta Kuh came in sight, and +Khuramabad with its green gardens, its walls of precipitous mountains, +and its ruined fort on an isolated and most picturesque rock in the +centre of the town--a very striking view. + +Khuramabad, before the fourteenth century, was called Diz Siyah, or +the black fort, and was the capital of the Atabegs, the powerful kings +who reigned in Luri-Kushuk from A.D. 1155 to about A.D. 1600. Sir H. +Rawlinson does not regard any of its remains as earlier than the +eleventh or twelfth century. + +The camps are outside the town, on a stretch of burning gravel, with +some scorched pasture beyond it, on which are Ilyat camps, then there +are divers ranges of blackish and reddish mountains, with pale +splashes of scorched herbage when there is any at all. Behind my tent +are a clump of willows, an irrigating stream, large gardens full of +fruit trees and melons, and legions of mosquitos. + +Circumstances have changed, and the surroundings now belong to the +showy civilisation of Persia. As I was lying under the trees, quite +"knocked up" by the long and fatiguing night march and the great heat, +I heard fluent French being spoken with a good accent. The _Hak[=i]m_ +of the Governor had called. Cavalcades of Persians on showy horses +gaily caparisoned dashed past frequently. Ten infantrymen arrived as +a guard and stacked their arms under the willows, and four obsequious +servants brought me trays of fruit and sweetmeats put up in vine +leaves from the Governor. Melons are a drug. The servants are amusing +themselves in the bazars. It is a bewildering transition. + +The altitude is only 4050 feet, and the heat is awful--the heat of the +Indian plains without Indian appliances. When the men took up stones +with which to hammer the tent pegs they dropped them "like hot +potatoes." The paraffin candles melt. Milk turns sour in one hour. +Even night brings little coolness. It is only heat and darkness +instead of heat and light. + +I was too much exhausted by heat and fatigue to march last night, and +rested to-day as far as was possible, merely going to pay my respects +to the Governor of Luristan, the Nizam-ul-Khilwar, and the ladies of +his _haram_. The characteristics of this official's face are anxiety +and unhappiness. There was the usual Persian etiquette--attendants in +the rear, scribes and _mollahs_ bowing and kneeling in front, and tea +and cigarettes in the pretty garden of the palace, of which cypresses, +pomegranates, and roses are the chief features. Mirza was not allowed +to attend me in the _andarun_, but a _munshi_ who spoke a little very +bad French and understood less stood behind a curtain and attempted to +interpret, but failed so signally that after one or two compliments I +was obliged to leave, after ascertaining that a really beautiful girl +of fourteen is the "reigning favourite." The women's rooms were +pretty, and the women themselves were richly but elegantly dressed, +and graceful in manner, though under difficulties. After a visit to +the ruined fort, an interesting and picturesque piece of masonry, I +rode unmolested through the town and bazars. + +Khuramabad, the importance of which lies in its situation on what is +regarded as the best commercial route from Shuster to Tihran, etc., is +the capital of the Feili Lurs and the residence of the Governor of +Luristan. Picturesque at a distance beyond any Persian town that I +have seen, with its citadel rising in the midst of a precipitous pass, +its houses grouped round the base, its fine bridge, its wooded +gardens, its greenery, and the rich valley to the south of the gorge +in which it stands, it successfully rivals any Persian town in its +squalor, dirt, evil odours, and ruinous condition. Two-thirds of what +was "the once famous capital of the Atabegs" are now "ruinous heaps." +The bazars are small, badly supplied, dark, and rude; and the roads +are nothing but foul alleys, possibly once paved, but now full of +ridges, holes, ruins, rubbish, lean and mangy dogs, beggarly-looking +men, and broken channels of water, which, dribbling over the soil in +the bazars and everywhere else in green and black slime, gives forth +pestiferous odours in the hot sun. + +The people slouch about slowly. They are evidently very poor, and the +merchants have the melancholy apathetic look which tells that "trade +is bad." The Feili Lurs, who render the caravan route to Dizful +incessantly insecure, paralyse the trade of what should and might be a +prosperous "distributing point," and the Persian Government, though it +keeps a regiment of soldiers here, is unsuccessful in checking, far +less in curing the chronic disorder which has produced a nearly +complete stagnation in trade. + +I am all the more disappointed with the wretched condition of +Khuramabad because the decayed state of its walls is concealed by +trees, and it is entered by a handsome bridge 18 feet wide and 900 +long, with twenty-eight pointed arches of solid masonry, with a fine +caravanserai with a tiled entrance on its left side. The Bala Hissar +is a really striking object, its pile of ancient buildings crowning +the steep mass of naked rock which rises out of the dark greenery and +lofty poplars and cypresses of the irrigated gardens. This fort, which +is in ruins, encloses within its double walls the Wali's palace and +other official buildings, and a fine reservoir, 178 feet by 118, fed +by a vigorous spring. In the gardens by the river, north of the fort, +are some remains of the walls and towers of the ancient Atabeg +capital, and there are also ruins of an aqueduct and of an ancient +bridge, of which ten arches are still standing. The most interesting +relic, however, is a round tower sixty feet high in fairly good +preservation, with a Kufic inscription round the top. + +It is said that there are 1200 houses in Khuramabad, which would give +it a population of over 7000. It has been visited by several +Englishmen for purposes of trade or research, and it has doubtless +made the same impression upon them all as it does upon me. + +_Burujird, August 9._--A night march of twenty-two miles through +perilous country brought us in blazing heat to an encampment of +Seyyids of the Bairanawand tribe, fine-looking men, showing in their +haughty bearing their pride in their illustrious lineage, but not +above depriving us during the night of many useful articles. Their +camp had three streets of tents, in front of which oxen were treading +out wheat all day long. These Seyyids have much wealth in mares and +oxen. Again we started at moonrise for what was regarded as a +dangerous march, a party of Sagwands having gone on ahead, with +hostile intentions, it was said. + +However, nothing happened, and nothing was heard except the shouts of +our own _charvadars_ and the pandemonium made by the simultaneous +barking of huge dogs in the many camps we passed but could not see. We +rode through cultivated valleys full of nomads, forded the placid +Bawali, and at dawn were at the foot of the grand pass of Handawan, +7500 feet in altitude, which is ascended by steep zigzags over worn +rock ledges, and the dry boulder-strewn bed of a torrent. A descent of +2000 feet and a long ride among large formless hills took us to a +narrow gorge or chasm with a fine mountain torrent, and thence to the +magnificent Tang-i-Buzful, from which we emerged with some suddenness +on the slopes of the low foot-hills on the north side of the plain of +Burujird or Silakhor. + +This very rich plain, about thirty miles long by from six to eight +broad, has been described as "waterlogged," and the level of the water +is only a foot below the surface. Certainly very numerous springs and +streams rise along the hill slopes which we traversed and flow down +into the plain, which is singularly flat, and most of it only relieved +from complete monotony by the villages which, to the number of 180, +are sprinkled over it, many of them raised on artificial mounds, at +once to avoid the miasma from the rice-fields and as a protection from +the Lurs. Above the south-eastern end rises the grand bulk of Shuturun +Kuh, with a few snow-patches still lingering, and towards the other +lies the town of Burujird, the neighbourhood of which for a few miles +is well planted, but most of the plain is devoid of trees. It is +watered by many streams, which flow into the Burujird river and the +Kamand-Ab, which uniting, leave the plain by the magnificent +Tang-i-Bahrain. + +The first view, on emerging from the buff treeless mountains, was very +attractive. The tall grass of the rich marshy pastures rippled in the +breeze in wavelets of a steely sheen. Brown villages on mounds +contrasted with the vivid green of the young rice. Towards Burujird, +of which nothing but the gilding of a dome was visible, a mass of dark +greenery refreshed the eyes. The charm of the whole was the contrast +between the "dry and thirsty land where no water is" and abundant +moisture, between the scanty and scorched herbage of the arid +mountains and the "trees planted by the rivers of water," but I +confess that the length and overpowering fatigue of that thirty-three +miles' march, much of it in blazing heat, following on three nights +without sleep, soon dulled my admiration of the plain. Hour after hour +passed on its gravelly margin, then came melon beds, files of donkeys +loaded with melons in nets, gardens of cucumbers and gourds, each with +its "lodge," irrigation channels, dykes, apricot and mulberry +orchards, lanes bordered with the graceful _elaegnus_, a large and busy +village, where after a very uncertain progress we got a local guide, +and then a low isolated hill, crowned by a dwelling arranged for +security, and a liberally planted garden, a platform with terraced +slopes and straight formal walks, a terrace with a fine view, and two +tanks full of turtles (which abound in many places) under large +willows, giving a pleasant shade. Between them I have pitched my +tents, with the lines of an old hymn constantly occurring to me-- + + "Interval of grateful shade, + Welcome to my weary head." + +Burujird, one and a half mile off, and scarcely seen above the +intervening woods, gives a suggestion of civilisation to the +landscape. In the sunset, which is somewhat fiery, Shuturun and the +precipices of the Tang-i-Bahrain are reddening. + +The last three marches have been more severe than the whole travelling +of the last three months. Happy thought, that no call to "boot and +saddle" will break the stillness of to-morrow morning! + + I. L. B. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[8] This untoward affair ended well, but had there been bloodshed on +either side, had any one of us been killed, which easily might have +been, the world would never have believed but that some offence had +been given, and that some high-handed action had been the cause of the +attack. I am in a position to say, not only that no offence was given, +but that here and everywhere the utmost care was taken not to violate +Bakhtiari etiquette, or wound religious or national susceptibilities; +all supplies were paid for above their value; the servants, always +under our own eyes, were friendly but reserved; and in all dealings +with the people kindness and justice were the rule. I make these +remarks in the hope of modifying any harsh judgments which may be +passed upon any travellers who have died unwitnessed deaths at the +hands of natives. There are, as in our case, absolutely unprovoked +attacks. + +[9] See Appendix A. + +[10] I am inclined to estimate the Bakhtiari population at a higher +figure than some travellers have given. I took forty-three men at +random from the poorest class and from various tribes, and got from +them the number of their families, wives and children only being +included, and the average was eight to a household. + +[11] Book xvii. c. viii. + + + + +LETTER XXI + + + BURUJIRD, _Aug. 16_. + +A week has glided away since I sent my last diary letter, with only +two events of direct personal interest, one being that I have bought a +young, powerful little Bakhtiari horse, which has been in camp since +we left the Karun river, a dark bay, with black points, big feet, a +big ugly head, and big flopping ears, but otherwise passably +good-looking, an unsuspicious animal, brought up in tent life, with +children rolling about among his feet, and as yet quite ignorant that +man can be anything but his friend. I intend to look after his +well-being, but not to make a pet of him. + +The other event occurred on the morning after our arrival, and took +the place of the "boot and saddle" call, for I was awakened very early +by a hubbub round my tent, the interpretation of which was that a +packing case in three compartments, containing my cooking utensils, +remaining table equipments, and stores, had been carried off before +daylight, deposited in an adjacent plantation, broken open, and +emptied. Thus I was left with nothing, and have been unable to get +anything in the bazars here except two cooking pots and a tin teapot +of unique construction made to order. The few other things which I +still regard as absolute necessaries, a cup, plate, knife, fork, and +spoon, have been lent me by the Agha. All my tea is gone, the worst +loss of all. + +Later in the day Hassan came in a quiet rage, saying that he would +leave for Isfahan at once, because Mirza had accused him of not +keeping an efficient watch, and shortly afterwards Mahomet Ali and his +handsome donkey actually did leave.[12] Burujird bears a very bad +reputation. Here, last year, a young English officer was robbed of his +tents and horses, and everything but the clothes he wore. + +The Governor, on hearing of the theft, said I should not have "camped +in the wilderness," the "wilderness" being a beautifully kept garden +with a gardener (who was arrested) and a house. For the last week a +guard of six soldiers has watched by day and night. + +The news received from the Bakhtiari country is rather startling. +Mirab Khan, who looked too ill and frail for active warfare, sent a +messenger with a letter to Khaja Taimur, urging him to join him in an +attack on Aslam Khan. The letter was intercepted by this "Judas," and +now the country from Kalahoma to Khanabad is in a flame. Serious +troubles have broken out in this plain, all the Khans of the Sagwand +tribe having united to rise against the payment of a tribute which +they regard as heavy enough to "crush the life out of the people." The +_H[=a]kim_ has telegraphed for troops, and the governor of Luristan is +said to be coming with 500 men. + +A "tribute insurrection," on a larger or smaller scale, is a common +autumnal event. The Khans complain of being oppressed by "merciless +exactions." They say that the tribute fixed by the Shah is "not too +much," but that it is doubled and more by the rapacity of governors, +and that the people are growing poorer every year. They complain that +when they decline to pay more than the tribute fixed by the +Amin-es-Sultan, soldiers are sent, who drive off their mares, herds of +cattle, and flocks to the extent of three, four, and five times the +sum demanded. + +These few words contain the substance of statements almost universally +made. There is probably another side, and they may be true in part +only. The tribesmen of Silakhor state that they had protested and +appealed in vain before they decided on resistance. Every Khan with +whom I have conversed has besought me to lay his case before the +"English Vakil" at Tihran. + +This widely-diffused belief in England as the redresser of wrongs is +very touching, and very palatable to one's national pride. All these +people have heard of the way in which the cultivators in India have +been treated, of "land settlements" and English "settlement officers," +and they say, "England could make everything right for us." So she +could, "and she would"! As the governors pay large sums for offices +from which they are removable at the Shah's pleasure, and as the lower +officials all pay more or less heavily for their positions, we may +reasonably infer that all, from the highest to the lowest, put on the +screw, and squeeze all they can out of the people, over and above the +tribute fixed at Tihran. Near views of Oriental despotisms are as +disenchanting as near views of "the noble savage," for they contain +within themselves the seeds of "all villainies," which rarely, if +ever, fail of fructification. + +Mirza Karim Khan, the Governor of Burujird, called a few days ago, a +young harassed-looking man, with very fine features, but a look of +serious bad health. He complained so much that the Agha asked his +attendant, a very juvenile _Hak[=i]m_, speaking a little scarcely +intelligible French, if he would object to the Governor taking +something from the famous "leather box," and the effect was so +magical that the next day he looked a different man. + +An arrangement was made for returning the visit, and he received us in +a handsome tent in a garden, with the usual formalities, but only a +scribe and the _Hak[=i]m_ were present. A _sowar_, sent from Burujird +with a letter to the Sahib, was undoubtedly robbed of his horse, gun, +and some of his clothing _en route_. Very quietly the Governor denied +this, but as he did so I saw a wink pass between the scribe and +_Hak[=i]m_. It was a pitiable sight,--a high official sitting there, +with luxuries about him, in a city with its walls, embankments, and +gates ruinous, the brickwork in the palace gardens lying in heaps, his +province partially disturbed, the people rising against what, at the +least, are oppressive exactions, raising an enormous tribute, from +which there is no outlay on province or city, government for the good +of the governed never entering into his (as rarely into any other +Oriental) mind. + +This evening he has made a farewell visit on the terrace, attended by +the _Hak[=i]m_. Aziz Khan stood on the edge of the carpet, and +occasionally interjected a remark into the conversation. I have before +said that he has a certain gentlemanliness and even dignity, and his +manner was neither cringing nor familiar. The _Hak[=i]m_, however, +warned him not to speak in presence of the Governor, a restraint +which, though very different from the free intercourse of retainers +with their chiefs among the Bakhtiari, was in strict accordance with +the proprieties of Persian etiquette. Aziz stalked away, shaking his +wide _shulwars_, with an air of contempt. "This governor," he +afterwards said, "what is he? If it were Isfandyar Khan, and he were +lying down, my head would be next to his, and twenty more men would be +lying round him to guard his life with ours." + +It seems as if Burujird were destitute of cavalry, at least of men who +can be spared, though it has been stated that a whole cavalry regiment +is in garrison.[13] + +The Governor promised three escorts; my modest request was for one +_sowar_, and a very unmilitary-looking horseman has arrived for me, +but now, within an hour of marching, the others are without even one! + +Attended by the _Hak[=i]m_ and an escort, we rode yesterday through +Burujird. To write that a third of it is in ruins is simply to write +that it is a Persian town. It has crumbling mud walls, said to be five +miles in circumference, five gates in bad repair, and a ditch, now +partially cultivated. + +It is situated in Lat. 33 deg. 55' N, and its Long. is 48 deg. 55' E. Its +elevation is 4375 feet [Bell]. Its population is estimated at from +12,000 to 18,000, and includes a great many Seyyids and _mollahs_. It +has a Persian Telegraph Office and Post Office, neither of them to be +depended upon, six large and very many small mosques, a number of +mosque schools, thirty-three public baths, and six caravanserais. It +manufactures woollen goods, carpets, and the best _arak_ to be found +in Persia. It also produces dried fruits and treacle made from grapes. + +The bazars are large, light, and well supplied with European goods, +Russian and English cottons in enormous quantities, Austrian kerosene +lamps of all descriptions and prices, Russian mirrors, framed coloured +engravings of the Russian Imperial family, Russian _samovars_, +tea-glasses and tea-trays, Russian sewing and machine cotton, American +sewing machines, Russian woollen cloth, fine and heavy, Russian +china, and Russian sugar-loaves, to the sale of which several shops +are exclusively devoted. + +Persian manufactures are chiefly represented by heavy cottons, dyed +and stamped at Isfahan, carpets, saddles, horse and mule furniture, +copper cooking utensils, shoes of all makes, pipes, _kalians_, rope, +ornamented travelling trunks, _galon_, gimps, tassels of silk and +wool, and "small wares" of all kinds, with rude pottery, oil jars, +each big enough to contain a man, great water-jars, small clay bowls +glazed roughly with a green glaze, guns, swords, pistols, long knives, +and the tools used by the different trades. + +Altogether the bazars look very thriving, and they were crowded with +buyers. Possibly the people have rarely if ever seen a Feringhi woman, +and they crowded very much upon me, and the escort drove them off in +the usual fashion, with sticks and stones. Though much of Burujird +lies in ruins it has a fair aspect of prosperity and some very good +houses and new buildings. The roads are cobbled with great stones, and +are certainly not worse than those of the older parts of Tihran. Water +is abundant. + +Nature evidently intends Burujird to be a prosperous city. The +pasturage of the plain is magnificent, and the rich soil produces two +crops a year. All cereals flourish. Wheat and barley ripen in July. +Seven sorts of grapes grow, and ripen in August and September, and +some of the clusters are finer than any of our hothouse produce. Water +and musk melons, tobacco, maize, gourds and cucumbers, beans, the +_bringal_ or egg plant, peas, flax and other oil seeds, rice and +cotton, apricots, walnuts, pomegranates, and peaches testify to the +excellence of the soil and climate. + +Not only is Burujird in the midst of an exceptionally fine +agricultural district, but it is connected by caravan routes with the +best agricultural and commercial regions of Persia to the north, east, +and west by easy roads, never snow-blocked, or at least they never +need be if there were traffic enough to keep them open. It is only 130 +miles from rich Kirmanshah, 90 from the fertile district which +surrounds Hamadan, 60 from Sultanabad, the most important +carpet-producing region of Western Persia, and rich besides in grain +and cotton, 140 from Kum, on the main road from Isfahan to Tihran, +something about 230 from Tihran, and only 310 from Ahwaz. + +These routes are all easy, though, so far as I know them, very badly +supplied with caravanserais, except on the main road between the two +capitals. The southern road, leading through Khuramabad to Dizful and +Shuster, has no great natural difficulties, though part of it lies +through a mountainous region. Some blasting and much boulder-lifting +would, according to Colonel Bell, remedy the evils of the fifty miles +of it which he regards as bad. But, apart from this, the +Shuster-Burujird route, the most _natural_ route for north and +south-western Persian commerce to take to and from the sea, is at +present useless to trade from its insecurity, as the Feili Lurs, +through whose territory it passes, own no authority, live by robbery +when they have any one to rob, and are always fighting each other. + +There are no regular _charvadars_ in Burujird, and many and tedious +have been the difficulties in the way of getting off. Up to last night +I had no mules, and Hadji said mournfully, "When you learn what other +_charvadars_ are like, you'll think of me." I have taken leave of Aziz +Khan with regret. He echoes the oft-repeated question, "Why does not +England come and give us peace? In a few years we should all be rich, +and not have to fight each other." "Stay among us for some years," he +said, "and you will get very rich. What have you to go back to in +Feringhistan?" He asked me for a purse, and to put some _krans_ in it +for his children, but not to give him any money. He said that when he +asked for money and other things he was only in fun. I do not know +whether to believe him. + +Mirza and my caravan started this morning, and now, 4 P.M., I am +leaving with the _sowar_, with the mercury at 90 deg., for the first march +of a journey of 800 miles. + + I. L. B. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[12] I have since heard that this youth was an accomplice of a +Burujird man in this theft, and of an Armenian in a robbery of money +which occurred in Berigun. + +[13] Throughout the part of Persia in which I have travelled I have +observed a most remarkable discrepancy between the numbers of soldiers +_said_ to garrison any given place, and the number which on further +investigation turned out to be actually there. It is safe to deduct +from fifty to ninety per cent from the number in the original +statement! + + + + +LETTER XXII + + + HAMADAN, _Aug. 28_. + +It was as I thought. The _sowar_ sent with me was only a harmless +peasant taken from the plough, mounted on his own horse, and provided +with a Government gun. The poor fellow showed the "white feather" on +the first march, and I was obliged to assert the "ascendency of race" +and ride in front of him. The villagers at once set him down as an +impostor, and refused him supplies, and as his horse could not keep up +with mine, and the road presented no apparent perils, I dismissed him +at the end of three days with a _largesse_ which gladdened his heart. +He did not know the way, and the afternoon I left Burujird he led me +through ploughed fields and along roadless hillsides, till at the end +of an hour I found myself close to the garden from which I started. + +The early part of the first march is over great bare gravelly slopes +without water. Then come irrigation and villages. The hills have been +eaten nearly bare. Nothing remains but a yellow salvia and the +beautiful _Eryngium caeruleum_. There, as in the Bakhtiari country, the +people stack the _Centaurea alata_ for winter fodder. The road is +good, and except in two places a four-wheeled carriage could be driven +over it at a trot. + +The camping-ground was outside Deswali, an unwalled village of 106 +houses, with extensive cultivated lands and a "well-to-do" aspect. The +people raise cereals, melons, cucumbers, grapes, and cotton, but in +bad seasons have to import wheat. There, as at every village since, +the _ketchuda_ has called upon me, and some of these men have been +intelligent and communicative, and have shown such courtesies as have +been in their power. It is an unusual, if not an unheard-of, thing for +a European lady, even if she knows Persian, to travel through this +country without a European escort; but there has been no rudeness or +impertinent curiosity, no crowding even; the headmen all seemed +anxious for my comfort, and supplies at reasonable rates have always +been forthcoming. + +The heat at Deswali was overpowering, the mercury in my tent standing +for hours on 17th August at 120 deg., the temperature in the shade being +104 deg. + +It is vain to form any resolution against making a pet of a horse. My +new acquisition, "_Boy_," insisted on being petted, and his winning +and enticing ways are irresistible. He is always tethered in front of +my tent with a rope so long as to give him a considerable amount of +liberty, and he took advantage of this the very first day to come into +the tent and make it very apparent that he wanted me to divide a melon +with him. Grapes were his next _penchant_, then cucumber, bread, and +biscuits. Then he actually drank milk out of a soup plate. He comes up +to me and puts his head down to have his ears rubbed, and if I do not +attend to him at once, or cease attending to him, he gives me a gentle +but admonitory thump. I dine outside the tent, and he is tied to my +chair, and waits with wonderful patience for the odds and ends, only +occasionally rubbing his soft nose against my face to remind me that +he is there. Up to this time a friendly snuffle is the only sound that +he has made. He does not know how to fight, or that teeth and heels +are of any other use than to eat and walk with. He is really the +gentlest and most docile of his race. The point at which he "draws +the line" is being led. He drags back, and a mulish look comes into +his sweet eyes. But he follows like a dog, and as I walk as much as I +can I always have him with me. He comes when I call him, stops when I +stop, goes off the road with me when I go in search of flowers, and +usually puts his head either on my shoulder or under my arm. To him I +am an embodiment of melons, cucumbers, grapes, pears, peaches, +biscuits, and sugar, with a good deal of petting and ear-rubbing +thrown in. Every day he becomes more of a companion. He walks very +fast, gallops easily, never stumbles, can go anywhere, is never tired, +and is always hungry. I paid L4:15s. for him, but he was bought from +the Bakhtiaris for L3:14s. as a four-year-old. He is "up to" sixteen +stone, jumps very well, and is an excellent travelling horse. + +Redundant forelocks and wavy manes, uncut tails carried in fiery +fashion, small noses, quivering nostrils, small restless ears, and +sweet intelligent eyes add wonderfully to the attractiveness of the +various points of excellence which attract a horse-fancier in Persia. +A Persian horse in good condition may be backed against any horse in +the world for weight-carrying powers, endurance, steadiness, and +surefootedness, is seldom unsound, and is to his rider a friend as +well as a servant. Generally speaking, a horse can carry his rider +wherever a mule can carry a load, and will do from thirty to forty +miles a day for almost any length of time. + +The clothing of horses is an important matter. Even in this hot +weather they wear a good deal--first a _parhan_ or shirt of fine wool +crossed over the chest; next the _jul_, a similar garment, but in +coarser wool; and at night over all this is put the _namad_, a piece +of felt half an inch thick, so long that it wraps the animal from head +to tail, and so deep as to cover his body down to his knees. A broad +surcingle of woollen webbing keeps the whole in place. + +The food does not vary. It consists of from seven to ten pounds of +barley daily, in two feeds, and as much as a horse can eat of _kah_, +which is straw broken in pieces about an inch and a half long. While +travelling, barley and _kah_ are mixed in the nose-bag. No hay is +given, and there are no oats. It is customary among the rich to give +their horses an exclusive diet of barley grass for one month in the +spring, on which they grow very fat and useless. Old horses are fed on +dough-balls made of barley-flour and water. A grape diet is also given +in the grape-producing regions in the autumn instead of _kah_. _Boy_ +eats ten pounds of grapes as a mere dessert. + +I admire and like the Persian horse. His beauty is a constant +enjoyment, and, ferocious as he is to his fellows, he is gentle and +docile to man. I cannot now recall having seen a vicious horse in +seven months. On the whole they are very well cared for, and are +kindly treated. The sore backs of baggage horses are almost +inevitable, quite so, indeed, so long as the present form of +pack-saddle stuffed with _kah_ is used. Mares are not ridden in Persia +proper. + +The march from Deswali to Sahmine is a pretty one, at first over long +buff rolling hills and through large elevated villages, then turning +off from the Kirmanshah road and descending into a broad plain, the +whole of which for several miles is occupied by the trees and gardens +of the eminently prosperous village of Sahmine, whose 500 families, +though they pay a tribute of 2400 _tumans_ a year, have "nothing to +complain of."[14] + +I was delighted with the oasis of Sahmine. It has abundant water for +irrigation, which means abundant fertility. Its walnut trees are +magnificent, and its gardens are filled with noble fruit trees. The +wheat harvest was being brought in, and within the walls it was +difficult to find a place to camp on, for all the open spaces were +threshing-floors, piled with sheaves of wheat and mounds of _kah_, in +the midst of which oxen in spans of two were threshing. That is, they +drew machines like heavy wood sleds, with transverse revolving wooden +rollers set with iron fans at different angles, which cut the straw to +pieces. A great heap of unbound sheaves is in the centre, and from +this men throw down the stalked ears till they come up to the bodies +of the oxen, adding more as fast as the straw is trodden down. A boy +sits on the car and keeps the animals going in a circle hour after +hour with a rope and a stick. The foremost oxen are muzzled. The grain +falls out during this process. + +On a windy day the great heaps are tossed into the air on a fork, the +straw is carried for a short distance, and the grain falling to the +ground is removed and placed in great clay jars in the living-rooms of +the houses. All the villages are now surrounded with mounds of _kah_ +which will be stored before snow comes. The dustiness of this +winnowing process is indescribable. I was nearly smothered with it in +Sahmine, and on windy days each village is enveloped in a yellow dust +storm. + +Sahmine, though it has many ruinous buildings, has much building going +on. It has large houses with _balakhanas_, a Khan's fort with many +houses inside, a square with fine trees and a stream, and a _place_ +with a stream, where madder-red dyers were at work, and there are five +small mosques and _imamzadas_. The gardens are quite beautiful, and it +is indeed a very attractive village. + +The people also were attractive and friendly. After the _ketchuda's_ +official visit the Khan's wives called, and pressed me very +hospitably to leave my tent and live with them, and when I refused +they sent me a dinner of Persian dishes with sweetmeats made by their +own hands. The _kabobs_ were quite appetising. They are a favourite +Persian dish, made of pieces of seasoned meat roasted on skewers, and +served very hot, between flaps of very hot bread. Each bit of meat is +rubbed with an onion before being put on the skewer, and a thin slice +of tail fat is put between every two pieces. The cooks show great art +in the rapidity with which they rotate a skewer full of _kabobs_ over +a fierce charcoal fire. + +In the evening, at the _ketchuda's_ request, I held a "reception" +outside my tent, and it was a very pleasant, merry affair. Several of +the people brought their children, and the little things behaved most +graciously. It is very pleasant to see the devotion of the men to +them. I told them that in England many of our people are so poor that +instead of children being welcome they are regarded ruefully as +additional "mouths to feed." "Ah," said the _ketchuda_, a handsome +Seyyid, "your land is then indeed under the curse of God. We would +like ten children at once, they are the joy of our lives." Other men +followed, expatiating on the delights of having children to pet and +play with on their return from work. + +Sahmine not only dyes and prints cottons, but it exports wheat, +barley, opium, cotton, and fruit, and appears a more important and +prosperous place than Daulatabad, the capital of the district. + +The fine valley between Sahmine and Daulatabad is irrigated by a +_kanaat_ and canals, and is completely cultivated, bearing heavy crops +of wheat, cotton, tobacco, opium, _bringals_, and castor oil. The +wheat is now being carried to the villages on asses' backs in great +nets, lashed to six-foot poles placed in front and behind, each pole +being kept steady by a man. + +The heat on that march was severe. A heavy heat-haze hung over the +distances, vegetation drooped, my mock _sowar_ wrapped up his head in +his _abba_, the horses looked limp, the harvesters slept under the +trees, the buffaloes lay down in mud and water. Even the greenery of +the extensive gardens in and around Daulatabad scarcely looked cool. + +Daulatabad is a walled city of 4500 souls, has a fort, and is reputed +to have a large garrison. The bazars, which contain 250 shops, are +indifferent, and the five caravanserais wretched. It and its extensive +gardens occupy the eastern extremity of a plain, and lie very near the +steep rocky mountain Sard Kuh, through which, by the Tang-i-Asnab, the +Tihran road passes. Another road over the shoulder of the mountain +goes to Isfahan. The plain outside the walls has neither tree nor +bush, and was only brought into cultivation two years ago. The harvest +was carried, and as irrigation had been suspended for some weeks, +there was nothing but a yellow expanse of short thin stubble and +blazing gravel. + +There was no space for camping in any available garden, and an hour +was spent in finding a camping-ground with wholesome water on the +burning plain before mentioned. I camped below a terraced and planted +eminence, on which a building, half fort and half governor's house, +has so recently been erected that it has not had time to become +ruinous. It is an imposing quadrangle with blank walls, towers with +windows at the corners, and a very large _balakhana_ over the +entrance. A winding carriage-drive, well planted, leads up to it, and +there is a circular band-stand with a concrete floor and a fountain. +The most surprising object was a new pair-horse landau, standing under +a tree. Barracks are being built just below the house. + +While my tent was being pitched, the Governor's _aide-de-camp_, +attended by a cavalry escort, called, and with much courtesy offered +me the _balakhana_, arranged, he said, in European fashion. The +Governor was absent, but this officer said that it would be his wish +to offer me hospitality. As I felt quite unable to move he sent a skin +of good water, some fruit, and a guard of four soldiers. + +It was only 11 A.M. when the tents were pitched, and the long day +which followed was barely endurable. The mercury reached 124 deg. inside +my tent. The servants lay in a dry ditch under a tree in the +Governor's garden. _Boy_ several times came into the shade of my +verandah. The black flies swarmed over everything, and at sunset +covered the whole roof of the tent so thickly that no part of it could +be seen. The sun, a white scintillating ball, blazed from a steely +sky, over which no cloud ever passed. The heated atmosphere quivered +over the burning earth. I was at last ill of fever, and my recipe for +fighting the heat by ceaseless occupation failed. It was a miserable +day, and at one time a scorching wind, which seemed hot enough to +singe one's hair, added to the discomfort. "As the hireling earnestly +desireth the shadow," so I longed for evening, but truly the hours of +that day were "long drawn out." The silence was singular. Even the +buzzing of a blue-bottle fly would have been cheerful. The sun, +reddening the atmosphere as he sank, disappeared in a fiery haze, and +then the world of Daulatabad awoke. Parties of Persian gentlemen on +fiery horses passed by, dervishes honoured me by asking alms, the +Governor's _major-domo_ called to offer sundry kindnesses, and great +flocks of sheep and goats, indicated by long lines of dust clouds, +moved citywards from the hills. Sand-flies in legions now beset me, +and the earth, which had been imbibing heat all day, radiated it far +into the morning. I moved my bed outside the tent and gave orders for +an early start, but the _charvadar_ who was in the city over-slept +himself, and it was eight the next day before I got away, taking Mirza +with me. + +The heat culminated on that day. Since then, having attained a higher +altitude, it has diminished.[15] The road to Jamilabad ascends pretty +steadily through undulating country with small valleys among low +hills, but with hardly any villages, owing to the paucity of water. +The fever still continuing, I found it difficult to bear the movement +of the horse, and dismounted two or three times and lay under an +umbrella by the roadside. On one of these halts I heard Mirza's voice +saying in cheerful tones, "Madam, your horse is gone!" "Gone!" I +exclaimed, "I told you always to hold or tether him." "I trusted him," +he replied sententiously. "Never trust any one or any horse, and least +of all yourself," I replied unadvisedly. I sent him back with his +horse to look for _Boy_, telling him when he saw him to dismount and +go towards him with the nose-bag, and that though the horse would +approach it and throw up his heels and trot away at first, he would +eventually come near enough to be caught. After half an hour he came +back without him. I asked him what he had done. He said he saw _Boy_, +rode near him twice, did not dismount, held out to him not the +nose-bag with barley but my "_courier bag_," and that _Boy_ cantered +out of sight! For the moment I shared Aziz Khan's contempt for the +"desk-bred" man. + +Mirza is so good that one cannot be angry with him, but it was very +annoying to hear him preach about "fate" and "destiny" while he was +allowing his horse to grind my one pair of smoked spectacles into bits +under his hoofs. I only told him that it would be time to fall back on +_fate_ and _destiny_ when, under any given circumstances, such as +these, he had exhausted all the resources of forethought and +intelligence. My plight was a sore one, for by that time I was really +ill, and had lost, as well as my horse and saddle, my food, quinine, +writing materials, and needle-work. I got on the top of the baggage +and rode for five hours, twice falling off from exhaustion. The march +instead of being thirteen miles turned out twenty-two, there was no +water, poor Mirza was so "knocked up" that he stumbled blindly along, +and it was just sunset when, after a series of gentle ascents, we +reached the village of Jamilabad, prettily situated on the crest of a +hill in a narrow valley above a small stream. + +To acquaint the _ketchuda_ with my misfortune, and get him to send a +capable man in search of the horse, promising a large reward, and to +despatch Hassan with a guide in another direction, were the first +considerations, and so it fell out that it was 10 P.M. before I was at +rest in my tent, where I was obliged to remain for some days, ill of +fever. The next morning a gentle thump, a low snuffle, and a theft of +some grapes by my bedside announced that _Boy_ was found, and by the +headman's messenger, who said he met a Seyyid riding him to Hamadan. +The saddle-cloth was missing, and all the things from the holsters, +but after the emissary had been arrested for some crime the latter +were found in his large pockets. Hassan returned late in the +afternoon, having been surrounded by four _sowars_, who, under the +threat of giving him a severe beating, deprived him of his watch. + +When I was so far better as to be able to move, I went on to Mongawi, +a large walled village at an elevation of 7100 feet, camped for two +days on an adjacent slope, and from thence rode to Yalpand by a road +on a height on the east side of a very wild valley on the west of +which is Elwend, a noble mountain, for long an object of interest on +the march from Kirmanshah to Tihran. A great number of the mountains +of Persia are ridges or peaks of nearly naked rock, with precipices on +which nothing can cling, and with bases small in proportion to their +elevation. Others are "monstrous protuberances" of mud and gravel. +Mount Elwend, however, has many of the characteristics of a +mountain,--a huge base broken up into glens and spurs, among which +innumerable villages with their surroundings of woods and crops are +scattered, with streams dashing through rifts and lingering among +pasture lands, vine-clothed slopes below and tawny grain above, high +summits, snow-slashed even now, clouds caught and falling in vivifying +showers, indigo colouring in the shadows, and rocky heights for which +purple-madder would be the fittest expression. + +In one of the loveliest of the valleys on the skirts of Elwend lies +the large walled village of Yalpand on a vigorous stream. For two +miles before reaching it the rugged road passes through a glen which +might be at home, a water-worn ledgy track, over-arched by trees, with +steep small fields among them in the fresh green of grass springing up +after the hay has been carried. Trees, ruddy with premature autumnal +tints and festooned with roses and brambles, bend over the river, of +which little is visible but here and there a flash of foam or a +sea-green pool. The village, on a height above the stream, has banks +of orchards below and miles of grain above, and vineyards, and +material plenty of all sorts. It was revelling in the dust storm which +winnowing produces, and the _ketchuda_ suggested to me to camp at some +distance beyond it, on a small triangular meadow below a large +irrigation stream. Hardly were the tents pitched when, nearly without +warning, Elwend blackened, clouds gathered round his crest and boiled +up out of his corries, and for the first time since the middle of +January there were six hours of heavy rain, with hail and thunder, and +a fall of the mercury within one hour from 78 deg. to 59 deg. The coolness +was most delicious. + +Hadji Hussein's prophecy that after I left him I should "know what +_charvadars_ are" was not fulfilled on this journey. I had one young +man with me who from having performed the pilgrimage to Kerbela bears +the name of "Kerbelai" for the rest of his life. He owns the fine and +frisky animals he drives, and goes along at a good pace, his long gun +over his shoulder, singing as he goes. Blithe, active, jolly, +obliging, honest, kind-hearted, he loads as fast as three ordinary +men, and besides grooming and feeding his animals well, he "ran +messages," got the water and wood, and helped to pitch and strike the +tents, and was as ready to halt as to march. Hassan and Mirza are most +deliberate in their movements; nothing can hurry them, not even the +risk of being flooded out of their tents; and when the storm came on +Kerbelai snatched the spade from them and in no time trenched my tent +and dug a channel to let the water out of the meadow. + +The next day was cloudless, and the sky, instead of having a whitish +or steely blue, had the deep pure tint so often seen on a June day in +England. The heat returned, and it was a fatiguing and dusty march +into Hamadan, still mainly on the skirts of Elwend, among villages +surrounded by vineyards. After pursuing a by-road from Jamilabad I +joined the main road, two miles from Hamadan, and the number of men on +good horses, of foot passengers, and of asses laden with fruit and +vegetables, indicated the approach to a capital as plainly as the wide +road, trenched on both sides and planted with young willows. + +The wall as is usual is of crumbling, rain-eaten, sun-dried bricks, +and a very poor gateway admits the traveller into a network of narrow +alleys, very ruinous, with infamous roadways, full of lumps, holes, +slimy black channels, stout mangy dogs, some of them earless, +tailless, and one-eyed, sleeping in heaps in the hot sun, the whole +overwhelmingly malodorous.[16] + +It was no easy matter to find the way to the American Mission House, +even though the missionary _Hak[=i]m_ is well known and highly +esteemed, and I rode through the filthy alleys of the city and its +crowded bazars for more than an hour before I reached the Armenian +quarter. The people were most polite. There was no shouting or +crushing in the bazars, and in some cases men walked with me for some +distance to show me the way, especially when I asked for the +_Khanum's_ house. Indeed they all seemed anxious to assist a stranger. +Many of the children salaamed, as I thought, but I have since heard +that they are fond of using to a Christian a word which sounds just +like _salaam_, but which instead of meaning _Peace_ is equivalent to +"May you be for ever accursed!" + +On reaching the Mission House I found it shut and that the +missionaries were in the country, and after sending word that I had +arrived I spent some hours in an Armenian house, where the people +showed extreme hospitality and kindness. + +They put a soft quilt down on the soft rugs, which covered the floor +of a pretty whitewashed room, with many ornaments, chiefly Russian, +and, finding that I was ill, they repeatedly brought tea, milk, and +fruit instead of the heavy dinner which was at once cooked. The sight +of several comely women dressed in shades of red, with clean white +_chadars_, going about household avocations, receiving visitors and +gracefully exercising the rites of hospitality in a bright clean house +festooned with vines, was very pleasant to a dweller in tents. It is +not Armenian custom for a daughter-in-law to speak in the presence of +her mother-in-law, or even to uncover her mouth, or for young women to +speak in presence of their elders. A wife cannot even address her +husband in the presence of his mother, except in a furtive whisper. +Owing to the custom of covering the mouth, which shows no symptom of +falling into disuse, I did not see the face of a girl matron who, +judging from her eyes, nose, and complexion, was the comeliest in the +room. + +Towards evening, as I lay trying to sleep, I was delightfully startled +by a cheery European voice, and a lady bent over me, whose face was +sunshine, and the very tone of her voice a welcome. Goodness, purity, +love, capacity to lead as well as help, true strength, and true +womanliness met in the expression of her countenance. Her spotless +cambric dress, her becoming hat with its soft white _pagri_, the +harmonious simplicity of her costume, and her well-fitting gloves and +shoes were a joy after the slovenliness, slipshodness, and generally +tumbling-to-pieces look of Oriental women. The Faith Hubbard School, +one of the good works of the American Presbyterian Mission, was close +by, and in half an hour Miss ---- made me feel "at home." Blessed +phrase! + + I. L. B. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[14] On this journey of 400 miles from Burujird to the Turkish +frontier near Urmi, I never heard one complaint of the tribute which +is paid to the Shah. All complaints, and they were many, were of the +exactions and rapacity of the local governors. + +[15] North of Daulatabad, the route of last winter from Nanej to Kum, +the winter route from Kangawar to Tihran, was crossed. Although it is +a "beaten track" for caravans, so far as I know the only information +concerning it consists in two reports, not accessible to the public, +in the possession of the Indian authorities. + +[16] Hamadan is the fourth city in the Empire in commercial +importance. She has a Prince Governor, 450 villages in the district, +raises revenue to the amount of 60,000 _tumans_, of which only 11,000 +are paid into the Imperial Treasury, and, as the ancient Ecbatana, the +capital of the Median kings, she has a splendid history, but the few +lines in which I recorded my first impressions are not an exaggeration +of the meanness and unsavouriness of her present externals. + + + + +LETTER XXIII + + + HAMADAN, _Sept. 12_. + +I came for four days, and have been here nearly three weeks, which I +would willingly prolong into as many months if the winter were not +impending. Illness, the non-arrival of luggage containing winter +clothing from Tihran, and the exceeding difficulty of finding a +_charvadar_ willing to go to Urmi by the route I wish to take, have +all detained me. For some time I was unable to leave the house, and +indeed have been out very little, and not outside the city at all. + +I am disappointed both with Hamadan and its autumn climate. It stands +at an elevation of 6156 feet [Schindler], and on the final slope of +the Kuh-i-Hamadan, an offshoot of Mount Elwend, overlooking a plain +about fifteen miles long by nine broad, populous and cultivated, +bounded on the other side by low gravelly hills. At this altitude, and +with autumn fairly begun, coolness might be expected, but the heat, +which a fortnight ago seemed moderating, has returned in fury, with +that peculiar faintness about it which only autumn gives. Mount Elwend +attracts masses of clouds, and these tend to hang over the town and +increase the stagnation of the air, about which there is a remarkable +closeness, even in this high situation overlooking the plain. +Intermittent fever and diphtheria are prevailing both in the city and +the adjacent villages. Not only is the air close and still, but the +sun is blazing hot, and the mercury only varies from 88 deg. in the day to +84 deg. at night. Brown dust-storms career wildly over the plain, or hang +heavily over it in dust clouds, and the sand-flies are abundant and +merciless. In the winter the cold is intense, and the roads are +usually blocked with snow for several weeks. + +Water is abundant, and is led through open channels in the streets. +The plain too is well supplied, and the brown villages, which +otherwise would be invisible on the brown plain, are denoted by dark +green stains of willow, poplar, and fruit trees. The town itself has +fine gardens, belonging to the upper classes, but these are only +indicated by branches straying over the top of very high walls. + +My first impressions have received abundant confirmation. Important as +a commercial centre as Hamadan doubtless is, it is as ruinous, filthy, +decayed, and unprosperous-looking a city as any I have seen in Persia. +"Ruinous heaps," jagged weather-worn walls, houses in ruins, or partly +ruined and deserted, roofs broken through, domes from which the glazed +tiles have dropped off, roadways not easy by daylight and dangerous at +night, water-channels leaking into the roads and often black with +slime, and an unusual number of very poor and badly-dressed people +going about, are not evidences of the prosperity which, in spite of +these untoward appearances, really exists. + +The high weather-worn mud walls along the alleys have no windows, in +order that the women may not see or be seen by men. A doorway with a +mounting-block outside it, in "well-to-do" houses, admits into a +vaulted recess, from which a passage, dimly lighted, conducts into the +courtyard, round which the house is built, or into the house itself. +These courtyards are planted with trees and flowers, marigolds and +autumnal roses being now in the ascendant. Marble basins with +fountains, and marble walks between the parterres, suggest coolness, +and walnuts, apples, and apricots give shade. The men's and women's +apartments are frequently on opposite sides of the quadrangles, and +the latter usually open on _atriums_, floored with white marble and +furnished with rugs and brocaded curtains. I have only seen the +women's apartments, and these in the houses of rich traders and high +officials are as ornamental as the exteriors are repulsive and +destitute of ornament. Gilding, arabesques in colour, fretwork doors +and panelling, and ceilings and cornices composed of small mirrors +arranged so as to represent facets, are all decorative in the extreme. +These houses, with the deep shade of their courtyards, the cool plash +of their fountains, and their spacious and exquisitely-decorated +rooms, contrast everywhere with the low dark mud hovels, unplastered +and windowless, in which the poor live, and which the women can only +escape from by sitting in the heaped and filthy yards on which they +open, and which the inhabitants share with their animals. The contrast +between wealth and poverty is strongly emphasised in this, as in all +Persian cities, but one must add that the gulf between rich and poor +is bridged by constant benevolence on the part of the rich, profuse +charity being practised as a work of merit by all good Moslems. + +The bazars are shabby and partially ruinous, but very well supplied +with native produce and manufactures, English cottons, Russian +merchandise, and "knick-knacks" of various descriptions. The presence +of foreigners in the town, although they import many things by way of +Baghdad, has introduced foreign articles of utility into the bazars, +which are not to be found everywhere, and which are commending +themselves to the people, "Peek and Frean's" biscuits among them. The +display of fruit just now is very fine, especially of grapes and +melons. The best peaches, which are large and of delicious flavour, as +well as the best pears, come from the beautiful orchards of Jairud, +not far from Kum. The saddlery and caravan equipment bazars are +singularly well supplied, as indeed they should be, for Hamadan is +famous for leather, and caravans loaded with hides for its tanneries +are met with on every road. The bark and leaves of the pomegranate are +used for tanning. Besides highly ornamental leather for book-bindings +and women's shoes, the tanners prepare the strong skins which, after +being dyed red, are used for saddles, coverings of trunks, and +bindings for _kh[=u]rjins_. + +Hamadan is also famous for _namads_ or felts, which are used as +carpets and horse-coverings, and as greatcoats by the peasants as well +as by the Lurs. A good carpet felt of Hamadan manufacture is an inch +thick, but some made at Yezd reach two inches. For rich men's houses +they are made to order to fit rooms, and valuable rugs are laid over +them. The largest I have seen is in the palace of the Minister of +Justice at Tihran, which must be fully a hundred and twenty feet by +eighty feet, and formed fourteen mule-loads; but sixty by forty feet +is not an uncommon size, and makes eight mule-loads. These carpet +_namads_, the most delicious of floor-coverings, are usually a natural +brown, with an outline design in coloured threads or in a paler shade +of brown beaten into the fabric. _Namads_, owing to their bulk and +weight, are never exported. The best, made at Hamadan, are about 20s. +the square yard. Chairs spoil them, and as it is becoming fashionable +among the rich men of the cities to wear tight trousers, which bring +chairs in their train, the manufacture of these magnificent +floor-coverings will probably die. + +The felt coats, which protect equally from rain and cold, are dark +brown and seamless, and cost from 10s. to 20s. They have sleeves +closed at the end to form a glove, and with a slit below the elbow +through which the hand can be protruded and used. These coats are +cloak-like, the sleeve is as long as the coat, and they are often worn +merely suspended from the neck. + +Hamadan is also famous for copper-work, and makes and dyes cottons. +The tanneries and the dye-works between them create a stench which is +perceptible for miles. The neighbourhood produces much wine, white +like hock, and red like claret, both being harsh and the first heady. +The Armenians are the chief makers and sellers of wine. I wish I could +add that they are the only people who get drunk, but this is not the +case, for from the Prince Governor downwards, among the rich Moslems, +intemperance has become common, and even many young men are "going to +wreck with drink," sacrificing the virtue to which Moslems have been +able to point with pride as differentiating them from so-called +Christians. I was unable to return the Prince Governor's visit and +courtesies in accordance with the etiquette for a European lady +traveller, because of the helpless condition in which he and a party +of convivial friends were found by the messenger sent by me to ask him +to appoint an hour for my visit. Raisins, treacle, and _arak_ are also +manufactured. The rich prefer _cognac_ to _arak_. It is +spirit-drinking rather than wine-drinking which is sapping the life of +the Moslems of Hamadan. + +It is singular that in this Ecbatana, the capital of Greater Media, +there should be so very few remains of an ancient greatness and +splendour. Just outside the town a low eminence called Musala is +pointed out as the site of the palace of the Median kings, but even +this is doubtful. Coins of an ancient date are both dug up and +fabricated by the Jews. Only two really interesting objects remain, +and the antiquity of one of these is not universally accepted. The +tomb of Queen Esther and her uncle Mordecai is the great show-place of +Hamadan, and is held in much veneration by the Jews of Turkey and +Persia, who resort to it on pilgrimage. The Jews are its custodians. + + [Illustration: TOMB OF ESTHER AND MORDECAI.] + +This tomb consists of an outer and inner chamber, surmounted by a mean +dome about fifty feet in height. The blue tiles with which it was +covered have nearly all dropped off. The outer chamber, in which there +are a few tombs of Jews who have been counted worthy of burial near +the shrine, is entered by a very low door, and the shrine itself by +one still lower, through which one is obliged to creep. The inner +chamber is vaulted, and floored with blue tiles, and having been +recently restored is in good order. Under the dome, which is lighted +with the smoky clay lamps used by the very poor, are the two tombs, +each covered with a carved wooden ark, much defaced and evidently of +great antiquity. There is an entrance to the tombs below these arks, +and each is lighted by an ever-burning lamp. There is nothing in the +shrine but a Hebrew Old Testament and a quantity of pieces of paper +inscribed with Hebrew characters, which are affixed by pilgrims to the +woodwork. The tombs and the tradition concerning them are of such +great antiquity that I gladly accept the verdict of those who assign +them to the beautiful and patriotic Queen and her capable uncle. + +On the dome is this inscription: "On Thursday the 15th of the month +Adar in the year of the creation of the world 4474 the building of +this temple over the tombs of Mordecai and Esther was finished by the +hands of the two benevolent brothers Elias and Samuel, sons of Ismail +Kachan." + +The other object of interest, which has been carefully described by +Sir H. Rawlinson and Sir H. Layard, is specially remarkable as having +afforded the key to the decipherment of the cuneiform character. It is +in the mountains above Hamadan, and consists of two tablets six feet +six inches by eight feet six inches (Layard) cut in a red granite +cliff which closes the end of a corrie. There are other tablets near +them, carefully prepared, but never used. The three inscriptions are +in parallel columns in the three languages spoken in the once vast +Persian Empire--Persian, Median, and Babylonian, and contain +invocations to Ormuzd, and the high-sounding names and titles of +Darius Hystaspes and his son Xerxes. + +Amidst the meanness, not to say squalor, of modern Hamadan, no +legerdemain of the imagination can re-create the once magnificent +Ecbatana, said by the early Greek writers to have been scarcely +inferior to Babylon in size and splendour, with walls covered with +"plates of gold," and fortifications of enormous strength; the capital +of Arbaces after the fall of Nineveh, and the summer resort of the +"Great King," according to Xenophon. + +The Jews are supposed to number from 1500 to 2000 souls, and are in +the lowest state of degradation, morally and socially. That bad act of +Sarah in casting out "the bondwoman and her son" is certainly avenged +upon her descendants. They are daily kicked, beaten, and spat upon in +the streets, and their children are pelted and beaten in going to and +from the school which the Americans have established for them. Redress +for any wrongs is inaccessible to them. They are regarded as inferior +to dogs. So degraded are they that they have not even spirit to take +advantage of the help which American influence would give them to get +into a better position. The accursed vices of low greed and low +cunning are fully developed in them. They get their living by usury, +by the making and selling of wine and _arak_, by the sale of +adulterated drugs, by peddling in the villages, and by doing generally +the mean and dishonest work from which their oppressors shrink. Many +of them have become Moslems, the law being that a convert to Islam can +take away the whole property of his family. A larger number have, it +is believed, joined the secret sect of the _B[=a]bis_. I never heard +such a sickening account of degradation as is given of the Hamadan +Jews by those who know them best, and have worked the most earnestly +for their welfare. + +There are a number of Armenians in Hamadan, and several villages in +the district are inhabited exclusively by them. There are also +villages with a mixed Persian and Armenian population. They all speak +Persian, and the men at least are scarcely to be distinguished from +Persians by their dress. They are not in any way oppressed, and, +except during occasional outbreaks of Moslem fanaticism, are on very +good terms with their neighbours. They live in a separate quarter, and +both Gregorians and Protestants exercise their religion without +molestation. They excel in various trades, specially carpentering and +working in metals. Their position in Hamadan is improving, and this +may be attributed in part to the high-class education given in the +American High School for boys, and to the residence among them of the +American missionaries, who have come to be regarded as their natural +protectors. + +The population of Hamadan is "an unknown quantity." It probably does +not exceed 25,000, and has undoubtedly decreased. Seyyids and +_mollahs_ form a considerable proportion of it, and it is one of the +strongholds of the _B[=a]bis_. It is usually an orderly city, and +European ladies wearing gauze veils and properly attended can pass +through it both by day and night. Several parts of it are enclosed by +gates, as at Canton, open only from sunrise to sunset, an arrangement +which is supposed to be conducive to security. + + I. L. B. + + + + +LETTER XXIV + + + HAMADAN, _Sept. 14_. + +I am visiting the three lady teachers of the Faith Hubbard Boarding +School for girls, and the visit is an oasis on my journey. It is a +most cheerful house, a perfect hive of industry, each one being +occupied with things which are worth doing. I cannot say how kind and +how helpful they have all been to me, and with what regret I am +leaving them. + +The house is large, plain, airy, and thoroughly sanitary, very well +situated, with an open view over the Hamadan plain. It is closely +surrounded by the houses of the Armenian quarter, and all those +domestic operations which are performed on the roofs in hot weather +are easily studied, such as the drying of clothes and herbs, the +cleaning of heads, the beating of children, the bringing out of beds +at night, and the rolling them up in the morning, the "going to bed" +of families much bundled up, the performance of the very limited +ablutions which constitute the morning toilette, and the making and +mending of clothes, the roof being for many months both living-room +and bedroom. + +At sunset, as in all Persian towns, a great hush falls on Hamadan. +Only people who have business are seen in the streets, the bazars are +closed, and from sunset to sunrise there would be complete silence +were it not for the yelping and howling of the scavenger dogs and the +long melancholy call to prayer from the minarets. If it is necessary +to go out at night a person of either sex is preceded by a servant +carrying a lantern near the ground. These lanterns have metal tops and +bottoms, and waxed, wired muslin between, which is ingeniously +arranged to fold up flat. They are usually three feet long, but may be +of any diameter, and as your consideration is evidenced by the size of +your lantern there is a tendency to carry about huge transparencies +which undulate very agreeably in the darkness. + +This is the Moharrem or month of mourning, for Hassan and Houssein, +the slain sons of Ali, who are regarded by the Shiahs as the rightful +successors of the Prophet and as the noblest martyrs in the Calendar. +During this period the whole Persian community goes into deep +mourning, and the streets and bazars are filled with black dresses +only. In this month is acted throughout the Empire the _Tazieh_ or +Passion Play, which has for its climax the tragic deaths of these two +men.[17] + +I arrived in Hamadan on what should have been the first day of +Moharrem, but there had been a difference of opinion among the +_mollahs_ as to the date, and it was postponed to the next day, for me +a most fortunate circumstance, as no Christian ought to be seen in the +streets at a time when they are filled with excited throngs frenzied +by religious fanaticism. On the following day the quiet of the city +was interrupted by singular cries, and by children's voices, high +pitched, singing a chant so strange and weird that one both longs and +dreads to hear it repeated. The Christians kept within their houses. +Business was suspended. Bands of boys carrying black flags +perambulated the town, singing one of the chants of the Passion Play. +As night came on it was possible to feel the throb of the excitement +of the city, and till the small hours the march of frenzied +processions was heard, and the loud smiting on human breasts and the +clash of the chains with which the dervishes beat themselves, were +intermingled with a united rhythmic cry of anguish--_Ah Houssein! Wai +Houssein!_ (O Houssein! Woe for Houssein!) _Ya Houssein! Ya Hassan!_ +and in the flickering light of the torches black flags were waving, +and frenzied men were seen beating their bare breasts. + +In some of the cities these processions are a sickening spectacle. +Throngs move along the streets, escorting large troops of men either +stripped to their waists or wearing only white shirts which expose the +bosom. Beating their breasts with their right hands in concert till +they make them raw, gashing themselves on their heads with daggers, +streaming with blood, and maddened by religious frenzy, they pass from +street to street, and the yell rises from all quarters, _Ya Houssein! +Wai Houssein!_ Occasionally men drop down dead from excitement, and +others, falling from loss of blood, are carried away by their friends. +It is at the end of the month of mourning that these processions, +called _testeh_, increase so much in frenzy and fanaticism as to be +dangerous to the good order of cities, clashing with each other, and +sometimes cutting their way through each other with loss of life. To +join in a _testeh_ is to perform a "pious act," and atones for sin +committed and to be committed. The _Tazieh_ or Passion Play itself, +acted in splendour before the Shah, is repeated everywhere throughout +Persia, lasting from ten to twelve days, the frenzy with which the +different incidents are received culminating on the last day, when the +slaughter of Houssein is represented. On the whole the _Tazieh_ is +among the most remarkable religious phenomena of our age. + +Under the rule of the present Prince Governor complete religious +toleration exists in Hamadan, and the missionaries have a fair field, +though it must never be forgotten that a _proselytising_ Christian, +rendering honour to Christ as God, by his mere presence introduces a +disturbing element into a Moslem population. In consequence of this +tolerant official spirit there are a few Moslem girls among the sixty +boarders here. In addition there are a large number of day pupils. + +The girls live in native fashion, and wear native dresses of red +cotton printed with white patterns, white _chadars_, and such +ornaments as they possess. They sit on the floor at their meals, at +each of which one of the ladies is present. They have excellent food, +meat once a day in summer and twice in winter, bread, tea, soup, +curds, cheese, melons, cucumbers, pickles, and gourds. The winter +supplies are now being laid in, and caravans of asses are arriving +daily with firewood, cheeses, and melons. The elder girls cook, and +all the washing, making, and mending are done at home, each elder girl +in addition having a small family of young ones under her care. The +only servant is the _bheestie_ or water-carrier. The dormitories, +class-rooms, eating-room, and _hammam_ are large and well ventilated, +but very simple. + +A plain but thorough education of the "National School" type is given, +in combination with an industrial training, fitted for girls whose +early destiny is wifehood and maternity. Some of the teachers are men, +but the religious instruction, on which great stress is laid, is given +by the ladies themselves, and is made singularly interesting and +attractive. Music and singing are regarded as among the recreations. +The discipline is perfect, and the dirtiest, roughest, lumpiest, and +most refractory raw material is quickly transformed into cleanliness, +brightness, and docility, partly by the tone of the school and the +influence of the girls who have been trained in it, but chiefly by the +influence of love. + +The respect with which the office of a teacher is regarded in the East +allows of much more _apparent_ familiarity than would be possible with +us. Out of school hours the ladies are accessible at all times even to +the youngest children. Many a little childish trouble finds its way to +their maternal sympathies, and they are just as ready to give advice +about the colour and making of dolls' clothes as about more important +matters. The loving, cheerful atmosphere of an English home pervades +the school. I write English rather than American because the ladies +are Prince Edward Islanders and British subjects. + +Some of the girls who have been trained here are well married and make +good wives, and the school bids fair to be resorted to in the future +by young men who desire companionship as well as domestic +accomplishments in their wives. The ordinary uneducated Armenian woman +is a very stupid lump, very inferior to the Persian woman. Of the +effect of the simple, loving, practical, Christian training given, and +enforced by the beauty of example it is easy to write, for not only +some of the girls who have left the school, but many who are now in it +show by the purity, gentleness, lovingness, and self-denial of their +lives that they have learned to follow the Master, a lesson the wise +teaching of which is, or should be, I think, the _raison d'etre_ of +every mission school. Christianity thus translated into homely lives +may come to be the disinfectant which will purify in time the deep +corruption of Persian life. + +The cost of this school under its capable and liberal management is +surprising--only L3:15s. per head per annum! Its weak point (but at +present it seems an inevitable blemish) is, that the board and +education are gratuitous. + +There is a High School for boys, largely attended, under the charge of +Mr. Watson, the clerical missionary, with an Armenian Principal, +Karapit, educated in the C.M.S. school in Julfa, a very able man, and +he is assisted by several teachers. There is also a large school of +Jewish girls, who are often maltreated on their way to and from it. + +There are a flourishing medical mission and dispensary under Dr. +Alexander's charge, with a hospital nearly finished for the more +serious cases. There is another dispensary at Sheverin, and both there +and here the number of patients is large. A small charge is made for +medicines. Mirza Sa'eed, a medical student of mature years and +remarkable capacities, occasionally itinerates in the distant +villages, and, being a learned scholar in the Koran, holds religious +disputations after his medical work is done. He was a Moslem, and +having embraced Christianity preaches its doctrines with much force +and enthusiasm. He is popular in Hamadan, and much thought of by the +Governor in spite of his "perversion." He also gives addresses on +Christianity to the patients who assemble at the dispensary. Any +person is at liberty to withdraw during this religious service, but +few avail themselves of the permission. Miss ---- speaks on +Christianity to the female patients at Sheverin, and befriends them in +their own homes. + +The day's work here begins at six, and is not over till 9 P.M. An +English class for young men is held early, after which people on +business and visitors of all sorts and creeds are arriving and +departing all day, and all are welcome. On one day I counted +forty-three, and there were many more than these. The upper class of +Persian women announce their visits beforehand, and usually arrive on +horseback, with attendants to clear the way. No man-servant must enter +the room with tea or anything else during their visits. The Armenian +women call at all hours, and the Jewish women in large bands without +previous announcement. Tea _a la Russe_ is provided for all, and +Ibrahim goes to the door and counts the shoes left outside in order to +know how many to provide for. "_Khanum_," he exclaimed one day after +this inspection, "there are at least twenty of them!" + +Some call out of politeness or real friendliness, others to see the +_tamasha_ (the sights of the house), many from the villages to talk +about their children, and some of the Jewish women, who have become +_B[=a]bis_, ask to have the New Testament read to them in the hope of +hearing something which they may use in the propagation of their new +faith. A good many women have called on me out of politeness to my +hostesses. Persian gentlemen invariably send the day before to know if +a visit can be conveniently received, and on these occasions the +ladies always secure the _chaperonage_ of one of the men missionaries. +The _concierge_ has orders not to turn any one away, and it is a +blessing when sunset comes and the stream of visitors ceases. + +All meet with a genial reception, and the ladies usually succeed not +only in lifting the conversation out of the customary frivolous +grooves, but in awaking more or less interest in the religion which +they are here to propagate. They are missionaries first and everything +else afterwards, and Miss ----, partly because of her goodness and +benevolence to all, and partly because of an uncompromising honesty in +her religious beliefs which the people thoroughly appreciate, has a +remarkable influence in Hamadan, and is universally respected. Her +jollity and sense of humour are a great help. She thoroughly enjoys +making people laugh. + +I have never been in any place in which the relations with Moslems +have been so easy and friendly. The _Sartip_ Reza Khan told me it +would be a matter of regret to all except a few fanatics if the ladies +were to leave the city. From the Prince Governor downwards courtesy +and kindness are shown to them, and their philanthropic and +educational work is approved in the highest quarters, though they +never blink the fact that they are proselytisers.[18] + +There is an Armenian Protestant congregation with a native pastor and +a fine church, and nothing shows more plainly the toleration which +prevails in Hamadan than the number of Moslems to be seen every Sunday +at the morning service, which is in Persian. In this church total +abstinence is a "term of communion," and unfermented wine is used in +the celebration of the Eucharist. + +This wine is very delicious, and has the full flavour and aroma of the +fresh grape even after being three years in bottle. It is not boiled, +as much "unfermented wine" is here, but the grapes are put into a +coarse bag, through which the juice drops without pressure. The gluten +being retained by the bag, fermentation does not take place, and a +bottle of the juice, even if left without a cork, retains its +excellence till it dries up. + +_Hamadan, September 15._--"_Revenons a nos moutons_"--the _moutons_ in +this instance being my travelling arrangements. Three roads go to Urmi +from Hamadan, one, the usual caravan route _via_ Tabriz, the +commercial capital of Persia, and round the north end of Lake Urmi, +very long, but safe; another called the "Kurdistan route," which no +_charvadar_ will take by reason of its danger; and a third by +Sujbul[=a]k, the capital of Persian Kurdistan, twenty marches, only +five of which are reported as risky. I decided on the last, but it was +only two days ago that I was able to get a _charvadar_ willing to +undertake the journey. "It is too late," they say, "there are robbers +on the road," they "don't know the way," or "provender is dear," or +"snow will come on" before they can return. Kerbelai, the excellent +fellow who brought my loads from Burujird, wished to go, and I engaged +him gladly, but afterwards his father came and declared he could not +let him go, for he did not know the way, and would be robbed. Another +man was engaged, but never reappeared. + +Soon after I came a tall, well-dressed rich Turk, the owner of sixty +mules, applied for the engagement, and we think that by certain +underhand proceedings, familiar to the Persian mind, he has driven off +other competitors, and made himself my last resource. I engaged him on +Saturday, and the mules and Mirza went off this morning. An agreement +was drawn up in Persian and English placing five mules _under my +absolute control_, to halt or march as I desire, at thirteen pence a +day each so long as I want them, with two men, "handing over the mules +and men" to me till I reach Urmi, which arrival is to suit my own +convenience. This was read over twice, and the Turk sealed it in +presence of four witnesses. All his other mules are going with loads +to Urmi, and this accounts for his great desire to send the five with +me. I have expressly stipulated that I am to have nothing to do with +the big caravan, but am to take my own time. This Turk has good looks +and plausible manners, and the animals have sound backs, but I +distrust him. + +The servant difficulty, which threatened to keep me here indefinitely, +is also adjusted. Hassan left me when I arrived, being unwilling to go +to the north of Persia so late, and he bought a new opium pipe, saying +that he cannot bear the pain and craving of being without it. He was a +fair travelling servant for a Persian, not unreasonably dishonest, and +I am sorry to lose him. In the attempt to replace him a maze of lies, +fraud, and underhand dealing has been passed through. I have at last +engaged Johannes, a strong-looking young Armenian, speaking Turkish +and Persian besides Armenian. He has never served Europeans, but has +learned baking and the wine trade. He looks much of a cub. For +appearance sake I have armed him with a long gun. He and Mirza are +alike incompetent to make any travelling arrangements or overcome any +difficulties, to discover where escorts are needed and where they may +be dispensed with, or to meet any emergencies, and as Persian will be +considerably replaced by Turki _en route_ Mirza will be of less and +less use as an interpreter. I cannot get any recent information about +the route, and very little at all. I see endless difficulties ahead, +and a prospect of illustrating in my own experience the _dictum_ often +dinned into my ears, that "No lady ought to travel alone in Persia." + +This will be my last opportunity of posting a letter for nearly a +month. The Persian post is only exceeded in unreliability by the +Persian telegraph. To register letters is the only way of securing +their safe arrival, and it is necessary to send a trustworthy man to +the Post Offices, who, after seeing the effacing stamp put upon the +postage stamp, will further insist upon seeing the postmaster put the +letters in the bag. In Tihran the Europeans make much use of the +Legation bags, and the merchants prefer to trust their letters to +private _gholams_ rather than to the post, while at Isfahan people are +often glad to send their letters by the monthly telegraph _chapar_ +rather than run a postal risk. However, a foreign letter, registered, +is pretty safe. The telegraph is worse; you often have to bribe the +telegraph clerk to send the message, and unless you see it sent it +will probably be destroyed. Of five messages sent by me from Hamadan +one was returned because the British agent in Isfahan was "not known" +(!), two were slower than letters sent the same day, the fourth took a +week, and of the fifth there is "no information." Even in this +important commercial city the Post Office is only open for a short +time on two days in the week. + + I. L. B. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[17] For a detailed and most interesting account of these remarkable +representations the reader is referred to Mr. Benjamin's _Persia and +the Persians_, chap. xiii. + +[18] Since I returned I have been asked more than once, "What are the +results of missions in Hamadan?" Among those which appear on the +surface are the spiritual enlightenment of a number of persons whose +minds were blinded by the gross and childish superstitions and the +inconceivable ignorance into which the ancient church of S. Gregory +the Illuminator has fallen. The raising of a higher standard of morals +among the Armenians, so that a decided stigma is coming to be attached +to drunkenness and other vices. The bringing the whole of the rising +generation of Armenians under influences which in all respects "make +for righteousness." The elevation of a large number of women into +being the companions and helps rather than the drudges of men. The +bestowing upon boys an education which fits them for any positions to +which they may aspire in Persia and elsewhere, and creates a taste for +intellectual pursuits. The introduction of European medicine and +surgery, and the bringing them within the reach of the poorest of the +people. The breaking down of some Moslem prejudices against +Christians. The gradually ameliorating influence exercised by the +exhibition of the religion of Jesus Christ in purity of life, in +ceaseless benevolence, in _truthfulness_ and _loyalty to engagements_, +in kind and just dealing, in temperance and self-denial, and the many +virtues which make up Christian discipleship, and the dissemination in +the city and neighbourhood of a higher teaching on the duties of +common life, illustrated by example, not in fits and starts, but +through years of loving and patient labour. + + + + +LETTER XXV + + + GAUKHAUD, _Sept. 18_. + +This is a difficult journey. The road is rarely traversed by +Europeans, the marches are long, and I am really not well enough to +travel at all, not having been able to shake off the fever. Cooler +days and cold nights are, however, coming to the rescue. + +My Hamadan friends gave me a _badraghah_ (a parting escort)--Miss C. +M----, Mr. Watson, Pastor Ovannes and his boy, all on horseback; Mrs. +Watson and her baby on an ass; several servants on foot, and Miss +M---- and Mrs. Alexander in a spidery American buggy with a pair of +horses; Dr. Alexander, a man six feet two inches high and very thin, +"riding postilion" on one of them to get the buggy over difficult +places; Ibrahim, the ladies' _factotum_, with a gun slung behind him, +following on horseback. Two of the ladies and the native pastor stayed +at night. It was not a pleasant return to camp life, for Johannes is +quite ignorant of it, and everything was at sixes and sevens. Nor was +the first morning pleasant, for the head _charvadar_, Sharban, came +speaking loud with vehement gesticulation, saying that if I did not +march with the big caravan and halt when it did, they would only give +me one man, and added sundry other threats. Miss M---- scolded him, +reminding them of their agreement, and Ibrahim told them that if they +violated it in the way they threatened they would have to "eat more +wood than they had ever eaten in their lives on going back to +Hamadan." ("Eating wood" is the phrase for being bastinadoed.) A +squabble the first morning is a usual occurrence, and Miss M---- +thought it would be all right, and advised me to go on to Kooltapa, +the first stage put down by the _charvadars_. + +Cultivation extends over the eight miles from Hamadan to Bahar. There +are streams, and willows, and various hamlets with much wood, and +Bahar is completely buried in orchards and poplars. It is a place of +1500 people, and has well-built houses, small mosques, and _mollahs'_ +schools. It makes _gelims_ (thin carpets), and grows besides wheat, +barley, cotton, and oil seeds, an immense quantity of fruit, which has +a ready market in the city. + +Miss M---- and Pastor Ovannes escorted me for the first mile, and, +meeting the caravan on their way back, gave Sharban a parting +exhortation. As soon as they were out of sight he sent back one man, +and, in spite of Mirza's remonstrances, drove my _yabus_ with the big +caravan--a grievance to start with, as his baggage animals were so +heavily loaded that they could not go even two miles an hour, and I +have taken five, though I only need three, in order to get over the +ground at three miles an hour. I am obliged to have Johannes with me, +as comparatively little Persian is spoken by the common people along +this road. + +Beyond Bahar the road lies over elevated table-lands, destitute of +springs and streams, and now scorched up. One or two small villages, +lying off the track, and some ruinous towers on eminences, built for +watching robbers, scarcely break the monotony of this twenty-four +miles' march. + +At three, having ascended nearly 1000 feet, we reached the small and +very poor walled village of Kooltapa, below which are some reservoirs, +a series of pools connected by a stream, and the camping-ground, a +fine piece of level sward, much of which was already occupied by two +Turkish caravans, with 100 horses in each, and a man to every ten. The +loads were all carefully stacked, covered with rugs, and watched by +very large and fierce dogs. + +I lay down in the _shuldari_, feeling really ill. Four o'clock, five +o'clock, sunset came, but no caravan. Johannes was quite ill, but went +to the village to hire a _samovar_, and to try to get tea and +supplies. There was neither tea nor _samovar_, and no supplies but +horse food and some coarse cheese and blanket bread, too sour and +dirty to be eaten. Long after dark they brought a little milk. _Boy_ +was locked up in a house, and I rolled myself in his blanket and the +few wraps I had with me, and, making the best of circumstances, tried +to sleep; but it was too cold, and the position too perilous, and +Johannes, who had loaded his gun with ball, overcome with fatigue, +instead of watching was sound asleep. At eleven Mirza's voice, though +it said, "Madam, these _charvadars_ won't do for you, they are wicked +men," was very welcome. They had stopped half-way, and four of them, +including Sharban's father, had dragged him off his horse with some +violence, and had unloaded it. He appealed to the village headman, +who, after wrangling with them for some hours, persuaded them to let +him have a mule, and come to Kooltapa with the servants' tent, my bed, +and other comforts, and sent two armed guides with him. + +The larger tent was pitched and I went to bed, and not having the +nettings which hang from the roof of my Cabul tent, and are a complete +security against mere pilferers, I put all I could under the blankets +and arranged the other things within reach of my hand in the middle of +the tent. I also burned a light, having learned that Kooltapa is a +dangerous place. At midnight the Turkish caravans started with noise +inconceivable, yells of _charvadars_, shouts of village boys, squeals +of horses, barking of big dogs, firing of guns, and jangling of 200 +sets of bells, all sobering down into a grandly solemn sound as of +many church steeples on the march. + +I went out to see that all was right, found my servants sleeping +heavily and had not the heart to awake them, found the mercury a +degree below the freezing point, and lay down, covering my head with a +blanket, for the shivering stage of fever had come on. The night was +very still, and after some time I heard in the stillness the not +uncommon noise of a dog (as I thought) fumbling outside my tent. I +took no notice till he seemed getting in, when I jumped up with an +adjuration, saw the floor vacant, and heard human feet running away. I +ran out and fired blank cartridge several times in the direction of +the footsteps, hoping that the flashes would reveal the miscreant, but +his movements had been more agile than mine. Mirza ran into the +village and informed the _ketchuda_, but he took it very quietly and +said that the robbers were Turks, which was false. I offered a large +reward, but it was useless. + +When daylight came and I investigated my losses I found myself without +any of the things which I have come to regard as indispensable. My +cork helmet, boots, gloves, sun umbrella, stockings, scanty stock of +underclothing, all my brushes, towels, soap, scissors, needles, +thread, thimble, the strong combination knife which Aziz coveted and +which was used three or four times every day, a large silk +handkerchief a hundred years old which I wore as a protection from the +sun, my mask, revolver case, keys, pencils, paint brushes, sketches, +notes of journeys, and my one mug were all gone. If anything could be +worse, my gold pen, with which I have written for the last eighteen +years, had also disappeared. Furthermore, to relieve the tedium of +the long wait during the pitching of my tent, and of the hour's rest +which I am obliged to take on my bed after getting in, I was "doing" a +large piece of embroidery from an ancient Irish pattern, arabesques on +dark, apricot-coloured coarse silk in low-toned greens, pinks, and +blues, all outlined in gold. This work has been a real pleasure to me, +and I relied on it for recreation for the rest of my journey. Gone +too, with all the silks and gold for finishing it! Now I have nothing +to do when the long marches are over, and as I can scarcely write with +this pen and have also lost my drawing materials, a perspective of +dulness opens out before me. If Sharban had not disobeyed orders and +stayed behind with my tent all this would not have happened. I now +realise what it is to be without what to a European are "the +necessaries of life," and I can scarcely replace any of them for three +weeks. + +The caravan came in at nine, and I soon got into my tent and spent +much of the day in making a head-cover by rolling lint and wadding in +handkerchiefs and sewing them up into a sort of turban with a +leather-needle and packthread obtained from Mirza. I was able to get +from a villager a second-hand pair of _ghevas_,--most serviceable +shoes, with "uppers" made of stout cotton webbing knitted here by the +women and among the Bakhtiaris by the men, and with soles of rag sewn +and pressed tightly together and tipped with horn. These and the +"uppers" are connected with very stout leather brought to a point at +the toe and heel. _Ghevas_ are the most comfortable, and for dry +weather and mountain-climbing the most indestructible of shoes. Thus +provided I have to face the discomfort caused by the other losses as +best I may. "It's no use crying over spilt milk!" + +The day before, when the _charvadars_ pulled Mirza off his mule and he +threatened them with the agreement, they replied that it was false +that they had made any agreement except to take me to Urmi in twenty +days, and that they were not afraid of the Prince Governor of Hamadan, +"for he is always asleep, and the Feringhi is _only a Khanum_." I sent +to them that I wished to leave Kooltapa at noon. They replied that +they were not going to move. I was in their power, for they had +received advance pay for seven days, and I said no more about moving. +However, at noon I sent Mirza to read the agreement to them, and +Sharban and his father could not deny the authenticity of the seal, +and a superior villager, who could read, testified that Mirza had read +it correctly. + +They then saw that they had put themselves into a "tight place," and +sent that they desired to humble themselves, saying, "your foot is on +our eyes," a phrase of humility. I took no notice of them all day, but +at sunset sent for Sharban, and telling Mirza not to soften down my +language, spoke to him in few words. "You have broken your agreement, +and you will have to take the consequences. Your conduct is +disgraceful and abominable, so cowardly that you don't deserve to be +called a man, it is only what one would expect from a _pidar sag_. Do +you mean to keep your agreement or not?" He began to whine, and threw +himself at my feet, but I reluctantly assumed a terrific voice, and +saying "_Khamosh! Bero!_" (Be silent! Begone!), shut the tent. + +_Bijar, September 21._--No Persian ever believes your word, and these +poor fellows did not believe that I had letters to the governors _en +route_. They are now terribly frightened, and see that a Feringhi, +even though "_only a Khanum_," cannot be maltreated with impunity. +When I arrived here, even before I sent my letter of introduction, the +Governor sent a _farash-bashi_ with compliments and offers of +hospitality, and afterwards a strong guard. Then Sharban piteously +entreated that I would not take him before the Governor, and would +not make him "eat wood," and his big caravan at last has chimed away +on its northward journey to be seen no more. Thus, by acting a part +absolutely hateful to me, the mutiny was quelled, and things are now +going on all right, except that Sharban avails himself of small +opportunities of being disobliging. I do sincerely detest the +cowardliness of the Oriental nature, which is probably the result of +ages of oppression by superiors. + +It is so vexing that the policy of trust which has served me so well +on all former journeys has to be abandoned, and that one of suspicion +has to be substituted for it. I am told by all Europeans that from the +Shah downwards no one trusts father, brother, wife, superior, or +inferior. Every one walks warily and suspiciously through a maze of +fraud and falsehood. If one asks a question, or any one expresses an +opinion, or tells what passes for a fact, he looks over each shoulder +to see that no one is listening.[19] + +A noble Persian said to me, "Lying is rotting this country. Persians +tell lies before they can speak." Almost every day when one is wishing +to be trustful, kind, and considerate, one encounters unmitigated +lying, cowardly bluster, or dexterously-planned fraud, and the +necessity of being always on guard is wearing and repulsive. + +Here is another specimen of the sort of net which is woven round a +traveller. At Kooltapa, after the theft, I sent to the _ketchuda_ for +a night-watchman, and he replied that he could not give one without +an order, and that as he knew only Turki, my letter in Persian from +the Prince Governor of Hamadan was nothing to him. Later, a _sowar_, +who said he was also a "road-guard," came and said that he only was +responsible for the safety of travellers, and that I could not get a +watchman from the _ketchuda_, as no one could pass the gates after +sunset without his permission. I already knew that there were no +gates. He said he was entitled to five _krans_ a night for protecting +the tents. (The charge is one _kran_, or under exceptional +circumstances two.) I told him we were quite capable of protecting +ourselves. Late in the evening an apparently respectable man came and +warned us to keep a good look-out, as this _sowar_ and another had +vowed to rob our tents out of revenge for not having been employed. +These men, acting as road-guards, are a great terror to the people. +They levy blackmail on caravans and take food for their horses and +themselves, "the pick of everything," without payment. The people also +accuse them of committing, or being accessory to, the majority of +highway robberies. The women who came to condole with me on my losses +accused these men of being the thieves, but it was younger feet which +clattered away from my tent. + +Sharban, thoroughly subdued for the time, and his servant watched, and +to show that they were awake fired their guns repeatedly. The nightly +arrangement now is to secure a watchman from the _ketchuda_; to walk +round the camp two or three times every night to see that he is awake, +and that _Boy_ is all right; to secure the _yekdan_ to my bed with a +stout mule-chain, and to rope the table and chair on which I put my +few remaining things also to the bed, taking care to put a tin can +with a knife in it on the very edge of the table, so that if the +things are tampered with the clatter may awake me. + +After leaving Kooltapa, treeless country becomes bushless, and nothing +combustible is to be got but animal fuel. Manure is far too precious +for this purpose to be wasted on the fields. Men with asses follow +caravans and collect it in bags. The yards into which the flocks and +herds are driven at night have now been cleaned out, and in every +village all the women are occupied in moulding the manure into +_kiziks_ or cakes fully a foot long and four inches thick. These, +after being dried in the sun, are built up into conical stacks, often +exceeding twenty feet in height, and are plastered with a layer of the +same material. The making of this artificial fuel is one of the most +important industries of Persia, and is exclusively in the hands of +women. The preparation of the winter stock takes from six to fourteen +weeks, and is very hard wet work. The fuel gives out a good deal of +heat, but burns fast. Its combustible qualities are increased by an +admixture of cut straw. At this season, between the colossal black +stacks of fuel and the conical piles of winter "keep" upon the roofs, +the villages are almost invisible. + +The march to Gaukhaud was over twenty miles of rolling scorched +table-lands--baked mud, without inhabitants. Gaukhaud and the villages +for fifty miles farther are unwalled, but each house, with its +cattle-yard and upper and underground folds, has a massive mud wall +sloping slightly inwards, with an entrance closed by a heavy wooden +gate, strengthened with iron. The upper sheep-folds have thick stone +doors three feet square. Each house is a fortress, and nothing is to +be seen above its walls but a quantity of beehive roofs and a number +of truncated cones of winter fodder on a central platform. + +The female costume is also different. The women, unveiled, bold-faced, +and handsome in the Meg Merrilees style, wear black sleeveless +jackets vandyked and tasselled, red skirts, and black handkerchiefs +rolled round their heads. Little Persian is spoken or even understood, +and everything indicates that the limit of Persia proper, _i.e._ the +Persia of Persians, has been passed. Gaukhaud is a village of 350 +houses, grows wheat, barley, grapes, and melons; and though a once +splendid caravanserai on a height is roofless and ruined, and the +village has no better water than an irrigation ditch, it is said to be +fairly prosperous. + +The march to Babarashan is for twenty miles along a featureless +irrigated valley about a mile wide, with grass and stubble, several +beehive villages, and mud hills never over 150 feet high on either +side. Crossing a brick bridge over a trifling stream, and passing +through the large village of Tulwar, where men who were burying a +corpse politely laid fried funeral-cakes flavoured with sesamum on my +saddle-bow, we ascended over low scorched hills, much ploughed for +winter sowing, to the beehive village of Babarashan, of 180 houses, +abundantly supplied with water, where we camped close to some tents of +the Kara Tepe and a large caravan. The dust blown across the camp from +the threshing-floors was obnoxious but inevitable. The "sharp +threshing instruments having teeth" are not used in this region, but +mobs of animals, up to a dozen, tied together, oxen, cows, horses, and +asses, are driven over the wheat. + +I am finding the disadvantages of having an untrained servant. +Johannes that evening ran hither and thither without method, never +finished anything, spent an hour in bargaining for a fowl, failed to +get his fire to burn, consequently could not cook or make tea, and I +went supperless to bed. The same confusion prevailed the next morning, +but things have been better since. No life is so charming as camp +life, but incompetent servants are a great drawback. + +Another uninteresting march of twenty miles over high table-lands and +through a valley surrounded by mud hills, with quaint outcrops of +broken rock on their summits, and a pass through some picturesque +rocky hills brought us into a basin among mountains, in which stands +the rather important town of Bijar in the midst of poplars, willows, +apricots, and vines. Bijar is said to have 5000 inhabitants. It has a +Governor for itself and the surrounding district, and a garrison of a +regiment of infantry and 100 _sowars_ to keep the turbulent frontier +Kurds in order. It has ruinous mud walls, no regular bazars, only +shops at intervals; fully a third is in ruins, and most of the houses +and even the Governor's palace are falling into decay. It is, however, +accounted a thriving place, and is noted for _gelims_ and carpenters' +work. It has four caravanserais, hardly habitable, however, seven +_hammams_, and a few mosques and _mollahs'_ schools. It has an air of +being quite out of the world. I have been here two days, and as +foreigners are very rarely seen, the greater part of the population +has strolled past my tent. + +I camped as usual outside the walls, near a small spring, and soon a +_farash-bashi_ came from the Governor, with a message expressive of +much annoyance at my having "camped in the wilderness when I was their +guest, and they would have given me a safe camping-ground in the +palace garden." Mirza took my introduction to him, and he sent a +second message saying that the next three marches were "very +dangerous," and appointed an hour for an interview. Soon eight +infantrymen, well uniformed and set up, with rifles and fixed +bayonets, arrived and mounted guard round my tent, changing every six +hours. This completed Sharban's discomfiture. + +Various difficulties arose on Sunday, and much against my will I had +to call on the Governor. He received me in a sort of _durbar_. A great +number of men, litigants and others, crowded the corridors and +reception-rooms. He looked bloated and dissipated, and seemed scarcely +sober. He sat on cushions on the floor, with a row of scribes and +_mollahs_ on his right, and many _farashes_ and soldiers stood about +the door. Seyyids, handsome and haughty, glanced at me contemptuously, +and the drunken giggle of the Khan and the fixed scowl of the +motionless row of scribes were really overpowering. Tea was produced, +but the circumstances were so disagreeable that I did not wait for the +conventional third cup. The Khan said that the ladies are in the +country a few miles off, and hoped I would visit them, that some +marches on the road are unsafe, and that he would give me a letter +which would be useful in procuring escorts after I left his +jurisdiction, and he has since sent it. He was quite courteous, as +indeed all Persians of the upper classes are, but I hope never again +to pass through the ordeal of calling upon a Moslem without a European +escort. + +Later, the principal wife of the military commander of the district +called with a train of shrouded women, followed by servants bringing +an abundant dinner, with much fruit. She came to ask me to take up my +quarters in the very handsome house which is her husband's, very near +my tent. After a good deal of intelligent conversation she asked if I +had a husband and children, and on my replying in the negative she +expressed very kindly sympathy, but added, "There are things far +worse, things which can never be where, as among you, there is only +one wife. One may have a husband and children, and yet, God knows, be +made nearly mad by troubles," and she looked as if indeed her sorrows +were great. Doubtless a young wife has been installed as favourite, or +there is a divorce impending. + +_Takautapa, September 24._--This is a great grain-growing region, and +by no means unprosperous, but it only yields one crop a year, the land +is ploughed immediately after harvest, and the irrigation is cut off +until sowing-time. Consequently nothing can exceed the ugliness of the +aspect of the country at this time. There is not one redeeming +feature, and on the long marches there is rarely anything to please or +interest the eye. On the march from Bijar there was not a green thing +except some poplars and willows by a stream, not a blade of grass, not +a green "weed,"--nothing but low mud hills, with their sides much +ploughed and the furrows baked hard, and unploughed gravelly stretches +covered sparsely with scorched thistles. + +Eight miles of an easy descent of 1500 feet brought us to the Kizil +Uzen, a broad but fordable stream, on the other side of which is +Salamatabad, a village consisting chiefly of the large walled gardens +and houses of the Governor of Bijar. A little higher up there is a +solid eight-arched stone bridge, over 300 feet long. This Kizil Uzen +is one of the most important streams in north Persia. It drains a very +large area, and after a long and devious course enters the Caspian Sea +under the name of the Sefid Rud. Eleven miles from this place I +crossed the lofty crest of the ridge which divides the drainage basins +of the Kizil Uzen and Urmi. A number of _sowars_ came out and escorted +me through a gateway down a road with high walls and buildings on both +sides to an inner gateway leading to the Khan's _andarun_. Here we all +dismounted, but the next step was not obvious, for the heavy wooden +gate which secludes the _andarun_ was strongly barred, and showed no +symptoms of welcome. An aged eunuch put his melancholy head out of a +hole at the side, and said that the ladies were expecting me and that +food was ready for the animals and the servants, but still the gate +moved not. I asked if Mirza could go with me to interpret, the +_sowars_ suggesting that he could be screened behind a curtain, quite +a usual mode of disposing of such a difficulty. The eunuch returned, +and with him the Khan's mother, a fiendish-looking middle-aged woman, +who looked through the peep-hole, but on seeing a good-looking young +man drew back, and said very definitely that no man could be admitted, +especially in the absence of the Khan. All the men were warned off, +and the door was opened so as just to allow of my entrance and no +more. + +The principal wife received me in a fine lofty room with fretwork +windows opening on a courtyard with a fountain in it and a few +pomegranates, and a crowd of Persian, Kurdish, and negro women, with +all manner of babies. The lady is from Tihran, and her manners have +some of the ease and polish of the capital. It is still the Moharrem, +and she was enveloped in a black _chadar_, and wore as her sole +ornament a small diamond-studded watch as a locket. Her mother-in-law, +who, like many mothers-in-law in Persia, fills the post of _duenna_ to +the establishment, frightened me by the expression of her handsome +face and her sneering, fiendish laugh. It must be admitted that there +was much to amuse her, for my slender stock of badly-pronounced +Persian is the Persian of muleteers rather than of polite circles, and +she mimicked every word I uttered, looking all the time like one of +Michael Angelo's "Fates." + +The room was very prettily curtained, and furnished with Russian +materials, they told me, and the lithographs, the photographs and +their frames, and the many "knick-knacks" which adorned the tables and +recesses were all Russian. They showed me several small clocks and +very ingenious watches, all Russian also. They said that the goods in +the shops at Bijar are chiefly Russian, and added, "The English don't +try to suit our taste as the Russians do." The principal lady +expressed a wish for greater liberty, though she qualified it by +saying that men who love their wives could not let them go about as +the English ladies do in Tihran. Dinner had been prepared, a huge +Persian dinner, but they kindly allowed me to take tea instead, and +produced with it _gaz_ (manna) and a cake flavoured with asafoetida. +When I came to an end of my Persian, and they of their ideas, I said +farewell, and was followed to the gate by the mocking laugh of the +_duenna_. + +The _sowars_ asserted that the next _farsakh_ was "very dangerous," so +we kept together. Wild, desolate, rolling, scrubless open country it +is, the spurs of the Kurdish hills. The _sowars_ were very fussy and +did a great deal of galloping and scouting, saying that bands of +robber horsemen are often met with on this route, who, being Sunnis, +would rejoice in attacking Shiahs. Doubtless they magnified the risk +in order to enhance the value of their services. In the early +afternoon we reached the Kurdish village of Karabul[=a]k, sixty mud +hovels, on the flaring mud hillside, the great fodder stacks on the +flat roofs alone making the houses obvious. The water is very bad and +limited in quantity, and of milk there was none. The people are very +poor and unprosperous, and a meaner set of donkeys and oxen than those +which were treading out the corn close to my tent I have not seen. + +Though most of the inhabitants are Kurds, there are some Persians and +Turks, and each nationality has its own _ketchuda_. Towards evening +the _sowars_ came to me with the three _ketchudas_, who, they said, +would arrange for a guard, and for my escort the next day. I did not +like this, for the _sowars_ had good double-barrelled guns, and were +in Persian uniform, and had been given me for three days, but there +was no help for it. The _ketchudas_ said that they could not guarantee +my safety that night with less than ten men, and I saw in the whole +affair a design on my very slender purse. A monetary panic set in +before I reached Hamadan: the sovereign had fallen from thirty-four to +twenty-eight _krans_, the Jews would not take English paper at any +price, I could not cash my circular notes, and it was only through the +kindness of the American missionaries that I had any money at all, and +I had only enough for ordinary expenses as far as Urmi. I told them +that I could only pay two men, and dismissed the _sowars_ with a +present quite out of proportion to the time they had been with me. + +During these arrangements the hubbub was indescribable, but the men +were very pleasant. Three hours later the _sowars_ returned, saying +that after riding eight miles they had met a messenger with a letter +from the Khan, telling them to go on another day with me. I asked to +see the letter, and then they said it was a verbal message. They had +never been outside of Karabul[=a]k! I tell this in detail to show how +intricate are the meshes of the net in which a traveller on these +unfrequented roads is entangled. + +Later, ten wild-looking Kurds with long guns, various varieties of old +swords, and long knives, lighted great watch-fires on either side of +my tent, and put _Boy_ between them. This pet likes fires, and lies +down fearlessly among the men, close to the embers. + +A little below my camp was a solitary miserable-looking melon garden +with a low mud wall. At midnight I was awakened by the loud report of +several guns close to my tent, and confused shouts of men, with +outcries of women and children. The watchmen saw two men robbing the +melon garden, shot one, and captured both. I gave a present to the +guards in the morning, and the _ketchudas_ took half of it. + +The march to Jafirabad is over the same monotonous country, over +ever-ascending rolling hills, with small plateaux among them, very +destitute of water, and consequently of population, the village of +Khashmaghal, with 150 houses, and two ruined forts, being the one +object of interest. + +On the way to Jafirabad is the small village of Nasrabad, once a +cluster of semi-subterranean hovels, inhabited by thieves. Some years +ago the present Shah halted near it on one of his hunting excursions, +and observing the desolation of the country, and water running to +waste, gave money and lands to bribe a number of families to settle +there. There are now sixty houses surrounded by much material wealth. +The Shah still divides 100 _tumans_ yearly among the people, and takes +a very small tribute. Nasr-ed-Din has many misdeeds to answer for, +many despotic acts, and some bloodshed, but among the legions of +complaints of oppression and grinding exactions which I hear in most +places, I have not heard one of the tribute fixed by him--solely of +the exactions and merciless rapacity of the governors and their +subordinate officials. + +Jafirabad, a village of 100 houses in the midst of arable land, has +one of those camping-grounds of smooth green sward at once so tempting +and so risky, and we all got rheumatism in the moist chilliness of the +night. The mercury is still falling slowly and steadily, and the sun +is only really hot between ten and four. Jafirabad is a prosperous +village, owned, as many in this region are, by the Governor of Tabriz, +who is merciful as to tribute. + +Everything was wet, even inside my tent. It was actually cold. In the +yellow dawn I heard Mirza's cheerful voice saying, "Madam, they think +your horse is dead!" The creature had been stretched out motionless +for two hours in the midst of bustle and packing. I told them to take +off his nose-bag, which was nearly full, but still he did not move. I +went up to him and said sharply, "Come, get up, old _Boy_" and he +struggled slowly to his feet, shook himself, and at once fumbled in my +pockets for food, thumping me with his head as usual when he failed to +find any. He was benumbed by sleeping on the damp ground in the +hoar-frost. The next night he chose to sleep under the verandah of my +tent, snoring loudly. He has became quite a friend and companion. + +The _sowars_ finally left me there, and I was escorted by the +_ketchuda_, a very pleasant intelligent man of considerable property, +with his two retainers. The next stage has the reputation of being +"very dangerous," and many people anxious to go to the next village +joined my caravan. My tents were guarded by eight wild-looking village +Kurds, armed with clubbed sticks and long guns. I asked the _ketchuda_ +if two were not enough, and he said that I should only pay for two, +the others were there for his satisfaction, that two might combine to +rob me, but that more would watch each other, and that the robbers of +this region do not pilfer in ones and twos, but swoop down on tents in +large parties. + +The next march is chiefly along valleys among low hills. The +_ketchuda_ did much scouting, not without good reason, and we all kept +close together. A party of well-mounted men rode down upon us and +joined us. Mirza sidled up to me, and in his usual cheery tones said +"Madam, these are robbers." They were men of a well-known band, under +one Hassan Khan. They spoke Persian, and Mirza kept me informed of +what they were saying. They said they had been out a night and a day +without success, and they must take my baggage and horse--they wanted +horses badly. The _ketchuda_, to whom they were well known, +remonstrated with them, and the parley went on for some time, they +insisting, and he threatening them with the regiment from Bijar, but +all he said was of no use, till he told them that I was the wife of +the Governor of Tabriz, that I had been paying a visit to Hamadan, and +was then going to be the guest of the ladies of Hadji Baba, Governor +of Achaz, that I had been committed to him, and that he was answerable +for my safety. "You know I am a man of my word," was the conclusion of +this brilliant lie, which served its purpose, for they said they knew +him, and would not rob me _then_. + +They rode with us for some miles, in fact the leader, a +sinister-looking elderly man, in a turban and brown _abba_ like an +Arab, rode so close to me that the barrel of his gun constantly +touched my saddle. They carried double-barrelled guns besides +revolvers. On coming to a part of the country where the _ketchuda_ +said the road became safe, I sent the caravan on with the servants, +the band having gone in another direction, and halted for two hours. +Riding on again, and turning sharply round a large rock, there they +all were, dismounted, and rushed out upon us. A _melee_ ensued, and as +I then had only two men they were two to one, and would certainly have +overpowered my escort had not several horsemen appeared in the +distance, when they mounted and rode away. One of the horses was +scratched, and I got an accidental cut on my wrist. They believed that +I had a considerable sum of money with me. The _ketchuda_ of Takautapa +said that they had robbed his village of some cattle a few days +before. + +Takautapa is a village of thirty-five houses, with two shops, and a +gunsmith who seemed to drive a "roaring trade." For three days I have +scarcely seen an unarmed man. Shepherds, herdsmen, ploughmen, +travellers, all carry arms. Mirza went to the Governor of Achaz, six +miles off, with my letter from the Governor of Bijar, and he was most +courteous. He sent his secretary to ask me to spend a day or two at +his house, and told him, in case I could not, to remain for the night +to arrange for my comfort and safety, an order very efficiently +carried out.[20] + +He sent word also that if I could not accept his hospitality I was +still to be his guest, and not to pay for anything--a kindness which, +for several reasons, I never accept. He added, that though the road +was safe, he should send three _sowars_ "to show the _Khanum_ honour," +and they had received strict orders not to accept any present. The men +who attempted to rob my caravan spent the night here, and, as they had +robbed them before, the villagers were very glad of the protection of +the Governor's scribe and my _sowars_. + +_Sujbul[=a]k, October 2._--Having been "courteously entreated," I sent +on the caravan and servants at daybreak, and, having the _sowars_ with +me, was able to make the march to Geokahaz at a fast pace. The +_sowars_ were three wild-looking Kurds, well mounted, and in galloping +_Boy_ had to exert himself considerably to keep up with them, and they +obviously tried to force his pace. + +The day was cool, cool enough for a sheepskin coat, and the air +delightful. The halcyon season for Persian travelling has come, the +difficulties are over, and the fever has left me. Brown, bare, and +bushless as are the rolling hills over which the road passes, it would +be impossible not to enjoy the long gallops over the stoneless soil, +the crisp, bracing air, the pure blue of the glittering sky, and the +changed altitude of the sun, which, from having been my worst foe is +now a genial friend. True, the country over which I pass is not +interesting, but, as everywhere in Persia, craggy mountains are in +sight, softened by a veil of heavenly blue, and the country, though +uninteresting, suggests pleasant thoughts of fertility, an abundant +harvest, and an industrious and fairly prosperous people.[21] Turki is +now almost exclusively spoken. + +The whole of that day's route was an ascent, and the halting-place was +nearly 9000 feet in altitude. I crossed the Sarakh river by a +three-arched brick bridge, and afterwards the Gardan-i-Tir-Machi, from +which there is an extensive view, and reached Geokahaz by a rough path +on the hillside frequently dipping into deep gulches, now dry. The +wettest of these is close to the village, and is utilised for a +flour-mill. Springs abound, and as Persian soil brings forth +abundantly wherever there is water, the village, which is Kurdish, +confessed to being extremely prosperous. Its seven threshing-floors +were in the full tide of winnowing with the fan, and so complete is +the process that nothing but the wheat is left on the firm, hardened +gypsum floor, recalling the Baptist's words, "Whose fan is in his +hand, and he will throughly purge his floor." The wheat was everywhere +being gathered "into the garner"--the large upright clay receptacles +holding twenty bushels each with which every house is supplied. + +This village of only 200 houses owns 7000 sheep and goats, 60 horses +and mares, and 400 head of cattle, and its tribute is only 230 +_tumans_. It and very many other villages belong to Haidar Khan, +Governor of Achaz, of whom the villagers speak as a lenient lord. +Apricot and pear orchards abound, and on a piece of grass in one of +these I found my camp most delectably pitched. The _ketchuda_ and +several other men came to meet me; indeed, the _istikbal_ consisted of +over twenty Kurdish horsemen. The village was absolutely crowded with +men and horses, 200 pilgrims being lodged there for the night. + +The road at intervals all day had been enlivened by long files of +well-mounted men in bands of 100 each on their way to the shrines of +Kerbela, south of Babylon, to accumulate "merit," receive +certificates, and be called _Kerbelai_ for the remainder of their +lives. Superb-looking men in the very prime of life most of them are, +cheerful and ruddy, wearing huge black sheepskin caps shaped like +mushrooms, high tan-leather boots, gaily embroidered, into which their +full trousers are tucked, and brown sheepskin coats covering not only +themselves but the bodies of their handsome fiery horses. A few +elderly unveiled women were among them. They ride mostly on pads with +their bedding and clothing under them, and their _kalians_ and cooking +utensils hanging at the sides. All are armed with guns and swords. I +met over 1000 of them, most of them Russian subjects, and those who +had occasion to pass in front of my tent vindicated their claim to be +the subjects of a civilised power by bowing low as often as they saw +me. They are really splendid men, and had many elements of the +picturesque. + +The 200 who halted in Geokahaz were under the command of a Seyyid who, +before starting, beat about for recruits, and levied from them about +five _krans_ per head. On the journey he receives great honour as a +descendant of the Prophet. He has a baggage mule and a tent, and the +"pilgrims" under his charge gratefully cook his food, wait on him, +groom his animal, water the dusty ground round his tent, shampoo his +limbs, keep the flies from him, and are rewarded for the performance +of all menial offices by being allowed to kiss his hand. On his part +he chooses the best stations and the most fortunate days for starting, +and he pledges himself to protect his flock from the woful plots of +malignant genii and the effects of the evil eye. On the journey he +both preaches and recites tales. + +The Seyyid in charge of this party was a man of commanding _physique_ +and deadly pallor of countenance. As frigid as marble, out of which +his statuesque face might well have been carved, he received the +attention paid to him with the sublime indifference of a statue of +Buddha. The odour of an acknowledged sanctity hung about him, and +pride of race and pride of asceticism dwelt upon his handsome +features. He spent the evening in preaching a sermon, and, by a +carefully-arranged exhibition of emotion, studied to perfection, wound +up his large audience to a pitch of enthusiasm. The subject was the +virtues of Houssein, and what preacher could take such a text without +enlarging finally upon the martyrdom of that "sainted" man? Then the +auditors wept and howled and beat their breasts, and long after I left +the singular scene, trained "cheers" for the Prophet, for Ali, and for +the martyred Hassan and Houssein, led by the Seyyid, rang out upon +the still night air. At midnight, and again at four, a solitary +bell-like voice proclaimed over the sleeping village, "There is but +one God, and Mohammed is His prophet, and Ali is His lieutenant"; and +200 voices repeated grandly in unison, "There is but one God, holy and +true, and Mohammed is His prophet, and Ali is His lieutenant." The +addition of the words "holy and true" to the ordinary formula is very +striking, and is, I believe, quite unusual. The Seyyid preached in +Persian, and the pilgrims speak it. + +In such caravans a strictly democratic feeling prevails. All yield +honour to the Seyyid, but otherwise all are equal. No matter what the +social differences are, the pilgrims eat the same food, lodge in the +same rooms, sit round the same bivouac fire, and use towards each +other perfect freedom of speech--a like errand and a like creed +constituting a simple bond of brotherhood. + +Geokahaz is the first Kurdish village in which I have really mixed +with the people. I found them cordial, hospitable, and in every way +pleasant. The _ketchuda's_ wife called on me, and later I returned the +visit. Each house or establishment has much the same externals, being +walled round, and having between the wall and house an irregular yard, +to which access is gained by a gate of plaited osiers. Within are very +low and devious buildings, with thick mud walls. The _atrium_, an +alcove with plastered walls, decorated with circles and other figures +in red, is the gathering-place of the men, with their guns and pipes. + +It is necessary to stoop very low to enter the house proper, for the +doorway is only three feet high, and is protected by a heavy wooden +door strengthened by iron clamps. The interior resembles a cavern, +owing to the absence of windows, the labyrinth of rooms not six feet +high, the gnarled, unbarked trees which support the roofs, the +dimness, the immense thickness of the mud walls, the rays of light +coming in through protected holes in the roof, the horses tethered to +the tree-trunks, and the smoke. The "living-room" is a small recess, +rendered smaller by a row of clay receptacles for grain as high as the +roof on one side, and a row of oil-jars, each large enough to hold a +man, on the other. A fire of animal fuel in a hole in the middle of +the floor emitted much pungent smoke and little heat. A number of +thick wadded quilts were arranged for me, and tea was served in +Russian glass cups from a Russian _samovar_. + +The wife was handsome, and never in any country have I seen a more +beautiful girl than the daughter, who might have posed for a Madonna. +They told me that for the five months of winter the snow comes "as +high as the mouth," and that there is no egress from the village. The +men attend to the horses and stock, and the women weave carpets, but +much of the time is spent by both in sleep. + +Accompanied by this beautiful girl, who is graceful as well as +beautiful, and an old servant, I paid many visits, and found all the +houses arranged in the same fashion. I was greatly impressed by their +scrupulous cleanliness. The floors of hardened clay are as clean as +sweeping can make them, and the people are clean in dress and person. +The women, many of whom are very handsome, are unveiled, and do not +even wear the _chadar_. The very becoming head-dress is a black +coronet, from which silver coins depend by silver chains. A red +kerchief is loosely knotted over the back of the head, on which heavy +plaits of hair are looped up by silver pins. This girl passed with me +through the crowds of strange men unveiled, with a simplicity and +maidenly dignity which were very pleasing. It was refreshing to see +the handsome faces, erect carriage, and firm, elastic walk of these +Kurdish women after the tottering gait of the shrouded, formless +bundles which pass for Persian women. The men are equally handsome, +and are very manly-looking. + +These Kurdish villagers are Sunnis, and are on bad terms with their +neighbours, the Shiahs, and occasionally they drive off each other's +cattle. + +On leaving this pleasant place early next morning the _ketchuda_ and a +number of men escorted me for the first _farsakh_, and with my escort +of _sowars_ increased by four wild-looking "road-guards," riding as it +seemed good to them, in front or behind, sometimes wheeling their +horses at a gallop in ever-narrowing circles, sometimes tearing up and +down steep hills, firing over the left shoulders and right flanks of +their horses, lunging at each other with much-curved scimitars, and +singing inharmonious songs, we passed through a deep ravine watered by +a fine stream which emerges through gates of black, red, and orange +rock into a long valley, then up and up over long rolling hills, and +then down and down to a large Ilyat camp beside a muddy and nearly +exhausted stream, where they feasted, and I rested in my _shuldari_. + +Two or three times these "road-guards" galloped up to shepherds who +were keeping their flocks, and demanded a young sheep from each for +the return journey, and were not refused. The peasants fear these men +much. They assert that, so far from protecting caravans and +travellers, they are answerable for most of the robberies on the road, +that they take their best fowls and lambs without payment, and ten +pounds of barley a day for their horses, and if complaints are made +they quarter themselves on the complainant for several days. For these +reasons I object very strongly to escorts where they are not +absolutely needed for security. I pay each man two _krans_ a day, and +formerly gave each two _krans_ daily as "road money" for himself and +his horse, but finding that they took the food without paying for it, +I now pay the people directly for the keep of the men and horses. Even +by this method I have not circumvented the rapacity of these horsemen, +for after I have settled the "bill" they threaten to beat the +_ketchuda_ unless he gives them the money I have given him. + +The Ilyat women from the camp crowded round me with a familiarity +which, even in savages, is distressing, a contrast to the good manners +and unobtrusiveness of the women of Geokahaz. + +On the way to Sanjud, a Kurdish village in a ravine so steep that it +was barely possible to find a level space big enough for my tent, +there is some very fine scenery, and from the slope of Kuh Surisart, +on the east side of the Gardan-i-Mianmalek, the loftiest land between +Hamadan and Urmi, the view is truly magnificent. The nearer ranges +stood out boldly in yellow and red ochre, in the valleys indigo +shadows lay, range beyond range of buff-brown hills were +atmospherically glorified by brilliant cobalt colouring, and the hills +which barred the horizon dissolved away in a blue which blended with +the sky. In that vast solitude the fine ruins of the fortress palace +of Karaftu, where the fountain still leaps in the deserted courtyard, +are a very conspicuous object. + +From the Mianmalek Pass there is a descent of 5000 feet to the Sea of +Urmi, and the keen edge of the air became much blunted ere we reached +Sanjud. Nearly the whole of the road from Hamadan has been extremely +solitary. We have not met or passed a single caravan, and on this +march of seven hours we did not see a human being. Yet there are +buff-brown villages lying in the valleys among the buff-brown hills, +and an enormous extent of country is under tillage. In fact, this +region is one of the granaries of Persia. + +Sanjud is a yellow-ochre village of eighty houses built into a +yellow-ochre hillside, above which rises a high hill of red mud. It is +not possible to give an idea of the aspect of the country at this +season. Sheep and goats certainly find pickings among the rocks, but +the visible herbage has all been eaten down. The thistles and other +fodder plants have been cut and stacked in the villages. Most of the +streams are dry, and the supplies of drinking water are only pools, +much fouled by cattle. The snows which supply the sources of the +irrigation channels have all melted, and these channels are either dry +or stopped. There has scarcely been a shower since early April, and +for nearly six months the untempered rays of the Persian sun have been +blazing upon the soil. The arable land, ploughed in deep furrows, has +every furrow hardened into sun-dried brick. Villages of yellow or +whitish baked mud, supporting on their dusty roofs buff stacks of +baked fodder, are hardly distinguishable from the baked hillsides. The +roads are a few inches deep in glaring white dust. Over the plains a +brown dust haze hangs. + +This rainless and sun-scorched land lives by the winter snows, and the +snowfall of the Zagros ranges is the most interesting of all subjects +to the cultivator of Western Persia. If the country were more +populous, and the profits of labour were secure, storage for the +snow-water would be an easy task, and barren wastes might sustain a +prosperous people; for the soil, when irrigated, is prolific, and the +sun can always be relied upon to do his part. The waste of water is +great, as considerably more than half the drainage of the empire +passes into _kavirs_ and other depressions. The average rainfall on +the central plateau is estimated by Sir Oliver St. John at five inches +only in the year. + +My arrival at Sanjud was not welcome. The _ketchuda_ sent word that he +was not prepared to obey the orders of the _Sartip_ of Achaz. I could +buy, he said, what I could get, but he would furnish neither supplies +nor guards for the camp. I did not wonder at this, for a traveller +carrying an official letter is apt to be palmed off on the villagers +as a guest, and is not supposed to pay for anything. + +I went to see the _ketchuda_, and assured him that I should pay him +myself for all supplies, and a night's wages to each watchman, and the +difficulty vanished. Many of the handsome village women came to see +me. The _ketchuda_ made me a feast in his house, and when I bade him +farewell in the morning he said solemnly, "We are very glad you have +been our guest, we have suffered no loss or inconvenience by having +you, we should like to be protected by the great English nation." This +polite phrase is frequently used. + +The Persian Kurds impress me favourably as a manly, frank, hospitable +people. The men are courteous without being cringing, and the women +are kind and jolly, and come freely and unveiled to my tent without +any obtrusiveness. + +The _ketchuda_ sent eight guards to my camp at night, saying it was in +a very dangerous place, and he did not wish his village disgraced by a +stranger being robbed so near it. He added, however, that six of these +men were sent for his own satisfaction, and that I was only to pay for +the two I had ordered. + +My journey, which is through a wild and little frequented part of +Persia, continues to be prosperous. The climate is now delightful, +though at these lower altitudes the middle of the day is rather hot. + +It was a fertile and interesting country between Sanjud and Sain Kala, +where I halted for Sunday. The road passes through the defiles of +Kavrak, along with the deep river Karachai, from the left bank of +which rises precipitously, at the narrowest part of the throat, the +fine mountain Baba Ali. A long valley, full of cultivation and bearing +fine crops of cotton, a pass through the red range of Kizil Kabr, and +a long descent brought us to a great alluvial plain through which +passes the river Jagatsu on its way to the Dead Sea of Urmi. Broad +expanses of shingle, trees half-buried, and a number of wide shingly +water-channels witness to the destructiveness of this stream. A severe +dust storm rendered the end of the march very disagreeable, as the +path was obliterated, and it was often impossible to see the horses' +ears. In winter and spring this Jagatsu valley is completely flooded, +and communication is by boats. There are nearly 150 villages in the +district, peopled almost entirely by Kurds and Turks, and there are +over 200 nomad tents. The Jagatsu is celebrated for its large fish. + +When the storm abated we were close to Sain Kala, a picturesque but +ruinous fort on a spur of some low hills, with a town of 300 houses at +its base. In the eastern distance rises the fine mountain Pira Mah, +and between it and Sain Kala is a curious mound--full of ashes, the +people said--a lofty truncated cone, evidently the site of an +_Atash-Kardah_, or fire-temple. This town is in the centre of a very +fertile region. Its gardens and orchards extend for at least a mile in +every direction, and its melons are famous and cheap--only 6d. a dozen +just now. + +It is a thriving and rising place. A new bazar is being built, with +much decorative work in wood. The junction of the roads to Tabriz from +Kirmanshah and Hamadan, with one route to Urmi, is in the immediate +neighbourhood, and the place is busy with the needs of caravans. It +looks much like a Chinese Malay settlement, having on either side of +its long narrow roadway a row of shops, with rude verandahs in front. +Among the most prominent objects are horse, mule, and ass shoes; +pack-saddles, _khurjins_, rope, and leather. Fruiterers abound, and +melons are piled up to the roofs. Russian cottons and Austrian lamps +and mirrors repeat themselves down the long uncouth alley. + +The camping-ground is outside the town, a windy and dusty plain. Here +my eight guards left me, but the _ketchuda_ shortly called with a +message from the _Sartip_ commanding a detachment of soldiers and the +town, saying that a military guard would be sent before sunset. Sain +Kala is in the government of Sujbul[=a]k, and its people are chiefly +Kurds with an admixture of Turks, a few Persians, mainly officials, +and the solitary Jew dyer, who, with his family, is found in all the +larger villages on this route. + +An embroidery needle was found sticking in my _dhurrie_ a few days +ago, and I had the good fortune not only to get some coarse +sewing-cotton but some embroidery silks at Sain Kala, and having a +piece of serge to work on, and an outline of a blue centaurea, I am no +longer destitute of light occupation for the mid-day halt. + +Truly "the Sabbath was made for man"! Apart from any religious +advantages, life would be very grinding and monotonous without the +change of occupation which it brings. To stay in bed till eleven, to +read, to rest the servants, to intermit the perpetual _driving_, to +obtain recuperation of mind and body, are all advantages which help to +make Sundays red-letter days on the journey; and last Sunday was +specially restful. + +In the afternoon I had a very intelligent visitor, a _Hak[=i]m_ from +Tabriz, sent on sanitary duty in consequence of a cholera scare--a +flattering, hollow upper-class Persian. He introduced politics, and +talked long on the relative prospects of Russian or English +ascendency in Asia. England, he argued, made a great mistake in not +annexing Afghanistan, and his opinion, he said, was shared by all +educated Persians. "You are a powerful nation," he said, "but very +slow. The people, who know nothing, have too much share in your +government. To rule in Asia, and you are one of the greatest of +Asiatic powers, one must not introduce Western theories of government. +You must be despotic and prompt, and your policy must not vibrate. See +here now, the Shah dies, the Zil-i-Sultan disputes the succession with +the Crown Prince, and in a few days Russia occupies Azirbijan with +200,000 men, captures Tihran, and marches on Isfahan. Meanwhile your +statesmen talk for weeks in Parliament, and when Russia has +established her _prestige_ and has organised Persia, then your fleet +with a small army will sail from India! Bah! No country ruled by a +woman will rule in Asia." + +In the evening the _ketchuda_ and two other Persian-speaking Kurds +hovered so much about my tent that I invited them into the verandah, +and had a long and pleasant talk with them, finding them _apparently_ +frank and full of political ideas. They complained fiercely of +grinding exactions, which, they said, "keep men poor all their lives." +"The poorest of men," they said, "have to pay three _tumans_ (L1) a +year in money, besides other things; and if they can't pay in money +the tax-gatherer seizes their stock, puts a merely nominal value upon +it, sells it at its real value, and appropriates the difference." They +did not blame the Shah. "He knows nothing." They execrated the +governors and the local officials.[22] If they keep fowls, they said, +they have to keep them underground or they would be taken. + +At the Shah's death, they said, Persia will be divided between Russia +and England, and they will fall to Russia. "Then we shall get +justice," they added. I remarked that the English and the Kurds like +each other. They said, "Then why is England so friendly with Turkey +and Persia, which oppress us, and why don't travellers like you speak +to the Sultan and the Shah and get things changed." They said that at +one time they expected to fall under English rule at the Shah's death, +"but now we are told it will be Russia." + +After a long talk on local affairs we turned to lighter subjects. They +were much delighted with my folding-table, bed, and chair, but said +that if they once began to use such things it would increase the cost +of living too much, "for we would never go back to eating and sleeping +among the spiders as Mohammedans do." They said they had heard of +Europeans travelling in Persia to see mines, to dig among ruins for +treasure, and to collect medicinal herbs, but they could not +understand why I am travelling. I replied that I was travelling in +order to learn something of the condition of the people, and was +interested likewise in their religion and the prospects of +Christianity. "Very good, it is well," they replied; "Islam never +recedes, nor can Christianity advance." + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[19] Apparently it was always thus, for on a tablet at Persepolis +occurs a passage in which the vice of lying is mentioned as among the +external dangers which threatened the mighty empire of the Medes and +Persians. "Says Darius the king: May Ormuzd bring help to me, with the +deities who guard my house; and may Ormuzd protect this province from +slavery, from decrepitude, _from lying_; let not war, nor slavery, nor +decrepitude, _nor lies_ obtain power over this province." + +[20] I have very great pleasure in acknowledging a heavy debt of +gratitude to Persian officials, high and low, for the courtesy with +which I was uniformly treated. It is my practice in travelling to make +my arrangements very carefully, to attend personally to every detail, +and to give other people as little trouble as possible, but in Persia, +when off the beaten track, the insecurity of some of the roads, the +need of guards at night when one is living in camp, and the frequent +insubordination and duplicity of _charvadars_ render a reference to +the local authorities occasionally imperative; and not only has the +needed help been given, but it has been given _courteously_, and I +have always been treated as respectfully as an English lady would +expect to be in her own country. + +[21] The general verdict of travellers in Persia is, that misrule, +heavy taxation, the rapacity and villainy of local governors, and +successive famines have reduced its small stationary population to a +condition of pitiable poverty and misery, and this is doubtless true +of much of the country, and of parts of it which I have traversed +myself. But I can only write of things as I found them, and on this +journey of 300 miles from Hamadan to Urmi I heard comparatively little +grumbling. Many of the villages are contented with their taxation and +landlords, in others there are decided evidences of prosperity, and +everywhere there is abundance of material comfort, not according to +our ideas, but theirs. As to _clothing and food_, the condition of the +cultivators of that part of western Persia compares favourably with +that of the _rayats_ in many parts of India. But just taxation and a +complete reform in the administration of justice are needed equally by +the prosperous and unprosperous parts of Persia. + +[22] The truth is that since Persia broke the power of the Kurds ten +years ago, at the time of the so-called Kurdish invasion, she has kept +a somewhat tight hand over them, and her success in coercing them +indicates pretty plainly what Turkey, with her fine army, could do if +she were actually in earnest in repressing the disorder and chronic +insecurity in Turkish Kurdistan. + + + + +LETTER XXV (_Continued_) + + +The following morning the _Sartip_ turned out in my honour all the +road-guards then in Sain Kala to the number of twelve to escort me to +the castle of Muhammad Jik, a large village, the residence and +property of the _Naib Sartip_. This was the wildest escort I have had +yet. These men were dressed in full Kurdish finery, and besides guns +elaborately inlaid with silver and ivory, and swords in much-decorated +scabbards, they carried daggers with hilts incrusted with turquoises +in their girdles. They went through all the usual equestrian +performances, and added another, which consists in twirling a loaded +and clubbed stick in a peculiar manner, and throwing it as far ahead +as possible while riding at full gallop, the one who picks it up +_without dismounting_ being entitled to the next throw. Very few +succeeded in securing it in the regulation manner, and the scrimmage +for this purpose was often on the point of becoming a real fight. They +worked themselves up to a pitch of wild excitement, screamed, yelled, +shouted, covered their horses with sweat and foam, nearly unhorsed +each other, and used their sharp bits so unmercifully that the mouth +of every horse dripped with blood. + +After they received _bakhsheesh_ they escorted me two miles farther +"to honour the _Khanum_," fired their guns in the air, salaamed +profoundly, and with shrieks and yells left me at a gallop. + +The village of Muhammad Jik has a well-filled bazar and an aspect of +mixed prosperity and ruin. The castle, a large, and, at a distance, an +imposing pile, a square fort with flanking towers, is on an eminence, +and has a fine view of the alluvial plain of the Jagatsu, studded with +villages and cultivated throughout. + +Here, for a rarity, the _Seigneur_ lives a stately life among those +who are practically his serfs in good old medieval fashion. Large +offices are enclosed within an outer wall, and are inhabited by +retainers. Rows of stables sheltered a number of fine and well-groomed +horses from the sun. Bullocks were being brought in from ploughing; +there were agricultural implements of the best Persian type, fowls, +ducks, turkeys, angora goats; negroes and negresses, grinning at the +stranger; mounted messengers with letters arriving and departing; +scribes in white turbans and black robes lounging--all the +paraphernalia of position and wealth. + +It was nearly nine, and the great man had not risen, but he sent me a +breakfast of tea, _kabobs_, cracked wheat, curds, _sharbat_, and +grapes. The courtyard is entered by a really fine gateway, and the +castle is built round a quadrangle. The _andarun_ and its fretwork +galleries are on one side, and on another is what may be called a hall +of audience, where the _Sartip_ hears village business and decides +cases. + +He offered me a few days' hospitality, paid the usual compliments, +said that no escort was needed from thence to Sujbul[=a]k, where my +letter to the Governor would procure me one if "the roads were +unsettled," hoped that I should not suffer from the hardships of the +journey, and offered me a _kajaveh_ and mule for the next marches. + +A level road along the same prosperous alluvial plain leads to +Kashava, a village of 100 houses embosomed in fruit trees and +surrounded by tobacco and cotton. It has an old fort, a very fine +spring, and a "resident proprietor," who, as soon as he heard of my +arrival, sent servants with melons and tea on silver trays, stabled my +horse, and provided me with a strong guard, as the camping-ground was +much exposed to robbers. Such attentions, though pleasant, are very +expensive, as the greater the master the greater are the expectations +of the servants, and the value of such a present as melons must be at +least quadrupled in _bakhsheesh_. + +While halting the next day the horses eagerly ate the stalks and roots +of a strongly-scented bulb which lay almost on the surface of the +ground, and were simultaneously seized with a peculiar affection. +Their hair stood out from their bodies like bristles, and they threw +their heads up and down with a regular, convulsive, and apparently +perfectly involuntary motion, while their eyes were fixed and staring. +This went on for two hours, _Boy_ following me as usual; but owing to +this most distressing jerk, over which he had no control, he was +unable to eat the dainties which his soul loves, and which I hoped +would break up the affection--a very painful one to witness. After the +attack both animals perspired profusely. The water literally ran off +their bodies. The jerks gradually moderated and ceased, and there were +no after effects but very puffy swellings about the throat. Both had +barley in their nose-bags, but pawed and wriggled them off in order to +get at this plant, a species of _allium_. + +When _Boy_ was well enough to be mounted we descended into an immense +plain, on which were many villages and tracks. This plain of Hadji +Hussein is in fact only another part of the alluvial level of the +Jagatsu, which, with a breadth of from four to ten miles, extends for +nearly forty miles, and is fertile and populous for most of its +length. At the nearest village all the men were busy at the +threshing-floor, and they would not give me a guide; at the next the +_ketchuda_ sent a young man, but required payment in advance. + +After crossing the plain, on which villages occur at frequent +intervals on gravelly islands surrounded by rich, stiff, black soil, +we forded the broad Jagatsu and got into the environs of, not an +insignificant village, as I expected, but an important town of 5000 +people. A wide road, planted and ditched on both sides, with well-kept +irrigated gardens, shaded by poplars, willows, and fruit trees, runs +for a mile from the river into the town, which is surrounded by +similar gardens on every side, giving it the appearance of being +densely wooded. The vineyards are magnificent, and the size and +flavour of the grapes quite unusual. Melons, opium, tobacco, cotton, +castor oil, sesamum, and _bringals_ all flourish. + +Miandab is partly in ruins, but covers a great extent of ground with +its 1000 houses, 100 of which are inhabited by Jews and twenty by +Armenians. People of five tribes are found there, but unlike Sain +Kala, where Sunnis and Shiahs live peaceably, the Mussulmans are all +Shiahs, no Sunni having been allowed to become a permanent inhabitant +since the Kurdish attack ten years ago, when Sunnis within the city +betrayed it into the hands of their co-religionists. + +It has several mosques, a good bazar with a domed roof, a part of +which displays very fine copper-work done in the town, and a garrison +of 100 men. I saw the whole of Miandab, for my caravan was lost, and +an hour was spent in hunting for it, inquiring of every one if he had +seen a caravan of four _yabus_, but vainly, till we reached the other +side, where I found it only just arrived, and the men busy +tent-pitching in a lonely place among prolific vineyards. Sharban had +lost the way, and after much marching and counter-marching had reached +the ford of the Jagatsu, which I had been told to avoid, where the +caravan got into deep strong water which carried the _yabus_ off their +feet, and he says that they and the servant were nearly drowned. Mirza +had to go back into the town to obtain a guard from an official, as +the camping-ground was very unsafe, and it was 11 P.M. before dinner +was ready. + +The next day I was ill, and rode only twelve miles, for the most part +traversing the noble plain of Hadji Hussein, till the road ascends by +tawny slopes to the wretched village of Amirabad--seventeen hovels on +a windy hill, badly supplied with water. Partly sunk below ground, +this village, at a short distance off, is only indicated by huge +stacks of the _Centaurea alata_ and tall cones of _kiziks_, which, +being neatly plastered, are very superior in appearance to the houses +which they are intended to warm. + +The western side of the great plain was studded with Ilyat camps of +octagonal and umbrella-shaped tents with the sides kept out by stout +ribs. Great herds of camels, and flocks of big fat-tailed sheep, +varying in colour from Vandyke brown to golden auburn, camels carrying +fodder, and tribesmen building it into great stacks, round which, but +seven feet off, they place fences of a reed which is abundant in +swampy places, gave life and animation. Ilyat women brought bowls of +milk and curds, and offered me the hospitality of their tents. + +As I passed through a herd of grazing camels, an ancient, +long-toothed, evil-faced beast ran at _Boy_ with open mouth and a +snarling growl. Poor _Boy_ literally gasped with terror (courage is +not his strong point) and dashed off at a gallop; and now whenever he +sees camels in the distance he snorts and does his best to bolt to one +side, showing a cowardice which is really pitiable. + +It was very cold when I left Amirabad the next morning at 6.30, and +hoar-frost lay on the ground. The steadiness with which the mercury +descends at this season is as interesting as its steady ascent in the +spring, and its freedom from any but the smallest fluctuations in the +summer. The road to Sujbul[=a]k passes over uplands and hill-slopes, +tawny with sun-cured grass, and after crossing some low spurs, blue +with the lovely _Eryngium caeruleum_, descends into a long rich valley +watered by the river Sanak. This valley, in which are situated Inda +Khosh and other large villages, is abundantly irrigated, and is +cultivated throughout. Well planted with fruit trees, it is a great +contrast to the arid, fiery slopes which descend upon it. + +Long before reaching Sujbul[=a]k there were indications of the +vicinity of a place of some importance, caravans going both ways, +asses loaded with perishable produce, horsemen and foot passengers, +including many fine-looking Kurdish women unveiled, and walking with a +firm masculine stride, even when carrying children on their backs. + +A few miles from the town two _sowars_ met me, but after escorting me +for some distance they left me, and taking the wrong road, I found +myself shortly on a slope above the town, not among the living but the +dead. Such a City of Death I have never seen. A whole hour was +occupied in riding through it without reaching its limits. Fifty +thousand gravestones are said to stand on the reddish-gray gravel +between the hill and the city wall, mere unhewn slabs of gray stone, +from six inches to as many feet in height, row beyond row to the limit +of vision--300,000 people, they say, are buried there. There is no +suggestion of "life and immortality." Weird, melancholy, and terribly +malodorous, owing to the shallowness of the graves, the impression +made by this vast cemetery is solely painful. The tombs are continued +up to the walls and even among the houses, and having been much +disturbed there is the sad spectacle of human skulls and bones lying +about, being gnawed by dogs. + +The graveyard side of Sujbul[=a]k is fouler and filthier than anything +I have seen, and the odours, even in this beautiful weather, are +appalling. The centre of each alley is a broken channel with a broken +pavement on each side. These channels were obviously constructed for +water, but now contain only a black and stagnant horror, hardly to be +called a fluid, choked with every kind of refuse. The bazars are +narrow, dark, and busy, full of Russian commodities, leather goods, +ready-made clothing, melons, grapes, and pop-corn. The crowds of men +mostly wore the Kurdish or Turkish costume, but black-robed and +white-turbaned Seyyids and _mollahs_ were not wanting. + +Sujbul[=a]k, the capital of Northern Persian Kurdistan, and the +residence of a governor, is quite an important _entrepot_ for furs, in +which it carries on a large trade with Russia, and a French firm, it +is said, buys up fur rugs to the value of several hundred thousand +francs annually. It also does a large business with the Kurdish tribes +of the adjacent mountains and the Turkish nomads of the plains, and a +considerable trade in gall-nuts. It has twenty small mosques, three +_hammams_, some very inferior caravanserais, and a few coffee-houses. +Its meat bazar and its grain and pulse bazars are capacious and well +supplied. + +It has a reputed population of 5000 souls. Kurds largely predominate, +but there are so many Turks that the Turkish Government has lately +built a very conspicuous consulate, with the aspect of a fortress, and +has appointed a consul to protect the interests of its subjects. There +are 120 Armenians, who make wine and _arak_, and are usurers, and gold +and silver smiths. The Jews get their living by money-lending, +peddling drugs, dyeing cotton goods, selling groceries, and making +gold and silver lace. There is a garrison, of 1000 men nominally, for +the town and district are somewhat turbulent, and a conflict is always +imminent between the Kurds and Turks, who are Sunnis, and the small +Persian population, which is Shiah. The altitude of Sujbul[=a]k is +4770 feet. Here I have come upon the track of Ida Pfeiffer, who +travelled in the Urmi region more than forty years ago, when +travelling in Persia was full of risks, and much more difficult in all +respects than it is now. + + [Illustration: KURD OF SUJBUL[=A]K.] + +The Sanak, though clear and bright, is fouled by many abominations, +and by the ceaseless washing of clothes above the town; there are no +pure wells, and all people who care about what they drink keep asses +constantly bringing water from an uncontaminated part of the river, +two miles off. Even the Governor has to depend on this supply. +Sujbul[=a]k looks very well from this camp, with the bright river in +the foreground, and above it, irregularly grouped on a rising bank, +the facade, terraces, and towers of the Governor's palace, the +fort-like Turkish consulate, and numbers of good dwelling-houses, with +_balakhanas_ painted blue or pink, or covered with arabesques in red, +with projecting lattice windows of dark wood, and balconies +overhanging the water. + +This shingle where I am encamped is the Rotten Row of the town, and is +very lively this evening, for numbers of Kurds have been galloping +their horses here, and performing feats of horsemanship before the +admiring eyes of hundreds of promenaders, male and female, most of the +latter unveiled. As all have to cross the ford where the river is some +inches above a man's knees, the effect is grotesque, and even the +women have no objection to displaying their round white limbs in the +clear water. The ladies of the Governor's _andarun_ sent word that +food and quarters had been prepared for me since noon, but I excused +myself on the plea of excessive fatigue. This message was followed by +a visit from the Governor's foster-mother, an unveiled jolly woman, of +redundant proportions, wearing remarkably short petticoats, which +displayed limbs like pillars. A small woman attended her, and a number +of Kurd men, superbly dressed, and wearing short two-edged swords, +with ebony hilts ornamented with incrustations of very finely-worked +filigree silver. These weapons are made here. The lady has been to +Mecca, and evinces much more general intelligence than the secluded +women. She took a dagger from one of the attendants, and showed me +with much go how the thrusts which kill are made. + +All were much amused with _Boy's_ gentle ways. He had been into the +town for supplies, and, as usual, asked me to take off his bridle by +coming up and putting his ears under my chin, when, if I do not attend +to him at once, he lifts his head and gives me a gentle push, or rubs +his nose against my cheek. The men admired his strong, clean limbs, +which are his best points. Last night I heard snoring very near me, +and thinking that the watchmen were sleeping under the _flys_, I went +out to waken them, and found the big beast stretched out fast asleep +in the verandah of the tent, having retired there for warmth. I +accompanied my visitors to the ford, followed by _Boy_, to their great +amusement, as it was to mine to see the stout lady mount nimbly on a +Kurd's back, and ride him "pickaback" through the water! + +This has not been a comfortable afternoon. The Governor has been out +all day hunting, and his deputy either at the bath or a religious +function. Milk can only be got in the Jewish quarter, where smallpox +is prevailing; the Sanak water is too foul to be used for tea, and no +man will go two miles so late for a pure supply. Johannes, who is most +disobedient as well as incompetent, has brought no horse food, and +poor _Boy_ has been calling for it for two hours, coming into my tent, +shaking the bag in which the barley is usually kept, and actually in +his hunger clearing the table of melons and grapes. These, however, +are only among the very small annoyances of travelling. + +9 P.M.--The Governor has returned, and has sent a guard of twenty-five +soldiers, with an invitation to visit the ladies before I start +to-morrow. + + I. L. B. + + + + +LETTER XXVI + + + TURKMAN, _Oct. 6_. + +Rising very early on Friday morning to keep my appointment with the +ladies of the Governor of Sujbul[=a]k, as well as to obtain a letter +from him, I reached the palace entrance a little after sunrise, the +hour agreed upon. The walls and gateway are crumbling, the courtyard +is in heaps, the glass windows of the facade and towers are much +broken, the plaster is mangy--a complete disappointment. The Kurdish +guard slept soundly at the entrance; only a big dog, more faithful +than man, was on the alert. The Governor was not yet awake, nor the +ladies. It would be an "intolerable crime," the sentry said, to waken +them. He looked as if he thought it an "intolerable crime" that his +own surreptitious slumbers had been disturbed. It is contrary to +Persian etiquette to waken persons of distinction till they please. I +waited at the entrance for half an hour and then reluctantly departed, +very sorry not to give the ladies the opportunity they ardently +desired of seeing a European woman. They had sent word that they had +only once in their lives seen one! + +The march to the poor village of Mehemetabad was over uninteresting +low rounded hills and through a valley without habitations, opening +upon a fine plain, at the south-east end of which the village stands. +The camping-ground was a green fallow near some willows and a stream. +After marching for some hours under a glittering sky and a hot sun +over scorched, glaring yellow soil, a measure of greenness just round +the tent is most refreshing to eyes which are suffering from the want +of the coloured glasses which were ground under a _yabu's_ hoofs a +fortnight ago. + +The Khan of the village was very courteous, and sent a tray of +splendid grapes, and six watchmen. Buffalo bulls of very large size +were used there for burden. Buffaloes are a sure sign of mitigated +aridity, for they must bathe, _i.e._ lie down in water three times +daily, if they are to be kept in health, and if the water and mud are +not deep enough for this, boys go in along with them and pour water +over them with a pannikin. In these regions they are almost +exclusively used for burdens, draught, and milk, and everywhere their +curved flat horns and sweet, calm, silly faces are to be seen above +the water of the deep irrigation ditches. The buffalo, though usually +mild enough to be driven by small children, has an uncertain temper, +and can be roused to frightful ferocity. In Persian Kurdistan, if not +elsewhere, this is taken advantage of, and in the spring, when the +animals are in good condition after the winter's rest, the people have +buffalo fights, in which cruel injuries would be inflicted were it not +for the merciful provision of nature in giving these animals flat +incurved horns.[23] + +As I sat at my tent door a cloud of dust moved along the road towards +the village, escorting an indefinite something which loomed +monstrously through it. I have not seen a cart for nine months, and +till the unmistakable creak of wooden wheels enlightened me I could +not think what was approaching. Actually every village on these plains +has one or more buffalo-carts, with wooden wheels without tires, and +hubs and axles of enormous size and strength, usually drawn by four +buffaloes. A man sits on the front of the cart and drives with a +stick, and a boy _facing backwards_ sits on the yoke between the two +foremost beasts. He croons a perpetual song, and if this ceases the +buffaloes stop. For every added pair (and on the next plain I saw as +many as six yoke) there is an additional boy and an additional song. + +This apparition carried a light wooden frame, which was loaded to a +preposterous height with the strong reeds which are used to support +the mud roofs, heavily weighted as these are with stacks of fodder. + +One would think one was in the heart of the Bakhtiari country and not +on a caravan route, from the difficulty of getting any correct +guidance as to the road, distance, safety, or otherwise, etc. Sharban +has never been this way, and is the prey of every rumour. Between his +terror of having to "eat wood" on his return, and his dread of being +attacked and robbed of his _yabus_, he leads an uneasy life, and when, +as at Mehemetabad, there is no yard for his animals, he watches all +night in the idea that the guards are the "worst robbers of all." I +think he has all the Mussulman distrust of arrangements made by a +woman! Hitherto the guards have been faithful and quiet. I always ask +them not to talk after 8 P.M., and I have not once been disturbed by +them; and when I walk as usual twice round the camp during the night I +always find them awake by their big watch-fires. + +The village Khan, an intelligent man, spent some time with me in the +afternoon. The fields of his village are not manured at all, and the +yield is only about tenfold. Willows are grown for the sake of the +osiers, which are a necessity, and not for fuel, and the whole of the +manure is required for cooking and heating purposes. He said that his +village becomes poorer annually owing to the heavier exactions of the +officials and the larger sums demanded to "buy off robbers." The +latter is a complaint often made in the villages which are near the +Turkish frontier, a boundary which from all accounts needs +considerable "rectification." The people say that Kurds cross the +border, and that unless they bribe them they drive off their sheep and +cattle and get over it again safely, but I doubt the truth of these +statements. + +I got away at sunrise for a march of nominally fourteen miles, but in +reality twenty-four. Sharban not only stated the distance falsely but +induced others to do the same thing, and when he passed me at midday, +saying the halting-place was only two miles ahead, he went on for +twelve miles, his desire being to rejoin that bugbear, the "big +caravan," which he heard had reached Urmi. The result is that I have +had to rest for two days, and he has gained two days' pay, but has +lost time. + +After some serious difficulties in crossing some swampy streams and a +pitiable display of cowardice on _Boy's_ part, we embarked on the +magnificent plain of Sulduz, where Johannes, with a supreme +self-confidence which imposed on me, took the wrong one of two tracks, +and we rode west instead of east, to within a few hours' journey of a +pass into Turkey through the magnificent range of the Zibar mountains, +which even at this advanced season are in some places heavily patched +with last winter's snow. + +To regain the caravan route we had to cross the greater part of this +grand plain, which I had not then seen equalled in Persia for +fertility and population. It possesses, that crown of blessings, an +abundant water supply, indeed so abundant that in the spring it is a +swamp, and the spring sowing is delayed till May. It has several large +villages, slightly raised and well planted, a few of them with the +large fortified houses of resident proprietors overtopping the smaller +dwellings. Evidences of material prosperity meet the eye everywhere, a +prosperity which needs to be guarded, however, for every shepherd, +cowherd, ploughman, and buffalo-driver goes about his work armed. + +Large herds of mares with mule foals, of big fat cattle, and of +buffaloes, with plenty of mud to wallow in, stacks of real hay and of +fine reeds, buffalo carts moving slowly near all the villages carrying +the hay into security, grass uncut and unscorched, eighteen inches +high, a deep, black, stoneless soil, impassable at certain seasons, +towering cones of animal fuel, for export as well as use, an intensely +blue sky above, a cool breeze, and the rare sight of cloud-shadows +drifting over waving grass and flecking the cobalt sides of the Zibar +mountains, combined to form a picture I would not willingly have +missed, impatient as I was for the first view of the Sea of Urmi. + +Beyond there are low stony hills, which would be absolutely bare now +but for the _Eryngium caeruleum_ and the showy spikes of a great yellow +mullein, a salt lake, most of which is now a salt incrustation, +mimicking ice from beneath which the water has been withdrawn, but +with an odour which no ice ever has, then a gradual ascent to a windy +ridge, and then--the Dead Sea of Urmi or Urumiya. + +Dead indeed it looked from that point of view, and dead were its +surroundings. It lay, a sheet of blue, bluer even than the heavens +above it, stretching northwards beyond the limits of vision, and +bounded on the east, but very far away, by low blue ranges, seen +faintly through a blue veil. On the west side there are mountains, +which recede considerably, and descend upon it in low rounded buff +slopes or downs, over which the track, keeping near the water, lies. +There was not a green thing, not a bush, or house, or flock of sheep, +or horseman, or foot passenger along the miles of road which were +visible from that point. The water lay in the mocking beauty of its +brilliant colouring, a sea without a shore, without a boat, without a +ripple or flash of foam, lifeless utterly, dead from all time past to +all time to come. Dead, too, it is on closer acquaintance, and its +odour, which can be discerned three miles off, is that odour of +corruption known to science as sulphuretted hydrogen. Now and then +there is a shore, a shallow bay or inlet, in which the lake, driven by +the east wind, evaporates, leaving behind it a glaring crust of salt, +beyond which a thick, bubbly, blackish-green scum lies on the blue +water. In such places only the expressive old-fashioned word _stench_ +can describe the odour, which was strong enough nearly to knock over +the servants and _charvadars_. No description can give an idea of the +effluvium which is met with here and there beside this great salt +lake, which has a length of eighty miles and an average breadth of +twenty-four. + +A few miles from Dissa the lake-water is brought into tanks and +evaporated, and many donkeys were being loaded with the product, +which, like all salt which is sold in Persia, is impure, and for +European use always requires a domestic and tedious process of +purification. + +After a solitude of several miles villages appear, lying off the road +in folds of the hills, which gradually recede so far as to leave a +plain some miles broad and very fertile. At the end of an eleven +hours' march we reached the important village of Dissa, with large +houses and orchards, abundant water, a detachment of soldiers as a +garrison, a resident proprietor's house, to which in his absence I +was at once invited by his wife, and so surrounded by cultivation that +a vacant space could only be found for the camp in a stubble-field. + +The caravan had only just come in, and there was neither fuel nor +drinking water within easy reach. I was so completely worn out that I +was lifted off the horse and laid on the ground in blankets till the +camp was in order late at night. Sharban, knowing that his deception +was discovered, had disappeared with his _yabus_ without helping as +usual to pitch my tent. Mirza, always cheerful and hard-working, +though always slow, and Johannes did their best, but it is very hard +on servants who are up before five not to bring them in till sunset, +when their work is scarcely over till near midnight, and has to be +done in the dark. The next day there were a succession of dust storms +and half a gale from noon to sunset, but my tent stood it well, and +the following day this was repeated. These strong winds usually +prevail in the afternoon at this season. + +_Urmi, October 8._--A march over low and much-ploughed hills, an easy +descent and a ford brought us down upon the plain of Urmi, the +"Paradise of Persia," and to the pleasant and friendly hamlet of +Turkman, where I spent the night and made the half-march into Urmi +yesterday morning. This plain is truly "Paradise" as seen from the +hill above it, nor can I say that its charm disappears on more +intimate acquaintance. Far from it! + +I have travelled now for nine months in Persia and know pretty well +what to expect--not to look for surprises of beauty and luxuriance, +and to be satisfied with occasional oases of cultivation among brown, +rocky, treeless hills, varied by brown villages with crops and spindly +poplars and willows, contrasting with the harsh barrenness of the +surrounding gravelly waste. + +But beautiful Urmi, far as the eye can reach, is one oasis. From +Turkman onwards the plain becomes more and more attractive, the +wood-embosomed villages closer together, the variety of trees greater. +Irrigation canals shaded by fruit trees, and irrigation ditches +bordered by reeds, carry water in abundance all through the plain. +Swampy streams abound. Fair stretches of smooth green sward rejoice +the eye. Big buffaloes draw heavy carts laden with the teeming produce +of the black, slimy, bountiful soil from the fields into the villages. +Wheat, maize, beans, melons, gourds, potatoes, carrots, turnips, +beets, capsicum, chilis, _bringals_, lady's fingers, castor-oil (for +burning), cotton, madder, salsify, scorzonera, celery, oil-seeds of +various sorts, opium, and tobacco all flourish. The orchards are full +of trees which almost merit the epithet noble. Noble indeed are the +walnuts, and beautiful are the pomegranates, the apricots, the apples, +the peach and plum trees, and glorious are the vineyards with their +foliage, which, like that of the cherry and pear, is passing away in +scarlet and gold. Nature has perfected her work and rests. It is +autumn in its glories, but without its gloom. + +Men, women, and children are all busy. Here the wine-press is at work, +there girls are laying clusters of grapes on terraces prepared for the +purpose, to dry for raisins; women[24] are gathering cotton and +castor-oil seeds, little boys are taking buffaloes to bathe, men are +driving and loading buffalo-carts, herding mares, ploughing and +trenching, and in the innumerable villages the storehouses are being +filled; the herbs and chilis are hanging from the roofs to dry, the +women are making large cakes of animal fuel (of which they have +sufficient for export), and are building it into great conical stacks, +the crones are spinning in the sun, and the swaddled infants bound in +their cradles are lying in the fields and vineyards, while the mothers +are at work. This picture of beauty, fertility, and industry is framed +by the Kurdistan mountains on the one side, and on the other by long +lines of poplars, through which there are glimpses of the deep blue +waters of the Urmi Sea. These Kurdistan mountains, a prolongation of +the Taurus chain, stern in their character, and dwarfing all the minor +ranges, contrast grandly with the luxuriant plains of Sulduz and Urmi. + +As I passed northwards the villages grew thicker, the many tracks +converged into a wide road which was thronged with foot passengers, +horsemen, camel and horse caravans, and strings of asses loaded with +melons and wood. Farther yet the road passes through beautiful +orchards with green sward beneath the trees; mud walls are on both +sides, and over them droop the graceful boughs and gray-green foliage +of an _elaegnus_, with its tresses of auburn fruit. + +At the large village of Geog-tapa a young horseman overtook me, and +said in my native tongue, "Can you speak English?" He proved to be a +graduate of the American College at Urmi, and a teacher in _Shamasha +Khananeshoo's_ school (known better to his supporters in England as +Deacon Abraham). He told me that I was expected, and shortly +afterwards I was greeted by the son of the oldest missionary in Urmi, +Dr. Labaree. + +The remaining four miles were almost entirely under the shade of fine +trees, past the city walls and gates, put into tolerable repair after +the Kurdish invasion ten years ago, and out into pretty wooded +country, with the grand mountains of the frontier seen through the +trees, where a fine gateway admitted us into the park in which are the +extra-mural buildings of the American Presbyterian Mission, now more +than half a century old. These are on high ground, well timbered, and +the glimpses through the trees of the mountains and the plain are +enchanting. + +Through the kindness of my friends at Hamadan, who had written in +advance, I am made welcome in the house of Dr. Shedd, the Principal of +the Urmi College.[25] + +Within two hours of my arrival I had the pleasure of visits from Canon +Maclean and Mr. Lang of the English Mission, and from Dr. Labaree and +the ladies of the Fiske Seminary, the English, French, and American +missionaries being the only European residents in Urmi. + + I. L. B. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[23] While I was sleeping in a buffalo stable in Turkey two buffaloes +quarrelled and there was a terrible fight, in which the huge animals +interlocked their horns and broke them short off, bellowing fearfully. +It took twenty men with ropes, or rather cables, two and a half inches +in diameter, which are kept for the purpose, to separate them; and +their thin skins, sensitive to insect bites and all irritations, were +bleeding in every direction before they could be forced apart. + +[24] Christian women and girls share the work of the fields with the +men. + +[25] It is a pleasant duty to record here the undeserved and exceeding +kindness that I have met with from the American, Presbyterian, and +Congregational missionaries in Persia and Asia Minor. It is not only +that they made a stranger, although a member of the Anglican Church, +welcome in their refined and cultured homes, often putting themselves +to considerable inconvenience in order to receive me, but that they +ungrudgingly imparted to me the interests of their work and lives, +helping me at the cost of much valuable time and trouble with the +complicated and often difficult arrangements for my farther journeys, +showing in every possible way that they "know the heart of a +stranger," being themselves "strangers in a strange land." Specially, +I feel bound to acknowledge the kindness and hospitality shown to me +by the Presbyterian missionaries in Urmi, who were aware that one +object of my journey through North-West Persia was to visit the +Archbishop of Canterbury's Assyrian Missions, which work on different +and, I may say, opposite lines from their own. + + + + +NOTES ON PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN URMI[26] + + +A sketch of Urmi would present few features of general interest if it +did not embrace an outline of the mission work which is carried on +there on a large scale, first by the numerous agents, lay and +clerical, male and female, of the American Presbyterian Board of +Foreign Missions, and next by the English Mission clergy and the +Sisters of Bethany, who form what is known as "The Archbishop of +Canterbury's Mission to the Assyrian Christians." + +Besides these there is a Latin Mission of French Lazarists, aided by +Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul, which has been at work in Urmi and on +the plain of Salmas for forty years. + +Urmi, the reputed birthplace of Zoroaster, and in past ages the great +centre of Fire Worship, was made the headquarters of the American +Mission to the Nestorians in 1834, which, with the exception of the +C.M.S. Mission in Julfa, was the only Protestant Mission in Persia up +to the year 1885. + +At present there are four ordained American missionaries, several +ladies, and a medical missionary working in Urmi. Under their +superintendence are thirty ordained and thirty-one licentiate pastors, +ninety-three native helpers, and three Bible-women. The number of +Nestorians or Syrians employed as teachers in the College and the +Fiske Seminary for girls, as translators, as printers, and as medical +assistants, is very considerable. + +The whole plain of Urmi, with its innumerable villages, and the +eastern portion of the Kurdish mountains, with its Syrian hamlets, are +included within the sphere of Mission work. + +This Mission has free access to Syrians, Armenians, and Jews, but for +Moslems there can be no public preaching or teaching, nor can a Moslem +openly profess Christianity, or even frequent the Syrian services, +without being a marked man. Hence, while all opportunities are +embraced of conversation with Mohammedans, and of circulating the +Bible among them, the mission work is chiefly among nominal +Christians. + +The Americans own a very large amount of property at Urmi. The Fiske +Seminary--a High School, in which a large number of girls receive +board as well as education--is within the city walls, as well as some +of the houses of both clerical and lady missionaries. About a mile +outside they have acquired a beautiful and valuable estate of about +fifteen acres, plentifully wooded and watered, and with some fine +avenues of planes. On this are the large buildings of the Urmi +College, the professors' houses, the Dispensary, and the Medical +Mission Hospitals for the sick of both sexes. + +A very high-class education is given in the Urmi College, and in +addition to the general course there are opportunities for both +theological and medical education. Last year there were 151 students, +of which number eighteen graduated. + +The education given is bringing about a result which was not +anticipated. The educated Syrian and Armenian young men, far from +desiring generally to remain in their own country as pastors and +teachers, and finding no opportunities of "getting on" otherwise, have +of late been seized with a craze for leaving Persia for America, +Russia, or any other country where they may turn their education to +profitable account. It is hardly necessary to add that the admirable +training and education given in the Fiske Seminary do not produce a +like restlessness among its "girl graduates." The girls marry at an +early age, make good housewives, and are in the main intelligent and +kindly Christians. + +Possibly the education given in the Urmi College is too high and too +Western for the requirements of the country and the probable future of +the students. At all events similar regrets were expressed in Urmi, as +I afterwards heard, regarding some of the American Mission Colleges in +Asia Minor. The missionaries say that the directly religious results +are not so apparent as could be desired, that the young men are not +ready to offer themselves in any numbers for evangelistic work, and +that the present tendency is to seek secular employment and personal +aggrandisement. + +Though this secular tendency comes forward strongly at this time, a +number of evangelistic workers scattered through Persia, Turkey, and +Russia[27] owe their education and religious inspiration to the +teachings of the Urmi College. At present a few of the young men have +banded themselves together to go forth as teachers and preachers with +the object of carrying the Gospel to all, without distinction of +nationality. The hopefulness of this movement is that it is of native +origin, and that the young men are self-supporting. A capable Syrian +physician and a companion are also preaching and healing at their own +cost, only accepting help towards the expense of medicines. + +The Medical Mission at Urmi, with its well-equipped Dispensary and its +two admirable Hospitals, is of the utmost value, as such missions are +all the world over. + +Dr. Cochrane, from his courtesy and attention to the niceties of +Persian etiquette, is extremely acceptable to the Persian authorities, +and has been entrusted by them more than once with missions involving +the exercise of great tact and ability. He is largely trusted by the +Moslems of Urmi and the neighbourhood, and mixes with them socially on +friendly and easy terms. + +He and some of the younger missionaries were born in Persia, their +fathers having been missionaries before them, and after completing +their education in America they returned, not only with an intimate +knowledge of etiquette and custom, as well as of Syriac and Persian, +but with that thorough sympathy with the people whom they are there to +help and instruct, which it is difficult to gain in a single +generation, and through languages not acquired in childhood. Dr. +Cochrane has had many and curious dealings with the Kurds, the dreaded +inhabitants of the mountains which overhang the beautiful plain of +Urmi, and a Kurd, who appears to be in perpetual "war-paint," is the +gatekeeper at the Dispensary. One of the most singular results of the +influence gained over these fierce and predatory people by the +"Missionary _Hak[=i]m_" occurred in 1881, when Obeidullah Khan, with +11,000 Kurds, laid siege to Urmi. + +Six months previously, at this Khan's request, Dr. Cochrane went up a +three days' journey into the mountains, where he remained for ten +days, during which time he cured the Khan of severe pneumonia, and +made the acquaintance of several of the Kurdish chiefs. Before the +siege began Obeidullah Khan sent for Dr. Cochrane, saying that he +wished to know his residence and who his people were, so as to see +that none of them suffered at the hands of his men. Not only this, but +he asked for the names of the Christian villages on the plain, and +gave the _Hak[=i]m_ letters with orders that nothing should be touched +which belonged to them. The mission families were assembled at the +College, and 500 Christians, with their cattle and horses, took refuge +in the College grounds, which were close to the Kurdish lines. The +siege lasted seven weeks, with great loss of life and many of "the +horrors of war," as time increased the fury of both Kurds and +Persians. But Obeidullah kept his word, and for the sake of the +_Hak[=i]m_ and his healing art, not only was not a hair on the head of +any missionary touched, but the mixed multitude within the gates and +the herds were likewise spared. + +Mrs. Cochrane, the widow of the former medical missionary, +superintends the food and the nursing in the hospitals, and I doubt +whether the most fanatical Kurd or Persian Moslem could remain +indifferent to the charm of her bright and loving presence. The +profession of Dr. Cochrane opens to him homes and hearts everywhere. +All hold him as a friend and benefactor, and he has opportunities, +denied to all others, of expounding the Christian faith among Moslems. +A letter from him is a safe-conduct through some parts of the Kurdish +mountains, and the mere mention of his name is a passport to the +good-will of their fierce inhabitants. + +The work of the mission is not confined to the city of Urmi. Among the +villages of the plain there are eighty-four schools, taught chiefly in +Syriac, seven of which are for girls only. The mission ladies +itinerate largely, and are warmly welcomed by Moslem as well as +Christian women, and even by those families of Kurds who, since their +defeat in 1881, have settled down to peaceful pursuits, some of them +even becoming Christians. + +In fifty years the American missionaries have gained a very +considerable and wide-spread influence, not only by labours which are +recognised as disinterested, but by the purity and righteousness of +their lives; and the increased friendliness and accessibility of the +Moslems of Urmi give hope that the purer teachings of Christianity and +the example of the life of our Lord are regarded by them with less of +hostility or indifference than formerly. + +The history of the mission is best given in the words of Dr. Shedd, +one of its oldest members.[28] + +The communicants of the "Evangelical Syriac Church," which might be +termed, from its organisation and creed, the _Presbyterian Syriac +Church_, numbered 216 in 1857 and 2003 in 1887. + +Apart from the results of Christian teaching and example, there can +be, I think, no doubt that the residence of righteous foreigners in +Urmi for over half a century has had a most beneficial effect on the +condition of the Nestorians. At the time when the first American +missionaries settled in Urmi the yoke of Islam was hardly bearable. +The Christians were oppressed and plundered, their daughters were +taken by violence, and they were scarcely allowed to practise the +little religion left to them. The Persian Government, sensitive as it +is to European opinion, has gradually remedied a state of matters upon +which the reports of the missionaries were justly to be dreaded, and +at the present time the Christians of Urmi and the adjacent plain have +comparatively very little to complain of. + +At the same time the Syriac Church was at its lowest ebb, absolutely +sunk in ignorance and superstition. It had no exposition of the Bible, +and all worship was in the ancient Syriac tongue, then as now "not +understanded of the people." It had no books or any ability to +establish schools. Bibles were scarce, and a single copy of the Psalms +could not be bought for less than 32s. The learned nuns and +deaconesses of the early days were without successors. Women were +entirely neglected, and it was regarded as improper for the younger +among them to be seen at church. In Urmi not a woman could read, and +in the whole Nestorian region they were absolutely illiterate, with +the exception of the Patriarch's sister and two or three nuns. + +The translation of the Bible into modern Syriac, a noble work, now +undergoing revision; the College; the Female Seminary; the translation +and publication of many luminous books; the circulation of a +periodical called _Rays of Light_, together with fifty years of +intercourse with men and women whose chief aim is the religious and +intellectual elevation of the people among whom they dwell, have +wrought a remarkable change, though that the change is menaced with +perils, and is not an absolutely unmixed good, cannot be gainsaid. + +It is for the future to decide whether the Reform movement in Umri or +elsewhere could survive in any strength the removal of the agency +which inaugurated it, and whether a Church without a ritual and with a +form of government alien to the genius of the East and the traditions +of the fathers, can take root in the affections of an eminently +conservative people. + +The Mission, founded by the present Archbishop of Canterbury at the +request of the _Catholicos_ of the East, Mar Shimun, the Patriarch of +the Syrian Church, arrived in Urmi in the autumn of 1885. At the time +of my visit it consisted of five mission priests, graduates of Oxford +and Cambridge Universities, and an ordained Syrian, four of whom were +at the headquarters in Urmi, one in the Kurdish mountains, and one on +the Urmi Plain. Four Sisters of Bethany arrived in the spring of 1890 +for the purpose of opening a boarding-school for girls and instructing +the women. + +It is hardly necessary to say that the lines on which the Anglican and +American missions proceed are diametrically different, and the modes +of working are necessarily in opposition. The one is _practically_ a +proselytising agency, and labours to build up a Presbyterian Church in +Persia; the other purposes to "bring back an ancient church into the +way of truth, and so prepare it for its union with its mother church, +the Orthodox Church of the East." The objects of the latter and its +ecclesiastical position are stated briefly in the note below.[29] + +The actual work to be done by the Mission is thus summed up by its +promoters: "The work of the Mission is in the first place to train up +a body of literate clergy; secondly, to instruct the youth generally +in both religious and secular knowledge; and thirdly, to print the +very early liturgies and service-books, to which the Assyrians are +much attached, which have never been published in the original, and of +which the very primitive character is shown by their freedom from +doubtful doctrine. The Mission in no way seeks to Anglicanise the +Assyrians on the one hand, nor, on the other, to condone the heresy +which separated them from the rest of Christendom or to minimise its +importance." + +The English clergy are celibates, receive no stipends, and live +together, with a common purse, each receiving L25 per annum for +personal expenses. + +It is not a proselytising mission. It teaches, trains, and prints. It +has one High School at Urmi for boys under seventeen, and two upon the +Urmi Plain, but the work to which these may be regarded as subsidiary +is the Urmi Upper School for priests, deacons, and candidates for holy +orders. In these four establishments there are about 200 pupils, +mostly boarders. There are also seventy-two village day-schools, and +the total attendance last year was--boys 1248, girls 225. Seventy-six +deacons and young men above seventeen are in the Upper School at Urmi. + +The education given in the ordinary schools is on a level with that of +our elementary schools. In the school of St. Mary and St. John, which +contains priests, deacons, and laymen, some being mountaineers, the +subjects taught are Holy Scripture, catechism, Scripture geography, +universal history, liturgy, preaching, English, Persian, Osmanli +Turkish, arithmetic, and Old Syriac.[30] Preaching is taught +practically. A list of 100 subjects on a systematic theological plan +has been drawn up, and each week two of the deacons choose topics from +the list and write sermons upon them. + +In 1887 the Mission clergy drew up a catechism containing between 200 +and 300 questions, with "Scripture proofs," which the scholars in all +their schools are obliged to learn by heart. + +The boys of the Urmi High School and of the Upper School board in the +mission house, and are under the constant supervision of the clergy. +Their food and habits of living are strictly Oriental. All imitations +of Western manners and customs are forbidden, the policy of the +Mission being to make the Syrians take a pride in their national +customs, which as a rule are adapted to their circumstances and +country, and to look down upon those who ape European dress and +manners. Denationalisation is fought against in every possible way. + +A year and a half ago work among women was begun by four ladies of the +community of the Sisters of Bethany. The position of Syrian women, in +spite of its partial elevation by means of the Fiske Seminary, is +still very low, and within the Old Church there is an absolute +necessity for raising it, and through it the tone of the home life and +the training of children. These ladies have thirty boarders in their +school between the ages of eight and sixteen, a previous knowledge of +reading acquired in the village schools being a condition of +admission. The daily lessons consist of Bible teaching, the catechism +before referred to, ancient and modern Syriac, geography, arithmetic, +and all branches of housework and needle-work. Due regard is paid to +Syrian customs, and the picturesque Syrian costume is retained. + +Since these ladies have acquired an elementary knowledge of Syriac +they have been itinerating in the Urmi villages, holding Bible +classes, giving instruction, and distributing medicines among the +sick. The ignorance and superstition of the Christian women are almost +past belief. One great difficulty which the "sisters" have to +encounter arises from the early marriages of the girls, child-brides +of eleven and twelve years old being quite common. It may reasonably +be expected that the presence and influence, the gentleness and +self-sacrifice of these refined and cultured Christian ladies will +tell most favourably upon their pupils, and strengthen with every +month of their residence in Urmi. The Moslems understand and respect +the position of voluntarily celibate women, and speak of them as +"those who have left the world." + +The Mission clergy of late have striven to instruct the adult Syrian +population of the Urmi Plain by preaching among them systematically, +explaining in a very elementary manner the principles of Christianity, +and their application to the life of man. They have also set up a +printing press, and have already printed in Syriac type a number of +school books, the Catechism, the _Liturgy of the Apostles_, the most +venerable of the Syrian Liturgical documents, the _Second_ and _Third +Liturgies_, the _Baptismal Office_, ancient and modern Syriac +grammars, and a Lectionary. + +It is the earnest hope of the promoters of this Mission that if this +ancient Oriental church, once the first mission agency in the world, +can be reformed and enlightened, she may yet be the means of +evangelising the two great sects of Moslems by means of missionaries +akin to them in customs, character, and habits of thought--"Orientals +to Orientals." + +The subject of Christian missions in Persia is a very interesting one, +and many thoughtful minds are asking whether Christianity is likely to +be a factor in the future of the Empire? As things are, no direct +efforts to convert Moslems to Christianity can be made, for the death +penalty for apostasy is not legally abolished, and even if it were, +popular fanaticism would vent itself upon proselytes. It must be +recognised that the Christian missionary is a disturbing element in +Persia. He is tolerated, not welcomed, and tolerated only while his +efforts to detach people from the national faith are futile. Missions +have been in operation in Persia for more than fifty years, and +probably at the present time there are over seventy-five missionaries +at work in the country. If the value of their work were to be judged +of by the number of Moslem converts they have made it must be +pronounced an _absolute failure_. + +The result of the impossibility of making any direct attack upon Islam +is that these excellent men and women are at present ostensibly +engaged in the attempt to purify the faith and practice of the Syrian +and Armenian churches, to enlighten their members religiously and +intellectually, and to Christianise the Jews, waiting patiently for +the time when an aggressive movement against Islam may be possible. In +the meantime the Holy Scriptures are being widely disseminated; the +preacher of Christianity itinerates among the villages, the Christian +religion is greatly discussed, and missionary physicians, the true +pioneers of the faith, are modifying by their personal influence the +opposition to the progress of the missionaries with whom they are +associated. + +On the whole, and in spite of slow progress and the apparently +insurmountable difficulties presented by hostility or indifference, I +believe that Christian missions in Persia, especially by their +educational agencies and the circulation of the Bible, are producing +an increasing under-current, tending towards secular as well as +religious progress, and are gaining an ever-growing influence, so +that, lamentably slow as the advance of Christianity is, its prospects +cannot justly be overlooked in considering the probable future of +Persia.[31] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[26] The name of the town and lake is spelt variously Urmi, Urumi, +Urumiya, Ourmia, and Oroomiah. The Moslems call it Urumi, and the +Christians Urmi, to which spelling I have adhered. + +[27] At the present time, when the persecution of the _Stundists_ in +Russia is attracting considerable attention, it may interest my +readers to hear that one of the earliest promoters of the _Stundist_ +movement was Yacub Dilakoff, a Syrian, and a graduate of the Old +American College. He went to Russia thirty years ago, and was so +horrified at the ignorance and gross superstition of the peasantry +that he studied Russian in the hope of enlightening them, and to aid +his purpose became an itinerant hawker of Bibles. The "common people +heard him gladly," and among both the Orthodox and the Lutherans +prayer unions were formed, from which those who frequented them +received the name by which they are known, from _stunde_, hour. + +Dilakoff, whom the _Stundists_ love to call "our Bishop," has been +thrown into prison several times, but on his liberation began to teach +among the sect of the _Molokans_ in the Crimea and on the Volga with +such success that sixteen congregations have been formed among them. +His zeal has since carried him to the _Molokan_ colonies on the Amoor, +where he has been preaching and teaching for three years with such +remarkable results as to have received the title of "a Modern +Apostle." + +[28] In twenty-eight years after its establishment a conference of +bishops, presbyters, and deacons, all of whom had received ordination +in the Old Church, with preachers, elders, and missionaries, met and +deliberated. "This conference adopted its own confession, form of +government, and discipline----at first very simple. Some things were +taken from the canons and rituals of the Old Church, others from the +usages of Protestant Churches. The traditions of the Old Church were +respected to some extent; for example, no influence has induced the +native brethren to remit the diaconate to a mere service in +temporalities. The deacons are a preaching order." + +Of the subsequent history of this church the same authority writes as +follows:---- + +"The missionaries in 1835 were welcomed by the ecclesiastics and +people, and for many years an honest effort was made to reform the old +body" (the Syrian Church) "without destroying its organisation. This +effort failed, and a new church was gradually formed for the following +reasons---- + +"(1) _Persecution._ The patriarch did all in his power to destroy the +Evangelical work. He threatened, beat, and imprisoned the teachers and +converts, and made them leave his fold. (2) _Lack of discipline._ The +converts could no longer accept unscriptural practices and rank abuses +that prevailed, and it became evident that there was no method to +reform them. At every effort the rent was made worse. (3) _Lack of +teaching._ The converts asked for better care, and purer and better +teaching and means of grace than they found in the dead language, +rituals, and ordinances of the Old Church. + +"The missionaries were slow in abandoning the hope that the Nestorian +Church would become reformed and purified; but their hope was in vain, +their efforts therefore have been not to proselytise, but to leaven +the whole people with Christian truth. The separation was made in no +spirit of hostility or controversy. There was no violent disruption. +The missionaries have never published a word against the Old Church +ecclesiastics or its polity. + +"The ordination of the Old Church has always been accepted as valid. +The missionaries and the evangelical bishops have sometimes joined in +the ordination services, and it would be difficult to draw the line +when the Episcopal ordination ceased and the Presbyterian began in the +Reformed body. + +"The relation of the Presbyterian mission work to the old +ecclesiastics is thus something different from that found among any +other Eastern Christians. The Patriarch in office fifty years ago was +at first very friendly to the missionaries, and personally aided in +superintending the building of mission houses. Subsequently he did all +in his power to break up the mission. The Patriarch now in office has +taken the attitude of neutrality, with frequent indications of +fairness and friendliness toward our work. + +"The next in ecclesiastical rank is the Mattran (Syriac for +Metropolitan), the only one left of the twenty-five Metropolitans +named in the thirteenth century. The present incumbent recently made +distinct overtures to our Evangelical Church to come to an +understanding by establishing the scriptural basis of things +essential, and allowing liberty in things non-essential. He fails, +perhaps, to understand all the scriptural issues between us, but he +has a sincere desire to walk uprightly and to benefit his people. + +"Of the bishops, three have been united with the Reform, and died in +the Evangelical Church. The three bishops in Kurdistan are friendly, +and give their influence in favour of our schools. + +"A large majority of the priests or presbyters of the Old Church, in +Persia at least, joined the Reform movement, and as large a proportion +of the deacons. In all, nearly seventy of the priests have laboured +with the mission as teachers, preachers, or pastors, and more than +half of these continue, and are members of our Synod. In some places +the Reform has gathered nearly all the population within its +influence. In many places it is not unusual to find half the +population in our winter services. On the other hand, there are many +places where the ecclesiastics are immoral and opposed, and ignorance +and vice abound, and the Reform moves very slowly." + +[29] "By God's help: (1) To raise up and restore a fallen Eastern +Church to take her place again amongst the Churches of Christendom. +(2) To infuse spiritual life into a church which the oppression of +centuries has reduced to a state of weakness and ignorance. (3) To +give the Chaldaean or Assyrian Christians (_a_) a religious education +on the broad principles of the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church; +(_b_) a secular education calculated to fit them for their state of +life, the common mistakes and dangers of over-education and of +Europeanising education being most carefully guarded against. (4) To +train up the native clergy, by means of schools and seminaries, to be +worthy to serve before God in their high vocation, and to rise to +their responsibilities as leaders and teachers of the people in their +villages. (5) To build schools, of which at present there are none, +owing to the extreme poverty and misery of the people. (6) To aid the +Patriarch and Bishops by counsel, by encouragement, and by active +support. (7) To reorganise the Chaldaean Church upon her ancient lines, +to set in motion the ecclesiastical machinery now rusty through +disuse, and to revive religious discipline amongst clergy and laity. +(8) To print the ancient Chaldaean service-books. They are now only in +MS., and the number of copies is totally insufficient for the supply +of the parish churches." + +[30] "_Old Syriac_ as a lesson means reading portions of Holy +Scripture, and translating them into modern Syriac." + +[31] The absolute fact, however, is that Christian nations have not +shown any zeal in communicating the blessings of Christianity to +Persia and Southern Turkey. England has sent two missions--one to +Baghdad, the other to Julfa. America has five mission stations in +Northern and Western Persia, but not one in Southern Turkey or Arabia. + +The populous shores of the Persian Gulf, the great tribes of the +plains of the Tigris and Euphrates, the Ilyats of Persia, the +important cities of Shiraz, Yezd, Meshed, Kashan, Kum, Kirmanshah, and +all Southern, Eastern, and Western Persia (excepting Hamadan and +Urmi), are untouched by Christian effort! Propagandism on a scale so +contemptible impresses intelligent Moslems as a sham, and is an injury +to the Christianity which it professes to represent. + + + + +LETTER XXVII + + +URMI, _Oct. 14_. + +Very few European travellers visit Urmi and its magnificent plain, the +"Paradise of Persia," though it is only 112 miles from Tabriz. Gardens +come up to the city walls, and the plain, about fifty miles long by +eighteen broad, is cultivated throughout, richly wooded, very +populous, and bounded on the east not by a desert with its aridity, +but by the blue waters of the Urmi Sea, and on the west by the +magnificent mountains of Kurdistan. The city is some miles to the west +of the lake. + +Urmi is on the whole very pretty and in good repair. The Christian +quarter is almost handsome, well built and substantial, and the houses +are generally faced with red bricks. The bazars are large and well +supplied, and trade is active. The walls and gateways are in good +repair, and so is the deep ditch, which can be filled with water, +which surrounds them. Every gate is approached by an avenue of noble +_elaegnus_ and other fruit trees. The gardens within the walls are very +fine, and orchards and vineyards, planes and poplars testify to the +abundance of water and the excellent method of its distribution. The +altitude is stated at 4400 feet. The estimate of the population varies +from 12,000 to 20,000. + +Though the Sea of Urmi receives fourteen rivers, some of them by no +means insignificant, and has no known outlet, it recedes rather +steadily, leaving bare a soil of exceeding richness, and acres of +dazzling salt. It has very few boats, and none suited for passenger +traffic. Its waters are so salt that fish cannot live in them. + +The antiquarian interests of Urmi consist in the semi-subterranean +Syrian church of Mart-Mariam, said to have been built by the Magi on +their return from Bethlehem! a tower and mosque of Arab architecture +seven centuries old, and some great mounds outside the walls, from +sixty to one hundred feet in height, composed entirely of ashes, +marking the site of the altars at which the rites of one of the purest +of the ancient faiths were celebrated. As the birthplace of Zoroaster, +and for several subsequent ages the sacred city of the Fire +Worshippers and the scene of the restoration of the Mithraic rites, +Urmi must always remain interesting. + +The Christian population of the city is not very large, though it is +estimated that there are 20,000 Syrian Christians in the villages of +the plain. The city Syrians are mostly well-to-do people, who have +come into Urmi to practise trades. The best carpenters, as well as the +best photographers and tailors, are Syrians, and though in times past +the Moslems refused to buy from the Christians on the ground that +things made by them are unclean, the prejudice is passing away. + +There is a deputy-governor called the _Serperast_, whose duty it is to +deal with the Christians. The office seems to have been instituted for +their protection at the instigation of the British Government, but the +Europeans regard it simply as a means of oppression and extortion, and +desire its abolition. Canon Maclean goes so far as to say, "The +multiplication of judges in Persia means the multiplication of +injustice, and of the number of persons who can extort money from the +unfortunate people." The _Serperast_ depends chiefly for his living +and for keeping up a staff of servants on what he can get out of the +Christians in the way of fines and bribes, and consequently he +foments quarrels and encourages needless litigation on all hands, the +Syrians being by all accounts one of the most litigious of peoples. + +I write of the Christians of Urmi and its plain as Syrians because +that is the name by which they call themselves. We know them at home +as _Nestorians_, but this is a nickname given to them by outsiders, +and I know of no reason why we should use a nomenclature which +attaches to a nation the stigma of an ancient "heresy." They are +sometimes called Chaldaeans,[32] and the present Archbishop of +Canterbury has brought into currency the term "Assyrians," which, +however, is never used by themselves, or by any Orientals in speaking +of them. The Moslems apply the name Nasara (Nazarenes) solely to the +Syrian Christians. They claim that Christianity was introduced among +them by the Magi on their return from Bethlehem. The highest estimate +of their numbers is 120,000, and of these more than 80,000 are in +Turkey. The Persian Syrians inhabit the flat country, chiefly the +plains of Urmi and Salmas, where the fertile lands are most carefully +cultivated by their industry. + +In my last letter I remarked upon the prosperity and garden-like +appearance of the Urmi Plain. Its 20,000 Syrian inhabitants usually +live in separate villages from the Kurds, Persians, and Armenians, and +are surrounded on all sides by Moslems of the Shiah sect. The +landlords or Aghas of their villages are generally Moslems, who govern +their tenants in something of feudal style. Land is a favourite +investment in Persia, and owing to the industrious habits of the +Syrians, the "Agha-ship" of their villages commands a high price. The +Aghas often oppress the peasants, but the tenure of houses is fairly +secure, and according to Canon Maclean, to whom I am indebted for my +information, a system much like the Scotch feuing system (though +without feu charters) is in force. If a man wishes to build a house he +takes a present of a few sugar-loaves or a few _krans_ with him, and +applies to an Agha for a site. After it is granted he pays an annual +ground rent of 4s. 9d., but he can build his house as he pleases, and +it cannot be taken from him so long as he pays his ground rent. +Moreover, he can sell the house and give a title-deed to the +purchaser, with the sole restriction that the new possessor must +become a vassal of the Agha. + +In addition to the payment of the ground rent, the tenant is taxed +annually by the Agha for every female buffalo 2s., for every cow 1s., +and for every ewe and she-goat 6d., after they have begun to bear +young. The Agha also receives from each householder annually two +fowls, a load of _kiziks_, some eggs, three days' labour or the price +of it, and a fee on every occasion of a marriage. Each house pays also +a tax of 8d. a year and gives a present of firewood to the _Serperast_ +of Urmi, the Mussulman governor of the Christians. In his turn the +Agha pays to the Shah from a third to a half of the total taxation. + +A village-house, even when built of sun-dried bricks, rarely costs +more than L35, and often not the half of that sum.[33] The great +feature of a Syrian dwelling is what is called emphatically "the +house"; the combined living-room, bedroom, smoking-room, kitchen, +bakery, and workroom of one or more families. This room cannot possess +a _balakhana_, as its openings for light and air are in the roof. A +stable, store-rooms, and granary are attached to it. + +Vineyards are the chief reliance of the Syrians of the Urmi Plain, +their produce, whether as grapes, raisins, or wine, being always +marketable. They are held on the same tenure as the houses, and as +long as the vine-stocks remain in the ground, and the ground rent, +which is 7s. a year for the _tanap_, a piece of ground 256 yards +square, is paid, the tenant cannot be evicted. Where vineyards are +sub-let for a year a fair rent is from 10s. to 12s. a _tanap_. If a +tenant buys a property from an Agha the yearly taxation is 5s. a +_tanap_; grass fields and orchards are held on the same tenure as +vineyards, and at the same rent. With ploughed land the case is +different. If the tenant provides the seed, etc., he gives the Agha a +third of the produce, and if the Agha provides seed the tenant returns +two-thirds. The tenant of ploughed land may be changed annually. + +This paying the rent in kind is going on just now in every village, +and the Aghas secure themselves against dishonesty by requiring that +the grain shall be threshed on their floors. In addition, their +servants watch night and day by turns, in an erection similar to the +"lodge in a garden of cucumbers" or melons, an arbour of boughs +perched at a height of seven or eight feet upon four poles. The +landlord's _nasr_ appears at intervals to take away his master's share +of the grain. It is all delightfully primitive. + +The arrangements sound equitable, the taxes are moderate, and in some +respects the Christians are not more victimised by their landlords +than are their Mohammedan neighbours. The people acknowledge readily +that as regards oppression they are much better off than they were, +and that in this respect the presence of the American missionaries in +Urmi has been of the greatest advantage to them, for these gentlemen +never fail to represent any gross case of oppression _which can be +thoroughly substantiated_ to the Governor of Urmi, or in the last +resort to the Governor of Azerbijan. The oppressions exercised by the +Aghas consist in taking extra taxes, demanding labour without wages, +and carrying off Christian girls for their _harams_. The laws which +affect Christians specially and injuriously are-- + +1. That the evidence of a Christian is not received against a +Mussulman. + +2. That if any member of a Christian family becomes a Moslem, he or +she becomes entitled to claim the whole property of the "house," which +as often as not consists of two or three families. The apostatising +member of a household is usually a girl, who either falls in love with +or is carried off by a young Mohammedan, who declares truly or falsely +that she has embraced his creed. A good governor is careful in these +matters, and in some cases gives the girl only her share of the family +property, but a bad governor may at any time carry out the law, or use +it as a means for extorting ruinous bribes.[34] + +Every Christian man above the age of sixteen pays a poll tax of 3s. +annually for exemption from military service, but from this impost the +headman of a village, who is at once its tax-gatherer and its +spokesman, is free. He ranks next to the priest, and is treated by +the villagers with considerable respect. I have found the Syrian +_kokhas_ as polite and obliging as the Persian _ketchudas_. + +Although the Persian Government has been tolerably successful in +subduing the Kurds within its territory, the Christians of the slopes +of the Urmi Plain are exposed to great losses of sheep and cattle from +Kurdish mountaineers, who (it is said) cross the Turkish frontier, and +return into Turkey with their booty.[35] + +The American and English missionaries do not paint the Syrians +_couleur de rose_, though the former during their long residence in +the country must have lifted up several hundreds to the blessings of a +higher life, and these in rising themselves must have exercised an +unconscious influence on their brethren. Since I came I have seen +several women whose tone would bear comparison with that of the best +among ourselves, and who owe it gratefully to the training and +influence of the Fiske Seminary. I like the women much better than the +men. + +The Christians complain terribly of the way in which "justice" is +administered, and doubtless nothing can be worse, but the Europeans +say that the people bring much of its hardship upon themselves by +their frightful litigiousness, and their habit of going to law about +the veriest trifles. Intense avarice seems to be a characteristic of +the Syrians of the Persian plains, and they fully share with other +Orientals in the failings of untruthfulness and untrustworthiness. +They are said to be very drunken as well as grossly ignorant and +superstitious, and the abuses and unutterable degradation of their +church perpetuate all that is bad in the national character. The +women are spoken of as chaste, and some of the worst forms of vice are +happily unknown among the Syrians, though they are practised by the +Moslems around them. Their hospitality, their sufferings for the +faith, and their family attachment are justly to be reckoned among +their virtues, but on the whole I think that the extraordinary +interest attaching to them, and which I feel very strongly myself, is +due rather to their Past than to their Present. + +On this plain the dress of the men is much assimilated to that of the +Persians, but the women wear their national costume. The under-garment +is a coloured shirt, over which is worn a sleeved waistcoat of a +different colour, and above this is an open-fronted coat reaching to +the knees. Loose trousers, so full as to look like a petticoat, are +worn, and frequently an apron and a heavy silver belt are added. The +head-dress is very becoming, and consists of a raised cap of cloth or +silk, embroidered or jewelled, with a white muslin veil over it and +the head, but the face is exposed, except in the case of married +women, who draw a part of the veil over the mouth. It is not proper +that the hair should be seen. + +There is something strikingly Biblical about their customs and speech. +At dinner at Geog-tapa I noticed that it is a mark of friendship for a +man to dip a piece of bread (a sop) into the soup and give it to +another, a touching reminiscence. A priest is greeted with "Hail, +Master," a teacher is addressed as "Rabban," the salutation is "Peace +be with you," and such words as _Talitha cumi_ and _Ephphatha_ +occasionally startle the ear in the midst of unintelligible speech, +suggesting that the Aramaic of our Lord's day was very near akin to +the old Syriac, of which the present vernacular is a development. As +among the Moslems, pious phrases are common. A Syrian receiving a +kindness often replies, "May God give you the kingdom of Heaven," and +when a man makes a purchase, or enters on a new house, or puts on a +new garment, it is customary to say to him, "May God bless your house, +your garment," etc. A child learning the letters of the alphabet is +taught to say at the close, "Glory to Christ our King." A copyist +begins his manuscript by writing within an ornamental margin, "In the +strength of our Lord Jesus Christ we begin to write," and a man +entering on a piece of work honours the Apostolic command by saying, +"If the Lord will I shall accomplish it."[36] My friends tell me that +I shall find the Syrians of the mountains a different people, and a +mountaineer is readily recognised in the streets by the beauty and +picturesqueness of his dress. + +The eight days in Urmi have been a very pleasant whirl, a continual +going to and fro between the College and the Fiske Seminary, the +English clergy house and the Sisters' house, receiving Syrian visitors +at home and holding a reception for them in the city, calling on the +Governor, visiting the English upper school, where deacons, in the +beautiful Syrian costume, with daggers in their girdles, look more +like bandits than theological students, and spending a day at +Geog-tapa, where I saw Shamasha Khananeshoo's (Deacon Abraham's) +orphanage, dined with him and his charming wife, and a number of other +Syrians in Syrian style, and went to the crowded Geog-tapa church, +where the part of the floor occupied by the women looked like a +brilliant tulip-bed. Here, in the middle of the service, the _Qasha_ +or priest said that the people, especially the women, were very +anxious to know for what reason I was travelling, to which evidence of +an enlightened curiosity I returned a reply through an interpreter, +and reminded them of the glories of their historic church and its +missionary fervour. + +Geog-tapa (_cerulean hill_) possesses one of the largest of the +Zoroastrian mounds of ashes. It is a pity that these are not +protected, and that the villagers are allowed to carry away the soil +for manure, and to break up the walls and cells (?) which are imbedded +in them for building materials. This vandalism has brought to notice +various curious relics, such as earthenware vessels of small size and +unique shape, and a stone tomb containing a human skeleton, with +several copper spikes from four to five inches long driven into its +skull. In another mound, at some distance from this one, a large +earthen sarcophagus was discovered, also containing a skeleton with +long nails driven into its skull. + +Deacon Abraham's work is on the right lines, being conducted entirely +by Syrians. It is most economically managed, and the children are +trained in the simple habits of Syrian peasants. The religious +instruction is bright and simple. The boys receive an elementary +education, a practical training in agriculture on some lands belonging +to the Orphanage, and in various useful handicrafts. As much of the +money for the support of this work is raised in England, it is +satisfactory to know that the accounts are carefully audited by the +American missionaries. + +The days have flown by, for, in addition to the social whirl, I have +been occupied in attempts, only partially successful, to provide +myself with necessaries for the journey, and in an endeavour, +altogether unsuccessful, to replace Johannes by a trustworthy servant. +The kind friends here have lent me a few winter garments out of their +slender stock, and have helped me in every way. + +It has been most difficult to get _charvadars_. The country on the +other side of the frontier is said to be "unsettled," no Persians +will go by the route that I wish to take, and two sets of Kurds, after +making agreements to carry my loads, have disappeared. Various Syrians +have come down from the mountains with stories of Kurdish raids on +their sheep and cattle, but as such things are always going on, and +the impression that "things are much worse than usual" does not rest +on any ascertained basis, my friends do not advise me to give up the +journey to Kochanes, and I am just starting _en route_ for Trebizond. +I. L. B. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[32] A name usually applied to the Roman Uniats at Mosul. + +[33] The mode of building mud houses was described in Letter VI. vol. +i. p. 149. + +[34] Dr. Labaree, whose experience stretches back for thirty years, +writes of the races under Persian rule in the Province of Azerbijan in +the following terms: "The Nestorians and Armenians of Persia in common +with their Mohammedan neighbours suffer from the evil forms of society +and government which have been bequeathed to them from the earliest +dawnings of history. Landlordism in its worst forms bears sway. The +poor _rayat_ or tenant must pay his landlord one-half or two-thirds of +all the produce of his farm. Aside from his poll tax he must pay a tax +on his house, his hayfields, and his fruit trees, and on all his stock +with the exception of the oxen with which he tills the soil. But this +is not all. He is virtually at the mercy of his Agha, which translated +literally means master, a word which most correctly describes the +relation of the landlord to his peasants. By law he may require from +each of his _rayats_ three days of labour without pay. In reality he +makes them work for him as much as he sees fit. He helps himself to +what he pleases whenever he makes them a visit. He sells them grain +and flour above the market price. He ties them up and beats them for +slight offences. And to all this and much else must the poor peasant +submit for fear of worse persecutions if he complains. In these +respects Moslem, Christian, and Jew suffer alike." + +[35] Later, I heard the same accusation brought against the Persian +Kurds by a high official in Constantinople. + +[36] The national customs of the Syrians are endless, and in many ways +very interesting. They are treated very fully in a scarce volume +called _Residence in Persia among the Nestorians_, by Dr. Justin +Perkins. + + + + +FAREWELL IMPRESSIONS OF PERSIA + + +In the letters by which this chapter is preceded few general opinions +have been expressed on Persia, its government, and its people, but now +that I contemplate them with some regard to perspective, and have +reversed some of my earlier and hastier judgments, I will, with the +reader's permission, give some of the impressions formed during a +journey extending over nine months, chiefly in the western and +south-western portions of the Empire. + +On the pillared plain of Persepolis, on the bull-flanked portals which +tower above the Hall of Xerxes, the Palace of Darius, and the +stairways with the sculptured bas-reliefs, which portray the +magnificence, the military triumphs, and the religious ceremonial of +the greatest of the Persian monarchs, runs the stately inscription: "I +am Xerxes the King, the Great King, the King of Kings, the King of the +many-peopled countries, the Upholder of the Great World, the son of +Darius the King, the Achaemenian"; and on the tablets on the rock of +Besitun is inscribed in language as august the claim of Darius the +Mede to a dominion which in his day was regarded as nearly universal. + +The twenty-four centuries which have passed since these claims were +made have seen the ruin of the Palace-Temples of Persepolis, the +triumph of Islam over Zoroastrianism, the devastating sweep of the +hordes of Taimurlane and other semi-barbaric conquerors, the +destruction of ancient art and frontiers, and the compression of the +Empire within comparatively narrow limits. + +Still, these limits include an area about thrice the size of France, +the sovereign has reassumed the title of King of Kings, Persia takes +her own place--and that not a low one--in the comity of nations, and +the genuine Persians retain vitality enough to compel the allegiance +of the numerically important tribes included within their frontiers, +though scarcely more than 30,000 soldiers are with the colours at any +given time. + +Still, under a land system fourteen centuries old, Persia produces +cereals enough for home consumption with a surplus for export; her +peasants are thrifty and industrious, and their methods of tillage, +though among the most ancient on earth, are well adapted to their +present needs and the conditions of soil and climate. + +Her merchants are able and enterprising, and her sagacious liberality +in the toleration of Christians and Jews has added strength to her +commercial position. + +Though she has lost the high order of civilisation which she possessed +centuries before Christ, she has in no sense relapsed into barbarism, +and on the whole good order and security prevail. + +The condition of modern Persia has to be studied along with that of +the configuration of the country. The traveller through Khorasan and +Seistan, from the Gulf to Yezd, or from Bushire to Tihran, views it as +a sparsely-peopled region--a desert with an occasional oasis, and +legitimately describes it as such. The traveller through the +"Bakhtiari mountains," and from Burujird through Western Persia up to +the Sea of Urmi, seeing the superb pasturages and perennial streams of +the Zard-Kuh, the Sabz-Kuh, and the Kuh-i-Rang, and the vast area of +careful cultivation, sprinkled with towns and villages, which extends +from a few miles north of Burujird to the walls of Urmi and far +beyond, may with equal fidelity describe it as a land of abounding +waters, a peopled and well-watered garden. + +The direction of my journey has been fully indicated. It is only from +the descriptions of others that I know anything of the arid wastes of +Eastern Persia or of the moist and malarious provinces bordering on +the Caspian Sea, with their alluvial valleys and rice grounds, and +their jungle and forest-covered mountains, or of the verdureless +plains and steppes of Kerman and Laristan. + +Persia proper, the country which has supplied the race which has +evinced such a remarkable vitality and historic continuity, may be +described as a vast plateau from 3500 to 6000 feet in altitude, +extending on the east into Afghanistan, on the north-west into +Armenia, and overlooking the Caspian to the north, and the Persian +Gulf and the vast levels of Mesopotamia to the south and south-west. + +To reach this platform from the south, lofty ranges, which include the +_kotals_ of Shiraz, must be crossed. From the Tigris valley on the +west it is only accessible by surmounting the Zagros chain and lesser +ranges; and to attain it from the north the traveller must climb the +rocky pathways of the Elburz mountains. This great "Iranian plateau," +except in Eastern Persia, is intersected both by mountain ranges and +detached mountain masses, which store up in their sunless hollows the +snowfall on which all Persian agriculture depends, the rainfall being +so scanty as to be of little practical value. + +Thus the possibility of obtaining supplies of water from the melting +snows dictates the drift of population, and it seems unlikely that the +plains of Eastern Persia, where no such supplies exist, were ever more +populous than now. It was otherwise with parts of Central Persia, now +lying waste, for the remains of canals and _kanaats_ attest that a +process of local depopulation has been going on. It is the +configuration of the country rather than anything else which accounts +for the unpeopled wastes in some directions, and the constant +succession of towns and populous villages in others. + +Of the population thus distributed along hill slopes and on the plains +at the feet of the ranges, there is no accurate record, and the total +has been variously estimated at from six to nine millions. Estimates +of the urban and village populations were in most cases supplied to me +by the Persian local officials, but from these I am convinced that it +is necessary to make a very liberal deduction. General Schindler, a +gentleman for some years in the Persian Government service, who has +travelled over a great part of Persia with the view of ascertaining +its resources and condition, in the year 1885 estimated its population +at 7,653,000. In his analysis the Christian and the Bakhtiari and +Feili Lur populations are, according to present information, greatly +under-estimated. + +If I may venture to hazard an opinion, after travelling over a +considerable area of Western Persia, it would be that the higher +estimate is nearest the mark, for the natural increase in time of +peace, as accepted by statists, is three-quarters per cent per annum, +and Persia has had peace and freedom from famine for very many +years.[37] + +The country population consists of _rayats_ or permanent cultivators, +and Ilyats or nomadic pastoral tribes. Coal-fields and lead and iron +may hereafter produce commercial centres, but the industry of Persia +at present may be said to be nearly altogether agricultural. + +The settled peasant population, so far as I am able to judge, is well +fed and fairly well clothed, and the habitations suit the climate. The +people are poor, but not with the poverty of Europe--that is, except +in famine years, there is no scarcity of the necessaries of life, with +the single exception of fuel. + +The wages of the agricultural labourer vary from 5d. a day with food +to 9d. without; a skilled mason earns 1s. 6d., a carpenter 1s. 4d. +Men-servants get from 17s. to L2 per month, nominally without board, +but with _modakel_ and other pickings; female servants much less. +Prices are, however, low. Clothing, tea, coffee, and sugar cost about +the same as in Europe. The cotton worn by the poor is very cheap. +Wheat, which is sold by weight, costs at harvest-time from 7s. 6d. to +15s. per load of 320 lbs. I have been told by several cultivators that +a man can live and bring up an average family on something under L6 a +year. + +I did not see anything like "grinding poverty" in the villages. If it +existed, the old and helpless could scarcely be supported by their +relatives, and the women, in spite of the seclusion of custom and +faith, would be compelled to work in the fields, a "barbarism" which I +never saw in Persia among Moslems. + +In both town and country the working classes appeared to me to be as +comfortable and, on the whole, as happy as people in the same +condition in life in most other countries, with the exception, and +that not a small one, of their liability to official exactions. The +peasants are grossly ignorant, hardy, dirty, bigoted, domestic, +industrious, avaricious, sober, and tractable, and ages of misrule +have developed in them many of the faults of oppressed Oriental +peoples. Of the country outside of the district in which they live +they usually know nothing, they detest the local governors, but to +the Shah they willingly owe, and are ready to pay, a right loyal +allegiance. + +My impression of the Persians of the trading and agricultural classes +is that they are thoroughly unwarlike, fairly satisfied if they are +let alone, unpatriotic, and apparently indifferent to the prospect of +a Russian "occupation." Their bearing is independent rather than +manly; their religious feelings are strong and easily offended; their +sociability and love of fun come out strongly in the freedom of their +bazars. Europeans do not meet with anything of the grovelling +deference to which we are accustomed in India. If there be +obsequiousness in stereotyped phraseology, there is none in manner. We +are treated courteously as strangers, but are made to feel that we are +in no wise essential to the well-being of the country, and a European +traveller without introductions to the Provincial authorities finds +himself a very insignificant person indeed. + +Governors and the governed are one. They understand each other, and +are of one creed, and there is no ruling alien race to interfere with +ancient custom or freedom of action, or to wound racial +susceptibilities with every touch. Even the traditional infamies of +administration are expected and understood by those whom they chiefly +concern. + +The rich men congregate chiefly in the cities. It is very rare to find +any but the poorer Khans, Aghas or proprietors of villages, men little +removed from the peasants around them, living on their own properties. +The wealthy _Seigneur_, the lord of many villages, resides in Tihran, +Kirmanshah, or Isfahan; pays a _nasr_, who manages his estate and +fleeces his tenants, and spends his revenues himself on urban +pleasures. The purchase of villages and their surrounding lands is a +favourite investment. This system of absenteeism not only prevents +that friendly contact between landowner and peasant which is such a +desirable feature of proprietorship, but it leaves the villages +exposed to the exactions of the _nasr_, and without a semblance of +protection from the rapacious demands of the provincial authorities. +It is noteworthy that fortunes made in trade are seeking investment in +land. + +The upper classes in Persia appear to me to differ widely from +Orientals, as they are supposed to be, and often really are. They love +life intensely, fill it with enjoyment, and neither regard existence +as a task to be toiled through nor as a burden to be got rid of. +Handsome, robust, restless, intelligent, imaginative, accumulative, +vivacious, polished in manner and speech, many of them excellent +linguists, well acquainted with their own literature, especially with +their poets; lavish, alike in expenditure on personal luxuries and in +charity to the poor; full of artistic instincts, and loving to +surround themselves with the beautiful, inquisitive, adaptable; +addicted to sport and out-of-doors life, untruthful both from +hereditary suspiciousness and excess of courtesy--the Persian +gentleman has an individuality of his own which is more nearly akin to +the French or Russian than to the Oriental type. + +My impressions of the morals both of the Persian peasantry and the +Bakhtiari Lurs are, as to some points, rather favourable than the +reverse, and I think and hope that there is as much domestic affection +and fidelity as is compatible with a religion which more or less +effectually secures the degradation of woman. The morals of the upper +classes are, I believe, very easy. In various carefully written +papers, one of them at least official, very painful glimpses have been +given incidentally into the state of Persian upper-class morality, and +undoubtedly the intrigues of the _andarun_ are as unfavourable to +purity as they are to happiness. + +For the traveller the greater part of Persian territory is absolutely +safe. I have ridden on horseback through it at every season of the +year, in some regions without an escort, in others with Persian or +Kurdish guards supplied by the local authorities, and was never +actually the victim of any form of robbery, except the pilfering from +an unguarded tent. Though travelling with only an Indian servant, I +found the provincial authorities everywhere courteous, and ready to +aid my journey by every means within their power, though in Persia as +elsewhere I never claimed, and indeed never received, any special +favour on the ground of sex. + +A few darker shadows remain to be put in. There is no education truly +so called for Persians, except in Tihran, and under the existing +system the next generation is not likely to be more enlightened than +the present. All the towns and the larger villages possess mosque +schools, in which the highest education bestowed is a smattering of +Arabic and a knowledge of the tales of _Saadi_. The Persian characters +are taught, and some attention is paid to caligraphy, for a man who +can write well is sure to make a fair living. The parrot-like reading +of the Koran in Arabic is the _summum bonum_ of the teaching. Very few +of the boys in the village schools learn to write, but if a clever lad +aspires to be a _mirza_ or secretary he pays great attention to the +formation of the Persian characters, and acquires that knowledge of +compliment, phrase, and trope which is essential to his proposed +calling. + +Pleading, waiting, and the elements of arithmetic are usual among the +bazar class and merchants, but with the rest the slight knowledge of +reading acquired in childhood is soon forgotten, and the ability to +repeat a few verses from the Koran and a few prayers in Arabic is all +that remains of the mosque school "education." School discipline is +severe, and the rope and pulley and bastinado are used as instruments +of punishment. + +A few young men in the cities, who are destined to be _mollahs_, +_hak[=i]ms_, or lawyers, proceed to the _Medressehs_ or Colleges, +where they acquire a thorough knowledge of Arabic, do some desultory +reading, and "hang on" to their teachers, at whose feet they literally +sit on all occasions, and after a few years have been spent in rather +a profitless way they usually find employment. + +Government _employes_, courtiers, the higher officers in the army, +diplomats, and sons of wealthy Khans receive the rudiments of a +liberal education in the College at Tihran, where they frequently +acquire a very creditable knowledge of French. + +The admirable schools established by the American and English +missionaries at Urmi, Tihran, Tabriz, Hamadan, and Julfa affect only +the Armenians and Syrians and a few Jews and Zoroastrians. Outside of +these there is neither intellectual nor moral training, and even the +simplest duties of life, such as honesty, truthfulness, and regard for +contract, are never inculcated. + +It may be supposed that in conformity with the Moslem axiom, "not to +open the eyes of a woman too wide," the bulk of Persian women are not +thought worthy of any education at all. A few of the daughters of rich +men can read the Koran, but without comprehending it, and can both +read and recite poetry. + +Throughout the country, law, that is the _Urf_ or unwritten law, a +mass of precedents and traditions orally handed down and administered +by secular judges--is not held in any respect at all, and while the +rich can override it by bribery, the poor regard it only as a +commodity which is bought and sold, and which they are too poor to +buy. + +The other department of Persian law, the _Sh[=a]hr_, which is based +upon the Koran, and is administered by religious teachers, takes +cognisance chiefly of civil cases, and its administration is nearly as +corrupt as that of the _Urf_. Law, in the sense in which we understand +it, as the avenger of wrong and the sublimely impartial protector of +individual rights and liberties, has no existence at all in Persia. + +The curse of the country is venal mal-administration. It meets one at +every turn, and in protean shapes. There is no official conscience, +and no public opinion to act as a check upon official +unscrupulousness. Of Government as an institution for the good of the +governed there is no conception. The greed, which is among the most +painful features of Persian character, finds its apotheosis in +officialism. From the lowest to the highest rounds of the official +ladder unblushing bribery is the _modus operandi_ of promotion. + +It is very obvious that the Shah himself is the Government. He is an +absolute despot, subject to no controlling influences but the +criticisms of the European press, and the demands of the European +Legations. He is the sole executive. His ministers are but servants of +the highest grade, whose duties consist in carrying out his orders. +The lives and properties of all his subjects are held only at his +pleasure. His sons are but his tools, to be raised or degraded at his +will, and the same may be said of the highest personages in the +Empire. The Shah is the State,--irresponsible and all-powerful. + +Nasr-ed-Din is a most diligent ruler. No pleasures, not even the +chase, to which he is devoted, divert his attention from business. He +takes the initiative in all policy, guides with a firm hand the +destinies of Persia, supervises every department, appoints directly to +all offices of importance, and by means known to absolute rulers has +his eyes in every part of his dominions. He is regarded as a very +able man,--his European travels have made him to some extent an +enlightened one. + +His reign of forty-two years has been disfigured, especially in its +earlier portion, by some acts which we should regard as great crimes, +but which do not count as such in Oriental judgment; neither are the +sale of offices, the taking of bribes under the disguise of presents, +the receiving of what is practically _modakel_, or exactions upon rich +men, repugnant in the slightest degree to the Oriental mind. + +Remembering the unwholesome traditions of his throne and dynasty, we +must give him full credit for everything in which he makes a new +departure. Surrounded by intrigue, hampered by the unceasing political +rivalry between England and Russia, thwarted by the obstructive +tactics of the latter at every turn, and with the shadow of a Russian +occupation of the northern provinces of the Empire looming in a not +far distant future, any step in the direction of reform taken by the +Shah involves difficulties of which the outer world has no conception, +not only in braving the antagonism of his powerful neighbour, and her +attempted interference with the internal concerns of Persia, but in +overcoming the apathy of his people and the prejudices of his +co-religionists. + +As it is, under him Persia has awakened partially from her long sleep. +The state of insecurity described by the travellers of thirty and +forty years ago no longer exists. Far feebler than Turkey, Persia, +through the resolute will of one man, has eclipsed Turkey altogether +in suppressing brigandage, in subduing the Kurds and other nomadic +tribes, in securing safety for travellers and caravans even on the +remoter roads, and in producing tolerable contentment among the +Armenian and Nestorian populations. + +Under him the authority of the central Government has been +consolidated, the empty treasury has been filled, the +semi-independence of the provincial governors has been broken, Persia +has been re-created as a coherent Empire, certain roads have been +made, posts and telegraphs have been inaugurated, an Imperial Bank +with branches in some of the principal towns has been formed, foreign +capital has been encouraged or at least permitted to enter the +country, a concession for the free navigation of the Karun has been +granted, and the _Nasiri_ Company, the most hopeful token of native +progress, has received Imperial favour. + +But under all this lies the inherent rottenness of Persian +administration, an abyss of official corruption and infamy without a +bottom or a shore, a corruption of heredity and tradition, unchecked +by public opinion or the teachings of even an elementary education in +morals and the rudiments of justice. There are few men pure enough to +judge their fellows or to lift clean hands to Heaven, and power and +place are valued for their opportunities for plunder. + +In no part of Persia did I hear any complaint of the tribute levied by +the Shah. It is regarded as legitimate. But in most districts +allegations concerning the rapacity and exactions of the provincial +governors were universal, and there is unfortunately great reason for +believing them well founded. The farming of the taxes, the practical +purchase of appointments, the gigantic system of bribery by which all +offices are obtained, the absence of administrative training and +supervision, the traditions of office, and the absolute dependence of +every official on the pleasure of a Sovereign surrounded by the +intrigues of an Oriental court, are conditions sufficient to destroy +the virtue of all but the best of men. + +Where all appointments are obtained practically by bribery, and no one +has any security in the tenure of an office of which slander, +bribery, or intrigue at Court may at any moment deprive him, it is +natural that the most coveted positions should be those in which the +largest perquisites can be made, and that their occupants should feel +it their bounden duty to "make hay while the sun shines,"--in other +words, to squeeze the people so long as there is anything left to +squeeze. The great drawback of the Persian peasant's life is that he +has no security for the earnings of labour. He is the ultimate sponge +to be sucked dry by all above him. Every official squeezes the man +below him, and the highest is squeezed by the Crown. + +Little, if any, of the revenue drawn from the country is spent on +works of public utility, and roads, bridges, official buildings, +fortifications, and all else are allowed to fall into disrepair. In +downright English the administration of government and law is +execrable, and there can be little hope of a resurrection for Persia +until the system under which she is impoverished be reformed or swept +away. + +But who is to cleanse this Augean stable? Who will introduce the +elementary principles of justice? Are tools of the right temper to +work with to be found among the men of this generation? Is the +dwarfing and narrowing creed[38] of Islam to be replaced or in any way +to be modified by Christianity? It looks very much as if the men to +initiate and carry out administrative and financial reforms are not +forthcoming, and that, unless the Shah is willing to import or borrow +them, the present system of official corruption, mendacity, bribery, +and obstruction may continue to prevail. + +The inherent weakness of Persia lies in her administrative system +rather than in her sparse population and paucity of fuel and water, a +paucity arising partly out of misgovernment. In the felt evils of this +system, and in the idea that law, equitable taxation, and security for +the earnings of labour are distinctively European blessings, lies a +part of the strength of Russia in Persia. I have elsewhere remarked +upon the indifference with which Russian annexation is contemplated. A +reformed system of administration, by giving the Persian people +something to live for and die for, would doubtless evoke the dormant +spirit of patriotism, and render foreign conquest, or acquisition +without conquest, a less easy task. + +After living for ten months among the Persian people, and fully +recognising their faults, I should regret to see them absorbed by the +"White Czar" or any other power. A country which for more than 2000 +years has maintained an independent existence, and which possesses +customs, a language, a civilisation, and a nationality of its own, and +works no injury to its neighbours, has certainly a _raison d'etre_. + +My early impressions of Persia were of effeteness and ruin, but as I +learned to know more of the vitality, energy, and industry of her +people, and of the capacities of her prolific soil, I have come to +regard her resurrection under certain circumstances as a possibility, +and cordially to echo the wish eloquently expressed by the Marquis of +Salisbury on the occasion of the Shah's last visit to England: "We +desire above all things that Persia shall not only be prosperous, but +be strong,--strong in her resources, strong in her preparations, +strong in her alliances,--in order that she may pursue the peaceful +path on which she has entered in security and tranquillity." I. L. B. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[37] On this subject there can be no better authority than the Hon. +George N. Curzon, M.P., who after careful study has estimated the +total population of Persia at over nine millions. + +[38] In _The Caliphate, its Rise, Decline, and Fall_, a valuable +recent work, its author, Sir W. Muir, K.C.S.I., dwells very strongly +on the narrowing influence of Islam on national life, and concludes +his review of it in the following words: "As regards the spiritual, +social, and dogmatic aspect of Islam, there has been neither progress +nor material change. Such as we found it in the days of the Caliphate, +such is it also at the present day. Christian nations may advance in +civilisation, freedom, and morality, in philosophy, science, and the +arts, but Islam stands still. And thus stationary, so far as the +lessons of its history avail, it will remain." In a chapter at the end +of his book he deals with polygamy, servile concubinage, temporary +marriages, and the law of divorce, as cankering the domestic life of +Mohammedan countries, and _infallibly neutralising all civilising +influences_. + + + + +LETTER XXVIII + + + KOCHANES, _Oct. 23_. + +The Kurdish _katirgis_ turned out very badly. They came at twelve +instead of eight, compelling me to do only a half-day's march. Then +they brought six horses instead of the four which had been bargained +for, and said they would "throw down the loads" if I did not take +them. Each night they insisted on starting the next morning at +daybreak, but no persuasions could get them off before eight. They +said they could not travel with a Christian except in broad daylight. +They would only drive a mile an hour, and instead of adhering to their +contract to bring me here in four days, took four to come half-way. On +the slightest remonstrance they were insolent and violent, and +threatened to "throw down the loads" in the most inconvenient places, +and they eventually became so mutinous that I was obliged to dismiss +them at the half-way halt at the risk of not getting transport any +farther.[39] + +The "throw on the road" from Urmi was a very large one, and consisted +of nearly all the English and American Mission clergy and two Syrians, +all on screaming, biting, kicking horses. It was a charming ride +through fruitful country among pleasant villages to Anhar. The wind +was strong and bracing. Clouds were drifting grandly over the +splendid mountains to the west, the ranges to the north were glorified +by rich blue colouring, purple in the shadows; among mountains on the +east the Urmi sea showed itself as a turquoise streak, and among +gardens and vineyards in the middle distance rose Zoroastrian cones of +ashes, and the great mound, which tradition honours as the scene of +the martyrdom of St. George. + +When all my kind friends left me, and I walked alone in the frosty +twilight on the roof of my comfortable room in the _Qasha's_ house, +and looked towards the wall of the frontier mountains through which my +journey lay, I felt an unwonted feeling of elation at the prospect +before me, which no possible perils from Kurds, or from the sudden +setting-in of winter could damp, and thus far the interest is much +greater even than I expected. + +The next morning I was joined by _Qasha_ ----, a Syrian priest, a man +of great learning and intelligence, a Turkish subject and landed +proprietor, who knows everybody in this region, and speaks English +well. He is fearfully anxious and timid, partly from a dread of being +robbed of his splendid saddle mule, and partly from having the +responsibility of escorting an English lady on a journey which has +turned out full of peril. + +On the long ascent from Anhar a bitter wintry wind prevailed, sweeping +over the tattered thistles and the pale belated campanulas which alone +remain of the summer flora, but the view from the summit was one of +rare beauty. The grandly drifting clouds of the night before had done +their work, and had draped the Kurdish mountains half-way down with +the first snows of winter, while the valley at their feet, in which +Merwana lies, was a smiling autumn scene of flowery pasturage and busy +harvest operations under the magic of an atmosphere of living blue. + +Merwana is a village of 100 houses, chiefly Christian, though it has +a Kurdish _ketchuda_. It is a rich village, or was, being both +pastoral and agricultural. The slopes are cultivated up to a great +height, and ox sleds bring the sheaves to the threshing-floor. The +grain is kept in great clay-lined holes under ground, covered with +straw and earth. I write that the village _was_ rich. Lately a cloud +of Kurds armed with rifles swooped down upon it towards evening, drove +off 900 sheep, and killed a man and woman. The villagers appealed to +Government, after which Hesso, a redoubtable Kurdish chief in its pay, +went up with a band of men to Marbishu, a Christian village in Turkey, +drove off 1460 sheep, and offered to repay Merwana with the stolen +property. As matters now stand 700 of the poorest of the sheep have +been restored to Marbishu, Merwana loses all, and Hesso and his six +robber brothers have gained 760. The sole hope of the plundered people +of both villages is in the intercession of Dr. Cochrane with the +Governor of Azerbijan.[40] + +As I reached Merwana at 10 A.M., and the _katirgis_, after raging for +an hour, refused to proceed, I took Mirza and _Qasha_ Bardah, the +priest under whose hospitable roof I lodged, with me, and went up the +valley to Ombar, the abode of Hesso, with the vague hope of "doing +something" for the poor people. The path lay among bright streams and +flowery pastures, the sun was warm, the air sharp, the mountains +uplifted their sunlit snows into a heaven of delicious blue, the ride +was charming. Hesso's village, consisting of a few very low rough +stone houses, overshadowed by great cones of _kiziks_, is well +situated on a slope above a torrent issuing from a magnificent cleft +in the mountain wall, at the mouth of which is a square keep on a +rock. + + [Illustration: HESSO KHAN.] + +Hesso's house is just a "but and a ben," with a door which involves +stooping. Its rough stone walls are unplastered, and the only light +admitted comes from a hole in the roof, which serves to let out the +smoke. I confess to a feeling of trepidation when I asked to see the +Kurdish chief, and I felt the folly of my errand. A superbly-dressed +Kurd took us into a room dense with tobacco smoke, which, from its +darkness, the roughness of its walls, and the lowness of its rude +roof, resembled a cave rather than a house. Yet Hesso receives L200 a +year from the Persian Government, and has apparently unlimited +opportunities for plunder. + +There were some coarse mats on the floor, and a _samovar_ with some +Russian glass tea-cups. Two Persian officials and a number of +well-armed and splendidly-dressed Kurds, with jewelled _khanjars_ and +revolvers in their girdles and rifles by their sides, sat or reclined +against the wall. Hesso himself leaned against a roll of bedding at +the upper end of the room, and space was made for us on the floor at +his left hand. A superb stage brigand he looked, in fitting +surroundings, the handsomest man I have seen in Persia, a large man, +with a large face, dark prominent eyes, a broad brow, a straight nose, +superb teeth, a fine but sensual mouth, a dark olive complexion, and a +false smile. A jewelled Kurdish turban with much crimson, a short +jacket and full trousers of a fine cream-coloured woollen fabric, an +embroidered silk shirt, socks of an elaborate pattern, a girdle of +many yards of Kashmir stuff, with eight knots, one above another, in +the middle, and a _khelat_ or coat of honour of rich Kerman brocade +formed his striking costume. In his girdle he wore a _khanjar_, with +an ebony hilt and scabbard ornamented with filigree gold knobs +incrusted with turquoises, attached to the girdle by a silver chain +two yards long, of heavy filigree balls, a beautiful piece of work. +Hesso's brothers, superb men, most picturesquely dressed, surrounded +him. The Kurds who handed round the tea and the jewelled _kalians_ +looked fantastic brigands. The scene was a picture. + +Of course my errand failed. I could not speak about the sheep through +the priest of the robbed village, and Hesso said that he could not +speak on any "political" subject before the Persians who were present. +The conversation was not animated, and _Qasha_ Bardah was very +nervous till Hesso turned round, and with an awakened expression of +face asked how it was that "England had allowed Turkey to grow so +feeble that her frontier and Armenia are in a state of anarchy"? +Hesso's handsome face is that of a villain. He does not look more than +thirty. He has 200 well-mounted marksmen at his disposal. The father +of this redoubtable Kurdish chief died in prison, where he was +confined by order of the Shah, and the son revenged himself by +harrying this part of the Shah's dominions, and with sixty men, +including his six brothers, successfully resisted a large Persian +force sent against him, and eventually escaped into Turkey, doing much +damage on his way. Hesso on arriving in Kerbela obtained a letter from +the Sheikh, or chief _Mollah_ there, saying that he offered his +submission to the Shah, and went to Tihran, where after seeing the +Shah's splendour he said that if he had known it before, he would not +have been in rebellion. + +Before this the Persians took a strong castle from the Kurds, and +garrisoned it with an officer and a company of soldiers. Up to it one +day went Hesso boldly, keeping the six men who went with him out of +sight, and thumped upon the gate till it was opened, saying he was a +bearer of despatches. He first shot the sentry dead, and next the +officer, who came to see what the disturbance was about. Meantime the +six men, by climbing on each other's shoulders, scaled the castle +wall, and by confused shouts and dragging of the stone roller to and +fro over the roof they made the garrison believe that it was attacked +by a large force, and it surrendered at discretion. The lives of the +soldiers were spared, but they were marched out in their shirts, with +their hands above their heads. + +The Merwana threshing-floor was guarded at night by ten men. The +following morning we were to have started an hour before daylight, but +the _katirgis_ refused to load, and the Kurdish _ketchuda_, with his +horsemen, declined to start till an hour after sunrise, because he +could not earlier "tell friends from foes." The ground was covered +with hoar-frost, and the feathery foliage of the tamarisk was like the +finest white coral. + +Turning into the mountains, we spent nine hours in a grand defile, +much wooded, where a difficult path is shut in with the Marbishu +torrent. The Kurds left us at Bani, when two fine fellows became our +protectors as far as a small stream, crossing which we entered Turkey. +At a Kurdish semi-subterranean village, over which one might ride +without knowing it, a splendidly-dressed young Khan emerged from one +of the burrows, and said he would give us guards, but they would not +go farther than a certain village, where two of his men had been +killed three days before. "There is blood between us and them," he +said. After that, for five hours up to Marbishu, the scenery is +glorious. The valley narrows into a picturesque gorge between +precipitous mountains, from 2000 to 4000 feet above the river, on the +sides of which a narrow and occasionally scaffolded path is carried, +not always passable for laden mules. Many grand ravines came down upon +this gorge, their dwarf trees, orange, tawny, and canary-yellow, +mingled with rose-red leafage. The rose bushes are covered with masses +of large carnation-red hips, the bramble trailers are crimson and +gold, the tamarisk is lemon-yellow. Nature, like the dolphin, is most +beautiful in dying. + +The depths were filled with a blue gloom, the needle-like peaks which +tower above glittered with new-fallen snow, the air was fresh and +intoxicating--it was the romance of travel. But it soon became +apparent that we were among stern and even perilous realities. A +notorious robber chief was disposed to bar our passage. His men had +just robbed a party of travellers, and were spread over the hill. +They took a horse from Johannes, but afterwards restored it on certain +conditions. Farther on we met a number of Kurds, with thirty fat sheep +and some cattle, which they were driving off from Marbishu. Then the +_katirgis_ said that they would go no farther than the village, for +they heard that robbers were lying in wait for us farther on! + +In the wildest part of the gorge, where two ravines meet, there is +fine stoneless soil, tilled like a garden; the mountains fall a little +apart--there are walnuts, fruit trees, and poplars; again the valley +narrows, the path just hangs on the hillside, and I was riding over +the roofs of village houses for some time before I knew it. The hills +again opened, and there were flourishing breadths of turnips, and +people digging potatoes, an article of food and export which was +introduced by the missionaries forty years ago. The glen narrowed +again, and we came upon the principal part of Marbishu--rude stone +houses in tiers, burrowing deeply into the hills, with rock above and +rock below on the precipitous sides of a noisy torrent, crossed by two +picturesque log bridges, one of the wildest situations I have ever +seen, and with a wintry chill about it, for the sun at this season +deserts it at three. Rude, primitive, colourless, its dwellings like +the poorest cowsheds, its church like a Canadian ice-house, clinging +to mountain sides and spires of rock, so long as I remember anything I +shall remember Marbishu. + +Steep narrow paths and steep rude steps brought us to a three-sided +yard, with a rough verandah where cooking and other operations were +going on, and at the entrance we were cordially welcomed by _Qasha_ +Ishai, the priest. After ascertaining that it would be very dangerous +to go farther, I crossed the river to the church, which is one of the +finest in the country, and a place of pilgrimage. The village is noted +for its religious faithfulness. The church is said to be 850 years +old--a low, flat-roofed, windowless stone building. Either it was +always partially subterranean, or the earth has accumulated round it, +for the floor is three feet below the ground outside. The entrance is +by a heavy door two feet six inches high. Inside it is as nearly dark +as possible. Two or three circular holes at a great height in the +enormously thick wall let in as many glimmers, but artificial light is +necessary. There are several small ante-chapels. In two are rude and +ancient tombs of ancient bishops, plain blocks of stone, with crosses +upon them. In another is a rough desk, covered with candle droppings, +on which the _Liturgy of the Apostles_ lay open, and on it a cross, +which it is the custom to kiss. A fourth is used for the safe keeping +of agricultural implements. Two are empty, and one of these serves the +useful purpose of a mortuary chapel. The church proper is very small +and high. The stone floor has been worn into cavities by the feet of +worshippers; the walls, where not covered with lengths of grimy +printed cotton, are black with the candle smoke of ages. The one sign +of sacred use is a rude stone screen at the east end, at openings in +the front of which the people receive the Eucharist. Behind this is +the sanctuary, into which the priest alone, and he fasting, may enter. +Old brass lamps and candelabra, incrusted with blackened tallow, hang +from the roof, and strings of little bells from wall to wall, which +are plucked by each recipient of the sacred elements as he returns to +his "stand." + +In this gloomy vault-like building prayers are said, as in all +Nestorian churches, at sunrise and sunset by the priest in his +ordinary clothing, the villagers being summoned by the beating of a +mallet on a board.[41] + +The church is a place of refuge when a Kurdish attack is expected. +Nine years ago the people carried into it all their movables that they +valued most, believing it to be secure, but the Kurds broke in in +force and took all they wanted. The few sacred treasures of the +village and the Eucharistic leaven are hidden in an elevated recess in +the wall. The graveyard, which contains only a few flat slabs imbedded +in the soil, is the only possible camping-ground; but though it is +clean and neat, it looked so damp and felt so cold that I preferred to +accept a big room with walls six feet thick in the priest's house, +even though it overhangs the torrent with its thunder and clash. + +Many a strange house I have seen, but never anything so striking as +the dwelling of _Qasha_ Ishai. Passing through the rude verandah, and +through a lofty room nearly dark, with a rough stone dais, on which +were some mattresses, and berths one above another, I stumbled in +total darkness into a room seventy feet by forty, and twenty feet or +more high in its highest part. It has no particular shape, and wanders +away from this lofty centre into low irregular caverns and recesses +excavated in the mountain side. Parts of the floor are of naked rock, +parts of damp earth. In one rocky recess is a powerful spring of pure +water. The roofs are supported on barked stems of trees, black, like +the walls, wherever it was possible to see them, with the smoke of two +centuries. Ancient oil lamps on posts or in recesses rendered darkness +visible. Goat-skins, with the legs sticking out, containing butter, +hanging from the blackened cross-beams, and wheat, apples, potatoes, +and onions in heaps and sacks, piles of wool, spinning-wheels, great +wooden cradles here and there, huge oil and water jars, wooden stools, +piles of bedding, ploughs, threshing instruments, long guns, swords, +spears, and gear encumbered the floor, while much more was stowed away +in the dim caverns of the rock. + +I asked the number of families under the roof. "Seven ovens," was the +reply. This meant seven families, and it is true that three +generations, seventy-two persons, live, cook, sleep, and pursue their +avocations under that patriarchal roof. + +The road is a bad one for laden beasts, and very dangerous besides, +and the few travellers who visit Kochanes usually take the caravan +route from Urmi _via_ Diza, and the fact of an English person passing +through Marbishu with a letter to the Turkish authorities was soon +"noised abroad," and I was invited to spend the evening in this most +picturesque house. All the inmates were there, and over a hundred of +the villagers besides; and cooking, baking, spinning, carding wool, +knitting, and cleaning swords and guns went on all the time. There +were women and girls in bright red dresses; men reclining on bedding +already unrolled on the uneven floor, or standing in knots in their +picturesque dresses leaning on their long guns, with daggers gleaming +in their belts; groups seated round the great fire, in the uncertain +light of which faces gleamed here and there in the dim recesses, while +the towering form of _Qasha_ Ishai loomed grandly through the smoke, +as the culmination of the artistic effect. + +The subject discussed was equally interesting to the Syrians and to +me,--the dangers of the pass and the number of guards necessary. We +talked late into the night, and long before I left the female and +juvenile part of the family had retired to their beds. Again I heard +of Hesso's misdeeds, of the robbery of 1400 sheep; of the driving off +on the previous morning of thirty sheep which they were about to +barter for their winter supply of wheat; of the oppressive taxation, +100 _liras_ (nearly L100) on 100 houses; of the unchecked depredations +of the Kurds, which had increased this summer and autumn, leaving them +too poor to pay their taxes; of a life of peril and fear and +apprehension for their women, which is scarcely bearable; of the +oppression of man and the silence of God. Underlying all is a feeling +of bitter disappointment that England, which "has helped the oppressed +elsewhere, does nothing for us." They thought, they said, "that when +the English priests came it was the beginning of succour, and that the +Lord was no longer deaf, and our faces were lightened, but now it is +all dark, and there is no help in God or man." + +I now find myself in the midst of a state of things of which I was +completely ignorant, and for which I was utterly unprepared, and in a +region full of fear and danger, in which our co-religionists are the +nearly helpless prey of fanatical mountaineers, whose profession is +robbery. + + [Illustration: A SYRIAN FAMILY.] + +Looking round on the handsome men and comely women, who would greet +the sunrise with Christian prayer and praise, and whose ancestors have +worshipped Christ as God for fourteen centuries in these mountain +fastnesses, I wondered much at my former apathy concerning them. It is +easier to _feel_ them our fellow-Christians on the spot than to put +the feeling into words, but writing here in the house of their +Patriarch, the _Catholicos_ of the East, I realise that the Cross +signed on their brows in baptism is to them as to us the symbol of +triumph and of hope; that by them as by us the Eucharistic emblems are +received for the life of the soul, "in remembrance of Christ's +meritorious Cross and Passion"; that through ages of accumulating +wrongs and almost unrivalled misery, they like us have worshipped the +crucified Nazarene as the crowned and risen Christ, that to Him with +us they bend the adoring knee, and that like us they lay their dead in +consecrated ground to await through Him a joyful resurrection. + +There were five degrees of frost during the night, and as I lay awake +from cold the narratives I had heard and the extraordinary state of +things in which I so unexpectedly found myself made a very deep +impression on me. There, for the first time in my life, I came into +contact with people grossly ignorant truly, but willing to suffer "the +loss of all things," and to live in "jeopardy every hour" for +religious beliefs, which are not otherwise specially influential in +their lives. My own circumstances, too, claimed some consideration, +whether to go forward, or back to Urmi. It is obvious from what I hear +that the bringing my journey to Erzerum to a successful issue will +depend almost altogether on my own nerve, judgment, and power of +arranging, and that at best there will be serious risks, hardships, +and difficulties, which will increase as winter sets in. After nearly +coming to the cowardly decision to return, I despised myself for the +weakness, and having decided that some good to these people might come +from farther acquaintance with their circumstances, I fell asleep, and +now the die is cast. + +We were ready at daybreak the next morning, but for the same reasons +as those given at Merwana did not start till seven for an eleven +hours' march. I took two armed horsemen and six armed footmen, all +fine fellows used to the work of reconnoitring and protecting. Three +of them scouted the whole time high up on the sides of the pass, not +with the purposeless sensational scouting of Persian _sowars_, but +with the earnestness of men who were pledged to take us safely +through, and who live under arms to protect their property and +families. + +After five hours of toiling up the Drinayi Pass, taking several deep +fords, and being detained by a baggage horse falling fifty feet with +his load, we crossed the summit, and by a long descent through hills +of rounded outlines covered with uncut sun-cured hay, reached the +plain of Gawar, where the guards left us. On the way we passed the +small Christian hamlet of Eyal, which was robbed of its sheep with the +sacrifice of the shepherd's life the following night. At the village +of Yekmala on the plain the Kurdish _katirgis_ by a shameful exaction +got us into great trouble, and there was a fight, in which Johannes's +gun was wrested from him, and some of my things were taken, the Kurds +meantime driving off their animals at a fast trot. The aspect of +affairs was so very bad and the attack on my men so violent that I +paid the value of the Kurdish depredations, and we got away. A little +farther on the _katirgis_ were extremely outrageous, and began to +fulfil their threat of "throwing down their loads," but I persuaded +_Qasha_ ----, who was alarmed and anxious, to leave them behind, and +they thought better of it. + +The mountain-girdled plain of Gawar is a Paradise of fertility, with +abundant water, and has a rich black soil capable of yielding twenty +or thirtyfold to the cultivator. On it is the town of Diza, chiefly +Armenian, which is a Turkish customs station, a military post, and the +residence of a Kaimakam. There are over twenty Christian as well as +some Moslem villages on Gawar, and a number of Kurdish hamlets and +"castles" on the slopes and in the folds of the hills above it. + +The sun was sinking as we embarked on the plain, and above the waves +of sunset gold which flooded it rose the icy spires and crags of the +glorious Jelu ranges and the splintered Kanisairani summits. The +plain has an altitude of over 6000 feet, and there was a sharp frost +as we dismounted at the village of Pirzala and put up at the house of +the _Malek_ David, having been eleven and a half hours in the saddle. +After consulting with him and other village worthies I dismissed the +_katirgis_ and paid them more than their contract price. The next +morning they swore by the Prophet's beard, and every other sacred +thing, that they had not been paid, and when payment was proved by two +respectable witnesses, they were not the least abashed. Poor fellows! +They know no better and are doubtless very poor. I was glad to get rid +of their sinister faces and outbreaks of violence, but for some days +it was impossible, being harvest-time, to obtain transport to +Kochanes, though I was able to leave Pirzala for other villages. + +The next day mists rolled down the mountains, and a good cold English +rain set in, in which I had a most pleasant ride to Diza, which was +repeated the following day in glorious weather, the new-fallen snow +coming half-way down the mountain sides. I was surreptitiously on +Turkish soil, and it was necessary to show my passport to the Diza +officials, get a permit to travel, and have my baggage examined. Ishu, +the present _Malek_ of the plain, through whom all business between +the Christians and the Government is transacted, accompanied us to the +Mutessarif of Julamerik. + +Diza is an unwalled town on an eminence crowned by barracks. The +garrison of 200 men was reduced to six during the summer. The Kurds +evidently took the reduction as a hint to them to do what they liked, +and they have mercilessly ravaged and harried the plain for months +past.[42] An official assured me that 15,000 sheep have been driven +off from the Gawar Christian villages between the middle of June and +the 17th of October, partly by the nomad Herkis. There are now sixty +soldiers at Diza, and the Mutessarif of Julamerik is there, having +come down to capture Abdurrahman Bey, one of the great oppressors of +the Christians,--an attempt rendered abortive (it is said) by a bribe +given by the Bey to the commanding officer of the troops. + +I was interested in my first visit to a Turkish official. His room was +above a stable, with a dark and difficult access, and the passages +above were crowded with soldiers. The Mutessarif sat on a divan at the +upper end of a shabby room, an elderly man much like Mr. Gladstone, +very courteous and gentlemanly, with plenty of conversation and +_savoir-faire_. He said that the letter I carry is "a very powerful +document," that it supersedes all the usual formalities, that my +baggage would not even be looked at, and that I should not require a +_teskareh_ or permit. By his advice I called on the Kaimakam, and in +each room a soldier brought in delicious coffee. The Kaimakam was also +very courteous, and talked agreeably and intelligently, both taking +the initiative, as etiquette demands. + +In this and in the general tone there was a marked difference between +Persian and Turkish officialdom. The Persian Governor is surrounded by +civilians, the Turkish by soldiers, and in the latter case the manner +assumed by subordinates is one of the most profound respect. The +sealing of my passport took a considerable time, during which, with +_Qasha_ ----, I paid several visits, was regaled with Armenian +cookery, tried to change a _mejidieh_ at the Treasury, but found it +absolutely empty, and went to see a miracle-working New Testament, +said to be of great antiquity, in an Armenian house. It was hanging on +the wall in a leather bag, from which depended strings of blue and +onyx beads. Sick people come to it even from great distances, as well +as the friends of those who are themselves too ill to travel. The bag +can only be opened by a priest. The power of healing depends on a sum +of money being paid to the priest and the owners. The sick person +receives a glass bead, and is forthwith cured. + +On Gawar Plain I lodged in the village houses, either in +semi-subterranean hovels, in which the families live with their horses +and buffaloes, or in rooms over stables. Very many sick people came to +me for medicines, and others with tales of wrong for conveyance to +"the Consul" at Erzerum. No one seemed to trust any one. These +conversations were always held at night in whispers, with the candle +hidden "under a bushel," the light-holes filled up with straw, the +door barred or a heavy stone laid against it, and a watch outside. + +The Gawar Christians are industrious and inoffensive, and have no +higher aspiration than to be let alone, but they are the victims of a +Kurdish rapacity which leaves them little more than necessary food. +Their villages usually belong to Kurdish Aghas who take from them +double the lawful taxes and tithes. The Herkis sweep over the plain in +their autumn migration "like a locust cloud," carrying off the +possessions of the miserable people, spoiling their granaries and +driving off their flocks. The Kurds of the neighbouring slopes and +mountains rob them by violence at night, and in the day by exactions +made under threat of death. The latter mode of robbery is called +"demand." The servants of a Kurdish Bey enter and ask for some jars of +oil or _roghan_, a Kashmir shawl, women's ornaments, a jewelled +dagger, or a good foal, under certain threats, or they show the owner +a bullet in the palm of the hand, intimating that a bullet through his +head will be his fate if he refuses to give up his property or informs +any one of the demand. + +In this way (among innumerable other instances) my host at ----,[43] a +much-respected man, had been robbed of five valuable shawls, such as +descend from mother to daughter, four handsome coats, and 300 _krans_ +in silver. In the last two years ten and fifteen loads of wheat have +been taken from him, and four four-feet jars filled with oil and +_roghan_. Four hundred and fifty sheep have likewise been seized by +violence, leaving him _with only fifteen_; and one night while I was +at his house fifty-three of the remaining village sheep, some of which +were his, were driven off in spite of the guards, who _dare not +fire_. I was awakened by the disturbance, and as it was a light night +I saw that the Kurds who attacked the sheepfold were armed with modern +guns. The _reis_ of that village and this man's brother have both been +shot by the Kurds. + +Testimony concurred in stating that the insecurity of life and +property has enormously increased this summer, especially since the +reduction of the Diza garrison; that "things have grown very much +worse since the Erzerum troubles;" that the Kurds have been more +audacious in their demands and more reckless of human life; and that +of late they have threatened the Christians _as such_, saying that the +Government would approve of "their getting rid of them." Very little +of any value, the people said, was left to them, and the extreme +bareness of their dwellings, and the emptiness of their stables and +sheepfolds, while surrounded with possibilities of pastoral and +agricultural wealth, tend to sustain their statements. "The men of +Government," they all said, "are in partnership with the Kurds, and +receive of their gains. This is our curse." + +Many women and girls, especially at Charviva and Vasivawa, have been +maltreated by the Kurds. A fortnight ago a girl, ten years old, going +out from ----, to carry bread to the reapers, was abducted. It became +known that two girls in ---- were to be carried off, and they were +hidden at first in a hole near ----. Their hiding-place last week was +known only to their father, who carried them food and water every +second night. He came to me in the dark secretly, and asked me to +bring them up here, where they might find a temporary asylum. Daily +and nightly during the week of my visit Gawar was harried by the +Kurds, who in two instances burned what they could not carry away, the +glare of the blazing sheaves lighting up the plain. + +The people of Gawar express great anxiety for teachers. The priests +and deacons must work like labourers, and cannot, they say, go down to +Urmi for instruction. A priest, speaking for two others, and for +several deacons who were present, said, "Beseech for a teacher to come +and sit among us and lighten our darkness before we pass away as the +morning shadows. We are blind guides, we know nothing, and our people +are as sheep lost upon the mountains. When they go down into the +darkness of their graves we know not how to give them any light, and +so we all perish." + +This request was made in one of the large semi-subterranean dwellings, +which serve for both men and beasts in Kurdistan. The firelight +flickered on horses and buffaloes, receding into the darkness, and the +square mud-platform on which we sat was framed by the long horns and +curly heads of mild-eyed oxen. + +I answered that it would be very difficult to raise money for such an +object in England. "But England is very rich," the priest replied. I +looked round, and the thought passed across my mind of Him "who though +He was rich yet for our sakes became poor," whose life of self-denial +from the stable at Bethlehem to the cross on Calvary is the example +for our own, and whose voice, ringing down through ages of luxury and +selfishness, still declares that discipleship involves a love for our +brethren equal to His own. Yes, "England is very rich," and these +Syrians are very poor, and have kept the faith through ages of +darkness and persecution. + +This plain, the richest in Kurdistan, is also most beautiful. In +winter a frozen morass, it is not dry enough for sowing till May, and +even June. This accounts for the lateness of the harvest. The Jelu +mountains, the highest in Central Kurdistan,--a mass of crags, spires, +and fantastic parapets of rock, with rifts and abysses of +extraordinary depth,--come down almost directly upon it. There is no +wood. The villages are all alike, surrounded just now by piles of +wheat and straw on their threshing-floors, with truncated cones of +fodder, and high smooth black cones of animal fuel. These are often +the only signs of habitations. One may ride over the roofs without +knowing that houses are below. + +Being entirely baffled by the difficulty of obtaining transport, I +went on to Gahgoran, and put up at the house of the parish priest, +where the subterranean granary allotted to me was so completely dark +that I sat all day in the sheepfold in order to be able to write and +work, shifting my position as the sun shifted his. A _zaptieh_ had +been sent from Diza, who guarded me so sedulously that _Qasha_ ---- +dared not speak to me, lest the man should think he was giving me +information. + +Gahgoran was full of strangers. The Patriarch had come down from +Kochanes, and occupied the only room in the village, whither I went to +pay my respects to him. The room was nearly dark, and foggy with +tobacco smoke, but a ray of light fell on Mar Gauriel, Bishop of Urmi, +a handsome full-bearded man in a Nestorian turban, full trousers, a +madder-red frock with a bright girdle in which a _khanjar_ glittered, +and a robe over all, a leader of armed men in appearance. I had met +him in Urmi, and he shook hands and presented me to Mar Shimun, a +swarthy gloomy-looking man. In his turn he presented me to Mar Sergis, +Bishop of Jelu, a magnificent-looking man with a superb gray beard, +the _beau-ideal_ of an Oriental ecclesiastic. _Maleks_ and headmen of +villages sat round the room against the wall, not met for any +spiritual conclave but for stern business regarding the taxes, for the +Patriarch is a salaried official of the Turkish Government. All rose +when I entered, and according to a polite custom stood till I sat +down. They held out no hope of getting baggage animals, and I +returned to the sheepfold. + +It was a long day. The servants did not arrive till night, and +Kochanes receded hourly! Many people came for medicine, and among them +a very handsome man whose house was entered by Kurds a month ago, who +threatened him with death unless he surrendered his possessions. After +this he and his brothers fled and hid among the wheat, but fearing to +be found and killed, they concealed themselves for a fortnight in the +tall reeds of a marsh. He is now subject to violent fits of trembling. +"My illness is fear," the poor fellow said. Three hundred sheep had +been taken from him and twenty-five gold _liras_; his grass had been +burned, "and now," he said, "the oppressor Hazela Bey says, 'give me +the deeds of your lands, if not I will kill you.'" He had been a +_Malek_, and was so rich that he entertained travellers and their +horses at all times. Now his friends have to give him wheat wherewith +to make bread. + +The house of _Qasha_ Jammo has granaries at each side of the low door, +a long dark passage leading into a subterranean stable with a platform +for guests, and a living-room, on a small scale, like the one at +Marbishu. A space was cleared in the granary for my bed among wheat, +straw, ploughs, beetles, starved cats, osier graintubs coated with +clay, six feet high, and agricultural gear of all sorts. It was a +horrid place, and the door would not bolt. After midnight I was +awakened by a sound as if big rats were gnawing the beams. I got up +and groping my way to the door heard it more loudly, went into the +passage, looked through the chinks in the outer door, and saw a number +of Kurds armed with guns. I retreated and fired my revolver in the +granary, which roused the dogs, and the dogs roused the twenty +strangers who were receiving the priest's hospitality. In the stable +were fourteen horses, including my own two, and several buffaloes. The +Kurds had dug through the roof of the granary opposite mine, and +through its wall into the stable, and were on the point of driving out +the horses through the common passage when the hardy mountaineers +rushed upon them. The same night, though it was light and clear, +another house in Gahgoran was dug into, and a valuable horse belonging +to a man in the Patriarch's train was abstracted. A descent was also +made on the neighbouring village of Vasivawa, which has suffered +severely. Eight _zaptiehs_ employed by the villagers at a high price +to watch the threshing-floor, and my own _zaptieh_ escort, were close +at hand. + +Horses having at last been obtained from a Kurdish Bey, I left on +Tuesday, the Gahgoran people being stupefied with dismay at the +growing audacity of the Kurds. The mountain road was very dangerous, +but I travelled with Mar Gauriel and his train, thirteen well armed +and mounted men, besides armed servants on foot. The ice was half an +inch thick, but the sun was very hot. The mountain views were superb, +and the scenery altogether glorious, but the passes and hillsides are +not inhabited. We were ten hours on the journey, owing to the custom +of frequent halts for smoking and talking. + +In the afternoon a party of Syrians with some unladen baggage mules +came over the crest of a hill, preceded by a figure certainly not +Syrian. This was a fair-complexioned, bearded man, with hair falling +over his shoulders, dressed in a girdled cassock which had once been +black, tucked up so as to reveal some curious nether garments, Syrian +socks, and a pair of rope and worsted shoes, such as the mountaineers +wear in scaling heights. On his head, where one would have expected to +see a college "trencher," was a high conical cap of white felt with a +_pagri_ of black silk twisted into a rope, the true Tyari turban. +This was Mr. Browne, one of the English Mission clergy, who, from +living for nearly four years among the Syrians of the mountains, +helping them and loving them, has almost become one of them. He was +going to Diza to get winter supplies before his departure for one of +the most inaccessible of the mountain valleys, but with considerate +kindness turned back to Kochanes with me, and remains here until I +leave. This fortunate _rencontre_ adds the finishing touch to the +interest of this most fascinating Kurdistan journey. + +Crossing the Kandal Pass, we descended on the hamlet of Shawutha, +superbly situated on a steep declivity at the head of a tremendous +ravine leading to the Zab, blocked apparently by mountains +violet-purple against a crimson sky, with an isolated precipitous rock +in the foreground, crowned by an ancient church difficult of access. +Below the village are fair shelving lawns, with groups of great walnut +trees, hawthorn, and ash, yellow, tawny, and crimson--a scene of +perfect beauty in the sunset, while the fallen leaves touched the soft +green turf with ruddy gold. The camping-grounds were very fair, but +the villagers dared not let me camp. The Kurds were about, and had +exacted a ewe and lamb from every house. Owing to the influx of +strangers, it was difficult to get any shelter, and I slept in a horse +and ox stable, burrowed in the hillside, the passage to the family +living-room, without any air holes, hot and stifling, and used my +woollen sheets for curtains. The village is grievously smitten by the +"cattle plague." In telling me of the loss of "four bulls" within +three days, my host used an expression which is not uncommon here, "By +the wealth of God, and the head of Mar Shimun." + +Yesterday we descended 1500 feet, alongside of a torrent fringed with +scarlet woods, and halted where the Shawutha, Kochanes, and Diz +valleys meet at the fords of the Zab, here known as "the Pison, the +river of Eden." The Zab, only fordable at certain seasons, is there a +fast-flowing dark green river, fully sixty yards wide, deep enough to +take the footmen up to their waists, and strong enough to make them +stagger, with a lawn bright with autumnal foliage below the savage and +lofty mountains on its right bank. + +From the Zab we ascended the gorge of the Kochanes water by a wild +mountain path, at times cut into steps or scaffolded, and at other +times merely a glistening track over shelving rock, terminating in a +steep and difficult ascent to the fair green alp on which Kochanes +stands at the feet of three imposing peaks of naked rock--Quhaibalak, +Qwarah, and Barchallah. + +Thus I beheld at last the goal of my journey from Luristan, and was +not disappointed. Glorious indeed is this Kurdistan world of +mountains, piled up in masses of peaks and precipices, cleft by +ravines in which the Ashirets and Yezidis find shelter, every peak +snow-crested, every ravine flaming with autumn tints; and here, where +the ridges are the sharpest, and the rock spires are the most +imposing, on a spur between the full-watered torrents of the Terpai +and the Yezidi, surrounded on three sides by gorges and precipices, is +this little mountain village, the latest refuge of the Head of a +Church once the most powerful in the East. + +Kochanes consists of a church built on the verge of a precipice, many +tombs, a grove of poplars, a sloping lawn, scattered village houses +and barley-fields extending up the alp, and nearly on the edge of a +precipitous cliff the Patriarch's residence, a plain low collection of +stone buildings, having an arched entrance and a tower for refuge or +defence. The houses of his numerous relations are grouped near it. +Everything is singularly picturesque. The people, being afraid of an +attack from the Kurds, would not suffer me to pitch my tent on their +fair meadow, and Sulti, the Patriarch's sister, has installed me in a +good room in the house, looking across the tremendous ravine of the +Terpai upon savage mountains, the lower skirts of which are clothed +with the tawny foliage of the scrub oak, and their upper heights with +snow. + + I. L. B. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[39] I have since heard that these Kurds, a short time afterwards, +betrayed some Christian travellers into the hands of some of their own +people, by whom they were robbed and brutally maltreated. + +[40] I give the story as it was repeatedly told to me. It was a very +shady and complicated transaction throughout. + +[41] Dr. Cutts, in his interesting volume, _Christians Under the +Crescent in Asia_, gives the following translation of one of the +morning praises, which forms part of the daily prayer. The earlier +portion is chanted antiphonally in semi-choirs-- + +"_Semi-choir--1st._ At the dawn of day we praise Thee, O Lord: Thou +art the Redeemer of all creatures, give us by Thy mercy a peaceful +day, and give us remission of our sins. + +"_2d._ Cut not off our hope, shut not Thy door against our faces, and +cease not Thy care over us. O God, according to our worthiness reward +us not. Thou alone knowest our weakness. + +"_1st._ Scatter, O Lord, in the world love, peace, and unity. Raise up +righteous kings, priests, and judges. Give peace to the nations, heal +the sick, keep the whole, and forgive the sins of all men. + +"_2d._ In the way that we are going may Thy Grace keep us, O Lord, as +it kept the child David from Saul. Give us Thy mercy as we are +pressing on, that we may attain to peace according to Thy will. The +Grace which kept the prophet Moses in the sea, and Daniel in the pit, +and by which the companions of Ananias were kept in the fire, by that +Grace deliver us from evil. + +"_Whole choir._--In the morning we all arise, we all worship the +Father, we praise the Son, we acknowledge the Holy Spirit. The grace +of the Father, the mercy of the Son, and the hovering of the Holy +Spirit, the Third Person, be our help every day. Our help is in Thee. +In Thee, our true Physician, is our hope. Put the medicine of Thy +mercy on our wounds, and bind up our bruises that we be not lost. +Without Thy help we are powerless to keep Thy commandments. O Christ, +who helpest those who fulfil Thy will, keep Thy worshippers. We ask +with sighing, we beseech Thy mercy, we ask forgiveness from that +merciful One who opens His door to all who turn unto Him. Every day I +promise Thee that to-morrow I will repent: all my days are past and +gone, my faults still remain. O Christ, have mercy upon me, have mercy +upon me." + +[42] About Christmas 1890 in Constantinople I had an opportunity of +laying the state of the Gawar Christians and the reduction of the +garrison of Diza before His Highness Kiamil Pasha, then Grand Vizier. +He appeared deeply interested, and said that it was the purpose of his +Government to send troops up to the region as soon as the roads were +open. Since then I have heard nothing of these people, but to-day, as +this sheet is going to press, I have received the following news from +Dr. Shedd of Urmi: "You will be glad to know that Gawar is very much +changed for the better. The Turkish Governor has been removed, and +another of far better character and ability has the post. The Kurdish +robbers have been arrested, and their leader, Abdurrahman Bey, +killed."--_November 2_, 1890. + +[43] The complaints to which I became a listener were made by +_maleks_, bishops, priests, headmen, and others. Exaggerations +prevail, and the same story is often told with as many variations as +there are narrators. I cannot vouch for anything which did not come +under my own observation. Some narratives dissolved under +investigation, leaving a mere nucleus of fact. Those which I thought +worthy of being noted down--some of which were published in the +_Contemporary Review_ in May and June in two papers called _The Shadow +of the Kurd_--were either fortified by corroborative circumstances, or +rest on the concurrent testimony as to the main facts of three +independent narrators. + +In some cases I was asked to lay the statements before the British +Consul at Erzerum, with the names of the narrators as the authority on +which they rested, but in the greater number I was implored not to +give names or places, or any means of identification. "We are in fear +of our lives if we tell the truth," they urged. Sometimes I asked them +if they would abide by what they told me in the event of an +investigation by the British Vice-Consul at Van. "No, no, no, we dare +not!" was the usual reply. Under these circumstances, the only course +open to me is to withhold the names of persons and places wherever I +was pledged to do so, but as a guarantee of good faith I have placed +the statements, confidentially, with the names, in the hands of Her +Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. + + + + +LETTER XXIX + + + KOCHANES, _Oct. 27_. + +After two days the Patriarch arrived from Gahgoran with nearly forty +persons. To realise what this house is like, one must go back four +centuries, to the mode of living of the medieval barons of England. +Mar Shimun is not only a spiritual prince, but the temporal ruler of +the Syrians of the plains and valleys, and of the Ashirets or tribal +Syrians of the mountains of Central Kurdistan, as well as a judge and +a salaried official of the Turkish Government. He appoints the +_maleks_ or lay rulers of each district, where the office is not +hereditary, and possesses ecclesiastical patronage. For over four +centuries the Patriarch has been of the family of Shimun, which is +regarded as the royal family; and he is assisted in managing affairs +by a "family council." Kochanes is thus the ecclesiastical and +political metropolis of the Syrian nation, and the innumerable +disputes which arise among the people of this region are brought here +for judgment and arbitration. + +It is a crowded life. From sunrise to sunset the pavement outside the +rude hall of entrance, the great room, like that at Marbishu, where +Sulti presides, and the guest-chambers, are always thronged with men +waiting to be received by the Patriarch, sleeping on the big settle in +the hall, or cleaning swords and guns, or wrestling, performing feats +of horsemanship, playing chess, and eating. Sixty persons more or +less are guests here. Every one coming into the valley is received, +and horses are stabled while men are fed. Outside, sheep and fowls are +being continually killed, two or three sheep being required daily; +mules are departing for Diza for stores, or are returning with flour +and sugar; oxen are bringing in hay, and perpetual measuring and +weighing are going on. The cost of provisioning such an army of guests +is enormous, and presses heavily on the Patriarch's slender resources. +Intrigues are rife. In some ways every man's hand is against his +fellow, and the succession to the Patriarchate, although nominally +settled, is a subject of scheming, plotting, rivalries, and +jealousies. Then there are various appointments, secular and +spiritual, to be wrangled for, the difficult relations with Turkey to +be managed, and such a wavering policy to be shaped towards Rome and +American Presbyterianism as shall absolutely break with neither. + +Among the guests who come and go as they please, unquestioned, are +refugees from the barbarities of the Kurds, among the most pitiable of +whom is Mar ----, Bishop of ----, bereft under threat of death of his +Episcopal seal, and a fugitive from his diocese, which is almost +destroyed by violence and exactions. Few hours pass in which some +fresh tale of bloodshed, or the driving off of flocks, or the +attacking of travellers, or the digging into houses, is not brought up +here. A piteous state of alarm prevails. Mar Shimun, naturally feeble +and irresolute, and his family council are helpless. His dual position +aggravates his perplexities. Counsels are divided and paralysed. No +one knows where to turn for help on earth, and "the Lord is deaf," +some of the people say. + +On entering the house by an archway, where the heavily-bossed door +stands always open, a busy scene is to be witnessed in the hall, +which is roughly paved with irregular slabs of stone. On the rude +stone settle men are sitting or sleeping, or a carpenter is using it +as his bench, or a sheep is being cut up on it. At the end of a +passage is the "house," a high, big, blackened room, with shelving +floors of earth and rock, ovens in the floors, great _quaraghs_ +holding grain, piles of wood, men sawing logs, huge pots, goat-skins +of butter hanging from the rafters, spinning-wheels, a loom, great +roughly-cut joints of meat, piles of potatoes, women ceaselessly +making blankets of bread, to be used as tablecloths before being +eaten, preparations for the ceaseless meals involved by the unbounded +hospitality of the house, and numbers of daggered serving-men, old +women, and hangers-on. This room is only lighted from the doors and +from a hole in the roof. Nearly opposite is a low dark lobby, from +which opens my room, sixteen feet square, with walls three feet thick, +and Mar Shimun's room, about the same size, which serves him for +sleeping, eating, reception-room, and office. + +On the same side of the hall are two guest-rooms, now packed to their +utmost capacity, and a large room in which Ishai, the Patriarch's +half-brother, a young man of exceeding beauty, lives, with his lovely +wife, Asiat, and their four children. In a ruinous-looking tower +attached to the main building Mr. Browne has his abode, up a steep +ladder. Below there are houses inhabited by the Patriarch's relations, +one of whom, Marta, is a dignified and charming woman, and the mother +of Mar Auraham, the Patriarch-designate, whose prospective dignity is +the subject of much intrigue. + +The presiding genius of the Patriarch's household is his sister Sulti, +a capable woman of forty, who has remained unmarried in order to guide +his house, and who rules as well as guides. When she sleeps I know +not. She is astir early and late, measuring, weighing, directing, the +embodiment of Proverbs chap. xxxi. No little brain-power must be +required for the ordering of such a household and the meeting of such +emergencies as that of to-day, when twenty Jelu men arrived +unexpectedly. + +The serving-men all look like bandits. The medieval Jester is in +existence here, Shlimon, a privileged person, who may say and do +anything, and take all manner of liberties, and who, by his unlimited +buffooneries, helps the Patriarch and his family through the dulness +of the winter days. He and another faithful fellow, said to be equally +quick with his tongue and his dagger, are Mar Shimun's personal +servants. At fixed hours the latter carries food to his lord in tinned +copper bowls on a large round tray, knives and forks not having +penetrated to Kochanes. + +The routine of the day is as follows. The Patriarch rises very early, +and says prayers at dawn, after which those who have the _entree_ are +served with pipes and coffee in his room, and talk _ad libitum_. +Business of all sorts follows; a _siesta_ is taken at mid-day, then +there is business again, and unlimited talk with unlimited smoking +till five, when the Patriarch goes to prayers at church, after which +everybody is at liberty to attend his _levee_, and talking and smoking +go on till 9 or 10 P.M. It is a life without privacy or quiet. The +affairs of the mountains, litigation, tribal feuds, the difficulty of +raising the tribute, the gossip of the village, and just now, above +all else, the excesses of the Kurds, form the staple of conversation, +as I understand from _Qasha_ ----, who, as a personal friend, spends +much of the day in the Patriarch's room. In winter, when Kochanes is +snowed up, chess and the pranks and witticisms of the Jester fill up +the time. + +The curious little court, the rigid etiquette, the clank of arms, the +unbounded hospitality, and the political and judicial functions +exercised by the Patriarch, with the rude dwelling and furnishings, +combine to re-create the baronial life as it might have been lived in +Roslin or Warkworth Castles. + +Though I had half-seen Mar Shimun at Gahgoran, I was only formally +presented after his arrival here. It is proper for a woman to cover +her head before him, and I put on my hat and took off my shoes. His +room is well paved, the plaster is newly coloured, and there is a +glazed window with a magnificent prospect. There were rugs at one end, +on which the Patriarch was seated, with two chairs at his left hand. +He rose to receive me, and, according to custom, I kissed his hand. He +took my letter of introduction, and put it under a cushion, as +etiquette demanded, and asked me to be seated. On the floor along the +walls were bishops, priests, deacons, Jelu and Tyari mountaineers, +lowlanders from Urmi, and men of the Shimun family, all most +picturesquely dressed and smoking long wooden pipes. On each +subsequent occasion, when I paid my respects to him, he was similarly +surrounded. Mr. Browne acted as interpreter, but nothing but very +superficial conversation was possible when there was the risk that +anything said might be twisted into dangerous use. Mar Shimun is a man +about the middle height, with large dark eyes, a sallow complexion, a +grizzled iron-gray beard, and an expression of profound melancholy, +mingled with a most painful look of perplexity and irresolution. He +cannot be over fifty, but the miseries and intrigues around him make +him appear prematurely old. When I approached the subject of the +anarchy of the country he glared timidly and fearfully round, and +changed the subject, sending me a message afterwards that _Qasha_ ---- +and Kwaja Shlimon, a Chaldaean educated in Paris, are in possession of +all that he could tell me, and would speak for him. + +He and his family are very proud both of ancestry and position. Within +limits his word is law; a letter from him is better than any +Government passport or escort through the nearly inaccessible +fastnesses of the Ashirets; "By the Head of Mar Shimun," and "By the +House of Mar Shimun" are common asseverations, but he and his are +exposed constantly to indignities and insults from minor Turkish +officials and from Kurdish chiefs, and the continual disrespect to his +person and office is said to be eating into his soul. + +He wears a crimson _fez_ with a black _pagri_, a short blue cloth +jacket with sleeves wide at the bottom and open for a few inches at +the inner seam, blue cloth trousers of a sailor cut, a red and white +striped satin shirt, the front and sleeves of which are very much _en +evidence_, and a crimson girdle, but without the universal _khanjar_. + +This is the man who is the head at once of a church and nation, the +temporal and spiritual ruler of the Syrian people, the hereditary +Patriarch, the _Catholicos_ of the East, whose dynastic ancestors +ranked as sixth in dignity in the Catholic Church in its early ages. +It was not, however, till the early part of the fifth century, when +the Church of the East threw in her lot with Nestorius, after his +condemnation in 431 by the Council of Ephesus for "heretical" views on +the nature of our Lord, that the _Catholicos_ of the East assumed the +farther title of Patriarch. As I look on Mar Shimun's irresolute face, +and see the homage which his people pay to him, I recall the history +of a day when this church, which only survives as an obscure and +hunted remnant, planted churches and bishoprics in Persia, Central +Asia, Tartary, and China; its missionaries, full of zeal and +self-sacrifice, brought such legions into its fold that in the sixth +century the ecclesiastical ancestor of this Patriarch, then resident +at Baghdad, ruled over twenty-five metropolitical provinces extending +from Jerusalem to China; and when in the fourteenth century it was not +only the largest communion in Christendom, but outnumbered the whole +of the rest of Christendom, east and west, Roman, Greek, and other +churches put together. It is truly a marvel not only that Baghdad, +Edessa, and Nisibis possessed Nestorian schools of divinity and +philosophy, but that Christian colleges, seminaries, and theological +schools flourished in Samarcand, Bokhara, and Khiva! How this huge +church melted away like snow, and how the tide of Christianity ebbed, +leaving as a relic on its high-water mark within the Chinese frontier +a stone tablet inscribed with the Nestorian creed, and how Taimurlane +pursued the unfortunate Christian remnant with such fury that the +_Catholicos_ himself with a fugitive band was forced to fly into these +mountains, are matters of most singular historic interest. Most +fascinating indeed is it to be here. Each day seems but an hour, so +absorbing are the interests, so deep the pathos, so vivid the +tableaux, so unique the life in this hamlet of Kochanes, on its fair +green alp at a height of 6000 feet among these wild mountains of +Kurdistan, musical with the sound of torrents fed by fifty +snow-drifts, dashing down to join "the Pison, the river of Eden" (as +the Patriarch calls the Zab), on its way to the classic Tigris. + +The afternoon I arrived, Sulti, Marta, Asiat, and several other women +courteously visited me, and the next day I returned their visits in +their simple pleasant houses. These formalities over, I have enjoyed +complete liberty, and have acquainted myself with the whole of +Kochanes, and with many of the people and their interests, and have +had small gatherings of men in my room each evening, _Qasha_ ---- or +Mr. Browne interpreting their tales of strife or wrong. + +"Fear is on every side," the fear of a people practically unarmed, +for their long guns, some of them matchlocks, are of no use against +the rifles of the Kurds, _nor dare they fire in self-defence_. +Travelling is nearly suspended. A company of people whose needs call +them to Urmi dare not run the risk of the journey till they can go +down with Mar Gauriel and his large escort. It is evident that the +Patriarch and his people hoped for a British protectorate as one +result of "the Archbishop of Canterbury's Mission," and that they are +bitterly disappointed that their condition is growing worse. + +"How can we listen to teaching," say some of them, "when we have no +rest? How can we believe in God when He lets these things happen to +us? The Almighty is deaf, and we cease to pray. Can we hear teaching +when the wolf is on us by night and day? If we let go the Cross we +might be rich and safe. Night by night we ask, 'Shall we see the +morning?' for our oppressors wax fiercer daily." + +Mar ----, Bishop of ----, mentioned previously as a fugitive from his +diocese, is a fine, pleasant-looking middle-aged man, more like a +sailor than an ecclesiastic. Late one night, in a whisper, with a +trusty watch at the door, he told his story, through _Qasha_ ----, in +the following words: + + "I fled, fearing for my life, because many times I had spoken + against the oppressions. The Kurds have carried away most of + the sheep and goats, besides taking all they wished to have, + and they entered through the houses, plundering everything, + and burning two in ----. Their words are 'give or die.' I + petitioned Government regarding the oppressions, and Mohammed + Bey came, and by threat of death he got my seal, and wrote in + my name a letter, saying it was all false, there were no + oppressions, and he was a very good man, and he signed it + with my seal, and it went to Stamboul. My seal has now been + for one year in the hands of Mohammed Bey, who has killed + about thirty Christians in Berwar. Three months ago I fled to + save my life. + + "Seventeen years the oppressions have begun; but it was ten + years ago when we could easily keep ourselves and raise our + bread--now we cannot. In ----, five years ago, all had plenty + of dress and bread, and every family kept two cows and two + hundred or more of sheep. But now, when I visited them, I + would shame to look at the female persons, so naked were + they, and so did they hide themselves for shame in the dark + parts of their houses, for their dress was all in pieces, so + that their flesh was seen. I was thirsty and asked for milk, + and they made reply, 'Oh, we have not a cow, or a sheep, or a + goat: we forget the taste of milk!' And most of their fine + fields were gone out of their hands by oppressions, for they + could no longer find money wherewith to pay taxes, and they + sold them for a vile price. + + "K---- was the best village in Sopana, and more wealthy than + any village of Kurds or Christians. There I went and asked + for some milk. They said, 'Never a goat, or a sheep, or a cow + have we.' I ask of all the families their condition, and they + make reply, with many tears, 'All that we have has left our + hands, and we fear for our lives now. We were rich, now we + have not bread to eat from day to day.' Seventeen years ago + the village of B---- had fifty families of wealthy villagers, + but now I only find twelve, and those twelve could scarcely + find bread. I had asked bread, but I could not find it. By + day their things were taken by force out of their houses: at + night their sheep and cattle were driven off. They could keep + nothing. Our wheat, our sheep, our butter is not our own. The + chief, Mohammed Bey, and his servants ask of us, saying, + 'Give, or we will kill you.'" + +This is a sample of innumerable tales to which I listen daily. Some +are probably grossly exaggerated, others, and this among them, are +probably true in all essential particulars. Daily, from all quarters, +men arrive with their complaints of robbery and violence, and ask the +Patriarch to obtain redress for them, but he is powerless. + + [Illustration: DESIGNS ON TOMBS AT KOCHANES. + _To face p. 297, vol. II._] + +My favourite walk is down the fair green lawn outside the village, on +which is a copse of poplars, with foliage of reddening gold. Beside +it, on the verge of the precipitous heights above the Terpai, is a +bold group of rocks, on which the church dedicated to Mar Shalita is +built. The ruins of a former church, dedicated to Mart Mariam, are +higher up the alp. Below the rocks are a great number of tombstones, +with incised ornaments upon them bearing the general name of crosses. +The church has nothing specially ecclesiastical in its appearance. It +has some resemblance to a keep with out-buildings, and its irregular +form seems to have been dictated by the configuration of the rock. It +has no windows, and the cruciform slits at a great height look like +loopholes. It is indeed the ultimate refuge of the Patriarch and the +villagers in case of a descent of the Kurds. I walked all round it, +through the poplar grove, with its mirthful waters, among the tombs, +and back by the edge of the ravine to the west side without finding a +door. In truth the only entrance is up a rude and very steep ladder, +about ten feet high, with a rude door at the top six inches thick, but +only three feet high. How old and infirm people get up and down I +cannot tell. So difficult is the access that I was glad to avail +myself of the vigorous aid of Mar Gauriel, who, having visited +England, is ready on all occasions with courteous attentions to a +lady. The reason of the low doors is said to be that all may bow their +heads on entering the house of God, and that the Moslems may not +stable their cattle in the church. The entrance harmonises with the +obvious pervading motive of the design, which is _inaccessibility_. + + [Illustration: SYRIAN CROSS.] + +The door opens into a small courtyard, partly protected by a wooden +roof. At its farther end, in a recess in its massive wall, is a small +altar. Its west wall is pierced so that the approach can be commanded. +In this courtyard the daily prayers are frequently said during the +warm weather. A few steps lead from this into a building of two +stories, a rude little house in fact, once occupied by one of the +Patriarchs, and latterly by the late Rabban Yonan, a holy man, almost +a hermit, whose reputation for sanctity has extended far beyond the +limits of Kurdistan. + +Removing our shoes, we entered the church through a sort of porch, the +lintel of which is ornamented with bas-reliefs consisting of a cross +in knot-work and side ornaments of the same, very rudely executed. The +threshold is elevated, and the lintel of the door only three feet four +inches high, so that the worshipper must bend again before entering. +It was a gloomy transition from the bright October sunshine to the +dark twilight within, and even with the aid of candles the interior +was only dimly seen. It consists of a nave, about thirty-four feet +long, with a sanctuary, and a sacristy which also serves as the +baptistery, at the east end. The nave is lofty and without seats. The +worshippers stand during divine service, even the aged and infirm only +rest by leaning on their cross-handled staffs. In the nave, below the +screen of the sanctuary, are three altars. On one, the "altar of +prayers," the anthem books are laid; on another, the "altar of the +Gospels," is a copy of the Gospels wrapped in a cloth, on which is a +cross, which it is customary to kiss; on the third there is also a +cross. A very thick wall separates the nave from the eastern chamber, +which in its turn is divided unequally into two parts. This wall is +pierced by a narrow chancel arch, and there is a narrow platform +behind the altars of prayer, etc., ascended by three steps, at which +the people receive the Eucharistic elements. Through the arch is dimly +seen the altar, over which is a stone canopy, or _baldachino_, +supported on four pillars. In the sacristy is a narrow but deep font, +in which the infant is baptized by being dipped in the water up to the +knees at the name of the Father, up to the waist at the name of the +Son, and wholly immersed at the name of the Holy Ghost, the priest +repeating, "Thou art baptized in the name of the Father, Amen, and of +the Son, Amen, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen." Before the rite the +infant's forehead is anointed with oil in the church, and it is +completely anointed in the baptistery before being plunged into the +font. Every infant has two god-parents, who act as sponsors at its +subsequent marriage. These persons by undertaking this office are +placed in a relationship of affinity close enough to be a bar to +marriage. After the baptism the child is confirmed in the nave with +oil and the imposition of the priest's hands, and after being very +tightly bound up in its swaddling clothes is handed to the +god-parents. Infant communion is the rule of the Church, but the +elements are rarely received at the time of baptism. + +Baptism is only valid when celebrated by a priest and in a consecrated +church. Private baptisms are unlawful, but there is a form of prayer +appointed for use if a child is dangerously ill, during which the +priest signs a basin of water with the sign of the Cross, saying, "In +the strength of our Lord may this water be of blessing in the name," +etc. The mother afterwards bathes the child in the water, and if it +dies they "trust it to the mercy of God." If it recovers it must be +taken to church to be baptized in the usual manner. The Holy +Communion, the _Kourbana_, ought by rule to precede baptism in the +very early morning, and the baptismal rite ought to be administered on +the eighth day, but it is often postponed till the annual village +festival, at which the _Kourbana_ is always celebrated.[44] + +The whole interior of the church of Kochanes is covered by a plain +vaulted stone roof. At the west end of the nave is a row of oblong +stone tombs, four feet high, in which several of the patriarchs are +buried; and a steep narrow stone stair leads from these to a small +door high up in the north wall, which gives access to a small chamber +in which the priest prepares and bakes the bread for the Holy +Communion. The flour for this purpose is preferably of wheat which has +been gleaned by girls. It is ground in a hand-mill and is mixed with +"holy leaven," handed on from sacrament to sacrament. The bread is +made into round cakes, a quarter of an inch thick and two and a half +inches in diameter, which are stamped with a cross. Great importance +is attached to the elements, and the water used for mixing with the +sacramental wine is always brought from the purest spring within +reach.[45] + +On one side of this upper chamber, at a height of four feet, there is +the mouth of a sort of tunnel which runs between the flat exterior +roof and the vaulted ceiling of the nave. This is used for concealing +the Liturgies and the other poor valuables of the church in times of +peril. Secret as this hiding-place is, the Kurds discovered it some +years ago, and carried off and destroyed whatever of value had been +hidden, including a _firman_ and a knife which (it is said) were given +by Mohammed to a former _Catholicos_, and which are now in Stamboul. + +The general arrangement of the church is a pathetic protest against +chronic insecurity and persecution. The interior, and especially the +sanctuary, are as black as smoke can make them, although very few +candles are ordinarily used, the clergy holding rolls of thin wax +taper in their hands when they require light on the Liturgies and +Gospel. There is little architectural ornament except some sculptured +stones, and two recesses with scallop-shell roofs at the sides of the +chancel arch. The church is in good repair, for if any rain gets into +a sacred building it has to be reconsecrated. + +Towards five o'clock the sounding-board is beaten, and the Patriarch, +the two bishops, and some other men, all in secular dress, saunter +down to evening prayers, which are usually said by the Patriarch +himself, and consist of a few prayers, a short lesson, and some +psalms. The custom is for the people on entering to kiss the Cross, +the Gospels, and the Patriarch's hand, and to lay their daggers in the +church porch. Clerical vestments are not worn at these services. The +Liturgies and Gospels are magnificent specimens of caligraphy, and the +Syriac characters are in themselves beautiful. + +It is appointed that the whole Psalter be recited in three days, and +though I imagine that some abridgment is made, the priests and people, +contrary to rule, are apt to sit on the floor during the antiphonal +singing of the psalms, owing to their extreme length. The chanting is +very discordant, as each man adopts the key which suits himself. + +The "kiss of peace" is an interesting and decorous feature of the +daily worship, and is always given at the beginning, even if it should +be omitted at the close. On entering the church the priest crosses +himself and kisses the Cross, which always lies on the altar on the +north side, saying, "Glory be to God in the highest." After this the +people come forward and kiss first the Cross and then the priest's +hand, and each passing on touches the hands of those who before him +have kissed the sacred emblem and raises his own hand to his lips. It +is the custom always to kiss the hand of a bishop or priest on meeting +him in the road or elsewhere and the salutation is performed in a +reverential manner. + +The church furniture and vestments show the great poverty of the +people. The altar cloth is figured white cotton. Two tarnished and +battered candlesticks stand on the altar, and a very sordid cross in +the recess behind it. The chalice is a silver bowl, tarnished, almost +blackened, by neglect, and the paten is a silver tray in the same +state. There are a bronze censer, an antique, with embossed scripture +figures upon it, and a branched lamp-stand surmounted by a bird, both +of the rudest construction, and greatly neglected. Dust and cobwebs of +ancient date, droppings from candles and bits of candle wicks offend +Western eyes in the sacristy and elsewhere. + +The clerical dress is very simple and of the poorest materials. The +priest wears an alb, a girdle, and a stole crossed over the breast, +and at the _Kourbana_ a calico square with crosses in coloured cotton +sewn upon it, thrown over the shoulders, and raised at times to cover +the head, or to form a screen between him and the congregation. The +deacon wears an alb or "church shirt" with coloured cotton crosses on +the breast and back, a blue and white girdle, and a stole which is +crossed over the right shoulder and has its ends tucked into the +girdle. The only difference in the dress of a bishop is that he wears +a stole reaching to the ankles and not crossed upon the breast. The +ordinary attire of the clergy and laity is the same, and the same +similarity pervades their occupations. Even bishops may be seen hard +at work in the fields. The sanctuary is held in great reverence, and +Mar Gauriel, who is more like a jolly sailor than a priest, put on a +girdle and stole before entering it when he showed it to me. Strange +to say, the priests and deacons officiating at the Holy Communion +retain their shoes and remove their turbans. The graves round the +church are very numerous, and are neatly kept. One burial has taken +place since I came. The corpse, that of a stranger, was enclosed in a +rough wooden coffin, and the blowing of horns, beating of drums, +carrying of branches decorated with handkerchiefs and apples, and the +wailing of the women and other demonstrations of grief, such as men +jumping into the grave, beating their breasts and uttering cries of +anguish, distressing scenes which are usual at Syrian funerals, were +consequently absent. The burial service is very striking and dramatic, +and there are different "orders" for bishops, priests, deacons, +laymen, women, and children. The whole, if recited at full length, +takes fully five hours! Besides prayers innumerable both for the +departed and the survivors, there are various dialogues between the +mourners and the departed, and between the departed and the souls of +those already in Hades.[46] + +In spite of the perils around, "marrying and giving in marriage" go on +much as usual. Mar Gauriel, Bishop of Urmi, has come up on nothing +less important than a matrimonial errand, to ask for the hand of the +Patriarch's niece, a small child of eight years old, the daughter of +Ishai and Asiat, for his nephew, a boy of fourteen. Girls may marry at +twelve, and the beautiful Asiat, the child's mother, is only twenty. I +was invited to tea when the proposals were made in a neutral house, +where Mr. Browne interpreted the proceedings for me. Mar Gauriel, +handsomely dressed in red, with a _khelat_ or "coat of honour" given +him by the Shah over his usual clothes, looked as blithe and handsome +as a suitor should. He sat on one side of the floor with a friend to +help his suit, and on the other were seated Sulti, Asiat, and the +child. + +Conversation was general for a time; then the Bishop, with a change of +face which meant business, produced a small parcel, and laid on the +floor, with a deliberate pause between the articles, carbuncle and +diamond rings, gold-headed pins, gold bracelets, a very fine pink +coral necklace, with a gold and turquoise pendant, and finally a long +chain of hollow balls of massive filigree silver, beautiful enough to +"fetch" any woman. The mother and aunt sat rigidly, assumed stony +faces, and would not admire. But Mar Gauriel had other weapons in his +armoury, and produced from a large bundle articles of dress of full +size, among which were Constantinople gauze gowns sprigged with gold, +a green silk gown covered with embroidery, and lastly a sort of coat +of very rich cloth of gold, a costly thing. The child's eyes sparkled +at this. The Bishop looked up from it at the two women, but a look of +contempt alone flitted across their stony faces. + +Then he began his plea, which was loud and eloquent. He said he could +get a hundred brides for his nephew, who would be good workers, but +the daughter of Asiat should be a princess, and have servants to wait +upon her, and have nothing to do. He said he would wait four years for +her, he only wanted a promise. He was not tactful. He set forth the +advantages of an alliance with himself too strongly for a suitor. The +house of Mar Shimun is very proud and its connection is courted by +all, and the ladies were obdurate and literally frowned on his plea, +looking with well-acted contempt upon the glittering display on the +floor. Two days later the Patriarch himself rejected Mar Gauriel's +suit, saying, "It would be a shame for the House of Mar Shimun--it +would be a shameful example to betroth so young a girl." There the +matter must rest, for a time at least. + +An actual marriage is arranged, and this time the bride, Sanjani, is a +handsome and very attractive girl of fourteen years old, with a strong +will and individuality. She has been several times to see me, and I +have become quite interested in her. Yesterday a number of men were +seen descending the dizzy zigzags which lead from Jelu down the +mountain on the other side of the Terpai ravine, and later, after a +few shots had been fired, a party of Jelu mountaineers superbly +dressed came up into Kochanes, also on a matrimonial errand. Some of +these men are quite blond. They came on behalf of a youth of high +position in Jelu, and the bargaining was keen, for the girl is of the +House of Mar Shimun. Eventually they gave twenty _liras_, a mule, a +gun, thirty sheep, and a revolver for her, as well as presents to the +negotiators. She wept most bitterly at the prospect of leaving +Kochanes. The money is spent on the _trousseau_, and the bride's +parents give a present to the bridegroom. + +Shortly after the betrothal, Mar Sergis, Bishop of Jelu, arrived, with +fifty Jelu men, the young bridegroom, and some matrons. The Bishop, +who is a grand-looking man, was dressed in a robe, red _shulwars_, and +a turban; the other men were in silks and gold embroideries, and +carried jewelled _khanjars_, revolvers, and long guns with the stocks +curiously inlaid with ivory and silver. As they climbed up through the +bushes of the ravine they simulated an attack by skirmishers, firing +guns and revolvers. A few Kochanes men fired as if in defence, but +most of the people decided not to show this "sign of joy," because +news had come that the Kurds had driven off the sheep of the father of +Asiat. So with this feint of attack and capture the brilliant throng +reached the top of the ascent, Mar Sergis and others riding mules, +musicians playing a drum and flageolets, and five or six men with +drawn swords in their right hands and leather shields on their left +arms escorting the bridegroom to the hospitalities of the Patriarch's +house. The roofs were crowded with villagers, but the bride was hidden +in her father's house. The father had beaten her on her head with a +long wooden spoon, and she was lying down! + +On that and the two following evenings there was dancing in the house +late into the night, and the days were spent in feasting, +sword-dances, and masquerading. It is regarded as a very "good" +marriage for Sanjani. The marriage ceremony, which is private, was +performed in the church at sunrise on the fourth day. There were +present Mar Sergis the bridegroom's uncle, the bridegroom, "the +bridegroom's friend," and Sanjani and her mother, who were preceded to +the church by a fifer. The marriage service, which took half an hour, +was performed at the west end of the nave. At the conclusion wine and +water (but not as a Eucharistic symbol), mixed with a little earth +from the church precincts, were administered to the married couple. +The ring is used as with us. The most curious part of the ceremony is +that while the service or "Blessing," as it is called, is proceeding, +the groomsman holds up a light wooden frame, to which fruits are +attached. This is also hung over the bridegroom's head at the +father-in-law's house, and is carried with him when he goes out to +dance. It is broken on the last day of the feasting, and the pair and +their friends eat the fruit. The festivities were prolonged for three +days more, after which the bride, with music and firing of guns, was +taken away in charge of the matrons to her husband's house in Jelu, +where there were to be rejoicings and feastings for other seven days. +As the bride's procession passes, the bridegroom, attended by his +young men-friends, takes his place on a roof, with a store of apples +beside him, which, after signing himself with the Cross, he throws +among the crowd, the hitting of the bride being regarded as a sign of +good luck. + +Bishops are not allowed to marry, but to priests after their +ordination both first and second marriages are permitted. The law of +divorce is very lax, even according to the Church canons, and Canon +Maclean says that the practice is very bad, and that it is a great +temptation to the bishops, several of whom are very poor, to grant +divorces for the sake of the fees. + +Friday was a severe fast in the Patriarch's household, as in all +others. The fasts of the Syrian Church, it has been said, "can only be +described as prodigious." A Syrian fast means serious self-denial, for +it involves not only abstinence from meat, but from fish, honey, eggs, +milk, butter, cheese, and all animal products, and the Syrian eats +nothing but rice cooked in walnut oil, raisins, walnuts, treacle, +beans, plain potatoes, and bread. All Wednesdays and Fridays in the +year this strict _regimen_ is adhered to, and the members of the Old +Church also fast for fifty days in Lent, and twenty-five in Advent, +and keep the very severe three days' fast of the Ninevites. Most +adults keep also the fast of St. Mary, the first fourteen days of +August. No religious observance is more rigidly adhered to by the +nation than these severe and prolonged abstinences, and it is +difficult for the Syrians to believe in the piety of any who do not, +by the same methods, mortify the body and bring it into subjection. + +Mar Auraham, son of Marta, a man of twenty-six, Patriarch-designate, +and a bishop without a diocese, has returned, and spent part of +yesterday evening in my room. He looks delicate, but has a bright, +intelligent, charming face, and his conversation was thoughtful and +interesting. He really cares about his church and its discipline, is +regarded as honourable and straightforward in a marked degree, and as +preferring the spiritual to the temporal interests of his nation. He +is apparently a warm friend of the English Mission, and if he should +succeed to the chair of Mar Shimun great progress might be expected; +but intrigues are surging round him, and the patriarchal family is not +without its ambitions, to which he may possibly be sacrificed. + +The succession to the Patriarchate and Episcopate is the subject of a +peculiar arrangement, which makes these offices practically +hereditary. In the Mar Shimun family there has been provided for more +than three centuries a regular succession of youths called +_Nazarites_, who have never eaten meat or married, and whose mothers +ate no meat for many months before they were born. One of these is +chosen by the Patriarch as his successor, and then some of the +disappointed youths take to eating meat like other men. At the present +time, though Mar Auraham has been designated, there are one or two +boy-relatives of the Patriarch who are being brought up not to eat +meat. The same prohibition applies to a bishop. He also usually has +one or more _Nazarites_, frequently nephews or cousins, who have been +brought up by him not to eat meat, one of whom, if there be more than +one, he chooses as his successor. If he neglects to make a choice, the +Bishopric at his death falls like a fief to the Patriarch, who has an +enormous diocese, while three of the Bishops have only a few villages +to look after. + +Bishops, priests, and deacons are very poor. Occasionally a church has +a field or two as an endowment, or the villagers contribute a small +sum annually, or plough the priest's fields, or shear his sheep, but +the fees given for baptisms, marriages, and other occasional offices +would be his sole dependence unless he followed some secular calling. +In some places there is a plethora of supernumerary priests, and it is +shrewdly said that these obtain holy orders from the Bishops for the +sake of the loaves of sugar paid as fees. There are great abuses +connected with ordination. One of the present bishops was consecrated +when quite a young boy, and deacons are often ordained at sixteen, and +even much earlier. Mar Auraham must have been consecrated before he +was twenty. The only qualification for ordination is the ability to +read old Syriac. The gaily-dressed and fully-armed young mountaineers +whom I have seen as representing the diaconate look far more like +bandits than deacons. In one large village there are at present fifty +deacons and fifteen priests attached to one church!! + + [Illustration: SYRIAN PRIEST AND WIFE.] + +The _Kourbana_ cannot be celebrated without the assistance of a +deacon. It is almost entirely confined to the great festivals and the +feast of the patron saint of each village. After the making of the +bread with the "holy leaven," and certain preliminaries by the clergy, +the congregation comes into church, summoned by blows on the wooden +sounding-board. The men stand in front, the women behind, all taking +off their shoes and kissing the Cross. When the elements are to be +received the priest advances to the door of the sanctuary, and a +deacon, completely enveloped by the curtain before the entrance, holds +the paten while the priest gives the bread to the men first, then to +the women and to the little children, held up either by father or +mother. The adults receive the cup in order from the deacon, who +passes it through a hole in a wall about six feet high, which runs +parallel with the wall of the sanctuary, but at a little distance from +it. On leaving the church after communion each person takes a piece of +ordinary bread from a tray near the door. The priests and deacons +communicate after the people when the sanctuary veil has again been +drawn. The Eucharist is always celebrated at or before daybreak, +except in the case of certain fast days and at funerals, when it is +considered a devotional act to fast till mid-day. During parts of the +communion service one deacon swings a censer and another "clangs" a +cymbal. + +The _Kourbana_ as celebrated in the Syrian villages reminds me both of +the great communion gatherings of the Scottish Highlands and the +Church service which, in my childhood, ushered in the revelry of the +village wake or feast. The festivals which, as in England, fall on the +feast of the patron saint of the village are the great gaieties of +Syrian life, and even the Kurd cannot altogether overshadow them. +After the celebration of the _Kourbana_ at dawn, when the crowds are +frequently so great that the church is filled by several successive +congregations of communicants, the day is spent in visiting, and in +every house fruit, sweetmeats, and tea are provided for all comers, +and _arak_, if it be obtainable, forms a part of the entertainment. +Dances and games are kept up all day, and at its close many are drunk +and disorderly. These are the occasions when fighting with the Moslems +is apt to take place. + +Men and women, of course, dance separately, and the women much in the +background. The dancing, as I have seen it, is slow and stately. A +number of either sex join hands in a ring, and move round to slow +music, at times letting go each other's hands for the purpose of +gesticulation and waving of handkerchiefs. It is not unlike the +national dance of the Bakhtiaris. The women not only keep in +retirement on this but on all occasions. They never sit at meat with +the men, but take their food afterwards in private--indeed, I strongly +suspect that they eat the leavings of their superiors. It is not, +however, only the women who occupy a subordinate position. Young men +treat not only their fathers but their elder brothers with extreme +respect; and when there are guests at table the sons do not sit down +with the fathers, but wait on the guests, and take their own meals, +like the women, afterwards. + +The Syrians call Easter "The Great Feast" and Christmas "The Little +Feast." At the former, eggs coloured red are lavishly bestowed. The +festival of the Epiphany also receives great honour, but it is curious +that a people who believe that they owe their Christianity to the Wise +Men should not keep this feast so much in commemoration of them as of +our Lord's baptism. So much does the latter view preponderate, that +the Urmi Christians call it by a name which means "The New Waters." +Here in the mountains, however, it is called "The Brightness." During +the night before the celebration of the _Kourbana_ on the Feast of the +Epiphany it is customary to plunge into frozen pools! "One Lord, one +faith, one baptism" they hold with us, and it is of great interest to +recognise this fact in the midst of many superstitions and even +puerilities. + +It is impossible by any language to convey an idea of the poverty and +meanness, the blackness and accumulations of dust, the darkness and +the gloom of the Syrian churches, of which this one is a favourable +specimen, typifying, I fear, too truly the gross ignorance, +indifference, and superstition in which bishops, priests, and people +are buried. And yet they are "faithful unto death." My daily wonder is +that people who know so little will for that little suffer the loss of +all things. Apostasy would be immediate emancipation from terror and +ruin, but it is nearly unknown. Their churches are like the catacombs. +Few things can be more pathetic than a congregation standing in the +dark and dismal nave, kissing the common wooden cross, and passing +from hand to hand the kiss of peace, while the priest, in dress like +their own, with girdle and stole of the poorest material, moves among +the ancient Liturgies in front of the dusty sanctuary, leading the +worshippers in prayers and chants which have come down from the +earliest ages of Christianity; from the triumphant Church of the East +to the persecuted remnant of to-day. + + I. L. B. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[44] For the correction of my very imperfect investigations into the +religious customs of the Syrians, I am indebted to a very careful and +learned paper by Canon Maclean, _Some Account of the Customs of the +Eastern Syrian Churches_, originally published in the _Guardian_, and +now to be obtained at the office of "The Archbishop of Canterbury's +Mission to the Assyrian Christians, 2 Deans Yard, Westminster." + +[45] A singular legend is told regarding the origin of the sacred +leaven and the sacred oil. + +The Syrians say that as our Lord went up out of the Jordan after His +baptism John the Baptist collected in a phial the baptismal water as +it dropped from His sacred person, giving it before his death to St. +John the Evangelist. At the Last Supper (the legend runs) our Lord +gave to John two loaves, putting it into his heart to preserve one. At +the Cross, when this same apostle saw the "blood and water," he took +the phial from his bosom and added the water from the pierced side to +the water of baptism, dipping the loaf at the same time in the blood. +After the Day of Pentecost the disciples, before going forth to +"disciple" the nations, ground John's blood-dyed loaf to powder, mixed +it with flour and salt, divided it among themselves, and carried it +forth to serve as leaven for ever for the bread of remembrance. In +like manner they took of the mingled water of the phial, and mixing it +with oil of unction, divided it, and preserved it for the perpetual +sanctification of the waters of baptism. + +[46] A portion of one of the latter follows:-- + +_The newly dead._--"Hail, my brethren and friends who sleep. Open the +door that I may enter in and see your ranks." + +_Those in Hades._--"Come, enter and see how many giants are sleeping +here, and have been made dust and rust and worms in the bosom of +Sheol. Come, enter and see, O child of death, the race of Adam: see +and gaze where thy kind dwells. Come, enter and see the abundance of +the bones and their commingling. The bone of the king and the bone of +the servant are not separated. Come, enter and see the great +corruption we are dwelling in." + +_The mourners._--"Wait for the Lord, who will come and raise you by +His right hand." + +Translations of the Liturgies are to be found in Dr. Badger's valuable +book, _The Nestorians and their Rituals_. + + + + +LETTER XXIX (_Continued_) + + +Who is or is not in this house it is hard to say. Mirza tells me that +there are 115 guests to-day! Among them are a number of Tyari men, +whose wild looks, combined with the splendour of their dress and arms, +are a great interest. Their chief man has invited me to visit their +valley, and they say if I will go to them they will give me "a fine +suit of clothes." I need it much, as doubtless they have observed! +Their jackets are one mass of gold embroidery (worked by Jews), their +shirts, with hanging sleeves, are striped satin; their trousers, of +sailor cut, are silk, made from the cocoons of their own silkworms, +woven with broad crimson stripes on a white ground, on which is a +zigzag pattern; and their handsome jack-boots are of crimson leather. +With their white or red peaked felt hats and twisted silk _pagris_, +their rich girdles, jewelled daggers, and inlaid pistols, they are +very imposing. Female dress is very simple. + +These Tyari men come from one of the wildest and most inaccessible +valleys of Central Kurdistan, and belong to those Ashirets or tribal +Syrians who, in their deep and narrow rifts, are practically +unconquered by the Turks and unmolested by the Kurds, and maintain a +fierce semi-independence under their _maleks_ (lit. kings) or chiefs. +They are wild and lawless mountaineers, paying taxes only when it +suits them; brave, hardy, and warlike, preserving their freedom by the +sword; fierce, quarrelsome among themselves, and having little in +common with the _rayahs_ or subject Syrians of the plains except their +tenacious clinging to their ancient Church, with its Liturgies and +rites, and their homage to our Lord Jesus as divine. They and their +priests, many of whom cannot even read, are sunk in the grossest +ignorance. They love revenge, are careless of human life, and are +wilder and more savage than their nominal masters. It is among these +people, who purchase their freedom at the cost of absolute isolation, +that Mr. Browne is going to spend the coming winter, in the hope of +instructing their priests and deacons, to whom at present guns are +more than ordinances. He has been among them already, and has won +their good-will. + + [Illustration: A SYRIAN GIRL.] + +These Ashirets, of whom the Tyari guests are specimens, are quite +unlike the Syrian lowlanders, not only in character but in costume and +habits. As they have naturalised numbers of Kurdish words in their +speech, so their dress, with its colour, rich materials and +embroideries, and lavish display of decorated and costly arms, is +almost altogether Kurdish. If report speaks truly their fierce tribal +feuds and readiness with the dagger are Kurdish also. Their country is +the country of the hunted. Its mountains rise nearly perpendicularly +to altitudes of over 12,000 feet, and the valleys, such as Tyari, +Tkhoma, Baz, Diz, and Jelu, are mere slits or gashes, through which +furious tributaries of the greater Zab take their impetuous course. +Above these streams the tribes have built up minute fields by raising +the lower sides on stone walls a few feet above the rivers, the upper +being the steep hill slope. So small are these plots that it is said +that the harvest of some of them would only fill a man's cap! +Occasionally heavy floods sweep away the rice and millet cultivation +of a whole district, and the mountaineers are compelled to depend for +their food entirely on the produce of their flocks. + +If they could sustain themselves and their animals altogether within +their own fastnesses, they would be secure from molestation either +from Kurds or Turks, for the only possible entrances to their valleys +are so narrow and ruggedly steep as scarcely to be accessible for a +pack-horse, and ten men could keep any number at bay. But +unfortunately the scanty herbage of their mountains is soon exhausted, +and they have to feed their flocks outside their natural +fortifications, where the sheep are constantly being carried off by +the Kurds, who murder the shepherds and women. The mountaineers are +quick to revenge themselves; they carry off Kurdish sheep, and savage +warfare and a life under arms are the normal condition of the +Ashirets. The worst of it is, that they are disunited among +themselves, and fight and spoil each other as much as they fight the +Kurds, even at times taking part with them against their Christian +brethren. Travellers are scarcely safer from robbery among them than +among the Kurds, but fierce, savage, and quarrelsome as they are, and +independent both of Turk and Kurd, they render a sort of obedience to +Mar Shimun, who rules them, through their _maleks_. There is not only +enmity between tribe and tribe, but between village and village, and, +as in parts of the Bakhtiari country, guides refuse to conduct +travellers beyond certain spots, declaring that "blood" bars their +farther progress. + +Besides the Kurdish and Ashiret inhabitants of these mountains of +Kurdistan there are Yezidis, usually called devil-worshippers, and a +few Jews and Armenians. Probably there is not a wilder population on +the face of the earth, or one of whose ideas, real beliefs, and ways +Europeans are so ignorant. What, for instance, do we really know of +the beliefs which underlie the religious customs of the Kizilbashes +and Yezidis, and of the Christianity to which these semi-savage +Ashirets are so passionately attached? + +If I were to leave Mr. Browne unnoticed I should ignore the most +remarkable character in Kochanes. Clothed partly as a Syrian and +living altogether like one,--at this time speaking Syriac more readily +than English; limited to this narrow alp and to the narrower exile of +the Tyari valley; self-exiled from civilised society; snowed up for +many months of the year; his communications even with Van and Urmi +irregular and precarious; a priest without an altar; a teacher without +pupils; a hermit without privacy; his time at the disposal of every +one who cares to waste it; harassed by Turkish officialism and +obstruction, and prohibited by the Porte from any active "mission +work," it yet would be hard to find a sunnier, more loving, and more +buoyant spirit. He has lived among these people for nearly four years +as one of themselves, making their interests completely his own, +suffering keenly in their persecutions and losses, and entering warmly +even into their most trivial concerns, till he has become in fact a +Syrian among Syrians. He sits on the floor in native fashion; his +primitive and unpalatable food, served in copper bowls from the +Patriarch's kitchen, is eaten with his fingers; he is nearly without +possessions, he sleeps on the floor "among the spiders" without a +mattress, he lives in a hovel up a steep ladder in a sort of tower out +of repair--Syrian customs and etiquette have become second nature to +him. + +He has no "mission work" to report. He is himself the mission and the +work. The hostility of the Turkish Government and the insecurity of +the country prevent him from opening schools, he cannot even assemble +a few boys and teach them their letters; he got a bit of land and the +stones for erecting a cottage, but is not allowed to build; his plans +are all frustrated by bigotry on one side and timidity on the other, +and he is even prevented from preaching by the blind conservatism of +the patriarchal court. It has not been the custom to have preaching at +Kochanes. "Sermons were dangerous things that promoted heresy," the +Patriarch said. But Mr. Browne is far from being idle. People come to +him from the villages and surrounding country for advice, and often +take it. They confide all their concerns to him, he acts effectively +the part of a peacemaker in their quarrels, he is trusted even by the +semi-savage chiefs and priests of the mountain tribes, and his medical +skill, which is at the service of all, is largely resorted to at all +hours of the day. Silenced from preaching and prohibited from +teaching, far better than a sermon is his own cheery life of +unconscious self-sacrifice, truth, purity, and devotion. This example +the people can understand, though they cannot see why an Englishman +should voluntarily take to such a life as he leads. His power lies in +his singular love for them, and in his almost complete absorption in +their lives and interests. + +His room is most amusing. It is little better than a Kerry hovel. He +uses neither chair, table, nor bed; the uneven earthen floor is +covered with such a litter of rubbish as is to be seen at the back of +a "rag and bone" shop, dusty medicine bottles predominating. There is +a general dismemberment of everything that once was serviceable. The +occupant of the room is absolutely unconscious of its demerits, and my +ejaculations of dismay are received with hearty laughter.[47] + +Humbly following his example, I have become absorbed in the interests +of the inhabitants of Kochanes, and would willingly stay here for some +weeks longer if it were not for the risk of being blocked in by snow +on the Armenian highlands. The cattle plague is very severe, in +addition to other misfortunes. The village has already lost 135 of its +herd, and I seldom go out without seeing men dragging carcasses to be +thrown over the cliff. The people believe that the men will die next +year. + +My future journey and its safety are much discussed. If I had had any +idea of the "disturbed" state of the region that I have yet to pass +through I should never have entered Turkey, but now I have resolved to +go _via_ Bitlis to Erzerum. If the road is as dangerous as it is said +to be, and if the rumours regarding the state of the Christians turn +out to have much truth in them, the testimony of a neutral observer +may be useful and helpful. At all events the risk is worth running. My +great difficulty is that _Qasha_ ---- must leave me here to return to +Urmi with Mar Gauriel's escort, and that I have no competent man with +me in case of difficulty. Mirza not only does not speak Turkish, but +has no "backbone," and Johannes, besides having the disadvantage of +being an Armenian, is really half a savage, as well as disobedient, +bad-tempered, reckless, and quarrelsome. He fought with a Turk at +Yekmala, and got me into trouble, and one of his first misdemeanours +here was to shoot the church doves, which are regarded as sacred, +thereby giving great offence to the Patriarch. + +It is most difficult to get away. The Julamerik muleteers are afraid +of being robbed on the route I wish to take, and none of them but a +young Kurd will undertake my loads, and though he arrived last night +the _zaptiehs_ I applied for have failed me. They were to have been +here by daylight this morning, and the loads were ready, but nine +o'clock came without their appearance. I wanted to take armed men from +Kochanes, but Mar Shimun said that twelve Christians would be no +protection against the Kurds, and that I must not go without a +Government escort, so things were unpacked. Late this evening, and +after another messenger had been sent to Julamerik, one _zaptieh_ +arrived with a message that they could not spare more, and the people +protest against my leaving with such insufficient protection. + +Another difficulty is the want of money. Owing to the "boom" in silver +in Persia, and the semi-panic which prevailed, the utmost efforts of +my friends in Urmi could only obtain L10 for a L20 note, and this only +in silver _mejidiehs_, a Turkish coin worth about 4s. As no money is +current in the villages change cannot be procured, and on sending to +Julamerik for small coins, only a very limited quantity could be +obtained--Russian _kopecks_ locally current at half their value, +Turkish coins the size of a crown piece, but so debased that they are +only worth 1s., a number of pieces of base metal the size of +sixpences, and "groats" and copper coins, miserably thin. It took me +an hour, even with Mr. Browne's help, to count 8s. in this truly +execrable money. The Julamerik _shroff_ sent word that the English +sovereign is selling at 16s. only. + +So, owing to these delays, I have had another day here, with its usual +routine of drinking coffee in houses, inviting women to tea in my +room, receiving mountaineers and others who come in at all hours and +kiss my hand, and smoke their long pipes on my floor, and another +opportunity of walking in the glory of the sunset, when the mountain +barriers of beautiful Kochanes glow with a colouring which suggests +thoughts of "the land which is very far off." Good Mr. Browne makes +himself one with the people, and is most anxious for me to identify +everybody, and say the right thing to everybody--no easy task, and as +I hope and fear that this is my last evening, I have tried to "leave a +pleasant impression" by spending it in the great gathering-place, +called pre-eminently the "house"! Mirza says that the people talk of +nothing but "guns, Kurds, the harvest, and the local news," but the +conversation to-night had a wider range, and was often very amusing, +taking a sombre turn only when the risks of my journey were discussed, +and the possible misconduct of my Kurdish _katirgi_. Ishai, who +describes him as "a very tame man" (not at all my impression of him), +has told him that "if he gives any trouble the House of Mar Shimun +will never forget it." + +Nothing could exceed the picturesqueness of the "house" to-night. +There were doubtless fifty people there, but the lamps, which look as +old as the relentless sweep of Taimurlane, hanging high on the +blackened pillars, only lighted up the central group, consisting of +Sulti and Marta in the highest place, the English priest in his turban +and cassock, the grotesque visage of Shlimon the Jester, and the +beautiful face and figure and splendid dress of Ishai the Patriarch's +brother, as proud as proud can be, but sitting among the retainers of +his ancient house playing on a musical instrument, the hereditary +familiarity of serf and lord blending with such expressions of respect +as "your foot is on my eyes," and the favourite asseveration, "by the +Head of Mar Shimun." The blackness in which the lofty roof was lost, +the big ovens with their busy groups, the rows of men, half-seen in +the dimness, lounging on natural ledges of rock, and the uphill floor +with its uncouth plenishings, made up such a picture as the feudalism +of our own middle ages might have presented. + +My letter[48] from the Turkish Ambassador at Tihran was sent to +Julamerik this afternoon, and has produced another _zaptieh_, and an +apology! + + I. L. B. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[47] In the winter of 1887 and the spring of 1888 every effort was +made by Fikri Pasha, the Turkish Governor of this district, but a Kurd +by race, to dislodge Mr. Browne from his position in the mountains. +"Soldiers were continually sent to inquire into his plans; he was +accused of practising without a diploma as a medical man, because he +gave a few simple remedies to the natives in a country destitute of +physicians, and his position became well-nigh intolerable when he +found that his host, Mar Shimun, was being insulted and punished for +harbouring him, and that the native Christians were being made to +suffer for his residence among them. The Patriarch, however, stood +firm. 'Your presence here,' said he to Mr. Browne, 'may save us from a +massacre; and as for these troubles we must put up with them as best +we can.' These words were verified a few months afterwards."--Mr. +Athelstan Riley's _Report on the Archbishop of Canterbury's Mission to +the Assyrian Christians_, 1888. + +[48] Translation of a letter given to the author by His Excellency the +Turkish Ambassador to the Court of Tihran. + +"Among the honoured of English ladies is Mrs. Bishop. On this tour of +travel she has a letter of recommendation from the Exalted Government +of England, issued by the English Embassy in Tihran, and earnest +request is made that in her passage through the Imperial Territory she +be well protected. As far as _zaptiehs_ are necessary let them be +given for her safety, all necessary provision for her most comfortable +travel be perfected, and all her requests from the High Government of +the Osmanlis be met. + +"That all courtesy and attention be shown to this distinguished lady, +this letter is given from the Embassy at Tihran." + +As various statements purporting to be narratives of attacks made upon +me in Turkey have appeared in Russian and other papers, I take this +opportunity of saying that they are devoid of any foundation. I was +never robbed while in the dominion of His Majesty the Sultan: courtesy +was shown me by all the Turkish officials between the Persian frontier +and Erzerum, and efficient escorts of steady and respectful _zaptiehs_ +were readily supplied. + + + + +LETTER XXX + + + KOTRANIS, KURDISTAN, _Oct. 28_. + +Here, in one of the wildest of mountain hamlets, I hoped to indulge in +the luxury of my tent, and it was actually unrolled, when all the +village men came to me and with gestures of appeal besought me not to +pitch it, as it would not be safe for one hour and would "bring +trouble upon them." The hamlet is suffering terribly from the Kurds, +who are not only robbing it of its sheep and most else, but are +attempting to deprive the peasants of their lands in spite of the fact +that they possess title-deeds. This Berwar-Lata valley has been +reduced from a condition of pastoral wealth to one of extreme poverty. +Kotranis, and Bilar a little lower down, from which the best hones are +exported, are ruined by Kurdish exactions. The Christians sow and the +Kurds reap: they breed cattle and sheep and the Kurds drive them off +when they are well grown. One man at ---- a few miles off, had 1000 +sheep. He has been robbed of all but sixty. This is but a specimen of +the wrongs to which these unhappy people are exposed. The Kurds now +scarcely give them any respite in which "_to let the sheep's wool +grow_," as their phrase is. + +Kotranis is my last Syrian halting-place, and its miseries are well +fitted to leave a lasting impression. It is included in the _vilayet_ +of Van, in which, according to the latest estimates, there are 80,000 +Syrian Christians. The _rayahs_ either own the village lands or are +the dependants or serfs of a Kurdish Agha or master. In either case +their condition is deplorable, for they have practically no rights +which a Kurd or Turk is bound to respect. In some of their villages +they have been robbed till they are absolutely without the means of +paying taxes, and are beaten, till the fact is established beyond +dispute. They are but scantily supplied with the necessaries of life, +though their industry produces abundance. Squeezed between the +rapacity and violence of the Kurds and the exactions of the Turkish +officials, who _undoubtedly connive at outrages so long as the victims +are Christians_, the condition of these Syrians is one of the most +pitiable on earth. They have no representatives in the cities of +Europe and Asia, and no commercial instincts and habits like the +Armenians. They have the Oriental failings of untruthfulness and +avarice, and the cunning begotten by centuries of oppression, but +otherwise they are simple, grossly ignorant, helpless shepherds and +cultivators; aliens by race and creed, without a rich or capable man +among them, hemmed in by some of the most inaccessible of mountain +ranges, and by their oppressors the Kurds; without a leader, adviser, +or friend, rarely visited by travellers, with no voice which can reach +Europe, with a present of intolerable bondage and a future without +light, and yet through all clinging passionately to the faith received +by tradition from their fathers. + +As I have no lodging but a dark stable, I am utilising the late +afternoon, sitting by the village threshing-floor, on which a mixed +rabble of animals is treading corn. Some buffaloes are lying in moist +places looking amiable and foolish. _Boy_ is tied to my chair. The +village women knit and stare. Two of the men, armed with matchlock +guns, keep a look-out for the Kurds. A crystal stream tumbles through +the village, over ledges of white quartz. Below, the valley opens and +discloses ranges bathed in ineffable blue. The mountain sides are +aflame with autumn tints, and down their steep paths oxen are bringing +the tawny gold of the late harvest on rude sledges. But the shadow of +the Kurd is over it all. I left English-speaking people so lately that +I scarcely realise that I am now alone in Central Kurdistan, in one of +the wildest parts of the world, among fierce predatory tribes, and a +ravaged and imperilled people. + +I bade the Patriarch farewell at six this morning, and even at that +early hour men were seated all round his room. After shaking hands +with about thirty people, I walked the first mile accompanied by Mr. +Browne, who then left me on his way to seek to enlighten the wild +tribesmen of the Tyari valley. From the top of the Kamerlan Pass, +above Kochanes, the view was inconceivably beautiful. On the lovely +alp on which the village stands a red patch of autumnal colouring +flamed against the deep indigo and purple mountains of Diz and +Shawutha, which block up the east end of the lofty valley; while above +these rose the Jelu ranges, said to be from 12,000 to 15,000 feet in +altitude, bathed in rich pure blue, snow-fields on their platforms, +new-fallen snow on their crests, indigo shadows in their clefts and +ravines,--a glorious group of spires, peaks, crags, chasms, +precipices, rifts, parapets, and ridges perfect in their beauty as +seen in the calm coloured atmosphere in which autumn loves to die. +Higher up we were in vast solitudes, among splintered peaks and +pasturages where clear streams crashed over rock ledges or murmured +under ice, and then a descent of 1800 feet by steep zigzags, and a +seven hours' march in keen pure air, brought us through rounded hills +to this village. + +_Van, November 1._--There was a night alarm at Kotranis. A number of +Kurds came down upon the threshing-floor, and the _zaptiehs_ were +most unwilling to drive off the marauders, saying that their only +orders were to protect me. The Kurds, who were at least ten to one, +retired when they saw the Government uniforms, but the big dogs barked +for the rest of the night. + +The next day's march occupied eleven hours. It was very cold, "light +without heat," superb travelling weather. One _zaptieh_ was a Moslem, +the other an Armenian, and there were strong differences of opinion +between them, especially when we halted to rest at a Christian +village, and the Kurdish _katirgi_ took several sheaves of corn from a +threshing-floor without paying for them. The Moslem insisted that he +should not pay and the Christian that he should, and it ended by my +paying and deducting the sum from his _bakhsheesh_. The _zaptiehs_ are +usually men who have served five years with the colours. In Eastern +Asia Minor they are well clothed in dark blue braided uniforms, and +have ulsters in addition for cold weather. They provide their own +horses. Their pay is eighty piastres a month, with rations of bread +for themselves and of barley for their animals, but the pay is often +nine months in arrear, or they receive it in depreciated paper. They +are accused of being directly or indirectly concerned in many +robberies, and of preying on the peasantry. They are armed with Snider +rifles, swords, and revolvers. From the top of a high pass above +Kotranis there was a final view of the Jelu mountains, and the +remainder of the day was spent among hills, streams, and valleys, with +rich fertile soil and abundant water, but very thinly peopled. + +A very ingenious plough has taken the place of the primitive implement +hitherto used. The share is big and heavy, well shod with iron, and +turns up the soil to a great depth. The draught is from an axle with +two wheels, one of them two feet in diameter and the other only ten +inches. The big wheel runs in the last furrow, and the little one on +the soil not yet upturned, the axle being level. Some of these ploughs +were drawn by eight buffaloes, with a boy, singing an inharmonious +tune, seated facing backwards on each yoke. After the ploughing, water +is turned on to soften the clods, which are then broken up by the +husbandmen with spades. + +There is a great charm about the scenery as seen at this season, the +glorious colouring towards sunset, the fantastic forms and brilliant +tints of the rocks, and the purity of the new-fallen snow upon the +heights; but between Kotranis and Van, except for a little planting in +the "Valley of the Armenians," there is scarcely a bush. If I had warm +clothing I should regard the temperature as perfect, nearly 50 deg. at +noon, and falling to about 25 deg. at night. After a severe march, a +descent and a sudden turn in the road brought us in the purple +twilight to Merwanen, the chief village of Norduz, streamily situated +on a slope--a wretched village, semi-subterranean; a partly finished +house, occupied by a newly arrived _Kaimakam_ and a number of +_zaptiehs_, rising above the miserable hovels, which, bad as they are, +were all occupied by the _Kaimakam's_ attendants. _Zaptiehs_, +soldiers, Kurds, and villagers assured me that there was no room +anywhere, and an officer, in a much-frogged uniform, drove my men from +pillar to post, not allowing us standing room on the little dry ground +that there was. I humbly asked if I could pitch my tent, but a rough +negative was returned. A subterranean buffalo stable, where there was +just room among the buffaloes for me to lie down in a cramped +position, was the only available shelter, and there was none for the +servants. I do not much mind sharing a stable with _Boy_, but I "draw +the line" at buffaloes, and came out again into the frosty air, into +an inhospitable and altogether unprepossessing crowd. + +Then there was a commotion, with much bowing and falling to the right +and left, and the _Kaimakam_ himself appeared, with my powerful letter +in his hand, took me into the unfinished house, at which he had only +arrived an hour before, and into a small room almost altogether +occupied by two beds on the floor, on one of which a man very ill of +fever was lying, and on the other an unveiled Kurdish beauty was +sitting. The _Kaimakam_, though exceedingly "the worse of drink," was +not without a certain dignity and courtesy. He apologised profoundly +for the incivility and discomfort which I had met with, and for his +inability to entertain me "with distinction" in "so rough a place," +but said that he would give up his own room to so "exalted a +personage," or if I preferred a room outside it should be made ready. +Of course I chose the latter, with profuse expressions of the +gratitude I sincerely felt, and after a cup of coffee bade him +good-night. + +The room was the justice or injustice room over the _zaptieh_ +barracks, and without either door or glazed windows, but cold and +stiff as I was after an eleven hours' march, I was thankful for any +rest and shelter. Shortly my young Kurdish _katirgi_, a splendid +fellow, but not the least "tame," announced that he must leave me in +order to get the escort of some _zaptiehs_ back to Julamerik. He said +that "they all" told him that the road to Van was full of danger, and +that if he went on he would be robbed of his mules and money on the +way back. No transport however, was to be got, and he came on with me +very pluckily, and has got an escort back, at least to Merwanen. In +the morning the _Kaimakam_ rose early to do me honour, but was so +tipsy that he could scarcely sit upright on his chair on a stone dais +amidst a rabble of soldiers and scribes. We were all benumbed with +cold, and glad that the crossing of an expanse of frozen streams +rendered walking a necessity. A nine hours' march through mountains +remarkable for rocky spires and needles marvellously coloured, and for +the absence of inhabitants, took us to the Armenian village of +Khanjarak, finely situated in a corrie upon a torrent bank; but it is +so subterranean, and so built into the hillside, that a small square +church and conical piles of _kiziks_ are the only obvious objects, and +I rode over the roofs without knowing what was underneath. + +All the women and children, rabbit-like, came out of their holes, +clothed in red rags, and some wore strings of coins round their heads. +The men were dressed like Kurds, and were nearly as wild-looking. They +protested against my tent being pitched. They said the Kurds were +always on the watch, and would hack it with their swords in half an +hour to get at its contents, that they had only three matchlock guns, +and that the Kurds were armed with rifles. I felt that I could +scarcely touch a lower depth in the matter of accommodation than when +they lodged me in a dark subterranean stable, running very far back +into the hill, with a fire of animal fuel in the middle giving off +dense and acrid fumes. A recess in this, with a mud bench, was +curtained off for me, and the rest of the space was occupied by my own +horses and baggage mules, and most of the village asses, goats, cows, +calves, and sheep. Several horses belonging to travellers and to my +own escort were also there, and all the _zaptiehs_, servants, +travellers, and _katirgis_ were lodged there. There were legions of +fleas revelling in a temperature which rose to 80 deg. at midnight, though +there were 5 deg. of frost outside. In the part of the roof which +projected from the hill there were two holes for light, but at night +these were carefully closed with corks of plaited straw. + +The wretched poverty of the people of this place made a very painful +impression on me. They _may_ have exaggerated when they told me how +terribly they are oppressed by the Kurds, who, they say, last year +robbed them of 900 sheep and this year of 300, twenty-five and some +cattle having been driven off a few days before, but it is a simple +fact that the night of my visit the twenty-four sheep for which there +was no room in the stable were carried away by a party of well-armed +Kurds in the bright moonlight, the helpless shepherds not daring to +resist. It is of no use, they say, to petition the Government; it will +not interfere. The Kurds come into their houses, they say, and terrify +and insult their women, and by demands with violence take away all +they have. They say that the money for which they have sold their +grain, and which they were keeping to pay their taxes with, was taken +by the Kurds last week, and that they will be cruelly beaten by the +_zaptiehs_ because they cannot pay. Their words and air expressed +abject terror.[49] + +Their little church is poorer than poverty itself, a building of +undressed stone without mortar, and its length of thirteen feet +includes the rude mud dais occupied by the yet ruder altar. Its +furniture consists of an iron censer, an iron saucer containing oil +and a wick, and an earthen flagon. There are no windows, and the +rough walls are black with candle smoke. The young man who showed the +church took a Gospel from the dais, kissing the cross upon it before +handing it to me, and then on seeing that I was interested went home +and brought a MS. of St. Matthew's Gospel, with several +rudely-illuminated scenes from our Lord's life. "Christos," he said +with a smile, as he pointed to the central figure in the first +illustration, and so on as he showed me the others, for in each there +was a figure of the Christ, not crowned and risen, but suffering and +humiliated. Next morning, in the bitter cold of the hour before +sunrise, the clang of the mallet on the sounding-board assembled the +villagers for matins, and to the Christ crowned and risen and "sitting +on the right hand of power" they rendered honour as Divine, though in +the midst of the grossest superstition and darkness, and for Him whom +they "ignorantly worship" they are at this moment suffering the loss +of all things. Their empty sheepfold might have been full to-day if +they had acknowledged Him as a Prophet and no more.[50] + +Leaving this wretched hamlet, where the unfortunate peasants are as +avaricious as they are poor and dirty, and passing a Kurdish village +with a stone fort picturesquely situated, we crossed a pass into a +solitary valley, on which high rounded hills descend in harmonised +buffs and browns, both hills and valleys covered with uncut hay. The +_zaptiehs_ said that this was a specially dangerous place, and urged +the caravan to its utmost speed. We met three Armenian _katirgis_ in +their shirts. They complained most bitterly that they had been robbed +an hour before of five mules with their equipments, as well as of +their clothing and money. The ascent and the very tedious descent of +the Kasrik Kala Pass brought us into the large and fertile plain of +Haizdar, the "plain of the Armenians," sprinkled with Armenian +villages, and much cultivated. + +Mirza and one _zaptieh_ had gone back for a blanket which had been +dropped, and after halting in an orchard till I was half-frozen I +decided to proceed without them, having understood that we could reach +Van in three hours. I started my party by signs, and after an hour's +riding reached a village where Johannes spoke fluently in an unknown +tongue, and the _zaptieh_ held up five fingers, which I learned too +late meant that Van was five hours off. I thought that they were +asking for instructions, and at every pause I repeated _Van_. + +After a brief consultation we went up among the hills, the young +Kurdish _katirgi_ jumping, yelling, singing, and howling, to keep his +mules at a trot, the _zaptieh_ urging them with his whip, and pointing +ominously at the fast sinking sun. On we clattered with much noise, +nor did we slacken speed till we gained a high altitude among desert +solitudes, from which we looked down upon the Dead Sea of Van, a sheet +of water extending in one direction beyond the limits of vision, lying +red and weird, with high mountains jutting into it in lofty headlands +hovered over by flame-coloured clouds. High up along the mountain side +in a wavy line lay the path to Van in the deepening shadows, and the +_zaptieh_, this time holding up three fingers, still urged on the +caravan, and the Kurd responded by yells and howls, dancing and +jumping like a madman. + +Just as it was becoming dark, four mounted men, each armed with two +guns, rode violently among the mules, which were in front of me, and +attempted to drive them off. In the _melee_ the _katirgi_ was knocked +down. The _zaptieh_ jumped off his horse, threw the bridle to me, and +shouldered his rifle. When they saw the Government uniform these Kurds +drew back, let the mules go, and passed on. The whole affair took but +a few seconds, but it was significant of the unwillingness of the +Kurds to come into collision with the Turks, and of the power the +Government could exercise in the disturbed districts if it were once +understood that the marauders were not to be allowed a free hand. + +After this attack not a word was spoken, the bells were taken off the +mules, the _zaptieh_, as fine and soldierly a man as one could wish to +see, marched in front, quiet and vigilant, and so in a darkness in +which I could not see my horse's ears we proceeded till, three hours +later, the moon rose as we entered Van. It was one of the _eeriest_ +rides I ever made, and I had many painful reflections on having risked +through ignorance the property of my faithful Kurdish _katirgi_. The +first light of Van was a welcome sight, though after that there was a +long ride to "the gardens," a large wooded suburb chiefly inhabited by +Armenians, in which the American missionaries live. Dr. Reynolds, the +medical missionary, has given me a most hospitable welcome, though his +small house is more than full with new arrivals from America. I wanted +to re-engage my jolly _katirgi_ for Bitlis, but he went back at once +with the _zaptieh_, and after the obvious perils of the road it would +not have been fair to detain him. Visitors are scarce here. Van does +not see more than one non-official European in three years. The +Vice-Consul says that he should have doubted the sanity of any one who +had proposed to travel from Urmi to Van by the route I took, but now +that the journey is safely over I am glad that no one at Urmi knew +enough to dissuade me from it. The Vice-Consul and all the mission +party are as kind as they can be, and Van is for me another oasis. + + I. L. B. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[49] I must ask my readers to believe that I crossed the Turkish +frontier without any knowledge of or interest in the "Armenian +Question;" that so far from having any special liking for the +Armenians I had rather a prejudice against them; that I was in +ignorance of the "Erzerum troubles" of June 1890, and of yet more +recent complications, and that the sole object of my journey by a +route seldom traversed by Europeans from Urmi to Van was to visit the +Patriarch of the Nestorians and the Kochanes station of the Archbishop +of Canterbury's Assyrian Church Mission, and that afterwards I +travelled to Erzerum _via_ Bitlis only to visit the American +missionaries there. So far as I know, I entered Turkey as a perfectly +neutral and impartial observer, and without any special interest in +its Christian populations, and it is only the "inexorable logic of +facts" which has convinced me of their wrongs and claims. + +[50] In another village, a young man in speaking of their +circumstances said: "We don't know much, but we love the Lord Jesus +well enough to die for Him." + + + + +LETTER XXXI + + + VAN,[51] ARMENIA, _Nov. 4_. + +Van and its surroundings are at once so interesting and picturesque +that it is remarkable that they are comparatively seldom visited by +travellers. Probably the insecurity of the roads, the villainous +accommodation _en route_, and its isolated position account for the +neglect.[52] Here as elsewhere I am much impressed with the excellence +of the work done by the American missionaries, who are really the +lights of these dark places, and by their exemplary and honourable +lives furnish that _moral model_ and standard of living which is more +efficacious than preaching in lifting up the lives of a people sunk in +the depths of a grossly corrupted Christianity. The boys' and girls' +schools in Van are on an excellent basis, and are not only turning out +capable men and women, but are stimulating the Armenians to raise the +teaching and tone of their own schools in the city, with one of which +I was very greatly pleased. The creation of churches, strict in their +discipline, and protesting against the mass of superstitions which +smother all spiritual life in the National Armenian Church, is +undoubtedly having a very salutary effect far beyond the limited +membership, and is tending to _force reform_ upon an ancient church +which contains within herself the elements of resurrection. Great +honour is due to Dr. Reynolds for the way in which, almost +single-handed, he has kept the valuable work of this Mission going for +years, and now that colleagues have arrived a considerable development +may be hoped for. + +I have confessed already to a prejudice against the Armenians, but it +is not possible to deny that they are the most capable, energetic, +enterprising, and pushing race in Western Asia, physically superior, +and intellectually acute, and above all they are a race which can be +raised in all respects to our own level, neither religion, colour, +customs, nor inferiority in intellect or force constituting any +barrier between us. Their shrewdness and aptitude for business are +remarkable, and whatever exists of commercial enterprise in Eastern +Asia Minor is almost altogether in their hands. They have singular +elasticity, as their survival as a church and nation shows, and I +cannot but think it likely that they may have some share in +determining the course of events in the East, both politically and +religiously. As Orientals they understand Oriental character and modes +of thought as we never can, and if a new Pentecostal _afflatus_ were +to fall upon the educated and intelligent young men who are being +trained in the colleges which the American churches have scattered +liberally through Asia Minor, the effect upon Turkey would be +marvellous. I think most decidedly that reform in Turkey must come +through Christianity, and in this view the reform and enlightenment +of the religion which has such a task before it are of momentous +importance. + +Islam is "cabined, cribbed, confined." Its forms of belief and thought +and its social and political ideas remain in the moulds into which +they were run at its rise. Expansion is impossible. The arrogance +which the Koran inculcates and fosters is a dead weight on progress. +If the Turk had any disposition to initiate and carry out reforms his +creed and its traditions would fetter him. Islam, with its fanaticism, +narrowness, obstructiveness, and _grooviness_ is really at this moment +the greatest obstacle to every species of advance both in Turkey and +Persia, and its present activity and renewed proselytising spirit are +omens of evil as much for political and social progress as for the +higher life of men. + +The mission houses and schools are on fairly high ground more than two +miles from Van, in what are known as "the Gardens," where most of the +well-to-do Armenians and Turkish officials reside. These gardens, +filled with vineyards and all manner of fruit trees, extend for a +distance of five miles, and being from two to three miles wide their +mass of greenery has a really beautiful effect. Among them are many +very good houses, and the roads and alleys by which they are +intersected are well planted with poplars and willows, shading +pleasant streams which supply the water for irrigation. + +The view from the roof is a glorious one. Looking west over the +gardens, which are now burning with autumn tints, the lofty crests of +the huge crater of Nimrud Dagh are always visible across the lake of +Van, intensely blue in the morning, and reddening in the sunsets of +flame and gold. In the evenings too, the isolated rock on which the +castle of Van is built bulks as a violet mass against the sinking +sun, with a foreground of darkening greenery. The great truncated cone +of the Sipan Dagh looms grandly over the lake to the north; to the +east the rocky mass of the Varak Dagh, with white villages and +monasteries in great numbers lying in its clefts and folds, rises +precipitously to a height of 10,500 feet; and to the south the +imposing peaks of Ardost, now crested with snow, and Mount Pelu, +projecting into the lake, occupy prominent positions above the lower +groups and ridges. + +The town of Van is nearly a mile from the lake, and is built on an +open level space, in the midst of which stands a most picturesque and +extraordinary rock which rises perpendicularly to a height of about +300 feet. It falls abruptly at both extremities, and its outline, +which Colonel Severs Bell estimates at 1900 yards in length, is +emphasised by battlemented walls, several towers, and a solitary +minaret rising above the picturesque irregularity of the ancient +fortifications. Admission to the interior of the castle is refused, +consequently I have not seen the chambers in the rock, supposed to +have been the tombs of kings. The most celebrated of the cuneiform +inscriptions cut on tablets smoothed in the rock is on the south side +in an inaccessible position, and was with difficulty copied by the +murdered traveller Schulz with the aid of a telescope. It is well seen +from below, looking, as has been remarked, like an open copy of a +newspaper. Like the tablets of Persepolis and Mount Elwend, it relates +in august language the titles and deeds of Xerxes. + +The founding of Van is ascribed to Semiramis, who, according to +Armenian history, named it Shemiramagerd, and was accustomed to resort +to its gardens, which she had herself planted and watered, to escape +from the fierce heat of the summer at Nineveh. The well of Semiramis +and other works attributed to her bring her name frequently into +conversation--indeed she is mentioned as familiarly as Queen Elizabeth +is among us! + + [Illustration: ROCK AND CITADEL OF VAN. + _To face p. 338, vol. II._] + +The town, which is walled, is not particularly attractive, but there +is one very handsome mosque, and a very interesting Armenian church, +eleven centuries old, dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul. The houses +are mean-looking, but their otherwise shabby uniformity is broken up +by lattice windows. The bazars are poorly built, but are clean, well +supplied, and busy, though the trade of Van is suffering from the +general insecurity of the country and the impoverishment of the +peasantry. It is very pleasant that in the Van bazars ladies can walk +about freely, encountering neither the hoots of boys nor the +petrifying Islamic scowl. + + [Illustration: KURDS OF VAN.] + +Fifty years ago Venetian beads were the only articles imported from +Europe. Now, owing to the increasing enterprise of the Armenians, +every European necessary of life can be obtained, as well as many +luxuries. Peek and Frean's biscuits, Moir's and Crosse and Blackwell's +tinned meats and jams, English patent medicines, Coats' sewing cotton, +Belfast linens, Berlin wools, Jaeger's vests, and all sorts of +materials, both cotton and woollen, abound. I did not see such a +choice and abundance of European goods in any bazar in Persia, and in +the city of Semiramis, and beneath the tablet of Xerxes, there is a +bazar devoted to Armenian tailors, and to the clatter of American +sewing machines stitching Yorkshire cloth! One of these tailors has +made a heavy cloth ulster for me, which the American ladies pronounce +perfect in fit and "style!" + +The Armenians, with their usual industry and thrift, are always +enlarging their commerce and introducing new imports. Better than +this, they are paying great attention to education, and several of +their merchants seem to be actuated by a liberal and enlightened +spirit. It is, however, to usury not less than to trade that they owe +their prosperity. The presence of Europeans in Van, in the persons of +the missionaries and vice-consuls, in addition to the admirable +influence exerted by the former, has undoubtedly a growing tendency +towards ameliorating the condition of the Christian population. + +In the _vilayet_ of Van it is estimated by Colonel Severs Bell that +the Christians outnumber the Moslems by 80,000, the entire population +being estimated at 340,000. In the city of Van, with a population +estimated by him at 32,000, the Christians are believed to be as 3 to +1.[53] + +The formalities required for Turkish travelling are many and +increasing, and from ignorance of one of them Johannes has been +arrested, and Mirza marched to the Consulate by the police. I have +been obliged to part with the former and send him back to Hamadan, as +it would not be safe to take the risky journey to Erzerum with such an +inexperienced and untrustworthy servant. Through Mr. Devey's kindness +I have obtained an interpreter and servant in Murphy O'Rourke, a +British subject, but a native of Turkey, and equally at home in +English, Turkish, and Armenian, though totally illiterate. + + I. L. B. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[51] Van may be considered the capital of that part of Kurdistan which +we know as Armenia, but it must be remembered that under the present +Government of Turkey Armenia is a prohibited name, and has ceased to +be "a geographical expression." Cyclopaedias containing articles on +Armenia, and school books with any allusions to Armenian history, or +to the geography of any district referred to as Armenia, are not +allowed to enter Asia Minor, and no foreign maps which contain the +province of Armenia are allowed to be used in the foreign schools, or +even to be retained in the country. Of the four millions of the +Armenian race 2,500,000 are subjects of the Sultan, and with few +exceptions are distinguished for their loyalty and their devotion to +peaceful pursuits. + +The portion of Armenia which lies within the Turkish frontier consists +for the most part of table-lands from 5000 to 6000 feet in elevation, +intersected by mountain ranges and watered by several rivers, the +principal of which are the Euphrates, the Tigris, and the Aras. Of its +many lakes the Dead Sea of Van is the principal, its dimensions being +estimated at twice the area of the Lake of Geneva, and at eighty miles +in length by twenty-five in breadth. From its exquisitely beautiful +shores rise the two magnificent extinct volcanoes, the Sipan Dagh, +with an altitude of over 12,000 feet, and the Nimrud Dagh, with a +crater five miles in diameter and 1600 feet in depth, the top of its +wall being over 9000 feet in height. + +The Armenians claim an antiquity exceeding that of any other nation, +and profess to trace their descent from Haik, the son of Togarmah, the +grandson of Japhet, who fled from the tyranny of Belus, King of +Assyria, into the country which in the Armenian tongue is known by his +name, as _Haikh_ or _Haizdani_. It may be said of the Armenians that +the splendour and misery of their national history exceed those of any +other race. Their national church claims an older than an apostolic +foundation, and historically dates from the third century, its actual +founder, S. Gregory the Illuminator, having been consecrated at +Caesarea as Bishop of Armenia in the second year of the fourth century. +In the fifteenth century a schism brought about by Jesuit missionaries +resulted in a number of Armenians joining the Church of Rome, and +becoming later a separate community known as the "Catholic Armenian +Church." Within the last half-century, under the teaching of the +American missionaries, a Reformed Church has arisen, known as the +Protestant Armenian Church, but with these exceptions the race and the +national church may be regarded as one. The Armenians have had no +political existence since the year 1604, but form an element of +stability and wealth in Turkey, Russia, and Persia, where they are +principally found. + +Their language is regarded by scholars as an off-shoot of the Iranian +branch of the Indo-Germanic group of languages. Their existing +literature dates from the fourth century, and all that is not +exclusively Christian has perished. Translations of the Old and New +Testaments dating from the fifth century are among its oldest +monuments, and the dialect in which they are written, and in which +they are still read in the churches, known as Old Armenian, is not now +understood by the people. During the last century there has been a +great revival of letters among the Armenians, chiefly due to the +_Mekhitarists_ of Venice, and a literature in modern Armenian is +rapidly developing alongside of the study and publication of the works +of the ancient writers. + +[52] It has, however, received due attention both from scholars and +antiquaries, and among the popularly-written accounts of it are very +interesting chapters in Sir A. H. Layard's _Nineveh and Babylon_, and +in a charming volume by the Rev. H. F. Tozer, _Turkish Armenia and +Eastern Asia Minor_. + +[53] An estimate by Mr. Devey, Her Britannic Majesty's Vice-Consul at +Van, gives a population of only 250,000 for the whole _vilayet_. + + + + +LETTER XXXII + + + BITLIS, _Nov. 10_. + +I arrived here two days ago, having ridden the ninety miles from Van +in three and a half days. Dr. Reynolds accompanied me, and as we had a +couple of _zaptiehs_ on good horses we deserted the caravan, and came +along at as good a pace as the mountainous nature of the road would +allow. The early winter weather is absolutely perfect for travelling. +All along I am quite impressed with the resemblance which the southern +shores of Lake Van bear to some of the most beautiful parts of the +Italian Riviera--Italian beauty seen under an Italian sky. Travellers +lose a great deal by taking the easier route round the north shore of +the lake. + +The first day's half march ended at Angugh, an Armenian village on the +river Hashal, on the plain of Haizdar or Haigatsor, where the people +complained of some Armenian women having been despoiled of their +jewels by some Kurds during the afternoon. The views are magnificent +_en route_, especially of the Christian village of Artemid, on a spur +on a height, with a Moslem village in gardens below, with green +natural lawns sloping to the lake. At Angugh I was well accommodated +in a granary on a roof, and as there was no room for my bed, found a +comfortable substitute in a blanket spread upon the wheat. The next +day's march was through exquisitely beautiful scenery, partly skirting +deep bays on paths cut in the rock above them, among oaks and ferns, +and partly crossing high steep promontories which jut out into the +lake. A few villages, where strips of level ground and water for +irrigation can be obtained, are passed, and among them the village of +Vastan, the "Seat of Government" for the district, and a Turkish +telegraph station, but in the eleventh century the residence of the +Armenian royal family of Ardzrauni. + +Art aids nature, and there are grand old monasteries on promontories, +and Kurdish castles on heights, and flashing streams and booming +torrents are bridged by picturesque pointed arches. There are 150 +monasteries in this region, and the towers of St. George at the +mountain village of Narek, high on a rocky spur above one of the most +beautiful of the many wooded valleys which descend upon the lake of +Van, lend an air of medieval romance to a scene as fair as nature can +make it. Nearly all the romantic valleys opening on the lake are +adorned with one or more villages, with houses tier above tier in +their rocky clefts, and terrace below terrace of exquisite cultivation +below, of the vivid velvety green of winter wheat. These terraces +often "hang" above green sward and noble walnut trees. Occasionally +the villages are built at the feet of the mountains, on small plateaux +above steep-sided bays, and are embosomed in trees glowing with +colour, from canary-yellow to crimson and madder-red, and mountains, +snow-crested and forest-skirted tower over all. Lake Van, bluer than +the blue heavens, with its huge volcanic heights--Sipan Dagh, Nimrud +Dagh, and Varak Dagh, and their outlying ranges--its deep green bays +and quiet wooded inlets; its islets, some like the Bass Rock, others +monastery-covered; its pure green shadows and violet depths; its heavy +boats with their V-shaped sails; and its auburn oak-covered slopes, +adds its own enchantment, and all is as fair as fair can be. + +Though the state of things among the Christians is not nearly so bad +as in some of the Syrian valleys, the shadow of the Kurd is over this +paradise. The Armenians complain of robbery with violence as being of +constant occurrence, and that they have been plundered till they are +unable to pay the taxes, and it is obvious that travellers, unless in +large companies, are not safe without a Government escort. In each +village the common sheepfold is guarded from sunset to sunrise by a +number of men--a heavy burden on villagers whose taxation should +ensure them sufficient protection from marauders. + +In one of the fairest bays on this south side of the lake is the +island rock of Akhtamar, crowned with a church and monastery built of +red sandstone. The convent boat, which plies daily to the mainland for +supplies, is available for travellers. Eleven monks with their pupils +inhabit the rock. It is a very ancient foundation, dating from A.D. +633, and the church is attributed to the Armenian King Kakhik, who +reigned in the tenth century. It is a cruciform building, with a +hexagonal tower and a conical terminal at the intersection of the +cross. The simple interior is decorated with some very rude pictures, +and a gilded throne for the Patriarch stands at the east end. This +Patriarchate of Akhtamar, the occupant of which has at times claimed +the title of _Catholicos_, was founded in 1113 by an archbishop of +Akhtamar who declared himself independent of the _Catholicos_ of the +Armenian Church who resides in Echmiadzin, but at the present time he +has only a few adherents in the immediate neighbourhood of Van, and +has the reputation of extreme ignorance, and of being more of a farmer +than an ecclesiastic. He was at Haikavank, at the fine farm on the +mainland possessed by the convent, but we had not time to call. + +Plain as is the interior of the Church of Akhtamar, the exterior is +most elaborately ornamented with bas-reliefs, very much undercut. +Three of the roofs rest on friezes on which birds and beasts in +singularly vigorous action are portrayed, and there are besides two +rows of heads in high relief, and a number of scripture subjects very +boldly treated, in addition to some elaborate scroll-work, and bands +of rich foliage. On this remarkable rock Dr. Reynolds and his family +took refuge a few years ago, when it was apprehended that Van would be +sacked by the Kurds. + +The vivid colouring of the lake is emphasised by a line of pure white +deposit which runs round its margin, and vivacity is given to its +waters by innumerable wild fowl, flamingoes, geese, ducks, pelicans, +cormorants, etc. From a reedy swamp near it ducks rose in such numbers +as literally to darken the air. Carbonate of soda and chloride of +sodium are obtained from the lake water by evaporation, but it is not +nearly so salt as that of the Sea of Urmi. Not very far from the south +shore a powerful fresh-water spring bubbles up in the midst of the +salt water. The only fish known of is a species said to be like a +small herring. These are captured in enormous quantities in the spring +as they come up into the streams which feed the lake. + +On the last two nights at Undzag and Ghazit I had my first experiences +of the Turkish _odah_ or village guest-house or _khan_, of which, as +similar abodes will be my lodgings throughout my journey to Erzerum, I +will try to give you an idea. Usually partially excavated in the +hillside and partly imbedded in the earth, the _odah_ is a large +rambling room with an irregular roof supported on rough tree-stems. In +the centre, or some other convenient place, is a mud platform slightly +raised; in the better class of _odahs_ this has a fireplace in the +wall at one end. Round this on three sides is a deep manger, and +similar mangers run along the side walls and into the irregular +recesses, which are lost in the darkness. The platform is for human +beings, and the rest of the building for horses, mules, oxen, asses, +and buffaloes, with a few sheep and goats probably in addition. The +_katirgis_ and the humbler class of travellers sleep among the beasts, +the remainder, without distinction of race, creed, or sex, on the +enclosed space. Light enters from the door and from a few small holes +in the roof, which are carefully corked up at night, and then a few +iron cups of oil with wicks, the primitive lamp in general use, +hanging upon the posts, give forth a smoky light. + +In such an _odah_ there may be any number of human beings cooking, +eating, and sleeping, and from twenty to a hundred animals, or more, +as well as the loads of the pack-horses and the arms of the +travellers. As the eye becomes accustomed to the smoke and dimness, it +sees rows of sweet ox faces, with mild eyes and moist nostrils, and +wild horse faces surrounding the enclosure, and any number more +receding into the darkness. Ceaseless munching goes on, and a neigh or +a squeal from some unexpected corner startles one, or there is a horse +fight, which takes a number of men to quell it. Each animal is a +"living stove," and the heat and closeness are so insupportable that +one awakes quite unrefreshed in the morning in a temperature of 80 deg. +The _odah_ is one of the great features of travelling in Eastern Asia +Minor. I dined and spent the evenings in its warmth and cheeriness, +enjoying its wild picturesqueness, but at Undzag I pitched my small +tent at the stable door, and at Ghazit on the roof, and braved the +cold in it. + +_Boy_ is usually close to me, eating scraps from my dinner, and gently +biting the back of my neck when he thinks that I am forgetting his +presence. He amuses all the men everywhere by his affectionateness, +and eating out of my hand, and following me like a dog. I never saw +so gentle and trustworthy a creature. His hair has grown very long, +thick, and woolly, and curls in parts like that of a retriever. His +sweet ways have provided him with a home after his powerful legs and +big feet have trudged with me to Trebizond, for my hosts here, who are +old and somewhat frail, have taken such a fancy to his gentleness and +winsomeness that he is to return to them when the roads open in the +spring. + +It was a grand ride from Undzag over lofty mountain passes to the +exquisitely-situated village of Ghazit, built in a deep _cul de sac_ +above the lake. Terraces, one above another, rise from the lake shore, +so beautifully cultivated as to realise Emerson's description of the +appearance of English soil, "Tilled with a pencil instead of a +plough." A church stands on a height, and the village, almost hidden +among magnificent walnuts, is crowded upon a terrace of green sward at +the foot of a semicircle of mountains which wall it in from the world. +The narrow village road, with its low, deep-eaved stone houses, was +prettily brightened by colour, for all the women were dressed more or +less in red, and wore high red coronets with dependent strings of +coins, and broad aprons, reaching from the throat to the feet, of +coarse dark blue cotton, completely covered with handsome patterns +worked in cross-stitch in silk. + +Fine walnut trees are one of the specialities of this part of Turkey. +They provide much of the oil which is used during the long fasts which +both Armenians and Syrians observe, and they develop very large woody +excrescences or knots, the grain and mottling of which are peculiarly +beautiful. These are sought for by buyers for Paris houses even in the +remote valleys of Kurdistan for use in the making and veneering of +furniture, especially of pianos. Fortunately the removal of this +growth does not kill the tree, and after a time the bark grows over +much of the uncovered portion of the trunk, only a scar being left. + +At sunset that evening 800 sheep were driven into the village +sheepfold just below the roof on which my tent was pitched, and it was +a very picturesque scene, men pushing their way through them to find +their own sheep by ear-mark, women with difficulty milking ewes here +and there, big dogs barking furiously from the roofs above, and all +the sheep bleating at once. In winter they are all housed and hand +fed. The snow lies six feet deep, and Ghazit can communicate neither +with Bitlis nor Van. It is the "milk of the flocks" which is prized. +Cows' milk is thought but little of. I made my supper of one of the +great articles of diet in Turkey, boiled cracked wheat, sugar, and +_yohoort_, artificially soured milk, looking like whipped cream. + +I was glad to escape to my tent from the heat and odours of the +_odah_, even though I had to walk over sheep's backs to get up to the +roof. I had a guard of two men, and eight more armed with useless +matchlock guns watched the sheepfold. I was awakened by a tremendous +noise, the barking of infuriated dogs close to me, the clashing of +arms and the shouts of men, mixed up with the rapid firing of guns not +far off on the mountain side, so near, indeed, that I could see the +flashes. It was a Kurdish alarm, but nothing came of it. A village +which we passed a few hours later was robbed of 600 sheep, however. + +Leaving beautiful Ghazit before the sun rose upon it the next morning, +we spent some hours in skirting the lake, and in crossing elevated +passes and following paths along hillsides covered with oaks, the +russet leaves of which are being cut for winter "keep." The dwarf +juniper is also abundant. After crossing a pass on the top of which +are graves covered with heavy stone slabs with inscriptions on their +sides, and head-stones eight feet high inscribed with epitaphs in +Kufic or early Arabic, we descended upon the great plain of Rahwan, +separated from the plain of Mush only by a very low ridge, which, +however, is a remarkable water-parting, dividing the drainage systems +of the Tigris and the Euphrates. On this solitary plain there are the +ruins of a magnificent building, known as "the Persian Khan," built of +large blocks of hewn stone. Parts of it are still available for +shelter during snowstorms. It has courtyards with stately entrances, +domes, arches, and vaulted chambers, and is a very striking object. +Two other _khans_ are placed as refuges in the valley nearer Bitlis. + +Shortly afterwards we reached the meeting-place of three valleys and +three roads, leading respectively to the plain of Mush, the lake of +Van, and Bitlis. It is in this neighbourhood that the eastern source +of the Tigris is situated, and here there is also the great interest +of coming upon one of the landmarks on the retreat of the Ten +Thousand. Scholars appear to agree in general that this gallant band +must have come up by these eastern sources of the Tigris, for then, as +now, the only practicable entrance into Armenia from the Karduchi +territory, the modern Kurdistan, was by this route.[54] + +The march was very long and fatiguing, and as we were compelled to +rest for two hours at the beautifully-situated village of Toogh, +evening was coming on with a gray sky and a lurid sunset before we +left the Rahwan plain, after which we had a ride of more than three +hours down the wild and stony Bitlis valley before we reached our +destination. If I had made this march in spring, when herbage and +flowers drape the nakedness of the rocky and gravelly mountains and +precipices, it would not have made such an impression upon me as it +did, but seeing the apparently endless valley for ever winding and +falling to the south, with two bars of lurid light for ever lying +across what never proved to be its opening, and the higher peaks +rising snow-crested into a dark and ominous-looking sky, I think it +one of the weirdest and wildest rides I ever took. + +The infant Tigris is rapidly augmented by a number of streams and +torrents. The descent was like taking leave of the bright upper world +to go down into some nether region, from which there would be no exit. +The valley, at times narrowing into a ravine, is hemmed in by sterile +mountains, so steep as not to afford sites for villages. There are +parapetless ancient arches of stone, flung across torrents which have +carved hideous pathways for themselves through hideous rocks, scoriae, +and other signs of volcanic action, rough gulches, with narrow paths +hanging on their sides, and in spite of many climbs upwards the course +is on the whole downwards. + +Darkness settled upon the valley long before lights, in what looked +like infinite depths, and straggling up remarkable heights, trees, +stone walls, and such steep ups and downs that it felt as if the +horses were going to topple over precipices, denoted that we had +entered Bitlis. Then came a narrow gateway, a flagged courtyard choked +with mules and men, a high house with heavily-barred windows, a steep +outside stair, and at the top sweet faces and sweet voices of +European women, and lights and warm welcomes. + +_Bitlis, November 12._--This is the most romantically-situated city +that I have seen in Western Asia. The dreamy impressions of height and +depth received on the night of my arrival were more than realised the +following morning. Even to the traveller arriving by daylight Bitlis +must come as a great surprise, for it is situated in a hole upon which +the upper valley descends with a sudden dip. The Bitlis-chai or +Eastern Tigris passes through it in a series of raging cataracts, and +is joined in the middle of the town by another torrent tumbling down +another wild valley, and from this meeting of the waters massive stone +houses rise one above another, singly, and in groups and terraces, +producing a singularly striking effect. Five valleys appear to unite +in Bitlis and to radiate from a lofty platform of rock supported on +precipices, the irregular outlines of which are emphasised by walls +and massive square and circular towers, the gigantic ruins of Bitlis +Castle. + +The massiveness of the houses is remarkable, and their courtyards and +gardens are enclosed by strong walls. Every gate is strengthened and +studded with iron, every window is heavily barred, all are at a +considerable height, and every house looks as if it could stand a +siege. There is no room to spare; the dwellings are piled tier above +tier, and the flagged footways in front of them hang on the edges of +precipices. Twenty picturesque stone bridges, each one of a single +arch, span the Tigris and the torrents which unite with it. There are +ancient ruins scattered through the town. It claims immense antiquity, +and its inhabitants ascribe its castle and some of its bridges to +Alexander the Great, but antiquarians attribute the former either to +the Saracens or to the days when an ancient Armenian city called +Paghesh occupied the site of the present Bitlis. It seems like the end +of the world, though through the deep chasms below it, through which +the Tigris descends with great rapidity to the plains, lies the +highway to Diabekir. Suggestions of the ancient world abound. The +lofty summits towering above the basin in which this extraordinary +city lies are the termination of the Taurus chain, the Niphates of the +ancients, on the highest peak of which Milton localised the descent of +Satan.[55] + +Remote as Bitlis seems and is, its markets are among the busiest in +Turkey, and its caravan traffic is enormous for seven or eight months +of the year. Its altitude is only 4700 feet, and the mercury in winter +rarely falls to zero, but the snowfall is tremendous, and on the +Rahwan Plain snow frequently lies up to the top of the telegraph +poles, isolating the town and shutting up animals in their stables and +human beings in their houses for weeks, and occasionally months, at a +time. Bitlis produces a very coarse, heavy cotton cloth which, after +being dyed madder red or dark blue, is largely exported, and is used +for the embroidered aprons which the Armenian women wear. It also +exports _loupes_, the walnut whorls or knots of which I have written +before, oak galls, wax, wool, and manna, chiefly collected from the +oak. The Bitlis people, and even some Europeans, regard this as a +deposit left by the aromatic exhalations which the wind brings in this +direction from Arabia, and they say that it lies on any plant without +regard to its nature, and even on the garments of men. The deposit is +always greatest in dry years. In addition to the white manna, obtained +by drying the leaves and allowing the saccharine matter to fall +off--and the green, the result of steeping the leaves in water, which +is afterwards strained, there is a product much like golden syrup, +which is used for the same purposes. + +Bitlis is one of the roughest and most fanatical and turbulent of +Turkish cities, but the present Governor, Raouf Pasha, is a man of +energy, and has reduced the town and neighbourhood to some degree of +order. Considerable bodies of troops have been brought in, and the +garrison consists of 2500 men. These soldiers are thoroughly well +clothed and equipped, and look remarkably clean in dress and person. +They are cheery, soldierly-looking men, and their presence gives a +little confidence to the Christians. + +The population of Bitlis is estimated at 30,000, of which number over +20,000 are Kurds. Both men and women are very handsome, and the +striking Kurdish costume gives a great brilliancy and picturesqueness +to this remarkable city. The short sleeveless jackets of sheepskin +with the black wool outside which the men are now wearing over their +striped satin vests, and the silver rings in the noses of the girls +give them something of a "barbarian" look, and indeed their habits +appear to be much the same as those of their Karduchi ancestors in the +days of Xenophon, except that in the interval they have become Moslems +and teetotallers! Here they are Sunnis, and consequently do not clash +with their neighbours the Turks, who abhor the Kurds of the mountains +as Kizilbashes. The Kurdish _physique_ is very fine. In fact I have +never seen so handsome a people, and their manly and highly +picturesque costume heightens the favourable effect produced by their +well-made, lithe, active figures. + +The cast of their features is delicate and somewhat sharp; the mouth +is small and well formed; the teeth are always fine and white; the +face is oval; the eyebrows curved and heavy; the eyelashes long; the +eyes deep set, intelligent, and roving; the nose either straight or +decidedly aquiline, giving a hawk-like expression; the chin slightly +receding; the brow broad and clear; the hands and feet remarkably +small and slender. + +The women when young are beautiful, but hard work and early maternity +lead to a premature loss of form, and to a withered angularity of +feature which is far from pleasing, and which, as they do not veil, is +always _en evidence_. + +The poorer Kurds wear woollen socks of gay and elaborate patterns; +cotton shoes like the _gheva_ of the Persians; camlet trousers, wide +at the bottom like those of sailors; woollen girdles of a Kashmir +shawl pattern; short jackets and felt jerkins without sleeves. The +turban usually worn is peculiar. Its foundation is a peaked felt cap, +white or black, with a loosely-twisted rope of tightly-twisted silk, +wool, or cotton wound round it. In the girdle the _khanjar_ is always +seen. Over it the cartridge belt is usually worn, or two cartridge +belts are crossed over the chest and back. The girdle also carries the +pipe and tobacco pouch, a long knife, a flint and steel, and in some +cases a shot pouch and a highly-ornamented powder horn. + +The richer Kurds dress like the Syrians. The under-garment, which +shows considerably at the chest and at the long and hanging sleeves, +is of striped satin, either crimson and white or in a combination of +brilliant colours, over which is worn a short jacket of cloth or silk, +also with long sleeves, the whole richly embroidered in gold. Trousers +of striped silk or satin, wide at the bottom; loose medieval boots of +carnation-red leather; a girdle fastened with knobbed clasps of silver +as large as a breakfast cup, frequently incrusted with turquoises; red +felt skull-caps, round which they wind large striped silk shawls, red, +blue, orange, on a white or black ground, with long fringed ends +hanging over the shoulders, and floating in the wind as they gallop; +and in their girdles they carry richly-jewelled _khanjars_ and +pistols decorated with silver knobs, besides a number of other +glittering appointments. The accoutrements of the horses are in +keeping, and at marriages and other festivities the head-stalls, +bridles, and breast-plates are completely covered with pendent silver +coins. + +The dress of the women is a foil to that of their lords. It consists +of a blue cotton shirt; very wide trousers, drawn in at the ankles; a +silver saucer on the head, from which chains depend with a coin at the +end of each; a square mantle hanging down the back, clasped by two of +its corners round the neck, and many strings of coins round the +throat; a small handkerchief is knotted round the hair, and in +presence of a strange man they hold one end of this over the mouth. +The Turks in Bitlis are in a small minority, and the number of +Armenian Christians is stated at from 2000 to 5000. The Old Church has +a large monastery outside the town and several churches and schools. +The Protestant Armenians have a substantial church edifice, with a +congregation of about 400, and large boarding-schools for boys and +girls. + +The population is by far the wildest that I have seen in any Asiatic +city, and is evidently only restrained from violence by the large +garrison. It is not safe for the ladies of this mission to descend +into the Moslem part of the city, and in a residence of more than +twenty years they have never even passed through the bazars. The +missionaries occupy a restricted and uncertain position, and the +Armenian Christians are subject to great deprivations and restraints, +and are distrusted by the Government. Of late they have been much +harassed by the search for arms, and Christian gunsmiths have been +arrested. Even their funeral ceremonies are not exempt from the +presence of the police, who profess to believe that firearms are +either carried in the place of a corpse or are concealed along with +it. Placed in the midst of a preponderating and fully-armed Kurdish +population, capable at any moment of being excited to frenzy against +their faith, they live in expectation of a massacre, should certain +events take place which are regarded as probable within two or three +years. + +It was not to see the grandeur and picturesqueness of Bitlis that I +came here so late in the season, but to visit the American +missionaries, especially two ladies. My hosts, Mr. and Mrs. Knapp, +have returned from a visit to America to spend their last days in a +country which has been their home for thirty years, and have lately +been joined by their son, who spent his boyhood in Bitlis, and after +graduating in an American university has come back, like so many sons +of missionaries, to cast in his lot with a people to whom he is bound +by many links of sympathy, bringing his wife with him. The two Misses +----, who are more than half English, and are highly educated and +accomplished, met Mr. and Mrs. Knapp long ago in a steamer on the +Mediterranean, and decided to return with them to this dangerous and +outlandish place, where they have worked among the women and girls for +twenty-three years, and are still full of love and hope. The school +for girls, in which fifty boarders are received in addition to fifty +day pupils, has a _kindergarten_ department attached to it. The +parents of all are expected to contribute in money or in kind, but +their increasing poverty is telling on their ability to do so, and +this winter the supply of food contributed by them is far short of the +mark. + +The tastefulness and generosity of these ladies have produced as +bright and beautiful a schoolroom as could be found anywhere, and ivy +trained round the windows, growing plants, and pictures which are not +daubs give a look of home. With them "Love is the fulfilling of the +law"--love in every tone, look, and touch, and they have that true +maternity of spirit which turns a school into a family, and trains as +well as educates. They are now educating the children, and even +grandchildren, of their earliest pupils, and have the satisfaction of +seeing how very much their school has effected in permeating the +household and social relationships of the Armenian women with the tone +of Christian discipleship, so that one would scarcely hear from the +lips of any of their married pupils the provoking question, "We are +only women, what can we do?" Many of them have gone to homes in the +roughest and wildest of mountain villages, where they sweeten village +life by the gentle and kindly ways acquired in the Bitlis school. +These ladies conduct a mothers' meeting, and I thought that the women +were much developed in intelligence and improved in manner as compared +with the usual run of Armenian women. On being asked to address them, +I took their own words for my text, "We are only women," etc., and +found them intelligent and sympathetic. + +These ladies have endured great hardships, and their present position +is one of continual deprivation and frequent risk. One of them was so +severely stoned in Bitlis that she fell unconscious from her horse. In +the winter Miss ---- itinerates among the Armenian villages of the +Mush and Rahwan Plains and the lake shore, travelling over the crust +of the enormously deep snow in a hand-sled drawn by a man, braving +storms which have nearly cost her her life, sleeping and living for a +month or more at a time chiefly in _odahs_, and fearlessly +encountering the very roughest of Kurds and others in these dim and +crowded stables. The danger of village expeditions, and the difficulty +of obtaining _zaptiehs_ without considerable expense, have increased +of late, and the Mush Plain especially has been ravaged all the +summer and autumn by the Kurds, with many barbarities and much loss of +life, so that travelling for Christians even in companies has been +dangerous. Caravans have lately been attacked and robbed, and in the +case of one large mixed caravan the Christians were robbed but the +Moslems were unmolested. A traveller was recently treacherously +murdered by his _katirgis_, and Miss ----, having occasion to employ +the same men a few days ago, saw and heard them rehearse his dying +agonies more than once for the amusement of Kurds on the road. + +Luxury is unknown in this mission house. It is so small that in order +to receive me the ladies are sleeping in a curtained recess in the +kitchen, and the reception-room for the natives is the eating and +living room of the family. Among them all there is a rare devotion, +and lives spent in cheerful obedience to God and in loving service for +man have left on their faces the impress of "the love which looks +kindly and the wisdom which looks soberly on all things." The mission +has had a severe struggle. The life on this mountain slope above the +fanatical city is a very restricted one,--there is nothing of what we +are accustomed to regard as "necessary recreation," and a traveller is +not seen here above once in two or three years. All honour to those +who have courage and faith to live such a life so lovingly and +cheerfully! + + I. L. B. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[54] It does not present any difficulty to me that Xenophon omits all +mention of the lake of Van, for a range of hills lies between it and +the road. I have travelled over the track twice, and failed to see +anything in the configuration of the country which would have led me +to suppose that the region to the eastward was anything but a +continuity of ranges of hills and mountains, and if the Ten Thousand +took the route from the eastern head-waters of the Tigris to the +Murad-chai at the farther end of the plain of Mush, directing all +their investigations and inquiries in a westerly direction, there are +very many chances against their having been informed, even by their +prisoners, of the existence of the sea of Van. + +[55] _Paradise Lost_, iii. 741, "Nor stayed, till on Niphates' top he +lights." + + + + +LETTER XXXIII + + + PIKHRUZ, _Nov. 14_. + +I was indeed sorry to leave the charming circle at the Mission House +and the wild grandeur of Bitlis, but a certain wan look in the sky and +peculiar colouring on the mountains warned my friends that winter +might set in any day, and Dr. Reynolds arranged for _katirgis_ and an +escort, and obtained a letter from the Governor by means of which I +can procure additional _zaptiehs_ in case of need. My Turkish +_katirgi_, Moussa, is rich, and full of fun and jollity. He sings and +jokes and mimics Mirza, rides a fine horse, or sprawls singing on its +back, and keeps every one alive by his energy and vitality. My loads +are very light, and his horses are strong, and by a peculiar screech +he starts them off at a canter with no other object than the +discomfiture of Mirza, who with all his good qualities will never make +a horseman. Unluckily he has a caravan of forty horses laden with +ammunition for the Government on the road, so things may not be always +so smooth as they are now. Descending by a track more like a stair +than a road, and crossing the Tigris, my friends and I performed the +feat of riding through some of the bazars, even though Mr. Knapp and I +had been pelted with stones on an open road the day before. There was +no molestation, for the people are afraid of the _zaptiehs'_ swords. +Bitlis is busy, and it is difficult to get through its crowded +markets, low, narrow, and dark as they are, the sunbeams rarely +entering through their woven roofs. The stalls were piled with fruits, +roots, strange vegetables, red home-dyed cottons, gay gear for horses, +daggers and silver chains such as Kurds love, gay Kurdish clothing, +red boots with toes turned up for tying to the knees, pack-saddles, +English cottons ("_Mankester_"), mostly red, and pipes of all kinds. +There was pottery in red and green, huge earthen jars for the storage +of water, brooms, horse-shoes, meat, curds, cheeses, and everything +suited to the needs of a large and mixed population, and men seated in +the shops plied their curious trades. + +Emerging into the full sunlight on the waggon road to Erzerum, we met +strings of girls carrying water-jars on their backs from the wells, +and long trains of asses and pack-bullocks bringing in produce, mixed +up with foot passengers and Kurds on showy horses. Bitlis rejoices in +abundant streams, wells, fountains, and mineral springs, some strongly +chalybeate, others resembling the Vichy waters. The grandly +picturesque city with its piled-up houses, its barred windows +suggestive of peril, its colossal ruins, its abounding waters, its +bridges, each one more remarkable than the other, its terraced and +wooded heights and the snow-crested summits which tower above them, +with their cool blue and purple shadows, disappeared at a turn of the +road, and there too my friends left me to pursue my perilous journey +alone. + +The day was superb, and full of fine atmospheric effects. As we +crossed the Rahwan Plain the great mountains to the west were +enshrouded in wild drifting mists, through which now and then peaks +and ledges, white with recent snow, revealed themselves, to be hidden +in blackness the next moment. Over the plain the blue sky was vaulted, +and the sun shone bright and warm, while above the mountains to the +south of Lake Van white clouds were piled in sunlit masses. After +halting at Tadvan, a pleasant village among streams, fountains, +gardens, and fruit trees, we skirted the lake along pleasant +cultivated slopes and promontories with deep bays and inlets to +Gudzag, where I spent the evening in an _odah_, retiring to sleep in +my small tent, pitched in the village, where a big man with a gun, and +wearing a cloak of goatskin reaching to his feet, kept up a big fire +and guarded me till morning. The water froze in my basin during the +night. The _odah_ was full of Armenians, and Murphy interpreted their +innumerable tales of wrong and robbery. "Since the Erzerum troubles," +so the tales ran, "the Kurds kill men as if they were partridges." On +asking them why they do not refuse to be robbed by "demand," they +replied, "Because the Kurds bring big sticks and beat us, and say they +will cut our throats." They complained of the exactions of the +_zaptiehs_ and of being tied to the posts of their houses and beaten +when they have not money wherewith to pay the taxes. + +Starting at sunrise on the following morning I had a very pleasant +walk along the sweet shore of the lake, while water, sky, and +mountains were blended in a flood of rose and gold, after which, +skirting a wooded inlet, on the margin of which the brown roofs of the +large village of Zarak were scarcely seen amidst the crimson foliage, +and crossing a low range, we descended upon a plain at the head of a +broad bay, on the farther side of which, upon a level breezy height, +rose the countless monoliths and lofty mausoleums of Akhlat, which I +had made a long detour to see. The plain is abundantly watered, and +its springs were surrounded with green sward, poplars, and willows, +while it was enlivened by numerous bullock-carts, lumbering and +creaking on their slow way with the latest sheaves of the harvest. + +After winding up a deep ravine we came upon a great table of rock +scarped so as to be nearly perpendicular, at the base of which is a +stone village. On the other side is a fine stream. I had purposed to +spend the night at Akhlat, but on riding up the village street, which +has several shops, there was a manifest unfriendliness about its +Turkish inhabitants, and they went so far as to refuse both lodgings +and supplies, so I only halted for a few hours. Few things have +pleased me more than Akhlat, and the dreamy loveliness of the day was +altogether propitious. + +I first visited the Kharaba-shahr or "ruined city." The table rock is +honeycombed with a number of artificial chambers, some of which are +inhabited. Several of these are carefully arched. A very fine one +consists of a chamber with an arched recess like a small chancel, and +a niche so resembling a piscina at one side that one involuntarily +looks for the altar. These dwellings are carefully excavated, and +chisel marks are visible in many places. Outlining this remarkable +rock, and above these chambers, are the remains of what must have been +a very fine fortress, with two towers like those of the castle of +Bitlis springing from below the rock. The whole of it has been built +of hewn red sandstone. The walls have been double, with the centre +filled up with rough stones and mortar, but not much of the stone +facing remains, the villages above and below having been built of it. +Detached pieces of masonry, such as great masses of walls, solitary +arches, and partially-embedded carved fragments extend over a very +large area, and it is evident that investigators with time and money +might yet reap a rich reward. Excavators have been recently at +work--who or what they were I could not make out, and have unearthed, +among other objects of interest, a temple with the remains of a dome +having a cornice and frieze, and two small circular chambers, much +decorated, the whole about twenty-five feet long. + +Akhlat Kalessi, or the castle of Akhlat, stands on the sea-shore, on +which side it has no defences. It is a fortress with massive walls, +with round and square towers at intervals, and measures about 700 +paces from the water to the crest of the slope, and about 330 across. +The enclosure, which is entered by two gates, contains two ancient +mosques solidly built, and a few houses among fruit trees, as well as +some ruins of buildings. The view of the Sipan Dagh from this very +striking ruin is magnificent. + +There are many Circassian villages on the skirts of the Sipan Dagh, +and their inhabitants bear nearly as bad a reputation as that of the +Kurds. They are well armed, and defy the local government. They are +robbers and pilferers, and though they receive, or did receive, an +allowance raised by a tax on the general community, they wring what +they please out of the people among whom they live. + +A mile from Akhlat, on a table-land of smooth green sward high above +the silver sea, facing southwards, with a glorious view of the +mountains of Central Kurdistan whitened with the first snows of +winter, lies in an indescribable loneliness--the city of the dead. The +sward is covered though not crowded with red sandstone monoliths, from +six to fourteen feet in height, generally in excellent preservation. +Each has a projecting cornice on the east side with carved niches, and +the western face is covered with exquisite tracery in arabesques and +knot-work, and inscriptions in early Arabic. On the graves are either +three carved stones arranged on edge, or a single heavy hewn stone +with a rounded top, and sides decorated with arabesques. Few of these +beautiful monoliths have fallen, but some are much time-worn, and have +a growth of vivid red or green lichen upon them. + +Besides these there are some lofty _turbehs_ or mausoleums, admirably +preserved and of extreme beauty. The form is circular. The sepulchre +is a closed chamber, with another above it open half-way round on the +lake side, and a colonnade of very beautiful pillars supports round +arches, above which are five exquisitely-carved friezes. The whole is +covered with a conical roof of carved slabs of red stone, under which +runs an Arabic inscription. Each of these buildings is decorated with +ornament in the Saracenic style, of a richness and beauty of which +only photography could give any adequate representation. Close to the +finest of these _turbehs_ is an old mosque with a deeply-arched +entrance, over which is a recess, panelled and carved like one in the +finest of the rock chambers. The lintels of the door are decorated +with stone cables. Mirza counted more than 900 monoliths. + +As I sketched the finest of these beautiful mausoleums some _mollahs_ +came up and objected to the proceeding, and Moussa urged me to desist, +as the remainder of the march was "very dangerous," he said, and must +be "got over" in full daylight. This phrase "very dangerous," as used +in Armenia, means that there is a serious risk of having the baggage +and horses driven off, and the men stripped to a single garment. Such +things are happening constantly, and even Moussa ceases his joking +when he speaks of them.[56] The remaining march was over great +solitary sweeps of breezy upland to Pikhruz, an Armenian village of +100 houses, which has an intelligent Protestant teacher with sixty +boys in his school. The villagers possess 4000 sheep, and have not +been much harassed by the Kurds. They employ Kurdish shepherds and +four night watchmen, two of whom are Kurds. The head-dresses of the +women are heavy with coins, and they wear stomachers and aprons so +richly embroidered that no part of the original material is visible. + +The _khan_ is an exceptionally bad _odah_, and is absolutely crowded +with horses, oxen, and men, and dim with the fumes of animal fuel and +tobacco. It is indeed comically wretched. The small space round the +fire is so crowded with _zaptiehs_, _katirgis_, and villagers that I +have scarcely room for my chair and the ragamuffin remains of my +baggage. Murphy is crouching over a fire which he is trying to fan +into a state in which it will cook my unvarying dinner--a fowl and +potatoes. Moussa is as usual convulsing the company with his stories +and jokes, and is cracking walnuts for me; the schoolmaster is +enlarging to me on that fruitful topic--"the state of things," the +sabres and rifles of my escort gleam on the blackened posts, the +delectable ox and horse faces wear a look of content, as they munch +and crunch their food, the risk of sleeping in a tent is discussed, +and meanwhile I write spasmodically with the candle and ink on a board +on my lap. I am fast coming to like these cheery evenings in the +_odahs_, where one hears the news of the country and villages. The +_khanji_, the man who keeps the guest-house, provides fire, light, +horse-food, and the usual country diet at so much per head, and +obtains the daily fowl, which costs about 6d., and is cooked while +warm. Milk can be got from one of the cows in the stable. My expenses +for food and lodging are from 4s. to 6s. a night. + +_Matchetloo, November 19._--One of the most unpleasant parts of the +routine of the journey is the return to the _odah_ at 5 A.M. after a +night in the fresh air, for the atmosphere is so heated and foul as +almost to knock one down. The night frosts are sharp, and as we start +before sunrise we are all glad to walk for the first hour. The night +in my tent at Pikhruz was much disturbed, and I realised that it is +somewhat risky for me to have my servants out of hearing in the depths +of a semi-subterranean dwelling. The village dogs raged at times as +though the Kurds were upon them, and every half-hour the village +guards signalled to each other with a long mournful yell. I was +awakened once by a confusion of diabolical sounds, shots, shrieks, +roars, and yells, which continued for some time and then died away. In +the morning the guards said that the Kurds had attacked a large +caravan on the plain below, but had been repulsed, and that men on +both sides had been wounded. + +The following day's march by the silver sheet of the Kuzik Lake, alive +with ducks, divers, and other water fowl, was very charming. Snow had +fallen heavily, and the Sipan Dagh and the Nimrud Dagh were white more +than half-way down their sides. From the summit of a very wild pass we +bade adieu to the beautiful Sea of Van, crossed a plain in which is a +pretty fresh-water lake with several villages and much cultivation on +its margin, and, after some hours of solitary mountain travelling, +came down upon the great plain of Norullak, sprinkled with large +villages, very fertile, and watered by the Murad-chai, the eastern +branch of the Euphrates. + +I was to have had an easy march of five hours, and to have spent +Sunday at Shaoub in the comfortable house of a Protestant pastor with +an English-speaking wife, but the _zaptiehs_ took the wrong road, and +as twilight came on it was found that Shaoub had been left hours +behind. I have been suffering very much from the fatigue of the very +long marches, and only got through this one by repeatedly lying down +by the roadside while the _zaptiehs_ went in search of information. +After it was quite dark and we were still astray, news came that +Shaoub was occupied by 400 Turkish soldiers, and that there were +neither supplies nor accommodation, and after two more hours of +marching and counter-marching over ploughed lands and among irrigation +ditches, we emerged on the Erzerum road, six inches deep in dust, +forded a river in thick darkness, got very wet, and came out upon the +large village of Yangaloo, a remarkable collection of 170 ant-hills +rather than houses, with their floors considerably below the ground. +The prospects in this hummocky place were most unpromising, and I was +greeted by Moussa, who, on finding that Shaoub was full of troops, had +had the wits to go on to Yangaloo, with the information that there was +"no accommodation." + +A womanly, Christian grip of my arm reassured me, and I was lodged for +Sunday in the Protestant church, the villagers having arranged to +worship elsewhere. A building forty feet long with small paper-covered +windows under the eaves was truly luxurious, but the repose of Sunday +morning was broken by loud and wearisome noises, lasting for several +hours, which received a distressing explanation. I was informed by the +priests and several of the leading men of the village that Yangaloo +for some time past had suffered severely from the Kurds, and that just +before a heavy demand for taxes had been made by the Government, the +three days' grace usually granted having been refused. The local +official had seized the flax seed, their most profitable crop, at +half-price, and had sold it for full price, his perquisite amounting +to a large sum. Fifteen _arabas_, each one loaded with seven large +sacks of "linseed," were removed in the morning. + +The people were very friendly. All the "brethren" and "sisters" came +to kiss hands, and to wish that my departure "might be in great +peace," and on Sunday evening I was present at a gathering of men in a +room with the door carefully bolted and guarded, who desired me to +convey to "the Consul" at Erzerum, with the attestation of the names +of the priests of the Old and Reformed Churches, certain complaints +and narratives of wrong, which represented a condition of living not +to be thought of without grief and indignation, and not to be ignored +because it is partially chronic. + +Yangaloo is a typical Armenian village, its ant-hill dwellings are +half-sunk, and the earth which has been excavated is piled up over +their roofs and sides. The interior of each dwelling covers a +considerable area, and is full of compartments with divisions formed +by low clay walls or by the posts which support the roof, the +compartments ramifying from a widening at the inner end of a long dark +passage. In Yangaloo, as in other villages on the plains, the earth is +so piled over the houses as to render them hardly distinguishable from +the surrounding ground, but where a village burrows into a hill-side +only a small projection needs an artificial roof. The people live +among their live stock; one entrance serves for both, and in winter +time the animals never leave the stables. The fireplace or _tand[=u]r_ +is in the floor, but is only required for cooking purposes, as the +heat and steam of the beasts keep the human beings comfortably warm. +From two to five families live in every house, and the people are +fairly healthy.[57] + +All the male members of a family bring their brides to live under the +parental roof, and one "burrow" may contain as many as three +generations of married couples with their families. On becoming an +inmate of her father-in-law's house, each Armenian bride, as in the +country districts of Persia, has to learn the necessity of silence. Up +to the day of the birth of the first child she is the family drudge, +and may not speak to any one but her husband, and not to him in the +presence of his parents. Maternity liberates her tongue; she may talk +to her child, and then to the females of the household; but she may +not speak freely till some years of this singular novitiate have +passed by. She then takes a high place in the house, and eventually +rules it if she is left a widow. The Armenian women are veiled out of +doors, but only in deference to the Moslems, who regard an uncovered +head as the sign of a bad woman. The girls are handsome, but +sheepish-looking; their complexions and eyes are magnificent. + +Sunday was windy, with a gray sky, and the necessity of getting over +the Ghazloo Pass before the weather absolutely broke was urged upon me +by all. On the plain of Norullak, not far from Yangaloo, I forded the +Euphrates,--that is, the Murad-chai, a broad, still, and deep river, +only fordable at certain seasons. The fine mountain Bijilan is a +landmark in this part of the country. Leaving the Euphrates we +ascended for some hours through bleak uninteresting regions to Kara +Kapru, and on the road passed thirty well-armed Kurds, driving a +number of asses, which the _zaptiehs_ said had been driven off from +two Christian villages, which they pointed out. I was interested in +the movements of some mounted men, who hovered suspiciously about my +caravan, and at one time galloped close up to it, but retired on +seeing the Government uniforms, and were apparently "loafing about" +among the valleys. The _zaptiehs_ said that they were notorious +robbers, and would not go home without booty. Towards evening they +reappeared with several bullocks and asses which they had driven off +from the village of ----, the headman of which came to me in the +evening and asked me to report the robbery to "the Consul," adding +that this was the third time within a week that his village had been +robbed of domestic animals, and that he dared not complain. + +At Kara Kapru, the best-looking Armenian village I have seen, while I +was looking for an _odah_, Moussa, in spite of Murphy and the +_zaptiehs_, dashed off with his horses at full speed, and never +stopped till he reached Ghazloo, three hours farther on. This +barbarous conduct was occasioned by his having heard that two of his +forty horses ahead had broken down, and he hurried on to replace them +with two of mine! I was so tired and in so much pain that I was +obliged to lie down on the roadside for a considerable time before I +could proceed, and got a chill, and was so wretched that I had to be +tied on my horse. It was pitch dark, the _zaptiehs_ continually lost +the way, heavy rain came on, and it was 9 P.M. when we reached +Ghazloo, a village high up on a hill-slope, where Mirza and Murphy +carried me into a small and crowded stable, and later into my tent, +which was pitched in the slime at the stable door. Moussa was +repentant, borrowed a _kajaveh_, and said he would give me his strong +horse for nothing! + +Torrents of rain fell, changing into sleet, and sleet into snow, and +when the following day dawned dismally my tent was soaked, and +standing in slush and snow. My bed was carried into the stable, and I +rested while the loading was going on. Suleiman, my special _zaptieh_, +said that the _khanji_ was quadrupling the charges, and wanted me not +to pay him anything. The _khanji_ retorted that I gave the _zaptieh_ +money to pay, and that he gave only a few coppers to the people--a +glaring untruth, for Murphy pays everything in my presence. Thereupon +Suleiman beat the _khanji_ with his scabbarded sword, on which the man +struck him, and there was a severe fight, in the course of which the +combatants fell over the end of my bed. So habituated does one become +to scenes of violence in this country that I scarcely troubled myself +to say to Murphy, "Tell them to fight outside." + +It was a severe day's march over the Bingol Dagh, and I know little +about the country we passed through. We skirted a bleak snowy +hillside, first in rain and then in a heavy snowstorm, made a long +ascent among drifting snow clouds, saw an ass abandoned by a caravan +shivering in the bitter wind, with three magpies on its back picking +its bleeding wounds, and near the summit of the Ghazloo Pass +encountered a very severe "blizzard," so severe that no caravan but my +own attempted to face it, and sixty conscripts _en route_ for Bitlis +in charge of two officers and some cavalry turned back in spite of +words and blows, saying, "We may be shot; better that than to die on +the hillside"! Poor fellows, they are wretchedly dressed, and many of +them have no socks. The "blizzard" was very awful--"a horror of great +darkness," a bewildering whirl of pin-like snow coming from all +quarters at once, a hurricane of icy wind so fearful that I had to +hold on by the crupper and mane to avoid being blown out of the +saddle; utter confusion, a deadly grip at my heart, everything blotted +out, and a sense of utter helplessness. Indeed I know of no peril in +which human resources count for so little. After reaching the summit +of the pass the risk was over, but we were seriously delayed in +forcing a passage through the drift, which was fully seven feet deep. +The men were much exhausted, and they say that "half an hour of it +would have finished them." All landmarks were lost in the storm, and +after some hours of struggling through snow, and repeatedly losing the +way, the early darkness compelled us to take refuge in a Kurdish +village of bad repute on a bleak mountain side. + +The _odah_ was not only the worst I have yet seen, but it was crammed +with handsome, wild-looking Kurds, and with the conscripts who had +turned back at the pass, some of whom were suffering from fever, and +with cavalrymen and their horses, every man trying to get near the +fire. I cannot say that any of them were rude, indeed the Kurds did +their best for what they supposed to be my comfort. I spent the +evening among them, but slept in my tent outside, in two feet of snow, +100 yards from the stable, in spite of the protestations of the +_zaptiehs_. In fact I trusted to Kurdish watchmen, who turned out +faithful, and when an attempt was made to rob my tent in the night +they sprang on the robbers, and after a struggle got two of them down +and beat them with their guns, both sides yelling like savages. When I +left the _odah_ for the tent two Kurds gripped my arms and led me to +it through the deep snow. It was better to run some risk than to be +suffocated by the heat and overpowering odours of the stable, but it +was an eerie place. + +_November 21._--The weather considerably delayed my farther progress. +The days were severe, and the nights were spent in a soaked tent, +pitched in slush or snow. Mist and snow concealed the country, and few +travellers were stirring. We marched with the powder caravan for the +sake of the escort and for its services in beating the track, and +Moussa and his men watched at night. The going was very bad, and both +Moussa and I fell down hill slopes with our horses, but the animals +luckily alighted on their feet. Moussa's jollity was very useful. He +is a capital mimic, and used to "take off" Mirza in the _odahs_ at +night, and as Murphy lost no opportunity of showing up the poor +fellow's want of travelling _savoir-faire_, he would have had a bad +time but for his philosophical temperament and imperturbable +good-nature. I suffered very much from my spine, but the men were all +kind, and tried to make things easy for me, and the _zaptiehs_ were +attentive and obliging. + +Kurdistan is scarcely a "geographical expression," and colloquially +the word is used to cover the country inhabited by the Kurds. They are +a mysterious people, having maintained themselves in their original +seats and in a condition of semi-independence through all the changes +which have passed over Western Asia, though they do not exceed +numerically two and a quarter millions of souls. Such as they were +when they opposed the retreat of the Ten Thousand they seem to be +still. War and robbery are the business of Kurdish life. + + [Illustration: A HAKKIARI KURD.] + +One great interest of this journey is that it lies through a country +in which Kurds, Turks, and Armenians live alongside each other--the +Kurds being of two classes, the tribal, who are chiefly nomads, owning +no law but the right of the strongest; and the non-tribal or settled, +who, having been conquered by Turkey, are fairly orderly, and are +peaceable except in their relations with the Christians. The +strongholds of the tribal Kurds are in the wild mountains of +Kurdistan, and especially in the Hakkiari country, which is sprinkled +with their rude castles and forts. An incurable love of plunder, a +singular aptitude for religious fanaticism, a recklessness as to the +spilling of blood, a universal rapacity, and a cruel brutality when +their passions are roused, are among their chief vices. The men are +bold, sober, and devoted to their kinsmen and tribe; and the women are +chaste, industrious, and maternal. Under a firm and equitable +Government, asserting vigorously and persistently the supremacy of law +and the equal rights of race and creed, they would probably develop +into excellent material. + +The village Turk, as he is described by Europeans well acquainted with +him and speaking his language, and as I have seen him on a long +journey, is a manly, hospitable, hard-working, kindly, fairly honest +fellow, domestic, cheerful, patriotic, kind to animals, usually a +monogamist, and usually also attentive to his religious duties. + +The Christians, who, in this part of Kurdistan, are all Armenians by +race, live chiefly on the plains and in the lower folds of the hills, +and are engaged in pastoral and agricultural pursuits. My letters have +given a faithful representation of them as dwelling with their animals +in dark semi-subterranean hovels. The men are industrious, thrifty, +clannish, domestic, and not given to vices, except that of +intoxication, when they have the means and opportunity, and the women +are hardworking and chaste. Both sexes are dirty, hardy, avaricious, +and superstitious, and ages of wrong have developed in them some of +the usual faults of oppressed Oriental peoples. They cling desperately +to their historic church, which is represented among the peasants by +priests scarcely less ignorant than themselves. Their bishops +constitute their only aristocracy. + +They are grossly ignorant, and of the world which lies outside the +_sandjak_ in which they live they know nothing. The Sultan is to them +a splendid myth, to whom they owe and are ready to pay a loyal +allegiance. Government is represented to them by the tax-gatherer and +his brutalities. Of justice, the most priceless product of good +government, they know nothing but that it is a marketable commodity. +With the Armenian trading communities of the cities they have slender +communication, and little except nationality and religion in common. + +As a rule, they live in villages by themselves, which cluster round +churches, more or less distinguishable from the surrounding hovels, +but there are also mixed villages in which Turks and Armenians live +side by side, and in these cases they get on fairly well together, +though they instinctively dislike each other, and the Turk despises +his neighbour both for his race and creed. The Armenians have not +complained of being maltreated by the Turkish peasants, and had there +been any cause for complaint it would certainly have reached my ears. + +On this journey hundreds of stories have been told to me by priests of +both the Old and Protestant Churches, headmen, and others, of robbery +by demand, outrages on women, digging into houses, killing, +collectively and individually, driving off sheep and cattle, etc., +etc.[58] + +On the whole, the same condition of alarm prevails among the Armenians +as I witnessed previously among the Syrian _rayahs_. It is more than +alarm, it is _abject terror_, and not without good reason. In plain +English, general lawlessness prevails over much of this region. +Caravans are stopped and robbed, travelling is, for Armenians, +absolutely unsafe, sheep and cattle are being driven off, and +outrages, which it would be inexpedient to narrate, are being +perpetrated. Nearly all the villages have been reduced to extreme +poverty by the carrying off of their domestic animals, the pillage, +and in some cases the burning, of their crops, and the demands made +upon them at the sword's point for every article of value which they +possess, while at the same time they are squeezed for the taxes which +the Kurds have left them without the means of paying. + +The repressive measures which have everywhere followed "the Erzerum +troubles" of last June,--the seizure of arms, the unchecked ravages of +the Kurds, the threats of the Kurdish Beys, who are boldly claiming +the sanction of the Government for their outrages, the insecurity of +the women, and a dread of yet worse to come,--have reduced these +peasants to a pitiable state. + +The invariable and reasonable complaint made by the Christians is, +that though they are heavily taxed they have no protection from the +Kurds, or any advantage from the law as administered in Kurdistan, and +that taxes are demanded from them which the Kurds have left them +without the means of paying. They complain that they are brutally +beaten when they fail to produce money for the payment of the +Government imposts, and they allege with great unanimity that it is +common for the _zaptiehs_ to tie their hands behind them, to plaster +their faces with fresh cow-dung, and throw pails of cold water at +their eyes, tie them to the posts of their houses and flog them +severely. In the village of ----, which has been swept bare by the +Kurds, the people asserted that the _zaptiehs_ had tied twenty +defaulters together, and had driven them round and round barefooted +over the thistles of the threshing-floor, flogging them with their +heavy whips. My _zaptiehs_ complain of the necessity they are under of +beating the people. They say (and I think correctly) that they can +never know whether a man has a hoard of buried money or not without +beating him. They tell me also that they know that half the peasants +have nothing to pay their taxes with, but that unless they beat them +to "get what they can out of them" they would be punished themselves +for neglect of duty. + +On the plains to the west and north-west of the lake of Van, where the +deep, almost subsoil, ploughing and carefully-constructed irrigation +channels testify to the industry of a thrifty population, great +depredations are even now being committed, and though later the +intense cold and tremendous depths of snow of the Armenian highlands +will proclaim the "Truce of God," the Kurds are still on the alert. +Nor are their outrages confined to small localities, neither are they +the result of "peculiar local circumstances," but from the Persian +frontier near Urmi, along a more or less travelled road of several +hundred miles, there is, generally speaking, no security for life, +traffic, or property, and I hear on good authority that on the other +side of Erzerum, even up to the Russian frontier, things are if +possible worse. + +I have myself seen enough to convince me that in the main the +statements of the people represent accurately enough the present reign +of terror in Armenia, and that a state of matters nearly approaching +anarchy is now existing in the _vilayet_ of Erzerum. There is no +security at all for the lives and property of Christians, law is being +violated daily, and almost with perfect impunity, and peaceable and +industrious subjects of the Porte, taxed to an extent which should +secure them complete protection, are plundered without redress. Their +feeble complaints are ignored, or are treated as evidence of +"insurrectionary tendencies," and even their lives are at the mercy of +the increased audacity and aroused fanaticism of the Kurds, and this +not in nearly inaccessible and far-off mountain valleys, but on the +broad plains of Armenia, with telegraph wires above and passable roads +below, and with a Governor-General and the Fourth Army Corps, +numbering 20,000 seasoned troops, within easy distance! + +I have every reason to believe that in the long winter evenings which +I have spent in these sociable _odahs_, the peasants have talked to me +freely and frankly. There are no reasons why it should be otherwise, +for my _zaptiehs_ are seldom present, Moussa is looking after his +horses in distant recesses, quite out of hearing, and my servants are +Christians. If the people speak frankly, I am compelled to believe +that the Armenian peasant is as destitute of political aspirations as +he is ignorant of political grievances; that if he were secured from +the ravages of Moslem marauders he would be as contented as he is +loyal and industrious; and that his one desire is "protection from the +Kurds" and from the rapacity of minor officials, with security for his +life and property. Not on a single occasion have I heard a wish +expressed for political or administrative reform, or for autonomy. The +Armenian peasants are "of the earth, earthy," and the unmolested +enjoyment of material good is their idea of an earthly Paradise. + +With regard to the Kurds, they have been remorseless robbers for ages, +and as their creed scarcely hesitates to give the appropriation of the +goods of a _Kafir_ a place among the virtues, they prey upon the +Syrian and Armenian peasants with clear consciences. To rob them by +violence and "demand," month after month and year after year, till +they have stripped them nearly bare, to cut their throats if they +resist, to leave them for a while to retrieve their fortunes,--"_to +let the sheep's wool grow_," as their phrase is,--and then to rob them +again, is the simple story of the relations between Kurd and +Christian. They are well armed with modern rifles and revolvers. I +have rarely seen a Kurd with an old-fashioned weapon, and I have +_never_ seen a Christian with a rifle, and their nearly useless long +guns have lately been seized by the Government. The Kurds hate and +despise the Turks, their nominal rulers; but the Islamic bond of +brotherhood is stronger than the repulsion either of hatred or +contempt, and the latent or undisguised sympathy of their +co-religionists in official positions ensures them, for the most part, +immunity for their crimes, for the new Code, under which the evidence +of a Christian has become nominally admissible in a court of law, +being in direct opposition to the teaching of the Koran, to the +practice of centuries, to Kurdish fanaticism, and to the strong +religious feelings and prejudices of those who administer justice, is +practically, so far as the Christians are concerned, a dead +letter.[59] + +I am writing in an _odah_ in the village of Harta, after a wild +mountain ride in wind, sleet, and snow. The very long marches on this +journey have been too much for me, and I made a first and last attempt +to travel in a _maffir_ or covered wooden pannier, but the suffering +was so great that I was glad to remount my faithful woolly _Boy_. We +had a regular snowstorm, in which nothing could be seen but the +baggage horses struggling and falling, and occasional glimpses of +caverned limestone cliffs and precipitous slopes, with a foamy torrent +at a tremendous depth below. On emerging from the pass, Moussa, +Suleiman, and I came at a good pace through the slush to this _odah_, +and I arrived so cold that I was glad to have to rub my horse dry, and +attend to him. Murphy describes him thus: "That's a strange horse of +yours, ma'am; if one were to lie down among his legs he'd take no +notice to hurt one. When he comes in he just fills hisself, then he +lies down in the wettest place he can find, and goes to sleep. Then he +wakes and shakes hisself, and hollers, he does, till he gets his +grub"--an inelegant but forcible description of the excellences of a +travelling horse. _Boy_ is truly a gentle pet; it afflicts me sorely +to part with him. A few nights ago as I took some raisins to him in a +dark recess of the stable, my light went out, and I slipped and fell +among the legs of some animal. Not knowing whether it was a buffalo or +a strange horse I did not dare to move, and said, "Is this you, my +sweet _Boy_?" A low pleasant snuffle answered "yes," and I pulled +myself up by the strong woolly legs, which have carried me so sturdily +and bravely for several hundred miles. + +The Christians appear not to have anything analogous to our "family +worship," but are careful in their attendance at the daily prayers in +church, to which they are summoned before dawn, either by loud +rappings on their doors or the striking of a wooden gong or +sounding-board. The churches differ very little. They usually have an +attempt at an outer courtyard, the interior of the edifice is +generally square, the roof is supported by two rows of poplar pillars, +and the rough walls are concealed by coarse pictures and dirty torn +strips of printed cotton. Dirty mats or bits of carpets cover the +floor, racks are provided for the shoes of the worshippers, and if +there is not a gallery a space is railed off for the women. The +prayers are mumbled by priests in dirty vestments, while the women +knit and chatter. Candle-grease, dust, and dirt abound. There is such +an air of indifference about priests and people that one asks what +motive it is which impels them to leave their warm stable dwellings on +these winter mornings to shiver in a dark and chilly church. They say, +"We will tread the paths our fathers trod; they are quite good enough +for us." Two nights ago, in an _odah_ full of men, the Kurdish +_khanji_, at the canonical hour, fell down on his forehead at prayer +in the midst of us, all daggers, pistols, and finery as he was. In +which case is the worship most ignorant, I wonder? + + I. L. B. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[56] Akhlat was a place of immense importance in ancient days, and its +history epitomises the vicissitudes of Armenia; Abulfeda, Bakani, +Deguignes, Ritter, and Finlay in his _History of Greece_ are among the +best-known authorities on its history, and Mr. Tozer in his work on +_Turkish Armenia_, p. 318, etc., gives an interesting popular sketch +of the way in which it was conquered and reconquered by Saracens, +Greeks, Kurds, Turks, Khoarasmians and Georgians, till eventually the +Turks reconquered it from the Kurds. Its ancient Armenian name of +Khelat is altogether unknown to its present inhabitants. + +[57] Xenophon in his _Anabasis_ describes the Armenian dwellings of +his day thus:-- + +"Their houses were underground, the entrance like the mouth of a well, +but spacious below; there were passages dug into them for the cattle, +but the people descended by ladders. In the houses were goats, sheep, +cows, and fowls, with their young. All the cattle were kept in fodder +within the walls." I have not seen the entrance by a well, but have +understood that it still exists in certain exposed situations. +Xenophon mentions buried wine, and it is not unlikely that the deep +clay-lined holes in which grain is stored in some of the villages are +ancient cellars, anterior to the date when the Karduchi became Moslems +and teetotallers. + +[58] It was not possible to ascertain the accuracy of these +narratives, and though many of them appeared to be established by a +mass of concurrent and respectable testimony, I forbear presenting any +of them to my readers, especially as the report presented to +Parliament in January 1891 (_Turkey_, No. 1) not only gives, on +British official authority, a mass of investigated facts, but states +the case of the Armenian peasantry in language far stronger than any +that I should have ventured to use. + +[59] In a Minute by the late Mr. Clifford Lloyd (_Turkey_, No. 1, +1890-91, p. 80) the condition of the Christian peasant population of +Kurdistan is summarised thus:-- + +"Their sufferings at present proceed from three distinct causes-- + +"1. The insecurity of their lives and properties, owing to the +habitual ravages of the Kurds. + +"2. The insecurity of their persons and the absence of all liberty of +thought and action (except the exercise of public worship). + +"3. The unequal status held by the Christian as compared with the +Mussulman in the eyes of the Government." + + + + +LETTER XXXIV + + + ERZERUM, _Dec. 1_. + +I left Harta in a snowstorm without the caravan, and wherever the snow +was well beaten got along at a good pace, passing on the right the +fortress of Hassan-Kaleh, with several lines of fortifications and a +town at its base, which, with the surrounding district, consumes, it +is said, an amount of strong drink equal in value to its taxation. The +adjacent Pasin Plain, watered by the Araxes, has suffered severely +from the Kurds. A short time ago all its Christian villages were +plundered, and _at least_ 20 horses, 31 asses, 2282 sheep, and 750 +head of cattle, nearly the whole pastoral wealth of the people, were +carried off by these marauders, while the Moslem villages were exempt +from their attacks. After winding among uninteresting hills crowned +with forts, along valleys in which military posts occur at frequent +intervals, and making a long ascent, the minarets and grim +fortifications of the unhappy town of Erzerum loomed through the +snow-mist; the city itself lying on a hill slope above a very +extensive plain at a height of over 6000 feet. It was a solemn scene. +The snow was deep and was still falling, the heavens were black, and +swirls of mist driven by a strong wind blotted out at times the +surrounding mountains. A dead calm followed, and snow clouds hung +suspended over the city. + +My first impression of Erzerum was of earthworks of immense size +extending for miles, with dismounted guns upon them looking very black +in the snow; of a deep ditch, and a lofty rampart pierced by a fine +granite tunnel; of more earthworks, and of forts crowning all the +heights directly above the city, and of many flags drooping on their +staffs. Between the fortifications and the town there is a great deal +of open ground sprinkled with rifle pits, powder magazines, and +artillery, cavalry, and infantry barracks, very solidly built and +neatly kept up. After passing through cemeteries containing thousands +of gravestones, we abruptly entered the principal street, wide and +somewhat European-looking, in which are some of the Consulates and the +Protestant Armenian church and schools. The houses in this street are +very irregular, and most of them have projecting upper fronts. + +I was received with the utmost kindness at the American Mission House, +where it has seemed likely that I might be detained for the winter! I +understood that when I reached Erzerum I should be able to drive to +Trebizond in a _fourgon_, so I sent Murphy to Van on _Boy_, and +thought with much satisfaction of the ease of the coming journey. Then +I was ill, and afterwards found that the _fourgons_ were long rough +waggons without springs, in which one must lie or sit on the top of +the baggage, and that I should never be able to bear the jolting. +There was another heavy snowstorm, and winter set in so rigorously +that it was decided that driving was out of the question, and that I +must hire a horse. After the matter had been settled thus, Murphy and +_Boy_, both in very bad case, were found in a low part of the town, +and though Murphy asserts that he encountered Kurds near Hassan-Kaleh +who robbed him of everything, it is not believed that he ever passed +through the city gate. He looks a pitiable object, and his +much-frogged uniform, and the blanket, revolver, and other things that +I had given him are all gone. In spite of his fatal failing, I have +re-engaged him, and shall again ride my trusty pet. The Vali, ignoring +my official letter, has insisted on a number of formalities being +complied with, and though the acting-Consul has undertaken all the +formal arrangements, the delays have been many and tiresome. There are +two bugbears on the Trebizond road,--the Kop and Zigana mountains, +which are liable to be blocked by snow. + +As compared with Persian towns, Erzerum looks solid and handsome, and +its uncovered bazars seem fairly busy. The through traffic between +Trebizond and Tabriz, chiefly in British goods, is very heavy. The +Custom House is in sight from my windows, and in one day I have +counted as many as 700 laden camels passing through it, besides horse +and mule caravans. There are about 2000 Persians in the city, and the +carrying trade is mainly in their hands. The present population is +estimated at from 20,000 to 24,000. The Armenians are not very +numerous, but their enterprise as traders gives them an importance out +of proportion to their numbers. The Armenian cathedral, the "Pair of +Minarets," the "Single Minaret," and the castle, which stands on a +height in the middle of the city, and contains a small Saracenic +chapel, are the chief "sights." + +Nothing is talked about but "the troubles,"[60] and the European +Consuls, who possess trustworthy information, confirm my impressions +of the seriousness of the present latitude allowed to the Kurds. The +Turkish Government has just taken a step which is regarded as full of +hazard. Certain Kurdish Beys were summoned to Erzerum, nominally for +the purpose of being reprimanded for their misdeeds; but they were +allowed to enter the gates with a number of armed followers, and +afterwards went to Erzingian, where, from the hands of Zeki Pacha, the +Commander of the Fourth Army Corps, they received commissions as +officers of irregulars. The Christians (but I hope erroneously) regard +this step as a menace, and the Kurds appear to think that it gives +them license to maraud. + +These Beys, after receiving their commissions, went through the +Christian quarter of the Erzingian bazars, making gestures as of +cutting throats, and saying to the Christian merchants, "Your time has +come now; hitherto we have not had the co-operation of the Government, +but we have it now." It remains to be seen whether the Porte will +succeed in bringing these men and their wild followers under the +conditions of military discipline. + +The excitement following upon the "troubles" last June has only +partially subsided, and I learn from the Europeans that the state of +suspicion, fear, distrust, and repression within the city has +undergone little diminution. Every day brings fresh reports of robbery +and outrage, and for murders of well-known Christians no arrests are +being made.[61] Trade among the Armenians is suffering, for those +merchants whose transactions are with Kurdish districts dare not +collect their debts for fear of losing their lives. Arrests of +Christians on frivolous and worthless pretexts are being made daily, +Armenian houses are being searched continually, and individuals are +being imprisoned for long terms of years for having books in their +possession containing references to the past history of Armenia, and +the Government is, or affects to be, in constant dread of an +insurrectionary rising among the Christians. The accounts from the +country districts are so very bad that one of the ablest and +best-informed of the European Consuls, a very old resident in Asia +Minor, remarked indignantly, "It's no longer a question of politics +but of humanity." + +One of the most interesting sights in Erzerum is the Sanassarian +College, founded and handsomely endowed by the liberality of an +Armenian merchant. The fine buildings are of the best construction, +and are admirably suited for educational purposes, and the equipments +are of the latest and most complete description. The education and the +moral and intellectual training are of a very high type, and the +personal influence of the three directors, who were educated in +Germany and England, altogether "makes for righteousness." The +graduation course is nine years. The students, numbering 120, wear a +uniform, and there is no distinction of class among them. They are, +almost without exception, manly, earnest, and studious, and are full +of enthusiasm and _esprit de corps_. Much may be hoped for in the +future from the admirable moral training and thorough education given +in this college, which is one of the few bright spots in Armenia. + +I have seen Erzerum under very favourable circumstances, for, since +the last snowstorm, the weather has been magnificent, and everything +that is untidy or unsightly has an unsullied covering. The winter +sunsets reddening the white summits of the Deveh Boyun and other lofty +ranges, and the absolute purity of the whiteness of the plain, between +thirty and forty miles long and from ten to twenty broad, which lies +below the city, exercise a witchery which the scorching heats of +summer must utterly destroy. + + I. L. B. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[60] The reader will recollect that the "Erzerum troubles" so +frequently referred to consisted of riot and bloodshed following upon +a search for arms which was made under the floors of the Armenian +Cathedral and the Sanassarian College, on the strength (it is said) of +an anonymous telegram in June 1890. The lucid account given of this +deplorable affair and of the subsequent inaction of the local +Government by Her Britannic Majesty's Consul-General for Kurdistan, in +the "White Book," to which allusion has been made, should be studied +by all who are interested in the so-called "Armenian Question." + +[61] In a despatch in the "White Book" (_Turkey_, No. 1, 1890-91) Mr. +Clifford Lloyd sums up the condition of things in Kurdistan thus: "In +a country such as this is, lawlessness is to be expected; _but +unfortunately in nearly every instance armed and ungoverned Kurds are +the aggressors, and unarmed and unprotected Armenian Christians the +victims_." + + + + +LETTER XXXV + + + TREBIZOND, _Dec. 13, 1890_. + +The journey from Erzerum to Trebizond in the winter season occupies +from ten to twelve days, and involves a transition from an altitude of +6000 feet to the sea-level, and from treelessness, aridity, and +severities of cold to forests and moisture, a temperate climate, and +the exquisite greenness of the slopes which descend upon the Black +Sea. There is a well-made waggon road, carefully engineered, for the +whole distance, with stone bridges in excellent repair; many of the +_khans_ are tolerable, supplies can be procured, and the country is +passably safe. + +I left Erzerum on the 2d of December, escorted by my kindly hosts as +far as Elijeh, having an Armenian _katirgi_, who in every respect gave +me the greatest satisfaction, and the same servants as before. The +mercury fell rapidly the following night, was 2 deg. below zero when I +left Elijeh for Ashkala the next morning, and never rose above 15 deg. +during the whole day. The road follows the western branch of the +Euphrates, the Frat, a reedy and winding stream. The horsemen and foot +passengers were mostly muffled up in heavy cloaks with peaked hoods, +and the white comforters which wrapped up their faces revealed only +one eye, peering curiously out of a cavern of icicles. Icicles hung +from the noses and bodies of the horses, it was not possible to ride +more than half an hour at a time without being benumbed, and the snow +was very deep for walking. After crossing the Euphrates twice by +substantial stone bridges, I halted at Ashkala, a village of _khans_, +at a clean but unfinished _khan_ on the bank of the river, and in a +room with unglazed windows and no possibility of making a fire +experienced a temperature of 5 deg. below zero. My dinner froze before I +could finish it, the stock of potatoes for the journey, though wrapped +in a fur cloak inside my _yekdan_, was totally spoilt, and my ink +froze. The following day was cloudy and inclined to snow rather than +frost, and the crossing of the much-dreaded Kop Dagh was managed +without difficulty in five hours, in snow three feet deep. There is a +refuge near the summit, but there are no habitations on the ascent or +descent. It is a most dangerous pass, owing to the suddenness and fury +of the storms, and only last winter sixty fine camels and ten drivers +perished there in a blizzard. My _zaptieh_ was left behind ill at the +refuge, and I made the remainder of the journey without an escort. The +Kop Dagh, 7500 feet in altitude, forms the watershed between the +Euphrates valley and the Black Sea, and on such an afternoon as that +on which I crossed it, when wild storms swept over successive mountain +ranges, and yet wilder gleams lighted up the sinuous depression which +marks the course of the Frat, the view from its lofty summit is a very +striking one. + +It was dark when I reached the very miserable hamlet on the western +side of the Kop, and as earlier caravans had taken up the better +accommodation, I had to content myself with a recess opening out of a +camel stable. The camels sat in circles of ten, and pleasant family +parties they looked, gossiping over their chopped straw, which, with a +ball of barley-meal dough in the morning, constitutes their slender +but sufficient diet. Nothing gives a grander idea of the magnitude and +ramifications of commerce than the traffic on the road from Erzerum +to Trebizond. During eleven days there has scarcely been a time when +there has not been a caravan in sight, and indeed they succeed each +other in a nearly endless procession, the majority being composed of +stately mountain camels, gaily caparisoned, carrying large musical +bells, their head-stalls of crimson leather being profusely tasselled +and elaborately decorated with cowries and blue beads. The leader of +each caravan wears a magnificent head-dress covering his head and +neck, on which embroidery is lavishly used in combination with tinsel +and coloured glass, the whole being surmounted by a crown with a plume +set between the ears. There is one driver to every six animals; and +these men, fine, robust, sturdy fellows, are all dressed alike, in +strong warm clothing, the chief feature of which is a great brown +sheepskin cap of mushroom shape, which projects at least nine inches +from the head. The road is a highway for British goods. The bales and +packing cases are almost invariably marked with British names and +trade marks. The exception is Russian kerosene, carried by asses and +horses, of which an enormous quantity was on the road. + +I was glad to leave Kop Khane at daybreak, for caravan bells jingled, +chimed, tolled, and pealed all night, and my neighbours the camels +were under weigh at 3 A.M. The road descends gently down the wide +valley of the Tchoruk, the ancient Acampsis, and then ascends to +Baiburt, a town with a population of about 12,000 souls, 1800 being +Christians. It is very picturesquely situated at the junction of two +or three valleys, the houses rise irregularly as at Bitlis tier above +tier, and the resemblance is heightened by a great reddish-yellow rock +which rises in the centre, the long and varied contour of which is +followed by the walls of a fortress imposing even in its ruins, round +and square towers cresting the remarkable eminence. A handsome +military college on a height, wide streets lined by well-built houses +with projecting upper stories, and well-supplied and busy markets, in +which an enormous quantity of mutton is exposed for sale, are among +the chief features of this very striking town. A domiciliary visit +from a courteous chief of police, who assured me that an escort was +not needed, and re-sealed my passports, was my only contact with +Turkish officialism between Erzerum and Trebizond. + +After leaving Baiburt I diverged a little, in spite of very deep snow, +to visit the ruined Armenian ecclesiastical edifices at Varzahan, a +village from which a mountain road to Trebizond passing near the Greek +monastery of Sumelas branches from the main road. The most interesting +and best-preserved of these buildings is an octagonal chapel of a very +elaborate design, with remains of a circle of slender shafts, a very +fine west window, round arches, and some curious designs in fresco. In +another a pointed arch, and a fragment of a blind arcade with niches +on its outer face, remain, along with some very carefully-executed +cable and twisted moulding. It was truly refreshing to come upon such +very beautiful relics of Christian art in so wild a country. These +edifices are attributed to the eleventh or twelfth century. In an +ancient and adjacent cemetery there are several monumental stone rams, +very much like the stone lions of the Bakhtiari country. + +I quite broke down on that march, and was obliged to bribe the Turkish +occupants of a most miserable hovel to vacate it for me, and on the +following day was only able to ride three hours to Getchid. The sky +was grim and threatening, and the snow deep, and when after a long +ascent we descended into a really magnificent defile, so narrow that +for a long distance the whole roadway is blasted out of the rock, a +violent snowstorm came on, with heavy gusts of wind. There were high +mountains with a few trees upon them dimly seen, walling in the +wildest and most rugged part of the defile, where some stables offered +a shelter, and I was glad to be allowed to occupy the wood house, a +damp excavation in the mountain side! No words can convey an +impression of the roughness of Asia Minor travelling in winter! + +It was lonely, for the stable where the servants were was a short +distance off, and the _khanji_ came several times to adjure me to keep +the bolt of the door fastened, for his barley was in my keeping, and +there was a gang of robbers on the road! I fell asleep, however, but +was awakened at midnight by yells, shouts, tramplings, and a most +violent shaking of my very insecure door. It was the Turkish post, +who, being unable to get into the stable, was trying to bring his +tired horses into my den for a little rest! Fine fellows these Turkish +mail riders are, who carry the weekly mail from Trebizond into the +interior. The post drives two horses loaded with the mail bags in +front of him at a gallop, urging them with yells and his heavy whip, +the _zaptieh_ escort galloping behind, and at this pace they dash up +and down mountains and over plains by day and night, changing at short +intervals, and are only behind time in the very worst of weather. + +Snow fell heavily all night, and until late in the afternoon of the +following day, but we started soon after seven, and plodded steadily +along in an atmosphere of mystery, through intricate defiles, among +lofty mountains half-seen, strange sounds half-heard, vanishing +ravines and momentary glimpses of villages on heights, +fortress-crowned precipices, suggestive of the days of Genoese +supremacy, as in the magnificent gorge of Kala, and long strings of +camels magnified in the snow-mist, to the Kala village, with its +dashing torrent, its fine walnut trees, and its immense camel stables, +in and outside of which 700 camels were taking shelter from the +storm. We pushed on, however, during that day and the next, through +the beautiful and populous Gumushkhane valley to Kupru Bridge, having +descended almost steadily for five days. + +The narrow valley of the Kharshut is magnificent, and on the second +day the snow was only lying on the heights. The traveller is seldom +out of sight of houses, which are built on every possible projection +above the river, and on narrow spurs in wild lateral ravines, and +wherever there are houses there are walnut, pear, apple and apricot +trees, with smooth green sward below, and the walnut branches often +meet over the road. The houses are mostly large, often whitewashed, +always brown-roofed, and much like Swiss _chalets_, but without the +long slopes of verdure which make Switzerland so fair. Instead of +verdure there is the wildest rock and mountain scenery, a congeries of +rock-walls, precipices, and pinnacles, and the semblance of minarets +and fortresses, flaming red, or burnt sienna, or yellow ochre, +intermingled with bold fronts of crimson and pale blue rock, the +crimson cliffs looking in the rain as if torrents of blood were +pouring over them. The roadway has been both blasted out of the rock +and built up from the river. Far up picturesque ravines oxen were +ploughing the red friable soil on heights which looked inaccessible; +there was the velvety greenness of winter wheat; scrub oak and +barberry find root-hold in rocky rifts, and among crags high up among +the glittering snows contorted junipers struggle for a precarious +existence. + +The road was enlivened by local as well as through traffic, and +brightened by the varied costumes of Turks, Greeks, Armenians, and +Lazes. The latter do not resemble the Turks in physiognomy or costume. +All of them carry rifles and sabres, and two daggers in their +girdles, one of which always has a cloven hilt. They are on their way +to their native province of Lazistan with droves of horses, and are +much dreaded by both the _katirgis_ and _khanjis_ on the road for +their marauding habits. The Turkish Government has a very difficult +task in ruling and pacifying the number of races which it has +subjugated even in Asiatic Turkey. Between the Arabs of the Chaldaean +Plains and the Lazes of the shores of the Black Sea I have met even in +my limited travels with Sabeans, Jews, Armenians, Syrians, Yezidis, +Kurds, Osmanlis, Circassians, and Greeks, alien and antagonistic in +creed and race, but somehow held together and to some extent governed +by a power which is, I think, by no means so feeble as she is +sometimes supposed to be. + +The Kharshut is crossed at Kupru Bridge by a very fine stone arch. +This village, at the foot of the Zigana Mountain, is entirely composed +of inferior _khans_, food shops, and smiths' shops. The clang of +hammers lasted late into the night, for the road was reported as +"icy," and more than 400 horses and mules were having their shoes +roughed for the passage of the Zigana Mountain. I arrived late in the +evening, when all the _khans_ were full, and had to put up in a hovel, +the door of which was twice attempted during the night by a band of +Lazes, about whose proceedings Stephan, my _katirgi_, had been very +suspicious. After the servants and _katirgis_, roused by my whistle, +had rushed out of an opposite stable upon the marauders, I lay awake +for some time trying to realise that my ride of 2500 miles was nearly +at an end, and that European civilisation was only five days off; but +it was in vain. I felt as if I should _always_ be sleeping in stables +or dark dens, _always_ uttering the call to "boot and saddle" two +hours before daylight, _always_ crawling along mountain roads on a +woolly horse, _always_ planning marches, _always_ studying Asiatic +character, and _always_ sinking deeper into barbarism! + +From the summit of the Zigana Mountain to Trebizond is a steady +descent of twelve hours. The ascent from Kupru Bridge occupied five +hours and a half. It was a much more serious affair than crossing the +Kop Dagh, for the snowstorm had lasted for three days, the snow was +from four to nine feet deep on the summit, and the thawing of its +surface at the lower altitudes, succeeded by keen frost, had resulted +in the production of slopes of ice, over which I had to walk for two +hours, as _Boy_ could scarcely keep on his feet. + +The early snow has a witchery of its own, and it may be that the +Zigana Mountain and the views from it are not so beautiful as I think +them, but under the circumstances in which I saw them, I was +astonished with the magnificence of the scenery, and with the vast +pine forests which clothe the mountain sides. Villages of _chalets_, +with irregular balconies, and steep roofs projecting from two to six +feet, are perched on rocky heights, or nestle among walnuts with a +blue background of pines, above which tower spires and peaks of +unsullied snow; ridges rise into fantastic forms and mimicries of +minarets and castles; pines, filling gigantic ravines with their blue +gloom, stand sentinels over torrents silenced for the winter; and +colossal heights and colossal depths, an uplifted snow world of +ceaseless surprises under a blue sky full of light, make one fancy +oneself in Switzerland, till a long train of decorated camels or a +turbaned party of armed travellers dissipates the dream. + +The last hour of the ascent was very severe. The wind was strong and +keen, and the drifting snow buffeted us unmercifully. The mercury fell +to 3 deg. below zero, and the cold was intense. Murphy complained of +"trembles" in his knees and severe pain in his legs, and when we +reached the summit was really ill. The drift was not only blinding and +stinging but suffocating. I was quite breathless, and felt a chill +round my heart. I could not even see _Boy's_ neck, and he cowered from +the blast; but just as all things were obliterated I found myself +being helped to dismount in the shelter of a camel stable full of +Lazes, but was so benumbed that I could not stand. Some _zaptiehs_ had +the humanity to offer me the shelter of a hovel nearly buried in the +snow, and made a fire and some coffee, and I waited there till the +wind moderated. It came in such fierce gusts as actually to blow two +of the baggage horses over on their sides. Murphy was really ill of +fever for two days from the cold and exposure. The altitude of the +pass is about 6627 feet. + +The first part of the descent was made on foot, for the snow had +drifted on the road to a height of fully twenty feet, leaving only a +path of shelving ice on the brink of a precipitous slope. Earlier in +the day twenty laden camels had gone over, and were heaped in the +ravine below, not all dead. The road dips with some suddenness into a +deep glen, dark with pine and beech forests; large rhododendrons and +the _Azalea pontica_ forming a dense undergrowth. Long gray lichen +hung from the branches, Christmas roses and premature primroses +bloomed in sheltered places, the familiar polypody and the _Asplenium +adiantum nigrum_ filled every crevice, soft green moss draped the +rocks, there was a delicious smell of damp autumn leaves, and when we +reached the Greek village of Hamzikeuy clouds were rolling heavily up +the valley from the not far distant ocean. + +The two days which followed were easy and pleasant, through a +prosperous and peopled valley brightened by the rushing waters of the +Surmel, the ancient Pyxites. Orchards and tillage beautify the lower +slopes of the mountains, the road is excellent, the homesteads are in +good repair, the people are bright and cheery-looking, and Greek +villages with prominent churches on elevated spurs add an element of +Christian civilisation to the landscape. The exceeding beauty of +natural forests, of soft green sward starred with the straw-coloured +blossoms of the greater hellebore, of abounding ferns and trailers, of +"the earth bringing forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the tree +yielding fruit after his kind," of prosperous villages with cheerful +many-windowed houses and red-tiled deep-eaved roofs, can only be fully +appreciated by the traveller who has toiled over the burning wastes of +Persia with their mud villages and mud ruins, and across the bleak +mountains and monotonous plateaux of the Armenian highlands, with +their ant-hill dwellings, and their poverty-stricken population for +ever ravaged by the Kurd. + +"Tilled with a pencil," carefully weeded, and abundantly manured, the +country looks like a garden. The industrious Greek population thrives +under the rule of the Osmanlis. Travellers on foot and on horseback +abound, and _khans_ and _cafes_ succeed each other rapidly. When the +long descent alongside of the Surmel was accomplished, the scenery +gradually became tamer, and the look of civilisation more emphasised. +The grass was if possible greener, the blossoming hellebore more +abundant, detached balconied houses with their barns and outhouses +evidenced the security of the country, the heat-loving fig began to +find a place in the orchards, the funereal cypress appeared in its +fitting position among graves, and there was a briny odour in the air, +but, unfortunately for the traveller, the admirable engineering of the +modern waggon road deprives him of that magnificent view of the ocean +from a height which has wrung from many a wanderer since the days of +the Ten Thousand the joyful exclamation, "_Thalatta! Thalatta!_" + +The valley opened, there was a low grassy hill, beyond it, broad +yellow sands on which the "stormy Euxine" thundered in long creamy +surges, and creeping up the sides of a wooded headland, among +luxuriant vegetation, the well-built, brightly-coloured, red-roofed +houses of the eastern suburb of Trebizond, the ancient Trapezus.[62] +It was the journey's end, yet such is the magic charm of Asia that I +would willingly have turned back at that moment to the snowy plateaux +of Armenia and the savage mountains of Kurdistan. + + I. L. B. + + +FOOTNOTE: + +[62] The itineraries will be found in Appendix B. + + + + +APPENDIX A + + +Among the prayers recited by the Hadjis are those with which the +pilgrims circle the Kaaba at Mecca, a translation of which was given +by Canon Tristram in a delightful paper on Mecca contributed to the +_Sunday at Home_ volume for 1883. The following is a specimen:-- + +"O God, I extend my hands to Thee: great is my longing towards Thee. +Accept Thou my supplication, remove my hindrances, pity my +humiliation, and mercifully grant me Thy pardon. + +"O God, I beg of Thee that faith which shall not fall away, and that +certainty which shall not perish, and the good aid of Thy prophet +Mohammed--may God bless and preserve him! O God, shade me with Thy +shadow in that day when there is no shade but Thy shadow, and cause me +to drink from the cup of Thy prophet Mohammed--may God bless him and +preserve him!--that pleasant draught after which is no thirst to all +eternity." + + + + +APPENDIX B + +ITINERARIES WITH APPROXIMATE DISTANCES + + + 1 + From BAGHDAD to KIRMANSHAH. + + Miles + Orta Khan 16 + Yakobieh 14 + Wiyjahea 16 + Sheraban 11 + Kizil Robat 18 + Khanikin 17 + Kasr-i-Shirin 16 + Sir-i-pul-Zohab 18 + Myan Tak 15 + Kirrind 14 + Harunabad 20 + Mahidasht 22 + Kirmanshah 14 + --- + 211 + + 2 + From KIRMANSHAH to TIHRAN.[63] + + Besitun 22 + Sannah 16 + Kangawar 21 + Phaizalpah 24 + Hamilabad 12 + Nanej 18 + Dizabad 24 + Saruk 22 + Ahang Garang 12 + Siashan 20 + Jairud 18 + Taj Khatan 14 + Kum 25 + Shashgird. 16 + Aliabad 24 + Husseinabad 28 + Tihran 28 + --- + 344 + + 3 + From TIHRAN to ISFAHAN. + + Miles + Husseinabad 28 + Aliabad 28 + Shashgird 24 + Kum 16 + Passangham 16 + Sinsin 24 + Kashan 24 + Kuhr[=u]d 28 + Soh 24 + Murchehkhurt 28 + Gez 24 + Isfahan 16 + --- + 280 + + 4 + From ISFAHAN to BURUJIRD. + The actual distance travelled, about 700 miles. + + 5 + From BURUJIRD to HAMADAN. + + Deswali 16 + Sahmine 13 + Daulatabad 12 + Jamilabad 22 + Mongawi 6 + Yalpand 9 + Hamadan 8 + -- + 86 + + 6 + From HAMADAN to URMI. + + Miles + Bahar 8 + Kooltapa 24 + Gaukhaud 20 + Babarashan 20 + Bijar 20 + Karabulak 16 + Jafirabad 16 + Takautapa 151/2 + Geokahaz 16 + Sanjud 14 + Sain Kala 141/2 + Kashawar 15 + Miandab 21 + Amirabad 12 + Sujbul[=a]k 16 + Mehemetabad 14 + Dissa 25 + Turkman 12 + Urmi 10 + --- + 309 + + 7 + From URMI to VAN. + + Hours + Anhar 2 + Merwana 31/2 + Marbishu 9 + Pirzala 10 + Gahgoran 2 + Shawutha 8 + Kochanes 6 + Kotranis 7 + Merwanen 10 + Khanjarak 9 + Van 9 + 188 Miles. + + 8 + From VAN to BITLIS. + + Hours + Angugh 4.45 + Undzak 8.30 + Ghazit 7 + Bitlis 8 + 90 Miles. + + 9 + From BITLIS to ERZERUM. + + Gudzag 8 + Pikhruz 8 + Yangaloo 9 + Ghazloo 10 + Ama 6.30 + Matchetloo 6 + Herta 7 + Erzerum 5 + 177 Miles (?) + + 10 + From ERZERUM to TREBIZOND. + + Elijeh 31/2 + Ashkala 71/2 + Kop Khane 81/2 + Baiburt 7 + ---- Bridge 61/2 + Getchid 4 + Gumush Khane 8 + Kupru Bridge 7 + Hemizkeuy 83/4 + Atli Killessi 8 + Trebizond 6 + + 199 Miles by Measurement. + + +FOOTNOTE: + +[63] Probably the distance by this route is over-estimated, as it is +the computation of the _charvadars_. + + + + +INDEX + + + A + + Ab-i-Arjanak, ii. 77 + + Ab-i-Baznoi, ii. 59, 70 + + Ab-i-Bazuft, ii. 15 + + Ab-i-Burujird, ii. 71, 114 + + Ab-i-Diz, ii. 71, 113 + + Ab-i-Khonsar or Abi Kum, i. 161, 168, 170 + + Ab-i-Kirrind, i. 93 + + Ab-i-Mowaz, ii. 18 + + Ab-i-Nozi, ii. 18 + + Ab-i-Sefid, ii. 66 + + Ab-i-Zaz, ii. 94 + + _Abba_, Arab dress, i. 33 + + Abdul Azim, i. 178, 189 + + ---- Rahim, i. 99; + hospitality, 99; + family history, 99; + _menage_, 101, 115; + courtesy, 114 + + Abraham, Deacon, ii. 243 + + Agha Hassan, i. 99 + + Ahang Garang, i. 152 + + Ahwaz, i. 9, 10 + + Aimarah, i. 16; + prison, 17 + + Akabah-i-Holwan, i. 88 + + Akhlat, ii. 360; + rock chambers, 361; + castle, 362; + monoliths, 362; + _turbehs_ or mausoleums, 362 + + Akhtamar, Island rock of, ii. 343; + Church, 343 + + Alexander, Dr., ii. 162 + + Ali-Ilahis, i. 85, 86 + + Ali-Kuh, ii. 1, 4; + wild-flowers, 5; + Pass, 5 + + Aliabad, caravanserai of, i. 172, 226 + + Amin-es-Sultan, or Prime Minister, i. 176, 203 + + Amin-i-lewa, ii. 5 + + Amir-i-Panj, i. 261-266; + character, 262; + _andarun_, 263; + on the education and position of English women, 264 + + Amirabad, ii. 205 + + Angugh, ii. 341 + + Anhar, ii. 261 + + Arabs, improvement of, i. 11; + condition, 20; + costume, 33; + tattooing, 34 + + _Arak_, i. 272 + + Ardal, i. 311, 317, 336; ii. 2; + valley, i. 316; + castle, 318; + _andarun_, 318-322 + + Ardost, peaks of, ii. 338 + + Arjanak, ii. 78 + + Arjul, alpine meadow, i. 349 + + Armenian houses, i. 37, 270; + women, 272; + churches, 273-276; + pictures, 274; + long fasts, 276; + superstitions, 277; + costume, 278, 364; + needle-work, 366; + banquet, 367; + church, 368; + characteristics of, ii. 336; + condition, 340; + brides, 368; + in Kurdistan, 373-377; + ruins, 389 + + Artemid, ii. 341 + + Ashirets, the, ii. 314 + + Ashkala, ii. 387 + + Aslam Khan, ii. 63 + + Aurugun, i. 370 + + + B + + Baba Ali Mountain, ii. 197 + + B[=a]b[=a] Yadg[=a]r, tomb of, i. 86 + + Babarashan, ii. 177 + + B[=a]bis, sect of the, i. 273 + + Badush, ii. 83 + + Bagh-i-Washi, i. 301 + + Baghdad, i. 21; + Church Mission at, 24; + impressions of, 26; + population, 28; + bazars, 29; + cafes, 30; + trade, 30, 43; + "Fish of Tobias," 31; + bricks, 35; + schools at, 36, 37; + dispensary, 38; + boils, 39 + + Bahar, ii. 169 + + Baiburt, ii. 388 + + Bakhtiari Country, the general description of, i. 286-293; + women, 319; + hair-dyes, 319; + costume, 320; + dying man, 322-325; + politics, 327; + punishments, 329; + entertainment, 331; + _haram_, 353; + marriage customs, 355; + _chapi_, national dance, 356; + conceit, 357; + camping-ground, 371; + tents, 372; + hospitality, 377; + diseases, 379; + education, ii. 7; + methods of cultivation, 9; + paternal tenderness, 21; + diet, 22; + sensitiveness, 32; + poverty, 54; + "blood feuds," 55; + tribal feuds, 84; + tribesmen, 98; + burial rites, 99; + graveyards, 100; + religion, 101-103; + men's costume, 106; + women's, 107; + polygamy, 108; + population, 110 _note_; + taxation, 111; + exports, 111; + animals, 117 + + Baldiji, Moslem village, i. 369 + + Bani, ii. 267 + + Barchallah, ii. 286 + + Basnoi, ii. 67 + + Basrah, i. 1, 6; + climate, 7; + date industry, 7; + inhabitants, 8 + + Bawali, ii. 124 + + Bazuft or Rudbar valley, ii. 10, 13 + + Beladruz, i. 60 + + Bell, Colonel S., on Van, ii. 338, 340 + + Berigun, ii. 23 + + Berwar-Lata valley, ii. 323 + + Besitun range, i. 98, 119; + village, 121, 122 + + Bideshk, i. 236 + + Bihishtabad, the _Mansion of Heaven_, ii. 3 + + Bijar, ii. 173, 178 + + Bijilan mountain, ii. 368 + + Bilar, ii. 323 + + Bingol Dagh, ii. 370 + + Bitlis, ii. 341, 350; + trade, 351; + population, 352; + Christian Mission at, 354; + school, 355; + mineral springs, 359; + valley, 349 + + Blizzards, i. 95, 123, 154, 235; ii. 370 + + Boka, i. 129 + + "Boy," a pet horse, ii. 135 + + Bread-making, Persian, i. 159 + + Browne, Mr., ii. 284, 317-319 + + Bruce, Dr., i. 5, 46, 248, 252 + + ---- Mrs., i. 245 + + Buffaloes, ii. 212 + + Burujird, town of, ii. 124; + "tribute insurrection," 127; + population, 130; + manufactures, 130; + prosperity, 131; + plain of, 124 + + Bushire, i. 1; + commerce of, 3 + + + C + + Canals, i. 51 + + Caravan, fate of a, i. 133 + + Caravans, i. 50; ii. 388; + collision of, i. 91, 144 + + Caravanserai, dirt of a, i. 81-83 + + Carmelite monks, French, i. 37 + + Carpets, Persian, i. 109 + + _Chadar_, i. 17 + + Chahar Bagh bridge, i. 258 + + ---- Mahals or four districts, i. 308, 361 + + Chaharta, i. 359 + + Chaldaean plains, i. 14 + + Challeh Kuh, peak of, i. 370 + + Chalonitis, i. 85 + + Chaman Kushan, plain of, ii. 28 + + _Chapi_, Bakhtiari dance, i. 356 + + Charmi village, i. 307 + + Charzabar Pass, i. 94 + + Cherri Pass, ii. 13 + + Cheshmeh-i-Charzabar torrent, i. 95 + + Chesmeh-i-Gurab, i. 346 + + ---- Zarin, plain of, ii. 24 + + Chigakhor, i. 348; + plain of, 369; + patients, 369; + "season," 370; + fort, 375 + + Child-life, Persian, i. 218 + + Chiraz, i. 358 + + Christian missions at Baghdad, i. 24; + at Bitlis, ii. 355; + at Erzerum, 382; + at Hamadan, 162, + result of, 164 _note_; + at Julfa, i. 248; + at Tihran, 188; + at Urmi, ii. 221-234, + history of, 226, + results, 229; + at Van, 335 _note_ + + "Christians of St. John," i. 17 + + Cochrane, Dr., ii. 224 + + Ctesiphon, ruins of, i. 22 + + Curzon, Mr. G., letter to the _Times_, i. 198; + on Julfa, 246 + + + D + + Dalonak, peak of, ii. 16 + + Darkash Warkash, i. 317 + + Dastagird, i. 60 + + Dastgird, i. 376 + + "Date boils," i. 39 + + ---- palms, i. 8 + + Daulatabad, ii. 140 + + "David's Fort," i. 86 + + Dead, mode of carrying, i. 36, 168 + + Dehnau village, i. 353 + + Demavend, cone of, i. 176, 240 + + "Demon wind," the, i. 127 + + Dervishes, i. 236-238 + + "Desert," the, i. 48 + + Deswali, ii. 134 + + Deveh Boyun, ii. 385 + + Dilakoff, Yacub, ii. 223 _note_ + + Dilleh, peak of, ii. 22 + + Dima, ii. 19, 25 + + Dinarud river, i. 348 + + Dissa, ii. 216 + + Diyalah, i. 51, 60 + + Diz Arjanak, ii. 82 + + Diza, ii. 276; + reduction of the garrison, 276; + first visit to a Turkish official, 277 + + Dizabad, i. 140; + ruins of, 142 + + Dizful or Bridge of Diz, ii. 71 + + Drinayi Pass, ii. 275 + + Duab river, ii. 11 + + Duashda Imams, i. 343 + + Dukkani-Daoud or David's shop, i. 85, 87 + + Dupulan, i. 351; + Pass, 352 + + + E + + Elam, Upper, ii. 34 + + Elburz mountains, i. 176, 225 + + Elijeh, ii. 386 + + Elwend, Mount, ii. 144 + + England, native opinions of, i. 19, 73, 171, 198; ii. 7, 79, 128, + 199, 272 + + Erzerum, ii. 381; + Christian mission at, 382; + trade, 383; + "sights," 383; + "troubles," 383; + Sanassarian College, 385 + + Esther and Mordecai, tomb of, ii. 153 + + Etiquette, code of, i. 105 + + Euphrates, ii. 365, 368 + + Eyal, hamlet of, ii. 275 + + Ezra, tomb of, i. 13 + + + F + + Faidun, ii. 47 + + Fao, i. 5 + + Fath' Ali Shah, i. 170 + + Fatima, shrine of, i. 167-169; + pilgrimages to, 167 + + Feraghan, plain of, i. 151; + carpets, 151; + salt lake, 158 + + Fire-worshippers, i. 194 + + Fraser, Mr. Baillie, _Travels in Kurdistan_, i. 28 + + Frat, the, ii. 386 + + + G + + Gaberabad, caravanserai of, i. 232 + + Gahgoran, ii. 282; + night alarm, 283 + + Gal-i-Bard-i-Jamal Pass, ii. 26, 36 + + Gal-i-Gav Pass, ii. 34, 39 + + Gamasiab river, i. 123, 125 + + Gandaman, plain of, i. 361; + village, 363 + + Gardan-i-Cherri, ii. 13, 19 + + Gardan-i-Gunak, ii. 71 + + Gardan-i-Rukh, i. 308 + + Gardan-i-Tak-i-Girreh, i. 88 + + Gardan-i-Tir-Machi, ii. 188 + + Gardan-i-Zirreh, i. 313 + + Garden of Eden, i. 13 + + Gargunak, ii. 19 + + Gartak, ii. 45 + + Gas Khana marsh, i. 301 + + Gates, language of, i. 271 + + Gaukhaud, ii. 168, 176 + + Gawar, plain of, ii. 275; + request for teachers, 281 + + Geog-tapa, ii. 219; + church, 243; + orphanage, 244 + + Geokahaz, ii. 188; + cleanliness, 192 + + Getchid, ii. 389 + + Gez, i. 240, 242 + + Ghazit village, ii. 346 + + Ghazloo Pass, ii. 368; + village, 369 + + Gil-i-Shah Pass, ii. 31 + + Givr, i. 161 + + Gokun, ii. 41; + river, 45 + + _Gopher_, a, i. 19 + + Gorab, plateau of, ii. 15; + serious incident, 17 + + Gudzag, ii. 360 + + Gulabek, i. 183 + + Gumushkhane valley, ii. 391 + + Gurab plain, i. 346 + + Gur[=a]ns, the, i. 86 + + Guwa river, ii. 49 + + + H + + Hadji Hussein, plain of, ii. 203 + + Haizdar or Haigatsor plain, ii. 332, 341 + + _Hak[=i]ms_, female, ii. 74; + remedies, 74; + diseases, 75 + + Hamadan, ii. 134, 148; + ruinous condition, 149; + bazars, 150; + _namads_ or felts, 151; + intemperance, 152; + tomb of Esther and Mordecai, 153; + tablets, 154; + degradation of the Jews, 155; + inhabitants, 155, 156; + Faith Hubbard school, 160; + Medical mission at, 162; + visitors, 162; + Christian mission at, 164; + travelling arrangements, 165 + + Hamilabad, i. 127, 134; + a diseased crowd, 135 + + Hamrin hills, i. 59 + + Hamzikeuy, Greek village, ii. 394 + + Handawan, pass of, ii. 124 + + Harta village, ii. 378 + + Harunabad, i. 94 + + Hashal river, ii. 341 + + Hassan-Kaleh, fortress of, ii. 381 + + Hassan Khan, ruined fort, i. 123 + + Hesso Khan, a Kurdish chief, ii. 264; + costume, 265 + + Holiwar valley, ii. 95, 104 + + Holwan, i. 63, 81, 85 + + Horses, Arab, i. 118. + + ---- Bakhtiari, ii. 117 + + ---- Persian, i. 190; + clothing, 185; ii. 136; + food, 137 + + "Hospital Sunday," i. 155 + + Husseinabad, i. 134, 176, 212 + + + I + + Ilyat villages, i. 78, 81; + camps, 84, 314; ii. 193, 205; + costume, i. 316; + familiarity, ii. 194 + + Imamzada-i-Mamil, ii. 118 + + Imamzada torrent, i. 350 + + Imam Kuli Khan, Ilkhani, i. 325 + + Inda Khosh, ii. 206 + + Indo-European telegraph line, i. 227 + + Inn, Turkish, i. 52 + + Irene, Lake, ii. 87, 88 + + Isfahan, i. 244; + bridges, 258; + dyed fabrics, 258; + _Medresseh_, armoury, 266; + trade, 267; + _Farhang_ newspaper, 268; + manufactures, 269; + climate, 269 + + Isfandyar Khan, Ilbegi, i. 328; + _haram_, 332-335 + + + J + + Jabali-Besitun range, i. 112, 119 + + Jafirabad, ii. 184 + + Jagatsu river, ii. 197 + + Jairud, i. 158; + fruit exported, 158 + + Jalanda mountain, ii. 50 + + Jamilabad village, ii. 143 + + Jan Mir, sheikh, i. 79 + + Jehanbin, i. 312 + + Jelu ranges, ii. 281, 325 + + Julfa, i. 227, 243; + "alleys," 246; + society, 247; + history, 248; + church missions at, 248; + schools, 250: + mission house, 251; + picnics, 257; + "city of waters," 269; + preparations for journey, 281-285 + + + K + + _Kabobs_, Persian dish, ii. 139 + + Kahva Rukh, i. 300, 308; + patients, 309; + nocturnal robbery, 311 + + Kaisruh mountain, ii. 11 + + Kaj, ii. 3 + + _Kajawehs_ or panniers, i. 118 + + Kala Kuh, ii. 58, 65 + + Kalahoma, ii, 47, 50; + patients, 51 + + Kalhurs, the, i. 86 + + _Kalian_, or water pipe, i. 107 + + Kalla Khanabad, ii. 105 + + Kamand-Ab, ii. 124 + + Kamarun, ii. 47 + + Kamerlan Pass, ii. 325 + + _Kanaats_, i. 241 + + Kandal Pass, ii. 285 + + Kangawar, i. 131 + + Kanisairani summits, ii. 276 + + Kar Kanun, ii. 27 + + Kara Kapru, ii. 369 + + Karabul[=a]k, Kurdish village, ii. 182 + + Karachai river, ii. 196 + + Karaftu, fortress palace of, ii. 194 + + Karasu river, i. 112, 114 + + _Karsi_ or platform, i. 132 + + Karun river, i. 5, 342, 351; ii. 23, 29; + trade on, i. 10, 12; + its tributaries, ii. 30 + + Kashan, i. 220; + telegraph station, 227; + manufactures, 230; + _reflet_ tiles, 231 + + Kashava, ii. 202 + + Kashgan, ii. 120 + + Kasr-i-Kajar, i. 195 + + Kasr-i-Shirin, i. 79; + ruins of, 80; + romantic legends, 80 _note_ + + Kasrik Kala Pass, ii. 332 + + Kasseinabad, i. 226 + + _Katirgis_ or muleteers, i. 50 + + Kavir or Great Salt Desert, i. 174, 177 + + Kavrak, defiles of, ii. 196 + + Kazimain, i. 23 + + Kerbela, "Dead March," i. 35, 36; + pilgrims to, ii. 189-191 + + Kerkhah, i. 94 + + _Ketchuda_ or headman, i. 329; + duties, 377 + + Khana Mirza plain, i. 360 + + Khanjarak, ii. 329; + poverty, 330; + church, 330 + + Khannikin, i. 61; + _haram_, 66, 71; + trade, 69; + peasant life, 74-76 + + Kharba valley, ii. 36 + + Khariji village, i. 312 + + Kharshut valley, ii. 391; + village, 392 + + Khashmaghal village, ii. 184 + + Kherson valley, ii. 19 + + Khosroe Parviz, legend, i. 80 _note_ + + Khuramabad, ii. 103, 120; + dirt and squalor, 122; + Bala Hissar fort, 123 + + Killa Bazuft, ii. 8, 19 + + Kirmanshah, i. 98; + population, 101; + street, 102; + inhabitants, 102; + customs, 103; + punishment, forms of, 103; + reception by the Governor, 103; + the Citadel, 104; + code of etiquette, 105, + of pipes, 107; + rugs, 109; + carpet-weaving, 110; + soldiers, 111; + lanterns, 111; + horses, 118 + + Kirrind, i. 84, 92; + plain of, 87; + valley, 90 + + Kizil Kabr, red range of, ii. 197 + + ---- Robat, i. 53; + dirt and discomfort, 60 + + ---- Uzen stream, ii. 180 + + Knapp, Mr. and Mrs., ii. 355 + + Kochanes, ii. 261, 286; + Mar Shimun the Patriarch, 288-294; + church, 296-302; + cattle plague, 319 + + Kooltapa, ii. 169; + robbery, 171 + + Kop Dagh, ii. 387 + + ---- Khane, ii. 388 + + Kornah, i. 13 + + Kotranis, ii. 323 + + _Kourbana_, celebration of the, ii. 310 + + _Kufas_ or _gophers_, i. 18 + + Kuh-i-Bozah, i. 129 + + Kuh-i-Dinar, ii. 2 + + Kuh-i-Gerra, ii. 2 + + Kuh-i-Haft Kuh, ii. 94 + + Kuh-i-Hassan, i. 129 + + Kuh-i-Kaller, i. 360 + + Kuh-i-Milli, ii. 12 + + Kuh-i-Nassar, i. 313 + + Kuh-i-Paran, i. 129 + + Kuh-i-Rang, ii. 34 + + Kuh-i-Sabz, i. 316 + + Kuh-i-Shahan, ii. 26 + + Kuh-i-Sukhta range, i. 313 + + Kuh-i-Zirreh, ii. 2 + + Kuh-Shah-Purnar, i. 313 + + Kuh Sufi, i. 257 + + Kuh Surisart, ii. 194 + + Kuhr[=u]d, i. 233; + exports, 234; + valley, 232; + pass of, 234 + + Kum, i. 160, 211; + telegraph line and post-office, 166; + Fatima, shrine of, 167; + the dead, source of wealth, 168; + industries, 170; + "holy" city, 170; + theological college, 170; + ruinous condition, 220 + + Kunak, i. 363 + + Kupru Bridge, ii. 391 + + Kurdish houses, i. 88; ii. 191; + women, 192 + + Kurds, depredations of the, ii. 272; + robbery and violence, 278, 295, 323, 330; + costume, 352-354; + _physique_, 352; + description of, 372; + outrages, 375; + remorseless robbers, 377 + + Kut-al-Aimarah, i. 18 + + Kuzik lake, ii. 365 + + + L + + Labaree, Dr., ii. 240 _note_ + + Lahdaraz, i. 359 + + Land, cultivation of, i. 21 + + Lanterns, Persian, i. 111; ii. 158 + + Layard, Sir A. H., _Early Adventures_, i. 13 _note_; + on Ali-Ilahism, 87; + on the Bakhtiaris, 294 + + Lazes, the, ii. 391 + + Legation, the British, at Tihran, i. 175 + + Letter from the Turkish Ambassador, ii. 322 + + Libasgun, i. 365 + + Lodgings for travellers, i. 82 + + Luri-Buzurg, the, i. 286-299 + + Lurs, Bakhtiari, i. 293-297; + external improvement, ii. 18 + + Lurs, Feili, i. 297-299 + + Lyne, Mr. and Mrs., i. 214 + + + M + + Mahidasht, i. 93; + plain of, 97; + river, 96 + + Makhedi, ii. 58 + + Mar Shimun, the Syrian Patriarch of Kochanes, ii. 288-294 + + Marbishu, ii. 267; + church, 269; + _Qasha_ Ishai's dwelling, 271 + + Margil, i. 7 + + Martaza, Ilyat encampment, i. 343 + + Masir, ii. 48 + + Matchetloo, ii. 364 + + Mauri Zarin valley, ii. 77 + + Mehemetabad, ii. 211 + + _Meron_ or holy oil, i. 277 + + Merwana, ii. 262 + + Merwanen village, ii. 327 + + Miandab, ii. 204 + + Mianmalek Pass, ii. 194 + + Mirza Taghi, murder of, i. 206 + + Missionaries, female, life, i. 253-255 + + ---- Medical, i. 38, 188, 250; ii. 162, 224 + + Missions. _See_ Christian + + _Modakel_, i. 115 + + Mohammerah, i. 5 + + Moharrem, or month of mourning, ii. 158 + + Money, difficulty of procuring, ii. 320 + + Mongawi village, ii. 143 + + Mowaz, ii. 15 + + Muhammad Jik, ii. 202 + + Murad-chai river, ii. 365 + + Murcheh Khurt, i. 232, 239 + + Muschir-u-Dowleh, i. 205; + his mosque, 206; + college, hospital, 207; + palace, 207; + _andarun_, 209 + + Mush, plain of, ii. 348 + + Myan Tak hamlet, i. 88 + + + N + + Naghun village, i. 331; + Pass, ii. 2 + + Nahrwan canal, i. 51 + + Nal Shikan Pass, i. 94 + + _Namads_ or felts at Hamadan, ii. 151 + + Names, i. 140 + + Nanej, i. 135; + female curiosity, 137; + ceremonials on the birth of a child, 138, 139 + + Narek village, ii. 342 + + Nasrabad, i. 226; ii. 184 + + Nimrud Dagh, ii. 342 + + _No Ruz_ or New Year, festival of, annual ceremony, i. 204, 219 + + Norduz, ii. 327 + + Norullak, plain of, ii. 365 + + + O + + _Odah_, Turkish guest-house, ii. 344 + + Odling, Dr. and Mrs., i. 198 + + Ombar, ii. 263 + + Orta Khan, first camping-ground, i. 49 + + + P + + Padshah-i-Zalaki, ii, 60; + disorderly crowd, 60; + attack, 63; + thefts, 71; + savage life, 73 + + Pai-Tak, i. 87 + + Pambakal Pass, ii. 30 + + Pamir desert, "the roof of the world," i. 127 + + Parwez, ii. 90, 93, 104; + under fire, 90 + + Pasbandi Pass, i. 312 + + Pasin Plain, ii. 381 + + "Pass of the Angel of Death," i. 175 + + Passangh[=a]m, i. 225 + + Peasant's house, Persian, i. 148; + flat roofs, 149 + + Pedlars, i. 260 + + Pelu, Mount, ii. 338 + + Persia, bibliography of, i. 6, 13, 84, 87, 107, 113, 138, 182, + 228, 286, 307, 327; ii. 158, 243, 249, 258, 269, 300, 304, 335, + 363, 367, 378, 383, 384 + + ---- farewell impressions of, ii. 246-260; + condition, 247; + population, 249; + condition of the working classes, 250; + independence, 251; + characteristics of the upper classes, 252; + morals, 252; + education, 253; + law, 254; + Shah, a despotic ruler, 255; + official corruption, 257 + + Persian frontier, i. 78 + + ---- lady, costume of a, i. 216, 217; + amusements, 219 + + Pharipah, i. 134 + + Pigeon towers, i. 302 + + Pikhruz, ii. 358, 363 + + Pipes, etiquette of, i. 107-109 + + Pira Mah mountain, ii. 197 + + Piru, precipice of, i. 120, 121 + + Pirzala, ii. 276 + + Polygamy, i. 214 + + Post stations, i. 223 + + Potter, Dr., i. 188 + + Pul-i-Hawa, ii. 114 + + Pul-i-Kaj[=u], i. 258 + + Pul-i-Kala, i. 304 + + Pul-i-Wargun, i. 300 + + + Q + + Quhaibalak, ii. 286 + + Qwarah, ii. 286 + + + R + + Rahwan, plain of, ii. 348 + + Ramazan, fast of, i. 303 + + Rawlinson, Sir H., on Ali-Ilahism, i. 86; + on the rock sculptures, 112; + on Besitun antiquities, 122; + on the Bakhtiaris, 296 + + Reynolds, Dr., ii. 336 + + Rhages or Rhei, ancient city of, i. 178, 194 + + Riji, i. 360 + + Riz, i. 301; + pigeon towers, 301; + lack of privacy, 303 + + "Road Beetle," i. 242 + + ---- Guards, escort of, ii. 193, 201 + + Ross, Colonel, i. 2 + + Rugs. _See_ Carpets + + Russia, native opinions of, i. 198; ii. 181, 199 + + Rustam-i village, ii. 4 + + + S + + Sabz Kuh, i. 359 + + Sabzu ravine, i. 352; + river, 359; + valley, 359 + + Safid-Kuh, or "white mount," ii. 19 + + Sah Kala, ii. 49 + + Sahid stream, ii. 41; + village, 41; + burial-ground, 42 + + Sahmine, ii. 137; + buildings, 138; + exports, 139 + + Sain Kala, ii. 197; + trade, 197; + inhabitants, 198 + + Salamatabad village, ii. 180 + + Sanak river, ii. 206, 208 + + "Sang Miwishta," ii. 70 + + Sanginak mountain, i. 345 + + Sanjud, ii. 194 + + Sannah, i. 119, 125; + a diseased crowd, 127 + + Sar-i-Cheshmeh-i-Kurang, ii. 29, 33 + + Sarakh river, ii. 188 + + Sarawand, ii. 88; + noisy crowd, 89 + + Saripul-i-Zohab, i. 77; + history of, 84 + + Saruk, i. 143; + carpets, 146; + climate, 146; + peasants' houses, 148; + flat roofs, 149 + + Sassoon, Sir A., i. 36 + + Schindler, General, on the population of Persia, ii. 249 + + Scribe, Persian, i. 284 + + Seleucia, i. 22 + + Seligun, valley of, i. 313; ii. 1; + lake, i. 315 + + Serba torrent, ii. 17 + + Seyyids, the, i. 32; ii. 123 + + Shah, palace of the, at Tihran, i. 192; + _haram_, 192; + hunting grounds, 195; + gardens, 198; + treasure house, 199; + Peacock Throne, 201; + presentation to, 201; + description of, 202; + despotic ruler, ii. 255 + + Shahbadar village, ii. 115 + + Shalamzar, i. 312; + eye diseases, 312 + + _Shamal_, i. 1, 5 + + Shamisiri valley, ii. 20 + + Shamran, twin peaks of, i. 124 + + Shamsabad village, i. 312; + river, 317 + + Shashgird, caravanserai of, i. 173, 213 + + Shat-el-Arab, the, i. 5, 6 + + Shawutha, hamlet of, ii. 285 + + Shedd, Dr., ii. 226 + + Sheraban, i. 57 + + Shiahs, the, i. 35 + + Shimran hills, i. 182, 193, 195 + + Shiraz, i. 227 + + Shorab valley, ii. 27 + + Shurishghan, legends, i. 309 _note_ + + Shuster, ii. 16 + + Shuturun, ii. 77; + mountain, 83 + + Siashan, i. 150 + + Silakhor, plain of, ii. 89, 94 + + Sinsin, i. 225 + + Sipan Dagh, ii. 342, 362 + + Snow scene, i. 153 + + Soh village, i. 236; + telegraph testing station, 227, 236 + + _Sowars_, the, i. 78 + + Stone lions, i. 343 + + Sujbul[=a]k, ii. 187, 207; + cemetery, 206; + trade, 207; + consulate, 207; + inhabitants, 207 + + Sulduz, plain of, ii. 214 + + Sultan Ibrahim, i. 360 + + Sunnis, the, i. 36 + + Surmel, the, ii. 394 + + Sutton, Dr. and Mrs., i. 24, 37, 39, 46 + + Syrians, characteristics of the, ii. 241; + costume, 242; + pious phrases, 242; + baptism, 299; + clerical dress, 302; + burial rites, 303; + marriage customs, 307; + fasts, 308; + episcopal succession, 309; + _kourbana_, 310; + dancing, 312; + condition of, 324 + + + T + + Tabarak, stream, ii. 19 + + Tadvan village, ii. 360 + + Taimur Khan, ii. 52 + + Taj Khatan, i. 157; + bread-making, 159 + + Tak-i-Girreh, pass of, i. 88 + + Tak-i-Kasr, palace of, i. 22 + + Takautapa, ii. 179, 186 + + Takt-i-Bostan, rock sculptors of, i. 112 + + _T[=a]nd[=u]r_ or fire-hole, i. 132 + + Tang-i-Ardal, gorge, i. 342 + + Tang-i-Bahrain, ii. 94 + + Tang-i-Buzful, ii. 124 + + Tang-i-Darkash Warkash, ii. 3 + + Tang-i-Ghezi, ii. 24 + + Tang-i-Karun, ii. 11 + + Taug-i-Wastagun, i. 361 + + Tarsa, ii. 49 + + _Tazieh_ or Passion Play, i. 35, 184; ii. 158 + + Tchoruk, ii. 388 + + Terpai torrent, ii. 286 + + Threshing, mode of, ii. 138 + + Tigris, river, i. 1, 9, 15, 27, 51; ii. 350; + navigation of, i. 12 + + Tihran, i. 175; + arrival at, 180; + aspects of, 183; + population, 184; + bazars, 184; + horse furniture, 185; + foreign goods, 186, 187; + European quarter, 188; + Christian mission at, 188; + dispensary, hospital, 188; + modern improvements, 189; + Imperial Bank, 189; + squares, 192; + Citadel or Ark, 192; + freight of goods, 196; + society, 197; + Museum, 199; + telegraphic centre, 227 + + Tiles, i. 231 + + Toogh village, ii. 349 + + "Tower of Silence," i. 194 + + Travelling equipments, i. 44, 47, 117, 282 + + Trebizond, ii. 386, 396 + + Tuk-i-Karu, ii. 94 + + Tulwar village, ii. 177 + + Tur, i. 338, 347 + + _Turbehs_ or mausoleums, ii. 362 + + Turkish house, i. 40 + + Turkman, hamlet of, ii. 211, 217 + + Twig Bridge, ii. 114 + + + U + + Undzag, ii. 344 + + Urmi, the "Paradise of Persia," ii. 217; + Protestant missions at, 221-234; + the Fiske Seminary, 222; + College, 222; + medical mission, 224; + siege, 225; + schools, 226, 231; + history of the mission, 226; + results, 229; + Anglican mission, 229; + Sisters of Bethany, 232; + population, 235; + antiquarian interests, 236; + Syrians or Assyrians, 237; + inhabitants, 237; + tenure of houses, 237; + of lands, 238; + laws injurious to Christians, ii. 240 + + Urmi, Dead Sea of, ii. 215, 235 + + + V + + V-Shaped slit, difficult passage of the, ii. 44 + + Van, ii. 325, 334 _note_; + Christian mission at, 335; + schools, 335; + the "Gardens," 337; + castle, 338; + church, 339; + increasing trade, 339 + + ---- Dead Sea of, ii. 332 + + ---- Lake, ii. 342 + + Varak Dagh, ii. 342 + + Varzahan village, ii. 389 + + Vastan village, ii. 342 + + Vignau, M. du, i. 227 + + + W + + Walnut trees, ii. 346 + + Water supply of Persia, i. 241, 305 + + Wells, Colonel, i. 197, 227 + + Wiyjahea caravanserai, i. 54 + + Wolff, Sir H. Drummond, i. 181 + + Writing, a fine art, i. 284 + + + Y + + Yakobiyeh, i. 46, 52 + + Yalpand village, ii. 144 + + Yangaloo, Armenian village, ii. 366 + + Yekmala, ii. 275 + + Yezd, i. 194 + + Yezidi torrent, ii. 286 + + Yezidis, the, ii. 317 + + + Z + + Zab river, ii. 286 + + Zagros, gates of, i. 87 + + Zainderud river, i. 258, 269, 301; ii. 19; + process of rinsing, i. 258 + + _Zalabi_, Bakhtiari eatable, i. 330 + + _Zaptiehs_, ii. 326 + + Zarak village, ii. 360 + + Zard Kuh range, ii. 23, 27, 28 + + Zarin valley, ii. 19 + + Zibar mountains, ii. 214 + + Zigana mountain, ii. 392 + + Zobeideh valley, i. 95 + + +THE END + + +_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, _Edinburgh_. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan, +Volume II (of 2), by Isabella L. 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